Novak: Would-be candidate's 'ordinary' debut disappoints supporters
Chicago Sun-Times May 7, 07 11:40 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
For a party in search of its last, best hope, Fred Thompson may turn out to be not so much savior as dud. The actor-turned-senator-turned-heir to the Reagan throne chose Orange County's conservative Lincoln Club for his first speech since the presidential hype began, and the reaction, writes Robert Novak, was decidedly underwhelming.
More »
The problem is that he's not famous enough
Time May 6, 07 5:46 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
Despite his considerable experience in foreign affairs and effective stewardships of one of the most diverse, though small, states in the country, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is not attracting much of a following, says Time blogger Karen Tumulty. Why? He’s not famous and doesn’t have enough famous friends.
More »
Hard-line stand may help her stake out leadership on war
New York Times May 4, 07 10:10 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
Hillary wants a do-over on Iraq, calling on Congress to withdraw the war powers they gave Bush in 2002. In a clear bid to stake out her own hard-line anti-war territory, Clinton says Congress should repeal the authority granted Bush as of Oct. 11, the fifth anniversary of the vote.
More »
Chertoff assigns
detail to protect candidate at
request of campaign
CNN May 3, 07 3:58 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff has authorized Secret Service protection for presidential candidate Barack Obama, CNN reports. A spokesman would not explain the reason for the assignment but said the secretary acted at the campaign's request. The Secret Service said the coverage is not in response to a specific threat, although New York's WABC reported otherwise.
More »
Senator courts African-American
vote with straight
talk and tough love
Washington Post May 3, 07 2:00 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
Barack Obama has been bringing up issues in front of black audiences that he plays down with more diverse crowds—namely, pointed criticism of the black community. In pull-no-punches speeches, Obama slams low African-American voter turnout, worries that children who do well in school are scorned as "acting white," and decries violent rap lyrics.
More »
Campaign big-foots virtual volunteer; candidate speaks up
Chicago Tribune May 3, 07 8:42 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
The glow of a computer screen morphed into a harsh spotlight on the Barack Obama campaign this week during a bitter dispute over control of a MySpace page bearing the senator's name. Obama reached out last night—over the phone, not in an email—to the disgruntled supporter who created the page, but the damage is done.
More »
So what if he was out of control as mayor? Only New Yorkers know that
Vanity Fair May 1, 07 11:21 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
Most Americans don't know Rudy Giuliani the way New Yorkers do: as an outlandish, manic, mean, and sometimes inspired mayor who ran the city in a style "much closer to that of a banana-republic potentate than to your average city administrator's," writes Michael Wolff. What Wolff wants to consider is whether Rudy is actually clinically crazy.
More »
A portrait of the candidate as a
uniter in the
Lincoln mold
New Yorker Apr 30, 07 11:04 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
Larissa MacFarquhar does an apt and artful deconstruction of Barack Obama's political persona in this week's New Yorker . Observing the candidate's oddly mild stump style, compared with the overachiever affect of most Democratic candidates, she notes that he is less professor than doctor, aiming not to whip up outrage but to heal the body politic.
More »
Candidate chose Christianity over
mom's humanism,
dad's Islam
New York Times Apr 30, 07 1:32 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
The Times retraces Barack Obama's peripatetic path to the Christianity he embraced 20 years ago and now invokes as he presents his presidential campaign in nothing short of biblical terms. Obama's mother was an anthropologist who schooled her son in the variety of religious experiences; his father's family in Kenya is Muslim.
More »
Pro–civil union pol denounces NH bill as too close to marriage
New York Sun Apr 27, 07 8:00 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
Rudy Giuliani is trying to tone down the gay-friendly stance he took as mayor of New York, criticizing New Hampshire's new civil unions bill because it "goes too far" toward gay marriage, which he opposes. As mayor, Giuliani signed a landmark domestic partnerships bill; on the campaign trail, he appears to be changing his tune.
More »
Candidates united
to attack Bush for continuation of unpopular war
Washington Post Apr 27, 07 7:37 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
Eight Democrats butted heads last night in the first '08 debate, not so much with each other but with the president over the war in Iraq. Candidates at South Carolina State University competed at panning the war for making the country less safe and Bush for ignoring the voters' will for a prompt exit.
More »
It's nearly even after Round One, and Obama's made some unexpected friends
New York Apr 16, 07 7:47 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
Barack topped Hill in the primary fundraising race, figures released yesterday showed, and New York mag knows why: Obama has not only won over some key Clinton-family loyalists, but culled a new generation of fortysomething donors with ample assets and Rolodexes to match. The result is Obama's $24.8 million primary war chest, which bests Hillary's by nearly $6 million.
More »
Stance on trash-talk seen as a litmus test for black community
Boston Globe Apr 11, 07 10:11 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
The Don Imus meltdown could have fallout for Barack Obama, as critics note that he kept his mouth shut for five days—until after the suspension—before condemning the shock jock's crude racial jokes. The candidate's caution is signaling to some black leaders that he isn't going to take a hard-line stance on civil rights, the Boston Globe notes.
More »