Letters to the Editor
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Where in the world is Rev Wright?
I find it curious that Wright hasn't been seen or heard from.
I think I heard from Obama on Larry King that Wright is on a retirement cruise at the moment. Probably in a nice big padded suite with no phone or internet connections on a ship in the middle of the south pacific headed towards antartica.
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Uncle
Yeah? well I heard the same thing but he was here in Tampa yesterday (easter Sunday).
Obama is 'on vacation' in the virgin islands....
Maybe they have arranged a clandestine meeting. Wright needs to put this to rest by 1) admitting his own errors as a "god's not done with me yet" sort of thing and 2) reassuring the public that even though his own ideas are from time to time off the mainstream, he knows Obama is OK.
Its disgusting yes. It probably won't happen - mostly because the guy is bullheaded, stubborn and thinks he knows everything (and has an ego the size of north america) but hey, i can hope can't i?
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The problem with Shapiro's analysis
Walter Shapiro's analysis is flawed. The Democratic Party's process for election/selection of convention delegates is not at all "undemocratic" but the product of democracy in its usual chaotic form.
Consider the evolution of the process from the 1960s to the present. In 1960, Kennedy defeated Humphrey in West Virginia and Wisconsin, and that covered much of what was then the primary season. State and city party bosses controlled state delegations. By 1968, there were contested primaries in Indiana, Nebraska, Oregon, South Dakota and California. The bosses, however, still controlled the nomination.
The democratization of the process exploded in 1972 in a way that threatened to exclude numerous party 'leaders' from the convention; nobody was going to let that happen again.
What emerged was a system in which just about every registered Democrat had a shot at voting for a nominee, but around 20% of the convention votes would be cast by pre-selected delegates, including members of congress and of the national committee.
Shapiro criticizes the mixture of primaries and caucus as not being uniform. But uniformity ought not to be confused with democracy. Indeed, each state's party can handle the process its own way, so long as every party registrant can participate. Both procedures are democratic. The caucuses, which seem to Shapiro somehow less ideal, are actually extensions of the earliest town hall meetings, and invite dialogue and interaction more than television ad buys. This ought to be regarded as a good thing; direct primaries have some failings but to afford more people an easier chance to be heard.
I agree with Shapiro that 'super delegates' have a legitimate place in the process, but not because the votes in earlier primaries may be given less weight, as he suggests. It is fundamentally incorrect to relegate the election of early delegates to a kind of 'tracking poll.'
Every primary vote would be different if the date were changed. That's how it goes. Bush wouldn't get elected today even if he electronically rigged ten million votes, but it's too late to worry about that because the election of 2004 is over.
The delegates from Iowa and New Hampshire and Wisconsin and Texas have been chosen. They favor Obama. Unless one wants to eliminate delegates and conventions entirely – a really stupid idea – the total popular vote in primaries is not very relevant, but it, too favors Obama.
The only thing sustaining the Clinton campaign is the hope that she might damage Obama enough to shoehorn the nomination via mass support from nearly all 'super delegates.' Should she accomplish that, her nomination would be worthless because the party would be destroyed. Ancillary damage would be the loss of numerous congressional seats which the party at this point still hopes to win.
There is no doubt that the Democratic Party leadership, such as it is, is right now trying to figure out how to get Clinton to bow out. They'd better figure it out soon.
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After all
We love to watch the might fall in the country but more than that we love to forgive when they admit they're wrong.
Outside of that highly unlikely scenario, Wright will haunt Obama if he ends up with the nomination and may cost the Democrats the election.
Sigh.
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@maddieP
Buck up, we'll be alright, I promise.
I mean come September the economy is going to be so far in the sh*tter that any time the Republicans try and bring up the "scary black pastor" we can say "Are you kidding me?? 200,000 homes were foreclosed on this month alone and we're talking about a PASTOR?!? Instead of trying to scare people, why isn't McCain talking about the economy? We know it isn't his strong point (as he's said numerous times) but we think the American public needs to know how we're going to fix this problem. What they don't need to hear is how Obama's ex-pastor said some crazy things"
remember, Bill Clinton was only able to diffuse the Gennifer Flowers thing because the economy was in the tank...the same thing will work for Obama.
cheers!
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The Clintons will without shame take the Democrat Party down with them.
The Clintons are simply true to form. Observing Bill Clinton's almost daily petulant temper tantrums when an audience member expresses support for the Obama candidacy suggests that Slick is very close to loosing it. The "serial groper" is unable to accept the fact that he's trying to peddle a defective product; i.e. Hillary. This is a woman who hasn't managed so much as a corner vegetable stand, or for that matter her own marriage; but, of course you could count Whitewater, and her tenure as "Madam" for Bill's White House Brothel. So what possibly is there that qualifies Bill's official "Bimbo Containment Chief" for the Presidency? Further, Hillary's increasingly frequent crying jags raises a legitimate concern about her mental stability. But, having meticulously planned their coveted return to the White House for several years now, the Clintons will certainly not exit the scene with grace or dignity. This is the political duo that honed "The Politics Of Personal Destruction" into an artform; and, most certainly will not tolerate, who is in their mind, the "upstart Obama" to derail Hillary's pre-choreographed coronation. Greg Neubeck