Posts Tagged: nevada caucus


23
Jan 08

The Clinton’s: Using Karl Rove’s playbook

I didn’t want to write this post. In fact, I’ve been avoiding posting this, but it’s gotten to be too much.

There were a lot of concerns of voter fraud in New Hampshire. After all, all the polls had Obama winning by a 2 digit margin. Lots of people were worried beforehand because New Hampshire uses Diebold voting machines and have not upgraded the security of the machines. Dennis Kucinich immediately requested a recount. Kucinich is one of the few elected officials who actually care about the integrity of our voting system. (I’m not even going to mention the frozen PayPal account/Clinton relation here.) The Clinton supporters are convinced that the Obama campaign made Kucinich ask for the recount. The recount was illuminating:

Several blogs have analyzed the votes by precinct, made available by Black Box Voting, The Boston Globe, the New Hampshire Department of State, and The Politico, and noted that Obama led Clinton in both rural and urban precincts that used hand counting, but Clinton led Obama in precincts that used machine counting. Several news sources, including Citizens for Legitimate Government, The Dallas Morning News, Malta Star, and Slashdot have covered their analyses.

In New Hampshire, The Clinton’s have pushed the lie that Sen. Obama, with his 100% rating from NARAL is anti-choice. In fact, as the Washington Post reports:

Katie Wheeler, a former state senator, said the Clinton campaign had not given her background information about Obama’s record on abortion rights when it asked her to sign the letter calling him weak on the issue, and said that, as a result, she did not understand the context of the votes that the letter was attacking him over.

“It should never have gotten to the point where anyone thought Obama was not pro-choice. I don’t think the Clinton campaign should have done that. It was divisive and unnecessary…I think it was a mistake and I’ve spoken to the national [Clinton campaign] and told them it caused problems in New Hampshire, and am hoping they won’t do it again.”

[snip]

One of the Obama supporters who signed the reconciliation e-mail, Mary Rauh, said she did so because she was very worried that the rift created by the primary could seriously harm abortion rights efforts in the state if it was left unadressed. But she said that she remained aggrieved by the Clinton attack and by the willingness of so many Democratic leaders in the state to go along with it, and worried by reports that similar e-mails attacking Obama on abortion rights have gone out in other states preparing to vote.

This is pretty important, because the Clinton’s are using this same letter in South Carolina right now. More on that later. But this letter caused problems in New Hampshire. One has to wonder if those same people who voted for the Clinton’s on Jan. 8th, would be willing to do it again on Nov. 4th.

Let’s move on to Nevada.

As I mentioned in an early post, I thought that Bill Clinton had lost his mind when he started in with the lie about the Culinary Union Workers being coerced to vote for Obama. You’d think that a former president running for a 3rd term with all those cameras around, someone would have video of it. Someone. Needless to say, the media people dutifully reported the lie, without actually, um verifying it. Maybe they still feel bad over The Clenis escapade and have decided to give Billy a pass on yet another lie.

But the stories coming out of NV on the day of the caucus were worrying. People were blogging that the the Clinton people had taken over registration and leading the caucus. There are way too many reports (yes that’s a link to DK, only because thereisnospoon didn’t put any of this on his own blog–I used this link because one, I know TINS and think he’s pretty trustworthy, and two he had more links in his diary) all of the Clinton people filling out the voter cards before people voted, telling Obama and Edwards supporters they were in the wrong room or location, or counting non-residents in their tallies.

It’s hard to believe. This is just a primary. These are supposed Democrats doing this to other Democrats Those are the same exact tactics used by the Republicans in the last 1000 election cycles. We all know that Rove thinks that Sen. Clinton is a great choice for president, the older Bush is like BFF with Bill Clinton, is there any reason to assume that Rove isn’t working with the Clinton’s on their 3rd term campaign? The Clinton Attacks Obama wiki shows that Rovean tactics are in full effect within the Clinton’s campaign.

See, the Clinton’s spent December and January trying to remind voters that Barack is a black man. They did the racist robo-calls in NV and they’re running them again in South Carolina, right now. Then they got a blogger (her name is Taylor Marsh), who must be cut from the same moth-ridden cloth as Michelle Malkin, to make unvalidated and wild allegations against Obama, actually blaming the Clinton’s racist remarks on Obama himself. Now, Sen. Clinton has spent 2 days now telling us what a great “talented young man” Sen. Obama is. xP

In South Carolina, the Clinton’s are doing the whole “oh, we just may lose again” thing. They’re calling pro-choice voters and spreading the same lies they did in New Hampshire.

******

Wait…while I’m here, do you voters actually believe all this bullshit that comes through the phone or your mailbox? Don’t you do any kind of research? I mean, beyond talking to your equally uninformed neighbor/parent/coworker/cashier? Really. I was raised to have a great respect for the choices I get to make in the voting booth. Don’t you people care at all?

</end rant>

******

South Carolina is upon us. My aunt’s sister says that the Clinton people are saying everything bad about Obama short of he ate a live baby while taking a dump on someone’s grandma (Wait was that R. Kelly. You know to the Clinton’s “they all look alike”.). Bill Clinton is going crazy again, accusing everyone of being Obama plants, from people in audiences* to CNN reporters. And this guy wants a 3rd term? We done already had a crazy president, we want a sane one this time around. Preferably one who hasn’t been president twice already.

But I’m keeping my eye on South Carolina. I’m so used to blogging or sending emails reminding people to be on the lookout for GOP election shenanigans. I never in a million years, thought I’d have to tell people to watch out for the Clinton’s. After all, it seems they inherited Rove’s playbook.

*I wonder if the “young man” was a black and that was why Clinton accused him of being a plant.


20
Jan 08

NEVADA CAUCUS: MSNBC calls it for Team Clinton

There’s a lot of head scratching going on in the blogosphere over these calls. I guess because they have 59% reporting they’re going for it:

Democrats | Polls | County Results
Candidate Votes % of votes Delegates won
Clinton 3,003 50% 0
Obama 2,679 45% 0
Edwards 272 5% 0
Uncommitted 13 0%  
Kucinich 3 0% 0
Richardson 0 0% 0
59% of precincts reporting

But it looks like the Clintons are going to be handed NV, based on one county. Team Clinton actually lost in all the other counties in NV, it seems. Seems that Edwards supporters broke for Obama after the first round. I’m not shocked at that. I am a bit surprised over Edwards small showing. Is he sure he wants to keep this going until July? Can he?

As for as South Carolina is concerned, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Edwards largely white support move over to Clinton, simply based on race. Especially since the media has been pounding the last few days how Obama has sewn up the “black vote”.


20
Jan 08

NEVADA CAUCUS: Close race with the Dems

Early today, the Obama campaign said it was going to be a close race. They weren’t lying:

From MSNBC:

Democrats | Polls | County Results
Candidate Votes % of votes Delegates won
Obama 39 48% 0
Clinton 38 46% 0
Edwards 4 5% 0
Kucinich 1 1% 0
Richardson 0 0% 0
Uncommitted 0 0%  
3% of precincts reporting

19
Jan 08

NEVADA CAUCUS: Mitt Romney wins

MSNBC and CNN are calling Nevada for Mitt Romney with 0% of precincts reporting.

Don’t ask me how that works.

I believe the Democratic caucuses have started as of 15 min. ago with final results in 3 hours.


16
Jan 08

NEVADA CAUCUS: Volunteers needed

From the email I received:

The Nevada State Democratic Party and Democratic National Committee are looking for volunteers to help with the “First in the West” Precinct Caucuses. The requested volunteer dates are Thursday, January 17th, Friday the 18th, and Saturday the 19th (Caucus Day). A mandatory volunteer training session will be held on the 17th at 8 a.m.

Volunteers will be expected to work “campaign hours” and duties would include helping manage at-large precincts, assisting NDSP staff with final preparations and project management, and assisting with reporting on Caucus Day. Most jobs will be headquartered near downtown Las Vegas, but based on need, volunteers might be asked to help out in Northern Nevada.

Each volunteer will be asked to provide for their own travel, and as of earlier this week, the NDSP was able to secure hotel rates of $55 per night for volunteers. Please contact Ana MascareƱas, who will be volunteering in Nevada, if you’re interested in helping out! [email protected], 323.715.1335 (cell)