Category: The Clintons

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Election 2008 Obama Politics The Clintons

Some quick things…

Via reddit, I just read this story.

Sometimes, it’s really amazing how the world works…

***

George Will on Obama’s candidacy today:

McCain’s problem might turn out to be the fact that Obama is the Democrats’ Reagan. Obama’s rhetorical cotton candy lacks Reagan’s ideological nourishment, but he is Reaganesque in two important senses: People like listening to him, and his manner lulls his adversaries into underestimating his sheer toughness – the tempered steel beneath the sleek suits.

I think Will misses the way Obama is re-shaping the political conversation with his inspirational and often-times vague sounding pronouncements.  (Would Will call the Gettysburg Address “rhetorical cotton candy”?)  But he senses Obama’s toughness in a way that others – for example, Maureen Dowd – does not.

***

And Ms. Clinton has apparently launched her strategy for the coming weeks – claiming Obama can’t win.  So far today, her campaign has said:

Coming up next (or again):

  • Can’t win without old people.
  • Obama is a girlie man.

If Mr. Koch was speaking out of turn – as opposed to as part of her plan – than it could be plausibly said that she is still trying to get the Vice Presidential slot.

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Election 2008 Obama Politics The Clintons

We Now Know Who the Nominee Will Be

[digg-reddit-me]

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Election 2008 Obama Politics The Clintons

Back…

After a long weekend of not feeling well and spotty internet service, as Indiana and North Carolina vote in the latest episode of this never-ending primary…

Here’s some quick highlights:

In his spare time in between campaigning, Mr. Obama is trying to broker a peace deal in the Niger Delta:

Rebels who have stepped up attacks on Nigeria’s oil industry in the last month said on Sunday they were considering a ceasefire appeal by U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has launched five attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta since it resumed a campaign of violence in April, forcing Royal Dutch Shell to shut more than 164,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd).

“The MEND command is seriously considering a temporary ceasefire appeal by Senator Barack Obama. Obama is someone we respect and hold in high esteem,” the militant group said in an e-mailed statement.

Andrew Sullivan has come around to the idea of an Obama-Clinton ticket:

The old political adage that you should keep your friends close but your enemies closer therefore seems appropriate. Clinton will not be running for president in 2012 if she is vice-president in 2009. The same could not be said if she were consigned back to the Senate to lick her wounds and plot her future…

There’s also a way for Obama to explain this choice in a way that does not violate — and in fact strengthens — his core message. His model in this should be Abraham Lincoln. What Lincoln did, as Doris Kearns Goodwin explained in her brilliant book, “Team Of Rivals,” was to bring his most bitter opponents into his cabinet in order to maintain national and party unity at a time of crisis. Obama — who is a green legislator from Illinois, just as Lincoln was — could signal to his own supporters in picking Clinton that he isn’t capitulating to old politics, he is demonstrating his capacity to reach out and engage and co-opt his rivals and opponents. Done deftly, picking Clinton could even resonate with Obama’s supporters as a statesmanlike gesture, a sign of the kind of reconciliation he wants to achieve at home and abroad and energize his own party for the fall. It is consonant with his core message: that he can unify the country in a way few other politicians can. It would even help heal the gulf that has opened up between the Clintons and black voters in this campaign. It’s win-win all round.

And the Empire Strikes Barack:

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Election 2008 Obama Politics The Clintons

A “Granita Pact”

I don’t think this is the answer, but Daniel Altman over at the Huffington Post suggests a “Granita Pact” between Clinton and Obama.  Interesting – but it would make little sense for either of them.

Why would Ms. Clinton agree to serve for only one term?  Her rationale for staying in the race according to John F. Harris and Jim VanderHei of the Politico is that Obama cannot win and would destroy the Democratic Party.  Others talk about the insatiable Clinton lust for power.   Regardless, without a policy rationale to keep her in the race, it’s hard to see Ms. Clinton encouraging an Obama run ever.  The only reasons for her to stay in the race even now are based on either her judgment that Obama cannot win, that he would make a bad president, or that she is determined to gain power no matter what it takes.  Otherwise, she would have gotten out of the way.

Mr. Obama, on the other hand, keeps talking about the “fierce urgency of now”.  His campaign is based on the premise that now is the moment when America needs a change, a new face, a fresh start, a different kind of politics.  In other words, America needs a break from the Clintons and Bushes.  For him to agree to another Clinton term when he was winning the race would brand him a typical politician.

Interesting idea.  But I don’t see either candidate accepting it.  It makes more sense for the Democratic Party than it does for either Clinton or Obama.

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Domestic issues Election 2008 Obama Political Philosophy Politics The Clintons

A difference in philosophy: Obama v. Clinton on gays

Andrew Sullivan on the difference between Obama’s and Clinton’s philosophy:

Clinton believes government can save people and she, as the benign representative of government, can bestow equality on minorities. You just have to vote for Democrats, give money to the Democratic party interest groups (like the Human Rights Campaign) and your equality will come eventually (but always later than they say). I prefer an approach that tells gay people that they need to get off their asses, talk to straight people, build their relationships, support their community, empower themselves and win the argument for inclusion and integration. No politician can do that for us. And Obama is one of the few politicians who is honest enough to say so.

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Election 2008 McCain Politics The Clintons Videos

Gas Tax Politics

Tom Friedman of the New York Times on the gas tax proposals:

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: “Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.”

Good for Barack Obama for resisting this shameful pandering…The McCain-Clinton proposal is a reminder to me that the biggest energy crisis we have in our country today is the energy to be serious — the energy to do big things in a sustained, focused and intelligent way. We are in the midst of a national political brownout.

Paul Krugman – whose loathing for Barack Obama is one of the mysteries of this campaign – must have had some trouble writing these lines:

John McCain has a really bad idea on gasoline, Hillary Clinton is emulating him (but with a twist that makes her plan pointless rather than evil), and Barack Obama, to his credit, says no…

Oh wait – but he can hedge a bit. Krugman wouldn’t want anyone to think he might actually consider Obama an acceptable candidate because of the vast policy differences they have (a.k.a. two minor ones that have led to about a dozen columns of polemic attacks):

Just to be clear: I don’t regard this as a major issue. It’s a one-time thing, not a matter of principle, especially because everyone knows the gas-tax holiday isn’t actually going to happen.

Obama’s seeking to make some political hay out of this. Once again, he’s betting the American people will pay enough attention to what’s going on to give him credit for doing the right thing.

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Election 2008 Obama Politics The Clintons

Hillary’s No “Pansy”

The headlines – on Drudge and elsewhere – suggest a different intention behind North Carolina Governor Mike Easley’s use of the word “pansy” in endorsing Ms. Clinton. The Smoking Gun points out that the term is defined as “an effeminate youth” or “a male homosexual” – and takes Mr. Easley to task for using anti-gay language. That’s fair game.

But the clear suggestion of the headlines – ” NC Gov. Easley endorses Clinton…She’s No ‘Pansy’ ” – suggests that the governor was suggesting her opponent was a pansy.  With some context, it is clear he is suggesting precisely that: “North Carolina Governor Mike Easley today described the Democratic presidential candidate as so tough that she ‘makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy.’ ”  However, he obviously was not intending to diminish Barack Obama specifically as a pansy, but all people when faced with this “tough woman”.

Just wanted to clear that up.

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Election 2008 Obama Politics The Clintons Videos

Too Much Like a GQ Cover?

[digg-reddit-me]Key comment: “That was just underhanded…”

Obama comments on the way the press is covering him, but with good humor.

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Election 2008 Obama Politics The Clintons

The Urgency of Our Problems as a Nation

An astute reader of Andrew Sullivan’s blog lays out the essential rationale for Obama’s candidacy and explains the strength of Clinton’s continued candidacy…

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Baseball Election 2008 Humor Obama Politics The Clintons

Al-Zawahri Zawahri speaks

From Andy Borowitz of the New Yorker (h/t Joy)…

The Premise:

Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri will soon answer the hundreds of questions submitted by journalists, militants and others about the terrorist network’s future, its media wing announced Wednesday.
 —Associated Press.

Excerpts:

Dear Ayman al-Zawahiri:

Does Al Qaeda ever endorse political candidates? If so, I recommend that you give a big thumbs-up to Barack Obama. I guarantee you he hates America as much as you do (if not more)! It would be great if you appeared in a bunch of TV ads and called him “the evildoing President that evildoers have been waiting for.”

—Bill in Chappaqua

Ayman al-Zawahiri writes:

Al Qaeda is only interested in American elections to the extent that we can plunge them into abject chaos. So this year, as in every other year, we are supporting Ralph Nader.

…

Dear Ayman al-Zawahiri:

I have been trying to get through to WFAN Sports Radio 66 for the past three weeks, but they keep putting me on hold. So let me ask you instead: Do you think the Mets will go all the way?

—Mike in Flushing

Ayman al-Zawahiri writes:

Raining down misery and destruction on the Great Satan leaves me little time for such idle contemplations. That said, if Johan Santana puts up the kind of numbers he did for the Twins, look out.

The rest here.

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