OBAMA DAILY NEWS Tuesday March-18-2008

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

WELCOME TO THE OBAMA DAILY NEWS THREAD

Tuesday March-18-2008


"Voters should not be overruled," Pelosi says

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by posting news and announcements about the Obama campaign on this thread. You can:

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providing a link to the original thread with thanks to the Original Poster,too. :applause:

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[WillYourVoteBCounted]

1. KOS: "The Clinton civil war"

"The Clinton civil war"

Kos Mar 17, 2008

Al Giordano, on the laughable Clinton-supporters "strike" of this blog:

There was always something incongruous about the self-proclaimed “Hillary Bloggers” trying to use Daily Kos for their purposes. DKos has been defined as a meeting ground not for every Democrat, but for the kind that wants to change the party to be more grassroots oriented, adhere to a 50-state strategy, stop the war in Iraq, and blunt the influence of lobbyists, PACs and the neoliberal Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). That’s the glue that has always held the DKos community together and made it so large and strong.

Given that candidate Clinton is a member of the DLC, voted to authorize the war, accepts federal lobbyist and PAC money, clearly thinks that a lot (if not most) states “don’t matter,” and epitomizes a 1990s style top-down form of doing politics, it’s no surprise that for all of 2007 Clinton never exceeded 11 percent support in the monthly Daily Kos users straw poll.

I would add one more item to the list above -- this site has also been hostile to the corrosive consultant class that gave us our timid and weak party until Howard Dean shook it up in 2004.

Now I'm willing to stipulate that on the consultant front, there's likely not much difference between the Obama and Clinton campaigns (I don't know if it's true, but I assume it is). But on everything else, Clinton fails the test of the guiding principles of this site, and of my first book, Crashing the Gate.

Clinton isn't just a member of the DLC, she's in their leadership. Obama, by the way, repudiated the organization three times (it's a great story, which I tell in my forthcoming book).

Clinton hasn't just rejected a 50-state strategy, she has openly attacked it. CTG has a great quote from former Virginia Governor and future senator Mark Warner on this very topic: more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

2. Obama Plans Major Speech On Race Tomorrow

Obama Plans Major Speech On Race Tomorrow

Ben Smith March 17, 2008

Barack Obama will give a major speech on "the larger issue of race in this campaign," he told reporters in Monaca, PA just now.

He was pressed there, as he has been at recent appearances, on statements by his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

"I am going to be talking about not just Reverend Wright, but the larger issue of race in this campaign," he said.

He added that he would "talk about how some of these issues are perceived from within the black church issue for example," he said.

He also briefly defended Wright from the image that has come through in a handful of repeatedly televised clips from recent Wright sermons.

"The caricature that’s being painted of him is not accurate," he said....

[grantcart]

3. Is Speaker Pelosi sending us a signal? Birth of the Pelosi Number

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5131883&mesg_id=5131883

[grantcart]

5. Does Trinity Church, Rev. Wright and the UCC teach hatred and violence?

A biblical perspective
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5129463&mesg_id=5129463

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

4. Florida Dems Abandon Mail-In Vote Plan

Florida Dems Abandon Mail-In Vote Plan

BRENDAN FARRINGTON The Associated Press Monday, March 17, 2008;

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Facing strong opposition, Florida Democrats on Monday abandoned plans to hold a do-over presidential primary with a mail-in vote and threw the delegate dispute into the lap of the national party.

While the decision by Florida Democrats left the state's 210 delegates in limbo, Democrats in Michigan moved closer to holding another contest on June 3. Legislative leaders reviewed a measure Monday that would set up a privately funded, state-administered do-over primary, The Associated Press learned.

In Florida, a frustrated Democratic Party chairwoman Karen L. Thurman sent a letter announcing the decision.

"A party-run primary or caucus has been ruled out, and it's simply not possible for the state to hold another election, even if the party were to pay for it," Thurman said. "... This doesn't mean that Democrats are giving up on Florida voters. It means that a solution will have to come from the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee."

more here

[grantcart]

6. Delegates, Super Delegates and ??? WTF Add Ons ????

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5126016

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

7. Nancy Pelosi's Not-So-Secret Support for Obama

"While much of her party’s leadership (and rank-and-file) capitulated, Pelosi – as the House minority whip – was the highest-ranking Democrat to oppose the war resolution in the fall of 2002."

Nancy Pelosi's Not-So-Secret Support for Obama

by Steve Kornacki | March 17, 2008

Whatever her official posture, Nancy Pelosi is not neutral in the Democratic primary.
Typically, for instance, someone who is neutral wouldn’t say that victory by one of the candidates would be “harmful.” That’s essentially how Pelosi, the supposedly impartial House Speaker, has characterized the prospective nomination of Hillary Clinton.

“If the votes of the superdelegates overturn what happens in the elections, it would be harmful to the Democratic Party,” Pelosi said in an interview for ABC’s “This Week” that was taped late last week.

That just so happens to be the only plausible scenario under which Clinton could still get the Democratic nomination from Barack Obama, who will close out the primary season ahead in the pledged delegate race and, almost certainly, in the popular vote count – even if do-overs are held in Michigan and Florida. The Clinton campaign itself has all but acknowledged this, pursuing a strategy that is designed to incite intra-party panic over Obama’s general-election prospects and to foment a mutiny by superdelegates that would deny him the nomination.

In effect, Pelosi has now said on national television that Clinton will hurt the party if she succeeds. And lest anyone think Pelosi would be willing to grant Clinton some wiggle room should she manage to surpass Obama in the popular vote count (but not the pledged delegate race), Pelosi also made her position clear on that score as well: “It’s a delegate race.”

more at the link

"On this level, Obama, who spoke out against the war in the fall of ’02, is the natural choice for Pelosi, especially compared to Clinton, one of the many congressional Democrats who sided with the White House."

[Beregond2]

9. Pelosi

She is is saying an undemocratic action by the superdelegates would destroy the party, which is perfectly true. It would be just as true if it benefitted Obama.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

8. Coda to Kristol (Bill Kristol tries to erase non-fact)

03.17.08 -- 6:02PM // link | recommend (24)

Coda to Kristol

As you know, Bill Kristol got dinged for using a non-fact is his piece in the Times this morning on Obama. Now the originator of the bogus fact gets dinged for trying to remove the episode from his Wikipedia page.

--Josh Marshall

link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

10. Texas Dems to Hillary: No deal. Also: Put up or shut up

Texas Dems to Hillary: No deal. Also: Put up or shut up

By S. L. - March 17, 2008

I just got the following email from Boyd Ritchie, Texas Democratic Chairman.
It is clearly in response to Clinton's attempt to suppress the caucus results (emphasis mine):

Below is a statement by Texas Democratic Chairman Boyd Richie regarding the Delegate Selection Process:

The Texas Democratic Party and local Democratic Party organizations around our state are working to turn the enormous opportunity created by the record Democratic turnout experienced on March 4th into a positive outcome for Texas Democrats this fall and in 2010. We are proud of both our Presidential candidates who helped create that turnout. We ask now that the campaigns work with us rather than become an impediment to this extraordinary opportunity to build our party.

On March 4th, our Democratic precinct conventions experienced record turnout of roughly one million precinct convention attendees, a ten-fold increase from the previous high attendance mark. As expected in any record turnout involving hundreds of thousands of people, there were reports of problems caused by long lines and crowded facilities. These problems are not unique to Texas. Similar problems, in proportionately similar numbers, occurred in pure caucus states like Iowa and Nevada.

The overwhelming majority of problems reported in Texas do not affect the legitimacy of delegate allocation. It is important to remember that the precinct conventions are just the first of three steps where delegates and alternates are selected. "Final results" will not be determined until June 6-7 at the Texas Democratic State convention. And at each convention step, Texas Democratic Party rules provide a credentials process to address problems and provide an avenue to register complaints and make formal challenges

For that reason, the Texas Democratic Party will not do as suggested by one campaign and circumvent Party rules to set up an unnecessary, ad hoc "verification" process that could effectively disqualify delegates selected at their precinct conventions after the fact. The Party has never stated any intention to set up a verification process of this nature because Party rules already provide for "verification" through our credentials process. Candidates who wish to disqualify delegates must pursue formal challenges based on evidence filed appropriately in accordance with our party's rules.

more ...at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

11. A personal account of why the IWR matters to me and why I keep bringing it up

Highly recommended reading - read this one if you don't read anything else

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5132718&mesg_id=5132718

[Hope And Change]

12. Full Video: Obama speech in Scranton, PA - St. Patrick's Day. 2008-03-17

Obama speech in Scranton, PA - St. Patrick's Day. 2008-03-17


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x106971

[ellisonz]

13. Anybody know what time his speech on race is?

[Hope And Change]

14. There you go...

The Political Schedule

*all times Eastern

Tuesday, March 18

10:15 am
Barack Obama gives a major speech on race and politics at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

[blogslut]

15. MediaCurves analysis of Obama response to Wright

Media Curves asked viewers to respond to an interview of Barack Obama by Fox News reporter Major Garrett, broadcast on March 14, 2008. The interview was Obama's response to the controversy and the Senator was quizzed rather intensely as to his stance on Jeremiah Wright.

Here is a link to the video of the Media Curves test:

http://www.mediacurves.com/Politics/J6764/

Here is a screen grab of the Media Curves group test:



Here is a link to a detailed analysis of the test in .pdf format:

http://www.mediacurves.com/Politics/J6764/ReportJ6764.pdf

Here are screen shots of the .pdf file for those that don't have Acrobat reader:




:)

[psychopomp]

16. A kick for the morning crowd

:kick:

Good morning! :hangover: :hi:

[grantcart]

17. An Ode to Clinton Supporters and Criticism of Fence Sitters

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5141490

[grantcart]

18. Just to keep people informed Rep John Murtha has just endorsed Sen Clinton

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/18/john_murtha_endorses_hillary_c.html