Some morning news 8-24
By LisaB on August 24, 2008 at 8:00 AM in Current Affairs
Most of you have seen it, but if not, here’s the now-famous “Passed Over” ad.
1) Today’s WaPo says “McCain Tries to Rile Up Clinton Voters Against Obama.”
WaPo helpfully explains it in case we don’t understand.
Read the rest ->
The idea is to portray Obama as a petulant and angry rival who refused to consider Clinton as a running mate because of his anger over her comments. And to tap into Clinton supporters who just might vote for McCain.
Uh, sparky? We’ve been riled up for some time now.
2) CNN has the “outraged Clinton supporter” story too.
Meanwhile, two sources familiar with Obama’s VP search tell CNN’s Roland Martin Clinton was very much under consideration, and it’s wrong for anyone to suggest that she wasn’t.
One of the sources noted the Clintons have lived a very public life, and it’s inconceivable for anyone to think that there really is more that needs to be learned from them by requesting additional paperwork, citing the release of documents by her during the primary season.
Ah, the vetting while NOT vetting gambit. Yeah, right.
3) Fivethirtyeight has some overnight polling data about the Obama / Biden ticket from Rasmussen.
Rasmussen has some instant feedback on Barack Obama’s selection of Joe Biden. As their write-up notes, there appears to be a gender gap in the initial response to his selection. And it’s the reverse gender gap than you’ll usually see when a Democratic candidate makes news: men like the pick better than women.
The Rasmussen site says the same thing, but with less panache.
4) We missed this Chicago Sun-Times story yesterday. It’s about the University of Chicago Medical Center steering poor uninsured people to other hospitals.
Sen. Barack Obama’s wife and three close advisers have been involved with a program at the University of Chicago Medical Center that steers patients who don’t have private insurance — primarily poor, black people — to other health care facilities.
Michelle Obama — currently on unpaid leave from her $317,000-a-year job as a vice president of the prestigious hospital — helped create the program, which aims to find neighborhood doctors for low-income people who were flooding the emergency room for basic treatment. Hospital officials say such patients hinder their ability to focus on more critically ill patients in need of specialized care, such as cancer treatment and organ transplants.
Obama’s top political strategist, David Axelrod, co-owns the firm, ASK Public Strategies, that was hired by the hospital last year to sell the program — called the Urban Health Initiative — to the community as a better alternative for poor patients. Obama’s wife and Valerie Jarrett, an Obama friend and adviser who chairs the medical center’s board, backed the Axelrod firm’s hiring, hospital officials said.
Another Obama adviser and close friend, Dr. Eric Whitaker, took over the Urban Health Initiative when he was hired at U. of C. in October 2007. Whitaker previously had been director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. Obama has said he recommended Whitaker for the state job, giving his name to Tony Rezko, who helped Gov. Blagojevich assemble his Cabinet. Rezko, a former fund-raiser for Obama and Blagojevich, was convicted in June on federal corruption charges tied to state deals.
The article goes on to explain both why some people think the program is a success and why some don’t. When Whitaker was asked about the criticism though, he had this to say:
. . . chalked up the criticism to people opposed to change
5) Interestingly, according to Reuters, the Biden pick isn’t going over well in Iraq.
Senator Joe Biden may be one of the only U.S. politicians that can get Iraq’s feuding Sunni, Shi’ite and Kurdish politicians to agree. But not in a good way.
Across racial and religious boundaries, Iraqi politicians on Saturday bemoaned Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama’s choice of running mate, known in Iraq as the author of a 2006 plan to divide the country into ethnic and sectarian enclaves.
“This choice of Biden is disappointing, because he is the creator of the idea of dividing Iraq,” Salih al-Mutlaq, head of National Dialogue, one of the main Sunni Arab blocs in parliament, told Reuters.
I do wonder, though, how Biden will weigh in on Obama’s plans to “end the war.”
6) The AP says Biden got the call from Obama while Biden was getting a root canal. Seriously.
The story also says that Biden, Bayh and Kaine were the only serious contenders at the end.
Three “white guys.” Who’da thought?
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
by 
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.by David Fredosso who wrote 2008's 
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