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Obama: Screw The Democratic Party

By SusanUnPC on January 14, 2008 at 4:38 PM in Uncategorized

[[[ Here's a LATE-NIGHT UPDATE on the cynical politics of the "hope"-panderer: The Obama campaign has repudiated these flyers. But, reports Time's Mark Halperin (the italics are his), "Obama, in Reno Monday, makes explicit appeal for independents and Republicans to caucus for him." So, the flyer's out but the message is still on. ]]]

“Here in Nevada Barack Obama has put out a flyer reading, in part, “You Can Be A Democrat for A Day,” reports Taylor Marsh. who lives and broadcasts in Las Vegas. [UPDATE: Obama's campaign is doing this nationwide. Here's an official Florida Obama campaign release on how to be a "Democrat for a Day."] Then there’s the manipulation by Obama-ite leaders of the Culinary Workers Local 226 in Nevada that forced Obama on union members (more below). (Let’s not forget that Obama dissed unions as “special interests” — that is, when they supported his rivals John Edwards and Hillary Clinton.)

So THIS is Chicago-style politics! Barack Obama, stung by his New Hampshire loss, promised a “Chicago-style smackdown,” and he’s delivered. Beyond this shocking invitation to let Republicans invade Democratic caucuses, there’s the disturbing prospect that Republicans — knowing that Obama will be the easiest Democratic nominee to defeat in the general election — will do just that. Gleefully! God almighty. Is Karl Rove advising the Obama campaign now, beyond the pages of the Wall Street Journal? Don’t forget Larry Johnson’s warnings in “Why Are the Rightwing Republicans Hyping Obama?” — which should be re-read by every true Democrat.

obamaflyer1-1.jpg

obamaflyer2-2.jpg

Read all at Taylor Marsh’s blog.

P.S. IF YOU’RE FOR OBAMA: Please volunteer to be a copy writer.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Here’s more from izarradar’s MyDD.com diary, “Not On My Shift.” (I can see why izarradar is a member of the Writer’s Guild. She writes very clearly):

I’m a card carrying union gal, a proud member of the striking WGA (“We write. You wrong”). I learned about respecting the power of the rank and file from my father who taught me never to cross a picket line, and from my own days of walking a line I learned to love the rank and file as brothers and sisters. So every time a union endorses a candidate I pay special attention because I value the voices of union members.

Senator Obama received an important endorsement the day after he lost the New Hamphire primary. The Culinary Workers Local 226 in Nevada announced that he was their candidate of choice. I was impressed by the endorsement, and respectful of the 60,000 hard-working men and women who voted for it. The rank and file had spoken, and Obama was their man, I thought.

Turns out I was wrong.

Unions use various ways to decide upon an endorsement. Sometimes it’s a questionnaire, or maybe a ballot. Other times it evolves out of meetings. In most unions, the leadership will have the final say, but not before consulting with the rank and file. This isn’t the process the Culinary Workers Local 226 used to make its endorsement of Senator Obama. The rank and file wasn’t involved in the decision at all.

And now members are pissed. …

[...]

What’s the big deal, you might ask? The union leadership can’t force a member to honor the endorsement of Senator Obama. If a member wants to vote for John Edwards, or Senator Clinton, they’re free to do so. This is a democracy, right? The secret ballot protects our identity and our choice.

Well, that’s a problem.

This is an open caucus. Union members will be standing in the same room with other union members. Or maybe even their shop steward. Or their foreman. Or possibly even a union official. Everyone will know which candidate you’re backing. And if you’re a member of Culinary Workers Local 226, and you don’t caucus for Senator Obama???

That could make for a long shift on Monday.

If it were my union, I’d be pissed. And I’d use my voice to let the union officials know it. You don’t pay union dues for this kind of forced intimidation. …

Read all of the story in “Not On My Shift.”

So I guess that Chicago-style politics includes:

(1) Stuffing a Democratic primary caucus with non-party voters; and

(2) Intimidating union members to vote as the leadership demands.

I guess the politics of “change” means “changing the rules.”

  • izarradar

    Such a powerful last line, and so true.

    “I guess the politics of “change” means “changing the rules.”

    I guess Obama was warning us when he said recently:

    “I come from Chicago politics. We’re accustomed to rough and tumble.”

    Seems to me he left out a few other discriptive words for Chicago politics.

  • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

    Wow. Obama’s campaign is doing this nationwide.

    Here’s a release from Obama’s Florida campaign staff.

    • TeakWoodKite

      Regan Dem’s?

      But we’re finding that up to 20 percent of Obama supporters are registered Republicans

      .

      I was a Dem switched parties to vote against Regan in the CA primaries..Lot a good that did.

    • Nellie

      Susan,

      Holy Shhhhhh

      Please check your inbox. I sent you an email with lots more stuff.

      Since ‘orders’ are top down in Obamacrat land, why don’t we change Obamas name to “Offal Rove” then release a memo to him.

      This guy is aggravating me even worse than Joe Lieberman did!

  • TeakWoodKite

    If I could think of one way to shake the apathy of union members and get them to show up, those leaflets would do it! The problem is they’d be looking for me with bad intent.

    Democrat for a day? What pond scum….I wan’t to see Obama STRONGLY disavow any support for the Precinct Captian. In fact if I was Obama I would go in person and ream this guy.
    Anyone want to pinky bet Culinary Staff Director Ted Pappageorge and Bob Buchanan have some history?

    Can anyone suggest a site to check on family members?

    You google this name and Michigan and Chicago comes up.

    Culinary Staff Director Ted Pappageorge.
    Some of his members are not happy campers…I did not a date on this…

    http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/unfairwagedistribution/

  • http://noquarterusa.net/blog/ Leslie

    If I were Obama, I’d fire Bob Buchanan [the guy behind the Democrat for a Day flyers].

    According to the latest USA Today/Gallup poll, Hillary Clinton is back up to pre-Iowa numbers:

    Democrats:
    Clinton: 45%; up from 33%.

    Obama: 33%, unchanged.

    John Edwards: 13%; down from 20%.

    Rep. Dennis Kucinich: 1%; down from 3%.

  • 1950democrat

    Can Obama disavow all knowledge of this website? Sorry for the long post, but imo it needs to be archived widely before they take it down.

    It came up just now at http://obamaflorida2008.com/plugins/p2_news/printarticle.php?p2_articleid=17

    and here’s the Google cache:

    http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:MVQ9FvgfVwoJ:www.obamaflorida2008.com/plugins/p2_news/printarticle.php%3Fp2_articleid%3D17+St.+Johns+voters+are+already+re-registering+in+the+%22Democrat+for+a+Day%22+program.&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=opera
    Here’s the header of the Google cache:
    This is G o o g l e’s cache of http://www.obamaflorida2008.com/plugins/p2_news/printarticle.php?p2_articleid=17 as retrieved on Nov 30, 2007 02:11:00 GMT.
    ….
    To link to or bookmark this page, use the following url: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:MVQ9FvgfVwoJ:www.obamaflorida2008.com/plugins/p2_news/printarticle.php%3Fp2_articleid%3D17+St.+Johns+voters+are+already+re-registering+in+the+%22Democrat+for+a+Day%22+program.&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=opera

    WANNA BECOME AN OBAMACRAT?!!!
    By Obama Florida 2008
    Published: April 24, 2007

    • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC
      • http://1950democrat.livejournal.com 1950democrat

        ABC/Tapper don’t have all the story. They don’t mention the Florida version which has been at an Obama campaign website since April 2007.

        I tried to post about it in Tapper’s comment string; each post would go up for a minute or two and then disappear.

        Tapper had an update about some NV Clinton Campaign people trying to get interest in the NV flier but getting it brushed off as an ‘isolated incident’. I can’t get through to any of those campaign people either: “former Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa — Clinton’s Northern Nevada campaign co-chair — and Nevada Hispanic Leadership Council Member and former Chair of the Nevada Democratic Party Adriana Martinez.”

        If anyone else wants to try, here’s the core.

        Quoting from the Google cache “as retrieved on Nov 30, 2007 02:11:00 GMT” http://tinyurl.com/24pvlg or http://preview.tinyurl.com/24pvlg
        WANNA BECOME AN OBAMACRAT?!!!
        By Obama Florida 2008
        Published: April 24, 2007
        [....] But this is not about some “hard sell” to recruit voters to become permanent Democrats. Not at all. After the primary, you may re-register back to the
        Republican or Libertarian parties, or revert to your previous status as an Independent!

    • Cee

      I think this a good idea. Way back when I changed my registration to vote for McCain in the hope that he would be the nominee instead of W.

  • http://OUTRAGEDBUTNOTSURPRISED bama_barrron

    when i received my email update from no quarter today … i went absolutley nuts … i turned off the computer and took a nice long walk before booting back up and ending up here. it has taken me three tries to get through this article. i’m still nuts!

    i have been a registered democrat for 37 years … i have worked on numerous local, state and even a few federal races. i am actively involved in my local county democratic machine and attend meetings regularly. i have also attended weekly peace vigils (for iraq and afghanistan) since 2002. i am currently preparing to volunteer for the next oregon senate race … i will be endorsing and working for steve novick. finally, i will work with several unions during their open endorsement process … as a facilitator. i am not revealing all this for any platitudes or other ego driven reasons;i just want it understood i am not a democrat for a day.

    i have no idea what the obama people are trying to do other then to win the nomination by using any means neccessary. excuse me while i puke in a bucket when a major democratic contender would allow his/her campaign to use such repulsive tactics. early on, i suspected there was something not quite right with obama and his people … and i have unfortunately been proven right … i guess they must consider pandering to republicans and libertarians a small price to pay. i wonder do they hate the democratic pary this much or just hillary … i tend to think it is both.

    finally, might i suggest y’all go dkos and see the steve novick ad … please view his first ad. yep, he is that “big” of a fighter!

    peace … out

    • http://www.evergreenpolitics.com shoephone

      As demoralizing as this election is becoming, keep on keepin’ on, bama. We need more like you!

  • http://www.evergreenpolitics.com shoephone

    The back-handedness, the double dealing and the smears going on within the Democratic race are disgusting me. I’m even pissed at Edwards for not staying out of the fray.

    Too bad we can’t ever leave the vitriol to the Republicans, who seem to be imploding and exploding simultaneously. But once the nominees are chosen we all know the Republicans will fall into line — as they always do.

    I’m sick of Bill Clinton’s whining and I’m appalled at Obama’s dirty campaign tactics. Yup. I guess he really meant it when he said, “It’s time for some rough and tumble politics.”

  • http://rawdawgb.blogspot.com/ rawdawgbuffalo

    i think it is disingenious and feculent for a man (Johnson) to say he has a problem with a person history of drug use who made billions of of videos of young black men talkin about kiling and drug dealing…just another factor I believe that is leading to the fall of America…. poor mr or mrs next president

    • http://www.evergreenpolitics.com shoephone

      I totally agree. The garbage on all sides is flowing now.

  • Jess Wonderin

    Day by day, Obama becomes less and less of what I had hoped to be “the man we need to lead”. His lack of experience may be in the legislature, but he seems well schooled in Chi-Town Politics and BS.
    This is his idea of “Change” but not mine . . . “Present” is not my idea of Legislative Leadership.

  • Retired

    Interesting tactic, but it may not work in other primary elections. Barry O. may have to expand to people who don’t qualify as voters–non-citizens, minors and family pets–to pull this off elsewhere. Do you think that circus elephants can be passed off as “Democrats for a Day?” As Sean Connery said in The Untouchables, “That’s the Chicago way!”

    • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

      In that case, I’m going to have to rename my cats who are all Hillary supporters with elegant winter coats and sharp claws. Bear will have to become Bob. Althea’s name is cool (named her after Althea Gibson). Fluffy, who just adopted me — that’s a hopeless name. He’s a big-muscled 16-lb. orange fluffy cat… maybe he could become Conan or Corbin O’Brien. Their ages are an issue as well, unless we can apply that dog/human-type age criterial (That has to work with cats too, right?) Bear is @ 10 years old so I could claim that he’s 30, right?

      Dunno … I’m so sleepy … off to beddy bye how :) :)

  • Mike

    Awe how quaint Barack, I believe they call this one the Joe Lieberman strategy.

  • Pingback: Obama Begins The Serious Chicago-Style Political Treatment On Hillary « ::BROADCATCHING::

  • CK

    It does appear that Obama is running for the presidency of the whole United States, and his opponents are running for the democratic nomination.
    Love me some independent NH voters if they vote for my candidate; hate me some independent voters if the other candidate encourages them to vote for him. No rules change just the same ol same ol with an extra dose of hypocrisy and a shallow well of myopia.
    Encourage folks to vote for your party now and once they get used to the idea it is easier to get them to vote for your party later. ( of course the blade cuts both ways as evidence by KOS encouraging dems to vote for Romney in Mich. )

    • Cee

      CK,

      You understand the new game.

      • CK

        I am old. The game is older. Putting 6″ heels and a Dolly Parton wig on it doesn’t change the game.
        Anyhow:
        Rudy is OUT OF MONEY, his campaign higherups are supposedly working without pay.
        OlFred is out of money ( I expect him to evaporate after South Carolina )
        BomberJohn is out of money and out of time.
        Someone is sponsoring robocalls for Huckabee in SC and elsewhere. The Huckabee campaign is not flush.
        As the primaries accelerate, I am expecting 3 of these four to disappear.
        Romney can afford to pay for his own campaigne and so far he has done so.
        Ron Paul is sitting pretty moneywise ( 20 mill last quarter same league as Hillary and Obama and way ahead of all the others ) And his supporters have another money bomb scheduled for this month.
        So after florida, I am expecting 3 repbubs and two dems to be in the hunt.
        Money is the measure of all things political, with it you can win without it you are so much bloviation.
        The game doesn’t change just some of the nuances are emphasized more strongly or less strongly by the various playas. In every election I have followed or been involved in going back to 1964, both wings of the ruling party encourage the independents and the disaffected members of the other wing of the ruling party to vote for their wing of the ruling party. Kos is just another shill in a long line of pols going back to the founding of the republican wing and the disappearance of the whig wing of the ruling party.

        • Cee

          I’m getting old. Thanks for the education and information.

          Btw, the smear against Ron Paul isn’t working and people are confessing regarding the newsletter.

          • CK

            Dr. Paul is in it to win it. He is “old school”. Polite, decourous, genteel, mannerly, and imperturbable. Faux news had to doctor their videos after the SC debate to exorcise Dr. Paul’s answer to his electability. Funny thing ( and I enjoy this blog ) but this blog is all “change happy”. Obama is about change ( of which he has none to show on his accomplishment sheet) Hillary is about substantive change ( of which she has shown that her idea of change is to Bush but with a better management team ), but the two candidates who are and have a record of supporting change are non-entities here.
            1) it would be a significant change if America stopped intervening militarily and politically in other sovereign nations. ( would have kept B. Bhutto alive )
            2) It would be a significant change if american troops came home from Okinawa, Korea, Germany and 120 other countries and actully did something akin to defending the constitution and America here.
            3) It would be a significant change if America stopped devaluing its currency 6% a year. If your wages don’t go up 6% a year you are sliding backwards in the quality of life you have.
            4) It would be a significant change if we just ignored drug use. Certainly would benefit the black american population.
            5) It would be a significant change if the USA rescinded the Patriot Acts, the Military commisions act, the homegrown terrorist act, and all the other acts that have reduced the freedoms and civil liberties of the American populace.
            6) It would be a signigicant change if US workers were allowed to keep the fruits of their labour.
            7) It would be a significant change it the USA stopped giving 3 times the military aid to its neighbours as it gives to Israel.
            ( I believe that there is now 1 f-16 for every adult male in Saudi Arabia. )
            So while I enjoy the rants and bloviations on this blog about change and who is the change candidate, I do it with a rueful smile. None of the big 6 candidates is or will be a change from what we have right now. They do have better grammar and speak in different code words.

            • Cee

              I saw him on CNN answering the charges that he was bigot. I believed him when he said he didn’t write the things that were reported on in The New Republic.

              They are named who did write those things.

              http://reason.com/news/show/124426.html

              • CK

                The world being what it is, things written decades ago when the world was different come back out of context and with whatever spin is currently most able to arouse visceral responses.
                Folks who have dealth with Dr. Paul for over twenty years ( even the folks at TNR ) have had to admit that there is not a racist or fascist bone in his body nor in his philosophy, nor in any of his votes in congress. I think we saw the USA become a different place with the cannonization of St. Ronald Regan upon his death. It is now unPC to remember the actions and words and behaviours of certain secular saints ( Reagan, King, any Kennedy, Rodney King, etc etc.) Obama’s kindergarten essay’s have been used to diminish him, Hillaries commodity market wealth has been and will be used to diminish her, Edwards work as an accomplished defense lawyer really offends the statists raised on too many years of L&O and too few reruns of Perry Mason and has been used to attack him.
                The lyrics change but the song remains the same. Meanwhile Dr. Paul is moving up in the national polls and he has the bank account … so while TNR and the hair trigger folks masturbate to old mimeo newsletters the revolution proceeds to accrete more and more support. Vive La Revolution.

  • SirScud

    INCOMING>>>>

    What a ridiculous load of partisan crap! Did any of you latter day conservative clones bother to notice this statement?

    ObamaFlorida2008 recognizes and respects all citizens who have varying points of view. We just want to make it make it possible to vote for Barack Obama in the primary — or for that matter — anyone you wish.

    It is instructive to note that this was dredged up from an April of ’07 campaign promotion.
    There is an odor of hypocrisy about this feigned outrage over the suggestion of party crossover voting, especially when it is being expressed so stridently by a recent bunch of alleged converts to Democrat ideals.
    Progressive “change” is not going to happen as a result of putting lipstick on the proverbial pig of conservative political ideology, and that, dear lemmings, is all that supporting Clinton, Obama, or the Repugnants is! (Ya’ll do remember what the meaning of is is, don’tcha?)

  • Independent

    Go Obama, Go Edwards.

    ALL we will get from a Hillary Clinton in the White House is the continuation of the repubican Clinton hate machine for the next four years from the repubicans which you know is coming. God this same crap over and over sucks.

    Somebody else for President, please.

  • R. Miles

    I’ve always found this blog site to be interesting, but now that it is reduced to Clinton–good; Obama–bad, I am really no longer interested in the conversation.

  • http://www.everythingswank.com Andrew

    I find the screaming from Hillary supporters in regards to Nevada to be completely ridiculous.

    The argument being presented is that because this union supports Obama, that having it in the Casio is unfair.

    The group opposing it? Nevada State Teachers Assoc.

    Do we want to look at the last 20 years and think of who the NEA and other teacher associations have supported? Further, lets look at where those primaries and caucuses have been held. Guaranteed most were at schools. Where most employees were members of of the NEA.

    Was it ever called into question? No.

    This is a petty power move by Hillary. Sorry, its just true.

  • Cesar Verdugo

    Screw all the haters who dislike Obama! Obama is golden and republicans suck! The Clintons are done and into the history books. Stop with them being the end all to all our problems. Obama is the future and the future is here! Long live Obama!