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| Hi. Please sign my guestbook!  If you'd like to chat, check if I'm on Yahoo Messenger now or not. Read all my posts on philosophy, like Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. On ebooks. On politics and current events. ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) obama_2008. obama_pa. My Barack Obama page Obama HQ Blog Obama YouTube Indecision 2008 (Daily Show/Colbert Report) Superdelegate Tracker National Polls Daily Kos TPM Politico Slate Mark Halperin Huffington Post NYT Google News TheHill TNR Charlie Rose PBS Newshour Bill Moyers NOW FrontlineAll my posts on Beachbody's P90X: the extreme home fitness program. All my triathlon, sport, or exercise posts. On running, swimming, or biking. On weightlifting, dancing, or kickboxing. On relationships and friends. On psychology. On leadership. Improving productivity and being organized. Funny posts. On health, medicine, or science. Obesity. "Sicko" and universal health care. On atheism, humanism, or religion. On business or finance. On film/TV/music. On global warming and education. "Be the change you want to see in the world."
- Gandhi  | |
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| You are welcome to read my new posts, but they are friends-only. Please set up a LiveJournal account and request to be added as my friend. That's true for anyone who wants to read my blog. I may not always add you back. Thank you. I may post several times a day. If that bothers you, please don't friend me. | |
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| Cool! This is about my Obama office! I talked to Ana Yang when I was in Pennsylvania. She took a month break from her job to go run the Erie, PA Obama office. She told me she worked 18 hour days there, with only one other full-time person. She struggled to find enough volunteers. What keeps Clinton, Obama volunteers going (San Jose Mercury News): DIE-HARD VOLUNTEERS FUEL OBAMA, CLINTON CAMPAIGNS By Mary Anne Ostrom Mercury News Article Launched: 05/11/2008 01:32:28 AM PDT  Ana Yang, photographed May 7, 2008 at work, is supporting Illinois Senator Barack Obama in the battle for the Democratic nomination. She is excited that her candidate appears to be on the verge of winning, though he lost all five states where she volunteered. The former Google employee is now back at work at Mountain View start-up FriendFeed.They have given up more than they ever expected to: salaries, vacations, holiday celebrations. They've traveled on their own dime to obscure American places: Sugarland, Norristown, Erie and Gastonia. For no pay, they've toiled 18-hour days in the snow, in the heat and in their own Bay Area back yards. Now, at nearly the end of this long, drawn-out, acrimonious Democratic primary season, these Bay Area campaign volunteers for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are soon to face the bottom line: One of their candidates will be the Democratic nominee, and the other will not. ( Read more... ) | |
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| Christopher B. Duncan is the best of all 3 Obama impersonators I've seen! He was the guy on the "Tonight Show's" Tonight-Line Town Hall Meeting, the mock debates between Obama and Clinton. They were much better than SNL's skits. His agents are in contact with SNL, and I hope he gets a permanent gig playing Obama on that show. Fred Armisen's version sucks. See Christopher Duncan's other videos. Fox's MadTV, in general, is funnier and smarter than SNL. (See MadTV on YouTube.) Too bad they haven't done enough Obama. I won't post this on obama_2008, because he makes all these sexual jokes about Hillary, so please skip this first video if you'd be offended. But damn, he's funny! At minute 4, Christopher Duncan does Obama's "impression of Donald Duck making love." Hahaha! 3/26 "Tonight Show" ----Tonight-Line Town Hall Meeting (full skit) 4/18 "Tonight Show" ----Tonight-Line Town Hall Meeting (only first 2 minutes) CNN: Comparing the Obama Impersonators ( Read more... ) | |
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| My blog has hit over 800,000 unique visitors. Partly it's all the election coverage. Partly it's people finding my P90X extreme home fitness entry and wondering why the hell I've been such a slacker about it. I did spend Mother's Day clearing all the weeds in my parents' side yard, sawing through two sets of large bushes that had sprung up near the sidewalk, and planting a whole fruit tree (digging a 2-foot deep hole) next to their house. Am getting an average of 2,200 unique visitors per day. (Yellow means unique visitors. Orange means page views.)  | |
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| http://community.livejournal.com/obama_2008/1002240.htmlSigh. Watching Clinton is like watching the monster from Alien jump you again, after you think you've ended it. (See Salon.com article, What does Hillary (really) want?) As Mark Shields said Friday, about those who run for President, "The only known cure for the presidential virus is embalming fluid." Could Clinton land the VP nomination? (CNN): By Carl Bernstein (CNN) -- Friends and close associates of both Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are now convinced that, assuming she loses the race for the presidential nomination, she is probably going to fight to be the vice presidential nominee on an Obama-for-president ticket. Clinton "is trying to figure out how to land the plane without looking like surrender," a prominent figure in the Obama camp said Friday. This means, in all likelihood, bringing her campaign to a close in the next few weeks and trying to leverage her way onto an Obama ticket from a position of maximum strength, said several knowledgeable sources. ( Read more... ) | |
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| http://community.livejournal.com/obama_2008/1001343.htmlI spent Mother's Day clearing all the weeds in my parents' side yard, sawing through two sets of large bushes that had sprung up near the sidewalk, and planting a fruit tree (digging a 2-foot deep hole) next to their house. Red State Update: "Democrats---just PICK one! And hurry the hell up!" Hahaha.... | |
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|  Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I just ordered this. It's a "terrific read on Lincoln's handling of people, politics and the prosecution of war." Fascinating lessons of leadership. Steven Spielberg plans to turn this book into the 2009 movie Lincoln, starring Liam Neeson and Sally Field. Both George McGovern and I have thought that Obama is the most like a modern Abraham Lincoln, as a leader, whom I have ever seen. We may learn much from studying how the "inexperienced" Lincoln handled a divided nation and bitter Civil War, putting together and leading this cabinet of former rivals. ( Read more... ) | |
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| http://community.livejournal.com/obama_2008/997088.htmlNo, she's not crazy. Yes, she knows math. Like Slate's John Dickerson, I don't seriously think she was intentionally playing the race card this week. Clumsy, tired, insensitive, and still tone-deaf about her words, yes. But there are concrete, practical reasons for her to stay hell-bent on campaigning now. She puts herself in a good position to negotiate with Obama for certain concessions. And yes, I believe her when she says she will campaign vigorously for Obama for November. No, I don't really think she's secretly a Republican or wants John McCain to win. Totally fascinating article below! It talks about the dramatic 1994 Virginia U.S. Senate race and how Democrats had a similar rivalry as we have now, between Sen. Chuck Robb and Gov. Doug Wilder. How even Bill Clinton stepped in to make a deal. How Gov. Doug Wilder decided to withdraw and ended up convincing his black supporters to vote for his former opponent. It discusses the behind-the-scenes negotiations that could go on between Obama and Clinton before she ends her campaign. It's written by Dan Conley, who served as a political aide to Virginia Governor Doug Wilder and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. This makes a hell of a lot of sense and explains why Hillary continues to campaign so forcefully, despite the math.What does Hillary want? (Salon.com): What would it take for Clinton to concede defeat? An insider remembers -- and draws lessons from -- the backroom deals that ended another brutal, racially charged Democratic slugfest.( Read more... ) | |
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| Thank you, fellow Californians! I knew you'd wise up. You just didn't know either Clinton or Obama well enough, back on Super Tuesday. Californians Would Switch Clinton Vote For Obama (CBS): SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― California voters would change their February primary vote for Hillary Clinton to a vote for Barack Obama if the vote were held again, according to an exclusive poll commissioned by CBS 5. While voters in the California Democratic Presidential Primary backed Clinton by a 10-point margin, a new SurveyUSA poll shows that if given the chance to vote again, Californians would choose Barack Obama by a 6-point margin, 49%-43%. ( Read more... )Watch news report. (Video) Read the full SurveyUSA poll. (Even today in my state, Hispanics still favor Clinton to Obama by 2 to 1, while women and people 65+ still favor her.) Here is a really strange sign of how flawed our memories can be. A certain chunk of people actually FORGET whom they voted for! They fool themselves into thinking they voted for the winner, or that they voted when they really didn't even go to the polls! On "Mis-Remembering" One's Vote: ( Read more... ) | |
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| http://community.livejournal.com/obama_2008/992660.html(Also: Obama picks up 9 superdelegates, union endorsement. The drips are turning into a flood.) Too amusing and heartwarming! Haha... Do you have any stories of your parents or family members who have also, gradually, seen the light? Please share. OMG – Hell has frozen over! (Daily Kos. The comments there were great): ( Read more... )Let me explain. My mother, an octogenarian who’s voted Republican her entire life except in 1960 when she elected to support JFK because he shared her Roman Catholic faith, revealed to me on the telephone yesterday that she’s voting in Kentucky’s upcoming primary for Barack Obama! ( Read more... )"Hillary," she said. "It’s about time we had a woman running this country. Right now we need someone with a woman’s instincts, who can bring this country together." "We’ve had too many men prancing around trying to prove how big and strong they are, convinced that the best way to govern is by intimidation," she observed. "Right now, more than ever before, we don’t need a bully in the White House, we need someone willing to listen and govern with grace." When I suggested Barack Obama as a possible alternative, citing his call for unity and his opposition to the war from the beginning, she promptly shut me down. "This country is not ready for a colored man to be president," she stated emphatically.( Read more... ) | |
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| Comedian Andy Borowitz does it again! Hahahaha... Bill Clinton Switches to Obama (HuffPo): ( Read more... )For her part, Sen. Clinton said that the defection of her husband would not deter her from staying in the race, adding, "To my knowledge, he's the only white voter Sen. Obama has." The New York senator denied that she was playing the race card, arguing, "Every other member of my family is supporting me, and by the way, they're white." Elsewhere, a defiant John McCain said that his wife will not release her tax returns, "and neither will my girlfriend." | |
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| This Politico piece was my favorite story from yesterday! Haha. Watch the video. Obama was treated like a rock star when he visited the House yesterday. Watch how the journalists hang on his every breath. At one point, he says, "I'm just walking." Obamamania sweeps the Hill (Politico---watch the CBS video. Reminds me of the paparazzi following Britney Spears). Obama Takes a Victory Lap (NYT).  | |
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| http://community.livejournal.com/obama_2008/988590.html(A joke: Bill Clinton Switches to Obama.) WOOOO HOOOOO! Finally!!! Now Obama is ahead of Clinton in ALL measurements, including his hip size. (Just kidding.) Obama Now Takes The Lead in Superdelegates Too: ABC News' Karen Travers Reports: For the first time this campaign season, Barack Obama has surpassed Hillary Clinton's support among superdelegates, according to the ABC News delegate estimate. Sen. Obama, D-Ill., picked up 3 superdelegates this morning giving him a new metric to tout in addition to his current commanding leads in pledged delegates, popular votes, states won, and money raised. ( Read more... )
Superdelegates
|
ABC |
CBS |
CNN |
NBC |
AP |
New York Times |
Politico |
Washington Post (w/ AP statistics) |
| OBAMA |
267 |
261 |
258 |
260 |
256 |
258 |
260 |
256 |
| CLINTON |
265 |
271 |
268 |
274 |
271 |
263 |
268.5 |
271 |
------------------- DemConWatch has Clinton 6.5 SDs ahead of Obama this morning.
Superdelegates, Without Michigan and Florida (includes add-ons)
|
Pledged (GP) |
Super |
Total |
Need to Win |
| Obama |
1590.5 |
264 |
1854.5 |
170 |
| Clinton |
1426.5 |
270.5 |
1697 |
327.5 |
| Edwards |
19 |
-- |
19 |
|
| Remains |
217 |
262.5 |
479.5 |
| Updated 5/9/2008 |
Delegates Needed: 2024.5 |
Here's the complete list of superdelegate switches from Clinton to Obama: ( Read more... )Obama's Super-Del Whip: Many Super-Dels Back Obama, But Won't Go Public (Talking Points Memo): I just got off the phone with Rep. Melissa Bean, who is one of Obama's chief super-delegate whip-counters. She said two things of interest: First, she predicted that it was "entirely possible" that Obama could pull even with Hillary in super-delegates by next week -- and predicted that at the end of the process Obama would have more super-del support than Hillary. And second, she insisted that many super-dels who are publicly uncommitted actually are privately backing Obama but won't say so right now. ( Read more... )Wright Makes Super-Dels MORE Eager To Back Obama (Talking Points Memo): After interviewing Rep. Melissa Bean, one of Obama's chief super-delegate whip-counters, I contacted her office with a follow-up question: How often do super-dels raise concerns about Reverend Wright, or about Hillary's claim that Obama struggles with blue collar whites? Here's the answer that was sent back, from Bean herself: "I have not heard that as a reservation from anybody. I only heard about Reverend Wright in the context of people saying it made them decide to step forward sooner to declare their support for Senator Obama." This seems like a reference to Obama's handling of the Wright affair. Either way, it's a striking claim indeed from Bean, who talks to the super-dels every day, and obviously runs counter to virtually all of the roar of punditry we've heard on the topic. | |
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| http://community.livejournal.com/obama_2008/986165.htmlExcellent! Yesterday, "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer" had a panel discussion in which most experts concluded that the media (and we ourselves) have done a lousy job of talking about race in this election. We have oversimplified, sliced, and diced individuals and groups into these stereotypes. They said the very act of talking about terms like the "black vote" or the "Hispanic vote" promotes stereotypes and oversimplifications, which further divides us. It's one of the best discussions of how words we use can affect our perceptions of race which I have seen. Media Tackles Sensitive Race Issue in 2008 Election (Newshour with Jim Lehrer): [Go to link for video, audio, and full transcript of their talk.] ( Read more... )So, when we talk about the white working-class voter who does not vote for Barack Obama, guess what conclusion the other folks in this country are going to make about those voters? Now, we're going to conclude that they are bigots. If -- when we talk about black voters without distinguishing between one and the other, then we have a bunch of sheep running behind the black candidate because they're black, and they're not thinking, and they have no sophistication whatsoever.That's what the media allows. In fact, that's what it abets when it talks about that race -- race that way. And the fact of the matter is that we, as a country, talk about it that way, too. Journalism has to be better.... ( Read more... ) | |
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| Sex? Yawn. Politics? That’s Hot! (NYT): A FORMER editor of People magazine had some hard-and-fast rules: young is better than old, pretty is better than ugly, television is better than music, music is better than movies, movies are better than sports. And anything is better than politics. ( Read more... )“You can’t get much better drama than what we’re seeing on the campaign trail,” said Charles Lachman, the executive producer of “Inside Edition,” the syndicated entertainment newsmagazine. “It’s the greatest reality show on television.”... ( Read more... ) | |
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| http://community.livejournal.com/obama_2008/977193.htmlOverwhelmed by news. Too many posts and blogs to filter. I've been struggling to post the maximum amount of important information in the most compact and economical way. Then I noticed Mark Halperin's (of Time and ABC News) fantastic blog, The Page. Check out his fantastic design. He organizes two columns of tiny pics, short paragraphs, and tons of links about the day's election news, which he regularly updates throughout the day. He always keeps links to the latest delegate counts, plus he lists where all the candidates will be daily. All on one page. Note the Drudge Report sort of does the same thing, with poorer quality and more sensational news, but it still gets a monthly "readership of about 3.5 million, and...up to 19 visits per person per day." "The Page" is like a mini- Huffington Post, which also does a great job organizing the most important political news of the day in an easy-to-read visual layout. However, the HuffPo also keeps posting crap articles about soundbites Sherri Shepherd said on "The View," and stuff like "Polyamory: The New Monogamy?" Haha. But the HuffPo has excellent (pro-Obama) political coverage. I don't know if Mark Halperin is pro-Obama, but he's pro-reality. He was one of the earliest to stress that the delegate math was against Clinton, no matter how much she spun it. I also read RealClearPolitics regularly and love its design. Very organized, with the latest polls and vote counts. However, it seems to be a pro-Republican site. I still go there daily, to check what the GOP says about us. And of course I constantly visit Google News, which has a special Elections tab. But I like Mark Halperin's blog the best. He purely focuses on this election. Compact and dense, with links to the MOST important news. Visual. All on a single, regularly updated page. Plus he does a daily video in the upper right corner. From now on, I will try to follow Mark's example. Like I did last night, I will post daily news summaries here, combining lots of links and news into one post. I will stop posting multiple times a day. Instead, I'll update one main post throughout the day. I'll do all this mainly on my own blog first, then post a big summary at the end of the day. I hope this saves you time and makes life easier for you. :) | |
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| http://community.livejournal.com/obama_2008/974296.htmlHillary Clinton's strategy of last resort (LA Times): Hillary Rodham Clinton now envisions a road to the nomination built on disputes over Democratic Party rules and fights over delegate selections. But on Wednesday even that route looked unattainable, with some key party officials warning that they would not cooperate with Clinton's strategy....
[S]etbacks for Clinton's new strategy could come as early as May 31, when a party committee meets to consider the dispute over delegates from Florida and Michigan. Under party rules adopted before the campaign began, the two states were stripped of their delegates as punishment for holding their primaries earlier than allowed....
Several party officials said Wednesday that they did not support the Clinton strategy of reinstating the states' entire delegations....
( Read more... )
On DemConWatch, Clinton's superdelegate lead has been cut in HALF in just 3 days!
Just today, Obama got four more superdelegates (one of whom switched from Clinton).
Superdelegates
| Date |
Clinton |
Obama |
Uncommitted |
Clinton Lead |
Clinton% |
| 5/4 |
269 |
248 |
278 |
21 |
52% |
| 5/7 |
269.5 |
258 |
268 |
11.5 |
51.1% |
( Read more... ) | |
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| Want to see Obama giving meaty, detailed answers to serious voter questions, unedited by the media? Then watch his intimate town hall videos on YouTube. They are excellent. I think Barack truly shines when he talks policy. Like Bill Clinton (also a former professor), he is wonderful at explaining complicated things in simple ways that focus on what you really care about. He is brilliant at zeroing in on the heart of an issue. If you and I spread these videos to everyone, we can help change the false image of Obama as "superficial" or "lacking substance." The press has been too "bored" to cover his town hall meetings with voters, who ask tough questions on real issues. We need to change the focus from trivial issues and his soaring, "rock concert" rallies to these personal town hall meetings. I NEVER see his town halls covered meaningfully on the news. And voters usually don't ask stupid questions on fake issues, like Charlie Gibson, George Stephanopoulos, or Tim Russert. They ask PRACTICAL questions. Here are ALL of his town hall meetings from Indiana. People have given them titles by question topic. The longest complete clip is this 37-minute Q & A meeting he had with voters in Kokomo, Indiana. It gives a great sense of Obama, down home and unfiltered. I prefer this more intimate style to the loud rallies: Here are ALL of his town hall meetings from N. Carolina. Here are ALL of his town hall meetings from Pennsylvania. Here's his 10-part town hall from Harrisburg, PA. Here's his answer to Question 1, on Medicaid fraud. | |
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| To see what each campaign plans to do now, listen to this morning's Obama and Clinton campaign conference calls with the press. The journalists asked many good questions I am sure you are also wondering. People on this call included: Campaign manager David Plouffe, Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Claire McCaskill, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano... http://community.livejournal.com/obama_2008/972015.html | |
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