And so continued during a conference today with conservative bloggers:
All I can tell you Jennifer is that I think it's very clear who Hamaswants to be the next president of the United States. So apparently hasDanny Ortega and several others. I think that people should understandthat I will be Hamas's worst nightmare....If senator Obama is favoredby Hamas I think people can make judgments accordingly.
Just another effort by the right-wing to brand Barack Obama as un-American, even though Obama truly has lived the American dream.
Of course by now we've heard the big news: . On top of that, the Obama campaign has announced that they will be rolling out a series of endorsements over the next two weeks in order to grab some momentum heading into Pennsylvania and beyond. Where will the other endorsements come from? John Edwards? Al Gore? Jimmy Carter?
Either way, even a Clinton campaign official admits that the former First Lady has :
One important Clinton adviser estimated to Politico privately that shehas no more than a 10 percent chance of winning her race against BarackObama, an appraisal that was echoed by other operatives.
In other words: The notion of the Democratic contest being a dramatic cliffhanger is a game of make-believe.
Therefore, it's a MYTH to think that she will end up with either more delegates or more of the popular vote. All she can do is hurt Barack Obama's chances of beating John McCain. Maybe that is what Bill Clinton wants. During a speech, the former president suggested that both Clinton and McCain are the candidates, and not Obama:
It'd be a great thing if we had an election where you had two peoplewho love this country, who were devoted to the interest of the countryand people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issuesinstead of all this other stuff which always seems to intrude on ourpolitics.
The Clinton's could care less if a Republican wins the White House -- just as long as a non-Clinton Democrat doesn't. They'd be doing the same thing to John Edwards.
Congressman Steve King (R-IA) is refusing to apologize for saying last week that terrorists will in November. This was after Obama, yesterday, about the remarks King made:
“I think that Mr. King has it backwards. The fact that the continuationof a presence in Iraq as Sen. McCain has suggested is exactly what, Ithink, will fan the flames of anti-American sentiment and make it moredifficult for us to create a long-term and sustainable peace in theworld,†Obama said today at a campaign stop at The Little Dooey, abarbeque restaurant in Columbus, Miss.
Late last night, King fired back, and told the that terrorists still want Obama to win:
"(Obama will) certainly be viewed as a savior for them," Rep. Steve King told The Associated Press. "That's why you will see them supporting him, encouraging him."
This kind of partisanship on the part of King underscores almost perfectly why Obama SHOULD be elected. Washington is so polarized. So sadly, in order to survive politically, King needs to talk that way in order to get money from his right-wing faithful. But if we had a uniter as president who supports publicly financed elections, people like King won't need to worry about getting money from the loony right-wing, and could afford to utter words that have substance.
This time it's from former vice presidential candidate -- not surprisingly a Clinton supporter:
"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in thisposition," she continued. "And if he was a woman (of any color) hewould not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who heis. And the country is caught up in the concept."
Too bad for Ferarro, who just tarnished her own reputation by playing both race and gender politics at once. Whatever happened to substance? Divide and conquer politics -- precisely the kind of politicking we will see if she or McCain becomes president.
Today, Hillary Clinton may have found a way to jump-start her struggling campaign that is on the verge of retirement. She said, "Shame on you, Barack Obama" because the Obama campaign distributed fliers around Ohio that disapproved of Hillary Clinton's positions on NAFTA and health care. Of course, this is coming from the same Hillary Clinton campaign that used to discount Obama's win in South Carolina, and tried to stir up by repeating Obama's middle name, Hussein, over and over again in illegal robocalls before the Nevada caucus.
Now you tell me which is more ethical: attacking a candidate personally, or pointing out a candidate's records on issues -- like NAFTA and health care?
This is desperation time for the Clinton family. Myself, along with so many other Obama supporters, must have been so naive over the last week to think that Clinton would lose without damaging her party's chances of taking back the White House. This is exactly what John McCain wants. No wonder on the front page of McCain's web site, he the slogan, "Ready to lead on day one." That is straight out of the .
Every time Hillary is down, she uses the victim card instead of debating the issues. It is a that Hillary Clinton . It is also a fact that under Hillary's health care plan, buying private health insurance becomes . Obama's plan gives you the option. These are facts. Hillary is playing the victim card against facts.
This is going to be a long week ahead, full of attacks from Hillary, Bill and all her supporters within the Washington inner circle (such as the ). My hope is that ordinary people -- the people who actually care about issues -- will learn the truth about Hillary's record without getting swallowed up in the soap opera of phony victimization.
On February 15th, the IRS a filing from a new 527 group called the American Leadership Project, which claims to be none other than an advocate for middle class issues. Actually, it's a pro-Clinton lobbyist group that is running ads in Ohio attacking Barack Obama and supporting the former First Lady. The group is headed by none other than former Clinton assistant press secretary Roger Salazar.
Campaign finance reform advocates are :
"This pop-up 527 group clearly has been created to spend unlimited softmoney to influence the presidential election," said Fred Wertheimer, ofthe group Democracy 21, after reviewing the ad. "As far as the ducktest goes: It looks like a campaign ad; it sounds like a campaign ad;it's a campaign ad."
Do you smell the stench of fear in this ad:
See, this is the kind of stuff Barack Obama has been fighting against ever since he got to the Senate. Groups like this would be limited if he becomes commander-in-chief. Even so, as one writer over at explains, even under existing law, what this group is going is illegal:
Let's be clear: when a 527 forms for the express purpose of electing ordefeating a particular federal candidate, and engages in publicadvocacy towards such ends -- as opposed to discussing issues -- it isbreaking the law.
Stealth 527 campaigns like these supply us with yet another reason why Barack Obama should be president. Hillary has the big donors on her side. Obama has nearly .
Despicable, but not surprising. The had this today:
Ed Coghlan was juststarting to prepare his dinner in the northern San Fernando Valley theother night when the phone rang. The caller was very friendly. Heidentified himself as a pollster who wanted to ask registeredindependents like Coghlan a few questions about the presidential raceand all the candidates for Super Tuesday's California primary.
Ed, who's a former news director for a local TV station, was curious. He said, "Sure, go ahead."
But a few minutes into the conversation Ed says he noticed a strangepattern developing to the questions. First of all, the "pollster" wasonly asking about four candidates, three Democrats -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, who was still in the race at the time -- and one Republican -- John McCain.
Also, every question about Clinton was curiously positive, Coghlanrecalls. The caller said things like, if you knew that Sen. Clintonbelieved the country had a serious home mortgage problem and had madeproposals to....
freeze mortgage rates and save families from foreclosure, would you be more likely or less likely to vote for her?
Ed said, of course, more likely.
Every question about the other candidates was negative. If Ed knew,for instance, that as a state senator Obama had voted "present" 43times instead of taking a yes or no stand "for what he believed," wouldEd be more or less likely to vote for him?
"That's when I caught on," said Coghlan. He realized then that hewas being push-polled. That malicious political virus that is designednot to elicit answers but to spread positive information about onecandidate and negative information about all others under the guise ofan honest poll had arrived in Southern California within days of theimportant election.
It could become an issue in the closing hours of the campaign.
Someone who obviously favors Hillary Clinton is paying anunidentified company to spread this material phone call by phone callamong independent voters, who can, according to California party rules,opt to vote in the Democratic but not the Republican primary on Feb. 5,when nearly two dozen states will choose a large chunk of the delegatesto the parties' national conventions next summer.
Coghlan said he was offended by such underhanded tactics and knew hewas going to get out a warning about this dirty trick, but he said heplayed along for the full 20-minute "poll."
This comes as a released today puts Obama ahead in California. If Obama takes California, the media wave that will ensue might be too strong for the Clinton family to stop.
has been circulating throughout Israel and among the Jewish community in Florida:
Illinois Senator and Democraticpresidential candidate Barack Obama has been targeted in a recent smearcampaign which claims that he is a fundamentalist Muslim working foral-Qaeda in an effort to topple the US government.
An inflammatory mass e-mail that is circulating in the United States and Israel lays out the anonymous author's version of Obama's background.
One of the target audiences in thecampaign is clearly the American Jewish community because the e-mailhas also been sent out in Hebrew.
The writer attempts to portray Obama as an al-Qaeda stooge rhetorically asking: "So who is Barack Obama?"
He answers that, Obama's stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, introduced him toIslam by registering him at a Wahhabi Muslim school or madrassa inJakarta, Indonesia.
If Obama makes it to the general election, this is what will be headed his way. This time, I think the country is much more mature and would dismiss this kind of thing.
Part of Hillary's last-ditch effort to hurt Obama's chances in Iowa. Everyone knows that if Obama loses Iowa, he might never be able to recover. :
ABC News has learned that the campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.,has registered the names of two Web sites with the express goal ofattacking her chief rival, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.
It's the first time this election cycle a presidential campaignhas launched a Web site with the express purpose of of launchingserious criticisms on a rival.
Votingpresent.com and Votingpresent.org are domains hosted by the sameIP address as official Clinton Web sites, such TheHillaryIKnow.com,which was launched with much fanfare this week.
The Clinton campaign intends to use these new Web sites to paint Obama as cowardly.
Both parties are guilty of running dirty campaigns this election cycle. But portraying an opponent as cowardly? That's pretty personal.
In Iowa, there has been a major defection from Hillary Clinton's camp. One of her 25 campaign co-chairs in Iowa is because he believes the former First Lady has run a very dirty campaign:
Once, Garry Thomas counted himself a Hillary Clinton supporter --even signing up to be one of her 25 co-chairs in Iowa alongside withformer Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack.
But Thomas now says he felt obliged to switch sides in recent weeks."I think the Clinton campaign went negative," Thomas said in atelephone interview on Thursday. He attributed his defection to the newtone Clinton took last weekend, describing it as divisive. Obamaofficials said Thomas committed to them this week.
Thomas said he informed Harry Baxter, the former Des Moines CountyDemocratic Party chairman and a Clinton coordinator, of his decision todefect -- and no one from the Clinton campaign tried to talk him out ofit. "I didn't get any calls," Thomas said.
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