THE OFFICIAL COLLEGE OUTREACH ARM OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Rena Silverman
About the Author
Can you tell for whom I'm casting my vote? a Hill of a blog by Rena Silverman

As Secretary of State, women's rights champion Sen. Clinton will have the opportunity to act as an ambassador for women and girls worldwide, say advocates of international women's health. read more...
According to the Political Wire, "Brian Adams, a mathematics and computer science professor at Franklin & Marshall College, reports that there's a 99.98% chance that Sen. Barack Obama will win the presidential election on Tuesday."   Read More »
Excerpts from Joe McCain 911, police call

(re: I'm stuck in traffc)

 


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With the job market crashing into a pile of empty laws, it is important to write to as many media sources, government offices, and local officials as possible, stressing the following points:   Read More »

Fighting For Puerto Rico’s Soldiers and Veterans: During a conversation with the family of a Puerto Rican soldier who had fought in Iraq, Hillary promised that “[w]hen I’m president, we will begin ending the war in Iraq, and you won’t have to worry about [your son] going back…Our veterans deserve a commander in chief who will take care of them, and I will.” 

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ELECTION DAY IN PENNSYLVANIA


* With two wars being fought overseas and an economic crisis here at home, the need for action has never been greater.



* The time for speeches and rhetoric has passed. There is no time for on the job training.



* We need a president who is ready to act on day one. Someone who has the experience to get us back on the right track after eight years of decline.



* I know that Hillary Clinton is the one to get the job done and Pennsylvania is working hard on her behalf.



* We have an extremely strong organization on the ground in Pennsylvania. We have dozens of offices throughout the state, hundreds of experienced staffers, and thousands of volunteers.



* No matter how much the other side spends on advertising, we know we’re ready to compete and win at the grassroots level throughout Pennsylvania.



* From now until Election Day, thousands of supporters " both staff and volunteers " will be canvassing across the state, going door to door, manning phone banks, and holding visibilities on street corners and high-traffic areas.



* Our campaign is running a robust, aggressive operation in literally every corner of the state. Hillary has been criss-crossing Pennsylvania, talking to voters and discussing the issues that are important to them, like the economy, health care, education, and the Iraq war.



* We’re not taking any vote for granted and we don’t concede a single vote to the other side. It’s going to be a close election right up until the very end.



* If you need to report any voting problems or if you are unsure of your polling location, please visit www.hillaryclinton.com/pa or call us Toll Free at 877-447-2408.



* We’re going to keep fighting right up until polls close and we feel good about all the hard work we’ve done in Pennsylvania.   Read More »


Gallup Poll Daily tracking shows that Hillary Clinton now receives 46% of the support of Democrats nationally, compared to 45% for Barack Obama, marking the first time Obama has not led in Gallup's daily tracking since March 18-20.   Read More »
A major theme of Sen. Obama on the stump is that Hillary Clinton is running a negative campaign based on "slash and burn politics" and that he represents a break from that kind of politics. In fact, in just the last 48-hours, Sen. Obama has flooded airwaves, radio, phone lines and mailboxes with negative and false attacks against Hillary. This unprecedented barrage coincides with a weak debate performance and Sen. Obama's slide in the daily Gallup poll....   Read More »
Hillary Clinton: Ready to End the War in Iraq
 

Today, in Radnor, Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton was joined by Congressman and retired vice admiral Joe Sestak as she outlined her plan to end the war responsibly. Five years after the start of the war, we have come to a crossroads. The war has sapped our military and economic strength, damaged U.S. national security, taken the lives of almost 4,000 brave young men and women in uniform, and placed a lasting toll on the tens of thousands of wounded, many with invisible injuries like Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Bush-Cheney-McCain strategy is to continue this failed policy. We need to end this war and bring our troops home swiftly, responsibly, and safely. We need to press the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own country. We need to rebuild our alliances and enlist the international community in securing stability in Iraq and the region....
   

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Clinton Adds Three Super Delegates Former NJ Governors Jim Florio & Brendan Byrne, follow US Rep Betty Sutton (D-OH) in pledging their support to Hillary...   Read More »
Second Seder - Sunday, April 20th at 8:00 pm

Penn Hillel
215 S. 39th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104

To make a reservation or to receive additional information about Passover at Steinhardt Hall, please email gray-joelen@armark.com or call (215) 573-7596.

Reservations must be made and paid for 24 hours prior to dining. Customers can stop in the Falk Dining Room to pay by cash. Reservations can also be made by phone and paid for by credit card at (215) 573-7596, or checks can be written and mailed prior to dining to Aramark 215 S. 39th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Passover Meals at Steinhardt Hall in the Falk Dining Room,
pricing is as follows:

General Public - $25.50   Read More »
9:10 p.m. | Tax Cuts and Social Security: The candidates are asked if they will each pledge not to increase taxes for anyone earning less than $200,000 a year?

Mrs. Clinton says she would roll back the tax cuts for anyone making more than $250,000, even if the economy is weak. So, no middle-class tax hikes of any kind? “That is my commitment,” she says.

Mr. Obama says he too would cut taxes for people making less than $200,000 or maybe $250,000.

Mrs. Clinton is asked if she would raise the capital gains tax. “I wouldn’t raise it above the 20 percent if I raised it at all,” she says. Pressed, she says she would have to “see what the revenue situation is.” She also says she wouldn’t raise taxes on teachers, like those who work in the Philadelphia area (like those who have endorsed her?).

Mr. Obama says he would raise the cap on the payroll tax, and also mentions firefighters and teachers.

They have a dispute about the best way to keep Social Security solvent, speaking here to the retirees in Pennsylvania, which has more people over 65 than most other states. Then cut to the last commercial break, an ad for AARP.

This is the final break. We’re close to wrapping up here. Wondering if Mr. Obama is going to come back stronger before the closing bell.

9:01 p.m. | Foreign Policy: The questioning is now about the war in Iraq. Both candidates seem pretty firm in their pledge to bring the troops home " a popular view among Democratic primary voters, especially those in the Philadelphia suburbs.

If Iran attacks Israel? Mr. Obama says they would be attacking “our strongest ally in the region.”

Mrs. Clinton, forcefully here, says such an attack “would trigger massive retaliation.”

8:50 p.m. | Commercial Break

8:45 p.m. | Friends and Associates: Mr. Obama was asked about his association with William Ayres. According to reports, in 1995 Mr. Obama met with several influential Illinois liberals at the home of William Ayres and Bernadine Dorhn, who were among the most famous and radical members of the anti-war movement in the 1960s and members of the Weather Underground. The organization was responsible for bombings at the Pentagon, the Capitol and other federal buildings.

Mr. Obama is specifically asked about Mr. Ayres’s statement in 2001, “I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough.”

Mr. Obama again tries to dismiss attempts to link him with people with unfavorable views as a game and not helpful to voters: “The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn’t make much sense, George.” Mr. Obama also points out that he is friends with Senator Tom Coburn, who he calls “one of the most conservative Republicans in the United States Senate.”

Mrs. Clinton notes that Mr. Obama served on a board with Mr. Ayres and his relationship continued after 9/11. She used this as an example of how Mr. Obama would be vulnerable against the Republicans. “I have a lot of baggage, and everyone has rummaged through it for years,” she said, which makes her stronger.

Mr. Obama comes back with what he says is a “more significant relationship” between Mrs. Clinton and radicals, noting that Bill Clinton commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground.

Mr. Obama also said he had proved he could “take a punch,” and in fact had taken several from Mrs. Clinton.

8:40 p.m. | Flag: A voter on video says she’s troubled about Mr. Obama’s patriotism because he doesn’t wear a flag pin on his lapel. He notes he wore one yesterday when a veteran handed it to him. But he tries to dismiss this as “the kind of manufactured issue that our politics has become obsessed with.” Mr. Obama mentions he did wear a flag pin on Tuesday that was given to him by a disabled veteran.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/04/16/us/politics/16barackclinton533.jpgSenator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama and Charles Gibson. (Photo: Damon Winter/The New York Times)

8:37 p.m. | The Bosnia Story: Mrs. Clinton is asked about her truthfulness and ABC shows a voter asking her about her misstatements about being under sniper fire in Bosnia. “I was not as accurate as I have been in the past,” she said.

Interestingly, Mr. Obama, who has been on the defensive so far during this debate, pulls back from the back-and-forth over this embarrassment for Mrs. Clinton and says it’s important that they not get “so caught up with gaffes” that we miss that this election is a “defining moment” in the nation’s history.

8:30 p.m. | Wright Stuff: Mr. Obama is being asked to explain his association with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

He is asked what he will do if he gets the nomination and Mr. Wright’s sermons are played over and over again. He says if it’s not this, there will be something else and says if Mrs. Clinton gets the nomination, there will be lots of video of her.

Asked if Mr. Wright is patriotic, Mr. Obama notes that he’s a former marine and loves this country but also “angry” about injustices.

Mrs. Clinton, given equal time, brings up the “B”-word (bitterness), which Mr. Obama has been avoiding all night. Then she tosses in Louis Farrakhan and Hamas and it turns into a big stew of negative associations for Mr. Obama.

8:26 p.m. | ‘C’ is for Cookies: Mr. Obama turns the tables on Mrs. Clinton, bringing up comments that she made, back in 1992, that seemed to be an insult to stay-at-home moms, “that I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas.”

Mr. Obama said he was watching TV at the time, and when she was attacked as an elitist " as she is attacking him now " he thought, “that’s not who she is.” But, he says, “she learned the wrong lesson because she’s adopting the same tactics.”

8:25 p.m. | Who Can Win? Mr. Stephanopoulos mentioned remarks Mrs. Clinton is said to have made to Bill Richardson while she was lobbying for his endorsement about whether Mr. Obama could win, but then suggested he wouldn’t ask her about the specific quote to Mr. Richardson because he knew Mrs. Clinton didn’t want to talk about it.

Instead, Mr. Stephanopoulos asked her if she thought Mr. Obama can beat John McCain. After dodging for a few minutes, she finally said, “Yes. Yes. Yes.”

Mr. Obama learned quickly. When he was asked if she would win, he said, “Absolutely.”

8:19 p.m. | The ‘B’-Word: Mr. Obama is asked if he understands how voters might find his comments about small-town voters patronizing. “I can see how people were offended,” he said. “It’s not the first time I’ve made a statement that was mangled up,” and it won’t be the last. People are “frustrated and angry,” he says.

Mrs. Clinton takes the opportunity to make a direct pitch to the white, working class voters who might have been offended, noting she is the granddaughter of a factory worker in Scranton. She said her family members wouldn’t “cling to religion” just because Washington is not listening to them. “That’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of religion and faith.”
Live-Blogging the Democratic Debate Supporters rally in front of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, with Independence Hall in the background. (Photo: Matt Rourke/Associated Press)

8:11 p.m. | Come Together? Mr. Gibson asks them to pledge, as former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo has suggested, to agree to become the running mate if the other wins. He didn’t direct the question to anyone in particular, and neither of them jumped at the chance to answer. Mr. Obama began, with a slight dig, saying, “I think highly of Senator Clinton’s record.” She doesn’t dig back, yet. Both blow off the question.

8:07 p.m. | Commercial After Kickoff: What is this? Monday Night Football? There’s a commercial already, not even five minutes into the broadcast.

8:04 p.m. | Opening Statements: Mr. Obama in his opening statement says that in traveling around Pennsylvania, he’s been struck by the “frustration” of voters, i.e., not their bitterness. Mrs. Clinton says she and Mr. Obama “demonstrate that that promise of America is alive and well. But it is at risk.” She added: “people do feel that their government is not solving problems, that it is not standing up for them.”

8 p.m. | Showtime! Oh, they’re already on stage. None of this jogging out on to the field, like they do on cable TV.
And here’s ABC’s story line: “It’s not over yet!”
Live-Blogging the Democratic DebateSupporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton rally in front of the National Constitution Center before the Democratic debate there in Philadelphia. (Photo: Jeff Fusco/Getty Images)

7:50 p.m. | Cue the ‘Rocky’ Music: Hi readers. It’s been too long since we last met like this, live-blogging over a debate. Seems a lifetime ago, when Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama last sparred, on Feb. 26, in Cleveland.

Tonight’s action starts at 8 p.m. on ABC " national TV! " and will go for 90 minutes. Charles Gibson, the Mr. Nice Guy of TV, and George Stephanopoulos, an-insider-turned-journalist, are the moderators.

The question of the night is the same question that has been asked before many of these debates " what will Mrs. Clinton do? Her lead in the polls in Pennsylvania, which votes in just six days, has shrunk, her negatives are up and Mr. Obama is picking up superdelegates (not to mention Springsteen).   Read More »
Obama and Clinton are debating in Pennsylvania right now...here are some suggestions on what a viewer might look for in the debates between the candidates?
by Rena Silverman   Read More »
Longtime Advocate for Children
* From her days with the Children's Defense Fund to the United States Senate, Hillary has worked to protect our children: ensuring the safety of prescription drugs for children, making sure all kids get the immunizations they need through the Vaccines for Children Program, and working to make adoptions easier through the Adoptions and Safe Families Act.

* As First Lady, Hillary traveled the globe speaking out against the degradation and abuse of women and standing up for the powerful idea that women's rights are human rights...   Read More »
you helped us reach our goal...   Read More »
Daily Talking Points - Wednesday, March 19, 2008

michigan/five-year anniversary of iraq war   Read More »

Contact Pennsylvania Voters Make calls to voters in Pennsylvania to help us identify other Hillary supporters in Pennsylvania....   Read More »

22 April: PENNSYLVANIA-
the Keystone State, similar in demographics to Ohio; the biggest prize of all with 158 delegates up for grabs...   Read More »
Clinton Camp Plans Continued Battle
By Dan Balz
Like a good lawyer and political street fighter, Harold Ickes came to breakfast with a case to make and argued it with gusto.   Read More »
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