Friday, 25 May 2007
 

2007.05.25 !Fred (and assorted Dem dumbness) Roundup

See previous: Today's !Fred (and assorted Dem dumbness) Roundup

Below the fold:

• Clinton and Obama Vote No on Iraq War Funding
• Books Paint Critical Portraits of Clinton

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Clinton and Obama Vote No on Iraq War Funding
Lorie Byrd

The vote was 80-14:

Courting the anti-war constituency, Democratic presidential rivals
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama both voted against legislation that pays for the
Iraq war but lacks a timeline for troop withdrawal.

"I fully support our troops" but the measure "fails to compel the president to give our troops a new strategy in Iraq," said Clinton, a New York senator.

"Enough is enough," Obama, an Illinois senator, declared, adding that
President Bush should not get "a blank check to continue down this same, disastrous path."

Their votes Thursday night continued a shift in position for the two presidential hopefuls, both of whom began the year shunning a deadline for a troop withdrawal.

No big surprise that Obama and Clinton voted "no" to bow to their moonbat base. They had to do something to compete with Edwards' claim that the war against terrorism is just a bumper sticker slogan.

Books Paint Critical Portraits of Clinton
2 Biographies Detail Marital Strife and Driving Ambition
By Peter Baker and John Solomon, Washington Post Staff Writers

Two new books on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York offer fresh and often critical portraits of the Democratic presidential candidate that depict a tortured relationship with her husband and her past and challenge the image she has presented on the campaign trail.

The Hillary Clinton who emerges from the pages of the books comes across as a complicated, sometimes compromised figure who tolerated Bill Clinton's brazen infidelity, pursued her policy and political goals with methodical drive, and occasionally skirted along the edge of the truth along the way. The books portray her as alternately brilliant and controlling, ambitious and victimized.

The Clinton campaign has nervously awaited publication of the books for fear they would include a bombshell revelation or, at the very least, revive memories of less-savory moments in the couple's rise to power. The books, both by longtime journalists and both obtained by The Washington Post yesterday, include a number of assertions and anecdotes that could confront her campaign with unwelcome questions.

"A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton," by Carl Bernstein, reports that Clinton as first lady was terrified she would be prosecuted, took over her own legal and political defense, and decided not to be forthcoming with investigators because she was convinced she was unfairly targeted.  ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 25, 2007 at 02:30 AM in Barack Obama, Decision '08, Hillary Clinton, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 03 May 2007
 

2007.05.03 Decision '08 // Dem Stupidity Roundup
(And assorted other "Let's give 'em a country to run" topics)

See previous: 2007.05.02 Decision '08 Roundup ...

Below the fold, newest items at the top:

• Some initial post-debate thoughts
• The Obama campaign: home of the Whopper
• Obama placed under Secret Service protection
• The fix on tonight's debate

The Myth of Cuban Health Care
Fred Thompson

You might have read the stories about filmmaker Michael Moore taking ailing workers from Ground Zero in Manhattan to Cuba for free medical treatments. According to reports, he filmed the trip for a new movie that bashes America for not having government-provided health care.

Now, I have no expectation that Moore is going to tell the truth about Cuba or health care. I defend his right to do what he does, but Moore’s talent for clever falsehoods has been too well documented. Simply calling his movies documentaries rather than works of fiction, I think, may be the biggest fiction of all.

While this PR stunt has obviously been successful — here I am talking about it — Moore’s a piker compared to Fidel Castro and his regime. Moore just parrots the story they created — one of the most successful public relations coups in history. This is the story of free, high quality Cuban health care.

The truth is that Cuban medical care has never recovered from Castro’s takeover — when the country’s health care ranked among the world’s best. He won the support of the Cuban people by promising to replace Batista’s dictatorship with free elections, and to end corruption. Once in power, though, he made himself dictator and instituted Soviet-style Communism. Cubans not only failed to regain their democratic rights, their economy plunged into centrally planned poverty. ...

Read the whole thing, folks. Fred! '08! Fred! '08!

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*** Michelle's post here is well worth your time. I wish I'd realized she was blogging during the debate. (HT: Dan Riehl)

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Some initial post-debate thoughts:

How has Ron Paul passed for a Republican for so long?

Romney didn't do half bad. Still not my choice but not a major loser by any means.

I still think Hunter would make a good President but he just doesn't have what it takes to get elected.

If the Dhimms can refuse to debate on FOX couldn't the Republicans have at least insisted on a politcally neutral moderator?

I'm going to spend some time on other things, maybe even a nap, then start checking out blogger reax later.

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Too short for a good excerpt: The Obama campaign: home of the Whopper

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The fix on tonight's debate 
Paul Mirengoff

Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post's blog "The Fix" previews tonight's debate among the Republican presidential candidates. Cillizza provides his view of the stakes for each candidate and what they need to accomplish.

The stakes seem highest for Mitt Romney. The images of Giuliani and McCain are already well-formed, though they undoubtedly can use some polishing with the Republican base. Other than Romney, the other participants appear to be "pretenders." But Romney has the financial resources to contend, is not doing badly in Iowa and New Hampshire, and is flirting with double digits in the national popularity polls. Having finally built a little momentum, this is his chance to introduce himself to many Republican voters on his own terms, not in a YouTube circulated by his enemies or opponents.

Romney is smart and engaging enough to take advantage of this opportunity. However, ...

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Obama placed under Secret Service protection

(CNN) -- Illinois senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has been placed under the protection of the U.S. Secret Service, the Secret Service said Thursday.

A statement from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said he authorized the protection detail for Obama.

"As a matter of procedure, we will not release any details of the deliberations or assessments that led to protection being initiated," the statement said. "For security reasons we will not release the timing, scope or details of any protective operations."

FoxNews has more here.

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 3, 2007 at 04:51 PM in Barack Obama, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 02 May 2007
 

2007.05.02 Decision '08 // Dem Stupidity Roundup
(And assorted other "Let's give 'em a country to run" topics)

See previous: 2007.05.01 Decision '08 Roundup ...

Below the fold (newest items at the top):

• Obama Takes MySpace Page From Backer
• Obama’s pastor problem

Video: Fred! on H&C
Ian Schwartz

Sean Hannity interviewed possible Presidential candidate Fred Thompson Tuesday night. Fred said his lymphoma is a “non-factor” and he has never had an hour of pain from it. Thompson said Harry Reid is an “extremist” that is doing things that this country will regret. Fred! also went after MoveOn.org, saying they run the Democratic Party. [video links]

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Obama Takes MySpace Page From Backer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Is MySpace always mine or can it belong to someone else?

At the cost of losing 160,000 friends, Democrat Barack Obama's presidential campaign has taken over control of the MySpace page listed under his name on the popular social networking site.

The case raises questions about the campaigns' desire to control their message versus the power of voter-generated material, especially for a candidate such as Obama who has sparked unsolicited excitement on the Web.

For the past 2 1/2 years, the Obama MySpace page has been run by an Obama supporter from Los Angeles named Joe Anthony. At first, that arrangement was fine with the Obama team, which worked with Anthony on the content, promoted the link and even had the password to make changes.

But as the site exploded in popularity in recent months, the campaign became concerned about an outsider controlling the content and responses going out under Obama's name. It told Anthony it wanted him to turn it over. ...

Ben Smith has more here.

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Obama’s pastor problem
Bryan Preston

Imagine for a moment that a Republican presidential candidate claimed to have a spiritual mentor, and it turned out that that mentor preached and taught in racial overtones. Imagine the media giving that candidate, that pastor, and their relationship a pass. Imagine Andrew Sullivan not calling that candidate and his pastor “Christianists” or some other anti-religious epithet You can’t. It wouldn’t happen.

But if the candidate is a Democrat? Well, it’s happening right now.

Sen. Barack Obama attends Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. The pastor is Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a man Obama credits as his spiritual mentor. But Wright dubs the US the “United States of white America.” The church’s website is definitely black-centric and not very welcoming to anyone of other races.

The subject of Obama and Wright came up on Hannity & Colmes Monday night. ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on May 2, 2007 at 09:42 AM in Barack Obama, Fred Thompson, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 29 April 2007
 

2007.04.29 Decision '08 // Dem Stupidity Roundup
(And assorted other "Let's give 'em a country to run" topics)

See previous: 2007.04.28 Decision '08 Roundup

Below the fold (newest items at the top):

• Can The Reagan Legacy Be Rekindled?
• Ivy league Intolerance
• Obama the Neocon?
• Who's Afraid of Hillary Clinton?
• A vote for Obama as an offset against racism?
• Hillary is jeered at California convention
• Anonymous Dem Politician: Netroots can be “mean and irrational”

Carl Bernstein Prepping Unauthorized Bio on Hillary Clinton 

Drawing on a trove of private papers from Hillary Clinton’s best friend, the legendary Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein is going to publish a hard-hitting and intimate portrait of the 2008 presidential candidate, which will reveal a number of "discrepancies" in her official story.

Bernstein, who was played by Dustin Hoffman in the film "All the President’s Men," has spent eight years researching the unauthorized 640-page biography, "A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton."

“Bernstein reaches conclusions that stand in opposition to what Senator Clinton has said in the past and has written in the past,” said Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for Knopf, which publishes the book on June 19.

With the thoroughness for which he is famous, Bernstein spoke to more than 200 of Clinton’s friends, colleagues and adversaries.

*** Ed Morrissey has more here.

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[I've moved an excerpt and some comments from here to the top of this post.]

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So much for John McCain as a good "national security" President:

McCain & Coercive Interrogation
Andy McCarthy

Chris Wallace also asked Senator McCain about coercive interrogation in light of the contention by former CIA Director George Tenet that the interrogation methods used by the CIA on high-value al Qaeda detainees saved countless American lives.  (It must be noted, Tenet insists these methods did not rise to the level of torture regardless of how cavalierly the public discussion suggests otherwise.)

Here is the McCain/Wallace exchange (from a transcript of the entire McCain interview, available at FoxNews.com):

[...]

Sure, except now here is McCain in the 2005 essay he penned for Newsweek, addressing the "ticking bomb" scenario (italics is mine):

[...]

So, confronted by the do-or-die starkness of a ticking-bomb, McCain acknowledged in 2005 that it "might well" be necessary to use "extreme measures," and that so doing might in fact "save an American city or prevent another 9/11."  Was his bottom-line position that coercive interrogation doesn't work?  Of course not.  It was that such interrogation might very well work but that it would be a mistake to write an exception permitting it into our law because the exception would be abused. 

That is a perfectly respectable position — there is a serious (though beneath-the-radar) debate about whether the best way to minimize the use of coercion is (a) to regulate it tightly and prosecute all violations, or (b) categorically ban it and assume that interrogators would know enough to ignore the ban in true emergencies.  But, it is just plain bluster to argue, as McCain continues to insist, that coercion never works and he doesn't care what anyone else says.  As his answer on the ticking-bomb demonstrates, even he doesn't believe that. ...

This nation owes John McCain a lot, enough that I could almost forgive him for the BCRA fiasco, but as far as I'm concerned this is a show stopper. He's letting his own unpleasant experiences as a POW interfere with his ability to think clearly about an important Long War issue. It's one thing to point out that a uniformed military pilot shot down over enemy territory has a right to humane treatment. Trying to extend that right to the jihadis is quite another matter. I'd still vote for him over a Dhimmicrat but I sincerely hope I'm not faced with that choice.

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Ivy league Intolerance
Don Surber

A closed mind is a terrible thing to waste.

I see where a group of idiots heckled Alberto Gonzales, the U.S. attorney general, who had returned for a 25th reunion at Harvard Law School. The intolerance by these cretins shouted him down.

Once again, an Ivy League college shows no class whatsoever.

The AP story quoted this guy:

“The departure was clearly undignified,” said Thomas Becker, a second-year law student who wore the black hood and orange jumpsuit during the protest. “He looked really annoyed.”

He should be expelled for conduct unbecoming a scholar.

This is how Harvard treats guests.

Sadly, administrators at these overpriced institutions of babysitting are cowards. Consider these reports: ...

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Obama the Neocon?
Ed Morrissey

Is Barack Obama a neocon? Robert Kagan thinks so, and he makes his case in the Washington Post today:

It’s not just international do-goodism. To Obama, everything and everyone everywhere is of strategic concern to the United States. “We cannot hope to shape a world where opportunity outweighs danger unless we ensure that every child, everywhere, is taught to build and not to destroy.” The “security of the American people is inextricably linked to the security of all people.” Realists, call your doctors. ...

Some people argued in the 2004 presidential election that the war on terror needed a Democratic president to give it non-partisan status. As it turned out, the Democrats nominated a poor candidate — but Joe Lieberman may have been attractive for that purpose. Does Obama sound like he could fill Lieberman’s shoes?

Er, no. Obama has been part of the defeat-and-retreat caucus during his entire Senatorial career … all two years of it. He has consistently voted and spoken to pull out of Iraq and to run away from the very terrorists he challenges in this speech.  ...

Obama is no neocon, and I think he’d take that as a compliment. He’s also no national-security Democrat, and his idea of staying on the offense only lasts as long as no one dies as a result. War, unfortunately, means something else entirely, ...

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Just read 'em. I'm busy with other things:

• Who's Afraid of Hillary Clinton?

• A vote for Obama as an offset against racism? 

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Hillary is jeered at California convention
By Stephen Dinan

SAN DIEGO -- Over the jeers of some delegates to California Democrats' state convention yesterday who wanted her to take a tougher stand on Iraq, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said America doesn't know "half the damage" President Bush and his administration have done.

Hours later, Sen. Barack Obama, Mrs. Clinton's closest rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, had the crowd chanting in support as he promised to force an end to the war.

For the more than 2,000 delegates here in San Diego, the Iraq war remains the critical issue and a key dividing line as they size up their choices for 2008.

Mrs. Clinton, who repeatedly has blamed the president for misleading her into voting in 2002 for the resolution that authorized the war, said ["gee I wish I'd had one of my flunkies read that bill to me before we voted." -- BF]

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Anonymous Dem Politician: Netroots can be “mean and irrational”
See-Dubya

The SF Chronic looks at the swarm of blog coverage of the California Democratic Convention, and recognizes that blogs have changed the way politics are conducted.

Depite all the money they bring in, it’s not always for the best:

But one key state Democratic strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of concern for riling the netroots crowd, warns that such efforts are potentially positive and negative.

Netroots commentary can frequently be intensely personal, even “totally mean and irrational,” the strategist said, with some bloggers finding power in their ability “to assassinate political characters online.”

“It’s amplified by the anonymity, and it can be scary that it’s so irresponsible,” the insider said. “And it’s pulling the mainstream media in that direction.”

Who was it that said neither party likes their base, but the Democrats are scared of theirs? ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on April 29, 2007 at 12:08 AM in Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Moonbat Madness, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 18 April 2007
 

2007.04.18 Decision '08 Roundup

Updated from the top. Please treat this as a blog-within-a-blog, come back often, and scroll down till you hit something you saw on your last visit.

• Virginia Tech Murders Gives GOP Candidates Chance to Prove Gun Rights Credentials
• Trivializing Virginia Tech
• Edwards Campaigns on Universal Hair Care
• Look who's propping up Al Sharpton
• Gallup: Hillary’s favorable rating craters
• House GOP Gush Over Actor Fred Thompson
• [Thompson] Meet And Greet Draws 53 Members

See my last previous roundup here. I skipped a day due to the Virginia Tech massacre.

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Virginia Tech Murders Gives GOP Candidates Chance to Prove Gun Rights Credentials 

WASHINGTON —  Forget sporting a hunting rifle and camouflage flak jacket -- Republican candidates wanting to prove their credibility with the gun rights lobby may have that opportunity as the Virginia Tech murders this week begin reviving a national debate over gun laws.

"(The Republican candidates) must appeal to folks like me to get my vote. I don't expect them to be calling for further gun control," said Jeff Soyer, who runs www.Alphecca.com, a Web log popular with supporters of the Second Amendment guarantee for individuals to bear arms.

"Simply put," Soyer said, "there is no law that could be enacted that would have prevented this tragedy. You can't legislate against insanity."

While leading Democratic candidates like Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama did not raise the specter of gun control legislation in recent statements about the Virginia Tech tragedy, which ended in the deaths of 33 people on Monday, Republican sources, including the White House, have already waded into the thorny issue of gun rights.   ...

Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, who has enjoyed a mixed record with the gun advocates, was the first of any leading GOP hopeful to insist what happened this week would not shake his belief in the Second Amendment.

"I do believe in the constitutional right that everyone has — in the Second Amendment to the Constitution — to carry a weapon," he said in response to a reporter's question. "Obviously, we have to keep guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens." ...

While Democratic presidential candidates may be holding back, some Democratic lawmakers and gun control advocates who have seen their cause languish on Capitol Hill during the Bush administration, have already expressed that it was time to turn that around.

"I believe this will reignite the dormant effort to pass common sense gun regulations in this nation," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who unsuccessfully sponsored renewal of the assault weapons ban after it expired in 2004.  ...

Some analysts suggest that Gore lost his 2000 bid by casting, as Senate president, the deciding vote in favor of closing the so-called gun show "loophole" — requiring background checks by private gun sellers at gun shows. That is debatable, but it's clear that since then, some presidential candidates have gone out of their way to prove their bona fides with the NRA crowd.

For example, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, was mocked in 2004 after a photo-op hunting pheasant in Iowa. Observers complained Kerry looked ill-suited to the role as hunter and the awkwardness had the opposite effect on gun enthusiasts, who were already behind Republican candidate Bush.

More recently, Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney was chided for boasting about a lifetime passion for hunting. The former Massachusetts governor was later forced to explain why no hunting licenses could be found bearing his name. He pointed out that one doesn't need a license to hunt small animals like rabbits in his home state of Utah. ...

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Trivializing Virginia Tech
James Taranto

Ben Smith of the Politico reports on a Milwaukee speech by Sen. Barack Obama that, as Smith remarks, "captures what moves a lot of people about Obama, and bothers others." Count us among the bothered. You can listen to the speech in MP3 format, and blogger Jon Sanders excerpts the bothersome part. Obama urges his audience "to reflect a little bit more broadly on the degree to which we do accept violence in various forms all the time in our society." When he says "broadly," he isn't kidding:

It's not necessarily physical violence, but the violence that we perpetrate on each other in other ways. Last week, the big news obviously had to do with Imus, and the verbal violence that was directed at young women who were role models for all of us, role models for my daughters. . . .

There's the violence of men and women who have worked all their lives and suddenly have the rug pulled out from under them because their job has moved to another country, they've lost their job and they've lost their pension benefits and they've lost their healthcare, and they're having to compete against their teenage children for jobs at the local fast-food place paying $7 an hour.

There is the violence of children whose voices are not heard in communities that are ignored, who don't have access to a decent education, who are surrounded by drugs and crime, and a lack of hope.

So there's a lot of different forms of violence in our society.

Let's try putting this in a slightly different way. According to Obama, it is a form of violence when a racist radio host insults college basketball players. It is a form of violence when people lose their jobs. It is a form of violence when people seek jobs that pay $7 an hour. It is a form of violence when the voices of children in ignored communities go unheard.

And oh yeah, by the way, when a lunatic murders 32 people in cold blood, darned if that isn't a form of violence too!

Anyway, we thought the real problem wasn't violence but cynicism. Or maybe cynicism is just another form of violence.

Michelle comments here.

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Edwards Campaigns on Universal Hair Care
By Scott Ott

2007-04-18) — Democrat presidential hopeful John Edwards today unveiled the centerpiece of his 2008 White House bid, a budget-neutral proposal to provide universal hair care to every American.

The former North Carolina senator and 2004 vice presidential candidate is the acknowledged “hair policy wonk” among Democrat candidates.

Speaking to a convention of stylists and cosmetologists yesterday, Mr. Edwards described “the vast divide between the well-coiffed and the un-coiffed masses — a divide as sharp as the part in my own tawny locks.” ...

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Look who's propping up Al Sharpton
Michelle Malkin

Last week, I noted how willing media have propped up race hustler Al Sharpton. There's one other powerful institution that continues to serve as a Sharpton enabler: the Democrat Party.

Every major presidential candidate is scheduled to pay homage at Sharpton's annual National Action Network convention this week--beginning with John Edwards and climaxing with Barack Obama: ...

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Gallup: Hillary’s favorable rating craters
Allahpundit

I’m not complaining. But I honestly don’t get it.

Note that Obama’s own rating is actually a point lower than what it was in February so it’s not like his popularity is digging into hers. Follow the link and start scrolling and you’ll see that the decline cuts across every possible division: regional, political, income, gender, race, marital status, education, you name it. Minuses all the way down the line. The nutroots will try to coopt it as proof that her position on the war is alienating people, but I doubt most Americans know anything about that except (a) she voted for it and (b) she’s against it now. Both of which are also true of Edwards, of course. In fact, her biggest drop is among self-identified “moderates” compared to “liberals” and “conservatives”: -11 to -8 to -9, respectively.

The upshot is that her 38-19 lead over Obama two weeks ago has crumbled to 31-26. I can’t think of anything she’s done recently that would inspire a backlash like this, so I’m throwing it open with an earnest, non-rhetorical exit question: What gives? If it’s a sampling error, how did they bungle the sample so badly as to achieve negatives across the board demographically? Or is this simply a question of familiarity with the Glacier breeding contempt as the campaign wears on? ...

Kim Priestap has more here.

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House GOP Gush Over Actor Fred Thompson

WASHINGTON -- The welcome for Fred Thompson wasn't just warm, it was effusive. The former Tennessee senator and actor is still weighing whether to run for the GOP presidential nomination but House Republicans who met with him Wednesday gushed over the prospects of Thompson candidacy.

They called him presidential, a leader, a proven conservative, an exciting prospect and "a breath of fresh air."

"I wanted to come over and see some of my old friends and make some new friends and tell them what was on my mind and listen and to see what was on their minds," Thompson said in a brief statement to reporters camped outside the Capitol Hill Club.

"We had a good talk. I enjoyed it, and we'll be seeing some more of each other I'm sure," added Thompson, the actor who plays the gruff district attorney Arthur Branch on NBC's "Law & Order."

Before ducking into a waiting vehicle, he shook his head no when asked whether he had a timeline for deciding whether to run for president. ...

Some 50 House Republicans attended the private meeting arranged by Rep. Zach Wamp of Tennessee, a Republican leading a draft-Thompson campaign.

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[Thompson] Meet And Greet Draws 53 Members

Hotliner Tim Sahd reports:

Said Ex-Sen. Fred Thompson, exiting a get-to-know-you session on Capitol Hill today: "I wanted to come over and see old friends, meet new ones and listen and see what was on their minds."

53 members came to see Mr. Thompson.

Rep. Zach Wamp spoke to reporters.

On fundraising issues: “He was not afraid, at all, of not having money, not in this climate in terms of his campaign. And he didn’t think it was too late. He knew there was a window, and he was not going to go outside of that window.

Wamp, on the timing of his announcement and the workings of his campaign: “He said ‘I have the ability right now to do certain things you can’t as a candidate.’ And that’s why it’s special he’s doing it his way. He said ‘I’m not going to follow the consultants’ path here because they’ve been wrong too many times. I’m going to follow my heart and this is going to be a different approach and I think people are ready for a different approach. And that’s why I’m not here because I want to be here, I’m here because there’s a need.’ I really believe he thinks the man and the times are lining up.” ...

On social issues: “The conservatives say he checks the boxes but he also transcends our party. He reaches out to the middle. He brings Reagan Democrats back to our party. He has appeal that other candidates simply don’t have.”

If he’s running: “The man that came to see us today, in my view, is preparing to run for president.”

Contributed by Bill Faith on April 18, 2007 at 08:33 PM in Barack Obama, Fred Thompson, Hillary Clinton | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 09 April 2007
 

Principles, What Principles?

Photo: Obama illegally invites campaign adviser into Senate office; Update: Obama backs out of Fox debate

Barry Obama invited David Axelrod, his chief political adviser into his Senate office, an illegal move according to the Congressional ethics rules.

Drudge reports:

A snapshot of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and his chief political and media adviser David Axelrod — taken in the Senator’s Capitol Hill office! ROLL CALL reports: Congressional ethics rules forbid the use of federal office space for political and campaign activity.

Uh, oops.

Update (AP): I wonder if this news or the recent nutroots uproar over his Iraq funding comments explains why Barry O is now sudenly backing out of the Fox News Democratic primary debate in Detroit.  ...

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Obama: Principles, What Principles?
Dan Riehl

It looks as though the blush is coming off the Obama rose - another not a man of all the people politician, just a man all for himself. Today he takes a double barreled hit on two ethics related matters.

A photo has emerged suggesting he violated Senate ethics rules: ...

[...]

Barrel two: What is it that makes a smaller audience via CNN more appropriate than Fox for any political debate? The Congressional Black Congress was co-sponsoring the debate, but that's not good enough for Obama, just another nutroots hero caving into their effort to shut down free speech by attempting to marginalize America's largest Cable News network.

Barack Obama has chosen not to attend September's presidential debate co-sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and Fox News, an aide said, effectively dooming the event.

Obama is the only member of the Congressional Black Caucus running for President, and his decision allows other candidates to skip the debate without facing criticism that they are turning their backs on a leading black institution.

"CNN seemed like a more appropriate venue," the aide said, adding that Obama himself had not called CBC leadership or Fox executives to deliver the news. "It was handled at a staff level."

Contributed by Bill Faith on April 9, 2007 at 04:53 PM in Barack Obama, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 04 April 2007
 

Black Magic giving Witchcraft a good run

See previous: Campaign Grind -- Hillary Smashes Fund-Raising Record (Caption Contest!) -- Romney Raises $23 Million in 2008 White House Bid ... -- McCain’s first quarter fundraising tanks

Obama raises $25M in first quarter;
Update: Poll — Hillary running third in Iowa
Allahpundit

Just one thin mil behind the Glacier, whose fundraising machine is the envy of the world and whose nomination was, of course, supposed to be inevitable. Reminds me of the scene in “The Untouchables” where they find the accountant in the elevator. Touchable. ...

Update: 100,000 donors. The AP calls it, rightly, “eye-popping.”

Update: For comparison, Ryan Sager says Hillary has but 50,000 donors. Big-money donors, to be sure, but stll. He also thinks Obama might well have earned more than Hillary in terms of primary money (the overall figures reflect primary plus general).

Update: ...

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Obama Right Behind Hillary
Ed Morrissey

Barack Obama has raised $25 million for his presidential bid, coming in only a million behind Hillary Clinton's record-breaking performance. What makes it even more impressive is the number of donors who contributed to the total:

Sen. Barack Obama raised at least $25 million for his presidential campaign in the first quarter of the year, putting him just shy of Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, who made a splash with her announcement Sunday that she had drawn a record-breaking $26 million.

Obama (D-Ill.) appears to have surpassed Clinton in several ways: He raised $6.9 million through donations over the Internet, more than the $4.2 million than Clinton (N.Y.) raised online. He reported donations from 100,000 people, double the 50,000 people who gave to Clinton.

And of Obama's overall receipts, $23.5 million is eligible for use in the primary contests. Clinton officials have declined to disclose how much of her cash is available for the primaries -- rather than designated for the general election and therefore blocked off unless she wins the nomination -- raising suspicions that she raised less for the primaries than Obama did.

I believe that fundraising numbers do not directly relate to electoral success, but they do indicate support more reliably than polls, especially when looking at the number of individual donors. Obama and Romney both managed to reach out to a lot of people, and a lot of people responded. The average Obama donor gave $250 in Q1, which makes it look like Obama has done a good job of organizing the grassroots support that he will need to beat Hillary in the primaries. Her money seems to have come from more establishment sources.

In contrast, John McCain has a problem with his organization, ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on April 4, 2007 at 08:24 PM in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 01 April 2007
 

Obama, the secular Messiah

Controversial Piece on Display Now

Some call it art. Other call it blasphemy. A new piece of art showing Senator Barack Obama as Jesus Christ is now on display at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A.J. Sterling has the story.

   

(H/T: Michelle)

Contributed by Bill Faith on April 1, 2007 at 07:14 PM in Barack Obama | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 28 March 2007
 

Tony Blankley: Don't Count On Obama To Take Out Hillary // Hillary buys Vilsack endorsement

Hillary on Track for Nomination
By Tony Blankley

With every passing week it becomes more likely that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic Party nominee for president. This thought, alone, should provide the strongest possible motivation to the Bush administration and the Washington Republicans to get their acts together so that the eventual Republican nominee for president doesn't start the general election campaign in too deep a hole.

The polls that show half the country saying they won't vote for Hillary should be discounted. At the election, the choice will not be Hillary or not Hillary -- it will be Hillary or someone else. And that is what the campaign is about.

I admit it is very early days in the nomination process, but Sen. Obama's and former Sen. Edward's campaigns are beginning to look just strong enough to induce the Hillary campaign to continually sharpen its skills (rather than succumb to the instinct to coast or sit on a lead). On the other hand, the candidacies of both Obama and Edwards may have fairly low ceilings, while the Hillary campaign has a solidity that should be able to grind on remorselessly to nomination.  ...

***

Blankley: Don't Count On Obama To Take Out Hillary 
Ed Morrissey

Tony Blankley, the editor of the Washington Times, warns Republicans to get their act together now if they expect to defeat Hillary Clinton in 2008 for the White House. The Bush administration has begun playing into her one strength -- competence -- and the Republicans cannot rely on Barack Obama or John Edwards to stop her march to the Oval Office:

[...]

It's an interesting argument, but not quite convincing. The Bush administration's recent troubles have created a competence issue, one that the Democrats exploited to some extent in 2006 and on which they hope to expand in 2008. The continuing saga at Justice has made that easy for the Democrats, and we still have nineteen months to go.

However, Hillary isn't exactly the poster girl for competence, either. More than one of the scandals in the Clinton administration revolved around her, such as the Travel Office debacle in which the White House attempted to gin up criminal charges against staffers there in order to fill their slots with political cronies -- something far worse than what anyone suggests happened at Justice. The Rose law-firm records of her work disappeared for a time, only to reappear in the White House itself, all without her knowledge. And focusing strictly on competence, her work on the nationalization of the health-care industry helped the Republicans win control of Congress in 1994. ...

***

Sen. Clinton To Pay Off Vilsack's Campaign Debt 

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack gave Sen. Hillary Clinton his endorsement for her presidential campaign.

The Clinton campaign has promised Vilsack to help pay off a $400,000 campaign debt he built up during his run for the White House. ...

The campaign said there is no connection between Vilsack's endorsement and their commitment to help pay off his campaign debt.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 28, 2007 at 03:08 PM in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 27 March 2007
 

Punching Above His Weight

Obama’s Kerry Moment
Bruce Kesler

Does this remind you of anyone, like John Kerry for instance? Barack Obama’s autobiography contains self-puffery and invented events. Kerry made of himself a great war hero, beyond whatever credit is deserved. Obama makes of himself a civil rights crusader, beyond whatever actual racial solidarity he experienced.

The Chicago Tribune reported last Sunday, after 40 interviews from Hawaii to Indonesia:

Several of his oft-recited stories may not have happened in the way he has recounted them. Some seem to make Obama look better in the retelling, others appear to exaggerate his outward struggles over issues of race, or simply skim over some of the most painful, private moments of his life.

Last Sunday’s Chicago Tribune did for Barack Obama’s autobiography what the major media failed to do with John Kerry’s, examine its veracity. The over 60 credible Swiftboater witnesses to Kerry’s exaggerations and lies were castigated by the major media. The MSM isn’t attacking the Chicago Tribune for revealing untruths by a favorite, but like with Kerry’s, the finding of false self-creation by Obama is being largely ignored by major media. ...

***

Punching Above His Weight
Ed Morrissey

The AP wonders whether the Barack Obama boomlet has run its course. According to political reporter Nedra Pickler, Democrats have been wondering where the beef is, too:

The voices are growing louder asking the question: Is Barack Obama all style and little substance?

The freshman Illinois senator began his campaign facing the perception that he lacks the experience to be president, especially compared to rivals with decades of work on foreign and domestic policy. So far, he's done little to challenge it. He's delivered no policy speeches and provided few details about how he would lead the country. ...

What a shock! The candidate with an entire two years of experience in national office turns out to be a policy lightweight. Who'd a-thunk it?  ...

The more Obama campaigns and the veneer wears off, the more people will understand him to be a neophyte. Those of us who can count already knew this. For those who failed to realize that a two-year track record would reveal inexperience and a lack of depth, I award the Captain Louis Renault award. Shocked, shocked they must be who find Obama and his focus on "new politics" to be as substantive as gossamer.

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 27, 2007 at 04:51 PM in Barack Obama, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 26 March 2007
 

Constitutional Relativity 
Ed Morrissey

grad-school thesis has once again made its way into the 2008 Presidential race. Previously, a 40-year-old treatise by Hillary Clinton lauding a radical leftist caused a few moments of consternation for her campaign, mostly because her husband's administration kept it suppressed until now. This time, Barack Obama may have to answer some questions regarding his views from law school about the elasticity of the Constitution, views which are less than two decades old:

Is Barack Obama a space cadet? The man who would become senator of Illinois and a top Democratic presidential contender was credited for editorial or research assistance in a page-one footnote of what may be the zaniest-titled article ever published by the Harvard Law Review: "The Curvature of Constitutional Space: What Lawyers Can Learn From Modern Physics," authored by noted legal scholar Laurence Tribe.

The 39-page densely argued treatise — think "The Paper Chase" meets "Star Trek" — argues that constitutional jurisprudence should be updated in a similar way that Einstein's theory of relativity replaced Newtonian mechanics, a view that would release judges from the original intent of the Founders of America. ...

No, Obama is not a space cadet -- but in this case, that isn't a good thing. What Obama wanted to do in this treatise is to disconnect the text of the Constitution from its application. ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 26, 2007 at 12:53 PM in Barack Obama, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 21 March 2007
 

Creator of “1984″ anti-Hillary ad unmasked (Updated)

A Watershed Moment
John Hinderaker

There has been a lot of talk about the impact of YouTube on the 2008 election. We saw a preview of things to come, I think, in this video, which has now been viewed around 1 1/2 million times:

The Associated Press talks about the video:

While the video's final image reads "BarackObama.com," the campaign of the Illinois senator has denied being behind it.

Its creator remained anonymous.

But for political strategists, ad experts, even journalists, the ad presents a series of other fundamental unknowns.

-How will Web content outside the control of campaigns affect voters?

-How should campaigns react to anonymous but highly viewed attacks?

-When is Web content, no matter how provocative, newsworthy? ...

The video illustrates the ever-increasing degree to which the candidates and the parties are losing control over the electoral process. Independent actors like 527s, citizen journalists, creators of YouTube videos, etc., will undoubtedly play a bigger role in 2008 than ever before. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen.

Unmasked: Creator of “1984″ anti-Hillary ad is … staffer for Obama consultant
Allahpundit

Arianna smoked him out but Ben Smith pinned the tail on the Messiah:

Arianna reports that Philip de Vellis of Blue State Digital created the spot; Blue State works for Obama. A woman who answered the company’s phone confirmed he works there.

But maybe not for long. Also from Smith:

From Obama aide Bill Burton: “The Obama campaign and its employees had no knowledge and had nothing to do with the creation of the ad. We were notified this evening by a vendor of ours, Blue State Digital, that an employee of the company had been involved in the making of this ad. Blue State Digital has separated ties with this individual and we have been assured he did no work on our campaign’s account.”

Bonus fun fact: Blue State Digital was founded by Dean-o’s Internet team, according to Arianna. ...

***

Anti-Hillary YouTuber confesses
Michelle Malkin

You've already seen the stories about the Obama-linked video consultant who was unmasked as the creator the anti-Hillary Big Sister ad.

Here's his confessional at HuffPo, "I made the 'Vote Different' Ad:" ...

***

Anti-Hillary Video Sparks Grassroots Consultant Wave 
by Scott Ott

(2007-03-22) — The revelation that the previously-anonymous “Vote Different” YouTube video attacking presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was actually created by a media expert whose firm works for Barack Obama “opens a new chapter in the story of grassroots political movements,” according to the video’s creator. ...

***

Obamanations
Scott Johnson

Barack Obama has denied any knowledge or connection to the previously unknown creator of the hugely enjoyable "1984" Hillary ad that John wrote about here yesterday. No sooner had John written about the ad than its creator was revealed as Philip de Vellis, the employee of an Internet consulting firm working for Senator Obama. De Vellis said he had created the ad on his own time at his apartment on a Sunday afternoon using his own gear without the knowledge of his employer or the Obama campaign. Blue State has released the following statement:

[...]

The AP story and Chicago Tribune note on the revelation are both of interest. Hugh Hewitt asks a rhetorical question: "What would the MSM be saying if the ad had come out of a shop working for one of the GOP's big three?" Hint: Hugh titles his post: "What did Senator Obama know and when did he know it?" Josh Gerstein comments here, Patrick Ruffini here.

UPDATE: ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 21, 2007 at 08:02 PM in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 05 March 2007
 

Pandering in Selma

Hillary, Obama Fulfill Dr. King's Dream in Selma
Scott Ott

(2007-03-05) — During yesterday's commemoration of the 42nd anniversary of the Bloody Sunday voting rights march through Selma, Alabama, Sen. Hillary Clinton and presidential rival Sen. Barack Obama each told the congregation of an African-American church that they represented the fulfillment of Dr. Martin Luther King's prophetic “I Have a Dream” speech. ...

***

Pandering in Selma
Michelle Malkin

Drudge is headlining Hillary's new Southern twang adopted during a speech in Selma, Alabama to commemorate Bloody Sunday. But even more noteworthy: Obama's truth-stretching speech the same day. Allah caught two truthy assertions by The Messiah:

1) His claim that a Kennedy-sponsored airlift in Africa was responsible for bringing the Obama family to the U.S.

2) His claim that events in Selma led to his parents getting together--and Obama being born.

Allah questions the timing.

1) JFK didn't take office until two years after Obama's arrived in the U.S.

2) Obama, Jr., was born four years before Bloody Sunday in Selma.

It's like the legend of Hillary-Sir Edmund Hilary all over again!

The New York Times helps Obama spin: ...

***

Chicken-Fried Hillary
John Hinderaker

Hillary Clinton is taking a lot of grief for the awful Southern accent that she affected (some of the time, anyway) when speaking in Selma, Alabama over the weekend. Just for fun, listen to this brief audio clip of Hillary speaking, in her own voice, to the Human Rights Campaign, which came from the YouTube video Scott posted last night: [audio link]

Now compare it to excerpts of the same Senator Clinton speaking in Selma: [audio link]

***

Hillary Running for Panderer in Chief

Contributed by Bill Faith on March 5, 2007 at 11:14 AM in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 28 February 2007
 

I beg your pardon...

Early Polling Shows Obama Gaining On Hillary
Ed Morrissey

Keep in mind that polling this early in a presidential cycle has the same level of predictive value as Uncle Earl's trick knee has in alerting you to bad weather. With that in mind, if not in knee, the front-page article at the Washington Post on their latest polling does show some developing storms for the presumed frontrunner in the Democratic Party nomination race:

The latest poll put Clinton at 36 percent, Obama at 24 percent, Gore at 14 percent and Edwards at 12 percent. None of the other Democrats running received more than 3 percent. With Gore removed from the field, Clinton would gain ground on Obama, leading the Illinois senator 43 percent to 27 percent. Edwards ran third at 14 percent. The poll was completed the night Gore's documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Academy Award.  ...

***

I beg your pardon...
Michelle Malkin

The Boston Globe reports that pardons have reemerged as an issue in the 2008 presidential campaign (hat tip: B.B.):

Six years ago, the launch of Hillary Clinton's career in the US Senate was marred by allegations that her brothers had received payments from people pardoned by President Bill Clinton in the waning months of his presidency.

Now, in the wake of the launch of her presidential campaign, the pardon controversy has reemerged in an obscure court case in which Senator Clinton's brother Tony is battling an order to repay more than $100,000 he received from a couple pardoned by President Clinton.

Tony Rodham, who acknowledged approaching the president about a pardon for the couple, is the second of Hillary Clinton's brothers to receive money from people who were eventually pardoned by President Clinton. Hugh Rodham received $400,000 from two people, one of whom was pardoned and one whose sentence was commuted. ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on February 28, 2007 at 01:57 PM in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Politics | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Monday, 26 February 2007
 

Original Sins, Fair Game 
Jules Crittenden

Newspapers and leftie blogs are abuzz with the warmed-over news from the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election that Mitt Romney’s got polygamists up his Mormon family tree. Sweetness and Light notes a lack of interest in polygamy, and other stuff, up Barack Obama’s family tree. Wild guess here, but I’m going to take it: ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on February 26, 2007 at 01:35 AM in Barack Obama, Media Malpractice, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 22 February 2007
 

La-La Land

From FOX News: Hillary Clinton, Obama in Hot Exchange Over Hollywood Heavyweight's Comments.

The war of words between leading 2008 Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama spread Wednesday night, after the campaigns had earlier exchanged heated words when Clinton suggested Obama return funds to Hollywood bigwig David Geffen, who insulted her in a newspaper article.

"We aren't going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters. It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom," Obama campaign communications director Robert Gibbs said in a statement that was e-mailed to the news media. ...

See previous: The Dhimms will fight! ... but only with each other :-)

***

Who Wins In The Democratic Feud?
Ed Morrissey

The eruption of hostilities between the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns this week potentially creates an opening for another candidate to exploit to match or best the two front-runners. Josh Gerstein makes the case that John Edwards will gain the most traction from a Hillary-Barack feud, relying on a man with unfortunate experience in campaign meltdowns:

As the dust settles from the first showdown between the presidential campaigns of Senators Clinton and Obama, political analysts are wondering who will benefit from protracted wrangling between the two top contenders for the Democratic nomination.

A former senator of North Carolina, John Edwards, is emerging as one potential beneficiary of the spat that broke out over critical comments from a Hollywood supporter of Mr. Obama, David Geffen. ...

I tend to think that Hillary's crankiness will last longer than most analysts think, partly because I believe it to be deliberate. Democrats complained loudly after the 2004 election that John Kerry had lost because he had not hit back at critics such as the Swift Boat veterans. That questionable bit of analysis has blossomed into an axiom among Democrats, who now tend to value combativeness over coherence and policy.

If anyone doubts this, just look at the reaction to Edwards when confronted with Amanda Marcotte's rather blatant anti-Christian writings. Instead of encouraging Edwards to do what most campaigns do when they make a bad hire -- cut the person loose -- the netroots and activists within the party threatened to withhold their support unless Edwards showed he would fight back against the right-wing noise machine. Edwards backed away from firing Marcotte, only to get stung again when she made more anti-Christian comments on her personal blog days later.

For that reason, I don't think Edwards really benefits from the Hillary-Barack feud. The one person who benefits most so far is Barack Obama. ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on February 22, 2007 at 10:28 PM in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 21 February 2007
 

The Dhimms will fight! ... but only with each other :-)

Clinton vs. Obama: the gloves come off

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The two front-runners in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination traded jabs Wednesday over remarks made by a Hollywood mogul and a powerful South Carolina lawmaker.

Sen. Hillary Clinton's spokesman called on Illinois Sen. Barack Obama to renounce comments made by Hollywood executive David Geffen that were sharply critical of the New York Democrat and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Geffen is quoted extensively by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd in Wednesday's edition disparaging the former president and questioning whether Sen. Clinton can win the presidency in 2008.

Geffen is quoted in the column as saying the former president is a "'reckless guy' who 'gave his enemies a lot of ammunition to hurt him and to distract the country.'" That apparently refers to the former president's sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

As for Sen. Clinton, Geffen is quoted by Dowd as saying, "Not since the Vietnam War has there been this level of disappointment in the behavior of America throughout the world, and I don't think that another incredibly polarizing figure, no matter how smart she is and no matter how ambitious she is -- and God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton? -- can bring the country together." ...

Woman, fetch mah beer! Little woman, fetch some popcorn! Whoo-Doggies! Color this Old Dog's tail just a waggin'!

***

Those damned anti-Clintites strike again! Geffen!
The Anchoress

On this Ash Wednesday Barack Obama’s people are being warned to turn away from the sin of vicious politics…oh, and return any checks you’ve gotten, too! Writes the Clinton team:

“If Senator Obama is indeed sincere about his repeated claims to change the tone of our politics, he should immediately denounce these remarks, remove Mr. Geffen from his campaign and return his money.

“While Democrats should engage in a vigorous debate on the issues, there is no place in our party or our politics for the kind of personal insults made by Senator Obama’s principal fundraiser.

Well, slap my ass and call me Sally, but it seems to me that a strong and confident campaign does not demand that other candidates denounce their supporters and return contribution checks to them, but this is what Hillary Clinton’s campaign does all the time! Particularly if an opponent's donor has dared to say something mean about poor old Hillary, who is just a girl and should be treated nice, because politics is about niceness and sweetness, and she would never, never indulge in a scorched earth, slash-and-burn sort of politics, herself.

Clinton already played this “denounce and return the checks” charade to Rudy Giuliani, and as I wrote then, she’ll do it again - anytime she feels the least bit criticized. Because she’s too special for that, dammit!

It’s one of the things that has fascinated me over the past ten years - the press’ seeming perspective that there are Clintons and Clinton supporters…and then there is the rest of the world, which contains - among other things - anti-Clintites.

Those are very, very bad people, the anti-Clintites. The don’t simply dissent, they actually focus their dissent on the god and goddess in particular. Let them be identified! ...

***

Hillary Wounded In Drive By In Dem H'wood 
Dan Riehl

Former Clinton bag man David Geffen pulled up to Mo Do's Left Coast copy desk and popped a cap into Hillary Clinton's ass-pirations of the Presidential sort.

I don’t think that another incredibly polarizing figure, no matter how smart she is and no matter how ambitious she is — and God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton? — can bring the country together.

“I don’t think anybody believes that in the last six years, all of a sudden Bill Clinton has become a different person,” Mr. Geffen says, adding that if Republicans are digging up dirt, they’ll wait until Hillary is the nominee to use it. “I think they believe she’s the easiest to defeat.”

“It’s not a very big thing to say, ‘I made a mistake’ on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can’t,” Mr. Geffen says.

“I’m tired of hearing James Carville on television....

Bleeding but very much alive, the former First Lady reached for a shiv and bypassed Geffen to take a slash at his new number one political whore. "This corner belongs to me, Biatch!" Fork over the dough! Pimp Daddy Bill is apparently unavailable for comment, maybe he's gone to the mattresses in his Harlem digs. ...

***

Hillary's phony coat of armor 
Michelle Malkin

From my column today:

Look out: Hillary Clinton is pulling the armor cloak from her rhetorical closet again. As long as she pairs it with a skirt, Italian designer Donatella Versace approves. But for any leading presidential candidate with a shred of integrity, this political wardrobe malfunction goes in the "fashion don't" column.

In her latest campaign video, Hillary attacks the Bush administration for sending soldiers off to battle unprotected: "Promises just aren't enough anymore. After almost four years, longer than we were in WWII, our troops still don't have all the body armor and armored vehicles and other equipment they need. It's a disgrace."

...The Democrats' latest talking point involves a reported shortage of armored Humvees in Iraq. The armchair generals of The New York Times editorial board waxed indignantly about the story last week — lambasting the "Army, the National Guard and the Marine Corps" for being "caught constantly behind the curve" on armor upgrades. The Times' editorial titled their anti-Bush tirade, "Not supporting the troops." The meme has penetrated from Hillary and Ted Kennedy down to every last, lowest-level Democratic strategist looking to burnish pro-military credibility....

I reprinted some of the responses from troops first published here, and also
added the observations of milblogger T.F. Boggs: ...

***

Closely related:

• Food For Thought: Do Democrats Not Seek an Experienced Candidate? And Do Their Big Three Have Glass Jaws?

• The obligatory Hillary / Obama slapfight post

• Video: Round mound of rebound endorses Obama

***

Democratic Party Cage Match 
John Hinderaker

So far, I haven't taken Barack Obama very seriously as a Presidential candidate, mostly because of his lack of experience. I've suspected that his real objective is to be someone's--likely Hillary Clinton's--running mate. After today, though, that may be less likely.

Maureen Dowd stirred the pot by quoting Hollywood tycoon David Geffen, who once raised $18 million for Bill Clinton, in her column. Geffen is now supporting Obama; he had this to say about the Clintons:

* Marc Rich getting pardoned? An oil-profiteer expatriate who left the country rather than pay taxes or face justice? Yet another time when the Clintons were unwilling to stand for the things that they genuinely believe in. Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it’s troubling.

* God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton?

* It’s not a very big thing to say, "I made a mistake" on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can’t. She’s so advised by so many smart advisers who are covering every base. I think that America was better served when the candidates were chosen in smoke-filled rooms.

Many worse things have been said about the Clintons, but, for whatever reason, Hillary was unwilling to take it in stride. Her communications director, writing on her campaign web site's blog, made this heated response:

[...]

Most interesting to me was this reply from Obama's campaign:

We aren’t going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters. It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when was raising them $18 million and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom. It is also ironic that Senator Clinton lavished praise on Monday and is fully willing to accept today the support of South Carolina State Sen. Robert Ford, who said if Barack Obama were to win the nomination, he would drag down the rest of the Democratic Party because he's black.

So: Barack Obama is playing the race card against Hillary Clinton! The fireworks continued as Clinton's spokesman updated his blog entry as follows: ...

***

Video: Obama responds to Clinton,
considers her “ally in the Senate”
Ian Schwartz

[video link]

Sen. Obama responded to criticism he received from Sen. Hillary Clinton because of support from David Geffen:

Transcript:

‘My sense is that Mr. Geffen may have differences with the Clintons. That doesn’t have anything to do with our campaign… I’ve said I’ve had the utmost respect for Senator Clinton. I consider her an ally in the Senate. And will continue to consider her that way throughout the campaign…

***

The all-important Charles Barkely vote 
Michelle Malkin

Obama's got it locked up. Phew. The suspense was killing me.

Obama's also got the coveted Rep. Keith Ellison endorsement. And here's vid of him smoothing out the ruffled feathers with Hillary.

At an Obama-less forum, the rest of the Dems talk amongst themselves. Bitterness, backbiting, backstabbing, and backtracking ensue. More from the NYTimes: ...

***

It's Her Party, And She'll Cry If She Wants To
Ed Morrissey

It's difficult to figure out what Hillary Clinton hopes to gain with her spectacular temper tantrum today, directed as it is against the wrong man. After Maureen Dowd briefly achieved relevancy by relating some tough criticisms of Hillary by Hollywood mogul David Geffen, the Democratic front-runner blamed Barack Obama for his newfound Geffen support. And make no mistake, Geffen drew blood:

Maureen Dowd's column in The New York Times today, in which she quoted former Bill Clinton supporter David Geffen offering a few caustic comments, has incited a strong Hillary Clinton campaign attack on Geffen -- and the candidate he now favors, Sen. Barack Obama.

Then Obama's team fired back.

"Everybody in politics lies, but they [the Clintons] do it with such ease, it’s troubling,” Geffen had said. ...

Hillary's campaign came out swinging -- but at Barack Obama instead of Geffen, who just finished a fundraiser for the neophyte Senator. Linking to an ABC story on Obama's expressed distaste for "slash and burn politics", Team Hillary demanded that Obama cut Geffen from his campaign, return all of the funds raised by Geffen, and apparently take monastic vows and give himself a Britney Spears haircut:

"While Senator Obama was denouncing slash and burn politics yesterday, his campaign's finance chair was viciously and personally attacking Senator Clinton and her husband.

"If Senator Obama is indeed sincere about his repeated claims to change the tone of our politics, he should immediately denounce these remarks, remove Mr. Geffen from his campaign and return his money.

"While Democrats should engage in a vigorous debate on the issues, there is no place in our party or our politics for the kind of personal insults made by Senator Obama's principal fundraiser.

Well, the short answer is that Obama didn't make the remarks, and Geffen didn't say anything out of bounds about the public character of the Clintons. ...

The longer answer is that Hillary looks about ready to self-destruct. She got rattled by the loss of her exclusive connections to Hollywood, which has made clear that they will not commit solely to her. With Obama scoring big in his Tinseltown debut, Hillary understands that a major portion of her husband's contributions has just dried up. Instead of redoubling her efforts to woo the celluloid titans back to her side, she blew her stack and demanded ridiculous penance from a competitor who hadn't sinned against her.

In fact, Obama has decided to allow Hillary to look as bad as she can, issuing a classy response this evening: ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on February 21, 2007 at 07:13 PM in Barack Obama, Dem Dumbness, Hillary Clinton, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 15 February 2007
 

Not ready for prime time -- Update 2

See previous: Not ready for prime time (Updated and bumped), Not ready for prime time -- Update

The Ever-'Present' Obama
Barack has a along track record of not taking a stand.
By Nathan Gonzales

Finally and officially, Barack Obama is running for president. His symbolic announcement, in the Land of Lincoln, called for a new era in politics. Obama downplayed his thin federal experience while championing his record on the state and local level, and he talked about the need to change Washington, set priorities, and "make hard choices."

"What's stopped us is the failure of leadership, the smallness of our politics--the ease with which we're distracted by the petty and trivial, our chronic avoidance of tough decisions," Obama said in his announcement speech. But a closer look at the presidential candidate's record in the Illinois Legislature reveals something seemingly contradictory: a number of occasions when Obama avoided making hard choices.

While some conservatives and Republicans surely will harp on what they call his "liberal record," highlighting applicable votes to support their case, it's Obama's history of voting "present" in Springfield--even on some of the most controversial and politically explosive issues of the day--that raises questions that he will need to answer. Voting "present" is one of three options in the Illinois Legislature (along with "yes" and "no"), but it's almost never an option for the occupant of the Oval Office. 

Contributed by Bill Faith on February 15, 2007 at 12:26 AM in Barack Obama, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 14 February 2007
 

Not ready for prime time -- Update

See previous: Not ready for prime time (Updated and bumped)

Obama: Wasting his own breath 
Michelle Malkin (H/T)

I have good news for everyone offended by the description of Sen. Barack Obama as "articulate." He has quickly shed any claim to that label. Indeed, Obama's remarks this week about American troops killed in Iraq were a bumbling, incoherent mess. You may now refer to him officially as the Inarticulate Barack Obama. (As for judging his current level of cleanliness and brightness, you know that's Joe Biden's milieu.)

At one of his opening presidential campaign events on the Iowa State University campus this weekend, Obama pandered energetically to the anti-war crowd. With his smooth voice rising and thousands of fans goading him on, he proclaimed: "We ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized, and should have never been waged, and to which we have now spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted."

Yes, "wasted." Squandered. Pointless. Down the drain. Meaningless. Video footage of the speech shows Sen. Obama delivering his scripted words carefully and confidently. No umms or ahhs or pauses as he argued that each and every member of the military who volunteered to serve and died in Iraq "wasted" his/her life.

This revealing slip of Obama's tongue and mind — or "Obamanation," as conservative blogger Scott Johnson at Power Line (powerlineblog.com) calls it — did not play well among countless service members and their families who actually support their mission and sacrifice.  ...

***

Obama, Again

February 14, 2007 -- Quite an introduction Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is getting to the campaign trail. And quite an introduction America is getting to Obama.

One moment it's a feud with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

The next he's telling Iowans that the lives of American soldiers and Marines killed in Iraq were "wasted."

Incredible.

Yes, Obama quickly said he had "misspoken." And the next day he offered an "apology" to military families he might have offended.

Might have offended?

We can only imagine. ...

***

Ann Coulter: Jonathan Livingston Obama

Contributed by Bill Faith on February 14, 2007 at 01:52 PM in Barack Obama, Dem Dumbness, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 13 February 2007
 

Not ready for prime time (Updated and bumped)

Video: Obama says lives of troops killed in Iraq were “wasted”
Allahpundit

Now we know for sure he’s not the messiah. The messiah doesn’t make mistakes.

Of course he thinks their lives were wasted. Everyone on the anti-war side does; that’s one of the reasons they want to end the war. But they can’t say that because it dishonors the dead so they’re forced into rhetorical pretzels like the one Pelosi tied herself into a few weeks ago with Diane Sawyer. Army Lawyer summed up her position at the time thusly: “They didn’t die for nothing, they died for something stupid.”

Submitted for your disapproval, then: Obama on the campaign trail yesterday in Iowa… [video link]

See also: Video: Obama’s wife plays race card on ‘60 Minutes’

***

Not ready for prime time
Scott Johnson

On his first day of campaigning as an official candidate for president, Barack Obama committed what would in days of old have been recognized as a major international blunder. Times have changed, of course. If you are old enough to recall the proposition that politics stops at the water's edge, you are probably incapable of suspending rational thought to join in the excitement over a not-readly-for-prime-player joining the field of Democratic candidates for the presidential nomination.

Australia, you may recall, is one of America's steadfast allies in the war in which we are engaged. Australian Prime Minister John Howard criticized Obama's call for immediate American withdrawal from Iraq. When Obama was asked to respond, he declined simply to express respectful disagreement with a loyal American ally. Instead he insulted Australia's contribution to the war effort, belittling the 1,600 Australian troops in Iraq. He said that if Australia was so dedicated, maybe it should raise its contribution to 20,000.

Obama not only insulted our ally, he formulated the insult in the inelegant fashion of an intellectual thug. ...

***

Obama Goes After Hillary
Ed Morrissey

The Democrats can forget about the 2008 primary being a love-in. The same weekend that Barack Obama threw his hat into the ring, he also aimed a few brickbats at the front-runner over her vote on the war in Iraq. Obama wants to make a clear delineation between himself and Hillary Clinton as the obvious standardbearer for the Left:

Senators Obama and Clinton banged heads over the Iraq war yesterday, marking their first dustup since the start of the presidential campaign.

Just a day after officially announcing his candidacy in Illinois, Mr. Obama took aim at Mrs. Clinton's vote to authorize the war, saying, "I think the war was a tragic mistake and it never should have been authorized." ...

***

Michelle Malkin has more on Obama's latest gaffe here.

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 2007.02.12.11:02

Clueless Factor
Jules Crittenden

Vid of Obama: “3,000 lives of Americans … wasted,” a phrase I suspect is going to haunt him.  When I first saw the Hot Air link at Memeorandum, I could have sworn it said “Osama.”  But it didn’t.

Then, he borrowed an apology from Kerry: ...

***

Obama tries to remove foot from mouth... 
Michelle Malkin

And he fails miserably (via NYTimes):

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois said Monday that he had misspoken when he suggested that the lives of more than 3,000 American soldiers killed in Iraq had been “wasted.”

As he arrived in New Hampshire, Mr. Obama said he would “absolutely apologize” to military families if they were offended by a remark he made in Iowa while criticizing the Bush administration’s Iraq policy.

“What I would say — and meant to say — is that their service hasn’t been honored,” Mr. Obama told reporters in Nashua, N.H., “because our civilian strategy has not honored their courage and bravery, and we have put them in a situation in which it is hard for them to succeed.”

He still does not comprehend the concept of troops volunteering, willingly and freely, to go to Iraq to defend American security. Someone send Obama Outside the Wire and introduce him to the Marines of the Silver Platoon before he infantilizes the military again.

And Obama's accusing others of not honoring the soldiers' courage and bravery?

Um, who called their service and their lives "wasted?"

More disingenuousness:

A New Hampshire reporter asked Mr. Obama whether he regretted the remark, made at a rally on Sunday that “we ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged, and to which we now have spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted.”

“Even as I said it,” Mr. Obama said Monday, “I realized I had misspoken.”

Oh, yeah? Replay the tape: [video link] ...

***

Video: Obama Says Lives of Troops That Have Died in Iraq
Were "Wasted"; Update and Bumped: Obama Backpedals
Greg Tinti

Allah's calling this a mistake, but I'm not so sure.

Since every other Democrat running in '08 thinks the same thing but doesn't have the balls to say it, perhaps Obama's signalling that he's gearing up for the left's version of the Straight Talk Express, if you will. It certainly would set him apart from Hillary and, to some extent, Edwards as well. Obviously, I'm not a lefty but I imagine that hearing someone make a statement that's a clear corollary to the position that the war was a mistake and is a complete failure is a breath of fresh air after years of watching the political posturing of Washington's Democrats.

And the fact that this is what the rest of the anti-war Democrats think but aren't willing to say pretty much insulates Obama from criticism since the finger pointers will look like vicious hypocrites.

Verdict: Obama will not be doing The John Kerry Shuffle because of this.

Update: Well, looks like I was wrong; this wasn't intentional after all. ...

***

Barack Obama Says Lives of US Troops killed in Iraq were Wasted 
Kim Priestap

As a family member of a fallen soldier in Iraq, I can't imagine a presidential candidate saying anything more callous, more offensive, or more ignorant of the ultimate sacrifice that our brave troops have made for us and our country. ...

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Apology Botched 
Jules Crittenden

You know, I’m seeing everywhere news reports that insist Obama fell over himself to apologize, twice, for describing as “wasted” the lives of U.S. soldiers killed in combat to free an oppressed people and make the world a safer place.

But I have yet to see a news report that includes an actual apology.  He expresses “regret” that he had “misspoken” and experienced a “slip of the tongue.”  He “would absolutely apologize” if  “any of them”* are offended.

Here’s a Chicago Sun-Times columnist.  No apology.

Here’s the AP story.  No apology.

Here’s ABC: No apology.

All of those reports say there was an apology.  Some say he apologized right away. One says he claims he apologized right away. But none quote it.  Like John Kerry, he’s botched it, and regrets that he misspoke. Here’s the only report I could find that points out he hasn’t actually apologized: ...

***

See next: Not ready for prime time -- Update

Contributed by Bill Faith on February 13, 2007 at 03:09 AM in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 10 February 2007
 

My obligatory "!!!Obama's in!!!" post

I'm so excited I can barely sit still to type.

Obama Makes It Official
Ed Morrissey

He only has two years of national office under his belt, and has not even faced a credible opponent. He has few legislative accomplishments for his resumé, and no executive experience at all. For the Democratic Party in 2008, that apparently makes Barack Obama the #2 candidate for the Presidential nomination behind Hillary Clinton, a position Obama assumed with his official announcement of candidacy a few minutes ago: ...

Go read the whole thing, I guess. Whatever.  I understand he's negotiating with KOS about a blogmaster position.

***

Ian's excited too. He even has video!

***

Greg Tinti: "Yada yada"

Contributed by Bill Faith on February 10, 2007 at 01:18 PM in Barack Obama, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 30 January 2007
 

The Obama Messiah Watch 
Introducing a periodic feature considering evidence that Obama is the son of God.
By Timothy Noah (Hat tip: Michelle)

Is Barack Obama—junior U.S. senator from Illinois, best-selling author, Harvard Law Review editor, Men's Vogue cover model, and "exploratory" presidential candidate—the second coming of our Savior and our Redeemer, Prince of Peace and King of Kings, Jesus Christ? His press coverage suggests we can't dismiss this possibility out of hand. I therefore inaugurate the Obama Messiah Watch, which will periodically highlight gratuitously adoring biographical details that appear in newspaper, television, and magazine profiles of this otherworldly presence in our midst.

Today's item,  ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 30, 2007 at 03:51 PM in Barack Obama, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Saturday, 20 January 2007
 

The race is on and it looks like heartache ...

Newsflash: Hillary wants to be President. Surprise! Surprise!

Don't like Obama much either but I almost feel sorry for him. It won't be pretty.

Vince Foster could not be reached for comment.

***

Video: Hillary’s in
Allahpundit

On a Saturday morning? Sure, one of her advisors told Hotline — this way, she’s in the spotlight for the State of the Union on Tuesday. But then why not announce on Monday, when people are paying attention?

Amateur mistakes. I blame Bill.

Here’s the video. She’s surprisingly non-robotic, although I guess if you can train animals to perform on sitcoms, you can train Hillary to feign warmth for 30 seconds. The passages on health care and dialogue will have you choking on bile. Click the image to watch, and note the foliage through the window. Mark Finkelstein asks a good question.

[image]

Exit question: Is Hillary the best we can hope for among the Democratic nominees?  ...

***

Greg Tinti, Jim Geraghty and Jim Addison have more.

***

Stop The Presses -- Hillary Announces!
Ed Morrissey

In what has to be one of the most anticlimatic campaign announcements since Ronald Reagan in 1979, Hillary Clinton officially announced her candidacy for the 2008 Presidential nomination. The official notice came as a posting on her website:

[...]

Of course, it wouldn't be Hillary without getting Sillary. She tries for an Oprah-like chatty tone to her announcement, and winds up offering this laughable little nugget:

"I'm not just starting a campaign, though, I'm beginning a conversation with you, with America," she said. "Let's talk. Let's chat. The conversation in Washington has been just a little one-sided lately, don't you think?"

It has? What happened on November 7th, a tea party? Puh-leeze. The Democrats have hardly been silent during Bush's six years in office. They have been shrill, hysterical, and well-covered by the press and bloggers on both sides of the partisan divide. What they haven't been, until the last midterms, is convincing. ...

***

Glib Fortuna: The definition of “anticlimactic” - Hillary is in

***

Oh, what the hell. It's gonna be one of those days anyway. Watch this:

***

Hillary Announces Presidential Campaign Slogan

***

Michelle Malkin: It's official

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 20, 2007 at 10:20 AM in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thursday, 18 January 2007
 

I guess Obama Season is now officially open

Recent related posts: American Idol Debuts, Obamania

Obama's Past Offers Ammo for Critics

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may have a lot of explaining to do.

He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive. He supported allowing retired police officers to carry concealed weapons, but opposed allowing people to use banned handguns to defend against intruders in their homes. And the list of sensitive topics goes on.

With only a slim, two-year record in the U.S. Senate, Obama doesn't have many controversial congressional votes which political opponents can frame into attack ads. But his eight years as an Illinois state senator are sprinkled with potentially explosive land mines, such as his abortion and gun control votes. ...

Washington Times? Nope -- Washington Post, would you believe.

Wingnut in you looking for something a little juicer? Check out Allah's post here.

***

See also: Barack Hussein Obama's "Apostasy" from Islam (Hat tip: J D Pendry)

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 18, 2007 at 04:23 PM in Barack Obama, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 17 January 2007
 

Obamania (Updated and bumped, rearranged)

American Idol Debuts   
Contributed by The Gray Dog

I am not a wizard or a pundit.  But, as a former Illinois resident, I had the opportunity, missed by most of the country, to watch Barak Obama rise out of nowhere to become another lightweight ultra-liberal U.S. Senator from the state that gave us Carol Mosley Braun and Dick Durbin.  Because of that experience, I was quick to point out his undeniable star quality when I wrote “American Idol Mystique” on December 3rd 2006.  I now find it incredibly amusing if not prescient, that Obama should announce the formation of his “Presidential Exploratory Committee” on the same day that the newest season of “American Idol” debuts.

Continue reading "American Idol Debuts"

***

Click the pic. Try to act surprised. (H/T: MKH)

***

Obama Already Learning from Exploratory Committee

(2007-01-16) — First-term Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL, today said he’s excited about the formation of his presidential exploratory committee, and has already learned a lot from the process.

“This morning, I got a call from the chairman of my exploratory committee,” said the 45-year-old lawmaker. “He says they’ve already discovered that the presidency is a big, important job and that the president lives in a special place called The White House.” ...

***

Barack Is Beautiful?
James Taranto

The Associated Press reports that Barack Obama, Illinois's African-American junior senator, has established a presidential exploratory committee in preparation for a possible run next year. Meanwhile, London's Sunday Times reports that there is a distinct lack of enthusiasm among so-called civil rights leaders:

At a meeting of activists in New York last week, the Rev Jesse Jackson, the first black candidate to run for president, declined to endorse Obama. "Our focus right now is not on who's running, because there are a number of allies running," Jackson said.

The Rev Al Sharpton, the fiery New York preacher who joined the Democratic primary race in 2004, said he was considering another presidential run of his own. And Harry Belafonte, the calypso singer who became an influential civil rights activist, said America needed to be "careful" about Obama: "We don't know what he's truly about." . . .

When asked about Obama's likely candidacy, [Sharpton] shrugged: "Right now we're hearing a lot of media razzle-dazzle. I'm not hearing a lot of meat, or a lot of content. I think when the meat hits the fire, we'll find out if it's just fat, or if there's some real meat there." . . .

"He's a young man in many ways to be admired," Belafonte said. "Obviously very bright, speaks very well, cuts a handsome figure. But all of that is just the king's clothes. Who's the king?"

What's going on here? It's common enough for black "leaders" to attack black Republicans like Clarence Thomas and Michael Steele--Belafonte has even made racist remarks about Colin Powell--but Obama is a Democrat, so the hostility toward him isn't partisan in origin. Nor is it ideological, really. Obama may not be as ultraleft as Belafonte, but he is a very liberal Democrat--certainly more liberal than either of the Clintons, whom the "civil rights" crowd lionize.

Our view is that Obama threatens Jackson, Sharpton and Belafonte precisely because he has an appeal that transcends race. If Obama is able to gain widespread appeal as a national political figure, it undermines the basis of white guilt, namely the assumption that America remains a deeply racist society. Men like Jackson, Sharpton and Belafonte have made their careers on the exploitation of white guilt. Obama is a threat to their power and livelihood. ...

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 2007.01.16.12:25

The Year Of Nick The New Guy
Ed Morrissey

Barack Obama sort of ended all the suspense this morning, by doing exactly what everyone expected, only a little sooner. Obama announced that he would create an exploratory committee as the first step towards running for President in 2008:

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, whose best-selling books and political travels generated huge pressure to run for the White House, joined a crowded Democratic field yesterday, vowing to advance "a different kind of politics" in a campaign that could make him the nation's first African American president.  ...

It's early in the season, so we'll cut him some slack, but it isn't the job of the President to work on eliminating the partisan bitterness in politics. Most of that revolves around Congress anyway, and Obama would have more impact working on that goal from his current position -- which to be fair, he has. The President's job is to run the executive branch -- and for that task, we generally don't find a lack of experience to be an asset. ...

***

Barack Obama- Straight up cake boy
Posted By Uncle Jimbo

Ok I've got it, it was actually there all along but I needed the audio. I am becoming resigned to President Barack Hussein Obama, as he is perfectly inoffensive and custom-made for the feel-good, look-good mentality of far too many Americans.

They liked Clinton because he was likeable to them, and so is Obama. Yeah, fine go ahead and elect the empty suit, but know full well and good that I'm gonna keep making fun of him. So here is the latest salvo, a classic B-side from the Sultan of Seattle- Sir Mix A-Lot. ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 17, 2007 at 01:15 AM in Barack Obama | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sunday, 14 January 2007
 

Wicked
Contributed by The Gray Dog

The true story of what happened in Oz before Dorothy landed.

Click here to watch "Wicked"

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 14, 2007 at 12:45 PM in Barack Obama, Dem Dumbness, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 08 January 2007
 

Obama at the beach

OK, Dogs, don't say I never done nuthin' fur ya. After that email discussion earlier I guess it's only fair to give you a little Obamania fix.

Obama's Big Splash

People captured Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) trip to a Hawaiian beach New Year's Day. His photo appears next to those of Penelope Cruz and Hugh Jackman.

[image]

Bathing cap tip: Mary Katharine Ham

Ian Schwartz has more here, including some pics your really don't want to see.

Contributed by Bill Faith on January 8, 2007 at 08:33 PM in Barack Obama | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 20 December 2006
 

His Record Is Enough

Barack Obama, U.S. senator
2006.12.19 Washington Times Editorial

Supporters, or at least believers, in a Barack Obama presidential campaign have grouped around single theme: Mr. Obama will -- how is much harder to explain -- transcend partisan politics in ways reminiscent of an FDR, JFK or Ronald Reagan. For argument's sake, we'll assume the fiction that these presidents were non-polarizing figures. The myth of all is that each managed to appeal to most of the country in a non-ideological way, neither liberal nor conservative, Republican nor Democrat.

With a relatively unknown candidate like Mr. Obama, the most skeptics can do to effectively counter this argument is look at his meager legislative record to find clues as to what kind of president he might make. We did precisely that on Dec. 14 with Mr. Obama's record in the Illinois legislature between 1996 and 2004. Today we turn to his two years in the U.S. Senate:

[...]

As with his Illinois state Senate days, the impression one gets from Mr. Obama's brief tenure as a U.S. senator is that he is an unabashed liberal. And one would be right. But Mr. Obama only rarely talks like a liberal and he hasn't done much for the cause of liberalism. Although a longtime critic of the Iraq war, Mr. Obama hasn't been as vocal as, say, Rep. Jack Murtha. Although he voted against Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, Mr. Obama hasn't staked out much territory on judicial issues like abortion or homosexual "marriage." In fact, Mr. Obama hasn't done much at all on any particular issue aside from obediently follow his party. His self-deprecating explanation is that he is a first-term senator just learning the ropes.

For now, Mr. Obama's trick of voting like a liberal and talking like a moderate is working. But if he truly envisions himself in the mold of presidents his supporters so often compare him to, eventually Mr. Obama will have to take a stand. Until then, he's just another Democrat who's more liberal than Hillary Clinton.

***

His Record Is Enough
Ed Morrissey

Barack Obama has had a dramatic effect on the blogosphere since dropping his fat hint that he might run for president in 2008. I've written about Obama on more than a few occasions, since I think Obama will be with us for the long run, especially given the political balance in Illinois and his potent speaking skills. The port side of the blogosphere has mostly swooned over his steadfast support for the liberal party line, while the starboard side has started to look unhinged over his potential candidacy in 2008.

The latest round started with Debbie Schlussel, who insists that Obama is a closet Muslim:

[...]

I like Debbie and think she contributes an important voice to the blogosphere, but this is not serious thinking. First, it makes little difference to me who the "Arab and Muslim streets" considers Muslim. The Arab street also thinks that the Holocaust never occurred but that it sounds like a nifty idea. In reading the Qur'an, we get the opinion that Jesus was Muslim, and certainly Muslims today will argue that point; does that make it so? People decide their own religion and are responsible to God for that personal choice. "Muslim streets" do not get to determine the faith of free men. The very statement that Obama "may think he's a Christian" in a sense that minimizes his own choice of faith is, well, unhinged.

Baldilocks takes Debbie to task for this:

Like me, Senator Obama wasn’t even raised by his biological father* and, though he had an Indonesian step-father who was probably a Muslim, he says that he is a Christian. And, like me, Obama has been long interested in knowing more about his heritage--probably since, like me, Obama was born and raised here in our beloved USA with a zero amount of it, outside of our middle and surnames. And, unlike most black Americans, the senator and I are blessed enough to know at least some part of our African heritage--something that is very prized among the mostly slave-descended black American population.  ...

Baldilocks warns conservatives that these kinds of attacks will backfire, and I agree. They will do much more damage to us than Obama simply because they are completely unreasonable. They attack Obama not for what he says or does, but for aspects of his life over which he had no control.

Besides being self-defeating, these arguments detract from the Senator's record, which gives ample basis for criticism. For one thing, Obama has almost none at the federal level, save for the federal spending database that he co-sponsored with Tom Coburn. His record in the Illinois legislature has more substance, but is chock-full of the kind of liberal orthodoxy that puts him closer to Russ Feingold than Hillary Clinton. The Right hasn't even bothered to scratch the surface of that record, a more worthy effort than trying to include Obama's last name in every reference. ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on December 20, 2006 at 12:12 AM in Barack Obama, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Monday, 18 December 2006
 

Lives of the rich and famous: The Obamas
Thomas Lifson

Poor Mrs. Barack  Obama! "My income is pretty low compared to my peers" she says.

How much is she scraping by on?

According to a tax return released by the senator this week, the promotion nearly tripled her income from the hospitals to $316,962 in 2005 from $121,910 in 2004.

Her income coincidentally jumped when her husband was elected to the United States Senate. She handles "community outreach" for the University of Chicago Hospitals, which does indeed sound like vital work, right up there with open heart surgery.

But wait, there's more, as the late night television commercials assure us. Hubby bashes Wal-Mart, following the union boss catechism:

The Chicagoan who would be president - maybe - told members of a union-backed coalition that they have "a moral responsibility to stand up and fight" the big retailer. "The battle to engage Wal-Mart and force them to examine their own corporate values and what their policies and approaches are to their workers . . . is absolutely vital," the Associated Press quoted the U.S. senator as saying.

But Mrs. Obama is a director of a certain company:

Michelle, make $45,000 a year serving on the board of a Chicago-area company that pays its executives a very hefty amount of money while laying off mostly minority workers in an economically deprived area, a company whose No. 1 customer is - you guessed it - Wal-Mart?

The story, by Greg Hinz of Crain's Chicago Business continues: ...

***

Not So Fast
Why Barack Obama may not run.
John Fund

Just about everybody seems convinced that Sen. Barack Obama is going to run for president. The Chicago Sun-Times, his hometown paper, is writing as if his candidacy is an established fact. Newsweek magazine cites sources close to him who claim that he's "about 80 percent" certain to run. Obamamania will continue to build until the Illinois senator announces next month . . .

Time out. Let's look at the 1 in 5 chance that even his own advisers say he won't run. I think it's greater than that. We've been here before with the Big Media clamoring for an attractive black candidate to make history. In 1995 there was a similar push to get Colin Powell to run, but he wisely demurred, citing family concerns about his security and the belief that he couldn't win the GOP nomination. Mr. Obama may similarly surprise everyone by not running this time. That may be wind up being best both for the country and for Mr. Obama.

On one level, the palpable enthusiasm for his fresh face is welcome. "He's a walking, talking hope machine," Mark McKinnon, a former Bush media strategist now advising Sen. John McCain, tells National Journal. Who better to help the country get over its racial hang-ups than a 45-year-old man who was born in multiethnic Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya and who grew up partly in Indonesia? He's the political equivalent of Tiger Woods. ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on December 18, 2006 at 12:56 PM in Barack Obama, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, 15 December 2006
 

Scandal On The Edge Of Tomorrow

The Daily Obama
Tom Bevan

We could probably fill an entire page every day just tracking media coverage of Barack Obama. Today's offerings include Peggy Noonan and Rosa Brooks, and also this lengthy report by Chicago Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson on his interview with Obama yesterday.

In the piece, Obama says that a potential match up against John McCain would be portrayed as "War hero against snot-nosed rookie." Obama also commented on his now widely noted real estate deal with the sleazy, indicted Tony Rezko:

Obama acknowledged "it was stupid" of him to get involved in the purchase almost one year ago of a strip of property adjoining his $1.65 million home from Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who owned a vacant lot next door. Rezko, a political insider and fundraiser, was indicted in October on charges of trying to extort campaign donations and kickbacks from firms seeking state business. Rezko has pleaded not guilty.

"I am the first one to acknowledge that it was a boneheaded move for me to purchase this 10-foot strip from Rezko, given that he was already under a cloud of concern," Obama said. "I will also acknowledge that from his perspective, he no doubt believed that by buying the piece of property next to me that he would, if not be doing me a favor, it would help strengthen our relationship." ...

Scandal On The Edge Of Tomorrow
Ed Morrissey

Barack Obama has enjoyed a boomlet in the opening days of the 2008 Presidential campaign, becoming the not-Hillary of the moment. He has positioned himself well for at least a shot at the VP slot on the ticket, and despite his lack of experience and youth (two years in national office and 45 years old) has become a serious contender for the top position. He generates crowds and energy, and the money will not be long in following.

However, he has a potential scandal that has nibbled on the edges of political consciousness for the last few months. John Dickerson in Slate brings it a little closer to the center of debate for the 2008 race, wondering if it will prove damaging enough to Obama's hopes that it stops him:

The Chicago Tribune broke the story back in November. It begins in 2004 with Obama's $1.9 million book advance for The Audacity of Hope. In June 2005, Obama used the money to purchase a $1.65 million Georgian revival home on Chicago's South Side—$300,000 less than the asking price. On the very same day, Rezko, a Democratic Party fund-raiser and developer, bought the adjacent empty lot at the asking price from the same owner (the house and the lot were previously owned by the same person). Rezko, who had raised money for Obama and known him since the senator attended Harvard Law School, did not develop the empty lot. In January 2006, he sold a 1,500-square-foot slice of it to Obama for $104,000, a fair sum in that market.

Here's the question: Did Rezko orchestrate his same-day purchase of the lot at full price so that the seller would give Obama a break on the price of the adjacent house? Was Obama in on the deal? And did Rezko never intend to develop the lot, giving Obama a nice roomy side yard, a favor which he'd call in later?

Since the sale, Rezko's business practices have made headlines in Chicago. Right now he faces a 24-count federal indictment for corruption, specifically in arranging kickbacks for government contracts he helped facilitate. Rezko reportedly has started cooperating with the feds, and Dickerson wonders whether that will include information on Obama's coincidental purchase. ...

Contributed by Bill Faith on December 15, 2006 at 11:32 AM in Barack Obama, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack