When Barack Obama received the endorsement of members of the Kennedy family including Caroline Kennedy and Ted Kennedy, Clinton supporters tried to counter with the endorsement of other members of the family. Political Wire reports that Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who has endorsed Clinton, spoke at St. Mary’s college in Maryland last week. She has a pretty accurate assessment of the state of the Clinton campaign:
“Townsend said she expects Sen. Barack Obama to win the Democratic presidential nomination and that Clinton is finished. She believed that the Wisconsin results demonstrated that Clinton’s coalition (voters over the age of 50 and those earning less than $50,000) had fallen apart. When asked why the Clinton campaign had failed, Ms. Townsend had plenty of opinions and she placed significant blame on Bill Clinton and his racially tinged statements in South Carolina. She also felt that Clinton made a tactical error in making “experience and inevitability” her central campaign themes. Townsend argued that Clinton had little more experience than Obama and far less than candidates such as Senators Dodd and Biden. Additionally, making the inevitability claim hurt her when she lost Iowa… Townsend then lamented Clinton’s decision to go negative and question Obama’s readiness. She said that she called the Clinton campaign and advised that they ‘go out on a high note’ but her advice was politely dismissed.”
It is good to see that even some Clinton supporters agree that Obama is going to win, that her campaign based upon claims of inevitability and greater experience was an error, and that her negative campaigning has been a mistake.
I don’t think we can just yet make the assumption that she has lost the democratic nomination. But, I hope that she does not win the democratic nominate. Hillary is amongst the most corrupt politicians in Washington and last year she landed 9th in earmarks. Obviously she cater to lobbyist and special interest groups, but she continues to throw lies around as if she doesnt. The earmarks tell it all.
Hispanics have been up for grabs for the last few years, going back and forth between supporting Republicans and Democrats.
They greatly distrust Obama. There’s a lot of friction between the Black and Hispanic communities in places like Houston, LA and even Chicago.
Obama’s win ought to secure the Hispanic vote for the GOP in 2008. Adding to all this, McCain has bucked his own party on their Number One issue – Immigration.
I’m not a McCain supporter. (I’m backing Libertarian frontrunner Wayne Root). But, if he manages to win over Hispanics to the Republican Party and fundamentally re-align the demographics of the political parties, I’ll be one of his biggest proponents.
He could even win California for the GOP in ’08 due to the Hispanic vote.
Who would be the best VP pick for McCain?
California Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia (R-Palm Springs). Ms. Garcia is a 4-term legislator. She’s term limited and not up for reelection. She’s a moderate to conservative GOPer heavily aligned with Gov. Schwarzenegger.
She also happens to be the Nation’s leading Latina Republican in office.
Put Garcia on the ticket, and the GOP could take the Hispanic vote away from the Dems and even take California.
Glad to see you are supporting Obama
Fellow healthcare worker & Kerryite before
aka DiAnne
http://www.silencedmajority.blogs.com
& write on Mondays at http://www.democracycellproject.net
Eric,
You are stuck in Nevada, where Clinton dominated the Hispanic vote, and have failed to notice that since then they have been gradually shifting towards Obama.
Still, you do have a point about McCain but it is a bigger point than you mention. Not only does McCain have a better shot at the Hispanic vote than his Republican opponents, McCain has the best shot of keeping the west for the Republicans. With the other Republican candidates, many western states would have been in play. Now that is not so certain.
There is one problem with Garcia as McCain’s running mate. With McCain’s age, it is more important for him than most candidates to have a running mate who people believe can take over as president. While Clinton had no real case with regards to experience against Obama, McCain does. I bet that they will try to disregard Obama’s experience in the Illinois legislature if they run against him. They can’t do that if the running mate is from a state legislature. Of course it is also possible that they might feel that even with Obama’s experience in the state legislature that McCain still has many more years of experience and they might decide that there is no need to discount experience in a state legislature.
As i watch Clinton speaking to supporters in RI, I feel thatthe people around her have misguided her and as such her strategy is in total ruin. Firstly, they underestimated Obamamania. Secondly, they ran out of funds. Thirdly, they started with dirty politics resulting in them to apologize to the Obama Camp. Forthly, bringing Bill C into the picture has only brought back bad memories as people very often remember the bad things rather than good. All in all both Obama and Clinton are good candidates but Mrs Clinton has far too much baggage that requires openess. Many have not forgotten the scandals of the “Bill legacy era”!
The problem wasn’t simply bringing back Bill but the way in which they used him. If he campaigned in a positive style he might have been a plus for the campaign, but having him go negative was a big mistake. For the most part, voters in Democratic primaries primarily would have thought of the better parts of Bill’s legacy if he hadn’t gone negative.
They certainly underestimated Obama as they assumed the race would be over by Super Tuesday, leaving them at a big disadvantage in the post Super Tuesday states. They also ignored many caucuses and smaller states not thinking they would matter.
The Democratic nominees are essentially pushing the same policies and beliefs. With that said, I think it is sad that so many people are closed off from the true pulse of what is important in a president. We are seeing first hand the quality of people that are running for the democratic ticket, and so many people are missing the meat and potatoes here. I just wanna break this down to the character of these two people, and then ask whom is more fit to be the leader of the free world. One is beginning to use scare tactics, and is throwing everyone else to the wolves to make self gain out of desperation, while the other continuously speaks about what is right, and just, and has continuously tried to remain above the foul play. One is behaving like a rabid dog, while the other is keeping thier head up, and showing strength of character by showing honor and integrity, and not sinking to cut throat behavior. I so often have heard people complain that there is never a candidate that is honorable, and that they are picking the lesser of the evils. One candidate in this situation has behaved extremely honorably, even going as far as to congratulate the person trash talking him when something finally went in her direction. Say what you will, but I like honorable stand up people and wish that more people were like that. I have had enough of the coniving behavior that has plagued politics for as far back as I can remember. I think that it is time for a change, and time for a president who isn’t self serving, but one rather, whom is there to serve the greater good, and will not let his honor be shaken. Think about it. It basically comes down to who is the better person, and that has been established. We need a president with a conscience. One who understands the concept of reprocussion for thier actions. The fact that Hillary has disregarded the welfare of the democatic party that she belongs to, shows that she will just as easily disregard the welfare of the entire country.