All Posts Tagged With: "Liberal, Democratic"
Is it about Obama, Hillary or about the Democratic Party or Al Gore?
Rachael Maddow credits Howard Dean with a remarkable moment in the current family feud among Democrats when he admitted that in the 2004 Democratic Primary race he was ranting and raving in his hotel room while talking with Al Gore on the phone about how poorly he was being treated by his party.
He said that Al Gore told him it is not about you Howard, it is about the party at which time the light bulb came on and Howard left the race.
Today, in New York, Al Gore is holding a private meeting to raise funds and pundits are speculating that he is going to raise more than money. Nora O’Donnell thinks it signals that Al Gore is about to publicly cast his vote (who believes it will not be for Obama?).
And most importantly, that Howard Dean is signaling that the Democratic Party should pay attention to the increasingly influential one time Senator and Vice President who has reinvented himself as an international darling, filmmaker and entrepreneur whose nascent mystical power is making him The Godfather of the Democratic Party.
Chris Matthews was in awe of the epiphany that someone like Howard Dean could have that would cause them to put their party ahead of themselves. Message: Quit Hillary, Quit!
Puerto Rico may determine Democratic Nominee (pst, that would be Barack)
Only in America.
Michael Barone in a U.S. News and World report says about the Democratic proportional delegate nomination and Puerto Rico: “And they aren’t likely to be proportionately distributed.”
You might find this four month old article interesting despite the fact that his prognosis for Hillary did not turn out so well, but if he is proven right in the upcoming primary about the Puerto Rican Democrats, you will see some first class irony, unintended consequences and inconsistency. I didn’t say hypocrisy, but you decide. Then take a look at what Wikipedia tells us about Puerto Rican voting in Presidential Elections:
“The major differences between Puerto Rico and the states are:
- Puerto Rico does not have the rights of a state as granted by the US constitution, because it is not a state. These include:
- Lack of voting representation in either house of the U.S. Congress, as the US Constitution provides these rights only to full states. The only delegate to the Congress is an elected Resident Commissioner who represents the people of P.R. in the United States House of Representatives. The delegate may speak but cannot vote for final passage of congressional legislation, and may serve and vote in committees, as well as the Committee of the Whole.
- The ineligibility of Puerto Rican residents to vote in presidential elections, as the US Constitution provides these rights only to full states. (Note, residents the [[District of Columbia only attained this right in 1960 by a constitutional amendment.) P.R. does not have any electors in the U.S. Electoral College, although the Puerto Rico chapters of the Republican and Democratic parties can (and do) have state-like voting delegations to their respective nominating conventions, as well as voting representation in the Democratic and Republican National Committee.
So let’s see here:
1. If Puerto Rican voters and their Democratic Party officials on June 1, 2008 give all their delegates (63) to Barack Obama he will be the Democratic Presidential Nominee is in the primary in June 2008. At the time of this post, he only lacks 43. If Puerto Rico goes all for Hillary, then Barack will have to wait until June 3, 2008 assuming the Rules Committee has not punted.
2. But these Puerto Rican Democrats join their Republican comrades in that they are all ineligible to vote in the general election in November 2008 for that same nominee.
The artifacts of history create interesting situations, to say the least.
My Candidate: None Of The Above
A lot of potential voters are feeling the strain of the current primary battle going on between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Of course, Obama’s supporters are up in arms about the Clinton camp’s apparent racial comments, not to mention the apparent “slips of the tongue” that seem to be a regular part of Hillary’s stump speeches.
As well, Clinton’s supporters are up in arms about the apparent misogynistic comments coming from the Obama camp. Many even argue that Clinton deserves the Democratic nomination simply because she’s a woman (their argument is that sex should trump race in this election).
Then, there are those Democrats and Progressives who aren’t keen on either candidate, for whatever reason. Of course, they wouldn’t dream of ever voting for a Republican, particularly not John McCain. Many voters are also not keen on voting for relatively or veritably unknown third-party candidates, either.
Many people believe that voting for either a Democrat or a Republican is a sell-out vote, no matter how you cut it. They call it “voting for the lesser of two evils” and of course, that means, no matter how you vote, you are still voting for “evil”. And, there are a lot of people who are not down for voting for “evil”, but they still want their vote to be heard. Instead of “voting for the lesser of two evils”, they prefer to vote “None of the Above” or “NOTA”.
Democratic Strategy and Choices in 2008 Election by Ben Smith
Keep up to date on what the Dems are doing to furhter their 2008 Presidential ambitions according to Ben Smith.