and still we rise...

OK, it's been a brutal couple of days, at the end of an exhausting 6 weeks. There's too much to digest with the whole Rev. Wright business, both his speeches of late and Obama's response. So I won't do that here; if I find a way to set down my reactions, I will do so soon. But for now, I'm just happy that the sun is out, both literally and figuratively.

Delegate counts

• Obama nabs two superdelegates today; rumors that more are coming
• Yesterday, in the midst of the reverending mania, obama picks up two superdelegates: second democratic congressman from kentucky, and a DNC member from Iowa

Chin Up!
A few words for obama supporters feeling weary

Take Action!
Two young superdelegates want your opinion on who they should vote for! Send them an email or leave a comment on their YouTube/Facebook/Myspace pages. Also: Donate or Make phone calls! We're getting down to the wire, and need everyone to pitch in so that we can win in NC and Indiana....

Media Critique

• excellent critique of the media...and the total non-reaction to someone else who has talked about 9/11 and "chickens coming home to roost"
• on the insanity that is the conventional media: in light of the incessant tearing apart of obama and his associations, and the utterly bewildering lack of attention to the Pentagon Propaganda story in the traditional media or the fact that April has been the deadliest month in Iraq since September, i keep remembering an short, insightful essay about political journalism. take a gander, and tell me...what are we to do?

Hillary's Culture War

• She's reminisced fondly about how she's learned to shoot guns, taken a shot of whiskey with the boys, and slammed those "san francisco" fundraisers, obama's elitism, obama's church...what's that conservative refrain? Oh yeah: "gays, guns, and god." Well, yesterday her endorsement by Gov Easley in NC was accompanied by his statement "she makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy." Not the best of word choices. Others have noted her difficulty in even saying the word gay publicly, even though she meets with gay press privately. Does Hillary have a gay problem?
• Working Class Hero: Hillary now bashing Bush for not stopping a deal with China (closed factory, jobs outsourced, yada yada)...guess who formulated that deal? Bill Clinton. Oh, the irony. Or is that just pain?
• Not content to only suck up to richard mellon scaife, hillary is going on the bill o'reilly show. Maybe it'll be the first time I watch that show. It's today. Which Hillary will we see?
  

Know Your McCain

• time to start boning up on your mccainisms: he's ripe for the picking
• yet another mccain flip flop: he was against staying in iraq for 100 years before he was for it

Newspeak, endorsements, Hillary's problem with black voters

From the Dept of Newspeak
Probably the most important story recently: the US gov employed a gaggle of military men in a propaganda campaign to appear in news outlets and build public confidence in the iraq war; the mainstream media responds with:

Endorsements

• Hillary loses high-profile supporter, who raised $500k, over her negative tone; he'll take on role in Obama's finance committee.
• Obama gets another superdelegate (4/23)
• Two Nobel winners (economics) endorse Obama

Hillary's African-American Problem
I wrote an essay on DailyKos yesterday about this issue: why are the media only asking about Obama's difficulty getting white working-class voters, and not asking Hillary about her difficulty getting African-American voters? (My essay had a lot of responses, including a handful of African-American voters who stated that they have already switched their registration to "independent", and that everyone they know is steadfast in their refusal to vote--ever--for Hillary. The Politico found a similar essay, and seems to pose questions about Hillary's viability without this population, as well. Clyburn and Butterfield are starting to state this baldly...

Humor: Ridiculing the Ridiculous. And Rightly So.

• Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert take on Hillary's claims to lead in the popular vote
• Seems many people have noticed a similarity between Hillary and the Black Knight from Monty Python's The Holy Grail. Example One, Two, Three, Four.

Primary Analysis

• Why can't Clinton close the deal?
• A look at the electoral maps

Growing the Party: Obama rolls out massive voter registration campaign. Journalists don't care.

TV Watch: Rev Wright speaks with Bill Moyers friday night

More reasons why McCain is a baddie.

• opposes equal pay
• says Hamas wants Obama as President
  
• wouldn't rebuild new orleans

more good news, suprise upset

Good news:

• another Obama superdelegate
• in best possible environment (dems bashing each other for months) mccain is only tied. Think what will happen when we finally go after him. Which the DNC is starting to do.
  
• new poll: who's condescending now?
• surprise upset in super-red district: dem beats repub, basically on opposition to iraq.
  

Good rundown of "electability" in key state matchups.
Guess what: obama performs better than clinton against mccain in colorado, north carolina, minnesota, and more, even california. Kos breaks it down:

So remind me again how is Clinton "more electable" against McCain than Obama?

She's lost more contests to Obama than she's won. She's raised less money than he has. She fares poorer in the polling against McCain than he does. She trails in the popular vote.

And somehow, despite the fact she runs behind Obama in the general, the supers are supposed to overturn the will of the primary electorate and spur intra-party civil war on her behalf? Is she really that narcissistic?

Apparently so.

Good analysis of the "electability" arguments

What vast right-wing conspiracy?
Clintonistas keep wooing right-wing news outlets

Hillary's gay problem

And a bit of wisdom from Obama:

"I know that people like to talk tough and use a lot of rhetoric about fighting. I have always believed that if you are tough, you don't have to talk about it," he said.

Good news following bad....

All that, for a net of 10 delegates.
I'm exhausted. Hillary threw the kitchen sink for an increase of 10 measly delegates.

Broadening the coalition
Obama gains in key demographics compared with Ohio

Growing the Base: Dems have the energy!!
Obama got 60% of new voters in PA. Even losing, Obama still got 200k more votes than all repubs combined; both dems got 2.25 million to repubs 800k. New dem registrations in PA (over 300k) mean that there are now more dems registered in PA than republicans (4.1 million to 3.2)!

Great Analysis of Why Obama Lost
Cutting through the spin.

A Bit of Logic
On thinking through the clintonian focus on the popular vote
On the "double-digit" win: "Excuse me, but 9.4 doesn't round to 10"

On Hillary Winning
Humor: Tom Tomorrow cartoon
The Maths: she needs 71% of the vote in remaining contests
More humor: How Hillary Can Still Win

More endorsements today (and it's still early)
Governor of Oklahoma (superdelegate) and 50 Edwards backers from NC endorse Obama

Good read
Hendrick Hertzberg eviscerates the ABC debate (and the argument that we need to ask candidates bs questions because the repubs will) in the New Yorker

PA, ABC Debate from hell, org dev perspective on HRC

With Bated Breath...
one of the most accurate pollsters has obama up by 3 pts....in pennsylvania!!
others, of course, have him down by 5, 7, and 8 pts...

The ABC Debate from Hell
quick analysis of the relative shoddiness of the abc debate

Interesting take
why hillary is losing, from an organizational development perspective

Pennsylvania expectations

• hillary by double digits
• clinton needs landslide
  
• lots of undecideds
• a hopeful inquiry into internal polling and last-days tactics

People-funded politics! Obama: 51 million on hand, Clinton: 8 million on hand
Obama outraises Hillary in March: she's in the red

Good reads, the ABC Debate, Hillary disses MoveOn

Hi everyone!
sorry for the long delay between updates: i found the recent controversy over the "bitter" remarks and the entirety of the abc debate to be soul draining. i've recovered, have a lot of interesting tidbits for you...and i'm excited about pennsylvania on april 22nd!! donate or volunteer if you can!

Good reads!

• Great essay on last night's rally in Philly--approx. 40k people, and lots of spirit! You can see the rally here. and the newspapers like Obama.
  
• Undercover reporters detail the life of the Clinton and Obama campaigns from the perspectives of volunteers. Extremely illuminating!!!
  
• Good column on feminism. Key line: "...we should remember that feminism is not about women only but about changing the values and style of discourse in the nation. "

Obamacans
Another example of Obama's appeal to republicans.

Hillary Disses MoveOn (and turnout)
Another example of Clinton's dismissal of the left/progressive wing of the Democratic party. A prominent pro-Hillary blogger is aghast. And not so long ago, Hillary had lots of nice words for MoveOn. I find it highly, and painfully, ironic that she is dismissing MoveOn in particular, when it originated in response to the republican frenzy around her husband's impeachment--remember, the original name of the organization was "Censure, and Move On". The undercover reporting of the Clinton volunteer shows why the Clinton campaign lost the caucuses...because they can't organize their way out of a paper bag.

Hillary Dissed Working-class Whites
Apparently Hillary has not always empathized with working class whites, telling Bill: "screw 'em, you don't owe them anything". A Harvard intellectual who was there explains.

The ABC Debate
A funny rundown of the disgraceful ABC debate, and the questions we really wanted answered. Even Rendell didn't like the debate much. Best thing since: Obama just brushes the dirt off his shoulder (with h/t to jay z).

On William Ayers.

Mayor Daley says: I know him too.

More truthiness: Clinton implied that people died as a result of Ayers' and others' activities, but none of the Weather Underground bombings killed anyone. Three of the group's members did die when they mishandled bomb-making materials. She also implied that Ayers responded to the events of Sept 11 by saying he had no regrets for the bombings. This is also inaccurate: his interview was coincidentally published on the day of Sep 11, having taken place some time earlier.

Ayers writes about the mistaken notion that he's unrepentant:

"I'm sometimes asked if I regret anything I did to oppose the war in Viet Nam, and I say 'no, I don't regret anything I did to try to stop the slaughter of millions of human beings by my own government.' Sometimes I add, 'I don't think I did enough.' This is then elided: [they write] he has no regrets for setting bombs and thinks there should be more bombings."

Endorsements
Bruce!
Sam Nunn and David Boren
Robert Reich endorsed Obama on Friday, and, earlier, had a good take on the "bitter" comments.
Since Super Tues, Obama has netted 65 superdelegates, while Clinton has added some and then lost some...not netting any gains.

Compassion Forum
I have the feeling that few people watched the "Compassion Forum," but it was actually pretty substantial. The audience members asked some good questions, and the moderators asked some dumb questions--and Obama gave thoughtful answers to both.

Metrics: on counting the popular vote.

Food riots, Mark Penn, "narrowcasting"

Scary food riots.
Funny little kids.
Bush, the diplomat.

Hillary's dubious campaign choices.
Mark Penn lobbies for trade deal she opposes. He "steps down" but is still playing important role. The problem foreshadowed last May: "Not only is Hillary more reliant on large donations and corporate money than her Democratic rivals, but advisers in her inner circle are closely affiliated with unionbusters, GOP operatives, conservative media and other Democratic Party antagonists." More on the Clinton-Colombia connection.

LGBT issues
Obama explains why he doesn't "narrowcast": full interview with LGBT paper
Responds to recent controversial claims by philly LGBT paper that Obama refuses to talk to the gay press

Fighting McCain
Think about giving some love to MoveOn--they're starting to take on McCain, while we finish up this primary.
What everyone needs to know about McCain...for starters...please pass this on to everyone you know.
Great new web ad about Bush/McCain and the endless war

Healthcare Mandates
Again with the healthcare, prompted by Elizabeth Edwards' joining the Center for American Progress, and her stating that she favors Hillary's plan. Some folks from Massachusetts, where the mandates aren't working so well, beg to differ. Personally, I think both Obama's and Hillary's plans would be a tremendous leap forward, but neither are perfect. But I also think that we don't get to true universal coverage in just one leap. My support for Obama is based on his leadership style and his political philosophy more than any particular issue.

people-powered fundraising

This is what people-powered campaign fundraising looks like: from the Obama campaign

Total Raised in March: More than $40 million

Contributors in March: More than 442,000

First-Time Contributors in March: More than 218,000

Average Contribution: $96

Total Contributors to Date: More than 1,276,000

Growing the party, redrawing the map

Growing the Party and Redrawing the Map: On the glory of not being bound to the same political calculations of the last 20+ years.
New registrations, party switchovers, newly inspired independents!

And endorsements from not-so-"blue" areas:
Lee Hamilton, Indiana--long time congresscritter and co-chair of 9/11 Study
Governor of Wyoming Dave Freudenthal
former Montana Senator John Melcher (current superdelegate)
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar
and 26 endorsements in Oregon

Thoughtful and not-so-thoughtful comments in PA
Prominent Pennsylvania Jews endorse Obama
"Obama's Lama Problem"

A funny take on the "fair vote" in Michigan
short video parable

Bill Richardson defends himself

Column on the fallacy of the "big states" argument

And finally, a reminder of what we're up against: idiocy or subterfuge?
McCain gets facts of Sadr chaos wrong.
Methinks idiocy.