The Unity Pony is missing a few legs
Posted: June 11, 2008 Filed under: No Obama, Uncategorized | Tags: cuban americans, hispanics, iran, israel, jewish americans, No Obama, obama shortcomings, unity pony, Women 8 Comments
I’ve always been a fan of NPR. It’s the best way to spend a morning or afternoon commute to work. They have not quite joined in the Main Stream Media Lovefest for Obama so I can listen with out feeling like my intelligence is being insulted. This post concerns something they discussed earlier. It seems they’ve discovered a keen lack of enthusiasm over Obama by key democratic constituencies.
I know that Donna and Howard and Nancy and Harry don’t think the party needs working class whites or women. We’ve been told that over and over. But NPR and Leon Pannetta suggest something different.
“Leon Panetta, who served as White House chief of staff under former President Bill Clinton, says Obama still faces problems with swing voters in swing states.
“By virtue of having lost some of those big states and some of those very important constituencies that are important — Latino, white, rural, a lot of the blue-collar women’s vote — he can’t afford to not get those votes back in the Democratic Party. … Those fault lines have cost the Democrats, I think, seven of the last 10 presidential races,” he says.
“If they open up and stay unhealed, then there’s no question that he ultimately loses,” Panetta adds.”
source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91366795
I personally disagree with Panetta in that I think Obama’s got a lot more woman problems than the one’s he has with my blue collar sisters. Most of the women that I know that can’t stand Obama are highly educated and professional. But, it got me thinking are there more folks out there not on the unity pony? I decided to do some searching around the web for indications of some of the other groups since I’m more than aware of the so-called bitter women and racist hillbilly backlash.
First, I looked into where the Jewish money is going. Jewish Americans are very politically astute and active. They also will donate to causes they believe in and care about. When I ran for office in the mid 80s in Nebraska one of my best set of phone bankers were the Jewish women’s groups in Omaha. They are tireless supporters of abortion rights and campaigns that strongly recognize the nonestablishment clause in the first amendment. So here’s the first major indication that the Jewish money is going to McCain now that Hillary Clinton has been sidetracked.
Here’s a little bit from The Hill:
“Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is attracting elite Jewish Democratic donors who backed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and are concerned about Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) stance toward Israel, say McCain backers who are organizing the effort to court Democrats.
McCain has already had several fundraising events with Jewish Democrats in Washington and Florida, say his supporters.”
Oh, dear, that’s not going too well. I also imagine that all those nice jewish folks in Florida don’t like being considered 1/2 of a person either. This does not bode well for Obama on many, many levels.
I guess even if you tell stories about Auschwitz and say you really didn’t mean it when you said Iran was not a threat, it just doesn’t cut it. It takes more than lip service and backpedalling to attract major Jewish donors. I guess Obama’s former camp counsellor just isn’t on the unity pony.
source: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/jewish-dem-donor-joins-mccain-team-2008-06-10.html
Next, I went looking for some evidence that Hispanic Americans might being loving them some unity pony. Earlier, it was evident that pandering to Cuban-Americans wasn’t working very well for Obama. I guess when you announce on every news channel during a debate that you intend to meet with leaders of rogue countries without preconditions that your average Cuban-American think this means the Castro brothers. Obama again qualified and back pedaled. It was quietly mentioned in the MSM over Memorial Day weekend that Cuban Americans were pretty safe Republican voters. It appears they still will be.
However, Hispanic Americans are not some huge monolithic group so, as the Google godess, I went searching for the unity pony and any hispanic communities in the saddle. I found this about the Hispanic votes in Obama’s backyard in Illinois.
“Dozens of Fox Valley Hispanics will get the chance to talk with Sen. John McCain, the Republican Party’s nominee for president, later this month. And they’ll get to do it for free.
McCain will be in Chicago on June 18 for a fundraiser at the Drake Hotel, but he’ll stick around that night to hold a town hall meeting with Illinois Hispanics …
“A lot of Hispanics are just hard-working small-business owners,” Brady said. “They don’t want their taxes going up, they don’t want the government in their business. They want the borders closed, but they want (immigrants here) treated humanely.”
Wyatt is a Mexican immigrant herself, and she said she respects McCain for being among the first to push for comprehensive immigration reform. McCain and Sen. Ted Kennedy jointly proposed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act in 2007, which included a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. The bill never reached a vote.”
Guess the unity pony doesn’t understanding Spanish very well.
How about you? Are you getting on that Unity Pony?
I thought Democratic unity ponies were representative of all kinds of people. Maybe this year, the unity pony has lost a few its parts.
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
I read this today and found it a little disturbing.
From JohnMcCain.com:
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/95b18512-d5b6-456e-90a2-12028d71df58.htm
Human Dignity and the Sanctity of Life
Overturning Roe v. Wade
John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned, and as president he will nominate judges who understand that courts should not be in the business of legislating from the bench.
Constitutional balance would be restored by the reversal of Roe v. Wade, returning the abortion question to the individual states. The difficult issue of abortion should not be decided by judicial fiat.
However, the reversal of Roe v. Wade represents only one step in the long path toward ending abortion….
Do you remember how Bush used to say 9-11 every time some question would come up? That’s the fear tactics that were used by the Bush administration used to scare us into supporting every thing they were and they stand for.
Barrack Obama’s fear tactic for women is Roe v. Wade. I would just like to point out that at this point, there ARE 5 judges that are known to be anti-Roe and that this could happen at any time. The antichoice movement has been active at chipping away at Roe for as long as it was decided. Where were these folks then?
Obama voted only PRESENT on issues regarding Roe V. Wade.
He has also not stood up for GLBT rights or issues.
He has no right to scare us now.
Just as Bush can use 9-11 in every breath to try to frighten us. So Obama can use Roe v. Wade. Do not fall for straw men.
Ok, so there are all of these rather small groups, even a few Jewish people who can help out John McCain’s crappy fundraising apparatus.
So what?
When we stormed the barricades, if you will, in January, for the Paul campaign, we found out that in Louisiana (and in many other states,) the GOP party apparatus is a corrupt, rotten structure manned by a few middle-aged men and some old ladies.
So let all of the people who harbored some bizarre admiration for Clintron go vote for the Mad Bomber rather than have “one of those people” in the White House. It won’t change much of anything, because the people who desert won’t even replace the conservatives who will stay home rather than vote for McCain, and even if they could, Obama’s grassroots op is going to wipe the floor with McCain. Getting out the vote wins elections, and Obama’s simply going to be better at it, and a few people won’t change that.
Think about this: even now that he’s the “presumptive nominee,” in primaries that have similiar turnout rates to earlier primaries, John McCain still doesn’t get more than 75% of the GOP vote. I’ve heard similiar things from GOP party canvassers in Texas (!) – registered Republicans are saying that they won’t vote for McCain. This is why the state and local parties are so desperate to enforce “unity,” and also why disgruntled Clintonites might give McCain a slight boost at best – all of the Republican base voters who are going to stay home.
I’m always amused at the ‘bots who tout Obama’s supposed ability to register gazillions of new voters and get them all out to vote. Well, where were they in Ohio? Where were they in Pennsylvania? Where were they in West Virginia? Where were they in Kentucky? If he is so talented in this respect, he should certainly have finished this election cycle on a high note, particularly since all his supporters, the MSM, and the DNC were all yelling that Hillary didn’t have a chance, that she should drop out? The real fact of the matter is that the DNC had to pick up his sorry a*s and drag him across the finish line because he was totally unable to do it himself. Obama won’t wipe up the floor with anyone simply because he doesn’t have it in him. Far lefties may like having an affirmative action candidate, but the rest of the country sees it as it is. Count on it.
And I surely wouldn’t bet on Republicans staying home. They may not think McCain is conservative enough for them. But if that is true, then they definitely won’t want Obama as their president. They’ll do what they have to do to get their base out, as they always do. They are already loading up juicy wingnut initiatives on ballots all over the country just for that purpose.
Every time I come upon this site, the picture of that horse has me laughing uncontrollably, and I am not one that laughs that easily! Don’t know how you did that embed but Bravo! Btw, you have my email, so please contact me for a couple of ideas if you would. Wierdly enough WordPress does not seem to offer the option of an email link anywhere hence this note. Once again, let me say that both visuals and writings at your site are interesting, often stunning, always deep. Keep it up.
This was my first visit, but after the insightful writing, and amazing visuals (love the pony!), I am adding you to my blogroll!
CD,
The Republicans I know are poorly motivated and gloomy about their election prospects (and they’re both rank-and-file and the party leadership.)
If you’ve met a different set, I’d like to meet them.
:-p
I’m just saying that, on the whole, both from my personal experience and from what I’ve heard from people who -are- trying to get out the vote for McCain, he has a very disorganized operation and little grassroots campaigning.
Two southern districts have gone to antiwar democrats. That’s part of why I dismiss McCain. Admittedly, Obama won’t be that effective in the Christo-fascist heartland where Hillary could have won (ahem), but I think that will be more than balanced by a good performance in the West and among southern blacks.
And, look, when 25% of the people who show up at a primary show up to vote AGAINST that party’s nominee, that is a very, very bad sign.