Letters to the Editor
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Snub or not, who really cares?
Maybe Obama didn't see Clinton. Maybe Obama decided to give Kennedy and Clinton a chance to talk without hovering over them. Maybe Obama felt like taking to McCaskill more. Maybe Obama is dead sick of Clinton and didn't feel like talking to her. Really, who cares?
This is such a weird and stupid high-school thing to be talking about that I can't even believe I'm writing this comment right now (nor can I believe Clinton didn't take the opportunity to nip this in the bud on FOX this evening.)
But, if you think this "snub" tells you everything you need to know about Senator Obama, well, so be it. But you might want to put it in snub context:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/us/politics/07rivals.html
"The relationship began to change when Mr. Obama began musing aloud about a presidential bid. The day he opened his exploratory committee, several Senate observers said, he extended his hand and said hello on the Senate floor. She breezed by him, offering a cool stare. Many Senate observers, even those close to Mrs. Clinton, say they believe she set the less-than-collegial tone."
So, she's a snubber too. Scandal! We'll all just to have to vote for Edwards or Gravel for president, I guess. They don't snub, do they?
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Jones.
The key phrase in that article there is "if he's the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee." Everyone seems inclined to agree that if there were a full-fledged frontrunner, as most everyone expected by Super Tuesday if not by after NH, then Florida and Michigan would get seated as afterthoughts.
But the calculus becomes quite different if there is no presumptive nominee. Go read Deadhead's post a few pages back. It's worth an editor's star and then some.
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"Maybe Obama is dead sick of Clinton and didn't feel like talking to her. Really, who cares?"
Being angry and feeling betrayed and showing it is just not the same thing as a public snub in such a setting. Who cares? I care and I have every right to do so. Or are you suggesting that there is some reason that I don't have a right to my opinion? Manners are important, no matter how heated the rhetoric.
Also, I did not say that the snub is the only problem I have with Obama. We have talked about issues before, you and I, so don't be disingenuous and try to set up a straw woman on the basis of one post.
The importance of manners, good sportsmanship, and graciousness is they all speak not to experience but to maturity.
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"We'll all just to have to vote for Edwards or Gravel for president, I guess."
Furthermore, I am an Edwards supporter because I think he would make an excellent president. I believe him to be a man of conscience who cares about people who are not blessed with material goods and priviledged and puffed up with arrogance. And no, I am not referring to Obama.
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Unfair once, don't make it unfair twice
By announcing that Florida and Michigan couldn't send delegates, the DNC was deeply unfair to the democrats in those states. But, if they suddenly allow the delegates to be seated after primaries skewed by people's assumption that the primaries don't count, they will be unfair to all of us, who deserve a candidate who fairly contested the state.
Who'd blame a Florida voter for skipping a meaningless contest? By suddenly giving that contest meaning, the DNC will have robbed the voter of making a choice.
If the DNC recants, they should let Florida and Michigan vote.
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Hillary won despite Obama breaking the rukes and advertising in Florida
Go Hillary! You can bring about the necessary improvements that this country sorely needs!
And to those Obama babies who want a do over because democrats may have voted for McCain? Stop making things up. I got three words for you - closed Republican primaries.
On race, let's echo to Maxine Waters: Enough already!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/22900729#22900729
Spread the word! Hillary is on the ascendant.
Hillary Hillary Hillary!
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A link to photos of the snub.
If you will scroll down, you will see several photos. In the sequence, you will see that Senator Kennedy, a man with some manners, stretches out his hand across Senator Obama and down to Senator Clinton. She reaches up to take Kennedy's hand across Obama by necessity as he turns away. He then seems to stand there not initially in conversation.
The larger photo shows Clinton then appearing to seat herself and Kennedy and Obama looking down at her. Obama has that out-of-the-corner-of-his-eye look that he gets as he observes her with his I-just-tasted-a-lemon face. I wouldn't be surprised if Kennedy was saying something sensible like, "For god's sake don't publicly snub her."
After all, who is Obama really hurting when he does stuff like this? Not Clinton! Not politically. He really should be smarter than that.
http://www.taylormarsh.com/
Of course it is not in itself a reason not to support him, but these little things add up. He needs to learn to control his expression. He who lives by the lemon-face may die by the lemon-face.
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Would this question even be asked if Barak pulled 50% in Florida?
Be honest. If Florida's Democratic vote percentages had been reversed and Barak (who I like) clocked in at 50% and Hillary in the 30's... It would have been hyped as an unquestionable, epic victory for him, and the transcendant powers of Teddy and Caroline's endorsements. But those darn Florida voters arent following the assigned narrative.
Loved watching Hillary smiling away at all her demented fanboys on MSNBC, FOX and CNN. All those cable critters pained faces interviewing Hillary, and you could see her joy and barely-contained laughter. She was so on her game...it almost ruined the Ascension of St. John of McCain for them. Too funny.
So they put their big ...thumbs on the scale (yet again) and basically ignored the Democratic voting results, and SAT ON their Dem exit polling while endlessly showing movie-screens full of Repub exit polling to the point of cross-eyed tedium. The usual print suspects (yeah, you NYT, Wash Post, Boston Globe et al) will attempt same no doubt on Wednesday morning.
While I have real sympathy for Howard Dean's impossible task of trying prevent Michigan and Florida from jumping to the head of the primary pack...Did anyone seriously believe that some accommodation WOULDN'T be made, regardless of who won. It's FLORIDA and MICHIGAN. Apparently, caucuses are already planned by Florida Dem State Committee--and all 3 candidates will divvy up a little over 200 delegates. Then they'll petition the DNC.
Set that aside. Any way you slice it Hillary Clinton won BIG. She was the top vote-getter... WAY more votes than McCain and both her rivals. The Democrats also won BIG with such a massive collective turnout. Bodes well for November. Bodes even better for Sen Clinton next Tuesday.
I'm starting to like this girl.