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 haven’t had the chance, check out the daily News & Views and the Hillary Writers Circle, as well as the afternoon Hillary Hangouts and the #ImWithHer evening open threads. In addition, here are some new diaries:
violining247: Hillary Volunteering Roundup 6/4/16: California Dreamin’ Pt. II and Phone Banking Tips
First Amendment: LA Times Endorses Hillary Clinton, “she is vastly better prepared than Sanders for the presidency”
TobyRocksSoHard: Eight Years after 18 Million Cracks — The Importance of June 7
teacherken: Poll for Puerto Rico: Clinton by 63.9-30.1
manrico1967: Now, CA is a must win for Hillary? Give me a f-ing break.
Beauregard: New USC / L.A. Times California Poll: Clinton +10 over Sanders
LadyLake: A Sanders Supporter’s Take On Hillary’s Big Speech Yesterday
Seth Cagin: Even Republican Establishment Will End Up Endorsing Hillary
Finally our primary drought is at an end, and we’ll be getting results from the Virgin Islands today and Puerto Rico tomorrow. Then Tuesday can’t come soon enough.
On a recent visit to San Francisco, near Carl and Cole Streets and the famed Haight-Ashbury area, I expected to see Bernie bumper stickers on every car and Bernie signs in every window. While there were some, there were also some Hillary supporters willing to represent:
As for how the race in California will turn out, I’ll give my prediction tomorrow, for what it’s worth. Again, as has been noted over and over, Hillary Clinton does not need California to win. At all. She will have crossed the delegate threshold with her win in New Jersey. President Obama will deliver a big speech in support of her. All of the Democrats who have sat on the sidelines, like Elizabeth Warren, will also give their support. If Bernie has plans to sulk and disrupt all the way through the convention, he will find himself increasingly isolated.
That said, California is important because if Bernie wins, he will use it as a justification for continuing his quest for the nomination, which relies on the superdelegates he scorned for so long. He may do that regardless, but winning California would allow him to claim “momentum,” and that he’s the stronger candidate, no matter how ridiculous an argument that might be. Enough vapid folks in the media will buy into it and make it seem as though what Bernie is doing is perfectly natural, even desirable. (You think I’m exaggerating? Read this.) For the sake of presenting a united front against Trump, that’s not acceptable.
So both candidates are campaigning across California. Hillary’s week in California got off to a fantastic start with her foreign policy speech in San Diego. This diary sums it up nicely:
floridageorge: The PRESS responds to Hillary’s EPIC speech, and it is awesome.
Hillary was then endorsed by the L.A. Times… again.
Yesterday, Hillary was in San Bernardino, where she addressed the mass shooting that took place six months ago:
Hillary Clinton promised to combat ISIS and spearhead gun safety reforms during a rally Friday night in San Bernardino, the site of the most recent terror-inspired mass shooting on American soil.
During a 30-minute speech, Clinton cited her time as a New York senator during the terror attacks of September 11 and highlighted her advisory role in the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Three times, Clinton spoke directly to the people of San Bernardino, whom she said knew the stakes of national security and gun violence all too well.
Today she’ll be in Sylmar, which is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, part of the San Fernando Valley.
Bernie recently spoke at my alma mater, U.C. Berkeley. To his credit, he finally delivered an unequivocal denunciation of violence caused by some of his supporters, most recently at a rally in San Jose:
Meanwhile, we Hillary supporters have been doing what we can to GOTV. And we’re getting help from some big names:
Senator Barbara Boxer, the Mayor of Oakland, and the President of NAARAL will be kicking off canvassing efforts in Oakland (good to start now, with the heat expected today!).
Here are some adventures in canvassing with Contra Costa for Hillary:
Canvassing to talk with voters before the primary is enjoyable. If nothing else, it's a pleasant walk on a beautiful California day, usually in a part of town that's new to me. I also get to talk with special people about something that is very important to me: this year's election. Here are just a few examples of the amazing people I met this past weekend.
There was the 88-year-old woman who greeted us warmly at the door and who readily expressed her support for Hillary. She has always voted, she said, and she is well aware of the importance of this election. "I can come out and walk the neighborhoods with you," she said. "How can I help you get out the vote?"
There was the tall, bearded man who looked through the slats suspiciously, then called his wife over as soon as he realized who it was. She stepped forward tentatively, wearing a bandage. Yes, she said softly, she'd voted for Hillary by mail, and her husband too. He stood beside her looking concerned. Her son would vote tomorrow. "Go Hillary!" she said raising a hand victoriously in the air. "Are you interested in volunteering with our campaign?" I asked. "Oh," she said. "No, I'm sorry, I can't, because now I am no longer able to see."
Consequently, Benchmark has Hillary winning Contra Costa County. And a lot of other counties.
Unfortunately, due to work, I missed getting the opportunity to phone bank with Cory Booker in Oakland. I did, however, do some phone banking as part of a Women Wednesday in my community. In the evening after work, I drove up to a lovely house on a hill (sorry, no pictures this time), where at least 10 Hillary supporters had gathered to make calls.
Most of the people I called weren’t home. I noted it and moved on. However, my very first call was to a 70-year old woman, who told me that she was “lukewarm” toward Hillary because she wasn’t being sufficiently open about her emails. I told her that what Hillary did was no worse than past Secretaries of State, and that no one cared about them, or that George W. Bush destroyed countless emails. The conversation lasted 10 minutes. The woman seemed to think I was in a position to pass on her request to Hillary Clinton, though I told her I was a volunteer. I was able to determine that she really didn’t like Bernie and despised Trump, but she wanted more assurance from Hillary. I put her down as a “lean Hillary.”
It worries me how many more people could think like her, due to constant right wing attacks and the media’s utter failure to do its job. My other calls were fairly uneventful. I called one woman whose husband answered the phone, who said that while his wife was still undecided, he was all in for Hillary. He liked Bernie’s ideas, but he thought Bernie was all wrong. Otherwise, the people I reached had already voted, with most stating they voted for Hillary, and one stating in a “how dare you” tone that she wasn’t going to tell me. Well, then.
I have two GOTV shifts this weekend. As it’s supposed to be about 95 degrees on Saturday, I’ll stick to phone banking. And I even found a volunteer… my mom! She started as a Decline to State, but was so moved by fear of Trump and dislike of Bernie that she changed her registration to Democrat.
I’m going to shift my plea from requesting contributions to the campaign to
**VOLUNTEER**
Send a message that California is With Her.