This campaign I am supporting Hillary Clinton and I feel so strongly she can turn the country around that I have immersed myself in the day-to-day political news. This has, and I am sure will continue, to be an amazing education. I have blithely for years believed our electoral politics were a model of democracy. Please don't start laughing yet :) It gets worse. Not only did I think everything was on the up and up, i.e. candidates got news coverage, supporters were interested in hearing the facts, if someone played 'dirty' somehow, someway Foul was called, and only the Republicans were full of dirty tactics and ugly schemes. Ok. Ok. I have been Wrong.

So let's review if we may this primary season so far: Hillary is pilloried in the press by reporters who for the most part have parted ways with objectivity and believe that dishing their prejudices is sound political reporting; John Edwards cannot get a headline no matter what he does; Barack Obama can do no wrong, and will be anointed shortly without so much as a perusal of either his voting record and/or his Illinois State papers; without a mention of his spiritual mentor's hatred of Israel, Jews and Whites; his connection with indicted racketeer Tony Rezko--and the Daly machine--his refusal to fire gay hater McClurken and censor Jesse jackson Jr. for race baiting Hillary Clinton.

The election itself is treated like a horse race and at times one can almost hear the announcer: it's Clinton by a nose coming into the first turn, Obama is second and Edwards is trailing; as we head into the backstretch, Clinton has lengthened her lead, Obama is crying foul and Edwards is hopelessly behind. Wait. Wait! Folks we are in upset territory here. Obama is driving hard, his jockey is crying FOUL apparently the Clinton jockey said something involving Martin Luther King. The stands are going wild. People are on their feet and the race has become unbearably tense in these closing moments before the polls close.

In the meantime most of the rightwing pundits including Brooks and Kristol are anointing Obama as the Great Black Hope--only they mean of the Republican Party. If they can just manage to help get him nominated, they can retake the White House and dreams of America for The Rich can continue without interruption.

And dirty tricks. You wanna talk dirty tricks? First, there is Obama's I know you think I said that, but this is what I meant, or said, or now say, or am thinking of saying. Second is  David Axelrod who blamed Hillary Clinton for Benazir Bhutto's assassination. Yes. You heard it here. And it was repeated without so much as a hardy, har, har. Let alone outrage and condemantion. Third is the lock on the culinary workers in Las Vegas who are being told to vote for Obama or they can't attend the caucus.

These are some of my favorite political tricks at this point.

Want to share yours?

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Assuming the Nevada State Education Association's lawsuit against the Nevada Democratic Party to close down the 9 at-large caucus precincts on Saturday is an attempt to hurt Barack Obama and help Hillary Clinton, one has to wonder if it just might backfire. Barack Obama himself has started using it as a rallying cry with members of the Culinary Workers union, for whom the precinct locations were designed to make caucusing easier.

ABC's Political Radar covers a rally with the culinary workers yesterday:

"I noticed that ever since I got the support of local 226 that the lawyers that decided to get involved, huh?," Obama told the crowd of union members, "You know you notice that the rules were okay as long as you did what they wanted you to do." [...]

"They all agreed to how this was going to work, so the notion now that six days before the caucus that they are gonna to try to disenfranchise the hard working folks on the strip, culinary workers, but also folks who are working at the McDonald's on the strip," Obama said, "You don't serve democracy by trying to keep people out. You're supposed to try to bring them in and encourage everybody to get involved."

Obama concluded by shouting "Are we gonna let a bunch of lawyers try to prevent us from bringing about change in America?"

I find it amusing that he's decided on lawyers as the villain of choice here, considering he himself is one (not that that's kept him from demonizing trial lawyers, of course) but the real power of Obama's seizing on this as a campaign issue with the workers becomes most clear in this line from the same rally, as reported by The Las Vegas Sun:

"As soon as you decided to support the outsider, the working people instead of the big shots, all the sudden they decided they wanted to change the rules."

Obama as the "outsider," champion of the little guy against the "big shots," a catch-all term to refer to any establishment force keeping the little guy down, no doubt a powerful message with the union rank and file.

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Just one of the many things that a few hours ago seemed certain but now, not so much: the Culinary Workers Union endorsement.

From Marc Ambinder:

Sources say that the powerful Culinary Workers union in Las Vegas still plans to endorse Sen. Barack Obama at a 9:30 am ET meeting in Las Vegas tomorrow.

Obama would accept the endorsement in person on Friday.

Still, one labor source close to the union said there was a lot of "soul searching" going on tonight, and that anything could happen.

We'll know more tomorrow.

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