Kerry Gold

A  political consultant reader writes:

Maybe Kerry himself isn’t that helpful, but I know one thing the Obama people are thrilled with today: the voter file.  Obama now has access to the largest, most recent presidential campaign voter file.  The millions of email addresses, phone numbers, and addresses are invaluable as Obama starts to go national.  I imagine the information Kerry has from 2004 could easily double the size of Obama’s voter file in states like South Carolina and Nevada and maybe even triple the size in states like California and New York.  Also, Obama now has access to activists and supports of Clinton who – in all likelihood – where in Kerry’s general election voter file.  So while the man himself probably won’t give him that big of a boost, the fact that Kerry just pinned his email list is pretty significant in terms of data and list building.

Identity Politics and the Dems

One blogger on Clinton’s appeal:

It’s absolutely legitimate for Hillary’s sex to be one’s deciding factor, and no less legitimate than citing John Edwards being a millworker’s son who knows what it’s like to be working class as one’s deciding factor.

Another on Obama’s:

Regardless of whom we decide on, by making the identity politics of our candidate a factor in our decision, we are implicitly establishing a ‘separate and unequal’ relationship between race and gender barriers that only fuels the continued clash between race activists and feminists.

So, I’m supporting Senator Barack Obama because he’ll be a great president. And, not because he’s Black.

 

Paglia On Clinton

It stiffened the spine. But in light of my new attempt to focus less on why Clinton would be a terrible president, and more on why Obama would be a great one, I’ll reprint this money quote:

I will vote for Hillary if she is the nominee of my party, because I want Democrats appointed to the Cabinet and the Supreme Court. But I plan to vote for Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania primary because he is a rational, centered personality who speaks the language of idealism and national unity. Obama has served longer as an elected official than Hillary. He has had experience as a grass-roots activist, and he is also a highly educated lawyer who will be a quick learner in office. His international parentage and childhood, as well as his knowledge of both Christianity and Islam, would make him the right leader at the right time. And his wife Michelle is a powerhouse.

The Obamas represent the future, not the past.