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.

Alice Walker & Obama, Spoken Word vid

Alice Walker. This is a wonderful piece, in part addressing "womanism", talking about the complexities of race and gender in America, and endorsing Obama. Choice quote:

"I am a supporter of Obama because I believe he is the right person to lead the country at this time. He offers a rare opportunity for the country and the world to start over, and to do better. It is a deep sadness to me that many of my feminist white women friends cannot see him. Cannot see what he carries in his being. Cannot hear the fresh choices toward Movement he offers. That they can believe that millions of Americans –black, white, yellow, red and brown - choose Obama over Clinton only because he is a man, and black, feels tragic to me."

Movement in polls
National Gallup poll has Obama above 50% for three days running, and today ten points above Hillary, with 52%-42%. Rasmussen also has Obama above Hillary for three consecutive days, now 47%-42%. Both polls are outside the margin of error. Pundits are suggesting that this means that 1) Obama has gotten past, at least for now, the Rev. Wright controversy; and 2) Hillary's claims about being under sniper fire in Bosnia have hurt her. Recent Pew poll finds that 30% of white Democratic voters see Hillary as "phony."

Movement in Delegates
Looks like Obama's getting a slew of superdelegate endorsements tomorrow--a senator from Minnesota and seven congresspeople from North Carolina. Also, little reported: the second step of the Texas caucuses took place at state senate district conventions. The tallies are still coming in, but it looks like Obama will have a 12 percent lead over Clinton, which means that he will gain 9 more delegates than Clinton, thus surpassing her 4 delegate lead from the primary votes; the upshot is that Obama will win Texas by 5 delegates.

The Pennsylvania Campaign
Bob Casey gave a surprise endorsement to Obama on Friday. Obama began his bus tour, doing small town hall meetings and local establishment visits. He also had a record-breaking crowd at Penn State, with 22,000 people in attendance (photos).

Spoken Word
This is a pretty funny, and moving, piece called "Damn You Barack Obama, You Pretty Mothaf**ker"

Rev. Wright had a letter in the NYTimes a year ago, which sheds some light...

And oh, we still have a long way to go. On the power of smears and ongoing racism among democrats...A new Pew Foundation poll shows that:

"White Democrats who hold unfavorable views of Obama are much more likely than those who have favorable opinions of him to say that equal rights for minorities have been pushed too far; they also are more likely to disapprove of interracial dating, and are more concerned about the threat that immigrants may pose to American values. In addition, nearly a quarter of white Democrats (23%) who hold a negative view of Obama believe he is a Muslim."

On courting the right-wing media

Just a few interesting tidbits...

1. Strange bedfellows:
Hillary Wins Approval from Architect of Right-wing Conspiracy

Hillary sat for an interview with right-wing magnate, owner of Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Richard Mellon Scaife, who "reassessed" Hillary, and now approves--10 years after he spent 1.8 million to discredit the Clintons.

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell praises Fox:

"I think during this entire primary coverage, starting in Iowa and up to the present -- FOX has done the fairest job, and remained the most objective of all the cable networks. You hate both of our candidates. No, I'm only kidding. But you actually have done a very balanced job of reporting the news, and some of the other stations are just caught up with Senator Obama, who is a great guy, but Senator Obama can do no wrong, and Senator Clinton can do no right."

(My take: I guess Rendell wasn't watching those two weeks where Rev Wright was on a non-stop loop, when Fox and its associates worked to smear him with Farrakhan, when they tried to provoke fear by using his middle name, Hussein, when they compared Obama to Hitler, when they asserted that Obama would attack Pakistan and embrace Ahmedinejad, claimed he waffled on immigration and drivers' licenses, claimed he has a "patriotism problem," , claimed that he has "attacked the troops," ..and on and on like that. Not only have these stories been pushed on Fox, but they've been simplistically repeated on CNN and other mainstream media. The idea that Obama has gotten a free ride is ludicrous. Clearly, Hillary has also been put through the grinder by the media, but this notion that he's never been vetted or that the media has never investigated him is baloney.)

2. Another way to do the math
The key statement in this analysis:

"...consider if the race were being projected like on election night, where each candidate is given a percentage of the vote with a certain percent of precincts reporting. In this scenario, Obama has 1408 delegates and Clinton has 1251 with a total of 3250 delegates up for grabs. This is the equivalent of Obama having 53 percent of the vote to Clinton's 47 percent with 82 percent of precincts reporting...for Clinton to overcome that 6 percent lead with only 18 percent of the vote outstanding, she'd have to receive a whopping 27 percent margin in the last 18 percent. She's only achieved a margin that size once--in Arkansas."

Also, you may have noticed that the North Carolina delegation did not endorse en masse. There's varying reports about this, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.

Fragile Iraq, McCain and Clinton "Gaffes," Clinton and the kitchen sink

Sober news on Iraq
Violence increases between US and Shiite militia. Truce looks increasingly fragile.
It hasn't been reported much in the news, but one of the significant reasons that violence declined in Iraq over the last year was not only that we escalated the number of troops, but that Moqtada al Sadr declared a ceasefire. That ceasefire is the reason we see fewer bodies in the street, but now it looks like the ceasefire is fraying.

The Seriousness of the McCain "Gaffe"
Bill Maher remarks on McCain, his dumb remarks confusing Shia and Sunni, and his warrior mentality

Clinton under fire
Hillary says she "misspoke" about bosnia (fleeing from sniper fire).
The mainstream media pick up the story.
Did she lie, or misremember? Good commentary about Hillary and her miscalibrated "threat perception"

Hillary: Wright would not have been my pastor
All of a sudden, after not touching the story, Hillary decides today is a good day to resurrect the Rev. Wright controversy. To a seriously conservative newspaper, nonetheless--the one that accused her of murdering Vince Foster, owned by Richard Mellon Scaife

Other lovely comments from the Clinton Campaign
Carville defends calling Bill Richardson "Judas" for his disloyalty to Hillary:
Hillary claims "pledged delegates" aren't really pledged
Clinton finance committee member compares Rev. Wright to David Duke

Five Years of War, Truthiness, and Polls

Five Years.
OK. First for the horrendous fact that we've lost 4,000 soldiers in the war. Five years of it. And many thousands more, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of Iraqis killed in the last five years in this war. More than 2/3 of Americans think going to war in Iraq was not worth it. And Dick Cheney says, "So?"

On Seeing the Consequences of War.
I saw an excerpt of and discussion about a new documentary called "Body of War" last night on Bill Moyers Journal. It looks to be exceptional--covering the struggles of a severely disabled Iraqi vet as he emerges as a political activist against the war. You can learn about it here.

Now...onto the election...
Last week's good news: Richardson endorses Obama, calls him a "once-in-a-lifetime leader"

Polls:

A Saturday Gallup poll shows Obama retaking lead over Clinton

They also find a striking gap in the public's perception of Obama and Clinton on the issues of honesty and trustworthiness.

Hillary's Truthiness:
Hillary has been saying that Obama had never been truly vetted by the media the way she has...but it turns out that she hasn't been vetted enough...

--her claim that she was against NAFTA from the beginning is now considered "ludicrous"
--her claim (trying to burnish her foreign policy experience) that her trip to Bosnia came under sniper fire is now shown to be outright fabrication, and a new little video showing this example of "truthiness" can be seen here.

The Progressive Fight
Here's a good essay about Obama and the fight for progressive change: "fighting fire with water"

Racism...
And, only for those with strong stomachs: a reminder about the kind of racism we're fighting, about the kind of change we want to see...

The Race Speech, Rev. Wright effect

Back again, with all the news you didn't have time to read :)

[PASSPORT since i first wrote this, news has broken that govt workers have illegallyobama; this apparently was a big scandal when something similar happened to bill clinton. while i am of course outraged and appalled, i also smell a good opportunity to talk about government spying, the FISA issue, and privacy concerns!]

Viral Politics, in the good sense.
First, let me say that it's ASTOUNDING that Obama's speech on race has been watched on YouTube close to 2.5 million times (I'm adding the two counts of the full text speech plus all the views of the excerpts...but the full speech has been watched 2.3 million times). Just for perspective...the clips of Rev. Wright vary from 15,000 to 125,000 views. Viral video, baby! WOOT! That's pretty amazing, given it's a 37 minute sociopolitical speech!

Polls since the Wright issue broke.
So you might be wondering how much of a hit Barack has taken over the whole Rev. Wright controversy. Right now, it looks from some surveys that he has been affected. But we are going to get a bunch of surveys tomorrow that will show how people have reacted to the Tues speech (many national surveys have a sample over three or four days, so you have to wait for the lag time!). Here's one interesting survey out tonight from FOX, showing that 57% do not think Obama shares Wright's views. And that's a FOX survey, so you can add some points to that for sure. Another interesting look at the responses in the swing states, esp. among independents and republicans, can be found here.

Moving on...to the important stuff
Ok, so Obama gave another speech today on Iraq, while campaigning in West Virginia...this time tying it to the economy. Here's a choice passage: been accessing the passport file of

"Instead of fighting this war, we could be fighting for the people of West Virginia. For what folks in this state have been spending on the Iraq war, we could be giving health care to nearly 450,000 of your neighbors, hiring nearly 30,000 new elementary school teachers, and making college more affordable for over 300,000 students. We could be fighting to put the American dream within reach for every American – by giving tax breaks to working families, offering relief to struggling homeowners, reversing President Bush's cuts to the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and protecting Social Security today, tomorrow, and forever. That's what we could be doing instead of fighting this war."

More on Rev. Wright:
You might be wondering, are those clips of Rev Wright the only things he ever said anywhere at any time? Good question! Here's some vid of other Wright sermons

Reactions to Race Speech, McCain's madcap mixups of Al Queda, Sunni and Shia

It's been a very busy coupla days, so here's just a few highlights. I have to say, some of the personal stories about people's reactions to Obama's speech yesterday have been amazing. I hope you enjoy.

On the Race Speech

By now, I'm sure most of you have read or watched Obama's speech on race in America, but if you haven't yet had the chance, you can watch it and read it here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hisownwords/

In the blogs I read, there have been a number of interesting, and moving, commentaries

• Mainstream Editorials
• Blog and Journal reactions
• Author, with multiracial family, on the reaction of his white mother
• On Watching Obama with Strangers
• On Obama's Fearlessness, crossing the "Swiftboat Threshold"
• On reading the reaction of the right wing
  

The Iraq Speech
In all the hoopla, you may not have read or heard about Obama's speech today on Iraq. He went after McCain:

"Just yesterday, we heard Sen. McCain confuse Sunni and Shiite, Iran and Al Qaeda. Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no Al Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America's enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades."

And then Clinton and McCain:

"Senator Clinton says that she and Senator McCain have passed a "Commander in Chief test" - not because of the judgments they've made, but because of the years they've spent in Washington. She made a similar argument when she said her vote for war was based on her experience at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. But here is the stark reality: there is a security gap in this country - a gap between the rhetoric of those who claim to be tough on national security, and the reality of growing insecurity caused by their decisions. A gap between Washington experience, and the wisdom of Washington's judgments. A gap between the rhetoric of those who tout their support for our troops, and the overburdened state of our military.

"It is time to have a debate with John McCain about the future of our national security. And the way to win that debate is not to compete with John McCain over who has more experience in Washington, because that's a contest that he'll win. The way to win a debate with John McCain is not to talk, and act, and vote like him on national security, because then we all lose. The way to win that debate and to keep America safe is to offer a clear contrast, and that's what I will do when I am the nominee of the Democratic Party - because since before this war in Iraq began, I have made different judgments, I have a different vision, and I will offer a clean break from the failed policies and politics of the past. Nowhere is that break more badly needed than in Iraq."

The McCain "Gaffe"
Someone today astutely commented that if you make the same mistake three times in two days, even after being corrected at the microphone in front of the press, that it isn't a "gaffe" but a talking point. McCain has repeatedly stated that Iran is training Al Queda, and has mixed up Sunni and Shia, to boot.

Hillary's Records
The New York Times has taken the first crack at the newly released daily schedules from Hillary's tenure as First Lady, and states that the records do not support her claims to experience in critical areas, and that more than 4,400 pages are redacted.

"The documents offer no support for her claims, made during the presidential campaign, that she helped to negotiate the Irish peace accords or facilitated the flow of refugees in the Balkans. Neither is there evidence in them to back up her claim that she helped pass the Family and Medical Leave Act, the first legislation Mr. Clinton signed as president. The legislation, sponsored by Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, sailed through Congress and landed on Mr. Clinton's desk 10 days after he was inaugurated. Indeed, on the day Mr. Clinton signed the bill into law, Feb. 5, 1993, there is no indication on that day's calendar that she attended."

Kos Makes Things Clear

Just going to cut and paste Kos on this one:

Clinton is losing.

Let's count the ways that Obama is winning:

1.) Pledged Delegates: (Using AP's numbers, with Obama's count in parenthesis)

Obama: 1,390 (1,411)
Clinton: 1,248 (1,250)

2.) Popular vote: I updated this post with results from Mississippi. I took out the Texas caucuses just to give this the best pro-Clinton spin possible, though I still think the caucuses are a separate contest and need to be accounted for. (Obama ended up winning Mississippi by over 100,000 votes.)

Obama: 13,614,204
Clinton: 12,801,153

3.) Primaries Won: There are 37 total primary contests. All Obama has to do is win three more and he notches the lead in these contests. He can do that easily with just three out of Montana, South Dakota, Oregon, Indiana, and North Carolina.

Obama: 16
Clinton: 12

4.) Caucuses Won

Obama: 14
Clinton: 3

5.) Overall contests Won: It's a 2-1 Obama advantage (includes territories and Democrats Abroad).

Obama: 30
Clinton: 15

6.) Red and Blue States Won (including DC, not including territories or Democrats Abroad):

Obama: 16 Red, 11 Blue
Clinton: 8 Red, 6 Blue

8.) Money Raised (through February)

Obama: $168 million
Clinton: $140 million

So that leaves the Clinton campaign with what, exactly? Big states! Big states! Big states! I addressed that one yesterday.

Team Clinton has nothing except schemes of coup by super delegate, which they apparently think they can do by insulting entire Democratic constituencies and most of our nation's states.

But really, what else do they have? Their campaign is losing by every metric possible.

Ferraro, the Substance of Obama, and Delegate Updates

OK--the news moves too fast for a busy girl to keep up with. This edition includes "no spitzer, none of the time"

Ferraro, Clinton, and the Substance of Obama:
You probably have all heard now about the comments made, and re-made, by Geraldine Ferraro, where she stated that "Obama wouldn't be where he is today if he was white." She claimed that protestations about her remarks were "attacks" on her "because she's white." Now she's demanding an apology from Obama's camp.

I've been absolutely shocked by this: she has tried to say that she was celebrating his popularity with black voters, but I see it as part of a larger pattern wherein Clinton and her surrogates have painted Obama as an empty suit--only this time, Ferraro is adding insult to injury by ALSO activating white resentment about affirmative action.

Clinton has said whole campaign is based on "a speech he gave in 2002," her camp has accused Obama of "copying" her policy papers, she's painted him as naive and young (remember Bill Clinton was 46 when elected...as Obama is now). And of course, her constant criticisms of him as "speeches, not solutions," style not substance, talk not action...you get the point.

For Hillary to allow this kind of racial wedge to be played, then, belatedly, to call it "regrettable," is abhorrent. Only yesterday, finally, when addressing a crowd of 200 representatives from Black newspapers, did she apologize and say she "repudiated" Ferraro's comments--but even that was weak. On Bill Clinton's comments in S. Carolina, equating Obama with Jesse Jackson: "You know I am sorry if anyone was offended." And on Ferraro? Here's her comments (note the strong stance, the leadership she displays ): "I certainly do repudiate [Ferraro's comment] and I regret deeply that it was said. Obviously she doesn't speak for the campaign, she doesn't speak for any of my positions, and she has resigned from being a member of my very large finance committee."

All I can say is: I expect much more. I expect much more leadership on this issue from the leaders of the Democratic Party, Hillary included. And, unfortunately, I expect much more crap to come from Ferraro, since Clinton did not really put this to rest. Look at Ferraro's resignation: "I am stepping down from your finance committee so I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what is at stake in this campaign. The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won't let that happen."

Unfortunately, all we've heard is from our national leadership. Keith Olbermann issued one of his "Special Comments" on the state of play in the Clinton campaign, but that's the most we've heard from anyone with a megaphone. Besides Obama.

In other news:

Obama calls Clinton out on faulty logic, cynical gamesmanship: this response to Hillary's suggestion that Obama be his VP was brilliant, but lost in the swirl of racialized crap.

Analysis of Obama's "Bad Week" (remember all the way back to March 4?) shows a net gain in delegates.

People play with colors! Here's a county by county map, with Obama in blue and Clinton in green (although i would take exception with including florida and michigan as is done here)

Clinton working to "poach" delegates. Hillary recently coined a new phrase "caucus delegates" as if they are somehow different than "primary delegates." This may be why: her campaign, it appears in some places, is trying to get caucus voters to change their vote... And this report indicates that they may try to initiate legal action regarding the Texas caucus.

Clinton Won't Play by the Rules. More unbelievable than "poaching," however, are Hillary's recent claims that the Michigan vote was a fair vote, even though she recognized earlier that Michigan wouldn't be counted, and even though Obama's name wasn't even on the Michigan ballot: now, she's saying this about the Florida and Michigan primaries: "The results of those primaries were fair and they should be honored." Yet the pledge states that none of the candidates will "participate" in those primaries--wouldn't claiming those votes in your column count as participating?

and let's give O'bama a little luck of the Irish!

on things being worse than you even imagined...

from the BBC:

US held youngsters at Abu Ghraib
A US military intelligence officer leads an Iraqi prisoner at Abu Ghraib
The US military says no children suffered abuse at Abu Ghraib
Children as young as 11 years old were held at Abu Ghraib, the Iraqi prison at the centre of the US prisoner abuse scandal, official documents reveal.

Brig Gen Janis Karpinski, formerly in charge of the jail, gave details of young people and women held there.

Her assertion was among documents obtained via legal action by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

on putting your money where you mouth is....

DAILY GRILL--from today's American Progress Report

"People on both sides of the aisle have called upon the administration to submit a budget that helps meet our obligations of – our goal of reducing the deficit in half over a five-year period, and this budget does just that."

– President Bush, 2/7/05

VERSUS

"Over the 2006-2015 period, the president's proposals would increase the total deficit by an estimated $1.6 trillion."

– Congressional Budget Office, analysis of White House budget, 3/7/05

on more 'hard work' that didn't get done

salon.com's war room summarizes today's NYT article about Bushco's missteps and failures in "supporting our troops"

Failing the troops

Again and again on the presidential campaign trial, George W. Bush railed against John Kerry for voting against an $87 billion supplemental appropriation for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. After Kerry said the matter was "complicated" -- he wanted to finance the $87 billion by rolling back some of Bush's tax cuts -- Bush turned the issue into a centerpiece of his stump speech. To huge applause from his hand-picked audiences, Bush would say, "There is nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat."

Well, then, how will the president explain the report in this morning's New York Times detailing the administration's bumbling in providing body armor for those troops? While Donald Rumsfeld and others on Bush's team have long insisted that the administration is providing the troops with the best equipment possible just as quickly as possible, the Times' report proves otherwise. A month into the Iraq war -- when the administration was still in deep denial about the insurgency to come -- the Army shut down orders for body armor for many of the troops in Iraq, the Times says.

A month later, the Army reversed course, but the stop-and-start action was only the beginning of the problems in getting body armor to troops. Once the Army began ordering body armor again, the Times reports, it took 167 days "just to start getting the bulletproof vests to soldiers in Iraq." Other countries ordered similar vests from a U.S. supplier and got them to their soldiers in Iraq in just 12 days, the Times says. More than 200 U.S. soldiers were killed between the time the Pentagon shut down orders for body armor and the time that new vests finally started arriving in Iraq again; if any of those soldiers died because they lacked the body armor, the administration plainly bears at least some of the blame.

The Times' investigation reveals any number of other failings in the administration's effort to "support the troops." Among them: The Pentagon contracted with a former employee to manufacture the ceramic plates needed for the body armor even though his company had never successfully manufactured anything -- and ultimately failed to manufacture the ceramic plates, too; the Pentagon created so many delays in the process of contracting for body armor that one manufacturer was forced to lay off employees and shut down its plant for two months while soldiers were waiting for their vests; the Pentagon failed to push U.S. manufacturers to build armor-plating for Humvees at adequate rates; and, at least in the eyes of some troops, the military punished soldiers who spoke out about the problems the delays caused.

It turns out that supporting the troops isn't just complicated -- it's "hard work," too. For all of its yellow-ribbon, bumper-sticker politics, the administration appears not to have done it so well.

-- Tim Grieve

[07:17 EST, March 7, 2005]