This is what victory looks like:
Obama, increasingly looking like the Democratic presidential nominee, strode into the House chamber just before 11 a.m. as the House was beginning a series of votes. Obama, who was greeted with hugs and backslaps, slipped in the side door along with what appeared to be only his security detail.
“I wanted to see what’s going on over here,” Obama, wearing a broad smile, told reporters. “I hear there’s a lot of action on this side.”
He spoke to uncommitted superdelegates as well as supporters of his rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) He was also seen speaking to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who is neutral in the race. And he talked at length to Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), an uncommitted superdelegate.
The Democratic frontrunner spoke with Clinton supporters Reps. John Murtha (Pa.) and Bill Pascrell (N.J.), as well as Reps. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and John Spratt (S.C.), who are both uncommitted.
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), a Clinton supporter, got Obama to sign a copy of today’s New York Daily News with the headline: “It’s His Party.”
He also talked with Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), a Clinton supporter whose district voted for Obama. But those votes have not been counted in the Democratic primary because Florida defied the party rules in scheduling its primary.
“I was teasing, as everyone was. I said, ‘Do you want me to kiss the ring now, or when you come to Florida,’” Hastings said. “He said, ‘Take your time.’ I said, ‘I will take my time, because you do need to come to Florida,’” Hastings related later. “I didn’t get to say what I wanted to say, which is that he could just say right now, ‘Seat the Florida delegation.’”
Even Republicans were not immune. Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) brought his children over to say hello. Obama also spoke with Republican Reps. David Dreier (Calif.) and Jerry Lewis (Calif.). Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) came running after him, and Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-Wyo.) came over to chat.
He spent about 40 minutes speaking to lawmakers. After he exited the floor, Obama said the goal is to “bring the party together as soon as possible.”
He also told reporters also told reporters that he expects to lose the upcoming primaries in West Virginia and Kentucky to Clinton.
I’m just waiting for a big announcement about a big bloc of superdelegates that will finish off the last delusional hope that the math can work for Hillary Clinton. And then I don’t want to hear from Bill and Hill again. They can go hang out with Ed Koch and nurse their bitterness.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/EXCLUSIVE_Montana_superdelegate_declares_for_Obama_0508.html
A journey of a thousand votes begins with a single superdelegate.
OK, I guess that’s a rather loose translation.
If what Zogby wrote holds up; there should be 30 superdelegates declaring in the next 24-48 hours
Well I hope Zogby is more accurate in his superdelegate reporting than he is in his polling. But yeah.
DCW counted Dahlman on 4/7/08.
The least weak argument I heard yesterday for H staying in the race was that she could use the next month to cushion the transition to Obama by stopping the attacks and start to lead her supporters toward reconciliation.
Since is missing that kind of leadership DNA and chooses arrogant denialism instead, I’m just glad she’s lost her place in line to be the next Commander in Chief.
George Will
George Will chose sick humor to describe H’s campaign. Enough said
Now that is a really good quote. Think what you want of George Will’s politics, he can be a funny guy sometimes.
Or perhaps she wins if Obama’s popular vote total is, well, adjusted by counting each African American vote as only three-fifths of a vote.
OMG! LOL! Step aside Hillary.
That’s their next marketing ploy. Don’t vote for Obama! He’ll only be 3/5 of a President!
Think some of these folks would believe it?
SusanUnPC Author:
Latest poll of West Virginia, May 3, 2008: HILLARY HAS A 40% LEAD!
HRC 63 / Obama 23 / DK 14
That’s inflated value over at TL. We’re gonna need more than healing.
…They can go hang out with Ed Koch and nurse their bitterness.
What is apparently lost upon all 3 is that each has tasted a measure of success unavailable to most Americans, if success is to be measured by the office(s) one attains. But I guess that’s what happens if one’s entitlement goes south.
Obama seems perfectly content to torpedo his own campaign. Who the hell states publicly that he expects to lose primaries, thus looking as though he isn’t confident in his ability to sell himself? This same crap cost him states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and, I suspect, Indiana.
Obama needs to learn how to campaign. He thinks he’s a Republican running against Democrats, in a Democratic nominating process. People sense that, and it’s why he can’t close the deal and prevent a brokered convention. It hasn’t helped Obama that he has shown himself to be what, as Adolph Reed describes in this month’s issue of The Progressive, a “vacuous opportunist.”
This is Obama’s biggest problem, as Reed goes on to argue:
This phony little jerk is trying to sell himself to a crowd that demands something else entirely. That’s a losing strategy, one that has kept Democrats from winning back the White House for eight years.
This is not a direct quote:
Obama was clearly campaigning for superdelegates, who are at the same time, colleagues. The conversations were half-joking/half-serious. At the same time, the Kentucky and West Virginia primaries are only a few days away; so it’s likely he was getting questions from the press about why he was spending time socializing with congresscritters rather than campaigning in primary states or attending to Senate business. Clinton is way ahead in the polls in both of those states. All we know from the paraphrase is that Obama acknowledged the obvious to the reporters.
Hey it’s fine to dislike Obama or disapprove of his campaigning strategy–though it has been working til now. But man, Adolph Reed’s running grudge match against various black political figures is a nasty pill to swallow and reeks of pettiness and resentment, I must admit. I love his work and his commitment to class politics is wonderful, but his hatred of Obama is coming from an irrational, weird place. I gather he expects some kind of perfection from any black candidate–that they be the chocolate covered Eugene Debbs–which as we know won’t ever happen and if such a saviour were to emerge he or she sure as hell wouldn’t have a rat’s chance as president.
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“I am shocked, without knowing the reason that it is happening, that none of the allegations with the respect of Wright, his former pastor, have had any impact on his polling,” said Koch. “I’m absolutely surprised because I think that all the things that Wright says — and nobody believes that Obama supports those statements — but he didn’t have the courage to stand up and object for twenty years. If you are running for president, you can’t be like some other poor guy in the pews who is afraid to stand up or even say something privately to the minister. You’re the guy who wants to lead the country and you have to have courage to stand up and lead your own pastor. He did not exhibit that. But the fact that the Democratic constituency doesn’t seem to care is a shock to me, but I’m certain that the overall constituency voting in November will care and that it will make the difference in the adverse way to his candidacy.”
In fact, if they care about Israel at all (and quite a few of them do not anymore), under-50 Jews would like to see a change in tone from the White House. Something less along the “war of civilization” line, or even the “Labor good, Likud bad” line of Bill Clinton – and more along the “talk to your enemies” line promoted by Carter; and, yes, Obama.
New York Politics and Murdoch
No one should be surprised Ed Koch is in Hillary’s Corner: 4 more years … invade Iraq and bomb Iran for the sake of …?
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."this premature air of entitlement is all he learned from Clinton?… I am sad. He might not pull it off as well as she did – come next week’s her win in West Virginia and more Clinton’s stampede (which we all know she’ll throw out) – and Obama will hide again from the media sulking?
And now I hear they plan to declare victory after May 20 and create further dispute with the Clinton camp. What for? They won’t be able to talk issues with McCain under these circumstances apparently – everything and everybody will be just full of that new drama.
Sense of entitlement? Huh? He’s winning. No, rather he’s won.
He is lining up the final pieces in the chess game. None of this would be necessary if Hillary had a toe in the ocean of reality.
And “Obama will hide again from the media sulking”? What are you talking about?
And how is declaring victory going to “create further dispute with the Clinton camp”? How could he possibly create more dispute? The Clinton camp, at least as personified by people over at TalkLeft, need to face reality.
Obama fraternized with the enemy!
You know the old joke: The new Senator is being shown around by a fellow Democratic colleague and told about socializing with Republicans at cocktail parties, to which he responds, “But they’re the enemy!” The old timer says, “No, they’re the opposition. The House is the enemy.”
My wife and I saw this on the news last night, she asked me why they were all mobbing him as such. It dawned on me in that instant, and I said because he is now the new leader of the Democratic Party.