See previous: !Fred

Below the fold:

• Campaign: Hillary Clinton Won't Skip Iowa Caucuses
• Recent headlines threaten Edwards' main campaign theme
• Flashback video: Edwards pledges unity throughout this “war on terrorism”
• Michelle Malkin, Truther?
• Look who's kissing Kos's ring
• Hillary Clinton Campaign Memo Proposes Skipping Iowa Caucuses
• Rudy, the mayor of Sanctuary City
• John Edwards Calls War on Terror Bush's 'Bumper Sticker' Slogan

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Campaign: Hillary Clinton Won't Skip Iowa Caucuses 

NEW YORK —  Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton won't skip the Iowa caucuses to focus on other contests in the nomination fight for the White House, her campaign told FOX News on Wednesday.

Clinton's campaign was responding to an Associated Press story about a memo written by a campaign aide reportedly pushing her to bypass the Iowa caucuses. The campaign acknowledges that it has discussions and debates about tactics and strategy, but insists Clinton is committed to competing in Iowa.

Clinton plans to be in Iowa the next three weekends for campaign events and has 10 offices operating in the state, according to the campaign.

A deputy campaign manager on Clinton's campaign wrote a memo this week making the case for New York senator to focus her efforts elsewhere, according to a the AP report.

The report says the memo by Mike Henry is a sign of division among the New York senator's strategic advisers. It was described generally by two senior Clinton advisers who, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was little chance the senator would take his advice.

Harold Ickes, a top Clinton strategist, said the campaign is studying various options for dealing with the rush of nomination contests in early 2008, including bypassing Iowa, but he said the senator was determined to continue her Iowa campaign. ...

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Recent headlines threaten Edwards' main campaign theme

Democrat John Edwards has eloquently established his credentials as an advocate for the poor with a presidential campaign focused on the devastating effects of poverty in America. But the former North Carolina senator's populist drive has hit a series of troubling land mines: a pair of $400 haircuts, a $500,000 paycheck from a hedge fund, and now a $55,000 payday for a speech on poverty to students at UC Davis.

The problem now facing the Democratic presidential candidate is whether the pileup of headlines, including the latest regarding hefty fees from university speeches reported Monday by The Chronicle, threatens to obliterate Edwards' dominant campaign theme. The former senator, who has been portrayed as the champion of the poor and the son of a humble mill worker, now faces the possibility that voters will have a different image: that of a millionaire trial lawyer who talks one way and lives another. ....

Flashback video: Edwards pledges unity throughout this “war on terrorism”
Allahpundit

From October 2001, in response to a question from O’Reilly about the war widening to Iran, Syria, Libya, the Sudan — and Iraq, in the person of Saddam Hussein.

You can thank Patrick Ishmael and the squad at News Buckit for digging it up. Silky’s pronouncement this morning that the term “war on terror” is nothing more than a “bumper sticker” is getting lots of attention, but I’m not sure why. He made his opinion on the matter crystal clear weeks ago at the debate and he’s shown before how far he’s willing to go to pander to the nutroots (among whom this sort of thing is received wisdom), ...

Michelle Malkin, Truther?

A theory so stupid I wouldn't even mention it but for the possibility you might run across it somewhere else and wonder what's really going on. Check out SeeDubya's post here, then Michelle's here, then Allahpundit's here.

Look who's kissing Kos's ring
Michelle Malkin

Democrat presidential candidates are doing the nutroots tango. Heading to the YearlyKos Convention in Chicago this August: Edwards, Obama, and Richardson. Here's the Kos press release published today:

MAY 23, 2007—YearlyKos Convention organizers announced today that Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Barack Obama, and Gov. Bill Richardson confirmed their participation in a Presidential Leadership Forum to be held August 4 in Chicago. Confirmations from other candidates are forthcoming. ...

Hillary Clinton Campaign Memo Proposes Skipping Iowa Caucuses 

NEW YORK —  Hillary Rodham Clinton's deputy campaign manager wrote a memo this week making the case for the Democratic presidential candidate to bypass the Iowa caucuses and focus on later contests in the nomination fight.

The memo by Mike Henry is a sign of division among the New York senator's strategic advisers. It was described generally by two senior Clinton advisers who, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was little chance the senator would take his advice.

Harold Ickes, a top Clinton strategist, said the campaign is studying various options for dealing with the rush of nomination contests in early 2008, including bypassing Iowa, but he said the senator was determined to continue her Iowa campaign.

"Every campaign games out different scenarios and this is one scenario," he said. "The campaign is moving in Iowa, is going to stay in Iowa and Mrs. Clinton is very dedicated to winning the state."

The memo was written as a new poll suggests Clinton is trailing in Iowa. The Des Moines Sunday Register survey of likely Democratic caucus goers puts former Sen. John Edwards ahead in Iowa with 29 percent of the Democratic vote, compared to 23 percent for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and 21 percent for Clinton. ...

Fascinating. IIRC Mad Howie's campaign met its Waterloo in Iowa, in no small part because he badmouthed the Iowa caucus system.  Now Shrillery's gonna blow the state off altogether?

Rudy, the mayor of Sanctuary City
Don Surber

“I believe the anti-immigration movement in America is one of our most serious public problems.” — Rudy Giuliani, Oct. 10, 1996.

“‘’We need to know everyone who’s in the United States who comes here from a foreign country. That has to be the goal of our immigration law. If you make that the objective of your law, you will clear up a lot of the confusion that presently exists both in our present immigration law and in what Congress is trying to do right now, which kind of goes in 10 different directions without any central focus.'’ — Rudy Giuliani in a press release today. ...

Now I will grant you that over 11 years I have changed a position or two. I even changed political parties.

But Rudy has a lot of nerve complaining.

On his watch as mayor, New York City remained a Sanctuary City that forbid its police from ratting out “undocumented workers” — illegal aliens — to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

And Giuliani now is calling for ID cards and the like? How would this be enforced? Under mayoral Executive Order 124, cops in NYC would not be allowed to ask for such an ID. ...

Rudy, you got some 'splaining to do.

John Edwards Calls War on Terror Bush's 'Bumper Sticker' Slogan 

NEW YORK —  Democratic White House hopeful John Edwards, in a major foreign policy speech Wednesday, minimized the Bush administration's War on Terror as nothing more than a "bumper sticker slogan" used to justify the war in Iraq and "bludgeon political opponents."

"It is now clear that George Bush's misnamed 'War on Terror' has backfired — and is now part of the problem," Edwards told the Council of Foreign Relations in New York. "The War on Terror is a slogan designed only for politics, not a strategy to make America safe. It's a bumper sticker, not a plan."

Edwards proposed foreign policy changes from the direction taken by the Bush administration, calling on Congress not to back down to White House pressure for a bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without requiring a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces. Congressional leaders said Tuesday that they are close to a deal that would fund the wars without a timetable for withdrawal.

Lets give this dumb ass a country to run, shall we?

Check out Don Surber's related post here.