Democrat Convention

[jgaffney]

I tell ya, it ain't over yet. This is from ABC:

ABC News' Kate Snow reports: A deal has been brokered between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that will allow Clinton's name to be placed in nomination at next week's Democratic nominating convention, sources close to the Clinton camp told ABC News.

"Both sides agree that it is in the best interest of party unity and making sure that everyone's voice and vote is honored to make sure her name is put into nomination," a person close the negotiations said. "It's to honor everyone who worked so hard on both sides."

........

"This truly was a joint decision," according to the Clinton source. "This wasn't something she was itching for, looking for. But so many of her supporters said it was important to them. And the Obama people got how important it was to smooth over any tensions and that it was the right thing to do."

Riiighhhtttt. But, wait, there's more:

As of last night, there are still no decisions on whether Chelsea Clinton will speak at the convention, although a Clinton source said, "I wouldn't be surprised if she did" introduce her mother.

That would make the convention a true family affair with Hillary, Bill and Chelsea Clinton all having podium time.

Leave it to the Clintons to suck all of the air out of the room. Dick Morris, who knows the Clintons probably better than anyone, has this:

It would be a mistake to think that Hillary’s campaign against Obama is over. She and Bill both realize that if McCain wins, she would be the likely Democratic nominee against him in 2012. At the age of 76, McCain might make easy pickings. Hillary’s argument to win the nomination would be simple: I told you so. Her warnings that Obama was unelectable would have proven to have been prescient and Democrats are likely to feel chagrined that they rejected her in 2008.

How will the Clintons undermine Obama? Not by any overt statement. In public, they will appear to be his biggest fans. Hillary does not dare incurring the wrath of Democratic voters if they feel that she abandoned her party’s nominee in the general election. But the Clintons will do what they do best: they will hog the spotlight. By speaking on Tuesday and Wednesday, this former first couple will spread themselves over the convention, usurping media, taking face time, and making the convention appear, for its first three days, as a Hillary Clinton gathering.

Remember how in 2004, Bill Clinton timed the release of his memoir My Life to coincide with the start of the John Kerry campaign. His swings through the nation, attracting lines and crowds at bookstores drew attention away from Kerry. His strategy of distraction culminated when he scheduled a book signing in Boston during the Democratic Convention, drawing mobs and pulling the spotlight away from Kerry.

By hogging the publicity at the Democratic Convention and by keeping the spotlight away from Obama, the Clintons are going to do all they can to stop the Democrat from getting a bounce from his Convention appearance. How will they hurt Obama down the road — Bill will make off-handed comments, seemingly mistakes. A lose cannon, he will appear to be undisciplined as he follows a game plan to undermine the candidate. Hillary will do her best to avoid campaigning for Obama and will undercut him in any way she can without getting caught.

Like I said, the Clintons are not easily embarassed.

[The Big Dog]

Morris has it called.... I've been saying the same thing for months.

[jgaffney]

The New York Daily News has this op-ed

Russia rolls over Georgia, Hillary Clinton does the same to Barack Obama. Now we know who's boss.

Obama blinked and stands guilty of appeasing Clinton by agreeing to a roll call vote for her nomination. That he might not have had much choice if he wanted peace only proves the point that he's playing defense at his own convention.

What does he get out of it? Not much and not for long.

The fleeting sense that he is a magnanimous nominee won't get him a single vote he wouldn't get anyway. Ditto for the idea that he's going the extra mile to unify the party. Those who refuse to accept him as the legitimate winner aren't likely to do so just because he caves into her demands.

It makes him look weak and ratifies Clinton's sense of entitlement to share party leadership and the convention spotlight.

It was supposed to be his party. Now it's theirs. His and hers.

By "his and hers" does the writer mean Bill's and Hillary's? If Obama can't stand up to the Clinton machine, imagine all the fun Ahmadinejad will have with him!

[jgaffney]

Now that the first night of the convention is in the bag (no pun intended), here are a few reflections on the night's key speakers.

Speaker Pelosi:[/u]

Nancy came out swinging her class warrior bat, the only one she has. She said that, two years ago, the American people sent our nation in a new direction. Two years ago, oil was $65 a barrel. Is this the direction we want to be going in?

Nancy read off a litany of the accomplishments of the 110th Congress, her Congress. While long, there were no big initiatives. Other than banning toys from China, the list was basically Congress handing out money.

Nancy called Iraq a "catastrophic mistake." Does the Speaker yearn for the status quo ante? Would it be better to still have Saddam in power, gaming the Oil For Food system, defying the UN inspectors, funding the terrorists and plotting the resurgence of his WMDs once no one was looking again?

Nancy talked about, when Obama comes to the White House, "the influence of the special interests will be reduced." Was she talking about the teachers' union or SEIU?

She talked about the dedication of Obama which, "brought him to the neighborhoods of South Chicago." You'll note that he is not of those neighborhoods, but dropped in to lend his charisma. I haven't yet heard a list of his accomplishments as a neighborhood organizer - can one of you Dems enlighten me on this?

Nancy closed with a description of the Democrat Party being, "unified, organized, and stronger than ever!" Boy, that'll be the day! A unified Democrat Party? Puhleese.

Ted Kennedy:

While I have great respect for this man, the Lion of the Senate, with his family history and oratory power, it stops there. He talked about education, but never once boasted of his greatest accomplishment: No Child Left Behind. That's because it bombed with the teachers' union.

He talked about health care as a "right that everyone has." That may be true; however, a right on your part does not imply an obligation on my part.

During his whole speech, I couldn't help but think, "Mary Jo Kopechne was not available for comment." How can the Democrat Party celebrate a man who left an innocent girl to drown in a car in the waters of Nantucket Sound?

Michelle Obama:

Ah, yes, Michelle ma belle, the star of tonight's show. She was so proud of how her parents worked to send her to college. Didn't she get an affirmative action scholarship?

She said America should be, "a place where you can make it if you try." However, everyone of her husband's programs scream, "You have a right to a happy life - why work?"

She talked about, "the servicemen who love our country so much that they leave their loved ones at home to go and defend our country." Except for, of course, Iraq, where their valiant efforts have been a total waste of time. And, by the way, since our servicemen can't defeat the insurgents on schedule, we'll just bring them all home. Except for, of course, the ones who get redeployed in Afghanistan.

Michell said her husband wants to welcome soldiers home with good jobs. He wants to build the economy. How? By raising taxes? Winston Churchill said that some people think that they can stand in a bucket and lift it up by the handle. Same thing applies here. The government does not create jobs - the private sector does. And, they do it with disposable, after-tax income. Best to maximize that number.

Michelle is working on a Clinton-like lip bite. What was so endearing on Bill merely looks staged on her.

Michelle closed with a call to "build the world as it should be." Again with that messianic thing. She might as well have said, "We know what's best. Your job is to get in line!"

[The New Guy]

The democrats have suddenly developed a keen sense of morality. John Edwards has been banned from making a speech at the democratic convention for having an affair and lying about it.

In his place Bill Clinton will be speaking

[Mink]

Not that any affair is acceptable, will you guys hold McCain to the same fire for his affair with Cindy while his first wife was in the hospital with cancer?

[saunterelle]

Aug 26, 2008 0:21:04 GMT -5 Mink said:

Not that any affair is acceptable, will you guys hold McCain to the same fire for his affair with Cindy while his first wife was in the hospital with cancer?

Of course they won't. They don't actually care about who had an affair with whom, they are simply grasping for straws for anything they can peg the Democrats with. They're defensive because John Sidney McCain might not win the election.

Michelle's speech last night was eloquent, intelligent, and refreshingly free of the fear-mongering phrases that pepper Republican's speeches. It was focused on faith, hard work, and family values. If you want to try and discredit her go ahead, but you'll have a hard time winning that argument when your side (John and "second wife" Cindy) is made up of ultra-privileged individuals who never had to lift a finger when they were growing up.

[jgaffney]

Aug 26, 2008 9:42:44 GMT -5 saunterelle said:

Michelle's speech last night was eloquent, intelligent, and refreshingly free of the fear-mongering phrases that pepper Republican's speeches. It was focused on faith, hard work, and family values.

I noticed Michelle did not touch on her college resume, which includes Princeton and Yale. Why didn't she try to impress the people with her thesis, which wondered why African-American alumni didn't identify themselves anymore with their bretheren of color? The thesis has been suppressed until after the election, but one blogger asks, "Will Michelle Obama appear to be too black for white America or not black enough for black America?"

The real message last night was that Barry and Michelle are just like you, White America. Hard working parents and loving spouses, not commmunity activists who sat in a church for 20 years listening to sermons about black revolution theology.

[saunterelle]

*yawn* more outright lies and scare tactics. Don't you have anything better than that?

And if you want the truth on her thesis and their church, snopes has the truth:

www.snopes.com/politics/obama/thesis.asp

www.snopes.com/politics/obama/church.asp

[jgaffney]

Saunterelle, thanks for the update on Michelle Obama's thesis. Your link says that the thesis is now available at politico.com. The link, however, supports my statement that Michelle's thesis questions whether black alumni from the school still felt a relationship with the rest of the (left behind) black community. Please address your response to that point.

Your link regarding the Obama's church did not say anything at all about Rev. Jeremiah Wright's preaching of Black Liberation Theology, which is a commbination of Malcom X and Karl Marx. My original statement remains unrefuted.

But, at least you're learning to use links now.

[jgaffney]

This just in from The Hill:

Bill Clinton appeared to undermine Sen. Barack Obama again Tuesday.
The former president, speaking in Denver, posed a hypothetical question in which he seemed to suggest that that the Democratic Party was making a mistake in choosing Obama as its presidential nominee.

He said: "Suppose you're a voter, and you've got candidate X and candidate Y. Candidate X agrees with you on everything, but you don't think that candidate can deliver on anything at all. Candidate Y you agree with on about half the issues, but he can deliver. Which candidate are you going to vote for?"

Then, perhaps mindful of how his off-the-cuff remarks might be taken, Clinton added after a pause: "This has nothing to do with what's going on now."

The comments are unlikely to be taken as an innocent mistake by those Democrats who continue to be angry with the former president for, they say, not supporting the Illinois senator wholeheartedly, if not implicitly undercutting him.

The Clintons do not do anything by mistake. This is a coldly calculated move to make Obama lose the election. Hillary can then run in 2012 on a platform of "I Told You So!"

Hillary will talk tonight of uniting the party behind Obama, but she will show the Democrat Party what they could have had.

Film at eleven.........

[saunterelle]

Saunterelle, thanks for the update on Michelle Obama's thesis. Your link says that the thesis is now available at politico.com. The link, however, supports my statement that Michelle's thesis questions whether black alumni from the school still felt a relationship with the rest of the (left behind) black community. Please address your response to that point.

Her major was Sociology and her thesis was titled "Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community." I'm not understanding what the controversy is here. Obviously, race relations in America is a significant area of study. What is your gripe with her thesis?