How Does Obama Do It?

cross-posted to daily kos

There are superdelegates and supervoters. I am one of the latter, having sacrificed money, time, creativity and my health to volunteer for this campaign. The fact is Obama is still winning and is still the likely nominee, but I don't feel so hot right now.

Much of that has to do with the fact that I'm very sick with a horrible cough, fever and sore throat. I must have come into contact with a Hillary supporter in PA and gotten cooties from her negative campaigning and vile Deathmarch to Denver. She is poison, and I fear I've been temporarily infected.

Some of it also has to do with frustration over her destructive tactics and the refusal or inability of the party and its voters to see it for what it is. Perhaps I lack patience, but it's clear to me that Hillary Clinton is trying to destroy Barack Obama, and she does not care what the impact of that is. I've written before about how her attacks have certainly served the valuable goal of testing and toughening him up.

I think we crossed the threshold of the value of this strategy a few weeks ago, and I was worried that she would help destroy his appeal among independents and moderate Republicans by running a Republican campaign against him.

Now, I'm more worried that not only has she sabotaged him among those voters but is working to do so among the very Democrats who he and we will need in November. On Brian Lehrer this morning, I listened to an Obama supporter say she would reluctantly vote for Clinton in the general if she manages to snatch this nomination. She wouldn't be happy, but she would do it.

Then I listened, dumbfounded, as a Hillary supporter said she would not vote at all or would vote McCain. Excuse me, but what on Earth did Obama do to these people? Are they so offended by his positive message and talk of hope and massive restraint in the face of withering GOP attacks from a member of his own party? Does the fact that he has not stooped to her level cause that much rage? Really? What would these people say if he actually did attack her?

Really, if this is how people react to calm, cool, collected Obama, I actually fear what an outburst from him would result in.

Today, I am angry, but it is not the inspirational anger of being "fired up!" and "ready to go!" No, this is the short-term, despondent anger of "do whatever you want" because this country probably doesn't deserve Obama and clearly doesn't know what to do with him.

Hillary Clinton ran fear-mongering ads with Osama bin Laden. No democrat has ever done that. She said we would "obliterate" Iran if they attacked Israel with a nuke. John McCain happily sings "Bomb, bomb Iran," and I struggle to see the difference between them. What's the point of electing a Democrat who talks and walks like a Republican?

Haven't we already seen what happens when Democrats act like Republicans, especially over issues of "security?" We get an illegal war and warantless wiretapping. Why would Republicans vote for Hillary when McCain is the real deal?

I'm also bothered by Clinton's message that "Obama can't close the deal" with rural, white, gun-toting voters. That was proven true yesterday when she won 62 percent of households where a gun owner resides. So in the primary, at least in PA, these are her voters. Her message that Obama can't win them, however, has a major silent assumption: that come November, she will do nothing to help win them to the democratic nominee!

She's claiming these voters and plans to keep them, for what?

The point of all of this is that I'm tired of blogging about Hillary Clinton and her deathmarch campaign. I'm tired of pulling clips of her back-stabbin, Kamikaze tactics. I'm tired of Obama showing insane amounts of restraint (because he's better than her) and being rewarded with more of the same bullshit, being told he can't close the deal because he won't show an ad implying he won't let bin Laden walk into the country and kill little white babies silently in the night.

Hillary has to threaten Iran because she lacks the imagination and talent to envision another future. She has to stir up fears among gun-owners and religious people, because despite her priceless surname and early advantages, she's been reduced to Politicking 101: scare the shit out of the voter.

So I'm taking a break from my intense blogging of this campaign. Everything that I could say has already been said. All the arguments are on the table. Hillary is willing to do anything, not just to win the nomination, but to destroy the nominee.

My continuing down this path only hurts me and my health right now, and I simply cannot watch any more cable news. That's like turning to leeches and "bleeding" when society is in need of serious medical attention.

Besides, there are other things going on in the world that deserve my and our attention, so I'll try to shift my focus to energy and food and other issues of interest to black folks and Americans that does not have to do with this silly, silly Democratic primary.

My final thought is this:

Having these feelings has also shown me just how strong both Barack and Michelle Obama are. They are full of more fight, more hope and more faith than I can muster right now, and I say more power to them. For those of you feeling down right now, take heart that our candidate has and continues to weather so much more.

CNN: Terrible For Democracy?

Last night, I did myself the personal favor of not watching the play-by-play idiocy of television news. When I did turn on the television, this is what I saw on CNN:

Yes, that's the only thing people vote for, Soledad and Wolf: race and gender. What butthole-borne ignorance is this? A look at the exit polls show that race was "one of many factors" for 14 percent of voters, and they chose Hillary 55-45. There are other numbers in the exit poll, so I'm happy to be corrected on this. Please see for yourself. (pages 4 and 5)

If it's true that white people won't vote for Obama because they are white (it's this causal relationship I'm challenging), do you think it might have to do with the fact that last week's debate dragged out the same Jeremiah Wright bullshit, and Hillary Clinton, theoretical fellow Democrat, piled on?

Well, He Wouldn't Have Been My Endorser: Rendell Praises Farrakhan

From the pot-calling-the-kettle-a-holder-of-liquids department...

The YouTube description:

This is the transcript of former Mayor, Ed Rendell, who is Governor of Pennsylvania and the states most influential supporter of Presidential hopeful, Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking to a packed audience at Tindley Temple United Methodist Church on April 14, 1997 at rally: "A Solution Too Heal The Racial Divide." The then mayor was the principal organizer of the rally that brought together diverse religious, political, and civic Philadelphia leaders, with Nation of Islam leader, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan as the keynote speaker.

Some headlines at the time.

NY Times: Philadelphia Mayor Joins Farrakhan to Calm Ethnic Tensions

In a long church rally today, called to promote racial reconciliation after several recent high-profile crimes, Mayor Edward G. Rendell joined Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader, in challenging residents of Philadelphia and the nation to put aside ethnic differences.

Mr. Rendell became one of the few big-city mayors ever to share a podium with Mr. Farrakhan, a circumstance that was all the more unusual because Mr. Rendell is Jewish and Mr. Farrakhan is widely regarded as anti-Semitic. Representatives from the city's leading Jewish and Roman Catholic organizations were invited to participate in the rally, but all declined.

As the keynote speaker before an enthusiastic audience of more than 3,000 at the Tindley Temple United Methodist Church, h Mr. Farrakhan praised Mayor Rendell, a popular Democrat, for ''his courage and strength to rise above emotion and differences that might be between us or our communities.'' Mr. Farrakhan added: ''I believe, Mayor Rendell, that history will applaud your efforts.''

Mr. Rendell, whose speech preceded Mr. Farrakhan's, commended the Nation of Islam for its emphasis on family values and self-sufficiency.

He told the audience that many people had warned him against ''sharing a platform'' with a figure as controversial as Mr. Farrakhan.

But, he said, the incidents that prompted the rally -- the attack on a black woman, her son and nephew by a group of white men in February, and the fatal shooting of a white teen-ager by two black men in a robbery in the same neighborhood a month later -- have taken a toll on the city.

Philadelphia Jewish Exponent: Furor in City of Brotherly Love over mayor's bid to Farrakhan

The city's Jewish community is boiling over Mayor Edward G. Rendell's inviting Louis Farrakhan to a rally, and then charging critical Jews with not caring about combating bigotry.

The Jewish mayor's criticism of Jews capped a bizarre week in which the mayor of the fifth largest city in America invited the Nation of Islam leader to speak at an "ecumenical" service called to heal racial and ethnic divisiveness in the city's Grays Ferry neighborhood.

Jewish and Roman Catholic leaders avoided the Monday event at Tindley Temple United Methodist Church, in response to Farrakhan's long and well-documented history of anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic rhetoric.

The five-hour-plus event turned into a test of endurance for the audience of more than 3,000, who listened to about two dozen speakers.

While not referring to leaders of the Jewish or Catholic groups by name at the rally, Rendell said, "If everyone cares, they should have been here. They should have been here to talk, and they should have been here to listen."

Jewish leaders maintain that they do not belong on a stage with someone who as recently as Sunday has claimed that Jews control blacks and funded Hitler.

Just goes to show how deep into the silly season we really are.

Embedded In Philly: Rally, Canvassing, HQ Insight and Photos

cross-posted to goodcrimethink

This is my second weekend in Philly for Obama. Sorry my blogging has been so low, but I'm in the street most of the day and need to get some sleep at night. Below is a slideshow of my Flickr photos and notes on what I've done and seen/heard so far. Apologies in advance for the rough nature of the notes. Also, the first few photos are from my canvassing trip to philly two weeks ago. This weekend's trip starts with a black and white of a baby.