Stockholm Syndrome aka HRC's Race for the White House '08

I'm glad that some progressive outlets are finally just doing the basic math and concluding what most people with a calculator have. Hillary can't win. Even her own advisers think she's got a 10% chance of getting the nomination.

Politico put up a story today saying this, and now it's a matter of time before everyone stops sniffing the Clinton snuff and following suit. Hopefully it will be at least 3 weeks before PA, so we can get the holdouts to come out of their caves and realize the truth.

The 5th Horseman

I think the fifth horseman just rounded the bend -- I actually found myself cheering on Tucker Carlson and his little bow-tie. He just interviewed the journalist who quoted Samantha Powers on the" monster" comment. He nailed her. Dude, she tried the smarmy, US press is acquiescent, then he came back with the not wanting to get lectured by someone from a system with such low standards like those in the UK press, he scolded her for burning her source and she came back saying that in the UK off-the-record is negotiated up front and that someone shouldn't be given a pass on a comment because they didn't mean to say it, taking that ball, Tucker asked her why he didn't ask Ms. Powers what she meant by "monster". And stumped. Dang. If I could type faster I would transcribe the thing. Crazy stuff this campaign season.

HAFTA SHAFT YA ON NAFTA

Sorry for the terrible pun, but I came across a link to this article in a comment on HuffPo, and thought I'd like to it here.

Apparently some paper in Winnipeg is reporting that the Chief of Staff for Canada's PM, Ian Brodie, was the first drop in the leaking of the NAFTA memo -- and it claims he was referring to a conversation he'd had with someone from HILLARY'S campaign. We'll see what turns this takes, but, as with anything involving election year politics, I'm sure there's more here than meets the eye.

The World is Watching, Hillary

I'm listening to Barack Obama's speech on MSNBC from Austin, Texas. Once again, he has found the nugget and put it out there.

The world is watching what we do here.

I think that is a shot across the bow to Hillary to let her and her advisers know that her dirty tricks and tactics are not going to make her popular around the world.

"Experience"

The irony that Hillary Clinton criticizes Barack Obama's Iraq war speech as "talk when he didn't have responsibility" is clearly pinpointed here:

When asked to point to a national security test that Senator Clinton had faced, the campaign responded that it was a "moment of test" when she stood up in China and said "women's rights are human rights."

This is from the MoJo Blog, admittedly a heavily biased site, so take the framing with a grain of salt, but the quote is from a conference call with Mark Penn, Clinton's campaign strategist. I hope those Clinton-backers are really paying attention to their candidate's words. I don't plan to vote for her in the fall if she gets the nomination and I'd really like to back a Democrat. I've done a lot of soul-searching on this, but the thought of four to eight more years of socially conservative policies that encourage soft bigotry makes me ill.

Do Spouse's Share Copyright?

I guess you can't plagiarize your own spouse.... A funny youtube posted in the comments section on about the new '3 AM' spot Hillary rolled out in Texas.



Thank you Sarge1.

** UPDATED** Game Changing

**UPDATED**
I am no computer whiz. I screwed up the html at the bottom of the post and cut myself off.
**UPDATED**

Clinton's campaign is threatening to challenge the Texas Democratic Party on the way they run their dual primary-caucus this March 4th. This, despite the fact that Bill Clinton helped to develop those rules, those rules have been in place since at least the early 90s, and Texas is very happy with them.

From the AP via Yahoo:

Aides to Clinton said earlier this week they were alarmed at the lack of clarity about many of the caucus rules and expressed their concerns on a conference call with Obama's staff and state party officials. Texas has a two-step voting process, with a
primary and then caucuses shortly after the polls close.

Specifically, Clinton aides questioned a provision allowing caucus attendees to vote to move the location if they choose to do so, and whether people who had cast so-called "provisional ballots" in the primary would have their votes counted in the caucus.

They also expressed concern about the automated phone system precinct chairs would use to call in the results of each caucus, saying the party hadn't yet trained anyone to use the system properly.

Clinton political director Guy Cecil said he asked party officials to spell out the rules in memo form and to send them to both campaigns.

"We want to see the results in writing, and we reserve the right to challenge something if we don't believe it reflects something that was discussed on the call," he said, insisting that if there were clear problems with how the caucuses were being run, "you are allowed to say something about it."

I get frustrated by all the yammering from this campaign. Instead of strategizing, they run against obstacles and not only want to change the rules of the game, they want to change the game itself -- in this case, it's no longer about who can build the better campaign apparatus, who has the stronger message, the best track record, is the most inspiring, or looks better on paper, now it's about who is best at wrecking havoc on the alliance of the various Democratic state parties and intimidating them into falling in line.

I hope voters of Texas and Ohio walk away from this campaign and all its rhetoric of fear. Hillary Clinton has never made me feel safer and tactics like this buttress the argument that she doesn't know what the hell she's doing and is copying someone else's homework (Karl Rove, anyone?). Come up with your own campaign slogans, stop market-testing your policies, and PLAY BY THE RULES. Might do something to convince folks you recognize what the RULE OF LAW means and have REJECTED your husband's own fast-and-loose truth-telling that ushered in GWB and the "compassionate conservates" all over the country.

Style Points

One thing that annoys the hell out of me is hearing Tucker Carlson say Obama is winning because he's cool. Let's face it, the man has two Ivy League degrees, has held public office for a decade or so, was the editor of the Harvard Law Review, taught Constitutional Law at one of the most prestigious schools in the world and knows the proper use of denounce versus reject. Unless I'm missing something and smart is the new cool, WTF????

The Truth Outs

Bill is at it again, Daily Kos has a post up here with a very funny, and telling, slip-up.

I've never been a big Clinton fan (either of them), and after this election cycle, I'm completely done with them. The soft bigotry during Bill's time in office turned me off to the Democratic Party -- Don't Ask, Don't Tell the least among the many well-intentioned (I hope) but misguided compromises they made while in office. I was disgusted by Hillary's treatment of the women her husband cheated on her with, while she ferociously defended him, and I wish they'd accept their shame and go quietly into the night.

I hope the Dem's continue the swing back to the left, but I fear the general election magic will work its wonders once again and we'll find ourselves back in the land of socially conservative compromises designed to keep the religious fundamentalists happy. OK, I'm going to cuteoverload to cheer myself back up.