Disclaimer: This is a Hillary Clinton appreciation thread, which means that most people who come here really like Hillary Clinton. If you have criticisms, please be respectful.
If you missed any Saturday diaries or conversation, click here.
Some good diaries relating to California and otherwise:
joelado: California PSA for Progressives
kck: California 2016 Primary Mail-In Ballots Delivered — Vote Today!!!
YellowDogBlue: Meanwhile, I’m voting in California now.
DiesIrae: Today’s Nevada convention results reflect the will of caucus voters
floridageorge: Grats to Hillary for winning NV 7 of 12 dels today. Hillary people showed up. Also gets most SDs.
Nathaniel Dance: On the accusation that 64 Sanders delegates were “purged” from the Nevada Convention
I may have issues with our primary system, including that we always seem to go last, except in 2008 when we were part of Super-duper Tuesday, but at least we don’t have the crazy system Nevada has in place.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton opened up her fourth office in the state capital, Sacramento.
Perhaps in honor of this, the Sacramento Bee has endorsed her:
Clinton may not be the most passionate or inspirational of politicians, and she must do all she can to earn the public’s trust after the email scandal and other missteps. But she has the right priorities to rebuild the middle class, for instance. She is more likely to actually get things done in Washington, D.C., and offers the hope of helping to unite the country.
Democrats should embrace this historic opportunity for our nation to have its first female president.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article75638987.html#storylink=cpy
Don’t know about you, but I’m getting mighty tired of these half-hearted endorsements. “She’s super flawed and not really that great, but vote for her!” Makes me yearn for more like Joan Walsh’s “Why I’m Supporting Hillary Clinton, With Joy and Without Apologies.”
Campaigning in California means tackling some of our most pressing issues. In this state, one such issue is water.
"We have got to seriously address the California water situation because I know how difficult it has been," Clinton said on NBC4's News Conference program broadcast Sunday. "I have gotten some briefings about the drought which seems to have slightly improved but not for the long term."
Senator Dianne Feinstein, among others, have complained recently that water accumulated from El Niño-related storms in the northern part of the state could have refilled Southern California reservoirs to capacity.
“News” outlets like Breibart are trying to make hey out of the fact that a whole four Congressmen have declined to endorse Hillary Clinton, including Barbara Lee and Nancy Pelosi. However, as shown here, their reasons for doing so range from mundane to largely practical.
Lee said she plans to wait to endorse until it can do the most good for the party and get a Democrat elected to the White House.
The Oakland progressive’s district, which includes Berkeley, is expected to go for Sanders, though Lee said she’s hearing from constituents who support both Democrats.
She is one of a few members of the Congressional Black Caucus who did not endorse Clinton when the caucus’ political action committee did so in February. She endorsed Obama early in the 2008 race.
Lee said she doesn’t want to temper voters’ enthusiasm or alienate anyone.
“A lot of my constituents are for Bernie Sanders at this point,” Torres said. “The popular vote is not going to win; we learned that through the candidacy of Al Gore. [It’s] unfortunate, so we have to make sure that we’re able to get behind the right candidate.”
But she doesn’t like what she perceives as Sanders’ negativity.
“The polls throughout California have been strongly supportive of Secretary Clinton. It’s a little bit late,” Torres said. “I’m happy to see that [Sanders] is inspiring people, but I think at this point, he needs to focus on getting a Democrat elected. I’m upset that he’s talking the same negative talk that Trump is using against Hillary.”
More comments in the media about how California represents a sort of symbolic last stand for Sanders, a bargaining chip he can use to get concessions from the superdelegates or the Democratic Party. From Washington Monthly’s D.R. Tucker:
It is unlikely that Sanders would be able to defeat Clinton by a significant margin in the Golden State primary (which is open to Democrats and those who have no stated party preference), which means that even if he also wins (by presumably close margins) the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and North Dakota caucuses and the Oregon, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota and District of Columbia primaries, he will still come up short in the pledged delegate count. However, a victory in California, even by a close margin, would provide political momentum to Sanders and his supporters going into Philadelphia, where the self-professed democratic socialist plans to ask superdelegates to, in essence, void the votes of those who supported Clinton and declare him the Democratic nominee.
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