Oh-eight (D): Anti-Obama chain email
Posted: Monday, October 15, 2007 9:07 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Democrats
BIDEN: It's not often that Biden and Brownback hold events where camera space runs out on the media risers, but that's exactly what happened at their
joint Iraq event in Iowa on Friday, according to NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann. This makes us wonder if other so-called second-tier candidates are going to try and do more bipartisan events in order to nab the extra attention.
CLINTON: The
Washington Post looks at how much more comfortable Clinton is getting at showing her feminine side. "In the early days of the 2008 presidential race, the question was often asked: Is the country ready to elect a female president? And Clinton seemed to be bracing to confront the doubters. But as the primary campaign has evolved, giving Clinton a substantial lead in national polls in the race for the Democratic nomination, her public approach to the gender issue has shifted with it. Far from running away from the so-called woman question, she has taken to openly embracing it."
How many times has the word "methodical" and "focused" been used to describe Clinton? We bet a lot. Anyway, the Los Angeles Times’ Barabak notes: "Clinton campaigning is a study in focus and Swiss-watch precision. Her 30 years on the trail is evident, as she polishes off the $2.59 diner special without a drip on her gold pantsuit, then weaves the lunch encounter into the larger narrative of her candidacy.
In the Union Leader, Wes Clark defends Hillary on the Iran vote.
So who is recycling controversial remarks Christie Vilsack made during the 2004 Dem Convention, when she mocked southern and East coast accents? The Boston Herald regurgitates the whole thing. For the record, Vilsack has said nothing to add to this over the last three years.
Just in time for the fall cable news season, a new book about the Clinton marriage. Newsweek's Darman previews "For Love of Politics," Sally Bedell Smith's new book on The Marriage.
EDWARDS: Besides the SEIU-Iowa nod, which was first reported by NBC on Saturday, Edwards could be in line for a whole slew of other state SEIU endorsements, including New Hampshire’s and possibly California’s.
The Des Moines Register: “Edwards campaign officials said they hoped SEIU officials in early nominating states such as Nevada and New Hampshire, who were not expected to be in Iowa City today, would take their cues from their Iowa counterparts.”
According to AP, "Friends of the Earth Action is the political arm of Friends of the Earth, which has more than 100,000 members in the United States. In the last presidential campaign, it joined with the League of Conservation Voters and the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund and spent about $6 million in four battleground states in an attempt to defeat President Bush and support Democratic candidate John Kerry." The group plans to focus its efforts on behalf of Edwards in New Hampshire, through paid advertising and door-to-door canvassing.
Is Edwards calling Clinton a liar? Not quite, but he is questioning her, um, truthiness, according to NBC/NJ's Tricia Miller. Noting the weekend New York Times clip claiming Clinton is balancing a general election campaign with a primary campaign. "Instead of primary mode and general election mode," Edwards said, "how about we do tell the truth mode all the time?"
GORE: Why is it that so many ex-elected officials find a backbone AFTER they leave office. Al Gore's just the latest example. John Edwards and Fred Thompson are also two ex-senators who seem more comfortable in their skin now than they were when in the Senate.
NBC's Chuck Todd has more on this "Janis Joplin" effect on pols: freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.
OBAMA: So who is behind these anonymous emails that claim Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim. Interestingly, this email is apparently making the rounds in South Carolina. A while back, we had heard of some rumored polling (which we could never get confirmed) indicating a large percentage of African-Americans in South Carolina who thought Obama was a Muslim. We have noticed that Obama makes more efforts to show up at black churches in S.C. than in any other state he travels to.
The Politico notes, "It’s hard to directly measure the impact of chain e-mails which circulate beneath the radar. But there are at least two indications that the whispers are being heard. First, “barack obama muslim” is the third most popular Google search for the presidential candidate's name, behind “barack obama” and “barack obama biography,” according to Google Suggest, which tracks the frequency of word searches. Second, a CBS News poll in August found that, in response to an open-ended question about Obama’s faith, 7 percent of Americans identified him as a Muslim -- more than any other response. The right answer, Protestant, was second at 6 percent. (Most didn’t know or wouldn’t say.)"
NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan and Carrie Dann note that Obama continues to ratchet up the rhetoric against Clinton over the weekend. At a candidate forum in Iowa, Obama declared: "I'm not going to win just by being the most calculating politician in this race," he said.
NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan adds that the Illinois chapter of the AFT, endorsed Obama. Of course, this would only have been news had the group NOT endorsed Obama.
Obama acknowledged that he “can’t just tell people what they want to hear,” as he spoke to a crowd of about 200 people about the relationship between faith and environmental consciousness. He admitted that his proposals, while they aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, will cause a “spike in the unit costs of electricity.”
By the way, the trend of raising money overseas continues this week as Michelle Obama makes her way to London to raise money for her husband's campaign.
