Articles of Interest 3-10-08
240 Days until Election Day
MORNING UPDATE:
Rumor has it the Democrats are close to cutting a deal on a “re-do” for Michigan and Florida. Some sort of caucus by mail is the leading option being contemplated?
While we hear results matter -- what we get is denial and false promises.
We need to create a greater sense of urgency, within our state government, not only to change, but to lead change. In this world, staying even is falling behind.
Lou Gestner, the former CEO of IBM, captured the essence of the issue when he stated, "No institution will go through fundamental change unless it believes it is in deep trouble and needs to do something different to survive."
Someone should tell our elected leaders-- "Houston -- we have got a problem!"
I sent the following link to all of our Republican members of the State Legislature.
If you didn’t read former Michigan Superintendent Tom Watkins’s op-ed on reforming government in the Detroit News, you should. You can read it on my blog:
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2008/03/reform-state-do.html
THE REST OF THE STORY:
No further commentary today.
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
Prosecutor says decision on charges close in Detroit mayor case
3/9/2008, 1:16 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — The prosecutor whose office is investigating whether Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief of staff lied under oath during a whistle-blower trial says a decision on charges is close. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy told WXYZ-TV in an interview broadcast Sunday that a decision still is expected by mid-March about whether to charge Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty with perjury. Worthy declined to discuss details of the investigation.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/METRO/803100389
State of the city
As a beleaguered mayor prepares his annual report, life in Detroit remains a struggle for many
David Josar / The Detroit News
Monday, March 10, 2008
On the eve of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's 2008 State of the City address -- a speech to be delivered under the cloud of scandal -- Detroit is 139 square miles of light and shadow. Since 2005, Detroit has led the state in new housing starts: 119 in 2007. But it is wracked by mortgage foreclosures: From January 2006 through August 2007, nearly one in 10 households -- 33,477 -- were in some stage of foreclosure. The renovation of downtown's Book Cadillac building, a project that languished for years, trudges toward completion this fall. Yet others, such as the $60 million Watermark Detroit project, have stalled because developers cannot sell enough preconstruction units to secure the loans they need to break ground.
Kilpatrick to discuss economy, not sex scandal, in annual address
3/9/2008, 11:00 p.m. EDT
By COREY WILLIAMS
DETROIT (AP) — Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will tell residents Tuesday night about his plans for improving the sagging local economy, rebuilding the city's aging infrastructure and helping to put the unemployed back to work. He'll also use the annual State of the City Address to tout successful efforts at bringing multimillion-dollar housing developments and business to the city's once-ignored downtown and riverfront. But by weeks' end, the popular, yet polarizing mayor's once-bright political future could rest on a prosecutor's decision on whether to charge him with perjury after he denied under oath during a whistle-blowers' trial that he and a former top aide had a romantic relationship.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/NEWS01/803100330/1001/news
Report ties mayor, ex-aide to friend with $45M in contracts
City contractor got bid strategies, info, text messages show
Associated Press
Published March 10, 2008
DETROIT - A longtime friend of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick won millions of dollars in contracts while secretly consulting with the mayor's chief of staff, a newspaper reported Sunday. Records and text messages obtained by the Detroit Free Press indicated that Bobby Ferguson and companies with which he partnered have collected at least $45 million in city contracts. The text messages from 2002 and 2003 show that then-Chief of Staff Christine Beatty provided Ferguson with bid strategies and sensitive information on potential projects, the newspaper said. The mayor was directly involved in at least one discussion about Ferguson's bid strategy, the Free Press reported.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/florida-and-michigan-dominate-the-sunday-chatter/?hp
Florida and Michigan Dominate the Sunday Chatter
By Kate Phillips
March 9, 2008
There’s still no resolution to the question of what to do with the results from Florida and Michigan, but a few of the principals involved seem to be leaning toward some type of do-over. On ABC’s “This Week,” Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said officials were trying to hammer out some type of compromise short of letting this delegate divide go all the way to the convention. (Just to recap, because Michigan and Florida moved their primaries ahead of what the national Democratic Party permitted, they have been stripped of their delegates. With the two Democratic candidates, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, dueling in a tight march delegate-by-delegate with Mr. Obama holding a lead, those delegates in the outlier states have become more and more precious.)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08069/863424-35.stm
Primary error: Michigan and Florida have two flawed choices
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
As Americans set their clocks ahead this weekend, political leaders in Michigan and Florida are wishing they could turn back time. They don't want to suffer the consequences of their decisions, made months ago, that scheduled their primary elections for early January in defiance of the Democratic National Committee. Party leaders had warned state officials that the 366 delegates of the two states would not be seated at the national convention in August if Michigan and Florida jumped ahead in the election schedule. But state officials, who had long chafed at the vaunted status the early primaries gave to Iowa and New Hampshire, did so anyway.
http://www.mlive.com/news/chronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-1/120492091216400.xml&coll=8
Let Michigan be decisive for Clinton-Obama
Muskegon Chronicle
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Our state might well be decisive in the choice between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. It might also be inconsequential. We'd prefer Michigan to matter, and so should the party leadership. So a nod here to Howard Dean, Democratic National Committee chairman, who has now endorsed "do-over" contests in both our state and in Florida, where the races were held that were in defiance of national committee rules. In Michigan's Jan. 15 contest, none of the Democrats campaigned here, but Clinton was the only top-tier candidate to keep her name on the ballot. As a result, Clinton won handily.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/columns-3/1205040034108330.xml&coll=7
If it will make a difference, Democrats should `do-over'
Kalamazoo Gazette
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Residents in Michigan watching Ohio the week before last had reasons to feel a bit envious. There were Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama stumping in this neighboring Midwestern state, talking about the economy, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the flight of manufacturing jobs to China, and their plans for bringing jobs back -- all the issues Michigan voters wanted to hear about from Democrats in January but didn't, because the Democratic candidates didn't campaign here. The Democratic National Committee punished Michigan Democrats for jumping to near the front of the line and holding a Jan. 15 primary, in violation of party rules.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/POLITICS01/803100387/1022/POLITICS
Levin: Mail-in caucus weighed
But latest idea to settle Dems delegate dispute in Michigan, Florida faces own obstacles.
Deb Price / The Detroit News
Monday, March 10, 2008
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan said Sunday that a mail-in caucus, in which Michigan Democrats vote again, "needs to be considered" to settle a party dispute so that the state's delegates are seated at the national convention in August. "The one possibility would be some kind of mail-in caucus," Levin said on ABC's "This Week," hosted by George Stephanopoulos. "That's being explored," added Levin, who did not endorse the idea outright. Key Michigan players trying to resolve the dispute with the national Democratic Party talked with experts in mail-in voting over the weekend, according to a knowledgeable source.
Mail-in primary likely in Florida, possible in Michigan
3/9/2008, 8:56 p.m. EDT
By JOHN DUNBAR
WASHINGTON (AP) — A consensus began to emerge Sunday that the best way to give Florida's Democrats a voice in electing a candidate for president lies with the U.S. Postal Service. The Democratic National Committee stripped Florida and Michigan of all their convention delegates — a total of 313 — for holding their primaries too early, making both contests meaningless. New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won both states, but no delegates. Her rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, did not appear on Michigan's ballot.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/OPINION03/803100335/1007/OPINION
Schedule new primary, but open to all
Monday, March 10, 2008
Paul W. Smith
Outta my mind on a Monday moanin': O.K. So what's new now that I'm back from Geneva? Did I miss anything? Is the Detroit mayoral thing over? No, I guess not. Do we know who will be the Democratic presidential nominee yet? Ditto. Whoops, maybe better to just say, "No I guess not." Again. Wait a minute. The Democrats are still arguing about how to handle the trail-blazing, rule-breaking early Michigan Democrat primary that has apparently now gone down in flames? Let me try to make this as simple as I can. The only fair way to do this is to have another vote, open to all. You are allowed to fight over the meaning of "all."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-kurashige/the-sad-state-of-democrac_b_90654.html
The Sad State of Democracy in Michigan
Posted March 9, 2008 | 08:07 PM (EST)
Scott Kurashige
Those of us who have lived through five-plus years in Michigan with Jennifer Granholm as governor have come to expect her to make calculating decisions consistent with the middle-of-the-road image she has consciously nurtured. So what possessed Granholm to issue a passionate statement last week declaring that it was "reprehensible that anyone would seek to silence" Michigan voters? Could it be that our governor had finally abandoned her moderate, follow-the-crowd manner to become a fiery advocate of the people? Not likely. Granholm's comments and positions with regards to the botched Michigan primary have been shamelessly self-serving.
Michigan may be 1st state to issue food stamps twice a month
3/9/2008, 8:36 a.m. EDT
By DAVID EGGERT
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan could become the first state in the nation to issue food stamps twice a month, making fresh produce and meat more available and giving grocery workers steadier hours. The state's 1.2 million food stamp recipients — the highest number ever — now have their benefits added to a debit card within the first 10 days of the month. They then spend those dollars early in the month, typically in poorer, urban areas where residents may have limited transportation. Each recipient gets an average $88 a month.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/LIFESTYLE03/803100359/1022/POLITICS
Lawmakers target water pipe smoking
Bills propose warnings be posted in businesses of hookah tobacco use, a trend with students.
Catherine Jun / The Detroit News
Monday, March 10, 2008
State leaders are considering legislation that would require businesses to post warnings on the dangers of smoking hookah tobacco and to clean pipes after each use, citing the growing popularity of the water pipe among teens and college students in Michigan. While the legislation is welcomed by some in the Arab-American community, some businesses say they already take proper precautions for their discerning customers. "We have to protect our young," said Fouad Ashkar, vice chair of the board for the American Arab Chamber of Commerce. "At the same time, we don't want to put rules and regulations on our members." A hookah is an ornate water pipe popular in the Middle East that's used to smoke fruit-flavored tobacco.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/NEWS06/803100362
Bill seeks to limit political robo calls Legislature
But sponsor admits it has little chance
BY KATHLEEN GRAY
March 10, 2008
A Michigan legislator wants to do the unthinkable: Treat political campaigns the same way Congress decided to treat people trying to sell you insurance policies or investment advice. But state Rep. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, acknowledges that he has little chance of getting politicians to handcuff themselves. "We should be able to add political calls to the national do-not-call list," Jones said. "They're just not appropriate to bother people during their family time." But the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reported that 64% of registered voters got at least one automated call, also known as a robo call, before the 2006 midterm elections. And more than 81% of registered voters in Iowa and 68% of voters in New Hampshire got robo calls during their caucus and primary run-ups.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/OPINION01/803100305/1069
Power the future
Detroit Free Press
March 10, 2008
Some commercial customers have benefited from Michigan's experiment in partially deregulating electricity sales. It's for their benefit that the Legislature looks poised to leave at least a small corner of the market open for such customers to keep getting bids from a variety of suppliers. But there are ample reasons for Michigan to return to a more regulated system, with the state Public Service Commission ruling on rate increases and, potentially, the need for more power plants. The state cannot assure its own power supplies for the future if it does not regain oversight of the market.
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/OPINION01/803100307/1069
State should set strong, attainable goals on renewable energy
Detroit Free Press
March 10, 2008
Michigan desperately needs a minimum standard for the amount of electricity made with renewable and alternative fuels. But the standard could quickly turn into a laughingstock if lawmakers allow too many loopholes. One big question is whether to count existing non-fossil fuel sources, such as hydro plants. If they are counted, then the standard has to be higher yet. No one should get to weasel out from this challenge. A tough threshold is the only way to spur innovation and lure alternative energy providers to the state. Then there are basic definitions to work out. Does burning trash to make electricity, as the City of Detroit currently does, count as a "renewable" source and the type of operation the state wants to encourage?
http://theoaklandpress.com/stories/030908/loc_20080309385.shtml
Mental illness: Do we need special courts?
By SHAUN BYRON
PUBLISHED: Sunday, March 9, 2008
Mark Ott had run away from home and was living on the streets before his parents took him back for what would be the last time. Less than six months later, Mark -- the oldest son of Barbara and Michael Ott -- was arrested and charged with his parents' slaying last month in the family's lakefront home. The tragic case unfolding in court has had neighbors and family friends describing a troubled boy with a mental illness who grew into a man his parents couldn't control, but continued to love and pray would get better. It may also point to a larger problem within the state's justice system, which critics say fails to keep individuals with serious mental health issues from falling through the cracks and serving jail sentences instead of receiving medical treatment.
American Axle, UAW to resume negotiations Monday
3/10/2008, 1:56 a.m. EDT
The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — Negotiations between the United Auto Workers and auto parts maker American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. have resumed. General Motors Corp. says parts shortages from the strike are forcing it to shut down part or all of 28 plants, affecting 37,000 hourly workers. American Axle spokeswoman Renee Rogers says bargainers met Saturday and Sunday and plan to resume Monday. About 3,600 UAW workers at five American Axle plants in Michigan and New York have been on strike since February 26 after contract talks broke down over wages and other issues.
Levin asks GAO to determine how Iraq is handling its oil revenue
3/9/2008, 8:09 a.m. EDT
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic chairman and Republican former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee have asked government auditors to determine what Iraq is doing with the billions of dollars in oil revenue it generates. "We believe that it has been overwhelmingly U.S. taxpayer money that has funded Iraq reconstruction over the last five years, despite Iraq earnings billions of dollars in oil revenue over that time period that have ended up in non-Iraqi banks," Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John Warner, R-Va., said Friday in a letter to the head of the Government Accountability Office.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/OPINION02/803100322/1085/opinion
Lansing needs to vote in casinos
Gambling is way to create much needed boost
David W. Sheets:
Published March 10, 2008
I've been doing business in Lansing for 39 years, and we've seen some difficult financial times over those years. In 1981, there were interest rates upwards of 18 percent, and high unemployment. But there was always a light at the end of the tunnel. We knew that General Motors would bounce back and be selling vehicles again. What are we seeing at the end of the tunnel in 2008? Do you suppose GM, Ford and Chrysler are going to bail us out again? It is not going to happen! Those days are gone! We need to develop a plan for 2008 and for the generations to come.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/OPINION01/803100336/1007/OPINION
Royal Oak drug testing won't work
Studies show random exams don't discourage illegal narcotics use
The Detroit News
Monday, March 10, 2008
The idea that raising the risk that wrongdoing will be caught will deter the wrongdoer is a tempting one, and it's behind a Royal Oak School district proposal to randomly test sixth-graders through 12th-graders for drug use. The program is built on a faulty assumption. Subjecting students to random drug tests won't discourage them from using illegal narcotics, according to a pair of University of Michigan studies. But it may drive home a destructive lesson about the value of civil liberties in America. Royal Oak Superintendent Thomas Moline, who proposed the testing, argues the greater possibility that drug use will be detected will make students pause before trying an illegal substance.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/OPINION01/803100338/1007/OPINION
Don't delay inevitable Detroit school closings
The Detroit News
Monday, March 10, 2008
Arguing its previous school-closing plan doesn't make sense, Detroit Public Schools Superintendent Connie Calloway has announced her team is delaying overdue school closings. She has good reason to rethink the district's criteria for closing schools, but she shouldn't back away from aggressively right-sizing the district. Calloway said she is putting off the closing of eight schools for at least another year. The announcement is but one recent act that calls into question whether the new superintendent is moving quickly and assertively enough to overhaul the district. Clinton, Courtis, Detroit Open, Dossin, Guyton, Mason, Mark Twain schools and the Northwest Early Childhood Center had been slated to close this fall.
NATIONAL STORIES
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/opinion/10kristol.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
McCain’s Daunting Task
By WILLIAM KRISTOL
Published: March 10, 2008
Buried inside Sunday’s papers was a noteworthy election result. In a special election to replace former Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, first-time Democratic candidate Bill Foster emerged victorious. George Bush easily carried the district in 2004, as has every recent G.O.P. presidential candidate. This Democratic pickup suggests that, for now, we’re in an electoral environment more like 2006 than 2004. Foster’s eight-percentage-point improvement on John Kerry’s 2004 performance in the district mirrors the general shift in the electorate from 2004, when Bush won and the Republicans held Congress, to 2006, when the Democrats took over Congress and ran on average about eight points ahead of the G.O.P.
McCain Uses Breathing Room to Focus on Coffers
By MICHAEL COOPER and MICHAEL LUO
March 10, 2008
Sewing up the Republican presidential nomination while the Democratic candidates continue to battle each other has given Senator John McCain a valuable commodity: time he can use to unite a fractured Republican Party, ramp up his lackluster fund-raising and transform his shoestring primary operation into a general election machine. The lull will give the McCain campaign some breathing room, but it could have drawbacks as well. Even Mr. McCain acknowledges that the tight, fierce Democratic race is likely to garner most of the news media’s attention in the near term, eclipsing coverage of his campaign. Mr. McCain said last week that he viewed the next couple of months as an opportunity to “get our own house in order,” and that he planned to use the time to travel overseas, roll out new policy proposals and deliver speeches.
What McCain Could Do About Taxes
By BEN STEIN
March 9, 2008
DEAR John McCain:
Congratulations. The nomination of the Grand Old Party is yours. Now comes the hard part, winning, and the almost impossible part, governing sensibly. Since you were, in your usual modest way, genial enough to acknowledge recently that you know little about economics, may I offer you some thoughts on a big part of economics, namely tax policy, bearing in mind that no one knows much about it? Let’s start with the obvious. Almost everyone dislikes taxes. No sane person enjoys writing out a big check to Uncle Sam when he could spend that money or bank it for retirement. By the same token, almost everyone likes the phrase “tax cuts” for the same reason.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/09/AR2008030902152.html?sub=AR
McCain Sees Pork Where Scientists See Success
Candidate Criticizes Ambitious Bear Study
By Joel Achenbach
Monday, March 10, 2008; Page A01
WEST GLACIER, Mont. -- If you've heard Sen. John McCain's stump speech, you've surely heard him talk about grizzly bears. The federal government, he declares with horror and astonishment, has spent $3 million to study grizzly bear DNA. "I don't know if it was a paternity issue or criminal," he jokes, "but it was a waste of money." A McCain campaign commercial also tweaks the bear research: "Three million to study the DNA of bears in Montana. Unbelievable." Actually, it was a scientific and logistical triumph, argues Katherine Kendall, 56, mastermind of the Northern Divide Grizzly Bear Project.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/POLITICS01/803100347/1022/POLITICS
McCain focuses on keeping visible
Sewing up nomination, tight Democrat race will make it tougher to stay in campaign spotlight.
Libby Quaid / Associated Press
Monday, March 10, 2008
PHOENIX -- John McCain sees one downside to having clinched the Republican presidential nomination: There's less attention focused on him than on the volatile contest between Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. McCain understands he must compete for the spotlight. "I think it's going to be very exciting to watch," he said of the Democrats. "It makes me have to work harder, obviously, to make sure that we maintain the visibility," McCain told reporters last week. "It's also, when we think about it, a very long time from March to November. That's a long trip."
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/855klmhz.asp
Looking Presidential
With the nomination wrapped up, McCain plots his campaign.
Stephen F. Hayes
03/17/2008
On a sunny Texas day last week, two men discussed politics under the shade of a 14x22 foot concrete armadillo as they watched the chaos of John McCain's arrival at Goode's Armadillo Palace. "I wonder if the New York Times is here?" "I'd like to kick their ass!" Leaving aside the question of how, exactly, this man would kick the ass of a newspaper, it's fair to say that this sentiment was representative. Inside, would-be cowboys at the bar sit on saddles fixed atop sturdy wooden posts. A mounted longhorn head fell off the wall and killed a piano player in the early 1930s, according to local legend. It's only noon, but it is dark inside, and the rowdy crowd gives the place a distinct Saturday night feel.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/mccain_vs_the_addicts.html
McCain vs. The Addicts
By Robert Novak
March 10, 2008
WASHINGTON -- The congressional Republican establishment's charade, pretending to crack down on spending earmarks while actually preserving their uncontrolled addiction to pork, faces embarrassment this week when the Democratic-designed budget is brought to the Senate floor. The party's presidential nominee-presumptive, Sen. John McCain, is an uncompromising pork buster with no use for the evasions by Republican addicts on Capitol Hill. Sen. Jim DeMint, a first-term reform Republican from South Carolina, will propose a no-loopholes one-year moratorium on earmarks as a budget amendment. McCain has announced his support for the DeMint amendment and will co-sponsor it.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/KenBlackwell/2008/03/08/huckabee_the_architect
Huckabee the Architect
By Ken Blackwell
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Now that John McCain has secured the Republican Party nomination, he will decide who should be the next chairman of the Republican National Committee. One name he should consider is Governor Mike Huckabee. Some people are talking up the idea of Mr. Huckabee being Mr. McCain’s running mate. Should that not happen, the RNC chairmanship would be a perfect post for the young, energetic and charismatic governor from Arkansas. About 30% of the GOP base is evangelical. Part of Mr. McCain’s crossover appeal is that he is not one, nor does he pretend to be. But having one as GOP chairman would energize them all the way to November, which is what Senator McCain needs.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/849oyckg.asp
Obama's Constitution
The rhetoric and the reality.
by Edward Whelan
03/17/2008, Volume 013, Issue 26
Justice John Paul Stevens turns 88 in April, and by January 2009 five other justices will be from 69 to 75 years old. If Barack Obama is elected president, he will probably--with the benefit of resignations by liberal justices eager for him to be the president who chooses their successors--have the opportunity to appoint two or three Supreme Court justices in his first term, with another two or three in a potential second term. That prospect ought to focus the attention of all Americans who want a Supreme Court that practices judicial restraint and respects the proper realm of representative government. For Obama, if elected, would certainly aim to fill the Supreme Court--and the lower federal courts--with liberal judicial activists.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120499809355822227.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news
Obama Wins in Wyoming, Gets Boost for Mississippi
By NICK TIMIRAOS
March 9, 2008 6:15 a.m.
CASPER, Wyo. -- Sen. Barack Obama won Saturday's crowded Wyoming caucuses, defeating rival Sen. Hillary Clinton in the latest contest of a close, bitter race for the party's presidential nomination. Sen. Obama won 61% of the vote to Sen. Clinton's 38%, with all 23 Wyoming counties reporting. Twelve delegates were at stake in Wyoming, and the win provides a boost for the Obama campaign because both candidates ran aggressively in the sparsely populated state. Sen. Obama's victory is the first since his streak of 11 straight primary wins was shattered on Tuesday with a big loss in Ohio and a narrower defeat in Texas.
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-adsa.6304875mar09,0,1611800.story
Battle for Pennsylvania begins
Clinton, Obama find powerful allies in opposite ends of state
By Josh Drobnyk
March 9, 2008
Advisers to Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are mapping out strategies for success in Pennsylvania that focus on its two major metropolitan areas but leave few parts of the state untouched over a six-week brawl that will offer ample time to spread out and dig in. Each arrives in Pennsylvania with early advantages on opposite ends of the state: Obama in Philadelphia, with its large black population and liberal-minded suburban voters; Clinton in Pittsburgh, with its core of blue-collar voters in the city and surrounding regions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/09/AR2008030902005.html?hpid=topnews
Obama Accuses Clinton of Deception
Campaigns Step Up Squabbles on Tactics
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Monday, March 10, 2008; Page A09
Eager to shift the narrative after a difficult week, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign sharply criticized the tactics of his rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, charging her campaign with attempting "to deceive the American people just so that they can win this election." Obama (Ill.) easily won caucuses in Wyoming on Saturday, but the two candidates had one of their quietest weekends of the campaign. Obama is to travel today to Mississippi, where he is leading in polls ahead of tomorrow's primary. Clinton (N.Y.) will campaign in Pennsylvania, which will vote on April 22.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/29752.html
Sure, Obama's a smart, sweet guy — but can he fight?
By Margaret Talev and Steven Thomma
Posted on Sunday, March 9, 2008
WASHINGTON — Can Barack Obama take a punch? Can he throw one? Will he fight back when sweet reason doesn't work? Can he plunge into a smack-down without endangering the image he's crafted as the avatar of a kinder, gentler politics that unites rather than divides? Obama's quest for the Democratic presidential nomination may depend in part on how he answers those questions as he responds to Hillary Clinton's revitalized campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Clinton thinks combat politics is "fun," and often boasts of her ability to "fight the Republican attack machine."
Clintons push a Hillary/Obama ticket
Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:48am EDT
By Thomas Ferraro -Analysis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillary and Bill Clinton are again teaming up on Barack Obama -- this time saying the first-term U.S. lawmaker, whom they have derided as inexperienced, would be a strong running mate on a Democratic presidential ticket headed by the former first lady. In talking up a joint ticket, the Clintons may be seeking the upper hand, attempting to put her in consideration for the top of the ticket when she so far has failed to win the votes necessary to assure that she would face Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the November election.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3511833.ece
Hillary Clinton sets her sights on three ways to win
Clinton aims to win the popular vote, secure reruns in Florida and Michigan and undermine Obama's credibility as the candidate to beat McCain
March 9, 2008
Sarah Baxter in Canton, Mississippi
FRESH from her victories in three out of four states last week and surging back in the national polls, Hillary Clinton has crafted a new strategy for winning the Democratic nomination which she believes will legitimise her claim to be president. Clinton thinks she can win a majority of the popular vote in primaries and caucuses, even if she cannot overtake Barack Obama, her rival, in the number of “pledged” delegates who will vote to choose the candidate at the Democratic national convention in August. The New York senator has unnerved Obama, who has been left reeling by a series of errors from senior policy advisers.
http://thehill.com/dick-morris/its-over-2008-03-06.html
It’s over
By Dick Morris
Posted: 03/06/08
The real message of Tuesday’s primaries is not that Hillary won. It’s that she didn’t win by enough. The race is over. The results are already clear. Obama will go to the Democratic Convention with a lead of between 100 and 200 elected delegates. The remaining question is: What will the superdelegates do then? But is that really a question? Will the leaders of the Democratic Party be complicit in its destruction? Will they really kindle a civil war by denying the nomination to the man who won the most elected delegates? No way. They well understand that to do so would be to throw away the party’s chances of victory and to stigmatize it among African-Americans and young people for the rest of their lives. The Democratic Party took 20 years to recover from the traumas of 1968 and it is not about to trigger a similar bloodletting this year.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/andrew_sullivan/article3510778.ece
The Clintons, a horror film that never ends
Andrew Sullivan
March 9, 2008
It’s alive! We thought it might be over but some of us never dared fully believe it. Last week was like one of those moments in a horror movie when the worst terror recedes, the screen goes blank and then reopens on green fields or a lover’s tender embrace. Drained but still naive audiences breathe a collective sigh of relief. The plot twists have all been resolved; the threat is gone; the quiet spreads. And then . . . Put your own movie analogy in here. Glenn Close in the bathtub in Fatal Attraction – whoosh! she’s back at your throat! – has often occurred to me when covering the Clintons these many years.
Sniping by Her Aides Hurt Clinton’s Image as Manager
By ADAM NAGOURNEY, PATRICK HEALY and KATE ZERNIKE
Published: March 10, 2008
WASHINGTON — The morning after Senator Barack Obama shook the Clinton campaign by winning five contests in one weekend, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s new campaign manager — Maggie Williams, who had taken over in a shake-up the night before — assembled the curious if demoralized staff. “You may not like the person next to you,” Ms. Williams told dozens of aides who ringed the conference room at the campaign’s Virginia headquarters last month, according to participants. “But you’re going to respect them. And we’re going to work together.” Ms. Williams’s demand was dismissed as wishful thinking by some in her weary audience.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20080309_One_Last_Thing_.html
One Last Thing: Who can go the distance?
Not only will Clinton likely get nominated, but she'd be a better candidate, too.
By Jonathan V. Last
Posted on Sun, Mar. 9, 2008
Barack Obama's electoral flaws manifested themselves this week as he lost primaries in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island. If you've been reading this column and paying close attention to the voting coalitions of Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, this came as no surprise. By now, others have told you how "unstoppable" Obama is enough times that you should know better. Obama had a monthlong string of victories in states tailor-made for his campaign. He had a month of the most fawning and deferential media coverage imaginable. He had a month of presumed inevitability that saw many otherwise serious people calling for Clinton to leave the race.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/09/uselections2008.usa
The Democrats' nightmare is a sweet Republican dream
An ugly war of attrition between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama could gift the prize of the White House to John McCain
Andrew Rawnsley
Sunday March 9 2008
If the Democrats fail to take the White House this year, it will not be for the usual reason that the party chose a rubbish candidate for President. It will be because they had the rotten luck to have one too many formidable candidates. This is the horrible irony of a dragged-out, no-holds-barred, slime-slinging fight to the last delegate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The best news for John McCain from the most recent primaries is not that they formally anointed him as the Republican standard bearer. The best news for the senator from Arizona is that the Democratic party still can't decide who he will face in November.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/us/politics/10caucus.html
Democrats Down the Ticket Worry About an Impasse
By JOHN HARWOOD
Published: March 10, 2008
Suddenly the Democratic presidential race is teetering on the edge — not just between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, but between boost or burden for the party’s hopes in the fall. So far, the clash between the two history-making candidacies has appeared to be an unalloyed benefit to the party. In state after state, Democrats displayed their enthusiasm through robust primary turnouts that drew in many new voters. If Clinton and Obama supporters have fallen into consistent niches by gender, income, education and ethnicity, polls show that most Democrats would happily support either one in November.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/08/AR2008030802664_pf.html
Influential Democrats Waiting to Choose Sides
Many Superdelegates Hope for Clear Leader After Primaries
By Dan Balz
Sunday, March 9, 2008; A01
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's trio of victories over Sen. Barack Obama last week appears to have convinced a sizable number of uncommitted Democratic superdelegates to wait until the end of the primaries and caucuses before picking a candidate, according to a survey by The Washington Post. Many of the 80 uncommitted superdelegates who were contacted over the past several days said they are reluctant to override the clear will of voters. But if Clinton (N.Y.) and Obama (Ill.) are still seen as relatively close in the pledged, or elected, delegate count in June, many said, they will feel free to decide for themselves which of the candidates would make a stronger nominee to run against Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the fall.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120511091027123403.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
Florida Deserves a Revote
By BILL NELSON
March 10, 2008; Page A15
We have been immersed for months in great debates about the economy, Iraq and health care. Now, with two outstanding Democratic candidates battling down to the wire for their party's presidential nomination, we face an issue fundamental in our democracy: the right to vote. On Jan. 29, more than 3.6 million Floridians headed to the polls and cast ballots in the state's presidential Democratic and Republican primaries. But the rules of both national parties had reserved early presidential contests to a handful of states (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Caro