Bob Johnson on Obama

We don't need anything else than this video to tell us what the Clinton campaign is about. To use Bob Johnson, a shrill for the Republicans. For instance: Bob Johnson, the Black Entertainment Television founder with a personal net worth of $1.3 billion, is a Trojan Horse, an aggressive political operative of the Bush White House posing as a Democrat. He has used his high profile status as one-half of all African American billionaires (the determinedly non-partisan Oprah Winfrey is the other half) to advance the most politically perilous item on the GOP agenda: privatization of Social Security.

To use this guy and then have him attack Obama on drug use. Don't believe me - watch for yourself. Will we really get anything different from the Clinton Campaing then what we have right now?

The Clintons are Exactly What is Wrong with Politics: Update

Bill Shaheen co-chair of the New Hampshire Hillary Clinton campaign resigned today. Shaheen announced he will step down from that position today. His resignation comes in the wake of remarks he made concerning Clinton rival Barack Obama's past drug use, and his insinuation Obama not only used, but also dealt drugs.

This is Rovian style politics right out of his handbook and it stinks of Mark Penn, the Clinton Campaign manger. This is similar to the insinuation that John McCain fathered a black child in the 2000 South Carolina campaign. The Clintons are the entrenched politicians who believe they have a divine right to the Presidency and it matters not how you get there. A means to an end. It doesn't matter who you screw or who you step on as long as you get there.

I have heard voices that we need Clinton as the nominee because she can sling it like the Republicans. But, is that really what we want? Do we really want people who treat others this way? Insinuate drug use and drug dealing and then have someone step down and say I am sorry, knowing full well the rumor sticks and you have provided cover for yourself. Do we really believe this is how campaigns work? That the obviously brilliant Hillary Clinton just didn't know what her campaing was doing. The record of the Bill Clinton campaign is filled with stories of Hillary Clinton as the real brains behind the operation. See George Stephanopolous. Are we to believe she would allow someone to step out and say such a thing without the campaign's knowledge.

I watched Hardball today and they had all the campaign managers from the big three and Mark Penn said the word cocaine three times in a sentence referring to Barack Obama, all the while "apologizing" for the transgression and blaming Obama for negative attack ads. David Axelrod just shook his head, but Joe Trippi stuck it to him saying "there he goes again." Mark Penn has the same shit eating grin that Rove has as well.

This campaign is Bush in democratic clothing and I want no part of it. I hope it backfires on her, but I am not so sure it will. She knows she is in trouble, but if she attacks enough and Obama's numbers go down just enough she can come out of New Hampshire in tact and go on and win the nomination. If Obama continues this meteoric rise there may be no stopping him. So, they hit and they hit low.

Just for the record I have no problem with attacking policies of each candidate. That is politics, Obama's health policy quite frankly leaves a little bit to be desired. It is a middle of the road policy and he deserves scrutiny, but past drug use, which Obama has come clean on to his credit, smells of the politics that turns people off, which may be the exact intended response.

The real beneficiary of this just might be John Edwards.

Here is the video I am talking about regarding the three campaign managers. It is truly informative.


Update: This is a strategy, not a mistake.

Obama's 'surprises'?

Clinton didn't mention specifics in the taping of an interview on "Iowa Press" this morning, but drew a contrast with unnamed rivals that echoes Bill Shaheen's now-notorious claim that unexplored elements of Obama's candidacy will make him an easy Republican target.

"I’ve been tested, I’ve been vetted," she said. "There are no surprises. There’s not going to be anybody saying, 'I didn’t think of that, my goodness, what’s that going to mean?'"

This appears to be the emerging core of the electability case against Obama: that elements of his public record and -- unspoken -- his private past, could scuttle what should be a Democratic sure thing, and that he is untested by real partisan combat.

"Whoever we nominate will be subjected to the full force of the Republican attack machine, and I know that they know I know that and I have no illusions about what this race will entail," she said.

UPDATE: Asked to elaborate on what she's suggesting about Obama, Clinton has an answer ready: "I’m only talking about myself."

Edwards Connects Hillary to Blackwater

From Politico.com:

Edwards today in Iowa, according to his campaign:

"Bush has been a perfect example of cronyism, because Blackwater has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republicans and to President Bush. I also saw this morning that Sen. Clinton’s primary adviser, Mark Penn, who is like her Karl Rove – his firm is representing Blackwater. I think it is important for Iowa caucus-goers to understand the choices they have in this election. And it is the reason I continue to say we don’t want to replace a group of corporate Republicans with a group of corporate Democrats. I think it is important for caucus-goers to see this choice."

Edwards is right. Mark Penn is like her Karl Rove. He is also a famously anti-union buster. Are we sure we want the Clintons back?

Moveon Hits Back at Rudy

Hillary or Obama: Who Do you Think Has the Better Ad?

Bill Clinton and Immigration

This morning a colleague and I were discussing Bill Clinton and his remarkable abilities as a politician. I told a story of someone I knew in D.C. who directed Arlington Cemetery and met him once and had a brief two minute conversation with him. The next year walking through a crowd at the annual ceremony he stopped and said hello to my friend and referenced the conversation he had with her the year before. She was dumbfounded and it is mind boggling how intelligent he was and is. It makes me sad, however because a man of such potential in my opinion ruined the democratic party. My colleague mentioned the immigration bill passed under Clinton's watch when Congress passed legislation making "deportation a mandatory penalty for a long list of crimes, including minor, non-violent offenses committed years before the laws went into effect." Ironically a report released today indicates just how bad it has gotten.

Human Rights Watch said in a report today the mandatory deportation of legal immigrants convicted of a crime, even a minor one, has separated an estimated 1.6 million children and adults, including US citizens and lawful permanent residents, from their non-citizen family members, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The Press Release says:

“The laws are not only cruel in their rigidity, they are senseless,” said Alison Parker, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch’s US Program and author of the report. “How do you explain to a child that her father has been sent thousands of miles away and can never come home simply because he forged a check?”

Prior to 1997, immigrants who committed a crime were permitted to go before an immigration judge, who could exercise his or her discretion in imposing penalties. However, the legislation Congress passed in 1996 precluded immigration judges from considering whether deportation would be excessively harsh in light of the immigrants’ family relationships, community ties, US military service records, or the possibility of persecution if returned to their country of origin. The deportation takes place after the non-citizen has completed the terms of the sentence imposed for the crime.

According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data included in the report, 64.6 percent of immigrants deported for crimes in 2005 had been convicted of non-violent offenses, including non-violent theft offenses such as shoplifting. Read the Full Report here.

This happened under Clinton, not Bush. So did the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Welfare Reform, NAFTA, etc. The list goes on. Let us not go back to the Clinton years although they were indisputably better than now. Let us move on to a place where the government supports the people no matter the color of their skin, their gender, sexual orientation and yes their country of origin. Because no human is illegal.