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Obama campaign starts anti-smear web site.
June 12, 2008.

In response to the republican smear tactics the Obama campaign  started a web site that tells the TRUTH.
Link: Fight the smears

Link: Fox-apologizes-for-michelle-obama-headline


Obama clinches nomination, Clinton wins South Dakota
June 3, 2008
A historical moment: Obama is the first black presidential nominee.
But Clinton shows again that she is finishing strong by winning South Dakota (Montana goes to Obama). A state where Obama was the favorite.
It is unclear what she is going to do. Is she going to concede tomorrow? Probably. There is also talk of her running as the vice-presidential nominee.. It certainly would make it easier for Obama to win the hispanic and white working class votes.

With such friends, who needs enemies?
May 31, 2008

And then, Wednesday, there was Father Pfleger on national television; a catholic priest and guest speaker at the Trinity Church, telling the world that Hillary is convinced that she has to be the next president because she is white. Pfleger is a friend of Obama.
No surprise that Barack Obama quit the church on Friday. What else could he do?
With narcist friends like Pfleger and Wright, who love to be in the spotlight, you don't need a republican attack machine.


Democratic primaries: Kentucky and Oregon
May 20, 2008

Today is the last day that Hillary will be able to dispute Obama's nomination.
After the primaries in Kentucky and Oregon Obama will have secured the majority of delegates. And that will give him the support of a lot more, until now undecided super delegates.
But if Clinton wins big in Kentucky, she once again will have showed that she has the support of the white working class voters. Also, it is still insecure, who is going to win the popular vote. Anyway, after today we will know that Obama has clinched the nomination.
And nobody knows what will be left over for Hillary.

Irony.
May 3, 2008

Obama profiled himself as a reconciler. A uniter, promoting a bipartisan approach of the important problems.
The republican answer: a smear campaign about his ties with Jeremy Wright, his pastor for about 20 years, and his "ties" with the terrorist William Anderson.
And of course it has been suggested that he is a muslim. The action "swiftboating Obama" has started, and will not end as long as he is in the race for president.
In the meantime democrats are worrying about the ongoing contest between Clinton and Obama. Comparing Hillary Clintons criticism of Obama with the smear campaign that the republicans have started against him, one cannot but conclude that this is a very civilized democratic primary.
According to an article in Time Magazine an old republican attack dog, Floyd Brown (the creator of the Willy Horton ads) has planned several ads against Obama in North Carolina. Message: Obama is weak on crime and terrorism.
Typical... scare tactics, apparently inspired by the lack of any constructive ideas about health care, the war in Iraq, and the current economic downturn


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Clinton wins big in Puerto Rico.
June 1,  2008.

Her strong showing in the late primaries will not be enough.  If the super delegates would decide to give her the nomination, that would lead to a crisis in the Democratic Party. And that will never happen.

But it does tell something about her strength, after the big blow dealt to her, this weekend, when the Rules Committee of the Democratic party gave the delegates from Michigan and Florida only half a vote at the party convention.

Clinton probably will get 68% of the Puerto Rican vote, Obama 32%. 

Obama wins big in Oregon. Clinton wins bigger in Kentucky
May 20, 2008

Oregon: Obama 58%; Clinton 42%.
Kentucky: Clinton 65% Obama 30%.
The results in Kentucky, once more, underline the fact that Obama has a problem with white voters.
I really am quite pessimistic about his chances against McCain. Maybe Obama scores well in the polls, but it is the elections, and not the polls that decide the presidential race.
There is, of course, the well-known Bradley effect. Sociologists call it the “socially desirable answer”. The respondent in the survey gives an answer that matches a more positive, socially accepted self-image. But when it comes to voting the “answer” is different.
In the New York Times Bill Kristol points out that Obama was being trounced in West Virginia by 41 points. Also two comparable swing states Ohio and Pennsylvania went to Clinton. Then there is the proportional distribution of delegates in the democratic primaries. It is something very different from the winner-takes-all system in the general elections.
Another thing is the fact that Obama’s victories in the caucus states played a very important role.
In my opinion McCain is a weak candidate because of his stance on Iraq, and his economic plans, but it would be no surprise if he becomes the next president of the US.

.



What is at stake in the 2006 elections?
november 2, 2006

The House of Representatives.

The republicans have a 231 – 201 majority in the House. The democrats need to gain 15 seats to take over the house which is do-able.

Senate.

One third of the senate will be reelected on tuesday. That is 33 seats.
At the moment the republicans have 55 seats, the democrats 44 and there is one independent.

Governor.

Then we also have the election of a new governor. That happens in no less than 36 states. 22 republican governorships are at stake and 14 democratic. At the moment the republicans have 28 governors and the democrats 22.

Also choices can be made for all kinds of other positions like a new county sherif, a new county prosecutor etc.
And of course there are the votes for stupid amendments like the ones against gay marriages, (in Wisconsin that means that it will be possible that gay people also can’t have a contract that gives them certain rights as a couple. Any legal status will be denied.) or amendments aimed at reintroducing the death penalty.
No, there will not be an amendment that wants to introduce a new health care system which is universal so that everyone in the state will be insured. It is a very relevant issue but I guess that political parties can’t really score political points on that subject.




Political Satire: links.
The real Bush
dubyaspeak
jibjab
white house
The Onion
George W. Bush


Einsteins belief.
May 17,2008.

In the New York Times a report about the selling of a letter, in which Einstein writes: “the word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.”
link:NYT


Democracy in America
April 18, 2008.

It was not only the Medicare Bill that was written by lawyers from K Street.

In 2000 the Commodity Futures Modernization Act passed congress, just before Christmas recess. Nobody knew what was in it except the lawyers of the investment banks on Wall Street who were the writers of the bill. The bill was pushed through congress by Phil Gramm, who is now the chief economic advisor of John McCain.
Since then,the shadow market of complex derivatives, now causing all the turmoil in the financial markets, is completely deregulated.
Source: Fresh Air (NPR) (April 3, 2008) Michael Greenberger interviewed by Terry Gross. If you want to listen to the interview go to: Fresh Air



McCain wins in South Carolina, Clinton, Romney win in Nevada.
Januari 19, 2008. McCain received 33% of votes, against Hucakabee 30%. Thompson (LA Law actor) was third with 16% of the votes.
On Thursday Romney departed to Nevada because it was clear from the polls that he probably wouldn't do any better than third place
. In Nevada, he had more success. He won the caucus, ahead of Ron Paul (2nd) and McCain (3rd).
McCain en Huckabee had largely ignored Nevada. As was expected it was especially the elderly and "moderates" that voted for McCain, while Huckabee had many followers among the evangelicals.

In Nevada Hillary won with 51% of the vote, Obama won 45% of the votes, but probably one delegate more, and Edwards got (quite surprising) only 4% of the votes. The number of votes for Edwards is quite dissappointing.
Hillary is, in my view too much a representative of the establishment in Washington. She believes for instance that the drug companies have a role to play in the political process. I always thought that democracy ought to be a matter of "The People" and not a matter of the big corporations.
Obama wants to have these drug companies sitting at the table too. Does he really think that he can achieve fundamental change with the cooperation of the drug companies that always have been opposed to change? This guy really must have a lot of hope.
The only person who seems to understand that over the last 30 years a lot of money has been stolen from the poor and the middle class only to give it to the richest in the USA is John Edwards. The growth of wealth in America has been enormous over the last decades but unfortunately only the richest gained from this trend. The wealth among the poor and the middle class remained the same or decreased. Shame, shame, shame!
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