New Home, New Name

You can now find my thoughts on Barack Obama and the 2008 presidential election over at: killhillblog.com

Endorsements Gone Wild

Man, do they keep pouring in or what?

Since I last updated you on Sen. John Kerry's endorsement, several other well-known politicians have stepped up and backed Barack Obama.

The first is Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano. Naplolitano will not only help Obama in Arizona, but also in Nevada and with women in general -- especially in that region. I also believe that Obama will pick up more of Bill Richardson's votes -- he dropped out of the race mid-week -- in that region than either Hillary Clinton or John Edwards. There's a hundred reasons why, but that's just the way I feel. Another discussion, another day.

Today, Obama picked up two more big endorsements from Democratic senators -- Nebraska's Ben Nelson and Missouri's Claire McCaskill. Here's a little more info on both, from the A.P.:

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has won the endorsement of two fellow Democratic senators from the heartland — Ben Nelson, a popular moderate in largely Republican Nebraska and Claire McCaskill from Missouri, historically a bellwether in presidential contests.

Nelson said Saturday he believes Obama has ability to bridge the partisan divide and to carry Democratic candidates across the country to victory in 2008. Nelson, pledging his support for his Illinois colleague, said Obama has "the greatest potential to ending the bitterness and poisonous atmosphere in Washington."

McCaskill plans to announce her support for the Illinois senator Sunday, according to an Obama aide and a McCaskill staffer who spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity so as not to upstage the announcement.

Her endorsement is expected to be a major boost for Obama in Missouri, one of nearly two dozen states holding primaries or caucuses on Feb. 5, and could help Obama woo female voters in his race against New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination.

Obama Leads in South Carolina, Georgia

According to the most recent Rasmussen Reports' South Carolina poll, Barack Obama is currently leading Hillary Clinton in the state, and big -- by 12 points. Although we've seen this before, keep in mind this is quite a bit before the primary there.

Additionally, this poll was conducted on January 9, the day before John Kerry endorsed Obama in a press conference held in the state. I suspect that endorsement will help Obama take votes away from Kerry's ex-running mate, John Edwards. I'd also be willing to bet that since Kerry is definitely part of the Democratic party's establishment, that the endorsement will steal votes away from Hillary. Kerry also e-mailed his e-mail list asking his supporters to become Obama supporters and donate. That list runs, oh, three-million deep. That's big considering he's been competing with the "special interest" Clintons at least dollar for dollar, and needs to keep doing so.

More good news from the always crucial South; According to the Mason Dixon pollsters, Obama leads Hillary by three points in Georgia (36-33%, respectively), one of the South's biggest states.

(hat tip: USA Election Polls, a great database of all the polls)

Take Two: Guess the Clintons are Racist

Hillary Clinton might try and do stuff like this to get in good with Black voters...

But it's a facade.

First off, what exactly did Bill Clinton mean when he called Barack Obama a "fairy tale?" That shit may fly in new Hampshire, but everywhere else it seemed to us like he was saying that a multi-racial Black man has no chance of winning the presidency. If he indeed didn't mean it like that, then why did he feel compelled to call Al Sharpton's radio show and explain himself?

Then there was the "spade work" comment Hillary made. Even worse, her comments on Martin Luther King Jr., which diminished his heroic contributions during the Civil Rights Movement:

“I would point to the fact that Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the president before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done,” she said, in response to a question about how her dismissive attitude toward Obama’s “false hopes” would have applied to the civil rights movement. “That dream became a reality, the power of that dream became real in peoples lives because we had a president who said we are going to do it, and actually got it accomplished.” [CBS]

I mean, trying to act like Obama's words are poetry without action -- even when they're clearly not -- is one thing. Drawing a parallel between Obama and the great Dr. King, and then diminishing King's acts to weaken Obama is just sickening. It's downright un-American.

But wait, there's more.

First, New York attorney general and Clinton supporter Andrew Cuomo said that presidential candidates can't “shuck and jive” in early primary states. WTF? Who do you think that is aimed at?

Then, old Hillary's at again. Apparently, Hillary thought that Hispanics were feeling left out, so she threw an insensitive remark at them while talking about immigration at a Hispanic family's home recently in Nevada (by the way, she's all over the place on immigration... anybody else remember her driver license gaffe in October?):

"We treat these problems as if one is guacamole and one is chips, when ... they both go together," she said. [Jules Crittenden]

Even Fuzzy Zoeller and John Rocker were taken aback by that one, Hill. I think you have "when in Rome" about as messed up as Ron Burgundy.

What's going on in the Clinton camp? Can't they control what the say? Or is what they're saying intentional, a subliminal message to White America? Furthermore, why isn't the media calling them out on this more than they are? Argh, the Clintons have always been media darlings, so I'm not surprised.

It just sucks. I thought America had moved past all this.

Update: It's good that others are finally outraged as well. I love this:

Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones, a prominent Obama supporter, echoed those sentiments.

"It’s very unfortunate that the president would make a statement like that," he said of Bill Clinton's criticism of Obama's experience, adding that the African-American community had "saved his presidency" after the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

"They owe the African-American community — not the reverse," he said. "Maybe Hillary and Bill should get behind Sen. Barack Obama."

Maybe even Dave Chapelle is giving up on the weed-smoking fornicator and his wife after all this. Or maybe Bill will just go kiss a couple more Black babies and everyone will forget about it.


If you want the Bush-Clinton/voting part, that can be found here.

When HRC Says Obama's "Unelectable," She Really Means Black

Hillary Clinton is saying that Barack Obama is unelectable because he's black without actually saying it. I'm not saying she's prejudiced here -- just dirty. She's preying on the fact that some Americans are prejudiced, either consciously or subconsciously. Here's an excerpt from a Town Hall piece that examines the subject, even going as far as to say she slipped in an incognito racial slur:

Last Sunday evening on Fox News Channel, [political analyst Dick] Morris said: “I think that what she is going to do is she is going to say Obama is unelectable, Americans won’t elect him, he can’t beat the Republican Party, America is not ready for Obama, he doesn’t have the experience to win, and what she is going to mean is that they won’t vote for an African-American, but she won’t say it. She’ll say everything but, but that’s what she means.”

As if on cue, THE VERY NEXT MORNING, Sen. Clinton appeared on NBC’s Today Show and talked about the choice that voters were faced with in New Hampshire. She said the following: “When they say to themselves, OK, I have a choice between a truly inspirational speaker (Obama) who has not done the kind of spade work with the sort of experience that another candidate has…”

Spade work. That’s some choice of words for a black political opponent, no?

John Kerry Endorses Barack Obama!

Big breaking news! From Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, will endorse Sen. Barack Obama in this year's White House race, an Obama campaign spokesman said on Thursday.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Obama, who is seeking to become the first black U.S. president, will appear with Kerry in Charleston, South Carolina.

Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, is hoping the South Carolina contest on January 26 will help him regain front runner status after a narrow loss to Sen. Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire this week.

The endorsement by Kerry, who lost the 2004 election to President George W. Bush, could boost Obama's presidential bid by attracting more support from the Democratic establishment, which has largely supported Clinton, the former first lady and senator from New York.

This surely hurts Hillary Clinton, but my first thought was what does this say to anybody who is considering voting for John Edwards? Ouch. This is huge for Obama in South Carolina. More on this later on...

Key Nevada Unions Endorse Obama

Three key Nevada unions decided to go with Barack Obama today, no doubt improving his already healthy status for the state's January 19 caucus. Here's a little more info, from CNN:

The Culinary Workers Union, Local 226 and the Service Employees International Union of Nevada both endorsed Obama on Wednesday.

The 60,000-strong Culinary Workers Union includes members working in Las Vegas and Reno casinos and other locations in the Las Vegas area, and members working in other areas -- such as serving cocktails and housekeeping -- besides kitchen positions, according to the union Web site.

The SEIU in Nevada has 17,500 members, the group said, and nearly two-thirds of them are registered to vote. The union represents health care and public service employees across the state, according to SEIU-Nevada's Web site.

"The SEIU Nevada Executive Board voted overwhelmingly in support of the senator, citing his commitment to solving the issues facing the American people, including protecting workers rights," the union said in a statement.

The "overwhelming participation" of voters in the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary showed that "Americans are ready for change," SEIU Executive Vice President Shauna Hamel said.

I was already feeling good about Nevada. Now I feel great about Obama's chances in the state. Viva Las Vegas!

Tears of a Clown

I had to go there, because "Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles is one of my all-time faves.

Seriously, though, after reflecting upon this for a few days, does anybody other than several thousand women voters in New Hampshire believe Hilary Clinton's tears were real? Even the woman who asked the question that sprung the tears didn't vote for her -- she voted for Barack Obama! She wasn't entirely convinced. I'm not convinced at all.

I love what Jesse Jackson Jr. -- who I like a helluva lot more than his old man -- had to say about Hillary crying. He's right; She didn't cry about Katrina. She didn't cry about Iraq. She didn't cry about Natalie Sarkisian. She cried because she saw her chances of winning the presidency slipping away. Period.

Check out J.J. Jr's comments:

Louisiana and Missouri Voter Registration Deadline Today

As a Missouri resident, I just want to remind all my fellow Missourian Obamaites that if you aren't registered to vote as a Democrat, the deadline is today. You can register at DMV offices and most public libraries, so make sure you do so ASAP.

The deadline is also today for Louisiana Obamaites, so make sure to register. Again, you won't have time to mail in the form so go to the DMV or a library. And make sure you call to see if where you are going definitely does voter registration!

New Hampshire Actually a Tie?

That is what Darren Abrecht of the Kansas City Star is saying, because of the delegate system. Barack Obama is even ahead of Hillary Clinton in super delegates in the state, and those individuals can wait all the way to the convention to vote. I also want to remind everybody that Hillary was expected to mount an early lead among super delegates as the Democratic establishment candidate. This is far from over.

Read for yourself:

Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in the New Hampshire Democratic primary. But this is no more relevant to the outcome of the contest than Al Gore taking the national popular vote in the 2000 elections. The Democratic nominee will be decided on the basis of who can claim the most delegates at the national party convention, not by the popular vote. By that measure, primary elections in New Hampshire resulted in a tie between Clinton and Barack Obama.

Clinton's popular-vote margin over Obama was razor-thin - fewer than 8,000 votes, or 3%, with 96% of precincts reporting. As a result, each will come away from New Hampshire with the pledges of 9 delegates. John Edwards, finishing in a distant third place, will take the remaining 4. A look at the national scorecard finds Obama barely in the lead with 25 delegates to Clinton's 24.

There's more. The real winner in New Hampshire can't be declared until you factor in superdelegates. These are party leaders who are allowed to vote at the convention, but may make their own choices at any time, and without regard to the popular vote results. New Hampshire has 8 superdelegates; of these, 2 have declared their support for Clinton, 3 for Obama, and 3 are undeclared. When all of the declared superdelegates in the nation are tallied, Clinton roars into the lead with 183 total delegates to Obama's 78.

With 2,025 delegates needed for a win, however, both candidates are a long way from locking up the nomination.