DNC Puts Some Weight Behind Fight For Health Care Reform

In the form of advertising, the DNC is getting behind the President and the more progressively- minded Democrats in Congress who are advocating for health care reform. Legislators that are in bed with health insurance companies have to be reminded repeatedly that the American people's best interest must come first, not just for those that donate the most amount of money to their campaign accounts.

Who Will Win The "GOP Survivor" Contest?

With so many personalities and so much at stake, which one of these contestants will come out on top to rule what is left of the Republican party? The creators of the ad at the DNC do not make a guess as to who'll win, so I'll make one. Since the party is all about money and power and principles be damned, the contestant with the most natural ability is Rush Limbaugh. With an eight-figure salary from Clear Channel and an impressive skill that makes other Republicans bow before him, Rush can decimate his opponents with just a few seconds of airtime on his syndicated show.

DNC Rubs NY-20 Victory In Michael Steele's Face

When you win, like the way Scott Murphy won the 20th district in New York; the Democratic National Committee can put ads like this one out to show just how badly the Republicans blew the special election between Tedisco and Murphy.

DNC Eviscerates GOP For Yesterday's Budget Gaffe

The GOP handed this one to the Democratic party on a silver platter:



Honestly, if you are trying to fight off the stigma of being the "Party of No," do not come to the public with a non-existent budget that only pisses everyone else off.

DNC Highlights The Party Of "No"

How sad is it that a once proud GOP has disintegrated into an irrelevant party that does nothing but obstruct the progress that the Americans voters sought to implement this past November? Of course, the Republicans have done this to themselves, by working against the wishes of the American people for their own deluded ideas of partisanship. The DNC decided to help them and condense the GOP agenda into a 36 second advertisement for all to see:

Dems Abandon 50 State Strategy

There are many Democratic leaders in D.C. who are infamously known for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. They believe in a strong (meaning themselves) centralized apparatus that directs everything from Washington because they think they know best. Meanwhile, the state and local leaderships are diminished and so is their expertise of the area. This type of strategy has doomed the party for decades, that is, until the emergence of Howard Dean and the fifty-state strategy.

Governor Dean knew that decentralization was the key and reached out to every corner of the country, regardless of how many more Republicans there were. He was all about party building and because of his (and many others) hard work it came true. We now have large majorities in Congress and a Democratic President in the White House. So why is it that D.C. Dems believe they have to replace a plan that is far from broken?

From OpenLeft:

In short, the DNC will be moving away from the long-term, decentralized, fifty-state strategy of Howard Dean's tenure, and toward serving as a short-term, centralized re-election effort for President Obama in 2012. It will continue the move away from paid media ushered in by Howard Dean, maintain or increase the amount of resource expenditures in most states, and the number of states it targets will be a broader effort than the narrow focus we saw in 2001-2004 (but more narrow than 2005-2008). However, it will return to the traditional role of the DNC as a supplement for the sitting President's re-election campaign, rather than as the long-term, localized institution building operation that is was from 2005-2008.
The fifty-state strategy of 2005-2008 is going to be replaced with the "re-elect President Obama" strategy of 2009-2012.

Not too smart DNC.

The re-election of Barack Obama is incredibly important in a few years time, but the over-riding goal should be to elect more Democrats, and to let those of us in different spots of the party tent see who wins primary contests. Staying away from states like Utah and Idaho is just plain stupid when you are working for the future of the party. Why would anyone want to stop increasing the gains we've made in such a short time?

Obama Decimates McCain In July Fundraising Efforts

It seems that July isn't much different from June when it comes to fund-raising numbers from the Obama and McCain campaigns. Barack Obama blew out John McCain in June, and he did the same thing last month. He didn't just beat him by a few million, he didn't just do it with 65,000 brand new donors, he did it because the American people desire change and do not expect or believe it will come from John "McSame" McCain.

From The Political Wire:

Sen. Barack Obama raised more than $51 million in July, the AP reports. His campaign began August with $65.8 million on hand and has had more than 2 million donors.

In contrast, Sen. John McCain raised $27 million in July and had just $21.4 million in cash on hand. He has had approximately 600,000 donors.

Those figures aren't even close. Now Republicans generally try and remind themselves that they at least have the fund-raising prowess of the RNC to counter the candidates' discrepancy. In July, they have no such comfort. As far as raising money goes, there is no contest between Obama and McCain. When Americans tune into the race after labor day en masse, they'll see there is a similar relationship between the two men in terms of policy, issues and character.

Giuliani Gets Smacked Down By The DNC

For some reason the Republican pest known as Rudy Giuliani is still buzzing and bothering everyone around him in sight. John McCain, who apparently likes his former opponent's foul-smelling stench let Rudy loose on Obama concerning, what else, 9/11 and homeland security. Well once Rudy was done, the Obama campaign and the DNC's Karen Finney picked up the fly swatter loaded with truth and smushed the former Mayor.

From MSNBC's FirstRead:

In an e-mail, entitled, “Giuliani v Giuliani: 1993 World Trade Center Bombing Case,” the Obama campaign points out that in 1993, Giuliani said at the time, per the New York Times, March 5, 1994: “Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani declared that the verdict ‘demonstrates that New Yorkers won't meet violence with violence, but with a far greater weapon -- the law.’”

Also from that day’s Times: “Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said he hoped that the verdicts would lessen tensions rather than increase them. ‘It should show that our legal system is the most mature legal system in the history of the world,’ he said, ‘that it works well, that that is the place to seek vindication if you feel your rights have been violated.’”

The DNC takes its shot at Giuliani with an e-mail with a title, parroting Joe Biden’s Greatest Debate Hits: “Rudy, ‘Noun, verb, 9/11’ Giuliani returns.”

“Democrats are not going to be lectured to on security by the mayor who failed to learn the lessons of the 1993 attacks, refused to prepare his own city’s first responders for the next attack, urged President Bush to put his corrupt crony in charge of our homeland security, and was too busy lobbying for his foreign clients to join the Iraq Study Group,” DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney said. “Rudy Giuliani, can echo the McCain campaign’s false and misleading attacks, but he can’t change the fact that John McCain is promising four more years of President Bush’s flawed and failed policies on everything from energy security and the economy to the war in Iraq.”

Yeah, now that is how its done. As long as Obama and the Democratic troupe respond to Republican attacks in this way, there is no way possible that we lose in November. We have the truth on our side, all we need to do is use it.

Barack Obama Is Committed To Reform

Not only does Barack Obama inspire people in a way not seen in decades, his ability to stay on message and his actions solidify the great things he says up on stage. Now that he is the nominee, he effectively becomes head of the party and in the same week he is starting to make big changes for the Democratic apparatus. For more than a year he has repeated that he will take no corporate or lobbyist money. Well now neither will the DNC.

From Politico:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is moving on two fronts to make transparency a linchpin of his campaign, opening his fundraisers to reporters and clamping down on the Democratic National Committee’s fundraising from Washington insiders.

The moves, announced on his second full day as the party’s de facto presidential nominee, are designed to drive a campaign message of change versus more of the same, aides said.

His likely opponent, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), closes his fundraisers to the press.
Beginning last night, Obama will open all of his fundraisers to at least a pool reporter, who will share the information with the rest of the press corps.

Beginning Thursday, the DNC will no longer accept checks from federal lobbyists or political action committees, mirroring the strict standard Obama adopted for his presidential campaign.

Now that is change I can believe in. McCain is his usual secretive self, desperately masking who he really is and the policies and modus operandi that conflict with his "maverickness." Besides, it wouldn't do McCain much good to follow Obama on the openness factor because he survives on insiders. Obama on the other hand has the support of millions of donors and supporters that make his a true people-powered campaign.

Always Listen To Your Mother

Truer words could not have been said:

DNC Dramafest 2008 Is Upon Us

It is now approaching 6:00 EDT and the members of the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee have heard and asked questions of various representatives all day long. For the last two hours, they have been in recess, supposedly having a late lunch but probably trying to hammer out a deal behind the scenes before coming out into the watchful eye of C-SPAN (they are now trying to fill time with repeats from earlier today). The question is, what will come from their decision?

From the arguments we've heard a lot of substantive information emotional crap. The Hayes/Tilden Presidential election of 1876 was referred to as well as the more recent stolen election in Florida eight years ago. The worst offender was Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) a supporter of the fiscally responsible candidate, talking about the poor disenfranchised voters from years past and incessantly grandstanding for every vote to count. It'd be great for that to happen Bill, but the reality of the events surrounding Florida's primary run against the stated DNC rules is a slap in the face to every voter outside of Florida (and Michigan). Then there was this Hillary supporter arguing with the designated Hillary supporter. Some people really need to re-take kindergarten, jeez.

There were some better performances though, from Senator Carl Levin (especially for his passionate stance against Iowa and New Hampshire always going first), Michigan Chair Mark Brewer (for stressing party unity) and Obama supporter David Bonior for reminding us of what Hillary Clinton said before all of this was essential for giving new life to her campaign. Though with all of the emotion, passion and wishing for their side to win, Donna Brazile invoked the words of her Momma, and that is what should ultimately rule the day.

Update (7:13PM): Florida's and Michigan's delegation is now to be seated with each delegate given a half vote, split up 69-59. That gives Hillary Clinton 34.5 delegates while 29.5 delegates remain "uncommitted" from Michigan. In Florida she earns back 19 delegates from Obama's approximate 200 delegate lead. When all said and done with superdelegates, Clinton picks up 94.5 delegates and Obama got 68. It is a terrible decision for those that wish Hillary to win at all costs, but a fair compromise considering the rules that were violated. Now Obama is 66 delegates away from the nomination and we can wrap this up in three days once the final votes are tallied.

Thanks to Sean Robertson for the pic above!

John McCain Is Completely Out Of Touch With America

McCain chimed in with Clinton to call Obama an elitist in the last couple of weeks. Yet when you talk like this about the realities Americans face, the elitist in this picture is definitely not from Illinois:

Lieberman Gets Stripped

Finally the Democratic establishment mustered the stones to strip Lieberman of his super delegate status in Connecticut. This two-bit traitor has been nothing but a farce for several years now and this is a good first step in extricating him from the Democratic party. It is great to see the shearing of his sheep costume begin.

From The Hartford Courant:

Thanks to Zell Miller, there is a rule to deal with Joe Lieberman.

Lieberman's endorsement of Republican John McCain disqualifies him as a super-delegate to the Democratic National Convention under what is informally known as the Zell Miller rule, according to Democratic State Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo.

Miller, then a Democratic senator from Georgia, not only endorsed Republican George Bush four years ago, but he delivered a vitriolic attack on Democrat John Kerry at the Republican National Convention.

The Democrats responded with a rule disqualifying any Democrat who crosses the aisle from being a super delegate. Lieberman will not be replaced, DiNardo said.

I wonder if Harry Reid is reading this same article, because it should give him some clue on what to do with Lieberman the Senator. Lieberman may caucus officially with the Democratic party, but he by no means votes as a Democrat. I know that Reid claims to keep him on to retain the razor thin majority we have in the Senate. Nonetheless if he doesn't vote with the caucus or the will of the people of Connecticut, then he has no business being allowed to have committee assignments. Memo to Reid, finish the stripping of Holy Joe and banish him to Indy land or the Republican dominion if he so wishes, but just get him outta there now.

The Frivolity Of Ralph Nader

I have found that when Ralph Nader makes the news (since 2000) my opinion of him is directly correlated to his actions. I used to think of Nader as one of true working class heroes. He fought for workers' rights and safety regulations that irked corporations and promoted the general welfare of America.

Now he is hardly more than a has-been and known as the man that robbed Gore of the Presidency.

Even though Nader's votes did take away from a win, it was the way Gore ran his campaign that made him lose. Nevertheless, Nader has remained to be a thorn in the side of the Democratic party and all that oppose the current administration. Whatever he does now has a negative effect on the only party that has a chance to do some good for the country. Ideally, I'd love a third or even multi-party system here in the U.S. The problem is that that scenario is far away from the reality of today.

Furthermore, suing the Democratic party three years after the 2004 election and in the pre-dawn of the primary season is nothing but pure malice. His complaints against the Dems may have some credibility when confronted by a teacher in the elementary school playground, but this is Presidential politics. If the Democrats could see justice for the coup d'etat that the Supreme Court enabled, then we can take a look at this bullshit.

From Yahoo News:

Among other things, the lawsuit alleges that the DNC tried to bankrupt Nader's campaign by suing to keep him off the ballot in 18 states. It also suggests the DNC sent Kerry supporters to crash a Nader petition drive in Portland, Ore., in June 2004, preventing him from collecting enough signatures to get on the ballot.

The lawsuit seeks "compensatory damages, punitive damages and injunctive relief to enjoin the defendants from ongoing and future violations of the law."

Nader's attorney, Bruce Afran, argued that the DNC would be terrified of having the case come to trial. He said he hoped the committee would choose to settle the case and apologize.

You know what, I'll take care of this right now and apologize on their behalf. I am sorry that Nader is a crybaby. I am sorry that for all the talk of wanting a third party candidate, Nader could only muster a fraction of a percent of the electorate. I am sorry that he has made himself into a has-been and I am terribly sorry that President Gore isn't about to finish up his second term.

DNC Helps Fred Thompson

See, Democrats really do care about Republican candidates, even "frontrunner" Fred Thompson. In fact, the DNC was so nice, they sent some people over to deliver some lifejackets for their faltering campaign.

Scenes From A YouTube Debate

Here's the first ten minutes from last night's debate:

DNC's Libby Ad: "Honor And Dignity"

Go Hillary, Go (Away)?

This past weekend brought a slew of Presidential candidates to the DNC Winter Meeting. Obama, Hillary, Edwards and others spoke from their campaign speech notes and tried to rile up the crowd of activists and party faithful. Obama exchanged 'I Love You's' with the audience, Edwards got tons of cheers and Hillary got a mixed bag.

From HuffPo:

Clinton's welcome was not just less enthusiastic, but hostile -- and though there seemed to be almost as many Clinton placards as there were people in the room, catcalls drowned out any roars of approval from her cheering section as she began to speak. In reaction to a claim that she had been a tough critic of the war, someone in the crowd shouted, "NOT!'' Code Pink protesters repeatedly interrupted her, yelling, "Stop funding war!'' and one Army vet kept calling, "How about bringing them home, Hillary?'' Definitely, the applause at the end of her address was much louder than when she'd started - which, as her campaign sees it, is how all of America will react once they get to know her. Unless, you know, they already did that.

Hillary is known by many and that is her number one problem. The millions of dollars aren't needed for name identification but to spin that name and her positions to be palatable for Democrats voting in the primaries. The obstacle to the spin machine is that activists have long memories and are not so quick to forget Hillary's positions on the war among other issues that make them say 'hmmm' to Mrs. Clinton.