Todd Purdum’s article on Bill Clinton is finally out in Vanity Fair tonight. Meanwhile, the former President attempts to hit back with this long response: It’s not long before Clinton’s response also shows up slightly rewritten– but with additional outrage– by Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Gene Lyons. Lyons will undoubtedly attack Purdum as part of the right-wing conspiracy, or the elite media conspiracy or, who knows whatever conspiracy he sees in play whenever the Clintons are criticized.
Veepstakes: The Case for Webb
Veep stakes. Reihan Salam makes the case for Jim Webb. I am going to try to write long posts next weeks assessing both Webb and Hagel as possible vice presidential running mates for Obama. Hagel would be an interesting choice because that choice would be on the one hand a radical one (picking a Republican… I know this has been floating around the punditocracy for a while, but it still would be a radical step on Obama’s part especially as he needs to be reassured by a base that Hillary Clinton has been doing everything she can to make uneasy about Obama) and a move to the center as well.
Radical and Centrist at the same time. Interesting for no other reason than perhaps that.
Reuters Stories by Murray Waas:
Murray Waas, “Obama, Politicians Decline to Return Campaign Contributions,” Reuters, Feb. 13, 2012.
Murray Waas, “How Allen Stanford Kept the SEC at Bay,” Reuters, Jan. 26, 2012.
Nick Carey and Murray Waas, “Virginia Veteran Report Shows High Depression Rate,” Reuters, Sept. 27, 2010.
Murray Waas (with editing by Jim Impoco), “Wellpoint Routinely Treats Breast Cancer Patients,” Reuters, April 24, 2010.
Murray Waas (with Lewis Krauskopf), “Insurer Targeted HIV Patients to Drop Coverage,” Reuters, March 17, 2010.
Murray Waas, “Insurer Targeted HIV Patients to Drop Coverage,” Reuters, March 17, 2010.
Murray Waas, “Obama, Politicians Decline to Return Campaign Contributions,” Reuters, Feb. 13, 2012.
Murray Waas, “How Allen Stanford Kept the SEC at Bay,” Reuters, Jan. 26, 2012.
Nick Carey and Murray Waas, “Virginia Veteran Report Shows High Depression Rate,” Reuters, Sept. 27, 2010.
Murray Waas (with editing by Jim Impoco), “Wellpoint Routinely Treats Breast Cancer Patients,” Reuters, April 24, 2010.
Murray Waas (with Lewis Krauskopf), “Insurer Targeted HIV Patients to Drop Coverage,” Reuters, March 17, 2010.
Murray Waas, “Insurer Targeted HIV Patients to Drop Coverage,” Reuters, March 17, 2010.
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The Red Sox are the Yankees 2.0; and moreover, there was more than just David Ortiz’ jersey buried somewhere in the new stadium…
The Red Sox are what the Yankees used to be. Damn: their box score tonight. The depth of the team compared to past seasons is amazing, too.
Of course, they were sweept by the low-budget, low-brow, wrong coast Oakland Athletics. A harbinger of the post-season?
One last comment: the depth of the team is just extraordinary. Somehow they got Colon and he is pitching like the Cy Young version of himself rather than the injured, his best days are over himself. He gave up one run in seven innings, his second exceptional start in a row.
I know my friends who are Yankees fans are in a state of denial about all of this. So for them, they can take solace in A-Rod, Jeter, Abreu, and Wang. And the bullpen combination of Jova (Chamberlin) and Rivera is perhaps the best in baseball… only second to perhaps Papplebom and Okajima (Boston’s two). Oops.
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When the war is over the demons still persist
My friend Greg Mitchell on the epidemic of suicides by Gulf War veterans.
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Sydney Pollack, RIP
Sydney Pollack dead at 73. Besides having been one of the greatest directors of his time, he put out some acting performances not long before his deah. His role in Michael Clayton. But also his playing a prison oncologist in the Sopranos… at a time that apparently Pollack knew he had cancer himself.
Better obit in the LAT.
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Andy Stern?
Andy Stern as Obama’s running mate? Who is floating that? David Brooks. No kidding.
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Wicker v. Musgrove
In the reddest of red states, is it possible that a Democrat will win? Two interesting things about this Mississippi race: One, Wicker, the Republican is, technically an incumbent. The power of incumbency even for a short period of time is a powerful advantage.
But what could win this race for the Democrats and former Governor Musgrove is not just the obvious problems that Republicans are facing, and that Musgrove himself is a former governor, but that turnout among African-Americans is going to be high if, as it almost certain to be the case, Obama is the Democratic nominee for President. Some 36% of voters in Mississippi are African-Americans.
A high turn out for Obama could be decisive in a Musgrove victory while a victory for Obama in the deepest of deep South states still seems quite improbable.
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Al Qaeda recruits teenage suicide bombers in Iraq
This from the Associated Press tonight:
“BAGHDAD — The Iraqi military on Monday displayed a group of weeping teenagers who said they had been forced into training for suicide bombings by a Saudi militant in the last urban stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq.
“Four of the six boys were lined up for the media at police headquarters in the northern city of Mosul, where they said they had been training for a month to start suicide operations in early June.
“The United Nations and the Iraqi and U.S. militaries say they fear that al-Qaida in Iraq is increasingly trying to use youths in attacks to avoid the heightened security measures that have dislodged the group from Baghdad and surrounding areas.
“The youths, three wearing track suits and one with a torn white T-shirt, began crying as they were led into the police station.
“The Saudi insurgent threatened to rape our mothers and sisters, destroy our houses and kill our fathers if we did not cooperate with him,” one of the youths said…”
To read the entire article, click here.
This was one of the pretexts for going to war, right? To prevent Iraq from serving as a base of operations for Al Qaeda and to prevent Iraqis from becoming suicide bombers? Has the war made the administration’s prewar fears a present day reality?
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Where’s the Edwards’ endorsement?
An interesting piece about why John Edwards has not endorsed anyone and might not for a while, if at all.
Edwards, if he were to endorse Obama, would be the one who would end the entire dog fight going on for the Democratic nomination. Can he really go on forever with not speaking his mind?
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