Why America dislike Sen. Hillary Clinton

Amos Ajo


There is no question that Sen. Hillary Clinton has worked very hard to earn our trust. She has changed just about everything including reconstructed artificial smiling face. Despite all these, it is very difficult for America to like her. So just in case you may be wondering as I do, the reason may be because of so many scandals that are associated with the Clintons. The Post's Deborah Orin and Thomas Galvin have pieced together your cut-out-and-keep A to Z guide of Clinton scandals . . from Arkansas to Zippers.

A is for Arkansas, where Bill Clinton got his political start, where Hillary Rodham Clinton worked at Rose Law Firm, and where Whitewater began as a land deal between the Clintons and Jim and Susan McDougal.

B is for Billing-gate, Hillary Clinton's missing law-billing records. Those records -- which raised questions about Mrs. Clinton's role in the Castle Grande deal -- were subpoenaed in 1994. They were missing until early 1996, when they turned up in a White House room next to her office. She says she doesn't know how they got there.

C is for Cattlegate, Hillary Clinton's mysterious ability to turn a $1,000 investment into a $100,000 profit on cattle futures, a feat experts say was virtually impossible in normal trading.

C is also for Castle Grande, a real-estate scheme that federal regulators say was a sham. A federal inspector general's report found Hillary Clinton drew up the legal papers that were used to improperly funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to Seth Ward, father-in-law of her ex-law partner Webster Hubbell.

D is for Billy Dale, the career head of the White House Travel Office, who was fired along with six other career staffers, to make way for Clinton cronies in Travelgate. The White House then brought in the FBI to justify the firing, and Dale was hit with criminal charges that wrecked his life for two years. A jury cleared him in just two hours.

E is for Mike Espy, the former agriculture secretary who was forced out over charges that he got gifts and favors from Arkansas-based Tyson foods, whose owners were longtime Clinton backers. A special counsel has brought several indictments, though not against Espy.

F is for Filegate, the improper White House rummaging through 900 FBI files on Republican officials in the Bush and Reagan administration. The White House says it was an innocent snafu. Republicans suspect an enemies list. Whitewater independent counsel Ken Starr and several congressional committees are probing.

G is for Golfgate, ex-White House aide David Watkins' improper use of presidential helicopters for a personal golf outing. He was forced to resign. In the 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton aides tried to use taxpayer funds to help settle a sexual harassment case filed by a fellow campaign worker against Watkins.

H is for Hillary Clinton, whose role has been questioned in Filegate, Travelgate, Billing-gate, Whitewater and Castle Grande. She denies any wrongdoing.

H is also for Hubbell, in jail after pleading guilty to bilking law clients on charges brought by Whitewater independent counsel Starr. Hubbell was previously the associate attorney general, the No. 3 Justice Department office.

I is for Indonesiagate, featuring the Lippo group, a firm with long-standing ties to Bill Clinton, Clinton cronies and Arkansas. Republicans want to know why an Indonesian couple -- of apparently modest means -- with ties to Lippo gave $452,000 to the Democratic National Committee and what the firm may have gotten in return. Lippo also hired Hubbell, at a reported fee of $250,000, for the five months when he left the White House and went to jail.

J is for Paula Jones, who accuses President Clinton of sexual harassment, saying he dropped his pants and asked for oral sex in an Arkansas hotel room while he was governor and she was a state employee. The U.S. Supreme Court will rule this fall on whether her case must wait until after Clinton leaves office, as he demands.

K is for William Kennedy, another ex-Hillary Clinton law partner who became a White House lawyer and was forced to resign after concealing his failure to pay nanny taxes. He was reprimanded for his role in Travelgate.

L is for Craig Livingstone, the ex-bar bouncer with a history of drug use who was the head of White House security. Two FBI agents say it was Hillary Clinton who demanded his hiring, which she denies. Disgraced Clinton political guru Dick Morris's hooker pal, Sherry Rowlands, claims Morris told her a "paranoid" Hillary Clinton was behind Filegate. He says he only told her that's what polls show.

M is for Jim and Susan McDougal, the Clintons' Whitewater partners, both of whom have been convicted of fraud. Jim McDougal is said to be helping Whitewater independent counsel Starr. Susan McDougal is in jail for refusing to say whether President Clinton lied when he denied knowing about an illegal $300,000 loan to bail out Whitewater. The loan wasn't repaid, and taxpayers were left holding the bag.

M is also for disgraced political guru Dick Morris.

N is for Bernard Nussbaum, the former White House lawyer who barred federal investigators from searching Vince Foster's office after Foster's death. Nussbaum also withheld Foster's diary on Travelgate problems from federal probers for more than a year. Nussbaum was forced to resign for botching damage-control efforts.

O is for Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary, the frequent flier who drew up an enemies list of reporters, hired an image consultant at taxpayer expense, and has run up huge tabs on overseas trips.

P is for Pardons, which President Clinton has refused to rule out for individuals like Susan McDougal who potentially could provide evidence against him.

P is also for White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, expected to leave in a second Clinton term -- with the prospect that his deputy, Harold Ickes, could replaces him. Senate Republicans want perjury charges brought against Ickes for his answers on Whitewater damage control.

Q is for all the questions -- unanswered -- on Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate, Cattlegate and Billgate.

R is for Sherry Rowlands, the $200-an-hour hooker who revealed her ongoing affair with Clinton political guru Dick Morris, the author of Clinton's family-values strategy, forcing Morris to resign.

R is also for the Rose Law Firm, where Hillary Clinton, Vince Foster, Webster Hubbell and William Kennedy were partners, as was Joseph Giroir, a key figure in the Lippo group.

S is for Kenneth Starr, the Whitewater independent counsel probing Filegate, Travelgate and Vince Foster's death. He has won 15 convictions or guilty pleas, including both McDougals and former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, who was forced to resign. Starr says his probes are active and ongoing, and there is widespread speculation he will have more indictments after the election, possibly including one of Hillary Clinton.

T is for Travelgate, the Clintons' firing of career travel staffers like Billy Dale to make way for Clinton cronies. White House memos say Hillary Clinton was behind the firings -- she denies it -- and that she was spurred on by Clinton Hollywood pal Harry Thomason, who was seeking a piece of the lucrative White House charter business.

U is for undue influence and the question of whether that is what Lippo was seeking though megabucks contributions to Democrats. Lippo has close ties to Indonesia's brutal dictatorship, responsible for near-genocide in East Timor, which it occupied two decades ago.

V is for Vince Foster, the former Hillary Clinton law partner who became a White House lawyer and was found dead, an apparent suicide with a gunshot wound to the head. He apparently was a central figure in Travelgate and Filegate and handled Whitewater matters for the Clintons. Starr is examining his death and has yet to confirm former prober Bob Fiske's conclusion that it was a suicide in the park where Foster was found.

W is for Whitewater, the Arkansas land deal that started it all, with questions about whether the Clintons improperly benefitted from funds Jim McDougal's Madison Guarantee savings-and-loan, which went belly up, costing taxpayers an estimated $60 million.

X is for the Xeroxed copy of Hillary Clinton's law billing records that were found in the white House book room, two years after they were first sought. The pages had Mrs. Clinton's fingerprints around the section on Castle Grande - there were red ink notations in the late Vince Foster's handwriting.

Y is for the the young White House aides who were hired by the Clinton administration despite FBI background checks that found "recent" use of hard drugs like cocaine, crack and hallucinogens.

Z is for zippers -- the one Paula Jones claims that the then-Arkansas governor undid (see J) and the one Gennifer Flowers claims Clinton undid during what she insists was a long-running affair. He denies the claims.

Classic Politics of Distortion

Amos Ajo

AJC:Already, we’re getting a taste of what’s in store for the next nine months. One side will insist on speaking in French. And the other will listen only in German.

The network was Fox, of course, the host was John Gibson, and the video clip showed Michelle Obama, wife of the Democratic presidential candidate, saying this:

“For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country, because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.”

The first to rake over her words on Tuesday was Ralph Reed, the former Georgia GOP chairman:

“The reason why I think this isn’t going to go away, unless she apologizes quickly, is because it plays into a stereotype about the left wing of the Democratic Party, that it blames America first, that they don’t see the greatness of America, and it really makes me wonder if somebody who is roughly about Barack and Michelle’s age, what country she grew up in.

“I mean, I was proud of America when we won the Cold War and the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union disintegrated. I was proud when we expelled Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. I was proud when we liberated 50 million people from the Taliban of Saddam Hussein. I was proud when we provided humanitarian aid to the victims of an earthquake in Iran and to a tsunami in Asia.

“I think the other thing it does is it plays into this weakness that’s developing that the Obama candidacy is sort of a modern political equivalent of Beatle mania rather than a legitimate aspiration to be commander-in-chief.”

Replied analyst Kirsten Powers: “In reference to that little speech that Ralph just gave, I mean why do people think that about liberals? It’s because people do what Ralph just did.

“They sit around and they claim that because apparently Ralph Reed and all his friends were marching around in excitement, the day that they remember that we won the Cold War, and she doesn’t rah-rah about it the way they do, that therefore she is not a proud American.

“Look this is a woman who is a mother, she is a lawyer, she’s not somebody who has been politically active as far as I can tell. If you’re asking what was she thinking when we won the Cold War when she was probably in law school, I don’t think it probably tells you that much about her.

“She has come out and she has clarified what she meant. Look, this is the front-runner. The fact of the matter is that she has been really lucky, I think that, she really hasn’t tripped up yet.”

Role of Superdelegates Undemocratic!

Amos Ajo

If Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton manages to emerge victorious from the primary season, the 796 "superdelegates" to the Democratic National Convention won't be needed to break a deadlock. To many, that would be a relief. Although some superdelegates said just a few weeks ago they'd welcome a deciding role, a backlash has been building to the notion that party insiders could tip the outcome. Superdelegates, known in the party rules as unpledged delegates, clearly are feeling the heat.

"There is anger among a substantial element of the party who feel these unpledged delegates are somehow undemocratic, and if the primary result is overturned, the results are somehow illegitimate," says Stuart Rothenberg, an independent political analyst in Washington. "This is a major problem for the Democrats."

Early on, Clinton amassed a big lead among superdelegates - a group that includes Democratic members of Congress and governors, Democratic National Committee officials, and 76 at-large delegates yet to be selected. In all, the superdelegates account for about one-fifth of delegates at the Democratic National Convention in August.

But a string of primary and caucus wins by Obama shifted the momentum of the race, and left many congressional lawmakers and governors who had made early endorsements looking out of sync with their constituents.

As of Tuesday, 242 superdelegates have endorsed Clinton and 160 have picked Obama, according to the Associated Press. Among superdelegates who hold elective office and whose states have already held primaries or caucuses, 92 have made public commitments that are at odds with the vote in their states. Here's the breakdown: 21 elected superdelegates back Clinton although their states or districts voted for Obama; 14 back Obama in states that went for Clinton. Another 33 elected superdelegates are uncommitted, although their constituents voted for Obama; 24 are neutral whose constituents voted for Clinton, according to the AP review.

"Our nominee must be chosen by Democratic voters, not by backroom deals of the party elite," says Charles Chamberlain, political director for Democracy for America, which launched a petition drive last Wednesday calling on superdelegates to respect the popular vote. So far, some 55,000 activists have endorsed the Internet petition.

Many superdelegates say they're already getting the message that respecting the popular vote is becoming an expectation."I'm not comfortable with the idea that we know better. I will vote as a superdelegate for Hillary Clinton, if she ends up with the most pledged delegates," says Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who has endorsed Obama. "I'm confident that in my party, which prides itself as being a party of the people, superdelegates will be nominating the one with the most pledged delegates."

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia had expected to wait until the August convention to make an endorsement. But the growing backlash to an outsized role for superdelegates prompted her to speak out in favor of the candidate supported by her district. She came out for Obama on the eve of the Feb. 12 D.C. primary, fully expecting that he would win.

"As a superdelegate, I decided I had to speak up now to separate myself from the idea ... that superdelegates, especially those who have not announced their choice, could or should decide our nominee under some circumstances," she said in a statement Feb. 11. After 72, the rise of superdelegates

The category of superdelegate was first proposed after Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern was routed in the 1972 general election. The idea was that by playing a role in the nominating conventions, party professionals would help ensure that the nominee was electable - and would be supported by the party establishment in the general election.

"One of the things we're seeing this year - more than at any time since 1984 - is that some of the superdelegates are making a judgment based not just on who will make the best candidate, but decide to go along with the majority view in their district or state," says Anthony Corrado, professor of government at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

Not since the 1984 nominating race between Vice President Walter Mondale and Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado has a Democratic primary been so contested. Mondale mounted an intense campaign for superdelegate votes, which put him over the top at the convention.

Is Sen. Hillary Clinton running for the United Blue States of America?

Amos Ajo

Governor Kathleen Sebelius today called on Senator Clinton and her campaign surrogates to stop discounting the votes of Red State Democrats.

“Senator Clinton and her campaign surrogates keep deriding Senator Obama’s wins in red states by saying that her victories in the ‘big states’ are the ones that matter,” Governor Sebelius said. “ The right Democrat, like Barack Obama, can carry red states, just like the 14 Democratic governors elected in states won by George Bush in 2004. We can’t tell people their votes don’t matter and then expect their support against John McCain in November. Senator Obama is reaching to Independents and Republicans because they desperately want to change our politics. I hope Senator Clinton will follow his lead and stop dismissing Democrats that don’t live in New York or California.”

Clinton Criticism of Red States
Clinton Said She Was Winning The Big States Democrats Had To Win And Said “We Are Never Going To Carry Alaska, Idaho, It’s Just Not Going To Happen.” Clinton, on the states she has been winning in the primary, said “I have been winning the big states we have to win. With all due respect, unless there is a tsunami change in America, we are never going to carry Alaska, North Dakota, Idaho, it’s just not going to happen, but we have to carry the states I’ve been carrying, the primary states, the states that have to be in the winning Democratic column. And if you look at my vote there, it is the voters we have to have: People making less than $50,000, women, Latinos.” [Politico Forum, 2/11/07]

Clinton Downplayed Red State Wins, Said “It is Highly Unlikely” Democrats Will Win Alaska, North Dakota, Idaho or Nebraska. “She also downplayed many of Obama's Super Tuesday victories, describing them as states that Democrats should not expect to win in November. "It is highly unlikely we will win Alaska or North Dakota or Idaho or Nebraska," she said, naming several of Obama's red state wins. "But we have to win Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, Michigan … And we've got to be competitive in places like Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma." [CNN, 2/11/08]

Mark Penn Minimized Obama Wins In Red States. “Sen. Obama, in contrast, won with large margins in Alabama and Georgia, two states that have been in the Republican column in the last two elections. He also won with large margins in a string of caucus states with comparatively fewer voters - Alaska, Idaho, Utah, and Kansas - and have also been in the Republican column. Of course, he won his home state.” [Mark Penn memo, 2/6/08]

Harold Ickes said Idaho, Nebraska and Kansas will not vote for a Democratic president. “In response to a question from NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Ickes acknowledged Obama has done well in some smaller contests like Idaho, Nebraska and Kansas, but said those Republican strongholds will never flip in November. ‘I agree he’s done well in those caucus states – we didn’t make as much of an effort as we probably should have,’ Ickes said. ‘But those states simply are not going to vote this year for a Democratic president, Andrea.’” [Politico, 2/16/08]

Silence from Al Gore speaks very loud

Amos Ajo

The bitter feelings between Gore and 2008 presidential candidate Hillary are said to persist to this day, leading some observers to speculate that Gore could enter the 2008 race after all — a move that might prove a final payback to Hillary.

The rift between the then-new first lady and the vice president began to develop just days after Bill Clinton’s inauguration, when he appointed Hillary to head his healthcare task force, according to an excerpt, published in the November issue of Vanity Fair, from Smith’s book.

“The move took nearly all his top officials by surprise, including Al Gore,” she writes. “Bill had invested Gore with considerable responsibility, but his failure to confide in his vice president was a telling sign of the real pecking order.”

Before long, administration officials came to realize that Hillary would play a part in all of Bill’s decisions. “He would say, ‘Hillary thinks this. What do you think?’ White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum told Smith.

Staff members began calling Hillary “the Supreme Court,” the final arbiter on many issues.

Gore, meanwhile, was being increasingly marginalized. White House insiders recalled meetings where Hillary urged Bill to discount Gore’s advice, telling him: “Bill, you are the president.”

Smith observed: “The Clintons resented the Gores because they were products of Washington’s prestigious private schools and its social network . . .

“Hillary always had an undercurrent of competition with Al Gore that burst into the open from time to time.”




On Nov. 6, 1998, New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan announced that he would not run for a fifth term.

“The Moynihan seat had in fact been on the Clintons’ radar for months,” Smith discloses, and Hillary would eventually campaign for the seat while Gore campaigned to succeed Bill in the White House.

Even before the campaigns began, the “center of gravity” in the Clintons’ relationship had been shifting from Bill to Hillary.

Bill was a lame duck, crippled by the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and she was “the rising political star,” according to Smith’s book, which will officially be published on Oct. 23.

“Hillary’s ascendancy had a significant impact on the presidential prospects of Al Gore, diverting attention and resources from his candidacy and adding to the growing tensions between the Gores and the Clintons over Bill’s involvement with Lewinsky,” Smith writes.

On the day he announced his candidacy for president, Gore said in a televised interview that he thought Bill Clinton’s behavior was “terribly wrong.” When Bill heard about the comment, he “erupted” in anger.

Bill was still a sitting president, in a position to give Gore’s campaign major boosts, but according to Smith, “in 1999 those resources were diverted from Gore to Hillary ‘in a big way,’ said one member of the Gore team. ‘The Clintons come first.’”

That year, Hillary’s office had 86 major speeches listed on the White House Web site — four times as many as those listed for her husband and Gore combined.

One dramatic example of the “contest” between Hillary and Gore came in September 1999 when the Federal Trade Commission was set to release a report on violence in the media.

“Under ordinary circumstances, a vice president running for the presidency would have first call on publicizing the report,” Smith notes. “But Hillary insisted she should handle the rollout.”

When the decision was made to have Gore and the Clintons make more or less simultaneous announcements, “this did not sit well” with Gore and his vice presidential running mate Joe Lieberman, and they decided to break the news on their own.

Perhaps more significantly, Hillary was also competing with Gore for campaign contributions.

Bill and Hillary “raised millions for themselves, distracting attention from the presidential race, siphoning off Democratic money, and further angering the vice president and his team,” discloses Smith, a former New York Times reporter whose other works include books about the Kennedy White House and Princess Diana.

She tells that when a friend of Tipper Gore planned a fundraiser in Los Angeles, Hillary insisted on being invited — “then shocked the vice president’s supporters by soliciting donations for herself in front of Tipper.”

The result of the Gore-Hillary clash, according to Smith: “The colliding agendas of the president, first lady, and vice president were gifts to the Republicans.”

When Hillary easily won her Senate seat, rumors “almost immediately” started about a Hillary run for the White House in 2004 or 2008, Smith writes.

Gore, meanwhile, went down to a bitter defeat to George Bush after a legal wrangle over Florida votes that lasted 36 days.

After the outcome was determined, Gore and Bill Clinton met in the Oval Office on Dec. 21. “It was an unpleasant encounter, as Gore forthrightly blamed Bill’s scandals, while Bill rebuked Gore for failing to make the most of their successful record,” Smith reveals.

“Afterward, Bill told [presidential adviser] Sidney Blumenthal they had parted after ‘patching everything up,’ but in fact the mutual resentments among the Clintons and Gore persisted.”

New trouble signs for Sen. Hillary Clinton,s campaign

Amos Ajo
A central strategy in Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has been to win the bulk of the 796 'superdelegates' - party officials and members of Congress - automatically given votes at the Democratic convention this August in Denver.

She took an early, substantial lead among these pols and activists early on, when she appeared to be the inevitable nominee. For weeks, it helped her stay (deceptively) ahead of Barack Obama in the delegate race.

But there's trouble signs on the horizon. Unlike the at-large delegates awarded through primaries and caucuses, the superdelegates are not pledged to any candidate, which means they can change their mind at any time.

And that's exactly what's starting to happen. Longtime Democratic congressman John Lewis, a leading black lawmaker, this morning announced he's defecting to Obama's camp, joining a handful of others who in recent days have made the switch.

This is precisely what Obama has hoped would happen - that as he gained a lead in pledged delegates, the superdelegates would bow to the democratic will of their constituents and join his campaign.

What Clinton really needs now is to win in Texas and Ohio on March 4, or she could see a sudden rush of defections to Obama long before the two get to the Denver convention.

Sen. Hillary Clinton losing her base

Amos A. Ajo

Barack Obama’s Potomac sweep, though not a surprise, was a blow to Hillary Clinton’s camp, but his margins of victory and the groups that contributed to his solid wins in all three primaries were surprising. While Hillary Clinton’s campaign continues to focus its spin on the New York senator’s chances in upcoming delegate-rich primaries in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, Obama’s string of eight consecutive victories illustrates a larger problem for Clinton: she is starting to lose her base.

Claims that Clinton holds an advantage in a general election did not sway primary voters in Virginia and Maryland. In those two states, the same demographic groups that have pushed Clinton to victories in California and New York voted for Obama instead of the former First Lady. In Virginia, Obama beat Clinton by 28 percentage points, capturing 64% of the vote. In Maryland, Obama’s edge was 24 percentage points, and in the predominately African-American District of Columbia, the Illinois senator’s vote total was three times Clinton’s, raking in 75% of all ballots cast.

Exit polls conducted by CNN illustrate Clinton’s biggest problems. In Virginia and Maryland, Obama outperformed Clinton among women, seniors (those over 60), and voters with annual incomes below $50,000, three groups that helped Clinton to her most significant primary wins in New York and California. Another group that supported Clinton on Feb. 5 but appears to be moving towards Obama is white voters; who preferred Obama by 5 percentage points in Maryland and were split 50-50 in Virginia. The Illinois senator also had more support among union households on Tuesday.

A contributing force for Obama in Virginia was early turnout and the state’s new Governor, Tim Kaine, who showed he could get his supporters to vote for Obama. Although Kaine may be too inexperienced to round out Obama’s ticket should the Illinois senator win the nomination, he will play a key role for either Democrat come November.

The shake-up at the Clinton campaign continued yesterday as Mike Henry, Clinton’s deputy campaign manager, resigned. The “party line” is that Henry moved as a sign of respect for Clinton’s new leadership team, led by new campaign manager Maggie Williams. The new crew has its hands full as it tries to head off Obama’s momentum, and gears up for what could be pivotal Ohio and Texas contests on March 4.
In the Feb. 12 primaries, Hillary Clinton lost the projected lead in both the overall delegate count and delegate count from the popular vote, and she must regroup if she wants to reverse her fortunes.

RealClearPolitics is now keeping track of the national popular vote in addition to the total delegate count. Even if the votes from disputed elections in Florida and Michigan are included, Obama’s 9,923,921 votes give him a lead of over 75,000 voters. If you exclude the votes from those two states—which went to Clinton—his lead balloons to nearly 700,000. These totals include representative votes from the caucuses, a format that has heavily favored Obama.

Too much dirt under the Clinton carpet

Amos Ajo

At a news conference on the morning after Super Tuesday, Obama offered some pointed advice to members of Congress and other party leaders who will attend the national convention this summer as delegates not chosen in primaries or caucuses.

He said that if he winds up winning more delegates in voting than the former first lady, they "would have to think long and hard about how they approach the nomination when the people they claim to represent have said, 'Obama's our guy,'" he said.

The Illinois senator won primaries and caucuses in 13 states on Tuesday, while Clinton won eight and American Samoa. Obama and Clinton were in a tight race in New Mexico.

Obama said he had won a majority of the 1,681 delegates at stake, although The Associated Press tally showed several hundred yet to be allocated.

Asked about Clinton's recent comment that she would not allow herself to be victimized by the type of Swift Boat-style attacks that were leveled against Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 race, Obama said he had been vetted by his opponent in the nominating campaign.

"I have to just respond by saying that the Clinton research operation is about as good as anybody's out there," he said.

"I assure you that having engaged in a contest against them for the last year that they've pulled out all the stops. And you know I think what is absolutely true is whoever the Democratic nominee is the Republicans will go after them. The notion that somehow Senator Clinton is going to be immune from attack or there's not a whole dump truck they can't back up in a match between her and John McCain is just not true."

It wasn't the only point at which he said he would do better against the Republicans in the fall.

"I have no doubt that I can get the people who vote for Senator Clinton. ... It's not clear that Senator Clinton can get all the people I'm getting," he said.

Obama sought to claim the permanent underdog's role in the race, saying the New York senator is backed by a "political machine honed over two decades."

At the same time, he said the more he appears before voters, the better he does on primary days.

He said he intends to campaign in the states next up on the calendar — Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington vote on Saturday; Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia on Tuesday.

Presidential Hopefuls Must Match Bush Legacy

By Howard F. Jeter

The 2008 presidential campaign started earlier than ever, with a multitude of debates this past spring and summer before union officials, conservative caucuses, African-American activists at historically black colleges and even users of the web site phenomenon YouTube. But it appears that the more things change, the more they remain the same. Africa continues to be an afterthought among the issues American presidential candidates deal with despite the growing importance of Africa to the well-being and security of the United States.

Africa is a continent that matters increasingly to the United States and the rest of the international community. African countries are reservoirs of the world’s vital natural resources, including petroleum, natural gas, gold, titanium, cobalt and the newly-important coltan (used in computers, personal digital assistants, etc.). Meanwhile, transnational diseases such as HIV-AIDS and West Nile Fever now plague the developed world, and for global health reasons, the control of potential epidemics in Africa is increasingly of interest to the United States and all countries throughout the world. African poverty and preventable disasters draw American development and humanitarian assistance and charitable contributions that could be devoted to sustainable development and a rising African standard of living. Due to a lack of transparency and accountability in too many African countries, billions of dollars in national revenue have been diverted from their originally intended purposes. Poor governance in Africa provides havens for international criminal syndicates and terrorism that threatens us all.

In what may come as a surprise to some, President George W. Bush clearly understands the importance of Africa, more than any other contemporary President – Democrat or Republican. President Bush was the first Republican President to visit Africa (although his father visited Africa as Vice President), a dramatic departure from past Republican Administrations. Moreover, he is only the second President of any party to visit Africa in his first term. The Bush Administration has devoted considerable time, energy and resources to resolve some of Africa’s most intractable problems, including internal conflicts in Sudan and Liberia.

According to a study by the Center for Global Development, President Bush has increased the amount of money spent on assistance to Africa more than fourfold, and his annual bilateral aid to Africa is more than twice the level of any previous Administration. The Bush Administration created major new aid programs that benefited African nations, such as the Millennium Challenge Account, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Africa Education Initiative, the President’s Malaria Initiative, the Congo Basin Forest Partnership and the Initiative to End Hunger in Africa. President Bush also extended and enhanced the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

The current Administration has created new partnerships with Africans, such as the Trans-Sahel Counterterrorism Initiative to fight a common threat. For the first time in U.S. history, the United States has appointed an Ambassador to the African Union. And also for the first time, all Africa military operations are being consolidated into one unified command so that African issues can be a focus and not an afterthought when the U.S. military must become involved on the continent of Africa in support of African peacekeeping operations, humanitarian relief and security assistance.

A significant portion of our country’s population is directly descended from Africa. However, interest in Africa goes far beyond the African-American community. A growing number of Americans owe their jobs to trade with Africa. Many churches fund humanitarian operations in Africa. American oil companies have discovered Africa as a new frontier in our quest to guarantee our national energy security. Why then does the current crop of U.S. presidential candidates ignore the rising importance of the world’s second largest continent?

The Leon H. Sullivan Foundation leads a coalition of 15 national organizations interested in how the next Administration plans to address major issues involving Africa. A 10-point questionnaire was sent to all Democratic and Republican presidential candidates in June. As of this writing, only Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Governor Bill Richardson and former Senator John Edwards thought it was important enough to respond to that questionnaire. None of the candidates had time to attend a planned October forum on Africa, and only a few of the candidates even bothered to offer a representative for that forum to answer questions about significant issues facing Africa and their importance to the United States. It is surprising and disappointing that other candidates did not respond to at least the questionnaire since most have experience on Africa and presumably know that African issues will demand their attention if they are elected President. Consequently, one wonders why it was considered more important to answer a question from a guy in a snowman suit on YouTube than organizations representing millions of stakeholders and voters on issues of critical concern.

The next Administration will still have to deal with the genocide that occurred in Darfur and the continued suffering of people in that country and its neighbors. Sometime during the next decade, Africa’s supply of oil to America will rival the Middle East as a source of petroleum. Concerns about what role the U.S. military will play in humanitarian and security operations through AFRICOM will largely fall to the next President. Whether African countries become full economic partners or continue as recipients of American and Western largesse will depend on what the next President does. It is important to America that our next President understands the vital role Africa plays in America’s future. Fortunately, our current President does seem to understand, and we applaud him for that.

We need to know the intentions of those who would be President Bush’s successor before we vote and not after they are elected. We need them to tell us more than vague generalities so we can make an informed choice in the polling booth. The days when Africa only mattered to a few activists are over. Africa matters to all Americans, and candidates who do not recognize that fact may lose the support of important constituencies throughout the country.

Ambassador (ret.) Howard F. Jeter is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation. He was a career foreign service officer who served as U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and Botswana, Special Presidential Envoy for Liberia, State Department Director for West Africa and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.

Hillary Clinton Presidency will undermine American Democracy

Amos Ajo

While speaking at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum on May 28, 2003, former President Bill Clinton announced that Congress should change the 22nd Amendment that limits a president to two terms. "I think since people are living much longer . . . the 22nd Amendment should probably be modified to say two consecutive terms instead of two terms for a lifetime," Clinton said. It has always been the desire of President Clinton to get back to power.
It was the idea of George Washington to have term limit. He was afraid of future presidents like Bill Clinton. Washington pointed out that "we shouldn't allow any one person to hold power for long because power corrupts." Washington made the point when he stepped down as president after two terms. Thomas Jefferson continued Washington's limit of two terms and the tradition lasted until FDR.

"Washington established the tradition of a two-term limit on the president that continued for 142 years until broken by Franklin Roosevelt. Once the tradition was broken, Congress moved quickly to make it the law of the land through the 22nd Amendment. This was a critical piece of legislation because presidential power is like poison. The power can turn human beings to Mabuto,Idi Amin, Castro etc. Fortunately, the founding fathers of this great country were more interested in creating a great democracy.

What many observers of this great democracy are beginning to see is that there is a danger underway to undermine the American democracy by what is going on now with Bill Clinton. To circumvent the law, Bill Clinton is using his wife to achieve his desire of holding on to presidential power. So far he has been very successful. When you take a look at all the super delegates that have signed up for his wife Hillary, all of them were individuals that benefited under his administration or individuals that he did some favor to them. Bill Clinton has been very open about this. People who know Gov. Bill Richardson are saying that he does not want to endorse Hillary Clinton because she is too controlling and divisive person but Clinton is almost forcing him to endorse her on the ground that he offered him key positions during his administration.

Hillary Clinton will finally end up the nominee of her party because of the super delegates who benefited from her husband. I hope this will not be the case because I am afraid this will undermine our democracy. Let’s face it, with president Clinton, we will not be hearing of Hillary Clinton running for the President of United States.

Great News Stories of 2007

Amos Ajo

• The CNN TV network had to apologize to US presidential hopeful Barack Obama after it confused his surname with the first name of the world's best-known terrorism suspect. A sequence on the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden carried the caption "Where's Obama?"
• An Australian bank was embarrassed when it emerged that it had issued a credit card to a cat. The owner of Messiah, a ginger tom, had put in the spoof application to test the bank's security system.
• A 100-year-old woman in Germany moved out of her retirement home after six weeks saying she found the other residents not only boring but also "too old." She returned home to her cat.
• Switzerland's army inadvertently invaded the tiny neighboring state of Liechtenstein. A unit on maneuvers got lost at dead of night, officials said.
• The Norwegian government abolished a regulation that had allowed strip-clubs to claim exemption from sales tax on the grounds that their performances were an art form.
• A British man claimed the dubious distinction of making the first ever mobile phone call from the summit of Mount Everest. "It's cold" were his first words.
• Fishery officials in China restocked a river with 13 truckloads of live carp, only to realize that thousands of residents from a nearby city had immediately swarmed to the banks a short way downstream and caught most of them.
• Transport officials in Australia try to discourage men from driving too fast with a series of TV ads featuring attractive woman suggesting that speeding males were trying to compensate for inadequate virility.
• A town in South Korea which spent some $140 million to build its own airport was then forced to admit that no airlines actually wanted to fly there.
• The Chinese capital Beijing began a campaign to improve its signposting in English ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games. Among signs in need of correcting were ones for "Pubic Toilets," and "Deformed Men" -- the latter indicating facilities for the handicapped.
• A US man who ordered flowers for his mistress sued the florists after they sent a note to his home thanking him for his order -- thereby informing his wife of his infidelity.
• An African medicine man dived into a river in Tanzania after promising his fellow villagers that he would bring back revelations from ancestral spirits lurking underwater. He drowned.
• A child math prodigy who started university in Hong Kong at age nine, said he found the courses too easy, and rather boring.
• A Belgian prankster reacted to a prolonged political crisis in his native land by putting the entire country up for sale on the Internet auction site eBay. The company halted the bidding.
• Dutch anglers were up in arms against immigrant workers from Poland, who also enjoy fishing in the many local lakes. The problem being that the Poles actually eat the fish they catch, whereas the Dutch believe in simply putting them back in the water.
• A posh food store in New York was embarrassed after an employee, who was clearly not Jewish, stuck a "Delicious for Hanukkah" sign on hams. Jews, for whom Hanukkah is a religious holiday, do not eat pork.

Critical Endorsements for Sen. Obama

Amos Ajo

Sen. Barack Obama continues to pick up endorsements from newspapers and politicians across America, in advance of the 2008 presidential primaries and caucuses:

Iowa state Rep. Wayne Ford of Des Moines announced his support of Obama, giving him a 20-19 lead over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in endorsements from Iowa lawmakers. Obama has been endorsed by all four of Iowa's black legislators.

Former U.S. Rep. Berkley Bedell of Iowa endorsed Obama, saying: "I think he is the most electable in the general election among the top three, and I also believe that he has demonstrated that he can work across party lines and end this terrible bickering that has been going on between the Republicans and the Democrats." He said Obama can bring the two sides together "more so than any of the others."

The Sioux City Journal endorsed Obama, stating: "Barack Obama is the Democratic candidate who best understands this critical moment in our nation's history. He is equipped to bring a fractured people together and possesses the gifts to move us forward, united with a common mission, ready to answer that call. That is why we are endorsing the U.S. senator from Illinois in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses."

The Chicago Tribune reported on Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s effort over the weekend to register Democratic voters in Sumter, S.C., in advance of the state's Jan. 19 primary. Jackson, who is backing Obama, said: “People on the South Side of Chicago are waiting to hear from the state of South Carolina. People in Harlem are waiting to hear from the state of South Carolina . . . They are waiting for you to write a new chapter.”

The Dallas Morning News endorsed Obama, stating: "Mr. Obama is our choice because of his consistently solid judgment, poise under pressure and ability to campaign effectively without resorting to the divisive politics of the past."

Obama's stump speech is like a Beethoven symphony

By DAVID S. BRODER


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MANCHESTER, N.H. — Barack Obama has become a one-trick pony. But what a trick it is!

The stump speech he has developed in the closing stages of the pre-Christmas campaign is a thing of beauty, a 40-minute oration delivered without notes that is powering his gains in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3 and the first primary here in New Hampshire five days later.

Hillary Clinton has nothing to match it. John Edwards has periodic bursts of eloquence. But Obama has reached the point of being able to deliver the speech on demand, and to reach audiences with assured effect. It has become his security blanket.

The speech was introduced at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Des Moines more than a month ago, when Obama was still struggling for leverage against Clinton and Edwards in Iowa.

It drew rave reviews from that big audience and from Des Moines Register columnist David Yepsen, and Obama knew he had a winner.

He gave it again to the Democratic National Committee at its candidate forum in northern Virginia, and won accolades.

So he gave it four more times, when he toured with Oprah Winfrey through Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Manchester and Columbia, S.C., thrilling about 60,000 people at the four venues.

He has now delivered it in small towns all over Iowa, and here in New Hampshire, he did it six more times in two days last week.

It is a helluva speech. Like some Beethoven symphonies, it starts on a rather calm and even lighthearted note.

He hits an early applause line by reminding audiences that next year, "George Bush's name will not be on the ballot." Democrats cheer the prospective departure of the man they despise.

And then Obama jokes, "Neither will my cousin, Dick Cheney. What an embarrassment to discover he was part of the family."

He segues to a standard riff about the importance of the coming election, quickly converting it into a pointed attack on Hillary Clinton, although he does not name her.

Given the stakes, he says, it is not enough just to change parties or presidents in this election. "We have to change politics. The same old games won't do; triangulating and trimming won't do."

Then Obama pays his respect to Edwards-style populism, ragging on a Washington where health care and energy legislation have been stymied for years by corporate lobbyists — none of whom, he promises, will get the time of day from an Obama administration.

Then he touches the erogenous zones of various Democratic constituencies, promising labor to raise the minimum wage each and every year; promising teachers generous salaries; and promising college students new help in paying tuition.

And finally, comes the peroration, quoting Martin Luther King Jr. on the "fierce urgency of now," in explaining why he can't patiently wait his turn to run for president. It's a bit of a reach because he wants to draw another contrast with Hillary.

Unlike others, he says, he has not planned to run for years and he does not regard the presidency as his entitlement.

The closing anecdote is based on an incident at a rally in Greenwood, S.C., where, on a miserable morning, with a meager crowd, a single black woman in the audience first revived Obama's spirit by shouting out encouragement, and then got everyone chanting, responsively, "Fired up!" "Ready to go!"

As he tells the familiar story, Obama segues from a conversational tone to a shout, and explains that the chant has now become his trademark and slogan.

So, he tells his listeners, "I've got one thing to ask you. Are you FIRED UP? Are you READY TO GO? FIRED UP! READY TO GO!"

And then, as the shouting becomes almost too loud to bear, he adds the five words that capsulize his whole message and sends the voters scrambling back into their winter coats and streaming out the door: "Let's go change the world," Obama says. And it sounds as if he means it.

In every audience I have seen, there is a jolt of pure electric energy at those closing words.

Tears stain some cheeks — and some people look a little thunderstruck.

Broder, a Pulitzer Prize-winning political reporter, writes a nationally syndicated column from Washington, D.C. (davidbroder@washpost.com )

We Thought Mrs. Hillary Clinton was Smart

Amos Ajo

Perception in Politics is reality. Mrs. Clinton since the start of her campaign was successful in making us believe that she was invincible. She sat on a special chair in her mansion with an appearance of a Queen. She went as far as boosting that she was running to win. Everybody perceived her to be invincible. All the old American politicians eager to get employed after several years of unemployment started throwing their support on her. A group of Black Clergy men with small store front churches in South Carolina gathered and endorsed her. Everything was going well. Questions that she knew the answers were planted during her questions and answer sessions. She did so well and we all started to buy into the idea that she was really good. She was INVINCIBLE until someone allowed the god out.....the whole world discovered that she was not that good. She was after all not invincible.

During the whole process everybody started telling Mrs. Clinton that she was smart. Every Congressman and every presidential candidate has been forced to rehearse that Mrs. Clinton is a smart woman. Unfortunately she was not scripted and was on her own and made one of the most revealing secret that she is neither invincible nor smart. Read the major press release by Mrs. Clinton and guess how smart she is on the scale of one to ten. If your answer is one you are correct……

Here's a press release the Clinton campaign issued Sunday:
SEN. OBAMA REWRITES HISTORY,
CLAIMS HE HASN’T BEEN PLANNING WHITE HOUSE RUN

Today in Iowa, Senator Barack Obama said: "I have not been planning to run for President for however number of years some of the other candidates have been planning for.”

Oh really?

“Senator Obama’s comment today is fundamentally at odds with what his teachers, family, classmates and staff have said about his plans to run for President,” Clinton spokesperson Phil Singer said. “Senator Obama’s campaign rhetoric is getting in the way of his reality.”

Immediately after joining the Senate, Senator Obama started planning run for President. "'The first order of business for Senator Obama's team was charting a course for his first two years in the Senate. The game plan was to send Senator Obama into the 2007-2008 election cycle in the strongest form possible'...The final act of the plan was turning up the talk about a potential Presidential bid, which was greatly aided by his positive press and suggestions by pundits that he run for President." [U.S. News and World Report, 6/19/07 ]

His law school classmates say that Senator Obama has been planning Presidential run for 'more than a decade.' [A]ccording to those who know him, he has been talking about the presidency for more than a decade. "It was clear to me from the day I met him that he was thinking about politics," says Harvard Law School classmate Christine Spurell. [Washington Post, 8/12/07 ]

15 years ago, Senator Obama told his brother-in-law he was planning to run for President. Craig [Robinson] pulled him aside [in 1992] and asked about his plans. "He said, 'I think I'd like to teach at some point in time, and maybe run for public office,' recalls Robinson, who assumed Senator Obama meant he'd like to run for city alderman. "He said no -- at some point he'd like to run for the U.S. Senate. And then he said, 'Possibly even run for President at some point.' And I was like, 'Okay, but don't say that to my Aunt Gracie.' I was protecting him from saying something that might embarrass him." [Washington Post, 8/12/07 ]

Source: The Baltimore Sun

The foreclosure market continues to boom

The foreclosure market continues to boom as no relief appears in sight for stretched subprime mortgage holders. As the economy shows more signs of a slowdown, this trend is likely to continue.

Although the real estate industry would prefer otherwise, foreclosures continue to make headlines. The latest data showed superficial relief, with September foreclosures down 8% from some 243,000 in August, but still more than double last year -- and still with more to come.

It may be a harsh analogy, but I often think of foreclosure buyers as the forest-floor ants consuming the dead wood to clean the forest.

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That means three things. First, as I see it, the sooner we get through this credit mess, the better. Second, the faster properties get through the foreclosure process and find buyers, the sooner we'll get through the mess. So third, foreclosure buyers clean out the dead wood (I like) and get great bargains in the process (I also like).

I can save how much?
My recent column broadly covers the discount you can expect from market value if you buy a foreclosure. It varies by region, but using information published by real estate portal and foreclosure specialists RealtyTrac, I saw discounts ranging from 15% in Hawaii to 40% in Alabama, with 20% and 25% being a rule of thumb.

Not bad. So then the next question, incidentally raised by several readers, is "how do I find those bargains in my area?"

Finding the for sale signs
To locate specific foreclosures in your area, RealtyTrac is a good place to start. The site lists foreclosures by ZIP code and foreclosure stage, ranging from preforeclosure property to bank-owned real estate. It's a broad and fairly deep picture of foreclosure availability in your area.

Some have found RealtyTrac less than precise, as the task of keeping up with foreclosure listing activity across the company is large, to say the least. And to get specific information on the property, RealtyTrac requires a $49.95/month subscription after a seven-day free trial.

But realize that RealtyTrac sits behind other real estate sites, so sooner or later you'll probably run into RealtyTrac. If you're serious about foreclosure shopping, you might want to sign up.

Combining sources
If you aren't ready to make the financial commitment or "come out of the closet" as a registered foreclosure buyer, there are several other paths which work surprisingly well:

Bank sales. To their chagrin, banks and financial institutions are going into the real estate business in a big way. Too bad for them, but you can find a lot of bargains on their Web sites: Bank of America, Countrywide and U. S. Bank have good listings, to name a few. Countrywide, for example, has 300 listings in California alone priced under $170,000.

Agency sales. Banks sell their "REO" (Real Estate Owned) but often hire agencies to do the job. Such agencies include Keystone Asset Management, Lenders Asset Management Corporation and HomeEq Servicing. Some of these agencies may operate bank sites, so you may see a similarity.

Government and government-backed lender sales. Government agencies ranging from FHA and VA to HUD and the Department of Justice sell real estate, visible through a single portal. And government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also operate sites. The variety of properties available is, shall we say, wide, but Fannie Mae in particular lists a lot of solid mainstream real estate values.

Auctions and auction houses. Local and regional auctions are becoming bigger as banks and others pile up inventory. A real estate auction specialist will announce an auction of dozens, maybe hundreds of properties in a large region or metro area. Auctioneers include Real Estate Disposal Corporation (REDC) and Williams & Williams. Experience helps in playing this game, although the auctioneer sites walk you through the process.

Local real estate specialists. A lot of agents know about action in a particular area and can hook you up with the sellers. Good agents have their eyes and ears to the ground at all times, and get tips and hear about stuff coming on the market. You can often Google "foreclosures (area)" to get local listings.

Don't forget: reward comes with risk
Remember that, while foreclosure properties often sell at a healthy discount, you may run into poorly maintained properties. There may be other foreclosures in the immediate area, hurting the quality and value of your investment. Double check other adjacent listings and visit the area if you can.

Remember: Good value investors buy assets at the right time in the right place at the right price. Real estate is no different.

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Sen. Clinton will not win in the General Election

Amos Ajo

There has been much talk about Sen. Clinton’s national polls. These polls are not national polls. These polls are from the Blue States that Hillary and Bill Clinton has helped created. If the election is for the Blue States, Hillary Clinton will win but if the election is for the United States of America, Sen. Clinton does not stand a chance.

UTICA, New York—A new Zogby Interactive survey shows Democrat Hillary Clinton of New York would lose to every one of the top five Republican presidential contenders, representing a reversal of fortune for the national Democratic front-runner who had led against all prospective GOP opponents earlier this year. Meanwhile, fellow Democrats Barack Obama of Illinois and John Edwards of North Carolina would defeat or tie every one of the Republicans, this latest survey shows.

11/26/2007 7/14/2007 5/17/2007
Clinton 38% 45% 43%
McCain 42% 43% 47%

11/26/2007 7/14/2007 5/17/2007
Clinton 40% 46% 43%
Giuliani 43% 41% 48%

11/26/2007 7/14/2007 5/17/2007
Clinton 40% 48% 48%
Romney 43% 38% 40%

11/26/2007 7/14/2007 5/17/2007
Clinton 39% N/A N/A
Huckabee 44% N/A N/A

11/26/2007 7/14/2007 5/17/2007
Clinton 40% 47% 48%
Thompson 44% 41% 41%

11/26/2007 7/14/2007 5/17/2007
Obama 45% 45% 46%
McCain 38% 42% 43%

11/26/2007 7/14/2007 5/17/2007
Obama 46% 46% 48%
Giuliani 41% 42% 42%

11/26/2007 7/14/2007 5/17/2007
Obama 46% 49% 52%
Romney 40% 35% 35%

11/26/2007 7/14/2007 5/17/2007
Obama 46% N/A N/A
Huckabee 40% N/A N/A

11/26/2007 7/14/2007 5/17/2007
Obama 47% 48% 52%
Thompson 40% 40% 35%

11/26/2007 7/14/2007 5/17/2007
Edwards 42% 43% 41%
McCain 42% 43% 46%

11/26/2007 7/14/2007 5/17/2007
Edwards 44% 43% 43%
Giuliani 43% 46% 47%

11/26/2007 7/14/2007 5/17/2007
Edwards 44% 47% 50%
Romney 42% 38% 36%

11/26/2007 7/14/2007 5/17/2007
Edwards 43% N/A N/A
Huckabee 42% N/A N/A

11/26/2007 7/14/2007 5/17/2007
Edwards 45% 46% 48%
Thompson 42% 40% 40%
Figures from the earlier surveys cited in this news release are from Zogby International telephone surveys, including 1,012 likely voters in the July survey and 993 likely voters in the May survey.

The Divided States of America: The Polarization of United States by Hillary and Bill Clinton

Amos Ajo, Ph.D

America has gone through challenging times such as the civil war and the great depression but through all these challenges America overcame and grew stronger. However, one thing that has happened to America so subtle that most Americans have not taken time understand is the polarization of America by Hillary and Bill Clinton.

The reader must be cautioned here that there has been and will be political differences but what has created the divided states of America by Hillary and Bill Clinton is very unique. It all started by the charges from the investigation by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr. Originally dealing with the failed land deal years earlier known as Whitewater, Starr, with the approval of Attorney General Janet Reno, expanded his investigation into Clinton's conduct during the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former Arkansas government employee, Paula Jones. In a sworn deposition for this case, Clinton denied having a "sexual affair" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. At the deposition, the judge ordered a precise legal definition of the term "sexual relations" that Clinton claims to have construed to mean only vaginal intercourse. A much-quoted statement from Clinton's grand jury testimony showed him questioning the precise use of the word "is." Clinton said, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If the—if he—if 'is' means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none that was a completely true statement". Linda Tripp, one of Lewinsky's confidantes, provided Starr with taped phone conversations in which Lewinsky discussed having oral sex with Clinton. Based on these tapes, Starr concluded that Clinton had committed perjury.

After rumors of the scandal reached the news, Clinton publicly stated, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." In his Paula Jones deposition, he swore, "I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. I've never had an affair with her." Months later, Clinton admitted that his relationship with Lewinsky was "wrong" and "not appropriate." In fact, Clinton engaged in oral sex with Ms. Lewinsky on several occasions.

The House Judiciary Committee conducted no investigations of its own into Clinton's alleged wrongdoing and for impeachment. Republicans were for it, and the Democrats were against it. This was the beginning of the polarization of America. Impeachment proceedings were initiated during the post-election, "lame duck" session of the outgoing 105th Congress. The committee hearings were perfunctory, but the floor debate in the whole House was spirited on both sides. The Speaker-designate Representative Bob Livingston, chosen by the Republican Party Conference to replace outgoing Speaker Newt Gingrich, announced the end of his candidacy for Speaker and his resignation from Congress from the floor of the house after Livingston's own marital infidelity came to light. Livingston, in that same speech, encouraged Clinton to resign as well. Clinton chose to remain in office and encouraged Livingston to reconsider resigning. House manager Henry Hyde's marital infidelity was also revealed during the Clinton impeachment. This was perhaps the worst period in the American history. I call this the worst period because these well respected men and women in the Congress were no longer behaving like human beings. For the most part the goal was to get at each other. The Clinton team went after every Republican with vengeance. Newt Gingrich bright political future was destroyed; Livingston and Henry Hyde were all executed politically.

Upon the passage of H. Res. 611, Clinton was impeached on December 19, 1998, by the House of Representatives on grounds of perjury to a grand jury (by a 228-206 vote) and obstruction of justice (by a 221-212 vote). Two other articles of impeachment failed — a second count of perjury in the Jones case (by a 205-229 vote) and one accusing Clinton of abuse of power (by a 148-285 vote). Upon passage of H. Res. 611, Clinton became the first elected U.S. president and the second U.S. president to be impeached, following Andrew Johnson in 1868. For the most part these votes were based on party line. Those voting for impeachment now officially pulled out of the United States and created their state called the Red States. Those who voted against also pulled out the United States and created their states called the Blue States.
In April 1999, about two months after being acquitted by the Senate, Clinton was cited by Federal District Judge Susan Webber Wright for civil contempt of court for his "willful failure" to obey her repeated orders to testify truthfully in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. For this citation, Clinton was assessed a $90,000 fine, and the matter was referred to the Arkansas Supreme Court to see if disciplinary action would be appropriate.[5] In January 2001, on the day before leaving office, Clinton agreed to a five-year suspension of his Arkansas law license as part of an agreement with the independent counsel to end the investigation. Based on this suspension, Clinton was automatically suspended from the United States Supreme Court bar, from which he then chose to resign.

Understandably, as a result of the divide or polarization that was created during the impeachment process of Bill Clinton, two nations within a nation were created (Red States and Blue States). Red States and Blue States refer to those states whose residents predominantly vote for the Republican Party or Democratic Party presidential candidates, respectively. The names of these countries within the United States were officially adopted in the mainstream political discussion following the 2000 presidential election. However, the term gained ubiquitous status after the 2004 presidential elections. Since then, usage of the term has been expanded to differentiate between states being perceived as liberal and those perceived as conservatives. A blue state may thereby be any state leaning towards the Democratic ticket while a red state may be any state leaning towards the Republican ticket.

The division between red states and blue states has created feelings of cultural and political polarization, which have gained increased media attention since the 2004 election, have led to increased mutual feelings of alienation and enmity. These attitudes have led to the often jocular suggestion that a red state-blue state secession is in order. The Jesusland map is one such joke, a satirical map that redraws the U.S.-Canada border to reflect this sociopolitical schism. Unless something is done to correct this, it will be too late for America to fight the war on terrorism and be prepared to deal with potential problem from China. The biggest problem America has now is to deal with this divide within. Unfortunately, the way things are going if Hillary Clinton ever became president of the Blue States, it will be almost impossible for America to recover.

HIllary’s Inevitability Evaporates in Iowa

By Hill Truth | The Hillary Project
Posted -1 years, 12 months ago email to friend tool nameclose
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About that inevitability thing . . . just kidding.

Barely 50 days before Iowa, it matters about as much as Dick Cheney's approval ratings, or Barry Bonds' contract situation, or Robert Novak's newest secret source.

Ladies and gentleman, we have ourselves a race.

Toss out the 30-point lead in the national polls, the fundraising edge, the long list of endorsements, the bold predictions of Terry McAuliffe, Mark Penn, even Bill Clinton himself.

The new ABC News/Washington Post poll has Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., up on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., in Iowa — really in a statistical tie in the state where they could be playing for all the marbles. It's Obama 30, Clinton 26, and former senator John Edwards, D-N.C., 22 — setting up a three-way scramble for the top spot in a state that's notoriously difficult to call in advance.

The worrisome signs for Clinton aren't so much in Obama's movement (and her lack thereof) as they are inside the numbers.

"A growing focus on fresh ideas coupled with lingering doubts about Hillary Clinton's honesty and forthrightness are keeping the Democratic presidential contest close in Iowa," ABC polling director Gary Langer reports.

"Most Democratic likely voters in Iowa, 55 percent, say they're more interested in a 'new direction and new ideas' than in strength and experience, compared with 49 percent in July — a help to Obama, who holds a substantial lead among 'new direction' voters," Langer continues.

The comparable number favoring "strength and experience" is 33 percent.

If Iowa isn't quite a must-win for all of the Democrats, it is a must-not-let-Hillary win for all who would presume to interrupt the Bush-Clinton-Bush chain.

"Iowa Democrats are tilting toward change, and Obama appears to be benefiting from it," the Post's Anne Kornblut and Jon Cohen write.

"While about three-quarters credited both Obama and Edwards with speaking their mind on issues, only 50 percent said Clinton is willing enough to say what she really thinks," they write.

And this sentence that matters to anyone who's been in a real-life caucus room: "In another positive shift for Obama, 55 percent now see him as their first or second choice, an important trend in a state where a person's second choice can matter and voters often switch their support at the last minute."

"There is something of anti-Hillary vote among [supporters of] all the other candidates," ABC's George Stephanopoulos reported on "Good Morning America."

"This could really work for Barack Obama on Jan. 3."

You didn't have to look beyond Iowa on Monday to sense the urgency.

Clinton aides made clear that she had only one candidate in mind with this line on the stump in Iowa (and this hit's about the economy, not foreign policy): "There is one job we can't afford on-the-job training for: That is the job of our next president," Clinton said, ABC's Eloise Harper and Sunlen Miller report. "That could be the costliest job training in history."

Maybe she has no choice but to press her experience at her husband's side; without it, as Obama aides like to point out, she's spent less time in elected office than Obama himself. But what happened to running on your own merits?

Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson counted Clinton referring to her husband's presidency at least 16 times in just over half an hour on Monday. The back-to-the-'90s theme is just a cheesy VH1 special if voters don't want to go there with her.

Obama isn't ready to concede experience to Clinton.

"My understanding was that she wasn't Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, so I don't know exactly what experiences she's claiming," he said Monday. Per The New York Times' Patrick Healy and Jeff Zeleny, it's "the economy as a new proxy for their fight over experience" — and Iowa is the battleground.

Tuesday brings some Clinton pushback against her Republican critics. (This is a primary campaign as general-election campaign — and it's hard to miss the words "strength" and "experience" in this new TV ad.)

"Here they go again — the same old Republican attack machine is back.

Why?" the announcer says in the new ad. "Maybe it's because they know that there's one candidate with the strength and experience to get us out of Iraq, one candidate who will end tax giveaways for the big corporations, one candidate committed to cutting the huge Republican deficit and one candidate who will put government back to work for the middle class."

It's Clinton's "first negative ad . . . hitting back at leading Republican hopefuls who in recent weeks have launched assaults at her over the airwaves," Kevin Landrigan reports in the Nashua Telegraph.

Clinton's battle with Obama is cast against the backdrop of the bizarre Novak item and its fallout (which prompted Obama to deny having done what he doesn't know he's being accused of doing, and the Clinton camp to accuse Obama of being naive to think he'd really been accused of doing anything at all).

Take a breath and listen to OpinionJournal.com's John Fund's best guess on the damaging information the Clinton camp is said to be sitting on:

"The murmured charge is that as an Illinois state senator, Mr. Obama engaged in a real estate deal that benefited him in exchange for legislative favors." (Aren't we Rezko'd out yet? In any event, how about we stop murmuring until somebody producing something in the way of actual evidence?)

Speaking of what we don't know, ABC's Avni Patel and Marcus Baram report that the Clinton library's secret donor list hasn't been all that secret — for the right price.

"The Clinton Foundation sold portions of the list through a data company headed by a longtime friend and donor," Patel and Baram write.

The firm that handled it? A subsidiary of Vin Gupta's InfoUSA.

Gupta's "ties to the Clintons came under scrutiny earlier in the year when a lawsuit filed by InfoUSA shareholders accused Gupta of wasting millions of dollars of the company's money to 'ingratiate himself' with the Clintons and other personal friends."

And forget the White House papers — there's still no public access to Clinton's files from her time as first lady of Arkansas.

"Limited staff and delays in renovations for two new archives have prevented processing thousands of boxes of documents from the administrations of former Govs. Clinton and Mike Huckabee, including a handful of files on Mrs. Clinton," AP's Andrew DeMillo writes.

(Is it possible that the Clinton message machine isn't going to find a way out of this cycle of stories? Anyone think this is helping her claim on honesty, integrity, and openness?)

Source: ABC News

Posted on Tuesday, November

Obama Tops Clinton in `Critical' Iowa Race, Poll Says (Update1)

By Heidi Przybyla

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama has edged ahead of Hillary Clinton in Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential contest, according to a new poll that suggests her commanding advantage in the Democratic nomination race is slipping.

The Nov. 14-18 Washington Post/ABC News poll showed Obama backed by 30 percent of Iowa Democrats, Clinton with 26 percent and John Edwards with 22 percent. Obama had a 1 point lead over Clinton in July. Among Democrats who said they're ``absolutely certain'' to vote, Obama's lead over Clinton narrowed to 2 points. The results were within the polls' error margins.

``Iowa Democrats obviously have more mixed feelings about Senator Clinton than Democrats nationally do,'' said Dennis Goldford, a politics professor at Drake University in Des Moines.

As the first test, Iowa has a disproportionate influence in the Democratic race; if Clinton, a New York senator, wins the state's Jan. 3 caucuses it may be very difficult for any other candidate to take the nomination away from her.

``Hillary Clinton, running the kind of campaign that she's run, coming out of Iowa with a decisive victory would be hard to stop,'' said Mike Feldman, a Democratic strategist who isn't aligned with any candidate.

Alternatively, a win in Iowa by Illinois Senator Obama, 46, could provide momentum for an upset victory in New Hampshire, which is likely to hold its primary just five days after the Iowa contest.

New Hampshire Primary

``An Obama victory coming so close to the New Hampshire primary might very well reconfigure the race,'' said Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington who is supporting Clinton.

It could also puncture a perception among some Democrats that Clinton, 60, is the party's inevitable nominee, said Nathan Gonzales, political editor at the Washington-based Rothenberg Political Report. An average of other recent polls in Iowa shows Clinton with a small lead over Obama and Edwards.

``Iowa is critical,'' Gonzales said. ``She's competing against very high expectations.''

Finally, an Obama win may create a new stream of campaign funding if he is perceived in December as having a real shot at the nomination. Fundraising figures show Obama lost his money edge in September, when Clinton began to be viewed as the inevitable candidate. Both Clinton and Obama have raised about $80 million for the primaries. Between July and September, however, Clinton brought in close to $24 million while Obama raised $20 million.

Debate Criticism

Clinton began to run into political trouble after an Oct. 30 Philadelphia debate in which she was criticized by her opponents and stumbled in her responses to questions about immigration and other issues. ``I wasn't at my best,'' she told CNN after that debate.

In the four weeks following Iowa and New Hampshire, voters will go to the polls in more than 25 states, from California to New Jersey. The candidates with the most money and momentum emerging from the early contests will enjoy a distinct advantage in these races.

Both Democrats and Republicans plan to pour a fortune in campaign cash into Iowa over the next six weeks. Clinton and Obama could each spend as much as $15 million in the state.

There are also huge stakes for Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who led a series of attacks on Clinton last month. Edwards, 54, has built his entire campaign on using Iowa as a springboard to victory in other states as he lacks the campaign funds to compete directly with Clinton nationally.

``Edwards is in a sense on a ventilator in Iowa,'' Goldford said. ``He'll have to shut off the ventilator and call it if he doesn't win.''

The Post/ABC poll surveyed 500 Iowans deemed likely to vote in the caucuses.

To contact the reporter on this story: Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: November 20, 2007 05:21 EST

AP-Yahoo Poll: Obama, Giuliani Likable

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats and Republicans alike have strong opinions about who has the best chance of capturing the presidency in 2008 — Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, that is — but that's not necessarily the candidate they'd rather go bowling with, take along on a family vacation or even vote for.

An in-depth survey of more than 2,000 people offers a window into the thinking of Americans as they look far beyond electability in making their choices for president — grappling with matters of personality, policy and religion in sorting through the candidates.

Overall, the poll finds, Democrats are weighing personal traits more heavily than policy positions this election season; Republicans are putting greater emphasis on policy. The survey by The Associated Press and Yahoo News is a departure from traditional polling in that it will track the opinions of the same people across the country as their beliefs develop and change through the campaign.

The interplay of the personal and the political doesn't always make for neat and tidy decision-making.

Take self-described die-hard Republican Donald Stokes. The 48-year-old steelworker from Waterbury, Conn., would pick Democrat John Edwards if he could take a candidate along on his family vacation. He likes Edwards' personality and his family values. But he supports Giuliani for president, largely because of the former New York mayor's leadership after the 9-11 terror attacks in 2001.

"I'd rather have a president that's going to get in somebody's face if he's got a problem with them or another country," says Stokes.

Charolette Thompson, a 48-year-old retired landscaper from Federal Way, Wash., is a Democrat backing Barack Obama for president. But she would probably pick "the Mormon guy" — that would be Republican Mitt Romney — for a bowling partner.

Jasmine Zoschak, a 30-year-old physician's assistant from Milford, Pa., would love to see a woman in the White House — "just not the female that's running this year." She's backing Republican Mike Huckabee for president because of his positive outlook and opposition to abortion, but she'd rather invite Obama to dinner.

In this first gut-check of the polling series, the voters signaled there's still hope for candidates playing catchup: Half of likely Democratic voters said they could change their minds about who should win their party's nomination, as did two-thirds of Republicans.

Ask Democrats to size up their party's candidates on personal qualities, and it's easy to see why Clinton is leading national polls of Democrats. She is the candidate most often seen as strong, experienced, decisive, compassionate. Looking for strength, for example, 78 percent of Democrats see the quality in Clinton, 61 percent find it in Obama, 56 percent in Edwards.

The picture is less clear-cut when it comes to ethics and honesty, where Clinton and Obama run about even.

Which Democrat is judged the most likable? None has a clear advantage among Democratic voters, with Clinton, Obama and Edwards running about even. Among all voters, however, Obama has the edge.

It is a measure of how polarizing Clinton can be that she is the both the voters' favored bowling or vacation companion and the one most often ruled out.

Irene Soria, a 60-year-old Democrat from Tulare, Calif., says she's backing Clinton because "she knows how to play Washington. ... The other two, Edwards and Obama, seem kind of weak to me."

Likability, Soria says, is over-rated. A lot of people thought they could have a beer with George W. Bush, she said, but "look at all the things he's done to the United States. He hasn't done much good."

When Republican voters size up the GOP candidates, Giuliani claims the advantage on a host of personal qualities. He is the GOP candidate most often seen as decisive, strong and compassionate. But, just as for Clinton, ethics and honesty are a potential soft spot. Some 59 percent of GOP voters see Sen. John McCain as ethical, compared with 54 percent for Giuliani, 45 percent for Fred Thompson and 42 percent for Romney. On honesty, McCain and Giuliani run about even.

Which Republican is the most likable? Giuliani gets the nod, both from GOP voters and among voters overall.

Hold a sheer popularity contest, pitting the most likable Democrat vs. the best-liked Republican, and it would be Obama over Giuliani, 54 percent to 46 percent.

Ask voters which qualities are most important, though, and they put likability well down the list. They attach far more importance to being honest, ethical, decisive and strong.

Republican Kevin Shipman, 33, of Wichita, Kan., is among the voters sorting through the candidates' personal qualities and policy positions as he makes his choice for president. He's backing Rudy Giuliani right now, but sees him as "the lesser of all evils." He disagrees with Giuliani on abortion and gay marriage, but liked his 9/11 leadership. He also thinks Romney "deserves a second look."

The AP-Yahoo News survey, conducted by Knowledge Networks, also asked voters to shine the spotlight in the other direction, to evaluate some of their own qualities.

It turns out that supporters of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are the most likely to be happy. Huckabee has a relatively high proportion of support among Evangelicals, who tend to be happier than most people.

Among Democrats, supporters of Obama and Edwards are more likely to say they are very happy than are Clinton's backers. Her supporters include more lower-income and less-educated voters, who tend to be less happy.

The voters do own up to some reservations about the age, sex and religion of certain candidates, but some also manage to swallow their concerns. Nearly 60 percent of 71-year-old John McCain's supporters say they have at least some reservations about supporting a candidate who is over 70. About 30 percent of Romney's supporters have qualms about voting for a Mormon. Fifteen percent of those who support thrice-married Giuliani have reservations about someone who is divorced.

On the Democratic side, 7 percent of Clinton's supporters report some reservations about voting for a woman.

The numbers show a significant share of respondents resisting the pack mentality. Fully half of Obama's supporters and a third of Edwards' backers think Clinton is the Democrat with the best chance of winning next November. On the Republican side, a third or more of the voters supporting McCain, Thompson and Romney think Giuliani has a better chance of winning.

Who would win right now? When an unidentified Democratic nominee is pitted against an unidentified Republican, the Democrat gets 42 percent of voters, the Republican 27 percent and another 27 percent don't know who they'd vote for.

The survey of 2,230 adults was conducted Nov. 2-12 by Knowledge Networks and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. The survey included 1,049 Democrats, for whom the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 points, and 827 Republicans, for whom the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.4 points. Unlike most Internet polls, this one is nationally representative because people are first contacted using traditional telephone polling methods, and are then followed using online interviews. People selected for the study who do not already have Internet access are provided with Internet access for free.

More information is available at http://news.yahoo.com/polls

AP News survey specialist Dennis Junius and AP writer Christine Simmons contributed to this report.