Tag: Hillary Clinton (page 18)

Earlier, Big Tent Democrat wrote about the SUSA Indiana poll taken 4/11 to 4/13. Some additional notes (Full Poll Results here):

Of the 1,600 polled, only 571 were likely Democratic voters. Of those who identified themselves as Democrats.

Among the Democrats, 60% preferred Clinton to 37% who preferred Obama. Among Republicans, it was almost the reverse.

Among the age groups, Hillary had the 18 to 34 group by 49%, Obama was at 43%. As to the African American vote, Hillary had 23% to Obama's 72%.

Obama on the campaign trail today:

“Around election time, the candidates can’t do enough. They'll promise you anything, give you a long list of proposals and even come around, with TV crews in tow, to throw back a shot and a beer,” Obama said, stirring laughter from an audience of steelworkers and steel industry executives.

First he mocks her as Annie Oakley, now he goes after her having a drink on a Saturday night (video here) -- something she's done with reporters in tow before.

Hillary hits back:

“With all due respect, this is the same politician who spent six days posing for clichéd camera shots that included bowling gutterballs, walking around a sports bar, feeding a baby cow, and buying a ham at the Philly market (albeit one that cost $99.99 a pound). Sen. Obama's speeches won’t hide his condescending views of Americans living in small towns," Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said in the statement.

Reactions to the Faith forum?

Here comes the media spin.

Some of my final thoughts. The forum was held at a religious university. That probably affected the audience reaction. He wasn't speaking to the voting public, but to the religious voters.

He did another hyperbole. Now, not only is he the one who has done the most for gays and the most against anti-semitism, he's the one who's done the most to reach out to churches.

He didn't answer several questions directly, such as whether life begins at conception and whether he supports people making end of life decisions. On the latter, he restricted his answer to whether people should be able to use painkillers if that might hasten their demise.

Update: Comments now closed.

The second section of our live blog on CNN's Faith Forum is below the fold. Use the regular comments section below if you want others to see your comments. More...

Bump and Update: Hillary took off the restraints in PA today:

She made the argument that Sen. Barack Obama's comments could cost the party the election and that the party has been seen as out of touch by male candidates in the past. Clinton also criticized Obama for not "owning up to his remarks."

Original Post:

Don't miss reading John Harris and Jim Vandehei at Politico and their new article positing that far from trying to throw the proverbial kitchen sink at Barack Obama, Hillary has been exercising great restraint.

According to Politico, Hillary believes that Obama cannot win in November. The article says, if Hillary felt free to really speak her mind, here are the points she'd make:

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The Clark County democratic convention was held Saturday. It was a do-over from February. Hillary won and she now leads Obama statewide in delegates to the state convention.

More than 6,300 delegates participated Saturday, according to the Nevada Democratic Party. Clinton won 1,330 delegates from Clark County while Obama won 1,133 delegates.

Heading into Saturday, Obama had won the majority of the delegates in the state’s other 15 county conventions, 512 of 900. But Clinton’s win in Clark County, by far the state’s most populous county, gave her the lead statewide 1,718 to 1,645, for delegates to the May 17 state convention in Reno, where Nevada Democrats will select delegates to the national convention in Denver this August.

Nevada has 33 national delegates. As to why Hillary won in the January caucuses, here are the reasons: [More...]

I'm on the Hillary Clinton press teleconference call. I'll be live blogging, so check back for updates.

Speakers: Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and some PA mayors. How it works: There will be a theme announced, various people address it from the campaign and then they open it up to questions from reporters.

Phil Singer: The topic is the comments of Obama in San Francisco.

Gov. Vilsack: He grew up in small town in W. PA. After reading and reviewing Obama's comments, he found them condescending. They undercut his message of hope. Obama suggests they are bitter. PA residents don't want a pat on the head, they want a pat on the back. It's why they have been gravitating to Clinton. The most glaring example is Obama's comments about G-d and guns. Vilsack says guns are a reflection of what we do with our families.

It's hard for a candidate to win in the general election if he has these misunderstandings about people in small towns.

More...

Via Politico, here are Hillary Clinton's comments today in Indiana on Obama's gaffe. Video here.

Now, like some of you may have been, I was taken aback by the demeaning remarks Sen. Obama made about people in small town America. Sen. Obama's remarks are elitist, and they are out of touch. They are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans. Certainly not the Americans that I know — not the Americans I grew up with, not the Americans I lived with in Arkansas or represent in New York.

You know, Americans who believe in the Second Amendment believe it¹s a matter of Constitutional rights. Americans who believe in God believe it is a matter of personal faith. Americans who believe in protecting good American jobs believe it is a matter of the American Dream.

When my dad grew up it was in a working class family in Scranton. I grew up in a churchgoing family, a family that believed in the importance of living out and expressing our faith.

The people of faith I know don't "cling to" religion because they're bitter

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In reading through Hillary Clinton's new anti-crime proposal (background here), my chief interest was who, if anyone, would be subject to increased penalties and what new crimes would she create. My own position is that our criminal sentences, both state and federal, are already draconian and don't need to be raised any higher. We can't jail ourselves out of our crime problem. Smarter approaches are needed.

Here are the existing crimes for which Hillary would ask for greater sentences and the new crimes she would create:

• Online Child Exploitation, Online Sales of Prescription drugs to Minors, and Computer Fraud and Identity Theft

  Hillary will direct the Attorney General to crack down on online child exploitation and harassment through three steps:

• Hillary will sign a new law that makes it a federal crime for an adult to cyberstalk a minor.

• Enlist the private sector to crack down on online prescription drug sales to kids. Hillary will ask credit card companies to prohibit – and police – the use of their services for illegal drug sales to minors. ... At the same time, she will strengthen penalties against fly-by-night online pharmacies that prey on children.

[More...]

Update: Praise for Hillary's plan from some American Mayors.

Hillary Clinton outlined her anti-crime proposal in Philadelphia today.

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton would eliminate the federal mandatory five-year sentence for crack cocaine users as part of a $4 billion-a-year anti-crime initiative designed, in part, to steer many nonviolent offenders away from prison.

Hillary signed as co-sponsor of one of the bills to eliminate the crack cocaine disparity, Joe Biden's S. 1711, some months ago. Obama signed onto the same bill recently. (Note: It is not the pending bill I would have signed onto as it contains too many law enforcement provisions and tougher penalties for other crimes.)

Details of the plan are here. Hillary also calls for funding more cops on the street. As for paying for the $4 billion plan: [More...]

The New Insider Advantage PA poll out today (results here , pdf) has Hillary at 48 and Obama at 38. It concludes she is gaining ground.

InsiderAdvantage’s Matt Towery: “Sen. Clinton has made progress among both men and among all white voters. Her support among women also appears to be consolidating.

“My guess is that whatever damage she might have sustained by recent gaffs and media missteps have been largely discounted by the public. The race in Pennsylvania is clearly still fluid. But, at least for now, it’s tending back towards the result that was originally anticipated by most – a Clinton lead.

Pittsburgh's mayor, Luke Ravenstahl, is 28 years old. He's the youngest mayor of a big city in the country. The Washington Post has an interesting profile of him, including his unwavering support for Hillary Clinton.

At 28, the youngest big-city mayor in modern U.S. history has become one of Clinton's key backers in Pennsylvania, her top surrogate in its second-largest city and an effective rejoinder to the idea that Sen. Barack Obama, her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, has a lock on young voters in the state.

He's very popular:

During his 18 months in office, Ravenstahl has persuaded Pittsburgh's professional hockey team not to leave town, balanced the budget, cut city spending and helped promote new housing developments downtown. He was elected to retain office by 63 percent of voters in 2007. He recently announced an ambitious plan to make Pittsburgh more efficient by combining city and county governments -- an agenda that, if executed, would ultimately eliminate his job.

Pittsburgh has been hit by hard times. Hillary has a plan for it. [More..]