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By Colm Toibin $19.99
By Anne-Marie Cusac $20.08
$22
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 AP photo / Orlin Wagner
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If one thing is clear after last week’s Super Tuesday craziness, it’s that candidates who seemed to score big want to claim victory as a foregone conclusion, while others who didn’t show quite as strongly—like Mike Huckabee, for example—want to challenge the finality of the results.
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 AP photo / Mark Duncan
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By Rep. Dennis Kucinich — Rep. Dennis Kucinich is back in Cleveland and fighting for his political survival as his longtime corporate opponents finance a Swift-boat-style media onslaught to take over his congressional seat. Here he fires back and makes his case for why Cleveland, and the country, needs his voice in Congress now more than ever.
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 AP photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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By Robert Scheer — Curb your enthusiasm. Even if your favored candidate did well on Super Tuesday, ask yourself if he or she will seriously challenge the bloated military budget that President Bush has proposed for 2009.
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 AP photo /J ohn Bazemore
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Record numbers of African-Americans came out to vote for Sen. Barack Obama in Georgia’s Democratic primary on Tuesday, giving Obama a big win at the kickoff of a long evening of waiting for other states’ results.
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 AP photo / Elise Amendola
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Perhaps regardless of Tuesday’s election results, Sen. Hillary Clinton is looking toward the next debate opportunity—this time sponsored by Fox News—on Feb. 11. Barack Obama, however, hasn’t agreed yet to appear on the conservative channel.
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It’s endorsement mania in these final hours before Super Tuesday, and here’s Hillary Clinton taking news of Ann Coulter’s offhanded endorsement in stride, shooting a quick joke back at the “Inside Edition” reporter who apparently hoped to freak her out by cornering her with his Coulter question and his cameraman’s assertive use of his zoom function.
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 AP photo / Charles Dharapak
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The UK’s Times Online certainly chose a very particular frame for its profile of John McCain’s wife, Cindy, as evidenced by the headline: “Flawed Cindy McCain Has a Grudge List.” Further down, Mrs. McCain gets a bit more credit when writer Tony Allen-Mills predicts she’d make a “formidable but flawed first lady.” There appears to be a pattern at work here.
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OK, so clearly Ann Coulter is not above leaning heavily on hyperbole to raise a few eyebrows and sell a few books, but this time she even managed to shock us a little with her announcement on Fox’s “Hannity & Colmes” that she’d go to bat for Hillary Clinton if she’s up against John McCain for the presidency, because, Coulter said, Clinton’s “more conservative” than McCain.
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 observer.com
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Pledging to soldier on in his quest to fight poverty, Democratic candidate John Edwards dropped out of the presidential race Wednesday. Edwards has not yet endorsed either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. His two former rivals both praised him Wednesday as he made his exit.
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You’ve heard the news, now watch the speech: Sen. Ted Kennedy was careful to pay tribute to “friends” Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, but Monday’s pep rally at American University in Washington, D.C., was all about Barack Obama, whom Kennedy calls “the candidate who inspires me” and the one most able to “renew our belief that our country’s best days are still to come.”
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 AP photo / Mike Wintroath
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Politics mixed with martinis and swizzle sticks as campaign aides from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s camps infiltrated a Puerto Rican resort in an effort to woo John Edwards’ colleagues and supporters at an annual gathering of top American trial lawyers. Above, one of the weekend’s political players, Clinton lieutenant Terry McAuliffe.
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 jfklibrary.org
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Former President Bill Clinton’s strong words in the days leading up to the South Carolina Democratic primary may have affected Saturday’s results in ways that didn’t help Hillary Clinton, according to exit polls. While polling is under (well-deserved) scrutiny lately, statistics aren’t needed to indicate how risky some of Bill Clinton’s choices have been.
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 AP photo / Gerald Herbert
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Wow, Hillary Clinton’s husband has been très vocal of late, running the gamut of campaign tactics with such alacrity that it almost seems he’s done this before. Bill Clinton’s latest message is one of unity—specifically, between Hillary and the man who could be her Republican rival on the presidential ballot, John McCain.
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The current crop of presidential candidates are keenly aware of the value of impressing America’s youth with a little ironic self-parody, ideally showcased on the Internet and/or late-night TV shows. Here’s Barack Obama doing his part to make the youngsters laugh by gamely delivering David Letterman’s signature Top 10 list about himself.
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What’s to be done about the sagging U.S. economy? What’s with John McCain’s dogged insistence that we’re “succeeding” in Iraq? Thursday night found the handful of Republican candidates still in the ‘08 race for the White House facing off in Florida. Here’s what they had to say.
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 AP photo / Lefteris Pitarakis
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What is it with the, shall we say, seasoned action stars endorsing Republican presidential candidates? First we had Huck ‘n’ Chuck, and now Sylvester Stallone has come out in support of Republican front-runner John McCain.
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On behalf of his faux-fave candidate, (real) Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, pseudo-pundit Stephen Colbert performs his own brand of negative campaigning, taking to the phones to quiz voters about how their potential support for Huckabee rival John McCain might change if McCain were to have fathered an “illegitimate pirate baby,” among other alarming scenarios.
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Following presidential candidates from state to state as they shake hands, kiss babies (and backsides, some might say, in the figurative sense) and promise to be the Best Prez Ever! must get tiresome for reporters on the campaign trail. In this clip, it’s hard to say if the grind got to AP scribe Glen Johnson or whether Mitt Romney’s claims about eschewing lobbyists made him snap.
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 AP photo / Alex Brandon
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Here’s further evidence that Mike Huckabee isn’t exactly worried about currying favor with Log Cabin Republicans: In an interview with Beliefnet.com, the conservative presidential candidate made the woefully familiar argument that condoning gay marriage is akin to condoning bestiality.
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CNN’s ubiquitous anchor Wolf Blitzer point-blanked Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney last weekend about what exactly constitutes torture and whether techniques like waterboarding are ever defensible, but Romney deferred to the popular national security rationale, implying that in “ticking time bomb” circumstances, a president may elect to use certain unpopular techniques.
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What was up with Fox News excluding Ron Paul from Sunday’s Republican debate? Jay Leno puzzles over the network’s decision, and Paul posits some answers: He’s a “strict constitutionalist” and anti-Iraq war. Leno points out that Paul’s a “Republican.” But as for Fox News higher-ups, the Texas politician responds, “They’re not.”
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 AP photo / Steven Senne
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By Bill Boyarsky — As the candidates press forward in the final hours before the state’s primary, the war and health care stand as prime issues. But no one is fully facing up to the fact that the latter cannot be properly addressed as long as the U.S. is paying for the former.
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 AP photo / Charlie Niebergall
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When it comes to setting an exact timetable for withdrawing American forces from Iraq, some Democratic candidates are more forthcoming with the details than others. Take John Edwards, for example, who told The New York Times about his ambitious plan to bring nearly all U.S. troops home within 10 months if he is elected president.
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As the primaries loom ever closer, presidential candidates are contending not only with each other, firing and deflecting accusations at a furious pace, but with themselves—scrambling to “put into context” (i.e., rationalize) things they have said, or written, as in Huckabee’s case here.
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When point-blanked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer about how he would handle the current situation in Pakistan, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul blasted U.S. alignment with “military dictator” Pervez Musharraf and accused Washington of fostering unrest among anti-U.S. factions in Pakistan by setting up a “puppet government.” Rep. Paul was on Thursday’s “Situation Room.”
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American presidential contenders from both sides of the aisle sounded off on Thursday about the suicide attack that claimed the life of erstwhile Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as she was campaigning for a comeback following years of self-imposed exile from her homeland.
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 AP photo / Kevin Sanders
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By Bill Boyarsky — In his first dispatch from the scene of the upcoming caucuses, Boyarsky gets a look at Barack Obama in action as the Democratic presidential hopeful delivers a speech in Des Moines touching on foreign policy and the issue of experience in office.
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 AP photo / Charlie Neibergall
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Just two weeks shy of the Iowa primary, the contest for the Republican presidential nomination has shifted into high gear, with former Arkansas governor (note to aspiring politicos: Arkansas is apparently not the worst place to cultivate presidential ambitions) Mike Huckabee rising quickly through GOP ranks to take the lead.
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 hoinews.com
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Sen. Chris Dodd is preparing to take to the Senate floor with a filibuster to thwart the legislative advancement of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act if it doesn’t include his proposed amendment, co-sponsored with Sen. Russ Feingold, that would prevent the Bush administration from retroactively letting big telecom companies off the hook for allowing the government to conduct warrantless surveillance on their networks.
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 AP photo / Charlie Niebergall
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It’s not at all shocking when candidates and their assorted aides take pot shots at each other as they slog through the long and dirty campaign trail, but it’s at least a bit surprising when they ‘fess up to it. That’s just what happened— twice! —in about 24 hours.
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 AP photo / Charlie Neibergall
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Much like actors around Oscar time, presidential candidates may pooh-pooh the value of media endorsements but they’ll quietly eat their hearts out if those approbations go to someone else. Thanks to a nod from the National Review, Mitt Romney is feeling loved, at least for the moment.
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Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani went on “Meet the Press” on Sunday to talk about his chances for winning the nomination (he’s ahead in some states) and his stance on several key issues, including the U.S.‘s relations with Iran. It looks like he’s still siding with the hawks.
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 AP photo / Gerry Broome
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If Oprah Winfrey can do for politicians what she’s done for books and for any number of consumer items on her “Favorite Things” lists, Barack Obama might have a serious shot at the White House next November. Oprah held court on Sunday at a South Carolina stadium filled with nearly 30,000 Obama supporters, a giant pep rally that “had the feel of a rock concert,” according to Associated Press reporter Seanna Adcox.
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 msnbc.msn.com
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The gloves are off in a throwdown between Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and Huffington Post creator Arianna Huffington over a low point in Huckabee’s career as governor of Arkansas. The controversy concerns the Huffington Post’s coverage of the part Huckabee played in the release of serial rapist Wayne Dumond, whose time in prison clearly didn’t rehabilitate him.
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 AP photo / David J. Phillip
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Now that rival Republican presidential hopeful (and Baptist minister) Mike Huckabee is getting traction in Iowa polls, Mitt Romney has attempted to pull a JFK by giving a speech Thursday targeting voters concerned about his Mormonism. Romney pledged that church authorities wouldn’t influence his presidential decisions, while also declaring that he endeavors to “live by” his faith and be “true to” his beliefs.
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 rpv.org
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It’s almost primary time, voters of America, so get ready for more electoral shenanigans! The venerable southern state of Virginia is fast out of the gates this election season, thanks to the local Republican Party, which came up with the ingenious idea of requiring voters who want to take part in February’s primary to pledge that they’ll also cast their vote for the Republican presidential nominee next Nov. 4.
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Howard Dean knows a thing or two about the perils of the campaign trail. Here, the man who emitted the deadliest scream in American political history wonders why any of the Republican presidential hopefuls taking the stage in Wednesday’s CNN/YouTube debate consider themselves candidates of change.
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 foxnews.com
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Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani clearly shares a particular personality trait with President Bush: the kind of unassailable certainty that even evidence to the contrary can’t uproot. Take his position on the Iraq war, for example, which he still believes—even more so, now—was the right move for the U.S. to have made.
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 foxnews.com
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Politicians have always looked to celebrities for support, wanting stars on their team but not always wanting all the drama that can come with the celeb package. But Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have chosen carefully—each scoring one of the top picks of the Hollywood litter.
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 peakaction.files.wordpress.com
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By Bill Boyarsky — If the Illinois senator beats Hillary Clinton and the others for the nomination, a good portion of credit will go to the volunteers now making phone calls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, California and other places.
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Ron Paul may not be ahead in the polls, but he’s probably the only presidential candidate who already has his face on a coin. The feds have seized a cache of gold, silver and copper “liberty dollars” bearing Paul’s visage. Other than a mutual distaste for the Federal Reserve, the Republican candidate has no relationship with the makers of the coins.
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 AP photo / Charles Dharapak, File
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It’s relatively easy to drum up a list of high-flying entertainers who have publicly backed a Democratic politician in recent years (if not weeks)—Oprah, George Clooney, Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand and others readily come to mind—but their conservative counterparts are much harder to ID without resorting to a Google search.
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 danjohnston.org
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Those Stephen Colbert fans who had hoped that, for once, there would be a political figure on the national stage who would be refreshingly upfront about the parodic and performative nature of his role will be no doubt be disappointed that Colbert has ended his quest for the presidency—at least this time around.
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 AP photo / Erik Perel
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Rudy Giuliani’s factually challenged claims about how he probably would have fared in his battle against prostate cancer had he sought treatment in Britain instead of America might have raised only a small stir, but, for his part, columnist Paul Krugman thinks it should have been a much bigger deal.
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 AP photo / Rusty Kennedy
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No doubt aware of his need to snap into clearer focus as a candidate after months of relatively hazy public performances, Barack Obama issued a sharp critique of rival Hillary Clinton following Tuesday night’s Democratic debate in Philadelphia.
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 AP photo / Gary Kazanjian
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Hillary Clinton’s campaign team is battening down the hatches in preparation for Tuesday night’s Democratic debate in Philadelphia and launching a pre-emptive strike to offset a potential pile-on from certain other presidential hopefuls who’ve been zinging her of late. Meanwhile, Republican candidate Mitt Romney has also joined the fray.
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 journalism.wlu.edu
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Granted, every time a candidate sneezes it seems to occasion a change in the polls these days, but it’s of potential interest that, after recent weeks’ reports seemed to suggest that Hillary Clinton on a national basis was far ahead of her nearest presidential competitor, Barack Obama, he trails her by just two points in a new University of Iowa Hawkeye Poll surveying Iowa caucus-goers.
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 AP photo / Charles Dharapak
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By Bill Boyarsky — America’s political correspondents are enchanted with Clinton, but their passion might fade when voters start asking her hard questions about her hawkish view of the Iraq war.
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 weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca
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Look out, Hillary Clinton—Stephen Colbert might soon be hot on your heels. As it happens, Republican presidential hopefuls Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson also have cause for concern, according to a new Rasmussen Report national survey. Oh, and about those reports that Colbert’s candidacy may violate campaign election laws? Comedy Central’s on the case.
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Pseudo-pundit and presidential candidate (!) Stephen Colbert paid a visit to NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday to discuss his bid for the nation’s highest office and to familiarize voters with his stance on key issues, such as gay marriage. As he tells host Tim Russert in this clip, “I only got married as a taunt toward gay men because they couldn’t.”
Posted on Oct 23, 2007
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