Finally.

It remains to be seen whether he'll be able to pick himself up from out of the rubble and create something capable of beating McCain; but hey, let's consider the weight of what he's just accomplished: the Clintons were the ultimate constructions of the Democratic Party Machine, and the most skilled manipulators of that machine that had ever been created.

She was the heir-apparent, she felt she had a RIGHT to be the nominee and many in the party agreed with her about that, and they were the ones who'd made all the rules and held all the power.

And Obama still won. As of today, he owns the Democratic Party, and he gets to decide what it does and where it goes between here and November.
And frankly, as usual for the Democrats, its his presidency to lose.  If he loses in November, it won't be because of John McCain, it'll be because Obama failed in some personal way.

But in either case, what Obama had best remember is that the Machine is not his friend: the only Democrat to have won the white house in the last 28 years did so by explicitly ignoring what the Machine was telling him to do, by taking over that machine, and beating that entire Democrat Machine into submission to the point that he redefined what the Democratic party was all about.
Every other candidate went along with the sage advice of the wise experts at the DNC, figuring that these guys must know a lot about campaigning, since they've lost sooo many campaigns.
If Obama wants to win between now and November, he has to make sure that the Machine-oids don't take charge and change his campaign into Kerry II, or Gore III (with Kerry having been Gore II).

In other words, he has to keep being Obama.

RPGPundit

Quote28 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is "absolutely not" planning to concede the campaign to Barack Obama on Tuesday night, Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe told CNN on Tuesday.

"No one has the number to be the nominee of the Democratic party right now," he said.

McAuliffe, asked about an AP report that Clinton will acknowledge Tuesday night after the South Dakota and Montana primaries that Obama has the delegates to clinch the nomination for the November presidential election, replied: "They are 100 percent incorrect."

Maybe not quite yet. Remember, you have to burn the troll...

LOL.

Hilary was the ultimate min-maxer munchkin.  Can you imagine having her in your group?  Spending hours going through obscure interpretations of the DMG to prove she shouldn't take 8 hit points damage.

Every time the Democratic party - big government, welfare spending, nanny state - fucks up some portion of some significant process, I laugh and laugh and laugh, because it pleases me immensely to watch them fuck up every chance they get to end up in power.

And then a Republican gets elected, and says God 47 times in his inauguration, and I remember it doesn't matter who gets elected, they won't have anything to do with my positions or stances.

President John McCain.

Still sounds as crappy as it would have in 2000.

So yeah, no voting for me this time around.

Quote from: EngineEvery time the Democratic party - big government, welfare spending, nanny state - fucks up some portion of some significant process, I laugh and laugh and laugh, because it pleases me immensely to watch them fuck up every chance they get to end up in power.

And then a Republican gets elected, and says God 47 times in his inauguration, and I remember it doesn't matter who gets elected, they won't have anything to do with my positions or stances.

Ah the curse of not being a part of this abortion engine...

Yeah, all my Republican pals on other boards I frequent keep obsessing over Rev. Wright, Rezko and Bill Ayers bringing down the Obama campaign; saying that those people prove that O. isn't presidential/American/etc.

It hasn't happened yet, despite the media's best efforts.

Re Hillary: Last I heard, she'd have to win 400% of the remaining delegates up for grabs. :haw:

Quote from: EngineEvery time the Democratic party - big government, welfare spending, nanny state - fucks up some portion of some significant process, I laugh and laugh and laugh, because it pleases me immensely to watch them fuck up every chance they get to end up in power.

Take a look at how much the US federal budget increased over the last two Republican administrations.

From the standpoint of a country that has a budget surplus, and is paying off its federal debt, neither of the USA's parties seems about fiscal conservatism, though oddly one gets tarred with the big government brush a lot more than the other. Perhaps in the context of American public policy debate, 'big government' has nothing to do with actual spending.

Quote from: dsivisYeah, all my Republican pals on other boards I frequent keep obsessing over Rev. Wright...

Based, one presumes, on 10 seconds of soundbytes they've heard a thousand times, and not meaningfully on Rev Wright or the other tens of thousands of hours he's spoken in his life. *shakes head* Humans: can't live with them, and there are social mores against cannibalism.

I've heard Rev Wright speak on several occasions, and despite the fact that his politics and mine almost never coincide, I believe him to be one of the most intelligent and well-spoken persons on the national stage at the moment, particularly on issues of race, religion, and culture. Where he loses me is in his paranoiac conspiracy beliefs, and after Tuskegee, I can see where you could believe "the government" could do anything.

Yes, I wish he wouldn't sound like a nutter sometimes, but the things he's saying when he's not being a nutter are probably a damned site more cogent and meaningful than most of those I hear daily.

Maybe this makes me a bad citizen, but I'll worry about how much my government spends once I get control of what it does. Frankly almost nothing my government does is making me happy-be it how much they spend, or what they spend it on.

Quote from: James J SkachMaybe not quite yet. Remember, you have to burn the troll...

I see you, and raise you:  http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2008/06/03/5757636-ap.html

Basically, as I'm reading the AP story, Clinton hasn't officially conceded yet, so much as declared that when Obama gets the required delegates, she will concede, and that she acknowledges that as being a pretty foregone conclusion at this point.  

She's just being good old Hillary, and refusing to flat drop out so she can score political points, and try and lean on Obama for some more support for her own platforms, before the stake finally gets driven through her heart.

"I fought the law and the law won!"

Quote from: Serious Paul"I fought the law and the law won!"

Who doesn't love Bobby Fuller?

Quote from: HaffrungPerhaps in the context of American public policy debate, 'big government' has nothing to do with actual spending.

No, it doesn't, which is one of the worst sins of the party of Lincoln. [Not really being the party of Lincoln is one of its sins, too.] But it goes beyond just this excellent point you make, about how Republicans cut programs yet increase spending: in fact, they often don't cut programs, either!

Much of this is due to partisan deadlock, and the crippling Washington system whose checks and balances have been undermined by the ascendancy of two parties to near-utter control.

But not all of it. Not nearly.

The problem seems to be power. Republicans talk about small government, until they are the government, and then their solution to every problem is the hammer they're holding. Part of the problem is that the citizenry doesn't want to be told, "Yes, we're going to lower your taxes, but it means you're going to need to learn to do some shit for yourself now." A lot of it is what you have to do to get in power: you've promised a thousand groups you'll push their agenda, which you can only do with legislation. And a lot of it is the simple allure of power: when you're holding the world's biggest hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

There's one solution of which I am aware, and it isn't years of Republican dominance tearing down this enormous structure bit-by-but. No, it's to destroy the structure and rebuild from scratch. You can't turn back the clock on welfare, or social security, or national parks; the citizenry won't tolerate it. What you can do is overthrow the government, and reform it, although modern experience suggests the overthrower shouldn't be the reformer, as people will be so pissed at you for taking away their government pacifiers that they won't respond well when you start building roads for them.

No, Republicans are, once in power, no more "small government" than their counterparts across the aisle, with too few exceptions. The solution will probably need to lie not only outside those parties, but outside the political arena altogether; our Constitution was specifically built to invest the government with inertia, so too much change could not happen too quickly; that government must cease to exist before rapid, drastic change could occur.

Quote from: EnginePart of the problem is that the citizenry doesn't want to be told, "Yes, we're going to lower your taxes, but it means you're going to need to learn to do some shit for yourself now."

I agree with this premise, but would include the words "A monumentally huge" at the start of the sentence.

However:

Quote from: EngineThere's one solution of which I am aware, and it isn't years of Republican dominance tearing down this enormous structure bit-by-but. No, it's to destroy the structure and rebuild from scratch. You can't turn back the clock on welfare, or social security, or national parks; the citizenry won't tolerate it. What you can do is overthrow the government, and reform it, although modern experience suggests the overthrower shouldn't be the reformer, as people will be so pissed at you for taking away their government pacifiers that they won't respond well when you start building roads for them.

I disagree that this is the solution.

Therefore, I will fight you to the death in a Thunderdome match on pay per view - the proceeds of which will go...to our families so they can escape this nonsense and become self-sustaining cultures on an island somewhere.