Sorry for the inflammatory headline, but I couldn't resist it as a title for this wonderful photo of Bill playing the race card in South Carolina accompanying a NY TIMES article tonight:

The article presents the view within the Clinton campaign that Bill is extremely helpful on the campaign trail and will continue in a highly-visible role going forward:

Clinton's Campaign Sees Value in Keeping Former President in Attack Mode

By PATRICK HEALY
Published: January 25, 2008

ANDERSON, S.C. -- Advisers to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton say they have concluded that Bill Clinton's aggressive politicking against Senator Barack Obama is resonating with voters, and they intend to keep him on the campaign trail in a major role after the South Carolina primary.

The campaign is intentionally using Bill as the "bad cop" while Hillary floats above the fray going after the Republicans and outlining her vision for the future of the country:

Mr. Clinton is deliberately trying to play bad cop against Mr. Obama, campaign officials say, and is keenly aware that a flash of anger or annoyance will draw even more media and public attention to his arguments. He will continue campaigning full-time for Mrs. Clinton after South Carolina in states with primaries on Feb. 5 where he is especially popular, like Arkansas, California and New York, they say.

The campaign is intentionally trying to provoke Obama because they believe that attacks on Bill Clinton are beneficial:

They also see benefits in Mr. Clinton's drawing the ire of the Obama camp, predicting that there will be a voter backlash against Mr. Obama if the former president looks like a victim in the cut-and-thrust of the race.

"He's the most popular Democrat in the country; he is the most successful president in recent memory, and attacks on him by Senator Obama and his surrogates will be rejected by voters," said Howard Wolfson, a Clinton spokesman.

And I can't resist this quote from James Carville, a perfect example of the kind of ragin' cajun cut-to-the-chase insight that CNN viewers will now sorely miss:

"Does the president risk going overboard? Sure. But Obama runs a risk of being wussified."

Full article is here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/us/politics/25clinton.html

UPDATE: From the "What the ...." category comes this blog entry about Rep. Clyburn in South Carolina who says that he doesn't know a single black leader in South Carolina who has endorsed Obama.... I don't even have a comment. Like I say, "What the ...."

Link to Clyburn article

With the panic in the Obama campaign mounting, all knew that this was coming...

At 5:02 pm tonight, Obama sent their surrogate Ed Schultz on Hardball to say:

"Bill Clinton lied about Monica Lewinsky ten years ago and he's lying today about a viable candidate who can bring change to America".

Not content to just play the Monica card on behalf of the Obama campaign, Schultz continued by throwing down another race card.

"And you know what? African Americans are saying, 'He's pickin' on a brother.'"

So much for a new kind of politics of hope. So much for the end of the politics of personal destruction. The Obama campaign and its surrogates are as dirty as it gets and willing to trash the Democratic Party's best asset -- a wildly popular former President -- for political purposes.

UPDATE: Here's the video.

The Clinton campaign is on the air with four new TV and radio ads.

The first one is a radio ad running in the South Carolina market:

Obama attack ad

The next three are TV ads in the Feb 5th markets:

"Serious"

"Warned"

"Falling Through"

On today's anniversary of the landmark women's reproductive health Roe v Wade, Hillary Clinton affirmed her commitment to women's reproductive rights and to making abortion safe, legal, and rare:

On Anniversary Of Roe, Clinton Announces Agenda For Reproductive Health Care

The Clinton campaign today reinforced its commitment to protect a woman's right to make the most fundamental decisions about her life and health and announced a comprehensive agenda for women's reducing unintended pregnancy and enhancing access to reproductive health care. The announcement comes on the 35th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade and follows the news of the endorsement of WCLA - Choice Matters, one of the oldest pro-choice advocacy organizations in the nation.

"When I'm President, I will appoint judges to our courts who understand that Roe v. Wade isn't just binding legal precedent, it is the touchstone of our reproductive freedom, the embodiment of our most fundamental rights, and no one - no judge, no governor, no Senator, no President - has the right to take it away."

The agenda includes preventing unintended pregnancies by increasing access to honest, accurate sex education, contraception and family planning services, ensuring that private health plans offer the same level of coverage for contraception as they do for other prescription drugs and services, ensuring that women who survive sexual assault have access to emergency contraception upon request. Clinton also calls for providing greater access to reproductive health care services overseas.

"On the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I am reaffirming my commitment to safe, legal, and rare abortion, and unveiling an agenda for decreasing the number of unintended pregnancies in the U.S. through honest and complete sex education and expanded access to contraception and family planning," said Clinton.

WCLA joins other prominent pro-choice organizations endorsing Hillary Clinton for President, including the National Organization for Women PAC, EMILY's List, Women's Campaign Forum, National Women's Political Caucus, Women's Political Committee.

Since not one single question about women's issues has been asked at any of dozens of Presidential debates this year, it might make sense to cover some of Clinton's specific policy commitments:

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/relea se/view/?id=5404

Maintaining Roe as the Law of the Land

Appointing Justices that will uphold the right to privacy - Senator Clinton opposed the nominations of Justices Alito and Roberts to the Supreme Court because she believed they represented the greatest threat to Roe since it was decided. Her prediction has been born out through Gonzales v. Carhart, the first time the Supreme Court upheld a law outlawing a specific abortion procedure. As President, Hillary will nominate justices who share her view that the Constitution protects a woman's right to make the most fundamental decisions about her life and health, and that the right to privacy is a fundamental right.

Enacting the Freedom of Choice Act - Hillary will sign into law the Freedom of Choice Act, which would codify Roe v. Wade and send a renewed signal to the courts that the will of Congress and the President is to keep abortion legal.

Preventing Unintended Pregnancies

Hillary has long believed that abortion should be safe, legal, and rare. Unfortunately, we are far from realizing that vision. One half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended and one half of unintended pregnancies end in abortion, and the U.S. has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the industrialized world. Hillary's agenda will help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies by:

Increasing access to family planning services. Hillary will expand the national family planning program (Title X) and extend Medicaid coverage for family planning services to women who are eligible for pregnancy-related care. Each year, Title X provides 4.8 million people, mostly poor and uninsured, with family planning services that help them plan their pregnancies and improve their health. Clinics that use Title X funds are present in close to three-quarters of counties in the U.S. Over the last two decades, Title X services are estimated to have prevented 20 million unintended pregnancies and nine million abortions, and helped to prevent 5.5 million adolescent pregnancies [Planned Parenthood]. President Bush has proposed no increases in Title X since taking office. As a result, health care providers that rely on Title X funds have significantly lost purchasing power and are struggling to afford the latest technology in diagnostic and contraceptive services. According to the Guttmacher Institute, the $286 million allotted to Title X for FY 2005 was worth 59 percent less than the $162 million appropriated in FY 1980. Hillary will restore the funding for Title X that has been lost under the Bush Administration. She will also ensure that states make family planning services as widely available as pregnancy-related services in Medicaid.

Ensuring that private health plans offer the same level of coverage for contraception as they do for other prescription drugs and services. Massive shifts have occurred in the number of women with access to contraception through their health insurance over the past 15 years. In 1993, according to testimony by the Executive Director of the Women's Research and Education Institute, women typically spent 68% more in out-of-pocket health care costs than men, a difference that was largely accounted for through reproductive health services. Today, nearly nine in ten employer-provided health insurance plans cover the full range of prescription contraceptives [AGI, 2004]. Still only half of all women of live in states that require contraceptive coverage of employers, and millions of women who don't receive health insurance through their employers aren't reached by these state laws [AGI, 2004]. As president, Hillary would work to enact the Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act, which would require health insurance plans to cover contraception to the same degree that they cover other forms of prescription drugs.

Ensuring that women who survive sexual assault have access to emergency contraception (EC) upon request. Emergency contraception is a safe and effective way to help women who may be at risk for an unintended pregnancy. Yet, according to seven years of data from the Centers for Disease Control, fewer than half of all women who visited an emergency room after a sexual assault received emergency contraception becoming pregnant [Annals of Emergency Medicine, 2002]. Fourteen states already require hospital emergency rooms to provide emergency contraception-related services to sexual assault victims. Hillary would enact legislation to require hospitals to inform women who are victims of rape and sexual assault that EC is an option for them, and make it available or provide a referral upon their request, or risk losing federal funding.

Implementing important public education initiatives about EC. Emergency contraception is a safe, effective back-up birth control method that reduces the risk of pregnancy by 75% [Boonstra, AGI, 2002]. Despite the widely acknowledged safety, efficacy, and acceptability of EC, many women do not know EC is an option for them and only 6% of women have ever used it [Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005]. Hillary would support efforts to increase awareness so that women can have full information about this proven option.

Restoring the discount for birth control on college campuses and community health centers. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 eliminated the ability of college health clinics and about 400 community health centers to receive deep discounts on contraception and pass those savings onto students. As a result, college students and low-income women across the country have seen the price of contraception rise by 300 or 400%. Many are choosing to take a risk on unprotected sex rather than pay the increase. Others are cutting down their budget for food or other necessities. Hillary will make restoring this discount a top priority.

Supporting sex education programs that provide honest, accurate, complete information about abstinence, contraception, and disease prevention. Senator Clinton supports a more comprehensive approach to sex education that teaches young people to delay sexual activity, but also teaches them the basics of human sex and how to protect themselves from unintended pregnancy, HIV/AIDs and other sexually transmitted diseases. Fourteen states have rejected President Bush's strict abstinence-only approach [Washington Post, December 16, 2007]. Hillary would provide funding for medically accurate, age appropriate, comprehensive sex education programs.

Funding teen pregnancy prevention programs. The U.S. has one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the industrialized world, and teen pregnancy is associated with a host of poor outcomes for the parents and children of teen parents - lower employment rates, higher rates of welfare dependence, higher school dropout rates, and poorer health and academic outcomes. Hillary would set a national goal of reducing teen pregnancy by one third and invest in initiatives with a proven record of reducing teen pregnancy. In December, the CDC National Center for Health Statistics announced that the teen birth rate rose for the first time since 1991. Over the fourteen years preceding, the teen birth rate fell by 34 percent. Hillary will bring a concerted focus to breaking the cycle of teen pregnancy, and in doing so tackle the root cause of many social problems and help to improve prospects for young people, strengthen families and our nation.

Conducting research into preventing unintended pregnancy. Hillary will invest in research efforts identify the most promising strategies for reducing the rate of unintended pregnancy. She will fund a pilot program to do rigorous analysis of the programs and strategies currently being undertaken, and will use the results of the research to determine the most effective strategies and practices going forward. Hillary will ensure that investments we make in reducing the number of unintended pregnancies are evidence-based, not ideologically driven.

Providing Greater Access to Reproductive Health Care Services Overseas

Overturning the Global Gag Rule and Reinstating the United Nations Population Fund. Hillary has said that on day one of her Administration she will overturn the global gag rule, which prohibits Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) from even talking about abortion in the event of an unplanned pregnancy. This rule has had devastating consequences on access to reproductive health care for women by forcing NGOs, which are sometimes the only health care provider for women's health in a poor community, to choose between foregoing the funding they need to be sustainable and providing honest and accurate information to women about their options. In countries like Nepal, which are grappling with high rates of maternal death as a result of unsafe abortion and growing rates of HIV/AIDS, the global gag rule has devastated the limited reproductive health care infrastructure. Hillary will also reinstate for the United Nations Population Fund, which provides vital funding for family planning abroad. President Bush has eliminated this funding every year of his administration.

Reproductive Health Services for Women Stationed at Military Bases Overseas. Nearly 3,000 military women reported being victims of sexual assault last year. Yet, women living on military bases overseas often have a hard time accessing emergency contraception and are prohibited from using their own money to pay for an abortion at a military medical health care provider. Hillary introduced the Compassionate Care for Servicewomen Act, which requires full access to emergency contraception for servicewomen at all U.S. military health care facilities around the world. As President, she will enact this legislation. President Clinton issued an executive order in 1993 to lift the ban on paying for abortion with private funds, but it was overturned by Congress in 1995, and has been in place every since. Hillary believes women stationed on U.S. military bases overseas should have the same access to the full range of reproductive health care as women living in the U.S., and as president she will work towards that day.

Here's an interesting piece on the single-payer health care debate:

And speaking of Obama's version of Seinfeld's Bizarro World, is that Walmart attack the best he can come up with? I mean, imagine an alien from outer space dropping down and hearing a attack as follows:

And, after graduating from Yale Law School, you were the first female partner in the most prestigious law firm in your state and you served as the first female on the Board of Directors of the biggest employer in your state and the biggest retailer in the world!"

Wow. That is bad, huh? What's next:

And Hillary, your mother wears Army boots, neener, neener, neener....

He's done it again. Another complete meltdown on the campaign trail. This from last night in St. Louis:

Somebody has got to stop this man. He's killing Hillary's chances. And, he'll kill the Democrats chances if he campaigns for them in November 2008.

Here are the results of Obama playing the race card from the Nevada entrance polls:

White voters (65% of voters):
Clinton: 52%
Obama: 34%

Latino/a voters (15% of voters):
Clinton: 64%
Obama: 26%

African American voters (15% of voters):
Clinton: 14%
Obama: 83%

On gender:

Female voters (59% of voters):
Clinton: 51%
Obama: 38%

Male voters (41% of voters):
Clinton: 43%
Obama: 45%

All from CNN Entrance Polls:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primari es/results/epolls/#NVDEM

The Chicago Sun-Times headline today:

Sun-Times Exclusive:
Obama surfaces in Rekzo's federal corruption case
Source confirmed Obama is the unnamed "political candidate" referred to in document which outlines case against Rezko

Obama is not named in the Dec. 21 court document. But a source familiar with the case confirmed that Obama is the unnamed "political candidate" referred to in a section of the document that accuses Rezko of orchestrating a scheme in which a firm hired to handle state teacher pension investments first had to pay $250,000 in "sham" finder's fees. From that money, $10,000 was donated to Obama's successful run for the Senate in the name of a Rezko business associate, according to the court filing and the source.

Rezko, who was part of Obama's senatorial finance committee, also is accused of directing "at least one other individual" to donate money to Obama and then reimbursing that individual -- in possible violation of federal election law.

Looks like Obama wasn't kidding when he said last week that he knew all about Chicago-style politics.

Here's the full article in today's Sun Times:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/ob ama/749138,obama20web.article