PBS Debate: Hillary Was Strong, Barack Was Warm, Edwards Was Composed

Riviera Cafe

225 W 4th St
New York, NY 10014
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What a great venue. It felt like there were roads on all sides to the bar. Am I on West 4th or am I on West 10th? That is what it felt like.

Jacki E and her husband were there in full force. Jacki was busy putting up balloons. They are hard core. Many of the usual faces were there. Raj showed up with his girlfriend. Vishesh showed up with a friend from his LSE school days, Hildur from Iceland. Jeff. Carlos. Karen. Sylvan.

I met Vishesh first at Raj's MeetUp at his apartment in SoHo only a few days back, one of the best MeetUps I ever been to. It started in this huge living room. Then it went onto the rooftop, and then to a bar. A BBC movie crew was there.

Hildur's verdict was that Hillary won the debate.

In the last debate Hillary's attitude was, I am Hillary, and I am hilarious. In this debate she exuded strength, seriousness and discipline. She was one candidate who always stayed within her time limit.

She was the most aggressive on stressing that yes, racism very much exists. And she had a whole bunch of black women standing and cheering. She said if AIDS were impacting white women from this to that age, this country would be much more riled up about AIDS.

"Race matters powerfully." Obama has said that before. I wish he had used that line today. This was the audience for it.

When a whole bunch of black women stood up and cheered Hillary, Obama probably felt that his wife was perhaps feeling bad. She is the one who has been trying to breathe life into the Women for Obama effort. So he made a wonderful love gesture on that same question. Biden said Obama had gone through a HIV test. When it was his turn Obama pointed out that his wife had as well, just to make sure noone got the wrong picture. And that joke had the audience hollering, and got his wife beaming.

It was also a smart political move to show off that he could get the audience excited just like Hillary.

Hillary is a policy wonk, and it showed. She came across as super prepared.

Obama needs to battle on the gender front with the same vigor. How about saying, yes, we live in a sexist country. We live on a sexist planet. I know I do.

It is very important for both Hillary and Obama to run a positive campaign, and to not start trading negatives. In a few months they are both going to get desperate, but the positive has to be maintained.

It is so obvious one of them is going to win and the other is going to be number two. When that happens, they must pair up. Handling race alone is hard. Handling gender alone is hard. It is best if you handle both at once. The two mega issues feed on each other for progress.

Why Hillary?

I am rooting for Hillary for Obama's running mate. Why?

1. For the same reason that JFK picked Johnson. You pick the person who finished second out of respect for all those who did vote for that person.
   
2. There are three billion women on the planet. There are 150 million in America.
   
3. Rudy is from New York. Bloomberg is from New York. Hillary is from New York.
   
4. You get Bill Clinton as bonus. You pay for one, and get one free.
   
5. She is smart, hard working, talented, disciplined, good looking.
   

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Murdoch hated the proposal. .. it would give the Bancroft family more involvement over the Journal after they sold it than they had exercised before. ....... threatening to pull his offer — a move that would have sent Dow Jones stock plummeting back to earth ..... and if the deal was going to die, he wanted to be the one to kill it ...... Any deal can blow apart at any time, and this one was especially combustible ...... the Bancrofts, whose Class B supervoting shares ..... Murdoch — the ultimate outsider, the ink-stained interloper who started in 1953 with a single paper in Adelaide, Australia ..... Murdoch's archrival, Sumner Redstone of Viacom, thought he had a deal for MySpace, but News Corp. swooped in and snatched it, bidding $580 million, $30 million more than Redstone and far more than anyone else thought it was worth. Then the site grew from 20 million members to almost 200 million, Google paid $900 million for the right to advertise on the site, and suddenly Murdoch's price looked cheap — and Murdoch looked like an Internet visionary. "I love being called that," he says, "but the truth is, I'm just lucky and nimble." ...... the most gifted opportunist in media, a man whose nose for a deal makes him the last of the true media moguls, the one who's still building — grabbing Dow Jones, dreaming about trading MySpace for a big chunk of Yahoo!, trying to launch a Polish TV network. ...... worth $9 billion. ...... lives like an old-fashioned tycoon too, hopscotching the planet on his 737 and recharging on his yacht off St. Tropez ...... London, where he got thrown from a horse (but didn't break anything — too busy) ........ threw a party in Kensington Gardens for 400 friends, including incoming British Prime Minister Gordon Brown ..... Murdoch and his third wife, Chinese-born Wendi Deng, 38, have added two daughters, ages 3 and 5, to a fiercely competitive yet surprisingly close-knit family of four adult siblings from his two previous marriages. Murdoch likes to say he has 20 good years left. ..... Dow Jones, which over the years has misplayed some juicy opportunities to sell financial information in the digital world ...... Others may look at Dow Jones and see an excellent, world-renowned (though economically stagnant) print newspaper with a successful subscription-only website; Murdoch sees the engine of a global, interactive, multiplatform business-and-finance network that will drive his soon-to-be-launched Fox Business Channel, power up his 24-hour Sky News channel in Europe and fuel a still inchoate collection of online financial services. ........ "We'll sell our business news and information in print, we'll sell it to anyone who's got a cable system, and we'll sell it on the Web." .... In 1976 he bought the failing, family-owned liberal New YorkPost and solemnly pledged to "maintain its present policies and traditions." Then he yanked it hard right and down-market. ...... tabloid terror ...... Each day brings another investigative story about Murdoch using his media properties to boost his business interests, reward his friends and punish his rivals ....... "Why would I spend $5 billion for something in order to wreck it?" he asks. ...... "At his tabloids, Rupert's word is treated as the word of God. At his serious papers, there's much more of a discussion." ........ he may not be the same scorpion at 76 that he was at 51 ...... the man who influences Prime Ministers and Presidents and still poses as a scrappy outsider ...... When you're a catalyst for change, you make enemies — and I'm proud of the ones I've got ...... "When the Journal gets its Page 3 girls," he jokes late one night, "we'll make sure they have M.B.A.s." ....... There's such a thing as a popular newspaper and an unpopular élite newspaper. They play different roles. We have both kinds. ....... Murdoch isn't a party-line guy. He's a pragmatist. He likes strong politicians and change agents and winners ..... Fox News, a channel that gives voice to angry middle-aged white guys. ...... It's not what they say. It's what they highlight ...... He'd like the newspaper to be a national counterpoint to the New York Times in setting the country's agenda. ....... Circulation and advertising revenues are ebbing away everywhere, he notes, proportional to broadband penetration. ......... "What if, at theJournal, we spent $100 million a year hiring all the best business journalists in the world? Say 200 of them. And spent some money on establishing the brand but went global — a great, great newspaper with big, iconic names, outstanding writers, reporters, experts. And then you make it free, online only. No printing plants, no paper, no trucks. ......................................... WSJ.com has more than 900,000 subscribers, making it the largest paid-subscription site on the Web, but less profitable, Murdoch suspects, than it might be with a hybrid model — with free users driving ad sales and premium users willing to pay for high-end content. ...... (Redstone called Murdoch's victory a "humiliation" and later fired Viacom CEO Tom Freston.) ..... Murdoch began very preliminary, exploratory talks about ....... "A media company is basically anything that communicates with people — news, ideas, entertainment, advertising — and allows them to communicate with each other," he says. "But trading the site for 25% or more of Yahoo!the Internet is teaching people every day to expect everything for free. So it has to be advertising supported." ........ unlike many of his contemporaries, Murdoch has consistently been able to see around the corner ...... Rupert, a man who buys ink by the barrel and isn't afraid to apply it.
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The iPhone's Carrier Problem Consumers have long been able to save e-mails, forward them at will and access them in whatever order they want, so why is voice-mail stuck in the dark ages? ....... Google recently proposed an auction system that would enable new players to buy into the wireless spectrum, an idea that could open the door to the sort of competition in the mobile world that enabled the high-speed access offered by better Internet Service Providers to topple AOL's old stranglehold on its customers. ....... by 2010, about as many people will have a cell phone as a toothbrush.
Why the CIA Is Airing Its Dirty Laundry The CIA is about to publish its "book of skeletons" .. Coups, assassinations, kidnappings, domestic spying, break-ins, illegal telephone taps .... Another way the White House used the CIA to skirt the law has been to secretly order it to assassinate foreign leaders. For a start, we don't do assassinations well. ...... "We have run operations to assassinate foreign leaders. We have never succeeded." ..... a CIA misused, ordered to do things it can't and shouldn't be doing
The Next Flashpoint in Iraq The Americans, who've been working with the national police to check sectarian tensions here, cut the corpse down, wrapped it in a body bag ..... the predominantly Shi'ite national police in Samarra, an overwhelmingly Sunni city ..... On June 16, Sadr urged Shi'ites to join an annual Shi'ite pilgrimage to Samarra the first week of July.
Beckham's US mission Hindu his $250 million transfer to Los Angeles Galaxy ...... finally, wiping out all traces of neutrality, a Hollywood connection in Tom Cruise. ..... What can the Beckham package deliver in a sporting nation that has its mind sufficiently occupied with American football, baseball and basketball? ...... America presents an irresistible combination of wealth and indifference. ........ We want to emerge as America's first super-club, to compete with Madrid and Man United. ...... I want to take soccer in the US to another level. I think it can go higher in America than anyone can believe. Soccer is huge all around the world except in America and that's where I want to make a difference with the kids," said Beckham earlier this year. ....... His 32-year-old injury-prone body ..... an unquenchable thirst for publicity .... The vibrant lifestyle resonates well with his and his wife's. ...... Beckham is by no means the world's best footballer, but he is no talent deficient mid-fielder who fluked it as a superstar.
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NH poll: Clinton, Romney in lead MSNBC Clinton led the Democratic pack with 37%; Obama was second with 19%; Edwards and Richardson were tied at 9%. On the Republican side, Romney had 26%; Giuliani was next with 22%; McCain and Fred Thompson were tied at 13%. The margin of error for the poll is 4.38%. .... The survey finds Clinton’s lead over Obama is significant with voters 56 and older, who went for Clinton overwhelmingly, 47%-15%. Conversely, Obama and Clinton were virtually tied with younger voters (ages 18 to 45) with Obama having a slight 26%-25% edge. .... Three in 10 Clinton supporters say they would switch their vote to Gore if he were to get in the race. .... if Bloomberg jumps in, Republicans are the ones who would be hurt. Bloomberg would get about 6%-8% of a general election vote, according to the poll, and in all six general election scenarios, Democrats improved or maintained their margins.

Israeli President to Resign in Plea Bargain New York Times he would not face a jail term or rape charges but would plead guilty to a charge of indecent assault and other charges .... would also be charged with sexual harassment and harassing a witness .... charges of rape and other sexual misconduct related to four women who worked for him when he was tourism minister in the late 1990s or after he became president in 2000 ..... Mr. Olmert said Israel would cooperate with Mr. Blair to the fullest
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Sen. Obama Donors Near 250000 Individuals NewsMax.com
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Nearly 250000 Open Wallets for Obama Forbes Obama has improved on his stunning support in the race for campaign cash ...... the average donation in the second quarter is likely to be less than the roughly $247 in the first quarter. ..... it collected more than 339,000 contributions - meaning that many individuals made repeat donations - and its goal will be to reach 350,000 by the deadline. ..... Obama's campaign announced the final push for cash on the same day as a Democratic presidential debate, an announcement that could rattle his rivals. .... "we do expect Senator Obama to significantly outraise us this quarter." .... That another candidate could even approach Clinton's fundraising prowess was unthinkable six months ago. But the freshman senator from Illinois has drawn supporters who have been inspired by his long-standing opposition to Iraq, his message of hope and his chance to be the first black president. ...... Obama has attracted the Wall Street executives, Hollywood moguls and other rich donors who traditionally have fueled political campaigns. But Obama has also concentrated on smaller donors who can give just $25 or $50 each, a practice that other campaigns said they also have adopted in the second quarter. ....... Obama still trails Clinton in national and most state polls ..... Howard Dean built a reputation for unprecedented grass-roots support when 70,000 people contributed about $10.5 million in the first two quarters of 2003. .... much of Obama's money comes in small-dollar donations made over the Internet. .... So far this quarter, Obama aides say $20 million would thrill them
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Edwards' Crumbling Campaign is Bad News for Clinton RealClearPolitics At the end of 2006, with Mark Warner out and former Vice President Al Gore on the sidelines, John Edwards posed the greatest threat to Senator Clinton's hold on the Democratic nomination. Obama's formal entry into the race immediately split the substantial anti-Hillary vote, which worked to Senator Clinton's advantage and John Edwards' detriment. ......... Edwards' crumbling campaign and its consequences on the Democratic contest .... Edwards, on the other hand, has lost over 30% of his support and has seen his national numbers fall to 12.4% ..... Edwards' implosion has strategically weakened Senator Clinton's hold on the nomination. .... The Clinton campaign wants to neutralize Edwards and to limit the odds of him breaking out with an early win in Iowa. But they don't want to see Edwards' campaign totally implode and allow the anti-Hillary forces to rally behind an increasingly powerful Senator Obama. .... the rumblings that the Obama campaign is poised to release a monster haul, the potential elimination of Edwards as a serious candidate, coupled with the Obama campaign's ability to not only compete with, but to beat, the vaunted Clinton machine, could be the catalyst that allows Obama to consolidate his position as the sole anti-Hillary candidate ..... He would then be in a very strong position to tighten those horserace numbers both nationally and in the key early states over the next quarter as we head into the fall.
More oh-eight: 250000 donors? Wow. MSNBC Hispanics are identifying with Democrats by a greater number than in 2004. ..... so far, the chief beneficiary of this Hispanic movement toward the Democrats is Hillary Clinton.
Perspective on Obama's donor numbers the Obama folks handed First Read a research document of past newspaper clippings showing that Howard Dean -- Mr. Grassroots/Netroots of the 2003-4 cycle ..... for the entire year of 2003, it was reported that about 280,000 people donated to his campaign -- a figure which Obama will seem to almost equal in just half a year.

US Senate heads for crucial immigration vote Reuters
Immigration bill faces key vote Baltimore Sun
Senate hands Bush major defeat on immigration Washington Post In a crucial make or break vote that exposed deep lack of support among Bush's own Republicans, the legislation fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed in the 100-member Senate to advance toward a final vote. ...... it was unlikely Congress would return to immigration reform before next year's presidential election. .... Bush made clear he was moving on from immigration to other issues like balancing the federal budget. .... Republicans who said it was an amnesty for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants ...... Only 46 senators -- 33 Democrats, 12 Republicans and 1 independent -- voted to advance the bill. Some 15 Democrats joined 37 Republicans and 1 independent to block the legislation. ...... Immigrant groups opposed measures in the bill that limited migration on the basis of family ties. .... Republican opponents of the bill said Bush should give up on broad immigration reform and concentrate on keeping illegal immigrants out. ...... Supporters of the bill were crushed. .... "It's like in Vietnam when they said 'we had to destroy the village to save it,' well here they are destroying the economy to save the U.S. border"



'Hilton's condition was feared life-threatening'Telegraph.co.uk "Our doctors said we had no solution for her medical problem — none. .... the socialite, an heir to the Hilton hotel empire .... Miss Hilton's punishment far exceeded the time served by most county inmates for similar offences - a conclusion supported by a Los Angeles Times analysis of 1,500 similar cases since 2002. ...... she attended the MTV Movie Awards immediately before she was jailed and was in apparent rude health as she left jail, smiling and waving to media and fans. ..... the heiress had conned her doctors and the sheriff's medical staff. ..... the multimillionaire celebrity said she was “basically in the foetal position, basically in hysterics,” during her first night in jail. .... "The doctors were observing me while I was there. They explained to Sheriff [Lee] Baca that they thought I was having severe anxiety, panic attacks, claustrophobia.” ..... rival networks reportedly turned down costly deals to secure the exclusive. ..... will not be paid for her CNN appearance. ..... a large media contingent keeps a round-the-clock watch at the gates ..... the sheriff's spokesman, said the case had become a “global phenomenon” ...... Mr Baca recently attended a conference on global terrorism in Turkey and later met police chiefs from Azerbaijan and Armenia. Afterwards, the sheriff told him: “Guess what they talked about on every leg of the trip? Paris Hilton.”
Hey, Paris Hilton! What Are You Going to Do Now? Washington Post She is free, but are we? .... She goes to parties . . . for a living. ..... obsessive media coverage of the Hilton Affair .... As opposed to her usual rather porny nightclub appearance, Hilton looked fresh-faced, almost innocent. ..... "I was not eating or sleeping. I was severely depressed and felt as if I was in a cage. I was not myself." ...... "I'm not the same person I was," Hilton says. "I used to act dumb. It was an act. I am 26 years old, and that act is no longer cute. It is not who I am, nor do I want to be that person for the young girls who looked up to me. I know now that I can make a difference, that I have the power to do that. I have been thinking that I want to do different things when I am out of here. I have become much more spiritual. God has given me this new chance." ....... Hilton said she would like to donate her celebrity to the challenges of breast cancer or perhaps multiple sclerosis or maybe "a kind of Paris Hilton playhouse, where sick children might come." .... in jail she read the Bible ..... a giddily crazed crush of paparazzi .... a giddily crazed crush of paparazzi, who swarmed their black SUV with cameras, pleading "Paris! Just one word! Paris," as if she were the oracle for our strange times. Hilton rolled down the window and told the press, "I'm great." She was smiling her trademark cipher smile. She did the chin dip. "Thank you for all your support," she said. ...... women's facility, where she had spent most of her jail time in solitary confinement or in the medical ward, news helicopters circled overhead and then aerially stalked her as she left the jail
Live Free or Die Hard: Fun and Forgettable TIME a rogue computer genius named Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) who has been shabbily treated by the federal government. He intends to get his revenge by hacking into every computer-run system in the country, beginning with the transportation grid and ending with the financial system, from which he intends to drain every last penny before he's finished. ....... nevermind the fact that McClane is so obviously computer illiterate .... the film's relentless, one-damn-thing-after-another pacing
Hilton says jail was 'traumatic' BBC News She said she was going to party less and be a "more responsible role model". ... "There's just so much more to me than what people think." .... said she wanted to set up a half-way house to help women when they are released from jail. .... Veteran interviewer Larry King later described Hilton's performance as "puzzling and perplexing", and said she was in denial about her crime.
'I hated it,' Paris Hilton says of time in jail CBC.ca
I didn't deserve to go to jail: Paris The Australian

Poll: Bloomberg could have Perot-like effect on 2008 race CNN Clinton of New York led the list of contenders with 43 percent. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois was next with 25 percent .... Clinton 49 percent, Giuliani 48 percent. .... Bloomberg's support seems to be on the rise -- 17 percent in a three-way contest against Clinton and Giuliani. .... nearly matches the 19 percent of the vote Ross Perot got the first time he ran in 1992. .... Right now, Bloomberg would take votes about equally from Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, and the outcome would still be close (41 percent for Clinton, 38 percent for Giuliani). ..... Bloomberg is not well known nationally. If he were to run, he could spend a lot of money defining himself to voters across the country. .... the CNN-ORC poll shows that a lot of voters are open to a new choice.
Samsung Churns Out 1.8-Inch Flash Hard Drives TechNewsWorld the industry's first 1.8-inch solid state drives (SSD) at a whopping 64 gigabytes, making the high-density flash-memory-based drives suitable for widespread ultra-portable laptop use. ...... "They pull less power and generate less heat, and you don't have to shield them as heavily, so they result in a smaller overall form factor." ..... Flash drives are durable enough to run through a clothes washing machine ..... we're talking about PC boot times in the ten-second range
Obama launches two television ads in Iowa, the first commercials ... San Diego Union Tribune
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Burned once, Clinton adopts cautious approach on health care reform Boston Herald

Obama, looking for jump-start, airs ads in Iowa USA Today Obama starts running two biographical TV ads Tuesday in Iowa, the first of his campaign for the Democratic nomination. ..... Obama at one point was close to or even with Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton in some national polls, but has been 10 to 20 points behind her in the last eight. He's third in most polls of Iowa.
Obama on the Airwaves Washington Post a speech that made him a force in national politics almost overnight. ..... "negotiation skills" and "ability to understand both sides." ..... The Obama campaign released little information about the extent of the ad buy other than to say it is statewide and "low level." ..... Obama's outstanding fundraising in the first quarter and the widespread belief that he will equal or eclipse that showing when the next fundraising period ends on June 30, he is likely to have the financial resources to stay on the air in Iowa all the way through the Jan. 14 caucuses. ...... Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) at 22 percent, followed by former senator John Edwards (N.C.) at 21 percent and Obama at 18 percent.
"Obama's Decline in the Polls: Who Turned Off the Electricity?" when the other side is telling a story about you that people are starting to believe, you'd better drop everything and offer a compelling counter-narrative ..... That two Democrats let George W. Bush make character an issue about them without ever turning his history of impulsivity, recklessness, drunkenness, investigation for insider trading, and draft evasion while cheerleading for the Vietnam War (not to mention his cheerleading at Yale -- not exactly a great visual image for a presidential nominee) into a voting issue speaks volumes about the way our party's leading strategists tend to understand the mind of the voter. ....... On the stump, Obama can be electrifying. And behind all that electricity is a first-rate intellect. ..... Northeastern intellectuals didn't care much for Bill Clinton, either, and he did what Edwards will likely need to do: he turned to alternative media (which are now much more powerful) and to local media, who are usually excited to talk with a major candidate rather than to run him into the ground. ...... Clinton, who is picking up votes the more she shows something other than the size of her cerebrum -- the warmth and humor whose lack have been her greatest emotional deficits. What Americans want most from their presidents are strength and warmth ..... We don't pick our spouses or friends based on their expected utility. And we don't pick our presidents that way, either. .... Let Obama be Obama.