Race is an issue in this Presidential year. So is fear. How far will West Virginia Democrats grow over the next 7 months? That is the question.
Will Clinton supporters there come together for the good of the Democratic Party come the Fall election? Will WV voters come together for the good of the reputation of their own state?
Can't you read the new motto after the Fall Election should the same voters who accepted Hillary Clinton, reject Barack Obama over and above John McCain?
There should be a contest among high school students across West Virginia. What should our new motto be?
State of Bias? State of Intolerance? State of Racism? State of Xenophobia?
Or will change be embraced? A mind-set alteration, and growth that must take place in order for West Virginia to meet the future of the nation, maybe not first in line, but in line.
In her victory speech, Clinton says: I'll stand for you, if you stand for me.
Isn't that exactly the opposite of what Obama is saying.
He'll stand for you even if you don't stand with him. He'll represent a different America, a different United States on the road to a change so overwhelming a different America will emerge with you believing in you.
Clinton on the other hand is all about Clinton and her power.
Obama is all about you and your power.
Mica Brezinksi is doing a dynamite job hosting Morning Joe on MSNBC all by herself. Chris Matthews yesterday quipped the show should be called Morning Mica. We agree.
Joe Scarborough, former Congressman and conservative, unsure about Party status, didn't ask one hard question of Hillary Clinton about her proposal for a gas tax holiday when she appeared on the program just days before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.
During Clinton's interview with Bill O'Reilly a few days earlier, Clinton admitted she'd like to get back to the tax rates employed on the wealthy in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, when she said there was a 70 percent taxation rate!
O'Reilly let that slip right on by, and seemed ok with her proposal for an increase in capital gains.
Amazing.
Yet, Barack Obama pulled out a huge win in North Carolina, which by the way, included some amount of white Democratic voters, and Clinton merely eked out a win in Indiana by a single percentage point.
West Virginia stats include 95 percent population which is white. Clinton captured 67 percent to Obama's 26 percent.
A landslide for sure, but with it, Clinton claims a politics of the past not a politics of the future, for the future of this country.
Clinton wants the full delegation of both Florida and Michigan seated. In her favor.
Pat Buchanan pushes the idea of Clinton as Obama's running mate, Vice President. He also said Barack Obama won to a corpse last night. Go figure, why should Obama choose a corpse - a dead horse - to help him out in the General Election.
Right, bring in the politics of the past alongside your message Obama and watch the presidency slip on by.
Maybe that's what has been at play here behind the scenes all along. Obama may win the Democratic Primary, but not have ever had a chance to win in the General as the powers that be want a race, but no real growth of the nation, no real change.
Give Democrats hope that change is in the wind, real change from the politics of the past, but go back on that near realistic idea in the end, using an excuse. We just couldn't have won without the Clintons.
But by choosing the Clintons as running mates, Obama will lose with them in tow.
Obama is winning now. He "lost to a corpse." Respect her for her tenacity, but deny her any claim to the future direction of this country as her future path includes one that itself relies on past notions. Notions like, white "working class" voters are choosing a white woman, not necessarily because she's the first woman seeking such a powerful position, but because she's white.
Nora O'Donnell stated the truth about West Virginia Democrat voters: it was about the racial aspects...
consider this. Every time Obama visits a state, really visits, with several days of touring, meeting, greeting in town halls and packed auditoriums and arenas, voters turn to Obama, not away from Obama.
While results from WV were largely about race, the results were as much about a mind-set which is hesitant to accept change, or accept a different way of looking at things.
Some 50 percent in polls reported they believed Obama accepted the views of Rev. Jeremiah Wright as his own views.
They may not have heard by now Obama is not a Muslim, as many in the polling afterwards reported they are still under that belief as well.
When you think about it, the most brilliant card Obama just played sight unseen was to stay out of West Virginia. Voters there weren't ready to hear the truth Obama had not only distanced himself from Wright's comments, he had outright rejected Wright after Wright's public comments at the National Press Club.
While Obama visited a few WV places, Charleston comes to mind, he largely stayed out of the state to campaign elsewhere. Had Obama visited the colleges, heavily, traversed the state for days before the Primary, and still lost by 40 percent, then the pundits would have been able to claim Obama failed mightily there.
See, they'd be able to say, even though voters saw his charm, heard his message, touched the man as others in other states, they were still not drawn to him or his message.
By not visiting the state, Obama can say he made an inclusive gesture, he'll return before the Fall and try his best to win over the good people of West Virginia who voted for Clinton, and more.
Pundits are left with commenting on how Obama didn't win the state, but then, he didn't visit the state, acknowledging Clinton's win as one Clinton was projected to claim anyway.
Yes, very brilliant move Obama Team. So pleased to see somebody outmaneuvering the Mighty Press.
Obama has ground to cover in West Virginia. The state that wasn't ready for Obama in the Primary, but he'll have to prepare them for him in the Fall.
Look for Barack Obama back in West Virginia with the Clintons nowhere to be seen.
Obama will stand on his own, and if he doesn't win West Virginia on his own, it will be because the politics of the past will have had a larger influence on Democratic voters there than a future with a Democratic President.
Clinton is interviewed on CNN The Situation Room by Wolf Blitzer...
Net the Truth Online
Commentary: No racism in the presidential election?
By Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Special to CNN
SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- In claiming victory in West Virginia last night, Hillary Clinton reiterated her last best argument as to why she should be the Democratic nominee: because only she can win in November.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/14/navarrette/index.html
Clinton: It'd be 'terrible mistake' to pick McCain over Obama
...Clinton last week drew criticism for comments she made to USA Today about having a broader appeal to white voters.
"There was just an [Associated Press] article posted that found how Sen. Obama's support among among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me," she told the paper.
"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she added.
New York Rep. Charlie Rangel, a Clinton supporter, said "that was the dumbest thing she could have said."
Clinton conceded Wednesday that "he's probably right."
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/14/clinton/index.html
Networks call West Virginia for Clinton
Well, no surprise here -- as soon as polls closed in West Virginia, at 7:30 p.m. EDT, the networks declared Hillary Clinton the winner of the state's Democratic primary.
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/05/13/clinton/index.html
Related
War Room by Alex Koppelman Tuesday, May 13, 2008 23:14 EDT
Matthews: Clinton "almost like... the Al Sharpton of white people"
Somehow, I can't imagine that Keith Olbermann handed Chris Matthews a grape after Matthews went off on another rant during MSNBC's coverage of the West Virginia Democratic primary Tuesday night.
While interviewing Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. (D-Pa.), a supporter of Barack Obama, Matthews began to get worked up about elitism in the Democratic race. "What are your feelings, as a Democrat, about this whole discussion -- you and I have never heard it in our lifetime, I mean we've known that racial and ethnic issues always get in the way of arguing over issues, real issues, but this conversation, as it's turned, I mean, I even hate saying things like 'white working-class voters," you know?" Matthews said. "I was taught, growing up, don't even say words like 'blue-collar,' don't even get into that kind of elitist talk. We're not sociologists, we're Americans."
As Matthews continued, he referenced a recent interview Clinton gave to USA Today in which some believed that she had implied the only "hard-working Americans" are "white Americans."
"How do we get back away from this, where these people like Hillary Clinton so loosely say hard-working white workers?" Matthews asked Casey. "It's almost like she's the Al Sharpton of white people. I mean, how do you get away from that?"
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/05/13/matthews_sharpton/index.html
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