Letters to the Editor
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no more technical victories
It will be sad if Obama fans try to get a victory out of a technicalities and delegate counts while disenfranchising Florida and Ms. Obviously Hillary gets the big states and thus will be more viable in the general. I thought we were done with this after Gore, but we are dems and always nominate a loser, so go I guess go obama?
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The Rush Factor
Come on people . . . It's the "Rush" factor
In case you haven't been paying attention, Rush Limbaugh has been rallying his listeners in Ohio and Texas to vote for Hillary. Why? Cause their scared shi--less that McCain can't win if Obama is the nominee.
Read the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/07/limbaugh-says-hell-fundr_n_85593.html
Limbaugh said yesterday that "if Obama is the nominee, we are doomed, and you should get ready and prepared for it now,"
He's even talking about fundraising to get Hillary nominated.
What you are seeing in Ohio, might be the effects of the Rush factor
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Youre right, berrigrl1
Delegates, smelegates. Rules, shmules. How dare that uppity Negro stand in the way of the Coronation of Queen Inevitable! The Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton duoarchy must be preserved at all costs...even if it means burning down the village in order to save it!
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let her have it
I think Obama should drop out and throw his support to Clinton. Worse case scenario: she losses and he can always go with the "I told you so." If she wins, even better, as he can throw his support and money behind her and be considered an integral part of her win. She pays him back in eight years by endorsing him.
I don't think he should go for the VP though. Everyone knows the real VP will be Bill Clinton, so Clinton just needs to pick someone like Wesley Clark to bolster her position next to that little red phone she's apparently waiting by at 3:00am. Obama can distinguish himself as a Senator, and bide his time for 2016.
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Limbaugh voters
Well, if there are any republicans going to vote for Clinton because Limbaugh told 'em to, then that probably helps offset the number of republicans voting for Obama who haven't the slightest intention of voting for him in the fall if he's the nominee.
It's funny, Obama's supporters tend to call Clinton and her supporters whiny, but, I'd say that's projection, because it's the Obama supporters who whine when votes don't go their way, and pretend something nefarious is up, while at the same time lapping up all these caucus votes in states unlikely to ever go for a democrat, and disenfranchising the Florida & Michigan voters (which they wouldn't have wanted to do if it benefited Obama).
I'm glad that Clinton is still in the race, because finally a slight bit more scrutiny is happening to Obama, and before we settle on a nominee, he or she needs to be completely vetted. Obama HAS NOT been vetted at all. Anyone foolish enough to think he has, has naïvete as their middle name.
--Ron
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Yes, she can - iron!
Whoever held up a sign to Hillary and said, "Iron my shirt!" was not wrong. Yes - she can iron! She can iron out the huge problems our nation faces in the aftermath of G.W. Bush.
She can iron it out, and she can clean up our dirty laundry. Whatever it takes to organize the mess that the nasty, spoiled little boy George W. leaves, Hillary is the one ready and able to do it.
There will be time in 4 years for Barack Obama's dreams. Right now we need a solid, stable mom who will get in there and say... "For God's Sake! What have you kids been doing??"
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The Audacity of Savagery
If Obama wants to be president of this country he needs to understand one very fundamental fact about its people: we believe that winning is more important than being good.
Which isn't to say that Clinton's sarcasm, her scolding and weeping, her disparaging meanness and gossiping inuendo are guaranteed to secure her the nomination, only that if Obama loses it his failure to grasp this single fact will be why.
Here's hoping he takes advantage of this opportunity to show us his ruthless and resentful side.
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tonight's Clinton campaign talking point: "disenfranchising the Florida & Michigan voters"
It's been in two letters already. But neither of those state primaries were contested. Stop trying to count delegates you didn't earn.
Please, can we turn the circular firing squad outward, and to the right?
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Playing to win
Obama is playing to win. He's just doing it differently than normal.
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Disenfranchisement
I have not listened to any speeches by either candidate tonight, and have said for some time now that not counting the Florida and Michigan votes IS disenfranchisement, it's not a campaign talking point, but a point of fairness--fairness to the VOTERS. What else would you call it, treating the people who voted fairly? Obama supporters claim Clinton will do anything to win, while at the same time being happy to allow any arbitrary rule the benefits Obama be all to the good. It doesn't matter what the candidates said beforehand, neither of them should get to decide whose votes get to count. EVERY vote should count.
--Ron
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The Florida primary was contested
and Obama lost, badly. If you claim he'd have won if he's campaigned there--well, he campaigned, hard, in Texas and Ohio, outspent Clinton 2-1, and lost. He just doesn't have what it takes to put her away.
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Close, but not quite
Her cackling highness the royal Czarina Clinton will have to wait a while before she wins her crown. Why? In terms of numbers of delegates Obama is still very much intact, and you can believe that clutching Clinton courtiers, because that is a fact. Dowm with Dynasty! Down with despotism! Onwards Obama!
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results
There ya go,
Only three posts before somebody calls a Hillary poster a racist. We're starting out on a high note.
On to more reasonable discussion:
The fact remains we have two good candidates on whom the party is split (as opposed to the more negatively-charged "divided"). It's hard to imagine either going into the convention at this point with a clear-cut argument to be declared victor. And no, more delegates and losing the popular democratic vote is not a clear-cut argument. Should they continue this dead even pace all the way to the convention, (I've said this before), I think Dean should force the superdelegate's hands that they throw unified support behind one or the other conditional on the VP being offered to the other candidate. If they don't want it, so be it--but they should be offered it based on the fact that half the party wants them as President. I'm open to other reasoning, but I think it should be Hillary on the top of the ticket based on a few things, including that it remains a very tight popular vote race.
a) simple age. Assume an 8-year run. Obama has the youth to wait that long and be handed the nomination, Hillary doesn't
b) if current trends continue, she'll have a majority of democrats having voted for her. The nominee is to represent the Democratic Party. Obama's non-Dem supporters are in no way a bad thing (all the opposite) but it is still a party nominee and party adherents should be weighed more heavily (in such a close process)
c) the fact that she has won just about every single big state. And please, let's hold the histrionics over calling people "irrelevant". The facts speak for themselves, in winner-take-all general elections (which is what we'll have), California is better than North Dakota. Just like in b-ball a 3 point shot is better than a 2-point shot and in football a touchdown is better than a field goal. There isn't a single candidate who would honestly tell you otherwise.
d) the fact that more of her victories have come in the more democratic (small d) primaries versus Obama's victories in the less democratic (small d) caucuses.
e) the fact that a Hillary-Obama ticket is a strong synthesis of experience at the top plus youth and inspiration ready to lead next while an Obama-Hillary ticket doesn't have the same synthesis. The logic doesn't work both ways (which is why should Obama win outright I think he should ignore the advice to get an "old wise hand" as VP and should do what Bill Clinton did with Gore--pick someone equally young and vibrant and use that as the hammer)