DNC: Report Card, By George!

As you no doubt noticed, we lost out on predicting Barack Obama's vice-presidential running mate. Even worse than being wrong--we're now buying the booze (an entire bottle) for a friend rather than having the booze bought for us.

Oh, the perils of politics! We've decided, since we picked one of the final fab four (or so), that we didn't merit an "F", but maybe say, a C+/B-. Which is a bit better grade than some portions of the Democratic National Convention have earned , according to George Stephanopoulos.






Luckily for her, Michelle Obama got higher marks from George. But will her "warm and huggy" kiss-and-make-up with Hillary Clinton, coupled with her "stand by your man" fervent testimonials for hubby Barry make her really ready for prime time material? Look out Barry, more than one star is looking to be born at this convention!

Examining the Media: Has the Press Deliberately KO'd Hillary? (Opinion)

Sen. Hillary Clinton's camp is emphatically denying an AP story announcing her resignation from her campaign for the Democratic Party nomination for president.

Regardless of what the Clinton campaign says, AP has announced the anointing of Barack Obama as well as announced that Clinton is dropping out of the race. Isn't it Clinton's job to announce what she's doing?

And isn't it the Democratic Party's job to officially nominate Sen. Barack Obama? Apparently not.

Here's what the Clinton campaign has to say, via Fox News:

"“The AP story is incorrect. Senator Clinton will not concede the nomination this evening,” the campaign said in a statement.

Clinton aides told FOX News that the only concession she will make Tuesday night is that Obama “has a slight lead in the delegate count.”

They said Clinton plans to claim she has won the popular vote, and is working up a victory-type speech for her address in New York City.

“She is in this race until we have a nominee. We do not expect there to be one tonight,” Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said."

Still, media are following the AP's lead and accepting the AP announcement as though it came from Clinton herself. Apparently, there is no longer any reason to have a convention, because AP has just announced the nominee.

The intrusion of the media as propagandists and active PR agents for Sen. Barack Obama has been appalling, and something that I hope serious journalists take a long and hard look at. For weeks, indeed months, even before people voted, we've been told, by the media, that Clinton had already lost.

In the frantic rush to ordain Obama, the media seems to have forgotten that its job is to report factually, and not be part of the political system, but an objective  lenses on the process. These days, I think that a definition of the term "objective" needs to be given to most media.

There's a place for opinion: in the editorial section of a newspaper, or in the commentary segments of TV shows. There's an endless stream of newly-appointed pundits who drone on for hours about the slightest thing.

Their shows should have a message on the screen at the start and all commercial breaks: editorial and commentary only; this is not breaking news. Too harsh? I think not.

The media has told Hillary to quit many times--in a way they wouldn't have done with a man. They've announced her defeat so often that were this a prize fight, there'd be more announced knock-outs than rounds.

They've consistently used the least attractive photos of Clinton they could find, while finding attractive photos of Obama. One day, a supposedly objective news story gushed on about the "glamorous" Mrs. Obama, when the supposed subject was Obama policy as presented in speeches.

Watching today as the sheep stampede to follow AP's lead, I'm left wondering: when did the media get the idea that reporting news isn't good enough, and that making news is their job? 

Today, media outlets are rushing to carol the good news: AP has announced Clinton's quitting, tonight, and Obama is the nominee.

No, he's not the nominee. Even if Clinton concedes tonight, he's only the presumptive nominee.

Unless, of course, the media has now decided to take over democratic processes. In which case, everyone can save a lot of money by calling off the Democratic convention.

Personally, although Clinton hasn't been my candidate, I hope she stays in it as long as she chooses, not the media. I'd like to see her take her issues to the convention. I'd like to see Clinton supporters have the chance for some good, old-fashioned floor fights.

Above all else, I hope she doesn't accept the AP announcement as her own.

Where's the Peanut Gallery?

A reminder: we've been invited to join the friendly folks at Pep Report. Other writers will be joining in, too, so come visit!

Bush Finds His Funny Inner Child: Bon Mots Jab Obama, Clinton, McCain at Press Event

Good ones, Mr. President!

Obama's Hand Jive: Flipping Hillary the Finger

Barack Obama might as well take up communicating with gang hand signals, if he's going to denigrate the U.S. presidential race by flipping competitor Hillary Clinton the bird--and laughing about it. As his wife Michelle hasn't found much in America to be proud of, maybe this will give her something to brag about.

Hillary Clinton Under Fire for Not Being Under Fire While Obama Sat in Racist Church Damning America

The Barack Obama camp, of course, wasted no time in going negative with what Hillary Clinton calls "a minor blip." Frankly, the fatigue and jet lag of not only globe-trotting but thousands of trips is more believable as a cause of mistakes than is sitting in a hate-spewing , racist minister's church for 20 years and calling it "not agreeing." Obama still will not be able to dig his way out of the Jeremiah Wright mess.



In comparison, here's where Barack Obama spent a couple of decades, learning from the man he calls his mentor and spiritual advisor.

McCain Visits Iraq; Where's Obama & "God Damn America"? Hillary Issues Iraq Plan

Republican presidential contender John McCain is visiting the troops in Iraq. Meanwhile, Barack Obama is busy trying to dig himself out of a hole for his decades of support for his anti-American, anti-white pastor Jeremiah Wright.




Hillary Clinton comes out swinging as she presents her plan for handling Iraq. She says it won't be easy.




At least she's focusing on real issues facing our country, and complimenting our troops. Obama, meanwhile, continues on the "me, me, me" narcissism trail, but this time, not even adoring media can cover his gigantic problems with being revealed as "the great divider."

Michelle Obama has told us that with her husband's ascension to the spotlight she is finally proud of her country. After attending a prime magnet school, Princeton, and Harvard, and having a six-figure job, she's also been busy telling middle and lower-class Americans that they shouldn't try to get jobs in corporate America.

Her salary in corporate America was doubled when her husband gained power in Chicago and Illinois politics. But Michelle Obama, whose thesis talked about how she was disenfranchised at Ivy League schools and in society, wants others, who probably will never have a shot at Princeton or Harvard, to avoid seeking business success.



The Obamas had their children baptized and taught by Wright, and faithfully attended church at Trinity United Church of Christ, whose articles of faith include allegiance first to Africa. Wright's attacks include allegations that the US created HIV/Aids and introduced it to Africa to get rid of blacks.



Obama now is desperately trying to prove that he wasn't in church on just one day of many when Wright declared "God Damn America." Still to come: fallout when people really get into Obama's book, especially the part where he declares that when the going gets tough, he will stand with Muslims.

Yea, yea, Obama finally, under extreme pressure, condemned Wright's comments. Acting as though his "spiritual mentor's" views were a news flash to him, Obama tried to distance himself from 20 years of support.

Or was it? There are two Obama stories about church now. When questions were asked about his attendance at a Muslim school, and possible Muslim ties, Obama and his campaign went full speed ahead with his Christian dedication to Wright's church.



Supposedly, Obama was a faithful supporter and attended regularly. Now, however, Obama seems to be busy noting how often he missed church, and how much he didn't know about Wright's beliefs and published statements.

McCain goes to Iraq, Hillary addresses Iraq issues, and Obama is doing the shuffle about his real church attendance, and his support for "God Damn American."


You choose: God Damn America, or God Bless America? Barack Obama is making the division between the two philosophies very clear--for those who want to hear and get past the Obamas' hypocrisy.

Analysis: Clinton Clicks With Voters, Super Delegates Key

Raw Video: The Clinton-Obama Showdown

Will Hillary Clinton Quit This Friday?

Will Hillary Clinton give up her campaign for the White House this Friday? Supposedly, she will--according to someone's dinner conversation with someone else.

Let's face it, this has been a weird presidential campaign. With the media serving primarily as a Barack Obama cheerleading squad, the Democratic campaign and seemingly endless debates have seemed like street theater, a high-priced busking for electoral votes.

In the Obama-Clinton Punch and Judy show, many are already counting Clinton out on a TKO. Apparently, the only cubic zirconia jewel left in the not-even-triple crown is the right to be the first to declare Obama king.




The "Hillary will bow out" story is posted here by blogger Jay Severin. Here at the Peanut Patch, we figure that the Drudge Report will slap down chips by tomorrow morning.

We don't know what Hillary Clinton is thinking. We haven't had dinner with anyone who's had dinner with someone who's highly-placed or "in the know".

But, looking up from our at-home, in-front-of-the-TV dinner, we do know this: she hasn't been given a fair shake before she's baked. The media and self-ordained pundits have been too busy tsk tsking Sen. Clinton as nothing more than Hillary Housewife Clinton.

Bottom line: regardless of our party affiliation, we Americans showed up for a presidential campaign, with issues in the forefront. What the Democrats, aided and abetted by leftists and the media (or is that redundant?), have given us is rhetoric, political cant, and the desperate search for a Kennedy-esque, Elvis-quality rock star (cue Obama)

The Republicans scrapped it out with substance and style. The Democrats, on the edge of the great Kennedy divide, have yearningly stampeded toward a Liberace-style road show.

We'll be honest here: Hillary Clinton isn't our candidate. But she's smart, serious, and has significant expertise--not that you'd know it by now. She's been fair game for the old power ploys meant to whittle down the little woman who thought she could.

And that, folks, just isn't right. If Hillary Clinton bows out early, it will be everyone's loss, and a triumph of spectacle over substance.

Our advice? Run, Hillary, run. Don't let yourself be forced out by media, bloggers, rumors, or anything else. Fight back.

Because frankly, we'd like to see a match-up between you and Republican John McCain. We figure that contest would get down to reality's core, instead of the current Democratic search for "Miss Congeniality."

And yes, we do want world peace (thank you, Sandra Bullock). But what we need to maintain our security at home, fight global terrorism, and be a world leader is more guts and less glitz.

And running for president as a woman, with Bill Clinton as baggage, took guts. Especially when no one assessed extra freight charges on Obama for his long-term support for indicted slumlord and political fixer Antoin "Tony" Rezko.

Romney Endorses McCain as Republicans Unite

Noting that Democrats are "skilled at rhetoric that allows them to strike heroic poses," Mitt Romney said that former Vietnam POW John McCain was a "real American hero." The joint appearance stressed overall party unity and American togetherness in the face of a global jihad.




The debate's over, and Mitt Romney is poised to endorse John McCain in just a few minutes. He'll ask that his delegates and supporters swing their clout and votes to McCain.




On the other hand, the Democrats are continuing to cannibalize themselves, with a former President Bill Clinton staffer coming out for Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton axed a top staffer. The Kennedy family is lining up on both sides in this inner circle Democratic brawl.

Jaws' Roy Scheider Dies

No Surprise: Mitt Romney Out of Presidential Race

The only suprising thing about Mitt Romney's suspension of his presidential campaign is that anyone is surprised.

Romney, the former governor of Massachussetts, is first and foremost a businessman. Using business logic, it was clear that the numbers just didn't add up for success. After spending approximately $35 million of his own money, Romney only earned 273 Republican delegate votes, or only about one-third as many as front runner John McCain.

Romney was also pushed hard by ultra-conservative candidate Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas. Huckabee's surprising strength also played into another factor in the complicated equation of politics: religion.

Huckabee is a conservative fundamentalist Baptist preacher. Romney is a devout Mormon whose religion had come under question, and often, fire.

Romney may be best known for his stunning turn-around success as CEO of the scandal-ridden 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The no-nonsense businessman who added up an astonishing American success after a lousy start is the same man who added up his own losing numbers in the presidential race.

Romney and his wife Ann also faced the extra challenge of campaigning while she struggled with multiple sclerosis (MS). Dedicated to his family, Romney also keyed in the personal costs.

In suspending his campaign, Romney also made a sound business decision. With a suspended campaign, he can still receive donations to pay off campaign debts.

Romney also tallied up the costs for the country if a Republican battle continued. With the Democrats at war between the Kennedy family/Barack Obama and the Clinton family/Hillary Clinton camps, the Republicans have a chance to come together and unite months before the conventions.

Continuing, Romney said, would mean that "I forestall the launch of a national campaign and frankly I'd be making it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win. Frankly, in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

"If this were only about me, I can go on. But its never been only about me. I entered this race... because I love America, and because I love America, in this time of war, I feel I now have to stand aside, for our party and for our country," Romney told members of the old the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.

Tornado Video: Death Toll Rises From Savage Storms

For more storm photos and videos, click here.

For an eyewitness survival account, click here.

Super Tuesday: Early Analysis

Super Tuesday: Will It Be Really Super?

Obama & Slumlord Rezko: The Money & Political Ties Are Years Old And Deep in Poverty Scandals

For generations, Chicago politics have been believed by many to be among the dirtiest in the nation. Given the nature of politics, deciding who's the prettiest in the mud rasslin' contests is not a thing of beauty. But as the campaign flows on, one element is being hosed away: Barack Obama's attempt to present himself as totally pure in his associations and backers.

Not only did Obama legally represent a portion of Tony Rezko's slum landlord business, but amazingly enough, Rezko and Obama bought side-by-side properties (including Obama's mansion) a few years ago. Obama's rise from novice senator to Democratic front runner took more than one good speech to fuel--it took money. Lots of money. And Rezko provided it, while low-income tenants in his projects went without heat in brutal Chicago winters.

Obama, who's saavy enough to handle Chicago politics, clearly could figure out renewal projects that didn't quite "renew." The Rezko problems were long-term and well-publicized, but Obama seems to have missed them.

As Tim Novak reports in an excellent investigative piece for the Chicago Sun-Times:

"For more than five weeks during the brutal winter of 1997, tenants shivered without heat in a government-subsidized apartment building on Chicago's South Side.

It was just four years after the landlords -- Antoin "Tony'' Rezko and his partner Daniel Mahru -- had rehabbed the 31-unit building in Englewood with a loan from Chicago taxpayers....

Rezko and Mahru couldn't find money to get the heat back on.

But their company, Rezmar Corp., did come up with $1,000 to give to the political campaign fund of Barack Obama, the newly elected state senator whose district included the unheated building.

Obama has been friends with Rezko for 17 years. Rezko has been a political patron to Obama and many others, helping to raise millions of dollars for them through his own contributions and by hosting fund-raisers in his home.

Obama, who has worked as a lawyer and a legislator to improve living conditions for the poor, took campaign donations from Rezko even as Rezko's low-income housing empire was collapsing, leaving many African-American families in buildings riddled with problems -- including squalid living conditions, vacant apartments, lack of heat, squatters and drug dealers."

Novak also summarized some squalid details of Rezko urban renewal projects:

"Rezko and Mahru also managed the buildings, which were supposed to provide homes for poor people for 30 years. Every one of the projects ran into trouble:

• Seventeen buildings -- many beset with code violations, including a lack of heat -- ended up in foreclosure.

• Six buildings are currently boarded up.

• Hundreds of the apartments are vacant, in need of major repairs.

• Taxpayers have been stuck with millions in unpaid loans.

• At least a dozen times, the city of Chicago sued Rezmar for failure to heat buildings. "

The government has filed numerous charges against the Syrian-born Rezko. Arrested this week on bond violation, he faces faces serious jail time if convicted of attempted extortion, money laundering, and fraud.

Obama's ties to Rezko run deeper than the "just another contributor" story he's floating. In fact, you could call Obama a Rezko supporter. In Obama wrote several letters supporting Rezko's Cottage View Terrace projects for low-income senior citizens. Taxpayers funded the Obama-endorsed projects for more than $14 million.

Although Obama says he's given all "identified" Rezko campaign contributions to charity, the taint lingers. Now it's been revealed that while Rezko was claiming poverty, he was getting millions from a secretive investor identified as an Iraqi millionaire. Why would someone from the Middle East invest in an indicted Syrian businessman now in jail?

One Arab-American blogger claims that Rezko's problems are caused by "the media bias against Arab Americans.....Arab American businessmen make easy targets for criticism and attacks." The freezing low-income apartments, Ray Hanania declared, were "livable residences." He speaks of Rezko's generosity, including "Rezko has a long history of supporting Arab American causes." Then why didn't his "generosity" extend to maintaining the low-income project housing as he contracted to do?

Now fast-forward to the Hillary Clinton snub that Obama denies at President Bush's State of the Union speech. In South Carolina, Clinton scored a solid hit on Obama as she brought up his business ties to Rezko, sparking real anger in Obama's eyes and voice.

With Bill Clinton acting as wife Hillary's Obama hit man, the Democratic campaign has turned into a real brawl. Obama's "Far Above the Madding Crowd" noble pose is getting scraped thin.

As Desi would say to Lucy: Obama, you got a lot of 'splaining to do. Start with how you missed Rezko's shenanigans (if you did, especially as you were one of his partners' lawyers) and if so, how that translates to being able to identify international shenanigans if you become president. And if you didn't somehow overlook Rezko's problems, then tell us why you went out of your way as a U.S. Senator, to support him.

As Super Tuesday Looms, Edwards Drops Out, Scoreboard Standings

Not surprisingly, John Edwards is dropping out of the presidential race. His official announcement will take place in New Orleans this afternoon.

Play Nice, Kids: Obama Says Turning Away From Clinton Not a "Snub:

Apparently Sen. Barack Obama never checked in with Amy Vanderbilt or Miss Manners. The funny thing about this video: the woman behind Obama. Watch her face and body language: she's not buying what he's selling.

Clinton vs. Obama: Race Gets Bitter & Personal

The award for best comment goes to John Edwards.