Frankly, I don’t find all that much to get upset about in the Chris Bowers Open Left post to which Lambert refers here. Okay, the post has a slightly condescending tinge to its tone, but why shouldn’t Democrats be proud that now more than ever the Democratic base looks like America? Bill Clinton himself once noted the same, and pledged that his administration would too, one pledge among many, many that Clinton kept.

While I’m on this subject, I want to remind everyone that neither any particular African-American nor the African-American community as a whole needs to apologize for voting for an African-American candidate for President, or any other office, for that matter. Black folks have been voting for white folks for decades now. And it isn’t as if Obama got their support automatically. It was only when he convinced many of them that he was viable, and presented a vision they obviously found inspiring, as is true for a large swathe of the electorate, that they have flocked to him. So, we are not talking about identity politics here. Remember, it was Obama who has been running as a post-racial candidate, for which many of us here at Corrente criticized him, rightly so, in my opinion.

Back to Bowers. It’s this stunning post that should be the focus of our incredulous ire, although I do realize that in Lambert’s majestic takedown, of Matt Stoller’s chilling foray into Obama triumphalism, this Bowers post is mentioned along with the fact that Bowers starts with an admiring nod to the Stoller post.

In his post, Bowers is imagining/predicting what kind of changes in Democratic governance we might be seeing from an Obama presidency. Fasten your seat belts.

Cultural Shift: Out with Bubbas, up with Creatives: There should be a major cultural shift in the party, where the southern Dems and Liebercrat elite will be largely replaced by rising creative class types. Obama has all the markers of a creative class background, from his community organizing, to his Unitarianism, to being an academic, to living in Hyde Park to shopping at Whole Foods and drinking PBR. These will be the type of people running the Democratic Party now, and it will be a big cultural shift from the white working class focus of earlier decades. Given the demographics of the blogosphere, in all likelihood, this is a socioeconomic and cultural demographic into which you fit. Culturally, the Democratic Party will feel pretty normal to netroots types. It will consistently send out cultural signals designed to appeal primarily to the creative class instead of rich donors and the white working class.

I’m not even sure what that means. Who the hell are the creative class?  Read more 

Susan Faludi thinks men are warming to Hillary because she’s mean and nasty.

Pundits have been quick to attribute the erosion in Barack Obama’s white male support to a newfound racism. What they have failed to consider is the degree to which white male voters witnessing Senator Clinton’s metamorphosis are being forced to rethink precepts they’ve long held about women in American politics.  Read more 

There’s a good reason for the recent Obamabot psyops, pundit declarations, general wailing and at times cajoling Clinton supporters have been subjected to since her recent Indiana victory was spun into a loss: Clinton still has a very good chance of securing the nomination.

What’s more, the next few days are absolutely critical for her and her supporters. The end is only here if we allow the latest round to depress morale and turnout for the upcoming WV and KY primaries.

Jay Cost at RCP lays out why Clinton’s down but not out. First some numbers and demographics:

Two things are holding me back: West Virginia and Kentucky.

—SNIP—  Read more 

While the Obama campaign and its surrogates have been trumpeting the fact that it is bringing in “new voters”, it seems to have forgotten a key component of the “old Democratic coalition” that it disparages.

“Old” voters. Literally.

The Clinton campaign consistently includes Hillary Clinton’s appeal to seniors when it discusses why she is the better choice to face off against John McCain – but the media seldom mentions older voters, choosing instead to concentrate on Clinton’s appeal to “white working class” voters to hype the race angle in the campaign.

The Obama campaign’s use of talking points involving “new voters” and a “new coalition” is sending a message to older voters – that “old” is worth a lot less to them than “new”, that young voters are more important than older voters, and that the “new coalition” means that the concerns of the “old coalition” members are no longer critical to the Party.

And all this is going on when the Republican Party will have a 71 year old as its nominee.  Read more 

It appears there are a couple new and upgraded versions of WWTSBQ making the rounds these days.

The first, is the “I’m [or He] The Man” narrative typified by this:

Not long after the polls close in the May 20 Kentucky and Oregon primaries, Barack Obama plans to declare victory in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The advantages of this version over the previous version is that it ignores Hillary Clinton altogether. We should call this the TSBL (That Stupid Bitch Lost) narrative.  Read more 

Barring a stunning reversal of fortune, my party is heading into November with a candidate who thinks the GOP is “the party of ideas,” who badmouths socialized medicine, progressive partisans, liberals (and their Chablis-soaked limos), and who says he was “called to serve” by Christ himself.

As Obama’s former friend and mentor recently noted, “he says what he has to say as a politician.”

Sure, I understand that to overtake a more-popular and more-experienced party rival, it’s necessary and appropriate to destroy her and her husband’s reputation via completely fraudulent charges of racism. Sausage ain’t beanbag, as they say.

But was it necessary to piss away this “change year,” this once-in-several-decades opportunity to repudiate the Reagan Revolution, selling a mere façade of change and propagating — as shystee so succinctly put it — “the absolute fabrication that the problem with Washington is excessive partisanship”?

Je répète:

Just where — besides the SCLM, Rightwing radio, and Karl Rove’s lying piehole — did we get the idea that this country naturally tilts to the right?

• In 2000, Al Gore got more votes than Bush
• In 2004, John Kerry came incredibly close (if not closer, given another round of voting improprieties), despite Bush’s 9/11 and “War President” bounces, a massive slime campaign, and possessing the charisma of diet kelp
• In 2006, the Democrats won handily
• On a good week (for him), Bush’s approval rating barely cracks 1/3

So, isn’t it time to stop fearing our own shadow? If not now — with the wounded GOP practically holding our quivering boots to their necks — when will it be time?

When a candidate from your own party betrays your values and — more distressingly — your reality, you kinda start to wonder if he’s ever going to “ask for your vote.”

Et je répète encore:  Read more 

Comment upgraded to a post as per Lambert’s request. My not-so-humble analysis of what happened to tonight with Indiana:

What happened tonight:

1. Mess with HRC’s supporters’ minds

2. Try (and fail) at some run-of-the-mill cheating

3. Delay as long as possible a call of Indiana for HRC

4. Delay contributions that normally follow a win

5. Push SDs over the fence to BO’s side

6. Up the ante on WWTSBQ

7. Major troll infestation at major HRC-supporting sites

I think my point 1 worked very well: these results were exactly what was expected after all. Actually, it’s pretty bad news for BO. His base is young voters and AAs and that’s it. Can’t win that way.

Heck, even BTD at TalkLeft took back his electability argument tonight.  Read more 

Well, I envy, and don’t envy, those of you who went to bed early. You got some sleep, and I’m sitting here typing and drinking cheap red wine. You also missed an amazing story; check the updates in this post (reading bottom to top). I had the feeling, whether justified or not, of immense forces moving unseen, while “the whole world [was] watching” all that we could see: screens full of numbers on pastel-colored maps, numbers that stayed static, then suddenly changed, all over the country, galvanizing people into action, posting, shouting, phoning, pleading, threatening, asking. Even poor, old, uncreative, racist C-list bloggers.

I’ll wait ’til later today to post more, but more now, I hope she doesn’t quit. The Gary count had a pretty bad odor. And Obama, by “apparent” victory, seemed to have smelt that taint. And speaking of tainted victories, Donna Brazile can lek my ass.

UPDATE 1:14 AM MSOBAMA calls for Hillary:

And FUX:

WTF? I’m guessing the nuclear option was not, like, actually counting the votes, but the TX caucus affidavits. It’s always nice to have leverage, especially when dealing with thoroughly unprincipled people.

UPDATE 12:45 AM Water torture:

I think I’m going to pour myself a glass of cheap red wine. It would be pretty funny if the nuns, Guam, disenfranchising MI/FL, and cross-over Republicans in the open primaries gave Obama the nomination.

1:01 AM Still 57%.

UPDATE 11:59 Here we go:

Via TalkLeft, WaPo

[Obama supporter Mayor Clay said the results were late coming in from Lake County because of the large numbers of absentee ballots that had to be counted — about 11,000. Under local practice, all of the cartridges from voting machines in Gary and nearby East Chicago are first collected at the local airport before being driven to the county headquarters to be tallied with the results from the rest of the county, he said. He said there were no major technical problems holding up the count.

That’s reassuring, that airport run. Why do they do that?

It takes a little time. We want to be sure that every vote is counted fair and right,” he said. “I just talked to the director out there and they are working like junkyard dogs to get that done as soon as possible. They are taking some time but I told them to do it right. That’s what taking the time.”

Of course, all my “get over it” alarm bells are going off; then again, the OFB went nuts after NH and NV, and nothing came of it. So…

12:21 AM Still 28%.

12:39 AM Still 28%.

UPDATE 11:25 PM IN H 51.8 - 0 48.2 = 3.6 (87% reporting but 0% in fucking Gary From RD: He Kerry got 188,000 votes in Lake county in 2004. Right now Hillary is leading by less than 100K. This “apparent” victory could be a problem. (Also Union County 0%.)

And since I’ve already seen a doctored video, I’d expect to see other dirty tricks. Eh?

12:08AM Holding at 28%. The whole whole IN voting system is a mess, says BradBlog. Republcans are purging the voter roles and the machines suck. Nothing specific on Lake County, however.

The roller-coaster ride continues. Anybody listening to Hillary’s victory [?] speech in IN? How do you feel about the day?  Read more 

[Leah, apparently, needs still more pictures of puppies.]

Since the exit polls are starting to come in, here’s a new thread.

Old thread is back here.

I still think it’s “Quiet, too quiet.”

8:23: Error 500 from TalkLeft, so give their servers a break for a bit. Something must have happened…

8:25 Riverdaughter’s up. Here’s a link to the IN sec of state site.

8:27 CNN: NC projected Obama win based on exit polling, 9% reporting, Obama 63%, Hillary 35%. Hard to see how that can hold up. IN not projected, Hillary 55%, Obama 45%, with 50% of precincts counted, but not, I think, the big cities. Hard to see how that can hold up, too.  Read more 

[NOTE: You could also post cute pictures of puppies for Leah. That seems to be the only thing that will induce her to post.]

[UPDATE Welcome, Cheetopians! If only Obama were a real progressive!]

This one has me really worried, because before NH, OH/TX, and PA I felt doomstruck and hopeless and depressed, and Hillary won them*.

So, now I’m feeling pretty good, and that gives me that old “It’s quiet. Too quiet” feeling. It’s bad if I feel good, so I’m going to be biting my nails and chewing o my hands today.

Let’s repeat the expectations:  Read more 

From a piece titled “No Hillary Clinton endgame — Democratic hopeful soldiers on despite seemingly hopeless situation”:

Last week, even as the Wright episode was being ceaselessly rehashed, Clinton followed John McCain in proposing a suspension of the federal gasoline tax for the summer. The proposal was aptly described by Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter as “the most irresponsible policy idea of the year.” As Clinton and McCain surely know, a gas-tax holiday would do nothing to address America’s genuine energy problems. It also would not alleviate the country’s economic problems. What it would do is encourage oil consumption—just about the last thing we need. Obama rejected the idea.  Read more 

Someone on DU says he’s an undecided NC voter, and he wants to hear pitches for each candidate.

How would you respond? Here’s what I rattled off…

Hillary:
* Prioritizes social programs
* Wonky, wants to make government work, and she gets down to details
* Committed to Universal Healthcare
* Tough
* Knows who the VRWC is, and she’s pissed
* Proud to be a Democrat
* Despite all the slime thrown at her, unequivocally pledges her support to party unity if she’s not the nominee (and she gets shouted down by Obama fans)
* Has won the big swing states and states that add up to more electoral votes

Obama:  Read more 

NC Obama by 15 (started out Obama by 20!)

IN Obama by 5 (Heck, it’s next door to his home!)

If Obama does worse than that in either state, he loses.  Read more 

“Nixon in a pant suit” is an anti-Hillary meme that Andrew Sullivan, longtime stalwart of Tricky Dick’s party, has successfully propagated. And James Wolcott, with presumably better intentions, has followed, um, suit.

Google this:

hillary pantsuit OR “pant suit” OR “pantsuits” OR “pant suits”

By last count, there are over 300,000 web pages referencing this candidate and garment choice.

What does this fixation with “pant suits” mean?  Read more 

Or
Why Obama Supporters Want Super-Delegates To Think That One Person In Anchorage Is Worth More Than 36 In Akron

As far as Obama’s supporters are concerned, a voter in Ohio is worth only 1/23 of a voter in Alaska. In Alaska, 8,877 voters chose the state’s 13 pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention, or 683 voters per delegate. In Ohio, 2,194,851 voters chose that state’s 141 pledged delegate. That’s 15,566 voters per delegate.  Read more 

Clinton, attempting to show that there will be party unity, said, “If Sen. Obama is the nominee, you better believe I’ll work my heart out for him.”
 Read more 

This week, Bill Kristol wrote one of the MSM’s wisest assessments of the Democratic primaries, and Peggy Noonan’s commentary about Reverend Wright is downright thoughtful.

Allen Funt is dead, so there’s gotta be an Ashton Kutcher in here somewhere!

A group that was outraged about debate #21 (but not, apparently, about the MSNBC snuff debate or the other Hillary grillfests) posts Obama’s responses to their “debate” questions.

Hillary has sneakily dodged this great talking-points e-mailing forum while cowardly waiting for Obama to meet her for a face to face, unmoderated debate in NC.

The document interchange did give Obama the chance to make this important declaration:

“I believe that inserting simplistic tag lines or one-dimensional goals are unlikely to be helpful in meeting this challenge.”

He then proceeded to detail his complex and multidimensional plan to use hope and unity to bring change.

Via Taylor Marsh, here’s the part of Clinton’s interview that aired tonight. I don’t know if I would say she takes Fox on, since she doesn’t attack the network, but she does a good job (for the most part) of defending herself and her policies from O’Reilly. I’m not sure, but I think she got O’Reilly to admit that he’d be willing to pay more in taxes and subsidize at least some uninsured people. She did have an obvious advantage, she’s smarter than he is (and it showed). Judge for yourselves:

Clinton is on Bill O’Reilly tonight and tomorrow. I can’t say I approve (although she’ll get some points from me if her spokesman defends it by pointing out she went on Olbermann, heh). Any predictions about what she’ll say? Will she:

a) Praise Republican ideas repeatedly,

b) Throw her most ardent supporters under the bus,

c) Take Fox on like that Obama guy did,

d) Apologize for having sent Howard Wolfson on to defend YearlyKos,

E) All of the above, or

F) None of the above.

We already know what she’ll say about Wright, via Talk Left:  Read more 

There has been quite a bit of movement among automatic delegates in the last two days. Yesterday, Hillary Clinton picked up Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and Governor Easley of North Carolina. Obama picked up Richard Machacek of Iowa and Ben Chandler of Kentucky. Then this morning, Clinton announced the head of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, Obama announced Hill of Indiana and another Iowa representative (Braley). Then, Clinton announced a PR delegate (Chelsea picked up Cabanas on her visit to there). That was followed by Obama announcing Lois Capps of California endorsing him. (You can get the rundown from Marc Ambinder’s blog.)  Read more 

The Obama Rules / Clinton Rules clearly state that Hillary is on the wrong side of everything.

So why is the Congressional Quarterly blog letting facts get in the way?

The mandatory penalties set forth by the Democratic National Committee’s delegate selection rules call for outlaw states like Florida and Michigan to only lose half of their delegates to the national convention. And yet the DNC went beyond its own rules to add further penalties, stripping those states of all delegates.  Read more 

You know, people should really stop calling for Hillary Clinton’s death. It’s creepy. And rather uncivil. Even if one well-recognized process for bringing about Unity is to slaughter all your political opponents.

Shakespeare’s Sister already called out Nice Polite Republican radio’s Ken Rubin for comparing Hillary to Fatal Attraction’s Glenn Close; in case you don’t remember, Close’s character is shot at the, er, climax of the movie. And of course, GE’s pathetic blowhard Keith Olberman envisioned a similar, Sopranos-like fate for Hillary, with “somebody who can take her into a room and only he comes out”. And this post from “creative class” [cough] A-lister Matt Stoller fits right in to the same creepy pattern:

Time to Get a Killer Instinct Against Clinton
Clinton is very weak [as any fool can see, after PA], she’s come after liberals [with provocations like truly universal health plans, not fake ones], and we should just put her away. … We [What you mean, “we”?] have rejected her, so she has to find her votes somewhere … And if we can’t, let’s figure out how to fix this institutional lack of a killer instinct.

Yeah, Matt’s right. The weak deserve to die. Especially those who aren’t part of our dominance hierarchy.

Sure, sure, just talk. Metaphor. Look, there’s a discussion of the SEIU and MoveOn!

Not.  Read more 

This Obama phenomenon is a puzzle. Why him, why now? I have thoughts, but still more questions than answers.

I don’t want to get caught up in the “sheeple” thing, that’s a shallow and ultimately meaningless term, but bear with me for a moment on the concept of a bellwether. Not in the common political sense of a district that has had a voting pattern the same as the national outcome, but in the Old English sense of a lead sheep that the rest of the flock will follow out of instinct, the need to do so transcending rational thought or consequence.  Read more