Will it be today?

 

 

 

Today could be the day that Barack Obama, a black man, a young, black man, finally clinches the Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party for the first time ever in the history of the United States!

Will I watch the first black president of the United States, the first black first lady and the first black family walk onto a stage in St.Paul, Minnesota later this evening to cheers and screams of happiness from a predominatly white audience?

Have I and will I continue to watch the hopes and dreams of a people, of a country become automatically embodied in the life and work of one man,once again?

Will I watch today in awe as a baton is passed from one generation to another?

Has this all been a dream?

Have I and thousands of others like me been living in a fantasy world for the last 16 months?

No!

Today is the day that everything changes.

Today is the day that we start building a new and brighter future together!

Today is the day that we recognize that nothing will ever, ever be the same again and yet with that knowledge we walk gallantly into the future better prepared and significantly more uplifted than we have ever been in the past.

Today is not just Barack Obama’s day..today, is OUR day!!!

 

 

 

Clinton needs to get out the way..

So, Clinton vows to fight on after losing North Carolina, barely winning Indiana with dwindling campaign finances and personal loans to her campaign, she’s out to prove that she’s no Eight Belles (I know, I know bad taste but I couldn’t resist..I mean Big Brown, Eight Belles..lol)  well that’s her choice but if I were a member of Obama’s campaign or a ‘superdelegate’ this is what I would be saying/ singing right about now..

 

  
 

and from the looks of things they are telling her too...lol

May 6th, do, die or delay day for Obama..

 

 

Obama must win at least one of the two primaries tomorrow and based on recent polling in both states Obama continues to lead in North Carolina while Clinton leads him in Indiana.

A win by Obama in either of the two states must be by a big enough margin, at least 10 points, for it to be considered a real victory and if he doesn’t, (I’m afraid to say it) and instead looses both primaries he will be handing the nomination to Ms.Clinton, who will then look to be the safer choice between the two, when their cases are brought before the super delegates.

If he wins one and she wins one then we’re looking to yet another primary  on May 13 to be a decider, yet another delay and yet another week of this drawn out process, with the result being less time for the democratic nominee to prepare for the general election and more time for John McCain to marshal the troops and deploy the scouts to gather ‘swift boating’ information.

Obama and his campaign are at the edge of a cliff looking over and the only thing that will stop them from careening over the other side will be victories by significant margins. Losses could ultimately end his campaign, ( as unfair as it is, we have always known that the deck has been stacked against him) this is unfortunate, since the same rules haven’t applied to his opponent.

N.B It’s good to see that the campaign has abandoned the large rallies for more intimate, one on one voter settings…if he does win Indiana tomorrow, it will be because of this change in strategy..

 

 

Obama’s little, big mistake…

Obama, when talking about working class Americans should not have used the word ‘bitter’ in any form to describe their sentiments or beliefs.

Although the underlying meaning in his statement is probably true, I don’t think it pertains exclusively to ‘working class Americans’ because it has been proven time and time again that during hard economic times Americans and for that matter people across the world tend to become more protectionist, more nationalistic and more religious.

So Obama’s main point was certainly correct however he should have known the minute the words left his lips, in this 24 hour news cycle, YOU TUBE era that Clinton, McCain and ultimately the Republicans would seek to use this comment to pry open a crack in his, thus far, Teflon political armor.

This misstep has created an opening for Clinton which she has seized upon and to be quite honest rightfully so to try to expose Obama’s vulnerability with this demographic (white working class Americans) and she is seeking, with her beer drinking and shot taking, even as unnatural as it appears, to capitalize on this mistake. And if this becomes a bigger and bigger issue it will work for her in Pennsylvania but that’s not her main target her main targets are the super delegates who will start to question Obama’s electability and may consider, supporting Clinton after the ensuing debacle.

Obama as I’ve discussed in earlier posts cannot, CANNOT afford to make these types of mistakes since these are mistakes that will come back to haunt him in the general election. Hillary will use these comments to win the battle but the Republicans will use them to win the war and this is the main threat to his candidacy.

Obama cannot win the election without working class support and although I don’t think they will run to John McCain if Obama wins the nomination, if he appears like John Kerry did to be elitist and out of touch with the working class and working class issues they just simply might stay away from the polls on election day costing Obama and the democrats the election-once again.

This story has the potential to become a firestorm for Obama in Pennsylvania (since I don’t think he’s going to win there) we’ll have to wait and see what the damage will be in November.

 

A Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton ticket is the only option..

 Well, Well, Well…Clinton won three out of the four states last night. I must admit I didn’t see that coming (check out my last post..lol) good for her bad for us ‘Obama-mamites’…lol nah just kidding…but seriously she won not by playing FAIR but by playing up FEAR another tactic that unfortunately for her has a very, very short life span when it comes to Democrats but it worked and Texas unexpectedly slid into her column. 

Clinton has once again used tactics that I wouldn’t have expected from a Democrat, let alone Hillary Clinton, to beat another Democrat but she’s gotta do what she’s gotta do and instead of eloquently voicing my anger and frustration in this blog I have chosen instead to focus on where we go from here now that it is quite clear that neither democratic candidate intends to budge and rightfully so before the convention.

Hillary intends to fight on and that is her prerogative I don’t think that she should be forced out prematurely let the people decide.  The rules and only the rules should determine how and when she concedes to Obama. Obama shouldn’t be pushed to concede either because he doesn’t have the full support of the so called party establishment (super delegates or whatever). Now, if a nominee isn’t decided by June then it’s up to Michigan and Florida. If these two states are allowed to redo their primaries then their delegates should be seated since both candidates would’ve been allowed to fully campain within their boundaries and the results would ultimately have been fair and it seems that both camps as well as party officicals in both states are in favor of this possible solution.

If after the Michigan and Florida do overs in June and we still don’t have a nominee Obama and Clinton should sit down and decide to be on the same ticket for this is only way to coalesce and appease all the different groups Obama and Clinton have amassed in their respective bases and all these groups will be needed in order for the democratic party and the democratic presidential nominee to march triumphantly towards a win in the general election. 

To be quite honest if you had asked me a few weeks ago if I would’ve been in favor of this I would’ve said NO WAY because I haven’t approved of the statements made by Bill Clinton, surrogates in the Clinton campaign or the attitude of Hillary herself towards Obama’s candidacy however, if this is not settled sooner rather than later McCain will have a BIG advantage on the Democratic nominee in November and the prospect of another Republican presidency, even that of John McCain is distasteful and unacceptable.

But I will say this if Obama gets to the convention and is then pushed aside by the super delegates for Clinton I will sit out this election and I will do everything in my power to get other Obama supporters to do so as well..I may even consider joining the Republican party..who knows.. because the idea of the democratic party elite choosing the nominee instead of the people is undemocratic and against everything that I believe liberals and the democratic party should stand for.

However, if the two candidates reach a mutual decision that puts country and party first and the people are also in agreement how can I not support an Obama/Clinton, Clinton/Obama ticket!

Now that’s the real question which name goes first..maybe they’ll toss a coin?..LOL

According to MSNBC’s exit polls super delegates should vote for the winner of the caucus/primary..

Duh..of course they should…

The goal posts keep shifting as they always do….

I understand the premise of never underestimating the Clintons and in particular Hillary Clinton.

Whenever they have been counted out they have come back bigger, harder and stronger..what was Bill Clinton known as? the comeback kid.

So, it is quite understandable why people have been hesitant to count them out but before today it was said that she needed to win both Ohio and Texas to stay in the race, even her own husband said as much, in the last few days it has changed to she only needs ONE to stay in the race. I haven’t heard it yet but I’m waiting to hear some prominent Clinton surrogate or supporter or a t.v commentator suggest or state that she doesn’t need to win any more primaries or caucuses instead all she needs to do in order to secure the nomination is to keep raising money and collecting super delegates, show up at the convention in August and the nomination is hers!

I’m serious, every week the Clintons are allowed to determine the finishing line instead of it being determined for them however as ridiculous as this is, IT IS necessary.

As the goal posts have shifted and the touch down line pushed further and further back Obama has risen to the challenge each and every time readjusted his game plan and has kept on playing because in the end Obama even more so than any other candidate has to be seen as winning this race fair and square and with the Clintons playing as hard and fierce as they have in the end it just makes his story even more epic.

And for that story to become that of legend he needs to keep running the hurdles and jumping through hoops in order to become the legitimate Democratic presidential nominee and ultimately the first black president in US history.

I just wonder that if the shoe was on the other foot would Obama have been allowed so many chances my guess is no he wouldn’t but then again life isn’t fair so why should we expect a presidential campaign to be..

***As usual I will be live blogging the results tonight..join me, please..it’s going to be a long one I can’t do it alone….lol***

What will Clinton do now that ‘Obama mania’ has swept the nation?

 

I must say that after tonight’s results  I really do not see Hillary Clinton winning the democratic nomination.

How can she?

How can she retool her national message of experience to compete with Obama’s universal message of hope?

How can she compete with the droves of people young, old, black, white, men, women, rich, poor, republican and democrat that are flocking to Obama’s campaign? She has women and only barely..

How can she rest her hopes on Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania does she think these states will help her to top Obama? Isn’t this a lot like putting all your eggs in one basket just like the ultimate loser Rudy Giuiliani? She will do just that and who knows she could win all three and ultimately the nomination but how will she do it?

Will she turn to Bill and ask him to step up his attacks on Obama or will she do it herself?

Will she try to best Obama in the debates?

Will she go after Mccain more to show that it’s the two of them while at the same time sidelining Obama?

Will she step up her advertising in the three remaining big states for her Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania?

Is she going to lean even harder on the remaining uncommitted super delegates and force many of them to make a choice before the convention?

And don’t forget about money..if you’re going to want a favor from Hillary come ’09 you’re going to have to pony up more dough now or you’re never, ever going to hear from the Clintons again.

So, you can bet your bottom dollar that Clinton is going to do all of these things and then some all I can say is the next three weeks are going to be extremely, extremely interesting cause Clinton isn’t going down without a fight and if she and her staff can pull of a convincing win on March 4th in Texas and Ohio after a slew of losses this month it will be one for the record books and I’m sure Hillary is saying to herself right now, ” Too bad bad Karl Rove is a Republican..”

Obama, the working class hero?

Obama can go ahead and chalk another notch into his belt and even the working class people, who were in Hillary land up to a few weeks ago are coming over to him too..

According to MSNBC he’s increasing his support among whites he won among white voters who make less than $50, 000 now that is interesting..that is really, really interesting that was Hillary’s turf up until a few weeks ago and now based on the numbers tonight he could be starting to finally win them over too..

I don’t know how Clinton is going to try to spin this month you see, by the end of the month she would’ve lost 10..ten primaries/caucuses and based on the inroads Obama is making into her base I’m really starting to think it’s all over for her because if  this ‘thing’ does comes down to super delegates how can you side with her when your state and the majority in your party would’ve said they want Obama?