Delegates voting at hotels

Delegates to the Democratic National Convention are casting ballots for the party's presidential nominee at their hotels this morning.

The vote, negotiated by the campaigns for presumptive nominee Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, is expected to speed proceedings from the floor of the Pepsi Center tonight, when totals will be read from the floor as part of a roll call vote.

But it is also leaving many delegates perplexed.

Some delegates were confused because Sen. Clinton was not expected to release her delegates until the afternoon. More...

"It doesn't make any sense to me," said Mary Sullivan, a Clinton delegate from Albany, N.Y. "I'm gonna vote for Hillary. I'm a Clinton delegate and she hasn't released me yet."

Clinton is expected to address delegates this afternoon.

Sullivan said she had been startled by the hostility toward Clinton on the part of some Obama supporters.

"The Obama people act like they lost," she said. "There's no need for it ... . It's over. It's been over. We all knew it, but some of us haven't given up the ghost yet."

But others in the New York delegation said they expected the group to rally around Obama.

"I think you'll find overwhelming support for Sen. Obama in this delegation," Sen. Charles E. Schumer said at the New York breakfast.

Several delegates said they hoped New York would vote nearly unanimously for Obama.

"Everyone should have heard her by now, loud and clear, that the job going forward is to work for the election of Obama," said Bill Ryan, the chair of the Westchester County Legislature. "I'd like to see the entire delegation [support Obama]. It would be a very strong signal."

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie told the state delegation during breakfast that they had until noon today to fill out roll-call ballots at their hotel.

Each delegate, he said, needed to bring ID and would have to sign their ballot, which will indicate their presidential preference.

The two campaigns, he said, negotiated a plan to conduct the voting that way.

"The campaigns have determined how this is going to work," Richie said.

After the voting, he said, the ballots would be taken to the convention center to be tallied before the delegates convene tonight.

Richie said there would still be a roll call vote tonight on the convention floor at the Pepsi Center.

Some of the Clinton supporters in the delegation raised questions about how the process would work and said they wanted an observer there to ensure that the ballots were counted accurately.

"I think it sucks," said Blanche Darley, a Clinton delegate from El Paso.

Some Obama delegates were confused by the new process, too.

Richie asked Obama surrogate Ron Kirk, former Dallas mayor, if the campaign would also like to have an observer during the balloting process.

He shrugged and later said, "I trust everybody in here to be honest."

Many of Massachusetts' most prominent Hillary Clinton supporters have already voted for Barack Obama, including Rep. Barney Frank and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.

At the Illinois delegation hotel, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley implored the delegation to appear unified behind Obama — even to the news media.

Some Barack Obama supporters complained Wednesday that Colorado Democratic leaders may be prolonging a party rift because Hillary Clinton backers won't be allowed to switch their votes to Obama in a show of unity.

Colorado delegates cast their ballots Wednesday morning, and the tally was to be reported Wednesday night on the floor of the Democratic National Convention.

The total wasn't released because not all the delegates were present.

State party chairwoman Pat Waak said the morning vote would be the only one the delegation takes, meaning there will be no chance for Clinton supporters to change their vote to Obama.

"This is the only vote," she said, explaining it would be disruptive to try to take a second poll on the convention floor among the 70 delegates.

That upset Shawn Coleman, an Obama delegate from Boulder, who wanted a second round to allow the delegates to show full support for Obama.

"I understand that the Clinton delegates want to serve their constituents. That is what I'm doing, but I don't want this to be a hollow victory for Obama," he said.

Colorado Rep. John Salazar said he was surprised by the decision and called it unusual, but he said he would support it.

"I think it's part of the healing process. I think after tonight's vote, we're going to be a united party and support Obama.

"A divided party will never win," he said.

State Rep. Terrance Carroll of Denver said he never expected a second vote.

"We know there are delegates loyal to Clinton. It's OK. It's part of the process," he said.

It wasn't immediately clear whether other states were allowing only one ballot within their delegations.

Clinton backers in Colorado had their own concerns, worried that there would be no state-by-state roll call to record the New York senator's strong showing, or that Clinton would stop the balloting and ask for a unanimous vote for Obama before the roll call was recorded.

"If we don't have an official roll call vote state-by-state, it is going to reopen a wound," said Sonja Jaquez Lewis, a Clinton delegate from Boulder County.

Lewis said if Clinton is denied a roll call, she and others may walk out. But she said she would do whatever Clinton asks her delegates to do.

Denver Post Staff Writer Kimberly Johnson, Media News Group Staff Writers Gene Maddaus, Brandi Grissom, Matt Murphy and Leonard Fleming and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Politico and The Denver Post are sharing content during the 2008 Election cycle and during the Democratic National Conventions. 

Best Obama Punch lines

As Barack Obama gets ready to accept the Democratic nomination, we salute the best Obama humor to date:

Best Obama Joke: "After a quick meet-and-greet with King Abdullah, Obama was off to Israel, where he made a quick stop at the manger in Bethlehem where he was born." --Jon Stewart, on Barack Obama's Middle East trip (More Obama jokes)

Funniest Obama Quote: "I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go." –Barack Obama, at a campaign event in Beaverton, Oregon (Watch video clip)

Best Obamaisms: Slate's Encyclopedia Baracktannica, featuring such neologisms as "Barack Ness Monster," "Post-Baracalyptic," "Barackturnal," "Obamatose," "Baracklamation," and "Post-Baratic Stress Disorder" More...

Best Obama Nickname: Joe Biden Accidentally Calling Obama "Barack America"

Best Obama Spoof Video: The Empire Strikes Barack

Best Obama Dance Video: Barack-Roll (a twist on the Internet phenomenon knows as Rickrolling)

Best Obama Music Video: Obama Girl's "Crush on Obama"

Best Obama Cartoon: Obama at Clinton Convention

Worst Obama Cartoon: The New Yorker's Obama Cartoon

Funniest Obama Picture: Not. This. Time.

Best Celebrity for Obama: Scarlett Johansson, who boasted about her text-messaging relationship with the Democratic candidate and declared, "I am engaged to Barack Obama ... My heart belongs to Barack."

Best Obama Campaign Ad: John McCain's Seven Houses

Best Obama Top 10 List: David Letterman's Top Ten Signs Barack Obama is Overconfident. #1: Been cruising for chicks with John Edwards

Best Fake News Item: New McCain Ad Attacks Obama Kids; Cute, Not Ready to Lead, Ad Claims (Borowitz Report)

Best Parody: If They IM'd: Barack Obama and the Media That Totally Want to Have His Babies (23/6)

Most Inspired Obama Web Site: Barack Obama Is Your New Bicycle

More Obama Laughs
Obama Humor Hub
Barack Obama Cartoons
Funny Obama Pics
Obama Loyalty Quiz

What Clinton's body Said - CBS News video

Watch CBS Videos Online

Obama Wins on Empathy, McCain on Experience

Barack Obama leads John McCain 44 percent to 40 percent with 12 percent undecided in a Diageo/Hotline poll conducted during two periods, Aug. 18-20, and Aug. 18-24. The margin of error for parts of the poll not aimed at sounding out reaction to Obama's selection of Joe Biden is 3 percent.

Fifty-five percent of Democrats were satisfied with the choice of Biden while 28 percent were not. More...

The poll identified strengths and weaknesses of Obama and McCain. Seventy percent of voters saw Obama as a great deal or somewhat in touch with the "average American" compared to 61 percent for McCain. Two-thirds also though Obama had done and excellent or good job of presenting himself as a potential president compared to 50 percent for McCain.

But as has helped McCain and plagued Obama in nearly every poll that tested some aspect of the experience factor voters said McCain was more prepared to lead the country as president by 58 percent to 34 percent.

On the economy, seen as the top issue by half of voters, Obama led McCain 48 percent to 40 percent.

Hillary Clinton's Stock Up, Most Would Like to See Her Run Again

Hillary Clinton's stock among fellow Democrats has improved since Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination and most Democrats would like to see her run for President again, according to a Gallup poll conducted Aug. 21-23. Eighty percent of Democrats now viewed her favorably, up from 74 percent in early June. Americans overall would like to see her run again for President by 52 percent to 47 percent, and Democrats come out 75 percent to 24 percent on that score. Independents are split.

Articles to Read Tuesday, August 26

Biden a "mistake" Giulini says - CNN
Angry Clinton Supporters toast McCain, roast Obama - CNN
It Should Have Been Hillary - David Harsanyi, Denver Post
"Clinton's Thankless Job" - Marie Cocco, The Washington Post
Are Obama & Pelosi Dodging on Abortion? - George Weigel, Newsweek
'Obama Needs to Explain Ties to Bill Ayers');" - Michael Barone, US News & WR
Schmidt Fires Back on Obama Ad - Rich Lowry, National Review
527 Ad Attacking Obama on Ayers
The Racism Excuse - Wall Street Journal
The Creepy Plagiarism of Joe Biden - Jack Shafer, Slate
Obama-Clinton Rift Persists - By Peter Wallsten and Peter Nicholas, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
Why Obama Looks Vulnerable - Gideon Rachman, Financial Times
Anxiety From Swingstate Dems - Alec MacGillis and Paul Kane, TheWashington Post

Crowley: Hillary Clinton will be at Invesco for Obama speech

From CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley

DENVER (CNN) — Two Hillary Clinton aides tell CNN that the New York senator will be at Invesco Field Thursday night to hear Barack Obama officially accept the Democratic presidential nomination, regardless of whether she is asked to join him on stage at any point.

Source: Bill Clinton will not attend Obama's Invesco speech

From CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley

Bill Clinton will reportedly not attend the convention Thursday night.

DENVER (CNN) – Hillary Clinton will be on hand for Barack Obama's acceptance speech, but according to a source close to former President Bill Clinton, he will not: the source tells CNN that Clinton will not join his wife at Invesco Field Thursday night.

Gallup: McCain +2

The official Gallup records will show that support for Obama declined by two percentage points in Gallup Poll Daily tracking (from 46% to 44%) conducted immediately before and after the Aug. 23 Biden announcement. (Because the announcement was made at 3 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23, all Gallup interviewing conducted that day can be considered post announcement.)

Some Democrats are Worried

Barack Obama hasn't made the sale with blue-collar Democrats or Hillary supporters. And some Democrats are worried.

To use a familiar phrase, Barack Obama needs Tom Buffenbarger to get fired up and ready to go. The fact that he isn't should worry voters eager to see the Democrats to win in November.

To read the full story, click Here.

Obama to DOJ: Block terrorist ad

Barack Obama’s campaign has written the Department of Justice demanding a criminal investigation of the “American Issues Project." Photo: AP

By BEN SMITH from Politico

(see Related post "The 527’s Reply to Obama’s Efforts to Quash Ayers Ad" )

Sen. Barack Obama has launched an all-out effort to block a Republican billionaire’s efforts to tie him to domestic and foreign terrorists in a wave of negative television ads.

Obama’s campaign has written the Department of Justice demanding a criminal investigation of the “American Issues Project,” the vehicle through which Dallas investor Harold Simmons is financing the advertisements. The Obama campaign — and tens of thousands of supporters — also is pressuring television networks and affiliates to reject the ads. The effort has met with some success: CNN and Fox News are not airing the attacks.

Obama has also launched his own response ad, directly addressing Simmons' attempt to link him to domestic terror. More...

The project is “a knowing and willful attempt to violate the strictures of federal election law,” Obama general counsel Bob Bauer wrote to Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Keeney last week in a letter provided to Politico. Bauer argued that by advocating Obama’s defeat, the ad should be subject to the contribution limits of federal campaign law, not the anything-goes regime of issue advocacy.

Bauer’s letter called on the Justice Department to open “an investigation of the American Issues Project; its officers and directors; and its anonymous donors, whoever they may be.”

“This is a sad ploy to circumvent the First Amendment by a campaign who has no arguments with the merits of our ad. It’s the classic maneuver: If you can’t win on the merits, file a lawsuit,” said a spokesman for the American Issues Project, Christian Pinkston, who said his group's non-profit status allowed it to participate in elections as long as it does a majority of policy work, which it plans to do.
A spokeswoman for Keeney, Laura Sweeney, declined to comment on Bauer’s letter.

The Obama campaign plans to punish the stations that air the ad financially, an Obama aide said, organizing his supporters to target the stations that air it and their advertisers.

But the ad continues to air widely. Evan Tracey, who tracks campaign advertising at TNS Media Intelligence, said it has been broadcast 150 times in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Michigan. Federal Election Commission reports indicate that Simmons has spent more than $2.8 million buying ads.

Obama’s campaign has written a pair of letters to station managers carrying the ads.

The letter calls the ad’s attempt to link Obama to terrorism “an appalling lie, a disgraceful smear of the lowest kind on the senator’s patriotism and commitment to the rule of law.”

Airing the ad “is inconsistent with your station’s obligations under Federal Communications Commission regulations,” the letter continues, saying Simmons’ group lacks formal incorporation.

One large group of network affiliates, the Sinclair Broadcast Group — which aired an documentary attacking John Kerry in 2004 — has been running the ads, Obama aides said. The campaign has launched a special effort to pressure Sinclair.

“Obama supporters have now sent more than 93,000 e-mails to the Sinclair stations that have decided to run the ad,” said Obama’s spokesman Tommy Vietor. “Other stations that follow Sinclair’s lead should expect a similar response from people who don’t want the political discourse cheapened with these false, negative attacks.”

Spokesmen for Sinclair, CNN and Fox didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The ad focuses on Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers, a Hyde Park acquaintance at whose home Obama attended a gathering early in his political career. Ayers is a complicated figure: professor and adviser to the mayor of Chicago despite not having repented his past as a domestic terrorist with the Weather Underground.

"How much do your really know about Barack Obama? What does he really believe?" asks the ad, which also uses imagery from the Al-Qaeda terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"Why would Barack Obama be friends with someone who bombed the Capitol and is proud of it?" asks the ad’s narrator.

Its financier, Simmons, who made his first fortune in chain pharmacies, was a major donor to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group that damaged Kerry in 2004 by questioning his patriotism. He has raised more than $50,000 for Obama's rival, Sen. John McCain, though there’s no evidence that his anti-Obama effort has McCain’s explicit blessing.

Obama has launched a response ad, which addresses McCain directly, and will air in Ohio, Tracey said. "With all our problems, why is John McCain talking about the '60s, trying to link Barack Obama to radical Bill Ayers?" says Obama’s ad. "McCain knows Obama denounced Ayers' crimes, committed when Obama was just 8 years old."

McCain’s camp, meanwhile, appears to welcome the controversy.

“The fact that [Obama] is launching his own convention by defending his long association with a man who says he didn't bomb enough U.S. targets tells us more about Barack Obama than any of tonight's speeches will,” said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers.

Why Obama looks vulnerable

By Gideon Rachman, Financial Times


The Democratic party will whip up some euphoria in Denver this week. But a dark cloud of anxiety hovers over the party convention. More...

The Democratic party will whip up some euphoria in Denver this week. But a dark cloud of anxiety hovers over the party convention.

A horrible truth is beginning to dawn on the Democrats. Barack Obama is not the “once in a generation” political genius they thought they had discovered. On the contrary, he is a weak candidate for the presidency.

With a feeble economy, an unpopular war and the Republicans in disarray, the Democrats should win the presidential election in a canter. But Mr Obama, the Democratic nominee, is neck and neck with John McCain, his Republican rival. For sure, Mr Obama has some real assets – intelligence, grace, good looks, star quality. But history suggests that he is a very risky candidate.

Since 1968, the Democrats have won just three out of 10 presidential races. Their two successful candidates – Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton – were both white, centrist governors from the southern US. Whenever the Democrats nominated a liberal from outside the South – George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, John Kerry – they lost.

Mr Obama is a northerner. He is a liberal. He is a former college professor. And he is black. A bold choice, under the circumstances.

Mr Obama’s unusual personal history – the son of a black Kenyan and a white American, brought up partly in Indonesia – allowed him to write a fascinating, introspective autobiography, Dreams from My Father. But his life story may seem a little exotic to most American voters. Mr McCain’s early life could easily be made into a Hollywood movie.Mr Obama’s youth is more of an off-Broadway play.
Mr McCain can tell tales of heroism as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Mr Obama was a student at elite universities on a voyage of self-discovery. He writes: “To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists . . . We discussed neo-colonialism, Franz Fanon, Eurocentrism and patriarchy.” Even allowing for the self-mocking tone, this is not exactly mainstream America.

It is clear that Mr Obama lacks experience. But that, in itself, need not be a bar to the White House. The same was true of other Democrats who won the presidency – John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton.

Race, however, is a bigger problem. So far, the fact that Mr Obama is an African-American may actually have helped him. As Shelby Steele, an academic, writes: “When you can credibly run for the presidency only two years out of the Illinois state legislature . . . then something in the society is drawing you forward.”

But Democratic primaries – with a high proportion of black and white liberal voters – are one thing. A general election is quite another matter. And notoriously, even in the Democratic contest, Mr Obama struggled to pick up the votes of the white working class in key states such as Pennsylvania. A recent New York Times poll hinted at just how high a barrier Mr Obama may have to hurdle. Whilst only 5 per cent of American voters said they would not vote for a black candidate, 27 per cent said they thought the US was not yet ready for a black president.

Mr Obama has campaigned as a candidate who happens to be black, rather than as a black candidate. In doing so, he has offered white voters the reassurance that he is not one of those African-Americans who talks endlessly about race and tries to make them feel bad. On the contrary, voting for Mr Obama can make you feel good about yourself and about race relations in America.

So there was a certain, cynical brilliance in the McCain campaign’s accusation that it is Mr Obama who is “playing the race card”. This challenged the idea that Mr Obama is a “post-racial” candidate – and it played to white resentments about what some regard as special treatment for black people. The New York Times poll showed that 26 per cent of American whites believe they have been the victim of discrimination.

The special sensitivity of the racial issue places the Obama campaign in a dilemma when it comes to responding to attacks. It is conventional wisdom among Democrats that previous candidates – in particular, Mr Dukakis and Mr Kerry – lost because they were too slow to respond to negative campaigning by the Republicans.

But if the Obama campaign suspects the Republicans of appealing to racism, they will have to think twice about levelling the accusation. Any such charge will be leapt upon by a controversy-hungry media – placing race at the centre of the election campaign. And that can only help the McCain campaign.

Of course, Mr McCain has his own vulnerabilities. He is about to turn 72 – and some opinion polls suggest that voters are even more reluctant to vote for a pensioner than they are to vote for a black person. His inability to remember how many houses he owns suggests that he is either extraordinarily rich or slightly senile – neither idea is helpful to his cause.

The structural factors that the Democrats think favour them this year certainly exist. Americans are in a morose mood about the economy and the country in general. The unpopularity of President George W. Bush will act as a drag on Republicans. Mr Obama has raised an awful lot of money, run a skilful campaign that beat the formidable Clinton machine and has an army of highly enthusiastic supporters.
But he is still a very vulnerable candidate. Can he lose? Yes he can.

gideon.rachman@ft.com
Post and read comments at Gideon Rachman’s blog

The Hillary Hold-ons: Causing Trouble in Denver and Beyond?

From Mother Jones Blog poste here to share:

Former Congressman Harold Ford Jr., the chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, was standing outside a Walgreen's on 16th Street in downtown Denver yesterday. It was a beautiful afternoon, and scores of his fellow Democrats who had arrived for their party's conventions were strolling up and down the 16th Street Mall, past high-end chain stores and restaurants. It felt like something of a block party. Ford, an African-American who lost a 2006 Senate bid after his foes ran an ad featuring a young white woman noting that Ford had attended a Playboy mansion party and asking him for a date, joyously greeted members of Congress, political operatives, and reporters who happened to pass by. But he did have a worry. A worry regarding Hillary Clinton. Not the Senator herself. But her die-hard supporters. Ford said that he feared that Clinton supporters who had come to Denver to demand Clinton receive the party's presidential nomination--and who were planning demonstrations and events during the week--could cause trouble. More...

Two blocks away, two of those Clinton supporters were hoping--and planning--exactly for that. Nancy Kirlen, a middle-aged woman from San Diego, and Kathy Skerl, also middle-aged and from Asheville, North Carolina, stood at the entrance to the Sheraton Hotel, where media credentials were being distributed, and enthusiastically told reporters of their intentions to derail the convention.
With Senator Barack Obama recognized by the vast majority of Democrats as the presumptive nominee, with Senator Joe Biden tapped as his running-mate, with no major debates under way about the party platform, the convention appears to be short on news, suspense and conflict. With the exception of one possible plot-line: the revenge of the Hillaryites. Reporters looking for a story have focused on the possible clash between this band of activists and the party.

Their goal--to get Clinton nominated by persuading superdelegates to ditch Obama for her--is certainly far-fetched. The question is, can they create enough sound and fury--amplified or not by the mainstream media--to make it appear that there is significant dissension within the ranks? Outside the Sheraton, Kirlen said she expected thousands of Hillary-backers to take to Denver's streets for a Tuesday march. Skerl lowered expectations, saying the crowd might number in the hundreds. In addition to the march, several other rallies for Hillary are planned before the roll call vote at the Pepsi Center on Wednesday night.

Kirlen and Skerl were quick to note that Clinton is not encouraging these efforts. "It's not about Hillary," Kirlen said. "It's about how she was treated by the press. The Democratic Party did not stand up for her." She also blasted the nominating process for having given caucuses, where Obama tended to do well, too much influence. She repeated the Clinton campaign's old arguments that Clinton won more votes overall than Obama (if you count the disputed contests in Florida and Michigan in a manner favorable to Clinton).

Both women were visibly angry. They spent months volunteering for Clinton, and they feel deeply wronged. But why can't they come to the same terms with the results as Hillary Clinton has? What does it say about their efforts that Clinton is not with them? Is that not disappointing to them--and a sign they shouldn't bother? No, they assert. "That says that she is a class act," comments Kirlen, "and wants to remain a force in the Democratic Party and get reelected to the Senate." It does not strike them as strange that they are standing up for a politician who won't stand with them. "She's playing nice," Kirlen adds. "But we don't have to." Both vowed to vote for John McCain over Obama in November. Kirlen cited McCain's experience and the number of women in senior positions in his campaign. Asked about his vote against Democratic-backed legislation that would undo a recent Supreme Court decision that makes it harder for a woman to sue an employer for pay discrimination, Kirlen changed the subject and criticized Democrats for having voted for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. This is not about policy issues.

The Hillary Hold-ons are mostly an outside-the-hall group. Bob Mulholland, a leader of the California delegation to the convention, said that among Democrats from the Golden State there are not many former Hillary backers who are upset enough to cause any difficulty. A senior member of the Maryland delegation noted that there are some "whiners and gripers" within that delegation but no signs they want to see any scuffling at the convention over Clinton. Harold Ford did note that the news that the Obama did not vet Clinton as a possible veep choice or speak to her about it "could fire up the fringe."
Delegates are party activists, and party activists tend to rally when called upon to rally. The bigger issue is whether the resentment shared by Kirlen and Skerl extends within the larger electorate. (A recent CNN poll showed that the percentage of Hillary Clinton voters who say they will vote for McCain in the fall has increased in recent weeks.) And if that resentment is hanging on and perhaps spreading, will any noise that is created in Denver by the Hillary Troublemakers, no matter how small their numbers, reverberate among women voters elsewhere? After all, it only takes a few loud dissenters to make a good media story. ("Fox News is giving us a lot of coverage," Kirlen noted.) So while Kirlen, Skerl, and their compatriots have about zero chance to alter the outcome in Denver, they may have to settle for the next best thing: keeping alive the narrative of the Hilllaryites for McCain.

Photo by flickr user Angela Radulescu used under a Creative Commons license.

Obama's Misfire

By Peter Wehner from "the Corner" on National Review

I want to echo what Yuval says, as well as Jennifer Rubin over at Contentions. Senator Obama’s new ad, trying to explain his association with the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers, may rank as among the worst tactical mistakes of the campaign. It puts into play an issue that has been largely ignored by the MSM. It will drive at least some responsible members of the press to cover the truth about Obama’s association with Ayers, which is certainly enough to seriously harm Obama. And it once again raises the problem of Obama’s other troubling associations over the years, including (but not exclusive to) the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

For weeks it has been clear that Obama is, for the first time in his national political career, on the defensive. He and his campaign look increasingly rattled. They seem unsure what strategy to pursue and what the new rationale for an Obama presidency ought to be. They seem to be shifting back and forth, from trying to recapture the old magic, now long gone, to using a two-by-four against Senator McCain. And now they have made what strikes me as a major misstep. Many people who never knew who Bill Ayers is, what he has done, and what Obama’s relationship with him has been, are about to find out. And for a presidential candidate who is still a mystery to many people, and about whom they persistent and growing questions, it cannot be a good thing to be linked to Ayers.

The Obama campaign, which was running an almost flawless campaign for months, had begun to crack under the pressure of a presidential campaign. That pressure has now created a break. It is one I suspect they will come to regret.

The Mess in Mississippi, Redux: The Joe Biden Connection?

Posted by Dan Slater from the WSJ

As the media and the GOP begin their inevitable scrutiny of Joe Biden, the newly-named running-mate of Barack Obama, he’ll undoubtedly find himself answering questions about his past. Among those questions could be one that falls squarely within LB jurisdiction: Biden’s connection to famed plaintiffs lawyer Dickie Scruggs and others in Mississippi’s legal community.
Last month, as we did clean-up on the Scruggs story, a couple things happened: Dickie, who pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to bribe a state-court judge, discovered he would serve out his five-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, Kentucky. Meanwhile, Judge Neal Biggers surprised Dickie’s son, Zach, who pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of misprision — knowing, concealing and failing to tell — by hitting him with a 14-month sentence. More...

Meanwhile, Joe Biden spent part of July paying down his campaign debt, which entailed giving back campaign donations from both Dickie and Zach.

First, some background: When the Scruggs news broke in December, the LB reported that Steve Patterson (pictured, left) and Tim Balducci (pictured, right), who were both charged alongside Scruggs (pictured, below), had grand ambitions to turn their firm, Patterson Balducci in New Albany, Miss., into a Democratic lobbying shop and law firm. Patterson (not a lawyer) and Balducci (a lawyer) had opened an office in D.C. and lured a number of influential Mississippi Democrats to affiliate with their firm.

Balducci and Patterson, as we’ve noted, once had high hopes for Biden. According to people familiar with their thinking, their bet on Biden (Syracuse law) was that he wouldn’t win the presidency but would become Secretary of State under a Hillary Clinton administration. In August, Balducci, Patterson, Scruggs and others hosted an Oxford. Miss., fundraising event for Biden. By December, employees of Patterson Balducci had contributed about $26,000 to the Biden campaign, according to fundraising records. According to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Patterson, Balducci, Dickie and Zach had contributed $2,300 each to Biden’s campaign.

Last week, the L.A. Times Top of the Ticket blog reported that in July Biden slashed his campaign debt to $173,999 from $1.15 million the previous month, according to Federal Election Commission records. (Biden spent $13.8 million on his candidacy and dropped out of the race after a poor showing in Iowa.) His July expenses included giving refunds of $2,300 to both Dickie and Zach.

UPDATE: In an August 25 WSJ story entitled “Scrutiny of Biden Focuses on Lobbyist Ties, Family,” a Biden spokesman tells the WSJ that all contributions from anyone implicated in the Mississippi bribery case were donated to a charity.

AT&T Throws Party to Support Dems Who Voted to Grant Telecoms Immunity for Illegal Domestic Wiretapping

Democracy Now! goes from the streets to the suites to try and cover one of the first of over 1,200 parties during the Democratic National Convention—this one thrown by AT&T to support Democrats who voted to grant the company immunity for illegal wiretapping of Americans. We also get analysis from Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com. [includes rush transcript]. Click HERE to read the full story.

MBNA paid Biden son at critical time for bill

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer 45 minutes ago
 

WASHINGTON - A son of Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden was paid an undisclosed amount of money as a consultant by MBNA, the largest employer in Delaware, during the years the senator supported legislation that was promoted by the credit card industry and opposed by consumer groups.

Barack Obama's presidential campaign said Biden helped forge a bipartisan compromise on the measure, which is now law and makes it harder for consumers to obtain bankruptcy protection in the courts. More...

MBNA's consulting payments to Hunter Biden, first reported by The New York Times, followed his departure in 2001 from the company, where he had been an executive.

Obama opposed the bankruptcy law, enacted in 2005, while Biden supported it.

David Wade, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said that "after working in the Clinton administration in the Department of Commerce on Internet privacy and online commerce issues, Hunter consulted for five years as an expert on these very same issues at a time of enormous expansion in online banking."

At the time Hunter Biden was receiving consulting payments from MBNA, he also was a Washington lobbyist at a firm he had co-founded.

"He was not a lobbyist for MBNA, and his work had absolutely nothing to do with the bankruptcy bill. Zero. Nothing," said Wade.

Resurrecting Biden's role in the bankruptcy legislation could undercut one of the Obama campaign's lines of attack: That his Republican opponent, John McCain, is insensitive to the financial woes of middle-class Americans.

Consumer and civil rights groups and unions, as well as Democratic opponents, had argued that the bankruptcy legislation was unfair to low-income working people, single mothers, minorities and the elderly, and would remove a safety net for those who have lost their jobs or face mounting medical bills.

The financial services industry made the case that bankruptcy frequently is a refuge of gamblers, impulsive shoppers, divorced or separated fathers avoiding child support, and multimillionaires who buy mansions in states with liberal exemptions to shelter assets from creditors.

When the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill early in 2005, Biden, Dianne Feinstein of California and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin were the only Democrats to vote with the Republican majority. Biden also voted for the bill on final passage in the Senate, while Obama voted against it.

MBNA employees have poured more than $200,000 into Biden's Senate campaigns over the past two decades, making donors working for the credit card company the senator's largest source of campaign money.

On the bankruptcy bill, the senator "took plenty of knocks from the largest employer in his state because he demanded changes," said Wade, the Obama campaign spokesman. "Sen. Biden improved the bill for low-income workers, women, and children. There were times when he believed amendments on both sides would have blown up a bipartisan compromise backed by three quarters of the Senate. At those moments, Sen. Biden had to make the tough calls and he voted to pass a bill."

In a separate matter in which Hunter Biden's lobbying activities were referenced, he and Biden's brother Jim have been sued for allegedly defrauding an ex-business partner.

In the lawsuit filed last year in state court in New York, Anthony Lotito says that he got a call from Jim Biden in early 2006 saying that Sen. Biden was concerned with the impact that Hunter's lobbying activities might have on the senator's expected campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

According to the lawsuit, Jim Biden said his brother had asked him to seek Lotito's assistance in finding employment for Hunter in a non-lobbying capacity.

The lawsuit says that Lotito later was cut out of a business arrangement with Jim and Hunter Biden to purchase a Wall Street hedge fund.

Nicholas Gravante, a lawyer for the Bidens, said that Lotito's claim that Sen. Biden told his brother that he was concerned about his son's lobbying activities is completely baseless.

"There is absolutely no connection between Joe Biden and this lawsuit. The case is without merit and it will be dismissed," said Gravante, a partner at the firm of Boies, Schiller & Flexner.

HILLARY WATCH: CLINTON DELEGATES TO GET SPECIAL ROOM

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

Posted: 2:46 pm
August 25, 2008

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s team has set up a room for her pledged delegates to spend time in during the leadup to the roll call on Wednesday night.

The room at the Colorado Convention Center was closed to press when The Post went to visit, but some Clinton staffers were seen popping in and out.

Some people who spent time there said it was used at some points today for meetings with whips and chairs from different states, amid negotiations between the Clinton camp and Team Obama about how the roll call will play .

Hillary Clinton calls for unity

Biden Hits the Fan

Just in time for the Democratic Convention: the Obiden ticket of Change comes complete with fresh lawsuits against Joe Biden's brother and lobbyist son, alleging a steaming heap of corrupt lobbying (it's such a good thing that Biden was a well-connected senator for 36 years isn't it?) and defrauding investors in a hedge fund out of millions of dollars.

 

From a shiny new post-partisan politics of hope and change up until May, to this grotesque spectacle right before the national convention  -- via a series of sell-outs, policy shifts and flip-flops the latest blow resulted from the Oborg's hubristically putting the ultimate Washington insider and patron of lobbyists -- Joe Biden -- on a ticket that was supposed to be all about "change".

Has anyone seen a brand dissolve so quickly? This will be one for the schoolbooks.

Here's hoping the delegates come to their senses and quickly. This is all starting to feel like a repeat of the worst parts of 1972 and 1988 all over again.

Gallup Daily: Race Tied as Democratic Convention Starts

PRINCETON, NJ -- The last Gallup Poll Daily tracking polling conducted before the beginning of the Democratic National Convention shows Barack Obama and John McCain tied at 45%.

The latest update includes two days of interviewing following Obama's selection of Sen. Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate, and neither day showed an improved performance for Obama. Thus, Obama does not appear to have gotten the same type of immediate "vice presidential bounce" as have presidential candidates in recent years. That could reflect a somewhat muted national response to the Biden selection, or competition for the nation's attention with the Olympics. (The candidates who got vice presidential bounces in 1996, 2000, and 2004 announced their choices before or after the Olympics took place in those years.) More...

In fact, today's results, using Aug. 22-24 interviews, show both candidates getting precisely the same number of votes when more than 2,600 national registered voters were asked who they would vote for "if the presidential election were held today."

The race has clearly tightened over the past two weeks, after Obama held a modest advantage (averaging three percentage points) from the time he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination in early June through mid-August. (To view the complete trend since March 7, 2008, click here.)
The Democratic convention, scheduled in late August to avoid a conflict with the Olympics, gets underway today. Michelle Obama serves as the keynote speaker this evening. -- Jeff Jones

Click here to see how the race currently breaks down by demographic subgroup.

Electoral Match up (NO toss up states): Barack Obama 273, John McCain 265 - The gap is still closing

Electoral Match up with no toss up states grows even closer:  Barack Obama 273,   John McCain 265    Click here to see the map.

The Inconvenient Obama

By Andrew Breitbart, from Real Clear Politics

Sen. Barack Obama has a problem. And it lives in a hut.

His name is George Hussein Onyango Obama, and he is the 26-year-old half brother of Mr. Obama, the multimillionaire autobiographer who neglected to write that his paternal sibling lives on less than a dollar a month in the outer slums of Nairobi, Kenya.

They have met twice. More...

Unearthed by Italian Vanity Fair and virtually ignored by the American press, the inconvenient George Obama could emerge as a compelling character in the freshman senator's carefully edited road-to-the-White-House narrative - especially now that his campaign has unleashed a personal attack on Sen. John McCain's station in life.

 

The Obama hit job on Mr. McCain seizes on his clumsiness in answering a reporter's question about how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own. "I think - I'll have my staff get to you," Mr. McCain fumbled. In a well-funded nationally televised ad spot titled "Seven," Mr. Obama's messenger twice repeats the correct answer as the words on the screen reinforce the meme of class warfare.

"Seven. Worth $13 million."

The Sunday morning shows parroted Mr. Obama's shocking discovery that the McCain family is well-off. Smarting Obamaniacs campaigning for their messiah are now scripted to ask voters in battleground states how many houses they own and participate in an official campaign contest, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: McCain Edition." Winners receive hope, change and fist bumps - spoils of the "new kind of politics."

Someone who made $4.2 million last year and lives in a mansion that a mobster helped pay for should not be throwing stones. When Mr. Obama's flesh-and-blood lives in squalor, raising the standard of living of his opponent's extended family is probably not a smart idea.

It's scary to think that this could be a preview of an Obama presidency in which attacking the rich is all the rage, and the rich in the news media pretend it's OK. Hugo Chavez is having a helluva run bringing down his formerly prosperous nation of Venezuela with that formula.

Mr. McCain, of course, would be publicly eviscerated if he funded an ad campaign called "12" - as in the amount of dollars a year Mr. Obama's half-brother subsists on. The message also could accurately point out that Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, have consistently fallen short of the national average in charitable contributions since they entered the highest income bracket - despite their ballyhooed "progressive" religious faith that touts "economic equality."

It would also be fair game now to point out that preaching "social justice" pays better than being a United States senator. The Trinity United Church of Christ is building a mansion for the Rev. Jeremiah Wright that includes an elevator, a butler's pantry, a bar, a rubberized exercise room - and the 10,000-square-foot estate backs up to the Odyssey Country Club. (Memo to wealthy Caucasian Republican members of the golf club: "Fore!")

Attached to Mr. Wright's church-funded property is a peculiar $10 million line of credit - presumably, none of which will be given to George Obama.

Mr. McCain's ad also could highlight that Michelle Obama is on leave from her $317,000-a-year job at the University of Chicago Medical Center, which is now under scrutiny - along with Obama campaign chief David Axelrod and two other staffers - for a scheme that, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, "steers patients who don't have private insurance - primarily poor, black people - to other health care facilities."

"The medical professionals who have come to me are accusing the university of dumping patients on its neighboring institutions," Toni Preckwinkle, alderman for the 4th Ward, told the paper.
 Patient-dumping poor blacks may be interesting, but not quite as newsworthy as John McCain marrying a beer heiress 28 years ago.

Does anyone think if Mr. McCain had a sibling living in a trailer park making minimum wage (892 times more than Mr. Obama's half brother's yearly income) that the mainstream media and the Obama campaign wouldn't notice?

In fact, last week National Public Radio ran a piece titled, "Cindy McCain's Half Sister 'Angry' She's Hidden," highlighting that Mr. McCain's wife's half sister was left out of her father's will. The piece was duly filed under the publicly funded network's "conservative compassion deficit" media template.
Yet Mr. Obama has a half brother who lives in Africa on three cents a day, and the story breaks in an Italian magazine and is picked up by a London newspaper and a few others in Australia. Perhaps the story would be carried widely in America if they could figure out how to blame President Bush. But as Bob Geldof pointed out, he "has done more [for Africa] than any other president," and of the press harshly judged, "You guys didn't pay attention."

Nor will they pay attention that the McCains have adopted a poor Bangladeshi child and done untold amounts of humanitarian and charity work.

What makes this story newsworthy for Italians, Brits and Aussies, but not Americans, is that the U.S. free press is free to ignore stories that could take down their preordained president. And after the Internet and talk radio-driven "Swift Boat" story unexpectedly sank their last guy, the mainstream American press is taking extra precautions this time around.

If for some inexplicable reason the media are forced by their online and talk radio betters to run with this outrageous and creepy story, key Obama supporter Oprah Winfrey can come to the rescue at the Democratic National Convention. On Night 3, the billionaire television hostess can synthesize her two best show archetypes: the heart-wrenching family reunion and "Oprah's Favorite Things," the giveaway of material goods.

Imagine the emotional fireworks when 75,000 Obama supporters at Invesco Field witness Barack Obama reconnecting with his destitute half brother as is he lavished with Kai Body Butter & Buffer, Perfect Endings Cupcakes by Williams-Sonoma, Hand-Blown Crystal Champagne Glasses by Deborah Ehrlich and a Pure Simplicity Pumpkin Purifying Mask.

Controversy averted. Because Democrats care more.

Andrew Breitbart is the founder of the news Web site breitbart.com and is co-author of "Hollywood Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon - the Case Against Celebrity."

McCain camp echoes Ayers attack

FROM BEN SMITH'S BLOG:

The McCain campaign welcomes an opportunity, raised by its independent ally, to argue about Bill Ayers.

"The fact that Barack Obama chose to launch his political career at the home of an unrepentant terrorist raises more questions about Senator Obama's judgment than any TV ad ever could. And the fact that he's launching his own Convention by defending his long association with a man who says he didn't bomb enough U.S. targets tells us more about Barack Obama than any of tonight's speeches will," says spokesman Brian Rogers. More...

The Ayers attacks cite my story on him and Obama, and the notion that Obama "chose to launch his political career" at Ayers' home is an overstatement, but not without any basis in reality. Alice Palmer, his predecessor in the State Senate, did convene one early, and important, meeting to introduce Obama to new constituents there, however.

As one attendee described it:

“When I first met Barack Obama, he was giving a standard, innocuous little talk in the living room of those two legends-in-their-own-minds, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.... They were launching him — introducing him to the Hyde Park community as the best thing since sliced bread.”

Articles and Blogs Monday, August 25

(UPDATED Throughout Monday, August 25)

Some Democrats are Worried, Howard Fineman of Newsweek

Obama to DOJ: Block Terrorist Ad by Ben Smith, Politico

The 527’s Reply to Obama’s Efforts to Quash Ayers Ad, NoQuarter

Conversation With Cindy Schwartz, Washington State Delegate, NoQuarter

Clinton Advisers to Skip Obama Speech By Matthew Mosk from The Trail

AT&T Throws Party to Support Dems Who Voted to Grant Telecoms Immunity for Illegal Domestic Wiretapping from Democracy Now

Clintonism Lives - Mark Penn, the Politico

The Inconvenient Obama' - Andrew Breitbart, Washington Times

Should Dems Be Feeling Buyer's Remorse? - Stuart Rothenberg, Roll Call

Obama-Clinton Camp Tensions Boil By JOHN F. HARRIS & MIKE ALLEN, Politico

Some HRC Backers Left Frustrated By AMY CHOZICK, WSJ

In Denver, Deep Doubts About Obama By Byron York, National Review ONLINE

Biden's Plagiarism Should Not Be Forgotten - David Greenberg, Slate

Democrats Field a Liberal Dream Team - Fred Barnes, Wall Street Journal

Over Half of Clinton Backers Not Sold on Obama - Susan Page, USA Today

Rendell: MSNBC "Embarrassing" By Michael Calderone, Politico

State Polls

• Ohio (Columbus Dis.): McCain +1
• Michigan (Detroit News): Obama+2
• Colorado (Suffolk): Obama +5

ALL ABOUT HILLARY

DENVER

IT'S Hillary's convention. Not in the way she imagined it when the primary battle began - she's not the nominee making history and bidding to end the dread Bush years. That role has been usurped by Barack Obama.

But the convention narrative revolves around her in important ways.

It's not just because so much drama attaches to the question of how she and embittered husband Bill regard Obama, and not just because she and Bill are getting so much air time. Obama has two major challenges this week - and both are Hillary-centric.

First, Obama has to win over Hillary's voters from the primaries, only 52 percent of whom are now supporting him, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. More...

Second, he has to occupy the space on the political spectrum that Hillary carved out in the primaries - identifying himself with mainstream American values, demonstrating a toughness on foreign affairs and connecting with the working class with his economic policies. (If he's at a loss how to do any of it, perhaps Hillary can explain it over a shot and beer chaser.)

That Obama is still performing so poorly among Hillary voters makes the prominence he's given the Clintons look less like an abject capitulation and more like a strategic necessity. If the Clintons can deliver Hillary's voters, every minute devoted to them will have been worth it.

The Clintons, of course, are profoundly conflicted. They've long thought Obama will lose, but they can't betray that belief lest - should Obama actually fail in the fall - they get blamed, engendering the bitterness of half the party.

Yet, no matter how enthusiastic they are (or seem), there's only so much the Clintons can do to deliver Hillary's voters. Some of these people are simply angry that she lost, and can be placated by seeing her treated well. But others were attracted by her characteristics - that she was tougher and more experienced than Obama. That group will be harder to reach.

Obama's pick of Joe Biden as his running mate is an attempt to play for these voters. Problem is, Biden's experience isn't transferable. It doesn't matter that Biden has spent 35 years in the Senate; Obama still has spent less than four.

The Georgia crisis helped tip Obama toward foreign-policy maven Biden as his VP choice. But, as Saturday's rally rolling out the ticket showed, Biden's value is as much his working-class roots as his work on arms control or Iraq (most of which has been terribly misconceived).

Obama portrayed Biden as a politician who came from the working class and never left it - the champion of, as Mark Penn put it in one of his campaign memos for Hillary, the "invisible Americans." Here, too, Biden's utility is probably limited. Most voters will look at him and not see the scrappy kid from Scranton, Pa., but a senator whose love affair with hearing himself talk is ardent even by the self-exalting standards of the breed.

So neither the Clintons nor Biden will be able to make the sale for Obama: He'll have to make it himself - and the convention is one of his best chances to do it.

He'll need to express sympathy with the morés of the middle of the country and blunt the sharp edges of his party's social liberalism, something Clinton did during the primaries in emphasizing her Midwestern roots and with her caution when addressing hot-button social issues. He'll have to sound tougher on foreign affairs, something Hillary did with some well-placed bluster about "obliterating" Iran.

And he'll have to make the connection between his domestic policies - from taxes to health care to energy policy - and the interests of the middle class, a centerpiece of Hillary's campaign.

Assailing John McCain, which will be a favored sport here, doesn't substitute for any of this. In the end, the election is essentially about Obama, and whether he can connect with average voters and meet the standard of commander-in-chief. And the way Obama should go about it is all about Hillary.

Some in Clinton circle 'outraged'

Some in Clinton's inner-circle are outraged.

CNN) — Evan as Hillary Clinton praised the newly-minted Democratic presidential ticket Saturday, some in her circle are furious Barack Obama did not appear to give the New York Democrat serious consideration for the No. 2 spot, or even ask for her consultation on the matter.

More...

"Set aside that Obama said she'd be on anybody's short list, set aside anybody's feelings on whether she was deliberately snubbed and the pros and cons of whether it should be her," a former Clinton strategist told CNN's Candy Crowley. "Focus on the politics of it and you have about a quarter of Clinton loyalists still not joining the caravan…for God's sake, not to even make a show of taking her seriously is flatly stupid."

A top Clinton advisor also told CNN they were "outraged," over how the process was conducted.

"You can't put [Obama VP vetters] Eric Holder and Caroline Kennedy on an hour plane ride to Chappaqua just to check the box? They should have done it just for the optics," this person said. "Barack never even said to her, 'Here's how I envision the job'– not one discussion with her about [the position]."

"They thought her supporters were mad before? They are really mad now," this person also said. We knew it was never going to happen but you would have thought they might at least make a show of it."

Former Clinton strategist Paul Begala echoed similar frustrations on CNN Friday night.

"I think there are a lot of Hillary voters who are going to say, 'Hey, wait a minute, man You said you were going to put her on the short list. You know, you didn't even vet her. You didn't call her. You didn't seek her advice,'" Begala said. "By the way, he didn't seek President Clinton's advice either. He's actually the guy who I think picked the best vice president in American history. You would think maybe you would sort of check in with him."

Meanwhile, two sources familiar with Obama's VP search tell CNN's Roland Martin Clinton was very much under consideration, and it's wrong for anyone to suggest that she wasn't.

One of the sources noted the Clintons have lived a very public life, and it's inconceivable for anyone to think that there really is more that needs to be learned from them by requesting additional paperwork, citing the release of documents by her during the primary season.

The other source said both Holder and Kenndey are very familiar with Sen. Clinton and that there was substantive and lengthy conversations among the Obama team with regards to Clinton as vice president.

MUST SEE! - New McCain vdeo on Obama/Biden Ticket!

Here's McCain's new YouTube ad on the Obama/Biden ticket - IT's WORTH WATCHING!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RDVUPqoowf8

Freud, Obama & Biden

Posted by TOM BEVAN

The McCain camp is already emailing around a YouTube of Obama's slip at the end of his speech, when he introduced Biden as "the next President" before catching himself.

It's ironic the silver-tongued Obama would be the one to make the first slip, especially that one. Biden made a few verbal stumbles of his own, and he gave us all a flash of the limitless future gaffe possibilities when he randomly went off script toward the end to describe his wife as "drop dead gorgeous" and then make a crack about her being a teacher. More...

He also gave us a glimpse of the sort of blue collar, attack dog fire he's literally - not figuratively but literally - going to bring to the race.

Biden may or may not be an inspiring pick for Obama, but he sure is an inspiring pick for the media.

UPDATE: The McCain has now followed up with a statement from spokesman Ben Porritt on Obama's "Freudian slip:"

"Barack Obama sounded as though he turned over the top spot on the ticket today to his new mentor, when he introduced Joe Biden as the next president. The reality is that nothing has changed since Joe Biden first made his assessment that Barack Obama is not ready to lead. He wasn't ready then and he isn't ready now."

Obama Bin Biden

Barack Hussein Obama’s choice for his VP spot is so predictable and ludicrous, it doesn’t deserve a full article.More...

It does, nonetheless, deserve pointing out a few important things:

1. It bluntly confirms what everybody knows; that Obama is utterly CLUELESS about foreign policy (even though he had the ‘cojones’ to say that said subject was his “strongest suit”).

2. Because of this cluelessness, he has been forced to pick a man who has lost every single attempt at his party’s nomination, just to make the case that he finally has somebody to “help him out”. Isn’t this the only ticket truly reminiscent of Bush - Chenney 2000/2004?

3. Biden is an old dog of Washington (in both the literal and symbolic sense of the word!), which then defeats the ENTIRE premise for Obama’s run. Is this really “change we can believe in” and “new politics”?

4. As the McCain ad proves above, Biden has been notorious in his criticisms of Obama and other similarly ‘junior’ candidates. By contrast, there are PLENTY of quotes from him in favor of McCain from Mr. Biden. This will then paint a picture of Biden as a sleazy hustler and dishonest buffoon, which is not very flattering to Mr. Obama (who already has a similar reputation).

5. The entire spectacle looks like a joke, when the only person who could effectively engage McCain is the VP candidate, while the head of the ticket is remains an irresponsible, corrupt, inexperienced and arrogant fool. Characteristics which, in a similar fashion to George W. Bush, will only allow him to either get manipulated by his old advisers or simply ignore them out right, out of his own self serving egocentrism.

6. The Hillary Clinton factor cannot be overlooked. The mere fact that Obama picked an old loser in favor of her (even though she was not going to say yes) demonstrates the utter disrespect that he offers the Clintons and their supporters. After all the nonsense about “being right on the war”, he picks a man who was a HARDCORE advocate of removing Saddam Hussein from power. Wasn’t this the reason that he attacked Clinton over and over?

In other words, Joe Biden was the predictable choice for a man who now admits to the world that he doesn’t have a freaking clue about what he is doing. Polls already indicate that most Americans favor McCain over Obama (and yes, over Biden) in foreign policy, so this choice is politically ineffective. Polls also indicate that Americans trust McCain over Obama even in economic matters, making the pick of Biden an even more ludicrous one.

Today, this means that the choice in November is between a man with whom people feel more comfortable in both the economy and military matters, or a young brat who doesn’t know anything about either subject, but at least has an old man who has lived in Washington all of his life to help out.

All McCain has to do now is pick ANYBODY as his running mate, albeit preferably Mitt Romney, and he will close the deal with a comfortable margin.



—————————————

In commemoration of this political gaffe on the side of Mr. Obama, let’s watch a few fun videos on this subject.

First, let’s see what “The Ultimate Jew” has to say about Barack Obama and his experience:


Second, let’s see how the McCain campaign views Obama and his supporters:




And finally, how the GOP and the rest of America will perceive him in November, irrespective of his running mate:


**PLEASE REMEMBER TO SEND IN YOUR OWN ARTICLES TO savagepolitics@gmail.com!
SUBSCRIBE to SavagePolitics AND HELP US FIGHT THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA!

Analysis: Biden pick shows lack of confidence

By RON FOURNIER, Associated Press Writer

Saturday, August 23, 2008

(08-23) 02:02 PDT DENVER, (AP) --
The candidate of change went with the status quo.

In picking Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate, Barack Obama sought to shore up his weakness — inexperience in office and on foreign policy — rather than underscore his strength as a new-generation candidate defying political conventions.

He picked a 35-year veteran of the Senate — the ultimate insider — rather than a candidate from outside Washington, such as Govs. Tim Kaine of Virginia or Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas; or from outside his party, such as Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska; or from outside the mostly white male club of vice presidential candidates. Hillary Rodham Clinton didn't even make his short list. More...

The picks say something profound about Obama: For all his self-confidence, the 47-year-old Illinois senator worried that he couldn't beat Republican John McCain without help from a seasoned politician willing to attack. The Biden selection is the next logistical step in an Obama campaign that has become more negative — a strategic decision that may be necessary but threatens to run counter to his image.

Democratic strategists, fretting over polls that showed McCain erasing Obama's lead this summer, welcomed the move. They, too, worried that Obama needed a more conventional — read: tougher — approach to McCain.

"You've got to hand it to the candidate and the campaign. They have a great sense of timing and tone and appropriateness. Six months ago, people said he wasn't tough enough on Hillary Clinton — he was being too passive — but he got it right at the right time," said Democratic strategist Jim Jordan. "He'll get it right again."

Indeed, Obama has begun to aggressively counter McCain's criticism with negative television ads and sharp retorts from the campaign trail.

A senior Obama adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said his boss has expressed impatience with what he calls a "reverence" inside his campaign for his message of change and new politics. In other words, Obama is willing — even eager — to risk what got him this far if it gets him to the White House.

Biden brings a lot to the table. An expert on national security, the Delaware senator voted in 2002 to authorize military intervention in Iraq but has since become a vocal critic of the conflict. He won praise for a plan for peace in Iraq that would divide the country along ethnic lines.

Chief sponsor of a sweeping anti-crime bill that passed in 1994, Biden could help inoculate Obama from GOP criticism that he's soft on crime — a charge his campaign fears will drive a wedge between white voters and the first black candidate with a serious shot at the White House.

So the question is whether Biden's depth counters Obama's inexperience — or highlights it?
After all, Biden is anything but a change agent, having been in office longer than half of all Americans have been alive. Longer than McCain.

And he talks too much.

On the same day he announced his second bid for the presidency, Biden found himself explaining why he had described Obama as "clean."

And there's the 2007 ABC interview in which Biden said he would stand by an earlier statement that Obama was not ready to serve as president.

It seems Obama is worried that some voters are starting to agree.
____
EDITOR'S NOTE: Ron Fournier has covered national politics for The Associated Press for nearly 20 years.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/08/22/politics/p231228D77.DTL

“Keep your friends close, but your enemies’ closer”

Is it true? It looks like Presidential UNSUB Barack Hussein Obama the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party made a choice of Joseph Biden as his running mate … Delaware Can anyone even find Delaware on a map? What a great day for John McCain but not so for America. I will allude to my post of 8/22/08 where I put Biden on my short list. As I had stated… Obama will be making a deal with the devil with the choice of Biden and now in doing so becomes a very dangerous Presidential UNSUB for America. More...

As a Clinton Republican and now a McCain Independent, I like this pick for my political purposes.  Biden has a rich history of verbal divisiveness with his uncanny ability to say whatever he pleases whenever he wants.  Biden is able to absorb all the dissension with his over the top rhetoric and give Obama some needed breathing room. This will not bode well for the likes of PUMA… etc… Biden will take up the attack and initially deflect the focus off of Obama, but McCain knows Biden and his tendencies. Any push that Biden gives, pushes these groups closer to McCain and it will not take as much to reach out and embrace them. As for Hillary… she will be treated as a footnote after the Convention and may feel dissed enough to cozy up with McCain.

There is a catch. Biden has a poker style tell… Most of the time, when he is saying something that is truly for effect or won’t stand behind when it comes to crunch time, he exaggeratedly raises his brow line and straightens his face. Just keep it in the back of your mind when he is speaking.

Biden and his record speaks for its self, you either agree with his legislation and socialist agenda or not. There is not a great deal of genuine bipartisanship about him. As for his personal baggage, you can judge this by your own moral standards. As a politician, Biden is the complete package of good and evil, and if the press chooses they could have a field day with him.
Obama’s bump from this choice should be on the order of a piece of sand in the oceans… total bump of no more that 5 ~ 7 pts by Conventions end.  This bump will fall far below modern bumps from Veep and the Convention.  This will quickly dissipate in the next 3 weeks and McCain will be riding high again by mid September.

The side note… Keep an eye on Michelle Obama.  Biden and his mouth will give Michelle a new lease on life. We should see a great deal more of her. Also, Hillary is caught in a very tight place with this choice. She might want to reconsider the cozy up attitude.


POSTED BY Sic Transit Gloria from pyros gang

Clinton Backers Point to Obama 'Ego'

Hillary fans come to terms with ticket
Glenn Thrush and Amie Parnes
August 23, 2008 11:33 AM

Hillary Rodham Clinton is urging her followers to back a “purposeful and dynamic” Joe Biden even as some backers, already resentful that she wasn't even vetted for the slot, detect a whiff of mockery in Obama’s 3 a.m. running mate announcement. Only about half of former Clinton voters say they’ll back the Illinois senator — and it’s not clear if the Biden choice will attract or alienate those who have yet to embrace Obama. Former Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson predicted her troops would eventually fall in line but suggested that Biden needed to project toughness — as Clinton did — to win over voters.  More...

The question, Wolfson said, is “whether Joe Biden is willing to go after John McCain.”

"I don’t think this will either antagonize or assuage her supporters,” Wolfson added. “Sen. Clinton likes Joe Biden, and I don’t think he said a bad word about her during the entire campaign — there’s no animosity or enmity at all — in that sense he’s a safe pick ... . But she’s the only person who was going to automatically bring her supporters back into the fold."

“In naming my colleague and friend Sen. Joe Biden to be the vice presidential nominee, Sen. Obama has continued in the best traditions for the vice presidency by selecting an exceptionally strong, experienced leader and devoted public servant," Clinton said in a statement released this morning. “Sen. Biden will be a purposeful and dynamic vice president who will help Sen. Obama both win the presidency and govern this great country."

Clinton’s hardy troupe of die-hards had hoped against hope until the last minute — and reacted to the announcement that Obama had chosen Biden as his running mate with a mixture of anger, resignation and gallows humor.

Amid reports that Barack Obama’s team hadn’t even bothered to vet Clinton, some of her staunchest supporters were still floating optimistic e-mails on Friday, buoyed by pie-in-the-sky rumors that Obama had swallowed his pride and reached out to the former first lady.

Some passed around a YouTube clip of an old “West Wing” episode in which a Hillary-like Democratic presidential candidate tosses aside his concession speech to force a convention vote — as a nod to his fanatical supporters.

“HRC fans have been electrified by the late buzz on her dark horse potential,” one stalwart supporter BlackBerry-ed this morning. “That is, I haven't heard anything to indicate that she is under serious consideration, but that hasn't tamped down the hope.”

The news, when it broke after midnight, was deflating, if unsurprising.

“I believe the overwhelming polling data that Sen. Clinton would have helped Sen. Obama the most to win the election, especially in battleground states,” said Lanny Davis, former special counsel to President Bill Clinton and one of Sen. Clinton’s most passionate supporters. “Having said that, I completely support the decision he has made as his alone and will support Joe Biden.”

A former Clinton staffer opined: “Joe’s smart and funny, but this is not exactly an exciting choice.”
After learning that Obama aides sent the text message announcing Biden's selection just after 3 a.m., some Clinton aides wondered openly if the Obama campaign was mocking Clinton's famous 3 a.m. ad.

Hillary supporter Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) predicted the move would further anger many of the New York senator’s most hardcore supporters.

"I never thought he would pick Hillary," she said. "I know politics. Things just don't happen that way. Hillary knew that. Anyone who thought he would put her on the ticket is just clueless."

Sanchez said that she had a friend, a staunch Democrat, who is voting for John McCain because "he is so unhappy about what's happened," adding that Clinton supporters have encountered a "disconnect" with the Obama campaign.

"They're not hearing what people have to say," Sanchez said. "They have no communication with us."

Asked why Clinton was never seriously considered, one Clinton aide responded with a single word: “Ego.”

Other Clinton backers, some mulling protests in Denver to coincide with the Tuesday roll-call vote, remain bitter and believe Obama traded a possible “Dream Team” for a nightmare ticket.

“It’s a big mistake not to choose her. It’s sad and it’s a sure way to guarantee the Republicans will win,” said Jenny Doggett, founder of counteveryvotecast.org, who has urged Clinton to take her campaign to the convention floor.
“Obama can’t do this on his own. This ticket isn’t going to be able to compete and can’t overcome the lack of unity. Only Hillary can bring them that,” Doggett said.

Tuesday’s ceremonial roll-call vote for Clinton could be a flashpoint for pro-Clinton delegates disappointed by today’s decision. Earlier this week, Politico reported that Clinton adviser Craig Smith was organizing a 40-member “whip team” to keep any demonstrations from getting out of hand. Clinton has said she plans to vote for Obama and won’t urge anyone to vote for her on the first ballot.

“People will be disappointed that it’s not her on the ticket,” said Sam Arora, a former Clinton aide who recently dissolved voteboth.org, which was pushing for a joint ticket. “But we hope that enough time has passed that her supporters have gotten over it and are in a place where they can support the party’s ticket.”

Sanchez, for her part, predicted Clinton would handle herself like a "confident professional" when she addresses the convention on Tuesday night.

"She'll go in, she'll wow them and she'll get out of the way," Sanchez said.

But that may not sell all of her supporters on an Obama-Biden ticket. A NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released this week found that only half of Clinton supporters are backing the Illinois senator, while 21 percent said they will support McCain. More than a quarter remain undecided.

Still, it’s been weeks since vice presidential aspirations were seriously entertained among Clinton’s inner circle — and the senator has reportedly been telling friends she had little interest in the job.

The few public utterances on the topic from Hillaryland have been of the I-told-you-so variety. Former Clinton campaign manager Terry McAuliffe, who now backs the Illinois senator, recently said, “If [Obama] picks Hillary he gets her 18 million supporters and we would win in a cakewalk and control the White House for 16 years.”

Not everyone in Clinton’s orbit agrees.

“On a personal level, I’m disappointed by the decision," said a former Clinton staffer. "But on a political level, I don't think she'd be the best choice. It wouldn't be a good match. ... She brings some baggage and I think the fundamental problem is the Bill factor. The Obama campaign knew they couldn't control him.”