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Celebs did some serious political partying last night at the Black & White Gala for Barack Obama. Although the presidential nominee wasn't in attendance, plenty of stars were there to show their support, like Lucy Liu and Nia Long. VIP tickets to the fancy fete were $2,300 a person, which included munchies like crudités, olives and eggplant and musical stylings from a seven-person gospel choir. So who else hit the bash for Barack, held at a private estate in Bel-Air? Find out in our Party Pics: Hollywood gallery!

OBAMA: We cannot impose a military solution on what has effectively become a civil war. And until we acknowledge that reality, uh, we can send 15,000 more troops; 20,000 more troops; 30,000 more troops. Uh, I don't know any, uh, expert on the region or any military officer that I've spoken to, uh, privately that believes that that is gonna make a substantial difference on the situation on the ground.

• Obama enacts stronger “federal hate crimes legislation” to “reinvigorate enforcement at the Department of Justice's Criminal Section.” • Obama creates “a fund to help people refinance their mortgages and provide comprehensive supports to innocent homeowners.” • Obama, following through on his pledge to “meet with the leaders of all nations, friend and foe,” signs a non-agression pact with the Hitler of Iran. • Obama doubles foreign aid to $50 billion to cut “poverty around the world in half by 2015.” • Obama removes our troops from Iraq, leaving a power vacuum filled by Iran. • Obama enacts socialized medicine,...

This is a pretty good collection of links on why Obama is garbage in the general election. In my opinion the video on the top left says it all.

Senator Barack Obama fought back Saturday against accusations from his rivals that he had displayed a profound misunderstanding of small-town values, in a flare-up that left him on the defensive before a series of primaries that could test his ability to win over white voters in economically distressed communities. For a second day, Mr. Obama sought to explain his remarks at a recent San Francisco fund-raiser that small-town Pennsylvania voters, bitter over their economic circumstances, “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them” as a way to explain their frustrations. Acknowledging Saturday that “I didn’t...

It is not as if the earnest Iowa caucus ballot-casters are unerring in predicting our next president. In fact, their track record is more remarkable for surprising the national electorate than in prognosticating the ultimate choice. But in Thursday night’s polling, they showed they simply have no stomach for the prospect of another Clinton in the White House. They placed Hillary in a paltry third place, and also gave a resounding thumbs-down to her most formidable “weapon” – the former president. To be sure, Sir Bubba spun his way through the Hawkeye State, biting his lip in “deep” sincerity, talking...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVBtPIrEleM Thanks to Nsmje Please remove thread if this has already posted.

Sunday, February 25, 2007 -- East County Congressman Duncan Hunter drew a sellout crowd to his first major campaign breakfast in San Diego. KUSI's Doug Curlee shows us how the presidential candidate is trying to reel in local voters.

WASHINGTON – Morris Udall. Dick Gephardt. John Kasich. Bob Dornan. Jack Kemp. James Garfield. Dennis Kucinich. What these gentlemen have in common – other than having all served in the House of Representatives – is that each ran for the White House while he was still a congressman. Only one of them made it. Morris Udall Dick Gephardt John Kasich Bob Dornan Jack Kemp James Garfield Dennis Kucinich Duncan Hunter And he got shot. Now that Duncan Hunter has taken the plunge for the Republican presidential nomination official, the Alpine congressman may soon encounter the peculiar challenges that face a...

When Bob Hunter, a Riverside, Calif., businessman, would hear of a conservative's campaign that needed volunteers, he would pile his family into the station wagon and drive off to ring doorbells. Hunter's son Duncan grew up believing in retail politics. When Hunter returned home after serving as an alternate Goldwater delegate at the 1964 Republican convention in San Francisco, he told Duncan about chatting with another alternate, an amiable fellow, some actor, named Reagan. Who two years later was elected governor. Duncan learned early on about rapid upward mobility in politics. In 1969, he dropped out of college, joined the...

Make sure to check out Conservative Grapevine today, where you'll find links like: GOPUSA online poll with 12,841 responses: "Which candidate has the best chance of winning the 2008 Republican presidential nomination?" Newt Gingrich 19%, Duncan Hunter 16%, Rudy Giuliani 11%, Mitt Romney 11%, Tom Tancredo 8%, Sam Brownback 7%, John McCain 6%. Mark Steyn: "The Murtha plan" is to deny the president the possibility of victory while making sure Democrats don't have to share the blame for the defeat. Hit and Run: A blogger, the Liberal Avenger, altered a conservative commenters' post on his blog to try to make...

I am proud to announce that after reaching an agreement with TCV Media, the consulting firm hired by Duncan Hunter’s campaign, I will be joining the team working on the Duncan Hunter for President campaign, effective Monday, February 19th. My responsibilities cover both national and state duties. Nationally, I will be working with, and assisting, John Hawkins of RightWingNews.com, who was also recently hired by TCV Media to create internet awareness for Duncan Hunter, utilizing new media resources. Within New Jersey, as Co-Executive Director, the GOPUSA-NJ Conservatives with Attitude! organization, which has over 12,000 members, will serve as Director of...

WASHINGTON -- When Bob Hunter, a Riverside, Calif., businessman, would hear of a conservative's campaign that needed volunteers, he would pile his family into the station wagon and drive off to ring doorbells. Hunter's son Duncan grew up believing in retail politics. When Hunter returned home after serving as an alternate Goldwater delegate at the 1964 Republican convention in San Francisco, he told Duncan about chatting with another alternate, an amiable fellow, some actor, named Reagan. Who two years later was elected governor. Duncan learned early on about rapid upward mobility in politics. In 1969, he dropped out of college,...

In 1993 it became obvious that if Rudy was to avenge his narrow defeat for Mayor four years earlier, he would need more Democratic voters to cross party lines and support him. His campaign strategists knew I was disenchanted with the incumbent and put a full court press on me to meet with Giuliani. I was the elected head of the Democratic Party in a large Democratic district whose vote could be pivotal if it turned out for the I met him and we talked for about an hour. He impressed me then as he does now with his intelligence,...

SACRAMENTO — Presumed Republican presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani is seeking to broaden his fundraising base beyond Wall Street, aggressively prospecting in California with stops at a country club here and homes in Orange County and Del Mar in coming days. A review of donors to the former New York mayor's presidential exploratory committee and to a political action committee he controls shows that his main contributors have been blue-chip law firms, investment houses and financial services companies in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Those states account for three-fourths of the money he has raised. But in making his...

Not really thrilled with who the Republicans are putting forth for '08, I was hoping for some surprises. This is a good one and it could make things very interesting. Take a look at the article and then tell me what you think of him. Republican Duncan Hunter to run for president in 2008 Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Monday he was taking the initial step in a bid for the presidency in 2008. Hunter, who has represented the San Diego area district for 26 years, announced the surprise bid at a...

Breaking on Fox News. Giuliani Files Statement of Candidacy for President No article yet.

Democratic Presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. gestures while speaking at the Democratic National Committee Winter Meetings in Washington, Friday, Feb. 2, 2007. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter plans to make his Republican presidential bid official at a Spartanburg, S.C. breakfast meeting Thursday. The 14-term conservative from California set up his presidential exploratory committee last week. Hunter has made no secret of his White House aspirations. He announced his intentions in October, becoming the first GOP candidate to declare a presidential run, and then began making stops in early primary states, including Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He is scheduled to return to New Hampshire on Monday to repeat his announcement. Little known outside of Congress and his San Diego district, Hunter can...

Why Fox News host said he 'might well be' nation's leader in 2008 With Hillary Clinton the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee, and the Republican Party's conservative base disenchanted with frontrunners McCain, Giuliani and Romney, the candidacy of Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo – lionized by many for his bold stand on border security and illegal immigration – is moving closer to reality. Last week, Tancredo announced, as his first step toward a presidential run, that he was launching a exploratory campaign committee. "My purpose," said Tancredo on the "Team Tancredo 2008" website, "is to obtain your support as I embark upon...

ALBANY - State GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik, who just knocked William Weld out of the race for governor, will now try to do the same with Republican Senate hopeful Katherine "KT" McFarland, The Post has learned. Minarik, backed by other GOP leaders, will publicly urge McFarland, a Reagan-era Pentagon official, to drop out of the Senate race today "in the interest of party unity," a source familiar with Minarik's thinking said. Minarik will urge GOP voters to rally around former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, who defeated McFarland, 63 percent to 36 percent, at last week's party nominating convention, as the...

McFarland campaign fueled by major Clinton backers YONKERS – A review of Kathleen McFarland's campaign reports filed with the Federal Election Commission reveal a very troubling fact for Republicans seeking to defeat Senator Clinton. A clear pattern has emerged whereby donors to Ms. McFarland are also big supporters of Senator Clinton, the DNC and other related leftwing entities. For example, the following McFarland donors also gave money to Sen. Clinton and the DNC: Lionel Pincus donated $4,200 to Ms. McFarland while giving Sen. Clinton $6,000 since 1999. Between 1997-2000, Pincus donated $300,000 to the DNC! Constance Spahn donated $500 to...

For Hillary Clinton and her terminally unfaithful husband, last week must have seemed like a Wes Craven version of an old musical comedy reworked and entitled “A Ghastly Thing Happened on the Way Back to the White House.” With Hillary leading in most polls as the prohibitive favorite to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008, many party loyalists and typically favorable media members appear to be jumping off her bandwagon. At the same time, these very folks are falling over themselves to assist in the makeover and revitalization of former vice president Al Gore. Coincidence? Unlikely. In fact, this...

YONKERS -- In November, New York Republicans need a maximum turnout to defeat Senator Clinton and win down ballot races. That's why a loose cannon like K. T. McFarland at the top of the ticket spells wipe out. K. T. McFarland is running on her resume. But her resume has a Jason Blair quality. It's phony. Her legalistic hair splitting makes Bill Clinton sound like a straight shooter. Read how Human Events found K. T. McFarland inflated her resume to claim she was the highest ranking woman in the Pentagon: "Her campaign evidently has been bragging about her being the...

YONKERS -- The New York Post calls K.T. McFarland ‘kooky.’ How kooky? Well, maybe instead of running for Senator, she’s really auditioning for a Get Smart remake. In March, K.T. accused Senator Clinton of spying on her. The New York Post reported “Republican Senate candidate Kathleen “KT” McFarland (left) is bizarrely claiming that Sen. Hillary Clinton (right) has been spying in her bedroom window and flying helicopters over her house in the Hamptons.” (3/25/06) Then the facts came out; K.T. had hired private detectives – from the same firm the Clinton’s hired to spy on conservatives and Republicans -- to...

<p>ALBANY - Problem-plagued Senate hopeful Kathleen "KT" McFarland has a surprise 35-22 percent lead over former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer in the fight for the Republican nomination, a poll yesterday showed. The Quinnipiac University survey of GOP voters found 37 percent were undecided on a standard-bearer to challenge Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in November.</p>

Invoking Reagan, K.T. McFarland enters the New York senatorial race, stating, "I can beat Hillary." This cartoon/graphic is free for noncommercial usein emails, blogs, and forums.

ALBANY, N.Y. - A former Pentagon official under President Reagan said Monday she will seek the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's re-election bid this year. "I am running to be my party's nominee for the United States Senate from the state of New York," Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland wrote in a letter to supporters. "Toward that end, I have formed an exploratory committee, which I expect to upgrade to a full Senate campaign committee in the coming days." The move by the political neophyte could put her into a September primary against former Yonkers Mayor John...

I CAN BEAT HILLARY Mon Mar 06 2006 12:08:26 ET [Excerpted from planned letter to supporters] “Nine months ago, my daughter Fiona, a student at the United States Naval Academy, reminded me that service to one’s country is both an honor and an obligation. She challenged me to return to public service, to re-apply the skills and expertise I acquired while serving three U.S. Presidents on behalf of our state and nation. “Today, I accept my daughter’s challenge by announcing that I am running to be my party’s nominee for the United States Senate from the State of New York....

March 13, 2006 -- REPUBLICAN Senate hopeful Katherine Troia McFarland's declaration that she's not an evangelical Christian has prompted a major backlash from the state's leading evangelical organization. "This will definitely come up during her campaign because I, for one, will bring it up," the Rev. Duane Motley, leader of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, told The Post. "This will hurt her because probably the largest block of voters in the country are evangelical, and a significant number of them are in New York," said Motley, who described his group as the state's largest association of evangelical Christians, with 2,000...

Kathleen Troia McFarland (R), who is seeking the Republican nomination to run against incumbent Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y), in a recent interview said she supports abortion rights but also supports laws that require parental notification and a ban on so-called "partial-birth" abortion, the White Plains Journal-News reports. McFarland, who was a Department of Defense spokesperson during the Reagan administration, said she favors exceptions allowing abortion in cases that protect the health of the pregnant woman. "I think I am where the majority of the electorate is and the majority of the Republican Party as well," McFarland said (Blain, White...

NEW YORK -- The top adviser to Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland said Friday that her rival for the Republican Senate nomination, former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer, lacked the credentials, knowledge and financial backing to mount a credible challenge to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. "It would be a very big mistake to think John Spencer _ no offense to John, who I guess was a decent enough mayor _ to move him to a level of where anyone is going to take him seriously as a U.S. Senate candidate," McFarland adviser Ed Rollins told The Associated Press. "Unfortunately, John Spencer wouldn't...

March 23, 2006 G.O.P. Challenger to Clinton Inflated Résumé, Records and Interviews Suggest By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ When Kathleen Troia McFarland stepped forward as a Republican challenger to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, she was a relatively obscure figure with two intriguing claims to fame: She had worked on President Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" speech and had been the highest-ranking woman at the Reagan Pentagon. But interviews with former Reagan administration officials and a review of documents show her claims were not entirely accurate. Though she helped write the "Star Wars" speech, its most famous passage — the one that announced the...

NEW YORK -- It didn't take long before the wheels started coming off Kathleen Troia "KT" McFarland's campaign to unseat Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Things got off to a promising start in early March, with favorable publicity and several national TV interviews for the wealthy, 54-year-old McFarland, a Reagan-era Pentagon official who spent the last 20 years raising a family and has never held elective office. But then McFarland was hit with embarrassing disclosures about her voting history, including her registering in two places and missing several elections. Records suggest she did not even vote in 1984, when Reagan, her...

Jeanine Pirro is expected to quit her bid to unseat Sen. Hillary Clinton as early as tomorrow, prematurely ending what had been billed as one of the nation's marquee races. Just a few months ago, the smart, aggressive and charming Westchester district attorney was the darling of a Republican Party convinced she was the right candidate who - even if she couldn't beat Clinton - could at least slice into her high approval ratings. But now, Pirro, 54, is being written off as the first political roadkill of the 2006 election season. And Clinton never even had to throw a...

ALBANY, N.Y. - New York's Republican Party county leaders recommended Monday that Jeanine Pirro abandon her struggling campaign to challenge Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and instead run for state attorney general. State GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik said no vote was taken but that was the consensus of the county leaders. Rockland County Chairman Vincent Reda said the support for a Pirro switch was "overwhelming." There was no immediate comment from the Pirro campaign. The county chairmen also voted in favor of having former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld run for governor in his native New York, Minarik said. However, that ballot...

ALBANY, Dec. 12 - After weeks of messy public squabbling, leaders of the New York Republican Party met in a smoke-free back room here on Monday and reversed course, urging Jeanine F. Pirro to quit her bid to unseat Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and run for state attorney general next year. Ms. Pirro, the district attorney of Westchester County, immediately issued a statement rejecting the suggestion, saying, "I remain a candidate for U.S. Senate, but I greatly respect the opinion of the county chairs and their confidence in my abilities as a statewide candidate." The shift by the party came...

The GOP is once failing to support a promising Republican Woman candidate for higher office . The New York GOP does not want her to run against Hillary Clinton for her U.S. Senate seat . Instead they want her to run for State Attorney General again . The reason seems that Pirro is not as fabulously weel funded as Hillary for a U.S. Senate Campaign . Also, Pirro's campaign got off to a messy start .it

Gov. Pataki (l.) Mayor Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani join other officials in paying respects to slain Officer Daniel Enchautegui. Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro was seen giggling and chatting outside a Bronx church after the funeral Mass for slain Police Officer Danny Enchautegui - spurring outrage from cops. One officer brusquely told her to "shut up," prompting Pirro to zip her lips and snap to attention just after the flag-draped coffin holding Enchautegui was placed into a nearby hearse. While grim-faced Finest stood ramrod-straight, Pirro drew glares from the hero cop's fellow officers...

Jeanine Pirro is preparing to call off her challenge to Sen. Hillary Clinton, but she might be boxed out of the state attorney general's race, too, Republican insiders said yesterday. Well-placed GOP sources said there could very well be no room for Pirro on the Republican ticket because potential attorney general candidate Chauncey Parker has impressed county leaders. Parker, a former Manhattan prosecutor who is the state criminal justice czar, now has the inside track on getting the party nod to vie for the attorney general post being vacated by Democrat Eliot Spitzer, the sources said. Pirro apparently has fallen...

  AN OPEN LETTER TO TIM ROBBINS, DAVID GEFFEN, CHRIS MATTHEWS, MAUREEN DOWD + JEANINE PIRRO RE: a not-so-modest proposal concerning hillary clinton December 7, 2005 Dear Concerned Americans, Hillary Clinton's revisionist tome notwithstanding, 'living history' begets a certain symmetry. It is in that light that I make this not-so-modest proposal on this day, exactly 64 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The context of our concern today--regardless of political affiliation--is Iraq and The War on Terror, but the larger fear is that our democracy may not survive. We have the requisite machines, power and know-how to defeat the...

As if the sun were finally shining upon her, Jeanine F. Pirro strode coatless onto a chilly Manhattan sidewalk yesterday and declared to reporters that her campaign to unseat Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was "going extremely well," and she was in it to win it. As if, only minutes earlier, Gov. George E. Pataki had not talked to her about withdrawing from the race, which he had. Michael Long, the head of the state Conservative Party and an ally of Ms. Pirro's in some past campaigns, said yesterday that her Senate candidacy was in a "meltdown" and indicated that his...

Embattled Republican Senate hopeful Jeanine Pirro will hold an "emergency summit" with Gov. Pataki today as she weighs pulling out of the race against Hillary Rodham Clinton. A leading Republican official said Pirro was "weighing her options, weighing her future as a Senate candidate." The source added, "She wants to hear what the governor has to say about this. She's open." Pirro, whose troubled campaign was thrown into serious doubt this week when state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno urged her to run for attorney general instead, sought the meeting with the governor to discuss the direction of her campaign,...

New York -- Jeanine Pirro said Friday she is staying in the race against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, despite pressure from some top Republicans that she abandon her struggling campaign. "I said from the beginning I am running for the United States Senate. I am a candidate for the United States Senate," Pirro said after emerging from a two-hour meeting with Gov. George Pataki in Manhattan. She said her meeting went well but did not detail the discussion.

Bruno: Pirro should quit anti-Clinton race By MARC HUMBERT AP Political Writer November 29, 2005, 12:44 PM EST ALBANY, N.Y. -- The most powerful Republican in the state Legislature called Tuesday for Jeanine Pirro to give up her quest to unseat Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2006 and run instead for state attorney general. State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said the Westchester County district attorney could win the attorney general's race while in running for Senate, "she's going to have one of the most competitive races in the state." Independent polls have shown the former first lady well ahead...

Jeannine Pirro should get out of this race immediately. Her campaign is going nowhere and she is selfishly wasting our time. Here's why. “Forty-five percent (45%) now see [Senator Hillary] Clinton as politically liberal.” So says the Rusmussen Report. Why? What positions do voters believe Hillary Clinton holds that turn them off? Well people believe she supports gay “marriage.” They believe she supports abortion up to and including partial birth abortion. Likewise, they believe she supports extreme positions attacking the second amendment and they believe she supports affirmative action. Since she is the most calculating person in American politics this...

ALBANY, Nov. 29 - Jeanine F. Pirro's bid to unseat Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton suffered an embarrassing setback on Tuesday when the State Legislature's most powerful Republican said she should call the whole thing off and run for state attorney general instead. The remarks by the official, Joseph L. Bruno, the majority leader of the State Senate, forced out into the open simmering concerns about Ms. Pirro's candidacy, which has been beset by gaffes and fund-raising difficulties. And it heightened the sense that the state Republican Party is nervous about its future and riven by squabbles as its de facto...

September 28, 2005 The left nips at Hillary after her move to the right Right after Election Day in November 2004, Bill and Hillary Clinton seemed to have reached certain conclusions. They appear to have decided that Hillary needed to stress religious values, hew to a hawkish position on the war on terrorism, remain steadfast in her support for the Iraq war and move to the center on a variety of issues, painting herself as a moderate. But circumstances have changed, and there is increasing evidence that the Clintons are realizing that they miscalculated in their November decisions. The...

"We woke up to great news today; we won thirty percent of the vote in Hawaii," Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich proclaimed to a standing-room only crowd at the University of Massachusetts' Campus Center Ballroom yesterday. The Ohio Congressman put UMass on a list of campaign stops through Western Massachusetts, which included Smith College and Springfield City Hall. The candidate spoke on a range of issues at the UMass rally, but the focus of his speech was the on-going war in Iraq. In 2002, Kucinich voted against the war resolution in Congress. "If there's a one-word reason why we went...

Last Thursday, Howard Dean declared, "While Bill Clinton said that the era of big government is over, I believe we must enter a new era for the Democratic Party—not one where we join Republicans and aim simply to limit the damage they inflict on working families." Clinton alumni, naturally offended, fired back. Bruce Reed, Clinton's former chief domestic policy adviser, called Dean's remark "a cheap shot at Clintonism." Friday, the Dean campaign denied that Dean had meant to slam Clinton. "If he is the nominee, Governor Dean would ask for President Clinton and former members of his Administration to be...