The Dems need to watch that they don't create a crisis where there is none by repeatedly stating that they are trying to prevent a crisis.  It would actually be more harmful to force Hillary out than to let it play out and have the results show that she cannot win.  Forcing her out would piss of enough of her supporters to cause them not to go to the polls in November, and it's not going to take many defections to lose the election.  Making the superdelegates vote immediately after the last primary would allow the process to play out.  And let the superdelegates vote how they see fit.  I don't think they'll want to wait until the convention to decide a winner, because that would divide the party, so they'll come up with a decision.

I love Obama's magnanimously telling Clinton that she shouldn't feel pushed to drop out after having his minions try to do exactly that so that he doesn't  have to face her in Pennsulvania and Indiana. The man a walking dissembling machine. He is afraid of Pennsylvania and Indiana, and he is even more afraid of Florida and Michigan. He's past being afraid of Ohio, Texas, California, Massachusets, and New Jersey.

Obama's dishonesty this recent statement of his is striking. Does anyone doubt that the calls form Leahy and others were orchestrated by the Obama campaign?

Obama has routinely and deliberately lied throughout this campaign--as in his initial and repeated asssertions that he hadn' t heard Wright's statements, as in his "professorship," as in the bill he told Iowans he passed to stop Exelon (which never passed), as in claiming credit for work on immigration reform in the Senate, as in claiming that he had never discussed the property with Rezko, as in claiming to hit the wrong voting button six times, etc.

Frankly, Obama sometimes looks a little pathological to me--he lies awfully easily, and he seems not to expect to be called on it. He also has the glib sense of being able to intuit and then to say exactly what the other person wants to hear. It is not a sign of character or of psychological health when someone is too practiced at that.

Take a look at Todd Spivak's piece at houstonpress.com. It will tell you alot about Obama's concealed character traits:

www.houstonpress.com/.../full

pccostello, I'm going to offer you a bet.

I bet Obama wins PA.  That's right, wins.  If he loses, then I agree to wear a HRC button for a day.  You have to agree to stop whining about Obama and spinning impossible HRC scenarios.

Deal?

I would think a Hillary supporter would have a little more self-respect than to complain about the dishonesty of any other candidate. I mean, really. Then again, I would have thought it was beneath the dignity of any adult to argue that someone who teaches college courses is not a professor. I suppose when one sells out to the "meaning of 'is' is" Clinton dynasty, considerations like the plain meaning of  the English language have to fall by the wayside.

Isn't this an opening for HRC to leave the race with pride? I cannot imagine that the remaining superdelegates will allow the fight to continue until the convention. In order to prevent this, they will call Obama, who has a lead in both delegates and the popular vote, the winner and HRC can leave the race claiming that she lost in an undemocratic way and therefore she did not really lose. I think HRC sub-consciously knows that she won't win but cannot give up; she keeps on saying and doing weird things, such as with the Bosnia sniper-fire story and the right-wing media crap.

PCCostello - I realize you are a Clinton partisan, but please please don't repeat the "professor" spin.  No one takes you seriously. That's a wholely manufactured controversy. You just don't like Obama. We get it.

BSD

PC. That Houston Press piece was just garbage. It was more about the poor travails of the writer than about Obama.

But Hilary has to say this, so you can't read too much into it. If a politician even hints that they are prepared to give up the race, then they have given up the race. They must claim to be fully committed. So I think this statement says nothing at all about what Hillary will actually do when the math becomes impossible for her.

Hillary must know that there is only the remotest chance of her catching Obama in pledged delegates by the end of the primaries -- only a total collapse by Obama would do that. So even if she said she would drop out in that case, it would be an admission of defeat.

I don't get why the Obama supporters want to shut this down... and I am an Obama supporter.  It would be a bad mistake now.  Let HRC lose fair and square.  Let it go on until the convention if necessary... Obama can run against McCain once the primaries are over and it is clear that HRC hasn't caught up in the pledged delegates.

The longer this goes on, the sillier and worse she sounds.  There will be more of it.  Let her self destruct and ruin her chances to be re-elected as senator from NY in 2012.  She can't help herself folks.  The Tulza episode was just a prelude.  Sit back.  Watch the show.  And don't hyper ventilate so much.  Let the HRC supporters claim that "professor = Tulza."  They are getting as funny as she is.  From a former assistant professor, adjunct professor and adjunct lecturer in several institutions who then left academia for the real world because academia was about the narcissism of small differences to quote Kissinger, I believe it was.

Hey, Clintonites did you know that Judges Posner, Easterbrook and Woods are all also "senior adjunct lecturers" at the Univ of Chicago Law School... go tell any one of them, or their colleagues, or the alums, that such title doesn't make them "professors" at the Law School.  Or that while they, bearfing that title, maybe be real professors, Barak Obama, bearing the same title, is not.  Hillarious!  All puns  and misspelling intended.

dear all:

you guys might take a look at this Michael Barone piece projecting that Clinton may win the popullar vote by June 3rd:

www.usnews.com/.../projection-clinton-wins-popular-vote-obama-wins-delegate-count.html

And the difference between saying that you "serve" as a professor, generically speaking,  and that you are a Professor, in the sense of rank and appointment, is extremely real in academia. If Obama listed that on a resume, when in fact he was a "senior lecturer," that would be fraud and would get you fired at any university in the world. It may not mean much to the average voter, but it is another lie--if that is what he did.

and finally--isn't it at least a little embarrasing to be claiming you are ahead when you are running from the voters in several major states and relyig on caucus victories to get the nomination?

annabella--

Notice they list themselves as "senior adjunct lecturers" rather than as "professors." That is because they are being honest. Your examples actually make the case that Obama is being dishonest. If Obama said he was a "Senior lecturer" or that he "taught" at U of C, that would be fine. But he didn't.

Annabella2, as someone who was also an "adjunct professor" but who still works in academia, I'll try not to hold your comment about the "real world" against you, especially when I pay my taxes and mortgage like everyone else in the "real world."

Be that as it may, in case anyone else besides pccostello is still fooled by this bit of nonsense, just go to every student's favorite online crib sheet:

en.wikipedia.org/.../Professor

PC - This Wikipedia quote really says it all From the Wikipedia professor entry

<blockquote>

For example, in the UK and Australia it is a legal title conferred by a university denoting the highest academic rank, whereas in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, individuals often use the term professor as a polite form of address for any lecturer, or researcher employed by a college or university, regardless of rank.

</blockquote>

Your candidate just imagined a whole incident with sniper fire and running to the car and you are gonna claim Obama is the one with honesty problem?

pccostello, the simple truth is you are a "professor" if your institution says you are.  Period.

The University of Chicago has said that Obama was a professor.  That settles it.  Period.  Efforts to say otherwise don't even rise to the level of nitpicking.  There is not nit here to pick.

Hint: don't go after Obama for his title at University of Chicago, go after him for...dun dun dun....a supposed relationship with evil, libertarian Richard Posner, who thinks babies should be bought and sold on the free market. "He worked there for over a decade!" the pundits say. "How could he not have heard Posner make those controversial statements! He should have left the University."

Or go to the economics school and pick any right-wing nutjob you can find. Kitchen sink! Guilt by association! If you know a commie (or hardcore libertarian), you *are* a commie!

The egghead must die!

notice how pc never addressed the snipergate incident. Not even she can spin her way around that one. Well at least she provides good cannon fodder.

pc, are you going to vote for McCain if Obama wins the nomination. I am a swing voter who would consider voting for him because I agree with him on many issues, but since you view Obama as a pathological liar will you vote for McCain? Will you endorse him?

PC- there's no way that Obama can win with you. if he says she should drop out, you'll be screaming bloody murder. He says she shouldn't and you still are upset.

And the professor thing is a real bs thing. From someone who works in academia, trust me, it's not that big a deal. U of C refers to him as a professor, he's a professor. This isn't Britain.

...Let HRC lose fair and square.  Let it go on until the convention if necessary...

Amen to that: all the calls otherwise are just scantimonious whining.

Actually, I like this statement from Hillary, even with respect to the general interests of the Democratic party above and beyond her own candidacy.  If the perception is that she is being force out by party big wigs it may engender feelings of disenfranchisement by her core supporters and democrats in Michigan and Florida.  That's bad news in the general election.  However if she is allowed to give it the good ole college try and come up short (as is likely) then the party can come to an amicable agreement on Michigan/Florida and these voters will feel like she simply lost fair and square.  

Anybody who thinks Obama wasn't lying when he and his campaign pushed the "Professor" line hasn't been following this campaign.  Such a person certainly hasn't been following the campaign on this site.

Way before the Hillary people made this an issue, Marty Peretz wrote one of his characteristic fulsome praise-the-Messiah pro-Obama blog pieces.  Among other things, he suggested that Obama, as a former law professor at Chicago, was eminently qualified to do all sorts of things.  This was not the first (or even the second) time I had heard this argument from Marty and the Obama supporters.  I casually mentioned that Obama wasn't a professor, that the claim was ridiculous in light of what an actual "professor" is in an elite academic environment, and that Peretz knew the blatant falsehood of the claim (after all, he knows EVERYTHING about the elite academe, right?) but didn't have the moral integrity call Obama on it.

After I commented, I received dozens of responses from people (many who were Obama supporters) who said, "Wow!  I didn't know he was just a lecturer.  That's a huge difference.  Why are they suggesting otherwise?"

So yes.  I will continue to call Obama on the Professor lie, because I think it's uniquely deceptive and  cynical, for it assumes that the general population is too ignorant of higher education to care ... even under present circumstances in which the Messiah has been caught in a blatant lie.  

Gore. Now More Than Ever. Winner of HRC-BHO gets VP slot.

Ah, tep . . . from your lips (or keypad) to God's ears . . .

"Uniquely deceptive and cynical"?  Man, and some people on this site think Frank Rich went over the top!

Um, ever heard of Jimmy Carter, "nuclear engineer"?

Apparently, teaching seminars (that's right, advanced seminars) on civil rights law at the University of Chicago is, in your book, the same as some adjunct lecturer of remedial English at a community college.

Beyond laughable . . .

Gore had all of last year to jump into the fray - yet chose not to - and now it is too late.  But Gore, like Hillary Clinton, is a retrogade candidate - a candidate for those who seek to relive the past more than look to the future. Moreover, we should not select a nominee merely because we are sympathetic to the fact they previously lost an election they should have won easily.

Guys,

If Obama said he was a small "p" professor, or that he "taught" constitutional law, that would be fine--that is a generic use of the term. If he said he was  Professor of Constitutional Law, that is a lie. If it were on his resume, it would get him fired at any university in the United States.

Nturner -

You write: "Way before the Hillary people made this an issue, Marty Peretz wrote one of his [..] praise-the-Messiah pro-Obama blog pieces.  [..] I casually mentioned that Obama wasn't a professor, that the claim was ridiculous [..]. After I commented, I received dozens of responses from people (many who were Obama supporters) who said, "Wow!  I didn't know he was just a lecturer.  That's a huge difference.  Why are they suggesting otherwise?"'

I googled it - and the thread you're talking about is this one: blogs.tnr.com/.../his-mother-s-son.aspx

But it seems like you're as inclined to telling tall tales as Hillary herself.

First off, you only "casually mentioned" the fact if you define "casually mentioning" as "writing a 13-line paragraph about it that starts off with, 'I am sick of hearing how Barack Obama was a Constitutional Law Professor at Chicago.'"

Second, you "received dozens of responses from people" only if you define "dozens" as.. four. Because that's how many responses you received.

Third, many of those responses were from "Obama supporters" only if you define lymon1, jm_rice, ChanRobt, or jacobt1 as Obama supporters. Because those were the four posters who responded. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's three Hillary supporters and a conservative, no? Not one Obama supporter among 'em, let alone "many".

Fourth, of those four responses, just two came down to "Wow!  I didn't know he was just a lecturer.  That's a huge difference.  Why are they suggesting otherwise?". Jacobt1's and ChanRobt's. Jm_rice just made light of the issue, while lymon1 posted mostly to "ask you to reconsider".

So, let's recap: when you write that you casually mentioned that Obama wasn't a professor, and that this post of yours got dozens of responses, many from Obama supporters, that all roughly came down to, "Wow!  I didn't know that, thank you for pointing that out!"; what you mean is that you posted an agressive diatribe about it that got all of four responses, none from Obama supporters, of which only two praised you in said manner.

I think that makes you the perfect Hillary surrogate :-)

If Hillary DID quit at this juncture, it would be the strangest capitulation in American political history.

Despite what the idiotic conventional wisdom keeps saying, she ain't been beat yet.  And extrapolating the "impossibility" of her winning is ridiculous.  Politics is not straight math in a primary.  Not till the electoral college kicks in.  And we've seen that even then...

There are ten states, several of them big ones to go.  And, Obama, being pretty much an unknown man-- except what he's chosen to tell us in his books-- has miles to go.  And plenty of time for a worse than Rev Wright to fall out of his closet.

Hillary has a lot sweat and grief invested in this campaign.  Her supporters do, too, along with multi millions of dollars.  She owes it to them, as well as to herself not to quit until she's beat.

If she quit now, historians would be pondering for decades why she gave up when she was so close.

And, I ain't saying this because I want her to be president.  Far from it.

Hey, tepluk, I'm with you.  Put Gore in.  That stiff, phony, wuss across from McCain might be even easier than either of the current underqualified candidates to beat.

It seems to me that (rather like Kerry) Gore's stiffness is exactly what makes him not phony.  He's uncomfortable with counterfeit camaraderie, as any normal person would be.

I will also reiterate, until the last twenty-ought years, it was at the convention, or at least well into the race before the the candidate was either clear or chosen.

Robert Kennedy was killed in June, right after the California primary.  Reagan fought and won at the convetion of '80 after fighting and losing at the convetion of '76.  Jimmy Carter fought Teddy in '80.  

In recent years, the networks had been threatening to no longer cover the conventions because they were just P.R. coronations.

Now we are back to what is historically the norm.  And everybody is whining because nobody in the United States except me and one other guy here reads or knows any history.

The effing American amnesia about the past just drives me up a pole.  Is everyone else born yesterday?

irony, you are a good man and your loyalty is admirable.

Anyone who can find a way to defend Al Gore's peculiar personality is a friend, indeed.  Where were you $50 million ago when he needed it?

I dunno, maybe because I too can be a somewhat stiff and awkward person at times -- not having the hail-fellow-well-met gene, I guess.  I empathize a little, and also with McCain, who I think is not so unlike Kerry and Gore in that respect.

I find the easy smile and hand on the shoulder phonier -- but it's difficult because phoniness is a rather subtle thing that doesn't always follow on from a practiced front of social warmth.

Phoniness is something like a basic and almost pathological disjunction between declared and actual personality and values.

pccostello, Obama did teach constitutional law--scare quotes are not necessary.

He also taught a seminar on race and law.  I read one lengthy and positive account of the course, but have been unable to track it down again, even with google, for some reason.  I have a vague memory, however, that it was on Salon or Slate or some such.

If you do google around, however, you will quickly discover that many of Obama's students frequently refer to him as "professor."  Some gave glowing reviews, others were less positive--pretty much what you would expect.

Found it.  DailyKos (of course):

www.dailykos.com/.../479504

Also, for reviews of Obama as prof, some positive, some less so, see

blogs.wsj.com/.../office-hours-with-professor-obama

(you have to wade through some dreck among the comments, but those that actually deal with the subject--Obama as law prof--are interesting and revealing, both the positive and the not-so-positive)

irony, McCain is restrained.  But, he's a guy's guy.  And, he's famous for his ironic wit.  And, a flash of temper that reminds you he doesn't suffer fools too well.

All this as opposed to the American twit tradition to which Gore and Kerry belong.

I can tell from your posts, irony, that you're cooler than either of those guys.

"... some adjunct lecturer of remedial English at a community college."

Actually, the common etiquette is to refer even to an adjunct lecturer of a basic subject at a community college as "professor." That's how a polite person addresses a college-level teacher, and that's how the ordinary use of the English language describes a person who teaches college-level courses. If Hillary Clinton spent one semester as a guest lecturer teaching a single seminar course at the Kennedy School, she could say she had been a professor of whatever she taught at Harvard and nobody outside a few status-conscious academics would bat an eyelash.

ChanRobt, being 51 years old and living in a constant state of fibrofog these days, I still remember the all night into the wee hours of the morn conventions of '68, '72, '76 up to the '90's when the networks decided no one was watching and put the conventions on at 10 PM for a keynote speech or the nominee's address.  Miss the old days of watching as each plank of the platform was voted on, and listening mightily for my father's door to open as he got up for work and had to turn off the TV till he left, less he scream at me to go to bed.  Damn it was fun.

Being a newly registered Democrat after 32 years as a Republican (local political expediency), I'm at the point where after the PA primary is over, I'm registering as "No Party" and forgetting the whole thing.  The Dems and Reps are two sides of the same coin and both parties disgust me.

Also, since I'm adding my $0.02 all in one shot:  A. Let Hillary stay in the race to the convention, the Hill and Bill show is getting as funny to watch as The Daily Show.  Neither of them can tell the truth to save their lives.  and  B.  To settle the question of whether Obama was a Professor or not lets all go to hillaryclinton.com to see if her campaign has dredged up an old Kindergarten essay of his saying that if he couldn't become a President, he'd want to be a Professor at U of C Law School some day.  I'm sure their spies can find something to that effect.  What a crapstorm over nothing!

Historian1956, I share your pain.