Mish on Hillary: (do read it all, and my comments at the end.)

Hillary is not demented. Her continuing an impossible race is all about trashing Obama as much as possible so that she does not have to run against a Democratic incumbent in 2012. At some point she will moderate her attack a bit, so as not to make it completely obvious. But she will stay in this race as long as she can, with any excuses that she can muster.

Coming up is a primary in West Virginia. She is likely to win that by a big margin. If she does, she will get to trash Obama for 2 more weeks, with no more hope of winning than she has now: zero.

For more than a month I have called a moratorium on the Democratic race only blogging on the hype of the contests as presented by the media. After the two primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, it is apparent that Hillary Clinton can not win the nomination. Even if she were to win the remaining contests she would still not be able to catch Obama. So what is the point of continuing? Hillary Clinton has waged a strong campaign and is deserving of praise for being able to recover when most had pronounced her campaign dead. The time has now come for Hillary to set aside her personal belief that the nomination was inevitably hers and to do what is best for the Party. What is best for the Party is for Hillary to gracefully suspend her campaign and allow the Party to coalesce behind the presumptive nominee Barack Obama.

Suffice to say Obama is now the presumptive nominee. It would take something unforseen and dramatic to change the balance of power now. Impossible? Hardly. Not likely? Yes. So, time to start thinking about who you'd like Obama to have replace Dick Cheney with. Select your option now!

For VP:

1) Hillary Clinton
2) Evan Bayh
3) Russ Feingold
4) Bill Richardson
5) Wesley Clark

Maybe at some point I might have to eat my words, but I doubt it. Someone needs to tell Hillary it's over. She's doing more harm than good at this point. She cannot win without tearing the party apart. It's time to think of the country and the party, before herself. Bow out. Gracefully and then have a future. Don't bow out and go down hard, or win the nomination and lose in the general and wreck the party in the process? Just bow out.

Update: Obama camp says Oregon, May 20, is the day they wrap it all up. Regardless of my opinion, the numbers indicate that they are correct. It's inevitable at this point.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

Sabrina Eaton | Washington | May 1

PD - Months after his hopes of being Democratic presidential contender stalled out, Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich has suggested a way to seat Florida and Michigan delegates at the Democratic National Convention, according to Congressional Quarterly.

The two states were stripped of their delegates after they held January primaries in defiance of of Democratic Party rules that protect the traditional presidential candidate selection role of early-voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire.

The magazine says Kucinich is circulating a plan among Democratic House members that would base the states' delegate distribution on polling conducted by three firms, one selected by each campaign and a third chosen by the other two companies. Delegates would be apportioned based on the composite findings of the three polls. None of the firms could have previously been employed by either campaign.

"The Democratic Party faces the intolerable prospect of disenfranchising Florida and Michigan's voters from choosing our presidential nominee in this closely contested primary election," Kucinich, who represents a Cleveland-based district, wrote to his colleagues in a letter dated April 24. "This makes finding a remedy a political requirement and a democratic necessity."

more

From the Washington Post:

A growing chorus -- including a top congressional Democrat -- labeled Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's proposal for suspending the federal gasoline tax ineffective and shortsighted yesterday, even as she continued to paint Sen. Barack Obama as insensitive to drivers' woes for not endorsing the plan.

It is an odd thing the growing opposition to Clinton’s stress on the economy. Even economists argue in a funny way to discredit her proposals:

From the Nelson Report:

SUMMARY: the political professionals still seem to be calmly assessing self and Democratic Party interests, as Super Delegates one by one pick Obama or Clinton.

But there's rising panic in Obama supporter ranks (and rising excitement in Hillary's) as polls indicate she's cut Obama's once huge N. Carolina lead in half...and may be pulling away in Indiana.

No question Obama's "negatives" are way up, but hers also continue to rise. No question Rev. Wright stabbed him in the back...whether fatally is now the big question.

POLITICS...polls out today show that whether its the "Rev. Wright effect" or just a general sense that Obama is not tough-enough, the slippage in Obama's support in N. Carolina...where he has been expected to win by a large margin...is causing major heartburn in the commentariat, and the national horse-race.

www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2008/3090
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
April 30, 2008

The US Supreme Court has just dealt a serious blow to voters' rights that could help put John McCain in the White House by eliminating tens of thousands of voters who generally vote Democratic.

By 6-3 the Court has upheld an Indiana law that requires citizens to present a photo identification card in order to vote. Florida, Michigan, Louisiana, Georgia, Hawaii and South Dakota have similar laws. Though it's unlikely, as many as two dozen other states could add them by election day. Other states, like Ohio, have less stringent ID requirements than Indiana's, but still have certain restrictions that are strongly opposed by voter rights advocates.

Roger Hickey has a great post at ourfuture.org on the "dangerous fraud" that is John McCain's healthcare plan. As I point out ad nauseam in The Real McCain, McCain's positions are not simply fraudulent. The "straight-talker" rarely limits himself to simple dishonesty.

First, read the email The McCain Campaign sent out today on this issue:

Arms Race in Space
Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:31:40 -0500
By Marko Beljac - GNN

It's on. It's expensive. And it could destablize the world.

The vicious Clinton-versus-Obama rupture at Daily Kos, the most activist site in the liberal blogosphere, reflects a party-wide split. What really rankles, as Democrats tear at one another, is the free pass they’ve given McCain—and the White House.

James Wolcott | June 2008

Vanity Fair - It was supposed to be a run for the roses, only to turn into the chariot race from Ben-Hur, with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama grimacing like Chuck Heston down the brutal homestretch, lashing toward a multi-horse pileup. No, this wasn’t anybody’s dream finish.

After two terms of George W. Bush, which only seemed like a scarred eternity, American voters (so the scenario went) would be pining for Democratic recapture of the White House and a return to competency as a novel change of pace. Let the reclamation begin. In January 2009, the former president would pack his saddlebags and head back to his Texas ranch, secure in the knowledge of having wrecked pretty much everything there was to wreck (Iraq, the dollar, the national debt, America’s prestige abroad, the rebuilding of New Orleans, the Endangered Species Act). The president’s impromptu tap dance at the White House as he killed time waiting for a tardy Senator John McCain to arrive for his official endorsement as the Republican nominee was the perfect vaudeville symbol for the breezy, wanton disconnect of this administration from the consequences of its actions, the unsinkable cheer of its sunshine superman. Despite his dapper moves, Bush’s dragging approval numbers were proof that his old white magic had lost its spell, that his was not an aura in which it was healthy to bask. He shrivelled everything he touched. (So far 29 House Republicans have announced their retirement this cycle, one sure sign of blight.) In the electoral battle to succeed Bush, the positivity seemed lopsided: the Democrats had cornered the market on good vibrations and Pepsodent smiles, while the Republicans—apart from Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee—majored in grim tidings and sour dispositions. Poll after poll showed that Democrats were happy with their top candidates—Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama—while Republicans kept scanning the horizon for a hunk of salvation, measuring Fred Thompson for Ronald Reagan’s raiment until he went logy on them and had to be put out to graze. Even the second tier of Democratic contenders, from happy warrior Joe Biden to Dennis Kucinich, with his red-tressed, tongue-pierced, statuesque wife, seemed like a Happy Meal compared with furrowed Republican also-rans such as Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo. One by one the camera fodder dropped out of the race as the winnowing process culled the weak, the fanged, and the superfluous, the Republican field reduced until John McCain became the winner by default, the last bowling pin standing.

I basically agree with the analysis of the Democratic Party's dilemma, but wonder, like the author, what such an outcome would tell us about the racial divide in America. I would have preferred Obama, the inspiring candidate, the awakening and onset to new horizons, and not Obama, the stopgap solution and conciliatory gesture of appeasament, to enter the ring against John McCain.

From today's Der Spiegel:

The issue of race has emerged as the key Democratic divide in this year's primary season. Despite his waning support amongst white voters, though, the superdelegates appear to have no other choice but to vote for Barack Obama. A vote against him could have serious consequences.

Errol Louis | New York, NY | Apr. 29, 2008

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright couldn't have done more damage to Barack Obama's campaign if he had tried. And you have to wonder if that's just what one friend of Wright wanted.

Shortly before he rose to deliver his rambling, angry, sarcastic remarks at the National Press Club Monday, Wright sat next to, and chatted with, Barbara Reynolds.

A former editorial board member at USA Today, she runs something called Reynolds News Services and teaches ministry at the Howard University School of Divinity. (She is an ordained minister).

It also turns out that Reynolds - introduced Monday as a member of the National Press Club "who organized" the event - is an enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporter.

On a blog linked to her Web site- www.reynoldsnews.com- Reynolds said in a February post: "My vote for Hillary in the Maryland primary was my way of saying thank you" to Clinton and her husband for the successes of Bill Clinton's presidency.

More

From tonight's Nelson Report:

SUMMARY: Obama today removed any doubt he is furious at the deliberate attack on him and what he represents by his "former pastor" Rev. Wright.

Monday's National Press Club ego-fest by Wright was so far over the line, so demented, in places, that Obama's very tough speech today was unavoidable, if he hopes to limit the damage.

Foreigners and white Americans not old enough to remember segregation need more empathy than it's logical to expect in assessing Wright's debilitating anger, and Obama's angst at having to so completely denounce the man, and key elements of his message.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to Jimmy Carter. This is a man that has consistently tried to do what others in the political arena seem unable to do, and that is to live up to their own expectations, regardless of the political costs. His recent trip to the Middle-East was Carter at his finest. While he understood all to well that the compromised, immoral regimes of both Israel and Washington did not support his mission and were unlikely to approve anything that came out of his meetings with Hamas, he chose to go in order to illustrate to the world what these two governments are really about. I believe Carter was successful in illustrating that neither America nor Israel want to pursue a realistic solution for peace. If anything, his visit proved once again, that Israel seeks not peace, but capitulation.

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright spoke at the Detroit Chapter of the NAACP’s annual fundraising event over the weekend. The speech was carried by CNN live and allowed Reverend Wright to speak to his critics while at the same time speaking to the larger theme of the event which was, “A Change is Gonna Come”. Like so much of what occurs in American society the speech will be evaluated based on the listener’s frame of reference. For many in the black community the speech will be hailed as brilliant and will demonstrate Reverend’s Wright superior intellect and skilled articulation talents. For some in the white community it will be misconstrued and reinforce their views of him as being divisive. How is it possible that so many people can hear the same speech and yet reach so many different conclusions?

Elizabeth Edwards | Chapel Hill, N.C. | April 27

NYT Op-Ed - For the last month, news media attention was focused on Pennsylvania and its Democratic primary. Given the gargantuan effort, what did we learn?

Well, the rancor of the campaign was covered. The amount of money spent was covered. But in Pennsylvania, as in the rest of the country this political season, the information about the candidates’ priorities, policies and principles — information that voters will need to choose the next president — too often did not make the cut. After having spent more than a year on the campaign trail with my husband, John Edwards, I’m not surprised.

Why? Here’s my guess: The vigorous press that was deemed an essential part of democracy at our country’s inception is now consigned to smaller venues, to the Internet and, in the mainstream media, to occasional articles.

The last few weeks have been extraordinary in ways that I could not have imagined, let alone forecasted. The American people, at least those that look past the mainstream media, seem to be rejecting the status quo and have begun to voice their opinions in a way that can’t be misinterpreted. I’m not just talking about the liberal/progressive wing of the political dynamic; I’m talking about centrist Democrats and Republicans, as well. The issues that people are bring up in forums and in articles, bring up the same issues; the war, our tax structure, the economy and the destruction of the Middle-Class, the weakening of our fundamental rights under the Constitution, special interest influence and the refusal of politicians on a Federal level to listen to their constituents.

One would have to strain to be shocked that a racist ad is finding its way out of the bowels of conservativism in North Carolina. For political observers from the 1980s will remember that Senator Jesse Helms--an early sign of the shift of racially conservative whites in the South from their ancestral home in the Democratic Party to the GOP--was a master of using divisive tactics to undermine his African-American opponent for the U.S. Senate (not to mention white opponents such as Governor Jim Hunt, too).

Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, recalled this unsavory record upon Helms' retirement in 2002:

Not a day goes by without mention of the phrase “tipping point”, and with good reason. Different variations of this phrase include “critical mass”, “precipice” and the ever popular “day of reckoning”. The truth is alarming when one considers how many times these phrases are used, and used correctly. Our nation and the World are facing challenges that need to be addressed, and addressed as swiftly as possible. The human race can no longer pass off the responsibility of meeting challenges by doing nothing while we put the onus of problem solving onto our children and grandchildren. The time of band-aids and temporary short term fixes in regard to our most pressing problems is just about over. This planet is poised to reap the rewards that have come about from choosing half measures and politically acceptable “solutions” that are not solutions at all, but rather compromises expressly designed to placate the people, while protecting political, economic or religious interests.

Here we go from the sublime to the absurd, John McCain in an attempt to repeat the Bush campaign strategy of 2000 is visiting the “forgotten places” in America. Presenting himself as a reincarnation of the compassionate conservative Senator McCain is on tour visiting the “Black Belt” of Alabama, Appalachia, Youngstown, Ohio, and New Orleans. Maybe Senator McCain has forgotten who has been in the White House these last 8 years while these forgotten places have been pushed to the breaking point. Hopefully, the American public has not forgotten and will see this obvious heavy-handed attempt to appear as something he is not. I am not counting on the media to point out the inconsistencies of McCain’s policies from his “listening tour”.

From the Nelson Report (because I don't have much to say):

SUMMARY: Clinton won big in Pennsylvania yesterday, yet not big enough ("only" 8.5%), and judging from pundit reaction (especially the NY Times) her win was far too ugly.

Clinton and Obama are in the ironic situation of each being damned if they do, and damned if they don't. She, in order to win, has to be noisy and negative, and if he doesn't respond at least somewhat in kind, he risks being blown-out as a "wimp".

A bigger problem? Common folks, in the democratic use of that word, are really having second thoughts about Obama, due to class and race issues.