West Virginia Cocktail Party

Versacology. That’s the word my daughter made up to describe what’s going on when someone tells you to not do something when they really want you to do it. Like, “No, don’t go to bed now. Your eyes don’t look sleepy. Let’s stay up and play some games!” or “Don’t touch that big red button” or “The primary is over, Obama won, you hillbillies can go home now.”

Well, it looks like the Mountaineers showed them. And with Chelsea priming the punp in Puerto Rico and Howard Wolfson saying, “I don’t think there’s been anyone in the history of American politics who’s gotten out after a 30 point win.”, it doesn’t sound like Hillary’s getting out. Yeahhhh, baby! Let’s celebrate. Welcome to the Clinton Cocktail Party. The bar is to the left of the door. Rico is tending bar. His featured drink tonight is a Mountaineer on Acid, which from the ingredients list sounds like it should look a little like radiator fluid. But you can order anything you like.

Tonight’s entertainment, Tim O’Brien, is from West Virginia and keeps bluegrass alive. This is kind of cute in its simplicity. Get your clogs on.

The words to the bluegrass hymm he sings afterwards, A Few More Years Shall Pass can be found here. Everyone is welcome here at The Confluence but we like to keep the barfights to a minimum. So, please leave your trigger words with Florence our lovely checkroom attendent. The waiters will be circulating with cornbread, green beans simmered with smoky ham. Please drink responsibly and tip your wait persons generously.

Almost heaven, West Virginia

In my dreams all states are West Virginia.  What do you think?

An Ad Opportunity from WomenCount PAC

See this link from Taylor Marsh’s site for an opportunity to get the message out that women’s voices will be heard this primary season. The PAC is planning to run the ad several major newspapers this weekend. Here’s the ad:

Not So Fast…
Hillary’s Voice is OUR Voice,
And She’s Speaking for All of Us

We are the women of this nation. We are rich and poor, young and old, married with kids, married without kids, single moms, gay, straight, and widowed. We are every color. We are of every religion. We are from all political parties.

We love our country. Now more than ever, so much of what we cherish is at risk – our homes and our health, our safety and our planet, our children and our values. We raise our voices, in one glorious, defiant chorus, to tell the world that these times demand strength, courage and vision.

And that is why we stand united in our unwavering support for Hillary Clinton.

As Senator Clinton campaigns, she speaks with our voice. She carries our hopes, dreams and aspirations with her and transforms them into policies that can make our nation great again.

We know that Hillary will not rest until every American has health insurance, every child can start school ready to learn, every young person has a chance to attend college, every worker will have a safe job at decent wages. She will not rest until our men and women in the military receive the care they deserve and America foreign policy is grounded in human rights and military strength.

We know this because we have seen her do this — at home and around the world.

We cannot stand by as a cacophony of voices demand that she step aside to smooth the road for another.

Women risked all they held dear to make this country great. They put their lives on the line in all our quests for justice – from Abigail Adams to Sojourner Truth to Susan B. Anthony to Eleanor Roosevelt to Fannie Lou Hamer to Barbara Jordan to Dolores Huerta to Hillary herself.

We know that when women vote, Democrats win. Now it is the responsibility of our party to hear our voices and count all our votes.

We want Hillary to stay in this race until every vote is cast, every vote is counted, and we are convinced our voices are heard.

WE SUPPORT HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT

Here’s a link to the rest of the details. This may be the only way we get past the media filter. At least the DNC and the others will know that we are not going quietly and we *will* make trouble for them in the fall. It’s worth a try.

The Long Dark Tea Time

It’s not just about who gets the nomination this year.  In spite of the obstacles, I feel like Hillary’s in a pretty good position.  Her campaign continues to build.  Her message is resonating with voters.  And August is a long, long ways away.

But this election has exposed some things about the Democratic Party that many of us never wanted to see.  And no matter how the nomination process ends I’m saying goodbye to some long standing political relationships.

By way of Taylor Marsh:

A Farewell to the ‘Hillary Nutcracker’ and Other Obscenities, By Marie Cocco

Most of all, I will not miss the silence.

I will not miss the deafening, depressing silence of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean or other leading Democrats, who to my knowledge (with the exception of Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland) haven’t uttered a word of public outrage at the unrelenting, sex-based hate that has been hurled at a former first lady and two-term senator from New York. Among those holding their tongues are hundreds of Democrats for whom Clinton has campaigned and raised millions of dollars. Don Imus endured more public ire from the political class when he insulted the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

As Taylor Marsh says:

Truth is that The Brokered One is in trouble. Not just because he can’t win West Virginia, even after Clinton is declared a goner. Not just because he’s a very weak general election candidate, while Clinton is the stronger. But because he sat around in silence as all the sexism and racism charges were leveled against Hillary, with his campaign doing some of the race baiting themselves, doing nothing about any of it, which Hillary’s supporters will not soon forget. He wasn’t the only one, but he sent the signal that it was okay. Lunch bucket Democrats will remember, even as some so called progressive proclaim they don’t matter anymore. That’s why he won’t be getting the votes of many HRC supporters if he’s the nominee. Frankly, I can’t blame them. This story is not going away.

This story is not going away

Dear Supers: The party has no one to blame but itself

Look, guys (and gals), you’ve been holding out for a long time now, seemingly scared of your own shadows. But when 64% of the party says that Hillary should stay in the race until the bitter end *in spite of* all the intense media haka demanding that she’s a loser, you’ve got a problem. The problem is this: you are letting the Rove controlled media pick the president. That’s not its job and we’ve seen how well that worked in 2000 and 2004.

The Republicans are licking their chops. They can’t wait to sink their teeth into Obama’s tender flesh. It’s going to be juicy and succulent. They’re going to make McCain look like a demi-god while Obama’s campaign will not be able to do anything right. And unlike Clinton, Obama isn’t starting off with a huge inevitable meme that can be gradually chipped down. No, he’s starting on the ground floor and his negatives are going to skyrocket. With Clinton, the worst is over. They can continue to pound her but voters aren’t buying it. What they do seem to be vulnerable to is that their votes don’t count and that’s not a message the Democrats should be sending in the fall, wouldn’t you agree?

There is no way for Obama to win this fall. *HE* has successfully thrown most of the base under the bus and many of us want nothing to do with him. Let me repeat that: HE and his campaign surrogates have disowned us. Not the media. Obama. He is the very epitome of a failed politician when he alienates the voters he needs the most. I don’t hear Hillary doing anything that suicidal.

Don’t go trying to pin this one on Hillary. She’s doing what she is entitled to do, what no one would deny Ted Kennedy, which is why you guys exist in the first place. And her case is much stronger than Kennedy’s in 1980. With FL and MI, they are essentially tied. It is her right and obligation to the voters, especially in Florida and Michigan, to take this fight as far as it will go. If it tears the party apart, she will not be the cause of that. You can’t suppress 2.3 million voters and expect everyone to kiss and make up after they’ve been raped.

You know and we know what will happen this fall. The AA voters will get diluted, as always. The states that Obama won by caucus will go Republican, as always. And the states that you desperately needed, like Florida and Michigan will probably also fall into Republican hands. Now, I don’t know what’s going on in the party behind closed doors but you have a choice. You can grow a pair and tell the Deaniacs to stick it where the sun don’t shine or you can face the voters this fall and have a weakling at the top of the ticket. And if he goes down, he may take the rest of you with him.

Time to speak up.

Tuesday: Look over there!

I was listening to Taylor Marsh this morning on podcast, because, doesn’t everyone do that at 2am? She was pondering how the media is going to cover Hillary’s win in West Virginia today. I think I know the answer to this one: they won’t. Oh, it will be mentioned in passing, maybe a 30 second clip, “*yawn*, sooo boring. Besides it doesn’t change anything, Hey! Look at all the footage of the earthquake we have from China!” We’re going to make our own kind of music. For those of you who missed it, here’s Taylor’s latest podcast. It’s a good one.

She also says she got blamed for organizing a letter writing campaign to the superdelegates. Sam Stein at HuffPo writes about Clinton Supporters send Last Ditch Obama Attack Emails to Supers and calls her out but, er, I think it was us that suggested it. If I recall correctly, we recommended politeness. Then again, Donna Brazile seems to be the only one complaining… In any case, Sam should know that any push back directed to the supers is a direct result of the Obama campaign itself and its enablers, like DFA, who is actively soliciting signatures for a petition to gag the supers. We would really appreciate it if Obama’s campaign didn’t encourage stuff like that on its behalf. But that is the divisive nature of *Obama’s* campaign, not Hillary’s. We are not affiliated with Hillary’s campaign. If we’re mad at Obama, the DNC, DFA or Donna Brazile, it’s because they have offende US.

Speaking of US, it turns out that 64% of us want Clinton to hang in there. I interpret that to mean that voters want to have options, not Andrea Mitchell and Tim Russert picking our president. Maybe they are hoping that Oregon sets the record straight and stops Obama. Maybe the Obamagic is wearing off and Clinton is looking like a great candidate. Even John Edwards said as much. That reminds me of something else that Taylor mentioned: Republicans are looking on this with awe because they can’t believe that we are giving them the weakest candidate this fall. She mentions Rush Limbaugh specifically at being astonished at how the Democratic party is about to self destruct by passing up the stronger candidate. I don’t have much to add to that correct assessment except that there is no way I could ever contemplate voting for Clinton as Obama’s VP. If there has to be a unity ticket, she must be at the top. It looks more and more like there will have to be a unity ticket as much as I hate the idea. I think we can get African-Americans to sign on to him being her VP. That would get him the experience he needs and he can run in 2016. It’s the only viable option and would be a killer ticket, even if Michelle wants to dig out someone’s eyes about it. Any other combination of Obama on the ticket is a deal breaker. But the concept is so sensible that we can expect Donna and Nancy to shoot it down.

So, let’s cheer her on to finish out the primary season strongly. The media won’t be satisfied unless she wins 90% of the voters in West Viginia but I suspect that the supers will be happy if she just does very well.

Go Hillary! Rise and Shine.