Democratic candidates more willing to consider marijuana issue

According to CBS News, politicians today no longer dodge questions about marijuana and are increasingly willing to consider the benefits of medical marijuana.

Bill Clinton aroused a storm of controversy when he claimed in 1992 that ‘I experimented with marijuana a time or two and I didn’t like it and didn’t inhale and never tried it again.”

In contrast, Barack Obama has freely admitted, “I inhaled — frequently. That was the point.” Senators Kerry and Edwards both said “yes” when asked in 2003 if they had ever tried marijuana.

One marijuana lobbying group, Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana, pressed the presidential candidates to indicate their positions on medical marijuana during the New Hampshire primary. The Democrats were all graded between B+ and A+, with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both receiving A’s. In contrast, the leading Republican candidates, including John McCain, all received F’s.

A Global Marijuana March was held last Saturday in 239 cities worldwide. CBS News interviewed marchers in New York City and found a variety of political allegiances. “I have been supporting Obama because I think Hillary Clinton is the pits,” said one grey-haired aging hippie. “My energy is going towards McCain,” announced a woman with flag patches on both shoulders. And one serious young man told CBS that Ron Paul is “all for decriminalization and legalization.”

This video is from CBSNews.com, broadcast May 9, 2008.

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Letterman: Clinton ‘has substantial lead in the state of denial’

Last night, David Letterman joked about the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Partial Transcript

LETTERMAN: Are you folks sick and tired of the Democratic Presidential primary campaign? (cheers and applause)

LETTERMAN: That’s what i say. bllphh! Hillary Clinton by the way, and my gosh, talk about a fighter. A fighter. But too bad her campaign is running out of money. That’s right. And is very expensive. And they are not paying their bills. As a matter of fact, Today and this very sad, a collection agency repoed her pant suit. (laughter)

LETTERMAN: That is a true story. You can look that up. You can — bblllpphh. So here is what happened on Tuesday. Hillary Clinton barely won my home state of Indiana. And she lost in the State of North Carolina. But here is the good news. She has a substantial lead in the state of denial. Thank you so much. (applause)

LETTERMAN: I was thinking about this. And i’m no political genius. I’m no pundit but it occurred to me that Hillary Clinton has one thing in common with President Bush. Neither of them has an exit strategy. There you go. (laughter)

This video is from CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast May 8, 2008.

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Obama takes triple crown: Most delegates, most popular vote and most superdelegates

ABC News reports that Barack Obama has taken the lead in superdelegates. Obama has 267 to Clinton’s 265.

ABC’s Jake Tapper reports, “Senator Obama has two big endorsements — Congressman Payne, a former Clinton supporter, and Senator Defazio. That means he takes the lead with superdelegates 267 to Senator Clinton’s 265. For the first time, Barack Obama can now say he leads Hillary Clinton for the battle in the all important superdelegates and mounting odds against Clinton are taking a toll.”

Senator Obama has reached for and won (at least, temporarily and for the first time) the triple-crown – first in ‘earned’ delegates, first in ‘popular’ vote totals, and now, first in ‘superdelegate’ count – as two more superdelegates declared for him today.

This is the first time Sen. Obama has been in the superdelegate lead during this long and fractious Democratic primary.

The big news in pocketing both of these superdelegate votes is Rep. Payne who switched his vote from Clinton to Obama, calling Mrs. Clinton “a good friend” before jumping off the flat-lined Clinton campaign as Mr. Obama takes the lead in all campaign metrics; superdelegates, popular vote, and earned delegates.

Rep. Payne told the New Jersey Star-Ledger, “After careful consideration, I have reached the conclusion that Barack Obama can best bring about the change that our country so desperately wants and needs.”

“It’s now time for us to pull our party together. The quicker it’s over, the better we’ll be able to bring all of our forces together.”

Rep. Payne first endorsed Mrs. Clinton on January 1, 2007 and said he had “worked closely with both Hillary Clinton and President Clinton” and praised her for running a “very aggressive campaign.”

From the east coast to the west, the superdelegates are scrambling aboard the Obama train as Oregon’s Rep. Peter DeFazio committed to Barack Obama telling the Oregonian, “He represents our best chance of winning in November. We must not allow Senator McCain to continue the failures of the Bush foreign policy, war in Iraq and disastrous economic policies.”

Since Tuesday’s elections in South Carolina and Indiana, the movement has begun in earnest with superdelegates who will decide this race. Rep. Heath Shuler (NC) came out for Clinton and DNC superdelegates Jerry Meek from North Carolina and Inola Henry from California chose Obama.

Superdelegate Jennifer McClellan in Virginia recently switched to Obama, and yesterday, Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) joined Obama’s superdelegate team. Today, Obama gained Rep. Payne and Rep. DeFazio.

Total superdelegate gain for Sen. Obama in the last three days is 7 and Clinton has a net loss of 1. This may be the long-awaited superdelegate ‘momentum’ that the Obama campaign has been waiting for.

This video is from ABC’s Good Morning America, broadcast May 9, 2008.

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Bill Clinton’s gets angry with West Virginia voter over Hillary’s record on healthcare

While campaigning in Fayetteville, W.Va., Bill Clinton argued with an audience member over claims made by Hillary Clinton that she improved health care during his administration.

“Wait, wait, wait a minute ma’am,” he said in response to a claim his wife didn’t fight for healthcare during his Administration. “You’re wrong. You’re wrong. I can’t believe you’re saying this. There are millions of pages of documents.”

The audience cheered Clinton’s reply.

This video is from CBSNews.com, broadcast May 8, 2008.

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Whoopi on politicians: ‘They can’t do sh*t’

Ladies of ABC’s The View discussed Barack Obama  and John McCain.  Whoopie opened up the discussion by asking if Hillary Clinton was waiting for Obama to ‘pop the question’ and ask her to be his Vice Presidential running mate before she official ends her bid for the Democratic nominee.  Elizabeth Hasselbeck — as Joy Behar points out is a Republican — said she believes the primary battle is working well for the Democrats, and that  the media is so preoccupied with the Democrats that they have completely forgotten there is a Republican(McCain)  out there.

The  ladies wondered if Hillary supporters would skip voting in the general election if she was denied the Democratic nomination, and Joy Behar said that ‘when the white women who love Hillary so much’ realize that John McCain is going to load up the Supreme Court with justices who are going to take away their reproductive and civil rights, and roll back all the liberal policies that women have worked towards for 60 years  they will get out and vote for Obama for president.

The discussion turned to Congress after a rather heated debate that began when Hasselbeck declared Obama as ‘the most liberal’ candidate out there.  Whoopi Goldberg said that the Democratic Congress does not “have the full power” to accomplish their goals. Whoopi said, “You know what? They haven’t gotten anything done… just like every politician has done for the last 5000 years. Yes, we’re going to do this and then they get their and can’t do shit.”

This video is from ABC’s The View, broadcast May 8, 2008.

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Colbert: ‘Not-for-profit’ oil companies earn ‘mind-bending revenue’

The American Petroleum Institute, billing itself as “The People of America’s Oil and Natural Gas Industry,” recently launched an ad campaign calling for increased domestic production to “secure America’s future.”

Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert drew attention to a full-page ad, run as part of this campaign in USA Today, which asks “Where does your gasoline dollar go.”

Colbert noted that, according to the ad, “72% goes to the price of crude oil, another 16% is eaten up by refining, distribution, and service stations, and the last 12% is taken away by taxes. That is a total of 100%.”

“That is right, nation,” Colbert observed. “Oil is a zero-profit business. I mean, they must have had a bake sale to pay for this ad.”

“And yet somehow, in 2007, ExxonMobil earned $1300 a second,” Colbert continued. “Even though 100% of gasoline prices are canceled out by costs, these companies are somehow able to wring mind-bending revenue out of their not-for-profit venture. I think that’s pretty impressive.”

This video is from Comedy Centrals’s The Colbert Report, broadcast May 8, 2008.

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Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘Worst Political Team’ discuss Clinton strategy

“The Worst Political Team” debates the Senator Clinton’s chances of going all the way.

This video is from ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, broadcast May 8, 2008.

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Countdown: John McCain’s growing pastor problems

Presidential candidate John McCain’s pastor problems are bubbling up again, with Reverend John Hagee, whose support and endorsement McCain has actively sought, reversing last week’s retraction of remarks he made in 2006 blaming the destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina on a planned gay pride parade.

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann pointed out Hagee’s reversal and also noted that McCain recently had a photo op at a plaque honoring New York firefighters who died on 9/11. Another McCain supporter, the late Reverend Jerry Falwell, famously blamed 9/11 on “the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays” and threatened that it could happen again if “God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.”

Olbermann then asked Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson to comment on how McCain is pulling off “one of the great political magic tricks of all time” by making these questionable connections disappear.

Robinson agreed that Hagee “is a complete lunatic [who] makes Jeremiah Wright sound fairly mainstream, yet McCain seems to get away with this.”

“I don’t see how how McCain … can continue to pretend that Hagee’s not out there,” Robinson continued. “There is a kind of demagoguery gap … Republicans are much better at demogoguing these issues than Democrats are. … Democrats remain tethered to things like objective fact and fairness. But by any standard, there are parallels here that are going to have to be addressed.”

“What is the difference in how McCain and Obama are seen that puts Reverend Wright on the front page and Reverend Hagee nowhere at all?” Olbermann asked. “Is it as simple as black and white?”

Robinson explained that research has shown that “members of one group tend to look at members of a different group and think they have more in common with each other than they necessarily do. … People look at these two black guys, a pastor and Obama, and tend to think they have more in common.”

This video is from MSNBC’s Countdown, broadcast May 8, 2008.

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Daily Show: How can Obama get Clinton to stop ‘talking sh*t to whitey’

In her latest outburst to USA Today, Hillary Clinton has made the most explicit use yet of the argument that she and she alone can appeal to white voters.

“Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans is weakening again,” Clinton said, apparently citing an Associated Press article, which also found “how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”

The boos that followed that remark from the Daily Show’s audience were just the sound of “the country healing,” Jon Stewart said Thursday. He and correspondent Rob Riggle delved into their “analysis” of Clinton’s statement.

“Obviously, those words from Senator Clinton struck the Obama campaign as deeply, deeply true,” Riggle deadpanned.

“Right now he only has two choices: One he can quickly get lots of white people to finish college,” but there’s probably not enough time for that.

“This leaves him with choice number two: Convince white people to stop working so hard,” he joked, “become the kind of non-hardworking Americans that make up Obama’s base.”

Stewart asked what other options Obama might have to “dig himself out of his apparently hopeless first-place hole.”

“The thought is he can beg her to take his money,” Riggle said, referencing Clinton’s massive debt and personal loans to her campaign. Event that might not work, though. “He’d have to put something else on the table, a cabinet post, maybe the vice presidency.”

Would Clinton accept such a proposal?

“At this point she would be ready to accept Barack Obama as vice president, or secretary of state,” Riggle joked. “And in my opinion he should take the deal.

“Otherwise it’s three more months of her talking shit to whitey.”

This video is from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, broadcast May 8, 2008.

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Olbermann stands by Wolfson book deal story

Keith Olbermann reported that Hillary Clinton’s Communication Director, Howard Wolfson, was looking for a book deal. Howard Wolfson denied seeking a deal for a book “about this campaign.”

This video is from MSNBC’s Countdown, broadcast May 8, 2008.

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Obama responds to smear: McCain is ‘losing his bearings’

Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama (D-IL) responds to a question from CNN’s Wolf Blitzer about an earlier comment made by opponent Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) saying that Hamas would vote for Obama.

“This is offensive,” says Sen. Obama, “and I think it’s disappointing, because John McCain always says ‘Well, I’m not going to run that kind of politics.’ And then, to engage in that kind of…smear, I think is unfortunate.”

Obama insists his Hamas policy is identical to McCain’s in that he considers them a terrorist organization and says the US should not negotiate with them unless they recognize Israel.

“For [McCain] to toss comments out like that, I think, is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination.”

This video is from CNN’s Situation Room, broadcast May 8, 2008.

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