Sometimes a picture just says it all (if you squint you can see the words democratic national convention at the top but you'd think they were a bit ashamed)

The Denver Convention brought to you by the democratic national committee , the democratic majority in the house and Obama. Bought (cheap) and paid for by the telecom community with the money they save from not having to defend themselves from lawsuits. And please start holding your breath now for Obama to withdraw that immunity should he become president.

So for all of you wondering why some democrats don't support Obama this was just the beginning. You may be able to rationalize his actions to yourselves but I always supported democrats because they were the the party that stood for fairness and justice.

Of course I am not so naive as to believe that all democrats share my values but when they don't, I skip that name on the ballot. Obama has made clear from the beginning what kind of politician he is. Why did he join the wright church? Because it was good for his career in Chicago politics. Why did he disown the man who was his inspiration and mentor for 20 years? Because it was not good for his career as he runs for president. The laugh is that the media allowed Obama to characterize Hillary as the one who was willing to do anything to win.

I am devastated. The O'bama campaign has thrown the o'possums under the bus already.  The magnifigant seal didn't even last through the weekend. I wish I knew how to post a picture but I don't so here is the link to the story about how they already chucked the Obama/presidential seal here http://adage.com/campaigntrail/post?arti cle_id=127944

Thank goodness that through the magic of the internet it has been preserved for posterity. You can view how closely it resembles the real preseidential seal here http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/200 8/06/20/when-the-obama-logo-and-presiden tial-seal-morph/ I guess it is back to the drawing board for that awesome campaign  team of his!

And I was gearing up to produce my new batch of bumperstickers  "O'possums for truth". Such a shame.

I am afraid I am a die hard Hillary fan. And I am a bit miffed at the fact that blacks can support Obama at 90% but women can't get their act together and support the first woman candidate in history at the same rates. Especially one who was so much more experienced than her opponent. I wonder what ancient gene we carry that makes us look at each other as competitors rather than allies?

In fact I just got back from the Texas Democratic convention, which took place over the weekend.  Hillary won the popular vote in Texas but the caucus system that followed after gave Obama the lead from the caucuses and he ended up with 99 delegates to her 94. Based on my direct experiences here with the Kool-aid drinkers I am sure had it been reversed and Obama had lost to Hillary in such a close contest there would have been a blood bath at the convention.

It was hilarious for Hillary supporters at the convention because the at large delegates are chosen by a long drawn out process. After the party determines the split they then turn it over to the campaigns themselves to pick their delegates. The Clinton campaign process went quickly and the slate was submitted based on rewarding those that helped the nominee the most in the state. The Obama campaign however had huge problems. Dallas has two potential black power bases. One is a guy named Ron Kirk -wealthy black attorney and the other is the senator from the 23 district -Royce West- an old time typical democratic political power broker- the worst of that kind whether you are white or black. Well Royce West submitted his own slate completely ignoring the campaign's slate and since he had bought (not literally i.e. with money) the vote of the right members of the committee - he won. The floor fight was soooo entertaining watching them fighting amongst themselves and such a harbinger of what is to come.

There has been a lot talk about the recent gas tax holiday that Hillary (and McCain) have proposed. And Obama has called pandering. The media, helped by the Obama campaign, has gone along with this characterization of Hillary's proposal (though oddly that same frame has not been applied to McCain and he is somehow not pandering). And of course there is a huge difference between what Hillary proposed and what McCain proposed that for the most part has been given short shrift. She would pay for hers by collecting the tax from oil companies instead and McCain will yet again put it on the national credit card. So Hillary's proposal causes no loss in highway funds and no loss of revenue or jobs as Obama has tried to suggest.

Someone in my precinct went around with his video camera at the 16th senatorial convention in Texas and started recording this message about how all kinds of people are supporting Clinton. It is up on You tube now. Take a look and then do as he says and add your voice. Send it to your friends and all the people you know who are Hillary supporters. Lets get noticed!

View here and add your own voice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLHav_ysd rI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNAro1B_F V0&feature=related

Dear PA voters,

You have a chance to make history and I hope you will come through for us. New Hampshire did it first, then Texas and Ohio stepped in and made sure that everyone knew that Hillary was the best candidate and now it is up to you. (this is not to disparage the other states that went for Hillary especially Michigan and Florida but these are the states that made the pundits eat their words). MSM labeled her campaign "inevitable" not Hillary, they went on and on about how perfectly run her campaign was run in those early days and how she just couldn't seem to make any mistakes (of course the new meme is what a bad campaign she has run but we shall see) and then the MSM fell for their new love- Obama (but only if he isn't put up against their favorite -the maverick).

Americans (and democrats in particular) have a fascination with the new and untried. It always seems so wonderful to see a fresh face and democrats swoon so easily. That is the attraction of Barack Obama. If democrats had been smart in 2004 they would have made their nominee Al Gore. But no we democrats never go with someone who lost (even if they actually won by over a half a million votes and if Al Gore didn't suffer from the same democratic wimpyness as the rest of them he wouldn't have been in that position because he would have used Bill Clinton to his full potential and Florida would have been moot -but that is another rant). We in all our wisdom decided that a war hero was the way to go and it wouldn't matter that he was a northeast liberal and had a foreign sounding wife.  And we lost yet again. Do you honestly think that if the Supreme Court had stolen the election so blatantly from Bush in the 2000 election that the republicans would have fielded any other candidate? Not a chance in hell.

Texas has both a primary and a caucus. In the primary voters come in and in 5-10 minutes  can usually cast their ballot. There is very little excuse in my mind for a voter to contend they do not have time to do this, even if you have a job , 5 screaming kids or are very old and handicapped. A caucus on the other hand requires you to commit to come after the polls have closed at 7:15 PM and stay around for at least an hour and if they are heavily attended, for hours to sign in and to elect delegates to the senatorial convention. I ran one these caucuses on March 4th in Dallas TX after having arrived at 6 AM to set up the polls and working all day to see that voters were able to cast their ballot in a timely fashion.  I dropped off my election judges materials finally around 10:30 to 11 PM that night.

Most voters came into vote that day not knowing about the caucus. Of course some had been informed by the campaigns of either Clinton or Obama that they HAD to come back to "sign-in" for the caucus. My little old friend who has voted in every democratic primary since I have been doing this in 2001 came in and I asked are you coming back for the caucus. She said "oh deary no honey I have to have my son drive me now and I don't think I can make it". Another young woman came in and I asked do you think you can come back and caucus. She said no my husband is out of town and I would have to find a baby sitter plus there is the TAKS test tomorrow and I have to get the children to bed. All day long we had some young college students hanging around outside though asking voters if they supported Obama and if they did telling them about the caucus and asking them to return. They also told them they only had to sign in and didn't actually have to stay. Turns out at least some of them, though they truly were registered in our precinct, were being paid by the Obama campaign to do this. I wonder if they were making more than the $7.00 an hour that the county pays its election judges?

When the caucus sign in started after the polls closed, which was about 7:30 PM because while the poll doors close at 7 PM sharp the last voter has to finish and that took a bit of time, most people just signed the sheets with presidential preference  and then left. We had 52 Obama and 32 Clinton people sign in but by the time we actually did the count and were trying to allocate delegates the place was much  emptier. I could have contested this and forced the count to be retaken and if I had the Clinton fraction would have increased greatly. That was perfectly within my rights. I did not though because I am  the democratic chair of the whole precinct  and need to serve even those who don't support my candidate. But if I were a person picked by a particular campaign I would have forced the issue and helped my candidate because I most likely would never have to deal with these people again. This indeed happened in many places where the normal precinct chair was too busy closing the polls or frankly just didn't care.