nv1962

Interesting phenomenon on DailyKos

I try to avoid the obnoxious clashes among cult-like candidate groupies that are unfolding — as has become a tiresome tradition since 2004, during the Democratic party’s primaries and caucuses cycle — in comment wars on otherwise and normally excellent places like the Huffington Post, Daily Kos and (most of all) the Democratic Underground forums.

Still, especially the former two make a highly enjoyable read, if one wades past the comments.

A few moments ago I came across two threads that were posted last night, just a few hours apart, on the Daily Kos, with polls. I think the point of what I saw is pretty obvious, so I’ll just proceed to the screen shots.

The first one I found here:

The second one contained a poll included in the typical open thread for the night:

Isn’t it interesting that, while the first poll reflects the netizens’ predictable preference for (especially) Senator Barack Obama and (to a lesser degree) Senator John Edwards, apparently such support isn’t backed up by expectations of who the Democratic contender will be?

Speaks volumes towards that ever elusive but in this instance clearly visible notion of electability.

I think I’ll rest my case here.

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Tags: electability, elections 2008, Hillary Clinton, ready

Audio recording of Hillary Clinton’s stump speech in Reno, NV

Here’s a 47 minutes 51 second long recording of the last campaign meeting at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, NV, featuring a rousing introduction by Gen. Wes Clark, and the stump speech of Sen. Hillary Clinton, on Friday, January 18th, 2008 on the eve of the caucuses in this state.

Audio quality is unfortunately a bit iffy, especially (and sadly) Wes Clark’s introducion - it’s recorded at a certain distance from the speakers of the PA system - but at least it’s audible, kinda. Sen. Clinton’s speech begins 5′55″ into the recording; apparently they tweaked the sound to improve by that time. Here goes the audio:

Unlike the town hall type meeting of the Wednesday before where Sen. Clinton listened to and answered questions from local residents, the campaign speech at the Grand Sierra was a straight presentation. (By the way: Sen. Clinton refers in her speech to some of the sobering things she heard during that earlier town hall meeting - see the link to listen to it.)

Awesome. She’s on top of her game - and she shows exactly why she’s ready to run Government, and lead the country back to sanity.

What a powerful duo. As far as I’m concerned that’s the Democratic ticket for this year: Clinton / Clark. Oh yeah.

Added afterwards: I really recommend that you listen to Senator Clinton walking you through the reasons why she’s the one to back, all the way into the White House. If you have about 45 minutes, sit back and just listen to her - without the editing, the filtering and the parsing that you otherwise get: this is Hillary unfiltered. It knocked me off my socks. Wes Clark’s introduction (a transcript of his speech is made available at his grassroots SecuringAmerica.com site) is every bit as much on the mark. If you have some more time, please check out the full and unabridged audio recording of her town hall discussion here recorded two days before- it’s of much better sound quality, as I was able to pick a spot close to one of the PA system speakers.

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Tags: audio recording, caucuses, Clinton, elections 2008, Reno

Senator Clinton at a town hall meeting in Reno, NV

During the last days prior to the caucuses in Nevada, Senator Clinton criss crossed through the state to reach out to her followers. Here are some snapshots I took on Wednesday, January 16th, when she visited Cathexes Architecture to talk about her views on the economy - and related social issues:

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

I also made an audio recording of the town hall meeting itself. Although unfortunately the first part of the first question (by Valerie) is hardly audible, the answer provided by Senator Clinton and the entire rest of the recording (one hour and nine minutes long) is pretty decent. If you want to listen to it, here it is - some of the stories shared by the audience are really heartbreaking:

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Tags: Clinton, Democrats, elections 2008, Reno