Newshoggers.com

President "Hamas' Worst Nightmare"

by Stacie

Comments like this make me seriously reevaluate McCain's foreign policy credentials. From a policy perspective, what does it mean when the Republican nominee announces that he will be the "worst nightmare" of a foreign political party? Hamas, like it or not (and I'm not thrilled about it) is a legitimate player in the mid east. Since under President McCain, we're going to have a substantial military presence in the region for the duration, how does this approach help anything?

I'm not saying they're going to be our buddies. Far from it, but antagonism of elected governments in the region doesn't exactly send a message of "we're from America and we're here to help." We are there to help, right?

His Holiness

by Stacie

I remember hearing George Bush refer to the Dalai Lama as "His Holiness," and I remember wondering if that was just one more offense that Bush's conservative Christian followers were supposed to shut up about. Answer: Yes, indeed.

Nominate me! Nominate me!

by Stacie

As I read Lanny Davis' Top 10 Reasons Why The Process The Democrats Use Is Insufficient Because Hillary Can't Win It (h/t Cole, see below), I thought exactly what I always think when a candidate, campaign, or party goes entirely off the deep end with the burning, burning stupid. I thought: Nominate Me!

So here's my Top 10 List of Undisputed Facts Showing Barack Obama's Weakness Against Me In The Primary Race.

10. He's beaten me in exactly zero head-to-head matchups so far this year.
9. My delegates are prettier.
8. White people don't like him. Haven't you heard? He's black.
7. I have truly amazing hair. Barack, though not balding as far as I can tell, has very little of the stuff. Not sure about body hair, though I'm proud to say that what little I have is also awesome.
6. No one's ever accused me of giving "whoop-de-doo speeches." That would hurt my feelings.
5. No Rezco scandal here. Like I could get a guy like that return my phone calls.
4. Barack Obama said that some small town Americans are bitter, and to prove this is false, the Clinton campaign now insists that those same people will never forgive such a use of language and wouldn't vote for the speaker. Dude, I think small-town Americans are frigging rock stars who never do anything out of bitterness or wrong-headedness. I'm just in a city because I like to make money, but I certainly don't think rural folks with their limited opportunities are bitter. That's just silly.
3. Just because he's like 1600 delegates ahead of me doesn't mean I can't pull it out.
2. I met a superdelegate once. I believe I have an inside track there.
1. Obama outspent me by exactly every penny he spent in the state of Pennsylvania, and I didn't die. I'm not dead. I'm still alive enough to write this list. Clearly he's a weak candidate.

Why can't Hillary beat him?

by Stacie

I'm pretty sure that John Cole is all the way done with Hillary Clinton.

Well, thanks for nothing Pennsylvania

by Stacie

I think Josh Marshall has it right when he calls today's situation "Status Quo Ante." Fester notes that, despite Clinton's win, her chances of securing the nomination diminished slightly last night. Her campaign appears to have settled on a strategy of raising doubts about Obama, and I think Obama now needs to make the case boldly that the math for Clinton doesn't work, that she's run a terrific campaign but can't win it, and that voters now need to shut the door on the primary and begin the general election.

Clinton can raise all the questions she wants about Obama, but what voters really need to hear is a couple of facts: she can't win, and she's only helping McCain now.

Obama won't say any of this, but the campaign needs dispatch its surrogates far and wide to every camera and every reporter with a pen and paper they can find and say it over and over again: The math doesn't work, she can't win, she's only helping McCain.

Clinton wins

by Stacie

And on it goes...

If only...

by Stacie

Is it just me, or is the entire Clinton campaign at this point predicated on the notion that if only... something were different, she'd already be president? Bill Clinton:

"If we were under the Republican system, which is more like the Electoral College, she'd have a 300-delegate lead here. I mean, Senator McCain is already the nominee because they chose a system to produce that result, and we don't have a nominee here, because the Democrats chose a system that prevents that result," he said.

Why John McCain sometimes supports campaign finance reform

by Stacie

This piece in the Times gives a very good view of the type of people who latch into the current money system of politics, and why. McCain bundler, friend, and longtime supporter Donald Diamond is very clear that when he makes contributions, he wants a return on his investment, and clearly, the land developer has gotten just that.

Mr. Diamond is close to most of Arizona’s Congressional delegation and is candid about his expectations as a fund-raiser. “I want my money back, for Christ’s sake. Do you know how many cocktail parties I have to go to?”

On the one hand, I agree that McCain was engaging in constituent services, although it sounds like in at least one instance, his aides went above and beyond to ensure good terms for a Diamond investment. On the other, when I contact my senators, I'm lucky if I receive a form letter loosely related to the topic weeks later that's more spin than substance. But one difference between Donald Diamond and myself is a lot of zeroes in a bank balance, and I would be stupid to think that I would warrant the same consideration.

I think it's a bit dim to think that McCain actually plays the game that differently from the rest of the members of the senate, and articles like this rightly chip away at his "maverick" persona, but I continue to believe that McCain is fundamentally less corrupt than some in that body and does actually care about appearances, which is refreshing. But the political world is filled with men like Donald Diamond who use money to build relationships that ultimately favor them heavily. McCain uses them just like everyone else does. And is used in return.

The politics junkie thinks of primary day

by Stacie

I will give you conventional wisdom in three bullet points:

• Clinton must win PA
• If Clinton wins PA by +10 points, she remains -- somehow -- credible
• Nearly all polls put her not quite that much ahead

If you still believe in Santa Claus, you are welcome to hold out hope that Obama can sneak a victory in, but don't hold your breath. Unfortunately, this thing isn't likely to end today.

Clinton has done a truly remarkable job of convincing reporters and voters that she still somehow has a shot at the nomination. Neither would have given a lesser candidate such consideration, so the simple fact that she remains is a testament to her argument that she is a fighter. She is indeed.

Perhaps Obama can be criticized for not being able to put this away, all the way, today. I'm unsure whether traipsing through Pennsylvania with a math-based argument would have played with voters, but Clinton's brilliant line of attack, charging that Obama "doesn't want people to vote," short-circuited any try he may have made with that. I'm sure that John Edwards is even now cursing the evil leaders of the race who didn't want people to vote. And Dennis Kucinich. And Bill Richardson. And on and on. (Remember when there were 400 Democrats running for president?)

So what from here? Clinton will get a good drubbing in Indiana and North Carolina on May 6, but the press will (somehow) accept the argument that neither state is important, and she will continue playing the traditional role of veep for John McCain -- the vicious attack dog throwing everything and the kitchen sink at his opponent, hoping beyond hope that superdelegates decide at the end of it that she's the last one standing. It's an ugly, ugly strategy, and I hope beyond hope that it doesn't work.

Pondering PA

by Stacie

A thousand apologies if you're bored with primary race handicapping. I'm a little bored with it myself, and it doesn't appear that the voters of Pennsylvania will bless the rest of America with a conclusion to the primary tomorrow.

Josh has loads of polls up -- here, for instance, but really, TPM is polling central today and rightly so. All but one suggest a solid but not huge Clinton lead, meaning that my hopes for Wednesday's concession speech are almost certainly not going to happen.

Dan Balz tells WaPo readers that, "Her campaign has the aura of a march toward inevitable disappointment," which is my take on it as well, but that doesn't appear to have persuaded Pennsylvanians to force her to throw in the towel. Slate gives us a blow-by-blow of Obama's closing argument, which is worth a read, but here's mine:

Dear Pennsylvania,

The math doesn't work. Hillary Clinton will almost certainly not be the nominee for the Democratic Party in 2008. She is too far behind in delegate totals, and her strategy at this point is to entice elites to overrule the voting public and to finagle a last minute rule change regarding Michigan and/or Florida, rules which she pledged to support earlier in the cycle. It reeks of horrible. Make it stop.

Kthxbye.

Stacie

Obama's actual close is a little better, but at the end of it all, I think my argument is the correct one (I would think that...). If Clinton almost certainly can't gain the nomination, she is serving only to assist McCain by being one tine in a pincer move against the Democratic nominee. Pennsylvania Democrats: we have to win in November. You can end this bloodletting. You should.

All your comment threads are belong to us

by Stacie

Wowza. One of the things that has really been damaged by the acrimony in the primary battle is comment threads on the intertubes. Check out the thread at this WaPo post, for instance. Can this comment possibly have come from a Democrat?

If the Democratic Party nominates [Obama], we'll vote for McCain, and if the Republican party can demonstrate that they care more about us, our values, and our votes, than the Democratic party does, we'll switch Parties for good.

Ferreal? Just... wow. How radically would the GOP have to transform itself to demonstrate that it cares more about "us, [and] our values" to capture the loyalty of average Americans? Limitless war, anti-gay and anti-immigrant demagoguery, anti-choice legislation, a judiciary that incessantly favors business and punishment over people and freedom... the list of ways the GOP fails to represent the values of ordinary Americans seems pretty endless these days.

TPM is another site where the comment threads have just been obliterated by bickering. I'm a daily reader -- actually many times daily reader -- and while I don't participate in the comment threads at Election Central, I often like to check in with them to see what other addict/readers have to say. It's less interesting these days, that's for sure, except when it's just irritating.

And there's here, where already this week I've been told that I am singlehandedly pushing Clinton Democrats into the arms of John McCain. Dude, can we all take a minute and breathe? The fighting's gotta end. I know there are a variety of magical mathematics floating around whereby a lot of people have decided that Clinton can still somehow eek out the nomination, but I just don't see it. What I do see is a primary race that's gone on too long and is now producing only damage for the eventual winner. Since one candidate has only the slimmest hope of winning the contest, let's get on with the general election.

What should happen on Wednesday

by Stacie

Not saying it will, but here's what should happen on Wednesday:

Hillary Clinton's campaign calls an afternoon press conference after she beats Obama by a few points in Pennsylvania, but the delegate count is another tie. Clinton makes a speech in which she thanks her amazing supporters who have given so much time, energy, and idealism to her campaign, and explains that the job now is to buckle down and work tirelessly to defeat John McCain and the policies of the GOP in November, from the top of the ticket down to county dog catcher, and every race in between. She tells the assembled press and invited members of the audience that her run has been extraordinary, and she is extraordinarily blessed to have had the opportunity to meet so many Americans in so many places and to have been touched so deeply by their stories and by their passion for their country. And that it is in that spirit that her campaign ends, and that her energies will now be directed to building the national leadership that will enact policies to assist all Americans instead of the wealthy few who benefit so overwhelmingly from Republican rule. She will say that it is time for us to come together as Democrats, Independents, and Republicans who want a new direction, and to support the next president of the United States, Barack Obama.

This is what I want to see from Hillary Clinton: a decent act that closes the rancor of the primary battle and moves the Democratic Party into the general election against John McCain and the authoritarians who've taken over the GOP. I don't say this as someone who wouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton in November -- I would. I simply can't see how the math works to allow her to take the nomination, only a path of bitter ruination for the party that is still unlikely to yield her the prize.

And so, free of passion, I say that she needs to go. It isn't an attack on her to note that she's behind and unlikely to catch up. It isn't an attack on her to note that if she were to clinch it in the end, it would be through a form of politics that strikes me as simply wrong -- rule changing, strong arming, and ultimately having the superdelegates narrowly overrule the votes of ordinary people. I don't want the process to play out that way, not because I wouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton in November (again: I would), but because when I think of those kinds of brutal, exclusionary, win-at-all-costs tactics, I think "GOP." I don't want to see it on my side.

I want to see an act made for the greater good, by a candidate whose campaign has been revolutionary but has just fallen short. It's politics. It happens. And it's time that Democrats take the fight to John McCain. I want to see Hillary Clinton get on board with that. Wednesday is the right day to do it.

Zillionaire Critics

by Stacie

I get a real kick out of the zillionaires in the political establishment calling Obama "elitist." Candidates and former candidates who self-fund their campaigns from their enormous net worth should, perhaps, not be taken very seriously when leveling these charges.

Mitt Romney, the human pretzel now angling to ride McCain's coattails into the veep's office, should be treated only as a laughingstock. Hillary Clinton, running a campaign designed only to damage her opponent's chances in November, has stood on the levers of power far too long to make such an absurd claim. She lived at the presidential residence for eight years. If that doesn't make one an elite, nothing can.

Is it almost over?

by Stacie

Joe Klein thinks so. I don't know if I think so, but I know it needs to be. I really believe that the Clinton campaign will do anything -- anything -- to win, regardless of the damage it does to the party, to the eventual nominee's chances in November, and to the country as a whole. And for that, Hillary Clinton needs to exit the stage.

Since this is all coming down to superdelegates, they need to make their move. I don't know how it is that people are left who can't see the writing on the wall, but it's time for some interventions in the Democratic party. The primary has to end, and the nominee must begin the process of running the general election campaign. By every conceivable metric, that nominee is Barack Obama, and I don't think the delegate equation will be noticeably different on Wednesday.

Turn the lights out, Hillary. It's time to go home.

Calling the grown ups in the Democratic establishment...

by Stacie

Because, you know, John Cole is absolutely right:

Not that any of it matters anyway, because even if Clinton loses PA, let alone win by close to double-digits, the race will go on, even if the delegate math does not get any better for her.

I think Clinton could lose PA by 20 points and she'd continue on (not that I think she will lose PA at all, but that's not the point). She'd continue bashing the leader over the head with anything and everything her campaign can make hay out of, and very possibly finish the thing with the leader's negatives so high -- because of these swirling non-stories that prompt stupid "questions" about some inane and irrelevant quality about the candidate, which Clinton will remind us over and over again that Republicans will raise -- that he's crippled in the general.

I see that Howard Dean has started to raise the temperature on the superdelegates. He needs to raise it more and then, most likely, sit down with the Clinton campaign to break the news to them all that it's over.

Adventures in America's patchwork healthcare system

by Stacie

Oh, America's health care system.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I was running low on Allegra and here it is pollen season and all. I called Blue Cross/Blue Shield, with which I have a personal plan after my company's sponsored Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan ran out after the layoffs.

I asked if they could transfer the prescriptions I received mail order through my old account onto my new account, and the helpful phone rep did that and told me to watch for the prescriptions within two weeks.

Fair enough. That was two Fridays ago, and the scrip hasn't arrived yet, so I just called Blue Cross/Blue Shield and was told that my current plan doesn't allow mail order prescriptions. So I've been without Allegra for about week, was not notified by the awesome people at Blue Cross/Blue Shield that I wouldn't be receiving my much needed allergy medication during the height of pollen season, and now have to hope that a local pharmacy can process all of this as soon as possible. Or, you know, Blue Cross/Blue Shield can pay to treat the sinus infection that's brewing in my face.

Example #382,631 that America's health care system is a stupid joke.

And another, because vacuuming sucks

by Stacie

When the Clinton camp approaches superdelegates with the argument that she effectively, but dishonestly, disowned the other night: that Obama can't beat the Republican in the general election (which is apparently her chief argument), I encourage the superdelegates to remind the Clinton camp that Barack Obama has managed to do something that the GOP never could. He has beaten the Clinton machine.

I'd say that bodes well for Obama in November, wouldn't you?

And one more thing

by Stacie

Before I get back to it -- this isn't some kind of mindless Obama-mania that has gripped me. Although that may have been the case earlier in the season. But really, he's a politician who will only be able to achieve a portion of his agenda, and he'll have to compromise on much of what he is able to enact. If he's elected, that is.

I'm not approaching this naively, but if Clinton-style politics rules the day for the next four or eight years... well, I have a passport and a lot of friends in Canada. Maybe a long vacation is in order.

The Interminable Primary

by Stacie

Pausing from my house duties for a late breakfast, I want to say how horrible the current primary situation is for me. On the one hand, I'm a true Obama supporter -- I believe he represents a generational shift away from a tired politics, and that he brings a truly fresh perspective to the process. Adding: blah blah. See, that's the thing. There's no new information. I voted for Obama on February 5 and continue to support him for the same reasons I did months ago.

My feelings about Hillary Clinton have rollercoastered throughout this process. I began this election cycle strongly opposed to her, later developed a certain respect for her, and now consider her a pariah on the body politic. I have never been more opposed to Hillary Clinton than I am right now, and I don't think it's simply because I'm an Obama supporter.

It really is her tactics at this point: attempting to paint Obama as an elitist while she attempts to coerce the elites of the Democratic party to overrule the votes of ordinary Americans, who have given Obama a sizeable, if arguably surmountable, lead. Pouncing on harmless statements that I happen to believe are true -- I've always understood that hate groups like the Klan have their best membership spikes during economic hard times. I don't have a link to back that up (I didn't go looking for one), but it's something I've heard many times over the years and accept as true. Occupied, busy people who are building dreams are far less likely to get wrapped up in such sillyness.

As I said, it's a tired old politics, and I'm just sick of it. I hate to pull a Sullivan here, but it's long past time for Hillary to give up the ghost. It's time for the general election campaign to begin, and just like the Highlander, there can be only one. Obama has waged an extraordinary campaign, fighting for every vote, and it's worked. At this point, Hillary will obviously hang in for Tuesday, but she's gotta go. Democrats have an election to win, and she needs to get on board with that. Now.

Prepping for my new roomie

by Stacie

Howdy, friends. There's no politics or policy in this post, so feel free to keep scrolling.

I just felt like recapping the last year of my life, very quickly, because today may be a momentous day.

April 2007: Broke up with girlfriend of 4+ years.
Spring/Summer 2007: Recorded spoken word record, planned tour.
August 2007: Attended National Poetry Slam in Austin, TX all solo like.
Late August 2007: Got laid off from job of 4 years.
September-October 2007: Toured Southeast with spoken word record.
October 2007-present: Job hunted. Wrote poems. Planned summer tour. Paced my house letting the booming sound of my own voice bounce off the hardwood floors and the walls and loved every damn second of it.
March 2008: Ex-girlfriend (did you forget her?) finally moves out of my house.

My ex... well, she's another creative type and one facet of that was that she was sometimes creative with calendars and bill paying. Actually, that was a pretty regular aspect of her creativity. It wasn't a huge deal when I had a steady income, but obviously after the layoffs, it became a small catastrophe for me to have to cover the bills and await reimbursement, and our relationship by then had degraded to such a point that any attempts to discuss it resulted in apparent psychic trauma. It's been a bad go of things with the ex.

Today, my new housemate is moving in. Interesting story there, maybe: I've never met her. We've been MySpace "friends" for quite a long time, exchanged the occasional e-mail as she's interested in my spoken word career (such as it is), and had been planning a move to Atlanta for the last year or so. She'll be arriving from Pittsburgh (hey Fester, we're stealing your ladies!) later today, and we have discussed at length the possibility that this could be a real nightmare situation for one or both of us, and agreed that if that's the case, we'll just be upfront about it and handle it. I always have to cover the worst case scenario to assuage my limitless anxiety.

The upsides: my bills will reduce considerably, relieving a lot of pressure. If it works alright, I'll have what I think is a great new friend. We do vibe on a lot of stuff, and in truth, not having an office to go to, I get a little lonely sometimes and often find myself out at bars just for the social aspect of it when I'm not necessarily even in the mood to drink. And of course, end up hammered, so hopefully that'll happen less often.

Anyway, I have a little checklist of things to do before she arrives later, including scouring my -- our -- kitchen floor and vacuuming up the dog hair that accumulates every damn where. It feels like a pretty momentous day. I haven't had a roommate (aside from my girlfriend) in about five years, and I'm a little eager to apply all these interpersonal skills I've acquired in that time to this new situation. And to have somebody around. Another First Reader for my poetry (I have a friend who lives in my backyard cottage who does this job admirably, but I love First Readers), someone to turn me on to new music or films, or just someone to say, "Hey, wanna go do something?" to when I'm bored. I think my backyard friend maybe needs a bit of a break from me.

So the Casa de Blue Compound is about to expand by one, giving us three humans and four dogs in two houses. And I've got a lot of work to do before she arrives, so I'm going to go do it. Enjoy your Friday.

"Awesome speech"

by Stacie

Oh George. Apparently the dictatorship of moral relativism ends at his lips. Here, he appears to tell Pope Benedict XVI, "Awesome speech."

Hopes for the Future

by Stacie

Hello everyone. I've been on a bit of a sabbatical for a while, and may persist with the light posting for the next week or so, because I don't know that I have too much to add to the discussion of politics today.

I meant to watch the debate last night, but had to go get a prescription filled before the pharmacy closed. Reading reaction around the web, I'm pretty glad I missed it as I only have one television and I'm sure that throwing a shoe through the screen would reduce that number to zero.

Here is my hope for the future: On April 22, I hope the people of Pennsylvania finish this primary race. I hope that the result there is either a tie or that Obama edges Clinton out and the people who continue to whisper in Clinton's ear that there's still some faint hope of capturing the nomination lose their voices.

During my time away from the blog, I have only loosely followed events in the campaign, and given what I've seen from my distant vantage point, that seems to have been the proper posture, because at this point it's all BS. Please, Pennsylvanians: end this race. Make it impossible for anyone to even pretend to take Hillary Clinton's campaign seriously at the moment. And don't do it for me. Do it for all the news watching Americans who have been forced to listen to morons chatter on about whatever faux scandal the Clinton campaign is peddling this week.

That's what they do, Pennsylvania. So here's what you can do: End it for us. For all of us. Begin the general election. It's all on you now.

Techie Catch-All

by Stacie

Hey everyone, and welcome to our new digs. Long time readers will know my work as "shamanic" at the last place, but I'm getting older and grumpier by the day and just didn't see any reason for the anonymity anymore. Besides, my legal name is Duncan Black.

I'm technically on sabbatical from the writing side here, as I've got major life things going on, a serious poetry addiction, and full scale burnout on the Democratic party's war (oh, and Iraq still sucks, how bout that?), but I am the person responsible for the layout and coding of the site. So, dear readers, I ask you:

• Any problems?
• Any weird layout stuff?
• Any usability issues you're encountering?
• Anything at all layout or usability related you'd like to comment about?

In particular, I wonder if the banner is now showing properly in Safari. A reader commented that it wasn't. I replaced the .png with a .gif, and hopefully that resolves. Are you on a Mac? Shout out if there's no banner there.

Or whatever. I'm fixing and changing and adjusting as issues are brought up, so feel free to leave comments on this post or any other. The rest of the crew e-mails everything to me in case I miss a comment thread, so don't be shy, and thank you for making this transition so successful for us here at the Hog.

Pastor Gate

by Stacie

Look, without wading into the intraparty and apparently intrablogospheric war that's happening right now, I just want to tell you how bizarre I find the whole Jeremiah Wright flap. I live in the south where, let's face it, the pastors make their living by demonizing me for being gay. Black and white. There are certainly liberal churches and liberal churchgoers, but there's an incredibly ugly strain of Christianity that lives alongside me, and I don't think you can be a queer southerner without learning to tune the jackasses out.

So I have to wonder what would happen if some of these white, conservative preachers got their sermons from before Georgia's anti-gay marriage amendment passed up on YouTube. Would it shock America to learn how much hatred of gays flows out of Christian pulpits?

Probably not, but as long as it's a white person saying it we can marginalize him as a religious wacko and go about our business. Only when it's a black pastor is the issue one of "hatred of America." A lot of these people want the Constitution replaced with some Biblical document.

By definition, a lot of these people, black and white, hate America because they hate the freedoms that let people live lives of which they don't approve. That's the simple fact of the matter, black and white, and as a freedom loving American, I think they're entitled to their opinion, but don't make this something it isn't. Preachers say all kinds of screwed up things in their pulpits, just like the rest of us do in our day to day lives. Black and white, there's a lot of animosity toward what most of us think of as living. Black and white, there's a lot of hatred pouring from the church doors.

McCain will continue closed lip policy toward the nasties

by Stacie

According to McCain surrogate Lawrence Eagleburger, McCain "will not talk with the Syrians, will not talk with the Iranians, will not talk with Hamas and Hezbollah."

Well, now that we've categorically ruled out attempting to work with two of the countries that border our little Iraqi province, maybe McCain can suggest, I don't know, a plan or something for how we win in Iraq without destroying our military. And how do we handle other threats that will arise?

It really is a matter of new leadership or more of the same.