Four Remarkable Women I Went to Grade School With

May 11, 2008 6:10 PM

Please permit me to take a break from politics for a second for a slightly personal note. Because I can't pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV these days without seeing or hearing about one of my former classmates from grade school.

Today it was Liz Spikol in the New York Times Sunday Styles section.

Spikol has bipolar disorder and is part of the vanguard of writers and activists who write and speak about their struggles publicly. Specifically, Liz writes about it at her "The Trouble With Spikol" blog at Philadelphia Weekly, where she is a contributing editor.

The previous few weeks it had been -- on "Good Morning America," on Salon.com, and on NPR -- Jennifer Sey, a former National Gymnastics Champion who has a new memoir, "Chalked Up," about how tough it is to be a champion.

Then there's Zahava Levine, chief counsel for Youtube.com, whose work I kept running into when researching the Internet and intellectual property a few months ago. And psychotherapist Elisabeth LaMotte, who has a new book coming out about Overcoming Your Parents' Divorce.

With the exception of LaMotte, whom I run into from time to time here in DC, I haven't seen any of these women since maybe 1981. I remember all of them quite well -- giggling at "Jaws II," running to the Zounds! arcade after school, going to Joey Augustine's disco party -- and now they're impacting the world in such interesting ways. The school was an experiment in education at the time; I wonder if there was some feminist underpinning to the curriculum (this was the era of "Free to Be You and Me," after all) that made them all such achievers?

- jpt

May 11, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (7 ) | TrackBack (0)

A Saturday Night Live Skit Clinton Won't Be Referencing Anytime Soon

May 11, 2008 10:58 AM

During a recent Ohio debate, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., cited an SNL skit mocking media adulation of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., to make the argument that there had been a media double-standard.

Watch HERE.

The problem with citing a comedy show as an authority is that it can come back to haunt you.

Watch Amy Poehler's "Hillary Clinton" talk to the superdelegates HERE.

- jpt

UPDATE: Forgetting politics for a moment, THIS SKIT is just brilliant.

May 11, 2008 in Clinton, Hillary | Permalink | User Comments (109) | TrackBack (0)

How Badly Is the Presumptive Democratic Nominee Going to Be Shellacked in W.V.?

May 10, 2008 5:20 PM

Doesn't look good anecdotally for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in West Virginia this Tuesday.

Party insiders say Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., might beat him in the Mountaineer State on Tuesday by 30 points.

Yikes!

You want to know why superdelegates are trickling but not stampeding to Obama's side? His electoral weaknesses with white working-class voters, as evidenced by this pending stompage.

Of course, that doesn't change the daunting delegate math for Clinton. West Virginia has a mere 28 delegates, followed by Kentucky (51) and Oregon (52) on May 20; Puerto Rico (55) on June 1; and Montana (16) and South Dakota (15) on June 3.

- jpt

May 10, 2008 in Obama, Barack | Permalink | User Comments (304) | TrackBack (0)

Bill Clinton's Message to Rural America

May 10, 2008 2:43 PM

As Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., avoids any real campaigning in West Virginia, the former president of the United States is out there ginning up resentments.

Bill Clinton has the right to say whatever he wants, of course. But he's a smart man. Brilliant, even.

He can do the math. He must know that it's quite improbable that his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., will be the Democratic presidential nominee.

So what purpose does it serve for him to barnstorm a state like West Virginia and tell rural voters that Obama and his elitist political/media cabal allies are mocking Appalachia?

He's using the kind of language Democrats typically use against Republicans -- as in, stuff you say when you don't want voters to vote for the other guy under any circumstance.

This is tough stuff to walk back from.

Per ABC News' Sarah Amos, this is what the 42nd president of the United States said Friday in Ripley, W.Va.:

"Hillary is in this race because of people like you and places like this and no matter what they say," Clinton said. "And no matter how much fun they make of your support of her and the fact that working people all over America have stuck with her, she thinks you're as smart as they are. She thinks you've got as much right to have your say as anybody else. And, you know, they make a lot of fun of me because I like to campaign in places like this, they say I have been exiled to rural America, as if that was a problem. I don't know about you, but I'd rather be here than listening to that stuff I have to hear on television, I'd rather be with you. There is a simple reason: You need a president a lot more than those people telling you not to vote for her."

In Madison, W.Va.:

"It is very interesting, from the very beginning of this race there has been a sharp divide in the vote -- the people who need a president, who need to turn the economy around, who need to restore the middle class, who need to give poor people a chance to work their way into the middle class, who need to give our children a better future, who need to restore our standing in the world and the war in Iraq, but do it in a way that rebuilds our military and stands up for America's security and standing around the world -- they have been for her from the get-go."

And on and on... Ginning up the resentments and the class divide (and maybe other divisions). ... His message to these voters: Obama and the media are laughing at you and think you're stupid!!!

Obama has a clear problem with white working class voters. This kind of rhetoric exacerbates it. Clinton knows that -- he's trying to drive up turnout to maximize his wife's popular vote argument to superdelegates. He has every right to do so -- the race is not over, no nominee exists yet.

But this is what keeps Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi up at night.

- jpt

May 10, 2008 in 2008: Democrats | Permalink | User Comments (629) | TrackBack (0)

House Majority Whip: 'I Don’t Believe That There Is Any Way That She Can Win the Nomination'

May 10, 2008 9:08 AM

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., tells The New York Times that the "tipping point" giving the Democratic presidential nomination to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was "reached around midnight last Tuesday. I could tell the next day, when I got up to the Capitol, that this thing was going to start a slide toward Obama.”

And then he said -- cue clap of thunder -- “I don’t believe that there is any way that she can win the nomination.”

He is still refraining from endorsing anyone, Clyburn said, but he added, “I think everybody for the good of the party needs to find a graceful way of bringing all of this to a close.”

- jpt

May 10, 2008 in Clinton, Hillary, Obama, Barack | Permalink | User Comments (136) | TrackBack (0)

Obama-Backing Congressman Compares Hillary Clinton to Glenn Close in 'Fatal Attraction'

May 10, 2008 9:04 AM

Chris Rock said it last month: "It's going to be hard for Barack to be president. ... Hillary's not going to give up. She's like Glenn Close in 'Fatal Attraction.'"

Then NPR political editor Ken Rudin made the joke, saying on "CNN Sunday Morning" that Clinton was "Glenn Close in 'Fatal Attraction' -- she's going to keep coming back, and they're not going to stop her." (Rudin later apologized.)

This week, Obama-backing Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said on local television, when asked about Sen. Clinton, that "Glenn Close should have just stayed in the tub."

All were referring to Close playing the insane, deluded Alex Forrest -- the wronged  "other woman" who refuses to  accept her fate and just go away, and becomes suicidal and homicidal. (And also rabbit-cidal.)

There is understandably a lot of sensitivity (and sometimes not enough sensitivity) when it comes to Clinton's gender, Sen. Barack Obama's race, and Sen. John McCain's age.

The "Glenn Close in 'Fatal Attraction'" analogy brings with it a whole carousel's worth of baggage given the meme at the time of the release of "Fatal Attraction" that, as the late great Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker at the time, the "film is about men seeing feminists as witches."

"Fatal Attraction," Kael wrote, "parrots the aggressively angry, self-righteous statements that have become commonplaces of feminist fiction, and they're so inappropriate to the circumstances that they're proof she's loco. They're also the director Adrian Lyne's and the screenwriter James Dearden's hostile version of feminism."

No matter how you slice it, Alex Forrest was the movie's villain, like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. I'd posit at the very least that it's not keeping with Obama's lofty campaign rhetoric to compare Clinton's tenacity to psychosis. And it will indubitably further alienate women voters whom Obama needs to bring to his side once the Democratic race concludes.

- jpt

UPDATE: Congressman Cohen's office has issued an apology this evening. Cohen says, “I sincerely apologize for the comments I made about Senator Clinton's campaign. I have great respect for Senator Clinton as a US Senator. She has waged an historic campaign which has done much to break the glass ceiling.  My comments obviously do not reflect the sentiments of Senator Obama or the Obama campaign. Nor do they reflect my opinion of Senator Clinton whom I have known for years and admire. My hope is that our party will come together to work to defeat John McCain."

May 10, 2008 in Clinton, Hillary, Obama, Barack | Permalink | User Comments (156) | TrackBack (0)

The Latest...from Albany, Oregon

May 10, 2008 12:45 AM

Here's the piece we did for World News with Charles Gibson...

...and you can read the dot-com version here, too.

Hopping on a red-eye from Portland to D.C....talk to y'all tomorrow!

- jpt

May 10, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (39) | TrackBack (0)

Obama New Oregon Superdelegate Impugns McCain's Ethics

May 09, 2008 10:59 PM

One of the newest superdelegates to join Flock Obama, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., attacked Sen. John McCain's ethics Friday afternoon in Albany, Ore.

"He says we need less regulation," said DeFazio in his introduction of Obama. "Hello! Wall Street mortgage meltdown, Bear Stearns taxpayer bailout, Enron, but, you know, I guess maybe for a guy who was up to his neck in the Keating Five and savings and loan scandal less regulation is better."

DeFazio went on to say that "some are tempted by the false promise of John McCain. What he calls the 'Straight Talk Express.' But let's call it what it is. It is not the Straight Talk Express -- it is the Trojan Horse Express.

"It's the same old Bush-Cheney politics but even more reckless on public policy, even more reckless on foreign affairs," DeFazio said. "We cannot allow the American people to be fooled again by John McCain and his stump speech!"

- jpt

UPDATE: McCain spox Tucker Bounds says "Peter Defazio's unhinged rhetoric and reckless disregard for the facts shows Barack Obama can't stand up for his own standard of new politics, which means it isn't likely that he's going to stand up for much else either."

May 9, 2008 in John McCain, Obama, Barack | Permalink | User Comments (32) | TrackBack (0)

Obama Fires Foreign Policy Adviser for Meeting With Hamas

May 09, 2008 7:57 PM

The Times of London reports that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has fired one of his foreign policy advisers -- Robert Malley -- for meeting with the Palestinian group Hamas, which the U.S. State Department classifies as a terrorist organization.

"He was one of literally hundreds of informal, outside advisors," Obama spokesman Bill Burton told ABC News, confirming the Times account.

Malley, a former official in the administration of former President Bill Clinton, is Middle East and North Africa program director for the International Crisis Group, a conflict resolution group.

“I’ve never hidden the fact that in my job with the International Crisis Group I meet all kinds of people,” Malley told the Times.

Malley has been a criticized in the past as insufficiently supportive of Israel -- the New Republic's Marty Peretz has defended Obama as pro-Israel but assailed Malley -- though several Clintonistas have defended him from the charge.

He participated in the failed 2000 Camp David accords and said that Yasser Arafat was not the only one to blame for those talks breaking down.

**

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has been attacking Obama over the fact that a senior member of Hamas praised the Democrat.

In an interview on CNN, Obama called the attack, "Offensive, and I think it's disappointing. Because John McCain always says ‘I am not going to run that kind of politics,’ and to engage in that kind of smear is unfortunate, particularly because my policy toward Hamas has been no different than his. I’ve said it’s a terrorist organization and we should not negotiate with them unless they recognize Israel, renounce violence, and unless they are willing to abide by previous accords between the Palestinians and the Israelis. So for him to toss out comments like that I think is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination. We don’t need name calling in this debate.”

McCain top aide Mark Salter then took issue with Obama saying McCain was "losing his bearings."

"First, let us be clear about the nature of Sen. Obama's attack today: He used the words 'losing his bearings' intentionally, a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain's age as an issue," Salter write in a memo. "This is typical of the Obama style of campaigning."

- jpt

May 9, 2008 in Obama, Barack | Permalink | User Comments (115) | TrackBack (0)

Obama Open to Helping Clinton Relieve Her Campaign Debt

May 09, 2008 6:10 PM

While taking care to say the very question is premature, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, Friday indicated an openness to helping Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, with her millions in campaign debt.

Clinton's campaign debt is thought to be upwards of $10 million -- not including the $11.425 million she loaned her campaign from her personal funds. They are numbers perhaps not as immediately troubling as the 170 delegates by which she trails Obama in their race to the magic 2,025 delegate number to clinch the nomination -- but they are troubling numbers for her nonetheless.

Visiting “Luis’s Taqueria” in Woodburn, Oregon with his brother in law, Craig Robinson -- the new basketball coach at Oregon State University -- Obama helped himself to some tacos and signaled to Clinton that should she concede the nomination he would help her with the debt.

“That’s not a conversation that we’ve had because our working assumption right now is we're still in the middle of a race,” he said when asked about her debt.

But when asked again, ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports, Obama said, "historically after a campaign is done and you want to unify the party -- particularly when you’ve had a strong opponent -- you want to make sure you’re putting that opponent in a strong position so that they can work to win an election in November."

Obama said, "obviously I’d want to have a broad range discussion with Sen. Clinton about how I could make her feel good about the process and have her on the team moving forward -- but as I said its premature right now, she's still actively running and we’ve still got business to do here in Oregon and other states.”

- jpt

May 9, 2008 in 2008: Democrats, Clinton, Hillary, Obama, Barack | Permalink | User Comments (128) | TrackBack (0)

"West Wing" Actors Back Arianna V. McCain

May 09, 2008 10:58 AM

Speaking of headlines I never anticipated writing...

Web maven Arianna Huffington pushes Bradley Whitford  and Richard Schiff to back her story that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, at a dinner party in 2001, said he didn't vote for George W. Bush for president in 2000.

The New York Times and the Washington Post have the goods.

McCain alter-ego Mark Salter calls Huffington "a flake and a poser and an attention-seeking diva."

He says he doesn't know either actor "but I assume they were acting."

- jpt

May 9, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (46) | TrackBack (0)

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

May 09, 2008 10:42 AM

Hop-scotching through these last six primary states, we bring you greetings and news last night from Sioux Falls, South Dakota  and this morning from Portland, Oregon.

What's next for this race? Whither Clinton?

- jpt

May 9, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (33) | TrackBack (0)

Edwards May Endorse, Says Obama "Is Clearly the Likely Nominee"

May 09, 2008 10:31 AM

Former Sen. John Edwards, D-NC, took to NBC and MSNBC this morning to chat about poverty, though of course Clinton v. Obama was the main course.

Hosts on Morning Joe played the audio of Sen. Hillary Clinton's USA Today interview in which Clinton  made comments that seemed to many to approach race-baiting, referring to an AP article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me. There's a pattern emerging here."

(Listen to the audio HERE.)

Edwards was asked if Clinton's case against Obama could cause an "insidious undermining" of Obama.

"That's a very legitimate question," Edwards said. "I think it's fine for Hillary to keep making the case for her. I think when that shifts to her contention about everything  that’s supposed to be wrong with him -- and I don't agree with some of what she just said, by the way -- I think that then we're starting to do damage instead of being helpful."

Edwards told NBC's Matt Lauer that "right now Barack Obama has the better chance" of beating Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., "because it looks like he’s going to be the nominee. But I think what he brings to the table is the capacity, No. 1, to unite the Democratic Party. No. 2, to bring in new voters, to bring in people who haven’t been involved in the process over a long period of time, and to get people excited about this change.”

Asked if Rev. Jeremiah Wright will hurt Obama in the Fall, Edwards said, "it depends on how he responds."

"It's very difficult to make the math work," he said of Clinton's chances.

He wouldn't tell when asked who he voted for on Tuesday. He said he may still endorse.

Edwards on MSNBC said it's "highly likely" that who he voted for is whom he will ultimately endorse.

"I have enormous respect for both of them," he said.

He said Obama "is clearly the likely nominee."

He wouldn't answer when asked if he and his wife Elizabeth Edwards voted for the same candidate.

- jpt

May 9, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (46) | TrackBack (0)

Panetta: Time for Clinton to Concede

May 09, 2008 6:53 AM

Mark Matthews at San Francisco's KGO TV  caught up with former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta to chat about what his former boss's wife -- Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY -- should do now.

"It's pretty clear unless there's a bolt of lightning, Barack Obama is likely to win the Democratic  nomination," Panetta says. "She's put up a good fight and put up a good race, but I think there's a time now where she needs to concede and unify the party."

Panetta says "come early June, if things continue and superdelegates continue to move towards Barack Obama, then I think she needs to be a gracious loser and be able to concede this race with honor."

If she remains in the race until the final primary on June 3, Panetta says, "I guess what I would do if she is going to do that is warn them they should remain on issues, they shouldn’t engage in personal attacks....Whether the winner wins will depend an awful lot on how the loser loses."

The decision is ultimately Clinton's, Panetta says, "because this race is hers and she's been deeply involved and put up a hell of a fight."

Indeed.

May 9, 2008 in Games | Permalink | User Comments (83) | TrackBack (0)

Obama May Declare Victory Before Winning

May 08, 2008 5:17 PM

In an interview with Brian Williams on NBC, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, said  that he may declare victory on May 20 after winning the Oregon primary (assuming he does) -- even though he will not have reached the magic number of 2,205 delegates.

“That will be an important day," Obama said. "If at that point we have the majority of pledged delegates, which is possible, then I think we can make a pretty strong claim that we’ve got the most runs and it’s the ninth inning and we’ve won.”

Except of course that this isn't a fight for a majority of pledged delegates. It's a fight for the majority of total delegates -- which includes superdelegates. And the number is 2,025. Not the majority of pledged delegates -- the majority of total delegates.

So to use a football analogy: Up by 14, Obama has the ball at Clinton's 10 yard line with 30 seconds left. Clinton has been arguing with the ref to include touchdowns and field goals that they ruled illegitimate. Clinton has been trying to convince the refs to go into overtime, and she wants to move the goal posts into the stands.

Now Obama wants the game to end early, and he wants the goal posts moved to the 10-yard line.

This strikes me as possibly a huge miscalculation.

- jpt

UPDATE: The Obama campaign says that despite Obama saying on May 20 he may make the claim that his team has the most runs and "we've won," he was not talking about winning the nomination, but rather winning an "important metric" -- pledged delegates.

May 8, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (296) | TrackBack (0)

The Ellsworth Endorsement

May 08, 2008 2:01 PM

The Clinton campaign made the announcement this morning as a "Superdelegate Watch" that Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-Ind. (along with Rep. Heath Shuler, D-NC) "announced their support for Hillary."

But Ellsworth's support is quite qualified. So much so that ABC News is not counting him as a Clinton superdelegate, per his office's instructions.

After Clinton won Indiana and his congressional district, Ellsworth, a superdelegate, said in a paper statement that “I stand by my belief the American people, not superdelegates, should decide who the Democrat nominee will be, and I was glad to see record numbers of Hoosiers getting involved and casting their votes in this historic race. If it comes down to the convention, I will cast my vote for the candidate 8th District voters chose unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise.”   

Ellsworth spokeswoman Liz Farrar tells ABC News' Karen Travers that "this should not be taken as an endorsement.  The Congressman is not endorsing either candidate. His position is that if this contest continues all the way to the convention, he will cast his vote for the candidate the 8th District voters chose. But he has no intention of getting involved in the race (with an endorsement, etc) on behalf of either candidate."

- jpt

May 8, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (81) | TrackBack (0)

The June Myth

May 08, 2008 8:54 AM

"It's still early," said Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY yesterday. "I mean, everybody is so focused on where we are right now -- I guess I remember that, in June of 1992, that's when Bill really wrapped up the nomination -- the middle of June, after the California primary."

We've vetted this claim before and found its accuracy to be wanting.

Then- Gov. Bill Clinton literally did not secure enough delegates through the primary and caucus process until the California primary, June 2, 1992.

But he had sewn up the nomination long before then.

Months before then.

Moreover, the first real contest that year was on February 18, 1992. (No one competed in the Iowa caucuses since Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, was a candidate that year) The first real contest this year, the Iowa caucus, was January 3, 2008. So you'd also expect that race to last later in the calendar -- it started more than a month and a half later.

But regardless of that, here are some key dates for that 1992 race that indicate how misleading this argument is.

February 18, 1992 -- Sen. Paul Tsongas, D-Mass., wins New Hampshire primary. A scandal-plagued Gov. Bill Clinton comes in second.

February 20, 1992  -- San Diego Union-Tribune headline: "Tsongas got most votes, but Clinton says he won".

February 25, 1992 -- Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., wins the South Dakota primary.

March 3, 1992 -- Clinton wins Georgia. Tsongas wins Maryland. Harkin wins Minnesota and Idaho. Former California governor Jerry Brown wins Colorado. Still all very much up for grabs.

March 5, 1992 -- With no money, Kerrey ends his campaign. "We were ready to go full throttle," Kerrey says, "but unfortunately we ran out of gas."

March 7, 1992 -- Clinton wins South Carolina.

Harkin announces he will drop out.

March 10, 1992 -- Clinton cleans up on Super Tuesday, winning Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas. Tsongas wins Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Kerrey: "I would say he's got a very clear path to the nomination. But it's not a path without mine fields. There are still things out there that he's got to worry about. He's got to win."

Jim Lehrer on PBS: "David, how close is Bill Clinton to being the Democratic nominee tonight?"

David Gergen: "He's on the verge."

March 17, 1992 -- Clinton wins Illinois.

At this point, it becomes clear Clinton will be the nominee.

Tsongas drops out. Only Brown remains in the race.

March 20, 1992 -- The Dallas Morning News: "Former Sen. Paul Tsongas abruptly halted his presidential candidacy on Thursday, effectively ending the Democratic contest and turning the primary campaign into a mop-up operation for Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton. 'It was clear that we did not have the resources necessary to fight the media war in (the April 7) New York (primary),' Mr. Tsongas told a packed crowd of supporters in Boston."

The Boston Herald: "A no-holds-barred presidential race between Democrat Bill Clinton and President George Bush - in a clash of generations and vastly different values - was all but sealed yesterday as Paul E. Tsongas ended his quest for the Democratic nomination."

March 24, 1992 -- Brown wins Connecticut. Clinton holds a seven-to-one lead in delegates.

March 26, 1992 -- Harkin endorses Clinton, expressing concern that the fight between Clinton and Brown will cause divisions in the party that would hurt the nominee in November.

"I say it's time for Democrats to link arms, dig in our heels, set our sights to work together to put Bill Clinton in the White House in 1992," Harkin says.

Harkin is the first of Clinton's former opponents to endorse him, and the party begins to officially rally around the presumptive nominee.

April 1, 1992 -- Former President Jimmy Carter endorses Clinton, calling him "an honest, decent, competent, idealistic, practical man" who doesn't deserve to have his character questioned. "Pretty obviously, Gov. Clinton is going to get the nomination," Carter says.

April 4, 1992 -- Before the New York primary, Gov. Mario Cuomo says Clinton would be a "superb president."

April 8, 1992 -- Bryant Gumbel: "Good morning. Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, call him flawed, call him slick, but call him a winner this morning. He swept the primaries in New York, Kansas and Wisconsin. Big strides toward the Democratic nomination that seem his for the taking today, Wednesday, April the 8th, 1992."

As a slap in Brown's face, Tsongas -- no longer in the race -- comes in second in New York.

April 12, 1992 -- House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Missouri, endorses Clinton. "Bill Clinton will be the kind of president the United States needs to recapture our economic strength and leadership in the post-Cold War world," Gephardt says.

House Speaker Tom Foley, D-Wash: "All the dominoes are falling in favor of Clinton. He is going to be the nominee."

At the California Democratic convention, Brown says Clinton is likely to be the Democratic presidential nominee, and says he will back Clinton if he is nominated.

Austin American-Statesman: "Brown strongly indicated that, having lost the New York primary Tuesday, he will campaign as a crusader for political change rather than as a serious contender for nomination. Ron Brown, national party chairman, said the comments were 'very positive' and hinted that the contest has entered a new phase. The two met privately earlier in the day."

April 14, 1992 -- Clinton wins the final round of Virginia's caucuses. "Uncommitted" comes in a strong second,
Brown comes in a distant third.

April 19, 1992 - Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, endorses Clinton.

Earth Day, 1992 - Clinton challenges President George H.W. Bush to a face-to-face debate on the environment.

April 28, 1992 -- Clinton wins Pennsylvania primary, having earned 1,466 of the 2,145 delegates needed to win. Brown has 316 delegates.

And on and on...

This notion that the 1992 presidential race was not over until June is literally true. But it was truly over about five or six weeks after the New Hampshire primary.

Interesting, though, how Bill Clinton and his campaign lobbied big name Democrats to rally around him once it became clear that mathematically he'd be the delegate winner. Though Brown, aware that some horrible big story about Clinton might break and change everything, stuck around.

- jpt

May 8, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (154) | TrackBack (0)

Huckabee on Hillary: "I Feel Her Pain!"

May 08, 2008 8:43 AM

As someone who faced criticism himself for not exiting his presidential nominating race "properly," former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee suffered through some of the same criticisms Sen. Hillary Clinton is going through right now. (Though of course the math was even more stark for him.)

So this morning I asked Huckabee what he thought of Clinton's dilemma.

"In the words of her husband, 'I feel her pain!'" Huckabee says.

"She is playing by the rules.  She didn’t make the rules, the party did," he continues. "If they wanted to have the game end before the end or regulation, they should have written the rules that way.  Does Major League baseball or the NFL prematurely end the game if one team gets overwhelmingly ahead?  Even in boxing, unless there is a knockout, the fight goes the distance. 

"The idea this 'hurts' the Democrats is not absolute.  It hurts them if things get rancorous and personal (which it has).  But the mere fact of the ongoing race doesn't automatically hurt.  In fact, the Dems are on page 1 everyday and John McCain is on page 7. 

"True, he's not really taking any body blows right now, but there is some value in being battle tested.

"There is one thing that has to be noted, however:  As long as the only people calling for her to get out was Obama supporters it wasn’t a big deal.  Now, she's beginning to see the defection of long time loyalists like McGovern and that hurts.  If that continues, she may not have a choice if she wants to 'leave the party so as to get a return invitation.'"

- jpt

May 8, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (64) | TrackBack (0)

Edwards' Campaign Manager to Endorse Obama

May 08, 2008 6:45 AM

ABC News has learned that David Bonior, the campaign manager for the 2008 presidential race of Sen. John Edwards, D-NC, will endorse Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, today.

Bonior, a former Michigan congressman, was once the second highest ranking Democrat in the House, and is influential with labor unions.

Tuesday night's results were said to be key to Bonior's decision -- specifically the fact that Obama's lead over Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, appears insurmountable.

Bonior is also said to like Obama's general positive tone, as well as Obama's message of change and stance against taking money from federal lobbyists.

Edwards has not yet endorsed either candidate.

May 8, 2008 in Obama, Barack | Permalink | User Comments (125) | TrackBack (0)

Mr. Voting Rights Says Florida & Michigan Should Not Count

May 07, 2008 10:32 PM

Former President Jimmy Carter told Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show" today that the Michigan and Florida Democratic primaries should not count since the two states "disqualified themselves" by holding early primaries contrary to Democratic Party rules.

Carter's stance will not help Sen. Hillary Clinton's push, which she described this evening at a D.C. fundraiser, saying "that this issue about the voters in Florida and Michigan is a civil rights issue."

Carter has monitored elections all over the world, and worked for election reform in the U.S.

But he has also hinted he's a supporter of Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign -- and he had frosty relations with Sen. Clinton's husband.

Carter also said if superdelegates deliver the nomination to a candidate other than the one with the most pledged delegates "it would be a catastrophe for the party."

- jpt

May 7, 2008 in 2008: Democrats | Permalink | User Comments (114) | TrackBack (0)