The Trail: A Daily Diary of Campaign 2008

Dont know how many others are as incensed as I am about these chain emails being sent to religious groups and others that question Sen. Barack Obamas patriotism and religious beliefs. (See press link to last weeks open letter from Jewish groups being bombarded with these emails: http://www.adl.org/internet/Letter_obama.asp)

The use of the Internet to spread false information about a political candidate--- and thus to affect the outcome of an election--- is particularly abhorrent to me.

We cannot regress to old-style dirty tricks. In the public interest, we need to get behind these emails---and identify who originated them.

If you have received such an email, please forward it to me.

negemail53@gmail.com

FYI

Friends of the Clintons:
MELVIN J REYNOLDS- 12 counts of SEXUAL ASSAULT, obstruction of justice and solicitation of CHILD PORNOGRAPHY. ALSO Convicted on 15 unrelated counts of BANK FRAUD and lying to SEC investigators. Such a good friend that he never asked for a pardon but the Clinton's commuted his sentence anyways.
MARC RICH-Illegal OIL DEALS with IRAN during the hostage crisis. He received a presidential pardon from United States President Bill Clinton at the bequest of Hillary. Good friends of the Clinton's and major contributors. Bill later said it might have been a MISTAKE!
PINCUS GREEN: IILLEGAL OIL DEALS with IRAN during the hostage crisis. Good friend of the Rich's and the Clintons. Hillary went out of her way to get them out!
DOROTHY RIVERS: Embezzled 1.2 million tax dollars in federal grant money. She used it to buy, among other things, a $35,000 dollar fur coat and a Mercedes-Benz for her son. Friend and contributor of the Clintons. They let her out of Jail!
SUSAN MCDOUGAL- Jailed for obstruction of justice for refusing to answer "three questions" for a grand jury about whether President Bill and Hillary Clinton LIED in testimony during the WHITEWATER trial and the trial was never conculded because of her refusal to testify. Her refusal lead to 18 months jail time for contempt of court, which was most of her total 22 months of incarceration. McDougal received a full Presidential pardon from outgoing President Clinton in the final hours of his presidency.
Just food for thought.
Lets' compare now: Child Molester or Slum lord? Hmm?
Treasonous Business practices with IRAN or tax evasion? Hard one!
Covering up a presidential scandal or being a sleezy guy....gee let me think.
Can anybody help me with this one and tell me which is worse, being good friends with these scumbags or having spent 5 minutes shoveling papers on some slum lord's case at your law firm? I'm just not bright enough to see which one is worse.

When will Floridians learn that no means no! What a sorry bunch. There is a really easy solution: have another primary next week and you will get counted. Hillary Clinton is the Donald Rumsfeld of the Democrat Party. She sees victory where there is none. She makes memo's like the one in Nevada that said "It's not illegal unless they say it is." Now by violating party rules she has taken a new step toward Rumsfledian doctrine:"It's only against the rules if I say it is!"

Your Choice Obama=JFK
or
Hillary=Rumsfeld

let me think.........

It is true that every delegate is important and be counted, but it is also true that Hillary like Obama and Edwards who are all vying for the same position should "STAND BY HER PLEDGE" to the DNC. She han the opportunity not to pledge, but she pledged like everybody not to campaign in Michigan & Florida since the delegates will not be given to any campaign. Why under heaven must Hillart go at such a length to prove to the American people, in the middle of her campaign for the Democratic nomination, that she is not able to keep as simple a pledge as this? Why does she take a commitment that simple? Why did she make a promise that she realize she cannot keep simply because she is under pressue? Is she going to shed some mor crocodile tears in the face of the DNC to get them to break their own pledge also as she did in New Hamshire to get a sympathetic electorate to vote for her? This is a kind of weakness that the President of the United States of America cannot afford to exhibit when uder strain or pressure. A weak woman like Hillary is not fit to hold such an office which will require her to prove, not how weak she is by shedding tears and breaking promises, instead of expressing strength and resolve when severely tested.

Keeping Pledges: It is an important principle not to make a pledge than to make one which we cannot keep. The NDC, the governing body made a decision with regards to Michigan & Florida. Obama, Edwards & Killary pledged to stand by such decision.Both Edwards & Obama stood by their words. Why did Killary decides break her own pledge? This simply proves that She cannot be trusted with the campaign pledges she is making to the American people. This is an hallmark of the establishment in Washington which Obama is bent on changing. Be clear on your stance with the issues you preach.Breaking her pledge to the NDC also proves the point made earlier by Obama that Killary will do and say anything to get elected.Is this the kind of leadership Amercans want from a president? Isn't this the same pattern that is established in Washington? This highlights the need forCHANGE in how business is done in Washington and highlights the simply fact that Killary is not fit to hold the highest office in America if she cannot stand by a simply plede or commitment which she has made. She is struggling to gain on unfair advantage by backtracking on her own pledge. Come on Killary show us that you are bigger than this! You can do better than this! You can at least keep a simple pledge that you have made with your governing body.

Obama said it was tie,too funny! appears he cant read numbers either, maybe uncle Ted can help him with his math, since queen oprah has deserted him with the Rezko scandle coming up faster each day!
Theres more obam involment then is being told, since Rezko was arrested this week, wait for him to spill the beans on obama.
FL
Clinton-856,944 50%
Obama-568,930 33%

TOTAL DELEGATES
CLINTON-232
OBAMABOY-158

Check out this site

http://www.seferm.com/news/us/governementelection/elections.asp

for 2008 election coverage including videos

PS. It was encouraging to see that Obama won among voters who had only made their decision within the last month to 3 days before the race.

I'm also not too sure what impact having a local state issue vote (property tax?) on the ballot could have had on last minute voters - had they gone just to vote on that, not paid attention to the primaries and ticked the name they recognised? I think name recognition helped Clinton immensely, in a state where Obama couldn't campaign. Not to mention that many (61%) of the votes were by those who had decided their vote over a month ago or had sent in absentee ballots.

So there could be some indication of a positive change in the Florida vote. I guess we will have to see, particulary since the polls in other states haven't captured recent events. Hmmmm.

Ay yi yi yi yi. Obama's people just need to make their point and focus on their game. Try and stay above eing snarky.

I know it's darn tempting to snark when someone else has been winding you up by playing so dirty - but I reckon that dirty behavior stands stronger in people's minds if you don't react too much.

You've got to remember, there are a whole bunch of people out there who were firmly fixed on Hillary before the Primaries - the inevitability thing. So now a number of them will be experiencing cognitive dissonance - how can I have spoken so well of someone who has behaved so badly? That's pretty unsettling. So if they see anything even a little snarky they might use it to assauge their dissonance in Clinton's favor.

So, this is a call fellow Obama supporters and campaigners to keep it cool, stay focused, provide a rebuttal of erroneous facts, don't let yourself get dragged down - and let that positive message shine through clearly.

Leave the nasty stuff to the other lot - then people can read and compare tones and that will produce a clear message.

Hello?? talk about changing the rules so that they work for you???

Hillary AGREED to this cockamamy Democratic situation.

But NOW, Hillary wants FL to count b/c she "won".

Give me a break.

BTW, if she "won" 50% of the vote, that means 50% of DEMOCRATS VOTED AGAINST HER, EVEN THO THE OTHERS DIDN'T CAMPAIGN.

Think about it.

Hillary worked hard to win in Iowa, and when she lost she blew Iowa off as a nothing state. She lied to NH by promising not to campaign in Michigan and Florida, and she now insists she will fight to have their delegates count. When she was losing S. Carolina, she left without giving a gracious concession speech. Contrast this with Obama's concession in NH, where the victory was taken from him through her crocodile tears. Should Iowa, NH, and S. Carolina voters who had supported Hillary now feel betrayed and disillusioned, they should go to Senator Obama's website and learn about his principled positions and his policies for America, and perhaps donate to his campaign to show their disapproval of the Clintons' bad faith. Hillary never ceases to astonish me with her daily acts of mendacity and outright lies.

hotnuke2008 -- All right, hey, you've convinced me with your elegant, rational argumentation!

What Florida proves is that when nobody campaigns and no issues are discussed and no voters have a chance to actually see and hear the candidates, the person most people are familiar with from the past wins - Hillary.

When people see and hear Barack, they will elect him President.

Pmiller -- You're seeing all this rancor in recent weeks because The Clintons, at some point, made a decision to win at all cost. I've said it before: I'd be content with the results of a fair competition of ideas and personalities. But when the Clintons start to play Tanya Harding (with blatant lies and scheming) -- and you're fooling yourself if you don't see it -- it makes people like me (and Ted Kennedy, I might add) cry foul. We can't let sleaze destroy the first real possibility in nearly 50 years to have profoundly transformational leadership combined with a progressive agenda. And I'm so pleased that Barack is doing everything he can to run a dignified, honorable campaign, while remaining tough -- an extremely difficult balancing act when history shows that you can't be passive in the face of swiftboating.

I have never been so disgusted with an election in all my life. When Kerry came out and endorsed Obama I felt like Edwards got sucker punched and now with Kennedy endorsing Obama I feel like the Clintons got sucker punched. Then when I heard Kennedy called Bill instead of Hillary, I felt like I got sucker punched as a woman.
I just want this hatred to be over. Just read the hatred on every site. One vicious attack after another from the Obama camp. The GOP is going to have alot of support in the general.

I have never been so disgusted with an election in all my life. When Kerry came out and endorsed Obama I felt like Edwards got sucker punched and now with Kennedy endorsing Obama I feel like the Clintons got sucker punched. Then when I heard Kennedy called Bill instead of Hillary, I felt like I got sucker punched as a woman.
I just want this hatred to be over. Just read the hatred on every site. One vicious attack after another from the Obama camp. The GOP is going to have alot of support in the general.

Does anyone else think that if HRC was well ahead of the pack, that she wouldn't be fussing for the FL or MI delegates? Come on, people... the Clintons are shrewd politicians... it is all tactical. If the numbers were for Obama, Mrs. Clinton would be singing a different tune.

To: Salescoach

From: Odb

Thank you for your questions and comments... I've been wondering about that myself for quite a while.

My vote, unfortunately, is for "some correlation between political fervor and being "language-challenged".

ps - The Obama campaign and its supporters are reacting badly. This does not reflect well on them.

"Hillary looks desperate, and pathetic.

Posted by: julieds | January 29, 2008 11:05 PM "

Your lack of self awareness is very funny.

Someone-write an editorial...do something.

They are all politicians!
But Hillary's victory speech? There was no victory because there was no contest.

I completely agree with someones post about Obamas surge. He has been fighting one against two Clintons and is still kicking a**

It has to show something about his ability to form a coalition.

Hillary looks desperate, and pathetic.

Obama won by 8 points among people whom decided how to vote within the last week. Hillary won all the old votes cast in December, and the people who, just today, walked into the booth to vote on the property tax bill, and punched the familiar name, "Clinton".

I won't be surprised if Iowa or Nevada take back the delegates Clinton won. They aren't pledged yet.

More win at all costs from the Clinton camp. Very desperate indeed.

OMG, some people can't think or they just refuse to think. Clinton won because people knew her name. almost half of her vote came from early voting a month ago. Obama won the votes who voted today or within the last month. I bet not many people in Florida know who is the other senator from Illinois. The Clintons are a joke. Obama is right, they will do anyhitng to get back into the white house. shameless. so shameless. I will vote GOP is Hilliary get the dem noniminee.

Hillary is the most hated candidate in contention.

Obviously, Rudy should probably draw a bit more attention, but that's what
s up.

Congrats, Hillary, on appealing to the old and the unflinching. May your ability to make all others hate you bring this country another reign of ignorance.

Obama is a great man, and a stronger person. His presidency would erode the ugly strangle hold of religious fanatics. Granted, Hillary might be tough as nails, but so are the heads of Republican leaders. They need someone they can't say no to.

DEMOCRATS WHO INSPIRE
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Adlai Stevenson
John F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Barack Obama

DEMOCRATS WHO USE RACIAL APPEALS TO GET ELECTED
Strom Thurmond
James Eastland
George C. Wallace
Bill & Hillary Clinton

Clean slate!!!
Barack Obama,
'08!!!

Hold on all you Hillary lovers. The embarrasing thing for Hillary is this:

450,000 of those votes in Florida were made by absentee ballots, most of which were cast back in December!!! And most of the votes he got were from today!!! That means he has made one hell of a surge in one month.

So, please! That tells you that Obama in one month has made a household name for himself AND is in the lead with primary delegates. That trumps the 30 something years of Clinton recognition. So, any negative posts after this for Obama is just a waste of time.

The Hillary campaign is sweating in their pants over this man! They have resorted to every dirty trick they can to stop him and they still may lose. Obama gets much credit for his organizational skills in putting this amazing campaign together. Anyone who doubts his leadership and organizational experience is a fool. He's got to be the smartest man on the planet to be pulling all this off!

Congrats Hillary on the big win in Florida! I guess you will next claim a primary win in France, since most of the people there are familiar with the Clinton brand. Honestly, Hillary claiming a win in Florida is hilarious and makes her look silly. I think she should have just said "Thank You" to Floridians that voted for her and moved on. I really think these sorts of errors in judgment are beginning to catch up with her...

Here a fact only 6% for SC voters voted for the person they thought could win the general election!!!

Obama ran TV ads in Florida for over a week and still lost. But he showed that he is just a polician. Nothing more. So much for "change"!!!

Well, mwlovelace, before you get too carried away, think of it this way: In a state where The Clintons are well known, and where she's done everything she could to suck up to the voters, she couldn't win by anywhere close to the margin Obama beat her with in South Carolina. Remember, she was WAY ahead in South Carolina a month ago. But after the voters got to know Obama (and got to see the Clinton Sleaze machine in true form), he won by nearly 30 points! Clinton's "win" in Florida is by a margin in the teens.

Obama lost every category of the voter except the black vote in Florida. If this continues he will not win another state!!!

Tomorrow newspaper will say Hillary Wins Florida!!!

I would like to trust Florida and Michigan voters not to blame the Democratic nominee in November. It would be pretty silly to elect a Republican just because one's state party played chicken with the national party. BUT... Remember, if Obama is the nominee, the electoral map will look entirely different from how it looked the last few elections. So I wouldn't worry much about, say, Florida deciding the entire election. Hillary has a good chance of losing to the GOP (because the country will tire of her plasticity very quickly), but if she wins, it will be with the old 49/48 map. Obama, on the other hand, would likely win big.

The DNC will seat the delegates from Michigan and Florida. They can not afford to "disrespect" either of them!! The winner is Hillary Clinton, Florida, and Michigan. The loser is Obama!!!

Florida's delegates will be seated. But only after the D nominee is selected. Hillary is playing the Florida voters -- what else is new?

She's going for the chutzpah vote. For all the credit she gets as a brilliant tactician, she's been spinning out of control lately. If she had argued just for the Florida delegates she would have had some cover, but then she wants Michigan counted too?! When she was the only one on the ballot?!

To the Florida voters:
I still can't get over how Hillary blew off Iowa by saying, in essence, that the real voting beigins in New Hampshire. And in South Carolina, Hillary didn't even publically thank her supporters on election night, opting to leave before the inevitable results. Hillary is playing up to Florida by stating that she wants the delegates reinstated (also the ones in Michigan). The New hampshire Union Leader today placed and op-ed piece titled "Clinton Coldly and Knowingly Lied to New Hampshire and Iowa". In it, Tim Dickinson states that
"...last August Sen. Hillary Clinton signed a pledge not to "campaign or participate" in the Michigan or Florida Democratic primaries. She participated in both primaries and is campaigning in Florida. Which proves, again, that Hillary Clinton is a liar....
"I will try to persuade my delegates to seat the delegates from Michigan and Florida," Clinton said last week, after the New Hampshire primaries and Iowa caucuses were safely over.
Clinton coldly and knowingly lied to New Hampshire and Iowa. Her promise was not a vague statement. It was a signed pledge with a clear and unequivocal meaning.
She signed it thinking that keeping the other candidates out of Michigan and Florida was to her advantage, but knowing she would break it if that proved beneficial later on. It did, and she did.
New Hampshire voters, you were played for suckers."
I'm fuzzy concerning DNC rules, and I believe as others do that not seating Florida's delegates will come back to haunt Democrats in November, but Hillary is out for HERSELF. She and Bill will do anything to get back into the White House. If Hillary signed a pledge not to campaign in Florida, and then breaks it, she, as her husband Bill did while he was in office, are saying that they ARE the Democratic Party, and EVERYONE should be marching to their tune. Florida, I hope you do not play the role of Hillary's latest sucker.

When voters know their votes don't really count, the results are often skewed, as I suspect is the case here. Judging from the tone, I think Team Obama appears irritated, perhaps unnecessarily so. But the actions of Team Hillary just make her look desperate.

If this is what passes for political discourse, we're truly in trouble. It reminds me of some lyrics from the old Buffalo Springfield song, "For What It's Worth":
What a field day for the heat.
A thousand people in the street,
Singing songs and carrying signs,
Mostly say, "Hooray for our side."

Unfortunately, too often these blog responses degenerate into the "Are, too," "Are, not" playground taunt-and-retort.

At the risk of sounding a bit like Andy Rooney, I have to ask why it is that the most zealous supporters in both camps seem to have the least command of English language, punctuation and syntax? Are they simply in so great a hurry to publish their version of "the Way, the Truth and the Light" that they can't be bothered to express themselves correctly, or is there some correlation between political fervor and being "language-challenged?"

IMHO, we could stand an upgrade on both fronts.

A. You can't treat the Obama turnout seriously when he wasn't allowed to spend time introducing himself to Florida (as opposed to Clinton who is a big name. (I'm in Texas, and am constantly amazed at how many people still actually know nothing about him: "He's that Muslim who Oprah likes? No way he'll win...") Campaigning makes a difference.

B. Unless The Media allow The Clinton's to successfully manipulate them, The People will see Obama's approach to Florida as honorable and true to his word (as opposed to Clinton's continued scheming). Super-delegates too will continue to be bothered by The Clinton's win-at-all-cost strategy. Look for more big-name endorsements between now and Tuesday.

C. Obama can easily explain to Florida at a later date that he had no intention of disenfranchising them, but that he simply keeps his promises.

D. The Obama campaign ran some national ads -- and actually tried to see if Florida could be removed from the ad buy (it couldn't). So he did not "run ads in Florida" in violation of the agreement.

This "voting along ethnic lines" comment is idiotic. If you're smart enough to post on an online message board, you should be smart enough to read the exit polls and the plethora of stories identifying just how South Carolina didn't play to ethic lines, as predicted. Because the media pronounces before the election that it will play out based on race, doesn't make it try. Obama won South Carolina with a broad coalition that included just about 1 out of every 4 white voters - in a 3-way race. Calling that a vote along racial lines makes you a liar and is as dirty as the Clintons who we can only hope will fade away from American politics. And this comes from Democrat. I'm done with the Clintons and the dirty, lying, tricky politics they stand for.

Zero to Zero is right. It will stick too.
Barack Obama is gaining more and more momentum and peaking at the perfect time. The best thing that could have happened is for him to garner fewer votes in Florida,even though the delegate count will be Zero, this vote will get all the complacent Obama supporters out on Super Tuesday. Give us McCain, give us Mitt Flop, we don`t care. Barack Obama can take it to them with style,grace,honesty,and candor.

Obama can "joke about being disenfranchised", after Republicans Have Stolen Democrats votes foe a Third Time? The Republicans STOLE the Democrats 2008 Primary Election Vote again in Florida! Just as they Did in 2000, and in 2004 by computer vote count and totals switching I saw and verified, as well as "suppressing black voters" by Highway Patrol roadblocks intimidation checking for licenses and and proof of auto insurance. Thanks Jeb Bush for 2000 & 2004. Thanks Republican Florida Legislature 2008!
It is All About Experience and ability to Fight and reverse seven years of Lies by Republican Government - documented 235 Lies by Bush and Cheney, Corporatism in government - allowing the manipulation of oil and energy prices with no enforcement of environmental laws, no mine safety regulation, attack on Constitutional Bill of Rights, Free Speech, spying on Americans, from imprisoning demonstrators in New York at Republican Convention to lying to Justice Investigation Valerie Plame violation of Federal Security Laws by Bush, directed by Cheney Secret Government, Irve Lewis Libby, Karl Rove leaks to Robert Novak, etc. Yes, Experience Is More Important than Hype and singing Kumbaya!

Where Obama has campaigned actively, people have gotten to know him and liked him - he has less name recognition (he is not married to a former president) and in December he was behind in all the polls. He is now winning the delegates count.

More about the politics behind the Florida campaigns:
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Hillary's+word:+It's+worth+nothing&articleId=0853268a-d982-4190-81e8-740ae942f510

A win is a win is a win as long as eligible voters vote. At least this was not a vote strictly along ethic lines as is common in many third world countries. Neither Clinton nor Obama campaigned in Florida. How does that make Clinton's victory less important? The voters in Florida, I believe, have TV and Newpapers and are as intelligent and savvy as the pundits on TV and newspapers that have been swooning over the Kennedy endorsements. If they were to be impressed, I am sure they would have shown it in the voiting booth. Maybe the result is the reflection of the the endorsements.

Couldn't the state democratic officials just have decided to postpone to super tuesday? South Carolina had broken up primaries. I don't get it.

As flawed as the leadup and the vote was in Florida, one is certain.

Clinton still has very good strength among women and older voters. That is a good place to have strength.

After Obama's camp played the race card,Obama appeals primarily to black voters, as suggested by the result in Florida.
Obama demands to be treated differently: You are not allowed to criticize him and if you do you are a racist.
Hillary is the leader America needs and want.

Obama needs to learn math. Our delegates will count.

Everything about the FLA Dem primary is stupid: the state looks stupid for crossing the party (and suing and losing and still doing it anyway), the party suffers for not getting their FL people on the same page, Obama looks dumb trying to pretend it doesn't matter, and the Clintons look even dumber pretending it does.

I guess Edwards, in being irrelevant, is the only one to get a pass tonight. Otherwise, the whole party looks like a bunch of jackasses.

delegate count in florida 0-0-0 (edwards is still in). too funny.

But seriously, the DNC better not even crack the door for delegates from MI or FL to accommodate HRC.

delegate count in florida 0-0-0 (edwards is still in). too funny.

But seriously, the DNC better not even crack the door for delegates from MI or FL to accommodate HRC.

Then stop watching CNN. MSNBC can at least laugh at themselves. CNN consistently breaks the 11th commandment by taking itself too seriously. That's what' got us in the mess we're in today as a country. They aren't wonderful and neither are we. If we can agree on that we can more easily move forward together.

The rules are made by the DNC and not the candidates. By making a media play for the Florida primary, the Hillary Clinton campaign has stooped to a new low. They try to win elections by cheap tricks like this since they know they cannot win by campaigning straight against Obama. The sad part is that the media especially CNN goes along with it.

ha, can you say, sour grapes?

obama and hillary were on equal ground in FL (actually Obama had TV ads running in FL). they both didn't campaign here... but the citizen's of Florida (who have cable TV, newspapers and brains) chose Hillary. I'm sure that doesn't feel nice for Obama... but too bad!

And if Obama becomes the nominee, he'll have to come back to FL tail between his legs to ask the democrats to ignore his "beauty contest" put down.

Go Hillary!!!

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