Here's a rather facile discussion of the possibles. No mention of the 800-pound gor-Hilla, no note that John Edwards has already publicly declined the position.
1. If she wants it, she's earned it. 18 million votes. Tireless campaigning over endless months. Supporters who really love her. You can't snub her and get away with it.
2. McCain is ready to embrace and absorb her supporters. All those women. All those flyover state white men that you disrespected.
I doubt she's really interested. She's been vice president already (effectively). Wouldn't she be better served by hoping Obama loses to McCain, giving her the chance to run again in 2012?
Or, the hunt for the great whitey video. The saga continues today, with Hillbuzz (a pro-Hillary site) providing more details:
The Michelle Obama Rant Tape was filmed between June 26th - July 1st 2004 in Chicago, IL at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Conference at Trinity United Church: specifically the Women's Event.
And:
For about 30 minutes, Michelle Obama launched into a rant about the evils of America, and how America is to blame for the problems of Africa. Michelle personally blamed President Clinton for the deaths of millions of Africans and said America is responsible for the genocide of the Tutsis and other ethnic groups. She then launched into an attack on "whitey", and talked about solutions to black on black crime in the realm of diverting those actions onto white America. Her rant was fueled by the crowd: they reacted strongly to what she said, so she got more passionate and enraged, and that's when she completely loses it and says things that have made the mouths drop of everyone who's seen this.
There's also a claim that Giuliani's team has the DVD. If so, it will surely come out. I'll admit though that I'm still in the skeptic corner.
Here's a terrific piece on the effort to get Sgt. Paul R. Smith his Congressional Medal of Honor, with some more details about the action that led to his death:
Sergeant Smith was directing his platoon to lay concertina wire across the corner of a courtyard near the airport, in order to create a temporary holding area for Iraqi prisoners of war. Then he noticed Iraqi troops massing, armed with AK-47s, RPGs, and mortars. Soon, mortar fire had wounded three of his men—the crew of the platoon’s M113A3 armored personnel carrier. A hundred well-armed Iraqis were now firing on his 16-man platoon.
Sergeant Smith threw grenades and fired an AT-4, a bazooka-like anti-tank weapon. A Bradley fighting vehicle from another unit managed to hold off the Iraqis for a few minutes, but then inexplicably left (out of ammunition, it would later turn out). Sergeant Smith was now in his rights to withdraw his men from the courtyard. But he rejected that option because it would have threatened American soldiers who were manning a nearby road block and an aid station. Instead, he decided to climb atop the Vietnam-era armored personnel carrier whose crew had been wounded and man the .50- caliber machine gun himself. He asked Private Michael Seaman to go inside the vehicle, and to feed him a box of ammunition whenever the private heard the gun go silent.
Pfleger, who has raised holy hell about racist policies, including those fostered by churches under the umbrella of the archdiocese, has been a modern-day John Brown.
For those who are fuzzy about history, in 1859, Brown was the white abolitionist who led an attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, trying to arm blacks for an assault on slaveholders.
They were stopped before carrying out the plan, but the insurrection put the South on notice that there were abolitionists willing to wage fierce battle to end slavery in America.
"As a white man who was willing to pick up arms against slavery, John Brown was in many ways a perfect icon for the [Weather Underground Organization] (minus his patriarchal mindset and fervent Christianity). The sympbol of Borwn was fitting for the WUO because the organization tried to carry on his tradition of militant white anti-racism. Black Liberation Army soldier Ashanti Alston called the WUO "John Brown's children". in 1969, Mark Rudd said Weatherman was an attempt to create two, three, many John Browns."
US deaths in Iraq were the lowest since the war began, and oil production there set a new record as well.
The U.S. military said 19 soldiers died in May, the lowest monthly death toll in a five-year-old war that has so far claimed the lives of more than 4,000 American soldiers.
Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani told Reuters in an interview that the improved security had helped Iraq, which has the world's third-largest oil reserves, raise oil production to a post-war high of 2.5 million barrels per day in May.
We could have "hope". Or we could have the reality that the surge has worked.
Not to those of us who've been paying attention all along, but to the news media and the pollsters and the voters. Paul Harris:
Obama supporters reject this argument and point to his record of boosting Democratic voter turnout, especially among the young. But sceptics in the party, already nervous about nominating Obama after the furore over outspoken pastor Jeremiah Wright, are growing increasingly concerned. 'There is an element of buyer's remorse in some areas. The question is whether it gets really strong now or in September - or even after the election is over, if he loses,' said Steve Mitchell, head of political consultancy Mitchell Research.
Get this absolutely stunning poll result:
It is that prospect, Clinton supporters say, that leads them to keep fighting. They point to Obama's performance in North Carolina as a bellwether: it was his strong win there earlier this month that dealt an almost fatal blow to Clinton's chances. Yet, two weeks after that win, polls showed Clinton easily outperformed Obama there when measured against McCain. 'Clinton has a very strong argument that she is a stronger candidate against McCain. It is just that it has fallen on deaf ears,' said Mitchell.
A lot of people have been interpreting his problem as "just Appalachia" and chalking it up to racism. I suspect there's something else going on here. Obama based his campaign on his being a transformative black candidate. He was not another Jesse Jackson, selling the politics of resentment. He was Tiger Woods, a guy who happens to be black, but doesn't let color define him.
Now that facade seems to be slipping away. I assume that all of you have seen this video of Father Michael Pfleger, a Catholic priest, giving a speech at Obama's Trinity Church last weekend, but if you haven't it's quite stunning:
He reminds me a bit of Anthony Michael Hall pretending to be "black" in Weird Science. While I still don't believe the claim by Larry Johnson that there's a video of Michelle Obama railing against "whitey", certainly that performance makes it seem at least possible.
Obama has resigned from the church, but the horse is already out of the barn.
New and dramatic developments. This is a heads up. I’ll post the news Monday morning by 0900 hours. Now I know why people who have seen the videotape say it is stunning. Barack’s headaches are only starting.
Yellow light all the way on this one. To me, the "Whitey" video seems too good to be true. If you want to believe it's true and you're still not sure, that's a pretty solid sign that it's not.
