Presidential Race

Something No One Caught

The Youtube of the audio from John Gibson’s show below that has Ferraro talking about how Obama wouldn’t be where he is unless he was black.  That’s not the quote everyone is talking about. They are talking about this article in the Daily Breeze

She said it entirely independently on John Gibson’s radio talk show on February 26th.  And John Gibson called her on playing the race card:
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/fqL_sm0J8jc" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

John Gibson calls her on racism.  John Gibson!

So she seems to have been saying it relatively freely around that time.

Ferraro: Don’t Antagonize Me

Whaaaaaaaaaaaa

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/HOIwQSq9y8o" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

At this point her defense appears to be that she said it at a paid speech and so it was okay.  But she repeated it on John Gibson’s show.

Oh, and she’s a paid political analysist for Fox!  That makes it all better.

I think Obama can do without her fundraising prowess.

Not Surprisingly, Winning Big States in a Primary Doesn’t Matter

It’s perhaps one of the weirdest arguments ever made about a nominating process, having more delegates matters less than winning the right states.  The apparent claim is that when one wins a state in the primary, that makes you more likely to win it in the general election.

It’s a dumb argument because, well, the general election is a different electorate and so winning a state in a primary doesn’t mean you can carry it in the general election.

Case in point, look at the Survey USA poll of McCain-Obama, McCain-Clinton matchups.

The maps are only a snapshot in time and I’m sure they would change over an election, but Democrats take Ohio in both cases and Obama, who hasn’t even campaigned in Michigan, wins Michigan, Clinton doesn’t.   That Obama makes inroads in some deeply red states is what is most interesting to me, while Clinton survives only by taking the safe Democratic states and a few swings.

He also loses New Jersey according to the survey which will only happen in bizarro world after an actual general election campaign just as Clinton isn’t going to lose Oregon and Washington.

Obama, according to the poll loses Pennsylvania and Florida–two places he hasn’t yet spent time in so this is likely to change if he does campaign in both places–or at least Pennsylvania will likely change.

The thing that makes all of this interesting is that Clinton’s only way to win the nomination is to have superdelegates vote against the plurality of the elected delegates.  In one case that is reasonable if she creates popular vote margin in the contests, but if Obama wins the most popular votes and the most elected delegates, it’s hard to imagine how superdelegates would justify voting against the Democratic electorate.  The only argument to even make that plausible is that Obama cannot win states like Ohio that are swing states–but the polling tells another story.

Hey Look–Over There, Ken Starr!

Howard Wolfson reminds us all that Mark Penn isn’t the only asshole in the Clinton campaign:

“When Senator Obama was confronted with questions over whether he was ready to be Commander-in-Chief and steward of the economy, he chose not to address those questions, but to attack Senator Clinton,” Wolfson said. “I for one do not believe that imitating Ken Starr is the way to win a Democratic primary election for president.”

Skipping Medication

Peter Daou tells an interesting story for the press on the $35 million raised ($30 million online). Peter’s a smart guy and probably could have done an even better job if they had let him do this earlier.

The campaign’s Internet chief, Peter Daou, said online donors had included “students who skipped meals, grandmothers who had never used a credit card on the internet.”

Terry McCauliffe blows the story though

“There are $35 million worth of people who have skipped dinners, who have not taken medications, who have written us emails that Peter will talk about so that they can be part of this campaign, they’re there to fight for Hillary Clinton, and I can tell you this, Hillary is going to fight for them…”

Not taking medication? For Mark Penn to get $8 million and $1200 on Dunkin Donuts in a month. Fantastic! I mean, Mark Penn clearly is in need here.

New Hillary Ad

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/M70emIFxETs" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

I had the obvious response of that’s great, she’ll answer the phone, but she might respond to the wrong country since she voted to invade Iraq after terrorists from Afghanistan attacked us. However, the Obama campaign was ahead of that:

“We don’t think the ad is going to be effective at all. Senator Clinton already had her red phone moment — to decide whether to allow George Bush to invade Iraq. She answered affirmatively. She did not read the National Intelligence Estimate. She still, curiously, tries to suggest that it wasn’t a vote for war, but it most assuredly was…”This is about what you say when you answer that phone. What judgment you show…She, John McCain and George Bush gave the wrong answer.”

Bus meet ditch.

More Hagee Fun

John Hagee Creatively Interprets the U.S. Great Seal

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/kUBwrjrxOIk" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Making John Bolton look like Woodrow Wilson:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/YFYiSJHbnZc" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Katrina is God’s Punishment for  New Orleans’ sins:

TG: I just want to ask you one question, based on one of your sermons, and this is not about Israel — you said after Hurricane Katrina, that it was an act of God, and you said when you violate God’s will long enough, the judgment of God comes to you. Katrina is an act of God for a society that is becoming Sodom and Gomorrah re-born.

Do you still believe that Katrina is punishment from God for a society that is becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah?

JH: All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that.

The newspaper carried the story in our local area, that was not carried nationally, that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it would was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other gay pride parades.

So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing. I know there are people who demur from that, but I believe that the Bible teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment sometimes before the Day of Judgment, and I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.

Why would such a loon back McCain?  Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran:

 For Hagee’s new project, his influence in washington is probably less important than his influence over his audience. With the clout of his listeners, he can serve Bush administration hawks by firing up grass-roots support for a military strike against Iran. TBN has provided several opportunities for Hagee to promote his book on Praise the Lord, several installments of his own program, and a two-day appearance on Benny Hinn’s show. Through the marketing efforts of Strang Communications, which placed national radio advertising spots for Jerusalem Countdown on The Sean Hannity Show, The O’Reilly Factor, and Janet Parshall’s America, Hagee brought his Armageddon message to a wider conservative audience. His end-times theology is nothing new; countless numbers of self-proclaimed prophets of the end of the world have demanded attention since the beginning of time. The difference now is that TBN’s relentless fund raising — along with advances in digital and satellite broadcasting technology — has permitted worldwide dissemination of his ominous predictions. Through TBN, other religious and conservative media, and the growing mega-churches, Hagee has turned his Bible-thumping not only into a multi-million dollar business, but into a pro-war movement as well.

How crazy is Hagee, so crazy that Bill Donahue of the Catholic League sounds reasonable discussing him

“There are plenty of staunch evangelical leaders who are pro-Israel, but are not anti-Catholic. John Hagee is not one of them. Indeed, for the past few decades, he has waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church. For example, he likes calling it ‘The Great Whore,’ an ‘apostate church,’ the ‘anti-Christ,’ and a ‘false cult system.’ To hear the bigot in his own words, click here. Note: he isn’t talking about the Buddhists.

“In Hagee’s latest book, Jerusalem Countdown, he calls Hitler a Catholic who murdered Jews while the Catholic Church did nothing. ‘The sell-out of Catholicism to Hitler began not with the people but with the Vatican itself,’ he writes.

“For the record, Hitler persecuted the Catholic Church and was automatically excommunicated in 1931—two years before he assumed power—when he acted as best man at Joseph Goebbel’s Protestant wedding. Hitler even bragged about his separation from the Church. As for doing nothing about the Holocaust, Sir Martin Gilbert reminds us that Goebbels denounced Pope Pius XII for his 1942 Christmas message criticizing the Nazis (the New York Times lauded the pope for doing so in an editorial for two years in a row). Much to Hagee’s chagrin, Gilbert also says that Pius XII saved three quarters of the Jews in Rome, and that more Jews were saved proportionately in Catholic countries than Protestant countries. Indeed, Israeli diplomat Pinchas Lapide credited the Catholic Church with saving 860,000 Jews. No religion can match that.

One might think Donahue hates the guy more than even Amanda Marcotte and Kathy Griffin even.