Tag: Barack Obama (page 38)

The new Gallup poll, taken after Wednesday's Philadelphia debate, has Hillary Clinton tightening Obama's lead. She moves to within 3 points of him.

These results are based on interviewing conducted April 15-17, with Thursday night's interviewing the first conducted following the April 16 debate in Philadelphia. The initial indications are that Obama may have been hurt by the debate, which was noted for its negative tone and focus on the candidates' recent "gaffes" and Obama's associations with the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers (a former member of the radical Weather Underground group).

In Thursday night's interviewing, Clinton received a greater share of national Democratic support than Obama, the first time she has done so in an individual night's interviewing since April 3. That stronger showing for Clinton helped to snap Obama's streak of statistically significant leads in the three-day rolling averages Gallup reports each day. Until today, he had led Clinton by a statistically significant margin in each of the prior 11 Gallup releases.

As to McCain and the Democrats: [More...]

CBS has a new poll on Pennsylvania college students. The predictable results: they favor Obama. (full results here, pdf.)

Oh but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now

Looking at Pennsylvania's demographics and current voter registration statistics (available here in Excel), 10% of PA's voters are in the 18 to 24 age group. 38% are over 55.

I'm not sure how many of those are college students. I suspect there are plenty of registered young voters who are not attending college.

Intentional or not?

Update: I've watched it twice and I think he was just scratching his face. I don't think he meant anything by it. I also don't think he's dumb. Especially when he talks about how the cameras are on them 24/7.

Update: Comments now closed.

Hillary Clinton will be on the Stephen Colbert show tonight. Michelle Obama was on earlier this week.

If you watch it, let us know what you think.

Update: I just got an e-mail from the Colbert Report. John Edwards and Barack Obama will also make appearances on the show. Edwards will be in person and Obama will appear by satellite.

Why does Barack Obama keep using the term "mentally deranged" when discussing guns?

Mentally deranged does not equal mentally ill (or mentally challenged). Use of this term unfairly stigmatizes those suffering from mental illness.

Mental illnesses are treatable conditions that can be lived with and beaten and negative portrayals of mental illnesses only make it harder for those who are sick to get the help they need and to be taken seriously.

More here.

The Swamp has a long profile on University of Chicago Professor William Ayers. I don't think that Obama's association with Ayers is a problem because of Ayers' Weatherground past. And I support President Clinton's pardon and clemency for the two members of the group because it was based upon valid considerations and because we need Presidents who give more, not fewer grants of clemency.

In addition, I have admired Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn, for taking in and raising Chesa Boudin from the age of 14 months, when his parents, Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, were arrested for their misdeeds with the Weather Underground. Chesa went on to graduate from Yale and become a Rhodes Scholar and an advocate for children of the imprisoned. A few years ago he wrote a very moving article, I am the son of Inmate 83A6158, about a jail visit with his parents. Kathy Boudin finally was released on parole in 2003.

I also applaud the work that Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn and Obama have done on behalf of juvenile offenders.

For the past few weeks, however, I have been concerned about a totally different issue with respect to Prof. Ayers: his political views concerning Palestine and Israel. The LA Times recently explored Obama's connection to those politics through his and Ayers' service on the board of the Woods Fund, during which time he and Ayers voted to award a grant of $70,000 to an organization created by Rashid Khalidi. The article raises questions about the depth and sincerity of Obama's expressed support for Israel. [More...]

Now that you've had some time to reflect on last night's Pennsylvania debate, what did you think?

Some journalists are outraged over the the questions. Of course, the questions in this debate were no different than those in previous debates that lacked substance and seemed designed to put a candidate on the hot seat -- the difference was that this time (for once) it was Obama, not Hilary getting the heat.

I've watched the debate twice. The second time I tried to view it through the lens of a Pennsylvania voter who wasn't familiar with the nitty gritty details of William Ayers and lapel pins. (I figured even they knew about Bitter-Gate and Rev. Wright and Bosnia.)

It was unfortunate that the substantive portion of the debate didn't focus more on issues of importance to PA voters. The PA polls have shown PA voters of both parties are very concerned about immigration, the economy, health care and terrorism. They are less concerned about the war. By economy, I don't think they mean capital gains taxes for the wealthy. I think they mean creating new jobs, maintaining the jobs they have, how to avoid foreclosure, feed their families and put something away for their retirement and their kids' education, and how to be able to deal with having to take care of elderly parents.

[More...]

Here are video highlights from ABC on tonight's Pennsylvania debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

• Does Hillary Think Barack Can Beat McCain?
  George Stephanopoulos asks Clinton if she thinks Obama can win.

• Obama's Pastor Under Fire
  Clinton says you get to chose your pastor over controversial remarks.

• Should Voters Doubt Obama's Patriotism?
  Voter questions why Obama doesn't always wear American flag pin

• Clinton's 'Baggage' an Asset?
  Candidate says her past has been 'rummaged through for years'

More...

Update: Comments now closed, new post-debate thread is here .

Hillary Obama PA live thread continued.

If you're not by a tv or on the East Coast, you can watch online here.

Our first live thread is here.

I'll be putting up some polls during the debate to see how you think the candidates and questioners are doing. Big Tent's posts will say BTD and mine will be TL.

The live blog stays below the fold so that it can be a bit wider than the front page allows. Just click on the "There's More" button or bookmark the permalink to go directly to it.

If comments hit 200, we'll start a new one.

This is it. The Pennsylvania debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

If you're not by a tv or on the East Coast, you can watch online here.

Big Tent Democrat and I will be live-blogging starting just before 6:00 pm.

I'll be putting up some polls during the debate to see how you think the candidates and questioners are doing. Big Tent's posts will say BTD and mine will be TL.

The live blog stays below the fold so that it can be a bit wider than the front page allows. Just click on the "There's More" button or bookmark the permalink to go directly to it.

If comments hit 200, we'll start a new one.

Barack Obama released his tax return today. He earned $4.2 million.

In tax returns the campaign released Wednesday, the Obamas reported a significant jump in their income from the previous year as profits from the books "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope" accounted for some $4 million. The Obamas paid federal taxes of $1.4 million and donated $240,370 to charity.

Their salaried income was $260,735, which include his $157,102 salary as a U.S. senator and hers of $103,633 as vice president of community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

In 2006, the Obamas earned $991,296.

The sum included Obama's Senate salary of $157,082 and his wife's earnings of $273,618 from her position as an administrator at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Michelle Obama also earned $51,200 in director's fees from TreeHouse Inc., a food distributor.

What we have: two candidates who made millions from book deals. Good for both of them, I don't begrudge either their good fortune. And for both, let's face it, fortune or at least celebrity has a lot to do with it.

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There aren't too many silver linings for Hillary Clinton in this ABC News/Washington Post national poll. (Full poll results here, pdf., Washington Post article on it is here.)

The poll, out today, is a national one. It finds Democrats believe Obama should win the nomination and is more electable in November.

The silver lining: The views of those polled on superdelegates:

Only 13 percent of Democrats say superdelegates should support whoever’s won the most regular delegates in primaries and caucuses – a count in which Obama’s ahead, and seemingly likely to stay so. Instead a plurality, 46 percent, say superdelegates should support the candidate who’s won the most popular votes, a tally in which Clinton still has hopes. And 37 percent say superdelegates should go with their own sense of which candidate they think is best.

In other words, if Hillary does well in the remaining states, and she should, at least in PA, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky and Puerto Rico, a whopping 87% of those polled don't think it's a problem for superdelegates to vote according to either the popular vote total or their conscience instead of by the pledged delegate total.

More...