<!--QuoteBegin-Shambhu+May 9 2008, 02:07 AM-->QUOTE(Shambhu @ May 9 2008, 02:07 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->BO says he will reach out to HRC as VP if he is nominee. He says he has not done so now because he respects her (and does not want to be presumptuous, I presume). Good.
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She is not stupid. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> He is not electable. He should look for KKK follower to neutralize his image.
I think Rev. Wright is good for VeePee or Oprah. Actually, he had made deal with so many people lets see. We will know by June end who is the nominee.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>'Hillary best bet for strong US-India ties' </b>
pioneer.com
S Rajagopalan | Washington
Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States will be the best bet for stronger US-India relations, says Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of her Presidential campaign.
At a time when Clinton's chances are being regarded as increasingly remote with front-runner Barack Obama tightening his hold, McAuliffe told an Indian American publication that she backs the civil nuclear deal and is keen on making the bilateral ties even stronger.
"She's always had a fine relationship with India. She has worked very closely with the Indian-American community here in the United States of America to the point as you know, the Obama campaign criticised her, called her the Senator from Punjab," he said in an interview.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>IN GOD THEY TRUST
- Why did Barack Obama and Bobby Jindal become Christians? </b>
A conservative columnist in the New York Times, William Kristol, suggested Bobby Jindalâs name as a possible running mate for the Republican presidential nominee, John McCain. Bobby Jindal is the recently elected governor of Louisiana and in Kristolâs view, he has several qualities that recommend him. He is young: at 36, he is barely half John McCainâs 71 years and a McCain-Jindal ticket would help draw the sting of the charge that McCain is too old to run. He is properly conservative, unlike McCain who is suspected by the Republican base of flirting with liberal positions when it comes to âsocialâ issues such as abortion. Jindal is an uncompromising hardliner on abortion: he opposes it in every case, even if the pregnancy is the result of incest or rape.
Ideologically, Obama and Jindal occupy opposite ends of the political spectrum (Obama has an ultra-liberal voting record while Jindalâs positions are right of Genghis Khanâs) but they do have one thing in common: both men werenât born Christian, they became Christians. Obamaâs white mother practised social anthropology more enthusiastically than she did her Christian faith. His father and step-father were nominally Muslim. Jindalâs parents are still Hindus.
Obama and Jindal chose to become Christian and the sort of church they chose was closely connected with the social world into which they wished to be assimilated. Jindal became a Roman Catholic, the dominant form of Christianity in Louisiana, while Obama, after a largely secular upbringing in Hawaii, the latter part of which was supervised by his white grandmother, chose to join a black mega-church in Chicago as he set about rooting himself in the community as an organizer and as an aspiring politician.
Jindal and Obama ascribe their conversion to Christianity to spiritual experiences. This must be true, but itâs hard not to see in their embrace of Christianity a more instrumental purpose. Despite the constitutional separation of church and state in the United States America, being a church-going Christian is a necessary credential for high political office.
The one exception that I can think of is Senator Joseph Lieberman, who recently retained his Senate seat as an independent candidate. Lieberman was also Al Goreâs running mate in the formerâs ill-fated presidential campaign in 2000. In Americaâs political and intellectual culture, Jews tend to be seen as ur-Christians, as people of roughly the same Book. The constant invocation of the Judaeo-Christian bedrock of Western civilization, reinforces this exceptional status. Liebermanâs success as a senior politician is paralleled by Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York. Bloomberg is Jewish, and for some months it was rumoured that he was considering running for the presidency as an independent candidate. Eventually, he chose not to run, which was in many ways a pity because a presidential bid would have been a test case for the proposition that for the top jobs in American electoral politics, only Christians need apply.
Obamaâs initiation into Christianity was an essential preliminary to a career in politics. The fact that he had a Muslim father, Muslim relatives in Kenya and a Muslim middle name (Hussain) required him to assert a visible public identity that would distance him from the politically damaging perception that he was some manner of Muslim. If the row over his former pastorâs eccentric sermons, in which the Reverend Wright denounced white people and the American state, had a silver lining, it was this: the controversy made sure that Obama was associated in the minds of most Americans voters with a radical black church rather than with Islam. Even so, a recent poll revealed that some 15 percent of Democratic primary voters believed that Obama was a Muslim or, worse, a covert Muslim hiding behind a Christian façade. Whether he planned this or not, for Obama, being Christian is the ultimate way of not being Muslim.
Similarly Bobby Jindalâs Roman Catholicism has helped him become a mainstream Republican in a state thatâs otherwise racially polarized. It has helped him reach out to white conservative voters who might otherwise have been disinclined to vote for a brown Hindu.
Jindalâs example and Obamaâs illustrate the fact that in American public life, being Christian is a form of basic identification. Their churches are for them what a driving license or a ration card is for me: a kind of address proof that confirms the religious whereabouts of their American souls. For Obama, church-going answered a double need: not only did it supply potential voters with this address proof, it offered him, a mixed-race American with white grandparents and a Harvard degree, a way of establishing his credentials as a black man.
In Americaâs melting pot, immigrants from all over the world are meant to be slow-cooked into an Anglo sameness. An immigrant is meant to learn English and his new countryâs laws (for America is a nation of laws) on his way to becoming a citizen of the worldâs oldest secular republic. What he isnât told (because it isnât formally required of him) is that the liquid in that melting pot, the stock in which Americans are stewed, is subtly Christian. Not just immigrants seeking high office, but ordinary immigrants of all sorts, convert over time to Christianity. In the Chinese American community, some three and a half million strong, the largest and oldest Asian community in the US, Christianity is the largest religion. In the Korean American community, it is the majority religion.
Unlike India â where religious minorities, despite discrimination, thrive demographically â in America, cultural assimilation seems to imply religious assimilation. It is presumptuous to construe Obamaâs faith or Jindalâs in political terms, but given the history of American public life, itâs hard not to see an actively professed Christianity as a political calling card. Equally, itâs difficult not to feel disappointed that politicians as prodigiously talented as Barack Obama and Bobby Jindal need to be ostentatiously religious to succeed as public men. Barack Obama has courageously refused to wear his patriotism on his coat lapel (in his refusal to wear an American flag pin), but he has had to wear his Christianity on his sleeve.
<b>Mecklenburg, Wake find vote flaws</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->MECKLENBURG & WAKE COUNTIES -- Vote tallies are changing in the stateâs two largest counties, after certain ballots were counted twice in Mecklenburg and Wake counties.
The mistake didnât change the outcome of any elections, but it is a cause for concern to election directors. For example, when Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama declared victory Tuesday night in North Carolinaâs primary, <b>he was given approximately 15,000 votes more than he should have been. Thatâs 1 percent of all ballots cast.</b>
In Wake County, early and absentee <b>ballots were counted as part of the individual voters precincts and again as a whole. âSo in essence, those voters were recorded double,â </b>said Cherie Poucher of the Wake Co. Board of Elections. It was around 37,000 votes.
In Mecklenburg County, <b>only absentee ballots â 2,400 in all â were doubled. â</b>It doesnât change any of the results,â said Michael Dickerson of the Mecklenburg Co. Board of Elections. âAll the winners are still the winners.â
...........
<b>"I don't know if it's in a piece of software that we were doing something wrong,â </b>said Dickerson. âWe'll take full responsibility for it if it's our fault."
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This is just from two counties.
Had it Clinton, media would have made big scandal.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->DEAD PEOPLE VOTES: ALSO KNOWN AS: ABSENTEE ONE STOP BALLOTS CAST: 471, 804
DEAD PEOPLE VOTES THEY COUNTED: ALSO KNOWN AS: RETURNED ABSENTEE ONE STOP BALLOTS RETURNED THAT GAVE THE FRAUD THE ABILITY TO CALL NC FIVE MINUTES AFTER THE POLLS CLOSED BECAUSE 80% OF NORTH CAROLINA PEOPLE SUPPOSEDLY VOTED: 25, 039 <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
WASHINGTON: An evangelist whom Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate for the Presidency, has called his âspiritual guideâ, also happens to be an Islam hater, having described it as a âfalse religionâ against which a war must be waged.
Rev Rod Parsley, the television evangelist mega-church pastor from Ohio, has called on Christians to wage war against Islam. In the past, Parsley has also railed against the separation of church and state, homosexuals, and abortion rights, comparing Planned Parenthood to the Nazis.
McCain actively sought and received Parsleyâs endorsement in the presidential race, according to Huffington Post. McCain has called Parsley âa spiritual guideâ, but hasnât said whether he shares Parsleyâs vicious anti-Islam views. The mainstream media has so far refrained from asking him if he shares Parsleyâs views on Islam.
Another evangelist, Rev John Hagee, who said that God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its homosexual sins is also a McCain supporter.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Dick Morris came in to buy some coke today from my grocery store and i rang up his order. at first i didn't believe it but then it was really him. i looked at him and said "hi how are you doing".
he said "fine thank you" in his wierd voice. but then i said "still into the election?" and he said "why do you ask, do you see me on tv?"
and i was like
"yes, you're pretty ridiculous on tv but i laugh AT you."
he gave me the coldest look. then i was like "i heard you suck toes" (fortunately no one was behind him)
and he was like "WHERE IS A MANAGER!". then my manager coincidently walked by and dick was like "he's hassling and harassing me." he then told him how i confronted him about hillary and stuff. then my manager looks at me with the MEANEST glare and then he looks at dick and says "well james is right. if you can't deal with that, don't come back. go back on the television set".
I was shocked. Dick just left and said he wasn't coming back and he was goign to call corporate.
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somebody I know gave Dick nice f*** off. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
05-18-2008, 07:25 PM (This post was last modified: 05-18-2008, 07:35 PM by acharya.)
Obama Has the Upper Hand. But McCain Can Still Take Him.
By Dick Morris
Sunday, May 18, 2008; Page B01
John McCain is America's favorite kind of candidate. With his record of extraordinary patriotism and his distinctive Senate tenure, McCain is a nominee whom voters from both parties -- and independents, too -- could easily support.
But he has been dealt a terrible hand: a tanking economy, an unpopular war, a Republican incumbent whose approval ratings are at their all-time low and a gloomy national mood, with 82 percent of Americans saying in a Washington Post-ABC News poll last week that the country is on the wrong track. Political scientists add all that up and predict that the Democrats are destined to win the White House. But I don't do political science; I do politics, and I'm convinced that McCain can still win -- if he's willing to follow the road map below.
McCain needs to not run as a traditional Republican, which is easy, since he's not one. After all, how did an anti-torture, anti-tobacco, pro-campaign finance reform, anti-pork, pro-alternative-energy Republican ever emerge from the primaries alive? Simple: The GOP electorate, along with the rest of the country, has moved somewhat to the left. (In Florida, for example, exit polls showed that only 27 percent of Republican primary voters described themselves as "very conservative," while 28 percent said they were "moderate" and 2 percent said they were "very liberal.")
Meanwhile, McCain's likely rival, Barack Obama, has raised such doubts among voters that their concerns momentarily energized even Hillary Rodham Clinton's sagging campaign. With the help of the incendiary comments of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Obama's negatives have been rising even as he nears the finish line.
Still, voters are tending heavily toward the Democratic Party. Normally, party preferences are about even, but recent national polls give Democrats a decided edge. In last week's Post-ABC poll, 53 percent of Americans identified themselves as Democrats or leaned toward the party, compared with 39 percent who were Republicans or tilted to the GOP.
To sum it up: A candidate who cannot get elected is being nominated by a party that cannot be defeated, while a candidate who is eminently electable is running as the nominee of a party doomed to defeat.
In this environment, McCain can win by running to the center.
His base will be there for him; indeed, it will turn out in massive numbers. Wright has become the honorary chairman of McCain's get-out-the-vote efforts. It would be nice to think that race isn't a factor in American politics anymore, but it is. The growing fear of Obama, who remains something of an unknown, will drag every last white Republican male off the golf course to vote for McCain, and he will need no further laying-on of hands from either evangelical Christians or fiscal conservatives.
So McCain doesn't have to spend a lot of time wooing his base. What he does need to do is reduce the size of the synapse over which independents and fearful Democrats need to pass in order to back his candidacy. If the synapse is wide, they will stay with Obama. But if they perceive McCain as an acceptable alternative, there is every chance that they will cross over to back him in November.
If the GOP nominee were Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee, independents and Democrats might not vote Republican even if they became convinced that Obama is some kind of sleeper agent sent to charm and conquer our democracy. Even Rudy Giuliani, with his penchant for confrontation, might have elicited sufficient doubts among Democrats to hold them in line for Obama. But McCain doesn't threaten anyone. Everyone can appreciate the ordeal that tested his courage in Vietnam, and independents and Democrats can celebrate much of his legislative record. Voting for McCain is an easy sell.
Except, of course, for Iraq. This is his biggest problem -- the one issue that impales the Arizona senator and hampers his ability to induce liberals to cross the line.
Watch next two days, big showdown between Hillary Clinton and Barack Hussein. Barack had sent emails to his supporters that he will announce victory tomorrow evening and Hillary had challenged him. DNC who are supporting Barack are on notice.
Very interesting time to watch, how Barack supported by DNC will use undemocratic style to capture nomination.
Today Ferro openly came out voting against Barack Hussein. On 22nd GOP is organizing press conference in DC to expose Barack's connection with commies and other anti-american entities.
<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+May 18 2008, 11:06 AM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ May 18 2008, 11:06 AM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Don't forget Dick Morris works for Obama, and provided consultancy to Odinga, Obama's cousin who started riots in Kenya after he lost election.
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We will see huge riots from black segment of the population, whether Obama wins or loses. It will be worse if he loses, beyond the magnitude of the LA Riots. Hindus especially in the inner-city area better be prepared with firearms like the Koreans were.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->We will see huge riots from black segment of the population, whether Obama wins or loses. It will be worse if he loses, beyond the magnitude of the LA Riots. Hindus especially in the inner-city area better be prepared with firearms like the Koreans were.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Actually AA leader really want to see him lose election. He had no connection with civil rights plus no connection to Slavery nor AA experience. Lot of AA are unhappy with his Church. Some are saying his run for election will be setback for them. If you ask leader to vote sceret ballot you may see surprise.
AA may go for rioting and Hillary supporters may switch party, which is already happening.
Now UN is involved in race related investigation in US.
Probably this thread is a good explanation on why Obama won a lead among pledged delegates (after winning Oregon which is full of "AA"s <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> ) and is very close to winning the nomination and general election.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Very interesting time to watch, how Barack supported by DNC will use undemocratic style to capture nomination.
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Whether you like it or not, he won fair and square and played by the rules set by DNC.
I don't know which Hillary supporters are switching the party, like the ones who put democrats to victory in IL, LA and MS in red districts ? Writing is on the wall for republicans - you can not fool everyone all the time.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Black support to Obama was 90%+ after SC, even in TN it was 91%. NC it is 96%+.
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Wrong on TN, Obama's support among blacks didn't cross 90%
Among half of the black electorate i.e. those above 45, his support was 71% or less. Among those under 45, his support never crossed 86%. So his overall black support in TN should be under 80%
18-29 - 81% (5% of electorate)
30-44 - 86%(9% of electorate)
45-59 - 71%(10% of electorate)
60+ - 67%(5% of electorate)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Republican Senator from Nebraska was a political thorn in McCain's side on Tuesday night, repeatedly lavishing praise on the presumptive Democratic candidate and levying major foreign policy criticisms at the GOP nominee and the Republican Party as a whole. At one point, Hagel even urged the Arizona Republican to elevate his campaign discourse to a higher, more honest level.
<b>I'm very upset with John with some of the things he's been saying. And I can't get into the psychoanalysis of it. But I believe that John is smarter than some of the things he is saying.</b> <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
.....
Hagel then offered a wry tweak of his GOP colleague. "<b>I am confident that if Obama is elected president that is the approach we will take</b>. And my friend John McCain said some other things about that. We'll see, but in my opinion it has to be done. It is essential."
....
And when asked to respond to rumors circulating within political circles that the Bush administration was ginning up the possibility of war with Iran,<b> the Senator even raised the specter of impeachment</b>.
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I live in a swing state and based on what I see, Nov '08 will be one of the worst election seasons for republicans. Average republicans that I know of are more in tune with Hagel than McCain.
Instead of this phony "maverick" McCain with no clue of economics, republicans should have either gone for Romney or Hagel. Romney and Hagel were successful businessmen unlike McCain or Bush.
If Obama picks Hagel as his VP(Hagel had indicated his willingness in the past), McCain should look forward to his retired life in florida. <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--emo&:rocker--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rocker.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rocker.gif' /><!--endemo--> Welcome aboard, Apte!
What's your take as a voter as to how Michigan and Florida will behave if these are not counted?
Haggling about Hagle!
No way.
The chances of Stele from Ohio are more if Obama is nominee.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Haggling about Hagle!
No way.
The chances of Stele from Ohio are more if Obama is nominee.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm wagering on Jim Webb from VA who beat George 'Macaca' Allen in last Senate elections. That is if Hillary declines or is denied VP ticket.
Several things going for him: Jim's from South, he's White, appeals to the gun-toting types - a demographic that Obama has not had any success with as evident again last night in Kentucky.
Like his father he too has served in military and the only Senator with his son currently serving in Iraq. 3 generations of family in military matches McCain family's military service.
And he's not shy of a good fight <!--emo&:felx--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/flex.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='flex.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->On November 28, 2006, at a White House reception for those newly elected to Congress, Webb declined to stand in the line to have his picture taken with the president, whom Webb often criticized during the campaign. The president approached Webb later and asked him, "How's your boy?", referring to Webb's son, a Marine serving in Iraq. According to Congressman Jim Moran of Virginia, aides warned the President to be "extra sensitive about talking to Webb about his son, since Webb's son has had a recent brush with death in Iraq."[26] Webb replied "I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President." Bush responded, "That's not what I asked you. How's your boy?" Webb responded, "That's between me and my boy, Mr. President." Webb was so angered by the exchange that he was reportedly tempted to "slug" the president and later remarked, "I'm not particularly interested in having a picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall."[27][28<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Probably this thread is a good explanation on why Obama won a lead among pledged delegates (after winning Oregon which is full of "AA"s ) and <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Because Caucaus states had higher percentage of allocation. This system was very well designed by Jesse Jackson. It will really work for Jesse Jackson's son.
OR is far-left, liberal state.
In Election, anything can change, Oct surprise or Wind surfing or Countdown ad.
Even till nomination, nothing his sure.
I am in a democratic state but it can go Red State if BO is on ticket, two issues will bring Rep in hordes, same sex marriage on ballot and BO as a candidate.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Jim Webb from VA <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
BO had promised so many people for VP position, not sure whether he can make cut. Woman voters who heavily voted for Kerry may just stay at home.
Whatsoever, it is interesting election, lets see what DNC do with FL and MI.
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo--> He is not electable. He should look for KKK follower to neutralize his image.
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /><!--endemo-->