Superdelegate Klobuchar backs Obama

Sen. Barack Obama has won over another freshman senator and superdelegate, this morning getting an endorsement from Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

Mrs. Klobuchar said she is backing her Illinois colleague over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton because “continuing to stay silent would be awkward,” she told reporters on a conference call.

She cited the big crowds he attracted before winning Minnesota's caucus by 34 points, and said the “enthusiasm and idealism” she witnessed at his events was “simply impossible to contain.” Mrs. Klobuchar called Mr. Obama a “new kind of leader” who can “dissolve” the cynicism of President Bush's administration and who offers a “new perspective.”

She also called Mrs. Clinton of New York a “friend,” saying she hopes the primary contest continues, adding: “The Democratic Party is truly blessed this year with two candidates.”

“I believe that Senator Clinton has every right to continue her campaign,” Mrs. Klobuchar said, following a weekend where many Obama supporters called for his rival to end her bid.

The latest endorsement, on the heels of critical backing from Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, brings Mr. Obama's total superdelegates on board to 220. Mrs. Clinton has 251, including her most recent from Pennsylvania's Rep. John Murtha.

Superdelegates will help decide the Democratic nomination. They are local party activists, state elected officials and members of Congress.

Though Mrs. Clinton holds the superdelegate lead, Mr. Obama has more endorsements from governors and Senate colleagues.

HUD Secretary’s Exit

Secretary Jackson’s resignation ends a tenure at HUD marked by an indifference to Congressional oversight powers, cronyism, and corrupt contracting practices that have no place in our government. Yet while Secretary Jackson’s resignation is appropriate, it does nothing to address the Bush Administration’s wait-and-don’t-see posture to our nation’s housing crisis, which is threatening to drive our economy into a painful recession.

Now is the time for immediate action, not more half-measures and white papers. While I appreciate the Administration’s willingness to acknowledge the need for more regulation of our financial markets, we cannot let a discussion about rearranging the regulatory deck chairs divert us from the fact that our housing and credit markets are in crisis, and are sinking deeper every day that we fail to take aggressive action.

That’s why today I am outlining immediate steps we can take to shore up the housing and credit markets, restore confidence in our regulatory infrastructure, and keep millions of families in their homes. These include smart, near-term regulatory changes that are calibrated to the actual crisis we face. And they include aggressive actions to help restructure at-risk mortgages and keep millions of families in their homes.

As Clinton Talks Housing Crisis, Campaign Manager Serves on Board of Bankrupt Lender

While Hillary Clinton campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in neighborhoods where many have lost their homes in unscrupulous lending schemes, her campaign manager, Margaret “Maggie” Williams, sits on the board of one of the nation’s once-largest and now-bankrupt sub-prime mortgage lenders.

Williams joined the board of directors at New York-based Delta Financial Corporation in 2000, one month after a federal settlement was reached with Delta Financial over discriminatory lending practices.

As of September 2007, Williams owned 12,500 shares of Delta’s common stock, and by 2007 had earned at least $175,000 for her board obligations, according to company filings available in the Securities & Exchange Commission online database.

In McCain's World.

The Republicans, with their unfair but very, very efficient winner-take-all primaries, closed the deal while the Democrats were still trying to count the votes in Texas. (Results are due any minute!) Now, the Democrats are terrified that McCain will have months and months to raise money and ingratiate himself with the American people while their candidates are spending every cent they can get their hands on to make each other less popular. On Friday, Senator Patrick Leahy called on Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race because McCain was getting a “free ride” while Democrats squabble.

That felt like an overestimation. Not that McCain hasn’t scored some points on the days that he wasn’t getting Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq mixed up. Witness the speed and dexterity with which he’s been distancing himself from the White House. The only withdrawal McCain supports began when he said he was eager to have Bush campaign for him whenever “it fits into his busy schedule,” making it clear that the busyness of said schedule was going to be beyond comprehension.

McCain also favors privatizing parts of the Social Security system, an idea so deeply unpopular with actual people that it never flew in Congress, even when the Republicans were in control and the nation had not yet deduced that the president was permanently out to lunch.

And at bottom, his economic vision makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. He’s going to keep the Bush tax cuts, continue our $3-trillion-and-counting war in Iraq and decrease corporate taxes. And how is he going to pay for it?

Edwards praises both Clinton, Obama in first political speech

Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards says he has a high opinion of both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

Edwards took the stage in a political speech Saturday for the first time since dropping his presidential bid in January.

He declined to endorse either of the Democratic candidates for president but said the nation would be blessed to have either in the White House.

Edwards appeared at the Young Democrats of North Carolina convention that included speeches from both Obama and Clinton supporters. Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, was scheduled to make an appearance later Saturday.

Edwards dropped his presidential campaign two months ago after winning 26 delegates through the first four contests.

High-profile Obama backers urge Clinton to quit

A pair of high-profile backers of Sen. Barack Obama have called on his rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, to drop out of the race for the Democratic nomination for president.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, issued the most unvarnished statement Friday, saying Clinton "has every right, but not a very good reason, to remain a candidate for as long as she wants to."

Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, who sought the Democratic nomination for president himself but threw his support behind Obama after dropping out of the race in January, expressed a similar sentiment Thursday.

"I mean, if a person wants to stay in the race, stay in the race," he told the National Journal, a Washington magazine.

"But if you have enough people rallying behind what appears to be the likely choice, and I believe the choice is Barack Obama ... then I think you have to step up to the plate and say, 'Enough is enough.' We want this to be over with."

Philly Mayor: Obama Pastor Talk Beyond Pale

Sen. Hillary Clinton's most prominent African-American supporter in Pennsylvania says that had he been a member of Sen. Barack Obama's church, he would have left because of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's fiery and controversial sermons.

I think there's no room for hate, and I could not sit and tolerate that kind of language, and especially over a very long period of time," said Philadelphia's newly elected mayor, Michael Nutter, in an interview with ABC News' David Muir.

"If I were in my own church and heard my pastor saying some of those kinds of things," he added, "we'd have a conversation about what's going on here, what is this all about, and then I would have to make my own personal decision about whether or not to be associated or affiliated."

Asked by Muir if he would he have quit Obama's church, Nutter said, "Absolutely."

Battleground Pennsylvania

How long the race goes on could well depend on Pennsylvania, a state that's been described as "Ohio on steroids," and is full of aging, white, working class voters, who have tended to favor Clinton.

The Clinton camp is arguing that electability comes from winning battleground states like Pennsylvania, where she currently holds a double-digit lead over Obama.

Obama is hoping an endorsement this week by the state's popular junior senator, Bob Casey, could help him win over some of those voters.

Democratic Strategist Says Clinton Needs Big Wins in Pennsylvania and Indiana

As fellow Democrats begin to pressure Sen. Hillary Clinton to concede the nomination to Sen. Barack Obama, Clinton says she has no plans to step aside. And a top Democratic strategist says she still has a chance, albeit a narrow one.

"She has every right to go on," said Democratic strategist Bob Shrum on "Good Morning America Weekend Edition." "She just has very little chance of winning."

"What she has to do is win Pennsylvania very big -- not by 10 points, but 15 to 20 -- so she can narrow that popular vote margin," said Shrum, a former adviser to Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidenital bid. "She has to defy expectations … win Indiana and show she's doing better, significantly better than Obama is, over John McCain.

What worries me as a Democrat," he added, "is if we get to North Carolina and Obama wins ... and it's clear that he's going to win the pledged delegates, the super delegates are not going to overturn the pledged delegates. … We're not going to say, 'Let's see what electoral votes were assigned to the states that were won, because that proves you can carry them in the fall.'"

Top Democrat wants party contest decided by July 1

The Democratic Party chairman said on Friday he hopes the increasingly contentious rivalry between presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton can be decided by July 1 to avoid a fight at the party's convention.

Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and a presidential candidate in 2004, urged the two candidates to focus on the November general election battle against Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the likely Republican presidential nominee.

"I think it would be nice to have this all done by July 1," Dean said on ABC's "Good Morning America" program. "If we can do it sooner than that, that's all the better.

"There has been some personal criticism," he said. "We don't want this to degenerate into a big fight at the convention."

Dean told CNN he believes Democratic delegates from Michigan and Florida will eventually be seated at the party's August nominating convention in Denver.

The Democratic primary elections in Michigan and Florida were invalidated after both states disobeyed party rules and held their balloting earlier in the year to hold greater sway over the selection of candidates.

Efforts to rerun the two primaries have failed.

"I think the delegates are eventually going to be seated in Florida and Michigan as soon as we get an agreement between the candidates on how to do that," Dean said.

The Casey Endorsement

In a surprise move, Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania has endorsed Senator Barack Obama in advance of the April 22 Democratic primary. Mr. Casey had said he would remain neutral in the race in part because he wanted to help broker a reconciliation between Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton afterward.

“I believe in my heart that there is one person who’s uniquely qualified to lead us in that new direction and that is Barack Obama.” Mr. Casey said during a rally in Pittsburgh Friday.

Mr. Casey is going against the grain in his state, where polls show Mrs. Clinton ahead by at least 12 percentage points and where she has the endorsement of most of the state’s major Democratic figures.

But a person close to Mr. Casey said that the Senator had traveled to Florida over Easter and that rain had forced him to stay inside and he began to think more seriously about an endorsement. “He spent a lot of time thinking about it,” this person said, and he came to the conclusion that the race was “too important” to remain on the sidelines.

“He was asking himself, what’s more important than this?” the person said. “He was also just terribly frustrated with where Bush is going on Iraq and the economy and he felt he had to jump into the fray.”

Mr. Casey called both Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton last night. He could not reach Mrs. Clinton, but she was made aware of his move, friends said. He is joining Mr. Obama today as he begins a six-day bus trip across Pennsylvania and plans to be with him for about three days as Mr. Obama meets up with just the kind of blue collar, Catholic men who have eluded Mr. Obama.

Mr. Casey won the state in 2006 with 59 percent of the vote. The fact that he is a strong opponent of abortion rights may give these voters cover to back Mr. Obama both now and in the fall against Senator John McCain, the putative Republican nominee, who also opposes abortion rights.

Both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama had raised money and campaigned for Mr. Casey when he ran for the Senate in 2006. Both also initially lobbied Mr. Casey themselves, and then through third parties, but they retreated after they understood that he wanted to remain neutral.

Mr. Casey decided to back Mr. Obama because of his “ability to bring disparate groups together and transcend some of these racial and other kinds of divides,” the person close to him said. “Also, his kids were on his case, his four daughters. Not that they dictate to him, but he was paying attention. He was wondering, why are these kids, who aren’t very political, so interested? He does have the ability to light up a younger generation.”

Mr. Casey’s father, the state’s former governor, had a chilly relationship with Mrs. Clinton’s husband dating from Mr. Clinton’s first campaign for president in 1992. The elder Mr. Casey was strongly against abortion rights and did not approve of Mr. Clinton, who in turn shut Mr. Casey out of the Democratic convention. Another long-time Casey ally said that during the 1992 campaign, Mr. Casey refused to attend a dinner in his home county, Lackawanna, where Mrs. Clinton was campaigning for her husband. On election night in 1992, Mrs. Clinton closely tracked the results in Lackawanna, which her husband won.

But several people who know Mr. Casey and Mrs. Clinton say that the family bitterness has dissipated and was not a factor at all in Mr. Casey’s endorsement of Mr. Obama.

There is also some family warmth between Mr. Obama and the Casey family. At an event on St. Patrick’s Day in Scranton, Mr. Obama gave a shout-out to “my wonderful friend” Margie Casey McGrath, who is Mr. Casey’s sister and runs a big printing company, Universal Printing, in Scranton. The company prints numerous political material for candidates, including Mr. Obama.

Sen. Clinton: U.S. House Run 'Like a Plantation'

The House "has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about," said Clinton, D-N.Y. "It has been run in a way so that nobody with a contrary view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument, to be heard."

"We have a culture of corruption, we have cronyism, we have incompetence," she said. "I predict to you that this administration will go down in history as one of the worst that has ever governed our country."
And this is who you want for President of the United States of America.

Clinton Remained Silent As Wal-Mart Fought Unions

In six years as a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors, between 1986 and 1992, Hillary Clinton remained silent as the world's largest retailer waged a major campaign against labor unions seeking to represent store workers.

Clinton has been endorsed for president by more than a dozen unions, according to her campaign Web site, which omits any reference to her role at Wal-Mart in its detailed biography of her.

Wal-Mart's anti-union efforts were headed by one of Clinton's fellow board members, John Tate, a Wal-Mart executive vice president who also served on the board with Clinton for four of her six years.

Tate was fond of repeating, as he did at a managers meeting in 2004 after his retirement, what he said was his favorite phrase, "Labor unions are nothing but blood-sucking parasites living off the productive labor of people who work for a living."

Hillary Clinton Feels Heat Over Wal-Mart Ties

With retailer Wal-Martunder fire for its labor and healthcare policies, one Democrat with ties to the company, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, has started feeling her share of the political heat.
Clinton served on Wal-Mart's board of directors for six years when her husband was governor of Arkansas. And the Rose Law Firm, where she was a partner, handled many of the Arkansas-based company's legal affairs.

Hillary Clinton had kind words for Wal-Mart as recently as 2004, when she told an audience at the convention of the National Retail Federation that her time on the board ''was a great experience in every respect."

But in recent months, as the company has become a target for Democratic activists, she has largely steered clear of any mention of Wal-Mart. And late last year, Clinton's reelection campaign returned a $5,000 contribution from Wal-Mart, citing ''serious differences with current company practices."

As Clinton sheds her Arkansas past and looks ahead to a possible 2008 presidential run, the Wal-Mart issue presents an exquisite dilemma: how to reconcile the political demands she faces today with her history at a company many consumers depend upon but many Democratic activists revile.

''The interesting question is not just Hillary Clinton's history at Wal-Mart, but why it's delicate for her to talk about Wal-Mart," said Charles Fishman, author of ''The Wal-Mart Effect," a book on the company's impact on the national economy. ''Plenty of Democrats denounce Wal-Mart, but there are also plenty of people who need it, love it and rely on it."

In 1986, when Wal-Mart's founder, Sam Walton, tapped Clinton to be the company's first female board member, Wal-Mart was a fraction of its current size, with $11.9 billion in net sales.

Today, Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer and largest private employer, with over $312 billion in sales last year and 1.3 million employees in the US alone. But recently, the company has drawn intense scrutiny for its labor practices -- from its wages to the lack of affordable health coverage for employees, to its stiff resistance to unionization.

Throughout the 1980s, both Bill and Hillary Clinton nurtured relationships with Walton, a conservative Republican and by far Arkansas' most influential businessman.

Among other things, Hillary Clinton sought Walton's help in 1983 for Bill Clinton's so-called Blue Ribbon Commission on Education, a major effort to improve Arkansas' troubled public schools. The overhaul became a centerpiece of Clinton's governorship.

And Wal-Mart's Made in America campaign, which for years touted the company's sales of American products in its stores, was launched after Bill Clinton persuaded Walton to help save 200 jobs at an Arkansas shirt manufacturing plant. The Made in America campaign has virtually vanished in recent years, as the company's manufacturing has gradually moved overseas -- another point of criticism by many Wal-Mart critics.

The Clintons also benefited financially from Wal-Mart. Hillary Clinton was paid $18,000 each year she served on the board, plus $1,500 for each meeting she attended. By 1993 she had accumulated at least $100,000 in Wal-Mart stock, according to Bill Clinton's federal financial disclosure forms that year.

Wal-Mart has little to say about Hillary Clinton's board service, and will not release minutes of the company's board meetings during her tenure.

Lorraine Voles, Clinton's communications director, turned down a request for an interview with the senator.

Still, details have come to light over the years.

Bob Ortega, author of ''In Sam We Trust," a history of Wal-Mart, said Clinton used her position to urge the company to improve its gender and racial diversity. Because of Clinton's prodding, Walton agreed to hire an outside firm to track the company's progress in hiring women and minorities, Ortega said.

Clinton proved to be such a thorn in Walton's side that at Wal-Mart's annual meeting in 1987, when shareholders challenged Walton on the company's lack of female managers, he assured them the record was improving ''now that we have a strong-willed young lady on the board."

Clinton was particularly vocal on environmental matters, pressing the company to boost its sale and use of recycled materials and other ''green" products.

Still, critics say there was little tangible change at Wal-Mart during Clinton's tenure, despite her apparent prodding.

''There's no evidence she did anything to improve the status of women or make it a very different place in ways Mrs. Clinton's Democratic base would care about.

Wal-Mart turned me down.

Wal-Mart turned me down for advertising, and I believe the reason is because Hilary Clinton used to be on the Wal-mart's Board of Directors. But, I am for Barack Obama for President. Here's what they said!

Dear Michael Johnson,

Thank you for submitting your application to the Wal-Mart.com Affiliate
Program. We appreciate your interest in our program.

Wal-Mart.com carefully reviews each application to our program.
Unfortunately, we do not feel that your Web site meets the criteria we
have established for acceptance. At this time Wal-Mart.com is looking for affiliates with high traffic sites that have the potential for high sales volume. In addition, Wal-Mart.com will not accept into its affiliate program sites that fit the following descriptions:

· Promote sexually explicit material
· Promote violence or hate toward any persons or groups
· Promote illegal activities
· Promote alcohol, tobacco, gambling/lottery in any way
· Promote the use of pyramid, ¿ponzi¿, or similar investment schemes
· Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age
· Contain, in our sole judgment, material that is defamatory, fraudulent, or harassing to us or any third party
· Include ¿walmart¿, ¿wal-mart¿ or variations or misspellings thereof in their domain names
· Otherwise violate intellectual property rights of Wal-Mart.com, Wal-Mart Stores or its suppliers
· Disparage Walmart.com, Wal-Mart Stores or their suppliers
· Are under construction or not live at the time of application
· Require a username and password to access
· Are non-US based or are sites that primarily serve a non-US based audience
· Any other reason based on Wal-Mart's sole judgment.


Sincerely,

The Walmart.com Affiliate Team

Bill, Chelsea campaign today in Pa. for Hillary

It's all in the family today as former President Bill Clinton and first daughter Chelsea make whirlwind tours of the Philadelphia region to drum up support for the woman each calls wife or mom, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Sen. Clinton is campaigning today in North Carolina and Sen. Barack Obama is in New York.

Tomorrow, Obama will begin a cross-state bus tour in Pittsburgh. The caravan ends Wednesday in Philadelphia.

Bill Clinton will criss-cross central Pennsylvania today making whistle stops in Pottstown, Reading, Carlisle, Lewistown and State College.

After a morning appearance in Pottstown, Clinton will proceed to Albright College in Reading for a noon event at the Schumo Center at 13th and Richmond Streets. Then he travels to Carlisle for a 3:15 p.m. rally at the Dickinson College Gymnasium, 575 West High St.

He is scheduled to speak at Lewistown Area High School at 5:45 p.m. He'll conclude his whirlwind tour with an 8 p.m. rally at Penn State's Recreation Hall, 1 Curtin Rd., in State College.

Chelsea Clinton was scheduled to begin her day in Bensalem this afternoon at home for senior citizens. The event is not open to the public.

She will lead a 3:30 rally on the campus of West Chester University at the Sykes Student Union, 110 West Rosedale Ave. At 7 p.m., she will appear at Cobre Restaurant, 812 N. Broad St., Philadelphia.

In Pittsburgh, Obama will hold an open event at 11 a.m. tomorrow at the Soldiers and Sailors Military Museum and Memorial. Later in the afternoon, Obama will hold a Town Hall Meeting at 5:30 p.m. at Hempfield Area High School in Greensburg, about 20 miles east of the Iron City.

Obama Calls for Overhaul of Financial Regulations

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama called for an overhaul of rules governing banks and other financial institutions in the wake of a collapse in the subprime mortgage market.

In a New York speech, Obama proposed giving the Federal Reserve greater supervisory authority when it acts as a lender of last resort, pushed for strengthening of capital requirements for financial companies and said that government regulations governing Wall Street firms had to be changed to so that agencies didn't compete against each other.

``Under Republican and Democratic administrations, we failed to guard against practices that all too often rewarded financial manipulation instead of productivity and sound business practices,'' Obama, an Illinois senator, said in an address at New York's Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. ``We let the special interests put their thumbs on the economic scales.''

``The result has been a distorted market that creates bubbles instead of steady, sustainable growth; a market that favors Wall Street over Main Street, but ends up hurting both,'' Obama said.

Ralph Nader Please Sit down.

Nader has run for President of the United States five times (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008). It comes a time to throw in the towel and never run again. How can you run for the top spot in politics without never running for smaller offices? Hey, Ralph, this is a word to the wise. Try small; then, build your way up.

Painful Things Hillary Clinton Knows — Or Should Know

1. She can’t win the nomination without overturning the will of the elected delegates, which will alienate many Democrats.

2. She can’t win the nomination without a bloody convention battle — after which, even if she won, history and many Democrats would cast her as a villain.

3. Catching up in the popular vote is not out of the question — but without re-votes in Florida and Michigan it will be almost as impossible as catching up in elected delegates.

4. Nancy Pelosi and other leading members of Congress don’t think she can win and want her to give up. Same with superdelegate-to-the-stars Donna Brazile.

5. Obama’s skilled, close-knit staff can do things like silently kill re-votes in Florida and Michigan and not pay a political price.

6. Many of her supporters — and even some of her staffers — would be relieved (and even delighted) if she quit the race; none of his supporters or staff feel that way. Some think she just might throw in the towel in June if it appears efforts to fight on would hurt Obama’s general election chances.

7. The Rev. Wright story notwithstanding, the media still wants Obama to be the nominee — and that has an impact every day.

8. Obama might not be able to talk that well about the new global economy, but she (and McCain) can’t either.

9. Many of the remaining prominent superdelegates want to be for Obama and she (and Harold Ickes) are just barely keeping them from making public commitments to him.

10. She can’t publicly say more than 2% of all the things she would like to say about race, electability, beating McCain and experience.

11. If she somehow found a way to win the nomination, she would have to offer Obama the veep slot, and she doesn’t want to do that.

12. This is a change election, and Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton can never truly be change.

13. Obama is having fun most days, and she isn’t.

14. Even though her campaign staff is having more fun than it has for a long time, there’s hardly anyone there who, given half a chance, wouldn’t slit Mark Penn’s throat — and such internal dissension won’t help her in the home stretch.

Hillary Clinton Compares Jeremiah Wright To Don Imus

Yesterday Hillary Clinton spoke publicly about the controversy surrounding the remarks of Barack Obama's longtime pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright,
"He would not have been my pastor," Clinton said. "You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend." She also brought up Don Imus, saying:

"You know, I spoke out against Don Imus, saying that hate speech was unacceptable in any setting, and I believe that. I just think you have to speak out against that. You certainly have to do that, if not explicitly, then implicitly by getting up and moving."
mus was eventually fired from his gigs as both a radio and television host last April after referring disparagingly to African-American members of the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." Barack Obama was the first presidential candidate to speak out on the Imus matter, calling for his dismissal while NBC was still deliberating on the matter.

Obama said "I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus, but I would also say that there's nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude.

Student ask Chelsea about Monica.

The college student who got a stinging brushback from Chelsea Clinton when he asked about the Monica Lewinsky scandal said Wednesday he's a Clinton supporter who was trying to get her to show "what makes Hillary so strong."

Evan Strange, a Butler University student who works on the school's newspaper, The Butler Collegian, said he had asked Chelsea Clinton her opinion "on the criticism of her mother that how she handled the Lewinsky scandal might be a sign of weakness and she might not be a strong enough candidate to be president."

It wasn't clear what aspect of the former first lady's actions he was referring to. Before she was fully aware of President Bill Clinton's relationship with Lewinsky, Hillary Rodham Clinton said allegations about her husband and the White House intern were manufactured by a "vast right-wing conspiracy."

Strange's question at Chelsea Clinton's appearance Tuesday at the school brought a stinging rebuke from Clinton's daughter. "Wow, you're the first person actually that's ever asked me that question in the, I don't know maybe, 70 college campuses I've now been to, and I do not think that is any of your business," Chelsea Clinton said during the campaign visit for her mother.

Clinton's worst media days

There's nothing that bothers some inside the Clinton campaign more than the constant reading in between the lines of the senator's motivations when she chooses to answer a specific question. But this has been a constant issue for Clinton ever since she decided to follow in her husband's footsteps. For the first time, Clinton decided to weigh in on the Wright controversy, saying he would not have been her pastor. But for more than a week, Clinton had declined to address it and was even complimentary of Obama’s speech on race last week. She certainly had ample opportunity to be critical on this issue, so why now? In the shadow of the Bosnia sniper “misstatement,” (her newest iteration is that she was “sleep deprived”) this certainly seems like an attempt to change the subject and take the spotlight off her. After all, whenever there has been a heavy focus on one of these candidates, the other has benefited. This week, so far, the spotlight has been on Clinton. If you missed all three evening newscasts, it's clear Clinton had one of the worst earned media days in a few months.

Obama Tax Returns / Where is Clinton's? I smell a rat!

Barack Obama just posted six years of income tax returns on his website -- his latest maneuver to pressure Hillary Clinton to release hers and hit his Democratic rival on the issue of transparency.

The most recent return, for 2006, shows that Obama and his wife Michelle reported wages of about $430,000, plus another $507,000 in business income, mostly from book sales. Their tax bill topped $277,000, and they received a refund of nearly $41,000. They also gave more than $60,000 to charity.

So far, Clinton has pledged to disclose hers at least three days before the Pennsylvania primary on April 22.

Obama's campaign said today that Clinton should release her full returns because she loaned her campaign $5 million in January and because of reports that former president Bill Clinton is about to pick up a $20 million payout from a holding company.

“Senator Clinton recently claimed that she’s ‘the most transparent figure in public life,’ yet she’s dragging her feet in releasing something as basic as her annual tax returns,” Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said in a statement. “Senator Clinton can’t claim to be vetted until she allows the public the opportunity to see her finances—particularly with respect to any investment in tax shelters.”

Deadline for Pennsylvania Democrats

The Clinton and Obama campaigns are scrambling today to register Pennsylvania Democrats before tonight's deadline for the presidential primary, and they worked through the holiday weekend to add thousands of new voters to the state's total.

They have until midnight to register new Democrats — or persuade Republicans and independents to become Democrats. Volunteers for each were out in full force to drive up the numbers.
Sen. Barack Obama's supporters had their own stack of clipboards and registration forms Saturday, walking through Philadelphia's South Street as residents shopped and ate lunch in the bustling neighborhood.

Asked if Mr. Obama can win Pennsylvania, a volunteer from the District said he doesn't need a victory to be successful.

Dinner with Barack?

You've heard about all of these political fundraising dinners, hosted by Washington lobbyists and filled with representatives of special interests.

Contributions like these are at the root of what's wrong with politics. And John McCain and Hillary Clinton have built campaigns fueled by them.

But our campaign is different.

In February alone, more than 94% of our donors gave in amounts of $200 or less. Meanwhile, campaign finance reports show that donations of $200 or less make up just 13% of Senator McCain's total campaign funds, and only 26% of Senator Clinton's.

Our funding comes from a movement of more than one million people giving whatever they can afford.

And in the next week, four supporters will be selected for a new kind of fundraising dinner.

Make a donation in any amount between now and 11:59 pm EDT on Monday, March 31st, and you could join Barack and three other supporters for an intimate dinner for five.

We're reserving two of those seats for new donors like you. If you've ever thought about making a donation to join our campaign, now is the time:

https://donate.barackobama.com/dinner

This movement is changing the way campaigns are funded.

More than one million individual donors have demonstrated that this election is about more than a candidate -- it's about each of us having a personal stake in the future of American politics.

Meanwhile, Senator McCain has raised more than 70% of his total campaign funds from high-dollar donors giving $1,000 or more. Senator Clinton has raised 60% of her funds from $1,000-and-up donors. And both Senator McCain and Senator Clinton have accepted millions of dollars from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs.

Refusing to accept donations from lobbyists and special interests has allowed this campaign to answer only to ordinary Americans like you. And this dinner will be an opportunity for you to sit down with Barack and your fellow supporters and talk about the issues that matter in your life and in your community.

Get the kind of treatment that John McCain and Hillary Clinton reserve for special interests -- make a donation in the next week, and you could share your story and your ideas with Barack in person:

https://donate.barackobama.com/dinner

With every single donation, we're building a movement to change American politics. Help the movement grow, and own a piece of this campaign today.

Thanks for your support,

David

David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America

Chris Matthews Rips The Clintons "Sitcom" Approach To Politics - Bill Richardson Endorsement

Obama: Just the Facts.

Often campaigns can get so intense that voters often miss the facts. Arguments become hot and heavy and people start assuming information or passing along rumors as facts. My considered guess is that neither candidate is responsible for this misinformation. But it is important to know the basic truths about each person running for the highest office in the land. A group of great Obama For America volunteers put this list together of Obama facts and I thought I would share it with you.

- Did you know that Barack Obama often leads the US Senate in the Pledge of Allegiance?

- Did you know that Barack Obama is a strong friend of Israel and has spoken out strongly against anti-Semitism?

- Did you know his white grandparents from Kansas were part of the "Greatest Generation"? His grandfather served with Patton's Army during World War II, and his grandmother, a real "Rosie the Riveter", worked in a bomber assembly plant back home.

- Did you know that Barack Obama was opposed to the war in Iraq from day one, before we invaded, even while he was running for the Senate, and knowing his opposition might be politically unpopular? "I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. 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." --Barack Obama, 2002

- Did you know Obama favors transparency over secrecy in our government? Did you know that Obama worked with Republican Senator Tom Coburn to pass one of the strongest government transparency bills since the freedom of information act? He's calling it "Google for Government", and you can see the results at www.usaspending.gov ; . Sen. Obama has also released his own tax returns for public review.

- Did you know that after graduating with honors from Harvard Law School, Barack practiced civil rights law and also taught Constitutional Law for 10 years at the University of Chicago, one of the nation's best law schools, where he was consistently rated by his students as one of their best instructors? Did you also know that he was the first African-American elected president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review?

- Did you know that Barack Obama is an outspoken advocate for women's rights and has been a principled defender of the civil rights of women?

- Did you know that despite the grueling schedule of running for President, Senator Obama remains a devoted family man, making time to do things like pick out a Christmas tree with his wife and two young daughters, or hurrying home to spend Valentine's Day with them? Did you know he hasn't missed a single parent-teacher conference while running for President?

- Did you know that Barack Obama has a stellar environmental record, including having the highest rating from the League of Conservation Voters (96%) of any Presidential candidate, Democrat or Republican?

- Did you know that Barack Obama has been an elected legislator longer than Senator Clinton?

- Did you know that Barack is a member of all of these Senate Committees: Foreign Relations; Veteran's Affairs; Health, Education, Labor & Pensions; Homeland Security and Government Affairs?

- Did you know that Senator Obama has sponsored or co-sponsored 15 bills that have become law, and has introduced amendments to 50 bills, of which 16 were adopted since he joined the Senate in 2005?

- Did you know that Senator Obama sponsored legislation working together with Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar, to keep Americans safe by keeping dangerous weapons out of terrorist hands? The two senators also visited the former Soviet Union to inspect the decommissioning of nuclear weapons. Sen. Lugar said of Sen. Obama, "He does have a sense of idealism and principled leadership, a vision of the future."

- Did you know that Barack Obama is the only candidate running for president who voted against using cluster bombs in Iraq and the only candidate who supports banning the use of landmines?

- Did you know that, as an Illinois state senator, Barack Obama succeeded in passing legislation requiring the videotaping of police interrogations, gaining the respect and support not only of fellow legislators but that of the police, who had initially opposed the legislation?

- Did you know that Theodore Roosevelt, Grover Cleveland, Ulysses S. Grant, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton were all younger when they took office than Barack Obama will be?

-Did you know that Barack Obama is a Christian?

Hillary Clinton should make way for Barack Obama

In the coming weeks, Hillary Clinton needs to figure out how to get out of the race while the getting is good. She simply cannot win unless the party’s super delegates ignore the will of the people in a mass political suicide. Last week Politico, argued that she has “virtually” no chance of winning and chastised the media for hyping the political horse race and not the political reality.

”Journalists have become partners with the Clinton campaign in pretending that the contest is closer than it really is. Most coverage breathlessly portrays the race as a down-to-the-wire sprint between two well-matched candidates, one only slightly better situated than the other to win in August at the national convention in Denver.

Hillary Clinton Lied About Her Bosnia Trip in 1996

I know it is hard to believe but a Clinton was caught in a lie last week. Last week Hillary recalled her trip to Bosnia in 1996, she recalled it alright, the problem is she didn’t recall it correctly.

In a speech last week Hillary talked about how she landed in Bosnia under the fire of snipers and had to duck and cover upon landing. This wasn’t exactly the truth however, as the video below shows.

Hillary was using her Bosnia “experience” as proof that she has the experience to be commander in chief, this has now gone up in flames. She is showing us that she has learned quite a bit from Bill, lie, lie, lie, deny, deny, deny.

Kilpatrick and Beatty surrender

AT 9:30 P.M.: Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and former chief of staff Christine Beatty surrendered to Wayne County authorities this afternoon after Prosecutor Kym Worthy charged them today with perjury, obstruction, conspiracy and misconduct. Kilpatrick said that he expects "full and complete vindication."

Hillary Clinton Comes Under Fire for Bosnia Lie

Detroit's Democratic mayor indicted in sex scandal

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and official misconduct on Monday stemming from a sex scandal and the prominent Democrat's handling of an $8.4 million settlement of a whistle-blower lawsuit against the city.

The controversy surrounding the black politician once seen as a rising star in his party has deadlocked city government and could spill over to presidential politics and the issue of how the Democratic Party handles Michigan delegates still being contested by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

The eight-count criminal indictment announced by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy included two counts of obstruction of justice and four counts of perjury. The perjury charges each carry a prison term of more than 15 years.

"The justice system was severely mocked and public trust was trampled on," said Worthy in a scolding rebuke of the embattled mayor.

Worthy said lawyers for the city of Detroit had attempted to thwart her two-month investigation and said some evidence had sought by prosecutors had gone missing or been destroyed.

Kilpatrick's former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, was also indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice.

Kilpatrick, 37, has said he will remain in office and fight the charges as he attempts to rally support for a $300 million investment program in the city. He was expected to call a news conference for later on Monday.

The criminal charges stem from text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty dating back to 2002 that first disclosed in January by the Detroit Free Press.

Progressive Bloggers Meet up in Washington, DC

Gutter politics used by Clintons

Bill Richardson ripped aides to Hillary Clinton Sunday saying they use "gutter" politics to get what they want.
Richardson has been critical of the ongoing fight for the Democratic nomination, but his scorn of such tactics has primarily been aimed at Clinton's camp.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Sunday aides to U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., use "gutter" politics to get their way.

The former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination was compared by one Clinton adviser to Judas this week following his voiced support of Clinton's rival, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., The Washington Post reported.

"I'm not going to get in the gutter like that," Richardson said of the comments from informal Clinton adviser James Carville. "And you know, that's typical of many of the people around Senator Clinton. They think they have a sense of entitlement to the presidency."

Richardson has been critical of the ongoing fight for the Democratic nomination, but his scorn of such tactics has primarily been aimed at Clinton's camp.

"The campaign has gotten too negative," he said of the electoral battle.

"I just feel the time has come to come together be

McCain Continues to Embrace Racist John Hagee

As part of his desperate campaign to cozy up to the right wing of the Republican Party, John McCain sought out and said he was "pleased to have the endorsement of Pastor John Hagee." McCain's embrace of Hagee comes despite a history of intolerant comments about Catholics, women, African Americans, Muslims, LGBT Americans and even victims of Hurricane Katrina. When confronted with those comments, McCain has repeatedly refused to denounce Hagee, saying only that "It's simply not accurate to say that because someone endorses me that I therefore embrace their views.

So which Hagee positions does John McCain endorse? His position that Hurricane Katrina was punishment from God because "New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06] Or his "slave sale" where he announced that participants should "make plans to come and go home with a slave.

John McCain's silence on John Hagee's discriminatory rhetoric speaks volumes about how far he is willing to go to win the White House," said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. "If John McCain won't say which of John Hagee's positions he supports or whether he knew about Hagee's shameful commentary when he sought out his endorsement, how can voters trust him to be a leader for all Americans? If McCain expects to lead this country, he needs to do the right thing and reject the brand of hateful and divisive politics that John Hagee represents.

ARE YOUR TEXTS PRIVATE?

Regular text messages sent through regular cellphones are not kept in any central repository. When you zap them from your phone they are, in almost all instances, forever zapped. There is no federal law requiring that they be stored or kept by the cellphone provider.

The wireless companies refer to text messaging as SMS, or Short Message Service. It has become almost as popular as cellphone voice communications, with as many as 20 billion text messages being sent each month in the United States alone. Typically, text messages are 140 characters or less, sent via the data networks of the wireless providers from one device to another.

In Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's case, the reason his messages have been exposed is because of the specialized service the city has contracted with to handle wireless communications between city officials.

The device used was a SkyWriter, which looks a lot like a BlackBerry but isn't. It's a dedicated messaging device provided to the city of Detroit by SkyTel, a Mississippi-based wireless company that specializes in providing paging and messaging services to large corporations and governmental bodies through its own wireless network and devices.

The company notes on its website that "every message sent over the SkyTel network ... is recorded, including: Date and time the message was sent ... 'From' address ... 'To' address ... Length of the message ... Entire message content up to 2,000 characters." The company extols the benefits of such "message archiving."

For major corporations and governments, automatic archiving of such messages is important. Legal requirements mandate the storage of all business- or government-related communications.

The irony is that if Kirkpatrick had used a regular cellphone and text messaging service from Verizon, AT&T or Sprint, rather than the city service, there would be no record; those messages are simply passed through to the connected devices by the wireless companies and not stored on any master server anywhere.

"We do keep them for about two weeks," says Mark Elliott, a spokesman for Sprint. "But that's just to make sure they get sent if the customer's phone is turned off or out of the network. After that, even if not retrieved, they're gone. We don't store them. We have no record of them. That's standard practice in the industry."

Detroit mayor, aide lied under oath, texts show.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief of staff lied about their relationship last summer at a police whistle-blower trial that has cost the cash-strapped city more than $9 million, according to records.

The false testimony potentially exposes them to felony perjury charges, legal experts say.

Kilpatrick and chief of staff Christine Beatty denied during testimony in August that they had a sexual relationship. But the records, a series of text messages, show them engaged in romantic banter as well as planning and recounting sexual liaisons.

The messages are also at odds with the pair's trial testimony that they did not fire Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown in 2003, an ouster that led him to sue. The text messages show Beatty recalling the "decision that we made to fire Gary Brown."

The newspaper examined nearly 14,000 text messages on Beatty's city-issued pager. The exchanges, which the Free Press obtained after the trial, cover two months each in 2002 and 2003.

Obama Talk Fuels Easter Sermons

This Easter Sunday, the holiest day of the Christian calendar, many pastors will start their sermons about the Resurrection of Jesus and weave in a pointed message about racism and bigotry, and the need to rise above them. Some pastors began to rethink their sermons on Tuesday, when Senator Barack Obama gave a speech about race, seeking to calm a furor that had erupted over explosive excerpts of sermons by his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

The controversy drove the nation to the unpatrolled intersection of race and religion, and as many pastors prepared for their Easter message they said they felt compelled to talk about it. Their congregants were writing and e-mailing them: some wanted to share their emotional reactions to Mr. Obama’s speech; others asked how Mr. Wright, the minister, could utter such inflammatory things from the pulpit.

Some ministers interviewed over the last several days said they would wait until after Easter to preach on it all, because Easter and headlines do not mix. But others said there was no better moment than Easter, when sanctuaries swelled with their biggest crowds of the year, and redemption was the dominant theme.

Richardson endorses Obama

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., right, smiles at a news conference with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Friday, March 21, 2008, in Portland, Ore., after a rally where Richardson announced his endorsement of Obama