Free Republic

The long race for the Democratic presidential nomination has been about votes, money and political power, but in the final days it's coming down to one thing more: the public relations war. And as they head for the finish line, both Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are scrapping for the advantage. Perception: Obama, as superdelegates march to his side, has already "won" the Democratic nomination, a view underscored by the latest cover of Time magazine, which shows a smiling Obama with the headline "And The Winner Is ..." Even longtime Clinton loyalist Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel said Friday that...

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made it clear Wednesday that she is not going away just because of an underwhelming victory in Indiana and an overwhelming defeat in North Carolina. No surprise there. Resiliency, defiance and a high threshold for shame have been among the defining traits of the Clintons' political life. "I'm staying in this race until there's a nominee," she told reporters in Shepherdstown, W. Va. She has every right to stay in the race. There may be an unwritten rule that candidates should drop out and rally around their party nominee when the math becomes implausible, but the...

HICKORY, N.C. --It spans the spectrum from moderate to militant, but it's not difficult to tap into a potential backlash among African-American supporters of Barack Obama if superdelegates give the Democratic presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton. Some in North Carolina, site of a crucial primary on Tuesday, fear it will happen. Some expect it to happen. Some think it could cause a rift in black voters' long-standing allegiance to the Democratic Party. And some, like Sharon Crosby of Lawndale, N.C., say they'd stay home rather than vote for Clinton in November. "How would I feel? I would feel cheated, cheated,...

Sources close to Arianna Huffington are claiming just that. Arianna Huffington is currently on book tour for her new political tome Right Is Wrong: How The Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded The Constitution, And Made Us All Less Safe. She's booked all over CNN, ABC, and CBS (but not Fox News Channel because she chose not to go on there). And NBC? Well, one insider says she was booked on Keith Olberman and Morning Joe to talk about her tome -- and then unbooked. " Arianna's accolytes are pointing the finger at Tim Russert, well known to be ridiculously thin-skinned,...

WASHINGTON -- As Democratic leaders try to end the continuing fight for their party's 2008 presidential nomination, the contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton heads into an unusual phase: of the final seven states to vote, only one, Oregon, has supported a Democratic nominee in the last two White House contests. The fate of Obama and Clinton could rest in the hands of voters in states that could have little impact on the outcome of the general election this fall, beginning May 6 with two reliably Republican states, Indiana and North Carolina, and ending June 3 with even more...

The demolition derby that now defines the Democratic presidential primary race looks headed for another smashup tonight when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama meet for a debate in delegate-rich Pennsylvania, site of the nation's next big primary on Tuesday. With the Democratic presidential hopefuls locked in open warfare as the last primaries wind down and the battle for delegates heats up, the questions now are: How much intra-party bashing will voters tolerate, and how much will the Republicans benefit? Although past one-on-one debates between the New York and Illinois senators have been virtual lovefests, the terrain is...

State Sen. Carole Migden's growing campaign finance problems caught up with her today when delegates to the California Democratic Party's convention overwhelmingly refused to endorse her for re-election. Migden, who's locked in a tough three-way race with San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno and former San Rafael Assemblyman Joe Nation for the San Francisco/Marin County/Sonoma County Senate seat, managed to grab the local endorsement Saturday after a raucous campaign that saw chanting crowds of competing supporters marching through the San Jose convention center. While the convention delegates typically quickly ratify the local endorsements, Leno, who has been running against Migden for...

Sen. John McCain’s "Straight Talk Express'' will roll out for a nostalgia tour this week, a bus-storming tour of many of the touchstones in the senator’s long life. Yet, for the two Democrats still battling over their party’s presidential nomination, this will be a season to forget – if they can. *snip* How much will it matter this fall, should Obama claim the Democratic nomination, that he devoted two decades to a church whose pastor spoke of damning America for its racial practices? *snip* How much will it matter, should all or half of the delegations of Florida and Michigan...

If ever the stars were aligned against a Republican winning the White House, 2008 is it. There's war. And not just any war, but a war that a majority of the public firmly and consistently believes is not worth fighting and that has dragged on longer than World War II and cost more than Vietnam. There's a likely recession. And not just an ordinary recession, but a financial crisis that involves millions of home foreclosures among the middle class. Then there's President Bush, a deeply unpopular Republican in his second term. Plus a fractured party that harbors profound suspicions about...

For all their delight in soaring voter registration and strong poll numbers, some Democrats fear the contest between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton might have a nightmarish end, which could wreck a promising election year. The chief worry is that Clinton may carry her recent winning streak into Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Carolina and other states, leaving her with unquestioned momentum but fewer pledged delegates than Obama. Party leaders then would face a wrenching choice: Steer the nomination to a fading Obama, even as signs suggested Clinton could be the stronger candidate in November; or go with the surging...

In further evidence that the Democratic primary is straining the party, liberal activist organization MoveOn.org is circulating a petition that attacks a group of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) donors, who had “threatened” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for her stance on superdelegates. “This is pretty outrageous: a group of Clinton-supporting big Democratic donors are threatening to stop supporting Democrats in Congress because Nancy Pelosi said that the people, not the superdelegates, should decide the presidential nomination,” said MoveOn, which is backing Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), in an e-mail to supporters. A group of deep-pocketed donors had, in a letter...

Some Democratic Party leaders are growing more concerned that the protracted, caustic fight for the presidential nomination will cripple the eventual nominee, and there are new signs they have reason to worry. More party leaders are saying that the increasingly personal crossfire between the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns serves only to write the script for Republican ads in the fall and to give John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, a head start in framing his candidacy. While the Democrats have been arguing almost daily the past two weeks about each other's electability and integrity, McCain has visited Iraq...

Twenty top Democratic donors who are supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for saying superdelegates should support the presidential candidate with the most pledged delegates. No matter what the outcome of the 10 remaining contests, it will be nearly impossible for Clinton to overcome rival Barack Obama's lead in pledged delegates, because they are awarded proportionally based on the outcome. So it will be up to the nearly 800 superdelegates — party activists and elected officials who aren't bound by any vote — to put one of the two candidates over the mark of 2,024 delegates needed...

Freshman Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton has enough to worry about this year: He's in a swing district, and Republicans are working feverishly to unseat him this November.Now he has another headache: As one of 796 Democratic superdelegates, he could help tilt the presidential nomination to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama or New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. But supporting either one could alienate fans of the other - which could cost McNerney votes he needs this fall.No surprise, then, that the 56-year-old former wind engineer would prefer to avoid the choice altogether: "I'll make a decision when I have...

Los Angeles (AP) -- The National Labor Relations Board wants a federal judge to order immediate reinstatement of eight newsroom employees fired by the Santa Barbara News-Press. In December, Administrative Law Judge William Kocol ordered the reinstatement with back pay after finding they were fired for union activities. The judge condemned the News-Press for flagrant misconduct . . . The News-Press is owned by Wendy McCaw's Ampersand Publishing LLC.

Rep. Doris Matsui's Sacramento office has become a battleground in the Iraq war.Anti-war protesters occupied her office for a third day Wednesday, even though she opposes the war and President Bush's plan to send more troops.The protesters want her to act on her opposition by vowing to vote against spending bills that fund the war. That's something she won't do, Matsui said. She said it could further endanger troops there. "I have the utmost reluctance to embrace policies that increase the dangers any further," she said.The response didn't soothe John Reiger, one of eight or nine protesters who showed up...

The following report is from an political insider: If the truth be known, HF Sr would have succeeded in promoting Jake's candidacy, if some Democrats had not alerted Clinton’s office about what the President was getting ready to step into when he came to support Jr. In fact, the Fords were going to have Jake on the dais with Clinton and Jr, Cohen was just given seats in the audience. Clinton would have appeared to lend his support to the Independent candidate, Jake, who is running a racist, anti-Semitic campaign against the elected Democratic candidate for the 9th District, Steve...

It has finally happened. The left is beginning to turn against New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., known far and wide as “Pinch.” It is simple to understand why: the New York Times is becoming a failing business under his stewardship, and the Left needs the NYT. Faithful readers of The American Thinker have known this for over two years, as we have chronicled the journalistic and economic decline of the New York Times Company. We started warning investors that their money was at risk before the common stock lost half its value. We slogged through to SEC...

Bogota, Jul 23 (EFE).- Five members of Conservation International and a cameraman working for the environmental organization were kidnapped in northern Colombia by suspected members of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, guerrilla group, Colombian media reported. The group was caught by surprise by ELN fighters in the hamlet of La Paz, which is close to Sincelejo, the capital of Cesar province, some 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) from Bogota, according to radio and television reports. The environmentalists had left Sincelejo last week and were working on a project to protect sections of the Serrania del Perija, a mountain range rich...

In yesterday's EDITION of the DUmmie FUnnies, the KOmmies at The Daily Kos asserted the wishful thinking that AM talk radio is fading fast. Perhaps they were thinking ONLY of leftwing AM radio. Just a couple of years ago, the leftwing Air America Radio was hailed by the MSM as the "answer" to Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talk show hosts who dominate the AM airwaves. What ended up fading fast wasn't AM talk radio but the dream of competing with conservative talk radio. The left in general has pretty much given up on Air America as you can...

You can't turn on a TV without being hit with either state Treasurer Phil Angelides slamming state Controller Steve Westly for taking campaign money from a crook, or Westly slamming Angelides for being in the pocket of big developers. But that's nothing compared with the behind-the-scenes beef in the Democratic gubernatorial primary between Angelides and Garry South, Westly's campaign manager. Angelides calls South the "King of Mean.'' South retorts that Angelides "is a sleazy campaigner at the core.'' To hear South tell it, the feud started in 1993 when Angelides -- who was winding up his tenure as chair of...

CBS/AP) Two London-based members of the CBS News team, veteran cameraman Paul Douglas, 48, and soundman James Brolan, 42, were killed and correspondent Kimberly Dozier, 39, was seriously injured Monday when the Baghdad military unit in which they were imbedded was attacked. They were reporting on patrol with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, when their convoy was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED). The attack was among a slew of car and roadside bombs left about three dozen people dead before noon Monday, including one explosion that killed 10 people on a bus. Nearly all the...

Latin America: For a relatively small nation, Bolivia has an uncanny way of shaking up a continent, which it did last week with energy nationalization. For democracies like Brazil, it could be a turning point. In his surprise May Day announcement, President Evo Morales "nationalized" Bolivia's natural gas resources — not just by decree, but also by force. His leftist presidency was all of 100 days old as he moved in with a crude, 1960s-style seizure of 56 natural gas fields as well as private gas stations owned by Bolivians. All were taken as if by battle, with troops triumphantly...

It's the end of an Era of Shameless Self-Hype. The Puffed Up Verbose One who uses five melodramatic words when just one would work, Pied Piper Pitt, is leaving DUmmieland. And what was the reason for this sudden departure? Most likely it was the result of recently getting egg on his face for backing up the "integrity" of JASON LEOPOLD. As the Lib of the infamous team of Leopold and Lib, Pitt stuck his neck out backing the journalistic credentials of the factually challenged Leopold who stated that Karl Rove received a target letter from Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. When...

Jim Lehrer, on his NewsHour program on PBS on Friday night, ridiculed John Kerry for calling for filibuster from "the ski slopes." Click the link above for the entire transcript. Liberal Mark Shields and conservative columnist David Brooks both joined Lehrer for some Kerry bashing. This exchange is making left-wing radicals furious, who are now calling Mark Shields a "Republican stooge" and a "Fox News Democrat." One leftist website had this to say to Mark Shields, long time CNN analyst: "This is the most despicable performance in your long career of pretending to be a Democrat. If you love George...

Howard Dean, the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Senator Hillary Clinton (D.-NY) jointly hold the dubious distinction of being the only major public figures with less credibility than Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas, the recently elected successor to the late Yassir Arafat, alternately advocates peace and brotherhood with Israel, along with its total annihilation, depending on the particular audience he happens to be addressing. Likewise, both Dean and Clinton are on record as being not only the sworn enemies of conservatism, but also its truest of champions. Although they disagree on specific tactics in their respective quests for power,...

THE NEW YORK OBSERVER will report tomorrow: 'Former 60 Minutes Wednesday executive editor Josh Howard has told colleagues that before he resigns, the 23-year CBS News veteran will demand that the network retract remarks by CBS president Leslie Moonves, correct its official story line and ultimately clear his name'... In the event of a lawsuit, Mr. Howard has told associates that he would like to see Moonves put under oath to talk about his own roles in the network's stubborn, hapless defense of the flawed segment on President Bush's National Guard service. Howard has also indicated to colleagues that he...

Minister of Interior and Justice Jesse Chacon: We do not rule out that assassinated Prosecutor was part of an extortion ring. From hero to suspected criminal in less than two months -Minister of Agriculture, Arnoldo Marquez: The British owners of the large estate El Charcote have not been able to demonstrate they own the land. The documents are not guarantee that the land is private property, but that they belong to the Agrarian Institute or the Land Institute. There goes the VP’s promise to the British Government to respect their property. -General Oswaldo Bracho: The Bolivarian Liberation front which backs...

Demos oust members who supported GOP BY JIM VERTUNO Associated Press Writer AUSTIN - The Texas primary election took its toll on state House Democrats who had aligned with the Republican leadership during the bitter partisan fights last year. Seven House Democrats, including longtime maverick lawmaker Rep. Ron Wilson of Houston, were defeated or headed for runoffs. Five had supported GOP-backed legislation and Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick. "I'm tickled pink," said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Charles Soechting. "I don't describe it as a purge. I describe it as a realignment of priorities." Wilson was the biggest name to fall....

Dark horse Democratic Presidential contender Howard Dean opened fire Thursday on one of his rivals for the 2004 nomination, Mass. US Senator John Kerry, for voting to authorize President Bush to us military force against Iraq.Dean questioned Kerry's vote to give Bush what he called 'blank check to go to war.'Dean jibes came in response to a foreign policy address by Kerry at Georgetwon University in Washington in which the Mass. Senator urged Bush to use caution before resorting to force against Iraq.