The Today Show’s Matt Lauer – Where in the World is Matt Lauer?
Yesterday he was in Buenos Aires, Argentina. What a beautiful place. I hope I’ll be able to go there before I die.
Today he is in The Netherlands. The two major places he visited were Holland and Amsterdam.
Clinton urges gas tax relief; Obama rejects it
Ex-first lady endorses plan backed by McCain for suspension during summer
GRAHAM, N.C. - Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized Barack Obama on Monday for opposing proposals to suspend federal gas taxes this summer, a plan she and Republican John McCain have endorsed. Obama didn't take the bait. He ignored Clinton and focused on McCain.
Obama has said motorists would not benefit significantly from suspending the gas tax.
"This is his solution to the problems of the energy crisis and your gas bills," Obama told several thousand at a noisy rally in Wilmington. "Keep in mind that the federal gas tax is about 5 percent of your gas bill. If it lasts for three months, you're going to save about $25 or $30, or a half a tank of gas."
The idea to suspend the 18.4 cent federal gas tax and 24.4 cent diesel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day was first proposed by McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, as a way to lessen the pain at the pump for consumers this summer. By some estimates, the federal government would lose about $10 billion in revenue.
Clinton said she would make up the lost revenue by imposing a "windfall profits tax" on oil companies.
"If we suspended it and made up the lost revenues, that's the best of both worlds," she said.
Leading in convention delegates and popular votes, Obama sought to avoid the daily back and forth with Clinton. Before leaving Wilmington, he was asked about his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who said Monday that criticism of some of his fiery sermons is an attack on the black church. Wright's third public appearance in four days kept alive a story that continues to dog Obama's campaign.
Obama said the voters he talks to don't ask him about Wright. "It's not what I hear. What I'm hearing is concern about gas prices. People are concerned about their jobs being shipped overseas," he said.
At the rally, Obama said McCain's approach to the issue of high gas prices was typical of how Washington works.
"There's a problem, everybody's upset about gas prices. Let's find some short-term, quick-fix so we can say we did something, even though we didn't do anything," Obama said. He argued that reducing consumption and increasing the use of alternative fuels represent real long-term solutions to rising gasoline and diesel fuel prices.
In Washington, Democratic Party chief Howard Dean said either Clinton or Obama will know when it's time to drop out of the race for the nomination after the primaries end in early June.
Politics – (Some comments I found on some sites I was visiting.)
Flipping the Script: WHY Can't Hillary ' Tonya Harding' Clinton CLOSE THE DEAL?
Talk about electability. With the exception of New Hampshire, every state that Obama's gone into, his numbers have gone UP from where he began....and Hillary ' Tonya Harding' Clinton's have gone DOWN (thanks Keith Olbermann for that tip). ...and OBAMA is unelectable?
As John Cole so aptly puts it:
Why is she behind him in every conceivable metric? Why is she behind in pledged delegates? Why is she behind in the popular vote (and don’t insult my intelligence by trying to pass that sheer nonsense the morons at certain pro-Clinton blogs are lapping up)? Why are super delegates flocking to Obama, while Hillary has picked up only a handful in the past few months? Why has she won fewer states? Why is she trumpeting her narrow delegate pickup in PA, when it is less than the number of net delegates Obama picked up in a variety of other states? Why is she behind in fund raising? Why was she unable to turn her double digit lead a year ago into any actual primary wins? Why, with her starting financial advantage and name recognition, was she held to a tie on Super Tuesday?
Why to those questions and a hundred more like them. If your candidate is so much better, why is Obama kicking her ass? Why?
Obama Gets Encouragement and Warning From Wilder
April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Doug Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor, has both encouragement and a warning for Illinois Senator Barack Obama.
The encouragement is that Obama is approaching the race issue the right way, and the nation is ready to elect a black president. The warning is that it may not be as ready as polls suggest.
``Let's not kid ourselves again, the issue of race will not disappear; but I don't think it will predominate,'' the former Virginia governor said in an interview at his office in Richmond, where he is now mayor.
Wilder said he believes Obama has done a good job so far in blunting the race issue. ``Obama, by not running as an African- American, has been able to show that race is coincidental to his being,'' rather than the centerpiece of his campaign, he said.
The message Obama, 46, sends to voters is ```I'm not being dominated by any groups,''' Wilder said. ``That includes African- Americans.''
Obama Supporters
Almost 2 million people have entered personal information on Obama pages on social-networking Web sites such as Facebook, MySpace and his campaign's mybarackobama.com, offering home addresses, phone numbers, their views on specific issues and the names of friends. The data have allowed Obama, 46, to raise more than $200 million, fill sports arenas with supporters across the nation and motivate millions more with custom-tailored messages.
While in the past, campaigns have cross-referenced lists of registered voters against other records such as credit-card purchases or magazine subscriptions to find potential supporters, Obama's information is more accurate and precise because it relies on data that donors provide themselves.
``When people give information online, they are going to be more truthful and more credible because they are in the privacy of their own environment,'' said McIntyre.
Obama's success stems from a decision early in his campaign to embrace the concept of social networking, allowing him to leap ahead of his Democratic rival, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, or the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona. For example, Obama now has 790,000 Facebook ``friends,'' compared with 150,000 for Clinton, 60, and 117,000 for McCain, 71.
Obama's list of 1.4 million donors may be an especially strong fundraising tool in the future, Devine said.
This ability to produce results ensures Obama will play a prominent role in the future.
(I don’t have the ability to post pictures – but there is a great one on the net of Michelle and Barack. Link below)
You see that picture-the genuine, unstaged affection-and you can't help but be touched by it.
Try getting John and Cindy to take that picture.
Obama has shown this country something we're not ready for.
Ms.Martin said...
George Bush is not just a poor manager, but similar to a tyrannical dictator. He has ignored the very law of the country he was chosen to lead; he has used resources of the country to benefit a few financially while the people lose their homes, face prices for basic needs that are crippling their budgets and endangering their well-being. He has assembled a judicial body that seeks to deny you civil rights.
Hillary Clinton is promising you she can, as a Democrat, change what George Bush has done because she is a Democrat. What she does not tell you and what SBO is trying to tell you is that while she may know the workings of Washington, she is complicit in behavior that brought us to where we are, behavior that many common men are unaware of that is the very behavior that George Bush is guilty of.
Hillary and Bill Clinton were able to amass their 109 million fortune after leaving the Whitehouse because of controls that they set in place while they were in the Whitehouse. They formed allegiances and monolopies with companies and foreign governments and sold the future of the American people. The Clintons made deals and passed legislature that worked to the detriment of its people. They would have you believe that because the working-class man made a few dollars more that they were good for him.
While the average man made a $1,000 more a year while they were in office, their friends and allies made millions a year while they were in office and they made hundreds of thousands more a year after they left office based on the allegiances they made while they were in office.
I think it is time for SBO to drive his message hard. It is time to just tell the common man exactly what he means.
Anonymous said...
I can appreciate the difficult decisions regarding selection of news, ads, and the pressures involved in those management decisions. This morning our local WRAL TV station decided not to air the NC GOP attack ad at a critical time in our national and state electoral process. They should be applauded. I’ m suggesting that you contact any station showing the ad and express your feelings. The image is in the public domain.
The Rev. Wright ad as well as the one about gangs is not just about politics. There are several subliminal coded race messages lodged in the ads. These stations are not merely informing the public but they are unwittingly contributing to stirring up racial animus in our community. The ads do not bring out the best in us.
Also I am have asked Senator Dole and Senator Burr not to contribute to stirring up racial animosity. I want both of them to join Senator McCain demand that the N.C. GOP attack ads be pulled. The Clinton campaign has been conspicuously slight on this issue. Race is in the campaign because Senator Obama is an African American, but racist tentacles do not have to be ingrained in this campaign. We are better than this as a nation, as North Carolinians.
I’ m asking them to make an ethical and not a political decision.
golden star said...
ms. martin, ms. martin, telling it like it is!
I think that we all need to remember that this is an epic struggle for the right and the power to drive an agenda that is in opposition to the agenda of the Clintons and others who have been in the driver's seat for a long, long, time. In other words, they ain't leavin' the car peacefully. And, they will fight to the last moment.
We have an opportunity to take the car. We have followed the rules and played the game accordingly. We will get there and we will be able to deliver ourselves from this morass.
http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/2008/04/michelle-and-barack.html
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