The Political Voices of Women

Check out BlogHer’s Talk About Super Tuesday 2008 Open Thread…There are already many comment.

Call it Super Tuesday, Super Duper Tuesday, Tsunami Tuesday, whatever, today is America’s first-ever national primary with the power to finger a front-runner in each party, the result of scheduling 24 state primaries in a single day.

So spill — if you went to the polls today, or even if you didn’t, what happened? What do you think will happen? What do you WANT to happen? How did — or will — the next president of the United State earn your vote?

What’s at stake is the favor of 60 percent of voters (NPR) and up to 83 percent of convention delegates required for the nomination (Christian Science Monitor). In other words, it’s a bummer to live in Idaho, the last state in the union to hold its primary, scheduled for May 27. (Here’s my favorite voting map.)

See Full Open Thread at BlogHer

Another great guest post by Pam at Pam’s Coffee Conversation.

For The Record

Now that John Edwards has withdrawn from the 2008 Presidential Race I’ve received a few emails asking me which candidate I’m supporting now.

Well, since I was originally hoping for an Edwards/Obama ticket. I am now supporting Barack Obama.When I compare the positions and voting records of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton I could find reasons to go either way. I don’t doubt either candidate’s sincerity, ability to perform the duties of the office or their passionate desire to do the right thing for the American people. Both campaigns have had their high and low moments, thrown a few cheap shots but, as of today, tried to rise above the muck.

Sadly, members of the media have taken more cheap shots at Hillary Clinton than anyone in the Obama campaign. I expected this from the GOP but from people like Chris Matthews, Tim Russert and Wolf Blitzer it’s been a bit hard to take. If the media thinks that Hillary Clinton’s moments of emotion are less flattering than a Vice President standing on the Senate floor telling a Senator to go f**k himself, John McCain’s rants or Mitt Romney choking back the tears during a second place finish in the Florida primary, it says more about their personalities than Hillary’s.

As a woman, I could not be prouder of the grace and strength that Hillary Clinton has shown. And even if I disagree with her conclusions I always have to admit that Hillary Clinton has a command of her facts. If there was ever a doubt that a woman could hold the office of President of the United States of America she has dispelled that thought.

I once accused Hillary Clinton of pandering to her audience and trying to sound like Bill during a visit to a southern African American church. Let’s face it, on her best day Hillary isn’t going to sound like a Southern Baptist preacher. However, during the course of the past year. I believe that she has found her voice. Hillary Clinton and today, Maria Shriver, have shown that you can be a strong woman, married to a strong man, and still have your own ideas and your own voice. For that alone, a generation of women will be better off.

Yet, there are a few factors that swing my vote to Barack Obama, if only slightly.

Read more »

Here is a guest post from Pam of Pam’s Coffee Conversation. Thanks Pam, this is a great post.

If there was ever an event that did not happen in a vacuum this was it. Without a doubt you can read everything that you ever wanted to know about this debate on CNN.com, LATimes.com and every other political blog in the western world. So I’ll spare you the play by play recap and just share a few thoughts that you may not read in the political blogs. And hopefully, I’ll give you a little food for thought.

Tonight’s Democratic debate was held in the Kodak Theatre, home of the Academy Awards, and the stars were out in full force. But it was clear that there were no two bigger stars in that room than Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. This could have been an opening episode of “The West Wing” or “Commander in Chief“. I’m sure that someone in that audience was taking notes for a pilot and someone else was calling a producer.

I will say that CNN could have used a Hollywood director because on two occasions they returned from a commercial break right in the middle of Barack Obama’s responses to a question. The first commercial break interrupted part of Obama’s response to the question asking if Hillary was ready to assume the office of the presidency on day one. The other broadcast oops cut into Obama’s response to the question of how he would address concerns about the sex and violence coming out of Hollywood. Maybe they’ll clean that up on the rebroadcast.

Both candidates were prepared, polished and looked every bit the role of the President of the United States. So if anyone is still looking at either of them in terms of race or gender they have, shall we say, “personal issues”.

In addition to the stars, the ghost of John Edwards was definitely present. As expected the candidates made their appeal to the Edwards voters. Barack Obama wasted no time and addressed this in his opening comments. Hillary repeatedly mentioned that her Healthcare plan is like John’s. Oh, the love for John!

The debate was cordial and definitely not the combative event that some may have hoped to tune in to. Overall it was a substantive discussion of the issues of healthcare, immigration, Iraq and the mortgage crisis. Of course, there were a few questions thrown out there by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that were clearly intended to bait the candidates and create excitement. The candidates didn’t bite.

Here are a few examples:

• Wolf Blitzer asked Hillary Clinton if she was “missing in action” when Barack Obama was working on immigration reform legislation with John McCain and Ted Kennedy.
• Wolf Blitzer asked Hillary Clinton what experience as “First Lady” qualifies her to hold the office of President.
• After Jean Cummings of Politico.com asked Hillary how she felt about the Kennedy endorsement of Obama, Wolf Blitzer asked Obama how he feels about Bill Clinton presidency.
  

You get the picture.

But the question that floored me, and many in the audience, came after Hillary Clinton responded to a question about her vote against the original amendment requiring George Bush to report to the Congress before invading Iraq. Now Hillary did give a rather convoluted response to this question. But at this point Wolf Blitzer asked Hillary if she was “naive” in trusting President Bush. Even the audience booed on that. “NAIVE”? Would he have asked a man if he had been “naive”? I think not.

Hillary did get in the best quote of the night:

“It took a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush and might take a Clinton to clean up after the second Bush”

Now that’s a campaign slogan.

Oh I can’t wait until Super Tuesday.

Bloggers React to John Edwards Dropping Out of Presidential Race — by Catherine Morgan 

See Video of John Edwards dropping out of the presidential race at the Care2 Election Blog.

From PunditMom…

John Edwards’ campaign website says that he is scheduled to give a “major policy address on poverty” this afternoon in New Orleans.

CNN, MSNBC and other major news outlets are reporting that this scheduled speech is now going to be his farewell address to the Edwards’ troops.  — read full post at PunditMom

From Suburban Guerrila…

Edwards pulling out.

UPDATE: I just watched the press conference. He said he has received assurances from both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that ending poverty will be a major focus of their campaigns – and since he didn’t throw his delegates to either candidate, I suspect he’ll use them later if necessary. — read full post at Suburban Guerrilla

From Taylor Marsh…

His bid for the presidency is over, but the cause of his life, as well as his wife, lives on.

Earlier on MSNBC, Mudcat Saunders made a comment regarding Clinton that does a disservice to Edwards, as well as his supporters and what his campaign stood for. When asked if Edwards would endorse Clinton or Obama, Saunders snidely replied that he intends to do everything he can to keep John Edwards from endorsing Clinton.  — read full post at Taylor Marsh

From MOMocrats…

Here in California it seems like every other TV commercial is for either Clinton or Obama. I have never been one to warm to the idea of political commercials and while I was frustrated that Edwards didn’t have the money to make these expensive media buys, in a way, I was happy he didn’t. He could never compete financially with the two celebrity candidates, and that for me was one of the things that drew me to him. Funny thing though, both Hillary and Obama’s ads have adopted softer tones. They speak slowly, in hushed voices, and instead of spewing their campaign messages, both are now espousing Edwards messages of “standing up for people,” that there are two Americas, and health care for all.  — read full post at MOMocrats

From TalkLeft…

Kudos to John Edwards for the issues he raised and the style of his campaign. He did good.

“It is time for me to step aside to allow us to make history. We will be strong, united and if we show a little backbone we Democrats will make history.” — read full post at TalkLeft

McCain and Hillary Win in Florida — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at Care2 Election Blog) 

After a long day of disenfranchised voting, John McCain and Hillary Clinton win in Florida.

From The New York Times…

Senator John McCain edged out Mitt Romney to win the delegate-rich Florida primary on Tuesday night, solidifying his transformation to the Republican front-runner and dealing a devastating blow to the presidential hopes of Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Republican officials said after Mr. Giuliani’s distant third-place finish Tuesday night that Mr. Giuliani was likely to endorse Mr. McCain, possibly as early as Wednesday in California.

Now the candidates will look to Super Tuesday…

For both parties, the next few days will feature a series of fateful choices about where to campaign and where to spend money leading up to Feb. 5.

More blogging reaction of the Florida primary at…

If Mom Says OK

BeThink – Primary Election Day

News Hounds – Neil Cavuto’s Florida Primary Slimary

Go Ahead, Disenfranchise Me

Mary Katharine Ham on McCain and Hillary in Florida

It’s A Beautiful Primary Day in Florida — by Catherine Morgan

I’m a disenfranchised voter in Florida, and happy to be voting today anyway. I have to admit, I’ve been more than a little annoyed with this whole Florida delegates don’t count thing. This morning was no different. Especially after I came across this post over at BlueBloggin – Clinton Breaks Pledge and Heads to Florida…

Hillary Clinton along with all the other Democratic candidates pledged not to campaign in Florida, however Hillary will appear in Florida on Tuesday. How can anyone trust or believe what Clinton says. It’s obvious that Hillary doesn’t play or obey the same rules everyone else does.

Obviously, this person has a bone to pick with Hillary. And quite frankly, it very well may be obvious that Hillary doesn’t “play by the rules”. But, as a disenfranchised voter of Florida, I have a couple of things to say about this.

#1 – Hundreds of thousands of Democratic voters in Florida are being told that their [primary] vote does not matter. Even worse, the candidates have signed pledges to make sure the voters of Florida know that they just don’t care.

READ FULL POST AT THE CARE2 ELECTION BLOG

Barack Obama Wins In South Carolina — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at Care2 Election Blog)

In a not so big surprise, Barack Obama wins the South Carolina primary. What was a surprise though, was the large margin that he won by.

With 99 percent of the electoral precincts reporting, Mr. Obama had 55 percent of the vote, Mrs. Clinton had 27 percent, and Mr. Edwards had 18 percent. — The New York Times

I hope the results of this primary has shown the Clinton campaign, that using Bill Clinton to serve as Hillary’s attack dog, is not the way to go. Ultimately, the only candidates that will benefit from this type of behavior, are the Republicans. And, even though John Edwards didn’t do so great in South Carolina today…He was the only voice of maturity and reason this entire week.

With that said…Barack Obama delivered another “slam-dunk” victory speech tonight. This is a man that can really inspire and empower a crowd. If you missed this speech, it is definitely worth watching…

This is from an interesting post on the democrats  ‘super-delegates’ at Right Pundits.

All those delegates being elected by the two parties in all the primaries choose the next candidate for their respective parties, right? Yup – if you are a Republican, but not if you are a Democrat.

In the Democratic party, some delegates are more equal than others. The voters are chosing delegates, but have no say (directly) in the super delegates.

Super Delegates are elected Dem party officials. The “Super Delegate” system was set up to prevent candidates from winning that the party establishment don’t want to represent the party. The Super Delegates are not bound to vote for any particular candidate and to top it all off, Bill Clinton is a Super Delegate!

READ THIS FULL POST at Right Pundits

Also See:

MSNBC – What role for Democratic ‘super-delegates’?

Crooks and Liars — It’s All About the Super-Delegates

This is from a post at Blue Girl, Red State. [I totally agree with Blue Girl. The media loves the mudslinging, but the candidates owe it to the voters to stop the fighting and get back to the issues.]

THIS Democratic Primary Voter would now like to see less talk about personal issues, and more talk about substantive issues. The media be damned–if this doesn’t send a wakeup call to all camps that they better leave the mudslinging behind and start talking about issues that matter to voters, the end result is going to be a further fracturing of the Democratic Party.

One thing I do not want to see is the 50 state strategy thrown under the bus. Today showed that a whole lot of voters in a red state are willing to come out and vote for a Democrat. Is anyone paying attention?

READ FULL POST at Blue Girl, Red State

This is from a post by Amy Morton at GEORGIA WOMEN VOTE!

My sister who lives in the upstate of SC called this morning and said that the turn out, especially among African-American voters appeared to be very heavy. She’s predicted a double-digit win for Obama and historic turnout levels. By the time she went to vote this afternoon, there were only three people at that polling place. So, now she’s re-thinking. I guess we’ll all just have to wait for the results. I suspect folks came out to vote early in the day so they could have their afternoons free for other things. It’s interesting-and this makes you want to throw the demographic stereotyping out the window. She has two grown daughters., both college graduates. The single one (parent) voted for Edwards, and the married one (teacher) voted for Clinton. That niece’s husband had not voted and, though a democrat, “liked McCain.” My sister voted for Edwards, but her husband voted for Obama because, “he didn’t want Clinton to win.” That’s a pretty interesting split in one democratic family.

Also See:

Mary Katharine Ham – South Carolina ‘Shattering’ Turn-out Totals?