U.S. Presidential Campaign: views and reviews

See also U.S. Presidential Campaign: Candidates & Issues and U.S. Campaign 2008

June 3
Superdelegate Declarations Push Obama Closer to Goal
The 16-month primary campaign, which wound through every state and U.S. territory, drew to its final hours with a burst of announcements — delegate by delegate — that pushed Mr. Obama closer to crossing the threshold of 2,118 delegates needed to be formally nominated at this summer’s Democratic convention in Denver.
Whom to believe?
Reuters reports:
Clinton campaign says not conceding as race nears end
while the HuffPost breathlessly reports as Breaking news:
Clinton Open To Vice President Slot, But Continues Push For Top Spot
The Huffington Post has learned that Sen. Hillary Clinton’s reported openness to the vice presidential slot on an Obama-led ticket, as first noted by the AP, came during a call with supporters in New York’s congressional delegation that was intended to provide her with maximum candor as she plots her next moves.
The question of whether Clinton will concede tonight or not dominated cable chat shows on Tuesday, though it has most often been posed as an either-or matter. All of which obscures the fact that the truth may lie somewhere in between, at least for now.
Even as Clinton looks for every last advantage as a candidate, she also appears to be taking stock of where she stands. This somewhat schizophrenic pairing of objectives is most clearly seen when taking a look at Sen. Clinton’s morning call sheet. The Huffington Post has learned from a source inside the Clinton campaign that this morning’s discussions included talks with 15 undeclared members of Congress who represent the only remaining elected superdelegates that the Clinton camp believes are genuinely undecided (as opposed to those politely waiting out primary season before making their preferences known).
Obama ‘favourite global candidate’
(Al Jazeera) The race to be the next president of the United States has captivated the imagination of not just a vast majority of American citizens, but of people worldwide, according to a new report commissioned by Al Jazeera.
In a survey of 22 countries, published on Tuesday, 80 per cent of people polled who said they were aware of the three main candidates – Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain – said they were following the election “closely”.
McCain, the all but certain Republican nominee, was both the least recognisable and least popular candidate.
June 2
Could this be the beginning of the end?? See Diane Francis below for further thoughts on Hillary’s options going forward.
Clinton Summons Top Donors, Supporters For Tuesday Speech
Hillary Clinton has summoned top donors and backers to attend her speech tomorrow night in an unusual move that is being widely interpreted to mean she plans to suspend her campaign and endorse Barack Obama.
Obama and Clinton spoke Sunday night and agreed that their staffs should begin negotiations over post-primary activities. In addition to help raising money to pay off some $20 million-plus in debts, Clinton is known to want Obama to help out black officials who endorsed her and are now taking constituent heat, including, in some cases, primary challenges from pro-Obama politicians.
“This has never happened before,” one donor said, referring to the personalized request by email to attend the event in New York Tuesday night.
Hillary’s 2012 End Game
Diane Francis
(HuffPost) [The Clintons] have used Obama’s unelectability as their excuse to continue running against him even though they cannot win because, by saying he’s unelectable, they help in part to bring about his defeat.
His defeat by McCain would make them look really smart and also set them up for the nomination and run in 2012. This is based on their professed logic that only Hillary can win against McCain; McCain will be a one-termer because he will be decrepit in four years and there will be a job vacancy in 2012 for the White House.
The tricky part for Hillary will be to appear to be a team player if she declines the VP slot or isn’t even asked. Obama will offer both of them something in return for a few stump speeches made in between long absences from the campaign due to “exhaustion.”
That’s why this week will be great fun to watch because the delegate arithmetic simply doesn’t work after Tuesday. And the real Hillary will be revealed in one of two scenarios:
If she becomes Obama’s running mate, which makes sense to most Democrats, it will be because she never believed a word she said about his unelectability in the first place. And once in there, she and Bill will also make his life, and presidency should he win, miserable, according to former advisors like Dick Morris.
If, alternatively, she rejects offers to become the running-mate or play a major administration role, then she really believes Obama has no chance, she is not a team player and is willing to have Americans endure one term of McCain so she can take up White House residency in 2012.
May 29
Leaders in Congress Seek to Settle Soon on Nominee
The two top Democrats in Congress said they were pressing uncommitted superdelegates to make their choice public by the middle of next week.
May 23
McCain’s Ethical Dilemma: Campaign Filled With Lobbyist Kingpins
(HuffPost) McCain has sprung a trap on himself, demanding exceptionally high ethical standards for public officials, while simultaneously turning his campaign operation into a home for some of Washington’s lobbying kingpins — men and women who specialize in just the influence peddling McCain has repeatedly deplored.
May 17
Appalachia and the Democrats
May 16
John McCain Trades Straight Talk for Unadulterated Fantasy
Arianna Huffington: In a speech this morning, John McCain hopped into an imaginary time machine and took us all to the year 2013, offering a sneak peek of what the world will look like at the end of his first term as President. And what a wonderful world it will be: “The Iraq War has been won”; Osama bin Laden has been captured or killed; the economy is “robust”; “the world food crisis has ended”; and “health care has become more accessible.” There’s only one problem: it’s pure, unadulterated fantasy. The political equivalent of the trippy tour the Beatles gave us in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds — only instead of rocking horse people eating marshmallow pies, we get “a functioning democracy” in Iraq. More
May 8
Big Rewards Await Clinton If She Ends Campaign Now<
The Five Mistakes Clinton Made
(TIME) It was … a journey she had begun with what appeared to be insurmountable advantages, which evaporated one by one as the campaign dragged on far longer than anyone could have anticipated. She made at least five big mistakes, each of which compounded the others
May 7 , 2008
The Nominees Emerge, Hobbled
By David Brooks
Here are two things we learned tonight. First, Barack Obama is going to almost certainly be the Democratic nominee. He’s withstood seven weeks of bad news and he still exceeded expectations.
The second thing we learned is that this general election is going to look nothing like the last two. Those elections were base mobilization elections. The candidates did little to upset party orthodoxy or move dramatically toward the center. That won’t work this time.
Pundits declare the race over
IHT – Very early Wednesday morning, after many voters had already gone to sleep, the conventional wisdom of the elite political pundit class that resides on television shifted hard, and possibly irretrievably, against Senator Hillary Clinton’s continued viability as a presidential candidate.
April 24
First a Tense Talk With Clinton, Then Richardson Backs Obama
February 1, 2008
Bloomberg Will Not Be Running For President
On Thursday Jan. 31st, After a good bit of speculation, Mayor Michael Bloomberg says that he is not a candidate for president and will stay that way and finish out his term as Mayor of New York City.
January 30
Giuliani’s disastrous strategy
(The Guardian) In truth, history will show the unconventional, and ultimately catastrophic, strategy to be one of the biggest miscalculations in US campaign history – and one that has brought Giuliani’s ambitions to be the 44th US president to a humiliating end.
January 23
Clinton or Obama? Why Not Both?
(Spiegel online) Conventional wisdom says that candidates for the White House should choose their opposite as a running mate. But with both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama generating excitement among Democrats, why not put them on the same ticket?
December 15, 2007
President Mike?
(Forbes) Folks close to New York City’s twice-elected mayor suggest that he’s made up his mind to end one of the city’s long-running rumors and become an Independent candidate for president.