Election 2008 - Divide and Conquer

Lots of exciting events happening in the political world in the past few days. First, the 3am text message that announced Senator Obama picked Senator Biden as his running mate. The 'official' announcement was made in Springfield, Illinois and provided a plethora of photos, clips, and sound bites.

The announcement in Springfield also provided two interesting "Opps" moments.
1. Obama slipped and announced Biden as the 'the next President of the United States"


2. Biden introduced Obama as Barack America


Senator Biden is an interesting choice for Obama - it seems that the two are at odds on a series of issues. For example, Obama has routinely been anti-lobbyist - saying that he will not accept contributions from lobbying groups. However, Biden's son, R. Hunter Biden, is a federally registered lobbyist with the law firm Oldaker, Biden and Belair. Additionally, Senator Biden has collected over 200,000 dollars this year alone from registered lobbyists.

Mere hours after the announcement the GOP launched an ad featuring Biden involved in this exchange with ABC'S George Stephanopoulos:

ABC's George Stephanopoulos: "You were asked is he ready. You said 'I think he can be ready, but right now I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.'" Sen. Biden: "I think that I stand by the statement." (ABC's, "This Week," 8/19/07)

Also of interest, check out this Daily Show video from 2005


The Great Clinton Divide

There is a great divide in the democratic party - many loyal Clinton supporters are furious with the Obama camp - Why? Consider the following:

1. Hillary was not even vetted as a VP option. She was never asked to disclose medical, financial, or donor information to the Obama camp - a process that is routine when considering vp contenders. Pretty unbelievable considering she received 18 million votes.

2. The announcement of Obama's vice presidential pick via text message at 3am resinated as a cheap shot at Clinton. The 3am text is widely seen as 'pay back' at Clinton for her now famous campaign ads that asked who you would like to answer the "red phone" in the White House at 3 AM when there is a crisis?

3. Convention Conflicts - Over 1,500 loyal pledged delegates for Hillary Rodham Clinton will attend the convention, however the most anti-Obama delegates have been denied admission. Wednesday will be an interesting day to watch - Clinton's name will be placed into nomination (under a deal hammered out between the Obama/Clinton campaigns). Senator Clinton is urging the delegates to be unified and vote for Obama however some of the Rogue Clinton Supporters are simply not listening
"We know she's not going to win, but this is extremely symbolic for me to cast a ballot for a woman for president," Therese
Murray, president of the Massachusetts state Senate and a prominent Clinton supporter said.

4. The roll call vote has been viewed as a real problem, so much so that the Clinton team has developed a "whip team". The “whip team” consists of a 40 member team that is supposed to keep Clinton supporters from getting out of control. Apparently the whip team has now decided to assign each state a whip to prevent any problems during the roll call election.

5. An organization called 18 Million Voices Rise Hillary Rise, is calling on Clinton supporters to join a march and gathering celebrating Clinton's achievements and the 88th anniversary of women's suffrage on Tuesday, the second day of the DNC. This will be interesting because many of the Clinton supporters are still unhappy with the perceived sexual discrimination from the primaries.

6. A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll published last week found that only 52 percent of the 18 million people who voted for Mrs. Clinton in the marathon Democratic primary had so far decided to vote for Mr. Obama in November. Twenty-one percent said they would vote for Mr. McCain, while 27 percent had not yet decided. One in three of the group said they found Mr. Obama "arrogant and cocky."

7. The folks over at www.hillarygrassrootscampaign.com and obamacrimes.com are going to great lengths to ensure Clinton gets a spot on the ticket.
(Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania – 08/21/08) - Philip J. Berg, Esquire, filed a lawsuit in Federal Court today, 8/21/08, Berg vs.
Obama, Civil Action No. 08-cv-4083, seeking a Declaratory Judgment and an Injunction that Obama does not meet the
qualifications to be President of the United States. Berg filed this suit for the best interests of the Democratic Party and the
citizens of the United States.“Eighteen million Democratic Primary voters donated money, volunteered their time and energy,
worked very hard and then not only supported Senator Clinton, but voted for her and often recruited other supporters as well.
The basis for his challenge has to do with the citizenship of Senator Obama.

8. Why not take this opportunity to ignite the base? Instead of picking Clinton, which would have ignited the Democratic party - and, in my opinion, created a significant force to be reckoned with - Obama went with Biden. ABC reports that Senator McCain holds a 2-1 lead over Obama as more knowledgeable on world affairs and as better suited to be commander in chief, according to an ABC News-Washington Post poll released Sunday. The same poll, which gave Obama a slight 49 percent to 43 percent lead, found that three-fourths said the addition of Biden would make no difference in their vote, while the remainder were evenly split on whether it would make them more or less likely to vote for Obama.

News Media

The Center for Media and Public Affairs recently conducted a study focusing on the number of jokes about each candidate.

"The study covered all jokes between Jan. 1 and July 31 in late-night monologues by Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, David Letterman, Stewart and Colbert. The center found that the network shows broadcast 169 jokes about Obama, compared with 428 about Bush. McCain drew 328 jokes. Clinton, who dropped out of the presidential race amid much political news in early June, still drew more than twice as many attempted yuk lines -- 382 -- as Obama."