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Rural American Patriotism in 2008
As we head for a big battle in the historic red state of Missouri, you can't help but noticing many bumpers tatooed with these signs of the times. As we head for a big battle in the historic red state of Missouri, you can't help but noticing many bumpers tatooed with these signs o... more
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If Obama Loses in 2008 Will Bush win a 3rd Time
After all the hues American's have been through with the Bush regime, will a defeat for the democrats/progressives/independents in 2008 be a crushing blow to every Americans ability to rehabilitate a democracy in trouble. Do we really get the leaders we deserve? After all the hues American's have been through with the Bush regime, will a defeat for the democrats/progressives/independents in 200... more
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McCain rides the swiftboat express
John McCain is clearly in bed with the swiftboat group Vets For Freedom.
I would love to see how the right would react to Obama laying down with the moveon.org people.
McCain seems to get a pass on this and many other blunders from the so called "Liberal" media that dominates MSM.
Thanks to Jed Lewison from the jedreport.com for the article John McCain is clearly in bed with the swiftboat group Vets For Freedom. ... more -
Vote For Obama Cause He Looks Like Your Mamma T-Shirt Confusion
In middle America, a small general store is selling a plain white T-Shirt with the slogan "Vote for Obama Cause He Looks Like Your Mamma." The saying is riddled with confusion and the shop is hardly ever open. The meaning behind the phrase remains a mystery .. What do you think? In middle America, a small general store is selling a plain white T-Shirt with the slogan "Vote for Obama Cause He Looks Like Your Mam... more
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Pet Owners Lean Towards McCain
The most recent bard against Barack Obama is that he isn't a pet owner and that will hurt him in the '08 race. The dog house is being shingled on this one .. The most recent bard against Barack Obama is that he isn't a pet owner and that will hurt him in the '08 race. The dog house is being ... more
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Ron Paul to End Campaign, Launches New Effort
Rep. Ron Paul's presidential campaign, a pugnacious, ideological crusade against big government and interventionist leanings in the Republican party, will officially end Thursday at a rally outside the Texas GOP's convention, ABC News has learned.
Paul told supporters back in March, in a video posted on his Web site, that he was "winding down" his campaign and planning a new phase to what he and fans call their "revolution."
The new phase of the revolution officially begins with a speech tonight in Houston and a Web video to be posted on his site, officially ending Paul's presidential campaign and freeing up the more than $4.7 million in campaign cash for investment in a new advocacy group, The Campaign for Liberty. Rep. Ron Paul's presidential campaign, a pugnacious, ideological crusade against big government and interventionist leanings in the Re... more -
Why the Clinton Campaign Failed
Hillary Clinton has seen a nomination that was once hers for the taking slip from her grasp. How could it have happened?
The Economist will tell you. Hillary Clinton has seen a nomination that was once hers for the taking slip from her grasp. How could it have happened? ... more -
Obama in heated conversation with Lieberman
"Senator Joe Lieberman, serving aptly as John McCain's foreign policy attack dog, jumped on a conference call with reporters on Wednesday to rip holes into Barack Obama's stance on Israel.
Playing off of Obama's address to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the Connecticut independent acknowledged that he hadn't heard the speech -- and urged for a "civil and constructive" presidential campaign -- before taking Obama to task for not being consistently tough on Iran.
"I appreciate many of the very good intentions to Israel and Israeli security that Senator Obama expressed today," said Lieberman. "I thought in the speech there was a disconnect between things Senator Obama said today, particularly in regard to Iran, and things he has said or done earlier either in the campaign or the Senate."
The crux of Lieberman's argument, however, was that Obama was putting the blame for Iran's rise in the Middle East on America's doorstep, pushing the argument that the Iraq war had strengthened Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's standing in the region and left Israel less secure.
"If Israel is in danger today it is not because of us foreign policy, which has been strongly supportive of Israel in every way," he said. "It is not because of what we have done in Iraq. It is because Iran is a fanatical, terrorist, expansionist state and has a leader and a leadership that constantly threatens to extinguish the state of Israel"."
by: Sam Stein
The Huffington Post
I'm sorry, but I want to hear about Americans, first, second and third. Our military is our responsibility. Our leaders need to consider what is a danger to the United States, when we send them off to war. This is American politics and I wish Joe Lieberman and others would work as hard for issues that will benefit Americans. "Senator Joe Lieberman, serving aptly as John McCain's foreign policy attack dog, jumped on a conference call with reporters on Wednes... more -
Hillary's Still Talking
Never say die! Although trailing by a substantial amount of delegates in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton won yet another state. She delivered this speech to supporters who have followed her throughout a long and tiresome primary campaign. Never say die! Although trailing by a substantial amount of delegates in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator ... more
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In Louisiana, McCain claims he voted for every Katrina investigation - except he d...
"During his press conference today in Baton Rouge, John McCain declared in strong terms that he's voted for every investigation of Hurricane Katrina.
The only problem, as the DNC has been pointing out to reporters, is he voted twice against Democratic proposals to investigate the levee failures.
After a local reporter at his Baton Rouge press conference asked why he voted against forming a commission to investigate the levee failures in New Orleans, McCain insisted that he supported every investigation -- and added that he was "not familiar" with what the reporter was talking about:
McCain voted against establishing a commission to investigate the levee failures, in a September 2005 party-line vote in which all Republicans voted against the Democratic proposal. He then repeated that party-line GOP vote against a similar Dem proposal in February 2006.
Late Update: McCain spokesman Brian Rogers e-mailed us the following comment:
"It doesn't bode well for Senator Obama's pledges to run a campaign of hope and change when on the first day of the general election he's launching the same tired negative attacks that the American people are so sick and tired of. As Sen. McCain said, he wasn't familiar with the specific votes the questioner was asking about. Instead he was speaking to his strong support for the Homeland Security Committee's comprehensive, bipartisan investigation of Hurricane Katrina, which was already fully underway when these other proposals were suggested"."
By Eric Kleefeld "During his press conference today in Baton Rouge, John McCain declared in strong terms that he's voted for every investigation of Hur... more -
Bill Maher Defends Obama
Bill Maher defends Barrack Obama against people who try and throw dirt on his name for stupid reasons.
WARNING: This video contains adult language. Bill Maher defends Barrack Obama against people who try and throw dirt on his name for stupid reasons. ... more -
Bill Clinton hints at end to wife's campaign
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Former president Bill Clinton dropped a hint Monday that the end might be nigh for his wife Hillary's dogged campaign for the Democratic White House nomination, according to reports.
"I want to say also that this may be the last day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind," the former president told Clinton supporters in South Dakota, ABC and NBC reported on their news websites.
"I thought I was out of politics, till Hillary decided to run. But it has been one of the greatest honors of my life to go around and campaign for her for president," he added at the start of his stump speech.
Other reports suggested that in the face of her rival Barack Obama's overwhelming lead, the New York senator is taking stock of whether to fight on beyond Tuesday's final primaries.
The former first lady's campaign announced that she would hold an election night "celebration" in her home state of New York, not in the final voting states of Montana or South Dakota.
The Politico website reported that far-flung members of Clinton's travelling staff had been summoned back to New York for Tuesday evening and told their roles on the campaign are ending.
"The move is a sign that the campaign is beginning to shed -- at least -- some of its staff," the report said.
According to New York newspaper Newsday, Clinton is to huddle with advisers and her husband at her home in Chappaqua to monitor the final results and decide whether and how to end her campaign.
"The only real counsel to Hillary is Bill; it's not a wide circle, so we're not sure what they'll do," Newsday quoted one of Clinton's top supporters in New York as saying.
Senior Clinton advisor Harold Ickes said her camp was still making a case to "superdelegates," the top party officials who have a free vote at August's nominating convention, that she was the best potential president.
"We do not believe that by midnight tomorrow that either candidate will have the new magic number," he told MSNBC.
"We're continuing to press Hillary Clinton's case to the uncommitted," he said, shrugging off Bill Clinton's reported remarks.
Obama's campaign says he needs 43 more delegates to reach the nomination winning line of 2,118. The number was raised following a compromise reached Saturday on the status of renegade primaries in Michigan and Florida.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Former president Bill Clinton dropped a hint Monday that the end might be nigh for his wife Hillary's dogged campai... more -
McCain's radical foreign policy
John Mccain's foreign policy is called "the most radical idea put forward by a major candidate for the presidency in 25 years" by the Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria. John Mccain's foreign policy is called "the most radical idea put forward by a major candidate for the presidency in 25 years" by the ... more
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I knew JFK, says Gore Vidal, and believe me Obama’s the better leader
Gore Vidal, the writer and long-time Clinton supporter, tells why Hillary is insane to keep on fighting
by: Melvyn Bragg
At 82, Gore Vidal has reached an enviable position: he is an influential man of letters, a political activist, a scion of the New World aristocracy and a friend of the powerful and famous, including the Clintons.
So what does he think of Hillary Clinton’s stated intention to fight on to the bitter end for the Democratic presidential nomination? The reply is instant and searing: “I think her strategy is more or less insane.”
He continues: “I’d always rather liked her. She’s a perfectly able lawyer . . . But this long campaign, this daily search for the grail, has driven her crazy.”
In his view Barack Obama has won; and if the nomination is taken away from him, “I fear what our black population might do. There has never been a revolution of blacks – yet”.
As for Obama, Vidal has taken time to warm to him. “I liked the idea of him, but he never managed to get my interest. I was brought around by his overall intelligence – specifically when he did his speech on race and religion.”
In Vidal’s opinion, “he’s our best demagogue since Huey Long or Martin Luther King”.
I ask if he thinks Obama has a similar charisma to that of John F Kennedy, whom Vidal got to know because he was related to his wife, Jackie.
So much for Camelot. “But Jack had great charm,” he adds. “So has Obama. He’s better educated than Jack. And he’s been a working senator. Jack never went to the office – he wanted the presidency and his father bought it for him.”
There’s no guarantee, of course, that the Democrats will triumph later this year, even if Obama does win the nomination. Does he think Obama can beat John McCain?
His views on the man the Democratic candidate will have to beat are even more brutal than his views on Hillary: “ You could beat McCain! I’ve never met anyone in America who has the slightest respect for him. He went to a private school and came bottom of his class. He smashed up his aeroplane and became a prisoner of war, which he is trying to parlay into ‘war hero’.”
In his view, McCain is “a goddamned fool. He was on television talking about mortgages, and it was quite clear he does not know what a mortgage is. His head rattles as he walks”.
However, in Vidal’s eyes, McCain is just a symptom of the real malaise affecting America today: the cynical subversion of the US constitution. “The Bush people”, he says, “have virtually got rid of Magna Carta and habeas corpus. In a normal republic I would probably have raised an army and overthrown them. It will take a hundred years to put it all back.”
By now he has worked himself up to a crisp fury: “Those neocons, lawyers, the big corporations – worse than that, extremists – want to get rid of the great power of oversight of the executive. See what they’ll try to do to Obama. They’re crooks. They’re just gangsters. They are the enemy of the United States. There’s no such thing as a war on terrorism. It’s idiotic. There are slogans. It’s advertising, which is the only art form we’ve invented and developed. It’s lies.”
Vidal has never been less than fully engaged with the politics of his country – but he seems angrier than I have ever seen him before. This may be because he has returned to live in the States only recently, after spending more than 30 years in Italy. He seems revived and refreshed by his furious reengagement with American politics.
For him, the biggest lie has always been to keep quiet; and the best life-enhancer is to provoke, unsettle, rile – in short, to make people face the truth. He remains a rarity
Gore Vidal, the writer and long-time Clinton supporter, tells why Hillary is insane to keep on fighting by: Melvyn Bragg ... more -
Top Hillarylander mulls Obama job
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s former campaign manager and confidante, Patti Solis Doyle, and Sen. Barack Obama’s top adviser have informally discussed the former Clintonite’s going to work for the Obama campaign in the general election.
Solis Doyle’s possible hiring is a major breach not just in Clinton’s campaign but in the political universe known as “Hillaryland,” a term Solis Doyle reportedly coined after joining the Clintons in 1991 as the first lady's personal scheduler. She was forced out of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in February amid internal criticism about her spending practices and preparation for upcoming contests.
“I’ve talked to Patti throughout. I know that she wants to be helpful in a general election campaign, and we appreciate that,” Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod told Politico, declining directly to answer the question of whether he and Solis Doyle had discussed her working for the campaign.
Other Democrats familiar with their conversations said there had been informal discussions of Solis Doyle going to work for Obama after the primary formally draws to a close.
“If Barack Obama’s the nominee, I’ll do everything I can to get him elected,” Solis Doyle told Politico.
Solis Doyle, a Chicago native whose brother is an alderman there, has known Axelrod even longer than she’s known the Clintons. Both said they’d talked frequently through the course of the campaign. Solis Doyle said there had been “no real conversations” about a job, but didn’t deny the subject had been broached.
Campaigns often draw from one another’s staff after a primary ends, a move driven both by the greater demands of a general election and by the desire to unite the party.
“I expect a lot of people from the losing campaign to go to the winning campaign, and I think that’s a good idea — it’s part of the process of healing,” said Bob Shrum, who was a key adviser to John Kerry in 2004. “The way the Obama campaign runs, I think people will be integrated fairly easily.”
What’s notable about the suggestion that Solis Doyle could join Obama’s campaign is how early it comes. Clinton declared Monday that the campaign is “nowhere near over” and her loyal staff and supporters continue to reject the widespread assumption that her campaign has no chance of winning. That Solis Doyle is considering a job suggests otherwise.
There has, of course, been extensive speculation about which Clinton aides might make their way to Obama’s camp. Like Solis Doyle, top adviser Howard Wolfson is close to Axelrod, though there’s no indication that he’d consider a job.
"I intend to be working in the general election for Sen. Clinton," said Wolfson. "I find any other speculation offensive."
Obama’s campaign has also advertised for jobs in its communications office, and other Democratic operatives said he might look to hire some of Clinton’s field staffers for the general election campaign and to pick up fundraising staffers whose networks of wealthy donors could augment Obama’s formidable money machine.
Solis Doyle, for her part, would be unlikely to join the campaign in the kind of managerial role she filled for Clinton. She was forced out amid criticisms of the campaign’s management and criticized for having been chosen more for loyalty than for managerial experience. And Obama’s campaign is notable for its relatively simple organizational chart, with Axelrod and campaign manager David Plouffe clearly at the reins.
Solis Doyle, however, could also bring long relationships with many Latino lawmakers and officials, a valuable commodity since Hispanics will be a crucial constituency in the general election.
“Obviously, when this thing is done, we’re going to want to bring talented people from all over the party into the fold here,” said Axelrod. “We’re not there yet.”
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s former campaign manager and confidante, Patti Solis Doyle, and Sen. Barack Obama’s top adviser have informall... more -
Can a win in West Virginia sway superdelegates?
Even if Hillary Clinton beats Barack Obama in Tuesday’s West Virginia primary by the huge margins predicted by polls, the victory won’t go very far towards chipping away at Obama’s lead in pledged delegates in their race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
It could, however, give Clinton’s sputtering campaign one last chance to alter – or at least mute – the prevailing narrative that Obama’s nomination is inevitable.
And, perhaps more importantly, a massive margin of victory could bolster Clinton’s central argument to the superdelegates who will ultimately decide the nomination. Her campaign contends that Obama has serious problems with the blue collar and elderly whites who dominate West Virginia’s voter rolls – and who Team Clinton asserts will be key in a number of states if Democrats are to defeat presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.
So, how to know whether West Virginia is on its way to giving Clinton a narrative-changing win that will sway superdelegates, or at least prolong their decision-making process?
Politico's Kenneth P. Vogel outlines the five indicators the pros will be watching for as the results from West Virginia come in. Even if Hillary Clinton beats Barack Obama in Tuesday’s West Virginia primary by the huge margins predicted by polls, the victory won’... more -
McCain camp accuses Obama of making age an issue
John McCain’s campaign accused Barack Obama of making the presumptive Republican nominee’s age an issue after his Thursday remark that the Arizona senator was “losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination."
In an interview on CNN's "The Situation Room," Obama said that McCain's contention that Hamas wants him to be president was “offensive, and I think it's disappointing, because John McCain always says ‘I am not going to run that kind of politics.’ And to engage in that kind of smear is unfortunate, particularly because my policy toward Hamas has been no different than his.
“…So for him to toss out comments like that I think is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination. We don’t need name calling in this debate.”
McCain adviser Mark Salter immediately sent out a memo rebuking the Illinois senator for his use of words.
"First, let us be clear about the nature of Senator Obama's attack today: He used the words 'losing his bearings' intentionally, a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain's age as an issue,” Salter said. “This is typical of the Obama style of campaigning.
“We have all become familiar with Senator Obama's new brand of politics. First, you demand civility from your opponent, then you attack him, distort his record and send out surrogates to question his integrity. It is called hypocrisy, and it is the oldest kind of politics there is.” John McCain’s campaign accused Barack Obama of making the presumptive Republican nominee’s age an issue after his Thursday remark that... more -
Clinton defeats Obama in Pennsylvania primary
Hillary Rodham Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary Tuesday night, defeating Barack Obama and staving off elimination in their riveting race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The former first lady was winning 53 percent of the vote to 47 percent for her rival with 9 percent of the vote counted, and she hoped for significant inroads into Obama's overall lead in the competition for delegates to the Democratic National Convention.
Clinton scored her victory by winning the votes of blue-collar workers, women and white men in an election where the economy was the dominant concern. More than 80 percent of voters surveyed as they left their polling places said the nation was already in a recession.
Clinton won despite being outspent heavily by her rival in a six-week campaign that allowed time for intense courtship of the voters.
She showed her blue collar bona fides one night by knocking down a shot of whiskey, then taking a mug of beer as a chaser. Obama went bowling in his attempt to win over working-class voters.
The win gave Clinton a strong record in the big states as she attempts to persuade convention superdelegates to look past Obama's delegate advantage and his lead in the popular vote in picking a nominee. She had previously won primaries in Texas, California, Ohio and her home state of New York, while Obama won his home state of Illinois.
At the same time, even some of her aides conceded she is facing another likely must-win state in Indiana in two weeks time, particularly with Obama favored to carry North Carolina on the same day.
Hillary Rodham Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary Tuesday night, defeating Barack Obama and staving off elimination in their riveti... more -
YouTube - Hillary: "Huge Support" for Northern Ireland peace process
Hillary Clinton was a "huge support" to Northern Ireland Peace Process. Barack Obama agreed on his phone conversation with Irish leader. Hillary Clinton was a "huge support" to Northern Ireland Peace Process. Barack Obama agreed on his phone conversation with Irish leade... more
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Ron Paul or Barack Obama?
Information on both of the candidates that everyone, voting for both of them, should read
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2008 Presidential Race
Contributors (108)
2008 Presidential Race
