Public Relations

And those cojones are carried by non other than Gary Hart :

It will come as a surprise to many people that there are rules in politics. Most of those rules are unwritten and are based on common understandings, acceptable practices, and the best interest of the political party a candidate seeks to lead. One of those rules is this: Do not provide ammunition to the opposition party that can be used to destroy your party's nominee. This is a hyper-truth where the presidential contest is concerned.

By saying that only she and John McCain are qualified to lead the country, particularly in times of crisis, Hillary Clinton has broken that rule, severely damaged the Democratic candidate who may well be the party's nominee, and, perhaps most ominously, revealed the unlimited lengths to which she will go to achieve power. She has essentially said that the Democratic party deserves to lose unless it nominates her.

As Andrew Sullivan deservedly says, "it's a start" but not enough because it would be too high a price to pay if McCain wins in November :

This is a generational struggle - although plenty of older folks get it completely. As such, it usually does take more than one insurrection to move past the past. Usually, we might wait for the forces of reaction and inertia and cynicism to fade away. The trouble is: we cannot afford more Rove-Morris politics given the enormous dangers we now face at home and abroad. And if you give the Clintons any power, we know they will use it to destroy - not just limit - any threat to them. They know the threat Obama and his politics present to them and their machine. They will never forgive his presumption. And you cannot assume they will at some point allow him to take over. The battle really is now.

There really was nothing else for her to do than to resign after becoming a liability to the Obama campaign :

Samantha Power, an unpaid foreign policy adviser and Harvard professor, announced her resignation in a statement provided by the Obama campaign in which she expressed "deep regret."

"Last Monday, I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor, and purpose of the Obama campaign," she said. "And I extend my deepest apologies to Senator Clinton, Senator Obama and the remarkable team I have worked with over these long 14 months."

Previously : "She's A Monster".

This is the kind of PR fiasco nobody wants.

Samantha Powers, Barack Obama's foreign policy advisor, was on a book tour in London. This is what happened in the middle of a press conference :

Earlier, clearly rattled by the Ohio defeat, Ms Power told The Scotsman Mrs Clinton was stopping at nothing to try to seize the lead from her candidate.

"We f***** up in Ohio," she admitted. "In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win.

"She is a monster, too – that is off the record – she is stooping to anything," Ms Power said, hastily trying to withdraw her remark.

Ms Power said of the Clinton campaign: "Here, it looks like desperation. I hope it looks like desperation there, too.

"You just look at her and think, 'Ergh'. But if you are poor and she is telling you some story about how Obama is going to take your job away, maybe it will be more effective. The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive."

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Of course, Clinton's shills in the campaign and the blogosphere are screaming for the woman's head in a silver platter.

If I were Ms. Powers, I'd resign from the campaign. This is a terrible gaffe --she tried to throw the comment as "off the record" in the middle of a press conference. It's just not the thing you do, especially after your candidate has lost an important election and the media is smelling blood.

Peter Daou has given me permission to post his response as to why not one black or latino blogger was invited to the meeting in Harlem:

From: peter@daoureport.com
Subject: RE: There are no black bloggers in New York City or Harlem
Date: 15 September 2006 06:53:51 EDT
To: blogdiva@culturekitchen.com

Hi Liza - several bloggers were invited who couldn't attend, including
Oliver Willis (who you didn't mention in your post). Also, I was told =
that more events like that are planned, and there will be an opportunity to
invite bloggers who didn't attend the first one.

So respectfully, you may have reached a conclusion without all the =
facts.

Best,
Peter

P.S. Feel free to publish this email as an update to your post.

Grock! I totally forgot Oliver Willis and I read him every day.

Here's the deal: I am not the political consultant, he is. As a campaign consultant I would actually find interesting that most of the top colored bloggers in the nation are opposed to Hillary Clinton. I would be all over that one because it is a fact that Bill Clinton, Hillary's husband, was given an honorary ghetto pass by people in the colored community ---do I have to bring out Chris Rock's skit to prove this one? Bill is the quintessential WIGGAH and we love him for it.

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UPDATE | 08 June 2006
TimeWarnerAOL has used a claim of DCMA against our Fair Use of the Hello! cover photo to force our webhosting company to take down the photo "or else".

Read all about how TimeWarnerAOL can get away legally with this kind of harrassment here.

A little levity for the end of the day; since babies past, present and future are everywhere.

Lawyers can be the scourge of democracy these days. You'd think the automatrons at People Magazine would have thought about all the digital details involving the publishing online of Brangelina's baby photo. No they obviously did not think of the little detail of time zones when paying for an "exclusive".

The photo has been disseminated all over the internet but thanks to Perez Hilton's growing notoriety, he's been slapped with a cease and desist; which he is obviously relishing at Celebrity gossip juicy celebrity rumors Hollywood gossip blog from Perez Hilton.

[via Conservatives Drive Bush's Approval Down - Yahoo! News]:

This week's survey of 1,000 adults, including 865 registered voters, found:

• Just 33 percent of the public approves of Bush's job performance, the lowest of his presidency. That compares with 36 percent approval in early April. Forty-five percent of self-described conservatives now disapprove of the president.
• Just one-fourth of the public approves of the job Congress is doing, a new low in AP-Ipsos polling and down 5 percentage points since last month. A whopping 65 percent of conservatives disapprove of Congress.
  
  

The Carnival of the Feminists is up at I See Invisible People | Carnival of Feminists XIII. Lorraine submitted her article, I am failing my race.

First off, I think carnivals are a great way to condense every months what's happening around the different blogospheres that are popping like corn all over the web. But by the way they have been developed, I have never felt they actually are that effective after the carnival is done.

Here's my reasons why :

Have you ever wondered how you can help get the word out there about your contributions to our blog? Well, look no further. This list is meant to break down some of the features we have on the site that should help people spread the word about how y'all are contributing to any or all our culturekitchen blogs.