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First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

Chuck Todd, NBC Political Director

Mark Murray, NBC Deputy Political Director

Domenico Montanaro, NBC Political Researcher



Clinton seeks to boost WV win

Posted: Monday, May 12, 2008 3:51 PM by Domenico Montanaro

From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli
CHARLESTON, W.V. -- Hillary Clinton found dozens of supporters, and at least one of her rival's, as she started her Primary Eve Day with a stop at a local Biscuit World.

Clinton made the unnanounced trip as she seeks to boost her margin of victory in the Mountain State's primary. "We gotta get everybody out, gotta get everybody out," she said as she posed for a picture with a group of women.

One told her the weather forecast looked good. "Yup, let's make it happen, Clinton replied. "Get everybody out, it'll be a good day."

As Clinton worked the room, she ran into Doris Smith, who happened to be wearing a blue and white Obama '08 T-shirt. She shook her hand, and said she would work hard for her.

"I'm still trying to decide on the issues," Smith said to Clinton. "Well, that's what [you] should decide on," Clinton said, her hand now on Smith's shoulder.

Clinton, who did not stop to eat, thanked the staff and supporters for the greeting, and offered a quick pitch on her electability.

"I keep telling people, no Democrat has won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia."

As she sat in a booth signing a book, another woman said she hoped she woud "go all the way."

"We're gonna keep going as long as we have people like you helping us," Clinton said.

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Checking the files...

no Democrat has ever won without at least one of the below:
(1) the most votes
(2) stealing the election
(3) becoming President of the Confederate States of America

The last two are still clear options for Hillary, but the reality-based number 1 is becoming rather elusive, is it not?

Try door number 3, Hillary... it only seems fitting.

Hillary..would you PLERASE stop putting all of us through this agony? Pride is not very becoming of you. This is NOT going out with grace.
Okay, so in the spirit of ignoring Hillary Clinton:

I've been thinking a lot about Obama's probable VP pick, and have run through at least 20 names, and I think that one of the following people will be his VP running mate:

Gen. Anthony Zinni -
No one packs more military and foreign policy muscle than General Anthony Zinni.  In addition, he's been an outspoken Iraq War and Bush critic; he's also an old, white man with a semi-academic background, who could connect with Obama as well as a multitude of voters.

Gov. Kathleen Sibelius -
This Midwestern governor has a strong, progressive track record in a red RED state where she is incredibly popular.  She has stood up against big insurance and energy companies, and has relied on progressive principles to guide her judgement and her veto pen.  She's also an older, white, Catholic woman, whose demographic alone would help bringing in some of Clinton's dissenters.  Gov. Sibelius has been a strong supporter of Obama's since before Feb. 5th, after she gave the DNC's response to the SOTU address.

While these two also have their weak points, they are far fewer than some other names that have been thrown around. I believe these two will be atop Obama's list.

Any other thoughts?
I'm sure it was a "Bakers Dozen" that greeted her!!!
3 Ways Hillary Can Still Win:

1st chance: Hillary appeals to the Supreme Court, which, based upon a 2000 ruling, decides that the candidate with fewer votes wins the election.


2nd chance: Hillary Clinton must parachute into Pakistan while under heavy sniper fire, infiltrate al-Qaida using a fake beard, putty nose, and duct tape, and capture Osama Bin Laden, whilst singing the “Star Spangled Banner” with one hand over her heart and an American flag lapel pin prominently shown on her outfit. She must film all of this in HD and create a montage scored to Lee Greenwood's “God Bless the U.S.A.” Meanwhile, Barack Obama must publicly convert to Islam and change his name to Osama Hafez al-Mohammed Hussein Ayatollah Obama, while burning an American flag in the Crystal Cathedral as he replaces the crucifix with a do-it-yourself Piss Christ, while performing an abortion on the exhumed body of Terri Schiavo. He should also be naked. It should then rain frogs. That ought to do it.



3rd chance: One of the lesser-known consequences of quantum physics is an event called “quantum tunneling.” Here's how it happens: At a campaign stop in West Virginia, completely out of the blue, the aggregate wave functions of all the particles in Barack Obama's body end up instantaneously transporting him through the entire Earth and leaving him treading water somewhere in the Indian Ocean, or leaving his various particles scattered inside the mantle. The odds of this occurring are such that any macroscopic object tunneling through any barrier is highly unlikely in the lifespan of the universe, but it could occur!


Come on...Now she is Biscuit Pandering...We all KNOW she is not Domesticated. What is she supposed to do now...stay home and make brownies...er...biscuits?

This viper is as fake as they come.

She certainly doesn't act like she plans on getting out anytime soon.  I think she plans on trying to destroy the Party first.
Is she running for VEEP?

Forget it Barack!!!!!!!!!! We are in an 'end of the world' type scenario, as we try to save our Nation. We are not quite mortally wounded, but sometimes you've got to amputate a limb to survive.
Looks like Hillary as the Hard working White American vote locked up in West Virgina.

It's too bad her words of last week makes her look like a racist.  People knew sooner or latr they would come out of the closet with stupid remarks like that and lord and behold, it did.
Just more smoke and mirrors from "Desperate" Hillary to obscure the fact that she's lost this campaign for all practical purposes.  The folks of WVA are not representative of the far more diverse population of this country and should never be confused as some sort of bellweather for the rest of us.

Go Obama 08/12!
Ha, Ha, Ha, now the table has turned. What goes around comes around to the Clint-ons. A very hard defeat and lessons to swallow.
I who has everything favoring me and now I am eating dirt??
This must be a RIGHT WING covert operation to derail
my nomination and the media are with them.
No, I will not give up and go all the way to the Supreme Court to rightfully claimed my nomination.
Just wait and see.
Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc (After, Therefore Because Of)

You're supposed to be the master of the debate, Senator Clinton.  You should know better than to apply that kind of reasoning.


Anyway, it appears that only a few states need bother voting on November 4...

West Virginia
Ohio
Pennsylvania

Thanks for saving me the time and effort.
Hillary can't win and she knows it.  She's on an extended ego trip and doesn't want to get off the stage. Her goal is to destroy Obama so that he'll lose in Nov and she can run again in 2012.
Honestly, Hillary's lost in the past.  She seem to think like the Republicans....These are new times for America..IF she take a moment to look at that past 15 months...and even look at the nominee Barack Obama...History means nothing...History is being made...One can not predict the future of anything based on what happened decades, or centuries ago...THESE are new and different times....WHY can't she or any of her supporters see that...I understand if John McCain and the RNC..they have no idea what the American people want or think...But, Hillary i thought would know better...but, she no different than the Republicans....She offers the same old politics and thinks the same old way...Hillary ..Just go ...Go ...and be happy that you served when it was your time and now your time is up
What is the next critical primary Hillary. No Democrat can win wihtout Puerto Rico( to bad they can not vote in the genral election).  It's over.  Obama will have opportunity to win in the same states as you would of .  It will come down to the issues and the right VP.
With all of this media attention on WV, you would think the state held 20 or more electoral votes!

WV has 5 electoral votes in the General Election, 2 more than DC.  Senator McCain IS going to win West Virginia and Senator Obama IS going to win IA, netting Senator Obama 2 electoral votes from the 2004 general election map.  So, why all this talk about WV?  If Senator Obama was trailing and poised to exit the race after a big win in let’s say in DC, which has as favorable a demographic for Senator Obama as WV has for Senator Clinton, would anyone be giving DC the importance some are trying to give WV for Senator Clinton, that is if they weren’t trying to make the argument that poor white voters are more important than African American?

Here’s one more thing for the MSM to ignore…In Gallup’s latest poll, Senator Obama is trailing Senator McCain among whites about 11%, the same as every Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson who was the LAST Democratic presidential candidate to garner more than 41% of the white vote.

It’s fair for the media and the Clinton campaign to point out Senator Obama’s weaknesses, but what’s not fair are exaggerations, lack of historical context and lack of attention to Senator Clinton’s weaknesses.   Poll after poll is showing that Senator Obama is doing equally better with Independents as she is among Democrats, so it’s a awash.  But you wouldn’t know this reading or watching coverage that still wants to present this as a horse race.
Riddle me this Clinton supporters.  When Hillary finally admits defeat and throws her support to Barack Obama and the Democratic Party are you going to really vote for our true enemy Flip Flop McCain?

After all this support you've shown her over all this time will you really dishonor her by voting for the repugnant one who will give us just more of the failed policies the Bush/Cheney Tyranny has wrought upon our good country?  Will you blow off her suggestions for party unity so "Warmonger" McCain can keep our brave soldiers enslaved by the stop loss program that ensures they have to endure more combat tours?  Is this the gratitude you'll show Hillary when she finally comes to grips with political reality?

If so then Hillary has three words for you: "Shame On You!"!

Go Obama 08/12!

WV has lost their minds.

She is never gonna win!
Can't help but admire Senator Clinton's drive and determination. Her campaign was undone by poor handlers (ahem...Mark Penn) many months ago, but this is one Dem who is 100% behind Senator Obama and also 100% behind Senator Clinton staying in the race. Keep bringing new Dems into the fold and energizing the base...then let's move on and unify the party behind our nominee.
Clinton Republicans will teach the DNC and the MSM a valuable lesson that they will never forget.

Hillary supporters for McCain
Right, no Dem has won without WV. But the US is dramatically different today than it was 4 years, or 92 years, ago.

The balance of power, vis a vis electoral votes, has shifted significantly with the South and the West having much larger influence.

Obama can definitely win without WV if he gets CO and NM, which the polls say he can do.

It is a new day Hillary. We'll ALL feel better when you jump on board the train with the rest of the Democratic Party.
ooookkkkayy?

Come on Chuck...this is pitiful.

Hillary is like a herpes cold sore.

You think you have killed it, but it comes right back at the worst time!
"I keep telling people, no Democrat has won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia."
-----------------------------------------------------
So why bother with the other 'irrelevant' primaries ?

Just have one ! In WV ... and only if they elect HRC - if not, we declare AR the sole important state for the Democratic Presidency !
"I keep telling people, no Democrat has won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia."

Very Funny. How can people buy this B.S.?

Like WV's 4 EVs are critical. For that matter, no democrat ever won who is a female or an AA.

It's not like she's going to win.

What's she boosting for? VP?

Please.
The most interesting part of tomorrow night will be the speeches.  It'll be interesting to compare Clinton's response to her inevitable win with Obama's response to his inevitable loss.
I could have swirn I saw this posted earlier, Maybe it was somewhere else. I hope Hillary will be this tireless helping Obama campaign when if he is determined the Democrats cadidate.
CLINTON SEEKS TO BOOST W.V. WIN

I didn't realize clinton had already won w.v., and if she did so what?
Based on HRC's description of her core support, one has to assume that there is a majority of hard working WHITE Americans in WV.
Every contest you say that  no democrat will win the general without winning the states you won. Maybe this is the reason you lost the primaries. You have to compete in all 50 states, including small towns and cacucuses which you state are unimportant, in order to get to the general. This is a reflection of your divisive comments in USA Today. Presidents represent all 50 states and the diversity of this country not just certain voting blocs.
Hillary needs to understand something. Obama is a new candidate. He doesn't have to win WV to become President. It's not even on his electoral radar. She has the worst campaign staff ever. He doesn't even need FL or PA. Obama's path to the White House is a new chartered course that assures him more electoral votes than even Clinton would gain. McCain has an uphill battle because of the states Obama puts in play. McCain won't win unless Obama REALLY screws up.It's sad that Hillary Clinton doesn't know if because she's really making herself look bad.
A trip to Biscuit World suits her well.  She sure is flaky.
This is what makes Clinton Great. She is a fighter and never gives up on what she believes in. She believes that she will make the best Prsident. She believes she has the best chance to win in November. Her hase tend to be more conservative Democrats. They would be more likely to vote for a liberal Republican like McCain if Obama is the nominee. Obama's core supporters are young and liberal. They may stay home, but will never vote for McCain. The republicans are salivating at the chance to run against Obama. They will tie him to Wright, Farekahn, Ayers and even Hamas. I pray the Democrats nominate Clinton and she offers hip the VP spot. Itis the only chance they haveof winning in November.
C'Mon all you "typicle white, small town, bible clinging, gun totting, antipathy toward others who are not like you" WV - KY voters!!  Vote for the person who enjoys degrading small town white America !!  Vote for Sen. Obama!  

I am so sure your vote will be appreciated by Sen. Obama!
Honestly, Hillary's lost in the past.  She seem to think like the Republicans....These are new times for America..IF she take a moment to look at that past 15 months...and even look at the nominee Barack Obama...History means nothing...History is being made...One can not predict the future of anything based on what happened decades, or centuries ago...THESE are new and different times....WHY can't she or any of her supporters see that...I understand if John McCain and the RNC..they have no idea what the American people want or think...But, Hillary i thought would know better...but, she no different than the Republicans....She offers the same old politics and thinks the same old way...Hillary ..Just go ...Go ...and be happy that you served when it was your time and now your time is up
Your kidding me right! Bisquit World, there is actually a place called Bisquit World - Oh Brother, no wonder the shrub got re-elected!  Yeeeesh.
It would be nice if Senator Clinton would take this time to educate her supporters that Senator Obama is NOT a Muslim, that he didn't take his oath on a Koran, and that he loves his country as much or more than they do.  

This time, instead of voting against abortion and gay marriage, and for prayer and guns (those issues will never go away) -- vote for your wallet , vote for the economy, vote for the environment, vote for jobs.  

Vote Democratic 2008 -- don't let the corporations and their Republican stooges win again.  
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Hey Hillary,

Winning a state in the primary doesn't translate into winning it in the general.

I know that may make too much sense for your nonsensical campaign, but at least give it a try.
As a Disabled VietNam Era War veteran I know firsthand just how poorly vets get treated by Republicans like "Warmonger" McCain.  I served in the early 70's under that crooked commander in chief Nixxon and I smell the same putrid stench emanating from the White House that I did back then.

Just two weeks ago I heard a sad news story that a brave young soldier was killed in Afghanistan, during his 7th tour of combat.  No real American patriot would ever force our soldiers to endure so many attempts to cheat death.

Anyone who supports "Warmonger" McCain and this repugnant war for oil in Iraq does not support our brave soldiers.  McCain only supports enslaving our brave soldiers with the stop loss program and his new plan to keep soldiers from being able to escape their enforced slavery in the military to become free civilians furthering their education.

Go Obama 08/12!
From the state of delusion to the state of denial, Hillary still has a loyal following of not-too-bright women of a certain age.
Spin, Spin, Spin...

The supers have already accounted for a large win in WVA in their calculations / expectations.  The only thing that will make any difference is if she does NOT get a blowout.
The argument that Hillary is more experienced is fallacious. Saying she’s a fighter can be just as misleading. What is she fighting for; most certainly not our nation and a more peaceful, environment in the world? Obliteration of Iran won’t cause a more stable, peaceful, environment. Once again her experience can be debunked if she continues to thwart Iran.
Before republicans bring these issues into play; intelligent and integrity will attract voters to Obama; rather than Clinton dishonesty.
The Whitewater scandal
NAFTA
Columbian ties to trade by Bill Mark and Penn
Lincoln Bedroom controversy
The 1996 United States campaign finance controversy
Campaign debt
These are just a few of the serial corrupt Clintons can bring to the White House and the world.
The Peter Paul v Clinton disposition is to be given Supreme Court after 2008 elections (the worst campaign fraud in USA history.
But, overwhelmingly the last 2 certainly do not reflect outstanding experience and leadership! It appears Senator Clinton is fighting for her political life and  not to go to prison for campaign fraud.

I know the post below is rather long but worth the read.  Chris Matthews should REALLY pay attention.

www.stabroeknews.com
The Race for the White House
May 11, 2008

Covering the Coverage
By Wayne Brown

It’s what the media often does: hype a story out of all proportion; fall to believing its own hype; and then be deeply dismayed to discover its audience has moved on, leaving it enisled in its own vaporous excitement.

So, after the latest media frenzy over the Reverend Wright – including four hour-long ‘specials’ on Wright and Obama on CNN and MSNBC in the days immediately prior to Tuesday’s primaries – both cable networks had Tuesday’s narrative ready to go. Based on the belief that (their own) wall-to-wall coverage of the Reverend had finally destroyed Obama, this was that Hillary was not only going to romp home in Indiana but was coming from behind in North Carolina with a terrific surge to pip Obama on the post. (The Clinton campaign evidently believed the latter, too: last weekend they abruptly re-scheduled Hillary to appear in the Tar Heel state and poured money they didn’t have – that $450,000 which Hillary lent her campaign the day before North Carolina? – into 11th hour television ads there.)

On Tuesday, both channels filled the waiting hours with admiring accounts of how Bill ‘Bubba’ Clinton had worked more than 50 small towns in North Carolina; that, they averred, was how he had ‘won Texas for Hillary.’ Straddling the noon hour, CNN contrived to keep Hillary onscreen uninterruptedly for 40 minutes (this, on a Primaries’ day). It was impossible to miss the gleam of satisfaction in Chris Matthews’ eyes as, around 4 pm, MSNBC dropped its first portentous hint of what it was sure was coming. Exit polls were showing, Matthews said, that “fully half of the voters in Indiana and North Carolina say the Reverend Wright issue was important to them.”

Obama supporters settled in for a long night.

Six hours later, Matthews looked utterly deflated. How was it, he disbelievingly asked a black pastor, that half the voters said Reverend Wright was important to them, yet the results showed no Reverend Wright effect whatever?

Well, the pastor explained patiently to Matthews, “it’s clear that while the Reverend Wright affair may have been important to these voters, it wasn’t decisive.” Easiest $500 that gentleman of the cloth ever made. ($500: MSNBC’s going rate for brief appearances by non-regulars.)

The intervening hours had announced, of course, an Obama blowout in North Carolina, while in Indiana Hillary’s early lead was vanishing. She won by less than one per cent –50.4 to 49.6 was the adjusted figure – a fraction of the seven per cent of ‘Rush Limbaugh Republicans’ who, by ABC’s maths, voted for Clinton in a successful effort to stop Obama.

And suddenly the US media reversed themselves! All together, like a school of minnows, they went from explaining how Wright had doomed Obama to declaring Obama the Democratic nominee!
NBC’s Tim Russert was first out of the blocks. “We now know who the Democratic nominee’s going to be,” he told MSNBC around midnight.

Next morning, the herd came crashing along on his heels. Bob Schieffer on CBS: “Basically this race is over.” George Stephanopoulos on ABC: “This nomination fight is over.” “Toast!” blared The New York Post over a cover photo of Hillary. “It’s His Party!” preened The Daily News (with a wicked pun on “Party”).
Time magazine puffed along in their wake, with a fine cover photo of Obama and the legend: “And the Winner is…”

And The Huffington Post’s political editor, Thomas Edsall, happily donated this purple prose: “Hillary Clinton, who for seven weeks has crawled, kicked and bitten her way back into contention, suffered a blow on Tuesday… In the universe of political clichés, she is on life support, her oxygen choked off, her knees buckling, unable to stanch the bleeding, down for an eight count, on the ropes, praying for the bell to ring, desperate to get her wind back. In North Carolina, she suffered a crushing, 15-point-plus defeat at the hands of Barack Obama…”

By Wednesday afternoon, the AP was reporting: “Democrats quietly send word to Clinton it’s over.”

It took the herd about a day to realize that Hillary wasn’t listening. In fact, she had to shock them to attention with the assertion, to USA Today, that an exit poll had “found how Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”

Whereupon the whole dynamic of this 2008 presidential election fell into place with a click.
In deciding to run, Obama (as this column has pointed out) was manifestly placing a bet: that most white Americans – not all, but most – had progressed beyond the white racist and ignorant tribe of Bubbas the world knew in the 20th century.

But here now was Hillary, stripped down in defeat to her essential worldview, defiantly countering that most white Americans are still racist and ignorant and are therefore “supporting me”!

Ah, Hillary.

The bloggers jumped all over her. They pointed out (by this columnist’s count) no less than 15 instances in the past 5 months of the Clintons or their campaign staff or high-ranking supporters playing the race card: Billy Shaheen with his “Obama the ex-drug dealer” slur, Bill Clinton with his wistful musings about how a McCain-Clinton election would be “a contest between two Americans who love their country,” and so on. The Huffington Post’s Mike Barnicle warned readers that “the Clintons are about to paste a bumper sticker on the collapsing vehicle of her campaign. It reads: VOTE WHITE.”

One blogger pointed out that Hillary had waited till after the last primary in a state with a substantial black population to turn her race card face up on the table. Another argued that the Clintons, out of options – for they were going under, going down, at last – had made the desperate calculation that they could reconstruct the Democratic Party, dump its African-American support–that had twice won the White House for Bill Clinton – and replace it with a Latino base.

At present, the herd is confused. Most commentators still anticipate a tidy exit by Hillary – after West Virginia, or after Kentucky/Oregon on the 20th, or else after the Ways and Means Committee meets on May 31st, or after the last primaries on June 6th… And several have begun urging the party’s Superdelegates to act, endorse Obama, and put Hillary out of her misery before she destroys the party’s chances in November.
But this columnist is not so sanguine.

The Clintons have anticipated Hillary’s presidency for nine years – ever since Monica Lewinsky. They had to have known by mid-February, as Obama racked up 12 straight victories, that there was no longer any licit route to the White House for them. But they pressed on, in a mood this column early termed “Après moi, le déluge”; and nothing that has happened since suggests that, in defeat, they’ll hesitate for a moment before taking Obama and the Democratic Party down with them.

On Tuesday, West Virginia, a redneck state – Deliverance country – goes to the polls, to vote overwhelmingly for the white lady.

And the Clintons’ racist pitch will go right on.
Bubba at Biscuit World......now doesn't THAT give you a visual of Hillary's supporters? Good lord!
Hasn't anyone broken the news to her that she's lost?
So it's no longer primary states, super delegates or popular vote, is West Virginia the new metric from the Clinton camp?  Only the winner of WV is a legit candidate?
Biscuits? No, she's toast.
"I keep telling people, no Democrat has won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia."

---------------------------------------------------

This statement may be true.  However we are seeing the election map changing.  We see many red states turning purple.  

Obama's choice in VP may further change the dynamics of a red/blue election map.

I'm afraid we cannot rely on the same old formulas for success.


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