NewsTrust - Democratic Nomination - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

joe the plumber

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0700

acbconstr blog - Nov. 02 (Opinion) - The real issue here is what it takes to make 250K. First this is Net not gross that has to be realized. Which according to all public records not even 1.4% of small business owners make. Also I'm not looking at buying I'm a small business owner. I feel the pain of economic problems. We see the slow down. Lewt me speak with "Joe the Plumber". Let me give him and anyone else a lesson in small business.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Hillary Made Obama a Better Candidate

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Lanny J. Davis - Oct. 17 (Opinion) - The anti-Hillary Clinton pundits were sounding the theme a few months ago that by staying in the presidential race through June 3, the former first lady was a divisive force that would irreparably harm Barack Obama's chances of capturing the White House. But now Mrs. Clinton's decision to stay in the race until the last primary has been vindicated. Mr. Obama is a stronger candidate today thanks to Mrs. Clinton's pursuit of the Democratic nomination. And, far from being polarizing, she has helped bring the party together more than at any time in recent memory.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Here's how Obama can win

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - By Baratunde Thurston - Aug. 26 (Editorial) - But with the bar set so high, the only inevitability was that people would try to bring him down, starting with the media for whom the Democratic primary was the most exciting political event in a generation. Obama vs Clinton was an epic battle between generations, races, sexes. And it all came to an end in early June, taking with it ratings and drama that are hard to top. June through August is a newsless tundra across which scores of media outlets must generate content to keep their advertisers happy and their audiences seemingly informed. In this environment, questions dominate the reporting far more than answers. Media outlets, especially cable news, go with what they know: conflict.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Analysis: Biden pick shows lack of confidence

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Associated Press - By Ron Fournier - Aug. 23 (Opinion) - The candidate of change went with the status quo. In picking Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate, Barack Obama sought to shore up his weakness -- inexperience in office and on foreign policy -- rather than underscore his strength as a new-generation candidate defying political conventions. He picked a 35-year veteran of the Senate -- the ultimate insider -- rather than a candidate from outside Washington, such as Govs. Tim Kaine of Virginia or Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas; or from outside his party, such as Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska; or from outside the mostly white male club of vice presidential candidates. Hillary Rodham Clinton didn't even make his short list.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Dissent doesn't belong in a cage

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By Amy Goodman - Aug. 15 (Opinion) - The bulwark against tyranny is dissent. Open opposition, the right to challenge those in power, is a mainstay of any healthy democracy. The Democratic and Republican conventions will test the commitment of the two dominant U.S. political parties to the cherished tradition of dissent. Things are not looking good.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Google and the Anti-Obama Bloggers

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Miguel Helft - Jun. 30 (Opinion) - Did Google use its network of online services to silence critics of Barack Obama? That was the question buzzing on a corner of the blogosphere over the last few days, after several anti-Obama bloggers were unable to update their sites, which are hosted on Google's Blogger service.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

How Obama Did It

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Time - Jun. 05 (Opinion) - "That, I think, was probably one of the biggest surprises of the campaign, just how powerfully our message merged with the social networking and the power of the Internet."

NewsTrust Rating: 4.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Kill Bill: Clinton is targeted for character assassination

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - By Leonard Doyle - Jun. 03 (Comment) - For all the damage-limitation exercises, the article, headlined "The Comeback Id" has once again stoked debate about Bill Clinton's legacy. His hopes of being the first First Gentleman appear to be in tatters, as Hillary's attempts to persuade superdelegates she is winning the popular vote fall on deaf ears. Some say Bill must accept his share of the blame for her failure.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

A thrilling but flawed campaign nears its end

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - Jun. 02 (Opinion) - The democratic process is not something that can, or should, be set in stone. To adjust the rules while a campaign is in progress, however, is to invite trouble. George Bush's own election showed how a combination of poor systems, ruthless ambition, sharp lawyers and a sympathetic court could subvert US democracy. It is not something that bears repetition, even when it is the nomination, rather than the presidency itself, that is at stake.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 7 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Five things to watch in Puerto Rico

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Politico - By Kenneth P. Vogel - Jun. 01 (Opinion) - New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is counting on a big win in today's Democratic presidential primary, one day after a party ruling left her presidential campaign on the ropes. A landslide victory would bolster Clinton's argument to superdelegates that she has received more votes than Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and is better equipped to win important Latino votes in a general election matchup with presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. Puerto Rico hasn't seemed particularly excited by all presidential campaign attention it has received in recent weeks but the island, a semi-autonomous territory of the United States, takes its politics seriously. Local elections draw upwards of 80 percent of its 2.3 million registered voters. But the debates - and even the parties - are largely based on disagreements about whether the island should continue as a commonwealth, become a state or an independent nation.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Rocky Mountain High

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Newsweek - By Howard Fineman - May. 31 (Opinion) - Two mini-dramas will have to be in the script. There will have to be a raising up of Bill Clinton, in which he renounces his latest incarnation--suspender-snapping Southern mossback--and is welcomed back into the fold as the "first black president." The second drama will be Hillary's. ...Will she try to do what Sen. Ted Kennedy famously did to President Jimmy Carter in 1980 in New York--diminish her foe as she leaves the stage? The way to...[deal w. it]...is clear: have Kennedy himself, if he is up to it physically, follow Hillary.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.1 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Q&A: Florida and Michigan Delegates

Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Kate Phillips, Katharine Q. Seelye - May. 30 (Opinion) - On Saturday, the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic National Committee is set to consider proposals about Florida and Michigan. The D.N.C.'s legal team says that by their reading of the rules, the panel has the authority to reinstate 50 percent of the states' delegate strength, either by including half the delegations or by seating the full delegations but giving them only half a vote. (See below for an update from the Clinton campaign, which disagrees with the party's legal minds on the boundaries of the committee's authority and is insisting that tomorrow's panel has the authority to seat the full delegations. And the Clinton camp also plans to contest any allocation of those "uncommitted" votes in Michigan.)

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Pelosi won't allow convention fight

Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

San Francisco Chronicle - By Carla Marinucci - May. 29 (Interview) - Pelosi predicted Wednesday that a presidential nominee will emerge in the week after the final Democratic primaries on June 3, but she said "I will step in" if there is no resolution by late June regarding the seating of delegates from Florida and Michigan, the two states that defied party rules by holding early primaries. "Because we cannot take this fight to the convention," she said. "It must be over before then."

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Now On to 'Florigan'

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Newsweek - By Jonathan Alter - May. 13 (Opinion) - The math is clear: Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee for president unless he's caught on tape taking cash from Tony Rezko or vacationing in Hawaii with Louis Farrakhan. But the only thing dependable about the Clintons is that they never quit.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Obama campaign's 'unsung hero'

Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Politico - By Ben Smith, Avi Zenilman - May. 11 (Comment) - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton had just declared victory in the Nevada caucuses when most campaign reporters heard Jeffrey Berman's voice for the first and only time. Berman, Sen. Barack Obama's director of delegate selection, chimed in during a conference call with the media to make an unexpected case: Despite Clinton's popular vote victory in Nevada and an authoritative Associated Press count giving Clinton the edge in the Nevada delegate count, Obama had actually won the state by the only measure that mattered. "Obama had a majority in the district that had an odd number of delegates, so he won an extra seat," Berman told the puzzled press; the Associated Press delegate expert, on the call, promised to revise his count.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.7 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

American democracy in all its filthy glory

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - By Matthew Norman - May. 09 (Opinion) - From 3 January, when the caucus-goers of Iowa packed into each other's houses to argue the toss with courteous fervour, all the way to Tuesday when the good people of Indiana glanced contemptuously at her "gas tax holiday" bribe and told her where to stick the nozzle, it's been a continual source of both wonderment and gloom.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Why the Obama-Clinton speculation is nuts

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Politico - By John F. Harris, Jonathan Martin - May. 09 (Opinion) - The Clinton veepstakes is an ideal subject for pontificating because so few people have any hard information to know what they are talking about. That makes it easy to bluster on both sides of the question with equal conviction. That is exactly what Politico has done. Below are five reasons the speculation about her running for vice president is nuts. Here's a link to five other reasons it may not be.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Hang on in there, Hillary. It's too soon to quit

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - By Sarah Churchwell - May. 08 (Opinion) - Yes, the general election is different from the primaries. But far from being an especially protracted Democratic primary, this one is right on historical track. June is actually the magic month, in which the Democratic nomination was clinched in 1992 by Bill Clinton; in 1988 by Dukakis (Jesse Jackson didn't withdraw until June); in 1984 by Mondale (who didn't officially gain the nomination until the convention in July); in 1976 by Carter; and in 1972, the first year in which the present primary system operated, by McGovern. The only exception to the June rule was the 1980 election, in which Edward Kennedy fought on against Carter all the way until the convention in August. Only in the last two elections, in other words, has the Democratic nomination been a foregone conclusion this early in the primary process. And neither the results of 2000 or 2004 should send Democrats rushing to foreclose their options.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Time for the Democrats to rally around Mr Obama

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - May. 08 (Editorial) - We say this with some regret. It has been a thrilling ride and, for those of us watching from abroad, a veritable primer in US politics and geography. Mrs Clinton has gone from being the nominee to beat, with a war-chest as inexhaustible as her contacts book, to defiant underdog, and ultimately to doughty pugilist on an equal footing with her younger rival.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The All-White Elephant in the Room

Sun, 04 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Frank Rich - May. 04 (Opinion) - BORED by those endless replays of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright? If so, go directly to YouTube, search for "John Hagee Roman Church Hitler," and be recharged by a fresh jolt of clerical jive. What you'll find is a white televangelist, the Rev. John Hagee, lecturing in front of an enormous diorama. Wielding a pointer, he pokes at the image of a woman with Pamela Anderson-sized breasts, her hand raising a golden chalice. The woman is "the Great Whore," Mr. Hagee explains, and she is drinking "the blood of the Jewish people." That's because the Great Whore represents "the Roman Church," which, in his view, has thirsted for Jewish blood throughout history, from the Crusades to the Holocaust.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Media complicit in making Wright look bad

Sat, 03 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Post Intelligencer - By Kenneth F. Bunting - May. 03 (Opinion) - Barack Obama's forceful denunciation and disavowal of his former pastor doesn't change the fact that it is an irrelevant distraction entirely created by cable television pundits using out-of-context and skewed sound bites.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average - 9 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Clinton, Nixon; Nixon, Clinton

Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - May. 01 (Opinion) - IX days ahead of the North Carolina primary comes a story of real sleaze--not Jeremiah Wright-style buffoonery, but Nixon-style illegality designed to dupe and disenfranchise voters--that should surprise precisely nobody who has been following and covering this campaign. A group called Women's Voices Women's Vote (WVWV), which claims to have been "created to activate unmarried Americans in their government and in our democracy" has been placing robocalls to voters across North Carolina that seem designed to fool them into thinking they have not yet registered to vote. Many of the voters who received those calls are black. Voters in 11 states have complained about similarly deceptive calls and mailings that have been traced back to WVWV this primary season.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average - 10 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Rev. Wright Defends Church, Blasts Media

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Apr. 28 (Opinion) - Our colleague Jeff Zeleny tells us that associates of Mr. Obama said privately that his campaign was furious at Mr. Wright's decision to step forward so publicly, but that they were unable to do anything to control this. They added, however, that the pastor's actions prove that he and Mr. Obama are not that close, otherwise why would Mr. Wright do this now?

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Why does America hate Hillary Clinton so much?

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Independent - By Joan Smith - Apr. 27 (Opinion) - I'm not a natural supporter, but the degree of vilification she has been subjected to reminds me of the pathological misogyny of the notorious witch-finders' manual, Malleus Maleficarum.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

How McCain Lost in Pennsylvania

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Apr. 27 (Opinion) - On the way to the finish line, the prolonged primary race, far from destroying the Democratic candidates, may do more insidious damage to the Republican nominee, lulling his campaign into an unjustified complacency. The Democrats should "take their time -- don't rush," the McCain aide Mark Salter joked last week. Yet his candidate, as the conservative blogger Ross Douthat pointed out, keeps bumping up against a 45 percent ceiling in the polls even now, when the Democrats are ostensibly in ruins.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer