Dick Hussein Cheney. John Hussein McCain.

March 30, 2008

The Dallas Morning News bloggers reported from the Senate District 16 Democratic Convention (held yesterday):

Funniest thing I’ve seen all day:  Obama supporters wearing name tags co-opting Barack Obama’s middle name.

Things like:
“Bob Hussein Smith.”
“Janet Hussein Finklestein.”

Good Times.

— Karen Brooks, at Moody Coliseum at Southern Methodist University, the site of the convention.

As blog reports go, the newspaper’s reporters got some snark, but the blog reports are remarkably bare of information.  The stories this morning are a bit better, but missing much.

My reports in a bit — if I can figure out how to download the Pentax photos to this computer.

Clinton’s challenges at our district (Royce West’s Senate District 23) picked up 22 delegates for Clinton.  That’s about 1% of those still standing after 9 hours of credentials wrangling.

Not worth it in District 23.  The Obama people spent the day converting a few Clinton delegates, but mostly making hard plans to dominate the state convention.  It became an 8-hour planning session for Democrats to win Texas, sure, but mainly for Obama to beat Clinton.   This was not from the Obama campaign, mind you, but spontaneous work by mostly first-time delegates.

My recollection is that four years ago we had about 600 people at this convention, and 400 two years ago.  More than 5,000 this year.  An increase of roughly 10 times in participation.

Is John Cornyn scared yet?

7 Comments | Campaigns, Capturing history, Citizenship, Current History, Democracy in action, Elections, Freedom - Political, Political conventions, Politics | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Retail politics in a democratic republic

March 5, 2008

More than 1,000 people showed up for our precinct caucus.  That’s 200 times more people than have showed in any previous year.  I didn’t get elected convention chairman by default, nor did I even get nominated.  The parking problems anticipated by The New Republic all came to pass — and no one really cared. 

It was fantastic to watch.

Obama got 89% of the 55 delegates to our Senatorial District Convention; Clinton got 11%.

More, later I hope, when I get a few minutes to write about it.

1 Comment | Political conventions, Politics, Presidents, Texas | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Obama shadow: Republican incumbents threatened

March 1, 2008

I tried to vote in Texas’s early voting process Friday. I opted out when, at 6:00 p.m., the line to vote in our usually-sleepy end of Dallas County was up to three hours long (the last voters made it inside the building at 9:08 p.m. — with another 90 minutes of standing in line).

The Obama earthquake is particularly heavy in our precinct. We may have been the most enthusiastic precinct in Texas for Gore and Kerry, and two years ago our voting pushed Dallas County into the Democratic column for judges, sweeping dozens of Republican incumbents out of office. This year, voting by and for Democrats is more than double the early voting totals then.  Our precinct is one of many in 2008.

However the Clinton/Obama drama plays out in Texas and Ohio, this demonstration of democratic muscle — in favor of the Democrats — should worry Republicans. If the numbers are repeated in nearby precincts, which have similar demographics, and in similar suburban districts around Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth and Austin, Republican incumbents in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate will be in trouble. No amount of advertising could avert a change in Texas’s party alignment at the national level.

Obama mania, and ennui from Republican control, combine to make a voting tsunami.

At this moment, from where I sit, it appears Democrats will win Texas’s U.S. Senate seat held by Republican John Cornyn. U.S. Representatives such as Kenny Marchant, who unseated Democratic Whip Martin Frost four years ago, should consider new employment beginning January 2009.

Republicans in Texas were talking about voting in the Democratic primary this year, to vote for Hillary Clinton, in the hopes that waving that particular flag would anger conservative Christians enough to motivate them to vote against her.

That’s a thin hook on which to hang hopes of election wins. There are not enough conservative, religious voters in America to overcome the wave of discontent with the present, and hope for the future, this election race has created. If Texas voters realize the power they wield, and they use it in November, the political world will reel and rock.

Alas for Republicans, that’s not a big “if.”

Will the ground move on Tuesday night?

Yes.

obama-in-duncanville-by-james-darrell-0227081757.jpg

4,000 screaming fans welcome Barack Obama to Republican stronghold Duncanville, Texas, in the Sandra Meadows Arena, February 27, 2008. Cellphone photo copyright © 2008 by first-time voter James Darrell; used with permission.

3 Comments | Elections, Politics, Texas | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Hoaxes as campaign tools

November 2, 2007

Barack Obama is a Christian, a Protestant.

Hillary Clinton met with the Gold Star Mothers, and the Gold Star Mothers were happy with the meeting.

But I’ll bet you get an e-mail soon saying otherwise.

Here, more debunking, this time from the venerable, and clearly biased, The Nation: “The New Right-Wing Smear Machine.”

Read it, and be inoculated with the facts, against the hoaxes.

1 Comment | Accuracy, Hoaxes, Politics, Voodoo history | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell