Presidential Hopeful ...

[black widow]

Her every step over the last 17 months was captured by a legion of cameramen and a press corps of journalists from around the world. But for the last 7 days, Hillary Clinton has been nowhere to seen, and Washington is speculating about where exactly the ubiquitous New York senator has gone.

Is she camping out in her Georgetown home or is the former presidential candidate back at her Chappaqua estate? Perhaps she ventured to an isolated vacation spot, far removed from cable news and the political chattering class. Members of her formal presidential campaign and her Senate staff aren't saying.

Obama plans to meet with Clinton on June 26 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington.

He's been busy with McCain whose aides criticized Obama for talking about using the criminal justice system to prosecute terrorists. "Senator Obama is a perfect manifestation a September 10th mind-set ... He does not understand the nature of the enemies we face," McCain national security director Randy Scheunemann told reporters on a conference call. Former CIA director James Woolsey, who is advising the McCain campaign, concurred, saying Obama has "an extremely dangerous and extremely naive approach toward terrorism ... and toward dealing with prisoners captured overseas who have been engaged in terrorist attacks against the United States." The Obama campaign countered with its own conference call in which Democrat Sen. John Kerry, and Richard Clarke, a counterterrorism official in Republican and Democratic administrations, argued the McCain campaign was emulating Rove.

And yes, Obama advisers said yesterday Osama would get access to court. If al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is captured, he should be allowed to appeal his case to U.S. civilian courts, according to Sen. Barack Obama's foreign policy advisers.

Over the past few weeks, the Republican National Committee has made it a point of pride to send out memos portraying a great fissure between the respective camps of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Last Thursday, for instance, saw an email with the subject line "The Healing Process Was Far From Over." Earlier the party blasted out stories showing Clinton supporters demanding a vote at the Democratic Convention. Then, when that vote was granted on Thursday, the RNC sent out a clip from Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News, titled "Barack Obama blinks in Hillary face-off." It's enough to give the impression (certainly, it's designed to give the impression) that chaos is ripping apart the Democratic Party, leading waves of Clinton backers to the precipice of defecting to John McCain.

It is almost completely untrue. In actuality, as Marc Ambinder noted on Friday and as several Clinton confidantes have told the Huffington Post, the two Democrats are far closer towards political unity than imagined when their primary fight ended. "This is all a tempest in a teapot driven by a whole lot of media sources and the RNC looking to make trouble," said Mike Berman, a longtime Democratic hand and friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Moreover, Thursday's announcement that Clinton would get a roll call vote at the convention -- in the process placating her supporters and providing her with the chance to state her support for Obama -- is seen even by the most hardened Clinton fanatics as an important step towards reconciliation. "I was on record saying I didn't think this was a good idea, because I was worried about the PUMA [Party Unity My Ass] supporters, people who are indifferent to a McCain presidency and are only driven by anger, which is not to criticize them, that is a genuine emotion," Lanny Davis, one of Clinton's more vocal supporters, told the Huffington Post. "That is reality and I thought that giving her a roll call vote would be destructive and counterproductive at the convention, because it is impossible to control the way the media would cover it. The most vocal Obama critics would be surround by 50 television cameras and be given their 50 seconds of fame." It turned out, Davis went on, "that I had less faith than my candidate and Sen. Obama... The compromise they have just announced pulls off the exact solution that allows people to cast their votes and allows people like me to separate ourselves from the five percent of folks who weren't going to support Obama no matter what."

So how to explain the incessant speculation that the Clinton and Obama camps are irreconcilably at odds? There are a number of theories. The primary battles, which went on longer than any prior, are still fresh in people's minds. Bill Clinton's off-the-cuff failure to offer even the slightest hint of rhetorical support for Obama is giving observers a false impression. Certainly the relatively slow mutual fundraising efforts haven't helped matters. And the occasional political misstep (like, say, having a "Pray for HRC and her supporters" event posted on Obama's website by his backers) is an irritant as well. But the most significant contributor towards the overstated perception of animosity is also the most obvious: the individuals invested in the idea that Obama and Clinton cannot overcome their differences are the ones speaking the loudest. On Friday, a superdelegate told the Huffington Post that after the roll call vote was announced, she was sent more than 250 separate emails from PUMA representatives urging her to buck the primary results.

"The Democratic VOTERS want you to support a real winner and leader. The American PEOPLE want you to. Common Sense wants you to. A commitment to DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES wants you to.

PLEASE DO THE RIGHT THING. AMERICAN DEMOCRATS AND VOTERS WILL SUPPORT YOU FOR YOUR COURAGE AND WILLINGNESS TO STAND UP TO PARTY INSIDERS BY REPRESENTING THE VOICE OF THE VOTERS."

There is no similar effort, for obvious reasons, coming from Clinton supporters who are content with how the process has played out. Then, of course, there is the Republican Party, which directly benefits from the perception of irreconcilable differences between the two camps. John McCain, for starters, has made direct overtures to Clinton backers. The RNC, meanwhile, has resorted to an email campaign that seems more designed to drive a media narrative than document actual political events. "I don't think Hillary has pushed [the Obama camp] hard about what she wanted in particular... so I don't know what the big deal is. People are looking to make something that is not here, which is my view. And if it is the Republicans doing it that drives home the point that they are making something out of nothing," said Berman. "She will give a great speech at the convention. Her supporters will cheer for her vigorously, and then Obama will take it over and very few people will remember that there was ever talk of problems."

[mousie]

[...] "The Rev. Jeremiah Wright went to Washington on Monday not to praise Barack Obama, but to bury him." He noted that Wright, pastor of the largest congregation in Chicago's South Side, "has been a very savvy operator, politically and otherwise, for decades ... He knows exactly what he's doing." [...]

It is really a shame that black community leaders (quite obviously doing it deliberately) are rallying against Obama now that he's so close to becoming President, the latest instance being Jesse Jackson. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS883xWTKOg&feature=related

Jesse Jackson has been jealous of Barrack since he ran for Senate. Jesse Jackson is the east end of a horse going west.

Jesse is JEALOUS of Obama. Obama is one of many African Americans born to a teenage mother and raised without a father. It has nothing to do with being upwardly mobile or bougie. It has to do with recognizing that you are more than your environment. It is the person who decides that he deserve better. Jesse isn't saying that the boys to impregnate women and abandon their families need to step up. He coddles and perpetuates the mentality that it is okay to be a deadbeat. It is okay to not own up to the responsibility. Well, it isn't okay. And a new generation of black leadership needs to continue to say that you can do better. You own your destiny. You create the paths. And as long as you stay in the barrel you will remain with the crabs, each pulling you down. Obama sets the example that you can achieve what you believe you can do. You define your destiny, by tooth and nail. Michelle Obama and her brother are also believers in this mentality.

Jesse's statement shows his GREEN EYE OF JEALOUSY. The root cause of Jesse's statement is based upon his "legacy" and self-created position as a leader in the black community who just could not make it to become President as Barack appears to be on the way to.

[Kirk Lazarus]

I don't think your characterization is accurate or fair mousie.

[ambulando]

Barack Obama says he's decided on a running m8, but he won't say who.

http://img253.imageshack.us/my.php?image=58355742ao6.jpg

Well, in that case, I guess, we know who he's.

[Lonnie]

In a blistering new ad, John McCain's campaign accused Barack Obama of passing over Hillary Clinton as his running mate because she pointed out his flaws during the Democratic primaries. Obama announced Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as his vice presidential pick Saturday, following reports that Clinton was not even vetted for the job. McCain's ad capitalizes on the lingering tension between Obama and Clinton's supporters, with just one day remaining until the DNC in Denver.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NrQ36Djf2E

"She won millions of votes. But isn't on his ticket. Why? For speaking the truth," the narrator in the ad says.

The ad then quotes Clinton criticizing Obama for being vague and "increasingly negative."

"The truth hurt. And Obama didn't like it," the narrator says.

WELL, I can tell you Clinton was never a real VP candidate (not that she really wanted to be in Obama's ticket, for that matter). It was all over when she conceded the race to him at the beginning of June.

[grand/grand]

Reading this thread and watching Obama's rise brought to my mind Spiro Theodore Agnew, the 39th Vice President of the United States (and the first Greek American in that capacity) serving under Nixon. He is noted for his quick rise in politics -- going in 6 years from County Executive to Vice President of the United States.

[maac]

Sen. Hillary Clinton on Tuesday is expected to urge her supporters to rally behind Sen. Barack Obama in her headline address before the Democratic National Convention. The New York senator's speech is one of the most anticipated events of the four-day convention in Denver, Colorado.



Obama and Clinton battled it out in a protracted primary season that finally ended when Clinton suspended her campaign in early June. Since then, polls have shown that some of her supporters are hesitant to embrace Obama as their party's nominee. Some of her backers have said they plan to either not vote or vote for Republican candidate John McCain instead. On Tuesday night, Clinton will make her case for why her onetime rival should be the next president of the United States.

James Carville, a CNN contributor and Democratic strategist, said Clinton on Tuesday would "set the table" for Obama's Thursday speech accepting his party's nomination. "This is going to be a very nice table that she's going to set. Then Thursday night, I think Sen. Obama has got to come in [and] do the meal," Carville said. She will also express her appreciation for those who supported her primary bid and focus on the differences between Obama and McCain, not those between herself and the Illinois senator. Asked whether she was excited about the night, Clinton said, "you bet."

The convention's second day kicked off Tuesday afternoon. Two-time Democratic presidential candidate and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich got delegates at the convention on their feet as he called on Americans to "wake up." Kucinich slammed the Bush administration, saying, "If there were an Olympics for misleading, mismanaging and misappropriating, this administration would take the gold." Bouncing on his feet and gesturing enthusiastically with his fist, he said corporate interests had taken over the United States. But, he said, America could fight back. "This administration can tap our phones; they can't tap our creative spirit," he said, closing his brief address with, "Up with Obama-Biden! Wake up, America! Wake up, America! Wake up, America!"

Kucinich was one of the early speakers on the second day of the convention in Denver, Colorado. Shortly after the start of Tuesday's session, one of the speakers, former John F. Kennedy adviser Theodore Sorensen, compared Obama to Kennedy. "Once in a lifetime, the poet said, once in a lifetime, hope and history meet in one extraordinary man. I thank the good Lord that I have lived long enough to meet and help such a man twice in my lifetime: John Kennedy and Barack Obama," Sorensen said. Speaking Tuesday will be 40 officeholders, including two mayors, 13 governors, 14 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 11 senators, nine of them women. In his first 2008 Democratic National Convention appearance, former President Clinton will be on hand at the Pepsi Center as his wife addresses the crowd, Democratic officials said Tuesday. They also hinted broadly that daughter Chelsea Clinton would be speaking Tuesday evening.

"Sometimes, it's good to watch the show," said a Democrat with knowledge of the evening's agenda. Bill Clinton will address the convention Wednesday.  The theme of Tuesday's program is "Renewing America's Promise." At least 60 speakers are expected to give remarks. Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner is the night's keynote speaker. Warner, who was governor from 2002 to 2006, is a U.S. senate candidate. Obama has been campaigning hard in Virginia, where 13 electoral votes are at stake. The state has not voted for a Democratic president since 1964. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will also speak Tuesday. She was considered a top contender for the VP spot before Obama picked Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware instead. Warner and Clinton will deliver full-length addresses Tuesday, but most of the other speakers will have four minutes or less to get their message out.

The Democratic delegates convened in Denver on Monday for the start of their convention. Obama officially accepts his party's nomination on the convention's final day. The first day's program featured a surprised speech from Sen. Edward Kennedy. The ailing liberal icon had only made one other public appearance since undergoing surgery for a brain tumor June 2. Kennedy brought the crowd to tears as he pledged to see Obama to the White House and his own return to the Senate floor. The other highlight of the evening was an address from Michelle Obama, the Democratic candidate's wife of nearly 16 years. She told the packed convention center stories from when she and Obama first met. The woman known as "the rock" in the Obama family also introduced herself as a sister, a mother and a "wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president." The woman who could become the next first lady also stressed her love for the country. She caused controversy earlier in the campaign season when she said she was really proud of the United States for the "first time" in her adult life. Those comments were replayed in attack ads from Republicans.

[elka]

In his first 2008 Democratic National Convention appearance, former President Clinton will be on hand at the Pepsi Center as his wife addresses the crowd, Democratic officials said Tuesday. They also hinted broadly that daughter Chelsea Clinton would be speaking Tuesday evening.

The Democratic delegates convened in Denver on Monday for the start of their convention. Obama officially accepts his party's nomination on the convention's final day. The first day's program featured a surprised speech from Sen. Edward Kennedy. The ailing liberal icon had only made one other public appearance since undergoing surgery for a brain tumor June 2. Kennedy brought the crowd to tears as he pledged to see Obama to the White House and his own return to the Senate floor. The other highlight of the evening was an address from Michelle Obama, the Democratic candidate's wife of nearly 16 years. She told the packed convention center stories from when she and Obama first met. The woman known as "the rock" in the Obama family also introduced herself as a sister, a mother and a "wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president." The woman who could become the next first lady also stressed her love for the country. She caused controversy earlier in the campaign season when she said she was really proud of the United States for the "first time" in her adult life. Those comments were replayed in attack ads from Republicans.

[c l o g]

In Monday night's Democratic presidential slugfest, er, debate in South Carolina, Clinton hit Obama with the charge that as a young lawyer he represented a now infamous Chicago "slumlord" named "Rezko." She was referring, of course, to one Antoin "Tony" Rezko, the indicted entrepreneur and friend of Illinois politicians, including Obama, whose fraud trial begins next month. It's interesting that of all the things Clinton went for, she chose the you-represented-a-slumlord charge. Clinton chose that allegation because she knew the word "slumlord" would resonate with a black audience in a state that has some of the poorest black communities in the nation. She was also talking to blacks beyond South Carolina as well, many of whom may be middle class now, but grew up in much poorer circumstances.


Senator Obama does not remember having conversations with Tony Rezko about properties that he owned.


For years after Rezko befriended Obama in the early 1990s, he helped bankroll the politician's campaigns. Then, after Obama's election to the U.S. Senate, Rezko engaged him in private financial deals to improve their adjoining South Side properties. Those arrangements became a source of lingering controversy after the Tribune first reported them in November 2006. Now Rezko's federal corruption trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 25. As Obama stumps for votes, coverage of the high-profile proceedings could bring fresh, unwelcome reminders for Obama of Rezko's influence in the same Illinois political world that propelled the senator to a serious run at the presidency. Both men declined to comment on their once-close friendship. Obama has been accused of no wrongdoing involving Rezko and has insisted that he never used his office to benefit Rezko.

Thus far, there is little in the public record to suggest otherwise, and the few exceptions that have come to light appear minor. On Capitol Hill, Obama once gave a summer internship to the son of a Rezko business associate on Rezko's recommendation. Earlier, as a state senator, Obama was one of several South Side political and community leaders who wrote state and city officials urging approval of public funding for a senior housing project involving Rezko. But when Rezko pushed for passage in Springfield of a major gambling measure, Obama vocally opposed it. Obama publicly apologized for his 2005 property deal with Rezko, calling it "boneheaded" because Rezko was widely reported to be under grand jury investigation at the time. And Obama has given to charities $85,000 in Rezko-linked campaign contributions, including $40,035 last weekend following a published report suggesting that Rezko funneled a $10,000 donation to Obama through a business associate. Aides to Obama say the senator had no knowledge of any such scheme...

As the rest of the country struggles with a housing crisis, reports surfaced that Obama has reaped the benefits of his "up-and-comer" status. According to the Washington Post, when Obama purchased his 1.65 million dollar mansion in Chicago, he locked in a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with an interest rate of 5.625% from Northern Trust, well below the average Chicagoan's rate. This loan was discovered following reports of questionable housing deals given to Democrats in Congress that may constitute illegal gifts from lenders.

It has long been suggested by now that if Obama's political career was created in what is believed to be the most politically corrupt city in the United States, then his background must be thoroughly checked in order to protect the people from possible corruption. The press must thoroughly investigate his political career in Chicago and Obama must disclose his Senate records. Although he started out in Chicago he is presented to the nation as not truly being of this place, as if he floats just above the political corruption of Chicago, untouched by the stain of it or by any sin of commission or omission. It is all so very mystical.

[treefity350]

He left Chicago for three years to study law at Harvard University, where he was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude.

At Punahou (high school) obama tried drugs and let his grades slip in his final years of high school. Teachers and fellow students at Punahou say that Obama wasn't a straight-A student, but they had high expectations for him. One of his teachers, Kusunoki, who has taught at Punahou for 33 years, adds that "[he] was very gifted, and I knew he'd do great things. But this well? On this stage? I never expected that."

How can someone who has not been at the top of his class in high school go ahead and become president of harvard law review? Anyone?!

Barack Obama, whom George W. Bush called "the pope," is America's new deity in the cult-of-personality. Obama who spoke eloquently against the federal marriage amendment, has launched the biggest Madison Avenue public relations snow job in American history. Witness the manufacture of consent. He boasts of being a "big believer" in the revered doctrine of separation of church and state. He has no legal objections to the gruesome process of partial-birth abortion, even though it is repugnant to his Christian beliefs. It's a woman's right to choose, you see. We must respect separation of church and state. It's the law. However, same-sex couples must be denied the fundamental right of civil marriage. He offers no legal reasons mind you. Oh no. This civil rights lawyer never states legal reasons. It's his "deep faith" you see, his "church history," and the "religious connotations" to marriage that mandate we be kept "separate but [not] equal." So much for being a big believer in separation of church and state.

If a civil rights lawyer walked into court and argued that fundamental civil rights should be denied solely for metaphysical reasons one could fairly wonder if he were a charlatan who found his law degree in a box of Cracker Jack. Legally, Obama's position on civil marriage is intellectual rubbish. Audacity indeed!

To demonstrate tolerance, however, he would enact prejudice into law with a civil union substitute for fundamental rights. This would institutionalize second-class citizenship while relegating gays to our own Jim Crow railroad car on America's new Freedom Train. It's not mere audacity but downright chutzpah, for an African American civil rights lawyer to oppose due process and equal protection for no reason other than deep faith and religious connotations. This demonstrates contempt for the doctrine of separation of church and state to which he pays lip-service. If one of Obama's law students gave his answer on a right to marry hypothetical s/he'd deservedly flunk the exam and might better serve the interests of justice by selling shoes at Macy's.

Unlike the revered Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, who used religious faith to fight against discrimination and exorcize it from the law, Obama's approach uses religion as an excuse to deny civil rights and legislate prejudice into law.

In fact, there is not a single quote from the bible condemning abortion. Fact.