“Loyalty only goes so far,” said Bruce Cain, a UC Berkeley political scientist, and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich proved it on Friday by endorsing Obama. He joins Richardson — who is a superdelegate –, former Commerce Secretary William M. Daley; former Commerce Secretary Norman Y. Mineta; and Federico Pena, who held two posts under Clinton, Transportation secretary and Energy secretary. It appears that the negative campaign Clinton has been conducting is back firing and costing her several delegates, as confirmed by Reich’s explanation “when millions of Americans are losing their homes and jobs, when the economy is facing its worst crisis in 60 years, when the Iraq war is still causing chaos in the Middle East, to focus on whether Obama should have used the word ‘bitter’ when he talked about the plight of many in Pennsylvania, and to resurrect the old Republican themes of guns and religion, and to call Obama ‘elitist’ . . . just put me over the edge.” Friday, Obama won two more endorsements from Sens. David Boren of Oklahoma and Sam Nunn of Georgia. Clinton got one superdelegate: Rep. Betty Sutton of Ohio.

By Mark Barabak & Louise Roug (LA Times 4/19/08)
and Bloomberg News Service contribution
Abstract by Johana Nadler

That former President Jimmy Carter has a warp idea of diplomacy isn’t a novelty, but his latest action leaves one to wonder whether this time he has truly lost his mind. Embracing Hamas, a renown terrorist group vowing the destruction of Israel and continuing to send rockets in Israel killing innocent civilians, leads to only one conclusion: at long last Carter has come out of the closet as an antisemite and pro-Arab. One wonders why he hasn’t yet gone to Iran to embrace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who shares the same goal as Hamas: the complete and total annihilation of Israel from the face of the earth. May be he should go to Germany and fund a memorial to Hitler, because when it comes to cowardly destroying human lives, Nazis and Arabs (who were allies during WWII) are equal in my book. Behind his appearance as a Peace emissary, Carter is either truly clueless of the harm he is doing or he willfully is giving his complete support to murderers.

We all understand the plight of the Palestinians and want them to have their own Palestinian State, but one must also have an in-depth and thorough knowledge of the Arab mentality (still tribal in essence as we are witnessing it in Iraq). Additionally one must face the truth and realize that the Palestinians live under a totalitarian government similar to the one during Nazi Germany. Every part of the Palestinians’ lives, from curriculum taught in schools (especially in the formative years of children), to scholastic books content, to worshipping, to allegiance first and foremost to the government, to the Palestinian propaganda, amplified by other Arab countries and people like Jimmy Carter, to the manipulation by the few (governmental leaders) of the population in order to keep the latter in ignorance and in limbo as to improving not only their social status but their basic living status, every aspect of this society is under the control of Hamas’ dictatorship. The Palestinians have more to fear from their own than from their neighbouring Israeli. The Palestinians live in a society lacking the four freedoms we enjoy and more often than not take for granted: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom of want and freedom of fear. It is evident that the Hamas government is a mirror image of the Nazi government.

Golda Meir said it all so clearly decades ago, “When Arabs will love their children more than they hate us, we might have peace.” Former President Carter should return to his peanut plantation and drink his pink lemonade in the shade (as it seems the heat and sun of the South have impaired him enough) and let abler people take care of the world. Today he is more of a liability than an asset to our government, be it Republican or Democrat.

By Johana Nadler

The 21st Democratic Debate, sponsored by ABC News and moderated by Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, was just a rehashing of past issues. Clinton and Obama pledging both to raise taxes for those with less than $200,000. The slight difference between both candidates was the issue of payroll taxes paid by the worker. Obama favors raising payroll taxes on higher-income individuals, starting at $200,000, whereas Clinton disagreed, even though she did agree at one time with Obama on the same plan of action. Clinton and Obama also promise to respond with full force should Iran attack Israel with nuclear weapons. Clinton publicly apologized for mistakes in recounting her visit to Bosnia in 1996. And then it was Obama turns to explain his controversial comment on small-town Americans outlet to economic adversity by “cling[ing] to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.” To which Clinton quickly grasped the opportunity to state that Obama obviously has a fundamental misunderstanding on the role of religion and faith. Meanwhile Clinton acquired to endorsement of the 45,000-member Operative Plasterers’ and Cement Masons’ International Association and one superdelegate Rep. Jackie Speier of California. Obama on the other hand has Bruce Springsteen’s backing along with three superdelegates: U.S. Reps. David Price and Melvin Watt of North Carolina and Andre Carson of Indiana.

By Beth Fouhy (A.P.) 4/17/08
Abstract by Johana Nadler