My little politics blog

This isn't Florida but on the general subject, my F-I-L is interested in Obama -- now -- which I see as a really good sign. He's voted Republican for as long as I've known him but says he thinks Obama is a good guy. (Hated Gore, hated Kerry.)

talking to her like an adult and telling the truth.

In the days after John Edwards's withdrawal from the Democratic race, the political world expected his endorsement of Barack Obama would be forthcoming tout de suite. The neo-populist and the hopemonger had spent months tag-teaming Hillary Clinton, pillorying her as a creature of the status quo, not a champion of the kind of "big change" they both deem essential. So appalled was Edwards at Clinton's gaudy corporatism?-her defense of the role of lobbyists, her suckling at the teats of the pharmaceutical and defense industries?-that he'd essentially called her corrupt. And then, not least, there were the sentiments of his wife. "Elizabeth hasn't always been crazy about Mrs. Clinton" is how an Edwards insider puts it; a less delicate member of HRC's circle says, "Elizabeth hates her guts."

But now two months have passed since Edwards dropped out?-tempus fugit!?-and still no endorsement. Why? According to a Democratic strategist unaligned with any campaign but with knowledge of the situation gleaned from all three camps, the answer is simple: Obama blew it. Speaking to Edwards on the day he exited the race, Obama came across as glib and aloof. His response to Edwards's imprecations that he make poverty a central part of his agenda was shallow, perfunctory, pat. Clinton, by contrast, engaged Edwards in a lengthy policy discussion. Her affect was solicitous and respectful. When Clinton met Edwards face-to-face in North Carolina ten days later, her approach continued to impress; she even made headway with Elizabeth. Whereas in his Edwards sit-down, Obama dug himself in deeper, getting into a fight with Elizabeth about health care, insisting that his plan is universal (a position she considers a crock), high-handedly criticizing Clinton's plan (and by extension Edwards's) for its insurance mandate.

The implications of this story are several and not insignificant. Most obviously, it suggests that the front-runner's diplomatic skills could use some refinement. It also raises the issue, which has cropped up in a different form after New Hampshire, Super-Duper Tuesday, and the Ohio and Texas primaries, of Obama's capacity to close the deal. But equally important is how it bears on the questions du jour among Democrats who see their once-uplifting primary campaign descending into self-destructive mayhem: How can we put this thing to bed? How can Clinton be stopped from putting the party through three more months of hell? Where are those vaunted "party elders" who can convince her that it's sayonara time?

Volume 55, Number 6 · April 17, 2008
Molehill Politics
By Elizabeth Drew
The Democrats didn't expect so much pain. The assumption was that out of a patch of good candidates one would emerge to take on an inevitably weak Republican?-the field was seen as lacking and George Bush as a drag on the party?-and defeat him in what everyone knew was a Democratic year. But this has been the year of the unexpected. Now, anguished Democratic Party leaders fear that the increasingly bloody struggle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will continue until the end of the primaries or, worse, play out further at their convention in late August?-which could only benefit the Republicans' putative, and unexpected, nominee, John McCain.

The Democrats' contest has changed from simply a fierce fight for "pledged delegates," who are elected in the primaries and caucuses, which Obama is winning, into a battle to convince the as-yet-uncommitted superdelegates which candidate would be stronger in the general election?-regardless of who has won the most pledged delegates. This is an issue injected into the contest by the Clinton campaign. Mathematically, there now appears to be no way for Clinton to catch up to Obama in pledged delegates; the final decision will be made by the superdelegates, who are under extreme pressure from both sides.

In this fight, the Clinton camp is the more aggressive of the two, and it's adept at what might be called molehill politics: making a very big deal in the press about something that's a very small deal?-such as a single word in a mailing or a slip-up by an aide. Clinton's strategists pounce on whatever opportunity presents itself to attack Obama, and try to knock him off his own message, and his stride. Clinton's approach resembles her tactics in the White House, in which her inclination was to attack (which caused a number of problems, and was one of the reasons her health care bill was defeated). The Obama camp has sometimes been slow, and even reluctant, to respond, because if he attacks her personally (which the Clinton campaign would like him to do), he's not Barack Obama anymore. Moreover, Obama takes care not to come across as the "angry black"?-a stereotype he does not fit, but that could be imposed upon him by others...

Mom was taken by the fact that he seemed to be talking to her like an adult and telling the truth.

FreeDuck wrote:

Mom was taken by the fact that he seemed to be talking to her like an adult and telling the truth.

Except when he said he didn't know his pastor preached those things publicly from the pulpit for 20 years.

Except when he said that his pastor 'acknowledged' that his remarks were 'offensive'.

The Tall Tale of Tuzla
Hillary Clinton's Bosnian misadventure should disqualify her from the presidency, but the airport landing is the least of it.
By Christopher Hitchens

Hillary Rodham Clinton's cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months ?- freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles.

A pair of Ohio companies owed more than $25,000 by Clinton for staging events for her campaign are warning others in the tight-knit event production community ?- and anyone else who will listen ?- to get their cash upfront when doing business with her. Her campaign, say representatives of the two companies, has stopped returning phone calls and e-mails seeking payment of outstanding invoices. One even got no response from a certified letter.

Their cautionary tales, combined with published reports about similar difficulties faced by a New Hampshire landlord, an Iowa office cleaner and a New York caterer, highlight a less-obvious impact of Clinton's inability to keep up with the staggering fundraising pace set by her opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

[...]

The New York senator's presidential campaign ended February with $33 million in the bank, according to a report filed last week with the Federal Election Commission, but only $11 million of that can be spent on her battle with Obama.

The rest can be spent only in the general election, if she makes it that far, and must be returned if she doesn't. If she had paid off the $8.7 million in unpaid bills she reported as debt and had not loaned her campaign $5 million, she would have been nearly $3 million in the red at the end of February.

By contrast, if you subtract Obama's $625,000 in debts and his general-election-only money from his total cash on hand at the end of last month, he'd still be left with $31 million.

The presidential campaign of presumptive Republican nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain reported $4.3 million in debt at the end of February, but only $1.3 million of that was in the form of unpaid bills to a dozen vendors. The rest was a bank loan, which the campaign says it paid off last week.

[...]

Event production is important to big-time presidential campaigns. It shapes how candidates look and sound, not just to the thousands of people who turn out to campaign speeches and rallies but also to the millions who catch snippets of them on television.

And word is getting around that Clinton's campaign does not promptly pay those who labor to make her events look good, said an employee of the event production company Forty Two of Youngstown, Ohio.

"I feel insulted by the way that the campaign treated this company and treated us personally," said the employee, who did not want to be named talking about a client.

The Clinton campaign paid the company $16,500 to set up a stage, press riser, sound system and backdrops at a Youngstown high school last month for a raucous union rally, where an aggressive Clinton stump speech drew thunderous applause. But the Clinton campaign has yet to pay Forty Two for two other February events, and the employee said the campaign has stopped returning phone calls, e-mails and didn't respond to a certified letter.

"We worked very hard to put together these events on a moment's notice and do absolutely everything to a ?'t' to make it look perfect on television for her and for her campaign," said the employee. "Sen. Clinton talks about helping working families, people in unions and small businesses. But when it comes down to actually doing something that shows that she can back up her words with action, she fails."

Forty Two also has done events for Obama's campaign, which has paid its bills promptly, according to the employee. FEC records show Obama's campaign paid the company $18,500.

Come with us now to Jimmy's Quick Lunch, where folks are talking to Ms. Talev about what's on their minds:

Of Obama, Duser said: "I'm not crazy about voting for a colored guy, but that's not why I don't support Obama. I'm not prejudiced. I just like Hillary." A couple tables over, Jean Fetterman, a foster grandparent, said of Clinton: "Oh, I love her. She's a very intelligent person, and she has her husband who went through this." She scoffs at the idea of voting for Obama: "I don't want to be a Muslim!" She looks dubious when told Obama is Christian. "Then why did he go see what's-his-name over in Iraq, that Lama?"

Well, this is really just a horrible mashup. First of all, despite the remarks of some of his more enthusiastic surrogates, Obama has not actually said that he will convert all Americans to Islam. And he didn't go to Iraq, either. Let's get this straight once and for all: that one time when he went to visit the llama, he wore the traditional garb of Suriname. He did it only because llamas, like illegal Mexicans, are from South America. Any politician, colored or regular, would have done the same.

Sigh. But there you have it- this is now Clinton's base. This is why the Clinton campaign has been making such strange and credibility-destroying arguments in the past couple of weeks: because those arguments are "credibility-destroying" only among high-information voters.

It's not like I needed further convincing but Obama's Disability Policy Statement is just lovely:

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/DisabilityPlanFactSheet.pdf

New York Magazine seems to have some inside source about what happened with Obama's attempt to win John Edwards' endorsement: apparently, he blew it.

Elizabeth Edwards Says Endorsement Not Likely Soon

In two television interviews this morning, Elizabeth Edwards denied a recent New York magazine report that claimed she and Sen. Barack Obama argued over his health care plan when he visited her home in North Carolina. She also said Obama was "charming" and not "aloof" as the article claimed.

Edwards also said that it's unlikely either she or her husband will endorse a candidate before the North Carolina primary and will instead probably just "vote privately." She also suggested she and her husband may not vote for the same candidate.

On the contested Democratic primary fight, Edwards also said she does not believe continued fighting is bad for the party.

Don't get me wrong, this primary election has been swell. Like Michelle Obama, I feel proud of my country for the first time in a long time. I loved Dennis Kucinich, and I had a big sneaker for Chris Dodd. But now that we're down to two contenders, it's turned into an unending last episode of Survivor. They're eating rats and they're frying bugs, and they're frying rats and they're eating bugs; no one is ever going to get off the island and I can't take it any more.