lol
Das Leben gehört den Lebenden an, und wer lebt, muss auf Wechsel gefasst sein.
CBS scrubs a second McCain flub from interview broadcast
Keeping up with John McCain's foreign policy gaffes is becoming a cottage industry these days, and a progressive radio host has caught another slip-up from the Republican presidential nominee talking about the war on terror.
And keeping those flubs away from viewers is occupying plenty of network news editors' time.
Young Turks host Cenk Uygur noticed that his confusion about the timeline of the "surge" in Iraq wasn't McCain's only gaffe in his interview with CBS news this week. McCain seemed to forget the war in Afghanistan preceded the invasion of Iraq; either that or he didn't think it was a major conflict.
"The fact is we had four years of failed policy. ... We were losing the war in Iraq. The consequences of failure. The defeat of the United States of America in the first major conflict since 9/11 would have had devastating impacts throughout the region and the world," McCain told CBS anchor Katie Couric.
"Was Afghanistan not major enough for him?" Uygur asks.
Like his previous flub, CBS edited this misstatement from its broadcast. The full version of the interview, which only aired online, also saw McCain wrongly crediting the surge with sparking the "Anbar Awakening," in which tribal leaders began to turn against al Qaeda in Iraq.
The Anbar Awakening gaffe was edited out and replaced with McCain's scurrilous attack accusing Democratic nominee Barack Obama of caring more about winning the election than winning a war. Crooks & Liars notes that bit of editing violated CBS's own Standards & Practices because they edited in an answer from an earlier question and changed the meaning of McCain's statement.
The latest bit of tricky editing does not seem to have changed McCain's overall meaning, and virtually all interviews are edited before they are broadcast. It seems the network in this case simply saved McCain from a bit of embarrassment in front of the evening news audience.
Uygur is willing to give McCain the benefit of the doubt in this case, and assumes he does actually know the war in Afghanistan started more than a year before Iraq.
"In all likelihood, this was a simple mental mistake for McCain, among a litany of others recently," Uygur writes. "But it does go toward state of mind. They never saw Afghanistan as a priority."
The Democratic National Committee was less forgiving toward the GOP nominee.
"It is disappointing that John McCain doesn’t recognize that the war in Afghanistan was not only the first major conflict after 9/11, and is in fact a major front in the fight against terrorism," DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney said in an e-mail to reporters a few hours after Uygur's article was posted. "No wonder John McCain doesn’t understand why the American people are looking for new leadership that will bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end so we can direct the resources we need to getting the job done in Afghanistan."
Uygur posted the following video to YouTube Thursday:
This video is from CBS's Evening News, broadcast July 22, 2008.
A transcript of the exchange follows, with the some parts cut from the CBS broadcast hightlighted:
Couric: Senator McCain, Sen. Obama says, while the increased number of U.S. troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shiite government going after militias. And says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What's your response to that?
McCain: [Sen. Obama has indicated that by his failure to acknowledge the success of the surge, that he would rather lose a war than lose a campaign. ...] I don't know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarlane (phonetic) was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history. Thanks to General Petraeus, our leadership, and the sacrifice of brave young Americans. I mean, to deny that their sacrifice didn't make possible the success of the surge in Iraq, I think, does a great disservice to young men and women who are serving and have sacrificed.
They were out there. They were protecting these sheiks. We had the Anbar awakening. We now have a government that's effective. We have a legal system that's working, although poorly. And we have progress on all fronts, including an incredible measure of security for the people of Iraq. There will still be attacks. Al Qaeda's not defeated. But the progress has been immense. And to not recognize that, and why it happened, and how it happened, I think is really quite a commentary.
Couric: A commentary on what?
McCain: That Sen. Obama does not understand the challenges we face. And … not understand the need for the surge. And the fact that he did not understand that, and still denies that it has succeeded, I think the American people will make their judgment....
Couric: Sen. Obama also told me, Sen. McCain, that the money spent on those additional troops, on the surge, might have been more effective had it gone to Afghanistan or even to a better energy policy in the United States. What's your response?
McCain: The fact is we had four years of failed policy. We were losing. We were losing the war in Iraq. The consequences of failure and defeat of the United States of America in the first major conflict since 9/11 would have had devastating impacts throughout the region and the world.
Source
Chuck Hagel: Quit Talking About The Surge, Focus On War's Future
OMAHA, Neb. - Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, fresh from an Iraq trip with Democrat Barack Obama, said the presidential candidates should focus on the war's future and stop arguing over the success of last year's troop surge.
Hagel mentioned both candidates, but his comments seemed directed at Republican John McCain. McCain, while Obama traveled the Middle East, attacked Obama for opposing the military escalation last year that increased security in Iraq.
"Quit talking about, 'Did the surge work or not work,' or, 'Did you vote for this or support this,'" Hagel said Thursday on a conference call with reporters.
"Get out of that. We're done with that. How are we going to project forward?" the Nebraska senator said. "What are we going to do for the next four years to protect the interest of America and our allies and restructure a new order in the world. ... That's what America needs to hear from these two candidates. And that's where I am."
Hagel, too, opposed the troop increase strategy, though he acknowledged Thursday it brought about positive changes. "When you flood the zone with superior American military firepower, and you put 30,000 of the world's best troops in a country, there's going to be a result there," Hagel said.
Whether the surge worked, though, can't be measured, Hagel said, arguing the small gains came at a high price. He said President Bush's decision last year to dispatch an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq has cost more than 1,000 American lives and billions of dollars.
Though Hagel is a Republican, his name has been floated as a potential vice presidential running mate for Obama. Like McCain, he is a Vietnam war veteran, but Hagel is a fierce critic of the war in Iraq. He has said he would consider running with Obama on the Democratic ticket but that he doesn't expect to be asked. He is not running for reelection.
Hagel joined Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island in traveling with Obama to the Middle East. Reed said the trip was productive. "It wasn't just a photo op and social chit chat," Reed said in a telephone interview.
Reed said the group pressed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to have the Iraqi government do more.
"Unless the government of Iraq can start delivering - delivering jobs, delivering funds, performing - then the gains that have been made will be quickly erased," Reed said. "I think that is a point that we all stressed, particularly Senator Obama, with the prime minister."
Source
Fox News Poll: Do You Have A Neighbor Who Says Obama "Scares Them"?
Hmmm. It looks like Fox News is asking some rather loaded questions in its latest poll:
Have you heard any of your friends and neighbors say there is something about Barack Obama that scares them?
Yes 49%
No 50%
Have you heard any of your friends and neighbors say there is something about John McCain that scares them?
Yes 36%
No 62%
Some people believe Barack Obama, despite his professed Christianity, is secretly a Muslim. Others say that is just a rumor and Obama really is a Christian as he says, and point out he's attended a Christian church for years. What do you believe -- is Obama a Muslim or a Christian?
Muslim 10%
Christian 57%
John McCain was held captive for five years in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp. Do you think that experience would make McCain a better president or a worse president?
Better 49%
Worse 11%
No Difference (voluntary) 33%
Do you think Barack Obama's trip to Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East is better described as a fact-finding trip or as a campaign event?
Fact-finding 19%
Campaign event 47%
Both (voluntary) 25%
Source
Terry McAuliffe Makes VP Pick: Not Hillary
The former national chairman of the Democratic Party who ran Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign this year told 200 Democratic activists in Fairfax County Tuesday that Virginia Governor Tim Kaine would be his party's best choice as Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate.
Terry McAuliffe brought his articulate, high energy speaking style to the monthly meeting of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee at Oakton High School, to, among other things, "make no mistake" that his party leadership considers Virginia "a battleground state" in the 100 days left to fight it out for the presidency this fall.
"The fact that we've opened 33 offices around the state should remove all doubt" about how important Virginia is perceived to be for winning the election, he said. "We've leased them all through November," he added.
Although Virginia hasn't gone for a Democratic presidential nominee since 1964, and until recently was considered a solid "red," or Republican, state, the last three statewide elections for U.S. Senate and governor have all gone to the Democratic candidate.
Obama will have the benefit of having on the slate with him in Virginia a strong and popular Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, former Governor Mark Warner, with the demonstrated ability to win support among Republican voters.
So far, the campaign of presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, has announced the opening of only one office in the state, in Virginia Beach. McCain will have a tougher time working in sync with the Virginia GOP's nominee for the U.S. Senate, former Governor Jim Gilmore, who represents the party's most conservative wing.
McAuliffe was adamant in his recommendation of Kaine as the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee Tuesday, although he stressed to the News-Press after his speech, which included an informal half-hour question and answer period, that the ultimate choice will be Obama's very personal one.
However, the fact that he proposed Kaine over his own candidate and long-time friend, Hillary Clinton, suggested that he knows the Clinton option is off the table.
He told the large audience in the school cafeteria that there are only two factors in picking a vice president. The first, he said, is the ability of the choice to govern effectively as president, if need be. The second is personal compatibility with the presidential candidate.
"These are the only two factors that really matter," he said. "Others, like geographical considerations, are much less important."
Kaine was among the first public officials to endorse Obama's campaign a year before the launch of the primary season, and has campaigned with him often.
Rumors are widespread that McCain may announce his vice presidential running mate by the end of this week, ahead of the distraction that the Olympics, which begin Aug. 8, will bring. The Olympics' closing ceremony will be Aug. 24, a day after the start of the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Whatever the timing for the Democratic vice presidential announcement, "it will be designed to produce the biggest bounce" in public interest, McAuliffe said.
In addition to pronouncing Virginia a "battleground state" and recommending Kaine for his party's vice presidential choice, McAuliffe also said that Virginia "deserves" to be considered by his party for one of its early primary dates in 2012.
It was McAuliffe, during his tenure as chair of the Democratic National Committee, who broke up the tradition of allowing Iowa and New Hampshire to always have the first primary elections. "It was designed to better reflect the true demographic of our party in the early primaries," he said, so the primaries for the states of South Carolina, Arizona and New Mexico were moved up.
That opened the door for the problems that developed this primary season, resulting in party sanctions against Michigan and Florida, but that will be fixed, McAuliffe said.
Of course, it could be argued that McAuliffe's pro-Virginia sentiments stem from the fact that he lives here, near to Falls Church, in fact, in the Spring Hill precinct of Fairfax's Dranesville District.
In addition to Democratic elected officials and hopefuls, among those sitting in the audience were the Obama campaign's Northern Virginia regional field coordinator, Luke McGowan, and the Providence/Mason/Falls Church field coordinator, Kyle Lierman.
Source
The Agony of The Pedestrian Affair
Mickey Kaus is very upset that the media not paying attention to the alleged John Edwards affair, and in a piece called the Agony of the MSM, he lists all the people not paying sufficient attention to the matter. Let me break it down for you.
The reason no one is paying attention is not because, as you might think, John Edwards is a media darling and they just love him to bits and pieces. Quite the contrary. I have never cared much for Edwards, and even I recognize that he got the absolute worst media coverage during the primary- he got none at all. They ignored him. He was the invisible man. And if you doubt that no media coverage is worse than bad media coverage, take a gander at the McCain campaign, which has shifted to gaffe-o-matic mode while trying to do ANYTHING to get some media attention while Obama is overseas.
The reason no one is paying attention to the alleged affair and love-child is simple. You guys have made standard affairs boring (I know, I know. You claim to be a Democrat.). No one is claiming Edwards was seen in two wetsuits hanging from the ceiling with a dildo lodged in his rectum. There is no DC madam with a black book involved. No one has transcripts of him instant messaging teen-age congressional pages or crashing their dorms in a drunken stupor. There is no arrest record for soliciting oral sex in an airport bathroom, complete with feisty confrontations with the arresting officer on video tape. There is no religious hypocrisy and gay prostitution and meth-fueled sodomy binge to talk about.
In short, aside from the fact that all there is to the story is an Enquirer report, it is just boring. You all have made standard affairs pedestrian and dull. Even when you use the phrase “love child,” what it boils down to is a guy allegedly sleeping with a woman. Pretty tame stuff, given what the GOP has provided us for the past few years.
Now maybe if he got caught engaging in oral sex with goats. That would probably get some attention.
Source
Biden Wasted No Time In 2008
What a spring Sen. Joe Biden has had:
President Bush signed into law: Biden's (and Sam Brownback's) Second Chance act, which appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars to help criminals transition back to society. Next week, Bush will sign PEPFAR, a global HIV/AIDS bill that Biden played a key role in shepharding through the Congress. He led a CODEL to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey. His legislation reducing the crack/powder cocaine disparity will be considered in the fall. His approach to Pakistan has become the default approach supported by both Republicans and Democrats.
He's delivered three major foreign policy speeches, including one -- at Georgetown's Gaston Hall -- that helped to influence how the Obama campaign frames John McCain's national security judgment. He led early hearings on the global food crisis and the rising crime rate, two issues on which the two presidential candidates are behind the curve; his legislation authorizing helicopters for Darfur passed the approps committee; he's held numerous oversight hearings on Iraq and foreign policy....
The point of this isn't to blow smoke at the Delaware Senator. It's to pause and wonder whether he wouldn't be just as happy being a senior senator under a President Obama as he would be a vice president. His stamp on policy would be larger than it is even now, and he'd have far fewer ceremonial duties.
On the other hand, no top-tier potential Democratic vice presidential candidate can lay claim to have had as productive a spring as Biden.
And yes -- Biden allies -- Obama and his team are very aware of this.
Source
CBS scrubs a second McCain flub from interview broadcast
Keeping up with John McCain's foreign policy gaffes is becoming a cottage industry these days, and a progressive radio host has caught another slip-up from the Republican presidential nominee talking about the war on terror.
And keeping those flubs away from viewers is occupying plenty of network news editors' time.
Young Turks host Cenk Uygur noticed that his confusion about the timeline of the "surge" in Iraq wasn't McCain's only gaffe in his interview with CBS news this week. McCain seemed to forget the war in Afghanistan preceded the invasion of Iraq; either that or he didn't think it was a major conflict.
"The fact is we had four years of failed policy. ... We were losing the war in Iraq. The consequences of failure. The defeat of the United States of America in the first major conflict since 9/11 would have had devastating impacts throughout the region and the world," McCain told CBS anchor Katie Couric.
"Was Afghanistan not major enough for him?" Uygur asks.
Like his previous flub, CBS edited this misstatement from its broadcast. The full version of the interview, which only aired online, also saw McCain wrongly crediting the surge with sparking the "Anbar Awakening," in which tribal leaders began to turn against al Qaeda in Iraq.
The Anbar Awakening gaffe was edited out and replaced with McCain's scurrilous attack accusing Democratic nominee Barack Obama of caring more about winning the election than winning a war. Crooks & Liars notes that bit of editing violated CBS's own Standards & Practices because they edited in an answer from an earlier question and changed the meaning of McCain's statement.
The latest bit of tricky editing does not seem to have changed McCain's overall meaning, and virtually all interviews are edited before they are broadcast. It seems the network in this case simply saved McCain from a bit of embarrassment in front of the evening news audience.
Uygur is willing to give McCain the benefit of the doubt in this case, and assumes he does actually know the war in Afghanistan started more than a year before Iraq.
"In all likelihood, this was a simple mental mistake for McCain, among a litany of others recently," Uygur writes. "But it does go toward state of mind. They never saw Afghanistan as a priority."
The Democratic National Committee was less forgiving toward the GOP nominee.
"It is disappointing that John McCain doesn’t recognize that the war in Afghanistan was not only the first major conflict after 9/11, and is in fact a major front in the fight against terrorism," DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney said in an e-mail to reporters a few hours after Uygur's article was posted. "No wonder John McCain doesn’t understand why the American people are looking for new leadership that will bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end so we can direct the resources we need to getting the job done in Afghanistan."
Uygur posted the following video to YouTube Thursday:
Click to viewThis video is from CBS's Evening News, broadcast July 22, 2008.
A transcript of the exchange follows, with the some parts cut from the CBS broadcast hightlighted:
Couric: Senator McCain, Sen. Obama says, while the increased number of U.S. troops contributed to increased security in Iraq, he also credits the Sunni awakening and the Shiite government going after militias. And says that there might have been improved security even without the surge. What's your response to that?
McCain: [Sen. Obama has indicated that by his failure to acknowledge the success of the surge, that he would rather lose a war than lose a campaign. ...] I don't know how you respond to something that is such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarlane (phonetic) was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history. Thanks to General Petraeus, our leadership, and the sacrifice of brave young Americans. I mean, to deny that their sacrifice didn't make possible the success of the surge in Iraq, I think, does a great disservice to young men and women who are serving and have sacrificed.
They were out there. They were protecting these sheiks. We had the Anbar awakening. We now have a government that's effective. We have a legal system that's working, although poorly. And we have progress on all fronts, including an incredible measure of security for the people of Iraq. There will still be attacks. Al Qaeda's not defeated. But the progress has been immense. And to not recognize that, and why it happened, and how it happened, I think is really quite a commentary.
Couric: A commentary on what?
McCain: That Sen. Obama does not understand the challenges we face. And … not understand the need for the surge. And the fact that he did not understand that, and still denies that it has succeeded, I think the American people will make their judgment....
Couric: Sen. Obama also told me, Sen. McCain, that the money spent on those additional troops, on the surge, might have been more effective had it gone to Afghanistan or even to a better energy policy in the United States. What's your response?
McCain: The fact is we had four years of failed policy. We were losing. We were losing the war in Iraq. The consequences of failure and defeat of the United States of America in the first major conflict since 9/11 would have had devastating impacts throughout the region and the world.
Source
Chuck Hagel: Quit Talking About The Surge, Focus On War's Future
OMAHA, Neb. - Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, fresh from an Iraq trip with Democrat Barack Obama, said the presidential candidates should focus on the war's future and stop arguing over the success of last year's troop surge.
Hagel mentioned both candidates, but his comments seemed directed at Republican John McCain. McCain, while Obama traveled the Middle East, attacked Obama for opposing the military escalation last year that increased security in Iraq.
"Quit talking about, 'Did the surge work or not work,' or, 'Did you vote for this or support this,'" Hagel said Thursday on a conference call with reporters.
"Get out of that. We're done with that. How are we going to project forward?" the Nebraska senator said. "What are we going to do for the next four years to protect the interest of America and our allies and restructure a new order in the world. ... That's what America needs to hear from these two candidates. And that's where I am."
Hagel, too, opposed the troop increase strategy, though he acknowledged Thursday it brought about positive changes. "When you flood the zone with superior American military firepower, and you put 30,000 of the world's best troops in a country, there's going to be a result there," Hagel said.
Whether the surge worked, though, can't be measured, Hagel said, arguing the small gains came at a high price. He said President Bush's decision last year to dispatch an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq has cost more than 1,000 American lives and billions of dollars.
Though Hagel is a Republican, his name has been floated as a potential vice presidential running mate for Obama. Like McCain, he is a Vietnam war veteran, but Hagel is a fierce critic of the war in Iraq. He has said he would consider running with Obama on the Democratic ticket but that he doesn't expect to be asked. He is not running for reelection.
Hagel joined Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island in traveling with Obama to the Middle East. Reed said the trip was productive. "It wasn't just a photo op and social chit chat," Reed said in a telephone interview.
Reed said the group pressed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to have the Iraqi government do more.
"Unless the government of Iraq can start delivering - delivering jobs, delivering funds, performing - then the gains that have been made will be quickly erased," Reed said. "I think that is a point that we all stressed, particularly Senator Obama, with the prime minister."
Source
Fox News Poll: Do You Have A Neighbor Who Says Obama "Scares Them"?
Hmmm. It looks like Fox News is asking some rather loaded questions in its latest poll:
Have you heard any of your friends and neighbors say there is something about Barack Obama that scares them?
Yes 49%
No 50%
Have you heard any of your friends and neighbors say there is something about John McCain that scares them?
Yes 36%
No 62%
Some people believe Barack Obama, despite his professed Christianity, is secretly a Muslim. Others say that is just a rumor and Obama really is a Christian as he says, and point out he's attended a Christian church for years. What do you believe -- is Obama a Muslim or a Christian?
Muslim 10%
Christian 57%
John McCain was held captive for five years in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp. Do you think that experience would make McCain a better president or a worse president?
Better 49%
Worse 11%
No Difference (voluntary) 33%
Do you think Barack Obama's trip to Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East is better described as a fact-finding trip or as a campaign event?
Fact-finding 19%
Campaign event 47%
Both (voluntary) 25%
Source
Terry McAuliffe Makes VP Pick: Not Hillary
The former national chairman of the Democratic Party who ran Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign this year told 200 Democratic activists in Fairfax County Tuesday that Virginia Governor Tim Kaine would be his party's best choice as Barack Obama's vice presidential running mate.
Terry McAuliffe brought his articulate, high energy speaking style to the monthly meeting of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee at Oakton High School, to, among other things, "make no mistake" that his party leadership considers Virginia "a battleground state" in the 100 days left to fight it out for the presidency this fall.
"The fact that we've opened 33 offices around the state should remove all doubt" about how important Virginia is perceived to be for winning the election, he said. "We've leased them all through November," he added.
Although Virginia hasn't gone for a Democratic presidential nominee since 1964, and until recently was considered a solid "red," or Republican, state, the last three statewide elections for U.S. Senate and governor have all gone to the Democratic candidate.
Obama will have the benefit of having on the slate with him in Virginia a strong and popular Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, former Governor Mark Warner, with the demonstrated ability to win support among Republican voters.
So far, the campaign of presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, has announced the opening of only one office in the state, in Virginia Beach. McCain will have a tougher time working in sync with the Virginia GOP's nominee for the U.S. Senate, former Governor Jim Gilmore, who represents the party's most conservative wing.
McAuliffe was adamant in his recommendation of Kaine as the Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee Tuesday, although he stressed to the News-Press after his speech, which included an informal half-hour question and answer period, that the ultimate choice will be Obama's very personal one.
However, the fact that he proposed Kaine over his own candidate and long-time friend, Hillary Clinton, suggested that he knows the Clinton option is off the table.
He told the large audience in the school cafeteria that there are only two factors in picking a vice president. The first, he said, is the ability of the choice to govern effectively as president, if need be. The second is personal compatibility with the presidential candidate.
"These are the only two factors that really matter," he said. "Others, like geographical considerations, are much less important."
Kaine was among the first public officials to endorse Obama's campaign a year before the launch of the primary season, and has campaigned with him often.
Rumors are widespread that McCain may announce his vice presidential running mate by the end of this week, ahead of the distraction that the Olympics, which begin Aug. 8, will bring. The Olympics' closing ceremony will be Aug. 24, a day after the start of the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Whatever the timing for the Democratic vice presidential announcement, "it will be designed to produce the biggest bounce" in public interest, McAuliffe said.
In addition to pronouncing Virginia a "battleground state" and recommending Kaine for his party's vice presidential choice, McAuliffe also said that Virginia "deserves" to be considered by his party for one of its early primary dates in 2012.
It was McAuliffe, during his tenure as chair of the Democratic National Committee, who broke up the tradition of allowing Iowa and New Hampshire to always have the first primary elections. "It was designed to better reflect the true demographic of our party in the early primaries," he said, so the primaries for the states of South Carolina, Arizona and New Mexico were moved up.
That opened the door for the problems that developed this primary season, resulting in party sanctions against Michigan and Florida, but that will be fixed, McAuliffe said.
Of course, it could be argued that McAuliffe's pro-Virginia sentiments stem from the fact that he lives here, near to Falls Church, in fact, in the Spring Hill precinct of Fairfax's Dranesville District.
In addition to Democratic elected officials and hopefuls, among those sitting in the audience were the Obama campaign's Northern Virginia regional field coordinator, Luke McGowan, and the Providence/Mason/Falls Church field coordinator, Kyle Lierman.
Source
The Agony of The Pedestrian Affair
Mickey Kaus is very upset that the media not paying attention to the alleged John Edwards affair, and in a piece called the Agony of the MSM, he lists all the people not paying sufficient attention to the matter. Let me break it down for you.
The reason no one is paying attention is not because, as you might think, John Edwards is a media darling and they just love him to bits and pieces. Quite the contrary. I have never cared much for Edwards, and even I recognize that he got the absolute worst media coverage during the primary- he got none at all. They ignored him. He was the invisible man. And if you doubt that no media coverage is worse than bad media coverage, take a gander at the McCain campaign, which has shifted to gaffe-o-matic mode while trying to do ANYTHING to get some media attention while Obama is overseas.
The reason no one is paying attention to the alleged affair and love-child is simple. You guys have made standard affairs boring (I know, I know. You claim to be a Democrat.). No one is claiming Edwards was seen in two wetsuits hanging from the ceiling with a dildo lodged in his rectum. There is no DC madam with a black book involved. No one has transcripts of him instant messaging teen-age congressional pages or crashing their dorms in a drunken stupor. There is no arrest record for soliciting oral sex in an airport bathroom, complete with feisty confrontations with the arresting officer on video tape. There is no religious hypocrisy and gay prostitution and meth-fueled sodomy binge to talk about.
In short, aside from the fact that all there is to the story is an Enquirer report, it is just boring. You all have made standard affairs pedestrian and dull. Even when you use the phrase “love child,” what it boils down to is a guy allegedly sleeping with a woman. Pretty tame stuff, given what the GOP has provided us for the past few years.
Now maybe if he got caught engaging in oral sex with goats. That would probably get some attention.
Source
Biden Wasted No Time In 2008
What a spring Sen. Joe Biden has had:
President Bush signed into law: Biden's (and Sam Brownback's) Second Chance act, which appropriated hundreds of millions of dollars to help criminals transition back to society. Next week, Bush will sign PEPFAR, a global HIV/AIDS bill that Biden played a key role in shepharding through the Congress. He led a CODEL to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey. His legislation reducing the crack/powder cocaine disparity will be considered in the fall. His approach to Pakistan has become the default approach supported by both Republicans and Democrats.
He's delivered three major foreign policy speeches, including one -- at Georgetown's Gaston Hall -- that helped to influence how the Obama campaign frames John McCain's national security judgment. He led early hearings on the global food crisis and the rising crime rate, two issues on which the two presidential candidates are behind the curve; his legislation authorizing helicopters for Darfur passed the approps committee; he's held numerous oversight hearings on Iraq and foreign policy....
The point of this isn't to blow smoke at the Delaware Senator. It's to pause and wonder whether he wouldn't be just as happy being a senior senator under a President Obama as he would be a vice president. His stamp on policy would be larger than it is even now, and he'd have far fewer ceremonial duties.
On the other hand, no top-tier potential Democratic vice presidential candidate can lay claim to have had as productive a spring as Biden.
And yes -- Biden allies -- Obama and his team are very aware of this.
Source