Democratic National Convention Thread (August 25-28, 2008)

As I noted in another thread I think she hit upon the key point that I think needs to be emphasized. If you care about the issues you really only have one choice in this election. As I noted in the other thread there are very understandably bruised feelings left over among Clinton supporters and I don't think any other appeal to them will work except to point out that Clinton and Obama are a lot closer on the issues than they are to McCain.

 

On CNN right after the speech they had a reporter on the floor with a female delegate, can't remember her name or where she's from, but she was all broken up and on the verge of tears talking about how that was a "presidential speech" and how can she not be the nominee. She was saying that she wouldn't vote for McCain, but Obama still needs to convince her to vote at all.

 

no, this black woman interviewed right after the speech said hillary would have made a historic nominee (ignoring the fact that obama is BLACK too). and she cried and spewed all this garbage

then a white woman on larry king said obama needs to earn her vote and needs to talk to her personally. and she def. looked like she's a murderer with the hatred in her eyes.

it's very saddening.

 

I just saw that. Gawd, she was creepy.

 

For God's sake, with all due respect, what business do you think cable news channels are in? To provide you with pure, unfiltered news? Not in the U.S. of A. It's to make money. Controversy sells. For every individual Hillary Clinton supporter like the one mentioned, there were hundreds there who will take her at her word and vote for Barack Obama, whether or not they think she should be the nominee, or the VP nominee. And across the country, millions heard that speech and will be fired up to vote Democratic in November.

It was an amazing speech, the best of her life, and couldn't have come at a better time for Barack Obama. She's a Democrat and she showed the country that she remains a Democrat. I seriously can't believe some of the parsing I've read here. The speech was a home run for the Democratic Party and a home run for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. And this is the wife of Bill Clinton that I saw on stage at a campaign rally in front of the LBJ Library, with Bill, Tipper and Al in 1992? Just incredible.




Impeach Bush.

 

Sheesh, I just pointing out to glynch what it was t_mac1 was refering to.

 

It is understandable that her supporters might be angry. But Obama shouldn't be the target. There may want to try and change the primary system, rail against the media for its sexism, and be upset that they were lead to believe Hillary had more of a chance of winning than she did.

But none of that is the fault of Obama.

 

Well, sheesh. Considering some of the parsing I've read here of her speech, forgive me if I find it hard to keep all of you straight. So did you think she gave an excellent speech, a "home run," an "all right" speech, a speech completely self-serving? A muddle?

For the life of me, I can't understand why some here still seem to be confused about whether Hillary Clinton is a Democrat who will support the nominee. She made it perfectly clear, at least to me, that not only is she a Democrat who's worked hard for the Party for decades, but that she endorsed the ticket. Not only did she endorse the ticket, in my opinion, but she just gave Barack Obama's campaign a huge boost. Why we still have people refighting the primaries and vomiting all over themselves right after a speech like that leaves me damned near, but not quite, speechless.




Impeach Bush.

 

I have to say the events of late have shaken my vote for Obama. I'm still going to vote for him, but it's certainly a lot more tepid.

A lot of people will claim that this is the result of republican attacks on Obama, but it isn't. It's a failure of Obama to do what I thought was practical and based on his campaign promise.

He's suppose to be an agent of change and a uniter. Well, why did he pick Biden then? A washington insider? And why didn't he pick Hillary in order to unite the party??? The rift is deep, and Obama hasn't done much to nurture a strong relationship with the Clintons. What Hillary did for him was more than any other loser has done for the winning nominee.

Obama really needs to reach out to Hillary supporters on Thursday. I mean, he really needs to do that or he's going to lose this election. He's failed to define himself strongly, he's failed to deliver an elevator pitch and failed to come up with a resonate attack on McCain - the house thing is stupid. It doesn't resonate with voters. It's clear it does - because no one cares. It's the economy stupid - it's about how it will affect their lives.

Instead of talking about houses, all Obama said - it's great, McCain will be the president that does a great job of standing up for the average Georgian and create a new cold war with the Russians, but he's not going to stand up for you and help with the economy.

That's what they need to drill in. That McCain is good for Georgians, Iraqis, and Columbians, and the rich, but not good for you. Man, Obama is really blowing it in my mind.

McCains whole economic policy is to make tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, and then focus on foreign policy - just like Bush. What a disaster that would be. But Obama isn't making that case, and he's not healing wounds that he's suppose to be so good at healing.

Granted, these Hillary supporters are a bit crazy, but what's even stranger and inexplicable to me is how the Obama campaign is underestimating the impact they can have.

 

He could have laid out a way for Hillary to be his vice-presidential nominee - a set of conditions. There had to be some scenario in which he could have worked it out with her. I'm sorry, but it was a no-brainer to pick her. Why didn't he pick her?

 

Not to nit-pick anything from a tremendous speech like this but did anybody else think Bill might have got shafted a bit in the beginning with the "I'm here tonight as a proud mother, as a proud Democrat, as a proud senator from NY, a proud American and supporter of Barack Obama" comment?

 

the thing is, bill clinton is gonna speak tomorrow, though not on primetime (just before). but he's gonna get coverage for his whole speech. and we know that he's gonna try to outshine EVERYBODY.

the pressure is all on barack now to deliver. if he speaks directly to the voters of hillary like how hillary spoke directly to her voters, 95% will sway to barack. he just has to mention them "directly" in the sense like, "i know you voted for hillary, who was a great opponent. but we both stand for the same thing and so on..."

but i hope there will be more attacks on mccain like hillary did tonight, and did splendidly. continue to associate mccain with bush (pound that fact) and the convention will be considered a success.

 

it's very obvious that most registered voters currently are democrats considering the bush administration. the latest poll had obama only the votes of 78% democrats. that's not good. if he can reach out to hillary voters and bring that up to 90%, experts say that will give him about 4-5% in the polls. that's probably good enough to win him the elction even if he doesn't reach out to those independent voters, which i'm sure he'll try to get anyways to make sure he'll win.

i was a hillary supporter. but i'm not mad b/c all i want is to change the way our country is ran. and if we elect another republican, esp. one who follows bush's policies like mccain, we're screwed. just get a democrat in office.

 

there are real tensions b/t obama and the clintons, no one should deny that. and i'm sure obama believes if he chose hillary to be his VP, she would overshadow him, esp. with bill going with her. and we all know the clintons and how they outshine EVERYBODY.

 

i believe it's because

1) how do you manage ol' slick willie?
2) middle east culture may not respect women in foreign relations
3) biden is much more proven in obama's weak spots than clinton
4) her self-aggrandizing behavior in not conceding earlier makes it hard to see that she'd be willing to let obama hold the spotlight as president

just IMO.

 

ahhh the DNC was on tonight? dammit, why'd I get caught up in that stupid Golden Girls marathon? probably could have learned something useful.




then again..........

 

Fail....

 

she's not selling barrack, she's selling the democratic party as bigger deal than her, that's how she has to move her hold outs. to come out and say exactly opposite of what she said in the primaries will come off as flaky and transparent

 

Exactly! That is the key reason why Obama didn't choose her as V.P. The bottom line is Obama and his people and the Clintons and their people just dislike each other. That will never change.