First the latest ad from Senator Hillary Clinton:

Now a look back with Bill Clinton:

Story from Valleywag and here is the video:

I find it somewhat hard to believe but, you be the judge.

The fundraising numbers are in and Senator Barack Obama is the clear winner with $42 Million cash on hand for the primaries to Senator Clinton $9 Million. The news is even worse for Clinton if you consider the $10.3 Million in debt the campaign currently holds.

Listening to representatives from the Obama campaign as well as the candidate himself over the weekend, I was struck by the difference in tone and message from a machine that just a few months ago was constantly striking up a message built on hope and the end of partisan politics. Today Senator Obama sounds less like a fresh faced candidate bent on “changing the discussion” or “ending the fights of the past” and more like any other candidate ready to say or do anything, including bowl, to win.

I have been warning for a long while now that Senator Obama’s rhetoric wouldn’t be able to withstand the fight. It is hard to be hopeful when you face month after month of your opponents ripping everything you do to shreds. It is even more difficult in this modern world to escape the things that seem petty, how can you when YouTube and social networking are built on almost anything but substance?

Then there is the reality problem, Senator Obama is not a movie god or rock star, he isn’t the second coming or the first American king. He is a politician running for office, nothing more or less. It was his rhetoric and the proselytizing of his aides, followers and the media that built him into some pop-iconic image. Politicians can almost never live up to their rhetoric, it is just that much more difficult when your rhetoric builds such lofty expectations.

There is a real problem here though, not for the evangelical Obama supporters, who will follow him far beyond any void, but to the masses of people, those in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, whom just months ago may have looked past those divisive issues like race and class to vote for someone who promised hope and sounded different doing it. Will they turn up for just a man? Will they toss aside their fears when hope sounds much like the same old? I don’t expect them too, not with the way things seem right now, not with Jeremiah Wright still in their heads.

The general is many months away and many miles need to be crossed to get to the White House. One thing stands very clear in my mind though, Senator Obama no longer sounds the same as he did just a few short weeks ago. His rhetoric is changing, his polished image seems scoffed and he faces a general election voting block far different then those who vote in the Democratic primaries. He will need to look beyond professors, students and African Americans, to the heartland, to ethnic voters, to laborers and gun lovers and he will have to do it with the message of hope sliding away in favor of an attack and response mentality taking hold.

Senator Obama has proven himself an adept and versatile candidate. While in some ways there is less to him than was expected, in others there is far more. With that said, there are real problems now facing the Democrats for November, issues that need to be addressed very soon or they will see yet another election slip through their fingers.

From Drudge:

Senator McCain’s tax returns show that he paid $157,231 in federal taxes for 2006 and 2007. In the past two years, Senator and Mrs. McCain have contributed $340,323 to charitable causes.

SUMMARY OF TAX RETURNS

Taxes Paid:

For 2006, Senator McCain paid $72,771 in federal income, alternative minimum, and self-employment taxes (LINES 57 and 58) on taxable income of $215,304 (LINE 43), which is a 33.8% tax rate. View For 2007, Senator McCain paid $84,460 in federal income, alternative minimum, and self-employment taxes (LINES 57 and 58) on taxable income of $258,800 (LINE 43), which is a 32.6% tax rate. View Charitable Contributions:

Senator McCain donates his royalties from his books to charitable organizations. This sum has totaled over $1,800,000 since 1998 when he signed his first book deal. Senator McCain’s book income of $256,898 for 2006 and 2007 is comprised of earnings for Faith of My Fathers, Worth the Fighting For, Why Courage Matters, Character is Destiny, and Hard Call.

Beginning in 1991, Senator McCain has also donated the increase in his Senate salary for that year and each subsequent year to charity because he opposed the Congressional pay increase at that time and pledged not to accept the pay raises. The cumulative total of these donations is over $450,000. 2006

In 2006, Senator and Mrs. McCain donated $129,390 from community assets to charity, of which Senator McCain’s one-half allocation was $64,695. This is 19% of his adjusted gross income. 2007

In 2007, Senator and Mrs. McCain donated $210,933 from community assets to charity, of which Senator McCain’s one-half allocation is $105,467. This is 27.2% of his adjusted gross income for the year. Most of Senator McCain’s contributions were made to the John and Cindy McCain Family Foundation, which makes direct contributions to charities. The Foundation’s tax returns for 2006 and 2007, which include a list of the charities to which Senator and Mrs. McCain contributed through the McCain Family Foundation in 2006 and 2007, are available for download below. (2006 - 2007)

SUMMARY OF SENATOR MCCAIN’S ACTUAL (NOT COMMUNAL) INCOME
[FROM STATEMENT A OF TAX RETURN]
2006 2007

Senate Salary: $161,675 $161,708
Book Royalty Income: $80,390 $176,508
Social Security Income: $22,104 $23,157
US Navy Pension*: $56,496 $58,358

Former Bill Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich will endorse Senator Obama today at 1:00pm EST on his blog. HUGE BLOW to Clinton as Reich is very revered and the idea of a return to the Clinton cabinet of economic advisor’s that is central to her appeal suffers yet another defeat.

While talking about the ABC News debate and saying Senator Clinton “looked in her element”, Senator Obama took a second to scratch his face with, fittingly perhaps, his middle finger.

Video

Update: As reader Al points out another angle exists and helps dispel that the Senator intentionally tried to make a gesture. Thanks Al!

The right side of the blogosphere is investigating Senator Obama’s frequent claims that he and his mother, Ann Dunham, collected food stamps and that he had trials and tribulations that don’t allow him to be an elitist. Amongst the additional examples, he had to scrape ice off his car and he had to pay back student loans because he never had a trust fund. So as you can see, his suffering was pretty extensive. (Looking for my sarcasm emoticon!)

Anyway Sweetness & Light has a pretty comprehensive look into the food stamp issue that was started by one of their readers. Here is the gist:

1) Obama has claimed his mother was on foodstamps and that she was collecting them while he was going to a prestigious private schools circa 1974-1977 (before that time she lived in Indonesia and after that time she returned).
2) During this time his grandmother, who was the Vice President of the Bank Of Hawaii, was actually raising him.
3) During this period of time, Dunham worked toward receiving her masters degree.
4) The point is, Obama’s story seems to suggest he was living in some kind of impoverished state but in actuality he was in Hawaii, at a prestigious school and during the period of time if his mother was receiving food stamps she was doing so while getting a masters degree and having her parents help raise her son.

So in short, the story doesn’t necessarily add up on several levels. Sweetness & Light suggests obama’s mother is a “welfare queen”, I wouldn’t go that far but if she was recieving food stamps while her son was being raised by a Vice President of a bank, attending a private school with assistance and she was getting a masters degree, well that is hardly similar to the people walking around city streets suffering in America today. Also, this is Hawaii.

I am sure there will be more coming out on this and will undoubtedly play into the “elitist trying to relate to the common man” vision of Obama being pushed by the right.

So far the Democrats have been hitting McCain on three fronts.
1) Lobbying ties
2) George Bush ties
3) His age

Is it working? Frankly, it doesn’t seem to be. While the two remaining Democratic candidates are spending their time and energy destroying one another, McCain is running around looking, dare I say, presidential. As for the three arguments. It is hard to hit McCain on lobbyist ties when Obama and Clinton are surrounded by lobbyists themselves.

On George Bush ties, it works well with Democrats but Republicans, not so much. Yes, it might sound crazy to liberals but many Republicans still like the president. What they don’t like about him is that he is too liberal on some issues, not that he is too conservative.

Meanwhile independents and moderates have an example of how Democratic leadership will look different, the Democratic Congress. This Congress might well be the biggest albatross around the candidates necks right now. A do nothing, cannot end the War, cannot use its purse strings, bumbling collection of media whores that look awfully similar to the other collection of bumbling, cannot use its purse strings, cannot end the War, collection of Republican media whores controlling Congress before 2006.

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