After six weeks of an increasingly bitter campaign and presidential preference polls all over the map, the only polls that matter are finally open. A record number of voters are expected to turn out and vote in the Pennsylvania primary.
Secretary of the Commonwealth Pedro A. Cortés cautions:
Voters should anticipate longer lines at the polls and plan accordingly. If you can, head to your polling place during a non-peak time, such as mid-morning or mid-afternoon.
While it's decision day in Pennsylvania, undecided superdelegates remain, well, undecided. With only nine contests left, the end game will be decided "by rules, committees and uncommitted superdelegates, and possibly by a floor fight at the Denver convention in August." The Wall Street Journal reports:
Sens. Clinton and Obama have raised a combined $400 million, which has allowed them to keep fighting. As long as they stay in, however, Florida's and Michigan's status remains unresolved, setting up the possibility of a convention battle, and voter wariness grows that the superdelegates will override their choice. ...Sure, it's a messy process but as Winston Churchill observed: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."
So far, both candidates are saying a lot, and that is one of the dangers for the party. The Clinton campaign has charged relentlessly that Florida and Michigan voters will be "disenfranchised" if their primary votes aren't counted. That has infuriated Sen. Obama's supporters, because recognizing the two states' contests would largely wipe out his popular-vote lead.
Obama supporters argue that the superdelegates should vote for the winner of their state's primary. That has infuriated Clinton supporters, who note that party rules let the superdelegates vote as they choose and are counting on them to wipe out Sen. Obama's delegate lead.
More elections coverage
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+ Democratic Primary Preview: Keys To Pennsylvania
+ Black Political Pundits - RANK 'Em
Comments: (12)
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By: E. Joyce Moore on 4/22/2008 11:27AM
I saw a short clip on CNN's Rick on the Road, where Bob Johnson, former owner of BET, was giving a long, detailed "translation" of Geraldine Ferraro's comment that got her removed from the Clinton campaign.
First as a woman, I question why Bob's services where required to explain what she meant by her words, Ferraro is an intelligent woman who can speak for herself and if she wanted to do so she would have appeared in front of any given camera. Second, as an African American woman who prides herself on knowing who and why she supports who she supports, I take issue with Bob's condescending, misguided belief that any African American who supports Senator Obama is doing so for emotional reasons, not logical ones...,and Bob does not now nor has he ever spoken for me. But then, he is consistent in his actions and comments that have never been in touch with African America reality. While the media loves to toss about the theory that African America doesn't know what it's doing and they love it even more when a Bob Johnson comes along to reinforce that paradigm, The media seems to have selective amnesia: Didn't Jesse Jackson run as a Democratic nominee a few years ago? He was successful enough to have the DNC look for a way to successfully train wreck that bid just in case it became a viable reality ( see Super Delegates), yet, he was not who I was interested in, because he was not bringing what I believed our country needed to the table. And did everyone forget the display by the two Republicans on CNN, back when it was rumored that Colin Powell might consider running as a Republican candidate, who showed themselves for what they represent? (If anyone could dig up that clip, I am certain every Republicans would cringe if it were looped over and over again on every media station.)
So for the record, to anyone who is not African American, it is insulting, condescending, dismissive and totally inaccurate to buy into the media-driven assertions that people of color and African descent run around blindly supporting anyone of color and African descent just because they are of color and African descent. Senator Obama is equally of Anglo and African descent, so technically, the very premise in and of itself is inaccurate. Additionally, no one with ownership of the microphone speaks for me, just because they are of color and African descent. Because this is a free country, the Tavis Smileys, Bob Johnsons, et al, have the absolute right to voice their beliefs and points of view, but they do not have the right to diminish, trivialize and/ or dismiss mine. As for Tavis, since he was brought up in the Bob Johnson diatribe, knowing that he is known off the mike for believing his own hype, -- don't get me wrong, he has had some points of view I have agreed with in the past, just not this one -- I still believe that when you make comments, which is how you keep the sponsors that you have (can anyone say Walmart? Can anyone say $4 M spent on lobbying in 2007?) -- you have to be adult enough, professional enough to take the heat.
Yes, I know, African Americans can be over zealous sometimes and I do think we need to check ourselves, But then, Tavis knew that going in; he's been around long enough to understand that. Besides, I do have another theory about that: What if he is having doubts about his own position and cannot afford to step away from it? Unlike Elisabeth on the View, who said that she could change her mind and vote for Senator Obama (check her out on the Obama visits The View taping, I am certain it's somewhere on the Internet.) Tavis cannot afford to flip flop, his credibility would be damaged, his sponsor would not be happy. You see, none of us know who people vote for once they get behind the little curtain.
The strategy of the media,as well as the Clinton and McCain campaigns, is to place doubt in the minds of Anglo America, specifically the men, who are for Senator Obama for the same reasons I am; they actually listened to what he is saying about the issues. And this is a new, uncharted waters for Anglo America -- looking past skin color and perceptions to get to a new truth, because change is crucial to this country's future. We are on the precipice and we have to get this right, because this country cannot take another four years of more of the same. But if you can make Anglo America uncomfortable enough about its decision making, then you can convince them to do what's comfortable, instead of what's right. So ask yourself this question: have you ever heard the media state that Anglo America is voting for Senators Clinton or McCain because they are Anglo? Why not? Why isn't that vote any more an emotional vote, than an informed African American vote for Senator Obama? I am not going to be marginalized, are you? Speak up for yourself with your vote.
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By: TeYoJe on 4/22/2008 12:54PM
E. Joyce Moore - I could not have said it any better. What a welcomed change of intelligent comments inter alia.
Peace & Blessings,
TeYoJe
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By: ann on 4/22/2008 1:13PM
E. Joyce Moore, You Go! Thats the type of dialogue I like to see here...Intellect stimulates, some of us anyway...Since knowledge is power, do you feel you have a responsibility to your community to teach? I struggle with that....
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By: Ms. Unique on 4/22/2008 1:33PM
just wish that the Super Delegates come out and not wait until the convention! I know, it won't be over in my state "Pennsylvania" regardless who wins by single or double digits. I just don't want for this to drag much longer! I want for OBAMA to win the NONIMEE, so that he can get ready to battle Mc Cain come November! I pray that he wins "Pennsylvania"! If he doesn't win, he as other states to go!
I am about to be out the door to vote for "OBAMA" in "PITTSBURGH"! I WILL SUPPORT OBAMA ALL THE WAY TILL THE END TO THE "WHITE HOUSE"!!!!!!!!
PEOPLE IN THE "BURGH", PLEASE GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!
"OBAMA 2008"
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By: Cecil Jones on 4/22/2008 2:47PM
Is it just me or does this message seem to lose something in it's lenght? How many of you actually read the entire statement before you wrote it off as "Blah, Blah, Blah?" I think the rappers call it, "Yah, Trick, yah." It doesn't matter if she's right or wrong if she's too long. Blacks need to stop being Dr. Dyson and be more like Mike Tyson. It's ludicris to think education is all about the failure to communicate. Keep it simple. Hillary lied. Obama didn't. Obama's failures were all from private meetings. Churches have protected speech. Private fundraisers are assumed protected too. Somebody tried to make this a Macaca. It didn't work. Now, I'm talking too much.
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By: Cathy on 4/22/2008 2:58PM
To: E. Joyce Moore
Although I do not agree with every point you just made, I can say I agree with over 90% of what you wrote. You Go Girl! And I say that with great respect.
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By: Gee on 4/22/2008 3:39PM
Factor military duty into criticism
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped0404wrightapr03,0,225570.story
If you decide not to click on the web address/weblink above, you can read the full story, OK?
In 1961, a young African-American man, after hearing President John F. Kennedy's challenge to, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," gave up his student deferment, left college in Virginia and voluntarily joined the Marines.
In 1963, this man, having completed his two years of service in the Marines, volunteered again to become a Navy corpsman. (They provide medical assistance to the Marines as well as to Navy personnel.)
The man did so well in corpsman school that he was the valedictorian and became a cardiopulmonary technician. Not surprisingly, he was assigned to the Navy's premier medical facility, Bethesda Naval Hospital, as a member of the commander in chief's medical team, and helped care for President Lyndon B. Johnson after his 1966 surgery. For his service on the team, which he left in 1967, the White House awarded him three letters of commendation.
What is even more remarkable is that this man entered the Marines and Navy not many years after the two branches began to become integrated.
While this young man was serving six years on active duty, Vice President Dick Cheney, who was born the same year as the Marine/sailor, received five deferments, four for being an undergraduate and graduate student and one for being a prospective father. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both five years younger than the African-American youth, used their student deferments to stay in college until 1968. Both then avoided going on active duty through family connections.
Who is the real patriot? The young man who interrupted his studies to serve his country for six years or our three political leaders who beat the system? Are the patriots the people who actually sacrifice something or those who merely talk about their love of the country?
After leaving the service of his country, the young African-American finished his final year of college, entered the seminary, was ordained as a minister, and eventually became pastor of a large church in one of America's biggest cities.
This man is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the retiring pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, who has been in the news for comments he made over the last three decades.
Since these comments became public we have heard criticisms, condemnations, denouncements and rejections of his comments and him.
We've seen on television, in a seemingly endless loop, sound bites of a select few of Rev. Wright's many s ermons.
Some of the Wright's comments are inexcusable and inappropriate and should be condemned, but in calling him "unpatriotic," let us not forget that this is a man who gave up six of the most productive years of his life to serve his country.
How many of Wright's detractors, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly to name but a few, volunteered for service, and did so under the often tumultuous circumstances of a newly integrated armed forces and a society in the midst of a civil rights struggle? Not many.
While words do count, so do actions.
Let us not forget that, for whatever Rev. Wright may have said over the last 30 years, he has demonstrated his patriotism.
Lawrence Korb and Ian Moss are, respectively, Navy and Marine Corps veterans. They work at The Center For American Progress. Korb served as assistant secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration
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By: Gee on 4/22/2008 4:22PM
My Vote's for Obama (if I could vote) ...by Michael Moore
April 21st, 2008
Friends,
I don't get to vote for President this primary season. I live in Michigan. The party leaders (both here and in D.C.) couldn't get their act together, and thus our votes will not be counted.
So, if you live in Pennsylvania, can you do me a favor? Will you please cast my vote -- and yours -- on Tuesday for Senator Barack Obama?
I haven't spoken publicly 'til now as to who I would vote for, primarily for two reasons: 1) Who cares?; and 2) I (and most people I know) don't give a rat's ass whose name is on the ballot in November, as long as there's a picture of JFK and FDR riding a donkey at the top of the ballot, and the word "Democratic" next to the candidate's name.
Seriously, I know so many people who don't care if the name under the Big "D" is Dancer, Prancer, Clinton or Blitzen. It can be Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Barry Obama or the Dalai Lama.
Well, that sounded good last year, but over the past two months, the actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone from being merely disappointing to downright disgusting. I guess the debate last week was the final straw. I've watched Senator Clinton and her husband play this game of appealing to the worst side of white people, but last Wednesday, when she hurled the name "Farrakhan" out of nowhere, well that's when the silly season came to an early end for me. She said the "F" word to scare white people, pure and simple. Of course, Obama has no connection to Farrakhan. But, according to Senator Clinton, Obama's pastor does -- AND the "church bulletin" once included a Los Angeles Times op-ed from some guy with Hamas! No, not the church bulletin!
This sleazy attempt to smear Obama was brilliantly explained the following night by Stephen Colbert. He pointed out that if Obama is supported by Ted Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the Catholic Church is led by a Pope who was in the Hitler Youth, that can mean only one thing: OBAMA LOVES HITLER!
Yes, Senator Clinton, that's how you sounded. Like you were nuts. Like you were a bigot stoking the fires of stupidity. How sad that I would ever have to write those words about you. You have devoted your life to good causes and good deeds. And now to throw it all away for an office you can't win unless you smear the black man so much that the superdelegates cry "Uncle (Tom)" and give it all to you.
But that can't happen. You cast your die when you voted to start this bloody war. When you did that you were like Moses who lost it for a moment and, because of that, was prohibited from entering the Promised Land.
How sad for a country that wanted to see the first woman elected to the White House. That day will come -- but it won't be you. We'll have to wait for the current Democratic governor of Kansas to run in 2016 (you read it here first!).
There are those who say Obama isn't ready, or he's voted wrong on this or that. But that's looking at the trees and not the forest. What we are witnessing is not just a candidate but a profound, massive public movement for change. My endorsement is more for Obama The Movement than it is for Obama the candidate.
That is not to take anything away from this exceptional man. But what's going on is bigger than him at this point, and that's a good thing for the country. Because, when he wins in November, that Obama Movement is going to have to stay alert and active. Corporate America is not going to give up their hold on our government just because we say so. President Obama is going to need a nation of millions to stand behind him.
I know some of you will say, 'Mike, what have the Democrats done to deserve our vote?' That's a damn good question. In November of '06, the country loudly sent a message that we wanted the war to end. Yet the Democrats have done nothing. So why should we be so eager to line up happily behind them?
I'll tell you why. Because I can't stand one more friggin' minute of this administration and the permanent, irreversible damage it has done to our people and to this world. I'm almost at the point where I don't care if the Democrats don't have a backbone or a kneebone or a thought in their dizzy little heads. Just as long as their name ain't "Bush" and the word "Republican" is not beside theirs on the ballot, then that's good enough for me.
I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled senseless for 8 long years. That's why I will join millions of citizens and stagger into the voting booth come November, like a boxer in the 12th round, all bloodied and bruised with one eye swollen shut, looking for the only thing that matters -- that big "D" on the ballot.
Don't get me wrong. I lost my rose-colored glasses a long time ago.
It's foolish to see the Democrats as anything but a nicer version of a party that exists to do the bidding of the corporate elite in this country. Any endorsement of a Democrat must be done with this acknowledgement and a hope that one day we will have a party that'll represent the people first, and laws that allow that party an equal voice.
Finally, I want to say a word about the basic decency I have seen in Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton continues to throw the Rev. Wright up in his face as part of her mission to keep stoking the fears of White America. Every time she does this I shout at the TV, "Say it, Obama! Say that when she and her husband were having marital difficulties regarding Monica Lewinsky, who did she and Bill bring to the White House for 'spiritual counseling?' THE REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT!"
But no, Obama won't throw that at her. It wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be decent. She's been through enough hurt. And so he remains silent and takes the mud she throws in his face.
That's why the crowds who come to see him are so large. That's why he'll take us down a more decent path. That's why I would vote for him if Michigan were allowed to have an election.
But the question I keep hearing is... 'can he win? Can he win in November?' In the distance we hear the siren of the death train called the Straight Talk Express. We know it's possible to hear the words "President McCain" on January 20th. We know there are still many Americans who will never vote for a black man. Hillary knows it, too. She's counting on it.
Pennsylvania, the state that gave birth to this great country, has a chance to set things right. It has not had a moment to shine like this since 1787 when our Constitution was written there. In that Constitution, they wrote that a black man or woman was only "three fifths" human. On Tuesday, the good people of Pennsylvania have a chance for redemption.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com
MMFlint@aol.com
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By: Greg Jones on 4/22/2008 4:14PM
Blacks 4 Barack
(A Multi-Racial Org.)
Announces:
The 'WE WILL NOT BE CHEATED'
Phone Campaign To DNC !
Realistically speaking, it is a fact that even if Hillary wins Pennsylvania there is absolutely no way she can get enough delegate votes to defeat Obama and win the Democratic nomination. WE CAN'T LET HAPPEN IN PA.....AS DID IN OHIO !
In Ohio's election, 15 of the polling locations in Cleveland ran short of ballots. It just so happened that all 15 of these locations were in the black community. Once the shortage was 'discovered' (at 7:15 pm....after polling locations had closed) it was ordered by a regional judge to keep polling places open longer....actually until 9pm. Problem was that the workers at the locations had already closed up and gone home.....so the locations were not re-opened. Although there is a supposed investigation taking place, we want everyone to take note that these cheating tactics will not be tolerated ! If ANY cheating occurs in this Pa. election, we must DEMAND that legal actions be taken and the facts (culprits) revealed.
Hillary Clinton's coniving tactics will end up ruining the Democratic Party. Now is the time to let Howard Dean, Donna Brazil, Harold Ickes (both members of the DNC Laws & Bylaws Committee)and the entire DNC know that if Hillary wins through ANY methods deemed trickery (which is the only way she can win the nomination) WE....THE PEOPLE WILL NOT SUPPORT HER IN THE GENERAL ELECTION !
We are asking EVERYONE to call the DNC at 202-863-8000 to let them know 'We Will Not Support A Cheater !
We need 50 thousand Americans of all ages, races and creeds to FLOOD THE PHONES !!! Call Today !!!! 202-863-8000. Say It Loud....WE WILL NOT SUPPORT A CHEATER.....PERIOD!!! Tell everyone you know to make this call. The Time Is NOW....for the Re-Birth of America !!!!
NOTE: The Media refuses to inform America that OBAMA WON TEXAS.....Pitiful !!!!!
Visit: www.Blacks4Barack.org
(A Multi-Racial Organization....Dedicated To Truth !)
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By: truthbeit on 4/22/2008 4:23PM
TO EVERYONE READING TAKE NOTES FROM E.JOYCE MOORE!!!WELL SAID AND WELL DOCUMENTED,NOW GROWUP IN THE TRUE REALITIES OF AMERICA.TAKE NOTES AND CALL NAMES AS WE SEE IT.
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