Monday, March 31, 2008

1968-2008: Race in America

"Horrors of Ethiopia Get Little Notice"
So read a recent headline in the LA Times, highlighting the selective morality of Americans' views of the horrific reality of racial violence and genocide that dominate the world stage "The teenager awoke under a pile of corpses to a prickling sensation on her face. Ants were biting her eyelids and the inside of her mouth." One can almost visualize Dick Cheney reading this and saying, "So?" If this were happening in our country would we care? Certainly. In Europe or Japan, Israel? Most likely. In the Middle East? If they have oil, perhaps. And therein lies the problem. Poor black people simply are not viewed as worthy of our government's concern and resources and they never have been, whether they are fleeing drought, violence and despair in Darfur, Ethiopia, Somalia, Rwanda or devastating winds and floodwaters in New Orleans. As the only people legally enslaved in our "free" country, black people have been the recipients of a unique from of hostility since the corrupt backroom deal that ended Reconstruction and led to a century of post-slavery Jim Crow segregation that was characterized by hate crimes--lynchings--counted not in the dozens but the thousands per year and the rise of the KKK, both in the informal organization of Southern rednecks and the much more frightening branch that wore badges, black robes instead of white, and bore titles such as Senator Helms of North Carolina. Indeed, the legacy of separate and unequal segregation has had a much more direct and lasting impact on post-WW II generations than the distant memory of slavery, despite the dismissive attitude of uneducated whites who say, "slavery was over in 1865 so get over it y'all," oblivious to the reality that social, economic, legal, and educational discrimination was legally institutionalized in this country and affected the lives of many grandmothers and grandfathers who are navigating the turbulent racial waters of the 2008 presidential campaign.
Sure, we'll drop some bags of rice in the African desert, hold a few rock concerts, and send some good-natured, well meaning Peace Corps kids, but actually send troops for a prolonged occupation to help confront the logical conclusion of the corruption of European imperialism? Help rebuild one of the great American cities by developing real schools and safe, affordable housing that doesn't sit in a flood plain, well below sea level? That's wishful thinking, my friends. Americans get a TV commercial of starving children with bloated bellies, telling us 26 cents a day can make the kid's village so much better...

"One man came in the name of love..."
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 40 years ago this Friday--April 4th, 1968, the night after he delivered a powerful speech that included the lines "Well I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead...And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the Promised Land." The courage of a man with a family, young children, who went to bed every night under the fear of death threats surpasses that of any American in the history of this nation. Period. King escaped bomb threats, shotgun blasts into his house, had an American Nazi come up on the stage while he was speaking and repeatedly punch him in the face, yet King never backed down from his steadfast belief in America's potential for justice and righteousness. I have had an interest in King since I was in high school and chose to write my term research paper on King, part of which consisted of sitting in the library watching old videos the librarian dug up for me: they had a profound impact, watching King and others attacked by Bull Connor and his fire hoses and dogs. Living in an all-white, racially ignorant town in Southern Oregon, I nonetheless idolized black blues musicians, many of whom I was lucky to see as they passed through Ashland, the little college town--Albert King, BB King, John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray--my friends and I met them all, loved their music, and immersed ourselves in the power of the blues. It changed my life and the effects continue to reverberate to this day in the way I see myself and the world and the pure joy that music brings to my life. Even as a kid in an all-white school I knew that the musicians I admired were certainly worthy of the same respect as any human being, so I began my quest to explore the history of race relations in America, to understand the context of the music that provided so much meaning for my life. My journey began with King.

Forty years after that infamous day in Memphis, after an ominous spring that led to a summer of blood in the streets after Bobby, Chicago, and the failures of Vietnam, a black man stands poised to win the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. And the old vortex of racial wounds and pure bigotry endures, as the politcial dialog is obsessively focused on Obama's race, despite the fact that he is of mixed race. As in the slave days if one has 1/16 black blood that's enough to be discriminated against, despite Geraldine Ferraro's absurd declaration that is Obama is "lucky" to be a black man. Oh, where would he be if he were white? This much is clear: In the general election Obama would be ahead in every state in the country if he were white, that's where he would be. Political history has nothing to compare to the unpopularity of "the Idiot."

"The Ghost of Tom Joad"
The economy is in 1930s shape, the war is dragging on and now regressing to pre-Surge violence levels, and the Idiot is so hated that he cannot even throw out the first pitch at a baseball game without being booed, as he was last night at the opening of the new Washington Nationals ball park. So while Obama has surely gained some support because he is black, he has--and will continue to--paid a much higher cost than any benefit. Let's face it, the only reason Obama is not a sure thing in November is because much of the country is profoundly(and proudly) racist. That's why Obama will start out behind by 20 states, for no one can make a serious case that it is because of the "issues." That lie is out the window in a year where the Democrats have the Republicans running so scared that dozens of GOP incumbents are quitting rather than face the humiliating defeats that so many endured in the 2006 elections. They know that this fall is going to make '06 look gentle. So, if the Dems are on the country's side on all of the major issues, from the economy to the war, then how could they possibly lose to a fossil such as McCain? McCain, a hapless and pathetic relic of the past, who's beginning to demonstrate just how much he really is George McCain(too ignorant to know the difference between Shia and Sunni?) really offers nothing in the way of pulling W's car out of the ditch. He's the same old, rich white guy who has convinced a bunch of other old, not-so-rich white guys that he cares about them, when in fact, he really does care about them, for they are the ones he needs to pay for the tax cuts for his country club buddies.

"War, What is it good for?"
Obama has the will of the American people on his side, so the effort by Billary and McStain is to radicalize him, to turn him from Martin to Malcolm by playing on the worst instincts of the American people in order to prey upon the same ignorance to lead them to vote for the man they would rather have a beer with instead of the one who may help them keep their pensions and secure an economy that will enable their kids to attend college. Americans want out of this immoral and idiotic war: "This is the first major war in American history where all the additional cost was paid for by borrowing. If the war backers believe that the Iraq war is so essential, then they should be willing to pay for it partly with taxes rather than charging it. One way or another we'll have to pay the bill...The eventual cost of the war will be about $3 trillion. For a family of five, that amounts to a bill of almost $50,000."(NY Times 3-23-08) The war is the biggest con job in the history of the country. I cannot take anyone seriously who supports this fiasco, especially if they or their children are not over there fighting. It's always the chickenhawks who support this nonsense, the ones who ran from Vietnam but are now armchair generals, commanding the troops from their couches, watching Fox news, the ones who talk neocon toughness from the trenches of their computer chairs and their dorm room bunkers: "You hide in your mansion as young people's blood flows out of their bodies and is buried in the mud." They are the worst kind of "Americans." Masters of war, who "fasten the triggers for the others to fire then sit back and watch as the death count gets higher,"(Bob Dylan)they need to be thrown out of the country to make room for the people who want to come here from other countries and do honest work, pay taxes, and become productive Americans, not waste tax dollars killing people who believe a different superstition than a majority of Americans endorse.

"A More Perfect Union"
Obama's speech about race on March 18th was a key moment in the campaign, despite the absurdity of his having to defend himself because of the comments of his pastor. I am more concerned that he has a pastor in the first place than I am that the pastor's views are offensive, for we all know the wonderful legacy of religion in the world. Faith certainly plays a role in many good deeds, but the history of faith is the history of intolerance, violence, genocide etc. I can only hope that Obama's religion, as with most Americans, is more a symbol of propriety than a way of life. Let's face it, people come to this country to get paid and do their own thing, not live in a theocracy. Thank God(pun intended). Anyone who is looking for a truly religious life can probably do better than a country that symbolizes unchecked capitalism. As JD Salinger said way back in the 1950s: " It's very hard to live a spiritual life in America. People think you're a freak if you try to."("Teddy") Thus, the derisive term for a true believer: "Jesus freak." That is the American dilemma: Capitalism is about kicking someone's ass, putting them out of business so you can make more money because you make a product cheaper, pay your workers less, drive up the price of your stock. An economic foundation based on those principles obviously doesn't leave much room for the devout. Just what would Jesus do?
Obama has a huge mountain to climb, battling the Republican "Southern Strategy," GOP code for using white racism to deliver states to dullards like McCain. The GOP is once again testing their belief that the same old racial politics will defeat another Democrat, and that may very well be the case. Time will tell, as we are truly looking into the soul of America this year. Obama seems to be transcending the race card games Clinton is playing, but McCain is already implying that he is un-American, when in fact Obama is uniquely American. Will the same old Willie Horton tactics work? That is the question that will be answered in the coming months. Is this all a mirage or has the country really changed since 1988, let alone 1968?


"The Wright Stuff"
Jeremiah Wright's soundbites are "news" because they provided cover for racist whites to say " See, I knew Obama was just another Black Panther! He's a Farrakhan!" Heaven forbid he speak out for the equal rights of black people...The irony of all this, of course, is that Wright's views are not nearly as disturbing as other equally irrelevant pastors who happen to be white. The real anger, characterized by the relentless loops and "breaking news" on Fox news everytime this pastor has a bowel movement, is because simmering white racism explodes when black people have the audacity to speak the truth about the legacy of racism in this country, the fact that well over 300 years of this country's history, until the mid-1960s was characterized by overt, legal discrimination against black people, so when Wright says the "US of KKK A" he is obviously wrong about the country in 2008 but he is surely right about the country that he grew up in, the one that segregated him at every turn, the one that legally told him, "Know your place."
When Wright speaks of "God damn America," surely the Bible suggests many times that the sin of unprovoked violence and agression(e.g. foreign wars etc.) will be met with the wrath of God. That is not news, and many white pastors have said equally inflammatory things about 9-11, Katrina, AIDS, the SF Earthquake--you name a catastrophe and I will find you a sermon where it is "America's chickens coming home to roost" as Mr. Wright said. My point is not to defend Wright or any of the other equally ignorant white pastors but simply to state the obvious: They are all irrelevant and misguided. Who cares what they have to say? They are essentially paid entertainers, not presidential candidates.
The comments Wright made about drugs and the US drug policy are also not that far off base, for if you remember the US Supreme Court is dealing with the inequity in drug sentencing laws and the fact that people convicted of crack cocaine(mainly blacks, which has a MINIMUM 5 year prison sentence) are serving much longer sentences than those convicted of powder cocaine(mainly whites, which has a MAXIMUM 1 year sentence for an equal amount). These drug laws are clearly racist; indeed, drug laws in general, since the first marijuana law was enacted in Texas to discriminate against Mexicans, have been used to put minorities in jail, for obviously whites use drugs as much as anyone else, but alcohol, by far the most dangerous of all drugs, is especially popular among members of Congress. With around 50% of our prison space being taken up by non-violent drug offenders, many of whom are people of color, is it any wonder that people such as Wright are exasperated with a government who can offer no solutions except to build more prisons and incarcerate more young black males? We are a society in which 26% of all juvenile arrests are black kids, yet 52% of transfers to adult courts are black kids. The message? Let's lock up these black kids and throw away the key. What has been done to address the 9.5% unemployment rate for black males and the fact that black males had higher incomes in 1974 than in 2004? What about the astonishing fact that 11% of black males between the ages of 25-34 are in prison, nearly 10 times the number of white men?(Dyson 109-115) With more black males in prison than in college in the United States in 2008, one would think that the country would take a look at what is going on and try to turn it around, yet we have a government that prefers the more expensive route of prison than the more humane and socially responsible course of treatment. How can someone look at the plight of black communities and not share Wright's outrage if not his rhetoric? So, the only really offensive, Robertson and Falwell level nonsense that Wright expressed was the AIDS as a government plot to wipe out black people stuff. I can only hope that this nonsense was some kind of effort to stir people up so that they'll buy those DVDs and call those 1-800 numbers, for as we all know, these large congregations are all show business.

"Coda"
In the end, Obama was correct in his decision not to "disown" Pastor Wright, for if he would have gone in that direction it would have suggested that he also had no principles or values, that he would disown a friend whose views do not entirely support his own. Throwing Wright under the bus is the type of easy choice that most politicians would make; indeed, it's what we would expect from the Clintons, but Obama is a different kind of politician, despite what the GOP freaks and Drug Limbaugh would have us believe. Real supporters of Obama had their faith renewed, not destroyed, by the Wright controversy, for it showed once again that Obama is clearly superior in the areas that really matter: integrity and judgment. He is clearly a man who does not always seek the most expedient solution, nor is he afraid to speak to Americans as adults rather than boneheads who cannot grasp anything more complex than a bumper sticker. Obama may very well lose this election, especially as he is fighting McCain and the equally slimy Billary machine, but it will be clear that he, if only briefly, raised the level of political discourse in a culture that desperately needed to revisit its values and redefine its objectives in this young century that began in the ominous ashes of the old social and religious grievances that left previous centuries soaked in blood:

"For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism...We can do that. But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change. That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." Barack Obama 3-18-2008

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Hillary's Heart of Darkness

"The mind of man is capable of anything...He must meet that truth with his own true stuff--with his own inborn strength. Principles? Principles won't do."

On the eve of the Ohio-Texas primaries, Obama had a lead of around 150 pledged delegates, and after tonight's 20 point landslide(nearly 100,000 margin in popular vote) victory in Mississippi(after his 61-38% drubbing in that bastion of African-Americans--Wyoming,), Obama will actually have a larger lead than before Ohio, despite the fact that Billary raved about what a big night they had on March 4. Such is the reality of this campaign: Clinton is finished, yet she desperately spins anything that can harm Obama, knowing that her ceiling of support is basically 51%. People don't like her so she has to tear him down; it's a pathetic spectacle that gets older as each day passes and Billary inches closer to the inevitable precipice that they will ultimately--and thankfully--plunge off in a few long weeks. Americans deserve to be rewarded for enduring the Clintons for all these years, and what better way to repay us than to crawl back under their rock and exit the political stage

"The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion...is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much."

Let's look at a few facts: First, Clinton is 150 delegates(and over 700,000 votes) behind because she not only lost 12 states in a row after Super Tuesday(and 28 out of 42 overall) but lost by profoundly devastating margins, especially in overwhelmingly white states such as Maine, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Virginia, and Washington state, where she lost by 15% or more. That is the reason she is so far behind, not simply because he won a few small states: She has won some larger states, for sure, but look at the margins, which were all very close. Take Texas, for example, where Clinton won the popular vote with 51%. Today, the results were released from the TOTAL Texas vote and guess what--Obama won the state. But where is the media, who celebrated Clinton's "huge" win in Texas? Here is the reality: Clinton won 65 delegates from the popular vote and 30 delegates from the caucus, while Obama won 61 delegates from the popular vote and 38 delegates from the caucus, which means the total in Texas is 99 delegates for Obama and 95 for Clinton, so the math is simple, with Clinton picking up 10 delegates in Ohio, and Rhode Island and Vermont a wash, she emerged from last Tuesday with a 6 delegate pick-up. However, after losing Wyoming and Mississippi, Clinton is actually behind by more delegates than she was when Democrats were beginning to urge her to withdraw from the race because the delegate math simply does not add up, and now with only eight states left to vote, Obama's lead is huge(at least 160 delegates now), regardless of whether or not they re-vote in Florida and Michigan.

Here is what the party should do with those two idiotic states: Let the remaining primary process play itself out if Billary refuses to do the right thing and drop out, and if there is a chance Clinton can catch Obama after the other states vote then you spend the money to hold those elections in late June, giving both candidates time to campaign there(and Obama gets to have his name on the ballot this time) Remember, Clinton only won 55% in Michigan when she was the only name on the ballot! The tough candidate "Uncommitted" got 40% of the vote--and 50% of the white male vote--which is actually much better than Clinton did in at least half a dozen states, so what does that say about her campaign? I think Obama will do just fine in Michigan and will hold his own in Florida, especially once it is clear--as it will be when they actually vote--that he is the rightful Democratic nominee, the one who won the most votes, states, and delegates. Don't forget that when those states voted Obama was still relatively unknown to many voters. Now he is the putative frontrunner. Let's see what happens when those states vote knowing that after the other 48 states weighed in Obama was the overwhelming choice. Clinton will try to say that they are winner-take-all and other desperate nonsense but the states should count for what they are in terms of their delegates--no more and no less.

If she is still 100+ delegates behind she is not going to close that gap in those two states, so they won't even matter in the big scheme of things. As Andrew Sullivan--a Republican--wrote in The Atlantic, "if at the end of it all, one candidate has more delegates and more votes, why is there a question about who won?" Good question, for this is becoming more and more absurd. Just how can Obama win in a way that Clinton would accept? If it is not about the delegates, or states, or popular votes, just what is it about? It's like the Bush problem in Iraq: Define victory and an exit strategy. Clinton's conduct is a disturbing and completely unacceptable assault on the democratic process itself. Obama did not create the rules. All he has done is play fair; Clinton is the one who continually changes the rules, defines which states matter etc. Imagine if Obama were conducting himself in this manner, saying how much Pennsylvania matters, when actually North Carolina and Indiana will have more delegates than Pennsylvania.
For those of you who do not understand the electoral process, the one with the most delegates wins--period, just as the president is elected in the Electoral College, so Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election. Many of us do not necessarily like that process but it's the system we have, and Americans respect people who play by the rules, not continually cry to the refs as Clinton has mastered. The candidate who has the most delegates at the end of the primary process needs to receive the support and confirmation of the superdelegates and a coronation at a unified convention in Denver. That is the only way the party will avoid an utter bloodbath in Denver and the demise of the party's increasingly slim chances in November.

While the Clinton camp engaged in a new round of race card poker, cynically--and laughably--expressing how "lucky" Obama is to be a black male in America(where would he be if he were white?), Obama has finally begun contesting Clinton's absurd claims that she was anything more than a basic tea-sipping first lady. Even Nobel Peace Prize winner Lord Trimble weighed in this week, flatly stating that Hillary's role in the Northern Ireland peace process was completely exaggerated, as he claimed it was "a wee bit silly" for her to suggest that she had any meaningful role in the negotiations(she flat-out lied on Wed., saying, "I helped bring peace to Northern Ireland"), while she was also slapped down by--of all people--Sinbad, the comedian, who accompanied Hillary on her trip to Eastern Europe that was supposedly too dangerous to send president Bill. Sinbad called her bluff, explaining that the trip was really a USO entertainment gig where, as Sinbad noted, "the only red phone call was to ask where we were going to eat."
The fact remains that she never had national security clearance, as was reported by the New York Times last week, nor has she listed a single substantive foreign policy accomplishment that would enable her to lay claim to all this "experience" nonsense that she has foisted upon the uneducated little old white ladies that are her only reliable base.

Moreover, it was a tough week for her pathetic chief surrogates, as the worst of them, Wolfson, looked like the dishonest fool he is while trying to explain just how Obama will be ready to be VP but is not ready to be president. The look on his face was priceless, as he tried to squirm away from that question, saying that Obama is not ready to be president now but he will be by the convention in August, when he can be Hillary's running mate, but if he is ready to be VP then surely he will also be ready to be president, which is the first duty of a VP. That whole argument was forcefully rejected by Obama, who rightfully explained the absurdity of someone who is essentially out of contention trying to offer the VP to the frontrunner. What's next, is Huckabee going to offer McCain the VP slot? Furthermore, the ominous racial undertone of her and Bill's remarks were clear: Obama is not a serious presidential candidate(despite his commanding lead) No one would really vote for the black man at the top of the ticket(despite the results from 28 states who did just that), so he should know his place and be thankful that the woman who has won half as many states would offer him the VP. How else does one explain the audacity of someone getting her ass kicked and talking about a running mate? The arrogance is palpable. The irony, of course, is that it's all just another Billary lie, for everyone knows that Billary lacks the type of self-esteem that would allow them to even consider Obama on the ticket, for he would completely overshadow her--as he has the entire primary. No, this is another cynical attempt to lure voters away from Obama, thinking that they can vote for Hillary and Obama. As Billary learned in Wyoming and Mississippi, the voters(at least 60% of them) are not much interested in having her on the ticket in either slot. The same old question remains: When, if ever, will the Clintons wake up and realize that it's over, that unless they rig the superdelegates and steal the election they can't possibly claim this victory? Imagine Clinton, loser in states, delegates, and popular votes, standing on the stage in Denver, after ripping the nomination from the first democratically elected African-American nominee, the one who will have over 30 state delegations in the hall that night supporting him. Can anyone really picture that scene?
I can: "I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror--of an intense and hopeless despair. The horror! The horror!" (Conrad, Heart of Darkness)

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

An Open Letter to Barack Obama: There Will Be Blood

Once again, my friend, you have taken your foot off the pedal and let your guard down and failed to close the show. While the losses in Ohio and Texas were not that surprising considering the demographics: Just enough racist Hispanics in Texas(she won 2/3 and nearly 90% in some counties despite the fact that she is not Hispanic, which is hard to fathom) and poor, uneducated white racist women(Billary's solid base) in Ohio, bolstered by Drug Limbaugh's listeners, who provided Clinton 8% of her vote in Texas alone, the fact remains that you had a chance to end this thing and you failed miserably. Why? Because you played your smug, overconfident nice guy role that has no place in a presidential election. Many of us watched in disbelief as you played defense for the last seven days, laying on the ropes being pummeled by the most flawed candidate in recent U.S. history.

The Republicans are desperate to run against Billary because, unlike you, they will tear her and Bill apart, pulling every skeleton out of their very full closet, as they should. The big winner last night was John McCain. He can sit back now and watch you waste your $50 million you raised in February to fend off the ridiculous attacks that you left unanswered last week. The Republicans are now openly encouraging voters to vote for Billary, so now you have to defeat them also. The reality is that McCain, really a joke of a candidate, is now the clear frontrunner and prohibitive favorite to be the next president. It's becoming less likely that whoever survives your bloodbath with Billary will have enough energy, support, and money left to defeat McCain.

Once again, the Democrats are looking like the dysfunctional national party that they are, and it's up to you to either change that now and win big and end this nomination or become the poster boy for wimpy Democrats if you can't beat down a woman who has done absolutely nothing in her life to justify her campaign's message that she is somehow the "experienced" candidate. 35 years of experience? She is 60, so she is counting every year since she graduated from college at age 25! The first woman I have ever heard of who took 60 years to "find her voice" as she said in New Hampshire when she made that claim. How do feminists spin that one? The woman had no real experience until she was elected to public office, which was in this decade, years after you had been elected in Illinois. What a joke, but what have you done to contest that? Nothing. This experience argument is a loser, for I would rather have McCain answer the 3AM phone call in the White House than Hillary. Let's face it, the only call she is likely to be answering at 3AM is from one of Bill's "girls" looking for him. Cheney is the experienced candidate, not someone whose husband was receiving oral sex in the White House from a woman his daughter's age. This woman who couldn't keep tabs on her president husband has convinced people that she 's more experienced to run the country? That's laughable, but it's what you let happen. Many of your supporters, myself included, would not vote for Hillary under any circumstances. We would rather see you lose than share a ticket with her and would rather see McCain as president than Hillary if it means being rid of Billary once and for all.

You seem to be losing sight of the real challenges you face as a black man running for president in a racist country. Hillary is rightly one of the most despised women in the country. Except a bunch of little old ladies and feminist hypocrites no one likes her much, and for good reasons. Have feminists sunk so low that they embrace a woman who couldn't win a school board election if her name was not Clinton? Everything she has done has been based on her man's accomplishments. Period. How sad. Many people speak of the fact that you get 80-90% of the black vote. Some of that, obviously, is race-based. There are certainly black people who are voting for you because you are black. However, black people are not delivering your victories in Utah, Washington, Kansas, Iowa, Maine, Vermont etc. I understand the fact that black voters share your values. Remember, blacks voted for Kerry by nearly 90%, so one cannot claim that it's all racism that blacks vote for a black Democratic candidate who reflects their values by the same margins that they voted for Kerry and Gore. Here is the problem you face: Exit polls in Ohio showed that 20% of voters said race was a factor in their vote and 80% of them voted for Clinton, not you! You lost Ohio because of a large group--20%--of poor, uneducated, racist whites, and that is a bad sign for your chances in Pennsylvania, which has famously been described as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, with Alabama in the middle.

Listen closely, for those of us who have supported your campaign with our time, energy, and most importantly, our money, expect you to wake up and realize the fight you're in and respond accordingly. I am starting to wonder if you really do have the stomach to meet with these world leaders you want to sit down with, for the Clintons are very bad people, just like the "petty dictators" you have spoken of, yet you have allowed these "people," as Daniel Plainview would say, define you. Obviously, you still have plenty of time to win the nomination, and your position is much stronger than Billary because of your commanding delegate and state lead. You have a delegate lead of around 140, as you have won 26 of 40 states, many by huge margins of over 20%(thus your large delegate lead). There are 611 pledged delegates left. Clinton needs to win 60% of the remaining delegates to catch you: She has only won ONE state with 60% of the vote(her home state of Arkansas), so that is nearly impossible. Moreover, you have won many states with over 60%, and have many easy wins if you campaign hard and get tough: Wyoming, Mississippi, North Carolina, Montana, South Dakota, and Oregon are all states that you should win easily, which leaves Pennsylvania, West Virgina, Indiana and Kentucky--all are states you can compete in if not win outright, so if you work hard and follow my advice this race is essentially over, for there is no way Clinton wins 380 out of those 611 delegates in those states. Despite her relentless spin and desire to overthrow the will of the voters, the fact remains that your lead is substantial, and whoever ends in June with the most delegates is in fact the rightful nominee; that's how the process works, and you did not create the process. You played by the rules and have won fair and square, but you are playing against someone who will cheat to win, someone who will rig elections, suppress votes, bribe officials--that's what you are up against, so play the game accordingly.

Here is your new plan:
1. Wake up and start running negative ads everyday. Change your attitude and start fighting.
You need to fight back and show some toughness. It's about perception, which is everything in politics. People want a president who is a fighter. It makes them feel safer. If you understood this, you would have won Texas instead of ignoring the 3AM phone ad.
2. Call out Billary on his library foundation and their tax returns. You have income of 1.3 million and they have 35 million. Let's see where that money came from. There's a reason why she keeps delaying the release of their tax returns. Talk about that everyday and demand that the media follow up. Scrutinize every financial detail. Follow the money; it always leads to corruption.
3. Examine her experience by asking for the release of the White House tapes. What role did she really have? What role did she have in all the BAD things Clinton did? Run ads showing Somalia and Kosovo and the other flawed policies to question her judgment since she said she was a part of everything in the White House. Where was she during the impeachment of her husband?
4. Health Care: The only overt issue she dealt with in her First Lady years was the failed health care reform. Remind people in ads that her only real experience was a complete failure beacuse of her secretive, arrogant approach.
5. Norman Hsu raised nearly a million dollars for her campaign and he is currently in prison on fraud charges, yet you have allowed yourself to be on the defensive over this Rezko nonsense. Turn it around.
6. Trust: The Clintons are the most distrusted politicians in recent political history.Expose them for the liars they are. Look at what they are trying to do in this election, stealing delegates, cheating by changing the rules in Michigan and Florida etc. Don't let her play the victim and the bully. There' s a reason why nearly 50% of Americans do not trust her. She's a bad person with no principles. You obviously know that, as she was willing to throw you under the bus before the vote yesterday by saying you're not qualified to be president. Now you need to state the obvious: A Clinton nomination will be a sure failure because her vote total ceiling will not enable her to win in the Electoral College.
7. Make her answer to those White House years she proudly claims as "experience": Destroying evidence in the death of Vince Foster, Whitewater, Travelgate, the great Monica blue dress details. This is the reality of the Clinton administration. Do you really think the Republicans will not bring this stuff up? That's why they want her to win. She's a huge target with a 35 year record of corruption, not political accomplishments. She has thrown every possible accusation at you, without any regard for the consequences in the general election. She has, in effect, destroyed the Democratic chances in November by supplying McCain with more than enough ammunition to attack you, using Clinton's words that all you have is a 2002 speech, not years of experience. This person is so self-absorbed she will stop at nothing to win and she has no concern for whether you can win in the general election, so you have no obligation to her. It's time for scorched earth politics: Make it clear that if she cheats you out of the nomination she will lose all of your voters' support and the result will be a McCain landslide. There is no difference between McCain and Clinton, and that's the message you need to push everyday. She has tried to blame the media, cry, cheat, yell, and play the race card in every state, so what exactly is holding you back from destroying her with some real, honest ads that show who she really is? It's really that simple: Start playing rough and end this thing or simply drop out now, before it goes to the convention in Denver and Mr Nice Guy gets mugged in a back room by Billary and has the nomination stolen from you, for as I clearly detailed they can't win this thing above board in terms of the delegate count, so they have to cheat. And they will. There will be blood: Are you Daniel or Eli? Do you have the toughness to drink her milkshake by winning Pennsylvania? Will you let Billary crush your skull with a wooden bowling pin? Are you a future president or "just a bastard from a basket"?
"I'm finished"