Weekend Links

For Democrats, Increased Fears of a Long Fight

Ex-Governor Cuomo Says Close Democratic Race Could Be `Ruinous’

Hillary’s Superdelegate Explanation

HILLARY’S SCORCHED EARTH CAMPAIGN

A campaign gets pretty ugly

Hillary’s chutzpah

Character as Destiny: The Clintonian Narcissism of 2008

Dems fear Obama-Clinton race may damage November chances

Bill Clinton Gives More Voters Doubts About Electing His Wife

Where’s your outrage, Hillary?

Eliot Spitzer calls to mind Bill Clinton

Susan Estrich: Spitzer Scandal Hurts Hillary

Desperate White House Wives

Wal-Mart Foundation Awards $500,000 to Clinton Global Initiative University

Clinton role in health program disputed

National Archives to Release Hillary Clinton’s White House Daily Schedules to Judicial Watch before March 20

Hillary Clinton: I was ‘instrumental’ in Northern Ireland peace process

Hillary fibs about S-CHIP “experience”, too: Boston Globe

Ferraro’s folly, Clinton’s lie

The Clinton Runaround

Assessing Clinton’s "Experience"

My eyes and ears are bleeding

Hillary Says Delegates “Could” Switch Votes

In a tightly contested Democratic race that could come down to the wire, Sen. Hillary Clinton said that she thinks it’s possible that some committed Sen. Barack Obama delegates might switch their votes to her.

Clinton made the remarks during an interview with News 8’s Anne Shannon during a campaign stop in Harrisburg. Clinton was referring to delegates from states that have already been “decided” not super delegates, who are regularly courted for their individual support.

“It is a possibility. Different states have different rules about whether or not a caucus or a primary delegate are obligated and for how long,” Clinton said.

Read it all at Sweetness and Light

Hillary now trails in the popular vote — even if Florida and Michigan are included

This was the rejoinder offered by our commenters to my “who cares about Florida and Michigan” post on Monday, you’ll recall. It’s not the delegates, stupid, it’s the moral claim to the nomination that a popular-vote lead would give her with Democrats still smarting over the Goracle’s loss to Bush in 2000.

Read it all at Hot Air

Hey Geraldine - See how it feels to be a Republican, tagged by the liberal media by not posting your entire quote?

Hey Geraldine - See how it feels to be a Republican, tagged by the liberal media by not posting your entire quote?

Hillary Clinton can’t escape agonizing past and painful present

it was a double whammy of a day for Hillary Clinton, who got pounded at the polls in Mississippi as Gov. Spitzer’s mushrooming sex scandal brought ugly headlines reminiscent of her husband’s philandering.

Barack Obama cleaned up in the Magnolia State, 60% to 38%, with 95% of precincts reporting. He was declared the winner by TV networks moments after the polls closed, likely giving him the majority of the state’s 33 delegates to extend his lead.

"It’s just another win in our column, and we are getting more delegates," Obama told CNN.

The win was the latest in a string of racially divided matches, with Obama grabbing about 90% of the black vote, according to exit polls.

"I’m confident that once we decide on a nominee and we go through the convention, that, in fact, the party’s going to be unified," Obama added.

Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams issued a statement congratulating Obama, saying, "Now we look forward to campaigning in Pennsylvania" - which votes next on April 22.

Back in the loss column after big wins in Texas and Ohio on March 4, the cloud over her home-state governor seemed to hang over Clinton’s campaign as she stumped earlier yesterday in Pennsylvania.

Clinton already had to sidestep questions about Spitzer Monday. "Let’s wait and see what comes out of the next few days," she said. "Right now I don’t have any comment."

Read the rest of this entry »

Barack is Sanjaya, Hillary is Omarosa, McCain is…

This title will mean nothing to those who don’t understand the world of reality TV. But, how could anyone in this election cycle not be totally familiar with the voyeur genre that has caused us to reduce every issue and every person to their basest level. Following the 2008 presidential race is a combination of watching a blow by blow of the NFL playoffs, and the final weeks of American Idol when the viewers vote on the winner.

Last season an attractive young man, Sanjaya Malakar, with little experience singing in public, somehow made it to the finals and as cute as it was when he was selected, his talent just was not cutting it, and as a result, the more gifted singers were being eliminated.

It was revealed that a rebellious segment of society, rejecting the concept of American Idol, decided to stuff the ballot box and give Sanjaya a helping hand. At first it was charming and cute, then it became annoying until a full-scale counter rebellion was mounted.

With both Obama and Clinton being Sanjayaed, switching rolls with each pulse of primary voting, it is like following the hopes of fans playing fantasy football. There are times when you place a wager on the team you hate most in the hopes that they beat the rival of your favorite team. When he is down, the crossover Sanjaya electorate decides that they should throw their votes to him to keep Hillary from gaining the lead. When he is leading as in the Texas and Ohio primaries, the opposite occurred. Even Rush Limbaugh played a part in Sanjaying the race for the specific purpose of keeping Hillary in to keep it interesting, entertaining and topical. That is pretty much what Howard Stern’s motive was when he called for his listeners to vote for Sanjaya on American Idol.

The irony in the entire manipulative maneuver is that Hillary always stands the chance of winning a primary, which causes almost every heart in America to stop beating. They immediately shift reality shows to the first “Apprentice” with the insufferable, self-absorbed, egotistical, inexperienced and over-confident Omarosa who reminds the electorate of Hillary . . . or vice versa. She was the rubbernecking fiasco that caused network TV to slow down and take a closer look. Even Donald Trump had her reappear in the final version only to verify, that yes, we were all correct in our first impression of her.

So as Hillary gives us jaw-dropping performances that go well beyond the boundary of shrill and catty, we have Barak who actually begins his speeches on a losing night with the word “change.” In the first five minutes of his speech he worked the word in at least 5352 times until it almost became a therapeutic mantra. “If I say this enough, even I will believe it, or come up with something else because I am so sick of this same speech, I could really use a change.”

It is only fair that John McCain, now the Republican candidate, be compared to some figure in reality TV since that is the theme here. It is tough since he floats between the “diplomatic” Simon Cowel and the very gracious Donald Trump who issues the edict of unemployment with the same charisma and ceremony that John McCain would.

Read the rest of this entry »

Clinton ‘Saddened’ by Spitzer’s Fall (Hell Yeah! She just lost an important Superdelegate!)

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton _ no stranger to political sex scandals _ sounded a short, sympathetic note Wednesday for disgraced Gov. Eliot Spitzer, saying she is thinking of his family.

"I’m deeply saddened by this turn of events and my thoughts are with Governor Spitzer’s family during this painful time," Clinton said in a statement.

The Democratic senator from New York went on to say she looks forward to working with the incoming governor, David Paterson.

Clinton issued her statement through her Senate office, but the scandal has ramifications for her campaign.

When Spitzer steps down Monday, she will lose one of her superdelegates, those party officials whose support may end up deciding the Democratic presidential nomination if neither she nor Sen. Barack Obama show large gains in the remaining primaries ahead.

Spitzer, like the rest of New York’s Democratic Party establishment, had been an outspoken booster of Clinton’s campaign.

At a joint appearance last year in Washington, Clinton praised Spitzer for trying to "break some of the political pottery" in the New York capital of Albany.

Source: Seattle Times

Obama wins Mississippi primary; Texas caucus win estimated

Sen. Barack Obama claimed victory by a wide margin over Sen. Hillary Clinton in Mississippi’s Democratic primary Tuesday.

"What we’ve tried to do is steadily make sure that in each state we are making the case about the need for change in this country. Obviously the people in Mississippi responded," Obama told CNN after his win.

Mississippi had 33 pledged delegates up for grabs, which will be allocated proportionally.

With 99 percent of the precincts reporting, Obama had 61 percent of the vote, compared with Clinton’s 37 percent.

The state’s Democratic voters were sharply divided among racial lines, exit polls indicated. 

As has been the case in many primary states, Obama won overwhelming support from African-American voters. They went for him over Clinton 91-9 percent. See the results

The state has a larger proportion of African-Americans (36 percent, according to the 2000 census) than any other state in the country. And black voters make up nearly 70 percent of registered Democrats.

But Mississippi white voters overwhelmingly backed the New York senator, supporting her over Obama 72 percent to 21 percent.

According to The Associated Press, only two other primary states were as racially polarized — neighboring Alabama, and Clinton’s former home state of Arkansas.

Read the rest of this entry »