.. but probably not as much since anyone other than HRC wouldn't 1) have nearly the obsession with becoming Prez as she does, 2) wouldn't have Clinton Inc working for him/her and 3) would have at least a bit of a conscience about playing the race card.

I mean, these are Clintons we're talking about.

NBers,

I wanted to chime in with some thoughts here. First off, I do believe the race card is being used by the Clintons, and wouldn't be part of this process without them. If it was Obama versus any of the other Democrat candidates at this point, race wouldn't be a factor.

However, the Clintons realized before South Carolina that the only chance she had of winning was to regularly address his color. How sad for all of us.

That sad, I believe Ferraro is wrong. If Obama was white, he'd still be doing well because of his charm and charisma. The reality is that there's a large number of Democrats that don't like Hillary, and were looking for an alternative. Let's face facts: this is a tremendously dislikable person who does not have the slightest amount of charm or charisma. She does not represent hope, change, or optimism. And, many Democrats were never going to support her.

As such, there was going to be a serious contender for the Democrat nominee as disenchanted liberals jumped on the bandwagon of anybody NOT named Clinton. That ended up being Obama NOT because he's black, but instead because his rhetoric does excite and enthrall people. Does it help that he's black? Certainly. But, I think people are kidding themselves if they think this is the reason he's gotten this far.

This is a very bright, likable guy regardless of his skin color.

Sadly for the Democrats, this race card the Clintons have thrown and continue to throw will cost them dearly in November, and could damage their Party for years to come. As a result, in a year when the left should be dominating at the polls for all kinds of reasons, the Democrats -- much as they have done the past two decades with few election cycle exceptions -- are stealing defeat from the jaws of victory. ns

"Are you surprised by the amount of focus this is getting during a Democrat nomination process?"

Actually, yes I am, although in hindsight it was probably inevitable, given the Clinton machine pushing the opposing candidate.

"Is it all due to the Clintons, or would this be a huge issue regardless of who Obama was running against?"

The issue would have existed, but most likely would have been reserved for the general election, where every single criticism would be declared racist, where every contested point would have been held to have racism as its foundation. Frankly, without Hillary in the contest, Obama would have been the nominee long ago, because only her drive for power is keeping the contest open at this point. If that had been the case, the general election would have been decided by the ability of Obama to keep his new, youthful choir energized up to the election day.

"Does this battle threaten to so divide the Democrat Party that whoever wins the nomination is going to have a hard time beating McCain?"

Absolutely, and I have expressed my views of how this will play out in other posts. The longer the internecine battle goes on, the more pronounced the final resolt will be. A Hillary win will drop all the new youth and star-eyed hope changers - many of who are one and the same - while an Obama win will cost the party many of the feminine and all of the "I'm not racist" racists, of whom there are far more than anyone would like to think.

"Has Obama only gotten this far in the nomination process because of his race..."

Yes. His message, or lack thereof; experience, or lack there of; and proposals, or lack thereof, are appealing only because of the novelty of (possibly) being part of something historic, that is, electing the country's first black president. To see that you only have to listen to what they (those supporting him) are saying. It's almost all they can talk about.

V/R
Clyde 

"...the aspirants to tyranny are either the...men of the state, who in democracies are demagogues,... or those who hold great offices, and have a long tenure.." - Aristotle, Politics, c350BC

Looks like Cuba Play US Soccer U-23 to a 1 - 1 tie,

Then the US won 5 players

In a article by the Los Angeles Times on March 13, 2008 entitled

Guantanamo Trial Delayed Amid Prisoner's Protests

An Afghan accused in attack on U.S. soldiers refuses to cooperate in what he calls an 'illegal' tribunal.

The times makes every attempt to garner sympathy for this detainee, largely citing comments by his defense attorney that the detainee himself said he had been tortured and was detained for no reason.

Passages such as ""The American government said the Taliban has been very cruel in Afghanistan, that they killed people without any trial and imprisoned people without trial," Jawad told the judge. "When I was in detention at Bagram, Americans killed three people. They beat people and arrested us without trial. We're not given any rights." were simply placed in the story without being checked in any possible manner.

And other portions illustrating obvious theaterics such as:

"Jawad held his head in his hands through much of the two-hour proceeding and complained of a headache from round-the-clock bright lights in his cell. He repeatedly removed the headset carrying the translation in his native Pashtu and slumped onto the defense table, moaning."  Never have that final piece of analysis that AQ personnel are trained to do jailhouse theatrics of claiming torture by their captors etc.

But mysteriously the Times never cited the fact that it is widely known that the particular detainee was grabbed up in the market area immediatley after the grenade was thrown into the US vehicle and was FOUND TO HAVE TWO GRENADES UNDER HIS CLOTHES when he was searched.

I wonder why the Times never put that in its story?  My guess is that that particular item would not garner sympathy for the detainee and would credit the US governments efforts.  Liberals can't have that now...

And here all along, I thought it was just the Florida dim pols who were off their rockers.

Silly me.

Theme for Election '08: I want my mommy!

http://defamer.com/3...

5. Taxi Driver: As much as we wanted Iris to
get out of the game, we kinda loved imagining New York as a place where
you could wander downtown and see girls wearing neon short shorts and
big straw hats who looked like Jodie. And, as we all know by now,
Spitzer likes 'em young.
4. Monster: No, she wasn't pretty. But she
had a fondness for shooting pervs, something we might have considered
had they come in the form of her johns. Strictly a cautionary tale for
the former governor.
3. Indecent Proposal: We still can't figure
out what was so sad about having Woody Harrelson for a husband, Robert
Redford as a one-night fling, and $1 mil in the bank. All that time
Demi spent crying would have better spent in the sack with either guy.
She might be too pricey for Spitzer, though.

2. American Gigolo: With politics no
longer looking like a viable career option, we think that Spitzer could
learn a thing or two from the way that Julian sauntered through LA as
though he owned it. Not only did he make the whole male escort thing
look fun, he had the best wardrobe in the city.

1. Pretty Woman: The Porsche that Julia Roberts drove wasn't the only thing that cornered on rails. Go west, young governor, go west!

The House is going to go in Secret Session regarding FISA...and critters like Doggett and Kucinich are complaining, this to me is horrendous...this needs to get renewed and passed without the trial lawyers standing by with their law-suits against the telecom companies that aided us  with info. with the terrorists.

This hasn't been done since 1983 and is vital, but you can be sure someone who attends will blab it all...according to Hoyer they are going to be waiting for rules from counsel, it is Hoyer's belief so far that anyone that is attending tonight can discuss what is said, so my question is why bother, there may be classified info in all of this?

Now Lundgren is saying you can discuss some things, and some you can't.

Oh well, time will tell, they had better get this done...pronto though.

They say with this type of thing there will b no legislative action done from all of this....they are sharing some classified info that others haven't seen, so maybe that is why they want this done, to change leftists minds regarding their votes on FISA, well I say good luck with that.