Women For Obama

In The News

On Iran, US policy implosion causes grief for Europe International Herald Tribune
Human Evolution Speeding Up, Study Says National Geographic The pace of change accelerated about 40,000 years ago and then picked up even more with the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago ...... while humans are evolving quickly around the world, local cultural and environmental factors are shaping evolution differently on different continents. ...... in Europe natural selection has favored genes for pigmentation like light skin, blue eyes, and blond hair. .......... "Europeans and Asians are both bleached Africans, but the way they got bleached is different in the two areas"
Israeli military rolls into Gaza Strip Los Angeles Times
Obama 'had a great weekend' with Oprah Chicago Sun-Times
Hillary Clinton, according to Bill Los Angeles Times
Hillary Clinton ties with Barack Obama in polls Telegraph.co.uk Three weeks before voting begins, Hillary Clinton's lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination has shrunk to a statistical tie with Barack Obama in the states that go to the polls first. ...... What was strongly forecast to be a procession to the finishing line has turned into a frantic scramble, with the former First Lady glancing anxiously over her shoulder towards the Illinois senator. ...... the candidates are effectively equal in all three states for the first time. ........ Though Mrs Clinton retains the lead in national polls, it has been cut by more than half in a couple of months to 10 points. ......... Yesterday a second Clinton volunteer in Iowa was forced to resign after forwarding a hoax email saying Mr Obama, a practising Christian, was a Muslim possibly intent on destroying the United States. ........... Mrs Clinton's support at its lowest yet in all three early states, which often set the tone for later results. ...... dated the start of her troubles to Oct 30, when at a televised debate ........ Her support had also dropped markedly among black Americans in South Carolina, who constitute 47 per cent of likely primary election voters, even before Mr Obama appeared with Oprah Winfrey before 50,000 people in the state on Sunday.
Saint Barack of Iowa Yahoo! News
Inside The New CBS/NYT Poll: Does Obama Have An Oprah Problem? CBS News (Hillary Clinton's lead over Barack Obama has shrunk from 28 points to 17). ...... Iowa .... Fifty six percent of Democrats in the poll who are said they are supporting Clinton said they could change their minds. ....... Oprah Winfrey may not be having much of an impact on moving voters ...... Voters are paying more attention to the campaign at this point in the cycle than at any time since CBS News began asking the question in 1987. Among all registered voters, said they are paying a lot or some attention to the campaign, compared to just 76 percent61 percent at this point in the 2004 presidential campaign. ............ And among all registered voters, 48 percent said they would probably vote for the Democratic candidate while 31 said they would vote for the Republican presidential candidate.
Last duel for White House hopefuls before voting starts AFP a sunny former Arkansas governor ..... a come-from-nowhere surge ..... Huckabee is bracing for a ferocious grilling, amid unflattering scrutiny of his past life in the bear-pit politics of Arkansas. ..... While Obama is closing the gap on Clinton in some key polls, he has rarely shined in debates, sometimes coming across as long-winded and professorial in contrast to his fiery rhetoric in formal speeches. ........ John Edwards, the defeated vice-presidential nominee in 2004, banking on a strong performance in Iowa to stay alive in the race.
Giuliani has advice for SF on dealing with the homeless San Francisco Chronicle
Maoists attack Bihar village, kill four Hindustan Times Hundreds of armed Maoists attacked a village in Bihar's Vaishali district on Monday night and killed four people in apparent retaliation for attacks on the rebels. ...... The rebels also attacked the house of the village body head and tried to set it ablaze. ..... Official sources said Sukki village was targeted as it is dominated by landed upper caste-Bhumihars, who have been countering Maoist rebels in the area. .... Armed Maoists surrounded the village from all sides and stood guard while their comrades carried out the attack.
Laureate Gore puts heat on US, China The Australian
Central US Reeling From Deadly Ice Storms New York Times
Nokia Prepares for Fisticuffs with Google PC World
Amitabh Bachchan gets clean chit in land scam Hindustan Times The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday gave a clean chit to Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan in the Barabanki farmland scam. ...... Bachchan had challenged the order of the Faizabad additional commissioner who had dismissed his petition relating to purchase of government farmland at Daulatpur village in Uttar Pradesh`s Barabanki district
Kroger profit jumps 18%; grocer upbeat on full year MarketWatch
Dell Unveils Its First Tablet PC InformationWeek
Large Study Links Red, Processed Meat to Certain Cancers FOX News
Culture Speeds Up Human Evolution Scientific American increased vastly in numbers over the past 50,000 years or so—from an estimated five million in 9000 B.C. to roughly 6.5 billion today. ....... in the past 10,000 years a host of changes to everything from digestion to bones has been taking place. ..... the rate of human evolution over the past few thousand years is far greater than it has been over the past few million years ...... Roughly 10,000 years ago, humanity made the transition from living off the land to actively raising crops ...... the new agriculturally based diet offered its own challenges—including iron deficiency from lack of meat, cavities and, ultimately, shorter stature due to poor nutrition ....... "Ten thousand years ago, no one on planet Earth had blue eyes," Hawks notes, because that gene—OCA2—had not yet developed. "We are different from people who lived only 400 generations ago in ways that are very obvious; that you can see with your eyes." .......... the pace of change has accelerated to 10 to 100 times the average long-term rate ...... Africans show a slightly lower mutation rate. "Africans haven't had to adapt to a fundamentally new climate ...... "Europeans and East Asians, living in environments very different from those of their African ancestors and early adopters of agriculture, were more maladapted, less fitted to their environments."
Do Film Critics Know Anything? TIME we're essentially passing notes to one another, admiring our connoisseurship at the risk of ignoring the vast audience that sees movies and the smaller one that reads us. ...... You will be forgiven if, like my friends at Time, you are scratching your head and feigning interest ....... the art-industrial complex. ..... Moviegoers who are TV viewers don't want horse races; they want coronations — validations that somebody in Hollywood is ready to honor the movies they love. ...... But the Golden Globes and the Oscars, if they follow the critics' lead, will have V.D.D. — viewer deficit disorder. ...... The Oscars are largely an affirmative action program, where the industry scratches its niche. The show is a conscience soother, but not a crowd pleaser. And it all starts here, with critics fighting over which hardly seen movie they want to call the best of the year.
Summing Up Oprah & Obama Almost all of the 8,500 people packing the Center were white — and they were there to see two black people. Neither of whom would sing or throw a ball. ...... The wave was just one of the ways the audience tried to work off its nervous energy. They danced, they chanted. ...... her patented mix of girlfriend-style dish ("When Gayle and I talk... mmmm-mmm... we also talk about real things...") and campaign-style sermonizing ("Experience... means nothing unless that person is accountable for the judgments they made during the time they had.") ......... Oprah's role as a cultural arbiter ...... The slave Jane Pittman, Oprah said, looks for the one who might free her for years ....... The frenzy that then greeted Obama .... awe and hysteria ..... A lot people get excited to shake a politician's hand; not so many greet one as though he were about to heal them by laying his on them. ......... Secret Service agents stood every ten feet at the edges of the in-the-round stage, their impassivity glaring ..... the four rallies Opr-ama did over the weekend were not intended to change people's minds. They were about creating the kind of audacious political theater that makes supporters believe they're going to win, and casual observers into interested ones ....... less as an outreach program than as a reward system, distributing tickets to volunteers and those who had pledged to volunteer with higher priority than the general public
Attack in Algiers: A Warning to Europe a pair of powerful car bombs exploded, and claimed what early estimates placed as 62 lives ..... the work of al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a group that formed an alliance with Osama bin Laden's global jihad in 2006. ...... AQIM is ramping up its violent struggle to bring down the Algerian government. And as the fourth big hit by AQIM in less than a year, the incident highlights the group's increasing organizational skills and establishes it as the greatest potential terror threat to continental Europe as well. ........ The point of impact was located outside two highly symbolic institutions of the Algerian state: the nation's supreme court, and neighboring constitutional court. ...... badly damaging the offices of two United Nations organizations: the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), and the U.N. Development Program (UNDP). ....... The ability and determination of the AQIM to strike in stunning fashion was made even clearer two days earlier, when a suicide bomber charged the cortege of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika during a visit to the city of Batna, killing 22 people and injuring more than 100. ......... the effective recruitment among disenfranchised youths ....... The 15-year old terror group took on that name after affiliating with bin Laden on September 11, 2006. Since that time, AQIM has adopted the structured, stylized recruitment and attack methods of the original al-Qaeda. ........ The message is clear: We're now battling enemies wherever we can find them. ........ The threat of that kind of imported strike has grown since the AQIM promised to extend its Algerian jihad to Europe. Bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has repeatedly threatened Europe — and France in particular — as enemies of jihadist forces.
The Top 10 Everything of 2007
The Early Word: Storming Iowa New York Times the last debate in this state before the Jan. 3 caucuses. ..... Not one of the Republican candidates is viewed favorably by even half the Republican electorate ..... Democrats are happier with their field and more settled in their decisions. For all the problems Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to be having holding off her rivals in Iowa and New Hampshire, she remains strong nationally ..... what her aides acknowledge have been two of the roughest months of her candidacy ........ As governor of Arkansas, he implored President Bush to end the trade embargo with the communist nation ....... As governor, Huckabee supported in-state college tuition for children of illegal immigrants and stood up for illegal workers caught in a raid of a meatpacking plant. Now he wants all illegal immigrants to return to their native countries within 120 days. ....... he wrote a letter to Bush in 2002 describing how the Cuba trade embargo was hurting Arkansas rice growers. ...... Romney is broadcasting the first — well, sort of the first, negative ad of the campaign ..... the Arkansas Republican firing off yet another one of his memorable one-liners ...... You can expect immigration to continue to boil over at tomorrow’s debate. ...... “The correct, loving, caring social policy is to engage, not ignore … to discourage, not encourage” ..... “We would tell them, you can’t live on the street; you’re not allowed to.” ...... “If you need help finding something, we’re here to help … the one thing we’re not going to allow is just to live on the street,” he said. “That isn’t a good right. It’s not good for them. It’s not good for the city … it means they are crying out for help, and it should not be ignored.” ....... a grassroots Ron Paul home office in Manchester, N.H., and came out with frat house-like tales of cheese pizza, chips — even Coronas served in mugs ....... At first glance, the abundance of T-shirted youths with laptops gives this outpost the air of a fraternity or an Internet startup. Instead it represents a new type of political fundraising and may be a sneak peek at campaigns to come. … ...... He spends his days online ...... When filled, each of these houses — soon to number 20 across the state—will have different people and missions. But all will share certain tools of success: new technology, little hierarchy, microdonations and a democratic delegation of work. You could call it wiki-paigning. ......... “Innovation often comes from outsiders. It’s the people who have to throw the long bomb” ....... The country has not elected a bachelor president since 1884 ..... The last unwed candidate chosen by a major party was Adlai Stevenson, the divorced Democrat ...... his star-studded past love life ..... Ms. Shea-Porter earlier said she would remain neutral in the race, but now she’ll join the state’s other representative, Paul Hodes, in supporting Mr. Obama. ........ Michelle Obama campaigns in Iowa City, Sigourney, Fairfield, Mount Pleasant and Burlington, Iowa. ...... Hillary Rodham Clinton attends a “Conversation with Warren Buffett” in San Francisco.
Starting Gate: The Fog Of Primaries CBS News an opportunity for his primary opponents to try and define him on their own terms, and those efforts are well underway. ....... "I'm convinced as people take a good hard look at Mike Huckabee's record, they'll see this is a guy who is soft on criminals, soft on illegal aliens, but hard on taxpayers. ....... 96 percent of GOP primary voters in the CBS poll say illegal immigration is a "very serious or somewhat serious" problem and the issue tops the list of concerns for activists in Iowa in most surveys. ...... While Huckabee has blown up in the polls, he faces money and organizational problems. ..... Giuliani has pegged Florida for his big breakthrough but Romney, Thompson and now Huckabee are making noise there as well. ....... a Baptist minister from a town called Hope. And the forecast is for fog with a chance of severe surprises. ....... Noting the failed health care reform push the former First Lady led in the 1990s, Clinton insisted, "when she got beat she did what she’s always done when we got beat, she didn’t fold her tent. She started working for the Children’s Health Insurance program, which today insures 6 million kids in America, the biggest expansion since Medicare. We got better health care for cervical cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer and diabetes. We immunized 90 percent of our kids against serious illness for the first time in the history of the country and guess what? For the first time in a dozen years, the number of people with health insurance went down, not up like it is today.” .......... Clinton claimed yesterday that "over half of all the bankruptcies in this decade can be tied to personal health emergencies." ..... A day after Oprah-palooza, Obama goes Hollywood. ..... From The Road .... Renowned poet Maya Angelou voices a new radio ad for Clinton in South Carolina in which she refers to the candidate as, "my girl." ...... In yet another sign that the nation's media is desperate for a Bloomberg independent candidacy, the AP reports that the New York City Mayor is – a bachelor.
He received loud applause when he promised to end the Iraq war and end the genocide in Darfur. Obama also joked that he will be releasing his kindergarten papers in the morning – a reference to a jab from Hillary Clinton who said recently that Obama has wanted to run for president since he was in kindergarten. ..... “There is some scandalous stuff,” Obama said, “I experimented with coloring outside the lines when I was in kindergarten. Pulled on a girl’s pony tail once…and liked it.”

Colorado killer 'hated Christians,' police official says Houston Chronicle
New poll shows big shake-up in GOP race CNN Rudy Giuliani leads Mike Huckabee 24 percent to 22 percent in new poll ...... Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama 40 percent to 30 percent ..... December 6-9 ...... Huckabee doubled his support in October and doubled it again in November, going from 5 percent in October ...... who has spent the least time criticizing his opponents ...... The race is also tightening on the Democratic side. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York is still the front-runner, with 40 percent of Democratic voters backing her in the new CNN poll, down from 44 percent last month. ....... at 30 percent, up from 25 percent last month ..... "a similar thing is happening in both parties. Candidates are emerging who are likeable and who appeal to the party's base ....... "Obama's support has not hit 30 percent in any national poll since July; the fact that he has cracked that barrier this close to the start of the primary season indicates that he may finally be chipping away at Clinton's core constituency" ....... Forty percent in a late-December poll is a position most candidates in past years would envy.
Minister, 3 mps resign in Nepal Hindu Nepal’s Minister of Science and Technology, Mahantha Thakur, and three other lawmakers resigned from the government and interim Parliament on Monday to lead a separate political front in Terai. ..... would form a separate political front in Terai and launch an agitation to secure the rights of the Madhesi people. ..... “The government has failed to maintain even basic law and order in the Terai,” said Mr. Thakur. ..... The Madhesi lawmakers are uniting to give a “democratic” outlet to the Madhes crisis, Mr. Tripathi said. ..... He claimed that other Madhesi lawmakers would also soon resign from the interim Parliament and join them. ..... this will create a new political polarisation in Terai. ..... Various small political outfits, including Madhesi People’s Right Forum and splinter group of Nepal Sadbhabana Party, have already formed two separate political fronts in Terai. ........ More than a dozen armed outfits are currently engaged in armed rebellion along the Terai stretch, bordering India.
Nepal minister, mps resign over Terai problems Times of India vowing to launch an agitation to build a "peaceful and prosperous" Madhesh ... Thakur, who resigned from both the ministerial and party posts is one of the two powerful general secretaries of the ruling Nepali Congress party led by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala..... due to the "confusing attitude of the government" and the "vision-less moves" of the Seven Party Alliance, the southern Nepal plains is moving towards further conflict and violence..... "We want to see the formation of a peaceful, prosperous and autonomous Terai region and it is our common responsibility to achieve that goal through peaceful agitation," the statement said.
Nepal cabinet member, mps resign over unrest: officials AFP over the government's failure to tackle ethnic and communal violence in the south of the country ...... At least a dozen armed groups have sprung up in the last 12 months claiming to be fighting for increased autonomy for the region, home to around half on Nepal's 27 million people.
Putin Names A Successor Forbes Dmitry Medvedev, first deputy prime minister ..... Medvedev, at 42, is relatively young and modern, a lawyer by training who worked few of his adult years under the Soviet regime. ...... the siloviki, a powerful clique of former and current intelligence officials who hold jobs in government. ...... In choosing a less politically powerful ally, Putin may be trying to reverse a long-time Russian tradition: The successor undoing the authority of his predecessor. The pattern held throughout Soviet times, and has continued today. Yeltsin largely undid the legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev, and Putin then gave Yeltsin the same treatment. The chances that Medvedev could try to lessen Putin's power are lower, since Putin seems to plan to remain active from the sidelines. ....... His chairmanship of Gazprom, the publicly traded gas monopoly, is widely seen as evidence of the opacity--if not corruption--among Russian officialdom. If Medvedev is elected president, he would have to step down from the Gazprom chairmanship, a post which might then be filled by Putin himself.
On Iran, US stumbles and Europe grumbles International Herald Tribune Jalili's version of diplomatic outreach was to say: "Everything in the past is past, and with me, you start over. None of your proposals has any standing." ...... Another laugh-line for a world audience singled out from the NIE: "We assess with moderate confidence that convincing the Iranian leadership to forgo the eventual development of nuclear weapons will be difficult." ...... the report's finding that it was international pressure that led to Iran stopping its weapons program in 2003. ...... Jacques Chirac suggested as recently as this January that the world could well live with Iran producing a few nukes ..... an unhappy new reality: In this dispute, only the Iranians retain unpredictability as a credible weapon.
Letter from Washington: The faltering Clinton campaign 11 Democrats from Philadelphia who gathered last week to discuss the U.S. presidential race ..... were about equally balanced between the front-runners ..... Obama, they say, would be inspirational, motivating, charismatic and compassionate. ...... "Obama fits the year in terms of aspirations and hopes" ....... When these voters talk about America today, they want a picture that almost cries out for Obama. ..... she hasn't allowed voters to see who she is and her personal dimension ..... The Clinton camp has similar research. Things are tense in Hillaryland these days. ..... Her once-commanding advantage over Obama in Iowa and New Hampshire - the two critical initial contests - is evaporating. She has gotten the worst of recent exchanges over Iran and health care. There are political strains with her greatest asset and surrogate, Bill Clinton. The former president was quoted last month as saying he had really opposed the invasion of Iraq from the beginning. He later claimed he was misquoted. .... Top Clinton campaign officials were privately furious at the former president, saying he had revived the complaint that the Clintons lack credibility, unfairly tarnishing his wife in the process. For his part, the former president, one close associate says, is bouncing off the walls at the campaign's ineptitude in the past few weeks. (It is not known whether the Clintons shared any of these sentiments with each other.) ...... Hillary's campaign is off-balance. ....... Except her attacks were neither focused nor effective. This strategy raised more questions about her than about Obama. ..... her campaign has a near-obsession with what it perceives as a hostile press. ...... a good bet that Clinton, encouraged by her husband, is weighing a shake-up, like bringing in John Podesta, the former White House chief of staff, to direct the overall campaign .... she may well finish third in the Iowa caucuses and lose to Obama in New Hampshire. In the past 30 years, no candidate has lost both these tests and won the nomination.
Police Find Secret Passage Through a Wardrobe to Darwin's Hideout ABC News
Why Oprah Gives Obama Political Leeway FOX News Oprah-palooza is a big test for her famous power to bring in women, particularly white women. White women are, of course, the basis of her great success. ....... So she is telling her female audience don't buy that solidarity thing and vote for a woman — Hillary — but telling black people do buy the solidarity thing and vote for the black man. ....... It's odd listening to her appearance before church people. She slipped easily into a slower and more sing-songy Southern cadence, and we know when Hillary tried the same thing she got slammed for it. Oprah won't be criticized. She can affect a "Color Purple" voice and get away with it. .... the messianic tone of her introduction to Barack Obama ..... when she's around, nobody notices anything else but Oprah.
Oprah leads the way for Obama Financial Times
The Daily Five: Shea-Porter Endorsing Obama? Atlantic Online Obama has events out west; he'll start a 5-day bus tour on Friday ...... The New Hampshire Union Leader's breaking news alert has Rep. Carol Shea-Porter endorsing Sen. Barack Obama tomorrow
Clinton, Obama ads reveal the candidates Boston Globe
GOP Voters Are Uninspired by Candidates New York Times
Hillary Clinton as LBJ? Washington Post his wife on a detour through California ..... He compared her favorably to former President Lyndon Johnson ..... he did challenge Obama's ability to bring about change. "It's one thing to have good intentions; it's another thing altogether to change the reality of people's lives," Clinton said. "It's important, communication is. But it's also important to know how to get from a good intention to a specific result." ..... Both Clinton and Obama are on the West Coast, their schedules locked in by a previous commitment to attend a Democratic debate that was eventually cancelled due to the writers' strike.
Showing signs of vulnerability, Hillary Clinton shifts her focus ... International Herald Tribune The sense of inevitability that her campaign once stoked had dissipated. And rather than discussing her candidacy, Clinton explained the caucus process and showed a video entitled, "Caucusing is easy." ....... giving her Democratic opponents a chance to show that she can be beaten. ..... the Clinton campaign, which to some Iowans had appeared ignorant of the political subtleties here if not arrogant about them ....... "Here's the bottom line: they had not worked this state" ...... Her aides said she has largely cleared her schedule this week to prepare for the Democratic debate here Thursday sponsored by the Des Moines Register, the final encounter here among all the candidates before the caucuses. ..... a private dinner Friday evening with David Yepsen, the influential Des Moines Register columnist, who has repeatedly question whether Clinton appreciates the nuances of the state. ....... Most of her senior staff have moved from the campaign's national headquarters in Virginia to a windowless cluster of desks in Mrs. Clinton's headquarters in an office complex on the east side of Des Moines. Over the next few days, Howard Wolfson, the face of the Clinton war room, is driving out here from Washington. .......... Clinton has begun displaying a level of personal interest in the details of the campaign here that is unusual for even a presidential candidate named Clinton. ..... her aides acknowledged that, tactical problems aside, Iowans might well have taken a long and informed look at Clinton and decided not to vote for her. ...... Clinton was having trouble mastering the political intricacies of this significant if idiosyncratic state was echoed by Democrats in other campaigns, and reflected by the evidence of the sometimes tin-ear quality of the Clinton campaign in this state. ....... On her first trip here last January, one adviser said, Mrs. Clinton repeatedly expressed frustration, confiding to one associate that she "had no feel for the place." In one example of that, she responded with bewilderment when informed that she should not assume that she now had the support of an Iowa Democratic leader even after spending 40 minutes over coffee with him. ..... Clinton spent much of the early part of the year working huge rallies in big media market in the belief that the coverage from those rallies would reverberate into the more sparsely populated rural areas. But that is not the way things work in Iowa. ..... methodically worked rural areas, appreciating the importance of personal appeals to small groups of voters - but also, the peculiarity of caucus vote allocation that gives outsized influence to rural areas.
Clinton Shies From Full Iowa Schedule New York Times Mrs. Clinton stayed off the campaign trail Sunday and has no public events today; on Tuesday, her only event is in San Francisco (a good deal west of Iowa), where she will appear at a lunchtime “conversation” with Warren Buffett. To be sure, she is returning to Iowa Wednesday to campaign, and then taking part in the big Democratic debate in Des Moines on Thursday, before returning to New York for a gala fundraiser on Friday. ...... two days out of six in Iowa – less than four weeks before the caucuses – is pretty unusual ..... and New York lieutenant governor David Paterson are campaigning here as well. ...... One other detail: There are more than 400 people here for Mr. Clinton’s event at the Fisher Theater here on the Iowa State campus. Still, there are about 25 empty seats in the audience; at a university with 26,000 students, is it unusual that the theater isn’t standing-room-only? ....... And as it happens, not everyone here is a Clinton supporter; the woman who just sat next to me happens to be an Obama supporter, and is talking to reporters around us about how important Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement of Mr. Obama is.
Giuliani, Huckabee Tied; Clinton Up The Associated Press
Clinton Says Hillary Was Always the One The Associated Press Campaigning for his wife, former President Clinton says that when they were starting out he was and ability so struck by her intellecthe once suggested she should just dump him and jump into her own political career. ...... "She laughed and said, 'First I love you and, second, I'm not going to run for anything, I'm too hardheaded.'" ....... "I thought she was the most gifted person of our generation," said Clinton, who said he told her, "You know, you really should dump me and go back home to Chicago or go to New York and take one of those offers you've got and run for office." ........ she has "the best combination of mind and heart." ...... "When she came down there and we got married, I was a defeated candidate for Congress with a $26,000 salary and a $42,000 campaign debt," said Clinton. "If she were half as calculating as someone said, that's a really great way to run for president." ......... "She's the best non-incumbent I have ever had a chance to vote for. In my whole life I've never met anyone like her." ...... "He did an excellent job as president and we need some changes," said 82-year-old Morris Mericle, who attended Monday's event and said he wanted to see a former president he had voted for. ...... "I'm out of politics now except every two years the Democrats kind of haul me out of the barn like an old horse to see if I can make it around the track one more time," he said. ....... "They always send me to rural areas," said Clinton. "I've got boots that have been worn and I know one end of a horse from the other."
Gordon Brown asks Google to help the poor Telegraph.co.uk The Prime Minister is in talks to involve leading international companies, including internet giant Google and investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, to tackle a “development emergency” in the world’s poorest countries. ..... telecoms company Vodafone, and American supermarket firm Wal-Mart. ..... “There are 72 million children not going to primary school, in some countries one woman in six dies in childbirth, over a billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. ...... "The key to achieving the development goals is to concentrate on helping the very poor.” .... the prospect of initiatives in financial services, mobile telephones and agriculture
Office Live Workspace narrows Google App gap while playing to MS ... ZDNet the Redmond-based company is not about to get caught with its pants down the way it did in the mid-1990s when it was forced to regroup after being blind-sided by the Web. ....... OLW is primarily designed to use the Web as a shared workspace through which people collaborate on Microsoft Office-based documents. Much the same way the standard edition of Google Apps is free, OLW, which includes 500MB of free storage, will be available to users for free. Though they may not get to take full advantage of all that OLW has to offer, users need not have a copy of Microsoft Office to initiate and use an Office Live Workspace. Microsoft plans to support the service with advertising ..... it’s clear that Microsoft is really only a few lines of code away (code that’s probably already finished, but not activated yet) from offering a fully Web-based suite of its own ...... a matter of choice more than it is any inability to produce such an offering ...... “an extension” to Microsoft Office. ..... from within Microsoft Office, users can check-out documents (Word, Excel, etc.) from the shared workspace for editing at which point others must wait until that copy is checked back-in before they can edit it ...... Whereas Google’s approach to this sort of collaboration drives like a platform-independent Ferrari, Microsoft’s is still the same old Edsel.
Auction will alter wireless world Chicago Tribune the potential to make talking on cell phones, surfing the Web on a mobile device and watching TV on your handset easier and less expensive. ...... lead to the creation of the long-desired "third pipe" of high-speed Internet access to compete with phone and cable service. ........ a new era of wireless communications where networks are open to whatever devices or applications people want to use, and scanning Web sites and watching streaming video are as common as making phone calls and sending text messages. ....... The spectrum promises to help the U.S. catch up to Asia and Europe in the availability and speeds of wireless Internet and other mobile services. ....... Google, which wants to extend its Internet empire to the wireless world. ....... more choices than ever before in how they access the Internet ...... Mobile advertising, which is expected to grow dramatically, is one of Google's biggest potential new markets. ...... "Their basic strategic objective is to make sure that the wireless Internet resembles the wired Internet" ........ The airwaves are considered the beachfront of the wireless landscape.
Why Sprint should promote wimax to Wall Street until they get it ZDNet
Reliance leading the wimax Charge in India Words that Work
Amitabh Bachchan in DON sequel ! India Target
Harvard overhauls financial aid to cut tuition costs Reuters
Harvard Steps Up Aid for Middle-Class Students New York Times
Why Dell needs a handheld CNET News.com
Motorola to Be Taken Over by RIM, HP or Dell: CNBC SYS-CON Media
linkedin Makes Its Move BusinessWeek (Facebook is mostly for socializing with people you already know, while LinkedIn is for meeting people you don’t know, for professional purposes, through people you do know). ...... LinkedIn News starts by delivering news about key daily topics: a user's company, products, industry, and competitors, drawn from more than 10,000 publishers and blogs. Then, LinkedIn News uses the wisdom of each user's "crowd" of colleagues to determine the handful of articles that are the most important to their business -- the articles they need to read that day. ..... 17 million LinkedIn users ...... (LinkedIn is projecting it will have $75 million to $100 million in revenues next year.)

Them Civil Rights Folks

Andrew Young says Obama too young for White House Baltimore Sun, United States Civil rights leader and former Carter Administration U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young says 46-year-old Barack Obama is too young to be president and lacks the network of political allies that can provide important support for a national leader. ..... “I want Barack Obama to be president,” Young said, pausing for effect, “in 2016.” ..... “It’s not a matter of being inexperienced. It’s a matter of being young,” said Young, who is 75. “There’s a certain level of maturity ... you’ve got to learn to take a certain amount of (expletive).” ...... Young added that Obama needs a political network to bolster him in office. He noted Hillary Clinton had a well-established network of allies, including her husband, to provide political protection. ...... “There are more black people that Bill and Hillary lean on,” Young said. “You cannot be president alone. ... To put a brother in there by himself is to set him up for crucifixion. His time will come and the world will be ready for a visionary leadership.” ..... Young also quipped that “Bill is every bit as black as Barack.” ....... “He’s probably gone with more black women than Barack,” Young said of former President Clinton, drawing laughs from a live television audience. Young quickly followed the comment with the disclaimer, “I’m clowning.”
Civil Rights Icon Calls Obama Too Young The Associated Press
Barack Obama is too young to be President, says Andrew Young New York Daily News
Civil Rights Icon Andrew Young Hints at Clinton Endorsement MyFox Atlanta, GA
Young Hits Obama Washington Continent Former Atlanta Mayor and Ambassador ..... You have to have a protective network around you... Leadership requires suffering. And I would like to see Barack's children get a little older, see, because they're going to pick on them." ..... He reflected on his days serving as one of many lieutenants to Martin Luther King Jr. ...... while Obama's rival Sen. Hillary Clinton is surrounded by quite a few black advisors Obama has very few. .... Rev. Jesse Jackson, who had endorsed Obama, has been critical of the presidential candidate in recent weeks. .... Rev. Al Sharpton has said that he has not decided if he will support Obama.

When you learn Newtonian physics too well, that actually makes you less capable of getting a hint of Einsteinian physics. These civil rights era lions are acting like electromagnetism folks who will perhaps never get quantum physics. They deserve respect for the work they did half a century ago, but they don't deserve attention today in 2008. Don't listen to them.

People like Andrew Young find the idea of an occasional phone call from Bill Clinton intoxicating. Oh, access. Oh, mother power. What they don't realize is it is a leap from getting a phone call from Bill Clinton, and being Bill Clinton. Barack is about to become Bill Clinton.

"People don't change their ideas. They die with them."
- Max Planck

Andrew Young is not worth courting for me. Did Andrew Young witness the I Have A Dream speech in person? I doubt it. How did he skip the central message of that grand day? When MLK said "some day," he was thinking of Barack Obama.

There are people who will tell you, Barack should wait. He should wait his turn. Maybe eight years, maybe more. He should wait. Forget eight years, if it were about Barack Obama, I would say, bud, skip this circus, just never run. It's not worth it. You will spend too much time away from your kids. They will make you eat hotel food. They will make you sleep in motels, inns, hotels, and other sanitary but impersonal sleeping facilities invented by capitalism. You won't get to read as much as you would like to. They will put you out in the cold in your jacket because your overcoat might not look cool for the TV cameras. And you will have to deliver your stump speech over and over again. You will have to walk to the same U2 song, did they tell you? You will have to deal with creatures called volunteers. You will have to work to get them excited, and most of them you will never even meet. Some of them probably live unhygienic lives. You are already in history, you are already on TV, you are already in the top 1% income bracket. Just kick back and relax and take it all in.

But, don't you get it? This is not about Barack Obama. Barack can wait. He can afford to not even run, not now, not later. But the world can't wait. America can't wait. This is about America. This is about the world.

But this is also about race. Oprah gets it. Her billion dollars did not save her from the indignity in Paris. She was just another suspicious black person. Andrew Young does not get it. He might have marched in the 1960s, but he is going to have to work harder to convince me he was not blanked out half the time he was marching.

Barack can not wait four or eight or 12 years. If he is thinking about America, if he is thinking about the world. The time is now. It is now or never. Iraq will not wait four or eight or 12 years. America needs universal health care now. Actually it needed it yesterday. There has been enough waiting. This country has waited too long. Global warming will not wait while Barack bides his time.

I am going to admit something. When I got excited about Barack back in November 2006 when he hinted he might run, no kidding, I was not thinking the politics of hope, new kind of politics, what have you. I was itching for fights. Things were looking so good, the country was so sour on Iraq, I felt like I was on a roll. And I am still 101. I am having to learn this thing called new kind of politics, and politics of hope, and bringing people together, and all that. I have been warming to the idea. Some day I might even get it. But then that's the point. Barack is unique in what he bring to the table. He is a leader who will fill up the chasms that divide. That will make it possible for him to do big, bold things.

The civil rights movement was a task incomplete. Barack is the dream that MLK talked about. Them civil rights era folks are going to have to wake up, or they are going to have to disown their involvement in the civil rights movement. It really does boil down to that.

Barack "lacks the network of political allies?" Are you kidding me? This is the largest grassroots movement in human history. What planet are you on? Noone built a more impressive network before.

It is almost like some of these older black folks need the chronic poverty in the inner cities to continue because if that disappears then so does their relevance. That is pathetic.

It is pathetic that the most well known blacks in America need whites to like Barack before they will decide they like Barack also. It is weird. How about maybe not supporting Barack regardless of how white America feels about him? Or supporting him? Or not let Bill Clinton tell you how to think? Have some dignity and make up your own mind? Judge Barack on the merits.

If he is the best qualified, support him. If not, go support someone else who you think is best qualified. This is not about race. This is a job application. Just don't act more racist than the racist white folks you complain about.

MLK dreamt the dream. Barack will realize the dream. And you just might get the historical significance of Barack in about four, or eight or 12 years. Barack and America do not have to wait, but you take your time, be my guest.

And then Young totally loses me on all merits when he goes on this racist tangent about Barack's mother having married a "Chinese" and Barack having gone to Islamic schools (not true), and I am like, they never found out who was behind the anti-Mormon push calls in Iowa recently, but we now have the guilty party for the racist mud on Obama. Shame on you, Andrew Young.

"I can talk to white folks because I grew up around them when I was two," he says. Apparently he does not know his math. Barack also was around white kids when he was two. Young is confused. He is past his prime. He should lolly up and get off TV. He is being a disservice to the cause that gave him his entire identity.

The lowest part of Young's diatribe is when he feigns concern for Barack's kids as the reason why Barack should not even have run. Remember JFK and his two young kids? Barack reminds people of JFK. Where have you been? Boating?

Barack: Black Enough For Me







On The Web

Andrew Young - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New Georgia Encyclopedia: Andrew Young (b. 1932)
Bio of Ambassador Andrew Young
AYSPS People - Andrew Young
YOUNG, Andrew Jackson, Jr. - Biographical Information
In Defense of Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young, Jr. - SourceWatch
Lesson Plan - Andrew Young
Andrew Young resigns from Wal-Mart group - U.S. business- msnbc.com
Andrew J. Young, Jr., Oral History: LBJ Library
Michelle Malkin » Video: Andrew Young disses Obama, extols the ...

O O O

In The News

Oprah and Obama a hit in SC Chicago Tribune, United States
Oprah tries to give Obama a lift with black voters Reuters
Oprah Winfrey backs Barack Obama Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
Andrew Young says Obama too young for White House Baltimore Sun, United States
Oprah-Obama double bill largest political NH rally in recent memory Boston Globe, United States Around 6,000 people -- young and old and predominately female -- filled up about half of the Verizon Wireless Arena, the state's largest facility ....... This was the most attended political event in recent state history. ..... The event was also remarkable for its stagecraft. Over 30 television cameras, blaring music, grand, long entrances from both Oprah and Obama with standing ovations added to the idea that something was different about this rally. ..... The crowd clinged to Oprah and her stories. Teenage girls shook like they saw a member of the Beatles when she was introduced to a 30 second standing ovation. ....... there was an authenticty in Oprah's voice.
Clinton No Longer Should Worry Just About Iowa MSNBC the race for the Democratic nomination is no longer a tight 1-state contest, but a truly competitive race across the country. ...... Obama is nipping at her heels, trailing in Iowa by 2 points and trailing in New Hampshire and South Carolina by just three points. ..... Bill Clinton is still VERY popular among Democrats, in most cases, more popular than all of the actual contenders, though Obama matches the FPOTUS in FAV rating in New Hampshire. ...... Hillary Clinton's support is what you'd expect: women, folks over 50 and union members. ..... the biggest demographic gap is generational, not gender. ..... in all three states, she's seen as having run the most negative campaign to date. ...... Obama's support is overwhelmingly among independents and those under 50. ...... If Clinton and Edwards are sharing some supporters, doesn't that signal that those two may begin going after each other more so than Obama ...... Obama leads overwhelmingly on change and is seen as more honest than Clinton ..... South Carolina ... among black voters, as he leads Clinton by 16 points among African-Americans. But among whites, Clinton leads by 16. ..... experience doesn't appear to be all that important to voters
Roger Cohen: Obama and the American idea International Herald Tribune, France "We can and should lead the world, but we have to apply wisdom and judgment. Part of our capacity to lead is linked to our capacity to show restraint." ...... the failures in Iraq; the abyss between U.S. principle and practice (Abu Ghraib); the rise of other nations (China); startling displays of American incoherence (Iran); economic vulnerability (the dollar as a declining store of value); and resentments stirred by any near hegemonic power. ....... As Joyce Carol Oates put it in The Atlantic: "How heartily sick the world has grown, in the first seven years of the 21st century, of the American idea!" It has become a "cruel joke." ........ the universality of the American proposition: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness under a constitutional government of limited powers. "I believe in American exceptionalism," he told me, but not one based on "our military prowess or our economic dominance." ......... "our exceptionalism must be based on our Constitution, our principles, our values and our ideals. We are at our best when we are speaking in a voice that captures the aspirations of people across the globe." ........ America's capacity to inspire; it remains unique. ..... And I still see no credible alternative for stability to the far-flung American garrisons that act as the offsetting power to old rivalries in Asia and Europe. ....... There are cousins of mine in Kenya who can't get a job without paying an exorbitant bribe to some mid-level functionary. ...... I can speak forcefully about the need for Muslim countries to reconcile themselves to modernity in ways they have failed to do. ...... Al Qaeda attacked the West in Kenya, Bali and New York. Obama's father was Kenyan. The senator was schooled in Indonesia. He attended college in New York. The parallels are strange. They can also be a source of the toughness married to intuition for which he still seeks complete expression. ........ Nowhere in American history has the gulf between ideals and sordid practice been greater than on questions of race.

Attention Women of Iowa: Oprah!!! Time The first person to arrive outside Des Moines' HyVee Center on Saturday morning — a mere seven hours before Oprah Winfrey would take the stage ....... Dressed for a long wait in snowy 12-degree weather, Spurlin, 37 ...... a woman voter who knows what she's doing every day at 4pm ....... "Oprah's so personable and funny," said Spurlin ...... In 2004, just 66,690 of 340,241 female registered Democrats in Iowa caucused. ..... 1,385 people (no gender statistics were available) worked four-hour volunteer shifts for Obama in order to qualify for a ticket to Winfrey's appearance ....... the mostly-female crowd exploded in joy. Many women were moved to tears.

China steps up Tibet campaign in Nepal Times of India
Obama and the 'Oprah Effect': can she sway voters? Christian Science Monitor
Behind The NIE CBS News
Eight shot in two church incidents in Colorado Reuters
Nearly 30000 See Obama-Oprah In SC MSNBC Oprah Winfrey took the stage at William Bryce Football Stadium to deafening cheers. Over 29,000 people filled the risers, some having driven from as far as Savannah, Ga. .... "For the first time, I'm stepping out of my pew because I've been inspired. I've been inspired to believe that a new vision is possible for America. Dr King dreamed the dream. But we don't have to just dream the dream anymore. We get to vote that dream into reality," she told the crowd. ........... "I got some sense, I know the difference between a book club and this seminal moment in our history." ....... asking Obama to wait to run was the same as someone telling someone that they should wait to try and better their lives. ....... the atmosphere was infectious with Arrested Development and local bands playing, getting the crowd to sing and dance along. ....... Obama also had a fine moment, bringing thousands to their feet saying that it was time to "stand up" for change. ......... Music from U2 swelled across the stadium, and Obama sauntered up to the stage, throwing his arms around both women and the three waved to the screaming crowd. It was a beautifully choreographed political moment ........ One older woman, Manatha Young, from Columbia said that she had been deciding between Hillary Clinton and Obama but after Oprah she's looking more positively at Obama. ...... asking the crowd to text their cell phone numbers to the campaign. ...... broke a Guinness World Record by conducting the world's largest phone bank, 36,426 people in the audience called four names of South Carolinian voters listed on the back of their tickets and asked them to support Barack Obama. ........ 18 percent of the first 8500 people who signed into the event said they wanted to volunteer. Sixty-eight percent of people who got tickets online to the event had never been contacted by the campaign before. ...... Black voters will be convinced of his viability in a general election if he can win the majority-white states of Iowa and New Hampshire. ..... Manchester, New Hamphshire to speak at the sold out 11,000 seat stadium there. ..... months of buzz and speculation.
Offer your election scenario Chicago Tribune The majority of forecasters said Hillary Clinton will beat out Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination (52 percent to 44 percent), but so many of them think Clinton, if nominated, will lose in the general election that Obama is actually the best bet of readers to win the presidential election -- 36 percent picked Obama to win, 28 percent went for Clinton and only 10 percent chose Mitt Romney, the next closest candidate. I, too, think Obama will win. My guess is that Clinton will get hit with an Obama-lanche in Iowa, lose narrowly to him in New Hampshire and then, in a furious attempt to right her campaign and puncture Obama's balloon, go too negative and remind many Democrats that they've had enough of the polarizing pageantry of the Clintons and it's time to move on.
New Clinton Ad in Iowa, NH The Associated Press
Clinton campaign branches out by generations Los Angeles Times












Oprah Winfrey Campaigns for Obama in Iowa NH

O O Oprah, Sa Sa Santa

Oprah Needs To Hit The Campaign Trail

Oprah, looks like you will draw 80,000 people to your South Carolina event. I forgive you for breaking our record of 30,000 in Washington Square Park here in New York City. But we will break your record all over again come summer. We will get a million people into Central Park. That is how we will send Barack off to Denver. The idea is to sweep the country in November.

The Largest Rally In US Presidential Campaign History

In The News

Huckabee and Obama lead pack in Iowa New York Daily News Huckabee tops Romney 39% to 17% in the Hawkeye State, according to the latest Newsweek poll. Among Democrats, Obama leads Clinton, 35% to 29%. John Edwards trails with 18% support among likely caucus-goers.
High noon in Iowa: one small state, one global decision Guardian Unlimited
Primary dates in NH, Iowa will clash with breaks Boston Globe
Book flattens Nepal king's divine myth Times of India
Kernels from Iowa: Oprah stumps with Obama Kansas City Star “He has an ear for eloquence and a tongue dipped in the unvarnished truth” ....... “I’m not here to tell you what to think,” she said. “I’m here to tell you to think. Seriously.” ...... the Winfrey event became the hottest ticket of the Iowa caucus season — and Obama’s most heavily attended campaign event here to date. ...... “There are people here to see Oprah. I’m a byproduct” ...... polls show Obama pulling even to Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton in nationwide surveys. In Iowa, some polls show Obama building on a slight lead over Clinton and John Edwards. ....... “Experience in the hallways of government is not as important to me as experience on the pathways of life” ..... “Backstage, someone asked, ‘Are you nervous?’ and I said, ‘You’re damned right I’m nervous.’ ”
TV host Oprah gives buzz to Obama campaign AFP a rousing speech to a sea of screaming fans. ...... One of the biggest crowds so far in the 2008 race for president -- some 18,500 people according to Obama's campaign -- crammed into a hall in the early primary voting state of Iowa to hear Winfrey's first ever speech for a political candidate. ........ some of whom screamed they wanted her as vice president ...... Obama's campaign had to change the venue for Sunday's appearance from an 18,000-seat basketball arena to an 80,000-seat football stadium to accommodate the vast crowds expected. ....... the second-most admired woman in the United States -- just behind former first lady Hillary Clinton ..... One woman in the crowd fainted while Obama was on stage. He asked a paramedic who was in the audience to assist her. "This is what happens when folks get too excited for Oprah," Obama said.
Oprah Backs Obama For President Sky News
The Republicans Find Their Obama New York Times Washington’s shock over Mike Huckabee’s sudden rise in the polls — he “came from nowhere” ....... the Barack Obama polling surge of days earlier, the press pack has proved an unreliable guide to election 2008 ........ Huckabee’s abrupt ascent to first place in some polling nationwide ....... Like Senator Obama, Mr. Huckabee is the youngest in his party’s field. (At 52, he’s also younger than every Democratic contender except Mr. Obama, who is 46.) ........ Both men have a history of speaking across party and racial lines. Both men possess that rarest of commodities in American public life: wit. Most important, both men aspire (not always successfully) to avoid the hyper-partisanship of the Clinton-Bush era. ......... Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Obama may be united in catching the wave of an emerging zeitgeist that is larger than either party’s ideology. An exhausted and disillusioned public may be ready for a replay of the New Frontier pitch of 1960. ......... Huckabee’s polling spike is that it occurred just after the G.O.P. YouTube debate on CNN, where Mr. Romney and Rudy Giuliani vied to spray the most spittle at illegal immigrants. ....... Next to this mean-spiritedness, Mr. Huckabee’s tone leapt off the screen. ....... Huckabee’s record on race in general (and in attracting African-American votes) is dramatically at odds with much of his party ...... portraying the black Democratic Senate candidate in Tennessee, Harold Ford Jr., as a potential despoiler of white women. ........ After effusively praising Mr. Huckabee as unique among the G.O.P. contenders, Dr. West said: “I told him, ‘You are for real.’ Black voters in Arkansas aren’t stupid. They know he’s sincere about fighting racism and poverty.” ......... rivals whose main calling cards of fear, torture and nativism have become more strident with every debate ........ South Carolina’s 2000 Republican primary was a jamboree of race-baiting that included a whispering campaign branding Senator McCain as the father of an illegitimate black child. .......... an overwhelming majority of voters of both parties not only want change but also regard “reducing the partisan fighting in government” as high on their agenda. To his surprise, Mr. Hart found that there’s even a majority (59 percent) seeking a president who would help America in “regaining respect around the world.” ......... Florida, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona ...... The huge spread in the Journal-NBC poll between an unnamed Democrat and Republican in the presidential race — 50 to 35 percent — shrank to a 1 percent lead when Mrs. Clinton was pitted against Mr. Giuliani. ......... The more polarizing and negative a candidate turns in style, the more that candidate risks playing Nixon to Mr. Obama’s Kennedy.
Hillary Clinton wobbles as her backers turn to Barack Obama Times Online The presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, the Democrat frontrunner, is facing a wave of defections by supporters to Barack Obama, as an aura of “inevitability” about her nomination fades. ........ “I think Oprah can change anybody’s mind. I really do. She can draw people in and get them to listen to him,” Quarles said. ........ Former “Friends of Bill”, who served in the White House in 1990s but defected early on to Obama’s campaign, are not surprised by the drift away from Hillary. ......... Betsy Myers, a White House adviser on women’s issues - and sister of Dee-Dee Myers, Bill Clinton’s former press secretary - is now chief operating officer for Obama’s campaign and responsible for much of its organ-isational prowess. ......... Myers worked with Clinton when she was first lady. .... I was really looking for a new generation of leadership skills, away from the old control and command model ..... William Daley, Bill Clinton’s former secretary of commerce, is another prominent Obama backer ............ Among the American people there is a bit of a Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton issue. ....... she would be better suited to the job of Senate majority leader. “It would be perfect for her” ...... Clinton’s campaign staff - normally self-assured - began to wobble last week as the polls narrowed. ......... In South Carolina, the latest poll shows Obama moving into first place over Clinton by 26% to 24%. ........ Judie Reever, a state representative in New Hampshire, believes Clinton is looking vulnerable for the first time. ........ Every time I heard Obama speak, I kept saying, ‘Yes!’, and I suddenly realised he was the person I was going to support
Civil Rights Icon Calls Obama Too Young The Associated Press "He's probably gone with more black women than Barack," Young said of former President Clinton
US polls move against top election contenders Telegraph.co.uk the wide-open, $2 billion battle to elect the most powerful politician in the world ......... her 88-year-old mother, Dorothy Rodham ....... "The only other universally adored person coming to Iowa this December is Santa" ....... a fight dominated by the explosive issues of religion, terror and immigration. ...... the first time in eight decades that no incumbent president or vice-president is attempting to win the nomination; it is the most expensive in history; and it could well put the first woman, black, Italian-American, ordained minister or Mormon into the White House. ...... There's a hurricane of activity out there on the campaign trail right now ....... the first $2 billion campaign in history. ....... Clinton has one of the most formidable political organisations ever assembled. They play with broad shoulders and sharp elbows. They take no prisoners and accept no criticism. ........... "The next two or three weeks are going to be just blistering. If I'm Barack Obama, I'm thinking of what Bette Davis once said: 'Buckle up it's going to be a bumpy ride'." ........ John Zogby said: "She has probably the best name recognition of any candidate in the entire history of presidential elections - but she still only has 25 to 30 per cent support in Iowa."
Oprah and Chelsea Clinton Hit Iowa Washington Post "You know I've never done this before and it feels like I'm out of my pew," Winfrey told the crowd, "I'm nervous." ....... Leading up to the speech, the Obama campaign all but ground to a halt as senior advisers in Chicago helped Winfrey prepare. Taking the stage in Des Moines, dressed in a lilac velvet suit and accompanied by the candidate's wife, Michelle, Winfrey initially appeared nervous and clutched a sheaf of papers as she spoke. But she quickly warmed to the crowd, her voice booming through the hall as she declared that "this is not a time for any of us to shrink away from a new, bold path for our country." ......... Winfrey shifted in her seat nervously as Obama piled on praise. "This is a wonderful person. We love her. I am grateful for her being here," he said, before turning towards his guest and adding, "she's embarrassed." ........ "You know, I am so tired. I'm tired of politics as usual. That's why you seldom see politicians on my show -- because I only have an hour." ....... "We need good judgment," she continued. "We need Barack Obama." ....... People began arriving hours before the 3:30 central local time appearance ....... Chelsea Clinton worked the crowd energetically afterwards with a gracious "Hi, thank you for coming," while urging people to support Clinton on Jan. 3 ....... Clinton ignored questions about the Winfrey event, turning away from the microphones to shake hands along the rope line. ........ "My feelings about Oprah and Obama are the same," Randolph said.
Chelsea Clinton hits the trail Boston Globe
Clinton's Mother, Daughter Hit Trail The Associated Press 88-year-old mother Dorothy Rodham and 27-year-old daughter Chelsea Clinton ....... Chelsea worked a crowd hard ..... the Clinton women went to an elementary school in Williamsburg where Clinton displayed a list prepared by schoolchildren about what the next president should do. .... "What does the next president do to help children," Clinton read from the list. "She — I like that, she — could put Band-Aids on children that are hurt." ......... the state has one of highest populations in the nation over 85.
As Obama Draws Winfrey, Clinton Adds Family Value New York Times a second audience of about 7,000 in Cedar Rapids. ...... “It is my honor to introduce to you the first lady of television, Oprah Winfrey.” A wave of camera flashes illuminated a downtown convention center here as Ms. Winfrey entered to a thunderous roar. ........ the nation was at a critical moment in its history that required a candidate who could heal divisions and chart a new direction ......... The Obama campaign captured the names and addresses of thousands of those who attended the rallies. Those who agreed to volunteer for at least four hours over the past two weeks received premium tickets. ......... “I think Oprah is John the Baptist, leading the way for Obama to win”
Clinton Team Turns Iowa Focus to Women Washington Post "It's obvious that Obama has made some inroads with women," said one senior Clinton adviser ....... Senior Obama strategist Steve Hildebrand argued that the Clinton logic is wrong, because it is based on "the assumption that women voters are going to support Hillary Clinton because she's a woman. That's not how voters make up their minds." ........ Among women likely to vote in the Jan. 3 Democratic contest, 32 percent supported Obama, 31 supported Clinton and 19 percent supported Edwards. ....... But perhaps Clinton is not the right woman ....... the broad category of unmarried women who constitute nearly half the female electorate, just completed a survey that shows women to be motivated by Clinton's candidacy but more driven by a desire to bring about change -- which would appear to mesh with the Obama message. ........ "I'm actually surprised at myself that I'm not wholeheartedly supporting Hillary," Lux said. "It grieves me as a woman."
Hillary Clinton welcome Bill's advice, and that's all Baltimore Sun Clinton says she'll welcome any advice her husband, former President Bill Clinton, would provide her if she wins the White House, but she'll be the one running things.