The polls say Obama is ahead by 11 points or so, just like New Hampster.
But the Vegas odds are a lot different because in Vegas, money is serious.
The bookies have it Obama 32, Hillary 31 and Edwards 29 – that sounds right to me.
A bookie doesn’t look at a whore like Zogby and take his crap as gospel. A bookie uses his damn head and anybody who puts Obama 11 points ahead of Hillary is going to lose his money.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080119/ap_on_el_pr/democrats_reagan
John Edwards and Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized Barack Obama’s praise of the Republican Party and Ronald Reagan — an anathema for many Democrats, particularly union members considered crucial to winning Nevada’s Democratic caucuses Saturday.
Obama responded by changing the subject.
The intensity reflects what polls suggest could be a tight contest Saturday as Nevada plays its most prominent role ever in a presidential nominating campaign. Nevada was granted a coveted spot right after Iowa and New Hampshire in an attempt to bring more racial and geographic diversity into the selection.
Does the personal matter?THERE’S an anecdote I heard about Hillary Clinton while I was backpacking around Europe last decade. It came from Desmond, an African American of modest background who had made it to Harvard law school. While still a student, Desmond scored a clerkship at Clinton’s Rose Law Firm in his home town of Little Rock, Arkansas. The soon-to-be first lady asked Desmond to draft a court document, which he duly submitted. Clinton was too busy to look at the text, and Desmond’s stint ended before he could get feedback. But an apologetic Clinton sent the document in the mail, replete with meticulous corrections and……
Read on and take it as you will.
You can count me in. I’m even in for the alphabetical thing, so long as we go by first names…
I’ve noticed that supporters of both Clinton and Obama complain that the GOP-serving Big Media is “supporting” one candidate over the other. I keep remembering that old saw, ‘There’s no such thing as bad publicity’. No matter WHAT the papers say about them, ongoing mentions of Clinton and Obama provide name recognition that the other candidates don’t get. To me, this is the true manipulation. The GOP-serving BM has decided Dems can choose either Clinton or Obama so that’s who they report on. They HAVE to mention Edwards from time to time as he was on the ticket in the last election but as long as the focus – positive or negative – stays on Clinton or Obama they get the name recognition boost and the worst that happens from the GOP point of view is that the candidates destroy each other.
Why Clinton or Obama? The GOP has so little to run on they’re forced to count on GOP misogyny or racism. Either candidate will bring out a segment of the base just like gay marriage did. (For the record, I don’t think it’ll make any difference based on voter turnout so far but it’s all they’ve got…)
Is it coincidental that Edwards is the ONLY candidate to come out blatantly against GOP BM? (In keeping with Bart’s Law about politicians lying, that makes Edwards a little naive, yes?)
First let me congratulate Obama on the race issue. He started it and ended it with much more class than Hilary, so he won that episode.
Also in the debate Hillary refused to say her two opponents were ready to be president. Since this was the beginning of the debate and everybody was playing nice, would it have hurt her to say, “we are all ready to be president, it is just a matter of who is the better candidate and the people will decide.” Now how hard could that have been, rather than look like an uptight mean bitch.
But that is not my issue, my issue is the garbage that Mr. Obama spewed today. (more…)
Chris’ Craftiness, Rhymes with ‘Dull Snit’
Whoa! Chris Matthews’ lengthy show opening near-apology on his MSNBC Hardball show January 17th was rife with just the kind of dodgy circumlocution the Meter Beater commonly resorts to when cornered by his own mouth – downplaying his ongoing animosity to Hillary Clinton and other women, and attempting to modulate his bizarre boyish hero worship of John McCain. Along the way, he tossed in some self-congratulatory meditations on his affinity with his ‘little people’ viewers, his outsized heart that can always be trusted to do the right thing if not his loose lips, and his abundant love for politicians and all things political, if General Electric and Jack Welch approve of them in advance.
What he didn’t bother to mention in his diatribe was his “I hate her, I hate her” Hillary bashing quoted by a colleague in a Philadelphia Inquirer magazine piece, and his frequently expressed belief that John McCain ‘deserves’ to be president by dint of spending time as a POW in the Hanoi Hilton. Strange that in 2004 Matthews didn’t think that John Kerry, who saved a soldier’s life under fire in Vietnam, ‘deserved’ to be president, even though the man Kerry was running against comfortably sat out the Vietnam War in the Texas Air National Guard and didn’t bother to show up for his last two years of service.
If you’re paying attention to the actual positions of the actual candidates, you’ll find that what we are left to debate are non-issue items since the candidates have each staked out their own little variations on the same positions. In the BartCop item ‘challenge to the Obamaistas’ the writer asks “ What has he done lately???” Um, he’s been running for President, just like Hillary.
Clinton supporters say we should give Hillary a “pass” on her war vote and, frankly, I agree. I’m swayed by the argument that we don’t know what kind of BS bushco laid on Congress (although Kucinich claims he distributed contradicting – read “accurate” – information to all members of Congress) and more importantly, dubya clearly overstepped his authorization as granted in the use of force. I grant Clinton another “pass” on the funding votes – along with Obama – because the Democrats have engaged in a shameful “strategery” of giving the Repugs the rope to hang themselves. (Shameful because while Repugs are being allowed to hang themselves figuratively, GI’s are dying literally and it’s all part of the political calculation…)
Powered by WordPress
3 Planks In A Platform…
Here’s the reality: whichever of the “big 3″ assume the position, they’ll bring us essentially the same administration. I think the next Pres will be working with a Democratically controlled Congress so implementing a platform shouldn’t be tough for any of them.
I used ‘HillaryClinton.com’, ‘JohnEdwards.com’, and ‘BarackObama.com’. I clicked on the “Issues” option on each page then did a tab-by-tab comparison on the issues noted. I did NOT read the actual position papers. I used the summaries and details as listed on each candidate’s site. While it may be true that the websites are just stump speeches in writing, each of these sites is essentially the same so if you don’t like Barack’s, you don’t like Hillary’s, either.
Iraq: Clinton says that within 60 days of taking office she will convene a committee to develop a plan to bring home America’s combat troops as soon as possible and begin working toward a diplomatic solution. Edwards says he’ll immediately start drawing down combat troops with a goal to have them all out within 9 to 10 months and begin working toward a diplomatic solution. Obama says he’ll immediately start drawing down combat troops with a goal to have them all out within 16 months and begin working toward a diplomatic solution.
(more…)