Hillary Clinton's Mistake: On Martin Luther King, LBJ, and Barack Obama

UPDATE: Clinton on "Meet The Press"

See Blil Clinton sleep on MLK day!

Like many of you who follow politics, I saw the exchange between Fox reporter Major Garrett and Senator Hillary Clinton, where Senator Clinton said “Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act,” Mrs. Clinton said when asked about Mr. Obama’s rejoinder by Fox’s Major Garrett after her speech in Dover. “It took a president to get it done.”

After some reflection, I don't think Senator Clinton was being entirely racist, but she was certainly acting stupidly. As my video says, Dr. King's work came at a time when it was not "comfortable" -- to say the least -- to be a Black American citizen. Dr. King didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize for nothing.



As this is 2008 and we have a generation of Americans who never experienced, and it seems learned about, Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, here's a good biography:

Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.

In 1954, Martin Luther King accepted the pastorale of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.

In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.

At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.

In my opinion, Hillary Clinton owes the King family an appology for essentially dimishing Dr. King's contributions in her words. The Clintons are placing themselves in the position of working to divide America just as Senator Barack Obama's working to unite our country. They're doing this because they think it will work in America, but as Senator Obama and I both know, this is a different country than in was in 1992.

New News. New email asserts that the NH Primary Votes were miscounted! See below..

News Updates from Citizens for Legitimate Government
09 Jan 2008

http://www.legitgov.org/

http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Where Paper Prevailed, Different Results By Lori Price 09 Jan 2008

2008 New Hampshire Democratic Primary Results --Total Democratic Votes: 286,139 - Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008

Hillary Clinton, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 39.618%
Clinton, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 34.908%
Barack Obama, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 36.309%
Obama, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 38.617%
Machine vs Hand:
Clinton: 4.709% (13,475 votes)
Obama: -2.308% (-6,604 votes)

2008 New Hampshire Republican Primary Results --Total Republican Votes: 236,378 Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008

Mitt Romney, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 33.075%
Romney, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 25.483%
Ron Paul, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 7.109%
Paul, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 9.221%
Machine vs Hand :
Romney: 7.592% (17,946 votes)
Paul: -2.112% (-4,991 votes)

NH: "First in the nation" (with corporate controlled secret vote counting) By Nancy Tobi 07 Jan 2008 81% of New Hampshire ballots are counted in secret by a private corporation named Diebold Election Systems (now known as "Premier"). The elections run on these machines are programmed by one company, LHS Associates, based in Methuen, MA. We know nothing about the people programming these machines, and we know even less about LHS Associates. We know even less about the secret vote counting software used to tabulate 81% of our ballots. [ See also CLG's Coup 2004 and Yes, Gore DID win!.]

Please forward this update to anyone you think might be interested. Those who'd like to be added to the Newsletter list can sign up: http://www.legitgov.org/#subscribe_clg.

Please write to: signup@legitgov.org for inquiries.

CLG Newsletter editor: Lori Price, Manager. Copyright © 2008, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved. CLG Founder and Chair is Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D.

Barack Obama Wins Dixville Notch and Hart's Location New Hampshire!

These are the first two towns that historically place their vote in for President first in New Hampshire: Dixville Notch and Hart's Location. Senator Barack Obama got nine votes; Senator Hillary Clinton Three votes; former Senator John Edwards took in one vote. Here's the rest of the story from the AP

Obama, McCain Get Early Votes

Jan 8 01:28 AM US/Eastern
By CLARKE CANFIELD
Associated Press Writer

DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. (AP) - Residents of two tiny towns stayed up late to give Barack Obama and John McCain early victories in the New Hampshire presidential primary.
Voters in two small New Hampshire villages, Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, cast the initial ballots just after midnight Tuesday.

In Hart's Location, Democrat Obama received nine votes, Hillary Rodham Clinton received three and John Edwards received one. On the Republican side, McCain received six, Mike Huckabee received five, Ron Paul received four and Mitt Romney one.

In Dixville Notch, on the Republican side, McCain received four votes, Mitt Romney two and Rudy Giuliani one. On the Democratic side, Obama received seven votes, John Edwards two votes and Bill Richardson one vote.

Long-shot GOP hopeful Rep. Duncan Hunter attended the vote in Dixville Notch, where results were announced before 12:06 a.m.

"It epitomizes people-to-people politicking," Hunter said minutes before the votes were cast.

Hunter received no votes in either town.

State law allows towns with fewer than 100 people to open at midnight and to close as soon as all registered voters have cast ballots.

While most New Hampshire residents have to wait until around daybreak to vote, those in the two far northern towns have been going to the polls at midnight for decades. The Balsams, located about 20 miles from the Canadian border, has been holding its early bird voting since That's when former owner Neil Tillotson, who died in 2001, arranged for early elections by having Dixville incorporated solely for voting purposes. Hart's Location began midnight voting in 1948 because most residents were railroad workers who had to be on the job during normal polling hours. Townspeople, weary of the media attention and the late hours, did away with it after the 1964 election but revived the practice in 1996.

In Dixville this year, there were three registered Republicans, one Democrat and 12 who were undeclared. Hart's Location had eight Democrats, eight Republicans and 13 undeclared.

With more candidates on the ballot--42--than voters in town, longtime Hart's Location town clerk Marion Varney, 86, wouldn't venture a guess Monday on how the voting would turn out. In 2004, Wesley Clark got the most Democratic primary votes in Hart's Location and Dixville.

"I don't even know for sure who I'm going to vote for," said Varney. "I think I might just close my eyes and mark the ballot."

The two places have a friendly competition about which is first to cast its ballots.

New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner recalls getting phone calls in years past from people claiming that Neil Tillotson had illegally cast the first ballot at The Balsams before midnight--that they had seen it on C-SPAN.

"I'd say it was done on 'Tillotson time,'" Gardner said. "If he said it was midnight, then it was midnight."

Hillary Clinton Tears Up During New Hampshire Speech; John Edwards Attacks Her. Is Clinton Able To Stand The Rigors Of The Campaign?

By now, you may have heard or even seen Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton become choked up and almost cry when a supporter asked her how she was doing. If you haven't seen it or know what she said, I've got it right here for you. This is video and below it, the text from Huff Post:



Clinton Makes Emotional Vow to Fight On - The Huffington Post

PHILIP ELLIOTT | January 7, 2008 06:40 PM EST |

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Hillary Rodham Clinton's eyes welled up and her voice broke repeatedly Monday as she talked with voters in a restaurant about her campaign for the presidency. The former first lady was making a last-minute pitch for support as she spoke on the eve of the state's primary, with polls showing her trailing Democratic rival Barack Obama.

Asked by a sympathetic voter how she keeps going in the grueling campaign, she replied, "It's not easy. It's not easy."

"And I couldn't do it if I just didn't, you know, passionately believe it was the right thing to do," she said, her voice catching.

"You know, I've had so many opportunities from this country, I just don't want to see us fall backwards," she said, her voice trailing off. The voters crowded into the restaurant applauded encouragingly.

"So," she continued, then paused, seemingly to control her voice as her listeners applauded again. "You know, this is very personal for me. It's not just political. It's not just public. I see what's happening, and we have to reverse it. And some people think elections are a game. They think it's like who's up or who's down.

"It's about our country. It's about our kids' futures. It's really about all of us together. You know some of us put ourselves out there and do this against some pretty difficult odds. And we do it, each one of us, because we care about our country. But some of us are right and some of us are wrong. Some of us are ready and some of us are not."

She concluded, "And so when we look at the array of problems we have and the potential for it getting _ really spinning out of control, this is one of the most important elections America's ever faced. So as tired as I am _ and I am _ and as difficult as it is to try to kind of keep up with what I try to do on the road like occasionally exercise and try to eat right _ it's tough when the easiest food is pizza _ I just believe so strongly in who we are as a nation so I'm going to do everything I can to make my case and, you know, then the voters get to decide."

After she spoke several of the people in the Cafe Espresso audience crowded around Clinton and offered sympathetic support.

_________________

Presidential Candidate John Edwards waisted no time in spearing the already wounded Clinton:

Edwards, speaking at a press availability in Laconia, New Hampshire, offered little sympathy and pounced on the opportunity to bring into question Clinton's ability to endure the stresses of the presidency. Edwards responded, "I think what we need in a commander-in-chief is strength and resolve, and presidential campaigns are tough business, but being president of the United States is also tough business."

Here's my take on the issue.

____________________

When Senator Clinton was ahead in the polls and raising money, she was just fine emotionally. Meanwhile, Senator Obama and Former Senator John Edwards and Governor Bill Richardson were all behind in the polls and fighting. They handled it all well, emotionally. Now, when Clinton is behind in the polls, and lost her first primary, she all-but falls apart.

This has nothing to do with being a woman and is unique to Hillary. I think she's so consumed with the personal ambition of achieving what her husband Bill Clinton reached -- The Presidency -- that any sign, even a small one considering how far we have to go in this thing -- gets to her emotionally.

That's not what people want in a president.

Indeed, this Facebook poll of her "tearing" is not a good one. It reports that 64 percent of the poll respondents don't think the moment helped her, where 18 percent believed it helped and 18 percent thought it would have no effect. But the poll question is weird in that it asks one to make a prediction. The real truth is that the people who wrote a response on Facebook believed that it changed their view of her -- and they're voters.

Barack O'Bama The Irishman, American Indian, Kenyan, and Scot

I saw that over at Democratic Underground. Some poster calls himself Barack O'Bama! Too funny.

But then I decided to Google that name and it turns out that Obama has Irish roots. Check this out from the Chicago Sun Times... Barack Obama is American Indian, Irish, Scottish, Kenyan, and Pilgrim!

For sure, Obama's South Side Irish
ANCESTRY | One of his roots traces back to small village

May 3, 2007
BY BRIAN HUTTON
DUBLIN -- Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's ancestry has been traced back to a shoemaker in a small Irish village, it was reported Wednesday.

Obama's campaign wasn't talking about the revelation, but Chicago Ald. Ed Burke (14th) said he wasn't surprised.

"I could tell from the very first time I saw him -- he's got such a way with words," said Burke, who himself can trace ancestors to counties Clare and Kerry.


» Click to enlarge image

Sen. Barack Obama waves to the crowd at the St. Patrick's Day Parade.
(AP file)

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Records unearthed in the home of an elderly Irish parishioner who died recently have shed new light on the Illinois senator's ancestry.
A Church of Ireland rector scoured files from the church -- the equivalent of the U.S. Episcopal Church -- dating to the late 1700s. He confirmed that Obama descended from Moneygall, County Offaly.

The village today holds little more than a couple of pubs, shops and a Roman Catholic church.

Canon Stephen Neill, from a nearby town, began delving into Obama's past after a U.S. genealogist told him about the possible connection. "I would be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that this is categorical evidence of Mr. Obama's link to this part of the world," said the rector.

It was initially believed the would-be president's great-great-great-grandfather Fulmuth Kearney was the only one of his family to have sailed from Ireland to New York at age 19 in 1850.

But the newly uncovered records show other family members had in fact emigrated to America since the 1790s.

They also reveal that Fulmuth's father, Joseph, was a shoemaker -- a wealthy skilled trade at the time. "They would have been among the upper echelons of society back then," said Neill.

He said he thinks the name Fulmuth -- unusual for an Irish man -- was most likely a surname that was taken as a first name.

Obama was born in Hawaii to a black man from Kenya and a white woman -- with Irish links -- from Kansas. "I've got pieces of everybody in me," he has been quoted as saying.

But does the piece from Moneygall make Obama -- who lives in the South Side's Kenwood neighborhood -- South Side Irish?

"Of course," Burke said.

Press Association of Ireland, with Sun-Times Staff Reporter Matthew Nickerson contributing


OBAMA'S FAMILY TREE
His roots spread into so many places, it's hard to keep track. Here's a breakdown of reported links:
• American Indian: Obama said he had a "full-blooded Cherokee" in the family, but a genealogist said he couldn't find proof of that.

• Irish: He's traced to Fulmuth Kearney, who sailed to New York from Ireland in 1850. But where in Ireland? The counties are feuding: One expert says Kearney was from Meath, another Carlow. Now comes the news of ties to County Offaly.

• Kenyan: Obama's father came from the Luo group.

• Pilgrim: One direct ancestor was Edward FitzRandolph, married in Massachusetts in 1637. He was a Pilgrim father from Nottinghamshire, England.

• Scottish: There's even a royal link. Obama is descended from William I of Scotland, who reigned from 1165 to 1214. William was a politically and physically strong king. He charged Henry II's army single-handedly but was captured.

Sources: Sunday Times of London, Daily Mail of London, Chicago Sun-Times, Press Association

Senator John McCain Overtakes Mike Huckabee..In The Polls

I'm not sure I trust the polls because of the extreme uncertainty of the Republican Presidential race, but now John McCain, as of this writing, is considered the front runner even as Mike Huckabee was the winner in Iowa. Let's see if this holds in the Tuesday NH Primary.

Laure Manaudou's Website Down - Nude Photos Still A Hot Topic

I can't understand why Laure Manaudou's nude photos are so popular, but they are, and the issue has stayed "hot" for several weeks now. Acccording to this blog, the website was placed offline because "she had outdated information (still pictures of her and her italian boyfriend, and the whole thing wasn’t updated since november 2006) and her blog is getting lots of comments that her lawyer or herself probably doesn’t want others to see."

As to who placed the pictures, that question remains unanswered.

Another Clinton Mistake - Calls Russian President Putin "Souless" ; He's Times "Person Of The Year

If Putin heard this comment, I'm sure that's his expression.

Of all of the really, really terrible -- ok, just plain dumb -- mistakes to make, Senator Hillary Clinton reffered to Russian President Vladomir Putin -- Time Magazine's "Person of The Year" as "Souless" according to Ben Smith in the Politico.com website magazine.

That's not smart and that comment, coupled with her combative performance and false mailers are painting her as a really, well, ah, "souless" Presidential candidate.

I can't wait to hear Putin's response.

What's wrong with her? Yikes!

Will Mike Huckabee and Senator Jon McCain Gang Up On Romney?

On Fox News Sunday, there's an expressed rumor -- which both candidates deny -- that Mike Huckabee and John McCain will form a temporary alliance against Gov Mitt Romney.

But one look at the exchange from the debate would seem to at least confirm the possibility.

CNN / WMUR / UNH NEW POLL: Obama Up 10 Over Clinton; Edwards At 16: New Data Has No Disclaimer

Just one day after releasing an unusual poll reporting Senator Barack Obama tied with Senator Hillary Clinton after his Iowa victory, but also as others released polls with Obama ahead by as much as 10 points, CNN / WMUR / UNH issued what CNN calls a "new" poll, this one reports Obama with 39 percent, Clinton at 29 percent, Senator Edwards at 16 percent, and Gov. Richardson at 7 percent.

What's interesting is this poll's data sheet does not include a disclaimer note, unlike the first poll.

I think CNN futher damaged the credibility of their polling by not reporting the second survey as an update, but a "new poll" when one look at the PDF file shows it really is an undate.

But it's good they corrected the obvious data problem in the first poll.

Clinton Lies About Obama Abortion Record - Huff Post

Click to see the new video on Clinton's Martin Luther King "mistake".

Wow. This is a sure sign of desparation on the part of the Hillary Clinton campaign. To attempt to mislead voters in this way, or any way, is totally wrong and dangerous to boot. What they're thinking I don't know. She's also lied about his record on the Patriot Act. Read this below from the Huffington Post

Clinton Criticizes Obama in NH Mailer

NEDRA PICKLER | January 5, 2008 07:13 PM EST | Huffinton Post

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton criticizes rival Barack Obama's record on abortion rights in a mailing sent to New Hampshire voters _ her first direct attack on the Illinois senator since his victory in Iowa.

The mailer says that seven times during his time in the Illinois state Senate, Obama declined to take a position on abortion bills, while Clinton has been a defender of abortion rights.

During his eight years in the legislature, Obama cast a number of votes on abortion and received a 100 percent rating from the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council for his support of abortion rights, family planning services and health insurance coverage for female contraceptives. He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive, a vote that especially riled abortion opponents.

He also joined other state Democrats in voting present on some bills.

The mailing comes amid division within the Clinton campaign over how negative to go against Obama after his victory Thursday in the Iowa caucuses. The campaign has made a decision to hold off on any television advertising, positive or negative, until after a nationally televised debate Saturday night.

Obama also has been criticized by the political arm of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which has endorsed Clinton. Seven international vice presidents sent a letter protesting the "wholesale assault on one of the great friends of our union."

"Supposedly, we are involved in this primary because we're concerned about access to the next Democratic president," the signers argued. "So why would we want to develop a hostile relationship with the man who could be that next president?"

During the Iowa campaign, the Clinton campaign criticized Obama's position on health care in Iowa. But she is taking a different approach in New Hampshire.

"A woman's right to choose," the mailing says on the front, then flips to the back, "demands a leader who will stand up and protect it."

It says Clinton has a record of fighting "far-right Republicans" to defend abortion rights, while Obama has been "unwilling to take a stand on choice."

"Seven times he had the opportunity to stand up against Republican anti-choice legislation in the Illinois state Senate," it says. "Seven times he voted present _ not yes or no, but present. Being there is not enough to protect choice.

"On January 8 you have a choice," it closes. "Vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, Tuesday, Jan. 8."

The mailer says "Paid for by Hillary Clinton for President" and has a return address of her office in Manchester. Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said the campaign decided to send the piece because "as Senator Obama has said, `voting records matter.' This is a critical issue for New Hampshire voters and they deserve a straightforward presentation of the facts about both candidates."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded, "The Clinton campaign's false negative attacks were rejected by Iowa voters, and we expect that they'll suffer the same fate here in New Hampshire."

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly Endangers Obama As Presidential Candidate - Should Appologize

Fox News Bill O'Relly may have thought he was jusfied in placing his hands on Obama campaign staffer Marvin Nicholson, but the reality and details show he went too far. Here's what happened according to Lynn Sweet:

O'Reilly grabbed Nicholson's arm and shoved him, another eyewitness said. Nicholson, who is 6'8, said O'Reilly called him "low class."

"He grabbed me with both his hands here," Nicholson said, gesturing to his left arm and O'Reilly "started shoving me." Nicholson said, " He was pretty upset. He was yelling at me."

Secret Service agents who were nearby flanked O 'Reilly after he pushed Nicholson. They told O'Reilly he needed to calm down and get behind the fence-like barricade that contained the press.

Obama had his back turned at this point and did not see any of this.

O'Reilly yelled "sir" at Obama and Obama walked over, not aware of what happened and told him he had an overflow crowd to visit. According to the time code from a photographer shooting the two, Obama and O'Reilly talked near 11:45 a.m. eastern time.

He just came right around the barricade. They shook hands and Mr. O’Reilly said he thought Sen. Obama was great and that he loved him and loved to have him on the show and said he would think about coming on after the primaries.

Here's a video that captures part of the incident:



This behavior on the party of O'Reilly is, in my opinion, not unlike that of a zealout who could present a security danger to a Presidential Candidate. Suppose by approaching Barack the way he did, Bill O'Relly distracted agents just enough to allow an assailant to get in? That would be more than disasterous, yet the threat is there.

For his part, Bill O'Reilly seems to revel in this and seems emboldened. Senator Obama was nice and gracious to him as is natural for a candidate of his character. But it does not discount the danger and disrespect O'Reilly's behavior brings to the Presidential Race.

New Hampshire Voters Slam Clinton; Praise Obama After Debate

As this video shows, Senator Clinton's rather wild-eyed response to John Edwards' statements that she is not the candidate of change did not set well with New Hampshire Voters.



What matters is not what the Mainstream Media thinks, but New Hampshire voters. People are not electing a policy nerd, but a leader. Obama is that person. Clinton came off as desperate and the Obama staff knew they could win just be letting Hillary be herself.

A brilliant approach; she played right along with it.