Free Republic

DENVER, (AP) -- Less than an hour before the Democratic convention calls the roll of the states, Hillary Rodham Clinton began an emotional gathering with her delegates Wednesday by telling them she was releasing them as delegates to vote for Barack Obama. Many in the crowded ballroom yelled back "No!" Clinton told her delegates she's not telling them what to do, adding: "You've come here from so many different places, having made this journey and feeling in your heart what is right for you to do." Clinton told her loyal followers: "I want you to know that this has been...

Denver -- It was powerful, it was passionate -- and from inside the hall here, it was one killer speech. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton brought the house down with her address tonight at the Democratic National Convention, where it looked to be about a 9-plus on the Richter scale. The insiders had warned that Clinton had to deliver bigtime tonight -- for her legacy, and for her future, as well as for Obama. Deliver she did. Republicans, of course, had their views -- that she delivered evidence that their guy, John McCain, is the only one ready to hit ground...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Lots of Democrats love Hillary Rodham Clinton. Yet plenty of Republicans, conservatives and all-important independents can't stand her, suggesting possible pitfalls for Barack Obama should he make her his vice presidential running mate. The intense dislike for Clinton suggests that besides support from women and others she could bring to the ticket, she might make it harder for Obama to win over some independents, a pivotal swing group in the November election against Republican John McCain. It also means she might push some Republicans and conservatives to vote against the Democrats — or donate money to the...

With just three Democratic primaries left and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's chances at her party's nomination increasingly a longshot, determined and deep-pocketed supporters based in San Francisco have launched an effort to keep the New York senator's campaign alive - making a case for counting primary votes in Michigan and Florida. Susie Tompkins Buell, a longtime friend of Clinton's and - along with her husband, Mark Buell - one of the country's most generous Democratic donors, is one of the forces behind the WomenCount political action committee. Since its formation earlier this month, the group has spent at least $140,000...

On the night of the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, I was asked by a British radio station whether, for all intents and purposes, the Democratic race was over. I said I thought it was -- there was no way neither around the math nor the cast-iron direction in which the superdelegates were trending. "The only question," I told my interviewer,"is how Sen. Clinton will go down -- graciously or ugly." Like most everyone else, I thought it would be the former. That at the end of the day (June 3), the two quarrelsome sides would sit around the camp...

No, not why is she carrying on despite all odds. Nor why, in some quarters, both conservative and liberal, she seems to inspire such mean-spiritedness. I'm curious as to why so many of her congressional colleagues -- including those who serve with her on various committees, work together on legislation, whose two-term president husband brought the Democrats back from permanent opposition -- why they went against her, and in many cases so quickly. Like six-term Sen. Chris Dodd, for example, an early contender who during his run derided Obama's thinness of qualifications.More recently, what did Sen. Robert Byrd not see...

Two weeks before the final primary in their marathon battle, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton were campaigning hard Wednesday. Both were in Florida, but their goals could hardly have been more different - or said more about how each one hopes to bring their historic race to a close. Obama, feeling sure of the Democratic nomination, was trying to stake an early claim to a state that could be crucial in the general election against Republican John McCain. Clinton, insisting she can still be her party's nominee, was making a plea for the state's disputed primary results to be...

Barack Obama is like a shot of Botox. Support him, and you take 10 years off your face. You join the cool crowd. You become one with idealistic kids and Hollywood glitterati. Clinton Democrats can't compete. They're on the outside looking in. They used to be hip. They were the bad boys, who scoffed at finger-wagging conservatives. Now, they have traded in their saxophones for a pantsuit. The glamour is gone. Once, their very politics, the simple fact that they registered as Democrats instead of Republicans, made them better than meat-and-potatoes America. They cared more. They were smarter. They knew...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made it clear Wednesday that she is not going away just because of an underwhelming victory in Indiana and an overwhelming defeat in North Carolina. No surprise there. Resiliency, defiance and a high threshold for shame have been among the defining traits of the Clintons' political life. "I'm staying in this race until there's a nominee," she told reporters in Shepherdstown, W. Va. She has every right to stay in the race. There may be an unwritten rule that candidates should drop out and rally around their party nominee when the math becomes implausible, but the...

Screaming tabloid headlines have declared her campaign "Over!" and calls for her withdrawal from the race are mounting, but Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton - despite lackluster primary results this week - has put out her own steely message: She's not going anywhere. "I'm staying in this race until there's a nominee, and, obviously, I am going to work as hard as I can to become that nominee," the New York senator said at a Shepherdstown, W.Va., news conference today. "I believe that I'm the stronger candidate against Sen. McCain. And I believe I would be the best president among...

Sioux Falls, S.D. (AP) -- Former Sen. George McGovern, who backed Hillary Rodham Clinton, is urging her to drop out of the Democratic presidential race. McGovern said Wednesday he has decided to endorse Barack Obama. After watching the returns from the North Carolina and Indiana primaries Tuesday night, McGovern says it's virtually impossible for Clinton . . .

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - At O'Donnell's, a watering hole a few blocks from the fort where General "Mad Anthony" Wayne marshaled his men for war with the Indians in the 1790s, patrons were weighing in yesterday on today's battle between the Democratic presidential candidates. Only a few had heard of the old adage that people vote for whomever they'd rather have a beer with - the test that George W. Bush supposedly passed with flying colors - but some were willing to offer their preferences. "I think Hillary," said Kevin Mashaus, 43, a wine-and-spirits representative from Fort Wayne. "I think...

HICKORY, N.C. --It spans the spectrum from moderate to militant, but it's not difficult to tap into a potential backlash among African-American supporters of Barack Obama if superdelegates give the Democratic presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton. Some in North Carolina, site of a crucial primary on Tuesday, fear it will happen. Some expect it to happen. Some think it could cause a rift in black voters' long-standing allegiance to the Democratic Party. And some, like Sharon Crosby of Lawndale, N.C., say they'd stay home rather than vote for Clinton in November. "How would I feel? I would feel cheated, cheated,...

The demolition derby that now defines the Democratic presidential primary race looks headed for another smashup tonight when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama meet for a debate in delegate-rich Pennsylvania, site of the nation's next big primary on Tuesday. With the Democratic presidential hopefuls locked in open warfare as the last primaries wind down and the battle for delegates heats up, the questions now are: How much intra-party bashing will voters tolerate, and how much will the Republicans benefit? Although past one-on-one debates between the New York and Illinois senators have been virtual lovefests, the terrain is...

Bill Clinton Retells Hillary's 1996 Bosnia Story April 10, 2008 7:10 PM ABC News' Sarah Amos and Eloise Harper Report: After a trip to Puerto Rico and two days entirely off the campaign trail, former President Bill Clinton eagerly discussed myriad topics with the crowd that awaited him in Boonville, Ind., and what he said of a trip his wife made to Bosnia in 1996 seemed a bit misleading. "I am so glad to be here. And I'm glad that Indiana is gonna have a say in who the nominee of the Democratic Party is and the next president of...

Hillary Clinton should stay in the race and fight as hard as she can to win. She owes that much to Americans who voted for her, as well as staffers who cast their fortunes behind her. There also is no point in holding back her attacks on Barack Obama - lest she tarnish her rival for the Democratic nomination. As former Clinton White House Special Counsel Lanny Davis wrote in a Wall Street Journal commentary that took on Obama's support for his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, "If Mr. Obama doesn't show a willingness to try to answer all...

Pay no attention to that woman behind the curtain. Be afraid. Be very afraid, for if you don’t obey the Great and Powerful Oz will turn her wrath on you. Yawn. Hillary Clinton’s favorite girlhood movie was the “Wizard of Oz.” But now, as the primaries clank along, her subjects are refusing to wear the green-tinted glasses and buy her act. She’s less and less terrifying every day, and fewer of those closest to her -- her Senate colleagues -- are intimidated. Despite their best efforts, the Clintons' powers seem to have gone on the fritz, and those Democrats who...

The New York Times' well-sourced Adam Nagourney reported on Saturday that, in response to calls for Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, to drop out of the race (from the likes of Obama-backing Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vermont), "In a conversation with two Democratic allies, she compared the situation to the 'big boys' trying to bully a woman, according to interviews with them." In the Washington Post Sunday, Clinton denied the report to Perry Bacon, Jr. Q. "There was a story today that said you felt the 'big boys' were trying to push you out, 'bullying' you. Did you use those phrases?" Clinton:...

What is it about Democratic politicians and their irresistible urge to lie? Even in the post-President Clinton era, lies continue to flow from the lips of prominent Democrats with regularity only matched by lots of fiber. Within the past two weeks alone, we’ve seen Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty, surrender to authorities after being indicted for conspiracy, perjury and obstruction of justice. Hillary Clinton said she was “sleep-deprived, and I misspoke” when she highly exaggerated about her trip to Bosnia as First Lady 12 years ago, and claimed she was under hostile sniper...

A golden rule in the game of American (or any modern professional) politics is that if you are behind in a campaign and you’re running out of time, you “go negative”. Twenty years ago I actually took a class in professional campaign tactics at Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government. We examined case studies of campaigns in recent years and saw the very precise metrics that the professionals use to gauge how much you lose if you throw mud at someone – because you look like a sleazebag – compared with how much damage you can inflict. The...

It is amazing how loud some of the buzz is for Sen. Hillary Clinton to "do what's best for the party" and get out. More than any other week, this one seemed to have the most actual calls for a Clinton withdrawal. It started last Friday with Bill Richardson. It has continued throughout the past seven days with calls from both Sen. Barack Obama supporters (Chris Dodd and Pat Leahy) to supposed uncommitted Dem bigwigs (Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi).

We admit it. The Chronicle editorial board was disappointed when Hillary Rodham Clinton refused our invitation for a meeting before we endorsed a Democrat in the Feb. 5 presidential primary. But it really hurts to learn that not only did Clinton snub us, but Tuesday she also met with the editorial board of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. At the meeting, Clinton chatted up the paper's owner, Richard Mellon Scaife, the man who once served as the éminence grise/bankroller of what the then-first lady dubbed the "vast right-wing conspiracy." It's true. Clinton is fighting desperately for a huge win in Pennsylvania, while...

DETROIT, (AP) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton bluntly challenged Barack Obama to agree to new primaries in Michigan and Florida on Wednesday and said it was "wrong, and frankly un-American" not to have the two delegations seated at the Democratic National Convention. "Senator Obama speaks passionately on the campaign trail about empowering the American people," said the former first lady, who trails her rival in delegates won to date. "Today I am asking him to match those words with actions." Obama has yet to declare his support or opposition, although his campaign has raised a number of procedural and legal...

After last week's developments on the campaign trail, it seems highly unlikely that Barack Obama would agree to be Hillary Clinton's vice presidential running mate. But would Harold Ford Jr.? Several days ago, Clinton's campaign floated the idea of selecting Obama as her running mate as a way of keeping Democrats unified in the November election. Obama shot that idea down the day before his win last week in the Mississippi primary. So if Clinton were to win the nomination, where else might she turn to find a running mate who could appeal to Obama's supporters, who include large numbers...

Maybe the problem isn't that some people won't vote for a female presidential candidate. Maybe the problem is that the candidate is this particular woman, Hillary Clinton. That's what I think when I hear people complain about the role of sexism in the primaries. First whispered, then shouted, the allegations of sexism have caught hold online, at dinner parties and at family gatherings. Women have even been known to accuse other women of gender disloyalty for remaining cool toward Clinton. Granted, ever since she came to national attention in 1992, the country's conflicted feelings about women have been projected onto...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged both leading Democratic presidential candidates to cease their bickering, warning that the escalating rhetoric could hurt the party's chances in November. "I would encourage both of them, as I have, to remember we have to keep our eyes on the prize, which is the general election in November," Pelosi said Friday at a luncheon in New York sponsored by Lifetime Networks and the Hearst Corp., parent company of The Chronicle. "We are all very passionate about our politics and the issues we believe in, but we have to be very dispassionate about how we approach...

Whatever the outcome of Texas and Ohio voting tomorrow, there's enough dirt being thrown in the final throes of the Democratic campaign to arm Republican John McCain with an arsenal of attacks on Barack Obama. The Clinton campaign contends they are closing in Ohio and Texas after seeing their double-digit polling leads evaporate in both states. In a conference call with reporters, the campaign said voters will wake up Wednesday to newspaper headlines that show Sen. Hillary Clinton being being "successful" in both states, though they conceded that she would remain far behind rival Sen. Barack Obama in pledged delegates....

Albany, N.Y. (AP) -- The Democratic nomination for president could come down to a vote-by-vote struggle for superdelegates, and while Hillary Rodham Clinton has lost her delegate advantage over Barack Obama, she knows she can bank on one superdelegate no matter what. Bill Clinton is guaranteed a spot as a superdelegate: Safe to say his wife gets his vote. With the two candidates separated by 85 delegates, every vote counts. So, is it an unfair edge to be married to a super-duper-delegate, a former two-term president, the last Democrat to hold the office and a leader who's still wildly popular...

Prosecutor Daniel Saunders has issued his list of potential government witnesses in the Anthony Pellicano case, and we’ve got it exclusively. The government may not call them all, but there are 244 names on the witness list for the trial set to begin Feb. 27, in which Hollywood private eye Pellicano faces federal charges of racketeering and illegally wiretapping celebrities. The list — which was obtained by this column on Monday — includes a lot of stars, studio execs and other Hollywood players whose names are familiar either because they’re famous or infamous. You decide. What’s clear is that the...

WASHINGTON — A prominent civil rights leader has told the Democratic National Committee that refusing to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan would disenfranchise both states' minority communities. In a Feb. 8 letter to DNC Chairman Howard Dean, NAACP chairman Julian Bond expressed "great concern at the prospect that million of voters in Michigan and Florida could ultimately have their votes completely discounted." Refusing to seat the states' delegations could remind voters of the "sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries," he said. The DNC penalized Michigan and Florida for moving their primaries to earlier dates in violation of party rules....

Sen. Hillary Clinton may not win Virginia today, but she needs to hold rival Sen. Barack Obama well below the devastating 68 percent wins he secured last weekend in Nebraska and Washington. Obama is expected to sweep all three races in the Potomac Primary today: Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. But it's Virginia that's the key. With each Obama sweep in the post-Super Tuesday contests, Clinton watches the Democratic nomination slip further from her once presumptive grasp. With more losses expected next week in Wisconsin and Hawaii, it's becoming clearer that had Clinton not won convincingly in California...

I’m not a Hillary-hater. She’s been an outstanding senator. She hung tough on Iraq through the dark days of 2005. In this campaign, she has soldiered on bravely even though she has most of the elected Democrats, news media and the educated class rooting against her. But there are certain moments when her dark side emerges and threatens to undo the good she is trying to achieve. Her campaign tactics before the South Carolina primary were one such moment. Another, deeper in her past, involved Jim Cooper, a Democratic congressman from Tennessee. Cooper is one of the most thoughtful, cordial...

California has long been "Clinton country," but Hillary Rodham Clinton seized Super Tuesday's biggest prize by winning big among women, Latinos, Asian-Americans, gays and lesbians, older voters and working class Californians - which blunted Barack Obama's strong support from African Americans, white men and independents, according to exit polls. While Obama was able to carry some of the state's progressive centers - including San Francisco, Marin and Santa Cruz counties - Clinton dominated in the voter-rich Democratic strongholds of Los Angeles, Alameda and Santa Clara counties. The New York senator also vacuumed up support in inland areas like Fresno, Riverside...

The least-acknowledged fact in the present debate over health care is that many millions of Americans have no good reason to buy health insurance. This is especially true of single young people, above all single men. They rarely become seriously ill, and they know that if they are unlucky enough to be in an accident or contract a serious illness, they will be treated anyway. So, quite properly, they see no reason to pay for health insurance or--the same thing--place a high value on health insurance as an employment benefit. Pizza Hut learned this a few years ago when it...

The "he said/she said" debate was a historic first face-off between the first viable African-American and the first viable female candidate for president. But forget the history for a moment. Ask yourself: When was the last time you tuned into a political event and had no idea what would happen? Would Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama snub or snog, brawl or be genteel, rumble or punt? Then the CNN Democratic debate started, and I realized I had to be insane to think that either senator might mix it up. This is politics, after all. Of course, the candidates decided to...

From the looks of this photo, new pals Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama are enjoying an old-boys'-club moment at the Capitol - and women are fuming at the power pair's snub of Hillary Rodham Clinton just a few feet way. PHOTO GALLERY: Hillary Snubbed Some female leaders, in fact, are calling the apparently contemptuous stare-down - which took place before the State of the Union Address Monday night - downright sexist. "In general, they've been disre spectful, and I think that women voters are going to get very tired of seeing that," said Marsha Pappas, who heads the New York...

Antoin "Tony" Rezko was arrested early Monday at his Wilmette home by federal agents on an alleged bond violation, the Tribune has learned. Investigators had in recent weeks become concerned about the movement of some of his finances, a source said. Rezko, who is scheduled to stand trial on corruption charges in less than a month at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, was taken into custody due to an alleged bond violation, a source confirmed.

It started with dismissive talk of a fairy tale and deteriorated into more of a nightmare. As he campaigns for his wife's presidential run, Bill Clinton has been taking aim at her rival Barack Obama and the media with increasing rancor, trading the roles of elder statesman and supportive spouse for that of attack dog. Obama has joined in, going after the former president with increasingly heated criticism. Bill Clinton, campaigning in South Carolina, complained Wednesday that Obama had put out a "hit job" on him. He didn't explain what that meant. "Shame on you!" he scolded a reporter who...

Barack Obama’s campaign has dismissed as not believable a prominent Hillary Rodham Clinton backer’s “tortured explanation” for seeming to inject Obama’s youthful drug use into the 2008 presidential campaign, and called it “troubling” that Clinton has not done more to distance herself from the remark. Former President Bill Clinton was drawn into the controversy on Monday in appearances on black radio talk shows. He told one host, Roland Martin, that impolitic remarks by supporters sometimes “just happen” in politics and said, “I think it's important not to overreact to them.” Obama has admitted in his memoir to using drugs as...

If the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s 100 Club dinner is any bell weather – Barack Obama will handily win here. When Obama, the dinner’s last speaker, took the stage the crowd surged forward chanting “O-bam-a” and “Fired Up, Ready to Go!” So many people pressed toward the stage that an announcer asked people to “please take their seats for safety concerns.” By comparison Hillary was twice booed. The first time was when she said she has always and will continue to work for "change for you. The audience, particularly from Obama supporters (they were waving Obama signs) let out a...

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — A judge on Friday sentenced disgraced political donor Norman Hsu to three years in state prison after rejecting the one-time Democratic rainmaker's bid to throw out a 16-year-old fraud conviction. Hsu's lawyers had asked Superior Court Judge Stephen Hall to dismiss his 1992 no contest plea, arguing his right to a speedy trial was violated because authorities weren't actively pursuing him during his years as a fugitive. They could easily have arrested Hsu, his lawyers argued, at one of the fundraisers he hosted in California for prominent local politicians. Hsu also faces federal fraud charges in...

Redwood City, Calif. (AP) -- A judge on Friday sentenced disgraced political donor Norman Hsu to three years in state prison after rejecting the one-time Democratic rainmaker's bid to throw out a 16-year-old fraud conviction. Hsu's lawyers had asked Superior Court Judge Stephen Hall to dismiss his 1992 no contest plea, arguing his right to a speedy trial was violated because authorities weren't actively pursuing him during his years as a fugitive. They could easily have arrested Hsu, his lawyers argued, at one of the fundraisers he hosted in California for prominent local politicians. Hsu also faces federal fraud charges...

Monday, December 31, 2007 Hillary to Iowa Voters: None of Your Bees Wax   [Jonah Goldberg] So much for listening tours. From the Des Moines Register: Iowa Falls – Iowans have noticied that Democrat Hillary Clinton is not taking public questions from audiences during her final-push campaign rallies. After her 40-minute monologue ended shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday, Clinton immediately began to sign autographs, pose for photographs and listen to caucusgoers’ concerns one on one. Iowa Falls resident Alene Rickels, 51, when asked her thoughts about the event, said: “Her speech was really good, but it would’ve been interesting to...

AS Bill Clinton crisscrosses America defending his wife's candidacy, he's fuel ing speculation about who'd be in charge should Hillary be elected. Sen. Clinton - the incredible shrinking candidate - seems at times almost a bystander at her husband's campaign, merely playing a somewhat more active role than she did in '92. In our modern era of dynastic politics, the elder members of the dynasties have a duty to step aside to let their less experienced heirs shine. Former President George H.W. Bush, for example, has stayed well out of the limelight to let his son have center stage. Yet...

"No experience matters," former President Bill Clinton told PBS' Charlie Rose last week. "I mean, in theory, we could find someone who is a gifted television commentator." But to elect such a candidate - read: Barack Obama - president would be to "roll the dice." Thus Bubba framed the Democratic primary as a contest between a handsome but empty Obama and a Hillary Clinton who often touts her 35 years of experience. Clinton also took the opportunity to talk up the possibility of a John Edwards win in Iowa. Neither Clinton saw much virtue in experience in 1992 - when...

Sometimes we forget that before Howard Dean’s infamous “YEARRRGH!” moment, there were a bunch of signs that he was hitting the skids beforehand. First there were a couple of brusque debate moments – I remember Peggy Noonan comparing him to a teapot that looked ready to boil over. But the other big warning sign came when a guy at an Iowa town hall meeting asked for less negative campaigning and a Biblical teaching of “love thy neighbor”, and Dean gruffly snapped to a “George Bush is not my neighbor.” When the questioner interrupted Dean, he shouted, “You sit down! You...

...How many pantsuits does Hillary Clinton have in her closet? And does she ever wear them in the same combination more than once? The pantsuit is Clinton's uniform. Hers is a mix-and-match world, a grown-up land of Garanimals: black pants with gray jacket, tan jacket with black pants...There are a host of reasons to explain Clinton's attachment to pantsuits. They are comfortable. They can be flattering, although not when the jacket hem aligns with the widest part of the hips (hypothetically speaking, of course). Does she even have hips?... Women have come a long way from the time when wearing...

AMES, Iowa (AP) - Campaigning for his wife, former President Clinton says that when they were starting out he was so struck by her intellect and ability he once suggested she should just dump him and jump into her own political career. That didn't happen, of course, and on Monday he gave an Iowa crowd his version of why it didn't. "I thought it would be wrong for me to rob her of the chance to be what I thought she should be," said Clinton. "She laughed and said, 'First I love you and, second, I'm not going to run...