wow, google maps has the coolest stuff on PA, shows you a simple graph showing Dem/Repube based on the last election, where the county is...--a great tool for understanding the results as they are reported.

and here's a breakdown of the 2007 registration

i wonder how many of those formerly rePube districts will go blue?

three minutes until polls close, is that correct?

anyone interested in the primary?

one more tool for the wonkish, from Rieux at Kos,

delegate counter and how the number of delegates are determined...way cool!

i love spreadsheets and charts! omg what a night!

okay, this is oddly quiet. is this the DNC blog? don't we have a kinda, sorta important event tonight?

i feel so alone.

what alternate universe do i inhabit? primary-fatigue set in? post-primary ennui? am i lost?

confused?

let's get this party started!

April 23, 2008

Editorial

The Low Road to Victory

The Pennsylvania campaign, which produced yet another inconclusive result on Tuesday, was even meaner, more vacuous, more desperate, and more filled with pandering than the mean, vacuous, desperate, pander-filled contests that preceded it.

Voters are getting tired of it; it is demeaning the political process; and it does not work. It is past time for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to acknowledge that the negativity, for which she is mostly responsible, does nothing but harm to her, her opponent, her party and the 2008 election.

If nothing else, self interest should push her in that direction. Mrs. Clinton did not get the big win in Pennsylvania that she needed to challenge the calculus of the Democratic race. It is true that Senator Barack Obama outspent her 2-to-1. But Mrs. Clinton and her advisers should mainly blame themselves, because, as the political operatives say, they went heavily negative and ended up squandering a good part of what was once a 20-point lead.

On the eve of this crucial primary, Mrs. Clinton became the first Democratic candidate to wave the bloody shirt of 9/11. A Clinton television ad — torn right from Karl Rove’s playbook — evoked the 1929 stock market crash, Pearl Harbor, the Cuban missile crisis, the cold war and the 9/11 attacks, complete with video of Osama bin Laden. “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” the narrator intoned.

If that was supposed to bolster Mrs. Clinton’s argument that she is the better prepared to be president in a dangerous world, she sent the opposite message on Tuesday morning by declaring in an interview on ABC News that if Iran attacked Israel while she were president: “We would be able to totally obliterate them.”

By staying on the attack and not engaging Mr. Obama on the substance of issues like terrorism, the economy and how to organize an orderly exit from Iraq, Mrs. Clinton does more than just turn off voters who don’t like negative campaigning. She undercuts the rationale for her candidacy that led this page and others to support her: that she is more qualified, right now, to be president than Mr. Obama.

Mr. Obama is not blameless when it comes to the negative and vapid nature of this campaign. He is increasingly rising to Mrs. Clinton’s bait, undercutting his own claims that he is offering a higher more inclusive form of politics. When she criticized his comments about “bitter” voters, Mr. Obama mocked her as an Annie Oakley wannabe. All that does is remind Americans who are on the fence about his relative youth and inexperience.

No matter what the high-priced political operatives (from both camps) may think, it is not a disadvantage that Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton share many of the same essential values and sensible policy prescriptions. It is their strength, and they are doing their best to make voters forget it. And if they think that only Democrats are paying attention to this spectacle, they’re wrong.

After seven years of George W. Bush’s failed with-us-or-against-us presidency, all American voters deserve to hear a nuanced debate — right now and through the general campaign — about how each candidate will combat terrorism, protect civil liberties, address the housing crisis and end the war in Iraq.

It is getting to be time for the superdelegates to do what the Democrats had in mind when they created superdelegates: settle a bloody race that cannot be won at the ballot box. Mrs. Clinton once had a big lead among the party elders, but has been steadily losing it, in large part because of her negative campaign. If she is ever to have a hope of persuading these most loyal of Democrats to come back to her side, let alone win over the larger body of voters, she has to call off the dogs.

I am so disgusted I can not put it into words. I can not tell you how much detest I feel for that woman and what she's doing to this nomination race.

I will not vote for her.

Only Democrats can remember the days of hardships when the Nation was in the darkest day during the Depression of the thirties.

Let us pray that God will have mercy on us despite of the Republicans saying wealthy things about our hardships.

These are times for the place of hope. A place the Clintons found and brought to us our dreames of a better life. We had a better life. We were so happy and were walking up the ladder to that better place.

We can have it again, said Madam President Hillary Clinton. Hold on every American in every place in the USA or in War, HELP IS COMING.

Help Comes In The Morning, Crying Only Last Through The Night. Hillary can feel your hopelessness, but she knows how to wipe away your tears and heal the Nation with God's help.

Hear her plans, she has an excellant plan for every situation hurting you. She is only human but as God joins her side, she is a giant in wisdom and ways to help ease your pain.

Being a life long Democate, I have seen the good and bad. But if we choose wrong, look at who will be president for GWB!

What the article failed to mention - almost funny - is when he was in Selma AL. He talked about the history of the city and stuff (usual political talk), but when the camera panned to the audience, hardly any "people of color" (all whites). Sounds to me like African-Americans in Selma are not supporting the War-Monger.

Next time the repugs or rove ask about that flag pin, he needs to tell them he would rather talk about the jobs that went to china to make that pin.

Have you ever seen anyone work as hard as Hillary. She is going (18) EIGHTEEN hours a day. No wonder she mis speaks rarely. Hillary always looks like a fresh peach when she speaks. She said at one point if she can get a ten 10 minuet nap she is good to go. What a good President she would make. So many blacks are still standing by her side. GO HILLARY

solja, The truth really makes you go crazy, don't it? It is true that Hillary was one of the first people to visit her wonderful people that were hurt and the first responders,on 9/11. Didn't you see her down there giving as many people that she had supply an mask to put over their mouth and nose to save them from breathing that poluted air from the explosing? You need to lighten up and see her as she really is. She is a Brillant woman with a heart as big as a pumpkin, and as hard a worker that you can find, and as tough as nails. if there is anyone this season any better qualified, I would like to see them!

solja, The truth really makes you go crazy, don't it? It is true that Hillary was one of the first people to visit her wonderful people that were hurt and the first responders,on 9/11. Didn't you see her down there giving as many people that she had supply an mask to put over their mouth and nose to save them from breathing that poluted air from the explosing? You need to lighten up and see her as she really is. She is a Brillant woman with a heart as big as a pumpkin, and as hard a worker that you can find, and as tough as nails. if there is anyone this season any better qualified, I would like to see them!

Whichever candidate wins, I wish they would just say, boldly, "If you want your job to go to china, vote for McCain" "If you want 3 billion dollars a week spent in Iraq, vote McCain" "If you want more bridges and dams to collapse, vote McCain" "If you think multimillionaires should pay less tax than you, vote McCain" I'm sick of trying to be so "presidential" Just put it out there, over and over again and the common joe that will vote based on a commercial will finally get it.

without a doubt Senator Obama's campaign has been better run. Senator Clinton was ill adviced by her campaign to skip the Caucuses. In fact if she had spent a little more time at Winconsin, she could have won there, possibly by a big margin. That is the only big state with demographics favorable to Democrats in the General elections that Senator Obama has won!

But, very clearly, Senator Clinton is a better candidate. Look at the way she keeps coming back in spite of being outspent heavily by Senator Obama, in spite of media becoming a Obama mouthpiece and a propaganda machinery, in spite of losing 11 (mainly Causes) in a row.

When Tim Russert aggressively went after Senator Clinton in the MSNBC debate, Senator Clinton came out swinging and turned that into a huge advantage. In the ABC debate, with far less hostile moderators than Tim Russsert, Senator Obama was decidely bad.

Senator Obama knows Senator Clinton is a better candidate; no wonder he is scared to do any more debates. Uncontested in campaign events, he can attack Senator Clinton and talk about Change in the abstract. In a debate he has to answer specifics. Senator Obama doesn't have specifics.

If Democrats have to win the general, we need a candidate who is tenacious and withstand the Republican onslaught. We need ask oursleves if we can afford, Adlai Stevenson, Michael Dukakis or a John Kerry in 2008.

We need FL and MI and Senator Obama has decided to disenfranchise them. Can Democrats win the general elections without MI and FL. Does anyone think Senator Obama will win Georgia, South Carolina and Utah in Nov?

I never thought a day will come when I would think Fox News is Fair and Balanced. To my dismay, today that dreaded thought crossed my mind. I know the Fox will get back to what they do best, becoming a propaganda machinery for the right wing of the Republican Party when the General Elections starts. But at least now, when they have no skin in the game, they are the only fair balanced network in town!!!

Bill O'Reilly interviewed Senator Clinton and I thought it was an excellent interview.

I just flipped the channel and went to MSNBC. Keith Oberman had somebody he called a Democratic Strategist. Like Fox of old any Democratic Strategist that MSNBC puts on the air would be without exception Anti-Clinton. This day was no exception.

The only people in MSNBC having a balanced view would normally be Scarborough and Pat Buchanan. The Newsweek folks MSNBC puts on the show are more Obama supporters than the Obama surrogates themselves. The MSNBC crowd and a good deal of the CNN crowd including AC 360 crowd are such avid Obama supporters they do not realize they are out of touch with reality.

And these people are supposed to be reporters, reporting the news. And we wonder why the news media has less approval rating then President Bush and Congress! Go Figure!

The news media is dominated by inside the beltway folks who have no idea of what is happening in main street America.

Like Senator Obama said Indiana would be the litmus test on who deserves to go forward. If Senator Clinton loses Indiana, she should drop out of the race. If Senator Obama loses Indiana by more than 5 percentage points and doesn't win North Carolina by double digit margins, in the interest of the Party, he should seriously consider if he should continue in the race. With only one large and battleground State (Wisconsin and too because Senator Clinton campaign made the stupid mistake of contesting only in the waning days and Illinois shouldn't count), Democrats should really look at if Senator Obama is electable in Nov. Democrats cannot afford another Dukakis and Kerry!!!

Voting in Florida and Michigan should count if Democrats are serious about Nov.

Guess what the big news story today in AC 360 at CNN and MSNBC, the Obama Propaganda News Channels be: "Momentum in the primaries change- Senator Obama handily wins Guam proving yet again why Senator Clinton should drop out of the race". He has won by 7 votes in Caucuses.

Irrespective of what AC360 or MSNBC claims this primary is a dead heat with two very strong candidates contesting. One has the lead in pledged delegates but steadily losing support. The other is steadily and rapidly gaining ground. Neither of them can win majority of the pledged delegates. In the interest of the party this is what should happen:
- If Senator Clinton loses both IN and NC, she should concede and drop out of the race.
- If Senator Obama loses IN and wins NC by less than 5% of the votes, or worse loses NC, he should concede and drop out of the race.
If neither of these happens, the race should go on.