As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were kissing and making up last Friday, Bill Clinton might have had other ideas, according to a report in The (London) Telegraph.

The paper reports that even as the former president and the current presumptive Democratic nominee prepare to meet to make their own amends, Bill Clinton reportedly told close friends Obama can “kiss my ass” to get his support.

The paper cited an anonymous Democratic source who provided the quote. That source also said Clinton is not making the primary effort to bridge the chasm between himself and Obama.

“He’s saying he’s not going to reach out, that Obama has to come to him. One person told me that Bill said Obama would have to quote, ‘kiss my ass,’ close quote, if he wants his support.

“You can’t talk like that about Obama — he’s the nominee of your party, not some house boy you can order around.

“Hillary’s just getting on with it and so should Bill.”

Bill Clinton has more recently cooled his rhetoric toward the de facto party leader, but he has publicly expressed his anger over being painted as a racist and race-baiter while his wife was campaigning against Obama.

In April, Bill Clinton had a fiery exchange with a public radio reporter, who asked him about a controversial statement he made on South Carolina on the day the state held its primary, and whether he regretted comparing Obama’s campaign to Jesse Jackson’s campaigns.

Clinton responded: “No, I think that they played the race card on me, and we now know from memos in the campaign and everything that they planned to do it all along.

“Do I regret saying it? No. Do I regret that it was used that way? I certainly do. But you’ve really got to go some (distance) to portray me as a racist,” Clinton said, adding that he has an office in Harlem, and Jackson told him personally he was not offended.

Following Hillary Clinton’s public display of unity with Obama last week, Bill Clinton and Obama are expected to meet in the coming days.

  By Joe Garofoli,

Experts in Interactive Media say candidate never progressed beyond traditional uses

The rise and fall of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign can be told through video - from her first announcement to the suspension of her campaign, scheduled for Saturday. Some of the video was scripted fare, much of it wasn’t. Some of it aired on network TV, much of it spread virally online.

And all of it was viewed enough to dominate a news cycle - or in Clinton’s case, the campaign’s narrative.

What hurt Clinton most, political analysts say, is that she couldn’t consistently use the newfound ubiquity of video to soften her image with voters. Or, as George Washington University professor and new media analyst Michael Cornfeld said, “It’s like the Clintons, both of them, had sort of a ‘Sunset Boulevard’ thing going on. They were silent screen stars who couldn’t make the transition to talkies.”

Conquering video in the digital age has less to do with being telegenic or smart - as both Clintons are. Being a politician in the YouTube era means being comfortable with giving up control of your message, and realizing that everything you say or do can be uploaded within minutes for the whole world to see - and then mashed up into something new.

Video is the media currency of the millions of young Americans who voted in the primary seasons, many for the first time. Stories told through video percolated to traditional media from blogs and online advocacy sites, from the tirades of Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, to the off-campaign script comments from Bill Clinton.

Authenticity is more prized online than high production values, as the only thing worse than being caught in a gaffe is being perceived as over-scripted. For much of the first half of the campaign, analysts say Clinton was over-scripted.

“Hillary’s announcement video had really high production values, like it was a made-for-TV movie,” said Dan Manatt, executive producer of PoliticsTV.com, a political video site. So were her first Web chats, where she answered questions from voters. They may have looked good, but they weren’t the stuff that generates buzz for a campaign.

“The Web values authenticity,” Manatt said, “And these were seen as staged and scripted and inauthentic.”

One Obama supporter seized upon Hillary Clinton’s stilted quality and created the “Vote Different” online video, a mash-up of Apple’s famous 1984 Macintosh ad and Hillary’s early Web efforts. It portrayed Clinton as a Big Brother figure, and pointed viewers to Obama’s website.

An Obama supporter, Phil de Vellis, created it on a Sunday afternoon because he was frustrated with the way politicians were using online video. “They were treating it just like TV. They were broadcasting things online. You have to do more. You have to interact with your audiences.” Plus, he wanted to show how an individual - using new media tools - could change the course of the campaign.

“We’re starting to see in these campaigns where being seen as too scripted can be seen as a liability,” said Patrick Ruffini, a GOP online strategist and founder of the new The Next Right blog, “in that you can be lampooned for it.”

It’s not like Obama didn’t have his YouTube nightmares - the nation surely has not seen the last of his former pastor. But at the height of the Wright controversy, Obama delivered a long, nuanced speech about race in America. Within a week, nearly 4 million people had watched it. 

 by Al Jazeera

Hillary Clinton’s decision to suspend her presidential campaign marks the end of a long, at times bitter, battle with her Democratic rivals, most notably Barack Obama.

The New York senator and former first lady had been her party’s early leading contender to clinch the presidential nomination.

She made US history by becoming the first woman to win a US presidential primary.

However, her campaign was marked by errors, including some comments that were swiftly pounced on by rivals, and the nomination, ultimately, slipped from her grasp.

From the outset of Clinton’s announcement in January last year that she was to enter the US presidential race, she faced a battle with many US voters’ perceptions of her and with perspective rivals.

Many argued that US voters would forever associate her with the scandals of her husband’s tenure in the White House.

But while detractors argued she used her husband’s name to gain political credibility, her supporters charged the hostility stemmed from sexism and emphasised her political experience, both in the US and on the international stage.

Political beginnings

Born Hillary Rodham in the Midwestern US state of Illinois in 1947 to a politically conservative family, Clinton was an excellent student and active in politics from an early age.

Initially a Republican who campaigned for presidential candidate Barry Goldwater and president of the Young Republicans group at Wellesley College, where she majored in political science, Clinton later switched to the Democratic party.

She trained as a lawyer at Yale University, working for child advocacy groups, supporting women’s rights and campaigning on behalf of several Democratic politicians, including Walter Mondale, the former Democratic presidential candidate.

It was at Yale that she met fellow law student Bill Clinton, whom she later married in 1975 in his home state of Arkansas.

She became first lady of the southern state following her husband’s successful bid for the state governorship in 1978, holding the position for more than 10 years. Her only child, daughter Chelsea, was born in 1980.

Following her husband’s leap to national politics and entry to the White House in 1992, Clinton was appointed by her husband as head of a task force aimed at an ambitious overhaul of America’s beleaguered healthcare system.

However, the task force’s recommendations were ultimately rejected by the US congress after Republicans and health professionals criticised the proposals.

In addition to the sting of public failure following the healthcare plan collapse, Clinton also faced a constant struggle against the traditionally perceived role of the first lady, once commenting acerbically that she did not just want to stay at home and “bake cookies” while her husband ran the country.

From scandal to senator

Successive scandals during her husband’s two terms in office, culminating in his unsuccessful impeachment for a liaison with intern Monica Lewinsky, also took their toll on her public image.

Clinton weathered the so-called Whitewater property scandal, but her husband’s liaison with Lewinsky proved harder to ignore.

Clinton later admitted in her autobiography, Living History, that the revelations of her husband’s infidelity wounded her deeply.

In 2000, after the Clintons left the White House, she successfully ran for the US senate for New York state, despite criticism that she had never previously resided in the state.

Foreign affairs

Clinton’s move to the centre of the Democratic party was seen by political analysts as a calculated move to appeal to as broad a base of voters as possible.

However, once on the campaign trail, several of her previous political decisions would come back to haunt her, most specifically, her decision in 2003 to vote in favour of the Iraq war, a vote she later distanced herself from but that proved highly damaging to her campaign.

Clinton was also heavily criticised for hawkish comments on Iran in which she said that, if made president, she would “totally obliterate” Iran should it ever attack Israel, a comment that Obama said smacked of “sabre rattling” and which many commentators said seemed closer to a Republican stance.

And there were further gaffes on the campaign trail - claims of coming under sniper fire in Bosnia which were swiftly disproved, leading to an embarrassing climbdown.

Ultimately, Obama, largely seen as untainted by any scandal or any vote for the Iraq war, garnered a momentum that Clinton simply could not overcome.

While some point to sexism, alleging the US remains unwilling to elect a woman to the highest office, others point to Democratic voters simply unwilling to hand the nomination to a Clinton and creating a political dynasty in one of the world’s largest democracies.

Either way, Clinton now faces a choice - whether to pitch in and aid the Obama campaign as it prepares to take on McCain, to concentrate on her senatorial career, or to look to other avenues.

Whichever route she chooses, it is extremely unlikely that the world has heard the last from Hillary Clinton.

By CHUCK BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer

Democrat John Edwards is endorsing former rival Barack Obama, fresh signs of the party establishment embracing the likely nominee even as Hillary Rodham Clinton refuses to give up her long-shot candidacy.

Edwards was to appear with Obama in Grand Rapids, Mich., as Obama campaigns in a critical general election battleground state.

The endorsement comes the day after Clinton defeated Obama by more than 2-to-1 in West Virginia. The loss highlighted Obama’s work to win over the “Hillary Democrats” — white, working-class voters who also supported Edwards in large numbers before he exited the race.

Edwards, a former North Carolina senator and the 2004 vice presidential nominee, dropped out of the race in late January.

Both Obama and Clinton immediately asked Edwards for his endorsement, but he stayed mum for more than four months. A person close to Edwards, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he wanted to get involved now to begin unifying the party. Obama also signed on to Edwards’ anti-poverty initiative, which he launched Tuesday with the goal of reducing poverty in the United States by half within 10 years.

When he made his decision, Edwards didn’t even tell many of his former top advisers because he wanted to make sure that he personally talked to Clinton to give her the news, said the person close to him. Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth, who has said she thinks Clinton has the superior health care plan, did not travel with him to Michigan and is not part of the endorsement.

David “Mudcat” Saunders, a chief adviser for Edwards on rural affairs during his presidential campaign, said the timing of the endorsement couldn’t be better given Obama’s resounding loss in West Virginia on Tuesday.

“For Barack Obama, I think he ought to kiss Johnny Edwards on the lips to kill this 41-point loss,” he added. “The story is not going to be the 41-point loss. It’s going to be Edwards’ endorsement.”

Edwards waged a scrappy underdog campaign for the Democratic nomination, always outshone by the historic nature of Obama possibly being the first black nominee and Clinton the first woman. But Edwards was considered their strongest contender, even as he balanced the rigors of the campaign with the personal blow of Elizabeth’s returning breast cancer.

Edwards promoted progressive policy ideas and came in second to Obama in Iowa before coming in third in the following three contests and dropping out in New Orleans, the location a reminder of his attention to poverty.

Obama has a total of 1,887 delegates, leaving him just 139 delegates short of the 2,026 needed to clinch the nomination. Clinton has 1,718 delegates, according to the latest tally by The Associated Press.

Edwards has 19 pledged delegates won in three states: Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Most of the those delegates have already been selected, meaning they are technically free to support whomever they choose at the party’s national convention, regardless of Edwards’ endorsement.

___

Associated Press writers Nedra Pickler and Stephen Ohlemacher in Washington and Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report

Clinton and Obama Differ From McCain

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

The sharply contrasting health care visions of Republican John McCain and his Democratic presidential rivals offer the promise of a grand campaign debate — if the candidates find room on a crowded agenda.

While health care reform ranks as the second-biggest domestic issue after the economy in most national opinion polls, it will compete with the Iraq war, taxes, high gas prices and other topics for a prime-time spot in the campaign for November’s presidential election.

Nearly two decades of health care debate has made little headway toward finding a consensus approach, and the issue has not been a key factor in a presidential election since the collapse of the Hillary Clinton-led reform effort in 1994.

“There is no question there are fundamental, Grand Canyon-like differences on health care between the two parties,” said Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health policy group.

“But it’s an open question whether it will be a hot issue in the campaign,” he said. “I now believe the biggest obstacle to health care reform is this ideological divide — is there any way to bridge these differences?”

McCain, who has clinched the Republican presidential nomination, and Democratic Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Clinton of New York have unveiled ambitious but very different plans to overhaul the health care system.

McCain finished a week-long campaign swing in Denver on Friday that highlighted his plan, which would use tax credits to help shift from employer-based insurance coverage to an open market system where people can choose from competing policies.

Clinton and Obama seek universal health coverage for the 47 million Americans without insurance. Clinton would mandate coverage, while Obama would require it only for children.

The Democratic plans would keep the existing job-based insurance system but expand government involvement in a hybrid public-private system.

TOUGH SELL

McCain calls the Democratic plan a “big government” solution that limits choice. Democrats say his plan reduces the incentive for companies to offer coverage and puts workers at risk of not getting it — particularly those with pre-existing conditions that insurance companies will not cover.

Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan policy research organization, said the Democratic plans had more political appeal.

“I would expect to see the Democratic approach resonate more with voters. They are very clearly telling voters you are going to be eligible for a public program,” he said.

McCain’s plan to allow people to move away from job-based coverage is a tough sell, analysts said. Polls show three-quarters or more of Americans are generally happy with the insurance they get through their employers.

At least some of the political fury that doomed Clinton’s health care initiative in 1994, when she was first lady, was fueled by the reluctance of people to abandon their employer health coverage.

A 2007 survey by the Commonwealth Fund, a private nonpartisan foundation that supports health policy research, found four of every five Americans, including three-quarters of Republicans, believed employers should either provide health insurance for workers or contribute to the cost.

“People are comfortable with what they know and afraid of change,” Altman said. “The burden of proof is always on people who want to change their current health plan.”

McCain’s plan is similar to the one put forth by President George W. Bush that fell flat in Congress, where gridlock on the issue is the norm. All of the proposals would face potentially drastic changes in Congress.

‘BASIC INSECURITIES’

“I don’t think McCain’s plan goes to the heart of people’s concerns. It does not address the basic insecurities of not having coverage or not having enough money to pay your bills,” said Susan Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund.

“It may sound good. ‘You’re in charge.’ But because of the way the insurance market works, it’s difficult,” Davis said. “The whole market is geared to excluding people who are sick.”

McCain said Americans would warm to his proposals once they became familiar with them.

“I’m confident that when we debate and discuss this issue most Americans would rather have their families making decisions about their health care,” McCain told reporters last week. “The issue cannot go unaddressed.”

But Ginsburg did not sound confident health care would become a top agenda item in the next six months.

“I wonder if it’s going to be so complicated that people tune out,” he said. “We probably won’t come out of this election with a real mandate for getting it done.”

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

 AP

HAGATNA, Guam — The early count from Democratic presidential caucuses on Guam showed Barack Obama delegates ahead with 395 votes to 320 for those pledged to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

More than 3,000 votes were expected in heavy turnout at caucuses in the U.S. territory, where neither candidate campaigned.

Four pledged delegate votes were at stake on the island 8,000 miles from Washington. Guam also has five superdelegates and some of those are being determined in the caucus voting as well.

Slow ballot-by-ballot counting was under way in the territorial legislative building after votes were hand carried from some 20 caucus sites.

Long lines of voters were reported in schools, community centers and other caucus sites that were open for voting all day Saturday.

U.S. citizens in Guam have no vote in the November presidential election, but the close Clinton-Obama race is giving them an unaccustomed role in the nomination process.

Voters picked eight pledged delegates who will have only one-half vote each at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August.

Presidential caucuses on Guam usually pass without much notice from the candidates.

This time, Obama and Clinton made their case for the territory’s four regular delegates with local advertising and long-distance interviews.

Lines formed early at some caucus sites.

Cynthia Estrada of Dedeo said she was making up her mind while waiting to vote, but she was leaning toward Clinton.

“She’s had the experience,” she said. “She’s got her husband to help her.”

Yona resident Tommy Shimizu said he was voting for Obama delegates.

“It’s the fact that he grew up in Hawaii, and I think he can make change,” he said. “I think it’s time for that.”

Clinton and Obama pitched improved health care and economic opportunity as they courted Guam voters from across the international date line.

Both candidates bought local advertising and conducted media interviews. In their protracted race for the nomination, no contest is being ignored.

Both Clinton and Obama say they’ve got the better health plan for Guamanians.

Obama said in an interview with Pacific Daily News that he would support reexamination of a $5.4 million Medicaid spending limit imposed on the territory. Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, told KUAM radio earlier that his wife would work to remove the cap.

Hillary Clinton also has called for Guamanians to be able to vote in presidential elections.

SACRAMENTO, California – (OBSNews.com)  A startup independent online news company, www.OBSNews.com has created a YouTube.com channel (go to www.OBSNewsTV.com to be directed to the channel) to help promote their brand of independent internet media coverage.  In the grandest traditions of Silicon Valley’s garage start-ups the company was the brainchild of two internet entrepreneurs Manny Fernandez and Patrick McGilvray, J.D. 

The company was created in the Fall of 2007 to help gain media attention for McGilvray’s family’s lawsuit against a large concrete company who had dumped hundreds of tons of concrete rubble and rebar on the family’s land (see www.obsnews.com/hanson.htm).  The site soon mushroomed into a news destination.

Recently the OBSNews team covered the California Democratic Party statewide convention held in San Jose at which the supporters of presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton pled their cases for the cameras with passion.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (OBSNews) – Dave Matthews played a concert in support of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at Indiana’s Assembly Hall on Sunday.  This was the musician’s attempt to get university students to register to vote and to support his chosen candidate.  The deadline to register to vote is Monday.

“I wanted to come to a free concert primarily, but I also think Barack Obama has made politics cool for young people.  He’s definitely going to get my vote,” said Greg Mayers who identified himself as a young voter at a nearby school.

More than 13,000 other concertgoers agreed with Mayers and enjoyed the singing and dancing Matthews inspired.  Barack Obama’s campaign has made the youth vote a cornerstone of his efforts to secure the US presidency.  Hillary Clinton’s campaign has been lagging in the fundraising department compared to Obama and it seems that the get-out-the-vote efforts of Obama among young people are succeeding more on a grass roots level as well.

Going an extra step further Obama’s campaign has created a type of social networking for young people who want to get more intimately involved in his campaign.  For more information visit www.mybarackobama.com

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KCBS) The contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for Texas delegates appears to be tightening. Nearly half of the votes from Saturday’s Texas caucuses remain to be counted, with Obama leading Clinton 58 percent to 42 percent. Obama’s campaign has predicted he’ll win the overall delegate race though Clinton narrowly won the popular vote in the March 4th primary.
Obama is continuing his swing through Pennsylvania. After a rally at Penn State, he traveled to the state capital of Harrisburg, where he repeated a call for party unity. He also criticized Republican nominee-to-be John McCain, saying the Arizona senator undercut his own credibility by supporting the lengthening of Bush tax cuts he had previously opposed.

On the other side of the country, former President Bill Clinton appealed to undecided California superdelegates to back his wife. And he said those squeamish about the hard-fought race for the nomination should “chill” and let everyone have their say.

California Democrats wrapped up their annual state convention in San Jose Sunday, but first they heard one last appeal for support from the rival presidential campaigns.

Most notably former President Bill Clinton was at the event. He met privately with about 15 of the 21 remaining undecided super delegates, before speaking to the full convention. He told the delegates the extended campaign fight between his wife Hillary, and Barack Obama is not hurting the Democratic Party.

”Chill out! We’re going to win this election if we just chill out and let everybody have their say,” said Clinton to a cheering crowd.

He asked for patience, and then made the case for his wife. “I strongly believe that Hillary would be the best Commander in Chief,” said Clinton before detailing her qualifications for almost an hour.

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris spoke up for her candidate, Barack Obama. “It’ is Barack Obama Californians that have the ability to bring our nation together,” said Harris.

The developments in the Democratic primary contest this week have once again focused attention on the end-game possibilities. Michigan and Florida are almost certainly not holding revotes, Barack Obama attempted to weather the Reverend Wright controversy, and this afternoon Bill Richardson will endorse Obama. Ultimately, though, all that matters is whether Clinton can make the right pitch, or gain enough momentum, to win over the superdelegates, those formerly unappreciated stars of the Democratic party who will have to push one candidate over the top. Can she do it?

• A.B. Stoddard is glad he’s not a superdelegate, whose choice between Obama and Clinton has been further complicated by Clinton’s momentum and Obama’s Wright problem . [Hill]

• Ben Smith writes that since Michigan and Florida will likely not hold revotes, Clinton will have a nearly impossible task in overtaking Obama in the popular vote — which had been one of her only hopes in winning the confidence of superdelegates. [Politico]

• Douglas E. Schoen thinks that Howard Dean and the Democrats need to make a great compromise: hold the revotes in Michigan and Florida, and in exchange, Dean will pressure the superdelegates to support Obama if he ends the primary leading in popular votes and states won, and maintains a triple-digit pledged-delegate lead. [WSJ]

• Chuck Todd and Mark Murray think that what superdelegates — many of whom are up for reelection this year — really care about is keeping their jobs. Can Clinton really make the case that having her as the nominee would help the superdelegates? Clinton-family wins are not always good for Democrats everywhere. [First Read/MSNBC]

• Mark Halperin lists the many (many) factors that superdelegates will take into consideration, including Al Gore’s views, fear of the unknown, and pressure from family members. [Page/Time]

• Halperin also runs down all the obstacles to winning the nomination that Clinton is likely pondering right now. [Page/Time]

• Patrick Healy reports that the Clinton campaign is very delicately trying to tie the Reverend Wright controversy to Obama’s electability when making their pitch to superdelegates. The danger for the Clinton campaign is appearing to once again to be exploiting race. [NYT]

• Michael Hirsh believes Clinton’s only chance isn’t exploiting Wright: It’s taking the lead on the financial crisis using her own expertise and her husband’s economic credibility. [Newsweek]

• Joe Klein looks at the “kamikaze” or “kitchen sink” tactics used by Clinton and her allies and concludes they’ll only hurt her chances of defeating Obama. [Swampland/Time]
—Dan Amira