The Hollywood Liberal

Bonus Quote of the Day
“The Republican loss in the special election for Louisiana’s Sixth Congressional District last Saturday should be a sharp wake up call for Republicans: Either Congressional Republicans are going to chart a bold course of real change or they are going to suffer decisive losses this November.”

— Newt Gingrich, in his strategy newsletter.

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Video: Hillary’s Victory Speech In Indiana
Sure seemed strange for a victory speech to me. But that’s just me.

Indiana (95% reporting):

51% Clinton
49% Obama

North Carolina (99% reporting):

42% Clinton
56% Obama

Sure seemed strange for a victory speech to me. But that’s just me.

Still watching Gary results narrow the Indiana vote. It’s down to a 17,000-vote difference right now. If Hillary does win, it won’t have been by much.

Obama Congratulates Hillary for Her Win in Indiana

Of course, he said her “apparent” win, but I think it was a concession.

Is anyone watching Obama? He's speakng now.

9:41 pm: Indiana vote: Almost 950,000 votes in, Hillary has 52%, Obama 48%. Fox and CNN still have not called it.

Comments now closed, new threads are up.

Fannie and Freddie
They’ve got trouble, my friends…

The companies, which say fears that they might falter are baseless, have recently received broad new powers and billions of dollars of investing authority from the federal government. And as Wall Street all but abandons the mortgage business, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac now overwhelmingly dominate it, handling more than 80 percent of all mortgages bought by investors in the first quarter of this year. That is more than double their market share in 2006.

But some financial experts worry that the companies are dangerously close to the edge, especially if home prices go through another steep decline. Their combined cushion of $83 billion — the capital that their regulator requires them to hold — underpins a colossal $5 trillion in debt and other financial commitments.

The Pentagon vs. the U.S.: How Americans Have Become Targets of Their Own Military
America is a country at war with itself.

Gary Mayor Predicting Obama Surprise
Update: Wow. The Mayor of Hammond, also in Lake County, just said on Larry King Live that Hillary won Hammond by 600 votes and they turned the votes in at 6:30 and Lake County didn’t release the votes. The votes they are releasing now are from Gary. They also failed to report the votes of four other cities in the county that she won. He says the mayors know the results and don’t know why Lake County refused to release the vote count. Here are the cities and towns in Lake County. Obama did
—- link

LeftWord: The Best Liberal Blog Posts
All The Best Liberal Blog Posts From Arond The Web.

All Muck is Local: Who’s Laughing Now?
The last time we checked in with Kwame “Busted Is What You See!” Kilpatrick, he was denying all charges, saying he’d been punished by God, and continuing to serve as Mayor of Detroit. This week brought more of the same….

Principle Beats Pander

While every expert said the temporary gas tax cut was terrible policy, pretty much every pundit said it was great politics, showing Clinton knew how to connect with voters better than Obama.

Wrong.

After Clinton grasped for the pander move, Obama saw an opening.

Draw a stark contrast between their approaches to politics, move media focus to a substantive policy conflict and burnish the overriding message on which his campaign has long been based.

There wasn’t much outward bluster. But it took much inner toughness to plant that flag and stick with it.

The result: a big 15-point victory in North Carolina, and thin 2-point loss in Indiana (with Operation Chaos perhaps illegitimately creating Clinton’s margin of victory).

Both results strongly outperformed most of the recent polling.

Notably, Obama triumphed in the exit polls on the question of who is “honest and trustworthy.” 49% in NC and 45% in IN said Clinton was not honest. Only 27% and 30% respectively said the same of Obama.

He not only won the most votes and delegates yesterday, he won them in the right way — in a way that bolsters his message, forges trust and helps build a governing mandate.

Clinton sought to undermine him not simply with a pander move, but with continued borrowing of right-wing frames and arguments (obliterating Iran, deriding expert policy recommendations, mocking fellow Dems as “elitist.”) You can’t build a governing mandate that way.

But that’s a moot point, because she lost the argument and the night. And in all likelihood, the nomination.

Loewe: Clear the way, Obama’s coming
What began as a night that could have delivered a devastating psychological blow to the Obama campaign has ended with an extraordinary win for Barack Obama, leaving him comfortably poised to ascend to the nomination. Barack Obama defeated Hillary Clinton easily in North Carolina and, in a true squeaker, lost narrowly in Indiana, a result the Clinton campaign will be unable to overcome…

Glenn Beck Brings On Caller ‘Honky Whitesville’ For Attack On Michelle Obama
On his radio show yesterday, CNN’s Glenn Beck devoted a 15-minute segment to making fun of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and wife Michelle, referring to them as “elitist” for running for president and talking about “just how tough it is in America today for black people.” In the segment, Beck brought on a fictional caller by […]

On his radio show yesterday, CNN’s Glenn Beck devoted a 15-minute segment to making fun of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and wife Michelle, referring to them as “elitist” for running for president and talking about “just how tough it is in America today for black people.”

In the segment, Beck brought on a fictional caller by the name of “Honky Whitesville,” who alleged that he was “working with the Obama campaign.” Beck billed the apparently humorous skit as a way to “make the Obama’s seem a little more relatable to the average person”:

WHITESVILLE: I’m working with the Obama campaign and I’m very white. And I’m white. Ever see toothpaste? You know the tube with toothpaste out? That’s sort of my color. … I was looking in the mirror yesterday after I looked up and I was like, oh, no, I have toothpaste all over my face but actually I just had face all over my face because my face is white, and just so everyone knows, I work at the Obama campaign and I’m white but my first name’s Honky.

But Beck did not dismiss this “caller.” Instead, he used “Honky” to go on a tirade against Michelle Obama. “She is an elitist and she is one of the most angry people,” Beck declared. At one point, they attacked her for attending Princeton and Harvard, claiming her test scores were “too low.” Beck even tossed in a suggestion of alcoholism:

BECK: And there she is. As always, they are trying to raise the bar a little higher like they did when she went to Princeton and then Harvard and now possibly the first lady.

WHITESVILLE: Is it possible she was holding onto the bar as they were raising it?

BECK: No, I think she might have made a trip to the bar. I’m not sure.

Listen to it:

Beck has a history of making racially-charged comments on his shows. In 2007, he commented that Sen. Obama is “very white in many ways.” Beck also claimed that “to be consistent,” Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) should give Sen. Obama “five percentage points” because of affirmative action.