Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Too Big a Gap

No long post today, just a quick wrap-up on what happened in PA.


Despite my deep and abiding dislike for Hillary Clinton, I must admit that she and her cohorts did a good job of controlling the voters they needed and controlling the media that fears them. I do not see Mrs. Clinton as a good person, but she is without a doubt a good politician. She accomplished what she wanted to accomplish in this recent primary, and she won the way she wanted to win. Good for her.

But, Barack Obama is still a beast. After being down by as much as 20 percentage point, Obama managed to cut Hillary's lead to roughly 8-10 points despite the concerted efforts of the media and Clinton surrogates with forked tongues. Some might shrug at Obama's accomplishment, noting that "almost" is only worth something in horseshoes. They will surely point out that Obama has struggled in the past few primaries, that he's been shown to be somewhat fallible under extreme pressure and vulnerable to the types of attacks that Republicans will surely throw at him.

Those people don't matter.

See, I understand what it's like to have to overcome big leads and accomplish goals despite crazy opposition. I know what it feels like to be marginalized, to be held to a different and insulting standard. In fact, I'm sure that many of you who read this blog understand those things as well.

Consequently, I don't care if Obama struggled a little bit. I used to spend nights sitting on the stairs in my apartment crying out of desperation; so a little struggle doesn't scare me.

Nah, this is a long term thing, this election is a real commitment. More importantly, when this election is over the real work will begin and I believe Obama is the only candidate who will give this country the strength to do that work.

Let's get cracking.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now this is a shot of what I really needed so that I can go and pass out from the exhaustion. I'm not even low, only a bit disappointed that we've got to put up with her sewage for a while longer.

Ah, the price of democracy.

Anonymous said...

There is one nice aspect of Clinton taking the lead in this latest contest: She is "justified" in continuing to hang on.

Now, I don't mean that I agree she should stay in the race. I wanted her to bow out gracefully weeks ago.

But I think she was planning on taking this all the way to Denver since early on, no matter what. So, this is perfect fodder for her to say she needs to soldier on. And given her modus operandi so far, it almost seems logical for her to do so.

Had she lost in PA, she still would have continued on, and I would have been so angry at her chutzpah that I probably would have slammed my fist through a wall, and Mrs. Blue and I can't afford the medical costs on something like that right now.

Unknown said...

I'm just waiting for 1-20-09, Big Man. Hotel rooms in DC are already filling up, but Mama G and I are all set.
Don't get wrong, I'm still working the phones and teh internets but I have my eyes on the prize.
8% in PA does nothing to make me waver.

Anonymous said...

@wng
Bless you, bless us ALL, but bless you for continuing. We DESERVE for this man to be our leader and we will and are earning it.

It will be interesting to see just how much damage she actually did to herself this past week with the Terror ad. My breath literally rushed out of my body upon seeing that. She went there and honestly, even while I was shocked by her monstrosity I was not actually surprised. You know? It's like, an act of violence is always shocking to witness firsthand due to the brutality but it's not surprising when the monster tears the head off her victims because, hello! she is a monster after all.

Big Man said...

Damn Lolo, tell us how you really feel about Hillary.

lol

Nah, we were a little down in my house, but nothing crushing. And we felt better after Obama spoke. Look, people get the leaders they deserve. If John McCain or Hillary or the next president, than people will have decided that's what they like in a President. Just like they picked W.

I'm not stressing too much over it anymore. I believe Obama will do the best job and I hope he gets that chance.

All-Mi-T [Thought Crime] Rawdawgbuffalo said...

i disagree, it aint hard to impress white folks that hate black folks when u white

Anonymous said...

Good stuff Big Man. Thanks for this post.

Truthiz said...

I think Hillary's 10 point "win" in PA my home state), possibly portends Very bad news for the Democratic Party?!

The Clintons are Ruthlessly evil, driven mostly by blind ambition, Power and greed. But I absolutely Agree with you Big Man, they are Master politicians!

It’s a blood-sport_and not only do they know how to play “the game”…they’re also quite Skilled at Changing the rules of “the game”, on a dime, whenever and however it suits them.

Barack lost by 10 points when, in my opinion, he should’ve lost by only 5-6 points. Why?

Because he had SIX weeks to make his case and he outspent her 3-to-1, at cost of approx $11 million dollars!

PA has some great Universities here. In fact, I achieved my undergrad and grad degrees at Penn State. But the general make-up of the residents of this state, IS mostly Undereducated, low-income, blue-collar, Racists, white folks!

And I believe the “controversial” rhetoric of Rev Wright,_added to Obama's PITIFUL attempt at bowling (what was he thinking?!), _added to his "contraversial" comments at a San Francisco fundraising event, regarding “bitter” Americans in “small towns’ tending to turn to “God and guns”, _added to his PITIFUL debate performance _collectively, took Barack off message and cost him about 3-5 points.

But here's the deal_Hillary won PA by using the Ruthless tactics that the Clintons are now infamous for; and between their reprehensible behavior _combined with the terrible MIScalculations, MISjudgments and perceived “weaknesses” of Obama_ both candidates are being BADLY damaged, and threatens to cause Irreparable damage to the Democratic Party!

All of THAT plays right into the hands of George W. McCain and, therefore, the Republican Party.

BTW: My feeling is_ now Barack HAS to win Indiana AND North Carolina_ so he'd better bring his "A" game!

It would NOT be "wise" of him to think that he’s got the nomination “locked-up” because of the “pledged-delegates” counts_and for crying out loud, somebody PLEASE tell him to UPGRADE his stump speech!!!

A.F. said...

I was exhausted after all of it, too. That huge lead she had with 0% of the vote counted (on MSNBC) made me feel sick. Then she plagiarized Obama right and left in her speech. I thought, "At least she's got the decency and sanity not to drop confetti this time" and then here came the confetti.

This is an insignificant, off topic, and perhaps strange question, but was anybody else as distracted as I was by the three young men, all in Abercrombie and Fitch shirts, standing directly behind Obama as he spoke? What was that about? They did not seem to care about his speech, and I know that "human wallpaper" is chosen very carefully at these events. I kept wondering if someone would have snuck these guys in on Obama. The shirts had such bold "Fitch" lettering that the frame kept pulling my eye to them. ???

Truthiz said...

I forgot to mention:

BIG props to Obama for refusing the play the “street-money” Extortion game!

Black “ward” leaders and other so-called “street-workers” in Philly who should have recognized that, as a Black man running as an agent of “Change” in politics because “the political system” is so CORRUPT, Obama couldn’t very well then turn around and PAY them to “ensure” votes!!!

I mean_what is WRONG with those dumb-azz KNEEgrows?!

Truthiz said...

A.F. said:

"I thought, "At least she's got the decency and sanity not to drop confetti this time" and then here came the confetti."

LOL!!!...now THAT'S funny!

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Big Man said...

Truth

As always you make some interesting points. I expected Obama to lose by about 7 or 8 points. He ultimately lost by 9.

I think he was hurt by what Hillary did, and he's always disadvantaged because certain types of black people just are not cool with a black dude like Obama. Such is life.

However, I think he needs to really regain his focus and roll out more specific plans. He also needs to refuse to deal with the petty tactics.

I thought he did a good job with his stump speech by refusing to even acknowlege Hillary after the inital congratulations and focusing on McCain. I also liked that he talked about what makes Barack Obama a great presidential candidate, not about what makes Hillary Clinton a bad one.

If he can't win like that, then I'm cool. People will get what they deserve.

And I won't forget what Hillary did and I won't vote for her in 2012.

Anonymous said...

According to the state of PA she won by 8.6%. http://www.electionreturns.state.pa.us/

single digit. PERIOD. Not that those emeffers in the media will be giving that fact the play that they gave her "victory" last night.

Big Man said...

Thank you Lolo


I think we all need to really consider ways to hold the media and elected officials responsible for their actions.

I'm going to make a post about that next week.

Anonymous said...

I really hope Obama can overcome all these obstacles and win. But I was thinking that if Americans are dumb enough to choose Hillbot or Mccain over him then they will get what they deserve. I'm Canadian so if Americans pick either of those 2, Canada will benefit. McCain wont change nafta and though hilary says she will, she's a liar so i doubt she will. McCain will go to war with Iran and keep the troops in Iraq. So wil hilary. The US economy will continue to sink into the toilet. The stock market will crash. I will buy cheap US stocks and US index funds. Then 8-16 years later when the country recovers, as business cycles go, my stocks and index funds will appreciate and I will be very rich. Oh and when the US economy is going down the toilet, the Canadian $ will continue to rise against the US$, making my money more and more valuable. I hope Americans are smart enough to know what's good for them. I hope they can let their racist outlooks go and pick the best candidate (Obama), for their own sakes. BTW I love your blog and read it every few days. You're a good writer.

Big Man said...

Toronto Girl

I'm happy you like the blog, but I'm a little sad that you are so casual about profiting from the stupidity of Americans. However, I can't really blame you too much because if we want to eff up our country in a way that benefits Canada, it's not really Canada's job to prevent us from doing that.

Anyway, keep reading, and I hope my fellow Americans aren't as stupid as I fear.

A.F. said...

I hope my fellow Americans are not that stupid, too. I fear that torontogirl is right about the outcome of an HRC presidency, and I'm sure she's right about a McCain one.

I cannot reward HRC for this behavior with my vote, either. It's odd that part of her "argument to superdelegates" is that more of her supporters won't vote for Obama than his supporters won't vote for her, so therefore, she should get the nomination. If that's not the most convoluted argument anyone has ever heard, I don't know what is.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I really hope Obama wins. If I was American I'd vote for him. I even contemplated contributing online. But, it just seems so impossible due to the deep seated racism in the USA.




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