She "wins" by being a victim. Not the WH, but a fractured party with what she values most. Loyalty over competence. She wins because she proves that she can take the party down with her.

This is why everyone is walking on eggshells, IMO.

If she can portray herself as a martyr, and have all of her supporters clamoring for the poor little girl -- she has won this in her mind.

She can't go out with a whimper and she can't pull off a Dodd/Richardson/Edwards and back our presumptive nominee. It isn't in her DNA. In order to feel self-validated and "save face", she HAS to force the party to force her hand.

It is the only way that the EGO can be satisfied and salve its wounds from the humiliation. To have pot and pan banging mini-'mobs' validating her self-worth and to hell with the party and the future of the country.

Just typing this, I think I threw up a little in my mouth.

Apropos:

On election day, April 22, I was dispatched to a Section 8 housing neighborhood. I am a 40 year old white/Jewish woman. I got out of the car and a very small AA boy was looking at me really suspicious. He saw the Obama sticker on the clipboard I was carrying and his eyes lit up. He ran up the hill to the townhouses and started banging on doors. "The Obama people are here!!" he yelled, going door to door. People started coming out and the kids were EVERYWHERE.

That was late afternoon.

Later that day, I was dispatched to an hispanic/AA area of the city that is known for housing the main homeless shelter. One man answered the door with a gun in his hand. When I said I was a volunteer with the campaign and there to make sure that he was able to get to the polling station that day, he put the gun in his waistband and responded "hell yeas!" with a huge grin on his face.

Door to door, the people were skeptical when they answered. Instructions were to ring/knock and then step back 10-15 feet so that they can see you. About half of the people yelled out of upper story windows as opposed to answering the door. My response? "You vote today"? When they answered, I gave a cheer and went to the next house.

At 8pm, I was sent to an inner-city polling station to make sure that everyone in line was able to vote and not turned away. No one was in line at 7:45, so I left. On the way home, I drove down a street that is NOTORIOUS for violence. My car had been hit with bottles and other objects driving through it in the past (it is the direct line between my parent's old house and where I live).

2 blocks from the county prison (on that street), I stopped at a red light. To my left was a grocery station with 2 AA men standing outside hanging out. One was leaning on a bicycle. I looked over and looked back. My initial reaction was to lock my doors and roll up the windows. Amped up from the events of the day, I took a different approach. I yelled over to them -- "Y'all vote today?". Candidate neutral question. They had no idea that I was a volunteer on ANY campaign. All they knew was that I was a white woman in a Nissan. They looked over at me and yelled back "nah, man -- we can't vote" and "but we pullin' for 'bama!". I gave them the thumbsup and drove on home.

Please note that all of these were neighborhoods that are dangerous. None of them did I have any business being in. ALL of them, I was welcomed as "one of them".

Can McCain generate that kind of enthusiasm and unity?

Can Hillary?

Please -- think long and hard before you answer...

Unity. That is what is going to win this thing.

(Ps -- this is basically a repost of my April 22 GOTV thread which you can easily search for)

The narrative has been changed from Change vs Experience to Trust vs Experience.

That is a huge thing.

I searched the archives as I wanted to see how HRC's whoppers have impacted the news cycle. For easy reference, I set them up in GoogleDocs as a spreadsheet so they will be easier to track: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pbb...

Here is the list:


3.2.08 Muslimgate (as far as I know)

Bonus Video Footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHFREDHB-nQ


3.19.08 She was responsible for the Family and Medical Leave Act


3.25.08 Snipergate

Bonus Video Footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It6JN7ALF7Y


3.25.08 Sir Edmund Hillary Gate


3.26.08 NAFTAgate

Bonus Video Footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BrPZYbCdJ4


3.28.08 Northern Ireland Gate

Bonus Video Footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBCmKkLdCuA


4.1.08 Obama wants to stop the elections


4.4.08 BookbagGate

Bonus Video Footage: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23...


4.5.08 HospitalGate

Bonus Video Footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrLupW8qJC4


4.5.08 Cascade of garbage


4.6.08 She was against the war before Obama (nothing prior to 2005 should count)


And just for funzies:

The Politics of Parsing (Nov 2007)

Hillary talking about her inevitability (Nov 2007)

Hillary says the race is over Feb 5th (Dec 2007)

Yes, this starting point has an Edwards edge to it -- but I am a supporter, so sue me.

These are just a few that I have collected -- would love to add to this. Not as a means of favoring any candidate (including my own) -- just the quick hits.

Each of us can make up our own minds as to the direction we want to see our country go in. Still nice to know what the differences are in how they each would approach their vision:


On Change:

Obama -- Change comes from the bottom up
Hillary -- Change comes from the top down
Edwards -- Change comes when we work together


On Tactics: (Credit Rachel Maddow MSNBC 1/16/08)

Personality: If you want someone who is likeable, good personality, vote Obama
Party: If you want someone who is a Democrat, who will operate the machinery, vote Hillary
Power: If you want someone who will break the system and change things in Washington, vote Edwards


On Unity: (Credit AntonBursch as posted on DailyCos 1/11/08)

Obama - United We Sit At A Table To Bargain
Clinton - United We Sneak Off To A Backroom To Bargain
Edwards - United We Reach Our 300 Million Pound Fist Out And Fucking End This Tyrany And Take Our Democracy Back


And just because I LOVE this picture...

In the last week from the media and the campaign, we have been blasted with a fundamental shift in Senator Obama’s message. Apparently, the key to his campaign is now what he refers to as “Obamacans”, shortened for “Obama Republicans”, again invoking St. Ronnie and the Reagan Democrats.

As a progressive liberal (and yes, I use that term with pride), this is very frustrating to me.

I see what is happening to this country and I see the pitfalls the neo-con administration is leaving us with (on their way to Dubai and Paraguay with the proceeds of the US Treasury in tow). I know that economies do not repair themselves from this kind of damage and that intervention is needed. I know I am not alone -- anyone who has been paying attention sees what is coming and KNOWS it is going to take more than a wing and a prayer to resolve it.

The rest of the country? Not so much, and this strong right turn the Senator is taking is a huge drink from the clue hose for me.

On the left, we are demanding drastic, FDR-style, New Deal-ish, demand-side changes. It is going to take a STRONG policy shift from today’s culture of predatory practices and the unfettered “free market” in order to reverse the supply-side-focused course Reaganomics and Bushonomics has put us on. Yet all of this is being met with a ho-hum reaction from Joe Sixpack who simply can’t be bothered with things he doesn’t have control over or fully understand.

What I am hearing from the Senator’s new message:

1. People are sick of the * Cabal and want them and their ilk out of power. Check.

2. He doesn’t need to worry about his ‘base’ as they will vote for a turnip if it has a (D) beside its name. Check.

3. The focus has since moved to the Independents and the moderate Republicans. Check.

4. The voice of “change” has been tailored to what these “Obamacans” want to hear. St. Ronnie is invoked and people are reassured that we can all hold hands, it will all “work out”, the “loony left” and “neocon right” will both be pushed out of the picture (too drastic and “fringe”) and middle America can go back to watching American Idol without a care in the world.

Add to frustrated -- I am saddened by this.

This unfortunately, is what it is going to take to win this election, thanks to our system of caucus’ viability and Media coronations pushing out the Bidens, Dodds, Edwards and Kucinich’s of the world – you know, those people who are and were willing to stand up and tell America not what she WANTS to hear, but what she NEEDS to hear.

Coming soon to a voting booth near you, we have Election 2008, aka The battle for the Independents and moderate Republicans, likely starring Senator Barack Obama vs Senator John McCain. Supporting roles will be played by Mr. and Mrs. America -- whose only line in the production will be, “which lemming line do we stand in for the cliff jumping contest”?

Unfortunately, they will be taking down all of us with them.

Thought I would toss out a positive thread with all the negativity here today (that I too have contributed to )

These are not in any particular order and are a very small sample of issues he is campaigning on that are important to me. YMMV

1. I believe his healthcare plan is the most feasible to bring us to UHC

http://johnedwards.com/issues/health-care /

2. He is taking a very strong stance on alternative energy

http://johnedwards.com/issues/energy /

3. He is taking a strong pro-education stance and supports college-for-all

http://johnedwards.com/issues/education/co... /

4. His stance on strengthening the military as DEFENSIVE and rooting out the corruption within it

http://johnedwards.com/issues/military /

http://johnedwards.com/issues/homeland-sec... /

5. LONG overdue simplification of the tax code

http://johnedwards.com/issues/tax-simplifi... /

6. Going post-Enron on the predatory lenders

http://johnedwards.com/issues/predatory-mo... /

7. Standing up for those of us who are paid for work, not paid for having money

http://johnedwards.com/issues/working-fami... /

On top of all of this (and I barely scratched the surface), I think he is the most electable in the GE and will be able to win over the indies and the (R)s who are fed up with the same old same old.