Clipmarks | Primaries Clips

Clinton versus Palin

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:28:39 GMT

clipped by: lp97702
clipper's remarks: Insulting, indeed.

Mrs. Clinton’s friends said she was galled that Ms. Palin might try to capitalize on a movement that Mrs. Clinton, of New York, built among women in the primaries….Guy Cecil, the former political director of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, said it was “insulting” for Republicans to compare Ms. Palin to Mrs. Clinton.

“It is insulting to compare Hillary’s lifetime of service and her commitment to progressive causes with that of a novice, right-wing governor,” Mr. Cecil said.

Tags: palin, clinton

McCain Hires GOP Operative Who Smeared Him in 2000

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:28:15 GMT

clipped by: dulios
clipper's remarks: Politics sure makes strange bedfellows.

Clip Source: blogs.abcnews.com

McCain Hires GOP Operative Who Helped Smear Him in South Carolina in 2000

Former officials of Sen. John McCain's 2000 campaign expressed shock and disbelief Monday to learn than the GOP presidential nominee had hired South Carolina political consultant Tucker Eskew.

Eskew, along with Warren Tompkins and Neal Rhodes, were key members of then-Gov. George W. Bush's South Carolina team during the 2000 primaries. McCain and his team long held Bush, Tompkins, Rhodes and Eskew responsible for the various smears against McCain and his family in the Palmetto state during that contentious contest.

The tactics used against McCain by Bush and his allies in South Carolina left a deep scar on both McCain and his wife Cindy.

Eight years later, with a tough fight of his own, McCain has turned to one of the same men.

Tags: mccain, bush, south carolina, 2000 election

sarah palin.

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:05:20 GMT

clipped by: nomereveneerofvanity
clipper's remarks: the whole article pretty much echoes how i feel about her nomination. great, they nominated a women who's had nothing to do with women's rights.

Clip Source: jezebel.com

Sarah Palin: When Choosing A Woman Might Not Be Choosing For Women

Sarah Palin was selected by John McCain today to be the second woman in our country's history to run for the Vice Presidency of the United States. She's going to attempt the break the glass ceiling that Geraldine Ferraro first cracked back in 1984, which is a cool thing on some level. But it does raise the question raised by the primaries already once this year — is it more important to vote for a woman, or to vote for a candidate that represents the issues of importance to women?

Healthcare For Everyone- Massachusetts Way

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:20:03 GMT

clipped by: klippety
clipper's remarks: Perhaps an indication of how desperate the need for universal health care is. States are leading the way and the federal government is standing in the way.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The Massachusetts Way

The pioneering Massachusetts program to provide health insurance for all citizens looks more and more successful with each passing month.

The number of uninsured has dropped — Massachusetts now has the lowest rate in the nation — and so have the number of those who turn to costly emergency rooms for routine care. And while the state has had to seek additional sources of revenue — mainly because of the program’s popularity — the gains in the first 21 months suggest that the plan could become a model for universal health coverage for other states or the nation.

Massachusetts enacted its ambitious health insurance reform two years ago under bipartisan leadership from then-Gov. Mitt Romney and a Democratic Legislature. Although Mr. Romney distanced himself from the plan during the Republican primaries, he was back to extolling its virtues in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal last month.

palin

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:23:24 GMT

clipped by: goog74

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

Clinton refugees.

During her speech in Dayton Friday, Gov. Palin went out of her way to appeal directly to the Noting the historic nature of her own bid for the vice presidency, she paid homage first to Geraldine Ferraro, who ran on the Democratic ticket in 1984, and then to Sen. Clinton "who showed such determination and grace in her presidential campaign." She repeated Sen. Clinton's line that she had "left 18 million cracks" in the glass ceiling that keeps women from only rising so far, a reference to the Clinton vote total in the Democratic primaries.

How to Replace Bush Democrats - Spread the Word

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:34:54 GMT

clipped by: zizzy
clipper's remarks: Obstructionists out!

Clip Source: www.actblue.com

While Democrats control the House of Representatives by 236-199, they cannot pass progressive bills on health care, the environment, jobs, justice, and impeachment – or even stop horrendous Republican bills on Iraq, torture, and warrantless wiretapping – because a few dozen “Bush Democrats” regularly vote with George Bush

replace “Bush Democrats” with progressive Democrats through primary elections, and that’s why we created this page. Read more about our efforts here: http://www.democrats.com/bushdemocrats
The candidates below are running against “Bush Democrats” in Democratic primaries. We hope you’ll join us in supporting them!

Stephen A. Harrison

NY-13 (Map)

Howard Shanker

AZ-01 (Map)

One solution is to elect more Democrats to increase our majority so “Bush Democrats” matter less, and many netroots groups like Moveon.org, DailyKos.com, and Blue America are doing this brilliantly

Only Rhetorical Extravagance by George Will

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:20:05 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Obama thinks government is not getting a "reasonable share" of oil companies' profits, which in 2007 were, as a percentage of revenues (8.3 percent), below those of U.S. manufacturing generally (8.9 percent). Exxon Mobil pays almost as much in corporate taxes to various governments as the bottom 50 percent of American earners pay in income taxes. Exxon Mobil does make $1,400 a second in profits -- hear the sharp intakes of breath from liberals with pursed lips -- but pays $4,000 a second in taxes and $15,000 a second in operating costs.

Obama's rhetorical extravagances are inversely proportional to his details, as when he promises "nothing less than a complete transformation of our economy" in order to "end the age of oil." The diminished enthusiasm of some voters hitherto receptive to his appeals might have something to do with the seepage of reality from his rhetoric.

Clip Source: townhall.com

One more inspirational oration, one general enough to please Berliners or even his fellow "citizens of the world," will confirm Pascal's point that "continuous eloquence wearies." That is so because it is not really eloquent.

But the fact that Obama lost nine of the final 14 primaries might have something to do with the fact that when he descends from the ether to practicalities, he reprises liberalism's most shopworn nostrums.

Russia, a third-world nation with first-world missiles, is rampant; Iran is developing a missile inventory capable of delivering nuclear weapons the development of which will not be halted by Obama's promised "aggressive personal diplomacy." Yet Obama has vowed to "cut investments in unproven missile defense systems." Steamboats, railroads, airplanes and vaccines were "unproven" until farsighted people made investments.

George McGovern's 1972 "Demogrant" notion, Obama promises a $1,000 check for every family, financed by a "windfall profits" tax on oil companies.

Tags: obama, rhetoric, liberalism's nostrums, russia, iran's missile inventory, "windfall profits" tax on oil companies, "transform our economy"

Back to The Future

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:27:22 GMT

clipped by: bmeuppls
clipper's remarks: * In 1979, he shared Carter's starry-eyed belief that the fall of the shah in Iran and the advent of the ayatollahs represented progress for human rights. Throughout the hostage crisis, as US diplomats were daily paraded blindfolded in front of television cameras and threatened with execution, he opposed strong action against the terrorist mullahs and preached dialogue.
* Biden opposed President Ronald Reagan's proactive policy against the Soviet Union. Biden was all for détente - which, in practice, meant Western subsidies that would have enabled the moribund USSR to cling to life and continue doing mischief.
Had Biden had his way, "the Evil Empire" would still be around and Saddam Hussein still in power. The US would still be begging the mullahs of Tehran for forgiveness of unspecified "past sins" - and more American hostages would be seized in the Middle East while the mullahs celebrate their first atomic bombs.

Clip Source: www.nypost.com

BY choosing Sen. Joseph Biden as his vice-presiden tial running mate, Barack Obama sent three messages. The first two are implicit admissions that Hillary Clinton had a point in the primaries. The third tells us more of what Obama means by "change."

But the third message is that "change" means a return not to the Camelot of President John Kennedy, but to the foreign policies of Jimmy Carter. For Biden, an early supporter of Carter in his quest for the presidency in 1976, shares the former president's view of the world and the United States' place in it.

In 2004, I was astonished to hear Biden doing his own bit of America-bashing in front of an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The US, he claimed, had no moral authority to preach democracy in the Middle East. "We don' have much of a democracy ourselves, " he said mockingly. "Remember our own presidential election; remember Florida!"

Pennsylvania Gov. Rendell: Obama Coverage Was "Embarrassing"

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:24:50 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: At that point, PBS's Judy Woodruff, who was moderating the moderators event, said: "Why don’t we let Governor Rendell sit down."

That was met with applause from the crowd of big-time media figures, which included Arianna Huffington, Gwen Ifill, Al Hunt, and Chuck Todd.

Woodruff allowed Brokaw to respond, and in defending the network, he said that Matthews and Keith Olbermann are "not the only voices" on MSNBC.

Clip Source: www.politico.com

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell was supposed to give “closing remarks” during this afternoon’s Shorenstein Center-sponsored panel discussion with all three Sunday show moderators — NBC’s Tom Brokaw, ABC’s George Stephanopoulous and CBS’s Bob Schieffer — but instead, he opened up a can of worms about bias in 2008 election coverage

"Ladies and gentleman, the coverage of Barack Obama was embarrassing," said Rendell, in the ballroom at Denver's Brown Palace Hotel. "It was embarrassing."

Rendell, an ardent Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter during the primaries, now backs Obama in the general election. Brokaw and Rendell began debating campaign coverage, including the on-air comments by Lee Cowan, and when MSNBC came up, Rendell went after the cable network.

“MSNBC was the official network of the Obama campaign," Rendell said, who called their coverage "absolutely embarrassing."

Chris Matthews, Rendell said, "loses his impartiality when he talks about the Clintons.”

Tags: pa gov. ed rendell, msn'barack'c, tom brokaw, george stephanopoulous, bob schieffer, judy woodruff, arianna huffington, gwen ifill, al hunt

Clinton to release her delegates to Obama

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:07:12 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will release her delegates to Sen. Barack Obama, a Clinton spokesman said Sunday, the eve of the Democratic National Convention.

Also Sunday, the Democratic Party decided delegates from Michigan and Florida -- states that had been penalized for moving their 2008 presidential primaries to January -- will get full voting rights at the event.

Clinton, who suspended her presidential campaign in June after Obama secured enough delegates to win the party's nomination, will meet with her delegates at a reception in Denver on Wednesday afternoon -- before that evening's delegate vote on the nominee, spokesman Philippe Reines said.

"[The reception is] an opportunity for Sen. Clinton to see her delegates -- many for the first time since the primaries ended -- thank them for their hard work and support and most importantly, to encourage them to support and work for Sen. Obama as strongly as she has, in order to elect him in November," Reines said.

Tags: clinton, obama, politics

London Times: "Seriousness and decency" in Biden

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 07:12:30 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "He has age, charm, working-class roots, attack dog instincts and foreign policy expertise on his side." He will take McCain apart with a grin and most of America will enjoy it.

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Once the laughter fades, there is an underlying seriousness and decency about Biden, 65, that will make him a formidable vice-presidential candidate. He has age, charm, working-class roots, attack dog instincts and foreign policy expertise on his side.

he also has the experience and wit to serve as an attack dog – the traditional job of a running mate – against John McCain, the Republican nominee. Biden is chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee and knows as many world leaders as McCain. He flew to Georgia last week to discuss the Russian crisis with President Mikhail Saakashvili. His son, Beau Biden, a captain in the Delaware National Guard, is to deploy to Iraq as a military lawyer in October.

Biden ruthlessly skewered Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, during the Republican primaries with mockery. “There are only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, verb and 9/11,” he said.

Tags: biden

Obamacans: True Independent Voters

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 06:49:16 GMT

clipped by: ChicagoLynn
clipper's remarks: Great blog! This is a breath of fresh air in the middle of lots of hot air. Who cares when some reporter got a text saying Joe Biden was Obama's pick? This site is about substance and dialogue - I highly recommend it!

Clip Source: obamacan.wordpress.com

Greetings from Obamacan HQ

For those who don’t know, an “Obamacan” is a former Republican who is pleased to see that one of the major parties, even if it’s the Democrats, would nominate a candidate who truly opposes the war in Iraq.

Unfortunately, our earlier hopes for Obama seem to fading as we get to know him - but to our friends on the Left, never fear, John McCain has done anything but seal up our votes thus far.

For us, the war is the number one issue - ending our involvement in Iraq is our position. For some of us, that means we would have been happy if the Republicans had awakened during the primaries and nominated Ron Paul, but we are not all libertarian at heart, though it is a very common thread in our camp.

So, we want to carry on our own debates. Issuing our opinions and throwing them out there to get your feedback. And we’re different - we’re not sold out to the Left or the Right - we want better ideas and thinking than we have out there today!

- Chris, Fran and AJ

Tags: obamacan, independent voter, undecided voters, war in iraq, ron paul, libertarian, issues, presidential politics

Obama's Depressing Tax Plan

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 23:42:05 GMT

clipped by: sillysam
clipper's remarks: He has opposed the Columbian Free Trade Agreement, even though it primarily removes tariffs on American exports to that country, with barriers to Columbian exports to America already almost all removed under the Andean Trade Preferences Act.

In sharp contrast, McCain has promised tax cuts to promote economic growth and strengthen the U.S. dollar. The federal corporate tax rate today is 35 percent, and McCain suggests cutting it to 25 percent. This would mirror rates elsewhere: The average corporate tax rate in the European Union was slashed from 38 percent in 1996 to 24 percent by 2007. The rates in India and China are lower as well. American companies are not going to produce more jobs and higher wages with this crippling competitive disadvantage.

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

Obama has proposed increases in every major federal tax. He has proposed to increase individual income taxes, with the top rate to rise to almost 40 percent. He has proposed to increase the top capital-gains tax rate by 33 percent. He has proposed the same for the top tax rate on dividends. He has proposed to increase payroll taxes, with a rate increase of 16 percent to 32 percent for workers earning over $250,000 a year. He has proposed to reinstate the death tax (estate tax), now phasing out under current law, with a top rate of 45 percent. He has proposed several increases in corporate taxes, including a so-called windfall-profits tax on oil.

Amity Shlaes, author of The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, claims Obama has proposed the exact same policy mix that led to the depression of the 1930s. During the primaries, Obama railed against free trade, proposing

Limbaugh: nobody would "say no to a black guy"

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 06:15:51 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Attributes Obama primary wins to affirmative action.

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

Limbaugh: Obama won primaries because no one ‘had the guts to stand up and say no to a black guy.’»

Yesterday on his radio show, right-wing talker Rush Limbaugh said it’s “striking how unqualified Obama is and how this whole thing came about within the Democrat Party. I think it really goes back to the fact that nobody had the guts to stand up and say no to a black guy.” Limbaugh continued:

I think this is a classic illustration here where affirmative action has reared its ugly head against them. It’s the reverse of it. They’ve, they’ve ended up nominating and placing at the top of their ticket somebody who’s not qualified, who has not earned it. […]

It’s perfect affirmative action. And because of all this guilt and the historic nature of things, nobody had the guts to say, well, wait a minute, do we really want to do this?

Media Matters has the audio.

Tags: obama, limbaugh

Bill Clinton's Chief Of Staff "Disturbed" By Some Hillary Backers

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:40:20 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

"There is a sense of entitlement that almost seems to be inbred," Panetta said. "They are convinced Hillary is the one who should be assuming the mantle and it's tough to crack that."

Rothschild is the founder of Together4Us, a group formed to "honour" Clinton and the nearly 18m voters who supported her in the primaries. Among its demands were a state-by-state roll-call of votes - a final show of muscle by the vanquished Clinton - and a prime speaking slot for her.

They got what they wanted after Obama caved in last week. Seasoned advisers fear the convention is shaping up to be a divisive Bill and Hillary psycho-drama. "It's not something that I would have recommended, but they're trying to bend over backwards as far as they can to accommodate her," said Panetta. "I'm a little disturbed that this keeps playing out."

Tags: vainity, hillary, democracts, disaster, politics