The way I see it, Clinton will gracefully exit the race in one of three possible ways.  She's not taking it to the convention.  If there were any hint of her doing so, the superdelegates, including many of her own, would come out en masse for Obama.

and Learned to Embrace Rev. Wright's Rhetorical Flourishes.  :)

These past few days have seen some kind of over the top attacks on Obama.  Bush invoking Chamberlain/Hitler references in front of the Israeli Knesset to describe Obama, and Huckabee trying to make a joke of Obama's fictional reaction to a gunshot sound in front of the NRA.  Despicable, but sadly par for the course in R smear campaigning.

But the magic of yesterday was that instead of waiting a while and then giving some sort of watered down "boys will be boys" response, Obama took it right to Bush/McCain and called them on their BS.  

I have been waiting for two presidential campaigns for our candidate to strike back forcefully, immediately, and perhaps even most importantly directly on point.  I believe we now have a candidate that can and will do so.  I am so grateful for this.

This may well be a result of Rev. Wright's passion for justice and mentoring. More below the fold.

Update: (H/T to turneresq) Huckabee issued an apology.

Huck Apologizes.

 During my speech at the N.R.A., a loud noise backstage, that sounded like a chair falling, distracted the crowd and interrupted my speech. I made an off hand remark that was in no way intended to offend or disparage Sen. Obama.

I apologize that my comments were offensive. That was never my intention."

"The jobs are never coming back, the illegals are never going home, but we're gonna have a lot more wars." -Pat Buchanan on John McCain

by turneresq on Fri May 16, 2008 at 05:16:29 PM PDT

Original post below the fold.

Did that get your attention?  Here's the thing:  now is the perfect time to reach voters to tell them about Barack Obama.

The site: http://hillaryis44.blogspot.com/

In such a competitive Democratic election, it is expected that both sides have heated disagreements, but in the end for our countries sake, the importance of coming together to defeat John McCain in the Fall should be of our highest importance. Both Hillary and Obama have similar political standings, and no matter who ends up being the nominee for the Democrats, if you truly believe in either of their messages, you would vote for the winner against McCain who's policies match George W. Bush. No amount of bitterness or pettiness should hold our country back to continue the failed policies of a third Bush term.

It is important for us to act as adults. I preface this diary with the previous paragraph because I believe that because of this election there are people who have gone so far off the path, that they blindly support their candidate through hate and disingenuity, and in doing so, have hurt her case to the American people and could have the same effect in the Fall. These people come from Hillaryis44.org.

I am not a international political expert by no means. I was an Infantry Staff Sergeant in the Army from 1973 - 1982 and then served in the Army National Guard from 1988 to 1992 and served in Desert Storm. So I am just an average American, I a moderate Democrat, I believe in a strong military, having a well prepared military as a deterrent not as an offensive weapon as the Bush/Cheney team did.

It was supposed to keep the Russians, the Chinese etc from starting WW3, so why have we now become involved in comparing 3rd world countries to Hitler and Nazism? Has the Ayotollahs in Iran died and left Ahmadinejad in charge, he does not control the Kuds force, nor the decision to start a war, the Religious leaders in that country do, they fund Hamas and Hezbollah, not the President of Iran.

So lets get this straight, John McCain opposed Jim Webb's Bill:

In the simplest terms, the Webb bill would effectively pay for tuition and housing at a four-year public college for those serving at least three years of active duty. The McCain measure isn't as generous, as it increases existing education benefits by $400 a month for the same time served: from $1,100 to $1,500.

His net worth is over $40,000,000 his wife is worth well over $100,000,000 and gets a measely entitlement for $58,358 (disability pension) on top of a Senator's pay and some of the best public financed healthcare money can buy (A Senator's healthcare package)..

Un-Fuc$#ng believable..

or How is the view from the gutter?

I've been following the Republican Party's woes.  I've been enjoying the schadenfreude, too.  For the most part, they don't seem to get it.  They simply don't see the extent to which the Republican national leaders like George Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Tom Delay, Dennis Hastert, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell et al have been destroying their party.  This is good news for we Democrats.

I've been watching the Taylor Marsh website for several months. Today the rhetoric for this Protest Vote for McCain finally made me get an account.

The Title of the Blog is "Hillary Democrats to the Floor"!

Basically they are taking the Hillary line that the votes in Michigan and Florida should be counted just as cast and not giving Obama any out of Michigan (It's the only way they can arrive at the math that Hillary has the popular vote). If Hillary is thrown under the bus they go down with her.

http://www.taylormarsh.com/

1. A politician who is running for office changes his stance on issues to match whatever public sentiment is current. He morphs to appear to be one of the crowds of whatever voter group he is campaigning to, no matter how wildly divergent each is on issues and core values. He indulges in innuendo, attacks by surrogates, half-truths, mud-slinging, and outright fabrications about his opponent. Would you expect this person NOT to use those tactics if he wins office?

2. In a future scenario, food supplies worldwide are tightening. China comes to the US grain market determined to buy a huge amount and announces it will pay 50% more than the current market rate for a bushel of US wheat. Would you expect free-market multinational agribusinesses to honor their obligations to maximize shareholder profits or  sell to US food processors for less profit?

Michelle obama speaks of not having pride in America or Presidents of her lifetime.  It is worthwhile to consider what Presidents she has known

Democrats should choose Obama
Ill. senator suited to lead U.S. into future

Voters are feeling bruised and conflicted as a long, grueling battle for the Democratic presidential nomination comes down to the wire.

So, before Kentuckians go to the polls Tuesday in one of the last primaries, let's just pause to savor this moment in history: For the first time in 232 years of nationhood, an African-American or a woman will lead a presidential ticket.

That alone makes this election a hopeful turning point.

The opportunity for national renewal will be even greater if, as appears almost certain, Sen. Barack Obama is the nominee.

http://www.kentucky.com/...

After simmering in the shadows of some of the bigger races for the year, the senate race in North Carolina is gaining national attention and Kay Hagan is gaining widespread praise as a candidate, premiering on Chris Cilliza's tope ten senate races.

I went to my vestry meeting last night.  I've been lax in meeting my responsibilities there, and hadn't been for a couple of months.  This time of years is always crazy for us.  

One of our ministries is the BabySteps program.  We try to help educate impoverished mothers and families with children on life-skills, job-skills, with the goal of helping them to become financially independent and self-secure.  

We received a report from our BabySteps director, who has truly thrown herself into the program.  She reported that she'd secured several grants, and that our funding, which was looking pretty shaky, was now, thankfully, secure for the year.  

There is being quite a lot of shock posted on a recent statement that Mike Huckabee made here in Louisville a few hours ago at the NRA conference--namely, Huck made a comment on how a supposed sound was Barack Obama ducking in an attempt to keep from being shot at.

For some of us--especially those of us who have followed Huckabee's extensive links with the highly militaristic "Joel's Army"/"Joshua Generation" neopente dominionist movement--this is but the latest and one of the more blatant of his statements of this type, and probably not even the most extreme of them.

In today's special edition post, we give a bit of history on this.

Right now one of the top main page articles (from smintheus) and the top diary (from Steve Singiser) are about Mike Huckabee's off-the-cuff bad joke when talking to the NRA.

Slam Huckabee if you need to for "hate speech"; if that's what gets your adrenaline pumping, go to town. Personally I think the joke wasn't evil, just dumb.

Both the article and diary have as one of their foundations an entirely faulty premise though -- that the crowd laughed at the joke.

They didn't. The joke died a miserable, lonely death.

Evidence below the fold.

Yesterday I received the email below, forwarded by a relative deluded enough to have voted for G.W. Bush - twice! (A preview of the kind of Republican attack we'll be seeing more of this year.)

I sent the reply that follows the email below back along the trail of forwarders.  Not to pat myself on the back  -  I'm sure any number of Kossacks would have replied better - but as a suggestion that when similar emails end up in your in box, you send a refutation back along the forwarding trail, rather than let such trash go unanswered.
 

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