Year: 2008

Now that his Obama “Fairy tale” comment is coming back to haunt his wife’s campaign, Bill Clinton is doing the ol’ shuck and jive himself.

Amid accusations of racial insensitivity, Bill Clinton called into the Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio show on Friday to discuss recent comments he made about Barack Obama.

“It’s not a fairy tale; he might win,” said Clinton. “I think he’s a very impressive man, and he’s run a great campaign.”

Backpedal, Backpedal, Backpedal.

He goes on:

“We went through 15 debates,” Clinton told Sharpton, “and the Obama campaign made the argument that his relative lack of service in the Senate was not relevant because he has better judgment than all the Democrats because he’d always been against the Iraq war in every year.”

“I pointed out,” Clinton continued, “that he had never been asked about his statements in 2004 that he didn’t know how he would have voted on the war resolution, and there was, at that time, no difference between his position and President Bush’s.”

“Look,” Clinton continued, “there could be a perfectly good explanation for it. Maybe, he just meant, that once it was done, everybody wanted it to work, including the UN. But the point is, it disproves the arguments that he was always against it, and everybody else was wrong and he was right. So I said, ‘that’s what those debates were for, and how many of you knew those two facts, in the audience?’ And I said, ‘So that story is a fairy tale.’ Now that doesn’t have anything to do with my respect for him as a candidate or as a political figure in this campaign. He has put together a great campaign. It’s clearly not a fairy tale; it’s real. And I have gone out of my way not express any personal disrespect for him or his campaign, even when they’ve been fairly critical of me and Hillary.”

That’s Bill Clinton – always playing the victim. Never taking the heat, but always ready to point his finger at someone else. His “I may be bad but you’re worse” excuse is chronic. And it’s old. And it reminds everyone of what’s wrong with Bill & Hillary. If she wants to be president, she needs to pull Bill off the stump as soon as possible. Of course, my own preference would be that she gives him more of the spotlight. His gaffe o’ the week could give this blog plenty of material to work with.

Tags:
2008 Election, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Politics

From the Associated Press no less. Maybe they still have some left over interns working from the holiday break or something, but for whatever reason, this story is making headlines today.

It was ever so brief, but the use of a body double by Miley Cyrus on her best-selling “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus ‘Best of Both Worlds'” tour is creating plenty of buzz.

A video posted on YouTube shows the 15-year-old entertainer as “Hannah” dancing onstage with a group of dancers and the Jonas Brothers, also on the tour. During the song, someone ushers her offstage via a trap door. Immediately, another girl dressed like the character “Hannah” in the same pink trench coat with blonde hair covering her faces dances around, runs up the stage set, and then quickly leaves.

While the double is holding a microphone for her less than a minute, the girl motions like she is singing. However, a rep for Miley said the switch was only for costume purposes.

“To help speed the transition from Hannah to Miley, there is a production element during the performance of ‘We Got the Party’ incorporating a body double for Miley,” according to statement Friday from the public relations firm PMK.

Speaking from an authority position here, I know what Hannah Montana is all about, since I have 4 children in my house who regularly watch the Disney Channel produced show. Anyone attending a Miley Cyrus concert is expecting it to be just like the TV show. They are looking for lots of production. They’re looking for lots of dancers on stage. Heck, they could probably care less if the entire show is prerecorded with actors onstage mouthing everything. They’re attending to watch an extension of the TV show. They aren’t there to judge if someone is playing the exact guitar notes blaring through the PA system. This costume change controversy is nothing of the sort. Hello? The fans don’t care. They’re a bunch of 8 to 12 year-old’s whose parents still pay for everything they consume. End of story.

It must be Friday.

Tags:
Lip Syncing, Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana, Disney Channel

Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to set foot “on top ‘o the world”, is dead.

Sir Edmund Hillary, the unassuming beekeeper who conquered Mount Everest to win renown as one of the 20th century’s greatest adventurers, has died, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced Friday. He was 88.

The gangling New Zealander devoted much of his life to aiding the mountain people of Nepal and took his fame in stride, preferring to be called “Ed” and considering himself just an ordinary beekeeper.

“Sir Ed described himself as an average New Zealander with modest abilities. In reality, he was a colossus. He was an heroic figure who not only ‘knocked off’ Everest but lived a life of determination, humility, and generosity,” Clark said in a statement.

“The legendary mountaineer, adventurer, and philanthropist is the best-known New Zealander ever to have lived,” she said.

Oh, and Hillary Clinton copped to the urban legend a little more than a year ago, so she won’t be able to use the mountaineers death for political purposes as a candidate for president. Although I wouldn’t put it past her.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president, has thrown his support behind Senator Barack Obama in his bid for the 2008 nomination.

Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, planned to announce his support Thursday at a rally with Obama at the College of Charleston, arguing that the Illinois senator can best unite the country, said a Democrat familiar with the decision. Kerry was timing his announcement before South Carolina’s Jan. 26 primary, a contest that has taken on extra importance for Obama after Hillary Rodham Clinton beat him in New Hampshire.

Following in the footsteps of Al Gore, who in 2004 supported the nomination of Howard Dean instead of his 2000 running mate, Joe Lieberman, Kerry’s endorsement is a slap in the face to John Edwards, his running mate in the ’04 campaign. But it’s easy to understand. No one believes John Edwards has a chance to be the nominee this time.

The ‘Fredo Kiss‘ implication aside, this is probably good news for Obama, regardless of the Kerry baggage. The endorsement follows on the heals of another one received from the 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union in Nevada yesterday.

Tags:
2008 Election, Barack Obama, South Carolina, John Kerry

Bill Richardson is history.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson ended his campaign for the presidency Wednesday after twin fourth-place finishes that showed his impressive credentials could not compete with his rivals’ star power.

Richardson planned to announce the decision Thursday, according to two people close to the governor with knowledge of the decision. They spoke on a condition of anonymity in advance of the governor’s announcement.

Richardson stayed in long enough to show the other candidates that he’d be a loyal VEEP. I think he’ll appear on a couple of short lists come April.

Tags:
2008 Election, Bill Richardson, Campaign, Vice President, New Mexico

Now that he’s unencumbered by the White House, he’s able to speak his mind.

Obama’s ‘Smarmy, Prissy’ Slap Helped Clinton

Karl Rove told Cybercast News Service in an interview Wednesday that Sen. Hillary Clinton’s New Hampshire campaign was helped when she responded in a smiling, self-deprecating manner when asked during Saturday night’s televised debate why some voters had an issue with her “likeability” and that her rival Sen. Barack Obama only enhanced the positive impact for Clinton when he responded like “a smarmy, prissy little guy taking a slap at her.”

Rove, whom President Bush cited as “the architect” of his victorious 2004 reelection campaign, said of Clinton’s emotional moment in the coffee shop: “Now, look, I know there is a lot of controversy on this. It says something about the peoples’ concern about Hillary Clinton that we are having a debate as to whether or not that was a real moment. But I think it is a real moment. And I think a lot of people look at it, and particularly Democrats, who said, you know, I may have a concern about her. I’m really concerned about whether we’re-you know, she is calculating everything. And that was one moment where if you saw it or heard about it, it was hard not to think that was a real moment. I think those two things helped her.”

Well, I think Hillary is smarter than that. As far as I’m concerned, she saw an opening and ran with it. I’m not say that she didn’t answer honestly at first, but the moment she saw a connection happening with the people in the room (applause, the look in their eyes, etc.) she capitalized on it. She knew what was happening, and she got her money’s worth.

About Obama, the more I think of it, the more I agree that his performance during the debate was weak, in the sense that, he thought he just had to phone it in. There’s a real lesson to learn. We’ll see if he “got educated”.

Tags:
2008 Election, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, New Hampshire, Oval Office, Republicans, Karl Rove

Chris Matthews on MSNBC this morning:

I think the Hillary appeal has always been about the mix of toughness and sympathy. Let’s not forget, and I’ll be brutal, the reason she’s a US Senator, the reason she’s a candidate for President, the reason she may be a front runner, is that her husband messed around. That’s how she got to be a Senator from New York. We keep forgetting it. She didn’t win it on her merit, she won because everybody felt, “My God, this woman stood up under humiliation,” right? That’s what happened. That’s how it happened. In 1998, she went to NY and campaigned for Chuck Schumer as almost like the grieving widow of absurdity, and she did it so well and courageously. But it was about the humilation of Bill Clinton.

Heh.

Tags:
2008 Election, Hillary Clinton, New Hampshire, Chris Matthews, MSNBC

Color me completely surprised. I thought, and the majority of bloggers and the MSM thought as well, that Hillary Clinton would get clobbered tonight in New Hampshire. As we all know now, that didn’t happen.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York rode a wave of female support to victory over Senator Barack Obama in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday night.

Mrs. Clinton’s victory came after her advisers had lowered expectations with talk of missteps in strategy and concern about Mr. Obama’s momentum coming out of the Iowa caucuses.

Mrs. Clinton told supporters, “I want especially to thank New Hampshire. Over the last week I listened to you and in the process I found my own voice.”

She added, “Together, let’s give America the kind of comeback New Hampshire has just given me.’

Mr. Obama conceded the race to Mrs. Clinton, congratulating her on a “hard-fought victory.”

He told cheering supporters in Manchester: “You made it clear in this moment and this election there is something happening in America. We are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction.”

Over the next few days, the exit poll data will be analyzed thoroughly and we’ll know more about how it was that Hillary came back from a double digit Obama victory to winning by 2 or 3 percent. Obviously women voters came out and believed her “Muskie moment” on Monday. Hillary connected with additional voters when she pulled out her can of whupass Saturday night during the debate. The question is now, can Hillary keep up the act? Can she script a tear on cue? Can she keep from yelling monotonously during campaign events which drives men crazy? We’ll see.

On the Republican side, no surprises at all. Everyone thought McCain would win and he did. The big question now is, what happens to Mitt Romney? Can he come back and win after losing Iowa and New Hampshire? Sure, he won Wyoming but no one is really paying attention to that. If anyone has the clock running against him, it’s Mitt.

One thing is for sure. This race remains wide open on both sides of the aisle.

Tags:
2008 Election, Barack Obama, Campaign, Hillary Clinton, New Hampshire, Politics, Republicans, Democrats, John McCain, Mitt Romney

While the candidates await the results of voting in today’s New Hampshire Primary, one of the Republican candidates has flown south seeking a warmer reception.

With his Republican rivals jockeying for victory in New Hampshire, presidential hopeful Fred Thompson sought Tuesday to boost his support in this early voting state considered critical to his campaign.

“I don’t know of any better place to stand my ground and test my case than in South Carolina,” Thompson told a couple of hundred people at a pancake house in the northern part of the state as he began an 11-day bus tour.

Several hours later, he said primary results in New Hampshire and in Michigan on Jan. 15 will factor into whether he stays in the race — but that South Carolina will be key.

“This is where we make our stand — this is where I have chosen to make my stand,” Thompson told a crowd at a barbecue restaurant. He later told reporters he needs to do well in South Carolina, which votes Jan. 19.

I’ve said before that I don’t think Fred’s heart is in this campaign, so it’s not surprising to me that he’s left New Hampshire. His showing there will be unimpressive. There was much speculation regarding the future of his bid for the GOP presidential nomination. Now, it’s pretty clear what Fred’s plans are. Win and live through South Carolina, or stop and get off the bus, permanently.

Tags:
2008 Election, Campaign, Fred Thompson, New Hampshire, Politics, Republicans, GOP, South Carolina