For Charlie Rangel:
In an interview with ABC News, Rep. Charles Rangel said he thinks it is time for Clinton to publicly clarify what she is doing and allow her supporters to switch their allegiance to Barack Obama.
“Unless she has some good reasons– which I can’t think of– I really think we ought to get on with endorsements (of Obama) and dealing with what we have to deal with… so we can move forward,” Rangel said.
Rangel last spoke with Senator Clinton privately on Tuesday during the day. On Wednesday he took part in a conference call Clinton had with the NY congressional delegation.
Asked why the Senator told supporters Tuesday night that she needed more time to consider her future, Rangel said: “I have no clue.”
In fact, Rangel said he was surprised by last night’s speech.
Rangel has been blind-sided before, during the RFK gaffe fall-out:
Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), among Hillary Rodham Clinton’s top African-American supporters, was none too pleased with Clinton’s comments this week to USA Today that she has broader appeal with white voters.
The statement was “the dumbest thing she could have said,” Rangel told reporters before a Clinton fundraiser in a midtown hotel ballroom Saturday.
So I guess maybe I don’t feel bad for him after all. Really, the only people who are surprised by Hillary’s behavior last night simply have not been paying attention. I know, I know, I have Clinton derangement syndrome, but does this really surprise people that this is ending this way?
jibeaux
You’ve blockquoted the same thing twice, and broken your vow to ignore her twice since last night.
Oh, I see what you did there. It’s a “Clinton vow”. Good work!
TheFountainHead
From Politico.com comes this little vignette about Obama’s trip to DC today:
Shorter Obama: “Tread lightly, little man.”
ThymeZone
I could not enjoy that story more, TFH, unless Barack had kicked Lieberman in the junk and said,
Okay, I wouldn’t have said “at least until November.”
Rick Taylor
We need people like him and Hilary Rosen to pull the rest of the Clinton supporters that are still saveable back from the edge.
Roonieroo
Okay, I was really trying to cut her some slack last night. I watched the speech again today and now I’m really wondering what is wrong with this bunch.
She needs to do this in a quick, lack of fanfare way NOW. It’s no longer about her and this is just painful.
John, you gotta keep your vow! You are just getting me all stirred up again.
Dreggas
I feel sorry for the crap Clyburn had to deal with yesterday.
jibeaux
The Carpetbagger version (quoting Roll Call) was even better.
“dragged him by the hand”
As you would do with a child having a tantrum, in order to calmly but firmly explain the consequences, and re-emphasize the allocations of authority in the family.
jake
That’s not surprised that’s pissed off, Charlie Rangel style. And if Hillary doesn’t need supporters who’ll tell her to step back from the ledge I don’t know who does.
(If we’re just looking at presidential candidates.)
dmsilev
Think of Charlie Rangel and Ed Rendell, etc., as the family members that the hostage negotiation team has brought in to try to reason with the person up on the roof.
They’re trying to talk her, and her supporters, down gently. And this is gentle, compared to what they could be saying.
Blue Raven
I think he’s going to do OK against the McCain/Rethug noise machine. The election will be closer than it ought to be because too many people really are bigots, but he’s not going to be ashamed of his behavior and should reap the rewards.
jake
I type t o o s l o w.
LanceThruster
“Forget it, John. It’s Gina-town” ~ LanceThruster
Crusty Dem
I’m still trying to figure out HRC’s speech last night. I can recall instances when a politician has stayed in a fight long after it was over (Huckabee, Ted Kennedy in 1980, Brown in 1992), but it’s generally seemed to have a purpose beyond the candidate him/herself. Or it served to draw more attention to the candidate for a future run. I’ve never seen a candidate talk about soldiering on when their opponent had clearly, mathematically, eliminated them. It’s just bizarre. And oddly, it makes the final withdraw both more obvious and more tortured than it would be otherwise, because there isn’t a new reason for her to drop out, it’ll just be the same one that everyone else saw a long time ago. She lost. It’s over. It was over, I’ll be extremely kind, and say 3 weeks ago. At no point can it be MORE over. It’s like a doctor pronouncing someone MORE dead.
Honestly, if I didn’t have some sympathy, I would find it all highly amusing. But we’re going past sad and venturing well into “Black Knight” territory, here…
Brachiator
Yes, I like this. The GOP goons have mistaken the civility with which Obama treated Senator Clinton with a lack of toughness. But now they are seeing the other side.
That’s the Chicago way.
cbear
fixt
Just Some Fuckhead
Look, HRC wrote that acceptance speech during some pretty dark days in 1998 and she was gonna give it hell or high water, dammit.
Crusty Dem
JSF, no way she wrote that in 1998, it didn’t refer to her husband’s unfortunate accidental castration and death at all.
Otto Man
Well said.
I get the feeling she’s been writing “President Hillary Clinton” on her Trapper Keeper in cursive ballpoint over and over and over again for a decade.
Ted
Has anyone checked in on pluk and Myiq today to see how they’re doing?
jake
Except that if they see it at all they’re going to see big dark radical Muslim picking on the helpless Jewish guy.
The Politico made from 99% recycled ass wipe.
NR
pluk is over at Talk Left, where they’re shouting about the Rezko verdict today.
Jon H
“Has anyone checked in on pluk and Myiq today to see how they’re doing?”
Ah! All day I’ve thought I heard some muffled sobbing which seemed like it was emanating from the ethernet jacks.
That explains it!
Just Some Fuckhead
Yeah, Jake checked on ’em. He said they were sitting on the floor cross-legged and face to face quietly shaving each other’s head.
Zifnab
This is why I like being a Democrat. No more rally ’round the stupid pole because your candidate blundered and you can’t bring yourself to admit it. The party finally seems to be approaching a point at which it can show something approaching humility, grace, and common sense.
Charlie Rangel scores a point or three in my book for this. I understand why he’s a Hillary supporter and I appreciate how he’s trying to slowly back the Hill-bus off the edge of the cliff. We need more politicians like this guy.
Dork
Seriously, Cole. You JUST SAID a few posts below that you were done with her…wouldn’t blog about her.
Now you’ve gone back-to-back, with no end in sight. WTF is the problem?
You’re telling me a Pens post, beer post, or post about this aint good enough to generate a few rants?
montysano
via Tbogg:
The last 24 hours have been a smorgasbord of schadenfreude.
Desmond
Goddammit, where’s the “DEVASTATING BOMBSHELL” from No Quarter? Here I was, all excited to see it!
binzinerator
I don’t either. I realized what HRC was about when she used that 3am wakeup call ad. Sure all the subsequent bullshit was frustrating and infuriating, but I was no longer surprised.
Just as I won’t be surprised when Hillary declares herself an independent for a 3rd party run. That’s the ledge Rangel and some other of her supporters are trying to talk her back from.
If you really believe she stopped campaigning for the 2008 election and has been instead angling for 2012, it follows that she would do that. It’s now the best way to ensure Obama loses.
And that makes sense of this “I need some more time” bit. It’s time not to come to grips with her defeat, which plays right into that sexist stereotype of women being more fragile and emotionally weaker than men, but to do a gut-check of the big donors who said they’d back a 3rd party run if she lost.
rob!
rocking back and forth, in adult diapers, sobbing.
NR
Goddammit, where’s the “DEVASTATING BOMBSHELL” from No Quarter? Here I was, all excited to see it!
I like the idea that this video was supposedly available online and for sale on DVD until March of this year, yet now only one copy exists, held securely by the Republicans in a vault underneath Area 51 or something.
The Grand Panjandrum
I still fondly recall the HRC supporters mockingly calling Obama, “Obabmi”. You’ll Rangel’s wife is an Obama supporter so Charlie knows whats up. Its all good until its time to give up the ghost and get on with kicking McCain’s ass.
binzinerator
Gave me a good laugh at the end of my day! Thanks!
Just Some Fuckhead
Joan Walsh and Pat Buchanan (I can wait until this crazy bedfellows shit is over!) said Hillary is just trying to figure out when, where and how to concede.
Um, how about last night in New York, graciously. Duh.
Has HRC ever made the right decision at the right time, shown good judgment when it fucking mattered most?
Jesus.
cbear
Late last night I stumbled across poor myiqey standing on a ledge, ranting and raving, in a comment thread over at NoQuarter. It wasn’t a pretty sight. He looked terrible and smelled worse, and I’m afraid he’s into the yim-yam again.
I tried to talk him down, but it was no use. He turned on me like a rabid dog and I had to haul ass out of there.
Now I know how that kid felt when Old Yeller went bad.
Sad to say, but I think we’re at the point where we have to let the disease run its course, and he either makes it back, or we’re going to have to prepare for the worst.
DrDave
I think he’s going to do more than okay and if the episode with Lieberman is any indication, he’s not going to be pushed around by McCain at all. McCain wants to do town halls with Obama; how is McCain going to look after he gets bitch slapped by Obama and then says he doesn’t want to do any more of them?
Just Some Fuckhead
I have it on good authority that McCain is actually about to announce his “150 Nursing Homes in 150 Days” campaign tour. Seems he really likes the food they serve.
Rex
Hill is holed up somewhere with her bible, a shotgun and a fifth of Crown Royal. She’ll come out when she’s damn well good and ready.
His Grace
pluk in all his awesomeness was suggesting at Talkleft today that if Obama wanted party unity the only thing that would work would be for Obama to 1) Say that nobody has won the nomination ’cause 2) Super Delegates can change their minds at any point up until the convention and that thus 3) We have to wait until the convention and let this drag on until the end of August. Seriously, in order for the party to unite, we need to let Hillary Clinton campaign for another 3 months and have a convention fight.
Although I’m still not sure if it beat out the guy who was demanding for party unity, among other things Obama had to a) Admit he ran a racist campaign that slandered Bill Clinton and b) Disown Daily Kos, America Blog, here, um, and pretty much any blog that chose Obama (not matter how tepidly).
wasabi gasp
She’s a great lady. Bronze her now.
Brachiator
I don’t think Obama has to worry. Here is the Jerusalem Post on Obama’s AIPAC speech:
cbear
Fuck that shit. The last thing we need is to listen to some low-info old asshole asking the Mup,”So, what do you make of this civil rights business, Senator?”
DrDave
It’s because they strain it beforehand so it doesn’t need much chewing.
Jon H
Next week he’ll be suggesting that they make public their respective colonoscopy videos.
NR
Talk Left still seems to be pretty crazy. On the bright side, though, MyDD seems to be coming around, though there are still several Hillary dead-enders hanging around in the comments there.
DrDave
That’s JUST what I want to see. McCain can be charming and affable in an informal one on one situation but put him in a debate situation and he looks like a doddering, old fool. The MUP can talk circles around McCain. Think Queeq on the witness stand at the end of The (Mc)Caine Mutiny.
Dennis - SGMM
The McCain/Obama town halls will be damned brief. After “You’re inexperienced,” “Bomb Iran,” and “Cut taxes,” McCain has zip.
DrDave
Obama doesn’t have colonoscopy videos; he isn’t 50 yet.
Krusherking
You don’t have Clinton derangement syndrome, John. Hillary’s got everybody else derangement syndrome. Hilary Rosen spoke out against her today.
NR
Actually, Obama is not that good in debates. I think the best he ever managed against Hillary was a draw. He needs some intensive preparation before he goes up against McCain.
Dennis - SGMM
That means that McCain has colonoscopy stereopticon slides.
Just Some Fuckhead
Fixed!
Just Some Fuckhead
Oh please, those weren’t fucking debates. They are joint interviews and the winner is the one who can’t come up with the most clever soundbite or not totally step in it.
We’ll never see an American candidate in a real debate.
NR
On the McCain debate proposal, I like Nate’s take over at FiveThirtyEight.
Dreggas
There’s a diary over at the GOS, supposedly ABC has learned that Clinton will drop out completely on Friday.
Desmond
You have to give Hillary her props; she IS good in debates. And Obama held his own against her. McCain is no Hillary, and Obama will wipe the floor with him.
Just Some Fuckhead
I just want to see that one debate where Obama references Abraham Lincoln and McCain pounces “I knew Abraham Lincoln, Senator, and you’re no Abraham Lincoln!”
leinie
You must have missed pluk’s “NOBODY PUTS BABY IN THE CORNER” diatribe (comment) at firedoglake last night.
The all caps were his.
John
This whole thing is so weird. It doesn’t seem at all like Clinton is actually going to hold on to the Convention and not concede. It seems like she’ll concede in a few days.
But the explanation for why she’s waiting so long is ridiculous – basically, that she’s been pushing so hard that now she needs a breather to get her head straight and figure out how to concede.
Look, let’s forget about the fact that Obama has been all but certain to be the nominee since his huge win in Wisconsin on February 19, and that Clinton’s failure to win back much of an advantage on March 4 sealed this.
By any reasonable standards, it’s been clear since May 6 that there was pretty much no way for Clinton to win. Obama sealed the pledged delegate lead on May 20. Clinton’s appeal to the Rules Committee failed on May 31. Even by the most generous of standards, then, Clinton’s basically already known for four days that she’s lost. By any reasonabl standard she’s known for nearly a month.
But somehow, in all that time, they never just stopped, sat back, and though “Why the fuck are we running around South Dakota? This doesn’t matter. Obama’s going to be the nominee, and I need to figure out how I’m going to concede and help bring the party back together again.”
They were so in the mud that they never even thought about this, and then, all of a sudden, June 3 comes, she does as well as she could possibly hope to do (that win in South Dakota was most unexpected), and yet it’s still over. And it’s obviously over. In a way that was completely predictable, but still seems to have come as a shock.
What were they thinking?
I’ll still give her a couple of days, and I really do think that she’ll concede by the end of this week. But, really. What on earth was going through their minds?
Dennis - SGMM
Nice catch, NR. Considering McCain’s volatility and the gaffes that he’s already made it seems like a risky strategy.
Tsulagi
Geez, you keep falling off that No-More-Hillary bandwagon. Like a smoker who keeps saying this is the last one, then saying the same thing after the next one. You’re addicted to Hillary.
Little OT. Went over to RedState for the comedy as there has been a lot of low-lying fruit there recently. The fruits have really been stroking themselves feverishly lately over Obama. This post titled It’s time to start WWIII takes the prize for today…
You would think with the election still being five months away they’d be pacing themselves, but apparently it’s already almost up to “The scary black man will eat your babies!”
These guys crack me up. The stupid is always a force there. How long before there’s a post to hide your womenfolk if Obama becomes president.
The Grand Panjandrum
Yep. And if you add in what Nate said about how much more compelling the Democrats convention will be I think the stars are aligning. The list of speakers will be quite something, and I really hope Ted Kennedy’s health allows him to attend the convention and speak. I’d love to hear from the old Lion one more time.
The old Lion introduces Obama to the convention for his acceptance speech (on the 40th anniversary of the I Have a Dream speech, BTW). That’s quite a bit of theater but isn’t that what a good portion of these elections have become in the age of TV and the internet? The visuals matter.
Dennis - SGMM
Operation Mandingo will begin next month.
SamFromUtah
This post titled It’s time to start WWIII takes the prize for today…
These are the same jokers who, after the 2006 elections, were writing comments to the effect that everything was about to be blown up because Al Qaeda had a huge arsenal of ICBMs that were held back by nothing except American WILL – and now that we’d elected a bunch of democrats, it was safe for them to nuke us.
Amazing what an echo chamber can do, isn’t it?
“Freedon”… heh.
Notorious P.A.T.
Come on, now. Whining and moaning about always being asked the first question, then badgering Obama to not only denounce but renounce as well (?) Louis Farrakhan does not a good debater make.
Notorious P.A.T.
Obama’s acceptance speech just leaked: “Where are all the white women at?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJkHykGRXrw
jake
How nice of you to assume those wankmeisters have womenfolks.
“Quick Bossy, get in the barn!”
“Moooooo!”
A Different JC
Great line, dude!
And Hillary is waiting to concede on Friday to (1) get more fundraising in, sympathy bucks, to help pay of the debt, (2) to steal the limelight from Obama for a full week, (3) and because Friday is the best day to release news (remember West Wing’s trash day?)
grumpy realist
“Why in the fuck are we running around South Dakota?”
POTD.
HRA
Heard Obama would like to debate in the Lincoln-Douglas model of debating. I think that is a far better idea than the usual debates and the town hall forums.
This was typical Charlie Rangel. Much to his credit, he called a conference call for all of the NY politicians supporting Hillary and over 20 Congressmen/women joined them. Also 8 senators who supported Hillary made their own call to ask for release and an end to the campaign (Charles Schumer NY was in on this call) Supposedly they were prompted to act by unknown Clinton campaign staffers. Both calls were to Hillary this pm.
Friday she will have a private event and on Saturday she will have a public event. I won’t believe it even when I see it.
It looks like an impossibility for the Veep position. There is a problem vetting Bill.
Janefinch
The Clintons have shown me why Republicans hated them so much in the 1990s. I am astounded at her naked narcissism, but even more so at so-called feminists and liberals who vow they will vote for pro-life Bush clone John McCain rather than Obama.
I’m just sick at this whole debacle.
Rome Again
Green jello?
Rome Again
Clinton has OCP – Obsessive Compulsive Presidenting, she will be in need of heavy meds in about three days when she realizes it’s really truly over.
Rome Again
Shopping spree? It doesn’t matter if you don’t buy anything, so long as you get to throw money away like it’s about as valuable as dirt.
Rome Again
Who would ever believe that a former POTUS couldn’t qualify for anything in this country?
Bill must have been a very very bad boy!