Democratic Presidential Candidates

[LeSanton]

Vous savez que la France a bel et bien eu un président de la république métis noir?

Le 29 mai 1968, De Gaulle disparaît, la présidence est vacante. Elle revient constitutionnellement dans ce cas, de façon intérimaire, au président du sénat qui est alors Gaston. Présidence putative de 24 heures.

(les jeudis de l'Histoire).

Dans les faits, le président à ce moment là est Pompidou. Monerville n'a pas eu grand chose à dire.

Dans les faits le président était De Gaulle!

Vous voyez bien que les gens ne savent pas lire…

[john_ross]

Qui déclara que la présidence était vacante le 29 mai 1968?

[Ash]

Barack Obama's Stealth Socialism

Before friendly audiences, Barack Obama speaks passionately about something called "economic justice." He uses the term obliquely, though, speaking in code — socialist code.

("Never trust the white establisment.")

Audio Version

During his NAACP speech earlier this month, Sen. Obama repeated the term at least four times. "I've been working my entire adult life to help build an America where economic justice is being served," he said at the group's 99th annual convention in Cincinnati.

And as president, "we'll ensure that economic justice is served," he asserted. "That's what this election is about." Obama never spelled out the meaning of the term, but he didn't have to. His audience knew what he meant, judging from its thumping approval.

It's the rest of the public that remains in the dark, which is why we're launching this special educational series.

"Economic justice" simply means punishing the successful and redistributing their wealth by government fiat. It's a euphemism for socialism.

In the past, such rhetoric was just that — rhetoric. But Obama's positioning himself with alarming stealth to put that rhetoric into action on a scale not seen since the birth of the welfare state.

In his latest memoir he shares that he'd like to "recast" the welfare net that FDR and LBJ cast while rolling back what he derisively calls the "winner-take-all" market economy that Ronald Reagan reignited (with record gains in living standards for all).

Obama also talks about "restoring fairness to the economy," code for soaking the "rich" — a segment of society he fails to understand that includes mom-and-pop businesses filing individual tax returns.

It's clear from a close reading of his two books that he's a firm believer in class envy. He assumes the economy is a fixed pie, whereby the successful only get rich at the expense of the poor.

Following this discredited Marxist model, he believes government must step in and redistribute pieces of the pie. That requires massive transfers of wealth through government taxing and spending, a return to the entitlement days of old.

Of course, Obama is too smart to try to smuggle such hoary collectivist garbage through the front door. He's disguising the wealth transfers as "investments" — "to make America more competitive," he says, or "that give us a fighting chance," whatever that means.

Among his proposed "investments":

• "Universal," "guaranteed" health care.

• "Free" college tuition.

• "Universal national service" (a la Havana).

• "Universal 401(k)s" (in which the government would match contributions made by "low- and moderate-income families").

• "Free" job training (even for criminals).

• "Wage insurance" (to supplement dislocated union workers' old income levels).

• "Free" child care and "universal" preschool.

• More subsidized public housing.

• A fatter earned income tax credit for "working poor."

• And even a Global Poverty Act that amounts to a Marshall Plan for the Third World, first and foremost Africa.

His new New Deal also guarantees a "living wage," with a $10 minimum wage indexed to inflation; and "fair trade" and "fair labor practices," with breaks for "patriot employers" who cow-tow to unions, and sticks for "nonpatriot" companies that don't.

That's just for starters — first-term stuff.

Obama doesn't stop with socialized health care. He wants to socialize your entire human resources department — from payrolls to pensions. His social-microengineering even extends to mandating all employers provide seven paid sick days per year to salary and hourly workers alike.

You can see why Obama was ranked, hands-down, the most liberal member of the Senate by the National Journal. Some, including colleague and presidential challenger John McCain, think he's the most liberal member in Congress.

But could he really be "more left," as McCain recently remarked, than self-described socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (for whom Obama has openly campaigned, even making a special trip to Vermont to rally voters)?

Obama's voting record, going back to his days in the Illinois statehouse, says yes. His career path — and those who guided it — leads to the same unsettling conclusion.

The seeds of his far-left ideology were planted in his formative years as a teenager in Hawaii — and they were far more radical than any biography or profile in the media has portrayed.

A careful reading of Obama's first memoir, "Dreams From My Father," reveals that his childhood mentor up to age 18 — a man he cryptically refers to as "Frank" — was none other than the late communist Frank Marshall Davis, who fled Chicago after the FBI and Congress opened investigations into his "subversive," "un-American activities."

As Obama was preparing to head off to college, he sat at Davis' feet in his Waikiki bungalow for nightly bull sessions. Davis plied his impressionable guest with liberal doses of whiskey and advice, including: Never trust the white establishment.

"They'll train you so good," he said, "you'll start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that sh**."

After college, where he palled around with Marxist professors and took in socialist conferences "for inspiration," Obama followed in Davis' footsteps, becoming a "community organizer" in Chicago.

His boss there was Gerald Kellman, whose identity Obama also tries to hide in his book. Turns out Kellman's a disciple of the late Saul "The Red" Alinsky, a hard-boiled Chicago socialist who wrote the "Rules for Radicals" and agitated for social revolution in America.

The Chicago-based Woods Fund provided Kellman with his original $25,000 to hire Obama. In turn, Obama would later serve on the Woods board with terrorist Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground. Ayers was one of Obama's early political supporters.

After three years agitating with marginal success for more welfare programs in South Side Chicago, Obama decided he would need to study law to "bring about real change" — on a large scale.

While at Harvard Law School, he still found time to hone his organizing skills. For example, he spent eight days in Los Angeles taking a national training course taught by Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation. With his newly minted law degree, he returned to Chicago to reapply — as well as teach — Alinsky's "agitation" tactics.

(A video-streamed bio on Obama's Web site includes a photo of him teaching in a University of Chicago classroom. If you freeze the frame and look closely at the blackboard Obama is writing on, you can make out the words "Power Analysis" and "Relationships Built on Self Interest" — terms right out of Alinsky's rule book.)

Amid all this, Obama reunited with his late father's communist tribe in Kenya, the Luo, during trips to Africa.

As a Nairobi bureaucrat, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., a Harvard-educated economist, grew to challenge the ruling pro-Western government for not being socialist enough. In an eight-page scholarly paper published in 1965, he argued for eliminating private farming and nationalizing businesses "owned by Asians and Europeans."

His ideas for communist-style expropriation didn't stop there. He also proposed massive taxes on the rich to "redistribute our economic gains to the benefit of all."

"Theoretically, there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed," Obama Sr. wrote. "I do not see why the government cannot tax those who have more and syphon some of these revenues into savings which can be utilized in investment for future development."

Taxes and "investment" . . . the fruit truly does not fall far from the vine.

(Voters might also be interested to know that Obama, the supposed straight shooter, does not once mention his father's communist leanings in an entire book dedicated to his memory.)

In Kenya's recent civil unrest, Obama privately phoned the leader of the opposition Luo tribe, Raila Odinga, to voice his support. Odinga is so committed to communism he named his oldest son after Fidel Castro.

With his African identity sewn up, Obama returned to Chicago and fell under the spell of an Afrocentric pastor. It was a natural attraction. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright preaches a Marxist version of Christianity called "black liberation theology" and has supported the communists in Cuba, Nicaragua and elsewhere.

Obama joined Wright's militant church, pledging allegiance to a system of "black values" that demonizes white "middle classness" and other mainstream pursuits.

(Obama in his first book, published in 1995, calls such values "sensible." There's no mention of them in his new book.)

With the large church behind him, Obama decided to run for political office, where he could organize for "change" more effectively. "As an elected official," he said, "I could bring church and community leaders together easier than I could as a community organizer or lawyer."

He could also exercise real, top-down power, the kind that grass-roots activists lack. Alinsky would be proud.

Throughout his career, Obama has worked closely with a network of stone-cold socialists and full-blown communists striving for "economic justice."

He's been traveling in an orbit of collectivism that runs from Nairobi to Honolulu, and on through Chicago to Washington.

Yet a recent AP poll found that only 6% of Americans would describe Obama as "liberal," let alone socialist.

Public opinion polls usually reflect media opinion, and the media by and large have portrayed Obama as a moderate "outsider" (the No. 1 term survey respondents associate him with) who will bring a "breath of fresh air" to Washington.

The few who have drilled down on his radical roots have tended to downplay or pooh-pooh them. Even skeptics have failed to connect the dots for fear of being called the dreaded "r" word.

But too much is at stake in this election to continue mincing words.

Both a historic banking crisis and 1970s-style stagflation loom over the economy. Democrats, who already control Congress, now threaten to filibuster-proof the Senate in what could be a watershed election for them — at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

A perfect storm of statism is forming, and our economic freedoms are at serious risk.

Those who care less about looking politically correct than preserving the free-market individualism that's made this country great have to start calling things by their proper name to avert long-term disaster.

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.a…302137342405551

[José]

Poll: Nearly half hearing too much about Obama

Wed Aug 6, 10:47 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama may be the fresh face in this year's presidential election, but nearly half say they're already tired of hearing about him, a poll says.

With Election Day still three months away, 48 percent said they're hearing too much about the Democratic candidate, according to a poll released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. Just 26 percent said the same about his Republican rival, John McCain.

Obama, the 47-year-old Illinois senator who would become the first black president, has dominated political news coverage much of the year. According to an ongoing Pew study, Obama has appeared in more news stories this year and more people say they have heard more about him than McCain, the longtime Arizona senator who also ran for president in 2000.

Two-thirds of Republicans and about half of independents said they've heard too much about Obama, as did a third of Democrats, a significant number.

At the same time, nearly four in 10 said they've been hearing too little about McCain — about four times the number who said so about Obama. About half of Republicans, four in 10 independents and even a quarter of Democrats said they've not heard enough about the GOP candidate.

The poll was conducted from Aug. 1-4 and involved telephone interviews with 1,004 adults. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080806/ap_on_…ma_overexposure

[Luis]

Sera-t-il jeté à la poubelle avant même de se faire élire ?

[José]

L'esprit de famille semble plutôt étranger à Obama.

Senator’s half-brother is tracked down to Nairobi slum

By David Usborne in New York

Thursday, 21 August 2008

It is a detail of the already exotic life story of Barack Obama that his campaign was not intending to highlight to voters at the Democratic Convention in Denver next week: the circumstances of a little half-brother called George.

It is not quite the first time we have heard of 26-year-old George Hussein Onyango Obama. The candidate did give him a very cursory mention in one of his best-selling memoirs, with the observation that he was a "beautiful boy with a rounded head".

But it is only now that we know where George is and what he is up to. The Italian version of Vanity Fair purports in its latest edition to have tracked down brother George living in obscurity in a hut in the shanty town of Huruma on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, surviving on less than a dollar a month.

He will not, in other words, be by his brother's side in Colorado enjoying reflected adulation. "No one knows who I am," he told the magazine, saying he is too embarrassed to admit to anyone that the man running for the White House in America is his half-brother because of his abject penury. "If anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed."

There was no reaction from the Obama camp last night nor was it clear whether the discovery of George – if indeed it is he – stood in any way to embarrass or damage the candidate. George shares a father with Barack, Barack Hussein Obama, but was born to a different mother, known only as Jael.

Family baggage has, of course, surfaced to trouble presidential hopefuls in the past. In the case of Bill Clinton, it was half-brother Roger, whom he had pardoned while Governor of Arkansas. Roger had been convicted for cocaine distribution and sent to prison.

Senator Obama was born in Hawaii to Ann Dunham, who had married a student she met at university on the islands, Barack Obama Sr. However, he abandoned the family when his son was two years old and eventually returned to Kenya where he fathered George. He was killed in a car crash in 1982.

It seems that the Senator and George have met on two occasions, first when he was five and then during a visit to Kenya in 2006. Of the second meeting, the brother said: "It was very brief, we spoke for just a few minutes. It was like meeting a complete stranger."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/am…lum-904126.html

[Normous]

http://www.lefigaro.fr/elections-americaines-2008/2008/08/23/01017-20080823ARTFIG00310-barack-obama-aurait-choisi-joe-biden-comme-co-listier-.php

Obama aurait choisi Joe Biden comme co-listier.

[Sehb]

Il a l'air encore plus à gauche qu'Obama. Totalement pro gun-control, mon choix serait fait après ça.

[José]

Obama aurait choisi Joe Biden comme co-listier.

"Obama's Choice of Biden Shows Lack of Confidence"

[Taranne]

Rappelez-vous.

C'était en 2000. Un candidat relativement jeune et parfaitement inexpérimenté promettait le changement et choisissait pour ce faire un vieux birbe bardé de casseroles pour colistier. Le tandem remporta les élections - avec un gros désastre à la clé.

Et maintenant…

Nous sommes en 2008. Un candidat relativement jeune et parfaitement inexpérimenté promet le changement et choisit pour ce faire un vieux birbe bardé de casseroles pour colistier. L'histoire va-t-elle se répéter? Et sous quelle forme? Tragédie ou farce?

[José]

Un candidat relativement jeune et parfaitement inexpérimenté promettait…

G. W. Bush "parfaitement inexperimenté" ? Il n'avait été que 8 ans gouverneur du Texas (une bagatelle de 24 millions d'habitants, un territoire plus grand que la France).

[Normous]

A noter les commentaires particulièrement savoureux sur La Pravda Le Figaro qui sentent bon le socialisme franco-français ethnocentriste le plus abject.

[Taranne]

G. W. Bush "parfaitement inexperimenté" ? Il n'avait été que 8 ans gouverneur du Texas (une bagatelle de 24 millions d'habitants, un territoire plus grand que la France).

Il était donc tout à fait expérimenté au niveau local.

Mais diriger un pays de 300 millions d'habitants qui se trouve être la première puissance mondiale, c'est autre chose.

[José]

Il était donc tout à fait expérimenté au niveau local.

G. W. Bush n'était ni plus ni moins experimenté que n'importe quel candidat à un premier mandat présidentiel américain.

[Bastiat]

Il était donc tout à fait expérimenté au niveau local.

Mais diriger un pays de 300 millions d'habitants qui se trouve être la première puissance mondiale, c'est autre chose.

C'est vrais, pourtant ils avaient le choix

• Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma (inde)
  
• Vladimir Poutine (russie)
  
• Jiang Zemin (chine)
  

Dommage que leur mandat fut en cours ça complique pour faire une campagne.

ya bien un des indonésiens, mais après à moins de 200 millions ça fait léger sur un CV.

[Taranne]

G. W. Bush n'était ni plus ni moins experimenté que n'importe quel candidat à un premier mandat présidentiel américain.

Je n'ai pas dit le contraire; en fait, cela renforce même le parallèle avec Obama.

[José]

Je n'ai pas dit le contraire; en fait, cela renforce même le parallèle avec Obama.

[Luciole]

A la convention de Denver, la vaincue des primaires a rendu lundi un hommage appuyé à son ancien rival Barack Obama.

Barack Obama est "mon candidat" a affirmé mardi soir une Hillary Clinton tout à la fois radieuse et pugnace appelant les démocrates à s'unir derrière leur candidat.

"Barack Obama est mon candidat et il doit être notre président", a dit Mme Clinton accueillie triomphalement par une foule debout au Pepsi Center où se déroule la convention démocrate.

Son mari Bill Clinton était dans les tribunes ainsi que Michelle Obama, la femme du candidat démocrate à la Maison Blanche.

"Que vous ayez voté pour moi (durant les primaires) ou voté pour Barack, le temps est venu de l'unité avec un seul but. Nous sommes dans la même équipe, et personne d'entre nous ne doit rester sur le banc de touche", a dit Mme Clinton.

En déplacement dans le Montana (nord-ouest), M. Obama a salué le discours de "premier ordre" de son ex-rivale.

"D'aucune façon il ne faut (John) McCain" à la Maison Blanche, a affirmé Mme Clinton.

"Quand Obama sera à la Maison Blanche, il revitalisera notre économie, il défendra les travailleurs américains et relèvera les défis mondiaux de notre époque. Les démocrates savent comment faire cela. Et je me souviens que le président Clinton et les démocrates l'ont fait auparavant. Et le président Obama et les démocrates le feront encore", a-t-elle dit.

La sénatrice de New York a également rendu un hommage appuyé à Michelle Obama et au colistier du candidat démocrate, Joe Biden.

Barack Obama "aura une partenaire fantastique en Michelle Obama. Quiconque a vu le discours de Michelle hier soir sait qu'elle sera une grande Première dame pour l'Amérique. Les Américains ont aussi de la chance de voie Joe Biden aux côtés de Barack Obama. C'est un dirigeant solide et un homme de bien (…) Il est pragmatique, costaud et avisé".

Longtemps considérée comme la favorite de la course démocrate, Mme Clinton qui avait l'ambition de devenir la première femme élue à la Maison Blanche a dû s'incliner face à son rival Barack Obama à l'issue de primaires éprouvantes.

La campagne des primaires démocrates a été longue et très disputée. Mme Clinton, forte du soutien d'environ 18 millions d'électeurs, n'a jeté l'éponge qu'à la fin du processus des primaires, début juin.

Lundi soir, au cours d'une intervention unanimement saluée mardi par la presse américaine, Michelle Obama, la femme du sénateur de l'Illinois, avait rendu hommage à Mme Clinton.

Il y a "des gens comme Hillary Clinton, qui a fait 18 millions de fissures dans le +plafond de verre+, pour que nos filles et nos fils puissent rêver plus grand et viser un peu plus haut", a dit Mme Obama.

L'ancien président Bill Clinton doit intervenir devant les délégués mercredi soir.

http://www.liberation.fr/actualite/monde/e…s/347776.FR.php (sorry pour la fiabilité de la source)

[José]

…sorry pour la fiabilité de la source…

Nulle comme à son habitude, puisque nombre de commentateurs américains pointent plutôt le fait que cet appui fut minimal et se gaussent de la tronche tirée par la wife à Obambi Obama.

[Sous-Commandant Marco]

A mon avis, si McCain choisit une femme comme colistière, par exemple Condoleezza Rice, l'élection sera définitivement pliée.

[José]

…si McCain choisit une femme comme colistière…

Pas con. Mais Condoleezza Rice me semble trop cramée.

[Blueglasnost]

A mon avis, si McCain choisit une femme comme colistière, par exemple Condoleezza Rice, l'élection sera définitivement pliée.

Quelqu'un de compétent en économie ne serait peut-être pas superflu non plus, car McCain est passable dans ce domaine, de son propre aveu…

[Sous-Commandant Marco]

[…] Mais Condoleezza Rice me semble trop cramée.

Raciss'

[Jeeves]

Quelqu'un de compétent en économie ne serait peut-être pas superflu non plus, car McCain est passable dans ce domaine, de son propre aveu…

Une idée de femme républicaine, ayant une certaine légitimité en économie? Ou un homme noir sinon?

EDIT : question peut-être à déplacer dans le fil sur les républicains…?

[Sous-Commandant Marco]

Quelqu'un de compétent en économie ne serait peut-être pas superflu non plus, car McCain est passable dans ce domaine, de son propre aveu…

L'économie, c'est un détail.

[Blueglasnost]

L'économie, c'est un détail.

Meaning?

[Sous-Commandant Marco]

Meaning?

Comme aurait dit Reagan: elle est assez grande pour se débrouiller toute seule.

[Blueglasnost]

Comme aurait dit Reagan: elle est assez grande pour se débrouiller toute seule.

D'accord, dans ce sens là, aucun problème. En tout cas, il est certain que, malgré mon aversion pour lui, je préfère mille fois voir McCain élu qu'Obama qui ne manquera pas de faire preuve d'un certain dirigisme en multipliant les dépenses pour satisfaire ses électeurs… En revanche, l'actualité brûlante montre qu'il ne faut pas trop prendre au pied de la lettre toutes les déclarations des candidats, Obama aurait passé un coup de téléphone à un sénateur canadien expliquant qu'il ne fallait pas prendre au sérieux ses piques anti-ALENA… L'Amérique est bien partie avec des hommes politiques de telle conviction!

[Sous-Commandant Marco]

D'accord, dans ce sens là, aucun problème. En tout cas, il est certain que, malgré mon aversion pour lui, je préfère mille fois voir McCain élu qu'Obama qui ne manquera pas de faire preuve d'un certain dirigisme en multipliant les dépenses pour satisfaire ses électeurs… […]

C'est vrai qu'augmenter les dépenses pour satisfaire ses électeurs, c'est pas du tout le genre des Républicains…

[José]

Selon les médias européens, à la convention démocrate, ce serait la grande fête des retrouvailles, le retour des enfants prodigues, le pardon des offenses, etc.

Selon les médias américains - de gauche -, c'est un "peu" différent :

Some Clinton Fund-Raisers Are Still Simmering

DENVER — A significant number of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s top fund-raisers remain on the sidelines and unwilling to work for Senator Barack Obama, a nettlesome problem that appears to be contributing to the campaign’s failure to keep pace with ambitious fund-raising goals it set for the general election.

The lingering rancor between the sides appears to have intensified at the Democratic convention, with grousing from some Clinton fund-raisers about the way they are being treated by the Obama campaign in terms of hotel rooms, credentials and the like. Tensions were already high, particularly in the wake of revelations that Mr. Obama did not vet Mrs. Clinton or ask her advice on his vice-presidential pick.

Many major Clinton fund-raisers skipped the convention; others are leaving Wednesday, before Mr. Obama’s speech.

More broadly, a consensus appears to have emerged among many major Clinton donors that the Obama campaign did not do enough to enlist their support, according to interviews with more than a half-dozen Clinton fund-raisers.

“I’ve had more contact from the McCain campaign since the nomination than from the Obama campaign,” said Calvin Fayard, a New Orleans lawyer, major Clinton fund-raiser and longtime Democratic donor who is not in Denver this week.

Mr. Fayard said he was considering supporting Senator John McCain, the Republican, citing what he perceived as Mr. Obama’s inexperience.

After Mrs. Clinton suspended her campaign in June, the Clinton and Obama campaigns publicly vowed to work toward integrating Mrs. Clinton’s fund-raising apparatus with Mr. Obama’s.

But it appears that much of that effort has fallen short, said former Clinton supporters who have decided to begin raising money for Mr. Obama.

“I believe to date I’m a minority,” said Hassan Nemazee, a former national finance chairman for the Clinton campaign who said he had raised more than $500,000 for Mr. Obama in the last few months. “I still firmly believe there is a tremendous amount of untapped resources that can be tapped if the Obama campaign pro-actively engages people in the Clinton world.”

Indeed, a New York Times analysis of Federal Election Committee records found that Clinton donors contributed roughly $2 million to the Obama campaign in July, similar to what they gave in June. The amount is not insubstantial, but it appears to fall short of targets originally envisioned by Obama fund-raisers.

When Mr. Obama decided in June to bypass the $84 million in public financing for the general election, campaign officials calculated that to make it worth the additional time he would need to devote off the campaign trail to fund-raising, they needed to raise two to three times the $84 million.

They set out a goal of raising $300 million for the campaign and $180 million for the Democratic Party, several fund-raisers said, or about $100 million a month.

The targets hewed closely with what Obama advisers also cited in interviews as their anticipated budget for the general election, but a spokesman for the campaign insisted on Tuesday that its fund-raising was on target and denied that $100 million a month was ever a real goal, or that the campaign was having problems recruiting Clinton donors.

In July, Mr. Obama and the Democratic National Committee took in about $77 million. That swamped the $53 million Mr. McCain and the Republican National Committee collected. But it was for a second straight month significantly off the pace Obama officials had set.

In June, when Mrs. Clinton suspended her campaign, Clinton and Obama officials estimated they might be able to collect $50 million to $75 million or more from Clinton donors. They appear to be nowhere near that.

And the prospects for the Obama campaign to wring more out of top Clinton fund-raisers who are inactive or unenthusiastic appears to be diminishing. There was much initial wrangling between the two sides over how to best draw in former Clinton fund-raisers, with some arguing that the Obama camp should alter its fund-raising structure to offer top Clinton bundlers titles parallel to those of their Obama counterparts. But Obama officials, who take pride in having less hierarchy in their campaign organization, resisted. In the end, they saw little need to change what was working, several top Clinton fund-raisers said.

Another sore point remains Clinton fund-raisers’ contentions that Mr. Obama has not done enough to help Mrs. Clinton retire her debt. The analysis by The Times found that Obama donors gave $300,000 to Mrs. Clinton in July and $135,000 in June.

Perceived snubs leading up to the convention have not helped. Only a handful of Clinton donors got rooms at the coveted Ritz-Carlton, where the biggest Obama fund-raisers are staying.

The Times’s analysis of campaign finance records found fewer than 50 out of the more than 300 “Hillraisers” — who have bundled more than $100,000 for Mrs. Clinton — contributed to the Obama campaign in July, up from about 10 the month before.

Just over 70 Hillraisers have contributed to Mr. Obama, meaning the vast majority of Hillraisers appear to have not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/us/polit…amp;oref=slogin

Many Clinton Supporters Say Speech Didn't Heal Divisions

DENVER, Aug. 26 -- Hillary Rodham Clinton's most loyal delegates came to the Pepsi Center on Tuesday night looking for direction. They listened, rapt, to a 20-minute speech that many proclaimed the best she had ever delivered, hoping her words could somehow unwind a year of tension in the Democratic Party. But when Clinton stepped off the stage and the standing ovation faded into silence, many of her supporters were left with a sobering realization: Even a tremendous speech couldn't erase their frustrations.

Despite Clinton's plea for Democrats to unite, her delegates remained divided as to how they should proceed.

There was Jerry Straughan, a professor from California, who listened from his seat in the rafters and shook his head at what he considered the speech's predictability. "It's a tactic," he said. "Who knows what she really thinks? With all the missteps that have taken place, this is the only thing she could do. So, yes, I'm still bitter."

There was JoAnn Enos, from Minnesota, who digested Clinton's resounding endorsement of Barack Obama and decided that she, too, will move on and get behind him. "I'll vote for [Obama] in the roll call," she said, "because that's what Hillary wants."

There was Shirley Love, from West Virginia, who smiled at Clinton's composure, waved a button bearing her name and felt a renewed pang of regret that she had lost the nomination. "She deserves it," Love said. "That's the thing that sticks with you. Even if she can move on easily, that's not as easy for everybody else."

Most delegates agreed that Clinton's impassioned speech marked a step toward reconciliation. The crowd in the Pepsi Center stood to applaud almost every time she mentioned Obama by name.

John Burkett, a Pennsylvania delegate and staunch Clinton supporter, attached an Obama button to his shirt. A New Mexico delegate said the "H" on his shirt will be replaced with an "O" come Thursday.

"She hit it right out of the ballpark," said Terie Norelli, New Hampshire's House speaker. "I've never been prouder of a Democrat than I was tonight." Norelli said the speech made her want to work hard for Obama. "She said it better than I ever could have: Everything I worked for and that she worked for would be at risk if we do anything less."

But Clinton's performance fell far short of the panacea the Democratic Party had desperately hoped for, delegates said. Some worried that, after Clinton's public withdrawal, more voters might defect for Republican John McCain or simply stay home.

"I'm not going to vote for Obama. I'm not going to vote for McCain, either," said Blanche Darley, 65, a Texas delegate for Clinton. Darley wore a button saying "Obamination Scares the Hell Out of Me."

"We love her, but it's our vote if we don't trust him or don't like him," said Darley, who was a superdelegate for Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

Weeping, Dawn Yingling, a 44-year-old single mother from Indianapolis, said that the speech was "fabulous" but that she still isn't going to work for the Obama campaign. "She was fabulous, nothing less than I expected. It's hard to sit here and think about she would have accomplished. We're not stupid -- we're not going to vote for John McCain," she said. But she'll limit her campaigning to a House candidate. "It will take a Congress as well as a president. That's what I can do and be true to who I am."

For Clinton's supporters, it was difficult to accept her speech as the public finale of her campaign, because this moment once held such tremendous potential. Shelby Leary, a delegate from West Virginia, stood to watch a video tribute to Clinton's success as a trailblazer and then chanted "Hillary" for 30 seconds with the rest of the crowd. Anne Price, from Washington state, wore a dozen Clinton buttons and wiped tears from her eyes.

It seemed a particularly resonant moment Tuesday night, which marked both Women's Equality Day and the 88th anniversary of women's suffrage.

"There's no way this night couldn't be emotional," Leary said. "A lot of us loved campaigning for her, and it's hard to watch it end. But after something like this, you have to have an emotional end for people to come to terms with things."

Clinton said Tuesday night that it is Obama's convention. But many of her supporters came here exclusively to honor her. One group traveled from New York and built an impromptu museum commemorating Clinton's historic campaign. Another lighted thousands of candles in a park to symbolize her widespread support.

On Tuesday morning, hundreds of loyalists formed a 200-yard parade and marched through downtown. They shouted into loudspeakers and beat drums, creating a cacophony that echoed across the blocks. As they began marching, some of the supporters chanted, "We want a roll call." Many of them wore their opinions on T-shirts: Country Over Party. Damn, We Wish You Were President. Still Making History. Democrats Left Behind.

At the front of the parade route, one banner summarized their message: Hillary. Who Else?

"A lot of people came here just because they wanted to celebrate Hillary," said Elizabeth Fiechter, a New York City lawyer who helped organize the parade. "We get criticism because there's this idea that the election should move on and just leave her behind. We're not going down that quietly."

The week of festivities for Clinton delegates and supporters started Monday with a meet-and-greet, where some supporters learned that they differ from one another more than they originally thought. The most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that only 42 percent of Clinton voters classify themselves as "solidly behind" Obama, and that 20 percent plan to vote for McCain. But in Denver, Clinton supporters sometimes classified themselves as belonging to one of two categories: the sad and the angry.

"It just makes me upset because Hillary would have been the perfect woman to do this job," said Katherine Vincent, from Colorado. "I'm a Democrat first, but it's just difficult to get over."

"I hate Obama so much that I'm going to devote as much time to McCain as I did to Hillary," said Adita Blanco, a Democrat from Edward, Okla., who has never voted for a Republican. "Obama has nothing. He has no experience. The Democratic Party doesn't care about us. You couldn't treat [Clinton] any worse."

Perhaps the best example of the persistent divide in the Democratic Party came after Clinton's speech Tuesday night. The lights went down in the Pepsi Center, and some influential Democrats left downtown for good. They planned to head for the airport and fly home, long before Obama accepts the nomination in a speech at Invesco Field on Thursday night.

Clinton will hold a private meeting with her top financial advisers Wednesday, and many donors plan to leave immediately afterward. Terence R. McAuliffe, Clinton's campaign chairman and the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, also plans to leave before Obama's speech. Many of the women from 18 Million Voices, Fiechter's pro-Clinton group, booked tickets for Wednesday and Thursday because "we really are taking a position of being indifferent to Obama," Fiechter said.

Clinton's delegates inside the Pepsi Center had no choice but to stick around, at least until the end of Wednesday's roll call.

"I wish I could leave," said Straughan, the professor from California. "To be honest, that would make this whole thing a lot easier."

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