PNL si PSD si-au facut un obiectiv de prim-rang din eliminarea Elenei Udrea din viitorul parlament, in spatele usilor inchise avand loc, inaintea campaniei, numeroase discutii legate de persoana care sa ii fie contracandidat in colegiu. Motivul e simplu: prin prestatiile ei televizate, Udrea a enervat, de-a lungul timpului, nume grele din ambele formatiuni, asa ca trebuie cu orice pret “executata”.

Bogdan Tiberiu Iacob

Pentru ca PNL, aflat in criza de candidati notorii la uninominale, nu a gasit ceva corespunzator, sarcina de a-i gasi un adversar a fost transferat viitorului aliat la guvernare, PSD. Portretul-robot al contracandidatului perfect a fost stabilit astfel: obligatoriu femeie, cu maxima notorietate si capacitate de implicare in meciuri politice, a se citi scandal. Prima varianta, Ecaterina Andronescu, a fost exclusa din start, asa ca s-a ales solutia Lavinia Sandru, tanara, frumoasa si rea de gura.
Din nefericire, planul a fost dat peste cap de Ion Iliescu, cel care a amenintat cu demisia daca oamenii PIN sunt primiti in partid. Varianta de criza, Luminita Anghel, a fost sugerata, din informatiile noastre, de catre unii lideri mai tineri ai PSD, cu o bogata viata de noapte prin cluburi de fite. Asta pentru ca, in mediul amintit, impresarul si iubitul artistei, Bogdan Friedrich, a tot vorbit pe larg, in ultimul an, despre disponibilitatea Luminitei de a intra in politica. Cum artista corespundea foarte bine, avand o notorietate maxima din cauza scandalurilor pe toata linia in presa (divorturi, certuri, afaceri etc), ea a primit OK-ul de la mai-marii PSD, cu Vanghelie in frunte, desi avea vechime zero in partid. Ceea ce se stie mai putin, insa, este ca partidul la usa caruia Luminita Anghel a batut, mai demult, dar a fost refuzata, este tocmai PD-L.

Citeste tot articolul pe cancan.ro

written by Ade

(CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama told voters on Monday that “we are one week away from changing America.”

Delivering what his campaign billed as his “closing argument,” Obama told a crowd in Canton, Ohio, that “there’s so much at stake” in the week ahead.

“We cannot let up for one day, one minute, or one second in this last week. Not now,” he said.

The Democratic candidate, who has a sizeable lead in national polls, warned against acting like the election is already over.

“Don’t think for a minute that power concedes. We have a lot of work to do. We have to work like our future depends on it in this last week, because it does depend on it this week,” he said.

Obama told voters it was up to them to “give this country the change we need,” as he tried to make the case that Sen. John McCain is too similar to President Bush to bring about that change.

“Sen. McCain says that we can’t spend the next four years waiting for our luck to change, but you understand that the biggest gamble we can take is to embrace the same old Bush-McCain policies that have failed us for the last eight years,” Obama said. Watch more on Obama’s final push »

McCain on Monday sought to assure voters that his administration would be far different from the Bush administration.

“This is the fundamental difference between Sen. Obama and me — the fundamental difference. We both disagree with President Bush on economic policy. The difference is that he thinks taxes have been too low, and I think that spending has been too high,” McCain said following a meeting with economic and business leaders in Cleveland, Ohio.

Read more on CNN.com

written by Andrew

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Republican John McCain stepped up his assault on Democratic rival Barack Obama as he campaigned energetically in the West, claiming Saturday a home-court edge in crucial battleground states in the region.

“I’m a fellow Westerner, I understand the issues, I understand the challenges the great Western states face,” said McCain, an Arizona senator. “We know what our great Southwest is, we welcome it and I’m proud to be a senator from the West.”

McCain continued to portray Obama — a senator from Illinois — as a tax-and-spend liberal certain to push for more government and higher spending, but he added a twist as he stumped through New Mexico and Texas.

“Sen. Obama has never been south of the border,” said McCain, arguing that he has a feel for issues like water that resonate throughout the region.

McCain also pointed to the likelihood that Democrats would continue controlling Congress after the election, meaning winning the White House would give the party total control of the government. He warned that a “Democratic congressional agenda” would become the nation’s should Obama win.

With polls showing him behind Obama nationally, McCain pledged a scrappy close to the campaign.

“We’re a few points down and the pundits, of course, as they have four or five times, have written us off,” he said. “We’ve got them just where we want them. We like being the underdog.”

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written by Andrew

(CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama said Wednesday that the country needs a leader who “understands the connection between our economy and our strength in the world.”

“We often hear about two debates — one on national security and one on the economy — but that’s a false distinction.

“We can’t afford another president who ignores the fundamentals of our economy while running up record deficits to fight a war without end in Iraq,” he told reporters following a meeting on national security policy.

Obama charged that Sen. John McCain would continue “the policies that have put our economy into crisis and, I believe, endangered our national security.”

Obama downplayed remarks from Sen. Joe Biden, who said this weekend that there could be an “international crisis” to test Obama.

“I think that Joe sometimes engages in rhetorical flourishes but I think that his core point was that the next administration is going to be tested regardless of who it is,” Obama said.

McCain’s campaign said Obama was trying to “reduce Sen. Biden’s predictions.”

“Judgment to lead? It’s not leadership for Barack Obama to promise to be straight with Americans, only to dismiss serious statements and concern from his own running mate as simple ‘rhetorical flourishes,’” spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement.

Obama’s remarks come as the Democrat holds a sizeable lead over McCain, according to CNN’s latest average of national polls. He is ahead of McCain by seven points — 50 percent to 43 percent. Watch more on the state of the race »

Read more on CNN.com

written by Andrew

WASHINGTON – The presidential race tightened after the final debate, with John McCain gaining among whites and people earning less than $50,000, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that shows McCain and Barack Obama essentially running even among likely voters in the election homestretch.

The poll, which found Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 43 percent, supports what some Republicans and Democrats privately have said in recent days: that the race narrowed after the third debate as GOP-leaning voters drifted home to their party and McCain’s “Joe the plumber” analogy struck a chord.

Three weeks ago, an AP-GfK survey found that Obama had surged to a seven-point lead over McCain, lifted by voters who thought the Democrat was better suited to lead the nation through its sudden economic crisis.

The contest is still volatile, and the split among voters is apparent less than two weeks before Election Day.

“I trust McCain more, and I do feel that he has more experience in government than Obama. I don’t think Obama has been around long enough,” said Angela Decker, 44, of La Porte, Ind.

But Karen Judd, 58, of Middleton, Wis., said, “Obama certainly has sufficient qualifications.” She said any positive feelings about McCain evaporated with “the outright lying” in TV ads and his choice of running mate Sarah Palin, who “doesn’t have the correct skills.”

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written by Andrew

(CNN) – Gov. Sarah Palin continued the GOP offensive Sunday, attacking Sen. Barack Obama’s tax plan as “socialist,” and though Sen. John McCain tempered his allegations, his message was the same.

The Palin-McCain line of attack was also echoed at an Orlando, Florida, event by their GOP colleague, Sen. Mel Martinez, who likened Obama’s tax plan to communist Cuba.

“Where I come from, where I was raised, they tried wealth redistribution,” the Cuban-American senator said. “We don’t need that here. That’s called socialism, communism — not Americanism.”

McCain dodged a question from Fox News’ Chris Wallace about whether Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, was a socialist himself, but McCain criticized Obama’s tax plan, which he dubbed an effort “to spread the wealth.”

“That’s one of the tenets of socialism,” McCain said. “But it’s more the liberal left, which he’s always been on. He’s always been in the left lane of American politics.”

Palin, McCain’s vice presidential pick, was more blunt in her Sunday remarks to supporters in Roswell, New Mexico.

“Barack Obama calls it spreading the wealth,” she said. “[Democratic vice-presidential candidate] Joe Biden calls higher taxes patriotic. But Joe the plumber and Ed the dairy man, I believe that they think that it sounds more like socialism. Friends, now is no time to experiment with socialism.” Watch Obama defend his plan »

Read more on CNN.com

written by Andrew

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - John McCain repeatedly assailed Barack Obama’s character and campaign positions on taxes, abortion and more Wednesday night, hoping to transform their final presidential debate into a launching pad for a political comeback. “You didn’t tell the American people the truth,” he charged.

Unruffled, and ahead in the polls, Obama parried each accusation, and leveled a few of his own.

“One hundred percent, John, of your ads, 100 percent of them have been negative,” Obama shot back in an uncommonly personal debate less than three weeks from Election Day.

“It’s not true,” McCain retorted.

“It absolutely is true,” said Obama, seeking the last word.

McCain is currently running all negative ads, according to a study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But he has run a number of positive ads during the campaign.

The 90-minute encounter, seated at a round table at Hofstra University, was their third debate, and marked the beginning of a 20-day sprint to Election Day. Obama leads in the national polls and in surveys in many battleground states, an advantage built in the weeks since the nation stumbled into the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.

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written by Andrew

TOLEDO, Ohio, Oct 15, 2008 (AFP) - Republican John McCain has a third and final chance to debate his way back into contention when he faces his hard-charging White House rival Barack Obama in New York later Wednesday.

McCain, who was down a whopping 14 points in one new poll as the United States weathers its worst financial crisis in decades, talked tough heading into the last presidential debate before the November 4 vote.

At the weekend, McCain promised to Virginia supporters he would “whip” his Democratic opponent’s “you know what” during the evening debate starting at 0100 GMT at Hofstra University on Long Island.

On Tuesday, as he issued the latest version of his plan to end the financial tumult, the Arizona senator vowed to bring up Obama’s links to 1960s radical turned Chicago education professor William Ayers.

“It’s not that I give a damn about some old washed-up terrorist and his terrorist wife,” McCain, 72, told KMOX radio in Saint Louis, Missouri.

“What I care about and what the American people care about is whether he (Obama) is being truthful with the American people.”

But as millions of voters fret about possibly losing their jobs and health care, the perils of a negative strategy from McCain are clear as Obama, 47, builds up a commanding lead in several polls .

A New York Times-CBS News poll late Tuesday had Obama ahead of McCain by the huge margin of 14 points, 53 to 39 percent, compared to a lead of just three points before last week’s second presidential debate.

Read more on yahoo.com

written by Andrew

WASHINGTON - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton puts the chances of her running for president again at near zero — slightly higher than the chances she gives for becoming Senate majority leader or a Supreme Court justice.

In an interview aired Tuesday on “Fox & Friends” on the Fox News Channel, Clinton, D-N.Y., was asked the chances, on a scale of 1 to 10, that she would be the next majority leader in the Senate.

“Oh, probably zero,” she said. “I’m not seeking any other position than to be the best senator from New York that I can be.”

Being nominated to the Supreme Court?

“Zero,” Clinton said. “I have no interest in doing that.”

Running for president again?

“Probably close to zero,” she said. “There’s an old saying: Bloom where you’re planted.”

The former first lady, who was elected to the Senate in 2000 and re-elected in 2006, said she looked forward to working as a senator with a Barack Obama administration.

Source: yahoo.com

written by Andrew

WASHINGTON - GOP presidential nominee John McCain has past connections to a private group that supplied aid to guerrillas seeking to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua in the Iran-Contra affair.

McCain’s ties are facing renewed scrutiny after his campaign criticized Barack Obama for his link to a former radical who engaged in violent acts 40 years ago.

The U.S. Council for World Freedom was part of an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America. The group was dedicated to stamping out communism around the globe.

The council’s founder, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, said McCain became associated with the organization in the early 1980s as McCain was launching his political career in Arizona. Singlaub said McCain was a supporter but not an active member in the group.

“McCain was a new guy on the block learning the ropes,” Singlaub told The Associated Press in an interview. “I think I met him in the Washington area when he was just a new congressman. We had McCain on the board to make him feel like he wasn’t left out. It looks good to have names on a letterhead who are well-known and appreciated.

“I don’t recall talking to McCain at all on the work of the group,” Singlaub said.

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written by Andrew