Was the 2008 Democratic Primary Election fixed?

As I reflect over the past 17 months of the Democratic primary season, I find myself thinking about how the nomination of Barack Obama played out. I find myself asking questions like "why did the DNC choose to penalize some states for holding their primaries early, but not others?". 

How come in Feb uncommitted Super Delegates believed the winner should be the candidate who won the popular vote?  And so did 59% of Democrats who were surveyed?

Why did the Democratic Party Leadership go against these beliefs and instead push the Super Delegates and the media to select the nominee with the most "perceived" pledged delegates?

I've been thinking about the similarities of the 2000 Presidential election between Bush and Gore and how that election mirrors the 2008 Democratic Primary between Clinton and Obama.

For starters, we have the same disputed state of Florida involved. Then we have the fact that not all votes were counted as the votes were intended, and third we have the actual winner of the popular vote (Hillary Clinton and Al Gore) being denied the election.

And, I've been asking myself  - "What happened to the Democratic party that I was once so proud of and believed in?"

In 2000, the democrats fought hard to make sure every vote was counted and recounted. They cried "foul" when Florida was ordered to stop counting the votes. They took their fight to the Supreme Court and lost. The election was given to George Bush and no one will ever know how the votes were truly caste.

Flash forward to the 2008 Democratic primary election and we have the state of Florida crying "foul" and asking the Democratic Party to count all the votes in full as intended (see lawsuit filed here), only to have the Democratic Party (the same one that argued in 2000 to count every vote) Rules and Bylaws committee vote "no" thereby giving the election to Barack Obama - who did not win the popular vote.

The RBC argued that Florida broke the rules and therefore must be penalized. In 2000, the Republicans argued
that certain counties didn't follow the rules and therefore those votes should not be recounted. 

The DNC decided to penalize both Florida and Michigan for holding their primaries early, even though four other states also violated the DNC rules, yet these states did not have to pay a penalty, click here to view DNC Delegate Selection Rules pdf.

While the DNC rules allowed for Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina to hold their elections ahead of schedule, the rules stated the following:

        Iowa was not suppose to hold it's election before Jan 5, 2008, it was held on Jan 3.
        New Hampshire was not suppose to hold it's election before Jan 22, it was held on Jan 8.
        South Carolina was not suppose to hold it's election before Jan 29, it was held on Jan 26.

Only Nevada held it's election within the time frame outlined by the DNC rules.

The RBC chose a completely different path for penalizing Michigan voters.  Barack Obama, John Edwards, and Bill Richardson all removed their names from the ballot, while Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gavel all kept their names on the ballot. There was no requirement by the DNC to have their names removed. The only agreement by all candidates was not to campaign there.

Debbie Dingell, a Michigan DNC member stated "those candidates who do not even want Michigan voters to consider them have sent their message to Michigan about how they feel about Michiganders".

So voters in MI that might have voted for either Obama, Edwards or Richardson, could have voted uncommitted since that was a selection on the ballot. 

But, the RBC decided that the penalty to Michigan would be to seat the delegates by 1/2 and that Clinton would get 34.5 delegates (1/2 minus 4 delegates owed to her) and Obama would receive 29.5 delegates (all of the uncommitted plus 4 delegates from Clinton). 

The Democratic party overturned the election results.

Barack Obama knows full well that if you remove your name from a ballot, you do not receive votes.  Just ask Alice Palmer, the Illinois State Senator that Obama removed from the ballot (along with other opponents) on a technicality to be sure that voters would only vote for him!!  (read about it here).

Had Michigan and Florida both seated their delegates in full like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina did, and the delegates had been counted as the voters voted, then the results of the election would have been:

        Hillary Clinton      1,725 pledged delegates
        Barack Obama     1,707 pledged delegates

Hillary Clinton would have won the pledged delegate count by 18 delegates.

(thanks to Riverdaughter at The Confluence for calculating this).

The reality is that Hillary Clinton did win both the pledged delegate votes and the popular vote total:

Popular vote total:

    Hillary Clinton      18,046,007 votes
    Barack Obama     17,869,542 votes

Hillary Clinton won by 176,465 votes

This election was stolen, a sham.

Obama refused to have a re vote in Florida and Michigan even though it would be paid for by other sources.

Why? Because he knew that Hillary Clinton would win both states and therefore win the election.

Instead of wanting the voters in Michigan and Florida to have a say, Mr. Hope and Change, chose to shut them up, just like he did in the Illinois State election.

Donna Brazile said "my mama taught me to play by the rules". If you break the rules, you must be penalized.

Well what about Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina? Why weren't they penalized?

What about all the rules that were broken in the caucuses? Why aren't those states penalized?

If it's playing by rules that matter, then what about the numerous fraudulent claims that took place in the Texas caucuses alone? Read about these incidents here and here

In the precinct I attended in Houston, the Precinct Capt was from out of state and the judge worked on the Obama campaign (both illegal). Many people who voted that night had no identification or proof that they had voted in the primary (which was required). We filled out complaints and affidavits  - so, what happened to these broken rules? Should the Texas caucus results be thrown out?

The Democratic Party made up the rules to achieve the outcome they wanted.

At least not all members of the party and Super Delegates feel the same way. Last week I heard back from two Super Delegates that had this to say:

and this one



For those that tell me to listen to Hillary, she supports Obama, I say I am listening to what she says:

"Always aim high, work hard and care deeply about what you believe in. And, when you stumble, keep faith. And, when you're knocked down, get right back up and never listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on."

So - while the leaders of the Democratic Party have silenced her. We will continue the fight on her behalf and to ensure that everyone knows Hillary Clinton is the Winner of the 2008 Democratic Primary Election.


UPDATE: After I published this blog and sent it to the Super Delegates, I received this message back from one of them:



Just a few websites to help with our goal:

pumaparty.com
pumapac.org
writehillaryin.com
clintondems.com
hireheels.com
gopumaparty.com
hillarysupporters.com
writeinpartyusa.org
clintons4mccain.com
hillarygrassrootscampaign.com
riverdaughter
hillaryclintonforum.net
womenforfairpolitics.com
donedems.com
hillaryunited.com
savagepolitics.com
seatourdelegates.com
noquarterusa.net
liberalrapture.com
nowewont.org
shutthefreudup.com
petitionforhowarddeantoresignasdncchair
petitionpledgetovoteagainstobama
petitionhillarydontbevp
millionwomenmarch.blogspot.com
obamawtf.blogspot.com
rezkowatch.blogspot.com
pumapac.blogspot.com
clintondem.blogspot.com
fair-reflection.blogspot.com
bluelyon.blogspot.com
comealongway.blogspot.com
reflections-in-tyme.blogspot.com
thatsmeontheleft.blogspot.com
mccaindemocrats.blogspot.com
worstlittlecaucusintexas.blogspot.com
caucusconfession.blogspot.com
caucuscheating.blogspot.com
florida-michigan.blogspot.com
floridavoters.blogspot.com
hillbuzz.blogspot.com
hillaryorbust.blogspot.com
politicaldiscontent.blogspot.com
independentsformccain.blogspot.com
americaforhillary.blogspot.com
whatsuddenly.blogspot.com
tominpaine.blogspot.com
heidilipotpourri.blogspot.com
womenstate.blogspot.com
guerillawomentn.blogspot.com
alwaysforhillary.blogspot.com
panmetron.blogspot.com
typicalpawhitewoman.blogspot.com
politicallizard.blogspot.com
nobamablog.blogspot.com
investigatebarackobama.blogspot.com
its-obvious.blogspot.com
powerofpuma.blogspot.com
hillarygreenmountain.com
floridademandsrepresentation
latinosforclinton.com
paresidentsforhillary.com
hillary-clintons-voice.com
walkamileinourshoes.org
misshillaryclinton.com
democrats-against-obama.org
writeinpartyusa.org
knowobama.org
reclusiveleftist.com
givemehill.com
helphillary.org
hillary-wins.com
sugarnspice
bitterpoliticz
insightanalytical
swingcrats.org
perrylogan
paganpower
4hillaryweblog
mudanpoliticalblog
mccainb4obama.com
citizenpressroom
justwatchmeburn.livejournal.com
capitalhillforum.com
hillaryisourchoice.com
dontvoteobama.com
no-obama09.com
stop-obama.org
vet4hill
the28.org
f-u-dnc
hcsfjm.com
lobbydelegates.com
obama-wire.com
obamaunveiled.com
thedailyhill.com
dncboycott.com
democratinexile.com
belltoll.com
slickbarry.com
ladyboomernyc
onevoteonebrick
dems4mccain.org
takedemocratsback.org
changeandexperience.com
elect2009
londonamerican
texasdarlin
hillaryvillagers

    

by Nancy Kivlen

Now it's a nightmare.

Today I registered as a Republican for the first time in my life.

I have been a lifelong democrat, but today my family and I left the Democratic Party and registered as Republicans.

We will be supporting John McCain in November.

We didn't have to re-register, we could have simply voted for McCain in November, but we wanted to send a message to the Democratic Party. We are unhappy, disappointed, and angry at Obama, his supporters, the media and the Democratic Party. 

Barack Obama was Selected, Not Elected by the Democratic party.

"No self respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her" -Susan B Anthony, 1872.

The way in which Obama got the nomination is similar to how Bush won in 2000 against Gore. All votes were not counted and they were not counted equally.

Pledged delegates were won by each candidate either through a primary or a caucus. Obama received most of his delegates by winning caucuses. The very nature of a caucus suppresses voter turnout, since caucuses take place over a few hours on a specific day and do not allow absentee ballots, those that are unable to attend (workers, disabled, mothers with childcare issues) cannot participate. Consequently a delegate in a small state with low voter turnout like Idaho, receives far more weight than a delegate from a primary in a bigger state with high voter turnout, like California.

While the Democrats cried "foul!" to the outcome in Florida over the votes counted and not counted in 2000, this same party decided to count votes in Florida by 1/2 for moving their primary date forward which was not the party's fault.  And in Michigan the Rules & Bylaws committee voted to completely OVERTURN the results of the election and give Obama 59 extra delegates that he did not win, while taking 4 delegates from Hillary Clinton that she did win.

When you consider that Obama "won" the pledged delegates by a mere 3%, or 125.  This includes the extra 59 delegates from a state whose ballot he chose to remove his name from. You can see that the 125 delegate lead is reduced to a mere 58 pledged delegate lead had the delegates been distributed according to the votes. This is called OVERTURNING THE ELECTION RESULTS - the very thing the Democrats cried "foul!" over in 2000.

Pledged Delegates          Barack Obama     1,765  (51%)  + 125   +3%
                                         Hillary Clinton     1,640  (48%) **she takes these to the convention

What MI should have
looked like:                      Barak Obama       1,702   (50.8%)    +58 +1.7%
                                         Hillary Clinton      1,644   (49.1%)


Super Delegates             Barack Obama      424     + 144
                                         Hillary Clinton      282
                                         Uncommitted       118
                                        (Super Delegates can change their mind, final vote at convention)

Hillary Clinton not only won the popular vote in the Democratic primaries, she received more votes than any other candidate in the history of any primary in the United States with over 18 million votes!!

Obama has a history of disenfranchising voters. Not only did he not want the votes counted in Florida or Michigan, he did not want a revote to take place.

I am not surprised, when Obama first came to Chicago and ran for his state senate seat in IL he was successful because he had the incumbent, Alice Palmer and his other opponents removed from the ballot in a legal loophole maneuver. Consequently, he ran unopposed and the popular, qualified incumbent Alice Palmer was OUT!

Obama has lied about his relationships with Rev Wright, Father Pfledger, and convicted terrorist William Ayers. He has also lied about his association with convicted felon Tony Rezko.

Does anyone else find it odd that demands for Hillary to leave the race escalated on a day when his "friend" Rezko was convicted on 16 counts of bribery and fraud that the news media failed to report on?

He has called all these relationships "unfortunate".

This is the politics of "Hope" and "Change"?

Are you kidding me?

The Male Elite Losers of the Democratic party all backed Obama early and consistently called for Hillary to quit the race.  Dashle, Bradley, Kerry, Edwards, Richardson, Leahy, McGovern, Kennedy and Howard Dean are all losers themselves in their quests for the Presidency.  The only Winner in the group supported Hillary Clinton. 

The only President to successfully serve two terms in my lifetime:  Bill Clinton.

Since neither Hillary nor Barack could win the nomination through the election process, due to the tightness of the race, it required the Elite to choose one of them and -how surprising- they chose the younger, inexperienced, unqualified male over the older, experienced, qualified female.  In California we call that DISCRIMINATION.

"Woman is the Nigger of the World" -John Lennon and Yoko Ono, 1972.

"Woman is the Slave of Slaves, We insult her every day on TV and wonder why she has
  no guts or confidence. When she's young, we kill her will to be free. While telling her
  not to be so smart, we put her down for being so dumb."

How can I vote for McCain?

EASY. This is my protest vote.

Sometimes the PERSON running (or not running in this case) is MORE IMPORTANT than the issues.

Sometimes if they will not listen, you have to find a way to make yourself heard.

For the 6-10 million Hillary supporters that plan to vote for McCain, or not vote at all - we are lucky. The Republicans actually picked a MODERATE candidate!!! John McCain has similar views to democrats on: global warming, immigration, gay rights (he believes same sex couples should have legal rights of some sort), and campaign finance reform.

Now, of course, Republicans don't have a problem with the idea of many Hillary supporters joining them against Obama.

In fact, I was shocked to see that on McCain's own website blog there were more Hillary supporters there on Wed night than McCain supporters!!

"Welcome Hillary Supporters" one Republican male wrote - "We may not agree on all issues, but we will try to be open minded and hear you, we hope you will be open minded too. Remember, even we Republicans can't agree on very many issues. But we all have one goal and that is to defeat Obama in November."

Senator Joe Lieberman sent us Hillary supporters an email on Friday asking us to join him in supporting John McCain.

Of course Democrats and Independents are appalled at the idea that I would support John McCain. "What about abortion rights and women's rights?" they cry.

Okay - do you not get it? I have just witnessed the biggest abuse of a woman in modern history - the take down of the most qualified, experienced WOMAN candidate by her OWN party.

What about THAT Woman's Rights?

Where was the Democratic Party leadership when Clinton was being verbally abused and having sexist hate messages hurled at her by the media on a nightly basis? Where was the media when the Obama campaign screamed "Racist" at Bill & Hillary Clinton?

NOWHERE.

Nope - it ain't gonna work - not this time.

Threatening me with Supreme Court justices and overturning Roe v Wade isn't gonna work this time. If it was not overturned in the last 8 years under the most conservative, backwards administration and congress in my lifetime, then it surely will not be overturned under a more moderate McCain Presidency who will have a majority Democratic congress.

And - I do not care about the war anymore. The Deaths of the 4,000 soldiers killed sit squarely on the shoulders of the stupid idiots that voted for Bush - TWICE. Talk to THEM.

I have been a loyal democrat, I supported John Kerry, even though I didn't like him. I knew the stakes were high then, but stupid people voted for Bush and here we are.

"Women's Rights are Human Rights" -Hillary Clinton, 1995 Beijing, China

This is about how Hillary Clinton has been UNFAIRLY treated as a Woman candidate for President: by the media, by Obama, by his supporters and by the Democratic Party.

If we do not correct it now and speak out about it now, then it will not change.

We must protest.

This is about WOMEN'S RIGHTS and telling the Democratic Party that the 60% membership of women in the party count too.

I no longer share the values of a party that selects it's nominee through a series of discriminating and disenfranchising methods. Where certain votes count and others do not.

My Goal is to Have Hillary Clinton as PRESIDENT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.  Not just ANY Woman - THE Woman, Hillary Clinton.

I wish she'd leave the Democratic Party and run as an Independent. She won't do that, but voting for McCain opens it up for her to run in 2012.

It is the fastest path for her to be elected barring the possibility that my new party will find enough trash in Obama's background to have the Super Delegates change their mind at the Convention. Obama is the 'presumptive' nominee.

And finally, I do not believe Obama has the experience, qualifications or Character to be President. 1 year in the Senate (2 years running for office) does not qualify him. In fact, if he won - he would be the LEAST QUALIFIED, LEAST EXPERIENCED President we EVER had in our ENTIRE History.

I believe the Vice President position is an INSULT to Hillary Clinton (she's already done that will Bill).  Still, I would like to see her take it for the simple reason - it is HISTORY making and she is only a heartbeat away from the #1 spot .....things happen....

Yes - I would vote for Hillary Clinton as Vice President, I could never vote against her.

I am glad that Hillary will only suspend her campaign and hold all her delegates until the Convention. Since the final vote by all delegates is not cast until the Convention.

And let's be clear.

Obama did not SOAR to this nomination - HE LIMPED. In fact Hillary won the last 6 out of 9 contests. She has won most of the contests since March. She has WON ALL SWING STATES. She has the stronger poll numbers against McCain and she wins the electoral swing states needed to secure the nomination.

It is the closest election in the Democratic Primary history.

Here is just how close the popular vote numbers came out:


In the end everyone makes up their own mind about who to vote for and why. That's America.

But, for me. November, 2008 - I will send a message to Barack Obama and the Democratic Party:

"No You Can't".  "Not This time."

John McCain for President 2008

It's time to do your job and nominate the Democrat that can actually BEAT John McCain in November.

By Nancy Kivlen

The following information was taken from the following sources: Jay Cost (Real Clear Politics), Gallup Polls Study, P. Cronin (The Confluence), Electoral-vote.com, and Hillary Clinton's website.

Hillary Clinton should be the democratic nominee based on the fact that she is the most qualified and most experienced candidate. Time and again, Hillary Clinton has out polled both John McCain and Barack Obama on questions of the economy, which is the key issue to winning in November. Most important, Hillary Clinton will win the popular vote total for the Democratic nomination:



This graph from Real Clear Politics illustrates the way in which actual votes are disseminated to pledged delegates.

Essentially, smaller, less populated states (like Idaho and Alaska) where Democrats will NOT be competitive in the fall and who hold low electoral vote numbers are weighted far more heavily than larger, more populated states (like OH or PA) where Democrats NEED to be competitive and win in the fall, and which hold much larger electoral vote numbers.





Hillary Clinton has the strongest coalition of supporters which the democrats need to win in November.


These graphs show the coalition that supported Senator's Clinton v. Obama in the primaries where exit polling data was tracked.

These results are clearly consistent with what we found in the voting data. White males have been a kind of swing vote nationwide, but Clinton has performed extremely well with them in the Republican swing states. Unsurprisingly, she also won Hispanics and white women. Obama, per usual, carried the African American vote.

What about white voters by age? We know that, nationwide, young whites are partial to Obama, older whites partial to Clinton. What about in the Republican swing states?

While Obama did better among young whites, Clinton still carried them. Furthermore, she carried whites of all age groups.

What about partisanship? We know that white Democrats are partial to Clinton, white Independents are partial to Obama. Does this apply to the Republican swing states?

The answer is yes and no. While Obama did better with white Independents, Clinton still won them.

What about income groups?

Again, we see that while Obama did better with wealthier voters than with poor voters - Clinton won all categories.

What about our other metric of socioeconomic status, college education?

Clinton won those without college degrees comfortably, and the two basically split the college educated.

Finally, what about votes by type of living area? We can break these into three categories - city, suburb, and small town/rural. Let's see how each candidate did.

While Obama carried the cities, Clinton won the suburbs by a solid margin. The results from the rural areas are particularly noteworthy. What you see there is a 40-point Clinton victory.

All in all, the exit poll data, the statewide votes, and the countywide votes point in the same direction: Clinton is stronger in the areas that have swung presidential elections in the last decade. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that she would be relatively stronger at recreating the voting coalition that has provided victory to the Democrats in years past.

Gallup Organization did this analysis pointing out that Clinton, not Obama is by far the stronger candidate in the swing states which are necessary for Democrats to win in November:

Swing states won by Clinton, excluding Florida and Michigan:

Swing states won by Clinton, including Florida and Michigan:

The analysis by Gallup:

In the 20 states where Hillary Clinton has claimed victory in the 2008 Democratic primary and caucus elections (winning the popular vote), she has led John McCain in Gallup Poll Daily trial heats for the general election over the past two weeks of Gallup Poll Daily tracking by 50% to 43%. In those same states, Barack Obama is about tied with McCain among national registered voters, 45% to 46%.

In contrast, in the 28 states and the District of Columbia where Obama has won a higher share of the popular vote against Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primaries and caucuses, there is essentially no difference in how Obama and Clinton each fare against McCain. Both Democrats are statistically tied with him for the fall election.

         The Gallup study directly supports Clinton's assertion that she will be a stronger general-election candidate against          John McCain in crucial battleground states, based on her primary election performance.  Obama, on other hand,               cannot claim a similar advantage.

The following maps are from various unbiased sources. Each source shows the SAME information: Hillary Clinton handily beats John McCain in November in the General Election and Barack Obama does not.

REMINDER: The Winner needs 270 Electoral Votes to win the Presidency

Map 1 (from Karl Rove polling): McCain vs. Clinton.  McCain has 206 EV Clinton as 259 EV with 73 toss-ups



Map 1 (from Karl Rove polling): McCain vs. Obama.  McCain has 238 EV Obama as 221 EV with 79 toss-ups



Map 2: Hillary leads McCain by 120 EVs






Map 2: Obama loses to McCain by 46 EVs





Map 3: Hillary has 327 EVs McCain has 194 EVs with 17 toss-ups

May 28

Electoral Votes: Clinton 327     McCain 194     Ties 17

---

Map 3: Obama has 266 EVs McCain has 248 EVs with 24 toss-ups

May 28

Electoral Votes: Obama 266     McCain 248     Ties 24

---

From P. Cronin's excellent analysis of how Caucuses do not accurately reflect the will of the people.  First and foremost, they suppress a large number of voter's based on their restrictive nature:




This graph outlines the differences between voters that participated in Primaries vs. Caucuses.

The sizable difference in voter participation between primary and caucus states is even more startling when viewed as a
comparison of total votes cast.  Of the 33.5 million popular votes in the 2008 Democratic Primaries, caucus voters have
collectively cast only 3.2% of the total or 1.1 million votes. In perspective, voters in the New Jersey primary alone cast
58,000 more votes than cast in all 13 caucus states combined. Further, Senator Obama has won 5 states where he drew
nearly 1.1 million votes and Senator Clinton has won 5 states with more than the 1.1 million cumulative caucus votes. 






If there were not such stringent restrictions that filter-out so many would-be voters from caucusing, how many would have participated?  And, how would those unheard voices have voted?

In aggregate, the 13 caucus states have 23.2 million eligible voters.  The average Democratic voter turnout in 2008
caucuses has been 4.5% versus 19.92% in primaries.  So, if caucus turnout was similar to all primaries roughly 4.6 million Dems would have voted. 

Example 1: On February 9, Washington held its statewide caucus and an estimated 245,000 caucus-goers 5.3% of
eligible voters chose Obama over Clinton by 67.5% to 31.2%, a whopping 36-point margin. Ten days later, WA held a
primary attended by 691,381 [15% of eligible voters, ie, almost 3 times the caucus turnout] and Obama won by 51.2% to 45.7%.

Citizens of WA voted-in a State-run Primary. However, the Party-run caucus results are still the legal results.

Washington allocated its 78 pledged delegates at a ratio of 2:1 [67% to 33%] and Obama got 52 versus Clinton's 26.

Obama gained 26 delegates.  If the pledged delegates had been allocated according to the primary results, Obama would have 41 delegates compared to Clinton's 37. Obama would have gained 4 delegates.

Bottom line: The caucus vs. primary benefited Obama by a net 22 delegates, 14.5% of the 152 pledged delegates separating the two.

Example 2:  Texas held a primary & caucus on March 4 and once again widely different results were recorded.  Over 2.8
million Texans voted in the primary and gave Clinton a 100,000 vote margin over Obama, a 52% to 48% win. However,
just hours later, the Texas caucus registered an Obama win over Clinton of 56% to 44% [with 41% of the precincts
reporting, total caucus participation has not been released].  Allocation of the 126 primary pledged delegates were Clinton
65 and Obama 61.  Allocation of the 68 caucus pledged delegates were Obama 38 and Clinton 29. 

Bottom line: Obama actually won 5 more pledged delegates than Clinton in Texas. Common sense begs the question if this result was truly in line with the will of Texas voters.
 
Example 3:  On February 9, Nebraska held a caucus and only 3.04% of the 1.3 million eligible voters participated.  Those
38,571 caucus-goers chose Obama over Clinton 68% to 32% and he won 16 of the 24 pledged delegates.  In stark
contrast, on May 13th, Nebraska held a primary where nearly 94,000 voters [7.5% of eligible voters] chose Obama by
49.4% to 46.6%, only 2.8% instead of the 36% vote-spread recorded in the caucus.  If delegates were allocated on the
results of the primary instead of the caucus, Obama and Clinton would have received 12 pledged delegates each.

Bottom line:  Obama's 13,700 vote victory in the red-state Nebraska caucus netted him 8 pledged delegates. Compare that to Clinton's 204,000 vote victory in the battleground state of Ohio which netted her only 9 pledged delegates.

(update by Nancy): On May 27, 2008 Idaho also held a primary (after their Feb 5 caucus) where twice as many Democrats voted as in the caucus. Obama won the caucus by 62 points (79 to 17). In the primary, Obama won 56% to 38%, or by 18%. This is more in line with the neighboring Oregon primary results. The results of the pledged delegate count in all instances (WA, TX, NE, ID) would have been drastically different based on the primary results vs. the caucus results.

Compare these Obama caucus wins with Clinton primary wins. Which states are more important to win in the
General Election?  Which are a stronger indicator of candidate strength and offer a better barometer for voter preference
for the Democratic nominee?  42% of Obama's wins are caucus states, 95% of Clinton's wins are primary states.

Never in our history has the Democratic nomination race been this close. The job of the Super Delegates is to make a determination as to which candidate will be the best President and will win in November.

Our party has always stood for counting votes, being a "Big Tent" for all citizens to belong. Our party and the country suffered greatly when voters were disenfranchised in Florida in 2000, which cost us the election. The democratic party must stand up and count ALL of the votes. Regardless of the final pledged delegate count, Hillary Clinton will have received the MOST VOTES and therefore this MUST be taken into consideration particularly when so many of Obama's delegates were won through the disenfranchisement of caucus voters.

Women are the majority of the Democratic Party and as such have found a voice in the First Woman to ever get this far in a Presidential election. To dismiss this woman, Hillary Clinton, is to dismiss us.

Hillary Clinton is far more qualified, far more experienced and has actually WON the nomination through the voting process, to ignore this and give it to an inexperienced, unqualified candidate is a slap in the face of every woman.

There are many of us, lifelong Democrats, that simply will not support Senator Obama should he become the nominee. I am certainly one of those people. But, I will go a step further and actually leave the Democratic party and support Senator McCain for President. I tell you this not as a threat, but as a fact. I tell you this not because I am angry (though I am), but because I believe that my country is more important than the party I belong to. I simply cannot, in good faith, vote for a candidate that would be the LEAST experienced President we have ever had in our history and has absolutely NO foreign policy experience of any kind in his resume.

Thank you for listening and I urge you to hire and nominate the best candidate for the job, Senator Hillary Clinton.

"I wish everyone saw her like I did - I Love Hillary" - comment from Jen, young woman in Portland Starbucks

My day started out very early on Saturday, May 17th when I caught a 6:30am flight to Portland with my fellow Hillstar supporter, Chris.

At the Portland baggage claim area, we ran into Dolores Huertas, the sister of Ceasar Chavez and past leader of the united migrant farm workers union, a huge Hillary Supporter. She was there working on Hillary's campaign. As we were talking to her, who should walk by but Chelsea Clinton!!

Chris said "Chelsea?" She turned to us and came over and said "Hi  - I like your outfit" (we both had on our Hillary T-shirts).  I gave her a hug and kiss, we asked her "What are you doing?" She replied "I'm not sure, I'm suppose to go to Planned Parenthood and then to a triathalon to greet them as the come through the finish line." She looked a little tired, her shirt was rumpled, hair a bit messy and she had a large starbucks coffee in her hand. "So, what are you doing?" she asked us and we told her we weren't sure either, but we were heading into the Portland office to see what needed to be done. "Oh, that's great" she said and we said our good-byes and that we would probably all see each other later.

We picked up our rental car and headed into downtown Portland. It was an extremely hot day and we were asked to head down to the Farmer's Market along the water front and talk to people about Hillary.  We did that, but weren't having much luck because most people were from out of state, or not even registered. The few we did meet, had already decided on Obama. Portland is certainly Obama-demographics: liberal, hippie-types and lots of college students. I knew these next few days would be a real challenge.

Instead of wasting our time here, we headed over to Clackamas Park, a suburb of Portland to the Bill and Chelsea Rally.

The outside temperature on our car read 103 degrees!!! ouch!!!  My friend, Polly, called to tell me she was on her way to see Chelsea at a triathalon (a-ha the one Chelsea mentioned) near Bend, Oregon.

In the meantime, Chris and I volunteered to direct traffic and stand at the entrance of the park with our Clinton signs.

When Bill Clinton finally showed up, we wiggled our way towards the front. He gave a GREAT speech, talked for over an hour.  During his speech, Chelsea showed up and joined him on stage.

Watch the videos and pictures: here, here, and here.

Some of the things that Bill spoke about was shared prosperity and how the middle class in America is shrinking because the last 7 years have given most of the tax benefits to the wealthiest Americans. In the meantime, the middle class has been going backwards, incomes shrinking, and the poor have gotten poorer. He likened it to 3rd world dictatorship in South America.

He asked the crowd if they wondered whatever happened to the contaminated toys from China story. He explained that it has been quickly overlooked because we are beholden to the Chinese since we have borrowed so much money from them. He says it's like "going to your bank and wanting to slap the Bank President across the face" - but you know you won't do that. Why? "Because he may not give you the loan you need." He talked about how we borrow money from China to pay the Saudis for oil. How Hillary's plan to take on Opec and create green collar jobs to provide incentives to come up with alternative fuels. "If we had cars that got 100 miles to the gallon, you wouldn't care what the price of oil was."

Bill also talked about how Hillary can "still win this thing". She is closing the gap on the pledged delegates, she now leads in the popular vote, and - most important- every poll shows how she can beat McCain. This is the argument that needs to be made to the Super Delegates.

After he was done with his speech, he came into the crowd for pictures.  Chris got her photo autographed. We saw Chelsea again and spoke. She signed a picture I had and we got our photo taken with her.

It had been a long, hot day - so we made our way back to Chris' brother's home on beautiful Lake Oswego, where we were staying.

Over the next couple days - we pounded the pavements of Portland and the surrounding areas on behalf of Hillary.

We hit the Farmer's Markets in the suburbs of Milwaukee and Hillsboro - far more friendlier crowds of people for Hillary. We met an adorable older woman, 88 years old to be exact, who was in her wheelchair at an outdoor market taunting everyone around her to "get your ballots in for Hillary". One older man said he had gotten his in, but she challenged him "are you sure?". Both her wheelchair and her son's wheelchair had big Hillary signs all over them.

In between our tasks, we would head into the Portland headquarters and do phone banking for awhile. Oregon has a vote-by-mail system, many voters had already sent in their ballots, our goal was to locate those that had not and were still deciding. At this point it was too late to mail in their ballots and so we had to be sure they understood that they needed to return their ballots to a nearby ballot drop-off location, and let them know where these were.

On Monday morning, we headed over to the Portland Zoo with our Hillary signs, a crowd was gathering because Chelsea was going to be there. Once again, we saw her - she said "Hi guys!" when she saw Chris and I (again).  She asked me "how's it going?" "Good" I responded and I wished her "Good Luck" with the vote on Tuesday.

You can see the video and pictures of Chelsea at the Zoo Hillary Headquarters in Portland here.

Chris and I were interviewed by the local media, Chris' remark of "Only Hillary can beat McCain, Barack can't win" was played all over the local news that evening. We laughed as that became our mantra - "Barack can't win!".....

In the afternoon, we visited the trendy area of Portland, called Nob Hill and went up and down the street with our Hillary signs talking to people about why they should vote for Hillary. One man called us "Demoncrats" and said he was 'votin' for McCain'.  At a nearby hospital, we went inside - I had an idea of yelling out "anyone here need health insurance?" in the lobby which was packed with sick people. However, the man behind the counter checking people in said we couldn't do that!! A nurse behind him scolded him and said "why can't they? half those people in there don't have insurance and at least Hillary is offering that!". He got defensive and said it wasn't his rule, it was the union's rule.

We went outside and talked to a nurse who wanted to understand the difference between Hillary's healthcare plan and Obama's (she was leaning Obama) - we explained the differences and she seemed to change her view towards Hillary. She gladly accepted our "Nurses for Hillary" buttons to hand out to her colleages.

I must say, that even though the crowds in Portland were a difficult group - I was happy to return to 'sanctuary' of Lake Oswego each evening. Especially one night when we went for a boat ride out on the Lake. The weather was fantastic, the scenery was awesome, the company was great. This took the pressure off of the realization that it did not look too promising for Hillary.

On Tuesday, the last day to vote - Chris and I headed into the Portland office to help with last minute phone banking and to head out and canvas in the downtown Portland area. This was much more difficult than the canvasing in Pennsylvania. First off, it was mostly apartments - difficult to get into and to find people that were home. In the random ones we did find home, most had already voted and most had voted for Obama.

We were desperate for a Starbucks by late afternoon and so we headed to a nearby one and ordered a mint chocolate frappacino!!! Delicious. We had all our Hillary gear on, along with our signs and after a few disappointing encounters with voters for Obama, it was refreshing to run into first an older couple that lived in Portland and were huge Hillary supporters. The woman said "I sure hope Hillary can pull this off somehow". We discussed how the elite male DNC party members had it in for her. "why?" I kept asking. The woman said "why do you think? isn't it obvious?" silence. "She's a woman, dear. These men don't want a woman as President." Her words just hung there.

After they left we ran into another young couple, Jen and her boyfriend. Jen said to me "I wish everyone could see Hillary the way I do - I love her." Her boyfriend loved her too. In Jen's eyes, Hillary was her hero. Jen was busy working for a democratic nominee running for Attorney General - she didn't think he was going to win, so she said she would head over to Hillary's Portland headquarters later in the evening to watch the returns and celebrate with like-minded Hillary lovers.

It was an interesting observation, but we were meeting more and more democrats who were supporting Hillary and said they would not support Obama if he won. We heard this from Jen and her boyfriend, but also from alot of the volunteers at Hillary's headquarters.

Overall, the day was a difficult one. First came the news that Ted Kennedy had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, the weather had also changed to much cooler and raining on and off. Back at the headquarters, more phone banking and the news crew was there.

The campaign asked us to go out and observe the ballot box drop off place at a library in Multnomah county from 6-8pm.

The last ballot could be dropped off at 8pm, but no later.

We headed out there, parked our car in the lot next to the ballot boxes and watched as car after car pulled up and dropped off their ballots. We took off all our Hillary pins and labels and signs as we were told that this was not allowed.

I really thought this was going to be a piece of cake as everything was so organized.  We were practically falling asleep in the car, listening to a local radio station that had interviewed Hillary earlier about what she likes to eat "chocolate", what about ice cream? "chocolate - fudge - chocolate". As Hillary went on and on about chocolate, all I could think of was how much I wanted another chocolate mint frappacino from Starbucks. "What's your favorite TV show?" the interviewer was asking, Hillary replied she couldn't miss "Grey's Anatomy". As I was dozing off I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, a young girl that walked up to the ballot box with a thick pile of ballots in her hand and she put them into the ballot box.

I ignored this until she came back a few minutes later with a bunch more. Then I jumped out of the car and went up to her "what are you doing?" I was quite accusatory, especially when I saw she had a big OBAMA button on her shirt. She claimed she was helping people to get through the line more quickly. I told her "no, no, no you can't do that". I told her it was illegal for her to wear her obama button and for her to collect the ballots. She got a little beligerent and said "who are you?". I told her I was a volunteer for Hillary's campaign and that she was disobeying all the rules.  I saw Chris on the phone in the background making a call to the legal hotline to report this. Suddenly, the girl took off.

Meanwhile the woman who had been directing traffic into the library came over to talk to us and said that she had been doing this all day and that she told her to leave, but she wouldn't. She couldn't leave her traffic post, so she didn't know who to report it to. A sheriff showed up and Chris and the traffic woman reported it to him.  A little while later, I saw the Obama girl go into the library, I didn't think anything of it until traffic woman told me there was a ballot box drop off in there as well. I high tailed it into the library, but couldn't find Obama-girl anywhere. I told the library woman about Obama-girl and she said she would keep an eye out and report her if she came back.

We were dishing politics with the traffic girl who recently moved to Oregon from Alabama. She told us she had no clue why anyone would vote for "O-bama - isn't he a muslim?".....

Around 7:30pm the "official" ballot poll workers showed up and at 7:45pm, there was still a long line of cars coming in. There was an Obama precinct captain that came up and we all agreed that the clock on the front of the library (which was running slow) would be the "official" clock we all use to call "time" at 8:00pm.

It seemed like most of the cars were gonna make it in by 8pm. Then at 8pm on the dot, the poll worker got behind the last car and followed it to the ballot box.

There were a few cars that came in around 8:05pm and later, their ballots were collected, but would not count. The Obama precinct capt thought the poll workers should tell those people that their votes wouldn't count, but they were instructed that they did not have to reveal this because it says right on the ballot that your vote won't count if it isn't in by 8pm. Furthermore, these elderly women said they did not want to get into a fight with someone. The Obama precinct Captain thought that was unfair. I argued with him, if you care so much about votes counting then perhaps you can convince your team to count the votes in Michigan and Florida.

When we got into our car around 8:30pm or so - they had already called Oregon for Obama! Geez. Don't even wait for all the ballots do be counted!!!  But our disappointment was offset by the extremely LARGE 35% victory Hillary had, once again, in Kentucky.

When we got back to our sanctuary in Lake Oswego, Chris' brother told us we were on the news again!!! He saw us at Hillary's campaign headquarters earlier in the day.

We had a glass of wine and watched the finale of Dancing with the Stars. It did not go unnoticed that, finally, a woman won this competition!!! Could this be an Omen? I couldn't help but mentally compare the similarities: Kristi Yamaguchi was clearly the best dancer, had the best techniques and did the best job - but it was possible that she would be overshadowed by the younger, handsome, african-american football player, who was far more popular.  But, in the end, the voters chose the better dancer........

Let's just hope the Super Delegates will too.

Pennsylvania says "You're Hired!" to Hillary Clinton

At the Clinton Rally the night before the election, Hillary Clinton told a crowd of 8,000 at Univ of Penn that this was the "longest job interview" anyone has seen. But that was okay because it's for the "hardest job in the world". To paraphrase, she said "If you're still undecided - when you go to cast your vote tomorrow think of this as a job interview and that you are hiring the person that you believe is the most qualified, most experienced and knowledgeable to handle all the problems that we will face in the coming years.  And if you believe that I'm the best person for the job and you offer it to me - well - I accept!"

And Pennsylvania spoke loud and clear - they want experience, they want a leader, they want a person that can handle the pressures of the job. Hillary Clinton has certainly displayed the leadership and qualifications to do this.

I arrived in Philadelphia in the wee hours of Saturday morning, due to flight delays. After a few hours of sleep at a nearby airport hotel, I picked up my two compadres, Ann & Chris, from San Diego and we headed up to Norristown where the San Diego Hillary contingency had been assisgned.

There, we ran into Vicki and Pat - two other supporters from San Diego and we were given the assignment to begin canvassing on behalf of Hillary "right away". I was a little nervous about this task since I had never really done this before - suddenly phone banking was looking a lot more exciting to me. But, we met a very nice woman, Jeannie, from the area who had been doing this and so the 4 of us (Jeannie, Ann, Chris and I) took off in her car and begin the task of going door-to-door in search of votes for Hillary Clinton.

It was a hot humid day - in the high 80's and the sweat was pouring off of us.  But, as we made our rounds through Montgomery County, we met many very friendly people.  I should note that we only went to homes of registered Democrats and it was our mission to find out if they were supporting Hillary or Barack, or if they were leaning one way or the other, or undecided.

To our surprise, there were still many undecideds, but the majority of homes we hit were supporting Hillary.  We did not challenge Obama supporters, we simply thanked them and left - but, when we had the opportunity to speak about Hillary to those undecideds or leaning Obama, we each had our own way of convincing people that Hillary was the best candidate for the job.

As the day went on, the task became easier.  Towards the end of the day, we were beginning to hit homes in a Jewish neighborhood and realized that it was Passover.  One home, the family was very friendly - the woman supported Hillary, but her two sons were Ron Paul supporters, they invited us for the Seder and offered us beverages to cool down.

That evening, we were exhausted - but our group had a great dinner at the King of Prussia Mall before checking into our hotel and crashing for the evening.

On Sunday, we met Jeannie in the morning and hit a new area of Montgomery County for a few hours.  Then, back at the Norristown office, we stopped to see Chelsea Clinton who came by to rally the troops and go canvassing herself. Here is a video of the office & Chelsea's visit, click here.

Jeannie had to meet a bus load of supporters coming in from Conn. So Ann, Chris and I went back out and canvassed on our own.

Over the next few days, the three of us canvassed Montgomery County in areas near Bucks County, Montgomeryville and near Norristown. Some of these areas were more rural, some were more upscale, and some were more working class.

In my opinion, it became clear that if rural Pennsylvania is anything like the rest of the country, then Barack Obama will have a difficult time winning a general election. This is not to say that we didn't meet Obama supporters - we did, but there were far less of them than there were Clinton supporters. Some people raised concerns about an Obama Presidency.  It's not the lack of experience, but the lack of knowledge about who he is, "where did he come from?" one woman asked me. "Who is he?" was a common theme among some cynical voters, while some were not thrilled about the thought of 8 more years of Clintons (mainly due to past scandals), they seemed far more ready and willing to have that then someone they really didn't know.  Another woman, kept referring to him as "Bahama" and did not like the whole issue surrounding Rev Wright.

Over the four days we were there, we estimated we went to about 500 houses during our canvassing efforts. Of course most people were not home, but even though there were some people that did not want to talk to us, most people were pretty friendly. I enjoyed discussing why I support Hillary Clinton for President. One Obama supporter asked me "Why would you support Clinton?" insinuating that it was more of the same. I told him it wasn't more of the same Hillary is not Bill.  I think she has the experience to get Universal Healthcare. He was skeptical that we weren't going to see Universal Healthcare, I told him at least Hillary will try. She has a history with healthcare, Obama doesn't. I pointed out that Obama supported the Bush/Cheney energy bill which gave tax cuts to oil companies, Hillary didn't. Also, most people remember how prosperous the 90's were. He said he thought Obama could unite the country. I said "how?" If he can't unite the party, how can he unite the country? I'm not sure he changed his mind.

But, there were many people we spoke with that really struggled with who to vote for. In the end, I used "guilt". "I flew all the way from California to ask for your vote! That's how much I believe in Hillary Clinton!".  People seemed genuinely surprised that my friends and I flew across the country to support Hillary.

I also appealed to women by saying "if you're still undecided by the time you get into the voting booth, could you at least vote for Hillary because she's a woman? Do it for all the other women, please." Wouldn't it be nice to finally have a woman as a President? Someone that will put women's issues like equal pay, women's health, child care, caring for elderly parents, teen pregnancies, pre-K education - these types of things at the forefront? For some women, they seemed to connect to this.

Much has been made of the new voters that Obama has brought into the democratic process - young people that have not shown this much interest in politics before. I admit, most of the homes we went to were not young people, rather people in their mid-30's on up. But, I was quite impressed by the number of women I met who were former Republicans but had switched parties simply to vote for Hillary Clinton. I also met a number of younger, single mothers and women who had never voted before, but registered for the first time to vote for Hillary Clinton. The media does not bring attention to this, instead they focus on Obama's popularity with younger votes and that is a shame.

On Monday, the day before the election, we attended the Clinton Rally in downtown Philadelphia at the Palestra Center, Univ of Penn. The place was wild with excitement, both on the streets and inside. The energy was enthusiastic and the crowd was pumped up. Stephanie Tubbs-Johnson, from Ohio, spoke first - she was great and charged up. Then, Mayor Nutter from Philly spoke, followed by Gov. Rendell and then Chelsea Clinton. She talked about how her mother will be a better President than her father because she is "more progressive and better prepared". She knows what it takes to run the white house.

Bill Clinton spoke and the crowd went wild. He talked about the importance of having a Commander in Chief that understands the complexities of the economy and the world. He mentioned that Hillary was running late, so he needed to keep talking until she got there. "When I'm forced to ad-lib, it usually winds up in the news the next day!".

With that - Hillary showed up with all the energy, bounce and zeal of someone that looked like they were about to win!!

The crowd went wild - watch my videos by clicking here,  here, and here.

Hillary's speeches have gotten better - she connects with the crowd even more effectively than when I saw her in San Diego. She gets to the point and she knows how to get the crowd worked up and responsive. Whether she's talking about gas prices, jobs, the cost of education or healthcare - she hones in on personal stories and facts that relate to people in their every day lives. My personal favorite line that she said was "America and the World will breathe a sigh of relief when that moving van pulls into the back of the white house and takes them back to Texas!". The crowd stomped their feet!!

It must have been nearly midnight by the time we left, Hillary was still there surrounded by the crowd signing autographs along with Bill. We must have said at least a dozen times "how does she do it?". We were exhausted from our day of canvassing, but this 60-year old woman has the energy of a 20 year old and she always looks refreshed and renewed!!

On the day of the election, we were suppose to be at a visability rally in Conshohocken by 7am!!! I admit, I slept in before packing up at the hotel. Ann, Chris and I grabbed some fast food and headed down there as fast as our tired bodies would allow us. After parking, we saw the group of Hillary supporters, grabbed our signs and joined them. We had no clue where we were (in relation to anywhere else), but it was a cute town and the fire station we were standing in front of was also a polling place.  There were alot of media trucks everywhere and I heard someone say "she should be here any minute." Who was coming, I asked - "Hillary". Wow!!! I had no idea!!! This was gonna be GREAT.

Before Hillary got there, a woman came up to us and started asking us questions. We later found out that she is Gail Sheehy of Vanity Fair, and an author of the book "Passages" and "Hillary's Choice", click here to read more about her. We told her how we traveled from CA to come here and support Hillary. She asked if we would support Obama if he wins. I told her I wouldn't and she was surprised to hear this. She had heard that some of Hillary's supporters weren't going to support him and wanted to understand the motivation behind that thinking. I said, for me, it was because I have been doing this for 14 months, like Hillary, and if she isn't the nominee I will be bitter and angry. It's her time and it's her turn. Obama could have waited, he's young enough and could have run later. She asked if I was angry at Obama and I told her I was more angry at the media and the DNC. I thought the DNC had a supid way of picking a President. How stupid is it that Hillary can win Texas by 100,000 votes, but lose in the delegate count?

She mentioned that Obama was a "movement", I told her I see him more as a Brand - a great media marketing blitz.

My conversation with her was cut short because Hillary suddenly showed up!! I must say, this was the highlight of the trip because Hillary came right up to us and talked to everyone. The photos and video I have of her at this event are fantastic. Watch here and here.  I added a page on my website to showcase more photos and videos, right here.

Hillary was so friendly, approachable and engaging. It was fun to see her in this setting, talk to her and get our pictures taken with her.  When she was done working the crowd, she went to a local diner and ordered a Philly Cheesesteak with extra onions to go.

After our morning with Hillary, we hit a few more homes found more and more that were voting for her. I think those undecideds began to break for her.

By early evening, we checked into our downtown Philly hotel, no sooner had we grabbed a bite to eat and CNN called the race for Hillary!!! OMG!! That was quick!! We thought it might go all night since the pundits were saying it was close. I knew Hillary needed a 200,000 vote victory in order to move ahead of Obama in popular votes and SHE DID THIS and then some!!! A 10% victory was sweet!!

We headed over to the Park Hyatt Hotel where the victory party was taking place, but the streets were jammed pack with Hillary supporters and the line was too long to get in - so we just enjoyed the sweet celebrations of Victory near City Hall. Watch my video here.

The next day, with very little sleep, I boarded my delayed flight. The guy sitting next to me said "it's your friend's fault we're delayed." He noted my Hillary button. He said that the Clintons left Philadelphia airport and that delayed all the flights, now he was gonna miss his connection. Yeah, well, so was I. "How does that make you feel?" I told him "I feel just fine, in fact I feel GREAT - I'd miss a flight any day for the next President of United States!"

The media has focused on racism, but sexism has been ignored in this campaign.

by Nancy Kivlen

Journalists comment frequently on Clinton's "likeability", but in dissecting it they are commenting on her emotions: Is she too cold or calculating? Is her voice too shrill, will she do or say anything to win?

Yet when a man is shrewd or calculating, or plays to win - it is acceptable within the framework of our society. A man's laugh or physical appearance is not dissected to the extent that Clinton has had her laugh, looks, clothes, hair, and emotions taken apart by the media.

The author states "sexism is embedded in what is not being said."  She uses the example of Obama and Edwards supporting each other at one of the debates, while going after Clinton and the news commentators never addressing these dynamics.

Another article that appeared in American Chronicle, link here:

Talks about the fact that racial comments or slurs are unacceptable and the media pounces on these quickly. However, sexist slurs against women, and in particular Hillary Clinton, are routinely heard and go unchallenged because it is an acceptable form of behavior in America.

I would use the example of the man holding the sign that stated "Iron my Shirt" when Hillary campaigned in Iowa. This is an unacceptable comment when put in the context of prejudice of any kind. Had the man held up a sign that had racist remarks, there would have been an outcry from the media.

Women are forced into defined roles sanctioned by our society. When women move outside these roles, they are often criticized as they are perceived as a threat.

When some of the "Good ole boys" of the Democratic Party got together and demanded that Hillary Clinton withdraw from the race, this was met with a flood of angry letters from women in the Democratic Party that believed Hillary was a target.  After all, did Ted Kennedy care if he hurt the party when he took his nomination fight against Jimmy Carter all the way to the Convention Floor in 1988?  Here is what Senator Patrick Leahy said:

"There is no way that Senator Clinton is going to win enough delegates to get the nomination. She ought to withdraw and she ought to be backing Senator Obama. Now, obviously that's a decision that only she can make. Frankly I feel that she would have a tremendous career in the Senate."

"Frankly I feel that she would have a tremendous career in the Senate"! She already has a tremendous career in the Senate!!

Lou Dobbs, on his show, pointed out that the Center for Media and Public Affairs has found that since last December, 83% of the reporting on Barack Obama has been positive compared with only 53% on Hillary Clinton. That is a 30% gap in positive media reporting.

Watch Lou Dobbs video here

In an NPR (National Public Radio) interview with Hillary Clinton, the interviewer once again turns the tables on Clinton suggesting it is she that is harming the Democratic Party. Here is how the interview played out:

NPR: Senator, I want you to react to something that I keep hearing among voters, and increasingly among people who cover the campaign - both those who are reporters and those who speak about the campaign on television, on radio - the statement that the only way that Hillary Clinton can win is if she's willing to win ugly. When you hear that, what does that mean to you? How do you react to that?

HRC: Well, I don't' know what it means because there is no way for Senator Obama to win unless he also obtains a significant number of superdelegates. I understand that there has been, throughout this campaign, something of a double standard. I accept it; I live with it.

NPR: What is the double standard?

HRC: Well, I think that it's pretty obvious to anybody who has followed it.

NPR: Just in case it's not clear to someone, I don't want to assume. I just want you to tell me what you think the double standard is because I don't' want to assume.

HRC: No, but you know - for example, why is the question directed at me? I mean, neither of us has the number of delegates to win. It is a problem for both of us. And Senator Obama's supporters refuse to support a revote in Michigan, which I thought was rather odd for the Democratic Party to be against another vote. Senator Obama's supporters wanted to end this contest and short circuit it so that the votes of the people in the next upcoming contest wouldn't count because he has a slight lead. And it's by no means definitive. It would have been like calling the championship game last night with two minutes left to go because somebody was ahead. And that's not how it turned out.

So I mean, the question is often directed at me or my supporters because obviously the other campaign has done a very good job of framing it that way. But the question can equally go to the other side. Where will he get the delegates to win?"

Lou Dobbs echoes Clinton's reasoning. Watch his video here. Even Bill Schnieder agrees that he has never seen anything like the media bias against Senator Clinton. Lou Dobbs states,

"As an Independent and I've got no view one way or the other, but stating she can't win the nomination - neither can Senator Obama!" Dobbs goes on to say "she's leading in Super Delegate votes so why in the world is there this compulsion, this absolute insistence in the national media to talk about the fact she can't win the nomination? I have never seen in my career greater favoritism being applied in the national media broadly speaking than in this campaign on behalf of Senator Obama and against Senator Clinton."

Neither have I! Where else does such bias exist against a candidate running for President who happens to be a woman?

The misogyny in the media about Hillary Clinton continues to go unchecked. Yet the slightest perceived comment of racism can bring people to their knees (Bill Clinton "fairytale", Geraldine Ferraro, a Congressman calling Obama "boy").

The media has modeled our own inequities through double standards and by using demeaning language. Some obvious examples are:

David Shuster saying Chelsea Clinton was being "pimped out".

Michelle Obama stating "If (Hillary) can't clean up her own house, how can she clean up the White House?"

Here's a video of Obama stating that Hillary "periodically attacks" him when she's "feeling down". (this was shortly after the media overplayed her "crying" moment).

Some of the attacks have consequences, Chris Matthews was forced to apologize for his sexist remarks towards Hillary. Randi Rhodes, a former progressive female talk radio host from Air America and an avid Obama supporter was forced to resign her position for saying (and I quote) "Hillary Clinton is a fucking whore!".

The media has decided that strong, intelligent women are unlikable. Women that identify with male centered values are often denigrated by men who feel threatened or who wish to dominate them.

A recent Washington Post news poll shows that Clinton is perceived to be "dishonest and untrustworthy" by 60% of men and over 50% of the country view Clinton unfavorably.

While the poll points to Clinton's recent story about her trip to Bosnia as being one reason people mistrust her, she has apologized and said that she "mis-spoke" about the incident. Yet her opponent, Barack Obama, has fabricated many stories that have not been scrutinized in the same manner:

Obama claimed to an audience in Alabama that his parents conceived him during a march in Selma. Turns out the march was in 1965, Obama was born in 1961.  He claimed the Kennedy family helped airlift his father out of Kenya, this too turned out to be false. There have been misstatements about his involvement with indicted criminal Tony Rezko, and his pastor. 

Can you imagine if even one of these false statements were made by Hillary Clinton? She would be out of the race. 

There is a double standard as to how the misstatements are framed.  Hillary's Bosnia trip is framed by the media as a "lie" and therefore she cannot be trusted. Obama's misstatements are framed by the media as memory lapses.

Hillary Clinton has been viewed as the "fighter" in this race. A woman who must claw, attack, and bring down her opponent in order to win the nomination. Barack Obama has been viewed by the media as new, hopeful, and simply responding to questions he's asked when he says something negative about Hillary.  He need only not mess up in order to win the nomination.

By framing Clinton as an attacker, a woman who will do anything to win including take down her own party, the media sets up the framework to view her through hostile eyes. 

Men and Women both must step outside their comfort zone when examining Hillary Clinton's historic Presidential run. When she is strong and points out Obama's weaknesses, her unfavorable numbers go up and her poll numbers go down. 

People are more comfortable viewing Hillary through our traditional framework of what a woman is suppose to be. When she is perceived as vulnerable or a victim, her unfavorable numbers go down and her poll numbers go up.

The best example of this is New Hampshire. The media potrayed her win because she "cried" and because Obama/Edwards ganged up on her (Obama to Hillary: "You're likeable enough").

In fact most of the undecided voters in NH said they voted for her because she did the best job in the debate.

The sad part if Hillary loses the nomination is that women, both in America and around the world will lose a champion.

Her comprehensive plans to deal with women's healthcare, combating breast cancer, extending family medical leave, providing assistance to families caring for elderly parents, ensuring women's reproductive rights are protected, reducing teen pregnancies are unmatched and have never been a major focus of a campaign. Hillary is an advocate for equal pay for women who currently earn on average .77 cents for every dollar a man earns.

It is ironic that a woman whose experience, knowledge, background and achievements can be overlooked for a younger, charming, less qualified male. Perhaps some things will never change.

Or, to paraphrase the author of the article,  the message that the media is sending to women is not only should you not bother to run for President, but don't try to break through traditional roles held by men. "If you do we will chew you up and spit you out."

And American society will accept this.

If you are tired of the media bias, make a statement, stand up and be heard:

MSNBC:

 

Mr. Phil Griffin – Senior Vice President, NBC News - phil.griffin@nbc.com

 

Steve Capus – President, NBC News - steve.capus@nbc.com

 

MSNBC - letters@msnbc.com

CNN:

Mr. Sam Feist - Political News Director - Sam.feist@cnn.com

Let the Democratic Party know that it is unacceptable not to count the votes in Michigan and Florida. Let them know why Hillary Clinton should stay in this race and become our next President:



        Nancy Pelosi:  
        AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov
        (415) 556-4862
        (202) 225-4965

Howard Dean:
http://www.democrats.org/page/petition/c hairman
202-863-8000

Patrick Leahy:
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
(202) 224-4242
1-800-642-3193

Chris Dodd:
http://chrisdodd.com/contact
Phone (DC): (202) 737-DODD (3633)
Phone (CT): (860) 244-2008

Bill Richardson:
http://www.governor.state.nm.us/email.ph p?mm=6&type=opinion
505-828-2455

Just like the Everready Bunny - she keeps going...and going...and going...

by Nancy Kivlen

The calls by Obama supporters for Hillary to quit the race are deafening. They want YOU to believe that she can't win, but what they are really afraid of is that SHE WILL WIN.

Based on Hillary's comeback history and her perseverance to fight to the finish and win, Obama and his supporters know that this race is far from over. They realize that from Pennsylvania forward it will only get worse for Obama and they are running scared.

Once Hillary wins the last big state in the election there will be a momentum shift towards her in the remaining eight primaries.

Hillary has made comebacks after New Hampshire, South Carolina, Super Tuesday, Ohio & Texas.....So, making a comeback into the final stretch of the nomination is possible.

Obama and his supporters want you to believe that the delegate math simply cannot work in her favor.  That only Obama can win because he has the most pledged delegates.  The Obama campaign, his supporters, and certain members of the Democratic Party leadership want you to believe that it is her fault that the race has turned negative and if she doesn't step down now, the democratic party and Obama's chances to win in the general election will be ruined.  And, it's ALL HER FAULT.

But the truth is that the delegate math does not work out for either candidate and this nomination will be decided by the Super Delegates. Neither of them can reach the magical 2,024 number needed.

When all is said and done and the last vote is counted, Hillary and Barack will be in a statistical tie. She will lead in the popular vote, he will lead in the delegate count. And that is the nightmare the Obama campaign was hoping to avoid.

According to CNN's calculations, Hillary is behind Barack by 161 pledged delegates, when you add in Super Delegates that have committed, then she is behind 129 total delegates.

The Obama people know that from this point forward, the gap between Hillary and Barack in the upcoming primaries will close.  The way the Obama supporters talk you would think there was a 30% or 40% gap between them in delegates - but there is only a 4% gap as of today.

Fourteen months ago Hillary Clinton announced to the world that she was running for President, "I'm in and I'm in to Win!"  She has never ceased to amaze her supporters or detractors with her ability to rally and win even after some daunting defeats.

So how is it that Hillary Clinton got to a place that has her behind in delegates?

Hillary's campaign is partially to blame for it's mismanagement.  She ran her campaign with a big state strategy assuming she would win by larger margins than she did which would have given her an edge in the delegate race.  But that didn't happen.

After her wins on Super Tuesday, Hillary announced that she lent her campaign $5 million dollars because it ran out of money. That shouldn't have happened. Her supporters rallied to her rescue with donations and that has allowed her to stay in the race. Unfortunately, the contributions did not come fast enough to allow her to compete effectively in the races that took place shortly after Super Tuesday: the Potomac Primaries which included Maine, Maryland, D.C. and Virginia, all of which Obama won. This cost her in the delegate race.

But the Democratic Party and the way it allocates delegates from each race is a convoluted mathematical calculation nightmare that has caused the predicament that the Party finds itself in.

One wonders if the Democrats have such a difficult time calculating delegates and selecting a nominee, how on earth will they fix the economy?

When the winner of a state is actually the loser because their calculations show 1 + 1 equals minus 5, then the DNC can point the finger at themselves for causing this mess.

Hillary entered the race as the front runner, but her opponent was a well-funded underdog that ran a 50-state strategy focusing on winning in states that held caucuses with an effective ground game in these states.

A total of 13 states have held caucuses and Barack Obama won all of them except Nevada. A total of about 1 million people voted in these caucuses (excluding the extra caucus for Texas) and Obama won these by a margin of 28% or just under 300,000 votes.

*note: not all the vote results are known in all the caucuses yet, this number is an estimate.

Why did Hillary perform so poorly in states that held caucuses?

Aside from the fact that her campaign did not plan for caucuses effectively, the fact is that caucuses by their very nature are designed to disenfranchise about 95% - 98% of registered voters.  Caucuses are held at a specific location, on a specific day, at a specific time.  They are a public vote and they can take up to several hours to conclude.

Caucuses do not allow absentee voters or military personnel who are not present to participate. If you are out of town at the time your states caucus is held, too bad - you are out of luck and can't vote.  They are inconvenient and difficult to attend for a certain demographic of voters who happen to be the core supporters of Hillary Clinton:  working class, shift workers, single mothers, elderly.  Many of these voters cannot get the time off work, have child care issues and/or are elderly or disabled, and cannot get to the caucus.

Only about 2% to 5% of registered voters actually show up and vote in a caucus.

Texas had a 2-step process where they required democrats to vote in a primary (for 65% of the vote to count) and come back and vote a 2nd time in a caucus for the other 35% of their vote to count!!!

It is about as undemocratic a process as you can imagine, yet that is how they select a nominee in Texas.

To be fair, they are still counting the caucus results, but even though Hillary won this state by a 4% margin, last time I checked, Obama won in delegates.  Hillary received around 94 delegates, Obama 99 and that is how the DNC math works: 1 + 1 equals minus 5!!

It is completely unfair and undemocratic.

When you look at Washington State, you can see similar results.  The caucus in WA state is what counted, however, due to a number of ballot issues the state added, they also held a primary where these voters could  vote for President, as you can see the results were quite different (again). 

	Hillary	Obama	Total
WA Primary	315,740	354,111	669,851
	46%	51%
WA Caucus	75,782	166,231	244,458
	31%	68%
Difference	239,958	187,880	425,393

425,393 more people voted in the Washington state primary, which didn't count,  then voted in the caucus that did count!

Hillary lost by 5% in the primary, but by 37% in the caucus. 

Hillary did not campaign in Washington, when you consider this her primary loss was not that bad.

Caucuses in no way reflect a general election, which in the end has to be the overriding concern of the Democratic leadership and Super Delegates. How will the Democratic nominee do against John McCain in the general election? Caucuses give us no indication of this because of the low voter turnout and lack of exit polling data.

So what happened in the states that held primaries?

A whole different story. 

A total of 31 primaries have taken place, Obama leads in popular vote totals by around 500,000 excluding Michigan and Florida.

If you include Michigan and Florida, Hillary leads by around 95,000 votes.

But Michigan and Florida's votes won't count? !!

Today their votes won't count, because the Democratic leadership has failed to find an adequate solution to their decision to discount these voters for "breaking the rules".  Even though New Hampshire, for example, also broke the rules, the DNC chose to let their votes count.

So, apparently, the DNC's rules are discriminatory.

But the DNC is obligated to resolve the situation in FL and MI to ensure that these voters voices are heard. Hillary and her supporters have asked and offered to pay for a re-vote in these states. Although they cannot be sure of the outcome, they are sure that if voters in these states do not have their votes counted, the Democrats risk losing both states in the general election. Obama and his campaign do not support a re-vote and they do not support having these votes count.

So much for Obama the "Uniter".

If the Democratic party leadership really wanted this race to be over and really wanted Obama to be the nominee, then the Super Delegates could all agree to move to Obama and end the race today. 

Why don't the Super Delegates support Barack Obama and just end the race?

Three reasons

1.  They would anger so many Clinton supporters that instead of 28% of her supporters vowing to vote for McCain in the General Election (if Obama is the nominee), this number could jump even higher as women (in particular) would feel rightly cheated.

2. There are still about 6.4 million more voters that will go to the polls between April and June to vote in the upcoming primaries. You would risk losing support and enthusiasm of these voters.

3. The data from the exit polls scares the Super Delegates because they see that it is Hillary Clinton, not Barack Obama who has the broader support to win in the general election against McCain.

So far over 26 million people have voted in primaries with exit polling information.

These results show the following:

Hillary wins over Obama among the following important groups:

Women	1 million votes	+ 6%
Latinos	993,000 votes	+30%
Democrats	800,000 votes	+ 4%
45 years +	1.5 million votes	+10%

The all important White Male Vote, Hillary wins by a slim margin:

White Male

14,000

less than 1%

Obama wins over Hillary among the following important groups:

African Americans	3.5 million votes	+69%
Independents	750,000 votes	+15%
18-44 years	1.8 million votes	+18%

The areas where Democrats are vulnerable to John McCain in November, based on Republican exit polls are:

White Men, Seniors and Independents

Potential cross overs could be:

White Women and Latinos

Since Hillary Clinton does better among all these demographic groups except Independents, she is the more competitive candidate to be the Democratic nominee.

Super Delegates will pay close attention in the upcoming primary exit polls, as they reveal strengths and weaknesses of each candidate.

In the upcoming nine primaries, Hillary Clinton is poised to win the majority of them based on current polling data in each state. 

Hillary is  expected to win Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Puerto Rico.  Obama is expected to win North Carolina and Oregon.  (Montana and South Dakota are up in the air).

Over 6.4 million people are expected to vote in these primaries, this is about 18% of the total votes that will be cast in the Democratic nomination elections.

With Hillary poised to win most of them, you can see that this race is far from over.

Here is the current state of the popular vote totals as of March 30th:

	Hillary Votes	Barack Votes	Difference
Current (no FL/MI)	12,861,905	13,689,323	-827,418
	48.44%	51.55%	-3.11%
with FL/MI votes	14,061,120	14,265,537	-204,417
	49.64%	50.36%	-.   72

Without FL/MI, Obama leads by 827,418 votes. If you include MI/FL, Obama leads by 204,417 popular votes.

Now look what happens to the popular vote totals after the remaining primaries are finished (based on estimated results from current polling data):

State	Est Clinton Margin Victory	My Est %	Clinton Victory/Loss
PA	10% - 20%	14%	+259,140 votes
IN	6% - 20%	10%	+  79,469 votes
NC	- 10% loss	-10%	-118,864 votes
WV	16% - 40%	20%	+  53,553 votes
KY	16% - 30%	20%	+  89,804 votes
OR	- 6% - -10% loss	- 8%	-   47,535 votes
PR	24% - 30%	26%	+255,000 votes
MT	-10% to + 20%	0%	0
SD	-10% to + 20%	0%	0
TOTAL			+ 570,560

Real Clear Politics has Hillary's margin of victory around 435,220 votes after all the primaries are finished.  US News and World Report has Hillary's margin of victory as high as 933,684.  My guess is it will be somewhere in between.

Here is how the popular vote tally will look by the end of the primary season (estimates):

	Hillary Votes	Barack Votes	Difference
in June (no MI/FL)	16,369,460	16,626,318	-256,858
	49.61%	50.38%	-.77%
with FL/MI votes	17,568,675	17,202,532	+366,143
	50.53%	49.47%	+1.06%

Without FL/MI, Hillary still does not win the popular vote total using  RCP or my estimates, she does win the popular vote using US News & World Report estimates.

When you add in FL/MI, however, she wins the popular vote on all estimates.

There does not appear to be a way for Hillary to catch up in the pledged delegate count, however, neither candidate can reach the 2,024 figure needed to win the nomination.

	Hillary Delegates	Barack Delegates	Difference
current Pledged	1,253	1,414	-161
current Super	243	211	+ 32
Total Current	1,496	1,625	-129
	47.93%	52.06%	-4.13%
thru June	303	259	+ 44
Total Delegates	1,799	1,884	- 85
	48.85%	51.15%	-2.3%

Hillary will still be short 225 delegates, Barack will be short 140 delegate to reach the 2,024 number. I'm estimating about 85 delegates, or just 2% will separate them.

This number does not include unforeseen Super Delegates that continue to weigh in between now and when the primaries end.

If you include FL/MI delegates, then the magic number to win the nomination changes to 2,207, here is what the delegate count would look like:

	Hillary Delegates	Barack Delegates	Difference
FL/MI	178	124	+ 54
Total Delegates	1,977	2,008	-31
	49.61%	50.38%	- .77%

Only 31 delegates would separate them, a difference of less than 1%.

Hillary would still be 230 delegates and Barack would be 199 to reach the 2,207 number needed to win the nomination with MI/FL.

Now we play the Game of "Survivor"

Just like the TV show, Hillary and Barack will appeal to the "Tribal Council Jury" - in this case the Super Delegates to make their cases.

Obama's argument will be that he should be the nominee because:

1. He has the most delegates
2. He (most likely) will have the popular vote excluding FL/MI
3. FL/MI should not be counted because they broke the rules
4. He won more states
   
5. He polls better among independent voters.
6. 19% of his supporters are likely to vote for McCain if he isn't the nominee.
   

Here are the arguments that Hillary will make why she should be the nominee:

1. That Florida and Michigan should count as we will need them in the General Election.
2. That with these votes she wins the popular vote.
3. That she polls better against McCain in the demographics Democrats will need to win in Nov: Whites, Women, Latinos, Seniors and White Men.
   
4. Based on the Electoral College - the states Hillary won were 308 electoral votes vs 230 for Obama
5. The states she won have more voters in them than the states Obama won. Her wins (with FL/MI) include 53% of the population, his states include only 34% of the population.
6. Caucuses are undemocratic. Obama's delegate lead came primarily through caucuses, Democrats give an unfair delegate weight advantage to caucus voters vs. primary voters.
   
7. Obama's claim that he can win in Red States because he won a caucus does not translate into the polls vs. McCain.
8. She can bring about 24 more electoral votes against McCain than Obama can.
9. She can claim she has won most all of the recent races, therefore the momentum has shifted back towards her as we head into the General Election.
10. 28% of her supporters are likely to vote for McCain is she's not the nominee.
    

Obama, Nancy Pelosi and others have made the argument that the Super Delegates should not over turn the will of the people and they should award the nomination to the person with the most pledged delegates, even though that is not the role of the Super Delegates.

What is the will of the people?

Does this mean that all Super Delegates should follow the will of their states? If that's the case, then Gov. Richardson, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, and Patrick Deval would all have to switch their endorsements from Obama to Clinton. 

If it's about the "Will of the People", then shouldn't Florida and Michigan count?

Shouldn't caucuses be ruled undemocratic since they exclude 95-98% of registered voters? And shouldn't the delegate math be more equally distributed according to the number of people voting?

The Super Delegates must now do their job and select the right nominee to win in November. The problem is that 50% of the party will now be disappointed, disenfranchised, disenchanted, disgusted - basically dissed - with whatever the result is.

The DNC has created their own mess due to certain rules applying to certain states, but not others.  Due to their calculations to select delegates. Due to their selective disenfranchisement of voters.

A unity ticket is the only way to keep the majority of supporters for both candidates. Otherwise, we can assume John McCain will be our next President and the Democrats will have blown a great opportunity of winning the white house in 2008. 

I believe that Hillary Clinton will be at the top of the ticket and Barack Obama will be the Vice President.

This will need to be brokered by the party leadership.

With all the pressing problems in the world from the economy, housing crisis, energy crisis, global warming, foreign policy mishaps, and two wars, I believe Clinton will be at the top of the ticket first.  To ensure her win, we need Obama as the VP. (Obama supporters also need to realize that they need Clinton just as much).

Hillary first to fix the problems that are complex and require experience (yes, the E word that Obama and his supporters pretend is not important). Then Obama.

They will both make history. He will make history twice - being the first African American Vice President and the first African American President. And so will she.

Even if it is a brokered deal for Hillary to take the first 4 years and Obama the 2nd so be it, this is what has to happen in order to win the White house.

THAT is the petition that Democrats should be signing. Not a petition to force Clinton or Obama out of the race.

Clinton/Obama 2008

Obama/Clinton 2012

Helping Hillary in Houston

by Nancy Kivlen

My trip to Houston was fast, furious and fun.  But more importantly, it was successful.

I had no idea what to expect since I've never volunteered to travel for a campaign before.  But my first good "omen" was on the plane ride from San Diego to Houston where I sat with an older couple from Minnesota. They asked why I was heading to Houston and after I told them about my undying love for Hillary Clinton - they raised their eyebrows and told me "We love her too!". We talked for the whole 3 1/2 hours to Houston about Hillary, the Clintons, and the democratic party.  My first good "omen" that maybe, just maybe things will turn around for Hillary in Texas.

I met my roommate, Jessica, a 23 year old student from SDSU around 1am on Saturday morning, March 1st at our Marriott hotel. She flew in from San Diego, and like me, had the same level of enthusiasm and hope that our being here over the next few days might make a difference and turn things around for our candidate. After 11 straight losses, and polls showing Obama ahead by a couple points, was this even possible?

We talked about that - could Hillary really come back again? 

A few hours later, our alarm clock went off and the 2 of us headed downtown Houston for the annual Rodeo Parade. We found the area where all the Hillary supporters were - hard to miss with their large signs, hats, buttons and T-Shirts.  As we screamed out "Hil-A-Ree" every time the parade marched by in hopes of the cameras catching a glimpse of our signs and enthusiasm, our group seemed to be growing by the minute.

My 2nd good omen was when I took a walk down the parade route and did not see any Obama signs or supporters anywhere.....hmmmm.....

After the parade, we grabbed a bite to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe and there I met the "Traveling Betsy's" - a small group of women that grew up with Hillary, went to 1st grade with her and were her best friends in Illinois. They have remained close to Hillary all these years and they too were here in Houston lending their support and helping hands.  Another girl at our table, Nicole, was Chelsea's good friend who attended elementary school with her - she too was here to support the campaign.

Soon after our crowd gathered nearby.  The news media showed up along with Dolores Huerta and her daughter who  lead us on a "March from Texas to Washington" (it was really about a 2 mile walk from Texas St. to Washington St. in downtown Houston).  Dolores Huerta is an icon in the Latino community. She is the sister of Ceasar Chavez and the founder of the United Farm Workers Union of America. She is a passionate supporter of Hillary Clinton and spoke beautifully about Hillary to the press that day. It was about 78 degrees and very humid as we marched through the streets with our Hillary signs chanting "Hill-A-Ree" and "Madame  President".  During the walk, I ran into Ann - another Hillary supporter from San Diego who was in her rental car. She is someone that I spent Super Tuesday with running around San Diego looking for votes for Hillary. We spoke for awhile and arranged to meet later.

Back at Hillary's headquarters, which was in a 'dodgy' part of town - I met up with Ann and another woman, Chris from San Diego.  We went through the "How to hold a Caucus" training which was run by a spunky woman named Jackie Witherspoon. An African American woman who has been a Hillary supporter since she traveled with her in the 90's to Beijing and heard Hillary give her speech on Human Rights. Jackie was one of Hilary's campaign Managers who helped deliver New Hampshire for her. She talked a lot about the caucus process and how it was important for us to be pushy and demanding otherwise the Obama people will run all over us. I noticed a large number of African Americans volunteering at Hillary's headquarters.  This surprised me only because I thought that Obama had secured the vast majority of these voters. But it dawned on me that there were still plenty of African Americans who supported Hillary. I was also pleased to see every age group here as well. There were plenty of young students as well as older people working together for our common cause.

At the training, we were given piles of paper to go through and read, but rather than start on that, we learned that Chelsea Clinton was going to be at a nearby Mexican Restaurant speaking.  So we took off to go see her.

Driving in Houston is challenging, needless to say it was my 3rd time getting lost, but we eventually found the restaurant.  To our surprise, it was large and had great food. We also met up with Vicky, who arranged for all of us from San Diego to come to Houston. After hearing Gloria Molina and a few other prominent Latino politicians speak, Chelsea Clinton arrived with a few other famous people: Dolores Huerta, Melanie Griffith, and Gavin Newsom (Mayor of San Francisco). After Chelsea was finished speaking, I had my picture taken with her as well as Gavin Newsom.

         Take a look at my you tube video of the March and Chelsea Clinton right here

On Sunday, it was another busy day as well as hot and humid again. After stopping at the Hillary Headquarters to pick up signs, etc. Ann, Chris, Jessica and I took off to a nearby park to get ready for Bill Clinton's rally. After hanging a few signs, the crowds got larger and larger - I decided to get in the front row so I could get a good look at Bill while he spoke. Again, there were a lot of Latino politicians that spoke first, including Senator Menendez from New Jersey. The mariachi bands played on while we waited for Bill to show up. I met some nice women from Houston and they knew nothing about the "2-step caucus" process that I had spent an hour learning about the previous day. So I explained to them that after they voted for Hillary, they would have to go back to their precinct that evening at 7pm and VOTE AGAIN for her!! "Yes, I agree, it is nuts" I said, but "it's what you do in Texas". Nearly 1/3 of the delegates that will be awarded in Texas on Tuesday will be decided at that caucus.

Finally Bill arrived and he looked great. He's still treated like a "rock star", the crowd went wild. After his speech, he took off his jacket and came into the crowd to greet us. When he got to me, he was leaning over in the crowd, people hanging all over him, so I held his hand and since his tie was hanging down, I pulled it towards me, then rubbed his chest. He looked at me and I said my usual line (what I said to Hillary) "I Love You"...he smiled and said "Well, Thank You".....duh....what else could I say?

       Here's my you tube video of the Bill Clinton Rally

As soon as we finished at the Bill Clinton event, I headed across the city to the "Women's Rally for Hillary". (after getting lost AGAIN!) I met Ann and Chris there. I got a decent seat and met a nice African American woman who was by herself. I asked her why she was supporting Hillary over Barack and she told me "Experience". She said that she worked her way up to a management position at her current job and Obama reminded her of someone that might apply for a job in her company without any experience, but thought he could just come in and change the way the company worked. She said "he's just not ready to be President".

When the women's rally started, Ann Lewis, Hillary's Director of Women's outreach spoke. She introduced a woman minister, some local women politicians, then came Melanie Griffith, then actress Erica Anderson spoke, then Christine Lahti.  Christine Lahti's speech was especially inspiring, I love how she called Hillary her "Shero".

Once again Dolores Huerta was there. She told us that she came up with the original slogan "Si Se Puede" ("yes we can") for the migrant farmworkers in 1972. It was the motto of the migrant farmworkers who were beaten, jailed and even died for their cause. "Barack Obama has not earned the right to use this slogan - only Hillary Clinton has earned the right to 'Si Se Puede'". Dolores spoke of one of Hillary's first jobs which was going door-to-door in the early 70's for Presidential Candidate George McGovern registering displaced Latino people to vote. She also represented migrant farm workers when she worked at the Children's Defense Fund.

At the end of the women's rally, I met up with five very nice, very interesting African American women from Chicago. One of them, Alice Palmer, was the Illinois State Senator who held Barack Obama's position prior to Obama becoming a state senator. They were all supporting Hillary Clinton because they believed Barack Obama did not do anything to warrant being President of the U.S.

They spoke about Obama's involvement with well-known political hack, Tony Rezko, and they said once the trial began, if the media chose to cover it, the public would learn a lot about Obama including all his questionable business dealings with Rezko whom he has known for over twenty years.   They also mentioned that he voted "Present" 127 times when he was in the Illinois state legislature, more than any other person.

      Here is my you tube video of the Hillary Clinton Women's Rally

After grabbing a bite to eat, Ann, Chris and I headed over to a gay bar called "Chances" for another Hillary event. At this event, Robert Gant (from Queer as Folk) spoke along with other prominent Gay and Lesbians from the Houston community in support of Hillary. Robert's speech about Hillary was the most compelling yet. He had us in tears.

Then it was time to head back to the office and then the hotel. My roommate, Jessica, was working diligently at the headquarters and decided to pull an all nighter and keep working on the campaign. She was busy organizing and compiling precinct information for voters.

On Monday, March 3, it was another early day back at the headquarters for a follow up caucus training. I was assigned to Rob's group.  We spent the day contacting voters that supported Hillary and explaining the caucus process and asking them to be precinct captains at their caucus. This required some finesse considering most of these voters didn't even realize that they had to go back at 7pm to go to a caucus ("a what?") and vote again. Then, when we explained they would need to be very aggressive and come in for training on how to run a caucus.....well, let's just say, it wasn't an easy task.

That evening we headed down to the Home Plate Bar & Grill to watch Hillary's Town Hall meeting televised from Austin. The four of us in the car, stopped to nail down Hillary yard signs along the way.  The weather had changed drastically the evening before and today it was pouring rain and COLD, the temperature dropped to 47 degrees (from nearly 80 the day before!!).

Over and over we discussed and re-discussed the possibility that Hillary might not win tomorrow. But all of us believed she would fight on regardless because that's just who she is. But, could she survive? And, would the democratic party pressure her to step down? It was something none of us wanted to think about.

On Tuesday, March 4th - the BIG day had finally arrived. It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect weather to vote and stand at a precinct all day. At the local Starbucks the gal behind the counter saw all my Hillary stickers and buttons and said she was a big supporter of Hillary's. I asked her if she knew that she had to go back to the caucus that night to vote again and she said "no". So I explained the "Texas 2-step" voting process and she gave me her name, phone and address so I could look up where she needed to go.  Then some of the other girls at Starbucks got involved and they wanted to know too.......hmmmm.... A Good Omen? I think so....

I nailed in some more Hillary yard signs on the way to the headquarters, picked up all my precinct information and headed off across town to a high school that I was assigned to.

When I got there, there were several Hillary supporters who said they had it covered and told me to go to another area of town where there was only one Hillary supporter and she was being overrun by Obama people. When I got there that was definitely the case, I counted 15 Obama supporters and just this one woman and her friend. One of the Obama guys was quite obnoxious and he got into it with the one Hillary supporter and before you know it, we had the cops there.  I could see this was going to be a challenge - so we all agreed to disagree.

As the day progressed, more and more voters came out. And the Obama supporters became friendlier. As voters tried to get by us on the side walk to head into the house to vote (we had to stay 100 yards back), we were able to "appeal" or hit them up with reasons to vote for our candidate. That was fun. My general line to all the women was "Put a woman in the white house"...or "don't forget it takes a Clinton to clean up after a Bush".....I usually got a thumbs up to that. The Obama guys thought I was being "sexist" promoting the first woman President, after all they weren't saying "put a black guy in the white house"...I told them if I was in their shoes that's exactly what I'd say....

And I certainly got my share of "negative" responses, which were fun too. One guy yelled "I'd never trust that woman for President - God knows what she's got up her skirt". I corrected him "you mean pant suit". "What?" he said. I replied "God knows what she's got up her pant suit sir, she does not wear skirts." "Screw you" he yelled ....Okay well that was fun.

But for the most part, the people were quite friendly. That afternoon another Hillary supporter arrived. A 22 year old girl in a wheelchair. She had flown in from New York because she has been a supporter of the Clinton's since she was 9 years old and Hillary Clinton supported her school to elevate it to a different status for disabled children. Her story was compelling and she did an outstanding job as I sent all the 'undecided' voters over to her to hear her story. I know she closed the deal.

In the morning, I counted a lot of support for Obama, but by the afternoon, there seemed to be a lot more Hillary supporters. .... hmmmmm ... a good omen?

Finally around 7pm the yard started to get busy with people waiting for the polls to close and to go in and caucus.

There were 2 precincts at the house I was at. In the entire history of Houston, there had never been more than 10 people that showed up for the caucus. That evening there were at least 300 people that came to caucus.

After watching a bit of the smaller caucus, I went into the house to oversee the larger one. I noticed the Obama people took over, which had me worried. But I stood behind them to watch all the people sign in. I was perplexed when I noticed several young people show up and sign in without proof of their voter's registration or precinct card. All they had were their TX driver's license. I questioned this, but was told by the election judge that they were "not to be disenfranchised" and their driver's license was fine. I asked him how anyone would know if they actually voted at that precinct since that was the rule and he did not really give me an answer.

People were getting restless as the process (which they were told would take about 45 mins) ended up lasting 3 hours.  Once they signed in, they moved to the other side of the house where they would nominate delegates for the Texas state convention.

After everyone was finished voting, I grabbed the forms and did the counting. Of course no one had a calculator - so we used my cell phone.  At first none of us arrived at the same number, so that required all of us to recount everything which prolonged the event.  Finally we all agreed on the numbers and we pulled out the forms to figure out how the ratio of delegates was figured from the percentage and the delegates were awarded.

Now that I have actually witnessed the caucus process first hand I can honestly say that it is the most unfair, undemocratic way of choosing a nominee that I have ever seen. It makes voting machines and hanging chads look legitimate.

The fact that votes count twice, that 1/3 of the delegates are to be awarded from this unfair process and the fact that probably 80% of all voters didn't even know about it - well, disenfranchised is the only word I can think of. It is particularly unfair and undemocratic to those voters that cannot find 2 hours or more to spend in an evening for this process: The mothers, the shift workers, elderly or disabled people, etc.  In fact it seems as if the only group of people that the caucus process favors are young people that don't work and have nothing better to do.

I finished around 10pm and headed over to the Home Plate Bar & Grill downtown to wait for the results with all the other Hillary supporters.

When I got there the place was packed.  Everyone was in a giddy mood because the Ohio results had just come back and it was confirmed that Hillary won Ohio and Rhode Island.  Finally within the hour - they called it "HILLARY WON TEXAS!"

Wow!!! There was dancing on the tables, a line dance through the bar lead by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.  It was a HAPPY EXCITING NIGHT to say the least.

  Watch my youtube video of Hillary's Headquarters, my precinct/caucus, and the Celebration afterwards

In the wee hours of the next morning, as I was heading off to the hotel, I caught up with Jessica who was overwhelmed and fatigued after being up for 3 days straight.  Her caucus did not go as well, there were over 1,000 people that showed up and a riot broke out and the police were called.  When I finally talked to Ann the next day, she had a similar situation and her caucus went until the early hours of the morning.

After only 2 hours of sleep, my flight back to San Diego the next morning was uneventful.  As I sat looking out the window it dawned on me what just happened and I was overwhelmed.  I realized that morning that Hillary Clinton will not only be the Democratic nominee, she will be our next President and the first woman in history elected to this position.

WOW!!! There is now no more doubt in my mind. This woman can come back from anything!!! She is my "SHERO".

And, just like she said in her speech: "For everyone who's been counted out but refused to be knocked out - for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up - and, for everyone who works hard and never gives up - THIS ONE'S FOR YOU!!". (watch it here).

The Dream is coming true. It's gonna happen. I now know it.

And maybe, just maybe, me and the thousands of volunteers that descended upon Texas helped to make the difference.

YEE HA  -  and it's on to Pennsylvania!!!

Is he who he says he is?

Barack Hussein Obama is a Christian. We know this, he told us so. We've all seen the pesky emails stating that Obama is really a Muslim.  His campaign came out and made a point of telling us that he is a Christian.  He even sat down at a diner in Iowa to chat with some supporters and set the record straight about his background:

Personally, I don't care if he's a Christian or a Muslim, but he should be truthful about his background.

Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was born in Kenya to a Muslim family. When he died in 1982, he was buried as a Muslim. Under Islamic law, if your birth father is a Muslim, then so are you. Obama may not see himself that way, but the Muslim world does.  Barack Obama's half brothers and sisters are also Muslim. His half-brother Roy (now named Abongo) is a Luo militant Muslim activist in Kenya. 

Obama says his mother was a Christian, but an LA Times reporter looked into her background and found that she was, at best, agnostic and that Obama's grandparents were atheists.

Obama remains in touch with his father's side of the family and has visited them in Kenya. Obama also remains in touch with his relative, Mr. Ralia Odinga, the head of Kenya's ODM party (Orange Democratic Movement). Mr. Odinga ran for President of Kenya (on a platform of Change). Currently Odinga is trying to overthrow the Kenyan government (who is an ally of the U.S.) and install a Muslim regime that would call for Sharia Law (Muslim law that would require women to be veiled, etc.).

The reason Americans should be concerned about this is because Barack Obama made a trip to Kenya to visit Ralia Odinga in 2006 and supported his candidacy.  As recently as the New Hampshire primary, Obama was in touch with Odinga.  As ex-Ambassador Joe Wilson points out in the Baltimore Sun, Obama should not interfere in Kenya's political situation. This raises questions about Obama's judgment and constitutes interference with an ally of the U.S. government.

That day in the Smokey Joe's Coffee Shop in Iowa, Barack Obama also said the following about his childhood:

After Obama's father left his mother, she met and married another Muslim man named Lolo Soetora. The three of them moved to Indonesia, where Lolo was from and his mother and step father had a daughter named Maya. According to the Baltimore Sun, what Barack Obama stated in the Smokey Joe Cafe was once again a lie.

Obama's former teachers and class mates in Jakarta remember his childhood differently. His teachers have stated that he was registered as a Muslim by his family at both the schools he attended. That in the third and forth grades, Obama learned Islam. Childhood friends of Obama's say that he sometimes went to Friday prayers at the local mosque. And, his sister states that the family attended the mosque but only for "big communal events".

People in Indonesia know Barack as Barry Soetoro. They remember his father and him walking to the nearby mosque for prayers. 

Why is Obama lying about his background?

When you consider that he is seeking the job of President of the United States, Commander in Chief, this information and a full disclosure of his background is important. Look at Mitt Romney, every part of his Mormon religion was met with scrutiny.  He even gave a press conference about it. Why then is the media, and more importantly, the democratic party, so willing to accept a candidate that has not been thoroughly investigated?

But Obama is a Christian.

He belongs to the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, here is the website.

In describing the mission of the church, here's what it says:

    "We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian...Our roots in the Black
     religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent.  We are an African people, and remain
     "true to our native land," the mother continent, the cradle of civilization.  God has superintended our
     pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism.  We
     constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which
     address the Black Community."

So, basically, this is a Christian Church, a place of worship for black people. The website talks about their vision which is based on the systematized liberation theology that started in 1969 with Dr. James Cone's book "Black Power and Black Theology."

Dr. Cone wrote (Whose Earth is it Anyway?) "No threat has been more deadly and persistent for black and Indigenous peoples than the rule of the white supremacy in the modern world." He also writes in support of the struggles that Malcom X faced during his years as a Minister for the Nation of Islam.

I don't object to a Christian Church that is dedicated to the cause of African Americans. But, there is a double standard here, it is reverse discrimination.  What if the church where Mike Huckabee preached was to further the cause of white people?  Most Americans would find that unacceptable.

What if any Presidential candidate belonged to a church that believed the people of a continent as their true native land? If Obama's church believes that they are African's first - then where does that leave America?

The current head of the Trinity Unity Church of Christ is Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Obama spoke of his relationship with Rev Wright in a Chicago Tribune report, he said "What I value most about Pastor Wright is not his day-to-day political advice*, he's much more of a sounding board for me to make sure that I am speaking truthfully about what I believe as possible and that I'm not losing myself in some of the hype and hoopla and stress that's involved in national politics.".


But the views espoused by Reverend Wright could be considered extreme. The TUCC Church and Rev Wright honored Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan with a Lifetime Achievement Award stating that Farrakhan "truly epitomized greatness". Wright has said that Farrakhan is "an unforgettable force, a catalyst for change and a religious leader who is sincere in his faith and his purpose." He praised him for his integrity and honesty. As columnist Richard Cohen, of the Washington Post points out, most Americans think Farrakhan epitomizes racism, his speeches are racist towards white people and anti-semitic.

*Obama "valuing" Pastor Wright's day-to-day political advice should be a concern to Americans.

Obama has stated that he does not share Wright's views on Farrakhan. But a more important question is what views does he share with Reverend Wright? So far, we do not have an answer.  When Rev Wright heard that Obama was running for President, he told the NY Times "When Obama's enemies find out that I went to Tripoli to visit Khadafy with Louis Farrakhan, a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell."

Does Obama hold some of the beliefs that Nation of Islam's Malcom X once held? Since Obama's own minister is close to the Nation of Islam, and "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" was Obama's favorite childhood book, then how do the ideas behind Nation of Islam reflect in Obama's own belief system? 

The Nation of Islam website states that it believes in one God named Allah. They talk about how women should "dress" and behave. Nation of Islam believes in the Koran and follows an off-shoot of Sunni Islam.

NOI also believes that descendants from slaves should be allowed to have their own territory either in the U.S. or elsewhere. They believe in Separatism.

Obama has never claimed to hold the beliefs of NOI, although his campaign has NOI members working for it.  And, coincidence or not, Obama's relationship with convicted felon Tony Rezko shows that Rezko has business ties with Nation of Islam. But Obama has stated that he does not agree with his pastor's views of Farrakhan.

Looking back at the "Race Card" being played in this campaign, the Clinton's were the ones accused of playing it.  But that is not at all what happened. Unbeknownst to Bill and Hillary Clinton, they were swift-boated by the Obama campaign and there's not much they can do about it especially when the media buys into it.  The Clinton's have always had a good relationship with the African American community and as late as Nov, 2007, most black democrats were still favoring Hillary Clinton as their candidate.  

In Nov of 2007  Michelle Obama stated to a group of African Americans that "Black America will wake up and get it!" (get that they have a black candidate). Next Jesse Jackson, Jr. (Obama's campaign co-chair) stated after Hillary Clinton's win in NH, that her "tears weren't for Hurricane Katrina" victims.

Then Hillary's own remarks after she was asked about Obama's eloquent speeches and that some compare him to MLK and JFK were turned against her. She pointed out that Martin Luthur King Jr was gassed, imprisoned and beaten fighting for the cause of the civil rights movement and that his ideals were finally realized when LBJ (because JFK was assasinated) passed civil rights legislation.  The context of her statement was turned against her by the Obama campaign and ultimately the African American community. Then when Bill Clinton made the statement that Barack Obama's position on the Iraq War was a "fairy tale, give me a break", his statement was also turned against him by the Obama campaign and the African American community stating that he was "racist" for calling Obama a "fairy tale" (which is not what he said).  Both Clinton's remarks were played out of context over and over in the media spotlight with the sole purpose of turning the democratic African American community against them. It worked because current numbers show that Obama's support among African Americans has sky-rocketed to upwards of 80% and in some places as high as 93%.

Meanwhile, Obama has gone on to plagiarize various black leaders comments to incite further divisions among the African American community and against the Clinton's. 

As this you tube video shows Obama is telling a crowd of black supporters in South Carolina that they've been "hood winked, bamboozled" - words used by Malcom X in Spike Lee's movie when he told a black crowd the same thing about white people.

So my question remains - Does America know Barack Obama? Or are we being bamboozled too?

 

"Folks, you are watching greatness unfold" 

a quote by one of Hillary Clinton's Secret Service Men.

Over 7,500 people came to the Cox Arena on Friday, Feb 1 to hear and see Hillary Clinton speak. Many of these people (mostly students) stood in line since 6am.  On Saturday, Hillary visited Cal State LA where people spent the night in line to get in to see her - there were over 10,000 people there. Same with her visit to San Jose earlier.

When I saw Hillary at San Diego State University, I must say it was one of the most electrifying experiences I've ever witnessed. And, I had just seen her 4 weeks earlier in a smaller setting at a house in Bonita.  But, this was different - this was a rally - a stump speech to bring together people and listen to what I hope will be the First Woman President of the United States. Somehow, we all knew we were watching not only greatness, but history unfolding before our eyes.

Her speech touched on many things, but the main theme was to restore America, our economy and bring us back together from the mass inequities of the current Administration. To help and support the middle class and the under privileged that have fallen so far behind in recent years. Hillary talked specifically about the mortgage crisis, jobs being shipped overseas, the lack of affordable healthcare, $100 per barrel oil prices. She talked about the problems in our education system and how "No Child Left Behind" has failed us. She spoke about predatory student lenders, the problems with Immigration and it's effect on our economy, and how to make Global Warming a cause to embrace - an opportunity - along with the challenges - that can provide green collar jobs in the future. She discussed her plan in dealing with these issues.

She spoke about ending the war in Iraq and resolving the war in Afghanistan. About ensuring that our veterans are taken care of with regards to health care, and providing a health care system that is accessibility to all Americans.  She was INSPIRING.

Please take a look at my 3 videos:

     Hillary at SDSU, Part 1

     Hillary at SDSU, Part 2

    Hillary at SDSU, Part 3

I was able to capture videos of portions of her speech as well as pictures (including one of me and one of Maggie with her). Her speech was remarkable, she had the audience rallied behind her and brought us to our feet several times.

It was particularly touching to see the reactions of so many people, all ages. Three young girls (about 19) screaming, one elderly woman crying; a young African American guy and his mother holding their Books "It Takes A Village" and jumping up and down with delight when she came over and signed it. (She signed my book too). It was electrifying and, for a moment, I think we all felt like we were part of a Movement or a Wave of Change that you can feel happening in this exciting election.

My Closing Arguments are 3 Simple Things:

#1. Hillary is Democrat. Not a pseudo-democrat, not an Independent - but a Democrat running on the full array of democratic values. First and foremost - she is the ONLY Presidential candidate left in the race who is offering full Universal Health Care for All Americans.

If that's important to you, then she's your girl. If not - than be prepared to have health care whittled away. Because Barak Obama's plan doesn't cover everyone and he will go to the table with a half-baked plan which will be negotiated and whittled down from there. Hillary will go to the bargaining table with a full, comprehensive, Universal plan that covers everyone and it too will be bargained down from there, but at least she begins with the most progressive healthcare plan there is. And, let's face it, she's a "fighter" - I think she'll take it to the mat and go as far as she can.

When I say Hillary is a real democrat, I'm not talking about being unable or unwilling to work with Independents and Republicans - there are many bills she has co-sponsored and worked with Republicans on, including a Children's Health care bill. She will reach across the aisle to find common ground and work from there. She already has. But here's the difference. Barak Obama, in his effort to unify with Republicans and Independents will sacrifice or negotiate-away basic principals. This is on Social Security issues, healthcare, Education, etc. An example of him already doing this is his support of the Bush Energy Bill which gave hundreds of billions of dollars in tax subsidies to oil companies.  Hillary voted against it, he voted for it. This is not "change". 

I simply do not believe he is a fighter of core democratic values, I know she is. That does not make her divisive, that makes her a strong leader.

His message of HOPE is inspiring, but right now - we need HELP. He simply isn't experienced enough as a 2 year Senator to do this job.

I also believe that Hillary is so well known and well liked abroad that electing her would send a great message to everyone around the world.  First and foremost, that diplomacy is back and we can repair our relationships with our allies; Second - what a message it sends throughout the world that the U.S. has elected a Woman President and World Leader.

Women are sorely under represented, both in the U.S. and in the World. Women make up 54% of the vote in the U.S. yet only hold 16% of elected positions. Woman make up more than 52% of the entire world's population, yet women and children are the ones most abused on the planet. Women's wages in the U.S. are still 77 cents per dollar less than men's wages.  I know that Hillary Clinton has made it her life's work to try and fight for both Women and Children's (and Human) Rights.

#2. Winning the Whitehouse & Electability.  If you believe as I do that having the Democrats win the Whitehouse in '08 is one of the most important reasons for voting on Tuesday - then, in my opinion, you want to send in the strongest candidate to ensure the win. The famous lines about Hillary's electability or the Republicans can't wait for her to be the nominee are all B.S. and here's why.

The exit polls from the recent primaries show that 58%-60% of the voters believe Hillary is the most electable of the two candidates. Why? Because on a 4 to 1 margin, Democrats believe she is the most experienced and has the best grasp of the issues.

What's the biggest issue right now? The Economy.  On a 2 to 1 margin, voters believe Hillary is the best candidate to deal with the economy. Why? Not only does she have the strongest economic plan - voters remember that the Eight years of the Bill Clinton Presidency were 8 of the most prosperous years in our history, providing more than 20 million new jobs. Then, like now, a Clinton came in and cleaned up the deficit to turn the economy around. Voters believe the next Clinton can do the same.

Obama is weak on substance, will be perceived weak on security if he becomes the nominee.

Why? Let's assume the Republicans elect McCain. Obama says because he was always against the war, that makes him stronger on this issue. (Actually, he wasn't always against it because in 2004 he stated in a Time Magazine article he "agreed with George Bush").  But, the fact that he was against the war, yet voted 100% identical to Hillary Clinton once he became a Senator to fully fund the war shows that he is a "flip-flopper".

Hillary will be able to state in a general election strategy that like McCain, she voted the same and supported the President, the more middle-of-the-road path - Obama's path leads down the road of "soft on terror" and therefore unable to provide security. The Iraq war produced the death of Sadam Hussein, an enemy, and installed a democracy to Iraq. McCain will argue it was the right decision at the time, but that it was mis-managed.

McCain is a war hero with about 30 years of Senate experience and serves with Hillary on the Senate Arms Services Committee.  Hillary has the endorsements of major Generals that support getting out of the war.  Like McCain, Hillary will have supported the same issues - but now the difference is leaving vs. staying and who does America trust and agree with to do this successfully and securely. Hillary cannot be accused of being "soft on terror".

The fact that his full name is Barack Hussein Obama means nothing to democrats and Independents - but just wait til the right wing attack machine gets hold of this and his full background with regards to some of his muslim relatives in Kenya. And, I don't mean this as a smear campaign or tactic - but with all due respect, the media has given Obama a "pass" to the general election with absolutely no research about his background. I'm not suggesting he is a muslim, he's not - but Osama Bin Laden and Sadam Hussein will be used in the general election as "fear" strategy and it doesn't help that his name sounds like Osama and middle name is Hussein and he has muslim uncles (Railia Odingo) causing havoc in the latest uprising in Kenya. 

The reason he does well in the polls right now against McCain is because the right wing has yet to attack him, unlike Hillary who they have been attacking for years. The Tony Rezko problem that Obama is facing and has not dealt with effectively will also come to fruition at the end of Feb when Rezko's trial begin. Tony Rezko is indicted for money laundering and bribery charges, he purchased a house with Obama and now we have another "land deal" scandal that is currently unfolding and that the media is not reporting on - yet. You could argue, who cares? Look at Whitewater and Hillary/Bill - but that was then and this is NOW - it's happening NOW in the middle of an election.

Whether you've noticed or not, the media has been manipulating this entire primary. They have relentlessly attacked Hillary (as they always do) and given Obama a "pass".  His status will quickly shatter once research and investigations start to come forth. The truth is the Republicans would rather run against him than Hillary because they know he is naive.

Obama has run and won 1 campaign: U.S. Senator of IL against a weak opponent. The Clintons (if you include Bill's 4 Arkansas runs for Governor) have run 8 campaigns with only 1 loss (Bills 2nd term as Gov of AK). They know how to win campaigns against strong opponents.

#3. A Woman or An African American Man?  I admit, I'm selfish, I want to live to see the First Woman President elected to the United States. Especially when I know the woman is the right candidate whom I agree with about 98% of the time.

Either one is historic, but this is personal for me because of how hard I have worked to see this happen. If Hillary wins the nomination, then I believe there is about a 60-65% chance that Obama will be her running mate (if he wants it). But if Obama wins the nomination, there is ZERO chance that Hillary will be his running mate (imo) and here's why:

    -Obama is new, young and fresh. Eight years under Hillary gives him the full experience he needs, he will be about 55 years old if
      there are 2 terms.

    -Hillary is now 60 - she would be 68 years old upon leaving office (assuming 8 years). Because of the Clinton legacy, she would
     not accept a VP position under an Obama Presidency. He would pick someone entirely different.

So - this is Hillary's ONE SHOT. Obama will, for sure, have another shot at it.

If she doesn't win, for me - there is a sense of betrayal. Only because I believe she is more qualified and experienced than he is.

Tomorrow, Monday night, Hillary Clinton will host a National Town Hall Meeting at 6pm PST or 9pm EST. You can submit your questions and watch either on her website:

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/action/townhall/

Here is a list of where the meetings will take place:

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/action/townhalllocations/

Or, tune into the Hallmark Channel which will air the meeting:

http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/publish/consumer/home/schedule.html

Episode: Town Hall with Hillary Clinton Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton leads a 22 city virtual town hall meeting across America.

If you have your doubts, are still undecided - please watch this and send your questions in.

Please know - Hillary needs your support. California will decide the primary and right now Hillary and Obama are in a statistical tie.

I hope you will join me in supporting and voting for Senator Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, Feb 5th and watch history unfold as we nominate the First Woman to ever be elected President.