Year: 2008

Barack feels the need to give Algore a big ‘ol sloppy wet one. You can guess where.

Democrat Barack Obama said Wednesday he talks regularly with former vice president Al Gore and would consider putting him in a Cabinet-level position or higher. A woman at a town hall asked the Illinois senator if elected president would he consider tapping the former vice president for his Cabinet, or an even higher level office, to address global warming. “I would,” Obama said. “Not only will I, but I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem.

Obama knows about the animosity that remains firmly entrenched between the Clinton’s and the Gore’s, so he’s trying to do everything possible to sweeten (and stir) the pot here. Watch Hillary on this one. If a member of her campaign provides an in-kind offer to this blatant pandering by Obama, it’ll be an indicative measure of her desperation.

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2008 Election, Al Gore, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton

The DNC chairman is out this morning with words of comfort for the Clinton campaign.

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said Wednesday the party was committed to seating Florida’s delegates at this summer’s convention as long as any agreement is supported by the party’s two presidential contenders.

“We are committed to making sure that we do everything in our power to seat a delegation from Florida,” Dean said. “We believe we will seat a delegation from Florida.”

But the party chairman said it was critical that Obama and Clinton were “comfortable with the compromises that have to be worked out.” The two campaigns did not have representatives at the hourlong meeting.

And therein lies the problem. Up til now, Hillary has be the only one banging the ‘voter disenfranchisement’ drum, for obvious reasons. Obama has been comparatively silent. Why? The conventional wisdom is his campaign will not benefit from the seating of Florida or Michigan. Yet, current polling in Pennsylvania shows Obama might have a better chance this time around than in early February.

But, remember this. Obama doesn’t have to do agree to anything right now. His delegate and popular vote lead effectively protects him. Depending on how things go in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Indiana, Obama might not have to say a word about Florida or Michigan. Hillary, on the other hand, absolutely needs Florida and Michigan. Her 5% percent chance of capturing the nomination goes to zero rather quickly without these two states.

It’s clear that Howard Dean is caught in the middle of these two, and their huge constituencies. Pressure demands that he does something. Problem is, he’s damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t.

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2008 Election, Barack Obama, DNC, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, Florida, Michigan

Hillary Clinton thinks she’s Rocky.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton says she has something in common with legendary film boxer Rocky Balboa — she’s not a quitter. Recalling a famous scene on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art from the 1976 Oscar-winning film “Rocky,” Clinton said that ending her presidential campaign now would be as if “Rocky Balboa had gotten halfway up those art museum steps and said, ‘Well, I guess that’s about far enough.'”

“Let me tell you something, when it comes to finishing a fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up. And neither do the American people,” Clinton said in excerpts of prepared remarks to be given Tuesday to a meeting of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO.

Yeah, she never quits, and she’ll make sure no one is left alive either. At least in the movie, you got a sense that Rocky was fighting for Philly, and the guys in his neighborhood, and for Mickey, and (in later movies) the memory of Apollo Creed, etc. Hillary is fighting for no one but herself.

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2008 Election, Hillary Clinton, Rocky Balboa

John McCain is distancing himself from President George W. Bush, and that’s hardly surprising. McCain has to run on his own record, and not that of a previous president. Still, one has to believe that the animosity between these two still exists in a real way. I don’t expect many joint appearances this fall.

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George W. Bush, GOP, John McCain

Hillary’s sniper fire just won’t die down.

NYP: The Bosnian girl who famously read a poem to Hillary Rodham Clinton during her 1996 visit to the war-torn country is shocked – and her countrymen infuriated – that the former first lady claimed to have dodged sniper fire that day.

Emina Bicakcic, now 20 and studying to become a doctor, told The Post she stood on the tarmac at the air base in Tuzla, greeted Clinton and even had time to share the lines of verse she’d written – all without fear of attack from an unseen enemy.

“I was surprised when I heard this,” Bicakcic said, referring to Clinton’s assertion that she braved snipers upon landing, ducking and sprinting to military vehicles.

Sema Markovic, 22, a student, said she has long respected Hillary as a strong leader but was angered by her remarks.

“It is an ugly thing for a politician to tell lies,’ she said. “We had problems for years, and I don’t like when someone lies about them. It makes us look bad.”

It makes us look bad.

Hillary, are you listening?

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Bosnia, Hillary Clinton, Lies

Barack Obama acquired yet another superdelegate today with an endorsement from Senator Amy Klobuchar. Yet, Ms. Klobuchar did not go so far as to encourage a Clinton withdrawal from the primary race. She echoed a comment from Obama and said she thinks Hillary has the right to continue her campaign.

“I believe Sen. Clinton has every right to continue her campaign,” Klobuchar said this morning in a conference call with reporters. “She should continue.”

As the Democrats’ presidential campaign remains frozen in a delegate stalemate, the party’s superdelegates have begun migrating to Obama’s side.

Citing Obama’s sweeping victory at Minnesota’s precinct caucuses on Feb. 5, Klobuchar said her neutrality had placed her “within Barack and a hard place — and I chose Barack.”

She also said her continued silence about the race had become awkward, although “overall I haven’t had a lot of hand-wringing over this.”

Despite growing fears within the party that the presidential campaign could become increasingly toxic, possibly ending in a bloody fight on the floor of the national convention, Klobuchar said she remains optimistic it will be resolved peacefully long before then.

“I have faith that our candidates will work this out and resolve it by early summer,” she said. “I believe they’ll do the right thing and we’ll figure this out.”

“early summer”…

That’s code for the growing hope that Clinton will come to the realization that she has no chance of winning and as such, she’ll bow out by the last contest and not pull the kamikaze move and go kicking and screaming all the way to the convention.

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2008 Election, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Amy Klobuchar

The Congresswoman was speaking at a campaign rally today and could barely get a word in edgewise. She supports Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. But, the crowd wants Obama. They made their displeasure known.

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Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Sheila Jackson Lee

Democrats hate Rush Limbaugh, and they are going completely wacko over Operation Chaos. Apparently they’ve been successful with a counter strike in Kentucky.

Thousands of Kentuckians who have switched political affiliations over the past three months in hopes of voting in May’s Democratic presidential primary will instead be barred from casting ballots. Secretary of State Trey Grayson alerted Kentuckians on Wednesday to a little-known state law that forbids people who change their party registration after December 31 to vote in the May 20 primary.

Some 9,000 people have switched parties since Jan. 1. Grayson said voter registration drives by supporters of Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton could inadvertently cause the number of ineligible voters to grow.

9,000? Not bad.

That’s funny — the campaigns are getting in the game trying to recruit more voters by getting people to switch parties. If they find a way to arrest Rush and put him in jail for inspiring voter fraud (so far they’ve been unsuccessful), will Obama and Hillary be put in jail too?

Don’t bet on it.

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Barack Obama, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Operation Chaos