PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland police officers have asked for an apology after they said organizers of a Barack Obama rally set up Porta-Potties on a memorial honoring fallen officers.

Listen to Obama deliver another speech, and then proceed to the memorial and pee on the fallen police officers. And no, the Portland police is not pleased. I quote:

“There was plenty of room elsewhere so space wasn’t an issue,” Brennan said. “So someone used some really poor decision making, whoever elected to put them there. I mean, it’s somewhat hallowed ground, I guess you could call it.”

Perhaps this explains why many Democrats believe Obama shares the values of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who famously stated the following:

So I guess this is what we should expect under an Obama Presidency: piss on the cops and God Damn America.

Dear Susan,
 
This email is very difficult for me to write. I am a forty-five year old woman that at first was interested in Obama and thought I could see myself voting for him if Hillary did not win the nomination.

I set out to do my due diligence, researching the background of this inspirational man. Unfortunately, what I found has been very disquieting.

Obama has repeatedly chosen to associate himself with dubious people and seems to have actually sought them out to help further his political career. People like Tony Rezko. Jeremiah Wright. Nadhmi Auchi (Saddam oil for food scandal). Frank Marshall Davis (Communist). Louis Farrakhan. Reverend James Meeks. Cousin Odinga. William Ayers, who, besides bombing the pentagon, actually paid Obama to be director of one of his “charities” for many years.

Obama tried to diminish the connection, but in fact, he cannot – he was essentially employed by Ayers. Obama made a very hinky deal with the devil on that house he lives in, and it will come back to haunt him.

Obama’s wife seems to be a very angry person that appears to only see the worst in our country. Could it be something that she picked up while listening to the vitriolic, hate-filled speeches of Jeremiah Wright in her church?
 
The church that Obama is still a member of is one that believes in a “Black Value System” that follows the teachings of James Cone. If you research Cone’s idea of Black Liberation Theology, it is a victim-based marxist theology that engenders distrust and resentment towards white people. It is a world we are trying to leave behind as a country and the fact that Obama still is a member tells me all I need to know about him. His emergence out of the cesspool that is Chicago politics, makes it impossible for me to believe that he is not already corrupt, and his wishy washy positions on healthcare, banking industry reform and nuclear power make me suspect that he is being propped up by big business interests.
 
Obama is far from a uniter, in fact, he has managed to divide nearly everyone in the democratic party — and that with the complicity of the top echelon of the DNC, which is doing its darnedest to lance the working class whites from the party by proclaiming that they don’t really need them to win. The willingness at all costs to throw one of the best candidates the party has ever seen off the train is emblematic of what women in this party feel is being done to them. Party members that think we will just pull the lever for Obama in the fall are smoking the hopium. Many of us will never, never, ever, vote for Obama. At least we know that McCain has experience and is a true patriot.
 
It is definitely time for a new party to rise to power…one that is centrist with true democratic values and a platform of compassion and that is a champion of the working class that makes this country great.
 
As soon I have voted in Oregon, I will be changing my affiliation to independent. I do not recognize the democratic party as sharing my values any more. Maybe next election cycle will see the emergence of a true viable third party. I do not want to vote Republican, but it won’t keep me from writing in Hillary Clinton in the fall.  
 
Pamela
– location and phone number snipped out –

It’s About What’s Right For Oregon
30-second television spot to air statewide

The Clinton Campaign launched a new ad in Oregon today, emphasizing that while the pundits in Washington focus on who’s up and who’s down, Hillary Clinton will focus on what’s right for Oregon families..

The 30-second spot, entitled “What’s Right,” details Hillary’s commitment to end the No Child Left Behind Act and provide quality, affordable health care for every American. And it emphasizes Hillary’s opposition to the Bush Administration energy bill, which removed local control over the siting of liquefied natural gas terminals on Oregon’s coast.

Following is the script for the ad.

Hillary for President
“What’s Right”
TV :30

ANNCR: In Washington, they talk about who’s up and who’s down.
In Oregon, we care about what’s right and what’s wrong.

She’s the one who will end No Child Left Behind so we teach children to learn, not take tests.

She’s the one who voted against the Bush energy bill that threatens liquefied natural gas plants along Oregon’s coast.

She’s the one insisting on health coverage for every American

She’s been right when it matters.
She’ll be there when it counts.

HRC: I’m Hillary Clinton and I approved this message.

###

Hillary is the “Democrat with a Spine.” The t-shirt that says it all: she keeps fighting; we keep fighting!! All profits from the sale of this shirt will be donated to HillaryClinton.com. Click on read more to see the t-shirt.

Hillary campaigns in West Virginia, a state wherein each and every single vote counts.

“Level,” a commercial airing in West Virginia:

“Falling Through,” another commercial airing in West Virginia:

“Strongest Plan,” a commercial airing in Oregon:

———————————————

On Tuesday May 13, Hillary Clinton celebrates election night in Charleston , WV.

Charleston Civic Center
200 Civic Center Dr
Charleston , WV

————————————————

Front:

Front Detail:

Back:

T-shirts are $15, and they are available in L and XL. Also submit $3 for shipping and handling if you have not already. All proceeds will be donated to Hillary Clinton for President. Submit Payment through PayPal to susanunpc@gmail.com. Susan will relay all contact information to CD in North Carolina.

Thank you for your orders. CD will send t-shirts this week.

For background, see my earlier post, “Obama: The Geographically Challenged Candidate.”
______________________

After yesterday’s revelations of Barack Obama’s plans to fix the Great Lakes of Oregon and take care of Oregon’s Veterans of Pennsylvania his campaign did what they do best. They scrubbed the information, made it disappear and then acted like it never existed.

But like all things on the internet, it is impossible to fully erase something. And wouldn’t you know it, a friend known as crimsonhaz3 found this today and sent it to me. So now everyone can see that Obama was serious about his stated plans to begin with. What fools we were to doubt him.

Don’t believe me? See for yourself!

Joey Sky made a great comment in my diary cross-post at MyDD:

The point of the matter is Obama’s Oregon plan is a phony.

He didn’t think it through. He just had to come up with something quickly to match with Clinton’s excellent plan.

So what did his campaign do? They did what they do best: copy & paste.

They copy-pasted the veteran plan for PA. They copy-paste the environmental plan from IL, hence the great lake slipped right through.

So sad that he’s not the real deal that his supporters hope him to be.

We’ve written FIVE stories on Obama’s fear of debating Hillary again — because she whupped him in the last ABC News debate. All of our stories are listed below, along with the most choice quotes (and snarky imagery). Let’s begin with the extremely snarky “A Lincoln-Douglas Debate? But Obama Just Isn’t Up To It” …

When danger reared its ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Obama turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
  - From Riverdaughter’s blog

Barack Obama is cowering in fear of another embarrassing debate performance. In contrast, a confident Hillary Clinton is petitioning Obama to honor the debate he reneged on in North Carolina (originally scheduled today) and challenging him to more debates in Indiana and Oregon.

Today, Hillary Clinton upped the ante, proposing a 90-minute Lincoln-Douglas style debate before Indiana’s primary. Obama is sure to refuse.

“[I]ndescribably stupid” is what Tom Watson calls Obama’s repeated refusals to debate in North Carolina or Indiana. In “All the Wrong Moves,” Watson observes:

For one, running and hiding from Hillary looks, well, like running and hiding from Hillary. It cements that growing perception in the press that she’s tougher, and that he’s a brittle political actor – all smiles when the polls are moving upward, quite another story in stormy seas. When you’re running against a beloved American war hero and the Republican attack machine, this is never a good posture.

Secondly, it leaves Obama’s terrible performance in the last debate at the top of people’s minds when they think of the two Democrats duking it out. For all the hand-wringing about the inane ABC News questions in the debate’s first half, it was Obama’s sullen and seemingly lost persona that was the Philly battle’s real story. …

HERE ARE MORE NO QUARTER STORIES CHALLENGING OBAMA:

Sign Hillary’s Petition to Make Obama Honor His Promise to Debate in North Carolina — in which we pick up on Lanny Davis’s suggestion that it was HOWARD DEAN HIMSELF who got Obama out of the scheduled North Carolina debate:

Here are some of the series of stories we’ve done on Barack Obama’s failure to honor his commitment to debate in North Carolina (abetted, many suspect, by DNC chair Howard Dean), and his disinclination to debate in other important primary states such as Indiana and Oregon (not to mention Kentucky, West Virginia, Puerto Rico, and more primaries yet to come):

• “Hillary Asks Barry to Debate, Much More Nicely …” (in Oregon)
• “Lanny Davis and Evan Bayh Throw Down the Gauntlet” (on Obama’s running away from the North Carolina debate — and a video of Lanny Davis expressing his suspicion that Howard Dean was behind getting Obama out of the debate — and his failure to give the people of Indiana a debate on their soil), and
• “Obama Congregants: Waaaaa! Leave Barry Alone! No More Debates!” (on Obama ducking out of the No. Carolina debate).

FROM the APRIL 23 story:

Lannie Davis today, on Fox News, lowered the boom on Obama and Dean:

Barack, are you really that afraid of Katie Couric? (We know you’re scared s–tless of Hillary, but surely Katie will be easier than the ABC News team, right?) Are you that much of a wuss, Barack? If you are, let us know now. We can’t afford a president presidential nominee (because that’s as far as he’d get) who’s a wuss.

Senator Obama is at it again, taking credit for things someone else is doing and trying to craft an image of himself as an innovator and a leader. The only problem is that he is getting caught with his pants down making an ass of himself for all to see.

As almost everyone knows, Hillary crafted an Oregon Compact that specified how she would promote issues specific to Oregon to help the people of the state. And as usual Senator Obama was forced to come up with his own plan for Oregon. But he made just a slight mistake. A 1,700-mile mistake, you might say. Because in his CHANGE OREGON CAN BELIEVE IN plan he promised:

Barack Obama will reinvigorate the drinking water standards that have been weakened under the Bush administration and update them to address new threats. He will help communities by restoring better federal financing for water and wastewater treatment infrastructure, and he will continue his leadership in protecting national treasures like the Great Lakes from threats such as industrial pollution, water diversion, and invasive species. Obama will establish policies to help high-growth regions with the challenges of managing their water supplies.

Of course, this glaring mistake didn’t phase Senator Obama. I guess he figures that a bunch a hicks like us wouldn’t know that the Great Lakes are in the northern Midwest portion of our country, not in the Pacific Northwest. And when confronted by this obvious whopper, the elite Obama campaign answered in the manner that we have come to expect from them. They said something equally as stupid:

Democratic rivals vie for Oregon votes

Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro said his campaign wasn’t trying to match Clinton’s Oregon compact. “The last thing Oregon needs is another plan,” he said, arguing that the important thing is that Obama would be more successful in breaking through Washington gridlock to get things done.

A snappy comeback don’t you think? But if what Shapiro said is true then WHY did Obama feel the need to produce a plan to begin with?

It sounds to me like he is saying that since Obama screwed up basic geography plans are irrelevant anyway. And what are we to make of Shapiro’s claim that Obama would be more successful in breaking through Washington gridlock to get things done? Does he cite any evidence or experience to back up this claim?

And yes, dear reader, you have caught me. Because the question is rhetorical. We ALL know that Obama has ZERO experience doing what his campaign tries to convince people his is best qualified to do. None. Zip. Nada. Not a frickin bit of experience doing what he and his campaign claim is his biggest selling point. I guess that is where the “hope” comes in. Because you sure as hell can’t trust that Obama is what he says he is. It’s all smoke and mirrors, deceptions and lies.

Despite the obvious arrogance when confronted with mistakes, what are we to make of Obama’s great plan to reinvigorate Oregon? Hillary’s Oregon spokesperson, Julie Edwards gives it a big thumbs down.

Obama issues ‘Oregon’ plan

“Ninety percent of the document is not Oregon specific, Edwards said. “What remains is a rehash of what was in the Oregon Compact released by Sen. Clinton last week.”

But never to be outdone or without a righteous excuse when caught looking stupid, Obama’s campaign responded in yet another foolish way. They attempted to make Obama’s nonspecific plan seem like it is what Oregon actually needs.

“Oregonians appreciate the fact that issues that matter to them matter to other people all across the country,” Shapiro said.

I’ve seen some hoodwinking in my day but trying to cover up a lack of specificity with a praise for generality is without a doubt the worst I have seen. Ever. It is the political equivalent of “The dog ate my homework.”

Yes, I am sure that Oregonians go to bed at night feeling all safe and protected because the Great Lakes are finally getting some attention. Their jobs feel much more secure, their health care accessibility is widened and all kinds of nice warm fuzzy things. And all because Senator Obama reminded them that they are just like the people in Illinois. I’m sure that goes over real well.

Don’t know about the rest of you but I fully expect that Obama’s plan for Kentucky will somehow confuse the Daniel Boone Natural Forest with the Black Forest. And I can’t wait to hear the WORMs spin that one.

UPDATE: bobbank points out in his excellent diary Change Oregon Can Believe In? that Obama isn’t just confused which state he is trying to help, he also neglects to mention that one of the centerpieces to his Energy Plan for Oregon is something that Oregon already passed into law last year.

Powering Oregon’s Future SB 838

In it’s 2007 session, the Oregon Legislature passed the Oregon Renewable Energy Act ( SB 838 ) and the bill was signed into law on June 6th, 2007.

The Act establishes a Renewable Energy Standard that requires Oregon’s largest utilities to acquire 25% of their electricity from new, homegrown renewable energy sources by 2025. Smaller Oregon utilities must meet smaller renewable energy targets of 5% or 10% of their electricity by 2025.

Compare this with Obama’s CHANGE OREGON CAN BELIEVE IN where he proposes a plan for Oregon that they have already have.

That’s Not Leadership Oregon Can Believe In.

Barack Obama will establish a 25 percent federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to require that 25 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. is derived from clean, sustainable energy sources, like solar, wind and geothermal by 2025. This requirement will spur significant private sector investment in renewable sources of energy and create thousands of new American jobs, especially in rural areas.

This is kinda like the leadership it took for Obama to go to Detroit and tell the Automotive Execs that they were going to have to achieve higher fuel efficiency standards. And it just so happened that Obama used the same efficiency standards that were being adopted by the Senate at the time. Yep, bold leadership.

And if all of this hasn’t demonstrated how completely out of touch Obama is just take a look at what his plan is for helping Oregon’s Veterans.

Care for America’s Veterans: There are more than 380,000 veterans in Oregon, and the Department of Veterans Affairs that was built to care for World War II veterans is not ready to handle the influx of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. As a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Barack Obama has fought to end benefit disparities, bring homeless veterans in off the streets, strengthen mental health care, add billions of dollars in additional Department of Veterans Affairs funding, and reform a system that often places barriers between veterans and the benefits they have earned. As president, Obama will ensure we honor the sacred trust to care for Pennsylvania’s 1.1 million veterans.

Uh… Earth to the Obama Campaign. I think you need a compass. Or a brain.

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

Visit my blog for more stories.

NAT’L POLL UPDATE: CNN’s Political Ticker reports:

Hillary Clinton’s Pennsylvania win last Tuesday has clearly given the New York senator a boost in the national polls, the latest daily tracking survey from Gallup suggests.

Clinton and Obama are now dead even at 47 percent among likely Democrats, according the newly released numbers. That number remains unchanged from a tracking poll released Saturday and represents a 5-point gain for Clinton since her Pennsylvania win.

In a similar tracking poll released the day of the primary, Obama led Clinton by eight points, 50-42 percent. The Illinois senator’s lead over Clinton reached a high of 11 points on April 14. …

_____________________

INDIANA UPDATE: The latest SUSA poll of Indiana: 52% Clinton / 43% Obama

Note: Below, I’m adding an update on how things in Oregon are going.
_____________________

Original: Yahoo News A.P. / published 40 minutes ago:

WASHINGTON – Hillary Rodham Clinton has a better chance than Barack Obama of beating Republican John McCain, according to a new Associated Press-Ipsos poll that bolsters her argument that she is more electable in the fall than her rival for the Democratic nomination.

[The survey gives] Clinton a fresh talking point as she works to convince pivotal undecided superdelegates to side with her in the drawn-out Democratic primary fight.

Clinton, who won the Pennsylvania primary last week, has gained ground this month in a hypothetical head-to-head match up with the GOP nominee-in-waiting; she now leads McCain, 50 percent to 41 percent, while Obama remains virtually tied with McCain, 46 percent to 44 percent.

Here at No Quarter, we already know that Hillary is far more electable than Barack. And we know that the rest of our fellow Americans agree.

NOW, let’s just hope that the DNC gets it. Having listened to Donna Brazile yesterday on ABC’s This Week, I have to wonder how much negative influence she has on Dean et al., and how much her irrational fervor for Obama drains the DNC’s ability to wake up and do the right thing — nominate the candidate who has A CHANCE of beating John McCain.

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

Special thanks to pm317, who comments here regularly, for sending me this link.

:::::::::::

ABOUT OREGON (and those of us in the Pacific Northwest and in Northern California need to figure out how we can pitch in to help in Oregon — I HAVE CONTACTS if you can go to Oregon, even for a weekend, to help out — send me an e-mail at susanunpc at gmail dot com):

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is making a stealth play for Oregon, where a primary win next month — combined with her two strongest remaining states, West Virginia and Kentucky — may open up a pathway to the Democratic ticket by convincing superdelegates that she deserves the nomination.

– MORE HERE: Washington Times

Barack Obama is cowering in fear of another embarrassing debate performance. In contrast, a confident Hillary Clinton is petitioning Obama to honor the debate he reneged on in North Carolina (originally scheduled today) and challenging him to more debates in Indiana and Oregon.

Today, Hillary Clinton upped the ante, proposing a 90-minute Lincoln-Douglas style debate before Indiana’s primary. Obama is sure to refuse.

“[I]ndescribably stupid” is what Tom Watson calls Obama’s repeated refusals to debate in North Carolina or Indiana. In “All the Wrong Moves,” Watson observes:

For one, running and hiding from Hillary looks, well, like running and hiding from Hillary. It cements that growing perception in the press that she’s tougher, and that he’s a brittle political actor – all smiles when the polls are moving upward, quite another story in stormy seas. When you’re running against a beloved American war hero and the Republican attack machine, this is never a good posture.

Secondly, it leaves Obama’s terrible performance in the last debate at the top of people’s minds when they think of the two Democrats duking it out. For all the hand-wringing about the inane ABC News questions in the debate’s first half, it was Obama’s sullen and seemingly lost persona that was the Philly battle’s real story. …

Harry S. Truman, the same president who said, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” also said:

America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.

Senator Obama, move past your fears and face your opponent, or get out of the kitchen. It is Hillary Clinton who has both the “courage” and the “unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”

That ABC News debate, held days before the April 22nd Pennsylvania primary, proved disastrous for Senator Obama, who was flummoxed and tongue-tied by tough questions about his questionable longtime associations with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers. And Tom Watson is spot on in pointing out that Obama’s refusal to accept more debates actually further cements the unfavorable memories of that last performance in people’s minds.

Since the debate and subsequent drubbing in the Keystone State’s primary, Obama has reneged on a promise to debate in North Carolina that would have been carried on CBS and moderated by a surely gentler Katie Couric. (Clinton spokesman Lanny Davis has intimated that DNC Chair Howard Dean abetted Obama in weasling out of the debate.)

In a preview of Sunday’s interview of Obama by Fox News’s Chris Wallace —
“Obama: No More Debates Before Next Primary” — Obama provided disingenuous excuses:

Asked why he was repeatedly “ducking” Clinton’s debate challenges before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, Obama said, as he has before, that he just wants to spend time with voters.

“I’m not ducking. We’ve had 21 (debates), and so what we’ve said is, with two weeks, two big states, we want to make sure we’re talking to as many folks possible on the ground taking questions from voters,” he said, so no debates.

“We’re not going to have debates between now and Indiana,” he said.

Typically, he exaggerated.  In fact, there have been 21 debates, but only four debates that directly pitted him against Senator Clinton.

Saturday’s post at ABC News blog Political Radar, “Clinton Challenges Obama to a ‘Lincoln-Douglas’ Debate,” offers more details on the proposed Lincoln-Douglas debate:

Speaking in South Bend, Ind., Sen. Clinton said, “What I think the people in Indiana deserve is a real one-on-one debate, where Sen. Obama and I discuss [the] issues. Now I have accepted the debates that have been offered, and in fact Indiana has a debate commission which organizes this to make sure it’s fair and nobody gets any special advantages. I’ve said I’ll be anywhere, anytime in order to debate, because I think the people of Indiana — after having wandered in the wilderness of American politics for 40 years — deserve a break. Who knows, we might even carry Indiana in the fall if we start with a good debate right here.”

Clinton continued, “Unfortunately, Sen. Obama has not agreed yet, and he’s turned down every debate that has been offered. So here I have a proposition my campaign sent his campaign today. You know, after the last debate in Philadelphia, Sen. Obama’s supporters complained a little bit about the tough questions (awwwwwww heard in the audience). You know tough questions in a debate are nothing compared to the tough questions you get when you are president.”

Clinton challenged Obama, saying, “And they complained about the moderators asking tough questions. So here is my proposal: I’m offering Sen. Obama the chance to debate me one-on-one, no moderators.  Just the two of us going for 90 minutes asking and answering questions. We’ll set whatever rules seem fair. I think it would give the people of Indiana — and I assume a few Americans will tune in because nearly 11 million watched the Philadelphia debate, and I think they would like seeing that discussion. Remember that’s what happened during the Lincoln and Douglas debates. Now we have had like four debates between Sen. Obama and myself.”

So what is Clinton really talking about here?  We’ve all become so accustomed to the televised mass media-styled debate that a review is in order, via Wikipedia’s description of the Lincoln-Douglas debates:

The debates were held in seven towns in the state of Illinois: Ottawa on August 21, Freeport on August 27, Jonesboro on September 15, Charleston on September 18, Galesburg on October 7, Quincy on October 13, and Alton on October 15. …

Seven debates in 7 different towns in less than 60 days!

Each debate had this format: one candidate spoke for an hour, then the other candidate spoke for an hour and a half, and then the first candidate was allowed a half hour “rejoinder.” The candidates alternated speaking first. As the incumbent, Douglas spoke first in four of the debates.

Take a quick look at the text in “The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858,” posted at a National Park Service site.

Talk about detailed and wonky!  There were no moderators. The crowd obviously shouted out questions. And the two men often took a cue from those questions, switched gears and answered them, right off the top of their heads.  There were no speechwriters or earpieces available to help them out. There were no teleprompters.  Yet the depth and breadth of knowledge that they displayed — and their ability to convey it — is mindboggling!

We’ve all watched, in debate after debate, as Hillary Clinton displayed the same breadth and depth of knowledge, an ability that even her most ardent detractors admit she commands.

There was also media meddling in the reporting of the original Lincoln-Douglas debates:

“Newspaper coverage of the debates was intense, as major papers from Chicago sent stenographers to create complete texts of each debate. Then newspapers across the nation reprinted the full text of the debates as published by the Chicago papers.  Interestingly, newspapers that supported Douglas edited his speeches to remove any errors made by the stenographers and to correct grammatical errors, while they left Lincoln’s speeches in the rough form in which they had been transcribed. In the same way, Republican papers edited Lincoln’s speeches, but left the Douglas texts as reported.”

Sound familiar?

Now, what Senator Clinton is suggesting isn’t nearly as strenuous as the Lincoln-Douglas debates surely were.

“Senator Clinton believes deeply that political debates are a vital part of our democratic process,” her press release reads.

It is the American way to place our would-be leaders side by side to hear them articulate and defend their ideas; to challenge each other on their visions for the future; to answer the tough questions about their plans, their records and their judgments; and to celebrate their achievements.

“Senator Obama has declined the invitation from CBS and the North Carolina Democratic Party to appear for a debate at North Carolina State University tomorrow evening. Senator Obama has apparently declined the invitation of the Indiana Debate Commission to appear for a debate in Indiana next week. Senator Obama has not responded to Senator Clinton’s challenge to debate in Oregon.

Will there be no debates in other upcoming states? The American people, of course, deserve more. They deserve debates before casting their votes. They deserve debates just like the states who have participated in this invigorating process before them.

Surely Senator Obama wants open discourse about important issues!  What does it say about him if he refuses?  

Is it that he isn’t willing to take the risk, now that he is no longer guaranteed “a pillow” at these debates?

Or is it just that he’s chicken?

If he can’t handle the relatively soft, wonky questions that Senator Clinton will ask, how could he ever handle John McCain?

How will he hold up under the relentless attacks of the GOP 527s?

The ball’s back in your court, Senator Obama.

Show us… do you know how to play hardball?

If not, get out now. And give the Democratic party the one nominee who can take the heat and can handle the hardball questions: Hillary Clinton.

I’d say, “Come on, you wuss. You’re afraid to let the people of Michigan and Florida vote. You’re afraid to debate Hillary again in North Carolina, and bailed like the coward you are out of the April 27th debate. You haven’t said boo about Evan Bayh’s and others’ request that you let the people of Indiana hear you two debate. And I bet you’ll duck and run when you hear Hillary’s challenge that you debate her before the people of Oregon. Man up, Barry! What are you so scared of?” (Well, we know the answer to that one, don’t we, Barry.)

Hillary’s “compact” for the people of Oregon, particularly its hard-hit rural and logging areas, is moving and inspiring. And Hillary is correct that, in the Pacific Northwest, we have not had a chance to hear or attend a presidential debate about OUR issues.

Here’s our report yesterday on Lanny Davis calling out Howard Dean for secretly abetting Barry’s cowardly retreat from the North Carolina debate: “Lanny Davis and Evan Bayh Throw Down the Gauntlet” (along with Evan Bayh’s understandable request that the people of his state, Indiana, get to hear the two debate).

And here’s Uppity Woman’s smackdown of Barry for ditching the scheduled North Carolina debate: “Obama Congregants: Waaaaa! Leave Barry Alone! No More Debates!”

Bottom line: EVERY state that is holding a primary — and whose citizens are spending millions of dollars in both donations and taxpayer-funded services for the campaigns — deserves a debate.

Ask any city leader how much it costs when these candidates come through town. Ask every citizen how much time, effort, and money they put into these campaigns.

They deserve a debate on THEIR soil.

And we haven’t even gotten to the people of Kentucky, West Virginia and other states with primaries yet to come.

What’s the big deal, Barry?

Did that ABC debate spook you so badly that you’re scared of little Katie Couric moderating the debate on April 27th?

Running and hiding is NOT an indicator of what is required of a president, Barry.

And people are catching on. Big time.