It reeks of hubris to me.

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“A true friend stabs you from the front” -Oscar Wilde

If he dares go thru with this, he’ll lose many voters permanently—Mr. Unity will have insulted too many for the last time, i think. And they’re still mistaking media love for voter love—crowning himself preemptively is appalling and Rovian (Obama thinks he has “the math”, and is “creating his own reality” as usual).

even Cokie Roberts thinks the process is appalling (it must be why she’s not on tv everyday anymore) —”… How can it make sense for Idaho, Kansas and Louisiana to have a bigger impact on choosing the Democratic nominee than Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio? Add in the exclusion of Florida and Michigan, two crucial states that favor Clinton, and there’s only one word for the Democrats’ system: crazy. And Republicans are gleeful. … ” — http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0508/cr…

(is the site ok, lambert?)

This is where Dean needs to step in forcefully and immediately—for the good of the Party. Dean has already stated that no “math” will count without MI and FL and yet he’s going to allow Obama to coronate himself without pushback? When has a nominee ever “won” by depending on the disenfranchisement of two states? Anyone?

By Obama declaring himself the nominee before the resolution of MI and FL, he will absolutely guarantee defeat in November (if he’s the nominee). I can’t imagine anything more polarizing.

I read that Angalchel post: if the DNC had just bothered to seat MI and FL they would have been able to tap into money from Clinton supporters.

my posts weren’t showing up—sorry

Its about voter suppression and trying to force the Rules and Bylaws committee’s hand. Not complicated as well.

It will, however, make him look like an arrogant jerk. It has the potential of suppressing turnout, but probably not Hillary supporters who seem more inflamed than ever.

I can understand the thuggery motivation. But, c’mon, the blowback can be pretty devastating. BTW, I like Wolfsen’s “mission accomplished” line. That could be tied around Obama’s political neck big time and I expect it to be. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some massive fireworks on May 31st.

I have no idea if there will be any blowback from Democratic Party—at all. If a Republican candidate even thought of pulling a stunt like this, the candidate would certainly lose the nomination and likely permanently damage his/her career. Even if you don’t take into account the Democratic Party choosing to be totally dependent on Obama’s donor database by refusing to resolve MI/FL earlier, the GOP would never allow anyone to make such a self-destructive move in a hotly contested race. Why Obama hasn’t been required to reign in his offensive anti-Clinton behavior on the campaign trail is still a mystery to me.

Obama is proving himself to be quite the Trojan Horse. What better way to destroy the Democratic Party in 2008 than from within? It’s almost absurd how bad this is.

So your comments got queued. I approved them.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

1. It is clear by now, that Obama has no loyalty to any party or organization. He uses them to promote himself and then abandons them once he has achieved what he wanted.

2. At the same time, as Anglachel, brilliantly demonstrates, as usual, he is tightening his $$ grip on the DNC to obtain the nomination in a questionable fashion.

As a result, the 5/20 self-coronation will be interesting. The media and cable news will buy it, of course, nothing new here. But the real significant test will be the DNC’s reaction (since it does not look like they’ll stop it). It will be measure of how deeply they are into this Faustian bargain. Let’s quote Anglachel:

“The DNC has struck a Faustian bargain with Obama over this money. They have cast their lot fully with the Obamacans to root out the Clintons and to gain access to the cash cow. Here’s the problem with that bargain, which I’m sure is really kicking in about now. The drive to destroy a wildly popular candidate is drying up the donations that would otherwise have been coming from Clinton supporters, which will make the DNC and similar party organs increasingly reliant on the Obama ATM, which demands greater loyalty in exchange for the operating capital. The more aggressively Hillary is demonized, the fewer independent sources of funding and the more dependent the party is upon The One.”

How dependent? I guess we’ll find out on 5/20.

As for us? If the DNC endorses the self-coronation. We can just walk out. This is no longer our party. We’re not welcome.

IF the DNC rejects it. Then, maybe, there’s hope.

He can declare himself the winnah! but without the supers, it’s just wishful thinking.

The supers are holding back rather than rushing to coronate him. And I would imagine that no one wants to be #2025 when it’s unclear whether Florida and Michigan up the ante to 2209.

That, plus they can read polls and the popular vote, too.

It’s just a bad move from Obama, one that shows his inexperience with tough campaigning, IMO. Because if he were secure in his belief that he were the nominee, he’d simply let the game play out and ignore Clinton. But he’s not.

But more than that, I think he’s trying to reduce the leverage she can have by creating an aura of inevitability. Which might help him with the nomination, but won’t help him in the general. In order to win in the general, he has to bring Clinton’s supporters on board, and he can’t do that if he acts as if he doesn’t need them.

Losing candidates with blocs of delegates, even those who only have small blocs of delegates (i.e., John Edwards or Jesse Jackson) are typically given something in exchange for throwing their support behind the nominee for the general. But I get the sense that this move is intended to freeze Clinton out at the convention and not allow her to have a say in the platform or the process going forward (because you know she’d want to get rid of caucuses; if I’m not mistaken, Jesse Jackson used his leverage to do away with the winner-take-all process for primaries). And if so, that’s a huge mistake, because it would just feed the sense of a lot of her supporters (you know, HALF the party) that she’s being treated differently than the boys, and that the party isn’t interested in having their votes.

what was it? (i’ll avoid it in the future)

was seen as her fatal flaw, but the media will applaud him for the same thing (and after all, they more than anyone else made him “inevitable”)

I imagine he has enough SDs in his pocket ready to declare by or on the 20th to get to his magic number of 2025. Otherwise it is a tragically stupid move.

… when the TX caucus affidavits come into play, now wouldn’t it?

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

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“Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory lasts forever” - Shane Falco

I assume here she is referring to the fundraising agreement between the DNC and the Obama Campaign, which is money that goes to the DNC. That’s moot since the Clinton Campaign has also signed on. And she offers absolutely no proof that the DNC “approves” Obama’s attempt to choke off the independent 527s in favor of his own fundraising organization.

She further offers absolutely no proof of this:

Dean has bet everything on this one horse, not just an election but the future of the party and the cohesion of the constituencies under the Democratic umbrella.

Why accept an unsubstantiated statement so uncritically? It’s just another episode of Dean Derangement Syndrome that has people desperately looking for scapegoats.

BTD reported on the travesty in Nevada

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama succeeded in driving more supporters to the Nevada state convention than his opponent U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, who had won the state in the Jan. 19 caucuses. Obama essentially reversed Clinton’s lead from the caucuses, capturing 55 percent of the state delegates to Clinton’s 45 percent.

Guess we won’t be hearing any whining about voter disenfranchisement from the Obamabots.

I imagine he has enough SDs in his pocket ready to declare by or on the 20th to get to his magic number of 2025. Otherwise it is a tragically stupid move.

I read a story on AP just a couple of days ago that said that Obama announces SDs as he gets their endorsements, though he sometimes holds them for a day or two to maximize the news cycle.

However, reading between the lines, that tells me that he doesn’t have enough in reserve to end this thing today, even as he tries to create that aura of inevitability. The SDs are holding out for something, but what?

by Hillary.

Sure things are supposed to win.

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“Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory lasts forever” - Shane Falco

and Hiilary’s the girl they’re waiting for.

When this clusterfuck started I was hoping for Gore and leaning towards Edwards.

Now I’m wondering what the hell I was thinking.

Hillary 08

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“Pain heals, chicks dig scars, glory lasts forever” - Shane Falco

i’ve heard that many of the ones left who haven’t declared are the ones in swing states or expected to face challenges or are freshmen, etc—if Obama’s throwing around money, they would have declared already, no?

then the Democratic Party is even weaker and more pathetic than I thought. It proves that they will not stand up to the media narrative even to protect their own party prerogatives. It becomes clearer and clearer why we have the media narrative that we have today - the Democrats are too weak to challenge it. Obama will roll them just as Bush has. A new kind of politics, my ass.

And I believe the other day that Jerome Armstrong said Obama would have to get an additional 89 SDs or something like that to hit 2025 by May 20th (or 31st). Of course, if the SDs had any self-respect, many would pull their endorsement and go back into undecided if Obama pulls this crap.

That Nevada story is a disgrace. I’ve said it all along, if you want to know what Obama is going to do, look at what he accuses Clinton of doing.

She has yet worked out a money agreement with the DNC. I read that they want to(it makes sense, she has more money for the GE than Obama does, and the DNC wants it). Do you have a link?

Bill Clinton for First Dude!!!

That’s a big deal.

Get me a link, please.

“Fully 72% of the public - including comparable percentages of Democrats, Republicans and independents - say that journalists should not be anointing Obama as the Democratic nominee at this stage in the race. Just 20% say that journalists should be doing this.” — http://people-press.org/reports/display….

if barry does this on May 20 having been blown away in WV by 40% and Kentucky with equal vigor, it will be laughable.. oh, wait, sort of like his comments about why he will lose Kentucky ’cuz they don’t know him there.. somthing about it being too close to Arkansas’

uh.. last I looked, so is Illinois! But geography is not Barry’s strong suit. So let me get this straight, the people of Kentucky don’t know him and that’s why he’s going to lose there but he doesn’t campaign there so they won’t know him even if they wanted to and they won’t know him any better AFTER he declares himself the annointed nominee either.. and he will then ostensibly have to campaign there in the fall.. where they won’t know him.. but I guess he will just focus on winning all those caucuses in the fall.. oh, oops, those’ll be actual ballot elections.. darn..

gosh.. if i wasn’t so cynical i’d be MUCH happier.

dupager
PS: Barry’s my Senator and I have yet to discover what he’s actually done in the Senate except run for President..

Found the link, Where it says Clinton has reached the deal as well, maybe that’s why Dean’s so confident FL & MI will be seated(MO of the fact that Clinton hadn’t reached an agreement is that she was holding out for FL & MI).

And here’s the GE money story.

linton has $22 million raised that can only be used in the general election under FEC rules. Obama, who has beaten her in overall fundraising, has $7 million.

That’s why I wasn’t very worked up about the fact that only Obama had reached an agreement. I knew the DNC was frantic to get Clinton’s money, and had a feeling she was withholding it over FL & MI(like many of her supporters have, there’s a reason the DNC is cash strapped right now).

Bill Clinton for First Dude!!!

That’s very telling.

A Fellow Dupage County citizen!!

And your PS is absolutely spot-on.

Isn’t a coronation redundant?

the central question is why does obama feel the need to declare himself the victor on may 20.

if he were winning by a mile, would he bother to do this?

of course he wouldn’t.

so axelrod/obama must view this as a very NECESSARY move.

why?

well, in general, the obama campaign’s tactics have repeatedly included efforts to limit support/turnout/money for clinton.

my guess is he is trying to keep down clinton’s

numbers in puerto rico.

maybe in s. dakota and montana also.

clinton’s shot at winning absolutely depends (though this would not ever be the case in a competently run democratic party) on having more votes than obama after the primaries are over.

and perhaps the obama campaign follows reagan p.r. tactic of always leading the news, controlling the news.