Election 2008: So is Hillary Clinton finished?

well. the point is that the hispanic vote was questionable. cubans, for instance, traditionally vote republican - long memory of "betrayal". but they were going to vote clinton. their vote could EASILY have swung toward mccain. but I've spoken to some friends still in miami and it is clinton's endorsement of obama that is making them consider voting for him. that may not seem significant. however. how important has florida been in the past? hrm? same with hispanics in texas. they are racist. they don't *like* black people. they might not have voted. they might have voted mccain. who knows. but instead, my understanding from folks who still live in texas is that they're swinging toward obama because clinton said so. they *loved* clinton the prez and *loved* the idea of another clinton prez.

I don't work in my old job anymore so I don't know what the dominican cafeteria workers are thinking these days but they were the ones who didn't want obama because of his name - he's clearly muslim for them. however, if they're swinging over to obama, it's at least PARTLY because of clinton's endorsement. you guys might want to write her off, but I think she (and her husband, frankly) are critical assets to the obama camp. maybe not enough to pull the rabbit out of the hat but what was the #1 critique of the gore campaign? he refused to use clinton (the prez) to campaign for him. that might have made enough of a difference to have changed the last 8 years.

obviously, we can't know for sure. but I think it is critical for both female support and hispanic support that the obama camp use the clintons wisely. mccain is holding female-only rallies and speaking to la fucking raza unida party. he is trying as hard as he can to grab those folks he sees as folks who might swing toward him now that clinton is out.

Lol. What a wanker. NOW it seems like a good idea... The "new" politics at work!

Aug. 3, 2008

Looking to build Democratic unity, Barack Obama has called for restoration of full voting rights for convention delegates from the key swing states of Florida and Michigan, which flouted party rules by holding their primary elections too early.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, who ran a close second to Obama in the party's nomination process, won both states and had argued unsuccessfully that delegates she captured in those contests should be counted in her favor.

The delegates were each awarded a half vote each in a compromise reached during a contentious Democratic party meeting in May. Obama secured the necessary number of delegates shortly afterward, and Clinton suspended her campaign and threw her support to her first-term Senate colleague.

Call for unity
Obama had opposed full votes for those delegates until now, with the party's national convention less than a month distant and his nomination as its presidential candidate all but certain.

Obama says fully reinstate Fla., Mich. delegates

Subject: 2000

In re the Florida vote in 2000: I've often wondered how much Elian had to do with the vote that year. Elian the boy saved from drowning only to be taken at gunpoint from his relatives' house by the feds. Picture in the paper. Video on the TV news. Elian sent back to Cuba. That poor scared boy, his mama drowned under the waves. I've often wondered whether that was enough to sway a few votes, when a few votes was all it took that year. How odd that the course of history might have been altered by the fate of that boy.