Sure, Hillary was expected to win big in West Virginia.

Sure, those of us who support her, and those that don't knew she would have a good day yesterday in West Virginia.

Sure, the polls had indicated that winning West Virginia was squarely in Hillary's column.

BUT...

Did anyone expect Hillary would win each and every country in the state of West Virginia?

This is not simply a win, this is a message sending win!

Yes Hillary won West Virginia by 41% over Obama, and yes that is an incredible margin, but more important is the message it sends. And bare with me, the message might be convoluted, and can surely be interpreted a thousand different ways...But...

How can anyone deny that Hillary is more electable in November when she wins, and tightens so many of these late races in the primary season? How can anyone deny that Hillary has broad based support when she is able to pull out Indiana, narrow North Carolina, and blow West Virginia clean off the electoral map? How can anyone deny the appeal and the power of this candidate when she, a woman, wins every county in a state primary? Rural voters, those often thought of as "red" voters are voting for Hillary Clinton, and there is no way this doesn't speak to her electability over John McSame.

This has been a hard fought campaign...and at times a disheartening one.  But the truth is that on the policies, we have two very good candidates.

But when has a challenger ever beaten the front-runner?  I don't think it has ever happened...

The Senate Appropriations committee will vote today on SB 1250 -- The heretofore named and so-called "Gay Marriage Ban" Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution. This proposal, championed by Gib Armstrong (R-Lancaster), is the latest attempt to add discrimination to the Constitution of PA. More importantly, this is a clear indication of lost priorities by the governing body of this state. As Pennsylvania wrestles with issues of tolling I-80, lowering unemployment, attracting green employers, taxes and the like; I fail to see how "protecting" marriage from gays is a high priority? This ranks somewhere up there with the late night raise the legislature gave itself a few years back.

My boyfriend will not believe me when I tell him that John McCain is dangerous. He voted for Hillary here in Pennsylvania, and would vote for her, but not for Obama. I'm trying to convince him to vote for the Democratic nominee. He just keeps spouting that McCain is moderate. His reasoning that McCain has drifted far-right since 2000 was he knew he'd run in 2008. Well I think looking at someone's record 8 years ago is silly. I've thrown everything I can at him, but it's like he is brainwashed by the media. McCain has some hold on the Irish-Catholic's here in PA.

1. His temper (ie C**t incident, yelling at senators)

2. Tax cuts for the rich, flip flopped
   
3. Katrina
   
4. His long record of being anti-choice
   
5. Bad environmental record

I'm sure there is a lot more...help me out guys. I am almost at the level where we cannot discuss politics because he's just plain wrong haha. I may buy him some books about McCain. If I can convince him, then he can convince his family all of which will vote for McCain over Obama. Sigh, it's going to be a long election! How the heck can a gay person vote for McCain over any democrat is beyond my reasoning. Thanks guys!

cross-posted @ This Week With Barack Obama, Daily Kos and One Million Strong
reposted by diarist permission

                       
                              obama smiling during editorial meet of indianapolis star in indiana

Note: Next edition of This Week With Barack Obama, April 27-May 3, 2008 will be under the management of Al Rodgers, next Sunday, May 4, 2008.  I am in Indiana from Friday through Wednesday, for the crucial Indiana Primary on Tuesday May 6, 2008.  I will be working in NW Indiana between Gary, Valparaiso and South Bend.  So, give Al the love you give me on this weekly.  Peace.

Oh, and please digg it!!!!

After Obama's devastating defeat in Pennsylvania, the Obama campaign released a memo addressed to the superdelegates but published in the Wall Street Journal which argues that Obama would be the strongest candidate in the Fall against McCain. The memo is so deeply flawed that Jerome Armstrong ridicules it as "satire," and "exhibit A" for "intellectual dishonesty":

I don't know that I've ever seen anything a campaign poll memo that so obviously cherry-picks polls over the last 4 months to make their case. It's almost satire. Some rookie mailed it in on behalf of the Obama campaign's "memo to the superdelegates". I couldn't imagine a known political blogger creating this list, and not being laughed and mocked out of the blogosphere.

I've been posting a lot recently, at least a lot on my watch. I don't think many of my readers are getting a chance to see everything, since they aren't used to this many posts. So before you read this one, check out the previous few since the PA primary.

Paul Krugman, Princeton Economist and stupidhead, has been one of my favorite people the past couple of months. He's definitely been a stalwart Democrat through the tumultuous times in the past fifteen years, but has been offering fresh air into the recent conflict in the Democratic Party that is diving the progressive movement, and it all has to do with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. For some reason, the supporters of each candidate have become increasingly rabid. I have kept myself out of the fight, since I'm still in love with John Edwards, so I think I might still be able to provide some objectivity when it comes to observing this fight.

Supporters on both sides don't even seem to listen to what the other candidate and his or her supporters have to say. All they hear is "blah blah blah lies lies lies I'm an idiot." And this is very problematic for Democracy in America. This group of progressives is on the verge of making a major breakthrough in American democracy, reviving it, and advancing it to the next stage, a new golden age of American priciples. But we are really getting wrapped up in this my team vs. their team mentality in this primary race. The Left bloggers, especially, are very partisan in their attitudes, and are extremely hard on Republicans (warranted, I might add), but these hyper partisan attitudes are surfacing in defining Obama and Clinton as ultimate adversaries instead of friendly competitors who are striving to make each other better candidates.

Well, that tells enough about my forecasting abilties. In my previous diary I predicted a decent Clinton victory in the high single digits and a gracious exit of Hillary afterwards.

But this race continues to surprise us all. Hillary's win was actually a high single digit win (9.4 %), but it was all over the media as a solid double digit 10 % win (55 % for Hillary and 45 % for Barack). A bit of luck in the rounding of the results and psychology does the rest.

Although her win didn't even dent the delegate margin (a net gain of max 12 delegates), the record turnout helped to keep Hillary's hope alive to win the cumulative popular vote. In the real world she's still a solid 500.000 votes behind, but with some creative math Hillary can proudly announce that she has received more votes than Barack.