With friends like this

I’ve been wondering what McCaskill thought about The Wright issue, have you?

From Political Punch:

Perhaps Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, can file this under the “defenses I don’t need” column…

Obama-backing Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said at a press conference (watch the video, courtesy of the Kansas City Star, HERE):

“What this man has done, Barack Obama, is, he, for the first time I think, as a black leader in America, has come to the American people not as a victim, but rather as a leader. To say to white people who have legitimate resentments about racial politics in this country and black people who have understanding about bitterness and anger, especially older black Americans who lived through some of those times where they were told that drinking fountain isn’t good enough for them.”

The first black leader to not come to the American people as a victim?

Um….

I don’t know that there’s anything else to say….

Which is more powerful, The Math or The Stampede?

or a boat, a scream and … a preacher II

As I wrote earlier this week, this issue of Obama’s 20-year relationship with Jeremiah Wright could trigger a delegate stampede of the sort that destroyed the campaigns of Gary Hart and Howard Dean. The question then was whether Obama’s speech would (or could) help him control the issue — maybe even silence it completely. Or if the speech doesn’t help will we see another Delegate Stampede?

I was devastated by the Dean Scream — shocked that something so silly could derail & end the campaign. It took me a long time to get over it. I’ve been through a Delegate Stampede and it’s not fun. The Wright Issue is starting to feel like that — a real stampede. Maybe it doesn’t matter to the die-hard supporters of Obama (maybe that’s one of the definitions) but it matters to the public.

The effects are showing up in polls, the analysis and soon — the delegate math. Yes, it won’t be long before The Math itself will reflect Obama’s fading chances at the presidency:

It’s early for polls but one national poll was released yesterday: Gallup Daily: Clinton Moves Into Lead Over Obama, “New Gallup Poll Daily tracking finds Hillary Clinton with a 49% to 42% lead over Barack Obama in national Democratic voters’ presidential nomination preference.”

Afternoon Specials

Here are some things that may tickle your fancy or frost your crockies:

• Guess who’s going to be voting by absentee ballot this year? It looks like thes Sequoia e-voting machine that I use in every election may not be quite as infallible as once thought but the company that makes them doesn’t want NJ to take a peek inside –because it would violate a license agreement? Since when is possible for a private company to override my right to vote? Why can’t we go back to filling in little circles with number 2 pencils? Everyone knows how to do that.
• Obama wasn’t the only one to stick his foot in it. It turns out that Kerry is also trying to guilt “typical white people” into voting for Obama. I thought MLK told us it was the “content of our character” that counted, not the “color of our skin”. And whatever happened to not judging a book by its cover? *sigh* We’re going to have to relive the civil rights era all over again, aren’t we?
• From Corrente, we learn that Al Franken has a cool, short and sweet elevator speech. I really like this one. It has a lot of the same elements as my credo. Take a look and tell us what you think:
  

  “There’s a new progressive majority that’s emerging in this country…. We know what we want. We want universal healthcare, we want an economy that works for everybody, we want a green economy that creates jobs, we want a world-class education for all our kids, and we want to restore our standing in the world, and that means getting out of Iraq.”

• A little off topic, but not really when you think about it: What happens when you want so desperately to believe something that it alienates family members for generations and only the critical examination of the facts by a total stranger reveals the truth? Listen to The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar from This American Life and think about how we deceive ourselves and how emotion gets in the way of rationally solving a mystery. Also, Ira Glass had a hysterical piece a while back about how bad or annoying things keep coming back and how he wishes they would just go away. His example of something that gets on his nerves? John Kerry. Too funny.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot

Ayayayayay! Do you know the feeling when you see the words leaving your mouth and you feel like you’ve just missed your train? You can’t catch up with them. They’re off and speeding down the track to a new destination in someone’s ear and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it except stand there on the platform in helpless anguish. That is how I imagine Obama feels right now after this “gaffe”. Totally, completely, f%^&ed:

610 WIP host Angelo Cataldi asked Obama about his Tuesday morning speech on race at the National Constitution Center in which he referenced his own white grandmother and her prejudice. Obama told Cataldi that “The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity, but that she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know (pause) there’s a reaction in her that doesn’t go away and it comes out in the wrong way.”

Man, that’s gotta hurt. I mean, I’m a typical white person and when I walk down the street, I just assume the person coming at me is just another person like me. You know, just minding their own business, making a living, got kids at home, loves his mother, has hopes and dreams for the future. I tried to keep that image in mind when I thought about the Russians  during the 80’s when every other second Reagan  was joking about nuking Moscow.

I’m getting the weird impression that Obama doesn’t understand Democrats.

Thursday- Taylor’s only half right

Last night, I fell asleep to Taylor Marsh. I know, I know, a lot of you find it hard to believe that Taylor’s Midwestern Missouri edgy voice could be comforting and soothing enough to put anyone to sleep but I actually love Taylor’s straightforward honesty. My anxiety is relieved when I know what my parameters are, what my choices are and I have an idea of how high the mountain is. It means I can plan better. Uncertainty is a killer in terms of planning.

So, I was listening to Taylor last night relating the challenges that Clinton faces in getting the nomination. And yes, I do believe that it will be difficult. But one thing I have noticed even Taylor succumbing to is the notion that the nomination will not be legitimate if it is decided on the basis of Superdelegates. This illustrates perfectly why well crafted and often repeated memes are so insidious. Even people who should know better start to believe them.