Election 2008


5
Nov 08

Mandate

I’ve been watching Republican talking heads and politicians carry on and on about how this country is “center-right” and that Obama does not have a mandate.

Sigh.

Respectfully, Republicans…Stuff it.

Shall we get in the time machine and go back to 2004?  Remember that year Bush finagled 286 Electoral Votes, with slim 50.7% vote margin and you all claimed “mandate”?  Bush himself went on the TV boasting of his invisible mandate, and you all followed lock-step like sheep.

Sen. Obama has received 349 Electoral Votes with 52% of the vote margin.

No mandate?  Are you kidding me?  You’ve squandered 6 years of control; abusing your power, demonizing those of us who disagree with you.  You’ve proven that you do not understand what the American public wants or needs, but more importantly that you do not care.  The fact that you think that we are or should listen to anything your irrelevant pundits say is laughable.

So, please. Go concern-troll elsewhere, but I tired of your incessant babblings on my TV, in my periodicals and online.


5
Nov 08

Musings on last night’s election

the 44th President of the United States...Bara...

Image by jmtimages via Flickr

am not going to try to write a long intellectual entry on what happened last night. I can only post snapshots on we witnessed.  My feelings are still too raw.  I woke up this morning, like in 2000 and 2004, with a knot in my stomach; expecting a different outcome.  I rushed to grab my morning paper to make sure it was all real.  That today wasn’t Election Day and I just dreamt that Sen. Obama had won over 330 Electoral Votes.

It was real.

It did happen.

Senator Barack Obama is our President-Elect.

My 5 year old, who has been an Obama fan since last Spring, kept asking me this morning, “Did Obama really win?”  Through tears, I said “Yes. Yes he did.”

******

I spoke to some of my older family members last night.  The constant refrain was, “That young man did it.  He ran a great campaign and didn’t let anyone tear him down.  I never thought I’d live to see this day.” They reminisced on growing up in segregated towns in the South and Midwest.  One 92 year old cousin, in Arkansas wept as he talked about he had to keep his head down, just so he would stay out of trouble, “Today, I hold my head high, like Obama did throughout his campaign.”  I cried.

******

Sen. McCain’s concession speech, was the most classy concession speech I think I’ve ever witnessed.  Even though from July on he ran the exact same campaign Sen. Clinton did, his concession speech was exactly the one she should have given in June.

******

The first black President won this election without the Self-Appointed Godfathers of Blackness.  We didn’t have to see Rev. Jesse Jackson or Rev. Al Sharpton pontificating on our TVs last night for the first time in my lifetime. Rev. Jackson was shown, tears streaming down his face, as he stood with thousands in Grant Park.

******

Scholars will study the Obama campaign forever.  Not just political scholars, but in business classes, PR majors, technological studies.  Every tool out there was used, even abused if my text messages and emails are any indication. The branding was simple and consistent, from slogan to font, to color.  The business acumen of where and how to raise and spend money, would make many major corporations jealous.

******

Social media came into its own this election cycle. Twitter broke most stories before even blogs had a chance to write up something.  This election cycle belonged to black bloggers.  It seemed that they alone were taking advantage of social media tools, not just to announce new posts, but to organize GOTV and appearnces.  It was a simple way for them to stay in contact with their readers outside the blog and get more on-the-ground reporting from around the country.

******

I still haven’t received my shirts from the Obama-Biden campaign. I’m sad.

******

The ground campaign of Obama’s was probably the best of any campaign ever.  Speaking to friends who worked for the campaign and speaking to people who volunteered from the campaign, they all said the same thing, “This is the first election where people from DC who had never stepped foot in my town, didn’t come in to tell us how it is. They gave us ownership and listened.”

******

A few weeks ago, Republicans started whining about how Democrats shouldn’t have a majority because that would be dangerous for the country.  All of a sudden they despise the idea of one party controll the Administrative and Legislative branches of government.  I’m still trying to find where they were so distraught about this in 2000 and 2004.  It’s a disengenious arguement and insulting to my intelligence.  Republicans need not fear. Democrats do not govern to abuse power.  A Democratic majority will have it’s hands full rolling back and repairing the damage of the last 8 years.

******

Best quote of the night, after the election was called for Sen. Obama: “Meanwhile, in D.C., two guys named George and Dick have placed the single largest order for industrial strength paper shredders that Office Depot has ever had to fulfill.”

******

When I had heard that Fox News (!) had called Ohio for Sen. Obama, I thought I was going to faint.  When I saw that he had also won Florida, I had to sit down.  Thank you to both states.

*****

I can only hope that we never have to hear or see the hatefulness that is Gov. Sarah Palin.

******

And finally, we’ll never learn what Republican voters liked about Sen. McCain.  It’s a testament to spin, that when asked the most intelligent offering was the tired, “Obama’s a socialist/radical/communist/Muslim”.  That never explained McCain’s appeal.


8
Jun 08

Obama thanks his staff

Here’s a nice little (13:39) video of Sen. Obama thanking his staff for their hard work throughout the primary campaign:


3
Jun 08

Sen. Barack Obama: Our Democratic Nominee

AP just went live with this most awesome headline that will only topped in Nov. when Obama wins the presidency:

AP tally: Obama effectively clinches nomination

Fuck yeah!

The tally was based on public declarations from delegates as well as from another 15 who have confirmed their intentions to the AP. It also included 11 delegates Obama was guaranteed as long as he gained 30 percent of the vote in South Dakota and Montana later in the day. It takes 2,118 delegates to clinch the nomination.

I can’t wait for tonight.


3
Jun 08

Hillary Rodham Clinton will you please go NOW!

Tonight…tonight’s the night…that we get rid of that woman…

LOL!

Over at TPM, there’s a report from AP that Clinton will concede should Obama reach the delegate number.  But, uh…get this:

Obama is 40 delegates shy of clinching the nomination, but he is widely expected to make up the difference Tuesday with superdelegate support and votes in South Dakota and Montana. Once he reaches the magic number of 2,118, Clinton will acknowledge that he has secured the necessary delegates to be the nominee.

The former first lady will stop short of formally suspending or ending her race in her speech in New York City.

She will pledge to continue to speak out on issues like health care. But for all intents and purposes, the two senior officials said, the campaign is over.

The hell?

The lady is bent on making me embarassed for her.  But hopefully, this means Bill Clinton will finally STFU.


26
May 08

If you’re in DC on May 31st…

According to demconwatch, the Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting to determine the fate of FL and MI is open to the public.

From First Read:

The DNC has just released the details on the meeting: It will take place in DC; it has a morning session (oral arguments) that begins at 9:30 am ET and an afternoon session (consideration and debate); and it’s allowing the public to attend.

But there are caveats to this attendance: Space is limited and guests must pre-register. Also: “In order to maintain the decorum of the meeting, banners, posters, signs, handouts, and noisemakers of any kind are strictly prohibited. Also, please be advised that the agenda for the meeting does not include time for questions from the general public.”

So, if you just happen to know you’ll be in DC on the 31st and just happen to have time on your hands and just happen to care about the farce of seating the FL and MI delegation even though both states broke the rules, by all means, register and report.


23
May 08

Hillary Clinton: Still fucking insane

This heiffer has once again, threw down her Habitual Line Stepper Card and showed her ass again:

Clinton was responding to a question from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader editorial board about calls for her to drop out of the race.

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don’t understand it,” she said, dismissing the idea of dropping out.

Tacky, low class, motherfucker = Hillary Clinton.


21
May 08

Why is Clinton still in?

I’ve been trying to figure this one out for months now. Those of us in the real world have known that after the Potomac Primary there was no way, short of super delegates changing their minds, that the Clinton’s could get the nomination.  After all the races were finished in Feb., it became mathematically impossible.  The goalpost moving melodrama doesn’t change those facts at all.

Last night, I watched her surrogates on MSNBC and CNN try to tout the Kentucky win as important, yet every single surrogate who got up there, all spoke as if Obama was already the nominee.  On MSNBC, it was particularly interesting to watch Chris Matthews lead these people into the corner and by the middle of the interview, they were already talking about the Clinton’s in the past tense and saying how her supporters will come out and support Obama in the fall.  On CNN, the Clinton’s surrogates almost fell over themselves to tell Wolfie and Pals that even though KY is important, they have no problem in the fall rallying around Obama.  Clinton gave her stilted speech (Tell me, how do you give the same boring speech 9 times in a row and still sound stilted?) and said all the “I’m in it to win it” BS she always says even though, the facts just weren’t there.

Now this morning, I’m reading late night/early morning interviews with the Clinton’s surrogates and the new talking point is Hillary as VP.  (Could you imagine how creepy-horrible it would be to have Bill Clinton hanging around your White House?) and these surrogates are saying that if Clinton is chosen as VP, then they won’t have to deal with party unity.  How cynical is that?  The Clinton’s have done everything in their power to finish off what they didn’t completely do in the 90s:  Divide the Democratic Party.  Of course they’re not interested in Party unity.  They never have been.

I want to add my voice to a growing chrorus of Obama supporters who, rightfully, believe that an Obama/Clinton ticket won’t be a “dream” ticket to anyone except the Clinton’s supporters.  Let her surrogates go out and make this head-exploding case for Clinton to be Obama’s VP for the next few days, but it needs to be quashed and soon.


19
May 08

Hillary Clinton & Karl Rove = BFF?

One more thing to add to the list of crazy the Clinton’s are doing: Clinton cited Karl Rove as a reason to stay in the race. Not like bringing him up like he’s the boogeyman, but…

“Just today I found some curious support for that position when one of the TV networks released an analysis done by – of all people – Karl Rove, saying that I was the stronger candidate,” said Clinton. “Somebody got a hold of his analysis and there it is.”

Yikes.

*****

That’s desperation…that makes this morning’s stupid memo from the Clinton’s campaign this seem brilliant. See, the Clinton’s released a memo that said that Sen. Obama better not declare victory in Iowa tomorrow night. Only problem is that declaring victory was never the plan. In fact, for the past week Obama has been shutting down all talk of declaring victory in Iowa and this morning news all over the place held that the Obama campaign was not going to Iowa for a victory dance.

But “facts” and “reality” have a funny way of avoiding the Clinton’s like they were Republicans or something. 3 hours after all the news reports and blog reports of Obama NOT declaring victory were posted, the Clinton’s released a intellectually deficient memo demanding Obama not declare victory in Iowa. The more cynical among us believe the Clinton’s did that so that win Obama, as planned, does not declare victory in Iowa they can puff up their chests for their deluded supporters and say, “We did that.”

Idiots.

******

I’ve been reading a lot about all the sexism Sen. Clinton has endured and her supporters are laying it directly on the feet of Obama in some fucktarded twist of logic. Ironically, many of these women make incredibly racist remarks regarding Obama, but I guess grrrl power supersedes bigotry in this case. It’s impossible to talk about the sexism from the media and ignorant assholes that Clinton has received without mentioning the racism that Obama has received not just from the GOP and the media, but more importantly from the Clinton’s and their supposed Democrat supporters. One quote from a white woman supporting Clinton blew it off, as “there’s more of us (women) than them (black people), so why make us mad?” You know, that’s their mindset right? If anything, this election has vindicated my view on old school, white, intellectual feminists. I never thought much of them before and as I’ve mentioned, I know that when they talk about women, they’re not including me. Still, considering how much I’ve been dismissed because of that view, it’s nice to proven right. But I’m not going to get into that.

We can see the double standards at work here. I’ve mentioned how Clinton plays that annoying girl on the schoolyard who hits a boy because she knows that boys shouldn’t hit girls, yet whines the boys want to ignore her. Hillary Clinton gave a talk at a women’s group back in April and no one batted an eye. Yet, we know that Obama couldn’t be seen speaking to the NAACP or at Tavis Smiley’s Strokefest State of the Black Union, because of his skin color. Clinton talks about women all the time in her speeches; she mentions old women who want to vote for her so they can see a female president before they die or moms bringing their daughters to see her because she could be president. Yet, I’ve seen or read many of Obama’s speeches and we don’t get stories of old black men telling Obama they’re voting for him because they want to see a black president before they die, we don’t get stories of moms bringing their sons to see him because he could be president. And if he did tell those stories, do you think the bigots on news sites and blogs would let that slide? Do you think the media would let that slide? Booman put into words exactly what I’ve been trying to say the past 5 months:

My overall view is that Hillary Clinton succeeded in convincing the American people that she was the presumptive frontrunner, which means that people were able to picture a woman president without much resistance. That frontrunner status was so ingrained that I think it actually hurt her campaign, as people rejected a coronation. Meanwhile, the black community displayed a lot of resistance to the idea of a black president. This was evidenced by the slowness with which they rallied around Obama. Prior to his victory in the overwhelmingly white state of Iowa, the polls showed Clinton running even or ahead among blacks in South Carolina. In other words, Obama had a harder time getting people to accept the idea of a black president than Clinton had getting people to accept the idea of a female president.

The Clintons have consistently tried to convince people that a black man is unelectable (whether they sincerely believe it or not), while the Obama campaign has never to my knowledge tried to convince people that a woman is unelectable. The Clinton campaign has used a million and one excuses for their losses, including that certain states have too many black people in them. The Obama campaign did not make the converse argument to explain why they lost any states until West Virginia.

emphasis mine

Remember this the next time people tell you that voting against Clinton is sexist. I would say include “voting against Obama is racist”, but the only people I see saying that are Clinton supporters, so I’m going to assume it’s a talking point of the Clinton’s campaign.


16
May 08

Communist much, Hillary?

Okay, I saw a poster of Hillary last week or the week before that was just horrid. I thought it was a one-off and joke on the Clinton’s campaign. Someone over at TPM alerted us to the fact that it is an official poster from the Clinton’s campaign.

So…we got the rays of light coming from behind the head…that and the color of them made them very Communist China in my head. But the other hat tip to Communistic propaganda is very subtle: Hillary left profile.

Showing Mao’s left profile was huge in the posters a few years after the Cultural Revolution. There’s a lot of stuff I’m not remembering too clearly and I don’t feel like looking it up. IIRC, there was something criminal in looking left, so after the Cultural Revolution, Mao was shown either facing front or facing right. Just like our girl.

Oh, I’m sure if you ask the artist he’d say he was being cute. Question is, does the campaign think it’s cute?