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Yesterday, Jon Stewart referred to the ongoing Democratic primaries as “the long, flat bataan death march to the Whitehouse.” Amen, brother. Check out these two emails:

First, from Hillary’s campaign:

Dear Abi,

Tonight’s victory in Indiana was close, and a margin that narrow means just one thing: every single thing you did to help us win in Indiana helped make the difference.

Every call you made, every friend you spoke to about our campaign, every dollar you contributed made tonight’s victory possible. And I couldn’t be more thankful for your hard work.

Every time we’ve celebrated a victory, we’ve celebrated it together. And tonight is no exception. This victory is your victory, this campaign is your campaign, and your support has been the difference between winning and losing.

Thank you so much for making this campaign possible. Let’s keep making history together.

Sincerely,

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Next, from Barack:

 

Abigail –

We just won a decisive victory in North Carolina thanks to people like you.

Indiana remains too close to call. But what is clear is that we did much better than all the pundits predicted, despite Republicans changing parties to support Senator Clinton, believing she would be easier for Senator McCain to defeat.

Here’s where we stand.

As of Tuesday morning, we needed just 273 delegates to clinch the nomination. When the votes are fully counted Wednesday morning, we will have gained more than a third of them in a single day.

We have a clear path to victory. But now is the time for each one of us to step up and do what we can to close out this primary.

Please make a donation of $25 right now:

https://donate.barackobama.com/results

Thank you for everything you’re doing,

Barack

 

Can they really not see the damage this is doing to the party? I was gratified to hear Barack say on Meet the Press that no matter what, he wants to see a Democrat win in November. I haven’t heard such a comment from Hillary. In fact, she’s already lumping Barack in with the losers and aligning herself with McCain as the best candidates, which is troubling. But what can we do?  One more month, and the death march is over. Let’s hope someone is still standing!

(I am in no way belitting the harrowing experience of the actual Bataan Death March. Please don’t take it that way.)

Anyone else anxious for the announcements of running mates? If Hillary is losing momentum, as the media says almost by the minute, it seems like that could help her. Over at Compassion in Politics, they think Edwards will endorse Obama by the end of the month. I kind of think he’s waiting until someone asks him to be a running mate.

Speaking of endorsements, the New York Times has a cool endorsements page here. Not their own endorsements, but who is endorsing who.

McCain has got it all sewn up, so now the Dems just have to fight out the rest of the primaries. There’s been some speculation about superdelegates swooping in at the National Convention and offering up a new name.

Honestly, after I sent in my absentee ballot on Feb. 1st, I kind of lost interest because what can I do until the general election? Is this the apathy that I normally detest? Or reasonable rest before the next big race that I can be involved in?

In other news, my Congressman Darrell Issa was on Bill Maher the other night, and true to form, he sounded like a party-line fool. I wish we could get him some serious opposition in my district!

Another poll results site: Leading Presidential Polls 2008. This one is much more user friendly than pollingreport.com, and has lots of interactive polls for readers as well. You can also select specific state polls, and specific candidate polls. Check it out!

Too much time has passed since my last post. I plan to remedy that - especially now that things are heating up - if only just a little. So, two topics…Fred Thompson and Barack Obama.

First let me say that Fred Thompson’s late announcement was so unsurprising that I’d hardly call it an announcement. I’m intrigued by his high ratings within the GOP, and I’d love to see a basically non-fundraising candidate do well, but I just think he’s too far behind the big money candidates in his party. It will be interesting to see if his lackadaisical approach is effective.

I’m on disk three of Barack’s The Audacity of Hope. My first thought is that I’m not bored. I’ve even laughed out loud a couple times - which is something I did not do with any of John McCain’s books or Hillary Clinton’s book. I’m not quite ready to jump on the Barack bandwagon, but I like what he had to say in 2005, when this book was written. I also liked what he had to say on The Daily Show. I think if he paired up with one of the senior statesmen like Chris Dodd or Joe Biden, we’d have a pretty good ticket on the Dem side.

Anyone reading anything good?

Pro Choice or Pro Life? Gay Marriage? New taxes? Welfare reform?

I recently had a very long conversation with my friend regarding abortion. She has long voted for Republicans simply because she’s pro life, and in line with the leaders of her church, she votes for extreme conservatives. She also took advantage of programs available to her when she had her children such as no cost health care for her delivery (provided by the government) as well as WIC and food stamps. Her husband owned a small business and they had a few very lean years. The fact that the people she was voting for were basically against those programs intended for low income families never really dawned on her or mattered to her.

So here’s my real question? Do the real, daily-life issues matter to voters? Or only the big, sensational issues?

For example, the cost of health care really effects my family. We have high deductibles for our PPO, and end up spending a lot out of pocket. We pay into Social Security every month weeks, and yet, there’s about 100% possibility that we’ll never see that money again. Same with Medicare. We have a young son, and we’d like for there to be quality public education for him and some natural resources available for his grandchildren. Likewise, we pay a lot in taxes and we’d like to see that used more wisely - if not, then give it back. We could use it to save for our retirement, since we won’t have Social Security.

What I’m saying is that I’m glad to know where the candidates stand on issues like abortion. It helps me to understand what kinds of Supreme Court Justices they would appoint, the kind of legislation they might pass/veto. However, I wish less time was spent during the debates on these polarizing topics. I want to know what these people are going to do about issues that effect our everyday lives.

One last topic…Bring the troops home or stay the course? Some candidates (Obama, Dodd) say that they’re going to bring the troops home immediately, while some are sticking to the “stay the course” doctrine (McCain)…do you think this will be a deciding factor in the election? Personally, I want the troops home yesterday - three years ago, even. But what I’d rather hear them talk about is how they’re going to repair the US’s reputation and standing in the world. How we exit Iraq will be a part of that, but I’d like to hear more specific plans for diplomacy.

The New York Times online has an excellent page with all of the candidates listed - including the officially announced candidates and the widely speculated ones. Each candidate has an info page, a link to their official site, and many have their most recent multimedia (YouTube video, etc.).

Here’s the link:

2008 Presidential Candidates

Paid for, presented by and moderated by Fox News. That alone was troubling to me. But as they went through the many Republican candidates, I was struck by amount of public service - both in state and federal government. Impressive amount of government experience.

I’m typing these notes as I watch the debates on msnbc.com, so bear with me if it’s a little incoherent or long winded. You can skip around to the different headings if you’re not interested in the topics. Also, these are just my opinions as I watch this 2nd debate. I encourage everyone to watch the debates, and form their own opinions!
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