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Barack Obama’s Quandary: Endorse Hillary Clinton Or Joe Biden, Or Stay Neutral In Democratic Presidential Race?

Ronald 1 Comment

President Barack Obama is in the midst of a real political quandary.

If Vice President Joe Biden decides to announce for President, should Obama endorse him, endorse his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, or stay totally neutral in the Democratic Presidential race?

CNN reported yesterday that Obama had had a meeting with Biden and  had “given his blessing” to Biden to run.

If that is so, is that an endorsement, or only an encouragement?

Press Secretary Josh Earnest said yesterday that Obama regards Biden as the best decision he made in the 2008 campaign.

Is that an endorsement, or only an encouragement?

It would be unusual for the President, any President, to make a formal endorsement, put his prestige and office on the line,  so early in a Presidential nomination battle.

So we will be watching to see what Obama says at his next news conference, or at any other activity or ceremony where he allows questions and agrees to answer.

One thing seems clear: the personal chemistry between Barack Obama and Joe Biden surpasses the personal chemistry between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton!

Obama will never deny the importance that Clinton had in his first term, but whether he is willing, formally, to break ties with her and endorse Biden this early, is the question on the lips of all political observers!

A Presidential Race Without Hillary Clinton Or Jeb Bush Would Be Better For The Nation!

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CNN Anchor Candy Crowley has said that she believes Hillary Clinton will not run for President in 2016.

Charlie Cook, Editor of the Charlie Cook Political Report, has said that Hillary hurt her cause on her recent book tour, and is seen as “rusty” by many, and that many think she will not run, although he thinks she will run. Cook also says that it is highly unlikely that Jeb Bush will run, and if he does, the odds of him being the GOP nominee for 2016 are low, predicting that a Tea Party Senator or a Midwest Governor will be the likely nominee.

What Cook says, if it happens, will actually be good for the nation, as we really need new faces, someone who has not run for President, on both sides of the political divide, and that includes Mitt Romney!

So if one goes by what Crowley and Cook are saying, the most likely strong competitors on the Democratic side would be Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland, and two Virginians, Senator Mark Warner, and former Senator Jim Webb (who has recently made clear he intends to run no matter what Hillary Clinton does). Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, should not be left out of the fray, with the last two possibly entering if Hillary does not run. And New York Governor Andrew Cuomo might also choose to run. At this point, the favorite would be Elizabeth Warren. This is all based on the assumption that Vice President Joe Biden, not a new name himself, will not run, or will falter. In other words, a non Hillary race would be a lot more exciting, and a surprise could emerge from the race.

On the Republican side, if Charlie Cook is correct, it means one of the Tea Party Senators–Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas–would emerge as the favorite, alongside a Midwestern Governor—meaning John Kasich of Ohio, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, or Mike Pence of Indiana.

Trying to imagine the final two in the Presidential race from this group is purely a guess–but somehow, the thought of Warren vs Kasich comes to mind, but really is a pure random guess!

Hillary Clinton Glows And Shines On CNN And Fox News Channel!

Ronald 5 Comments

Former Secretary of State, New York Senator, and First Lady Hillary Clinton put on a fantastic performance in a Town Hall on CNN, and a confrontational Fox News interview centered mostly on the Benghazi tragedy in Libya on September 11, 2012, last night.

Clinton proved just how knowledgeable, intelligent, brilliant, and experienced she is in handling challenges, and yet came across as a warm, relaxed, cool, classy person at the same time!

She demonstrated, without question, her qualifications to be our first woman President, if that ends up occurring.

If any conservative or Republican really believes after this performance, that Hillary can be defeated if she is the Democratic nominee, they are truly delusional!

Who qualifies in the Republican Party to compete with Hillary? This author has said many times before that ONLY former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman can possibly stay on the same stage with Hillary without being “massacred”!

And only Vice President Joe Biden can truly compete on the same stage with Hillary within the Democratic Party, even though other Democrats have their appeal, but the stature of Hillary and Joe is so above anyone else, and only Huntsman can possibly compete with either of them!

The Persecution Of Bowe Bergdahl By The Right Wing: Poisoning America,With Purpose Of Destroying Barack Obama!

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The case of Bowe Bergdahl is shocking in the intensity of the right wing attack on this soldier, who may have gone AWOL in Afghanistan, and was held captive by the Taliban for nearly five years.

The furious reaction to his release, in exchange for five top Taliban leaders who were at Guantanamo Bay Detention Center has led to death threats against his mother and father, and the decision to cancel the welcome home party planned in his small home town in Idaho later this month.

Meanwhile, Bergdahl remains in the hospital in Germany, and faces an impossible sitation when he returns to the United States.

He will be dogged by critics, threatened with assassination, and will have the worst case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that any soldier has ever had, and it would not be surprising that he might become a statistic, one of 22 former soldiers who commit suicide every day!

If Bergdahl has committed acts that he should be held accountable for, so be it, but the right wing has built up such a furor, including Oliver North, who participated in a similar action dealing with an enemy in the Iran Contra affair under Ronald Reagan, but now is a total hypocrite, not unusual for the right wing!

Face the facts, that the real purpose of this furor is to move to impeach President Obama, and the racists and fascists are out there with their knives looking to assassinate him, figuratively, and really, literally, if they had the chance!

We live in very dangerous times, and it is scary what is going on, and being encouraged by media unwilling to stand up to the right wing, including CNN and the major networks, minus MSNBC, the only channel that has any guts at all!

Two Significant Series Debuting On History Channel And CNN This Week

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Two significant documentary series are debuting this week on History Channel and on CNN.

Tonight, Tuesday, and Wednesday, the History Channel has a three part, six hour series on World War I and its effect on the coming of World War II, through a study of major world leaders, including Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Charles De Gaulle, Douglas MacArthur, and George Patton.

On Thursday at 9 PM for an hour for ten weeks, CNN will have a ten hour series on the 1960s, and the effect it had on America with actor-director Tom Hanks involved in the project.

For anyone interested in politics and its effect on history, make it your business to watch and record these two series!

Fox News Channel: A Political Machine That Employs Journalists!

Ronald 6 Comments

Fox News Channel and its chief executive, Roger Ailes, are a political machine for the conservative movement and the Republican Party which employs journalists who give up their principles for a big financial reward. It also employs former politicians who are in the make, to earn as much money as they can, and to hell with convictions or beliefs they had once held!

Ailes began his career in advocacy journalism under Richard Nixon, helped promote Ronald Reagan, and learned the power of advocacy journalism to promote one’s ideological agenda. And journalists and politicians have seen the money involved!

So we have such examples as:

Bill Hemmer, John Roberts, Ed Henry, Greta Van Susteren, Howard Kurtz–all formerly at CNN

Juan Williams, formerly of NPR

Former Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana; former Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich

And this is just the “tip of the iceberg”, as many former journalists for NBC, ABC, and CBS have also moved to Fox, and tried to make its distorted view of the news and of the world become standard and believed!

A new book by Gabriel Sherman is making the case that Roger Ailes is the most important journalistic giant of the past half century, a figure on the scale of William Randolph Hearst.

So Fox News Channel is a massive challenge to its cable competitors, CNN and MSNBC, and already attracts more viewers than both of them combined.

So an important thing to remember is that when one is out to promote the truth about America and the world, being ignorant or unaware of Roger Ailes and Fox News Channel’s impact is to the detriment of their rivals!

The Los Angeles Times And Climate Change Deniers: Kudos To That Newspaper!

Ronald 4 Comments

The Los Angeles Times has decided to go on the offensive in a way that is very admirable!

It has decided it will NOT allow climate change deniers to use its website to continue to promote something that is well understood by scientists, and intelligent people in general, to be totally false, and destructive of dealing with the future of our planet.

Instead of stating that all viewpoints are equal, facts are being used, and ridiculous opinions will not see the light of day in that newspaper.

It is time for mainstream media to stop allowing extremist propaganda on science to be treated as a respectable viewpoint, and for religion to be restricted to the faiths involved, not to totally outrageous and false ideas as being fact, when they are not.

And the same applies to those who deny evolution. Let right wing media distort reality, but respectable media should NOT give any support to such viewpoints that have no basis for being considered valid.

We are in a struggle in which mainstream media has allowed the right wing to take over and poison not only science, but also history, economics, and innumerable other areas of human knowledge with their extremist propaganda. This must stop, and no attention paid to protests, as the answer is go to to other media, which have no respectability in the sensible, intelligent community, if they wish to learn falsehoods and lies!

So it is time for the New York Times, Washington Post, other prestigious newspapers, CNN, and the major television networks (ABC, NBC, CBS), and other respectable media to join together and preserve truth over lies and falsehoods!

And threats to boycott these media and threaten them economically should be defied by them as the only way to keep their legitimacy as a news source. This is a battle for the minds and hearts of future generations, and concessions to the right wing cannot be made in this eternal struggle for the truth!

Al Jazeera America A Valuable Addition To Cable News

Ronald 15 Comments

A new cable news channel has been added to the choices offered to Americans: Al Jazeera America, which replaces Current TV, the channel owned by, and then sold by, former Vice President Al Gore.

Some would criticize the idea that a cable news channel is owned by an Arab news source, but the indications are, so far, that the channel is very straight forward in its coverage of the news worldwide, does not distort the news, and has had the good sense to hire former journalists who previously were at CNN, HLN, and other cable news networks.

At a time when print journalism is sadly in decline, having another cable news channel is a good thing, and it informs and educates the American people on issues that might not be covered otherwise, so all the best of luck to Al Jazeera America!

Bill Hemmer, John Roberts, Ed Henry, Evan Bayh, Dennis Kucinich, Howard Kurtz et al: Money Over Principle!

Ronald 1 Comment

Fox News Channel, infamous for creating news and promoting constant lies and deception, has been able to lure journalists and politicians to grace its channel, in an attempt to gain distinction and credibility, except it is not working!

Sure, more people watch Fox News Channel than CNN or MSNBC, no question about it!

But since when is “popularity” in electronic or print media a judgment as to quality and balance and fairness of coverage of news events?

Tabloid newspapers historically did better than major national newspapers in circulation, although now they are not doing better, because Fox News Channel is available for those who wish sensationalism and manipulation of the news!

So the decision of journalists such as Bill Hemmer, John Roberts, Ed Henry, and Howard Kurtz to leave CNN and go to Fox News Channel is clearly one of money over principle.

And the decision of former Indiana Senator Evan Bayh and Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich to join Fox News Channel, being well aware of their distortion of the truth, is also simply one of money over principle.

No one is saying that money is not a factor in decisions people make, and no one is saying that these individuals should not pursue as much financial gain as they can acquire.

But face the facts: principle and quality are not the goals of these journalists and former politicians, but personal financial gain alone!

CNN And The Steubenville, Ohio Rape Coverage: Disgraceful!

Ronald 1 Comment

CNN has been declining in quality rapidly, and is losing its reputation as, supposedly, the most “balanced” cable news channel!

To watch Anchor Candy Crowley and correspondent Poppy Harlow talk ad infinitum about the loss of potential in two young football players in Steubenville, Ohio, who were convicted of raping a 16 year girl at a party, taping it, spreading it through social media, and bragging over their conquest, was enough to make one want to vomit!

What is the matter with these women, particularly the fact that they are WOMEN, that they express no concern or empathy for the female victim of the rape?

Who cares about whether these two young men are now to be listed as sex offenders, and that they will have a police record that will haunt them for the rest of their lives? Who cares that they will be incarcerated for their horrific crime?

This is a sign of what has happened in our society, the lack of respect for women and their basic human rights!

And when you have Christian pastors and Republican politicians who make clear their contempt for the rights of women, and can even justify rape as possibly having its virtues, including requiring that a child conceived in rape should be taken to birth, it makes one understand that with all of the great advancements for women in the past fifty years, there is still a long road to true respect and equality for women, in relation to men who seem to think, whether they are high school football players, clergymen, or politicians, that they should, somehow, be able to control women and their every action, including their pregnancies, their manner of dress, and their overall behavior, as, after all, men should, somehow, not be held accountable for their own actions, statements, and behavior!

It is also way past time for the news media at all levels, including social media, to stop degrading women in all kinds of ways, and for women reporters and anchors to do so, makes it even worse, so SHAME ON YOU to CNN, and a profuse apology is required!