The arrest this week by FBI agents of Chicago real estate developer Antoin “Tony” Rezko made headlines for only one reason. Rezko is Barack Obama’s slum landlord best mate, according to Hillary Clinton. According to Obama, Rezko is “a friend of mine, a supporter, who I’ve known for 20 years.”
With the non-primary in Florida behind them, Democratic Presidential candidates have less than a week to prepare for what some are calling Tsunami Tuesday, when 22 states will hold primaries. A few weeks ago, the conventional wisdom was that the selection process for the Democrats would essentially end on this day with Hillary Clinton’s coronation.
Florida is the fourth largest state in the US, with 27 electoral votes and 210 delegates to the Democratic national convention. It’s where George Bush (or Al Gore) won the 2000 elections. And depending on your point of view, it either is or is not holding a Democratic primary today.
Dick Morris knows something about the way Bill and Hillary Clinton think. In 1996, he managed Clinton’s successful campaign for re-election. After having fallen from grace, he’s turned against the Clintons and is no longer close to them. Still, people pay attention to things he says. And three days before the South Carolina primary, Morris said something that made people sit up and pay attention.
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“He doesn’t know it’s a damn show! He thinks it’s a damn fight!” – Apollo Creed’s trainer, “Rocky” (1976)
Voters in today’s South Carolina Democratic primary are not following the script. They’re not playing their part. And it’s confusing pundits and pollsters to no end.
Much of the debate between the presidential candidates will reflect uniquely American issues. But sometimes the arguments will be instantly recognizable to people in Britain. This was certainly the case with Senator Obama’s recent comments regarding Ronald Reagan and the Republicans.
For an entire generation of Americans, Upton Sinclair will be known — if he is known at all — as the guy who wrote the book that was the basis for the movie “There Will Be Blood”.
The South Carolina Democratic primary, due to be held on Saturday, is the first in which race matters. The first states to vote in the year-long battle to choose the party’s presidential candidate were the overwhelmingly white (and rural) Iowa and New Hampshire. But nearly 30% of South Carolina’s voters are African-American.