Dan Balz's Take
Clinton's End Game
Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign stop, May 8, 2008, at the Sioux Falls Airport in Sioux Falls, S.D. (Associated Press)
By Dan Balz
How will the Democratic nomination battle end?
At a time when the Hillary Clinton faces ever longer odds in her quest to deny Barack Obama the nomination, that question has becoming increasingly important to the candidates and the party. Will it end happily or unhappily? Will the loser go graciously or bitterly? Will the Democrats end up united or divided?
Clinton has vowed to stay in "until there is a nominee," but even with six primaries left on the calendar, the party is beginning to coalesce around Obama. The Illinois senator may lack the necessary delegates to secure the nomination, but after Tuesday's results in North Carolina and Indiana, Clinton advisers recognize that it will take a dramatic and unexpected change in the race to prevent him from winning.
Still, from the Clinton's campaign, there is no talk of bringing the race to an end any time soon. From her vantage point, she has, in recent weeks, won Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana and the popular vote in Texas. Obama won Mississippi and North Carolina. She has won critical battleground states and, in her view, is holding the constituencies vital to Democratic hopes of winning in November. Why not stay in until the end?
With just six states or territories still left to vote, she is determined to run out the calendar. She believes the competition with Obama has produced record turnout, a surge of new registrants for the Democratic Party and a cadre of now-seasoned organizers who will be paying dividends for years to Democratic candidates for House, Senate and governor. Her advisers are realists, but some genuinely think it is still possible to win -- not probable by any means, but not totally out of the question.
Party strategists sketch out at least three scenarios for a possible end to the Clinton campaign. The cleanest envisions the New York senator suddenly deciding the race is over and, for the good of the party, deciding to suspend her candidacy. That could happen after next week's primary in West Virginia, which she is expected to win easily, or the following week, when she is expected to win Kentucky and Obama is favored to win Oregon.
Obama said that after the May 20 primaries, he may be able to claim a majority of the pledged delegates and, therefore, the nomination. That could put pressure on her to quit -- though her advisers argue that they are not buying the arithmetic he is using to make that claim.
The messy scenario would see Clinton continuing her campaign all the way to the Democratic National Convention in Denver next August, challenging Obama long after the primaries end, arguing that she would be the stronger nominee against John McCain, mounting challenges before the party's credentials committee over the seating of Michigan and Florida, coming up with test votes to hector the Obama campaign and generally refusing to yield until the convention votes.
At this point, neither the clean nor messy endgame seems likely -- to strategists in either campaign or to other Democrats watching the race. Clinton vowed to stay in the race but also has pledged that, if it is clear that Obama has the nomination sewn up, she will support Obama and work to unify the party and defeat John McCain in the fall.
That suggests the race will not end before June 3 but could end soon after. Given what she said Wednesday about staying in until there is a nominee, and given the likelihood of rapid movement of superdelegates to Obama once the primaries are over (if not before), Clinton could declare the race over at that point.
"My best guess is, if that happens, she will stand down in June, with a declaration that she is suspending her campaign," said William Galston, a Brookings Institution scholar who served as White House domestic policy adviser in former president Bill Clinton's administration. "In the interim I expect her to wage an affirmative campaign, in part because she's being urged to do so and in part because it's very much in her interest to do so."
A fourth scenario envisions Clinton being forced suddenly to suspend her campaign because she is out of money. Already she and her husband have loaned the campaign more than $11 million. In addition, the campaign had reported debts of about $10 million. Her victory in Pennsylvania produced a flood of money, but if that also has happened in the wake of her victory in Indiana, the campaign has carefully withheld the information. Will she and her husband dip further into their assets to keep going?
What makes this nomination battle unusual is that the terms of her withdrawal are murky. If she sues for peace, what is her price? Obama v. Clinton is not the same as Carter v. Kennedy in 1980, when the Massachusetts senator had significant policy differences with the then president. Kennedy wanted concessions in the platform as the price of his eventual (and tenuous) support.
Obama and Clinton have few major policy differences. Her health-care plan includes a mandate, his doesn't. But both favor a big plan and the goal of universal coverage. He opposed the Iraq war and she voted to authorize it, but at this point, their exit strategies are not significantly different. What could Obama offer that would give her the ability to say her campaign had made a significant difference in the party's platform?
Nor is this race akin to 1988, when Jesse L. Jackson demanded of then Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis changes in the nomination process as part of his price for a quiet convention. Dukakis agreed to a plan for proportional distribution of delegates -- the very rules that have hampered Clinton this spring as she has struggled to overcome Obama's relatively narrow lead in pledged delegates.
Perhaps she will call for a change in those rules to diminish the caucuses that she dislikes so much. But it is unlikely that there will be dramatic rewriting of the rules this summer. That awaits the end of the campaign.
Clinton is preparing to make a stand on Michigan and Florida. The Democratic National Committee's Rule and Bylaws Committee will meet on May 31 to consider challenges to the sanctions slapped on the two states last year. Clinton wants both delegations seated. But Democratic strategists doubt there can be a resolution to this dispute unless the Obama campaign agrees to it -- and Obama's team will not agree to anything that jeopardizes the nomination.
Obama advisers are watching and waiting. They are concerned that Clinton appears ready to continue to challenge Obama's strength as a general election candidate. Inside the Obama camp, there is a consensus that she should be given time and space to ease down from the intense combat of recent months and to make a transition to more positive campaigning.
Right now, they do not want to do anything to antagonize her by calling for her to accept the inevitable and get out or questioning her motives for staying in. But they are reluctant to sit back in the face of attacks from candidate Clinton or her advisers and they are not happy with some of the things she has said in the past few days.
So as settled as the outcome of the Democratic race may seem by the delegate math, it is far from over when it comes to the potential consequences for future candidates and the party.
Posted at 6:58 PM ET on May 8, 2008
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Posted by: justadad55+ | May 10, 2008 12:03 PM
Americans are fascinating, so this is what you call Democracy. The only justified world leader for the world?? Yes, Saddam killed many which is true, but President Bush killed so many, many more, Iraq people and your own. He destroyed a once Beautiful Country for no legitimate reason, and now will not fix it. Truth be know, no new leader can undo the mess he has started. He poisoned the air and soil that US soldiers are fighting on today for decades. So more lives will be ruined and many more Iraq civilians and American troops will die . That was a great Kaboom George, must give you credit when due. And the nerve now to call Senator Olbama the Devil. The Devil is wearing a skirt and you all are blinded. The Devil will obliterate anything at anytime. Bring your power and might back home where you just might need it the most. Help Americans first.
Posted by: justadad55+ | May 10, 2008 11:06 AM
She CANT quit and go back to being a Senator, because she knows she losing ground there as well. The people of New York are ready to hold her accountable for her failures, particularly since she is so willing to make the exact same promises during this campaign that she hasn't delivered to NY. Create jobs, preserve existing jobs, restore the area so that people didn't have to move away (at the time around 10-15 thousand each year were leaving) etc etc etc. The result? Erie county alone has lost more than 4% of their population since 2000, 7 or 8 counties in Western NY have lost population. Over 1/2 dozen plants have closed: Ford, Smurfit Stone, American Axle to name a few, TRICO, etc etc.
She has failed the very people she's making promises to now. She takes corp. $$ to give them a wide berth in terms of employment, and now she's actually for the employees?
She got me in 2000. I'll admit it. Now she's getting all the other shift workers just like I was who are hearing her spiel for the first time.
Someone with courage needs to stand up and kick her out of this party ASAP. This woman is poison. Unfortunately, too many of our elected superdelegates see their future lobbyist money drying up with her campaign.
It's time to hold them all accountable.
Or, maybe wait around until Barack gets run over by his campaign bus. That's the only chance she's got.
Better hope no tornadoes wreak havoc on your trailer white tr....uh, your NEW base.
Posted by: Former Western New Yorker | May 10, 2008 12:06 AM
She CANT quit and go back to being a Senator, because she knows she losing ground there as well. The people of New York are ready to hold her accountable for her failures, particularly since she is so willing to make the exact same promises during this campaign that she hasn't delivered to NY. Create jobs, preserve existing jobs, restore the area so that people didn't have to move away (at the time around 10-15 thousand each year were leaving) etc etc etc. The result? Erie county alone has lost more than 4% of their population since 2000, 7 or 8 counties in Western NY have lost population. Over 1/2 dozen plants have closed: Ford, Smurfit Stone, American Axle to name a few, TRICO, etc etc.
She has failed the very people she's making promises to now. She takes corp. $$ to give them a wide berth in terms of employment, and now she's actually for the employees?
She got me in 2000. I'll admit it. Now she's getting all the other shift workers just like I was who are hearing her spiel for the first time.
Someone with courage needs to stand up and kick her out of this party ASAP. This woman is poison. Unfortunately, too many of our elected superdelegates see their future lobbyist money drying up with her campaign.
It's time to hold them all accountable.
Or, maybe wait around until Barack gets run over by his campaign bus. That's the only chance she's got.
Better hope no tornadoes wreak havoc on your trailer white tr....uh, your NEW base.
Posted by: Former Western New Yorker | May 10, 2008 12:06 AM
She CANT quit and go back to being a Senator, because she knows she losing ground there as well. The people of New York are ready to hold her accountable for her failures, particularly since she is so willing to make the exact same promises during this campaign that she hasn't delivered to NY. Create jobs, preserve existing jobs, restore the area so that people didn't have to move away (at the time around 10-15 thousand each year were leaving) etc etc etc. The result? Erie county alone has lost more than 4% of their population since 2000, 7 or 8 counties in Western NY have lost population. Over 1/2 dozen plants have closed: Ford, Smurfit Stone, American Axle to name a few, TRICO, etc etc.
She has failed the very people she's making promises to now. She takes corp. $$ to give them a wide berth in terms of employment, and now she's actually for the employees?
She got me in 2000. I'll admit it. Now she's getting all the other shift workers just like I was who are hearing her spiel for the first time.
Someone with courage needs to stand up and kick her out of this party ASAP. This woman is poison. Unfortunately, too many of our elected superdelegates see their future lobbyist money drying up with her campaign.
It's time to hold them all accountable.
Or, maybe wait around until Barack gets run over by his campaign bus. That's the only chance she's got.
Better hope no tornadoes wreak havoc on your trailer white tr....uh, your NEW base.
Posted by: Former Western New Yorker | May 10, 2008 12:04 AM
I'm still waiting, and still hoping that after all this mess blows over, someone in either party will bring out the REAL candidates and we can finally have someone to look forward to.
Until then, my vote will be cast as it usually is in each election..."None Of The Above".
I still don't understand why the Repugs or the Demoncrap's call themselves "Parties". If this is their idea of a party, I think I'd rather attend a lecture on the joys of cleaning one's own toilet with Amway Products.
Posted by: Walley | May 9, 2008 9:35 PM
getoveryourself posted:
"The Larry Sinclair vs Obama story will soon hit the big news and it will stop Obama in his tracks! Obama can't handle the truth! Hillary can!"
It may be that this election will turn on foreign intervention on U.S. elections.
There is an intersection between the Larry Sinclair/Donald Young story (which is bascially a sex-patsy and a murder done by FBI Frumenschen-CoIntelPro operatives and Mossad-Secret Service operatives, with dual passports and single allegances) and the Vince Forster murder (by the same racist dual passport FBI and SS operatives) and dear Monica, with her FBI-fabricated fishy blue dress story (or did it really belong to crossdresser Ken Doll, the street boy Starr).
Early in the 3rd quarter of the Clinton administration, a phenomenon called the "Friends of Bill" suddenly begain to gain momentum. FOB included the likes of Lani Guinere (who was career assassinated), Ron Brown (who was blood assassinated), and Vernon Jordan, who was tied in the zionist wall street crowd). Suddenly, out of nowhere, wham! -- we have a dead body in a closet office right next to the Oval Office. Best yet, a strand of blond hair had been scotch taped to the lapel of his jacket.
The message to the largely "black" and powerful FOB was clear -- there are racist operatives inside the DOJ, FBI and SS who can smear up and even murder, whoever they want (including US Presidents--JFK), whenever they want, whereever they want (including in the oval office), and they can get away with it all, with untouchable immunity.
The same zionist-racists (and their obedient media) that recruited, trained, placed and deployed Monica as a sex victim for Bill (I don't believe for a minute that as President, he "whiped" it out and spotted himself all over "her" fishy blue dress -- the racist goons inside the FBI are totally nuerotic racist pedophiles who practice trained "testilying" on everybody else, and they regularly falsify affidavits and fabricate evidence from whole cloth to trap "their" enemy) have deployed a similar "sex victim" homosexual, named Larry Sinclair, against Obama (who like Bill may have done some pretty stupid things early on in his political life with the stupidest part of his body). These racist operatives, who be assured seeth in hatred for Obama, have also done a murder in the cathedral with their Christmas Eve murder of Rev. Wright's choirmaster, another black Christian homosexual named Donald Young. It would not surprise me in the least if happens that, just like Vince Foster had a blond hair scotch taped to his lapel, DY's shirt has been conveniently spotted up with some of Larry Sinclair's high class hotel gatherings.
These are all deployed sex-victim setups, and murders. They are done by a foreign power, in the name of dirtying up and controlling future American politicians.
Posted by: SecretServiceForZion | May 9, 2008 8:00 PM
I supported Senator Obama before he was a candidate. So much so that I wrote to him asking that he run. But while I believe he is the better candidate for our country at this time, I respect Senator Clinton for what she has done to illustrate that the United States is ready to elect a female President. I think she's proven herself in that regard.
And I don't actually think that it's ego or hubris or bitterness that keeping her in this campaign. It's just that she can't quit. Like it or not, she needs to see it through at this point until the last votes are cast.
Why? Personality type. INTJ. Interesting coverage of the candidates at typelogic.com.
And why am I so sure? Becuase I'm an INTJ. And we're like pit bulls with a bone when we have a goal in mind. And we think we're always right. Still, ultimately I don't think that's what we need at this time.
Better to elect an ENFJ. Like Barack Obama is. Interestingly enough, so was Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. The policies may be different, but it's morning in America again.
Posted by: Rebecca Jodoin | May 9, 2008 6:42 PM
Obama Supporters:
Ask Obama, why he want to be a president and you tell me what good you are seeing than McCain or Hillary?
McCain is great in many and he republican and supports democrats, so he is going to be the WINNER for 2008 GE.
Posted by: CHAN | May 9, 2008 1:41 PM
I can respect the republican posters heres loyalty, but you have been delt a losing hand with John Mccain. He has just been served up as a punching bag by a party who know they could not win this election. I am afraid he is their sacrificial goat as they look to 2012.
Posted by: | May 9, 2008 10:29 AM
I can respect the republican posters heres loyalty, but you have been delt a losing hand with John Mccain. He has just been served up as a punching bag by a party who know they could not win this election. I am afraid he is their sacrificial goat as they look to 2012.
Posted by: | May 9, 2008 10:28 AM
I can respect the republican posters heres loyalty, but you have been delt a losing hand with John Mccain. He has just been served up as a punching bag by a party who know they could not win this election. I am afraid he is their sacrificial goat as they look to 2012.
Posted by: | May 9, 2008 10:28 AM
I don't think they could even if they tried. Remember the Nixon Kennedy match up? This will be even worse. A dynamic young vibrant candidate with new ideas and enthusiastic support and then you have Mccain. I can hardly imagine the visual when they debate as Mccain stumbles over his words, miss speaks forgets names and confuses issues. Then add to that 8 years of George Bush and It will in reality be a blow out by Obama. Mccain will disintegrate before your very eyes. To be honest, I almost feel sorry for him and his wife as the drugs and drinking and their personal histories are dredged up again. I can't believe they even want to go through this again after the last time. They are going to be completely destroyed in the process it will just be a matter of how dirty the Obama surrogates want to get.
****************
All this division could lead to a McCain win and then what? How could there be reports of McCain having a shot considering the current administration and issues we have in this country from the economy to foreign policy. Could it be possible that the Dems blow this? Maybe!
Posted by: | May 9, 2008 10:01 AM
Posted by: | May 9, 2008 10:15 AM
All this division could lead to a McCain win and then what? How could there be reports of McCain having a shot considering the current administration and issues we have in this country from the economy to foreign policy. Could it be possible that the Dems blow this? Maybe!
Posted by: | May 9, 2008 10:01 AM
Who cares, he is the nominee and the process will play out. Nothing is certain with anything. Would you like to pull up some polls from 7 months ago. You will find Hillary can't lose she is a lock and there is almost no reason for anyone else to run. So much for polls.
***************
Obama will not win the GE.
Does anyone pay any attention the Real Clear Politics polls?
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/latestpolls/index.html
Posted by: Julie | May 9, 2008 9:48 AM
Posted by: | May 9, 2008 10:01 AM
Obama will not win the GE.
Does anyone pay any attention the Real Clear Politics polls?
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/latestpolls/index.html
Posted by: Julie | May 9, 2008 9:48 AM
It is not Obama supporters pushing her out, it's the voters. I have to laugh when she says she is fighting for the voters in Michigan and Florida when she wants to forget about the democratic process all together and have all the results nullified so she can win.
I have a theory and I don't think I am far off. Bill has been influence peddling for several years now getting tens of millions for so call speeches. I honest to God think they have made promises based on some certainty she would be president they can't deliver on now and they are in a panic.
****************
I find it disturbing how Obama's supports, Obama, Howard Dean and the DNC are almost demanding that Hillary step aside for the Party
Posted by: | May 9, 2008 9:38 AM
Hillary is a racist.
Posted by: gmundenat | May 9, 2008 9:36 AM
RE bush supporter at 8:28am. Now please take a deep breath and try to look through the clouds of dementia. Republicans controlled congress when we invaded Iraq. I know Rush, O'Reilly, and the other gods you worship will tell you otherwise, but it's true.
Posted by: MikeMcNally | May 9, 2008 9:13 AM
If Hillary's campaign is in debt now, how can she run a country that needs to come out of recession?. Will she sink it to depression?
Posted by: ccc | May 9, 2008 9:09 AM
I find it disturbing how Obama's supports, Obama, Howard Dean and the DNC are almost demanding that Hillary step aside for the Party (ANC, Nazi, ...).
This is America!! It is not about what is good for the Party, It is about what is good for America and the American people!! Hillary is for America and the American people, as was Ross Perot. That is why a lot both Democrats and Republicans, as well as Independents (free thinkers!!, like Hillary, Ross Perot and Bertrand Russell) are all overwhelmingly for Hillary. She may not get the nomination or be elected President. Ross Perot was not either, but he had an effect on the CHANGE in America. So Obama's idea that he needs to be elected President and get the Democratic party's nomination to effect change is not consistent with the facts and history. But then we all know he is very inexperienced and is not at the same level as Ross Perot and Hillary Clinton, who also spent large portions of their own money. They do not expect the tax payers and others to pay their way, they way Obama, Howard Dean and the DNC insiders do. They are the worst of the worst, the so-called DNC elite, like John Kerry. They made many of us puke with the rhetoric that Kerry spewed, comparing himself to JFK. Now Obama is spewing similar trite how America needs change and ONLY HE is the one to know what change America needs. What a bunch of poppycock, rubbish and Quatsch. The Michigan and Florida Democratic parties also have ideas for change, new ideas, .. They moved up their Democratic primary dates to START the change within the Democratic party. And how did Obama, Howard Dean and the DNC insiders deal with CHANGE?
They nuked Michigan and Florida by not evening counting their votes. So Obama, Howard Dean and the DNC insiders are ONLY FOR THEIR OWN CHANGE! Sound familiar. Very similar in Lenin/Stalin Russia, Hilter Germany, modern day Iran, North Korea and also Mainland Communist China. Knock down the voice of you opponents in Michigan, Florida and Ross Perot, Hillary Clinton and McCain supporters.
So there are only two alternatives: McCain or Hillary Clinton. Obama, Howard Dean and the DNC insiders MUST GO. They are a cancer in America, similar to the cancers in North Korea, Iran, and the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Any party or small fringe group in a party which wants to disenfranchise millions of voters in Michigan and Florida has NOT RIGHT or PLACE being in Washington, Lansing or Miami. The Michigan and Florida Democratic parties should split off from the DNC if their delegates and votes are not seated and counted. If they are recognized, then they should put Hillary Clinton on the ballot in Michigan and leave Obama off. Since he got ZERO votes in the Democratic party primary in Michigan, there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON for him to be on the ballot in November. And HE, Obama, TOOK HIMSELF out of the running in Michigan. So he only has himself, Howard Dean and the DNC insiders to blame. He cannot blame Hillary for this one. Obama and his supporters need to wake up and see the LIGHT and the TRUTH. The light and the truth will set us all free. Obama, Howard Dean and the DNC are all deceiving themselves (self deception) and the many many blind supporters (like Jonestown, ...). The blind lead the blind. Take off you blinders people and see the light and the truth about Obama, Howard Dean and the DNC insiders. Obama has benefited from the system which was instituted into Democratic party politics by Jessie Jackson. Since these policies have been instituted the DNC insiders have seized control of the Democratic party from the American people, specifically from the Michigan and Florida Democrats. The only obvious solution is for the Democrats in both Michigan and Florida to make a clean break from the Obama, Howard Dean and the DNC (ANC, Nazi Party, ...).
Posted by: Aussie2020 | May 9, 2008 9:07 AM
If Hillary's campaign is in debt now, how can she run a country that needs to come out of recession?. Will she sink it to depression?
Posted by: ccc | May 9, 2008 8:58 AM
people forget that bush isn't "responsible" for the war in Iraq. America has a system of "checks and balances" bush had to go through congress to get the approval for the war...and guess what!!? we have a DEMOCRATIC congress. think about that.
Posted by: bush supporter | May 9, 2008 8:28 AM
Hillary is not going to quit until she does some major damage. It's not in her personality to care about others, only herself. It's sad to see a lot of her followers being disillusioned that she might represent some sort of change. A lot of people were fooled by Bush not only once, but twice. Yet a lot of them are crossing the line to vote for a change, and not because Rush told them to. People really need to dig deep and search for their definition of patriotism. Bush and Hillary represent the worst examples of what has been happening and what can happen to our country.
Posted by: MikeMcNally | May 9, 2008 7:41 AM
To kenonwenu: How Obama explained away his racism
Obama explained that he meant to say she his grandmother was a typical 'white person,' all of whom have an inbred fear of others. His later remarks about bitter, unemployed white folk clinging to their guns and religion and nervously eyeing strangers and free trade deals simply exacerbated his earlier remarks.
So it is not just what Wright has said, it is also what Obama has said and not said. To be "Catholic," Obama's own sins of commission and omission explain why many do not trust him.
You do not have to be older or white or less educated or less affluent to find such remarks disturbing -- unless you also believe that "down-scale" white folk are even more of a problem in this country than "rich white" folk.
In reality, the history of racism and discrimination in this country is much more complex than Obama's self-serving speeches suggests; not only have Asians and Latinos experienced it, so have many whites - unless, of course, you believe that the social and economic segmentation of this country occurred "naturally."
Posted by: Thank you Hillary for never giving up! | May 9, 2008 5:25 AM
20012 is a long way off for Hilary to hope for. She is not a tough Southern women, she has sadly lost it. I would not worry about 20012 at all. She still has plenty of powerful nutty old folk with money we will never know, the invisible leaders, the people really in charge that could pull this stunt off. How she accomplishes this is should be a concern for all Americans. She has a selfish-bully type of ego,mean, and with money, not necessary hers. She also has the right but wrong connections and must have her way, and frankly, it scares the hell out of me and I find it quite creepy wondering how she might do it ??????
Posted by: justadad55+ | May 9, 2008 5:08 AM
Sure Clinton lady is doing well by all accounts and does not like to say 'yes' till the end.We feel in India that she would win in the end come what may. Her adversary never thought she would not give in so easily. She is a tough lady and Ladies in India do not give in so easily. In any case a Democrat President would still write history either way as the first woman or as the first black or even as the first combine of a man and wife in the president seat. achuta
hail to lady clinton a well wisher -achuta
Posted by: achuta ramaiah | May 9, 2008 4:10 AM
I voted for Clinton in the California primary, but now I think she has lost her mind.
Can't one put the party and ideas ahead of themselves?
Isn't the most important thing to stop McCain? He no different than Bush.
I have come to the conclusion that Hilary is out to destroy the Democratics possiblity to win the white house without her!!
Posted by: James San DIego | May 9, 2008 4:01 AM
Hillary - Take the vice-presidency when it's offered to you. Obama's going to be blown to pieces in a car explosion prior to his inauguration. When that happens, you'll automatically step up to president.
Posted by: Cassandra | May 9, 2008 3:31 AM
"has becoming"? does anyone proofread this?
Posted by: StefanoReadingFromItaly | May 9, 2008 3:31 AM
Really wish Ron Paul stood some sort of chance.
Well, then again... Maybe he does!
Posted by: RPin08 | May 9, 2008 3:17 AM
Loyal supporters should stop fooling themselves into believing Hillary has any experience now to bring to the election.
Hillary is doing nothing more now than looking completely desperate and the general feeling is yes she still wants power and is deluded that's she can still do that, but more important she wants to keep fund raising to try and get the money Bill and herself have loaned to the campaign.
The DNC can't allow her personal greed and vanity to keep her negative bitter campaign going, the damage she is doing to Our Party will never be forgiven if she does not stand aside in grace.
Posted by: John B Sheffield | May 9, 2008 2:17 AM
Hillary We need your experience. Keep fighting for us. We are fighting with you all the way. We who support you are sick of the stereotyping done by the CNN and MSNBC punditry, like for instance calling Clinton supporters "downscaled, uneducated, lunch-bucket voters." These insulting comments have been ongoing night and day. It has been a constant barrage, a wallpapering, of positive coverage for your opponent, followed by insulting commentary towards you and your supporters. They have shown their overwhelming support and biased opinions towards your opponent, even though he has lost every debate and clearly has no experience and is only ahead by gaming and cheating the caucuses. Once again, like eight years ago, the so-called "fourth estate" is not doing their job. It leads me to have the understanding that those with wealth do not like it when WE, the people, vote. Hillary won in Indiana in spite of the hanky pinkie in Gary, with holding the count! Even though we may not have much monetary wealth, we have as much power as the wealthy when we vote! A lot of closed minded people don't like that.
We may not have all the riches America has to offer. Nor have we attended the wealthiest and best schools. Remember, those who fought for the independence of our country in the Revolutionary War were not Harvard graduates. But we do have the wisdom to choose the right candidate for president, with clearly the right kind of experience and leadership skills. And we've been voting in mass numbers for you Hillary. Like in FL, MI, those votes must be counted! It's un-American not to count the votes.
Because you and Bill have earned your wealth, you have never forgotten what this country has given you. And in return you have given it right back. You have always had open hearts, and I know you hear us. Hillary, you keep reaching for the White House, and if you keep pulling us up with you to the top, we'll keep reaching with you and Bill. Hillary, we may not have all the riches America has to offer, but WE ARE THE HEART AND SOLE OF AMERICA. WE ARE THE TRUE SPIRIT OF AMERICA, AND WE WANT HILLARY CLINTON FOR OUR PRESIDENT. *****
Posted by: HILLARY ***08 | May 9, 2008 1:45 AM
Hillary We need your experience. Keep fighting for us. We are fighting with you all the way. We who support you are sick of the stereotyping done by the CNN and MSNBC punditry, like for instance calling Clinton supporters "downscaled, uneducated, lunch-bucket voters." These insulting comments have been ongoing night and day. It has been a constant barrage, a wallpapering, of positive coverage for your opponent, followed by insulting commentary towards you and your supporters. They have shown their overwhelming support and biased opinions towards your opponent, even though he has lost every debate and clearly has no experience and is only ahead by gaming and cheating the caucuses. Once again, like eight years ago, the so-called "fourth estate" is not doing their job. It leads me to have the understanding that those with wealth do not like it when WE, the people, vote. Hillary won in Indiana in spite of the hanky pinkie in Gary, with holding the count! Even though we may not have much monetary wealth, we have as much power as the wealthy when we vote! A lot of closed minded people don't like that.
We may not have all the riches America has to offer. Nor have we attended the wealthiest and best schools. Remember, those who fought for the independence of our country in the Revolutionary War were not Harvard graduates. But we do have the wisdom to choose the right candidate for president, with clearly the right kind of experience and leadership skills. And we've been voting in mass numbers for you Hillary. Like in FL, MI, those votes must be counted! It's un-American not to count the votes.
Because you and Bill have earned your wealth, you have never forgotten what this country has given you. And in return you have given it right back. You have always had open hearts, and I know you hear us. Hillary, you keep reaching for the White House, and if you keep pulling us up with you to the top, we'll keep reaching with you and Bill. Hillary, we may not have all the riches America has to offer, but WE ARE THE HEART AND SOLE OF AMERICA. WE ARE THE TRUE SPIRIT OF AMERICA, AND WE WANT HILLARY CLINTON FOR OUR PRESIDENT.
Posted by: Thank you Hillary for not giving up! | May 9, 2008 1:43 AM
If Hillary runs as an independent candidate all you Obamites just might wish you had been a little more civil. She has a good chance to win the required 180 electoral votes, even if she does not do that, she will ensure the "Cardboard Messiah" won't get more than 100. "What can happen will" Pete Gent.
Posted by: | May 9, 2008 1:22 AM
I agree wholeheartedly. Ron Paul is the best choice.
And Jonathan, I agree about Hillary being quite a loathsome woman. Obama is a lot more likable but not much better. McCain is horrible as well. (but again, he is likeable)
Posted by: Samuel H | May 9, 2008 1:16 AM
To be honest I don't like Obama (he's borderline communist), but I despise Hillary. She is soooo unlikable. I want to see her lose just to see her lose.
That being said....
RON PAUL 2008
Posted by: JonathanS | May 9, 2008 1:07 AM
Aussie 2020,
You spent that amount of time typing out that post and it is the most useless post so far on this forum (and trust me, there are some really senseless ones here) You ask how Obama can beat McCain in certain states if he couldn't beat Hillary? Well dim-wit, did you think about the opposite side of your equally dim-witted question? If Hillary, with her so-called experience, connections and whatever else she claims, is not able to beat a "rookie" like Obama, how is she going to survive the political machine that is the republicans? You know, I used to feel really bad when Clinton's supporters are described by the media as less educated or less intelligent...well, after reading most of the posts here, damn!! The media got it right for once. I marvel at how strongly they argue that Obama decided that the votes in Michigan and Florida should not be counted and that the black people are the reason Obama is winning (of course anybody who had had a little bit of education will know that blacks are less than 15% of the whole American population!! I'm sure they read that Obama got 90% of the black vote and go "there, they made him win!" The math might get too complicated for you so I'll leave it but really 90% of less than 15%????). I think what really scares them is that it's not just blacks that are voting for Obama. If it was, this contest would've ended a few weeks after it started. That's what really scares you isn't it??
Oh and that issue about him not being patriotic, I give up. I don't know how many Clinton supporters I have tried *sigh* to educate on the fact that you (as a civilian) are NOT required to put your hand on your chest when the national anthem is being sung. You only do that when the PLEDGE is being recited.
Lastly, those of you whining about voting for McCain if Clinton is not the nominee...please go ahead!! It's called cutting your nose to spite your face. Obama is just one man. You do that and he loses the election, he goes back to being a senator or whatever else he was doing before, you gloat, feel good about yourself and say smugly "I told you so." And then you'll go back to posting on forums complaining about being laid off, your jobs being taken to China, India or wherever, your social security payments not arriving on time or the immigrants coming in and taking your jobs. The economy will continue getting worse, the dollar will practically be valueless, America (once the greatest nation in the world and a super power) will continue to be the laughing stock of the rest of the world, our children will continue to die in a foreign land in the name of war, hey, everything thing will be the same as it is now, because "Bush" will still be in power.
But of course, this would be your life as you knew it before this whole Democratic primary thingy. Nothing changes.
Truely, madly, deeply.....please just get over your ignorant, bigoted selves.
Posted by: getoveryourself | May 9, 2008 12:59 AM
The Larry Sinclair vs Obama story will soon hit the big news and it will stop Obama in his tracks! Obama can't handle the truth! Hillary can!
Posted by: Bill | May 9, 2008 12:50 AM
The country has had enought of Bush/Clinton.
Posted by: Mr. Google | May 9, 2008 12:48 AM
She has no end game and hasn't had for about 8 weeks. For that long it has been apparent she could not catch him in elected delegates and could not catch him in popular vote and that the superdelegates would thus never pick her. She has been trashing Obama in an attempt to destroy his chances in the fall and in hopes of running in 2012 vs either an even more aged Grandpa McCain or else a non-incumbent Republican. She is a lot of things, but not stupid. Talk of some "end game" like she could win in 2008 is just that -- stupid.
Posted by: Dolph T | May 9, 2008 12:41 AM
politics and elections are as real as the phoney reality programs on tv. all is controlled and scripted. the candidates are owned. the foolish voters pretend to have choices. by ignorantly participating in this nonsense democrats and republicans are the most dangerous people on earth.
Posted by: charles king | May 9, 2008 12:33 AM
Why does Hillary think it is her right if she can't win it?
And experience means nothing. Some of the worst Presidents had a lot of political experience. Obama has almost the exact same experience as Abe Lincoln. Other Presidents concidered inexperienced... Teddy, JFK... some of the Greatest Presidents didn't have much experienced in Washington. The first few Presidents didn't have a lot of Government experience to rely on.
And Aussie is a liar. If you actually research you will find a lot of those "evil" countries that you say prefer Obama is wrong, most actually prefer Clinton or McCain, and most of our allies in Europe and Africa and South America love Obama. China and Mexico prefer McCain. As far as Hammas, they are publically saying they prefer Obama because they want McCain to win. What greater recruitment tool then an old white war nut who says he will be keep Christian military in Islamic lands for 1000 years. The terrorist's best friend is John McCain. With McCain as President the terrorist groups will never be short of volunteers or donations.
Posted by: bab | May 9, 2008 12:28 AM
actually she is trying to ensure a McCain victory so she can say,"I told you so". and she thinks that will give her a lock on the 2012 nomination. Everyone will forgive her enough by then and those silly African Americans will learn to stay in their place and who else will they vote for? ain't like they will be voting Republican. It is interesting to learn that the Democrats have more racists then the Republicans, they have just been hiding better all these years. If the party of Lincoln could find inroads into that demographic, because of the Clintons, the Democrats would never win another national election.
Posted by: wally | May 9, 2008 12:15 AM
Someone said (of course a Obama worshipper!!)
Clinton can't win. It's just not possible. She won't win the popular vote, she won't win the delegate count, and the superdelegates would never flout the will of the electorate by voting against the nominee who won the most votes.
Hillary has won the popular vote in the large swing state. If Obama cannot even beat Hillary in these swing states, how can he beat McCain? He cannot. Just like Kerry losing, Obama will lose and the DNC, Obama nad Howard Dean will be the laughing STOCK of not only the USA, but also the WORLD!! Yes, the world!! The world will say how stupid the DNC, Howard Dean and Obama are to think you can put up an unqualified and inexperienced candidate forward, who is in the pockets of the special interests groups which are supporting him time and who are shaking in their boots that Hillary Clinton will get the nomination and their influence over the DNC leadership will be gone!! They knew with Bill Clinton that Bill cared more about the American People like JFK, and they needed to convince Democrats to vote against Bill (and Hillary) Universal Health Care plan. They were able to to beat Bill (and Hillary) once, but are shaking in their boots that Hillary (and Bill) will win this time. Hence the millions of dollars pouring into support Obama's campaign. Do you not think Obama is not in their debt. He will have to pander to those special interests groups which have filled his campaign coffers. On the other hand Hillary (and Bill) are spending their own money, like Ross Perot!! So all of those Ross Perot voters are also supporting Hillary, but absolutely NOT Obama. IF Obama gets the nomination, the Ross and Hillary supporters vote for McCain, as he is light years more qualified then Obama. McCain has paid his dues by fighting in Vietnam, serving as a prison of war and also a many term senator, who has lead by example!! Not calls for change, but then when Michigan and Florida also advocate charge and put their change into actions, Obama, the DNC and Howard Dean disenfranchise the voters of Michigan and Florida. Did McCain and Hillary come out to disenfranchise the voters of Michigan and Florida? No. They both are defenders of democracy, while Obama, Howard Dean and the DNC are supporters of the OLD BOYS Network, which by the way, excludes woman. Obama would never work for a women, He it too elitist. He has shown his colors and loyalties. And they are not the American working class. He does not represent Joe and Jane American. He represents the special interests groups which have filled his campaign coffers.
Clinton is tenacious and resourceful, but she just can't win this race and it's painful for many Democrats to witness the depths to which she is sinking.
She is the only person who can possibly compete with McCain. McCain respects Hillary for her contributions to America. Obama is all talk, but has not walked the walk. McCain served honorably and respectfully in Vietnam. He was a prisoner of war. What qualifications does Obama have to serve as the Commander of Chief during a way. He is even less experienced than President Bush, who served in the Texas National Guard. And we have seen how bad it has been. Just imagine how bad it will be with a totally inexperience Obama as Commander in Chief. Total chaos. Do we really want Obama to be Commander in Chief of the American military. NO WAY JOSE. We want battle tested McCain or Hillary. Hillary (and Bill) have been to hell and back. Obama has only been to the Hyatt. He is elitist. He will think nothing of sending your sons (AND DAUGHTERS) to war, since he has never experienced it. He has not see his buddies die like McCain. He has not been a prisoner of war like McCain has. Anyone who votes for Obama over McCain has not respect for the American Military and the sacrifices and experience that one gets by serving your country in a war. Obama is still wet behind the ears. It is the reason Hamas, Iran, North Korea, and Mainland Communist China are all Pro-Obama. Not because he is for them, but because he is so inexperienced. Do you put an inexperience general against war experienced generals and leaders? Of course not. You put a veteran if you have a chance. So those who think Obama has a chance over McCain are living in fantasy land. God save America if Obama ends up being Commander in Chief in our military. IF he wants this job, he should have AT LEAST joined the National Guard like President Bush. Much better to have served like McCain.
Her comments about capturing the white vote and the non-college educated vote are indicative of two things: she's attached to any shred of pollster-driven analysis that would indicate she still has a chance, and she's losing sight of the bigger picture.
The truth hurts Obama. He is getting the YUPPIES and black vote (over 90 percent voting for Obama). This has never happened in our history, where a candidate was getting so many votes because of his color. In states with a large black population Obama has won. This is clear if 90+ percent of them will run. Also the young Yuppies who never experience hardship, war, ... of course they want Obama. They have been spoiled rotten and are the ones who are responsible for Enron's collapse, insider stock trading, real estate speculation, outsourcing jobs to India (Indian Yuppies in the USA), to China (Chinese Yuppies in the USA),..
The hard working middle class, who has made America what it is, are voting for Hillary (or McCain) since they can relate to both of them. They are not Harvard MBA and lawyers, spoiled rotten. These are the same groups of people who are responsible for Enron's collapse. Probably some of Obama's classmates! I for one am sick of these spoiled brats. They are the one trying to get the tax payers to bail them out now for their speculation land deals, ... Foreclosure on hard working Americans, buy the land cheap and then have large rents. They are the same one trying to get rid of rent control in California like they did in Massachusetts (a strong DNC state). In Massachusetts after they got rid of rent control, the rents doubled very quickly. These are Obama's friends and supporters.
Enough with the sniping and bare-knuckle fighting. Clinton is embarrassing her supporters, dragging this campaign into the mud, and prolonging the inevitable.
Hillary is American true and true. She has my vote. McCain or Hillary. There is no viable alternative. So if Obama does manage to steal the nomination from Hillary and disenfranchise the millions of voters from Michigan and Florida, then McCain has my vote, and Hillary in 4 years!! After Obama gets blasted by McCain, Hillary will get the nomination in 4 years. She has the patience and experience which Obama will never get and have. That is one of the reasons why I and many others could NEVER vote for him. He is unwilling to pay his dues. He says that is too old fashioned. He thinks he can jump over the infinitely more qualified and experienced Hillary and McCain. He many be able to hoodwink the Democrats in the states he has won, but he will never be able to Hoodwink the American people. We see him for what he is. A young Yuppie unwilling to pay his dues and who has not respect for the Middle class of American immigrants, first and second generation from Asia, Mexico, Latin America and South America. Hillary and McCain represent these people, as did Ross Perot!! Obama, the black (over 90+ percent support) and the Yuppies. They are not representative of American and they are not the ONES who have made America the Great Country which IT IS. Obama's change? NO THANKS. America is not broken. We need some small tweeks, and the experienced Hillary and McCain are the Natural Born LEADERS, to lead America. One will be the next President of the USA.
Posted by: Aussie2020 | May 9, 2008 12:12 AM
this whole comment thing is a blizzard of SH*T!!!!!!!
Posted by: freed | May 9, 2008 12:12 AM
Debts to Mark Penn should be $10 Mil.
Posted by: BrianMD | May 8, 2008 11:41 PM
It's important that BO does not settle with this woman. Stay respectful to Hillary publicly but do not settle anything with regards to MI/FL and especially her reckless debts including the $10 to Mark Penn. Just sit back and watch a historical figure becoming a hysterical figure on TV.
Posted by: BrianMD | May 8, 2008 11:40 PM
It is now time for Bastille day in America.
Whats is needed is revolution.
Those that no longer have the courage of the changing on the guard ,no longer merit being called American.
the forefathers founded America on revolution . Those that cannot stomach revolution no longer merit the gifts of the forefathers.
America political parties both Dems and Repubs are one and the same.
Freedom gone,war without end killing over 1 million innocent IRaqi people.
ground water in America ontaminated,economy on skid row and falling like a stone cast upon the sea.
Lard arse Americans while the world starves is over now soon the US govt. will
put you all on a diet.
FDA,EPA, and all the other hundreds of alphabet soup agencies corrupt .Justice now just a game
America is finished unless you have the courage of the changing of the guard.
If you vote democrat or republican you are a traitor to the founding father's gift to you.
How do you get through to a society so dumbed down that they all have glazed eyes and wear silly grins.where the truth is so inconvenient it is like a slap in the face.
America is over they have destroyed it.
resources gone, water contaminated and those 1200 nukes they exploded in America still retarding the population to this day.
What is left are lies to hold it together
the truth can not be let out.
A society living a lie until they die
Posted by: David Stanley | May 8, 2008 11:33 PM
The Case Against Hillary Clinton
WHY ON EARTH WOULD WE CHOOSE TO PUT THE CLINTON FAMILY DRAMA AT THE CENTER OF OUR POLITICS AGAIN?
By Christopher Hitchens
Hillary Clinton
Seeing the name Hillary in a headline last week--a headline about a life that had involved real achievement--I felt a mouse stirring in the attic of my memory. Eventually, I was able to recall how the two Hillarys had once been mentionable in the same breath. On a first-lady goodwill tour of Asia in April 1995--the kind of banal trip that she now claims as part of her foreign-policy "experience"--Mrs. Clinton had been in Nepal and been briefly introduced to the late Sir Edmund Hillary, conqueror of Mount Everest. Ever ready to milk the moment, she announced that her mother had actually named her for this famous and intrepid explorer. The claim "worked" well enough to be repeated at other stops and even showed up in Bill Clinton's memoirs almost a decade later, as one more instance of the gutsy tradition that undergirds the junior senator from New York.
Sen. Clinton was born in 1947, and Sir Edmund Hillary and his partner Tenzing Norgay did not ascend Mount Everest until 1953, so the story was self-evidently untrue and eventually yielded to fact-checking. Indeed, a spokeswoman for Sen. Clinton named Jennifer Hanley phrased it like this in a statement in October 2006, conceding that the tale was untrue but nonetheless charming: "It was a sweet family story her mother shared to inspire greatness in her daughter, to great results I might add."
Perfect. It worked, in other words, having been coined long after Sir Edmund became a bankable celebrity, but now its usefulness is exhausted and its untruth can safely be blamed on Mummy. Yet isn't it all--all of it, every single episode and detail of the Clinton saga--exactly like that? And isn't some of it a little bit more serious? For Sen. Clinton, something is true if it validates the myth of her striving and her "greatness" (her overweening ambition in other words) and only ceases to be true when it no longer serves that limitless purpose. And we are all supposed to applaud the skill and the bare-faced bravado with which this is done. In the New Hampshire primary in 1992, she knowingly lied about her husband's uncontainable sex life and put him eternally in her debt. This is now thought of, and referred to in print, purely as a smart move on her part. In the Iowa caucuses of 2008, he returns the favor by telling a huge lie about his own record on the war in Iraq, falsely asserting that he was opposed to the intervention from the very start. This is thought of, and referred to in print, as purely a tactical mistake on his part: trying too hard to help the spouse. The happy couple has now united on an equally mendacious account of what they thought about Iraq and when they thought it. What would it take to break this cheap little spell and make us wake up and inquire what on earth we are doing when we make the Clinton family drama--yet again--a central part of our own politics?
What do you have to forget or overlook in order to desire that this dysfunctional clan once more occupies the White House and is again in a position to rent the Lincoln Bedroom to campaign donors and to employ the Oval Office as a massage parlor? You have to be able to forget, first, what happened to those who complained, or who told the truth, last time. It's often said, by people trying to show how grown-up and unshocked they are, that all Clinton did to get himself impeached was lie about sex. That's not really true. What he actually lied about, in the perjury that also got him disbarred, was the women. And what this involved was a steady campaign of defamation, backed up by private dicks (you should excuse the expression) and salaried government employees, against women who I believe were telling the truth. In my opinion, Gennifer Flowers was telling the truth; so was Monica Lewinsky, and so was Kathleen Willey, and so, lest we forget, was Juanita Broaddrick, the woman who says she was raped by Bill Clinton. (For the full background on this, see the chapter "Is There a Rapist in the Oval Office?" in the paperback version of my book No One Left To Lie To. This essay, I may modestly say, has never been challenged by anybody in the fabled Clinton "rapid response" team.) Yet one constantly reads that both Clintons, including the female who helped intensify the slanders against her mistreated sisters, are excellent on women's "issues."
One also hears a great deal about how this awful joint tenure of the executive mansion was a good thing in that it conferred "experience" on the despised and much-deceived wife. Well, the main "experience" involved the comprehensive fouling-up of the nation's health-care arrangements, so as to make them considerably worse than they had been before and to create an opening for the worst-of-all-worlds option of the so-called HMO, combining as it did the maximum of capitalist gouging with the maximum of socialistic bureaucracy. This abysmal outcome, forgiven for no reason that I can perceive, was the individual responsibility of the woman who now seems to think it entitles her to the presidency. But there was another "experience," this time a collaborative one, that is even more significant.
During the Senate debate on the intervention in Iraq, Sen. Clinton made considerable use of her background and "experience" to argue that, yes, Saddam Hussein was indeed a threat. She did not argue so much from the position adopted by the Bush administration as she emphasized the stand taken, by both her husband and Al Gore, when they were in office, to the effect that another and final confrontation with the Baathist regime was more or less inevitable. Now, it does not especially matter whether you agree or agreed with her about this (as I, for once, do and did). What does matter is that she has since altered her position and attempted, with her husband's help, to make people forget that she ever held it. And this, on a grave matter of national honor and security, merely to influence her short-term standing in the Iowa caucuses. Surely that on its own should be sufficient to disqualify her from consideration? Indifferent to truth, willing to use police-state tactics and vulgar libels against inconvenient witnesses, hopeless on health care, and flippant and fast and loose with national security: The case against Hillary Clinton for president is open-and-shut. Of course, against all these considerations you might prefer the newly fashionable and more media-weighty notion that if you don't show her enough appreciation, and after all she's done for us, she may cry.
Posted by: | May 8, 2008 11:12 PM
You try and destroy Senator Obama but no one is talking about this and hundreds of other situations like this involving The Clintons.
Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory pardons
In March 2000, Bill Clinton pardoned Edgar and Vonna Jo Gregory, owners of the carnival company United Shows International, for charges of bank fraud from a 1982 conviction (the couple were already out of jail, but the prior conviction prevented them from doing business transactions in certain states).
First Lady Hillary Clinton's youngest brother, Tony Rodham, was an acquaintance of the Gregorys, and had lobbied Clinton on their behalf.[11] In October 2006, the group Judicial Watch filed a request with the U.S. Justice Department for an investigation, alleging that Rodham had received $107,000 from the Gregorys for the pardons, in the form of loans that were never repaid, as part of a quid pro quo scheme.[12]
On August 11, 1999, Clinton commuted the sentences of 16 members of FALN, a violent Puerto Rican nationalist group that set off 120 bombs in the United States mostly in New York City and Chicago, convicted for conspiracies to commit robbery, bomb-making, and sedition, as well as for firearms and explosives violations.[3] None of the 16 were convicted of bombings or any crime which injured another person, though they were sentenced with terms ranging from 35 to 105 years in prison for the conviction of conspiracy and sedition. Congress, however, recognizes that the FALN is responsible for "6 deaths and the permanent maiming of dozens of others, including law enforcement officials." All of the 16 had served 19 years or longer in prison, which was a longer sentence than such crimes typically received, according to the White House.[4] Clinton offered clemency, on condition that the prisoners renounce violence, at the appeal of 10 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, President Jimmy Carter, the cardinal of New York, and the archbishop of Puerto Rico. The commutation was opposed by U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons and criticized by many including former victims of FALN terrorist activities, the Fraternal Order of Police,[5] members of Congress. Hillary Clinton, then campaigning for her first term in the Senate, initially supported the commutation,[6] but later withdrew her support when the prisoners had refused to renounce violence more than three weeks after clemency was offered.[7] Congress condemned the action, with a vote of 95-2 in the Senate and 311-41 in the House.[8][9] The U.S. House Committee on Government Reform held an investigation on the matter, but the Justice Department prevented FBI officials from testifying.[10] President Clinton cited executive privilege for his refusal to turn over some documents to Congress related to his decision to offer clemency to members of the FALN terrorist group.
Posted by: Mae | May 8, 2008 11:10 PM
Thor-FYI;
The Banking deregulation the Clinton's pulled with Timothy Guinthner, and the Wall Street Bankers in 1998-9, is WHY we have the problems blowing up now!
Everyone has been so distrcted by what the MSM was feeding us, we only found out by asking the people in the streets what happened!
Posted by: RAT-The | May 8, 2008 11:08 PM
the "president" is a shill
ever since Truman (a Marxist commie lover) the power to control the levers of "national security" has rested quietly in the office of the V.P.
the deal is this -- the Marxist bankers "finance" the elections of the "candidates," in exchange for which they (the bankers!) get to nominate the V.P., by unseen action from a back room. as an institution, the vice-presidency controls the Pentagon, which runs the PsyOps operations which perpetuates the state of crisis, and the emergency powers of the candidate president. (the grant of powers to the V.P., whereby its office controls the "Military- Industrial- Banking- Corporate- Congressional" Complex, e.g. the apparatus of "national security," was also unconstitutional.)
we are a constitutional republic. our President is supposed to be elected by electors, who we select, by name, and who we give time, money and powers to investigate and think about who would make a good leader. thus the investigations and dialogs of the college of electors supplants the tiring lies which "our" media feeds us.
when it comes to selection of a president, and senators, democracy is the enemy of a republic. it is the end of individual rights. Democracy is nothing other than a surrender -- of election making powers to information and PsyOps lies, which are fed to the mob of humanity, by our Marxist controlled Media.
when our electors, who we are supposed elect by name and local reputation, based on their integrity, their understanding of our Constitution, and their ability to think, investigate, dialog with fellow electors from other districts in a collegial way, and choose, are supplanted by compromised "media figureheads" who are controlled by a foreign power, which is hostile to (in fact, HATES) our Christian heritage and our constitution, who unlike our electors we do not even know their real names, or where they live, and who we do not in any way chose, and who irrespective of the volumes of multi-colored koolaid and bubblegum of lies that spews from their mouths we do not respect, we turn our backs on our Constitution and we lose.
It is not impossible that Joe Liebermann, the Senator from Tel Aviv, will be chosen by the bankers to be their V.P. candidate for both parties -- Obama (or Hillary) and McCain (or Paul). After bankrupting us, Israel's banker-owners will turn to its industrial darling, Communist China, to get their bread buttered. the Marxist bankers behind the Federal Reserve (which is a financially and politically impotent smoke screen for the member bankers who hide behind it) will get what they want -- the destruction of our constitution.
Posted by: V.P. | May 8, 2008 11:07 PM
Quoting anonymous:
"How did BIll and HILLARY'S term in office effect you??..WELL YOU LIVED IN THE TIME OF THE MOST ECONOMIC GROWTH THAN ANY PRESIDENCY OF THE HISTORY OF THE USA AND YOU LIVED WITH THE BIGGEST ECONOMIC GROWTH OF ANY PRESIDENCY IN THE USA."
The 1990s were a period of dishonest and irresponsible politics and business practices that led to the economy tanking in 2000 and the domino effect that is still affecting the economy today. So yes, I would say that the Clinton years in the White House definitely made this country worse. He set the tone for this country by refusing to accept personal responsibility for his dishonest behavior. The funniest part of it all is that his lying, cheating, "blame-the-other-guy" behavior actually led to him being considered a martyr by left-elites when he finally was called upon to account.
Posted by: Thor | May 8, 2008 11:05 PM
Billary is simply Gaming at this Point. The Dimocrats are Stuck with "Barry". LOL! :-D
Now, Snake Oil Selling "Barry" is Slick, but not slick enough.
Between now and November, it is going to be a whole lot less about "Empty Suit", and a whole lot more about the Tailors;
Teddy Kennedy, Tom Daschle, John"Why the Long Face" Kerry, George Soros, Nancy"Never met a Farm subsidy I did not profit from" Pelosi, and more to be announced!
The DIMocrats picked a Slow Painful Poison! ;~)
Posted by: RAT-The | May 8, 2008 11:03 PM
Scott Farcus, being a Republican does not make you exempt from being a liberal. Sorry, but that's just the way the party is swinging. How else do you think McCain got chosen?
As for blaming those who voted for Bush for the country's problems, that's extraordinarily naive and a cop-out. We don't live in a monarchy. Bush is not all powerful. The two parties have had very nearly equal representation in congress over the last eight years.
It's "we the people" that need to change our behavior and attitudes, but then it's always easier to blame someone else for our problems.
Congratulations on your big salary, but please don't brag about it. It's not good manners.
Posted by: Thor | May 8, 2008 10:55 PM
Thanks to the blog for allowing us to post our thoughts.
just points:
1. Dean, Hillary, Obama only stand to lose if Michigan doesn't votes. It is a winner position to have a revote, as the principle of democracy is followed through.
2. Do something to prevent states leaders from ruining primaries in the future.
3. Stop blaming Hillary for Bill's mistakes.
4. Please recognize Bill's accomplishments.
5. Begin to accept Obama and if he wins the nomination without relying on a rules committee then we have to respect our fellow democratic brothers and sisters and act on faith that what they saw was reasonable enough to support.
6. While Obama is obviously flawed in his policies, it is more likely we can shape his presidency than McCain.
7. If dems go as they are now. Some of us are reconsidering our relationship not out of spite, whining or other, but out of bewilderment that we can't participate. That has never been the MO of the DNC before now.
Posted by: michigan demo | May 8, 2008 10:54 PM
The Clinton's endgame is for the game to never end. She figures that if just keeps on playing, everyone including Senator Obama and Senator McCain will be so tired of and frustrated with her, that we will all just drop out and there will not even a need for a general election as she reclaims the White House.
Posted by: Caryl S. Foster | May 8, 2008 10:54 PM
LOL! This Surf RAT says: Here Kitty Kitty!
Your my type! ;~)
"Barry" is their "Toking" Black Guy!
Sad part though, he "Sold Out".
Shame, this Country needs to Regulate and actually "Control" the Oxymoron "Controlled Substances".
There are MANY Reasons why it would be a better thing to do than support the American Bar Association.
Jobs and Taxes, immediately come to mind! ;~)
Posted by: RAT-The | May 8, 2008 10:50 PM
Pete, I wasn't using racism in reference to anything you posted. But if you read through some of these threads they are pretty naughty. So that was what I was directing the comment at. My mistake in addressing to you and then including other posters.
As to whining. I do tend to whine. But wow what a thing to whine about, the right to particpate in a democratic election. When that becomes whining be sure stamp your thumb print for Kodus or Kang (Simpson reference). So no I don't agree.
But you have a point, James Carvel makes it seem too simple. But you've got to see michigan for what it is. The City of Flint has 30% poverty level, we have our own mortgage crisis here, and like I said before people are going west for jobs, in Detroit it takes a hour to get an ambulance, and 911 doesn't route your call as they don't have enough public resources to answer every call and must try to screen out the crank calls. Sure these aren't my problems (I live in a suburb, have a job, a home and health insurance), but could you imagine the sense of pride people in these cities might feel if they could nominate their candidate? Besides, I'd stop whining and fall back in line like a good democrat, if we follow the principle of party. And by the way, if your state were shut out like this, I'd like to think the party would come up with a way to have the revote done. And I'd stand up with money to help you.
Finally given all of these problems, if a state deserved to vote, I would think it is this one.
Posted by: michigan demo | May 8, 2008 10:43 PM
Forget Rev Wright.
Somebody better check out Rod Parsley, McCain's 'Spiritual Adviser.
Rev Wright, compared to him, looks like "Little Orphan Annie." (See Video)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/08/rod-parsley-mccains-spiri_n_100819.html
Posted by: Lawd Ham Mercee | May 8, 2008 10:40 PM
Just team the both of them up:
Obama - Clinton 08
or the other way around, I don't care.
It's time to throw away the egos and get on with the REAL job of WINNING THIS ELECTION (rather than just the nomination) and guaranteeing we don't have another four years of the misery we so foolishly subjected ourselves to by electing Bush to the second term last election.
Posted by: Jeff S. | May 8, 2008 10:38 PM
I think that change is the only constant thing in the world. The time has come for the dreams of great names like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincolm., Martin Luther King Jnr ...etc to become real come novenmber 2008. Clinton is just fighting change, but change will have to run over her. Obama can walk the streets of baghdad unhurt, clinton cannot. Obama will receive the highest chance of a peacemaker in the world, clinton cannot. If Clinton has inner thoughts, she should have seen that a supernatural force is behind Obama. I would like her to care a little bit about her party, if anything strange makes obama to lose nomination, there will be a protest votes on Dems, the nation needs unity and peace now more than ever. It/'s to for the Clintons to bow our and receive a standing ovations for thier great contributions peacelimited@yahoo.com
Posted by: UD | May 8, 2008 10:37 PM
go to youtube and search...
the video hillary doesnt want you to see.
do you actually think she cares for any of us. who is the real elitest....in the 8 years since they left the white house they accumulated over 108 million....shell say or manipulate anything to get in. what 30 years of experience does she have when she was a damn housewife....it can be any woman but not her. vote ron paul
Posted by: a lopez | May 8, 2008 10:36 PM
So HRC "deserves the right to run in every state"? I wonder if she would've been so magnanimous to Obama if the tables had been turned on Super Tuesday. We wouldn't even be discussing this end-game nonsense.
Posted by: | May 8, 2008 10:35 PM
Excuse me. I have no love for VIOLENT criminals.
Posted by: PhD student | May 8, 2008 10:35 PM
Mr Clinton's farewell was not the end of the story: BBC
As the outcry continues over pardons granted by Bill Clinton on his last day in office, BBC News Online provides a guide to the key players in the pardoner's tale:
The pardoner
Bill Clinton, universally hailed as the most brilliant American political operator of his generation, has spent nearly as much of his career in the public eye for bad reasons as for good. Some say that his need to remain centre stage at all costs is behind his seemingly inexplicable series of public relations blunders, while others argue that Mr Clinton has a naive streak that enables people to manipulate him.
He was busy negotiating his own immunity from prosecution in his final hours in the White House, which might have made it hard for him to concentrate on other matters - but his 11th-hour pardon of 140 people and the reduction in sentence of another 36 is unprecedented in modern political history, and Democrats and Republicans alike are demanding an explanation for some of them.
The pardoned
Marc Rich,
Marc Rich fled the US in 1983
the billionaire commodities trader, is said to have lobbied hard for his pardon via a network of high-powered associates in the US, Israel and Switzerland. Jewish and Israeli leaders put in good words on his behalf, and Mr Clinton defended his pardon partially on the grounds that Mr Rich's charitable contributions in the Middle East had aided the peace process. In 1983, the financier fled to Switzerland to avoid prosecution on 51 counts of tax evasion, fraud and violating a US trade embargo with Iran.
Carlos Vignali, 30, had his 15-year sentence for conspiracy to sell cocaine reduced to time served, and walked free on Mr Clinton's last day in office. His father, Horacio, is a rich and powerful leader in the Los Angeles Hispanic community who has made large donations to the Democratic party. A number of high-profile Los Angeles figures, including the archbishop, the man who is now sherrif and two current mayoral candidates appealed for clemency for Vignali, but several have now said they should not have done so.
Almon Glenn Braswell, a Miami-based businessman, was convicted in 1983 of fraud and perjury in connection with a mail-order treatment for baldness he sold. Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, where his business is based, were stunned by the pardon because it could throw a spanner into the works of the current investigation of Braswell on new charges. Mr Clinton said he was not aware that Braswell was facing a new investigation, and that his pardon was only intended to apply to the 1983 conviction. Braswell's lawyers argue it applies to the present circumstances as well, but LA prosecutors say they will proceed with their investigation anyway.
Roger Clinton,
Roger Clinton has been arrested on new charges
the former president's younger half-brother, was pardoned for a 1985 cocaine-related offence. Roger Clinton pleaded guilty to the charge and served more than a year in prison. The presidential pardon erases his criminal record - but he was arrested and charged with drink driving in California a month after the pardon. He also faces a charge of disturbing the peace for allegedly challenging a nightclub doorman to a fight.
Other players
Senator Hillary Clinton,
Hillary Clinton is distancing herself from the pardons
the former president's wife, was elected to the Senate in November, making history as the first former First Lady to win national office. Widely assumed to have presidential ambitions of her own, Senator Clinton has worked to distance herself from her husband's problems, referring questions about pardons to "the president and his staff". Opinions are divided as to whether she is a victim of Bill Clinton's political and personal shenanigans or an essential part of them.
Hillary's brother Hugh Rodham has returned nearly $400,000 Tony has not returned the $125,000 that he got for getting a pardon for his "friends."
Posted by: Jonas | May 8, 2008 10:34 PM
I know this has probably been brought up a million times, but it's not Howard Dean's fault that Michigan and Florida aren't counting. It is the state legislators in both those states. The rules were set before those two states set their primary calendar.
Florida needs to blame Governor Crist for their votes not counting. And it should be pointed out that Governor Crist, a Republican, is all too interested in seeing this controversy continue. He wants Hillary to be the candidate. Why? Because he wants to see a woman in the White House? Because he believes Hillary will be a great President? No. It's because he knows all the Republicans will come out to vote Hillary down. They hate her.
Posted by: Kent | May 8, 2008 10:32 PM
Susan,
I hear your pain. I'm not sure what the Dems stand for anymore either.
Perhaps we'll have to wait a few years for the smoke to clear to see what is transpiring. And may be becoming a Republican is a reasonable response provided it can be guided in a more sane direction.
Perhaps my final post so my concluding remarks.
1. Democracy requires consulation, without a MI and FL revote you don't have it. And yes, wouldn't it be great if the state leaders had left it alone. What excitement it would be now.
2. Clinton doesn't have to quit. She could run as an independent and possibly win. It would be a long shot but she'd have more impact than Perrot.
3. Only way to heal the party is to stand for the principles of the party. So have a vote in Michigan. Florida, they had a vote. Just count their ballots or revote.
4. If we go forward without MI and FL, and Barack loses, don't blame Hillary. If Barack goes ahead with his gambit and he loses both states then that is him. It was his decision. I don't see winning without these states in the general election.
5. Please tell CNN to start doing some real analysis. I'd love to consider how the primary turn out stands against past primaries and how that translated in a turnout for the general. It would be interesting to speculate about what states might go what ways with this data. Right now, it is a gloating Obamaican pundits talking about RULES.
Posted by: Michigan Demo | May 8, 2008 10:31 PM
WRITE MR.HOWARD DEAN AND TELL HIM TO BE FAIR TO ALL AMERICANS AND COUNT ALL THE STATES VOTES NOT JUST THE ONES HE WANT TO PICK AND CHOOSE. IT IS NOT RIGHT TO PUNISH WHOLE STATES FULL OF PEOPLE FOR THE ACTIONS OF A FEW TO CHANGE THE DATES>>TELL HIM TO COUNT THE VOTES SINCE OBAMA WAS ON THE TICKET IN MICHIGAN AS HIS CHOICE IN THE UNCOMMITTED COLUMN>>HILLARY BEAT ALL THE UNCOMMITTED AND BOTH HILLARY AND Obama were on the ticket in FLorida ..so they must count the votes..or AT LEAST have a revote...If the do it over there is no reason to believe Obama will do any better since he has shown he can't win the big states not even in his own backyard!! EMAIL HOWARD DEAN TELL HIM TO COUNT THE VOTES!!deanh@dnc.org
Posted by: ByeObama | May 8, 2008 10:29 PM
Clinton has already made it clear what her endgame will be. She expects to run until there is a nominee and has clearly stated that she will do whatever she can to make sure that the Democratic nominee wins the election.
One would hope that the primaries will be completed before enough superdelegates endorse Obama to give him the nomination. She deserves the chance to run in every state, and the voters deserve to have their voices heard.
She has moved to have the Michigan and Florida delegates seated at the convention, and if party officials have the sense to allow this, they won't risk losing those states to the Republicans in November.
She is a smart, strong, and gracious woman who has been demonized by the press and villefied by many Obama supporters. She is committed to winning back the White House for the Democrats, and I do not believe that Obama has any chance of winning without her strong support.
Posted by: Carol | May 8, 2008 10:25 PM
michigan demo,
It's only whining when you complain about mistakes made by your own state leaders and then blame Obama and claim that HE should be the one to foot the bill, along with HRC. Now, in the first place, Hillary with her $10 million in debt campaign is the last person you're going to get to pay for this. As for Obama, even though his campaign has been very well financially supported by the people that support him, who is to say that he should have to foot the bill, assuming he even could afford to do so (I'm not so sure he has enough spare money to run a campaign AND finance a re-vote). I, for one, as someone who donated to his campaign, would not be pleased if the money I donated was forced to be used for the re-vote. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a viable solution that allows everyone in Michigan to vote. But it's completely unfair for Obama and his supporters to get stuck with the bill.
My overall point is just that the issue here is not as simple as "Obama is refusing to let me vote!!!" so please don't try and simplify it to that degree.
Also, when did racism ever come into this discussion? I know I never brought it up, I'm just trying to explain my views on why it's unfair to solely blame Obama for not allowing Hillary's demands of counting a vote that he was taken off the ballot for.
Posted by: Pete | May 8, 2008 10:25 PM
Where did the Clinton's get $11 million to "loan" to her campaign? They have been in public office for so many years that is is very suspect as to the source of their personal wealth.
Posted by: John Jones | May 8, 2008 10:25 PM
U.S. Department of Justice
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Washington, D.C. 20530
January 20, 2001
Pardon Grants January 2001
Name Home Town Offenses
ALLEN, Verla Jean Everton, Arkansas False statements to agency of United States
ALTIERE, Nicholas M. Las Vegas, Nevada Importation of cocaine
ALTSCHUL, Bernice Ruth Sherman Village, California Conspiracy to commit money laundering
ANDERSON, Joe, Jr. Grove Hill, Alabama Income tax evasion
ANDERSON, William Sterling Spartanburg, South Carolina Conspiracy to defraud a federally insured financial institution, false statements to a federally insured financial institution, wire fraud
AZIZKHANI, Mansour T. Huntsville, Alabama Conspiracy and making false statements in bank loan applications
BABIN, Cleveland Victor, Jr. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Conspiracy to commit offense against the United States by utilizing the U.S. mail in furtherance of a scheme to defraud
BAGLEY, Chris Harmon Harrah, Oklahoma Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine
BANE, Scott Lynn Mahomet, Illinois Unlawful distribution of marijuana
BARBER, Thomas Cleveland Hampton, Florida Issuing worthless checks
BARGON, Peggy Ann Monticello, Illinois Violation of the Lacey Act, violation of the Bald Eagle Protection Act
BHATKA, Tansukhlal Income tax evasion
BLAMPIED, David Roscoe Ketchum, Idaho Conspiracy to distribute cocaine
BORDERS, William Arthur, Jr. Washington, D.C. Conspiracy to corruptly solicit and accept money in return for influencing the official acts of a federal district court judge (Alcee L. Hastings), and to defraud the United States in connection with the performance of lawful government functions; corruptly influencing, obstructing, impeding and endeavoring to influence, obstruct and impede the due administration of justice, and aiding and abetting therein; traveling interstate with intent to commit bribery
BOREL, Arthur David Little Rock, Arkansas Odometer rollback
BOREL, Douglas Charles Conway, Arkansas Odometer rollback
BRABHAM, George Thomas Austin, Texas Making a false statement or report to a federally insured bank
BRASWELL, Almon Glenn Doravilla, Georgia Conspiracy to defraud government with respect to claims; perjury
BROWDER, Leonard Aiken, South Carolina Illegal dispensing of controlled substance and Medicaid fraud
BROWN, David Steven New York, New York Securities fraud and mail fraud
BURLESON, Delores Caroylene, aka Delores Cox Burleson Hanna, Oklahoma Possession of marijuana
BUSTAMANTE, John H. Cleveland, Ohio Wire fraud
CAMPBELL, Mary Louise Ruleville, Mississippi Aiding and abetting the unauthorized use and transfer of food stamps
CANDELARIA, Eloida False information in registering to vote
CAPILI, Dennis Sobrevinas Glendale, California Filing false statements in alien registration
CHAMBERS, Donna Denise Memphis, Tennessee Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute cocaine, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, use of a telephone to facilitate cocaine conspiracy
CHAPMAN, Douglas Eugene Scott, Arkansas Bank fraud
CHAPMAN, Ronald Keith Scott, Arkansas Bank fraud
CHAVEZ, Francisco Larios Santa Ana, California Aiding and abetting illegal entry of aliens
CISNEROS, Henry G.
CLINTON, Roger
COHN, Stuart Harris New Haven, Connecticut 1. Illegal sale of gold options
2. Illegal sale of silver options
COOPER, David Marc Wapakoneta, Ohio Conspiracy to defraud the government
COX, Ernest Harley, Jr. Pine Bluff, Arkansas Conspiracy to defraud a federally insured savings and loan, misapplication of bank funds, false statements
CROSS, John F., Jr. Little Rock, Arkansas Embezzlement by a bank employee
CUNNINGHAM, Rickey Lee Amarillo, Texas Possession with intent to distribute marijuana
DE LABIO, Richard Anthony Baltimore, Maryland Mail fraud, aiding and abetting
DEUTCH, John Described in January 19, 2001 information
DOUGLAS, Richard False statements
DOWNE, Edward Reynolds Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and tax evasion; securities fraud
DUDLEY, Marvin Dean Omaha, Nebraska False statements
DUNCAN, Larry Lee Branson, Missouri Altering an automobile odometer
FAIN, Robert Clinton Aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false corporate tax return
FERNANDEZ, Marcos Arcenio Miami, Florida Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana
FERROUILLET, Alvarez Interstate transport of stolen property, money laundering, false statements
FUGAZY, William Denis Harrison, New York Perjury in a bankruptcy proceeding
GEORGE, Lloyd Reid Mail fraud
GOLDSTEIN, Louis Las Vegas, Nevada Possession of goods stolen from interstate shipment
GORDON, Rubye Lee Tampa, Florida Forgery of U.S. Treasury checks
GREEN, Pincus Switzerland
HAMNER, Robert Ivey Searcy, Arkansas Conspiracy to distribute marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute
HANDLEY, Samuel Price Hodgenville, Kentucky Conspiracy to steal government property
HANDLEY, Woodie Randolph Hodgenville, Kentucky Conspiracy to steal government property
HARMON, Jay Houston Jonesboro, Arkansas 1. Conspiracy to import marijuana, conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to distribute, importation of marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute
2. Conspiracy to import cocaine
HEMMINGSON, John Interstate transport of stolen property, money laundering
HERDLINGER, David S. St. Simons Island, Georgia Mail fraud
HUCKLEBERRY, Debi Rae Ogden, Utah Distribution of methamphetamine
JAMES, Donald Ray Fairfield Bay, Arkansas Mail fraud, wire fraud, and false statement to a bank to influence credit approval
JOBE, Stanley Pruet El Paso, Texas Conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and bank fraud
JOHNSON, Ruben H. Austin, Texas Theft and misapplication of bank funds by a bank officer or director
JONES, Linda Conspiracy to commit bank fraud and other offenses against the United States
LAKE, James Howard Illegal corporate campaign contributions, wire fraud
LEWIS, June Louise Lowellville, Ohio Embezzlement by a bank employee
LEWIS, Salim Bonnor Short Hills, New Jersey Securities fraud, record keeping violations, margin violations
LODWICK, John Leighton Excelsior Springs, Missouri Income tax evasion
LOPEZ, Hildebrando San Isidro, Texas Distribution of cocaine
LUACES, Jose Julio Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Possession of an unregistered firearm
MANESS, James Timothy Conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance
MANNING, James Lowell Little Rock, Arkansas Aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false corporate tax return
MARTIN, John Robert Gulf Breeze, Florida Income tax evasion
MARTINEZ, Frank Ayala Elgin, Texas Conspiracy to supply false documents to the Immigration and Naturalization Service
MARTINEZ, Silvia Leticia Beltran Elgin, Texas Conspiracy to supply false documents to the Immigration and Naturalization Service
McCORMICK, John Francis Dedham, Massachusetts Racketeering conspiracy, racketeering, and violation of the Hobbs act
McDOUGAL, Susan H.
MECHANIC, Howard Lawrence 1. Violating the Civil Disobedience Act of 1968
2. Failure to appear
3. Making false statement in acquiring a passport
MITCHELL, Brook K., Sr. Conspiracy to illegally obtain USDA subsidy payments, false statements to USDA, and false entries on USDA forms
MORGAN, Charles Wilfred, III Little Rock, Arkansas Conspiracy to distribute cocaine
MORISON, Samuel Loring Crofton, Maryland Willful transmission of defense information, unauthorized possession and retention of defense information, theft of government property
NAZZARO, Richard Anthony Winchester, Massachusetts Perjury and conspiracy to commit mail fraud
NOSENKO, Charlene Ann Phoenix, Arizona Conspiracy to defraud the United States, and influencing or injuring an officer or juror generally
OBERMEIER, Vernon Raymond Belleville, Illinois Conspiracy to distribute cocaine, distribution of cocaine, and using a communications facility to facilitate distribution of cocaine
OGALDE, Miguelina Glendale, California Conspiracy to import cocaine
OWEN, David C. Olathe, Kansas Filing a false tax return
PALMER, Robert W. Little Rock, Arkansas Conspiracy to make false statements
PERHOSKY, Kelli Anne Bridgeville, Pennsylvania Conspiracy to commit mail fraud
PEZZOPANE, Richard H. Palo Heights, Illinois Conspiracy to commit racketeering, and mail fraud
PHILLIPS, Orville Rex Waco, Texas Unlawful structure of a financial transaction
POLING, Vinson Stewart, Jr. Baldwin, Maryland Making a false bank entry, and aiding and abetting
PROUSE, Norman Lyle Conyers, Georgia Operating or directing the operation of a common carrier while under the influence of alcohol
PRUITT, Willie H. H., Jr. Port Richey, Florida Absent without official leave
PURSLEY, Danny Martin, Sr. Goodlettsville, Tennessee Aiding and abetting the conduct of an illegal gambling business, and obstruction of state laws to facilitate illegal gambling
RAVENEL, Charles D. Charleston, South Carolina Conspiracy to defraud the United States
RAY, William Clyde Altus, Oklahoma Fraud using a telephone
REGALADO, Alfredo Luna Pharr, Texas Failure to report the transportation of currency in excess of $10,000 into the United States
RICAFORT, Ildefonso Reynes Houston, Texas Submission of false claims to Veterans Administration
RICH, Marc Switzerland
RIDDLE, Howard Winfield Mt. Crested Butte, Colorado Violation of the Lacey Act (receipt of illegally imported animal skins)
RILEY, Richard Wilson, Jr. Possession of cocaine with intent to distribute
ROBBINS, Samuel Lee Cedar Park, Texas Misprision of a felony
RODRIGUEZ, Joel Gonzales Houston, Texas Theft of mail by a postal employee
ROGERS, Michael James McAllen, Texas Conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana
ROSS, Anna Louise Lubbock, Texas Distribution of cocaine
RUST, Gerald Glen Avery, Texas False declarations before grand jury
RUST, Jerri Ann Avery, Texas False declarations before grand jury
RUTHERFORD, Bettye June Albuquerque, New Mexico Possession of marijuana with intent to distribute
SANDS, Gregory Lee Sioux Falls, South Dakota Conspiracy to distribute cocaine
SCHWIMMER, Adolph Conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, conspiracy to export arms and ammunition to a foreign country and related charges
SERETTI, Albert A., Jr. McKees Rocks, Pennyslvania Conspiracy and wire fraud
SHAW, Patricia Campbell Hearst Wilton, Connecticut Armed bank robbery and using a firearm during a felony
SMITH, Dennis Joseph Redby, Minnesota 1. Unauthorized absence
2. Failure to obey off-limits instructions
3. Unauthorized absence
SMITH, Gerald Owen Florence, Mississippi Armed bank robbery
SMITH, Stephen A.
SPEAKE, Jimmie Lee Breckenridge, Texas Conspiracy to possess and utter counterfeit $20 Federal Reserve notes
STEWART, Charles Bernard Sparta, Georgia Illegally destroying U.S. Mail
STEWART-ROLLINS, Marlena Francisca Euclid, Ohio Conspiracy to distribute cocaine
SYMINGTON, John Fife, III
TANNEHILL, Richard Lee Reno, Nevada Conspiracy and restraint of trade
TENAGLIA, Nicholas C. Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania Receipt of illegal payments under the Medicare program
THOMAS, Gary Allen Lancaster, Texas Theft of mail by postal employee
TODD, Larry Weldon Gardendale, Texas Conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S. in violation of the Lacey Act and the Airborne Hunting Act
TREVINO, Olga C. Converse, Texas Misapplication by a bank employee
VAMVOUKLIS, Ignatious Exeter, New Hampshire Possession of cocaine
VAN DE WEERD, Patricia A. Tomahawk, Wisconsin Theft by a U.S. Postal employee
WADE, Christopher V.
WARMATH, Bill Wayne Walls, Mississippi Obstruction of correspondence
WATSON, Jack Kenneth Oakridge, Oregon Making false statements of material facts to the U.S. Forest Service
WEBB, Donna Lynn Panama City, Florida False entry in savings and loan record by employee
WELLS, Donald William Phenix City, Alabama Possession of an unregistered firearm
WENDT, Robert H. Kirkwood, Missouri Conspiracy to effectuate the escape of a federal prisoner
WILLIAMS, Jack L. Making false statements to federal agents
WILLIAMS, Kevin Arthur Omaha, Nebraska Conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute crack cocaine
WILLIAMS, Robert Michael Davison, Michigan Conspiracy to transport in foreign commerce securities obtained by fraud
WILSON, Jimmie Lee Hel
Hillary Begs for a chance to Nuke. Swing State Democrats Say Hillary is a no-no, For The text of the letter is below.
Dear Fellow Comrads for War. Obama can't win, for we have the riches, and why should we have to worry about the somewhat white people, or the uneducated hicks looking for a freebie. So I ask for your financial aid in pulling this off. Pleas, Please Super Duper Delegates. Im the one, me, me, me, me, me, or Dam it you will pay if you tick me off.
We are writing to you because of our shared belief in our Party's principles and our commitment to ensuring that we have the strongest possible nominee to lead our ticket against John McCain and the Republicans in November.
The decision about who to support to be our Party's nominee is not one that any of us should take lightly. We haven't. But, after giving this important decision a great deal of thought, we are convinced that Senator Obama has the vision, skills and commitment to make the changes our country needs. As Democrats who have run and won in competitive Congressional districts and battleground states, we believe that Hillary is best positioned to successfully lead the Democratic ticket in districts and states like ours around the country.
As you know, Hillary has racked up victories in bellwether states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and now Indiana that are absolutely vital to winning the White House and maintaining our Congressional majority in the fall. Hillary has won the big battleground states by connecting with voters whose support we must have to win the general election. Her victories in Pennsylvania and Indiana were all the more impressive after being outspent by as much as two or three to one.
Pennsylvania was not just a victory for Hillary Clinton. It was also a wake- up call for superdelegates, forcing us to ask ourselves two essential questions: 1) Which candidate can carry the magic 270 electoral votes to win in the fall? 2) Which candidate is most likely to help our fellow Democrats in down-ballot races? We believe the answer to both of these questions is Hillary Clinton.
On the first question, Hillary has shown she can win the all-important battleground states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida even while being outspent. This speaks to her ability to connect with voters we must deliver in the fall, including blue collar Democrats who can sway this election as they have in the past.
On the second question, Hillary has won, in her dreams, rural and suburban districts which we as Democrats must carry to maintain our edge in Congress. Of the fifteen districts rated "toss up" by the Cook Political Report, Hillary has now won ten. Of the 20 districts we picked up in 2006 that had gone for President Bush just two years before, Hillary has now won 16. She is strong, and crafty in the places we must win to hold and expand our majority.
This is a historically close race. The candidates are separated by a mere percentage point or two and the path to victory for each candidate is the same: win in the upcoming states and secure enough pledged and automatic delegates to get to the number required to win the nomination.
The race now turns to the remaining six contests where the focus will be squarely on the economy. Voters in our states and across the country are voting on issues that affect them, their communities and their children's future. We believe that they will decide that Hillary is the candidate who best understands those issues and has the best solutions to address them.
We Democrats are justifiably proud of one candidate. I mean, Dam, the pressures getting to me, Bill, I hear sniper fire. Who am I??? Senator Obama, We meen Hilary, is our Party's nominee, we will enthusiastically support Hilarious. But our responsibility is not to choose simply to support the eventual nominee, me,me; it is to help select the nominee who is best for our party and best for our country. Our choice is clear: Obama is that candidate. We believe he should be your choice as well.
Thank you for consideration. Give War a chance.
Sincerely,
Rep. Michael Arcuri (NY-24)
Rep. Shelley Berkley (NV-01)
Rep. Marion Berry (AR-1)
Rep. Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY-20)
Rep. Gene Green (TX -29)
Rep. John Hall (NY-19)
Rep. Darlene Hooley (OR-5)
Rep. Kendrick B. Meek (FL-17)
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (OH-11)
Rep. Silvestre Reyes (TX-16)
Rep. Mike Ross (AR-4)
Rep. Joe Sestak (PA-8)
Rep. Ike Skelton (MO-4)
Rep. John Tanner (TN-8)
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20)