Yes, she did. Solid victories in Ohio, Rhode Island, and the Texas Primary. We’ll see later today if she also picked up the caucus in Texas. As a die hard Obama supporter, I am a little worried that he is having trouble closing the deal on Hillary. I’m happy that Wyoming and Mississippi are coming up next before Pennsylvania, because Obama will most likely take both those contests. I think that over the last week or so Hillary’s attacks have really been paying off and I really hope that Obama recognizes that and uses his bully pulpit to draw some contrasts of his own.
I’d like to see a series of ads on the failures of Clinton administration to move beyond politics as usual and something hitting her on her claim that she actually has the experience to run a country. I don’t think having had the experience of the right wing slime machine after you because your husband had a zipper problem qualifies as presidential-quality experience. If anything, it would make you more defensive, more aggressive, and more entrenched in the politics of yesterday. Obama can’t and shouldn’t say that explicitly, but there are other ways of making that point, about her not actually having experience, without it.
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He’s been my favorite for a long-time, and way before it become popular to join the Obama camp, I’ve been claiming he’ll win the nomination, hands down. Friends out there, I hope you’ll back me up as I make you sick by bragging about it on my personal blog - ;).
The moment when I realized Hillary couldn’t win the nomination was the Coretta Scott King Funeral on February 8, 2006. Her husband, clearly one of the best speakers of a generation gave a speech. He was interrupted by standing ovations, amen-ed, and welcomed back to Atlanta like a hero. At one point, while he thanked the various former and current Presidents, an audience member yelled that he was also joined by “our future President,” meaning Hillary. Watch it happen here around 2:35.
There are few moments like these. With an entire Democratic nation sitting on the edge of their seats, ready for a reason to believe that the legacy of the Civil Rights movement lives on in today’s Democratic leaders, and primed by the best speaker of a generation, Hillary Clinton struck out. No jokes. No bold statements. No turns of phrase. Nothing. By the end, I think most of the audience was asleep. (I’m having trouble finding footage online. If you find it, please put it in the comments and I’ll update this post.) I remember thinking to myself just after her speech that Hillary is not an inspiring campaigner. She’s not a barnstormer. She doesn’t persuade with public speaking. She persuades through boring political bullshit.
Enter Obama. He’s the one who should have been invited to the Coretta Scott King funeral. He’s a campaigner. The man can persuade. He’s the next great communicator. He’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity. He can convince you, even if you’re not a self-identifying Democrat, that the Democratic legacy still lives, that we’re still working on making the American values of freedom and opportunity available for each one of our citizens, and that we’ve got fresh ideas to make it happen in a new world.
That’s when I realized that Obama would win. That moment.
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Interesting to watch both Obama and Hillary waffle seriously on GLBT issues. I think this opens up a major gap for Edwards. Especially given Edwards’ strategy to be the liberal grassroots candidate.
Read all the way to the bottom though, then it gets interesting. Newsday’s Glenn Thrush quotes a ‘gay democrat’ about how difficult it is to appeal to religious Americans AND progressive Americans at the same time.
Steve Sanders, a gay Democrat who sat on the party’s platform committee in 2000, said Clinton and Obama are engaged in a delicate balancing act. “Hillary and Barack have made very public overtures to religious Americans. They are trying to figure out how progressive Democrats can also make appeals to Americans of faith. It’s a work in progress.”
But, being a religious American doesn’t mean you’re against gay marriage. He’s talking about religious Black Americans, who vote in Democratic primaries. Interesting Obama is willing to compromise on values he seems to hold about GLBT equality to cater to the Black vote. I thought he’d be running from it, given how much the media has reported his difficulty being ‘black enough.’ Hillary’s waffling is expected.
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Obama just finished his speech to AIPAC, and its getting generally positive reviews by Matt Yglesias and M.J. Rosenberg. You can read the full speech here. Some are referring to this speech as the best early indication of Obama’s foreign policy thinking that will continue to develop as his campaign wears on.
Of course, Obama’s Iraq position was front and center. He continues to be the only candidate to have the authority — he didn’t support the war even at its outset — to criticize the war with language like this.
Now our soldiers find themselves in the crossfire of someone else’s civil war. More than 3,100 have given the last full measure of devotion to their country. This war has fueled terrorism and helped galvanize terrorist organizations. And it has made the world less safe.
Obama was more succinct about his foreign policy thinking than I’ve seen from him yet.
This includes direct engagement with Iran similar to the meetings we conducted with the Soviets at the height of the Cold War, laying out in clear terms our principles and interests. Tough-minded diplomacy would include real leverage through stronger sanctions. It would mean more determined U.S diplomacy at the United Nations. It would mean harnessing the collective power of our friends in Europe who are Iran’s major trading partners. It would mean a cooperative strategy with Gulf States who supply Iran with much of the energy resources it needs. It would mean unifying those states to recognize the threat of Iran and increase pressure on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment. It would mean full implementation of U.S. sanctions laws. And over the long term, it would mean a focused approach from us to finally end the tyranny of oil, and develop our own alternative sources of energy to drive the price of oil down.
And he also, thank God, asked for Israel to make sacrifices for peace, along with the Palestinians. I appreciated this bit very much.
Yitzhak Rabin had the vision to reach out to longtime enemies. Ariel Sharon had the determination to lead Israel out of Gaza. These were difficult, painful decisions that went to the heart of Israel’s identity as a nation.
Many Israelis I talked to during my visit last year told me that they were prepared to make sacrifices to give their children a chance to know peace. These were people of courage who wanted a better life. And I know these are difficult times and it can be easy to lose hope. But we owe it to our sons and daughters, our mothers and fathers, and to all those who have fallen, to keep searching for peace and security — even though it can seem distant. This search is in the best interests of Israel. It is in the best interests of the United States. It is in the best interests of all of us.
Looks like Obama made it out of the AIPAC speech without pandering to the far-right Israel lobby, which is the tendency of the candidates when they get in front of gatherings like these. Hillary Clinton, in particular, runs to the right of George Bush on Iran, if she’s in front of the right crowd.
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