In a profile piece today in the WaPo, Hillary Clinton's key polling strategist claims the New York senator could win the 2008 presidential election by appealing to women, Latinos and low-income voters.
Mark J. Penn, Hillary's most trusted poll reader, has been hawking a presentation informally called the "Penn Power Point" to donors that he says demonstrates how Hillary will win the presidency.
"When you look at this thing nationally -- how is she going to win -- I think it's really important to look at what were the two groups that defected from the Democrats in 2004 to give it to Bush," Penn told the Post. "And those were women and Latino voters. And almost all the change in that election from 2000 was among those two groups, and those are her two strongest groups. And I think that's some of the reason you see her doing so well in places like Ohio and Florida -- because I think those are both states that she could take."
Penn also said that his data confirms that Hillary performs better than other Democrats among low-income voters, "especially members of a family of four making less than $75,000 a year."
Hillary wants everyone to know she is supported by the gay community. Her campaign gave a list of gay professional support to the Washington Blade to prove she's backed by a strong contigent gay-rights activists.
Names, in alphabetical order, include:
• Christopher Barley, New York City general internist
• Mary Breslauer, principal at Communications Solutions, co-host of HRC’s XM radio show “The Agenda”
• Ilene Chaiken, creator and executive producer of television series “The L Word”
• Bruce Cohen, film and television producer
• Tom Duane, New York state senator
• Steve Elmendorf, president of Elmendorf Strategies
• Ethan Geto, partner at Geto & de Milly
• Emily Giske, Democratic National Committee member
• Deborah Glick, New York state Assembly member
• Chad Griffin, political consultant
• Rebecca Haag, executive director of AIDS Action
• Fred Hochberg, dean at Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy
• Roberta Kaplan, attorney at Paul Weiss
• Billy Jean King, sports legend and social activist
• Neel Lattimore, director of strategic communications at Children’s Defense Fund
• Rachel Lavine, New York state committee member
• Danny O’Donnell, New York state Assembly member
• Christine Quinn, speaker of the New York City Council
• Hilary Rosen, founding partner at Berman Rosen Strategies, former head of RIAA
• Peter Rosenstein, president of PDR Associates and Washington-based gay rights activist
• Mirian Saez, Democratic National Committee member
• Jeff Soref, former chair of the Democratic National Committee LGBT caucus
• Jill Stauffer, board of directors at HRC
• Sally Susman, executive vice president for global communications at Estee Lauder Companies
Hillary Clinton once said that she was "adamantly against illegal aliens" in a 2003 interview with WABC Radio, but has now given a high-profile illegal alien advocate a prime place in her presidential campaign.
The Associated Press reported that Raul Yzaguirre, who was president of the National Council of La Raza had signed on as co-chair to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
La Raza is the nation’s largest Hispanic advocacy organization. It has opposed the REAL ID Act, which would have prevented states from issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens and the CLEAR Act, which would grant state and local law enforcement agencies that wish to do so, the authority to enforce federal immigration laws.
The late Rep. Charlie Norwood wrote an excellent article for Human Events in April 2006 that explained the La Raza's close ties with Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, or Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan (MEChA).
"Behind the respectable front of the National Council of La Raza lies the real agenda of the La Raza movement, the agenda that led to those thousands of illegal immigrants in the streets of American cities, waving Mexican flags, brazenly defying our laws, and demanding concessions.
Key among the secondary organizations is the radical racist group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, or Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan (MEChA), one of the most anti-American groups in the country, which has permeated U.S. campuses since the 1960s, and continues its push to carve a racist nation out of the American West."
The AP just reported that Sen. Barack Obama (D.-Ill.) raised a whopping $25 million for his campaign for the Democrat nomination for President in 2008.
Considering that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D.-N.Y.) tranferred $10 million from her Senate reelection campaign to her Presidential campaign fund, this puts Obama and Clinton nearly neck in neck in terms of fundraising.
The Hillary camp reported earlier this week that they had raised $36 million in the first quarter, but $10 million of that came from her Senate campaign fund. This means, in terms of first quarter dollars, she only raised $1 million more than Obama.
Obama did not have relection money to draw from since he was only elected to the Senate in 2004 and will not be up again until 2010.
Hillary Clinton may have a sticky campaign finance issue on her hands. Hollywood businessman Peter Paul is suing her, claiming he is the largest contributor to her Senate campaign, and that the Clintons broke a promise. From CNSNews:
Paul alleges that fraudulent actions by the Clintons and others cost him his multi-million dollar Internet venture. Paul claims to have been the largest contributor to Sen. Clinton's U.S. Senate campaign, spending $1.9 million to hold a 2000 fundraising gala attended by Hollywood celebrities including Whoopi Goldberg, John Travolta and Brad Pitt.
In return, Paul claims, then-President Bill Clinton promised to promote the firm. However, the president allegedly reneged on the commitment after his wife was elected in November of that year and used his influence to discourage others from investing in the firm
In addition to those allegations:
The Federal Elections Committee has ruled that Sen. Clinton’s campaign committee underreported cash it received at the fundraiser – so, if Sen. Clinton were forced to testify, additional violations may surface.
After House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D.-Mich.) scheduled a Thursday hearing on “The Appropriate Use of Presidential Pardoning Power” Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) sent a letter to former President Bill Clinton that asked him to come testify at it.
"Former President Clinton is no stranger to controversial pardons, most notably the pardon of Marc Rich on his last day in office," said Smith in a press release about his letter. "I can think of no better person to address this issue."
In the release, Smith noted that “President Clinton granted pardons or commuted the sentences of nearly 500people, including fugitive financier Marc Rich, whose wife donated $450 thousand to the Clinton Library. Other pardons included a person accused of cocaine trafficking and a former Democratic committee chairman indicted on political corruption charges."
Conyers didn’t find any humor in Smith’s idea to bring Clinton to the Hill. Conyers immediately put out an response statement that said, “It seems some are more interested in accountability for the Clinton administration than for this current administration....Now many Republicans who thought perjury was impeachable, think it’s pardonable for the rich and the powerful.”
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D.-N.Y.) has stayed mum on presidential pardon authority, but she has bashed President Bush for the eight U.S. attorneys he fired. She told the AP that the firings were indicative of a “long record of trying to upset the traditional separation of powers.”
Her husband fired all 93 U.S. attorneys immediately after taking office in 1993. Hillary told the AP in the same interview that doing so is “a traditional prerogative of an incoming President.” She argued that President Bush’s U.S. attorney firings are different because he dismissed them in the middle of his term while they were involved in political cases.
At a fundraiser in the Upper West Side in Manhattan yesterday for his wife Hillary who is seeking the Democrat nomination for President in 2008, women were required to cover tight-fitting outfits with large, white T-shirts.
The fundraiser was a rare sort of one held at a SoulCycle spinning studio. 35 women and 5 men shelled out $2,300 (the maximum an individual can donate) each to Hillary’s presidential campaign to ride on a stationary exercise bike while Bill gave a half-hour speech and took questions.
Charla Krupp, who attended the event said, “People tend to wear sexy spandex outfits with midriffs showing,” Ms. Krupp said. “But in deference to the president, we wore these shirts that said, ‘Exercise Your Vote.”
Former President Bill Clinton said “it’s not fair” his wife Hillary is being so harshly criticized by the left for her 2002 vote to authorize the President to use force in Iraq.
And, he seemed pretty irritated that a young man from Illinois is getting more attention than Hillary from the anti-war crowd.
On a fundraising conference call yesterday Bill said, “I don’t have a problem with anything Barack Obama [has] said on this,” but “to characterize Hillary and Obama’s positions on the war as polar opposites is ludicrous.”
“It’s just not fair to say that people who voted for the resolution wanted war,” Clinton said.
Bill lamented, “This dichotomy that’s been set up to allow him to become the raging hero of the anti-war crowd on the Internet is just factually inaccurate.”
"Being asked for my stand on morality,
I must say I believe in equality:
I agree with your view
And the opposite, too
-- It depends on the date and locality."
After some investigating from Arianna Huffington, the creator of the famous Big Brother video clip was finally revealed, after three long days of breathless anticipation.
His name is Phillip de Vellis, and he works for Blue State Digital, a liberal technology and quasi-consulting group. Well, make that "worked" for Blue State Digital. Poor Phil was fired once he was found out, since "outside political work or commentary on behalf of our clients or otherwise" is verboten.
Blue State Digital is under contract with the Sen. Barack Hussein Obama's presidential campaign, but only for technology reasons such as software development and hosting.
Obviously, Phillip will find another job immediately, if he hasn't found one already. The boy has talent. Hey, maybe Hillary is hiring...
Here's an interesting video being put out by a group supporting Sen. Barack Hussein Obama for president. Obama is claiming his campaign has nothing to do with the video, which is reminiscient of Apple's famous "1984" commercial.
Hillary has been very busy raising money from the gay community, but how does she pay them back? But equivocating over whether homosexuality is immoral.
She was asked what she thought about Gen. Peter Pace’s comments that homosexuality is immoral, and Hillary replied meekly, "Well, I am going to leave that to others to conclude." Spoken like the woman whose husband signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law and who consistently opposes same-sex “marriage.”
"I've heard from a number of my friends and I've certainly clarified with them any misunderstanding that anyone had, because I disagree with General Pace completely. I do not think homosexuality is immoral...[L]et's not be eliminating people (from the military) because of who they are or who they love."
"[Bush] has in a very deliberative way created conditions that are straining our military, underfunding it with respect to what actually gets to troops on the ground and what they get when they get home.”
Here's a link to a video clip of Hillary saying this.
Her comments were made in an interview last week with the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank that is staffed with many former Clinton White House employees.
Hillary is now comparing herself to President John F. Kennedy, saying how he was the first Catholic president, and how she could become the first woman president. Well, if John Edwards doesn’t get there first. She told a group in New Hampshire that
"He was smart, he was dynamic, he was inspiring and he was Catholic. A lot of people back then [1960] said, 'America will never elect a Catholic as president.”
"But those who gathered here almost a half century ago knew better. They believed America was bigger than that and Americans would give Sen. John F. Kennedy a fair shake, and the rest, as they say, is history."
"...So when people tell me 'a woman can never be president,' I say, we'll never know unless we try."
Hillary, you weren't even the next Jackie Kennedy, so just forget about trying to be the next John Kennedy.
For those of you who thought Hillary had the best chance to become America’s “first woman president,” the New York Sun reports that John Edwards could actually win that title.
At least according to Kate Michelman, former leader of NARAL. The abortion-rights advocate is still apparently miffed at Hillary for saying after the 2004 elections that abortion can be “a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women.”
Michelman is now throwing her weight behind Edwards because
“I've gotten to know a lot of political leaders over the years that I've been an advocate for women's rights. I know the difference between those who advocate as a political position and those who understand the reality of women's lives.”
“As a lawyer, as a senator, as a husband, as a father of two daughters, he understands the reality of women's lives. He understands the centrality of women's lives and experience to the health and well-being of society as a whole…He understands that on an extremely personal level.”
Not all feminists are buying Michelman’s line of thinking. The Sun quotes the head of NARAL’s New York chapter, who said “"I would argue that Hillary has a really good sensibility, as well, of what it's like to be a woman,” and some broad from Emily’s List, who noted that
“Hillary Clinton has spent her entire adult life working on behalf of women and children. She has a unique experience as a woman who has faced the obstacles in the way of women. No white man can understand the experience a woman has to go through to move ahead.”
You hear that, honky males? You have no idea how hard it is to be a woman!
For those of you who thought Hillary had the best chance to become America’s “first woman president,” the New York Sun reports that John Edwards could actually win that title.
At least according to Kate Michelman, former leader of NARAL. The abortion-rights advocate is still apparently miffed at Hillary for saying after the 2004 elections that abortion can be “a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women.”
Michelman is now throwing her weight behind Edwards because
“I've gotten to know a lot of political leaders over the years that I've been an advocate for women's rights. I know the difference between those who advocate as a political position and those who understand the reality of women's lives.”
“As a lawyer, as a senator, as a husband, as a father of two daughters, he understands the reality of women's lives. He understands the centrality of women's lives and experience to the health and well-being of society as a whole…He understands that on an extremely personal level.”
Not all feminists are buying Michelman’s line of thinking. The Sun quotes the head of NARAL’s New York chapter, who said “"I would argue that Hillary has a really good sensibility, as well, of what it's like to be a woman,” and some broad from Emily’s List, who noted that
“Hillary Clinton has spent her entire adult life working on behalf of women and children. She has a unique experience as a woman who has faced the obstacles in the way of women. No white man can understand the experience a woman has to go through to move ahead.”
You hear that, honky males? You have no idea how hard it is to be a woman!
Hillary’s old southern accent made an appearance in Alabama this weekend. I have to admit that I cringed several times during her speech, in which she tried to make like a black preacher but fell laughably short.
Her long-dormant drawal reminded me of when she said back in 1992, famously, “Ah’m not…sum little woman, stayndin’ bah mah man!”
Do her Noo Yawk constituents know they elected Blanche DuBois to be their senator?
Her staff kept this campaign stop off her public schedule, but YouTube turned up her remarks to the pro-gay Human Rights Campaign:
Of the Federal Marriage Amendment she said, "This amendment was wedge politics at it's worst. It was mean-spirited, it was against the entire forward movement of American history. It was the first time anyone was proposing we amend the Constitution to deny citizens rights rather than widen the circle of rights and opportunities."
"In the end, we stopped the Federal Marriage Amendment and we sent a strong message that we will not stand idly by when anyone tries to write discrimination into our Constitution."
She assured the pro-gay group, "I want you to know this is exactly the kind of partnership we will have when I am President."
She promised, "We're going to reach out and work with our allies in Congress both to change laws and change hearts. We want to make sure that all Americans in committed relationships have equal benefits from health insurance and life insurance and Social Security and property rights and more."
"These are fundamental rights," she said.
Then, Hillary vowed to promote the most radical component of the gay agenda.
"I have long supported civil unions," she said. "We're going to make sure that nothing stands in the way of loving couples, gay or straight, to adopt children."
Hillary also said as President she would end the military's policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
At the end of her speech, Hillary joked to members of the Human Rights Campaign, or HRC that "We can accomplish these goals because we have the same determination, the same can-do attitude and the same initials."
Ben Smith, of The Politico said that the Human Rights Campaign refused to respond to his calls and emails about the address.
I caught both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's speeches at Selma on CSPAN today and I have to say, Hillary blew Barack out of the water.
Her speech was significantly better written and delivered. And, she did it with class by praising Obama.
She said, "The Voting Rights Act gave more Americans from every corner of our nation the chance to live out their dreams. And it is the gift that keeps on giving. Today it is giving Senator Obama the chance to run for president of the United States. And by its logic and spirit, it is giving the same chance to Governor Bill Richardson, an Hispanic, and yes, it is giving me that chance, too."
Her voice was wretched, but her delivery was spot-on. By comparison, Obama largely read his speech and didn't hit any applause lines. Hillary's audience stood and cheered twice during her address and gave her a standing ovation at the end.
Another wise opportunity Hillary took advantage of that Obama missed was to discuss the victims of Hurricane Katrina. While invoking Martin Luther King, this passage was well received in the black church:
But we've got to stay awake. we've got to stay awake, because we have a march to finish. a march toward one America, that should be all America was meant to be. That too many people before us have given of themselves time and again, to make real. How can we rest while poverty and inequality continue to rise? How can we sleep, while 46 million of our fellow Americans do not have health insurance? How can we be satisfied, when the current economy brings too few jobs and too few wage increases and too much debt? How can we shrug our shoulders and say this is not about me, when too many of our children are ill-prepared in school for college and unable to afford it, if they wish to attend?
How can we say everything is fine when we have an energy policy whose prices are too high, who make us dependent on foreign governments that do not wish us well, and when we face the real threat of climate change, which is tinkering with God's creation?
How do we refuse to march when we have our young men and women in uniform in harm's way, and whether they come back, their government does not take care of them the way they deserve?
And how do we say that everything is fine, Bloody Sunday is for the history books, when over 96,000 of our citizens, the victims of Hurricane Katrina, are still living in trailers and mobile homes, which is a national disgrace to everything we stand for in America?
I know a lot of people are excited about Obama, but this showdown demonstrates what I've been saying all along. It's not just about Hillary, it's about her staff. She has the team that has won two White Houses already. They know how to do it. And whoever Obama has writing his speeches would do well to start taking notes.
MSNBC is confirming that it was the Clinton White House all along that asked Wellesley University in 1993 not to release Hillary's 92-page thesis on her hero, radical socialist Saul Alinsky.
Meanwhile, Hillary's political science professor, Alan Schechter, and Wellesley's then-president, Nan Keohane, are both long time liberals and have contributed to their former student. Shocking!
MSNBC notes helpfully that her paper is available to anyone who visits the archive room at Wellesley.
MSNBC is confirming that it was the Clinton White House all along that asked Wellesley University in 1993 not to release Hillary's 92-page thesis on her hero, radical socialist Saul Alinsky.
Meanwhile, Hillary's political science professor, Alan Schechter, and Wellesley's then-president, Nan Keohane, are both long time liberals and have contributed to their former student. Shocking!
MSNBC notes helpfully that her paper is available to anyone who visits the archive room at Wellesley.
This Sunday is the 42nd anniversary of the 1965 civil rights march in Selma, Alabama. Sen. Barack Hussein Obama will be there, but he won't be alone, as Hillary and Bill have also planned - at the last minute - on attending the commemmoration event. It will be Bill's first major public appearance with Hillary since she officially announced last month.
Obama will be the main speaker in Selma, the Washington Post notes, where he will speak at a unity breakfast and deliver the keynote address at Brown Chapel AME Church, where demonstrators organized for the 1965 march.
But at almost the same exact time, Hillary will be speaking at the First Baptist Chruch, and later in the day the trio will cross the Edmund Petus Bridge, where the marchers where confronted by police. This is the first time that Obama and Hillary have met on the campaign trail.
The former president will also be inducted into the Hall of Fame at the National Voting Rights Museum. No doubt Hillary is pleased to be seen at this event with America's "first black president," with the hopes of swaying more African-American voters to her side for the primary.
But these same black voters should ask, where was she in 2005, on the 40th anniversary of the historic event? She wasn't in Alabama, according to published reports. Apparently she thinks it's only necessary to participate in these types of events during an election year.
