Sunday, December 09, 2007

O O O






In The News

Oprah and Obama a hit in SC Chicago Tribune, United States
Oprah tries to give Obama a lift with black voters Reuters
Oprah Winfrey backs Barack Obama
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
Andrew Young says Obama too young for White House
Baltimore Sun, United States
Oprah-Obama double bill largest political NH rally in recent memory
Boston Globe, United States Around 6,000 people -- young and old and predominately female -- filled up about half of the Verizon Wireless Arena, the state's largest facility ....... This was the most attended political event in recent state history. ..... The event was also remarkable for its stagecraft. Over 30 television cameras, blaring music, grand, long entrances from both Oprah and Obama with standing ovations added to the idea that something was different about this rally. ..... The crowd clinged to Oprah and her stories. Teenage girls shook like they saw a member of the Beatles when she was introduced to a 30 second standing ovation. ....... there was an authenticty in Oprah's voice.
Clinton No Longer Should Worry Just About Iowa MSNBC the race for the Democratic nomination is no longer a tight 1-state contest, but a truly competitive race across the country. ...... Obama is nipping at her heels, trailing in Iowa by 2 points and trailing in New Hampshire and South Carolina by just three points. ..... Bill Clinton is still VERY popular among Democrats, in most cases, more popular than all of the actual contenders, though Obama matches the FPOTUS in FAV rating in New Hampshire. ...... Hillary Clinton's support is what you'd expect: women, folks over 50 and union members. ..... the biggest demographic gap is generational, not gender. ..... in all three states, she's seen as having run the most negative campaign to date. ...... Obama's support is overwhelmingly among independents and those under 50. ...... If Clinton and Edwards are sharing some supporters, doesn't that signal that those two may begin going after each other more so than Obama ...... Obama leads overwhelmingly on change and is seen as more honest than Clinton ..... South Carolina ... among black voters, as he leads Clinton by 16 points among African-Americans. But among whites, Clinton leads by 16. ..... experience doesn't appear to be all that important to voters
Roger Cohen: Obama and the American idea International Herald Tribune, France "We can and should lead the world, but we have to apply wisdom and judgment. Part of our capacity to lead is linked to our capacity to show restraint." ...... the failures in Iraq; the abyss between U.S. principle and practice (Abu Ghraib); the rise of other nations (China); startling displays of American incoherence (Iran); economic vulnerability (the dollar as a declining store of value); and resentments stirred by any near hegemonic power. ....... As Joyce Carol Oates put it in The Atlantic: "How heartily sick the world has grown, in the first seven years of the 21st century, of the American idea!" It has become a "cruel joke." ........ the universality of the American proposition: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness under a constitutional government of limited powers. "I believe in American exceptionalism," he told me, but not one based on "our military prowess or our economic dominance." ......... "our exceptionalism must be based on our Constitution, our principles, our values and our ideals. We are at our best when we are speaking in a voice that captures the aspirations of people across the globe." ........ America's capacity to inspire; it remains unique. ..... And I still see no credible alternative for stability to the far-flung American garrisons that act as the offsetting power to old rivalries in Asia and Europe. ....... There are cousins of mine in Kenya who can't get a job without paying an exorbitant bribe to some mid-level functionary. ...... I can speak forcefully about the need for Muslim countries to reconcile themselves to modernity in ways they have failed to do. ...... Al Qaeda attacked the West in Kenya, Bali and New York. Obama's father was Kenyan. The senator was schooled in Indonesia. He attended college in New York. The parallels are strange. They can also be a source of the toughness married to intuition for which he still seeks complete expression. ........ Nowhere in American history has the gulf between ideals and sordid practice been greater than on questions of race.

Attention Women of Iowa: Oprah!!! Time The first person to arrive outside Des Moines' HyVee Center on Saturday morning — a mere seven hours before Oprah Winfrey would take the stage ....... Dressed for a long wait in snowy 12-degree weather, Spurlin, 37 ...... a woman voter who knows what she's doing every day at 4pm ....... "Oprah's so personable and funny," said Spurlin ...... In 2004, just 66,690 of 340,241 female registered Democrats in Iowa caucused. ..... 1,385 people (no gender statistics were available) worked four-hour volunteer shifts for Obama in order to qualify for a ticket to Winfrey's appearance ....... the mostly-female crowd exploded in joy. Many women were moved to tears.

China steps up Tibet campaign in Nepal Times of India
Obama and the 'Oprah Effect': can she sway voters? Christian Science Monitor
Behind The NIE CBS News
Eight shot in two church incidents in Colorado
Reuters
Nearly 30000 See Obama-Oprah In SC
MSNBC Oprah Winfrey took the stage at William Bryce Football Stadium to deafening cheers. Over 29,000 people filled the risers, some having driven from as far as Savannah, Ga. .... "For the first time, I'm stepping out of my pew because I've been inspired. I've been inspired to believe that a new vision is possible for America. Dr King dreamed the dream. But we don't have to just dream the dream anymore. We get to vote that dream into reality," she told the crowd. ........... "I got some sense, I know the difference between a book club and this seminal moment in our history." ....... asking Obama to wait to run was the same as someone telling someone that they should wait to try and better their lives. ....... the atmosphere was infectious with Arrested Development and local bands playing, getting the crowd to sing and dance along. ....... Obama also had a fine moment, bringing thousands to their feet saying that it was time to "stand up" for change. ......... Music from U2 swelled across the stadium, and Obama sauntered up to the stage, throwing his arms around both women and the three waved to the screaming crowd. It was a beautifully choreographed political moment ........ One older woman, Manatha Young, from Columbia said that she had been deciding between Hillary Clinton and Obama but after Oprah she's looking more positively at Obama. ...... asking the crowd to text their cell phone numbers to the campaign. ...... broke a Guinness World Record by conducting the world's largest phone bank, 36,426 people in the audience called four names of South Carolinian voters listed on the back of their tickets and asked them to support Barack Obama. ........ 18 percent of the first 8500 people who signed into the event said they wanted to volunteer. Sixty-eight percent of people who got tickets online to the event had never been contacted by the campaign before. ...... Black voters will be convinced of his viability in a general election if he can win the majority-white states of Iowa and New Hampshire. ..... Manchester, New Hamphshire to speak at the sold out 11,000 seat stadium there. ..... months of buzz and speculation.
Offer your election scenario Chicago Tribune The majority of forecasters said Hillary Clinton will beat out Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination (52 percent to 44 percent), but so many of them think Clinton, if nominated, will lose in the general election that Obama is actually the best bet of readers to win the presidential election -- 36 percent picked Obama to win, 28 percent went for Clinton and only 10 percent chose Mitt Romney, the next closest candidate. I, too, think Obama will win. My guess is that Clinton will get hit with an Obama-lanche in Iowa, lose narrowly to him in New Hampshire and then, in a furious attempt to right her campaign and puncture Obama's balloon, go too negative and remind many Democrats that they've had enough of the polarizing pageantry of the Clintons and it's time to move on.
New Clinton Ad in Iowa, NH The Associated Press
Clinton campaign branches out by generations
Los Angeles Times












Oprah Winfrey Campaigns for Obama in Iowa NH

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