Obama and Clinton On Race, Thomson Has Arrived

Hey folks,

The big news is Obama and Clinton sparring over the Clinton and some that work for the Clinton's sudden flurry of Racial comments. First there was “Spade Work..” Then we heard about “Chuck and Jive” and then there was the fact that Hillary gave more credit to President Lyndon Johnson than Martin Luther King for advancing the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Reuters- Clinton, Obama spar as race heats up Jeff MasonSun Jan 13, 10:41 PM ET

Race became a focus of the Democratic presidential campaign on Sunday with Hillary Clinton accusing rival Barack Obama of distorting remarks she made last week about the 1960s U.S. civil rights movement.

Obama, who would be the first black president, called this "ludicrous" but said Clinton had offended some Americans who believed her comments last week had marginalized the role of black leader Martin Luther King in advancing those rights.

Clinton, who would become the first woman president, and Obama are locked in a close race for the right to represent the party in the November 4 election to succeed President George W. Bush. Republicans too are in a tight race.

As the Iraq war has moved off the front pages, issues such as the faltering economy have gained attention. Candidates vying for support in states holding nominating contests this month spoke on Sunday of their plans for boosting the economy.

Interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press," Clinton was asked about remarks to Fox News last Monday, which some had interpreted as giving U.S. President Lyndon Johnson more credit than King for advancing the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The act outlawed segregation of blacks and whites in schools and other public places. King was a leader of the civil rights movement and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He was assassinated four years later.

"Dr. King didn't just give speeches. He marched. He organized. He protested," Clinton said on Sunday. "And he campaigned for political leaders including Lyndon Johnson because he wanted someone in the White House who would act on what he had devoted his life to achieving.

"The Obama campaign is deliberately distorting this," said the 60-year-old New York senator, a former first lady.

No he isn’t Mrs. Clinton. You DID say that if Johnson didn’t sign off on it, it would not have happened.

Obama, 46 and an Illinois senator, has garnered support among blacks, who make up about 13 percent of the population. But Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have long had strong support from the black community.

Doesn’t mean they like Blacks. Doesn’t mean they CARE about Blacks. All it means is that they are good at telling all people what they want to hear, according to polls, no matter if they have actually DID anything for them.

Obama said he had never commented on her earlier statement but said it had "offended some folks who felt that somehow diminished King's role in bringing about the Civil Rights Act.

"She is free to explain that but the notion that somehow this is our doing is ludicrous," he told reporters.

Rival Democrat John Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, took a swipe at Clinton too.

"I must say I was troubled recently to see a suggestion that real change came not through the Rev. Martin Luther King, but through a Washington politician. I fundamentally disagree with that," he told a church group in Sumter, South Carolina.

Democrats are preparing for contests in Nevada on Saturday and South Carolina on January 26 while Republicans are focused on Michigan on Tuesday and South Carolina on Saturday.

Clinton is to blame for the mess she is in right now. No one else.

On the Republican side. It seems that Fred Thompson has arrived. A friend of ours sent this to me in an Email over the weekend. It is a New York Times article that is posted on Thompson's website Fred 08.

New York Times

PAUL VITELLO

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — John and Ann Berenberk dutifully watched the umpteenth Republican presidential debate on television on Thursday night and had an epiphany. It was about the candidate they had previously referred to as the tall, silent one. Fred D. Thompson.

The last of the candidates to enter the race, Mr. Thompson, 65, a former Tennessee senator, has so far seemed to distinguish himself mainly by a laconic style that has made him almost invisible beside the others on the stage in past debates, the Berenberks said.

“But then last night — we hadn’t even been thinking about him — all of a sudden it was clear he was the one,” said Mr. Berenberk, a retired teacher. “The bluntness, the forcefulness. He was really impressive.”

This IS who he is. It's about time that he started to show it.

Whether this was a new Fred Thompson, or just a sign of mirage-inducing campaign fatigue among voters, many people attending Mr. Thompson’s campaign rallies here on the day after the debate reported having similar revelations.

Mr. Thompson, who remarked Friday that he had “always been laid back — laid back when I became a U.S. prosecutor at 28, laid back when I became staff counsel to the Watergate committee at 30, laid back when I ran and won election twice to the United States Senate” — was clearly more combative on Thursday night than he had been in past debates.

It IS about time.

He attacked former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, accusing him of stealing his tax plan, tagged Senator John McCain of Arizona as soft on illegal immigration and jabbed repeatedly at former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas for taking what he called “liberal” positions. Mr. Thompson scored one of the more crowd-pleasing remarks of the evening when he said about a recent encounter between a Navy ship and several Iranian speedboats: “I think one more step and they would have been introduced to those virgins they’re looking forward to seeing.”

In an official statement, a campaign spokesman, Todd Harris, said Mr. Thompson’s performance showed that he was the only candidate that voters in the Jan. 19 primary here should trust “to be a strong, consistent conservative.”

I tend to agree with that.

Mr. Thompson has made all the same points during campaign events throughout the state, aides said. But many voters who flocked to his rallies on Friday had never heard him make them until they heard him in the latest debate on the Fox News Channel.

Jim Sickles, a retired corrections officer; Natalie Bankowski, an office manager; and Maryanne Gasper, who said she was “a waitress, with two other jobs,” were among a dozen people randomly interviewed who said they had been undecided or leaning toward other Republican candidates — mainly Mr. Huckabee — until Thursday night.

In person, Mr. Thompson, who is a television and movie actor in his life outside politics, conveys a message that perfectly matches the medium of his slow, well-paced, deep-baritone voice: He says the problems facing the next president “cannot be fixed overnight,” and admonishes voters not to believe candidates who say they can.

At some events, he prefers to talk sitting down rather than standing up, and has a habit of rocking on the back legs of his chair. In answer to questions, he tends to give long, discursive answers that start with “let’s go back to where this all started.”

In matters of foreign policy, economic policy and military affairs, he usually ends up with an endorsement of the way things have turned out. In answer to questions about Social Security, social programs and morality, he most often draws the conclusion that things need to change.

With a well-worn face atop an angular, 6-foot-4 frame, he looks like the smartest man in town holding forth at the county courthouse.

Chip Felkel, a longtime South Carolina political consultant who is not working for any of the candidates, said Mr. Thompson initially seemed to be a candidate who might appeal to all the major voting groups in the state. “Social conservatives from Huckabee, military votes from McCain, economic conservatives from Romney,” Mr. Felkel said, referring to former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.

“But so far he hasn’t done that,” said Mr. Felkel, who added that he had watched Mr. Thompson’s debate performance on Thursday and was skeptical that it had helped him much.

That is what a lot of people are saying. That he may have gotten in too late. He may not be getting his real message out to the voters. This was a BRILLANT showing. But is it too little too late? Some of these same people said Obama would beat Clinton by double digits in New Hampshire also. Still really too early to tell about Fred.

Sirita Long, a construction forewoman from Moncks Corner, disagreed. “He’s a straight-up shoot-from-the-hip guy,” said Ms. Long, who said she had been leaning toward Mr. McCain until the debate. “I could see him staring down our enemies.”

I can also. I personally like Fred. I always have. But I also fear that this was too little too late. Where has this been? I can tell you this, on the trust issue, I DO trust Fred Thompson more than I do any of the others. Rudy maybe just a little bit behind him for me. I do not agree with some of Rudy's social issues, but I DO trust him. He tells it like it is. But I do think that more and more people will go for Thompson, as long as he can get his message out there. Fred? BE FRED.
Peter