About a year and a half ago now, it looked as if a very strange political alliance might be forming. Rupert Murdoch, the conservative businessman who once described himself as a "billionare tyrant" in a lighthearted moment on "The Simpsons," and who owns media outlets ranging from Fox News to (now) the Wall Street Journal, held a fundraiser for Sen. Hillary Clinton in 2006. This despite the fact that his own paper, the New York Post, had repeatedly gone after Clinton. For a while, it even seemed as if the Post's coverage of Clinton had softened as the relationship between Murdoch and Clinton continued.
Well, it looks like our moment of peace may have come to an end -- the Post has endorsed Clinton rival Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, and it didn't spare Clinton in the process. (The Post is still a conservative paper, and it wasn't exactly nice to Obama either, though.)
"Obama represents a fresh start," the Post's editorial reads.
"His opponent, and her husband, stand for déjà vu all over again -- a return to the opportunistic, scandal-scarred, morally muddled years of the almost infinitely self-indulgent Clinton co-presidency.
"Does America really want to go through all that once again?
"It will -- if Sen. Clinton becomes president ...
"Bill Clinton's thuggishly self-centered campaign antics conjure so many bad, sad memories that it's hard to know where to begin ...
"Now, Obama is not without flaws.
"For all his charisma and his eloquence, the rookie senator sorely lacks seasoning: Regarding national security, his worldview is beyond naive; America must defend itself against those sworn to destroy the nation.
"His all-things-to-all-people approach to complicated domestic issues also arouses scant confidence. 'Change!' for the sake of change does not a credible campaign platform make. But he remains a highly intelligent man, with a strong record as a conciliator.
"I can say this, that, you know, being a Southerner, being an American who's been completely devastated by the trade policies of the Clintons, I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that he does not endorse Hillary Clinton."
-- Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, a senior advisor to former Sen. John Edwards' now-defunct presidential campaign, during an appearance on MSNBC earlier Wednesday.
Earlier, we brought you Sen. Barack Obama's statement on former Sen. John Edwards' decision to drop out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Obama is reportedly jockeying with Sen. Hillary Clinton for support from Edwards, who has not yet said if he'll endorse a candidate. Clinton has a statement about Edwards too; it follows in full.
"John Edwards ended his campaign today in the same way he started it -- by standing with the people who are too often left behind and nearly always left out of our national debate.
"John ran with compassion and conviction and lifted this campaign with his deep concern for the daily lives of the American people. That is what this election is about -- it's about our people. And John is one of the greatest champions the American people could ask for.
"I wish John and Elizabeth all the best. They have my great personal respect and gratitude. And I know they will continue to fight passionately for the country and the people they love so deeply."
Thirteen months ago, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards went to New Orleans to announce his second run for the presidency. Wednesday, he announced the end of his campaign from the same city.
Standing in Musicians' Village -- a development sponsored by Habitat for Humanity with Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis and intended for displaced musicians and other N.O. families -- wind blowing through the hair that became the butt of numerous jokes throughout the campaign, Edwards told those gathered that he'd be suspending his campaign, but that the causes he fought for during it would continue.
"I began my presidential campaign here to remind the country that we as citizens and as a government have a moral responsibility to each other, and what we do together matters. We must do better if we want to live up to the great promise of this country that we all love so much. It is appropriate that I come here today," Edwards said.
When it came time to deliver his next sentence, the key one, Edwards stumbled. "It's time for me to sep -- step aside so that history can, so that, so that history can blaze its path," he said, continuing, "We do not know who will take the final steps to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but what we do know is that our Democratic Party will make history. We will be strong, we will be unified, and with our convictions and a little backbone we will take back the White House in November and create hope and opportunity for this country."
Edwards did not make an endorsement today, but he referred to both of his opponents -- who, according to advisor Joe Trippi, have been seeking his support -- by name, saying they'd agreed to press on for the causes that have been the focus of Edwards' campaign. "I've spoken to both Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama. They have both pledged to me, and more importantly through me to America, that they will make ending poverty central to their campaign for the presidency. And more importantly, they have pledged to me that as president of the United States, they will make ending poverty and economic inequality central to their presidency. This is the cause of my life. And I now have their commitment to engage in this cause."
Edwards may have had trouble connecting with the voters over the past months, but his speech today was clear, the message strong. It was, perhaps, the speech he'd been missing. He spoke strongly about his commitments and about what he sees as a Democratic Party and government that have turned away from the poor and working class. "For decades, we stopped focusing on those struggles. They didn't register in political polls; they didn't get us votes and so we stopped talking about it," he said.
"I don't know how it started. I don't know when our party began to turn away from the cause of working people ... Well, in this campaign, we didn't turn our heads. We looked them square in the eye and we said, 'We see you, we hear you, and we are with you. And we will never forget you.'"
Finally, Edwards brought his campaign to an end on a similar note. "I want to say this to everyone: with Elizabeth, with my family, with my friends, with all of you and all of your support, this son of a millworker is going to be just fine. Our job now is to make certain that America will be fine ... Do not turn away from these great struggles before us. Do not give up on the causes that we have fought for. Do not walk away from what's possible. Because it's time for all of us -- all of us -- together, to make the two Americas one."
Sen. John McCain's campaign has announced a press conference, scheduled for 6 p.m. EST today, at which he'll be receiving what the campaign terms a "major endorsement." No guessing games today -- seems like this means the reports are true, and that the big endorser will be Rudy Giuliani, once a rival for the Republican presidential nomination.
Giuliani has reportedly confirmed to supporters that he's dropping out of the race. The Associated Press has a statement from New York Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, a Republican. "I spoke with Rudy Giuliani this morning and he confirmed that he is dropping out of the race and will endorse Senator John McCain for president," Bruno said.
Sen. Barack Obama has released a statement responding to reports that his rival, former Sen. John Edwards, is dropping out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. It's a pretty flattering statement, which is interesting, since Edwards reportedly has no plans to endorse any candidate yet.
The full statement:
"John Edwards has spent a lifetime fighting to give voice to the voiceless and hope to the struggling, even when it wasn't popular to do or covered in the news. At a time when our politics is too focused on who's up and who's down, he made a nation focus again on who matters -- the New Orleans child without a home, the West Virginia miner without a job, the families who live in that other America that is not seen or heard or talked about by our leaders in Washington. John and Elizabeth Edwards have always believed deeply that we can change this -- that two Americas can become one, and that our country can rally around this common purpose. So while his campaign may end today, the cause of their lives endures for all of us who still believe that we can achieve that dream of one America."
Update: Readers have commented that some phrasing in the statement as I originally posted it -- specifically "that two Americans can become one" -- seems odd, probably like a typo. That's the way the Obama campaign had it in their e-mail of the statement, but it definitely didn't seem purposeful, and they've fixed it on their Web site, so I've changed it to "two Americas" as well.
Some conservatives, it turns out, have a wee problem with Arizona Sen. John McCain. Actually, they hate him. With a passion. The Christian right hates him in part because he called Jerry Falwell an "agent of intolerance" in 2000. (McCain tried to fix that by playing to that constituency earlier in the campaign, but it didn't seem to work.) The anti-immigration forces hate him for his pursuit of a more moderate immigration policy, complete with what they term "amnesty." Everyone else hates him because of his activism on campaign finance reform, which influential conservative groups like the National Rifle Association, well, hate. There are probably other reasons, but this is a lot of hate for so early in the morning.
So McCain's victory in Florida's Republican primary has some conservatives, unsurprisingly, feeling a mite peevish. Here's a roundup of some of our favorite reactions to the news from the right side of the blogosphere.
-- Here's Michelle Malkin, blogging at michellemalkin.com in a post titled "John McCain vs. the Right: No Easy Peace": "Many pundits have been urging John McCain to reach out to conservatives (how novel that would be). In response, he made a small point tonight in his victory speech of emphasizing judges -- an olive branch, apparently, in the aftermath of the Alito/Fund kerfuffle.
"Well. We hear what he says now. But we know what he has done for years:
"Insult the base, trash the base, and pay lip service to the base only when it suits his needs.
"The declaration that he is the 'conservative leader who can unite the party' is yet another smack in the face to those who have watched him reach out and slap conservatives time and again -- and then run to the warm, gooey embrace of the liberal media. Is it too much to ask to nominate a Republican candidate who is not as openly and historically hostile to the Republican base as CNN and (McCain's endorsers at) the New York Times are?"
In a later post, Malkin suggested that perhaps the facts just have a liberal bias, wondering whether McCain had won because of independents not supposed to be voting in Florida's closed Republican primary.
-- Here's Michael Graham, writing at the Corner, the National Review's group blog: "Assuming there is no shocking revelation or health issue, the GOP nomination is over. Conservatives need to start practicing the phrase 'Nominee presumptive John McCa ...'
"Sorry, I can't say it. Not yet ...
"In November, we'll be sending out our most liberal, least trustworthy candidate vs. to take on Hillary Clinton -- perhaps not more liberal than Barack Obama, but certainly far less trustworthy.
"And the worst part for the Right is that McCain will have won the nomination while ignoring, insulting and, as of this weekend, shamelessly lying about conservatives and conservatism ...
"Every day, he dreams of a world filled with happy Democrats and insulted Republicans. And he is, thanks to Florida, the presidential nominee of the Republican party.
"And on that note, I'm off to climb into a bottle of Bushmill's. It's going to be a LONG nine months."
-- Here's Dan Riehl, blogging at Riehl World View: "If McCain channeled anyone when he spoke tonight, it wasn't Ronald Reagan. It was Lawrence Welk. What an unmitigated disaster this guy would be in November. At one point he spoke of Florida watching over his family on an extended tour. I assume he meant his time as a POW. It might have been nice if he had looked after his first wife when he returned, instead of dumping her on the side of the road.
"While it's prudent to never say never, as things stand, if McCain gets the nomination, I would work towards his defeat in November before I'd vote for him ...
"The best thing for the future of conservatism in America would be a McCain loss in the general. And we need to start tearing the Republican Party apart and re-building, from the ground up."
-- And last but not least, here's Stephen Green at Vodkapundit: "Now that I think about it, a McCain/Giuliani ticket might be the first Republican ticket without any actual Republicans on it."
Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, the 2004 Democratic vice-presidential nominee, is dropping out of the presidential race, the Associated Press has just reported. According to the AP, Edwards has told advisors that he'll make the announcement at 1 p.m. EST today, at a speech in New Orleans that was originally supposed to be about poverty. He has no immediate plans to endorse any candidate, the AP says.
Ever since his victory in the Iowa caucuses, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's campaign has been in a tailspin. And Huckabee didn't get any help from his poor showing in Florida's Republican primary Tuesday. With 98 percent of precincts in at the time of this post, Huckabee appears to have finished fourth in a field of five, beating only Texas Rep. Ron Paul.
But in his concession speech, Huckabee did his best to sound optimistic. Speaking from Missouri -- like other candidates in similar situations this election cycle, he hadn't stuck around in Florida for his loss to be confirmed -- Huckabee told supporters, "We're all aware that the situation in Florida is that we're going to be in a position looking at either third or fourth. Now, for those of you that think I should be discouraged, let me just remind you that going into tonight, we were second in delegate count and, more importantly, we're playing all nine innings of this ballgame."
Huckabee also promised victories in states still to come. "I want to, again, express my thanks to ... [supporters] who have just helped us have great confidence that between now and seven days from now, there's going to be something that we'll all be shouting about.
"And it won't just be a Missouri victory, but also, that same night, there'll be one in Georgia and Alabama and Tennessee, and there'll be one in Arkansas and Oklahoma, and maybe a few other places that people aren't even expecting it to happen."
-- That's former New York City Mayor Ed Koch's reaction to (and prediction of) the news that his indirect successor and old enemy, former NYC. Mayor Rudy Giuliani, lost in Florida's Republican primary. Koch initially supported Giuliani, but their relationship soured during the latter's time as mayor, and Koch titled one of his books "Giuliani: Nasty Man."
