Happy Mother’s Day

Democratic presidential hopeful and US Senator Hillary Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton at a Mother’s Day celebration on May 10, 2008 in New York. (Daylife)

Vetting

To Obama supporters who don’t read any Clinton blogs besides mine, I posted Millions and other recent posts to show you what’s out there. You have no idea and Republicans will be 100x worse. Obama supporters should read outside of Obama sources.

So, since Obama’s not campaigning in WV and KY, does that mean he gets half the delegates?

Just asking…

Interestingly, though, Obama’s saturating WV with teebee ads, although not deigning to actually campaign in the state.

–Lambert

O. reminds me too much of W.

Obamabot Bingo

h/t Red Queen

Race doesn’t trump gender

Echidne of the Snakes:

Couldn’t someone say Obama divided feminists because he appeals to some and not others? You can’t have a rift unless you had unity before. Anyone who thinks the feminist movement ever marched in lock step needs to read some history. Reed doesn’t blame Obama or his supporters for any of the campaign’s sexism.

She makes the point, as have many others, that people should not say one form of oppression is worse than another. But I don’t see the people who say this trashing those who think racism is worse than sexism. Shouldn’t it work both ways?

If Reed is wrong, then she and other Obama supporters are the ones creating harmful divisions in feminism and the Democratic Party. For the sake of argument, however, let’s say she’s right. If one oppression is no worse than another, why would racist attacks on Obama be worse than sexist attacks on Clinton? One answer is that racism is trickier, according to Reed. Is it not possible that coded, insidious, tricky sexism exists, too? Why should we assume all sexism is out in the open?

What’s wrong with anti-racism Part 4

Lack of nuance:

So much is crystalizing in my mind about the concepts of media reform and media justice. So much that I want to say a corrupt system cannot be reformed. Yeah, I know I’ve talked about my opinion about corrupt systems before (and about how you can’t “reform” Islam because there’s nothing wrong with it to begin with).

This kind of statement is embraced by third wave feminism but you’d never see the following on Pandagon:

So much is crystalizing in my mind about the concepts of media reform and media justice. So much that I want to say a corrupt system cannot be reformed. Yeah, I know I’ve talked about my opinion about corrupt systems before (and about how you can’t “reform” Catholicism because there’s nothing wrong with it to begin with).

Sewere who I love said something to the effect I wasn’t an ally BUT NO ONE’S BEEN MY ALLY in the anti-racism blogosphere for 2.5 years. Anti-racism is stunningly one-sided and blindered. Race trumps everything in the election, media, netroots, feminism and anti-racism and we could lose the election over it. Ironically, POC and WOC would suffer most. Misogyny is completely overlooked so MILLIONS OF WOMEN WON’T VOTE FOR OBAMA UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. THEY REALLY WON’T VOTE FOR HIM and would rather sit it out, write in Hillary, write in McKinney, or vote for McCain.

Nothing trumps anything.

Saturday: Keep your head

Riverdaughter:

I know what abuse feels like and I won’t take it from a party. They have to get right with me not the other way around. The Dean Democrats are on their own. Good luck to them.

Here are Riverdaughter’s suggestions for fighting back:

1. If you live in a state that has already voted, re-register as an “unaffiliated” voter. Tear up your current voter’s registration card and mail it to the DNC with a little note to tell them that if they don’t resolve the FL and MI delegation issue immediately, they can not count on your vote now or in the future. Also, encourage them to push Hillary and Obama to form a joint ticket with Hillary on top as this is the only viable option for averting an electoral disaster in November. They created this rift in the party. It’s their responsibility to unify it. Not ours.

2. Have a news moratorium for the next two weeks. For the next week, turn off every network and cable news program and catch up on your gardening. Watch only C-Span. If you have TiVo or a DVR, the cable and satellite companies do disk diagnostics every night to determine what you’ve watched and they pass this info onto the networks for ad sales purposes. You will make an impact if you abstain for the next week.

3. Save your breakfast, lunch and dinner money and send it to Hillary. She can use the money to buy ads in the remaining states. The Big Boyz have been very effective in discouraging people from donating and volunteering for her. If you send in $10 and everyone reading this does the same, we can help refill her coffers. Also, one day of fasting will give you presence of mind and remind you of what is so important here. There are millions of Americans who are one paycheck away from insolvency, who have to use a food pantry every month to feed their families and these people are going to get written off by the “new coalition”.

4. Volunteer for Hillary in West Virginia and Kentucky if you live in one of those states or one of the surrounding states. Hell, you don’t even need to do much. Just go there and stand at the side of the road with a sign. If you can’t be there, make phone calls for her. Let the country know that you aren’t going down without a fight.

Obama is the weakest candidate that we could field this year and the Republicans are licking their chops that the Democrats are going to commit political suicide to appease snobby yuppies and AA voters who make up roughly 12% of the US population and whose strength as a voting block will be seriously diluted in November. If the Democratic party wants to play a stupid game of chicken with the women, working class, elderly, hispanic, gay voters and the REAL creative class voters that have been its loyal base, it had better be prepared to lose in November. Even with all of us onboard, Obama will lose. But maybe the party will learn something from this.

One final thing, Conflucians, there will be a lot of guilt tripping and meanness directed our way in the next couple of days. Don’t give in. Now is the time to “choose something like a star to stay our minds on”. The counter haka only works if everyone sticks together. This is real unity.

Hillary Clinton must be the Democratic nominee; Do The Math

because Clinton carries the swing states and blue states and Obama cannot.

Presidential

Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) walks onto her campaign plane May 9, 2008 in Portland, Oregon. (Daylife)

Actually, she looks like the girl who plays Hillary in the Hillary rap videos.

We’re with you, Hillary

Hillary Clinton Rallies in the Rain in McKeesport, Pa., April 19, 2008

Quitters Never Win

by Ellen Malcolm, Emily’s List

Which brings us to Hillary Clinton running for president. This brilliant woman believes that she can compete for the most powerful office in the world. She believes that she can do a better job than any of the men running to lead our country through these challenging times. And millions of Americans, women and men, believe that she is correct.

Yet over and over again the media and her opponents have claimed that she is defeated — it’s over, she can’t win, she’s a loser. And over and over again — in New Hampshire, on Super Tuesday, in Texas and Ohio, in Pennsylvania last month, and in Indiana this week — female voters poured out of their homes to cast their ballots for her. They know that women can compete, and they want to make sure that women, especially this woman, can win.

It’s not surprising that low-income working women are the cornerstone of Hillary’s success. Many of these women live on the edge of disaster. A pink slip, a family member’s illness, a parent who can no longer live alone, a car that won’t start or a mortgage rate that goes up — all are threats that could devastate the family. And yet these women do what women have done for ages. They put on a confident face, feed their children breakfast and get them off to school. They don’t quit. They suck it up and fight back against whatever life throws their way.

Why on earth should one candidate quit before the contest is finished? Democrats need not be so fainthearted. Both of the party’s remaining candidates have raised tens of millions of dollars. Both have the respect of Democrats nationwide. Each has a progressive agenda that stands in stark contrast to Sen. John McCain and his adherence to Bush administration policies.

So why are some Democrats so afraid? We simply need to count every vote, let the remaining states have their say and see the process through to its conclusion.

Hillary Clinton certainly has the right to compete till the end. But I believe Hillary also has a responsibility to play the game to its conclusion. For the women of my generation who learned to find and channel their competitiveness, for the working women who never falter in the face of pressure, for the younger women who still believe women can do anything, Hillary is a champion. She’s shown us over and over that winners never quit and that quitters never win. We’ll cheer her on until the game is over. And we hope that when the final whistle blows, we will have elected the first female president and the best president our country has ever had.

The Audacity of Unelectability

by Flineo

What do McGovern, Kennedy, Brazile, Gore, Kerry, Edwards, Dean and Pelosi have in common? They’re losers who endorsed Obama.

Bill Clinton is the only winner. He endorsed Hillary who’s fighting for the very soul of the Democratic Party. Most Clinton supporters are.