Life is a State of Mind

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Needs no explanation at all.

This is a call to action. Every election needs trained election officials to be non-partisan for a day and help the polling places run smoothly. These officials are mostly volunteers (yes they get paid, but often the pay is nominal and trivial), they have only a little training from their county board of elections. Mostly they are severely understaffed during Presidential elections.
Yes, during a low-turnout primary they are bored; and should bring reading material or knitting… but during a high-turnout presidential election every precinct needs far more people than they already have.

Please get in touch with your county board of elections now and get the few hours of training needed by the county. The November, 2008 elections looks like it will be one of the busiest in decades.

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Reminder if you live in Virginia, go vote tomorrow!

Here is my non-partisan, unbiased page (there is only one of those - normally I rant and/or rave a lot): http://blog.scottnolan.org/virginia-congressional-primary-june-10th/

The 8th, 10th, and 11th congressional districts all have bipartisan primary elections. In Virginia, you are not registered with any party, so any registered voter can vote in any one party’s primary for that day.

I am trying to think of ways to heal the rift between Clinton supporters and Obama supporters, because the most important thing is to defeat John McCain in November.

I started this election (years ago) liking first General Wesley Clark, then Senator John Edwards once Clark endorsed Hillary Clinton. When John Edwards dropped out (just in time for my state’s primary) I voted for Senator Barack Obama. I began contributing to his campaign after his truly inspirational response to the first time he was publicly connected to Reverend Wright. At that point, for me, this switched from being the best choice available to being about someone I really thought was presidential.

Over the months since then I have been appalled by a few things Hillary Clinton herself has said, and quite a few things that senior members of her campaign staff have said. I do not attribute things her volunteers and supporters who are not actually on her staff have said to her; though I’ve debated some of them as individuals. As an Obama supporter I have even over-reacted and said some unkind things about Hillary Clinton when angry, and I am sorry for doing so. I am not part of Obama’s campaign though; and as an individual I feel free to speak my mind.

Something that profoundly disturbs me while watch the televised news (which may be a mistake, I admit), is the mainstream media’s focus on the more entrenched supporters of Hillary. I am disturbed by two questions:

1) Why is the media focusing on the more outrageous supporters from both Clinton and Obama supporters? They ingore McCain’s most outrageous supporters…. so it is clearly NOT as simple as the most prurient stories make better news.

2) Why do those most entrenched Hillary supporters accuse Obama or his campaign of denigrating or maligning Hillary personally? I have been unable to find a single instance where Obama or his Campaign attacked Hillary the person since Samantha Power was cut from his campaign. Yes, he has attacked specific statements Hillary has made, but he has also alway (to my knowledge) also expressed respect for her as a person. Amy I wrong? What am I missing?

Seriously, please help me find specific instances where Obama or his staff have been personal in their attacks on Clinton. I am trying to understand where this is coming from.

Am I looking through rose colored glasses? It is possible - I am very impressed with Obama’s statesman like demeanor. If anything, his calm can inspire anger as it can appear to be smug; but I see it as a quiet confidence…

Most of all I am enraged about the Republican administration, and a congress (both houses) that is not standing up to the administration and protecting the voters, the people of the United States and the world. I am enraged that our constitutional protections are being eroded. I am enraged that people are dying to protect the wealth of a few very greedy individuals and corporations. I am enraged that our government has tried to rule us through fear and manipulation of the facts. I am hopeful, and thrilled that we may finally have politicians with integrity who might begin to change all that.

A flood of super delegate endorsements for Barack Obama have come in today. According to both CBS and CNN, Obama’s total count is now 2106 (Update: now all the sources I track delegates with agree that Obama has over 2100 delegates, he will definitely cross the 2117 line tonight) which puts him close enough that it is very likely he will win the nomination with today’s closed South Dakota primary and today’s open Montana primary (he expected to pull in 17-18 pledged delegates between the two states; and there are a few Montana supers who will declare for the winner of their state). Keep in mind that CNN and CBS are at odds with RCP and DCW and the NYT. Even AP who has called the nomination for Obama (prematurely I suspect) has him only at 2093; which is not quite enough to win tonight. It will be a long and interesting night for poll watchers. Update: now that they all agree, CNN and CBS are out in front again and they report that Clinton can no longer win as there are fewer delegates left than she needs to win.

If that happens, Barack Obama will have won the number of delegates necessary. It also means that there will be too few delegates left for Hillary Clinton to secure the nomination. Both thresh holds will be crossed at the same time.

I updated my spreadsheet at 12:20 (new) Eastern:
http://web.mac.com/scottdavidnolan

The current members of the United States Supreme Court are:

“Liberals”

• John Paul Stevens, born in 1920, is 88 years old; appointed by Gerald Ford (R).
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg, born in 1933, is 75 years old; appointed by Bill Clinton (D).
• David Hackett Souter, born in 1939, is 68 years old; appointed by George H.W. Bush (R).
• Stephen Gerald Breyer, born in 1938, is 69 years old; appointed by Bill Clinton (D).

“Conservatives”

• Clarence Thomas, born in 1948, is 59 years old; appointed by George H.W. Bush (R).
• Samuel Anthony Alito, born in 1950, is 58 years old; appointed by George W. Bush (R).
• John Glover Roberts, Jr., born in 1955, is 53 years old; appointed by George W. Bush (R).
• Antonin Gregory Scalia, born in 1936, is 72 years old; appointed by Ronald Reagan (R).

“Swing/Conservative”

• Anthony McLeod Kennedy, born in 1936, is 71 years old; appointed by Ronald Reagan (R).

It is possible that the next president could be appointing as many as four replacement justices they get re-elected in 2012. Even more interesting, based on age alone, it is likely that the justices being replaced will be from the more liberal side of the court.

Think on that long and carefully, please. Only two justices appointed by Democrats are left. Do you really want a Supreme Court even more unbalanced than the one we have now?

Hat tip to RaisingKaine’s aznew for starting me thinking along this track.

Now get yourself registered to vote, get active, contribute, get involved, do something.

It has been a long and contentious primary campaign season for the Democratic party in the United States. Bringing the nomination to a close, with some semblance of a unified party is perhaps a bit overdue; but I am very glad that traditionally late primary states have finally gotten a say in the process, and it will be nice to see the votes counted in Puerto Rico today and Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday.

Part of me is very happy the RBC decided to compromise and seat the Florida and Michigan delegations with a small penalty for not following the rules. I do see the value of including those delegations, despite their rules violations, in the process.

Part of me is very concerned, however, that the RBC has appeased Hillary Clinton and her supporters rather than simply compromised. Frankly she clearly got a better deal than she deserves out of this process, and a better deal than her supporters expected (they were asking for pretty much exactly the compromise we ended up with as recently as late April). It is also clear that Obama could have pressed for a 50/50 split in Michigan, yet he did not. Part of me is concerned that the Obama campaign has inadvertently appeased the Clinton campaign.

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According to the following trackers of Democratic nomination delegates, Barack Obama has reached 1984, which means that if he gets the expected 41 pledged from Puerto Rico, South Dakota, and Montana; he’ll be at 2025. Of course, there is a strong possibility that the goalpost will have been moved by the rules committee meeting tomorrow, but this is getting close to being over, and we can start the next race without a break.

Trackers:
DailyKos
DemConWatch
Wikipedia

I am fairly certain that the source for those three trackers is the same or that one or two are using the other - because they have pretty consistently reported the same numbers. So take this with a grain of salt.

I have been using RCP for my count, because they report in the middle of the pack… but for weeks they have reported the same numbers as DemConWatch and Wikipedia; but about 12-24 hours later (after more thorough confirmations I assume). Perhaps that will happen today, but for now they report Obama having 1980 delegates.

Another bit of positive news, Michelle Obama outdraws Bush and McCain in Arizona! Know hope.

It is baffling and amazing to me that this candidate is the best that the Republican party can offer us in 2008!

While I have virtually no respect for Senator John McCain, I also realize that he was the best of the bunch of losers that the Republicans tried to foist off on us. Only Governor Mitt Romney really has anywhere near the same level of experience, and I trusted him no more than I trusted Bill Clinton in 1992. How about some real conservative candidates?