What are the biggest selling points for you on Hillary Clinton and/or Barack Obama?
Let's keep this thread positive. A lot of us are disappointed about Edwards dropping out of the race, but we are now faced with the prospect of a historic campaign, in which the Democratic Party will nominate either a man of color or a woman to top their ticket, which is pretty cool, and, despite their flaws, there are lots of good things about Hillary and Barack to discuss, too. So let's go there, and let's stay there for this thread. I'll start...
Barack Obama: I admire Senator Obama for his involvement in community organizing, which is so important in urban communities (which I am not using as a euphemism for "black communities," but as a literal description of city neighborhoods, in which neighborliness and community involvement often requires some facilitation). I dig his quick wit and his tenacity. And his story is extremely compelling: Every time I think about how he would be the first Illinois legislator in the White House since Abraham Lincoln, and let that particular historical juxtaposition wash over me, it makes me feel more than a wee bit blubby.
Hillary Clinton: I like that she's got the most ethnically diverse campaign staff and the most women among both her paid campaign staff and senior staff of any Democrat in the race. I also really like Senator Clinton as a person. I've never gotten the whole Ice Queen thing; she's actually always struck me as warm and caring and clever and funny, but what do I know?—I hear an infectious laugh where others hear a cackle. She's tough and unbreakable, which I deeply respect. And, as I've said before, irrespective of how women feel about her, we all owe her an enormous and unknowable debt for going first, for bearing the burden of having to weather at every turn messages that you're intrinsically less than, despite being patently qualified to run a global superpower.
Question of the Day
W Stands for Women
XicanoPwr at ¡Para Justicia y Libertad! on the latest affront to women perpetrated by the jackbooted thugs of the Bush-brand patriarchy:
Once again, the Department of Homeland Security has decided to abuse their prosecutorial discretion. Homeland Security has now set its sight on victims of domestic abuse as they are now considering eliminating the domestic violence program that was meant to protect people like Emelina Ramirez Bojorquez and Ana Bertha Arellano.Go read the whole thing. Thanks to Liza for passing that along.“I have my own health insurance. I don’t take any aid for anything. I don’t want anything else but a chance to have some stability for my family,” said Arellano, 37, one of the thousands of immigrants, many mothers of U.S.-born children, who could be affected if the policy shifts.After applying for her green card six months ago, she is now being told by the Sacramento office of Citizenship and Immigration Services that her application for a green card has been put on hold. According to the Sacramento Bee, Homeland Security is considering whether to reject green-card petitions for immigrant abuse survivors if they entered the United States in the past illegally. The Bee also reported that more than 30,670 immigrants married to US spouses have been granted Violence Against Women Act visas, however, now they will soon be in limbo. Arellano fears that her green-card application will soon be rejected and being deported is the ultimate punishment for her.
…By eliminating the Violence Against Women Act’s domestic violence program, Homeland Security will only force more battered immigrants into the shadows and some into an early grave at the hands of their abuser.
Ode to McCain: Redux
Because it can't be noted often enough that John McCain has, in fact, not been a maverick lo these past seven years, but a pathetic, sycophantic lackey of the Bush cartel, repeatedly and happily embracing the man whose political operatives called his wife a junky and his daughter a bastard.
(You’ll have to turn it up because it’s kind of quiet, and sorry for the dead space at the end. The only software I have to do this suckzzz ass.)
Ro-Paul a Spoiler?
About a month after Ron Paul's record-breaking 24-hour fundraising juggernaut netted him $4.3 million in contributions, I offhandedly observed to Spudsy that it was sort of weird how he didn't seem to actually be spending any of it. We then immediately got distracted, no doubt, making fun of the Paulnuts or wondering what the Ronpaulbuxxx to Euros exchange rate was or something.
But, noting a relevant diary asking What is Ron Paul REALLY doing with all that money?, actual grown-up Dave Neiwert says:
[M]y guess is that Paul has conceded the GOP nomination and is laying the groundwork for a third-party run. That's where this warchest will be directed.Well, that would certainly be amusing.
You can say you read it here first.
I can't think of anything that could make this already clusterfuckity campaign season all the more clusterfucktastic than a third-party nutbag with a deeply anti-feminist platform and ties to white supremacists, who has nonetheless been right about the Iraq War, going up against the Democrats' historic nominee and the GOP's warmonger-to-the-throne.
What a year.
The dead voting absentee in Missouri…
A woman dead since October cast an absentee ballot in St. Louis for the presidential primary. It is alleged that the woman’s son marked X and fraudulently return the ballot.
St. Louis city election officials are pleased that the system caught the alleged fraud.
Everyone else wants to know who the dead woman’s vote would have gone to and whether it hurts of helps their campaign.
Blink.
Rudy Bows Out and Boards the Straight-Talk Express
AP:
Rudy Giuliani told supporters Wednesday he's abandoning his bid for president and backing Republican rival and longtime friend John McCain.I find it coincidental that he decides this now with just about 9 months to go till the election in the 11th month of the year.
"I spoke with Rudy Giuliani this morning and he confirmed that he is dropping out of the race and will endorse Senator John McCain for president," New York Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno said in a statement.
(Sorry, couldn't resist.)
Edwards: "Thank You"
If you can't view the video, click here.
Transcript below.
Thank you all very much. We're very proud to be back here.
During the spring of 2006, I had the extraordinary experience of bringing 700 college kids here to New Orleans to work. These are kids who gave up their spring break to come to New Orleans to work, to rehabilitate houses, because of their commitment as Americans, because they believed in what was possible, and because they cared about their country.
I began my presidential campaign here to remind the country that we, as citizens and as a government, have a moral responsibility to each other, and what we do together matters. We must do better, if we want to live up to the great promise of this country that we all love so much.
It is appropriate that I come here today. It's time for me to step aside so that history can blaze its path. We do not know who will take the final steps to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but what we do know is that our Democratic Party will make history. We will be strong, we will be unified, and with our convictions and a little backbone we will take back the White House in November and we'll create hope and opportunity for this country.
This journey of ours began right here in New Orleans. It was a December morning in the Lower Ninth Ward when people went to work, not just me, but lots of others went to work with shovels and hammers to help restore a house that had been destroyed by the storm.
We joined together in a city that had been abandoned by our government and had been forgotten, but not by us. We knew that they still mourned the dead, that they were still stunned by the destruction, and that they wondered when all those cement steps in all those vacant lots would once again lead to a door, to a home, and to a dream.
We came here to the Lower Ninth Ward to rebuild. And we're going to rebuild today and work today, and we will continue to come back. We will never forget the heartache and we'll always be here to bring them hope, so that someday, one day, the trumpets will sound in Musicians' Village, where we are today, play loud across Lake Ponchartrain, so that working people can come marching in and those steps once again can lead to a family living out the dream in America.
We sat with poultry workers in Mississippi, janitors in Florida, nurses in California.
We listened as child after child told us about their worry about whether we would preserve the planet.
We listened to worker after worker say "the economy is tearing my family apart."
We walked the streets of Cleveland, where house after house was in foreclosure.
And we said, "We're better than this. And economic justice in America is our cause."
And we spent a day, a summer day, in Wise, Virginia, with a man named James Lowe, who told us the story of having been born with a cleft palate. He had no health care coverage. His family couldn't afford to fix it. And finally some good Samaritan came along and paid for his cleft palate to be fixed, which allowed him to speak for the first time. But they did it when he was 50 years old. His amazing story, though, gave this campaign voice: universal health care for every man, woman and child in America. That is our cause.
And we do this -- we do this for each other in America. We don't turn away from a neighbor in their time of need. Because every one of us knows that what -- but for the grace of God, there goes us. The American people have never stopped doing this, even when their government walked away, and walked away it has from hardworking people, and, yes, from the poor, those who live in poverty in this country.
For decades, we stopped focusing on those struggles. They didn't register in political polls, they didn't get us votes and so we stopped talking about it. I don't know how it started. I don't know when our party began to turn away from the cause of working people, from the fathers who were working three jobs literally just to pay the rent, mothers sending their kids to bed wrapped up in their clothes and in coats because they couldn't afford to pay for heat.
We know that our brothers and sisters have been bullied into believing that they can't organize and can't put a union in the workplace. Well, in this campaign, we didn't turn our heads. We looked them square in the eye and we said, "We see you, we hear you, and we are with you. And we will never forget you." And I have a feeling that if the leaders of our great Democratic Party continue to hear the voices of working people, a proud progressive will occupy the White House.
Now, I've spoken to both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama. They have both pledged to me and more importantly through me to America, that they will make ending poverty central to their campaign for the presidency.
And more importantly, they have pledged to me that as President of the United States they will make ending poverty and economic inequality central to their Presidency. This is the cause of my life and I now have their commitment to engage in this cause.
And I want to say to everyone here, on the way here today, we passed under a bridge that carried the interstate where 100 to 200 homeless Americans sleep every night. And we stopped, we got out, we went in and spoke to them.
There was a minister there who comes every morning and feeds the homeless out of her own pocket. She said she has no money left in her bank account, she struggles to be able to do it, but she knows it's the moral, just and right thing to do. And I spoke to some of the people who were there and as I was leaving, one woman said to me, "You won't forget us, will you? Promise me you won't forget us." Well, I say to her and I say to all of those who are struggling in this country, we will never forget you. We will fight for you. We will stand up for you.
But I want to say this -- I want to say this because it's important. With all of the injustice that we've seen, I can say this, America's hour of transformation is upon us. It may be hard to believe when we have bullets flying in Baghdad and it may be hard to believe when it costs $58 to fill your car up with gas. It may be hard to believe when your school doesn't have the right books for your kids. It's hard to speak out for change when you feel like your voice is not being heard.
But I do hear it. We hear it. This Democratic Party hears you. We hear you, once again. And we will lift you up with our dream of what's possible.
One America, one America that works for everybody.
One America where struggling towns and factories come back to life because we finally transformed our economy by ending our dependence on oil.
One America where the men who work the late shift and the women who get up at dawn to drive a two-hour commute and the young person who closes the store to save for college. They will be honored for that work.
One America where no child will go to bed hungry because we will finally end the moral shame of 37 million people living in poverty.
One America where every single man, woman and child in this country has health care.
One America with one public school system that works for all of our children.
One America that finally brings this war in Iraq to an end. And brings our service members home with the hero's welcome that they have earned and that they deserve.
Today, I am suspending my campaign for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency.
But I want to say this to everyone: with Elizabeth, with my family, with my friends, with all of you and all of your support, this son of a millworker's gonna be just fine. Our job now is to make certain that America will be fine.
And I want to thank everyone who has worked so hard – all those who have volunteered, my dedicated campaign staff who have worked absolutely tirelessly in this campaign.
And I want to say a personal word to those I've seen literally in the last few days – those I saw in Oklahoma yesterday, in Missouri, last night in Minnesota – who came to me and said don't forget us. Speak for us. We need your voice. I want you to know that you almost changed my mind, because I hear your voice, I feel you, and your cause it our cause. Your country needs you – every single one of you.
All of you who have been involved in this campaign and this movement for change and this cause, we need you. It is in our hour of need that your country needs you. Don't turn away, because we have not just a city of New Orleans to rebuild. We have an American house to rebuild.
This work goes on. It goes on right here in Musicians' Village. There are homes to build here, and in neighborhoods all along the Gulf. The work goes on for the students in crumbling schools just yearning for a chance to get ahead. It goes on for day care workers, for steel workers risking their lives in cities all across this country. And the work goes on for two hundred thousand men and women who wore the uniform of the United States of America, proud veterans, who go to sleep every night under bridges, or in shelters, or on grates, just as the people we saw on the way here today. Their cause is our cause.
Their struggle is our struggle. Their dreams are our dreams.
Do not turn away from these great struggles before us. Do not give up on the causes that we have fought for. Do not walk away from what's possible, because it's time for all of us, all of us together, to make the two Americas one.
Thank you. God bless you, and let's go to work. Thank you all very much.
The Return of Nader
Ralph Nader has formed a presidential exploratory committee and is considering another run for the White House. He says, quite rightly, that Clinton and Obama have failed "to advance aggressive plans to tax corporations more fairly, and to fight for a vastly higher minimum wage," and wonders "who's going to carry the torch of democratic populism against the relentless domination of powerful corporations of our government" now that both Edwards and Kucinich are out of the race.
Nader also rejects the "spoiler" label many Democrats have applied to him since 2000, when his candidacy was blamed in some circles for helping defeat Democratic candidate Al Gore.You know, it's a good point. And I'd have a lot more respect for him if he made a concerted effort to make this point—and endeavored to either galvanize a vibrant third party or progressivize the Democratic party—in between elections, instead of popping up once every four years to indulge a vanity campaign.
"That is the sign of political bigotry," he said. "Why aren't the major candidates spoilers? They represent parties that spoil our electoral system and our government."
Why isn't Ralph Nader doing for electoral reform what Al Gore is doing for the environment? He lacks focus. It's one non-profit start-up after the other, instead of a slow and steady campaign. I get the impression that Nader has been impatient with the failure of America to change overnight for many, many years—and if only he'd been boringly, unceremoniously slogging it out all those years, like Gore and his 30-year-crusade, America would be different. But, alas, he does not seem to be a man who is satisfied with incremental progress, so still he guns for a lightning strike that will never come.
John Edwards to Leave Race
By now, I'm sure everyone has heard that John Edwards reportedly plans to drop out of the presidential race. Right now, he's giving a speech in New Orleans where he is expected to announce his decision. It's fitting, as New Orleans is where his campaign began—and it remains the central front of the war on poverty in America, perhaps the place most representative, in so many different ways, of the current administration's failures.
An aide said Edwards does not plan to endorse either Clinton or Obama at this time but he may do so in the future.But, of course, neither of them is running the kind of campaign John Edwards was running. Neither of them is working on a Habitit for Humanity project today, as Edwards is scheduled to do, and has been long before this announcement was planned. Neither of them took public financing, though they both say they believe in it and will "fight" for that particular "change." Neither of them refused to employ lobbyists in their campaigns. Neither of them refuses money from lobbyists. Neither of them speaks with passion about the growing blight on the American landscape that is unchecked corporate avarice—and neither of them got ignored by the megacorporation-owned media for their troubles of siding, really and truly, with the American people.
A top Edwards aide said the former senator contacted Obama and Clinton on Tuesday, telling them he was considering dropping out of the race and asking them to make poverty a top issue of their campaigns and -- if either reaches the White House -- a central part of their administration.
Both candidates agreed, the aide said.
Only John Edwards was running that kind of campaign.
I continue to believe that our nation needs John Edwards at this time, and I am profoundly sad that we will not have him. I believed in him; I believed in his message; and I hope that he will take Waveflux's sage advice and find a role for himself as the vital and vibrant leader he is and can be, in the mold of Al Gore. And I hope we will assess why our two finest statesmen cannot find their way to the White House, and realize how bereft of genuine, tangible, spirit-lifting change we will be without them.
I was proud to support you, Senator Edwards. Thank you for trying.
US Poised to Defend Against Attack by US
Air Force General Gene Renuart states that our own spy satellite will attempt to return, rather forcefully, to North America in an attempt to exact revenge upon its creator:
The U.S. military is developing contingency plans to deal with the possibility that a large spy satellite expected to fall to Earth in late February or early March could hit North America. [...]
Military agencies, he said, are doing an analysis to determine which pieces most likely would survive re-entry. But he cautioned that officials won't have much detail on where or when it will crash until it begins to move through the atmosphere and break up. [...]
The satellite includes some small engines that contain a toxic chemical called hydrazine—which is rocket fuel. But Renuart said they are not large booster engines with substantial amounts of fuel.
Finding the Pony
Michael Gerson has the thankless task of defending George W. Bush as a compassionate conservative who doesn't get credit for all the good things he's done.
Watching the speech, I recalled meeting Gov. Bush of Texas in the spring of 1999, before he was a declared candidate. He talked with rushed intensity about being a "different kind of Republican," dedicated to racial healing and helping the poor and determined to provide moral leadership as a contrast and corrective to the Clinton years. Because I believed him, I left journalism and joined his campaign.That's a little like saying Jeffrey Dahmer had nice table manners.
It is conventional wisdom that Bush's idealism is either a fraud or has been pushed aside completely by the priorities of war.
[...]
My goal is a humbler assessment: Did President Bush, in the course of seven years, cast aside compassion and become the "same kind of Republican"?
The answer is no. Proposals such as No Child Left Behind, the AIDS and malaria initiatives, and the addition of a prescription drug benefit to Medicare would simply not have come from a traditional conservative politician. They became the agenda of a Republican administration precisely because of Bush's persistent, passionate advocacy. To put it bluntly, these would not have been the priorities of a Cheney administration.
This leaves critics of the Bush administration with a "besides" problem. Bush is a heartless and callous conservative, "besides" the 1.4 million men, women and children who are alive because of treatment received through his AIDS initiative... "besides" the unquestioned gains of African American and Hispanic students in math and reading... "besides" 32 million seniors getting help to afford prescription drugs, including 10 million low-income seniors who get their medicine pretty much free. Iraq may have overshadowed these achievements; it does not eliminate them.
The Bush administration, in my view, should have devoted more resources and creativity to its faith-based initiatives. It should not have vetoed the State Children's Health Insurance Program expansion. The president's budget and economic teams have not been populated with enthusiastic compassionate conservatives, and sometimes this has shown. But by any fair historical measure, Bush's achievements on social justice at least equal those of Bill Clinton, who increased the earned-income tax credit, pushed for children's health coverage and reformed welfare to encourage work.
Bush has received little attention or thanks for his compassionate reforms.
Where was that compassion in New Orleans after Katrina? Where was that compassion when Karl Rove and Dick Cheney decided that Valerie Plame was fair game for political revenge? Where was that compassion when Alberto Gonzalez played politics with the U.S. attorneys in the Department of Justice? Where was that compassion when the Bush administration tried to force through an amendment to the Constitution to deny equal rights to gay and lesbian citizens? Where was his compassion for the ill when he veoted stem-cell research in favor of some faux morality that he concocted from snowflakes and fables from Genesis? How much compassion does he have for the thousands of Americans and untold number of Iraqi citizens who have suffered and died because of his delusions of neo-con grandeur?
Mr. Gerson, in comparing the Bush adminstration's achievements to those of Bill Clinton, must also acknowledge -- as he does -- that Mr. Bush vetoed the renewal of children's health coverage not once but twice, and his attempt to reform Social Security went nowhere because even the hard-core Republicans didn't think it would work. And taking credit for the improvement in education is disingenuous at best; reading and math scores were going up before the over-regulated and under-funded No Child Left Behind law came about.
Having good intentions is one thing, but no matter how hard Mr. Bush's defenders try to pretty it up, his dubious record of achievement in the area of compassion is monumentally overshadowed by the unprovoked war in Iraq, his disregard for the basic rights of privacy with the warrantless wiretapping and other forays into shredding the Bill of Rights, and his obsession with gaining political advantage with a take-no-prisoners approach.
Mr. Gerson ends his piece by saying, "[h]is achievements are larger than his critics understand." On that I agree: it will be years before the damage to this nation's laws, infrastructure and international reputation will be fully appreciated. If Mr. Gerson wants to call those "achievements," then he's like the kid who digs through the pile of horse manure convinced that there's gotta be a pony in there somewhere.
(Cross-posted.)
McCain Suicide Watch
"Oh, you still remember that? Ha ha. No way, baby. My future's so bright, I gotta wear fugly reflective shades."
Would it be terribly inconvenient, do you think, for our national press corps to stop fellating John McCain long enough to wipe their mouths and ask him if he would like to apologize to the Democrats of this nation for suggesting that suicide is preferable to their leadership?
I know it would undermine the very, very fun memes that John McCain is a maverick, a uniter, and a nice guy, and instead expose him as the partisan ideologue jerksack that he is, but it's kind of important and shit.
See, a man who'd like to lead the entire country ought to embrace the idea that the entire country includes Democrats. We've given the whole "president-who-pretends-a-slim-majority-is-a-mandate" thing a try. It doesn't work. We're going to need to expect more from the next guy.
* * *
Related: Investor's Business Daily wonders "Can McCain control his temper?" then summarily recounts a series of anecdotes about his infamously belligerent run-ins with Congressional peers, suggesting that, in fact, he cannot. It's also worth remembering McCain's nasty letter to Senator Obama, which Matt Stoller called "one of the single most bitter, nasty letters I have ever seen from any Senator. It's rather remarkable, actually, and gives the lie to the notion that McCain is of a bipartisan mind," and prompted me to remark: "Let us never cease to speak of McCain with the firm conviction that he is an asshole."
John McCain: Leader of the Packs
A commenter on a forum that my brother frequents lamented:
The news is claiming that Mitt Rommey [sic] has lost Florida. Not good, McCain a very liberal Republican. Very soft on illegals and supports soft borders. Also may go along with same sex marriage. This opens up our children for more sexual assaults from other children and man boy associations. We now have over 150 gay and lesbian gangs in Baltimore and Washington area.Over 150 gay and lesbian gangs? Wow; do you think they all get together to coordinate their accessories?
The Defaultinator Defaults His Way One Step Closer to the White House
As Petulant mentioned in his Morning Readings, John "The Defaultinator" McCain took the all-important GOP Florida primary yesterday, eking out another win on the basis of merely not being a cross-dressing philanderer, a lying dog-torturer in magic underpants, or a virulently misogynist theocrat. Way to be the least objectionable specimen in a barrel of worm-infested apples, McCain! A hearty congrats from all your fans at Shakesville.
McCain celebrates his triumph with the traditional
GOP victory dance commonly known as "the robot."
As also reported by Pet, Giuliani will reportedly drop out of the race today and endorse McCain, who, the erstwhile mayor of
Pleased with the impending endorsement, McCain rounded out his night of revelry by thanking Rudy with a quick make-out session by the raw bar.
"Tough one, buddy. Who knew that reflexively invoking the nation's darkest hour for months on end and putting all your primary eggs in one unlikely basket would be a catastrophically disastrous campaign strategy? Anyway, sucks to be you. Thanks for the endorsement. Now tickle daddy's balls before you're on your way."
21,859
That's how many votes Fred Thompson pulled in today in Florida. That's pretty respectable for a candidate that's not even running anymore. Or maybe it isn't. I don't know. Honestly, I don't really care. I just wanted to post up this picture. Again. Still, it would have been nice to see him stay in the race a little longer. I'd have loved to have seen him beat Giuliani. Again.
Question of the Day
What food could someone not pay you enough to eat?
Me: Eggs, hotdogs, Peeps.
Mr. Shakes: Brussels sprouts.
So when you visit Shakes Manor, please don't expect to be served any of the above.
Except eggs. Mr. Shakes makes a mean omelette. So I'm told.
Huckabee Healthcare Plan
Replace all American penises with golf clubs. Will encourage exercise, discourage masturbation, and also provide a handy tool for ensuring that wives graciously submit to their husband's sacrificial leadership. Or not graciously. Whatever.
Pass the nine iron.
Identity Politics
Identity Politics is a game the Republican Party doesn't play. It was certainly not played by their most favoritest president ever, Patron Saint of Cowboys Ronald Reagan.
And it is definitely not played by their current president, the Cowboy-in-Chief George W. Bush.
And it is really, really not being played by any of their candidates who want to be president, especially not the guy who's got a Midnight Cowboy stumping for him…
…and also especially not the guy who's got a Texas Ranger stumping for him.
Because the Republicans don't do Identity Politics. So shut up, you liberal fascists, about your woman and your black dude.
