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Bill Clinton just sent Obama supporters and email saying that he has joined President Obama as first prize in the latest campaign fundraising raffle.

25-year-old Ann Arbor man is challenging U.S. Rep. John Dingell for his seat, claiming the long-time congressman isn't progressive enough.Daniel Marcin, who is pursuing a doctorate in economics at the University of Michigan, filed nearly 1,800 petition signatures with the state on Monday to appear on the ballot.Running as a Democrat, he'll face Dingell, D-Dearborn, in the Aug. 7 primary, competing in Southeast Michigan's newly drawn 12th District."I'm definitely to that guy's left," Marcin said of Dingell, attacking the 85-year-old congressman's record on environmental issues, same-sex marriage and tax policy."John Dingell acts like he's Mr. Senior Congressman," Marcin said. "If...

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James Carville chose these colorful words to describe Rick Santorum after Mitt Romney swept three Republican primaries Tuesday: “He was like a chicken with his head chopped off. The chicken is dead. The only person that don’t know it is the chicken.” The Democratic strategist, not known to mince his words, said in a late-night interview with CNN that Santorum “can flop around all he wants to [but] they’re not going to nominate him.”

The U.S. is pulling its troops out of Iraq by the end of the year. Well, not quite.There will still be a large group of soldiers left behind to train Iraqis and to repair the war-damaged sites. Now, will someone from the White House hierarchy, past or present, please tell the American people why we invaded Iraq in March 2003? The truth and nothing but the truth - that will be the day. Why are we still speculating on the reasons we went to war in the first place, other than to hunt down and kill Saddam Hussein, the brutal...

Newt today said that if Pelosi wants to disclose information about himself from when she was on the ethics committee, that the House should immediately file charges against her as that is a violation of the rules of the House: First of all I’d like to thank Speaker Pelosi for what I regard as an early Christmas gift. If she’s suggesting she’s gonna use material she developed while she was on the ethics committee, that is a fundamental violation of the rules of the House and I would hope members would immediately file charges against her the second she does...

President Obama needs to fire a lot of people. That’s the conclusion of longtime Democratic strategist and TV pundit James Carville, who unloaded on Obama Thursday for failing to change his White House team despite months of lagging poll numbers and stagnant economic indicators. “For God's sake,” Carville wrote on CNN’s web site , “why are we still looking at the same political and economic advisers that got us into this mess? It's not working.”

Liberal firebrand Michael Moore called on President Obama to respond to the U.S. credit downgrade by arresting the leaders of the credit-ratings agencies. On his Twitter feed Monday, the Oscar-winning film director also blamed the 2008 economic collapse on Standard & Poor’s — apparently because it and other credit-ratings agencies did not downgrade mortgage-based bonds, which encouraged the housing bubble and let it spread throughout the economy. “Pres Obama, show some guts & arrest the CEO of Standard & Poors. These criminals brought down the economy in 2008& now they will do it again,” Mr. Moore wrote.

President Barack Obama is finally setting goals to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan. It's about time. Americans are coming around to the futility of all that killing and dying. The timetables are admittedly loose and flexible. Some interests would keep us in the hostile sites forever. We still have troops in Japan and Germany - thousands of soldiers are still there, so many years after World War II ended. We also have 700 military outposts around the world, some big and some small. Why? We have yet to hear the real reason we invaded Iraq. I have heard several...

Helen Thomas is troubled by the lack of leadership from the top in Washington. At an appearance at Busboys and Poets bookstore on Sunday, Thomas was asked her opinion on the state of the country. "I went through the Great Depression, World War II, Vietnam, Korea, Vietnam and now Iraq and Afghanistan. What the hell is going on? Don’t we ever learn anything? I think that we are — there is no inspiration from the top. President Obama doesn’t have enough courage to do the right thing. And I think there is no real leadership in this country and there...

Osama bin Laden wasn't killed by a Navy SEAL team, he was straight up executed, Michael Moore told TheWrap on Wednesday. The "Fahrenheit 9/11" director has been setting Twitter aflame Wednesday afternoon urging the Obama administration to come clean about the circumstances surrounding the terrorist leader's death -- particularly in light of the White House's shifting account of last weekend's firefight in Abbottabad. The Oscar-winning director has been tweeting about his belief that Bin Laden should have received a trial, and his theory that Pakistan was keeping the Al Qaeda head under house arrest.

Congress tied the Obama administration's hands in trying the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and his accomplices, Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday, announcing that he was left without a choice and has referred the cases to the Defense Department for trial. In stark language, Holder lambasted Congress for imposing restrictions blocking any detainees from being tried in the U.S., saying that the "unwise and unwarranted restrictions" undermine the U.S. in counter-intelligence and counter-terror efforts. Expressing his disappointment in no uncertain terms, the attorney general said that as a native New Yorker, he knows as well...

So unfolds the latest chapter in Alec Baldwin’s ongoing flirtation with public office: The “30 Rock” actor told CNN’s Eliot Spitzer that he’s “very interested” in a political run. Of course, Baldwin knows there are plenty of obstacles in his way: He loves acting and his current state of New York is flooded with established political players. “It’s something that I’m very, very interested in,” said Baldwin in an interview set to air Wednesday night. He said what he wants to see from elected leaders is “people who have not lost sight about what the middle class in this country...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Kennedys have held congressional seats, the presidency and the public's imagination for more than 60 years. That era ends when Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island vacates his U.S. House seat next month, leaving a City Council post in California as Camelot's sole remaining political holding.

Per copyright restrictions and FR posting guidelines, can't display the article. So, here's a link: http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2010/12/graydon-201012

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama acknowledges that the fall elections could amount to a referendum on his stewardship of the nation's affairs. [SNIP] But he also says the midterm congressional elections could come down to "a choice between the policies that got us into this mess and my policies that got us out of this mess."

THE shocking images of oil-covered wildlife and ruined beaches across the Gulf of Mexico have horrified millions. But passionate green campaigner Sir Paul McCartney believes the environmental disaster may have a silver lining, with the search for clean, renewable energy now being pushed forward. The Beatles legend said: "Sadly we need disasters like this to show people. Some people don't believe in climate warming - like those who don't believe there was a Holocaust."

<p>WASHINGTON -- Say it isn’t so, Mr. President. You surely are not going to make a deal with Republicans to cut Social Security benefits, are you?</p> <p>Here’s word from The Nation Magazine: “The President intends to offer Social Security as a sacrificial lamb to entice conservative deficit hawks into a grand bipartisan compromise in which Democrats agree to cut Social Security benefits while Republicans accede to significant tax increases to reduce government red ink.”</p>

WASHINGTON -- At last! President Barack Obama held a full-scale White House news conference Thursday, his first since July 22. His record on presidential news conferences has been abysmal. True, he held a forgettable news conference on Feb. 9, the day the government was shut down because of blizzards. Very clever. He is considered a great communicator. So what’s the deal? He is surely well-primed on the issues and headlines of the day. Speeches and well-placed interviews won’t cut it. He should be quizzed, as he was Thursday by reporters trying to get to the bottom of the Obama administration’s...

WASHINGTON -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai got a close look at the cost of war and American sacrifices last week in a rare travel schedule for a visiting head of state. The administration of President Barack Obama rolled out the red carpet as a peace offering to gloss over the public friction that caused the proud Karzai earlier this year to threaten to join the Taliban -- the enemy. Or is the enemy al-Qaida? Or both? Between meetings with administration officials, the Afghan leader’s orientation visit included a trip to Walter Reed Army Medical Center where wounded U.S. soldiers from...

An Eloquent Defense Of American Democracy Obama Also Notes Harshness Of Public Discourse Helen Thomas, Hearst White House columnist WASHINGTON -- The U.S. is so divided that it seems to me that the nation has lost its compass. Even in times of national crisis, including the Great Depression, World War II, the Vietnam War and a string of scandals such as Watergate, the political center has held together. But now I’m not quite so sure. President Barack Obama has been most conciliatory as he seeks the middle ground on a host of issues, even to the point of caving to...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama needs to wake up to the fact that the nation’s school systems are going down the drain. Thousands of teachers are facing a payless summer. Millions of school children are looking at a drop in educational standards and bigger classes. We are depriving students of their right to a decent education. Granted that school systems are under state control, the federal government needs to step up and help them overcome their financial woes. Aren’t the schools too important to fail? U.S. priorities are to spend billions every week for the unjustified and unexplained wars in...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell met with two dozen top Wall Street executives recently and got his marching orders: Just say “no” to any new regulations designed to prevent another Great Recession, the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression in the 1930s. But something happened soon afterward. Faced with the politically tough strategy of defending Wall Street amid widespread public anger, McConnell stepped back and has begun talking about how a bipartisan bill to regulate Wall Street is likely to emerge from the Senate. I bet he got some strong advice from fellow Republicans, especially those facing...

WASHINGTON -- The forthcoming departure of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is a great loss to the country, especially to progressives. Stevens, a Republican, was appointed to the high court in 1975 by President Gerald Ford. Over the next 35 years, he grew in office and eventually adopted liberal views about the death penalty, abortion rights, protection of gay rights and curbing executive power. Stevens is brilliant, eloquent, outspoken and unafraid to change his mind, as evidenced by some of his votes on the court. He voted in favor of affirmative action, after first questioning it. He declared that...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is learning to be a strong president. Yes, he can. When Obama took office, it wasn’t clear whether he had any firm principles. This perspective grew when he seemed oblivious to the harsh reality that Republicans weren’t going to sign on to his health care plan, no matter what. Obama became the Great Compromiser when he watered down his original concepts in a vain effort to appease his opponents, even though they had zero interest in working with him. The president had a light-bulb moment, at least publicly, earlier this week when he was interviewed...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a muted victory lap today after the historic House vote on health care reform, but didn't dispute a description of her clout in helping win passage of the bill. Diane Sawyer's exclusive interview with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi."Most powerful woman in American history?" "World News" anchor Diane Sawyer asked Pelosi today, citing an article in The Economist.

WASHINGTON -- Billions are being spent for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we have stingy budgets for the stubborn needs on the home front. Thousands of teachers have been laid of, schools closed and homes foreclosed all over the country. Banks are holding back on loans to small businesses and the jobless rate remains stubbornly high. Call it a "recession" or a "depression," we know there is great deprivation in the lives of millions, especially those who have lost their jobs. In many ways, President Barack Obama has run up against a Republican iron curtain in his attempts...

WASHINGTON -- Finally! President Barack Obama has at last zeroed in on the greedy health insurance companies and their opposition to health reform. It’s about time. The president also seems to have awakened the public to the fact that congressional Republicans have mounted a solid wall of resistance to serious efforts at improving the American health care system. Obama is now in the final chapter of his year-long effort to win legislation that would make health insurance affordable and accessible to more Americans, 46 million of whom lack coverage. The Republicans have been admirable for their party discipline: They have...

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is finding her voice in the world of foreign affairs -- and it’s the sound of hawk-speak, filled with threats and warnings. She has warned that Iran is becoming a military dictatorship. She is trying -- with some success -- to persuade U.S. allies to support stronger sanctions against Teheran. There’s no sign that the U.S. is about to invade Iran but there’s tons of speculation that the Pentagon has been tasked to figure out what bunker-buster bombs would do to Iran’s underground nuclear industry and whether such an attack would help or...

WASHINGTON -- Enough already. President Barack Obama’s admirable quest for bipartisanship is a voice crying in the wilderness. Oh yes, he has another chance at bat when he hosts a summit meeting Feb. 25 at Blair House, the president’s guest house across the street from the White House. He has invited the leaders of both parties to the televised meeting designed to "jump start" the discussion about health care reform. Obama said he does not want the talks to devolve into political theater. "I want a substantive discussion," he said. The summit follows Obama's televised sparring with House Republicans at...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama does have a foreign policy. It’s called war. Unfortunately, the president has not defined any real difference between his hawkish approach to international issues and that of his predecessor, former President George W. Bush. Where’s the change we can believe in? Bush left a legacy of two wars, neither of which was ever fully explained or justified. Obama has merely picked up the sword that Bush left behind in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both wars lack a formal congressional declaration of war. In the struggle against terrorism one might say, "Who cares?" Well, one group that...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama set a goal to change the way Washington works. That was a far-fetched dream, to say the least, at a time where there is no comity in the country and no move toward political reconciliation. The Washington scene -- reflective of the nation -- is fragmented between nay-saying conservatives who seem against every thing, and liberals and moderates in search of a middle ground. It seems impossible to find that mythical location. The divisions are propelled by anger, dissatisfaction and undoubtedly some fear of the future. Obama is the fall guy for this, raising Republican...

Democrats would not be playing the blame game with one another for the loss or for the healthcare debacle if they had only pointed fingers at those (or in this case, the one) who put Americans (and most of the world) in the predicament we’re in: George W. Bush.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is a much wiser man as he starts his second year in office. When he arrived at the White House, Obama inherited an insurmountable legacy of a deep recession and two wars in the Middle East. These are issues hardly adaptable to instant solutions for an impatient public. He was flying high as a presidential candidate offering "change" from the heavy hand of conservatives empowered from the days of Ronald Reagan, who had turned the country to the right. Since those halcyon inaugural days the president surely has learned that there is no such thing...

WASHINGTON -- No one in the Obama administration is going to acknowledge that our foreign policy in the Middle East has alienated many Arabs. The U.S. pro-Israel policy and our shocking neglect of the beleaguered Palestinians underlie almost every initiative or tactical tilt that comes out of Washington. President Barack Obama and his predecessors in the White House have scored domestic political points by embracing this world view. This is one vantage point that is truly bi-partisan, to the point where no one discusses it. Michael Scheuer, a former CIA specialist on the al-Qaida terrorists, complained on C-SPAN recently that...

WASHINGTON -- The chorus of loud criticism of President Barack Obama is a reminder that every new occupant of the White House has a presidential learning curve. There is no such thing as an instant president. They all have to learn the hard way. Fans and foes alike seem to be ganging up on the newcomer as he approaches his first anniversary in office. Hopeful Republican antagonists are wondering whether he can win a second term -- premature as that speculation may be. Some one-time Obama supporters are disillusioned because of the great expectations fostered by Obama’s soaring rhetoric during...

WASHINGTON -- The spirit of Christmas seems to have escaped Congress, maybe even the country. Have you ever encountered such mean spiritedness and political conniving as are now on display on Capitol Hill? In the past, we have had great philosophical divisions in the struggle for civil rights, especially when southern legislators ran the show. In praise of democracy, fortunately they lost. And of course there also was the "red scare" fomented by Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wis., in the 1950s when he led the commie-hunting movement that ended up victimizing government officials, academia and Hollywood. We recovered from that, too....

WASHINGTON -- After nearly a year in office, the defining political image of President Barack Obama has yet to emerge. Is he a hawk or dove, a liberal or a moderate? His Nobel Peace prize speech exposed his ambivalence. He harkened back to the Roman Catholic theologians to defend his "just war" in Afghanistan -- but he also expressed his ideals for a better world. Measuring Obama’s performance is truly in the eyes of the beholder. To those who were enthralled with Obama’s eloquence in the presidential campaign, reality is setting in. News flash: He doesn’t walk on water. But...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama had a golden opportunity to become a peacemaker compared to his hawkish predecessor. But he has let that opening evaporate by escalating the war in Afghanistan. Now he is called a "war president" -- a dubious title that former President George W. Bush personally embraced after starting two devastating wars, one in Afghanistan, the other in Iraq. In both cases, the U.S. is touting its exit plans. In Iraq, Obama has declared a victory and plans to pull out many troops next year, though leaving thousands behind to secure the Baghdad government. In Afghanistan, Obama...

President Obama May Not Remember Vietnam Turmoil WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama insists that his decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending in 30,000 more troops is not Vietnam all over again. Well, it sure reminds me of the perils and the price of that unwinnable war in Southeast Asia and the political chaos it wreaked at home. In Afghanistan, the designated enemies are remnants of the weakened al-Qaida network and the native Taliban, which has been growing in strength despite the eight-year war started by President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 catastrophe....

WASHINGTON -- The Nobel Peace crown lies uneasy on President Barack Obama’s head as he ponders the next U.S. move in Afghanistan, with hints and leaks showering down to tell us that he will eventually send thousands more troops there. His decision -- which could be announced soon -- was triggered by the request from Gen. Stanley McChrystal for 40,000 more troops to secure the cities and protect the citizens of Afghanistan, in addition to the 68,000 U.S. troops there now. Obama has been reviewing the U.S. role in Afghanistan for months, a time-consuming study that has led to accusations...

Obama's liberal buddies are blocking a surge. This is from the blog at TheHill.com, the Briefing Room. "Nearly two dozen House liberals have signed onto a bill introduced this past week that would prohibit an increase of troops in Afghanistan. A bill introduced by Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) Thursday would bar funding to increase troop level in Afghanistan beyond its current level. Lee and 21 lawmakers, largely from the liberal Congressional Progressive Caucus..." Do they really need a separate liberal caucus in the House? Aren't they all liberal socialist jerks? They need their own separate caucus? They introduced the bill,...

Here is video of Helen Thomas pressing White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs yesterday over whether President Obama still supports a "Public Option" for Health Care, and whether he will "fight for it." Gibbs customarily dodged the question, and Thomas called him on it, saying she continues to ask about it because "I want your conscience to bother you." . . . (VIDEO)

RUSH: Yesterday at about this same time in this program we shared with you the details of a story in the National Post in Canada (the only place I have found such details) about how irritated with Obama the French president, Sarkozy, was in the way he's dealing with the Iranian situation and their nuclear ramp-up. And it was clear that -- we read the quotes from Sarkozy and things that he had said (that, again, were not reported here in the State-Controlled Media in the United States) he clear thinks Obama is an idiot. He thinks he's naive and...

WASHINGTON -- Have you noticed a climate of hate and mean spiritedness in the land? Whether inspired by racism or not, it certainly exists. This isn’t a unique psychological phenomenon. Remember the brutal anti-unionism of the 1930s, the McCarthy-era anti-communist scare of the 1950s and the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s and early 1970s? President Barack Obama -- the first black U.S. president -- tries diligently to reject claims that racism underlies the public rancor against his health care reform plan and other administration aspirations. He acknowledged recently that there are "some people out there who don’t like me...

WASHINGTON -- It’s no surprise that former Vice President Dick Cheney is opposed to the Justice Department’s decision to investigate the torture of prisoners during the Bush-Cheney administration. After all, Cheney has acknowledged that he was "aware" of waterboarding (simulated drowning) of detainees to get them to talk. It’s fair speculation that the orders for this method of torture came from on high. And in the Bush-Cheney administration, no one was higher than the vice president. Cheney has blasted Attorney General Eric Holder’s appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate abuse of prisoners. The duty fell to veteran Connecticut lawyer...

WASHINGTON -- To win concessions from the hardliners on Capitol Hill, President Barack Obama appeared as though he was ready to give up a jewel in the crown of health reform -- the government-run public option. But after liberal Democrats put up a squawk, the White House scaled back, insisting the president’s commitment to the public option hasn’t changed. Will the real President Obama please stand up? Why doesn’t the president come out and say exactly where he stands, where he draws the line? The problem is that for President Obama, there is no "line" on health care. It appears...

WASHINGTON -- It’s all so sad. Well-organized conservatives have launched a full-scale attack on health care reform. And they appear to be winning -- for now. Their victory strategy involves deliberate distortions of the truth and scare tactics. Under the plans Congress is considering, a government bureaucrat will come between you and your doctor, their TV ads intone ominously. You will lose your private health insurance, dumping you into an inferior government plan. You won’t be able to choose your doctor, they say. The desperate opposition also claims we will have "socialized medicine," rationed care and forced euthanasia for the...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: These guys have threatened me again. This was last Friday at the White House, Jake Tapper -- this the presidential daily brief. Jake Tapper says, "Rush Limbaugh went on a very long speech which he compared Democrats to Nazis, the president to Hitler, and I'm wondering if the president's seen any of this. Obviously the Nazi imagery has been condemned by Jewish groups, and I'm wondering if he feels anything about the language being used this way." GIBBS: Any time you make references to what happened in Germany in the Thirties and Forties, I think you're talking...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama should stick to his guns in pressuring Israel to stop building settlements on Palestinian land. The Israeli land grabs that result in more settlements on the West Bank and the forced eviction of Palestinians in East Jerusalem are clearly violations of international law. The Israeli leadership knows what it is doing and hopes it still has a green light and open-ended support from U.S. policy makers, just as it did in the administration of President George W. Bush. Bush was totally sympathetic with all Israeli military moves, including the catastrophic bombing of Gaza. His administration...