Bill Clinton endorses Barack Obama for President, announces he is splitting the sheets with Hillary

Bill Clinton endorses Barack Obama for President, announces he is splitting the sheets with Hillary

By Pablo Fanque,
All This Is That national affairs editor
reporting from San Antonio, Texas

At a press conference this morning with Sen. Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton announced to stunned reporters that he was endorsing Obama for President. The former president also disclosed that he will be separating from his wife. "It's probably one of the worst kept secrets on the beltway that Hillary will be divorcing me after she is elected. Or drops out of the race. Honestly, whenever that happens is immaterial. But I did want to stand up today and support Barack as he heads into these last 20 contests."

The press corps shouted repeated questions as the former President shooks hands with Obama, told the press "I'll see you on the campaign trail," and left the podium.
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Hillary: I've only begun to fight

The Associated Press reports that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested in Toledo, Ohio this morning that she'll press on with the campaign after Tuesday's crucial primaries, arguing that momentum is on her side despite 11 straight losses to rival Sen. Barack Obama.

"I'm just getting warmed up."

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Why Obama and Hillary both suck on the issue of gay marriage

Barack Obama "supports civil unions," but is against gay marriage. In an Chicago Daily Tribune interview, Obama said, "I'm a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman." [ed note: does this sentence make any more sense to you than it does to me?]


"Giving them a set of basic rights would allow them to experience their relationship and live their lives in a way that doesn't cause discrimination," Obama said. "I think it is the right balance to strike in this society." [ed. note: isn't this the same sort of argument people once used for why blacks should not be able to vote?]


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Hillary Clinton also opposes gay marriage and supports civil unions between members of the same sex. Hillary was quoted in The New York Daily News saying: "Marriage has got historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time, and I think a marriage is as a marriage always has been, between a man and a woman." [ed note: only slightly more palatable gibberish that her opponent].
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Debate 20—a lumbering snoozefest—we call it a draw—guaranteed to anaesthetize the newly enfranchised democrats—a weird sense of calm prevails

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[jack writing in from Austin, Texas] Hillary's opening was almost beyond bizarre. Unfortunately it seemed off the cuff, and in fairness, she has had the first question in the majority of the last debates (still including up to 7 people). But still.

The rest of it, I'd score them each a point here, a point there. One thing that really struck me—and a commentator on MSNBC also mentioned it—was that Obama never seems to generate real excitement in the debates. When he appears in public, speaking to a packed stadium, yeah, El Hombre es en fuego! But he doesn't transmit that same excitement in debates. I think he probably can. But I don't see it. He comes across as way cool. I actually count it against him that he never loses his cool in these unscripted public events. Is he the kind of man who only catches fire when he is front of an admiring throng? Or is it that he's more comfortable speaking to The People? If that's true, he may be right. It's probably long past time to think we can change the corrupt Washington system by working with congress. Maybe Obama really can take it to the people, and rally the country around real change.
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Desperate Clinton campaign's thoughts and actions now more closely resemble the last days in the Fuhrer Bunker than a Democratic politcal operation

<--Click your favorite Senator to enlarge-->

It's a little sad for a long-time supporter to see The Clinton Machine throwing this hydra-headed fusillade of slung mud, desperate Hail Marys, and straws for the wind.

I do believe in hardball, but I believe what the campaign is promulgating is a scorched earth policy--wrought from wrath without a hope of turning around her bungled campaign--that will come back to damage Obama when he faces off with John McCain. [1]

It wouldn't have been so unseemly a couple months ago, when Senator Clinton was leading Senator Obama by 15 points, but coming now, when, really, all is lost, it seems crass, desperate, and guided more by anger and entitlement than wisdom.

I will be in Austin in the afternoon tomorrow--which should be interesting. Austin is an Obama hotbed. Who knows, there may even be a candidate around..though I doubt it. Hillary's lost Austin, Obama won't bother showing up in a town he can win hands down, and I doubt if McCain ever bothers to appear.

At this point, I only regret that Hillary is in the race for two more weeks, doing incalculable damage. . . as our reader/frequent Kev points out, Obama doesn't really need anyone's endorsement right now, But he does indeed need "all hands on deck" as Kev wisely said, come the general.

Well, it's time to get all hands on deck and slap a muzzle on Hillary Clinton. Over the last few days she:

►Denounced Obama over the weekend for an anti-Clinton flier about the Nafta trade treaty;

►On Sunday, sarcastically portrayed his message of hope as naïve;

►On Monday, Senator Clinton delivered a scorching speech comparing Mr. Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience to that of the candidate George W. Bush;

►In Clinton’s Monday speech , she also portrayed herself as “tested and ready” to be commander in chief, while accusing Mr. Obama of believing “that mediation and meetings without preconditions will solve some of the world’s most intractable problems”;

►And the capper was a photograph of Mr. Obama in ceremonial African garb that appeared on the Drudge Report (see our post on this in yesterday's All This Is That), and the item’s author, Matt Drudge, claimed that the image was provided by a Clinton staff member.

Clinton advisers said the attacks were an effort (among other things) to knock Mr. Obama off balance before the debate on Tuesday. Good luck! In the world of videogames (I'm told) there is something known as a finishing move. A finishing move is the coup de grace performed on a crippled enemy. With the Clinton campaign in desperation mode, we just may see Obama apply the finishing move tonight. We may have to wait until March 4th for the twitching to stop, but I have a real feeling Obama may put an end to the madness tomorrow.

[ED'S NOTE: And the Obamanites have to realize sooner or later that this isn't some kind of landslide in the making. Start your real work now! He's had an incredible run and he's an incredible politician--at least on the wholesale level. We don't know how his retail politics fare; how he works on the ground, getting things done with the best and the brightest. We'd bet he's pretty good. He hasn't been a backbencher in the Senate, but let's face it, he hasn't been there very long at all either. He's shown character, charm and elan, and in the end, he's been a political mastermind. If he pulls this off, and leaps from the state legislature to the Presidency in four years...WHEW! He just wrote the book on something George McGovern tried, and Forbes, Perot, Anderson, Nader, Ron Paul, Howard Dean, and others couldn't pull off--a populist, people-based run for the oval office.

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It's all over except the wheezing? The Clinton campaign in tatters?

Maggie Williams: took control of the campaign

The Senator Still skinnin' and grinnin'

Harold Ickes: still in, on the hunt for superdelegates

Senator Hillary Clinton, in public at least, keeps right on whistling past the graveyard. Yesterday, she campaigned across South Texas trying out a more grass-roots sort of message in at attempt to staunch her recent string of eight straight lost primaries in one week.

Patti Solis Doyle: out

Deputy Campaign Manager Mike Henry: out!

Maggie Williams, a confidante of Mrs. Clinton when she was first lady, has taken control of the campaign since the departure last weekend of Patti Solis Doyle. Ms. Williams is running a daily triage on what ads to buy and is also expanding the inner circle of advisers to extend beyond the old Clinton crony network.

Communications Director Howard Wolfson, now charged with

making Hillary more likable

According to insiders, the campaign is in shell-shock.

And cork it, Senator Barack Obama's camp yesterday declared the Clinton campaign doomed. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said that Mrs. Clinton can't become the Democratic nominee without winning every remaining contest in "blowout form." In a conference call with reporters, he said that "even the most creative math" won't do it. Listening to the pundits on Hardball, I'd have to agree. Yes, Hillary has upset the pollsters and pundits over and over in this campaign, but this time it looks like there won't be any miracles; it's all over except for the wheezing.

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