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When Barack Obama announced a year ago that he was running for president, I scoffed. How could a black man whose middle name is Hussein and who looks like he is 25 years old win the White House? To be sure, he was a U.S. senator, but he had been elected largely on a fluke when his toughest Democratic and Republican opponents were felled by scandals. "He'll fade by December," I assured anyone who would listen. One year later, Obama is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, having built a formidable coalition of whites and blacks, Democrats and independents, and...

Scarily accurate You Tube video.

In fall 1975 I remember sitting in the Stanford student lounge watching two apparently educated and bright students compare their pet rocks, as the craze spread all over Silicon Valley and then went national. By summer few would admit they had purchased one. Never underestimate the ability of mass wired consumer society to go hysterical. Something like that happened with the Obama campaign in mid-February, as he became the new generation's pet rock. No one knew what he had done; no one knew what he would do; no one cared whether they knew; all only wanted to be a part...

Michael Goldfarb observes that the Obama "dipdive" videos are unhealthy, creepy and deeply disturbing. The Dipdive videos were the creepy culmination of the Obama campaign's messianic rhetoric. And they even seemed to make the campaign's most fanatical supporters a bit queasy. Obama's rhetoric was always empty, but coming from the man himself, eloquent as he is, everyone seemed willing to overlook how silly it all was. Once you get Jessica Alba and Scarlett Johanson repeating the same phrases and chanting his name as though he were some kind of political immortal--well, it all became far more transparent. What is even...

The "Obasma" solution to Iraq is blindingly simple. "Sherman, set the wayback machine to September 10, 20001" "Iraq continues to be a serious problem, and the Bush administration has done nothing but increase the problem and cause unnecessary deaths. It is a mess, but I have a solution: I would never have gone there. The Iraq War will be a big problem to inherit, but it would not be if we hadn't have gone there. That's why that is my solution. People ask me, "Won't leaving Iraq now be abandoning the Iraqi people?" Well, it wouldn't be abandoning them if...

Run as Jesus Christ and you'll get crucified.

<p>With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Obama had 59 percent to Clinton’s 40 percent. Both candidates campaigned in the state ahead of the caucuses, but the onus was on Obama to regain his momentum after Clinton disrupted his winning streak Tuesday, scoring wins in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island.</p>

Just one more reason why its scary to think of Obama, the man with few political accomplishments, in the White House. The man is a naive Socialist: In a new interview with National Journal magazine, an intelligence adviser to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign broke with his candidate’s position opposing retroactive legal protection for telecommunications companies being sued for cooperating with a dubious U.S. government domestic surveillance program.“I do believe strongly that [telecoms] should be granted that immunity,” former CIA official John Brennan told National Journal reporter Shane Harris in the interview. “They were told to [cooperate] by the appropriate authorities...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ― An Iowa Republican congressman said that terrorists would be "dancing in the streets" if Democratic candidate Barack Obama were to win the presidency. An Obama spokesman said such comments "have no place in our politics." U.S. Rep. Steve King based his prediction on Obama's pledge to pull troops out of Iraq, his Kenyan heritage and his middle name, Hussein. "The radical Islamists, the al Qaeda ... would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on Sept. 11 because they would declare victory in this war on terror," King said in an...

he can keep the palestinians from hating all the jews he's for change and everybody knows that change is good

A new advert for Barack Obama Barack sells Gap had potential

Barack Obama had a theory. It was that the voters are tired of the partisan paralysis of the past 20 years. The theory was that if Obama could inspire a grass-roots movement with a new kind of leadership, he could ride it to the White House and end gridlock in Washington. Obama has built his entire campaign on this theory. He’s run against negativity and cheap-shot campaigning. He’s claimed that there’s an “awakening” in this country — people “hungry for a different kind of politics.” This message has made him the front-runner. It has brought millions of new voters into...

The Top Nine "Changes" Barack Obama Would Make as PresidentBy John HawkinsFriday, March 7, 2008 "All change is not growth; as all movement is not forward." -- Ellen Glasgow As people who have followed Barack Obama closely over the last few months have long since realized, there has been very little substance to the man's campaign besides his determination to lose -- oops, I mean "end" -- the war in Iraq. If you boil Obama's appeal down to its essential core, most of his supporters seem to like him because he's a relatively young, charismatic, black man who talks a...

The morning after Tuesday's primaries, Hillary Clinton's campaign released a memo titled "The Path to the Presidency." I eagerly dug into the paper, figuring it would explain how Clinton would obtain the Democratic nomination despite an enormous deficit in delegates. Instead, the memo offered a series of arguments as to why Clinton should run against John McCain - i.e., "Hillary is seen as the one who can get the job done" - but nothing about how she actually could. Is she planning a third-party run? Does she think Obama is going to die? The memo does not say. The reason...

Bill Clinton: Hillary-Obama Ticket Would Be "Almost Unstoppable Force" By Greg Sargent - March 8, 2008, 3:00PM Now Bill Clinton is saying it. Here he is, floating the idea of a joint Hillary-Obama ticket at a town-hall meeting today in Mississippi: "She said yesterday and she said the day after her big wins in Texas and Ohio and Rhode Island that she was very open to that and I think she answered explicitly yes yesterday," Clinton began, referring to Hillary's own answers on the topic in recent days. "I know that she has always been open to it, because she...

Campaigning in Casper, Wyo., Friday night for the 12 delegates to come out of Saturday's Democratic county caucuses, Sen. Barack Obama refused the notion of becoming the vice presidential candidate on this fall's party ticket. Obama was asked by a television reporter, "Can you ever see yourself on the same ticket as Sen. Clinton?" And the freshman Illinois senator replied: "Well, you know, I think it’s premature. You won’t see me as a vice presidential candidate -- you know, I’m running for president. We have won twice as many states as Senator Clinton, and have a higher popular vote, and...

The youth, glamour and dashing political style of Senator Barack Obama has evoked many comparisons with President John F Kennedy, but the most Kennedyesque member of the Obama family may be his wife Michelle...

Progressive evangelicals believe they can end the dominance of the religious right A group of American evangelicals are on a mission to put moral issues at the heart of the most intense presidential campaign in years. Those used to the thundering rhetoric of the religious right will expect a tirade against abortion and gay marriage. But in an interview this week Jim Wallis says: "Top of the list is what happens to the poor. Poverty is the principal Biblical political issue." He adds: "climate change is now a mainstream evangelical issue. Human rights, Darfur too." Wallis is one of the...

Mr. Keane nevertheless said he holds the former first lady in high esteem."Senator Clinton is very knowledgeable about national security and is probably going to be strong on defense," he said. "I have no doubts whatsoever that if she were president in January '09 she would not act irresponsibly and issue orders to conduct an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, regardless of the consequences, and squander the gains that have been made." Mr. Keane added that he could not imagine any president in the White House making that kind of decision.The senator's campaign differed with that assessment. "Senator Clinton speaks for...

This is the nightmare scenario that wakes me up at night.  And its so easy to see it develop.Hillary wins big in Penn and PR, while Obama continues to sweep up some smaller states.  Neither is close to the majority number, but Hillary refuses to give in.More and more polling begins to suggest — as Pew does today — that Obama will lose a significant number of blue collar “Archie Bunker” democrats that are currently supporting Hillary, but will vote for McCain before Obama.  This will give McCain states like Ohio, Michigan, and Penn.  Superdelegate/party leaders will know that they cannot...

March 8, 2008 -- A top foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama resigned yesterday after calling Hillary Rodham Clinton "a monster." Samantha Power, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Harvard prof who posed last summer for a glamorous pictorial in Vogue, came under fire after firing off the insult. She further embarrassed Obama by saying his plan to withdraw from Iraq could become inoperative if he wins the White House.

A top foreign policy adviser to Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain accused his two Democratic rivals yesterday of unilateralist "cowboy diplomacy" for demanding a re-negotiation of the NAFTA free-trade deal with Canada and Mexico. In a debate of senior foreign policy surrogates for Mr. McCain and Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann used a line of attack often employed by Democrats against the Bush administration. "I thought the one thing your two campaigns agreed on was that the era of 'cowboy diplomacy' was over," he said, adding that Mr. McCain was a strong...

ABC News' Sunlen Miller reports: While in Casper, Wyo., today Sen. Barack Obama ruled out the possibility being a vice presidential candidate during an interview with CBS' Montana affiliate KTVQ. Here is a transcript of what he said. Q: You’ve raised $55 million in February and in your speech today you said "I was against the war in ’03, ’04, ’05 -- all the way on through 2010, and you specifically mentioned Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Could you ever see yourself on the same ticket as Senator Clinton? A: Well, you know, I think it’s premature. You won’t see...

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - Barack Obama took the lead over rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in early returns Saturday as Democrats crowded caucuses in Wyoming, the latest contest in the candidates' close, hard-fought race for the party's presidential nomination. Obama led Clinton 61 percent to 38 percent with 11 of 23 counties reporting. Obama generally has outperformed Clinton in caucuses, which reward organization and voter passion more than do primaries. The Illinois senator has won 12 caucuses to Clinton's three. But Clinton threw some effort into Wyoming, perhaps hoping for an upset that would yield few delegates but considerable buzz and...

Justice John Paul Stevens turns 88 in April, and by January 2009 five other justices will be from 69 to 75 years old. If Barack Obama is elected president, he will probably--with the benefit of resignations by liberal justices eager for him to be the president who chooses their successors--have the opportunity to appoint two or three Supreme Court justices in his first term, with another two or three in a potential second term. That prospect ought to focus the attention of all Americans who want a Supreme Court that practices judicial restraint and respects the proper realm of representative...

There is an argument to be made for America’s never-ending presidential campaign in that it tests a candidate in a variety of different ways. It examines a potential president’s physical stamina, ability to organize and prioritize, strategic thinking, tactical ability, and gifts of persuasion. Eventually, it will also test a candidate’s ability to handle adversity. Judging by what has transpired this week for Barack Obama and his suddenly faltering campaign, one would think the candidate would have had a bellyfull of untoward occurrences, staff gaffes, bad luck, and perhaps a touch of incompetence on the part of the candidate himself....

Liberal Democrats from the North haven't had much success in recent presidential elections — not Hubert Humphrey, not George McGovern, not Walter Mondale, not Mike Dukakis and not John Kerry. Democratic Southerners — Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton — have done quite a bit better. Continues... ============================================================= Obama harnesses power of Amnesia As proof that 'front-runner' Barack Hussein Obama will finally be getting the hard questions from the press, the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz cited himself quoting a reporter from ABC News confronting Sen. Xerox recently with this staggering toughie: There's "an attempt by conservatives and Republicans to...

Samantha Power paid for her "monster" dig by resigning Sunday, but Hillary Clinton's campaign seized on potentially more damaging remarks suggesting Barack Obama might renege on his pledge to pull U.S. troops from Iraq promptly. Even before the Harvard professor and Obama's chief outside foreign policy adviser stepped down, the Clinton camp was gleefully circulating another interview where Power called Obama's 16-month withdrawal plan "the best-case scenario." "[Obama] will, of course, not rely on some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. senator," Power told the BBC in what the Clinton campaign flagged as eyebrow-raising remarks....

Defeats puncture the Obama bubble Story Highlights Hillary Clinton halts Barack Obama's run of 11 primaries and caucuses victories Obama still slightly ahead in delegates who will choose Democratic nominee Near-tie may last for weeks or even months of hard and nasty campaigning By CNN's Jonathan Mann (CNN) -- It was a bubble and it burst. The growing American infatuation with Barack Obama had to pop eventually and this week, the cult of personality finally got punctured. Obama's run for the presidency is hardly over, but it's a little deflated. For now, the fun is over and the fight is...

Is it the responsibility of the government of Canada to assist Democratic presidential candidates in telling lies? Apparently the answer is "yes" -- at least according to the opposition parties in Ottawa. The opposition parties are slamming the Harper government for inadvertently leaking a memo that revealed Barack Obama's anti-NAFTA posture to be a fake. While Obama was trying to win union votes in Ohio by slamming the North American Free Trade Agreement, Obama's top economic advisor was quietly assuring the Canadian government that the candidate's words were just "positioning," not "policy." For Obama, this revelation was deeply damaging. Obama...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Iowa Congressman Steve King says terrorists would celebrate if Democratic candidate Barack Obama won the presidency. King, a Republican, bases his prediction on several criteria: Obama's pledge to pull troops out of Iraq, his Kenyan heritage and his middle name Hussein -- a reminder of Iraq's former leader. King, in an interview today with the Daily Reporter in Spencer, said al-Qaida would -- quote -- "be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11th." King says terrorists would declare victory in the war on terror because Obama would pull troops...

The high anxiety in the Obama circles has thrown the campaign off its game.Samantha Power, one of Senator Barack Obama’s senior foreign policy advisers, had to quit Friday after she lost her cool in an interview with a Scottish newspaper and called Senator Hillary Clinton a “monster.”The campaign apologized for the flap. But Mr. Obama himself seems unsure of how to respond to the trash-and-thrash tactics that helped Senator Clinton defeat him in Ohio and Texas this week.The anger that caused Ms. Power to blurt out the monster comment is widespread inside the Obama camp. But Senator Obama, for a...

I agree with J. Douglas Allen-Taylor’s (does he have a shorter name ?) recent column that progressives are left with an embarrassment of riches—two credible, serious candidates, either of whom would be a good choice for president. We are in a win-win position having two Democrats running for office against an opponent, John McCain, who has little or nothing compelling, professionally or personally, that would make someone vote for him besides his service in Vietnam. What might derail a Democratic victory would be unfair and untrue attacks on the part of the candidates and the unspoken competition that exists between...

Barack Obama raised $55 million in February, $20 million more than Hillary Rodham Clinton and a record sum for a single month in any presidential campaign, aides to the Democratic candidate said Thursday. Obama's success reflected a sharp resurgence of Democratic fundraising. New numbers showed Republicans lagging behind their rivals and well below their efforts of four years ago. Much of the difference came from the Internet. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, has not disclosed his February sum, though his fundraising has been well behind that of Obama and Clinton. The Federal Election Commission on Thursday disclosed that national...

I'd had a neat idea for a bumber sticker or maybe just a nice net graphic for the coming post-convention campaign season. It would be "Obama 2008" and a play on his current bumper sticker. The difference is that the rainbow in the "O" would be replaced with a red circle with the islamic crescent and star. All of the lettering would be red on a white background so it would be inexpensive to produce (red ink on white vinyl). Any graphic artists in the house want to give this a whirl? Also, I'd have posted this in Vanity but...

With Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's decision to stay in the Democratic race to the bitter end, she has signaled a delegate fight all the way to the party's convention in Denver this August. Both candidates appear in something of a stalemate. Political strategists have concluded that Clinton cannot overcome Sen. Barack Obama's pledged delegate lead by winning additional primaries. And despite his lead in electoral and delegate wins, Obama cannot seal his nomination without the support of the party's superdelegates. Clinton's decision, after winning in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island this week that she would not capitulate has opened up...

You get the feeling Michelle Obama is never going to be boring to cover. (See here, here, here and here.) Hot Air and JammieWearingFool already noted the most eye-opening comment from Mrs. Obama... Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: we’re a divided country, we’re a country that is “just downright mean,” we are “guided by fear,” we’re a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. “We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day,” she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. “Folks are...

The Democratic Party is choking. Facing nothing but open field ahead, the team can’t get the ball in the end zone. The incumbent Republican president’s unpopularity is historically high. The country is opposed to the Iraq war and worried about the recession. Gas prices are heading toward $4 a gallon. John McCain, the Republican nominee, is the oldest presidential nominee in history. But the Democrats can’t score. They’re not even on the field yet. They’re still stuck in the locker room of the primaries, bickering. The veteran offensive line, the Clintonistas, won’t block for the young players at the skill...

Pa.: The nation's political battleground By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW Thursday, March 6, 2008 Pennsylvania Democrats hoping to catch a glimpse of their favorite presidential candidate shouldn't have to worry. Hillary Clinton's first campaign visit to Pittsburgh could be next week. "It will be within the next five to seven days," her Pennsylvania spokesman, Mark Nevins, said Wednesday. And it's likely voters "will be able to have breakfast with Barack Obama at your local diner," said state Democratic chairman T.J. Rooney.

Obama speaks! March 06, 2008 Click link for a hilarious look at what is sure to become known as OBAMA-SPEAK.

WASHINGTON -- Rolling Stone is backing Democratic Sen. Barack Obama for president, the first time the music magazine has endorsed a contender for the White House during the primary. "The reason for the early choice is twofold," the editors explain in the publication's upcoming issue. "Undoing the damage of the disastrous Bush years will take a leader who can unite a deeply divided nation, and politicians with gifts like Obama's are so rare that it's imperative for each of us to do our part." The magazine has endorsed presidential candidates since 1972, beginning with Democrat George McGovern. Other recent candidates...

OTTAWA — If the prime minister is seeking the first link in the chain of events that has rocked the U.S. presidential race, he need look no further than his chief of staff, Ian Brodie, The Canadian Press has learned. A candid comment to journalists from CTV News by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s most senior political staffer during the hurly-burly of a budget lock-up provided the initial spark in what the American media are now calling NAFTAgate. Harper announced Wednesday that he has asked an internal security team to begin finding the source of a document leak that he characterized...

Hillary Clinton ceased to be the Democratic front-runner weeks ago, humiliatingly enough for her formerly inevitable campaign. But it was only after her drubbing in the Wisconsin primary that she became an inconvenience, the superfluous woman of Democratic politics. Among elected Democrats and the press, there is a palpable impatience with Hillary’s continued presence in the race: Won’t this lady ever leave so we can consummate our love affair with Barack Obama? Hillary’s bulwark was to be the Democratic establishment, but here was the party’s immediate past presidential nominee, John Kerry, an Obama supporter, shooing her off the stage. On...

Barack Obama's most senior military adviser says President Bush is to blame for Iran's bad behavior. This assessment provided to Insight from retired Gen. Merrill McPeak provides a glimpse into how an Obama administration would deal with Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeatedly has referred to the ultimate destruction of Israel; is pursuing nuclear weapons in the opinion of some national security experts; and his Revolutionary Guard is training Iraqis to kill American military personnel in Iraq. Just last week, Ahmadinejad said of Israel, "The world powers established this filthy bacteria, the Zionist regime, which is lashing out at the...

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton hinted at the possibility of a democratic "dream ticket" with Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking on the Early Show on CBS, Clinton said "that may be where this is headed, but we have to decide who is on the top of the ticket." Clinton said the race between her and Obama remains "incredibly close," with just "smidgens of difference" between them. Clinton's remarks after her campaign won two big states yesterday: Ohio and Texas. She also won Rhode Island. The wins enabled her campaign to break Obama's 12-state winning streak and pick up...

Read all about it at the link, details to follow....

ABC News' Teddy Davis and Talal Al-Khatib Report: In one of the most bizarre moments of the 2008 campaign, Obama campaign lawyer Bob Bauer called into a Tuesday night Clinton campaign conference call with reporters. The four and a half minute exchange led to a series of antagonistic questions painting the former first lady's charges of caucus vote tampering as baseless. "I'd be interested to know," said Bauer, "how is this any different from the series of complaints that you've registered against every caucus that you lose?" Listen to the exchange between Bauer and Clinton campaign communications director Howard Wolfson...

Article has the last "letter" from Reyes to the FARC. Below is the relevant section talking about Obama followed by my translation; "6. Los gringos pedirán cita con el ministro para solicitarle nos comunicara su interés en conversar estos temas. Dicen que el nuevo presidente de su país será Obama y que ellos están interesados en sus compatriotas. Obama no apoyara Plan Colombia ni firma de TLC. Aquí respondimos que nos interesan las relaciones con todos los gobiernos en igualdad de condiciones y que en el caso de Estados Unidos se requiere in pronunciamiento público expresando su interés en conversar...

SAN ANTONIO It took many months and the mockery of "Saturday Night Live" to make it happen, but the lumbering beast that is the press corps finally roused itself from its slumber Monday and greeted Barack Obama with a menacing growl. The day before primaries in Ohio and Texas that could effectively seal the Democratic presidential nomination for him, a smiling Obama strode out to a news conference at a veterans facility here. But the grin was quickly replaced by the surprised look of a man bitten by his own dog. Reporters from the Associated Press and Reuters went after...