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By Joshua Kurlantzick $11.56
By Dave Zirin $18.95
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By Amy Goodman — While the Iraq war is off the front pages, and Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama embark on what may well be a scorched-earth primary battle against each other, let’s keep our eye on where the real scorched earth lies: who profits and who dies.
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 about.com
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Hillary Clinton scored major victories Tuesday with three projected wins, including Ohio and Texas, which had been described by her campaign as must-win states. Barack Obama won the Vermont primary and kept it close in Texas.
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 AP photo / Rick Bowmer
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Perhaps responding to accusations made by pundits and politicians that Barack Obama has been given kid-glove treatment by the media, reporters at a San Antonio, Texas, press conference made sure they didn’t invite similar criticism Monday night.
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As Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama battled it out in several states Tuesday, Republican front-runner John McCain sent out a word of warning about the “dangerous” state of the world in trying to win supporters in San Antonio, Texas.
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You know you’ve hit it big when you’re the topic of an academic study on the media. As it turns out, there’s a demonstrable effect known as “the Colbert bump,” which entails a boost in campaign cash for politicians who make a stop at “The Colbert Report” while on the campaign trail. Translation: Stephen Colbert can count on a full dance card for, say, the next few decades.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — So how did the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination come down to a choice between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton? We have become so accustomed to their pounding each other relentlessly that we’ve forgotten that this is a remarkable endgame.
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If recent polls are any indication, Hillary Clinton’s “red phone” commercial has had an impact on voters. Perhaps for that reason, her campaign has launched a new attack ad.
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After parsing the Clinton campaign media call, The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder reports that “if Clinton wins the popular vote in Ohio and Texas, she’s staying in the race.” Texas has a somewhat bizarre primary/caucus hybrid that is thought to favor Barack Obama. Which is to say Clinton could find herself even less likely to win the nomination, but still feeling like a winner.
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 weblogs.newsday.com
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Once again the candidates are headed toward what has been billed as a climactic showdown, but which is likely to turn out like the others before it: one more bump in the road.
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In this edition of “New Rules,” the “Real Time” host takes on Alberto Gonzales, Mexican cruises and conservative slurs: “To honor the life of William F. Buckley, conservatives have to take the high road against Barack Obama.”
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Just in time for Tuesday’s primaries, the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am has released another pro-Obama video, “We Are the Ones,” featuring another gaggle of celebs earnestly crooning and pledging their support for their favorite candidate. Above, actor John Leguizamo, one of the participants in the video.
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 youtube.com
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In the waning days before the crucial electoral contests in Ohio and Texas, Hillary Clinton’s campaign has released targeted advertising emphasizing her readiness to handle the most dangerous security threats to the nation and suggesting that she would be better prepared than Barack Obama to pick up the dreaded “red phone.”
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Now, mind you, this is not an officially endorsed campaign video for Barack Obama. But we kind of wish it was.
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 jewsforobama.blogspot.com
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By Bill Boyarsky — The bad side of being a new face in politics is that your enemies can treat you like a blank slate, to be filled in with lies and slurs. That’s what is happening to Sen. Barack Obama, who is being subjected to a secretive whispering and e-mail campaign that aims to alienate him from Jewish voters by linking him to Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan and the Muslim religion.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Barack Obama’s critics bear a remarkable resemblance to the liberals who labored mightily to dismiss Ronald Reagan in 1980.
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By Eugene Robinson — If you’re among those who believe the news media have focused too much on the presidential horse race and the personalities of the candidates—and not enough on vital issues of state—let me submit that you’re wrong.
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 AP photo / Chris Carlson
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It’s no wonder John McCain wants to get the Democrats to commit to public financing. In a reversal of tradition, the Democrats are far out-raising Republicans during this election cycle. The Clinton campaign just announced a $35-million month—Clinton’s biggest yet. Though the Obama campaign hasn’t announced its numbers yet, estimates are in the $50-million range.
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In what could shape up to be a general election preview, John McCain and Barack Obama have been trading barbs on Iraq. The two have been critical of each other in the past, though they’ve also professed mutual respect, but the tone of this exchange was a bit tougher, at least on Obama’s end.
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 foxnews.com
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About a day after John McCain expressed his disapproval over the insensitive comments of a supporter, the candidate was once again forced to disown ignoble behavior, this time from an official part of his party. The Tennessee Republican Party issued a press release that featured a photo of Barack Obama wearing traditional African clothing, cited his middle name (Hussein) and attempted to portray him as an anti-Semite.
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 latimes.com
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Under pressure during Tuesday’s debate, Hillary Clinton hinted that she might release her tax returns earlier than “once I become the nominee,” a schedule that had drawn criticism from Barack Obama and the press. But aides speaking with the media the next day retreated from that opening.
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 thepage.time.com
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There have been 20 debates between the Democratic candidates, three featuring only Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and if this final confrontation had any game-changing potential, the opportunity has come and passed. There were a few tense moments, to be sure, but no gaffes, no inappropriate sighs to puzzle over, just two people who claim to like each other and largely agree on everything.
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 timesonline.typepad.com
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Conservative radio host Bill Cunningham scored points with the audience while speaking before John McCain at a rally by repeatedly referring to “Barack Hussein Obama.” McCain apparently had no idea what Cunningham had said, but soon after the event addressed the matter in no uncertain terms.
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It wasn’t the easiest moment in Tuesday’s Democratic debate for either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, but both candidates handled it well when moderator Brian Williams broached the uncomfortable subject of the photo, leaked to the Drudge Report early Monday for apparently political purposes, of Obama wearing traditional African garb in Kenya.
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Barack Obama’s campaign may count she-mogul Oprah Winfrey in its stable of celebrity boosters, but Hillary Clinton’s got her own talk show powerhouse: Ellen DeGeneres, who made a live appearance during this recent rally to put Hillary on the spot with some tough questions, like what to do about the sparkly danger that glitter poses to Americans everywhere.
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 factcheck.org
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Hillary Clinton was so irked by a couple of Barack Obama campaign mailers that a few days ago she publicly scolded him and said “every Democrat should be outraged.” Clinton herself has been accused of sending misleading mailers to voters, including one that went out shortly after her now infamous “shame on you” news conference. For inundated Ohioans, it’s a question of whom to trust. Updated.
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By Eugene Robinson — How weird is this presidential election? So weird that I’m about to give a nod of appreciation (of sorts) to Geraldo Rivera, of all people—and also to, gulp, Fox News.
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By Marie Cocco — Someone’s halo has to slip and, when it does, the fall will be jarring and the crash unusually harsh. The national media have two anointed sons in Barack Obama and John McCain, each the repository of extraordinary favor and each now poised to become the presidential candidate who may well be chosen to be an object of unrelenting scorn.
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 nytimes.com
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The Politico reports that Republican strategists have been clandestinely polling and focus-grouping to determine how America might react to campaign attacks on an African-American or woman presidential candidate. As one strategist explained, “You can’t allow the party to be Macaca-ed,” a reference to former Sen. George Allen, whose use of a racial slur cost him certain victory in the last election.
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 AP photo
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On Monday morning, The Drudge Report featured a photo of Barack Obama in traditional Kenyan dress taken during his 2006 visit to the African nation. Obama aides are angrily accusing Clinton’s team of leaking the photo in an attempt to put off voters (with a heaping dose of “ethnicity,” apparently) at a particularly auspicious moment, but Clinton’s camp has denied that it released the picture.
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Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been stirring up the Internet and more than a few journalists with accusations of word borrowing, a charge she pressed (to the dismay of the audience) at Thursday’s Democratic debate with Barack Obama. But in that same venue, it appears she may have borrowed a few words of her own.
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By Eugene Robinson — Humor me while we conduct a little thought experiment. Imagine that Barack Obama lost 10 states in a row.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — If you want to talk about candidates borrowing from each other, consider how much Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are taking on loan from the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, the affable populist killed in a plane crash shortly before the 2002 election.
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By David Sirota — When it came to sex, Bill Clinton made us debate the definition of “is.” Now, when it comes to economics, Hillary Clinton wants to debate the definition of “long,” claiming this week in Ohio that “I’ve long been a critic of the shortcomings of NAFTA.”
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By Ellen Goodman — On Tuesday, I got a sarcastic e-mail from a Hillary supporter. She forwarded a crack made by Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s media man, about Obama. “Senator Clinton,” he scoffed, “is not running on the strength of her rhetoric.” To which my friend added: “Unfortunately.”
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 coloradoconfidential.com
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Truthdig political correspondent Bill Boyarsky weighs in on the state of the race and explains why, no matter what the pundits tell you, a showdown in Denver could be good for the Democrats.
Posted on Feb 19, 2008
READ MORE
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 AP photo / Steven Senne
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Barack Obama once again swept the evening’s contests, but the big surprise came in Wisconsin, where Hillary Clinton invested much time and money and where the two candidates got caught in a nasty air war. He beat her there by roughly 18 points.
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 AP photo / Charles Rex Arbogast
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By Bill Boyarsky — Since Super Tuesday produced not one but a duo of Democratic front-runners, pundits from across the political spectrum have made ominous noises about the potential dangers of a prolonged contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Here, Truthdig’s seasoned political correspondent, Bill Boyarsky, begs to differ.
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Most popular YouTube videos inspire the inevitable parodies, and while many amuse in their own way, this one scores with the title alone. This is what Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can” fan film would look like if it were made by the rich and powerful—that is to say, the non-celebrity kind. The kind with pocket squares and tiny dogs.
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Tim Russert and his merry band of super pundits debate whether superdelegates will decide the Democratic nomination and where Hillary Clinton went wrong. (Hint: Bill’s name comes up.)
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By Eugene Robinson — John McCain has the advantage of getting to run right away. Too bad he’s campaigning on failed policies and bad ideas.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The boilerplate in a candidate’s speeches gets little attention because words used over and over never constitute “news.” But one of John McCain’s favorite lines—his declaration that “the transcendent challenge of the 21st century is radical Islamic extremists,” or, as he sometimes says it, “extremism”—could define the 2008 election.
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By Marie Cocco — Barack Obama has had success against Hillary Clinton’s experience argument in part, Cocco argues, because she is a woman. He’ll have a harder time taking on John McCain.
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 drudgereport.com
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Barack Obama flew down to the home of John and Elizabeth Edwards on Sunday for a secret meeting that didn’t stay secret for long. Both Obama and Hillary Clinton have courted their former rival’s endorsement, but the Associated Press reports that Edwards is leaning toward Clinton, in part because “Obama has been less attentive.”
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Bill Maher’s writers are back and so is his biting commentary on the political and cultural issues of the week. In this clip, the “Real Time” host tackles the decline of the handshake, Bush’s war addiction, the fighting Romneys, McCain’s zombie army and why it isn’t amazing that the Democrats have suddenly discovered diversity.
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 AP photo / Susan Walsh
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Nancy Pelosi, who is not only one of the highest-ranking members of the Democratic Party but the chair of its approaching national convention, has weighed in on two of the most controversial issues looming over the presidential nomination. Superdelegates, Pelosi said, should not overrule the will of the voters, and the disputed delegations from Michigan and Florida “can’t make the difference because then we would have no rules.”
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 radaronline.com
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It wasn’t so long ago that Matt Drudge and Rupert Murdoch’s minions cooed over Hillary Clinton’s centrism, but in the end the self-styled titans of right-wing media couldn’t resist bashing her, much to their readers’ delight. Politico chronicles the rise and fall of conservatives’ brief love affair with Hillary Clinton.
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By Eugene Robinson — Are the news media being beastly to Hillary Clinton? Are political reporters and commentators—as Bill Clinton suggested but didn’t quite come out and say in a radio interview Tuesday—basically in the tank for Barack Obama?
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By David Sirota — To the consternation of news bureaus, political consulting firms and has-been politicians, The Wall Street Journal’s poll last month shows that America is hostile to an independent presidential candidacy by Michael Bloomberg.
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