There really is nothing Obama won't do or people he'll bring out.  He now has resorted to recycling his advisers. It doesn't make much sense for Bill to mention Obama's name while campaign for Hillary now does it.
March 22, 2008
Categories: Bill Clinton

More outrage: Bill Clinton and Gen. McPeak

Retired Air Force Gen. Merrill McPeak, an Obama surrogate, responded to Bill Clinton's Friday remarks -- where some took Clinton to be commenting on Obama's patriotism by saying a Hillary-McCain match up would be between "two people who love this country" -- by launching a new salvo in the umbrage war.

"I grew up, I was going to college when Joe McCarthy was accusing good Americans of being traitors, so I've had enough of it," McPeak said yesterday, according to the AP.

The Clinton campaign brought up McPeak in a conference call today. Clinton spokesman Phil Singer told reporters "to ask why the Obama campaign brings Gen. McPeak out on the campaign trail."

Gen. McPeak got in a bit of trouble about six weeks ago when he told the Los Angeles Times that Obama "doesn't go on television and have crying fits; he isn't discovering his voice at the age of 60."

Singer tried to also frame McPeak's presence as a strike against Obama's national security experience, saying that after the February comments, "the Obama campaign then proceeded to keep Gen. McPeak off the campaign trail until voters made their doubts about Barack Obama's readiness to be commander in chief known."

The AP reported that McPeak, when asked today about the McCarthy line, joked, "occasionally I say something a little earthier."

The Obama campaign sent out a mass e-mail earlier this afternoon highlighting an exchange from a 1992 debate between Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush where Clinton said, "Your father was right to stand up to Joe McCarthy. You were wrong to attack my patriotism. I was opposed to the war but I love my country and we need a president who will bring this country together, not divide it."

Saturday, March 22, 2008
One-degree of separation: Obama and the "Illinois Combine"

In his Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008, column, the Chicago Tribune's John Kass http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opini on/chi-kass_bdmar23,1,3926553.columnclea r insight into the Chicago machine being exposed through the federal fraud trial of indicted political fixer Antoin "Tony" Rezko. Kass began thusly:
    All week, Stuart Levine, the Republican snitch who loves his gladiator movies, has been telling the story of Illinois.
    He tells it from the witness stand in federal court, weaving the tale of this political boss and that political boss, that Democrat, this Republican, all working together for the common good.
    He means, the good stuff in their wallets. Kass asked "what do we call this relationship, again? This Illinois custom of quiet sharing of power across party lines for the benefit of a fat connected few?

"What is it? What is it, again?"

Stating that Levine's testimony is "putting things together for the prosecution", Kass remarked "That's the narrow focus. ... Actually, he's telling a larger tale, about power and clout in our state."

Kass turned to former Illinois U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald for wisdom:

   "What do you call that Illinois political class that's not committed to any party, they simply want to make money off the taxpayers?" Fitzgerald said. "You know what to call them."

   What?

   "The Illinois Combine," Fitzgerald said. "The bipartisan Illinois political combine. And all these guys being mentioned, they're part of it."

And who are "these guys being mentioned"?, RezkoWatch asks.

Well, quite simply put, most of them have been connected in one way or the other with 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama dating to at least 1995 when he ran for the Illinois State Senate. They have been--and some still are--colleagues, campaign contributors, and fellow travelers along Obama's meteoric rise in both Illinois and national politics, a veritable "who's who" of the "Illinois Combine".

Many of their names have appeared in indictments and on witness lists connected with Rezko's trial. Others, like Iraqi-British billionaire businessman and former Rezko partner, Nadhmi Auchi, are found in court documents. Although accused of no crimes, these names consistently reappear connected with that of Rezko--and Obama. Other names are yet destined to appear in future legal proceedings against Rezko.

Keep in mind what Dan Morain wrote in the September 8, 2007, Los Angeles Times:

   "Now, promoting himself as a fresh face on the national political stage, proclaiming his distance from lobbyists and the Washington culture of special interests, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has to contend with his own history. ... From Chicago to Springfield, his past is filled with decidedly old-school political tactics -- a history of befriending powerful local elders, assisting benefactors and special interests, and neutralizing rivals."

Oh, yes, and did we mention, Obama's name also appears on the witness list for the current trial, making his one more in what former Illinois U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald called the "Illinois Combine".

Sunday :: March 16, 2008
Final California Delegate Numbers Out
By Jeralyn, Section Elections 2008
Posted on Sun Mar 16, 2008 at 07:45:00 AM EST

An astonishing 9 million http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ ci_8587441?nclick_check=1people voted in California's Feb. 5 primary.

Late Saturday, the state Democratic Party announced the final votes had been tabulated. Results:

   Hillary Rodham Clinton won 204 delegates and Barack Obama won 166 delegates.

   In the popular vote, Clinton beat Obama by 8 points. She received 51.5 percent to his 43.2 percent.

8% of 9 million voters....that's a lot of votes.

O Obama works to convert in Pennsylvania
Politico.com
By: Carrie Budoff Brown
Mar 14, 2008 04:35 AM EST
Barack Obama
Barack Obama is initiating a program to flip registrations of independent and Republican voters to Democrat.

FAIRLESS HILLS, Pa. -- Nearly a month before voters go to the polls, Sen. Barack Obama will get an early clue about his chances against Pennsylvania's prohibitive favorite, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In the days after the March 24 voter registration deadline, state election officials will release figures that measure the almost singular focus of Obama's field operation until then: political conversions.
Obama is attempting to crack open Pennsylvania's closed party primary, initiating a program to flip the registrations of independent and Republican voters to Democrat.

The Pennsylvania strategy is aimed at giving Obama a head start by expanding the rolls by tens of thousands of voters ahead of the April 22 election. The final tabulations from the Department of State could offer the first tangible indications of whether Obama can catch Clinton in a state where she holds the advantage.

Clinton fares better in states such as Pennsylvania that have closed primaries, in which only Democrats can vote. Obama has neither the state's governor nor the mayor of Philadelphia on his side, nor does he enjoy the benefit of having had his name on the ballot in past elections, as Clinton has (her husband, Bill, was the first Democratic nominee to win the GOP-dominated Philadelphia suburbs since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964). And the preponderance of senior citizens and blue-collar voters across the state favor Clinton.
So the Obama campaign, aided by a veteran Washington operative who created a model voter outreach program for the Philadelphia mayor's race in 2003, decided to expand the pool of potential supporters.
"The more we can get, the better our chances to overcoming these advantages the Clinton campaign has," said Sean Smith, an Obama spokesman. Figures released this week by the state show Pennsylvania Democrats have added more than 65,000 voters since last fall -- almost 2 percent of the party's statewide registration of 3.8 million -- while Republicans gained only 3,212.  The number of party change applications in February showed a 250 percent jump from a year earlier, according to a spreadsheet provided Wednesday by the Department of State. In January, there was a 65 percent increase.

Both Democratic campaigns are claiming credit.
The registration growth reflects an effort initiated by a "very large and active volunteer base" that began registering voters before Obama campaign staff arrived in Pennsylvania in late January, Smith said.  Jeremy Bird, the Pennsylvania field director who ran similar efforts for Obama in South Carolina and Maryland, sent out an e-mail appeal this week for more volunteers.

Delegate Battles Snarl Democrats in Two States
HUFFINGTON POST
By MICHAEL LUO and JOHN M. BRODER
Published: March 15, 2008
THIS IS A LONG DIARY BUT IT'S A GREAT READ
Democrats in Michigan and Florida struggled Friday to resolve the impasse over their disputed January primaries, coming up with a plan to hold a June primary in Michigan while remaining deadlocked in Florida.
Reflecting how tense the situation has become, influential fund-raisers for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton have stepped up their behind-the-scenes pressure on national party leaders to resolve the matter, with some even threatening to withhold their donations to the Democratic National Committee unless it seats the delegates from the two states or holds new primaries there.
The committee penalized Michigan and Florida for holding their primaries early in violation of national party rules, barring their delegates from being seated at the Democratic convention this summer. But with the Democratic contest now a scramble for every remaining delegate, the allocation of delegates from the two states could have a substantial impact on the nomination.
Mrs. Clinton won the primaries in both states, but the contests were not sanctioned by the party, neither candidate campaigned in the states and Mr. Obama did not even put his name on the ballot in Michigan.
Pushing to seat the Florida delegates, at least one top Clinton fund-raiser, Paul Cejas, a Miami businessman who has given the Democratic National Committee $63,500 since 2003, has demanded Democratic officials return his 2007 contribution of $28,500, which they have agreed to do.
"If you're not going to count my vote, I'm not going to give you my money," said Mr. Cejas, who was the United States ambassador to Belgium from 1998 to 2001.
Christopher Korge, a Florida real estate developer who is another top fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton, held an event last year in his home that brought in about $140,000 for the national party, which was set aside in a special account for the general election battle in Florida. But he told committee officials this week that if Florida's delegate conundrum was not settled satisfactorily he would be asking for the money back.

"If we do not resolve this issue," Mr. Korge said, "I think it's safe to say there will be a request for a return of $140,000."

The anger from Clinton fund-raisers seems to emanate mostly from Florida, where the impasse appears farthest from resolution. Democratic Party officials in Michigan on Friday proposed a new primary election on June 3 to make up for the January election.

The new vote, which would be run by state elections officials but financed with money raised from private sources, is far from a sure thing. It requires approval by the divided state legislature and from the Clinton and Obama campaigns. There is also no assurance that the party can quickly raise the estimated $10 million it would cost to redo the January contest.

Meanwhile, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, a Clinton supporter, raised the possibility of seating his state's delegates based on the January vote -- which Mrs. Clinton won 50 percent to 33 percent -- but awarding each Florida delegate only half a vote at the August convention. That would mean that Mrs. Clinton would narrow the delegate gap with Mr. Obama by a net of 19 delegates, rather than the 38 she would have gained under the January result. She trails Mr. Obama by more than 100 delegates, according to most counts.
Mr. Nelson discussed the plan with Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton on Thursday on the Senate floor. A Nelson aide said they told him they wanted the Florida problem resolved but did not endorse his half-a-vote plan. Other Florida Democrats said the Nelson proposal was only one of many ideas floating around.
Mr. Obama has consistently rejected seating any delegates based on the January votes in Michigan or Florida, which he said were unfair because neither candidate was allowed to campaign there. In Michigan, while Mrs. Clinton's name was on the primary ballot, many Obama supporters voted for "uncommitted," a line that got 40 percent of the vote to Mrs. Clinton's 55 percent.
As for the latest Michigan proposal, aides to Mrs. Clinton signaled they were likely to go along with the plan, but the Obama campaign was more skeptical, according to people involved in the process.
"We have to do something," said State Senator Tupac A. Hunter, a co-chairman of the Obama Michigan campaign, "but I don't know if this is even legal."
A Clinton spokesman, Mo Elleithee, said of the Michigan proposal: "Nearly 600,000 Americans participated in the Michigan primary in January, and we have a solemn obligation to ensure that their voices are heard. The best way to make that happen is to honor their votes, but if that isn't possible there should be a new state primary that doesn't leave taxpayers footing the bill."
He said the Clinton campaign was waiting to hear more details.

Saturday :: March 15, 2008
Obama Tells Sun Times Rezko is Still a Friend
By Jeralyn, Section Elections 2008
Posted on Sat Mar 15, 2008 at 10:50:08 AM EST
This diary has several direct links to follow-up.

In addition to being interviewed by the Chicago Tribune this week about Tony Rezko, Barack Obama also sat down for an interview with the Chicago Sun Times. More statements by Obama from the Sun Times interview:
Here is a couple of links to this story
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/ob ama/843582,obama031408a.article
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/ob ama/844455,CST-NWS-obama15.article

   Is Rezko still a friend?

   "Yes,'' Obama said, "with the caveat if it turns out the allegations are true, then he's not who I thought he was, and I'd be very disappointed with that.''
    And it's that friendship, Obama said, that probably kept him from realizing it was a mistake to enter into a real estate deal with Rezko.
    "Probably because I'd known him for a long time, and he'd acted in an aboveboard manner with me," he said. "And I considered him a friend. ... It's further evidence that I'm not perfect.''
Chicago Tribune columnist John Kaas writes today about Obama's latest statements, "It's almost believable. As in, almost, but not quite. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local /chi-obama-kass-rezko-column,1,7963637.c olumn
The audio of the 80 minute Sun Times interview is here: http://www.suntimes.com/images/cds/MP3/0 31408obama.mp3

Friday :: March 14, 2008
No to Obama's Proposal of 50-50 in Michigan
By Jeralyn, Section Blog Related
Posted on Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 07:44:00 AM EST

On January 15, 2008, 594,398 Democrats went to their polling places and voted in their state's primary. The official Michigan election results are here.

328,309 Democrats in Michigan voted for Hillary Clinton. She won all but two counties, Washtenaw and Emmet. 238,168 voted uncommitted. 21,715 voted for Dennis Kucinich. 3,845 voted for Chris Dodd. 2,361 voted for Mike Gravel.
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primari es/results/county/#MIDEMMAPprimary
Hillary got 55% of the vote. The uncommitted, who either were truly uncommitted or for Obama, Edwards or Biden, all three of whom voluntarily withdrew their names from the ballot, got 40%. Kucinich, Dodd and Gravel won 5% of the vote.

Barack Obama now proposes he get 50% of the state's delegates. That would be vote-stealing. It would be disenfranchising 5% of Hillary's voters. It would be assuming that every uncommitted voter and every voter for Kucinich, Dodd and Gravel now want their vote to go to Obama.
That's called stealing an election.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art icle?AID=/20080314/POLITICS01/803140381

Obama prevails in this crazy theory at his peril. There will be hundreds of thousands of Democrats across the country who will refuse to vote for him in November, thinking better a Republican than a cheat. [More...]

The New Republic
Hold On--'3 A.M.' Wasn't Racist by Sean Wilentz
Obama supporters cry wolf on race again.
Post Date Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Reading Orlando Patterson's op-ed in the New York Times, "The Red Phone in Black and White," is a depressing experience.  Not only does the piece scurrilously accuse Hillary Clinton's campaign of cutting an ad that borrows from the filmmaker D.W. Griffith's glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. Not only is this attack based on a Clinton advertisement about national security, not domestic policy (let alone race), that required a singularly tortured and biased "close reading" by Patterson to reach its conclusions. What is truly depressing is that the essay fits what has become a troubling and familiar pattern by the Obama campaign and its fervent supporters to inject racial politics on the eve of yet another Democratic primary in a Southern state, in this case Mississippi, where African-American voters are expected to vote in large numbers.

I described this pattern on February 27, accounting for how the Obama campaign has cleverly played what I called the "race-baiter card"--and yet blamed Hillary Clinton.  These efforts, undertaken both by Obama's own campaign and its boosters in the press, escalated after Clinton's surprising win in New Hampshire and in the build-up to the South Carolina primary.  To recount the ugliness: Obama--through his national co-chair, Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr.--accused Clinton of studied callousness toward the victims of Hurricane Katrina; his press supporters falsely ascribed her victory to racism among New Hampshire's Democratic voters; the Obama campaign then went on to seize upon non-controversial and historically accurate statements by Bill and Hillary Clinton (as in the notorious Martin Luther King-Lyndon Johnson episode, fully discredited by Bill Moyers and others) and called them inflammatory race-baiting.

Now, in anticipation of the Mississippi primary, it's happening again.  In Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island on March 4, as earlier in New Hampshire, the Obama campaign did not achieve the knock-out blow it expected and predicted. Indeed, just before those primaries and since, Obama's camp started to receive serious criticism and scrutiny for the first time, over the candidate's connections to indicted Chicago fixer Tony Rezko, and over the amateurish and revealing actions of senior advisers Austan Goolsbee, Susan Rice, and Samantha Power. The campaign has turned to double-talk and to stonewalling the press. And once again, it has lashed out by playing racial politics while accusing the Clinton campaign of playing the very same game.

Interpreting the Clinton 3 A.M. phone ad on preparedness and national security as a hidden appeal to white racism takes a remarkable bit of bad faith on the part of Professor Patterson. But the bad faith is not restricted to him alone. Earlier in the campaign, in speeches to black audiences, Obama mouthed lines generally believed to come from Malcolm X about how African Americans were being "bamboozled" and "hoodwinked" by white oppressors and Uncle Toms--except that the lines were not actually Malcolm's but were scripted for  Denzel Washington playing Malcolm X in Spike Lee's movie. Now, in Mississippi, Obama is talking about blacks being bamboozled and hoodwinked again. Then, after Obama conceded that Clinton had nothing to do with the ridiculous posting on the disreputable Drudge Report of a picture of Obama in ceremonial Somali dress--supposedly an appeal to racial and religious fears--he now is telling the voters of Mississippi that in fact she was responsible for the photo's appearance, and that she did it in order to scare people--a charge he well knows to be untrue.  In the televised debate in Ohio on February 26, Obama said that "I take Senator Clinton at her word that she knew nothing about the photo.  So I think that's something that we can set aside."

But on March 10 in Jackson, Mississippi, he declared, "When in the midst of a campaign you decide to throw the kitchen sink at your opponent because you're behind, and your campaign starts leaking photographs of me when I'm traveling overseas wearing the native clothes of those folks to make people afraid ... that's not real change"

The flip-flopping is bad enough, even if the press corps does not always report it. But the cynical race politics by Obama and his passionate followers, is toxic, not just for this campaign but for American political life.