HillBuzz

HillBuzz has been a little confused about exactly how Guam selects its delegates, and what sort of contest Guam will hold tomorrow, May 3rd 2008. The media has gone back and forth on Guam, calling it either a caucus, a primary, or a territorial convention.

From what we can tell, Guam’s contest most closely resembles a secret-ballot primary, but with a twist in that one village on the island voted a week or so ago, in what might have been a caucus.

Here is what we could find online regarding Guam’s May 3rd election:

The Green Papers
2008 Presidential Primaries, Caucuses, and Conventions
Guam Democrat
Presidential Nominating Process
Territorial Convention: Saturday 3 May 20081

Delegate Selection: Caucus/Convention
Voter Eligibility: Closed Caucus

9 total delegate votes – 4 at large; 5 Unpledged PLEOs

Having moved their first determining step from Stage II in 2004 (Saturday 24 April 2004 ) to Stage III in 2008 (Saturday 3 May 2008), Guam receives a 30% Bonus in at-large delegate votes (+1 at-large). Total delegate votes changes from 8 to 9.

Saturday 3 May 2008: A Territorial Convention made up of all interested voters meets to choose 8 of Guam’s 13 delegates to the Democratic National Convention (together representing 4 of Guam’s 9 delegate votes at the National Convention). Guam’s caucus is conducted like a party-run primary where voters cast secret ballots in their respective precincts. Polls close at 8 p.m. local time (UTC+10 hours). A mandatory 15 percent threshold is required in order for a presidential contender to be allocated National Convention delegates.

Each of these 8 pledged delegates will only cast ½ (or 0.5) of a vote on the floor of the Democratic National Convention.
The remaining 5 delegates (representing Guam’s remaining 5 delegate votes) are Unpledged PLEOs who will go to the Democratic National Convention officially “Unpledged”.

This territory’s Democratic Member of Congress (Territorial Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo) (=a non-voting Delegate in the House of Representatives); the territorial Delegate is an “Unpledged PLEO” and casts 1 delegate vote.
This territory’s 4 Democratic National Committee members: each of these territorial DNC members casts 1 vote apiece for a total of 4 delegate votes.

Listen here for Hillary Clinton’s Radio Address to the people of Guam.

Clinton covers some of the important issues affecting the people of Guam:

(1) Increasing US military presence on Guam
(2) the War Compensation Issue
(3) Guam’s infrastructure improvements
(4) representation in Washington for Guam
(5) making Guam’s issues a priority
(6) selecting a President who will champion the people of Guam
(7) giving Guam a President who will treat them fairly, provide healthcare, and be in Guamanians’corner, to finally get their voices heard

At the end, the radio host asks Clinton for a song to play from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. She cues up a little journey, so nobody stops believing — in her, or in Guam.

Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, and Dorothy Rodham campaigned together yesterday in Indiana.

Just imagine the pride you would feel if you were able to stand next to your daughter, and watch her campaign to become the first female President of the United States.

Or, what about, being a daughter and stand by your mom as she, really and truly, evolves over the course of this campaign into the most impressive candidate anyone has ever seen run for the highest office in the land.

To be a grandmother who sees her granddaughter step up and become the most powerful and effective advocate of her mother.

To be a granddaughter who watches her vibrant, engaging grandmother hit the campaign trail, not letting anything slow her down.

AND, to be a mother and daughter, with such strong family support, fighting day and night to take care of all Americans as well as she takes care of her family.

Three Generations of Clintons, fighting hard for America. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.

HillBuzz gets to see them in person, at the Generations of Women event in Washington DC, May 7th. Please join us, and when you buy your ticket, choose our dear friend Jan K. as your host (scroll all the way down towards the bottom to find her — there are a lot of hosts for this big event! All are great hosts, but Jan K. is the best!).

May 2, 2008 — IT’s starting to look like a “toughness gap.”
By Kirsten Powers

His chant: “Yes, we can.” Her chant: “Yes, we will.”

Obama likes to say, “I may be skinny, but I’m tough.” Hillary throws back shots and threatens to obliterate Iran.

He complains about tough questions from George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson. She sits down with Bill O’Reilly.

A Fox News poll released Wednesday found that 61 percent of Democrats describe Clinton as “tough,” but only 23 percent say that about Obama.

The boys are swooning. The president of an Indiana steelworkers local union introduced Clinton as the “individual with [the] testicular fortitude” to deal with the nation’s problems.

In his endorsement of Clinton, North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley enthused, “This lady right here makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy.” In an ad, the governor gushes more: “She is so resilient, so determined. She knows how to deliver.”

Or, as Clinton said in a World Wrestling Entertainment promo: “The last man standing may just be a woman.”

Ouch.

After the ABC debate, National Review Online’s Jim Geraghty wrote of her: “I like the cut of your jib, senator. It’s like watching a linebacker perfectly execute a blitz and flatten a quarterback from the blind side. It’s brutal, and tough to watch when it’s your guy being hit, but it’s within the rules and almost artistic when it’s perfectly executed.”

That debate was Clinton’s pièce de résistance. After enduring calls for her to drop out, superdelegate defections, money problems, ridicule by the media and a staff shakeup, she showed up looking and acting like she just got back from a spa vacation. Obama, nearly 15 years her junior, looked exhausted and rattled.

When he complained the next day about his treatment by the debate moderators, Clinton began taunting him with Harry Truman’s line: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” (ABCNews.com’s headline – “Hillary Clinton: No Wimps in the White House.”)

She also said: “The special interests are going to be a lot tougher than 90 minutes of questions from two journalists and we need a president who is going to be up there fighting every day.”

Flanked by eight retired military leaders, Clinton challenged Obama to debate her in North Carolina “anytime, anywhere.” He demurred.

A Saturday Night Live skit featured a frightened President Obama dialing up a resolute Hillary Clinton late at night for help. In face cream and rollers, she talks him off the ledge.

Does any of this matter?

If it didn’t, Obama wouldn’t roll out his “I’m skinny, but tough” line with such regularity.

Earlier this year, chief Obama strategist David Axelrod told Newsweek that Obama wouldn’t let himself be “swift boated” as John Kerry was in 2004.

But, faced with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright embarrassment, the Obama camp was slow to respond. Four days passed after Wright made his own “swift boat” attack – accusing his former congregant of saying “what politicians say . . . based on polls” – that undermined the central premise of Obama’s candidacy.

According to The New York Times, Obama was barely exercised about Wright or his outrageous comments at the National Press Club, saying merely, “He does not speak for me.” That is, until his advisers urged a stronger reaction.

When Kerry didn’t respond to the swift-boat ads, people wondered, “If he won’t stand up for himself, how can I trust him to stand up for me?”

Now they may be asking the same about Obama.

Hillary Clinton: Haifa Adai brothers and sisters of the Guam Federation of Teachers, and my other fellow citizens of the westernmost part of our country. I am so pleased to be with you. I thank you for gathering for me, and for all of the efforts you have made on my behalf, and for the support that I humbly ask you to give me. And I also ask you, please, to urge others to also give me your support on primary day. Thank you for the great work you do for our fellow citizens in Guam. I am proud to stand shoulder to should with the GFT and President Matt Reckter, in helping Guam’s public servants improve the lives of the island’s people. I wish I could be with you in person. I so fondly remember my visit to your beautifyl island in 1995. When I got home, I told my husband that if he went, he wouldn’t want to come back. And then he did, he was able to go in 1998. He enjoyed the Chamorro hospitality. With your support, I too will give you a President who pays as much attention to the needs of the territory as to the states.

Calling all Washington DC metro area Hillary Clinton supporters and Travelers for Hillary from any state who can take part!

The Chicago “Think Squad”, HillBuzz, and other Chicago-based Hillary supporters are heading to Washington, D.C. on May 7th, 2008 at 130pm to protest outside the Democratic National Committee Headquarters in support of voting rights in Florida and Michigan.

Protest Time:
130pm May 7th, 2008

Place:
DNC Headquarters
430 S. Capital Street, SE
Washington, D.C. 20003

Why:
Because the DNC, in 2000, declared itself to be the party that COUNTS ALL THE VOTES. Howard Dean needs to understand that, under his stewardship, the Democratic Party has lost its way. In 2008, the party’s mantra has morphed into disenfranchisement in its most suicidal form: excluding the people of Florida and Michigan from the nominating process, when these two states could tip the election to John McCain. Florida Democrats, in particular, are wholly blameless here, as the Republican governor and statehouse moved the primary, agaisnt the wishes of the Democrats there. Howard Dean has, thus, punished Florida Democrats for infractions they did not commit (and punished them with more severity than DNC Rules allow for). As Chairman, Dean’s job is to fairly employ DNC Rules in the best interest of winning the presidential election for the party. Without Florida and Michigan in our column, we’re likely to lose in the fall.

So, Howard Dean, Chicago has a message for you, and it’s YOU BETTER THINK. Sing it, ‘Retha.

Via MyDD

Barack Obama’s Oregon Plan calls for cleaning up the Great Lakes, and for giving aid to Pennsylvanians. Sound strange?

Here’s a map of the Great Lakes:

Here’s a map of Oregon:

Here’s a big map with Oregon and the Great Lakes in it:

Oregon is nowhere near the Great Lakes.

Looks like, instead of creating an Oregon Plan, someone just cut and pasted his Pennsylvania Plan and sloppily renamed it his “Oregon Plan”.

Here’s Hillary Clinton’s Oregon Compact. Among other things, it’s well-researched, doable, and 100% focused on the needs of the people of Oregon. It’s an actual Oregon Compact for the people of Oregon.

That’s a compact you can believe in.

Against Rick Lazlo, Hillary Clinton won the race for her New York Senate seat in 2000 with what percent of the vote?

(a) 44%
(b) 55%
(c) 51%
(d) 65%

Answer: 55%

“Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere!”

— President George W. Bush, joking about his administration’s failure to find WMDs in Iraq as he narrated a comic slideshow during the Radio & TV Correspondents’ Association dinner, Washington, D.C., March 24, 2004

1568 – Mary I of Scotland escapes Loch Leven Castle

1670 – King Charles II grants Hudson Bay Company a permanent charter

1863 – General Stonewall Jackson fatally wounded in Civil War

1885 – Good Housekeeping Magazine goes on sale

1918 – General Motors buys the Chevrolet Motor Company

1932 – Jack Benny’s radio show airs for the first time

1945 – Fall of Berlin

1952 – First commercial jetliner, the De Havilland Comet 1, makes maiden trip from London to Johannesburg

1955 – Tennessee Williams wins Pulitzker for Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

1969 – Maiden voyage of Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth 2, from Southampton to New York

2000 – Bill Clinton announces accurate GPS would no longer be restricted to US military

2008 – Hillary Clinton campaigns for president in Indiana

“I am obviously sustained and strengthened every day by my faith. But it is important that we all recognize that praying for our country, praying for those in positions of authority, is something that people of faith are really called upon to do.”

- Hillary Clinton, Kentucky, May 1st, 2008