Fitting In Hillary, Obama, Spitzer

In my mind, these are the three star Democrats in America today. There are many other good ones as well, but they are more Secretary material.

Make no mistake, I am for Obama. I want him as president, and I want him now. But I have always liked Hillary, that has never seen a dip. And Spitzer is a racehorse waiting in the wings. You have to watch his hooves. It is hard to imagine this guy will not have a decided go at the White House at some point. His governorship feels too much like a prelude to something bigger.

I have thought of many combos in my mind. I have thought of Obama-Spitzer. But I think Hillary will carry New York in the primaries, and Barack will carry Illinois, but New Jersey, California and the rest are fair game. There is no telling right now if it will be Hillary-Obama or Obama-Hillary. Both sound great.

One scenario is it is Hillary-Obama in for eight years. Then Obama picks Spitzer who has had two wonderful terms as Governor of New York, and he has been preparing hard. He has legalized gay marriage in New York and is now ready to do that nationally. But while he worked on it and on total campaign finance reform in New York, the Democratic White House had to stay away. Spitzer had to go alone and that was fine by him. But he made both work in New York, and now he was ready for the national scene.

So at that point Obama-Spitzer does not look like a continuation of the same old, same old, it feels like a break from the past, it feels like a departure.

And so it is eight years of Obama-Spitzer. And then Spitzer takes a shot at the top job. He wins. The Democrats have an unprecedented fifth term, but that is an okay counterbalance to a coservative domination of the Supreme Court for a generation.

But then the pendulum swings. Some Republican woman who has totally internalized all the social progressive elements traditionally known to be with the Dems denies Spitzer a second term. She symbolizes the post Obama-Spitzer generation. She is from my generation perhaps.

But 20 years is a long time. It will be unprecedented. Usually a party that long in power runs out of steam, or gets too arrogant, or gets hijacked by its extreme elements, or stops acting financially prudent.

So the best bet would be if Spitzer were to spend two terms in Albany acting like he were in opposition to those in power at the White House. And he can do that by acting gutsy on gay marriage and campaign finance reform in ways that those at the federal level simply can't at this point in time.

New York state under Spitzer could become the laboratory for Democrats. The good stuff happens here before it happens nationally.

These three should preside over the transformation of America into an information economy, with a vibrant clean energy industry, universal health care, universal broadband, robust growth rates, balanced budgets, and finally paying down the debt, and a non-apologetic agenda of a total spread of democracy the progressive way, the war with communications technology way.

There is talk Bloomberg might run against Spitzer in 2010. Spitzer will win hands down. Ross Perot also had a lot of money. But Bloomberg is a good man, he will have tried.

Another scenario is it is Obama-Spitzer for eight years, and then Spitzer in for four or eight. Then Bloomberg will stand a chance of becoming Governor.

Obama-Spitzer Vs. Giuliani-Romney
An Obama Spitzer Ticket
Obama, Hillary, Spitzer
Two Terms As Governor



In The News

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Obama rounds out top SC staff WIS
Clinton rejects plan to pull out of Iowa Chicago Tribune Clinton's campaign has considered -- and rejected -- a plan to stop competing in Iowa ...... The recommendation to pull out of Iowa was in a May 21 memo written by Mike Henry, Clinton's deputy campaign manager. ..... The memo said Clinton would have to spend $15 million and 70 days in the state to be competitive there, and suggested that if she did not pull out she might not have the money she would need for the rapid-fire series of contests that follow. The Iowa caucuses are Jan. 14, with the New Hampshire primary eight days later, Florida a week after that and 22 other states including Illinois on Feb. 5. ...... A copy of it was provided to The New York Times by an intermediary who said it had come from a rival campaign.
Clinton Campaign In Trouble? 365Gay.com
Nepal: Prachanda’s fervent appeal to ADB Telegraphnepal.com
Nepal's 'pro-democracy' climbers abandon sick woman on Everest Indian Muslims
India's Tiger Numbers in Sharp Decline Discovery Channel
Analyst bets on Google-Salesforce.com merger Computing The alliance could help the pair compete better with Microsoft ...... an alliance could help Salesforce’s challenge to enterprise applications giants SAP and Oracle, as well as boosting Google’s ambition to create an alternative to Microsoft in client applications. ....... computing is moving away from reliance on in-house IT infrastructure in favour of a web-based model. ...... his ‘end of software’ message ..... Google merging with Salesforce could give the latter more muscle to compete with its much larger rivals. ..... "I'm betting Google buys Salsesforce. Then the question for the customer becomes, ‘who do I trust more to deliver an on-demand enterprise application, Google or Oracle?’." ..... they’re not in the packaged software business.
Google and Dell confirm tie-up will see millions of new Dell PCs pre-loaded with a co-branded home page and Google’s search toolbar. ..... the search giant and PC manufacturer will share revenue from search-advertising fees.
Iran's nuclear ability growing, report says Baltimore Sun
US navy begins war games on Iran's doorstep Reuters AlertNet
Amitabh Bachchan praises Shah Rukh Khan Hindu ``He is a warm and caring person deserving of all the love and affection that the masses give him,'' Bachchan added.
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Amitabh Bachchan receives standing ovation for Cheeni Kum at Cannes South Asian Women's Forum
Dell to sell 2 desktop PC models in 3000 Wal-Marts MSN Money
Nike Resumes Soccer Ball Production in Pakistan CSRwire.com (press release)
Ubuntu-powered Dell desktops and notebook arrive Desktop Linux

Google's Latest Investment Is A Family Affair The Age The union of Brin, 33, and Wojcicki is a Silicon Valley love story. She is a daughter of a professor at Stanford University, where Brin and Larry Page were students when they started Google in their dormitory rooms. Her sister, Susan, rented the garage of her house in Menlo Park, California, to Brin and Page to use as offices for their nascent Internet search company when it launched in 1998. Susan Wojcicki went on to be a vice president at Google.

Canada to resettle 5000 Bhutanese refugees in Nepal People's Daily Online
Iran 'makes further nuclear progress' Guardian Unlimited
UN Nuclear Agency Warns of `Deteriorating' Iran Inspections Bloomberg
Linux users say 'Sue me first, Microsoft' Computerworld
Democrats Blink, Angering Antiwar Ranks U.S. News & World Report even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she "was so disappointed" that she might actually vote against the bill.
Broken wheel uncovers clue to life on Mars Telegraph.co.uk
Google’s Indian Brain Power: Amit Patel Makes Google Trendy INDOlink Krishna Bharat who delivered Google News - a grand experiment in news browsing - using computers and the “Hilltop algorithm” he developed for his Ph.D at Georgia Tech. ...... Anurag Acharya. With a Ph.D from Carnegie Mellon who worked on including scholarly literature by improving Google’s indexing, automatically extracting metadata and ranking for scholarly literature. He then helped weave this information into Google web search - and Google Scholar was born. He predicted that Google Scholar “would be a place that you can go to find all scholarly literature -- across all areas, all languages, all the way back in time.” ........ Amit Patel, one of the worlds top search patent inventors and a six year veteran at Google. ....... Hot Trends, a daily list of the 100 hottest topics on its search engine.
Obama's Wife Quits Post On TreeHouse Foods Board CNBC
Obama's wife quits Wal-Mart supplier Chicago Tribune
Michelle Obama on Her Family and How She and Barack Started Dating ABC News Perhaps the family's biggest adjustment has been in the realm of personal security. After unspecified threats and overwhelming crowd sizes, Obama was the first of the 2008 presidential candidates to be assigned a Secret Service detail. It's a change that the couple's two daughters, 8-year-old Malia and 5-year-old Sasha, have taken in stride. ...... the girls met everybody and they walked up to the guys and asked, 'Do you sleep, do you sit down, do you get to eat?' And then the next morning we woke up and Sasha, our youngest one, came on and said, 'Mommy, are the secret people still here?' I said, 'They're still here.' And she said, 'OK.' She called them 'the secret people.'" ......... "They understand that their dad is running for president … but they really aren't directly interested" ....... "Because I went to Harvard and he went to Harvard, the firm thought, 'Ah, we'll hook these two people up.' ....... Barack, about a month in, asked me out ...... And I thought no way, this is completely tacky. … It took about a month or so for him to talk me into going out on a first date." ........ Barack Obama was a Renaissance man on that first date. ....... "I knew that I liked him a lot. He was cute and he was funny and he was charming, without, you know, being arrogant. Just a good guy." ....... The ease with which he connected with people as both a downtown attorney and a community organizer on Chicago's South Side was what really won her over. Michelle Obama admitted she had preconceived notions about her biracial, Hawaii-bred husband, but she said that once she got to know him, all were proved wrong. ........ "We've both brought our unique experiences to this thing that we call our family. So I bring the stability piece, but he brings that sort of 'Let's try this big thing, and wouldn't this be wonderful, and look at what we could do, and let's not be afraid,'" she said. "And I like that balance."
Clinton Dancing Around Edges On Iraq MSNBC
Survey: Most US muslims moderates San Jose Mercury News
India sees 8.5% growth in 2007-08 Livemint
Iran can withstand any form of aggression - defense minister RIA Novosti
US navy in show of force off Iran Aljazeera.net
Google pays $4.7m for wife's start-up The Age
Google invests in startup of co-founder's wife CNN
Google and the genome start-up: a sweetheart deal? CNet News.com Blog
Sell Spectrum Like Ads, Google Says PC World Google proposes a spectrum policy that allows would-be service providers to bid real time in an auction for the right to use a piece of spectrum for a given period of time in order to deliver services to phones or other devices. The auction system could be similar to AdWords ..... The proposal will "bring innovative new broadband-based applications, services, and devices to all Americans" and bridge the digital divide ....... phones that could constantly be sniffing for available spectrum and the best price to use that spectrum for a given period of time. ....... Google's proposal is specifically regarding the upcoming auction of 700MHz licenses. The spectrum has been used by television broadcasters but with the migration to digital transmission it is becoming available for wireless or other services.
Google proposes real-time auction for US bandwidth Techworld.com

Battle of the Presidents: Carter vs. Bush FOX News "..this administration has been the worst in history." ..... I wasn't comparing this administration with other administrations throughout history but just with President Nixon's ..... I think he is proving to be increasingly irrelevant with these kinds of comments ..... Carter, whose administration was plagued by sky-high inflation and a 444-day American hostage crisis in Iran ...... discuss the Iraq situation with Iran and Syria

Richardson Ready To Make Run Official NBC5.com
Richardson to Highlight Hispanic Ties Wall Street Journal Nevada, Florida and California ..... California also is Richardson's native state, thanks to some careful planning by his father. William Blaine Richardson Jr., an American banker living in Mexico City, sent his Mexican wife to the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena to give birth to ensure there would be no questions about his child's citizenship. ....... Richardson has raised $6.2 million in the first three months of the year .... his campaign always said he would focus more intensely on fundraising after the first quarter. ..... proposing to all but end the country's reliance on oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2040. ...... the nation needs a "man-on-the-moon" effort to develop technologies that will cut energy costs and halt global warming.

Sen. Clinton insists her position on war same as Obama's Raw Story Hillary Clinton responded to anti-war salvos from Barack Obama
Clinton: Universal Pre-K possible Chicago Tribune Universal Pre-K: The next frontier in public education. ..... federally sponsored, voluntary Pre-Kindergarten classes for all children .... Florida, which is one of the pioneers of universal Pre-K .... one of the first states in the lineup of early ’08 party primaries. ..... it will initially cost the federal government $5 billion a year to match state funding for Pre-K for all children and the cost will climb to $10 billion annually ... But the payoff in student achievement, the senator says, could be immeasurable. ......Most four-year-olds are not enrolled in state-provided Pre-K classes today, she notes: 80 percent. ... children who attend Pre-K classes are less likely to repeat a grade
Clinton Proposes Pre-Kindergarten Program For All 4-Year-Olds MyFox WGHP
Rebuilding New Orleans is an 'American obligation:' Clinton China Post told graduates at Dillard University, the historically black school devastated by the storm in August 2005.
Nepal's Government Agrees to Pay Maoist Fighters in Camps Voice of America
Pocket money for Maoist guerrillas in Nepal Economic Times
Nepal Maoists to get monthly pay BBC News
Early primary will give Florida big say in presidential election Boston Globe Gov. Charlie Crist signed a bill Monday moving Florida's 2008 presidential primary to Jan. 29 and shaking up the race by bypassing a dozen other states set for Feb. 5. ...... behind only the Iowa and Nevada caucuses and the New Hampshire primary and on the same day as South Carolina's Democratic primary. ...... Florida has by far the largest population of any of the early voting states set for January and is the most expensive in which to campaign ..... the Feb. 5 primaries scheduled in a dozen other states, including New York and California. ..... the state is seen as a microcosm of the nation with its diverse population ...... the candidates that do well in Florida would get intense media coverage leading into the next week's events in early February ....... Under both Republican and Democratic party rules, states are penalized for moving their primary earlier than Feb. 5. ...... the state would lose 50 percent of its delegates and all its superdelegates -- typically members of Congress. Any candidate who campaigns in Florida for a primary earlier than Feb. 5 will be ineligible for receiving any of the state's delegates ........ The bill Crist signed also requires a verifiable paper trail for all voting machines throughout Florida.
For States, It May be Worth It to Wait New York Times New Hampshire and Iowa have been marginalized. .... California is the new Iowa. ..... Both parties will have nominees by the time polls close on Feb. 5, as voters in a score of 20 states participate in primaries. ...... 22 states are holding their primaries or caucuses on Feb. 5 or are moving toward doing so ...... by that day,... at least five other states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and Florida — will have voted. ...... quite possible that none of them will do well enough to wrap things up on Feb. 5 ..... Aides to Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton said they are putting aside money for this possibility, which suggests how real it is. ...... On March 4, three states with big slates of delegates — Ohio, Pennsylvania and Minnesota — are among the five scheduled to vote. ...... When California voted to shift its primary from June to Feb. 5 ....... simply buying national television time rather than time on local stations. ...... many fairly empty Tuesdays on the primary calendar next spring

Could Modern Medicine Have Saved Lincoln? Washington Post If he had lived, he would at the very least have been partially blind, unsteady on his feet, numb in certain regions of his body and inarticulate. Nevertheless, he might have been able to think and, after much rehabilitation, communicate. ...... Alexander the Great (typhoid fever complicated by Guillain-Barre syndrome) ..... Lincoln survived for nine hours. .... the frontal lobes, the seat of reason and emotional control. ..... He explored the head wound, probing it with a pinkie finger and dislodging a clot -- after which Lincoln's breathing "became more regular." ..... opened Lincoln's mouth, depressed the tongue "and made a free passage for air to enter the lungs." .... At one point Leale "forcibly breathed directly into his mouth and nostrils . . . and improved his respirations." ..... If he survived them, the Everest of rehabilitation would lie ahead.
Health coverage for all Chicago Tribune a false choice in characterizing America's health-reform options as either more spending or less care .... quality care and universal coverage are achievable without additional expense. ..... It is wasteful insurance companies that stand in the way. Single-payer health care -- an established American tradition -- already provides for our seniors, veterans and military servicemen. It is time to make this working model -- Medicare -- available to all. ...... "nightmare bureaucracy" comes from private insurers. One-third of our health spending is squandered on marketing, billing, underwriting, retroactively canceling policies and other useless activities that sustain insurers' profits but divert resources from care. Eliminating this needless expenditure -- not limiting care -- could recover more than $350 billion per year, enough to provide comprehensive coverage for all. ....... Employers have figured out that universal coverage is good business: More cars are now produced in Ontario than in Michigan. .... Public payment would liberate physicians from for-profit HMO dictates over what care they can provide. Patients would have free choice of doctor and hospital. ...... Whereas at least 18,000 Americans die annually due to a lack of health coverage, in a recent survey only 3.5 percent of Canadians reported problems with waits for care. ..... The true problem is that the power of the current system's profiteers -- insurance and pharmaceutical giants -- intimidates lawmakers away from the only proven prescription.
Dell to launch a convertible Tablet PC sometime this year TechWhack
"Sicko" an incisive diagnosis of US health care Reuters Not that "Sicko" avoids Moore's usual oversimplification and cute stunts. But the gist of his arguments is sound ..... audiences in Europe and other markets will want to eavesdrop for the sheer fun of seeing Americans wallow in problems they solved years ago. ...... the travails not only of the 47 million uninsured Americans but also of those who think they have health insurance ..... the health industry spent more than $100 million to defeat President Clinton's universal health care package and currently maintains four D.C. lobbyists for every member of Congress. ....... In a London hospital, Moore milks the no-cost system for all the humor it's worth as he desperately searches the facility for any sign of a billing department. He finds none. ....... In Britain, where the National Health Service was founded in 1948, any attempt to dismantle the system would spark genuine revolution ........ private hospitals in Los Angeles have taken to dumping destitute patients at homeless shelters on skid row

Clinton Falls to Third Place in Iowa Yahoo! News Edwards .. 29 percent. .. Obama ... 23 percent. .. Clinton .. 21 percent .... Bill Richardson .... 10 percent .. the governor is moving up rapidly in Iowa. .... Richardson, who is campaigning in Iowa small towns this weekend, was making the most of his improving position. .... "We have a lot of good candidates running for president," he told friendly crowds. "A lot of them could be in the White House - as my vice president."
Hillary rising in 'meaningless' polls Washington Times national polls this early in the race are nearly meaningless. ..... the numbers that ultimately matter are the poll ratings in the first caucus and primary contests in January. .... in some of the key early caucus and primary states, the race is much tighter and thus more vulnerable to upsets ..... in Iowa ... May 16 showed Mrs. Clinton edging ahead of him by two points, with Mr. Obama close behind. .... South Carolina ... Mr. Obama was leading her for the first time by a four-point margin. .... New Hampshire ... May 14-15 showed she and Mr. Obama in a statistical dead heat .... there has been a rise in many of the polls for Senator Clinton since the debate
Obama's Wife: 'It's His Time' ABC News if he connects with Americans .... Michelle Obama contends that Americans want a new approach to politics that only her husband can offer. ..... I've reduced my work hours at work. I will probably have to take a leave at some point.
It’s Mr and Mrs Obama versus the Clintons Indian Express

Critics launch attacks on immigration reform bill Chicago Tribune 380-page measure .... Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called the proposal the "last, best chance we'll have as a Congress" to enact immigration reform. ..... The bill would establish a merit-based, temporary guest worker visa program for new immigrants, while eliminating the backlog of legal immigrant applications and legalizing the status of undocumented workers currently in the country...... Menendez said he couldn't support the bill because of the stringent restrictions it would put on temporary workers and their families. ...... other lawmakers, including Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), have said they would not support it unless key changes are made to the guest worker program. ...... legislative emphasis on border security, strict rules on employment and specialized programs for agricultural workers and military personnel ...... It will be very difficult, excruciating, like crawling over broken glass…but it's never been more likely that we could get a bill done than this year.
The Immigration Debate New York Times swing districts and states where immigration has practically become a new third-rail in politics. ..... Among some Democrats, objections already raised were the moves toward a point-based system that shifts a bit from the family-based connection to citizenship, and others, including some labor groups like the AFL-CIO, worried that the plan would drive down wages and create two classes of workers. ......the busy right blogosphere, where this issue is a touchstone ..... Bush-Kennedy immigration plan ..... the illegal status of some of those charged with plotting an attack on Fort Dix
A 'Troubled' Immigration Reform Proposal BusinessWeek
US immigration bill attacked from left and right ABC News
Kennedy Acknowledges Immigration Worries Guardian Unlimited, UK
Kennedy Defends Immigration Compromise CBS News, NY
Bipartisan immigration deal reached Chicago Tribune, IL
Immigration deal earns right's scorn, left's support San Francisco Chronicle, CA
Deal May Legalize Millions Of Immigrants Guardian Unlimited, UK