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By Annia Ciezadlo 26.00
By Paul Cummins $14.78
$20
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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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According to The New York Times and others, what was once an alarming possibility now appears likely: The Democratic nomination will probably be decided by superdelegates—those party bigwigs who exist to keep the will of the people in check. If that happens, expect to see the ugly side of politics out in the open. It’s already begun to surface.
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 indecision2008.com
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One of John McCain’s top advisers, Mark McKinnon, says he will resign from the campaign if Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination, because “I would simply be uncomfortable being in a campaign that would be inevitably attacking Barack Obama.” McKinnon says he would still support McCain from a distance, but “I met Barack Obama, I read his book, I like him a great deal.”
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 nationalsecurity.org
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This might be a moment when Democratic supporters wonder what all the “changing of the guard” fuss was about when Dems took control of Congress in 2006: On Tuesday, the Senate effectively voted in favor of granting telecommunication companies retroactive immunity for their cooperation in the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The Democrats’ hopes of regaining the White House hinge on how the party proceeds in the coming weeks and months. If momentum or civility reigns, they’ve got a shot. But if back-room dealing and cheating prevail, don’t hold your breath.
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Hollywood bigwig Ari Emanuel knows a thing or two about superdelegates. His brother, Congressman Rahm Emanuel, is one. But, as Ari writes on the Huffington Post, “as much as I love and respect him, I don’t trust him and his fellow superdelegates to decide for me and the American people who should be the Democratic nominee—and, therefore, most likely the next president of the United States.”
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 AP photo / Rick Bowmer
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Amid speculation that a long road might be in store for Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the tide turned in Obama’s favor Saturday with Nebraska and Washington state caucus victories and a big win in the Louisiana primary.
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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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By Amy Goodman — With all the talk of record voter participation, we should take a moment to think of the Americans, many of them African-American and Latino, who have been disenfranchised because they once committed a felony.
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 AP photo / Rick Bowmer
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Super Tuesday’s aftermath is certainly providing a good crash course in American electoral politics as the results are sorted out. The latest surprising twist involves Barack Obama’s camp claiming a slight lead over Hillary Clinton in the total number of delegates racked up. Officially, the final count has not been determined yet.
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Following Hillary Clinton’s surprise win in New Hampshire, some mainstream media outlets speculated that the “Bradley effect,” which posits that some white voters will avoid telling pollsters they voted against an African-American candidate, could explain Barack Obama’s election results in that state. Here, the Real News takes a closer look at that race-based rationale.
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Here are the results from the big night. The voters threw us a few surprises, but after a bumpy night, we appear to be back at square one.
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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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 smh.com.au
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When Oprah Winfrey heard that a woman at a precinct next door wasn’t allowed to vote, she pledged to stay with the frustrated voter until she got to cast her ballot: “She [Winfrey] just kind of stood there and then as soon as I got to vote she left and she said, ‘I’ll call you later to make sure that you voted.’ And probably about an hour later I was sitting at my desk and she called my cell phone.”
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 NASA
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In case you haven’t heard, the New York Giants whipped the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl on Sunday. It was a major upset that earned them one of those grand New York City ticker-tape parades, to take place on Tuesday. Which raises the question: How will millions of New Yorkers clogging the subways, blocking the streets and flocking to the “Canyon of Heroes” affect Tuesday’s other big event, the election?
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By David Sirota — The eight states between California and Kansas often get written off by political snobs, but the electoral complexities at play there will almost certainly swing the next election.
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 news.bbc.co.uk
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The death toll in Kenya has risen to roughly 800 as violence and rioting continue following a disputed and ethnically charged election. The two candidates in that contest refuse to come to agreement, and some of their supporters have formed gangs along tribal and clan lines.
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 flcikr / abstract plain
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Dennis Kucinich is expected to announce Friday that he is dropping out of the race for the White House. The Ohio congressman faces four challengers in the primary for his seat in the House. Kucinich’s congressional campaign sent out an “urgent personal appeal” to supporters for donations on Wednesday.
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Despite all the smiles, the Democratic campaign has been contentious for a while now. With the nomination on the line like never before, the candidates really let it fly in this, the most heated presidential debate yet. Yes, there have been a thousand already, but if there’s one Democratic debate you don’t want to miss, it’s this one.
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 AP photo / Str
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Although Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva would apparently disagree, 81-year-old Cuban President Fidel Castro says he’s not well enough to appear in public to speak to Cubans during the lead-up to Sunday’s parliamentary elections, but he is still able to express himself through writing.
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By Eugene Robinson — It turns out that Toni Morrison’s famous line about Bill Clinton as “our first black president” was just a bon mot. If the Clintons took it as a sign of African-Americans’ unconditional fealty, they were mistaken.
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By Bill Boyarsky — Hopefully, the results of the New Hampshire primary will eliminate the words hope and change from his presidential campaign. Maybe I am too cynical or too old or too disillusioned from being burned by past failed crusades. But words and elevated oratory are not enough for me.
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By Doug Henwood — Just how sick is the U.S. economy? Just how deep is the divide between the super-rich and the rest of us? Just how bad would a meltdown of our political economy be? And what, if anything, can be done about it?
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By Eugene Robinson — Pollsters and pundits were quick to discount race and the so-called Bradley effect as factors in Barack Obama’s narrow loss to Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary. Given that the same pollsters and pundits (OK, me too) were so wrong about the outcome, I think we ought to take a closer look.
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An unfortunate coincidence has emerged from the New Hampshire primary results that is at least worth noting, if only for the sake of trivia (or democracy): Hillary Clinton performed better, and Barack Obama worse, in counties where votes were counted using Diebold machines. Whether you call it sour grapes or citizen journalism, the Brad Blog has the details.
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 AP photo / Alex Brandon
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How to explain the discrepancy—which was, in the case of New Hampshire this week, essentially on the Democratic side of the ballot—between polling numbers and election results? In a column, ABC News’ polling poobah, Gary Langer, makes some suggestions and calls for a “serious, critical look at the final pre-election polls in the Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire.”
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By Marie Cocco — The most revealing indicator of the state of our democracy is not to be found in the snowdrifts of New Hampshire but in the marbled chamber of the U.S. Supreme Court. Soon enough, we will discover whether the court under Chief Justice John Roberts will become a partisan tool in the national Republican drive to place constraints on voting that are targeted at those who tend to support Democrats.
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 AP photo / Karel Prinsloo
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A tentative peace may have come to Kenya after the political opposition canceled its rallies and after there were reports that the head of the African Union would attempt to broker a truce. Rioting and other violence since elections last week have killed hundreds.
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By Bill Boyarsky — Just as the Iowa caucuses were hitting their boiling point, Truthdig’s indefatigable campaign correspondent Bill Boyarsky high-tailed it to New Hampshire to check out the next electoral battleground. Here he takes stock of the frenetic scene he just left and looks to the future of political reporting.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — One lesson from the Iowa caucuses is that the Democrats are once again an attractive party for independent and unconventional voters, which is usually a good thing when it comes to winning elections.
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 AP photo / Fareed Khan
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Addressing international reporters Thursday in Islamabad, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said he and his administration have nothing to hide with regard to the Dec. 27 assassination of Benazir Bhutto; rather, Musharraf said Bhutto took risks at the Rawalpindi rally that made her vulnerable to attack.
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By Joe Conason — A presidential run by the New York mayor would be a monument to egotism. Even worse, it might prevent the nation from ridding itself of today’s destructive policies.
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Nepal’s long-standing monarchy is about to become obsolete, after more than two-thirds of the country’s provisional parliament voted to amend the constitution and give the government the power to abolish the monarchy and establish a “federal democratic republican state” instead.
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 AP photo / Mohammed Javed
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As Benazir Bhutto’s body was laid to rest Friday, the mystery about her murder remained unresolved, and outbursts of violence rippled throughout Pakistan in reaction to her death. Members of her political party said security lapses made her an easy target, while an official of Pervez Musharraf’s government claimed she sustained a fatal wound when she struck her head as she ducked inside her armored vehicle. Of course, al-Qaida is on the short list of suspects in Bhutto’s assassination.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The Bhutto assassination came as a brutal reminder of the gravity of the decision Iowa’s voters will make Thursday. Its impact may be felt most powerfully by Democrats who have been thinking less about issues than about the candidates’ styles and leadership qualities.
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By David Sirota — Now, a handful of states have disproportionate power to determine our national path in presidential elections. But a remedy is available.
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By Ellen Goodman — Since this is the list-making time of year, allow me to add a tiny trophy to Al Gore’s very full shelf: the prize for the most elegant speech of 2007.
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 AP photo / M. Spencer Green
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By Bill Boyarsky — Political reporters are not widely embraced, but in Iowa, they are eagerly welcomed when they show up to cover the state’s unique system of selecting presidential nominees. The reason is simple: The media is a co-conspirator in a con, the Iowa caucuses.
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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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The Onion pokes fun at the nonsense issues, costume pageantry and theatrical pandering that have taken over the American electoral process.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — With respect to Latino voters, politicians find themselves between a surge and a backlash. While popular anti-immigrant rhetoric could help Republicans take back House seats, it could well cost them the presidency.
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A new USA Today/Gallup poll fits a trend other surveys have been pointing toward, namely that the front-runners in both parties are slowly losing their headlock on the election. Hillary Clinton, though still in the lead nationally, has lost 11 points in a month while Barack Obama and John Edwards have both picked up a few. Meanwhile, Mike Huckabee, once firmly stuck in statistically insignificant territory, continues his climb, like that other famous Arkansan who surprised his way to his party’s nomination.
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Olle Johansson, Sweden —
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Patrick Chappatte, Le Temps, Switzerland —
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