Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had predictable victories yesterday.
Clinton won by a wide margin in Kentucky’s primary, taking an estimated 65.5% of the vote over Obama’s scant 29.9. This win comes as no surprise, of course, because Kentucky’s population fits into the Clinton mold: white and blue-collar. Obama, meanwhile, completely dominated Oregon’s primary, where he won 58% of the vote. Senator Clinton took in a respectable 42%.
The Oregon win gives Obama a clear edge in pledged delegates, which led him to declare “We have an absolute majority” and he described his campaign as “within reach” of the Democratic nomination.
Said the Senator from Iowa, where his campaign got off to a rocket start back in January:
…Tonight, in the fullness of spring, with the help of those who stood up from Portland to Louisville, we have returned to Iowa with a majority of delegates elected by the American people, and you have put us within reach of the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
The road here has been long, and that is partly because we’ve traveled it with one of the most formidable candidates to ever run for this office.
Mr. Obama is referring, of course, to Senator Clinton, who, despite public pressure and long odds, refuses to give up her fight for the Democratic nomination. She was careful, however, to stress the necessity of Democratic unity:
How about we take this to the next level?
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Tonight we’ve achieved an important victory. It is not just Kentucky bluegrass that is music to my ears. It is the sound of your overwhelming vote of confidence even in the face of some pretty tough odds. Some have said your votes didn’t matter, that this campaign was over, that allowing everyone to vote and every vote to count would somehow be a mistake. But that didn’t stop you. You’ve never given up on me because you know I’ll never give up on you.
This is one of the closest races for a party’s nomination in modern history. We’re winning the popular vote and I’m more determined than ever to see that every vote is cast and every ballot counted. I commend Senator Obama and his supporters and while we continue to go toe-to-toe for this nomination, we do see eye-to-eye when it comes to uniting our party to elect a Democratic president in the fall.
In her effort for the nomination, Mrs. Clinton’s hoping Michigan and Florida, whose delegates have not been counted, will be tallied and help give her a leg up as the primary seasons winds to its seemingly inevitable conclusion. Both Clinton and Obama are headed to Florida today to woo voters and, hopefully, clean up the delegate mess.
While the Democratic battle still rages, Obama’s turning even more attention to the general election season by compiling a nationally-inclined campaign team:
Barack Obama is quietly planning to take over the Democratic National Committee and assemble a multistate team for the general election, the latest sign that he is putting rival Hillary Rodham Clinton and the nomination fight behind him.
Top Obama organizer Paul Tewes is in discussions to run the party, several Democratic officials said Tuesday.
…
The Obama campaign also is in discussions with staffers who will be dispatched to various swing states, but holding off on making announcements until Obama has won the nomination.
And that could happen any day now: Obama’s a mere 100 delegates away from hitting the nominating mark.
M Shane
Obama, Senator from Illinois (not Iowa). I’m happy to hear that Ms. Clinton is more concliatory now. The important thing is a Democratic victory, and some people have lost track of that, in the fury of these devisive primaries.
I hope that people can keep their eye on the ball, and avert the catastrophy of a Reb win.
M Shane
BTW, the republican swift boates are already getting out there there to poison the waters however they can. A black neighbor of mine came up with this new line last night: that Obama is realy not an Afro-American but rather an African (like a Somolian, they hate).
This is the kind of craziness that the Reps will invent.
Some corny white woman claimed that he wasn’t a christian, ” like a lutheran ,so he must really be a moslem.” ? ? ?
Bill Perdue
Queerty, when you say that “Kentucky’s population fits into the Clinton mold: white and blue-collar’ you’re on the wrong track.
You’d be more accurate if you’d said “Kentucky’s population fits into the Clinton mold: Euro American, with a large, openly racist segment, anti-union (centrists in both parties in Kentucky are pushing legislation to bust unions and cut wages) and homophobic.†Perhaps that’s why Bill Clinton, the boastful bigot behind DOMA and DADT, felt comfortable nominating Karen Nelson Moore, who always rules for homophobes, to the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals which has jurisdiction in Kentucky.
None of the three candidates left standing can in any way be described friendly to “blue collar†working class people whatever our ethnicity or sexuality. All three are decidedly unfriendly to our unions. The three right centrist candidates, Clinton, Obama and McCain support union busting measures like NAFTA, the continuing assault on our standard of living, deregulation of predatory corporations, tax breaks for the rich, and oppose socialized medicine. They lead parties that are extremely unfriendly to GLBT working people. They scrapped ENDA and the hate crimes bill and refuse to repeal DADT and DOMA. All three consign us to second class citizenship by opposing same sex marriage.
And to be consistently rightist, all three support the genocide against Iraqis, the occupation of Afghanistan and apartheid and ethnic cleansing in Palestine. McCain wants 100 years of war, Obama demmentedly favors invading nuclear armed Pakistan and Clinton savagely favors a nuclear strike against Iran.
Tom
I saw Jim Webb (US Senator from Virginia) on TV this morning. I think he makes an appealing VP candidate. He brings a lot of qualities that can gain votes in red states.
CHURCHILL-Y
Some Obama supporters here seem to have a very selective memory,
http://www.obamameeksrecord.wordpress.com/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/13/17299/3193
That’s of course some of the many homophobes Barack Hussein has in his camp. But of course they don’t matter because…………(fill the blank) misogyny is also cool!
FL and MI need to be counted.
The delegates who can change their vote at any time need to keep seeing the results(who’s winning the popular vote),much to the chagrin of african Americans and elitists, Puerto Rico,South Dakota, Montana need to have their voices heard then we have the rule committee and the convention. But hurry up Obama to the coronation! even if he falls off the throne come November.
NObama!!!
M Shane
Bill: The notion that blue collar labor supports Clinton is either a mistaken notion of the real motivations of blue collar workers, or a recognition which everyone stupidly makes about the history of teh Clintons and labor. It is a fact that Bill lied to labor and screwed them over with NAFTA which he signed only after meeting simultaneously with labor and big business people. He admits this. He was proud of having misled labor and done the “smart thing” i.e. gone for this ” neo-liberal” deception about globalization. Interestingly the term “neo-liberal’ economics is the brand of screwed up promotion of business exploitation of workers and people overseas, which is “neo-cons’ politically since it leads ultimately to dictatorship since it doesn’t live alongside democracy.
I can only help that Obama knows better and hasn’t said it yet. As much as Clintonites hate to admit it, “blue collar is just racist” I’ve been in Kentucky, and it’s one of the few places where people have the nerve to pull you aside and tell you that you shouldn’t talk to black persons.
Gregoire
The more you post that tired crap, CHURCHILL-Y, the less people are willing to read it.
Kid A
Churchill-y, I respect your point of view and your support of Senator Clinton, but your derogatory use of Obama’s middle name is absolutely ridiculous. I shouldn’t have to explain why.
Someone else here brought up this point to you previously, and your response (to paraphrase) was “Why is it okay to use Hillary’s middle name but not Barack’s?” No one uses Hillary’s middle name. Rodham is her maiden name; Diane is her middle name.
Bill Perdue
Bad news, Mark (and everyone who thinks that Obama is the Second Coming).
On October 9thy 2007 Obama announced his support for the Wall Street bill to extend into Peru. As he defended his announcement he used the same lies as Bill Clinton did in the 1990’s. For instance Obama boldly lied and said “The Peruvian agreement contains the very labor agreements that labor and our allies have been asking for.”
According to the story in the Huffington Post no American union is for the Peru NAFTA extension. The most they will say is that some of the language is better than the original NAFTA but the AFL-CIO remains adamantly opposed to it, just as they were to the original one. The HuffPo says “In fact, almost every single labor, human rights, religious, environmental, anti-poverty and consumer advocacy organization has come out against the Peru pact – and that includes those organizations both in the United States and in Peru.â€
Democrats like Obama and the Clintons and Republicans like McCain will get the votes of some naive people and all the right-wingers. One of them will win. They’ll be a pitiful few protest votes and tens of millions will again simply boycott the elections as a waste of time. They know that the two party shell game means that rightwing policies will prevail no matter who wins. The war/genocide will go on, the rich will get a new round of tax breaks, our standard of living will fall and the US will still be a cesspool of bigotry. Same old same old.
After the election we’ll rebuild the GLBT, antiwar and other movements to clean up the mess they made by voting for rightwing candidates.
M Shane
Bill;
I never imagined that Obama suipported that Bill: it didn’t go through as far as I know I signed everything in sight to quash it. I can’t believe that he is that backward.
The fact is, Bill that the Republicans are SERIOUSLY playing a no win game economically which is bound to crash.. The only thing that has kept us from looking defubnct are the war profits-and those are from our tax base and loans(which we can’t pay.
The only place where we disagree mainly is that you think that there is an “over the rainbow” and I don’t. If Obama doesn’t radically back off on NAFTA , change the tax structure, and bring the U.S. imperial stretch home, we’re just Fucked. We can wait for a new government entirely because this one has been going bankrupt since WW2 with false & stupid economics which has led the world to wish we were dead in the water.
We don’t have time to wait around; there are too many variables which are ex
tended too far. And the world is not going to save us when it crashes because the U.S has been arrogant , stupid, and brutish.
seitan-on-a-stick
M Shane: Spellcheck and we know that you are a McCainonite and M Shane denies the existence of African-American blue-collar workers!! Bill Perdue: Move to Spain for Happiness as those changes will not happen in our lifetime while America remains a Capitalistic society! Tom is right about Jim Webb who would be a brilliant Veep (pitbull) but Barack may need Hillary’s supporters to eke out a win due to his self-inflicted blue collar gaffes with the white working poor and the anti-American Reverend. Churchill-y – there’s always Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party. Gregoire had nothing to say but nay-sayed well. Kid A, Diane is a nice middle name, Hillary should use it more. Kid-A, Are you old enough to be on this site? M Shane and Bill Perdue fail to realize that both Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are both Centrists like Bill. The liberal wing of the democratic party is holding on by a thread and radiation treatments. John McCain acts like a Moderate but has embraced Bush-like views for his desperate grab for the presidency at ALL COSTS! So, if you are Gay and you know it, clap your hands and vote for the lesser of two evils. If you are so tortured by this Presidential run so as to vote for McCain for revenge, you do not represent “Gay” and/or “Community” as there are other more pro-gay candidates. Even us Hillary supporters will have to eventually pull the lever for the Dem ticket or risk the dire consequences of more Bush Lies with a more angry finger on the BUTTON!
M Shane
Hard to tell what you’re talking about Seitan-whatever.
FreeMe
Seitan, your swipe at a Sen. Kennedy (“The liberal wing of the democratic party is holding on by a thread and radiation treatments.”) is a bit insensitive. The Kennedys have given their lives and blood for this country…show some respect, please.
Bill Perdue
Mark, He’s whining because the Democrats are in lockstep with the Republicans and he knows that will destroy them, ESPECIALLY if they win.
Then there’ll be no more excuses. And if they don’t immediately and totally withdraw from the Middle East and cut the purse string so zionist apartheid and ethnic cleansing they’re in Trouble. The same if they don’t give us antidiscrimination, anti-violence and anti-hate speech laws with real teeth they’re in Trouble. No more ENDAS shredded by quislings like Frank. And if the economy continues to nose dive all hell will break loose. When it all falls apart he can emigrate or just increase his meds.
So seitan-on-a-stick, maybe you’d like explain to us again why you support a party that dropped the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill, gutted and dropped ENDA and refuses to repeal Clintons bigoted DOMA and DADT. Are you going to try to tell us that they did it for some reason other than to prevent the Republicans using them as wedge issues?
Are you really unprincipled and gullible enough to support a party like that? Evidently so.
The hate crimes statistics are out from the NCAVP and they show another sharp increase in election related violence and harassment. Is that increase only because of christian and Republican bigotry or is it due in part to the fact that the Democrats stabbed us in the back by publically repudiating our agenda. www dot ncavp dot org
Kid A
Seitan, I agree that Diane is a fine name, but I take issue with derogatory use of another fine name.
I am certainly old enough to be on this site, but the question is: are you too evil?
Nevermind, maybe readership would decrease drastically if that were a preclusion….
CHURCHILL-Y
Kid A, His name is Barack Hussein Obama.
Now why do you find his name “derogatory” ?
Whatever your reason I did not name him, your argument would have some validity if I was calling him some nickname or other words to describe him, but I’m not. If you can make a coherent argument as to why using his name is somehow “derogatory” I will start to use Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton since it would also based on
your argument be consider “derogatory”.
If you can’t it will just show the new tactic of the Barack Hussein Obama camp to intimidate people into not saying anything about him or his wife or his lack of qualifications or his associations etc.
NObama!!!
Kid A
I did not call his name derogatory. I called your use of it derogatory. Nice straw man.
On the other hand, I would not consider Clinton’s name derogatory. However, if there were, say, a middle-eastern tyrant named Diane and someone unnecessarily tried to make a connection by referring to Clinton as “Hillary Diane,” yes, that would be derogatory. Obama has no more connection to Saddam than you do to Churchill himself.
If you’re worried about his lack of qualifications, fine, that’s awesome, but lay off the xenophobic association slurs.
CHURCHILL-Y
So using his name is now consider by you Barack Hussein supporters “xenophobic”?
You people never seize to amaze, the way in which you spin and make accusations without any prove is just reflective of what would await us if he ever gets in the White House. Where the heck did I mention Saddam? If you people are disgusted or consider his heritage as something dangerous or that could cause you problems then deal with it!
But as far as I checked this is still America and freedom of speech is still protected under the law. You can work on changing that principle if Barack Hussein Obama becomes the president and brings with him his gang of thugs. In the meantime stop harassing people and dictating what they can or cannot say. You have no basis for accusing people who use the name given by his parents as somehow being “xenophobic” .
NObama!!!
Kid A
This has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Your “freedom of speech” defense is the same that bigots use when our community confronts them about hateful speech against us (LGBT), which is speech I’m sure you don’t think should be tolerated. There is a difference between freedom of speech and social graces.
I have told you repeatedly that I completely respect our political differences. I have no intention of trying to squelch your opposition to Obama. You have every right to say what you want. I do not, however, have to think it constructive or fair.
You say that you did not explicitly bring up Saddam, and that’s true. But why else would you use Obama’s middle name and not Clinton’s, except to draw on negative associations with the name Hussein?
You continue to misrepresent my words. I do not think that his middle name is any more shameful or negative than Diane. But your use of Hussein without Diane shows that you’re not interested simply in being thorough. Unless you can explain this discrepancy, what else is your motivation?
CHURCHILL-Y
Kid A, my use of his complete name is because unlike Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton he is and I know you are not gonna like me bring this up, recently new(unknown) to the public, to some they have just heard of him since the race came down to two.
That’s not the case with Rodham Clinton!
For you or anyone else to accuse people of degrading him or being xenophobic for just using his name is more than a cheap-shot.
Though I don’t believe you I’ll take your word that you “completely respect our political differences”, now will you stop calling me and other people xenophobes for just using his name?
Even though you didn’t prove it I will use her full name if I ever post a comment were I see your name.
Kid A
You may take my word that I respect our differences. Many Obama supporters have taken unfair shots at Clinton, and I have taken issue with them here and in person several times. I think every candidate and their supporters shouldn’t have to deal with cheap attacks.
I think you and I both can see that many right-wing conservatives, the ones who insist that he is a Muslim Manchurian Candidate, have used his middle name to provoke fear and misunderstanding in their constituency. To me, that is a cheap shot against Obama. That kind of behavior, against any person “different” from the norm, is xenophobic. Since your pattern of speaking seemed to fit this mold, is it not natural for me to think that you follow their behavior?
However, if you feel that saying his middle name will better “familiarize” the man to the public, then by all means. Regarding Clinton, I hate typing on this little keyboard, and would not want to type Diane more than I needed to. I don’t want you to have to type Diane just to make me happy, I just want respect and decency from both candidate’s supporters.
I’m sure you and I have many more similarities than differences, and it’s a bummer that people tend to get hung up on the little stuff. Let’s both go as we please, and I will assume on good faith that you intend better than those who use fear and misunderstanding, instead of real discussion, to slur opponents. God knows we’ve both had enough of them!
CHURCHILL-Y
I agree with you Kid A.
If all Obama supporters were like you and saw their hypocrisy and correct their double standards(not referring to you or anything you have written in this post Kid A) I would respect them fully and join them. Yes we are in the same boat as far as I’m concern and based on your civilized comments I think of you as a gentleman.
Hats Off to You!
leah
does obama support full equal rights for queer folk, including marriage and military service? no. does hillary? no.
so why would it matter to me, as a queer person, which one of these homophobes gets the nomination? both of them can go to hell.