In an article by Carl Huse the New York Times questions whether John McCain’s unique birthplace still makes him eligible to be president. At issue is the constitutions use of the word “natural born citizen” as a qualifier for eligibility for the highest office and McCain’s birth on a military base in the canal zone where is father was stationed.

The Times reports that McCain’s camp is certain he is eligible, this is the second time he has run for the job after all, but just to be sure the Senator’s team asked Ted Olsen to prepare a legal defense of the issue.

The basic finding of the article is that there is nothing to expressly forbid McCain from taking the office, nothing to expressly promise that it is legal. While candidates who are American citizens but born outside the US have run, none of them have ever taken the oath, giving us one more sign that whomever takes the Oval this year of the three frontrunners, this will be an election of firsts.

Bloomberg makes it official in Thursday New York Times op-ed that he will not run for president. So, as I have pointed out dozens of times in this blog, if you were a better person it would have worked out best to just trust the first hundred times he was denying he would run for president.

I am not — and will not be — a candidate for president. But I’ll join others in helping a candidate with an independent, nonpartisan approach win the White House.

I am not the only one fascinated by Chris Matthews man-love for Barack Obama, check out Chris Matthew’s Leg which according to the commentator gets a funny “feeling” when Obama speaks.

photo credit: dreamymo

Heading for that second or third cup of coffee to get you through the last hour of work? I know the feeling and hope you enjoy!

Here is what you might have missed while making spreadsheets or attending meetings.

- Superdelegates continue their move to Obama, new endorsements for Obama. North Dakota Senator Dorgan, former Clinton supporter and Civil Rights hero Congressman John Lewis.

- Hillary Clinton will not release her tax-returns until April despite calls from the Obama camp that she do so after it was revealed that she put her own money into campaign.

- Bill Clinton went after Barack Obama’s position on manned space exploration while visiting Texas while John McCain began a war of words with the Illinois Senator over Iraq policy.

- The White House is blaming the Clintons for a delay in releasing 11,000 documents relating to Sen. Clinton’s years as the First Lady. Because of a law in place since 2001 Bill Clinton needs to give approval for the release of those documents, which WH spokesperson Dana Perino says they have ready to go. They just need Bill to give the OK.

- The Tennessee Republican Party produced a press release entitled “Anti-Semites for Obama” which attacks the Senator’s ties to Louis Farrahkan. It also uses the Senator’s middle name “Hussein” and launches other charges in an attempt to link the Senator to terrorism. The Knoxville News reports that the Party stands by the release.

- Above the Law breaks down some numbers on what an Obama presidency will do to those earning big bucks in America.

- Radio personality Bill Cunningham dropped the “Hussein” middle name several times during a McCain event leaving the candidate apologizing. In response Cunningham defended his words and trashed McCain on FOX News.

Now head back to work or head home and enjoy the rest of the day!

Today conservative thinker and commentator William F. Buckley passed away in his study at the age of 82.

As a tribute, Andrew Sullivan in addition to writing about the author, posted some YouTube videos of the rightest thinker Buckley taking on the leftist thinker Noam Chomsky. When you spend time studying in a liberal arts focused college learning about media as I did, you spend far more time on the thoughts of those like Chomsky than you do William F. Buckley Jr. With that said my post-college years have afforded me more time to study conservative thought and though I don’t have much experiencing consuming his work first hand, his influence spreads far and wide and ideas have much of what I have read.

So joining Sullivan, here are some moments from YouTube.

photo credit: nukeit1

While Clinton and Obama were discussing Iraq during the debate last night I looked over at my wife and said “well, McCain is going to hammer one or both of them really hard tomorrow.” Looking at Mark Halperin’s page today, I learned I was right!

Last night Tim Russert asked both candidates what they would do if leaving in Iraq meant allowing al Qaeda to create a refortify and take over the country. Specifically he wanted to know if they would reserve the right to send troops to reinvade Iraq later. Obama said the US would have to return if that occurred.

Today in Tyler, Texas McCain had this to say:

“I have some news,” McCain told voters at a rally here Wednesday morning. “Al-Qaeda is in Iraq. Al-Qaeda is called al-Qaeda in Iraq. My friends, if we left, they wouldn’t be establishing a base…they would be taking a country. I will not allow that to happen my friends. I will not surrender. I will not surrender to al-Qaeda.”

McCain went on to say: “When you examine that statement, it’s pretty remarkable.”

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photo credit: pingnews.com

Speaking in Houston Texas President Clinton discussed differences between his wife and Senator Obama concerning manned spaceflight.

“This is the center of the manned space program and everyone here is proud of it I think,” Bill Clinton told a crowd gathered in a Houston park for an early voting rally.

“There was a huge difference on the two candidates about this. Hillary has always supported the manned space program just as I did when I was President. Her opponent says we should downgrade man space travel and upgrade robotic travel. There are 16,000 jobs and a lot of Americans’ futures riding on this centered here in Houston,” Bill Clinton said.

“You have to make a decision whether you care about this. But if you want to keep the manned space program and you don’t want to worry about it, you need leadership you can count on and your only choice is Hillary for President,” Clinton went on to say.

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photo credit: jetheriot

The Obama campaign has now collected donations from over a million individuals shattering records and undoubtedly giving both Clinton and McCain pause.

What does this mean for campaign finance reform advocates wanting to see a general election financed by the public for both the Republican and Democratic candidates? It means, keep dreaming. I could be wrong but Obama has been under the gun for seemingly backtracking on a previous statement saying he would support such a system in the general but how can he not? With the striking amounts of money he is raising, I cannot imagine his campaign will buy into such an agreement.

What does this mean for the primary campaign? An Obama blitz of the airwaves. Clinton ad maker Mandy Grunwald has said “Between Obama’s own spending and two unions spending on his behalf, Clinton is being outspent four-to-one in Ohio and between two-to-one and three-to-one in Texas” reported by Posted in Barack Obama | No Comments »