Politics News

Ernie Fitzpatrick asked:


Much of the Democratic party is now finding out what all of the Republican party already knows. The Clinton’s are ruthless when it comes to winning. Get in their way and the IRS will come visit you (when Bubba was president). Attack Bill or Hill and a private detective will be employed to find out how much dirt that can find on you. But the latest delegate battle is a whole new thing indeed. All delegates are Clinton delegates or didn’t you know that?

Everyone is now getting acquainted with the super delegate fiasco of the Democratic party; however, the Clinton’s are taking even the pledged delegates to a new level (low).

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign intends to go after PLEDGED delegates whom Barack Obama has already won in the caucuses and primaries if she needs them to win the nomination. This strategy was confirmed by a high-ranking Clinton official on Monday. We’re not talking about super delegates- the 800 hot dogs who are not pledged to anybody. We’re talking about getting pledged delegates to switch sides.

Is that fair, legal? Yep!

A pledged delegate is pledged to a particular candidate and cannot switch, right? Wrong!

Pledged delegates are not really pledged at all, not even on the first ballot. This has been an open secret in the party for years, but it has never really mattered because there has almost always been a clear victor by the time the convention convened. But not now that Hillary is behind. This time, one candidate may enter the convention leading by just a few pledged delegates, and those delegates may find themselves being promised the sun, moon and stars to switch sides. Would Hillary or Bubba do that?

Duh!

“I swear it is not happening now, but as we get closer to the convention, if it is a stalemate, everybody will be going after everybody’s delegates,” a senior Clinton official said Monday afternoon. “All the rules will be going out the window.” Rules of good behavior, maybe. But, in fact, the actual rules of the party allow for such switching. The notion that pledged delegates must vote for a certain candidate is, according to the Democratic National Committee, a “myth.”

Winning with superdelegates is potentially party-splitting because it could mean throwing out the choice of the elected delegates and substituting the choice of the super delegates. So, to give some semblence of fairness, go after the PLEDGED delegates and have them switch their votes..

Hey, the Obama tsunami must be stopped at any odds. If the Wisconsin primary doesn’t do it, if Texas or Ohio doesn’t do it, then Bubba will do it!

So why are we going through all this primary hullabaloo? We do it to provide some sort of integrity and legitmacy; however, in the event truth does not work out as the powers that be want, then we’ll do it the old-fashioned way. Can you say power-brokering fraud and intimidation? And then they’ll point fingers at people like Jason Rae and say it’s his fault. Blame shift seems to always work these days.

I can’t wait to see how this all works out. Could it be that the history-breaking female and African-American dream candidates implode and shoot themselves in the foot and give us four more years of Bush-i-ness? God help us all!

James William Smith asked:


I walked into Dunkin’ Donuts two days before what would be a very close New Hampshire primary. As I was ordering my egg and cheese on a plain bagel (toasted), I glanced down at the newspaper stand near the counter. The Boston Herald had a front page headline that morning which exclaimed: “She’s So Yesterday”. The picture under the headline caption showed the face of an aging Hillary Clinton. Her picture was accompanied by an image of the vinyl record of the Beatles hit “Yesterday “.

Rush Limbaugh had done a somewhat similar story on Hillary Clinton several weeks ago. He had questioned whether people in this society would vote for an aging woman for President who had wrinkles in a culture of perfect faces and slim and tight figures. At the time I figured that coming from Rush Limbaugh, this was an attack from the right of the political spectrum on Hillary Clinton. Now I am beginning to think that he may have been on to something.

However, when I read that newspaper headline, I realized the trouble the Clinton presidential campaign is in against the much younger candidate, Barack Obama. In fact, these tabloid political attacks on her may now have reached the point of making the entire “Boomer” generation a potential thing of the past.

This has touched a little too close to home with me. I never thought I would say this but allow me to give the Hillary Clinton campaign some unsolicited advice in order for her to capture the younger voter of today from Barack Obama. Here is my ten point (tongue somewhat in cheek) makeover for candidate Hillary Clinton, a person whom the Boston Herald newspaper refers to as “So Yesterday”.

1. Get your husband (Bill Clinton) off of the campaign trail. He talks mostly about himself. He never received 50% of the vote in any election he has won. The two Presidents for the price of one approach makes people uncomfortable. The back to the future approach does not work. He looks like a relic and makes you both look like yesterday’s news. Have him advise you quietly behind the scenes. He can be heard but not seen.

2. Keep your smiling daughter (Chelsea) on the campaign trail. She makes you look like a good mother. She reminds voters that you could be the first female elected President. She makes you look less programmed and more human.

3. Look and act like a real person. Everything in your campaign appears scripted. All your responses look like they are measured and calculated to appeal to the latest poll numbers. Those spontaneous tears the other day may have been the reason for your margin of victory in New Hampshire. However you can’t expect to cry the day before the next primary election and have it work again.

4. Hope that you win the Democratic primary and run against Republican Fred Thompson in the fall. He is so “last week” while you are only “so yesterday“. I don’t think you will have to worry about winning the youth vote in that general election.

5. Stop running primarily on the issue of your experience. The voters are furious at politicians in Washington D. C. They think that things “inside the beltway” are broken and need to be fixed. Today’s voters are mentally storming the gates of their government. They don’t want someone to tell them they are an insider and know how it runs. The point is that they don’t like how it runs.

6. Really embrace the issue of change. Create a plan to change the government. The plan should be bold. The plan should mention the first 100 days and what you would do as the first female President. Don’t consult polls. Tell us what you honestly want to do. A politician that does that would certainly represent real change.

7. Insist that Barrack Obama tell everyone what he would change. What does his plan consist of anyway? We have heard much about “hope” and “change.” We have not heard many details. If you do not make him outline his plan, you can bet the Republicans in the general election will do so instead.

8. Stop using the phrase ” I have the battle scars to prove it” in reference to your experience in the 1990s with Universal Healthcare. It makes you sound like you should be honored with a pancake breakfast at the local war veterans post.

9. Say WIFI , Bluetooth, Xbox and GPS often. It doesn’t matter that you may not know what these terms mean. Just make sure you say them. Also, make sure you watch plasma and HDTV and have an Ipod. Do not mention the Beatles, Cher, Mary Tyler Moore, or Woodstock at any time.

10. Keep your chin up (don’t let it sag). Hold your head high (don’t worry about face lifts) and stop exercising to the Richard Simmons show every morning on those VCR tapes. We use DVD players now and Richard Simmons is “totally yesterday.”

If you do all these things, you still may not win this election. However, your campaign would feature a forward-looking real person, who has energy and who addresses the voters’ desire for real change. You could even transform yourself into the new age candidate of “today”.

At the very least, with this type of makeover, the newspapers would never again show you under the tabloid headline: “She’s So Yesterday”. For a Baby Boomer, that is fast becoming an important victory in itself.

James William Smith asked:


Political pundits are beginning to sense an end to the Presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. Last week Peggy Noonan wrote a column questioning how gracious Hillary Clinton would be in defeat. This week Dick Morris predicted an eventual nomination victory for Barack Obama and the end of the pursuit of the White House by the former First Lady.

So are these pundits correct? Is the race for the Democratic party nomination over? Will it in fact be Barack Obama and John McCain in a race for the White House in the fall? Since at this point in the campaign it is all about the delegate count, let’s look at the possibilities.

The delegate count after last night’s Potomac Primaries is still very close with Obama leading Clinton by just 67 delegates (1242 to 1175) according to CBS News. The magic number for the Democratic Party Presidential nomination is 2025. Nevertheless the campaign of Hillary Clinton certainly appears to be in big trouble.

Hillary Clinton has lost every primary and caucus since Super Tuesday and her prospects for victory are slim for the rest of the month of February. She has loaned her campaign five million dollars according to various news reports. Her senior staff has been working without pay and her campaign is currently raising half of the amount of new campaign funds on a daily basis in comparison to the campaign of her opponent. She has just replaced her campaign manager.

The Clinton current campaign strategy is to conserve money and concede the remaining state primaries in February to Obama. The campaign is concentrating on winning the remaining primaries in March, April, and May. This would give Barack Obama substantial victories in all the remaining primaries in February (Hawaii, Wisconsin, and Washington). It should give him about 1300 total delegates on March 1, 2008.

This February election result would insure that Clinton would trail Obama by around 90 - 100 delegates entering the March 4, 2008 primary contests of Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont. She will have not beaten Obama in a primary or caucus for a month. To remain in the race, Clinton would need victories approaching 60% of the vote in every remaining state except Mississippi in the month of March. If she somehow pulled this result off she would have about 1436 delegates on April 1, 2007. Obama would win about 165 delegates and his total would be 1465. The dubious news for Hillary Clinton is that Obama would still remain ahead at the end of March in delegates even if Clinton ran the table in March and won each contest (except Mississippi) by a 60-40% margin.

In April, 151 delegates will be at stake in the state of Pennsylvania. Let’s assume that Hillary Clinton wins that state with 60% of the vote and captures the same proportion of delegates. Her delegate total would be 1556 to Obama’s 1522, giving her a slight lead in delegate count. There would be 214 remaining delegates for the candidates to battle for during the primaries in the month of May.

Therefore, for Hillary Clinton to regain the lead on pledged delegates from Obama, she needs to win all the primaries (except Mississippi) with at least 60% of the vote in March and April. She needs to win the primaries in Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Wyoming, and Pennsylvania. She needs to achieve these primary victories with 60% or more of the vote. She will be outspent by the Obama campaign since he is raising more money. She also needs to produce these victories after a month of non-stop primary losses. Clinton also must realize that this is the same dubious strategy that did not turn out well for Republican Rudy Giuliani at the beginning of the 2008 election season. Based on all these factors, her chance to secure the Democratic Party nomination at this point look like a long shot indeed.

It is true that there are still about 500 remaining Democratic Party super delegates that remain uncommitted to any candidate. These delegates are Democratic party members and insiders. The problem for Hillary Clinton is that these delegates will quickly jump aboard the campaign that looks like a winner during March. After the primaries on March 4, 2008, if Obama is still ahead by at least 100 delegates and has won most of the state primaries and caucuses ( he has won 23 of the 35 to date), the super delegates will begin to endorse him in significant numbers and the Democratic race will be all but over.

The fact is that Obama has been endorsed by too many Democratic party regulars to be a victim of a back room deal that would have most of the remaining super delegates endorse Hillary Clinton. Also, the Democratic party will be careful not to allow insiders to appear to overturn the actual voting results of the primary states. However, in a last desperate attempt to stave off defeat, Hillary Clinton will probably try to use the disqualified delegates in the Michigan and Florida primaries to her advantage. These delegates were disqualified because each state moved its primary forward in the 2008 election calendar. As a result of breaking party rules the states delegates are not currently included in the delegate totals of either candidate.

In general, Hillary Clinton has to hope she can stop Obama’s political momentum very soon. Indeed, it now looks like she will be behind by nearly 100 delegates after all the February primaries are finished. One hundred delegates is a dangerous number to be trailing in this election year with the Democratic Party rule of proportionate allocation of the vote for each states delegates. Her only remaining hope is to run the table with big (twenty percentage point) wins in all the remaining primaries during the months of March, April, and May. However, her campaign’s last stand may well turn out to be on March 4, 2008 in either Ohio or Texas.

It is interesting to see how things can change so quickly in politics. Six months ago, Hillary Clinton was the candidate of inevitability and Barack Obama was the candidate of hope. In February 2008, each candidate’s prospects for the Democratic Presidential nomination are now exactly the reverse.

Anthony Wayne asked:


Seems text messaging has caught on in the Campaign for Presidential Nominee.

Hilary Rodham Clinton announced in May that she would use SMS to garner support for her campaign. The “mobile-to-mobile text-messaging push” targets the 230 million Americans who use cell phones. Her efforts signal she is hunting for every possible vote in her battle for top nominee spot against rival Sen. Barack Obama. Supporters of Clinton can send the word “JOIN” to short code 77007 and will in return receive updates and news, as well as personal messages and photos focused on the area they live in. Clinton wants to use the technology to provide more personalized updates to supporters nationwide. Clinton also wants to encourage voters to add their opinion and steer them toward her website from their mobile web browsers.

In the last week of June, Barack Obama announced the launch of an SMS service for his presidential nominee campaign. Supporters send the word “GO” to the short code “OBAMA”(62262). Users can request information from the campaign, find out when the next important public appearance is, get speeches sent via text and submit their opinions and advise. Obama wants to buld on the grassroots volunteer network as part of his campaign push. The campaign will also provide ringtones and wallpaper with an “Obama theme”.

It was John Edwards however, who was the first in this Presidential campaign to use SMS technology. Last year Edwards launched a site dedicated exclusively to tracking and posting his text messages while he travels around the country looking for support. The site is updated constantly and displays both the time and date that the text was sent from Edwards’ phone. The site also includes a daily short code that users can use to receive updated information on his campaign, in addition to brief campaign platform issues.

Relevant Facts and Figures

* There are currently 236,000,000 cell phone users in the U.S. — 76% penetration.
* 10.5% of homes in the U.S. are wireless only (projected to be 30% by end 2008)
* In December 2006 alone, there were 18.7 billion text messages sent — up 92% from 9.7 billion in December 2005. 195 billion for the year
* In the first six months of 2006, the number of subscribers to two-way SMS (text messaging) grew by 88%.
* According to the NPD Group, by mid-2006, 42% of all wireless subscribers used their wireless phone as their primary phone.
* By the middle of 2006, almost half of wireless customers in the U.S. were using some form of wireless data — surfing the wireless web, sending text and photo-messages, or downloading and playing games, ringtones, or music files.