Big kudos to JHC at Obamarama for keeping an eye on Dick Morris.

The backstory: After boosting up Obama, Morris thought he had a great take-down that exposed Obama’s duplicity on ethics reform.

Too bad his facts were completely wrong…

On The Hill’s website, Dick Morris has posted an apology for misrepresenting a vote Sen. Obama made on an ethics reform amendment, a story first highlighted on this blog yesterday morning.  In it, Morris retracts his allegations and even offers an apology:

“I sincerely apologize to the senator for my mistaken reading of the record and want to commend him for his correct vote on the issue, unlike the majority of his fellow Democrats, including likely presidential candidates Sens. Joseph Biden Jr. (D-Del.), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).”

Good for him.  And good for all of you who contacted him and respectfully encouraged him to correct his error.

However, Morris’s retraction hasn’t kept other news organizations, including the conservative Washington Times newspaper, from running with the false allegations.  Fortunately for the Truth, Media Matters is all over this story.

This kind of stuff is great. JHC (apparently a former Media Matters staffer) noticed Morris’ error, and Media Matters picked it up and ran with it.

Too bad Morris’ apology likely will not appear wherever his column is syndicated. Expect this fake story to be repeated, regardless of the actual facts.

VERMONTERS FOR OBAMA TEAMS UP WITH DRAFTOBAMA.ORG
TO PROMOTE OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDACY

VERMONTERS SAY WE WANT OBAMA TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT

January 17, 2007

(Burlington, VT) Vermonters for Obama announced today that the organization is teaming up with DraftObama.org to help promote the potential Presidential candidacy of Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

Vermonters for Obama, an all-volunteer organization formed last year by individuals interested in supporting Senator Obama’s potential Presidential candidacy, will begin working with DraftObama.org to gather signatures from other like-minded Vermonters urging Senator Obama to run.

The collaborative effort to draft Obama comes on the heels of Senator Obama’s own announcement yesterday that he has filed paperwork to form a presidential exploratory committee.

“Senator Obama’s message of hope and optimism really resonates with Vermonters, particularly given the lack of leadership and lack of vision in the current Administration. Now that Senator Obama has started to actively consider a run at the White House, we want to send him a clear message: Vermonters want you to run, and we’re ready and willing to do everything we can to help you win,” said Geoff Hand, spokesperson for Vermonters for Obama.

“There is a lot of excitement in Vermont for an Obama candidacy. We’re hoping to pool our resources and political energy to demonstrate to Senator Obama that Vermonters really want him in the race, and are willing to help him win in Vermont, New Hampshire, or anywhere else he needs us,” he continued.

Ben Stanfield, the founder of DraftObama.org, welcomed the collaboration with Vermonters for Obama.  “We are thrilled to be joined by activists in Vermont who share our excitement about a presidential run by Senator Obama. Vermonters have played an important role in past presidential candidacies, and we know that Vermonters for Obama will make a huge contribution to the effort to draft Senator Obama.”

DraftObama.org is an all-volunteer grassroots organization supporting a presidential run by Senator Obama. The movement, spearheaded by a growing collection of volunteers from around the country, has grown from a single web page created by Ben Stanfield, a computer technician in Rockville, MD, to a national organization with thousands of petition-signers and hundreds of volunteers.

The next Vermonters for Obama meeting will be held Thursday, January 18th at 5:00 PM at Euro Gourmet Market and Café on Main Street in Burlington, Vermont. Everyone interested in learning more about Senator Obama is encouraged to attend.

Individuals interested in signing the DraftObama petition should visit www.vermontersforobama.org or www.draftobama.org.

For more information please contact:

Geoff Hand
Vermonters for Obama
Telephone: 802-922-0541
E-mail: geoffhand@gmail.com
www.vermontersforobama.org

Kris Schultz
DraftObama.org
National Communications Director
Telephone: (202) 427-6165
E-mail: kris@draftobama.org
www.draftobama.org

Ready for Obama’s big test–and ours
Chicago Tribune - Chicago,IL,USA
Barack Obama said Tuesday in his groundbreaking announcement of his presidential intentions on his Web site. In those initial moments, the Illinois Democrat …
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Barack Obama, Unplugged
ABC News - USA
By JAKE TAPPER and MARY CLAUDE FOSTER. Jan. 17, 2007 — If three years ago, someone had told you that an Illinois state legislator named Barack Hussein Obama …

The Obama Factor: Democrats’ Battle For Iowa Already Heating Up
ABC30.com - Fresno,CA,USA
Barack Obama’s camp indicates a White House run, worrying Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. Many Iowa Democrats believe that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., …
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Barack Obama rocks the Clinton’s boat!
NewsBlaze - Folsom,CA,USA
Barack Obama has set America on fire by announcing the formation of an exploratory committee to study a possible presidential bid. The senator from Illinois …
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Clinton on Iraq … and Obama
New York Times - New York,NY,USA
Now everyone has been wondering what Senator Clinton would say about Senator Barack Obama’s decision to open an exploratory committee for a possible bid for …
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Obama - Next American President?
maltaStar.com - Malta
Democratic senator Barack Obama on Tuesday revealed that he is interested to bid for the US President election in 2008. Obama, who entered the political …
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Barack Obama Announces Intention To Form Presidential Exploratory …
Best Syndication - Pinon Hills,CA,USA
Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he is forming a presidential exploratory committee, taking the first step in his run for President in 2008. …
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What do you think of Barack Obama as a presidential candidate?
Lawrence Journal World - Lawrence,KS,USA
“I think he has a lot of charisma and he’sa good politician — knowing when to keep his mouth shut. I like that he’s young and he has a lot of enthusiasm. ..

BARACK OBAMA MAKES IT OFFICIAL: Senator takes first step in making …
Eurweb.com - Los Angeles,CA,USA
Barack Obama has taken the first official step in entering the presidential race by filing papers Tuesday that will allow him to raise money and hire staff …
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Barack Obama joins White House race
MSN Money - USA
Barack Obama, America’s fastest rising political star, on Tuesday beat Hillary Clinton to the punch when he announced he was taking the first legal step …
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Barack Obama takes serious step towards presidential run
ABC Online - Australia
Democrat Senator, Barack Obama, has announced he’s created a Presidential exploratory committee, which allows him to raise money and hire staff for a White …
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A look at US Sen. Barack Obama
The Southern - Carbondale,IL,USA
By AP. To improve the interaction of commenting, for our readers, we have revised our rules for posting comments. Please note the new rules below: …

The skeptics take a turn: Reasons why Barack Obama will not be the …
Chicago Tribune - Chicago,IL,USA
Time to lay down your markers, all of you out there who are invoking Barack Obama’s middle name, passing along that childish “Obambi” taunt and otherwise …

Black Like Obama
Huffington Post - New York,NY,USA
Do you think Barack Obama has to spend a lot of time between now and next year where the primaries caucuses are held, coming up with stunts to keep himself …
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Senator Barack Obama steps into US presidential race
International Herald Tribune - France
WASHINGTON:: Senator Barack Obama on Tuesday took his first step into the Democratic presidential race by opening an exploratory committee to raise money …
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Barack, We Hardly Know Ye: A Question For Sen. Obama
Huffington Post - New York,NY,USA
Is Jerry Brown’s experience a cautionary tale for Barack Obama? It’s too early to tell, and of course there are significant differences between these two …
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The big question about Barack Obama
USA Today - USA
That’s Barack Obama’s political résumé. Is it enough to qualify him to be president? Sure, says Carol Hood, Democratic Party chairman in Calhoun County, …
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Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Barack Obama
U.S. News & World Report - Washington,DC,USA
A school in his father’s hometown near Lake Victoria in Kenya has been renamed the Senator Barack Obama Secondary School. …
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Who does Barack Obama think he is?
Guardian Unlimited - UK
We must ask this question, because it’s the kind of question that would be asked if a 45-year-old female political neophyte declared, as Barack Obama did …
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The boomlet of Obama news, in escalating order of priority:

1) The inaugural meet-up of Vermonters for Obama — which we described in near-spiritual terms here — has done what inaugural meetings do: it’s given birth to a second meet-up.

Mark your calendars, especially if you missed the first gathering: 5 pm, Thursday, January 18, again at the Euro Market and Cafe, on Main Street, downtown Burlington.

That’s this Thursday. Let the Bargaining with the Spouses begin.

No belly-dancing — at least not this night — but all the baklava you can buy.

2) MyDD has front-paged a thoughtful overview of the maturing Draft Obama movement nationwide, with a running comparison to the Draft Clark surge of yesteryear. The upshot? Draft Obama’s got the flint and the powder.

3) And today Obama officially announced his intention to test-fire the gun. From the Times: “Senator Barack Obama is announcing today that he is opening an exploratory committee for the Democratic presidential nomination.”

4) We’ve written more than once about the mystical and eerie connections between Vermont Daily Briefing and the Senator from Illinois, and they are eerie. Wicked eerie.

But the eeriest of all? In addition to announcing his exploratory committee today, Obama set a date for ending the speculation about his run: February 10.

Which would be — wait for it — VDB’s birthday. And you know what we want.

That’s right, baby: The White House. See you Thursday.

Lots of Obama video up on YouTube…

But, Barack2008 has some very nice short spots, like this one…

And this…

More here.

And don’t miss the latest Ebony Magazine cover story on Barack and Michelle Obama, America’s Next First Couple?

Go here for links to a slide show and video of the cover shoot.

Like that other right-leaning uber-strategist Frank Luntz, Dick Morris sees potential in an Obama candidacy… I know, I know…

Barack Obama can be whatever he wants to be

American politics alternates between periods in which we welcome partisan debate and those in which we demand consensus and conclusion. Confronted by new issues we turn to the left and to the right and ask each side to develop its ideas and flesh out its alternative for our consideration. During these times, moderates and synthesizers are doomed to defeat since they seem to ignore the problem, while polarizing figures take over. But once the debate has run its course, we make our collective national decisions and are no longer in the mood for unending debate. We want our will to be done by our elected officials with no more quarreling or sniping.

Obama has the opportunity to embody the emerging consensus, a broad national agreement reached from observation of trial and error over the past half decade. The bloody futility of our efforts to build a nation in Iraq have left us still committed to aggressive efforts to hunt down terrorists but determined to extricate ourselves from the mire. The effectiveness of our homeland security efforts and our concomitant horror at instances of mistaken imprisonment and unnecessarily intrusive government investigations have led us to demand a balance between aggressive investigation and protection of civil liberties. We want terrorists caught, interrogated, and locked up, but not tortured or sadistically humiliated.

Obama’s book reflects an intuitive grasp of this emerging consensus even if his voting record does not signal his agreement with it.

Obama winning the T-shirt primary

ON ONE T-SHIRT, he’s just a disembodied head.

On another, he’s a garishly colored four-pane Andy Warhol-esque piece of pop art.

On yet others, he’s referred to by name: “mama says vote for obama,” “OBAMA IS MY HOMEBOY” and the even more straightforward “OBAMA08″ and “BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT.”

It’s hard to believe that the nation is two years and nine days from inaugurating a new president. It’s even harder to believe that Barack Obama hasn’t even declared his candidacy.

Because in the world of political fashion, Barack Obama, the untested United States senator from Illinois, is a hit. A big hit. That is, if the 200,000 Obama products currently for sale through Foster City-based CafePress.com are any indication.

Call it an extension of the political blogosphere, an environment that’s given everyone a pulpit from which to preach. For at places like CafePress — where the average Joe Shmoe can electronically open shop in mere minutes and sell T-shirts, buttons, even doggie tees with custom-made designs — political activists are doing the same thing as those bloggers, only with tangible, and wearable, results.

They are, in essence, wearable blogs.

State to flirt with date for Obama

As U.S. Sen. Barack Obama mulls a presidential bid, his home state looks ready to try to give his potential candidacy a boost.

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) said Wednesday he wants to help Obama by moving Illinois’ 2008 presidential primary to Feb. 5 from March 18. A landslide win by Obama could help him raise campaign cash and give him political momentum heading into later contests.

Illinois would join a slew of states eyeing Feb. 5 primaries or caucuses. But only four — Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina — would hold presidential contests sooner.

‘’These states are . . . clearly not as representative of America as Illinois would be,'’ Madigan said, adding that the Democratic presidential nomination might be unofficially clinched by Illinois’ current mid-March primary date.

Honesty helps Obama separate past from future

Five reasons why it was good news for Sen. Barack Obama last week when The Washington Post published a front-page story about his use of cocaine when he was a teenager.

1. It was already old news about even older news.

2. The inevitable debate about youthful indiscretions and full disclosure can take place outside the heat of the campaign.

3. The debate is already settled.

4. The story has contributed to the bilious right-wing overreaction to Obama that will ultimately attract interest and support from moderates.

5. It’s a gut-check right when he needs one.

The Luntz Lexicon

But it is the Democrats who carry the advantage of novelty going into the 2008 election, particularly Senator Obama. Mr. Luntz suggests that Mr. Obama’s 2004 convention speech offers a good example of the communication techniques he advises. In one passage of that speech Mr. Obama declared, “We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States.” Mr. Luntz gives Mr. Obama high marks for this speech for several reasons: Mr. Obama speaks to the 70% of nonpartisan Americans who hate both the blue and red states, he invokes God and Little League, and he paints memorable visual pictures.

The sentence where God is mentioned, Mr. Luntz says, “is designed for conservative independents and even some Republicans. That says Democrats are not Godless. That the Democrats have a sense of spirituality.” As for Mr. Obama’s Little League reference, Mr. Luntz gives him points because “What can be more Norman Rockwell than Little League?” One of the concluding sentences in Mr. Obama’s speech, “We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America,” is particularly effective because Mr. Luntz notes that it is descriptive. “Stars and stripes immediately brings to mind a flag with beautiful colors,” Mr. Luntz says.

Republicans are not alone in their difficulty in clearly communicating their agenda to the public. Senator Clinton’s rhetorical technique is to divide the two parties into “us and them” whereas Mr. Obama’s speech brings people together. One of Mr. Luntz’s rules is that public officials speak “aspirationally” to the bulk of voters, who want to see themselves as patriotic and part of the mainstream, not partisan agitators. Mr. Obama’s “exact verbal opposite is Hillary Clinton. Left versus right, everyone else versus us, or wrong versus right. Her whole message is ‘we’re ok, they’re not.’ Barack Obama is the uniter. Hillary Clinton is the divider,” Mr. Luntz says.

Obama, Clinton Speak At Economic Forum In Midtown

Two of the biggest names considering a run for the White House spoke at a forum in Midtown Monday. NY1 Political reporter Rita Nissan filed the following report.

Illinois Senator Barack Obama was surrounded by African American leaders at an economic forum in Midtown Monday – the people he’ll need standing with him if he runs for president.

The Democrat spoke at the economic summit hosted by Reverend Jesse Jackson.

“Ultimately, you can have political equality, but if you don’t make progress on the economic front, then we’re just going to continue to have problems,” said Obama.

Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times writes up the Feingold/Obama ethics reform proposal…

Obama, weaned off of subsidized corporate planes, urges colleagues to do same in Senate ethics push.

By Lynn Sweet
Sun-Times Washington Bureau Chief
WASHINGTON — In symbol and substance, Senate Democrats are testing their new power, offering tougher ethics and lobbying rules as their first piece of legislation.

‘’At the end of the day, the Senate will pass the most sweeping reforms since Watergate,'’ predicted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Monday.

Reid was joined by Senate Democrats Barack Obama and Russ Feingold and eight Democratic freshmen sworn in last Thursday.

Reid sponsored S. 1, making the first bill an ethics and lobbying crackdown. The Senate starts debate on it today. It’s not as strong as the resolution the House passed last week, but Reid said he welcomed amendments to make it tougher.

‘’Hopefully I can support Senators Obama and Feingold and the freshmen on things they feel is important to do,'’ Reid said.

Obama and Feingold, in their ethics bill, call for the creation of an independent Office of Public Integrity; Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) also plans to call for the same in a bill he will sponsor.

Read more.

Margarent Carlson has a great piece on the double-standard that leads to heightened focus on the personal lives of Democrats, while Republicans get a pass.

In “For Obama, It’s Public Character That Counts,” Carlson writes…

The tempest over dumb things must have every candidate asking: Should anything personally unflattering come out about me, will I be given a free pass like George Bush or hounded like Bill Clinton?

Republican or Democrat?

It depends. Are you a Republican or Democrat? Republicans can be suspected of driving under the influence (Bush), have two wives (Senator John McCain) or three (Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani), or have affairs too many to list and not be pilloried.

Part of this comes from a tradition of sin, repentance and redemption among Republicans’ most steadfast supporters. Fundamentalist Christians wept over reports that megachurch pastor Ted Haggard, who had advised the White House on issues like gay marriage, had paid for sex with a male escort and bought crystal meth. Bush shrugged off his own debauchery as acting “young and irresponsible when I was young and irresponsible.'’ His version of life begins at 40.

By contrast, Al Gore was punished because Clinton took a tumble for a girl baring a thong while bearing a pizza, although everyone knew Gore himself was too busy charting global warming to order a large pie with pepperoni, much less notice who delivered it. Back then, extracurricular sex trumped drugs in the pantheon of personal demons, even if you weren’t the one having sex.

…

Even if the country’s experience with Bush makes inexperience the cardinal fault next time around, Obama, a mere state legislator in 2002, was dead-on correct about the seminal issue of our time. He had no illusions about the brutal butcher Saddam Hussein but said he could be contained until, like “all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.'’

Obama predicted that “even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.'’ He said it could also “fan the flames of the Middle East and encourage the worst … impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.'’

It’s quite a speech and prepared without old Washington hands. Lucky for us, Cheney and Rumsfeld never worked for Obama’s Dad. It could be lucky for us, too, if we don’t get diverted from Middle East terrorism and looming domestic crises. The private lives that interest us now are our own.

And here’s an excerpt from Obama’s op-ed in the Washington Post yesterday on ethics reform…

We must stop any and all practices that would lead a reasonable person to believe that a public servant has become indebted to a lobbyist. That means a full ban on gifts and meals. It means no free travel or subsidized travel on private jets. And it means closing the revolving door to ensure that Capitol Hill service — whether as a member of Congress or as a staffer — isn’t all about lining up a high-paying lobbying job. We should no longer tolerate a House committee chairman shepherding the Medicare prescription drug bill through Congress at the same time he’s negotiating for a job as the pharmaceutical industry’s top lobbyist.

But real reform also means real enforcement. We need to finally take the politics and the partisanship out of ethics investigations. Whether or not the House ethics committee has been covering for its colleagues, the secrecy with which its members have operated has led people to question why legislators who are serving jail time were not caught and stopped by the committee in the first place. It’s led people to wonder why Congress cannot seem to police itself.

I have long proposed a nonpartisan, independent ethics commission that would act as the American people’s public watchdog over Congress. The commission would be staffed with former judges and former members of Congress from both parties, and it would allow any citizen to report possible ethics violations by lawmakers, staff members or lobbyists. Once a potential violation is reported, the commission would have the authority to conduct investigations, issue subpoenas, gather records, call witnesses, and provide a report to the Justice Department or the House and Senate ethics committees that — unlike current ethics committee reports — is available for all citizens to read.