Elections

We have one unconference, one competition and one networking conference all cooking in our burners. Come check it out!

Nota Bene : All text is taken verbatim from each event's site. I will be posting about each event shortly.

i tell you what, them there GOPs sure don't want to be associated with Bush. it's like they are trying to channel 'ole Ronnie, right down to their refusal to listen to song lyrics. "Born in the USA"; "Barracuda". choose songs about abused Vietnam vets and vicious bastards and make 'em your own! anyway, that poor Cindy looks like she is one rung short of downing the last of her pain pills, borrowing a gun from Palin, and climbing a rooftop. they pulled her hair too tight. she looks very unhappy having to imitate Nancy Reagan all the time.

There are so many reasons why Hillary Clinton will never be Vice-President that the GOP has made us all a favor and put them all together on the first official 2008 Presidential Election attack ad against Barack Obama.

Thanks Hillary and Bill Clinton and idiotic Democrats, y'all super!

[ Editorial Note: Now we have the important part of the transcript. ]

This is one of those historic TV moments that people will be talking about for a long time. And let me tell you, I lost it as it was happening. Twitter or not, I was agog at the sight of David Gergen calling out Hillary and Bill Clinton on their racist strategy.

He even went as far as saying that there is a sense the culture is legitimizing the racist language and creating justifications that is allowing Clinton to base her electoral value on the racial composition of those of her voters who wouldnt not vote for Obama.

That's why it's particularly shocking to have seen David Gergen, a former communications advisor to Ronald Regan, say that racism is starting rear its head in ways we've never seen before; and to validate that for votes is counter to the ethos of the Democratic Party.

I mean, she's been talking about sexism in this race and she has complained about some in the last 24 hours.

You know race is really playing an increasing issue. And it also raises the question in my judgment of whether she shouldn't say, you know, if you want to vote against him because he's black, I don't want your vote. I don't want to win that way. This has no place in this primary.

She's raised the issue of sexism in this race and she's complained some about it the in the last 24 hours? Race is playing ... it's an increasing issue. That raises the question in my judgement, whether she shouldn't say, "You know, if you don't want to vote against him because he's black, then I don't want your vote."

And that's not even half of it. There is a powerful back and forth that is not included in this clip. Yet more importantly, CNN doesn't have neither a clip nor a transcript of this exchange (and the omitted one) on their site. There's the moments right before and after this exchange but no transcript for this important moment in US political history.

Goes to show how big media is at odds with it's own influence and power.

Watch this clip and see how David Gergen redeems the whole both republicans and the political analyst profession. To say this solidifies my admiration for him is to put it mildly : My admiration goes back to at least 20 years if not more of watching him do political commentary first on PBS and then on CNN.

WATCHI IT!

Hat Tip to Natalie (aka @natthedem) who twittered the video.

UPDATE!
Now with transcripts!

It is not a question of "if" but "when".

Barack Obama is not only the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party but he will be the next president of the United States --and yes, you can quote me on that.

This has made my friggin' day :

NARAL Pro-Choice America PAC Endorses Senator Barack Obama for President

Washington, D.C. – NARAL Pro-Choice America, the political leader of the pro-choice movement with more than one million member activists in all 50 states, today announced that its political action committee is endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president.

"There are few more tireless defenders of women's rights in this country than NARAL Pro-Choice America and I'm proud to accept their support," Sen. Obama said. "For decades, they have worked in the courthouse, in the legislature, and in the streets to make sure that women have the right to choose. This is a fundamental civil right that I've fought to protect in Illinois and in Washington, that's being threatened by Senator McCain, and that I'll be fighting in the months ahead to make secure today, tomorrow, and always."

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, praised both Sen. Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton for their leadership in standing up for women's reproductive rights throughout this campaign, but only one of these dynamic candidates can advance to the general election.

Photo Credit : Lost Albatross @ Flickr.com

Obama may have won Mississippi but I have a feeling the junior senator from New York may have enjoyed seeing most of her supporters wouldn't vote for the Senator of Illinois. CNN has the 411 on exit polls :

Of those who voted for Obama, 42 percent said they would be satisfied if Clinton was the nominee, according to the exit polls.

Among Clinton voters, only 16 percent said they would be satisfied if Obama wins the party's top spot.

The exit polls are based on surveys of 925 voters in Mississippi's Democratic primary.

What's interesting to me is that even with a third of the white vote, Obama beat her. Let's look at the actual exit poll numbers to see how it happened.

73% of white voters went to Clinton whereas 90% of African Americans went to Obama. When asked about the candidates' race, Obama's blackness was important to 62% of respondents. Of course, that number could be interpreted as important to vote for Obama or important to vote against him. Either way, race was a big decider in this state.

This last weekend, Democrats picked up another seat in Congress. It wasn't just any seat, it was Dennis Hastert's formerly "safe Republican" seat. The win was solid, with Democrat Bill Foster winning 53% of the vote. This was a major blow to the Republican Party.

Salon.com reports that "National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Karen Hanretty [said] in a statement that 'one election in one state does not prove a trend.'"

This is typical Republican blindness, pretending that data points are isolated incidents without looking at the broad picture. Republicans do this with global warming as well, ignoring decades of solid scientific data and pretending that a single cold season somehow is more important than those decades of data showing a clear trend.

I have news for Hanretty: this IS a trend.

Indicted Tom DeLay's old, "safe Republican" seat in Texas has been taken by a Democrat. Pedophile Mark Foley's old, "safe Republican" seat has been taken by a Democrat. The governorship of Kentucky, once "safe Republican" has been taken by a Democrat. The governorships of Montana and Virginia have been taken by Democrats. State legislatures around the nation have been flipping to Democrat like crazy starting in 2005. And, of course, Democrats overwhelmingly took the House and marginally took the Senate in 2006. Fundraising by Democrats is at record highs. Fundraising by Republicans is at record lows. Almost each and every special election that has been held for a Congressional seat since 2005 has flipped from Repub to Dem. Republicans are retiring or flipping parties at record numbers. It started in 2005, and this trend started when Americans saw the true cost of greedy Republican mismanagement when hurricane Katrina hit.