The Clintons bring everyone together

Every day now it seems like the other candidates are giving speeches, sending out press releases, and speaking at debates about how they will get their party back to its principles and show their base that they are the extreme Democrat or Republican. You got people like Dennis Kucinich that hopes to rally the liberal base with socialist ideals, and you have Ron Paul that attempts to rally the extreme right wing base with anarchist philosophies. Now, neither of these 2 candidates really stand a chance, but these are the directions that the parties seem to be going in. This unwillingness to compromise on issues is great in theory, but the reality is, politics is all about negotiation. You have to give a little to take a little.

The last president to fully understand this concept was Bill Clinton. He understood that sticking to the principles of the democratic base locks you in a corner with no wiggle room to work out deals that could work in your favor. Everyone loves to criticize politicians for flip flopping or endorsing policies that seem to conflict with what they stand for, but people have got to understand that politics is all a big game. And if you refuse to play the game correctly and you instead stand by a list of ideals that don't resonate with middle America, then you aren't going to be very successful. This is the reality, and this is the way it's always been and always will be.

Bush was able to market himself on this ability of meeting both sides in the middle, and that's how he got elected. But once he was elected, he betrayed the people by refusing to work with those of opposing views. Above all else, this is precisely the reason why Bush's poll numbers are so low. He tried to be everything-republican. His way or the highway. Believe me, history will not remember him in a good light.

That's why at this time more than ever, we need someone that isn't so stuck and stubborn in their narrow ideologies. We need someone who is flexible and understands that a good President has to work with both parties and consider all ideas. The American people's needs and wants are constantly changing, and a good leader needs to be flexible to adapt to that change. This is why we need someone like Hillary Clinton in the White house. A good representative of any group is someone who doesn't let their own personal views get in the way of carrying out what the people want. From what I can tell, Hillary Clinton doesn't really have deep personal views, so this conflict between leader and the people won't even be a factor.

MSNBC touched on this a little bit in an article entitled "Bill Touts Hillary's Work With GOP":

Today in New Hampshire, her husband noted the ways she’s worked with the opposite party, including a would-be rival. And he argued that more attention needs to be paid to candidates’ records and not to "pure politics."

“I argue to you based on a lifetime of experience that if you have spent as my wife has 35 years ... being a positive change maker, that indicates that you would be more likely to successfully execute change as president. If you have proved in the U.S. Senate that you could get things done with Republicans as well as Democrats, that indicates you’d be more likely to succeed as president.”

Bill hit the head right on the nail. In order to be an effective leader, it is essential that you learn to work with all sides and not be so isolated in your own ideals that you fail to see the real needs of every day Americans. I'm willing to bet that no other candidate realizes this fact, a fact that is only realized with a great deal of experience - something both Bill and Hillary have an enormous amount of.

Flipper TV: Exposing the Republican Front Runners

Folks, with the competition getting fierce these days where Hillary is getting smeared from all angles, we're always trying to get dirt on the other candidates and catch them in uncompromising situations. Well it looks like the Democratic Party had the same idea, and they actually followed around Republicans on the campaign trail in disguise as supporters, in order to catch them in their most embarrassing moments. This is the most genius idea yet, and we're a bit jealous that we didn't think of it first.

This morning we received an e-mail from Mike Gehrke, Research Director for the Democratic National Committee:

Dear VFHO,

I've got something for you.

For a few months, we've had Democratic Party "trackers" recording hundreds of hours of Republican candidates in the field. From event to event, we've got footage of some pretty revealing moments. Some are regular Americans putting a candidate on the spot with a tough question. Others are blatant contradictions. A lot of it is just the standard candidate stump speech.

The footage isn't high quality, but it's straight from the field -- and there is a lot of it. Since there's more than my team can realistically process, we've decided to throw it up on the web and put the Party's most powerful asset -- you -- to work.

As soon as a tracker leaves an event in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, or wherever they're taping a Republican candidate, they'll head to a computer and upload it directly to a special section of Democrats.org called FlipperTV. That means you'll have a chance to go through the latest video the same time we do.

Nobody has ever done anything quite like this before, but with the Internet giving ordinary Americans like you access to the tools you need to change an election with the click of a mouse, we need to make sure you have everything you need to do just that. The video is yours -- you can just let us know what you find, or you can take it, re-mix it, add music, and make your very own ad out of it. It's up to you.

Take a look:

http://www.democrats.org/FlipperTV

Back in March, I told you about our program to hold the GOP accountable for everything they say on the 2008 campaign trail. We launched a website dedicated to the Republican presidential hopefuls, and created a rapid response group in PartyBuilder that people like you could join to get the latest campaign news.

This video is part of that program -- and part of the work that the Democratic Party is able to do because of your help.

Take a look at the video, forward your favorite clips to your friends, and make a contribution of $20 to keep this and other programs going strong through the 2008 election:

http://www.democrats.org/FlipperTV

What are Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain and Fred Thompson telling voters in Iowa and New Hampshire?

I'll give you a hint -- it's not what they're going to say in tonight's Republican debate.

As the Democratic Party's Research Director, I spend a lot of time watching what the candidates say when they aren't on CNN or Fox News. Believe me, they're like entirely different people when they're speaking to just a few dozen people in Des Moines or Manchester and don't think the cameras are rolling.

But don't just take my word for it -- watch the video yourself, and let us know right away if you find something noteworthy:

http://www.democrats.org/FlipperTV

People like to say that Democrats have a tactical advantage because we're better at using the Internet. Let's show them just how far ahead we actually are.

Let's get started,

Mike Gehrke
Research Director, DNC

P.S. -- Be sure you join the PartyBuilder group on that page so we can get you the latest clips everyone finds.

This is just the ammo we need in order to expose these con artists for what they are. We haven't had a chance to view all of the videos yet, but if they meet up to Mike Gehrke's description of them, they're sure to be a laugh riot. This is precisely what we needed, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

December 10th Democratic debate has been cancelled

From Reuters:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A televised debate set for next month among the Democratic presidential candidates will be canceled to avoid a potential conflict with striking Hollywood screenwriters, a source close to organizers said on Wednesday.

The decision by the Democratic National Committee came after several candidates said they would refuse to cross picket lines of the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike against major film and television studios since November 5.

A debate among eight Democrats running for the White House had been scheduled for December 10 at the CBS Television City studio in Los Angeles, where striking writers have been routinely picketing.

I know this news may be a big disappointment to a lot of you that wanted to see Hillary stand her ground and take on the boys, but this is actually great news. Let's face it, everyone in America knows about Hillary Clinton and her positions. She has absolutely no problem with name recognition, as some of the other candidates do. These debates actually have more potential to harm her campaign than they do to help, simply because it gives exposure to the lesser known candidates. Right now if an election was held, I guarantee you Hillary would win hands down. But if John Edwards and Barack Obama were able to get enough air time to somehow convince the masses that they would be a more effective president, then they might have a real chance of taking away the election from us. Every debate I have seen so far has been nothing more than an obsessive smear campaign against Hillary. I'm really starting to question the importance of these debates in the different times we live in today.

Diamonds or Pearls

You're not going to believe what people are getting worked up about now. It's simply incomprehensible. Last night during the democratic debate on CNN, a student in the audience asked Hillary Clinton if she preferred diamonds or pearls. Hillary responded that she likes them both equally.

If you're anything like us here at Vote for Hillary Online you're probably wondering, okay..so..where's the story here.

Well the dirty opposition is claiming that CNN forced this student to ask a so-called softball question in order to make Hillary look good. Folks, we watched 10 minutes of this "debate" (a.k.a gang-up-on-Hillary session) and there was nothing about this that made Hillary look good. It was perfectly designed to look objective and honest but we all saw right through that.

Take a look at this article here that covers this "story". As hard as they try to make it look like CNN is in cahoots with Hillary (when we know the opposite is true), they also concede the fact that this question was actually one of the questions the student wrote down. This was not a question made by CNN or the Hillary campaign, and given to a random student to ask. This is someone who wrote down several questions to be asked, just in case one of them had already been covered. Well it turns out one of her questions was over Yucca Mountain, and they had already spent way too much time on this topic already. What is also true is that this was the last question of the debate and they needed a quick one because time was running out. This is the most overblown crap I have ever witnessed in all of covering Hillary's campaign. And the dirty tricks are only going to get worse.

Here's the video everyone is so outraged about:





Actually, we here at Vote for Hillary Online had been curious about whether she prefers pearls or diamonds ourselves so it's by no means a stupid questions.

Democratic Debate Tonight On CNN 8pm ET

There will be a Democratic debate tonight on CNN at 8pm ET. It will be held at the University of Nevada and hosted by Wolf Blitzer. Folks, if this even goes down anything like the last debate, where everyone plays a game of gang-up-on-Hillary, then I suggest we don't even watch it. What we suggest you do is, watch the first 5 minutes of the debate. Go into it with an open mind. But if you hear one attack on Hillary, whether by Wolf Blitzer or by her opponents, the thing to do is just turn off the television.

We need to hold CNN accountable if they let this turn into yet another Hillary Clinton smear campaign. If this in fact goes down the way I suspect it will, then we need to boycott all advertisers that will be marketing during the debate, and we certainly don't need to hear anymore of the opposition's rhetoric. I repeat, if this turns into yet another smear campaign, then boycott CNN's advertisers. This hits them right in the pocketbook. If we lived in a perfect world, everyone would see Hillary Clinton as our only hope, and instead of attacking her, they'd be praising her for politically prowess. But unfortunately we live in a world where greed and ignorance trumps intellectual honesty, and we need to act accordingly.