Fantasy Politics USA

The Rev. Al Sharpton has gotten out of the New City Jail just in time to tell Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race. In an interview on New York’s Channel 1 he said it is impossible for Clinton to win “without the total destruction of the Democratic Party.” That sounds like a veiled threat to me. Is he going to call for protest in the streets to help unite the party? He went on to compare Clinton to an entertainer that would sing to an empty room. “The worst thing in the world is when an entertainer doesn’t know when the show is over,” he said. “The audience is gone, the lights are down, you’re getting ready to cut the mics off and you are still on the stage singing.” Then he added, “It’s over, it’s all right, it’s over,” he said. “Come sing another day, but this show is over, Senator Clinton.” It is comments like this from racist like Sharpton that will keep “typical white people” throwing their support for Clinton. Clinton should continue until all of the votes have been counted including Michigan and Florida. Then the superdelegates can make a decision. The purpose of a convention is to pick a candidate, not a coronation ball for some media picked candidate. Since when is good debate harmful to democracy? If this contest continues all the way to the convention it should strengthen the party, not destroy it. Veiled threats of protest and chaos, and racism will destroy this party, not pure democracy and debate.
Alan Cosgrove

Barack Obama had a sit down with Wolf Blitzer today and accused John McCain of engaging in “smear” politics. Lately McCain has been going around saying Obama is a favorite of Hamas. He bases these claims on an April radio interview with Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Prime Minister of Hamas. In the interview Yousef says, “We like Mr. Obama and we hope he will win the election.” When asked why Yousef replies “He has a vision to change America.” Sounds like he gets the same sound bites out of Obama as we do. Blitzer asked Obama about McCain saying these things. “This is offensive, and I think it’s disappointing,” Obama told Blitzer, “Because John McCain always says ‘I am not going to run that kind of politics,’ and to engage in that kind of smear is unfortunate, particularly because my policy toward Hamas has been no different than his.” Then Obama adds, “I’ve said it’s a terrorist organization and we should not negotiate with them unless they recognize Israel, renounce violence, and unless they are willing to abide by previous accords between the Palestinians and the Israelis. So for him to toss out comments like that I think is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination. We don’t need name calling in this debate.” McCain didn’t say anything about negotiating with Hamas, he just mentions the simple fact that Hamas likes and supports Obama for President. The McCain camp didn’t like what Obama said, and felt Obama was calling McCain senile. “First, let us be clear about the nature of Senator Obama’s attack today: He used the words ‘losing his bearings’ intentionally, a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain’s age as an issue,” said McCain adviser Mark Salter. “This is typical of the Obama style of campaigning….We have all become familiar with Senator Obama’s new brand of politics. First, you demand civility from your opponent, then you attack him, distort his record and send out surrogates to question his integrity. It is called hypocrisy, and it is the oldest kind of politics there is.” Salter says the Obama camp has misrepresented McCain. He said, “The McCain campaign has never suggested that Senator Obama supports Hamas’ agenda, but it is more than fair to raise this quote about Senator Obama because it speaks to the policy implications of his judgment.”
Alan Cosgrove

Barack Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, sent a letter out to superdelegates today urging them to make their choice, because the “time is now.” According to the letter, “With the Clinton path to the nomination getting even narrower, we expect new and wildly creative scenarios to emerge in the coming days. While those scenarios may be entertaining, they are not legitimate and will not be considered legitimate by this campaign or its millions of supporters, volunteers, and donors.” Clinton has been talking about having more of the popular vote when you count Michigan and Florida up until last night, but the Obama camp feels that using the popular vote is a flawed system. Plouffe wrote, “the popular vote is a deeply flawed and illegitimate metric for deciding the nominee – since each campaign based their strategy on the acquisition of delegates. More importantly, the rules of the nomination are predicated on delegates, not popular vote.” He shows further disdain for the popular vote by saying, “essentially, the popular vote is not much better as a metric than basing the nominee on which candidate raised more money, has more volunteers, contacted more voters, or is taller.” The popular vote ploy was just an example of one of Clinton’s “creative scenarios,” and the Barack camp is tired of all her shenanigans. “The Clinton campaign was very clear about their own strategy until the numbers become too ominous for them. They were like a broken record , repeating ad nauseum that this nomination race is about delegates. Now, the word delegate has disappeared from their vocabulary, in an attempt to change the rules and create an alternative reality,” Plouffe wrote. The Obama campaign wants all this to stop because they believe they have already won. “We believe that the winner of a majority of pledged delegates will and should be the nominee of our party. And we estimate that after the Oregon and Kentucky primaries on May 20, we will have won a majority of the overall pledged delegates,” the letter states. Now all that Clinton can do is get the superdelegates to overturn the will of the people. The Obama camp feels that would be unfair because “pledged delegates is the most legitimate metric for determining how this race has unfolded.” The people for the most part have spoken, and now the Obama camp wants to hear from the superdelegates to get this over with. Clinton would like to see this thing go all the way into August with a brokered convention, and meanwhile hope Obama will stumble again. It is her last shot.
Alan Cosgrove

Former presidential candidate and North Dakota Senator George McGovern, who was a Clinton supporter, is now urging Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race. McGovern had endorsed Clinton formally in October of last year. At the time he said, “I think that if we can elect her president, she’ll be a greater president even than her brilliant husband.” But since watching last nights performance in Indiana and North Carolina he feels Barack Obama has won the nomination “by any practical test,” and it is time to unite the party. “Hillary, of course, will make the decision as to if and when she ends her campaign. But I hope that she reaches that decision soon so that we can concentrate on a unified party capable of winning the White House next November,” he said. He has no regrets about supporting Clinton early on, and still considers the Clintons good friends. “I will hold them in affection and admiration all of my days,” he said. Then McGovern added, “She has run a valiant campaign. And she will remain an influential voice in the American future.” The Clinton camp has responded by saying, “Senator Clinton appreciates Senator McGovern’s friendship, but believes the voters in the upcoming states should have their voices heard in this process.” This comes just weeks before the South Dakota primary which will be held June 3rd with 23 delegates available.
Alan Cosgrove