Just got off the phone with an insider in the Obama campaign, apparently their little “meeting” at Hillary’s house tonight included an offer by Obama not for the vice presidency but for a high-ranking position in his cabinet as “Minister of Health Services”, or “Health Services Director”, something like that. Apparently it entails her having full control over the nation’s health plan. It will be a new position- Those are all the details I have right now..

More to come…

The worst thing Barack Obama could possibly do at this point is to pick Hillary, a self-ascribed practitioner and example of gold-standard “old politics”, as his running mate. Since March she has done nothing but bend ALL the rules to her advantage. First she agrees IN WRITING to the DNC Rules stating that Florida and Michigan WILL NOT COUNT if they hold their primaries early. Hillary didn’t have too much to say about this until she started to realize she was losing, then all of a sudden it becomes a HUGE issue and she goes back on her word, saying “Every vote counts!” Obama was graceful enough to meet in-between but does that satisfy Clinton supporters? No! They want ALL the delegates from these two states (Michigan’s contest not even being FAIR) seated in Denver. Well we all know what happened with those states now, but Hillary has come up with a NEW argument. She’s claiming that she had the most votes ever in a primary.

Again,
Hillary is claiming she has had the most votes in history of any primary candidate.

Wrong.
The only way for her math to work, is if she excludes the caucus states and 56 million people.
Again, FIFTY SIX MILLION PEOPLE.

What happened to “Every vote counts” ?

Completely hypocritical, but her supporters are unable to see that. Once someone’s invested the last year of their life into making “VOTE HILLARY” t-shirts, pins, labels and buttons it’s a little difficult to just toss out your stock and rescind on all those heated arguments with friends (”DUH, I THINK ITS TIME FOR A WOMAN TO BE PREZADENT DATS WHY I ARE VOTING FOR HER”).

Her “losing speech” after South Dakota sounded more like a victory speech. She could have graciously (and honorably) AT THE VERY LEAST *RECOGNIZED* the fact that Senator Obama is the first african-american to be this close to the White House, ever, in history. Instead, she focuses only on herself and her savage foaming-at-the-mouth supporters, trying to squeeze out every last breath of her poor excuse for a campaign.

When will Hillary concede? Maybe when she realizes she’s lost? Who knows. It should become a moot point before long as the liberal media has already started to minimize her face-time.

In any case, Barack should not consider picking Hillary as his VP, it would be catastrophical. There is a lot of resentment built up that has been brewing since the election started. Now that she’s OBVIOUSLY lost, the resentment is hitting it’s exponential rise. Let me put it this way: THERE IS NOTHING MORE IRRITATING THAN WATCHING A SORE LOSER IN COMPLETE AND UTTER DENIAL THAT SHE’S LOST, DENYING THE ENTIRE AMERICAN AND WORLD MEDIA, INCLUDING TELEVISION, NEWSPAPERS AND BLOGS and discounting them as “jumping the gun”. It’s ridiculous. If Hillary were on the Obama ticket, Obama’s going to be seen as weak, that he gave in to her entitlement campaign. He should not appease Hillary. McBush will simply say “You’re going to appease Iran just like you appeased Hillary.”

Plain and simple, we don’t want that lying, cheating, rule-breaking, pandering nut-bag on our ticket.

Bill

Last night wasn’t a good debate for Obama. Period. But it wasn’t a great debate for Clinton either. Of course, that may not matter to her campaign — in a two-way debate, it’s not about which candidate narrowly wins, but which candidate gets pummeled in the post-debate reviews. And Obama is getting pummeled because, well, he did get pummeled, a bit by Clinton and a bit little bit by the moderators. In the first 40 minutes of the debate, most of the questions were focused on Obama’s negatives (except for a lone Bosnia-sniper question to Clinton, with no follow up) and that’s what helped create what was a near disastrous performance for the front-runner. Obama was weak in a lot of his answers on his personal negatives. (Did he really compare Tom Coburn to a one-time ’60s radical/terrorist?) Meanwhile, Clinton piled on, particularly (and surprisingly, actually) on Bill Ayers, the former ’60s radical who has tenuous ties to Obama. We’re not sure if Clinton’s piling on ever is good for her in the long run — see her current poll standing — it created some post-debate issues for Obama. Many news organizations will feel compelled to do Ayers stories in the next few days (and they already have). While some may question the fairness and relevancy of the Ayers issue, it’s not going to be good for Obama.
 
*** Backlash? This debate is going to lead a lot of Obama supporters to ratchet up the calls on Clinton to either withdraw or tone down the attacks. Clinton supporters will point to this debate as proof that he’s not yet ready for the general, that’s why she should stay in, and that’s why superdelegates should overturn the winner of pledged delegates. Still, Obama supporters — and probably some neutral Democrats, too — are going to be livid at how damaging this debate was to both of them. And the calls for getting the primary over with are going to rise. Indeed, per an aide, the Obama campaign is going to try to seize on last night’s negativity by announcing the support of Pennsylvania voters “who have switched their allegiance from Clinton to Obama, largely because of her negativity.”

VIDEO: NBC Deputy Political Director Mark Murray gives a post-game analysis of last night’s debate and looks ahead at the approaching Pennsylvania primary.

*** Where we go from here: Overall, with the spotlight on him very bright, Obama didn’t step up. He got rattled early on and never picked his game back up. Clinton wasn’t very warm (outside of he first few minutes), but she didn’t have the spotlight on her very bright. And as we’ve noted here quite a few times, whenever the spotlight is on one candidate, the other seems to benefit. Last night, the spotlight was on Obama, and for a short period of time, expect Clinton to benefit. But the question is whether she can sustain any benefit since as the negativity goes on, she pays a bigger price than Obama. Let’s see what Pennsylvania decides in five days. A big Clinton victory and this debate will be seen as an important turning point. But a narrow victory (less than five points) and she could find herself facing more calls to get out.

*** Two other takeaways: Could last night’s true winner be John McCain? That appears to be the scoring by quite a few pundits. One other thing, and you can take this to the bank: that was the final debate of the primary season. The Obama folks still control the debate schedule and until they don’t, don’t count on more debates. The control could change, but not before May 6.

*** The delegate count: Obama picked up an Oklahoma superdelegate, add-on Reggie Whitten. Clinton now leads in superdelegates 257-235. Since Sunday, Obama has picked up five supers to Clinton’s zero. With his three elected superdelegate pick-ups yesterday, Obama has moved past Clinton among the group (U.S. Senators, Reps and governors): 96-94. In the overall count now, Obama leads by 142 (1,651-1,509). He has a 164 pledged-delegate lead (1,416-1,252).

*** Flash Gordon: All three presidential candidates meet with British PM Gordon Brown at the British embassy in DC today. Obama goes at 9:00 am ET, McCain goes at 10:00 am ET, and Clinton goes at 11:00 am ET. Why do we have visions of the three presidential candidates all waiting in the waiting area — like at the doctor’s or dentist’s office? Per NBC’s John Yang, Brown also meets with President Bush today and will hold a joint news conference (two questions from British reporters, two questions from the White House press corps).

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calls ‘elitist’ attack ‘what we do politically, when we start getting behind’

	Presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told a town hall-style meeting in Washington, Pa., that when rival Hillary Clinton called him elitist, it wasn’t racist, ‘It’s politics.’ View related photos
AP

“It’s politics,” the presidential candidate told a town-hall meeting on veterans affairs. “This is what we do politically, when we start getting behind in races. We start going on the attack.”

Obama holds the lead in votes, pledged delegates and states won with 10 contests remaining, including the Pennsylvania primary next Tuesday.

Barack Obama got in big trouble this week for going to this big church in Chicago because the retired reverend there once said some uncomplimentary things about the American Tradition of Slavery, but it turns out the Reverend Jeremiah Wright is no stranger to people who like to be president. In fact, Rev. Wright was at the White House taking Bill Clinton’s confession after our nation’s most tragic moment, when Hillary had to take the 3 a.m. call because Bill was getting sucked off by a fat gal in the Oval Office. Wait, what?

As Ben Smith writes over at the Politico, Chicago’s Trinity Church of Christ is a big deal and Jeremiah Wright is a well-known clergyman who has even been invited to the White House to hang with the president. That picture shows Wright and Bill Clinton laughing it up after Bill had a re-do of his repenting following revelations of Clinton’s Monica Lewinsky sex nightmare. (That’s Al Gore in the background, inventing Global Warming.)

Guess who else was at this fancy White House party on September 11, 1998? No, not Osama bin Laden! It was Hillary Clinton!

TERRE HAUTE, Indiana (AP): In the midst of an assault from his rivals, a defensive Barack Obama said Friday that many working-class Americans are angry and bitter over economic inequalities and have lost faith in Washington _ and, as a result, vote on the basis of other issues such as gun protections or gay marriage.

The Illinois senator’s analysis of what motivates working-class voters came after Hillary Rodham Clinton, his chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, accused him of looking down on them. Mrs Clinton rebuked Obama on Friday for similar remarks he made privately last Sunday to a group of donors in San Francisco.

“People don’t vote on economic issues because they don’t expect anybody is going to help them,” Obama told a crowd at a Terre Haute, Indiana, high school Friday evening. “So people end up voting on issues like guns and are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. They take refuge in their faith and their community, and their family, and the things they can count on. But they don’t believe they can count on Washington.”

The Huffington Post Web site reported Friday that Obama, speaking of some Pennsylvanians’ economic anxieties, told supporters at the San Francisco fundraiser: “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years. … And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

In Terre Haute, Obama said he did describe some voters as bitter when a donor asked why working-class voters in Pennsylvania were not getting behind his campaign.

“Well, that’s not my experience,” Mrs Clinton told a Drexel University crowd, describing the state’s residents as resilient, optimistic and hardworking.

“Pennsylvanians don’t need a president who looks down on them,” she said. “They need a president who stands up for them.”

Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, described Obama’s comments as “condescending” and “out of touch.”

In Terre Haute, Obama chided McCain for not responding promptly to the home mortgage crisis and criticized Mrs Clinton for voting for a bankruptcy bill supported by credit card companies.

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McCain lost five U.S. Navy aircraft. Think about it.

Navy pilot John Sidney McCain III should have never been allowed to graduate from the U.S. Navy flight school. He was a below average student and a lousy pilot. Had his father and grandfather not been famous four star U.S. Navy admirals, McCain III would have never been allowed in the cockpit of a military aircraft.

His father John S. “Junior” McCain was commander of U.S. forces in Europe later becoming commander of American forces in Vietnam while McCain III was being held prisoner of war. McCain III’s grandfather John S. McCain, Sr. commanded naval aviation at the Battle of Okinawa in 1945.

During his relative short stunt on flight status, McCain III lost five U.S. Navy aircraft, four in accidents and one in combat.

Robert Timberg, author of The Nightingale’s Song, a book about Annapolis graduates and their tours in Vietnam, wrote that McCain “learned to fly at Pensacola, though his performance was below par, at best good enough to get by. He liked flying, but didn’t love it.”

McCain III lost jet number one in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus Christi Bay while practicing landings. He was knocked unconscious by the impact coming to as the plane settled to the bottom.

McCain’s second crash occurred while he was deployed in the Mediterranean. “Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula,” Timberg wrote, “he took out some power lines [reminiscent of the 1998 incident in which a Marine Corps jet sliced through the cables of a gondola at an Italian ski resort, killing 20] which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral.”

McCain’s third crash three occurred when he was returning from flying a Navy trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game.

Timberg reported that McCain radioed, “I’ve got a flameout” and went through standard relight procedures three times before ejecting at one thousand feet. McCain landed on a deserted beach moments before the plane slammed into a clump of trees.

McCain’s fourth aircraft loss occurred July 29, 1967, soon after he was assigned to the USS Forrestal as an A-4 Skyhawk pilot. While seated in the cockpit of his aircraft waiting his turn for takeoff, an accidently fired rocket slammed into McCain’s plane. He escaped from the burning aircraft, but the explosions that followed killed 134 sailors, destroyed at least 20 aircraft, and threatened to sink the ship.

McCain’s fifth loss happened during his 23rd mission over North Vietnam on Oct. 26, 1967, when McCain’s A-4 Skyhawk was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. McCain ejected from the plane breaking both arms and a leg in the process and subsequently parachuted into Truc Bach Lake near Hanoi.

After being drug from the lake, a mob gathered around McCain, spit on him, kicked him and stripped him of his clothing. He was bayoneted in his left foot and his shoulder crushed by a rifle butt. He was then transported to the Hoa Lo Prison, also known as the Hanoi Hilton.

After being periodically slapped around for “three or four days” by his captors who wanted military information, McCain called for an officer on his fourth day of captivity. He told the officer, “O.K., I’ll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital.” -U.S. News and World Report, May 14, 1973 article written by former POW John McCain.

“Demands for military information were accompanied by threats to terminate my medical treatment if I [McCain] did not cooperate. Eventually, I gave them my ship’s name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant.” Page 193-194, Faith of My Fathers by John McCain.

When the communist learned that McCain’s father was Admiral John S. McCain, Jr., the soon-to-be commander of all U.S. Forces in the Pacific, he was rushed to Gai Lam military hospital (U.S. government documents), a medical facility normally unavailable for U.S. POWs.

The communist Vietnamese figured, because POW McCain’s father was of such high military rank, that he was of royalty or the governing circle. Thereafter the communist bragged that they had captured “the crown prince.”

For 23 combat missions (an estimated 20 hours over enemy territory), the U.S. Navy awarded McCain a Silver Star, a Legion of Merit for Valor, a Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Stars, two Commendation medals plus two Purple Hearts and a dozen service medals.

“McCain had roughly 20 hours in combat,” explains Bill Bell, a veteran of Vietnam and former chief of the U.S. Office for POW/MIA Affairs — the first official U.S. representative in Vietnam since the 1973 fall of Saigon. “Since McCain got 28 medals,” Bell continues, “that equals out to about a medal-and-a-half for each hour he spent in combat. There were infantry guys — grunts on the ground — who had more than 7,000 hours in combat and I can tell you that there were times and situations where I’m sure a prison cell would have looked pretty good to them by comparison. The question really is how many guys got that number of medals for not being shot down.”

For years, McCain has been an unchecked master at manipulating an overly friendly and biased news media. The former POW turned Congressman, turned U.S. Senator, has managed to gloss over his failures as a pilot and collaborations with the enemy by exaggerating his military service and lying about his feats of heroism.

McCain has sprouted a halo and wings to become America’s POW-hero presidential candidate.

Article taken from http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/cin_mccain_lost_five_u.htm.

o presidential candidate.

John McCain:

Unfit to serve as Commander-In-Chief

John Sidney McCain III entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland in 1954. Young McCain wanted to become an admiral. He planned to be the “first son and grandson of four star admirals” to achieve such a distinction. But that was not to be. McCain III possessed none of the innate character and discipline traits that helped mold his father and grandfather into great military leaders.

His father, John S. “Junior” McCain, and grandfather, John S. McCain, Sr., were famous four-star Admirals in the U.S. Navy. His father commanded U.S. forces in Europe before becoming commander of American forces fighting in Vietnam. His grandfather commanded naval aviation at the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. Both men became highly influential in U.S. Navy operations.

At the Academy, aside being known as a “rowdy, raunchy, underachiever” who resented authority, Midshipman McCain became infamous as a leader among his fellow midshipmen for organizing “off-Yard activities” and hard drinking parties. Robert Timberg wrote in his book, The Nightingale’s Song, that “being on liberty with John McCain was like being in a train wreck.”

McCain’s grades were “marginal.” He drew so many demerits for breaking curfew and other discipline issues that he graduated fifth from the bottom of the class of 1958. Despite his low “class standing,” and no doubt because of the influence of his family of famous Admirals, McCain was leap-frogged ahead of more qualified applicants and granted a coveted slot to be trained as a navy pilot.

Good Party Animal - Bad Pilot:

He spent the next two and a half years as a “naval aviator in training” at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, flying A-1 Skyraiders.

While a pilot trainee, McCain continued to party hard. He drove a Corvette and dated an exotic dancer named “Marie the Flame of Florida.”  Timberg wrote that McCain “learned to fly at Pensacola, though his performance was below par, at best good enough to get by. He liked flying, but didn’t love it.”

McCain Lost Five Military Aircraft

McCain, the “below par” pilot, eventually lost 5 military aircraft, the first during a training flight in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus Christi Bay while trying to land. The Navy ignored the crash and graduated McCain in 1960.

While deployed in the Mediterranean, the hard partying McCain lost a second aircraft. Timberg described the crash: “Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula, he took out some power lines which led to a spate of newspaper stories in which he was predictably identified as the son of an admiral.”

Unscathed, McCain returned to Pensacola Station where he was promoted to flight instructor for Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi. The airfield at Meridian, McCain Field, was named in honor of McCain’s grandfather.

In 1964 McCain became involved with Carol Shepp, a model from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he had met at Annapolis. They were married in Philadelphia on July 3, 1965.

Flight instructor McCain lost a third aircraft while flying a Navy trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game. Timberg wrote that McCain radioed, “I’ve got a flameout” before ejecting at one thousand feet. McCain parachuted onto a beach moments before his plane slammed into a clump of trees.

The Navy dismissed the crash as “unavoidable” and assigned McCain to the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal in December 1966, which was patrolling the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. In Spring 1967, the Forrestal was assigned to join the Operation Rolling Thunder bombing campaign against North Vietnam.

McCain lost his fourth plane on board the Forrestal on July 29, 1967 when a rocket inadvertently slammed into his bomb laden jet. McCain escaped, but the explosions that followed killed 134 sailors. McCain was transferred from the badly damaged Forrestal to the USS Oriskany. Shortly afterwards, on Oct. 26, 1967, he was shot down and captured by the Vietnamese.

Post-POW Years: Political Ambition and a New, Young, Rich Wife

Upon his release from North Vietnam and return to the United States in 1973, McCain reunited with his wife, Carol, who had been permanently crippled in a car accident while he was a POW.

Still yearning to become an admiral, McCain enrolled in the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. and underwent physical therapy in order to fly again. The Navy excused his permanent disabilities and reinstated him to flight status, effectively positioning him for promotion.

Timberg described McCain’s advancement: “in the fall of 1974, McCain was transferred to Jacksonville as the executive officer of Replacement Air Group 174, the long-sought flying billet at last a reality. A few months later, he assumed command of the RAG, which trained pilots and crews for carrier deployments. The assignment was controversial, some calling it favoritism, a sop to the famous son of a famous father and grandfather, since he had not first commanded a squadron, the usual career path.”

While Executive Officer and later as Squadron Commander McCain used his authority to arrange frequent flights that allowed him to carouse with subordinates and “engage in extra-marital affairs.”

This was a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice rules against adultery and fraternization with subordinates. But, as with all his other past behaviors, McCain was never penalized; instead he always got away with his transgressions.

Timberg wrote, “Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates . . . At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain’s persona, impossible not to take note of.”

In early 1977, Admiral Jim Holloway, Chief of Naval Operations promoted McCain to captain and transferred him from his command position “to Washington as the number-two man in the Navy’s Senate liaison office. McCain was promptly given total control of the office. It wasn’t long before the “fun loving and irreverent” McCain had turned the liaison office into a “late-afternoon gathering spot where senators and staffers, usually from the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, would drop in for a drink and the chance to unwind.”

In 1979, while attending a military reception in Hawaii, McCain met and fell in love with Cindy Lou Hensley, 17 years his junior, who was the daughter of James W. Hensley, a wealthy Anheuser-Busch distributor from Phoenix, Arizona. McCain filed for and obtained an uncontested divorce from his wife in Florida on April 2, 1980 and promptly married Cindy on May 17, 1980.

He resigned from the Navy in 1981 and went to work for his father-in-law in Phoenix; where he used the opportunity to make powerful and wealthy friends in Arizona including banker Charles Keating and Duke Tully, the editor-in-chief of the Arizona Republic. Keating was later convicted of fraud, racketeering, and conspiracy and Tully was disgraced for concocting a phony military record of combat in Korea and Vietnam including medals for heroism.

McCain ran for Arizona’s First Congressional District in 1982. McCain won the congressional seat. In 1987 McCain was elected to the Senate.