Sam Stein

The Huffington Post

Joe Andrews: Clinton Destroying Party, Lacks Principle

May 1, 2008 11:28 AM

Joe Andrews, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee in the late 1990s, warned on Thursday the actions of Sen. Hillary Clinton had the serious potential of tearing the Democratic Party apart.

"I had hoped, like Nancy Pelosi, that this [primary] decision could be have been made after the primaries were over," he told reporters during a conference call. "But I have grown concerned that the actions of one candidate, my former candidate, are going to hurt us in the fall... And so now I am calling upon my fellow superdelegates, however they make their decision, whatever they make it by, to do it now."

Andrews, a superdelegate who was appointed to the DNC by former president Bill Clinton and had endorsed Sen. Clinton, announced this morning that he was switching his support to Barack Obama. His primary reason? The divisiveness and lack of principle he believed was emanating from the Clinton campaign.

Specifically, Andrews pointed to Clinton's proposal for a gas-tax holiday -- an idea derided by economists but, likely, welcomed by voters -- as evidence that her candidacy promised not principle, but merely the opportunity to "play the political theater better than anyone else."

Bloomberg Slams Clinton, McCain Gas Tax Plan

May 1, 2008 01:57 PM EST |

NEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg called a summer-long suspension of the gas tax favored by Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican John McCain a dumb idea.

The New York mayor, who flirted with the idea of an independent presidential bid, praised Democrat Barack Obama for opposing the plan to suspend the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.2 cent diesel tax during the peak driving months of the summer.

All three candidates covet Bloomberg's endorsement. The mayor has spoken highly of Obama and McCain in introducing the two at recent events in New York.

They destroyed a lyrical genius; one of the great story tellers of all time; now studied in the University while the killers are dying unknown in their own excrement.

Same with Biggy Smalls.  The killers yucked it up, "We got that SOB didn't we; can't come on our turf and talk crap.  We showed him.  We tough, big and bad!!!"

All because of some perceived injustice.

But what did the dirty rats really do?

They took down one of the most entertaining lyricist of all time; again being studied in the University while the rats are dying in their rat holes.

But you sir, are worse than the ghetto rats will ever be.

You took dead aim and shot Obama deeply wounding the man, with the intent of destroying him!!!

You are the lowest of the low.

For a fleeting moment, you had achieved greatness.

The Moyers interview was marvelous.  You had resurrected yourself with a brilliant self-portrait.  It was truly astounding; a Marine and a Corpsman who kept Johnson alive.  The ultimate American Dream story!!!

In that one hour you won over the American people.

Oh, nobody told you, you had won?!!!

A commentator remarked that after Moyers, the bloggosphere which had savaged you for 5 unrelenting weeks, was silent!!!

Silent!!! Do you know what that means?

It means that you had fought your enemies to a standstill; left them speechless and won over.  Even smear merchant McCarthyHannity slipped and said that he was self-examining as to whether or not he had been too harsh on you; a significant victory for you and Obama.

And then you and your lunkhead hubris went on a rampage in Detroit, with a dagger right through the heart of the Obama campaign.

And this after you had already won the nation over with the Moyers interview.

Are you listening?

You had won!!!

People who read my blog know that I do not attack people personally, but for you I'm making an exception.

Despite all your degrees, you are the dumbest man on earth.

You don't even have McCain sense.  Bush said that McCain fathered a black child causing McCain to lose the nomination in 2000 to Bush; yet McCain sought and got Bush's endorsement in 2008.

You don't even have Romney sense.  McCain called Romney all kinds of names yet, Mitt took one on the chin; pulled out of the race and endorsed McCain.

Sure Obama dissed you; he had to.  This is America; you can't go around saying G-d America without serious repercussions for the candidate.

You should have sucked it up; and chewed his butt out after he becomes President.

You know at some point Obama would have reached back and invited you to the White House, where the world wide cameras would have seen the two of you embrace; bringing wet eyes to the nation and the world; a show stopper; cementing your place in history.

You had to bring out the old baseball bat and bludgeon Obama.

Now instead of certain glory, you will be consigned to the dustbin of history along with the killers of Biggy and Tupac.

Good bye, Mr. Wright.

You could have been a contender, instead of the pretender that you are.

You were/are dead wrong!!!

Sam Stein

The Huffington Post

George McGovern: Still Backing Clinton, But Going Way Off Script

April 25, 2008 11:43 AM

Former senator and Democratic presidential aspirant George McGovern says he sees some striking similarities when it comes to his run at the White House and that of Sen. Barack Obama. But ultimately, McGovern argues, Obama has organized a much wider political coalition and thus a greater chance of electoral success.

"I think that is his strength," McGovern told The Huffington Post. "He has very broad appeal. He certainly is going to galvanize the black vote. But he has strong appeal to voters of all kinds. Some of the old buckaroos out here in South Dakota are for him."

In recent days, following Obama's loss in the Pennsylvania primary, concern has been raised in Democratic circles that the Illinois Democrat could not expand his political base beyond African-Americans and college students -- a limitation that stunted McGovern's candidacy.

But McGovern, who lost the 1972 election to incumbent Richard Nixon by landslide margins, doesn't attribute his defeat to merely the contours of his political base. Indeed, he argues that his candidacy was damaged more by the infighting that occurred within the Democratic Party even after he had secured the nomination.

"After I had the nomination won and everything except the crowning at the convention, the other candidates that I had defeated in the primaries and the caucuses ganged up on me and spent the next month just bad mouthing me around the country," he said. "And, of course the Nixon people used some of the quotes and threw them back at me in the general election."

It is in this regard -- not necessarily his general election defeat -- that McGovern worries history could end up repeating itself. Noting that Obama seems poised to be the eventually nominee, though believing Sen. Hillary Clinton should stay in the race, he called for a more civil discourse between the two candidates.

"That is the one minus," he said. "I think there has been a little too much negative backbiting. And that is the one negative that concerns me because it is what happened to me in '72... I had to go into that convention exhausted, instead of spending the last few months carefully and systematically picking a running mate and getting my convention organized. We can't have that again."

This, however, is not the only similarity McGovern draws between his run for the White House and the current process. In '72, after he won the California primary and clinched the nomination, McGovern's Democratic opponents argued that the delegation should have been rewarded on a proportional basis, rather than winner-take-all. It was, McGovern says, a changing of the rules in mid-game that resulted both in the weakening of his campaign and his limping into the convention. Thirty-six years later, he sees parallels with the Clinton campaign's push to count the results of the non-DNC-sanctioned Florida and Michigan primaries.

"We can't overturn those rules now that the counting is over," he said. "I think Barack didn't even enter one contest [Michigan]. Those states knew what the rules were, all the candidates knew what the rules were, and to change it now I think is wrong."

It's not the only process issue on which McGovern, who has endorsed Clinton, finds himself at varying odds with the New York Democrat. On the topic of superdelegates, which were created as a concession to the primary reforms that McGovern initiated, the South Dakotan argues that these party insiders must take into strong consideration the pledged delegate tally.

"Yeah, I think that is important," he said. "It also reduces the frustration we would have if the candidate with the most pledged delegates was rejected. There is going to be some frustration anyway. There always is. I just hope it doesn't result in the kind of back-fighting I had to face after I secured the nomination."

Despite these differences, McGovern is not backing away from his support of Clinton. He deems her "one of the most talented, articulate and well-informed people in the country," whom he has known for 35 years, since she worked on his campaign in Texas. And he expects her to stay in the race at least until the last primary commences in his home state. But in the interim, he hopes, the tone and tenor of the campaign will be ratcheted down a notch.

 

Newsmax.com

Limbaugh: 'Operation Chaos' Helped Hillary

Rush Limbaugh says his “Operation Chaos” played a significant role in helping Hillary Clinton achieve her 10-percentage-point victory in the Pennsylvania primary this week.

Operation Chaos is the leading radio talk-show host’s campaign to urge his conservative listeners to cross party lines to vote for Hillary Clinton. Limbaugh says the aim is to keep her in the race so she can continue battling Barack Obama and create chaos in the party, thereby aiding the Republicans this November.

“Were it not for Operation Chaos, Obama could win this by winning the primary process. But he can't now. Nor can she,” Limbaugh said on Wednesday.

“Both of these candidates need unelected superdelegates to be the nominee.

“So, unelected party hacks . . . are gonna choose the nominee. All the people that have voted in these primaries up to now will not be a factor. The nominee will have been delivered by party hacks, unelected superdelegates, and that is a dream come true for Operation Chaos."

On Tuesday, Rush told listeners as voters went to the polls: “Operation Chaos is succeeding exactly as planned and meeting all objectives.”

He pointed to the tens of thousands of voters in Pennsylvania who changed registration from Republican to Democrat in the weeks leading up to the primary and suggested they were “Operation Chaos operatives.”

Following Clinton’s win, the McClatchy Newspapers reported: “One out of 10 voters said they'd changed their party registrations so they could vote in the primary, according to exit polls. They broke for Obama by a margin of nearly 2-to-1.

“Yet late-deciding voters — including those who'd long been registered Democrats — broke heavily for Clinton. One possible explanation was the flood of controversial news about Obama in recent weeks, as well as his defensive performance in a debate last week.

“Another possible ingredient in the mix was mischief: Popular conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh for weeks urged his loyal listeners to register as Democrats to vote for Clinton and prolong an increasingly harsh battle that might benefit the Republicans.”

On Wednesday Limbaugh told listeners Obama could secure the nomination by acknowledging the success of Operation Chaos. "What Obama has to do is go out and say this [Hillary] win is artificial and this win is phony because of Operation Chaos,” he said.