Top-5 Political Clips of the Week

As we post at the end of each week, here are the top-five political videos over the last seven days.  Let's start the countdown at number five:

5) Obama's New Hampshire ad.

4) McConnell: Speak out against FISA, and you are hurting US soldiers.  Wow!  I thought this was America.

3) Richardson is the only major Democratic candidate that wants to get ALL use troops out of Iraq.

2) Bill Clinton on GOP double-standard about MoveOn.org ad.

1) Japanese journalist shot dead by military in Burma. (Graphic)

Several hours from now, the Blue Radar, with all of the Sunday headlines, will be posted.

Comments

[granny]

No direct comment on the videos posted, but I was looking for a place to make another end of this week observation of my own -

Hillary Clinton voted FOR Kyl-Lieberman (amendment to support military action in IRAN) and Barack Obama did not show up to cast his vote. That,in my book, removes them from the running as candidates in this run for the nomination, leaving two legitimate candidates: John Edwards and Bill Richardson. For me, the actions of the other two front runners are too important and too telling, to be ignored...

And this is part of why:

We are unable or unwilling to exticate ourselves from Iraq; we have sent our National Guard, and equipment into that war,leaving this country unprotected/undefended; our Military and a generation of young families with it,is stretched beyond repair by refusal to acknowledge the human component of warring; we have stretched our debt far into future generations while ignoring humanitarian uses for lesser monies; now we're threatening for another war?; - In addition,I have read that in this amendment, there is also mention of "Hezbollah and its indigenous Iraqi proxies...", which at least op4ens the way for collectinging all the enemies of Israel and the United States in that region under one umbrella - to be regarded as one enemy; which certainly opens the possibility of our fighting Israel's battles too, in the future.

Whatever I may or may not understand about the intricacies of some aspects of this amendment, I don't have any trouble understanding that these two leading candidates have failed to stand for what I think the next president should if they could not find their way clear to speak out against this amendment.

That certainly betrays my trust.

[Chief Editor: Todd]

Granny, I am upset with Obama for not pledging to remove troops by 2013. So like you, I have my own issues with him.

But in all reality, it is impossible for every presidential candidate to be there for every vote. Second, what matters in these votes is not the vote on the bill itself, but rather the cloture vote. In other words, in the Senate 60 votes are needed to end debate. If you are not there, that is just as good as a 'nay' vote for cloture. What is needed are 60 'yea' votes, or else debate continues.

Hillary Clinton voted yes for cloture -- she deserves all the criticism in the WORLD for that.

Also, Obama is a presidential candidate. If he were at the Senate all day, he couldn't run for president. Republicans in New Mexico are all over Bill Richardson for not being in the state all the time. Well, again, like Obama, Richardson is running for president.

Hillary is the front-runner. She can afford to spend more time in the Senate. John Edwards isn't a Senator, so he is on the trail. Richardson, again, is not in the Senate either. Chris Dodd can't be on the campaign trail as much because it just isn't possible schedule-wise, since he is the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. As for Biden, he is the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, so he can't be on the campaign trail either.

Not trying to make excuses for Obama, because he still needs to get straight whether he will withdraw ALL troops from Iraq by the end of his first term. But the way I see it, the amendment was going to pass no matter what. What mattered was the cloture vote, which Obama DID NOT support.

For the record, Biden and Dodd voted against cloture. They deserve credit.

As for Clinton, it's all about political calculation. She worries about Florida in the general election, because many of them in swing counties, such as Broward and Palm Beach, are mostly Jewish. To her, voting for the bill will help her in the long run during the general election. Voting against it would help her with primary voters -- but her husband is dealing with that problem, so she had the cover to vote for it.

[granny]

Thank you, Todd. That is very helpful. :)