14 February 2008
News and Comments - 02/14/08
Posted by Roy Bischoff under: General; What's News .
A lot of you share articles and we appreciate your contributions. We want to provide a convenient place for those articles, also comments that you are not sure where else to put.
10 Comments so far...
Cameron Says:
14 February 2008 at 9:12 am.
Clinton Team Seeks to Calm Turmoil
By MONICA LANGLEY and AMY CHOZICK
February 14, 2008; Page A1
MCALLEN, Texas — With Spanish music blaring, Sen. Hillary Clinton campaigned across South Texas yesterday with a more populist message, as her new campaign manager sought to reshape a campaign that has lost eight straight primaries in a week.
Maggie Williams, a confidante of Mrs. Clinton from when she was first lady, has moved to assert her control following the departure last weekend of former campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle. Ms. Williams is running a daily conference on what ads to put up and expanding the inner circle with advisers from the old Clinton White House.
See more about key staffers and how they fit into the Clinton campaign.
But the campaign has something of a shellshocked feel, as staffers privately chew over a blowup last week where internal frictions flared into the open. Clinton campaign operatives say it happened as top Clinton advisers gathered in Arlington, Va., campaign headquarters to preview a TV commercial. “Your ad doesn’t work,” strategist Mark Penn yelled at ad-maker Mandy Grunwald. “The execution is all wrong,” he said, according to the operatives.
“Oh, it’s always the ad, never the message,” Ms. Grunwald fired back, say the operatives. The clash got so heated that political director Guy Cecil left the room, saying, “I’m out of here.”
Adding to the sense of drama, an aide to Sen. Barack Obama yesterday declared the Clinton campaign all but doomed. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said that Mrs. Clinton can’t become the Democratic nominee without winning every remaining contest in “blowout form.” In a conference call with reporters, he said that “even the most creative math” won’t get her there.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120295209438666989.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone
E.E. Says:
14 February 2008 at 11:36 am.
I copied just part of this great article. I’m glad there are some good Christians out there that are facing the seriousness of anti-Mormonism and its factor in the election:
The “Presbytarian” Romney and the Elephant in the Room
by Lowell Brown
The Unpleasant Truth
As I’ve written here before, during this Republican presidential campaign something very ugly arose. It manifested itself in various ways. Here are just a few examples:
Mike Huckabee’s now infamous question about whether Mormons believe Jesus and Satan as brothers. What is Huckabee had said, “Don’t Catholics believe Mary and Jesus are co-redeemers of mankind?” He would not have dared say such a thing - and maybe that’s my point. But if he had, The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, and similar organizations, would have been all over him. There is no “Mormon League.”
The official web site of a mainstream candidate for President of the United States (Huckabee again) included comments like, “we cannot stand for this Mormon garbage to get into office.” Insert the word “Jewish” or “Catholic” or “”black” in that sentence for “Mormon” and ask yourself if a hue and cry would not have arisen in response to such statements. But no hue and cry arose, and the candidate left those comments — and links to viciously anti-Mormon web sites - up on his own official site.
Someone named Joel Belz wrote an essay in World Magazine, a leading Evangelical publication, stating that Mormons as a group generally lie, and that Romney’s so-called “flip-flops” could be attributed to that Mormon tendency. What if Belz — or anyone, for that matter — had argued that “Jews steal,” and therefore Joseph Lieberman could not be trusted with control of the U.S. Treasury? You’re right, that’s unimaginable.
A clearly on-the-fringe minister in Florida with an apparently large following makes headlines by saying “a vote for Romney is a vote for Satan.” Most respectable journalists probably didn’t want to call attention to this man’s rantings, but I have never seen a single denunciation of this nonsense from any leading journalist or religious figure.
The unpleasant and undeniable fact is that in the United States today it is still possible to get away with making statements about members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that simply would not be tolerated regarding any other religious group.
Another unpleasant and undeniable fact is that by and large, such statements are not loudly and vigorously denounced, but get at most a sad shake of the head from observers who ought to be outraged.
That’s the true size of the elephant in our room.
http://www.article6blog.com/2008/02/13/the-presbyterian-romney-and-the-elephant-in-the-room/
Jan W. Says:
14 February 2008 at 11:46 am.
I am so glad to read this. Thanks E.E. I have been kind of shook up by what I am starting to see. We talk here about how conservatives are fracturing. Unity all over seems to be coming apart. I don’t know, maybe it started with so many families breaking down. Anyway I am noticing that people in my church are dividing into camps. The people who really hate Mormons are getting more hateful and those of us who think it is wrong but don’t hate the people are seeing how destructive this hatred is. I don’t want to see evangelicals torn apart the way everyone else seems to be. I am also afraid this will make some people blame the Mormons for this and hate them even more.
Pickles Says:
14 February 2008 at 12:09 pm.
This is so sad to me. Tolerance can be bad when it means tolerance for pornography and stuff like that but we just have to learn to be tolerant towards people. Jan I am glad you aren’t one of those close minded types.
T. Fan Says:
14 February 2008 at 2:47 pm.
Sean was saying he hates the way Obama hypnotizes people when he talks. Yesterday he got mad when a caller said Obama was like Hitler that way. That’s just what Hitler did when he talked. I agree that it doesn’t mean we are saying Obama is evil. He is probably very sincere in his beliefs but they are not consisent with freedom and his oratory gifts make him dangerous.
Cavetrollhead Says:
14 February 2008 at 3:01 pm.
Jan, we ‘Mormons’ are grateful for your tolerant and warm attitude. If you don’t mind some advice from me; Just don’t let yourself get caught in any contentious arguments within your flock. Speak up when you think it is necessary but if things turn negative, express kindness and reconciliation to your adversaries. Your example will speak loudly and it seems like you are the type that can do this. You are probably already doing these things.
Again we appreciate your friendship and tolerance.
Joy Bischoff Says:
14 February 2008 at 3:10 pm.
Here here
Matt Says:
14 February 2008 at 4:09 pm.
So will he run or not?
Bloomberg Ridicules Washington On Economy
‘Cash Rebates Like Booze For Alcoholics’
U.S.Resembling A ‘Third-World Country’
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ? Mayor Michael Bloomberg has unleashed another flurry of jabs on Washington, ridiculing the federal government’s rebate checks as being “like giving a drink to an alcoholic” on Thursday, and said the presidential candidates are looking for easy solutions to complex economic problems.
The billionaire and potential independent presidential candidate also said the nation “has a balance sheet that’s starting to look more and more like a third-world country.”
President Bush signed legislation Wednesday that will result in cash rebates ranging from $300 to $1,200 for more than 130 million people.
The federal checks are the centerpiece of the government’s emergency effort to stimulate the economy, under the theory that most people will spend the money right away.
But Bloomberg does not believe it will do much good. And his harsh words at a news conference Thursday reflect the view among some of his associates that the country’s economic woes present a unique opportunity for him to launch a third-party bid for the White House.
http://wcbstv.com/campaign08/bloomberg.federal.government.2.654315.html
Hank Says:
14 February 2008 at 4:57 pm.
My guess is that Bloomberg will run and will steal Mitt’s thunder. The economy is going to keep on having a pretty rough time if all the talking heads are right. Bloomberg just needs to take Romney theme of I know how to fix the economy. If Mitt was good I’m better cause I’m richer and I’m a Washington outsider. I think people would flock to him.
Matt Says:
14 February 2008 at 5:02 pm.
Hank I bet you’re right.
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