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RSS icon Comments on Re: Someone is Trying to Depress Voter Turnout in North Carolina Next Tuesday

1

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/192222.php

With voter-registration friends like WVWV, who needs the Republican-controlled Indiana legislature?

Posted by Nat | April 30, 2008 4:34 PM
2

Erica, didn't they suspend the calls because they received a cease-and-desist letter from the state Attorney General?

Posted by Huh? | April 30, 2008 4:38 PM
3

Well, then, it's all well and good - huh ECB? No harm done and now everything is completely nicey-nice.

Tell us again how Clinton is going to win the nomination? By thwarting the will of the people and threatening the Super Delegates to go for her instead of Obama? Yeah, that's democracy.

What's it like to support a candidate that lost in every, single jurisdiction in the state you live in? It's such a fun story and I love to hear you tell it.

Posted by montex | April 30, 2008 4:38 PM
4

WVWV is accused of trying to suppress voter turnout by making robo-calls encouraging people to fill out voter registration cards and mail them in, despite the fact that the deadline for mail-in voter registration has already passed.)
Wrong. Whether this was just more "confusion," this time on your part, I don't know. Here's the relevant postion of the call's transcript:
"Hello, this is Lamont Williams. In the next few days, you will receive a voter registration packet in the mail. All you need to do is sign it, date it and return your application. Then you will be able to vote and make your voice heard. Please return the voter registration form when it arrives. (emphasis mine)
They're not telling them to go fill out voter reg. cards: they're telling them to wait for a "packet" in the mail, which they need to send in in order to vote. Oh, and by the way, doing so under a fake name.
Are you so eager to defend Hillary that you will obfuscate and minimize voter suppression efforts? A hallmark of civil rights violations for decades?

Posted by torrentprime | April 30, 2008 4:42 PM
5

I don't understand - which part of "You'll never guess who" implies that Hillary was behind the robocalls?

I mean, that accusation was certainly tossed around in the comments, but not by Dan's post in and of itself.

I personally interpreted it as "you'll never guess who: a progressive group!" I don't know what goes on in your office between you and Dan, but to an outsider this looks like you've developed a persecution complex. Just sayin'.

Posted by Hernandez | April 30, 2008 4:42 PM
6

willful manipulation of voter turnout, or systematic, gross incompetence? hmmm...

Posted by brandon | April 30, 2008 4:49 PM
7

#5: The headline in Dan's link said the calls were by a "Progressive DC group, with some ties to Clintons."

Posted by poppy | April 30, 2008 4:50 PM
8

This does not pass the smell test, either they completely incompetent or devious. Either way they deserve to be spanked and their actions reflect poorly on any of the candidates they support, most conspicuously, Clinton.

Posted by josh | April 30, 2008 4:57 PM
9

@7 - Ah, thanks. Don't know how I missed that when I read the article.

Posted by Hernandez | April 30, 2008 4:58 PM
10

HRC could be caught drowning a basket of puppies in the Patomic and ECB would respond with, "Come on, thats not fair..."

Posted by longball | April 30, 2008 5:04 PM
11

Fucking scum tactics. I hope this kills their organization.

Posted by Fnarf | April 30, 2008 5:16 PM
12

Jesus Christ, ECB, why can't you just admit that you've been backing the wrong side? This is getting pathetic.

Posted by Andrew | April 30, 2008 5:33 PM
13

because ECB is a a stubborn bitch much to her detriment. She'd rather stick to something, no matter how outlandish just to prove how tough she is.

Posted by Bellevue Ave | April 30, 2008 6:17 PM
14

Margaret Williamson has no connection to the Clinton campaign? Wha?

Posted by Joshua H | April 30, 2008 6:22 PM
15

Come again, ECB? Take a look at the list of names again. There is another Maggie on there. It's Maggie Williams, Hillary's campaign manager.

Posted by Remove the blinders! | April 30, 2008 6:30 PM
16
The day after New Year's 1996, operatives for Barack Obama filed into a barren hearing room of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

There they began the tedious process of challenging hundreds of signatures on the nominating petitions of state Sen. Alice Palmer, the longtime progressive activist from the city's South Side. And they kept challenging petitions until every one of Obama's four Democratic primary rivals was forced off the ballot.

Fresh from his work as a civil rights lawyer and head of a voter registration project that expanded access to the ballot box, Obama launched his first campaign for the Illinois Senate saying he wanted to empower disenfranchised citizens.

But in that initial bid for political office, Obama quickly mastered the bare-knuckle arts of Chicago electoral politics. His overwhelming legal onslaught signaled his impatience to gain office, even if that meant elbowing aside an elder stateswoman like Palmer.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070403obama-ballot,0,1843097.story

Posted by McG | April 30, 2008 6:45 PM
17

Not that Obama is really the subject anyway, but it's funny, @16, how in one breath we'll hear from Clinton supporters grabbing at straws to prove that Obama is too green and inexperienced and naive to hold his own against McCain, and shortly after we'll hear from Clinton supporters grabbing at straws to prove that he's as much a hardened politician as anyone. Is he a rookie wimp or not? I suggest you make up your collective mind here.

Posted by tsm | April 30, 2008 6:56 PM
18

You tell them, Erica! There's no story here, no connection to Clinton.

I mean, maybe if her campaign manager was on this group's board there'd be a story.

Posted by ru shur | April 30, 2008 7:32 PM
19

We should also note that one of the board members f WVWV is John Podesta, Bill Clinton's chief of staff from 1998 to 2001, the blue dress years. So, that's certainly a Clinton connection if I've ever seen one.

Posted by pragmatic | April 30, 2008 7:34 PM
20

The funny thing is everyone I've mentioned this story to has responded with a perplexed "Isn't that illegal?"

Posted by ru shur | April 30, 2008 7:38 PM
21

is her campaign manager on the board? is that true? and if so, why was that detail left out?

Posted by infrequent | April 30, 2008 8:29 PM
22

hey Erica! You're all about yellow journalism now, eh? HER MOTHERFUCKING CAMPAIGN MANAGER IS ON THE MOTHERFUCKING BOARD! Don't look too hard for a clue, you might hurt yourself.

Posted by Small hole here | April 30, 2008 8:40 PM
23

I can't tell if ECB is totally clueless or totally brazen. Clinton's campaign manager is on the board of this group and she pretends that it has only a slight connection with the Clinton campaign.

Posted by bob | April 30, 2008 8:46 PM
24

Correction: was. WAS on the board, as recently as July 2007. Can't determine what her current role is.

Posted by fuck | April 30, 2008 8:46 PM
25

not sure why getting more people to register depresses the vote.....[erhaps more explanation is needed here....

Manwhile, in the news that is usually ignored, SEn. Obama is now LOSING to McCain in the real clear politics average of recent polls while Sen. Clinton is WINNING.

National McCain +0.2 over Obama, and Clinton +2.8 over MCain.

Holy shit. Aboput a week ago Obama did 3 points better than Clinton, now he does 3 points worse. Isn't that like movement of six points in just one week?

If this Rev. Wright stuff does not go away, if it is the defining issue of Obama's campaign against McCain, well duh of course it will be, how could he claim he didn't know the guy for 20 years, etc. etc. then Obama's gonna lose.

Meanwhile the head to head in Pennsylvania show Clinton 5.2 poitns better than Obama and in Ohio 7.6 points better than Obama and in Florida 11.4 points better than Obama.

This is the reality Obama supporters are ignoring as they focus on weird allegations of robocalls here and videos of Clinton at a gas station there fumdbling in getting coffee or something.

So here's the deal. We need unity more than ever, we need all sets of demographics to come together more than ever, Obama should float then offer VP to Hillbabe, vice versa should she pull it out, and meanwhile if it's OBama
-totally throw Wright under the bus even more and do a major Bill Cosby speech regarding parental responsibility, crime, etc.
--where is his economic plan? opposing a gas tax holiday doesn't offer anyone any RELIEF NOW which is what people want
--where is his foreign policy plan to get OBL? To shift dollars from Iraw to Americans and our economy?
--where is his voter registration plan to massively reshape the contours of the fall election? Why isn't he recruiting volunteers all over Washington state to go now to Ohio to register like 1 illion more voter there so we can fucking win in Ohio?

He's looking lazy, befuddled, scared to debate, confused, etc. He needs positive message. Where is it?? What is it? "We are the change we want"?? What "change"? "Change" to be like Rev. Wright? There's a big vacuum right now coming from ihs side when is he going to fill it.

Oh and btw

you would think in his time of trouble he would have TONS of old friends and associates coming forward to vouch for him.

Where are they?

Does he have past associates and friends?

Rezko -- um, no go.
Alice Palmer -- not too enthusiatic. After he dealt her out of her state senate seat.
Bibby Rush -- um he's not talking to the media either. Maybe Barack running aginst him is why?

Where are his voter regl. fellow activists? His law firm buddies? Too tied to Tony R.? His community organizer buddies who labored should to shoulder with him for years in the "shadows of shuttered steel factories"? Where are BFF from college, law school, high school?
Where are all the fellow congregants he hung with for 20 years?

He seems totally alone.


Posted by unPC | April 30, 2008 8:59 PM
26

After Obama is nominated, will Erica still have a daily apologia for Hillary Clinton, or will she focus some time exploring McCain's failings? One could walk into any Pentecostal church and not find a faith as unquestioning as Erica's is in the co-author of the Clinton/McCain Blame Taxes for Gas Prices -- Not Oil Sheiks That Fund My Husband's Library and Speeches -- Tax Relief Plan.

Posted by Bob | April 30, 2008 9:32 PM
27

TPM says:


Benefit of the doubt? Not this time. Please take a look at the group's (Women's Voices/Women Vote) Directors/Leadership Team.

1. John Podesta -- Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton 98-01.
2. Mimi Mager -- Member Clinton-Gore Transition team.
3. Michael Lux -- Clinton Gore Alumni Association (ClintonGoreAlumni.org (CGA) is member-driven organization that seeks to maintain an ongoing network among those former political appointees of the Clinton-Gore Administration, the national '92 and '96 campaigns and Democratic Party activists around the country.
4. Joe Goode -- the Senior Analyst on company CEO Stan Greenberg's work for the Clinton for President campaign in 1992.
(http://www.wvwv.org/about/board-and-bios)

Posted by V | April 30, 2008 10:32 PM
28

ECB, you're just out of your element.

Face up to it already, and stick to easily ignored whining about American Apparel ads.

Posted by her FUCKING CAMPAIGN MANAGER! JESUS CHRIST! | April 30, 2008 11:13 PM
29

Uh, Maggie Williams was a member of WVWV's leadership team until a year and a half ago. She wasn't on the.board then, nor is she now. But by all means, carry on with your ALL CAPS JESUS CHRIST !! Inaccuracies.

Posted by ECB | April 30, 2008 11:58 PM
30

lol. "She was on the leadership team! Not the board! No connection at all!" It's Baghdad Barnett!

If you want complain about inaccuracies, maybe you should take a look at your post. It took a cease and desist order from the NC Attorney General to get these clowns to stop. Contrary to your assertion, they did not stop voluntarily.

Posted by ru shur | May 1, 2008 6:43 AM
31

Did you just copy and paste Gardner's Huff Post entry?

All of your "facts" are totally cribbed.

Posted by Shawn Fassett | May 1, 2008 7:34 AM

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