Speaking for me only

With this story coming out that Obama was the politician who received contributions of illegally gotten funds from an associate of corruption accused Tony Rezko, let me state my view that like the Norman Hsu contributions received by various pols, including Clinton and Obama, it is clear that Barack Obama did absolutely nothing wrong and this should be an absolute non-issue. It would be wrong of any campaign to try and make hay of this. I hope they do not.

The Washington Post in an editorial today castigates Nevada for choosing Saturday morning to hold caucuses when religious conservative and observant Jewish people and 7th Day Adventists will have to choose between their faith and their desire to participate in caucuses.

Last week, Just Engage, the official blog of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs weighed in with Separation of Shul and State. [More..]

Anyone have a prediction for the Nevada caucus results?

I think Hillary Clinton will win. The Washington Post reports Obama's senior campaign advisor David Axelrod may be leaning towards that view as well:

"Senator Clinton has some real structural advantages here," said Obama senior adviser David Axelrod. "She started off with a strong lead. They've run a very, very aggressive campaign. We recognize that there are significant barriers. I think it's going to be a very competitive race, but I think she has an edge going in."

I hope Edwards makes a strong showing. I'd really like him to stay in the race.

Poll below.

Update [2008-1-19 13:24:46 by Big Tent Democrat]: Romney wins Nevada.

As of December, 2007, for active registered voters:

• 980,400 active registered voters
• 397,247 Democrats
• 392,362 Republicans
• 141,195 Unaffiliated

The numbers for total registered voters are:

• 1,235,616 total registered voters
• 499,850 Democrats
• 480,437 Republicans
• 189,112 Unaffiliated

Active voters are defined as "registered voters who maintain a current residence address with their local county clerk and the Secretary of State’s Office." [More...]

Josh Marshall points to Bill Moyers' commentary on the brouhaha over Hillary's LBJ/MLK comments. Moyers also provides a wonderful tribute to both LBJ and MLK. Watch it. A great piece.

We've covered most of the stuff in this new Telegraph article about how Barack and Michelle Obama have attacked Hillary Clinton this week.

There's one comment by Barack Obama I missed though. Criticizing Hillary's statements in the last debate about the bankruptcy bill, he says:

He then poured ridicule on Mrs Clinton for saying in the debate that she had voted for a bankruptcy bill but "I was happy that it never became law".

Mr Obama could not conceal his mirth as he said: "What does that mean? No seriously, what does that mean? If you didn’t want to see it passed, then you can vote against it! People don’t say what they mean."

This from the guy who voted "present" on at least 86 bills?

An examination of Illinois records shows at least 36 times when Mr. Obama was either the only state senator to vote present or was part of a group of six or fewer to vote that way. In more than 50 votes, he seemed to be acting in concert with other Democrats as part of a strategy.

What a joke. No wonder he laughed as he said it.

The Las Vegas Sun today endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. Some of their reasons:

Clinton has a long and substantial record of leadership fighting on behalf of working Americans and children, and it is this experience and her passion for creating a better country that would serve this nation so well.

Our country needs someone who can be president from Day One after taking the oath of office. Her steadiness and resolve certainly would aid us in reestablishing better relations with other nations after Bush’s go-it-alone foreign policy, not to mention a thoughtful and responsible policy regarding our combat troops in Iraq.

More...

Ezra:

[T]he much-promised "Anti-Hillary" vote never really existed. Democratic voters just don't dislike Hillary very much. Some may prefer her, some may prefer other candidates, but it was largely a press corps invention that the primary would be dominated by one faction of pro-Hillary Democrats battling it out with another faction of anti-Hillary Democrats.

Yep. Heck, the Media's hate of Hillary helps her with Democrats.

Hillary says:

"I have to say, you know, my leading opponent the other day said that he thought the Republicans had better ideas than Democrats the last ten to fifteen years. That's not the way I remember the last ten to fifteen years. "I don't think it's a better idea to privatize Social Security. I don't think it's a better idea to try to eliminate the minimum wage. I don't think it's a better idea to undercut health benefits and to give drug companies the right to make billions of dollars by providing prescription drugs to Medicare recipients. I don't think it's a better idea to shut down the government, to drive us into debt."

Obama Camp (interestingly NOT Obama)retorts:

“It’s hard to take Hillary Clinton’s latest attack seriously when she’s the one who supported George Bush’s war in Iraq, the most damaging Republican idea of our generation. While others were triangulating and poll-testing their positions, Senator Obama has been fighting for progressive ideals for over two decades.

So I guess there were some progressive ideas the last 2 decades. Fair point on Hillary' support for the war, but unfair to argue Obama has NOT supported Bush's Iraq Debacle. His voting record is exactly the same as Clinton's in the Senate. And Obama has had some kind words for Bush himself, including stating in 2004 that he basically agreed with Bush on how to conduct the Iraq war.

More interesting was both camp's refusal to say a bad word about Ronald Reagan. What is up with that?

Update [2008-1-18 18:47:20 by Big Tent Democrat]: From the turnabout is fair play dep't, via Geekesque, Hillary's favorite President's include Reagan and Bush 41.

A Collossus strode forth:

And held a press conference.

This is some funny stuff.

Robert Stein:

Half a century ago, after the Supreme Court desegregation decision, an Arkansas governor named Orval Faubus stood in the doorway of Central High School in Little Rock with National Guard members to keep African American teenagers out. Now Mike Huckabee is doing a Faubus impersonation in South Carolina.

“You don’t like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag,” the former Arkansas governor told a crowd in Myrtle Beach yesterday. “In fact, if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we’d tell them what to do with the pole, that’s what we’d do.”

. . . If Huckabee believes he can win in South Carolina by going back to the past, he should take a look at the later career of Orval Faubus. A decade after the Little Rock standoff, he was managing the Li'l Abner theme park in the "Ozark Mountains, Dogpatch USA."

At a campaign event yesterday, Barack Obama said:

You won't hear me saying one thing one day to one audience and then saying something else another day to a different audience because I think it's politically convenient.

Um, perhaps Senator Obama can explain why he said one thing in Iowa about independent expenditures and something else in Nevada? How come Obama criticized union expenditures in the Iowa caucus campaign and refuses to do so regarding UNITE HERE's independent expenditures in Nevada? Could it be that there is a new rule for Obama? Is it ok if the expenditure is in support of his candidacy? Is it ok if it is "politically convenient" for Barack Obama?

As I have said, this is politics as usual. The problem is Obama pretends he is going to reinvent politics. He is not. He is just a pol. An extremely talented one. But still just a pol.