Blue Spot

A week after his 57-state remark, Obama puts himself in the wrong city : Top of the Ticket : Los Angeles Times

Both South Dakotans lavished all sorts of praise on Obama, according to reporters present, including The Times Nicholas Riccardi. As the large, enthusiastic crowd of some 7,000 supporters roared and waved "We can do it" signs and Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" blared, Obama bounded onto stage, grabbed the microphone and said, "Thank you, Sioux City!"

Trouble is, Obama was in Sioux Falls.

So was the crowd, which suddenly fell silent. Where are those Southwest Airlines get-away flights when you need them?

"I'm sorry," Obama quickly caught himself. "Sioux Falls. I've been in Iowa too long." Now, that line may not go over too well in the Hawkeye State, which gave him his first big caucus win way back in January.

Obama went on to give yet another rousing stump speech, seeking support in the state's primary June 3, the last one along with Montana. The Dakota crowd was enthusiastic. And the freshman Illinois senator threw in several extra references to South Dakota for good measure.

On to who knows where now?

Labels: Election 2008, Obama

Clinton Ad Casts Pundits As Out of Touch - From The Road

LOS ANGELES -- Hillary Clinton released a new ad in Oregon today that casts political pundits as out of touch with what voters in that state care about.

The ad, entitled “What’s Right,” suggests that voters should ignore “pundits in Washington” and shows video of ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, and Tim Russert.

“In Washington, they talk about who's up and who's down,” the ad’s announcer says. “In Oregon, we care about what's right and what's wrong.”

The ad goes on to list Clinton’s proposals to end No Child Left Behind, create a universal healthcare system, and says she opposed a Bush energy bill to control liquefied gas sites on Oregon’s coast.

The ad highlights a frustration the Clinton campaign is suffering from as they try to continue to gain support through the six primaries running up to June 3rd – the date through which she has vowed to stay in the race. The Clinton campaign has become increasingly aggravated with members of the media who deduce that she has little chance of regaining her lead in the delegate count and pulling ahead of Senator Obama.

Labels: Clueless Pundits, Election 2008, Hillary, Media bias

Edwards rules out vice presidential run with Obama | Politics | Reuters

By David Alexander

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former presidential contender John Edwards said on Friday he would not be Democratic front-runner Barack Obama's running mate, but did not rule out taking a role in an Obama administration.

"Won't happen," Edwards told NBC's "Today" program when asked if he would be Obama's vice presidential pick. "This is not something I'm interested in."

Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, dropped out of the presidential race in January after failing to win any early primaries. On Wednesday, he gave his coveted endorsement to Obama over rival Hillary Clinton.

Asked if he had spoken Obama about a role in his administration if he beat Republican John McCain in November, Edwards said, "Only in the most abstract way."

Edwards said Obama had told him, "I want you on my team. I want to help you both in the campaign and with the work we want to do when I'm the president."

His endorsement of Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, came the day after Clinton won a landslide victory in West Virginia that renewed doubts about Obama's ability to draw white low-income voters.

Edwards denied his endorsement had been deliberately timed to take the wind out of her victory.

Labels: Election 2008, John Edwards, Obama

Before al the hugs & kisses, they were political rivals. Here's a great clip that shows Edwards asking Obama a question that to this day he has not adequately answered: Why did you vote 'present' 100 times?

Labels: Debates, Election 2008, John Edwards, Obama

While Republican incumbent, Rep. Vito Fossella is contemplating his political future due to a recent scandal, Democrat Steve Harrison is fighting for the chance to serve NY-13.

(Staten Island/Brooklyn) Vito Fossella’s Democratic opponent for the Staten Island/Southwest Brooklyn based NY 13th Congressional District seat, Steve Harrison, has received a flurry of endorsements recently including a 2800+ person strong independent New York City group that’s part of a national grassroots network founded by Howard Dean. Other recent Harrison endorsements include two African American political leaders, a union president and Staten Island and Brooklyn district leaders.

Democracy for New York City (DFNYC), which is part of a coalition of independent grassroots groups nationwide belonging to the Democracy for America” (DFA) network, has endorsed Harrison with an unprecedented 100 percent of the vote. DFA was founded by Democratic National Committee chair and former presidential candidate Howard Dean and is run by his brother Jim.

Organizer Tracy Denton says her organization will provide troops for Harrison.

"We are very excited to mobilize our volunteer base to help Steve Harrison, a solid Democrat who will not be afraid to stand up on the issues that matter."

She adds “As part of a national network of Democracy for America groups all across the country, we are seeing that voters want to return a Democratic majority to Congress, but not just any Democrats. They want to support Democratic candidates who will be strong enough to do what it takes to end this war in Iraq and bring our troops home. The future looks good for good Democrats like Steve Harrison."

Kelvin Alexander, co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement has endorsed Harrison because he will fight for those who can not fight for themselves.

“Steve has the energy, desire and passion to fight for those left out of by the system.”

Alexander founded 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement with Eric Adams, now a State Senator, in 1995. Kelvin is Adams’s chief of staff and is a former State Senate and Assembly candidate in Staten Island.

Harrison has recently received the endorsement of another Staten Island African American leader, Debi Rose, past president of the African American Political Association and an Obama delegate. Ms. Rose is a 2009 candidate to replace term limited City Councilman Mike McMahon. Rose came within 170 votes of defeating McMahon in the 2001 primary.

Other recent Harrison endorsements include John Strika, President of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Local 806, Marc Zink, Staten Island’s 61st Assembly District Leader and Joanne Seminara, 60th Assembly District Leader (Brooklyn/Staten Island).

Harrison says he received these endorsements because of his issue stances.

“I am proud of these endorsements. These groups and individuals endorsed me because of my opposition to the war in Iraq and support for civil liberties protection, universal, single-payer healthcare, a solid energy policy, fair trade, repeal of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations and ethics reform, all of which are in line with the thinking of the majority of Americans.”

Other Harrison endorsements include: The Democratic Advancement Political Action Committee (DAPAC), the Progressive Democrats of America, the Staten Island Democratic Association, the Democratic Organization of Richmond County, the American Heritage Democratic Organization, legendary feminist Gloria Steinem, former judge and Assembly member Frank Barbaro and 60th AD District Leader Ralph Perfetto.

Labels: endorsement, Fossella, Local, NY-13, Steve Harrison

On last night's Hardball, Chris Matthews, with a little help from his tag-team partner, Andrea Mitchell, continued the latest meme that people not voting for Obama are dumb racists. Buchanan does his best to call him out on it. Later in the discussion, Matthews' "white guilt" becomes very visible. He tries to come back with a lame excuse when asked why West Virginians are considered racists for not voting for Obama but no such claims are made of blacks who have been voting for Obama at about 90%. According to Matthews there is a difference between "negative voting and positive voting." So is that supposed to mean if we vote for Obama, that's positive but if we vote for Hillary that's negative? The fawning is so blantant, it's disgusting.

Labels: Cultural issues, Election 2008, Obama, Race

While the media has already decided who the Democratic nominee will be, and the Democratic leaders have chosen to disenfranchise millions of voters, the voters of still want to have their say. Here are a few of those voices on C-Span last night.

Labels: Comment, Cultural issues, Election 2008, Hillary

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Hillary Clinton chokes up in CNN interview « - Blogs from CNN.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Hillary Clinton choked up Wednesday as she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that her daughter's presence on the campaign trail had been one of the "most incredibly gratifying experiences of my life."

"Well, it's one of the most incredibly gratifying experiences of my life, as a person and as a mother. I get very emotional," she said. "She is an exceptional person, and she's worked so hard, and she's done such a good job that I'm just filled with pride every time I look at her.

"Obviously, we are very close. We are in communication all the time. But she is doing this because she believes I'd be a good president, but also because she cares so much about our country's future. She did grow up in the White House. She knows what a difference a president makes. If anybody ever doubted what difference a president makes, after seven years of George Bush, I think the doubts should be put to rest.

"So she's doing it because she's my daughter, but she's doing it because, as she says, she's a young American who cares about our future."

Labels: Chelsea, Election 2008, Hillary

Labels: Election 2008, Obama supporters, voting rights

Opinion Obama supporters unwise to attack Hillary Clinton Seattle Times Newspaper

Many in the Barack Obama camp, having outfoxed the apparently not-so-formidable Hillary Clinton machine, can't seem to get the hang of winning gracefully. They feel a need to drive a stake in Hillary Clinton's reputation, then dance. If they were smart, they'd heap praise on Clinton and let her finish out the race, however she chooses to do so.

That's sage advice, even though offered by Republican mastermind-turned-pundit Karl Rove. Treat Clinton shabbily, he says, and many of her supporters "will remember it by November."

Nonetheless, Obamites are throwing victory parties over the impending defeat of a fellow Democrat who has thus far pulled in more than 47 percent of their party's primary and caucus participants. Some take a more direct approach. In anticipation of the West Virginia primary, college students for Obama were hurling insults at farmers and truck drivers holding signs for Clinton.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, unable to contain himself, administered one last kick to Clinton's dignity by opining that the New York senator lacks the "real leadership" needed for the job of vice president. He said that Obama should pick someone who is "in tune with his appeal for the nobler aspirations of the American people."

So much for the nobility of aspirations held by his own state's Democratic primary voters, who preferred Clinton over Obama by 15 percentage points. Next door in Rhode Island, Rep. Patrick Kennedy dittoes Dad as an unwavering superdelegate for Obama — this despite Clinton's 18-point win in that state's primary. It's as if the voters are invisible.

Disrespecting the nearly 17 million who have supported Clinton is politically unwise, but turning them into "the enemy" is insane. Last week's enemy was working-class white people. The Democrats can win without a majority of white voters — as Obama strategists undiplomatically note — but they can't win without a strong showing among them.

So Obama partisans do not help their cause by willfully misrepresenting Clinton's reference to "hard-working Americans, white Americans" as racist rather than as a poorly worded observation made in a state of utter exhaustion. The fervor of their outrage suggests that some regard the mere consideration of white people, particularly white men, as a demographic needing a special message is an act of bigotry. (That's as opposed to a thousand other racial and socio-economic groups that politicos routinely slice and dice.)

We now hear pained remarks from the Obama camp that many white men won't vote for any black. Oh really? No one was complaining during the early races in Iowa, Maryland, Virginia and Wisconsin, when most of the white male participants backed Obama. That was before the Rev. Jeremiah Wright ugliness became public.

Weirdly, Obamite triumphalism seems to be merging with the festivities on the Republican side. You can understand why the right would welcome what it prays is "the end of the Clinton era." Bill Clinton presided over the longest peacetime expansion since World War II. His budget surpluses put his so-called conservative predecessors and successor to shame. Wouldn't a vow to build on the Clinton legacy, rather than dismantle it, be a better tack for the Obama campaign?

By the way, Clinton's continued sparring with Obama does not hurt the Illinois senator's chances in November. It only crowds out Republican efforts along that line. Believe me, you'd rather have the Clinton version.

Obama can't beat John McCain without large chunks of Clinton's core constituency: women, Hispanics and the white working class. Dumping on their candidate is one step removed from dumping on them — and some of the Obama people don't even bother with that step. Rove must be enjoying the show.

Providence Journal columnist Froma Harrop's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is fharrop@projo.com

Labels: Election 2008, Obama supporters

Racism on the trail - War Room - Salon.com

On Tuesday, the Washington Post's Kevin Merida reported on a phenomenon that's apparently all too common:

For all the hope and excitement [Barack] Obama's candidacy is generating, some of his field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed -- and unreported -- this election season. Doors have been slammed in their faces. They've been called racially derogatory names (including the white volunteers). And they've endured malicious rants and ugly stereotyping from people who can't fathom that the senator from Illinois could become the first African American president.

The Post story does lack some context, though. At times it's difficult to tell whether the aggressors in the anecdotes Merida relays are Democrats or Republicans. For all we know, some could just be jerky kids out to prove they're big by saying something shocking and stupid, rather than truly representative of feelings in their larger community.

The reaction to Merida's article from bloggers on the right has been fascinating to read. Their primary feeling, apparently, is that this is just another example of liberal media bias covering for Obama -- and that this proves Democrats are racist. The former sentiment was summed up at the Jawa Report, where one poster headlined his discussion of the article "Obama General Election Strategy Taking Shape" and wrote:

When a story hits this many outlets simultaneously it's pretty clear that there is a coordinated effort to establish a new "meme." This meme: if you're white and vote against Obama, you're an ignorant racist.

This will be a common theme right through the election in November: racism may cost Barack, the post-racial candidate, the election (white racism that is, blacks voting over 90 percent for Obama isn't "racism." It's payback, just like the verdicts in the Reginald Denny case were payback).

This is what decades of affirmative action and racial victimhood politics have done to American society.

Writing at the National Review's Campaign Spot blog, Jim Geraghty said, "The Washington Post picks an interesting day to run a front-page feature story on volunteers for the Obama campaign encountering blatant racism ... the timing of the article, coupled with its relentless portrait of voters driven by ferocious, unmitigated bigotry, certainly feels like a prepared excuse for a blowout loss for Obama tonight."

Labels: Cultural issues, Election 2008, Obama supporters, Race

I can't remember a time I ever agreed with Cokie Roberts, but this week on "This Week" she actually made some sense. Here she is blasting the media for the "blantant sexism" they have shown throughout their coverage of the election.

Labels: Clueless Pundits, Election 2008, Hillary, Media bias, sexism

In case you missed it, here's the first part of the Terry McAuliffe interview on Meet the Press.

Labels: Election 2008, Hillary, Media, Terry McAuliffe

NY1: Politics

There may be more fallout from Congressman Vito Fossella's admission he fathered a daughter with a woman in Virginia.

The Daily News says congressional officials are looking into several of Fossella's overseas trips, including a January 2003 stay in France.

Though he was the only legislator authorized to go on the trip, billed as a "fact finding" mission to a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, the Daily News says the woman he fathered a child with is suspected of joining him. In early 2003, Laura Fay was an Air Force legislative liaison officer who often traveled with congressional delegations.

NY1 has reached out to Fossella's office for comment on the allegations, but so far have not heard back.

Labels: corruption, Fossella, Local, NY-13

Emanuel to Kennedy: Thats Not Nice - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog

On a day when it seemed that everybody was beating up on Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton — even “Saturday Night Live” had run a skit making fun of her -– one person came to her defense on Sunday: Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, a top Democrat in the House.

Mr. Emanuel called to assail Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, for remarks he made when asked about the possibility of Senator Barack Obama of Illinois choosing Mrs. Clinton, of New York, as his running-mate.
“I have a lot of respect for Ted Kennedy, but I don’t know how the hell he comes off saying that,” said Mr. Emanuel, who has ties to Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama and has not endorsed in the race. “The gratuitous attack on her is uncalled for and wrong. He is a better senator than that comment reveals.”

Mr. Emanuel was responding to an interview with Mr. Kennedy on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt.” In the interview, Mr. Kennedy said he did not think it was possible that Mr. Obama, whom Mr. Kennedy has endorsed, would pick Mrs. Clinton for his ticket should he clinch the nomination.

He went on to say that Mr. Obama should pick someone who was “in tune with his appeal for the nobler aspirations of the American people,” adding, “If we had real leadership — as we do with Barack Obama — in the No. 2 spot as well, it’d be enormously helpful.”

Mr. Kennedy’s office said that his remarks had been misconstrued and that he had not been talking about Mrs. Clinton when saying what kind of candidate Mr. Obama should turn to. “Senator Kennedy believes Senator Clinton is qualified to be vice president but doesn’t think it’s likely given the tenor of the campaign,” said Mr. Kennedy’s spokesman, Anthony Colley.

Labels: Election 2008, Hillary, The Kennedys

The Campaign Spot on National Review Online
So now that Obama sees the finish line, the media is lining up right behind him trying to push him forward. As if winning the nomination will automatically get him in the White House. Why even bother with a general election in November? The media has already determined the winner.

...you would think their readers might deserve to know what prompted McCain's campaign to suggest that Obama is the candidate of Hamas, i.e., top Hamas
political adviser Ahmed Yousef saying the terrorist group supports Obama’s
foreign-policy vision and hopes he wins:

“We don’t mind–actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not
with domination and arrogance,” Yousef said in response to a question about the group’s willingness to meet with either of the Democratic presidential candidates.

I mean, seriously, one of his advisers, Rob Malley, was holding meetings with Hamas, and Obama's promised to hold unconditional face-to-face presidential summits with
the guy who's funding and encouraging Hamas.

Labels: Clueless Pundits, Election 2008, Media bias, Obama, Terrorism

Diana Williams discusses Vito Fossella's (NY-13) political future on Eyewitness News Close Up, with Tom Wrobleski of the Staten Island Advance. Oddly, neither of the Dems currently fighting for the Democratic nomination, Recchia or Harrison, were mentioned. Steve Harrison, who lives in the district (Recchia does not) lost to Fossella in 2006 by 14 points, but was extremely under-funded. This year Harrison has gained some key endorsements, including the DFNYC.

Labels: Fossella, GOP Hypocrisy, NY-13, Steve Harrison