Barack Obama (election coverage only-official)

[Muck]

Originally Posted by 'BusNative

Another decent article, but mostly more of the same...

West Wing: Obama the Inevitable - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

That one just makes me wonder.

Does the Democratic party truly believe that Hillary is more electable than Obama?

To be honest I see a much larger "anti" turnout to vote against her this winter than I do Barak. Would there be enough Dems crossing the fence to outweigh that if Obama were nominated? I'm not so sure.

[sandgk]

Another past Clinton acolyte Super-D announces support for Obama:

Joe Andrew was installed as DNC chair by Bill Cllinton in 1999.

Andrew said the Obama campaign never asked him to switch his support, but he decided to do so after watching Obama's handling of two issues in recent days. He said Obama took the principled stand in opposing a summer gas tax holiday that both Clinton and McCain supported, even though it would have been easier politically to back it. And he said he was impressed with Obama's handling of the controversy surrounding his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Wright's outspoken criticisms of the United States have threatened Obama's candidacy. Obama initially refused to denounce his former pastor, but he did so this week after Wright suggested that Obama secretly agrees with him.
"He has shown such mettle under fire," Andrew said in the interview. "The Jeremiah Wright controversy just reconfirmed for me, just as the gas tax controversy confirmed for me, that he is the right candidate for our party."
Andrew's decision puts Obama closer to closing Clinton's superdelegate lead. Clinton had a big advantage among superdelegates, many of whom like Andrews have ties to the Clintons and backed her candidacy early on. But most of the superdelegates taking sides recently have gone for Obama, who has won more state contests.
Obama now trails her by just 19 superdelegates, 244-263. This week, he picked up eight superdelegates while she netted three.

[cincibuck]

Short of finding a pair of balls and telling the Clinton machine to pack it in, the DNC has been trying to hint loudly that it's time to stop the debate, cauterize the wounds and go after the GOP. Hillary refuses to stop.

Speaking of the anti-Clinton vote, you can count on me to vote for anyone except Hillary and the John McCain of 2008. Write in or Ralph Nader, I won't be supporting another 4 years of Clinton's.

[MuckFich06]

I like this strategy: send Mr. Swiftboat himself out to knock down the swiftboat style attacks.

Kerry Rips MSNBC On Wright: 'You People Need To Let Go Of This' - Politics on The Huffington Post
includes video

KERRY: Can I say something to you? Obviously it is painful and he said it. You folks need to let go of this. Television needs to stop dwelling on something that is in the past. I thought Barack Obama yesterday gave America his second big presidential moment of this campaign. The first when he spoke out about the issue of race. The second yesterday, when he made it clear, every one of the statements of the minister are just unacceptable. They're not the person that he knew before. Now let's move on to how we'll put people to work. How are you going to give people health care? How are you going to create jobs in america?

[BrutusBobcat]

If it were just this in a vacuum, then fine. However, this adds on to a sequence that forms a pattern.

- Michelle Obama being proud to be an American "for the first time in her adult life".

- Obama claiming that people in small towns are "bitter" and "clinging on to guns and religion".

- The Obamas attending a church and claiming a close relationship with a minister who is very clearly anti-American and a probable racist.

It adds to an impression of someone who doesn't think much of his own country or the people who live in it.

Sending John Kerry out to act up like this is a case of "Swift Boating" also isn't too clever...Kerry lost because of questions about his character and patriotism. If I'm a Democrat, seeing Kerry out there is just a reminder of how 2004 went down.

At a deeper level, this stuff also undermines his rhetoric of being a "healer" and "uniter". Do you really see a guy who's sat and listened to Wright for 20 years and not objected being trusted by people on the other side of the aisle? He doesn't seem to be trusted by nearly half of his own party. Or is all of that new age politics talk just pretty campaign rhetoric?

I'm sorry, but there's no way that Obama's fig leaf "this is not the man I knew 20 years ago" is valid. Did Wright suddenly grow horns and begin spouting these opinions last week? That's also a nice dodge -- implying that he hasn't talked to Wright in 20 years.

For the record, I'm going to be voting for McCain. I'm just throwing these arguments out there so that those of you who are Obama supporters can see and understand how this looks on the outside. Right now, I trust Hillary Clinton MORE than Obama, and that's quite an accomplishment. When this whole process started, I was cheering for him to bury her as quickly as possible. I'd now accept the idea of her becoming President. Obama scares the hell out of me -- not because I think he's got a better shot at beating McCain (I think that it's a tossup), but because I fear that he'll make for an awful President who gives glib speeches.

[shetuck]

McClatchy: Will black voters stay home if Obama loses nomination?

Will black voters stay home if Obama loses nomination?

By David Lightman and William Douglas

INDIANAPOLIS ? Many black voters are making it very clear: They're concerned that Barack Obama is going to be denied the Democratic presidential nomination that they see as rightfully his, and if that happens, a lot of them may stay home in November.

"It would hurt me not to vote," said Charles Clark, an Indianapolis retiree. He's thinking about leaving the presidential box on his ballot blank this fall if Hillary Clinton is the Democrats' nominee.

"There was a heck of a push made so blacks could vote. I know that," he said. "But it would also be very unfair if they pushed Barack Obama to the side."

Michelle Moore, an Indianapolis housewife, is less gentle: "Hillary Clinton would not even still be in the race if Obama was a white man," she said.
Her tough tone was common this week in this city's black community. Why, people asked, is the Illinois senator's relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright being judged so harshly? Why won't Democratic Party officials acknowledge that Obama's in the lead and unite around him?

African-Americans have been the Democratic Party's most reliable bloc, giving about 90 percent of their votes to former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in the last two presidential elections.

In a close election this year, an African-American exodus from the voting booth could be costly to Democrats, particularly in the South, where blacks are a large proportion of the electorate.

cont'd...