secretary of state clinton?

All of the hard work that Sen. Hillary Clinton put in by hitting the campaign trail and making eloquent and passionate speeches on behalf of Barack Obama was paid off on Election Day, but she may be in for yet another reward.

Rumor has it that President-Elect Obama is not interested in the names that are vying for the Secretary of State slot in his new administration, such as Sen. John Kerry and Gov. Bill Richardson.

Two Obama advisers have told NBC News that Hillary Clinton is under consideration to be secretary of state. Would she be interested? Those who know Clinton say possibly. But her office says that any decisions about the transition are up to the president-elect and his team.

Speculation increased after Clinton boarded a flight to Chicago today, though an adviser claimed it was for personal business.

UPDATE: ABC News has a a knowledgeable source calling talks of Clinton being tapped "very serious" and Politico reports Obama sources calling her "the favorite."

a special message from bill and hillary

President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton sent the following message out to supporters. It's more important than ever to get out the vote! In Texas, early voting will continue this week or you can vote on Election Day, Nov. 4.

With Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the White House and bigger Democratic majorities in Congress, we're going to achieve things that didn't seem possible just a few years ago. But it's up to us to make it happen.

With only a few days left, it is crucial that we all do everything we can. Every single conversation, every single phone call, and every single volunteer could make a difference

Watch the video and sign up below to volunteer.

mccain's last senate vote in april

According to an article in this morning's Washington Post, John McCain's vote on the bailout package will be his first since April 8. He has missed 115 consecutive votes in the Senate since then.

He hasn't voted since before Hillary Clinton won the Pennsylvania primary.

Comparatively, Barack Obama's last Senate vote was in July.

Just thought that was an interesting little tidbit. Welcome back, John.

sen. clinton on the economy

Sen. Hillary Clinton made the television rounds to talk about the economy and the new bailout plan. She gives her take on it in an appearance on Morning Joe, which you can view below:

biden and clinton discuss women's issues

Democratic vice-presidential nominee set down with Sen. Hillary Clinton to discuss women's issues and the supreme importance of the 2008 election. View the discussion below:

the sarah palin show

We all shared a laugh at Tina Fey's deadringer impersonation of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, because Fey mocked some of the obvious holes in Palin's candidacy.

But will Middle America overlook these holes, among them zero foreign policy experience? Are they more interested in her family life than her politics, and if so will that help her or hurt her in the long run?

Americans have certainly tuned in to the Sarah Palin show, and as long as it continues the public will continue to eat it up.

The past eight years have been riddled with war and scandal, but Palin's life on display translates into a more understandable narrative that is more likely to resonate with the public. Sure, the majority of people have turned on the president and believe we should end the war in Iraq, but I'm willing to bet that a majority could also recite details on Britney Spears' rocky road to recovery and Lindsay Lohan's sexual orientation. Those are the kinds of stories that get readers and viewers, and we're learning that it doesn't really matter if we're stalking celubtantes or politicians through the media's omniscient eye, we still salivate over every luscious detail.

In the same way that the English relish in royal scandals, Americans love to dissect the personal lives of their own ruling class. But there's a difference in the Palin narrative when compared to say, the Clintons or John Edwards. While a sex scandal could potentially end a politician's career, family drama could prove to propel it.

While some in the blogosphere have dismissed Palin, Middle America has embraced her as one of their own. She's a Westerner, she's folksy and gutsy, sure, but as Eileen Smith explains at Poll Dancing, there's more to it than that: she's normal.

They raise their kids, go to work, go to church and do the little things that so often don’t garner media attention, but keep much of America stable and functioning. They feel slighted by a left-wing that has (fairly or unfairly) become the party of elites that scoff at IHOP patrons and can’t step inside Wal-Mart without trepidation (the selection of Joe “I have a much higher IQ than you” Biden doesn’t help). And Palin is the perfect stand-in for their ambitions: someone who has five kids, ran a city, now runs a state and, hell, hunts moose in her free time. She embodies the overlooked potential of normal people.

I've spoken with several Texans who feel that Sarah Palin is "one of us." They don't necessarily have to have or have had a pregnant teenager in order to empathise with her. They don't have to have a son going off to war in order to know how that must feel. They don't have to have raised a child with special needs to understand and appreciate how tough of a challenge it is. But they have done it, or their sister has done it, or their neighbor has done it. These are challenges that real Americans face on a daily basis. Middle America is not judging Palin for her family woes, they're rewarding her for them. They're defending her against media slights, and in some cases, pledging to give her their vote.

In a commentary for CNN today, Ed Rollins describes the situation perfectly:

What the country wants to know is do these candidates understand what's going on in their lives and in their neighbors' lives, and are they willing to try and fix it.

They want to get our soldiers home from Iraq as quickly as possible and leave that country as stable as it can be without us being there for another decade. They want someone who understands ordinary Americans are hurting and will try to find solutions to the economic mess we are in.

The leading "mainstream media" including ABC's condescending Charlie Gibson and The New York Times' Maureen Dowd have raced "North to Alaska" to find out what makes this woman tick. But alas, they show again and again that they just don't get it.

Nobody cares if Palin knows the Bush doctrine. I defy anyone to tell you what the Bush-Cheney strategy has been over the last seven years (other than getting re-elected) or what doctrine has been practiced by this "gang that can't shoot straight." And who cares? They are gone in 126 days.

What the media doesn't get is that Palin is one of us. She got to the top of the heap because she could relate to ordinary people, because she is ordinary people and through extraordinary efforts made it.

An unnamed Dallas area professional woman told me that she would be more likely to vote Republican with the addition of Palin to the ticket. Why? "She gets it." Obama and the Democrats are once again relegated to the elite class, and while McCain may be aloof, he is experienced and he can "train Sarah Palin for the job." The source went on to say that politicians usually lie or are corrupt, so if you can actually trust them and know that they understand your needs, specific policy becomes less important.

The woman said she had voted for Hillary Clinton in the primary, but is usually Republican-leaning. So we have to realize that the Palin pick may not be drawing away potential Obama voters in droves, but it's certainly inspiring previously disenchanted Republicans to make plans to support their party this time.

Clinton is reminding her voters why it's so important for them to choose Obama, but many women voters did not choose Clinton in the primary or do not have loyalty to her and are beyond her grasp. Clinton is taking the right track, though, and should continue to pound out the differences between potential Obama and McCain administrations, to really highlight it for anyone on the edge. Joe Biden needs to step up his game, as well, because he has hardly gotten half of the coverage that Palin has gotten since their respective VP announcements.

Polls show that McCain is suddenly leading the race among white women, though. This bounce can only be contributed to Palin's addition to his ticket. While black women (along with the vast majority of black voters in general) are pretty much locked up for Obama, white women have become a voting block to be reckoned with, and presently McCain holds the advantage.

It's true that the Palin bounce could be temporary, but Democrats would do well not to underestimate it.

[This post is part two of our Sarah Palin series. Be sure to read part one, The Palin Pick.]

tina fey as sarah palin on snl

Barack Obama may have had to cancel his appearance on the season opener of Saturday Night Live, but Tina Fey and Amy Poehler wouldn't miss the chance to impersonate Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton. Some have already drawn comparisons in looks between Palin and Fey, so it was only fitting that Fey portray Palin's character on the late-night sketch show.

the palin pick

Many analysts are pointing to John McCain's pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate to explain his post-convention poll bounce, but why?

The media should have taken the pulse of the nation on the Palin pick before assuming that women would be up in arms about the choice and that informed voters would reject her. The liberal blogosphere should have given her half a second before pouncing on her, and bringing all of her personal controversies to light.

Why? Well, because the mainstream media combined with the online left may have helped to bolster Palin's image despite their efforts to tear her down. By attacking her from the moment of her announcement, Republicans were forced to learn more about her and begin defending her on day one, which has set a precedent. Because the left was so outraged at the pick, the right was automatically inspired by it.

Others will leap to Palin's defense as sexism continues to color her coverage. If some of us in the blogosphere may be thinking that Palin's large family would prohibit her from holding the office of vice president, we'd do best not to express those feelings publicly, because we would be perpetuating a sexist meme that has seeped into the American conscience: the idea that the woman's first priority is to the home.

Yes, Sarah Palin has a special needs child, a pregnant teenager, as well as three other children, but she also has a husband who can help with the parenting while she holds elected office. If it were her husband that were running for vice president, no one would even think to ask if he could hold office while presiding over a large family.

And regardless of whether or not Democrats have sexist intentions behind their comments, if the American voter perceives sexism in politics, especially if that voter is a woman, she may feel a duty to defend that person and even vote for that person. Sometimes, when the media wants to pronounce someone down and out, the American public has different ideas and forces the media to come around to the pulse of the public.

The Palin pick was not an accident. McCain knew what he was doing, whether or not you think she was fully vetted. By picking Palin, McCain utilized the element of surprise to steal attention away from Barack Obama's powerful convention speech. He knew that her feisty nature, her scrappy style of politics, her contrasting youthfulness, and her conservative chops would add considerably to his ticket. He also hoped that she might stir resentment among Democrats who voted for Hillary Clinton in the primary and felt she got a raw deal.

On Barack Obama's part, Joe Biden is a solid pick. He closes holes in Obama's candidacy, namely foreign policy experience, Washington know-how, and blue-collar appeal. But Obama mainly picked Biden because he knew that Biden would actually make a decent vice president. Obama chose his Senate colleague as a running mate under the assumption that he was going to win the election. From what we have seen since the announcements, Biden has not considerably helped the Democratic ticket, but would arguably be a boon to an Obama administration if elected.

Palin's is a pure political pick, because her experience as governor of Alaska actually brings little to the table of national politics. Is it qualifying, executive experience? Sure, but how will she help McCain's administration once in office? McCain picked Palin to help him win. It is reminiscient of the long-canceled television series Commander In Chief in which Geena Davis stars as the first female president, rising to that office from vice president following the death of the president. On his deathbed, the president asks Davis' character to resign from office and allow the Speaker of the House to ascend to the presidency, reminding her that he only picked her to win the "soccer mom vote." Needless to say, she ignores his pleas and assumes the presidency.

As it turns out, Obama would have benefited greatly from picking his former opponent Hillary Clinton as his running mate. If Obama had chosen Clinton, McCain would not have chosen Palin. Because both of the running mates would be female, it would starkly contrast the two... and even Republicans can admit that Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton. I'm sure that Palin was a lock under the assumption that Obama would not choose Clinton, but had he chosen her, McCain would have been almost forced to make another choice. Without the Palin pick to shake things up, the media would have incessantly covered the new Democratic team of Obama and Clinton right through the Republican convention, and with a duller pick from McCain he arguably wouldn't have enjoyed a post-convention bounce. (Another way McCain could've shaken things up would have been to choose Joe Lieberman, but that would have opened a whole new can of worms on both sides of the aisle.)

But Obama did not choose Clinton, so what can he and Biden do now to tame Palin and take down McCain?

[This post is the first in a series about Sarah Palin and her affect on the presidential race. Stay tuned for the next installment.]

barbara boxer on mccain's choice

Sen. Barbara Boxer of California released a strongly worded statement concerning Sen. John McCain's newly-announced running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

The Vice President is a heartbeat away from becoming President, so to choose someone with not one hour's worth of experience on national issues is a dangerous choice.

If John McCain thought that choosing Sarah Palin would attract Hillary Clinton voters, he is badly mistaken.

The only similarity between her and Hillary Clinton is that they are both women. On the issues, they could not be further apart.

Senator McCain had so many other options if he wanted to put a woman on his ticket, such as Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison or Senator Olympia Snowe -- they would have been an appropriate choice compared to this dangerous choice.

In addition, Sarah Palin is under investigation by the Alaska state legislature which makes this more incomprehensible.

mccain chooses alaska gov. sarah palin for vp

The day after Barack Obama delivered one of the best speeches in recent political history, John McCain named his choice for the VP slot on his Republican ticket: Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska.

Is this a slick move for the McCain campaign, who we can tell from recent ads are clamoring after disaffected Hillary voters? Or is it an insult to intelligent women everywhere, that McCain picked a woman running mate for the purposes of political pandering? Will it backfire?

Either way, it's a history-making choice: Palin is the first female to ever be on a Republican presidential ticket. She's also the first ever Alaskan to be nominated. We'll have to see what happens, but in the meantime, here's what we do know about Sarah Palin's thin record:

• Palin is 44 and a first-term governor of Alaska
  
• She is an advocate for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
  
• She holds an degree in journalism from the University of Idaho
  
• Before serving as governor, Palin served on the city council and as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska
  
• She is a former beauty queen
  
• She has objected to listing polar bears as endangered species
  
• Palin is pro-life and supports teaching creationism in public schools
  
• She is opposed to same-sex marriage, though she did use her gubernatorial veto to block anti-gay legislation

Palin will debate Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, in St. Louis on October 2.

democrats officially nominate first black candidate

After pushing for a roll call vote on the floor of this week's Democratic Convention in Denver, Sen. Hillary Clinton made the unprecedented move to motion a suspension of the rules of the roll call vote and ask for Sen. Barack Obama's nomination by acclamation.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi held a voice vote, and the Democrats nominated for the first time in history a black man to be their candidate in the race to become president of the United States of America.



[Stay tuned... more convention coverage to come.]

"i'm hillary clinton and i do not approve that message"

Hillary Clinton, in her first appearance at the ongoing Democratic National Convention in Denver, reaffirmed her cry for post-primary party unity, urging her voters and supporters to work for the election of Barack Obama.

She also took the chance to strongly denounce John McCain's ads that prominently feature her: "I'm Hillary Clinton, and I do not approve that message," she said.

biden biden biden

So, I'm sure everyone's heard by now that Barack Obama has chosen Delaware Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate. I heard the news late last night on CNN, and apparently Obama's super-secret text message that was supposed to pre-empt the media coverage ended up being sent out at around 3 a.m.

Surely, when Democrats receive a text message at 3 a.m. it's usually from Hillary Clinton.

Eileen at Poll Dancing has a great analysis of Obama's VP decision.

Our take: Biden may not necessarily help Obama win the election the way someone like Clinton would've, but Biden will definitely be a post-election asset when it's actually time to govern.

For a relatively new kid on the block like Barack Obama, he needs the balance that Joe Biden can provide: proven leadership, strength on foreign affairs, bipartisan appeal, and a Washington insider's perspective.

Not to mention, he's really funny. Which will make things more interesting. A lot of folks are commenting on Biden's inability to "roll over and take it," so to speak. He stands up for himself, and will undoubtedly be a fighter for the Democrats and Obama. These attributes will lend a hand for the rest of the campaign season, as John McCain continues to roll out attack ad after attack ad.

she can't be serious

I think this election cycle has officially pushed New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd off her proverbial rocker.

She is absolutely nuts.

Not sure how her editors saw this op-ed as fit for publication, to be perfectly honest. Wonkette compares the picture she paints to a dastardly scene from Harry Potter, for crying out loud.

Despite what Dowd may think, Hillary Clinton is not conspiring with the Republicans and is not Satan incarnate (or Lord Voldemort, for that matter).

Give us a break, Maureen!

hey at&t, where's my vp?

The Obama campaign has offered supporters the chance to be among the first to know of his vice-presidential pick by receiving a special text message. Seriously, this guy's all about a new kind of politics. So instead of obsessively checking Drudge and Politico this morning, let alone CNN, I continually lit up my phone's screen to see if I somehow went deaf and could no longer hear my text alerts.

It was supposed to come this morning, was it not? Now they're saying we'll probably know tomorrow afternoon. Bah! And while most sources seem to think that Joe Biden has it in the bag, Biden isn't his own biggest cheerleader. He told reporters, "I'm not the guy."

If it isn't Biden, then who is it? Tim Kaine? Evan Bayh?

Well, here's hoping it's Hillary.

maverick no more (dnc responds to mccain ad)

On Friday we showed you John McCain's new ad that features prominent Democrats giving him compliments, which ended with Hillary Clinton mentioning McCain's lifetime of experience and implying that Barack Obama had none.

Well the DNC has responded with a new ad, in which each of the Dems gets a chance to redeem themselves with an updated assessment of McCain.  Sen. John Kerry, who reportedly offered the VP slot to McCain back in 2004, calls him "a different John McCain."

"After eight devastating years under President Bush," Hillary says, "Sen. McCain is simply offering four years more."

The DNC allows President Bush to have the last word, and while it's a good one, it's obviously tying McCain to Bush in an attempt to show that the two are one in the same policy-wise.

View the ad below:

the attacks continue! (the return of hillary clinton)

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama recently wrapped up a hard-fought, lengthy primary battle that no one could escape from.  Some less politically-informed people I spoke with during that period actually thought that Clinton and Obama would be facing each other in November... the primary season was that big this time.

But Obama secured enough delegates for the Democratic nomination and Clinton dutifully suspended her campaign.  She heartily endorsed Obama and vowed to work for his election, doing whatever she could to ensure his presidency.

That doesn't change the fact that during that primary season, she said a few things that could still come back to haunt her... and Obama.

It was only a matter of time before John McCain's campaign started bringing Hillary back into the equation.

Eileen at Poll Dancing shows us this new ad from the McCain camp, which features a slew of prominent Democrats speaking glowingly about the Republican presidential nominee (though much of the footage is obviously from 2004 or before).

The ad says it'll let Hillary have the last say. And she does. "I know Sen. McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House; and Sen. Obama has a speech he gave in 2002."

It's certainly possible that McCain has taken Clinton's remark out of context, but from her tone it's quite obvious that she was making a jab at her opponent during the primaries.

This cannot be blamed on Clinton, however.  If she had won the nomination and were currently running against McCain, the Republicans could easily release advertisements with Obama making negative remarks about Clinton.  Perhaps it wouldn't have the same effect, though, considering Clinton's stature within the party.

Let's hope that this doesn't negatively affect Obama, especially with former Clinton supporters. She has certainly changed tune these days, recognizing that Obama is a much-needed change in direction in Washington and a far better option than McCain for president.  Not all Dems are on the unity boat, though, and McCain knows that.  Ads like the one above are only playing to those swing voters that haven't yet decided for whom they'll cast their ballot, and we need to do everything in our power to ensure they aren't swayed away.

"the most respected political figure in america"

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had nothing but kind words for Sen. Hillary Clinton yesterday as the former presidential candidate returned to Congress.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Clinton “the most respected political figure in America” after her White House run, saying “because of her campaign, the Democratic party is much more energized, much more prepared to win in November and much better prepared to govern in January.”

katie couric on sexism in the primary

Katie Couric hosts a "Notebook" segment on the CBS Evening News in which she decries the way sexism affected Hillary Clinton's presidential bid.

fight the smears

It's no longer online, but during the primary season, Hillary Clinton's campaign launched a website called the Fact Hub, which cleared up rumors and false statements made about her character and her campaign for the nomination.

In order to fight back against similar accusations, Barack Obama's campaign today launched FightTheSmears.com, a website that plans to debunk the many rumors and innuendos that are swirling about the candidate's past, religion, and patriotism.

The website will be a good tool for Obama's supporters to read. Trust us, this campaign is only getting started, and while Obama is against playing dirty, we all know that the GOP isn't. So read up, friends, and save it in your bookmarks for further reading as new rumors are debunked.