Obama Video Blog

Now we begin

2009-01-21T17:49:00.001-08:00

Now we begin, originally uploaded by ginhollow.

Oath of Office

2009-01-21T17:47:00.001-08:00

, originally uploaded by kf_leeds.

A Moment in time...a moment in history.

Obamamobile

2009-01-21T17:46:00.001-08:00

Obamamobile, originally uploaded by philliefan99.

Obama and family in the "Beast"

Pin One On

2009-01-18T20:31:00.001-08:00

DSC_00380001, originally uploaded by cruffo.

Souvenirs of history.

US Capitol ready for Obama

2009-01-18T20:26:00.001-08:00

US Capitol ready for Obama, originally uploaded by ekai.

Obama Inauguration Invitation

2009-01-18T20:22:00.001-08:00

Obama Inauguration Invitation, originally uploaded by sopo liz.

History

Obama: The College Years

2008-12-17T14:25:00.000-08:00

Obama: The College Years

Next
Back
11 of 12

Barack Obama on Flickr

2008-12-17T14:14:00.000-08:00

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1866936_1815467,00.html

Election Night

2008-12-06T00:09:00.001-08:00

20081104_Chicago_IL_ElectionNight0981, originally uploaded by Barack Obama.

Take Your Pick.

2008-11-06T12:40:00.001-08:00

Take Your Pick., originally uploaded by Ryan Brenizer.

Congratulations, Barack Obama!

2008-11-06T12:38:00.001-08:00

Congratulations, Barack Obama!, originally uploaded by Ryan Brenizer.

Barack Obama

2008-11-04T11:47:00.001-08:00

Barack Obama, originally uploaded by Yan Zhang [to Chicago].

Meanwhile, at the corner of Limbaugh and O'Rielly...

2008-11-01T14:06:00.001-07:00

Meanwhile, at the corner of Limbaugh and O'Rielly..., originally uploaded by zoltron.

Abraham Obama by Ron English

2008-10-30T14:25:00.001-07:00

Abraham Obama by Ron English, originally uploaded by Laughing Squid.

LOL!

IMG_1012

2008-09-11T23:34:00.001-07:00

IMG_1012, originally uploaded by Barack Obama.

Ubiquitous Obama 08 on Prius

2008-09-10T14:47:00.001-07:00

Ubiquitous Obama 08 on Prius, originally uploaded by aimeedars.

Barack Obama

2008-09-08T23:58:00.001-07:00

Barack Obama, originally uploaded by Yan Zhang [to Seattle].

Democratic National Convention in Denver, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008.

obama

2008-08-28T13:01:00.001-07:00

obama, originally uploaded by BohPhoto.

Home Sweet Home | Hope Sweet Hope

2008-08-26T21:42:00.001-07:00

Home Sweet Home | Hope Sweet Hope, originally uploaded by a35mmlife.

Barack Obama - Joseph Biden 2008 Graphic

2008-08-25T23:50:00.001-07:00

Barack Obama - Joseph Biden 2008 Graphic, originally uploaded by gabriel_michael.

The ticket...

Obama '08

2008-08-25T01:03:00.001-07:00

Obama '08, originally uploaded by EmilyElizabeth..

Awesome!

Obama

2008-06-29T00:25:00.001-07:00

Obama, originally uploaded by joshperrylaw.

LOL!

Leapin' for Obama

2008-06-18T10:55:00.001-07:00

Leapin' for Obama, originally uploaded by Delta Niner.

Good pic.

Obama - The Candidate

2008-06-09T21:36:00.001-07:00

Obama - The Candidate, originally uploaded by iceman9294.

Historic American Moment

2008-06-04T22:47:00.001-07:00

Historic American Moment, originally uploaded by NAVROC Command.

The Picture says it all. Thanks for sharing.

This photo blogged @http://obamavideo.blogspot.com/

Vincero

2008-06-03T14:55:00.001-07:00

Vincero, originally uploaded by Ali, Boma Ye!.

Great Pic...conveys star quality.

This photo was blogged at http://obamavideo.blogspot.com/

Vincero

2008-06-03T14:53:00.001-07:00

Vincero, originally uploaded by Ali, Boma Ye!.

Great Pic...conveys star quality.

Almost A Done Deal?

2008-06-02T16:02:00.000-07:00

It looks very close to becoming official. I wonder what Hillary is bargaining for?

VP? A Cabinet position? Supreme Court? All very interesting speculation.
====================================

Obama nears win amid signs Clinton may admit loss
By DAVID ESPO –

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama crept close to victory in the marathon Democratic presidential race Monday on the eve of the final primaries amid signs that Hillary Rodham Clinton was preparing to acknowledge defeat once he gained the final delegates needed.

Said a confident-sounding Obama: "I told her that once the dust settled I'm looking forward to meeting with her at a time and place of her choosing." He was disclosing the contents of a conversation the two rivals had on Sunday night but did not describe her response.

The former first lady has given no hint of quitting the race, and she has said repeatedly she may continue her candidacy even beyond the end of the primaries.

But her husband, former President Clinton, strongly suggested otherwise. "This may be the last day I'm ever involved in a campaign of this kind," he said as he worked for his wife in South Dakota. That state, and Montana hold the final primaries of the campaign on Tuesday.[MORE]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hLPqTxd4Fe7e5EymHU-kTUgweRDQD9126S980

Barack Obama: A mosaic of people

2008-04-21T23:48:00.001-07:00

Barack Obama: A mosaic of people, originally uploaded by tsevis.

Wow...very creative

The Coming Brokered Democratic Convention

2008-03-03T21:34:00.000-08:00

The Coming Brokered Democratic Convention
By Mark Hyman
Published 3/3/2008 12:07:32 AM

There is only one thing the public can be certain of regarding the Democratic presidential nomination: without a miracle, there will be a brokered convention. Senator Barack Obama was leading Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the delegate count going into the Super Tuesday II primary elections on March 4. Obama held 1,193 primary delegates to Clinton's 1,038. The status of the super delegates is meaningless because their pledges today may not carry any meaning come the Democratic nominating convention in Denver during the last week of August.

A Democratic candidate needs to reach a minimum of 2,025 delegates to clinch the nomination outright. Clinton will not reach that figure before the last primary election is held in Puerto Rico on June 7. Neither will Obama. The Illinois senator needs 832 more delegates to reach the magic number of 2,025. There are only 981 remaining primary delegates that are up for grabs. Three hundred seventy delegates will be decided on March 4 and 611 will be divvied up across 12 primaries between March 8 and June 7. Obama would have to win an astonishing 85% of the remaining 981 delegates in order to claim the Democratic nomination outright. There are no winner-take-all primaries for the Democrats. Obama will never get the needed 832 delegates. He may fall short of reaching 2,025 delegates by as many as 250.

This means that neither Obama nor Clinton will tally the needed 2,025 delegates when the primary election season is completed. The pair will have eleven weeks between Puerto Rico's primary election on June 7 and the convening of the Democratic convention on August 25 to persuade super delegates to support their candidacy. A lot can happen in 11 weeks. There will be horse trading, influence peddling and cajoling. It will be a real knife fight to the end. Layer on top of this real-world events. Everything from the economy, Iraq, terrorism and damaging revelations of the ties between Obama and Antoin "Tony" Rezko, the land developer currently under federal indictment, could greatly influence the super delegates' commitments. Still, the only date that really matters for the super delegates is the day they cast their ballots in late August.

Complicating the matter for Obama is the status of the 313 primary delegates Clinton picked up in the Michigan and Florida primaries. The Democratic Party has stated it would not seat the Michigan and Florida delegates because those two states moved up their primary dates without national party blessing. But will national party leaders really not seat the Michigan and Florida delegates? Not hardly.

National Democratic leaders realize their nominee must capture at least one and possibly both Michigan and Florida if their candidate is to win in November. Party leaders cannot afford to disenfranchise the voters in those two states and give them a reason to stay home in November. On top of this, Clinton will not let the status of the Michigan and Florida delegates pass without a fight. She could turn to the courts for relief.

In the end, the remaining 16 primaries are simply a beauty contest. The final competition for the Democratic nomination starts after June 7. It will not end with any certainty until the last week in August.

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12832

Is Obama’s Life at Risk?

2008-02-28T19:20:00.000-08:00

Is Obama’s Life at Risk?
AMIL IMANI BLOG

In eloquent speeches presidential candidate Obama has made copious promises, understandably to attract voters. He talks about “change,” without really spelling out change from what to what. It just sounds good: “change.” A great sound bite, indeed. Change is exciting, while status quo is viewed as stagnant and boring. It is all part of the political game of telling people what they want to hear, getting elected, and worrying about delivering later.

The electorates are both short on memory and long on forgiving. So, the farce of empty high-sounding promises fills the air at campaign times. But there are instances that a promise during vote-gathering can later haunt the person. This may indeed be the case with at least one of Barack Hussein Obama’s promises.

Obama boasted that he would embark on a personal diplomacy to solve our foreign policy problems with countries such as Syria and Iran. He said that he would meet their leaders without any preconditions to settle our disputes. Doesn’t that sound like change, a real change of great relief to us all? Never mind the fact that he has about zero experience in foreign policy matters, he is foolish enough to aim to negotiate with the ever-conniving Assad of Syria and masters of deceptions such as the Mullahs of Iran.

Okay Obama, don’t claim that no one warned you. If you get elected President and you receive an invitation from your fellow Muslim brother Ahmadinejad to make good on your promise and visit him in Tehran for a tête-à-tête, don’t you do it. BBC’s recent report ought to be enough for you to recant your foolish and naïve promise:

“The European Union has criticized the new penal code being drafted in Iran, particularly a section that imposes the death penalty for giving up Islam...Death for apostasy already exists in Iran under Sharia or “Islamic - law.” But the changes would for the first time bring the punishment into the criminal code. An EU statement expressed deep concern about what it calls the ongoing deterioration in the human rights situation in Iran. It singled out Section Five of the draft penal code currently before the Iranian parliament, imposing the death penalty for apostasy. In the past, Iranian courts have handed down the death penalty in such cases, but have done so relying on Sharia law. If the draft is approved by parliament, the sentence will be formalized in the country's criminal code.”

Who is an apostate according to the legislation? Anyone in the world, not just Iranians, born to a Muslim parent; also, any convert to Islam who leaves it. Only one parent needs to be a Muslim at the time of conception for Islam to own that child for life. Islam is Ummehist. Islam doesn’t recognize nationalities and national boundaries. And these Islamist zealots are very serious and have no sense of humor. Some say they have no sense at all, and they may be right. What they certainly have is a thirst for blood, particularly for the blood of infidels and apostates.

My advice, Obama: Elected President or not, don’t you hazard a trip to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In fact, don’t you go anywhere near where the crazed Islamists can get their hands on you. You don’t even rate a fatwa from one of the many bloodthirsty crafty Ayatollahs or Moftis, asking for your head. Your fate is already sealed. You are on automatic, so to speak-- a person who was given the gift of Islam and who ungratefully turned his back to the one and only faith of Allah, so the Muslims believe. The punishment for this kind of betrayal is prescribed as haad (most severe), meaning death.

You may protest that you are free to choose your religion and that you have chosen to be Christian. Nothing doing! You are stamped as Muslim at conception because your father was Muslim. Further, you have been doubly-stamped by your middle name Hussein. Muslims name their sons Hussein in honor of one of Islam’s most revered saints. Hence, the Muslims want what is theirs and you either repent and return to the fold or prepare yourself for the ultimate punishment: Death.

The only time that these inveterate liar killers of Allah mean what they say is when they threaten violence and killing. So, please be careful. Stay close to home where a whole platoon of Secret Service at the taxpayers’ expense is shielding you from the thugs who would be just too happy to slash your throat while they joyously scream: Allah is the greatest.

http://www.amilimani.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=99&Itemid=2

" Shame on you," Clinton tells Obama

2008-02-23T12:10:00.000-08:00

-"Shame on you," Clinton tells Obama
Sat Feb 23, 2008 2:05pm EST
By Claudia Parsons

CINCINNATI, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton slammed rival Barack Obama on Saturday for campaign leaflets on her health-care plan that she called "blatantly false" and accused him of using Republican tactics in their contest for the Democratic U.S. presidential nomination.

In a bitter exchange, the Obama campaign defended the leaflet as accurate, and decried Clinton's "negative campaign."

"Shame on you, Barack Obama," Clinton said, speaking to reporters after a rally in this state that is key to her struggling campaign.

Brandishing a leaflet, Clinton said the Obama campaign was spreading "false, misleading, discredited information" about her health-care plan.

MORE

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN2362250120080223

Karl Rove on Obama

2008-02-21T14:28:00.000-08:00

Obama's New Vulnerability
By KARL ROVE
WSJ.COM
February 21, 2008; Page A17

In campaigns, there are sometimes moments when candidates shift ground, causing the race to change dramatically. Tuesday night was one of those moments.

Hammered for the 10th contest in a row, Hillary Clinton toughened her attacks on Barack Obama, saying he was unready to be commander in chief and unable to back his inspiring words with a record of action and leadership.
[Obama's New Vulnerability]

John McCain also took on Mr. Obama, with the Arizona senator declaring he would oppose "eloquent but empty calls for change that promises no more than a holiday from history and a return to the false promises and failed policies of a tired philosophy that trusts in government more than people."

Mr. McCain, too, raised questions about Mr. Obama's fitness to be commander in chief. Mr. McCain pointed to Mr. Obama's unnecessary sabre-rattling at an ally (Pakistan) while appeasing our adversaries (Iran and Syria). Mr. McCain also made it clear that reining in spending, which is a McCain strength and an Obama weakness, would be a key issue.

Mr. Obama had not been so effectively criticized before. In the Democratic contest, John Edwards and Mrs. Clinton were unwilling to confront him directly or in a manner that hurt him. Mr. McCain was rightly preoccupied by his own primary. On Tuesday night, things changed.

Perhaps in response to criticisms that have been building in recent days, Mr. Obama pivoted Tuesday from his usual incantations. He dropped the pretense of being a candidate of inspiring but undescribed "post-partisan" change. Until now, Mr. Obama has been making appeals to the center, saying, for example, that we are not red or blue states, but the United States. But in his Houston speech, he used the opportunity of 45 (long) minutes on national TV to advocate a distinctly non-centrist, even proudly left-wing, agenda. By doing so, he opened himself to new and damaging contrasts and lines of criticism.

Mr. McCain can now question Mr. Obama's promise to change Washington by working across party lines. Mr. Obama hasn't worked across party lines since coming to town. Was he a member of the "Gang of 14" that tried to find common ground between the parties on judicial nominations? Was Mr. Obama part of the bipartisan leadership that tackled other thorny issues like energy, immigration or terrorist surveillance legislation? No. Mr. Obama has been one of the most dependably partisan votes in the Senate.

Mrs. Clinton can do much more to draw attention to Mr. Obama's lack of achievements. She can agree with Mr. Obama's statement Tuesday night that change is difficult to achieve on health care, energy, poverty, schools and immigration -- and then question his failure to provide any leadership on these or other major issues since his arrival in the Senate. His failure to act, advocate or lead on what he now claims are his priorities may be her last chance to make a winning argument.

Mr. McCain gets a chance to question Mr. Obama's declaration he won't be beholden to lobbyists and special interests. After Mr. Obama's laundry list of agenda items on Tuesday night, Mr. McCain can ask why, if Mr. Obama rejects the influence of lobbyists, has he not broken with any lobbyists from the left fringe of the Democratic Party? Why is he doing their bidding on a range of issues? Perhaps because he occupies the same liberal territory as they do.

The truth is that Mr. Obama is unwilling to challenge special interests if they represent the financial and political muscle of the Democratic left. He says yes to the lobbyists of the AFL-CIO when they demand card-check legislation to take away the right of workers to have a secret ballot in unionization efforts, or when they oppose trade deals. He won't break with trial lawyers, even when they demand the ability to sue telecom companies that make it possible for intelligence agencies to intercept communications between terrorists abroad. And he is now going out of his way to proclaim fidelity to the educational unions. This is a disappointment since he'd earlier indicated an openness to education reform. Mr. Obama backs their agenda down the line, even calling for an end to testing, which is the only way parents can know with confidence whether their children are learning and their schools working.

These stands represent not just policy vulnerabilities, but also a real danger to Mr. Obama's credibility and authenticity. He cannot proclaim his goal is the end of influence for lobbies if the only influences he seeks to end are lobbies of the center and the right.

Unlike Bill Clinton in 1992, Mr. Obama is completely unwilling to confront the left wing of the Democratic Party, no matter how outrageous its demands, no matter how out of touch it might be with the American people. And Tuesday night, in a key moment in this race, he dropped the pretense that his was a centrist agenda. His agenda is the agenda of the Democratic left.

In recent days, courtesy of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Mr. Obama has invoked the Declaration of Independence, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Franklin Roosevelt to show the power of words. But there is a critical difference between Mr. Obama's rhetoric and that of Jefferson, King and FDR. In each instance, their words were used to advance large, specific purposes -- establishing a new nation based on inalienable rights; achieving equal rights and a color-blind society; giving people confidence to endure a Great Depression. For Mr. Obama, words are merely a means to hide a left-leaning agenda behind the cloak of centrist rhetoric. That garment has now been torn. As voters see what his agenda is, his opponents can now far more effectively question his authenticity, credibility, record and fitness to be leader of the free world.

The road to the presidency just got steeper for Barack Obama, and all because he pivoted on Tuesday night.

Mr. Rove is a former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120355939956381797.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

Obama Fainting Rallies

2008-02-19T10:49:00.000-08:00

fainting rallies
by krs601

Why Hillary Will Lose

2008-02-13T08:39:00.000-08:00

From Crackle: Penn Says - Hillary Joke Predicts the Future

Obama’s Path to Victory

2008-02-11T09:07:00.000-08:00

Obama’s Path to Victory
By WILLIAM KRISTOL
The New York Times
February 11, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist

Last summer, George W. Bush told The Washington Examiner’s Bill Sammon that Hillary Clinton would probably be the 2008 Democratic nominee. “She’s got a national presence and this is becoming a national primary,” he said. “And therefore the person with the national presence who has got the ability to raise enough money to sustain an effort in a multiplicity of sites has got a good chance to be nominated.”

This seemed a reasonable judgment at the time. It may still turn out to be right. But today Barack Obama is neck-and-neck with Clinton in the national polls — and he’s shown a greater ability to raise money. After his strong showing over the weekend, it is Obama who now has the clearer path to his party’s nomination.

I’ll avoid a false precision in the numbers that follow. There are minor differences among news organizations in projecting delegate allocations in states that have already voted, and in counting preferences among the 796 elected officials and party leaders — the “superdelegates” — who vote according to their choice, not voters’ instruction.

Obama leads Clinton by roughly 70 delegates among about 2,000 chosen so far in primaries and caucuses. (There are still about 1,200 delegates outstanding.) Among the superdelegates, Clinton is ahead by about 100 superdelegates among the 300 who have declared a preference (though any of them can change their mind, so a count of them now is in large measure premature). All in all, Clinton seems to be slightly ahead.

She won’t be for long. On Tuesday Obama is expected to prevail in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. So around 9 p.m. Tuesday night, television networks probably will be announcing, for the first time, that Barack Obama holds an unambiguous delegate lead.

His lead in votes — which is already in the neighborhood of 200,000 — will probably have widened. And Obama should be able to increase those delegate and popular vote totals on Feb. 19, when Wisconsin and Hawaii go to the polls.

Next comes March 4, when Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island vote. Clinton’s campaign believes Ohio and Texas will constitute her firewall. Will it hold?

I suspect not. Obama will have momentum. He will likely have more money than Clinton for advertising. His ballot performance among Hispanics and working-class whites has generally been improving as the primary season has gone on. He intends to push a more robust economic message that could help him further narrow the gap among lower-income voters. And an interesting regression analysis at the Daily Kos Web site (poblano.dailykos.com) of the determinants of the Democratic vote so far, applied to the demographics of the Ohio electorate, suggests that Obama has a better chance than is generally realized in Ohio.

As for Texas, look for a couple of possible endorsements to help Obama there. If John Edwards campaigns for Obama in East Texas, and Bill Richardson defies the pleas of Bill Clinton and travels across the border from New Mexico to help out, Obama could prevail.

If Obama wins Ohio and Texas — or even wins one — he’ll be in good shape. He should take Wyoming on March 8 and Mississippi on March 11. Then there’s over a month until the next contest, in Pennsylvania on April 22. That stretch of time could be key. It could be the moment for many of the uncommitted superdelegates to begin ratifying the choice of Democratic primary voters, and to start moving en masse to Obama.

Many of these superdelegates are elected officials. They tend to care about winning in November. The polls suggest Obama matches up better with John McCain. And the polls are merely echoing the judgment of almost every Democratic elected official from a competitive district or a swing state with whom I’ve spoken. They would virtually all prefer Obama at the top of the ticket.

All of this will move the superdelegates to Obama — perhaps as early as just after March 4, or perhaps not until April 22, or perhaps not even until the last match-up on June 7. But the superdelegates will want to avoid a situation in which they could be in the position of seeming to override the popular vote, or of resolving a bitter battle over whether and how to count votes from Florida and Michigan, at the convention.

And there are, as a final resort, two super-superdelegates (so to speak) who would have the clout to help Democrats achieve closure: Al Gore and Nancy Pelosi.

If they stepped forward at the right time, they would earn the gratitude of their party. And they might also enjoy contemplating a derivative effect of their good deed — the fall of the house of Clinton.

Obama has the money and the Momentum

2008-02-07T09:58:00.000-08:00

More and more , it is plain to see who is building momentum and strength. MJ

============================

Obama Raises $7M Post Super Tuesday

Feb 7 11:28 AM US/Eastern
By CHARLES BABINGTON
Associated Press Writer

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Democratic Sen. Barack Obama has raised $7.2 million for his presidential campaign since the first polls closed on Super Tuesday night, his campaign said Thursday, a remarkable figure that is causing concern among supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Meanwhile Thursday, the Clinton campaign asked Obama to debate once a week, but he demurred.

Obama, riding a wave of fundraising from large donors and small Internet contributors, also raised $32 million in January.

Clinton acknowledged Wednesday that she loaned her campaign $5 million late last month as Obama was outraising and outspending her heading into Feb. 5 Super Tuesday contests. Some senior staffers on her campaign also are voluntarily forgoing paychecks as the campaign heads into the next round of contests.

MORE

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8ULI8980&show_article=1

Hillary looks like a fish out of water

2008-02-06T10:21:00.000-08:00

Obama claims delegate lead

2008-02-06T10:18:00.000-08:00

Obama claims delegate lead
By: Mike Allen
February 6, 2008 11:09 AM EST

In a surprise twist after a chaotic Super Tuesday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) passed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in network tallies of the number of delegates the candidates racked up last night.

The Obama camp now projects topping Clinton by 13 delegates, 847 to 834.

NBC News, which is projecting delegates based on the Democratic Party's complex formula, figures Obama will wind up with 840 to 849 delegates, versus 829 to 838 for Clinton.

Clinton was portrayed in many news accounts as the night’s big winner, but Obama’s campaign says he wound up with a higher total where it really counts — the delegates who will choose the party’s nominee at this summer’s Democratic convention.

With the delegate count still under way, NBC News said Obama appears to have won around 840 delegates in yesterday’s contests, while Clinton earned about 830 — “give or take a few,” Tim Russert, the network’s Washington bureau chief, said on the “Today” show.

The running totals for the two, which includes previous contests and the party officials known as “superdelegates,” are only about 70 delegates apart, Russert said.

The bottom line is that the two are virtually tied.

Race, sex divide Dems; ideology splits GOP
Super Tuesday: A split decision
Media restrained in Super Tuesday coverage
Obama won 13 states, some of them smaller, and Clinton won eight.

On Wednesday morning, the battle was on to shape public perceptions about Tuesday.

The Clinton campaign said it was crunching its delegate numbers but was not sure it was correct that Obama got more.

The Obama campaign sent an e-mailed statement titled: “Obama wins Super Tuesday by winning more states and more delegates.”

Campaign Manager David Plouffe said: “By winning a majority of delegates and a majority of the states, Barack Obama won an important Super Tuesday victory over Sen. Clinton in the closest thing we have to a national primary.”

“From Colorado and Utah in the West to Georgia and Alabama in the South to Sen. Clinton’s backyard in Connecticut, Obama showed that he can win the support of Americans of every race, gender and political party in every region of the country,” Plouffe said. “That’s why he’s on track to win Democratic nomination, and that’s why he’s the best candidate to defeat John McCain in November.”

The Obama campaign attached an Excel spreadsheet containing “state-by-state estimates of the pledged delegates we won last night, which total 845 for Obama and 836 for Clinton — bringing the to-date total of delegates to 908 for Obama, 884 for Clinton.”

obama smiles

2008-02-05T09:41:00.001-08:00

obama smiles, originally uploaded by photo.monkey.

Thanks...great picture. This photo was blogged at http://obamavideo.blogspot.com/

Super Tuesday...Cheat sheet

2008-02-05T09:30:00.000-08:00

Here is the cheat sheet for watching Super Tuesday. MJ

Barnes: States to Watch Today
FRED BARNES
In Super Tuesday

You don't have to pay attention to every state on Super Tuesday. Some are more important than others. So concentrate on those and you'll get a pretty good understanding of what the results mean for the presidential races in both parties.

On the Democratic side, three states stand out in my mind: New Jersey, Missouri, and California. America is a nation of suburbs and New Jersey is a state of suburbs. That's reason enough to pay attention to it. Missouri is a microcosm of America, with big cities, suburbs and lots of rural areas. It's a bellwether state. And California is, well, California. It's important because it's big. If Barack Obama wins all three of these states, he becomes the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. If he wins two of three, he's still in good shape. Winning one would be painful for his campaign. Losing all three - that would be Hillary Clinton's dream come true.

On the Republican side, John McCain should win a majority of the states and the delegates. But he may do more, namely put together a delegate blowout by beating Mitt Romney in the winner-take-all states. That means New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut in the East, plus Missouri and four other states. McCain could pile up such a large lead in delegates that it would sharply reduce Romney's chances of overtaking him. So on the Republican side, the delegate count is the name of the game.

Super Tuesday: Is This Hillary's Last Hurrah?

2008-02-03T11:39:00.000-08:00

Super Tuesday: Is This Hillary's Last Hurrah?
February 3, 2008 8:04 AM
Kareem: Sky hooks for Obama

by Roger L. Simon
If either party's nominating process reaches a conclusion on Super Tuesday, conventional wisdom has it that it will be the Republicans with McCain sweeping the Northeast and California.

But a surprise may be brewing on the Democratic side. Obama fever is clearly growing.
Support Pajamas Media; Visit Our Advertisers

The latest California Field poll shows McCain up eight, but more unexpectedly shows Obama within two points of Clinton in the nation's most populous state. Other polls are less favorable to Barack, but it's clear the younger man is surging.

Hillary is lucky the primary is this Tuesday. Another week and she could be toast. In the long run, she could be anyway.

What does this mean for the Republicans? Nothing good. Running against Hillary would not be difficult for them. The country is experiencing Clinton fatigue and what with recent revelations like Bill's nuclear finagling in Kazakhstan (probably just the tip of an endless iceberg) Hillary presents them with an easy target and likely victory.

Not so Obama. He is the "cool kid" on the block and getting cooler. Everyone wants to be part of him. "Yes, We Can" - a new video by Black-Eyed Peas featuring Scarlett Johansson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar, among others – although based on the usual campaign rhetoric, radiates an optimism about a future with and through Obama, which we haven't seen since Reagan, ironically.

Furthermore, Obama's lack of record or experience, while obviously something any concerned voter should be concerned about, may be an advantage for him. There's less to shoot at.

In a head-to-head, Obama's glamour could be lethal. McCain would look like Barack's crotchety old father and Romney—even worse—a starchy, clueless businessman (in Huckabee's words, "the guy who fires you"). I don't have to tell you, the facts are not operative here. Images rule.

This was writ large by Frank Luntz's focus group after the recent California debate at the Kodak Theater. Unlike the pundits, the people in Luntz's group overwhelmingly declared Obama the winner, although he had spoken largely in generalities throughout the entire debate. Hillary, the wonk, had focused on the details of her programs. Who wants to hear about them? Again ironically, they just contribute to Clinton fatigue.

Like it or not, people are more interested in being inspired.

So, on Super Tuesday, all eyes will be on whether McCain can administer a knockout blow on the Republican side.

But the spotlight should be shared equally with the Democrats. Hillary, even more than McCain, needs to win with some deciseveness on Tuesday. Otherwise, she will be on the wrong side of a juggernaut.

http://pajamasmedia.com/2008/02/super_tuesday_is_this_hillarys.php

NY Times Sets Up Hillary For A Fall

2008-01-31T16:40:00.000-08:00

NY Times Sets Up Hillary For A Fall
CONFEDERATE YANKEEE
In 2005, Bill Clinton accompanied mining financier Frank Giustra to Kazakhstan, provided dictator Nursultan A. Nazarbayev with a propaganda coup that undermined American foreign policy and glossed over Kazakhstan's dismal human rights record. For Clinton's trouble, Giustra walked away with shared mining rights to 1/5 of the world's known uranium reserves.

Clinton subsequently picked up $131 million dollars in donations and pledges from Giustra for the William J. Clinton Foundation as a result, including a donation of $31.3 million within months of the mining deal being finalized.

On the surface, this sounds like peddling influence for cash—and truth be told, I can't easily come up with any other rational explanation.

This is rather a bizarre time to be publishing an accusation of an incident that occurred several years ago, with only days left before Hillary Clinton engages Barack Obama in the Super Tuesday Democratic presidential primaries, and occurring just days after the New York Times publicly endorsed Clinton as their candidate of choice.

Are we to believe that the Times editors were unaware of the pending article on Bill Clinton's apparent influence peddling when they gave Hillary their endorsement less than one full week ago?

In a large news organization it is indeed possible that the editorial staff who wrote Clinton's endorsement was unaware of the pending Bill Clinton/Giustra article... but I doubt it. And it is the Times editors that chose when to publish an article that was not locked into a specific time-sensitive news cycle, but was, as they say, "evergreen." This could have waited until after Super Tuesday, without a loss of importance... but then it would lack the colossal political influence that this story now may have.

Publishing the Clinton/Giustra article on this day, so close to Super Tuesday, seems indicative of ill intent on behalf of the Times.

Perhaps Hillary isn't their real choice for President after all.

http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/253602.php

A Longer Race Benefits Obama

2008-01-31T15:56:00.000-08:00

A Longer Race Benefits Obama
By David Broder

WASHINGTON -- Heading into Tuesday's unprecedented day of voting in nearly two dozen states, a degree of order is finally emerging in the dramatic races for the presidential nominations of both parties.

Public opinion and leadership support are finding their way to the same destinations, pointing to a clear favorite and a single viable alternative in each race.

John McCain has the easiest path remaining to the Republican nomination, with Mitt Romney needing some kind of dramatic breakthrough Tuesday to keep his hopes of an upset alive.

On the Democratic side, the battle is more even, but the advantage has shifted back to Barack Obama -- thanks to a growing but largely unremarked tendency among Democratic leaders to reject Hillary Clinton and her husband, the former president.

The New York senator could still emerge from the "Tsunami Tuesday" voting with the overall lead in delegates, but she is unlikely to be able to come close to clinching the nomination. And the longer the race goes on, the better the chances that Obama will ultimately prevail, as more elected Democratic officials and candidates come to view him as the better bet to defeat McCain in November.

As the race has moved from contests in small states such as Iowa and New Hampshire to the national dimension of Tuesday's voting, the role of the endorsements and leadership testimonials has increased. The candidates simply lack the time and resources to make personal appeals to very many voters.

Had McCain not invested that personal time in New Hampshire, with more than 100 town meetings where he argued for the correctness of his views on the Iraq War, he could not have reversed the summertime disaster that overtook his campaign, when he ran out of money and lost most of his senior staff.

But after turning back Romney in New Hampshire, the Arizona senator picked up significant establishment backing in South Carolina and Florida -- the hard-core Republican states where he had to show his credentials. He campaigned in South Carolina flanked by Tom Coburn and Jack Kemp, icons of social and fiscal conservatism, and won Florida thanks to last-minute endorsements from Gov. Charlie Crist and Sen. Mel Martinez.

Now, with defeated Rudy Giuliani adding his voice to the chorus of endorsements, and with Mike Huckabee remaining in the race to challenge Romney from the religious right, McCain appears poised to lock up the nomination.

Unelected conservative ideologues -- Rush Limbaugh and George Will -- can mutter in frustration, but Republican politicians recognize what was written here as long ago as last Dec. 2: "If the Republican Party really wanted to hold on to the White House in 2009 ... it would grit its teeth, swallow its doubts and nominate a ticket of John McCain for president and Mike Huckabee for vice president -- and president-in-waiting."

The Democratic race remains harder to handicap, in part because Clinton already has demonstrated her resilience by fighting uphill battles to prevail in New Hampshire and Nevada and because she retains formidable alliances and organizational strengths.

But the last two weeks have seen a remarkable shift of establishment opinion against her and against the prospect of placing the party's 2008 chances in the hands of her husband, Bill Clinton.

The prominence of his role in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and the mean-spiritedness of his attacks on Obama, stunned many Democrats. Clinton's behavior underlined the warning raised in this column before Iowa, by a prominent veteran of the Clinton administration, that the prospect of two presidents both named Clinton sharing a single White House would be a huge problem for the Democrats in November if she is the nominee.

The negatives on the Clintons have brought much support to Obama, most notably that of Ted Kennedy, the most prestigious figure in the Democratic establishment in Washington. But it is also Obama's own appeal that is being talked about across the country from Massachusetts to Arizona by the younger generation of governors, senators and representatives who share with him an eagerness to "turn the page" on the battles of the past.

Obama is not inevitable, but the longer the race continues, the greater that hunger. And the growing recognition of McCain's appeal to independents also works in Obama's favor.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/a_longer_race_benefits_obama.html

2008-01-18T17:36:00.000-08:00

Get ready for the Dirt...

2008-01-08T11:36:00.000-08:00

I couldn't agree more...get ready for the campaign to get down and dirty. Can Obama survive the microscope? Hillary has already threatened to disclose something on Obama...watch for Hillary to unleash the attack dogs soon.

=======================

The Queen Is Dead…
…Long live the king?
By Victor Davis Hanson

For the past year, I, like millions of others, have been bewildered by TV's talking heads, always assuring us that Hillary — before a single vote was cast, before a single attack ad was made, before a single blunder or mini-crisis occurred—was to be coronated as the Democratic nominee and would inevitably go on to beat any Republican rival. (Many instead thought 'Never underestimate the ability of Bill Clinton to do damage to those around him' ).

Now after the first week of the primary season, these same geniuses are deifying Obama (formerly trashed as running a "surprisingly" dismal and uninspiring campaign) to the skies and writing Clinton's post mortem — even as her national polls are still even or ahead of Obama. Something similar is true of McCain as well — once worshipped, then pitied, and now admired.

What comes across to the viewer is the near complete absence of any independent judgement; instead, the 24-hour buzz makes someone hot or cold, and the pundits adjust accordingly with praise or blame. We've seen this before with the Gary Hart, Howard Dean, and Ross Perot pet-rock like craze — which are not that unusual in the popular cultural of radically democratic cultures such as our own.

The truth is that what a few thousand Americans think in Iowa and New Hampshire does not trump the tens of millions in states like Florida, New Jersey, New York, and California. The Clinton and Giuliani campaigns were based on this fact, and could still work — as long as the perceived momentum achieved by Obama or Huckabee among tiny populations in these two early states, amplified and exaggerated by spin doctors on television, does not cause second and third thoughts in voters of these key mega-states, inasmuch as most have no firm or fixed views other than a desire to be associated with a winner.

Hillary is not comatose, but instead at a crossroads. If she distances herself from Bill, goes silent about her First Lady years, stops the play-safe, don't-blow-it-fourth-quarter strategy, and instead takes risks, talks about what she's going to do in simple, blunt terms, gives more interviews, answers impromptu questions at her campaign stops, jettisons the canned laugh for real give and take, she could recover in two weeks.

Left unsaid is that America will soon — thanks to input from the shadows from various hitmen from the Clinton 1992/1996 team — be hearing a lot more details about the relatively unknown life and views of one Barrack Obama and those around him.

Right now voters know almost everything about Hillary and are troubled by that knowledge; they know almost nothing about Obama, and are happy for that ignorance — but that too can change, since she has nothing left to disclose or lose, he everything.

Hillary Out?

2008-01-07T10:22:00.000-08:00

The fact that this is even being talked about is incredible...stay tuned.

==============================================

TALK OF HILLARY EXIT ENGULFS CAMPAIGNS
Mon Jan 07 2008 09:46:28 ET

Facing a double-digit defeat in New Hampshire, a sudden collapse in national polls and an expected fund-raising drought, Senator Hillary Clinton is preparing for a tough decision: Does she get out of the race? And when?!

"She can't take multiple double-digit losses in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada," laments one top campaign insider to the DRUDGE REPORT. "If she gets too badly embarrassed, it will really harm her. She doesn't want the Clinton brand to be damaged with back-to-back-to-back defeats."

Meanwhile, Democrat hopeful John Edwards has confided to senior staff that he is staying in the race because Hillary "could soon be out."

"Her money is going to dry up," Edwards confided, a top source said Monday morning.

MORE

Key players in Clinton's inner circle are said to be split. James Carville is urging her to fight it out through at least February and Super Tuesday, where she has a shot at thwarting Barack Obama in a big state.

"She did not work this hard to get out after one state! All this talk is nonsense," said one top adviser.

But others close to the former first lady now see no possible road to victory, sources claim.

Developing...

[The dramatic reversal of fortunes has left the media establishment stunned and racing to keep up with fast-moving changes.

In its final poll before Iowa, CNN showed Clinton with a two-point lead over Obama. Editorial decisions were being made based on an understanding the Democratic primary race would be close, explained a network executive.]

http://www.drudgereport.com/flashhn.htm

2008-01-03T22:25:00.000-08:00

Iowa Caucus: The Democrats
CAPTAIN ED BLOG
By Ed Morrissey on 2008

Hillary Clinton has run into a serious buzz saw on her way to the coronation. Not only did she not win the state, but she lost to the wrong candidate. Barack Obama now threatens to steal away a nomination that the Clintons thought they had in the bank less than three months ago.

Clinton would have had a tough time winning Iowa in any case. The populist appeal of John Edwards always figured to take some significant support away from Hillary. However, a second-place finish to Edwards would not have had much impact on her campaign, because Edwards has little appeal outside of the populist Midwest. She could easily have survived that kind of loss, without even considering it a bump in the road.

Instead, Barack Obama beat both of them, and that's an ill portent for Hillary's march to the nomination. Obama beat Hillary in a state that has a very small African-American demographic; he won not by playing the race card, but by simply offering a departure from Clintonian politics. That victory will resonate in New Hampshire, where Obama already has her in a dead heat, but also in the following states.

Even worse, Hillary finished in third place, behind Edwards, after working the state hard for the past three weeks. Edwards, meanwhile, didn't improve over his performance in 2004. He wound up actually two points lower, 30% as opposed to 32%. Hillary couldn't take advantage of the decline, and trailing a stagnating Edwards won't give Democratic primary voters any confidence in her ability to beat Obama, let alone a Republican in November.

Hillary has reaped the harvest of two months of self-inflicted wounds, starting with her collapse on drivers licenses for illegal aliens, and through some bizarre attacks on Barack Obama in the aftermath. The question will be whether she can recover from the rapid decline. The answer: she's no Bill Clinton.

--------------------------------------------------------

Iowa Caucus: The Republicans

By Ed Morrissey on 2008

This started off sounding like the Super Bowl -- the big-money Immovable Object meeting the grassroots Unstoppable Force. Iowans turned it into the usual kind of Super Bowl, a laugher, as Mike Huckabee stunned Mitt Romney with a nine-point win. Huckabee beat Romney by a much wider margin than anyone predicted, even larger than the five-point gap that I posted earlier this evening.

What does this mean for Romney? It's a body blow. He spent somewhere between $8-9 million and came up far short of a victory. That directly reflects on his next race, where John McCain has taken the lead in his backyard. If he can't do any better against McCain than he did against Huckabee, Republican voters will rightly question whether Romney can win anywhere, even with the huge funding advantage he has had.

If McCain wins in New Hampshire, Romney has serious problems, but it assists the other 50-state candidate: Rudy Giuliani. Unlike Hillary Clinton, Giuliani was smart enough not to waste time in Iowa, and he won't tangle in New Hampshire, either. If Romney gets derailed, it leaves the Super Tuesday field open to Giuliani, who already has leads in the big coastal states. He's an experienced campaigner, and this Romney loss validates his strategy.

Fred Thompson and John McCain, at this moment, still struggle for third place. McCain just needed a significant showing for his upcoming battle in New Hampshire, but Thompson needed a third-place finish just to keep his credibility alive. It looks like he did that, and conservatives who had made a mad rush to help him stay afloat in the last two weeks have longer to build momentum for him. If they can make a big push in South Carolina, he could get back in the race -- but that also helps Giuliani.

Finally, Ron Paul did a respectable 10% in this race -- not bad, but no better than fifth place. The Paul supporters who kept insisting that their man had been victimized by pollsters conspiring to make him look weak in the race will have to explain away a fifth-place finish in a field of seven, only beating Giuliani because he didn't bother to campaign there. A 10% finish won't derail either John McCain or Mitt Romney in New Hampshire. In fact, both men may need to worry about Mike Huckabee, and Romney more than McCain.

Obama and transcript from "Face the Nation"

2007-12-23T19:43:00.000-08:00

Obama on 'Face the Nation'
by John McCormick

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama appeared on "Face the Nation" this morning on CBS. The transcript is below:

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2007/12/obama_on_face_the_nation.html

Obama's Latest TV Ad

2007-10-27T02:00:00.001-07:00

Oprah Winfrey throws Obama a Bone

2007-09-08T00:54:00.000-07:00

Oprah Winfrey, Political Power BrokerCATO-AT-LARGEBy David Boaz on Civil Liberties

Billionaire Oprah Winfrey is making a million-dollar contribution to Barack OBAMA's presidential campaign. And despite all the campaign finance restrictions of the past 30 years, it's perfectly legal. That's because Oprah is making her contribution in the form of time on her television show, appearances with him on the campaign trail, and other uses of her celebrity. But if a rival media mogul, someone like Sumner Redstone or John Malone, wanted to make a contribution of more than $2,300 to a presidential candidate, that would be illegal. Because, you know, it's corrupt to make a large contribution. Wouldn't want the next president to be indebted to a businessman who gave him a $10,000 contribution.This Saturday, "Winfrey will host her first-ever presidential fundraising affair on the grounds of the Promised Land, her 42-acre ocean- and mountain-view estate in Montecito, Calif. — an event that is expected to raise more than $3 million for OBAMA's campaign."Matthew Mosk of the Washington Post outlines some of the other ways Winfrey might help her preferred candidate.Among the weapons in Winfrey's arsenal: the television program that reaches 8.4 million viewers each weekday afternoon, according to the most recent Nielsen numbers. Her Web site reaches 2.3 unique viewers each month, "O, the Oprah Magazine," has a circulation of 2 million, she circulates a weekly newsletter to 420,000 fans and 360,000 people have subscribed to her Web site for daily "Oprah Alerts" by e-mail.More than that, though, the Nielsen tracking data show that her most loyal viewers are women between 25 and 55 — a group that also votes in large numbers in Democratic primaries.Oprah's well aware of her power:The fundraiser may be only the start. The Winfrey and OBAMA machines have maintained silence on the exact nature of their talks over what her role will be, but the idea of her appearing in television ads and other appeals is very much in play. She offered during a recent interview with CNN's Larry King: "My money isn't going to make any difference. My value to him — my support of him — is probably worth more than any other check that I could write."…Winfrey said in an audio Web chat last week that, this year, the OBAMAs will be her only political guests.Campaign finance reform was promised as a way to make everyone equal in the political process, to squeeze out the power of big money. But one of its effects is to make some rich people more equal than others. If Oprah–or Rupert Murdoch, or Donald Graham–decides to use his or her resources to help a particular candidate, that's legal and very powerful. But the rich man who runs a software company is forbidden to use any significant part of his financial resources to help a candidate.All power to journalists and celebrities in the reformed political process.

New Poll Shows Obama in the Lead

2007-05-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

2008 Democratic Presidential Primary
National Poll: Obama 32% Clinton 30%

April 30, 2007
For the first time in the Election 2008 season, somebody other than New York Senator Hillary Clinton is on top in the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows Illinois Senator Barack Obama with a statistically insignificant two point advantage over the former First Lady. It’s Obama 32% Clinton 30%. Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards remains in third with support holding steady at 17%. No other candidate tops 3%. The survey was conducted April 23-26, 2007 meaning that the overwhelming majority of the interviews were completed before last Thursday’s debate in South Carolina. The impact of the debate will be measured in polling conducted this week.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Political%20Tracking/Democratic%20Primaries/DemocraticPresidentialPrimary.htm

Breaking News...Charlie Rose to Host Online Debates

2007-04-24T10:46:00.000-07:00

Charlie Rose To Host First Live Online Presidential Debates

Yahoo along with the Huffington Post and Slate will host two presidential debates during the 2008 campaign. Hosted by Charlie Rose, these interactive debates will be available on the three websites and allow voters an opportunity to ask questions, as well as evaluate the candidates for their performances. [more]

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog

Is Gore in?

2007-04-22T15:19:00.000-07:00

Sure looks like Gore is running...what an amazing campaign this will be.

MJ------------------------

Gore To Run For 2008 Nomination
CAPTAIN ED
Al Gore has insisted that he has no interest in returning to electoral politics and wants to focus on his media interests and on solutions to global warming. The former Vice President has shown no inclination to run against the wife of his former boss, at least not publicly. However, the London Telegraph reports that Gore has secretly begun to recruit a campaign staff and will challenge Hillary Clinton for the nomination:

"Friends of Al Gore have secretly started assembling a campaign team in preparation for the former American vice-president to make a fresh bid for the White House.

Two members of Mr Gore's staff from his unsuccessful attempt in 2000 say they have been approached to see if they would be available to work with him again.

Mr Gore, President Bill Clinton's deputy, has said he wants to concentrate on publicising the need to combat climate change, a case made in his film, An Inconvenient Truth, which won him an Oscar this year.

But, aware that he may step into the wide open race for the White House, former strategists are sounding out a shadow team that could run his campaign at short notice. In approaching former campaign staff, including political strategists and communications officials, they are making clear they are not acting on formal instructions from Mr Gore, 59, but have not been asked to stop."

Gore has run in the top tier of Democratic candidates without having announced any intention to run. Thanks to the buzz from his Oscar-winning documentary, Gore has not needed to eat up resources for traditional campaigning. With a new book coming out this spring, Gore will have even more free media access, expanding his reach and making him seem even more presidential than ever.

After jumping into the race, though, Gore has to win it. He has proven himself rather wooden on the stump in past campaigns. He has improved during his global-warming tour, but that may not equate to the kind of speechmaking that a presidential campaign requires. It will also task his ability to project a warm and engaging personality, rather than the cold scold of 2000.

A Gore entry will probably prove fatal to the ambitions of Barack Obama and John Edwards. Both have run on Gore's turf so far, and neither will outshine him with party donors desperate to find a credible alternative to Hillary Clinton. Gore has a great deal more substance than both candidates put together and will almost immediately be the chief challenger on Hillary's left, once he formally enters the race.

Given that Hillary's negatives keep going higher, Gore could easily convince the Democrats that he has more electability than his ex-boss' wife. If so, that gives the Republicans an opening among the center.

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/009757.php

Obama speaks on the day of the Virginia Tech massacre

2007-04-21T01:06:00.000-07:00

Still a Thorn in Hillary's Side...

2007-04-15T22:11:00.000-07:00

It's very interesting to read some of the particulars about the first round of fund raising. MJ

Donors Linked to the Clintons Shift to Obama

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/us/politics/16donate.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewan...

Video of Obama on Letterman

2007-04-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Symbolism and Barack Obama

2007-04-11T00:21:00.001-07:00

Barack Obama, originally uploaded by Barack Obama.

More and More...Obama Is Changing the Game

2007-04-10T09:27:00.000-07:00

I've tried to position this blog right in the middle of what I see as a rapidly changing new model for US politics. Its really fascinating to watch how this continues to unfold across the political landscape.

MJ

"In Politics, the Web Changes Everything

By David Frum
Posted:
Monday, April 9, 2007

ARTICLES
National Post (Canada)
Publication Date: April 7, 2007

Resident Fellow David Frum
Hillary Clinton had everything lined up to reprise the mighty George W. Bush
nomination campaign of 1998-99.
She would use the vast donor network
inherited from her husband to raise a $100-million campaign fund. This vast
treasury would deter potential rivals from entering the race. And should anybody
in the party murmur against this buying of the nomination, she would field a
team of party leaders to warn: 'Those who are with us now will be remembered
when we win. And those who are against--they will also be remembered when we
win.'
It worked for Bush. But it's not working for Clinton." [more]

http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.25921/pub_detail.asp

Behind the Scenes at Obama's Headquarters

2007-04-10T00:04:00.000-07:00

Peek Inside Obama's Headquarters April 5, 2007 Phil Rogers takes a tour through Sen. Barack Obama's campaign headquarters.
http://video.nbc5.com/player/?id=88519

Obama Raises 25 Million !

2007-04-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

Obama Shows His Strength in a Fund-Raising Feat on Par With Clinton
By
JEFF ZELENY and PATRICK HEALY
Published: April 5, 2007
The Obama campaign
announced it had raised $25 million only days after Senator Hillary Rodham
Clinton said her campaign had raisied $26 million.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/politics/05obama.html?ex=1333425600&en=a06fe28b1bcaec39&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Obama Fundraising Notes and Analysis

2007-04-02T21:10:00.000-07:00

As I said nearly a week ago...Obama is right in the mix with fundraising so far. Here is more confirmation of that. MJ
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Obama, not Hillary, won the 1st quarter fundraising derby
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/04/obama_not_hillary_won_the_1st.html

Behind The Numbers: 83,531 Gave To Obama, 50,000 Gave To
Hillary
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/04/02/behind-the-numbers-8353_n_44779.html

Hillary Clinton Doomsday Machine....Enjoy!

2007-04-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

Recent Obama Video of Interest

2007-03-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

Sen. McCain Responds To Sen. Obama On The Situation Room

Obama on Being President CNN

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/politics/2007/03/28/blitzer.obama.intv.cnn&am...

$$$ It's All About the Money...Like it or Not

2007-03-26T19:01:00.001-07:00

Obama is predicted to come in around 20 Million. That puts him right in the mix with a good showing so far. MJ
-----------------------------------

Fundraising race heats as deadline looms

By JIM
KUHNHENN The Associated Press 3/26/2007

http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2007/03/26/ap/politics/d8o42bo80.txt

A Series of "Must Read" Obama Articles...

2007-03-25T16:38:00.000-07:00

I scour the internet to bring the best information and perspective I can find on Obama. Here are some "must reads" that you just won't find in your newspaper, or on the news. MJ
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

March 23, 2007
Psychoanalyzing
Barack Obama
Steven M.
Warshawsky

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2007/03/psychoanalyzing_barack_obama.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sailor has written a number of shorter follow-up pieces about Obama that
also are well worth reading. See here, here, and here.

http://isteve.blogspot.com/2007/03/andrew-sullivan-on-sailer-on-obama.html http://isteve.blogspot.com/2007/03/obamas-self-pity.html http://isteve.blogspot.com/2007/03/obamas-doppelganger.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Obama’s Identity Crisis

March 26, 2007 IssueCopyright © 2007 The American Conservative
Although he presents himself as a healer of differences, the presidential
candidate’s own racial struggle paints a conflicted portrait.by Steve Sailer

http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_03_12/feature.html

Better Keep an Eye On This Story

2007-03-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

Lets see how this plays out. It could be nothing...or it could turn into a real head ache if more people have things to say about Obama's book, and his past. MJ

------------------------------------------
The not-so-simple story of Barack Obama's youth The glare of the presidential campaign is shining on people previously hidden behind pseudonyms in Obama's memoirs. One of them, a convicted felon, demanded money from the campaign. Or else.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-070323obama-youth,0,3268648.story?coll=chi-homepagepromo440-fea

Creator of Hillary 1984 Ad Comes Forward

2007-03-21T17:38:00.000-07:00

There are some ties to the Obama campaign with this...but I doubt much will come of it.

They only burn GOP operatives at the stake for this type of thing. ;-)
MJ
-----------------------------------------

Who Created "Hillary 1984"? Mystery Solved!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/who-created-hillary-1984_b_43978.html

Mystery creator of anti-Clinton ad ID'd

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070321/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_ad

Obama on Larry King Live

2007-03-20T20:36:00.000-07:00

The Grassroots Media Wins Round One?

2007-03-19T19:49:00.000-07:00

More information and background on the so called "Hillary 1984" video.I find the whole story fascinating and will continue to follow it here.

This story is at the epicenter of the changing face of U.S.politics,campaign tactics and media, converging with the internet. MJ
---------------------------------------------------------

Who is the person behind the Clinton attack ad?

"considering Hillary Clinton's biggest video has only received 12,000 views on YouTube, I'd say the grassroots has won the first round."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/19/BAGSFONU1A16.DTL

Guerilla Campaign Video Attacks Hillary

2007-03-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

Which is more impressive? If this came from the Obama campaign itself... or if it came from his supporters? Either way...once again the most fascinating stories revolve around Obama and Hillary.

Take the time to read the whole article and watch the video...highly recommended!--------------------------------------------------------------

Political video smack-down

'Hillary 1984': Unauthorized Internet video for Obama converts Apple Computer's '84 Super Bowl spot into a generational howl against Clinton's presidential bid

It may be the most stunning and creative attack ad yet for a 2008 presidential candidate -- one experts say could represent a watershed moment in 21st century media and political advertising.
Yet the groundbreaking 74-second pitch for Democratic Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, which remixes the classic "1984" ad that introduced Apple computers to the world, is not on cable or network TV, but on the Internet.
[More]
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/17/BAGPKONDHM3.DTL

Has Hillary blown her lead?

2007-03-17T22:18:00.000-07:00

More on Hillary blowing her lead...more good stuff from Dick Morris.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Hillary's Mistakes Fuel Obama's Surge
Friday , March 16, 2007

By Dick Morris and Eileen McGann

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,259150,00.html

FNC
In the aftermath of Hillary’s two big mistakes — attacking Obama over the remarks of David Geffen and competing with the Illinois Senator for African American votes at Selma, Ala. — Obama has now closed in on Hillary dramatically, moving within seven points of the frontrunner, in the latest Time Magazine poll. Nationally, Hillary’s lead has collapsed to 30-23, with Edwards running a distant third.

Hillary’s fall — Time had her ahead of Obama by 40-21 in January — has been animated by a switch of black voters among whom she had been leading by three to one. But that was before she made the colossal mistake of attacking Obama for the comments of his financial supporter David Geffen. Obama had been wrestling with the dilemma of how to attract black voters without embracing civil rights leaders like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Then Hillary, led by her consultant Mark Penn, decided to unload on Obama, blaming him for Geffen’s remarks which criticized her husband’s pardons and his personal “recklessness.” Faced with a white attacking a black candidate, African Americans rallied in droves to support Obama, closing the gap between the two Democratic front-runners to eleven points.

The geniuses running Hillary’s campaign made another big goof in sending both Clintons to Selma, Ala. to horn in on the celebration of the 42nd anniversary of the voting rights march. It was Obama’s day and his speech, lecturing African Americans to abandon their “anti-intellectual” attitudes, contrasted sharply with Hillary’s pandering, pat, and scripted rhetoric. When the former First Lady tried to say that the march for voting rights for blacks made her candidacy possible, she was laughable and her imitation of a southern drawl fueled jokes all over the country.

Now, in the wake of Selma, Obama has tied with Hillary at 36-36 among black voters in the Time poll. This elimination of Hillary’s lead among African Americans has pushed Obama to within four points of her in the South and ahead of her in the West.

Even as the poll was being released, Hillary was making a third mistake. She told the New York Times on Tuesday, March 13 that she would keep troops in Iraq if she were elected. “I think we have a remaining military as well as political mission [in Iraq] trying to contain the extremists,” she said. While indicating that she would have troops avoid policing urban areas, she said they would continue to “provide logistical support, air support, training support” and would be deployed “between Baghdad and Kirkuk ready to “continue to provide support, if called for, for the Iraqis.”

This new twist on her Iraq position comes a few days after she said she would vote to attach a rider to the appropriations bill funding the war calling for full withdrawal by March of 2008. Hillary characterizes this as a “goal,” not a legal requirement.

But her new comments supporting continued deployment will open up a huge gap between herself and Obama on the war. The Illinois Senator has always opposed the war in Iraq and wants to force a complete withdrawal for all American forces by the spring of 2008. This position puts him on a collision course with Hillary, a dangerous posture for Mrs. Clinton among a Democratic electorate that backs total withdrawal by 77-18 in the latest FOX News survey.

Why did Hillary make these three mistakes opening the door for Obama to close the gap?

Her attack on Obama was mapped out, according to columnist Bob Novack, in a conference call headed by her consultant Mark Penn. But, what drove the decision was Bill Clinton’s vanity and temper. Stung by Geffen’s criticism, the former president demanded that Hillary’s campaign answer the attacks — a key and crucial mistake.

Her pathetic attempt to appeal to blacks in Selma was probably the result of panic at the consequences of her first mistake, an overreaction that did her more harm than good.

But why the double-talk on Iraq? Hillary may be feeling over confident of her lead in the primaries, and wants to lay the basis for tacking back to the center in the general election. If that’s the case, she needs to reread the polls.

The more likely explanation is that she is in the thrall of the generals and security experts who parade before the Senate Armed Services Committee on which she serves, and she finds that she cannot ignore what they are telling her. Just as she followed health care guru Ira Magaziner off a cliff in 1994, just as she pushed her reform legislation until it cost her party control of Congress, she now hues to the military line that we need to stay in Iraq. Of course, she was wrong on health care, but is right on Iraq. But that doesn’t matter much. She will pay dearly for her apostasy in the Democratic primaries to come.

Hillary has now blown her easy front-runner status and will have to contend with a resurgent Obama all way until the February 5 national primary.

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Dick Morris served as Bill Clinton's political consultant for 20 years, guiding him to a successful reelection in 1996. He is the author of New York Times bestsellers Because He Could, Rewriting History (both with Eileen McGann), Off with Their Heads, and Behind the Oval Office, and the Washington Post bestseller Power Plays.

Copyright Eileen McGann and Dick Morris 2006. To obtain free copies of all of the columns and newsletters by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann for non-commercial use, please sign up at www.dickmorris.com.

Obama on the Today Show

2007-03-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

More on Obama raised as a Muslim...

2007-03-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

Is this going to be an issue or not?

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Obama: Raised a Muslim After All
DAVID FRUM'S DIARY
... or so reports the Los Angeles Times.

At first, Obama aides directed withering fire at Fox News after it reported that the senator had attended Islamic schools in Indonesia.

"Obama's campaign aides have emphasized his strong Christian beliefs and downplayed any Islamic connection. The candidate was raised "in a secular household in Indonesia by his stepfather and mother," his chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said in a statement in January after false reports began circulating that Obama had attended a radical madrasa, or Koranic school, as a child.

"To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago," Gibbs' Jan. 24 statement said."

Recently, however, they have amended their early account.

"In a statement to The Times on Wednesday, the campaign offered slightly different wording, saying: "Obama has never been a practicing Muslim." The statement added that as a child, Obama had spent time in the neighborhood's Islamic center."

And the documentary record goes a little further still.

"His former Roman Catholic and Muslim teachers, along with two people who were identified by Obama's grade-school teacher as childhood friends, say Obama was registered by his family as a Muslim at both of the schools he attended.

That registration meant that during the third and fourth grades, Obama learned about Islam for two hours each week in religion class.

The childhood friends say Obama sometimes went to Friday prayers at the local mosque."

Obama's family and campaign organization play down his religious associations.

But some supporters have responded with eager enthusiasm. As blogger Anya Kamenetz puts it on the Huffington Post today:

"Is there anyone else who thinks it's awesome that Obama grew up Muslim?"

Good question! Anyone? Anyone? Bueller - anyone?

**

Update: Having checked around the liberal blogworld a little this morning, I think I can sum up the reaction as: "It's true. So what?" A fair response. And it raises the question: Why doesn't the campaign own up too? Might it be ... could it be ... that they are becoming a little ... cynical?

***

Some on the right wonder whether Islamists would not regard Obama as an apostate liable to the death penalty.

But they are overlooking the political potential. Obama's supporters like to talk about how their man might change the map of American politics. OK, now imagine this: Obama speaking to a white Baptist church in, say, Arkansas ... and holding all those Bible-believing conservative Republicans spellbound with the inspiring story of how he left Islam behind to discover the true loving faith of Jesus Christ! Talk about changing the map!

http://frum.nationalreview.com/

A look at the 08 Campaign

2007-03-14T19:26:00.001-07:00

A pretty good analysis and look at the 08 campaign ...so far.

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Thusfar, Not Much Inspiring in the '08 Campaign

This is how the '08 Presidential primary race is shaping up on the Democratic side: Obama is running for President, Hillary is running against Obama and Edwards is running against Hillary. All tactics, no strategy, much like the Iraq War.

Almost every move Hillary has made seems designed to blunt Obama, who thus is setting the agenda and tone of the campaign.

Barack got into the race, and Hillary's timetable to enter accelerated. Obama goes to Selma to commemorate the famous march, and Hillary gets herself invited so as not to give Barack the stage alone. Then, she gets Bill to join her so as to compete for star power wattage.

Most recently, Obama has been compared, by others, to John F. Kennedy: young, bright, eloquent, charismatic, rock-star. So what does Hillary do in New Hampshire? She compares herself to JFK. A bit Nixon-esque---pronounced a statement he made himself as the Nixon corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. Usually, such comparisons are left to others to note, and comment upon. Hillary is smarter and more politically savvy than all this, but she appears at this early stage to be in the grip of her handlers.

[more]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-abrams/thusfar-not-much-inspiri_b_43236.html

A look at the 08 Campaign

2007-03-14T19:26:00.000-07:00

Giuliani and Obama

2007-03-11T15:37:00.001-07:00

Giuliani and Obama, originally uploaded by ChadMont.

LOL...grass roots comics.

Obama and Hillary

2007-03-10T23:29:00.001-08:00

Obama and Hilary, originally uploaded by nata2.

Most of my fascination with Obama, is his effect on Hillary.

I couldn't resist sharing this photo after I came across it. ;-)

Giuliani, McCain lead Clinton, Obama in new poll

2007-03-10T18:32:00.000-08:00

I have learned to take any poll with a grain of salt. They are too often used for manipulation and to sell newspapers. But we'll keep an eye on them anyway...just for a general idea of how the race shapes up. It's really much too early...

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Giuliani, McCain lead Clinton, Obama in new pollBLOOMBERG NEWS

http://www.amny.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uspoll0310,0,4045181.story?coll=ny-islanders-print

Obama’s selma bounce by Dick Morris

2007-03-09T13:55:00.000-08:00

A good read and some insightful commentary by Dick Morris.
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Obama’s selma bounce
By Dick Morris
March 07, 2007
Will March 4, 2007, the 42nd anniversary of the Selma, Ala., march for voting rights, propel Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) presidential candidacy with the same force that Sept. 11, 2004 energized George W. Bush’s pursuit of a second term? The day clearly belonged to Obama, despite the efforts of both Hillary and Bill to turn it into Clinton Day. Obama’s speech was inspirational, challenging African-Americans to assume responsibility and participate in the political process. By contrast, Hillary’s speech, replete with a phony Southern drawl — the same one she used to effect in Arkansas — smacked of pandering. But Hillary’s attempt to paint the events in Selma as seminal in her ability to run for president seemed forced, artificial, and contrived. She appeared to have confused the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with those of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and to have mixed up the 15th and 19th amendments to the Constitution.

But Obama’s speech seared right through to the root of the American conscience. The spectacle of an African-American running for president and speaking on the site of a 42-year-old battlefield where the very right of blacks to vote was at issue could not but inspire everyone who watched it. The effect on the polls may be significant.

[More]

http://thehill.com/dick-morris/obamas-selma-bounce-2007-03-06.html

A closer look at Obama, Clinton

2007-03-09T00:05:00.000-08:00

A pretty good update and summary of the last week...about 6 minutes in length.

barack the cowboy

2007-03-07T15:06:00.001-08:00

barack the cowboy, originally uploaded by Mr. Wright.

Another great catch by the grass roots media.

2008 Power Rankings: March 6, 2007

2007-03-06T17:15:00.000-08:00

A cool idea from PoliticalDerby.com

I like the way the race is broken down into a short but sweet visual summary. We'll be keeping an eye on this in the future.
-------------------------------------------

PoliticalDerby.com Releases Latest 2008 White House Power Rankings _____________________________________________________________
FAIRFAX, Va., March 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- PoliticalDerby.comtoday released the latest edition of the 2008 White House Power Rankings.Rudy Giuliani remains in the top spot among Republicans. Mitt Romney andJohn McCain are tied in the second spot. Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrichare numbers four and five, respectively.Hillary Clinton clings to the top spot among Democrats with BarackObama closing the gap and John Edwards fading into a distant third. BillRichardson is fourth, and Al Gore, fresh off his Oscar win, has vaultedfrom 10th to 5th.For the complete rankings from one to ten in both parties, visit:http://politicalderby.com/powerrankings.

Melissa reports on the Austin Rally

2007-03-06T02:17:00.000-08:00

Melissa gave us the great picture from the Obama Austin Rally...and did a write up of the event as well. Check it out.

Melissa writes on the Austin Rally:
http://austin.metblogs.com/archives/2007/02/barack_obama_ra.phtml

Comparing Obama and Hillary in Selma Alabama

2007-03-05T15:47:00.000-08:00

I agree with the early analysis...Obama won this battle despite Hillary pulling out the big guns with Bill tagging along. Again...Obama is forcing Hillary to react to him.

Hillary and her "machine" are not going to stand pat having to react like that. Stay tuned...its' going to get interesting.
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A Tale of Two Speeches

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/blog/2007/03/a_tale_of_two_speeches.html

Hillary gets her groove on ;-)

2007-03-05T11:49:00.000-08:00

A very interesting post from Powerline. Like I said...Obama has Hillary off her game. And its very fun and fascinating to watch.

C'mon Hillary...lame!

------------------------------------------------------------

Chicken-Fried Hillary

Hillary Clinton is taking a lot of grief for the awful Southern accent that she affected (some of the time, anyway) when speaking in Selma, Alabama over the weekend. Just for fun, listen to this brief audio clip of Hillary speaking, in her own voice, to the Human Rights Campaign, which came from the YouTube video Scott posted last night:

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/016947.php

Video of Obama and Hillary Squaring off in Selma Alabama

2007-03-05T11:31:00.000-08:00

Clinton, Obama rivalry heats up.Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, joined by former President Bill Clinton, descended on a hallowed shrine of the civil rights movement on Sunday (March 4) to court black voters who could help pick the party's 2008 presidential nominee. Jon Decker reports.

Showdown in AlabamaSens. Clinton and Obama compete head to head for the first time down South.
Sens. Clinton and Obama compete head to head for the first time down South.

Obama Video March 2,2007

2007-03-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

Full Interview: Obama's RunABC News' Claire Shipman on hope, history and the "testosterone" factor in 2008.
ABC News' Claire Shipman on hope, history and the "testosterone" factor in 2008.

Barack Obama's PastorRev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Sr. Pastor at Illinois Senator's church the the president of Chile who only has been inundated with coverage about his Mormon faith LDS in light of this last night we reported on the controversial teachings of Democratic candidate Rocco Bouma Chicago based
Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Sr. Pastor at Illinois Senator's church the the president of Chile who only has been inundated with...

A Great Photo of Senator Barack Obama

2007-03-01T15:18:00.001-08:00

Senator Barack Obama, originally uploaded by Stephen Voss.

A great photograph by Stephen Voss

The Latest Obama Video and News

2007-03-01T02:03:00.000-08:00

Polls Show Obama, Giuliani Gaining On

Is black America ready for Obama?CNN's Candy Crowley reports on how African- American voters view Barack Obama. (February 28)

'08 Candidates Get NastySen. Obama and Sen. Clinton go head to head.

Barack Obama: Full Speed Ahead Is this the beginning of the end for lesser-known Democratic candidates?

Nightline Online Obama on Bush's New Plan

Barack Obama Rally Austin TX

2007-02-28T13:11:00.001-08:00

Barack Obama Rally, originally uploaded by Zanthan Photos.

Barack Obama Rally at Auditorium Shores Austin, TX--February 23, 2007.

Senator Barack Obama in Cleveland, OH 2-26-07

2007-02-28T12:57:00.001-08:00

, originally uploaded by IvorK.

Great photo from the grassroots media.

Photo by IvorK
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivork/

Barack Obama Hosted By Sen. Barbara Boxer In San Francisco

2007-02-27T01:54:00.001-08:00

A very well done video...well worth the time to watch.

Las Vegas 2/18/07

2007-02-27T01:39:00.001-08:00

Las Vegas 2/18/07, originally uploaded by Barack Obama.

A great picture that you will probably not see in the newspaper,taken by a member of the audience at the rally.

Obama's latest speeches and rally's Feb 26 2007

2007-02-26T12:57:00.000-08:00

Wall of most recent Obama videos

2007-02-26T02:24:00.000-08:00

CNN's Susan Candiotti talks with Congressman John Lewis about Barack Obama's presidential run. (February 26) and other video's