has anyone had trouble commenting over the last few days?

When I log in via comments section, it says "Error, unknown user", but I'm actually logged in (it says "Hi David Sloane" below the banner). So no, not really.

Also, thanks for covering this story. It's news, it's important. Many of my fellow Obama supporters seem to think Hillary and Hillary coverage should evaporate, but Senator Clinton is still important, like it or not.

Greg: One more thing, I am used to working around this now, but if I were a new user, I would probably say forget it.

I hope that my prediction is wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if we hear the lie about winning the popular vote. Today's speech is a real test of Clinton's bona fides and character.

(I, too, encountered the "Error, unknown user" problem about a week ago on several occasions. But lately all's well.)

This election is going to be a choice between clinging to the past out of fear or embracing the future with hope. Yes, McCain definitely will appeal to some of Hillary's old, fearful, beaten, downscale voters but Obama will appeal to Republicans who want a future for their children in a world where competition with Brazil and India will be more important than an obsession with quagmires in the middle east.

She's still in her house and the speech has been moved back to 12:30.

This makes it sound as if it is up to Hillary whether Obama wins or loses.

I agree her actions are important - and for herself as much as anyone - but we need to remember that among the "18" million, as many as six of ten (from various surveys) said right away they would support whomever was the nominee. So basically we are talking about the remaining forty percent. Not small, granted, and definitely needed in the fall. But:

Consider that among this group, many will begin to soften in their attitudes with the normal passage of time and the lessening of emotion.

And many will be persuaded by the very real prospect of an all conservative Supreme Court.

So while I agree that we all want Hillary to bring her supporters over to Obama, while we all want her to genuinely work for and support Obama, while we all want unity, let's just be realistic about the numbers.

I expect Hillary to be gracious on this occasion.
She will not clain to have gotten the popular vote.

I almost always get the unknown user message.
Then I type in a different name , same password, and my comment posts with the original name. Go figure.

If being an "elitist" means having command of the English language, or being able to communicate ones thoughts in an articulate manner, to have excelled at a respected University, to have achieved the American Dream, then Barack Obama is a proud "elitist". What is the point of this whole downward mobility thing? If being all of these things I mentioned is anathema, what will become of our country? If John McCain can gather the required neurons for one occasion, then he can call Barack Obama anything he wants, and we can consider the source.
We cannot, at his perilous time in American History afford to put another imbecile in the White House. John McCain is not mentally fit and if one reads the article on Politico, everybody knows that.

She hasn't spoken yet, but I predict that it will be a heartfelt endorsement. (from an Obama supporter)

Anyone else think they saw Mark Penn for a second as the cars were leaving the house, when the gates opened?

I did, and would be amazed if they're still bunkered with him.

I think that you have it right.

I see two possible outcomes in the GE.

McCain wins by a razor thin margin(very unlikely)
Obama wins in a walk over.(very probable)

The Rebublicans simply do not know what to do or how take on Obama, hence the great play for
Clinton supporters. If they are looking to the other party for votes in the fall they must be in real trouble, which of course they are. If the election were very close it might make a difference, but at this point a close election is just a Republican pipe dream.

I hope you're right dijamo. I'm an Obama supporter but, as a woman, I'm proud of what Clinton's accomplished.

I want her to give a strong speech that we can all be proud of.

CNN says: 20 minute speech. Why she got into race. And why there needs to be a Dem in the White House.

I haven't had the "have to log in twice" problem in a long time - a month or more, I guess. But, when I was having that problem, I noticed something that should make it a little easier on people who are currently having it:

When it tells you that your username or password are incorrect, you don't have to type anything in again. You can just hit "submit" again, without having a password typed in, and voila, you are (strangely) logged in.

I have only one slight worry about today's speech (12:40 and still waiting), and that is that I understand Mark Penn is helping her write it. Why him?

Crowd is getting restive now, clapping hands to music, occasional shout-outs of "Hillary." Very restrained crowd, not at all the same as at the RBC meeting.

I am wondering if the crowd will boo when she mentions Obama's name for the first time. That would be a bad sign indeed.

Watching MSNBC. Keith Olberman's ego has reached ridiculous heights this campaign season. He steps on Russert and Matthews all the time.

He has become utterly unwatchable. Unfortunately, CNN has been unwatchable for months.

Just my thoughts. KO was great on ESPN; he is now a caricature that loves to hear his own voice.

Can they please stop pointing?

So far the speech sounds just like the one on Tuesday night.

Saw this on Hillaryis44:

djia Says:


June 7th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

forwarding another email from this group i signed up with newwomensparty@yahoogroups.com

I have been off to the Texas Democratic Convention all day Friday and will be gone most of Saturday.

I’m turning the tide against Obama and flipping black women to HRC.
Be patient will explain all later Saturday. I’ve been up for 20
straight hours. Accomplishing amazing things. Have faith, we may turn
this for her yet. I haven’t quit trying. We totally dominated and
buried the Obama people. They couldn’t get anyone elected to any
position for the National Convention. Courtesy of yours truly. No HRC
supporters were clapping or cherring or looking happy at the unity bs.
We were groaning, frowning, sitting and even thumbs-downing them. He
can’t close the deal. Chelsea Clinton appeared and got a big surprise.
A huge sea of HRC signs and supporters screaming for HRC. We
outnumbered the Obama people by 3 to 1 and we’re kicking ass.

And when they kept bitching they ought to have some of the elected
positions, I answered (I had women all stirred up”Payback is a bitch,
isn’t it?”. I have to get a bit of sleep now but will send an amazing
report.

New Women’s Party

Feminism: (noun) the radical notion that women are people.

How long must women wait for our woman presidential nominee?

Really?  They're still trying to win this???

Looks like the party is unifying even before this speech:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows Barack Obama attracting 46% of the vote while John McCain earns 42%. When “leaners” are included, Obama now leads 48% to 45%. Leaners are survey respondents who initially do not favor either candidate but indicate their support on a follow-up question. One week ago today, McCain had the edge over Obama, 46% to 43%.

[skip]

Obama’s bounce is primarily the result of Democrats beginning to unify behind his candidacy. For the first time all year, Obama is supported by 80% of Democrats over McCain. In recent months, his support from Democrats has typically been in the high-60’s or low-70’s range.

McCain is supported by 84% of Republicans and holds an eight-point lead among unaffiliated voters. The bad news for McCain is that there are a lot more Democrats than Republicans. Obama’s party now enjoys a ten-percentage point advantage in terms of party identification.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

There are other detail in the poll which is important, but this nugget seems appropriate today.

I'm not gonna miss the "a single mom grabbed my hand/arm/wrist and said..." template.

Sounds like "we fought" for "ourselves."

Thus far "it's all about me."

there we go.. too bad there were still a number of boos in that audience response.

Finally! to help elect Barack Obama "THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!"

she is doing what she needs to do. I applaud her.

It does not look easy for her, but this can not be any easy day for her.

Thanks for your unambiguous support.

Best delivery I've ever seen from Hillary

Serious as a heart attack

She means business

I wonder if she's ever had a crowd boo her before...I mean, I've heard them boo Obama, but they really booed HER for praising Obama.

And now the speech is back to her...

I'd like to see her throw her passion behind universal health care. If she'd done that instead of framing herself as the warrior queen she'd have beat him.

I do hope all TPM readers heard the loud and sustained cheering when Hillary said that we must all throw our support behind Barack Obama. It certainly contrasts to some of the booing I have heard at Obama events when he mentioned her name. It's time for us to work together. My hope is that the tenor of the posts in the Cafe section of this site will reflect that goal of unity.

I have no problems with this speech, it's quite good. She's saying all the important things to calm those hard core HRC supporters about how silly it is to vote McCain. I hope she mentions Supreme Court too.

I'm watching now. She's doing a great job. She's saying the right things and saying them like she means them.

But, all those Hillary supporters who are booing every time she says something complimentary about Obama should, in my opinion, be dragged out into the street and beaten to a bloody pulp. For god's sake, children, grow the fuck up!

I didn't hear any booing at Obama's speech Tuesday night when he was saying great things about Hillary. And the Hillary supporters who were there said they were treated wonderfully by the Obama supporters.

If she has a debt retirement fund, I'm contributing.

She needs to praise Obama. Instead, she's talking about policy points. Nothing wrong with that, but this is the time for a much warmer endorsement.

OMG -- she's reminding us that she would have been the best president! Talking about why SHE ran!

I'm impressed with her crowd's response. And the speech.

She's really putting the sexism "problem" behind her, and behind us.

(Her speech is kinda corny though)

Back to talking about herself and how historic HER campaign was ... she needs to focus on Obama.

And I take it she is NOT releasing her delegates? That's not good.

Finally, a good comment about "not looking back."

That last part about "not wasting time looking back" was the best part of her speech. That was obviously very heartfelt. And she ended it with a plea to support Sen. Obama.

I do hope some people can now understand why we supporter her.

There were good parts --- very good parts.

But something was missing. I don't know. Maybe I expected too much.

I know this was an extremely difficult thing for her to have to do. And I know she's not the speaker my candidate is. I'm gonna chalk it up to that and give her my respect, my thanks and best wishes.

It'll do for now, but time will tell.

"McCain to woo Clinton supporters"

I have a mental image of opening the front door and seeing McCain standing there holding a bunch of flowers he snitched from the cemetary, with that eerie grin and huh-huh-huh laugh from his speech on Tuesday. "Hey, baby..."

It's like channeling Stephen King.

'Course I don't really have to worry about this particular scenario because I wasn't a Clinton supporter. But those who were...watch out for that scary, creepy man.

I think if she had ended the speech with the lines "that's why we need to elect Barack Obama" and the "yes we can", it would have worked better than sandwiching it in the middle.

She could have begun by thanking her supporters, staff, etc., then talked about how historic her run was and how far women have to go, and then ended with support of Obama and how we need to unite.

But, all in all, I'll give her cudos. That couldn't have been easy.

Ah, yeah, Greg. As evidenced by my triple post above, I'm having problems with comments.

One more point - did anyone notice that while talking about the doubters that a woman could be president, she mentioned winning "primary states"?

If anything should have been added to the speech it is the notion that Obama didn't win fair and square.

Working class white women love tax cuts for the rich and the war in Iraq.

Make Hillary for the VP and the issue will be mooted.

IMO, nothing will encourage Hillary supporters to embrace Obama more than a good wooing by creepy 'ole McCain.

let's get real, she has done what she needed to do but it really does not matter for many. we will not vote for OBAMA. i am no longer angry about it. just ready for bush's last day. i can take mccain over bush any day of the week.

ohh she was my canadidate and for you to say that just shows how wrong you are. the dems have lost at least 5-15% of hilliary voters. why are you so surprised. we are moderates to conservative dems so what's so hard to understand?