Not that this is surprising to anyone (well, maybe to Clinton), but Obama has now registered his largest ever lead in the Gallup Daily Tracking poll. As I mentioned before, Rasmussen stopped polling the race entirely a couple weeks ago because, well, really what’s the point now, its pretty clear who the nominee will be. Tomorrow Obama will obtain enough delegates to give him the majority of the pledged delegates and he’ll only need 80-90 more superdelegates to have enough for the nomination.
This is a spoof on recent NBA commercials (which you probably haven’t seen, not have I, but it was noted as such) where different players are shown and talking about winning the championship. Funny stuff. Listen closely:
“Change You Deserve” (sound slightly familiar? Obama’s is “Change You Can Believe In”)
But the funny part is that the slogan is already taken. Its the registered slogan for, get this (you can’t make these things up), an antidepressant drug Effexor XR. Can there be a greater irony? Seriously, I mean the GOP slogan is the same one for an antidepressant drug! Problem is, I don’t think the party that has worked so hard to make people depressed is the one you want to turn to in curing that depression. Do they even research these things anymore? As one Senior Republican, Tom Davis, said the other day, “the Republican brand is in the trash can…if we were dog food, they would take us off the shelf.” Can’t put it much better than that.
After the ridiculous comments from Bush yesterday, and McCain’s echoing of them, Obama hit them right back today with a pretty darn good retort.
“John McCain has repeated this notion that I’m prepared to negotiate with terrorists. I have never said that,” Obama said. “I am not prepared to negotiate with Hamas.”
“If George Bush and John McCain want to have a debate about protecting America, that is a debate I will have anytime, any place,” he said to a cheering crowd. “George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for.”
Obama then launched into list of grievances, including a war fought on the premise of uprooting weapons of mass destruction that were never found, the failure to catch Osama Bin Laden and turning Iran into the “greatest beneficiary” of the Iraq war.
“That’s the Bush-McCain record on protecting this country,” Obama said. “Those are the failed policies that John McCain wants to double down on.”
Now, one thing I have wanted to see from Obama was a little more fighting spirit, so to speak. It hasn’t always been there and some people have been concerned how he would deal with Republican attacks in the general election campaign, including me. One thing you can say about Hillary is she doesn’t take any crap, but she goes overboard most of the time. I think it was GREAT to see Obama fire back today about how Bush’s policies created this whole mess and to make a real distinction between himself and Bush/McCain. If people think McCain is going to continue Bush’s polices (which all his statements lead one to believe he will. esp. in foreign policy) then McCain is TOAST in November. So, not only was this a good response to McBush, it also was a very good signal and reassurance to Democrats who were concerned about Obama not being tough enough for the GE. Anyway, a bit of his speech:
First, you MUST watch the video below. I just had to reference this today. Bush, in Israel no less, celebrating the 60th anniversary of Israel, no less, attacked basically anyone who doesn’t share his view of the world, especially the Democrats and Obama. He basically was equating Obama’s position (that we should at least talk to other countries–not terrorists–in an attempt to get what we want from them) with the appeasement of Germany and the Nazis in 1938!! Are you joking me? I think any reference, in general, comparing anyone or any situation to Hitler and/or Nazis is grossly out of place. Here’s Bush today:
Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.
Look, if you are going to argue about something, especially about Neville Chamberlain and the Munich agreement of 1938, and try to say that appeasement is the same as talking to countries who don’t share the same views as the US or even engage in things we are trying to stop, at least get the analogy right!
According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary: Appeasement means “to buy off (an aggressor) by concessions usually at the sacrifice of principles.” The Munich Agreement basically gave Hitler part of Czechoslovakia in return for peace. Obviously was a failure. Last I checked that wasn’t what Obama has ever proposed or stood for. I like how Bush always says “some believe that…” who are these some exactly? Cause it ain’t Obama. Or Hillary for that matter.
Now, check this right-wing talk show host, Kevin James, on Hardball today, trying to defend this analogy, quite vainly, and looking like a complete idiot. He gets absolutely OBLITERATED by Chris Matthews. He obviously failed History in school. Clearly didn’t have me as a teacher. I almost felt sorry for the guy he was so stupid. But I didn’t because he was making such a ridiculous argument, just like Bush.
Toshia and I went down to VanAndel around 4:45 yesterday. There were hundreds of people in two pretty long lines wrapping around to the back of the arena. I read that some people were there at 9am this morning! Nonetheless, we really didn’t have to wait to long. I congratulate the security people on their speed and effectiveness. About 30 minutes later we went in and found some pretty good seats directly in front of the podium set up. Of course we were in the 2nd deck, but still, directly facing Obama. So we waited awhile. Its great to see the people at the event. We talked to an elderly African-American woman from GR next to us and a middle-aged white woman who had driven in from Lansing. In front of us were a couple Hispanics and there were youth and children and all kinds of people there. By about 5:45 Van Andel arena was PACKED FULL.
Yes that’s right, in downtown GR, heart of conservative West Michigan, over 15,000 people came out to see Obama, and man did we get a treat! I had read on the internets earlier a rumor that Edwards might be endorsing Obama tonight, but I didn’t feel I could get that lucky. But the lady next to us got a text and told us he was coming! SO exciting!
It was supposed to start at 7:00 but it started suddenly at 6:30. A worker from the Lear plant came out and introduced himself and said some nice words about Obama. He left and then 5 minutes later an announcement came on to welcome Obama! Out he came and the place WENT CRAZY. It was electric in there! So hard to describe. Think of the Lions winning the Super Bowl or something like that. Obama gets up and says he felt guilty about not being in Michigan for a few months and that he wanted to do something special for us. Then he said he brought a friend and out came JOHN EDWARDS! Now the whole place was going completely bonkers!! I think everyone in there knew how special that was and how important an endorsement it was and what it meant for Obama’s campaign. Phew! Can’t handle all this excitement!
Edwards talked about Clinton for a few minutes (the crowd booed at first) and then about how Obama shared his passion to cut poverty in half in 10 years I think it was. Obama got up to speak and the crowd roared again! Chanting O-ba-ma and Yes We Can! Now, we went and saw him speak in Toledo a few months ago and it wasn’t as great. Maybe cause I had heard his stump speech a hundred times already or he was tired or something. But today his speech was new and really hit on issues important to workers and Michigan and it was a dandy.
Well worth it and I hope he comes back soon! We did have to give up our umbrella to get inside and never recovered it, but a small price to pay. I’ll try to get the video up this weekend and you can really see how loud and crazy that place was.
Sorry, couldn’t resist. West Virginia is the least educated state in the country, fyi. As in it has the fewest people with college degrees. Throughout this election, I always found it rather amusing that the college-educated people are supporting Obama. Why is that exactly? I think among Democrats who maybe don’t pay much attention to politics and news, they tend to go for the person they know better. And many may like Hillary’s message better too. Plus one thing that commentators rarely mention to explain this voting disparity is that her name is CLINTON. If Obama was running against anyone else, I seriously doubt this would be an issue, but people know and generally like the Clinton name.
So, yeah, Hillary won today pretty handily. *Yawn* Gave a speech…threatening to continue on….probably will until June 3 when all votes are cast. Guess what? Obama still has a massive lead in delegates. In fact, he picked up 9 more today (including Supers and Add-ons), canceling out her pickup of 9 in the WV primary. Just get me to June 5 I am telling you. Bye bye Hillary.
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