We're working on a case now that will make your hair stand on-end.
Our client, Naji Hamdan, a U.S. citizen, was detained and tortured this fall for three months by the United Arab Emirates with United States involvement. Naji is still in prison there, now under the custody of local officials who charged him with terrorism-related offenses based on coerced confessions.
By and large the Democratic response to the Palin pick as McCain's running mate has been strong, especially when you contrast it to the feeble words from the Republicans after Obama's big speech last night.
Sen. Barbara Boxer just issued this fantastic statement about Gov. Palin, who is a weak pick for McCain and a huge gamble. Boxer goes right after her.
The Vice President is a heartbeat away from becoming President, so to choose someone with not one hour's worth of experience on national issues is a dangerous choice.
If John McCain thought that choosing Sarah Palin would attract Hillary Clinton voters, he is badly mistaken.
The only similarity between her and Hillary Clinton is that they are both women. On the issues, they could not be further apart.
Senator McCain had so many other options if he wanted to put a women on his ticket, such as Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison or Senator Olympia Snowe - they would have been an appropriate choice compared to this dangerous choice.
In addition, Sarah Palin is under investigation by the Alaska state legislature which makes this more incomprehensible.
Interestingly, Hillary's statement is much weaker, but I think by design.
"We should all be proud of Governor Sarah Palin's historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Senator McCain. While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Governor Palin will add an important new voice to the debate."
Clinton is going to be all nice and then spend the next several months tearing into her. This pick guarantees an even bigger role for Hillary Clinton. She will be the one continuing to make the argument to her supporters that Barack Obama is a much superior choice than the anti-choice, anti-equality, anti-working class ticket of McCain/Palin.
Though Barack Obama has been nominated by the Democratic Party by acclamation, the delegate counts still are tabulated. And I just heard that the final count here in California was 263-169.
FWIW.
...let me update. Apparently it was 273 for Obama, 166 for Clinton, with two superdelegates not voting, one of them DiFi, who isn't here.
...the fact that California was the only state of the ones that went through the roll call that had to pass because they didn't have all the votes cast... well, the word "disorganization" comes to mind. Of course, it's also the largest delegation, so it's maybe understandable.
If there was any doubt that we would get a barnburner on unity tonight from Hillary Clinton, put that to bed. The California delegation went crazy for Clinton, waving Hillary signs that were distributed just ahead of Chelsea's introduction and even holding a few homemade signs like "18 million cracks". Obama/Hillary/Unity signs are spreading through now.
A few quotes out of the gates:
"The time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose."
"This is a fight for the future and it's a fight we must win together."
"You haven't endured the past eight years to suffer through more failed leadership."
"Barack Obama is my candidate and he must be our president."
Update This is a great mix of unification and reaching out to Clinton supporters who may be any measure of disaffected. She just finished and the crowd, at least here in California (I can't see or hear any further) is insane. Signs and standing ovation as far as I can see. A few more great lines from an excellent speech:
"Were you in it for the marine...Were you in it for that mom...Were you in it for that young boy...Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?
"The genius of America has always depended on the strength and vitality of the middle class."
"Democrats know how to do this. As I recall, we did it before with President Clinton." (no idea what came after this, it was deafening)
"It makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities because these days they're awfully hard to tell apart."
"My daughter got to vote for her mother for president. This is the story of America."
"Keep going. Don't ever stop, keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going."
"We're Americans, we're not big on quitting."
"We need to get going by electing Barack Obama."
So that's day two and I'm exhausted and grinning ear to ear. Dave will be here tomorrow.
Update Final update before a pass out cold. Walking out from the floor after the Clinton speech, there were obviously media folks running around everywhere. And they were bolting exclusively for Hillary delegates, people with Hillary signs, etc. And they were ALL pushing essentially the same question: "That was really good and all, but is there really unity? I mean, really really unity?" This is crap. Tonight should pretty much put this meme to bed. There may be holdout PUMAs running around here and there, but the lesson from tonight from Clinton herself is that those people aren't the ones who were every really committed to the Democratic party and its ideals to start with. And those aren't people who are relevant to the party going forward. People can vote however they want to vote, but if they were in it because of the principles that drove the Clinton campaign, then they'd be with Obama now. There's no equivocation from anyone on that stage tonight.
As far as Clinton, Obama ,and the Democratic party are concerned, the issue is done.
I have little doubt that Senator Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic Nominee had it not been for her caving to right wing talking points and voting for the Iraq War. Being on the wrong side the the biggest foreign policy disaster in a generation is what advanced her career from inevitable nominee to junior senator. At the time, many of us in the netroots were flabbergasted, we knew it was a disastrous course of action and came to the conclusion that those who sided with George Bush and the neocons either had no grasp of the situation or were doing it for as a purely political calculation (and a poor one at that as Clinton discovered).
Iraq was the single biggest foreign policy decision, but when it comes to the global climate crisis, I'm getting a sense of déjà vu from the positioning and language used by San Francisco Mayor and 2010 California Gubernatorial hopeful Gavin Newsom as to why he's siding with PG&E against the Sierra Club on clean, renewable energy.
You will let the Hillary supporter's grieve their loss - this is coming from a loyal Hillary supporter. In 2004 there was a lot of talk that if John Kerry lost and George Bush won again we would not have to worry about 2008 because Former First Lady Hillary Clinton would be running for the Presidency. A HUGE piece of history would be made in the next election, a female president- imagine that. The world would change.
Now remember how you felt on November 3, 2004 when Senator Kerry conceded the election, and we had President George Bush for another 4 years. There were a lot of Republicans saying they were right after all and their candidate prevailed in yet another election. No matter how hard we worked for Senator Kerry they still tormented us - even those who did not vote had an opinion.
In 2004 we also learned about a Senator from Illinois named Barack Obama. Many of us heard his powerful rhetoric for the first time at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. I said "Wow, this person is amazing; he is going to be our president someday!"
SOMEDAY is the key word. For the first time in my 13 years of voting, I was torn between whom to elect on February 5. I finally had the opportunity to vote in a life changing election. We had the first female speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi, and it was time for the first female president, Senator Hillary Clinton. I felt that Senator Obama lacked the depth of experience that we had with Senator Clinton. Do you remember that Hillary swept California, not Obama? There was hope!
We Hillary supporters feel as though it's 2004 all over again. It's a monumental loss for all of us and Senator Clinton who we believed in and who was going to be our first female President. We feel that the Obama supporters are like Bush supporters in many ways. No matter how hard we worked, they won't give us time to mourn. They seem to forget that they have a lot of work to do in unifying the Hillary supporters with their candidate.
Yes, we Hillary supporters feel jilted and angry because four years ago we were waiting for her to make history and become the first female president of the United States. Now it's Obama, Obama, and more Obama mania.
In November, Obama will need all of the votes that he can get - these include those from the disappointed Hillary supporters. As Democrats, we are all peers who hold the same vision and values. But honestly, even after a month it still pains me to go into a room and have everyone cheer for Obama because he is the nominee. I am not on the Obama side yet and sit afraid to speak for fear of being ridiculed and accused of supporting the other party. Right now the best things that an Obama supporter can do is when meeting a Hillary supporter to take the time and listen - you might learn something, make a new friend, and get a vote in the long run.
AHIP, America's Health Insurance Plans, decided downtown San Francisco would be a good place for the health insurance company lobbyists and executives to hold their convention. Not surprisingly, thousands of people will take to the streets at noon on June 19th at the Moscone center to protest getting ripped off by the health insurance companies and rally for SB 840 in California and HR 676 nationally.
One of the key people being protested is none other than former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe who is a keynote speaker for the industry. Which adds some context to his quotes in yesterday's New York Times on the Clintons' enemies list and rewarding of friends:
"The Clintons get hundreds of requests for favors every week," said Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of Mrs. Clinton's presidential campaign. "Clearly, the people you're going to do stuff for in the future are the people who have been there for you."
Finally, we've recovered from McAuliffe's disaster as DNC Chair when he ran it like the DLC and was proven incapable of moving beyond transactional politics to a post-McCain/Feingold fundraising party that isn't a subsidiary of special interests. And yes, we've also moved beyond his success in perfectly executing a Clinton campaign strategy that took her from undisputed presidential front-runner to junior senator. But there is he is, using his name and connections to help out those who have helped them while Americans suffer.
In my opinion, one of the most important outcomes of Clinton's loss was that they won't get back control of the DNC -- which is great news for Democrats. But T-Mac is a reminder that we all need due diligence in the process of choosing the next California Democratic Party Chair so that we can reform the CDP to also move into the 21st century.
Currently, there are 1,904 pledged attendees at the rally according to the neat online organizing tool. Check to see which groups have currently pledged how many, get your group involved, and join in this important event.
Senator Feinstein was in the midst of a legitimately big bit of the primary recently, hosting the one-on-one meeting between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton that helped resolve the race. Feinstein remains a strong Clinton partisan and loud proponent of the so-called "Dream Ticket" which would give Clinton the VP spot on the ticket; which is fine except that she's lying to sell it.
First and foremost, every time this dishonest talking point gets trotted out, it makes everyone involved look stupid. Senator Feinstein is by no means stupid, so it's troubling that she would debase herself and the candidate she supports by throwing this garbage around. It doesn't (or at least shouldn't) actually help if the goal is to get Clinton into the VP spot. It comes off as being the last resort when there are no merits to run on.
Which is the second trouble: there's a perfectly strong and reasonable case to be made for Clinton as VP. I don't personally support the notion, but it's a debate with merit that can be engaged in honestly and directly and can make the party stronger by speaking passionately about the strengths of our Democratic leaders. Instead of focusing on Senator Clinton's actual strengths though, we get these lies that should be insulting to Clinton and continue to undercut Obama's general election campaign by implying weakness.
Finally, the myopic focus on Obama and Clinton, while serving during the primary process to dramatically expand the party's base and participation, is now at the point where it's sucking all the air out of the room and is detrimental to moving forward with a wider focus. It's distracting from downticket races that have been waiting for attention, it's detracting from expanding and unifying field organization, and it's undercutting the Democrats vs. Republicans debates that need to be the full focus across the country.
I understand full well that this is all posturing for the VP slot. But it's not the first time that posturing for personal gain from the Clinton camp has undercut broader opportunities. As far as I know this is not coming from Senator Clinton; I thought her speech on Saturday was excellent and that she's striking the right chords for party unity and healing. I've been on the side of tough primary and general losses and I fully appreciate the passions that can linger after the votes are counted and don't begrudge anyone for that or presume to tell anyone to "just get over it." But the least we can do for the candidates, the party, and the country is to be honest and constructive going forward. And Feinstein's lies are not helpful.
The following was written by Shawn Bagley, Central Coast for Hillary 2008, California Democratic Party Region 9 Director and Vinz Koller, Monterey County Democrats for Obama, Monterey County Democratic Party Chair. They asked me to post it here and I was happy to agree - it's a wonderful model of how Democrats are united for the fall.
We had a deal, and now we're honoring it. Way back when the presidential campaign was just getting started, Shawn decided Hillary Clinton was the best choice, and Vinz decided on Barack Obama. Each of us threw himself into organizing for his candidate, joining many other volunteers on the Central Coast in working with one of the national campaigns.
This meant that throughout the primaries we would be opponents - working for the success of one candidate inevitably meant working for the defeat of the other. But at the same time, we would be working closely together on the Monterey County Democratic Central Committee. Furthermore, we were friends.
What to do? Was it possible to be opponents and allies at the same time?
Absolutely it was. Early on, we came to an agreement, with these terms:
By far the most important objective was to elect a Democrat for president. Especially at this point in US history, any other outcome was unthinkable.
And so we agreed that throughout the primaries we would compete vigorously but never destructively.
And when it was all over, whoever was the nominee would have our full and enthusiastic support.
That is where we are now. Barack Obama has won the nomination, and Shawn will put all his energy into getting him elected president. And if Hillary Clinton had won, Vinz would have done exactly the same thing.
Assuming AP is right, I'm licking my chops for moving on to McCain.
[UPDATE] by Julia There are a few California superdelegates who have not announced. However, scratch Jerry McNerney off of that list. (Correction by Lucas: McNerney will endorse tonight, hasn't said who)
[UPDATE] by Lucas Maxine Waters has also switched from Clinton to Obama. She said: "It is now time to close ranks and time for all remaining delegates to put their support behind the presumptive nominee, Senator Obama. Senator Obama has run an effective campaign and has overcome many obstacles to create an energy that has brought many new Democrats into the party."
[UPDATE] by LucasDCW adds the following for Obama: Christine Pelosi, Rachel Binah (switch from Clinton), Bob Filner, Jerry McNerney.
And here is that the list of those who have not declared yet. Torres by the CDP rules cannot endorse.
Steve Ybarra, Art Torres, Robert Ranking, John Perez, Christine Pelosi, Bob Mulholland, Carole Midgen, Susan Davis, Bob Filner, Sam Farr, Michael Honda, Gerald McNerney, and Nancy Pelosi.
And let me just add that this AP story is the AP trying to get headlines. One could speak to any number of supers over the past week and get them to say that they would eventually come out for Obama. Until that magic number hits 0 I wait to say we have a nominee.
UPDATE: (Bob) Indeed. We'll have a nominee when the last Election Day Registration voter says so in Montana tonight.
Tomorrow's the big day (depending on your perspective I suppose), with local, legislative and proposition votes going on all over the state and the Montana and South Dakota primaries wrapping up the Presidential calendar. There's speculation that Sen. Clinton will suspend her campaign tomorrow night, plus an easy dozen congressional primaries to watch, the Leno/Migden/Nation battle royale, I'm masochistically fascinated by the San Diego mayoral race- the list goes on.
It looks like I'll be holing up for a bit at the Obama watch party at the W Hotel here in San Diego. I've also heard that local Young Dems will be at The Shore Club and City Council candidate Todd Gloria will be gathering with supporters at The Local. So that's a random and incomplete collection of spots around San Diego...What city/bar/restaurant/corner of your house will you be reporting from as we all obsess tomorrow evening?
Clinton has opened up a similar 53-36 lead, up from 45-43 in the January field poll. Yeah...about that "John McCain will carry California" garbage we've had to hear so much about? Don't buy it.
California Democrats are also coalescing around Obama as the Democratic nominee (no trend lines)
Obama (D): 51
Clinton (D) 38
Furthermore, it seems that in California, at least, we're getting some reconciliation: only 22% of Clinton supporters say they're not likely to vote Obama, while 17% of Obama voters say they're not likely to support Clinton.
What's also interesting--and a note I touched on in a DailyKos diary I wrote a couple of days ago--is that Californians give Obama's campaign a much better grade than they do Clinton's. 70% of Clinton supporters think Obama has run a good campaign, while only 42% of Obama supporters feel that way about Clinton's, and 11% of Clinton supporters are unhappy with Clinton's campaign, compared with only 3% of Obama's.
Now imagine if California had kept it's primary in June...things would have been very interesting.
The American Leadership Project, a California based 527 lead by a pair of folks the CA-blogosphere knows something about, Roger Salazar and Jason Kinney, is alive again. It had been quiet after posting after some half-hearted attempts at media buys in Ohio and Indiana.
Well, they birthed 2 new ads, one for Montana and one for Puerto Rico. Not sure on the ad buy for these, but for context, in Ohio they had some ads up on YouTube for weeks and only got them on the air for the last couple days. (h/t TPM)
Al Giordano at The Field is now reporting that the Cardoza switch to Obama (he was previously a Clinton superdelegate) is the beginning of a major exodus of 40 Clinton superdelegates to Obama (Update: as noted in the blockquote, the 40 number includes pledged delegates as well):
The Field has learned that Cardoza is the first of a group of at least 40 Clinton delegates, many of them from California, that through talking among themselves came to a joint decision that all of them would vote for Obama at the convention. They have informed Senator Clinton that it's time to unite around Obama, and that they will be coming out, one or two at a time, and announcing their switch between now and the convention if Senator Clinton doesn't do the same.
Cardoza is one of the leaders of this effort (which includes not only superdelegates, but here's something that should set off some paranoia in Camp Clinton: there are pledged Clinton delegates in "The Cardoza 40," too). One Field Hand reports that during a recent Cardoza fundraising event in California the effort was discussed openly in front of other Democrats. Cardoza's announcement, today, sent the message that the effort is serious and for real.
I don't quite understand the logic of dribbling out the endorsements between now and the friggin' convention - better to come out as a bloc and have done with it - but no matter how they do this it's clear that the Democratic primary process is over and Barack Obama is the nominee. Yes, that's been the case for some time, but with this shift it finally seems over.
And the timing of the announcement may be related to Hillary's Calvinball approach to the MI and FL delegations, as Cardoza explained (quoted at The Field):
I am deeply concerned about the contentious primary campaign and controversy surrounding the seating of delegates from Florida and Michigan - two states Democrats need to win in November. I will not support changing the rules in the fourth quarter of this contest through some convoluted DNC rules committee process. Yet, we must find a resolution to seat the Michigan and Florida delegates so these states' voters are represented at the Convention. I believe we need to avoid this potentially divisive situation by uniting behind one nominee and bringing the party together immediately. Therefore, I have made the decision to support Senator Obama at the Democratic Convention in my role as a super delegate.
One of the fascinating things about this campaign is that since the week before South Carolina, everything she did to try and win voters has wound up backfiring and driving more Democrats - particularly electeds, but also African Americans - into Obama's camp. That's not to deny Obama's appeal to voters and his amazing organizational power - but Hillary rarely helped her own cause, and her ridiculous comments about MI and FL seem to have finally ended her last, dim chances at winning the nomination.
Reduced to pleading for the vice presidential post, the Clinton campaign had better start figuring out the best way to concede the nomination to Obama if they are to have any hope of salvaging her reputation.
San Francisco's CBS affiliate, KPIX, commissioned a rather meaningless poll last week about the primary election gone by. (Full poll info (PDF)). The results now show Obama leading Clinton 49-43. I guess there's always more room on the bandwagon. I'm not sure this poll has any real meaning at all, but perhaps it does kind of put a dent in the "Obama can't win the big states" logic. Not that anybody could have credibly said that Obama was going to lose CA before, but this might pull one more arrow from Senator Clinton's quiver.
What's kind of fun here, is that the "presumptive nominees" do substantially better in the "who did you vote for" than the actual vote. In the real vote, the result was an approximate 10 point win for Clinton. In the poll, it was only a 2 point win. On the GOP side, it seems there was a 22 point victory for McCain instead of the 8 point actual margin. Funny how everybody wants to back a winner, huh?
To hear the bigmediafolks frame it, you'd think Steve was also requesting a mansion in St. Moritz as well. But, in fact, Steve Ybarra's got a pretty good eye for good tactics, and this is just that: a tactical request. Ybarra wants the campaigns to spend $20 million on registering Latino voters in the Southwest. From the Comedy Central Blog:
Well, that's kind of, um, honorable. It's kinda not fair the way the article was written; it didn't mention his intentions until midway through and tricked me into thinking he was being greedy. ...
Still, it seems unlikely that Ybarra will get $20 million dollars out of the candidates, who need to spend that money ads calling each other names and accusing each other of being unAmerican.
Plus, I'm sure they can find ten or twenty superdelegates from below the border who will register and educate eligible Mexican-American voters for $2 million and a mattress to sleep on.
Well, obviously the last part was Daily Show-esque satire, but the campaigns are just not that likely to give up control of their precious dollars. I agree with Steve that such an investment would pay off quite handsomely in both the short and long term. But given the Obama campaign's tendency to move power inward, I wouldn't expect them to start taking orders from external sources.
However, I just received a call from Andy Stone, Communications Director for Jerry McNerney, who says:
The intent is to check in with both campaigns and not to endorse anyone. Jerry McNerney was walking to a meeting a meeting and was pulled aside by Senator Clinton for a conversation lasting only a couple of minutes.
"I, as you know, have great fondness and great respect for Sen. Clinton and I'm very loyal to her," Feinstein said. "Having said that, I'd like to talk with her and [get] her view on the rest of the race and what the strategy is."
Clinton, who eked out a win in Indiana Tuesday night but lost big to front-runner Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in North Carolina, has not responded to Feinstein's phone call, the California senator said.
"I think the race is reaching the point now where there are negative dividends from it, in terms of strife within the party," Feinstein said. "I think we need to prevent that as much as we can."
Interesting. What I'd like to see is Feinstein show some leadership on the Rules Committee and block Hans von Spakovsky's resurrected nomination to the FEC. But I'd say DiFi is as good a bellweather as there is of the emerging CW on the Democratic nomination fight.
In other news, California superdelegate Inola Henry committed to Obama today.
Under the collective denial mentality that has hijacked media-types and political observers since the February 5th contests, Senator Barack Obama's decisive 56-42 win in North Carolina juxtaposed with Senator Hillary Clinton's narrow 51-49 win in Indiana shows Senator Obama has successfully rebounded from the Rev. Wright controversy and whatever other manufactured non-policy outrages that he's been forced to address. After all, Obama increased his popular vote lead by over 200,000 votes, and more importantly, his 95 new pledged delegates put him 12 delegates further ahead of Clinton. To borrow a catchphrase from former Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, Obama's got O-mentum. However, while O-mentum plays a role at the margins, a few points here or there, the reality is this contest is already over, and these outcomes were largely predetermined.
The assumption the AR&BTA is using is that the tax cut would blow a $9 billion hole in the federal transportation budget. Based on FY 07-08 expenditures CA's share of that would be $664,406,924. The association then estimates that 23,107 jobs would be lost here in California - roughly equivalent to the proposed school layoffs - over the next three years.
No wonder then that local transportation agencies across the state are denouncing this foolish proposal. From Santa Cruz:
"It would deplete an already oversubscribed highway trust fund, making a bad situation worse," commission Executive Director George Dondero said. "We're trying to get the government to generate more money for transportation, not less."
Dondero said he didn't know how much the county could lose, just that "future projects would have to wait."
Critics of the gas-tax break, including Clinton opponent Barack Obama, say it would have little impact on consumers, saving the average driver an estimated $30 over the course of the summer, and instead create a $10 billion gap in the federal highway trust fund, used for highway construction and maintenance.
Calling the proposal an "election pandering" tactic, commissioner and county Supervisor Ellen Pirie said it would benefit oil companies.
"There will be a lot of harm in terms of infrastructure projects and maintenance people want taken care of," Pirie said. "It would be great if there were a way to reduce the price of gas. I know a lot of people are struggling with this, but I don't think [the tax break] is an effective way to do this."
Thanks to Daily Kos diarist Jimmy Crackcorn you can see just how much this pander will be worth to you with an online calculator. Plugging in my expected summer driving (75 mi per week) and car mileage (33 mpg) I get...$16!
Wow. A whopping $16. That's maybe a dollar a week. And at the low, low cost of 23,107 jobs in our state during a recession and stalled transportation projects that if completed would help drivers save on gas for years to come. Of course, the lost jobs have a ripple effect on both state budgets (lost income tax revenue, lost sales tax revenue) and the state economy.
The real solution is, as I explained at my high speed rail blog last night, investment in things like trains. Thank god someone in this race is talking about that:
The irony is with the gas prices what they are, we should be expanding rail service. One of the things I have been talking bout for awhile is high speed rail connecting all of these Midwest cities -- Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, St. Louis. They are not that far away from each other. Because of how big of a hassle airlines are now. There are a lot of people if they had the choice, it takes you just about as much time if you had high speed rail to go the airport, park, take your shoes off.
This is something that we should be talking about a lot more. We are going to be having a lot of conversations this summer about gas prices. And it is a perfect time to start talk about why we don't have better rail service. We are the only advanced country in the world that doesn't have high speed rail. We just don't have it. And it works on the Northeast corridor. They would rather go from New York to Washington by train than they would by plane. It is a lot more reliable and it is a good way for us to start reducing how much gas we are using. It is a good story to tell.
That was Barack Obama, giving impromptu remarks to an Indiana couple a few days ago.
We had a deal, and now we're honoring it. Way back when the presidential campaign was just getting started, Shawn decided Hillary Clinton was the best choice, and Vinz decided on Barack Obama. Each of us threw himself into organizing for his candidate, joining many other volunteers on the Central Coast in working with one of the national campaigns.