Redstate

Posted at 6:24pm on Jul. 5, 2008 The Pending Revenge Of Bitter Clinton Supporters

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

One month after the Democratic Presidential nomination basically got decided and settled, former Clinton supporters continue to be unwilling to migrate in significant numbers back to the Obama camp:

One week after Sen. Hillary Clinton made a public show of unity with Sen. Barack Obama, a new survey suggests supporters of the New York senator are increasingly less likely to follow her lead.

 A growing number of Clinton supporters polled say they may stay home in November instead of casting their ballot for Obama, an indication the party has yet to coalesce around the Illinois senator four weeks after the most prolonged and at times divisive primary race in modern American history came to a close.

According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Friday, the number of Clinton supporters who plan to defect to Republican Sen. John McCain's camp is down from one month ago, but -- in what could be an ominous sign for Obama as he seeks to unify the party -- the number of them who say they plan to vote for Obama is also down, and a growing number say they may not vote at all.

In a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey completed in early June before the New York senator ended her White House bid, 60 percent of Clinton backers polled said they planned on voting for Obama. In the latest poll, that number has dropped to 54 percent.

In early June, 22 percent of Clinton supporters polled said they would not vote at all if Obama were the party's nominee, now close to a third say they will stay home.

In another sign the wounds of the heated primary race have yet to heal, 43 percent of registered Democrats polled still say they would prefer Clinton to be the party's presidential nominee.

As I have continually written regarding this subject, I expect that eventually, the number of former Clinton supporters backing Obama will go up. But it may not go up all that much and if it does not, the apathy of former Clinton supporters may work to make all the difference in what is increasingly shaping up to be a closer election than many pundits have expected.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Kneel Before Zod | Let's You And Him Fight | Rooting For Injuries — Comments (5)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:34am on Jun. 28, 2008 One Big Happy Family?

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

I think not. Check out this report concerning the meeting Senators Clinton and Obama had with some of Senator Clinton's donors and supporters:

One major Clinton donor described it this way:  "This felt like when your mom forces you to go visit your Aunt Ida and she has to pinch your cheeks and you're sitting there in an uncomfortable suit and you can't wait to leave."

Another Clinton-leaning person who was in the room said after the meeting wrapped up that there is still "a lot of anger" toward Obama among Clinton's wealthiest fans.

"It was pretty bad," this source said.  He said donors were joking that the scene was like "an Irish wake" and that you "could cut the air with a knife" it was so tense in the room.

"He better go back to the internet," said one donor about the Democratic nominee's fundraising tactics.

Marc Ambinder's report is marginally more optimistic. Marginally. Barack Obama may yet unify his party but he is not out of the woods yet with Clinton supporters. The danger that they might stay home or that they might go and vote for John McCain likely continues.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Kneel Before Zod | Let's You And Him Fight | Rooting For Injuries — Comments (5)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:11pm on Jun. 26, 2008 Trouble In Paradise

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Now that the Democratic nomination contest is over, the effort to get the Clinton and Obama camps to sing from the same songsheet is getting a lot of attention. However, there are discordant notes:

Some Clinton supporters are grousing that Obama has yet to make the symbolic gesture of writing a check for $2,300, the maximum allowable campaign donation, to help retire her debt of over $12 million.

At her headquarters two weeks ago, a potluck dinner for women who had volunteered for Clinton turned into a forum in which many of her most loyal supporters expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome of the contest and with Obama, attendees said. And some of Clinton's aides said Obama's campaign had made only a perfunctory effort to hire Clinton staff members; the Clinton campaign payroll is ending for most employees in less than a week.

Obama's aides said that while he was prepared to help her pay off the debt, there was only so far he would go, given his campaign's own desire to raise record sums for the general election. In addition to the $12 million that Clinton owes to outside suppliers, she pumped more than $10 million of her own money into her campaign.

I actually thought that there would be a serious, comprehensive effort to help Clinton retire her campaign debt--if only to ensure that Clinton and her team would be fully on board in preparation for the general election campaign. Evidently not, or at the very least, the Obama people are not making this a priority. Of course, if they fail to keep Clinton supporters happy, there may very well be lots of problems down the road.

This will definitely be worth watching. I am sure that there will be a picture of unity at the end of all of this but the reality behind the scenes may be far, far different.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Kneel Before Zod | Let's You And Him Fight | Rooting For Injuries — Comments (8)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:03am on Jun. 24, 2008 Campaigning In A Town Called "Unity" Doesn't Make You Unified

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are going to have their first joint appearance since Clinton dropped out of the race. The site is Unity, New Hampshire. It's symbolic of what the Democrats want to achieve, of course, but something is interfering with the symbolism. And that something is the Clintons:

People close to Clinton are frustrated that the Obama campaign has yet to propose a way to help her retire her campaing debt, while some close to Obama think the Clintons are being sore losers who won't go out of their way to praise Obama.

A case in point was Bill Clinton's appearance Sunday at the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

During his address, the former president mentioned Obama only once, and that was to praise Obama for supporting one of programs begun during Clinton's administration.

"I was delighted to read that Senator Obama said he would reinstitute the COPS program," Clinton told the conference.

And when Hillary Clinton made her first public appearance this weekend since her concession speech, she never even mentioned Obama's name.

The closest the New York senator came to citing Obama during her speech at a Bronx high school's graduation was to say, "No one five years ago, or four years ago, could have conceived that an African-American and a woman would be competing for the president of the United States."

Don't think that the Clintons' supporters won't take note of this. They pay attention and the lack of enthusiasm that the former First Couple is showing for the new Democratic nominee most assuredly can trickle down to Clinton supporters.

The vast majority of those supporters will back Barack Obama. But they may not do much more than vote. Combine that with the supporters who may either stay home or vote for John McCain and you see why this may well be a closer race than many people believe it will be.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Kneel Before Zod | Let's You And Him Fight | Rooting For Injuries — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:40pm on Jun. 21, 2008 Barack Obama Gets People Mad At Him (Part II)

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Apparently, that party unity on the Democratic side is going to be a little harder to achieve than some thought it would be:

A Thursday afternoon meeting between Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus grew tense and emotional for a moment -- perhaps illustrating that weeks after Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., suspended her presidential campaign, some nerves remain frayed.

[. . .]

Sources at the meeting said that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, a Clinton supporter, expressed the desire that Obama and his campaign would reach out the millions of women still aggrieved about what happened in the campaign and still disappointed that Clinton lost.

Obama agreed that a lot of work needs to be done to heal the Democratic Party, and that he hoped the Clinton supporters in the room would help as much as possible.

According to Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., Obama then said, "However, I need to make a decision in the next few months as to how I manage that since I'm running against John McCain, which takes a lot of time. If women take a moment to realize that on every issue important to women, John McCain is not in their corner, that would help them get over it."

That last line didn't quite go over well:

Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., a longtime Clinton supporter, did not like those last three words -- "Get over it." She found them dismissive, off-putting.

"Don't use that terminology," Watson told Obama.

Between this and the Patti Solis Doyle hire earlier this week, Hillary supporters have been given a fair number of things to be mad about. Having beaten the Clintons and their supporters, Obama is now causing many of those supporters to believe that he has contempt for the Clintons and for the campaign that they ran. Any more such efforts at party unity and we might have ourselves a full-blown schism before September even hits.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Kneel Before Zod | Let's You And Him Fight | Rooting For Injuries — Comments (5)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:12pm on Jun. 11, 2008 Blue on Blue: And lo, there were rumors of impeachment in the Illinois legislature.

Obama campaign no doubt about to preemptively issue a "____ was not the man that I knew" press release.

By Moe Lane

Breitbart has some details of a very interesting memo:

Memo outlines Illinois gov's potential impeachment

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - The speaker of the Illinois House is circulating a memo outlining how legislative candidates can call for impeachment hearings against the governor, calling corruption during his tenure "a tumor."

A spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, who is also chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois, said the memo is intended for candidates who have requested more information if voters ask about Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich and potential impeachment.

The memo sent to some House Democratic candidates, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, offers a rundown of Blagojevich's alleged "misdeeds and malfeasance" and detailed talking points on the merits of impeachment.

Division Street has what purports to be the entire memo: feel free to read it, then come back here for discussion.

Read on.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Blagojevich | Corrupt Democrat Watch | Illinois Combine | Rezko | Rooting For Injuries — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:20am on May 29, 2008 Pass The Popcorn

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

The Florida-Michigan imbroglio looks to be brutal to solve, indeed. Political junkies will feast on the spectacle.

The Democratic party? Not so much.

Posted at 5:16pm on May 26, 2008 "That's Right. Fight Amongst Yourselves." A Continuing Saga

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Paul Krugman seems bound and determined to continue to hector Barack Obama from the sidelines and is now in the curious position of demanding concessions from the Obama campaign so that Hillary Clinton drops out of the race. Specifically, he wants the Florida delegation seated at the Democratic National Convention--and I imagine that demands for Michigan to be seated will follow fairly soon. This may give Hillary Clinton bragging rights when it comes to the popular vote, but that doesn't matter to Krugman, whose contempt for Obama seems barely disguised these days. And if that's not enough, Krugman believes that Obama should choose Clinton to be on the ticket; an interesting succession given Hillary Clinton's exceedingly clumsy assassination reference a few days ago.

What all of this signifies is that internecine warfare continues unabated in the Democratic camp. It is likely to keep on keeping on for a good while yet and if Barack Obama chooses a Vice Presidential candidate not named "Hillary Clinton," the supporters of the junior Senator from New York may very well continue to snipe at and attack Obama as the latter works desperately to build party unity. And who knows? There may be an uprising of sorts that we will witness in Denver during the Democratic National Convention. Remember: Someone can get up and nominate Hillary Clinton and if Speaker Pelosi, in her capacity as Chairman of the Convention railroads that person, the repercussions could be dramatic and devastating as Clinton supporters, slighted yet again by their party, decide to sit on their hands to protest the treatment that their candidate may receive at the hands of the denizens of the Democratic Party.

'Tis a delightful thing, this spectacle of politics. Pass the popcorn.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Kneel Before Zod | Let's You And Him Fight | Rooting For Injuries — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:11am on May 20, 2008 "That's Right. Fight Amongst Yourselves."

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Especially for those who wish otherwise: Please take note of the fact that Hillary Clinton is claiming a lead in the popular vote. Remind me again why I should think she will graciously give way and go all-out like a good team player to ensure that Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States.

Because I am having a hard time seeing it.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Kneel Before Zod | Let's You And Him Fight | Rooting For Injuries — Comments (5)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:42pm on May 11, 2008 It's Not Too Soon To Start Thinking Of 2012

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Via Patterico's Pontifications, we have this:

As Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., avoids any real campaigning in West Virginia, the former president of the United States is out there ginning up resentments.

Bill Clinton has the right to say whatever he wants, of course. But he's a smart man. Brilliant, even.

He can do the math. He must know that it's quite improbable that his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., will be the Democratic presidential nominee.

So what purpose does it serve for him to barnstorm a state like West Virginia and tell rural voters that Obama and his elitist political/media cabal allies are mocking Appalachia?

He's using the kind of language Democrats typically use against Republicans -- as in, stuff you say when you don't want voters to vote for the other guy under any circumstance.

This is tough stuff to walk back from.

As if the Clintons want to walk back from it. Now that they realize the nomination is likely not theirs, they will do whatever is necessary to ensure that Barack Obama will not win in the fall. Then Hillary Clinton will run again in 2012, gambling that by that time, the Democrats will have become so hungry for a Presidential win that they will forgive her and her husband for the efforts they are currently undertaking to destroy the Democratic Party.

And don't think that a few of the Clintons' supporters won't take what they are doing to heart and heed the implicit message not to vote for Barack Obama under any circumstances this fall.

Once again, the Clintons have ensured their place in history as the Patron Saints of Popcorn. The entertainment they provide political observers is nothing short of amazing.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Kneel Before Zod | Let's You And Him Fight | Rooting For Injuries — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:01am on May 11, 2008 "Nothing's Over Until We Decide It Is!"

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Refusing to go gently into that good night, Clinton supporter Jerome Armstrong stubbornly sticks to the message that Hillary Clinton can win the Democratic Presidential nomination. He points to West Virginia as a state that serves as a good indicator of what Armstrong believes to be Barack Obama's general election problems. Sensitive to charges that fretting about Obama's general election appeal in West Virginia could be tantamount to giving credence to the views of racists, Armstrong spends a goodly amount of time denouncing anyone who would dismiss as racists anti-Obama voters in West Virginia.

This isn't particularly interesting save for two observations:

1. The Clinton folks actually believe that their candidate might yet pull off some sort of miracle and capture the nomination.
   
2. Despite all of the talk that Obama's nomination is now inevitable and that with said inevitability will come newfound party unity, seething anger and resentment continues to define the mood of Clinton supporters. This is, perhaps, somewhat understandable; at the beginning of the nomination contest, I don't imagine that people like Armstrong really ever thought that Obama would be able to wrest the nomination away from Clinton when they consulted the stars. Nevertheless, one would have thought that the various pro-Clinton factions in the netroots would have begun to reconcile themselves to an Obama nomination and then line up to support him against John McCain and the Republicans.

Well, perhaps eventually, they will. But for now, there remains seething anger and resentment and since it is almost the middle of May already, one could easily see the resentment continuing through the summer--especially if Hillary Clinton decides to push through the rest of the primary schedule and goes to the Democratic National Convention without having fallen on her sword. Ted Kennedy kept on fighting up to and during the convention in New York in 1980 even though he had significantly less support then than Clinton does and will have during this electoral contest. I am sure that this information will not be lost on the Clintons, I would not be surprised if they continued to play every trick in the book--and some that may not be in the book--to try to win the nomination at the last moment during a knife fight in Denver and while I have not recently checked the stock prices for popcorn companies, I don't imagine that they have gone down all that much.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Kneel Before Zod | Let's You And Him Fight | Rooting For Injuries — Comments (27)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:22am on May 8, 2008 Hillary Clinton Is Not Going Anywhere Anytime Soon

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

At least not if this story is to be believed. And yes, much of what is found in that story in terms of anti-Obama sentiments is ugly beyond measure. But that ugliness may not serve as much of a deterrent against Clinton staying in.

Posted at 12:36am on May 7, 2008 Primary Night

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

So Obama has won North Carolina big and may very well win Indiana (it's very close as I write this and the networks have refused to call it for anyone the last I checked the television). A whole host of commentators are declaring the race over Obama has been all-but-anointed as the nominee.

Which he likely will be. But Hillary Clinton will fight on if her speech this evening was any indication and given the demographic patterns that have emerged during this fight for the Democratic Presidential nomination, the Clinton people probably have good grounds for believing that they will do well in the upcoming contests in West Virginia and Kentucky. Meanwhile, they will point out to superdelegates what E.J. Dionne and Ramesh Ponnuru observe concerning Obama's ability--or lack thereof--to draw votes from all parts of the political spectrum. And as pointed out by Michael Barone (link via Brother Erick), coming into tonight, Clinton has actually gotten more popular votes than has Obama. I haven't done the math to see whether that is still the case and it may not be, given Obama's huge win in North Carolina. But the point is that when it comes to the popular vote, Clinton is hanging in there and she may well use the popular vote to push for the argument that come general election time, she will be more electable than will Obama.

Is it possible that Hillary Clinton will drop out after this evening--especially if Indiana goes Obama's way? Sure. But I'm not betting on it. People named "Clinton" don't give up claims to power that easily.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Kneel Before Zod | Let's You And Him Fight | Rooting For Injuries — Comments (111)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:59am on May 5, 2008 News From The Redneck Riviera: Obama Is NO Tiger Woods

By haystack

In this "poke fun at the South because it's fun" piece, compliments of the always-neutral International Herald Tribune, we come across a real beauty:

"Tiger Woods is a genius. He is revered. He is above race. But we've learned Obama is not Tiger Woods. If you paid attention to what Reverend Wright said about Obama, then you heard him described as a lightweight, a guy Wright believed had the reflexes of a pol."That famous speech in Philadelphia about race? Wiped out now. What Obama can't deliver ever again, apart from talks and promises, is the certainty he's his own man."

Boy howdy...

Mind you, author John Vinocur doesn't appear to have much respect for southerners, but the wisdom of gun-totin' God-fearin' white and middle-aged "old colonels, the Christian right, and convinced conservatives" can't be ignored:

For the Red Neck Riviera of Florida's Panhandle (or the Emerald Coast in the more genteel vocabulary of the tourist brochures) Obama has become so totally exposed - as a leftist, an elitist out of touch with vast segments of the white majority, a dubious healer saddled with disreputable friendships and unknown debts and obligations - that the colonel could say "McCain is seven strokes ahead on the back nine," and the presidency is in Republican reach.

You know, the more I hear Obama say this race isn't about race and the more I hear his Dem opponent rooting for Obama injuries exactly BECAUSE of race, the more I long for another bag of popcorn and a six-pack of good old-fashioned "angry white guy" (or gal) cheap beer...

Funny how race keeps coming up when Hillary is just ahead or just behind in some bonny new meaningless poll.

As Moe would say:

Best.Democratic.Primary.Ever.

Posted in 2008 | Obamafiles | Rooting For Injuries | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »