The Politics of Desparation

Last night, while making Obama calls, I spoke to a woman for TWENTY MINUTES. Trust me, I've made calls for a LONG time, and I've NEVER spend 20 minutes (and 43 seconds, as per my cell phone) with an unknown voter. And amazingly, this woman wasn't even on my list.

When you make GOTV calls, you have lists of Democrats. (At least, I do) -- sometimes "Super Democrats" who have voted in a lot of prior elections, or new Democrats, or Democrats that don't vote. Sometimes, as in this case, someone else in the household answers the phone. This woman just switched from Independent to Democrat recently, so she didn't make the list. She switched (to join her husband, an Obama supporter) because, like a lot of people, they no longer feel they "have to" register Republican BECAUSE they "live in Chester County."

She told me that she was leaning to Clinton because she remembered the 90's fondly. I asked if she wanted to know why I was supporting Obama. She said yes, and thus began a long conversation on manufacturing jobs, the tax system, and all sorts of other things you REALLY need your facts for, and luckily, we BOTH had them.

In the end, she took my email address, so we could talk again. She said she is going to watch the debate (as an aside -- April 16, from that hallowed ground, the National Constitution Center) but she believed that I said that Obama represented the best chance at changing America, not just because of what I said, but because everything she hears from and about the Clintons reeks of desperation. She said that she didn't remember them being so MEAN (her word) in the 90's.

I am listening to Morning Joe as I write this, and hearing Hillary Clinton point out that NO delegate is pledged, they can do whatever they want at the convention. And while that is technically true -- it stinks. These are not elected officials who run on a multi-faceted platform -- pledged delegates are people elected to do ONE thing -- vote for who they said they would. Sure, they legally can change their minds if there is a "moral" reason -- but that moral reason should NEVER be because they were bought off.

Yesterday, the Obama campaign noted that it raised about $40 million in March. Close to a quarter of a million people made contributions to the campaign for the first time. If you doubt HOW different this is -- it means that if Obama becomes president, it will be the FIRST TIME that someone enters that position unbeholden to ANYONE but "WE THE PEOPLE". Both McCain and Clinton are beholden -- him to all sorts of lobbyists, but especially Telecom (FISA, FISA, FISA), her to big pharma, which will make health care reform especially touchy.

Also yesterday Elizabeth Edwards pointed out (correctly) that neither she nor John McCain would be able to have ANY health insurance under McCain's health care plan. It's probably okay for the two of them, since Elizabeth's husband is worth about $25 million, and John's wife is a beer heiress, but I intend to hammer this home continually -- McCain's health care plan is worse than anything anyone could imagine. I guarantee that you, or someone you love, will be unable to get health insurance under John McCain. EVER. Even though you probably have it now.

And finally, the MSM is saying that Obama took "oil money" because he raised $218,000 from people who work for oil companies. AMAZING -- I would hate to think that just because someone worked for Mobil, or Exxon or Shell they, AS AN INDIVIDUAL, were unable to contribute to the candidate of his/her choice.