Not Too Early for the Soap Box

Well, well. Nate Silver's 538.com now (post RNC bump) has Trump taking the majority of electoral college votes in November. It's way too early to get upset but not too early to say this for what will probably be 20 times before now and then.

Realistically you can vote for Donald Trump and what he stands for or you can vote for Hillary Clinton and what she stands for. That’s it. Those are the choices. If you choose NOT to vote for either or vote for Trump, you are responsible if Trump wins. Hillary is making her pitch in spite of the lies and obstruction thrown at her by the GOP and Donald is making his but in the end it is the voters who will decide, and to quote some lyrics, “if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice.”

It troubles me that people don’t understand that elections aren’t about their feelings and emotions. You look at which candidate is more likely to do things you like and which one is more likely to do things you don't like, and depending on your level of psychosis, you choose accordingly. Your emotions may impact how involved you get or if you donate or if you are enthusiastic about voting or if you go out and work to elect a candidate, but your emotions shouldn’t be shaping your decision. It's math and logic, get emotions out of it. Judging by how many poor and middle-class people have been voting GOP and against their self interest of the last few elections there is some serious psychosis out there.

Oh, and don't bother with reminding me that there is a Green Party and a Libertarian Party. They are there for people who refuse to think clearly and insist that emotion plays a part in all of this. Spare me.

h/t J.Cole for the inspiration

Around the Bend

The latest rumor is that Senator Hillary Clinton is being considered for Secretary of State. I think it would be a great idea not only because she would do a good job but just ponder for a moment how crazy it would drive the wingnuts. Gotta love the possibilities.

Hillary Rocked

I couldn't stay awake to watch Hillary last night but I just finished watching her speech this morning. Absolutely perfect and exactly the speech she needed to give. I would have been happy to support her candidacy and the speech shows why. Now we need to do as she says and support Obama.

Update: I been thinking..yeah I know I shouldn't strain myself...but I have been asking myself what really did Hillary in. She and her crew, she could have done a better job with staff, made some serious gaffs but not enough I believe to sink her. I think if she had voted against the Authorization to Use Force in Iraq she would have been the Democratic nominee today.

Immune or Callous?

I guess I didn't overtly comment on all the thinly and not so thinly disguised racism and misogyny in the recent months of the Democratic primary because it was no surprise to me. It was completely to be expected. In my many years I have seen otherwise smart, decent and caring people fall into such behavior without warning and usually for something, at its root, that is trivial or otherwise meaningless in the big scheme of things. This is especially surprising on the progressive left where you would think us DFH's would be cleansed or at least self conscious of all the suppressed hate and fear such behavior symbolizes. Not true as is obvious by all the vitriol of the last few months. Some of it really cruel and hurtful and a lot of it coming out of the mouths of people from whom you would least suspect it. As usual Digby drags it all out from behind the door and flogs it about the room. She's talking about the Clinton campaign here but change a few words and the same applies to the Obama campaign.

From Digby:

Clinton’s campaign ripped open a hole in our culture and forced us to look inside. And what we found was a simmering cauldron of crude, sophomoric sexism and ugly misogyny that a lot of us knew existed but didn’t realize was still so socially acceptable that it could be broadcast on national television and garner nary a complaint from anybody but a few internet scolds like me. It was eye-opening, to say the least.

h/t Susie

Sounds Good to Me!

If one can believe the Telegraph then the following is good news indeed and I for one think it is a smashing idea...

Hillary Clinton will be offered a dignified exit from the presidential race and the prospect of a place in Barack Obama's cabinet under plans for a "negotiated surrender" of her White House ambitions being drawn up by Senator Obama's aides. The former First Lady would get the chance to pilot Mr Obama’s reforms of the American healthcare system if she agrees to clear the path to his nomination as Democratic presidential candidate. Senior figures in the Obama camp have told Democrat colleagues that the offer to Mrs Clinton of a cabinet post as health secretary or to steer new legislation through the Senate will be a central element of their peace overtures to the New York senator.

[...]

Another Democrat who has discussed strategy with friends in the Obama inner circle said that Mr Obama was openly considering asking Mrs Clinton to join his cabinet, alongside two other former presidential rivals: John Edwards, who is seen as a likely attorney general; and Joe Biden, who is a leading contender to become Secretary of State. Mr Obama hinted at the plan last week. “One of my heroes is Abraham Lincoln,” he said. “Lincoln basically pulled in all the people who had been running against him into his cabinet because whatever personal feelings there were, the issue was 'how can we get this country through this time of crisis?’ And I think that has to be the approach that one takes.”

Edwards Joins the Obama Camp

According to several sources John Edwards will endorse Barack Obama tonight in Michigan. This endorsement really couldn't come at a better time for Obama and will surely take some of the sting out of the trouncing he received at Hillary's hand in West Virginia. If all of Edward's 18 pledged delegates swing to Obama that would leave him only 45 short of a clinch. As many of you know Edwards was my candidate and I think I am happy with this. Obama has embraced Edward's anti-poverty programs and I am sure John Edwards has thought long and hard on this. Interestingly this endorsement actually goes against his wife's opinion that HRC's health plan is better than Obama's.
The plot thickens folks. I don't think this will make a difference in Hillary's decision to continue the campaign but I was wrong once before...I think it was in '72.

The 'Game Changer'

Here I am in North Carolina, which is supposed to be the 'Game Changer'. I had said I would stay out of the politics until the Dems got their candidate issues settled. I think today may well be the day.

The reality is pretty simple: The candidate with the most delegates wins the nomination and regardless of what you may wish that's Obama. He is the inevitable nominee and has been for quite sometime. In spite of the fact that Clinton has found some new friends in the media that seem to keep this campaign going on and on, the facts are the facts. It is, of course, in their interest to keep this disaster going for as long as possible.

Interestingly, Clinton has told us North Carolina will be a "game changer":

“This primary election on Tuesday is a game changer. This is going to make a huge difference in what happens going forward. The entire country – probably even a lot of the world is looking to see what North Carolina decides.”

If you believe the polls over at DKos then she will win Indiana and Obama will win North Carolina. If she doesn't win North Carolina and win big, it's over. Or it should be. If North Carolina doesn't change the game like she said it would, she should drop out this week. This thing has really gone on long enough and the longer it goes on she and her staff will be doing the GOP's dirty work and that is destroying the Democratic nominee. I am sure McCain and company want this to go on as long as possible as all it does is continue to take the focus off McCain's weaknesses and give them fodder to use against Obama.

I think today will tell the tale.

It's Time to Focus

People that regularly stop by my little corner of the “tubes” know I am pretty passionate about some things. They know that I was a supporter of John Edwards and they know that I have serious concerns about the depth of Barack Obama and his ability to carry the mantle of the Presidency. They probably also know that after Edwards left the race I settled (with not a lot of conviction) on Hillary as potentially the best of what was left.

I was never comfortable with that decision spiritually (for lack of a better word) for it was made intellectually and not from the heart. The reality is that as I look at what is happening in the contest between Obama and Clinton I see a spreading darkness for the future of progressive action. While I haven’t been able to give complete form and wholeness to the vision of the future I see, I can and do see a clear picture of the past and present. It is not a pretty picture.

In October of 2007, John Edwards laid out what he called the "moral test of our generation":

And a few weeks ago, around the sixth anniversary of 9/11, a leading presidential candidate held a fundraiser that was billed as a Homeland Security themed event in Washington, D.C. targeted to homeland security lobbyists and contractors for $1,000 a plate. These lobbyists, for the price of a ticket, would get a special "treat" -- the opportunity to participate in small, hour long breakout sessions with key Democratic lawmakers, many of whom chair important sub committees of the homeland security committee. That presidential candidate was Senator Clinton.

Senator Clinton's road to the middle class takes a major detour right through the deep canyon of corporate lobbyists and the hidden bidding of K Street in Washington -- and history tells us that when that bus stops there it is the middle class that loses.

When I asked Hillary Clinton to join me in not taking money from Washington lobbyists -- she refused. Not only did she say that she would continue to take their money, she defended them.

Today Hillary Clinton has taken more money from Washington lobbyists than any candidate from either party -- more money than any Republican candidate.

She has taken more money from the defense industry than any other candidate from either party as well.

She took more money from Wall Street last quarter than Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Barack Obama combined.

The long slow slide of our democracy into the corporate abyss continues unabated regardless of party, regardless of the best interests of America.

We have a duty -- a duty to end this.

We are, I think, at a point in the life of these United States where we are being presented with the defining moment of our future. When you look out across America and look beyond the plastic and soulless pseudo-reality that the traditional media keep trying to sell us. When you look out across America and into its soul you see an illness and misery that is calling for a cure and relief. The symptoms are clear. You see millions of uninsured facing each day knowing that if they get truly sick that they will be lost. You see millions of families growing increasingly afraid of job security or losing all hope of ever finding a job that will let them live even a modest life. You see millions of children with poor nutrition. You see the millions, of all races, getting cheated out of an even chance by a marginal public education. The symptoms are myriad and touch every sector of our society. We are at the turning point and we need to turn toward the sun.

The Democratic electorate in this country has made its choice and that choice is Barack Obama. The more I dwell upon where we are in this country the more I believe that the soul of America is making itself known in this choice. The soul of America is rejecting the status quo and embracing a new direction. Hillary represents the past and present and Obama represents the future.

If we judge the erosion of what is/was best about our country over the last 20 years we have to admit to ourselves that we have surrendered too much to corporations and they, in turn, have surrendered too much in the quest for profit at any cost. We have stood quietly by and let them send the heart of America to China and India and a hundred other places. We have placidly accepted the cheap and poisonous fruit of this export and even begged for more. Our leaders have done the same and have sold their souls to the moneyed corporatist in the ever growing quest for power and influence. The speed at which this devolution of America has happened tells us that it is quite likely that this election will be the last time we actually have a chance to change the direction of this country. If the corporatist in the guise of McCain or Clinton take the game this fall then we are surely lost save an armed insurrection.

Hillary’s failure to concede her loss and the continuing effort to secure the nomination at all costs is causing a tear in the progressive heart of this country and we cannot afford to be distracted from what is surely the moment of truth for our future. Obama’s message expresses the dream of America for change and recognizes the serious need all Americans have for fairness and an even chance to build a life. While there is no guarantee I believe we need to rally our forces behind Barack Obama and insure, without a doubt, an opportunity to shed the shackles placed upon us by the oppressive leadership we have known for the past few decades.

It is time to focus like a laser on what we have to do to initiate the changes needed. To quote John Edwards, "We have a duty -- a duty to end this."

On to The Keystone State or Beyond

Kudos go to Senator Hillary Clinton for winning Rhode Island, Ohio and Texas and congratulations to Senator Obama for winning Vermont. I thought sure the results would have been a little more toward Obama considering the momentum but it seems the voters still haven't made up their minds. Looks like Pennsylvania will get their say. There is even some talk that Florida and Michigan might get new primaries in June. The governor of Florida says he'd be willing. Unbelievably it might actually be required to get a definitive win for one of the candidates.

At least the GOP has decided on McLame and Huckleberry can go home and quit embarrassing the wingnuts. It appears that McCain will be anointed at the White House today by Shrub and the GOP will officially say they want another 4 years of bumbling idiocy in control. If that is the best they can do then I say bring it on.

One Thing

With Mitt the Flip out of the race that leaves only McBlame with a chance at the nomination. I guess we have learned one thing with respect to the GOP race and that is that the ditto heads won't follow Rush off a cliff. It is going to be very interesting to see where the Christofascists and the Minutemen wind up. Maybe they will wind up following Ann Coulter's lead and voting for Hillary.

Then again maybe Huckleberry will go independent and form a Party of the Prophet or something.

What's Next?

As you can see I have launched my work project into the ether for comment. I think the key commenters are in Chicago for a client kick-off this week and may be snowbound if the weather reports are accurate for Chicago. Anyhow I have some time to talk about politics and what I see going forward.

All the talk on the nets from the "netroot gurus" are saying the yesterday was Obama's but after looking at some of the key races and digging a little I am not so sure that is really so true. I think the battle for California tells the tale. Obama lost California and he lost it big. This loss comes after both campaigns pulled out all the stops there.

Factor 1: Hillary Clinton won the gay, Latino, Asian, married, senior and younger vote. These are groups which she has not been so strong with in the past. She didn't take the African American, young white male and the wealthy vote(159-400K$/yr) vote. Hillary also won decisively in the hard-to-reach areas of Southern California and Central Valley. Both campaigns did their best in California and Hillary won.

Factor 2: Think about it. Obama has had all the media coverage for the last couple of weeks. We had the Kennedy endorsements (including California's First Lady Maria Shriver) not only did he lose California but in Massachusetts by 14 points. He also got a lot of celebrity endorsements which did seem to help the vote but it did get his name on TV. The Move-On endorsement(as wrong as it was) was probably a factor in Obama's recent surge.

Factor 3: Obama has a lot more money to spend that Hillary and that's a plus. The downside is that all of the endorsements from the "establishment" are going to make it difficult to continue to inflate his "change" message. We are also going to see the campaign shift to more traditional themes and turn more detailed and this a plus for Hillary. From the beginning she has had the upper hand when it comes to the "wonkish" part of campaigning.

While I could be surprised by the votes coming down the pipe, and yes Obama does have some momentum, I have a hard time thinking that this whole contest will not go right down to the convention. A lot is going to depend on what the media want. If they decide they want a Clinton/McCain showdown in November then that is more than likely what we will see. If they think Obama/McCain will sell more Preparation H then that is what we'll see. It will be very interesting to see how the traditional media try and drive the game.

Regardless of who gets the nomination I think the Dems should be very proud of the two candidates we have vying for the nomination. Both are worthy and while I think Hillary is the one who would be more prepared to start taking action on Day 1 I will support Obama if he is the nominee. My ideal would be to see him spend two terms as VP under Hillary and gain some experience and temper and be ready to take the reins in 8 years.

Liberal Dilemma

Yes we have a liberal dilemma! You all know I was a big supporter of John Edwards and if his name is on the ballot tomorrow in Georgia I will be hard pressed not to vote for him. There are things about both the remaining candidates which are attractive. Obama and his rhetoric and youth and Hillary with her experience and razor focus on what she thinks is right. I am having a hard time. It is hard not to get caught up in the excitement over Obama with the Kennedy endorsements and all and since I seem to be on the fence in my thinking I am going to have to steal a march from MyDD. Todd focused on Paul Krugman's concerns about several of Barack Obama's positions . First there is Obama and on his treatment of Social Security:

Lately, Barack Obama has been saying that major action is needed to avert what he keeps calling a "crisis" in Social Security -- most recently in an interview with The National Journal. Progressives who fought hard and successfully against the Bush administration's attempt to panic America into privatizing the New Deal's crown jewel are outraged, and rightly so.

Krugman has also identified Obama's stimulus package as the least progressive of the Democrats' plans:

The Obama campaign's initial response to the latest wave of bad economic news was, I'm sorry to say, disreputable: Mr. Obama's top economic adviser claimed that the long-term tax-cut plan the candidate announced months ago is just what we need to keep the slump from "morphing into a drastic decline in consumer spending." Hmm: claiming that the candidate is all-seeing, and that a tax cut originally proposed for other reasons is also a recession-fighting measure -- doesn't that sound familiar?

Anyway, on Sunday Mr. Obama came out with a real stimulus plan...[H]is stimulus proposal is similar to those of the other Democratic candidates, but tilted to the right.

One of my key issues and why I was supporting Edwards is healthcare and Krugman has a big issue with Obama's health care proposal which does not include an individual mandate and thus is not universal. Obama claims that health care under his plan would be affordable and therefore would permit the uninsured to buy in.

Krugman has a serious problem here.

Why have a mandate? The whole point of a universal health insurance system is that everyone pays in, even if they're currently healthy, and in return everyone has insurance coverage if and when they need it.

And it's not just a matter of principle. As a practical matter, letting people opt out if they don't feel like buying insurance would make insurance substantially more expensive for everyone else.

Quoting MyDD :

"If you'd like specifics as to the difference a mandate makes, take a look at this chart Krugman posts on his blog citing a study by leading health care economist Jonathan Gruber, which outlines the vast difference in both coverage and cost of a mandate plan vs. a non-mandate plan. Upshot: non-mandate plans cover only about half the uninsured and, subsequently, the cost per newly insured is $4400 vs. $2700 under a mandate plan. No wonder Senator Clinton has taken to touting it as her prime point of distinction with Senator Obama."

An then there is Krugman's indictment of Obama's non-mandate strategy:

From the beginning, advocates of universal health care were troubled by the incompleteness of Barack Obama's plan, which unlike those of his Democratic rivals wouldn't cover everyone. But they were willing to cut Mr. Obama slack on the issue, assuming that in the end he would do the right thing.

Now, however, Mr. Obama is claiming that his plan's weakness is actually a strength. What's more, he's doing the same thing in the health care debate he did when claiming that Social Security faces a "crisis" -- attacking his rivals by echoing right-wing talking points.

Quoting MyDD again:

"Krugman wrote that on November 30, 2007. Remember what I said about Krugman's prescience? Cut to Krugman's February 1st post on his blog titled "Obama Does Harry and Louise Again" in which he draws our attention to a particularly problematic mailer from the Obama campaign that uses a not so subtle anti-government message to criticize Clinton's plan:

The way Hillary Clinton's health care plan covers everyone is to have the government force uninsured people to buy insurance, even if they can't afford it.

Ohhh, big government baaaad. But that's not the worst of it. Krugman updates his post:

Ezra Klein adds a screenshot of the original Harry and Louise ad -- they've obviously deliberately copied it. Just to remind everyone, Harry and Louise were the center of the vile smear campaign the insurance lobby waged against health care reform in 1993 -- and this time a Democratic candidate is doing the smearing for them. [...]

I know that Obama supporters want to hear no evil, but this is really, really bad.

So one has to wonder, when trying to differentiate himself from his rivals on various domestic issues, why does Obama go consistently to the right? Krugman nails it."

Your going to say I'm putting too much weight on what Krugman thinks and that may be true but no one in the media has been on target about the effects of the Bush economic policies since 2000 than Paul Krugman and that gives him a lot of credibility with me.

The final point I would like to make is that whoever gets the nomination and hopefully wins the White House it is going to be a sorry job. Ugly even. Obama's reach across the aisle and build a bipartisan consensus talk is scary. We have seen what bipartisan looks like for the last 10 years and I don't think it will work. When is comes to the down and dirty politics that will be required to put this country back on the right track I think Hillary might be the better in-fighter. She is tough and smart and has had a long time to thicken her skin and sharpen her nails. I am not necessarily looking for the nice guy or gal or the person I would like to have a drink with. We have seen where that got us. I want a cunning alley fighter and I think Hillary matches that description better than Obama.

John Edwards Out?

Several media outlets are reporting that John Edwards is going to drop out of the race for the Democratic nomination today. I think it is a tragedy that Edward's progressive voice won't be with us at least through Super Tuesday. The media has gotten what it wanted. Big business and the politics as usual crowd was/are very afraid of John's message of changing the way things work in Washington. The big money in the country did not and do not want the small guy to have a voice or a place at the table.
If in fact John leaves the race I am hard pressed to be enthusiastic about either Hillary or Obama. Hillary is really just Republican light I'm afraid.

Matt Taibbi on Hillary Clinton:

What people forget about Clinton is that she is basically a Republican at heart. She campaigned for Barry Goldwater once upon a time and even canvassed poor neighborhoods in Chicago looking for “vote fraud” by Democrats. She was president of the College Republicans at Wellesley. In 1968, at the height of America’s most intense cultural debate in a century, she only abandoned the Republican Party because it backed Dick Nixon instead of her favorite, Nelson Rockefeller.

Which is ironic, because as a presidential candidate herself, Hillary has basically run exactly Nixon’s 1968 campaign. Her stump speech from the get-go was all about the “invisible Americans,” a nearly word-for-word echo of Nixon’s revolutionary “forgotten Americans” strategy of that year. Like Nixon, she was targeting a slice of the electorate that had chosen to stay on the sidelines during a cultural war and secretly yearned for someone in the political center to restore order; it’s no accident that Hillary was on the opposite side of every issue that sent lefties to the streets in the Bush years, from the war to free trade to the Patriot Act.

Her much-reported line about Martin Luther King needing LBJ to complete his “dream” was just another salvo in that effort, a subtle message to the public that the “change” she talks about so incessantly is only legitimate when it comes from the inside. Lest anyone think this is a fanciful analysis, listen to what Hillary wrote back in the day, in her senior thesis at Wellesley, which looked at the work of a Chicago community organizer named Saul Alinsky, who had offered her a job. “I agreed with some of Alinsky’s ideas,” she wrote, “but we had a fundamental disagreement. He believed you could change the system only from the outside. I didn’t.”

Obama's "let's reach across the table" message seems naive and from the evidence of the last 10 or 12 years...the GOP is not going to do the "bipartisan" thing. I am convinced that we are in need of revolutionary change if we are going to turn the country around. I don't see that change coming from Clinton or Obama and am afraid it will be the same old politics again. Big business and the wealthy will win and the little guys will lose. I'll vote Democratic in November but I don't have to be excited about it.

Filibuster Time

Now he gets a little starch in his shorts! After a year of allowing Republicans to filibuster every bill offered by merely declaring their intent, Harry Reid has now decided that he's going to demand real filibusters from obstructionist senators. How disappointing is this? Especially so when you see that the target of this new rule is none other than Chris Dodd. I sure would like to see Mr. Reid explain how this makes sense for the goals of the Democrats.

What I would really like to see would be Clinton and Obama make an appearance in the Senate and stand together with Dodd on his filibuster of the FISA bill. Not that I think these two will leave the campaign trail but it would be nice. It would be great to see one or both of them showing some real leadership on this.

On Supporting Hillary or Obama

Susie Madrak at Suburban Guerrilla gives us a little reminder from the late, great Molly Ivins:

AUSTIN, Texas — I’d like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It’s about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.

If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior senator from Minnesota with the guts to do it. In 1968, Gene McCarthy was the little boy who said out loud, “Look, the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.” Bobby Kennedy — rough, tough Bobby Kennedy — didn’t do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines who liked to quote poetry.

What kind of courage does it take, for mercy’s sake? The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush’s tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do “whatever it takes” to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

While she specifically mentions Hillary I would presume that at this point she would include Obama in this group. If you have a doubt stop over and see what Krugman has to say about it as well.

Justified

I don't know if that is the right word or not but Hillary was just declared the winner in NH. While I am not a HRC supporter I think this justification of her presence in the race is good. The media is scared to death of Edwards and will shove him under the rug every chance. What they really want is Obama so that they can play all the religious and race hot buttons. They think whatever Republican idiot they select can win over a black man in 2007. HRC is their second worse nightmare. She has experience and has the "Big Dog" at her back. She is smart and worst of all she is a hardened tool. She has already endured years of GOP and wingnut vitriol and is still standing proud.
I am not currently an HRC supporter but if she is the nominee then I am her man. I can't afford a lot but I will be there.

No Slack for HRC

I's pretty disgusting how Hillary is being treated in the media. Yesterday the entire bunch of them were all aghast at the fact that she got a little emotional at a campaign stop. Hello, I would like to see anyone of these breathless cretins do what she has been doing nonstop for the last year or so. Nothing she does is right. She is either too cold and calculating or too "girlie" emotional to be President. I was very distressed to see John Edwards take the opportunity to imply that she was not strong enough to be president.

Even The Huffington Post, a supposed liberal outlet, is reflecting Arianna's hate of anything Hillary and trashing her at every opportunity. Here is the first graph of Arianna's current post...

Hillary Clinton has apparently decided on which lines of attack to use against Barack Obama in New Hampshire: all of them. When it started, Clinton's poll-tested candidacy came down to telling voters, "Whatever you like, that's what I am." But it turns out that, so far, what voters like is Obama. So now her sputtering campaign strategy has shifted to telling voters, "Whatever you don't like, that's what Obama is." Clinton and her surrogates are attacking from every direction, hoping something will stick. The attacks are as varied as they are contemptible. Let's take a look at the dirty laundry list. Put on your galoshes, the mud is mighty thick.

I am no HRC supporter as you know, but even she deserves an even break and some balanced coverage. I sure as hell don't want the media selecting my candidate and that is what is happening once again. All Obama gets is positive press and all Hillary gets is negative press while Edwards gets ignored completely. Don't put it past the press to follow the will of their corporate masters and encourage the nomination of Obama because that is who the GOP has decided is their best chance of beating. The GOP wins elections by divisiveness and hate. What better target to generate hate than a black man with a cloud of Muslim over his head and a middle name of Hussein and whose last name is just one letter away from the great bogeyman himself? Just saying.

It will very interesting to see how Obama handles the onslaught from the press and the right wing when and if he succeeds in defeating Hillary for the nomination. Once the Hillary hate has no target then the press and the wingnuts will have nothing to stop them from turning their pent up rage on Obama. Does anyone want to make a small wager on how many times you see Obama's middle name Hussein used in the media? How about how many times there is a hint about being a closet Muslim or turning the White House into a madrassa? How many "typos" about Osama(I mean Obama) do you think you will see. I am not even going to mention what they will do concerning his race. If you think about how they right wing noise machine turned war hero John Kerry's war record and Purple Hearts into a liability then you ain't seen nothing yet.

How about we get some coverage of each candidate's actual voting records and accomplishments as Senators? Too much trouble and might make people think. Not going to happen.

Waxing Politic

Here on the eve of the Iowa caucuses I figured it was time to wax a little politic. As I mentioned the day before yesterday, John Edwards increasingly looks like the only Democratic candidate I can wholeheartedly support. I believe he will do well in Iowa and New Hampshire and will carry forward with enough momentum so that the rest of the country has a chance to vote for him. Several people have said that he is just another rich white guy, but I trust him more to fight the good fight against the wealthy and powerful that are currently running this country into the ground than I do the other two leading candidates.

Edward's vision of "Two Americas" really resonates with me. I know that we have too many in this rich country who go to bed hungry, too many who can't afford health insurance, too many lacking the education and the opportunities to have a reasonable chance at the "American Dream" whatever it really is. I can see in my own life as a "middle-class" American that my purchasing power and the money I have put away for retirement is being leached away by the corporation driven economy. I see the longer lines at community food banks and talk almost daily with people who are falling further and further behind the "comfort" curve.

I trust Edwards to do what he says he will. His experience as a trial lawyer in confronting the powerful on behalf of the powerless, is an excellent qualification for the work that has to be done if we are going to rescue this country from the path it is following. As he has said, you don't solve some of these problems by making deals with those who stand to profit from the status quo.

I think he really means what he says when he says that he will work to dis-empower the lobbyists. He sees the poisonous effect they have on our lawmakers and he has demonstrated this commitment by not taking any of the big PAC money and is instead relying on public matching funds.

I think part of why I lean toward him is his background, his personal experience of poverty and lack of privilege. He, like me, spent a large part of his growing up in a Southern cotton town. He He, like me, watched the insidious effect of the cotton mills keeping the workers under their thumbs with low wages and making the workers rely on the mill for everything from housing to medical care. Before the unions ("Norma Rae") began to have an impact, working for a southern cotton mill was paramount to indentured slavery. My mother's family were coal miners in West Virginia and experienced the same kind of "slavery" before the unions arrived. Most of all he has demonstrated that he can speak truth to power and win against the corporations that are strangling this country. He has experienced the success of winning against them and knows in his heart the power that returns to the people in doing so.

There is some concern that with his wife's cancer hanging in the background that he will not be able to focus on the job but I think that underestimates him and his wife. Compared with what we have had in the White House for the last 7 years if someone like Edwards can spend two hours a day at the job we will be ahead of the game...seriously.

The media don't like him and we can be absolutely sure their corporate masters don't like him and we'll just have to see if he can overcome that huge handicap in our media obsessed political arena. We have demonstrated with the election of Shrub that we can let the media drive us into electing a complete idiot to the most powerful position in the world. I guess I can hope we have learned a lesson.

Finally, as for HRC and Obama. Hillary I would vote for if left no choice but I sincerely think she is too much in the current game and owes too much to the corporations to be the kind of change agent we need at this point in our country's woes. I think it would be more of the same bullshit politics and we need a revolution. Obama has two strikes against him in my book. He is too committed to reaching out to the GOP and finding a middle ground and I don't think there is a middle ground or in other words, he is naive. Secondly, and sadly there is still a lot of deeply embedded racism in this country and I don't think his "charisma" can overcome the fact that he is black. I don't think a lot of the people in this country will pull the lever for a black president.

As for the GOP side of the game...I don't really care but I think it would be a hoot if we saw Huckabee in the lead coming out of Iowa just so we could watch the rest of the GOP and the Washington elite shit themselves.

Understanding Next Year

If you want to get your head around what we are facing with respect to the 2008 election and what has happened to our society as a result of the conservative movement and its hold on power then I can highly recommend Lambert's piece at Corrente. This is a comprehensive and definitive dissertation on where we are, where we have been and where we are going with respect to American politics.
If you want to understand what is at stake in the coming year you need to read this post a couple of times and then bookmark it for reference.

I have read it twice this morning and all I can say is that my initial support of Edwards has now distilled into a somewhat desperate support. I had begun to soften a bit and allowed how I could find it in my heart to support Clinton or Obama if it came to it. That, I see now, was just a weakening of my resolve and wishful thinking. We are in a do or die in the next year when it comes to the future of America and it is way past time to get serious. Business as usual is bad business and it is time to recognize that we are in a fight for our lives.

As Atrios says:

Shorter Candidates

Obama: The system sucks, but I’m so awesome that it’ll melt away before me.

Edwards: The system sucks, and we’re gonna have to fight like hell to destroy it.

Clinton: The system sucks, and I know how to work within it more than anyone.

Mandated Health Insurance is Not a Good Thing

Late getting started this morning(afternoon). Paperwork and personal business catch-up time. Time billing submitted and so are expense reports. Personal finance all caught up and all the bills scheduled for payment. All the follow-ups with health insurance done and the open enrollment process for next year all done(only health insurance went up by $5.00 per month which us a good thing). Doctor's appointment for next week made(they want blood or they won't renew my prescriptions). I think I am caught up.

Anyhow, speaking of health care, there has been some development in the Democratic health care discussion. As you may know(or not) both Hillary's and Edward's health care plans include a mandate that will require everyone to sign up for health insurance and Obama's doesn't. Recently Obama as resorted to what amounts to GOP talking points to criticize the other two plans mostly with respect to mandates. Yesterday, John Edwards explained how his plan would deal with that:

Under the Edwards plan, when Americans file their income taxes, they would be required to submit a letter from an insurance provider confirming coverage for themselves and their dependents.

If someone did not submit proof of coverage, the Internal Revenue Service would notify a newly established regional or state-based health-care agency [which] would enroll the individual into the lowest cost health-care plan available in that area....The newly covered individual would not only have access to health benefits but would also be responsible for making monthly payments with the help of a tax credit.

....If a person did not meet his or her monthly financial obligation for a set period of time (perhaps a year, perhaps longer) the Edwards plan would empower the federal government to garnish an individual's wages for purposes of collecting "back premiums with interest and collection costs."

Paul Krugman weighed in today and calls this a "terrific idea," but for once I am going to have to disagree with Krugman and also with Edwards with respect to mandates. There are two big problems with this approach and another less serious one.

I think it would be a huge mistake to get the IRS engaged in enforcing health care mandates. I like most Americans am not a big fan of the IRS and their methods and I sure as hell don't want them acting like some kind of "health insurance police". That's not what the IRS is for. Just let them continue to collect taxes in their own bumbling and unconstitutional way. The income tax process is already a nightmare and adding one more "gotcha" to it is not the way to be successful. Getting the IRS involved is not a good idea.

Having a universal health care program that has to be "enforced" is kind of absurd anyway. If we are really serious about getting every man, woman, and child in the country insured then why go through all this enforcement and opt in and out crap? All you need to do is add the funding mechanism into the existing tax system like Medicare and Social Security and everyone is enrolled automatically. No enforcement, no individual options to enroll or not enroll. You will get the results you want...everybody enrolled and it will be infinitely easier and less intrusive. I know all the wingers will call that "socialized medicine" but so what, that is what it is.

That last problem with the idea is that it entails punitive action against citizens who, for whatever reason, whether it be philosophical or financial, do not sign up. This punitive action will put these people on the same footing with criminals, deadbeat dads and others who are forced to do something they won't or can't do by garnishing their wages. This is just not the right way to go about it and once people realize what you are proposing will reject it on principal.

I know both Clinton and Edwards are trying to mollify the big insurance campaign donors with their plans but sooner or later we are going to have to realize that until we take the profit motive out of health care we are going to continue see rising costs. Not only are our costs going to continue to rise but the quality of care will continue to decline. More and more people will be unable to afford good health care insurance and the state will still wind up paying the bill somehow. It is the old "pay me now or pay me later" thing.