Obama Makes First Excellent Decision:
No Hillary On Ticket
The Wall Street Journal is reporting tonight that the Obama Camp is letting it be known that there will be no Obama-Clinton ticket. This really isn’t news. There was NEVER a chance that he would ever consider her. But the media has been pushing that for months and now the Clintons’ were starting to push it. Lanny Davis today rolled out some silly online petition to pressure Obama to put Clinton on the ticket.
Obama has taken a preemptive move to quash months of inane and futile speculation about putting Hillary on the ticket. Its not going to happen and he is to be credited for putting her and her minions on notice that the spoils do not go to the loser.
He’s got a lot of challenges ahead of him but he’s demonstrated good leadership by ruling out Hillary as a running mate from the get-go.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Hell Freezes Over–Meet The Iceman
Hell has officially frozen over. Hillary Clinton will finally end her campaign for President, concede to Barack Obama and endorse him on Friday. It was, in the end, a publicly irritated and privately infuriated Charlie Rangel who told her to get out. Rangel represents the smallest geographic congressional district in the country, encompasses slivers of Queens and Manhattan, including Harlem and Spanish Harlem. Rangel has represented this district since 1971. Rangel is significant in that he is THE PERSON who first suggested to Hillary Clinton that she run for the U.S. Senate in 2000 to fill the vacancy, but not replace, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of NY. A main argument Rangel used to get her to run for the Senate was that she ought to have a legacy of her own as something other than Bill’s wife and the victim of Monicagate. Fittingly, I supposed, it was Rangel today who told her that her legacy, her career and her husband’s legacy were all going down the drain. Unlike Rep. James Clybourn of SC who get expletives hurled at him by Bill Clinton months ago when Clybourn chided Clinton for incited racial tensions into the primary, Hillary treated Rangel with great respect. She thanked him, told him she understood his concerns and assured him she would do the right thing. He assured her she needed to do it fast.
Clinton apologists, including Lanny Davis (a jerk), Joan Walsh (who I like but never agree with) and Lisa Caputo (a bright but misguided pro)have been all over the airwaves today trying to make the argument that she needed time to absorb the end of the campaign and prepare her supporters for the end. Get over yourself. Do what Al Gore did. Make a magnanimous speech, then go off, gain a hundred pounds and win a Nobel peace prize. Others have made the argument that it has been sexist and misogynistic for people to “dismiss” her by suggesting she get out of the race. The race is over. She lost. It has nothing to do with her gender and everything to do with her outrage and her, understandable, disbelief that this inexperienced neophyte beat her. But beat her he did. Hillary and Bill, their campaign insiders and longtime loyalists have consistently made up the rules as they have gone along, moving the goal post, lying and manipulating. Clinton apologists and loyalists are not the only ones lending great sensitivity to Hillary. Even Pat Buchanan and Paul Kroeger have been curiously calling for more time.
Hillary's departure is tantamount to hell freezing over. Kudos to Charlie Rangel for playing the Iceman and, incidentally, wrestling that title from John Olenick, possibly the only registered Republican in the Bronx.
Memo to Lanny Davis and the gang: Hillary won’t have the kind of leverage she thinks.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Ford & Carter: At It Again
McCain...
John McCain gave a partially stirring speech in Louisiana. He held himself out, saying, I am an imperfect servant of America, but I am her servant, first, last and always. He also spoke to how America did not get to know him yesterday. We know him well. He spoke of how he has put his values and convictions ahead of his party, his friends, his self-interest. He spoke of his own revulsion that our war in Iraq has been such a tortured event in the fabric of our nation. He also exampled the many ways in which a McCain presidency is not a third term of the Bush presidency. I know the Ditto heads disagree with that strategy but it is essential for his victory in November to chart a course that is a MODERATION: a place between Bush and Obama. Pitifully, he used his speech as a negative jab, CONTINUOUSLY, at Obama. It was a good jab that McCain said Obama wants to meet with leaders of Iran, North Korea and Cuba but won’t go to Iraq or meet with Petraues. He needs to speak positively about what he will do to bring our country out of the peril we find ourselves in. He fell short. VERY SHORT. He was pitiful. He has a lot of work to do if he wants to beat Obama in the fall.
Obama...
Good speech. Good strategy to have give his speech at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul where the GOP Convention will take place in August.
He gave good homage to Hillary Clinton.
He tributed McCain with the slap, “I honor his accomplishments even if he chooses to deny mine.” He retorted McCain’s slap that Obama will go to North Korea but not Iraq, as anyone would have predicted, by saying that McCain should visit Iowa, Pennsylvania or even New Orleans where McCain previously spoke this evening.
His speech was mostly a stringing together of his stump speeches. High on energy and inspiration, low on detail.
McCain...
John McCain gave a partially stirring speech in Louisiana. He held himself out, saying, I am an imperfect servant of America, but I am her servant, first, last and always. He also spoke to how America did not get to know him yesterday. We know him well. He spoke of how he has put his values and convictions ahead of his party, his friends, his self-interest. He spoke of his own revulsion that our war in Iraq has been such a tortured event in the fabric of our nation. He also exampled the many ways in which a McCain presidency is not a third term of the Bush presidency. I know the Ditto heads disagree with that strategy but it is essential for his victory in November to chart a course that is a MODERATION: a place between Bush and Obama. Pitifully, he used his speech as a negative jab, CONTINUOUSLY, at Obama. It was a good jab that McCain said Obama wants to meet with leaders of Iran, North Korea and Cuba but won’t go to Iraq or meet with Petraues. He needs to speak positively about what he will do to bring our country out of the peril we find ourselves in. He fell short. VERY SHORT. He was pitiful. He has a lot of work to do if he wants to beat Obama in the fall.
Obama...
Good speech. Good strategy to have give his speech at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul where the GOP Convention will take place in August.
He gave good homage to Hillary Clinton.
He tributed McCain with the slap, “I honor his accomplishments even if he chooses to deny mine.” He retorted McCain’s slap that Obama will go to North Korea but not Iraq, as anyone would have predicted, by saying that McCain should visit Iowa, Pennsylvania or even New Orleans where McCain previously spoke this evening.
His speech was mostly a stringing together of his stump speeches. High on energy and inspiration, low on detail.
Hillary Clinton: Despicable and Pathetic
The ProConPundit is not one to kick one when they are down. But Hillary Clinton isn’t down. She’s just scheming and lying. I am watching her ridiculous speech at Barach College in which she congratulated Obama for the race he has RUN, instead of the race he has WON.. She said, “I will make no decisions tonight.” She also asked her followers to inform her so that she could decide what to do next. Hello? She is making no decisions tonight but the Democratic Party has decided. She lost. She’s done. Nothing to think about. Its not sexism or misogyny to dismiss her now–SHE LOST. She doesn’t need a listening tour from her followers.
I am a big McCain fan. But Barack Obama is a smart gentleman and he isn’t suffering this silly fool gladly. She’s done. Over. Toast.
Her biggest mistake, perhaps was taking per place with George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole who each lost dismissing Bill Clinton. How ironic that a Clinton would lose underestimating her inexperienced opponent.
The ProConPundit is not one to kick one when they are down. But Hillary Clinton isn’t down. She’s just scheming and lying. I am watching her ridiculous speech at Barach College in which she congratulated Obama for the race he has RUN, instead of the race he has WON.. She said, “I will make no decisions tonight.” She also asked her followers to inform her so that she could decide what to do next. Hello? She is making no decisions tonight but the Democratic Party has decided. She lost. She’s done. Nothing to think about. Its not sexism or misogyny to dismiss her now–SHE LOST. She doesn’t need a listening tour from her followers.
I am a big McCain fan. But Barack Obama is a smart gentleman and he isn’t suffering this silly fool gladly. She’s done. Over. Toast.
Her biggest mistake, perhaps was taking per place with George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole who each lost dismissing Bill Clinton. How ironic that a Clinton would lose underestimating her inexperienced opponent.
Deal In Place
Here it is. Clinton doesn’t want to run for VP but wants to be asked and is willing to decline on the proviso that she is asked. Obama is wiling to ask her with the proviso that she turns it down. There were conversations going on yesterday between the campaigns and Obama’s people were open to a telephone conversation where Obama would offer it to her. The Clintonistas wouldn’t agree. They want an in-person, high drama, ceremonial offering to her of running mate status. With the Obama camp non-plussed at that, Hillary forged ahead with a conference call today where she expressed an open-ness to being his running mate.
Uhm. Hello? I don't remember ANY presidential nominee asking someone to be their running mate who was their 2nd choice. It sets up him for failure if he asks her and she declines. He will never ask her. She needs to get a grip.
Its not over.
Here it is. Clinton doesn’t want to run for VP but wants to be asked and is willing to decline on the proviso that she is asked. Obama is wiling to ask her with the proviso that she turns it down. There were conversations going on yesterday between the campaigns and Obama’s people were open to a telephone conversation where Obama would offer it to her. The Clintonistas wouldn’t agree. They want an in-person, high drama, ceremonial offering to her of running mate status. With the Obama camp non-plussed at that, Hillary forged ahead with a conference call today where she expressed an open-ness to being his running mate.
Uhm. Hello? I don't remember ANY presidential nominee asking someone to be their running mate who was their 2nd choice. It sets up him for failure if he asks her and she declines. He will never ask her. She needs to get a grip.
Its not over.
McCain to Address Country Tonight
7:15 p.m. CST- Chicago
Just moments after the ProConPundit announced that the McCain Campaign risks being forgotten amidst all the attention to the Democrats...John McCain announced that he will address the nation tonight from Louisiana, the home of America’s worst embarrassment since slavery.
That McCain’s instinct makes sense is underscored by the fact that MSNBC’s chief liberal loon, Keith Olbermann is out of control at McCain’s "audacity" to steal thunder from the Democrats’ tonight.
McCain will embrace Hillary and her supporters tonight in great political theater.
Tim Russert recalled when he was a little boy his dad nailed a JFK sign to their house in 1960 and Timmy asked his dad why they were supporting JFK.. Big Russ said, "Because he is one of us." What Americans will need to decide between now and November is whether we can best say that about John McCain or Barack Obama.
As a Chicagoan, I do feel the need to say a word about Barack Obama. I have had plenty to say about him, often critical, in the past and will continue to do so. We are experiencing a unique moment in American history. It is the first time an African American will be the presumed nominee of the Democratic party for the presidency. It is also the first time since–ADLAI STEVENSON (not Lincoln) that Illinois will have nominated someone. In the end, I believe Obama will be more like Adlai than Abe. However, while I think he lacks the experience to lead this nation, particularly in such perilous times, he has done an astounding job of beating the most powerful and diabolical political team on the planet: Hillary and Bill.
7:15 p.m. CST- Chicago
Just moments after the ProConPundit announced that the McCain Campaign risks being forgotten amidst all the attention to the Democrats...John McCain announced that he will address the nation tonight from Louisiana, the home of America’s worst embarrassment since slavery.
That McCain’s instinct makes sense is underscored by the fact that MSNBC’s chief liberal loon, Keith Olbermann is out of control at McCain’s "audacity" to steal thunder from the Democrats’ tonight.
McCain will embrace Hillary and her supporters tonight in great political theater.
Tim Russert recalled when he was a little boy his dad nailed a JFK sign to their house in 1960 and Timmy asked his dad why they were supporting JFK.. Big Russ said, "Because he is one of us." What Americans will need to decide between now and November is whether we can best say that about John McCain or Barack Obama.
As a Chicagoan, I do feel the need to say a word about Barack Obama. I have had plenty to say about him, often critical, in the past and will continue to do so. We are experiencing a unique moment in American history. It is the first time an African American will be the presumed nominee of the Democratic party for the presidency. It is also the first time since–ADLAI STEVENSON (not Lincoln) that Illinois will have nominated someone. In the end, I believe Obama will be more like Adlai than Abe. However, while I think he lacks the experience to lead this nation, particularly in such perilous times, he has done an astounding job of beating the most powerful and diabolical political team on the planet: Hillary and Bill.
Confronting Inconvenient Truths
6 p.m. CST--reporting from Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago
Barack Obama’s clinching of the nomination tonight is really not news. Since Super Tuesday, February 5, it has been virtually impossible for Hillary Clinton to win. Two things have kept this race alive:
1. Clinton Fear Factor. Superdelegates have been afraid to cross the Clintons and the evil (a word the ProConPundit does not use lightly), lying Clinton loyalists (i.e., Terry McAuliffe, Lanny Davis, Harold Ickes) have managed to let their ever-evolving, always dishonest arguments that she could pull it off sway media coverage of the primary. Face it. Once Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney could not win, they were asterisks. Hillary was known, for the most part, to be unable to win this primary since February.
This dishonesty has had some benefits. It has given the illusion that all of these primaries have really had an effect on the outcome. The great service to our country has been that states like Indiana and Kentucky–to say nothing of Puerto Rico, have felt that their participation in the primary process actually mattered. That has been an exciting part of this process. The trick will be, in the future, to make the process really include the voters of all states in a meaningful way. That won’t happen as long as Iowa and New Hampshire play such an inordinate and predominant role in our primary process.
2. The other advantage to the dishonesty of this process has been that Hillary Clinton has illustrated an important point by hanging on this long. That point, of course, is that Barack Obama is the most vulnerable general election candidate since George McGovern. In fairness, he is the most charismatic Democratic candidate since Bobby Kennedy. But get this: whatever you think of her (and I despise her)–Hillary Clinton is a brilliant political analyst and strategist. She truly believes that Obama is not electable in the fall. There are, of course, factors that could cause his election. Generally speaking, however, her instincts that he is unelectable are valid. They are born out by the lopsided defeats he has suffered to her in places like West Virginia and Kentucky. At a time when everyone knew he was the winner, she beat him 2 to 1. The fact that he is so rejected by lower income and working class Americans afflicted with the Caucasoid orientation should not be overlooked. It is huge. That demographic happens to vote Democrat in West Virginia and Kentucky. In huge chunks of the rest of the country, their instinct is to vote Republican.
Another inconvenient truth is that Hillary Clinton will never be asked to be Obama’s running mate. She knows that. Its just the media and her most zealous supporters who don’t. Take it to the bank: HE WILL NEVER ASK HER. HE CANNOT TRUST HER. The real issue isn’t about her being Vice-President. She is trying to leverage her significant vote totals for something. Whatever you think of Ted Kennedy, when he was defeated in the Democratic primary in 1980, he could return to the U.S. Senate well regarded by his colleagues. Her colleagues hate her. There are Republicans who have worked well with her but the Democrats fall into two categories:
1) Those who were intimated into supporting her for President and hate her and
2) Those who preferred Obama and hate her.
She has a handful of people who actually like her but the notion that she could ever be the official leader (i.e., Daschle, Dole) or the unofficial leader ( i.e., Kennedy) are inconceivable–unless she can leverage her perceived power now into something. I don’t know what it is, but its not vice-president. She doesn’t think he can win. She doesn’t want to be # 2 in a losing proposition. The only exception to this is that if she thinks she is the difference that could lead him to victory. It doesn’t matter. He will NEVER ask her.
Sidebar points:
1. It is immense hubris and in tremendous poor taste for the Clinton camp to even be talking about her interest in being VP on the night of Obama’s victory.
2. In the hard-to-imagine notion that the ProConPundit is wrong and Hillary really wants to be VP, Obama has a few Inconvenient Truths of his own to use: If Hillary is serious about wanting to be VP, watch for Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy (God willing), John Kerry & John Edwards to come out, possibly together, to say they think it’s a bad idea. Makes the ProCon one almost wish he was wrong!
PS-- Did I mention that althought I TOTALLY LOVE THE CHAOS of the Democratic primary, I reject the notion that it necessarily inures to their detriment in the fall. The spectacle of their Saturday rules committee meeting in Washington certainly argues for the generally weakening of Democrats in the fall. That aside, a lot of the excitement of their process keeps McCain forgotten.
6 p.m. CST--reporting from Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago
Barack Obama’s clinching of the nomination tonight is really not news. Since Super Tuesday, February 5, it has been virtually impossible for Hillary Clinton to win. Two things have kept this race alive:
1. Clinton Fear Factor. Superdelegates have been afraid to cross the Clintons and the evil (a word the ProConPundit does not use lightly), lying Clinton loyalists (i.e., Terry McAuliffe, Lanny Davis, Harold Ickes) have managed to let their ever-evolving, always dishonest arguments that she could pull it off sway media coverage of the primary. Face it. Once Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney could not win, they were asterisks. Hillary was known, for the most part, to be unable to win this primary since February.
This dishonesty has had some benefits. It has given the illusion that all of these primaries have really had an effect on the outcome. The great service to our country has been that states like Indiana and Kentucky–to say nothing of Puerto Rico, have felt that their participation in the primary process actually mattered. That has been an exciting part of this process. The trick will be, in the future, to make the process really include the voters of all states in a meaningful way. That won’t happen as long as Iowa and New Hampshire play such an inordinate and predominant role in our primary process.
2. The other advantage to the dishonesty of this process has been that Hillary Clinton has illustrated an important point by hanging on this long. That point, of course, is that Barack Obama is the most vulnerable general election candidate since George McGovern. In fairness, he is the most charismatic Democratic candidate since Bobby Kennedy. But get this: whatever you think of her (and I despise her)–Hillary Clinton is a brilliant political analyst and strategist. She truly believes that Obama is not electable in the fall. There are, of course, factors that could cause his election. Generally speaking, however, her instincts that he is unelectable are valid. They are born out by the lopsided defeats he has suffered to her in places like West Virginia and Kentucky. At a time when everyone knew he was the winner, she beat him 2 to 1. The fact that he is so rejected by lower income and working class Americans afflicted with the Caucasoid orientation should not be overlooked. It is huge. That demographic happens to vote Democrat in West Virginia and Kentucky. In huge chunks of the rest of the country, their instinct is to vote Republican.
Another inconvenient truth is that Hillary Clinton will never be asked to be Obama’s running mate. She knows that. Its just the media and her most zealous supporters who don’t. Take it to the bank: HE WILL NEVER ASK HER. HE CANNOT TRUST HER. The real issue isn’t about her being Vice-President. She is trying to leverage her significant vote totals for something. Whatever you think of Ted Kennedy, when he was defeated in the Democratic primary in 1980, he could return to the U.S. Senate well regarded by his colleagues. Her colleagues hate her. There are Republicans who have worked well with her but the Democrats fall into two categories:
1) Those who were intimated into supporting her for President and hate her and
2) Those who preferred Obama and hate her.
She has a handful of people who actually like her but the notion that she could ever be the official leader (i.e., Daschle, Dole) or the unofficial leader ( i.e., Kennedy) are inconceivable–unless she can leverage her perceived power now into something. I don’t know what it is, but its not vice-president. She doesn’t think he can win. She doesn’t want to be # 2 in a losing proposition. The only exception to this is that if she thinks she is the difference that could lead him to victory. It doesn’t matter. He will NEVER ask her.
Sidebar points:
1. It is immense hubris and in tremendous poor taste for the Clinton camp to even be talking about her interest in being VP on the night of Obama’s victory.
2. In the hard-to-imagine notion that the ProConPundit is wrong and Hillary really wants to be VP, Obama has a few Inconvenient Truths of his own to use: If Hillary is serious about wanting to be VP, watch for Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy (God willing), John Kerry & John Edwards to come out, possibly together, to say they think it’s a bad idea. Makes the ProCon one almost wish he was wrong!
PS-- Did I mention that althought I TOTALLY LOVE THE CHAOS of the Democratic primary, I reject the notion that it necessarily inures to their detriment in the fall. The spectacle of their Saturday rules committee meeting in Washington certainly argues for the generally weakening of Democrats in the fall. That aside, a lot of the excitement of their process keeps McCain forgotten.
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