Entries tagged “Barack Obama”
"My greatest strength is my humility. My greatest weakness? It's possible that I am a little too awesome." -Barack Obama
By Sarah Scully on 10/17/2008
"It's true that this morning I've dismissed my entire team of advisers. All their positions will be held by a man named Joe the Plumber." -John McCain Last night Barack Obama and John McCain put down the boxing gloves and put on white ties and tails for the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, a bipartisan charity event named after the legendary New York Governor and first Catholic presidential nominee. The evening marked a 63 year-old tradition of politicians joining together to make light of their differences and raise money for underprivileged children. It's a particularly nice break... MORE »
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Behind The Scenes At The Democratic and Republican Conventions
By Sarah Scully on 09/18/2008
2008 Uncut photographs captured at the conventions. Sometimes a picture is worth more than 1,000 words. All Photos: ©Charlotte Rabbe... MORE »
The Obama Strikes Back
By William Rabbe on 08/21/2008
By William Rabbe Having been lambasted by the McCain camp as an out of touch, race-card-playing celebu-tante, Barack Obama is fighting back this week -- and pragmatic Democrats who worried that Obama's "above the fray" non-responsive approach would doom his candidacy are sighing with relief. The cardinal rule of negative campaigning is: "when attacked, attack back," -- or perhaps better summarized by veteran democratic strategist, Paul Begala: "it's hard for your opponent to say bad things about you when your fist is in his mouth." The most classic victims of "refuse-to-fight-back-syndrome" are Michael Dukakis in 1988 and John Kerry in... MORE »
Too Far?
By William Rabbe on 07/30/2008
By William Rabbe OMG! The new John McCain ad features Barack Obama amongst celebrities Britney Spears and Paris Hilton! That's hot. But by tapping into popular resentment of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, is McCain's camp grabbing at straws or could this approach be effective (albeit still slightly ridiculous)? Probably both. As the underdog, John McCain can afford some flexibility in shifting tactics -- he's trying nearly every approach to find out what works and what doesn't before the critical post-convention stretch. In this case, he's making a play for free publicity by cooking up a controversial ad that will... MORE »
The Role of Jan Brady Will Be Played by John McCain
By Sarah Scully on 07/21/2008
By Sarah Scully Much like the middle Brady Bunch daughter, John McCain can't seem to get any attention. Everyone is too busy noticing the many accomplishments of Barack Obama, who has taken on the role of Marsha Brady, the cheerleading, straight A, class president who sucks all the oxygen out of the room without even trying, leaving poor sister Jan ( a role previously played by Hillary Clinton) to lament: "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!" Perhaps the McCain campaign hoped that they would get a shot at center stage with Marsha out of town but the media is as fixated as ever... MORE »
Trivial Pursuit: Who Loves America More?
By William Rabbe on 06/20/2008
Will this Undermine right wing attempts to portray Michelle Obama as unpatriotic? MORE »
Democratic Party Unity Achieved, Sero Sed Serio
By Sarah Scully on 06/09/2008
By Sarah Scully In case you were escaping the heat on an Antarctic iceberg this weekend and missed it, Hillary Clinton officially suspended her campaign and endorsed Barack Obama. Clinton put to rest questions of her party loyalty (and grasp on reality) by unequivocally encouraging supporters to elect her former rival. She must now suffer through the media analysis (ours included) of how and why she lost but in the meantime, please find her speech below. Transcript of Hillary Clinton's speech on Saturday, June 7, 2008 in Washington D.C.: Thank you so much. Thank you all. Well, this isn't exactly... MORE »
Wright No More
By William Rabbe on 04/29/2008
Barack Obama is now cutting Rev. Wright off... "Reverend Wright does not speak for me, he does not speak for my campaign... but what I do want him to be very clear about... when I say I find these comments appalling, I mean it. It contradicts everything I believe and that I'm about." Obama describes him as "commanding the stage" for several days, and doing more that just "defending himself." Obama says he was instead presenting a "world view that contradicts me." Can we expect Wright and Obama to get into a pissing match in the coming days? It appears... MORE »
B-Ball with Obama
By William Rabbe on 04/26/2008
Barack Obama played basketball last night in Kokomo, Indiana, with some lucky campaign supporters -- and after taking a lot of heat for his lousy bowling in Pennsylvania, he was on his game this time. His secret weapon? He practices regularly with Marvin Nicholson -- his 6'7 trip-director. Marvin was also indispensable to another Presidential candidate in 2004. Obama's sweatpants were an inch too short for him (look closely). MORE »
The Right Idea
By William Rabbe on 03/19/2008
By William Rabbe You might remember my piece from March 15th about Obama and his controversial former pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright. It probably wasn't hard to read between the lines of my post, but my impression was that no amount of damage control could dig Obama from of the hole that Wright had created for his candidacy. Even worse, the senator's early attempts to distance himself from the controversy, essentially by claiming ignorance, seemed contrived. But after delivering an enlightening speech on a complex issue, it appears that Obama has the right idea. My two favorite first impressions... MORE »
Obama's Big Whoops...
By William Rabbe on 03/15/2008
Filed under: ScandalsBy William Rabbe Jeremiah Wright is Obama's Achilles Heel. Fanatical, irreverent or just plain crazy -- Wright is the single largest threat to Obama's candidacy, and if I was a betting man, I would say this bombshell development is enough to stifle Obama's chances completely... Having been his pastor for 20 years -- this fellow isn't someone that Obama can simply reject (or denounce) easily, despite his recent efforts. In fact, in an attempt to distance himself from Wright, Obama first described him as "an old uncle who sometimes will say things that I don't agree with." Disagree or not,... MORE »
Six Weeks to Pennsylvania
By William Rabbe on 03/12/2008
By William Rabbe Pennsylvania is expected to be important in the fight for the Democratic Nomination, but why? It's not possible for either candidate to win enough delegates from this contest to gain the nomination, so a PA victory will amount to a PR stunt -- providing momentum and favorable press coverage, which might be an important factor leading up to a brokered deal or a convention floor fight. Following her victory in Ohio, Clinton has used the argument that despite having gained less delegates (and less states, and less of the popular vote) than Obama she still deserves the... MORE »
No Alamo for Hillary Clinton...
By William Rabbe on 03/05/2008
By William Rabbe Contrary to expectations, no knockout blows were landed on Hillary Clinton by Barack Obama last night. In fact, Clinton's resurrection seems to be well underway with a reinvigorated campaign and plenty of media hype. Not only did she succeed in Texas, Rhode Island and Ohio, but she has also turned around in the PR war -- her scolding of the press appears to have created a gang rush of scrutiny of Obama's candidacy. Following last night's primaries, referred to as "Super Tuesday II," the fight will now go on through Pennsylvania on April 22nd ("Super Tuesday III"?)... MORE »
On Borrowers and Lenders: Obama's "Plagiarism" Explained
By Sarah Scully on 02/20/2008
By Sarah Scully "I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow." - Woodrow Wilson After sifting through every granule of Barack Obama's being, his detractors were finally able to put together a pointed assault. With the strategy of attacking an enemy's strength rather than a weakness (a method made popular by Karl Rove), the Clinton campaign accused Barack Obama of plagiarizing parts of his crowd-pleasing orations, most notably from Massachusetts Governor, Deval Patrick's 2006 campaign. Patrick did not hesitate to defend his friend against the charges. Agree or disagree, this was a... MORE »
