All Blog Posts from Horserace

President-elect Barack Obama today offered kind words for President Bush's work on AIDS in Africa in videotaped remarks to the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health.

At the Washington DC forum marking the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, Obama said he "salute[s] President Bush for his leadership in crafting a plan for AIDS relief in Africa and backing it up with funding dedicated to saving lives and preventing the spread of the disease."

The president-elect vowed to "continue this critical work to address the crisis around the world."

Read full post…

President-elect Barack Obama today offered kind words for President Bush's work on AIDS in Africa in videotaped remarks to the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health.

At the Washington DC forum marking the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, Obama said he "salute[s] President Bush for his leadership in crafting a plan for AIDS relief in Africa and backing it up with funding dedicated to saving lives and preventing the spread of the disease."

The president-elect vowed to "continue this critical work to address the crisis around the world."

Read full post…

Reviews are flooding in on President-elect Obama’s selections for his national security and foreign policy team but one in particular stuck out of the in-box – a statement from former President Bill Clinton, who was quick to laud the selection of his wife, Hillary Clinton, to be Secretary of State. Here’s the full text:

As an American, I am thankful that President-elect Barack Obama has asked Hillary to be Secretary of State and that she has accepted. As her husband, I am deeply proud.

She is the right person for the job of helping to restore America's image abroad, end the war in Iraq, advance peace and increase our security, by building a future for our children with more partners and fewer adversaries, one of shared responsibilities and opportunities.

She has already earned the respect of foreign leaders and diplomats through her work to promote human rights and the empowerment of women through access to education, healthcare and economic opportunity. And Americans know, from her leadership in the Senate on national security, that she will always put the security, values and the interests of our people first.

In her service to the people of New York and our nation, Hillary has demonstrated the knowledge, passion, resilience, and capacity to learn that our country needs at this critical time. She loves being a Senator from New York, but as she has in all the thirty-seven years I've known her, she answered the call to serve. I commend President-Elect Obama for asking her to be a part of a great national security team. America will be well-served.

A new analysis by Nielsen gives a final look at the ad disparity Republican John McCain faced during his campaign against Barack Obama – particularly on in local markets. In the period between June and Election Day, Obama’s campaign ran 419,667 ads locally compared to just 269,992 run by McCain.

That was a greater difference than ads run on national cable and networks. Between January and November, Obama’s campaign ran 3,004 national ads compared to 2,868 for McCain. Among the other findings of the analysis, Nielsen found that Obama’s ads were run twice as much as McCain’s in the last month of the election and that both candidates combined for 850,000 ads in all between January and November. Check out Nielsen’s media blog for more.

[Arden Farhi of the CBS News digital team sat down with Craig Robinson, the head basketball coach for Oregon State University and brother to incoming First Lady Michelle Obama to talk about the 2008 presidential campaign. Here’s his report:]

When first-term senator Barack Obama announced his campaign for the presidency of the United States way back in February of 2007, critics called him green; that he wasn't ready for a grueling campaign or the Oval Office.

One of those critics was his wife, says Craig Robinson, the President-Elect's brother in law.

"When I first heard about Barack running for president, I might have been one of the few people in my family that was all for it," says Robinson.

"My sister and my mom were against it," Robinson says, referring to Michelle Obama and their mom Marian Robinson. "Barack asked me to talk to my sister and my mom because there was no way he could undertake something of this magnitude without having both of them on board."

Robinson has spent much of the last year campaigning on behalf of his sister's husband, holding events in Oregon, speaking at the Democratic National Convention and appearing on stage at the Obama victory rally in Chicago on election night.

The campaign was a family affair, says Robinson. "We all agreed to help out with this, we just didn't realize he would win."

Last week I sat down with Robinson at a hotel in Washington, DC. Robinson is in his first year as head men's basketball coach at Oregon State University and takes over a team that did not win a single game in its conference last year.

President-elect Barack Obama has waded into the Georgia senate runoff by cutting an ad for Democratic candidate Jim Martin. John McCain and a bevy of Republicans have stumped in the state for Senator Saxby Chambliss and Martin has had some high-profile help himself, but this marks the first time the incoming president has made a direct appearance in the campaign. Script:

This is Barack Obama. I want to thank everybody who turned out and voted for me in November. Together, we can get America moving again.

But the elections aren’t over. In Georgia, there’s a runoff on Tuesday, Dec. 2. And I want to urge you to turn out one more time and help elect Jim Martin to the United States Senate.

Jim supports my plan to cut middle-class taxes, make sure every American has access to affordable health care, stop spending $10 billion a month in Iraq, and get our economy moving again.

Jim Martin’s a man of his word. And I know he’ll do everything he can in the Senate to help me change Washington and get America moving again.
Please join me in supporting Jim Martin for the United States Senate, on Tuesday, Dec. 2. And head to the polls just one more time this year.

Actress/comedian Tina Fey gained a lot of much-deserved attention (and ratings) for her spot-on impersonation of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live,” but in retrospect, it may have been another of the show’s creations that captured the true zeitgeist of the 2008 election.

In the weeks leading up to Election Day, Keenan Thompson played a “financial expert” for the show’s “Weekend Update” segments named Oscar Rogers, a not-so-subtle nod to the hoards of real such experts who have flooded TV screens throughout the current financial crisis. Nattily attired as if he just stepped off the market floor, this sage dispenser of financial advice had just one thing to say – somebody better “fix it!”

“How do we go about fixing it specifically?” he asked. “Take it one step at a time. Identify the problem -- fix it! Identify another problem -- fix it! Proceed as necessary until it is all fixed!” (You can watch the performance here, it’s about 2:10 into the clip).

A big part of the reason why President-election Barack Obama’s message of “change” resonated so powerfully was the sense among the electorate that things were broken and needed to be fixed, especially on the economy which voters consistently said was the most important issue by far. Less obvious is whether they voted for any specific remedy or simply a wholesale change to --- something.

Read full post…

CBS News’ Election and Survey Unit’s survey analyst Jennifer De Pinto goes inside the exit polls once again to examine the impact of the Hispanic vote on the 2008 presidential election:

Hispanics were a key factor in President-elect Barack Obama’s victory. He captured the support of 67 percent of this group, an increase of 14 points over John Kerry’s 53 percent in 2004. Republican nominee John McCain took just 31 percent, down from the 44 percent President Bush received in 2004.

Yet, these voters were not solidly behind Obama during the Democratic primaries. In fact, Hillary Clinton won the support of about six in 10 Hispanics in those contests and they were essential to her victories in the California and Texas primaries.

As the primaries ended and the general election campaign got underway, Hispanics warmed to Obama. A troubled economy and dissatisfaction with the current President and his party drove more Hispanics to the Democratic column this time around.

Read full post…

CBS News’ Election and Survey Unit’s survey analyst Jennifer De Pinto goes inside the exit polls once again to examine the impact of the Hispanic vote on the 2008 presidential election:

Hispanics were a key factor in President-elect Barack Obama’s victory. He captured the support of 67 percent of this group, an increase of 14 points over John Kerry’s 53 percent in 2004. Republican nominee John McCain took just 31 percent, down from the 44 percent President Bush received in 2004.

Yet, these voters were not solidly behind Obama during the Democratic primaries. In fact, Hillary Clinton won the support of about six in 10 Hispanics in those contests and they were essential to her victories in the California and Texas primaries.

As the primaries ended and the general election campaign got underway, Hispanics warmed to Obama. A troubled economy and dissatisfaction with the current President and his party drove more Hispanics to the Democratic column this time around.

Read full post…

President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign was defined by a lack of drama – steady, methodical and virtually leak-proof. In the early days of the transition, however, the team that redefined stoic is finding things a little more chaotic in Washington. And no place is that more evident than the ongoing drama over the possible appointment of New York Senator Hillary Clinton to become Secretary of State.

Those who thought the primary drama was left behind at the Democratic convention in Denver (or at least on Election Day) may not have seen this one coming. What is very obvious at the moment is that Clinton is indeed being “vetted” for the post. What’s not so clear is whether all this fuss is worth the risks to the incoming administration.

On the surface, the consideration suggests some real reconciliation between the two former primary rivals. Clinton’s level of support for the Democratic nominee continued to dog the party long after the last votes were cast for the nomination. Many of her supporters were infuriated at what they felt to be a slight when the senator was not vetted to become the vice presidential running mate. And the split in the party dominated the initial days of the national convention.

Now she’s getting a serious look for one of the most important positions in the administration. But, as the New York Times and several other outlets have detailed, it’s not an uncomplicated matter due to former president Clinton’s post-presidential activities. Yet unrevealed sources of funding for his presidential library and the Clinton Foundation’s involvement with foreign governments are but two of the potential stumbling blocks on the way to getting it done.

Read full post…