Brooklyn Ron

McCain on Hillary and Bill: They Really Support Me. A Joke. Sort of.

Super funny John McCain asks, Where's Bill? and suggests that some Democrats at the Alfred Smith dinner are really backing him.

"Even in this room full of proud Manhattan Democrats, I can't shake that feeling that some people here are pulling for me," McCain said at the Thursday dinner.

"I'm delighted to see you here tonight, Hillary."

Whoa. That laugh from Hillary Clinton must have overlaid a little discomfort.

As for Bill Clinton, whom McCain zinged for his tepid support of Obama -- suggesting that the ex President was actually backing him, McCain -- we don't know what the reaction was.

He wasn't at the dinner.

Here's Obama's spiel, which wasn't bad, though it seems McCain got more sustained laughter. Had a better writer, we suppose. Click this bottom image to hear Obama. [McCain's talk, of course, is the above image and can be heard by clicking it.]

Bill Clinton's First Punch at Obama? McCain Will Be Main Speaker at Big Clinton Event

Bill Clinton's Global Initiative is a money box and a gathering spot for the biggest names in world finance and politics.

And with the next meeting scheduled for next week in New York City, one might reasonably expect that this would be a good time for Clinton to make good on promises to help Barack Obama win the Presidency.

But as many suspected from Clinton's body language recently -- when the ex-President and Obama met in Harlem and answered reporters' questions -- Clinton may have been very well been crossing his fingers behind his back as he spoke.

Yes, he said, he would help Obama campaign, as soon as time allowed.

But now with the announcement by the Global Initiative that John McCain will be the main speaker at the Initiative's big event next week -- Sept. 23-26 -- it would seem plain that Clinton is slighting Obama and helping McCain.

McCain will give the main address in person and Obama will speak by satellite.

"Senator John McCain will deliver the opening remarks live at the 'Integrated Solutions: water, food and energy' plenary session," says a press release from the Global Initiative.

Glossing over the fact that McCain will be getting a big boost while Obama will be shunted off the the side, the Initiative tries to suggest that both candidates will be equally involved.

"Both United States presidential candidates will have a role in the Annual Meeting," the Initiative said.

All along, of course -- ever since the very heated primary race between Clinton's wife, New York Senator Hillary Clinton, and Obama -- there has been serious tension between Obama and the former President.

There have been allegations of race baiting and more.

Many believe also that the Clintons want Obama to lose so that Hillary Clinton will be able to run again in four years against the Republicans.

Some have maintained furthermore that the Clintons, especially Bill, simply dislike Obama and very much like McCain.

Complicated guy, that Bill, as many photos of him seem to reveal.

It would be so interesting to know if Congressman Charles Rangel, the black Harlem Congressman who backed HIllary Clinton in the race against Obama and has been very close to both Clintons, is reacting in a private way to this news about the Global Initiative and the (apparent) slighting of Obama.

Then again, Rangel is beset with a slew of charges stemming from New York Times stories about having too many rent controlled apartments and so on, and his energies are largely going toward his political survival now.

A shame, in many ways, but this is politics and it's rough out there.

[The Global Initiative invites the richest folks around to their event and at the end of it the attended pledge money to charities.]

Heck. Any presidential candidate would want to be associated with that in a big way.

(Here's the Initiative's web site.)

Brooklyn, the Most Pro Obama Place in Hillary Clinton's State, Awaits the Healing

Even those who were deeply offended by what they believed were race baiting tactics of Hillary and Bill Clinton during Hillary's campaign against Barack Obama would have to admit it.

Bill Clinton's speech on Wednesday night hit the ball out of the park.

Senator Clinton's speech the night before was powerful in its own right but the former President's address made one aware, once again, of the extraordinary intelligence and (let's admit it) superior education that lifted that man (and his many inner demons) to the heights of American politics.

They, the two Clintons, in their passion and rhetoric, left little room for doubting their commitment to the candidacy of Obama in the race against John McCain.

Don't get us wrong. There is doubt. We have written here, for instance, about Peggy Noonan who has virtually built a career (and a very successful one) at informing the world about the trickiness and narcisistic self-interest of Hillary Clinton.

There are those who believe that Hillary Clinton has her eyes on 2012 and would very much want to see Obama lose this race so that she can have a go at it again in that year. (Maureen Dowd of The New York Times has been in this category and has been expressing herself with wit and wisdom.)

But the New York delegation of Democrats, who must have been painfully stung by the polarization of the heated Hillary versus Barack primary race -- especially in Brooklyn where the districts of Congressmembers Yvette Clarke and Ed Towns went for Obama, even as Clarke and Towns stuck with Hillary -- are happy now that peace reigns on the surface.

That was a stroke of genius Wednesday, the way Hillary Clinton stopped the voting that pitted her against Obama, halting the tally as the country waited breathlessly to see how her New York State was going to vote, and then asking for a consensus backing of Barack.

This is indeed a critical juncture in what has been one of the most interesting, if also bitter, primary races in recent memory.

[The accompanying photo here -- of Sen. Hillary Clinton and [Brooklyn born] Gov. David Paterson -- is from the online New York Observer. See their article on The Morning After.]

Rangel Relegated to Sidelines at Democratic Convention

It seems Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel [photo] is being snubbed by organizers of this week's Democratic National Convention in Denver.

It is said that Rangel very much wanted to be on the podium with the party's big names, but those in power apparently decided the Congressman wasn't needed.

The main problem, of course, is that Rangel was one of Senator Hillary Clinton's staunchest supporters during the campaign for the Democratic nomination, a campaign in which Hillary and her husband Bill were involved in heated back-and-forth accusations with Obama, including charges of race baiting.

Many blacks are resentful that Rangel and other Harlem politicians chose to stay with Hillary Clinton, even when it became clear that Obama was on course to become the nation's first serious African-American candidate for the presidency.

On the other hand, there are those who think Obama should have allowed Rangel to have a prominent role at the upcoming Convention, even out of self interest, given that Rangel is chair of the very powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

But Rangel has been weakened somewhat, at least superficially, by recent New York Times reports that he had several rent-controlled apartments at the Lenox Terrace apartment complex, at a time when many of his constituents are struggling to find affordable housing.

A miffed Rangel may not remain in Denver for the full four days of the Convention.

(Read story.)

Clintons' First Volley at Obama. Stephanopoulos is the Cannon

Well, it's as good as poetry, as true to life as the instincts of war.

The first blast coming from the campaign of John McCain, reacting to the announcement of Joe Biden as the Dems' VP candidate, is taken from the arsenal of the Clintons.

The McCain ad reruns a supposedly journalistic query put to Joe Biden, once Barack Obama's opponent for the presidential nomination, now Obama's choice for running mate.

[The questioner was ABC journalist George Stephanopoulos, who -- it must be noted -- once served as spokesman for Bill Clinton and owes his fame to the Clintons.]

Stephanopoulos [see photo] asked Biden, during a debate among candidates for the Democratic nomination, whether Biden stood by something he had said previously about Obama:

"You were asked, 'Is he ready?' You said, 'I think he can be ready but right now, I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.'"

Biden, at the time, stood by the comment.

But these are different times, of course, and Biden has been showing in recent weeks that he will be a viscious attack dog on Obama's behalf.

The fact worthy of fiction is this: that the first cannon shot at Obama-Biden is via Stephanopoulos, linked forever to the Clintons.

This is occurring as we wonder whether the Clintons will try to sabotage Obama and Biden's very good chances for victory.

There is reason to be concerned.

[For an earlier post on George Stephanopoulos as journalist during the campaign, see "Was ABC Debate the Death Knell of American Journalism?"]