Is Hillary on her way to a Migraine During Super Tuesday?

CNN and NBC are Projecting Obama’s Victory in South Carolina.  This is not unexpected, but Hillary and Bill's negative attacks seem to have given John Edwards the opportunity to possibly claim second place or at least make Hillary's possible second place finish a hollow victory.

From a momentum perspective, this is bad news for Hillary as she heads to Super Tuesday and a likely migraine.  She won Nevada, but just barely and Barack placed very very well.  Now Barack is winning South Carolina as expected, but Hillary and Bill played the race card heavily and could have potentially spoiled their inevitability.  At a minimum, they have probably spoiled the potential to pick Barack Obama up as a Vice Presidential candidate. 

The reason why Hillary may not be able to take Obama as a Vice President is due to the likelihood that Republicans would play the race card next fall using Bill Clinton's own voice.  If Hillary ends up losing everything to Obama, it will (and here is the positive) set up a precedent that if you play the race card, you lose.  That may just scare Republicans enough to avoid playing the race card next Fall.

Obama Needs to Hint at the Oprah Card Now

Back in November, I wrote, 'Will Obama Trump Hillary with an Oprah VP?'.    Its an article about how Obama might negate Hillary's play to capture the vote of women by bringing Oprah Winfrey on the stump circuit and testing the waters for an Oprah for Vice President movement.

• Oprah is a better communicator than Bill Clinton
• Oprah has a very loyal following among women of all races
• Oprah is an extremely successful business woman
• Oprah has the ability to self finance part of the campaign with out batting an eyelash

Back then a couple of my readers pointed out that Oprah could not run on Obama's ticket as VP as they both reside in Illinois. 

That statement is inaccurate.  Oprah can not run on Obama's ticket as VP WHILE they both reside in Illinois.  The only mitigating circumstance here is for Oprah to move and change her residence.  That would not have to be very difficult. 

• She lives in Illinois today, she could move back to Mississippi for example. 
• She could move a few miles down the road to Indiana. 
• She could even move to Washington DC.  
• She has her own private jet, she could move almost anywhere in the country.

The Urgency of Oprah for Obama Now

Back in November it definitely helped Obama to get some momentum going with an Oprah endorsement and stump speech to a packed football stadium in South Carolina.  But that was almost 2 months ago and voters like to know what a candidate has done for them lately.  Obama hasn't done much lately except for come in second place to Hillary.  He needs a massive boost in his movement.

Clinton's Successful Attacks on Obama

During this same time where Obama has coasted, the Clinton's have planted the seeds for his destruction. 

• Mentioning his cocaine usage
• Mentioning that Martin Luther King Jr needed to work with politicians to get things done
• Mentioning his Inexperience
• Mentioning his lack of achievements

Primarily the Clinton's have managed to corner Obama in a corner as the 'black Presidential candidate'.  Maybe you recall last summer, Obama worked very hard not to be seen as just the black Presidential candidate.  His goal was to appeal to a multi-faceted base.  The African American base is very important, but it is not large enough to deliver a candidate the Democratic Nomination.  Iowa was very important for Obama as it showed that mostly white voters could get behind him and support him.  However, since Iowa the Clinton's have managed to start closing things up and closing Obama in  as not just a Presidential candidate that is also African America in part, but a candidate that is largely defined by African American issues to the exclusion of all other important issues.

This painting of Obama into a corner is not necessarily true, but as the Clintons, especially Bill Clinton know, its the perspective of perception that is key to winning and election.  It doesn't have to be true.  It only needs to seem true enough at the time of each vote.

The New Hampshire election and more importantly the Nevada election have shown that Hillary is capturing very important blocks of voters.  She's taking more women with her.  More importantly, she is taking Hispanic voters.  The Clintons have managed to polarize Hispanics against Barack Obama in Nevada and that could slowly extend around the country and possibly create something of a chain reaction that polarizes Hispanics against African Americans in politics even.  The Hispanic voting block is growing and possibly larger than the African American block in many regions around the country.

The Clintons seem to be on a path to marginalize (temporarily) the African American vote during the primaries in order to defeat Barack Obama, knowing that if they do it some what nicely, they will likely get the African American vote back in November.

The Oprah Option is Now an Obvious Necessity of Now

Back in November, the Oprah Option was an interesting and romantic notion.  Today, if Barack Obama wants to become the Presidential Nominee for Democrats it is an obvious necessity.  He needs to open his appeal back up to the rest of the Democratic party.  He needs to do it before he gets to South Carolina next week.

Oprah can re-engage Obama with women of all races.  It can connect him with the South as well as Oprah heralds from Mississippi.  More importantly it can negate Hillary's pull on women and her husbands knife like oratory.  Plus, leaking the concept of adding Oprah to the Vice Presidential ticket and bringing her on the campaign full time will definitely put Obama in the limelight as both an agent of change but also as a media darling. 

The media will be all over Obama and Oprah if she were to join the campaign.  The story is far too compelling.  An African American Senator and an African American media darling, voice of women of many generations and a pop up tv billionaire running together in the race for the Oval Office and the most important jobs in the world.  If Obama fails to do this, he will struggle through the primaries, run low on money ultimately and miss a chance to truly become an agent of change.  He has the potential (I grudge him that as I personally feel he lacks the experience) but he is no match for the Clinton x 2 juggernaut that has managed to reduce his appeal to the entire electorate.  If he is to win the race, he has an obvious necessity now to include Oprah Winfrey.

Gridlock in the Emergency Room Just Might Kill You

  Gridlock is rapidly increasing in emergency rooms around the United States.  More and more people are being funneled to ER's instead of to primary care physicians and preventative treatment.  ER's are also shutting down left and right around the country as well.  This increase in the number of patients and decrease in ER's and ER resources is creating gridlock and traffic jams inside hospitals that just might prove deadly for you or a loved one.

Unfortunately, in too many instances, that's exactly what's happening. In fact, new research found that waiting times in emergency rooms have increased by 36 percent for all patients, to an average of 30 minutes per patient. And the sickest sometimes have to wait the longest: As many as one-quarter of all heart attack patients had to wait 50 minutes or longer before seeing a doctor.

........

"The real problem is that patients are backing up in the ER. If a patient is still in the ER six or even 12 hours later, it means that room, that nurse and that equipment just aren't available for the next patient that comes in the door," explained Dr. Art Kellermann, a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians.

ER Wait Times Getting Longer - washingtonpost.com

What can you do to navigate through an emergency room safely?

1. First you need a regular doctor and you need to go through regular visits and checkups to avoid the emergency room.  A good first self defense is to avoid the emergency room if you can.  If that doesn't work, make sure that you have your insurance card and or medical ID bracelets or information on you or very readily available  these are your best form of self defense products in an emergency room.
2. Second, do not be belligerent but DO be a squeaky wheel.  If you or a loved one is in a serious situation, demand attention.  Make sure the nurses and doctors know what's going on.  MAKE eye contact with them.  Engage them, don't give them useless details right up front that might make their eyes gloss over, let them know how serious the situation is, get them to acknowledge it, and write down their name and the time to show them that you are documenting their action or lack there of.  If you can't write or forget a pen and paper, use your cell phone.  call your voice mail and make a voice note.  If you have a voice recorder, use it (might be illegal without their consent, but in a life and death situation, you make the call).  If you have video, record the person. If you have to email the video to CNN as an I-Report.  See how much attention that gets you!
3. Third, know your hospital options.  Find out just how good the ER's are in your area.  Go to the best when its an emergency. 
4. Fourth, get involved politically, right now at a local, state and federal level to get your politicians involved and working on a solution.  Most hospitals with problems did not find their way into those problems all by themselves.  Your past lack of action is just as much to blame as anything else.  Start fixing that today and it might save your life!

Technorati tags: ER problems, ER waiting times, medical gridlock, health care problems

National Gridlock from Corn Land

As we all come skidding to a halt today for the Iowa Democratic Caucus, many people and bloggers are wondering "Iowa…important why?"

So much seems to get set in motion based on how candidates fair in Iowa.  It does not necessarily seem fair that Iowa should have more importance in the election than a much larger state like Florida, which is going to be boycotted by the parties for trying to run a primary early.  Sure Florida is populated by a lot of New York movers that have headed South for retirement, sure its got money and big investment and even a jet set in South Beach, but Florida is just as much an agricultural state as Iowa is.

Now, I do not have a bias here.  I've lived in Iowa and I have lived in Florida (and several other states to boot).

Personally, I think spreading out the primaries is ridiculous.  We should hold the primaries all on one day.  This way no individual 'early' states will get undo attention and importance in choosing our next President.  If history is a good guide, Iowa and New Hampshire running early primaries have both resulted ultimately in bad leadership for at least the last 7 years by Democratic and Independent count and if you get an honest bipartisan count, it has generated bad leadership for the last 16 - 40 years.

How to Generate Press About Not Running and Attack Ad by Mike Huckabee

So this situation is one of those "it's so stupid, its nuts, and that makes it newsworthy?"

Here's Mike Huckabee's news Conference showing the attack ad that he will not show

YouTube - Huckabee Press Conference

Mike Huckabee put together an attack ad to fight off Mitt Romney's attack ad about Mike Huckabee.

OK, no problem so far, that's politics as normal.

Well, then Huckabee decides to pull the cufflinks off, roll up his sleeves, and get mean by being nice.  He decides to pull the ad before it ever runs.

That means that he will never have to apologize for the ad after it ran.  He can also show that he was the good guy for never running an attack ad.

Yet he still has a problem.  In politics if you do not respond to an attack ad, the attack works (just ask John Kerry about the Swift boat ads and his 2 week delay in response and how well that worked for him.)

So Mike Huckabee, calls a press conference to tell the press about the fact that he is pulling the ad, but that is not enough.

He opens the press conference by showing the reporters (most of them with cameras rolling) the attack ad, so they can now broadcast the attack ad that would have been, not as an attack ad on a paid spot (Huckabee needs the money) but as a news item about all of the above.

Well, for once the press saw right through this game and laughed directly at Huckabee. 

Rodney Dangerfield would get more respect.

Huckabee then takes the defensive saying that if he hadn't shown the video the press would have beaten him up for trying to hide it or something.

 

Solution

If you really want to take the high road, then do not make the attack ad in the first place!

Hillary Clinton Shows that She Knows as little about Pakistani Politics as Arkansas Real Estate or Cattle Futures

The blogosphere is buzzing about something almost serious this week as Hillary Clinton displayed a severe lack of knowledge about something other than Whitewater real estate or Cattle Futures.  It was Pakistani politics and her ignorance was exposed after she made some comments after the assassination of her friend Benazir Bhutto this last weekend.  It seems that Hillary thought that President Pervez Musharraf was up for re-election and he was not. 

What makes the story twice as ugly as so far none of her Democratic opponents, not even the very smart and foreign policy savvy Joseph Biden have called her on her mistake and ignorance, which insinuates that the entire Democratic party may not be smart enough to understand what is going on in Pakistan.  That should have voters concerned, but the reality is that President Bush has been displaying a severe lack of knowledge over politics in Pakistan, Iraq, Russia, the UK, Japan, the Koreas, Iran and about every other country on Earth so the bar is set rather low.  Its too bad that even with the bar half buried in the mud on the ground, Hillary Clinton still managed to trip over it.

On the Democratic side, the Politico’s Ben Smith has taken a closer look at the wording of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s assessment of the political situation in Pakistan after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. (Read the transcripts from her recent appearances on CNN’s “The Situation Room” and ABC’s “This Week.”)

The story’s spurred a lot of comments on Tuesday as it appeared that Mrs. Clinton stated that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was up for reelection this month – inaccurate because the upcoming elections are for the Pakistani parliament, not president.
Mr. Smith writes:

“He will NOT be on the ballot,” said a Pakistan scholar at Columbia University, Philip Oldenburg, in an e-mail. “These are parliamentary elections, where the contests are for a seat in the national assembly. The prime ministerial candidate typically fights for victory in a local constituency, as well as lead[ing] the party in a national campaign.”

A spokesman for Clinton, Howard Wolfson, said Clinton was referring to Musharraf’s party, not the president himself.

And Oldenburg said that “how well the PML-Q, the so-called ‘King’s Party,’ does would in effect be a referendum on Musharraf.”
But Clinton’s words appear unambiguously to describe Musharraf himself as a candidate.

“If President Musharraf wishes to stand for election, then he should abide by the same rules that every other candidate will have to follow,” she told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Dec. 28.

“He could be the only person on the ballot. I don’t think that’s a real election,” she told ABC’s George Stephanopolous December 30.

Bryan, a writer at the blog Hot Air, says that Mrs. Clinton “gets nearly everything about the Pakistani political situation and upcoming elections wrong. And by wrong, I am not saying that she’s a little wrong. She’s totally wrong. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

What may be even more telling than how wrong Hillary got Pakistan is the fact that none of her Democrat rivals have called her out on it. She made her remarks in a high profile interview on the last Sunday morning before the Iowa caucus. It’s now Tuesday. Where are the Edwards and Obama camps to criticize her for getting everything on a vital story completely wrong? It’s reasonable to assume that none of the experts in either camp are even aware that Hillary is so disastrously wrong about the hottest foreign policy story of the moment.

He also has the video of Mrs. Clinton’s Dec. 30 appearance on “This Week.”

Kim Priestap at Wizbang wondered why the media didn’t pick up the story until now, and if it’ll gain any stream – although she thinks it should.

Senator Clinton is looking quite foolish after setting up her foreign policy experience like this because she has set an expectation that she didn’t fulfill. Not knowing that Pervez Musharraf is the president of Pakistan who won reelection in October and that the elections on January 8th, which will probably be postponed after Bhutto’s assassination, are for Parliament is really unacceptable, especially since Pakistan is such an important hot spot in the War on Terror.

As The Caucus tuned into CNN’s day-long campaign coverage today (billed as the Ballot Bowl ’08, naturally), we saw live coverage of Democratic contender Joe Biden jumping into the fray. Touting his own experience, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee told a crowd in Indianola, Iowa, of Musharraf – “he’s already elected” – and “ladies and gentlemen, this is about electing the parliament.”

Inspiration Blogtalk: Debates and Elections - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog