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The head of John Edwards South Carolina presidential campaign told CNN that at least six of the eight delegates Edwards won in S.C. are ready to vote for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama at the Democratic presidential convention.
Columbia attorney John Moylan appeared on the cable news channel this morning.
Edwards endorsed the campaign of his former rival last night.
Edwards' delegates are free to vote for whichever candidate they choose, but delegate Robert Groce said he would choose Obama.
"I was elected to represent John Edwards. I will honor his request," said Groce, 40 and a Summerville resident. "I'm very comfortable that either one (Obama or U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton) could assume the office and do a good job. The party has really benefitted from having so many good candidates."
Edwards' S.C. delegates plan to release a statement later today.
Also, Iraq War veteran Joshua Denton of New Hampshire has switched his pledged vote to Obama.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2008/05/14/nh_edwards_delegate_announces_hes_supporting_obama/
Columbia attorney John Moylan appeared on the cable news channel this morning.
Edwards endorsed the campaign of his former rival last night.
Edwards' delegates are free to vote for whichever candidate they choose, but delegate Robert Groce said he would choose Obama.
"I was elected to represent John Edwards. I will honor his request," said Groce, 40 and a Summerville resident. "I'm very comfortable that either one (Obama or U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton) could assume the office and do a good job. The party has really benefitted from having so many good candidates."
Edwards' S.C. delegates plan to release a statement later today.
Also, Iraq War veteran Joshua Denton of New Hampshire has switched his pledged vote to Obama.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2008/05/14/nh_edwards_delegate_announces_hes_supporting_obama/
that Nebraska had its state primary on May 13th.
Obama got 49% of the vote, and Clinton 47%. Mike Gravel's name was still on the ballot, and he got 4% of the vote.
Obama got 49% of the vote, and Clinton 47%. Mike Gravel's name was still on the ballot, and he got 4% of the vote.
Democrats are increasingly looking South, the South is looking increasingly Blue, and the Republicans are increasingly sad!
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10358.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10358.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-begala/bush-uses-holy-land-pulpi_b_101921.html
Would somebody please go get Joe Lieberman??
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/15/14913/5301/320/516310
Look at what John McCain, Mr. Foreign Policy Experience, said today while agreeing with Bush's repulsive remarks in Israel:
“Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain,'’ Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus after a speech in Columbus, Ohio. “I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.'’
The Obama campaign and we in the liberal blogosphere need to jump on these comments. Once again, McCain has demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge about foreign policy and American history. First he got confused over Sunnis and Shiites, now this.
McCain seems to be forgetting something kind of important that happened during the Reagan administration.
It's called the Iran-Contra Scandal.
The Iran-Contra affair was a political scandal which was revealed in 1986 as a result of earlier events during the Reagan administration. It began as an operation to increase U.S.-Iranian relations, wherein Israel would ship weapons to a moderate, politically influential group of Iranians opposed to the Ayatollah Khomeni; the U.S. would reimburse Israel with those weapons and receive payment from Israel. The moderate Iranians agreed to do everything in their power to achieve the release of six U.S. hostages, who were being held by the terrorist group Hezbollah. The plan eventually deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages scheme, in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of the American hostages, without the authorization of President Ronald Reagan. Large modifications to the plan were conjured by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council in late 1985. In North's plan, a portion of the proceeds from the weapon sales was diverted to fund anti-Sandinista and anti-communist rebels, or Contras, in Nicaragua. While President Ronald Reagan was a supporter of the Contra cause, he did not authorize this plan, nor was he aware that the funds were being sent to the Contras.
After the weapon sales were revealed in November 1986, Ronald Reagan appeared on national television and stated that the weapons transfers had indeed occurred, but that the United States did not trade arms for hostages. The investigation was compounded when large volumes of documents relating to the scandal were destroyed or withheld from investigators by Reagan administration officials. On March 4, 1987, Reagan returned to the airwaves in a nationally televised address, taking full responsibility for any actions that he was unaware of, and admitting that "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages."
John McCain was in Congress during the 1980s, in fact he was moved up to the Senate in 1986, so surely he couldn't have forgotten about this. Iran-Contra was the biggest scandal of the Reagan administration. They traded arms to Iran in the hopes that the Iranians and Hezbollah would release U.S. hostages. John Kerry, who was one of the lead Senate investigators into Iran-Contra, should be the go-to man for the Obama campaign on this.
Regarding the 1981 release of hostages, McCain also misses the facts. Again, from Wikipedia:
In 1979, Iranian students took hostage 52 employees of the United States embassy in Iran. On January 20, 1981, the day Ronald Reagan became President, the hostages were freed following the Algiers Accords.
Who negotiated the Algiers Accords? Warren Christopher and the Carter administration. Ronald Reagan had nothing to do with it.
Unless...John McCain is accidentally giving credence to the "October Surprise" conspiracy theory. You know, the one that say the Reagan campaign secretly negotiated with Iran to prevent the release of hostages until Reagan took office?
The October Surprise conspiracy was an alleged plot that claimed representatives of the 1980 Ronald Reagan presidential campaign had conspired with Islamic Republic of Iran to delay the release of 52 Americans held hostage in Tehran until after the 1980 U.S. Presidential election. In exchange for their cooperation, the United States would supply weapons to Iran as well as unfreeze Iran's monetary assets being held by the US government.
Jimmy Carter had been attempting to deal with the Iran hostage crisis and the hostile regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini for nearly a year. Those who assert that a deal was made allege that certain Republicans with CIA connections, including George H. W. Bush, arranged to have the hostages held through October, until Reagan could defeat Carter in early November, and then be released, thereby preventing an “October surprise” from the Carter administration in which the hostages would be released shortly before the election. The hostages were released the day of Reagan's inauguration, twenty minutes after his inaugural address.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/15/14913/5301/320/516310
Look at what John McCain, Mr. Foreign Policy Experience, said today while agreeing with Bush's repulsive remarks in Israel:
“Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain,'’ Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus after a speech in Columbus, Ohio. “I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.'’
The Obama campaign and we in the liberal blogosphere need to jump on these comments. Once again, McCain has demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge about foreign policy and American history. First he got confused over Sunnis and Shiites, now this.
McCain seems to be forgetting something kind of important that happened during the Reagan administration.
It's called the Iran-Contra Scandal.
The Iran-Contra affair was a political scandal which was revealed in 1986 as a result of earlier events during the Reagan administration. It began as an operation to increase U.S.-Iranian relations, wherein Israel would ship weapons to a moderate, politically influential group of Iranians opposed to the Ayatollah Khomeni; the U.S. would reimburse Israel with those weapons and receive payment from Israel. The moderate Iranians agreed to do everything in their power to achieve the release of six U.S. hostages, who were being held by the terrorist group Hezbollah. The plan eventually deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages scheme, in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of the American hostages, without the authorization of President Ronald Reagan. Large modifications to the plan were conjured by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council in late 1985. In North's plan, a portion of the proceeds from the weapon sales was diverted to fund anti-Sandinista and anti-communist rebels, or Contras, in Nicaragua. While President Ronald Reagan was a supporter of the Contra cause, he did not authorize this plan, nor was he aware that the funds were being sent to the Contras.
After the weapon sales were revealed in November 1986, Ronald Reagan appeared on national television and stated that the weapons transfers had indeed occurred, but that the United States did not trade arms for hostages. The investigation was compounded when large volumes of documents relating to the scandal were destroyed or withheld from investigators by Reagan administration officials. On March 4, 1987, Reagan returned to the airwaves in a nationally televised address, taking full responsibility for any actions that he was unaware of, and admitting that "what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages."
John McCain was in Congress during the 1980s, in fact he was moved up to the Senate in 1986, so surely he couldn't have forgotten about this. Iran-Contra was the biggest scandal of the Reagan administration. They traded arms to Iran in the hopes that the Iranians and Hezbollah would release U.S. hostages. John Kerry, who was one of the lead Senate investigators into Iran-Contra, should be the go-to man for the Obama campaign on this.
Regarding the 1981 release of hostages, McCain also misses the facts. Again, from Wikipedia:
In 1979, Iranian students took hostage 52 employees of the United States embassy in Iran. On January 20, 1981, the day Ronald Reagan became President, the hostages were freed following the Algiers Accords.
Who negotiated the Algiers Accords? Warren Christopher and the Carter administration. Ronald Reagan had nothing to do with it.
Unless...John McCain is accidentally giving credence to the "October Surprise" conspiracy theory. You know, the one that say the Reagan campaign secretly negotiated with Iran to prevent the release of hostages until Reagan took office?
The October Surprise conspiracy was an alleged plot that claimed representatives of the 1980 Ronald Reagan presidential campaign had conspired with Islamic Republic of Iran to delay the release of 52 Americans held hostage in Tehran until after the 1980 U.S. Presidential election. In exchange for their cooperation, the United States would supply weapons to Iran as well as unfreeze Iran's monetary assets being held by the US government.
Jimmy Carter had been attempting to deal with the Iran hostage crisis and the hostile regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini for nearly a year. Those who assert that a deal was made allege that certain Republicans with CIA connections, including George H. W. Bush, arranged to have the hostages held through October, until Reagan could defeat Carter in early November, and then be released, thereby preventing an “October surprise” from the Carter administration in which the hostages would be released shortly before the election. The hostages were released the day of Reagan's inauguration, twenty minutes after his inaugural address.
California Supreme Court overturns gay marriage ban!
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/wireStory?id=4859659
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/wireStory?id=4859659
superdelegate James McDermott, US Rep for Washington. He now has a total of 1892.5 delegates.
How about:
"Four More Wars!" (Hollywood)
"With Liberty and Justice for Oil" (courtesy of Laura from Brooklyn)
"One Nation Under Surveillance" (courtesy of Tom from Middleton, Ohio)
"We have nothing to sell but fear itself" (courtesy of Pete from Golden, CO)
"Building a bridge to the 12th Century" (anonymous)
"No cash left behind" (anonymous)
"Four More Wars!" (Hollywood)
"With Liberty and Justice for Oil" (courtesy of Laura from Brooklyn)
"One Nation Under Surveillance" (courtesy of Tom from Middleton, Ohio)
"We have nothing to sell but fear itself" (courtesy of Pete from Golden, CO)
"Building a bridge to the 12th Century" (anonymous)
"No cash left behind" (anonymous)
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_alan_i_abramowitz/this_is_not_your_father_s_or_mother_s_democratic_party
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_joe_conason/cindy_mccain_flaunts_her_privilege
This is a research project with an online test. Want to know how you really feel about things? Take the test!
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
Oklahoma Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan, a superdelegate, just endorsed Barack Obama.
John Edwards is going to endorse Obama formally in a couple of hours. He isn't a superdelegate. But he can potentially bring 19 pledged delegates with him!!!
John Edwards is going to endorse Obama formally in a couple of hours. He isn't a superdelegate. But he can potentially bring 19 pledged delegates with him!!!
- Ray Mabus, former Mississippi Governor and Bill Clinton appointee
- Crow Nation and the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Ft. Peck Reservation
- Democrats Abroad Chair and superdelegate Christine Schon Marques
- Indiana Congressman and superdelegate Pete Visclosky
- Former SEC Chairman William Donaldson
- Former SEC Chairman and Bill Clinton appointee Arthur Levitt
- Former SEC Chairman David Ruder
- Crow Nation and the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Ft. Peck Reservation
- Democrats Abroad Chair and superdelegate Christine Schon Marques
- Indiana Congressman and superdelegate Pete Visclosky
- Former SEC Chairman William Donaldson
- Former SEC Chairman and Bill Clinton appointee Arthur Levitt
- Former SEC Chairman David Ruder
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/gGBlqR
amazing win in Mississippi?! The seat had been in Republican hands since 1995, and has now "come home".
Congratulations Travis W. Childers and everybody who worked for his campaign on a job well done!!
Democrats now have a 236-199 majority in the House of Representatives. In both Mississippi and Louisiana, voters have rejected Republican racist smear tactics.
In the end, tying the white Democrat to Obama may have helped Childers more than it hurt him, as campaign aides reported heavy black turnout, heavier than in a vote three weeks ago when he came within 400 votes of winning.
"I like what Childers was saying: he was more truthful and down to earth," said Mary Shelton.
And Childers's association with the party that might nominate Obama didn't hurt either. "We need a change, we really do," Shelton said.
Childers won Yalobusha, having lost it in the April vote.
And even in this district, it is not difficult to find conservative voters dissatisfied with the administration in Washington. "There's a lot of people that are mad at Bush," said Jim Jennings, a retired businessman, sitting at a table with Republican voters at a barbecue restaurant in DeSoto County.
Source: Los Angeles Times
Congratulations Travis W. Childers and everybody who worked for his campaign on a job well done!!
Democrats now have a 236-199 majority in the House of Representatives. In both Mississippi and Louisiana, voters have rejected Republican racist smear tactics.
In the end, tying the white Democrat to Obama may have helped Childers more than it hurt him, as campaign aides reported heavy black turnout, heavier than in a vote three weeks ago when he came within 400 votes of winning.
"I like what Childers was saying: he was more truthful and down to earth," said Mary Shelton.
And Childers's association with the party that might nominate Obama didn't hurt either. "We need a change, we really do," Shelton said.
Childers won Yalobusha, having lost it in the April vote.
And even in this district, it is not difficult to find conservative voters dissatisfied with the administration in Washington. "There's a lot of people that are mad at Bush," said Jim Jennings, a retired businessman, sitting at a table with Republican voters at a barbecue restaurant in DeSoto County.
Source: Los Angeles Times
Hillary also has a small banner with a link to the Red Cross on her website.
Most prominent on Barack Obama's official site today is a link to the American Red Cross and a message to help the victims of the disasters in Asia - in Myanmar, where the UN believes from 60,000 to 100,000 people have died as a result of Cyclone Nargis, and in China, where an earthquake yesterday has caused at least 20,000 deaths. The link also provides you with information on how you can help victims of the recent spate of tornadoes here at home, where over 20 people died and hundreds have lost everything.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lynda-waddington/stephanopoulos-clinton-wr_b_101280.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/09/clinton-supporters-send-l_n_100979.html
As the Democratic primary nears its long-awaited conclusion, undecided superdelegates have been drowned under a sudden deluge of angry, sometimes vicious emails from Hillary Clinton supporters urging them to not fall in line behind Barack Obama.
The letter writing campaign picked up steam late Thursday evening when several superdelegates confirmed that a coordinated effort had been launched, apparently independent of Clinton's campaign, to raise last-minute concerns about Obama's candidacy and present the specter of voter defections should the Illinois Democrat become the nominee.
In more than dozen messages sent yesterday evening and shared with The Huffington Post, supporters of Clinton emailed a laundry list of political and exceedingly personal attacks on Obama's candidacy, including criticisms of his prior associations and claims that he, not Clinton, had played the race card. The letters underscore the high emotional pitch of the late stage Democratic primary as well as the utter conviction among many supporters of both campaigns that their candidate is solely worthy of the nomination.
Such campaigns targeting superdelegates have mostly been avoided out of fear that the party officials would react negatively to outside pressure. And at least four superdelegates on the receiving end of yesterday's emails suggested that they did more harm to Clinton's cause than good.
The Clinton campaign did not return a request for comment as to whether it was behind the email campaign. One author said that she was responding not to the senator's staff, but to commenters on the blog of Taylor Marsh, a committed supporter of the New York Democrat whose readers had gotten a hold of a list of email addresses.
"It was a 'spur of the moment' idea brought about by a blog (Taylor Marsh)," explained Shirley Luther, a Texas Democrat who threatened to vote for McCain should Obama be the nominee. "Tonight several of our bloggers came up with the idea of writing the super delegates. Someone on the blog found a list of emails and posted it.... Everything I wrote is the truth about my political background. The exit polls show I am not alone in refusing to vote for Obama and opting to McCain. This probably would not be possible if there was any other Republican running. But there are a lot of moderate Democrats who do respect his service."
[Added Later]: Taylor Marsh denied any involvement in the affair, saying her readers and commenters were responsible for their own actions.
At least two other party insiders wrote the Huffington Post expressing concern over the scope ("I've received emails like this for weeks but tonight it started in mass) and negativity of some of the Obama attacks, including one red-state Democrat:
"I spent my entire life in the two reddest states in the entire U.S. so please excuse me if I fail to discern the nuances of the arguments sent my way this evening in what appears to be an orchestrated campaign to intimidate the remaining unpledged delegates by threatening to leave the party and vote for a third Bush term if I and others like me don't vote for Sen. Clinton," wrote the exasperated superdelegate. "I have been uncommitted throughout this campaign because I wanted to see how the candidates performed in a variety of settings. I am proud of them both. But I am horrified by this effort to threaten votes for McCain if super delegates don't vote for Sen. Clinton. I have received hundreds of emails from both sides - but I can say without exception that I have not received a single email from an Obama supporter that threatened a vote for McCain if I didn't support Sen. Obama. You really ought to be ashamed."
UPDATE:
Phil Singer, a spokesman for Clinton, emails to say that the campaign knows nothing about the emails. Meanwhile, two readers write in to say they saw the campaign being coordinated at the friendly Clinton website Hillaryis44.org, as well as the blog page on Clinton's own website.
As the Democratic primary nears its long-awaited conclusion, undecided superdelegates have been drowned under a sudden deluge of angry, sometimes vicious emails from Hillary Clinton supporters urging them to not fall in line behind Barack Obama.
The letter writing campaign picked up steam late Thursday evening when several superdelegates confirmed that a coordinated effort had been launched, apparently independent of Clinton's campaign, to raise last-minute concerns about Obama's candidacy and present the specter of voter defections should the Illinois Democrat become the nominee.
In more than dozen messages sent yesterday evening and shared with The Huffington Post, supporters of Clinton emailed a laundry list of political and exceedingly personal attacks on Obama's candidacy, including criticisms of his prior associations and claims that he, not Clinton, had played the race card. The letters underscore the high emotional pitch of the late stage Democratic primary as well as the utter conviction among many supporters of both campaigns that their candidate is solely worthy of the nomination.
Such campaigns targeting superdelegates have mostly been avoided out of fear that the party officials would react negatively to outside pressure. And at least four superdelegates on the receiving end of yesterday's emails suggested that they did more harm to Clinton's cause than good.
The Clinton campaign did not return a request for comment as to whether it was behind the email campaign. One author said that she was responding not to the senator's staff, but to commenters on the blog of Taylor Marsh, a committed supporter of the New York Democrat whose readers had gotten a hold of a list of email addresses.
"It was a 'spur of the moment' idea brought about by a blog (Taylor Marsh)," explained Shirley Luther, a Texas Democrat who threatened to vote for McCain should Obama be the nominee. "Tonight several of our bloggers came up with the idea of writing the super delegates. Someone on the blog found a list of emails and posted it.... Everything I wrote is the truth about my political background. The exit polls show I am not alone in refusing to vote for Obama and opting to McCain. This probably would not be possible if there was any other Republican running. But there are a lot of moderate Democrats who do respect his service."
[Added Later]: Taylor Marsh denied any involvement in the affair, saying her readers and commenters were responsible for their own actions.
At least two other party insiders wrote the Huffington Post expressing concern over the scope ("I've received emails like this for weeks but tonight it started in mass) and negativity of some of the Obama attacks, including one red-state Democrat:
"I spent my entire life in the two reddest states in the entire U.S. so please excuse me if I fail to discern the nuances of the arguments sent my way this evening in what appears to be an orchestrated campaign to intimidate the remaining unpledged delegates by threatening to leave the party and vote for a third Bush term if I and others like me don't vote for Sen. Clinton," wrote the exasperated superdelegate. "I have been uncommitted throughout this campaign because I wanted to see how the candidates performed in a variety of settings. I am proud of them both. But I am horrified by this effort to threaten votes for McCain if super delegates don't vote for Sen. Clinton. I have received hundreds of emails from both sides - but I can say without exception that I have not received a single email from an Obama supporter that threatened a vote for McCain if I didn't support Sen. Obama. You really ought to be ashamed."
UPDATE:
Phil Singer, a spokesman for Clinton, emails to say that the campaign knows nothing about the emails. Meanwhile, two readers write in to say they saw the campaign being coordinated at the friendly Clinton website Hillaryis44.org, as well as the blog page on Clinton's own website.
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