mature of you, your holiness.
STFU
A Bloomberg article rips into the Clintons today:
Bill Clinton 'Firing Up' Rural, Small-Town Base Amid Stumbles.
It starts off like this:
Quote:Hillary Clinton criticizes Saudi oil wealth while her husband benefits from its largess. She opposes a Colombian trade agreement that he supports. And she condemns China while his foundation solicits donations there.
With a record like that, former President Bill Clinton could well be running against his wife instead of stumping for her.
In the article, reporter Lorraine Woellert describes the role that the Hillary campaign has assigned to Bill Clinton: stay out of the limelight and focus on mobilising and motivating the core supporters.
Above all - tour the coutryside, the small towns that normally never see a President. There, he is received rapturously, with half the town turning out; a visit can yield grateful voters, and there's little chance of smart aleck critical questions.
Quote:As the campaign heads into the Pennsylvania primary today, he still manages to excite voters in rural areas and small towns where she has her best chance for victory over Barack Obama.
``I don't think he's an issue, especially in Pennsylvania, where he's always been well-loved,'' said Clay Richards, assistant director of Quinnipiac University's Polling Institute in Hamden, Connecticut. ``He's firing up the Clinton base and making sure they stay motivated and not get discouraged.'' [..]
Bill Clinton attended rallies in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia yesterday. That's a departure for the 61-year-old former president, who spends most of his time campaigning in smaller communities, where the policy differences and verbal gaffes don't appear to have resonated.
``Can't they disagree? My husband disagrees with me,'' said Janice Onofrey, 58, who owns a gift shop in Ford City, Pennsylvania. ``He's wonderful. He's charismatic.''
Bob Dull, 60, a retired school guidance counselor, was in Clarion, Pennsylvania, to see Clinton speak on April 16. ``A president, here in Clarion,'' he said. ``It's a big deal.''
Clinton has visited dozens of towns and small cities in Pennsylvania, including Cranberry Township and New Castle, with populations of fewer than 30,000. He campaigns in high school gyms before audiences of just a few hundred people.
At every stop, he saturates local media and fuels chatter, as he did in California and Texas, where his wife won primaries. [..]
`First Known Visit'
The campaign is also applying that strategy to Indiana and North Carolina, which will hold primaries May 6. Clinton this month toured Seymour, Indiana, population about 20,000, and Bedford, 14,000. On April 4, he greeted 1,800 people on the campus of St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, North Carolina. A college press release hailed the stop as the ``first known visit of a former president to Scotland County.''
``He's an asset in any rural area because he will draw 10 percent of the population,'' said Hillary Clinton strategist Ace Smith.
But then the story returns to the big picture. Obama's reputation has taken a hit, the reporter cites polls. Then she goes back to Bill Clinton's post-presidential career, citing some ties and sources of income I hadnt heard about before, which seem contrary to Hillary's campaign message and which you could also easily see turned into attack ads. Who said the Clintons were all vetted?
Quote:Still, the campaign has taken a toll on his public standing. [..] As Clinton barnstormed South Carolina in January, his scolding tone sparked acrimony. [..] A March NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed voters viewed him negatively by a margin of 45 percent to 42 percent; that compared with a 48 percent to 35 percent favorable rating a year earlier.
Mixed Picture
Last week's Bloomberg News/Los Angeles Times survey of Democratic voters in Pennsylvania, Indiana and North Carolina suggests a mixed picture. Overall, Democrats in those states consider him more of an asset than a liability, though he gets negative ratings from self-described independent Democrats, who may be the swing voters in those contests.
Those misgivings have grown as the former president's business dealings have become a campaign issue.
Since leaving office, he has earned at least $800,000 in speaking fees supporting a Colombia trade agreement that his wife opposes, the Huffington Post reported.
Candidate Clinton criticizes oil interests and tells voters ``you will not see me holding hands with the Saudis.'' Her campaign confirmed that Saudi donors have given money toward her husband's presidential library.
Boycott Ceremony
Senator Clinton has urged President George W. Bush to boycott the Olympic opening ceremonies in Beijing. The Los Angeles Times reported Bill Clinton's foundation accepted a donation from Chinese Internet company Alibaba Inc., which is accused of aiding the government in tracking Tibetan activists.
Hillary Clinton, 60, shrugs off questions about how her husband might influence her administration, saying she has ``a different attitude toward trade.''
nimh wrote:Quote:Senator Clinton has urged President George W. Bush to boycott the Olympic opening ceremonies in Beijing. The Los Angeles Times reported Bill Clinton's foundation accepted a donation from Chinese Internet company Alibaba Inc., which is accused of aiding the government in tracking Tibetan activists.
Hillary Clinton, 60, shrugs off questions about how her husband might influence her administration, saying she has "a different attitude toward trade.''
There is some context to why this issue would come up: speeching yesterday,
Hillary suddenly sharply turned to the subject of
China.
She used it to make a really good point about the 'creditcard economy' which the US has turned into, too. But also generally to instill the sense of threat and fear and urgency that she thinks helps drive voters to a 'safe leader' like her:
Quote:Clinton, Obama aim at different targets
She portrays China as a threat; he links her with cynicism Will China dominate the 21st century?
She said later, "There are people, let's face it, around the world who believe that America's best days are behind us."
The crowd cried, "Nooo!"
Then she said, "I had a discussion the other day with one of the generals who is supporting me and he had just come from China and he said the Chinese are convinced that the 21st century is their century."
According to this unnamed American general, a Chinese military officer said to him, "That's the way history worked. The British Empire handed off to the American. You're going to hand it off to us."
Again Clinton's supporters yelled out, "Nooo!"
But she told them in a chiding voice, "Well, that's what they believe, and they have a plan, and they are very focused on what they need to do. They are building a blue-water navy to contest us in the Pacific."
That article also has an interesting snippet about an Obama campaign stop.
I've noticed that Obama's rivalry with Hillary increasingly has Obama supporters elaborating - or rekindling - a more further going critique of the whole Clinton era itself. Not just in terms of competency or missed opportunities, but substantively regarding the Clintons' corporatism and triangulation.
But at a campaign event yesterday, Obama refused to go along with a sympathetic questioner who criticised Bill Clinton's welfare reform as too harsh:
Quote:Criticism of Clinton 1996 welfare reform
The next day (Sunday) in Reading, it was Obama's questioners in the Q-and-A session that got in some sharp anti-Clinton digs.
"I believe that President Clinton took off welfare, made people poor, then sold our jobs out to the point where I have seen people eating out of the trash," said the first woman to stand up and ask Obama a question.
Another questioner, Diana Rivera-O'Brian, a community activist in Reading, complained about a Clinton administration policy that, she claimed, evicted tenants in public housing if anyone with a criminal record visited them.
Obama took the opportunity to express his support for the 1996 welfare reform law, but adding that it needed some changes to better support single mothers while they worked.
Obama told Rivera-O'Brian that if a grandmother in public housing knew her grandson was selling drugs she ought to be held to account.
Quote:Another questioner, Diana Rivera-O'Brian, a community activist in Reading, complained about a Clinton administration policy that, she claimed, evicted tenants in public housing if anyone with a criminal record visited them.
....
Obama told Rivera-O'Brian that if a grandmother in public housing knew her grandson was selling drugs she ought to be held to account.
Obama should have explained to her that she's flat out wrong but I suppose that doesn't go over very well when you are running for President.
The policy (which isn't a policy at all, it's the law...) is that tenants in public housing can be evicted if their family or guests "engage in criminal activity on or near the premises".
A previous criminal record doesn't meet that standard - unless you run into some weird situation like where someone on parole is violating a condition of their parole.
It's nice that he didn't take the bait though.
Let tolerrance prevails in the bloody war torn world.
Let Obama read some MLK's book and speeche beside Nelson Mandela's ordeal.
.
He had prroved his decency.
I wish the Dems should concentrate on the poor plight of the innocents around the globe.
Let a lady be the President and an anti war person be the vice .
Enough is enough.
Or let Obama be the president and a lady as his vice.
Almost forgot -- congrats to the Hillary supporters! You must be happy today.
Good point, FreeDuck.
Congrats!
FreeDuck wrote:Almost forgot -- congrats to the Hillary supporters! You must be happy today.
Why should they be happy with only a 8.6% victory?
Face up to the reality that she is a LOSER!!!!!
Yeah, congrats to the Hillary supporters. Through gritted teeth, I admit - I think the Hillary victory in PA was bad for the Democrats. But she did work very hard for it, as did her supporters, through a long and gruelling campaign in the state - so the congratulations are well deserved.
sozobe wrote:8.6?
9.4 last I knew...
Now it is 9.2%. Still have another 50 districts to report to the State.
http://www.electionreturns.state.pa.us/ElectionsInformation.aspx?FunctionID=13&ElectionID=27&OfficeID=1
Hey, thanks Woiyo. 9.2 is better than 9.4...
They currently have it at 45.4 (Obama) to 54.6 (Hillary). Just another .1 for Obama and we have a nice clean 9-pt differential... (as in, 9 pts no matter how you slice it.)
Contest's losers: all who wanted it to end
Contest's losers: all who wanted it to end
By Peter S. Canellos, Boston Globe Staff | April 23, 2008
PHILADELPHIA - Barack Obama didn't get the most votes. He didn't deliver a knockout punch. And he didn't make many inroads into such crucial constituencies as white women and Catholics.
Hillary Clinton got the most votes, but not enough to do more than dent Obama's lead in elected delegates and draw somewhat closer in the national popular vote.
Yesterday's Pennsylvania primary - one of the tensest and hardest-fought political duels in recent history - ended with a seemingly unspectacular result: Clinton doing about what she'd been expected to do - win solidly, but not overwhelmingly - and Obama performing decently enough.
The clear winner was Clinton, who lived up to expectations by matching her 10 percent margin in Ohio, but the clear losers were those who were hoping for a definitive result from this primary season.
"While [Clinton] clearly won, the difference in delegate count and vote count may not end up being all that compelling," said Dartmouth College political scientist Linda Fowler, pointing out that the Democratic Party's system of allocating delegates by percentage of the vote won in each congressional district favors Obama, who ran up huge margins in predominantly black districts.
"Clinton did well despite being outspent by Obama, but the fact is that this state was made-to-order for her demographically," Fowler added.
Indeed, Pennsylvania is the state with the third-oldest population, and Clinton has done better with older voters than younger ones. It also has a large white working class, including many Catholics, and Clinton has dominated those groups as well.
Coming into Pennsylvania, Clinton's campaign had two goals: winning enough of a victory to help close the gap in the popular vote nationally, and raising doubts about Obama's ability to win big industrial states.
Going into yesterday's election, Obama led the national popular vote by roughly 700,000, not counting Florida and Michigan, whose primaries were shunned by the Democratic National Committee for jumping ahead of the prescribed schedule. Obama took his name off the ballot in Michigan, so Clinton's victory there didn't say much about the relative strength of the two candidates. But both names were on the Florida ballot, and Clinton won by almost 300,000 votes. If Florida were included in the tally, Obama's lead going into Pennsylvania would have been little more than 400,000.
When all the ballots are counted in the state, Clinton will probably end up carving 220,000 votes, at most, off Obama's lead, drawing her closer but perhaps not close enough. Obama leads in the polls in the next-largest state yet to vote, North Carolina, and could easily offset her gains in Pennsylvania.
The popular vote is crucial to Clinton because Obama, who has scored better in low-voting caucuses in small states, is unlikely to lose his lead in elected delegates. Thus, when both candidates woo the roughly 300 undecided superdelegates - the party leaders who will provide the decisive margin - Obama will contend that he has won the most delegates and therefore should be crowned the nominee. Clinton's best chance to undercut him is to point out that she actually won more votes.
"This looks like the Democratic Party leaders' worst dream - a Clinton margin not large enough to put her in a strong position to carry on and an Obama vote not large enough to end things," said Donald F. Kettl, a political scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, in an e-mailed response. "This is going to continue on, and put the party into the tough job of finding the endgame."
Indeed, Clinton may not have succeeded in her second goal of raising enough doubts about Obama to transform the race, but some doubts about Obama emerged in Pennsylvania. His comment two weeks ago about the bitterness of working-class voters may or may not have affected the result - but they put the spotlight on his weakness within that voting group.
Last night's results didn't reassure anyone that Obama can win blue-collar voters against Republican John McCain.
The next primaries, two weeks from now in North Carolina and Indiana, will now assume the same importance as Pennsylvania - a chance for Obama to address his weaknesses and Clinton to show greater strength.
Both Democratic candidates still have a lot of work ahead.
Clinton meets with former nemesis Scaife= Clinton a scumbag
Obama pledges to meet with current nemesis' around the world = Obama a progressive thinker
Obama meets with Bill Richardson to court his support against Hillary
Obama meets with John Edwards to get his support against Hillary.
politics.strange bedfellows. you know the drill.
