Forbes says Angela Merkel is the most powerful woman in the world for the year 2007. She started out as a scientist like Margaret Thatcher. As Chancellor of Germany, Merkel has been mostly successful and currently enjoys a 75% approval rating. Forbes says...

[Merkel] recently urged China to respect the rules of international trade during a three-day trip to the country, a visit that sought to improve trade ties between the world's third and fourth largest economies. Merkel said she raised the issues of human rights, trade, environmental protection and China's rampant copyright piracy. During her second G-8 summit, Merkel got the disparate parties to stick to the agenda: combating climate change and poverty. As rotating head of the European Union, Merkel lead the way in forging a new European treaty to govern the often-unruly 27-member bloc. Domestically, despite raising taxes (at a time when countries increasingly enact pro-growth flat taxes).http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/11/biz- 07women_Angela-Merkel_34AH.html

Currently Germany has achieved a five-year low in unemployment and annual GDP growth is robust. Merkel promoted protectionism by backing Germany's plans to block takeovers of German companies by foreign government investors. In 2007, Merkel was also President of the European Council. Explaining the reasons for her success Merkel said. "I tend not to jump to quick conclusions. I prefer to go over things carefully to see where the traps could be lurking."

Men's preference for Obama was 3% greater than women's preference for Clinton. However, women had 16% more voting power than men which increases Clinton's popularity. White voters (men and women) preferred Clinton. White women preferred Clinton by 26%! The MSM constantly says 90-95% of Black voters prefer Obama but when I calculated the data from primaries I found that Black women and men voted for Obama 82% and 87% respectively. Among Hispanics, Clinton is much more popular than Obama leading him by 35% among women and 17% among men.

Based upon accounts I have heard, it seems Asian and Jewish voters overwhelmingly prefer Clinton. Apparently Blacks are the only major ethnic/racial demographic that prefers Obama. There is some evidence that Obama's Black heritage is a reason for his popularity among Blacks. For example, I read accounts in the media in which Black people have stated that Obama's race is the main reason they are voting for him. And also more than 80% of Blacks consistently vote for Obama regardless of region, culture and other factors. So, if Obama had not run for president, then it is likely that Clinton would have won the nomination a long time ago since Blacks used to overwhelmingly favor her perhaps because the Clintons greatly improved the quality of living for Blacks during the 90's.

But the main story now is that non-Black voters overwhelmingly favor Clinton and that increases her chances of winning the general election because the general election includes a much larger percentage of non-Black voters than the Democratic nomination elections. Since Clinton has consistently won an overwhelming majority of Hispanic and White voter support and has a huge lead in swing states, it is clear she is the strongest general election candidate.

It is impossible to adequately address why some male and female HRC supporters do not want to support Obama if he becomes the nominee without addressing the hate speech his campaign inspired and has done almost nothing to stop.

A few examples of hate speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke64670Gk Z8

It is ludicrous to assume that the Obama supporters can viciously attack women and girls for months, vicously attack our gender, and then assume that we will be happy to support Obama. That's not logical and although both sides have some supporters who are prejudiced, the direction of prejudice apparently is almost entirely one way:from the Obama supporters towards the HRC supporters.

Obama must address the extreme hate against women his campaign has fueled, he must apologize for the abuse his supporters inflicted on women  and girls, and he must take concrete actions to stop the hate speech in order to even begin to heal the wounds his supporters have inflicted on people who happen to be born female.

"I am sure that every one of my colleagues - Democrat, Republican, and Independent - agrees with that statement. That in the voting booth, every one is equal." ~ Barbara Boxer, U.S. Senator from CA

When the Rules and Bylaws Committee meets tomorrow they should discuss the discrepancy between how states were treated which favored one or another candidate in the polls. It is curious that the two states where Clinton was rated highest in the polls, Florida and Michigan, were punished but I recall that Obama polled high in the three states (up until the time near the election in New Hampshire) that received a waiver.  It is odd that states that heavily favored Clinton were punished while states that had favored her competitor were given waivers even though all five states broke Rule 11.A.  There can be no fair solution unless all five states are treated the same.  The integrity of the Rules and Bylaws decision tomorrow will be based on whether all five states are treated the same.

Hillary Clinton is the first woman candidate with a good chance of becoming president.  For centuries American women have struggled to free ourselves from subjugation.  We have achieved some success but there is a long way to go.  For example, most U.S. slaves are women and girls. Females have much less political, economic and social power than males. It is disturbing that of the five states that broke the DNC schedule rule the two states that favored the only woman candidate were punished twice as severely as standard yet the three states that favored a male candidate were given a waiver. I'm not stating that sexism is the only reason this happened but it is reasonable to assume sexism could have played a part in the DNC's decision to favor a male candidate over a female candidate because there is no logical reason why the two states that favored a woman were punished in an extreme and unusual manner while the states that had favored the male candidate were given a waiver. And whether there was conscious sexism or not, the result was that a woman's historic campaign that helped women's equality was treated unfairly and harmed in a way that benefited her male competitor. Thus, Clinton's efforts to ensure voting rights are not just for the rights of Florida and Michigan to be treated as equal to other states, but also for women to be treated as equal to men.

Over a million people in Florida and Michigan gave Hillary Clinton a vote to help her become the Democratic nominee and President of the United States. These voters decided Clinton was the best of all the candidates.  They believe Hillary Clinton should lead our country.

Florida
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primari es/results/state/#val=FL

Michigan
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primari es/results/state/#val=MI

"Personally, I believe that our American system works as long as you participate in it. You must vote and make your voice heard. Otherwise you will be left out."
- Mari-Luci Jaramillo

The Democrats are trying to resolve one of the biggest denials of voting rights in our country's history.  Over two million votes offered during the Florida and Michigan primaries are awaiting their destination.  The votes might go to their intended recipient or they might be thrown away.

The DNC voting rules are frequently revised and they have been revised this election season, but this essay is regarding the voters themselves.  A vote is a gift to a candidate.  Voting in an election is like going to the post office and mailing a gift package. When I do that I write the name of the person I'm giving the gift to on the box and I trust that the post office will deliver it to the lucky recipient. Likewise, when people go to vote they trust that their vote will be delivered to the person who they gave it to.

There has been much discussion about Florida and Michigan having moved their state election day, but little discussion about the other three states that also moved their election day. Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina moved their election day in violation of DNC rules yet those states were given waivers. All states that broke the rule of moving their primary day should be treated the same.  Thus, the only fair solution to the Florida/Michigan seating problem is to give them waivers just like the other states got. Treating Florida and Michigan in a fair manner in accordance with how the other states were treated would send a powerful message of unity which the Democrats need now in order to get enough voter support to win the general election.

The specific rule stating what primary schedules are allowed is Rule 11.A. The rule that cites penalties for states that move their election day out of bounds is Rule 20.C.1.a. The penalties are a 50% reduction of pledged delegates and a 100% reduction of superdelegates. So, according to the rules five states would lose half their delegates and all their superdelegates. But that's not what happened. Instead, the two states with the most electoral votes and are crucial for the Democrats to win the general election were punished more severely than Rule 20.C.1.a specifies, while the other three states were given no punishment even though all five states violated the same rule (11.A).

If you also believe Florida and Michigan should be treated fairly the following is the link to write a letter to the DNC:
http://www.democrats.org/page/s/contacti ssues

It was 1967 and Kathrine Switzer was the only woman running in the Boston Marathon. Suddenly a race official tried to push her off the track because she was a woman.

Photo of sexism at the running track:
http://www.thefinalsprint.com/images/200 7/04/switzer_boston.jpg

Now when the first viable woman presidential candidate is running in the Democratic race some people are trying to push her out.  For example, Eric Boehlert reported that never in the history of the United has the press ganged up against one candidate to drop out of the race as they have done to Hillary Clinton:
http://mediamatters.org/columns/20080430 0001