Washington Extra – Gift of the gas
After negotiating a tricky stretch of road, the Obama campaign may be easing into the straightaway in the gas-driven presidential race.
News on Monday of a delay in the planned closure of the largest refinery on the East Coast could mean an end to skyrocketing gas prices. And that would effectively take the wind out of a forceful Republican line of attack — that the president is to be blamed for $4 a gallon gas, arguably the most visible price in the American economy today.
The narrative was working against the president, who currently gets some of his lowest poll marks for his handling of energy prices, even though the causes of higher prices are largely beyond his control. Even so, we shouldn’t expect the Republicans to simply drop the rhetoric.
“Until we are at the point where people don’t feel like they’re squeezing their entire paychecks into the gas tank, it’s an issue that Republicans are going to keep talking about,” said a Senate Republican aide.
Here are our top stories from Washington…
Signs of cheaper gas could brighten Obama campaign – New signs of lower gas prices could give a boost to President Obama’s re-election hopes and blunt a potent weapon that Republicans have used to attack him. News of a month long delay in the planned closure of the largest refinery on the East Coast was the latest indication sky-rocketing gasoline prices may have peaked. Industry experts say keeping Sunoco’s Philadelphia refinery open will ease supply concerns and help underpin a gradual decline in gasoline prices during the summer. For more of this story by Alister Bull, read here.
I’m not forcing Bill to eat tofu and I don’t want to be VP- Hillary
Is she forcing her husband to eat tofu? No.
Did Bill cry at the wedding? Not really.
Does she want to be vice president? Absolutely not.
On Wednesday, Hillary Clinton graciously handled softball questions about her husband’s diet and her daughter’s wedding at Fortune magazine’s “Most Powerful Women” conference — before moving on to quash persistent rumors that she might be interested in the vice presidential slot in a second-term Obama administration.
Ann Moore, the chairman of Time Inc., launched a Q+A session at the summit of 400 leading women in politics, business and the arts with an assessment of Bill Clinton’s successful drive to slim down ahead of his daughter Chelsea’s wedding in July.
“He looked so trim, and he said that’s because you and Chelsea were forcing him to eat tofu!” Moore said.
Clinton denied this, but did say that the former president — who has a history of heart problems — had sworn off red meat as part of an effort to get healthy.
WHAT?!? Woman have a MUCH MUCH HIGHER THRESHOLD THAN MEN, however I agree with you on Hillary… she has testosterone in her, I meant that as a compliment, she’d kick ass and take names AND THATS WHY SHE, NOT THAT LYING PANSEY, SHOULD BE OUR PRESIDENT TODAY.HRC 2012
Witchgate? Another day, another Palin video …
DALLAS – Another day, another video showing Sarah Palin in church.
The latest Palin You Tube video to show up on the Internet features grainy footage of John McCain’s vice presidential running mate receiving a blessing against witchcraft in a Pentecostal church in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.
You can see the video here. Palin says nothing in it and keeps her head bowed throughout the blessing that was reportedly given by a Kenyan pastor and witch hunter.
The video, like a previous one in which Palin tells a congregation that U.S. troops in Iraq were on a “task from God,” has been widely reported and commented on. It reportedly was made in 2005 before she was elected governor of Alaska. It began circulating on the Internet this week.
Palin is an evangelical who has ignited the Republican Party’s conservative Christian base. But incidents such as this one have raised eyebrows in some quarters, especially among foreign media covering the U.S. campaign in the run-up to the Nov. 4 election between McCain/Palin and Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
The online edition of Britain’s Telegraph newspaper said the incident recalled the damaging reports that Obama faced over his links to pastor Jeremiah Wright, who made stridently anti-American sermons.
how can people of the USA trust someone, like Palin
who shows such a lack of judgement.
Witches and Wizards are for kids stories and Palin should grow up, out of her narrow minded small town mentality.
Hillary Clinton: Happy to stump for Obama-Biden
WASHINGTON – Given the rise of Sarah Palin’s political star, is Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama regretting his decision not to choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate?
Palin, the Republican vice presidential running mate to White House hopeful John McCain, thinks so and even Obama’s running mate wondered whether Clinton would have been a better choice instead of Joe Biden. But what about Clinton herself?
“We have a great Democratic vice-presidential candidate,” Clinton said when asked about Palin’s comment in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that will air on Tuesday.
Clinton praised her “friend” Biden as a strong leader who understands the big issues the United States faces at home and abroad.
“So I’m very happy going out campaigning as hard as I can for both Barack and Joe,” Clinton said.
Palin told ABC’s World News Tonight anchor Charlie Gibson on Friday she believed Obama regretted not picking Clinton, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination, as his No. 2.
“I think he’s regretting not picking her now, I do. What, what determination, and grit, and even grace through some tough shots that were fired her way — she handled those well,” Palin said.
I have to say that I just don’t understand it. People say McCain is “scary as hell” because he is tied to Bush. Well is he? Throughout the primaries everyone knew, even my liberal friends, said that McCain was far from Bush (which is a good thing), but now they have changed their tune. I must say that as an Independant, I grew tired of the hypocracy of the liberal democrats. I was starting to get annoyed with the whiny republicans but the dem’s hypocracy knows no limits. Obama scares me and people just don’t get it. There are ties to ACORN and how can people say he didn’t say what he is on video saying. The fact is that low income voters will vote for him because they think the government will take care of them. Problem is that the government can’t help themselves. Another fact is that Bush and the republicans are not the only guilty ones…two words: Barney Frank. I believe he is a Democrat and a big one too. As far as Palin, another fact is she fixed Alaska. I can’t find much that Obama fixed. Biden seems like a good man but the media misses his “gafs” and he’s had as many as Palin. I would just like the media to be fair.
Cheney: Palin good candidate, can be effective VP
ROME – Dick Cheney, considered one of the most powerful vice presidents in U.S. history, said Sarah Palin, a newcomer to the national political stage, was a good candidate and can be an effective vice president. Republican John McCain’s surprise choice of the virtually unknown Alaska governor as his running mate in the contest for the White House has raised questions about whether she has the experience for an office that is next in line to be president. “I think she’s a good candidate and I don’t see any reason why she can’t be an effective vice president,” Cheney told reporters travelling with him on a trip to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Italy. Cheney, 67, a former congressman and energy executive, is considered to have wielded greater power as vice president than previous holders of that office. He was deeply involved in decision making on the Iraq war and has been one of the harshest critics of Russia in the Republican administration of President George W. Bush. Palin, 44, a self-described “hockey mom,” is a first-term governor of Alaska and prior to that was mayor of Wasilla, a small town in that state. In a fiery speech at the Republican convention last week, Palin touted her small-town roots and attacked her critics as out-of-touch elitists who do not understand everyday life in America. McCain and Palin, the first female Republican vice presidential nominee, are running against Democrats Barack Obama, the first black presidential nominee, and Joe Biden, a Senate veteran, in the race for the White House that will be decided in the Nov. 4 election. “We’ve had all kinds of vice presidents over the years and everybody brings a different set of experiences to the office and also a different kind of understanding with whoever the president is,” Cheney said. “Each administration’s different and there’s no reason why Sarah Palin can’t be a successful vice president in a McCain administration,” he said. “I thought her appearance at the convention was superb. I watched that with great interest. I loved some of her lines – what was the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? It’s lipstick,” Cheney said with a laugh.
Photo credit: REUTERS/Konstantin Chernichkin U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrives at Kiev’s airport, Sept. 4, 2008.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage
I would hope America is not dumb enough to be diverted by the Republicans bullsh%@! It is the Republicans that ruined the economy, sent our young soldiers to die in Iraq, and charged us!!! Destroyed the housing market and sent gas to an all time high! Even Republicans admit that Bush and the Republican Party sucks! Palin is STILL a REPUBLICAN! Even if you love her more than you love yourself-she is STILL a REPUBLICAN! After you elect HER for president, John McCain will rear his ugly head and silence her again! Good ol’ boys back in charge! Question: Has anyone ever heard a Republican express frustration about our economy? Where do they live? Arent Republicans suffering from economic crisis as well? John McCain is the only one who seperated himself from the Republicans, and hes running for President! I want to hear one good ol’ fashioned Republican admit that the Republicans ran America in the ground! Just one! The Republicans go on T.V and defend things they know is wrong for America. The only thing I see is McCain hiding behind a womans popularity, claiming HE is tough. This nation is becoming more and more of a victim everyday. We are tricked by politicians all the time. We were tricked for the last 8 years and we want to be tricked some more. Its wierd. I may have to suffer 4 more years because of the ignorant choices that America is trying to make. If we elect a Republican AGAIN, gas prices will skyrocket, food prices will skyrocket, unemployment will rise and it will be too late to change it all! McCain is so out of touch, he isnt even talking about how he can help us today, he focuses on issues that will take several years to go into effect. How long will it take to see results from drilling? Do your research, it wont help you get gas this year or next year, ok! Palin is a con-artist, a good one! Flip Flopping all over Alaska, She is dancing as fast as she can! In a nutshell, Republicans are depending on deep seeded feelings the majority has for Obama. The majority of Americans dont feel like they can walk up to someone who resembles Obama and have the same conversation as they would with Palin. Well Im here to tell you, If you arent in Palins religion, you may be mistreated by her more than Obama! This radical isnt going to change her ways for noone! Get it right, this is not your everyday “soccer mom”.She was raised to believe the world is coming to an end and we all are going to take refuge in Alaska!!WTF! COME ON AMERICA ITS 2008-PLEASE CHANGE!!!!DONT SET US BACK ANOTHER 50 YEARS WITH THIS BACKWARDS, BACKWOODS MESS! GOD DOESNT SEND PEOPLE TO WAR!!!!CULTS SEND PEOPLE TO WAR AND PREY OVER IT! CULTS TELL YOU ARMAGEDDON IS COMING -SO LOOK OUT!!!!!!!NOT GOD! The Palin family story resembles The Beverley Hillbillies.
Prediction markets place bets on Palin’s permanence
The online prediction market Intrade sees a 12 percent chance that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will be withdrawn as the Republican vice presidential nominee before the U.S. presidential election on November 4.
Intrade accepts trades on the probability of events such as whether there will be a recession, whether the U.S. Congress will lift the ban on offshore drilling or whether the United States or Israel will launch a military strike on Iran. It opened the Palin betting market on Tuesday morning after a series of revelations about the Alaska governor whom Sen. John McCain chose as his running mate, including that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant.
The market opened at 3 percent that she would have to withdraw as McCain’s running mate and climbed as high as 18 percent before settling down to 12 percent on 632 trades as of noon EDT. The markets are priced from zero to 100, with zero meaning investors see no chance an event will happen and 100 meaning it already has happened.
Separately on Hubdub.com , which offers virtual cash in exchange for correct predictions, various wagers were made , from the chance of Palin stepping down as the VP nominee (currently a 19 percent chance) to whether her biography video would mention her NRA membership (80 percent).
What do you think the chances are that Palin will withdraw? Put your prediction — from 0 percent to 100 percent — in comments. Read the full Reuters story.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta)
Palin did extort the oil companies, and then give a portion of that money to every Alaskan citizen in the form of a check. This was redistribution of wealth of a certain kind, more like a ticket to buy new consumer goods.
It would have been better to use the proceeds to fund new industry or education for the state.
McCain talks up possible VP picks
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Republican presidential candidate John McCain had kind words for two of his possible vice presidential picks in recent days but dropped nothing more than hints about his eventual choice.
With the Republican convention starting next Monday, McCain is expected to name his running mate in the coming days — possibly at a rally in the swing state of Ohio on Friday, his 72nd birthday.
At a fundraising event in San Diego on Tuesday evening, he praised Mitt Romney , once a bitter rival for the Republican nomination who has now become a strong advocate for McCain on cable news shows.
“He does better on television for me than he did for himself,” McCain joked, reviving a line he has used before to acknowledge Romney’s efforts.
On NBC’s Tonight show on Monday, he lauded Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty when host Jay Leno mentioned him.
“He’s a great young man,” McCain said. “He’s a great governor of his state, and he’s done a great job, and he was reelected in 2006. It was a tough year for Republicans.”
Leno suggested Pawlenty could get “eaten alive” in a vice presidential debate with Sen. Joe Biden, the foreign policy heavyweight chosen by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as his running mate.
Obama cannot lower the national debt when we are getting attacked weekly costing trillions of dollars and thousands of lives because he gutted the patriot act.
And where is the savings if no businesses can operate here because they are taxed out of existance? But our kids in Mexico sure will get an education paid for by US taxpayers as it should be right? And we will all get one free windmill to power our houses on every rooftop! Of course don’t run the refrigerator with the TV it will blow the breaker. OF course ride your Cadillac Seville Bicycle to work and grow more of your own food…….And while you are driving to work think of Al Gore and his 50,000 square foot home that eats more electricity than the average small city, course he can pay for his energy misuse with carbon offsets and his strip mine money.
Obama, in slip-up, refers to Biden as “next president”
SPRINGFIELD, Illinois – Of all the gaffes Democratic White house hopeful Barack Obama probably hoped to avoid, he accidentally introduced Joe Biden as the presidential candidate rather than the No. 2 man on the ticket.
He quickly corrected himself but the McCain campaign quickly pounced on the mistake to suggest that Biden, a veteran Delaware senator, might wield the real power in an Obama administration.
As Biden stepped to the podium at his first joint rally with Obama, the Democratic White House candidate said, “Let me introduce to you, the next president — the next vice president of the United States of America: Joe Biden.”
Known as a leading expert on foreign affairs, Biden, 65, has served in the Senate for 35 years and is expected to bring considerable heft to the Democratic ticket in a key area.
Polls show Obama lags well behind his Republican rival John McCain in polls on voter confidence on his readiness to handle international affairs. Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, could help close that gap for Obama.
But Republicans hope Biden’s foreign policy gravitas, rather than boosting Obama, will highlight his thinner resume and they used the verbal gaffe to press that point.
“Barack Obama sounded as though he turned over the top spot on the ticket today to his new mentor, when he introduced Joe Biden as the next president,” said McCain spokesman Ben Porritt, adding that Obama was “not ready to lead.”
Just because he accidentally left out the vice when he said it the first time it doesn’t mean that deep down inside he feels that Biden should be the president. He got excited at revealing his number 2 and missed a word. Big deal. At least he corrected himself and moved on… which is what everyone else should do. Move on, this is a silly arguement.
Michael Moore’s Dream Ticket: Obama-Kennedy
WASHINGTON – With campaign observers in a frenzy awaiting the impending results of the 2008 vice presidential sweepstakes, filmmaker Michael Moore has stepped up with a provocative plea to an advisor to Barack Obama: “Caroline, Pull a Cheney!”
That would be Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, and the head of the group searching to find a running mate for the Democratic nominee.
“I cannot think of a more winning ticket than one that reads: “OBAMA-KENNEDY,” Moore wrote in an open letter to Kennedy posted on his Web site.
Moore, whose documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” went after President George W. Bush’s administration, apparently is discouraged by the fact that Kennedy’s name has not come up in discussions of vice presidential candidates.
“What Obama needs is a vice presidential candidate who is NOT a professional politician but someone who is well-known and beloved by people across the political spectrum,” Moore wrote.
“This is the moment, Caroline. Seize it!” the writer-director says urging Kennedy to take a cue from the current vice president.
Dick Cheney was heading Bush’s vice presidential search committee in 2000 before he became the candidate’s choice to fill the No. 2 slot on the Republican ticket.
As our good friend Tester nominates the Montana governor for Obadias’s veep on MSNBC, I have got to admit that about a year ago, while on a long bike ride, I waxed poetic with my riding mates about my dream ticket Obama Schweitzer for eight years, then Schweitzer/Obama for the next eight.
Obama’s vice president a ‘he?’
RALEIGH, North Carolina – Barack Obama won’t say yet who his running mate will be but on Tuesday he did describe the qualities he wants in a vice president.
Briefly put: “he” will be the opposite of Dick Cheney, the man who currently holds the office.
“My vice president will be a member of the executive branch, he won’t be one of these fourth branches of government where he thinks he’s above the law,” Obama told a crowd in North Carolina.
Note the choice of pronoun. An Obama spokeswoman said not to read into that word choice but Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton — two women said to be on the Illinois senator’s list — may want to take note.
Obama went on to describe what he was NOT looking for in a running mate, painting a stark contrast with Cheney, who spearheaded President George W. Bush’s energy task force, influences White House foreign policy, including the Iraq war, and has claimed to be a member of the legislative branch because of his tie-breaking role in the U.S. Senate.
“I won’t hand over my energy policy to my vice president,” Obama said. “I won’t have my vice president engineering my foreign policy for me.”
Moving on to the qualities he did want, Obama said, “I want somebody who has integrity, who’s in politics for the right reasons. I want somebody who is … independent, somebody who is able to say to me, ‘You know what, Mr. President? I think you’re wrong on this and here’s why.’”
