Hmmm. Hillary = Bush?

Not that much of a difference is there?



-Rp

The Goddess of Peace Wants to Nuke Peace into Iran

Hillary who was dubbed "The Goddess of Peace" by some of her more fervant (and insane) supporters a few weeks back on Democratic Underground, decided today to show once again how a Goddess of Peace promotes, well, peace.

Although she voted for the Iraq War and voted for the Kyl/Lieberman amendment that basically threatened to go to war with Iran, she stepped it up a notch by showing that while those other two 'peaceful' solutions were great there's only one real way to promote peace... NUCLEAR WAR!

Why of course! If you nuke people off the face of the planet they will no longer fight! Brilliant!

From Reuters:

Clinton says U.S. could "totally obliterate" Iran
Tue Apr 22, 2008 1:43pm EDT


By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton warned Tehran on Tuesday that if she were president, the United States could "totally obliterate" Iran in retaliation for a nuclear strike against Israel.

On the day of a crucial vote in her nomination battle against fellow Democrat Barack Obama, the New York senator said she wanted to make clear to Tehran what she was prepared to do as president in hopes that this warning would deter any Iranian nuclear attack against the Jewish state.

"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran (if it attacks Israel)," Clinton said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them," she said.

Man I can't wait to see what she wants to do with North Korea!

-Rp

If you're not bitter, you're an idiot part 2

Bill Maher's New Rules run with the very theme of my post the other day.

The First 100 Days

Today must have been a day to look at what you would do if you won the Presidency since everybody rolled out their ideas. As per the usual in this campaign Obama came out with the one really good idea while his opponents pandered in ridiculous fashion (especially McCain).

I can see Obama and McCain coming out with these ideas, after all they're going to be their party's nominees barring serious cheating and backroom dealing by Hillary. Of course we now know that Hillary's a bit of a drinker so maybe she was on the sauce when she decided she could still win and released her 100 days idea. Okay I kid, I kid... that was low.

Obama's camp came out with the words I think everybody minus the surely mentally handicapped 28 percenters have been waiting for: "Obama would ask his AG to "immediately review" potential of crimes in Bush White House".

That's right they are all criminals and they all need to be prosecuted. For War Crimes. For breaking domestic laws and for what they have done to our Constitution. They have admitted they committed federal crimes by breaking the FISA laws and by committing torture... what more do we need?

I think it's hilarious that Republicans who afraid like hell that they could be prosecuted for what they have done have used and gotten the media to use the talking point that "that is all in the past" and that they are "looking to the future" or better yet that they are "forward thinkers".

Under the guise of that logic I can take a gun, shoot you dead and in 5 minutes say, "that was in the past, we will look to the future now and do things right from here".

They have been all over the place spouting that shit about Iraq. And for years that strategy has worked. By not acknowledging how their policies or crimes affected the past we have been doomed to repeat them in the future.

A good chunk of those involved with the Iran Contra Affair were pardoned or let off the hook by Republican Appointed Judges and now they work for this Bush Administration, committing new war crimes and continuing to inflame an entire region against us for decades to come just as they did throughout the 1980s.

If anything this is proof that the past DOES affect the future and for the sake of preserving any shred of value of the most important document in the history of our nation, the Constitution and in the face of saving our world standing and credibility to other countries we need to prove that we are what we claim to stand for and go after these violations of democracy, peace, freedom and justice.

How dare we challenge anyone else on such questions if we cannot take responsibility for our own actions and jail those who broke our own laws?

But since everyone is in the "If I Were President..." mood, I figure I have as much of a chance as Hillary does to win so I will issue a list of my first actions as our nation's leader.

1. Fire the entire Justice Dept. and replace them with defenders of the Bill of Rights and Constitution.

2. Repeal all Presidential Pardons imposed on any member of the current Administration and prosecute Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Rice, Gonzales, et al for their war crimes, breaking of the laws of the Geneva Convention and breaking of FISA laws.

3. Cut Pentagon Spending to a third of what it is currently. Eliminate funded projects like a missile defense system or a "gay bomb". Eliminate funding for cold war projects. Keep all Military spending for troop bases and increasing troop levels. Increase military pay and benefits (especially health care). Make sure our troops have proper body and humvee armor.

4. End the Iraq War immediately. Withdraw all troops within 6 months in 20,000 troop intervals. Give all returning troops a 6 month rest at home. Withdraw all contractors immediately and remove any legal immunity they might have had under the provisional authority if Iraq's government hasn't already. Re-allocate all National Guard Members to their local posts on their normal on-call basis. Take about 50,000-80,000 active duty personnel after their 6 month rest has ended and send them to Afghanistan to stabilize the country temporarily and hunt for Bin Laden.

5. End all Financial Aid to countries that aid terrorists (Pakistan & Saudi Arabia I am looking at you).

6. Nominate Jonathan Turley as the new A.G. to prosecute Bushco and defend our constitution.

7. Repeal NAFTA and all Free Trade Agreements. Sit down and renegotiate country by country making certain to include minimum environmental, health & safety and wage requirements from workers of those countries.

8. Repeal tax benefits for corporations which have shifted over 10% of their workforce overseas.

9. Eliminate Bush Tax Cuts for top 1%, maintain cuts aimed at middle class. Eliminate offshore tax shelter loopholes.

10. Push for a law that limits a CEO's pay to a proportionate amount of a shareholder's earnings and average employee salaries at that company. (Do it under the guise of protecting the market and the shareholders which would be true and have more traction than defending the average worker in this country for some reason)

11. Institute a strong pro-regulation FCC that forces media monopolies like News Corp and Clear Channel to break apart. Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.

12. Offer a Universal Healthcare plan that eliminates HMOs entirely. Through the government, similar to a social security tax, offer healthcare that covers everybody similar in ways that England and Canada does it.

13. Remove the Social Security cap. This will eliminate all funding shortfalls and stabilize it for all generations in the future.

14. Institute a carbon tax and reinstate requirements for smokestack filters, superfund cleanups and increase automobile emissions requirements similar to what California has tried to pass.

15. Require all automakers to reach 50 MPG by 2015 or face suspension of operations.

16. Ban Ethanol as a source of fuel. Work on an energy policy that offers large benefits to utilities to buy large plots of unused land in the Southwest and put up huge solar farms that could power the entire country at a fraction of current cost. Switching to solar electric power with Wind farms as backup sources could then provide the opportunity for automakers to work on a full switch to electric cars where owners can just plug in and recharge overnight or while they are parked.

17. Eliminate any attempts to drill in ANWR and push through Polar Bear protection acts.

18. Buy up loose Nukes in the Ukraine and sign a treaty with Russia, China, Pakistan, India and all nuclear weapon bearing countries to eliminate nuclear weapons stockpile to 10% of current amount by 2012.

19. Enter into new Kyoto Treaty that includes all developing nations across the world and creates a clear mandate for our own country as well as heavy polluters such as China to do our part to save our planet.

20. Release all "classified" information still remaining pertaining to the Assassinations of John and Bobby Kennedy, MLK and everything pertaining to 9/11. This may release all sorts of new information and may even incriminate some that are still alive but it's time to stop lying to or deceiving the American people on what the truth of these matters is.

21. Push for passage of a law that makes all campaign financing public. Each candidate that declares will be given a certain amount of money similar to a salary cap that they can spend during their primaries and then during the Presidential race. The FEC will keep strict tabs on usage of the money and any left over will be returned to the FEC fund. No candidate can inject their own money into a campaign. 527s would be barred from media advertising (although they can organize grass roots campaigns).

For a candidate to receive funding for House or Senate campaigns they need to reach a certain number of signatures to be allowed on the ballot and receive the funding. For National Presidential Candidates they must receive the pre-requisite number in all 50 states. The media must offer heavy discounts on ad time to allow for fair exposure for all candidates and cannot reject a candidate's ad (yes even Fox News has to air Democratic Candidate Ads). News shows cannot re-air the full version of any candidate's ad as to not give free runs of that candidates' media and thus circumvent the financing rules. Any newscast or station that does this will be heavily fined.

22. Offer College Scholarships to every American Student that finishes school and then volunteers to work two years in the private sector in urban areas that need them the most.

23. Reduce or eliminate wasteful Government Grants that do not benefit small business owners or poor/middle class Americans.

24. Increase the focus on Science in our country. Load the EPA and NASA with Administrators that believe in science over pandering to their bosses. Push the EPA to regulate very heavily on companies that abuse the public's trust and damage our environment. Make a renewed commitment to space exploration including renewing the Hubble Telescope project.

25. Illegalize ARM loans and force all mortgage companies to work off of FIXED loans in the future. Open up bankruptcy laws to protect homeowners who are nearing the end of the foreclosure process a way to not be crushed by the credit hit forever. For those just entering the foreclosure phase force mortgage lenders to change all loans to a reasonable fixed rate within a certain percentage of the Fed's Interest Rate and do a Government Assumption on the debt that would be owed to other countries because of such a move.

26. Legalize Marijuana and sell licenses to companies to produce and sell the product. Treat it the same way as alcohol with age limits, public inebriation laws and driving laws (if suspected a blood test should be required to eliminate fines). Also make the use of THC as a chemical illegal and make it illegal to use home grown or "loose" marijuana. By regulating it you can tax it in a way that helps pay for programs that help people (ie health care) and you stop the flow of dangerous laced chemicals from outside the country.

Tobacco companies can enter in the bidding and possibly begin to halt the production of some nicotine bearing products with marijuana products replacing them as profitable cash cows.

I would also mandate that all states and federal prisons should release anybody charged with marijuana possession crimes and anybody who has had these charges on them should be given a process to have these charges retroactively expunged from their records. Marijuana distribution charges will be debated since future distribution by regular citizens will still be disallowed.

27. I would mandate an end to "public voucher" programs and heavily increase government financing to repair schools in disrepair, fund programs such as music and art, and eliminate NCLB rules that teach kids to pass a test, not to learn effectively.

28. I would increase Government contributions to NPR and mainly PBS so that they can continue to provide educational programming without the corporate spin of their corporate-owned counterparts.

29. I would illegalize private companies from producing voting machine equipment and have a nonpartisan government oversight group to make sure that we're incorporating a machine that allows for paper receipts to validate vote totals and to make sure every voter has a record of how their vote was recorded personally.

30. I would eliminate the Government's No Fly List since it seems to be full of random names and political enemies and does no good at all.

31. I would set a law that forced all lawmakers to DIVEST from any stock or dividend holdings before taking office. I would also bar all lobbyist gifts PERIOD. Congressmen and Women should be paying for their own flights, meals and trips without a corporate sponsor. Between this and public campaign financing this takes a lot of the unfair corporate influence out of Washington.

32. I would ban any government outsourcing of government jobs. This is OUR government isn't it? Why are people from other countries doing our jobs?

33. I would create a Public Works program that would employee engineers through the college scholarship program and a mix of workers with lots of construction experience as well as little to no experience to rebuild roads, bridges and public utility infrastructure. Putting people to work for America and building resumes, experience and bank accounts in the process.

34. I would eliminate the DHS and other security agencies and merge the CIA and NSA into one operation run by non-partisan civilian leadership. I would order a cease and desist on spying on American phone calls outside the accordance of FISA law.

35. Illegal Immigration - I would give those already here a path to citizenship by putting them on Work Visas and requiring them to take citizenship courses. I would require part of those citizenship courses to require ESL classes to teach them English so they can better acclimate to society. I would increase fines and put in serious enforcement mechanisms to prevent large corporations from hiring these workers. One of the largest reasons that they come is the lure of corporations unwilling to pay American workers the minimum wage.

I do think that social services should only be offered for legal immigrants or those on a work visa. By increasing the amount of those with a work visa, more people are covered but by coming here illegally you are skipping your turn and your right to certain benefits that American taxpayers pay for. Under the Visas the immigrants are paying taxes so they deserve benefits. We should only cover emergency situations and if there are illegal immigrants that report to hospitals they need to be treated and then handed over to the INS where they would be deported. If they have family legally here in America they can be given a special spot in line for citizenship. I know this is a hard subject but we have to be fair. For those people that waited in line and became legal citizens they had to go through a tough process to become Americans and it's not fair to them nor regular citizens to see all of their tax dollars going to supplementing social programs aimed more towards helping illegal immigrants than regular Americans these days (especially when you consider how stretched thin state budgets are right now). You also want to be fair and civil with people that want so badly to be a part of our country that they would risk imprisonment to do so.

36. I would legalize Gay Marriage. Or at least attempt to by putting forth a bill that proves its legality due to the Equal Protection Clause. There's no reason nor room for discrimination towards Gay people. Homosexual xenophobia is no different than any other civil rights struggle of our time and we must meet the challenge the same way as with others, by relenting and giving equal rights to those who have been oppressed.

I'm sure there is more (and I'll add to this later I am sure), but of course I would never be allowed to be President. I would be killed (See: Bobby Kennedy) or marginalized (see: Dennis Kucinich).

The corporate media and the military industrial complex would never allow for such a budget or such Theodore Roosevelt-like Corporation reigning in to transpire.

But we can all dream of a future where this were all in play and the country would be on a more equal footing for all of its' citizens once again, can't we? Or have 30 years of Reagan-Clinton-Bushes ruined America forever?

-Rp

If you're not "bitter", you're an idiot.

Barack Obama seems to get in all sorts of trouble when he treats American voters like grown ups and speaks to them with respect and tells the truth. Apparently after at least 30 years of being patronized, coddled, pandered to and hell outright lied to, some Americans don't know how to act when a Politician doesn't put some rosy spin on every subject.

So here were the comments from Obama that drew all this faux controversy:

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing has replaced them...And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Immediately morons everywhere were saying that he was "acting like an elitist" or "out of touch with the middle class" or they clung to the idea that he was insulting people for their faith or for their belief in the Second Amendment. It was pretty sickening just how ridiculous this got.

The wonderful Catherine Crier posted a great article titled, "Punished for the Truth" on the Huffington Post and said this about the comment:

Inartful. That is the only fair criticism of this analysis. Let's ask the voters in Pennsylvania these questions. If the 'distracting' issues of guns, gay marriage and abortion were all resolved to their liking, would their economic lives change? How about immigration? If all illegal aliens were to disappear, would those rust belt jobs return? For so many years, such issues have been used to corral blue collar workers into a party and political philosophy that serves the elites in this country. When someone speaks the truth and acknowledges that this sector of our society has been royally deceived, that issues they rally around have little to do with their ultimate welfare, it is time to banish such a person from the campaign trail.

Nobody was worse about it than Hillary Clinton was. Her entire campaign at this point is all about lobbing desperate hail marys out there hoping and praying for something to sink Obama with Superdelegates.

She tried to pander to Pennsylvania voters by claiming that she, the $100 million income candidate, somehow felt their pain more than Obama did. She went as far to accuse Obama of being so elitist that he would suffer the same fate as Gore and Kerry. Yes in one fell swoop she insulted two better Presidential Candidates than she could ever hope to be and two who won their elections but were cheated by the Clintons' new best friend, Karl Rove and his voting machine and political connections.

I forget now wasn't it Obama who used his law degree to work for poor people while Hillary used hers to defend Sam Walton's Wal-Mart empire?

Seems to me he would know more about what poor and middle class people are going through. Just because she worked for Wal-Mart doesn't mean she was the $6 an hour cashier or exit greeter.

She tried again today to attack Obama on it and got heckled a bit for it.

Maybe that will wake her up for the crap she is pulling (I'm not holding my breath).

But what about the voters that are showing outrage over this?

Every single person who claims to be "offended" by the bitter remarks has taken what he has said and twisted the context around totally. They took it to mean that their (fanatical) love of God and Guns was under attack.

In reality he was pointing out how Republicans use those tools to sucker these people into voting against their economic wellbeing.

Bush and the Rubber Stampers had Congress and the Judiciary for 6 years. Did they try to end Abortion? Nope. How about that Gay Marriage Constitutional Amendment? Nope, didn't go anywhere. What about a serious relaxation of gun ownership laws? Well people might recall the Bush was actually in favor of retaining the laws put in place under the Clinton Administration.

Republicans blew smoke up every one's asses to divide them and make them think these were the serious issues of the day. Then once in office they destroyed the economy. They gave contract after contract and giveaway after giveaway to corporations who shipped these people's jobs overseas. They spent more than any so-called "tax and spend" Democratic Congress ever has.

They deregulated everything and allowed predatory lending to go so rampant that now everyone is losing their houses and our economy is teetering on the brink of collapse into a Great Depression-like state.

People have a right to be bitter and Obama is right to say people are.

My personal opinion though is that the people that are angry that he would say that are idiots. They are likely the ones that STILL haven't awaken to see what their hero Bush has left them. If you are not bitter or angry about how our economy is in shambles, our military is overextended and exhausted, our constitution and civil liberties have been trampled and ignored, our world standing erased and our environment getting us near the brink of extinction thanks to the last 8 years....
then you are a fool of epic proportions and deserve to be deported to a country where your blind ignorance and ridiculous defense of it does less damage. We had 8 years of Bush because of a blind, ignorant electorate and I'll be damned if those people, the people who are offended now, have any further control in who runs our country... or as they would have it, who runs our country into the ground.

Obama spoke about this and absolutely owned Hillary on this issue. He leaves no question as to who represents who and speaks very truthfully and plainly about how valid her arguments are on this.



Hopefully those people that are outraged wake up or wise up. Their slumber or ignorance has damaged our country critically already.

-Rp

Which is the bigger Clinton Gaffe?

In a matter of 24 hours the Clintons both made complete asses of themselves in Pennsylvania and Indiana. It's not hard when the basic premise of your campaign is a lie. After all a First Lady is not more experienced than someone who was in the State Senate and their actual Senate experience is close enough to be negligible at best.

Think of it this way, if Nancy Reagan or Laura Bush went from being first ladies and got into the Senate, served just over a single term and decided to run for President, would they be qualified? If you make the argument that Hillary was more involved in her husband's presidency than they were in theirs, why does her schedule as First Lady not indicate such? It seems she was given the Healthcare issue to handle and after she dropped the ball she presumed the role of a regular First Lady.

One thing she did do as First Lady though was support NAFTA. These free trade agreements have hurt America greatly in outsourcing good jobs, strengthening the economies of other countries (see the growth of China and India among others) and weakening our own economic stability.

Bush took the Clinton's theme of free trade and put it on steroids by expanding free trade to any place that would sign a pact. In the meanwhile millions of good paying factory and production jobs disappeared. However Bush kept artificially inflating the unemployment numbers by saying tons of jobs were created while refusing to indicate that most of these jobs were seasonal, through temp agencies, or just low end jobs. Workers who worked at a factory and made $20+ an hour were now working 2-3 jobs at $6-8 an hour. Of course that made it appear like three jobs were filled rather than one. And of course nobody counts the depressed who stop claiming unemployment or have stopped looking for work because of the weak market.

So when Mark Penn, Clinton's PR guy with a mostly Republican tied firm, decided to go and talk to Columbia about a free trade agreement... even though his candidate is losing and primed to lose the Democratic Nomination it of course caused a little uproar in Pennsylvania where they have been hit hard by such free trade agreements (well not too much uproar after all the Clintons convinced the media to become Obama attack dogs and they largely have been off the hook for some time).

He resigned from his position (although still receives the boatloads of money the idiot Clintons are paying him) but the scandal shouldn't go away so quickly. Sure, the Clintons would have you believe that this was independent of the campaign but of course as is the case with everything in her Rovian Campaign, dig a little and you get better answers...

Like GAFFE #1.

Clinton laughs off Colombia questions

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) – Hillary Clinton used her trademark laugh Thursday to deflect a question about the $800,000 her husband earned in 2005 giving speeches for a Bogota-based group that supports the Colombia free trade agreement — the same trade deal she currently opposes.

Asked by CNN if those earnings represented a conflict of interest given that she has dipped into her family's pocketbook to pay campaign bills, Clinton threw up her hands and laughed loudly for several seconds.

"How many angels dance on the head of the pin?," she responded, continuing to giggle. "I have really, uh, nothing to … I mean, how do you answer that?"

The New York senator explained there are different sides to the argument over trade, and re-emphasized her own opposition to the trade deal, assailing the Colombian government's "outrageous" record of "targeting labor leaders."

"I am against the Colombia free trade deal," she said. "It doesn't matter who talks to me. It doesn't matter any circumstances. I have been against it. I am against it. I will be against it absent the kind of changes in behavior that I have been calling for from the Colombian government."

Earlier in the press conference, describing her husband's advocacy for the trade deal, Clinton said: "Everyone is free to express their opinion."

I'll add this to provide more of that "Ready from Day One" leadership that means you're not ready to answer tough questions from day one:



So that brings us to the other Clinton gaffe of the day. Bill Clinton comes off as less and less Presidential now that he's campaigning so negatively for Hillary. The Bill we see these days is an angry, belligerent old man who is afraid that the status quo that he now embraces but once fought against, will lose out of his wife isn't in charge of it.

That's truly a shame.

In Bill's quest to regain power (at least for his wife) he has pretty much killed any credibility to his silly claim that he was the first "black president". After all a Black President wouldn't invoke Jesse Jackson as an insult to downplay a black candidate's chances.

And a black president wouldn't say this about a black candidate. GAFFE #2:

"Next, We'll See Him Run an Ad Saying: Vote For Me, I Don't Steal Cars."


Here's the video so you can see for youself:



Even if it was in response to an anti-oil company ad Obama ran it is in ridiculously poor taste.

Of course a black president would also be smart enough not to sign a Republican Welfare Reform Bill that attacked the poor for needing assistance at the same time as corporate welfare and corporate overseas tax shelters are okay.

But yet Bill Clinton had no problem with that either.



I guess he's a rich white old guy after all. And a foolish one at that.

-Rp

What are we waiting for?

Kucinich nails it.



Rp

Wow... the Clinton People Never Stop Spinning...

I don't know what it is with these people but they are just boldfaced liars and spin so much that sometimes I think the Clinton house has to rest on a perpetual Merry-Go-Round just so that they never have to leave their comfort zone.

After the brouhaha over Bill Clinton's angry Bill Richardson comments in the meeting with California Superdelegates, Bill Richardson wrote an Op-Ed defending his decision and maintaining his respect for the Clintons.

Although this line managed to slip in there:

I, of course, called Sen. Clinton prior to my endorsement of Sen. Obama. It was a difficult and heated discussion, the details of which I will not share here.

That line made it clear that the Clintons were pretty angry with Bill Richardson for his decision. Although ABC News would later uncover that in the conversation Hillary asserted that Obama "cannot win".

Now I have no problem with candidates saying they have a better chance of defeating the opponent from the other party. I have no problem with them believing they are more qualified and even pointing out their qualifications in commercials and stump speeches. Barack Obama has said he feels he is the candidate that stands a better chance against John McCain.

That to me is fine. It's not disqualifying Hillary's chances altogether. It's just saying he thinks he would do better than her. And statistically that statement is possible even if Hillary beat McCain head to head that Obama might have polled higher. That doesn't mean he thinks she would lose to him or at least he would never openly admit that. And it doesn't mean he's campaigning in a way that says, "if you nominate Hillary, we will lose in November".

However that's exactly what she has basically been saying by trying to imply that Obama isn't "ready from day one", is unable to answer the hypothetical 3am call, is less qualified than John McCain.

To blatantly campaign in such a fashion only shows your indifference towards doing what is best for the party. Should she lose the nomination and chances are incredibly high that this will happen, she has declared that there is no way the Democrat will win and in repeating that meme before Obama is the candidate she is helping reinforce that notion to undecided voters for the General Election.

It's rather low and despicable at the very least.

But in typical Clinton fashion they lie and spin their way out of what they said and try to blame Richardson of all people. Just like how they tried to claim that the pro-war, pro-long term bases Hillary is somehow the "peace candidate" who will actually get us out of Iraq (as opposed to Obama, who has been against the war since day one, I guess), they have taken something they are clearly guilty on and tried to lie their way out of it by claiming the exact opposite of what happened.

It makes the already completely bogus "flip-flopper" John Kerry accusations from the last presidential campaign cycle look so unbelievably pale in comparison just by the level of deception and the speed and force of how these about-faces are done by her campaign.

From Salon.com:

Time's Mark Halperin reports on the account of one unnamed "Clinton associate" who says it was Richardson, not Clinton, who suggested that Obama could not win in the general election. Halperin quotes this Clinton associate as saying, "Bill Richardson is clearly embarrassed that he broke his promise to them. He should come out and tell the truth and admit that he told both Clintons that Obama wasn't ready and can't win."

It should be noted that Mark Halperin has been anti-Obama for some time and more notably anti-liberal.

To clarify here Bill Richardson had openly questioned Obama's "inexperience" while he was wavering between Clinton and Obama for the endorsement. But after he heard the "race speech", the wavering ended and he saw the leadership Obama could provide.

Since that point there is no question Richardson supported Obama outwardly by doing the public endorsement and publicly defending Obama from attacks. In politics you don't do those things publicly and then go to the other candidate and say he can't win. When you endorse in the fashion Richardson did, you tie your horse to that candidate's wagon. If they fail, you have damaged your own political career to some degree. Al Gore suffered a good amount of political damage when he endorsed Howard Dean and Dean subsequently lost all but his home state in the primaries. It took the success of "An Inconvenient Truth" to erase that from memory.

So to say that Richardson said otherwise after the endorsement is complete and utter lies.

Just to reiterate here's the context of what was said in the conversation between Richardson and Clinton according to the ABC News Report:

Sources with direct knowledge of the conversation between Sen. Clinton and Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., prior to the Governor's endorsement of Obama say she told him flatly, "He cannot win, Bill. He cannot win."

Richardson, who served in President Clinton's cabinet, disagreed.

If he didn't disagree then he's completely stupid for possibly damaging his own political career by endorsing someone who he believes "cannot win". Of course the reality is that the Clintons, much like their Bush friends, have no connection to reality. That connection seems to have been severed at the very latest in the mid-1990s.

-Rp

Destroying Your Image

There used to be a time just recently actually, where you could look at what a complete disaster George W. Bush has been as President and then you'd look back at the Clinton years as the "good times".

Bill Clinton may have run down his reputation by beating Republicans in Presidential races and may have angered some Republican voters by cheating on his wife (not that most of the Republicans haven't been caught doing worse now) but the majority of America looked at Bill as the way more competent President and in fact some were wishing he still were considering how Dubya has flubbed things.

Then he starts to campaign for his wife and starts to show his angry side. There's something wholly unlikeable about a politician yelling at you and telling you that you are wrong if you don't show loyal lockstep. It's damaged his legacy pretty badly, as recent polls show.

It appears he blew his top again at a meeting with California Superdelegates when it came to defending longtime Clintonite and Democratic Party Traitor, James Carville over the indefensible comments he made about Bill Richardson for endorsing Barack Obama.

From the SF Gate:

The Bill Clinton who met privately with California's superdelegates at last weekend's state convention was a far cry from the congenial former president who afterward publicly urged fellow Democrats to "chill out" over the race between his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Barack Obama.

In fact, before his speech Clinton had one of his famous meltdowns Sunday, blasting away at former presidential contender Bill Richardson for having endorsed Obama, the media and the entire nomination process.

"It was one of the worst political meetings I have ever attended," one superdelegate said.

According to those at the meeting, Clinton - who flew in from Chicago with bags under his eyes - was classic old Bill at first, charming and making small talk with the 15 or so delegates who gathered in a room behind the convention stage.

But as the group moved together for the perfunctory photo, Rachel Binah, a former Richardson delegate who now supports Hillary Clinton, told Bill how "sorry" she was to have heard former Clinton campaign manager James Carville call Richardson a "Judas" for backing Obama.

It was as if someone pulled the pin from a grenade.

"Five times to my face (Richardson) said that he would never do that," a red-faced, finger-pointing Clinton erupted.

The former president then went on a tirade that ran from the media's unfair treatment of Hillary to questions about the fairness of the votes in state caucuses that voted for Obama. It ended with him asking delegates to imagine what the reaction would be if Obama was trailing by just 1 percent and people were telling him to drop out.

"It was very, very intense," said one attendee. "Not at all like the Bill of earlier campaigns."

When he finally wound down, Bill was asked what message he wanted the delegates to take away from the meeting.

At that point, a much calmer Clinton outlined his message of party unity.

"It was kind of strange later when he took the stage and told everyone to 'chill out,' " one delegate told us.

"We couldn't help but think he was also talking to himself."

Yeah because questioning James Carville is beyond reproach, especially after the crap he has pulled since 2004. Like sabotaging the Kerry Campaign on election night in 2004, or slandering Howard Dean after his 50 state strategy from the DNC helped Democrats win the 2006 mid-terms in a landslide and win in places they never win in.

Of all the people to be calling someone a "Judas". Here's the guy who stabbed his own party in the back to help Bush win. We'd be talking about the re-election of a President Kerry and would likely not be talking about economic collapse, continued participation in Iraqi Civil Wars and would have taken actions to extend our children and grandchildren's futures by helping to take real actions to curb global warming.

But no, we got four more years of the most scandalous, crime ridden Presidency of all time. Thanks very much in part to James Carville.

Defend THAT Bill.

-Rp