I think Europe and America need to pay reparations to Africa for those decades and centuries of colonization. But instead we have a scenario where the net flow of money is from Africa to elsewhere. A nice middle ground between what I propose and what is happening right now would be total debt relief for Africa. The continent deserves a fresh start. There is a direct correlation between Africa's inhuman debt burden and its AIDS, malaria and other epidemics. Money that should go to feed people and provide medicine for the sick is instead going to banks on Wall Street, among others. This is not okay. Okay?
AIDS Epidemic In Africa, Obesity Epidemic In America
It really is similar. If you cure obesity in America, that will be more than a trillion dollars in savings. That is no pocket change, yo.
Will Barack Not Start On Day One?
What is this talk about Hillary starting on day one as president? Does Barack have different plans? Does he plan to take a week long break into Camp David after getting sworn in? What's going on? Someone fill me up on this one.
The Republican Fighting Spirit
I can see them fighting all the way to their convention. They might end up with an actual vote at the convention. Right now it looks no one Repub will get a decisive victory, but all of them will get delegates. And so they will have to sort it all out at their convention. A few rounds of voting. Delegates will shift.
I am going to credit Obama for this. Seriously. Hillary could not have been riding the anti-Iraq War mood in the country. She was part and parcel of it. I was saying Barack will carry more than 35 states in fall. Now I am jacking that up. I am saying 40. And black guys like Al Sharpton still got no clue. Harlem needs a rescue mission. Obama 2008 already covered all the hair salons in Harlem. They were so happy to take Obama posters. Way to go Tamara. Tell Sharpton, the dude needs a haircut bad.
Only a few days back Europe gave record money to the World Bank. I am also going to credit Obama for this. Seriously.
When Obama talked tough on Musharraf months back, suddenly the Supreme Court in that country also started talking tough. That was no coincidence.
Ah, the soft power of a compelling candidate like Barack Obama. Barack is about to pull a FDR in 1940. That is really remarkable. I am going to study more on this new kind of politics thing.
Two Way Contest In NH
That is what you are looking at. My guy Barack is already leading even when it is not two way. But in two way, he will have a wide margin.
In The News
Iran Receives Nuclear Fuel in Blow to US New York Times Russia delivers first nuclear fuel to IranMSNBC People of Terai want to secede from Nepal Hindustan TimesUpendra Yadav, the convener of Unified Madheshi Front, said if the Girija Prasad Koirala-led government continued to suppress their demands, they will be left with no option but to get out of Nepal. ....... Yadav alleged that Koirala, instead of resolving their grievances, is using force to suppress them. The government raised a Special Task Force (STF) recently to crush the uprising in Terai. ...... “The STF has unleashed a reign of terror in Terai,” Rajendra Mahato, former industries minister and senior leader of Nepal Sadbhawana Party, said, adding that human rights of the poor are being violated. Giuliani Pins Hopes on Big Later States The Associated Press beginning with Florida on Jan. 29. ...... Giuliani has a wide lead in that state, and he hopes winning its 57 delegates will give him the delegate-count lead heading into the bigger-prize states that vote Feb. 5, including California, New York and Illinois. ....... Michigan and Nevada are muddles ..... no one candidate riding a wave of momentum into Florida. ..... Giuliani has double-digit leads in four states in which the winner takes all the delegates: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware. He also has an advantage in California, where delegates are divvied up by congressional districts. ....... his consulting business, Giuliani Partners, whose clients include the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar. ...... Giuliani has chosen to press ahead with his untested strategy rather than change course. ....... "leading a revitalized, 50-state Republican Party into the White House" India to hold high-level meet on Maoist rebels: report AFPcombat a firmly rooted left-wing rebel movement ...... say they are fighting for the rights of landless labourers and neglected tribals in rural India ..... 33 districts, more than half of them in two newly created eastern states -- Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh The Daily Five: Clinton Steals A Georgia Endorsement From Obama Atlantic Online Fresh Doubts About Clinton in NHWashington Post "Where has the 'conversation' gone that she said she wanted to start with her announcement last January? It seems as if she is talking 'to' or 'at' us, even 'down' to us. She needs to talk 'with' us -- in fact, one of the strengths of the NH Primary is that candidates indeed have that chance, to get away from the podiums and look us in the eye, face-to-face, not talking over our heads." ........ the relative caution and message-controlled rigor of Clinton's campaign ...... her campaign still has continued to emphasize 'experience' rather than 'ideas,' and the 'past' rather than the 'future.' ...... no clear message other than this stuff about a President needing to be ready to 'lead from day one.' What's that mean? ........ " ....... Saturday, where she stuck firmly to the experience mantra and, most notably, made little attempt to try to conjure a longstanding connection with the state's voters ........ I just think something's wrong with her campaign right now. I've been involved at one level or another in every NH Primary since 1960 ....... did not appear to be tailoring her approach particularly to the audience -- she spoke very slowly and clearly, as if aiming to reach the least politically engaged people in the crowd, an interesting tack to take in a state known for its sophisticated primary voters. ........ recalls Clinton thinking aloud to him ....... show us who she really is and not just what her consultants and handlers from Washington media firms want us to think she is ....... "And I ask her to present her ideas in her own words, without the buzz phrases that might rate "80%" on the electronically-generated curve in some focus group session" ...... Be yourself. Just yourself. We'll like what we see...Challenge us. Talk with us about America's possibilities and our opportunities. Give us your vision. Commentary: Drug rumors about ObamaCNN the Clintons don't like to be challenged. And when they are, they don't just try to beat you. They set out to destroy you. ....... The harder Team Clinton tries to destroy Obama, the more damage they wind up doing -- to Hillary and her campaign. Just when you thought that the former first lady couldn't come across any more unlikable, desperate, and vindictive, the floor collapses and we find ourselves on a new level. .......... Shaheen is no political rookie. ....... Isn't it interesting that Shaheen, or whoever is behind this, opted to invoke the image of a drug dealer in referencing the first top-tier black candidate for president? That's quite a coincidence. This wouldn't be an ugly Willie Horton-type tactic intended to harvest fear and play on stereotypes about who is a criminal and who isn't, or -- in this case -- who uses drugs and who sells them? Clinton hits back at ObamaAFP Clinton launched a counter-attack Monday ..... Clinton, on an intense helicopter tour of first-voting state Iowa, blitzed six morning television talk shows ...... Most opinion surveys in key states show Obama rising, and Clinton sliding, suggesting the first-term Illinois senator may be peaking at the right time. ....... "When Obama speaks before a crowd, he can be more inspirational than Clinton. Michelle Obama utters a forbidden phraseLos Angeles Times Fighter Edwards vs. realist Obama?Chicago Sun-Times While all the Democrats back universal health coverage, the campaign has centered on how the front-runners would get it done. ...... Obama said Edwards' approach is not realistic. ...... "My job is to be so dazzling today that I have persuaded at least some of you to caucus for me." As lawyer, Obama was strong, silent type why did Obama never make impassioned speeches in court when he returned to Chicago from Harvard Law School in the early '90s ....... he played the "strong, silent type" in court, introducing himself and his client, then stepping aside to let other lawyers do the talking. ....... Obama never lost his cool, and he won the case. ....... Obama admits he played a mostly behind-the-scenes role at his law firm, Miner Barnhill & Galland. He researched the law, drafted motions, prepared for depositions and did other less glamorous work during his three years full-time and eight years "of counsel" to the firm. ....... "I was an associate, and a lot of my work was in the research and writing" ...... "I was one of the better writers. I ended up doing the more cerebral writing, less trial work," Obama added. "That's actually something I regret -- not doing more trial work." ....... "He wrote lots of substantial memos, but he didn't try any cases" ....... A search of all the cases in Cook County Circuit Court in which Obama made an appearance since he graduated from Harvard in 1991 shows: Zero. ....... a total of 10 cases in his legal career. He was on the winning side of just about all those cases. ....... In 1995, former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar refused to implement the federal "Motor Voter" law, which Republicans argued could invite fraud and which some Republicans feared could swell the ranks of Democratic voters. ...... The law mandated people be allowed to register to vote in government offices such as driver's license renewal centers. ...... "Barack was a young kid when he came here," Miner said. "Senior lawyers are not going to be very deferential to Barack. He was not 'THE Barack Obama' yet." Obama was 32 in 1993 ....... "We had a raucous meeting shortly after the remand, and Barack was a very adamant spokesman for taking a very aggressive stance to try to repair the damage," Mollica said. "He's the one who put a charge in us that it was time to move and hold the state accountable." ....... Obama represented Calvin Roberson in a 1994 lawsuit against Citibank, charging the bank systematically denied mortgages to African-American applicants and others from minority neighborhoods. ........ I was the lead lawyer for Citibank and he was not very visible to me. ....... Obama's hourly rate of $165. ..... His final bill on the case was 138 hours, or $23,000. ...... Obama had offers from more prestigious, higher-paying firms. But he chose to work for Miner -- former Mayor Harold Washington's counsel -- because of his firm's focus on civil rights litigation and community redevelopment. ........ developer Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who back then had a reputation as "a star" of the urban renewal movement in Chicago. ........ "As smart as he is, he is very quick to appreciate all kinds of nuances with legal issues," Miner said. "He finds it very hard to shoot back a real quick, simple answer. His instinct was to better understand what the nuances were." ......... "I found he's a very smart, innovative, skilled, relentless advocate for his client," Baravati said. "When I met him, he reminded me of Abraham Lincoln." ....... Obama was elected to the state Senate, and Miner offered to keep him on salary and let him open a Springfield branch of the firm. ..... "He's such an honest guy. On the third day, he calls me up, 'Jud, I'm not going to have any time here, so I don't want to take a draw,'" Miner recalled him saying. Obama to Edwards: 'What did you do?' New Obama ad in Iowa Baltimore Sun Hillary Clinton Says Obama Not a Factor in Day-to-Day DecisionsFOX News Maybe it's because I don't have to get up before the crack of dawn every morning ........ She is also touring all 99 Iowa counties in the coming days by helicopter. ...... the paper hasn't picked a winner in more than 20 years ..... what it seems to have guaranteed is a second place finish in the caucuses ...... she said, "I feel really, really good about where my campaign is," and: "I believe that I will get the nomination and that I will be the next president." Obama confronts rumor he is a MuslimBoston Globe Obama yesterday confronted one of the persistent falsehoods circulating about him on the Internet - by going to church. Clinton has room to give Los Angeles Times Clinton campaign launches a preemptive attackLos Angeles Times Clinton still dominates in CaliforniaLos Angeles Times On the Road: Clinton Backers ‘Not on a Suicide Mission’New York Times Clinton’s “Every County Counts” tour ....... that flight diversion might make for one weary candidate. ...... any five of the top Republicans candidates, if the election were held today, would defeat you. ......... Obama is getting tougher against Edwards. ...... “Like Senator Edwards who is a good guy, he's been talking a lot about I am going to fight the lobbyists and the special interests in Washington. Well the question you have to ask is were you fighting for 'em when you were in the Senate? What did you do? Because I did something, immediately upon arriving in the Senate..." ...... Durbin and Obama are personally close and Durbin urged him to make the run. ...... Clinton, not having the same I’ll watch your back relationship with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has had to make sure her New York bases were covered this past year. ......... Clinton was on six morning shows ....... She was playing a lot of defense, pressed with questions following up on Bill Clinton’s interview with Charlie Rose where he said a vote for Obama was rolling the dice. I’m told there is a split in the Clinton campaign over whether or not Bill Clinton helps or hurts in his going after Obama. ......... But this campaign is about me and my ideas,” she said. ....... Over at NBC’s “The Today Show” David Gregory asked if Bill Clinton is a distraction at this point. ...... The campaigns are expecting more than the 124,000 who showed up in 2004. At the high school here, dozens of people just stood up when asked if they were going to caucus for the first time. Sharpton and Bill Clinton, Together in S.C. (21 comments) Managing a Post-Feb. 5 Campaign (16 comments)fast-paced, multi-layered campaign, there is growing sense among Republicans that for their contest at least — and perhaps for Democrats — Feb. 5 may not be the end of the line. And at the same time, Democrats are looking at a scenario where only two of their candidates emerge out of this state.” Managing a Post-Feb. 5 Campaign three tickets out of Iowa ...... Democrats are looking at a scenario where only two of their candidates emerge out of this state. ...... entirely plausible that Mike Huckabee of Arkansas will win the caucuses here; that John McCain of Arizona will win New Hampshire; that Mitt Romney of Massachusetts will win Michigan, Fred Thompson of Tennessee will win South Carolina and Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York will win Florida. ....... they could just divide the prize on Feb. 5 and move on to the next primary. ...... the race might not be over until the convention ...... This race just won’t close ...... The Republicans have four seriously viable candidates: Mr. Romney, Mr. McCain, Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Giuliani. ....... a third-place finish for Mr. Edwards would be the end of the line for him ....... a two-way contest between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama going into New Hampshire. On Polling: The Eccentricities of Iowa (December 12, 2007) their neighbor’s living room, or in a church basement, a VFW hall or a school auditorium ...... expecting a “record turnout ..... the state will allow people to register to vote on their way in. ...... the firm that conducts the Iowa poll, said they had picked up a precipitous decline for Howard Dean in their tracking poll four days before the Iowa caucuses. They predicted Mr. Dean would finish third, which he did ....... first-time caucus goers, who accounted for more than half of the Democratic caucus goers in 2004 ..... Turnout is so low, less than 10 percent ..... George Gallup, the founder of the Gallup poll, is from Iowa.
Who does the thinking in the Clinton marriage? That is not of concern to me. But who does the thinking in the Clinton campaign is of public concern. Bill Clinton is now mad at the media and up on all four cylinders like he were running for a third term. Do I begrudge him for that? No. He is entitled to love his wife. But this has started to color things up in a way that makes it less possible for voters to keep looking at Hillary Clinton instead of getting bombarded with Bill Clinton images.
First, I think it is a bad strategy. His lack of discipline shows. He hogs the spotlight. He almost always slips into thinking he is the candidate, and not his wife.
Second, he is the one who has started making the shots. All year Hillary let the Clinton '92 boy Mark Penn talk her into running on an aura of "inevitability," something very unsound as I said months and months back. Now she is letting Bill Clinton torpedo that into trying to now make Hillary act like she is the underdog. She probably is the underdog. Her leads are gone. The aura is burst, kind of like the dot com bubble.
But the Clintons don't get to spin their way out of it. There is general consensus now in the national and the global media that if Hillary loses both Iowa and New Hampshire, Hillary 2008 is effectively over. I disagree. I think if she so much as loses Iowa, it is over for her. A New Hampshire victory for Obama which now seems totally likely will be the icing on the cake for Obama 2008.
Why? It is because, how can you have been the top political brand name in the Democratic circles, a member of the most famous family on the planet, have raised so much money, had a brilliant strategist like Bill Clinton all along, your brains, and all that all year long, in every state for most of the year, and still fall so short?
A loss in Iowa, and what has happened to her leads in Iowa, then New Hampshire, then South Carolina, will happen to her already shrinking national lead. Mark my word. January 4 and Barack will be leading in the national polls. And Bill Clinton's spin efforts can not change that. The loss will be too fundamental, it will be immune to spin.
It is not Hillary's plan to spin her loss in Iowa. It is Bill Clinton's plan. But ask Mark Penn. He has thrown his hands in the air. Bill Clinton is fully in charge now. Someone should have made it possible for Bill Clinton to run in the primary himself.
I seriously think the beginning of the end for Hillary 2008 was when he went to Iowa and said he had been against the Iraq war from the very beginning. He talked like he was the candidate. Voters did not like that. It was too patronizing. Iowans are sensitive like that. That was kind of like this Dean moment in 2004 when he asked one person in the audience to "shut up and sit down. You had your say, and now I will have my say." That turned people off. Stories like that spread fast in Iowa, especially during a caucus winter and saturation news on everything else about the candidates.
I like Bill Clinton. Heck, I am practically a fan. He is very skillful. He was a good president. But he might be hurting his wife more than helping her. I guess there are several ways of dealing with an electoral defeat. Bill Clinton is dealing with it his own way.
One thing is for sure. Hillary 2008 will not get to spin its Iowa loss away. That is the end of the road right there you are staring at.
And Hillary is not that innocent about all the negative that has come out of Hillary 2008 these past few weeks. She can be said to have started it all by declaring "and now the fun part begins." I am not suggesting she gave direct orders for all the big blunders for which for example her top guy in New Hampshire was asked to leave, but she sure set the tone with remark on "the fun part."
I understand the desperation, but I disapprove of it. That's all.
For example, Bill Clinton called Charlie Rose a "TV commentator" on his show. He meant that as an insult.
From running as practically the incumbent to suddenly wanting to run as the change agent is too transparently, swiftly unreal. People can see through it. This is too late to repackage and market.
I think the fundamental thing is the Clintons just don't get "the new kind of politics, the politics of hope" as evidenced in Hillary's derisive comment about "hoping for change." I don't get all of it myself, I am a student of it. So I have some empathy for the Clintons.
Bill Clinton was for the inevitable incumbent strategy before he was against it.
In The News
Climate Plan Looks Beyond Bush’s Tenure New York Times South Koreans head to the polls Reuters UK For the Obama campaign, the closer is in the family Chicago Tribune the fickle world of Iowa presidential politics, where many party activists prefer to remain neutral so they can continue to be courted ......... Michelle Obama is painstakingly campaigning at a much more retail level. ....... Of those who attend her events, aides say, routinely a third or more sign cards pledging to support her husband. ........ "I do best when I'm the most me that I can be" ....... so many voters tell her she should be the one running for office. ..... Her arguments are sharper—and shorter ....... When she talks about how fortunate she is to have her mother in Chicago to help with her children, the grandmothers in the audience, a group also highly likely to vote, often nod or smile. She mixes talks about the stresses of fixing a Thanksgiving dinner for 60, or the trials of Christmas shopping, with empathy for the challenges of average Americans. ......... Michelle Obama says that if she can shake enough hands—and give enough hugs—her husband will win the nomination. ....... "If I could talk to everyone in Iowa and this country, there'd be no competition" ......... "I'm still going to Target and filling up the gas tank," she said. ...... like calling her husband's best-selling autobiography and policy book "novels" .... four or five towns in a day, after rising as early as 4 a.m. to catch a chartered flight from Chicago. ....... "We need you praying for us, and calling and nagging," she said. "You've got to shake them up. We need you to be there." ........ There is bluntness. ..... "Stop deciding already." ....... "She's talking about the stuff I complain about all the time," Beisch said. "It made a big impact on me." Iowa snow chills Clinton's challenge to ObamaTelegraph.co.uk a “Hill-A-Copter” being used to fly her across Iowa in a five-day dash she hopes will snuff out the challenge of Barack Obama. ....... Her plan was initially shelved by freezing weather ....... The former First Lady appeared tired at the weekend ....... leaning on the elbow of a state senator to avoid slipping. ....... leapt to front-runner status in Iowa and is fast closing on the former First Lady everywhere else....... Her husband Bill, former Senator Bob Kerrey, retired general Claudia Kennedy and the HIV-positive basketball star Magic Johnson were among her backers fanning out across the state. ......... If Mr Obama was worried, he was not letting it show. ..... a blatant attempt to explain away in advance a possible defeat. Obama learns a trick from BlairFinancial Times He is gaining ground again nationally. ...... What matters now is the ability to move a crowd and the energy of campaign staff on the ground. On the first, Mr Obama has no equal in this contest. On the second, he has no grounds for complaint. ........ a clever, reflective and engaging man ...... in a country still riven by race, he just happens to be black ...... Reform plans put forward by Mrs Clinton and John Edwards make health insurance compulsory: there would be penalties for those who lacked private insurance and who failed to enrol in a generously subsidised public alternative. ........ a mixture of subsidies and official outreach will draw people in and achieve near-universal coverage - and that mandates fail, in any case, to make coverage fully universal, because they are difficult to enforce. ......... No future president will be able to impose a blueprint: everything will have to be negotiated with Congress. ....... Obama is organising his campaign around what he calls a new - more consensual, more pragmatic - style of politics. This is his big idea Obama Describes Faith Amid False Rumors The Associated Press he joined Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago two decades ago while working as a community organizer. ...... ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they come together and find common ground ......... values of honesty, hard work, empathy, compassion were values that were spoken about in church ........ Obama staffers and volunteers say they periodically encounter voters who say they cannot support Obama because they've heard he is Muslim .......... former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, who had just endorsed Clinton, referred to Obama's Muslim side of the family in an interview with The Washington Post ........ "It's probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims and I think that experience is a big deal." Kerrey added, "He's got a whale of a lot more intellectual talent than I've got as well." ....... "It is important for me to have people that I trust, that I can talk to" ....... a six-day tour with 23 events in 22 counties. Obama Wrap-upCBS News “I was not raised in the church. I came to the church by way of work as a community organizer.” ...... if given the opportunity to design the health care system from scratch, he would look at France’s single payer plan ..... a similar plan is impossible in the U.S. because the insurance industry cannot be eliminated. ....... “We have the legacy of employer based health care, and private insurance, and HMOs, you’ve got this whole infrastructure and they’re not just going to vanish.” ...... he does not blame immigrants for coming to the U.S. He said if he was living in Mexico and had trouble feeding his children, he might consider leaving as well. ....... “Here’s another way of looking at it, if you were out of work and Canada paid $100 dollars an hour, it would be interesting to see how many Americans were trying to get into Canada.” How a President Obama would fix Africa East African his life experience makes him “uniquely suited to show the world a new face of America.” ...... engaging with “all nations — foe and friend.” ..... US relations with African nations are given emphasis in Mr Obama’s set of international policy proposals. .... to launch an Add Value to Agriculture Initiative aimed at triggering a Green Revolution in Africa. This programme would forge US government partnerships with charities, universities and businesses to spur research on “improved seeds, irrigation methods and affordable and safe fertilisers.” ...... use new US aid to “build healthy and educated communities, reduce poverty, develop markets, and generate wealth.” ...... Economist magazine recently described Mrs Clinton’s global vision as “mostly dull but sensible.” ...... “Barack Obama has probably thought the hardest about foreign policy,” the Economist observed. “When replying to questions, he tries to answer them, rather than simply shooting out scripted sound-bites.” ..... Obama’s global policy proposals stand out ..... “Obama has so far been the most complete in covering a range of global development issues beyond just aid, including agricultural development, trade, climate change, investment and security” ..... an advance market commitment for vaccines .... ‘’Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld have spent time in the White House and travelled to many countries as well. But along with Hillary Clinton, they led us into the worst foreign policy disaster in a generation.’’ ...... The Kenyan-American candidate also calls for intensified US efforts to combat corruption in the developing world. The aim should be not only to prevent waste of American taxpayers’ money but to alleviate the injustices experienced by bribe-payers, Mr Obama says. His policy paper cites the graft routinely demanded in “police encounters, school admissions processes and housing accessibility.” ........ The senator promises to add a section on corruption to the State Department’s annual country reports on human rights. ..... Obama makes clear that he will take a hard line on international terrorism. Calling for a $5 billion global offensive, he pledges to “take down terrorist networks from the remote islands of Indonesia to the sprawling cities of Africa.” ..... full funding for the IMF’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries programme ....... The US Agency for International Development, which underwent significant downsizing during the Bush years, would be “restructured and empowered” by an Obama administration ..... An expanded global Aids relief programme and the Millennium Challenge aid initiative would be consolidated within USAid along with other international assistance efforts now housed in more than 20 US government agencies. Iraq Vote Dogs Clinton (Again)New York Times She added that she and her friends did not want Mrs. Clinton to be “a war president.” ...... “we’ve each said in our own way that we regret the way President Bush used that authority” – an answer that fuzzed over Mrs. Clinton’s refusal to call her 2002 vote a mistake ....... I do think the [2002 Iraq] vote was for something other for diplomatic purposes. I think it was for military preparation .... she wasn’t sure she could sell her friends on Mrs. Clinton’s answer about her own war record In ’08 Race, the Other Clinton Steps Up Publicly New York Times Mr. Clinton is not running the campaign, but has become the second-most powerful force in her political operation. ...... their new political strategy ..... The message being delivered was his. ..... “a change agent,” “a proven agent of positive change” and “a lifetime advocate of a change agenda.” ...... coined by Mr. Clinton after he told campaign officials that the old strategy of running like an incumbent front-runner was not enough ........ He is shaping strategy, challenging advisers on their assumptions and acting like a vice-presidential candidate in a general election — attacking rivals so Mrs. Clinton can stay positive much of the time. ........ Mr. Clinton was strategically brilliant, but undisciplined and prone to dominate the spotlight. ....... a spontaneous person — he says what moves him at the moment ..... he reinforces this sense of back to the future. People don’t want to go back to the future, they want to go forward to the future. ....... More than anything, Mr. Clinton is increasingly angry with the news media ....... Mr. Clinton’s role in his wife’s campaign has grown in intensity ...... his belief that victory or defeat in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary could have a slingshot effect on her performance in other states; and a competitive zeal that has not been this electrified since his bid for the presidency in 1992 ........ “He’s going on full cylinders right now” ...... From now until the nomination is settled, Mr. Clinton is going to be campaigning, raising money or calling supporters and high-profile holdouts every day ........ Some advisers and supporters of Mrs. Clinton are torn about her husband’s role. They say that Mr. Clinton, for all his political gifts, has been living in a rarefied, postpresidential bubble for the last seven years, and has not had to deal as much with an aggressive news media and with other Democrats ripping into his wife — and himself. ...... These advisers expressed concern, for instance, about Mr. Clinton’s performance on “Charlie Rose” ..... his re-entry to high-stakes personal campaigning had not been entirely smooth. ..... “He is brilliant in sizing up the political challenge and giving advice; he is a little rusty at execution, and his impatience and anxiety seems even worse when it comes to Hillary than when he was running himself” ...... Mr. Clinton’s charisma on the stump is uneven. ...... concerns also abide about Mr. Clinton’s drawing attention away from his wife when they appear together. They are expected to team up in the final days in Iowa and New Hampshire ...... Inside the campaign, meanwhile, Mr. Clinton’s frustrations are being absorbed by a team of people ...... Mrs. Clinton thinks of her campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, almost as an adopted daughter. ....... he is concerned that advice to Mrs. Clinton be fully debated. ..... one thing I think is ridiculous is the notion that he’s all unhappy with the campaign and its strategic direction, because I believe that he helped set it. Google Gets Ready to Rumble With Microsoft Sun Microsystems, where he was chief technology officer ....... “Ballmer and Butthead.” ..... During a four-year stint as chief executive of Novell, Mr. Schmidt routinely opined that it was folly for any Microsoft rival to “moon the giant,” as he put it; all that would do, he argued, was incite Microsoft’s wrath. ....... at the helm of one of computing’s most inventive and formidable players, the runaway leader in Internet search and online advertising ....... The growing confrontation between Google and Microsoft promises to be an epic business battle. ...... Google sees all of this happening on remote servers in faraway data centers, accessible over the Web by an array of wired and wireless devices — a setup known as cloud computing. Microsoft sees a Web future as well, but one whose center of gravity remains firmly tethered to its desktop PC software. Therein lies the conflict. ......... Google Apps aren’t anything other than a natural step in Google’s march to deliver more computing capability to users over the Internet, Mr. Schmidt says. ......... as Internet connection speeds become faster and Internet software improves ........ what can’t be done in the cloud, like high-end graphics processing. So, in Google’s thinking, will 90 percent of computing eventually reside in the cloud? ...... “It’s a 90-10 thing.” Inside the cloud resides “almost everything you do in a company, almost everything a knowledge worker does.” ....... the arcs of technology and history are in Google’s corner ...... the companies are also fighting it out in promising new fields as varied as Web maps, online video and cellphone software. ........ If Google succeeds, Mr. Yoffie says, “a lot of the value that Microsoft provides today is potentially obsolete.” .......... a long-term shift toward Web software, which operates with different principles and economics. ...... Google is a different competitor from others Microsoft has dispatched in recent years: it is bigger, faster-growing, loaded with cash and a magnet for talent. And the technology of the Google cloud opens doors. Its vast data centers are designed by Google engineers for efficiency, speed and low cost, giving the company an edge in computing firepower and allowing it to add offerings inexpensively. ........ They can be offered free or at minimal cost to users, he says, because they bring more traffic to Google, generating more search and ad revenue. ......... Will two of its formulas — its distinctive, hurry-up model of building products and services, and its rapid-fire approach to recruiting and innovation — succeed in new arenas? ............ Google’s quicksilver corporate culture can be jarring for some employees, even for Mr. Schmidt. ... he was frustrated that people were answering e-mail on their laptops at meetings while he was speaking. ..... “I’ve given up” trying to change such behavior, he says. “They have to answer their e-mail. Velocity matters.” ............. Google maintains that pace courtesy of the cloud. With a vast majority of its products Web-based, it doesn’t wait to ship discs or load programs onto personal computers. ........ In the last two months alone, eight new features or improvements have been added to Google’s e-mail system, Gmail ......... About 2,000 companies join Google Apps each working day ........ an engineering culture in which a favorite mantra is “nothing speaks louder than code.” ....... “For guys like me, who have a love affair with software, being able to ship a product in weeks — that’s an irresistible draw.” ....... Google’s embrace of experimentation and open-ended job assignments. Recent college graduates are routinely offered jobs at Google without being told what they will be doing. .......... We look for smart generalists ..... “We hire someone, and who knows what need we’ll have when that person shows up six months later? We move so fast.” ....... Big companies change habits slowly, as do older consumers. ........ small and midsize companies, as well as universities and individuals — in other words, a majority of computer users — could shift toward Web-based cloud computing fairly quickly ...... “It makes no sense to run your own computers if you are a small business starting up,” he says. “You’d be crazy to buy packaged software.” ........ Paul Buchheit, a Google engineer, started on what became Gmail as far back as 2001. At the time, there was resistance inside the company to the project. ......... “Definitely one of the reasons people thought it was a bad idea is that it could incite Microsoft to destroy Google” ........ In the corporate market, Google sees itself as a powerful agent of change, breaking down old barriers. “For the last 30 or 40 years, there has been this huge Chinese wall between business and consumer technology,” Mr. Girouard says. “That was historical and no longer valid.” ......... About 2,000 companies are signing up for Google Apps every working day ........ bringing cloud computing into corporations ....... “a lot of big companies” will be adopting Google Apps for tens of thousands of workers each. ....... At the corporate level, inexpensive, low-stress e-mail is the initial lure of Google Apps. About 160 employees of BankFirst Financial Services, a small bank in Macon, Miss., have been using Gmail for about two months ........ Students, he added, also get more than e-mail. They have access to Google Apps, and thousands of them, he says, now use Google’s Web software for calendars, word processing and spreadsheets. ........ “For someone of my generation, the whole idea of waiting years to see if you made the right product makes no sense.”....... just as low-cost personal computers eventually undercut the mainframe business, and traditional publishing and media companies have grappled with Internet distribution. The traditional products remain popular, but they become much less profitable. Clinton campaign faltersSydney Morning Herald Hillary Clinton's once formidable lead in early state polls like New Hampshire and South Carolina has appeared to vanish. ...... the New York senator and a team of supporters were fanning out across Iowa to host events in the state's 99 counties during the last full week before the campaigns pause to observe Christmas. ...... Clinton herself was flying from stop to stop on a "Hilli-copter" to reach as many geographic regions of the ice-crusted state as possible. ...... Candidates who do well in the caucuses, and in the New Hampshire primary five days later, can gain momentum and media attention, establishing themselves as front-runners. Those who do poorly often decide to drop out of the race. Clinton launches Iowa blitzMSNBC that she will work hard for change, rather than hoping for it or demanding it. ...... “I need everyone who is ready for change to go the caucuses on Jan. 3,” a relaxed Clinton told ...... Clinton used some form of the word “change” or the phrase “new beginning” -- which is another way of saying “change” -- no less than 23 times in her 33-minute speech (an average of more than once every minute and a half.) ANC conference jeers Mbeki as Zuma gains upper hand Guardian Unlimited Mandela weighs in to bitter ANC leadership fightIndependent Greenspan Says He Favors Government Bailout for US Homeowners Bloomberg ''I Am Legend'' sets record Entertainment Weekly I will never underestimate the box office power of Will Smith again. The indefatigable actor proved once more that he is the No. 1 movie star in the world ........ Legend eclipsed Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King to become the highest-grossing December opener ever. Celine Dion, She Went On and On New York Times
THE FIRST American president of the 21st century has not appreciated the intricate realities of our age. The next president must. The most sobering challenges that face this country - terrorism, climate change, disease pandemics - are global. America needs a president with an intuitive sense of the wider world, with all its perils and opportunities. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has this understanding at his core. The Globe endorses his candidacy in New Hampshire's Democratic presidential primary Jan. 8.
Many have remarked on Obama's extraordinary biography: that he is the biracial son of a father from Kenya and a mother who had him at 18; that he was raised in the dynamic, multi-ethnic cultures of Hawaii and Indonesia; that he went from being president of the Harvard Law Review to the gritty and often thankless work of community organizing in Chicago; that, at 46, he would be the first post-baby-boom president.
What is more extraordinary is how Obama seals each of these experiences to his politics. One of the lessons he took from organizing poor families in Chicago, he says, was "how much people felt locked out of their government," even at the local level. That experience anchors his commitment to transparency and accountability in Washington.
Similarly, his exposure to foreign lands as a child and his own complex racial identity have made him at ease with diversity - of point of view as well as race or religion. "I've had to negotiate through different cultures my whole life," he says. He speaks with clarity and directness, and he is also a listener, a lost art in our politics.
In what looks like prescience today, Obama was against the Iraq war from the start. But his is not the stereotypical 1960s antiwar reflex. "I don't oppose all wars," he said in the fall of 2002. "I'm opposed to rash wars."
When it comes to waging peace, Obama has the leadership skills to reset the country's reputation in the world. He notes, for example, that the United States would be in a stronger position with Iran if it took more seriously its own commitment to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. His bill, cosponsored with Senator Richard Lugar, to add conventional weapons to the nation's threat reduction initiative, became law this year.
On domestic issues, the major Democratic candidates are reduced to parsing slivers of difference. But Obama has been more forthright in declaring his slightly heterodox positions to traditional Democratic constituencies. His support for merit pay for teachers, or a cap on carbon emissions, suggests a healthy independence from the established order.
The first major bill to Obama's name in the Illinois Legislature was on campaign ethics reform. In Washington, he coauthored this year's sweeping congressional lobbying reform law. When he describes his approach to healthcare negotiations, he says, "The insurance and drug companies will get a seat at the table, but they won't get to buy every chair."
Obama's critics, and even many who want to support him, worry about his relative lack of experience. It is true that other Democratic contenders have more conventional resumes and have spent more time in Washington. But that exposure has tended to give them a sense of government's constraints. Obama is more animated by its possibilities.
In our view, the choice on the Democratic side is between Obama and Hillary Clinton. Clinton has run a diligent, serious campaign, and her command of the issues is deep and reassuring. But her approach is needlessly defensive, a backward glance at the bruising political battles of the 1990s. Obama's candidacy looks forward.
Obama's memoir, "Dreams From My Father," is divided into three main sections. The first is a reflection on his youthful search for identity. The second recounts his days in Chicago, which include the first stirrings of a religious life. The third is a roots pilgrimage to Kenya, to better understand his often absent father. It is hard to read this book without longing for a president with this level of introspection, honesty, and maturity - and Obama published it when he was only 33.
"I genuinely believe that our security and prosperity are going to depend on how we manage our continued integration into the rest of the world," he says. Obama's story is the American story, a deeply affecting tale of possibility. People who vote for him vote their hopes. Even after seven desolating years, this country has not forgotten how to hope.
In The News
Key newspaper nods go to mccain, Obama, Clinton SI.com Globe endorses mccain, Obama Boston Globe Des Moines Register endorses mccain, ClintonUSA Today Barack’s Blast From the Past New York Times, United States “Pot had helped, and booze,” he said of his days as an alienated adolescent. “Maybe a little blow when you could afford it.” ...... Obama has never been challenged in the incessant, sometimes-outrageous way a presidential nominee gets challenged. ...... the controversy had eclipsed even Mike Huckabee’s apology to Mitt Romney for suggesting that Mormons believe Jesus and the devil are brothers. (The Republicans are so deep into theological disputes that their Iowa race is beginning to sound like the Council of Trent.) ...... When they’re all bunched together, teetering between victory and disaster, they get sweaty and sloppy and borderline insane. (Hillary is probably regretting the day she called this the “fun part.”) ........ The whole point of the Iowa caucuses — if there is any point to the Iowa caucuses — is to see how everybody functions under stress. ...... If middle-aged men were disqualified from serious jobs because of recreational drug use as teenagers, there would be nobody left to run the stock exchange. ...... Romney, who has never tried coffee ..... Obama has a hard time with the cheesy side of political campaigns, and being required to dredge up emotions he doesn’t necessarily feel. ..... “The point was to inhale. That was the point,” he said, when someone asked the inevitable question. The Huckabee Trap TIME John McCain famously called some Christian conservatives "agents of intolerance" during his 2000 presidential campaign. ...... He said same-sex marriage defies "the holy word of God." He called abortion a "holocaust." And then he came back to the question of roots. "I think it's important that the language of Zion is a mother tongue and not a recently acquired second language." .......... Asked to explain his rise in the polls, he invokes God's blessing. ...... In 1992 Huckabee argued for dealing with AIDS by quarantining those infected. ... They could end up instead handing the GOP to Giuliani--probably the last thing they want. 2 LSU Students Shot Dead Inside Campus Apartment New York Times the police searched for three killers. ...... The victims, Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, both Ph.D. students from India ....... Mr. Allam’s pregnant wife called 911 at 10:37 p.m. Thursday after finding the men dead ..... Mr. Komma, a biology student, had been visiting Mr. Allam ..... The men were each shot once in the head ..... Mr. Komma, 31, was bound with a computer cable, and Mr. Allam, 33, was found near the door. ..... The apartment building where the shootings occurred is designated for married and graduate students and is on the edge of the campus, close to one of Baton Rouge’s highest-crime areas. The complex has a tall fence separating it from the off-campus neighborhood, but it has no gates or surveillance cameras. Obama hits his stride as Clinton stutters AFP Barack Obama is hitting his stride, just as Hillary Clinton's Democratic juggernaut stutters, setting up a punch-for-punch 18-day run-in to the first White House nominating clash. ......... Most surveys show Obama rising, and the longtime frontrunner sliding, suggesting that the young senator's timing may be spot on. ....... An Obama spurt which began in Iowa, now appears to be spreading, raising doubts about the notion that Clinton can afford a loss in Iowa ......... an aide raised Obama's dabbling in drugs as a wayward teenager, in her campaign's latest clumsy attack on him. ...... Hours later, in the last pre-caucuses Democratic debate, Obama displayed a new confidence, and brushed aside Clinton, who's previous imperiousness was replaced scrappy new persona. ........ the rivals' exhausting treks through Iowa in the next 18 days. ...... The former first lady is putting on a brave face, despite the indignity of having to deny her campaign is disintegrating. ....... Most of the campaign's recent misteps, the drugs remarks, a much mocked email about Obama setting his sights on the White House in kindergarten, reflect the difficulty Clinton has had in attacking her rival. ......... Clinton strategist Mark Penn warns Democrats could squander a moment of political promise, by nominating a novice. ..... "If you go back and look at the great change presidents, they have been people that had the experience," he said, citing Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. ..... "They knew how to make change happen." NH Puts Ties Clintons Built To the Test Washington Post, United States Yet some Clinton supporters are anxious. One staunch Clinton backer, a former elected official in the state, felt alarm on visiting Obama's headquarters in Manchester to pick up tickets for a friend for Oprah Winfrey's appearance with Obama last weekend and seeing how much "buzz" there was there. "I'm nervous. Obama's campaign feels like Jack Kennedy's. They seem so excited," said the supporter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the campaign had not authorized the comments. "When I call Hillary's headquarters, there's no electricity. It's scary." ...... In his final days in office, he made a farewell trip to thank the state for launching him in 1992. He urged Gore to consider then-New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen as his running mate in 2000. ....... In Keene two weeks ago, he harkened back to a visit to the town in his 1992 campaign, when he showed up simply hoping to draw enough people to "avoid total humiliation" and instead found an over-capacity crowd of 400. It was "the first time I ever really thought I had a chance to win," he said. ....... he doesn't have a clear sense of what Sen. Clinton's vision for the party is. ....... "They are just two very different people. To me, they might as well not even be related." Edwards cuts sharper edge in Iowa trail speeches Chicago Tribune, United States Hillary Clinton needs a 'miracle' to win Iowa, says Bubba New York Daily News, NY Obama Grilled on All Things Clinton ABC News The Road Warrior Newsweek Bill Clinton's Attack Reverberates Yahoo! News The former president also tried to pivot from inevitablity to managing expectations. ...... The bottom line is that any candidate aiming for "inevitability" plans to win Iowa. ..... Clinton's attack is both revealing and ineffective. "This interview was remarkable and perhaps quite telling about the mood within the Clinton world at the moment. I'm not sure that Bill Clinton did anything in this interview to advance his wife's cause. He appeared quite tense and almost pissed off that Barack Obama is running for president." Obama: Clintons' Jabs Because of Polls CBS News, NY voters are not interested in “politics as a bloodsport.” He vowed to fire any staff member who was involved in attacking another candidate’s integrity. ...... “The same old experience is irreverent, you can have the right kind of experience or the wrong kind of experience and mine is rooted in the real lives of real people and it will bring real results if we have the courage to change, and that was Bill Clinton in 1992.” ...... “If they’re suggesting that I, as this callow youth, somehow had a structural advantage in Iowa relative to the Clinton operation and the former president of the United States, that doesn’t strike me as a real plausible argument” The new face of America Times Online, UK he is the only man who can halt the racial, religious and cultural civil war that is tearing America apart. ......... Last week was a horrible one for Hillary Clinton. Her husband had thrown a wrench into her campaign to become president of the United States by declaring that he’d been against the Iraq war from the beginning - a transparent fib that reminded many Democrats of the pathological lying of the 1990s. .......... Grassroots Democrats were appalled at the descent into nastiness. It suggested desperation in the Clinton camp. ...... Hillary burst into desperate laughter. “I’d love to hear him answer that,” she cackled. Obama paused, then fired: “Well, Hillary, I’m looking forward to having you advise me as well.” The audience erupted. In one moment, the Alpha Female ceded authority to the Alpha Male. ........ The Washington media are taken aback by Obama’s surge in the polls. ..... In South Carolina, black voters have begun to switch en masse to Obama. It’s still far from over - and no one should discount Hillary Clinton - but the momentum is suddenly his. ....... the core appeal and sustaining logic of the Obama candidacy. It transcends race; it runs deeper than the vagaries of daily campaigning; it represents a generational, cultural shift, and not just a political one. ....... a war about war - and culture and religion and race ...... First and foremost: his face. It could be an effective potential rebranding of the United States. ....... November 2008. A young Pakistani Muslim is watching television and sees that this man - Barack Hussein Obama – is the new face of America. In one simple image America’s soft power has been ratcheted up exponentially. ...... “I don’t oppose all wars. And I know that in this crowd today there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war ... I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al-Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.” ......... I was too young for the formative period of the Sixties civil rights, sexual revolution, Vietnam war. Those all sort of passed me by.” ......... Obama’s mother was, in fact, born only five years earlier than Hillary Clinton. ....... among the first Democrats in a generation not to be afraid or ashamed of what they actually believe, which also gives them more freedom to move pragmatically to the right, if necessary. ......... also repellent because its Methodist genuineness demands that she not profess it so tackily. But she did. The polls told her to. ....... Dreams from My Father, is a candid, haunting and supple piece of writing that reveals Obama as someone whose “complex fate” ..... As humankind abandons the secular totalitarianisms of the last century and grapples with breakneck technological and scientific discoveries, the appeal of absolutist faith is powerful in both developing and developed countries. ......... a modern, intellectual Christianity. ....... “I didn’t have an epiphany,” he explained to me. “What I really did was to take a set of values and ideals that were first instilled in me from my mother; you know, belief in kindness and empathy and discipline, responsibility. And I found in the church a vessel or a repository for those values and a way to connect those values to a larger community and a belief in God and a belief in redemption and mercy and justice . . . I guess the point is, it continues to be both a spiritual, but also intellectual, journey for me, this issue of faith.” ............ in time I came to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world and in my own life. .......... The questions I had didn’t magically disappear. The sceptical bent of my mind didn’t suddenly vanish. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth and carrying out His works. ...... Obama has clearly attempted to wrestle a modern Christianity from the anachronisms of its past ........ His appeal to whites is palpable. I have felt it myself. ..... Obama is deeply aware of how he comes across to whites. ....... people were satisfied as long as you were courteous and smiled and made no sudden moves. ...... And so you have Obama’s campaign for white America: courteous and smiling and with no sudden moves. ........ let’s not make the punishment for crack cocaine that much more severe than the punishment for powder cocaine when the real difference between the two is the skin colour of the people using them ....... had an almost eerily nonracial childhood ....... He broke up with a serious early girlfriend in part because she was white. He decided to abandon a postracial career among the upper-middle classes of the east coast in order to re-engage with the black experience of Chicago’s South Side. ....... a commitment to carving a unique personal identity out of the race, geography and class he inherited. It yields an identity born of displacement, not rootedness. ....... a complicated and mixed identity – not a simple and alienated one ......... this complexity may increasingly be the main thing all Americans have in common. ....... If you believe America’s current crisis is not a deep one, if you think pragmatism alone will be enough to navigate a world on the verge of even more religious warfare, and that what appears dark today is an illusion fostered by the lingering trauma of the Bush presidency, then the argument for Obama is not that strong. Clinton will do. ............ But if you sense, as I do, that greater danger lies ahead and that our divisions and recent history have combined to make the American polity and constitutional order increasingly vulnerable, then the calculus of risk changes. Sometimes, when the world is changing rapidly, the greater risk is caution. ......... Close up in this election campaign, Obama is unlikely. From a distance, he is necessary. At a time when America’s estrangement from the world risks tipping into dangerous imbalance, when a country at war with lethal enemies is also increasingly at war with itself, when humankind’s spiritual yearnings veer between an excess of certainty and an inability to believe anything at all, and when sectarian and racial divides seem as intractable as ever, a man who is a bridge between these worlds may be indispensable. We may in fact have finally found that bridge to the 21st century that Bill Clinton told us about. Its name is Barack Obama. Reefer Madness in Iowa New York Times, United States With the Iowa campaign in wild flux — and in the case of Hillary, acid reflux .... If primary voters don’t care that he did “a little blow,” then my goodness, why should I? Obama Says He's Ready for White House The Associated Press the former first lady's once-commanding lead in many state polls has vanished and that her campaign is scrambling to restore its footing. ......... Clinton said. "In theory, we could find someone who is a gifted television commentator and let them run." ....... his drug use had caused him to "waste a lot of time" during his high school years. ........ Asked about her comment, Obama said he was satisfied that his own past had been well-documented. "I've written two books. I've probably been more reported on than any political figure in the country over the last year," Obama said. "I hardly think I've been underexposed during the course of this race." Bill Clinton clashes with Hillary's advisers Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom Bill Clinton has finally succumbed to temptation and intervened personally to salvage his wife's faltering bid for the White House, according to leaks from her secretive campaign team. ...... The exasperated former President has clashed with some of Hillary Clinton's closest advisors over strategy ...... He went on the offensive on her behalf this weekend with his strongest attack yet on Mr Obama's qualifications for office ........... particularly frustrated that her chief strategist and polling guru, Mark Penn, chose to portray the former First Lady as the "inevitable" and "invincible" nominee ........... he attempts to re-position her in voters' minds as a challenger, rather than running like an incumbent. ...... He's talking with her constantly and throwing out ideas about how to save this thing. He's still convinced she can win, but it's going to be tough. ............ The Clintons are understood to have discussed an overhaul of her top campaign personnel last week but they decided that would give off the feeling of panic. ...... the former president is behind the new mantra that Mrs Clinton is an "agent for change" as the campaign switches its emphasis away from previous efforts to portray an aura of invincibility and entitlement. ...... the danger that his greater involvement in his wife's campaign might draw attention to him rather than her. Obama: Clinton's negative tone will backfire Newsday, NY Barack Obama, stung by a fresh Bill Clinton attack on him, predicted that the Clinton campaign's increasingly negative tone will backfire by reminding voters of the bad, old "blood sport" days of the 1990s. ....... Obama said he was less than impressed by Hillary Rodham Clinton's apology ...... A red-faced Bill Clinton sparked a new Bubba-vs.-Bama feud Friday night by telling Charlie Rose the Illinois senator was little more experienced than a TV "commentator" -- and quipping that reporters covering Obama were so starry-eyed they behaved like stenographers and didn't probe his history. ........ At one point, Rose said Clinton staffers were in the control booth trying to cut off the interview. ...... Obama pulled out a piece of paper and began reading aloud ........ Obama, buoyed by a new Quad City Times poll showing him ahead of Hillary Clinton by a best-ever 9 points Hillary And Bill: A Mess Of Their Own Making Town Hall, DC By the end of the week, her campaign had sustained a key resignation, a key defection, and a growing chorus of commentators saying that her campaign was in trouble, and that Mrs. Clinton could end up losing all four early primary races...... Then when Mrs. Clinton faced criticism for being “petty,” she had her aides insist that the criticisms of Obama’s childhood were a “joke,” and express disbelief that anybody would take them seriously. ...... she was acting out of a sense of disbelief, and desperation, and it cost her a very public and embarrassing defection of an Iowa campaign worker who disapproved of her negativity and joined-up with the Obama campaign. ..... he “didn’t inhale.” Bill Clinton was unbelievable then, and remains so today ..... in light of last week’s events, it would seem that the Clintons became victims not of other people’s attacks, but of their own miscalculations and missteps.
