Tag: Barack Obama (page 62)

Ira Chernus, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has written probably the most sobering article I've yet seen about the prospects for the Iraq occupation, and what can be expected from Democratic presidential candidates.

Oprah Winfrey is opening up her Santa Barbara estate to throw an exclusive, ultra high end fundraiser for Barack Obama.

A ticket in the door starts at $2,300, the most allowable under federal campaign laws. If you want to stick around for a VIP reception — mingling with a list of yet-to-be announced celebs — better be prepared to raise at least $25,000 from friends, family and a few high-class strangers. For $50,000, you can stay for dinner (and wander through the house while searching for a bathroom).

One invitee is positively giddy over the event.

More...

Barack Obama called his "Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab)" memo a "dumb mistake" today.

"It was a dumb mistake on our campaign's part and I made it clear to my staff in no uncertain terms that it was a mistake," Obama told the AP in a brief interview in which he referred to the memo as "unnecessarily caustic."

Obama said he wasn't aware of the memo before it circulated and steps have been taken to avoid a recurrence.

Barack Obama said he was going to avoid negative campaign attacks. However, his campaign just made one against Hillary Clinton.

The New York Times reports that the Clintons recently divested themselves of their stocks held in a blind trust (meaning the stocks were chosen by trustees and they were not allowed to be advised of which stocks they were holding) to avoid any allegations of conflict of interest.

When Hillary became a presidential candidate, regulations required her to dissolve the blind trust so that she would know what stocks she held.

Once she learned what they were, she and Bill decided to liquidate them all, even though by doing so they will have to pay hefty capital gains taxes.

More...

Some folks may get upset that some video of Barack Obama answering a question from a Fox News reporter was aired on Brit Hume's program. This is ridiculous. The context proves that Obama did absolutely nothing inconsistent or wrong:

The Obama interview occurred with a group of reporters asking questions, one of whom was from FNC.

Obama did not go on Fox, he held a press availability. Public figures and politicans can not exclude even fake news organizations like Fox from press availabilities.

Whatever the merits of the Fox Dem debate controversy, political candidates can not exclude news organizations from press conferences. That would be totally unacceptable imo. Obama, on this point, did absolutely nothing wrong.

The Chicago Tribune has a five page article on Barack Obama's life growing up. Using his book as a guide, the reporters interviewed his schoolmates, friends, teachers and others, both in Hawaii and Indonesia.

I think it's worth the read, particularly for people like me who aren't as familiar with him as the other candidates.

Politicans have to choose their words carefully these days. Check out the latest critism of Barack Obama's Selma, Al. speech yesterday where he credited the 1965 marchers with empowering his black father and white mother to marry.

Turns out he was born in 1961.

....he credited the "Bloody Sunday" civil rights marchers of 1965 with the fact that his parents -- a black African father and white Kansas mother -- were empowered to fall in love and got married.

"They looked at each other and they decided, 'We know that in the world, as it has been, it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child, but something is stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Ala., because some folks are willing to march across the bridge.' And so they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Ala.!"

Obama was born in 1961; the Selma march was four years later. Obama said later that he meant to credit the entire civil rights movement with his parents' union, not just the Bloody Sunday marchers.

More...

Barack Obama's in. A crowd of 5,000 is expected in Springfield, Ill as he makes his announcement.

For Obama, the nation's only black senator, it's an opportunity to compare his political message to that of Abraham Lincoln, another former Illinois legislator who stood in the same building and warned of the dangers of national division.

Obama's website will be running live streaming coverage of the announcement.

Barack Obama is making two big decisions this week: to file a statement of candidacy for President and to quit smoking.

"I've never been a heavy smoker," Obama told the Tribune, "I've quit periodically over the last several years. I've got an ironclad demand from my wife that in the stresses of the campaign I don't succomb. I've been chewing Nicorette strenuosly."

More from the Chicago Tribune, here.

Is this a campaign stunt? To get millions of America to join him and thereby become vested in his success? Probably not, but I could see it happening.

It's official. Barack Obama has formed an exploratory commitee to run for President.

MSNBC runs down his record on the environment, the death penalty and judges, concluding he's in the center.

Update: Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo announced the formation of his Presidential exploratory committee today.