Letters to the Editor
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The Brat Stop!
Oh man...I have not been to the Brat Stop since 1992! I used to stop there on my way to visit my bff in Kenosha. She's since moved to Seattle, and I to California. Boy did this article bring back memories.
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biased much?
876 words for Obama, discussed first.
718 words for McCain
248 words for Hillary, discussed last.
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Obama now riding on Oprah's mother's coattails
Sure would have been nice to hear a little about the other Democratic candidate in the race besides Barack Obama. What does it say about him that even with nearly all press outlets in the United States doubling as Obama campaign satellite offices, that he still has to drag out his endorsement from Oprah Winfrey's mother to get votes? (Incidentally, Oprah just gave away a million free copies of a Suze Orman book online - interesting timing...)
Besides that, the G.O.P. has been organizing massive crossover campaigns of Republicans voting in Democratic primaries to keep him neck and neck with Clinton. (Wisconsin is an open primary so he should win big tomorrow.) He's got the brother of Fox News VP David Rhodes writing his speeches. And he's got Karl Rove's dirty tricks apparatus (including bogus polling outfits) churning out Hillary-demise and Hillary-hatred round the clock ("the voters don't like her", "she's so polarizing", "Bill's out of control", etc. etc.) And not a single former democratic presidential candidate in the last eight years has come out and endorsed Clinton, even though they all know Barack spent one year in the U.S. Senate before launching his presidential campaign, and how absurd is that? For more on the Rove strategy and and Obama controversies that are not being reported, please see the article I've posted at thecityedition.com or click on the screen name below.
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Hillary? Here's the Headline...
"Hillary cuts the cheese in Wisconsin."
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Holler House!
I love seeing this name in national discussions. There's truly no place like it anywhere I've ever been. It's so classic that I'll let it slide that it's Hillary HQ. The little bowling alley really is sweet!
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@ Biased Much?
Yes, Yes, We all care about quintiles.
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I'd give the edge to Obama on Tuesday
The streets were just packed all over downtown Milwaukee as I was making my commute to the Federal Building a little before Obama's speech at Midwest. I don't know why I was surprised seeing as how he managed to draw 17,000 people into the Kohl Center in Madison last week. Heck I can remember thinking the 500 people that turned out for Edwards at Serb Hall on a rainy weeknite last year seemed an awful lot, but this was unprecedented in a different sense. It's not often you see whites, blacks, Hispanics, & Asians ranging in ages from teens to seniors walking the streets together and interacting happily in what has to be maybe the most racist and segregated city next to Boston and maybe Detroit. I haven't seen so many people in this city fired up this much over one person since I was a kid watching all-star shortstop Robin Yount ride his motorcycle into the Brewers' old ballpark for the '82 pennant celebration.
It's a state that one would think Cliton would have a good chance of winning seeing how it has a solid amount of traditional Dems and women turn out to vote in big numbers, but she spent very little time here compared Obama. One local columnist remarked in a televised exchange late last week about how Clinton was suggesting in a conference call that Obama wasn't respecting the state's voters since he declined a proposed debate at Marquette University. Where was Clinton at the time of the call? Campaigning in Texas and not in Wisconsin. Many of the local cheeseheads were not amused with that sequence of events. Mayor Barrett and Governor Doyle for Obama and Lieutenant Governor Lawton backing Clinton. Local news highlighting some Marquette undergrad as one of the Dem "Superdelegates" and the kid doesn't look like he's even old enough to drive much less potentially decide the nominee. And I thought I was skeptical of the whole "Superdelegate" process was ass-backwards before that. Now? Jeeeezzz!
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Anyone
Go to Butter Burger? THose are the best, but you can only eat one before you die. I used to have a house in Northern Wisconsin. It was fabulous and wonderful in every single way. Our lake spoiled me so much that I haven't gone swimming since I lived in that house. I love Wisconsin. It is a breathtakingly beautiful state. Thanks for the article. Cheeseheads are wonderful people.
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Except Obama - Yeah Right
Edward McClelland's article is consistent with what now passes for journalism - he tells you nothing meaningful about the candidates - with one exception. He starts off his article stating that everyone is getting into authentic Wisconsin culture except Obama, and then extensively quotes Obama's speech. Does he present any other candidates views to the same extent? No, apparently Edward McClelland is a fan-boy of Obama, like the guy in his story who buys a T-shirt. The media has its narrative, and sadly, Salon is no better: its a foregone conclusion that Obama's the guy, forget the fact that Hillary's actually received more votes (more people voted for Hillary in Florida than have participated in all the polls conducted so far in this election cycle - but then thanks to Howard Dean and the media, polls matter more than actual votes). So in standard media horse-race reporting tradition McClelland tells us that Obama is too good to eat fried fish, is favored to win, wants the minimum wage raised every year and...not much else.
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@ BadgerBlue
Thank you very much for giving us an idea of what's really going on in Wisconsin. Those thousands you see filling up venues to hear Obama are the results of the strong grassroots organizing team Obama has in every state. While Hillary is running attack ads and doing call-ins, Team Obama is working every house, block and district while they enthusiastically campaign for their candidate. Hillary can't begin to compete there through grassroots organizing, so she has to resort to Rovian smear and slander to achieve her goals of slowing Obama down by attacking him in order to overtake him. Her campaign insists Obama is plagiarizing because he used the lines suggested by a friend but forgot to attribute the quote to that friend. Obama has come clean on the issue and said its not a big deal, and I agree. I am not as confident as some of these Clintons supporters are that these smear tactics will propel her to victory. The thing is, these tactics could actually help mobilize an anti-Obama backlash in her favor, but she risks alienating a significant portion of the Democratic party by trying to go after Obama this way. Not that she cares.
Anyway, for those who want to claim Hillary has the high road in this (even though having her campaign staff make these points at all shows the desperate state her unraveling campaign is truly in), I offer you this link as evidence that Hillary is even more blatantly borrowing from Barack Obama in her speeches. Here is a clip of Hillary trying (unsuccessfully) to start a "Yes We Will!" chant this past weekend in Ohio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIzCOQj2lpY