Fables of the reconstruction

Declarations of Victory

Consider the source, but Politico says:

Not long after the polls close in the May 20 Kentucky and Oregon primaries, Barack Obama plans to declare victory in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

And, until at least May 31 and perhaps longer, Hillary Clinton’s campaign plans to dispute it.

It’s a train wreck waiting to happen ... .

Clinton bloggers are outraged, naturally. One of the most unhinged says, "Why doesn't he declare himself the King of Spain while he's at it?"  James Joyner, of all people, talks sense:

[O]ne could argue that not declaring victory after passing the 2,025 threshold would be a tacit admission that Clinton is right.

Yes, one could. Going back to my post about how elections are games:

Like all games, an election has contestants who win or lose by competition, there are rules which set forth the means of measuring who wins and rules which govern the competitive conduct of the contestants, and someone must set the rules in advance and someone must enforce those rules during the game. ... There will [always] be disagreements about rule interpretation and application ... .

If Obama does not claim to have won once he has a majority of the total pledged delegates, he would be abandoning his interpretation of the rules. And if Clinton accepted his victory at that point, she would be too. In this sense, far from being a "trainwreck", it's the normal course of how this particular game is conducted.

Taking the insane Clinton blogger's analogy literally, let's say someone was widely acknowledged to be next in the line of succession to the spanish throne, but there was someone else who claimed to be the rightful heir under a different interpretation of the rules of succession. When the old King dies, both of them would make their claim, believing themselves to be in the right. To do otherwise would be bizarre and self-defeating.

One peculiarity of this game is that the referee might not blow the whistle to end it and announce the winner for a long time after the condition for victory has been met, at the convention in August. But this game also has more than one ref, and more than one way of blowing the whistle - the superdelegates and party leaders, and the losing candidate accepting defeat, respectively.  Given that the last primaries are only two weeks after Obama will (presumably) claim victory, I think those alternate refs will wait until then and declare him the winner shortly thereafter.

Time to Get Involved: Voter Registration Drive Starts Saturday

Go here and sign up for this:

On May 10th, Barack Obama is launching Vote for Change, an unprecedented 50-state voter registration and mobilization drive. More than 100 events will be held across the country that day. Obama volunteers will register new voters as the start of a six-month voter registration drive.

 

The Turkey Round

During the internet boom, my law work consisted mainly of company-side venture capital deals, raising money for web and high-tech startups in the Valley Forge area. Startup venture capital is raised by issuing preferred stock at different stages of the company's development, called the "A round", "B round", "C round", etc. Since the situation all startups face during each round is similar, the letters began to take on a meaning other than just identifying the order of the financing: An A-round company meant one that was newly-hatched, a B-round company was one that had experienced initial success and required more capital to continue growing, etc.  The usual paths to success for a company was to either make itself into an acquisition target so that both the preferred stockholders got their cut and the original owners could cash out, or the company became self-financing for future capital needs. Obviously, as you got further down the alphabet, the prospects of the startup becoming a successs began to dwindle. At some point, the idea of yet another financing was referred to as the "T round" - T as in turkey - because it was a lost cause.

Consider:

Experts disagree on whether or not Clinton will actually stick in the fight until the Democratic National Convention in August. But the date looms large for another reason—at least, if she hopes to recoup any of the millions she has sunk into the campaign. Thanks to a little-known provision in 2002's McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform bill, a campaign must repay the loan to a candidate before Election Day. In this case, that's the nominating convention. After the election has passed, a bankrupt campaign is limited to gathering just $250,000 from contributors, which means that modest sum is all it can give back to a candidate. In short, Clinton stands to lose $11,150,000. "If she wants to be repaid, she'd have to move on that between now and the national convention," says former Federal Election Commission chairman Michael Toner. "Otherwise, it just becomes another contribution." The campaign, meanwhile, has other debts to consider as well. According to her latest FEC filing, the Hillary Clinton for President campaign committee owes millions to vendors, including more than $4.5 million to Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, the consulting firm of her former chief strategist Mark Penn.

That adds another wrinkle to her decision to stay in the race. Time is running out to pay off friends, allies, and vendors. Plus, by all accounts, Clinton's most ardent supporters are tapped out, either unwilling or unable by law to donate any more.

The article speculates that Hillary and Obama could work out a deal which would involve him fundraising on her behalf.  I doubt it, but the idea is out there.

Babies for Obama

This is just cute. The Obama onesie:

Available here.

(Sorry for the crappy cameraphone pic.)

The Logical Conclusion of Race-Baiting Tactics

At least, I hope it's the conclusion:

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

"Hard-working Americans, white Americans". You don't get any clearer than that: Hillary Clinton says black Americans are lazy. Also, any whites who vote for Obama must be those elitists who do whatever the "creative class" does, meaning not real work. I hope this ends any uncertainty over whether the Clinton campaign is using the tactics of playing on white working-class racial and class resentment, and that it's self-evident that doing so disqualifies her, and has disqualified her since the South Carolina primary, from being the Democratic nominee.

"There's a pattern emerging here," she said. ...

Yes, Senator, there certainly is.

Clinton rejected any idea that her emphasis on white voters could be interpreted as racially divisive. "These are the people you have to win if you're a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election. Everybody knows that."

The Democrats have not won a majority of whites since Johnson. I wish we could appeal to a majority of all people this time around. But it's not going to happen Hillary's way. The way it could happen is by encouraging people to identify with those who don't look like themselves or work the same kind of jobs as themselves, and realize that we are all must work together, that we're all in the same boat. It could happen Obama's way.

The only good thing that will come out of this is that, as with Rev. Wright, Hillary is using a watered-down version of the same attacks McCain's surrogates will use in the general election campaign. This tends to innoculate Obama somewhat from the far more virulent version which will come down the road.

(Via Duncan.)

The Convincing Win

No one threatened to kill me today. Instead, I had the best political volunteering experience of my life.

In the precinct I was assigned to, North Carolina's Cumberland County Lr-63, at Engine 11 Fire Station in Fayetteville, it was record turnout: Obama 637, Clinton 83. That wasn't the good part, though. I got to actually get people to vote who were turned away by clerical errors or other glitches. I managed to stop one woman who was about to leave, got Obama headquarters to contact the county general counsel, who contacted the board of elections general counsel, who placed a phone to the precinct 20 minutes after I called it in, saying that she should be given a new ballot.

It rocked.

The numbers I heard statewide are Obama 65%, Clinton 35%. I also heard that they initially called Indiana for Hillary but now it's too close to call.

Time to party.

Raleigh Today

A drunk, one-armed man just threatened to shoot me.

I'm in Raleigh to do poll watching tomorrow, but got in early and joined in the canvassing. Went down a dusty gravel road and knocked on a few doors. Most were not home, as usual, but one house had Johnny Cash on the stereo. The inhabitant was as drunk as anyone I have ever seen who was still standing. He took so long to answer questions, staring blankly, that I thought he had passed out on his feet. Finally determining the voter I was looking for had moved, I said goodbye and he said he would shoot me if I came back. I said thanks. Probably a Hillary supporter.

Looking forward to barbecue and standing outside a fire station for 13 hours tomorrow.

Maybe somebody can loan me a chair.

You're Not Going to Knock it Off, Are You?

Hillary's new Indiana mailer.

Nice, right wing frame you got there, Senator. You should have crosshairs over his face, though. That would complete the picture.

Update: Via John Cole, this:

“The gun in the photo does not exist,” said Val Forgett III, president of Navy Arms in Martinsburg, W.Va. Forgett's company was Mauser’s agent in the United States when the gun was released, and it sold Mauser guns here again in the 1990s. “The bolt is facing to the left side of the receiver, making it a left-handed bolt action rifle, indicating whoever constructed and approved the mailer did not recognize the image has been reversed.”

Forgett said the error would be obvious to sportsmen.

“I find it laughable on its face,” he said. “It’s like a picture of Babe Ruth hitting right-handed.” ...

The Mauser 66, released in 1966 and no longer manufactured, is a high-end hunting rifle that found military use as a sniper rifle. In Clinton’s mailing, it’s pictured with a double-set trigger, a customization that’s popular in Europe but “almost unheard of in the United States,” Forgett said.

“It’s a $2,200 German import — it’s hardly typical of what the average workingman in Indiana uses,” he said.

Oops. It's like sending out a mailer saying "Barack Obama doesn't care how much you have to pay to put gas in your car" with a picture of a Cayenne turbo. Pretty gun, though.

Just Stop It

Oliver is right, she sounds just like Bush:

"I'm not going to put my lot in with economists," the New York senator said when asked to name a credible economist who supported her proposal.

"We've got to get out of this mind-set where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans," said Clinton, a former first lady who would be the first woman president.

We don't need no economists telling us how to run our economy, or scientists telling us what the facts are on global warming, or fancy-pants lawyers telling us about habeas corpus. What's a habeas anyway?

Ogged calls her "GW Clinton". Ow.

Since his assistant has not been approving my comments for publication, I'll just have to wait to see if Krugman defends this. It's a test, Paul.

Obama Re-Launching on Letterman?

I don't plan to watch it, but Obama will be on Letterman tonight doing "Top Ten Surprising Facts About Barack Obama." The bit's a yawn, but that's not the point. Why Letterman now? Candidates launch their campaigns on late-night, they don't stop off in the middle. I can only guess his campaign sees this as a re-launching, sort of saying, "Okay, this primary silliness is almost over, now meet the candidate who will run against John McCain."

Unbelievable

Poor Bill, degrading himself this way:

Former President Bill Clinton was in West Virginia on his wife's behalf. In Clarksburg, he called her a scrapper and contrasted her appeal among working-class voters with the elitists he said support Obama.

"The great divide in this country is not by race or even income, it's by those who think they are better than everyone else and think they should play by a different set of rules," he said. "In West Virginia and Arkansas, we know that when we see it."

Bill, your wife started off this campaign using an inevitability strategy that then relied on spin that small states don't matter. If you want to see arrogant and elitist, look across the breakfast table.

What a sad end to a great politician and leader.

(Via.)

At the Moment

Politics is not the art of the possible. Politics is the art of making people think the impossible is not just possible, but likely. When it doesn't come true, you blame someone else.

Otherwise intelligent people are upset that Barack Obama has not promised to do things that it was always blindingly obvious that Barack Obama was not going to promise to do.  The kumbaya strategy precludes "strong progressive positions", all of which have to get through Congress anyway.

There is little correlation between what a politician promises to do while campaigning and what he or she does while in office.

There are two principal benefits to having a Democratic President:

1. Appointments, including the Supreme Court, probably will not be idiots or ideologues or idiotic ideologues.
2. Probably won't veto good legislation.

While few, these are good and sufficient reasons to vote for the Democrat, whoever it is.

The media narrative is like a balloon. They have to keep it filled to preventing it from collapsing and crashing to earth. They currently are filling it with Rev. Wright. It's not even Memorial Day; no one will care about Rev. Wright once the general election campaign is underway. Meanwhile, the only politicians they show on teevee are Democrats. This is good for Democrats.

The only people who really care what political bloggers think are other political bloggers. This is a good thing.

On We Go ... to North Carolina

We cleared out the volunteer data processing for Kentucky. They want lawyers to do poll-watching on Tuesday in North Carolina, I have a flight booked to Raleigh-Durham on Monday, returning Wednesday. I am sure the experience will be better than the one I had here ... right?

Unrealpolitik

Spencer Ackerman:

[F]or a generation, the demonization of Iran has prevented any administration, Republican or Democrat, from taking yes for an answer — or even from exploring, in a serious and credible way, whether it’s worth taking yes for an answer. The result has been, among other things, a state of permanent, irrational and unnecessary hostility that has the potential to get a lot of people killed. And for what?

Negotiate with the moderates, cut out the extremists; keep your gun in one hand and your wallet in the other. This is diplomacy 101. If you were serious about averting war, you'd .... ohhhhhhhh.

On We Go

I'm doing data work for the Kentucky primary. There sure are a lot of people in Kentucky named Billy or Bobby. Around here, these are just not adult names.

I Need to Think About Something Else For a While

I had a dream last night in which I cut someone's tongue out with a broken bottle. I am going to stop reading political blogs for a couple of days.

Otherwise Intelligent People

Lance Mannion says it's Obama's fault that Democrats have not seized the narrative in order to attack McCain. That's funny, I thought it was because Obama is still dealing with attacks from his rival for the nomination. You know, the one who said she wouldn't have had Obama's pastor as hers, and said he was an elitist. Maybe that's been slowing the process down, I dunno.

Avedon Carol says of Obama:

He is, personally, just another spoiled child who thinks he can do what he likes. We really don't need another of those.

Or maybe she's saying it of McCain. Whatever, she thinks it's clever to leave it ambiguous.

And both Lance and Avedon recently have been citing this prick (who is emphatically not a member of the "otherwise intelligent" category) who has gained a larger following by characterizing Obama supporters' views as, "Why won't the stupid bitch quit?" Which would be a horrible thing, if it were true, but because it's not, it's slanderous. I may as well characterize Clinton supporters' views as "Who does that uppity nigger think he is?" Would that be fair? Would that be productive?

You know, I am still feeling a little raw after all the effort of the past few weeks and the disappointment of losing. Next week, I will probably regain some equanimity. But right now, I want to punch some of these motherfuckers right in the jaw.

Hillary's Racist Supporters

I mentioned that, standing at my South Philadelphia (5th & Wilder) polling place, I didn't encounter a single white Obama supporter. What I did encounter was a lot of contempt from white voters and election officials for black Obama voters.

From here on out, my image of a Clinton supporter will be the election judge, Anthony (pronounced ANT-nee), snickering at the retreating back of a young black woman, obviously a first time voter, as she left the polling place.  I don't know if he got over on her or what, but it would have been easy enough for him to confuse a new voter. I hope he didn't, but I have no way of knowing.

I will think of that young black woman, who rushed in to vote with her ID in hand and hope written on her face at the possibility that someone who cares about her could be President, whenever pro-Clinton bloggers sneer about the "creative class" who support Obama.

Update: Just got back from Obama HQ, which was in the process of being broken down and shipped out. It's sad to see a campaign office the Day After. Anyway, dropped off an affidavit from one of the voters who they tried to turn away at the polls yesterday, and said goodbye to the people I worked with.

Heard more stories about how Hillary people behaved. Up in Scranton, where she did the best, they had to issue mace to all of the Obama office workers, and the police had a car outside 24/7. One staffer's entire job was to drive around and replace the Obama campaign signs that had been removed or defaced with racist graffiti. The longest a sign went unmolested was 12 hours. Did that happen to any of Hillary's campaign offices? I guess the creative class isn't as violent as those regular folks.

At Last

I predict: Clinton 55, Obama 45.

You know what standing outside a polling place all day long is? It's a bunch of old men bullshitting, that's what it is. For thirteen fucking hours.

Turnout in my division was 242, good but not amazing.

This is where I stood all day. Note the name of the business where the polling place was located:

Beauty salon, Ward 1, Division 13.

Now I have to go back to get the results. Motherfuck.

Update: Obama 132, Clinton 95. The downticket race involving John Dougherty produced votes for Hillary, since Johnny Doc's natural constituency is the white ethnic Philadelphia machine cogs who also go for Clinton. Doc 93, Farnese 71, Dicker 31. I didn't encounter a white Obama supporter all day. Doc owes Anne a boatload of flowers, and support the next time she runs against Babette. Poor Larry, fucked by Fumo, then fucked by the machine. [LOL: Farnese wins.]

Results for the state at the moment: Clinton 54%, Obama 46%, with 61% reporting.

Update 2: What was funny was that for some reason, several different news photographers came to Flavor In Ya Hair during the course of the day: NYTimes, AP, WSJ, and a couple of others. I don't see any pics they took online yet, but I'll keep looking.

Update 3: Every time I have volunteered to do anything political, it has involved some productive work and a large measure of wasting my time on things campaign staffers think are important. Obama wasted my time less than others, but clearly - standing outside a hair salon all day on the off chance something untoward might happen is not the highest and best use of 13 hours. And in any case, there is a very uncertain correlation between effort expended by volunteers and electoral outcomes.  In other news, losing is no fun. Winning feels better, although either way it's not clear you had much to do with it.

Update 4: Oh, I guess I should mention. In Ward 1, Division 13, the Republican Presidential primary was no contest:

• John McCain          4
• Ron Paul                  1
• Mike Huckabee     0

Update and now to bed: With 82% of the precincts reporting, it's Clinton 55%, Obama 45%. On to wherever the fuck we go next!

Do It

(Image via.)

Pennsylvania Polls Open in 10 Hours

I had to do some actual work today, so only volunteered for 7 hours. Media all over the office. Korean television, Deutsche Welle, BBC. No interviews for me.

Polls open at 7 a.m. At 6:45 a.m., I will be stationed outside a South Philly polling place, where I will stay until they report the final numbers after the polls close at 8 p.m.  My job is to assist voters and the election officials if any problems arise, to keep the Obama campaign informed of what's going on, and to report turnout periodically during the day, which goes to the field office so they can figure out where they need to allocate resources. To get there at 6:45 a.m., I need to get up at 5:30, so I'm going to bed ... now.

Make Phone Calls For Obama in PA From Home

If you can't come in to volunteer, you can still help Obama in the Pennsylvania primary. Go to my.barackobama.com/pa to make calls to voters.

Twenty-seven hours left.

33 Hours to Go

Spent 15 hours at Obama HQ yesterday mostly doing data work until, at midnight, all hands were turned to putting polling-place information stickers on doorknob signs.

It looks like, of the hundreds of applications that were sent in, the Board of Elections failed to issue poll watcher's certificates for three lawyers doing voter protection, one of whom is me. So I don't know what I will be doing tomorrow.

The latest polls has Hillary up 5-7%. The only way we cut into that is turnout. We'll see. The weather forecast for tomorrow in Philly is partly cloudy, high of 72, 20% chance of rain.

Update 4:45 p.m.: SNAFU. I will be a polling place observer (outside on the sidewalk), not a poll watcher (a statutorily-created position that would have put me in the polling place). Nothing I can do about it now.

Call for Obama Volunteers in Philly for Primary Day, April 22

We have a critical need for volunteers who can work for Obama in Philadelphia during the day on Tuesday, April 22, primary day. If you can volunteer anytime between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., call 215-564-2010. Please link to or forward this post to anyone you think would be interested.

Three Days to Go

Spent most of yesterday and all of today at Obama HQ, pausing only for grilled roadkill at Duncan's last night. Tonight, during the Obama office Seder ("Why is this campaign different from all other campaigns?"), the network went out, so I came home early, at 10.

More data work tomorrow, then probably canvassing Monday, then Tuesday I'll be a poll watcher at a barber shop in South Philly.

I don't think we're going to win this primary, but we're going to keep it close. Half a loaf.

Can't wait for this to end.

A Tale of Two Campaigns

Given that it's Philly (i.e., very African-American, educated and liberal), this isn't indicative of anything other than where it's occurring, but it's still funny. These are the opening paragraphs to two stories, one by a reporter who volunteered for Hillary and one for Obama.

Compare:

I Was a Clinton Volunteer

My first task as a Hillary Clinton volunteer was to get past the campaign's dead-bolted front door. I began with a hearty knock, the kind you hear when a political canvasser is on your stoop. No answer. I dropped to two knees and peered into the space between the door and the thin rug. No lights. I put my ear to the door, and dialed the general number. Ring. Ring. Ring. "Hi, you've reached the Philadelphia office of Pennsylvanians for Hillary, our office is located at five two zero, North Delaware Avenue. ... "

At 9:20 a.m., I'd been at it for 25 minutes, walking the halls, making sure the door with the blue Hillary Clinton for President sign was actually the Hillary Clinton for President office. It was.

When my editors put me up to this, I wanted to tackle some big questions: Would we Philadelphians truly be the "deciders" of a presidential primary? How does national politics operate on a local level? And who are these legendary Clintons, who draw both fanatical love and hate? I wanted to know these things in a truthful way, not through the spin of some campaign flack. But by 9:30 a.m., just a week after this office opened, my desire for knowing became much simpler: Where the hell were these people?

Ten minutes later, Marc*, a recent college grad and paid field organizer, showed up and took a seat across from me on the floor. "Maybe they're in a meeting in the back?" he said. Seven other staffers eventually trickled in. "The mayor's office would like a memo, detailing all of the appearances we'd like Mayor Nutter to do," a young guy in a gray blazer said into a cell phone. "You know, like what black radio stations to go on, what neighborhoods to appear in. Like two pages, OK?" We all stood in a circle around the door, staring at it. No one asked who I was. Someone eventually showed up with a key. "We gave out 20 of them yesterday," he said to no one in particular. "Where'd they all go?"

Contrast:

I Was an Obama Volunteer

The elevator doors slide open into what feels like an adult kindergarten class. Campaign staffers pinball around the room like dizzied Duck Duck Goose contestants, stopping only to answer questions or direct traffic while volunteers leap for ringing phones, pound away at laptops, and huddle around tables covered with mounds of charted maps and voter scrolls. The carpet is a sea of crumpled paper and Dunkin' Donuts coffee cups, and the walls are plastered with magic marker Obama portraits and finger-painted campaign banners — the artwork of college students who have descended on the office en masse. There's a crowd in the kitchen chomping down on soft pretzels and tuna-fish hoagies, and the scene at the merchandise table resembles something you'd see on the floor of the Stock Exchange. Plus, everyone's wearing name tags.

This is a total exaggeration. I bought 50-gallon garbage bags and the floor never became "a sea of crumpled paper and Dunkin' Donuts coffee cups". We make our own freakin' coffee.

Standing there, taking it all in, I half expect someone to recruit me for dodgeball, but instead I'm nearly stampeded by a group of large women bearing armfuls of Obama lawn signs. The leader of the pack accidentally spears me with her metal posts. "Sorry now, honey," she shouts before the elevator doors close in front of her.

This is no exaggeration. Large women. These "metal posts" are zip-tied bundles of metal yard sign frames, maybe 50 pounds each. I think the woman who speared him is from some New England state who has been hauling them all over the five county area in her little Hyundai.

I figured the place would be busy, but it's a Monday morning in early March, six full weeks before the primary, and there must be a hundred people here. The line at the volunteer registration table is 10 deep. A volunteer coordinator named Megan* works the room. "Hey there," she smiles, obviously busy but still cheerful. "Yeah, we got plenty for you to do, let's get you signed up.

And basically, the office never closes. I don't even know if the door has a lock. Quite a difference.

(Via Roxanne.)

Putting My Time to Better Use

Instead of watching the debate, I was helping produce walk lists.

Some really angry dude keeps calling the office and yelling at the volunteers about ... something generated by the intersection of his mental illness and seeing Barack Obama on his teevee. We turned the phones off.

Six more days. Jesus fucking Christ.

It Doesn't Look Good for Our Hero

After being sick for a week, today was my first day back to volunteering for Obama. I am still getting over the flu, though, so I could only do 5 hours before getting completely wiped out.

Things are not looking up for Obama in PA. I am surprised and disappointed by all the campaign's missteps recently. His "bitter" comments hit on Friday, but they didn't have an effective pivot until Sunday, and consequently the headline still dominates the news. Deflecting criticism - especially the unfair variety - is usually one of Obama's central strengths as a politician.

The most recent poll has Hillary up 20 points here - but that one can be safely ignored, because it's from ARG. What can't be ignored is SurveyUSA last week, which had it at +18 Hillary.

Locally, the Obama campaign has made two other mistakes.

One of Obama's best free media generators are his rallies. When we were leading up to the voter registration deadline, out pounding the pavement, people were excited and everyone wanted to know, "When is he coming??" I foolishly said that it would probably be soon. If he had come the week after registration closed, it would have been great, but now enthusiasm is fading. The television and radio ads are everywhere, and people are getting sick of the whole thing. They have no concrete memory of seeing Obama just when they were primed to, which would have kept their enthusiasm up, made the commercials something they want to hear. Supposedly, he's coming next week, but I think it's too late.

And, finally, as I have mentioned, Philly politics is corrupt. Obama has decided not to pay street money, which in Philly is the same as cutting your own throat in the best of times, but it's even worse in the current circumstances. Many of the new registrants we worked so hard to sign up live in Pennsylvania's First Senatorial District, covering all of South Philly, all of Center City, a large chunk of Northeast Philly, and a much smaller sliver of northwest Philly, where union boss John "Johnny Doc" Dougherty is pulling out all the stops to win Vince Fumo's seat. But there is a hitch for Doc - all those damn new registrants who want to vote for "change" and Obama, who might not be impressed that Doc has secured the local party's endorsement. For Doc, the whole election math for the primary is out of whack. I think the answer for him is to try to suppress turnout among those first-time Democratic voters. Doc has used his IBEW Local 98 members in the past to intimidate voters on behalf of candidates he likes, and so far in this campaign a platoon of them attend all his events to provide applause.  I think for primary day he will throw his guys out on the streets and at the polling places in order to challenge new voter qualifications and either frustrate or scare them into giving up, but making sure "his" voters get right to the front of the line.  Chaos on primary day benefits Doc. As far as I know, the Obama campaign has no plan to deal with that. And since the Obama campaign has decided not to pay the traditional street money, ward leaders have precisely zero incentive to help him.

Update April 15th: At Drinking Liberally tonight, a couple people suggested the answer to why Obama hasn't had a Philly rally. What would the visuals from such an event look like? A sea of black faces. That's exactly what the campaign doesn't want out there when they're trying to counter Hillary's "blue collarism" (read: pro-white people) tactics. I think they're right. If we get an Obama rally at all, it will be Monday.

Whoopsie, Sir Elton

Uh oh:

Sir Elton John’s recent performance at a fund-raising event for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has drawn a formal complaint from Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group.

Mr. John, a foreign national, cannot under federal law make any contribution to a federal, state or local election campaign. The group, in a letter from its president, Tom Fitton, described Mr. John’s appearance at the fund-raiser as an “in-kind contribution from a foreign national.”

Jesus, they're right. Unless John gets paid for the performance - at market rates, the rules are clear - it's an illegal dona