“OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS Saturday April 12-2008

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WELCOME TO “OBAMA SUPPORTERS” DAILY NEWS

Saturday April 12-2008


Apr. 21, 2008 Cover out now.

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

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1. Our Disgraceful Dems (Michigan political hacks).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5463241

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2. Pay to Play? Obama may lose support in Philadelphia over 'street money'

Candidates traditionally get out the money to get out the vote. That sets up a culture clash for the April 22 primary.

Barack Obama may lose support in Philadelphia over 'street money'

By Peter Nicholas, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer April 11, 2008

Fourteen months into a campaign that has the feel of a movement, Sen. Barack Obama has collided with the gritty political traditions of Philadelphia, where ward bosses love their candidates, but also expect them to pay up.

The dispute centers on the dispensing of "street money," a long-standing Philadelphia ritual in which candidates deliver cash to the city's Democratic operatives in return for getting out the vote.

Flush with payments from well-funded campaigns, the ward leaders and Democratic Party bosses typically spread out the cash in the days before the election, handing $10, $20 and $50 bills to the foot soldiers and loyalists who make up the party's workforce.

It is all legal -- but Obama's people are telling the local bosses he won't pay.

That sets up a culture clash, pitting a candidate who promises to transform American politics against the realities of a local political system important to his presidential hopes. Pennsylvania holds its primary April 22.

Obama's posture confounds neighborhood political leaders sympathetic to his cause. They caution that if the senator from Illinois withholds money that gubernatorial, mayoral and presidential candidates have willingly paid out for decades, there could be defections to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. And the Clinton campaign, in contrast, will oblige in forking over the money, these ward leaders predict.
…Carol Ann Campbell, a ward leader and Democratic superdelegate who supports Obama, estimated that the amount of street money Obama would need to lay out for election day is $400,000 to $500,000.

"This is a machine city, and ward leaders have to pay their committee people," Campbell said. "Barack Obama's campaign doesn't pay workers, and I guarantee you if they don't put up some money for those street workers, those leaders will most likely take Clinton money. It won't stop him from winning Philadelphia, but he won't come out with the numbers that he needs" to win the state.

Comment posted over at the field:

Their claim that “It is all legal” is laughable to those of us that have been field directors in campaigns.

“Street money,” traditionally, is not reported: It comes from donors that have maxed out and distributed as cash.
One simply does not see the kind of expenditures that one ward heeler suggested in that story - $400,000 to $500,000 for Philadelphia - ever mentioned on FEC filings. The “walking around money” (another common term for it in field lingo) traditionally comes from a slush fund.

Elsewhere it has been noted that Obama faced similar issue in South Carolina.

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3. My teenage son was confronted on a golf course yesterday over his Obama shirt

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5454993&mesg_id=5454993

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4. Obama weighs in on Colombia trade flap - would have fired Penn

Obama weighs in on Colombia trade flap

Reuters Friday April 11 2008 By Caren Bohan

INDIANAPOLIS, April 11 (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Friday he was surprised Hillary Clinton's strategist was representing Colombia on a trade deal the New York senator opposed.

Clinton, who is battling Obama for the Democratic nomination, this week accepted the resignation of Mark Penn as her campaign's top strategist after revelations he had met with Colombian officials to promote the trade agreement.

In his separate job as a consultant, Penn met on March 31 with Colombia's ambassador to discuss efforts to secure congressional approval for the deal.
"It was surprising to me that a high-ranking, if not the highest ranking member, of Sen. Clinton's team would be engaged in business activities and lobbying that was directly contrary to a position that Sen. Clinton had taken," Obama, an Illinois senator, told reporters in Indianapolis.
"I'm not surprised that Sen. Clinton found herself in an uncomfortable position as a consequence and I know that if staff of mine were putting me in that kind of position, I would get rid of them," he added.

More at the link

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5. Off to the greatest page with ya.... #5...

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6. Obama calls for greater shareholder voice

Obama calls for greater shareholder voice

April 11, 2008 UPI News

INDIANAPOLIS, April 11 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Friday called on lawmakers to pass legislation forcing corporations to hold a shareholders' vote on executive compensation.

The presidential hopeful pointed to a study by USA Today that found that the top 50 U.S. chief executive officers were paid an average of $15.7 million last year.

"This isn't just about expressing outrage," Obama said. "It's about changing a system where bad behavior is rewarded -- so that we can hold CEOs accountable, and make sure they're acting in a way that's good for their company, good for our economy, and good for America, not just good for themselves."

The legislation is aimed at restoring "a measure accountability and restraint to a system that has spun out of control in recent years" by giving shareholders a non-binding vote on a company's executive compensation plan.

"So what we need to do is restore balance to our economy and put in place rules of the road to make competition fair, and open, and honest," Obama said. "One place we can start is by restoring common sense to executive pay."

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7. K&R. (nt)

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8. Obama: I'll end don't-ask, don't-tell

Obama: I'll end don't-ask, don't-tell

BY MICHAEL SAUL DAILY NEWS Friday, April 11th 2008

Barack Obama said he's confident he could end the "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gays in the military, but he won't make it a criteria for serving on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"I would never make this a litmus test for the Joint Chiefs of Staff," Obama said during an interview with The Advocate, a gay publication.
…"There's increasing recognition within the armed forces that this is a counterproductive strategy - ya know, we're spending large sums of money to kick highly qualified gays or lesbians out of our military, some of whom possess specialties like Arab-language capabilities that we desperately need.

That doesn't make us more safe," he said.
Obama said he is interested in including transgendered people as part of the legislation eliminating "don't ask, don't tell," but he said it's "going to be tough" to get that provision through Congress.

…more at the link

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9. McCain Attacks Soros-Funded Group -- Even Though McCain's Group Took Soros Money, Too

McCain Attacks Soros-Funded Group -- Even Though McCain's Group Took Soros Money, Too

By Greg Sargent - April 11, 2008

This is a fun one: John McCain is attacking a new pro-Dem third party group because it's being partly funded by George Soros -- even though a group McCain co-chaired took one hundred and fifty thousand dollars from Soros, too.

Yesterday, McCain sent out a fundraising email blasting the new Soros-funded Dem effort.
"George Soros the `liberal megadonor' is at it again," McCain campaign manager Rick Davis wrote, sounding the "Soros" alarm in a way guaranteed to get right-wingers to open their wallets. "He and his group of billionaire left-wing Democrats have pledged $40 million dollars of soft money to smear John McCain in a national television ad campaign."

But it turns out that Soros' charitable foundation, the Open Society Institute, gave $150,000 to a group called the Reform Institute, which is dedicated to campaign-finance reform and transparency in government, an OSI spokesperson confirms. The grant was made in 2003.
McCain was honorary co-chair of the Reform Institute starting in 2001, when the group was founded, and held that post until 2005.

It gets better.
Read more »

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10. Media For McCain: Full Context Of Obama’s Comments On Rural Life

Media For McCain: Full Context Of Obama’s Comments On Rural Life

Published April 11, 2008 Oliver Willis

Apparently Fox, Drudge, and Politico are just tired of a slow news week and are looking for something - anything - to whip up a frenzy over, and of course the go-to people for quotes on this are the elite of elite cons like Grover Norquist and Karl Rove. I mean, when is the last time those guys had a conversation with someone making less than six figures… besides the help?

So here are Obama’s full comments:

Here’s how it is: in a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long. They feel so betrayed by government that when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn’t buy it. And when it’s delivered by — it’s true that when it’s delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama, then that adds another layer of skepticism.

But — so the questions you’re most likely to get about me, ‘Well, what is this guy going to do for me? What is the concrete thing?’ What they wanna hear is so we’ll give you talking points about what we’re proposing — to close tax loopholes, uh you know uh roll back the tax cuts for the top 1%, Obama’s gonna give tax breaks to uh middle-class folks and we’re gonna provide healthcare for every American.

But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Um, now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you’ll find is, is that people of every background — there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you’ll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I’d be very strong and people will just be skeptical. The important thing is that you show up and you’re doing what you’re doing.
America’s tired of the distortion and game-playing by the right wing noise machine, and its pretty sad the failing Clinton campaign felt they needed to jump on this (perhaps it had something to do with the coverage of President Clinton bringing back the phony Bosnia story).

One wonders where all this media concern about elitism was when John McCain was raising millions of dollars in the home of a British Lord.
Oh, that’s right. He’s a Republican. And he’s THE John McCain.
NBC’s Chris Matthews: “The press loves McCain. We’re his base.”

....

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11. Hell yeah I'm BITTER!! I've lost 4% of my home equity!! Hillary Supported NAFTA and Bill H1 Visas!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5461402

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12. Clinton to Rural Pennsylvanians: “You Can Be Victims, Too!”

Digg this here

Clinton to Rural Pennsylvanians: “You Can Be Victims, Too!”

By Al Giordano. The Field

Bad Speech Cop! No Donut!

Over at Politico, Ben Smith is pushing Senator Clinton’s swipe at Senator Obama today over his reported explanation at a fundraising event last week about how a bad economy influences anti-immigrant sentiment and other views:

Clinton said she’d seen in the media that “my opponent said that the people of Pennsylvania who faced hard times are bitter.”
“Well, that’s not my experience,” she continued. “As I travel around Pennsylvania, I meet people who are resilient, who are optimistic, who are positive, who are rolling up their sleeves. They’re working hard every day for a better future for themseves and their children.”
“Pennsylvanians don’t need a president who looks down on them. They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them, who works hard for your futures, your jobs, and your families,” she said, implicitly casting Obama as an elitist.

Oh, gawd. Enough already. The poor little $109 millionaire has the victim game so soaked into the brain that now she wants company. It’s condescending to rural voters to tell them they should feel “offended” by Obama’s reported remarks.
This is the statement she’s trying to make hay out of:

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them…And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.
And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

But you know what? Plenty of rural folks will agree with that statement, and my guess is that very few will conclude that Obama was talking about or insulting them.

Telling rural Pennsylvanians they should feel victimized by those words is telling them they should become as insufferable and over-sensitive as the urban and suburban PC “offense junkies” that see themselves in, and are rallied by, Clinton’s professional victimhood.
More at the link

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13. Senator Obama's Response to Latest Manufactured Outrage

...the video of his response just gets people even MORE fired up..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5462241&mesg_id=5462241

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14. ACTUAL Transcript of What Obama Said about Small Towns in Pennsylvania.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5460698&mesg_id=5460698

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15. Obama just exposed rovian "Wedge Issues". And, how they won't work this time.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5462529&mesg_id=5462529

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16. Obama shows he's got all the pickup truck McCain-Clinton can eat

Obama shows he's got all the pickup truck McCain-Clinton can eat

Fri Apr 11, 2008 Jed Report

Earlier today, Barack Obama once again found himself under attack from both John McCain and Hillary Clinton. What motivated their attack? These sentences from informal remarks he made at a fundraiser in San Francisco last weekend:

You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Perhaps not the most elegant way for Obama to make his intended point, but informal remarks in small gatherings rarely are. But viewed in that light, Obama has nothing to be defensive about, and in his response to the McCain-Clinton attack, he stood his ground and went on offense, employing the patented Obama-Jujitsu (focused, rightly, on McCain).

I've posted the Obama's counter-attack in the video pod at the top of the page as well as in the sidebar. It is incredible -- I've never heard him talk like that before. The subtext of the McCain-Clinton attack is that Obama is an elitist. Listen to him -- you'll see he's got all the pickup truck they can handle. If he integrates this tone into his stump speech, he'll have conquered one of the key challenges he has had in connecting with working-class white voters.

Update: Over at The Field, Al Giordano hilariously dispenses with Hillary "$109m" Clinton's foolish argument: Clinton to Rural Pennsylvanians: “You Can Be Victims, Too!"

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17. Senator: Obama Can Win Pa. In November

Political Players: Obama Supporter Bob Casey Touts Candidate's Qualities, Leadership Ability

Senator: Obama Can Win Pa. In November

April 11, 2008 …

CBSNews.com: What do you think distinguishes the styles of leadership of Senator Clinton and Senator Obama?

Sen. Bob Casey: I can just tell you what I think of Senator Obama. I've been around politics for a quarter century. I've been an elected official for 11 years now. I've rarely, if ever, seen someone who's able to connect with people like he can, and connect meaning communicate with voters directly, whether it's been a rope line, or a diner or in a town meeting--and also connect with and communicate with public officials, people with big egos, people that have agendas, people that are hot-tempered.

And he's able to connect with them in a very human way and in a way that I think that is extraordinarily important for leadership. Because I think often in these campaigns, we think of these candidates as composites of issue positions and policy papers. They're human beings.

Just think about what the next president's going to be confronting, just staggering problems that few presidents in American history are confronting: climate change, a war, a divided world, a divided country, recession, a colossal problem with regard to our health care system and 47 million people uninsured, a $10 trillion debt.

And the old way or the usual way, the Democratic way, is just not going to do it. And I think he's already demonstrated a new kind of leadership and a new kind of politics that we're going to need to confront those problems.

…more at the link

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18. Operative: Hillary Aims to KneeCap Obama Before PA Primary

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5450102&mesg_id=5450102

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19. Not a good day for Mark Penn.

Penn Haters Unite

David Kurtz. TPM 04.11.08

Not a good day for Mark Penn.

Original Clintonite Paul Begala ripped on him at a breakfast appearance this morning:

"I have nothing but contempt for Mr. Penn. And for those of us who wanted to see him out from the beginning, it became almost a Rumsfeldian thing. And he is not even fired. He has been demoted. How could this be?"

Meanwhile, the Obama camp continues to flog Penn. Obama himself said in an Indiana press conference that he would have gotten rid of Penn if he'd been his aide, and the Obama-backing union coalition Change to Win has launched an effort to get Hillary to "sever all ties" with Penn.

** I bet Flop Sweat and Jowls is laughing his fat butt all the way to the bank, thanks to millions of $ of donations to the Clinton campaign. Meanwhile the Clinton campaign disgracefully stiffs the little guys who really need the money.

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20. Poison Penn - New Republic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5463426

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21. Hillary Can't Answer Question on Colombia - video of her laughing about it

Hillary Clinton laughs hysterically when questioned by reporter about Bill's earnings for promoting a trade deal with Colombia. Hillary claims to oppose the deal, but has loaned her campaign millions of dollars of her and Bill's shared income, raising questions of conflict of interest. Hillary's laughter sounds mocking.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=117063&mesg_id=117063

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22. CNN: Clinton laughs off $ 800,000 payment to Bill for Columbia free trade speech

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5453996&mesg_id=5453996

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23. Laughing Matters "That laugh has been polled-tested, focused-grouped, and strategized."

Laughing Matters

Genghis. At TPM Election Central- April 11, 2008

As noted over at TPM Election Central, Hillary is laughing again:

MSNBC: Today, she responded with a hearty laugh -- the kind once criticized and mocked by pundits and the media

CNN: Hillary Clinton used her trademark laugh Thursday to deflect a question

WaPo: Sen. Hillary Clinton turned to a tactic she had used often early in her campaign, though not recently: laughing off the question

I respect Senator Clinton. I've heard that she has an excellent sense of humor and finds many things funny. I, myself, have also been known to chuckle politely in appropriate contexts and even to type LOL on occasion. (Though never ROFL and certainly not ROFLMAO, which I find inappropriate. Have you ever seen anyone roll on the floor laughing? Have you ever seen someone laugh so hard that their ass fell off? Of course not. It's a silly notion.)

But there is a right way to laugh and a wrong way. Hillary has chosen the wrong way. It's one thing to tee-hee at the dinner table in response to funny jokes about Senator McCain's advanced age and clever puns concerning Reverend Wright's last name. It's quite another to cackle on the record at a press conference. Not only does she laugh, she laughs heartily, shamelessly, dare I say, spectacularly.

Now I know that Hillary's supporters will argue that a laugh is just a laugh, but not in Hillary's esophagus it's not. Hillary is a smart, experienced politician. That laugh has been polled-tested, focused-grouped, and strategized. She knows exactly what she's doing. I hate to invoke racial stereotypes, but we all know that black people and white people laugh differently. It has something to to with divergent evolution of the diaphragm. Hillary laughs like a white person. Have you ever heard Obama laugh like that? Or Louis Farrakhan? By laughing in this manner, Hillary is obviously once again exploiting racial divisions for her benefit. I'm not saying that she's a racist. She's just a typical white laugher. In the interest of party unity and all that is still holy in the world, I call on her to reject and denounce her laugh and to demand its resignation for her campaign.

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24. IT'S ABOUT NOVEMBER, STUPID: HRC LOST AND OBAMA WON AND IT IS TIME TO DESTROY JOHN BUSH-MCCAIN

IT'S ABOUT NOVEMBER, STUPID: HRC LOST AND OBAMA WON AND IT IS TIME TO DESTROY JOHN BUSH-MCCAIN

by merlot April 11, 2008

I have expended way too much energy into the Obama vs HRC debate when the reality is that Obama is the Democratic nominee. I will no longer enable HRC's quixotic bid for the White House.

In short, HRC no longer matters in American politics. Thank God!

Hence, I will focus my future energies on defeat John Bush-MCain in November. This mean I will continue to attack HRC's efforts to get John Bush-McCain elected in HER hope that she can run again in 2012. Frankly, I am tired of HRC and McCain battling over the re-writing of the history of the 1960s and 1970s. I want and need a candidate who is living in 2008.

Progressives need to understand that HRC is about making John Bush-McCain the next president. It is her only hope. I will do everything in my powers to prevent John Bush-McCain from being the next president including destroying HRC in the process.

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25. John McCain Voted Against Civil Rights Act Of 1990, Now Falsely Calls It A Quota

LieMcClain

John McCain Voted Against Civil Rights Act Of 1990, Now Falsely Calls It A Quota

Oliver Willis April 11, 2008

Oh, Johnny Mac. Why you lyin’? This is the kind of stuff Republicans pull then indignantly tell the black community they should vote for them anyways. Time and time again, McCain was on the wrong side of key debates when it mattered most. In addition to his opposition to a federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., McCain was the deciding vote against overriding President Bush’s veto of the 1990 Civil Rights Act–the first defeat of a major civil rights bill in a quarter of a century. To make matters worse, just last weekend McCain defended the vote by equating it to “quotas,” even though the bill had nothing to do with quotas.

With a record like that, no wonder McCain is working so hard to reinvent himself for the general election.
McCain Voted Against Civil Rights Act of 1990 — Which Failed By One Vote. McCain voted to uphold President Bush’s veto of the 1990 Civil Rights Act. The veto override fell one vote short of the necessary 67 votes, and thus the legislation died — the first major civil rights bill to be defeated in the last quarter century. It would have expanded the reach of several discrimination laws that had been narrowed or overturned by the Supreme Court, as well as authorizing monetary damages under title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prevents employment discrimination. McCain had also twice previously voted against the conference report version of the bill. <1990 Senate Vote #276, 10/16/1990; 1990 Senate Vote #304, 10/24/1990; 1990 CQ Almanac, p. 60-S>

McCain Uses Loaded Term “Quotas” to Defend Vote. “WALLACE: You’re here today at the Civil Rights Museum, but it has come to our attention that in 1983 you voted against the federal holiday for Martin Luther King. You voted in 1990 against civil rights legislation. Isn’t it going to be hard to reach out to all those groups given your history and the history of the party? MCCAIN: Well, let me say in 1983 I was wrong, and I believe that my advocacy for the recognition of Dr. King’s birthday in Arizona was something that I’m proud of. The issue in the early ’90s was a little more complicated. I’ve never believed in quotas, and I don’t. There’s no doubt about my view on that issue. And that was the implication, at least, of that other vote.”

Bill Would Not Have Created Quotas. “Proponents of the bill contend that it essentially would have restored the law of employment discrimination that had been in force for nearly two decades, prior to six recent Supreme Court rulings that made it more difficult for minorities and women to win discrimination suits. They strongly dispute the contention that the new law would result in quotas.”

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26. YES OR NO. DOES/WILL HILLARY PAY STREET MONEY IN PENNSYLVANIA?

thevoiceofreason
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5456657&mesg_id=5456657

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27. Clintons Will Only the Release Names of Library Donors Who Contribute AFTER She's President

They plan on NEVER releasing the current and past donor lists, as per Lisa Myers' story on MSNBC today. So we're not going to know how much Dubai, Saudi Arabia, et al. have given to Bill's library, and what sort of favors they might expect in return from Bill and/or Hill. We do know a little about some of the donors
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5460546&mesg_id=5460546

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28. The Debate Debate

No one backed out of the NC debate on the 19th.

The Clinton campaign never agreed to it.

The Obama campaign agreed to the PA debate and an NC debate - originally scheduled for the 19th. The Clinton campaign originally refused the NC debate, then eventually "agreed" to an NC debate, but set the date for later (the 26th, I believe?).

The Obama camp had not agreed to the new date, but they were still looking to have an NC debate.

They were just holding out for the original date.

Obviously, there is a big difference between a debate on the 19th of April and one on the 26th - the timing of the PA primary.

But technically, no one ever "backed out" of the NC debate. The Clinton camp is just trying to work over the timing. It will probably turn into "Obama won't debate me in NC" before too long, though.

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29. The Clintons: Still 2 for the price of 1

The Clintons: Still 2 for the price of 1

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Thu Apr 10

PITTSBURGH - She can implicitly criticize him and publicly embrace him, sometimes in the same day. But Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton cannot escape the shadow of her husband, the former president whose huge personality and fame sometimes threaten to overwhelm her efforts to control the daily message and tone of her presidential campaign.

… The usually silver-tongued Arkansan has erupted at times, blurting out racially tinged remarks that have angered many blacks, a key constituency of his wife's Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama.
And his presidential record is proving to have two edges. Hillary Clinton embraces his economic legacy, but increasingly distances herself from his trade policies, a hot issue in the April 22 Pennsylvania primary.

… Bill Clinton has angrily rejected claims that he was being racially divisive, although his remarks sometimes furthered the dispute. In March, he said the notion that he unfairly criticized Obama was "a total myth and a mugging."

"They made up a race story out of that," he said of the news media, calling it "a bizarre spin."

…more at the link

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30. Bill Clinton: "Next, We'll See Him Run an Ad Saying: Vote For Me, I Don't Steal Cars."

Bill has a serious problem. I wonder if that open heart surgery
had a lasting effect on his mind?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5454325&mesg_id=5454325

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31. Clintons' squabbles: not funny

Flavia Colgan: Clintons' squabbles: not funny

Fri, Apr. 11, 2008

HILLARY CLINTON'S "Bill Clinton Problem" is a joke that has become not so funny. In a debate earlier this year, Mitt Romney got a huge laugh line when he said, "The idea of Bill Clinton back in the White House with nothing to do is something I can't imagine."
… Yet, it was reported this week that Bill Clinton has worked hard to promote the Colombia Free Trade deal, while Sen. Clinton says she has worked to oppose it. Yes, this is the same Colombia pact that cost her top campaign adviser his job when it was revealed that he was working on the side for the Colombian government.

According to the Huffington Post, Bill Clinton received $800,000 to take part in a speaking tour sponsored by Gold Service International, a Colombian outfit that supports the free trade deal. Just after, his Clinton Global Initiative announced millions of dollars of investment, including in Colombia….. At some point, when Sen. Clinton claims she was trying to defeat the Colombian Free Trade Deal, Bill Clinton must have told her that he was planning on making some money to promote the deal, and helping the Colombian President deflect attention from his offensive record. What did Sen. Clinton tell the former president at that point?
Either she told him that it was OK, and she didn't mind him working to pass the trade deal, which calls into question just how opposed to this policy proposal she really is. Or, she told Bill Clinton that she didn't want him doing that, and he did it anyway. Certainly, during this campaign, Bill Clinton seems to have gone off on his own, saying and doing things that Hillary Clinton later had to apologize for. The former president's crass comparison of Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson, in South Carolina, comes to mind.

Whatever the case, this is problematic. In this critical time, we cannot afford to have a president who says one thing, while the first spouse publicly works towards an opposite end. Sen. Clinton must better explain to voters why the former president goes off on his own like this, and how she will better control him if she should find herself in the Oval Office.

…more at the link

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

32. Hillary used GOP talking points against Obama today....verified by media.

Posted by MadFloridian so you know its good

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5463559&mesg_id=5463559

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

33. Hey readers - feel free to add photos, articles or a link to your favorite GDP post or

thats what we're here for.

Your contributions make the Obama Supporters Daily News more interesting.

Also, linking to good GDP posts helps get them more attention.

thanks and

:yourock:

[Scurrilous]

34. K & R

:thumbsup:

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

35. Q: Why is Hillary Clinton losing the Democratic nomination?

Q: Why is Hillary Clinton losing the Democratic nomination?

April 12 Oliver Willis


A: Because of headlines like this one: “Opponents Call Obama ‘Out of Touch’”

When you and the conservative Republican nominee regularly line up on the same
side rhetorically, it’s a sign that you may not be the one the Democratic party is looking for.

http://www.oliverwillis.com/index.php/2008/04/12/q-why-is-hillary-clinton-losing-the-democratic-nomination/

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

36. Nancy Pelosi: President Clinton Had A "Late-Night Adult Moment"

Nancy Pelosi: President Clinton Had A "Late-Night Adult Moment"

Pelosi on Bill Clinton's Error-Riddled Excuse: a 'Late-Night Adult Moment'

Jake Tapper April 11, 2008 8:34 PM

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was asked about former President Bill Clinton's error-riddled defense of his wife, regarding her Hemingway-esque accounting of her 1996 trip to Bosnia.

"I can't for the life of me figure out why the president would have said it except he may have been having a late night adult moment," Pelosi told CBS's Bob Schieffer, "but let's leave it at that."

Kind of harsh for a House speaker to say about a former president.

And ABC News' Sarah Amos points out that Bill Clinton's comments were hardly "late night" -- having been uttered at 3 in the afternoon and again at 5 pm.

Somebody buy these Democrats some watches.

- jpt
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/pelosi-on-bill.html

#
Sorry, no no Jake, it is you who needs a watch. Pelosi was turning Billary's stupid argument
back on them, its pointed humor. Pelosi knows what the hell the time is.
Pelosi was too nice to say that Bill Clinton has lost his fracking mind.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

37. The Swill from Bill

The Swill from Bill
Andrew Gumbel, Huff Po April 11, 2008

Political lies are intriguing things.

Sometimes they are just a panicky attempt to keep a floundering career afloat: I am not a crook. I did not have sex with that woman.

Sometimes they are a short-term means to a longer-term end that may or may not pan out: LBJ lying about the Gulf of Tonkin incident to get America into Vietnam, or George W. Bush lying about weapons of mass destruction to launch an Iraq invasion he figured the American public would end up applauding.

...Bill Clinton, campaigning on behalf of his wife in Indiana on Thursday, told one whopper after another while defending Hillary's own well-publicised bunch of baloney regarding her trip to Bosnia in 1996 -- the one where she repeatedly confused being hugged by an eight-year-old girl with the terror of coming under sniper fire, then claimed the reason she muddled up the two very different experiences was because she was sleep-deprived.

...Bill isn't just scuppering his wife's -- admittedly fast-dwindling -- chances of staying in the nomination race. He's also fouling up his own reputation and the legacy of his eight years in the White House, causing consternation not only among once-loyal Democratic supporters but also overseas, where he is still remembered fondly as that rare American president who actually understands what he is talking about and can string more than one grammatically correct sentence together at a time.

...more at the link, this is a great read:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-gumbel/the-swill-from-bill_b_96284.html

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

38. Quick vote poll at Lou Dobbs still open, (9 Pm eastern) please vote

Go here to vote:
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/ lower right hand side.

At DKOS this was posted:

There's Still Time to Vote on Lou Dobb's Quickvote
by ironpath
Sat Apr 12, 2008 at 05:41:18 PM PDT
Lou Dobbs' ridiculous poll is still up. HERE. Lower right column, to be exact.

And the bad guys are pulling ahead. We had the early lead, but it's fading.

ironpath's diary :: ::
To refresh memories, here's the quickvote text:

QuickVote

Do you believe that Senator Barack Obama's comments reveal his elitist attitude toward every hardworking American?
Yes
No

As I mentioned, the "yes" votes are mounting.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/12/203518/771/720/494553

Here were the results when I took it at around 9 PM:

QuickVote
Do you believe that Senator Barack Obama's comments reveal his elitist attitude toward every hardworking American?
Yes 51% 11735
No 49% 11450
Total Votes: 23185

This is not a scientific poll