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By Eugene Robinson
By Howard Jacobson
$23
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By Eugene Robinson — Once the meaningless inquisition about loose semantics and questionable acquaintances was done, Wednesday night’s debate between Obama and Clinton got interesting.
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Still railing against Barack Obama’s “elitist” comments, Hillary Clinton has found some of her own alleged words about the working class coming back to haunt her. The candidate’s campaign has denied that she said the following about blue-collar voters, as reported by the Huffington Post: “Screw ‘em. ... You don’t owe them a thing, Bill. They’re doing nothing for you; you don’t have to do anything for them.”
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With just five days left before Democratic primary voters go to polls to decide whom they want to be their presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois are locked in a battle that is too close to call, the latest Newsmax/Zogby telephone poll shows.
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AP photo / Matt Rourke
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The Democrats met in Philadelphia Wednesday night for their 21st and probably finally debate. The Washington Post’s Tom Shales was horrified by what he saw, but not because of the candidates: “For the first 52 minutes ... Gibson and Stephanopoulos dwelled entirely on specious and gossipy trivia that already has been hashed and rehashed, in the hope of getting the candidates to claw at one another over disputes that are no longer news.”
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World Economic Forum / Remy Steinegger
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British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is in the United States to discuss the global economy with President Bush, but the real excitement is over back-to-back meetings he has scheduled with the three U.S. presidential candidates.
Posted on Apr 17, 2008
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By Joe Conason — It is hard to blame John McCain for mocking Barack Obama as an “elitist” following that silly remark about bitter folks who cling to guns and religion. Rarely does the Arizona senator—one of the wealthiest members of Washington’s most exclusive club—encounter such a tempting chance to masquerade as a populist.
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By Ellen Goodman — I always thought that genealogy was for people whose blood ran blue. It was for folks who traced their ancestry to the Mayflower or the American Revolution, not those who came over in steerage one step ahead of the Cossacks.
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The columnist argues that Barack Obama’s “bitter” comments will indeed work against him with white working-class voters.
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Flickr / AndreasC
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Consider Barack Obama a trendsetter: In Italy, the recently defeated center-left leader in the parliamentary elections took a cue from the American candidate and adopted the slogan “Si può fare” or, as The Economist translates, “It can be done.” Right-winger Silvio Berlusconi, who won a convincing victory in that election, begged to differ.
Posted on Apr 16, 2008
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By Amy Goodman — Sen. Barack Obama is clearly a bad bowler. But it was not too long ago that African-Americans were not allowed in some bowling alleys. In Orangeburg, S.C., three young African-American men were killed for protesting against that town’s segregated bowling alley.
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The Star-Ledger / Saed Hindash
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Bruce Springsteen, the iconic musician of the working-class U.S., endorsed Barack Obama on Wednesday. The announcement comes less than a week before the Pennsylvania primary, in which blue-collar voters may play a significant role in determining the Democratic nominee.
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msnbc.com
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As the race for the Democratic nomination slogs ahead, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Barack Obama with a 10-point national lead over Hillary Clinton, with the added insult of six in 10 voters seeing Clinton as neither honest nor trustworthy.
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Stephen Colbert began his interview with Michelle Obama by asking about her “silver spoon” upbringing on the South Side of Chicago. The pseudo pundit then segued into a brief and comical flirtation and even managed to get in a few digs against Hillary Clinton. “Why would you want to be first lady?” he asked. “You’d never get any sleep because I understand the phone keeps ringing at 3 a.m.”
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Flickr / djloche / jurvetson / seiu_international
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If you’re looking for an indicator of just how close the Democratic primary race is (delegate math notwithstanding), you need look no further than those all-important Hollywood donations. With nearly $6 million in entertainment industry contributions between them, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are separated by a mere $291.
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AP photo / Ron Edmonds
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By Robert Scheer — Are Americans unusually stupid or is it something our president put in the water? As millions surrender their homes and sacrifice other standards of our nation’s economic stability and reputation to the caprice of the Bush-Cheney imperium, a majority of voters tell pollsters that they might vote for a candidate who promises more of the same.
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AP photo / Charlie Neibergall
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By Stanley Kutler — With the so-called scandal over Barack Obama’s “bitter” comment, the media have once again abandoned impartiality and become active participants in the race for the White House.
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AP photo / Mary Altaffer
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John McCain joined Hillary Clinton in critiquing Barack Obama’s characterization of small-town Pennsylvania’s (and by extension, perhaps, America’s) “bitter” outlook, telling a crowd of magazine and newspaper editors on Monday that Obama’s description represented “a contradiction from what I believe America is all about.”
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There are many opportunities, in every heated political campaign, for one candidate’s perceived slip-up to quickly provide the plot for another’s next TV spot. Here, Hillary Clinton’s camp has some Pennsylvania supporters weigh in on Barack Obama’s recent statements about their home state.
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By Eugene Robinson — Hillary “Shot-and-a-Beer” Clinton has given us the perfect illustration of what’s so insane about American politics: the philosophical dictum that could be summed up (with apologies to Descartes) as “I seem, therefore I am.”
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The Democratic presidential candidates are doing a splendid job of helping John McCain get to the White House.
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wikimedia.org
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U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis of Kentucky has asked Barack Obama’s forgiveness for a racially charged comment about the candidate’s readiness to handle national security. Davis told a group of fellow Republicans Saturday, “That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button.”
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Flickr / Steve Rhodes
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A new poll shows Hillary Clinton way out ahead in Pennsylvania, thanks in part to the 23 percent of respondents who said Barack Obama’s saturation advertising is turning them off. The Obama campaign is currently spending more per week on ads in Pennsylvania than any other candidate ever has spent.
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In another response to the controversy over his “bitter” comments, Barack Obama ridicules rival Hillary Clinton. He says “it sounds like there’s some politics being played,” and he goes on to jab at Clinton’s recent attempt to portray herself as pro-gun: “She’s running around talking about ... how she values the Second Amendment, she’s talking like she’s Annie Oakley! Hillary Clinton’s out there like she’s on the duck blind every Sunday, she’s packin’ a six-shooter! C’mon! She knows better.”
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AP Photo/Alex Brandon
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Barack Obama has apparently decided to stand by his observation, first delivered in San Francisco on April 6, that some Americans in small-town Pennsylvania are “bitter” about the lack of available jobs. After Hillary Clinton and John McCain criticized his views as elitist and condescending, Obama repeated, and elaborated upon, his original statement Friday. Updated
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CNN’s political panel takes Hillary Clinton to task over what Jeffrey Toobin calls her “ridiculous” and “embarrassing” attack on Barack Obama’s comment that some Americans are bitter about federal mishandling of the economy. And when John McCain’s criticism of the Obama comment comes up, Jack Cafferty nearly blows a gasket.
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By Eugene Robinson — No, it’s not your imagination: The “debate” about Iraq, and I use the word loosely, becomes ever more surreal as the occupation drags on.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The problem with the debate over our future course in Iraq is that the two sides are not even talking about the same things.
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AP photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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By Bill Boyarsky — Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker’s congressional check-in about Iraq this week didn’t offer much hope for America’s overseas entanglements, and as coverage of the overseas wars wanes, the media isn’t holding politicians’ feet to the fire—or telling the real story about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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abcnews.go.com
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Gen. Colin Powell won’t say who will get his vote this November, but on Thursday’s “Good Morning America,” the former secretary of state put in a good word for all three front-runners, praised Obama’s Rev. Wright speech and worried that the U.S. armed forces are becoming “very, very stretched” by the protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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AP photo / Duane A. Laverty
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Despite some congressional resistance, it seems Gen. David Petraeus’ recommended “pause” in U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq will take effect after July. On Thursday, President Bush (whose approval ratings have plummeted to a new low) essentially deferred the withdrawal issue to his successor.
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Flickr / realjameso16
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Barack Obama’s fundraising machine has exceeded expectations and broken records, so it’s no wonder that he has hinted at retreating from public financing, a move his rivals are already trying to exploit. But Taegan Goddard argues that this “flip-flop story” could work to Obama’s advantage.
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The questions leveled by Senate members at Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus during Tuesday’s update session about Iraq failed to make the grade for Michael Ware, CNN’s “Situation Room” correspondent. Ware declared the session “frighteningly disappointing,” telling host Wolf Blitzer, “I just see a lot of oxygen being wasted here.”
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“The Daily Show’s” Lewis Black probes the soft underbelly of the celebrity endorsement, from the guy who played Kumar to the “political juggernaut that is Dick Van Patten.” And if you think Oprah is excited about Barack Obama, just wait until you see how she reacts to the cast of “Desperate Housewives.”
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AP photo / Charles Dharapak
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By Robert Scheer — General Betray Us? Of course he has. MoveOn.org can hardly be expected to recycle its slogan from last September, when Gen. David Petraeus testified in support of escalating the U.S. war in Iraq, given the hysterical denunciations that worthy group received at the time. But it was right then—as it would be to repeat the charge now.
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A few months ago columnist Amy Goodman argued that the principal beneficiaries of our current campaign finance system are the media conglomerates that rake in all those advertising dollars. That’s especially true this week as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama bombard Pennsylvania with commercials.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The most striking critiques of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign have come not from her opponents or her enemies but from her most loyal friends.
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If the election comes down to bowling ability, the Democrats are in serious trouble. Hillary Clinton poked fun at her rival’s poor showing at the lanes, but it turns out she can’t bowl either. Of course, there’s no evidence John McCain would fare any better. Is it too much to ask that the next president be able to roll a ball in a straight line?
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From TSA’s mood music to Obama’s bowling blunder, Bill Maher takes on the issues of the week, including the growing concern over the Democrats’ heated primary battle: “If voting can destroy the Democratic Party, then the party isn’t very democratic.”
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Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s health-care plans contain some form of mandate—a requirement that Americans purchase insurance. At least one legal scholar wonders whether that’s constitutional. At the very least, Karl Manheim argues in an Op-Ed article, it’s “certainly unprecedented.”
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Flickr / Joe Crimmings Photography
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By Bill Boyarsky — Real politicians don’t quit. They are defeated, indicted, jailed, die or, in some jurisdictions, ousted by term limits. So don’t expect Hillary Clinton to surrender just yet.
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Barack Obama raised more than $40 million in March to Hillary Clinton’s $20 million. Between them, the Democrats took in about three times in March what John McCain raised in January and February combined. That’s good news for Democrats, but only, as Donna Brazile points out, if the money isn’t “used to tear the party apart.”
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AP photo / Lori Cain
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The former president and superdelegate wouldn’t tell a Nigerian reporter which of the Democratic candidates he intends to support, but he offered a pretty good hint: “Don’t forget that [Barack] Obama won in my state of Georgia. My town, which is home to 625 people, is for Obama. My children and their spouses are pro-Obama. My grandchildren are also pro-Obama.”
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Here’s one person in Pennsylvania Barack Obama doesn’t want to shake hands with. After repeatedly refusing to pose for a photo, the candidate finally relented, but warned: “I won’t be smiling.”
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By Ellen Goodman — Many families are split when it comes to the race for the Democratic nomination, and that says something about the dialogue between generations.
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By Marie Cocco — Add doctors to that growing list of Americans who would like to see some form of national health insurance.
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Flickr / Llima
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A new poll shows Barack Obama taking a lead over Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania for the first time. His two-point advantage marks a shift of 28 points from the last Public Policy Polling survey, which was conducted just before Obama’s race speech. Other polls show Clinton holding a lead, though by diminishing margins.
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Hillary Clinton’s latest ad reprises her 3 a.m. theme, only this time she’s taking calls on the economy. The most interesting thing about this commercial is its target: not Barack Obama, who has just surpassed Clinton in one poll in Pennsylvania, but John McCain. Update: McCain responds.
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At least two of the presidential candidates decided to have a laugh this April Fools’ Day. Hillary Clinton challenged Barack Obama to a winner-take-all bowling tournament, while John McCain stopped by CBS to take revenge on David Letterman for all of those old-man jokes.
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Flickr / mstearne
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Barack Obama recently decided to get more competitive in Pennsylvania, thanks to prodding from his supporters. Two recent polls show that his efforts there might be paying off. He still trails Hillary Clinton, but he’s closing the gap. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he’s able to outspend her by a significant margin.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Even Obama has said his rival should stay in the race, but how will she campaign? Negativity has hurt the once-mighty Clinton brand.
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