Tag: Hillary Clinton (page 24)

The Democratic presidential primary has been fairly unconventional so far. The Boston Globe has an article today about what Ronald Reagan did in 1976 when he was losing big-time to Gerald Ford: He named his vice-presidential running mate. He came closer, but ended up not winning the nomination.

Despite naming Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania the would-be vice president to shore up support among Republican moderates, Reagan lost the delegate race by a little more than 100. But picking a vice president while trailing in delegates was a bold technique that some political analysts think might repeat itself in this year's tight Democratic race, the first since the Reagan-Ford contest that could go down to the wire in the same way.

....Selecting a popular vice presidential nominee could win over some superdelegates - uncommitted party leaders invited to the convention - while perhaps also attracting some voters in late primaries, analysts said.

The article considers whether this is something Hillary Clinton might do now. It mentions, as possible picks, General Wesley Clark and Bill Richardson.[ More...]

(Updated to include video). Comments now closed.)

Do not miss the You Tube of Tina Fey's commentary on Saturday Night Live last night when it comes out. It was incredible. My DD has a rough transcript of the last part.

Tina Fey:I want to say something about those calling Hillary a b*tch...

Yeah, well she is...So am I, so is she (pointing at Weekend Update news host Amy Poehler.) Deal with it.

B*tches get sh*t done (Amy says yeah and starts nodding her head in rhythmn and saying more yeahs,uuh huhs and a you go girl.)

Like back in grammar school, they could have had priests teaching you but no, they had tough old nuns who sleep on cots and can hit ya and you HATE those b*tches. But the end of the school year you sure knew the capital of Vermont

So come on....Its not too late Texas and Ohio, get on board... B*tch is the new Black!

More...

I guess Obama supporters don't support the right of other groups to get a message out to voters. (Background here.) Via the Wall St. Journal:

Three supporters of the Illinois Democrat mailed a complaint to the Federal Election Commission today charging that the pro-Clinton organization is violating election laws.

This is designed to create negative press for Hillary. How do we know that?

It is highly unlikely that the Obama supporters will get what they want from the FEC any time soon. For one, the FEC is notoriously slow. It took three years to settle similar complaints lodged against independent political entities that ran advertisements in the 2004 election.

For another: [More...]

The AP and New York Times report Hillary Clinton is fighting back today.

“Shame on you, Barack Obama,” Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference after a morning rally, holding the flyers and shaking them in the air as she spoke. “It is time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public. That’s what I expect from you. Meet me in Ohio. Let’s have a debate about your tactics and your behavior in this campaign.”

....“Time and time again, you hear one thing in speeches and then you see a campaign that has the worst kind of tactics, reminiscent of the same sort of Republican attacks on Democrats,” Mrs. Clinton said.

The backstory, about the Obama campaign wrongly claiming Hillary said NAFTA was a "boon" is below:

The AP has the latest news on the superdelegate front. Ignore the misleading title,"AP survey: Superdelegates jump to Obama" (which implies scores of delegates are jumping ship or changing from Hillary to Obama)and read the text of the article:

Clinton still leads among superdelegates — 241 to 181, according to the AP survey. But her total is down two in the past two weeks, while his is up 25. Since the primaries started, at least three Clinton superdelegates have switched to Obama, including Rep. David Scott of Georgia, who changed his endorsement after Obama won 80 percent of the primary vote in Scott's district. At least two other Clinton backers have switched to undecided. None of Obama's have publicly strayed, according to the AP tally.

The reality, from their numbers: Hillary still leads in total superdelegates and despite his ten or eleven recent wins, only 3 out of 246 have left her for Obama while two have changed to undecided.

Reality #2: The superdelegates can change their mind up to the time they vote at the convention. If Hillary takes Texas and Ohio and stays in the race, she could gain more or take some from Obama.

Right now, the superdelegates are not the issue. Texas and Ohio voters are.

Austin, TX is considered one of the most liberal cities in Texas. It is also home to the University of Texas. I always thought it was purely Obama country.

Today, The Daily Texan, the university's newspaper, made it clear that it is endorsing Hillary Clinton for President.

George W. Bush has made a mess of America, and we believe Hillary Clinton is the best person to clean it up. She is prepared and willing to be a leader who is "a lot less hat and a lot more cattle," as she stated during Thursday night's debate.

Clinton is a seasoned politician, and some argue that works against her. But Bush has been wildly successful in destroying every positive function of the machine that is Washington, D.C., and Clinton has the political tools and knowledge to fix it.

More...

The Washington Post and ABC have released their poll of likely Democratic voters in Texas and Ohio , taken Feb. 16 to 20. As the article says, Hillary is slightly ahead in Ohio and she and Obama are essentially tied in Texas.

The polling data behind the poll is here. I see some different patterns.

In Ohio. 72% said they would vote for Hillary while 70% said they would vote for Obama. 27% percent of these voters said they would definitely vote for Hillary, 11% could change their mind, and 16% said it was unlikely they'd change their mind.

For Obama, 70% said they were definitely going for Obama, 14% said they were could change their mind an 9% said they were unlikely to change. [More...]

Now for the post-mortem. Will Hillary see a bounce in Texas and Ohio? Was her final statement of pride in being with Obama a signal that if she loses Texas and Ohio, she'll gracefully step aside? Will Texas and Ohio bring it home for her so she can stay in through Pennsylvania and keep her superdelegates happy?

I have no answers, all I can tell you is the TV pundits don't either. Most of them watched a different debate than I did.

The debate transcript is here. This will be our fourth and final thread on the Texas debate.

(Comments now closed, new thread is here.)

Via No Quarter:

We're having server issues due to traffic spikes or something like that. While Colin, our webmaster works on it, here's a new thread to discuss the debate and other topics.

I also have to finish deleting the insults and personal sniping from the first debate threads.

Please, keep it civil. We are almost at the end of this interminably long primary process, with just a few weeks to go. There are two remaining candidates. State your opinions without rancor.

Update: Debate transcript is here.

(Comments closed here. New thread is here.)

The debate's over. Who won? What did you think?

Update: (Big Tent Democrat): I thought Hillary whupped him good. David Gergen thought it was even until Hillary's last answer, he thinks it was her best moment of the campaign. I don't see it. Go figure. Watching more of the pundits, they really have no idea what to say anymore. They really are useless. But who cares what they think?

Poll below.

Update: Post debate thread here. Comments closing on this one.

The Austin, TX CNN Debate starts in 5 minutes. Big Tent Democrat and I are live-blogging using our live-blog software.

You can comment same as always in the comment section below. You also can send us live messages through the software. Only comments you post below will appear on the site. For a reminder of what it looks like, see our L.A. Debate thread.

I'll be putting up some polls during it to see how you think the candidates and questioners are doing. His posts will say BTD and mine will be TL.

The live blog stays below the fold so that it can be a bit wider than the front page allows. Just click on the "There's More" button or bookmark the permalink to go directly to it.

Here's a pre-debate thread for CNN's debate tonight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Until it starts, please post your comments on tonight's debate, expectations, predicitions, etc. here.

The live blog, once it starts, will be here.