All Posts Tagged With: "howard dean"
Congratulations to Denver Democrats!
The Democratic National Committee and Howard Dean had reservations that a “hick” town in a flyover state could raise the kind of money it takes to earn a place in history as the host of the 2008 Democratic Convention to nominate it’s candidate for the Presidency.
As recently as this June, the host committee was still behind by 11 million but the powers that be were continuing hard at work to convince large donors to make it happen.
Yesterday, August 20, 2008, the Denver Post headline read “Convention cash hits target”. Apparently $40.6 million had been pledged by large donors and “money is still coming in”.
Denver, CO, of any US city, is a place any convention should be privileged to have their convention, let alone with the city raising over $40 million for some of the “necessaries”, perhaps a “signing bonus” like equivalency professional sports teams require of someone for them to relocate to a city or state. Denver, with it’s vibrant and growing downtown around the historic warehouse district that sprang up around the railroads in the 1800’s and with its vibrant and supportive suburbs,is a beautiful city at the base of the Rocky Mountains, home of five major sports franchises operating out of four fairly new professional sports stadiums, two of which will be used by the Democrats in making their nominee for the Presidency. It also has one of the nations largest and successful live entertainment and theater complexes, various other venues including another convention center, many respected universities, and a young and healthy population, more of whom are living downtown that ever before.
Colorado’s 8 delegates in the presidential race, while not a lot, does put Colorado and surrounding states a place in the sun. While traditionally giving a lot for support to the Republicans, Colorado is in a group of “swing” states which can have an unusually large voice this time around.
While many events lead up to Colorado being a swing state and subsequently being able to raise such a large amount of money, which has kept other states out of the running, and while many individuals have contributed, perhaps Denver’s own Mayor John Hickenlooper, the favorite hick in these parts, deserves a majority of the credit. Before becoming Mayor, John Hickenlooper was a geologist and a very successful restaurateur and real estate developer.
Another article should be dedicated to this talented, geekily charismatic individual who has been known to say “Politics is like Hollywood for ugly people.”
Feisty Ladies
It is no surprise that my mind is preoccupied with feisty ladies. The biggest one, of course, is tropical storm Fay who will be passing close to my home later today. Unlike the three hurricanes which went right over my roof during a 6-week period in 2004 this one will be more ladylike. As of this morning, Fay is taking her time as she dawdles up through Florida leaving a trail of minor wind and rain damage.
The other feisty ladies are four groups I happened to find while surfing the internet. I would look for these ladies to be raising their voices next week in support of the feistiest lady of the land, Hillary Clinton. According to The Stiletto, these different groups are now all coming together into one group, The New Agenda, to promote a variety of women’s issues.
It is more interesting, however, to look at the individual groups. I think the largest group is PUMA, which stands for Party Unity My Ass. Ever since Obama won the Democratic Primary, Howard Dean and Barack Obama have been continuously lecturing that all Democrats must now come together as one party. The name of this pro-Hillary group pretty much sums up what these women think about that!. As Hillary supporters they are demanding a roll call of votes during the DNC Convention next week to remind everyone how many votes Hillary did have and just how close Obama came to losing plus they wanted Hillary to have a prime time slot for her speech.
I Own My Vote is a group of Hillary supporters who argue that their votes do not belong to any party or candidate and that they will vote however they like. See a trend here? In fact their website http://www.iownmyvote.com/ would make a McCain staffer proud. They are also demanding a roll call of votes during the DNC Convention to remind everyone how close the race was etc.etc.etc.
Just Say No Deal appears to be a group of PUMA bloggers who are demanding a roll call of votes to remind everyone blah blah blah. Together 4US is a group of 8,739 women who have signed a pledge requesting that the DNC Convention have a roll call of votes yadda yadda yadda. You get the picture.
Four different groups of women, all furious with the Democratic primary, all continuing to support Hillary and not only wanting Hillary to be recognized during the DNC Convention but to remind Obama that he just barely won. For many, they are not only pro Hillary but have become anti Obama as evidenced by their stinging rhetoric in their websites and by their “NOBAMA” signs. Apparently
some of these women have reached the tipping point where they are so angry with their party that they are actually voting for McCain. This is making an impact as the polls have been showing that Obama is not doing as well as expected in the “white women” group.
Now all these pro Hillary groups are merging together. Tropical Storm Fay might be causing havoc this week but it sounds as if these other women might do the same during the DNC Convention . I think that Howard Dean just might have his hands full if these women come out in force in Denver. I also wonder what would happen if they all start to chant for Hillary, especially if they do so while Obama is standing by himself in that stadium. Fay may have moderately high winds and even throw off some tornadoes but nothing will come close to what Dean and Obama might have to face as they are reminded of that oh so true statement: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned…
What’s a Democrat to do? What do you think?
What’s a Democrat to do? What do you think?
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard “the Scream” Dean wants Florida and Michiganparty officials to come up with ways to repeat their presidential nominating contests so that their delegates can be counted. A re-vote could cost $20,000,000. There are 366 delegates at stake. Clintontrails Obama by 140 delegates. If Florida and Michigandelegates were apportioned according to the votes cast Clinton would get 180 more delegates. Since Obama was NOT on the Michigan ballot and didn’t campaign in Florida there’s no way to know how many he’d have. This whole brouhaha started when the DNC punished Florida and Michigan for advancing their respective primary elections and said their delegates wouldn’t be counted. Of course then there are the so-called “Super delegates” members of Congress, former Presidents and Democrat party officials. They can vote for whoever they wish so it is possible Obama or Hillary could win the vote and elected delegate count and not be nominated.