Letters to the Editor
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It's like this
The propellant of Clinton's camapaign is pure high octane ego.
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Obama's 'Stretches Of Truth'
First, there was the Exelon "embellishment".
Now there is this "embellishment":
After weeks of arduous negotiations, on April 6, 2006, a bipartisan group of senators burst out of the "President's Room," just off the Senate chamber, with a deal on new immigration policy.
As the half-dozen senators -- including John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) -- headed to announce their plan, they met Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who made a request common when Capitol Hill news conferences are in the offing: "Hey, guys, can I come along?" And when Obama went before the microphones, he was generous with his list of senators to congratulate -- a list that included himself.
"I want to cite Lindsey Graham, Sam Brownback, Mel Martinez, Ken Salazar, myself, Dick Durbin, Joe Lieberman . . . who've actually had to wake up early to try to hammer this stuff out," he said.
To Senate staff members, who had been arriving for 7 a.m. negotiating sessions for weeks, it was a galling moment. Those morning sessions had attracted just three to four senators a side, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) recalled, each deeply involved in the issue. Obama was not one of them. But in a presidential contest involving three sitting senators, embellishment of legislative records may be an inevitability, Specter said with a shrug. (Washington Post, 3/24/08)
And this: $1,745,161 in campaign contributions from subprime mortgage lenders.
Lehman Brothers $274,147
Morgan Stanley $190,026
Goldman Sachs $474,428
GMAC $3,400
Countrywide $13,100
Washington Mutual $10,750
Citigroup $199,860
Morgan Stanley $210,550
Centex $1,350
Goldman Sachs $367,550
SOURCE: Center for Responsive Politics donor search
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Here is a list of superdelegates who are uncommitted
http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/2008/01/superdelegates-who-havent-endorsed.html
Best to start with your state first. It is time to stop Hillary from destroying the party. Act now.
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thanks fauntleroy
It's time for the supers to get off of their superasses.
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www.buzzflash.com
Las Vegas Review Journal Has An Overlooked Interview with Harry Reid that Hints at "Behind the Scenes" Maneuvering to End the Destructive Dem Nomination Battle. Also, Reid is Opposed to Seating Michigan and Florida Prior to the Vote for the Nomination. Interesting, Very Interesting. Both Pelosi and Reid Have Taken "DNC Process" Positions that Would Tend to Favor Obama, Although Both are Officially Uncommitted Superdelegates.
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What's the point, beyond being helpful?
Other than the fact that opensecrets.org is an awesome website with a killer web tool: http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/moneyweb.asp?cycle=2008
Hillary received as much if not more cash from Citi, Goldman, etc. And the broker dealers are not directly in the mortgage business. They buy and sell MBS products, among other things, FYI.
And correct me if I'm wrong, aren't these the contributions from individual employees?
Goldman is an international firm with many employees making big bucks. So of course they can split a million between Obama, Hillary, and McCain (McCain only got around 100,000 though).
Corporate and Union Activity
Although corporations and labor organizations may not make contributions or expenditures in connection with federal elections, they may establish PACs. Corporate and labor PACs raise voluntary contributions from a restricted class of individuals and use those funds to support federal candidates and political committees.
http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/fecfeca.shtml#Corporate_Union
???
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@ Uncle Fester: Helpful Information
Donations are from individuals (employees, family members, PACs). It is possible that some of these banks/lenders do more than subprime lending. But Countrywide, WaMu, Citigroup are big time subprime lenders. Countrywide and WaMu, especially, are in serious financial trouble as a result of these loans.
Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs are brokerage firms, but they also serve as banks and have contributed to the subprime mess by holding mortgage securities for banks, then bundling and selling them to other countries (China, Japan, GB, Australia), sometimes at face value and sometimes for far less than face value.
I got a Factcheck alert a few days ago about campaign contributions, raised because Barack Obama said he received 90% of his contributions from "small" ($25) individual donors. According to Factcheck, he gets about 35% of his donations from small contributions; 2/3 comes from contributions of >$200. Then I received another factcheck that linked to CRP about corporate contributors, so I followed it and did some searching based on a USA Today article about subprime lenders.
It strikes me as disingenuous on Obama's part to say that he doesn't take corporate/lobbyist $$, when in fact he does. The $1.7 million is just a drop in the bucket of all industries that contribute to his campaign. OTOH, Clinton has never made this a centerpiece of her campaign.
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Harry Reid's Comments in Review Journal
..."I think this has been a great campaign. The Democratic problem will be over before the convention, and I think it will all work out well for America," he said during an interview in his office here. Reid did not elaborate on how the race would be resolved before the convention.
Reid is a superdelegate to the national convention Aug. 25-28 in Denver but has remained neutral in the Democratic contest.
"Now we're down to two - two of the smartest people, not just in the Senate, but in the country," he said. "These are brilliant, academically talented people, ... hardworking and honest." -- (Las Vegas Review Journal, 3/25/08)
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http://buzzflash.com/
Las Vegas Review Journal Has An Overlooked Interview with Harry Reid that Hints at "Behind the Scenes" Maneuvering to End the Destructive Dem Nomination Battle. Also, Reid is Opposed to Seating Michigan and Florida Prior to the Vote for the Nomination. Interesting, Very Interesting. Both Pelosi and Reid Have Taken "DNC Process" Positions that Would Tend to Favor Obama, Although Both are Officially Uncommitted Superdelegates.
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What an ignominious way to wax on about experience..
..and all of it a LIE. When she said she "misspoke" what she really did was trip herself up and give herself enough rope.
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The choice: driving dream or nighmare
While Wright's remarks were over the top (and not quite as bad when quoted in full context), Obama showed courage, integrity and humanity, by not throwing him "under the bus" and pointing out the origins of Wright's anger in his speech last week. He had compassion for Wright.
Maybe that was stupid or impolitic but it was very right. And his comparison of his white grandmother's racial attitudes was, well, brilliant. The conclusion is that this candidate is something truly special and we desperately need someone truly special if we are to have a future as a nation.
Hillary is no dummy but she's acting dumb and so self-involved, she's losing perspective entirely.
Tides change and winds shift, but there is no way she can win now without destroying the Democratic Party. Desperately clawing at Obama will not stop his nomination and in the end destroy what has been a pretty good career in the Senate – hers. She, and Johns Edwards and Kerry, made one huge mistake on Iraq. But HRC has often shown initiative and a capacity to deal effectively with the other side in the Senate.
But Obama has demonstrated that he really is someone who can inspire and lead. Sometime ago, a historian said a great president was one who “dreamed a great dream for us.” That’s what Obama is doing and it’s time Hillary joined the dream and stopped turning her campaign, and the nation, into a nightmare.
We have lived a nightmare for too long with Bush.
http://johnklotz.blogspot.com