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$22
By John Buntin
$17.16
$35
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AP photo / Vincent Thian
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On Monday, a day after his death, former Indonesian President Suharto was given a state funeral and buried in Java, sparking mixed reaction as Indonesians recalled both the strong points and the controversial (even despotic) sides of the man who was their nation’s leader for more than 30 years.
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Sometimes it’s useful to let a story’s own lead speak for itself. Take, for example, the doozy of a question that opens Sheryl Gay Stolberg’s New York Times article about Bush’s economic focus in Monday’s State of the Union address: “Will George W. Bush be remembered as the president who lost the economy while trying to win a war?”
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Sen. Barack Obama scored a big win in South Carolina on Saturday, winning the state’s Democratic primary with 55 percent of the votes—an impressive lead over competitors Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, who earned 27 percent and 18 percent of the Palmetto State’s primary tally.
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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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images.businessweek.com
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Sure, it can’t help but be at least momentarily interesting that The New York Times’ editorial posse has announced its pick of the Republican and Democratic litters for this presidential election cycle. But far more compelling than Team Gray Lady’s rationale for choosing its favorites is what it had to say about fellow New Yorker Rudy Giuliani.
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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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AP photo / Mary Ann Chastain
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By Robert Scheer — Because Dennis Kucinich was barred from the Democrats’ South Carolina debate, there was no one willing to say what Kucinich would have said: Bankers are crooks who will steal from the public unless the government holds them accountable.
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AP photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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Director Oliver Stone has already demonstrated his penchant for making movies about controversial figures and critical moments in world history, so it should come as no surprise that Stone is turning his lens on George W. Bush for his next film, simply and succinctly called “Bush.”
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rubinsville.com
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During his just-completed tour of the Middle East, President Bush made no secret of his belief that Iran poses the biggest threat to the security of the region and beyond, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has his own ideas about Bush’s statements and Mideast allegiances, which he was equally willing to air on the heels of Bush’s visit.
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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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politico.com
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Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney is engaged in a make-or-break contest in Michigan, and his eleventh-hour mailers to supporters are striking an urgent note, as evidenced by this recent swipe at rivals John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee over their stands on immigration.
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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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breitbart.tv
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Last Sunday’s alleged confrontation between five Iranian boats and a U.S. Navy vessel, the Hopper, in the Strait of Hormuz was not the dangerous confrontation American officials claimed it was, as evidenced by the somewhat confusing footage the Pentagon released Tuesday. In fact, according to a source in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the video itself was “fabricated.”
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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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AP photo / Doug Dreyer
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One-time presidential candidate and former Sen. George McGovern penned a bombshell of an Op-Ed piece in Sunday’s Washington Post, asserting that the case for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney “is far stronger than was the case against Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew after the 1972 election.”
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AP photo / Stephan Savoia
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Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich won’t accept his exclusion from ABC’s debates on Saturday without a fight. Kucinich filed a complaint with the FCC Friday, claiming ABC is denying him equal time and noting that parent company Disney has made campaign contributions to the four invited Democrats.
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AP photo / Stephan Savoia
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Acknowledging a setback in her campaign following Barack Obama’s victory in Iowa, Sen. Hillary Clinton switched gears in New Hampshire, reasserting her readiness for office and urging voters to take a close look at Obama’s policies before embracing his message of hope.
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Um, is it just us, or did Rudy Giuliani’s camp seize upon the strike-induced lull in Hollywood to hire out talent to make what looks and sounds like a Mideast-themed action movie trailer to promote his presidential campaign? “A religion betrayed ... a nuclear power in chaos ... madmen bent on creating it. ... ” Steven Seagal’s people should take notes from this one.
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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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By Bill Boyarsky — As he addressed a room full of members of the Iowa Christian Alliance in the small city of Cedar Falls, the senator demonstrated how hard it is for him to find his way through the tangled forest of Christian right doctrine.
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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 / 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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AP photo / Charlie Niebergall
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By Gore Vidal — Whither Dennis Kucinich? If the powers that be at CNN and a certain Iowa news outlet (attention: Des Moines Register) thought that elbowing Kucinich out of the most recent Democratic presidential debate would slip by unnoticed, Gore Vidal is more than ready to disabuse them of that notion.
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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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Ellen DeGeneres put Jenna Bush on the spot on Wednesday’s episode of “Ellen,” asking her if she couldn’t, you know, just pick up the phone and talk to her dad, “like, right now.” So, the first daughter, in turn, put President Bush on the spot, nervously asking him if he was mad at her for the impromptu call.
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A day after the release of the National Intelligence Estimate assessment on Iran’s purportedly halted nuclear weapons program, President Bush once again demonstrated his well-practiced ability to repurpose facts or opinions to better serve his administration’s aims.
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The results of Sunday’s parliamentary election in Russia, which resulted in a sweeping victory for Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party and signaled that the president will stay in power beyond the end of his second term next spring, are being questioned on a national and international scale.
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AP photo / Fernando Llano
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Hugo Chavez sounded an optimistic note Monday after ending up on the losing end of a vote—by a slim 51 to 49 percent margin—that would have expanded his constitutional powers as Venezuela’s president and instituted changes in federal fund allocation and labor policy, among other proposed developments.
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By Robert Fisk — Haven’t we been here before? Isn’t Annapolis just a repeat of the White House lawn and the Oslo agreement, a series of pious claims and promises in which two weak men, Messrs. Abbas and Olmert, even use the same words of Oslo.
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Boy, was CNN ever psyched about a Ron Paul interview they had on their site—a major traffic driver for CNN.com!—the day of the CNN/YouTube Republican debate, CNN’s John Roberts tells Paul in this clip from the channel’s post-debate coverage Wednesday. Paul, seemingly nonplused, points out that he was summarily and unfairly ignored until close to the end and gets in a few digs at his fellow candidates.
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AP photo / Gerald Herbert
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If Israeli and Palestinian officials can’t find a way to establish a Palestinian state, the state of Israel won’t survive, according to Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. These words of warning came on the heels of Olmert’s meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and President Bush in Annapolis, Md., during which the three leaders laid out plans and set goals for formal peace talks.
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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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time.com
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Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has heeded strong hints from his concerned friends in the U.S. government by announcing that he’ll give up his post as his country’s army chief this week—but he’ll remain “supreme commander” of Pakistan’s armed forces.
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By Andy Borowitz — The satirist imagines what the president might be thankful for. A compliant Congress, perhaps? A lack of impeachment proceedings? Jena’s book deal?
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AP photo / Hasan Sarbakhshian
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In what may be a sign of turning tides within Iran, a powerful paper in Tehran, The Islamic Republic, published an editorial Wednesday slamming President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s treatment of his political opponents—an auspicious critique, considering the paper’s close ties with Ayatollah Khamenei.
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AP photo / Vahid Salemi
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stopped off in Tehran to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday after the weekend’s OPEC summit in Saudi Arabia, marking Chavez’s fourth trip to Iran in two years. During their tête-à-tête, the two least likely leaders to drop in for dinner at the White House discussed, among other things, the dollar’s recent and precipitous decline.
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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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In this latest campaign video for Hillary Clinton, her once-tubbier hubby is shown sweating it out on a treadmill as a cheeseburger appears on the TV he’s watching, rotating in lascivious beefy splendor on the screen. This isn’t, however, the cheesiest moment from this ad, which ultimately aims to point out how “Caucusing [i.e., for Hillary] is easy!”
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apple.com/ipodtouch
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Oh dear—file this one under “further evidence our democracy’s in deep trouble”: The Politico reports that, according to a recent poll of over 3,000 NYU undergraduates conducted by an on-campus journalism class, two-thirds said they would give up their right to vote in the next presidential election in exchange for a year’s tuition at their school, while 20 percent said they’d swap it for an iPod touch.
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