Results tagged “hillaryclinton”

Congressman Bobby Rush has called on Governor Blagojevich to name a black politician to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-Elect Barack Obama, announcing a state-wide petition drive on the issue. Rush, who has no interest in the seat, spoke at a press conference yesterday, saying, "In the past, Governor Blagojevich has demonstrated in some respects that he's a friend. We just want him to continue to be friendly." With Obama's seat vacated, the U.S. Senate has no black senators. Two of the leading candidates to take over the seat are black: Congressmen Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Danny Davis. Outgoing State Senate President Emil Jones has also been mentioned as a possible replacement, but is considered more of a long-shot.

President-Elect Obama held a press conference in Chicago this morning to announce his nominations for members of his National Security team, saying, "Our destiny is shared with the world's. From our markets to our security, from our public health to our climate, we must act with the understanding that now more than ever we have a stake in what happens across the globe." His nominations are:

According to an AP report from last night, it seems President-Elect Barack Obama will officially nominate Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State on Monday.

Last night's season premier of SNL was lackluster and sluggish ... except for the opening sketch, which was sheer genius. Second City-alum Tina Fey lived up to the hype and gave a stinging impersonation of VP wannabe Sarah Palin. Fey looked so much like Palin, in her blazing red jacket and stacked hairdo, that the perfectly flat accent (shades of Fargo?) and the smarmy smiles were like icing on the cake.

Just hours before Hillary Rodham Clinton’s address to the Democratic National Convention is Denver, Illinois supporters announced that they would hold a fundraiser for the candidate in September. Crain’s reports that, according to J.B. Pritzker, co-chair of Sen. Clinton’s national campaign, the event is designed to unite the party after a contentious and sometimes divisive primary. According to former Clinton White House aide Kevin O’Keefe, Clinton herself will be present. But some are still getting in digs against Obama. “I think the Cubs are going all the way this year. Maybe Barack ought to stick to politics,” said State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, referring to Obama’s comment that “You go to Wrigley Field...people aren’t watching the game. It’s not serious. White Sox, that’s baseball.”

In an email that went out to supporters yesterday, Hillary Clinton announced the conclusion of her "Project T-Shirt" contest.

In May, Chelsea announced our "Project T-Shirt" contest, and I never imagined we would have such an outpouring of support and great designs. We received almost five thousand amazing entries, and more than 125,000 of you voted for your favorite design.

Given that Clinton is still struggling to retire the debt her campaign incurred over this prolonged primary season, it's no surprise that the Clinton camp is appealing to supporters for more cash.

Over the weekend, as DNC Chairman Howard Dean worked to reach a compromise on the contested Michigan and Florida delegates, we were stunned by this video of Clinton-supporter Harriet Christian. Later, Christian appeared on Fox News, being interviewed by Neil Cavuto, where she dropped this line regarding Obama and the black vote: "Ninety-nine percent of the blacks don't even know why they're voting for [Obama]." Is Christian just one upset Clinton supporter or is her attitude indicative of a larger rift in the party?

Rev. Michael Pfleger is coming under fire today for comments he made about Hillary Clinton while guest-preaching at Trinity United Church of Christ. Pfleger, a Catholic priest at St. Sabina's on the South Side, is a "long-time friend" of Obama's, according to both the Trib and the Sun-Times. Pfleger recently stepped down from Obama's Catholic advisory council and from the Catholics for Obama committee.

Not much, actually. Her win in Kentucky, along with her recent wins in Indiana and West Virginia add nothing to her argument that she is the best candidate going into November. She can win white working-class voters? So what? She won the popular vote? That depends on how you do the math - and counting Michigan and Florida skews those numbers, because she ran unopposed there.

If you were anywhere near a television last night (or in a bar), you watched Hillary Clinton win a convincing victory in West Virginia last night.

Last night's big news: Obama took North Carolina, Clinton took Indiana. These are some of our favorite lines from local coverage:

NOOOOOOOOO! YEEEEEEEEES! NO!

Cartoon for Chicagoist by Tim Daly

With Democrats hell-bent on dragging their primary season all the way to the convention, and John McCain all but the GOP nominee, the question of who is more electable is weighing on the minds of many voters. SurveyUSA, whose polling is usually pretty good, put together a couple of nice maps.

Yesterday's primaries in Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island saw John McCain assume the mantle of the Republican presidential nominee, with commanding victories in all but Texas, and Mike Huckabee's announcement that he's withdrawing from the race. "It's now important that we turn our attention not to what could have been or what we wanted to have been, but now what must be -- and that is a united party," Huckabee told told supporters in Dallas. After it became clear that McCain would sweep all four races, Barack Obama called McCain to congratulate him on winning the nomination, adding that he was looking forward to facing the Arizona senator in the general election.

It's quite possible that the fat lady will sing for Hillary Clinton tomorrow. Or not. Sometimes politics is like baseball: you never know what's going to happen. Voters in four states will make some pretty important decisions tomorrow: Will Clinton go on to Pennsylvania? Or will her campaign end tomorrow night in a series of defeats in big, critical states? Will Barack Obama assume the mantle of the presumptive Democratic nominee, and will the GOP get the fight they have been both anxious to begin and cautiously planning for?

In a race that may be a precursor to the Ohio and Texas Democratic primaries in March, Barack Obama won a decisive victory in Wisconsin last night, leading Hillary Clinton by nearly 20 points. He also won Hawaii, taking over 75 percent of the vote in a state where he had campaigned as a "native son." His victories last night mark his ninth and tenth consecutive primary or caucus wins and put his pledged delegate count at 1,140. Clinton has 1,005 pledged delegates. When you add in committed superdelegates, Obama leads Clinton 1,301 to 1,239, with John Edwards's 26 delegates still in play. Chris Bowers at OpenLeft points out that Clinton has now surpassed Jessee Jackson's 1988 total of 1218 delegates. 1988 saw the highest number of delegates ever won by a Democrat who did not win the nomination.

Barack Obama swept the Potomac Primary last night, bringing his winning streak to eight, and eclipsing Hillary Clinton in the delegate count, 1,059 to 956 among pledged delegates.

Obama's landslide victories in the "Significant Saturday" contests - including Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington and the Virgin Islands, and his Sunday win in the Maine caucuses, could break the deadlock over pledged delegates for the Democratic nomination. Obama is hoping that these wins will generate the momentum that he needs to carry Ohio and Texas on March 4. Rhode Island and Vermont hold their primaries that day, too. Obama's wins this weekend were bad news for Hillary Clinton, who tried to inject a ray of optimism by announcing that her campaign had raised $10 million from over 10,000 donors. Obama's campaign quickly announced that over 350,000 donors had already contributed this year.

Patty Solis Doyle, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager and sister of 25th Ward Alderman Danny Solis, stepped down Sunday after a string of primary losses to Barack Obama. She will be replaced by Maggie Williams, who had been working in an informal top role on the campaign since Obama won Iowa. Solis Doyle cited the extraordinary length of the campaign, and the toll that it was taking on her and her family. Shortly after Solis Doyle sent an email to campaign staff announcing her departure, Clinton issued a statement that read, in part, "this already has been the longest presidential campaign in history and one that has required enormous sacrifices of everyone and our families. I look forward to her continued advice in the months ahead."

Is it possible to be the inevitable presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in America and not have the funds to carry on? That's a question that Hillary Clinton's campaign is facing after she loaned her campaign $5 million. Clinton's staffers are also working without pay, and she loaned her campaign $5 million last month. Shortly after the announcement yesterday, an email went out to her supporters asking for additional funds:

John McCain won big in last night's Republican primaries, winning nine states and pushing his delegate count up to 559--not enough to win the nomination, but big enough to secure his standing as the front runner. Mike Huckabee got a boost last night as well, winning a string of upsets in the Southern states, enough to justify his continued candidacy. Mitt Romney, however, has bigger problems, winning only a handful of states, and with Huckabee still in, he won't get the one-on-one race he so desperately wanted.

In a memo released to the press yesterday, Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe tried to manage expectations for tonight's returns:

While John McCain spent Super Bowl Sunday in Massachusetts, Mitt Romney made his pitch to the most reliably conservative county in Illinois. At a packed rally of several hundred people at the College of DuPage yesterday, he tried to convince voters here that he is the true conservative standard bearer. Romney vowed that as president he would "stand up for the principles of the Republican Party and to live in the house that Ronald Reagan built."

The Chicago Winter Dome Project (via).

The United States isn't the only country that is having federal elections this year. In March a by-election will be held in Toronto's Toronto Centre Riding. And our sister site, Torontoist has been posting a semi-regular column by their Environment Editor, Chris Tindal, who is running for parliament as the Green Party candidate.

John McCain changed careers last night, from the candidate who was almost out of money (and the race) last summer to quite possibly the Republican presidential nominee. He's now the man to beat. The close but critical win in Florida gave him 57 delegates and a solid lead going into Super Duper Tuesday, (there are no superdelegates at the Republican National Convention). Hillary Clinton won the non-binding Florida race, a largely symbolic victory that featured virtually no campaigning and earned her no delegates to the convention.

There are "Adult Fans Of Lego" out there? Really? Actually, we find that kind of awesome. Happy Birthday Lego!

Bill will chill has been answered with the announcement of the former president's campaign itinerary. Next stop on the legacy-tarnishing express: Edwardsville, IL. Hillary's more controversial half will be campaigning in the small town near St. Louis tomorrow morning, hosting a "Solutions for America" rally at Southern Illinois University at 7:45 a.m.

With this year's presidential primaries perhaps the most exciting in recent memory, the media, and the nation, have paid very little attention to today's Democratic primary in Florida. Unlike the Republicans, who will let half of the state's delegates vote at the convention, the Democrats stripped Florida of its delegates to the August convention for holding a primary earlier than party rules allowed. As part of the party's castigation of the state, Democrats have agreed not to campaign in Florida, an agreement that has been honored until now.