Senator John McCain Overtakes Mike Huckabee..In The Polls

I'm not sure I trust the polls because of the extreme uncertainty of the Republican Presidential race, but now John McCain, as of this writing, is considered the front runner even as Mike Huckabee was the winner in Iowa. Let's see if this holds in the Tuesday NH Primary.

Laure Manaudou's Website Down - Nude Photos Still A Hot Topic

I can't understand why Laure Manaudou's nude photos are so popular, but they are, and the issue has stayed "hot" for several weeks now. Acccording to this blog, the website was placed offline because "she had outdated information (still pictures of her and her italian boyfriend, and the whole thing wasn’t updated since november 2006) and her blog is getting lots of comments that her lawyer or herself probably doesn’t want others to see."

As to who placed the pictures, that question remains unanswered.

Another Clinton Mistake - Calls Russian President Putin "Souless" ; He's Times "Person Of The Year

If Putin heard this comment, I'm sure that's his expression.

Of all of the really, really terrible -- ok, just plain dumb -- mistakes to make, Senator Hillary Clinton reffered to Russian President Vladomir Putin -- Time Magazine's "Person of The Year" as "Souless" according to Ben Smith in the Politico.com website magazine.

That's not smart and that comment, coupled with her combative performance and false mailers are painting her as a really, well, ah, "souless" Presidential candidate.

I can't wait to hear Putin's response.

What's wrong with her? Yikes!

Will Mike Huckabee and Senator Jon McCain Gang Up On Romney?

On Fox News Sunday, there's an expressed rumor -- which both candidates deny -- that Mike Huckabee and John McCain will form a temporary alliance against Gov Mitt Romney.

But one look at the exchange from the debate would seem to at least confirm the possibility.

CNN / WMUR / UNH NEW POLL: Obama Up 10 Over Clinton; Edwards At 16: New Data Has No Disclaimer

Just one day after releasing an unusual poll reporting Senator Barack Obama tied with Senator Hillary Clinton after his Iowa victory, but also as others released polls with Obama ahead by as much as 10 points, CNN / WMUR / UNH issued what CNN calls a "new" poll, this one reports Obama with 39 percent, Clinton at 29 percent, Senator Edwards at 16 percent, and Gov. Richardson at 7 percent.

What's interesting is this poll's data sheet does not include a disclaimer note, unlike the first poll.

I think CNN futher damaged the credibility of their polling by not reporting the second survey as an update, but a "new poll" when one look at the PDF file shows it really is an undate.

But it's good they corrected the obvious data problem in the first poll.

Clinton Lies About Obama Abortion Record - Huff Post

Click to see the new video on Clinton's Martin Luther King "mistake".

Wow. This is a sure sign of desparation on the part of the Hillary Clinton campaign. To attempt to mislead voters in this way, or any way, is totally wrong and dangerous to boot. What they're thinking I don't know. She's also lied about his record on the Patriot Act. Read this below from the Huffington Post

Clinton Criticizes Obama in NH Mailer

NEDRA PICKLER | January 5, 2008 07:13 PM EST | Huffinton Post

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton criticizes rival Barack Obama's record on abortion rights in a mailing sent to New Hampshire voters _ her first direct attack on the Illinois senator since his victory in Iowa.

The mailer says that seven times during his time in the Illinois state Senate, Obama declined to take a position on abortion bills, while Clinton has been a defender of abortion rights.

During his eight years in the legislature, Obama cast a number of votes on abortion and received a 100 percent rating from the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council for his support of abortion rights, family planning services and health insurance coverage for female contraceptives. He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive, a vote that especially riled abortion opponents.

He also joined other state Democrats in voting present on some bills.

The mailing comes amid division within the Clinton campaign over how negative to go against Obama after his victory Thursday in the Iowa caucuses. The campaign has made a decision to hold off on any television advertising, positive or negative, until after a nationally televised debate Saturday night.

Obama also has been criticized by the political arm of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which has endorsed Clinton. Seven international vice presidents sent a letter protesting the "wholesale assault on one of the great friends of our union."

"Supposedly, we are involved in this primary because we're concerned about access to the next Democratic president," the signers argued. "So why would we want to develop a hostile relationship with the man who could be that next president?"

During the Iowa campaign, the Clinton campaign criticized Obama's position on health care in Iowa. But she is taking a different approach in New Hampshire.

"A woman's right to choose," the mailing says on the front, then flips to the back, "demands a leader who will stand up and protect it."

It says Clinton has a record of fighting "far-right Republicans" to defend abortion rights, while Obama has been "unwilling to take a stand on choice."

"Seven times he had the opportunity to stand up against Republican anti-choice legislation in the Illinois state Senate," it says. "Seven times he voted present _ not yes or no, but present. Being there is not enough to protect choice.

"On January 8 you have a choice," it closes. "Vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, Tuesday, Jan. 8."

The mailer says "Paid for by Hillary Clinton for President" and has a return address of her office in Manchester. Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said the campaign decided to send the piece because "as Senator Obama has said, `voting records matter.' This is a critical issue for New Hampshire voters and they deserve a straightforward presentation of the facts about both candidates."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded, "The Clinton campaign's false negative attacks were rejected by Iowa voters, and we expect that they'll suffer the same fate here in New Hampshire."

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly Endangers Obama As Presidential Candidate - Should Appologize

Fox News Bill O'Relly may have thought he was jusfied in placing his hands on Obama campaign staffer Marvin Nicholson, but the reality and details show he went too far. Here's what happened according to Lynn Sweet:

O'Reilly grabbed Nicholson's arm and shoved him, another eyewitness said. Nicholson, who is 6'8, said O'Reilly called him "low class."

"He grabbed me with both his hands here," Nicholson said, gesturing to his left arm and O'Reilly "started shoving me." Nicholson said, " He was pretty upset. He was yelling at me."

Secret Service agents who were nearby flanked O 'Reilly after he pushed Nicholson. They told O'Reilly he needed to calm down and get behind the fence-like barricade that contained the press.

Obama had his back turned at this point and did not see any of this.

O'Reilly yelled "sir" at Obama and Obama walked over, not aware of what happened and told him he had an overflow crowd to visit. According to the time code from a photographer shooting the two, Obama and O'Reilly talked near 11:45 a.m. eastern time.

He just came right around the barricade. They shook hands and Mr. O’Reilly said he thought Sen. Obama was great and that he loved him and loved to have him on the show and said he would think about coming on after the primaries.

Here's a video that captures part of the incident:



This behavior on the party of O'Reilly is, in my opinion, not unlike that of a zealout who could present a security danger to a Presidential Candidate. Suppose by approaching Barack the way he did, Bill O'Relly distracted agents just enough to allow an assailant to get in? That would be more than disasterous, yet the threat is there.

For his part, Bill O'Reilly seems to revel in this and seems emboldened. Senator Obama was nice and gracious to him as is natural for a candidate of his character. But it does not discount the danger and disrespect O'Reilly's behavior brings to the Presidential Race.

New Hampshire Voters Slam Clinton; Praise Obama After Debate

As this video shows, Senator Clinton's rather wild-eyed response to John Edwards' statements that she is not the candidate of change did not set well with New Hampshire Voters.



What matters is not what the Mainstream Media thinks, but New Hampshire voters. People are not electing a policy nerd, but a leader. Obama is that person. Clinton came off as desperate and the Obama staff knew they could win just be letting Hillary be herself.

A brilliant approach; she played right along with it.

James Koteki On The Presidential Race After Iowa

James Koteki has emerged from his YouTube channel Emergency Cheese to have another video talking-head platform on Politco.com. I enjoy his modern take on politics; here he looks at the presidential race past Iowa:

Obama Ahead In All NH Polls Except CNN Poll - Did CNN Bias Impact Their Poll?

Several Polls have been conducted after the Iowa Caucus and all of them have Senator Obama ahead save for one poll: The CNN / WMUR / UNH Poll, which has Obama and Clinton tied at 33 percent, with Edwards at 20 percent.

Why is the CNN Poll the only one that does not have Obama ahead? It's a good question as last year, many pollsters had Senator Clinton in front in national polls, except a June 5th USA Today / Gallup Poll, which had Obama tied with Clinton. Frank Newport of Gallup, Inc., stated that he actually called for a new poll with a different sample size because he could not believe that Obama was tied, and wanted to be consistent with other polls. So what kind of sample configuration did they use this time?

Well, the introduction to the PDF file reads "Interviews with 672 likely New Hampshire primary voters in
New Hampshire conducted by telephone on January 4-5, 2008." When I read "most likely" voters, that is older voters. But the file data does not tell us what the age range was. But my guess is that the average age was skewed up over the other polls, thus explaining how Clinton could tie Obama.

But even with that, the CNN / WMUR / UNH Poll reports that 60 percent of the people responding said that Senator Obama was the most inspirational candidate and that 72 percent had a favorable response to him, versus 46 percent and 18 percent respectively for Senator Clinton and 58 percent and 13 percent for former Senator Edwards.

Wow. That seems to be the foundation for a potential landslide in Obama's favor in New Hampshire.

But still the question of how the CNN / WMUR / UNH Poll could come out with a Clinton / Obama tie and not an Obama lead is active. In the search for the answer, I found this note in the PDF file, which you can get by clicking on this link.

The data have been weighted to adjust for numbers of voters and telephone lines within households, respondent sex, and region of the state. In addition to potential sampling error, all surveys have other potential sources of non-sampling error including question order effects, question wording effects, and non-response.

To "weight" data is to change it by adding a mutiplier, thus effecting the final outcome of how the data reads. What's very disturbing is that the data file does not explain how the data was "adusted" and what was effected. That's scary and my guess is that that weighting process is at the center of the "tie" we see in this poll, versus the other polls. Take a look below.

But before you do, consider the constant CNN bias that has been exacted against Senator Obama and for Senator Clinton, as well as the CNN personalities like Larry King, who support Hillary Clinton, yet claim to report the news without bias. Also, ask why both CNN and ABC are only mentioning the results of the CNN / WMUR / UNH Poll, and not the others?

I'd call this a massive bias against Senator Obama, and the mainstream media trying to control what you the voter thinks. But in an Internet World, that's hard to do, plus, it should be considered illegal.

Here are the polls:


RealClearPolitics.com Average

Obama 33.2
Clinton 31.2
Edwards 19.2
Richardson 5.0

McCain 32.7
Romney 27.8
Huckabee 12
Giuliani 9.5
Paul 8.5
Thompson 2.2

Concord Monitor (January 5)

Obama 34
Clinton 33
Edwards 23
Richardson 4
Kucinich 3

McCain 35
Romney 29
Huckabee 13
Giuliani 8
Paul 7
Thompson 3

See full results here.

***

CNN/WMUR Poll (January 4-5)

Clinton 33%
Obama 33%
Edwards 20%
Richardson 4%
Kucinich 2%

Sampling error: +/-5% pts

McCain 33%
Romney 27%
Giuliani 14%
Huckabee 11%
Paul 9%
Hunter 1%
Thompson 1%

Sampling error: +/-5% pts

See full results here.

+++

American Research Group (January 5)

Obama 38%
Clinton 26%
Edwards 20%
Undecided 8%
Richardson 3%
Gravel 3%
Kucinich 1%

Barack Obama leads John Edwards among men 42% to 21%, with 19% for Hillary Clinton. Among women, Obama leads Clinton 35% to 31%, with 20% for Edwards. Clinton leads Obama among Democrats 34% to 32%, while Obama leads Edwards among undeclared voters (independents) 49% to 21%.

McCain 39%
Romney 25%
Huckabee 14%
Giuliani 7%
Paul 6%
Undecided 6%
Hunter 1%
Keyes 1%
Thompson 1%

John McCain leads Mitt Romney among men 42% to 21% and McCain leads Romney 35% to 30% among women. McCain leads Romney 44% to 19% among undeclared (independent) voters, with 18% for Huckabee. Undeclared voters are now 27% of the total Republican vote.

See full results here.

+++

Rasmussen Reports (January 4)

Obama 37%
Clinton 27%
Edwards 19%
Richardson 8%
Kucinich 3%
Gravel 1%

See full results here.

McCain 31%
Romney 26%
Paul 14%
Huckabee 11%
Giuliani 8%
Thompson 5%
Some other candidate 2%

Hillary's Stupid Move - Hits Obama On Prison Sentences As Courts Give Judges More Power In Effort to Have Fair Sentencing Guidelines

Senator Hillary Clinton is either desparate, totally out-to-lunch, or just plain stupid. I'm not sure which one. But Senator Clinton has decided to attack Senator Barack Obama on his opposition of harsh prison sentences, according to The Huffington Posts' Thomas Edsall and in an article that's not very detailed indeed.

Remember the Feds just relaxed sentencing on drug crimes because the courts had a terrible race-bias problem where Blacks were being charged with more serious sentences for drug possession offenses than Whites, yet because of the rules, Federal judges had their hands tied.

No more.

So Hillary Clinton walks into this head first and gets a knock on the head. What she was thinking, I don't know, but it was certainly dumb. Clinton has long wanted America to think she's the person for African Americans, but like the whole deal with the HIV AIDS Bill she rejected at the same time she claimed she was the person who made sure HIV AIDS fund for the treatment of African Americans was in good supply, people have seen her use "triangulation" politics again and again.

The truth is that many of us hold Senator Obama in high regard and want him to succeed. And the truth is that Senator Clinton can't say that she's behind Blacks and then vote against bills that make outcomes of, in this case, the drug court, fair and reasonable.

Britney Spears Needs Our Help And Prayers

Britney Spears is going through a terrible period in her life, which is not like what you would go through because as of this writing you don't have her money, fame, or access.

This video shows her being brought to the hospital by ambulance and also a bunch of photogs trying to get into a car that was obviouly new to them..