With Friends Like These ...

Fox News and the right wing 527s are having lots of fun with this:



The first question that occurs:

What were they thinking?

Specifically the Catholic priest — Father Michael Pfleger — and the church leaders who invited him — and even the hundreds (thousands?) of churchgoers who sat, listened, applauded, etc.

The next question: Are there any mature, thoughtful adults anywhere among this group?

Finally: Are any of the people involved in making these decisions actually allies or friends of Senator Obama?

Sheesh. Obama must have really pissed some of these emotionally stunted stooges off royally somewhere along the way. And they've obviously been watching way too much MSNBC.


Fox Noise and the right wingers haven't even gotten started yet. Jake Tapper at ABC News has one of the early breaking stories about this drama-rama.


Larry Johnson at NoQuarterUSA has some background and updates.

One thing is clear: these 'men of god' associated with Senator Obama (and Senator McCain) sure don't provide much incentive to rational people to join their flocks. NO THANK YOU.


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Colbert on The Democrats' Anti-Democratic Traditions

"

Alot of democrats still get all upset about the 2000 election in Florida just because it was a small group of people in a back room deciding who was going to be the next president of the United States ... isn't that what the super delegates are all about now? ... that's the democratic tradition!

"

— Stephen Colbert, May 14 , 2008 Colbert Report interview with Laura Dern regarding the new HBO film Recount

Hillary is Right to Fight

After seeing the 'whupping' or 'thumpin' Hillary gave Obama in West Virginia, hearing former Republican Candidate Mike Huckabee and others discuss why Hillary has every right and reason to continue, I've reconsidered and agree: there are very compelling reasons for Hillary to keep pressing on, including:

1. The same snobs, pundits, elitists in the media and dem party who are calling on Hillary to 'give up' so they can coronate Obama are the very same people who castigated Al Gore for capitulating (giving up) so easily when Bush and the Supremes STOLE the 2000 election.
   
2. They're the same people who lamented the bone-headed mistakes, flip-floppery and failure to FIGHT BACK when the extremely arrogant and aloof John Kerry was swift-boated in 2004.
   
3. They're the same ones who lamented the lame photo-op buffoonery and soft-on-crime buffoonery of the non-emotive, distant and aloof Michael Dukakis in 1988.
4. Therefore: Obama must EARN the nomination based on VOTERS not elite anti-democracy democratic party kingmakers -- despite the lazy wishes and desires of the democratic elites (Dean, Pelosi, Reid, et al), the hypocritical, sexist, misogynistic media elites and the Obama campaign to not have to do so. It would be so much easier to just be coronated. That's the republican way. That's not democracy. 
5. In fact, caucuses aren't a true measure of what voters want either; those results should be viewed with skepticism.
   
6. Anything could happen. 
   
7. MOST IMPORTANTLY: All the remaining voters and states have a RIGHT to have their votes matter, their voices heard, their votes cast until the nomination has actually been EARNED by any candidate.
   

I'm Ready: Is Hillary?

Update: I've changed my mind: Hillary is Right to Fight

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It's Time for Clinton to Bow Out Gracefully

The law of diminishing returns has kicked into high gear and it's better for her to show them 'how it's done' when exiting the political center stage the same way she's proven she can and will fight to the finish.

The corollary is: He better get on his knees and kiss her butt-kicking shoes for the 'seasoning' she has provided his naive, not-previously-ready-for-primetime self.

Time for Obama to start actively building bridges and incorporating most of Clinton's policy positions into his own, including Universal Healthcare.

I think in the end women should make plans to be willing to show up at the polls and support Obama in the fall (he'll need it) — and honestly, we can't afford any more Bush-Cheney-McCain-Rove Republicans for ourselves, our children, our nation — but I don't think we should necessarily do the sort of heavy lifting we've done for political campaigns these past 40 years — with little or nothing to show for it as regards our nation's children, poor women, working class women, working moms, seniors and disabled citizens. Let the youngsters and idealists earn their keep. Obama can and should work hard for our votes if he really intends to win. He can't continue to put everything off into abstract up-in-the-cloud concepts either. Specifics must be put to pen, paper and plan — what will he do starting on day one?

Dues must be paid. We've paid ours.

Past Time for certain women of a certain age and history to start asking of the remaining candidates: what's in it for me?

Thank you Hillary. You can hold your head up and move on to the next set of challenges. We still need you to show that you can lead in other ways. For Example: If Oprah really wants to make a difference: why not transform that sh*thole of a worthless piece of sh*t "O" or "Oxygen" television channel into incorporating a Women's News Network? Meanwhile, as the boys club continues to refuse to grow up, it's time to let America live with its choices, just like any growing child struggling toward interdependent independence.

I write this with a certain resigned disappointment — not bitterness, although I can go there if Obama doesn't make the effort to build and repair those bridges — but mostly from a place of resigned detachment and a smidgen of hope that he can and will do what he says he wants to do. I'm still quite skeptical in that regard; but we shall see.

So, maybe the formal end for Clinton comes after West Virginia, after negotiating platform changes, certain policy guarantees, JUDICIAL appointments — especially those — whatever it is they do to bring something like this to its foregone conclusion. Step out with grace, respect and admiration. Timing is important. It's time. Getting close anyway.