Articles of Interest 5-1-08
188 Days until Election Day
MORNING UPDATE:
U.P. PARTY BUILDING TOUR…The Political, Candidate & Party Assistance teams were on the road again last night on the first stop of the UP "Unity Road Show" in Sault Ste. Marie. We had a handful of local party people from Chippewa, Delta, Luce, and Mackinac counties along with the Chippewa County Chair and former State Senator Walt North . Special thanks to Anthony Stackpoole for his help in putting this event together.
McCAIN IN MICHIGAN…Senator McCain will be in Michigan for a fundraiser and Town Hall meeting next week. Details below…join us where you can.
HOUSE REPUBLICAN DINNER…Governor Pawlenty will be our featured guest on May 5th at the Rock Financial Center in Novi…more info below.
PETITION CIRCULATORS…time is running out. If you have petitions for our federal candidates, please mail them in so they can track their progress.
THE REST OF THE STORY:
McCAIN IN MICHIGAN.
Next week Senator John McCain has two events for people to attend here in Michigan!
Tuesday night May 6, Senator John McCain will be attending a Fund Raising Reception hosted at the home of Peter and Danialle Karmanos with special guest Governor Mitt Romney. The cost is $2,300 per person and you should contact Sarah Prues Hecker at 313-586-4314 or sarah@prueshecker.com for more information and to RSVP. The event starts at 5:30 PM.
Wednesday morning Senator John McCain will also hold a Town Hall Meeting at Oakland University in the Shotwell-Gustafson Pavilion (adjacent to Meadow Brook Hall) at 280 South Adams Road in Rochester. There is no cost to this event, no tickets are needed, and doors open at 8:00 AM. You can RSVP at Michigan@JohnMcCain.com.
HOUSE REPUBLICAN DINNER DETAILS.
The MRP is doing all we can to assist the Michigan State House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC) to add seats this November and reclaim the Majority lost in 2006. The HRCC will be holding its annual dinner on May 5th. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty will deliver the keynote. This will be a great event. Location, time and cost details below.
Diamond Center
Rock Financial Showplace
46100 Grand River Avenue
Novi, MI 48374
To RSVP please call 517-371-1830 or mihrcc@gmail.com
5:00 – 6:00 PM ~ VIP Reception
$5,000/Couple
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM ~ Strolling Dinner
$1,000/Person
$5,000/Silver Sponsor*
$10,000/Gold Sponsor**
$20,000/Platinum Sponsor***
*Silver sponsors will receive 5 tickets to dinner, or 2 tickets to attend the VIP reception
**Gold sponsors will receive 10 tickets to dinner, including 2 tickets to attend the VIP reception
*** Platinum sponsors will receive 20 tickets to dinner, including 4 tickets to attend the VIP reception
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/POLITICS01/805010358
McCain on way to Michigan for votes, cash
Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Republican nominee John McCain will be in Metro Detroit next week while the Democratic presidential candidates are competing in Indiana and North Carolina. McCain will hold a campaign fundraiser in Oakland County on Tuesday evening and a forum the following day at Oakland University in Rochester. It will be the Arizona senator's first visit to Michigan since he formally clinched the GOP nomination in March. He will arrive the same day voters go to the polls in Indiana and North Carolina in crucial Democratic primaries involving Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. There was no word Wednesday on what policy proposals McCain might discuss in Oakland County, though the economy is clearly Topic A in Michigan. Back-to-back events on college campuses suggest an educational theme.
Granholm has emergency surgery; faces 1 week in the hospital
4/30/2008, 6:03 p.m. EDT
By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Jennifer Granholm faces a week in the hospital and probably another two weeks of recovery at home after undergoing emergency surgery Tuesday to remove an obstruction in her small intestine, her surgeon said Wednesday. The 49-year-old governor was supposed to leave on an eight-day trade trip to Israel and Kuwait on Wednesday, and her surgeon said it's a good thing she wasn't on the plane when the blockage was discovered. "It could have been an emergency-type situation," Dr. Timothy McKenna said during a Wednesday news conference. "If she didn't have the surgery last night, she would have needed it today or the next day. ... The condition would not have improved."
http://noise.typepad.com/election_countdown/2008/04/will-the-budget.html
Will the budget be done on time?
Derek Walbank
April 29, 2008
Probably. That was the consensus of a group of area Democratic legislators today. The only hitch in the process, they said, is that in this election year the level of partisanship in Lansing has increased. Rep. Joan Bauer (D-Lansing), a member of the House Appropriations Committee, today said the budget is on track to be passed and signed by the governor by June 30. "I'm absolutely committed to that because after last year, it's really important that we do that," she said. "The feeling and the tenor is much much better - it's a different feeling." Rep. Mark Meadows (D-East Lansing), said the biggest reason for that - aside from the common recognition that to delay until the state shuts down is a disaster - is that no tax increases are on the table. However, Meadows said the election has changed the dynamic in the House, lending even less of a willingness to compromise.
Michigan Dems claim fraud in attempt to recall House speaker
4/30/2008, 5:42 p.m. EDT
By DAVID EGGERT
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Democrats said Wednesday they have evidence that an anti-tax group misled and deceived voters when gathering signatures for a recall election against the Democratic speaker of the state House. The Michigan Recalls Organization plans to turn in signatures to the secretary of state's office Thursday. For a recall contest to be held in August against Andy Dillon, more than 8,700 valid signatures are needed from registered voters in the 17th House District, which includes Redford Township and parts of Livonia and Dearborn Heights. Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer held a Lansing news conference during which he played audio recordings he said prove that signature gatherers lied about the recall effort to get signatures. In one instance at a gas station in Redford Township, a circulator was recorded telling a would-be signer that the petition was about preventing a hike in the gas tax. There was no mention of recalling Dillon, Brewer said.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/BIZ/805010398
State going from bit player to movie star
Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Whether Clint Eastwood shoots his next "Dirty Harry" flick in Michigan or not, many in the state say they're feeling lucky because plenty of movie types have already arrived. Just three weeks ago, the state created what's described as the most progressive incentive package in the nation aimed at attracting film, television and digital media productions. Crews have already set up offices in at least two downtown Detroit buildings as they scout locations ranging from gritty inner city to tony suburb, while a Hollywood producer is training the unemployed in western Michigan for technical positions behind the camera. In less than a month, the number of entertainment productions likely to use Michigan as a backdrop in 2008 already has surpassed last year's total. The film industry generated $4 million in economic activity in Michigan last year, when an estimated six films were made here, although there may have been some other low-budget productions, too, state film officials said.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/AUTO01/805010401
GM to cut more after $3B loss
Hurt by strike, mortgage mess, it lowers U.S. sales outlook
Sharon Terlep / The Detroit News
Thursday, May 1, 2008
General Motors Corp. on Wednesday provided further proof that the company's painful downsizing in the United States isn't over, posting a first quarter loss of $3.25 billion, the third-straight quarterly deficit that included widening losses in its home region. The No. 1 U.S. automaker has spent the past two years slashing jobs, closing factories and axing unsuccessful vehicles. But GM still isn't lean enough to make money in its critical North American operations, where it lost $812 million in the first three months of the year. "All the things we've done were necessary and important, but we can't just stay static and say 'We've done it all,' " GM Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson said during a conference call Wednesday. "You've got to do more." The automaker, after months of holding out, on Wednesday conceded that U.S. vehicle sales are likely to fall further this year than it initially expected.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/OPINION03/805010348/1031
Big Three shifting priority to profits
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Manny Lopez
For years, the American auto industry had it both ways. It was the biggest player in the game andit made money consistently. Not anymore. General Motors Corp. lost $3.3 billion in the first quarter and $38.7 billion last year. Ford Motor Co. made $100 million in the first three months of the year, but lost $2.7 billion last year. Chrysler LLC lost $1.6 billion last year; it's unclear what its early 2008 numbers look like because the now private automaker doesn't divulge those details. All three have seen their share of the automobile pie eaten away by Asian automakers. Arrogance dictated that there was no way the "Big Three" could be unseated, but it happened. Toyota methodically rose to the top and likely will stay there. Sure, the Japanese automaker has had its share of financial hiccups recently.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/METRO/805010399
Michigan losing its youngest: State ages fast as families looking for work leave
Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Michigan had nearly 39,000 fewer children under the age of 5 last year compared with 2000, a startling decline that experts say could have a dramatic effect on the state's schools, retailers and job market for decades to come. The census population estimates released today show Michigan had the second highest percentage drop among its youngest residents, behind Louisiana, and the second largest estimated drop just behind New York, a much more populous state. The implications could be long-lasting: Everything and everyone from physicians to youth sports teams to churches will be affected by the changing needs of the state. And a generation from now, there could be fewer people entering the work force -- and again, fewer families to raise the next generation of Michiganians.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/METRO/805010381/1409/METRO
Tax-free Cobo not an option
Expansion plans may be thwarted by decision that crimps Beaumont's bid to develop cancer center.
Robert Snell and Christina Rogers / The Detroit News
Thursday, May 1, 2008
DETROIT -- A proposal to create a tax-free zone at Cobo Center is dead because it would hurt brick-and-mortar businesses and possibly violate interstate commerce agreements, officials said Wednesday. Business owners across the region have blanched at the proposal and Gov. Jennifer Granholm's office has raised concerns it was unveiled by Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano in January. "The tax-free zone is off the table," Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said. Meanwhile, a decision Wednesday by a state commission could complicate interest in a Cobo expansion among Oakland County officials who want to pair that proposal with support of Beaumont Hospitals' development of a $159 million radiation center and medical school.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/SCHOOLS/805010383/1409/METRO
Cosby joins local debate on schooling for success
Comedian-turned-activist tells Michigan leaders success requires solid high school, college education.
Oralandar Brand-Williams / The Detroit News
Thursday, May 1, 2008
SOUTHFIELD -- The way comedian-turned-activist Bill Cosby sees it, society can pay $7,000 a year to educate a child or $40,000 a year to keep someone behind prison walls. For Cosby the two scenarios are part of the argument why education matters and that funding good schools is important. "You do the math," Cosby said Tuesday. "It's the difference of looking at something that succeeds and looking at something that fails." Cosby, who has a doctorate in education, was part of a televised town hall meeting Tuesday on education, called Higher Education and the New Economy, which aired Wednesday on WXYZ-TV (Channel 7). The town hall meeting was taped at the station. The meeting brought together educators, parents, students and others to discuss how youngsters in Michigan can prepare for future jobs and careers in technology, health care and other industries.
Peters wants to revisit NAFTA
4/30/2008, 5:04 p.m. EDT
By KEN THOMAS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former state lottery commissioner Gary Peters said Wednesday he would support renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying the trade deal has cost the state manufacturing jobs. Peters, in a speech to AFL-CIO members in Detroit, outlined a series of economic proposals, including the repeal of tax subsidies for oil companies, the promotion of alternative energy industries and the targeting of currency manipulation by China. Peters, a Democrat from Oakland County's Bloomfield Township, is challenging Republican Rep. Joe Knollenberg in a congressional district targeted by Democrats. Peters said trade deals such as NAFTA and the Central American Free Trade Agreement need to be revisited to include improved labor standards and environmental protections. "We just need to have fair rules," he said. NAFTA expanded trade among the U.S., Canada and Mexico, eliminating most tariffs on a wide range of products from agriculture to cars to computers. But Democrats have said more protections are needed for workers after the loss of manufacturing jobs.
http://www.livingstondaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080430/NEWS01/804300309/1002
Tickets available for GOP dinner
By Kristofer Karol
April 30, 2008
Tickets are still available for the Livingston County GOP's 48th annual Lincoln Day Dinner, set for Friday evening at Crystal Gardens banquet center in Genoa Township. The keynote speaker will be U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, and state party Chairman Saul Anuzis is expected to make an appearance. "It's a perfect opportunity to gather with like-minded people and to get a report from our congressman," said Allan Filip, the local party's chairman. "And if they've never heard him speak, he's very entertaining and very good on the issues." The congressman's spokeswoman, Sylvia Warner, did not have any details on what Rogers might discuss. The organizers expect between 150-200 attendees. Filip said the aim was to keep tickets affordable because "we just want to engage as many people as possible." That's because the local GOP will be plenty busy during this fall's general election.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/OPINION01/805010320/1007/OPINION
Attack on prosecuting attorney is a sleazy trick
The Detroit News
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Someone is making automated phone calls to Metro Detroiters accusing the Wayne County prosecutor of being in hock for back taxes and questioning who may be helping her with her bills. We don't know who's behind this sleazy enterprise. Perhaps a would-be challenger to Kym Worthy in this fall's county elections is getting an early start on the mud slinging. We do know that part of the playbook of Judy Smith, the high-priced Washington public relations expert hired by Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to improve his image in advance of a jury trial, is to discredit Worthy. While there is no evidence that the robo-calls are part of that strategy, the tactic of attacking the reputation of the prosecutor in hopes of gaining a legal edge with a jury pool is unsavory. The case against Kilpatrick should be both prosecuted and defended in the courtroom. Bringing in election campaign-style dirty tricks is a disservice to justice.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/METRO/805010389
Council to get report on mayor
Lawyer to provide recommendations on how to oust Kilpatrick, whether settlement can be repaid.
Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News
Thursday, May 1, 2008
DETROIT -- An attorney is expected to present a game plan to the City Council today on how to oust Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and whether members could go after him personally for at least some of the $8.4 million settlement in the police whistle-blower lawsuits that sparked the text message scandal. William Goodman said he's pulling an all-nighter in hopes of delivering the report that followed high-profile hearings about what the council wasn't told about the settlement and where members can go from here. Momentum has been building since Tuesday's release of more text messages from Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, that indicate they struck a secret deal to settle three police lawsuits in exchange for shielding the messages. Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. said he believes they bolster the case for Kilpatrick's removal, particularly those that he said showed the two manipulated management of the police department.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/METRO/805010393/1409/METRO
'I do get emotional:' Monica Conyers defends her style, saying it's passion that drives her
Charlie LeDuff / The Detroit News
Thursday, May 1, 2008
By any measure, Monica Conyers, the president pro tem of the Detroit City Council, is an intelligent woman. Though she is the wife of powerful U.S. Rep. John Conyers, she is self-made. One of five children and raised in Detroit, Conyers worked herself through college, earning both a law degree and a master's degree in public administration. It is not her abilities that people question, but her peculiar style of debate. Conyers is a mercurial, shoot-from-the-hip personality who often shoots herself in the foot. Second in line to succeed the mayor, the first-term councilwoman has threatened a colleague at a board hearing; cast lone votes in support of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick even though her top consultant, Sam Riddle, is one of his most raucous critics; and, most famously, tore into Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. a few weeks ago, calling him "Shrek." And that's just since February. The episode was captured on video, disseminated worldwide and prompted many to wonder "just who's in charge?"
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/METRO01/805010423/1409/METRO
Former Detroit police chief felt betrayed
Ex-top cop is disappointed in mayor, police officials he says undermined him.
George Hunter / The Detroit News
Thursday, May 1, 2008
When Jerry Oliver was named chief of the Detroit Police Department in 2002, he thought he had surrounded himself with people he could trust. But Detroit's former top cop said Wednesday he felt "betrayed" by the people he thought were on his side, including the man who appointed him, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. "It was obviously very disappointing to see those text messages," Oliver said, referring to messages, released Tuesday, sent by the mayor, his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, and top police officers, including the assistant chief who replaced him, Ella Bully-Cummings. "My mandate when I came there was to help make the Detroit Police Department a world-class department, and I thought I selected people with integrity to work with me, particularly in the inner circle," Oliver said. "It's disappointing to learn they were busy undermining me. Apparently, this was also coming from the Mayor's Office."
State police make 140-lb. cocaine seizure on Canadian truck
4/30/2008, 7:51 a.m. EDT
The Associated Press
PAW PAW, Mich. (AP) — Michigan state troopers say they found 140 pounds of cocaine in a tractor-trailer from Canada and took the driver into custody. State police say they stopped a car and a semi from Ontario that were traveling east together on Interstate 94 on Tuesday morning. It happened in Van Buren County, not far from Paw Paw and about 140 miles west of Detroit. WZZM-TV says troopers got permission to search the truck and found the cocaine in three large duffel bags. State police turned the Ontario resident who was driving the truck over to U.S. officials.
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/thomas_township_woman_nabbed_a.html
Thomas Township woman nabbed after spending 32 years as a fugitive
by Dean Bohn
Wednesday April 30, 2008, 4:25 PM
A former Thomas Township woman who escaped from a Michigan prison 32 years ago lived a free life in California until Thursday, when federal marshals arrested her living in a mansion with her husband and two children. Susan M. LeFevre, then 21 and a 1972 Arthur Hill High School graduate, had served about one year of a 10- to 20-year sentence for violating drug laws in 1975 and conspiring to commit that crime when she walked away from the Robert Scott Correctional Facility in Plymouth. Authorities did not immediately say how she escaped. However, Deputy Marshal Steve Hetherington said he heard an unconfirmed report that she had climbed a fence. LeFevre, now 53, was living as Marie Walsh in Del Mar, a suburb of San Diego, Hetherington said. "She was living in an affluent neighborhood, in what is likely a $2 million home," Hetherington said.
NATIONAL STORIES
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/us/politics/01citizen.html?ref=politics
Senate Says McCain Is Qualified
By CARL HULSE
May 1, 2008
WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday delivered its judgment on a constitutional question involving one of its own and formally declared that Senator John McCain is eligible to be president — at least from a citizenship perspective. Weighing in on an arcane question that has arisen because of Mr. McCain’s birth in the Panama Canal Zone, the Senate without opposition approved a nonbinding resolution recognizing that Mr. McCain is a natural-born citizen. Among the basic qualifications the Constitution lays out for president is that the person be a natural-born citizen, a phrase not defined and one that has been subjected to various interpretations. At the request of Mr. McCain’s campaign, two constitutional lawyers studied the issue and found in favor of Mr. McCain, whose father was stationed in the zone with the Navy when the future candidate was born. Colleagues of both parties in the Senate, including his two potential Democratic rivals, concur.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120951606847454685.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
Getting to Know John McCain
By KARL ROVE
April 30, 2008; Page A17
It came to me while I was having dinner with Doris Day. No, not that Doris Day. The Doris Day who is married to Col. Bud Day, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, fighter pilot, Vietnam POW and roommate of John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton. As we ate near the Days' home in Florida recently, I heard things about Sen. McCain that were deeply moving and politically troubling. Moving because they told me things about him the American people need to know. And troubling because it is clear that Mr. McCain is one of the most private individuals to run for president in history. When it comes to choosing a president, the American people want to know more about a candidate than policy positions. They want to know about character, the values ingrained in his heart. For Mr. McCain, that means they will want to know more about him personally than he has been willing to reveal.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/04/30/mccain_visits_a_hospital_in_al.html
McCain Visits a Hospital in Allentown
By Michael D. Shear
May 1, 2008
ALLENTOWN, Pa., April 30 -- Sen. John McCain heaped praise on a hospital here for its innovative use of technology as he continued a week-long health care tour aimed at highlighting his free-market plans for revamping the way medical insurance is delivered. But McCain came under immediate criticism from Democrats who pointed out that the hospital -- Lehigh Valley -- had been the recipient of budget earmarks like those that McCain opposed in his ongoing battle against pork barrel spending on Capitol Hill. The afternoon event was designed by McCain's campaign as an interactive demonstration of medical technology at a hospital that is described as one of the most "paper-free" in the country. Doctors at the facility used several large flat-screen televisions to connect to remote locations, displayed real-time patient data on computer screens and showed how medical records, including X-rays, could be instantly retrieved on its network.
McCain Strengthening His Political Marriage
Carl Hulse
April 30, 2008
WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain’s recent harsh critique of the Republican-led response to Hurricane Katrina no doubt reminded some of his newfound allies in Congress that his independent image was often honed at his party’s expense. Mr. McCain, the go-his-own-way Arizona lawmaker, has had an up-and-down relationship with Republican colleagues for years, particularly those in the House. He feuded openly with the former Republican leaders, whom he often treated with disdain and suspicion — a sentiment they often returned. That checkered past has stirred mixed emotions among House Republicans, who embrace the candidate McCain as a potential savior whose maverick reputation could rescue them in an off-year for the party brand. But they worry just what a President McCain would portend for them come January, given their divergent views on big-ticket items like immigration, climate change and campaign spending, to name just three. They would prefer not to be thrown under the Straight Talk Express on Pennsylvania Avenue.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,550351,00.html
Obama the Inevitable
By Gabor Steingart in Washington
April 29, 2008
The issue of race has emerged as the key Democratic divide in this year's primary season. Despite his waning support amongst white voters, though, the superdelegates appear to have no other choice but to vote for Barack Obama. A vote against him could have serious consequences. There is a phenomenon in opinion research called the Bradley effect, named after former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley. When Bradley, who was black, ran to become governor of California in 1982, he was the frontrunner in all opinion polls until the very end of the campaign. But he lost on election day. Since then, the term has been used to denote a serious shift in voter preferences caused by racial prejudice against a candidate -- prejudice that voters would never admit openly, but then express in all secrecy in the voting booth. A more intense version of the Bradley effect has taken shape within the Democratic Party in 2008.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080501/D90CJFDO0.html
Obama closing in on Clinton's advantage among superdelegates
Apr 30, 11:20 PM (ET)
By NEDRA PICKLER
WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama is closing in on Democratic presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's advantage among superdelegates, building on his lead in the primary race even as he faces troubled times. Party leaders are encouraging superdelegates to pick a side by late June to prevent the fight from going to the national convention in August, and it seems some are listening as the race enters its final five weeks of voting. Chelsea Clinton got a superdelegate for her mom while campaigning in Puerto Rico on Wednesday, just as Obama press secretary Bill Burton sent out a statement announcing the support of Rep. Lois Capps. The statement didn't mention the personal connection - Capps is Burton's mother-in-law.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/OPINION03/805010310/1031
Obama recycles failed '60s idea under new guise
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Thomas Sowell
Many years ago, a great hitter named Paul Waner was nearing the end of his long career. He entered a ballgame with 2,999 hits -- one hit away from the landmark total of 3,000, which relatively few hitters reach. Waner hit a ball that the fielder did not handle cleanly but the official scorer called it a hit, making it Waner's 3,000th. Waner then sent word to the official scorer that he did not want that questionable hit to be the one that put him over the top. The official scorer reversed himself and called it an error. Later, Waner got a clean hit for number 3,000. What reminded me of this is the great fervor that many seem to feel over the prospect of the first black president. No doubt it is only a matter of time before there is a black president, just as it was only a matter of time before Waner got his 3,000th hit. The issue is whether we want to reach that landmark so badly that we are willing to overlook how questionably that landmark is reached.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/30/AR2008043003251_pf.html
Obama's Misplay
By Robert D. Novak
Thursday, May 1, 2008; A19
"That is just terrible, absolutely dreadful," a prominent supporter of Barack Obama said Monday morning after listening to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's screed at the National Press Club. He proposed to me that the presidential candidate at long last must denounce his former pastor, unequivocally and immediately. It took 28 hours after a tepid early reaction Monday, but Obama finally did it Tuesday afternoon. Did that solve Obama's pastor problem? Leading Democrats certainly hope so, but they are not sure. His vulnerability transcends relations with a radical preacher. If Obama comes to be seen not as a presidential candidate who happens to be black but as a black candidate in the mold of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, he will face a difficult struggle in the general election against John McCain even if he bests Hillary Clinton.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/us/politics/01wright.html?hp
A Strained Wright-Obama Bond Finally Snaps
By MICHAEL POWELL and JODI KANTOR
May 1, 2008
Late Monday night, in the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill, N.C., Barack Obama’s long, slow fuse burned to an end. Earlier that day he had thumbed through his BlackBerry, reading accounts of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.’s latest explosive comments on race and America. But his remarks to the press this day had amounted to a shrug of frustration. Only in this hotel room, confronted with the televised replay of the combustible pastor, did the candidate realize the full import of the remarks, his aides say. At the same time, aides fielded phone calls and e-mail from uncommitted superdelegates, several demanding that the candidate speak out more forcefully. As Mr. Obama told close friends after watching the replay, he felt dumbfounded, even betrayed, particularly by Mr. Wright’s implication that Mr. Obama was being hypocritical. He could not tolerate that.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/us/politics/01poll.html?hp
Primary Loss and Furor Over Ex-Pastor Hurt Obama in Poll
By ROBIN TONER and MEGAN THEE
May 1, 2008
WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama’s aura of inevitability in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination has diminished after his loss in the Pennsylvania primary and amid the furor over his former pastor, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. The poll was conducted Friday through Tuesday, largely before Mr. Obama’s news conference on Tuesday, in which he denounced his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and may not have fully captured the impact of the controversy or Mr. Obama’s response. But the survey found that Mr. Obama, whose lead in the race for the delegates needed to secure the nomination has given him a commanding position over Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton since February, is now perceived to be in a much tighter fight. Fifty-one percent of Democratic primary voters say they expect Mr. Obama to win their party’s nomination, down from 69 percent a month ago.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120959982358857837.html?mod=todays_columnists
Where Were Obama's Friends?
It's tough being Everyman.
By DANIEL HENNINGER
May 1, 2008; Page A15
Way back when, before the angry and antic prophet Jeremiah rose to smite him, Barack Obama appeared before us as an open presidential vessel, into which many poured their political dreams. Foremost were black Americans. Bill Clinton famously diminished the Obama candidacy during the South Carolina primary as just one more Jesse Jackson fling. But across the black community, support for this candidate clearly had deeper roots. Head to head against Hillary, he has been getting huge majorities of the black vote. This was their moment. Upscale white voters signed on and were belittled as liberals exorcising white guilt. Maybe, but for many Obama was also the un-Bush and un-Hillary. Independents worn down by 16 years of Red-Blue trench warfare bought the "change" promise. Obama sounded like he could pull it off. Indies like to dream.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/us/politics/01clinton.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin
While Clinton Focuses, Obama Is Distracted
By PATRICK HEALY
May 1, 2008
LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Pumped up and focused, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is putting in 16-hour days in Indiana this week as if she — and not her embattled rival, Senator Barack Obama — needs a campaign-changing moment in Tuesday’s primary here. In fact, Indiana is a must-win state for her. Not only is Mrs. Clinton behind in accumulating presidential delegates, she now also faces a new test: Showing that she can seize the opportunity, created by the public fracas between Mr. Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., to win over a cross-section of Democrats in this broadly representative state. With Mr. Obama politically bruised by his former pastor, the Indiana and North Carolina primaries on Tuesday are perhaps the best chance yet for Mrs. Clinton to prove that she is the stronger general-election candidate. To that end, she appeared on Fox News on Wednesday to try to broaden her electoral reach, and tweaked Mr. Obama for taking so long to break with Mr. Wright.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/election2008/story/35337.html
Clinton blasts Bush for not stopping a project Bill OK'd
By Steven Thomma
Posted on Wednesday, April 30, 2008
INDIANAPOLIS — Hillary Clinton loves to tell the story about how the Chinese government bought a good American company in Indiana, laid off all its workers and moved its critical defense technology work to China. It’s a story with a dramatic, political ending. Republican President George W. Bush could have stopped it, but he didn’t. If she were president, Clinton says, she’d fight to protect those jobs. It’s just the kind of talk that’s helping her win support from working-class Democrats worried about their jobs and paychecks, not to mention their country’s security. What Clinton never includes in the oft-repeated tale is the role that prominent Democrats played in selling the company and its technology to the Chinese. She never mentions that big-time Democratic contributor George Soros helped put together the deal to sell the company or that the sale was approved by her husband's administration.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/start_drilling.html
Start Drilling
By Robert Samuelson
April 30, 2008
WASHINGTON -- What to do about oil? First it went from $60 to $80 a barrel, then from $80 to $100 and now to $120. Perhaps we can persuade OPEC to raise production, as some senators suggest; but this seems unlikely. The truth is that we're almost powerless to influence today's prices. We are because we didn't take sensible actions 10 or 20 years ago. If we persist, we will be even worse off in a decade or two. The first thing to do: Start drilling. It may surprise Americans to discover that the United States is the third-largest oil producer, behind Saudi Arabia and Russia. We could be producing more, but Congress has put large areas of potential supply off-limits. These include the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and parts of Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. By government estimates, these areas may contain 25-30 billion barrels of oil (against about 30 billion of proven U.S. reserves today) and 80 trillion cubic feet or more of natural gas (compared with about 200 tcf of proven reserves).
http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/NATION/462824208/1001
Congress' ethanol affair is cooling
By Stephen Dinan
May 1, 2008
Members of Congress say they overreached by pushing ethanol on consumers and will move to roll back federal supports for it — the latest sure signal that Congress' appetite for corn-based ethanol has collapsed as food and gas prices have shot up. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Democrats will use the pending farm bill to reduce the subsidy, while Republicans are looking to go further, rolling back government rules passed just four months ago that require blending ethanol into gasoline. "The view was to look to alternatives and try to become more dependent on the Midwest than the Middle East. I mean, that was the theory. Obviously, sometimes there are unforeseen or unintended consequences of actions," Mr. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, told reporters yesterday.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120960283271557999.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
Blame Congress for Inflation
By PAUL D. RYAN
May 1, 2008
Yesterday, the Federal Reserve lowered the fed-funds rate to 2%, its lowest level since late 2004. In a nod to growing inflation fears, the Fed said "it will be necessary to continue to monitor inflation developments carefully." But if we really want to do something about inflation, Congress should repeal the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act of 1978, which dangerously diverted the Fed from its most important job: price stability. When the Fed was created in 1913, its principal role was to maintain a sound currency with stable prices. But Humphrey-Hawkins changed the Fed's mandate, directing it to focus on long-term price stability and short-term economic growth. Unfortunately, in its efforts to accomplish both, the Fed could end up satisfying neither.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/business/01econ.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
Low Spending Is Taking Toll on Economy
By PETER S. GOODMAN
May 1, 2008
For months, beleaguered American consumers have defied expert forecasts that they would soon succumb to the pressures of falling home prices, fewer jobs and shrinking paychecks. Now, they appear to have given in. On Wednesday, the Commerce Department reported that the economy continued to stagnate during the first three months of the year, with a sharp pullback in consumer spending the primary factor at play. Pressures on households in which cash is tight appeared to weigh significantly in the calculations of the Federal Reserve as it rolled back interest rates Wednesday for the seventh time since September — this time by one-fourth of a percentage point — in a bid to prevent a further falloff in the economy. The Fed made clear, though, that investors and borrowers should not expect another drop in interest rates anytime soon. In the statement accompanying their action, policy makers said they believed that with the short-term rate at 2 percent, they had already unleashed enough economic stimulus to “help promote moderate growth.”
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90C9CPG0&show_article=1
Economy grows by only 0.6 percent in 1st quarter of 2008
Apr 30 11:52 AM US/Eastern
By JEANNINE AVERSA
WASHINGTON (AP) - The bruised economy limped through the first quarter, growing at just a 0.6 percent pace as housing and credit problems forced people and businesses alike to hunker down. The country's economic growth during January through March was the same as in the final three months of last year, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The statistic did not meet what economists consider the classic definition of a recession, which is a retraction of the economy. This means that although the economy is stuck in a rut, it is still managing to grow, even if modestly. Many analysts were predicting that the gross domestic product (GDP) would weaken a bit more—to a pace of just 0.5 percent—in the first quarter. Earlier this year, some economists thought the economy would actually lurch into reverse during the opening quarter. Now, they say they believe that will likely happen during the current April-to-June period.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080430/1a_lede30_dom.art.htm?
Hiring leaps in public sector
First-quarter gain most since 2002
By Dennis Cauchon
May 1, 2008
Federal, state and local governments are hiring new workers at the fastest pace in six years, helping offset job losses in the private sector. Governments added 76,800 jobs in the first three months of 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. That's the biggest jump in first-quarter hiring since a boom in 2002 that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks. By contrast, private companies collectively shed 286,000 workers in the first three months of 2008. That job loss has led many economists to declare the country is in a recession. Job numbers for April, out Friday, will show if the trend is continuing. Some economists say a government hiring binge could soften a recession in the short term. "Government jobs are an important cushion for the economy when the private sector falters," says North Carolina State University economist Michael Walden.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080430191254.lghbtwt2&show_article=1
Three Chinese banks in world's top four: study
Apr 30 03:13 PM US/Eastern
Three Chinese institutions were among the world's top four banks at the end of 2007 at a time when the market capitalisation of Western banks was suffering from a global financial crisis, a study showed Wednesday. The number one spot in the rankings, compiled by the Boston Consulting Group, was occupied by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, with market capitalisation of nearly 340 billion dollars (218 billion euros). In second place was China Construction Bank, followed by HSBC of Britain, Bank of China, Bank of America and Citigroup of the United States. The study found that banks in North America and Western Europe had suffered a loss of 695 billion dollars in market capitalisation at the end of 2007 while their counterparts in emerging market countries Brazil, Russia, China and India had seen their market capitalisation increase by 753 billion dollars.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_mukherjee&sid=apxvp.7rL1x8
MIT Economist Cracks Big Puzzle of China's Rise
Commentary by Andy Mukherjee
April 30, 2008
One of the enduring mysteries of our times is how China has created capitalism out of thin air. Throughout history, countries have needed to secure private- property rights and impose limits on state power in order for entrepreneurs to take risks, for bankers to lend money to people other than the king's cousin and for economies to grow. Not communist China. The spectacular success of the Chinese economy in the past two decades seems to suggest to many analysts that good institutions may not really be as fundamentally important to a country as they are cracked up to be. This isn't an idle, academic debate. Our perception of what makes China successful has serious implications for how we analyze the prospects for the rest of the developing world. Most of us may believe that Robert Mugabe's undermining of democracy is bad news for Zimbabwe's economy.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120958396010557153.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
Workers' Rights in China
By GEOFFREY CROTHALL
May 1, 2008