Just saw Melissa Etheridge give a great performance to a standing ovation. Then Harry Reid came on to talk about energy.
That's the political equivalent of a hairpin curve.
Earlier, some of California's finest women addressed the convention, as every Democratic woman in the US House hit the stage. Hilda Solis, Maxine Waters and Lois Capps gave remarks. Waters had a good line saying that McCain doesn't understand the housing crisis because none of his seven homes are in foreclosure.
I had some good chats with some electeds. I asked state Board of Equalization member Judy Chu about how the budget is affecting her office, and she replied that they're just trying to collect revenue wherever possible to paper over the crisis, but sales tax revenue is down because of the struggling economy. Kamala Harris and I chatted about blogging and how the traditional media is covering this election. She said that every single interview she's had has a question about disunity in it. What a false meme.
Netroots hero Patrick Murphy from my parent's district is up now, and he's doing great.
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.
Speaker Pelosi has just hit the floor, and the Presidential nominating process has begun. Dolores Huerta is making the nominating speech for Hillary Clinton right now. People are pretty rapidly taking their seats.
It's important to note that a roll call vote is a completely perfunctory and normal process. Some may have been outraged by the fact of a roll call, but it's wholly unsurprising and will end with Barack Obama as the nominee, just as Bill Clinton became the nominee on the third night of the convention in 1992, and Clinton in '96, and Al Gore in 2000, and John Kerry in 2004. It's a nominating convention. This is how it works.
UPDATE: Hillary released her delegates, making them free to vote for whoever they want. As many feel the obligation to vote the way their constituents asked them to vote, Hillary will still get a lot of votes. Also, Hillary signed her ballot for Barack Obama this morning.
UPDATE: Obama is about to be nominated. The applause for Obama's nomination is defeaning. There will be no fight on this floor. A registered Republican from Tennessee, Michael Wilson, is offering the nomination. He's an Iraq war vet. "I support Barack Obama because America needs a President with the strength, wisdom and courage to talk with our enemies and consult with our allies."
UPDATE: Apparently everyone in the West wears a bolo tie.
UPDATE: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a strong Hillary supporter in the primaries and co-chair of her campaign, is seconding Obama's nomination. "No matter where we stood during the campaign, Democrats stand together today." Seriously, the disunity idiots need to stuff it.
UPDATE: The roll call is beginning, and it will continue until there is a nominee. Alabama is kicking it off, so it looks like they'll go alphabetically.
UPDATE: Alabama - 48-5 for Obama. Alaska - 15-3 for Obama. American Samoa - 9-0 Obama. Arizona - 40-27 Obama. Arkansas - 47-0 for Obama (in a call for unity; Clinton crushed Obama there).
UPDATE: So Barbara Boxer and Art Torres announced that California passed on its roll call vote. There's a very good reason for that. First of all, the floor is being managed so that a certain state puts Obama over the top. Second, if California voted now, less states would be part of the process, because when Obama reaches the threshold for nomination the roll call immediately ends. So don't go reading anything into this.
UPDATE: Actually, Chairman Torres just explained it to me a little differently. A lot of the superdelegates never checked in with their vote with him ahead of time. He's legally required to go to their delegated proxies for a vote, and a lot of them didn't know about the voting either, so he would have had to announce significantly less votes than the 441 California is granted. Anyway, that's what he told me.
UPDATE: I haven't been totally keeping up with the count, but the overwhelming majority of votes are going to Sen. Obama. It's kind of fun to be in the room for this, but calling it a "floor fight" would be kind of absurd. I'm going to try and talk to Sen. Boxer soon.
UPDATE: Right next to me, Bob Mulholland and some CDP staffers are frantically tabulating votes from Representatives and their proxies. So that appears to be the reason for the pass.
UPDATE: Gasbag emeritus David Gregory is chatting with Boxer and Torres right now. I'm sure that, after the explanation, Gregory will claim that the pass was because of disunity and Democrats who hate one another.
UPDATE: Word is that New York will ask for a voice vote and Obama will be put in by acclamation.
UPDATE: They should really have a running total somewhere in the hall. Mistake. I guess Obama was up to 744 by the time they got to Kentucky, but it's hard to keep track.
UPDATE: New Hampshire, Arkansas, and a couple others have gone entirely for Obama out of unity. New Jersey is up now and they just did the same thing. Let's see if that rumor about New York is true.
UPDATE: So New Mexico yielded to Illinois. And Illinois will yield to New York. And there will be a voice vote... and Hillary has come out to call for it. The whole crowd is on their feet.
UPDATE: It's over. Pelosi moved quickly to do the ayes and nays. It was a nice moment. Lest California delegates worry, all votes will be counted.
I just got settled in my seat here in the Pepsi Center. State Senator Leticia Van de Putte is calling the session to order. The room is more crowded than usual this early because there's going to be a roll call vote on the nomination around 3:45MT. The California delegation actually already did their vote back at the hotel, but any delegate who hasn't will be able to cast a ballot on the floor.
I want to thank the DNC for offering this type of access for state bloggers. I know that the national bloggers are stuck in some windowless room, a step backward from 2004. And that's not right. But the state blogger access is really a mirror of politicians going to the local press instead of the national press. They are getting great blogging press in the localities, and I think it's offering a far better perspective of the convention than the traditional media, which came up with their headlines two weeks ago and is now just filling in their words. Maybe it's because I'm here, but this is the most shameful job I've ever seen from the media in terms of a disconnect between their own paranoid fantasies and reality.
As for the local and state blog strategy, it's an extension of the Dean 50-state strategy. I hope they only increase the access in the future.
So I'm hanging out at the California delegation area while waiting to do an interview. Jimmy Carter is giving an interview to CNN. Terry McAuliffe just walked by. And there's some country band doing a soundcheck.
Having not been inside a Democratic convention facility before, it is undeniably impressive and it came through nicely on television last night. The buzz over the Michelle Obama speech seems to be generally good, with the pull quote "stop doubting, start dreaming" seeming to be the one all over the newspapers this morning.
Teddy Kennedy obviously gave a powerful, emotional speech. Many people I talked to didn't know he was coming out at all. I'm a little perturbed that Jim Leach's speech was passed over by the media so quickly. Here's a Republican who served in the US House for 30 years, now completely excoriating his party, particularly in the area of foreign policy, and it didn't raise an eyebrow. Even though it was in prime time I'm not sure anyone showed it. If the tables were turned, you can be sure it would be a major story.
Lots of Californians on stage tonight, but obviously all the focus will be on Sen. Clinton's speech. I saw James Carville by Radio Row and he said to the assembled media that they would "all be disappointed" tonight, because it would be a unifying speech. I'm sure the media will latch on to some word or facial tic and relentlessly hype it.
Anyway, Lucas will be taking you through this evening from the floor.
Jim Leach, a 30 year Republican Congressman from Iowa, just spoke at the Convention. While, I'm outside the Pepsi Center at the Big Tent, there was a little bit of outrage that MSNBC didn't bother to play the speech. Yeah, could you imagine the outrage if they chose not to play the JoMentum speech at the RNC. Jim Leach was an effective Congressman, despite being a Republican, and a powerful one at that. It's ridiculous that Lieberman gets all of this attention after he was ejected from the Democratic Party, yet MSNBC can't be bothered to air it.
As for the speech itself, it went back and forth between the applause, and the uncomfortable silence. When he praised his party, there was a quiet in the audience; when he spoke about how Barack Obama would make a "trascendent candidate" there was a roar.
Leach spoke loudly about a cooperative multi-lateral foreign policy, for working with our allies, and for returning to a workable relationship around the world. And to a loud round of applause, he spoke of bringing our troops home as "heroes that they are."
If you missed the speech, which you probably did if you were watching on one of the cable news networks, check it out on YouTube when the DNCC folks post it on the webz.
Fiona Ma is doing a "Citizen Co-sponsor" thing for AB 1778, a bill that would require people selling over 2,000 cans ($100) to provide their name. It's an interesting idea aimed at stopping people from rummaging through garbage cans in the middle of the night. However, there's some risk to homeless and low-income folks in this as well. Many of them will sort public trash cans looking for recyclables, and that's tough work.
Maybe he can tell them all how they have to compromise and raise taxes and to stop with the nonsense right-wing Republican talk that lies to the people.
Somehow, I expect it to be more in line with the dogma.
By the way, aren't the legislators not supposed to leave for their respective national conventions until a budget is signed?
Southern California actually becomes the center of the Presidential universe tomorrow afternoon, as Rick Warren's Saddleback Church hosts John McCain and Barack Obama at a forum. The candidates will not answer questions at the same time (though both will briefly appear on stage together), but they will have an hour a piece to share their views.
It's likely that both fans and critics will be watching closely when Warren plays host to the two presidential contenders at his church complex in Lake Forest, home to 22,000 weekend worshipers.
The presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees won't debate during the Civil Forum on the Presidency. But they will make a brief joint appearance, their first of the campaign, and Warren will interview each separately about the Constitution, poverty, AIDS, human rights and other subjects.
"America has a choice. It's not between a stud and a dud this year," Warren said. "Both of these men care about America. My job is to let them share their views."
Warren may represent the softer face of evangelicals, but he still holds beliefs that hew strongly to the family values conservatism you would expect. In fact, he says that he would have trouble voting for an adulterer. I wonder which of the two Presidential candidates he's obliquely referring to?
WARREN: John Edwards and others like him (emphasis added) have lost the trust of America because they lied, and fundamentally beneath every affair it's dishonesty, its deceit, its deception. They're lying to God. They're lying to themselves. They're lying to their wives and they're lying to the public. How do you trust someone who's constantly lying? You can't. That's why it is a myth to say their personal life doesn't matter. It does matter -- all of leadership is built on credibility.
TAPPER: Would you have compunctions about voting for someone who had cheated on his wife?
WARREN: Absolutely I would. Absolutely I would. Because if you can't keep your faith to your most sacred vow - "'til death do us part" -- how in the world can I trust you to lead my family? My government? My nation?...Absolutely I would. I think people first need to ask forgiveness and then earn trust back over time. Can trust be re-earned? Absolutely but it takes time.
I got my credential request in a little too late, but I am going to head down to survey the scene and give some kind of report.
Democrats across the state and nation today are calling on Exxon John McCain to support lowering gas prices by requiring Big Oil to use some of their windfall profits to reduce gas prices. Here in the Bay Area, DNC Vice-Chair Rep. Mike Honda just did an event at a Shell station in Campbell.
And down in SoCal, CA-44 nominee Bill Hedrick held a similar event calling on Ken Calvert to actually, you know, do something.
UPDATE: Nice little Exxon John video to the right, a little play off the "Big John" Cornyn video that made its way all around the webz a month or so.
Barack will announce his VP candidate choice through txt msg between now & the Conv. Tell everyone to text VP to 62262 to be the first to know! Please forward.
As for McCain's timing? I'm going to guess on the back of Loch Nessie as she searches for some of her friends in the form of asphalt-grade oil under the continental shelf, say near Santa Barbara? It will all be quite fun really.
The story of the 2008 election is going to be the epic collapse of the Republican Party in traditional strongholds.
The Republican Party, which overtook Valley Democrats in voter registration totals eight years ago, is losing ground for the first time in at least a decade.
After peaking just ahead of the 2004 presidential election, Republican registration numbers are down in Fresno, Tulare, Kings, Madera, Mariposa and Merced counties.
The GOP's decline is most obvious in Fresno County, where the losses have turned into an avalanche, even as the party gears up its efforts to keep the White House in GOP hands by electing Arizona Sen. John McCain as president.
The most recent voter registration numbers show the Democrats are closing the gap and are now fewer than 9,000 voters behind the Republicans.
At the peak in 2004, GOP registrations were ahead by more than 23,500 voters.
This will obviously help in AD-30, where Fran Florez is facing Danny Gilmore to keep Nicole Parra's seat in Democratic hands. But this is a nationwide and statewide shift that is generational in nature.
In Riverside County, Republicans have lost close to 34,000 voters since October 2004; in Orange County, an 18 percentage point Republican Party lead in 2004 is now at 14 percentage points.
Bob Mulholland, campaign adviser to the California Democratic Party, points out that Democrats picked up almost 75% of the more than 411,000 new voter registrations statewide between voter-registration reports filed Jan. 22 and May 19.
During that same time, close to 21% of new registrations were decline-to-state. Republicans picked up just 3.6% of the new voters.
I think that in particular, failed conservative policies have most adversely impacted Republican areas. The collapsing home market as a result of "inmates running the asylum" in the lending markets has hit the exurbs hard. Job loss is most keenly affecting the areas where jobs are newer to arrive. And of course high energy prices hurt those with long commutes. The exurbs, the fast-growing counties, the greatest strength for Republicans in 2004, are massively turning to the Democrats. That leaves Democrats with a noticeably bigger tent, and we have to recognize that as an issue moving forward, but for now, this cratering of Republican numbers is truly a sight, as stark a picture as it was right after Watergate in 1974.
Dave mentioned this story on Wednesday about seemingly unlikely donors to the cause of one John McCain. Today, McCain announced that he would be returning $50,000 of that money:
After a report by The Post's Matthew Mosk raised questions about one of Sen. John McCain's campaign fundraisers, the GOP presidential candidate decided to return about $50,000 brought in by a Florida oil executive. The McCain campaign acknowledged that some of the funds were collected by a foreign national and came from donors who may not support the candidate.
The Post reported Wednesday that Harry Sargeant III submitted a bundle of checks for $2,300 and $4,600 on a single day in March, all of them from donors in Southern California who had never given before this year's campaign and did not appear to be likely candidates to contribute as much as $18,400 per household. (WashPo 8/8/08)
It's not clear how he chose that number of $50,000 or whether he plans on doing anything with the rest of the questionable half million bucks that he raised mostly from SoCal. MoveOn has a petition asking for a Justice Dept. investigation.
This is a budding scandal. The front page of the Washington Post today profiles Harry Sargeant III, a bundler for John McCain who has a knack of getting big-dollar donations out of working-class people in the Inland Empire who've never made a political contribution in their lives.
The bundle of $2,300 and $4,600 checks that poured into Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign on March 12 came from an unlikely group of California donors: a mechanic from D&D Auto Repair in Whittier, the manager of Rite Aid Pharmacy No. 5727, the 30-something owners of the Twilight Hookah Lounge in Fullerton.
But the man who gathered checks from them is no stranger to McCain -- he shuttled the Republican on his private plane and held a fundraising event for the candidate at his house in Delray Beach, Fla [...]
Some of the most prolific givers in Sargeant's network live in modest homes in Southern California's Inland Empire. Most had never given a political contribution before being contacted by Sargeant or his associates. Most said they have never voiced much interest in politics. And in several instances, they had never registered to vote. And yet, records show, some families have ponied up as much as $18,400 for various candidates between December and March.
Both Sargeant and the donors were vague when asked to explain how Sargeant persuaded them to give away so much money.
This is extremely odd. Non-donors don't just pop up and max out, especially when they don't fit the profile of having $2,300 to spare. There's at least the possibility here of straw donations, where these names are either picked out of the phone book and used as shells so big-money folks can deliver more than campaign finance limits to the candidate, or the contributors are willing participants who give and then get the money back (with a little extra for their trouble) from the same big-money boys.
Adding to the intrigue is that these donors declined to talk about the donations (at first denying they had made them) or who asked them to do so. Half these people aren't registered to vote. And all of them appear to be Arab-American, a community with which Sargeant has unique contacts:
Sargeant's business relationships, and the work they perform together, occur away from the public eye. His firm, International Oil Trading Co. (IOTC), holds several lucrative contracts with the Defense Department to carry fuel to the U.S. military in Iraq.
"It is very difficult and is a very logistically intensive business that we have been able to specialize in," Sargeant said. "We do difficult logistical things that don't necessarily suit a major oil company. It's a niche we've been able to occupy."
The work has not been without controversy. Last month, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) initiated a review of IOTC's contract to determine whether it was overcharging the military for jet fuel, and to learn how the company, which did not submit the lowest bid, landed the contract to supply the fuel. The Pentagon has said that IOTC won the contract because it was the only company with a "letter of authorization" from the Jordanian government to move the fuel across its territory to Iraq.
Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld have more on this element of the story - Sargeant (no relation to the TPM writer) is apparently being sued by the brother-in-law of the King of Jordan.
This is a very shady tale and I'm guessing we haven't heard the end of it. John McCain's absentee leadership has led to serious violations of campaign finance law already - and this could be the worst yet.
A couple of months ago, in the heat of the superdelegate struggle, Steve Ybarra made a bold and public request. Basically, he requested a $20 million commitment to voter registration efforts targeted at Latinos. The media ridiculed him as some sort of vote seller. As I wrote back then, the request was in actuality a request for party building. And that's a perfectly good request from a member of the DNC to the presidential candidates. Nonetheless, even Comedy Central got in on the make fun of the superdelegate who wants to accomplish something act.
Fine. But, in the end, Ybarra got the last laugh when the DNC and the Obama campaign announced a, you guessed it, $20 million effort for Hispanic voter mobilization. From the Washington Post:
Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee are expected to unveil a $20 million investment in Hispanic voter mobilization Tuesday that targets most major battleground states.
DNC Chairman Howard Dean said the sum is unprecedented for a presidential campaign and represents a show of Democratic confidence that Latino voters could prove pivotal in states including New Mexico and Michigan.
***
Targets will include Florida; Western states such as Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico; and Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, industrial battlegrounds with sizable Hispanic populations. The money will be spent on niche advertising and other outreach, along with mobilization efforts aimed at identifying, registering and turning out new Democratic voters.
It's not everything that Ybarra had requested, because I'm guessing that big chunk of that money will end up as ads on Univision. You have to start somewhere, though. Latino registration, if done properly in California, could be a boon for Democrats in our state as well. The voting patterns in California were about ten years ahead of the rest of the country, due to the reactionary Prop 187 and other anti-immigrant stances of the GOP wingnut base and the politicians that pander to them.
If Democrats solidify the votes of Millenials alongside other growing voting blocs like Hispanic voters, we have the opportunity to build a progressive governing coalition for a generation or more. Projects like these are just the beginning of an investment project for the development of this coalition.
A quick event announcement. The GOP nominee will be cruising into town today to pick up some cash from a few rich Republican types. (Yes, there are a few. And they are rich.)
Subject: McCain in San Francisco TODAY - 5:30 PM!
What: Rally for Democrats outside McCain Fundraiser.
When: Today-Monday July 28th, 5:30-7:30 pm
Where: Outside the Fairmont Hotel-Mason Street between Sacramento and California Ave. Parking on Grace Cathedral Garage ($11.00 before 6:00pm). Located on Taylor and California Ave.
Please bring your hand-made signs. We will have extra signs for you to use.
For the last few months, Calitics has been part of the Ruckus Blog on Newsweek. This week we're starting a question feature. The question this week asks who would be a bold pick for John McCain and Barack Obama as VP candidates. This being a California blog, I have some answers for that question. I'm not going to say these would be good picks, but they will be bold. McCain: Duncan "wildebeest" Hunter. Barack Obama: Barbara Boxer.
Duncan Hunter: Let's look at Duncan Hunter first. He's a longtime congressman and first time presidential candidate this cycle. The man is clearly insane, so much so that he wants to feed the Darfur refugees with wildebeest that he shoots himself. And that's not all. He wants to turn Santa Rosa Island into a hunting park for, well, anybody that carries enough political clout for him to get through. He tried veterans, then moved to disabled veterans. I'm pretty sure he'll next say that Santa Rosa Island should be a wildebeest hunting refuge for the Darfur refugees next. Or something like that.
Hunter is a conservative's conservative. He won't help you carry California, but he will bring the NRA and a whole slew of gun enthusiasts to your side. He won't bring the votes of military families that have been torn apart by the foolish war in Iraq, but he will bring you Pentagon contractors. He's real tight with them. This is a certainly a bold pick.
Duncan Hunter: Conservative, Gun-toting, and Completely Insane. Now, that's Bold.
Barbara Boxer: On the more serious side, Barbara Boxer would be a phenomenal choice to take the lower line of the Democratic ticket. She is enormously popular with the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party (meaning us liberals), and would create an historic ticket. While I'm not sure that Boxer would make up for a Clinton loss, the Obama/Boxer ticket would break boundaries that should have been broken long ago.
Boxer has been fighting for California in the Senate since 1990 and has truly done a phenomenal job. Her leadership regarding climate change has been overshadowed by Al Gore, but has been critical to whatever movement there has been on the issue. She opposed the Iraq War, reinforcing Obama's position.
She's not on the short list, likely because she would be seen as "too liberal" or due to the fact that she's from California, a state where Obama leads by 24 points. That's a shame. Yet, Boxer would be a truly visionary selection to usher in a new governance that could build a progressive majority for years to come.
The Rev. Rick Warren has persuaded the candidates to attend a forum at his Saddleback Church, in Lake Forest, Calif., on Aug. 16. In an interview, Mr. Warren said over the weekend that the presidential candidates would appear together for a moment but that he would interview them in succession at his megachurch [...]
The forum still falls short of the kind of face-to-face, town-hall-style debates that Mr. McCain, of Arizona, has called for this summer before formal debates scheduled for this fall.
Mr. Warren, the author of the best-selling book "The Purpose-Driven Life," said he had called each man personally to invite him to his event, which will focus on how they make decisions and on some of Mr. Warren's main areas of focus, like AIDS, poverty and the environment.
Maybe the fact that McCain missed the vote on the global AIDS bill, like he's missed every vote since April (and here I thought I was being lax with my Netflix movies!), will come up. Then again, don't expect a grilling:
"Since I'm their friend, I'm not going to give them any gotcha questions," Mr. Warren said, adding that a typical query would be, "What's the most difficult decision you've had to make, and how did you make it?"
So the first town hall of the 2008 election will basically be a Barbara Walters interview.
(I wrote about this a few days ago, but I wanted to add something to the story. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Over at the Wall Street Journal, they want to talk about what the media narrative of the day: Obama Buyer's Remorse from the Left. But here at the actual convention, there is quite a bit of enthusiasm here. Perhaps people can be disappointed in their candidate without abandoning hope? Well, not if the media has anything to say about it.
Sen. Barack Obama's support of a recent overhaul of domestic spy laws that rankled many on the left still has them rankled if the opening session at the annual Netroots Nation convention taking place in Austin, Texas, is any indication. (WSJ 7/17)
I spoke to a friend here whom has given Senator Obama several hundred dollars during the primary. All in small increments, part of the small donor legion that has swelled Obama's fundraising numbers in June to over $52 million. She was clearly disappointed by Obama in the last few weeks, and she wasn't part of that $52 million last month. However, she admits that she will be back with Obama, and likely give money once again. And she'll be back calling voters too, but perhaps prioritizing other issues right along side with the presidential election.
The small dollar donors and the netroots folks here in Austin can walk AND chew gum. It's really quite amazing. Matt Stoller summarizes this pretty well at OpenLeft
While it's often impossible for consultants in DC to keep multiple thoughts in their head, it is possible for most of us normal bluggers and blug readers to get that we don't like his vote on FISA but we want him to win the White House desperately anyway. (Open Left 7/17/08)
That was seen in the latest Field Poll where Sen. Obama solidified the left despite FISA and the surrounding hubub.
In the May Field Poll, self-described liberals favored at about an 80% clip. That has now moved up to around 88%. On the right, John McCain is doing considerably worse with self-described conservatives. In May, McCain got around 70% of conservative voters. In the July Field Poll, McCain gathers only 67% of self-described conservatives. Back in 2004, Bush consistently polled around 80% amongst Republicans and conservatives.
Yet the questions are about Senator Obama's progressive base having buyer's remorse? In California, it is clear if there are any idealogues that are disappointed with their major party candidate, it would be the conservatives. Not the progressive left. The left is focused on ending the rule of Bush and his newfound crony John McCain. The Right seems a bit wishy-washy about McCain. There's your buyer's remorse.
As I walk around the convention center, I've been talking people about this "buyer's remorse" concept that the media seems to be focused on. One netroots leader said that, if anything, he saw many of his activists friends rediscovering the fact that Obama was, in fact, a politician. The Senator looked around and counted the votes, ultimately determining that this fight was not a winner. Very politician of him, perhaps, but he went forward with the motion to remove telecom immunity. Maybe "politicia" doesn't carry qute the esteem as "hope superhero", but Obama was still the politician they want to be the next president.
And that sentiment has been repeated over and over again. Temporary frustration yes, but nothing sufficient to shake the core confidence in the Democratic nominee. Yesterday, in a conversation with Harold Ford at the lunch keynote, Markos of DailyKos once agian noted the difference between the two candidates. While Obama isn't perfect, Obama is so much more aligned with our issues that there is no question whether we must work to ensure that Senator Obama is our next president.
FISA is important, yet it is not the only important item. Wow, who knew?
Over at the Wall Street Journal, they want to talk about what the media narrative of the day: Obama Buyer's Remorse from the Left. But here at the actual convention, there is quite a bit of enthusiasm here. Perhaps people can be disappointed in their candidate without abandoning hope? Well, not if the media has anything to say about it.
Sen. Barack Obama's support of a recent overhaul of domestic spy laws that rankled many on the left still has them rankled if the opening session at the annual Netroots Nation convention taking place in Austin, Texas, is any indication. (WSJ 7/17)
Matt Stoller responds to this general argument of "Buyer's remorse" at OpenLeft
At any rate, the whining from DC pundits about how the left was undermining Obama's chances at winning was absolutely wrong. His small dollar donor army wants him in that White House, and they are going to pay to put him there. While it's often impossible for consultants in DC to keep multiple thoughts in their head, it is possible for most of us normal bluggers and blug readers to get that we don't like his vote on FISA but we want him to win the White House desperately anyway.
The small dollar donors and the netroots folks here in Austin can walk AND chew gum. It's really quite amazing. That was seen in California in the latest Field Poll where Sen. Obama solidified the left despite FISA and the surrounding hubub.
FISA is important, yet it is not the only important item. Wow, who knew?
