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It's all over but the voting

Posted by Scott Helman, Political Reporter February 4, 2008 11:23 PM

The rallies are over, the ads have run, the pitches made. If you're running for president, it's now out of your hands.

So Barack Obama brought Governor Deval Patrick and Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy with him tonight to his final rally before Super Tuesday, to remind his supporters that the real work begins when polls open tomorrow.

"I am asking you now for your prayers, your work, and your vote to change the course of American history and put Barack Obama in the White House as our president," Patrick said to thousands gathered at the World Trade Center in South Boston. "Barack Obama is a once-in-a-generation leader."

Obama's campaign is buoyed by a surge in polls across the country, gigantic crowds at appearances in states that vote tomorrow, and a record fund-raising haul in January. They're trying to downplay their chances against Hillary Clinton, but it's clear they're more confident than they let on.

"The momentum, my friends, is with us," Patrick said. "People are fired up. But don't be fooled. This is not going to be easy." Kennedy added, "This election is in your hands, each and every one of your hands."

Indeed it is, and it will make for a wild, wild day tomorrow.

Obama tonight, growing hoarse from non-stop campaigning, added a special Massachusetts-themed riff to his standard stump speech. He always makes a joke about how he was disappointed to learn he and Dick Cheney were distant relatives. Why, he asks, couldn't he be related instead to Paul Revere, or George Washington, or Willie Mays? But his example of a hero was different tonight in Boston.

"You're hoping that there's a Kennedy back there somewhere," he said as Ted and Caroline Kennedy sat behind him.

The Kennedy magic endures. How potent is it? We'll tell you tomorrow.

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Lenny Clarke was right about the Kennedys!

Posted by Jay February 5, 08 12:15 AM
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I went to the rally tonight and I have to say that the enegry of the palce was incredible. Regardless of his persuasive and eloquent words, it is clear that Obama offers something different than the status quo. Anyone with commonsense can see that his approach is different and deviates from the norn. We are operating under a political system that needs to be changed because of its inherent flaws. i.e. corpations has too much policial power, PACs, ect. Obama acknoweldges this. He clearly intends to make moral compassionate policy decisions that will help elevate our country out of this slum that Bush junior has dumped us in. He cares about the environment, and he cares about the country's citizens. I know he will bring our country and the world to greater peace and prosperity. Vote for him today! Obama '08

Posted by Lexi February 5, 08 02:44 AM
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Hillary's Teary (second) moment was staged. How did the media miss this one? Same set up, intimate setting, close cameras, trigger question. "I said I would not cry." Hillary was coached on this event and was trying to create the New Hampshire moment again but this time with less success. However the blind naive media bought into it again. Trying to depict Hillary has the sensitive type when in fact this was all staged for the media gullible. HOW blind is the media? And how gullible is America to fall for this "cheap soap act again."

Posted by spoon2456 February 5, 08 05:49 AM
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Hillary's "Phony War"

During the seven months following the blitzkrieg attack by the Nazi on Poland in September 1939, Britain and France refused their duty to come to the aid of their ally or take any subsequent military action against the German aggressor. The Third Reich, for its part, was content to take a breather while it made plans for its spring offensive against the West, and the period came to be called "the phony war." The smug complacency of British policy makers was to be shattered by the debacle at Dunkirk in the spring of 1940 and was to become the focus of John F. Kennedy's first book, "Why England Slept."

For the past 5 days the Clinton campaign has been involved in its own "phony campaign." Beginning with an early Friday morning one-on-one interview aired locally in New York, followed by a remark during Thursday's debate, and then repeated in a Friday night interview on the PBS "Tavis Smiely" show, Hillary has made it a talking point to say "the differences between us [Obama and herself] pale in comparison to those between us and Bush."

This line, which cannot possibly serve the interests of the Climton camp to make the deserved distinction with her rival, has apparently been scrpted for her by the campaign to appease the media's false assertions regarding Bill Clinton's supposedly inappropriately aggressive criticism of Obama, and doubtless to smooth the ruffled feathers of the craven party leadership that fears the slightest in-fighting between their front-runners.

For his part, Bill Clinton had taken up the cause by equalizing the historic significance of the two campaigns, saying that he "had waited his whole life" to be able to vote for the first Afro-American president and for the first woman president. He accused God of playing tricks with his mind, but the message to voters was obvious: They could with a clear conscience "Make History" (the Clinton web site slogan) by supporting Obama as much as by backing his wife!

This evening, Hillary hosted her last hurrah before Super Tuesday voting began with an entirely uninspiring "Town Hall Meeting," where nary a passionate word was said in answer to the pre-screened questions, where little anger was expressed at the state that "W" has left the country in, and nothing about the appaling inexperience of her opponent could be heard.

In the meantime, Obama was playing the male chauvinist by pulling out her chair at the debate as if she were his ... well let's just say "date," his campaign was putting out a fear memo that sounded as if written by the drug lobby to the effect that Clinton's universal health care plan would mean the garnishing of worker's wages (as he had also suggested during the debate), one of their representatives in New York was making a racially charged attack to the effect that Harlem was not Bill Clinton's "plantation," and Michelle Obama was saying on "Good Morning America" that she would have to "think about" whether she would support Hillary in the event that Clinton went on to the nomination. (Huffingtonpost)

I expect that California, where Clinton has lost a 20-point advantaage since the late summer, will prove the campaign's Dunkirk. Even a loss, if narrow, will be perceived, or should I say spun, into an Obama strength, and one can expect that Clinton will be put under enormous pressure to withdraw for the good of the party.

Posted by Citizen.K February 5, 08 08:18 AM
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Hey. Noble life demands a noble architecture for noble uses of noble men. Lack of culture means what it has always meant: ignoble civilization and therefore imminent downfall.
I am from Guinea and learning to speak English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "Most fleas dash out of sight, heading toward cover."

Thank you very much :-). Anoki.

Posted by Anoki July 1, 09 06:04 PM
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