Yeah, yeah.  Jerome Armstrong is right.  Sarah Palin has been an outstanding political asset for John McCain.  And yes, it is very annoying that Palin's penetration of pop culture is helping the McCain-Palin poll numbers.  However, I'm a little surprised that the Obama-Biden team haven't found an answer to the formidable McCain-Palin duo.  Why?  Because simply put, John McCain has doubled down on a George W. Bush third term. McCain has selected someone who is basically a George W. Bush, circa 2000, with out the "compassion".  This much is clear given Palin's conservative views, which have been extensively reported. What I find more surprising is that McCain has turned the keys over to Palin this early. Unlike George W. Bush, who campaigns, then hands the keys his #2.  Perhaps the Obama-Biden team can find a way to expose these aspects of the McCain-Palin politics.

Hillary Clinton's political campaign went belly-up on Super Tuesday.  If Hillary doesn't want to ruin her legacy she should quit gracefully.  However, I don't see that happening.  Too much corporate investment to let her ship sink with out taking the Democratic party with her.  But we'll leave that issue for another day.  Interestingly,  her campaign has been derailed by the one community everyone thought was strongly in her corner: African-American voters.  I think it's fair to say that one of the most, if not the most, consistent block of Democratic voters have Sista Souljahed Hillary Clinton.  I guess no one told them that her husband was the first Black President!  Or that according the Joe Trippi, African-American voters in South Carolina would guarantee Hillary the nomination.  Instead, African-American  voters  have again rejected the least progressive candidate. Unfortunately, African-Americans have been getting the shaft for so long that they have developed a sensitive understanding of candidates that are the least progressive.  Bill Clinton's two terms set the black male so far back that I can't help to chuckle when the "first Black President"  words are thrown around.  Hillary for her part favors war, Nafta, and insurance companies.  All of these being issues, that African-Americans have been against as a whole even when they were massively popular. While it is very sad that the African-American community continues to be the canary in the coal mine, I strongly recommend we follow their lead.  We need to work hard to close down Hillary Inc.  It just a matter of time, but we can all micro-contribute to shut down Mark Penn's shop down.    

I will vote for hope over war any day of the week.  Hillary's mocking of Obama's approach doesn't only mock Obama.  It mocks the best traditions of America.  In fact, it mocks the traditions of Thomas Paine.  Thomas Paine's revolutionary writings energized the American Colonies.  However, by Hillary's low standards, Thomas Pain did not accomplish much since he didn't pass any legislation.   Similarly, Paine encountered resistance from the elites of his time.  Currently, elites fund Hillary's campaign, such as Fox News(Rupert Murdoch) and the unHealth Insurance Industry.  Michael Moore, himself has stated that the Health Insurance industry prefers Hillary's approach over Obama's.  However, what is insulting, is that Hillary re-discovers her progressivism when her political back is against the wall.  It is during such times that Hillary appears to muster ever so much courage.  Yet, it is always a day short and a vote late.      

Hillary already had her 3 AM phone call moment.  She was caught unprepared and lacking courage. Unprepared, because she admits not reading the pre-Iraq intelligence report.  Makes me wonder, what work is she doing during her nightshift?  Furthermore, to this day she blames George W. Bush for being misled.  Yet, Senator Bill Graham read the report and arrived to correct conclusion.  He voted against authorization.  Worse,  I suspect what she really lacks is courage.  That is, why she has taken no leadership role on ending the war.  In fact, if elected, troop withdrawal would not end until the end of her second term according to her advisors.  Imagine how many 3 AM decisions she will mess up by then!

Hillary has also received many metaphorical 3 AM phone calls regarding layoffs due to Nafta.  She has supported anti-worker trade deals, the real threat to little girls at 3 AM in the morning.  Layoffs and unemployment are the keeps parents up at night.  On the contrary, she goes out of her way to hire union busters like Mark Penn.  Yes, Hillary has NOT take your call on trade deals.  

I wish her awful decisions were due to lack of preparation.  They are not.  They are due to her lack of courage.  And her lack of courage will not help make the right decisions.  War and Nafta-type deals will continue under Hillary.

So please stop telling us about 3 AM phone calls, Hillary.  You are the last person my list I would call.          

Last December Matt Stoller proposed the bar fight primary.  He brought this idea to my attention during a recent bloggingheads.tv episode.  So I used "the google" and found his original diary on HuffPost.  Stoller started of by reminding us that,

"When Ronald Reagan announced his Presidential run in 1980, he did it in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the town where three Civil Rights workers were killed."

Stoller then stated:

"Opening his campaign on a site that fully repudiated equal rights for blacks, that in a very real sense murdered liberals, was a way of saying to the emergent right-wing Confederate base that 'I am with you, I hate who you hate'."

Who has your back as you enter the saloon?

John Edwards' skills on the campaign are unmatched.  This is obvious from all of the footage that is available on youtube. If people like David Brooks [h/t Neil the Ethical Werewolf] want to attribute this to his southern accent, so be it.  I say, this time around it's because he is being clear and articulate about progressive policy and issues that he cares about.  Less Bob Shrumesque always leads to more substance.  Too bad, John Kerry could have gotten more mileage from a visible Edwards.

I was fortunate to observe John's skills at a post HRC forum rally in Los Angeles.  This was the second presidential campaign rally I have attended.  The first was a Gore event late in 2000 held in Westwood, California with the election on the line. Gore's event was engineered and elaborate.  For example, many Hollywood stars came out. Unfortunately, while Gore (whom I respect) did a commendable job at preaching to the choir, his performance was not memorable.  In contrast, the Edwards event can best be described as efficient. But, keep in mind that an overflow section had to be created on the spot due to all of the supporters that attended. John came out and delivered a  speech that had crowd excited and energized the entire time. At this point I realized that John doesn't need excessive amounts of questionable K-street cash.  His skills combined with his robust progressive agenda will yield victory in the early states and catalyze the pathway to the nomination.

Revised

Hillary Clinton proudly promotes herself as a champion of the middle class, and yet Bill Clinton went and got a $200 haircut.  Does this bother you? It does not bother me.  In fact, my mother-in-law thinks Bill Clinton is "guapo". I say $200 well spent when you can get my beloved mother-in-law to approve.

Amazing! How can anyone be so blind?  As a Latino I was deeply offended by Harold Ford Jr.'s implicit attack on all Latinos with his anti-"illegals" propaganda.  And from reading many of the responses to Chris Bower's endorsement of Ed Kilgore's piece I will assume that not that many MyDDers are offended by Harold Ford Jr.'s overall intolerant politics.  Ironic and hypocritical that we bashed the RNC racist add while few prominent frontpagers called Harold Ford Jr. on his anti-Mexican, anti-gay, and anti-pro-choice positions.   I have not purchased Thomas Schaller's book, but I have read all of his pieces online and watched his most recent interview on C-SPAN's washington journal and he is not against everything southern as Ed Kilgore states,"
The hatred of all things Southern isn't much more attractive dressed up in regression analysis and charts."  This is a serious mispresentation.  Furthermore, Schaller supports long term 50 state strategy.  Ed, we don't hate all that is southern, we just hate all the intolerant, racist and bigoted political appraoches of the south that are practiced to this day.  We even despise these tactics when practiced by democrats.