Day: February 13, 2007
Bush Caught on Tape Lying about 2003 SOTU ’16 Words’ – Media Yawns
Pres. Bush with then-U.N. chief Kofi Annan addressing reporters in the Oval Office on July 14, 2003.
Prevaricator-in-Chief: The media is ignoring the revelation yesterday that it was Vice Pres. Cheney who knowingly inserted a false statement about Iraq’s nuclear program into the 2003 State of the Union speech.
They are also apparently uninterested in reporting that both Pres. Bush and his spokesman Scott McClellan lied on the record in July 2003 about how the infamous 16-word statement — “The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” — came to be included in the speech.
Cook: Hillary the Dem to Beat in ’08
Handicapping the race: National Journal’s political analyst Charlie Cook muses on the effect that Barak Obama’s entry into the presidential race will have on Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Seems he thinks it’s not much:
Obama could be just one more of the alternatives whom Democrats disinclined to support Clinton could choose from.
Part of me hated to see Barack Obama jump into the presidential race. Don’t get me wrong: I have nothing against the senator from Illinois. But I had a theory about how the contest for the Democratic nomination would play out, and I worried that Obama’s entry could complicate things.
My theory was that the race would largely be a referendum on Hillary Rodham Clinton and on whether her party thinks she could win the general election. Virtually every Democratic voter knows her, and up to 83 percent have a favorable opinion of her. If they decide she can win, I reasoned, most would vote for her. It would come down to whether they see her as a winner.
So, this theory goes, the Democratic nomination contest would amount to two NCAA-style brackets. The top bracket would be the Hillary Clinton bracket. She would be the only one in it, and she would get byes all the way to the final. All of the other candidates would be in the second bracket, competing with one another.
Eventually, someone would emerge as the alternative to Clinton, most likely after the Iowa caucuses. Former Sen. John Edwards, I figured, had the best chance to become the un-Hillary because he is better-known than the rest and has a head start in Iowa.
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