Free Republic

While Archimedes-in-a-pantsuit tries to rewrite the laws of mathematics, the rest of the nation has properly begun to weigh the Presidential contest between Sens. McCain and Obama. Obama has, however, learned a valuable Clinton trick from this protracted primary--how to obliquely reference the "vast, right-wing conspiracy" to misdirect people's attention away from glaring, personal deficiencies. During his victory speech in North Carolina on Tuesday night Obama said, "We know what's coming...the same names and labels they (Republicans) pin on everyone who doesn't agree with all of their ideas." Actually, we have some new names and labels thanks to Mr. &...

In a rare interview, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. said media organizations that circulated controversial sound bites of his sermons on the Internet wanted to paint him as "un-American" or "some sort of fanatic" in order to bring down Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. "I think they wanted to communicate that I am unpatriotic, that I am un-American, that I am filled with hate speech, that I have a cult at Trinity United Church of Christ," Wright told journalist Bill Moyers in the first interview he has granted since comments critical of U.S. policies surfaced on television and the Internet....

LANSDOWNE, Pa. - Sen. John Kerry reached out to veterans here on Barack Obama's behalf Saturday, saying he believes Obama is more prepared to be commander in chief than Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were when they took office. Kerry told the crowd he did not think Obama would be victimized by GOP attacks the way he was in 2004 by the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth." Kerry took responsibility for not fighting the Swift Boat assaults more effectively, but he said advisors, including Bill Clinton, suggested he not defend himself aggressively. "We didn't lose to them, I didn't lose...

Pay no attention to that woman behind the curtain. Be afraid. Be very afraid, for if you don’t obey the Great and Powerful Oz will turn her wrath on you. Yawn. Hillary Clinton’s favorite girlhood movie was the “Wizard of Oz.” But now, as the primaries clank along, her subjects are refusing to wear the green-tinted glasses and buy her act. She’s less and less terrifying every day, and fewer of those closest to her -- her Senate colleagues -- are intimidated. Despite their best efforts, the Clintons' powers seem to have gone on the fritz, and those Democrats who...

The New York Times' well-sourced Adam Nagourney reported on Saturday that, in response to calls for Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, to drop out of the race (from the likes of Obama-backing Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vermont), "In a conversation with two Democratic allies, she compared the situation to the 'big boys' trying to bully a woman, according to interviews with them." In the Washington Post Sunday, Clinton denied the report to Perry Bacon, Jr. Q. "There was a story today that said you felt the 'big boys' were trying to push you out, 'bullying' you. Did you use those phrases?" Clinton:...

What is it about Democratic politicians and their irresistible urge to lie? Even in the post-President Clinton era, lies continue to flow from the lips of prominent Democrats with regularity only matched by lots of fiber. Within the past two weeks alone, we’ve seen Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty, surrender to authorities after being indicted for conspiracy, perjury and obstruction of justice. Hillary Clinton said she was “sleep-deprived, and I misspoke” when she highly exaggerated about her trip to Bosnia as First Lady 12 years ago, and claimed she was under hostile sniper...

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...

Faced with a growing chorus to abandon the uphill battle against Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton is falling back on what she sees as her trump card - her gender.At other perilous junctures like the eve of the New Hampshire primary and the eve of Super Tuesday, the former First Lady highlighted her femininity during televised tearful moments. Now she is portraying the calls for her to quit as male chauvinism. In comments leaked to the New York Times, Mrs Clinton is said to have told aides that she would not be "bullied out" of the White...

Campaigning For Mom In N. Carolina, Clinton Says She Was Sheltered From Chauvinism (AP) Chelsea Clinton said Saturday that she didn't realize how much sexism remained in the United States until she noticed the issue at recent campaign stops for her mother. "I didn't really get how much sexism there still was in our country until I was at a rally with my mom in New Hampshire, and someone came up to me and said, 'I just can't see a woman being commander in chief,"' Clinton said during a stop in Research Triangle Park. She also noted another New Hampshire...

...Democrats are coming around to the point Jay Rockefeller made 10 days ago after introducing Obama in West Virginia: “Democrats always make a mistake by nominating people who know everything on earth there is to know about public policy. I introduced both Al Gore and John Kerry at their rallies. They knew all the policies, but people didn’t connect with them. You don’t get elected president if people don’t like you.” Despite Bill Clinton’s saying it was “a bunch of bull” that his wife should drop out, Democrats are trying to sneak up on Hillary, throw a burlap sack over...

...Which brings us back to our question: Why would so smart a candidate play political Russian roulette with virtually all the bullet chambers loaded? Sometimes only a shrink can decipher why some politicians persist in flagrantly taking giant risks, all but daring others to catch them in the act (see: Spitzer, Eliot). Carl Bernstein, a sometimes admiring Hillary Clinton biographer, has called the Bosnia debacle “a watershed event” for her campaign because it revives her long history of balancing good works with “ ‘misstatements’ and elisions,” from the health-care task force fiasco onward. But this event may be a watershed...

A golden rule in the game of American (or any modern professional) politics is that if you are behind in a campaign and you’re running out of time, you “go negative”. Twenty years ago I actually took a class in professional campaign tactics at Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government. We examined case studies of campaigns in recent years and saw the very precise metrics that the professionals use to gauge how much you lose if you throw mud at someone – because you look like a sleazebag – compared with how much damage you can inflict. The...

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...

Now that Obama and Hillary are offering images that are much weaker, LESS HONEST, and less solid and dependable, good old John McCain looks much better as he tours Iraq and Israel while Democrats rip one another apart.

Hillary Clinton distances herself from adviser who branded Lord David Trimble a 'crankpot' By Toby Harnden in Washington Last Updated: 2:41am GMT 28/03/2008 Hillary Clinton's campaign has disowned a senior adviser who branded Lord Trimble, former Northern Ireland First Minister, a sexist "crankpot" whose views were suspect because he was a Protestant. Under fire: Hillary and Chelsea Clinton are greeted by a smiling eight-year-old Bosnian girl in 1996 "It is not the campaign's policy to attack leaders from other countries," said Howard Wolfson, Mrs Clinton's communications director. Jamie Rubin, a former assistant secretary of state in Bill Clinton's administration, lashed...

The former congressman who shepherded the Family and Medical Leave Act through Congress sought Thursday to debunk Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) claim to the legislation, saying she “never had anything to do with it.” Former Rep. William Lacy Clay, Sr. (D-Mo.) is circulating an email disputing Clinton’s claim that the law is one of her more meaningful domestic accomplishments. The presidential candidate says she helped lobby for the bill’s passage and signing in 1993. But Clay, who was joined by Senate sponsor Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), said the bill had already passed by large margins when it passed in 1990...

The USA Today/Gallup survey clearly explains why Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is losing. Asked whether the candidates were “honest and trustworthy,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) won with 67 percent, with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) right behind him at 63. Hillary scored only 44 percent, the lowest rating for any candidate for any attribute in the poll. Hillary simply cannot tell the truth. Here's her scorecard:

Leahy Says Clinton Should Withdraw Mar 28 11:32 AM US/Eastern MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Sen. Patrick Leahy says Hillary Rodham Clinton should abandon her White House run. The Vermont Democrat says there is no way that Senator Clinton is going to win enough delegates to get the nomination. Leahy told Vermont Public Radio in an interview Wednesday that Clinton ought to withdraw and should be backing Senator Barack Obama. But Leahy said that's obviously a decision only Clinton can make. Leahy endorsed Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination in January.

BREAKING: Dean wants closure by July 1 A potential game-changer from CBS News and "The Early Show." Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean says he wants superdelegates to make a decision by JULY 1 -- the most specific he has been in his effort to prod the party to decide between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton before the Democratic National Convention in late August. Harry Smith asked if after the nominating contests end with the South Dakota and Montana primaries on June 3, "Do you want the superdelegates to have some sort of vote immediately so that you'll know months...

Election '08: One of Hillary Clinton's many lies is the one about her role in President Bill Clinton's granting of clemency to terrorists to aid her political fortunes and those of his vice president.Mrs. Clinton has been caught in a tangled web of deception about her experiences as first lady and her role and influence in the White House of William Jefferson Clinton. But there was one decision she did significantly influence, though she now denies it. Campaigning in Corpus Christi, Texas, shortly before the March 4 primary that kept Hillary's candidacy alive, if on life support, husband Bill was...

Accused Saddam Agent Says He Met With Hillary at White House By IRA STOLL, STAFF REPORTER OF THE SUN | March 27, 2008 A Michigan man facing federal criminal charges of illegally working for Saddam Hussein's Iraqi Intelligence Service says he met with Hillary Clinton at the White House in May 1996. In a 1997 interview with this reporter, Muthanna Hanooti said that at the meeting, Mrs. Clinton was "very receptive" to his request for an easing of the American sanctions on Iraq that were in place at the time. He said Mrs. Clinton "passed a message to the State...

*** Next she'll say that she was threatened by Bosnian snipers disguised as little girls hiding Uzis in the flowers...... NAMES REDACTED Ozone Park *** The master of deceit, Bill Clinton, and his sidekick, Hillary. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" still rings in my ears. Lavallette, NJ ***What a sick lie. I'm sorry I ever voted for the Clintons and did so twice. If she gets the nod by conniving, I'll be voting for Sen. John McCain. Surfside Beach, NC *** I don't see how anyone can support Clinton now that she has been caught with...

WASHINGTON -- As the Clintons enter their 17th year at the center of the national stage, some Washington pundits are running out of patience with them. My condition is more desperate. I am running out of jokes about these two perennial college kids. History eventually will remember them as the reincarnation of Warren and Florence Harding. For now, they come off as two undergraduate BSers on a protracted spring break. Hillary BSes about her indispensability to the first Clinton administration. Bill agrees with her and BSes about everything under the sun. At the beginning of their delightful presidential campaign, a...

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton's lies about risking her life under sniper fire during a visit to Bosnia as first lady have infuriated the US military brass and troops. "She has no sense of what a statement like that does to soldiers," fumed retired Maj. Gen. Walter Stewart, the former head of the Pennsylvania National Guard. "She is insulting the command in its entirety," he said yesterday.

Hillary Clinton has many admirable qualities, but candor and openness and transparency and a commitment to well-established fact have not been notable among them. “Since her Arkansas years [I wrote], Hillary Rodham Clinton has always had a difficult relationship with the truth… [J]udged against the facts, she has often chosen to obfuscate, omit, and avoid. It is an understatement by now that she has been known to apprehend truths about herself and the events of her life that others do not exactly share. ” As I noted: “Almost always, something holds her back from telling the whole story, as if...

Hillary Clinton regaled reporters for the umpteenth time with her fairy tale about a heroic landing through a hail of sniper fire 10 years ago.....This is pure, calculated fabrication. Lies, all of it. Fraudulence of this scope and severity makes Al Gore's claims that he invented the Internet look downright quaint. Throughout even the most polarizing of political eras, there is one thing both sides have always been able to agree upon: The Clintons lie with abandon......in the 1993 firing of the White House travel staff, investigators concluded Hillary's sworn testimony was "factually false." In 2000, The NY Times...

In light of Tuzla-gate (catchy, no?), reporters are going over past statements by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, (and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois) to see if others don't stand more rigorous examination. One that may get renewed scrutiny is a story she told “Women in Military Service” in 1994 -- that shortly after the end of the Vietnam war, she looked into joining the Marines. In June 1994, Clinton told an organization trying to build a memorial for women who had served in the armed forces, that while living in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 1975, “I decided that I was very interested...

In addition to her telling the Bosnia trip LIE on March 17 2008, she also told “the Bosnia sniper fire” LIE in a campaign speech on February 29 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzDkTUtTGXU "One of the great honors of being First Lady and of being a senator is the time that I was privileged to spend with our troops here at home, in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Bosnia, Kosovo, and places around the world. I remember particularly a trip to Bosnia where the welcoming ceremony had to be moved inside because of sniper fire." Hillary Clinton- February 29 2008, WACO, TEXAS.

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE The Clinton campaign says Senator Hillary Clinton may have “misspoke” recently when she said she had to evade sniper fire when she was visiting Bosnia in 1996 as first lady. She has been using the episode as an example of her foreign policy bona fides. “I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia, and as Togo said, there was a saying around the White House that if a place was too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the president couldn’t go, so send the First Lady,” she said last week. “That’s where we went. I remember...

Hillary Clinton has been regaling supporters on the campaign trail with hair-raising tales of a trip she made to Bosnia in March 1996. In her retelling, she was sent to places that her husband, President Bill Clinton, could not go because they were "too dangerous." When her account was challenged by one of her traveling companions, the comedian Sinbad, she upped the ante and injected even more drama into the story. In a speech earlier this week, she talked about "landing under sniper fire" and running for safety with "our heads down." There are numerous problems with Clinton's version of...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign said she "misspoke" last week when she said she had landed under sniper fire during a trip she took as first lady to Bosnia in March 1996. The Obama campaign suggested it was a deliberate exaggeration on Clinton's part. Clinton often cites the goodwill trip she took with her daughter and several celebrities as a part of her foreign policy experience. During a speech last Monday about Iraq, she said of the trip: "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport,...

Hillary's Lies: Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia Written by Savo Heleta Published March 24, 2008 Politicians lie. That’s a fact. They lie to get elected and to stay in power. Some lie about other countries so they can justify invading them. Others lie so they can portray themselves as experienced leaders. Hillary Clinton is a great example here. Let’s take a look at a few of the recent lies in her campaign to be Democratic presidential candidate. Darfur Bill and Chelsea Clinton have been touting Hillary Clinton’s commitment to Africa on the campaign trail by telling voters that “Hillary was the first...

Clinton to Philly Daily News: I "misspoke" in prepared remarks about Bosnia landing Her campaign spokesman conceded the point this morning, and she met later in the day with the Philadelphia Daily News and Inquirer, where she was grilled by columnist Will Bunch: Earlier this afternoon, Sen. Hillary Clinton came to the Daily News and Inquirer building here in Philadelphia -- where she's seeklng the Daily News editorial board endorsement -- and I had a chance to ask her about a controversy that's increasingly dogged her campaign the last few days: Whether she misrepresented the danger of her March 1996...

Hillary Clinton finally acknowledged what even Howard Wolfson couldn’t spin away — that she didn’t stroll off an airplane in Tuzla in 1996 under sniper fire. In an editorial meeting with the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, Hillary called the controversy a “minor blip”, but admitted that she made a “misstatement” when it came to the danger she faced in Tuzla. That admission only came after video clearly showed Hillary and her entourage, including a 15-year-old Chelsea, smiling and moving unhurriedly to a greeting ceremony she claimed never happened: Clinton acknowleged today for the first time that it was a...

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton had the Democratic presidential campaign trail to herself, but the camp of vacationing rival Barack Obama challenged the former first lady on her claim to have landed in Bosnia 12 years ago under sniper fire. Clinton characterized the episode as a “misstatement” and a “minor blip.” Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a written statement Monday that her story “joins a growing list of instances in which Senator Clinton has exaggerated her role in foreign and domestic policy-making.” Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson countered that the Obama campaign was only raising the issue because “they have...

I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base." --Hillary Clinton, speech at George Washington University, March 17, 2008. Hillary Clinton has been regaling supporters on the campaign trail with hair-raising tales of a trip she made to Bosnia in March 1996. In her retelling, she was sent to places that her husband, President Clinton, could not go because they were "too dangerous." When her account was challenged by one...

CBS News report that shows Hillary caught in a lie about the circumstances surrounding her Bosnia trip.

WASHINGTON -It is already easy to imagine the Republican attack ads against Barack Obama. They open with video of his wife, Michelle, saying she was proud of America "for the first time in my adult lifetime" because of her husband's presidential candidacy. Cut to the Illinois Senator explaining that he doesn't wear an American flag lapel pin because it is a "substitute for true patriotism." Then flash a clip of Obama explaining that his Caucasian grandmother was a "typical white person" because she uttered racial epithets and was afraid of black people. Finally, the coup de grace, pictures of Obama's...

So now Sen. John Kerry wants the Fairness Doctrine reinstated for broadcasters because the media “have been able to squeeze down and squeeze out opinion of opposing views.” I agree, Liveshot. It’s just terrible the way some pompous, blue-blooded PC politicians are able to get an absolute free ride in the press from their fellow pompous blue-blood media barons for 30-plus years. As a matter of fact, Sen. Kerry, if I were drafting an indictment of the unfairness of political coverage in the media, you’d be Count One. Remember 2004? Talk about lack of fairness - that phony Dan Rather...

Recently, I was re-reading one of P.J. O’Rourke’s books, and this happened to be while John Kerry was on Larry King Live. As Kerry was trying to dig his way out of a hole with such vigor that he was about to reach China, I ran across the chapter title, “Commies: Dead but too dumb to lie down.” I looked up at John Francois Kerry, and it was as if the gods of fortuitous timing were with me that evening. The chapter title, most of it anyway, was the perfect description of what has become of John Kerry’s presidential aspirations....

RUSH: Can you believe this circus? All of this stuff about Murtha, all of it is being brought out after the election. None of this, of course, none of this scandal is worthy enough to keep him out of the House. But, boy, when you talk about putting him in the leadership, the liberal Drive-By Media and this CREW group and a number of others are going to town on Jack Murtha here today. Ladies and gentlemen, I've been thinking about this, and I actually think that we want Murtha in there. We want the Democrats to be who they...

A West Point Cadet sends this along with the photo below: I'm a cadet at West Point, and tonight at our game against the Air Force Academy, a big sign emerged, and it was shown to the Corps of Cadets, who cheered wildly, and then shown to the Air Force cadets, who also cheered.