The Morning Dose --- 6/1

Today's Morning Dose comes from Taylor Marsh at TM.com.  

____________________________________________________________

Dear Rules and Bylaw Committee Power Brokers...

Could you be more out of touch? Seriously. Have you not talked to any Hillary Clinton supporters, read their emails in your inbox?

For 4 lousy delegates? How small are you people? Could you not understand what was swirling enough to allow Clinton her due in Michigan? Four lousy delegates?

You have no idea what you've done. The fury you have unleashed. Your arrogance is topped only by your ignorance and the sheer stupidity of this "compromise," which sends a message that you just don't get it. Oh, and by the way, you've also likely just thrown the 2008 election.

Taking myself out of the equation, as well as my support for Clinton which is unending, and to encapsulte the carnage wrought by Saturday's idiocy, you have simply given Hillary's supporters the reason they were craving. Outraged already, many of Hillary's supporters were waiting for a reason to raise a ruckus, and you just gave them one. A righteous one. They were already screaming for Clinton to go to Denver. Now the decibel level is ear shattering.

Over 4 delegates? This is the best solution a group of supposedly astute political minds could come up with? No wonder we lose national elections... oh, except in the 1990s, when Bill Clinton won two terms, the first to do so since F.D.R. Hey, but who's keeping score?

This could not have been handled worse. It could not have made Senator Obama's job more difficult to "unify" the Hillary supporters behind him either, which wasn't going to be easy before, but is now even harder, maybe even impossible.

Over 4 delegates?

Let me enlighten you. Senator Obama is ahead in delegates. A gracious split of Michigan would not have jeopardized his lead. But instead, the RBC, in your infinite wisdom, decided to adjust the delegates just enough to infuriate the entire Clinton contingent that is now set on Defcon Activist Revenge.

The perception problem created is beyond comprehension. Honestly, you have no idea the fuse that's now been lit. But to give you an idea. I'm in the minority on my own blog when it comes to pushing back against a McCain presidency. This didn't happen because of anything Clinton did, my friends. You all cemented it all by yourselves. Oh, with the help of some eager, power hungry people thinking they can push the Clintons out of the Democratic Party and take over without half of the people who support the Clintons signing on. Good luck with that one. Trust me, everyone knows what's really going on.

Pure Outrage

These videos speak for themselves and speak for me:

Confirmation Of The News Media Failure

In the past I have written several post concerning the Iraq war including a two part series titled, "The Rosetta Stone To The Iraq War."  My past post were about how Mr. Bush took our country to war in Iraq over WMD that did not exist and how he purposely mislead the American people.  I have not written any post lately concerning Iraq because I feel the people have finally understood just how reckless the Bush Presidency has been.

 

There is another part of the Iraq war that I touched upon concerning how the news media, especially T.V. journalists promoted the war on their own without seeking the truth or facts and aided and abetted the Bush administration in promoting the war.  Now we have some new revelations in a soon to be released book written by Scott McClellan, the Presidents former Press Secretary.  I will not rehash what he said about the President and Iraq because I covered that before but I do want to cover what he said about the news media because the same thing is going on today concerning the Democratic Primaries for that party's nomination.

 

Mr. McClellan called the news media "complicit enablers in the White House's carefully orchestrated campaign to shape and manipulate sources of public approval in the march to the Iraq war."  That my friends is the exact thing they are doing with the promotion and crowing of Barack Obama as the nominee before the process is complete and clamoring for Senator Clinton to drop out of the race.  They have chosen sides instead of covering and reporting on the process for the nomination and how there are many more issues the DNC will have to solve before a nominee can be officially chosen. 

 

Chris Matthews on Hardball ran a caption across the T.V. screen asking Is Clinton hurting the Democrats by staying in the race?  He already knew the answer because the people have already stated they wanted her to stay in the race till the process was complete.  But there he was trying to plant the seed that she is hurting her party.  He really shows his ass and how insecure and dishonest he really is.  When the nominee's for the general election is finally known you can be sure that the news media will choose sides and then go after the other guy or gal.  Journalists have already planted the seed that if Obama is the nominee and looses in the general election it will be Senator Clinton's fault.  They try to cover for Obama every way they can think of.  They have no character.  That says it all.

 

By the way, I wrote several letters to Journalists long before the Iraq war started and told them what I thought about not having the character to look for the facts concerning Iraq instead of promoting Bush's talking points.

The Huffington Post: Trying To Mimic Cable Television

Arianna Huffington wrote for her post on May 22 that the Super delegates should step in and end the democratic primary now.  The beat goes on by journalists to end the Primary and declare Obama the nominee before the process is completed.  Writers for the Huff Post have been bias in their reporting against Clinton for a long time and follows the script of people in the news media trying to manipulate our elections.  They have sold their soul like they did during the run up to the war in Iraq.  The country has got to the  point where the news media has to be feared more that the politicians. 

 

The election coverage is so out of touch with reality that the system gets more corrupt year after year and the news media is right at the center.  The big three, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC are leading the corrupt parade with their corrupt reporting.

 

It is really cowardly when journalists try to manufacture news and stories.  It shows their lack of character and ability to talk to the public and offer a real debate on the issues facing the country.  The best thing that could happen for the country and the democratic process is for Senator Clinton to somehow emerge as the democratic nominee.  That would really give the news media a fact check.

How To Choose A Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee

Above all, the Vice Presidential nominee should be a person with leadership qualities of independent thought and military experience.  Independent thought is important because the President will need to hear unvarnished comments from his V.P. on critical issues, especially those that are not shared by the President and his advisers.  Rubber stamping a President's position on the issues does not speak well for the common good of the people or the nation.  The V.P. has to back the President after he makes a decision, but he has to be that counter balance.

 

The military experience does not have to be in uniform, although that would be preferred.  The experience could come from serving on the Armed Forces Service Committee, Foreign Policy Experience and other Military Experience that are active inside and outside of government.  That is important because if the V.P. has that experience and has independent thought he will be able to balance the thoughts given to the President by our military leaders and others.  We have a V.P. Dick Cheney who did the opposite in the run up to war with Iraq.  He manipulated the intelligence and the military facts and threat that Iraq posed for the United States. 

 

Senator Clinton would be more qualified to be President or Vice President than Senator Obama.  But neither will be the V.P. nominee in my opinion.  The Democratic Vice President Nominee will have to balance out Senator McCain's military experience because enough voters will view McCain's military experience as a problem for Democrats.  The decision to go to war in Iraq was George Bush's decision alone.  No one else made that decision but he, and he made that decision before congress ever voted for the resolution as Senator Chuck Hagel pointed out some time ago.  Both Democrats and Republicans have been responsible for funding the war since it started.  The Democratic party did try to restrict funds for the war after they took control of Congress but failed to have enough votes to do so.

 

The public really does not give much thought to the V.P. because it has not been often that a V.P. had to take control of the Presidency but we have been reminded how V.P. Cheney has abused his office and wielded power that no other V.P. in memory has had. There is no balance in the administration of Bush-Cheney.  So the people should watch closely the choice of the Democratic nominee for his running mate.  It will way something about the character of the Democratic Presidential nominee and where he will take the country.  Experience does matter.

The Morning Dose---5/18

Today's Morning Dose comes from a post written by Jerome Armstrong at MyDD concerning a conference call with the Clinton campaign and his take on the 2008 election. 

________________________________________________________

I listened in on a CC with Hillary Clinton, and took a few notes. She's going to continue her campaign, undoubtedly, because she thinks she can win, or as she said: "I believe I will win; I believe my opponent could win."

The one thing that I was going to ask of Clinton, but didn't get my question in, was to ask that she push for reform of the primary process. I am fine with states choosing caucuses, but not if they are also having primaries. And if they do have caucuses, they should have less delegates, so the delegate to vote ratio is more closer.

Here was her message, and my extrapolation, in the call:

1) She's leading in the popular vote. Period. This isn't a procedural argument, but a moral one. Yes, they voted in FL and MI, that was their only chance at voted. It may not be what is used for distributing delegates, but no one can deny that there was a vote taken, those people count...

2) Count the delegates of MI & FL. This is a procedural argument. Whatever the committee decides, they decide. They better damn well not punt. I think it does signal a turn in the race, on June 1st, after they've been allocated in whatever fashion they determine. We will then have a clear marker on which both candidates agree, and the contest is decided.

3) Clinton makes the argument that she's won the states with the EV's that matter. The heart of this comes back to her claim that 'she will win, and Obama could win'. As she said: "Its the map not the math".

That was the gist of the argument, which I'm sure she's telling the SD's too.

I don't think either of them is a given against McCain, but that Clinton does have a better shot currently at winning the GE than does Obama. You can look at the EV maps here on MyDD, of the lastest poll in each state, to come to the same conclusion.

Paul Maslin has a good post that goes through Obama's chances.

To start, to grant Obama the states of Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin (only two of which Obama is leading in today) gets Obama to 255 EV's, according to Maslin.

For the last 15, Maslin includes Ohio & New Hampshire as toss-ups, which they don't seem to be at the moment. Ohio demographics make an uphill climb for Obama, and NH just marginally as McCain has some strong pull in the state historically; in my view, both are leaning McCain states.

So Obama is left with going out west, taking Colorado (9); Nevada (5); New Mexico (5); for a total of 274 EV's. Yes, Obama 'could' win, but lets not pretend that he's not a battleground candidate-- he's just changed the battleground states, given his weakness in Ohio/WV and in Florida.

I've said it many times, and it bears repeating. I'm not a Clinton fan by choice. I've come to support her through attrition, as the one left who I see could win. If or when she is out, I'll support Obama, and hope that the GOP's use his variety of gun stances and his proposal to raise the capital gains tax to 28 percent, doesn't work against Obama out west, and that somehow, Latino voters, whom didn't support Obama in the primaries, decide they will over McCain, whom is probably the most favorable Republican to Latinos at the moment, in the GE.

The odds of the Democratic nomination greatly favor Obama. Obama's odds in the GE are a toss-up.

A Good Reason Why It's Not Over Yet

Senator Clinton's solid victory over Senator Obama in the West Virginia primary was great news for the democratic party(the voters) and for Clinton's ability to connect with the voters even though she was written off by the news media and pundits.

 

The latest poll that came out prior to the vote showed that 64% of democrats wanted Senator Clinton to stay in the race.  The voters in West Virginia confirmed that.  Senator Clinton's support across the various sections of the american voter has been truly amazing.  Her base is much broader than Obama's and would have the better chance to unite the voters in the general election.  It is telling when the leading candidate looses by such a large margin (41%) this late in the game, especially when he and his campaign has already crowned him the democratic nominee.  And it has happened when Obama had just announced he would begin to campaign in those swing states he lost to Clinton.  Re: Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas.

 

Senator Clinton's decision not give in to her detractors reflect her courage, resolve and willingness to fight for what she believes in.  Her message of talking about the real issues facing America are in contrast with Obama and McCain's campaign.  Obama still has not articulated what changes he is for and McCain touts a second hand version of Bush.

 

Kentucky and Oregon primaries are next week and all primaries will officially end soon after that.  The delegates who will cast the final votes and select the next nominee should think hard about who is best to represent the democratic party in the November elections.  The pundits and news media have chosen Obama long ago and have rejected any idea of fairness or what is best for the country.  This despite the fact that this primary season has brought out the best in the democratic party, the voters.  The democratic primaries have been a model for years to come had it not been for the media and the pundits who clamored to end it all long ago.

 

Regardless who ends up being the democratic nominee, the media and pundits will forever tell the people why it happened.  But the fact of the matter is we have an electorate who believes in both candidates ability and the final voting results will be so close, it will tell the story itself.  And when the democratic nominee is officially know it will be up to that candidate to carry the party to victory in November, there will no longer be a blame game on someone else.  The nominee will have to make his/her case to the american people. 

How To Enjoy The Democratic Primaries and Nominating Process

The News Media, especially T.V. journalists, pundits, political analyst, the Clinton haters and the Obama supporters who are always belly aching(The Cartel) should be enjoying the Democratic primaries and the race between Senators Clinton and Obama instead of being frustrated and talking silly.  They should follow the lead of the voters themselves who are happy to have the opportunity to express themselves with their vote.

 

The Cartel found themselves in the same fix last night after the results came in from Indiana and North Carolina.  They had nothing news worthy to say since the only outcome was Senators Clinton and Obama increased their delegate count and each won a primary state.  It took 5 hours to come to that conclusion by the Cartel.  In the meantime we heard all kinds of silly things from them.  Now its on to West Virginia and the remaining primaries.

 

The Cartel's nose is out of joint because Clinton says she will continue the race.  Their latest retort when Clinton says she is the best candidate to face McCain really blows what brains they have left.  So this is the story they are trying to push and develop.  "If Senator Obama is the democratic nominee and he looses to McCain in the general election it will be Senator Clinton's fault."  That is not a very bright thing to say about Obama but it shows the Cartel's mentality and how little faith they have in Obama.  The problem is not really Clinton but the Cartel's hatred of her.

 

The voters common sense approach of letting the vote play out which will control the delegates actions in the end is the democratic thing to do.  Voter turn out has been great for the democrats and they are in tune to what is taking place.

 

The primary results so far indicate the voters are having a hard time choosing between Clinton and Obama and there is nothing wrong with that.  In the end that will shake out.  In the meantime the democrats are getting more news coverage that McCain.  If you are a democrat you gotta love that.  So the Cartel should sit back, join the human race, follow the voters lead and try to act mature. 

Has America Entered The Twilight Zone?

The political climate in our country seems eerie at the present time.  It reminds me of a time warp where time is actually standing still.  Our people are not doing well with the economy, oil and gas prices are still out of control, inflation is back, the war in Iraq is still raging and President Bush is off again to Israel and the middle east trying to put some teeth in the seven year old road map to peace that has existed in name only.

 

The news media is in a state of reruns concerning the democratic primaries repeating the same worn out stories over and over.  Obama is trying to act like he has already won the democratic nomination and his speeches do not convey a knowledge of what the President's job is all about.  McCain locked up  theRepublican nomination a long time ago and is trying to find himself but like Obama has a hard time expressing himself.  Senator Clinton is the only game in town campaigning just as hard as ever in W. Virginia which votes May 13 and talking about the real issues.  The news media has already wrote her off and are covering little of her campaign in W.Virginia.  If she is victorious there the media will make little of it.

 

It seems like the events have passed us up without really playing out.  The Presidents lack of involvement in the affairs of the people are truly astounding.  The media's rush to judgement in favor of Obama has placed them in the seat of judge and jury.  As a country we are really lacking of direction at a time of need.

 

Senator Clinton seems to be the only elected official who is involved in the real world and who would like to give some direction to the country.  She understands that the real democratic party, the American voters are not the ones calling for her to drop out the race.  We should be thankful to our democratic voters for their involvement and Senator Clinton's willingness to fight for what she believes in. 

The Republican Trademark: High Oil and Gas Prices

I wrote a three part series not long ago titled, "The economy, which party performs best" going back to the Reagan Administration.  It detailed why the country, its people and the economy did so much better under Bill Clinton, a democrat who not only had a sound fiscal policy but returned the government to balanced budgets and surpluses.

 

Now we have a chance to compare those four administrations and how their actions and policies affected the price of a barrel of Oil.  Reminder to the reader.  The reason I start with the Reagan administration is that is when the neocon republican presidents started to tell the American people they were the ones who can best deal with the economy, balance the federal budget, cut spending and so on.  But the record is clear, it was Bill Clinton who had the best economic plans, fiscal policies and a commitment to balance the federal budget and it worked.

 

The following is the average yearly price of a barrel of Oil during their administrations.  It does not show the higher or low price but the average yearly price adjusted for inflation thru December 2007.

 

Reagan Administration  1981-1988   8 years                    Yearly average  $51.37/barrel

 

Bush 41 Administration 1989-1992   4 years                     Yearly average  $32.04/barrel

 

Clinton Administration   1993-2000   8 years                     Yearly average   $23.88/barrel

 

Bush 43                       2001-2007   7 years **                  Yearly average   $43.83/barrel

 

**  Note the final number is not in yet for the year 2008 but so far oil has hit an all time high.  So when Bush 43 leaves office the yearly average will be over $43.83/barrel.

 

We know a sound, broad based economic policy with fiscal discipline addresses most all of the parameters that is necessary for a sustained economy with low inflation.  The Clinton administration produced just that.  The Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 administrations lacked the fundamentals necessary for a broad based economic policy.  That the yearly average in the price of a barrel of Oil under the Clinton administration was the lowest by far during the past 27 years, 19 under Republican control, shows just how well the country and its people did under Clinton in all  area's of the economy.

 

The so called conservative Republican Presidents have a tax cutting policy to seduce the people and then stick it to the country and the people in a hundred different ways including high Oil and Gas prices.  It is time for America to wake up.

 

Information shown herein for the Oil averages computed from information taken from InflationData.Com, Historic Oil Prices.