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By Joe Sacco $19.77
By Saïd Sayrafiezadeh $14.96
$23
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By Marie Cocco — In the beginning—back when most Americans believed Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11, when Rumsfeld was known for his quick verbal jabs and not the quagmire in Iraq, and when Bush still could hope to be revered as a great wartime president—the women of Code Pink would stand quietly in front of the White House and hope someone would take their fliers.
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By Andy Borowitz — In a strategic masterstroke to avoid missteps, Clinton will spend the rest of her campaign encased in a soundproof glass box.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — More significant than Clinton’s supposed gaffe in the Philadelphia debate is the subject around which she tiptoed so delicately: Immigration is the issue Democrats fear because it could leave them with a set of no-win political choices.
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Judging by the rallying call for support that two key members of Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff made to supporters following Tuesday’s debate in Philadelphia, Team Hillary is well aware that she has had better debating moments—and that her rivals will continue to pile on in coming weeks.
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By Joe Conason — In Rudolph Giuliani’s narrative of his own life, as confided to rapt Republican voters along the presidential primary trail, he has been fighting the lonely twilight struggle against “Islamic terrorism” since sometime in the 1970s.
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By Marie Cocco — A contemporary Willie Horton has turned up in the Democratic presidential campaign, and so far he is winning. No such person sat in the Drexel University auditorium during the Democrats’ debate on Tuesday night. But the candidates, especially the unprepared front-runner, Hillary Clinton, should long ago have recognized that Republicans and a shrill conservative chorus intend to make Hispanic illegal immigrants the Willie Hortons of 2008.
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In the spirit of Halloween and the idea of dressing up as something you’re not, we’ve decided to pay tribute to the five best political poses from the other 364 days of the year.
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In case you missed it (or are simply, and understandably, a bit maxed out on the whole debate thing), The Largest Minority’s John Harrison has done his civic duty in lining up complete footage of the Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday. This way, you can fast-forward through the boring bits!
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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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Historians may one day debate Rudy Giuliani’s recent preposterous comments at a New Hampshire town hall meeting. “Did he mean it?” they might ask. “Or was he just dehydrated?” While addressing voters, the candidate said that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were debating whether to invite Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Osama bin Laden to their inaugurations. But wait, there’s more.
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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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 news.bbc.co.uk
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If you’re a Truthdig reader, chances are you’re also a BBC News reader. For 10 years now, the BBC has done an excellent job of bringing online news to the world. To celebrate, it has pulled together important online front pages from that period, ranging from the Clinton impeachment to 9/11 to the hanging of Saddam.
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 historicaltextarchive.com
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We certainly hope so, because it has just elected one. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who happens to be the current first lady, managed to pull in more than 40 percent of the vote. In fact, the runner-up (with 23 percent of the vote) is also a woman. Not bad for Gaucho country.
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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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Fresh on the heels of last week’s “Real Time” confrontation between Bill Maher and 9/11 conspiracy enthusiasts, former President Bill Clinton found himself in a similar situation, albeit with more effective security. Clinton showed little patience for the protesters: “An inside job? How dare you? How dare you?”
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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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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Clinton knows she has to win in New Hampshire. That might not be too difficult if Obama continues to fail to captivate Granite State voters.
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Jimmy Carter told the new Web site Guardian America that, compared to the Bush presidency at least, George W. Bush will make a “very good” ex-president. Carter also said of Hillary Clinton’s seemingly insurmountable lead in the polls: “One thing I know is that, this far ahead of time in the past, it’s been impossible to predict the outcome of the election.”
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By Ellen Goodman — Those who went to the Values Voter Summit left without a candidate to call their own. But the lack of a golden boy isn’t their only problem: There are signs of ideological rigor mortis among the old guard.
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By Joe Conason — The senator rarely surrenders a juicy quote without a struggle. Yet her familiar preference for caution over candor is gradually changing with each step that she takes toward her party’s presidential nomination.
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Former Sen. Mike Gravel’s campaign released this video after the candidate was barred from NBC’s upcoming debate in Philadelphia. Is it just a coincidence that the network is owned by GE, which has a profit incentive for war? Gravel doesn’t seem to think so.
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By Marie Cocco — Triangulation aside, when it comes to the phony Social Security crisis, Hillary Clinton has stood up for the truth: There isn’t one.
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 politico.com
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Hillary Clinton may be the front-runner, but her campaign has been doing a bit of damage control in Iowa over the senator’s vote to declare Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization, a move critics believe is a prelude to war with Iran. Clinton sent out a mass mailing explaining her vote and insisting that she opposes military action “without full Congressional approval.”
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 AP photo / Mel Evans
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By Bill Boyarsky — I don’t know Al Gore’s plans, but here’s what I’d tell him to do if he wants to be president: Ignore New Hampshire and Iowa. Hope Hillary fizzles. Bet the house on early February when the big states have their primaries, and he could win the biggest, California.
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Appearing on “The Tonight Show,” Barack Obama tells Jay Leno that he’s not worried about Hillary Clinton’s sizable lead in the polls: “Hillary is not the first politician in Washington to declare ‘mission accomplished’ a little too soon.”
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By Ellen Goodman — The attention on Al Gore’s trajectory misses something about this second act and second actor. As he approaches 60, Gore’s staking out something of a new path for his generation.
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 moviereporter.net
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As if he’s already secured the nomination, Rudy Giuliani has begun to focus his vitriol on the other party’s presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton: “I don’t know Hillary’s experience. She’s never run a city.” It’s been a long, long time since we’ve had an ex-mayor occupying the Oval Office. Maybe Giuliani is on to something here. There just has to be some parallel between being a mayor and the leader of the world’s only superpower.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — One of the few things the Republican and Democratic presidential contests have in common is the relentlessness with which candidates on both sides are wrapping themselves in orthodoxy. Heretics need not apply.
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By Bill Boyarsky — Presidential hopeful Barack Obama is striking a chord among middle-class black voters, notes Boyarsky, who looks into Obama’s fundraising successes among that demographic as an entrée into “an African-American political landscape seldom visited by journalists.”
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By Marie Cocco — They’re gone! How to describe the euphoria, the smug satisfaction, the unrestrained elation at seeing the New York Yankees eliminated once again so early in postseason play? I’m thinking something silly, like, Eureka!
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 cnn.com
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Jimmy Carter was en fuego during a chat with Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday, blasting the Bush administration for torturing people, the GOP candidates for racing to the fringe and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for refusing to commit to a full withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
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In case you think conservative Christians are just bluffing with their threats to split from the Republicans, take a gander at this clip of Sean Hannity begging James Dobson to support Rudy Giuliani. Dobson refuses, standing on principle and the promise of a more frenzied and loyal base under a Clinton presidency.
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By Marie Cocco — Hillary Clinton must have the opposition running scared if the latest strategy to derail her campaign is to deny women the right to vote.
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By Andy Borowitz — In a sign of confidence befitting her status as front-runner, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has begun airing what her aides call “extremely vicious attack ads about herself.”
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 AP Photo/Earl Gibson III
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Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is picking up steam. She has widened her lead over Barack Obama by an impressive 33 points, according to the latest Washington Post/ABC poll.
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By Ellen Goodman — With Hillary Clinton well ahead of the Democratic pack in the polls and Republican candidates scrambling to demonstrate who is best able to defeat her, the question isn’t whether America is ready for a woman president but rather can anyone stop her.
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 AP photo / Kathy Willens and Brett Flashnick
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By Bill Boyarsky — Maybe I’m crazy, but I’d bet on John McCain to win the Republican presidential nomination. And the Democrat with the best chance to beat him is John Edwards.
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The former president calls BS on the Republicans for their “feigned outrage” over MoveOn’s “General Betray Us” ad: “Come on, these Republicans that are all upset about Petraeus ... these are the people that ran a television ad in Georgia with Max Cleland, who lost half his body in Vietnam, in the same ad with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. ... And the person that rode to the Senate on that ad was there voting to condemn the Democrats over the Petraeus ad.”
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By Eugene Robinson — Yes, you heard it right: At the Dartmouth College debate Wednesday evening, not one of the three leading Democratic candidates could pledge that all U.S. combat troops would be out of Iraq by the end of his or her first term as president.
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Hillary Clinton shored up her left flank during an interview with Tim Russert, promising to vote against continued funding for the war in Iraq. Still, one must be wary of caveats such as “at the level we’ve seen.”
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 AP Photo / Charlie Niebergall
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By Bill Boyarsky — If there’s any candidate who knows what he or she would be dealing with in attempting to change the American healthcare system, it’s Hillary Clinton. And, according to Boyarsky, charging into that particular political battleground might have made her a stronger contender.
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The former president tells Jon Stewart about his new book, his wife’s quest to get back to “the best public housing in America,” why he might slit his throat if she’s successful, and how naps can save our democracy.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Here is why the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination seems so peculiar: Political campaigns are normally about highlighting differences, but never have the philosophical distinctions among Democratic candidates been so small.
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By Joe Conason — Hillary Clinton’s skillful introduction of her new health care plan demonstrated why she is the most formidable Democrat running for president. It also suggested that if victorious, she won’t be defeated so easily by the insurance and pharmaceutical industries as she and her husband were the last time they tried to reform the dysfunctional American medical system.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The genius of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has been her skill at turning liabilities into assets and weaknesses into strengths. By putting out a detailed health care plan on Monday, Clinton embarked on this year’s most daring act of political jujitsu.
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By Marie Cocco — Hillary Clinton’s health care proposal won’t please progressives looking to do away with corporate insurance or conservatives who prefer unaffordable micromanaged care to government “bureaucracy,” but at least it’s a step in the right direction.
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