"Did you know that Barack Obama is the only candidate running for president who voted against using cluster bombs in Iraq and the only candidate who supports banning the use of landmines?"

This one action alone is enough for me to support Obama over Clinton.  

Were largely advised to him by the magnificent Stephanie Powers who was forced to resign last week.

This is one of the worst events of the campaign.  

More on this ridiculous and wasteful development from James Carville -here.

It is time to halt America's political hara-kiri

In this, the most fascinating and longest-running Democratic primary process of our time, we were presented with a silly moment that unfortunately is all too reflective of modern American culture. Consider the case of one Samantha Power.

Ms Power, a senior foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama, was forced to resign after she referred to Hillary Clinton (whom I admire and am supporting) as a "monster". She tried to retract her statement but, being unable to declare something off the record ex post facto (do the Scots even have journalism rules?), her words were printed.

What is now a shamefully predictable brouhaha ensued. Ms Power performed the ritual act of American political hara-kiri and resigned. Now, every time one campaign's surrogate says something mildly offensive about their rival, resignation calls are swift. This sort of hyper-sensitivity diminishes everyone who engages in it. Politics is a rough business and yet there seems to be an effort by the commentariat to sanitise US politics to some type of high-level Victorian debating society.

The number one advocate and proponent of this idiocy is the editorial page of The New York Times, which accused Mrs Clinton of racism when she pointed out (correctly, I might add) that President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1965. Have we really reached the point where you cannot call your opponent a monster (even if you think her one) and are no longer allowed to cite facts of US history?

It is not the attacks that are unprecedented; it is the shocked reaction to them. I think back to the 1992 Bill Clinton campaign, in which I played a role. The morning after the New Hampshire primary, Paul Begala, my colleague, belittled the victory of Senator Paul Tsongas by arguing Mr Clinton's comeback was a much bigger story. In doing so, Mr Begala called Mr Tsongas a "son of a bitch". Mr Clinton asked him to write an apology note but also requested that it not affect his aggressiveness. The story lasted one day.

Later in the campaign, my then girlfriend and now wife, Mary Matalin, called my client "a philandering, pot-smoking draft dodger". Naturally, someone made a perfunctory call for her to resign, which got nowhere, and we all got a good laugh and moved on.

Samantha Power is Irish born journalist, writer and professor

Stefanie Powers was an actress who was married to Bill Holden and appeared on television in the Feather and Father Gang with Harold J. Gould, and in Hart to Hart with Robert Wagner.

This morning I watched a news report (CNN?) which played a video of Obama's pastor which is getting a lot of hits on Youtube.  In the next few days we're going to see a withdrawal from the "Obama is a Muslim" meme to "Obama's pastor is a black racist and hates white people and therefore so does Obama" meme.  I'd put money on it.

In the video his pastor was waxing eloquent about Obama being the only candidate who was raised by a single mother (he kind of left out the part about the single mother being a white well-educated anthropologist, but I digress) and assorted other things.  Unfortunately, Obama's pastor has a propensity to compare Obama to Christ and otherwise engage in the type of hyperbole which is likely to come back and bite Obama in the rear.

Thank you for this.

Getting much play here (Florida) in the media.  On the morning radio program, they played over four minutes of audio bytes and over an hour was devoted to Obama bashing.

He took a beating for the words of his pastor.  He needs to get in front of this issue and fast.

They played the pastor on the news last night and I thought he sounded absolutely terrible...big turnoff.

one of the ironies here is that the guy leveling the criticisms of the U.S. has put a lot more on the line for this country than the radio blow-hards who are attacking his comments.

I thought Obama took the issue on as well as possible, but it is going to be absolutely essential to come out swinging on these patriotism attacks.  The only reason that Obama's patriotism is being made an issue is because the GOP has been such a disaster at the national level the past 8 years that it can't run this year on:

1. The economy.
2. Ethics.
3. National security.
4. Adherence to Constitutional obligations (and oaths).

Most of the people leveling these criticism have no standing to question anyone's patriotism.  I agree though that this is going to remain a big challenge going forward.

I was told by a Clinton supporter at a Democratic Committee meeting that the Clinton campaign went to the FCC before the Texas primary and threatened them with lawsuits if they didn't sanction the media for bias in favor of Obama. In other words, help Hillary or bad stuff will happen.

Since then we are seeing a lot of trash thrown at Obama. This is an attempt of guilt by association. If that were true then shouldn't Hillary's friends like Ferraro and Spitzer had a little guilt to spread onto Hillary?

perhaps someone here is, and can answer this question.

What possible cause of action could Clinton, or anyone for that matter, possibly have against the FCC arising out of alleged bias in favor of one candidate (nevermind the absurdity of proving such an allegation)?

Can the FCC even sanction anyone in the media for bias? Sounds awful unconstitutional to me.

I'm only passing on what this person told me. She said the coverage the media has been giving Obama could be considered an endorsement. Perhaps nothing could be done, but apparently the Clinton campaign compained to someone. She made that very clear.

The New York Times has a great article on the life of Obama's mother - quite fascinating.

Single moms in our society get so much criticism, especially from the right - and it is so unfair.  

Obama's mom seems to be such a trailblazer on so many fronts.  I really admire her tenacity and her drive to do what she thought was best for her and her family regardless of what society thought at the time.

As a mother, she would be so proud....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03...

Obama nets 10 delegates from Iowa including one from Hillary.