Political Punch

J Sisk -

Which war is over? We are fighting two at this moment and if McSame is elected, we're going to need a draft to make good on his pathological sabre-rattling on Iran and Russia.

Claiming Obama's election will lead to a terrorist attack is nonsense. I survived an attack on the World Trade Center while hundreds of friends and colleagues died horribly because The current White House was too busy cutting brush to pay attention to the warnings.

Give us all a break and at least try to keep it honest.

Sure it matters, so the questions then becomes, why aren't you reporting on it?!! It seems like there is a story to me - you scratch my back sort of...her donors should know they are paying all this money into her campagin is being wasted on big salaries and contracts for "loyal Clinton supporters". So, why aren't you reporting that instead of writing about some high school trip of Obama's or try to bust him. Do your damn job Jake. Report real stories and post real articles. If you don't have anything worthy to post, then don't post anything. Oh and pull your head out of Clinton's ///. Chump.

Look does it really matter? Everybody does it! Its time to put aside this poison polictics of personal destruction and get back to doing the work of the American People.

J Valenti: Mark Penn worked as worldwide CEO for Burson Marsteller and as chief strategist for the Clinton campaign at the same time. And is gonna continue. Here are just a few of Burson Marsteller's clients: 1) Blackwater Private Security firm, which is under investigation for having murdered Iraqi civilians, including women and children. Today, the Iraqs expressed their outrage that the US would renew their contract with Blackwater. In November Mark Penn's firm helped prep Blackwater for congressional hearings. Can it go lower? Yep. In the weeks following 9/11, the Saudis hired Burson Marsteller to help "clean up their image". Osama Bin Laden is Saudi. Several of the Al Qaeda terrorists who murdered 2000 Americans on 9/11 were too. But Burson Marsteller took the job. They handle Countrywide - even though Clinton talks about reforming the sub-prime industry. They handle anti-union campaigns, even though Clinton claims to be pro-union. I am not sure who they would turn down. Mark Penn is the Karl Rove of the Clinton campaign - and his tactics have not helped her - they have hurt her and they have hurt the Democratic party.

I think Hillary already knows she can't win. She is in now to continue to keep donations going to pay off debt. Like the 2.5 mil she owes to Mark Penn and his firm.

Dogssolier, Obama said no more lead painted toys from China for American Children. Hoping that will clarify your question because Obama's position is clear no trade relationships if minimum rules and regulations re working classs are not respected. God bless America and God bless Obama.OBAMA08.

Obama said, "I Wrote A Tough Nuclear Bill." --- LIAR, Obama's bill was rejected by his own party for its pandering and lack of all regulation --- mainly because of Obama's Nuclear Donor, Exelon, from which David Axelrod came.

Obama’s supporters would cover the world with smoke and mirrors to try and make Barack Hussein Obama look good, regardless of all his lies and ties to radical anti-Americans. Obama could butcher a kitten on the White House lawn and his followers would try to make it look like a good thing.

I imagine some of the people who have already voted for Obama would like to change their votes! Obama, along with Dean and Pelosi, are destroying the Democratic Party. They say we have 48 states … not 50.

What bothers me is tyhat we can blog it, but it ends there.

And STILL more problems ahead for Clinton.

Check the new 'HRC Colombia ties don't stop with Penn' article at the Politico site.

Now it's Wolfson...

"Mark Penn isn’t the only Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter on the wrong side of the Colombia trade agreement.

The Democratic-leaning advocacy firm the Glover Park Group, former home to Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson, signed a $40,000 per month contract with the government of Colombia in April of 2007 to promote the very agreement that Clinton now rails against on the presidential campaign trail.

That means Glover Park Group was arguing the same position on the free trade agreement as has Penn, the contentious Clinton strategist and Burson-Marsteller chief executive who lost his campaign job over the weekend after The Wall Street Journal revealed that he’d met with Colombian officials to plot strategy on the pact."

Mara, People need look no further than David Axelrod - the Wizard of Oz Unmasked to find the person who knows how to go for the jugular.

Speak to the losing candidate from Obama's US Senate race. A former client of Axelrod, he bared his soul - meaning he wanted to know how to handle some of the messy aspects of his personal life. He never expected that that personal information would be shared with his opponent, Obama. Then, Axelrod decided to dump this guy for Obama and that personal information somehow found its way into Obama's campaign who used it to destroy his opponent.

So, don't talk to me about Mark Penn's limitations. Axelrod has no character.

Gee, Geevil, should we ignore these likely conflicts of interest and other problems Hillabeans poor campaign management has caused???

I don't think so!

Obama 2008 -- Yes, WE CAN!!!

This obsession with attacking Clinton is getting real creepy.

Thanks for the connection. I though B-M was master of the universe.

Scrutiny is not one-sided, there have been endless pieces on Obama, on this site and everywhere else. And I do not believe that people don't care - I'm just mystifed why it took a year for the MSM to start reporting on what a divisive creature Mark Penn is, and what his business associations are.

One of his tactics, and one that seems to have been enormously successful, was to find ways to not only play campaigns against one another, but also to attack the SUPPORTERS of the other campaign - as idiots, as naive, as Jim Jones kool-aid fools. It certainly worked to gain Hillary some votes. The question is whether the Democratic party will survive the ruthless tactics of the Mark Penn strategy. I am not sure that it will. Now I understand why the Blackwater Security Firm went to Burson-Marsteller for comfort and advice.

rco - I think the role of the DNC is to nominate the candidate that can win in November.

Although the Obama campaign is trying to smear the one candidate that can beat McCain on the issues, we just have to wait and see how this plays out. There are 10 primaries to go and millions of people who haven't voted yet. What's Obama afraid of?

Sadstateofaffairs:
Now I understand this blitz by the Obama campaign. For a candidate (Obama) to promote how he's winning, I've wondered why these attacks have stepped up recently - particularly when he indicated that he wouldn't engage in smears.

Of course, he remains above the fray - he lets his hitmen do the dirty work. But. like my Italian family likes to say "Fish rot from the head".

So, now we know what the super delegates are looking at. Thanks again!

Fed Up in Texas - Chinese? So what's Obama's stance on the Chinese? You know THE Chinese who steal more American jobs than all other nations combined?

It bothers me that the Clintons think voters don't have the sense to see thru their political double speak and tag teaming. She is against it...Bill supports it on the sly and is building alliances thru backdoor political favors owed.

It bothers me that Penn is not really fired, did not really step down and is still very active on her campaign. Hillary and Bill obviously were only upset because Penn got caught, not his actions. If it were any other reason, she would have fired him or REMOVED him from her staff.

It bothers me that Hillary's only objection to the Columbian trade deal is inhumane treatment of the workers, not the financial impact to our country for loss of more jobs thru NAFTA II.

It bothers me that Hillary is quick to tell George Bush what he sould do about the opening ceremonies in China. But, when Bill was in the White House, he knew China had deplorable, inhumane treatment of its people and workers and forged ahead to make China a trading partner to the US. It bothers me that Clinton STILL has lucrative ongoing business interest with the Chinese even while Hillary is crying about Tibet's human rights and foreing interest buying control in our country.

It bothers me to know that the Clintons are lying again and they won't even address the issues with the voters. They are just dismissing this fiasco like it didn't even happen.

It bothers me that I even have to be bothered by the Clintons and wonder what they are up to.

But what bothers me more is to see her blind followers make excuses for their political wheeling and dealing on the backs of other hard working Americans.

This connection doesn't seem any odder than Axelrod being the brains behind both the Obama campaign and the FAILED gubernatorial administration of that Obama clone, Deval Patrick, our Massachusetts Governor. Read the recent Boston Globe coverage.

Another guy that came out of nowhere on a promise of "change", "hope" and "Yes, we can". -- Well, "No, he can't".

Is it any wonder that recent polling indicates that it is Clinton who leads McCain by a significant margin in November's election.

See, in Massachusetts we already know that an "empty suit" is still an "empty suit" after the election - when it really counts.

Hank and Mark,

Don't let the media hype get you down. They're just trying to hold down the real story. Here's the facts about the democratic race and how close it really is.

I've said this before & I'll say it again. If Hillary can't run a proper campaign, why should we give her a whole country to run. Part of this country has been sold to the Chinese, thanks to Bush, I guess the rest of the country would be sold to the Colombians courtesy of Hillary/Mark Penn.

She has not paid the bill in Dover NH and that was months ago.IT WAS IN THE PAPER JUST LAST WEEK,She can not pay her bills how in heck will she run this country.Not a good omen >>>>>>>

I care, but it doesn't matter anymore. The democratic nomination process is over. The party is just limping home after the war. We badly need some time to heal and we need to hear some talk of unity from our party leaders before the national election pitting Obama against McCain. Instead, we hear nothing form our leaders, except "let's play this thing out." mainly for fear of the Clinton's overt threats to destroy the party if forced out now. A shame, we could be using this time to come together in democratic party unity. Instead Hillary is hoping for that almost nonexistent opportunity to destroy our nominee, Senator Obama, and then gut him at the convention. Shameful- it's time to move on.

I hope this is not the same guy that is supposed to be paying the bills for the campaign too. Cause if it is, he ought to be fired cause he ain't been paying the bills on time!!

How can anyone be surprised by type of administrative organization a Clinton would put together. Lets just hope that this Country is not subject to another Clinton government.

Many of us care!! Thanks again Jake for helping the American public find out the truth about the behind the scenes workings of the Clinton campaign. Could we ever trust Clinton in the White House?? She surrounds herself with questionable characters and conducts her campaign one way in the public view and another behind the public's back. She and Bill knew exactly what Mark Penn did to make his money (other than the 10 million he's already earned on staff for Clinton in this campaign - and 2.5 million he's still owed). Hillary's ethics allowed her to have people work for her when she knew they held (and actively worked for) different political stands than she says she supports. It should not be a surprise then that Paster as COO would be channeling vendor contracts to companies WPPO Group owns. No bid contracts - does that sound like a political technique we're familiar with?

It would not surprise any one how Hillary is playing favorites. Please i say they have something on her .I hope the Unions sniff this one out.

Has anyone even bothered to look at the other campaigns? Why this overkill of the Clintons personal and financial connections. When all is said and done, I am sure there will be noone left working for the campaigns. Scrutiny should not be one sided.

Well, I DO care, but since there's not a single doubt left now that Clinton will not get the nomination, I'm getting more and more stoic about the whole and ALWAYS dirty 'Clinton and Money' issue.

The donations for PA at her website have almost come to a standstill; April is going to be a financial disaster for the Clinton campaign. In May the whole thing will be over.

But Jake you're doing your work and you're very right in pointing the conlicting interests out. And no, it's not a minor issue, for all these things learns us someting about Clinton's management credentials and about the load of problems and conflicts a Hillary Administration would harbor.

But as said, there will never be such an Administration in the USA, thank BO.

No one cares anymore.