Posts filed under ‘Quotes’
Cuba after Fidel
“He’s demanding. I mean really demanding,” Raul Castro said jockingly of Jose Ramon Machado Ventura, the new No. 2 man in Cuba. “Sometimes I’ve told him personally that he’s strict — not necessarily in a nice way.”
So maybe there’s hope of some loosening up after Castro, after all. If Monchado could be a little less strict and nicer…
Add comment February 26, 2008
One Tale, Many Hunters: But where’s the beef?
“Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself – instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him.”
Starting Gate: McCain’s First Test
February 21, 2008, 8:11 AM
So if there were several press going after the story simultaneously, each vying to be the first to publish it, before the New York Times broke it to beat the others, then there must have been some beef to it. Some say it must have been ‘lawyered’ out. But what if there is no real meat, and it’s just the kind of world we find at the beginning of a “Tale of Two Cities?”
——-
“Things could still turn sour, but right now he has a sweet pitcher of lemonade after being presented with a bushel full of lemons,”. [Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, who wrote “Feeding Frenzy,” (19991) about politicians and the media during scandals. He talked about McCain camp putting together the swiftest response he’s ever seen.
“There are reasons for it – they knew the story was coming and had months to plan for it.
In these kind of controversies, you have to have the goods. If you don’t have the goods, you can do some damage to a candidate, but if it’s in that gray area, then the candidate is probably going to get the benefit of the doubt.”
McCain dodges bullet, faces fiscal bombshell
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Saturday, February 23, 2008
——
Add comment February 21, 2008
Onto Texas, with Godspeed
With Wisconsin behind them, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s caravan have shifted office to Texas, the Press trailing them. It remains to be seen how the cowboy culture will accommodate the fight for delegates. Early voting began on Wednesday, as both candidates campaigned, with Hillary Clinton urging voters to vote early (US News), or Bill Clinton to “vote often” (CBS News). Obama is also said to encourage supporters to vote early. For obvious reasons, there seems to be some trepidation either way…
“I had no idea how bizarre it is,” Hillary Clinton told reporters (Associated Press) as she flew to Texas, “We have grown men crying over it”.
The Texas system according to the press allocates delegates among state Senate districts following the participation of these districts in the 2004 and 2006 elections meaning that newer voting districts, mostly rural have a lesser number of delegates than more established city districts. In so much as the Latino populations fall within the former, Hillary Clinton sees herself at a disadvantage. Surprising that this situation wasn’t evident to the candidates until now. Did they rely at the outset on ad hoc understandings of the election trails?
“This is the only place in America where you can vote twice without going to jail” President Clinton urged and educated voters at Galveston (CBS News).
“So as soon as the polls close on the fourth, for fifteen minutes afterward you have an opportunity to vote again in 8,000 precinct conventions.
This is a big deal. It would be a sad thing if she won in the daytime and it got taken away at night in the delegates if you didn’t show up.”
“She basically has won the big states and she has done very well. She does well in the primaries, Senator Obama does well in the caucuses.”
“This whole nominating process has come down in Texas and Ohio. If she wins in Texas and in Ohio, she will win in Pennsylvania. I believe she will win the nomination”
Strangely, President Clinton does not talk of the crowds of supporters winning. He talks of “she” winning.
In any case, the Associated Press reports Clinton’s campaign having a large operation in Texas, counting 100,000 volunteers and 20 offices around the state as opposed to Obama who only got paid staff into Texas a couple weeks ago and now has over 200 people working in about 22 offices.
Funny that it’s on this land famed for its cowboy history, the state of residence of the current tenant of the White House, where both candidates would decide, who’s likely to substitute him in the White House, as he returns to Texas in January 2009.
For the moment, the sun that shines in Texas is on their faces.
———–
*the selection system in Texas is made up of a primary (experience indicates these favor Clinton) followed immediately by caucuses (which have been seen to favor Obama).
Texas’ complicated rules may favor Obama
By NEDRA PICKLER and BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writers
February 20, 2008
Clinton on the Ropes
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press.
Vote Early, Hillary Urges Texans
February 20, 2008 04:10 PM E
Liz Halloran, US News
1 comment February 21, 2008
Humor On the Public Financing Question…
Comment from ‘four legs good’:
<<<Here’s my take on the Obama “pledge” or whatever – he’d be crazy to go to this coming gun fight with anything less that a full fleet of destroyers, a box of bazookas, some sharks with laser beams in their eyeballs and a couple of spare nukes.
Besides, as someone says above, his money is coming from small donations, which is completely within the spirit of McCain-Feingold.>>>
From: Karen Tumulty “The Public Financing Question”
Time-Blog.Com, Swampland
FEBRUARY 20, 2008 1:17
Add comment February 21, 2008
50 Cent: “I think they might kill him”
<<… and by the time he gets to his trademark crescendo conclusion, every person in the arena is standing:
“There’s a time in every generation when that spirit of hopefulness has to come through, when each of us has to cast aside the doubt and the cynicism and we decide to join hands and remake this country. This is our moment, this is our time, and if you will stand with me and vote for me on Tuesday … if you are not willing to settle for what the cynics tell you that you have to accept … but you are willing to reach for what is possible, then I promise you, we will not just win the primary, we will win the general election and you and I will transform this country and we will change the world.”>>
—
“I think she could do a good job. There’s nothing bad about Obama in my eyes either, but I think Hillary would be my choice. I don’t think America is ready to have a black president. I think they might kill him.”
Add comment February 5, 2008
It makes you think: Quotes from the Campaign Trail
“Imagine a debate between McCain and Hillary Clinton.
On amnesty for illegal immigrants,
they agree.
On voting against President Bush’s tax cuts,
they agree.
On imposing an additional 50 cents a gallon tax on gasoline,
they agree.
On blocking conservative judges,
they agree.“
Romney Ad.
———————–
Headline from Rocky Mountain News:
“In Nixon’s backyard, GOP voters look high and low for a conservative”
————–
On flip-flopping as an Imagined Syndrome (largely attributed to candidates from the NE).
McCain ad: “Mitt Romney was against Ronald Reagan before he was for him.“
By Mike Littwin, Rocky Mountain News.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Title of article that comes out super Tuesday primary shortly after Huckabee’s pick of the day (West Virginia with 18 delegates):
“First blood to Huckabee as Romney hits back“
Marisa Lagos, San Francisco Chronicle.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Add comment February 5, 2008
Carter praises Obama, says grandchildren support Obama, and hopes race issue would die down
Carter praises Obama, stops short of endorsement
Wed Jan 30, 10:21 AM ET
NEW YORK (AFP) -
Former president Jimmy Carter praised Barack Obama’s run for the White House as “extraordinary” and potentially healing.
“Obama’s campaign has been extraordinary and titillating for me and my family,” Carter said in an interview at his Georgia home Monday in which he stressed that he and his wife have never endorsed any presidential candidate since leaving the White House.
“We have four children with their spouses, we have eleven grandchildren, four or five of them are married, and all of them, except one, are for Obama,” he said in an audioclip of the interview on the Wall Street Journal’s website.
“I think that Obama will be almost automatically a healing factor in the animosity now and the distrust that relates to our country and its government,” said Carter, 83, who was president from 1977-1981.
“I got off the phone with a long talk with Bill Clinton who called me this morning trying to explain that he was not raising the race issue, and that sort of thing. I won’t got into detail,” Carter said.
Clinton “has said a few things that I think he wishes he hadn’t said,” the Wall Street Journal quoted Carter as saying.
“He doesn’t call me often, but the fact that he called me this morning and spent a long time explaining his position indicates that it’s troublesome to them, the adverse reaction.
“I told him I hoped it would die down…the charged atmosphere concerning the race issue. And I think it will,” he said.
Add comment January 31, 2008
To Heal Tensions in Lima, Ohio, Attorney General Echoes Obama Stump Line.
“Perception, rumor and suspicion are dividing this community,” Attorney General Marc Dann said in a forum organized last week in Lima, Ohio, to look into the shooting of Tarika Wilson, a 26-year old mother of 5 who was shot by the police with her 14-months old son.
“You have my word we will do everything in our power to see the truth is discovered and justice is served.”
The attorney general pledged to rebuild trust between police and the black community.
“Maybe this is the place we can change how the community and police work together,” he said. “We can’t keep doing things the same way and expect different results.”
Except for CNN.com which echoed the attorney general’s words in full, other media reporting on the event, including the local press, visibly edited out the last line (one of Obama’s stump lines on his campaign trails). The attorney either consciously or unconsciously used the line in his effort to discharge and heal the pent-up situation in Lima, Ohio.
1 comment January 30, 2008
the race and the noise
What happens to a candidate’s followers when his or her campaign silently implodes? And what happens to the press corps that followed or endorsed the candidate?
Giuliani ends Florida campaign before dwindled crowds
Ewen MacAskill in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Tuesday January 29, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
The gusto with which he launched his campaign is long gone. It was a quieter, less confident Rudy Giuliani who addressed a small gathering of supporters on the tarmac of Fort Lauderdale airport last night. The former New York mayor invested all his hopes on winning Florida. He virtually ignored the early states, Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, and spent more than 60 days campaigning in Florida.
Article continues
Only about 100 supporters turned out at the airport for a campaign stop billed as a “rally”… Giuliani, stepping off a plane on his final tour of the state, stood in front of his campaign bus, painted with the slogan “Florida is Rudy Country”…
Blinking in the sunlight, he claimed the pollsters and pundits would be proved wrong.
“We will win in Florida. We will win on February 5. We will win the Republican nomination and we will win the White House,” the former Republican favourite claimed.
He ran through the big issues – his promise to fight terrorism and to introduce the biggest tax cuts in US history…
Giuliani hints at possible exit from GOP race
Posted by Jill Lawrence at 05:07 PM/ET, Jan. 28, 2008 in Presidential race, 2008, Republicans|
Campaign staffers and the press have been dancing around the future throughout the day, with one reporter even joking with a press aide about finding new jobs.
Add comment January 29, 2008
On the Weight and Dilemmas of Endorsements
Obama-Kennedy alliance sets focus
Campaign evokes vision of icons
By Susan Milligan and Scott Helman
Globe Staff / January 29, 2008
The Boston Globe
“Barack Obama has had the Starbucks vote throughout the campaign,” Payne said. “Ted Kennedy can now help with the Dunkin’ Donuts vote, and that’s what he needs to round out his candidacy – to be able to appeal to classic Democrats.”
<<<Naturally, Kennedy’s endorsement carries some risk, too. What will all those Republicans think about supporting Obama – the Obamicans, as he has started calling them – say when they see Kennedy embracing him?
Then again, I bet that’s a problem Clinton wishes she had today.>>>
Add comment January 29, 2008
