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What the British Newspapers Say Today
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
New Yorker's Obama and Michelle Cartoon: Its Offensive
Read here Readers' Comments in Los Angeles Times"...Tasteless, offensive and plain stupid. It is feeding a stereotype that is completely off base..." The New Yorker magazine has received some backlash for this week's cover, showing Barack Obama dressed as a Muslim in the presidential Oval Office.In the cartoon Obama is fist-bumping his Afro-wearing wife Michelle, who is outfitted with camouflage and an AK-47 slung over her back.The controversial cover, obviously meant to satirize false stereotypes of the presidential hopeful, has been accused of being too over-the-top.Readers called the cover racist and feared Americans would misinterpret the joke as being a legitimate representation of the senator.
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Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Why Hillary Won't be the Vice President Nominee
Read hereObama sent a strong signal that he was not considering Clinton as his running mate: He announced that Patti Solis Doyle, who was ousted as Clinton's campaign manager in February, would be chief of staff to the future vice presidential candidate.The announcement outraged Clinton supporters, who said it proved that Obama was not taking Clinton seriously.Solis Doyle, who worked for Clinton most of her career, is barely on speaking terms with her former boss."It's a slap in the face," Susie Tompkins Buell, a prominent Clinton donor, said Monday. "Why would they put somebody that was so clearly ineffective in such a position?"She said it was a "calculated decision" by the Obama team to "send a message that [Clinton] is not being considered for the ticket."Solis Doyle is the most prominent person allied with the Clinton campaign to join the Obama team; so far, no one who stayed with Clinton until the end has made a similar leap.Since clinching the Democratic nomination two weeks ago, Obama has sought to win over Clinton donors and is now facing a challenge by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for her female supporters.Clinton insiders said picking a fired Clinton staff member would not help ease the transition.Solis Doyle is blamed by some close Clinton loyalists -- and reportedly the candidate herself -- for not keeping the campaign in order heading into Iowa.Officially, Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee praised Solis Doyle. "Patti will be an asset and good addition to the Obama campaign," Elleithee said. "After nearly two decades in political life, she brings with her the ability to tap an extensive network that will be a huge asset to Sen. Obama. As Sen. Clinton has said, we're all going to do our part to help elect Sen. Obama as the next president of the United States."
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Why Obama Will Win Comfortably in November 2008
Read hereIN early December 2007, when Hillary Clinton was 20-plus points ahead of the Democratic field in national polls, she was a basic weak candidate, a beatable candidate, and polls indicated that Barack Obama would be a stronger match against Republicans. She had the highest "unfavourable" rating of anyone who had ever run for the presidency, and she was the only Democratic candidate who could unite and energise the Republican base, as she was running 10 to 15 points behind in generic Democrat vs. Republican presidential polls. But Barack Obama is a different story. The November presidential election is not going to be close. Barack Obama is going to beat John McCain by 8 to 10 points in the national popular vote and win 300 to 350 electoral votes. Obama is going to wipe out McCain. There are many reasons why.Political environment The Republican Party is led -- and branded -- by an extraordinarily unpopular president, whose policies McCain has staunchly defended and supported (95 per cent voting congruence in 2007). In the recent CBS News and NYTimes poll, President Bush is at 28 per cent approval, 65 per cent disapproval; in the Hart/Newhouse poll, he is at 27 per cent approval, 66 per cent disapproval. While some presidents have fallen to low levels in the past, what is remarkable about President Bush is how long-term and persistent voter disapproval of him has been, and the depth of voter sentiment. A May 12 Washington Post/ABC poll showed only 15 per cent of voters "strongly approve" -- while 52 per cent "strongly disapprove.Voters think, correctly, that the country is on the wrong track. In the Hart/Newhouse poll, 15 per cent of voters said the country was headed in the "right direction," while an astounding 73 per cent said "wrong direction." Remember, these polls include all voters, not just Democrats.On issues, Republicans are on the short end of everything except the military and national security. Among voters, in the NYTimesCBS poll, when asked which party is better, on health care 63 per cent say Democrats while only 19 per cent say Republicans; the economy, 56 per cent say Democrats, 28 per cent say Republicans; sharing your moral values, 50 per cent say Democrats, 34 per cent say Republicans; and, dealing with Iraq, 50 per cent say Democrats, 34 per cent say Republicans. The Democratic party has a 52 per cent favourable and 41 per cent unfavourable rating; the Republican party has a 33 per cent favourable and 58 per cent unfavourable rating. A whopping 63 per cent say the United States needs to withdraw from Iraq within 12 months; McCain wants to stay, roughly, forever -- and attack Iran. The Washington Post/ABC poll asked: "Which party do you trust to do a better job coping with the main problems the nation faces over the next few years?" Democrats were chosen over Republicans, 53 per cent to 32 per cent. The US economy is sinking, gas prices are skyrocketing; the real estate market has collapsed and people are losing their homes; and the Iraq Recession shows no signs of subsiding.John McCain has been able to stay close to parity in polls matching him with Obama, but that is the product of the thumping Obama has taken from the Clinton campaign. Once that internal scrap is behind him and he can go head-to-head against McCain, his polling is going to soar.Even in fund-raising, a traditional Republican strength, the Republicans are at a disadvantage. At last reported count, Obama had $51 million in cash; McCain had $11 million. In the combined cash of the national party committees, Republicans had $55.5 million; Democrats $87.1 million. The net-roots have raised unprecedented amounts of money for Democrats, especially Obama; labour unions have gone deeper into their pockets and are raising more money for Democrats than in prior elections; and, even business PACs have given more money to Democrats! Business blows with the wind, and it knows which way the wind is blowing.Simply out, it is the worst possible time for any Republican to be running for president. And this is not simply an opinion: it is thought that has many partisans in the Republican party and among traditional Republican supporters. Representative Tom Davis, from Virginia, in an internal memo to Republicans, recently wrote: "The political atmosphere facing Republicans this November is the worst since Watergate and is far more toxic than the fall of 2006. The Republican brand is in the trash can. [I]f we were dog food, they would take us off the shelf.The candidatesJohn McCain is, by all accounts, an honourable and decent man. He has earned enormous respect for the fact that he declined the opportunity to be released from a North Vietnamese prison because his father had been a Navy admiral and chose instead to stay with his comrades for 5½ years.For a substantial period of time John McCain's political career, he was a Republican maverick on various issues, including the environment, immigration, campaign reform, taxes and the budget. These are not inconsequential disagreements with the Republican party, and he has been almost singular in being willing to disagree with the Republican establishment. But that is the previous incarnation of McCain, not the version seen for the last four years or the version who has to run between now and November.In addition, it has been suggested that much of McCain's problems can be correlated with post-traumatic stress disorder, which is consistent with his 5½ years of great stress in prison. This would account for his violent temper, his memory lapses, and his frequent mental disconnects. What US is going to see in the general election from John McCain is likely a ton of mistakes. The thing the press likes about him, his candour and shoot-from-the-hip style, is going to take a heavy toll on him when the full weight of media attention is trained on him. He never has been a good speaker with a prepared text. The media has always loved the quick, gritty, candid McCain, but that version is gone; he now is a damaged, slower-thinking McCain, but his habits will remain the same. He will still try to be the quick wit, the maverick; it just isn't going to work. And while McCain is still capable of firing off some zingers that hit, he will be unable to sustain a narrative -- or fool the American voters -- for the next five months. This is not just about being 71; it is about being an old 71. It might be sad to watch. There is too much at stake.Obama is the perfect candidate for Democrats and a nightmare for McCain. Obama, who by every metric is a brilliant strategist, thinker and speaker, is going to run circles around McCain. McCain, who is not a very good speaker even on his best day, will appear slow, perflexed and confused; he will make mistakes. Obama will be charismatic, smart, thoughtful, high-minded, alert and substantive. It will be no contest. And adding to Obama's natural advantages, McCain has just enough integrity to try to match up with Obama on issues. In the debate on substance, Obama's overwhelming intellectual superiority and mental alertness will become obvious. There will be the believers who have jumped aboard the Obama campaign and will continue to multiply, but there also is going to be another type of vote that is going to swing heavily to Obama: the default vote. Voters are going to default to Obama because it will become obvious that McCain simply is not up to the task of being president.This is going to be the first not-close presidential election since 1988.
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Debunking Right-Wing Smears: What Michelle Obama Really Said
Read here article by Stanley CrouchRepublican commentators summoned up pretenses of shock, disgust and outrage at Michelle Obama's having said in Milwaukee that she had never in her adult life felt proud of her country until the day that her husband won a major victory. The snippet was repeated endlessly, but that is NOT exactly what she said.Quoting the context in full is quite important. I say that because part of what makes this country's right-wing commentators so pernicious is their willingness to bend journalism into what is tantamount to bogus credit cards boasting no fees. The distance from the truth is of no concern to the right-wingers. What they engage in is strange because their tactics are now so easily and so quickly disproved. The Internet has seen to that.This is what Michelle Obama actually said:"What we've learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback and, let me tell you something. For the first time in my adult lifetime I'm proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic, common issues and it's made me proud.And I feel privileged to be a part of even witnessing this, traveling around states all over this country and being reminded that there is more that unites us than divides us, that the struggles of a farmer in Iowa are no different than what's happening on the South Side of Chicago; that people are feeling the same pain and wanting the same things for their families."Yet these commentators feel at liberty to compose myths transformed into mud by cutting words from statements, offering not even good samples of a whole speech.This propaganda version of reality is supposed to dupe the public. It exists for no other reason.Related article:Read here article by Andrew MalcolmThe rumors about Barack Obama's birthplace, that he was really born in his father's native Kenya, so he can't become a U.S. president.And, anyway, the Obama campaign has provided a copy of the Illinois senator's birth certificate, reproduced here, showing he was born in Hawaii on Aug. 4, 1961, at 7:24 p.m., which means he was late for dinner, just like a politician. Click on the photo to enlarge for reading. Now, about the citizenship of all those people planting these rumors.
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Thursday, June 12, 2008
Gaddafi warns Obama against 'inferiority complex'
From ReutersLibyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Wednesday U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would have an "inferiority complex" because he is black and if elected he might "behave worse than whites.""We fear that Obama will feel that, because he is black with an inferiority complex, this will make him behave worse than the whites," Gaddafi told a rally at a former U.S. military base on the outskirts of the Libyan capital Tripoli."This will be a tragedy," Gaddafi said. "We tell him to be proud of himself as a black and feel that all Africa is behind him because if he sticks to this inferiority complex he will have a worse foreign policy than the whites had in the past."He was speaking before thousands of cheering supporters at a ceremony to celebrate the 38th anniversary of the departure of U.S. troops from Libya.Gaddafi said Obama should adopt a policy of supporting poor and weak peoples such as the Palestinians and be a friend of what he called free Arab peoples rather than U.S. "agents" in the Arab world who, he said, were hated by their own people."We still hope he will be proud of Africa and change America and free America of its past policy, namely with the Arabs," said Gaddafi.Gaddafi saw a dark motive behind a recent speech by Obama in support of Israel. "Obama offered $300 billion in aid to Israel and more military support. He avoided talking about Israel's nuclear weapons," he said."We suspect he may fear being killed by Israeli agents and meet the same fate as (assassinated former U.S. President John Fitzgerald) Kennedy when he promised to look into Israel's nuclear program," Gaddafi said.
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Sunday, June 08, 2008
Hillary Clinton Bows Out: A Bit Late, But Still a Very Gracious Speech
Clinton's Last HurrahbyAnne E. KornblutRead hereExcerptsSen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the most successful female presidential candidate in U.S. history, officially left the race on Saturday with a forceful promise to help elect Sen. Barack Obama -- and a powerful declaration that, even in defeat, a gender barrier had been crossed.Four days after Obama secured the delegates to win the Democratic nomination, Clinton gave him her unqualified endorsement, finally putting to rest questions about whether she would help unite the party for the general election. In generous and at times soaring terms, Clinton described her cause as united with Obama's, saying that only electing him would achieve the goals of universal health care, a strong economy and the end of the war in Iraq."We may have started on separate journeys, but today our paths have merged," Clinton said. She discouraged rehashing the long and divisive Democratic primary campaign, instead asking her supporters -- some of whom, still resentful, booed when she mentioned her former rival during the speech -- to "take our energy, our passion, our strength and to do all we can to help elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States.""When you hear people saying, or think to yourself, 'if only' or 'what if,' I say -- please don't go there," Clinton said. "Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward."She continued: "Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been. We have to work together for what still can be. And that is why I will work my heart out to make sure that Sen. Obama is our next president, and I hope and pray that all of you will join me in that effort."It was a final, emotional end for Clinton's campaign after a year-and-a-half long effort that once seemed unstoppable. A former first lady and one of the most famous women in the world, Clinton, 60, won more than 17 million votes and dozens of primary contests. But it was not enough.But Clinton expressed no ambivalence about ending her bid and turning her attention to the fall campaign, although she did not mention Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee, by name.Clinton described both Obama's success and her own as the result of earlier battles that continue today. She noted that, even as she spoke, the 50th female astronaut was headed into outer space on a mission."If we can blast 50 women into space, we will someday launch a woman into the White House," said Clinton, who throughout the campaign often mentioned her own thwarted desire to be an astronaut at a time when women were not allowed to apply."And although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it," she said.Clinton said that her own journey would make it easier for other women in the future. "You can be so proud that from now on it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories, unremarkable to have woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the president of the United States," she said. "And that is truly remarkable, my friends."She continued: "To those who are disappointed that we couldn't go all the way ... it would break my heart if, in falling short of my goal, I in any way discouraged any of you from pursuing yours. Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in."On Friday, in one of the first visible steps toward party unity, Chelsea Clinton flew to Texas to appear at the Democratic state convention to thank her mother's supporters -- the first family member to publicly encourage backing Obama. "My mother wants it to be very clear that we are going to unite our party," she told the convention. There has been some speculation that Obama might reach out to the younger daughter as a potential bridge between the two camps.After Saturday's speech, which was broadcast live around the world, Obama issued a statement welcoming her support and thanking her."Obviously, I am thrilled and honored to have Senator Clinton's support. But more than that, I honor her today for the valiant and historic campaign she has run," Obama said."She shattered barriers on behalf of my daughters and women everywhere, who now know that there are no limits to their dreams," he said. "And she inspired millions with her strength, courage and unyielding commitment to the cause of working Americans. Our party and our country are stronger because of the work she has done throughout her life, and I'm a better candidate for having had the privilege of competing with her in this campaign. No one knows better than Senator Clinton how desperately America and the American people need change, and I know she will continue to be in the forefront of that battle this fall and for years to come,"Other Democratic leaders issued statements of praise -- and relief. "My heart is with her and her remarkable family today," Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a former Clinton administration official and friend to both the Clintons and Obamas, said in a statement. "Although she fell short in the delegate race, her campaign was successful in the larger sense. She took issues that dominate the dinner table and put them on. center stage. Because of Hillary we are closer to the day when every family has a family doctor; every working person has a good job, and every girl and boy can dare to dream."House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised Clinton for running a "courageous and groundbreaking campaign."If Clinton had sought a sense of closure, the event seemed to offer it. Young staff members, now jobless, hugged each other and passed out business cards. More recognizable Clinton stalwarts -- from Terry McAuliffe to Rep. Anthony Weiner and Sidney Blumenthal -- wandered the floor. So many reporters and news crews were on hand that aides said it was the largest event of the election season, dwarfing even her announcement speech and first trip to Iowa in January of 2007.Ellen Malcolm of EMILY's List, which ardently backed Clinton, said she has been surprised in her conversations how many Clinton loyalists had not yet focused on the choice in the general election. She said women are the key to victory in the fall and Obama will have to work to get them, but added, "Once the spotlight is on the choice between Senator Obama and Senator McCain, the picture will become clearer."
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Saturday, June 07, 2008
Obama Should NOT Go to Baghdad
Barack Obama should kindly DECLINE McCain's offer to visit Baghdad.Its McCain's political entrapment.Here are the reasons:byPETER BEINART(Peter Beinart is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations)Read here on TimeIn 1978, with America's ally the Shah of Iran under siege, President Jimmy Carter asked a former diplomat named George Ball to study the situation and recommend a course of action.Ball's chief qualification was that he, more than any other high-level U.S. official, had been right about Vietnam--from early on, he had warned it would be a quagmire.Ball accepted Carter's offer but REFUSED to visit Iran.In the 1960s he had watched one colleague after another set off on fact-finding missions to Vietnam, and each returned convinced that America could win the war."I had learned from our Vietnam experience," he explained, "how dangerous it can be when travel is substituted for thought."Barack Obama should keep Ball in mind as he mulls John McCain's suggestion of a joint visit to Iraq. Ball understood something important: that when you take a guided tour, your tour guide decides what you see. In Iraq today, as in Vietnam back then, the tour guides are America's officers and diplomats on the ground.And in Iraq, as in Vietnam, they have an incentive to show good news--which isn't always the same as the truth.To begin with, there's security.Since the first priority of McCain and Obama's hosts would be to ensure that the candidates leave Iraq alive, they would by necessity take them to places the U.S. and Iraq have made safe and avoid places they have not.General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are unlikely to introduce Obama and McCain to Iraqis who want to kill them, and thus their meetings would tilt heavily toward those Iraqis who want the U.S. to stay and away from those who are trying to force America to leave.As the New York Times has noted, congressional visitors to Iraq almost never have unscripted meetings with average Iraqis whose political views aren't already known.Also, Petraeus and Crocker report to the President, a guy with strong feelings about Iraq. They and their staffs don't want to sound like partisan flacks, but it's far easier for them to reinforce the Administration's view than to contradict it, especially when the cameras roll.By making them the spokesmen for its Iraq policy, the Bush Administration has encouraged Americans to believe Petraeus and Crocker are independent analysts who just happen to agree with their Commander in Chief.But Petraeus and Crocker would never purposely craft an itinerary that might cast doubt on the Administration's policies and embarrass their boss--or the man who shares his views, McCain.It's for exactly these reasons that some of the members of Congress who know the military best have been most wary of visiting Iraq.When Patrick Murphy, who served with the 82nd Airborne in Baghdad, returned to the country as a Congressman in 2007, he said he found the trip "somewhat scripted" and insisted on breaking off and seeing his former comrades so they "would give the straight story."Senator Jim Webb, a former Marine and Secretary of the Navy, called congressional Iraq visits a "dog and pony" show.This is not to say the security improvements in Iraq are illusory.It's just that the war's realities are too elusive to grasp on a brief trip led by people with a vested interest in what you see.In Vietnam, the wisest U.S. officials sought out journalists like David Halberstam and Bernard Fall who had spent years traveling the country, and former diplomats and military officers who had the freedom to say what they really believed.And even that kind of granular, uninhibited knowledge isn't much help without a larger view of the world. McCain thinks winning in Iraq is the single most important foreign policy challenge facing the next President.As a result, he's willing to spend billions more dollars, impose a far greater strain on the military and divert U.S. attention from other problems to incrementally improve our chances of success.Obama thinks Afghanistan and Pakistan are more central to the war on terrorism and that our resources in those countries would bring a higher rate of return. Given that fundamental difference, a joint trip to Iraq--and only Iraq--concedes McCain's key assumption.Perhaps Obama should counter by proposing that they visit southern Afghanistan, where America's war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda has been crippled for years by the diversion of troops and attention to Iraq.If anyone knows that clarity often comes with distance, it's Obama, who spent 2002 and 2003 in Chicago, far from the secret briefings that persuaded many Democrats to back the war.Today he should kindly decline McCain's offer and keep his distance once again.
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