On several questions a shockingly high percentage of the people who voted for Hillary Clinton indicated they did not like her -- numbers that were not reflected in the views of Obama supporters of their own candidate.

For example, 31% of Hillary Clinton's voters said she was not honest and trustworthy. By comparison, just 4% of Barack Obama's supporters said the same.

24% of Hillary Clinton's had a strongly favorable opinion of John McCain -- compared to 6% of Barack Obama's supporters.

Uh, we WANT voters to register as Democrats.  It's a good thing when they do.  A certain percentage of them will vote Dem in the fall, not all, not even most, but some.  It grows the party over time.

So, in MS, it was hurtful to my candidate.  Something like 75% of Republicans voted for Clinton.  15% of those who voted for Clinton would be unhappy if she won!  But it's still a net gain for the Dem. party, as some percentage of those cross-overs will continue to vote Dem in perpetuity.  So I'm not complaining.

What's wrong with registering new Democrats?  As long as they do it prior to the registration deadline, I don't see a problem.

And, if you think there's voter fraud afoot, I suggest you send the evidence to the FEC or Justice Department.

Getting people to register as Democrats is GOOD.

Only in the fever swamps of Obama-hating blogistan is it a bad thing.

Obama wants Independents and disillusioned Republicans to register as Democrats, and to stay that way.

Oh my god, now that motherf***er is trying to get people to vote for him???

WILL HE STOP AT NOTHING?????

Get republican's to cross over and vote against Hillary.  That is the unspoken message.

Vote Against Hillary.  The entire Obama campaign is a negative, stop Hillary campaign.  Or as they say elsewhere.  ABC.  anyone but Clinton.

Ask almost any Obama supporter why do you support him and the standard answer is, "she voted for the war".  It's not him, it's anti-her.

Oh NOEZ!!!!! Obama is trying to get people to register as Democrats.  The horror of it all!!!!

These emails only go out to people who sign up on the Obama website as supporters and live in Pennsylvania.

What a silly thing to get worked up about.

Asking people to register to vote - change their party affiliation - surely Teresa is snarking.

Thanks for exposing this.  We certainly don't want more new Democrats, right?  Who needs voters!

Honestly.

lol  op is a retard

How dare Obama try to switch people from being a republican to being a democrat! The shame!

I remember a similar email put out in Texas by Republicans for Obama.

Does anyone know of letters put out by the Clinton campaign encouraging Repubs to crossover for Dem primaries?

Here's excerpt from the Texas one to refresh everyone's memory.
E-mail to send to Texas Republicans
Sat, 02/16/2008 --
Attention All Texas Republicans and Independents!!  
On March 4th, Texas Republicans and Independents will have an opportunity to end Hillary Clinton's  presidential ambitions once and for all!  Since Texas has on open primary, Republicans and Independents should sign in at their polling place and request a Democratic ballot.  They should then vote for Barack Obama.  

VOTING DEMOCRATIC THIS ONE TIME WILL HAVE NO EFFECT ON YOUR ABILITY TO VOTE REPUBLICAN IN THE NEXT PRIMARY OR OBVIOUSLY ON YOUR VOTE IN NOVEMBER.  SINCE JOHN MCCAIN HAS THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION LOCKED UP, VOTING FOR MCCAIN OR HUCKABEE AT THIS POINT WILL HAVE NO EFFECT ON THE OUTCOME ON THE REPUBLICAN SIDE.

I urge you to vote against Hillary Clinton by voting for Barack Obama.  Please forward this e-mail to all your Texas Republican and Independent friends so that we can help ensure Clinton's defeat on March 4th!!!

[found on the RFO website.  (republicansforobama.com)]  

sorry folks, my computer just got hung up and I could not comment.

This strategy will hurt Democrat chance of winning in GE.  

Oh. My. GOD!

He actually wants people to vote for him!

And register as Democrats.

Oh the horror!

If this isn't stopped... why... why... these people might actually put pressure on Washington to get things done!

Voting BAD. Signing up voters BAD. Appealing to anyone who's not a lifelong committed Democrat very very BAD.

Bad Obama. Bad, bad, bad. Asking people to vote for you. The shame of it all! Hillary Clinton would NEVER ask anyone to register to vote or to vote for her.

</massive snark>

No offense, but this diary is really misguided.  The message is asking people to register and reminding people of the registration deadline.  Every campaign has registration drives - go check out any college campus around election time.  As for asking that people switch their party affiliation, what exactly is the problem?  Are you saying that the Democratic Party is completely closed off to new members?  Do people now have to be born into it?  My God, this is so nonsensical.

This diary should be deleted. Obama encouraging people to register as Democrats isn't gaming the system. He doesn't exhort people to vote for him to "stop hillary" or such. He says: if you want your vote to count, you have to be a Dem. Expect this message to get a lot of air in the next 12 days. A LOT.

The one benefiting from the gaming of the system is Hillary, as exit polls in Missouri show. A full fourth of her votes came from Republicans obeying Rush Limbaugh.

I was going to post about how foolish this diary was, but it looks like a whole bunch of people got there before me to deliver the smackdown.

Wow, Obama is asking people to register as Democrats.  The horror!

So encouraging people to register as Democrats is now "gaming the system"?

Wow. And here I thought we were TRYING to accomplish this.

Is this diary a joke?

I have no idea if you want to have the Democratic party shrink as people die off but if you don't, you have to get new voters to register as a Democrat. To do that, you either get people that have never registered to vote to do so or you get people that haven't selected a party affiliation (or even, God forbid were registered as a Republican) to change. Those are your only two options.

There are a lot of people in PA that don't realize that you have to be a registered Democrat to vote in the primary. And I bet most of them don't know you have to be registered as a Democrat 30 days before the election. It's a real hassle to do so. (Even if you do it online, you have to send the paperwork with a signature into the local election board.) This isn't something most people will be doing and then going back to where they were. (You have to repeat the process all over again.)

We want more Democrats!

struck a nerve here didnt ya?

of course they know they cant possibly win with democrats alone, they havent yet...

so as they have from the start, they HAVE TO SCREW WITH OUR PARTY's SYSTEM.

Bringing in "Dems for a day" or they have no chance to win at all.

ITS A  DISGRACE AND IS WHY OBAMA WILL NEVER BE OUR PARTY'S NOMINEE.

Teresa, you miss one point, if the GOPers vote for Obama, then it is a vote for Obama, if they vote for Clinton, it's a vote against the democratic party.

You all DESERVE the delegate count whipping your getting.

The LAST thing we want to do is get people to register with the democratic party.

Does the Obama campaign give you some sort of prize, like a free blade of grass walked on by "The One," himself?

I'd better stop myself...could easily make crude jokes here.

Thanks Teresa for getting the word out on this latest FACTUAL bit of garbage.

John

OH MY GOD!

He's trying to register more people as Democrats!

Seriously, I've had about enough of you people who clearly have no clue what it means to be at a severe disadvantage of registered Democrats.

No person is going to register as a Democrat to vote for Barack Obama unless they really believe in him.

And, oh, by the way, the Republicans who are trying to game the system? They're voting for Hillary.

If reminding people to make sure they are registered, and encouraging non-registered and non-democrats to register and support the party is gaming the system...Game on!

What a joke this is, the audacity of trying to increase the number of registered democrats in PA! How DARE he?!?

example of the Obama campaigns stratgy of being a "Democrat for a day".

But some here don't believe that ever happened. Google it.

Progressive Blue

Yes. How absolutely AWFUL it is to actually build and grow the Democratic Party. We should ALL be like Hillary Clinton and instead seek to disenfranchise and disregard more than half of the Democratic Party and the 45 or so states that now apparently "don't count".

This isn't "gaming the system". This is growing the party. Honestly, this is idiotic.

Tired of David Axelrod's scuzzball tactics.  Sad that his client can't seem to win unless it's a caucus that they "game" or trying to get people to vote for Obama then switch back, just to punish Hillary.  The good news is that he's losing ground on this, and people are tiring of it.  

Oh and in advance of all his supporters denying that he's "gaming the system", there are documented comments all over the internet, by his supporters, saying: "Obama is legally gaming the system, so what?"   The thing that they fail to see is what good is it? You're all being played by David Axelrod. He gets a big fat bonus if Obama wins the nod. Now, I do understand that he wont' get Karl Rove's old office if Obama doesn't win, but he'll get plenty if Obama just gets into the GE.  So, instead of playing up Obama's strengths, Axelrod is playing games with registration, strong-arm tactics, media pity parties, and tainted caucuses.  

I mean how preposterous is it to see the MSM writing headline after headline about Obama's BIG Wyoming victory.. when you realize that only 9,000 people voted, and he only got 5,000 of those. Obama can't win the big states without "gaming the system", and even then he can't win the big states when they have normal, untampered, voting.

I followed Obama's advise. I actually call to 3 friends in PA, all independents and convince them to register, including their spouses, kids, in-laws and some other relatives (total new 22 voters for Democratic party, they probably will unregister after primaries back to independence). This was HARD part.
Almost forgot to mentioned EASY part (I even did not ask them, they said themselves they all 22 will do that): ALL 22 WILL VOTE FOR HILLARY.

I think Hillary can do better than 66% in PA, but it will be a hard work.

What's so wrong about a cross over voter who wants Obama to be the next president switching parties?!  Maybe some Reagan democrats are coming back to the party.  This article is silly and shrill, not to mention it is analysis that is without a foundation in reality.

I just don't get why growing the party is so unacceptable.  New Democratic registrations are good for the party and the progressive cause, regardless of who they vote for in the primary.

How is this gaming the system?  It is a campaign trying to get its supporters eligibile to vote while also building up the Dem. Party rolls.  And it is a good thing.

For instance, my wife was until last week a registered independent/unaffiliated in Pa-14.  We both share similiar liberal political views, but I am a registered Democrat so I was eligible to vote in April.  She has been very excited to vote for Hillary Clinton and once she was told that she needs to be a registered Democrat, she changed her affiliation.  So she'll cancel my vote for Obama in a district where he needs to win big to get a 5:2 split.  

And in the future, my liberal wife will be voting in Democratic primaries for local and state-wide races, and most likely getting more involved too.  This is a good thing for both campaigns to be running.

I love how it "OUR sysytem" that Obama is gaming like Obama isnt part of---Oh wait what isnt Obama a member of?

This is a paltry ugly diary.

Obama is castigated for encouraging voters to register to vote, and HRC is a 'fighter' because she wont give up trying to, and harming the party with, seat pseudo-dlegates from Michigan, where she repeatedly defied the parties demand that she remove her name from the unsanctioned pretend primary. Wow what a fighter, back-alley, low blow behind the back, and defeated, but a fighter.

Ferraro's crypto-racism was the point at which I stopped caring enough to be polite about this candidate anymore.

There is nothing whatsoever underhanded in this mailer.
This is not asking people who are Republicans to
falsely claim to be Democrats for a day.
This is asking people who support Obama to
get their house in order so they can participate
honestly and constructively .

The "Democrat for a day" tactics were the opposite of that --
inviting people who hated Hillary to vote for
her, and then go back to being Republicans.
That is not what is happening here.

The fact that the diarist thinks they can be equated,
and people will fall for it, proves that the diarist
has chosen the precisely correct candidate in Hillary.

Nowhere in that letter is there anything untoward. Nowhere in that letter is there anything untrue.

I can't believe how upset people are that Obama is playing to win? We have lost so many elections with candidates who were unwilling to do that. Yet now, here we are, slamming a candidate for gasp trying to turn how his supporters in a very competitive primary season.

This is getting ridiculous.

This is ridiculous. On the main page there's an article saying how great it is that the number of registered Democrats is increasing. But according to this diary, at the same time we're supposed to be upset because Obama is distributing information on how to register as a Democrat in Pennsylvania?

Please, find something worthy of being upset over before you post a diary filled with such misdirected righteous indignation. And try backing up your opinion with something other than your personal bias.

This is insane. Obama is trying to get MORE people to register as Democrats and you are criticizing him for this? ALL Democrats should be constantly trying to convince more people to join the party. This is not some exclusive club. I was registered as an independent prior to 2004. Should I have been excluded from voting for John Kerry because I failed to change my registration a year in advance? Exactly how far in advance does one need to change their registration to be able to vote for a Democrat without you accusing them of "gaming" the system?

I am an Independent PA voter (actually the official PA term is 'non-affiliated).

The Pennsylvania system is not perfect but the fact is it is designed to allow just this sort of reaffiliation 30 days out.  THAT'S HOW ITS SUPPOSE TO WORK.

It allows engaged voters to make the considered decision to reaffiliate , but prevents the election day hooliganism we've been seeing in the open primaries.

On Monday i sent in my reaffiliation form to my County election board.  I'm temporarily switching to the Democratic party in order to vote for Obama in the primary.

After I cast my vote for Obama on April 24, on my way out of the polling place, I will ask one of the poll workers for a voter registration form so that I can THE NEXT DAY re-establish my affiliation as 'Non-Affilited'.  They'll have these forms on hand FOR JUST THIS PURPOSE because it is THE WAY THE PA SYSTEM WORKS.  Welcome to Pennsylvania, where they WANT YOU TO VOTE.

In November, even though I'm not in your sill donkey club, I will vote for Obama again if he is the Dem nominee.  Beyond that i cannot say.

I just clicked this thread for the first time, so I apologize if this has been said a hundred times, but...

Exactly how is this a bad thing?  We... register more democrats?  This is bad??

And make no mistake... Clinton is doing the same thing... Both want to register new voters for their cause, as they should.

The only way Obama can win anything is by fraudulent ways. No wonder he wants to disenfranshise voters in Mi and Fl.

There are enough people registered to vote already, Obama should not shamefully game the system by encouraging more people to register to vote (as Democrats no less!).

There are too many registered Democrats already, anything other than encouraging people who have been registered Democrats since at least 1968 to vote is just plain cheating! The next thing you know this Obama fellow will come out against the poll tax!

I am so glad there are scrupulous politicians like the Clintons out there who would never do anything so shameful and disrespectful as to say, appear on Rush Limbaugh's radio program on the day of the TX primary in order to encourage Republicans to vote in a Democratic primary.