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: </