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By Martin Amis $16.32
By David McCullough
$20
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Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe joined Bill Maher on Friday for what turned into a surprisingly tough satellite interview, which ended prematurely due to technical difficulties—and perhaps because of a crack about Bill Clinton and Puerto Rico.
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 newsweek.com
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Hillary Clinton has returned to the subject of poaching pledged delegates, a topic that was raised and immediately lowered by her campaign earlier in the primary season. In a new interview in Newsweek, Clinton drops the hint: “Even elected and caucus delegates are not required to stay with whomever they are pledged to.”
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By Warren I. Cohen — Just who are the “neocons,” where did they come from and how was it they came to wield so profound an influence among the highest circles of America’s policy elites? These are some of the questions asked by Jacob Heilbrunn in his new book, “They Knew They Were Right.”
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By Eugene Robinson — With arithmetic on his side, the Illinois senator still should be heavily favored to win the nomination. But he does have a problem: The world-class orator, attacked by opponents for being all talk and no walk, urgently needs to come up with a new speech.
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By David Sirota — Reading articles about Hillary Clinton attacking NAFTA can lead you to believe The Onion has taken over America’s news bureaus.
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 Truthdig
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The Political Wire has it from a couple of sources that Michigan, which along with Florida was stripped of its Democratic delegates, will hold caucuses in order to have a say about the party’s nominee. Also, Florida’s governor, a Republican, is pushing for a re-vote in his state.
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 Flickr / Joe Crimmings
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Though March dealt him some disappointments, February was very good to Barack Obama. His campaign blew away records by raising $55 million—that’s $20 million more than the amount taken in by Hillary Clinton, who had her best month yet. But the best news of all for Obama is that, according to The Hotline, $54 million of that money can be used in the primaries.
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A joint probe by the Center for Investigative Reporting and National Public Radio traces the money behind a new anti-McCain ad, revealing an alliance of top Democratic donors who’ve already raised millions to take back the White House.
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By Joe Conason — Whatever their true private beliefs, presidential candidates in America are constantly required to provide proofs of faith, often through their connections with various religious figures. Benedictions from the pulpit bestow an aura of righteousness—except, of course, when the pastor or minister is a disreputable kook whose endorsement should be an embarrassment.
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A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows John McCain losing to either Democrat—Barack Obama beats him by 12 points while Hillary Clinton wins by half that margin. According to the survey, McCain’s age is significantly more troubling to voters than either Obama’s race or Clinton’s gender.
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Something called the Campaign to Defend America has purchased a reported $1 million worth of air time in Ohio and Pennsylvania to run this ad, which connects John McCain to George W. Bush. Update
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 AP photo / Charles Dharapak
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Republicans are starting to line up behind their nominee, including the president, who officially gave his blessing at the White House on Wednesday, along with an offer to help John McCain campaign. That couldn’t make Democrats happier, who long to depict McCain as what Howard Dean called “another out-of-touch Bush Republican.”
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Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer and Managing Editor Peter Scheer talk politics once again with radio icon Michael Jackson.
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 blog.reidreport.com
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John McCain has secured the Republican nomination with a projected sweep of the March 4th primaries. He was thought by many political insiders to be too independent to pull it off, but his march to the right appears to have been successful. It is fitting, therefore, that he is expected to visit the White House on Wednesday to further tie himself to George W. Bush.
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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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Truthdig wasn’t around in the year 2000, but if we had been, we probably would have posted this clip of John McCain blowing it in a big way. In light of the Republican Party’s racial sensitivity research, this seems timely, even eight years later—and how sad is that?
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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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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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By Andy Borowitz — The satirist writes that consumer activist Ralph Nader, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” told host Tim Russert that he has officially decided to wreck the 2008 presidential election.
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Hillary Clinton made a surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend, where she shared a laugh with her own impersonator. It’s part of a trend that is well captured by a recent Politico article, which notes that politicians are increasingly cultivating their celebrity status.
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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 David Sirota — In 1976, a young political consultant named Patrick Caddell sent a memo to Jimmy Carter telling the president-elect to wage “a continuing political campaign” that fuses public policy and political goals. This doctrine became known as the permanent campaign, and it is now changing from a White House tactic into a national grass-roots organizing strategy.
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 international.wi.gov
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What has the power to unite progressive Democrats and conservative Republicans? According to a compelling article in the San Francisco Chronicle, agribusiness is having its way in Congress, even getting Democrats to cut food stamps to make room for subsidies.
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Mark Fiore’s latest animated political cartoon pokes fun at the message mayhem of the Clinton campaign. With apologies to Hillary fans who are already feeling down, the image of Project Runway’s Tim Gunn critiquing the candidate’s political design choices just fits somehow. Make it work, people.
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New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg writes in a New York Times op-ed “I am not—and will not be—a candidate for president.” Thus ends months of speculation on whether the multibillionaire would jump into the race as an independent candidate. Bloomberg writes that he may endorse a candidate who “takes an independent, nonpartisan approach” and “embraces practical solutions that challenge party orthodoxy.” Is he talking about Ralph Nader?
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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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 nytimes.com
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The father of modern conservatism died while at work in his study. He had suffered from emphysema. Buckley began his distinguished and varied career when conservative ideas were extremely unpopular and managed to build a thriving political movement. Buckley recently raised eyebrows by breaking with President Bush and challenging his conservative credentials.
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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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 news.bbc.co.uk
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Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has suspended negotiations in Kenya, saying, “The leaders have to assume their responsibilities and become directly engaged in these talks.” Annan has been mediating a political crisis marked by tribal violence that has claimed at least 1,500 lives.
Posted on Feb 26, 2008
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — It seems odd, but for John McCain it was a blessing to have the chance to bury questions about his dealings with lobbyists beneath an alleged sex scandal.
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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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By Larry Blumenfeld — Ned Sublette’s remarkable new book tells an inspiring story of resilience and resistance by ordinary men and women who won’t cooperate in their own erasure.
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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 Joe Conason — As a presidential candidate, John McCain stands out not only for his vocal endorsement of the unpopular war in Iraq, but also because one of his own sons is a Marine Corps officer on active duty there.
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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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 duchessjournal.blogspot.com
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Steve Cobble argues in The Nation that Dennis Kucinich, unlike John Edwards, never got proper credit for moving the other candidates leftward. Instead, “the snark and abuse offered Kucinich” when he dropped out was undeserved for a congressman from a tough district who has taken admirable and consistent positions on the issues.
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Hillary Clinton has had difficulty keeping pace with Barack Obama’s fundraising, which could explain the launch of a new pro-Clinton 527 group called “American Leadership Project” that already has a commercial it plans to run in Ohio. The group is not subject to the same rules as the campaign and can theoretically raise unlimited amounts of money.
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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
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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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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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 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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Patrick Corrigan, The Toronto Star —
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