Barack Obama Elected President!

[Southofnowhere]

Obama admits that when he first started he didn't think he would win and he was shotting for VP but that was very early on once he was in he was in it to win.

However if Hilary had went to him anytime during the fall and promised he VP he would have took it and ended his run.

[Wales2004]

When did he admit that he was shooting for VP? I'm curious because I find it hard to imagine any candidate saying that he/she didn't think he/she would win until their candidacy actually ended. It's kind of an odd thing to do because in this case it's saying that he was only campaigning all along to be VP and if that's the case, he can probably still work out a deal with Hilary for the VP slot and end it now.

[Southofnowhere]

He never said he was shotting for VP he did admit that he was a long shot to win.

Until he started beating them the Clintons were never going to give him VP because they thought a they couldn't win with him as VP.

that was way back in the fall and why would he take VP now that he's won , he's not going to even take Hilary as VP.

My whole point is that the Clintons could have either promised Obama VP not to run or crushed him like they could have at the start of the race.

My Point is that the Clintons biggest mistake is not stopping Obama from running or taking him out early on.

Now it's to late unless thye can pull off something very sneaky the Clintons are TOAST!

[Roman]

You know, this should be a new soap opera......

"As The Math Changes."

Now, the states with cauceses don't count because they are too small........and didn't go for her.

I wonder if she realizes that she is insulting everyone who lives in the states she didn't win, saying that their votes and states don't count because she didn't win them?

[Roman]

Interesting.

From The Washington Post:

Clinton-Obama Grudges Linger For Some Voters

By Krissah Williams

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, May 19, 2008; Page A01

Lifelong Democrat Kathleen Cowley watches with disdain as huge crowds hang on Sen. Barack Obama's every word. She dismisses Obama's "intolerable logic." She turns the channel on pundits who chalk up Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's primary victories to little more than racism. And she doesn't much care for the notion that while Obama is fresh and inspiring, Clinton is, by implication, old and mean.

"There's just been an attitude that if you aren't voting for Barack Obama, then you're a racist," said Cowley, 49, a mother of four from Massachusetts who has vowed to never back the senator from Illinois. "I just find that intolerable. I feel like when the members of the media talk about how [Obama's supporters] would react, they say, 'Well, we can't take the vote away from African Americans.' Well, excuse me, there's a higher percentage of women."

A Democratic race that a couple of months ago was celebrated as a march toward history -- the chance to nominate the nation's first woman or African American as a major-party candidate -- threatens to leave lingering bitterness, especially among Clinton supporters, whose candidate is running out of ways to win.

Some women, like Cowley, complain that Clinton has been disrespected and mistreated by the media and the political establishment. Many see Obama as equally condescending, dismissing Clinton's foreign policy role as first lady, pulling out her chair for her at debates and suggesting offhand during one debate that she was "likable enough."

"The sexist crap that comes out of people's mouths is really scary to me," said Amilyn Lanning, 38, a Zionsville, Pa., voter who supported Clinton in last month's primary. "There's a lot of the b-word being thrown about, even in jest by comedians. There's a lot of comments made about her pantsuits, and the way she dresses. There's a viciousness."

With equal ire, many African Americans complain about Clinton's negativity and have accused her camp of using Obama's race against him. Her comment that his "support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again" was just the latest in a series of over-the-line comments, some said.

And many among the legions of young voters who have flocked to Obama say their enthusiasm is more about him than about the Democratic Party and it would not necessarily transfer to Clinton if she won the nomination. In Indiana, about six in 10 Obama voters under age 30 said they will be dissatisfied if Clinton is the nominee and about half said the same in North Carolina, according to exit polls.

Nationally, about a quarter of Clinton supporters in a Washington Post-ABC News poll said that if she loses they will ditch the Democratic Party and Obama for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). A similar number of Obama backers said they will pick the Republican this fall if Clinton becomes the nominee. In both Indiana and North Carolina, majorities of African American voters said they will be unhappy if Clinton is at the top of the ticket.

Acutely aware of these dynamics, the campaigns have sought to balance tactics against tact, so that the rift between the two Democrats -- and their backers -- doesn't grow so wide that the winner can't pull the party back together. Since the May 6 contests in Indiana and North Carolina, Obama has tried to ease much of the animosity by turning his attention to McCain, highlighting differences with Clinton only in response to voters or the news media. Clinton has also shifted some of her strategy, running positive ads in West Virginia rather than the negative ones she aired in previous states.

Put together, Clinton's coalition of women and working-class white voters along with Obama's alliance of African Americans and young voters could be a potentially unstoppable Democratic force in the fall. But, at least for now, many on both sides said they have been too put off and have become too embittered to pull together for the party if their candidate isn't on the ballot.

To Veronica Tonay, 48, a psychology professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Clinton supporter, Obama has become a pop star, the contestant on "American Idol" who wins votes because he's cute, while the best singer is eliminated.

"We are electing the leader of the free world, and that person has a finger on the nuclear launch code," she said. "It's not about likability." Her stance was cemented when a young woman in one of her classes declared that she wouldn't vote for Clinton because "she is not a beautiful woman."

If Obama is the nominee, Tonay said, McCain will be just fine with her. "In the end, I won't vote for Obama because I don't know who he is, and I don't trust him," she said. "If McCain gets in, he would have a weak presidency, and we would have a Democratic Congress anyway. Obama could do more damage."

Divisive primary fights followed by a period of kissing and making up are something of a ritual in presidential campaigns. It happened in 1860, when Abraham Lincoln brought his three challengers for the Republican nomination into his Cabinet. One hundred years later, John F. Kennedy won the Democratic nomination and avoided an intraparty feud by picking Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate, though in the late stages of the primaries they had been fierce rivals.

In this year's Republican race, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney became an active supporter of McCain after the two campaigned against each other with open antipathy. Romney is now thought to have an outside chance of being McCain's running mate.

But the Obama-Clinton fight has gone on so long and the ill will has become so intense that even if the candidates can heal the party, as both have vowed to do, they will have to spend critical campaign time dealing with those wounds rather than taking on McCain.

"You can't afford to leak away all of these Democrats come November," said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston. The Democratic nominee "will have to spend weeks solidifying the base," he said. ". . . Now you're cutting into the time you have to begin making the case to independents, because first you've got to take care of business at home."

Patricia Sparrow, 53, said there's nothing Clinton could do to win her over. She changed her registration from Republican to Democrat this year to cast her ballot for Obama after her son started talking about him. But she said a Clinton-McCain matchup in November would send her back to her old party -- even though she disagrees with McCain's position on Iraq -- because she finds Clinton so divisive.

"With Hillary Clinton, it's politics as usual -- old-school backbiting. I have no use for [her]," said Sparrow, who runs a soup kitchen near her home in Norfolk, Mass. "I would probably vote for McCain even though I don't want to. . . . I would hope he would be swayed by public opinion on the war."

There may not be enough time to win over Cowley, who calls Clinton "brilliant" and has spent two hours a day for the last three months calling voters to talk about Clinton's health-care plan, her experience and her plan to end the war in Iraq.

"In my heart I just can't bring myself to [vote for Obama], and I feel like a schlep," she said. "I'm not going to be voting for him, and it irritates me. Nobody's concerned about the women. I don't think I can vote for McCain. I guess I'll have to sit it out."

[Wales2004]

Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking perhaps that I was missing the boat on what you were saying and that maybe this had to do with how HC was basically declared the winner early on and the rest were long shots. I could see any of them saying that if they couldn't make it for president then maybe they could be VP.

I'm not sure that the Clintons could have crushed him early on because of the tactics that they chose to employ once they started taking him seriously. I'm not sure that they would have had a strategy to deal with him then as they don't have one now except the divisiveness. I think their biggest mistakes have been not running a tight campaign as well as the manner in which they've conducted themselves.

[EricaKane70]

I think their biggest mistake was having bill clinton speak in public and not campaigning for all democrats. He has been a huge liability for hillary's campaign, and he can't seem to keep his trap shut about race. He turned alot of black voters off when he spoke in South carolina, before that time alot of African Americans that I know were either voting for hillary or obama, after that they all voted for obama. The more negative hillary becomes the more people want to vote for obama. But I can see how hillary see's running a negative campaign works for her without it she wouldn't of won texas, pennsylvannia, etc. Her campaign seems to just cater the the older americans and the poor working class white americans, why has she stopped campaigning for the youth, african americans, and higher income white americans? Does she not think they will have a big turnout in the fall?

[Wales2004]

The whole thing with this sexist complaint is that the people making the accusations are as guilty as the people they say are making the accusations of racism.

I don't care if people want to cry racism and sexism but don't use a double standard by saying that I find it sexist but other people can't find it racist.

The fact of the matter is that there are people of all races (including black people) who don't vote for Obama because he's black, some who vote for him because he's black, some who vote or don't vote for him based on "qualifications" and some who vote against HC because she's a woman. By the same token there are people who vote for HC because she's a woman, women who vote against her because they don't want a woman in office, people who vote for her based on "qualifications"and people who vote for her because she's white.

There are black people angry with other black people who don't support Obama and there are women angry with other women who don't support HC. It's all very childish.

I will say that since women are in the majority and can vote a woman into office if they were on the same page, then their complaints don't register with me at all. It's not men holding them back on this, it's other women and considering that there are men supporting her as well then they'd really be in if they were on the same page.

[Dr. Jay S.W.]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh President Obama addressing crowd in Oregon. 75000 people bitches!!!

[EricaKane70]

Damn hillary should just give up.

[Wales2004]

Bill clearly wasn't using his charm to his advantage. As far as her strategy goes, for now it's stay alive and the media let her know that the two former groups can help her most. She probably believes the latter groups will fall into line in the fall.

I just want to know from where the idea that people who make over $50,000 aren't hard working comes? Shiftless people come in all income brackets.

Maybe that's why she sent out that press message to Obama to remind him that she's still in the race and she's leading in every way that matters. Maybe she ought to take a special tour through all the states that don't matter and remind the people to vote for her anyway.

[Southofnowhere]

HOLY CRAP that alot of peeps!!!!!!!!!

He's a rock star get your game on and goooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[Adam]

Hillary, for the love of god step aside

It pains me to see her make such a complete fool of herself.

[Roman]

People will use many, many different reasons why to vote or not vote for someone. Those who choose the argument of qualifications are some I can either see or not see (Based on the argumnet). But, to cry sexism or racism just because you didn't win? I don't think so.

There are those who didn't vote for HRC because of her gender, and that is very disappointing and unfortunate. At the same token, I would have much more respect in her if she would just say "You know.........at times, we REALLY f'ed up. We did some things that just were not in the spirit of a good debate, and for that I take full responsibility." If that would ave happened as early as her vote on the Iraq war, it may have went a long way.

Hindsight is always 20/20.......that is, if you have the maturity to see what you've done wrong, and want to take steps to correct it.

That also maybe the reason why the Obama camp is not pushing her out. The longer it goes on, the worse she looks.

And.......taking on the media and blaming them will truly not help you in the long run. They have deep memories, and they won't forget being thrown under the bus by someone who lost a campaign, and seems to be blaming everyone but herself.

[Wales2004]

I know you're not blaming this on anybody but the media. So what if they crowned her in 2007 and see it differently now. It's their fault and it's her vs. the media. They're the ones who can't keep up with the new math.