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VEEPSTAKES: Feingold On Why He's Off the List
August 18, 2008
Russ Feingold is popular enough with grassroots Democrats to have been boomed as a potential candidate for the party's 2008 nomination.
He has a national reputation for working across lines of party and ideology; in fact, Republican presidential candidate John McCain jokes that supporters of campaign finance reform think that "Feingold" is his last name.
Feingold comes from a battleground state that both the Democrats and Republicans say is critical to their strategies for accumulating the 270 electoral votes needed to secure the presidency.
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Clinton Will Be Placed In Nomination
August 14, 2008
New York Senator Hillary Clinton will become the first challenger to a presumptive Democratic nominee for president to be placed in nomination at a party convention since Jerry Brown in 1992.
Clinton husband, Bill, had a clear majority of convention delegates sixteen years ago. But Brown, running then as a maverick reformer, wanted to address the convention -- in hopes of advancing what he referred to as a "humility agenda." The Clinton camp said "no."
Convention rules stated that anyone could second his or her nomination, so Brown had his name placed in nomination and then came to the podium to second himself. He eventually won 596 delegate votes to 3,372 for Clinton.
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Seeing Through John McCain--Even From Afar
August 13, 2008
Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili is on to John McCain's games.
Despite the fact that Saakashvili has quite a bit on his mind this week, the leader of the former Soviet state that has been invaded by Russian forces was able to cut through the Republican presidential candidate's rhetoric and get to the heart of the matter: While McCain will say just about anything to get a headline, the Arizona senator is not exactly known for following through -- or even for remembering what he has said.
It is no secret in Washington that McCain has throughout his career in the House and Senate been willing to pontificate -- often at great length -- on topics with which he is entirely unfamiliar. Aides recount stories of times when the senator has agreed to do interviews without even asking what they were about.
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The Swing State on the Black Sea
August 12, 2008
The conflict between Russia and Georgia came just in time for Barack Obama.
Despite John McCain's efforts to exploit concern about the Russian military assault on its neighbor -- a former Soviet state -- the Republican candidate comes across as all bluster. Indeed, considering the potential consequences of a wrong move in what could turn out to be a high-stakes game of nuclear positioning, the Arizona's senator's cowboy-without-a-plan act ought not inspire much confidence.
By the same token, Obama's diplomat-without-a-plan act is only slightly more comforting. And it certainly will not win the Democrat many votes in and of itself.
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Platform Fight: Activists Win Commitment to Guaranteed Care
August 9, 2008
"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Pressured by progressive activists who objected to the tepid language in a draft document prepared by the Barack Obama campaign, the Democratic platform-writing committee reworked the party's official agenda Saturday to include a clear commitment "that every American man, woman and child be guaranteed to have affordable, comprehensive health care."
The official draft, which was adopted at the platform committee's gathering in Pittsburgh, will now be submitted to the Democratic National Convention for approval.
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Platform Fight: What About Guaranteed Health Care for All?
August 8, 2008
The Democratic Party's draft platform offers little in the way of a serious promise of health-care reform.
The document reads as if it was written by the insurance industry rather than advocates for people who need health care.
But there are Democrats who refuse to compromise on this fundamental issue.
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Losing the Human Rights Olympics
August 7, 2008
When the International Olympic Committee formally awarded Beijing the privilege of hosting the 2008 Olympic Games seven years ago, they accepted assurances from the historically repressive government of China that the country would dramatically expand its commitment to protecting human rights within its borders.
The vice president of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Bid Committee, Liu Jingmin, was explicit on this point.
As his city was making a final appeal for the games, Lie Jingman announced that, "By allowing Beijing to host the Games you will help the development of human rights."
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Is it Obama-Bayh?
August 5, 2008
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama arrives in Indiana at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday night and he will remain in the state until 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The question of the day is whether he will leave with a running mate.
Currently, he has one event on his schedule -- a town hall meeting in Elkhart, a city that has been hit hard by the auto-industry downturn, where he will be introduced by Indiana Senator Evan Bayh.
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Seeking a Health Care for All Platform
August 3, 2008
Progressive Democrats of America continues its campaign to add a firm commitment to universal health care to the 2008 Democratic platform. PDA activists were at the platform committee's gathering in Cleveland last weekend, and they plan a major presence at the key pre-convention session this coming weekend in Pittsburgh.
Getting language as strong as PDA seeks will be difficult. Illinois Senator Barack Obama, whose campaign controls the platform-writing process, has been cautious about committing too firmly to the mandates that would be required to insure universal coverage.
That was clear at last weekend's Cleveland gathering.
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Democratic Platform Should Commit to Real Reform
August 1, 2008
The Democratic Party will get serious about the platform-writing the process, as hearings of the 2008 convention's platform committee kick off in Cleveland.
But not too serious.
As has been the case since the 1980s, the real writing of the platform will be done by the campaign of the presumptive nominee.
(113) Comments
John Nichols
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