Redstate

Posted at 11:46pm on Jun. 16, 2008 Patti Solis Doyle Joins The Obama Campaign

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Here's the story. And here's a review of Doyle's job performance for when she was working for her old boss, Hillary Clinton:

After the [Clinton for Senate in 2000] race, Solis Doyle was put in charge of fund-raising and later became campaign manager for Clinton's Senate reelection bid in 2006. She earned a reputation as a contentious, domineering boss. Along the way, many of the staff members who worked under her left or were forced out, including several high-powered members of Clinton's inner circle, such as Kelly Craighead and Evelyn Lieberman, the deputy chief of staff to Bill Clinton famous for banishing Monica Lewinsky to the Pentagon. The frequent turnover in the fund-raising shop was a significant measure of Solis Doyle's unpopularity. Clinton staffers are notably loyal, and turnover among them tends to be much lower than it is among the staffs of other politicians. Fund-raising under Solis Doyle was a glaring exception, chalking up the kind of body count you'd expect from an episode of The Sopranos. She was infamous among her colleagues for referring to herself as "the queen bee" and for her habit of watching daytime soap operas in her office. One frequent complaint among donors and outside advisers was that Solis Doyle often did not return calls or demonstrate the attention required in her position.

Concerns about Solis Doyle have preoccupied many in the campaign for several years. Clinton insiders say that her campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, launched an unsuccessful bid to remove Solis Doyle while on vacation with the Clintons two years ago. Two top campaign officials told me that Maggie Williams, Hillary's former chief of staff (and, as of Sunday, her campaign manager), also sought and failed to have Solis Doyle removed two years ago. Last year, some of Bill Clinton's former advisers, known as the "White Boys," lobbied to oust her, too.

But because of Solis Doyle's proximity to Hillary Clinton, because she demonstrated the loyalty and discretion Clinton so prized, and because no one appeared capable of challenging Clinton's presumed status as the Democratic nominee-in-waiting, nothing was done. "What Patti has that is real power is the unquestioned trust and confidence of the candidate," Paul Begala, a veteran of Bill Clinton's campaigns, explained in an on-the-record interview last year. "That makes her bulletproof."

Of course, it didn't make Hillary Clinton's campaign bulletproof. The Obama people had better make sure that Doyle doesn't spend her time watching soaps in the office. The McCain people, on the other hand, may want to forward some "The Young and the Restless" DVD's over to Doyle to occupy her time. Also, they need to make sure that Doyle never learns about TiVo.

Now, I had thought that the most important aspect of this story was that the Obama campaign was getting an operative whose performance was . . . oh, how shall one phrase this? . . . less effective than the principal of that operative had hoped said performance would be. Not so! The really big news concerning this story appears to be the fact that the Clintons are about as enraged over Doyle's hire as Sauron would be had the Nazgul suddenly showed up at Frodo's and Sam's encampment and said something along the lines of "We're here to help you get rid of that pesky and troublesome ring. Oh, and you'll want to do something about that Smeagol fellow--we know for a fact that he is not to be trusted," and meant every word.

Read on . . .

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hell Hath No Fury Like Clintonistas Scorned | Hillary Clinton | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (9)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:42am on Jun. 8, 2008 And how *was* the first day of the general campaign, Senator Obama?

But first, let's make sure that there's no potential mixups in names.

By Moe Lane

OK. This is how it worked (trust the Obama campaign to schedule two events in cities with similar names, on the same day):

On Thursday, Senator Obama started his day by making a speech in the city of Bristol, Virginia. Said speech was not to a crowd of 20,000: that is actually more or less the population of the city itself. Senator Obama then went up north to Bristow, Virginia, where he spoke with a completely different crowd. All clear?

Excellent.

Now that we've eliminated all that possible confusion ahead of time, here comes the fun stuff. You see, the Bristow Nissan Pavilion thing was apparently what I'll nicely call a bit of a dud.

Yes, imagine our collective surprise.

Read on.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | The Best Democratic Primary EVER | Virginia — Comments (14)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:50pm on Jun. 5, 2008 That Ned Lamont thing? It just keeps paying dividends, boychik.

*Dividends*.

By Moe Lane

Latest payout?

Citizens for McCain.

John McCain knows he is going to be the President of all Americans, not just the ones that voted for him. No matter what party you belong to or who you supported during the primary campaign, we want you to be part of our team.

And do you who's helping Senator McCain with that?

(slow, mocking smile)

Guess.

Lieberman launches grassroots organization
From CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Joe Lieberman – who has taken on increasingly high-profile campaign roles on behalf of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain – announced Thursday that was launching and heading a new grassroots organization, "Citizens for McCain," with a direct appeal to Hillary Clinton’s disappointed supporters.

“The phones at the campaign headquarters have been ringing with disaffected Democrats calling to say they believe Senator McCain has the experience, judgment, and bipartisanship necessary to lead our country in these difficult times,” Lieberman wrote in a message sent to the Arizona senator’s supporters. “Many of these supporters are former supporters of Senator Clinton.”

Over the past few weeks, some supporters of Hillary Clinton – whose campaign announced Wednesday that she would be suspending her presidential run this weekend — have said that they would consider voting for McCain if she were not the Democratic nominee.

Lieberman highlighted McCain’s “very good working relationship with Senator Clinton” – which he said would continue in the future – and his comments praising her in a speech at a Louisiana campaign event Wednesday.

Oh, I'm sure that once Senator Clinton concedes the race Saturday...

- by which I mean that she: explicitly drops out of the race; explicitly endorses Senator Barack Obama by name for President; formally and explicitly releases her delegates to vote for Senator Barack Obama; and promises to give Senator Barack Obama all the help that she can, explicitly including her contribution lists and whatever general election money that she can legally transfer. That's what's going to happen Saturday, right? -

...this will all be, as they say, moot. But until then, hey, lots of fun all around. Not to mention a blatant reminder how Lieberman got away and continues to get away with breaking away (at least in public) from the Democrats over the Iraq War. But, hey: the Democratic Party will no doubt promise that they'll be stripping the apostate of all his chairships with the new Congress. And you can believe them when they say that: after all, when was the last time that they lied to the netroots?

(pause)

Ah, 7:50 PM, Eastern Standard Time. Why do you ask?

Posted in 2008 | Joe Lieberman | Kneel Before Zod | The Best Democratic Primary EVER | The Great Netroots Betrayal — Comments (44)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:38am on Jun. 5, 2008 I await with some interest Senator Obama's assurance that this will fail.

You know. Quagmires, and all that.

By Moe Lane

After all, he's happy enough to declare similar activities in Iraq failures, and never mind such piddling little details like objective reality (Via Instapundit):

Lanier plans to seal off rough ’hoods in latest effort to stop wave of violence

D.C. police will seal off entire neighborhoods, set up checkpoints and kick out strangers under a new program that D.C. officials hope will help them rescue the city from its out-of-control violence.

Under an executive order expected to be announced today, police Chief Cathy L. Lanier will have the authority to designate “Neighborhood Safety Zones.” At least six officers will man cordons around those zones and demand identification from people coming in and out of them. Anyone who doesn’t live there, work there or have “legitimate reason” to be there will be sent away or face arrest, documents obtained by The Examiner show.

Lanier has been struggling to reverse D.C.’s spiraling crime rate but has been forced by public outcry to scale back several initiatives including her “All Hands on Deck” weekends and plans for warrantless, door-to-door searches for drugs and guns.

Under today’s proposal, the no-go zones will last up to 10 days, according to internal police documents. Front-line officers are already being signed up for training on running the blue curtains.

Of course, if Obama does come out against this he'll have to explain to his super-delegate Harry Thomas Jr. why this plan of the Councilman's is doomed to failure, so I expect that the junior Senator from Illinois will handle the situation by ignoring it for as long as possible, and then fire a staffer.

Posted in Barack Obama | DC | Harry Thomas | Miscellanea | The Best Democratic Primary EVER | The Surge — Comments (7)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:25am on Jun. 5, 2008 RNC gets a Rezko ad up.

Commendably fast of them.

By Moe Lane

Of course, unlike apparently Senator Obama, we've known for some time that the man was dirty:

Please note, by the way, that the RNC is not calling Senator Obama corrupt, himself: such assessments will not be meaningful, one way or the other, until the indictments come out next Fitzmas Day. What they are calling him is a man who has confessed to having the judgment skills of a stunned tree sloth*, which is much easier to prove, given some of the things that come out of Senator Obama's mouth when his eyes aren't glued to a Teleprompter. Or, as Hot Air notes (H/T to comments section for the video), given Senator Obama's sad tendency to have friends unworthy of his greatness.

Moe Lane

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | The Best Democratic Primary EVER | The True Meaning of Fitzmas | Tony Rezko — Comments (8)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:35am on Jun. 4, 2008 Obamomentum - End-of-the-Primaries Edition

It's Like Popularity, But With Fewer People

By Dan McLaughlin

Now that the Democratic primaries are finally over, let's take one last look at the charts I have been running for some time now (see here, here and here) of the Democratic presidential primary popular vote totals for the months of March, April, May and now June. (Source: RCP, except I used CNN's updated figures for Montana) - "margin," of course, is Obama's margin of victory/defeat in each primary:

In other words, Obama ends the last 3 months of the primary season more than 600,000 votes in the hole, losing the popular vote decisively to Hillary over a stretch of 16 primaries in which 13 million votes were cast. In percentage terms, Hillary's 4.52% margin of victory for that period is larger than the general election margins of Bush over Kerry in 2004, Carter over Ford in 1976, Nixon over Humphery in 1968, Truman over Dewey in 1948, and just a point smaller than that of Clinton over Bush in 1992. He lost six different primaries by margins of 100,000 or more votes. All this during the time period when he should have been sealing the deal with Democratic voters after having taken what looked at the time like a decisive, momentum-tipping lead in mid-February. The final insult was losing South Dakota, a state he was widely projected to win and in which he led decisively in the few polls taken until the last day or two before the election, and which cast its ballots while the vultures were visibly circling Hillary's campaign.*

Read On...

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (15)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:35am on Jun. 4, 2008 Lovely morning...

...excuse me while I spoil it for our progressive lurkers.

By Moe Lane

Hi, guys! Hope that you're not too hung over; after all, last night your candidate announced that he had won the nomination fight, and whether or not he has (or whether or not he is even sure of the basic details), it must have been an exciting time for you. And now you're probably all full of vim and vigor, ready to take on the GOP - but hold up for a second. There's still a small problem for you.

There's a lot of people who are now saying that Senator Hillary Clinton has to concede the nomination, now. Let us assume - assume - for the moment that this is correct; or, rather, that she will concede. Unfortunately for the Democrats, she would still have a weapon in that scenario: she can go quietly, or she can go out with guns blazing. The Democratic Party can't afford guns blazing at this point, so she can negotiate. And what is the absolute, rock-bottom, not negotiable thing that she'd need?

That's right: debt relief. Total debt relief.

Yeah, go get that aspirin now. I'd also recommend some water.

Read on.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (97)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:11am on Jun. 4, 2008 "Nothing Is Over Until We Decide It Is!"

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

So I guess a lot of people didn't see it coming that Hillary Clinton would refuse to concede tonight and would urge her supporters to go to her website, presumably with the idea of encouraging her to keep on keeping on. Pundits on television who are clearly in the tank for Barack Obama--Jeffrey Toobin, I'm looking at you!--are outraged almost to the point of stark, raving incoherence. And now all of the commentary is raging--what does Hillary want? It seems obvious; she wants power. Either she is hoping that somehow, someway, some sort of scandal will come up that will sink Barack Obama even after he has clinched the nomination for the Democratic Party, or she is positioning for the Vice Presidential nomination. And she thinks that she has enough leverage to force Barack Obama to pay attention to her and to perhaps make some sort of concession to her that will make her happy and leave her satisfied that politically, she has gained more than she may have lost. In any event, while the nomination fight has ended, the Democratic Party's hostage crisis continues and there is a very real danger that Hillary Clinton will yet be able to make Barack Obama weak enough to lose in the fall, thus opening the way for the Clintons to run again in four years.

A memo to the McCain campaign: If you want your candidate to steal Barack Obama's thunder, that's fine. Try having him give a good speech that doesn't involve him smiling broadly out of context over and over and over and over and over again. That may involve having McCain in a town hall forum where he is at his best, instead of having him give a formal speech where he is reading text and being stiff and uncomfortable. Whatever the winning formulation is, find it. Tonight's speech was awful.

Finally--and this has to be written--congratulations to Barack Obama. I disagree with him strongly on the issues and there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that I will vote for John McCain in the fall. But credit where it is due; his attainment of the nomination shows that we have come a very very long way as a country--closer to the point Martin Luther King dreamed of, a point when we can judge people not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. For everyone who hoped that we would at long last begin to get over and beyond the mindlessness of racial prejudice, tonight was a very special night indeed, no matter who you end up voting for in the fall.

Posted in 2008 | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (34)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:13pm on Jun. 3, 2008 Fifty-*six* hard-fought contests, Wonderboy.

Sorry to interrupt your "I'm claiming victory! Really! No fooling!" speech!

By Moe Lane

56. The fifty states, plus American Samoa, Democrats Abroad, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Unless you particularly felt like insulting Montana and South Dakota this evening? Or just didn't care? - well, at any rate it's precisely this keen attention to detail, regard for the feelings of others, and rigorous fact-checking that is going to make campaigning against you and yours such a joy for us, Senator.

Assuming, of course.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (55)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:42pm on Jun. 3, 2008 "I'm getting giggles!"

:blink: :blink: "Giggles."

By Moe Lane

Chris Matthews is getting giggles:

CHUCK TODD ON KEEPING CLINTON OFF TICKET: You know I had another idea, you know the other way he [Barack Obama] can do this is he might get an assist. You know he’s already got Nancy Pelosi saying that the dream ticket is not a good idea. Maybe Al Gore comes out and does this for him. To, "It’s not a good idea to have Obama–"

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Oh that’s a good way to--

TODD: You know you get a couple of senior statesmen that are well-respected by the party to go out there and try to cut this off at the pass.

MATTHEWS: And say, "I’m going to lay on you an inconvenient truth." Well, it’s I don’t know if he’s that magisterial yet that Al Gore can rule above like Jehovah. Or maybe, maybe. You think he’s that big Andrea?

TODD: He’s running the environment.

MATTHEWS: Is he that big?

ANDREA MITCHELL: He is because he’s been so silent on politics. He has elevated himself.

MATTHEWS: But everybody knows he hates the Clintons.

MITCHELL: That does create a problem.

MATTHEWS: Ha, ha! He's not exactly a just empire. Anyway, thank you Roger, thank you. What a night! I'm getting giggles! It's so exciting here -- Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell -- because there's news in the air.

(Via Hot Air Headlines)

Assuming that Obama gets the nod, on Election Night I call dibs on drinking Chris Matthews' pain.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Chris Matthews | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (15)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:22am on Jun. 3, 2008 Does the Democratic Party *have* to worry about losing African-American voters?

I might as well get this one out now.

By Moe Lane

One of the most common arguments for ratifying Barack Obama's nomination is pretty much a nakedly racial one: he's African-American, and if he doesn't get the job African-American voters (who are overwhelmingly both Democrats and Obama supporters) are going to be infuriated at the Democratic Party. That means that they will stay home on Election Day, and hand off the Presidency to the Republicans. Let us for the moment assume that this is in fact true: although it's interesting that so many people apparently seem to think that white women are collectively more capable than African-Americans at getting past personal disappointments to vote what they perceive to be their long-term interests. But that's another post. Anyway, again, let's say that this is true.

Does it actually matter?

Read on.

Posted in 2008 | African-Americans | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (35)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:45pm on Jun. 2, 2008 OK, now the Illuminati are just *[expletive deleted]ing* with us.

By Moe Lane

Here we are, on the cusp of the last primaries, and it's time for the ultimate On the One Hand / On the Other Hand:

On the one hand? Latest polls for South Dakota and Montana:

South Dakota: Clinton 60, Obama 34
Montana: Obama 48, Clinton 44

On the other hand? These polls come from ARG. If you don't know why this is so hysterical, ask a poll junkie - from either side, it doesn't matter. Suffice it to say that they've been... ah, erratic. In other words, no real change there... except that a little bit more acid just got dripped on various Democratic souls.

Pity.

Posted in 2008 | Schadenfreude | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (45) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:31pm on Jun. 1, 2008 A few words on Puerto Rico

It matters

By Ben Domenech

First off, a confession: yes, that was my cousin Hillary just thanked from the podium. I trust he is as ashamed of my political preferences as I of him, but we're nice about it and can drink together anyway. This is family, people.

Second off: who were all these self-styled experts about Puerto Rican politics who emerged over the past few weeks? I can't tell you how many glaring factually vacant idiocies I saw in ink form and online over the past few weeks, all because someone has a Puerto Rican friend or vacationed on the island a few times. Look: just because you've been to a place doesn't mean you understand its politics.

The rest of the RS editors always dog on me for linking to this publication, but I still persist in reading it, because I like it (and I like NPR - sue me), which led me to ask: Who the heck is Michael Sean Winters, and why is he so wrong about Puerto Rico? I'd assume a Jesuit to at least know enough to realize that the selection of Presidente over Medalla is not going to decide an election (look, I love PR, but Medalla tastes like it's aged in sweaty socks). But then, he got the King Canute reference wrong too, so whaddaya expect.

In any case, the third and most important point is this: Puerto Rico may not matter at the moment, or in the big scheme of things, but it should to any Democrat. It should because it shows once again that, given the opportunity to ice this nomination for good, Barack Obama cannot deliver. His ground efforts are simply not up to snuff for a general election, and it will need a vast overhaul to compete with a Republican machine that, for all its faults, still is at the top of the game when it comes to microtargeting voters and moving people on election day.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Puerto Rico | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (23)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:27pm on Jun. 1, 2008 The "Puerto Rico's Polls close at *3 PM*?" Semi-open Thread.

Of course they do.

By Moe Lane

[UPDATE: Annnnd CNN calls it for Clinton, with a 10 to 4 ratio of delegates. If this exit poll is correct, Obama should be grateful: this sort of mauling is usually associated with major limb loss. Not that it should matter, as he's still ahead in delegates... but depending on turnout, he may be unambiguously behind in the popular vote after today. Not that that should matter, either - except that the Democratic Party fetishes popular vote counts. - Moe Lane]

Results here.

I recommend that people start at Fausta's blog for what may be a prescient look at today's primary, check out Pajamas Media for the general link extravaganza and note these maybe-good and maybe-bad stories from TalkLeft. Or maybe that should be maybe-bad and maybe-good. It's Sunday, and honestly, it's too nice a day out for me to care overmuch.

Open thread.

Posted in 2008 | Puerto Rico | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (0)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:29am on Jun. 1, 2008 Red Pill or Blue Pill time on Iraq, Barry.

Do you want to be President, or do you want progressives to keep worshipping you?

By Moe Lane

There are times when you don't need to bother posting more than a couple sentence from an article, and this WaPo article (H/T: Instapundit) is one of them:

When Mr. Obama floated his strategy for Iraq last year, the United States appeared doomed to defeat. Now he needs a plan for success.

Time to make up your mind, Senator Obama. Because this is the hammer, and you are the nail.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Iraq | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »