Well, not terribly surprisingly — unless you were a paid television pundit — Hillary Clinton gave a full-throated speech endorsing Barack Obama. Not some tepid declaration, but a whole-hearted sincere endorsement of Obama and a ringing denunciation of the Maverick Sidekick.
What’s a not very well-hidden McCain campaign operative to do about this?
For one evening, their political world was perfect. Or so it seemed.
Standing before thousands of delegates, almost half of them her backers, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton declared it time "to unite as a single party with a single purpose" and urged her followers to help elect once-bitter rival Barack Obama. "We are on the same team," she said, after allowing the applause to build to a crescendo and linger, longer than usual — much like the Democratic primary race itself.
"Barack Obama is my candidate," she said. "And he must be our president."
But did she mean it?
Of course, not long ago Ron Fournier kissed Karl Rove’s ample behind while the latter blatantly lied about the death of Pat Tillman and Fournier attempted to land a job with the McCain campaign, a campaign he has YET to write one critical piece about (his only negative GOP piece this year was a piece criticizing Romney so as to praise McCain). I’m sure Fournier would claim this is not reflected in how he operates as an alleged "journalist". Watch his pieces on the Republican Convention closely next week…and feel the love and the sprinkles.
And we know he doesn’t mean it.
So keep up the protests of Fournier’s partisan hackery. It is starting to be noticed. And there are signs, the AP is paying the price.
(pic from TPM Muckraker)



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Zed.
Ain’t.
Dead.
AP is in a world of hurt right now as noted in this diary at DKos. They are expensive for papers and are getting dropped. They have no business risking their necks with this kind of activity.
Another diary at DKos notes how you can hit them where it counts by electronically boycotting them on any web portals you use such as yahoo or google by suppressing the feeds which come from AP.
I urge all FDL readers to follow these suggestions.
Sorry, did not follow your links – the `paying the price’ for AP is the first link above. However the second offers a nice hit them in the gut approach to the situation.
Above brilliant.
Went back to read the famous “noun, verb, POW!” great stuff as usual…. ty
gotta go.
[Note to Waccamaw …. sorry I missed you.]
1,746 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Attaturk and the Firepup freedom Fighters:
“Fourniercation Under Contrived Keyboarding” …BIFF – BOP- POW!!! Jesus Citizen Attaturk, you could do this for a living!!! Between yer puns and the Burma Shave road signs tanight, maybe we’ll grow a sense a humor around this place!
KEEP THE FAITH THE RIGHT YOU SAVE COULD BE YOUR OWN!!
BREAKING:
Alan Grayson won.
I have to disagree with the CW that Hillary’s speech was a ringing endorsement of Obama…
The speech was fantastic, no question. Unfortunately, it did NOTHING to address the two big issues that are still out there. Specifically, she needed to soothe the angst and anger that her supporters clearly still feel about the entire nominating process, and she needed to address clearly the nature of her attacks on Obama durning the primary campaign. She did neither.
She didn’t give her supporters (or even undecideds in the general election) any specific reason to vote for Obama – just some generic “party unity” and “go team” rhetoric. I don’t see how you could watch that speech and see it for anything other than what it was – a brilliant speech by Hillary to make nice with the party and get ready for 2012.
Good morning, pups. It’s MoDo and Friedman today. MoDo is wringing her hands (it’s a wonder she hasn’t clawed herself to shreds) over “High Anxiety in the Mile High City.” She’s so very, very concerned because she’s never actually seen a convention where the energy was so absorbed by people who had lost the nomination, rather than the one who had won. MoDo, we have a term for you — concern troll. Mr. Friedman’s column is titled “A Biblical Seven Years,” and he says as snapshots go, the one China presented through the Olympics was enormously powerful — and it’s one that Americans need to reflect upon this election season.
http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/
The coffee and tea are ready, and the Thomas’ English muffins are out of the toaster. Having spared myself the ordeal of hearing Bobo or Pat Robinson explain the convention to me (I watched on C-Span, and got to see everyone who took the podium) I think Hillary did a good job. No doubt the McCainStream Media will instruct me otherwise… Have a great day.
Good Morning, Warner put me to sleep and I woke just to see the end of Hillary’s speech. Hopefully later I will be able to watch the entire speech on youtube. I’ll pass on reading the NYTimes opeds today. Thanks for the info.
Citizen GabrielSkee:
“..she needed to sooth the angst and anger that her supoporters still feel about the entire niomination process and she needed to adress clearly her attacks on Obama…”
And jest how do you know, contrary to the thousands of Clinton supporters in the hall last night, that there is still “angst and anger” among her supporters? And really now, since when have any candidates for office had to explain their arguments against their opponents in a hotly contested primary…since when is a powerful endorsement speech like the one she gave not the last word? No dear, your “concern” doesn’t wear well on you…take it back under the bridge.
KEEP THE FAITH AND GET THAT SHIT OUTTA MY YARD!!
Telling whiners to stop whining, and then going on to rehash a bunch of the disingenuous complaints she had had about Obama during the primary, such as the one that he wasn’t all in on “The Gas-Tax Holiday”, would have been one piss-poor way to have address a convention. I think Hillary Clinton did a great job delivering her speech.
And, in-spite of your declaration that anyone could see that she was saying, ‘Just wait till 2012′, I didn’t see it that way at all. Her speech was all about now and voting, enthusiastically, now for Obama.
For those of you that have not seen Naomi Klein talk about obama and the progressive movement this is enlightening
Congrats to all that stayed to watch the kabuki from denver…. me I have not seen one minute of the dance and do not intend to as it is way too choreographed for my socialist taste.
And for those that think “faith based initiatives (think obama) are a good thing.
I’m very happy to see the push-back against Fournier beginning to afect the AP. The Fundies have been doing this sort of pushback for decades because they had a critical mass. Obama and we now have that critical mass. It’s a sorry state of affairs when public discourse gets lowered to the level of blackmail, but it’s war. In fact for the Right it’s been war for the last 40 years. The Democrats never owned up to it.
I juat sent this one off, I likey
Citizen Knut:
In capitalism, it ain’t “blackmail” it’s the power of the consumer boycott in the market…at least that’s the way its’ s’posed ta work. This is jest the beginnin…and those who don’t think that change is possible in a capitalist society, go back and read about the New Deal…
“Fourniercation Under Contrived Keyboarding” [perfect!]
it’s a cryin’ shame.
Those letters to the editors we’ve been writing must be working.
It is a lovely morning!
good one perris, I think you earned yourself another English muffin
.
Washington Journal
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
7:00-7:30 Question/Newspaper Articles/Phones/New Media Strategies hit
7:30-8:00 Lashawn Richburg-Hayes
Manpower Demonstration Research
Corporation (MDRC) – Senior Associate
http://www.mdrc.org
Topic: The U.S. Census Bureau today released its annual statistics on the nation’s poverty rate. Despite downturns in the economy and housing markets, starting last year, rates remained stable in most categories. Our guest analyzes the data.
Census Report:
http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p60-235.pdf
8:00-8:30 Question/ Articles/Phones/New Media Strategies hit/Roll Call Phoner
8:30-9:00 MARIA ECHAVESTE
at DNC Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff
1998-2001
http://www.nuevavistagroup.com
Topic: The Clintons & the Democratic Party. Our guest will discuss Senator Clinton’s role at the convention and her speech last night as well as President Clinton’s legacy and his speech tonight. She is also co-founder of the Nueva Vista Group.
9:00-9:15 JACOB KRAPFL at DNC Democratic National Convention
Iowa Delegate & Iraq War Veteran
Topic: How the Iraq War led this delegate to support Senator Obama. Mr. Krapfl is an Iraq War veteran & he’ll talk about why he came to oppose the war and why he’s a delegate for Senator Obama. Mr. Krapfl is a 24-year-old college student. He served two tours in Baghdad with the Army – from Sept 2003 to March 2004 and December 2004 to March 2005.
9:15-9:30 MIKE KOPP at DNC Colorado State Senator (R)
Iraq War Veteran
http://www.mikekopp.net
Topic: Our guest is a veteran of the first Iraq war and a support of Senator McCain. He joins us to discuss, the war in Iraq, why he supports Sen. McCain and his take on the Democratic convention
9:30-10:00 PHILIP MURPHY
at DNC Democratic National Committee
National Finance Chairman
http://www.democrats.org
Topic: A look at the Democratic Party’s finance and fundraising efforts.
Catch up with you again one of these hours/days. *g*
Bowers has an interesting take on the speeches and why they need to be different/better. It’s been bothering me for a while now and I think the gist of it for me is that we’re fighting for the heart and soul of the country. The last 7 + years have done more devastation and destruction than we can even begin to imagine. It should have us up in arms to save what’s left of it.
I haven’t gotten the feeling from the convention that they get that. What I’m seeing is our wonderful bloggers discovering and showing us all that it’s gonna be corporate business as usual even if we do manage to pull this one off.
Am I crazy and the only one feeling this?
not only did our guy, Grayson, win the Dem primary, but the incumbent Republican, Rick Keller, barely won his primary (by about 2,500 votes) against a guy he was expected to trounce.
No and no.
Congrats on Grayson. Our cable feed has the Orlando NBC station, so I saw lots of his ads during the Olympics. They were great.
My congressional candidate (Tim Cunha) didn’t have a primary challenger, but I spent yesterday at a precinct handing out brochures and telling voters that the incumbent (Cliff Stearns) promised when he first ran in 1988 to serve six terms and then retire. He’s eight years past that now and well past his expiration date. There was lots of interest and I had to drive over to headquarters twice to get more brochures.
Great letter, perris.
I’m happy for the success we are seeing on the AP drive against Fournier, but the real success will be when the M$M is quoting the blogosphere as regularly as AP stories.
well I sure would like to see more McCain blood dripping on the floor, that’s for sure. I was furious when Hillary called McCain a man of honor and courage, he’s neither.
This is what is happening in Denver.
St Pete For Peace in Denver.
Feels good to be a full time activist again.
my RSS reader has not picked up the last 3 FDL posts. Techies—did something get disconnected?
Re your “noticed” link to the Strib, this is much larger than MoveOn…I didn’t even know MoveOn was part of the protest. Maybe Tim O’Brien needs to know that, too.
Grayson is the neighboring district to mine but I’m excited about his chances. I was excited to begin with but with Keller almost loasing to a guy who has never run for anything, this looks good. IO was very impressed with Graysons commercials during the Olympics and dare to suggest that he wouldn’t have been able to do it — or at least not so many — without the support of FDL and other such blue blogger types. Grayson’s opponent, Keller, also made a term limit promise and if he had kept it, he wouldn’t be running. He’s gonna get hammered on that. Good luck with your district. The DCCC is dumping money into my district and the Dem candidate reads from their script. I’m jealous of the people in Grayson’s district. You guys get very wet last week? That storm wenty over us, stopped, sat around and decided where to go, and then came back over us. It was awful. Not so much wind. But lotsa rain. We really didn’t have it as bad as alot of places near here. About 6 inches. Some places right near us got 20.
My email just went to AP. Fuck ‘em.
Greetings Citizen,
I think we both agree that Hillary’s speech was excellent in content and delivery.
My point is that I don’t see it moving the needle with the Hillary supporters who need to be convinced to vote for Obama. Specifically, the supporters who still believe that Hillary deserves to be on the ticket, not Biden. The “anti-glass ceiling” supporters who believe that having a woman president or vice-president is just as big a deal as the economy, the war or social inequality. The “I’m writing in Hillary for president” supporters.
Clearly, you don’t believe they are out there, or you aren’t concerned about them. No problem – that is your opinion. However, I don’t think yelling at those of us who do is going to make them go away.
KEEPING THE FAITH!!!
Did the AP print something about Imus saying something about Michelle Obama’s speech? Because he’s pissed at them this a.m.
I would be interested to know how many people have simply stopped subscibing to newspapers recently. Between the AP, the editorial pages being over loaded with righ wing columnists and opinion, why torture ourselves. I have had subscriptions to two newsapapers my whole adult life until about two months ago. Now, I rely on the web. The newspaper industry is their own worst enemy. The tripe they pass off as objective news is insulting to anyone that is literate and only slightly informed.
Does she mean it? Let’s ask Jerry Seinfeld:
Barack Obama is my candidate. Pour ce qui!
And he must be our president.
Or: And he must be — our president.
Is she saying that because Barack Obama is her candidate, he must be ours?
It depends on the em-PHA-sis you place on the silly bulls.
I cancelled the NYT in response to their hire of Kristol, and will likely cancel the SF Chronicle for their genuine lack of substance and lousy political reporting (by, especially, one Carolyn Lockhead who wrote breathlessly today how Obama needs to get all the MEN who voted for Hillary, and with no strong evidence did her best to continue the meme that Obama was not getting blue collar votes during the primary season).
Jane,
Thanks for the AP info — and for calling attention to this hack. Below is a copy of the e-mail I sent to Kathleen Carroll at the Associated Press. If enough of us complain, it might have an effect.
Mozfan
Kathleen Carroll
Executive Editor
The Associated Press
Dear Ms. Carroll,
I am a veteran newspaperman with years of experience at national publications. This morning, I read Ron Fournier’s latest “Analysis” of the Democratic convention and found it disturbing. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion (piece), but it’s clear from his latest slanted article that Mr. Fournier is using the Analysis label as a fig leaf for partisan attacks. He consistently cherry picks the most minor details — or outright fabricates them — in order to build a case against anything and anyone in the progressive column. This would be fine if he did the same to the Republicans, but when he’s writing about them, and in particular, John McCain, he consistently ignores or minimizes any negative aspects, no matter how glaring or obvious, and it’s all air kisses and high fives.
This partisan hackery, coming on the heels of Mr. Fournier’s cozy e-mails with Karl Rove and his attempt to secure a job with the McCain campaign, is tarnishing the AP’s reputation. His predecessor in the bureau chief role has said as much publicly. For the sake of the AP, and for all of the reporters and editors at the service who have done their jobs with integrity over the decades — and who have even given their lives in service of the Truth — I feel you have an obligation to remove Mr. Fournier from his position immediately. This issue is not going to go away. Just google Fournier’s name and you’ll see that. If you allow this to continue, your reputation will suffer along with the AP’s.