Hillary’s Voice

Obama moves DNC ops to Chicago (by Ben Smith at Politico)
In a major shakeup at the Democratic National Committee — and a departure from tradition — large parts of the committee’s operations are relocating to Chicago to be fully integrated with the Obama campaign. The DNC’s political department, housed in Washington, D.C., will be dramatically rebuilt, with staffers offered a choice of moving to Chicago, joining state operations, or staying in Washington, DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney said. But the power will clearly be shifting to a centralized Chicago hub. The DNC’s key role in coordinating political operations with state parties is expected to largely be taken over and overseen by Obama’s senior staff in Chicago, state party officials said.

Hmmm, this is not a good way to achieve Unity (by riverdaughter at The Confluence)
[C]omplete and utter takeover of the DNC by the Obama campaign… I’m guessing that “streamlined” means “pared to the bone for cost reasons”. “Consolidate” means “have Obama hire the staff because the DNC can’t pay them”. Is it that Obama has highjacked the DNC or is it that the DNC is forced to go this route because the fundraising machine has dried up over the outrageous treatment of Hillary Clinton? And if it is the latter, how long will it take before it cries “Uncle” and ceases to exist as a party apparatus at all?

NBC/WSJ Poll: Post-primary bump for Obama (NBC News)
Obama leads McCain among registered voters, 47 to 41 percent, which is outside the poll’s margin of error. In the previous NBC/Journal survey, released in late April, Obama was ahead by three points, 46-43 percent… But it also shows plenty of challenges for both Obama and McCain, which all add up right now to what may be a close contest this fall… While Obama appears to be struggling with white men and white suburban women in the poll, McCain has what seem to be even bigger challenges. They include President Bush, whose approval rating stands at 28 percent, as well as an electorate that wants change from the president’s policies.

The Charisma Machine (by Noemie Emery, Weekly Standard—yes, it’s conservative, but that doesn’t mean they can’t see Democrats more clearly, sometimes, than Democrats can see themselves)
Mark Halperin over at Time [is] warning that the Charisma Machine is going to roll right over McCain in November, with the media’s hand on the wheel… [But] Obama peaked on February 19, when he won Wisconsin at the end of his 11-state winning streak, [and] the media’s efforts on his behalf have seemed counter-productive at best. In effect, the full flowering of the media’s intense crush on Barack Obama coincided with the resurgence of Hillary Clinton, and may even have fueled it, as overkill tends to get on one’s nerves… When John Kennedy died, Joseph Alsop wrote that Washington was filled with “male widows,” and that he too was one of them. Obama isn’t president (yet), but he has more than his share of male concubines, who are starting to embarrass themselves (and their readers) with a slavish devotion that is only too evident.

Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi criticizes Barack Obama
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) - Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi criticized Barack Obama on Wednesday, accusing the U.S. presidential candidate of not living up to his campaign slogan of “change” because of recent comments on Israel.
And Reuters had this: “Gaddafi warns Obama against ‘inferiority complex’”.  Surely, criticism from this guy can only help Obama.

Foreign nations overwhelmingly prefer Obama, survey finds (McClatchy)
WASHINGTON — Foreigners overwhelmingly expect the next American president to change U.S. foreign policy “for the better,” but have more confidence in Democratic candidate Barack Obama than Republican rival John McCain, according to a multi-nation poll released Thursday.

Dems attack lobbying record of McCain’s VP vetter (The Hill)
Democrats on Thursday pounced on the lobbying background of Arthur B. Culvahouse, the former presidential counsel currently leading a quiet search for Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) running mate, and its similarity to that of Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) top VP vetter who resigned Wednesday. Culvahouse and his firm, O’Melveny & Myers, have lobbied for troubled mortgage firm Fannie Mae, defense giant Lockheed Martin, and Occidental Petroleum, the U.S.’s fourth-largest oil and gas firm… Democratic attorney Jim Johnson, Fannie Mae’s CEO from 1991 to 1998, resigned from Obama’s VP selection team this week after The Wall Street Journal reported he had received unusually generous loans. Johnson is still a paid consultant to Fannie Mae. The lobbying disclosures mean Culvahouse was lobbying for Fannie Mae during at least one year when Johnson was leading it.
Don’t get any of that new kind of politics splattered on you.

GOP chief scrutinizes Obama’s relationship with controversial figures (McClatchy)
WASHINGTON - Despite a vow to focus on issues, the Republican Party plans to use Barack Obama’s relationships with controversial figures to undermine the public’s view of his character, according to the chairman of the Republican National Committee. The party will make an issue out of Obama’s ties to such people as Chicago developer Antoin Rezko, recently conducted on fraud and money-laundering charges, and `60s radical William Ayers, unrepentant about his role in bombings of government buildings to protest the Vietnam War, GOP Chairman Robert M. “Mike” Duncan said. Duncan hedged, however, about how the party would handle Obama’s relationship with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He said the party wouldn’t make an issue out of Wright, then refused to rule out using videos of Wright’s inflammatory sermons in the campaign.

Rezko: Feds pushed for dirt on Obama (Politico)
Tony Rezko accuses federal prosecutors of improperly pressuring him to implicate Obama in a corruption case.

Army Shows Its Colors (by Phillip Carter at Intel Dump, washingtonpost.com)
The Army’s public affairs office publishes a daily roundup of Army-related news… Tuesday’s edition contained an entry under “WHAT’S BEING SAID IN BLOGS” that struck me as unusual — both for its headline and its patent political bias: “Obama: World peace thru surrender (KDIHH)” The link goes to a milblog called “Knee Deep in the Hooah.” The author is a former Army officer whose son is serving in Iraq now… [W]hy is the Army’s official in-house public affairs shop linking to this kind of stuff?… This appears like yet another example of the unusually cozy relationship which has developed over the last generation or so between the military and the right wing of American politics — an unhealthy development, to say the least.

Fox: Producer ‘exercised poor judgment’ with ‘Obama’s baby mama’ chyron. (Think Progress)
[Wednesday], Salon’s Alex Koppleman highlighted a Fox News chyron referring to Sen. Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, as “Obama’s Baby Mama,” a term that the Urban Dictionary defines as “the mother of your child(ren), whom you did not marry and with whom you are not currently involved.” After Koppleman pointed out the chyron, ABC’s Jake Tapper remarked that the term’s use was “just straight-up racist.” Here’s the chyron:

Now, Fox Senior Vice President of Programming Bill Shine has put out a statement saying that “a producer on the program exercised poor judgment in using this chyron during the segment.”

Website peddles racially-charged ‘Sock Obama’ toy. (Think Progress)
Last month, ThinkProgress noted that a bar owner in Georgia was selling t-shirts comparing Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) to Curious George; last week, the Black Congressional Caucus Foundation received an t-shirt in the mail featuring a similar image. Continuing this racially-charged theme, a stuffed monkey toy called “The Sock Obama” has now been made available online:

Satirical Takes Can Color Perceptions of the Presidential Contenders
Michael Cavna: Our sharpest satirists are ramping up. As they chip-chip-chip away at presumptive nominees Obama and John McCain to get laughs, they’re also sculpting handy-dandy political caricatures that begin to take hold in the public chatosphere. Pointed campaign humor has more prominent platforms in this historic presidential election than ever before.

Keith Olbermann Backlash Fueled By Declaration Of Katie Couric As “Worst Person In The World” (by Danny Shea Danny Shea at the Huffington Post)
Keith Olbermann’s declaration of Katie Couric as “Worst Person in the World” on Wednesday night’s “Countdown” has been met by many in the media blogosphere with sharp criticism… The response to Olbermann’s Couric declaration is just the latest in a growing backlash against the “Countdown” host… The current wave of the backlash against Olbermann was sparked by Time television critic James Poniewozik, who wrote last month (after Olbermann’s “Special Comment” on Hillary Clinton’s RFK remarks) that Olbermann “sounds like just another of the cable gasbags he used to be a corrective to.”
See below the results of the poll attached to this article.  If you’re not convinced that sexism is not just alive and well, but thriving, in America, wake the hell up.

As of 5:10 AM ET 6/13/08

Keith Olbermann Strikes Again (by Taylor Marsh )
“LEE COWAN, NBC NEWS: ‘You know, I think from the reporter’s point of view, it’s almost hard to remain objective, because it’s infectious energy. I think it sort of goes against your core to say that as a reporter, but…’” What Olbermann doesn’t get is that journalism is about being unbiased and undeterred by atmospherics in order to report. Cowan admits being somewhat seduced himself, to his credit, except that means he failed to do his job, even as good as he is. Olbermann can’t handle that truth. His anger last night at Couric once again revealed his own biases (and ego), as well as the inability to look at something very important in our media, of which Olbermann is a prime culprit.

Critics and News Executives Split Over Sexism in Clinton Coverage
Angered by what they consider sexist news coverage of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, many women and erstwhile Clinton supporters are proposing boycotts of the cable networks. But many in the news media — with a few exceptions, including Katie Couric — see little need for reconsidering their coverage or changing their approach going forward.
Nothing could POSSIBLY be wrong.

More field notes: primary aftermath (by gob at Corrente)
After the health care meeting, I came upon a group of three middle-aged women. One was holding some Obama literature and saying, “Actually, I’m having a lot of trouble getting over this.” I stopped and listened and joined in. All were Hillarians, still quite sore from the primary fight. I said something about the “orgy of hate.” One of them said yes, and it wasn’t just from the Obama people. She described how the Jim Lehrer show came to the local public TV station to do a piece on the primary. And (1) everyone in the discussion was male, and (2) every time the Hillary guy (a local county official) started to talk, the others interrupted him and talked over him and generally kept him from making his point. Six weeks later, she’s still furious.

Not all Democrats falling for Obama
WASHINGTON - Nothing personal, Sen. Obama, but our re-election comes first. Barack Obama, for all his attention and primary successes, does not go over so well in a fair number of Democratic lawmakers’ home districts. So it seems there is little chance that some will endorse him for president.

NO DEAL: Hillary Clinton’s Not for Sale-Help Retire Her Debt (video)

Contribute, if you can.

New Group For Hillary Clinton Democrats
I am the moderator of the former group HillaryClinton@groups.democrats.org on the Democratic Party web site. Many of you probably know the Clinton group was apparently censored by the DNC (since no explanation of any tech glitches was ever given) and members have had to stay in touch by private email. The archives and member list of the DNC group have disappeared from the DNC web site. I have set up a new group on Yahoo Groups so Hillary Clinton supporters from the DNC site and other web sites can continue to stay in touch. Clinton bashing will NOT be allowed in the group.

Hannity Admits He’s A ‘Surrogate’ For McCain (Think Progress)
In a revealing slip of the tongue last night on his Fox News television show, Sean Hannity acknowledged that he’s a “surrogate” for John McCain. While interviewing former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Hannity complained to him that the McCain campaign has been reluctant to engage in a smear campaign against Barack Obama. Giuliani explained that the McCain campaign is going to let “a lot of the attacking” be done by surrogates. “People like me,” Hannity said.
Click through to watch the video.

Lots more really good stuff at MakeThemAccountable.com.

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com