Monday Morning Must-Reads

POSTED BY Raleigh-Elizabeth Smith, 07 January 2008

Obama: No Cash From Denzel, Spike, Motown, Despite Oprah Backing  [FOX]   Oprah Winfrey’s backing of Barack Obama for president hasn’t influenced a lot of other heavy hitting black celebrities to join her yet.  Her two most favorite authors, Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison, have not opened their pocketbooks yet for Obama. (Angelou has traditionally been a Clinton supporter.)   Neither has Spike Lee nor Denzel Washington, although the latter’s wife Pauletta sent Obama $2,300. Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr. has put his bucks in Hillary Clinton’s campaign, as has Quincy Jones.  What does this mean for Obama?

McGovern: Bush Must Go  [WaPo Op-Ed]   As we enter the eighth year of the Bush-Cheney administration, I have belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me is to urge the impeachment of the president and the vice president.  After the 1972 presidential election, I stood clear of calls to impeach President Richard M. Nixon for his misconduct during the campaign. I thought that my joining the impeachment effort would be seen as an expression of personal vengeance toward the president who had defeated me. Today I have made a different choice.  Of course, there seems to be little bipartisan support for impeachment. The political scene is marked by narrow and sometimes superficial partisanship, especially among Republicans, and a lack of courage and statesmanship on the part of too many Democratic politicians. So the chances of a bipartisan impeachment and conviction are not promising. 

Sunday Late Nite: Joshua Hoyt tells the GOP, That Dog Won’t Hunt  [FDL]    In his Chicago Tribune op-ed today, Joshua Hoyt, Blue America ally and Executive Director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, runs the numbers on immigrant-bashing in the Iowa GOP caucuses, and finds that the haters lost.  Big.  On the Republican side, Romney, despite his overwhelming funding advantage, came up short. University of Iowa polls showed that 57 percent of Iowa voters favored earned citizenship for the undocumented and only 23 percent favored deportation."

Edwards: "The Clinton campaign has no conscience"  [Ben Smith]    Edwards responded sharply to a Clinton aide's criticism today, intensifying a back-and-forth that began at last night's debate, after Clinton said Nataline Sarkisyan could be alive if the patients bill of rights, which he'd boasted of championing, had passed.  "The Clinton campaign has no conscience," Edwards said, after Clinton spokesman Jay Carson said Edwards does no more than "read articles about people who need help and talk about them... The idea that everything is about them [suggests] that they have no conscience," Edwards said of the Clinton campaign, my colleague Josh Kraushaar reports. "I'm very surprised by the comments." 

Romney dials down expectations hard  [Politico]     Mitt Romney, a dominant favorite in New Hampshire just weeks ago, said Sunday that a "close second" to Arizona Sen. John McCain would be a significant feat on Tuesday.  The almost frantic downsizing of expectations for the former Massachusetts governor came as the candidate and his staff are publicly and privately preparing to explain away what would be a disheartening loss and shift to a last-ditch strategy predicated on his ability to outlast and outspend his rivals, according to sources inside the campaign. 

Americans Want to Feel More American Again... Vote Obama?  [NYT]     MoDo's latest read:   The Hillary forces at the Plymouth Church caucus in Des Moines weren’t averse to bribes. They were passing out See’s chocolates to Richardson supporters.  And they weren’t averse to threats. “My wife told me I’d have to join them or I’d be sleeping on the couch tonight,” said Ed Truslow, a compact 68-year-old manufacturing representative. He was still wearing his Chris Dodd sticker when he lumbered over to his wife’s side. A Clinton organizer slapped a Hillary sticker over the offending Dodd sticker, and with a frantic cheeriness told him: “Hillary now, right? God bless!”

Big Endorsement: Senator Bill Bradley backs Barack Obama  [Barack Obama]    ormer United States Senator (D-NJ) and candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination, Bill Bradley, announced today his endorsement of Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy.  Bradley, who ran a very strong NH campaign, attracting strong support from Democrats and Independents, said Obama’s ability to bring people together for change makes him the best Democrat to reclaim the White House and win a broad mandate to tackle our biggest challenges.  “Barack Obama is building a broad new coalition that brings together Democrats, Independents, and Republicans by once again making idealism a central focus of our politics,” said Senator Bradley.  

Romney Takes Wyoming Cowboys by Storm  [Reuters]   Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the Wyoming Republican presidential caucus on Saturday, taking seven of the state's 12 delegates with nearly all precincts reporting, according to a state party official.  Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee won two delegates and Rep. Duncan Hunter of California won one, said Amy Larimer, executive director of the Wyoming Republican Party.