As we all have seen, Obama went over the top and has the delegates to be the (presumptive) nominee.
And just on a purely personal level, I admit I’m glad that the election went through to the very end, and that the very last state, the one that put Obama over the top in terms of delegates, was Montana.
He picked up nine superdelegates today. Three of the nine that gave him the magic number were Montana Senator Max Baucus, Montana Senator Jon Tester, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer.
A year ago, Brian Williams asked Jon Tester if there was any democrat who could carry Montana. He said, yes, if it was anybody, he thought it would be Obama.
By the way, one more historic note: it didn’t hurt that Obama was the first national candidate to visit a Montana Indian reservation. Ever. (The closest precedent, tribal leaders said, was a visit to the Crow Reservation by first lady Lady Bird Johnson in the 1960s.) He was also the first presidential candidate to visit any Indian reservation since Bobby Kennedy visited Pine Ridge in 1968.
(Subsequently, Hillary Clinton her own visit the Salish Kootenai College on the Flathead Indian Reservation.)
With the Indian Country vote important in swing states like New Mexico, the Native American vote is an essential voting block to cultivate in a 50 state strategy. And from a social justice perspective, it’s also the right thing to do.
It’s a rare day when you get to parade your Montanacentrism so proudly.
We were watching cable last night and my wife – who lives a bit of a sheltered life – was totally blown away by Jon Tester’s haircut. She had no idea who he was and thought he must be a Republican because of his haircut. Took her a minute to wrap her mind around what he was saying about Obama and that he was on “her” side. I’m not happy with an awful lot of the Democrats – and probably never will be – but I can finally take some pride in being in a party led by Obama with guys like Tester and Jim Webb helping to shape it, keep it inclusive and not veer off into the bullshit media stereotypes about coastal liberals, elites, etc. etc.
Hillary’s near-total lack of grace aside, what a great night.
The speech is here:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/198565.php
Here we go. Giving away firewater in exchange for votes.
Hey, I see that in elections yesterday that Alabama did more to stretch its education lead over California, that never will address problems with teacher unions.
Alabama Education Association-backed school board challengers lose
Hillary hasn’t given up yet. Remember, RFK was shot in June.
In HRC’s speech last night, did you notice that guy in a striped yellow shirt behind her who kept vigorously nodding his head in affirmation and making exaggerated arm movements when he cheered? What a dork. Anyway, let’s do as HRC asked and go to her web site telling her what we think that she should do.
Reg, Yep, I was completely happy being unashamedly Montana centric last night.
And, yes, isn’t Tester cool? So is the gov, Brian Schweitzer. And Jim Web is great.
When Tester was running for office, several of his TV ads centered around the haircut (He had others that talked about issues, but the hook with several was the haircut, with the tag line, “Isn’t in time the US Senate looked a little more like Montana?”—or something like that, with all these unlikely people turning up with flat tops. I imagine they’re still on YouTube.
Okay, I found one here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joQi27QG7Cs
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I’m getting some work done on my house and my contractor, who is also a single dad, came over this morning. He said, “I saw Obama’s speech last night. I saw all the speeches. This man is the once in a life time candidate.”
No, he can’t part the seas and walk on water. But he might really be the right man for the right moment. At least I sure hope so.
Giddiness returning.
Me too, RG. Cautiously giddy, but getting there.
Celeste, is your contractor a Mexican? If so, what rate do you have to pay him so that I can compare it to the illegals that I wouldn’t use to paint my house?
Always cautious. Always.