Convo watch: HRC, Paul troublemakers

Posted: Monday, July 21, 2008 9:09 AM by Domenico Montanaro

Compiled by NBC/NJ’s Matthew E. Berger…
DEMOCRATS: A Denver Group placed ads in the Chicago Tribune and CQ Daily, asking for Hillary Clinton to be placed in nomination at the convention. An open letter campaign began Saturday and already has more than 300 signatures.

The New York Times Magazine had a lengthy profile of Leah Daughtry, the chief of staff to Howard Dean at the Democratic National Committee and CEO of the Democratic convention. She is a Pentecostal preacher and leading Howard Dean's efforts to embrace religion.

The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless said Friday that movie tickets and bus tokens for the homeless during the convention aren’t intended to hide them. And they have received commitments from the city that homeless people won’t be pushed out. The coalition has requested tickets to the Invesco Field acceptance speech as well.

REPUBLICANS: Nevada Republicans are suing the state party after the convention was cancelled to prevent Ron Paul supporters from being seated at the national convention.

General Motors will provide hybrid and flex-fuel cars to shuttle officials around at both conventions.

Convention organizers are having trouble meeting a deadline for 10,000 volunteers. “To make their goal, they turned to pitches from the Democratic mayors of St. Paul and Minneapolis and a public service announcement featuring the Minnesota Vikings Pro Bowl center, Matt Birk, and World Wrestling Entertainment star Mr. Kennedy.”

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Comments

Diane from Illinois: "Are you better off now then you were 8 years ago?"

Barack Obama is.

Jason Bradley, Jonesberg, OK (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:14 AM)

Wrestling is very popular in Minnesota. Heck, they elected one governor.

Mr. Fuji (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:16 AM)

Here we go again.
Whatever happened to "I will campaign vigorously for the nominee?"

I guess she was only saying what we wanted to hear.

Sen Clinton can stop this nonsense but she seems like she is enjoying this type of nonsense being carried out in her name.
Shame

Steve NewYork (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:18 AM)

hillary isnt going to be VP and ron paul just isnt going to be involved in the republican convention.
heres video of those hillary supporters holding an anti obama protest
http://sensico.wordpress.com/2008/07/19/video-of-puma-just-say-no-deal-losers-hold-a-protest/
or
http://sensico2.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-blogs.html

camie (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:19 AM)

As promised, last week’s McCain panders, as covered by First Read:

Drilling Debate, Part 2 (7/14)
McCain Holds Media Avail (7/14)
(DeMint-McCain surrogate) GOP Channels Hillary Clinton (7/15)
McCain wants More Troops in Afghanistan (7/15)
(Lieberman-McCain surrogate) Attacks Obama’s Principles (7/15)
McCain Clarification on Gay Adoption (7/16)
Obama vs McCain Security Duel (counting this one because the tone was to attack O’s credibility) (7/16)
McCain Addresses NAACP (7/16)
Fannie & Freddie (Counting this one, even though they both pandered a bit) (7/17)
McCain Campaign prebuts Obama Trip (7/17)
McCain Campaign addresses Obama Trip (w/ Bonus Video) (7/17)
McCain ‘Straight Talk’ with Auto Industry (7/18)
McCain: First Negative Ad (7/18)
McCain Campaign mum on Gramm Status (7/18)

And already today McCain has LIED about Obama speaking to General Patreus ‘…for the first time ever…’ – pretty sure he met with him privately in DC about a month ago. This was way too cumbersome to pull together, so I probably won’t let myself be baited again. And, in tabulating the stories, in all fairness – Obama got the bulk of the coverage and the majority of it was mostly favorable. There were the occasional ‘slants’; but overall I would grade this a positive week for Obama and a pretty abysmal one for McCain. I am a liberal, voting for Obama – so take my assessment with a grain of salt.

Clara Kansas City, MO (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:20 AM)

Sue the republicans back to the stone age....
before they bomb you...

BJ, CA (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:20 AM)

And it is this very relentless efforts of Hillary supporters that has prevented me from sending her any money. She lost. Back in February - if you want to get technical. It is long since time to GET OVER IT. Vote for McCain if you must; but go away.

Clara Kansas City, MO (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:22 AM)

I may just go to Denver to be homeless in order to get free movie tickets considering the prices of them today. This past weekend it was reported that Americans spent almost a quarter billion dollars attending movies. I'm not sure if this is an indicator of anything in particular concerning our society but it makes one wonder. Vote Obama

bill, okla (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:23 AM)

Hillary...like that pair of shoes you just can't throw out.
Still comfortable but out of style...more like closet clutter...

BJ, CA (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:25 AM)

Ron Paul is still around????? His people need to get their heads out of their you know what's and back McCain.

I'm sure the homeless will be out tearing up the streets of Denver like the far left morons will be. Maybe if the homeless went out and got jobs, maybe they would not get into so much trouble, but it is hard to tell a homeless person to work when they have Obama promising to give them free money.

Maybe Ric Flair was a btter choice then Mr. Kennedy...

jerry/corpus christi texas (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:28 AM)

Minneapolis/St. Paul are two cities that have always been very politically involved. If McCain can't get volunteers there, it is due to lack of interest in his campaign. He would NEVER draw the crowd that Senator Obama did when he announced that he was the nominee of the Democratic party.

sotiredofignorance (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:30 AM)

There was a similar post about Hillary and the convention over at Newsvine about 10 days ago; the post got about 550 comments the last time I checked. It was framed as "backlash" for the Obama FISA vote, but my take on the post was it was really a place for disgruntled HRC supporters to keep up the conflict.

I also saw that Don Fowler and the DNC secretary had written a joint letter to the heavyweight HRC supporters basically telling them to fall in line (See Talking Points Memo on Saturday).

Personally, I think Democrats need to decide if they want to win or not. This is Gore and Kerry redux. I distinctly remember the arguments about Bush and Gore being tweedledee and tweedledum in 2000; surely no one believes that now... It's the same with McCain and Obama now -- the differences in policy, courts, etc, are dramatic.

Marihelen, TX (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:41 AM)

When it comes to the two presumptive candidates, the reason the public is backin gthe likes of a Ron Paul is because we do not want socialism or nationalism. We are a free society that is being slowly corrupted by outside interest adn our presidential choices are compromised at every level.

Ron Paul was and is a breath of fresh air in a stifled and controlled election.

He has shown us truly how compromised the American Dream is.

Mark G., BBH, Me (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:43 AM)

I agree with Clara. I'm still suffering from drama fatigue, so I'd prefer if those who still are holding out hope Clinton will somehow magically win the nomination will simply go away. Vote for McCain if you have to. Campaign for him, even.

But please go away with the Clinton stuff. It might be McCain or it might be Obama, but it won't be her.

Paul Miller, Woodbridge, VA (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:45 AM)

Jason Bradley...leave Diane alone. Your comment doesn't make any sense. There are a lot of people who have managed to be successful regardless of the current administration. We don't hold that against them, so why should you? Besides...Cindy and John McCain are pretty well off last time I checked. So your point is baseless. I bet if you asked middle-class Americans if they are better off, the answer would be a resounding no.

Obama '08...the only choice for me

Fee, Philadelphia (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:48 AM)

Clintonistas, just give it up already. To place HRC's name in nomination at the conventions is ridiculous It ain't gonna happen, so let it go. Spend your time collecting dollars instead of signatures to help reduce her campaign debt.

Go Obama - The Next POTUS!

J. Ellis, Virginia (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:52 AM)

Clara in KC I agree 100%. She has loaned herself another 1 million, is still asking for Obama supporters to help her debt, and just had the gall to purchase a .com for her supposed 2012 bid for.........whatever. As for her wholehearted support for Obama, we're doing just fine without it: I've yet to see any hard core campaigning from her or BIll yet. Obama 08, and yes, in spite of you Sen. Clinton, not because of you.

Sherri Hussein, Charleston WV (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 9:54 AM)

300 signatures? Wow...what happened ot the other 18 million who are supposedly firmly in her camp?

Michael (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 10:04 AM)

Hillary Clinton and her pathetic supporters are
turning into a bigger joke than Britney Spears!

And, about as relevant!

JIM WHITTAKER, Hemet, CA (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 10:06 AM)

It should be interesting if enough supporters of Ron Paul get to the National GOP convention. I wonder what kind of chaos they could create there. Would they advocate for Ron Paul to be on the ticket or would they say that Bob Barr is the best candidate and people should vote for him.

S.B. Stein E.B. NJ (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 10:09 AM)

Us Ron Paul supporters know very well the McCain is the canidate. We cannot support him. We are already making plans to vote for a third party in november. (Obamma is at least as bad - though in different ways) However we also know that is a losing proposition, so we are working hard to take the party back to the small government roots it used to have. We are working hard to support several like minded republican canidates. We make not get the president, but we can get a boost in congress.

Henry Miller, Monticello, MN (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 10:19 AM)

Yes "Ron Paul" people are still around, but we're about more than just Ron Paul. Here is a video of 15,000 of us marching in DC:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yCM_wQy4YVg ......

Here is a video of a Candidates@Google interview discussing Ron Paul's principles in some detail:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=yCM_wQy4YVg ......

Let me quote Ronald Regan as to what we're all about: "This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down--up to a man's age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order--or down to the ant heap totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course."

Dan Cummins, Orange County CA (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 10:20 AM)

The fight was never about Hillary, though at times it was very clear that she had forgotten that. The fight is not about Barack Obama either, and he continues to prove that he has not forgotten it!

This fight is to win back control of our country from the special interests that have no thought or plan for the American people. This fight is about getting good government from our elected leaders. Obama forces this issue on the "machine" on a daily basis. We are even now starting to see the result of truth being spoken to power on a consistent basis.

Even GWB is being forced to deal with the realities of the world and our own current economic situation.

I am not sure if McCain is even capable of doing this; but if his current responses to daily developments are any indication, he is NOT!

Vote Obama!!

GA GUY (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 10:41 AM)

Asking the tax burdened citizens to pay for Hilary's debt is shameful. We have our own financial problems to deal with.
Everybody should be voting for a third party..make your voices heard..No more business as usual!!!
McCain and Obama..not hardly a dimes worth of difference between them..US policies are a revolving door..More of the same every time..

jj (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 10:42 AM)

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