Words are Important

Lots to write about from this week:

First, Barack Obama's talk on race Tuesday from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWe7wTVbLUU

It is still unknown whether it will help or hurt his candidacy, but this speech will probably be viewed for many years as a landmark in the discussion of race in the US.

Michigan and Florida decide they don't know how to vote...again. It is not clear what will happen, but for now at least, this is not good for the Clinton campaign and could be problematic for the Democratic nominee in those states in the general election.

Bill Clinton's statement on Friday to a group of veterans in Charlotte, NC that was later derided by Obama co-chairman Merrill "Tony" McPeak and compared to tactics used by Joseph McCarthy. Read Clinton's words and decide for yourself what they mean:

"I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country. And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics."

The mainstream media seems to be siding with McPeak on this one. Sorry, not buying it. I kept reading articles to see what else Bill Clinton had said later in the speech that could add to this interpretation. Nothing. The above statement was it. The statement is so amorphous that it could mean a lot of different things, but most likely not what McPeak claimed. That didn't stop the talking heads on Sunday morning news shows from chiming in that it was a Clinton attack on Obama's patriotism. However, later on Sunday, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who recently came out as a supporter of Barack Obama, made it clear that he did not think Clinton meant anything remotely close to the McPeak interpretation.

John McCain is doing his world tour and made a "Ford-esque" slip (was it a slip?) claiming that Iranian operatives in Iraq have been "taking al Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back". I guess a little Sunni / Shiite primer would have been helpful. In many ways this statement or mis-statement has much greater implications on the general election than anything Bill Clinton could ever say, but guess which one is getting more mileage in the media? McCain is getting a free pass on this one because he has more international affairs experience, but how would it have been treated if the exact same words were uttered by Obama or Clinton? When McCain grilled Obama about "al Qaeda in Iraq" that seemed to be shown every hour. Note to John McCain - not every extremist is a member of al Qaeda. Isn't that the mistake or misinformation the Bush administration made just prior to us getting involved in Iraq?

Finally, the Passport files of all 3 candidates were accessed without authorization. We have not heard the last of this. Stay tuned as details come out.