Men Free Blog

A few weeks ago, the press made a big deal about the fact that John McCain had more houses than he could recall off the cuff. Newsweek has taken the next logical step towards providing the all-important TMI by finding out how many cars each candidate owns.

Barack Obama and his wife Michelle make do with just one vehicle; a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid that replaced the senator’s un-PC but much cooler HEMI-powered Chrysler 300. McCain takes a more, ahem, liberal approach to vehicle ownership, with 13 cars and trucks to fill his seven garages. If we were wealthy and influential, we too would own a lot of cars. That would give us a tangible link to the Republican nominee, except for the fact that our collection of cars would be a hell of a lot cooler. McCain owns a 2004 Cadillac CTS as his daily driver, and it gets less interesting from there. Rounding out the Maverick’s sizable stable is a 2005 VW convertible, a 2001 Honda sedan, a 2007 Ford pickup, a 2008 Wrangler, a 2000 Lincoln, a 2001 GMC SUV, three 2000 NEV Gem electric cars, and a vintage 1960 Willys Jeep. McCain’s wife Cindy, who uses drifting as a form of therapy and sits atop a family fortune from her beer distribution company, drives a Lexus with “MS BUD” vanity plates.

Nothing in that crop of rides screams “I’m rich and powerful,” but if you have seven houses, it makes sense to have at least one vehicle at each residence. What doesn’t make sense is that all of those vehicles are about as exciting as sugar free tapioca pudding.

Tomorrow is the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner, and Reuters has come up with a bunch of cocktails inspired by some current Presidential candidates and other political people.

The Barack O’Bomber mixes vodka, Jagermeister, Red Bull, and a lime wedge. The Senior Moment (I’ll go out on a limb and assume they’re referring to McCain here) is a simple scotch on the rocks. And the McGreevey-Tini, which is a dirty martini that, of course, comes in three parts.

After the jump, the recipe for the Love Potion No. 9, inspired by a certain ex-Governor.
Love Potion No. 9 (or White Whine Spitzer)

white wine
seltzer water

In a wine glass

 top the white wine with the seltzer

Read

MEDFORD, Ore. - Former President Clinton is using divisive tactics and unfairly trying to question Barack Obama’s patriotism, a retired general who has a prominent role in the Democrat’s campaign said Saturday.

Merrill “Tony” McPeak said he was astonished and disappointed by recent comments Bill Clinton made while speculating about a general election between Obama’s Democratic rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Republican John McCain.

Standing next to Obama on stage at a campaign stop in southern Oregon, the retired Air Force chief of staff repeated Bill Clinton’s comments aloud to a silent audience.

The former president told a group of veterans Friday in Charlotte, N.C.: “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.”

McPeak, a co-chairman of Obama’s campaign, then said to his Oregon audience: “As one who for 37 years proudly wore the uniform of our country, I’m saddened to see a president employ these tactics. He of all people should know better because he was the target of exactly the same kind of tactics.”

That apparently was a reference to Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, when he was accused of dodging the Vietnam War draft.

Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, said Saturday that McPeak’s comments were a “deliberately pathetic misreading of what the president said.” Wolfson said the remarks had nothing to do with Obama and were merely meant to underscore the need to keep the presidential race focused on issues.

McPeak also had made off-the-cuff remarks to reporters Friday in comparing the former president’s comments with the actions of Joseph McCarthy, the 1950s communist-hunting senator.

“I grew up, I was going to college when Joe McCarthy was accusing good Americans of being traitors, so I’ve had enough of it,” McPeak said.

Wolfson called that comparison outrageous and called for a retraction.

“I think most Democrats were shocked to learn that a two-term Democratic president was compared to Joseph McCarthy,” he said.

McPeak was more scripted Saturday and joked that “occasionally I say something a little earthier.”

Last month, Obama’s wife, Michelle, drew criticism for telling an audience in Milwaukee, “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country. Not just because Barack is doing well, but I think people are hungry for change.”

The campaign clarified those comments by saying she was proud of U.S. politics for the first time and has always been proud of her country.

Both Bill Clinton and McPeak have been criticized in the past for their campaign comments. Following South Carolina’s primary in January, Clinton was accused of fanning racial tensions for appearing to cast Obama as little more than a black candidate popular in a state with a heavily black electorate.

In February, McPeak was forced to retract his comment that Obama “doesn’t go on television and have crying fits” — a reference to Hillary Clinton’s show of emotion while campaigning in New Hampshire. The Obama campaign in February said those comments “crossed the line,” but it offered no retraction to McPeak’s latest comments.

Source:news.yahoo

Actress Scarlett Johansson and jazz legend Herbie Hancock sing lines in the music video, created by Will.I.Am from pop group Black Eyed Peas.

The rapper was inspired to create the song, Yes We Can, after the Democratic candidate spoke in New Hampshire.

“That speech effected and touched my inner core like nothing in a very long time,” Will.I.Am said.

The result was produced in two days and has been watched by millions of internet users.

Others participants include R&B singer John Legend, rapper Common, basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, CSI star Adam Rodriquez and Pussycat Dolls frontwoman Nicole Scherzinger.

Obama approval

Will.I.Am explained: “It was as if he was talking to and defending everything that made me who I am.

“I took that speech, and I wanted everyone else to be inspired by that speech as I was.”

It has gone down well with Mr Obama.

The candidate has had it posted on his website and personally recommended it to journalists following his campaign.

But Will.I.Am said Mr Obama’s team has not been in touch personally: “They have more important things than to be contacting me to say thank you.

“If they had time to call me, I’d be panicking.”

Four years ago, the Black Eyed Peas supported Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
source:news.bbc.co.uk

WASHINGTON - Three days after the voting ended, the race for Democratic delegates in Super Tuesday’s contests was still too close to call. With nearly 1,600 delegates from Tuesday contests awarded, Sen. Barack Obama led by two delegates Friday night, with 91 delegates still to be awarded. Obama won 796 delegates in Tuesday’s contests, to 794 for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to an analysis of voting results by The Associated Press.
 
In the Republican contest, Sen. John McCain had a commanding lead in the race for delegates.

Nearly a third of the outstanding delegates are from Colorado, a state where Obama won the popular vote. California, a state that Clinton carried, had 20 Democratic delegates still to be awarded. Neither state expected to have complete results before next week.

Obama won the popular vote in 13 states Tuesday, while Clinton won in eight states and American Samoa.

In the overall race for the nomination, Clinton has 1,055 delegates, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates. Obama has 998.

A total of 2,025 delegates are need to secure the Democratic nomination.

Many delegates were outstanding because some states have been unable to provide all the votes in some congressional districts. The problems arose in states with counties that are split into multiple congressional districts.

The states have provided results in each county. But in some cases, they are still working to assign the votes in the appropriate congressional district.

Those votes are important because both parties award delegates based on statewide votes and on results in individual congressional districts. Democrats award them proportionally, meaning precise counts can be necessary, even when the vote is overwhelmingly in favor of one candidate.

In California, officials were still counting absentee ballots Friday. Officials had estimated that more than 1 million absentee ballots may have been submitted.

In Tuesday’s Republican contests, McCain won 617 delegates to 205 for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who suspended his campaign on Thursday. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won 155 and Rep. Ron Paul won 10. There are still 36 Republican delegates to be awarded from Tuesday’s contests.

In the overall race for the nomination, McCain leads with 719, to 198 for Huckabee and 14 for Paul. Romney’s suspended campaign still has 298 delegates.

A total of 1,191 delegates are needed to secure the Republican nomination.

The AP tracks the delegate races by projecting the number of national convention delegates won by candidates in each presidential primary or caucus, based on state and national party rules, and by interviewing unpledged delegates to obtain their preferences.

In some states, like Iowa and Nevada, local precinct caucuses are the first stage in the allocation process. The AP uses preferences expressed in those caucuses to project the number of national convention delegates each candidate will have when they are chosen at county, congressional district or state conventions.

source:news.yahoo

WASHINGTON - Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton competed for Democratic convention delegates across three states on Saturday, locked in a landmark struggle for the party’s presidential nomination.
A total of 158 delegates was at stake in the Louisiana primary and caucuses in Nebraska and Washington. Caucuses in the Virgin Islands offered three more.

Clinton began the day with a slender delegate lead in The Associated Press count. She had 1,045 delegates to 960 for Obama. A total of 2,025 is required to win the nomination at the party convention in Denver.

Republican contests in Louisiana, Kansas and Guam provided John McCain a chance to advance closer to the 1,191 delegates he needs to make his nomination official.

The Arizona senator began the day with 707 delegates. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, with 195, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, with 14, were his only remaining rivals following Mitt Romney’s withdrawal from the race.

The day’s contests opened a new phase in the Democratic race between Clinton, attempting to become the first woman in the White House, and Obama, hoping to become the first black.

The Feb. 5 Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses in 22 states, which once looked likely to effectively settle the race, instead produced a near-equal delegate split.

That left Obama and Clinton facing the likelihood of a grind-it-out competition lasting into spring — if not to the convention itself.

With the night’s events, 29 of the 50 states have selected delegates.

Two more — Michigan and Florida — held renegade primaries and the Democratic National Committee has vowed not to seat any delegates chosen at either of them.

Maine, with 24 delegates, holds caucuses on Sunday. Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia and voting by Americans overseas are next, on Tuesday, with 175 combined.

Then follows a brief intermission, followed by a string of election nights, some crowded, some not.

The date of March 4 looms large, 370 delegates in primaries in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Mississippi is alone in holding a primary one week later, with a relatively small 33 delegates at stake.

Puerto Rico anchors the Democratic calendar, with 55 delegates chosen in caucuses on June 7.

If Super Tuesday failed to settle the campaign, it produced a remarkable surge in fundraising.

Obama’s aides announced he had raised more than $7 million on line in the two days that followed.

Clinton disclosed she had loaned her campaign $5 million late last month in an attempt to counter her rival’s Super Tuesday television advertising. She raised more than $6 million in the two days after the busiest night in primary history.

The television ad wars continued unabated.

Obama has been airing commercials for more than a week in television markets serving every state that has a contest though Feb 19.

Clinton began airing ads midweek in Washington state, Maine and Nebraska, and added Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia on Friday.
source:news.yahoo