The idea of Eliot Spitzer some day running for President Of The United States: it is over. It probably never was there to begin with, but now it is certainly over. But he should not resign.
Nothing changes the fact that Spitzer is an extremely talented man.
He had an extremely rough first year. A load of it can be attributed to anti-Semitism. He got more votes than Hillary. But Albany did not respect that.
It is not easy to be Jewish, and be talented, and be a first, and be a fighter. You can end up alone.
The personal attack on his father, he took it hard.
At some level I was always uncomfortable about the fact that Spitzer made his wife quit her career. A job is not just about bringing in the dough to pay the bills. Silda is a wronged woman.
Minority men tend to be more sexist in family settings. The pain the world inflicts on them, they in turn inflict on their families. That is the psychological explanation, but that is not an excuse.
It was hard being Eliot Spitzer during his first year in office. And it was hard being his wife. It probably was harder being the wife. It is not easy to not be Jewish and still be able to relate to a man for whom the Holocaust - crime number one in the history of humanity - is heritage.
He should have sought counseling instead of prostitution. I think his wife would have accompanied him. But it takes guts to seek counseling. Spitzer is gutsy, but maybe not gutsy enough.
Working on my online autobiography has felt like Rambo taking bullets out of his arm digging with his own knife. I have been seeking to be cured. I relate to someone like Spitzer. The scale is not the same at all, but Eliot's first year reminds me of when I became a record breaking student body president at the number one liberal arts college in the South. I had much more dignity as a human being before than after I had just made myself technically the most powerful student on campus. My propensity to compromise was nil, my isolation was total and lasted years. My attitude was, I thought racist people like you were dead and gone, but if you are not dead and gone, time is on my side. You are at the pinnacle of your career, I have not even started yet, and I am already sitting across the table from you. Fuck, you just cost Berea a few buildings.
My heart goes out to Dave Pollak. He will have to be part of the damage control now. Pollak I got to know after I moved to the city. He is the founder of the most amazing political organization in the city: DL21C. He chairs the state party. Spitzer appointed him. In December I sent him a Facebook email saying you are such an "unpolitician politician." I like him personally. I respect his political instincts. And the dude just throws good parties.
When the Monica thing erupted, I was online at the Computer Center at Berea after dinner. I stayed up almost all night trying to get the latest. That hug video I watched so many times.
My first reaction was political. Ken Starr is the reason why this happened. Bill Clinton is not Jewish, but he is from Arkansas. You are not exactly the establishment when you are from Arkansas. Bill Clinton did Monica to protect his wife. He got sick and tired of his wife getting hounded by Starr. That was my political reaction.
But he punished Hillary for a mistake he made, that Hillary strongly advised against. He had the option to not authorize Ken Starr to do the investigations. He authorized him against Hillary's advice and then took him on a tour of the White House. That was naive.
But you can not imagine Hillary doing it to Bill Clinton, you can not imagine Silda doing it to Spitzer. That's what makes it sexist. Jews might have had the Holocaust, but women got Global Trafficking Of Women. Today. Don't get holy on me now.
Plan Of Action
Seek serious counseling, wife by the side. It is okay to bring up anti-Semitism during counseling.
The first year was always going to be hard. That is what happens to activist progressives. You are trying to get a sitting Titanic to move. It is not easy. And it sure takes time.
Do not resign. Fuck Bruno.
Pace yourself. You got eight years. Year three and beyond will be much better. You are on schedule to taking the Senate.
Take extra pride in your Jewish heritage. Secular JFK started going to church every Sunday.
In The News
Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring New York Times, United States NY governor apologises in scandal BBC News, UK NY Assembly Minority leader says Gov should resign Reuters New York's Spitzer Apologizes to Public for Conduct (Update2) Bloomberg Gov. Spitzer apologizes to family, public CNN International Spitzer Apologizes, Does Not Resign Washington Post, United States Report: Spitzer Linked to Prostitution Ring WCAX, VT ELECTION NOTEBOOK Spitzer sex scandal rocks Democrats MarketWatch NY Gov. Spitzer Tied to Prostitution Bust Smartmoney.com NY Governor Apologizes After Link to Prostitution Ring People Magazine Eliot Spitzer: Breathtaking Recklessness? Kansas City Star, MO the crusading New York prosecutor who left no stones unturned tracking down suspected malfeasance, whether it be Wall Street wrongdoing or questionable contracts by a local school board. His resume includes the arrests of persons connected with at least two prostitution rings. ...... breathtaking recklessness on a par with Bill Clinton's White House dalliance. What’s next for New York Governor Spitzer? Reuters He said nothing about possibly resigning. New York governor acknowledges wrongdoing Monsters and Critics.com NY Gov. Spitzer to resign-Fox News Reuters NY governor Eliot Spitzer 'linked to prostitution' Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom a father of three ..... the ring operated in cities across the United States and in London and Paris, employing more than 50 prostitutes who charged clients fees ranging from US$1,000 to more than US$5,500 per hour. ..... Since his election in November 2006, he has emerged as one of the highest-profile figures on the national stage outside Washington. ..... He combines classic Democrat positions on illegal immigration and same-sex marriage with a tough approach to reforming the state’s governance and New York City’s financial services industry. Spitzer's path to the governorship of New York Guardian, UK He did not win his cases every time and he made many enemies among the state's financial elite, but Spitzer's populist fervour made him a rising star in the national Democratic party. ..... By the time he polled 69% of the vote in the governor's race against Republican John Faso, US political analysts already had down as a future presidential hopeful. Like fellow Democratic prodigy Barack Obama, Spitzer was an editor of the law review at Harvard University; like former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, he earned crime-fighting credentials by taking on the state's organised crime networks. ..... He displayed a penchant for stubbornness that unnerved even his closest allies, campaigning against legislators from his own party when Democrats voted for a new state comptroller of whom Spitzer did not approve. New York governor keeps job, despite prostitution link AFP Spitzer's fall: The prosecutor and the prostitutes Baltimore Sun, United States There is nothing quite like a sex scandal to stop a successful politician in his tracks. ..... the Emperors Club collected more than $1 million in its international prostitution ring, charging $3,100 an hour for a "seven-diamond prostitute.'' For some, two- and three-day rates ran $35,000 and $55,000, federal court filings allege. ...... a ring ranging from Vienna to Miami ... Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, arrested in an airport men’s room, has resisted calls for his resignation. .... Soon, people may becoming a lot more familiar with another name. David Paterson.
Albany is the most dysfunctional state capital in America. Why is that?
New York City is the capital city of the world, its most diverse. Nepal is one of the 10 poorest countries on the planet. I know for a fact that people from every little town in Nepal are here. By extension you can say people from every little town on the planet live here. I am not saying country, I am not saying big city. I am saying every little town.
There are more Jewish people in New York City than there are in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. I had a classmate at high school in Kathmandu who was a fan of the state of Israel like some people are fans of the Star Wars movies. I never figured out why.
I had intellectual knowledge of the Holocaust before I ever came to America, but then I also had intellectual knowledge of race, but that did not prepare me for the emotional dimensions of experiencing racism. It so happens that my first big experience in institutional racism was with a young Jewish woman. I could not tell from her face or last name that she was Jewish. We briefly went out and she ended up not giving me a relationship but she gave me a dense emotional knowledge of anti-Semitism that will last a lifetime. The emotional contours were too obvious although it took me years after that to acquire the vocabulary to describe the experience. I remember losing respect for her. Why don't you hit back? (She dropped out of college. That was very unfair to her.) And that was wrong for me to feel that way. It took me years to realize technically speaking as SGA President I was the most powerful student on campus and I still had not been able to hit back. Prejudice and racism are like dark forces that sometimes even powerful institutions cow to, or feed on to go on. A nobody student had brought my world crashing to the ground with one racist hit when I was a record breaking SGA President.
As SGA President I organized a trip to DC for all the top SGA people during the Spring Break. That led to a photo caption in the student newspaper later that said, "In the background, federal government, in the foreground, student government." That was my first time in DC. The most powerful experience of the week was the trip to the Holocaust Museum. It was so emotionally intense. But even as a kid, I had a taste for reality. If there is evil out there, I want to know about it. If there are serial killers out there, show me movies on them. (I have used this serial killer metaphor at this blog a few times. I think I do that because serial killers might kill maybe 10, maybe 20, maybe more people before they are outed, but Third World dictators like the one in Burma kill tens of thousands, and they often times stick around. And I deal with Third World dictators. That probably is my number one specialty in politics. You have to be able to visualize the evil to deal with it.)
I missed the trip to the White House that the others went to because I was visiting with the Kentucky Senator. But I doubt the White House would have eclipsed the museum in its impact.
People say Rwanda and Rwanda was bad. People say Darfur and Darfur is bad. Some Arabs say Palestine and I do feel for the Palestinians. But there is absolutely no parallel to the Holocaust. That was an orgy to thousands of years of anti-Semitism - an anti-Semitism that still exists in the world in weaker but persistent strains - a very sophisticated state machinery was at its disposal. Hitler stands in a league of his own. You don't count his evil with the number of deaths, and say, well, Stalin and Mao also killed many people. It is not about the number of deaths, although that it is. It was the way it was done. It was the history behind it. It is the continued anti-Semitism. And it sure does not escape my attention that the knottiest political problem on the planet right now involves the Jewish state.
Poets in Nepal mention the Holocaust. But the immediacy of the memory hit me one day at Drinking Liberally. I had met her a few times at Rudy's. She was a Yale graduate. And one day she started talking about capital punishment, how she was opposed to it. And capital punishment is not allowed in Nepal, and I have never had to take a public position on it in the US, so I tend to be in study mode on it, as in, tell me how you feel about it. And I was trying to give her attention. So tell me. I was trying to understand. You mean, just because someone took someone's life, that does not mean the state should then turn around and take that murderer's life? The power to take away life should not be a power that resides with the state? I was trying to make her feel like I really understood what her stand on capital punishment was. And it hit me. Her face changed. Her eyes took a different look. I got a little scared. Oh my god, the Holocaust happened only yesterday. For her, it is too recent. She was not talking about capital punishment like someone might talk about abortion on guns or gays. In one flash I saw the horror before my eyes. I got hit with this intense feeling that I was not hit with even at the Holocaust Museum. I don't know what it means. I am not going to pretend. Although I do want to know.
The first day Justin Krebs saw me, he saw me do the hot dog thing, and he ordered pizza for everybody. And we had not talked yet. I was like, you mean free hot dogs? I got three, one for me, and two for the other two people at the table. But they said they did not want it. So I was going to eat all three.
For a long time after knowing Krebs, I did not know two things, that he was half Jewish, and he was a Harvard grad.
One day an Indian guy shows up at Drinking Liberally. I gravitated to him. You almost never meet Indians at Rudy's. He told me he was a medic now in Memphis. Then he said he was a friend of Justin. I am like, that is interesting. But it is not really. Everybody is a friend of Justin. Even me. Then he said, he went to school with Justin.
"Yeah? And where was that?"
"Harvard."
"You mean Justin went to Harvard?"
His half Jewish part I learned the first time I met Elizabeth. After one slight insinuation from him, I find myself asking.
"Are you Jewish?"
"Yes. On my father's side."
"What happened? Your father converted?"
I don't know if that was a stupid, naive, possibly even offensive thing to ask, but I asked.
A few weeks later he told me Harry Reid was Mormon. Well, thank you for informing, I did not know that. What religion is Nancy Pelosi? I am Buddhist, by the way. I was born Hindu, grew up Hindu, and became a Buddhist.
I have selfish reasons to take an intense interest in gender issues. They help me understand race issues better. I have similar selfish reasons to take interest in anti-Semitism.
My closest friend in the city, Adam. I did not know he was Jewish until he told me. Then he grew a slight beard and I said to him, you are beginning to look like my personal hero Larry Ellison. I said you should read his biography Soft War. It is my mousepad, or I would lend it to you.
I live in a Hasidic neighborhood. I did not plan it. It was random placement through Craig's List. And these folks are so into their identity, they remind me of the Newars of Kathmandu. They have such a rich culture. The joke in Nepal is the rest of Nepal can cook meat one way, the Newars can cook that same meat 10 different ways.
And Adam and I are in a cab to Grand Central where he will take the train to go be with his girlfriend in New Haven for the weekend. And he says it is the year 5000 something on the Jewish calendar. My jaw dropped. And I was bragging the Nepali calendar is about 57 years cleverer than the western calendar. I guess the Jewish are like the Chinese. They have a really long collective memory.
A collective identity is like accent, everybody's got one.
It was a big deal for me to be able to meet Eliot Spitzer in person. I have met him twice at two separate DL21C events, one indoors, one outdoors. My name for Bill Clinton is Michael Jordan. My name for Eliot Spitzer is Mike Tyson. I just find him so exciting. He is my idea of a progressive. He charges like a bull. I like that action, the issues are almost secondary, the action is fun, although I want it on the record I do care about the issues. But the way I found out Eliot Spitzer was Jewish was when I googled him up and read the Wikipedia article on him. When I told that to some people, they were in disbelief. You should be able to just look at his face and tell, you should be able to tell from his last name. Well, sorry, I was not able to. I am a Wikipedia kind of guy, I guess.
Well, it gets more interesting. Not long back - a few weeks - my Jewish landlord dropped by. And we are talking. And I told him I was off to a party. What party, he asked. I said, there is this guy, his name is Dave Pollak, he is the chair of the Democratic Party in the state, he throws good parties.
"Pollak, that is Jewish," he said. That was the first time I learned, okay, so David Pollak is also Jewish. Noone had told me before. Justin Krebs told me not long after the fact that Pollak was now chair of the state party, but he did not tell me he was Jewish. I would wonder once in a while though. This guy is white, and he is a New York City person. That makes it highly likely he might be Jewish. But I could not tell from his face, or his last name. And I was not going to ask him. It would be embarrassing. Because otherwise I think we make each other feel we know each other pretty well. I have good political communication with him, most of it unspoken but understood. I was not going to put that in jeopardy by asking, by the way, do you happen to be Jewish? I knew both Spitzer and Pollak are Harvard people, and both are hard core progressive, and in powerful positions. Those three connections are strong enough for them to be working together. And I was not going to ask anyone else, anyone who knew both of us. It was embarrassing enough telling people how I found out Spitzer was Jewish. I was not about to have a repeat experience. Especially since it was highly likely he might find out I asked. I don't think it would offend him, but. And so my Jewish landlord saves the day.
And we end up having our first real conversation since I moved in during the summer of 2005. He said he moved to NYC with his wife and two kids from Ukraine when he was 30. He was an English teacher then in Ukraine, he is an English teacher now. He teaches diverse classes that include many kids from Pakistan and Bangladesh. I said, Jeff, do you realize, this is the first real conversation we ever had. He said, I do. I said it is because the online work for Nepal is over. I am in NYC now, finally.
New York City pays most of the money Albany spends.
I don't have much knowledge of local and state politics. And I don't follow the news on local and state politics. I am presidential. But I like Spitzer a lot. Looks he had a not so good year. But that is because he is going to be a great, two term Governor. Look at Bill Clinton's first two years. It was always going to take Spitzer a year or two to get into the groove of the office.
Cuomo is never going to be Governor, but the dude sure played a spoiler the first year. Frank Bruno - I don't have a face to his name, and that is probably a good thing - is a disaster. If Albany is brain, that dude is brain tumor, but Albany is no brain, so I must say that guy is appendix. You can't change him, but you can get rid of him.
There is an obesity culture in America. Can you imagine a US president trying to take that obesity culture head on? No, you can't. So far it has not happened. But it is going to have to happen at some point. It takes guts to take on culture. Spitzer is in the business of changing culture. It takes sheer guts to even try. And it takes more than guts to succeed. I think he can pull it off. One down, seven more years to go.
Albany is the most dysfunctional state capital in America. How do you make it the most functional state capital in America? That is about changing culture. Big time. Do I know how to do it? No. Do I have a few recommendations? Yes. But the most important thing is I know the guy who is trying is the right guy for the job. People, this guy Spitzer is cutting edge, I am telling you.
You have to get the sequence right.
I am for gay marriage. Civil unions, that is separate, but equal. It did not work for race, it is not going to work on gender. Spitzer wants to take the national lead on this issue. I admire him greatly for that. But he has to save that for his second term. I think he can do it. 50 years from now we will all feel stupid that we allowed ourselves to live in a time when gays were not allowed to marry.
Timing is important. The most important part of climbing Mount Everest is coming back alive. There is no point in fighting for gay marriage and going down in flames. You do that, and you hurt the larger gay rights agenda. Defeat is not an option. So second term is good timing. The point being, if you can't even do campaign finance reform, forget gay marriage.
As to how to do it. First, map it. Do the one to 10 thing. Do the spectrum thing. Then, define the agenda. Then build the coalition. Then work to shift the spectrum as necessary. Then pass it.
But step one has to be transparency. Make Albany as transparent as possible. Take all the book keeping online. Videoblog all meetings.
Step two, democratize. Take processes closer to the one person one vote ideal. Fully proportional elections for the upper house, multi member constituencies for the lower house might sound like goals too ambitious, but that is what I recommend.
Step three, publicly financed elections.
And all along, economic stewardship of the state takes top priority. Education and health are perennials.
I have selfish reasons. I need Spitzer-Pollak to deliver a functional Albany for my Silicon City dreams.
And, by the way, the answer to the question as to why Albany is the most dysfunctional state capital in America, it is racism and anti-Semitism.
And watch out for Bloomberg. He is not running for president. He wants to spend a billion dollars to build a name recognition that will help him demolish Spitzer. And that is why campaign finance reform is urgent. This nobody billionaire can be had. If money could buy you public office, Howard Hughes would be Bobby Kennedy.
In The News
Kerry backs Obama to 'turn new page' in US politics Independent, UK has thrown his weight behind Barack Obama, offering his endorsement in the key state of South Carolina ..... would lead, "a transformation rather than a transition" ...... "We are electing judgement and character, not years on this earth," he said, adding pointedly that Mr Obama was, "right about the war in Iraq from the beginning". ..... Mr Kerry also has access to a fundraising network and one of the most sought-after email lists. That list, along with millions of addresses, has now been put at Mr Obama's disposal and should be invaluable for a campaign across the 22 states that hold primaries on 5 February, billed as " Tsunami Tuesday". ....... the sharp media practices the Clinton campaign used to unsettle voters in New Hampshire. The Kerry endorsement may also attract more big name backers from the Democratic establishment. ....... There is no word yet on Al Gore's position, although Bill Clinton's vice-president is thought to be more sympathetic to Obama. ...... 2004 election. The two politicians co-operated poorly in the campaign trail and have been estranged ever since. ...... a personalised and angry attack on the "fairytale" story of Mr Obama's candidacy. He queried Mr Obama's long-standing opposition to the war in Iraq. The Clinton camp also questioned the sincerity of his opposition to lobbyists and said that he was inconsistent on health care. ..... The style of attack echoes the black arts used to becalm Mr Kerry's 2004 campaign, in which an organisation calling itself "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" called his character into question. They made Mr Kerry's war record the issue, distracting voters from President Bush's dodging of the Vietnam draft.
Clinton, Obama fight for South Carolina CNN In South Carolina, the two are in a tight race .... In July, 52 percent of black Democratic primary voters said they favored Clinton, compared to Obama's 33 percent. In December, Obama's support had risen to 45 percent while Clinton's dropped to 46.
Obama's wrong kind of voters Times Online a quality that distinguishes the world's most successful people - the sense that, time and again, just when you think they must be out for the count, they plumb reserves of personal determination to overcome less resolute rivals as they are in the very act of premature celebration. ....... In politics I doubt there has ever been an operation as effective at mounting improbable resurrections as the Clinton Dynasty. Tuesday's semi-miraculous victory by Senator Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary will rank as one of the great upsets of modern electoral history. After his unexpectedly comfortable win in the Iowa caucuses a week ago, Senator Barack Obama was riding an express train to history. The crowds that turned out to see him in New Hampshire left seasoned political observers in awe. ......... something changed in the final hours before the vote ...... women appeared to find it genuine. They certainly voted for her on the day in very large numbers. ....... It was not just pre-election opinion polls but exit polls conducted on the day that showed Mr Obama ahead - albeit by a slightly smaller margin. ....... his poll lead was the illusory product of a kind of soft racism - a well-documented phenomenon in past American elections whereby some people tell pollsters that they will (or have voted) for a black man, but in the privacy of the polling booth, they do not. ....... Mrs Clinton won by mobilising in vast numbers the traditional Democratic vote - something the pollsters did not properly measure. ........ It looks just like the contest that has characterised almost every Democratic primary battle in the past 30 years. These have tended to be between one candidate, the idealist, the outsider, leading an insurgency against the pragmatist, the party establishment. It was Edward Kennedy against Jimmy Carter in 1980, Gary Hart against Walter Mondale in 1984, Jesse Jackson against Michael Dukakis in 1988, Bill Bradley against Al Gore in 2000 and Howard Dean against John Kerry in 2004. Every time it has been the pragmatist, the establishment candidate, who has won.
The other Obama-Kennedy connection Guardian Unlimited Both young senators brought a lofty message, an appealing young family and a movie-star aura to the presidential race. ..... Mboya appealed to the state department. When that trail went cold, he turned to then-senator Kennedy. ....... Kennedy, who chaired the senate subcommittee on Africa, arranged a $100,000 grant through his family's foundation to help Mboya keep the program running. ....... "It was not a matter in which we sought to be involved," Kennedy said in an August 1960 senate speech. "Nevertheless, Mr Mboya came to see us and asked for help, when none of the other foundations could give it, when the federal government had turned it down quite precisely. We felt something ought to be done." ........ Kennedy ended up discussing his Obama connection much more openly than Obama mentions the late president's role in his life. ...... "There's no other African country where there is such admiration for the US ...... In the midst of his grinding campaign schedule, the Illinois senator taped a radio message urging an end to the fighting and reached out personally to opposition leader Raila Odinga and Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki. ........ bloody clashes and riots that have killed as many as 1000 people ...... 'Which country will be first to have a Luo president, Kenya or the United States? ....... "Airlift students became the nation builders of the new Kenya and a handful of other countries in Africa," Weiss said, adding: "It was all because of Tom Mboya's vision. If it helped to produce the next president of the US, hooray."
Clinton Says Debate Was Turning Point in Her Victory New York Times Clinton basks in New Hampshire win AFP 'Comeback Gal' Hillary Clinton ponders triumph Telegraph.co.uk Where Obama Goes from New HampshireTIME several weeks of tough and expensive, hedgerow-to-hedgerow combat ..... she bested him by a wider margin among women (especially unmarried women), who vote in New Hampshire in unusually large numbers ...... The heady moments after Iowa have given way to a grittier roadmap going forward ..... most important now, he too has been tested under intense pressure How Hillary Turned It Around Her larger-than-life husband moved in for the briefest of embraces, and then disappeared. ....... "Over the last week, I listened to you," said Clinton. "And in the process, I found my own voice." ........ will be a dramatic transformation of her campaign. ...... her emphasis on experience and readiness was missing its mark ...... Where she had begun the race declaring she was "in it to win" .... "We are in it for the American people." ...... "They did not see this coming. No one did." ....... the boring stuff — the dull, unglamorous work put in by a disciplined ground operation organized by veteran operative Nick Clemons. Late in the game, the campaign also brought in Michael Whouley, who had helped deliver the state for Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004. ....... Clinton lashed out at Barack Obama and John Edwards in Saturday night's debate, visibly angry in a way voters had not seen before. ...... displaying the kind of emotion that people would associate far more with Bill Clinton than with his wife ..... "Yesterday helped her a lot with women." ...... (It also couldn't have hurt that a great number of men from the punditocracy spent the hours before the primary gleefully anticipating a Clinton catastrophe.) ....... The race she once expected to finish cleanly and quickly is now shaping up as an exercise in harvesting convention delegates one grueling state at a time. The rules under which delegates are allocated — divided proportionally in each state, rather than the winner-take-all system that the Republicans use in many states — make it hard for any Democrat to deliver a knockout blow in just a few contests. McCain's Momentum: The Sequel To come from behind is one thing. But to be the presumed front-runner, then fall to obscurity, then come from behind...that is Lazarus. ...... McCain's other advantage is that he isn't broke anymore. ....... "There is no superstition I won't indulge," he said. "I believe in luck." Huckabee Looks to South Carolina From its inception, the South Carolina Republican primary was meant to disrupt and destroy the flames of political passion. ...... Now the state looms again as a candidate killer. ...... "When he won in Iowa, that gave him a lot of credibility across the state," says Woodard, pointing to the polls. "It was a tidal wave." Clinton Faces a Cash Crunch a sudden urgency to raise a lot of money fast. ..... the campaign may have as little as $15 million to $25 million left on hand. ..... it is less than half the nearly $50.5 million she had at the end of September (when she enjoyed a significant advantage over Barack Obama's $36 million on hand). ....... the Internet, where he has had a far stronger operation than Clinton has. ...... "They started out running a general election campaign," says one. "Now there's a real fixation on the primary." Bhutto's Son Addresses the World the downward gaze of a sullen teenager ..... his plan to finish his three-year history degree at Christ Church College, Oxford and then enter politics, asserting that his lineage makes him a natural future leader of Pakistan. ..... unsure delivery ..... would-be savior of a Muslim nuclear state on the verge of disintegration ..... a teenager nowhere near ready to lead a student union, let alone a country ...... "What on earth do you propose as a 19-year-old who has hardly lived in the country, what do you propose you can offer Pakistan, a country of 170 million people?" ....... The BBC reporter fired back: "What does it say about a party that it can be handed on like some piece of family furniture?" ...... his appointment by the party's central committee. "They represented the whole federation and they asked me to do this." ....... Accusing Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf of a cover-up, Bhutto Zardari called for a United Nations-led investigation into his mother's death, claiming that the current team of British investigators does not have "the necessary transparency." ....... "Dictatorships feed extremism and once the United States stops supporting dictators we can tackle the extremism problem." Making It a Race Again record numbers of voters put polls and pundits to shame in New Hampshire. ...... put on the same green sweater he wore for his 2000 comeback in New Hampshire, and even stayed in the same hotel room. "There is no superstition I won't indulge," he said. ...... Much of the credit for the surge had been chalked up to Obamamania ...... weather so unseasonably fine that a voter might feel almost lucky to be waiting in line outside a voting station. ........ Before the polls closed, Obama had a quiet dinner at his hotel in Nashua, N.H., with his wife and his sister, no aides in sight. ....... "disagree without being disagreeable." Can Romney 4.0 Stage a Turnaround? His early-evening boast could be a sign of renewed confidence, or a sign that the campaign has determined that confidence is what the people want. With Mitt Romney's campaign, it's hard to tell. ....... his talent for customer service, for treating a campaign like market research ...... technocratic, rational approach he would bring to the presidency ...... Romney is finally campaigning as the candidate he really is: the problem-solver and turnaround artist that governed Massachusetts with an almost scientific approach to bipartisanship. ..... the least appealing field in a generation, Romney himself campaigns with trademark discipline and ferocious energy ..... "There's an old family saying," he said, "If a Romney drowns in a river, look for the body upstream." Which, in this case, might be Michigan. Obama's Final Rallying Cry making a bet that "the excitement is just beginning." ..... "This is an example of not listening to each other." But when the chanters would not stop, and the event seemed unable to continue, Obama moved toward a staircase to the balcony, seemingly prepared to talk to the chanters one on one — a dramatic maneuver that held no guarantee of success. 'Comeback Gal' Hillary Clinton ponders triumph Telegraph.co.uk Bill Clinton: Tears won Hillary New HampshireTelegraph.co.uk Bill Clinton, the former US president, said that his wife Hillary won the New Hampshire primary because "people saw who she was" when she came close to tears after being asked how she kept going on the campaign trail. ........ "She called me and said, 'I can't believe what happened'. She said, 'That's why I've got to be careful showing my emotions – I'd cry a lot'." ....... tears welled up in Mrs Clinton's eyes and her voice dropped to a whisper when she was asked by Marianne Pernold-Young, an undecided voter: "How do you do it? How do you keep up?" ...... The eve-of-poll moment, played repeatedly on television for the following 24 hours, came during a forum with undecided voters in a coffee shop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. ........ the other key juncture was Saturday's debate, when she sharply criticised Barack Obama's experience and consistency ....... "There's no place like it. They decided that they wanted, even in about a three-day window, to give her an independent judgement and a fair hearing and they did and she was fabulous." ...... the Clinton apparatus in New Hampshire and beyond, in place for some 16 years, was also crucial. ...... "Let's be fair, we had unbelievable help both from the citizens of New Hampshire, people from New York, from Arkansas, from all over the country came here and just threw themselves into it. ....... "Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen." Woman who brought tear to Clinton's eye voted for ObamaGuardian Unlimited The woman whose question produced the tearful moment from Hillary Clinton that helped her win the New Hampshire primary ended up voting for Barack Obama. ...... Marianne Pernold Young, 64, a freelance photographer ..... She acknowledges the power of that moment. "It showed us that she is human and manages to still perform in the way she does, and still has a person inside of her. She is a human being. She is not a robot," Young told the Guardian. ...... he made me cry when I went to see him," she said. "We need new blood." ...... Young said she was not persuaded that Clinton's display of emotion was entirely sincere. "Her response to me was heartfelt for the first 10 seconds," she said. "She put her hand on her chin and kind of looked at me like someone she had known for a long time and we were in a coffee shop just her and I," Young said. But the moment was fleeting. "When she turned away from me, she assumed political posture again. I felt that her body language was rigid and she assumed that political language." Woman Who Sparked Clinton Voted For Obama ABC News
Obama Looks Ahead Washington Post taking the once inevitable frontrunner down to the wire in her firewall state ...... To Obama's senior strategists, New Hampshire changes very little. ..... financial and organizational edge in a series of soon-to-vote states ..... not only do they have double the number of offices in Nevada that Clinton currently has open but that they have focused heavily -- as they did in Iowa -- on rural sections of the state. The Obama campaign has also moved two of the men widely credited with their Iowa caucus win -- state director Paul Tewes and field director Mitch Stewart -- to Nevada to oversee the field operation in the state. ........ Of all states, the Obama campaign is probably most confident in their South Carolina organization -- the biggest and best operation ever built in the Palmetto State, they argue. Steve Hildebrand, a master field organizer and one of the people responsible for Obama's turnout operation in Iowa, is now in South Carolina and will stay there through the primary on the 26th. ........ His campaign reported raising $23.5 million over the last three months of 2007 -- all but $1 million of which can be spent in the primary. In the first eight days of this year, Obama brought in $8 million more, the direct result of his victory in the Iowa caucuses. ....... Stay tuned. We're in for a wild ride.
Obama's art of grassroots political war New Zealand Herald the Barack Obama surge has taken everyone by surprise, not least that master political strategist Bill Clinton. ....... knocking on doors as a community organiser at the age of 24. ...... her younger, but more street-wise opponent ....... the classic political playbook of carpet-bombing your opponent does not work when the insurgency uses unconventional methods not previously seen in a US presidential campaign. ........ At the heart of the Obama method is a determination to remain respectful. Whether it is adamant refusal to allow his staff to brief negatively about his opponents or his taking the time to thank those who help him. ...... the way shown by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton simply terrified the rest of America. ...... The difference with Obama is that he is doing it all without anger. ...... Somehow he seems to be telling Americans what they already know about their broken society. ....... The Alinsky method is all about winning power rather than seeking to do good and the young Obama became a practitioner. ..... trying to get the city to remove asbestos from public housing, and getting a job database set up in the impoverished South Side. ....... 50 computers have been mining census data and consumer-marketing information to put together what has been described as "the most sophisticated and data-rich portraits of an electorate ever created". ......... Mark Penn invented the concept of the "soccer mom" ..... In the 2004 race, the pollsters could identify 4x4 drivers as likely Republicans and Prius drivers as convinced Democrats. ....... The advances the Obama campaign has made can virtually identify the DNA of target voters. It used something called "micro-targeting technology" to use a range of data - everything from income to education - to divine whether the campaign should directly target a voter. It's called getting the "demographic DNA" and it has enabled the campaign to make multiple calls to draw in voters.
Barack Obama's Kenyan relatives keep faith Telegraph.co.uk Sarah Onyango Obama, 86, the Senator's sprightly grandmother ....... "We had spoken to New Hampshire on the phone earlier in the day and we thought that he could do it, but never mind. ..... "We still believe he will be the next president of the United States." ...... cheap Panasonic radio ...... the small-scale farm where Mrs Obama has lived for 60 years. ..... "So many candidates are looking at the distance they still have to go, but Barack is the only one who can look back and see the distance that he has already come" ......... "His father and grandfather, they were leading men in this area, that is Barack's history, and that ancestry is what we believe will push him forward to victory." ...... "This is the place Barack came to stay, before he was famous and he could come and go unnoticed," said Said Obama, opening the rickety door to a small bedroom with a mosquito net and a low single bed. ........ This is where the possible future US President once slept during a trip in 1987. He has visited twice since, in 1992 and 2006, and has been in regular email contact until the primary season kicked off. ........ "He stayed with us for a week the first time, relaxing and helping on the farm, telling stories and asking so many questions about his family.
Big Nevada Union Backs Obama The Associated Press Obama's first endorsement from a major national union. ........ It was still unclear Wednesday whether the Clinton campaign, fresh off its surprise win in New Hampshire, would compete at full throttle in Nevada. As the Clinton camp seemed headed toward a New Hampshire loss early Tuesday, it contemplated pulling resources out of Nevada and South Carolina to focus on Feb. 5 states. ........ Even among Democrats who say they are engaged in the race, many don't know what a caucus is or why Nevada's matters. ..... not expecting more than 10 percent of registered Democrats, around 45,000 people, to participate. Key Nevada union backs Obama in blow to Clinton Reuters
New York: Bruno's Overreach and Collapsing Subways What's been going on for weeks in New York state is part of the standard conservative 'kill them in the crib' strategy of destroying progressive icons and politicians. In this case, the target is rising progressive star Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer is considered especially dangerous to the right-wing, because he's a real populist who has taken on Wall Street in extremely high profile cases. He was so effective that a few years ago, the corrupt US Chamber of Commerce declared a 'war on Spitzerism' to reign in state attorney general officers that sought to aggressively enforce the law against corporate elites. The scandal that's taking place now, while ostensibly caused by Spitzer's mistakes, has more to do with these established enemies of populism combined with a peculiar set of incentives for local politicians and insider journalists in New York to pile on an anti-Spitzer frenzy. ....... years of Giuliani and Bloomberg in the Mayoral seat has of course led to decaying infrastructure ...... Every day, I get an email from Michael Caputo of NYFacts.net bashing Eliot Spitzer, and Caputo is a former aide to George H.W. Bush, well-established in right-wing orbits, and obviously directing a smear campaign. .....This is really a collection of insiders, press people, angry coddled legislators, Joe Bruno and right-wingers trying to destroy Eliot Spitzer's capacity to govern New York. They tried it with Deval Patrick in Massachusetts and Jon Corzine in New Jersey, and they'll try it with every progressive who takes on a political machine. In some ways, this is exactly what the right did in impeaching Bill Clinton, using Clinton's sloppiness and mistakes to try to overturn a popular electoral result. Destroying progressives is what the right does well, and it's in fact the only thing the right does well. This time, it's not going to work, since there are already investigations going on that are not grounded in Republican partisanship, the scandal has been on every paper in the state for weeks, and yet Spitzer is still pretty popular. ..... the public is paying attention and isn't falling for it
Eliot Spitzer is the future of the Democratic Party. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the face of the Democratic Party today, but Eliot Spitzer is the future. It could be eight years of Obama-Clinton, or Clinton-Obama. And then it is going to be Spitzer time. Spitzer is going national. If not him, then who? It is not if, but when.
I don't know a whole lot about New York state politics. The little I know, little that I follow is because Eliot Spitzer is Governor, and David Pollak is state party chair. I kept seeing Pollak at DL21C events for months. So when I got told he was now state chair, I was like, that much access!
I pride myself in my political instincts, and Spitzer shows up on my radar loud and clear. You just feel it.
Bill Clinton is like Michael Jordan, he is skillful, he jumps the hoops. Hillary Clinton is a smart, strong, pragmatic woman. Barack Obama is vastly inspiring. When I think Eliot Spitzer, I think Mike Tyson. This guy can hit. He swings. He hits.
My religion is that I am a Buddhist. My political religion is that I am a progressive. And so I am very fond of Eliot Spitzer. There is noone quite like him on the national scene. He could deliver direct elections for president, he could deliver publicly financed elections, he could deliver gay marriage.
Those are the three big goals for progressives in America. The Obama-Clinton duo will deliver health. Education will be an ongoing thing with the private sector playing a key role. For the big political reforms, the country will have to wait for Spitzer.
I have noticed the Albany Republicans have imported some out of state right wing political gangsters to do the dirty job on Spitzer. This is a wake up call. The Republicans are going to have to call it quits when it comes to the politics of personal destruction, or they have to be thrown out of the ring. If not now, then when? We got the wind behind our back. This is no 1990s. We are raising more money than the right wingers. We have a more enthusiastic grassroots. Our blogosphere has all but drowned out right wing radio and TV. When you get hit, you hit back.
We don't want the right wingers to beat us on seeing Spitzer's national potential. We have to see it before them. And we have to get into the fight on Spitzer's behalf. Leadership is a gift. Where there is no vision, the people shall perish. Progressives have to find progressive vision and progressive causes, but unless you can find progressive leadership, you are just blowing hot air. Acting protective of promising, progressive leaders is part and parcel of the progressive religion. And so I say, hit back. The blogosphere is like a swarm of bees. Frank Bruno is going to feel like the only safe place for him is to jump into the water and stay down there.
You can not get hit, and not hit back. That is not good politics. A guy like Bruno is on his way out. Spitzer will follow in FDR's footsteps and give New York the progressive majority in the state Senate that it deserves. This guy is already yesterday's news. If you can't hit him when he is weak, when can you?
I hear some Spitzer staffer had to resign for some background research into some kind of power abuse by Bruno, some kind of a corrupt act. I have not been following too closely. The exposure should not have been the work of anyone on Spitzer's staff. Those in power govern. The work should have been the work of the progressive political network. And the exposure should have been relentless. What? He rode a state chopper when he should not have? I don't even know the freaking details.
Eight Years Of Lab Work
Eight years of Spitzer in Albany will be like having New York as the laboratory state for progressives across the country. And I am confident Spitzer can deliver. This is where all the cutting edge progressive stuff gets cooked, to be served on the national stage later.
I would like to throw in some ideas that I have been working on for Nepal, kind of telecommuting. It is almost easier to do it in Nepal since the country is about to write its constitution on its own - by the people - for the first time. It is more of a clean slate. But how about this? The governor is directly elected by the people, if noone gets at least 50%, there is a second round between the top two. For the lower chamber, all constituencies are of equal population: you hold direct elections. For the upper chamber, you hold indirect elections: you hold proportional elections. If there are 50 seats, the party that gets 2% gets one seat. So people get two ballot papers, one for the direct elections for the lower chamber, and another for the completely proportional elections to the upper chamber. So parties will have to submit lists for the 50 slots. If a party gets 50% of the votes, the top 25 people on the list get in. The 2% rule will mean a whole bunch of "startup" parties could come and go. Politics will breathe a new life. That will keep the big parties alert. And, of course, all elections will have to be publicly financed. How exactly you devise a formula is a challenge. I would say, a party gets money from the state in direct proportion to how many votes it earns, something like that. Or maybe not. I know, by now it sounds theoretical, but it is because the current system is so entrenched.
I think Spitzer should tackle gay marriage after he wins re-election. He should tackle other political reforms first while expanding gay rights all along the way.
Albany is a shame. If Albany were in Mississippi, you would be like, what do you expect, those are the backwaters. But to have the Albany dysfunction in New York state? Such a shame. That place needs heavy doses of democracy and transparency.
Lawmakers chafe at steady-state Iraq policy Christian Science Monitor Nearly 3 million displaced as fresh floods devastate northeast India International Herald Tribunemore than 9,000 of Assam's 23,000 villages have been inundated, forcing people out of their homes and on to higher ground. .... The Brahmaputra, which originates in Tibet as the Tsangpo, traverses 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) across the Assam plains before culminating in the Bay of Bengal. This river and its innumerable tributaries flood their banks every monsoon season bringing misery to Assam's 26 million people. .... Monsoon rains usually hit India from June to September. They are vital to farmers but are also deadly. During this year's monsoon season, more than 2,200 people have been killed by flooding, collapsing houses and other rain-related incidents across India. The Oprah Factor and Obama New York Times Obama Distances Himself From Controversial Book on US-Israeli ... Washington Post The book argues that a highly influential assortment of pro-Israeli politicians, journalists and academics have succeeded in pushing U.S. policy in the Middle East in directions that do not necessarily serve America's best interests. ...... Obama encountered scattered grumbles in March at a pro-Israel conference in Washington, where attendees expressed concerns about Obama's comment, made in Iowa shortly before the conference, that "Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people.'' ...... At another conference in Washington in April, of the National Jewish Democratic Council, Obama chose his words carefully, while still seeking to show that he was not satisfied with the status quo in Israel: "My commitment to you is unwavering," he said in response to a question about Israel, "but the only thing I will not do is to relinquish the possibility that our Middle East policy involves more than just arms sales and military and strategic options to consider. There has to be an effective diplomacy." Oprah's Star Power Won't Do Much for Obama AlterNet a celebrity cheer lead of a presidential candidate does absolutely nothing to boost the candidate. ..... the closest thing to America's earth mother ..... in one big leap she's asking the same millions that dote on her sage advice on relationships to shift gears and trust her judgment that Obama is the best to handle global warming, tax policy, the Iraq war, terrorism, job creation and inflation, failing public schools, criminal justice issues, and judicial appointments. ...... Oprah's roughest sale of Obama will be to black women. Polls show that they are overwhelmingly backing Hillary. Clinton Widens Democratic Lead, Republicans Split, Poll Finds Bloomberg Clinton has established a clear lead over her Democratic competitors in the early U.S. primary states ..... Clinton holds a narrow advantage over John Edwards and Barack Obama in Iowa. In New Hampshire and South Carolina she has a commanding lead over Obama and Edwards ...... Clinton, a senator from New York, was the leader when she joined the race in January and has only gained momentum since then. Few frontrunners in recent American politics have displayed such steady strength ........ In all three states, the popularity of Clinton, 59, and Giuliani, 63, is fueled by perceptions that they are strong leaders and the best able to deal with national security and terrorism issues. ....... for Democrats, Obama, 46, an Illinois senator, tops frontrunner Clinton on new ideas and is generally considered more likeable. ...... In the three states, Clinton leads by a wide margin on most issues, including fighting terrorism, protecting national security and ending the Iraq war. She is also the Democrat seen as having the best chance of beating the eventual Republican nominee in the November 2008 presidential election. ...... her experience. She's been in politics for 35 years.'' ....... Clinton leads Edwards.. 28 percent to 23 percent in Iowa. She is ahead of Obama and Edwards by 35 percent to 16 percent each in New Hampshire and tops Obama by a 45 percent to 27 percent margin in South Carolina. ......... Even though Obama trails Clinton significantly, it's not all bad news for him. In all three states, he was the voters' second choice, so if other candidates falter he could be the biggest beneficiary in a two-way contest against Clinton. He also does well on some important issues. ...... He beats Clinton by about a 2-to-1 margin in New Hampshire and Iowa, and by 7 points in South Carolina on which candidate has new ideas. Overall, more Democrats say it's important for a presidential candidate to have fresh ideas than experience. ...... ``We've tried the guys,'' said Greene, who is changing her registration to Democrat from Republican. ``She's a woman and I'd like to see her in there.'' ..... ``One of my big concerns right now is abortion and gay rights,'' he said. ``We need to do everything we can to stop it,'' said Smith, who believes Thompson has ``more conservative values'' than Giuliani or McCain, and that ``Romney is a governor of a state that let same-sex marriage happen.'' ...... Iowa is Romney's strongest state, where he gets 28 percent of the vote, compared with 16 percent for both Giuliani and Thompson. ... In New Hampshire, Romney is ahead of Giuliani by 5 percentage points .... In all three states, Democrats express a higher level of interest in the campaigns than do Republicans. Clinton Dominates, Romney Slips in Early-State Races, Poll Says Bloomberg Clinton is dominating the Democratic field among working-class and older voters in early primary states ...... In all three states, New York Senator Clinton, 59, appeals to individuals in households earning less than $40,000 as well as those over the age of 65. ..... Forty-eight percent of older voters in South Carolina support Clinton, while 3 percent favor Obama. In New Hampshire, 44 percent of those voters support Clinton, while 8 percent back Obama. ....... the religious right -- defined in the poll as self- described religious fundamentalists, Christian conservatives and people who take the Bible literally -- ...... ``I see Mormonism as a cult, instead of a branch of Christianity,'' said Valarie Harper, 56, who works part-time in a flower shop in West Columbia, South Carolina, and described herself as a Christian conservative. ...... Clinton leads Obama and Edwards among households earning less than $40,000 in all three states. She has a double-digit advantage in South Carolina and New Hampshire. ... Clinton is drawing more support from black voters in South Carolina, with 43 percent, compared with 32 percent for Obama. Clinton also registers better with white voters there, garnering 51 percent, while 15 percent support Obama. Clinton wins straw poll San Diego Union Tribune, United States Clinton says US military will never solve Iraq's problems International Herald Tribune, France
"That Woman Deserves Her Revenge. We deserve to die."
Lt. Governor David Paterson "The Policy and Politics of Stem Cell Research" 6:30pm Retreat Lounge 37 W 17th Street (b/t 5th and 6th Avenues) B/D/F/V to 14th Street, N/R/Q/W to 14th St/Union Square, 1 train to 18th Street About Lt. Governor Paterson About New York State's stem cell initiative
David Paterson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaLieutenant Governor of New York. .. the first African American to hold this position. .... was born legally blind in Brooklyn in 1954 .... In 1985 he joined the campaign staff of David Dinkins for Manhattan Borough President. ..... 1986, he won the seat for his first full term representing the 29th District in the New York State Senate ...... the son of former New York Secretary of State Basil Paterson, who was the first African American NYC Deputy Mayor and the first to run for statewide office in New York ...... The elder Paterson also served in the NY state Senate in the same seat his son occupied. In 1993, David Paterson ran citywide for the office of the Public Advocate ..... Paterson was elected Senate Minority Leader in 2002, becoming both the first non-white state legislative leader and the highest-ranking black elected official in the history of New York State. ...... He lives in Harlem with his wife, Michelle Paige Paterson. They have two children NYS Senator David A. Paterson New York State Senator | 30th Senate District | Bill Perkins ... LIEUTENANT DAVID PATERSON SITE
One scenario is Obama becomes the nominee and picks Spitzer as running mate. That is less likely than him picking Hillary, many would argue the numbers right now show the possibility to be the other way round, and among Hillary's choices Warner just took himself out, Mark Warner of Virginia, the dude used to be a hot candidate for president, then he dropped out, and now thinks he is going to run for the US Senate. That would mean Hillary would not have the option to pick Warner for running mate.
In short, Obama and Hillary are pretty much stuck with each other.
But I was playing out the Spitzer scenario, and I am thinking, that means wing man Paterson gets to be Governor. And I noticed in my inbox a DL21C mail about a Paterson event, and I was thinking I am inclined to go. I have seen Paterson at one other event. Spitzer was a candidate for Governor, and everyone took for granted he would win by a wide margin. And this was my second time of seeing Spitzer, the first time it was too early for him to have picked a running mate. (Eliot Spitzer, Aliza Fatima)
It was the outdoors bar at one end of Union Square. Spitzer teased that David Pollak was getting a little too old to keep leading the DL21C. At the time, I did not realize that was code for taking Pollak off to lead the state party. Spitzer also joked, "on day one, everything changes, and Paterson gets to do all the work."
Until then I knew Paterson as the guy who took Leecia Eve's place. (Who Is Leecia Eve?) I guess Eve was favored by the Hillary-Rangel machine. But Spitzer showed an independent mind. Eve was being touted as New York's own "Obama."
So I am thinking, maybe I do want to go to this event. Let me read up on this guy. And it has been quite a revelation reading up on this guy. When you read up on Paterson, it sounds like it was a revolutionary act on the part of Spitzer to have picked Paterson for running mate. The whole black thing. New York state is not that far ahead, it seems.
Paterson was elected Senate Minority Leader in 2002, becoming both the first non-white state legislative leader and the highest-ranking black elected official in the history of New York State.
This is primitive. Something like this only happened in 2002? It is time for New York City to secede from the rest of the state, I would say.
Now I am most definitely going to see Paterson.
I mean, I pride myself in my political instincts. And Spitzer shows on my radar. He showed early. He is cutting edge. He is the next generation Democrat. This dude dug up some obscure law from the 1930s to raise hell on Wall Street in his previous incarnation. If that is not creative use, what is? At that same Union Square event, this young Pakistani girl was there with her father and elder sister. At the first event, she had managed to get Spitzer to pledge to come to her graduation. I was standing nearby and Spitzer approached that family. I thought he might say, "Hey, how you doing?" The dude wants to talk about "classroom size." I almost burst out laughing. I got the same feeling not long back while I was reading a New York Times article online. Spitzer shows up for Nascar. "We should have impounded Peter's car" is a quote from Spitzer at the end. This guy has a very natural instinct for political power. He is highly creative. And he does his homework. That is some combo.
You can imagine Obama delivering universal health care. But you can't imagine him delivering publicly financed elections. You can imagine Spitzer delivering publicly financed elections. That is the Spitzer appeal. And I sensed that before I googled him up and read up on him. When I did google him up and read his campaign speeches, my jaw dropped. This dude is in a league of his own. His proposals are so far reaching.
If Paterson has stuggled with race in New York, I know from personal experience the Jewish thing is an issue in the South. But Romney is doing pretty good. That changes things. Romney, Mormon. Net worth: hundreds of millions.
Obama-Spitzer could end up looking very tempting. Either a Bush or a Clinton or both have run at the national level since 1976. It is like after 200 years of being a republic, America tired and went back to being a monarchy. For Obama to pick Hillary might be a way to not be able to break away from the 1990s. Bill Clinton could come back to overshadow at least his first year.
One thing is for sure, the running mate has to be a New Yorker. When you are running against Rudy and Bloomberg, you are left with no other option, I think. And Spitzer is more of a New Yorker than Hillary. Hillary moved in to run for office. Nothing wrong with that. She has been excellent as Senator.
Also, a Senator, and a Governor look better than two Senators: better balance.
And you end up with New York's first black Governor. Now that is primitive. This should have happened a long time ago. Obviously the constituencies in the state legislature are not divided based on equal population. I don't know. I am guessing. Kind of like Wyoming having two Senators on Capitol Hill. NYC has been shortchanged.
"Race matters powerfully." - Barack Obama
And interestingly Bill Perkins holds the seat that Paterson used to hold. That is really interesting. I have gotten to know Bill. I had seen him at many events before. But Obama really did it. We are both very much into Obama. We sat next to each other at the Manhattan For Obama Organizational Kickoff Meeting.
Bill Perkins also shows up on my radar. This guy is moving up. That is so obvious. He is Governor material. Easy. No sweat. Down the line somewhere. It was Bill who gave a rousing Obama cheer at the Bash. (DL21C Annual Summer Bash: Barack Won The Straw Poll) Pollak pulled away the microphone in mock horror. The two got playful.
Clinton, Obama and Edwards Join Pledge to Avoid Defiant States New York Times, United States of North Carolina agreed to sign a loyalty pledge put forward by party officials in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, Senator a move that solidified the importance of the opening contests of Iowa and New Hampshire. ...... Hours after Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and former Senator John EdwardsHillary Rodham Clinton of New York followed suit. The decision seemed to dash any hopes of Mrs. Clinton relying on a strong showing in Florida as a springboard to the nomination. ....... in these states ideas count, not just money ..... Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan said her state’s manufacturing crisis and other issues were more important than the order of the primary calendar. Obama leads with corporate crowd Chicago Tribune, United States Clooney hails Obama 'star' quality The Press Association "You've been in a room once in a while with a rock star. He walks into the world and he takes your breath away. ..... labelled a traitor when he questioned the war .... among the first to own a Tesla, a fully electric sportscar, and he is working with the Swiss watchmaking company Omega Watches on a fuel cell project. Early wins key to Obama strategy United Press International black voters don't base a candidate’s electability on how they do in polls because they don’t trust white voters to tell pollsters the truth regarding how they feel about black candidates. ... Clinton leading Obama by double digits in New Hampshire and holding a slight lead in Iowa ..... In South Carolina, Clinton leads Obama by 8 percent Obama campaign to explore faith issues Iowa City Press Citizen, IA Obama to host faith forum in Iowa CityIowa City Press Citizen Nugget wins Obama 'caucus' Pahrump Valley Times, NV Obama campaign organizer Adrienne Lever said Nevada was formerly 46th in order of voting on the presidential candidates. .... "Now we're going to be one of the early caucus states," Lever said, "which means the eyes of the nation are upon us." .... Lever described the caucus process as a socially changing experience as well. .... "People who lived here for 14 years, for example, who didn't know the Democrats down the street, are all of a sudden starting to know each other," she said. .... "I met him at a household event in Las Vegas. He took the time, wading through the crowd, to listen to people," said Jack Wood. .... "It's the big, multinational corporations that basically owns our government, including the Congress, including the White House," Wood said. .... "He's changing the system. He's not a cookie-cutter (candidate)." .... Obama emphasizes rehabilitation and early education programs like Head Start. .... An partial supporter, Lever said, "I have seen a passion and enthusiasm in this campaign that I have never seen in politics before." .... Campaigner Allison Schwartz said she has never seen such a good turnout for a candidate from voters who never supported a campaign as she's seen with Obama, with "thousands of people following him around." ... "Nevada is once again going to be a battleground state. To those who worked on Kerry's campaign, it was devastating to lose by 21,000 votes," she said. Obama Urges More US Involvement in Africa Mshale African Community Newspaper, MN told a convention of black journalists in Las Vegas that the genocide in Darfur has continued for the worse because the United States has failed to intervene .... a crowd of more that 3,000 black journalists, who had gathered there for the 32nd annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists. .... the unanimous vote to send 26,000 peacekeeping troops to Darfur, cast in July by the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council .... Since 2003, when the conflict in Darfur began, the United Nations estimates that the Janjaweed, an Arab militia backed by the Sudanese government, has killed at least 450,000 black Africans. Members of the militia continue to set homes ablaze and have driven more that 2 million people out of the region. Most black Africans have sought refuge in neighboring Chad. .... to avert future crises in Africa, the United States should be more involved in the continent during times of peace. ..... “We can’t wait until all hell breaks loose,” he said. “We can’t wait until genocide takes place.” ... Obama gave special recognition to ethnic media, which he said covered issues that the mainstream press gave very little attention. He challenged other black journalists to follow suit and tell stories that show how poor black Americans are suffering. .... “Tell the stories that will lift up African Americans,” Obama said. “Show their difficulties and struggles.” Is John Edwards A Terrible Father? Barack Obama? Huffington Post, NY "You don't get to say I'm a terrible mother because you think you wouldn't make my choices in my situation," she blogged her accuser within hours of the post. "You don't get to judge me because you think you know exactly what you would do if you had my disease. I want to be really clear: you don't know. And if the sun always shines on you -- and I pray it does -- you will never know." ..... it reinforced a stereotype about women. You know, the one of women as small-minded, petty and, yes, jealous. I can't have what you have, so I'm going to make you pay for it. ....... You don't hear men resorting to that kind of backbiting. .... men get to fight about the important, big-picture stuff like heath-care reform and the war in Iraq, not the trivial garbage like subjective notions of parenting and how many minutes a day a "good dad" spends with his children. .... Elizabeth Edwards has incurable breast cancer. Not even her doctors know how much time she has. No sholay in Ram Gopal Varma’s Aag Hindustan Times, India Aadhe idhar jao, aadhe udhar jao, baki Ram Gopal ki Aag ke saath jao. Call it deja vu minus all the good parts. That’s the risk one takes while updating a legend like Sholay. Ram Gopal Varma took that risk and it’s official now: Aag is a flop with expected losses to the tune of a whopping Rs 40 crore. ..... A total of 101 prints have been distributed across Delhi, the NCR region and UP. But with not one of the single-screen theatres buying the print ...... “To begin with, there was no advance booking. On the first two days of its release, it could only register an occupancy of less than 20 per cent.” ..... “Audiences have declined the film. As a viewer, even I am with them. The verdict is clear and there’s nothing to look forward to.” He added he has learnt a lesson: “Don’t copy a classic. Period.” .... Ab tera kya hoga, Ramu? And the Worst Film Award goes to.. Hindustan Times, India RGV who has made a mockery of a classic. ...... the Worst Actor as well as the Worst Actor in a Negative Role Awards (so much confusion nowadays) goes out to Amitabh Bachchan for the hammiest, over-the-top, yucky delineation of Babban Gabban Singh ........ If I dug into my nostrils, it’s because I’m a director’s actor. He also told me to flick my tongue around when a rape scene was in progress. He told me to yell, sit as if all my limbs were in a kathak pose and behave like Jack Nicholson meets Johnny Lever. He also made me wear a potato gunny sack.. very hot it was.. prevented me from a haircut for 100 days.. and painted this little worm on my nose. ...... the new Expressionless Wonder in Town Prashant Raj ..... another Special Jury Award to Mr Bachchan for killing hundreds of ants, mosquitoes and bees I didn't take tips from Big B: PrashantNDTV.com But among all of us, Mr Bachchan was simply amazing. Even after being an actor for so long, his commitment to his character and the intensity that he brings is a lesson for all newcomers. Amitabh Bachchan misses Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag press conference ! India Target, NY he excused himself from going to Delhi as his mother's health needed his attention and therefore decided to drop out at the last minute.” ..... Bachchan was quite excited about coming to Delhi for the press conference but his mother fell ill and he had to cancel his visit here. 'Remaking Sholay is like playing with fire'Hindustan Times Hema Malini and Jaya Bachchan aren't too happy with the remake. Your comments? .... In the film industry, Sholay holds a special position. When one decides to make a remake of such a huge hit, it's like playing with fire. RGV Ki AagTimes of India our desi auteur ends up axing the soul out of the cult film. Somehow, the dark tones of the film become symptomatic of the quality of the film: it's Sholay minus the timeless glow...... he tries hard to lend the character a new menace, but all that snaky tongue-twisting, the tubucular cough and the onion breathstorm fail to stand up to the simple majesty of the '70s dacoit. .... he too flops miserably in the 'soocide' sequence — it's the beefy newcomer (Prashant Raj) who does a complete hara-kiri with Amitabh's angry young Jai. No one sheds a tear when Jai dies, this time. ... The filmmaker who seems to have mastered the art of the gangster film — remember Sarkar, Company, Satya — fails to create a new language for this old classic. ..... Babban's occasional brutish hysteria. .... While Sushmita Sen transforms the silent widow into a holier-than-thou mannequin, Nisha Kothari makes kachumber out of sweet ole Basanti. Sholay should be seen again, not made again: HemaHindustan Times classics like Mughal-e-Azam and Sholay shouldn't be touched .... However, Hema was confident that Amitabh Bachchan, who was Jai in the original, would do justice to his role as Gabbar Singh in the new version. "Amitabh Bachchan is a great actor and he is capable of doing justice to any role, including Gabbar." ..... the actress who hopes to open a classical dance institute in Bhopal one day. ... She has two dreams - to act with Esha in a film and perform at the Khajuraho Dance festival where daughters Esha and Ahana had danced last year. Big B fan attempts suicide outside JalsaTimes of India Craig Resigns From US Senate Over Restroom Incident (Update4) Bloomberg Pakistan power-sharing talks deadlocked Houston Chronicle In London, Bhutto said the talks were at a "standstill" because members of the ruling party objected to working with her Pakistan People's Party, the country's main opposition party which she has led from exile. ..... The two camps had been negotiating an agreement for Musharraf to resign as army chief, ending military rule of Pakistan since he seized power in a 1999 coup. Bhutto also wanted the president to give up the power to dismiss the government and parliament. However, she has failed to win a public commitment from Musharraf on those two critical points. ..... Bhutto "was asking too many concessions." ..... "She wanted that the president should not have the power to dissolve the parliament. She wanted that we should scrap corruption cases against her, and this is what we didn't accept." ..... "We've taken the decision to announce on Sept. 14 the date of my return ..... According to Pakistani law, Musharraf must stand for re-election by the national and provincial assemblies between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15, and parliamentary elections have to be held by mid-January. An amendment allowing Musharraf to serve simultaneously as president and army chief runs out on Dec. 31. ...... Pakistan's newly independent Supreme Court could declare Musharraf's continued military rule unconstitutional. .... She wanted Pakistan's ban on prime ministers serving a third term lifted, which would allow her, as well as Sharif to run again for prime minister. Democratic VP List Might Soon Shrink ABC News Warner has been seen by Democratic strategists as a potentially attractive running mate because he left office with an approval rating of 80 percent despite governing in a traditionally Republican state. ...... He has also thought of making another run for governor in 2009 ..... While Warner's executive image of himself is more in tune with the job of governor, the fact that not all of his daughters are done with high school in northern Virginia is one factor adding to the Senate's appeal. ..... Mark Warner likes to joke that the "most memorable" part of his '96 Senate run was the bumper stickers one of his supporters printed up which said: "Mark, not John." ... "Someone in Southside Virginia pulled up next to us one day and said: 'Excuse me, sir, what kind of biblical reference is that?'" ... He promises an announcement on his future plans in "a week or so." GOP Nomination Remains Up for Grabs The Associated PressThe Republican presidential race is extraordinarily volatile ..... Giuliani leads the field in national popularity polls but Mitt Romney, the ex-governor of Massachusetts, has maintained an edge where it counts — in some of the first states to vote. ... Looming large is the Iraq war and a dispirited party faithful smarting over losses in last year's midterm elections. Dividing the field are immigration and abortion. Wreaking havoc is an evolving primary calendar. .... Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, Florida and Wyoming are to vote in January, and Michigan is ready to complete a similar move. Dates and delegate allotments are in flux. .... Michigan is poised to become a player. The legislature voted to move the state's primary from Feb. 26 to Jan. 15, and Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm is expected to sign the bill. ..... Nevada ... One poll shows him with a double-digit lead over Giuliani and Thompson. Romney could benefit from a residual effect of his good standing in other early states as well as from his faith, given the state has one of the top five largest Mormon populations in the nation. ...... South Carolina .. a state that demands shoe-leather politicking ..... Romney is expected to pay more attention to Florida and devote more resources to it soon, giving chase to Giuliani. .... Whoever makes it to Mega Tuesday will need boatloads of cash to compete on the expensive TV airwaves in the nearly two dozen states holding contests. Well-funded candidates are focusing on states where they believe they have the best chance — and can pick up the most delegates. ..... Giuliani is stockpiling money and keeping a tight rein on spending to be ready for this day. He has centered much of his strategy around it, paying particular attention to California's bounty of 173 delegates. His home state, New York, votes on Mega Tuesday and could bring in 101 delegates as does neighboring New Jersey with 52 delegates and larger Democratic-leaning states such as Illinois. It offers 70 delegates. Clooney says Barack Obama has rock star aura, but other Dems not ... The Canadian Press Clinton Builds Lead 4 Months Out The Associated Press Obama Will Be Rewarded for His Open Talk About Bad US Policy on Cuba AlterNet The news that Fidel Castro is betting on the Clinton-Obama dream ticket should be taken with a large Mohito. It makes you wonder which TV station denied to ordinary Cubans that he is relying on for his news. ...... the inane and inept foreign policy that has got the US nowhere in Cuba and led it up the Tigris elsewhere. ....... There is no way the overwhelming white Cuban supporters of the Cuban American National Foundation would vote for a black candidate ........ one of the secrets of the Castro's success is that Afro-Cubans are very well aware that the exiled would-be rulers in Miami are not exactly equal opportunities types. ...... Their ancestors had maintained slavery until 1886 -- and many aspects of segregation right up to the revolution. They would not be welcomed as liberators. ....... It is highly likely that like many Anglo whites, the more conservative and anti-Castro Cubans support the Republicans for the same racial reasons more than any perceived Democratic softness towards Castro. ....... her foreign policy is identical in most respects to the neocons, as her comments on Iraq, Israel and much of the rest of the globe will testify. ....... Castro does not have a free press, does not allow free unions, and locks up some dissidents. Neither does China. ...... The embargo punishes ordinary people in Cuba .... the restrictions are morally unjustified and are tactically inane .... Uncle Sam's vindictive hostility. John Edwards Bets the Farm Time the pretty small-town squares fill with voters who say they feel a strong attachment to the former Senator from North Carolina. They relate to his rural Southern style. ..... The Democratic establishment has fallen into line behind Clinton; a great many people are inspired by Obama; the media are preoccupied with the competition between the two. ....... in recent weeks, as his campaign pulled staffers from Nevada and he stayed stuck in third place in New Hampshire, the first of those four states has become a must-win ....... Everything John Edwards says, does and wears, from the frayed cuffs of his faded jeans to the rolled-up sleeves of his basic blue shirt, tells these people he is one of them. ..... "I've made up my mind," she says. "He's my man. He knows exactly what we want." When I ask her what impressed her most, she can't point to anything in particular. She's quiet for a moment, then says, "It's more the whole feeling." ....... taken a week after Edwards' seven-day, 31-stop bus tour, gives him 29% of the vote, 5 points ahead of Clinton and 7 ahead of Obama. ....... only 5% to 10% of voters go to the caucuses ..... Iowa may be the only place where the feeling for him is so powerful. .... Iowa Democrats seem to like Edwards more for who he is than for what he says. ..... "The media goes to this very engaging story about a legitimate woman candidate and a legitimate candidate with an African-American heritage, and that drives up their fund-raising numbers," says Elizabeth, the unfiltered voice of the campaign ..... John Edwards always knew Clinton was going to be formidable, but he didn't bank on Obama. ..... Edwards believes that Obama will fade, as Bradley did, giving him a clean shot at Clinton. So far, Obama isn't cooperating, and Clinton is trying to triangulate her differences with Edwards and Obama by being the candidate of "change and experience," someone who sees the "invisible people" ....... he simply interviewed people and let them tell their stories ..... Another man on the porch, James Figgs, said he was moved by Edwards' visit but he'll probably vote for Obama. ...... He told Lowe's story at every event for the rest of the day, and he hasn't stopped since. ..... his goal of eliminating poverty within 30 years ..... Rallying people to help the have-nots has given way to rallying people to help themselves. ..... "Some of the best information I got was from lobbyists," says Bill Bradley. "What's important isn't shutting them out but breaking the money connection." A Civil War Over Early Primaries Campaigning by the Book
