Arkansas Blog

I have screened the major news sites this morning and the width and depth of misogyny, especially against Hiliary, is breathtaking!

Even women Internet sites are being attacked.

Good article by Anna Greer (August 21) -- Misogyny bares it's teeth on the Internet is worthy of reading.

There seems to be no rational reasons driving so much hate of women. As an elderly male I've never understood the why but then I don't understand why men were provided with nipples either.

http://tinyurl.com/yp5kr8

Pretty cowardly response by Beebe to that caller. Other white Southern Democrats have already survived the GOP trying to defeat them by associating them with Obama, so it should be okay to support him, Mike. And if you'd talked to me you could have shared my deep-seated fear of another 4 years of GOP control of the White House rather than just sharing someone's deep-seated fear of our party's nominee in response to a question that was implicity McCain vs. Obama, not Clinton vs. Obama. Too bad.

And I'm looking forward to a good speech from Hillary here, one that will spare Max the upset of having to read all the liberal bloggers slamming it!

It is 11:23 our time and on TV it looks like Hillary's SUV is still in her drive way according to the pictures on MSNBC. She is still on Clinton Standard Time.

Since I was curious what was on her web page I clicked on it. I was led to pages asking for my name and address, but invited to click through which led me to another page asking for the same thing before maybe I could get to the speech. I quit. They already have the information since I have made some contributions in the past. For what they are doing today they really should be more user friendly. This page is not very smart at this time.

11:27 and the vehicles are moving.

Hillary! Hillary! You are bringing tears to my eyes.............how hard it is to give up on something you wanted so badly..and were so qualified to seek.........I am sad, sad!!
But...We must unite, we cannot have another day of Repug rule!!

If Hillary had been giving concession speeches since January, she would have won this thing.

Great speech!

Great speech all around. The latter half was the best, when she went through the women and civil rights movements, and you could tell her emotion was fully involved and on par with the speech. At first, it looked like she was just going through the motions.

I think she showed a very human side, and for the first time I can remember, mentioned gay rights. In other words, she didn't hold back what her candidacy means, even at risk of offending people (referring to gay rights). I'm very pleased with how fully she threw her support behind Obama. Like ES said, if she had laid it all on the line other times, instead of running through the political motions, she might have won this. If, if, if....but, again.... good, emotional speech.

"There are now 18 million cracks in that glass ceiling, and the sunlight is starting to stream through" (paraphrase)

If the glass ceiling she is talking about concerns a woman becoming President then maybe if a different woman was running there would have been a different outcome. She was no Bill Clinton.

Several years ago we visited the site of Hillary Clinton's speech today, the National Building Museum, in Washington, D.C. It is a wonderful building, built in the late 19th century as I recall. The reason for our visit was a green building display exhibiting materials, appliances, etc. that we may be using in the future, much more environmentally sound products than are in use today. It was a terrific display in a wonderful building.

If you find yourself heading to D.C., make a bit of time to visit the National Building Museum. It's worth an hour or two of your time.

I thought it was an awesome speech. (Obama supporter here)
Just a great speech.
She made me cry and cheer.
I can't wait till Nov when we win back the White House.

Tweety just called it a "splendid" speech on MSNBC.

Pretty odd comments from Beebe now that Obama has it locked up. If that is the response he will get from leading southern Democrats Obama is in for a long year. This is exactly why McCain will win the general. Let's break it down....

This is 50 elections not one. Never forget that.

McCain will win Ohio and New Hampshire.

That means Obama is going to have to flip a couple of states that Kerry lost. Please show me those states. He sure isn't going to win in places like Arkansas.

Brummett sort of hit it on the head this week with his observation that winning campaigns in Arkansas generally are campaigns that appeal to the Northeast Arkansas farm vote. Obama doesn't and you can bet your ballot that Beebe and Blanche and Marion sort of get that. They are a little uneasy with the coming general and how much they should invest in this.

Obama is going to need a very conservative, pro gun, southern conservative, white, male Democrat VP nominee to stand a chance. He sort of needs a Democratic version of Huckabee. If he goes at all liberal he really gives up any slim chance he has of winning the current map.

The voters who love Obama are already with him....but McCain probably has a better shot at centrist voters than Bush ever had.

Anyway.....mark it down....and pelase remember that national polls matter very little right now. What you need to do is stack up the state by state in state polls to see what is really happening.

StrangeTimes- you been in a coma the past 7+ years?

Uplifting speech, Hillary....I'm still dabbing at the tears.....sooooo proud to be a yellow dog
Dem today............
NOW, for heaven sake, and our young folks, can we pull it all together to beat bush 3 next
November??
We are not the enemy....the repugs are the enemy to our country.

Strange, I don't think any stone should be left unturned in an all out effort to send the GOP back to the dark ages they so dearly enjoy... But AR is definitely not a part of the Nov math for Obama. That said, the last AR poll trending I read earlier this week, showed Obama gaining on McCain in AR.

It was a speech to suit the building: grand, impressive and welcoming. Hillary showed "true grit," to coin the phrase, and uncommon strength. I look forward to seeing how this chapter of her life evolves to the next. She's got real purpose, and for the first time in a public speech, I saw it and felt it. Felt it inside the words. She had moments of great oration!

And I do hope she works her heart out for Senator Obama. And I hope she is placed where she is needed the most for the next four years.

Arkansas will not be in play so we will be ignored. We have got to get rid of the electoral college. I'm tired of presidential campaigns taking place in a handful of swing states.

I hope nobody fools themselves into thinking an Obama victory will be easy. It will only happen if Democrats and like-minded people turn out in huge numbers. This election will be about turn out.

In the past, I have thought the idea of Hillary running as Obama's VP was not a good idea. I figured having both an African-American and a woman on the ticket would make it too difficult to win. I now think it is the only way to get the necessary turnout.

I doubt there are any Republicans that would turn out just to vote against her that won't already be turning out to vote against Obama. There are however a lot of women (and men) that would be much more likely to turn out with a Clinton as the VP. If Hillary had won, I think for the same reasons, Obama would have been the best choice as her VP.

It's up to Obama though and I truly believe it will be the decision that wins or loses him the presidency.

Marvelous speech. Brummett will nit-pick it, most of the middle aged white guy talking heads on TV will diss it, and Maureen Dowd will sniff at it, but I think Hillary demonstrated true statesmanship and genuine sportsmanship.
Why do I have this deja vu feeling of "What have we done?" when I think of our Dem presidential nominee?

JD she has often mentioned gay rights before. Unfortunately, neither she nor Obama fully support equal rights for gay Americans. Again for turnout reasons, I think that needs to change. I think it would be a net plus to support gay rights for the same reasons above. Homophobic people are already going to turn out to vote against Obama even though he opposes gay marriage rights. Gay Americans would be more likely to turn out and energetically support Obama if here were to change his position and fully support them.

If this country has come far enough to elect a black man as president, then surely it is ready to provide equal rights to every single American. I think we have a moral responsibility to stand up for the right of everyone including gay Americans. It is way past time.

And there has been talk of entitlement regarding Hillary Clinton for months. While nobody is entitled to be president, there is no other woman that has earned the honor of being the first woman president as much as she has. Not a single other woman even comes close. I'm looking forward to 2008 AND 2016.

pollster.com current averages:

OHIO
Obama 44%
McCain 43.2%

NEW HAMSPHIRE
McCain 45.1%
Obama 43.3%
(Obama leads most recent poll 48-43).

COLORADO - lost by Kerry
No average calculated but Obama leads McCain in all 3 most current polls, 48-42, 49-41, 46-43. He'll win Colorado.

VIRGINIA - lost by Kerry
McCain 46.5%
Obama 43.1%
Obama leads most recent poll 49-42. Virginia will be close, is trending blue and is a definite possibility for the Democrats.

MISSOURI - lost by Kerry
McCain 44.5%
Obama 44%
Obama led most recent poll by 1 point.

NEW MEXICO - lost by Kerry
Obama 45.7%
McCain 42.9%

IOWA - lost by Kerry
Obama 45.9%
McCain 42%

You can probably add a few points to Obama's numbers due to the primary division fading and party unity increasing; the most recent polling does show such an effect occurring as Obama's margins among Democrats are increasing.

Other than all that, Strange Times, you're right! Obama can't win Ohio and New Hampshire, and won't win any state lost by Kerry. Sure enough.

How did I do on that prediction last winter that Huckabee would win Iowa?

Thanks for the listing raffe. Looks like our adversaries must once again pull a dirty rabbit out of the hat.

Strange. Why not print and frame your prediction? I did .

Hillary could have come off as much more classy if she had made this speech last Tuesday instead of dragging this out for another week.

That said, she did what she needed to do and did it convincingly. I have a great deal of respect for her knowing how difficult that must have been. I was beginning to think she didn't have a speech like that in her.

Now, can we lose the "Obamaist" bullshit, and the sense of impending doom? After watching McCain's speech Tuesday night, I can't believe any Democrat would be crying in their beer about Obama's chances in the general. McCain looked like the Crypt Keeper.

This speech could not have been made last Tuesday night and it would have been inappropriate for this kind of speech to be made in that fashion. This wasn't a blow-out - it was a neck and neck election with just as many supporters on one side as the other. He wasn't elected President Tuesday night, he won the nomination, so care had to be taken to heal the party. Had it been done Tuesday night, sandwiched in between Obama and McCain, it would have had little or no effect. The idiotic talking heads who yelled it was awful she didn't do it then, now realize this was perfect - this was how it needed to be done and this way it may have a better chance of pulling her supporters over to Obama. The pundits were dead wrong as usual and there has been more than enough yammering about the timing of her endorsing Obama.

As an Obama supporter I was very interested to see what Hillary said and the tone she took. I think she did a great job. It was one of the better speeches I've heard from her. Most of the commentary I heard afterwards was very positive. I hope she has convinced her supporters that they need to vote for Obama and to campaign for him. With her help and the votes of all the Obama and Hillary supporters combined, we can beat McCain. Yes we can!

I agree MJD that we need to get rid of the electoral college or at least make electoral votes not "winner takes all". If electoral votes were awarded in each state in a popular proportional system where the state's electoral votes are divided proportionally according to the popular vote, then more people would feel like their vote really counts. Then Arkansas would be as important as any other state because a few electoral votes could make the difference--whether they come from Arkansas or Florida, etc. I really believe that is an issue we can all agree on and it should be enacted before another national election occurs. It should have happened after the 2000 election. It's long past due.

Max/Ark. Blog
You applaud "your girl" Hillary as being classy and the primary reason for the Dems coming together to trounce McBush and company. Cleverly, you make zero mention to how classy Barack has been in the wake of Hillary's last dance.

I challenge you, Max, to get over it, the party's over for Hillary and to focus your energies as a true democrat toward helping elect BO as the next president of these United States. Can you say--I am over it?

ARK. BLOG: I second what Hillary, the clasy woman, not girl, said. I'd add that it's much harder to lose than win. Though there are indeed sore winners. Know any?

Something strange is going on in Religious Conservative land. Some RCs in my family (who are often difficult to tolerate and who based their last voting on abortion and gay marriage) say that they plan to vote for Obama! They say that their "counselors" are suggesting this. Another set of RCs (or maybe just Cs) in Louisiana are leaning the same way based on "McSame's past." Whahhhhh??

Could this be a trend?

Point taken, CiCi.

I can appreciate your argument in terms of her not conceding on Tuesday, but not her tone on Tuesday.

It isn't just the Hillary supporters that need to heal, its the party that needs to heal.

I'd advise Beebe to reach out and shake his friends until their teeth rattle when they talk 19th century crap like that. We can't be polite until January, forget what yer mama taught you....be meaner than the haters for the next 6 months and then put it away.

Hillary did give a great speech. It was a speech of unity and lordy we need lots of that. I can't think of a single reason to bash a Clinton from this day forward. Our hatred should be directed at those who own the War for Oil, who own American style torture, who've used our Constitution to wipe their asses for the last 8 years. You know, the Party of McCain and Mark Pryor!

It's insane that McCain should be polling close to Obama in any state. But keep in mind....the Democratic Party has been evenly divided until today. When we turn both barrels on McCain he'll be lucky to get his 100 year old mother's vote.

Hillary should have taught us a couple of things in the last 17 months. Go for the throat! Never give up! Hit em where it hurts! Do not mumble when you list the neo-con sins! We must remember the failed example of Al Gore and John Kerry. They were gentlemen! And where do gentlemen wind up when dealing with Republicans? Wearing the big LOSER hat every damn time. Every damn time!

So like taking out Mark Pryor, I expect Obama/______ to go for McCain's withered throat. I expect them to trot out every last one of the Cheney-Bush sins. I expect them to nail McCain on every double cross and lie, and bad vote he's ever made. Nail his for his infidelities, his lust for lobby money, his double talk, his Bush hugging.....all of it.

By making him the most hated man in America, we might just be able to overcome the Diebold-Republican Dirty Tricks Machine that will be working overtime in November. Plus we have to scare the Bush Crime Family into not pulling all kinds of dirty trick while they pack their bags in December. They'd be very likely to bomb Iran on their way out the door unless we make it very plain that we'll hunt them down and kill them like the rabid dogs they are.

I am still hoping for an Obama/Clinton ticket. I think it's our best chance at restoring our country into a semblance of what it once was. I want to die a proud American. It will take years of superhuman work to get us there. Let's start today!

Amarillo Perro, clever username.

Yes, I think there's definitely a trend among American Catholics towards the Democrats in this election.

And it has the right-wing Catholics who have made common cause with right-wing Protestant fundamentalists beside themselves with rage.

When the pope himself didn't say a single word about denying communion to prominent Democratic politicians while he was here, and when some of them received communion, that right-wing group got busy and forced Cardinal Egan in New York to issue an apology for giving communion to these political leaders.

To his credit, Archbishop Wuerl of Washington, DC, whom they also targeted, refused to cave in.

Recently, Douglas Kmiec, a Georgetown law professor and one of the architects of Reaganism, who is supporting Obama, was denied communion by a priest. He says that, in his view, the attempt to force the government to suppress Roe vs. Wade hasn't worked, and in the meantime, anti-abortionists haven't tried building a "culture of life" that would be the most effective way to address abortion. In fact, in electing Mr. Bush, they have done the opposite.

Those Catholic bishops who have led the American Catholic church down the cul-de-sac of neo-conservative politics--solely on the basis of the abortion issue--have singularly betrayed Catholic values. Fortunately, not a few American Catholic layfolks recognize this, and aren't accepting the bullying this election.

Gumm, I don't even think there was anything wrong with her tone on Tuesday night. If this wasn't handled correctly with much concern for those who supported her, the D party would be in a big world of hurt today. We had people vowing they would never vote for Obama and indeed, there were moments (they didn't last) when I thought I couldn't vote for him. Hillary is a great politician and I know the talkig heads said all sorts of ridiculous things after Tuesday night, but they've all been proven wrong. This may be a great year for D's after all and much of the credit will go to the deft way Hillary handled what felt like a catastrophe for those who believed she was the better choice. Unity is the key and the way she handled it will likely get more unity than if she had acted as if losing was no big deal - whoopie for Obama. It was a huge deal and I just don't see anything she could have done better other than campaign in caucus states.

I made my decision to support Hillary for President way back before Bill announced he would run for that office. I'm disappointed that she didn't get the nomination, but I will support and vote for Obama. Anyone who votes for a Republican for any reason, especially because Hillary didn't get the nomination, is an idiot.

CiCi, as John Lennon once said, "whatever gets you through the night."

What Pavel said.
Amen, brother.

CONGRATULATIONS HILLARY !!!

...and what a speech she gave. masterful.
i've never seen a politician so perfectly fake graciousness
while being presumptuous AND condescending.

and she wore BLACK
(rather appropriate if ya think about it)
which gained me five pounds (sterling)

thank you Madame.

Muleboy, every time Democratic Party unity behind Obama comes up for air, you grab it by the throat and hold it under water again. You are a McCain supporter, right?

I keep wondering the same thing CiCi. Every time I read his posts, I am less enthusiastic about supporting Obama. I'm sure others might even get pissed off enough to vote for McCain. He is either a Republican, or a very stupid person.

Gumm, it doesn't get me thru the night, but if Obama supporters want him to win in Nov, he needs Hillary supporters and dissing them would be a huge mistake. Every Hillary supporter that I know personally has either decided they still won't vote for Obama (they wouldn't have anyway), or they are waiting to see how Hillary is treated post campaign and how things go in the next few weeks. I'm supporting Obama, and I really hope Obama is sensitive enough to tread carefully for a while.

If I were Obama, I would start by apologizing for his comments such as calling Hillary "bush-cheney light" and suggesting the Clintons were being racist. I'm not saying she hasn't crossed the line too at times, but HE is the one needing her supporters and not the other way around. If she had own the nomination, it would have been wise for her to apologize as well.