Turns out that White House aide who resigned over plagiarism plagiarized 20 of his 38 columns in The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel.
Just not for us.
From Reuters (courtesy of TPM Reader BKS) …
Pomp and ceremony greeted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his arrival in Iraq on Sunday, the fanfare a stark contrast to the rushed and secretive visits of his bitter rival U.S. President George W. Bush.
Ahmadinejad held hands with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani as they walked down a red carpet to the tune of their countries’ national anthems, his visit the first by an Iranian president since the two neighbours fought a ruinous war in the 1980s.
His warm reception, in which he was hugged and kissed by Iraqi officials and presented with flowers by children, was Iraq’s first full state welcome for any leader since the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.
This morning on CNN’s Late Edition, Wolf Blitzer asked McCain supporter Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) about McCain’s embrace of anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic Pastor John Hagee.
There’s a couple things to watch in this passage, first is how Blitzer completely misstates what actually happened. “Should John McCain repudiate and reject the comments, the support from John Hagee just as Barack Obama has done that with the Rev. Louis Farrakhan (sic)?”
Let’s be clear what happened here. John McCain solicited the support and endorsement of Hagee and then he held a joint appearance with Hagee in which he formally endorsed him. In these terms, Obama has no connection whatsoever to Farrakhan. He’s just someone who said positive things about Obama. So the premise for even asking Obama is dubious in itself, whereas McCain has openly embraced Hagee.
As you can see Hutchison steadfastly refuses to reject or denounce or even say what she or McCain disagrees with Hagee about. Her big point seems to be that even if Hagee calls the Catholic Church the “great whore” and “anti-Christ” that he still supports Israel and has a big congregation whose support McCain needs. Let’s go to the tape …
Soon after tonight’s 60 Minutes ran we started to get emails from readers flagging Hillary Clinton’s response to Steve Kroft’s question about whether she believed Obama was a Muslim. From several emailers her comment was characterized simply as her saying she “took Obama at his word” that he wasn’t a Muslim. As you can see from the transcript below, what she said isn’t quite that simple. In fact, at least from the transcript she doesn’t seem to have used those words at all.
Yet there is some iffy hedging.
I’ve read and now watched a few times. And I suspect this is a case where different people will come away from seeing the exchange with very different senses whether she was hedging or whether people are pulling more equivocation out of her words because of the intensity and combustibility of the moment.
So here’s the quote and the video.
âYou don’t believe that Senator Obama’s a Muslim?â Kroft asked Sen. Clinton.
âOf course not. I mean, that, you know, there is no basis for that. I take him on the basis of what he says. And, you know, there isn’t any reason to doubt that,â she replied.
âYou said you’d take Senator Obama at his word that he’s notâ¦a Muslim. You don’t believe that he’sâ¦,â Kroft said.
âNo. No, there is nothing to base that on. As far as I know,â she said.
âIt’s just scurrilousâ¦?â Kroft inquired.
âLook, I have been the target of so many ridiculous rumors, that I have a great deal of sympathy for anybody who gets, you know, smeared with the kind of rumors that go on all the time,â Clinton said.
Here’s the video …
For me it’s on the edge. And I find it surprising she would leave it on the edge. Why the ‘as far as I know’ line? On the other hand, at other points, she seems pretty unequivocal. But mainly I’m curious to hear what you think.
It’s within the margin of error, to be sure, but Zogby’s daily tracking poll is out this morning, and it gives Obama his first lead in Ohio in any poll, 47-45.
Meanwhile, Quinnipiac has Hillary up four points, 49-45, although that’s down from her 11 point lead of a week ago.
Late Update: This throws a monkey wrench in the “Obama zeroing in on Hillary in Ohio” narrative. Rasmussen shows Hillary widening her lead by four points since their last poll, on Friday. She now leads 50-44.
Later Update: Ditto with the new poll from Public Policy Polling. It shows Hillary widening her Ohio lead from 4 points to 9 points.
Use Barack Obama’s middle name at a rally and John McCain wants no part of you. But call the Catholic Church the “great whore” and the presumptive Republican nominee will gladly take your endorsement. We try to parse the double standard with some help from the talking heads in today’s Sunday Show Roundup episode of TPMtv …
Telecom immunity isn’t about protecting the telecoms from ravenous trial lawyers; it’s about protecting the Administration from further revelations about warrantless wiretapping and the legal consequences thereof.
The Obama campaign has released the two-minute TV ad that it will be running tonight in Texas.