All About the Benjamins, Baby

From the New York Daily News:

"Hillary Clinton thought that raising more money than her rivals would be the easy thing.

Yesterday, she found out how wrong she was.

The Democrat's presidential campaign was rocked to the core as rival Sen. Barack Obama revealed he equaled, and possibly even bested, her in the cash dash she had counted on dominating.

Obama announced he raised $25 million in the past three months from 100,000 people, compared with the record-setting $26 million haul Clinton pulled in from half as many donors."

Blast From Barack's Past

A central character from Obama's book "Dreams from My Father" suddenly shows up- fresh out of prison - and asking for money.
From Arab News:

"The story first appeared in The Wall Street Journal, and was then picked up by ABC News. The story involves a good high school chum of Sen. Obama, Keith Kakugawa. But the story of their friendship is ultimately tragic — Obama’s friend is now an out-of-prison drug addict living on the street."

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Clamoring for Obama's Health Care Specifics

The junior Senator from Illinois has been taking his own sweet time in laying out his vision for the future of the country's health-care system...
and that has the snipers sniping.
From the Washington Post:

"Republican National Committee spokesman Chris Taylor responded that maybe the infusion of money into Obama's campaign would lead to more specifics in his health care plans.

"With all these funds, maybe now he'll be able to hire someone to write a health care plan for him," Taylor said."

But the delay is all part of Obama's strategy - his response:

"Obama acknowledged he was moving cautiously in assembling a health care proposal to ensure he can build the political support needed to move the plan forward if he's elected president.

Obama noted that in previous campaigns, presidential candidates have offered detailed proposals without building that political support, only to see the issue fade after the election.

"Every four years presidential candidates trot out their plans, then nothing happens," Obama said. "How do we build a movement for change so that when a president is elected there is actually a constituency and a consensus that is built so we can move the agenda through Congress."

Failure to agree on changes to the health care system could be catastrophic, he said.

"We will go through another decade of dealing with this issue," Obama said."

Obama-Joseph-and Mary

From CBS Chicago:

"A sculpture depicting Senator Barack Obama as Jesus has caused a stir now that it is on public display and Obama's campaign is trying to distance him from the artwork.

Undergraduate art student David Cordero created the sculpture for his senior show at the School of the Art Institute, which opened Saturday. He said the intention was to create a dialogue.

Obama's spokeswoman said the senator respects the First Amendment, and does not believe the artist was trying to be offensive.

But the spokeswoman said Obama is not a fan of art that offends religious sensibilities.

The figure shows Obama with his trademark smile, standing under a blue neon halo and wearing robes resembling those in which Jesus is often depicted, and with his hands in the traditional peace sign of Jesus' sacred heart."

CHA-CHING!

From cnn.com

"Sen. Barack Obama raised "at least $25 million" for his presidential bid since January 1, all but matching Sen. Hillary Clinton's haul for the same three-month time period. Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, earlier this week reported raising $26 million."

Bloggers Boo Obama

From Real Clear Politics

"In an interview with the AP yesterday, Sen. Barack Obama said that he expects Congress will provide funding for the Iraq war without attaching a timetable for withdrawal should President Bush veto the current bill, because no lawmaker "wants to play chicken with our troops."

"My expectation is that we will continue to try to ratchet up the pressure on the president to change course," the Democratic presidential candidate said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I don't think that we will see a majority of the Senate vote to cut off funding at this stage."

The leftwing site Daily Kos, head of the Democrats' antiwar base, is outraged:

What a ridiculous thing to say. Not only is it bad policy, not only is it bad politics, it's also a terrible negotiating approach.

Instead of threatening Bush with even more restrictions and daring him to veto funding for the troops out of pique, Barack just surrendered to him.

Let me repeat that -- Obama just surrendered to Bush."

Hello

From the Chicago Tribune

"In addition, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), a relative newcomer to the national political scene, is expected to report that he has raised more than $20 million for his presidential bid during the same period, the first quarter of this year, according to three sources in and around his campaign.

Aides to former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina said Sunday that he has raised more than $14 million for his campaign, doubling his first-quarter total from four years ago as he geared up to run for president in 2004."