Clinton machine disenfranchises Obama voters in NH and the MSM yawns.

For the purposes of clarity on this post let's define some terminology.

A poll watcher is a person certified by a party, campaign or other organization who is usually found inside a polling location on an election day for the purposes of "observing". The placement of these folks (dependent on state law) is usually for one of two purposes: 1. to ensure that election law is followed and no ineligible persons are allowed to vote (this role is sometimes referred to as a challenger) 2. to ensure that all persons are allowed to vote with no impediments or obstacles.

A poll book holder is a person certified by a party, campaign or other organization who is usually found inside or near a polling location on election day for the purpose of monitoring and improving voter turnout by maintaining a list of identified partisans or favorable voters. This list (wagon book, tear sheet, strike list) is checked several time a day and run to a centralized call center where voters who have not yet shown up are called.

Ok, everyone got that? Good.

It seems that there are some hard feelings in NH over some questionable activity by the Clinton campaign in NH.

"Lasky was also involved in the attempt by Clinton officials to remove
Obama volunteers who had been sent to many polling places on primary day to
check off the names of voters as they arrived so that the campaign's get out the
vote workers would know which of their supporters had and hadn't voted. Clinton
volunteers and local lawyers acting on behalf of the campaign demanded in
Nashua, Concord and at least one other town that poll moderators ban the Obama volunteers from the polls, saying that their presence violated a state law
stating that only the state party chairmen can delegate people to monitor the
polls."

So you understand what happened here, the smart yet cynical folks at the Clinton campaign make a very calculated decision. They looked at their polling and saw that Obama was going to do better with new, independent and younger voters. So they made a crafty move, they used an obscure state law and argued the nuance to have Obama's poll book holders thrown out of precincts. Why do that? The people who need more of the GOTV push are those new, independent and younger voters so the Clinton team tried to throw a wrench into Obama's turnout effort. At the end of the day it probably did not matter based on the historic turnout but for a moment imagine a world where the press treated Republicans and Democrats equally...

Can you imagine if the MSM treated this story like they would in a general election with the GOP vs. Democrats? Let me take a deep breath and imagine...a white candidate used lawyers to kick out get-out-the-vote workers for a black candidate??? Credit to Alec MacGillis from the Washingtonpost.com for putting this up. I just am blown away that they got away with this without more media scrutiny and angry at the HUGE double standard. Had the Clinton campaign been Republicans they would have had a firestorm of public criticism and media would have been breathlessly reporting this story 24/7. Al Sharpton would be leading a march, the ALCU would be filing lawsuits, Henry Waxman would hold congressional hearings and somehow Karl Rove would be responsible. Amazing.