“OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS Sunday April 20,2008

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

WELCOME TO “OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS

Sunday April 20,2008


Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., center, speaks
while passing by a train station in Wayne, Pa., Saturday, April 19, 2008.
Standing next to Sen. Obama is Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Esteemed DUer's, please consider taking a moment (or more) to graciously participate
by posting news and announcements about the Obama campaign on this thread. You can:

1. Post stories and announcements you find on the web. :think:

2. Re-post stories and announcements you find on DU,
providing a link to the original thread :applause:

3. Please "Recommend" for the Greatest Page :thumbsup:

4. Clinton supporters or “anti Obama posters please start your own “Clinton Daily News Thread”.

Get your DU-o-matic codificator (to format your posts) here
Read the Daily News Archives here

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

1. Obama to appear on "The Daily Show" Monday night -- will be via satellite from Pittsburgh

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6552769.html?industryid=47199

[grantcart]

2. Obama's GOP Shadow

Sen. Barack Obama leaves a whistle stop rally at the Paoli Rail Station April 19, 2008 in Paoli, Pa. (Getty Images)

By Shailagh Murray
PAOLI, Pa. -- Sen. Barack Obama's whistle-stop train tour is being covered live -- by the Republican National Committee and Sen. John McCain's campaign.

Obama infuriated the McCain camp when he unleashed a riff yesterday depicting the presumptive GOP nominee as clueless about the economy. At issue is an interview McCain gave Thursday to Bloomberg TV, where he observed of the past eight years, "you could make an argument that there's been great progress economically." McCain also noted "that's no comfort" to people who are hurting, but Obama seized on the first sentence and is repeating it in every speech as his train rolls through southeastern Pennsylvania.

Minutes after Obama spoke in Wynnewood, RNC spokesman Alex Conant e-mailed a rebuttal to reporters, protesting Obama's shorthand characterization. He declared Obama a tax hiker who "doesn't understand the American economy." Shortly after Obama wrapped up a rally in Paoli, Conant fired off another missive, although this time "understand" had been changed to "grasp." McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds weighed in a few minutes later, "Barack Obama doesn't understand the economy, and he's disguising it by distorting John McCain's comments."

Obama is drawing large crowds today, with hundreds of people gathering on platforms just to wave as the train passes by. For these "slow rolls," Obama stands on the back platform, draped with red, white and blue bunting, and waves to folks -- some of whom may be a little too caught up in the moment.

At the Bryn Mawr station, Obama supporters stood on the adjacent tracks to greet their candidate, ignoring the whistle of an oncoming train. "Get off the tracks, guys, there's a train coming," Obama warned twice, until they complied.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

3. NC: Elon Poll: Race, Gender, Age Won't Influence Voters' Presidential Choice

Elon Poll: Race, Gender, Age Won't Influence Voters' Presidential Choice
Last Edited: Friday, 18 Apr 2008,

The majority of North Carolina residents won't allow race, gender and age to impact how they vote in the upcoming presidential election, according to an Elon University poll. However, more than half of the respondents said they know someone whose decision will be tied to at least one of those characteristics.

The poll, conducted April 14-17, surveyed 543 North Carolina residents.

Ninety-one percent said race does not make a difference in how they vote. Seventy-nine percent said gender makes no difference, and 66 percent said age was not a factor in their voting decisions.

According to the poll, the top three qualities that influence North Carolina voters' evaluation of political candidates were overall experience, exaggerated statements and personality.

The poll also addressed approval ratings among the leading presidential and gubernatorial candidates.

Fifty-two percent identified Republican Senator John McCain as favorable or extremely favorable, followed by Democratic senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton with 49 and 44 percent, respectively.

On the state level, Democratic candidates for governor Beverly Perdue and Richard Moore were tied with 31 percent approval. Republican Pat McCrory is close behind with 29 percent approval rating.

http://www.myfoxwghp.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=6341003&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

4. NPR: Taking the Pulse of Pennsylvania Voters

Taking the Pulse of Pennsylvania Voters
Listen Now add to playlist
Weekend Edition Saturday, April 19, 2008 •

Sixty-two percent of voters polled who've switched their party registration to Democratic since January say they will vote for Sen. Barack Obama, says Terry Madonna, professor of politics at Franklin and Marshall College. The state has some 275,000 people newly eligible to vote in the Democratic primary.
Madonna talks to Scott Simon about his pollsters' findings and the mood of Pennsylvania's voters.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89785569

[grantcart]

5. Pennsylvania Sub Thread Look at what DUers are doing

Please go to these threads thank them and kick them

[grantcart]

7. Fantastic slilde show

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5585114&mesg_id=5585181

[grantcart]

8. Report from SpinBaby

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5581790&mesg_id=5581790

[grantcart]

10. Paoli PA Obama Rally Pics (dial-up warning)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5580582&mesg_id=5580582

[grantcart]

14. from the staging locations director in PA

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5585114&mesg_id=5585240

[grantcart]

15. Photos from the Whistle Stop

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5583103

[grantcart]

17. Enough with the big rallies Obama!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5573518&mesg_id=5573518

[grantcart]

18. Barack and Sen. Bob Casey at the first stop of today's "On Track for Change" Whistlestop tour in PA

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5580606

[grantcart]

20. final PA registration statistics

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5575896

[grantcart]

22. Barack Obama Tells Erie: "We like beer."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5567246&mesg_id=5567246

[grantcart]

23. Pennsylvania Children Vote For Obama!!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5574828

[grantcart]

28. I Just Shook Hands With Our Next President...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5584163

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

36. Obama goes canvassing (didn't see these pics on the subs)

Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., campaigns door to door in Philadelphia, Saturday, April 19, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)


Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., shakes hands with a couple as he campaigns door to door in Philadelphia, Saturday, April 19, 2008


Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., campaigns door to door in Philadelphia, Saturday, April 19, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)


Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., signs an autograph on a school presentation for Nafiz Hardnett, in white, as he campaigns door to door in Philadelphia, Saturday, April 19, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)


Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., center, campaigns door to door in Philadelphia, Saturday, April 19, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Go here for more /#photoViewer=/080419/480/a3aa19aed83644fa8bf52316b2ac102b

[Kittycat]

39. This is very cool!

and I love the kid's project signing :)

[psychopomp]

41. Awesome pics

I have to admit that I would be totally starstruck if Sen. Obama were to ring the doorbell to my home!

[JimGinPA]

38. Recap Of The Obama Whistle Stop in Lancaster PA (large pics)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5585610&mesg_id=5585610

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

46. Post-Gazette POLL:Did the debate help you decide how to vote?

Post-Gazette POLL:Did the debate help you decide how to vote?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5586520&mesg_id=5586520

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

47. Mechanicsburg youngster signing up more volunteers

Obama at Capitol: 'We will change the world'
by CHRIS A. COUROGEN, Of The Patriot-News
Saturday April 19, 2008

....


Hollywood Olson of Mechanicsburg tries to sign up future volunteers
for the Barack Obama campaign in downtown Harrisburg.

Among the volunteers is Hollywood Olson, the youngster who enjoyed 15 minutes of fame when he got to ask Obama a question during his town hall meeting at The Forum a few weeks ago. Obama asked him if Hollywood was his real name. He didn't answer then, but it is.

Hollywood is being followed by folks from Time magazine, his mother said. He is working the crowd, signing up volunteers, looking pretty spiffy in a black suit with multihued sneakers.

"I've gotten lots of feedback (since the Forum event)," he said. "We hang out at the Barack headquarters a lot and a lot of people come up to me and recognize me from the Forum."

...more at the link
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/04/live_blog_from_barack_obama_ra.html

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

6. Western PA: Maybe Not 'Bitter,' But Aware of the Loss

Maybe Not 'Bitter,' But Aware of the Loss
In Western Pa., Witnessing a Steady Decline

By Alec MacGillis Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 19, 2008; Page A06

CHARLEROI, Pa. -- Sitting with friends over 74-cent cups of coffee at the McDonald's here, Bob and Michael Jeanmenne can see more than a few things that might affect their moods.
Yes, the Jeanmenne brothers concede, they are somewhat "bitter," the word that Sen. Barack Obama used at a San Francisco fundraiser to describe small-town Pennsylvania, in a riff that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton seized on to cast him as elitist. The steel mill where Michael worked as a stenciler is slated to shut down this year; the GM parts manufacturer where Bob worked is also on its last legs. All eight of their children have left town. "There's an awful lot of resentment around here," said Bob Jeanmenne, 84.

And no, they do not agree with the rest of Obama's analysis: that voters in distressed towns "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment as a way to explain their frustration."

Yet they find it hard to get worked up about the comments -- as do other Pennsylvanians, judging by polls that so far show little damage from an episode Clinton has worked hard to exploit. Years of watching the decline of the town they have lived in since their family arrived from France in the 1920s has, they suggested, provided perspective that keeps them from getting caught up in 24-hour cable and Internet outrage.

… "The whole thing is ridiculous. It's quite comical, actually," said Bruce Arnoldt, 45, co-owner of one of the few large employers in town, a company that makes components for heating and cooling equipment. Arnoldt, a Republican, said he would consider voting for Obama in November, but not Clinton.

At the Chamber of Commerce, it has become a source of banter. "I say, 'I can't do this or that today, because I'm bitter,' " said the chamber's director, Debra Keefer. "I feel bad -- they have to speak a million words a day, and then they say something and they have it blown out of proportion."

Such bemusement has been in short supply in Charleroi (pronounced Sharla-roy), once part of a cluster of thriving towns in the Monongahela Valley whose residents worked in the steel mills and lived on the steep slopes above the river. Its name ("Charles the King," borrowed from the Belgian city) bespoke its high ambitions; by 1940, its population was more than 11,000 and it had four movie theaters.

….more at the link http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/18/AR2008041803024.html?nav=hcmoduletmv&sid=ST2008041900253

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

9. PA: Commentary...‘Slick Hillary’ does not separate church and state

George Curry describes Sen Clinton's former pastor supporting Obama's pastor, also that Sen Clinton does not separate church from state, and that she is anti Gay marriage, although her own pastor is not.

Commentary...‘Slick Hillary’ does not separate church and state

George Curry | Published 04/17/2008

NNPA)—In recent years, Democrats have been depicted as the party lacking in spiritual principles. This was done even while Ronald Reagan, who did not attend church regularly, was in office. The irony is that this year, when both Democratic candidates freely talk about God—they even participated in a forum in Pennsylvania Sunday on the subject—their religious beliefs get marred in political mudslinging.

Last week in this space, I showed how several of the most inflammatory sound bites of Rev. Jeremiah Wright were taken out of context (the column is posted on my Web site, www.georgecurry.com).

Even after Barack Obama denounced some of the rhetoric of his former minister, while not denouncing the man, “Slick Hillary” continues her attempt to use Wright’s words for political gain.
“He would not have been my pastor,” Clinton recently told reporters. “You don’t choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend.”

In the brouhaha over Wright, one central point keeps getting lost—Obama credits Rev. Wright with leading him to Jesus Christ. The sideshow over invective language amounts to, as Jesse Jackson likes to say, majoring in the minor.

…Inasmuch as Slick Hillary could pick her pastor, but not her relatives, what does her pastor say?
…Wight’s sermon in which he said “God damn America” was “a totally different animal when you look at its full context.”…. I’ve come pretty close to saying in some sermons, I guess, what Jeremiah Wright did.” Matthews noted that his anti-war sermons during the Vietnam era and those of Wright today share the common theme “that America’s going to have to get its act together, you know, that if we’re going to be a leaders, we can’t just say, ‘America right or wrong.’”….

He noted that he favors same-sex marriages and opposes the death penalty—positions that Clinton, opposes.” He said, “She’s disagreed with me on several things, but she remained a member of the church.”
….more at the link

http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/articlelive/articles/40490/1/CommentarySlick-Hillary-does-not-separate-church-and-state/Page1.html

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

11. Clintons Losing Loyal Supporters- NYTimes Feature

“There is a lot of Clinton fatigue in the party and in the country today, and many people are reacting to that,” said Tom Daschle, the former Democratic leader in the Senate, who is supporting Mr. Obama.

...more here please recommend:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5581037

[AllentownJake]

12. GET ON THE PHONES!!!

Not news but every person making calls out of state and talking to people here is a person who is not in PA making calls and is knocking on neighbors doors for Obama. Go to the website. You know what to do :loveya: cause you've all done it before

My commercial ended.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

13. PA: At Warmdaddy's, Cooling Toward Clinton

At Warmdaddy's, Cooling Toward Clinton

By Krissah Williams Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 19, 2008; Page A06

PHILADELPHIA -- Slow R&B music played as the after-work crowd trickled into Warmdaddy's, a South Philadelphia restaurant and jazz club where the hostess wears a square button with Sen. Barack Obama's smiling face and two Obama '08 placards hang from the window.



...
Support for the senator from Illinois may be in doubt in other parts of Pennsylvania, but Warmdaddy's is a stronghold for Obama supporters in a city he is expected to win in Tuesday's Democratic primary. And in recent weeks, as Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) has pushed the notion that Obama is "out of touch" with working-class voters, the goodwill the restaurant's African American clientele had for her has dropped sharply.

When Clinton again raised the issue at Wednesday's televised debate, Zoe Ashby, who has worked at the club for 14 years, had had enough. Ashby, 54, said she tried hard not to get upset by what she saw as more direct attacks by Clinton on Obama, but a few times she felt her face get hot.

… "I think what is most important to her is Hillary, not the party," Ashby said. "If it was the reverse, with her leading Obama in pledged delegates, people would be saying he needs to step down. There would be more pressure to bring the party together. Why do you think it is like this?"
Vernita Colclough, 37, and her husband Wade, 41, sat at a booth in Warmdaddy's, each eating shrimp and grits. They, too, have grown tired of rehashing Obama's observation that small-town voters have grown "bitter," as well as questions about his patriotism and church affiliation. But this is Philadelphia, home of rough-and-tumble machine politics. In a close contest, you can expect mud-slinging, Wade Colclough said.

Clinton's problems with African Americans began during the South Carolina primary. After she remarked that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. needed the help of President Lyndon Johnson to get the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed, it sparked an uproar among black voters. Former president Bill Clinton exacerbated the problem when he pointed out after Obama's double-digit victory that the Rev. Jesse Jackson had won the state in his unsuccessful bid for the presidency, a comparison that some Obama supporters called racially divisive.

The result has been a sharp drop-off in Clinton's popularity among black Democrats......

… "This thing about honky-tonk America, drinking a beer and shooting guns, is just patronizing to people in small towns and in big cities, where we also feel forgotten about," Williams said. "I don't think it's good for the country. I don't think it's good for the Democratic Party, and it's not good for African Americans, who have been loyal supporters of the Democratic Party. Whether people like it or not, these scars will remain after the Democratic primary is over."

…more at the link http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/18/AR2008041803025.html?hpid=topnews

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

16. At Clinton HQ, they're making a list... checking it twice.

...
Another reason Hillary Clinton is losing may be explained in tomorrow's NY Times. The Clinton campaign seems to spend a lot of time figuring out which disloyal Democrats to hate -- and to what degree they should hate them. The Clinton campaign is on life support and they are busy making enemies lists


… Now, I'm just saying that it might have behooved the staffers, fundraisers and consultants associated with Team Clinton to put some time into being decent to those who could have helped them. However, Team Clinton took a different approach -- and look where it got them. The arrogance of that campaign, and the sense of entitlement, permeated everything they did. John and I learned first-hand that if you weren't 100% with them every step of the way, even if you went far out of your way to help them on numerous occasions, you were persona non grata - not needed

....more at the link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5585375

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

19. Hillary Clinton's Fundraiser Blunder?

Hillary Clinton's Fundraiser Blunder?

By Karen Tumulty Swampland

This time, it's Clinton who's trying to explain comments that were caught on tape at a fundraiser, statements that blamed what she called the "activist base" of the Democratic Party — and MoveOn.org in particular — for many of her electoral defeats.

Celeste Fremon of the Huffington Post reports:

At a small closed-door fundraiser after Super Tuesday, Sen. Hillary Clinton blamed what she called the "activist base" of the Democratic Party -- and MoveOn.org in particular -- for many of her electoral defeats, saying activists had "flooded" state caucuses and "intimidated" her supporters, according to an audio recording of the event obtained by The Huffington Post.
The irony, of course, is that Moveon.org is an organization that was formed in defense of Bill Clinton--specifically, to push back against his impeachment. And don't miss this moment, brought to us by the Jed Report, in which Bill Clinton showers praise on the organization as an avatar of the post-MSM future.

...more at the link
http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/04/hillary_clinton_vs_moveonorg.html

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

21. Clinton attacks Obama, praises McCain

Clinton attacks Obama, praises McCain

(ABC's Political Radar)

Clinton again made her argument that the White House is not a place for wimps, saying, “When you get into the general election and when you get into the White House, the stresses and pressures of the general election and the job are overwhelming. And we know we have to have a president ready on day one to take charge.”

Clinton refrained from criticizing the Republican frontrunner John McCain, and instead shared a story about their accommodations when they traveled oversees together.

“We’ve gone to Afghanistan together," she said. "We were in Kabul, and there weren’t safe accommodations. We actually had a row of containers -- you know, you see those containers come off the ships. Those were our accommodations in Kabul.”

Clinton has said in the past that she is friends with McCain and respects him.

…more at the link
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/04/clinton-is-agai.html

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

24. Who Will be Thrown Under The Clinton Bus Next?

The news is that the Clintons apparently are still guided by triangulation - tossing key constituencies under the bus, deriding them and playing them off as the enemy, rather than reaching out and trying to work with them and understand them. It's a strategy that was called "amoral", somewhat ironically, by George Stephanopoulos.

Who Will be Thrown Under The Clinton Bus Next?

(Eric Schmeltzer / HuffPo)

Back in the late 1990s, I joined a small but growing group named "Censure and Move On." At that time, when the internet was a relative toddler, Wes Boyd and Joan Blades had an idea. In the midst of the impeachment of President Clinton, they would use email and the internet as a tool to quickly and fiercely organize activists to give a dose of backbone to Democrats in Washington, to fight the Republican attempts to unelect Bill Clinton.

Some might not remember, but initially, the Congressional Democrats were stunned by impeachment, paralyzed with no idea what to do - defend this guy when he did what he did? Stay silent? They were embarrassing in their inaction. "Censure and Move On" quickly boomed into an effort that flooded Capitol Hill with phone calls, petitions, protests, which gave Democrats what they needed to fight. And thus, the group played a key role in saving the Clinton presidency.

That's why the tape, uncovered by HuffPost, of Senator Clinton slamming Move On and activists is so troubling. Without Move On, she would not be Senator Hillary Clinton. She would be the wife of disgraced-and-removed former President Clinton. If there is one group that doesn't deserved to be tossed under the bus by the Clintons, either in public or private fundraisers, it's MoveOn.
It's a pattern, of the Clintons tossing aside key supporters, when they believe the political situation calls for it. It happened when President Clinton slapped the Gay and Lesbian community across the face by signing the homophobic Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). It happened when Bill Clinton passed a harsher-than-needed Welfare Reform package that hurt the single mothers and children that Hillary Clinton once worked to defend, as part of the Children's Defense Fund (Marian Wright Edelman's husband, Peter, called it "the worst thing Bill Clinton has done").

And, of course, there is Bill Clinton playing cutsie racial politics with his Barack-Obama-as-Jesse-Jackson statement in South Carolina. If there's another group largely responsible for rallying behind Bill Clinton and saving his presidency, it's the African American community

…more at the link
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-schmeltzer/who-will-be-thrown-under_b_97545.html

[grantcart]

25. Check out this thread with photos I took today

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5585721&mesg_id=5585721

[grantcart]

26. **OFFICIAL PENNSYLVANIA PREDICTION THREAD**

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5567505

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

27. Hillary's True Nature, In Which We Find She Has Two Faces: A Fake Face And A Republican Face

Hillary's True Nature, In Which We Find She Has Two Faces: A Fake Face And A Republican Face

Saturday, April 19, 2008 at The Personal Is Political

A look at the utter contempt Hillary has for Democratic activist base provides an excellent case study in who Hillary really is. Here is Hillary talking to the people at MoveOn earlier in the campaign (before they endorsed Obama):

…let's take a look at what she has a problem with. First, she apparently has a problem with Democrats being active. She talks negatively on people being excited about and involved in politics! That is crazy!

…But Hillary is decrying these levels of turnout, she doesn't see the unprecedented turnout and energy in the Democratic Party as a good thing, she sees it as a barrier to her political ambitions. Once again she shows that she cares nothing about the Democratic Party, only her own quest for the White House. She once said that this race was personal, and that is perhaps the last true thing she said, it is personal for her, it is all about her. No one is disagreeing with her there.

Perhaps more upsetting is that fact that she says "they are very driven by their view of our positions...it's primarily national security and foreign policy...I don't agree with them."

….In the end it is just disturbing that Hillary has so much contempt for such a large part of the Democratic Party. It is her typical "screw 'em" mentality that we have seen time and time again from Hillary……. And on top of that she has been using right-wing talking points against Obama for months now. Her campaign even wrote and distributed an essay describing how "the GOP" could attack him over the Ayers non-issue, meaning she is trying to tie Obama to terrorists, and using the GOP as an excuse for acting like the GOP and stabbing the nominee of her party in the back.

Do you notice a pattern here?... more at the link

http://www.thepersonalispolitical.com/2008/04/hillarys-true-nature-in-which-we-find.html

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

29. Obama on Clinton: 'She’s Got the Kitchen Sink Flying'

Obama on Clinton: 'She’s Got the Kitchen Sink Flying'

April 19, 2008 ABC News

ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: Sen. Barack Obama, trekking across Pennsylvania aboard the Georgia 300 train, used his whistlestops to cast Sen. Hillary Clinton as a typical Washington insider who's throwing the kitchen sink at him.

"She’s resorted to what’s called 'kitchen sink' strategies. She’s got the kitchen sink flying, and the china flying, and the, you know, the buffet is coming at me," Obama said at a stop in Downingtown.

Obama quickly added that he is tough enough to withstand this kind of politics, refuting a criticism that some have made that because of his inability to withstand such attacks he would be a weaker nominee for the party when running against the Republicans.
"I come from Chicago," he said. "I know politics is hard, you know, it's not for the faint of heart. I understand that."

Obama repeatedly tried to make the case that the kitchen sink strategy takes away from a focus on the issues.

"These petty, trivial slash and burn, back and forth, tit for tat politics so that we no longer talk about the things that the American people care about, that may be good for the television ratings, but it's not good for you," he said.

…more at the link http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/04/obama-on-clinto.html

[grantcart]

30. Senator Obama, Have you ever known Nathan Gregory Silvermaster?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5575573

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

31. Adios, Sound Bites & Fat Cats

Adios, Sound Bites & Fat Cats
You couldn't understand Obama's race speech in 10 seconds. And that's how the campaign wanted it.

Apr 28, 2008 Issue Jonathan Alter

Sure, the ABC News anchors were out of line to eat up nearly half the debate with their snarky questions on flaps and gaffes, but Barack Obama last week looked like he'd been clocked by the kitchen sink. In his worst debate performance to date, he was low-energy, dodgy and humorless. And yet for all the scratches and dings he's suffered over his incendiary pastor, his "bitter" aspersions and even his patriotism, Obama's Teflon is still working. He's still on track to the Democratic nomination. Part of the explanation is him; it's always harder to trash the smart, cool guy. But a less-recognized reason is the Internet and the Obama campaign's savvy understanding of it. The media and fund-raising rules have undergone a huge change this year.
The era of sound bites and fat cats may be coming to a close.

It took me a while to grasp this. On the morning of March 18, when I read an advance text of Obama's Philadelphia speech on race, I told my wife that it was well written but contained no eight- to 15-second sound bites to counteract the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.'s greatest hits. Under the old rules, a 37-minute speech full of complex ideas didn't stand a chance against the excitement of "good TV." Of course, I was wrong. Obama's speech has now been played on YouTube nearly 5.5 million times, with viewers presumably watching at least a few minutes of it.

It turns out the Obama campaign planned it that way. I learned recently that as chief strategist David Axelrod, communications director Robert Gibbs, speechwriter Jon Favreau and Obama himself finalized the speech, they took great care to make sure that no sound bites were included. In other words, they intentionally avoided any of the snappy lines that they know reporters and TV producers are trained to recognize as useful for representing the entire story. A few lines, like the one about Obama's grandmother, did get disproportionately quoted and aired. But the speech was constructed so that you simply couldn't understand it in 10 seconds. If this was making a virtue of necessity—Obama often lacks crispness even when he's speaking well—the speech nonetheless represented a turning point.

Just as the Internet has changed television, it's now transforming campaign finance. That sucking sound you hear is the power seeping out of the old, big-money establishment. Last month, a group of heavy-hitting "Hillraisers" (major Clinton donors) sent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a tart letter threatening to cut off money for the party if Pelosi didn't stop showing deference to the pledged-delegate count, which favors Obama. Those who didn't find the letter annoying just laughed at it.

Why? Because when you have a candidate for president like Obama, who boasts more than 1.3 million donors with an average contribution of only about $100, the fat cats start looking awfully thin. Hillary has also moved away from big donors; the 200,000 small ones she attracted online in February saved her campaign. Consider the magnitude of the change: in 2004, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry raised about 30 percent of their war chests in amounts of $200 or less.
By contrast, about 90 percent of Obama's contributors are small fry.

....more at the link
http://www.newsweek.com/id/132865

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

32. Waiting for Barack - Indonesia's defense minister looks at how an Obama presidency could reshape for

Waiting for Barack

By Erika Kinetz | Newsweek Web Exclusive Apr 14, 2008

Indonesia's defense minister looks at how an Obama presidency could reshape foreign perception of the United States.

…
NEWSWEEK: How do you think an Obama presidency would affect U.S.-Indonesia relations?
Juwono Sudarsono: Symbolically it would be very, very important for us, as it would be for the whole Asian African continents. If Obama is elected as president, I think it would reignite the United States as the real light star of hope—that it symbolizes a multiethnic, multicultural, multireligious nation. That's the most important aspect, the symbolism of it. Translating it into American foreign policy will be much more difficult.

,,, If you could vote as part of the American global polity, who would you vote for?
Right now? I would vote for Obama. I think he has this message of decency, of fairness, of transcending racial hatred, which cuts across all countries, all nations.

...more at the link http://www.newsweek.com/id/132061

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

33. Obama Refused to Let Two Stooges from ABC Define him

Obama Refused to Let Two Stooges from ABC Define him

Posted by Time for change in General Discussion: Primaries
Fri Apr 18th 2008, 07:51 PM

Thursday’s Democratic debate in Philadelphia may have been the most outrageous hit job ever perpetrated against a presidential candidate and the American people by moderators of a Presidential debate. ABC clearly had two purposes in moderating this debate: First, to destroy or hurt Barack Obama’s candidacy as much as possible; and second, to move the dialogue in our country as far to the right as possible, by spewing out right wing talking points and surreptitiously lecturing the candidates and the American people about them.

But Obama didn’t let them get away with it:

more at the link
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5571299

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

34. How Hillary Can Still Win (video)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x121349


I enjoyed this video, its not too long but it is very entertaining.

[Kurovski]

35. K&R. (nt)

[grantcart]

37. International Herald Tribune: Super Delegates are not buying Clinton's line

Throughout their contentious debate on Wednesday, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton tried again and again to put Senator Barack Obama on the defensive in a pointed effort, her advisers say, to raise doubts about his electability among a small but powerful audience: the uncommitted superdelegates who will most likely determine the nomination.

But although Clinton gave it her best shot in what might have been their final debate, interviews on Thursday with a cross-section of these superdelegates — members of Congress, elected officials and party leaders — showed that none had been persuaded much by her attacks on Obama's strength as a potential Democratic nominee, his recent gaffes and his relationships with his former pastor and with a onetime member of the Weather Underground.

In fact, the Obama campaign announced endorsements from two more superdelegates on Thursday, after rolling out three on Wednesday and two others since late last week in what appeared to be an orchestrated show of strength before Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary. Obama advisers said that one of the pickups on Thursday, Councilman Harry Thomas Jr. of the District of Columbia, had initially favored Clinton, but Clinton advisers denied that, and a Thomas aide said he had been neutral before Thursday.

In interviews, 15 uncommitted superdelegates said they did not believe that recent gaffes by both candidates would carry any particular influence over their final decision. They said they had particularly tired of all the attention, by the Clinton campaign and the news media, on Obama's recent comment that some Americans were "bitter" over the economy and chose to "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them" as a result.

And if there were some moments of concern reflected in the debate — the talk of Clinton's high unfavorability ratings, Obama's flashes of annoyance — they all doubted that those moments would be deal-breakers, either. Instead, most of the superdelegates said they wanted to wait for the results of at least the next major primaries — in Pennsylvania on Tuesday and Indiana and North Carolina two weeks later — before choosing a candidate.

[doublethink]

40. Couple of quick videos from today ...... in Pennsylvania ..... of Barack .....

that made me smile ..... will make you smile too :)

On Track for Change: Barack Boarding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruv5YyOuUsg

Obama Rally In Philadelphia 4-18-08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DczoswJbJSg

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

42. Obama-Backing General: Clinton Lacks "Moral Authority" Over Bosnia Gaffes

Obama-Backing General: Clinton Lacks "Moral Authority" Over Bosnia Gaffes
By Eric Kleefeld - April 19, 2008, 10:43PM

A key military surrogate for Barack Obama went after Hillary Clinton on the Bosnia story today -- triggering an accusation of hypocrisy from the Hillary camp in light of Obama's own words about the controversy during this week's debate, when he said people should let the story go.

"One of the inherent duties of the president of the United States is to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Memorial Day," said Gen. Walter Stewart on an Obama campaign conference call this afternoon -- then proceeding to lambast Hillary over the Bosnia gaffes. "Imagine the lack of moral authority she has now to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Memorial Day."

Clinton spokesman Phil Singer immediately pounced: "When it comes to negative campaign tactics, Senator Obama has been a hypocrite from day one, decrying attack politics from one side of his mouth while he and his campaign wage a character assassination effort from the other."

Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan disassociated the campaign from Stewart's remarks: "We obviously do not agree with that sentiment."

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/obamabacking_general_clinton_l.php

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

43. First, Hillary blamed ....

First, Hillary blamed ....
By Alicia Graña - April 19, 2008, 1:38AM

First, Hillary blamed red state democracts, but I didn't care because I am not a red state democract.

Then, Hillary blamed the small state caucuses, but I didn't care because I don't live in a small state with a caucus.

Then, she blamed blacks block-voting for one of their own, but I didn't care, because I am not black.

Then, she blamed latte-drinkers, but I didn't care because I drink expresso.

Then, she blame MoveOn, but I didn't care because I am not a member.

Then, Hillary blamed me, and by that time there was no one left to care.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/04/first-hillary-blamed.php

[Fovea]

53. But that's ok

because the only ones left in her camp at that point were working for McCain.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

44. just wondering, whats the biggest crowd Sen Clinton has drawn?

I don't have a news article or anything on it, but is this something
the media is hoping to shove under the rug?

Like they did when a million + came to DC to protest the war before it began?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

45. Obama Out of Touch With Pennsylvania? Every Major Paper There Backs Him

Obama Out of Touch With Pennsylvania? Every Major Paper There Backs Him
Greg Mitchell at HuffPo Posted April 19, 2008

While Beltway pundits and others in the national press have alleged that Barack Obama is clearly and obviously out of touch with most not-so-bitter Pennsylvanians, leading newspapers in the state, who ought to know better, seem to disagree.

In recent days Obama has picked up the endorsements of every major paper in the state and many smaller ones.

Papers endorsing Obama include: The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Daily News, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Allentown Morning Call, The Patriot News of Harrisburg, the Scranton Times-Tribune and Bucks County Courier.

Hillary Clinton's endorsements have been far fewer, such as the Daily Pennsylvanian -- the University of Pennsylvania paper, which drew a lot of coverage yesterday. The daily in Wilkes-Barre said it is not endorsing at all.

...Imagine Clinton's chagrin when her "hometown" Scranton paper wrote: "In a nomination campaign that has defied convention, Mr. Obama has energized an entire generation of voters that, for the most part, otherwise had checked out of political participation. That, at least, portends a new approach to governance that can help to dissipate the political miasma that has engulfed Washington at least since the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton."

...more at the link
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-mitchell/obama-out-of-touch-with-p_b_97562.html

[grantcart]

48. Clinton adviser quits over China rhetoric

One of Clinton's top China advisers resigns and appears to think that all of that 'experience' has not prepared her to be ready on day one>


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9719_Page2.html

A top expert on China has resigned as an informal adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign in the wake of the candidate's increasingly harsh anti-China rhetoric.

Richard Baum, a political science professor at the Center for Chinese Studies at UCLA, resigned in light of what he called “grossly misguided accusations” made by Clinton about China.

“As a lifelong Democrat, it saddens me that Sen. Clinton has chosen to take the low road in her effort to gain our party’s presidential nomination,” Baum said in an e-mail to Politico.

The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment by Politico.

Clinton recently has ratcheted up her anti-China sentiments, criticizing the country on everything from its human rights violations to its undervalued currency.

“I’m the only candidate who isn’t just talking about cracking down on China but I have a specific plan on how to do it,” she told union members at the AFL-CIO’s Building Trades National Legislative Conference on Wednesday.

“China should be our trade partner, not our trade master.”

Baum was part of an informal advisory group of East Asia specialists formed by the campaign in January.
comment.

Over the past three or four months, Baum said, the group held several telephone conferences with the campaign. During those calls, a few members advised Clinton to avoid what they considered “gratuitous China bashing,” particularly on inflammatory issues such as human rights violations, the trade deficit, currency valuation and the loss of American jobs to China.

“Our reasoning was that while China certainly bears a share of responsibility for these (and other) problems, much (if not most) of the blame, at least on the economic issues, lies elsewhere,” Baum wrote in an e-mail. He attributed the problems, at least in part, to America’s high level of consumption, deficit spending and selective trade protectionism.

On the question of human rights, Baum said he and others in the advisory group believe the Chinese leaders respond better to persistent advice than “self-righteous finger-pointing aimed at publicly shaming and humiliating them.”

[JimGinPA]

49. Crowd on board

On a whistle-stop tour that hits Lancaster, Obama appears to gather a full head of steam going into Tuesday’s primary

"I was never political," Danny McFadden said. "... I never really even voted."

He will this year.

For Barack Obama.

McFadden, of Lancaster, was in the crowd of thousands — Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray estimated it at 6,000 to 8,000 — who flocked to the Lancaster train station Saturday to see the Democratic presidential candidate in his second visit to Lancaster County.

On a whistle-stop tour of Pennsylvania in advance of the Tuesday primary, Obama once again pressed his case for a new way of doing politics and government.

more at link:

http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/220152

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

50. Karl Clinton

Karl Clinton
19 Apr 2008 09:22 pm Andrew Sullivan

The fusion of the Clinton campaign with the politics of Karl Rove and Republican neo-McCarthyism intensifies. You just can't help remembering the following sentence:

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
She has become what she once opposed. And if she wins, it will be a victory for Rove and all he represents.


http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/04/karl-clinton.html

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

51. Who Else Does This?

Who Else Does This?

Ambinder on Obama's rally in Philadelphia:

An Obama aide sized the crowd at about 40,000. It was probably was a little bit less, but a senior campaign official said it was the biggest the campaign had ever seen.

As usual, about 3,000 guests directly in front of Obama were sent through magnetometers and enclosed by metal barriers. Another 25,000 crowded Independence Park; some even listened from a good three thousand feet away, well behind Independence Hall.

I counted at least a hundred Philadelphia police officers. There were state troops. TSA personnel magging the crowd. A helicopter hovered over the square. The fire department set up a command post with extra medical supplies. It was some way to start Obama's final Pennsylvania push.

VandeHei, Harris, Stephanopulos and Gibson need to find some more kitchen sinks to throw. Do they have any septic tanks on hand?

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/04/who-else-does-t.html

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

52. "Sen. Hillary Clinton drew her fourth thousand-person crowd today"

The title of the article is "A New Line From Clinton", but I felt that my title might
help contrast the difference between Obama/Clinton in ability to inspire people
(as demonstrated by size of crowds drawn).

A New Line From Clinton
19 Apr 2008 08:03 pm

CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY OF PA, Pennsylvania -- Sen. Hillary Clinton drew her fourth thousand-person crowd today, spending about thirty minutes at this small college near Pittsburgh.

Her stump speech included one new line about Barack Obama: "He always says in his speeches that he is running a positive campaign, but then his campaign does the opposite," she said.

....
In California, the special guest was Lauren Merola, 23, Miss Pennsylvania. She finished fourth in last week's national pageant. Some muted cat-calls as she began to speak drew her to attention to a sign off stage. "Real men vote Hillary. I like that," she said.

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/04/california_pa_sen_hillary.php

[JimGinPA]

54. Kick

:kick:


K&R

[democracy1st]

55. kick

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

56. Obama: Can’t ‘Swift Boat’ Me

Obama: Can’t ‘Swift Boat’ Me



Seeing Ghosts: Obama's ties to Ayers and Auchi are distant, but his foes plan to pounce
By Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff | NEWSWEEK
Apr 28, 2008 Issue

The Obama campaign is planning to expand its research and rapid-response team in order to repel attacks it anticipates over his ties to 1960s radical Bill Ayers, indicted developer Antoin Rezko and other figures from his past. David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, tells NEWSWEEK that the Illinois senator won't let himself be "Swift Boated" like John Kerry in 2004. "He's not going to sit there and sing 'Kumbaya' as the missiles are raining in," Axelrod said. "I don't think people should mistake civility for a willingness to deal with the challenges to come." The move appears to be an acknowledgment that the Obama campaign may not have moved aggressively enough when questions about Ayers and Rezko first arose, and it comes amid fresh indications that conservative groups are preparing a wave of attack ads over the links.

Operatives such as David Bossie, whose Citizens United group made the Willie Horton ad that helped sink Michael Dukakis's 1988 presidential bid, are sharpening knives as expectations mount that Obama will be their target in the fall. Bossie says he is assembling material for TV spots about Obama's ties with Ayers, a Chicago professor and unrepentant former member of the Weather Underground, a group that bombed several government buildings to protest the Vietnam War. The Ayers issue bounced around right-wing media for months, but it received broad exposure at last week's debate on ABC, when Obama was asked a question about their relationship. Obama, who lives near Ayers in Chicago's Hyde Park, attended an event at Ayers's house when Obama ran for the state Senate in 1995—and served on the board of a nonprofit with him for several years. "Obama is aware of the acts Ayers committed when he was 8 years old and has called them 'detestable'," says spokesman Ben LaBolt, adding that Obama occasionally bumps into Ayers in his neighborhood "but has not seen him for months." At a recent dinner party, according to one guest who asked not to be identified discussing a private gathering, Ayers "ridiculed" the notion that Obama shared his left-wing views: "He thought the idea that there was a political connection between them was absurd." (Ayers declined to comment.)

Rezko's Chicago corruption trial, meanwhile, continues to raise questions for Obama. Last week a prosecution witness testified that Obama attended a 2004 party at Rezko's mansion for Nadhmi Auchi, an Iraqi tycoon who was later banned from the United States due to a fraud conviction in France. A spokeswoman for Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn told NEWSWEEK that the event was a sit-down dinner, at which Quinn made a brief speech welcoming Auchi to Chicago. According to court documents, Rezko later sought to enlist unnamed "Illinois government officials" for help lobbying the Feds to allow Auchi back into the country. A lawyer for Auchi says his client denies any wrongdoing in France and has no recollection of meeting Obama; the senator, who denies doing any favors for Auchi, "does not recall attending this event," says Obama spokesman LaBolt, nor does he "recall meeting Mr. Auchi at any other time."

http://www.newsweek.com/id/132874

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

57. Slate's Delegate Calculator ...Clinton's hope is fading

Slate's Delegate Calculator - With revotes unlikely in Michigan and Florida, Hillary Clinton's hope is fading.

By Chadwick Matlin and Chris Wilson Sunday, April 20, 2008

Since the last time we talked in this corner of the Internet, Mississippi and Texas have refined their delegate allocations—and Barack Obama has widened his delegate advantage by six. First off, Mississippi added a delegate to Obama's tally and took one away from Hillary Clinton after party officials realized they'd miscalculated the original delegate distribution. In Texas, meanwhile, the caucus results were finally certified, giving Obama a five-delegate margin overall when the caucus- and primary-delegate allocations were combined—a gain of two from our previous estimates.

Play with our still-new Flash version of the calculator below.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

58. Obama Fund-Raising Juggernaut, Clinton Seeks New Sources of Cash

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign is particularly affected by the limits on giving because high-dollar contributions remain a staple of her fund-raising.

Facing Obama Fund-Raising Juggernaut Clinton Seeks New Sources of Cash

By MICHAEL LUO Published: April 20, 2008

Senator Barack Obama is swamping Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton with television advertising in their prolonged battle for the Democratic nomination, putting fresh pressure on Mrs. Clinton’s fund-raising machine to find new sources of money to help her keep pace.

But her big-dollar fund-raising apparatus that was once the envy of the political world is encountering obstacles as many of those in its regular networks of donors have reached the maximum on their personal contributions or grown tired of the relentless press for donations.

The campaign is actively hunting for new wellsprings of cash, while tapped-out donors who want to give more are contemplating financing independent efforts on her behalf that are not bound by contribution limits. So far, however, the independent efforts have been halting at best.

The scramble for fresh resources comes as the money gap between the two candidates is growing. In March, largely because of a continued advantage in small donations given over the Internet, Mr. Obama was able to raise twice what Mrs. Clinton brought in, collecting $40 million compared with her $20 million. He has been spending it freely in Pennsylvania, hoping to stymie Mrs. Clinton in a contest that could determine whether she stays in the race.


...more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

59. NYT Frank Rich: Shoddy! Tawdry! A Televised Train Wreck!

Shoddy! Tawdry! A Televised Train Wreck!

By FRANK RICH Published: April 20, 2008

“THE crowd is turning on me,” said Charles Gibson, the ABC anchor, when the audience jeered him in the final moments of Wednesday night’s face-off between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

I can’t remember a debate in which the only memorable moment was the audience’s heckling of a moderator. Then again, I can’t remember a debate that became such an instant national gag, earning reviews more appropriate to a slasher movie like “Prom Night” than a civic event held in Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center:

“Shoddy, despicable!” — The Washington Post

“A tawdry affair!” — The Boston Globe

“A televised train wreck!” — The Philadelphia Daily News

And those were the polite ones. Let’s not even go to the blogosphere.

Of course, Obama fans were angry because of the barrage of McCarthyesque guilt-by-association charges against their candidate, portraying him as a fellow traveler of bomb-throwing, America-hating, flag-denigrating terrorists. The debate’s co-moderator, George Stephanopoulos, second to no journalist in his firsthand knowledge of the Clinton White House, could have easily rectified the imbalance. All he had to do was draw on his expertise to ask similar questions about Bill Clinton’s check-bearing business and foundation associates circling a potential new Clinton administration. He did not.

But viewers of all political persuasions were affronted by the moderators’ failure to ask about the mortgage crisis, health care, the environment, torture, education, China policy, the pending G.I. bill to aid veterans, or the war we’re losing in Afghanistan. Those minutes were devoted not just to recycling the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Bosnian sniper fire and another lame question about a possible “dream ticket” but to the unseemly number of intrusive commercials and network promos that prompted the jeering at the end. The trashiest ads often bumped directly into an ABC announcer’s periodic recitations of quotations from the Constitution. Such defacing of American values is to be expected, I guess, from a network whose debate moderators refuse to wear flag pins.

...more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

60. Apr 20 Philadelphia Enquirer Endorsement: In Support of Barack Obama - Inspiring vision

"A second Clinton presidency could be as polarizing as the first one. She hasn't displayed often enough an ability to connect with voters. And her infamous Bosnia-sniper story, while overblown, did highlight the public's mistrust of her truthfulness."

Editorial: In Support of Barack Obama - Inspiring vision

Philadelphia Enquirer April 20, 2008

The Democratic presidential primary Tuesday presents Pennsylvania voters with a choice that is more about style than substance.
On the issues, there's scant difference between Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. The biggest difference comes down to their styles of leadership.

Obama wants to bring about change by inspiring people to accept his vision of social justice. Clinton bills herself as the more competent leader, who knows how to effect change incrementally, due largely to her extensive government experience.

The Inquirer Editorial Board endorsed Obama before New Jersey's primary Feb. 5. Since then, the race has focused less on the subtle distinctions in the candidates' policy proposals and more on personal attacks. Before Pennsylvanians head to the polls, it's time to restate our support for BARACK OBAMA.

The 46-year-old Obama offers the better chance of rising above the partisan rancor in Washington to achieve bipartisan goals. After eight years of George W. Bush's my-way-or-the-highway rule, Obama could become the uniter that Bush never was. His campaign has attracted people of all backgrounds and political persuasions.

...more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

61. The Obama Action Figure

A friend sent me this, I'm not sure if it was a snark or not, but there is a link
at the website to donate to the Obama campaign.

The Obama Action Figure

The first and only action figure with the power to transform a nation.



Donate directly to the Obama Campaign

Shipping:

All orders ship through USPS Prority Mail (2-3 Day)
Right now, we only ship within the US.

more here at the link

[ORDem]

62. K

:kick:

[Scurrilous]

63. Kick

:kick: