Articles of Interest 2-27-08

252 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

Senator Hillary Clinton on Barack Obama…at least some Democrats are hearing his message and getting it?!?

Mark Brewer and I completed our weekly debate on the Big Show yesterday and then participated in a joint forum in Lansing before the Michigan Economic Development Association.  Free market vs. government planning…wow, there is a BIG difference.

Thursday, I will be “guest hosting” the Big Show, as Michael Patrick Shiels is gone on his honeymoon!  My invited guests will include Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, AG Mike Cox, Dick DeVos and others.

Please tune in for the show and more information throughout the week as to where you can hear the show live.  We’ll also post it on our web page for your review as we do with all the shows we do.

Monday night, the Oakland County Republican Forum hosted a free event commemorating Black History Month entitled “Black History – Setting the Record Straight”. Over 60 people were there and heard a great forum and discussion mainly correcting the myths perpetrated by Democrats and many on the left concerning the re-writing of history in America. Pastor Levon Yuille of "Joshua's Trail" was the featured speaker. Thanks to all who helped put this together and attended the forum!

Michigan Republicans have updated our web page with our own 2.0 version …easier to navigate, more information…and still under construction…so please be patient. 

BECOME A PRECINCT DELEGATE!!  Fill out and return the Affidavit of Identity to your county clerk or send it to the state party…we’ll handle the filings. Link to form

Many folks have asked…what does a precinct delegate do?  Here is some basic information about how we try and organize our precinct delegates to be part of our “political machine” to help elect Republicans.

We have had so many areas where more than one person wanted to serve…I am going to encourage our county & district parties to “open” up the participation and attempt to “maximize” the number of potential precinct delegates…not minimize them.  If you are willing to run, work and be part of the team…we want you on board!  Our party needs to grow!!!

THE REST OF THE STORY:

No further commentary today.

Saul Anuzis

STATE STORIES

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080226/NEWS06/80226028

Granholm says

Michigan

is a renewable energy 'backwater'

BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF

February 26, 2008

LANSING

-- Gov. Jennifer Granholm said today

Michigan

is "a backwater" in promoting renwable energy such as wind power, and called on lawmakers to quickly approve legislation requiring the state to generate 10% of its electric power from renewable sources by 2015. Granholm said she is encouraged that leaders in the House and Senate can reach agreement on the mandate - called a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) - by next month

http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2008/02/granholm_urges_action_on_renew.html

Granholm urges action on renewable energy bills

The Associated Press

February 26, 2008

LANSING -- Michigan is losing jobs every day that it fails to pass a law requiring that some of the state's electricity come from wind and renewable sources, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said today "We need to get this done and get it done now," the Democratic governor told reporters. "The urgency of this cannot be overstated." Granholm wants the Legislature to pass bills in March requiring that 10 percent of electricity be from renewable resources by 2016. She said at least two dozen other states have such a standard and are attracting the jobs

Michigan

needs. "This ought to be done in March. This ought to be through both (the House and Senate) in March. If it's not, something is wrong," she said.

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080226/POLITICS01/802260358/1022/POLITICS

Ohio

primary shows what

Mich.

missed

Clinton

, Obama blitz state, with trade, factory jobs taking center stage.

February 26, 2008

By Gordon Trowbridge

TOLEDO

-- Call it the primary that could have been.  For the last week, Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have campaigned across

Ohio

, talking about questionable trade treaties, the loss of manufacturing jobs and the home foreclosure crisis. They'll spend much of the next week doing the same, beginning with tonight's nationally televised debate in Cleveland and leading up to the potentially decisive March 4 Ohio primary.  It's just the sort of campaign that could have happened six weeks ago, in the days before

Michigan

's Jan. 15 primary, if the candidates had shown up. Instead, the race in

Ohio

-- whose economic troubles, by most measures, are second only to

Michigan

's -- is an echo of what might have been in

Michigan

.

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080226/OPINION01/802260316/1008

Make it easier for citizens to follow money

Lansing

lobbyists increase their spending to influence lawmakers

February 26, 2008

The

Detroit

News Editorial

Lansing

lobbyists are once again on a spending spree. Lobbyists spent more than $32 million last year, up by 6 percent from 2006, reports the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, an independent watchdog group.  Food and beverage expenditures increased by 38 percent from the prior year, the group reported. Not surprisingly, six of the top 10 spenders were multi-client lobbying firms that have many bills they watch and seek to influence on behalf of their clients.  The major budget battle over changes to teacher health insurance may account for the fact that the state's largest teacher union, the Michigan Education Association, was the biggest single-interest spender.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080227/OPINION01/802270330/1007/OPINION

Protect

Great Lakes

with tough federal legislation

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

The

Detroit

News

Tomorrow is Great Lakes Day in

Washington

, and

Michigan

's Lt. Gov. John Cherry, head of the multistate Great Lakes Commission, is in the capital this week to present the commission's priorities to Congress. One of the top priorities is federal legislation to control the importation of invasive species into the lakes. The legislation is needed. Over the years, the lakes have been damaged by the introduction of species such as the round goby, a small fish that breeds quickly and crowds out native fish; a new kind of virus that causes lesions on the skin of native fish; and, most famously, the zebra mussel that clogs valves and pipes and costs huge amounts of money to clear.

http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2008/02/house_committees_weigh_plan_ai.html

House committees weigh plan aimed at boosting resident hiring

by Tim Martin

Tuesday February 26, 2008

LANSING

,

Mich.

(AP) -- Companies that agree to hire all

Michigan

workers would get first consideration for government contracts and certain tax breaks under legislation considered Tuesday by a panel of state lawmakers. House Democrats could make some changes to their "Hire Michigan First" package before putting it up for it vote. The legislation was questioned by some business groups and Republicans who said parts of the plan might discourage out-of-state companies from moving to

Michigan

.

http://michiganmessenger.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=14547F997196B55CB16A662F9EC4470A?diaryId=907

Medical marijuana clears

Michigan

ballot hurdle

by: Kevin Shopshire

February 25, 2008

A citizen initiative that will allow people with serious illnesses to legally use marijuana for medicinal purposes appears to the first of many possible initiatives to make it on the November ballot. The Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care (MCCC) turned in 474,752 signatures -- 304,101 were required --  for the measure to go on the ballot, and the deadline for any group or citizen to challenge the validity of signatures has passed. All that is left is for the secretary of state's office  to do a statistical study of a sample of the signatures before it's sent to the Michigan Legislature. "They are in the process of verifying the signatures, but they are not under any hard deadline to complete it," said Dianne Byrum, the spokesperson for the MCCC. "We have a very high degree of certainty that they will be verified."

http://macombdaily.com/stories/022608/loc_local03.shtml

Supreme Court hears challenge to immunity for drug companies

Michigan

stands alone in forbidding lawsuits vs. industry.

By

Chad

Selweski

February 26, 2008

A

Michigan

law that shields drug companies from lawsuits came under scrutiny in Lansing and Washington on Monday.In the nation's capital, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that challenges the state's legal immunity law. Attorneys for a group of 27

Michigan

plaintiffs asserted their right to sue pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. for sickness and death caused by a drug that was pulled off the market.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080226/BIZ/802260419

January foreclosures drop in

Michigan

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

By Nathan Hurst

More American homes faced foreclosure in January compared to a year ago, but in a surprise piece of good news for

Michigan

's struggling real estate market, the state posted a 7.03 percent decrease in the number of foreclosure filings in January compared to the same month in 2007. That's according to data released today by RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based firm that tracks foreclosure data. The nation's number of foreclosure filings jumped 57 percent in January compared to a year ago, led by

Nevada

,

California

and

Florida

. Nationally, about 233,000 homes received at least one notice from lenders last month related to overdue payments, compared with 148,425 a year earlier, according to RealtyTrac.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080226/NEWS06/802260323/1008/news06

Congressional earmark welcomed by the people it helps locally

BY TODD SPANGLER

February 26, 2008

WASHINGTON

-- Earmarks a bad thing? Don't tell that to Grace McClelland. As executive director of Highland Park's Ruth Ellis Center, providing services to homeless and at-risk gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teens and young adults, McClelland has no problem with Congress doling out money for favored programs -- as long as they're worthy.She'd say her street outreach effort qualifies. Last year, it had contact with nearly 15,000 people, providing counseling, clothing, blankets and food. This year, it's getting $366,600 in congressional funding. "These kids have had guns pulled on them," she said. "They've been thrown out on the street."

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080226/METRO/802260360/1408/LOCAL

Kilpatrick's memo set policy: Electronic messages are public

But directive doesn't apply to mayor's SkyTel texting,

Detroit

officials assert

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

David Josar and Paul Egan / The

Detroit

News

DETROIT

-- Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick early in his first term signed off on a directive to his staff that "all electronic communications" sent on city equipment should be considered public.  Kilpatrick's attorneys have argued that the text messages between the mayor and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty should be kept private.  The messages, sent on city-issued pagers, are at the center of a secret agreement in the $8.5 million whistle-blower lawsuit settlements and a Michigan Supreme Court case over disclosure of related legal documents.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080226/NEWS01/302260001

Memo kept council in dark on text messages

City lawyers urged settlement but were mum on specifics

BY M.L. ELRICK, DAVID ASHENFELTER and JOE SWICKARD

February 26, 2008

Detroit

's Law Department violated its legal duties when it urged the City Council to settle police whistle-blower lawsuits for $8.4 million without disclosing the existence of damaging text messages, legal experts said Tuesday. The Free Press consulted the experts after obtaining a confidential Law Department memo to the City Council that recommended settlement of two whistle-blower suits. Dated Oct. 18, the memo does not mention that, one day earlier, city lawyers learned of text messages between Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and then-chief of staff Christine Beatty -- messages that showed they lied in trial testimony.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080226/METRO/802260433/1409/METRO

$25,000 payout stands for two cops in Kilpatrick slander suit

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Christine MacDonald / The

Detroit

News

DETROIT

-- A Detroit City Council member failed today in her bid to reconsider last week's decision to pay a $25,000 settlement, recommended by mediators, to end a defamation lawsuit against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Councilwoman JoAnn Watson wanted the council to reconsider its vote on the three-year-old lawsuit brought by two

Detroit

police officers after they pulled over Kilpatrick's then-chief of staff, Christine Beatty. The council approved the payout unanimously last Tuesday. A city lawyer told council members that they couldn't rescind their settlement decision because a Wayne County Circuit Court judge approved the city's acceptance of the mediation amount Monday.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080226/METRO/802260349/1409/METRO

Detroit

audit lag puts $26M in limbo

State may halt aid after withholding same amount in '07

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Christine MacDonald / The

Detroit

News

DETROIT -- City officials say they are only a day or two from submitting a nearly 14-month overdue 2005-06 audit to the state, but it likely won't stop state treasury officials from withholding revenue sharing -- potentially another $26 million, in addition to $26 million withheld in December. The state said Monday it will continue to sit on the city's revenue sharing -- including an estimated $26 million payment due Friday -- until

Detroit

files the late 2005-06 and 2006-07 audits. "That is the expectation," said Terry Stanton, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Treasury. "The intention would be to withhold if (the audits) don't come in."

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080227/METRO/802270379/1408/LOCAL

Lawmaker faults mayor on audits

Cushingberry calls failure to meet deadline 'unacceptable,' points to possible loss of state aid.

February 27, 2008

Christine MacDonald / The

Detroit

News

DETROIT

-- A high-ranking Detroit Democrat in the Michigan Legislature, Rep. George Cushingberry Jr., took Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to task Tuesday for being almost 14 months late on a mandatory city audit that has caused the state to withhold $26 million from the city's December revenue-sharing payments. State officials said this week that the treasury department plans to freeze another potential $26 million if

Detroit

doesn't file the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 audits by Friday. "It's unacceptable," Cushingberry, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said of the missed deadline. "How do I look asking my colleagues to help the city of

Detroit

when I don't know the status of the books?

http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/02/city_of_flint_sues_flint_city.html

City of

Flint

sues Flint City Clerk Inez Brown over alleged profanity; Brown says lawsuit is frivolous

by Joe Lawlor

Tuesday February 26, 2008

FLINT

,

Michigan

-- Flint City Clerk Inez Brown won't discuss whether she used profanity when talking to a

Flint

city employee. But Brown said a lawsuit filed by the city about her conduct toward a Human Resources Department employee is frivolous.

A hearing in Genesee Circuit Court is scheduled for Monday. Brown said she merely was protecting her employees, who were given layoff notices last week. Brown said she went to the HR department to have a spirited discussion after she was caught off guard by the layoffs. "This is a smear on me and my staff," Brown said.

NATIONAL STORIES

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/26/AR2008022603715.html

Obama,

Clinton

Debate Tactics

Health Care Also A Focus in

Ohio

By Anne E. Kornblut

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

CLEVELAND, Feb. 26 -- Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama traded accusations over campaign tactics and engaged in a detailed dissection of their rival health-care plans in the opening moments of a critical debate here Tuesday night, their last meeting before key primary contests in Ohio and Texas next week.

Clinton

used the opening moments of the debate at

Cleveland

State

University

to delve into health care, repeating her assertion that Obama's plan would leave 15 million people uncovered. She interrupted Obama and the debate moderators repeatedly to press her points and complained briefly that she had been repeatedly subjected to the toughest questioning in this and previous debates.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120399015444792445.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

Hard of Hearing

By KIT BOND, PETE HOEKSTRA and LAMAR SMITH

February 26, 2008

Are Americans as safe today as they were before Congress allowed the Protect America Act to expire on Feb. 16? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats say we are. They go so far as to say that the Protect America Act -- put in place last year to overcome obstacles in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that make it harder to intercept terrorist communications -- was not even necessary. In the Washington Post yesterday, Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Patrick Leahy, and Reps. Silvestre Reyes and John Conyers, wrote that our intelligence agencies can collect all the intelligence they need under FISA.

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12800

Que Sarah, Sarah

By Thomas Cheplick

2/26/2008

As John McCain inches closer to the 1,191 delegates he needs to secure the Republican nomination, attention has turned to the vice presidential sweepstakes. Who should McCain pick as his running mate? The answer will be especially important if the aging four-term senator's general election foe is a youthful freshman agitating for change.

Sarah Palin, the beautiful conservative Republican governor of

Alaska

, would be an ideal choice to help McCain slay this unholy ObamaOprah beast which is set to rake in nearly $50 million a month in campaign donations alone, and has intense auxiliary support coming from the unions, George Soros's billions-infused Democracy Alliance organization, and other rich Democratic networks.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/mccain-repudiates-hussein-obama-remarks/

McCain Repudiates ‘Hussein Obama’ Remarks

February 26, 2008

By Michael Luo

CINCINNATI, Ohio—A conservative radio talk show host who helped introduce Senator John McCain before a rally here Tuesday used Senator Barack Obama’s middle name, Hussein, three times, while disparaging him, prompting Mr. McCain to apologize and repudiate the comments afterward. Bill Cunningham, who hosts “The Big Show” with Bill Cunningham, a local program here that is also syndicated nationally, was part of a line of people lauding Mr. McCain and revving up the crowd before his appearance here before several hundred people at a theater here.He lambasted the national media, drawing cheers from the audience, for being soft in their coverage of Mr. Obama compared to the Republican candidates, declaring they should “peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama.”

http://thehill.com/david-keene/sympathy-wont-suffice-2008-02-25.html

Sympathy won’t suffice 

By David Keene 

02/25/08

Since The New York Times printed unsubstantiated rumors hinting that GOP presidential candidate John McCain may have had some sort of “relationship” with a blond lobbyist, pundits have been suggesting that this attack solved McCain’s problems on the right.

The theory seems to be that conservatives will rally to McCain simply because they don’t like the “liberal mainstream media” as personified by the Times and that, therefore, he will henceforth be able to count on enthusiastic conservative support regardless of past differences on issues. Indeed, his campaign advisers have been arguing that as the “enemy of my enemy,” McCain must be accepted as a friend.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/26/AR2008022603328.html

Loans Could Paint McCain Into Corner

By Matthew Mosk

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Sen. John McCain's campaign and a Bethesda bank strongly defended $4 million in loans yesterday, as Democrats questioned their legality and said that the way they were secured requires the Arizona Republican to abide by federal spending restrictions. Trevor Potter, a former Federal Election Commission chairman who is McCain's lawyer, wrote in a letter to the nation's top election official yesterday that the loans were proper and that they should not prevent McCain from withdrawing from the presidential public financing system

http://www.mlive.com/elections/index.ssf/2008/02/mccain_disavows_comments_about.html

McCain disavows comments about Obama

by Liz Sidoti

Tuesday February 26, 2008

CINCINNATI

-- Republican John McCain quickly denounced the comments of a radio talk show host who while warming up a campaign crowd referred repeatedly to Barack Hussein Obama and called the Democratic presidential candidate a "hack, Chicago-style" politician. Hussein is Obama's middle name, but talk show host Bill Cunningham used it three times as he addressed the crowd before the likely Republican nominee's appearance.

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12803

The McCaining of McCain

By Philip Klein

Published 2/26/2008

It is highly ironic that the father of campaign finance reform would emerge as the presumptive Republican nominee only to find himself embroiled in a controversy over whether he violated the kind of strict regulations he long championed. But that is exactly where John McCain finds himself. The details of the controversy may be enough to make election lawyers swoon and most normal people nod off, but they are worth wading through because they provide yet another reminder of why the over-regulated campaign finance system is absurd and needs to be scrapped.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NWVmNjk3MTQ3ZGE2ZDFhMmU3NGEzYWU3MzViNTRmNDU=

Huckabee for Senate — for Real

From taxes to spending, he is decidedly more pro-growth than Mark Pryor.

February 25, 2008

By Phil Kerpen

In contrast to the drama unfolding in the Democratic presidential race, the Republican contest has been reduced to one mild amusement: What is Mike Huckabee doing? He has already established himself as a brilliant natural campaigner with a strong base of support within the party. He will be a GOP force in years to come, and just may make another run for the White House. But for 2008 he has been mathematically eliminated, his quip about miracles notwithstanding. So why continue? If he really wants to serve his country and his party, while consolidating support for the long-term and advancing his policy ideas, Mike Huckabee should step out of the presidential contest immediately and put his energy into a run for the United States Senate.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTRhYTlhYTAxNWJjMjZiNTZjNzNiMDQzZjFmOTAxNWE=

What the Public Editor Didn’t Say

“We’re not really a newspaper,” for starters.

February 26, 2008

By Denis Boyles

Wednesday night to Monday morning is just a lost weekend to a drunk. To Bill Keller, the executive editor of the New York Times, it was something more: Enough time to stain further the paper’s already tarnished reputation — and more than enough time to realize that no reasonable explanation could be produced that would explain away the paper’s decision to run its front-page, 3,000-word hit on John McCain. For four days, everybody (not just the

Media

Research

Center

, we’re talking the Los Angeles Times and Slate, too) has pummeled Keller and his reporters. By now, it’s clear that it was a story that, according to the Washington Post’s media watcher, Howard Kurtz, is seen by a “rough consensus” of journalists as “fatally flawed.”

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTU0N2FhOTQ1OTc0ZGVjMDRiNjhhNzYyNDRmZGNlYmY

Bad Times

The rise, and occasional fall, of media hysteria.

By Thomas Sowell

February 26, 2008

The front page of the New York Times has increasingly become the home of editorials disguised as “news” stories. Too often it has become the home of hoaxes. Going back some years, it was the Tawana Brawley hoax that she had been gang-raped by a bunch of white men. Just a couple of years ago, it was the Duke University “rape” hoax that they fell for.In between there were the various hoaxes of New York Times reporter Jayson Blair, who was kept on and promoted until too many people found out what he had been doing and the paper had to let him go.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080226/EDITORIAL/523579250/1001

Times change

THE

WASHINGTON

TIMES EDITORIAL

February 26, 2008

The New York Times' recent hit-and-run on John McCain is a moment of reckoning for the "newspaper of record." Certainly the fact that the previously reasonable Executive Editor Bill Keller spent the weekend lashing out at the McCain camp for "trying to change the subject to us ... [attempting] to use the New York Times as an opportunity to rally the base," suggests that the Times still has not realized that the rest of the world now regards its pronouncements as just as fallible as the rest of the news media's. Indeed, its own public editor finds it fallible in this case. As Clark Hoyt wrote over the weekend: "[I]f you cannot provide readers with some independent evidence, I think it is wrong to report the suppositions or concerns of anonymous aides about whether the boss is getting into the wrong bed."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/us/politics/27watch.html?hp

Debate No. 20 Shared Stage With a Satire

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

February 27, 2008

Everybody wanted to know which Hillary Rodham Clinton would show up to the

Cleveland

debate on Tuesday night. It turned out to be the Amy Poehler version.

Mrs. Clinton wanted the world to understand that the press is tougher on her than on Barack Obama. And she made her case by citing a sketch on last week’s “Saturday Night Live” that showed mock debate moderators grilling her, but fawning over Mr. Obama. “Well, can I just point out in the last several debates I seem to get the first question,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I don’t mind, you know, I’ll be happy to field them. But I do find it curious.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080227/POLITICS01/802270419

Clinton

, Obama call for NAFTA changes

Trade moves to the forefront during

Ohio

debate

February 27, 2008

Gordon Trowbridge /

Detroit

News

Washington

Bureau

CLEVELAND

-- Both Democratic presidential candidates said Tuesday they would threaten to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement unless

Mexico

and

Canada

agree to renegotiate parts of the treaty, a high-stakes pledge aimed at worried

Ohio

factory workers. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama made the promises during the final televised debate before crucial March 4 primaries in

Ohio

and

Texas

. They were likely to be well-received by organized labor and manufacturing workers in Ohio -- as well as in Michigan -- where many workers believe trade deals such as NAFTA have caused the loss of thousands of factory jobs.

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/02/vantage_point.php

Vantage Point

26 Feb 2008

By Marc Ambinder

On substance:

Clinton

. On style: Obama.You cannot, said Chesterton, love a thing without wanting to fight for it. If

Clinton

was the underdog tonight, she kept the upper dog on the defensive for most of the night. Near the end, for example, when

Clinton

interrupted and badgered him into denouncing the Nation of Islam leader even more fulsomely. Toward the end, Obama made three fairly significant hedges, the first of which being about the Russian President to be, Dimitry Medvevev. Although Clinton had trouble pronouncing his name -- Medvevev, it was clear that she knew it, and that she was at least cursorily familiar with the details of the election and the challenge it poses for the U.S. As NBC News’s hounds noted, Obama appeared to defer to her. If you were watching closely, you might have wondered whether Obama had received a briefing recently on

Russia

, rather than a recitation of the case against George W. Bush’s relationship with Putin.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080226/NATION/800450145/1001

Sen. Dodd endorses former rival Obama

By Christina Bellantoni

February 26, 2008

CLEVELAND

,

Ohio

— Sen. Chris Dodd this morning became the first 2008 Democratic presidential candidate to back a former rival, announcing here he now supports Sen. Barack Obama. Mr. Dodd had criticized Mr. Obama as inexperienced during his own bid, which ended after a lousy showing in

Iowa

, but assured voters he is now "completely convinced" his one-time opponent should win the party nomination.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/02/how_to_beat_obama_maybe.html

How to Beat Obama (Maybe)

February 27, 2008

By Tony Blankley

Republicans owe Hillary our gratitude. She has road-tested several versions of attacks on Obama that don't work. Obviously, and first, don't come out against change and hope -- the perennial themes of successful election campaigns. In 1984, even my old boss Ronald Reagan campaigned for re-election in response to the claim that

America

needed to change, on the words: "We ARE the change," as well as on the hopeful theme of "morning in

America

."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/us/politics/27ohio.html?hp

Ohioans Hear Populist Pleas by Democrats

By ANDREW JACOBS

Published: February 27, 2008

YOUNGSTOWN

,

Ohio

— For as long as anyone here can remember, presidential hopefuls have made this scrappy, blue-collar stronghold an obligatory pit stop on the Democratic stump. Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy breezed through when the steel plants still turned the night sky orange; decades later, after the smelters had gone cold, Bill Clinton and John Kerry came by promising jobs to those left idle by the mill closings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/business/27leonhardt.html?hp

The Politics of Trade in

Ohio

By DAVID LEONHARDT

Published: February 27, 2008

Watching Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton compete with each other to say the nastiest possible thing about the Nafta trade deal has made me think about the politics of abortion.

In campaign after campaign for more than 30 years now, Republicans have been denouncing Roe v. Wade. Yet even though they have held the White House for most of that time — and made 12 of the last 14 Supreme Court appointments — abortion remains legal. This straddling has served Republicans well. They have been able to win over voters who care about abortion above all else without alienating swing voters, most of whom, polls show, think it should be legal at least some of the time. Talking tough and governing gently helped the party build a majority.

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB120399018818292447.html

Clinton

, Obama and a Difference That Matters

By GERALD F. SEIB

February 26, 2008

Sen. Hillary Clinton is trying -- hard -- to draw distinctions between herself and Sen. Barack Obama. Sometimes, the strain shows, but yesterday, she hit upon a difference that matters: how the

U.S.

should deal with its enemies in the post-Bush world. The divide between the two Democratic presidential hopefuls isn't huge on this point, but it's hugely important. The difference, which reflects both candidates' tactical thinking and general mind-sets, is over how and when a president should talk directly with

America

's enemies.

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0225fs.html

Yes, We Can’t

From Ralph Waldo Emerson to Deval Patrick, the politics of hope have been a bust.

25 February 2008

By Fred Siegel

Aging baby boomers see in Barack Obama’s down-the-line liberal voting record the promise of a left-wing revival. The college students and twentysomethings of the Millennial Generation see in him a way of pushing the quarrelsome, narcissistic baby boomers off the stage. Someone is bound to be disappointed by this extraordinary performance artist. But what both the boomers and the Millennials share is a desire to be part of what Ralph Waldo Emerson, writing in the 1840s, called “the politics of hope.” Emerson wrote during a time of numerous experiments in utopian living. Obama—whose candidacy rests upon a standard utopian dichotomy between the earthly evils of poverty, injustice, war, and partisanship, and the promise of the world to come if we allow him to rescue us—appeals to the same Elysian strain in American and Western political life, largely in remission since 1980, when the 1960s truly ended.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/24/AR2008022401670_pf.html

Obama's Missing Ideas

By Sebastian Mallaby

Monday, February 25, 2008

"Understand that what's lacking right now is not good ideas," Barack Obama declared in Thursday's debate. "The problem we have is that

Washington

has become a place where good ideas go to die." The audience applauded heartily, and Obama's lines boomed out of my radio at breakfast the next morning. But the truth is that, on some of the big issues facing the next president, good ideas are actually quite scarce. Just take a look at climate change.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3433485.ece?token=null&offset=0

Mansion 'mistake' piles the pressure on Barack Obama

Barack Obama now admits his involvement in this land deal was a mistake

James Bone in

New York

and Dominic Kennedy in

London

February 26, 2008

A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses. The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of

Britain

’s wealthiest men, helped Mr Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in

Chicago

. A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in

France

, registered the loan to Mr Obama's bagman Antoin "Tony" Rezko on May 23 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/02/obamas_appeal_depends_on_your.html

Obama's Appeal Depends on Your Definition of Change

February 25, 2008

By Stuart Rothenberg

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) continues to promise change and stress his ability to unite Americans. It's a feel-good campaign built on soaring rhetoric and good intentions.

Pardon me if all of the fawning from the national media, and the endorsements from Caroline Kennedy and Garrison Keillor, leave me less than convinced that he can bridge the deep divide that separates Americans. Withdrawing

U.S.

troops from

Iraq

won't bring Americans together. Nor will raising taxes on the affluent or enhancing the power of organized labor to recruit more members. Even a stem-cell research bill won't bring Americans together, though a clear majority surely supports it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/us/politics/26union.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1204085650-ifPXc/tDUvvubxtj47dwXQ

Union

Spends Heavily for Obama in Primaries

February 26, 2008

By LESLIE WAYNE

The powerful Service Employees International Union — whose local chapters helped John Edwards in the

Iowa

caucus — is now pouring cash and manpower into helping Senator Barack Obama in the

Texas

and

Ohio

primaries. The union reported in federal filings that it had spent $1.4 million in the two states on Mr. Obama’s behalf, an effort that immediately came under sharp attack from the campaign of his rival, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. The

Clinton

campaign accused Mr. Obama of hypocrisy, saying he ha