On Whether He Knows When Troops Can Come Home from Iraq: "No, but that's not too important. What's important is the casualties in Iraq." Huffington Post (11 June 2008).

On Vetting his Vice President: "We're going through a process where you get a whole bunch of names, and ya ... well, basically, it's a Google. You just, you know, what you can find out now on the Internet. It's remarkable, you know." The Hotline (9 June 2008).

On Barack Obama: "Senator Obama says that I'm running for a Bush's third term. Seems to me he's running for Jimmy Carter's second." Jonathan Miller notes: "That said, there are millions of voters who either weren't born or who are too young to remember a thing about the Carter presidency." Politico (9 June 2008).




by Jim Anderson
14 May 08



Campaign 2008's loudest chatter, blather, and spin has been about the Presidential races—and national crises like how many bullets did Hillary really dodge in Bosnia, should Obama be penalized minus 15 delegates for Rev. Wright's words, and does John McCain even know know a Sunni from Shiite. (Wait a minute—that last one IS revealing and relevant!)

But, the loudest political news of 2008 screamed quietly from the results of three special elections already held in highly-red, predictably-Republican districts: (1) Illinois, (2) Louisiana, and (3) Mississippi.

Amazingly, despite huge RNCC campaign spending and heavy efforts, the Republicans lost all three. It's a very bad harbinger for their upcoming House and Senate elections in November 2008.

STRIKE ONE, Illinois:  On March 8, in District 14 of northern Illinois, a Democratic nuclear physicist named Bill Foster (who had never run for public office) defeated a Republican businessman named Jim Oberweis. Why is this big news? Because the seat had been held by Dennis Hastert, former Republican Speaker of the House, in a very-red district that had voted strongly Republican for over 20 years.

STRIKE TWO, Louisiana:  On May 3, in District 6 of Louisiana (near Baton Rouge), a Democratic state legislator with a funny name, Don Cazayoux, beat a Republican former representative and newspaper publisher, Woody Jenkin. Cazayoux won by 49% to 46%, in a super-red district that has belonged to Republicans for over 33 years. In 2004, George W. Bush got 59% of the vote there.

STRIKE THREE, Mississippi: Yesterday (May 13), in District 1 of Mississippi, a Democratic court official named Travis Childers beat a popular, experienced Republican mayor, Greg Davis, by 53% to 47%. This seat—again in a very-red district—belonged earlier to Republican Majority Leader, Trent Lott, before he resigned.

Anyone who is seriously interested in Campaign 2008 should read—daily—the highly-reliable and insightful website created by "The Votemaster" (who is really Dr. Andrew A. Tanenbaum, a renowned professor of computer science at Vrije Universiteit in Amstedam): VoteFromAbroad.org.  I highly recommend it.

The Votemaster's comments today on the Mississippi loss are telling. He writes:

"The MS-01 loss is especially painful to the GOP for three reasons.

"First, the Republicans tried very, very hard here, pouring in huge amounts of money and having Gov. Haley Barbour and Vice President Dick Cheney campaign for Davis.

"Second, in IL-14 and LA-06 they could argue they had flawed candidates. That doesn't hold here. Greg Davis is a popular mayor who has done a good job and has never been involved in any scandals.

"Third, this election was the second field test of the Republicans' November strategy, which they rolled out against Cazayoux and refined here. They ran ads bitterly attacking Childers as a close associate and fellow traveler of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. They called him a LIBERAL (them's fightin' words in Mississippi). They said he didn't represent Mississippi values. They tried everything. It didn't work."

The Votemaster also says: "The implication of LA-06 and MS-01 is that tying a Democratic House candidate to Obama (the Republicans assume he will be the nominee; they don't even mention Clinton) doesn't seem to hurt, not even in overwhelmingly Republican districts in the deep South. It certainly isn't going to hurt in New Jersey and Minnesota. And Obama may have de facto coattails by getting many young voters to register and vote this year, and most of these will vote a straight Democratic ticket."

So, EDGYBEAR GROWLS: the Republicans have now been up to bat three times—in highly favorable Republican districts, against opponents who looked easy. Three times, they swung hard, and three times, they completely missed the ball. Strike One; Strike Two; Strike Three.

With the national election less than six months away, isn't it sensible to project that—come November—Republicans in the shaky Senate and House may be "OUT," big time—out of their power, out of Washington, and out of the ballgame, off to the showers?

by Don Williams
11 Jun 08


Hillary Clinton can flat deliver a speech, and her latest is for the ages, because there was nothing flat about what she said or how she said it Saturday shortly before 1 p.m. The speech soared to high eloquence and descended to moments of sweet reflection, delivering its crucial, head-line grabbing message in wave after wave of electrifying support for Barack Obama.

"I will work my heart out to make sure that Sen. Obama is our next president," she said, in about as clear an endorsement as one is likely to hear. "And I hope and pray that all of you will join me in that effort!"

Standing between giant twin pillars of historic National Building Museum near the White House she'd yearned to occupy again one day, she had the audience drinking in every word. There were tears, cheers, laughter and hugs in the audience, including some from Chelsea and Bill Clinton, who took a bow, stage left.

Even die-hard supporters who vowed never to support Obama—and yes, there were some sitting on their hands—must've been moved. If anyone entered the hall with doubts in their hearts or minds as to Hillary's commitment to America, the Democratic Party, Bill Clinton, women everywhere, but most importantly to Barack Obama, she surely emptied them of such doubt and poured in conviction.

This might be the best speech anyone ever delivered in support of Obama, and one of the best concession speeches ever crafted, right up there with Al Gore's eloquent concession in 2000.

Obama is not a fool. Far from it. He will make maximum use of this woman, who has honed her talents to a fine point in the crucible of 54 primary contests and 22 debates. In this moment she just might be the single best politician in America, maybe the world. She was surging at the end of that complex process, winning lopsided victories in several states.

Surely that record, coupled with this speech, has secured her a spot on Obama's short list of candidates for vice-president. If that notion proves too blessed unwieldy, he'll surely find some other way to take her up on the pledge to work hard for him.

Hillary's speech surpassed all expectations, surely. It blessed and vindicated her supporters. It lifted their hearts and minds. It validated the long struggle to keep her nomination alive to reach this point. Most of all, it embraced Obama in no uncertain terms.

It also delivered a message in a bottle to future historians. In a speech she surely knew would be history-making, no matter what she said or how she said it, she said and did all the right things.

Speaking to women and girls, she admonished them never to give up.

Speaking to blacks, hispanics and others of color, she inveighed against racism and prejudice in absolute terms.

Speaking to inheritors of our Earth, she gave a clarion call, summoning us all to save the Earth and stop global warming for all creatures with whom we share our world.

Speaking to supporters of former President Bill Clinton she took pains to place in vivid perspective his accomplishment in winning two of the only three terms by a Democratic president in the past 40 years.

And her conclusion was a rousing plea for unity and victory.

I confess, the speech brought tears to my eyes, and I found myself wishing that she'd made a few different decisions, so I could've supported her for president.

I do support her for vice-president. She's as charismatic as Obama. She's tough, relentless, sunny, optimistic, attractive and bright. Surely she and Obama together will be an unstoppable force in American politics and American life.

Go Obama. Go Hillary.


Hillary Clinton's Concession Speech: Full Text (New York Times); Complete Video, Final Campaign Rally (C-SPAN).