Addressing a roaring crowd of thousands at the Historic Stockyards, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Saturday that Texans have a chance to make up for giving America George W. Bush.

"Everyone has a right to come home, but we’re just going to be happy when the moving van pulls away from the White House," Clinton said. "We need a president at Day One who can go into the Oval Office and start repairing the damage."

The crowd trickled in all morning past the metal detectors, but when Clinton approached the stage, many people were still stuck far away behind the barricades.

"I know all of you can’t see me, and there are all these people we couldn’t get in, but I see you," Clinton called out.

Those getting close to the stage area were wearing "Hillary for President" T-shirts and carrying signs with phrases such as "Give ‘em Hill" and "The eyes of Texas are on Hillary."

"I used to say I never wanted a woman to be president, but that’s one tough lady," said Genevieve Ruelas of Fort Worth, who said she was leaning toward voting for Clinton on Tuesday.

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The White House put the blame on the Clintons for holding up the release of documents relating to Hillary Clinton’s activities during Bill’s administration. Hillary and Bill have both claimed to want the documents released as soon as possible, but Dana Perino says the Clintons have had the authority to approve releases for four weeks. So far, no one has heard from them:

The White House on Wednesday blamed the Clintons for a month-long delay in the release of some 11,000 pages of records relating to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s years as first lady, despite Sen. Clinton’s contention at Tuesday night’s debate that she has “urged that the process [of releasing documents] be as quick as possible.”

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said that Clinton representatives have known since Jan. 31 that the documents — Hillary Clinton’s daily public schedule during her husband’s presidency — have been deemed ready for public release by the National Archives.

But under a November 2001 exectuive order, the White House can’t make them available to the public until approval is given by a designated representative of former President Bill Clinton.

“Presently, we have not received notice that the Clinton representative has reached a decision on the release or withholding of any of Mrs. Clinton’s schedules,” Perino said, adding that the White House has not objected to approval of any of the more than 550,000 pages of documents released so far from the Clinton years.

This would make more of an impact if Hillary hadn’t fallen so far off the pace in recent primaries. Barack Obama could use this to scold her on the trail, but right now he doesn’t need to sound like a George Bush echo. It will make little difference to Obama now whether those records come to light or not — he will almost certainly beat her to the nomination in the next four or five weeks regardless. She isn’t the issue any longer in the race.

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Mysterious: They’re unusually creative and well produced for a supposed amateur. More mysterious: The user account at Daily Motion is called BloombergWhiteHouse.org, but that URL redirects to DM and there appears to be no other identifying info online. Still more mysterious: They’re three months old but have been largely ignored online despite their viral potential. Even more mysterious: We were tipped to them this afternoon via a mass e-mail from someone at Iced Media. Hmmm.

Is this tool really going to run against the war and sandbag Hillary Clinton for us? Maybe I was wrong about the atheism thing after all.

Gender Bender
Uploaded by bloombergwhitehouse

Rebound
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Source: Hot Air

Former President George H.W. Bush has shot down his successor Bill Clinton’s idea of a diplomatic mission under a Hillary Clinton presidency that would send him and other notables abroad to assure other nations that “America is open for business and cooperation again.”

The move came one day after Bill Clinton made the suggestion on the campaign trail in South Carolina, in response to a question from a supporter about his wife’s “number-one priority” upon reaching the White House.

In a statement sent to CNN Tuesday afternoon, former President Bush’s chief of staff Jean Becker said that he “wholeheartedly supports the President of the United States, including his foreign policy. He has never discussed an ‘around-the-world-mission’ with either former President Bill Clinton or Sen. Clinton, nor does he think such a mission is warranted since he is proud of the role America continues to play around the world as the beacon of hope for freedom and democracy.

“President Bush is excited about several of the excellent Republican candidates running for president, and looks forward to discussing their candidacy once the Republican nominee is determined.”

Source: CNN

Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that the first thing his wife Hillary will do when she reaches the White House is dispatch him and his predecessor, President George H.W. Bush, on an around-the-world mission to repair the damage done to America’s reputation by the current president — Bush’s son, George W. Bush.

"Well, the first thing she intends to do, because you can do this without passing a bill, the first thing she intends to do is to send me and former President Bush and a number of other people around the world to tell them that America is open for business and cooperation again," Clinton said in response to a question from a supporter about what his wife’s "number one priority" would be as president.

A spokesman for the George H.W. Bush was not immediately available to comment on whether the former president would chip in some diplomatic help after his son leaves office next year.

Clinton and the elder Bush, rivals in the 1992 presidential election, have grown chummy in recent years, often traveling and appearing at public events together. In 2005, they started a charity to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.

UPDATE: The Republican National Committee issued this statement in response to Clinton’s comments:

"In 2009, a Republican president will be working with our friends and allies abroad to continue to keep our nation safe," said RNC spokesman Danny Diaz. "The American people expect our leaders — both current and former — to present serious solutions to the very real challenges confronting our nation."

Source:  CNN Political Ticker

What a Blow Hard!

In a surprisingly frank interview with Charlie Rose on his PBS show late Friday night, former President Bill Clinton declared that his wife was not only far better prepared to be president than her chief rival Sen. Barack Obama — "it’s not close" — but that voters who disagreed would be taking a "risk" if they picked the latter.

Repeatedly dismissive of Obama — which could come back to haunt the Clinton campaign — the former president at one point said that voters were, of course, free to pick someone with little experience, even "a gifted television commentator" who would have just "one year less" experience in national service than Obama. He had earlier pointed out that Obama had started to run for president just one year into his first term in the U.S. Senate.

Clinton also said, surprisingly, with a laugh, "It’s a miracle she even has a chance" to win in Iowa, adding he was not just "low-balling it." He said John Edwards might well win — which would certainly be preferable, from the Clintons’ perspective, to an Obama win there. (See llink to video below.)

He praised Obama’s intelligence and "sensational political skills" but repeatedly suggested that, unlike his wife and some of the other candidates, he might not be ready for the job. Asked directly about that, Clinton refused to state it bluntly, but did point out that when he was elected president in 1992 at about the same age as Obama, he was the "senior governor" in the U.S. and had worked for years on international business issues. Viewers could draw their own conclusions.

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Rush Limbaugh is hitting Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and other Democrats who are finding this latest national intelligence estimate (NIE) on Iran infallable, while they were skeptical of previous CIA reports that suggested Iran was developing nuclear weapons.

Barack Obama denounced Bush’s "saber-rattling" while Hillary said the NIE strengthens her argument for restoring diplomatic relations with Iran.

"They couldn’t care less about the substance of the issue… This is all about making Bush out to be a liar! Here’s what I would say to Mrs. Clinton: If indeed, they have stopped, what’s to talk about? What’s the point of diplomacy here? Lift the sanctions, everything’s fine now."

Rush notes that every country has developed their nuclear weapons in secret. Apparently, we are to believe, Iran will be the exception.

Related question, he raises: If there is no weapons program, why is the IAEA not getting full access to Iranian facilities? And, I would note this from the New York Times today:

“To be frank, we are more skeptical,” a senior official close to the agency said. “We don’t buy the American analysis 100 percent. We are not that generous with Iran.”

The official called the American assertion that Iran had “halted” its weapons program in 2003 “somewhat surprising.”

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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton blamed Wall Street for the increase in home foreclosures and called for a $5 billion-plus "home protection" plan and tighter housing market regulations Wednesday.

“Wall Street not only enabled, but often encouraged, reckless lending," Clinton said at the NASDAQ MarketSite in Times Square.

In Manhattan, Clinton pitched a plan to protect borrowers who took out unaffordable home loans that are causing a $10 trillion upset in the domestic housing market. Low-interest “teaser” mortgage rates are scheduled to reset at higher rates through 2008, increasing payments for some by thousands of dollars, and more than 500,000 homeowners could lose their homes.

Swing states Florida, Nevada, California, Michigan and Ohio are among those states being hit hardest by foreclosures.

To stop this Clinton wants a 90-day “timeout” on foreclosures, a five-year freeze on mortgage payments for subprime borrowers, a federal licensing program for mortgage brokers and a requirement for the mortgage industry to submit monthly status reports to the government.

Clinton would also like to establish a $5 billion fund for things like “safety net housing” and home loan subsidies to help borrowers make their monthly payments.

CNBC host Maria Bartiromo asked Clinton in a televised interview Wednesday afternoon where the money would come from. Clinton said, “It’s going to come from where it comes from, from the budget, from emergency spending” and that it should be thought of as an economic stimulus package.

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CNN and YouTube had weeks to select the questions for last night’s debate, poring over 5,000 submissions to select the handful that made it to the candidates. They even flew a few of them to the debate in order to allow them a response to the answers provided by the Republican presidential hopefuls. Yet within minutes of the debate, bloggers discovered what CNN missed — that one prominent questioner flown to Florida by CNN worked on the campaign of a Democratic rival, and that at least three other questioners have declared support for Democratic candidates. Michelle Malkin rounds it up:

The best thing about Republicans agreeing to do the CNN/YouTube debate is that it created yet another invaluable opportunity to expose CNN’s abject incompetence.

Retired Brig. Gen./gays in the military lobbyist/Hillary-Kerry supporter Keith H. Kerr wasn’t the only plant at the CNN/YouTube debate. The plant uncovering is in full-swing over at Free Republic.

Example: “Journey,” a.k.a. “Paperserenade,” the girl who asked an abortion question, is a declared John Edwards supporter. … Brian McMurphy at SixMeatBuffet (hat tip See-Dubya) notes that David Cercone, the Pompano Beach, Florida, man who asked the question about Log Cabin Republicans, is a declared Obama supporter. … The lead toy questioner, LeeAnn Anderson, who appears to be an ordinary mom concerned about her two children, whom she includes in her video, is a prominent Pittsburgh union activist–and aide to Leo Gerard, President of the American Steel Workers Union/John Edwards supporter.

Abject incompetence, yes. If these bloggers could discover this information — mostly from their YouTube profiles, not exactly heavy lifting — then CNN should have vetted the questioners better. With the possible exception of General Kerr, it doesn’t appear that the questioners made any attempt to hide their affiliation; they simply posted their questions, and CNN blithely selected them at face value.

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