Obama, speaking live in Tampa, just described McCain’s foreign policy (and I paraphrase):
McCain’s entire foreign policy is “I won’t talk to that guy. And I won’t talk to that guy. And I won’t talk to that guy.”
Heh.
*** Update ***
Now a Clinton surrogate is telling Andrea Mitchell that “Clinton has won more votes in the past few months.” I understand that they need to make an argument for Clinton over Obama, but could they quit making such stupid ones?
I want you students to try this on your professor next semester. Don’t do any work the first few months. Then with a week left in the semester, go to your professor, and point out that you have “done more work than any one else the past couple of weeks.” Get back to me.
r€nato
it’s the “I’ll hold my breath until I turn blue” philosophy of foreign policy.
Not very becoming of adults… or a superpower.
Neal
Fucking Damn It.
I’m about three miles from there working in this damn office and I couldn’t take the day off because my damn boss in vacation.
I did drive by the forum on the way in this morning and there was a sizable turnout at 7:45 am. Good to see. They were expecting 20,000 plus.
RampantSexism
There is little doubt that the wall of sexism and misogyny we’ve all agreed is holding her back, is responsible for the gains in votes for her lately.
That’s the true tragedy of sexism. It hurts by helping.
Billy K
Let the JDAMs do the talking.
Jeff
You see this one John from a radio interview in FL?
“We are turning this into a major battle that I think is really ill serving the party.”
Funny, if you actually take that literally, where “we” means the “Clinton campaign”, she’s never spoken truer words.
Throwin Stones
I believe I tried that in one class my Freshman year.
Didn’t turn out so well. But I was only partially delusional at the time.
NR
I posted this before, but maybe this is a better place for it, since this post is about the campaign.
The #1 issue for Democratic primary reform has to be to get rid of superdelegates.
Victory for either Clinton or Obama is impossible without the aid of superdelegates. And that has put the supporters of both candidates in the position where they’d be unhappy about a victory by the other. Even if Obama ends up with a delegate majority, and even if there is a satisfactory resolution to the Florida and Michigan situation, Clinton supporters will still feel screwed over by the superdelegates if he wins (voters always feel that the candidate they support is better than the alternative, and the job of the supers is supposed to be to choose the best candidate, so Clinton supporters will feel that the supers failed in their duty).
The question for the general is whether or not we Democrats have totally screwed ourselves. Will Hillary’s supporters come on board, or will they latch onto the idea that the supers fucked them over?
Without the superdelegates as a last court of appeal, Hillary supporters would still feel disappointed, even angry, but they wouldn’t be able to blame the DNC for their candidate’s loss. If it wasn’t for the supers having the final say, Hillary would probably have dropped out after the Wisconsin primary when the delegate math became insurmountable, and we’d be heading into the GE with a unified party, instead of the sorry state we’re in now. (Don’t forget that McCain won the Republican nomination on Super Tuesday with about 1/3 of the votes. Many Republicans were unhappy, but they didn’t go nuclear over it the way Hillary supporters have done, and you didn’t see McCain’s opponents out there making arguments like “How can he be the nominee when he’s only won one-third of the votes??” Why? Because they had no court of appeal).
nightjar
Sort of like concern trolling. ARRGGHHH!
She’s rich, so buy a fucking ladder.
Dreggas
If we use non-euclidian math and only count the votes of those who belong to the esoteric order of Clagon then the high priestess is winning.
jake
Bu-but, votes won during the early part of the primary season don’t count as much as those won later in the season!* Because … um … the later votes are … ah … fresher and riper. Yes. You don’t want a nominee who was elected with stale votes, do you?
*Except for Florida & Michigan.
Neal
TPD estimates the crowd at 15,000 and the group that runs the forum says it’s more.
Mayor Pam Iorio endorsed Obama and spoke at the rally.
Go Mayor Pam!
Jess
Interestingly enough, I did have a student try that one on me this semester. I finally decided to bump him up from a D+ to a C- to reward improvement–I guess I would grant HRC a similar grade if she was more serious about party unity from here on out.
wasabi gasp
If your professor’s a dick and won’t recognize your achievements, take off you bra and point them out again.
RampantSexism
According to Time magazine, Clinton …
1. Misjudged the mood of the country and ran as an incumbent when people wanted change
2. Didn’t master the rules and got outmaneuvered
3. Underestimated the importance of the caucus states
4. Relied on old money for funding
5. Never developed a long-haul strategy
I paraphrased slightly for brevity.
Here you see the evil, hidden effects of sexism and misogyny. Distracted by the unfairness, she could not handle the complexity of a long hard campaign.
Zifnab
The Decemberists must have been in town.
The problem is that America grades on a curve. Damn you, liberal grading policies! Foiled again!
Jon H
In other words, Clinton toad is making the argument that Obama might well have made it to the finish line with a shorter time, but Hillary took more steps getting to the finish line, so should be declared the winner.
That’ll be good news for all the midgets who run the NY Marathon.
The Moar You Know
The only real argument that Hillary has left is simply this: that America won’t elect Obama because he’s black.
There’s really only one way to find out, amirite?
Dennis - SGMM
As for Republican diplomacy, their tried and true technique of sticking their fingers in their ears and going, “I can’t hear you!” also deserves a quick mention.
nightjar
Scuttle Diplomacy.
Rick Massimo
Damn, I’m sorry that’s a paraphrase.
I love the assumption that these are the same people voting now as in February.
Did I miss the part where Hillary’s surrogates took an oath not to discuss policy when describing why she should be the nominee?
Cyrus
When you phrase it like that, I don’t think the seriousness of that mistake can be overemphasized. Forget Iraq; Kerry voted for it too and he still got nominated. But why in the world would anyone run on inevitability and an insider’s expertise
• for nomination by the party out of power
• which is generally the more liberal, change-oriented party
• in a time when current policies are very unpopular and she was on the wrong side of some of those and isn’t willing to back down from them
• when it looks to the general public like that experience began with her husband’s career rather than her own?
Seitz
Fact: Because Oregon sits on the West Coast, their polls did not close until 11:00 pm Eastern Time. As Obama won Oregon rather handily, he has clearly won more votes than Clinton in the last several hours. If that’s not conclusive proof that he should be the nominee, I don’t know what it.
Punchy
I read “superdelegates” and think of large, guarded openings in the fence that surrounds the local Mr. Goodcents….
Jorge
Neal,
Obama should make Pam his VP candidate. Sure, nobody knows her. But man would she do a good job.
Maybe mayor Pam can unseat Mel in 2010.
flavortext
Sorry John, no can do. Unlike Clinton, I start off the quarter prepared to work all the way to the final.
Jorge
Clinton proved that she can’t strategize, can’t organize, and can’t see potential hazards in the road. Basically, she is still the same Hillary that botched up Hillaricare with a more polished political veneer.
Paul
This is supposed to imply that voters are “reconsidering” Sen. Obama as a nominee.
It conveniently forgets the fact that superdelegates are breaking to Sen Obama and in some cases are defecting from Sen. Clinton, rather than the other way around.
Tax Analyst
Keith
At this rate, the only argument she’s going to have left is “Shut up, that’s why!”
Neal
Glad to see Pam get some recognition, Jorge. My fiance and I love her. And Kathy Castor is our house rep so we’re happy with our representation at the moment.
That is a great idea. I would love to see Pam kick Mel the hell out of there. I’m curious to see who runs.
Shinobi
Punchy, I don’t get your comment, but Mr. Goodcents is awesome. mmmm Sub.
I’m confused by NR’s assertion that the super delegates would be giving the nomination to Barak Obama. He has won the majority of pledged delegates, so if super delegates did not exsist he would currently be our de-facto winner. If Hillary’s supporters are upset that the majority of super delegates will go to the person who one the majority of pledged delegates… then… well…. frankly I don’t think we should be listening to them anyway.
Just because someone has an opinion does not necessarily make it Valid. Sorry kids. U R DUM