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Saturday, January 26, 2008

Oops, not another one?

Guido Fawkes draws our attention to a news report on Sky that alleges that Alan Johnson accepted cash for his Deputy Leadership campaign through a proxy. The Guardian website has more here.

A comment on Guido Fawkes' site suggests that "Gordon Brown should call all of the candidates into a room and say: You have 48 hours to admit any mistakes you've made, and to make a clean breast of it. If you do that, you may - may - survive - in your job. If anything comes to light afterwards, even so much as £10, you will be fired and I will start wheels in motion for you to be deselected as an MP."

Reading the details it seems that the Alan Johnson situation is nowhere near as drastic as that which faced Peter Hain, however goodness only knows what other allegations will emerge. It does not look good for the Brown government.
Comments:
Sorry Peter, but I'm all fired up after the votes came in for Obama in SC. What a win for Obama! Great win despite the Clintons going negative again.

Excellent win for Obama in South Carolina (SC).

From here on out I expect the Clintons to dig up any negative rumors/rumours about Obama.

Though it is not in the Clintons’ team’s best interest to go negative on Obama, getting back into While House is just too mesmerizing for the Clintons to resist going deeper into negative territory. This kind of negativity turns off voters and even though the Clintons know this to be true, they will do just that, they will go to just about any length to connect Obama to what the Clintons will portray as troubling influence peddlers.

Expect fireworks about past and present Chicago political figures that the Clintons will argue are in Obama’s camp.

For example, expect rumours about links between Obama and Chicago’s Louis Farrakhan. Rumours intended to frighten Jewish voters into voting against Obama.

Expect rumours about the Rainbow Coalition (run by Chicago’s Reverend Jesse Jackson) and Obama. Rumours intended to frighten white voters into voting against Obama.

The Clintons need the black vote to take the White House so logic dictates the Clintons should not go too negative on Obama provoking black voters into staying home when the actual election for the next President of the United States comes along later this year – but the Clintons are so power hungry they just can’t resist the temptation/help themselves.
 
You have changed your tune somewhat Dr Wood? Not so long ago you were slating Obama.

Anyway, what a great victory! I agree. A win with a margin of 27% - a landslide.

Welcome aboard the Obama Train Dr Wood.

Yes We Can!
Si Se Puede!
We Shall Overcome!
 
Anonymous> I am an optimist and I believe in “Team America” that whoever wins will want to serve the greater America.

If you read my posts carefully you would note that I was speaking against jumping on any political bandwagon without engaging brain. Provide support – YES, but do so “EYES WIDE OPEN”.

I want the best candidate to win – I will speak against any candidate that adopts troubling tactics. Right now the Clintons are on the wrong side of what’s acceptable in political campaigning and I believe it is only right that this is pointed out and that criticism is directed at the Clinton’s team.

The political nomination process puts every candidate through a “steam room” – Hillary has been through it so it became Obama’s turn. But the Clintons team must not foray into unacceptable campaigning strategies – but that is their innate inherent weakness, they want to be back in the White House at any cost – this is what’s driving their negative campaigning and it is wrong, wrong, wrong.

But it is legitimate to question Obama’s links to various Chicago influence. Chicago is a great city and I strongly urge my fellow Brits to visit and spend time in this great city. But as great a city as Chicago is - it’s an unpleasant fact that Chicago has a dark underbelly – politicians going bad under the wing of bad political fixers with connections to criminality and Rezko, as I argued on Peter’s blog before the national media got hold of this story, is clearly a red flag that hangs over Obama. Obama has some other links that the Clinton team seem bound to go negative on. But what is very troubling is that the Clintons are mixing legitimate questioning with a campaigning style that has racial undertones. This speaks to the black American argument that the Democrats want their vote to win the national election. I see black Americans staying home if the Clintons win the nomination (I am deliberately using the plural version of Clinton).

I can’t support the Clintons in this strategy – they must stick to policy; yes they can bring up any troubling issue in any opposing candidates background if it is relevant to the Presidential campaign, but they should not play the racial card by spreading rumours to frighten non-white Americans to vote against Obama.

I am categorically against this tactic – it is wrong, and now that the Clintons have played this card it speaks volumes about the Clintons. It is very troubling that the Clintons are so power hungry to get back into the White House that they are willing to damage the Democratic Party and America as a nation.

I remember my lay Tort professor saying in class, “Bad cases make for bad laws”. I think this logic applies equally to political campaigns, “Playing the race card makes for bad campaigning.” Who ever plays that card in whatever party and of whatever political persuasion is morally unfit for political office.
 
Rumour has it that Senator Edward Kennedy will endorse Barack Obama tomorrow at a massive rally in Washington DC.

What a blow that will be to the Billary Clinton campaign.
 
If each Clinton was not seen as a “DC insider” then their campaign team could exploit a Kennedy endorsement by arguing that DC insiders will be running the White House through Obama. But as the Clintons so obviously are DC-insiders they will probably adopt the flip side of this coin, but unfortunately with deliberate racial undertones, by arguing that voting for Obama risks putting Chicago based Jesse Jackson in the Oval Office in all but name in a crude attempt to frighten non-black voters. If this happens, I hope everyone will see through this tactic. But watch out for “Chicago” or “bad Chicago connections” to be used in place of “DC”.

If the Clintons pursue this strategy then expect them to raise imaginary links with Chicago based Louis Farrakhan to frighten Jewish voters into voting against Obama. Its dirty politics, but that seems to be the Clintons goal such is their desperation to be back in the White House. They really don’t care about anything else – frankly, the Democratic Party itself will have to give up on the Clintons – so endorsements from senior Democratic politicians for Obama will help in that goal – if memory serves, Mayor Daley endorsed Obama some time back, Kerry did so a few days ago.

Maybe the Clintons figure most Americans have such short term memories that once they win the nomination it will all be forgotten, but I don’t think the African-Americans will forget in a hurry and if the Clintons win the nomination will not support the Clintons come Presidential voting day.

I am beginning to think that for the long term future of the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party should throw the Clintons overboard wrapped up in a large block of political ice of sufficient coldness and thickness that even Bill Clinton’s ‘charm’ or Hillary’s ‘tears’ can’t thaw out in a hurry.
 
I think they might just be in the process of doing that (metaphorically) Dr Wood. Obama is attracting more and more SuperDelegates than Billary is every single day.

Unless something goes badly wrong, I believe that Obama has this nomination in the bag already!
 
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