Obama Supporters Optimistic Despite NJ Defeat

"The mood was upbeat."

Of course it is, they're not going to abandon their entire platform that quickly.

Karl Rove called me and said Obama will be ahead in the delegate count later today.

appletonty is just out of the frame

"... New Jersey ...is basically part of New York..." Codey said...

Nice thing for this NJ resident/politician to say!

Obama won Essex County according to the unofficial tally on the Division of Elections website, something like 71,000 (Obama) to 56,000 (Clinton). McCain doubled Romney (surprisingly good Huckabee showing).

I like Codey, but that statement is just dumb.

But perhaps he was still drunk from the optimistic air coming from Obama...

Wait, though...

Does this mean that NJ rejects optimism? Or hope? Or...

Hillary won Bloomfield:

http://www.mycommunity.com/town/Bloomfield/Detail_View/view.html?type=stories&action=detail&sub_id=21846

But did Huckabee win Colbert???...

It looks like Obama is ahead in delegates actually voted for by the people (603 to 590), but that Hillary is ahead when you add the "superdelegates" -- the party bosses and cronies (783 to 709).

( I'm using data from CNN )

The tally is not final yet, Clinton is currently ahead very slightly in the non-superdelegates.

(looking at that cnn page)

Joe Biden was in the race? Really?

I love that social conservatives are saying McCain should start to court them. He's winning without them! They should be courting him if you ask me.

"I will not vote out of fear".

Change, huh?

The only difference is that folks will say, "really, the Clintons (name your controversy) did that? (Eyes roll) Shocking..."

Whereas, when all the questions/issues come out about Obama (drugs, his church, his middle name), his being "above" that "kinda politics" won't work.

And how does he go negative?

Or even bring up McCain's baggage (first wife, Keating 5, etc.) without seeming to "stoop" to "their" level.

I've yet to see a Saint run for President. But he seems to have put himself in a box here.

(Maybe not, though...)

In that statement about Clinton he seems to be saying "vote for me they have less dirt on me". Which is certainly asking for votes out of fear.

But beside that, of course they have more on her, she's actually accomplished things!

And does anyone know what "organizing" on the South Side of Chicago means?

I have no idea, but if you are "organizing" and then look out the window and see some boys throwing rocks at a derelict building you can tell they have "no prospects in life" simply by the way they look - some external visible aspect, apparently.

Hillary + 21 Counties
Barak Obama + 02 Counties.
#s do not lie.

So does "organizing" give one the tools needed to be President?

(Or was it--- I feel wrong even bringing it up, but here goes: something a non-American black person with a White mom do to solidify his "street" cred?)

I didn't read his book (and have no desire to), but does he discuss this?

Hillary + 21 Counties
Barak Obama + 02 Counties.
#s do not lie.

prof, Obama was born in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Hawaii became a state in 1959. How is Obama non-American?
I hope you're not going to go back to his "funny" name again.

Sorry, cro---- non Black-American (not non-American).

Not an African-American, which any Egyptian can claim.

(And he does have a funny name.)

Yes, saying in effect that the Republicanst have less dirt on him is asking people to vote out of fear. It's true, tho; because he's been a U.S. senator for so short a time he is less vulnerable to attack on his record, and therefore probably more electible. But I'll take Hill's experience any day. Barack seems to be an honest, decent person who gives wonderful speeches and whose heart is in the right place. But I honestly cannot see him as a man of action.

Am I the only one rapidly getting very tired of Codey? (Well, no, someone else just last week reminded us he's basically a party hack of little real accomplishment.) And why over the last 4 decades do so many tiresome Democratic legislators seem to hail from West Orange? (Brendan Byrne, Frank Dodd, et al.)

He sounded even worse than usual, however, at both the Giants blast and in West Orange last night. Dumber, screechier, more hacklike. If he hadn't threatened to punch out those radio hosts a few years ago for making fun of his wife, thereby tapping into something many found very heartfelt and appealing, I wonder if we'd even care about whatever he says whenever he says it in public. But then, NJ in general is not known for spawning inspirational or very dedicated politicans in general. From either party.

And I would always pay proper heed of the thin-lipped calculation of the Clintons and their Myrmidons. Especially after last night.

Are you saying that one must have 2 100% black American parents in order to be a Black American? If so, that would leave a lot of people off the list.
What is the distinction, according to you, between Black Americans and Non-Black (who happen to be, in fact, both American and at least partially black) Americans?

There are pro-Hillary people in this town too...

"Karl Rove called me and said Obama will be ahead in the delegate count later today."

Valerie Plame just called me and said that Karl Rove's number is just about up...

As I've written before, I allow folks to self-identify. So whether or not your folks are 100% is of no concern to me.

If you see yourself as whatever, far be it for me to question that.

But please re-read my post. I'm asking about Obama's personal question of his own blackness. And did this cause he to seek work in the black community.

I hope this is not the first time you've heard that some biracial kids have difficulty trying to find out who they are.

This question has been around of late as parents tour the local schools.

I've said it before and I'll keep saying
it..Obama is so close to Clinton ONLY because of the Oprah induced "sheep vote"...which is pretty damn sad IMO.
I can't wait to see what or who she decides to promote next.
(Maybe the wind turbine guy should contact her)

I guess there are a lot of Oprah sheep 'round here...

Of course it is, they're not going to abandon their entire platform that quickly.

Either universal healthcare is a pinko commie scheme (and also a bad idea), or Barack's only platform plank is optimism. Make up your mind.

And as much as I like McCain, he's as much of a one-trick pony as anyone, talking about the war against terrorism. Huckabee keeps painting himself so far to the right that you'd think he started the John Birch society, and whatever Romney's for, you'll know he'll against it sooner or later.

No, it is not the first time I've heard about bi-racial kids, prof. Two of my own are bi-racial. But I'm sure you are far more attuned to their concerns than I might be.
You may have asked the question about Barack's blackness in your head, but your post is a mishmash claiming that Obama is non-American, then backing off that and saying that he's not "Black American", and then tailing off into the usual no-man's land of proflogic.
If you allow people to self-identify, why call his blackness, whiteness, whatever into question?

Personally, I don't care about Obama's "blackness" but more importantly, I don't see any "there" there. He talks a great bit about what he would LIKE to do but doesn't put anything of substance behind those ambitious goals. I find it naive that he believes he's going to be able to "fix" eveything in his first term.

Obama is setting himself up as the alternative for those who don't like any of the substances they see elsewhere. He's a fine line ready to be snorted by those who are seeking....

Oh, never mind. I've been hearing too much about Heath Ledger today.

A drug reference from a guy named crank.
Fitting.

Oprah's sheep are everywhere prof...some places more then others.
You don't think there are plenty of Montclair stay at home moms in front of that TV at 4:00 everyday watching Op?
lol
It's just the way it is (unfortunately).
Ask anyone at a book house about their Book Club related horrors or a businesses wanting to get products on air for her "Favorite Things".
This has been written about extensively btw....you don't have to take my word for it.

I guess Obama is no different.
Is he to be considered an endorsed "product" for her too...or a "Favorite Thing"?
That's certainly one way it's being viewed.

In Obama's defense, there are many good people who believe in him and support him and I respect that.
But the sheep vote...that's why he's so close to Hilary.
No doubt about it..

I am very hopeful that Obama will win the primary. As soon as people realize that Hillary's experience claim is nonsense, and that she didn't fight Bush at all as a senator, they will go to Obama. Deep down, people realize that Obama is best for the military, because he has the judgment necessary to be president. She was just a ineffectual pants suit in the senate, permitting the Bushies to crap all over the country. They will rip her record apart. She was so focused on the presidency as senator that she refused to do her job. Every day I see that Obama is really the solid one, and she is driven by ambition, not a set of goals forged by principles.

As they might say on Brokeback Mountain, Barack Obama is the Democrat's version of George Bush: all hat and no cattle.

Well that's a new low, PorkRoll.

And to the uneducated one who assumes that Oprah is somehow boosting Obama? Well, that might actually be true, IF WOMEN WERE FLOCKING IN DRIVES TO OBAMA, which they are not.

Do any of you people actually follow this presidential race? Or do you simply feel compelled to comment anyway?

You'r forgittin' what its like to be poor, Jack: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTTytc_Dfnc

I'd just prefer it if the first woman president's "experience" consisted of more than being someone's wife.

jonsey, I believe she was elected to the US Senate and before Obama too!

Howrd Dean today:

"I think we will have a nominee sometime in the middle of March or April. But if we don't, then we're going to have to get the candidates together and make some kind of an arrangement," said Dean, who failed in his bid for the party's nomination in 2004.

"Because I don't think we can afford to have a brokered convention -- that would not be good news for either party."

A backroom deal, eh?

And she was re-elected, too!

I find it interesting that people accuse Hillary of having no relevant experience, considering that Hillary is now in her second year of her second term (or more simply, eighth year) as a US Senator.

John Edwards spent less time, only a single 6-year term, in the US Senate (and was only into his fourth year when he ran for VP), yet I didn't hear the same criticism leveled at him.

As for Obama, forget it. Hope, optimism, and blowing feel-good smoke up people's chimneys obscures his mere 3 years as a US Senator.

jonsey, I believe she was elected to the US Senate and before Obama too!

Her election to the Senate was based on nothing more than her husband's popularity and the fact that she ran against a doofus.

But she's been in the US Senate for 7 years, that's experience. For what it's worth I think Obama is a much better person that Hillary.

I don think Howard Dean's "arrangement" is very troubling though. It clearly puts party before country. It puts the party wining before the will of the people (in this case the will of the Democratic electorate)

Isn't any one else troubled by such statements?

"I DO think Howard Dean's..."

p.s. Can you imagine Obama taking such a backroom deal? I can't.

Obama:

"And they came to me (ah)*,
and they said, 'Obama' (ah),
have we got a deal for ya (ah),
but in the words of that drunk Amy Winehouse,
I said NO, NO, NO!!!!"

(Cheers as the crowd is doused with optimistic air...)

*The "ah" is what preacher-man Obama seems to interject after each sentence so his flow is much like the great preacher/orators.