Showing posts with label hillary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hillary. Show all posts

Monday, October 06, 2014

A Political Immigration Detention

President Barack Obama and Senator John McCain...
President Barack Obama and Senator John McCain in a press conference, taking place on March 4, 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I went in the precise day Hillary lost to Barack in 2008. I came out a few days after Barack Obama beat John McCain. I had not been out but a few days I got an email from one of the two Co-Chairs of the New York State Democratic Party. She had sent it to me on Facebook, one on one. She had invited me to a DL21C event. At the time it was illegal for me to show up for a DL21C event. Why would a Co-Chair of the state Democratic Party, someone I had never met, invite me to an event in an open invitation to flaunt the law of the land?

There were people who never expected to see me again. They were offended I was back in town.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Iraq Could Cost Hillary 2016

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton intr...
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton introduces President Barack Obama before he delivered a policy address on events in the Middle East. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It is possible this is a false alarm. This is not the beginning of a new, protracted war. The US sure is not going back. But if the government in Baghdad does not fall, it should not be that bad politically for Hillary. But a bad scenario makes Iraq look bad for Hillary, strictly politically speaking.

But then all of the Middle East is unfinished business. This is like the Cold War in 1977 or 1972. The end is not yet in sight.

There are at least five different scenarios that could unfold, only one of which could cost Hillary 2016. But even the other four make it hard. But then 2016 was always going to be a regular presidential election. It is going to be a very real, contested election should Hillary run, and I never doubted she is going to.

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Barack Obama's Third And Fourth Terms

"That Woman Deserves Her Revenge"

Hillary and Natalie
Hillary and Natalie (Photo credit: Dan Correia)
I was Barack Obama's first full time volunteer in all of New York City where literally every black politician except Bill Perkins was for Hillary. I was early and hard core. For me Hillary is about term limits. Barack Obama deserves a third and a fourth term, and that is where Hillary comes in as far as I am concerned.

Hillary will win big, it is because FDR's third victory was bigger than his first and second victories. The 2008 primary really is not over until Hillary becomes president because that primary had two winners, the first black president and the first woman president.

I have been ready for Hillary since 1991, although I don't see me actively campaigning. I did not in 2012. In 2007-08 it was a real struggle. 2012 was not a struggle, 2016 will be even less so. I am in coasting mode.

And, by the way, stop f________ with Indian diplomats.

Franklin D. Roosevelt 1932 presidential election
Roosevelt won 57% of the vote and carried all but six states. Historians and political scientists consider the 1932-36 elections a realigning election that created a new majority coalition for the Democrats, made up of organized labor, blacks, and ethnic Americans such as Italian-Americans, Polish-Americans and Jews. This transformed American politics and starting what is called the "New Deal Party System"
Landslide re-election, 1936
Roosevelt and Garner won 60.8% of the vote and carried every state except Maine and Vermont.[138] The New Deal Democrats won even larger majorities in Congress. Roosevelt was backed by a coalition of voters which included traditional Democrats across the country, small farmers, the "Solid South", Catholics, big city political machines, labor unions, northern African Americans, Jews, intellectuals and political liberals. This coalition, frequently referred to as the New Deal coalition, remained largely intact for the Democratic Party until the 1960s.
Election of 1940
FDR systematically undercut prominent Democrats who were angling for the nomination, including Vice President John Nance Garner[167] and two cabinet members, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and James Farley, Roosevelt's campaign manager in 1932 and 1936, the Postmaster General and the Democratic Party chairman. Roosevelt moved the convention to Chicago where he had strong support from the city machine (which controlled the auditorium sound system). At the convention the opposition was poorly organized, but Farley had packed the galleries. Roosevelt sent a message saying that he would not run unless he was drafted, and that the delegates were free to vote for anyone. The delegates were stunned; then the loudspeaker screamed "We want Roosevelt... The world wants Roosevelt!" The delegates went wild and he was nominated by 946 to 147 on the first ballot. The tactic employed by Roosevelt was not entirely successful, as his goal had been to be drafted by acclamation. ..... He won the 1940 election with 55% of the popular vote and 38 of the 48 states.
Election of 1944
Roosevelt replaced Wallace with Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman, best known for his battle against corruption and inefficiency in wartime spending. The Republicans nominated Thomas E. Dewey, the liberal governor of New York. The opposition lambasted FDR and his administration for domestic corruption, bureaucratic inefficiency, tolerance of Communism, and military blunders. Labor unions, which had grown rapidly in the war, threw their all-out support behind Roosevelt. In a relatively close 1944 election, Roosevelt and Truman won 53% of the vote and carried 36 states.
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Sunday, December 18, 2011

Hillary Should Stay Two More Years

PALM DESERT, CA - JULY 12:   (L-R) Former Pres...Image by Getty Images via @daylifeThe Madonna Of Global Politics

China is in sight. Russia is rumbling, and China is in sight.

If Hillary had been vice president, she would have stayed eight years. Being Secretary of State is like being vice president. It is a top job. So her leaving after four years is arbitrary. It is not like suddenly she is too old. If that were the case, she would never have run for president. People who think they are going to be too old in four years do not run.

And it is not about Hillary, it is about the world. I am not saying she is indispensable. I am sure there is someone on the Democratic horizon who might be able to step in. It is about continuity at a crucial time. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya have not been small events. But they are small compared to what could still happen. Syria is still in the works. Iran has not happened yet, Saudi Arabia has not happened yet. Russia is rumbling. China has not happened yet.

And America will happen before China will happen. Only total campaign finance reform will quench the Occupy movement. Nothing less will. And once there is total campaign finance reform in America, this country could legitimately ask for democracy in China.

If Hillary ran on the world's schedule, she might have run for president in 2004, and I think she would have won. But Hillary seems to think the world runs on her schedule. So she took her sweet time - prepare? She was ready in 1992 - and ran in 2008 and lost. Bill Clinton tried very, very hard to get her to run in 2004. I remember watching the guy's moves and feeling sorry for him.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, January 2007Image via Wikipedia
If the world runs on Hillary's schedule, she retires at the end of 2012. If Hillary runs on the world's schedule, she stays in office to 2014. That might be enough time to occupy China. China is the ultimate prize.

You don't change the Secretary of State in the middle of a raging, global revolution.
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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Competing With Hillary Now

Democracy index according to The Economist, 20...Image via WikipediaHillary has no stated goal of a Nobel. She does not need the money. Her net worth is north of $100 million, thanks to Bill Clinton's (and her) book writing, speech making, and lobbying foreign governments. She does not need the name recognition. She is one of the most famous people on earth as is, and has been for two decades now. But there's just something about the Nobel, it is not the money, it is not fame. It is something else. And when you connect the dots of the work Hillary has embarked upon, it leads to a Nobel if she is successful. She has decided to tackle the thorniest issue in global politics. (Hillary's Peace Efforts In The Mideast)

I have a stated goal of a Nobel. I feel like I am owed one for my Nepal work. I am reminding the committee in Stockholm through my Iran work that I am owed one. I don't much care for name recognition except when it helps with work. But I do need the money, like Russell Crowe says in a movie. (110 Knocks)

I have been talking in terms of Iran for a while now. Hillary's seriousness towards Mideast is more recent. So it is not like I am getting into Iran to spite her. It is just the stars have so aligned that now I find myself competing with Hillary. 2008 was Barack's turn to compete. Now it is my turn. No more proxy battles. Let's go head on.

This is, of course, friendly battle. I am going to erupt with joy should Hillary succeed. And this is nothing to do with 2008. For me the Democratic primary of 2008 never ended. It is going to end after Charlie Rangel is no longer in the public eye, and I have personally wiped out DL21C from the face of this city. I have reduced it to irrelevance. But that is another topic. That is a New York thing. All I need is for political winds to keep blowing like they always do. And me. I don't need any help.

My only point of contention with Hillary is this. She possibly could repeat the mistake of people who tried to do the same work before. The mistake has been to think that if only the Israel guy and the Palestine guy could sit down and learn to love each other, or at least not hate each other, then there would be peace. That is why peacemakers have organized meetings and picnics and what have you. That is such an unscientific approach to take.

I don't see the Mideast mess as people from different religious, cultural backgrounds disliking each other. It is more a clash of political systems. The lone democracy ends up having to tussle with an entire neighborhood of non-democracies. Turning Iran into a full fledged democracy, not trying to bomb Iran's military installations, is the way to get rid of the existential threat Israel claims to feel from Iran. The threat is nothing to do with weapons. The threat is political. And the primary solution is political.

It is the nature of a non-democratic state to find a perennial external threat. The Soviet Union needed an America to hate. North Korea needs South Korea. It needs America even more. The more massive the object of hatred, easier the dictator's task. The Arab states need their people to hate Israel. It serves their political purpose.

A neighborhood of democracies will no longer be angling to push Israel into the sea. But if the Arab countries don't become democratic, they will never stop trying. It is not about succeeding, it is about keeping at it. Actually it is important to not succeed. If they manage to push Israel into the sea, that particular external threat will disappear. And why would you want that? A threat that no longer exists is no longer useful. So it is not true the Arab countries really, truly want to push Israel into the sea, metaphorically speaking.

And that is why it is so very important to turn Iran into a democracy. It is also important because you are not having to do the Iraq thing or the Afghanistan thing. In Iran's case it is not about a superpower spending trillions of dollars it does not have.

Long story short, I am competing with Hillary. I want to get the Nobel before she does. I want to be able to tell Barack I too beat Hillary.

The First Time I Heard The Obama Name
How My Grandfather Became Mayor The First Time

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