NewsTrust - All Rated Stories

Clinton Slams Democratic Activists At Private Fundraiser

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Celeste Fremon - Apr. 19 (Opinion) - At a small closed-door fundraiser after Super Tuesday, Sen. Hillary Clinton blamed what she called the "activist base" of the Democratic Party -- and MoveOn.org in particular -- for many of her electoral defeats, saying activists had "flooded" state caucuses and "intimidated" her supporters, according to an audio recording of the event obtained by The Huffington Post.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 9 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Hillary And The Commies

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Marc Cooper - Apr. 17 (News Analysis) - During Tuesday night's Pennsylvania debate, George Stephanopoulos didn't flinch from trying to smear Barack Obama by association with former 60's radical Bill Ayers. Too bad George didn't ask Hillary about her own summer spent working for a law firm run by Communists. The facts: Obama met with former Weather Underground radical Ayers and his wife, former 60's SDS leader Bernardine Dohrn, at a 1995 Chicago meeting. From 1999-2002, Obama served on the board of a charity organization with Ayers that gave out a couple of grants. Now, I knew these Weathermen folks back in the 60's, and they were quite unsavory then. There were plenty of us who were in SDS at that time who thought the Weathermen were despicable. And, frankly, I have no particular affection for them now. I found Ayers' memoir, published in 2001, to be execrable. But by the time Obama met them in the 90's, they had cleared their violent past with the criminal justice system, they had served their punishment, gone back to school and by then become legitimate and even respected educators, and players in Chicago liberal politics.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.2 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Where Did McCain Get What He's Got "in the Bank" with the Press?

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Off the Bus - By Jay Rosen - Mar. 28 (News Analysis) - First came John McCain's strange assertion that Al Qaeda in Iraq was being trained and supported by the Iranians. Next he backed off the claim after Joe Lieberman whispered something in his ear. "I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not Al Qaeda," he said. Then on Meet the Press, NBC's political director, Chuck Todd, explained why this slip wouldn't hurt him with the press corps : "Even if he gets dinged on the experience stuff, 'Oh, he says he's Mr. Experience. Doesn't he know the difference between this stuff?' He's got enough of that in the bank, at least with the media, that he can get away with it." (Video here.) Chuck Todd's phrase, he's got enough of that in the bank, got people wondering what kind of depositary institution this was.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average - 7 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

California Superdelegates: No Brokered Convention

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By John Tomasic - Mar. 11 (Opinion) - In interviews with OffTheBus this past week, California superdelegates undercut media-generated dramatic narratives about how the Democratic nomination will unfold in August. They discounted, for example, the Spielbergian "doomsday scenario" painted by Time magazine, where back room "wheelers and dealers" would revel in the power they "wrestled from the rabble." They shook their heads, basically, at the way CNN, way back before Super Tuesday, was warning that members of the "super class of super Democrats" had been given "the power of tens of thousands of average citizens." The situation the superdelegates themselves described is a lot less Spielberg than it is C-Span. For them, it's all about the slow and largely predictable functioning of party machinery. For the superdelegates in California, at least, the two plot lines that drive the media version of the story of the nomination basically don't exist. First, the chance of an actual brokered convention is seen as slim to none. Second, the alleged tension between the citizens and the delegates seems either a misreading or just plain exaggeration.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.3 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Anatomy of an Obama Photo Op

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Zack Exley - Dec. 12 (Opinion) - Obama's Nevada staff pulled off a brilliant little piece of communications magic to keep the Oprah bounce aloft one more day here. As someone who's almost never been around the communications side of campaigns, it was a fascinating process for me to watch unfold from event to nightly news. A little past noon, right before a closed meeting with student organizers, Obama's staff had him sit down in front of local TV cameras to discuss Social Security with six hand-picked supporters who were mostly in their 40s, 50s and 60s. Before the event, I watched as the local press dutifully and unenthusiastically set up their cameras and waited for Barack's arrival. These people are amazing: out of 280 million Americans, these reporters and camera people have to be the least excited about the presidential campaign. They had, 'I'm so over this' written all over their faces.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 7 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer