Barack Obama: The Real Winner In Texas

Sen. Barack Obama has won more delegates from Texas due to his strength within traditionally Democratic counties. Hillary won the popular vote, but Obama won seven out of the nine outstanding delegates from the conventions over the weekend. Hillary won two out of the nine. This leaves Senator Obama with 99 Texan Delegates in the national convention and Hillary with 94 according to an analysis by the AP. Admittedly, this doesn’t really change the race all that significantly, especially given how little chance Hillary has of winning anyway.

Texas by this point is old news anyway but, it shows Obama overcame the anti-democratic tactics employed by Rush Limbaugh(who encouraged Republicans to vote for Sen. Clinton to maintain Democratic in-fighting.) However, Obama faces a deficit with real Democrats in Pennsylvania anyway and he’ll have an even tougher time overcoming the deficit when the ‘Rushocrats’ are factored in.

Temporary Democratic Unity

Today Democratic Presidential Candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama displayed a rare unity in aligning against a common enemy, John McCain. Both candidates gave economic speeches, and as one might expect, both candidates took shots at McCain.

“It’s time for a president who is ready on Day One to be the Commander-in-Chief of our economy. Sometimes the phone rings at 3 a.m. in the White House and it’s an economic crisis. And we need a president who is ready and willing and able to answer that call. I read the speech that Senator McCain gave the other day which set forth his plan which does virtually nothing to ease the credit crisis or the housing crisis. It seems like if the phone were ringing, he would just let it ring and ring and ring.

Senator McCain is a friend of mine and I admire his service to our country greatly. But he recently admitted, “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.” And it turns out he’d rather ignore the credit crisis and mortgage crisis – or blame middle class families instead of offering solutions on their behalf.” – Hillary Clinton

“After months of inaction, the President spoke here in New York and warned against doing too much. His main proposal – extending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans – is completely divorced from the reality that people are facing around the country. John McCain recently announced his own plan, and it amounts to little more than watching this crisis happen. While this is consistent with Senator McCain’s determination to run for George Bush’s third term, it won’t help families who are suffering, and it won’t help lift our economy out of recession.” – Barack Obama

Hopefully the candidates will show this same ability to recognize who their true enemy is and will be able to put aside the bitter primary campaign in November. I’m not saying I’m expecting the “dream ticket” but, just the standard endorsement from Hillary when she loses(as seems more likely statistically.)

Clinton Donors ‘Urge’ Pelosi to Reconsider

Speaker Pelosi’s office received a letter from Clinton supporters who identified themselves as “strong supporters” of Speaker Pelosi’s financial apparatus. Their letter included, among other things that super delegates:

“must look to not one criterion but to the full panoply of factors that will help them assess who will be the party’s strongest nominee in the general election. … We therefore urge you to clarify your position on superdelegates and reflect in your comments a more open view to the optional independent actions of each of the delegates at the national convention in August,”

Speaker Pelosi hasn’t endorsed either candidate. The letter was in response to Pelosi’s statement that she believes the super delegates should follow the will of the people. She never said they couldn’t do otherwise as far as the rules are concerned, just that in her opinion it was the best option. Her spokesman said that Speaker Pelosi stands by this statement:

“The speaker believes it would do great harm to the Democratic Party if superdelegates are perceived to overturn the will of the voters, this has been her position throughout this primary season, regardless of who was ahead at any particular point in delegates or votes.”

The Obama campaign said they felt the letter was inappropriate and that they hoped the Clinton campaign would reject the insinuation contained within it. The Clinton campaign simply responded by saying that they don’t need to be lectured by Obama. Of course, this shows that the Clintons are fine with insinuation and political threats.

James Carville Says Clinton Is Jesus

Well, not exactly, but it’s implied by his statement about Bill Richardson’s endorsement of Senator Obama:

“Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out (Jesus) for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,”

He’s been confronted about the remark, but refuses to apologize:

“I wanted to use a very strong metaphor to make my point, I doubt if Governor Richardson and I will be particularly close in the future.”

Carville’s statement was of course a massive overreaction given that

A) Hillary’s not going to be brutally killed because of Gov. Richardson’s actions.

B) Gov. Richardson isn’t even the first member of the Clinton administration to endorse Obama.

US Casualties reach 4,000.

There’s very little that comes to mind in terms of what to say on the issue other than just how incredibly tragic it is.

Happy Easter.

All 3 Candidates Had Their Privacy Violated

I know this is old news by this point given that it came out a couple of days ago, but I wanted to give my opinion on the matter. It’s widely being viewed as eliminating the possibility that the breach was politically motivated. Why? Wouldn’t the perfect obfuscation be to have the contractor spy on your candidate as well? It also seems suspicious that McCain’s file was breached when he became the frontrunner, much like the Obama breach.

I’m not saying that there was unquestionably political motivations, nor am I saying that I think there was some vast right-wing conspiracy on the matter. However, dismissing it out of hand before the matter has been fully investigated makes little sense.

State Department employees fired for violating Sen.Obama’s privacy

Three different contractors within the State Department looked at breached Barack Obama’s passport records(which include details such as his Social Security number) on three separate occasions. First on January 9th, then on February 21st, and finally on March 14th. The first two contractors were fired and the third has been “disciplined” and may be fired. The State Department has said that there was no political motivation, but their only sources are the very people who refused to pass what had happened up the chain of command, thus making it inconsequential and impossible to trust.

The State Department’s spokesman Sean McCormack has said that the inspector general has started to investigate but, that leaves a number of question unanswered such as “Why did Secretary Rice only find out today?”, “Did they really only find out today? If not how far up the chain does this go?”, “Why are they taking the word of the very people whose failure to take responsibility enabled this violation of privacy?”, and of course “What took the inspector general so long? Why did he fail to see what was happening in his department?”

This invasion of privacy is at best yet another example of gross incompetence from the Bush administration.

Edit: Of course, there’s also the matter of Maura Hardy’s(who ran the Office of Consular Affairs when the first two breaches took place) connection to the Clinton Administration who appointed her as an ambassador to Paraguay. It may not amount to anything, but it’s interesting.

Obama Confronts Race

Today Senator Obama gave a speech about the most sensitive unspoken issue in America: race. The Senator managed to address not only black anger:

“The anger is real, it is powerful, and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.”

But also white resentment:

“When they are told to bus their children to a school across town, when they hear that an African-American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed, when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time, if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care or education or the need to find good jobs for every American,”

This should put racial fear to rest in the campaign, but I don’t think that it will. It may end it in the primary, but the GOP(through their 527’s) will use racial fear once the general election begins if Obama is the nominee. Obama deserves credit for grabbing the issue by the horns and trying to make it his own. Most politicians would have either reacted emotionally or ignored the issue completely. Obama reacted with the cool temper and eloquence that he’s shown throughout the campaign.

Spitzer’s replacement sworn in…and reveals a sex scandal.

Merely hours after he was sworn in as governor of the state of New York, David Paterson admitted that he had something else in common with Eliot Spitzer. He had cheated on his wife too. Paterson’s affair wasn’t with a prostitute as Spitzer’s was, but it’s hardly a great start for the first blind governor. However, the new Gov. and his wife seem to have already sorted it out, so it remains to be seen whether or not it will explode like the Spitzer story did.

“This was a marriage that appeared to be going sour at one point, but I went to counseling and we decided we wanted to make it work. Michelle is well aware of what went on.” – David Paterson

“Like most marriages, you go through certain difficult periods, what’s important is for your kids to see you worked them out.” – Michelle Paterson

Sen. Obama rejects and denounces Wright’s statements

Yesterday Sen. Obama rejected and denounced the inflammatory statements made by his pastor Jeremiah Wright. Sen. Obama told MSNBC that Rev. Wright while he wouldn’t repudiate the man, he unquestioningly repudiated the statement. He clarified that the reason he couldn’t repudiate the man was that Rev. Wright was like an uncle who sometimes says things he strongly disagrees with and condemns. He also wrote a post for the Huffington Post:

“I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies, I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Reverend Wright that are at issue.”

This should put the issue to rest, but it won’t. Hillary may not be willing to falsely claim Wright represents Obama, but the Republicans will joyful do so. Now that Obama has rejected Wright’s statements, all he can do is reiterate his rejection and hope that cooler heads prevail.