patmix

Ignore YouTube at Your Own Risk

This video really embodies how politics and campaigns have been turned on their head by YouTube.

This couldn't have cost more than a few hundred bucks to make, but it is powerful in so many ways and it's been viewed by 350,000 in just one day.

For anyone who doubted...

...I wasn't once a Hillary fan. That's me in the 2000 NYC marathon in handmade, rhinestone-studded Hillary for Senate t-shirt.

The Drumbeat Continues

Time's Halperin on 14 things Hillary should know.

A Must-Read

Politico.com says that media is complicit in convincing the public that Hillary  can still win, when EVERY fact points otherwise.

One big fact has largely been lost in the recent coverage of the Democratic presidential race: Hillary Rodham Clinton has virtually no chance of winning.

Her own campaign acknowledges there is no way that she will finish ahead in pledged delegates. That means the only way she wins is if Democratic superdelegates are ready to risk a backlash of historic proportions from the party’s most reliable constituency.

Unless Clinton is able to at least win the primary popular vote — which also would take nothing less than an electoral miracle — and use that achievement to pressure superdelegates, she has only one scenario for victory. An African-American opponent and his backers would be told that, even though he won the contest with voters, the prize is going to someone else.

People who think that scenario is even remotely likely are living on another planet.

As it happens, many people inside Clinton’s campaign live right here on Earth. One important Clinton adviser estimated to Politico privately that she has no more than a 10 percent chance of winning her race against Barack Obama, an appraisal that was echoed by other operatives.

In other words: The notion of the Democratic contest being a dramatic cliffhanger is a game of make-believe.

Seems to back up my earlier point.

The Last Straw

The First Obama Mama

I knew very little about Barack Obama's mother. I knew she had been a single mom and had died fairly young, but that was it. I thought she had probably led a fairly ordinary life.   

Boy was I was wrong.   

The New York Times ran an eye-opening profile of Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro, Obama's mother,  over the weekend and paints a picture of a remarkable woman,  a true citizen of the world. 

A quick recap:

In Hawaii, she married an African student at age 18.Then she married an Indonesian, moved to Jakarta, became an anthropologist, wrote an 800-page dissertation on peasant blacksmithing in Java, worked for the Ford Foundat, championed women’s work and helped bring microcredit to the world’s poor.

She had high expectations for her children. In Indonesia, she would wake her son at 4 a.m. for correspondence courses in English before school; she brought home recordings of Mahalia Jackson, speeches by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And when Mr. Obama asked to stay in Hawaii for high school rather than return to Asia, she accepted living apart — a decision her daughter says was one of the hardest in Ms. Soetoro’s life.

How I hope we could have a president with this type of life experience and world view.   

Hope on Broadway, too?

I saw "In the Heights" a year ago with my niece Anna and have not stopped raving about it since.

Its star and writer, Lin-Manuel Miranda, used to perform at Ars Nova in Freestyle Love Supreme, which we used to handle publicity for. He was profiled in the New York Times today.

It moved to Broadway this week and Time Magazine shares this hopeful critique:

"In the Heights might even be regarded as the first musical of the Barack Obama era. It represents change on Broadway. It's a show full of hope. And it has its producers--and a lot of other people who want Broadway to reach out to new audiences with contemporary, heartfelt shows like these--crying "Yes, we can."

Molly Speaks

Michelle Goldberg uncovers a telling column written by the late Molly Ivins in 2006:

"Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone...This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges."

Washington at Its Very, Very Worst

I watched Hillary's surrogate Governor Ed Rendell on the Meet the Press yesterday.

He epitomized everything I hate about politics and politicians. You know, when every single word they say makes you cringe.

Andrew Sullivan summed up his feelings nicely yesterday:

Look at the two campaigns. Which one is disciplined, inclusive, decent and dependent on grass-roots empowerment? And which one reminds you of Washington at its very, very worst?

Blue Collar Voters

Much has been made about the fact that blue collars workers love Clinton and will never vote for Obama.

For some, it's likely true.

But if we are to take Clinton's argument that her voters work so much that they can't attend caucuses (despite the fact that many caucuses are held on weekends), then I think we can also assume that many of these voters are so focused on getting by day to day that they don't have much time to obsess over elections like us. Many might have never heard of Barack Obama until two months ago.

It makes sense that folks in this group might lean towards someone they are more familiar with. Hillary Clinton is one of the most famous people in the world. She's been a household name for 16 years.

However, I'm confident that, come November, they'll become more comfortable and familiar with Obama and will vote for him. They'll come around.