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By Ricardo Cortes $17.95
By Steven Naifeh (Author), Gregory White Smith (Author)
$24
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 trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com
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Some challenges to Sen. Barack Obama’s potential presidential authority might be considered covertly racist, but here’s one that baldly revels in its ignorance: At last weekend’s Republican state convention in Texas, a vendor booth hosted by Republicanmarket pushed a pin that brought racial politics to the fore in the most blatant and unproductive possible way.
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 AP photo / Carolyn Kaster, file
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By Robert Scheer — Why not Hillary? Not my first choice—Al Gore is—but I find all of the pro-and-con debate about Hillary Rodham Clinton to be beside the point. She is, as Barack Obama said, likable enough, and the Dems are not likely to pick anyone better.
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Actor John Cusack is ramping up his political presence during this election cycle with his film “War, Inc.” and now this advertisement from MoveOn.org, in which he points out how George W. Bush and John McCain are remarkably similar in some pretty fundamental ways, regardless of McCain’s recent bids to distance himself from the outgoing president.
Posted on Jun 17, 2008
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 AP photo / Mel Evans, File
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During the final stages of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, a common refrain emerged among some of her more ardent supporters: If Barack Obama wins the nomination, we’re backing John McCain. Now that the dust has settled somewhat after Clinton’s concession, Obama is working to clarify the differences between his positions and McCain’s when it comes to issues that impact the lives of female voters.
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Here’s a lengthy (run time: 23:49) video clip from Barack Obama’s Father’s Day speech at Chicago’s Apostolic Church of God on Sunday, beginning with his riff about too many fathers from the African-American community being “MIA.”
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 AP photo / Dennis Cook
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By Stanley Kutler — For two centuries, selecting vice presidential candidates was at best a mere afterthought. Hardly anyone knew of the process, if indeed one existed aside from a brief huddle by the presidential candidate with a few advisers and friends. The presidential nominees usually settled on lesser-known figures, deserved obscurities in American history.
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In this installment of Link TV’s “Mosaic Intelligence Report,” host Jamal Dajani looks closely at the true meaning of President Bush’s pronouncement on the U.S. stance vis-à-vis Iran, that “all options are on the table.” Could it mean he intends to follow U.N. protocol? Well, no—not from the Middle Eastern perspective, at least.
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 AP photo / Allauddin Khan
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A nighttime raid on Kandahar’s Sarposa Prison, carried out by Taliban operatives Friday, led to the escape of 1,200 prisoners, including around 400 Taliban members. The attack represented a serious security challenge in the Afghan city that’s considered the traditional home of the country’s leaders and the Taliban’s spiritual center.
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 AP photo / LM Otero
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The Brits are in on the American election speculation game, judging by this Daily Mail article about John McCain’s first wife, Carol, which, despite reporter Sharon Churcher’s “tsk-tsk” tone about McCain’s possible philandering and his eventual wife-swap (enter Cindy, beer heiress, pictured), also allows that Carol McCain still cares about her ex-husband and supports him in his political ventures.
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Hillary Clinton formally stepped off the long road to the White House on Saturday, at least in terms of seeking the presidency herself, by standing before a throng of supporters in Washington, D.C., and announcing she was suspending her campaign. She congratulated former rival Barack Obama and asked the gathered well-wishers “to join me in working as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me.”
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Presumptive Republican presidential nominee (still waiting for the handy acronym here, people) John McCain has a new advertisement that makes a play for the anti-war crowd with his bold pronouncement: “I hate war.” All right, but how does his latest incarnation explain the liberties he once took with a certain Beach Boys surf classic?
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 AP photo / Jose Luis Magana
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Regardless of the end result of her efforts, Hillary Clinton has endured a grueling trial by fire in recent months in her historic bid for the presidency. The Nation’s Katha Pollitt points out the gains she believes Clinton made for women in and beyond the strictly political realm, arguing that ” ... Women and men of every party and candidate preference, and every ethnicity too, owe Hillary Clinton a standing ovation, even if they can’t stand her.”
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 AP photo / Evan Vucci
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An Israeli official was quoted Friday as saying that “attacking Iran in order to stop its nuclear plans will be unavoidable,” a remark that may further escalate tensions between the two countries as leaders continue to lob rhetorical digs at each other.
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Say what you will about Libertarian Bob Barr, but one thing’s for sure: We haven’t seen a mustachioed presidential contender like this since ... Teddy Roosevelt? During a “Colbert Report” appearance on Wednesday, Barr seemed pleased with Stephen Colbert’s assessment of his tea strainer, but gave his host the wary eye throughout the rest of his visit. A very serious man, that Bob Barr. No sudden moves, Stephen.
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 Richard Phibbs / HillaryClinton.com
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Inching closer to concession, Hillary Clinton shifted gears on Thursday, taking a different tone in an e-mail to her allies and readying them to back her rival for the top spot on the Democratic presidential ticket, Barack Obama. However, she will still wait until Saturday to make any kind of formal announcement about her status in the race.
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 Agence France-Presse / Alexander Joe
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From detaining his opponent while in the middle of a runoff election campaign to suspending international aid operations due to groups’ alleged bias against the government, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has stopped at nothing to keep himself in power.
Posted on Jun 4, 2008
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 guardian.co.uk / Barry Batchelor
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Former President Jimmy Carter offered Barack Obama some serious campaign advice late Tuesday. He is quoted in an interview to be published Saturday saying that an Obama-Clinton ticket would be “the worst mistake that could be made.”
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 AP photo / Jeff Chiu
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By Robert Scheer — Will the real John McCain stand up? Actually, I don’t expect him to, now that he is the Republican presidential candidate, pandering to the irrationalities that drive his party. Nor is it likely that the fawning mass media will pressure him to the point of clarity. But I remain genuinely confused as to what makes him tick.
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 spock.com
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The most powerful aggregator of Web site links ever, self-styled Internet phenom Matt Drudge, has become an election-year institution in his own right—or at least he looks that way to John McCain’s wary aides, who studied coverage of Hillary Clinton’s campaign on “The Drudge Report” and now wonder if they can count on Drudge’s supposedly conservative political orientation.
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 AP photo / Chris Carlson
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Having endured at least three rounds of controversy stemming from his 20-year association with Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, Democratic candidate Barack Obama has decided to end his membership, telling reporters Saturday that he is sorry for the intense media attention his affiliation has attracted to the church and its members.
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Author and columnist David Sirota braves the Colbert treatment to talk about his (Sirota’s) latest book, “The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington,” and to brazenly assert that, “People are angry with the status quo—they think the establishment isn’t working for them, and frankly, it’s not.”
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After some seriously suspenseful primaries earlier in the year, the general feeling about Sunday’s Democratic presidential primary in Puerto Rico is far less ... energized, let’s say. In fact, local officials are predicting that a substantial percentage of Puerto Rican voters won’t even show up at the polls.
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Scott McClellan appeared on the “Today” show Thursday to discuss his memoir, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception,” and the “two defining moments” that caused him to become “increasingly dismayed and disillusioned ... with the way things were going in Washington, D.C.”
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Those reporters who were given just three Internet-free hours to curl up with John McCain’s huge stack of medical records (right before Memorial Day!) were privy to some mighty intimate details about the presumptive Republican nominee—and pundits were subsequently saddled with the task of making talk of polyps, chin herpes (ew!) and freckled buttocks somehow sound like good news for the GOP.
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 defectiveyeti.com
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As former White House press secretary Scott McClellan continues to catch major flak from Bush loyalists for “snitching” on Dubya and select presidential sidekicks in his new memoir, another erstwhile Bush aide, Mike Turk, has come out in support of McClellan’s fightin’ words in an interview with The Huffington Post.
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President Bush gave his final Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and declaring: “It is a solemn reminder of the cost of freedom that the number of headstones in a place like this grows with every Memorial Day.”
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 AP photo / Brennan Linsley
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Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama observed Memorial Day in Puerto Rico and New Mexico, respectively, paying tribute to U.S. military men and women from the past and the present and making their cases for becoming commander in chief.
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 blog.ecr.co.za
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Sen. John Kerry (remember him?) has penned an Op-Ed for The Washington Post, taking issue with President Bush’s—and by extension, John McCain’s—argument that engaging in talks with Iran would constitute a dangerous gesture of “appeasement.” The No. 1 reason Kerry thinks the GOP leaders’ stance is wrong? Well, “In short, not talking to Iran has failed. Miserably.” Above, Iranian President Ahmadinejad.
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 AP photo / Rich Pedroncelli
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Internal shake-ups among Sen. John McCain’s campaign aides, unusual structuring choices within his camp and the worry among some Republicans that their presumptive nominee isn’t capitalizing sufficiently on the Democrats’ current chaos are all spelling trouble for Team McCain.
Posted on May 24, 2008
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Not known for being a shrinking violet, Keith Olbermann left no uncertainty about what he thinks of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s explanation for why she invoked the specter of Robert Kennedy’s 1968 assassination when discussing her decision to keep campaigning to the end. He’s not buyin’ it, folks.
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This wasn’t the best week for Sen. John McCain’s (former) religious advisers, the Revs. John Hagee and Rod Parsley—primarily because the Republican front-runner has effectively given them both the political heave-ho following the public re-airing of their takes on Israel and Islam, respectively.
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 AP photo / Elise Amendola
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Addressing the issue of whether she should drop out of the presidential race—and, if so, when—Sen. Hillary Clinton pointed to the assassination of Robert Kennedy in June 1968 in defending her refusal to quit. Updated
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 flickr.com / Brian Wozniak
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It might be hard to imagine, given the tensions and free-flying barbs between them in recent months, but Sen. Hillary Clinton may be angling to become Barack Obama’s running mate should he clinch the Democratic presidential nomination this summer.
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 AP photo
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Although this report characterizes Sen. Barack Obama’s search for a vice presidential running mate as “top-secret,” it can’t be all that hush-hush if it’s out on the news wires. That said, who might he be eyeing?
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 AP photo / JP photo / Jae C. Hong
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By Bill Boyarsky — Spurred on by a historic presidential election, an increasing number of “civilians” are engaged in journalism on the Web, and they are changing journalism for the better.
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Good thing Mike Huckabee isn’t in the running for the presidency anymore—he’d be hard-pressed to spin his way out of the truly horrific crack he made Friday at an NRA event in Louisville, Ky. That’s hardly important, considering the troubling implications of his failed joke, which called up the image of Democratic candidate Barack Obama being targeted by a gun-wielding assailant.
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Well, as you’ve probably noticed by now, John Edwards has publicly backed Barack Obama as his candidate of choice. There’s just one problem, as Stephen Colbert reminds us: Edwards previously said on Colbert’s show that he’d support the candidate who pledged to do the most for the nation’s poor—and the one who supplied him with a jet ski. But he hasn’t gotten that jet ski yet, has he now, Mr. Obama?
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 AP photo / Lionel Cironneau
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Actor Sean Penn has already made waves at the Cannes Film Festival, where he’s leading this year’s jury, by weighing in about the presidential race back home—and by pointedly bucking the local smoking ban. Suffice it to say that Penn won’t be joining Oprah on one of her pep rallies for Barack Obama anytime soon.
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 AP photo / Dean Rutz
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John McCain pranced through a Washington forest with reporters Tuesday, speaking of his historical support for the environment and his plan to slow global warming. The move is seen as an effort to differentiate McCain’s brand of Republicanism from Bush, who ritually regarded global warming as a “theory.”
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 AP photo / Kevork Djansezian
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By Bill Boyarsky — On May 5, the day before Barack Obama all but clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, I visited Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, Calif., because I was sick—sick of stories about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his most famous parishioner and of television close-ups of Obama drinking beer and Hillary Clinton belting straight shots in efforts to show their inner blue collars.
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 commons.wikimedia.org
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This isn’t the first time someone has accused Sen. John McCain of not being conservative enough, but now former Republican congressman-turned-Libertarian Bob Barr is upping the ante on his critique of McCain’s conservatism by running against him in this year’s presidential election.
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You just can’t catch a break as a politician these days. Right when you think you look all “hip” and “endearingly self-deprecating” by allowing yourself to be skewered by certain late-night comedians (bonus points if you’re actually on the show while this gentle, aide-approved ribbing is happening), those same wise asses up and turn on you.
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 flickr.com/photos/opendemocracy
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Whatever else might be said about Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change, it’s definitely fair to say that the man is tenacious. After weeks of confusion following his bid to oust longtime leader Robert Mugabe from the presidency, Tsvangirai says he’s now gearing up for an electoral rematch.
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 AP photo / Joao Padua
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Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia, will face a confidence vote in the next 90 days as opposition groups continue their push to remove him from power. The vote comes on the tail of last week’s unofficial and meaningless referendum for autonomy in which the wealthy state of Santa Cruz voted for greater independence from the federal government.
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 AP photo / Elise Amendola
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Judging by exit polls, two groups made the difference for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton Tuesday night. A strong showing from African-American voters and gains elsewhere helped Obama to a big win in North Carolina. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, could thank older voters for what turned out to be a nail-biter of a victory in Indiana.
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Gee, it sure is hard sometimes to figure out exactly how the rich get richer in American society! Good thing there’s Larry the Loophole, who hails from a politician dad and a lobbyist mom, to show us how buyout industry executives like Henry Kravis make gajillions of dollars (well, not gajillions, but so far this year Kravis has made over $33,205,800, with ol’ Larry’s help. As funny as it is scary, this animated short from Brave New Films breaks it all down.
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 AP photo / Elise Amendola
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Monday found Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama working furiously to draw distinctions between their stances on key issues like rising gas prices and America’s strained relations with Iran—and, of course, to take shots at their opponent’s positions in the remaining hours before Tuesday’s Indiana and North Carolina primaries.
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 AP photo / Mary Altaffer
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In a bid to clarify his stance on the (current) Iraq war, as well as just how long he’d be “fine” with maintaining a U.S. military presence in the region, Sen. John McCain held one of those town hall meetings that are so de rigueur among campaigning politicians these days, this time in Denver, where he performed some semantic gymnastics for his audience at the Robert E. Loup Jewish Community Center.
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