West Virginia Blue
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The two party conventions showcased vastly different directions for our country. Senator Obama and Senator Biden offered the new ideas and positive change America needs and deserves after eight years of failed Republican leadership. Senator McCain and Governor Palin do not.
After listening to all the speeches this week, I heard nothing that suggests the Republicans are ready to fix the economy for middle class families, provide quality affordable health care for all Americans, guarantee equal pay for equal work for women, restore our nation's leadership in a complex world or tackle the myriad of challenges our country faces. So, to slightly amend my comments from Denver: NO WAY, NO HOW, NO McCAIN-PALIN.
WV super delegate and long-time Hillary Clinton supporter, Marie Prezioso has confirmed that Sen. Hillary Clinton formally released her delegates to vote as they wish during tonight's roll call of states. During an afternoon reception, Sen. Clinton told her pledged delegates that she voted for Barack Obama and thought they should vote for him too.
Prezioso went on to say that she had cast her vote for Obama, and she expects most, if not all, of the rest of WV's delegation to do likewise.
I admit that I bluemcdowell, along with many other of my fellow Obama voters, have greatly underestimated the hurt and anger that many if not most Hillary Clinton supporters are feeling right now.
I kept on believing that would go away and disappear with time, along with many other Barack Obama supporters and even a few former Hillary Clinton supporters as well.
It hasn't. At least with a sizable portion of them. The polls continue to show that even approximately two and 1/2 months after the Democratic primary concluded that many of them, from anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of them, still say they won't vote for Obama - some of them staying home, voting for third party candidates Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney....
or worst of all supporting John McCain this November....
And the pick of Joe Biden over Hillary Clinton for the VP spot hasn't helped the cause any, at least to many Hillary Clinton voters and even some Barack Obama voters as well.
Now I can go on into much further detail than this forever and ever, but the facts remain that some very radical supporters of both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been guilty at least IMHO of personally attacking each other below the belt for about 3 to 4 months now.
And it needs to stop right now! On both sides!
We Obama supporters need to realize that Hillary Clinton voters do represent half of the Democratic Party right now and stop demonizing those who worked diligently in her campaign.
And the Hillary Clinton supporters need to realize that any Democrat especially Barack Obama is a better alternative to 4 more years of George W. Bush in the White House.
Yes I do admit the Clintons probably have done some questionable things and conducted some unreasonable business in the past President Bill Clinton especially.
Still both of them, Bill as President, and Hillary as a United States Senator, have both done much better while in office than Bush has been in his 7 1/2 years as president-select of this great country of ours.
And we Barack Obama supporters need to realize that as soon as possible....
At the same time the Hillary Clinton supporters need to realize that she and Barack Obama agreed with each other much, much more often than they disagreed - probably as much as 90 percent of the time....
while at the same time both Obama and Clinton sharply disagreed with John McCain probably at least 90 percent of the time in return.
We Obama supporters need to realize that Hillary's supporters are very sad, down, hurt, and even angry right now, and welcome them wholeheartedly to our side. They are half of the Democratic Party now like it or not, and 67 percent of all Democratic primary voters in West Virginia.
2/3 of West Virginia Democrats voted for Hillary Clinton in the West Virginia Democratic primary May 13, 2008.
That percentage is much too large for us Obama supporters to ignore. And not just in West Virginia but the rest of the country as well. That's a very powerful message West Virginia Democrats sent the national Democratic Party May 13, 2008. We Obama supporters can't pretend otherwise.
Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama themselves have buried the hatchet. Now it's time for their supporters themselves on both sides to put all their differences behind them for good and band together to stop John McCain and 4 more years of George W. Bush in the White House because our very own future as a beautiful and wonderful country and perhaps the entire world itself is at stake.
Right now in a 50/50 nation like this we Obama supporters need to realize that just a tiny few Hillary voters crossing party lines could very well tip the scales in McCain's favor....
and could very well finish off all the destruction that George W. Bush and now his number 1 fan and best friend John McCain have already wreaked on our beautiful country, and will continue to do so if our candidate Barack Obama loses this election.
Reports of strife between negotiators for Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama are exaggerated and the two sides are nearing an agreement on how Clinton's delegates will participate in the formal nominating process at the Democratic National Convention, according to advisers to both Democrats.
snip
But within the past week, Clinton advisers informed the Obama team that many of Clinton's staunchest supporters felt strongly that something had to be done, and that Clinton had concluded that, in part for the sake of unity, their wishes ought to be respected. They heard back immediately: the Obama campaign had always been open to having her name placed in nomination alongside his.
***
On August 6, Clinton told donors at a private fundraiser that she thinks "that people want to feel like, O.K., it's a catharsis, we're here, we did it, and then everybody get behind Senator Obama. That is what most people believe is the best way to go."
That sentiment is shared by Obama advisers, even as reports of tension between her aides and Obama's campaign have proliferated in the press. To the contrary, multiple sources in both campaigns have described the negotiations as relatively free of acrimony. Obama's convention managers and his political are acutely aware of the fact that at least 45% percent of delegates were stalwart backers of Sen. Clinton during the primary.
There was a lot to like about Senator Hillary Clinton so it's no surprise that she's going to do all she can to defeat John McCain.
Senator Clinton is one of those rare individuals that everyone feels strongly about- love her or hate her but you have to tip your cap at her ability to invoke emotion in people. She is, in and of herself, a cottage industry and many a columnist, Left and Right, have based their careers around her polarizing life. Hell, there have already been over 50 books written about the woman and she has yet to even reach the apex of her life.
So instead of me spending another hour trying to think of new ways to word my admiration, agitation and deep found respect for Hillary Clinton let me just cut the fat and pose a question to all of you- is Hillary Clinton ALREADY the most notable woman in American history?
First the parameters of how I am defining notable. A notable person is someone of prominent importance, distinguished, influential, widely known and memorable. Another barometer would be if the history of the United States could be written without this person.
Here is my top five list of notable American women:
1) Hillary Clinton
2) Eleanor Roosevelt
3) Sandra Day O'Conner
4) Susan B Anthony
5) Rosa Parks
Others I considered:
*Elizabeth Cady Stanton
*Georgia O'Keefe
*Abigail Adams
*Jane Adams
*Billy Jean King
*Sojourner Truth
*Harriet Tubman
*Sacajawea
*Amelia Earhart
*Emily Dickinson
*Rachel Carson
*Harriet Beecher Stowe
*Marylyn Monroe
*Jackie Kennedy
*Nancy Pelosi
h/t to Macgregor Thomson for putting this together. Some factual corrections/updates on the candidates statements.
1) Last I heard, China is no longer opening one coal factory a week. China's widespread usage of coal is a huge environmental issue, but with coal shortages and a growing environmental movement, the rate of new plant openings is slowing.
What we should be talking about for energy policy is things like energy efficiency, negawatts, and micro-power generation, not yet another set of large scale centralized energy production solutions that further concentrate corporate power with large-scale high-risk hugely expensive government investments.
Senator Hillary Clinton showed today why we had the two best candidates for U.S. president. Of the three left, John McCain is a distant third - just as he was in the West Virginia Republican caucus.
I wanted you to be one of the first to know: on Saturday, I will hold an event in Washington D.C. to thank everyone who has supported my campaign. Over the course of the last 16 months, I have been privileged and touched to witness the incredible dedication and sacrifice of so many people working for our campaign. Every minute you put into helping us win, every dollar you gave to keep up the fight meant more to me than I can ever possibly tell you.
On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy. This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans.
I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party's nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise.
When I decided to run for president, I knew exactly why I was getting into this race: to work hard every day for the millions of Americans who need a voice in the White House.
I made you -- and everyone who supported me -- a promise: to stand up for our shared values and to never back down. I'm going to keep that promise today, tomorrow, and for the rest of my life.
I will be speaking on Saturday about how together we can rally the party behind Senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise.
I know as I continue my lifelong work for a stronger America and a better world, I will turn to you for the support, the strength, and the commitment that you have shown me in the past 16 months. And I will always keep faith with the issues and causes that are important to you.
In the past few days, you have shown that support once again with hundreds of thousands of messages to the campaign, and again, I am touched by your thoughtfulness and kindness.
I can never possibly express my gratitude, so let me say simply, thank you.
In 48 hours, the 2008 presidential primary season ends.
Reading the political tea leaves, everything is in place for Barack Obama to declare victory tomorrow evening from Minn. (the site of the Republican's convention) and for Hillary Clinton to declare a suspension of her campaign from New York City.
There's one last question regarding the role of West Virginia in the Democratic party presidential nomination.
We have three undeclared super-delegates remaining. One, Alice Germond, is a DNC party official who as Party Secretary will remain officially undeclared until the convention. (You may have seen her at the Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting over the weekend.)
Will W.Va.'s remaining super-delegates--Gov. Manchin and Nick Casey--play a part in sealing the nomination for Barack Obama?
All of our W.Va. Democratic Congressional delegation--Sens. Byrd and Rockefeller, Reps. Rahall and Mollohan--have endorsed Obama.
Are Manchin and Casey going to sit on the sidelines, abdicate their role as super-delegates, and remain irrelevant to the process by declaring only after the nomination is already secure?
There's a small window--just about to close--for Manchin and Casey to exert some influence with the person most likely to be our next President.
For political junkies like me, this is one of the most interesting stories over the next couple days. Let's see which super-delegates join in the final push to put Obama over the required delegate total to formally secure the nomination.
Charleston (WV) Daily Mail newspaper OpEd writer and rightwing blogger Don Surber has the bottom feeders over at his blog all stirred up by claiming that Obama fans supposedly called WV voters "Toothless Gun-toting, Poor, and Ignorant". But it turns out that he's actually the one who trashed us!
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