Caturday Roundup: Out of The Muckmire

Coming up for air here and I like what I see!

Former Clinton Cabinet member endorses Obama

(CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama received key endorsements Friday from a top former Clinton administration official and two former Democratic senators.

Robert Reich, a former Labor Secretary under President Clinton, endorsed Sen. Obama Friday.

Robert Reich, a former Clinton cabinet member and longtime friend of the former president, formally endorsed Obama's White House bid, saying that "my conscience won't let me be silent any longer."

"Although Hillary Clinton has offered solid and sensible policy proposals, Obama's strike me as even more so," Reich wrote on his blog.

He served as the Secretary of Labor from 1993-1997 and is currently a professor at Brandeis University.

"His plans for reforming Social Security and health care have a better chance of succeeding," Reich continued. "His approaches to the housing crisis and the failures of our financial markets are sounder than hers ... He has put forward the more enlightened foreign policy and the more thoughtful plan for controlling global warming."

Reich, whose relationship with the Clintons dates back to their law school days at Yale, has long been a critic of the New York senator's White House bid. Shortly before the Iowa caucuses in January, he wrote that voters would have a choice "between someone who talks the talk, and somebody who's walked the walk."

"I don't get it," he wrote then. "If there's anyone in the race whose history shows unique courage and character, it's Barack Obama. HRC's [Hillary Rodham Clinton's] campaign, by contrast, is singularly lacking in conviction about anything."

Reich also criticized Bill Clinton earlier in the year over the former president's sharp attacks on Obama in South Carolina.

"Bill Clinton's ill-tempered and ill-founded attacks on Barack Obama are doing no credit to the former president, his legacy, or his wife's campaign," he wrote in January. "Nor are they helping the Democratic Party."

Asked to respond to Reich's endorsement, Clinton spokesman Mo Eleithee said, "Didn't he endorse him last year?"

Reich is the latest former Clinton administration official to announce his support for Obama. Last month, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who held several positions under Bill Clinton, also came out in support of the Illinois senator. Clinton supporter and CNN political analyst James Carville later called that an "act of betrayal."

Meanwhile, the Obama campaign announced that former Sens. Sam Nunn of Georgia and David Boren of Oklahoma endorsed the Illinois senator, and agreed to serve on the campaign's national security policy team.

Nunn served 25 years in the Senate and was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee from 1987 to 1995. He said Obama is "our best choice to lead the nation."

"I believe that he will bring to the White House, high principles, clear vision and sound judgment," he added.

Boren -- who served in the Senate from 1979 to 1994 and is the longest-serving Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence -- was one of Bill Clinton's top choices to replace Les Aspes in 1994 as U.S. Secretary of Defense.

He said Obama is a person of "sound and good judgement."

Obama responded to the endorsements in a statement, saying the two "will be important sources of advice and counsel for our campaign in the months ahead." Watch more from the campaign trail »

The endorsements come just four days before Pennsylvania's April 22 primary. At stake: 158 delegates.

Also on Friday, Clinton accused Obama of "complaining" about Wednesday night's debate in Pennsylvania and hinted her rival might not be equipped to handle the rigors of the Oval Office.

Obama said Thursday that Clinton was "in her element" at the debate, telling a North Carolina crowd she "took every opportunity to get a dig in."

"That's her right to kind of twist the knife in a little bit," he said, before adding that he understands why she's using what he calls the tactics of the GOP. Watch more of Obama's comments »

Clinton told an interviewer Friday morning on WTXF in Philadelphia that "being asked tough questions in a debate is nothing like the pressures you face inside the White House."

"When the going gets tough you can't run away," she said of Obama.

Meanwhile, Obama faced more criticism Friday -- this time from Sen. John McCain.

McCain's campaign is crying foul over what it characterizes as repeated distortions from Obama.

The most recent dustup comes after Obama criticized McCain earlier Friday for comments the Arizona senator made in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

"John McCain went on television and said that there has been quote 'great progress economically over the last seven and a half years,' " Obama told a Pennsylvania crowd.

"John McCain thinks our economy has made great progress under George W. Bush. Now, how could somebody who has been traveling across this country, somebody who came to Erie, Pennsylvania, say we've made great progress?"

The McCain campaign immediately took issue with the comment, noting the Arizona senator also said he knows families are facing "tremendous economic challenges."

"American families are hurting and Barack Obama is being recklessly dishonest," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said. more

Ahhhhhh, yes. I like that quite alot. "Reckless dishonesty" does that to me.... from a person whose wife steals Food Channel recipes and passes them off as "old family recipies"..... and can't release her tax returns..... and who just cannot face the truth of Iraq. We're not "winning" the surge isn't "working" and the economy has not "made great progress" under gw bushco. Somebody wake him up, will ya! Honey, I'll take some "reckless dishonesty" from Barack Obama over the sludge you're peddling any minute of the day!! We rise from the muckmire via "reckless dishonesty".

Speaking of muckmiers, how about ABC's "Debate". Wow. Now there was some fucked up muck going on there, eh? I think two of our favorite bloggers over at Group News Blog summed that up quite nicely. The Littlest Hussein Gator and Hubris Sonic nailed it.... and the flag pin lady. Let's hope this brilliant bright focus on the Republican constructs of the MSM continues to be a topic of discussion. They stand in the way of us getting our country back. They are going to be as tough to dislodge as bushco all firmly ensconced in the bush world DC bubble land. At least they could have gotten Jerry Springer to moderate and been honest about what the "debate" would cover and the level of discourse in which they would engage. This premise that this is "news" and "what people care about" is manufactured manure. People don't care about that crap. When they say "Polls indicate"...... you can BET their questions and answers drive this outcome. ABC just proved, in this feeble attempt, that it cannot out-fox fox. We need to get our airwaves back.

I was pretty please on Bruce Springsteen's endorsement of Barack Obama as well this week. *BIG SMILE* He just rocks and I love this song here. I used to blast this loud in my car back in those days. The crowd is the star in this one. Let's all remember how to participate. Sing along.... good and loud because I think our sunny day is right around the corner!



From Bruce Springsteen:

Dear Friends and Fans:

LIke most of you, I've been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest.

He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where "...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone."

At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships. While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man's life and vision, so well described in his excellent book, Dreams From My Father, often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement of our environment.

After the terrible damage done over the past eight years, a great American reclamation project needs to be undertaken. I believe that Senator Obama is the best candidate to lead that project and to lead us into the 21st Century with a renewed sense of moral purpose and of ourselves as Americans.

Over here on E Street, we're proud to support Obama for President.

Bruce Springsteen

I also want to offer condolences for Danny Federici's passing. What a wonderful light he brought to the land of musicians. Thank you Danny, rest in peace.

As we rise out of the muck this week when, we hope, the ClintonIII campaign will be put out of our misery with a loss in Pensylvania, I hope we can all remember to stay focused on what we have to do here. No matter what the "news" reports, or what "news" they manufacture in the general, it is imperative to focus. Take care of ourselves and focus on the end result. I can't imagine what the coming months hold for us, but we really have got to take care of ourselves and each other and remain focused on what our end result needs to look like. President Barack Obama.... and all that entails.

Obama is within 4 points today as we head into Pensylvania. That's closer than anyone thought he could be at this point. I think he'll win. The Clintons' and their spawns can talk all the bullshit they want to, but I think Barack Obama will win in Pensylvania..... and Indiana..... and North Carolina. If this person were not Hillary Clinton, their campaign would have ended and we would be now be focused on building behind the first REAL candidate we've had in years. I'm not too worried about the Republicans. The only way they are even attempting to climb into this campaign is becasue of Hillary Clinton. Their's is a cheap suit no matter who wears it.

I like what I see today. It is Hopeful!!!

Myrtle Hussein June