Even though I am opposed to Hillary Rodham Clinton's bid for the presidency, there are many things about her that are worthy of praise. In light of the "warm praise" that Senator Bob Kerrey gave to Senator Obama, I thought I would write down some things about Hillary Rodham Clinton that I think are praiseworthy. Since the Clinton Collective is so supportive of Senator Kerrey's efforts, I am sure it will appreciate my efforts on behalf of Hillary Rodham Clinton

As one can read on this evening's cover by HRC devotee "hwc," Senator Clinton is hawking the story around the Hawkeye state that her health plan covers more people then Senator Obama's.  She sites this fact as part of a demonstration of how her "character" is superior to his.  Typically, HRC is being deceptive, a well used tactic of hers-at least according to her husband's Secretary of Labor.  Follow me below the fold for more information.

There has been three issues that have arose recently and discussed in the liberal blogosphere: the Clinton campaign's "planting" questions at their events in Iowa; whether HRC's campaign tipped the wait staff at an Iowa restaurant; and Clinton's support for the Peru trade deal. In this post, I do not want to get into the (lack of) merits of any of these incidences. Instead, I want to review the statements made by Senator Clinton and her campaign staff and what they demonstrate about their credibility.

Early in Bush's second term, Bush did a now standard ploy: find a way to bend the rules governing an institution to further their far-right agenda.  In this case, Bush abused the rule governing the appointment of members of the "Us Commission on Civil Rights, the nation's 50 year old watchdog for civil rights."  By law, half of the members of the Commission can not be from the same political party.  Since the US has always had a "two party" political system, this has meant that for approximately 50 years, the Commission has been made up of four Democrats and four Republicans.  Bush has changed that.  Bush has appointed two conservative Republicans, making them change their party registration from "Republican" to "Independant" right before the appointment was made.  The Boston Globe has the story here.

One of Senator Clinton's campaign's favorite talking points is how "battle tested" she is against the Right. She has stood toe to toe against the VRWC, Clintonites claim, and has emerged victorious. Tom Schaller, writing for The American Prospect's excellent blog TAPPED, notes that this is simply untrue.

Follow me over the flip to see why.

I am a FIRM Edwards supporter.  However, I am not a shill.  So, when I see something good about another Democratic candidate, I dont mind talking about it.  Well, Andrew Sullivan apparently got at least two emails giving examples of individuals who were known to be prejudiced against blacks, but still supported Obama.  Honestly, reading this put a lump in my throat.  Because Sullivan doesnt link to the specific email, a link to his blog can be found here, I have included the contents of the email:

Josh Marshall at talkingpointsmemo.com has an excellent post this morning about the voting fraud issue as it relates to the US Attorney scandal.  Josh has reviewed all the cases brought pertaining to election fraud around the country.  Not surprisingly, this whole issue is made up.  Primarily, the cases being brought involve people who have made innocent mistakes in their voter registration.  

This is exactly the kind of story that the traditional media would do if we had a real Washington news corps.  The fact that this story is appearing on an internet site and not on the Washington Post speaks volumes about our press.

Correction: Upon reading Josh's post again, I see I overlooked that it was based on a NYT article. Thus, my bashing of the media here is unwarranted. Still, Josh's post, and the article upon which it is based, are worth a read.

I am certainly not a fan of Joe Biden.  However, I noticed an article by John Nichols in The Nation discussing a very interesting campaign related site that Biden's people have put together.  As the article explains, Biden's site has collected youtube video from the different Democratic candidates on various issues.  To his credit, Biden has tried hard to be fair to his opponents.  The site displays balanced clips from all the candidates which shows in a fair way how each candidate stands.  Also, there are links back to the various candidates campaign sites. You can see the site here.