Certain interests are trying to promote Hialry as un beatable, etc. But, I simply do not buy that. As long as she is stuck with less than 50% of hard commitment, she has got ptoblems.

Image Obama and Edwards making a deal and joining forces. That alone would end Hilary. This just goes to show you that her stupid die-hard support for Israel is a looser nowadays after the failure of the war against Irag.

Bye-bye Hilary. Bye-bye zionism.

keep dreaming. though zionism should be the least of one's worries.

still a year away but that debate hurt Hillary bad
Barack Obama Sees Opening to Overtake Clinton in Iowa, 'Statistically Tied' in New Poll

With recent polling showing the Democratic presidential candidate catching up to the frontrunner in the early-voting state, Obama is pressing the case that he has the policy proposals and broad appeal to attract voters interested in change.

"There's no doubt that we represent the kind of change Senator Clinton can't deliver on. And part of it's generational," Obama told FOX News." Senator Clinton and others have been fighting some of the same fights since the '60s. It makes it very difficult for them to bring the country together to get things done. And I think that's what people hunger for".

That approach appears to be paying off. A Zogby poll of 502 likely voters taken Tuesday showed Obama with 25 percent support, three points behind Clinton. The margin of error was 3 percent.

By contrast, an American Research Group poll taken in Iowa between Oct. 26 and 29 of 600 likely voters put Clinton 10 points ahead of Obama, with 32 percent support. Clinton has lost footing in the polls ever since a debate last week in which she gave unclear answers on her position regarding a New York plan to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

While Obama's campaign in Iowa kicked off with energetic support from younger voters, the Illinois senator said he now enjoys support from "all demographic groups."

"We have grassroots support. That's the reason we're statistically tied. We've got the best organization on the ground," Obama said. "You can have all the establishment you want and all the Washington endorsements you want, but ultimately people are going to make a choice on who really cares about them and who has a track record for fighting for them."

He added that voters are "tired of the tit for tat. They're tired of divisive politics. What they want is somebody who can unify the country, push back against the special interests and stand up for what they really believe in."

On a three-day swing through southeastern Iowa, Obama has highlighted plans to give tax cuts to the middle class, reduce health care costs and strengthen retirement security, part of his so-called "American Dream" agenda.

According to his plan, Obama would offset payroll taxes for average Americans and remove taxes on Social Security for retirees now making less than $50,000 a year. He wants to provide tax cuts up to $1,000 for working families, expand the Family and Medical Leave Act, create a fund to prevent foreclosures, reform bankruptcy laws and enroll workers in portable retirement accounts.

In an indirect reference to Clinton, Obama told an audience Wednesday that his approach to lifting up the middle class isn't based on politics as usual.

"This is what we must do to reclaim the American dream. We know it won't be easy. We'll hear from the can't-do, won't-do, won't-even-try crowd in Washington; the special interests and their lobbyists; the conventional thinking that says this country is just too divided to make progress. Well I'm not running for president to conform to this conventional thinking. I'm running to challenge it," he said.

Clinton's campaign called Obama's middle-class plan simply rehash of his earlier policy platforms and noted that Obama voted against capping credit card interest rates in 2005, a position upheld by congressional Republicans.

Fully aware of the gains Obama is making, Clinton just wrapped up a four-day swing in Iowa. She has also set out to hiring 100 new staff in Iowa and possibly doubling that army by election night on Jan. 3. Trying to widen the gap in Iowa, Clinton visited more than 30 cities this week to speak about her plan to increase biofuels production, achieve energy independence and create so-called "green" jobs.
On the generational shot taken at Clinton, her spokesman, Phil Singer told FOX News: "I think Iowa caucus-goers would disagree with the idea that anyone over the age of 50 should be disqualified from serving in elected office."

The studied Clinton response plays to the candidate's generational strengths as Clinton's supporter comes more consistently from older Iowans and a sizable number of baby boom women. These groups of voters tend to vote most predictably in caucuses and form the backbone of Clinton's pre-caucuses base.

Even so, the vast majority of the modest crowds who attended Obama events in Bettendorf and Muscatine were middle-aged and older and even divided between men and women.

David Axelrod, Obama's senior campaign adviser, said the Zogby data was consistent with internal campaign tracking polls. Axelrod said this was no time for victory laps.

"We've never jumped up and down about polls, but what those numbers show is what we see on the ground."

Axelrod said the Obama movement is not entirely driven by intense coverage of Clinton's up-and-down performance at last week's debate.

"We've been moving steadily," Axelrod said. "Now, obviously the debate opened up some questions about Clinton and that's a matter the candidates have followed up on."

Axelrod said the tightening of polls in New Hampshire underscores the campaign's ability to challenge Clinton on two fronts at the same time.

"We're not putting all our eggs in the Iowa basket, we've got the resources to go to February 5th and we intend to got that far and farther."

Axelrod said Obama will spend the majority of time between now and caucus night (Jan. 3) in Iowa.

"For us exposure equals success," Axelrod said. "People here fundamentally get what he has to offer."

Barack Obama enlists Oprah Winfrey to woo voters


WASHINGTON - Illinois Sen. Barack Obama hopes that campaigning with media mogul Oprah Winfrey, who has empowered millions to improve their lives, will be the advantage that some observers say might help him win voters from rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in three key states with early presidential contests.

Winfrey will campaign with Obama in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Dec. 8, then visit Columbia, S.C., and Manchester, N.H., the next day, Obama's campaign announced yesterday.

Although endorsements generally do little to sway voter opinions on their own, political experts say Oprah's star power could attract potential voters who might not otherwise come to campaign rallies.


She helps him attract an audience - people who otherwise would not hear his message," said Drake University political scientist Dennis Goldford. "In a close race that could make a difference."

Another potential advantage of having Winfrey on the trail is that her popularity among women could be particularly appealing to that group of voters, a key constituency of Clinton's and a bedrock source of votes among Iowa Democrats.

"If it were just an endorsement, it would be nothing more than a 24-hour news story, but the fact that she will be out campaigning for him is significant," said Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at the University of Iowa.

Winfrey, with 49 million weekly viewers in the United States alone, has helped make bestsellers out of books promoted on her show.

Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina states are critical to the fortunes of presidential hopefuls because Iowans will be the first to choose presidential nominees when they caucus Jan. 3, and New Hampshire holds its primary five days later. South Carolina, which has a large black population, holds its primary Jan. 26.

An Iowa win for Clinton could give her quest for the Democratic nomination an air of inevitability. A win for Obama would likely bring a flood of campaign contributions and political momentum.

Winfrey's campaign presence will generate additional buzz for an Obama campaign that, according to the latest ABC/Washington Post poll, has overtaken Clinton - the Democratic front-runner nationwide - by a narrow margin in Iowa.

That poll, conducted Nov. 14-18 showed Obama as the choice of 30 percent of voters, compared to Clinton's 26 percent. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards had 22 percent, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson had 11 percent.

A spokeswoman for Winfrey said the talk show host was an early supporter of the Illinois senator, but referred further inquiries to the Obama campaign. "This trip is about building on the momentum we have in the early states by reaching untapped voters, and building our base of volunteers and supporters for the final stretch to the nomination," said Obama spokesman Jen Psaki.

Clinton spokesman Blake Zeff, without mentioning Winfrey by name, said, "Everyone has wonderful supporters ... but at the end of the day voters will determine which candidate has the strength and experience to make change happen on day one."

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

Legis. Jon Cooper

(D-Lloyd Harbor)

Member of Obama's campaign



"It's not going to make or break the campaign. Only Barack can do that. Certainly Oprah's support is, I believe, going to be quite helpful, particularly in outreach to female voters. If she [appears] on the campaign trail, that can only help. ... But then it's up to Barack and the Obama campaign to get the message out."






Business Day - News Worth Knowing

Running Obama fundraising event at the Apollo Theater on Thursday



"Oprah is a household personality. ... This adds juice, impetus, to his candidacy and credibility in an extraordinary way. And could the timing be any better? It's around the corner for Iowa and the other early states, where the momentum is moving in his direction. This is sort of like jet fuel to that momentum."



Robert Zimmerman



Great Neck

Democratic National Committeeman and a Hillary Clinton supporter



"Endorsements are critical both in terms of helping people focus on the candidate and developing media attention around the candidate. But ultimately the candidate has to close the deal, and the candidate has to earn the vote."


Legis. Judy Jacobs

(D-Woodbury)

Presiding Officer of the Nassau County Legislature



"I don't know if the general public is swayed by who endorses whom. I know that I'm not. I make my vote on the person themselves and what they stand for."



Bob Vasta

46, of New Jersey

Runs toy stand at

Roosevelt Field Mall



"I think it's a good move on his part. He's the underdog. It definitely will help him with the women voters. Oprah is a big influence on the female population."



Star Welch

22, of Freeport

Makeup artist



"It'll help because it's Oprah. Oprah is just a powerful person. Anything Oprah says goes."




Joel Wettstein


62, of Franklin Square

Retired real estate financier



"She just has such a popular following and people who believe in her. I think it will help."




Stephanie Moreno

23, of Brooklyn

Works as a sales associate at a fashion boutique in Manhattan



"It will probably help. She's got so many fans that they'll do what she says to do."



OTHER CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS

BARACK OBAMA: Warren and Susan Buffett; George Clooney; Jamie Foxx; Bill Gates; Stephon Marbury; Chris Rock; Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith



HILLARY CLINTON: Jodie Foster; Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward; Ben Stiller; Tom Hanks; Tobey Maguire; Danny DeVito; Martha Stewart



JOHN EDWARDS: Mary Steenburgen; Susan Sarandon; Danny Glover; Jackson Browne; Bonnie Raitt



CHRIS DODD: Paul Simon



RUDY GIULIANI: Melissa Gilbert; Tony Sirico ("The Sopranos"); Vic Damone; Melania Knauss (Donald Trump's wife)



MIKE HUCKABEE: Chuck Norris

New Obama Web site on Clinton criticism

WASHINGTON - As Hillary Rodham Clinton seeks to distinguish herself from Barack Obama with a more aggressive, confrontational tone, the Obama camp is adding to its quick response machine.

The campaign opened a Web site Monday, hillaryattacks.barackobama.com, to keep track of Clinton's criticisms, hoping to build a case that she is running a negative campaign. The step is a sign of the new friction in the Democratic presidential race with just one month before the first votes are cast in Iowa.

"We're asking all of you to be vigilant and notify us immediately of any attacks from Senator Clinton or her supporters as soon as you see them so that we can respond with the truth swiftly and forcefully," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said in a Web posting for supporters.

Clinton, who had lately focused her criticism of Obama on his health care plan, said Sunday it was time to begin defining the differences among the candidates.

"I have been, for months, on the receiving end of rather consistent attacks," she said in Iowa. "Well, now the fun part starts. We're into the last month, and we're going to start drawing the contrasts."

Clinton has been a main target of Democrats, particularly Obama and Edwards, who have tried to equate her with an old Washington establishment that would not foster political change. Her campaign has had its own Web site, facts.hillaryhub.com, to rebut claims made by her opponents.

Obama and his aides say Clinton's new combative style is driven by the closeness of the race in Iowa where Clinton, Obama and Edwards appear locked in a statistical dead heat.

New Obama Web site on Clinton criticism - Yahoo! News

Oprah is on C-Span live right now, talking up Obama at a campaign rally in Iowa. You can probably catch it on C span if you can't catch it on tv.


C-SPAN

Oprah & Obama: Corporate Marketing for a Corporate Campaign

by Bruce Dixon; BAR; December 13, 2007

Two of the best marketers in the U.S. teamed up for a three-state weekend extravaganza of vapid, substance-devoid entertainment posing as presidential politics. Oprah Winfrey – a certified genius of self-salesmanship – and the faux progressive, fraudulent anti-war candidate Barack Obama wowed crowds in South Carolina, Iowa and New Hampshire in a mega-media celebration of celebrity, itself. Political theater has devolved to theater without politics. Corporate “journalists” behave like sports “color” commentators, minus real stats and facts. Next stop: Broadway – if the world doesn’t explode before curtain-time.

We North Americans are the best entertained and the least informed people on this planet. Most of us are fully up to speed on Britney Spears' last several breakdowns, the bios of our favorite "American Idol" and "Dancing With The Stars" contestants. We're conversant with details of Anna Nicole Smith's death and knowledgeable about Angelina Jolie's latest tattoos and the odds on the New England Patriots going undefeated this season. But more than a quarter of U.S. young adults can't find the Pacific Ocean on a map. Perhaps one in five of their parents can identify their state senator, and fewer than one in a dozen can name a sitting member of the local school board.
Media determine our pubic consciousness. America's billionaire-owned media maintain a nearly seamless bubble of false reality in which we are invited to live large parts of our lives. Resources devoted to journalism and news coverage have radically shrunk, so that the corporate-created culture of celebrity has come to dominate our daily discourse.

Inside the bubble, corporate resources devoted to newsgathering have been relentlessly shaved, so that far fewer journalists are at work today than a generation ago. Inconvenient and unprofitable news operations have been trimmed, often replaced with no notice to audiences with corporate PR print, audio and multimedia productions, and infected by the passive celebrity worship that permeates the rest of our mediascape.
Air time devoted to political news in election years, according to the Pew Center, actually drops in many cases, obliging candidates for office to purchase expensive commercial slots to be assured of getting their messages out to voters.

The Obama campaign is heavy on symbolism, and long on vague catch phrases like "new leadership," "new ideas," "a politics of hope," and "let's dream America again" calculated to appeal to millions of disaffected Americans without actually meaning much of anything. Corporate media actively bill Obama as "the candidate of hope," and anointed representative of the "Joshua generation." There are good reasons campaign placards at Obama rallies say "change we can believe in" instead of "stop the war --- vote Obama" or "repeal NAFTA - Barack in '08." The first set of messages are hopeful and vague. The second are popular demands among the voters Obama needs against which his past, present and future performance may be checked. When the comparison is made, the results are dismaying to many who want to support Barack Obama.

An audience question at recent New Hampshire candidate forum exposed the depth of antiwar hypocrisy on the part of Obama and other leading Democratic presidential candidates. They were all asked to pledge that U.S. troops would be out of Iraq not in 60 days or 6 months, but by the end of their first presidential term in January 2013. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Christopher Dodd, and Joe Biden demurred, effectively conveying their intention to continue the failed policies of the administration they pretend to oppose. Needless to say, this didn't get much coverage in the mainstream press.

By comparison, the entry of Oprah Winfrey into the presidential fray has been the big news for more than a week. Speculation is rife about whether the supposed "Oprah effect" will carry Barack Obama to victory in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina. But sadly, mainstream journalism is no likelier to fact check Oprah than it is to report and discuss the actual stands of candidates on war, peace, heath care or housing.

"Over the years," Oprah told her mostly white Iowa audience Dec. 9, "I've voted for as many Republicans as I have Democrats." A smart marketer, Winfrey knows her audience. Working from the same script before an overwhelmingly black South Carolina crowd two days later she wisely dropped that line, and like Hillary Clinton in front of an African American audience, Oprah shifted into a noticeably blacker cadence than the one used in Iowa and New Hampshire.

"Long before it was the popular thing to do," declared Oprah in each city, Obama "stood with with clarity and conviction against this war in Iraq." It was the biggest applause line in her speech up to that point and good one. Trouble is, it just wasn't true.