Tag: Barack Obama (page 51)

Later today.

Teamster President James P. Hoffa plans to meet with Obama in Austin, Texas, before an announcement is made. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the planned public announcement.

The Teamsters has 1.4 million members. More importantly for Obama,

They also are a potent source of campaign cash and get-out-the-vote workers for Democrats.

Lots of folks in the comments last night criticized Hillary Clinton because she didn't congratulate Barack Obama on his win in Wisconsin in her speech. Huffington Post reports she called him after the speech to congratulate him. His press secretary confirms this.

And, while her speech contained some criticism Obama, it was nothing compared to that of her introductory speaker, Machinists Union President Tom Buffenbarger. Via Ken Vogel at Politico:

He also compared Obama with "Janus, the two-faced god" of Roman mythology. He called him "silver tongued" and a "thespian" and "the man in love with the microphone."

"He’s not just a trained thespian, he’s a terrific shadow boxer. You know the type. Outside the ring, he pretends he can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee," he said. "But Barack Obama is no Muhammad Ali. He took a walk every time there was a tough vote in the Illinois state Senate. He took a walk more than 130 times. That’s what a shadow boxer does. All the right moves, all the right combinations, all the right footwork, but he never steps into the ring. He walks away from the fight.”

Vogel reports the union crowd loved it.

Based on exit polls, at 9:22 pm, CNN projects Obama wins Wisconsin.

• CNN Wisconsin results
• MSNBC Wisconsin results
• MSNBC Wisconsin Results by County
• Wisconsin County Map

Hillary is speaking now from Youngstown. She's talking about the loan she made to her campaign. "If we pull together we can do this." She's asking them to go to her website where she has her issues posted. She's not mentioning the page also starts with a contribution request. But, she says, "With your help" we can win.

She talks about why she's better equipped to be commander in chief and that she's stood up to say that women's rights are human rights. She's ready to end the war in Iraq and the era of cowboy diplomacy. One of us will provide health care for every American. It's a right not a privilege and I won't rest until every American is covered. Theme of the speech, "One of Us has a plan."

CNN puts Obama on next to her, he's going to speak at the same time. They are going to cut off Hillary to go to Obama.

Analysis and updates below:

Update: MSNBC, 9:01pm: Too early to call but Obama has lead in exit polls.

Bump and Update: Polls about to close. CNN is going to announce what they know and then talk about Huckabee. What does that tell you? If the media makes you crazy tonight, here's a new thread to vent about it.

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Polls close in 45 minutes in Wisconsin. MSNBC results here, CNN results here. Predictions? Thoughts? More below.

For what it's worth, via My DD: The Gallup Daily Tracking poll has a Hillary rebound. It's now Hillary 45%, Obama 46% with Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters.

Clinton was seven percentage points behind Obama in the Feb. 15-17 average. In Monday night's interviewing, Clinton's percentage of the vote of national voters was higher than Obama's, but there has been fluidity in the nightly tracking numbers over the past several days as Democrats nationally process the intense, often heated, nature of the campaign. Monday's news coverage of the Democratic campaign was replete with a focus on the Clinton campaign's charges that Obama had plagiarized material from Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and other negative attacks on Obama by the Clinton campaign. It is unclear which, if any, of these factors could be responsible for changes in the candidates' standing.

Via Politico:
Here are the You Tube videos:

Deval Patrick 6/3/06

"I am not asking anybody to take a chance on me. I'm asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations."

Barack Obama 11/2/07

I'm not just asking you to take a chance on me. I'm also asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations."

Yesterday I didn't think this was such a big deal. Today I do. How can we believe in the genuineness of his message of hope, optimism and change when he cribbed it from another politician?

Via Instapundit, there's Krugman and Kevin Drum discussing when the "Obamamania" bubble will burst. I agree with both of them.

Krugman first:

One thing I worry about a lot if Obama is the Dem nominee — and he’s surely the frontrunner now — is that there will be a backlash against Obamamania. Actually, it’s already starting — probably too late to have much effect on the nomination fight, but in plenty of time to affect the general election.

I hope I’m just a cynical baby boomer who has never really trusted any politician since 1968. But I just have a very bad feeling about the way things are going.

Now Kevin: [More...]

Barack Obama expanded a bit today in Ohio on his meeting with John Edwards to seek his endorsement this weekend. He doesn't sound very confident he has it.

The courtship of John Edwards has been entirely inconclusive, Sen. Barack Obama said this afternoon...Edwards is not likely to endorse Obama or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton soon, the Illinois senator concluded after visiting with Edwards and his wife Elizabeth.

....he suggested that the value of Edwards's backing would have its limits.

After saying he would "love to his support, he adds:

"But right now, what I think is most important is for me to make sure that I am getting out and talking to voters."

Calling all tea-leaf readers. Was he turned down, is Edwards undecided or just not ready to announce his decision?

CNN Politics.com is reporting that a new poll suggests the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination between Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois is a statistical dead heat in Texas. Really?

More below the fold.

Agree or disagree, Barack Obama's recycling of words taken from campaign speeches of Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick is a big story today. Here's just one compilation from Mememorandum.

Our original post has more than 200 comments, which means it's time for that thread to close. Since readers have more to say, and the cable news shows are about to start, here's a new one.

Is the media being too harsh on Obama? Not harsh enough? Is his run as media darling about to hit a snag? Or is it all a tempest in a teapot?

A line from a Bob Dylan song keeps running through my head -- I'll change the gender to fit the occasion: "He never stumbles cause he's got no place to fall."

Does Obama have enough of a space carved out to rebound from misses like this?

Update: Comments over 200, now closed.

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are scheduled to speak in Texas tomorrow, the day Wisconsin voters go to the polls. They each had to cancel events Sunday in Wisconsin due to weather. Hillary did local campaigning at a diner and grocery store while Obama flew to North Carolina to seek John Edwards' endorsement.

Hillary rescheduled her canceled Wausau event for today, and addressed the labor-oriented crowd on issues.

Surrounded by several hundred enthusiastic union members, Hillary Clinton hit strongly populist themes in her second campaign appearance today in Wisconsin.

At the Wausau Labor Temple, the Democratic presidential candidate emphasized economic themes, including what she wanted to do as president to keep jobs in America, revive manufacturing jobs, hold down interest rates on student loans and stem home foreclosures.

She also spoke to a crowd of 500 at St. Norbert College in De Pere. Obama, on the defensive much of today for using Mass. Gov. Duval Patrick's speeches in his own without crediting the usage, will speak in Beloit tonight.

Hillary and Chelsea will be at a rally in Madison tonight. Hillary also offered new policy today. She announced a food safety recall plan, in the wake of this weekend's huge beef recall.

Who will win Wisconsin and by how much? Take our poll below:

Update: New thread on this is here. Comments on this one are over 200 and closing. Thanks for your thoughts.

I'm just getting online today and I see there's a big to-do in the media over Barack Obama's use of Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick's words in his speeches.

The Clinton campaign says it's plagiarism. The Obama campaign says Obama should have credited Patrick but the two are friends and share ideas. Patrick says he doesn't mind Obama's use of his words.

Obama's oratory has been an issue in this campaign. There's been a plethora of media articles about Obama's speeches being inspirational while Hillary's are not.

I've often reminded readers that speeches are written by speechwriters and I'm not impressed that Obama has the ability, with a teleprompter, to inspirationally deliver a speech written by someone else. Not long ago, the New York Times ran a profile of his chief speechwriter. [More...]