| June 25, 2008 | - The Supreme Court determined that child rapists should not be sentenced to death if their crime “did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victim's death.” John McCain disagreed with that ruling and suggested that by executing those found guilty of “the most heinous of crimes” the United States could protect the innocence of its children, while Barack Obama suggested that the rape of a small child, “six or eight years old,” could be punished by death without violating the Constitution.
| Source:
AFP
|
| June 22, 2008 | -
Al Gore endorsed Obama, as did Donatella Versace, whose spring-summer 2009 men's line, which includes slim pants with a “slick techno-fabric sheen,” is dedicated to the candidate.
| Source 1:
The Hill
Source 2:
AP via Yahoo
|
| June 19, 2008 | - Breaking an earlier vow, Senator Barack Obama announced that he will opt out of the public campaign-finance system, in order to be able to spend unlimited amounts of money in the last two months of his presidential campaign, rather than merely $84 million, the amount to which Senator John McCain will be limited under public-funding laws. “It'll be like George Steinbrenner's Yankees in the 90s,” Democratic consultant Chris Lehane said of Obama's campaign, which could spend as much as $500 million, “against the 90s Kansas City Royals.”
| Source 1:
ABC
Source 2:
NYT
Source 3:
IHT
Source 4:
Politico
Source 5:
AP via MSNBC
|
| June 14, 2008 | - The Supreme Court ruled 5–4 that detainees held as “enemy combatants” by the United States in Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, have a constitutional right to challenge their detention through habeas corpus petitions in federal courts. “Liberty and security can be reconciled...within the framework of the law,” wrote Justice Anthony M. Kennedy in the court's decision. “The Framers decided that habeas corpus...must be...a part of that law.” Dissenting, Chief Justice John Roberts asked, “So who has won? Not the detainees. The Court's analysis leaves them with only the prospect of further litigation.” Defense lawyers for the detainees moved to establish that their clients have the right to other constitutional protections and sought to halt ongoing military-commission trials, which permit hearsay and evidence gained from torture.
John McCain called the ruling “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.” Barack Obama said, “I think the Supreme Court was right.”
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
New York Times
Source 3:
cnn
|
| June 14, 2008 | -
Obama, who admitted to smoking cigarettes in recent months, told supporters that he anticipated a “brawl” with McCain and the Republican National Committee: “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”
| Source 1:
ABC
Source 2:
Politico
|
| June 5, 2008 | - Senator Barack Obama, having amassed more than the 2,118 delegates needed to secure a majority, was acknowledged as the Democratic presidential nominee and claimed victory before a crowd of almost 20,000 people in St. Paul, Minnesota, knocking knuckles with his wife, Michelle, in a gesture known as “dap.” “It thrilled a lot of black folks,” said author Ta-Nehisi Coates. “He wears his cultural blackness all over the place. Barack is like Black Folks 2.0.”
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
Washington Post
|
| June 4, 2008 | - Senator John McCain delivered a speech to a crowd of a few hundred in Kenner, Louisiana, in which he tried to rebuff Obama's charges that a McCain presidency would be a continuation of Bush policies. “That's not change we can believe in,” said McCain repeatedly. Pundits were surprised by McCain's clumsy rhetoric, by his lack of teleprompter skills, and by the fact that he stood in front of an ugly green backdrop. “Content better than delivery,” said Karl Rove. “John McCain,” said Mort Kondracke of “Roll Call,” “sounded old.”
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
Talking Points Memo
|
| May 25, 2008 | -
Obama gave the commencement address at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. “You know that feeling when you're so excited you have to pee?” asked Lola Pellegrino, '08. “I'm feeling that. In my heart.” Obama, who spoke in place of Senator Ted Kennedy after Kennedy was diagnosed with a likely fatal malignant brain tumor, called for a “generation of volunteers to work on renewable energy projects.” Twenty-five thousand people attended. “I can't imagine anyone that the Wesleyan student body would possibly be more excited about,” said Sarah Lonning, '06. “Maybe Gandhi, if he weren't dead.”
| Source 1:
The Prereq
Source 2:
Bloomberg.com
|
| May 18, 2008 | - A poem written by Obama in 1981 was discovered and republished:
Under water grottos, caverns
Filled with apes
That eat figs
Stepping on the figs
That the apes
Eat, they crunch
The apes howl, bare
Their fangs, dance,
Tumble in the
Rushing water
Musty, wet pelts
Glistening in the blue.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| May 16, 2008 | - At an NRA convention in Kentucky, Mike Huckabee made a joke after hearing a noise off-stage. “That was Barack Obama,” he said. ”Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor."
| Source:
The Hill
|
| May 8, 2008 | - Senator Barack Obama crushed Senator Hillary Clinton in the North Carolina
Democratic primary, lost by a small margin in Indiana, and then took the lead in pledged superdelegates. Clinton pointed out that she still enjoys support from hard workers and white people. “A woman is like a teabag,” she said, quoting Eleanor Roosevelt. “You never know how strong she is until she's in hot water.”
| Source 1:
New Yorker via MSNBC
Source 2:
USA Today
Source 3:
ABC
Source 4:
The Los Angeles Times
Source 5:
The Washington Post
Source 6:
The Hill
Source 7:
Chicago Tribune
Source 8:
The New York Times
|
| April 28, 2008 | -
Hillary Clinton gained nine more delegates than Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania primary and challenged him to debate without a moderator. Obama, who declined, reportedly seemed “tired” and “brittle” campaigning in Indiana. “Seniors, listen up,” he said. “I'm getting gray hair myself. Running for president will age you quick.”
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
AP
Source 3:
Telegraph
|
| April 28, 2008 | - All three candidates taped messages for World Wrestling Entertainment's “W.W.E. Raw”: Clinton declared herself “ready to rumble” for the American people; Obama, echoing former wrestler Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson, asked, “Do you smell what Barack is cooking?”; McCain, speaking with a surly tone, equated the Iraq war with a wrestling match and said that Americans “do not watch wrestling because we're 'bitter,'” but rather because “wrestling is about celebrating our freedom.”
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 6, 2008 | -
Hillary Clinton and John McCain accused Barack Obama of elitism after Obama commented on the bitterness of working-class people in a speech at an expensive San Francisco fund-raiser. “They cling to guns,” said Obama, “or religion, or antipathy toward people who aren't like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment, as a way to explain their frustrations.”
| Source 1:
AFP
Source 2:
NBC11
Source 3:
BBC News
Source 4:
Zombie Times
|
| March 18, 2008 | - In response to fury over a handful of remarks made by Reverend Jeremiah Wright over the course of his 36 years as a pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, Senator Barack Obama delivered a nuanced and serious speech about race in America. “I think it's an obligation of any opponent to use this issue,” said Congressman Peter King (R.-NY), “to make Reverend Wright a centerpiece of the campaign.”
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
Newsday
|
| February 22, 2008 | -
Michelle Obama's Princeton senior thesis was made public. “Further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure,” she wrote, “will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant.”
| Source:
Politico.com
|
| February 14, 2008 | - Senator Barack Obama beat Senator Hillary Clinton by huge margins in primaries in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, and Senator John McCain beat former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. The close Democratic race worried party superdelegates, who will play a decisive role in choosing a candidate. Nancy Larson, a lobbyist and superdelegate from Minnesota, characterized superdelegates in general as “big schmucks.” Alaskan superdelegate Cindi Spanyers received a call from former president Bill Clinton, who recalled his wife's work on a fish cannery slime line there, and Obama was endorsed by the fishing village of Obama, Japan. McCain was endorsed by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and ex-president George H. W. Bush.
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
Washington Post
Source 3:
Los Angeles Times
Source 4:
Washington Post
Source 5:
AP via Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Source 6:
Los Angeles Times
Source 7:
Star Tribune
Source 8:
Anchorage Daily News
Source 9:
Guardian
Source 10:
LAT
Source 11:
AP via Google
|
| February 7, 2008 | -
Democratic primaries left neither Senator Barack Obama nor Senator Hillary Clinton with a clear lead over the other, and operatives inside the Clinton campaign speculated that if the Democratic presidential nominee were not chosen until the convention, Al Gore could emerge as a compromise candidate. “There's a 5 percent chance of that happening,” a Clinton source said, “but that's 5 percent too high.” “He can still try next time,” said Obama's Kenyan grandmother, Sarah, of her grandson, “if he doesn't make it this time.”
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
Telegraph
Source 3:
New York Times
Source 4:
Honolulu Advertiser
|
| February 4, 2008 | - A video released by hip-hop musician will.i.am showed Herbie Hancock, John Legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kate Walsh, and Scarlett Johansson chanting and singing, “Yes, we can,” in support of Barack Obama, and a representative for John Cougar Mellencamp, a John Edwards supporter, asked John McCain to stop playing Mellencamp's “Our Country” and “Pink Houses” at his campaign rallies.
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
Rolling Stone
|
| January 11, 2008 | - Charges of a rigged presidential election triggered violence along tribal lines in Kenya, leading to more than 700 deaths and the displacement of 250,000 Kenyans. Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who lost the election to incumbent Mwai Kibaki, said that his first cousin Barack Obama had called him twice to express his concern, “despite being in the middle of the very busy New Hampshire primary.”
| Source 1:
AFP.com
Source 2:
Telegraph.co.uk
|
| January 4, 2008 | -
Obama and Mike Huckabee were the surprise winners of the Iowa
caucuses. “None of this worries me,” said Rudy Giuliani, who came in sixth place in the Republican caucus. “September 11, there were times I was worried.”
| Source:
NYDailyNews.com
|
| October 19, 2007 | -
Lynn Cheney announced that her husband and Barack Obama are eighth cousins. “Every family,” said the Obama campaign, “has a black sheep.”
| Source:
BBC
|
| October 19, 2007 | -
Lynn Cheney announced that her husband and Barack Obama are eighth cousins. “Every family,” said the Obama campaign, “has a black sheep.”
| Source:
BBC
|
| October 14, 2007 | - “Nothing is inevitable,” said Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, of a Clinton victory. “Sometimes we wear the same suit even if it’s got holes in it. We need a new suit, not just a new tie or new pants.”
| Source:
Times
|
| September 13, 2007 | - General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker testified to Congress about progress in the war in Iraq; Crocker summarized 2006 as “a bad year,” but blamed ongoing sectarian violence on Saddam Hussein's “social deconstruction” of the country. Petraeus cited progress in the Anbar region as evidence that his surge strategy is working. He suggested that one Army brigade might be home for Christmas, and that the surge might be over by next July. Barack Obama proposed removing at least one brigade per month, starting now, until all troops are out by the end of next year. President Bush supported the Petraeus plan, also citing progress in the Anbar Province and his recent meetings with leaders there.
| Source 1:
WaPo
Source 2:
NYT
Source 3:
Boston Globe
Source 4:
NYT
Source 5:
WaPo
Source 6:
USA Today
|
| August 23, 2007 | - The hip-hop magazine Vibe dubbed Barack Obama “B-Rock.”
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| August 6, 2007 | - It was reported that Rudolph Giuliani's daughter, Caroline, a member of the Harvard class of 2011, was affiliated with the Facebook.com group “Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)”; she had recently left the group, but her page maintained that her political views are “Liberal” and that she is single, interested in men, and looking for “Friendship,” “Random play,” or “Whatever I can get.”
| Source:
Slate
|
| August 3, 2007 | - Presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani pledged to invade Pakistan,.
| Source 1:
New York Post
Source 2:
AP
|
| July 3, 2007 | -
Barack Obama was raising more money than Hillary Clinton.
| Source:
BBCnews.com
|
| May 10, 2007 | - In Richmond, Virginia, a painting of Britney Spears was covered up at the request of Barack Obama's campaign.
| Source:
Richmond Times-Dispatch
|
| April 27, 2007 | - The nine Democrats running for president held a debate in South Carolina. Hillary Clinton faulted the people of Iraq for not making good on “the chance to have freedom, to have their own country” provided by the U.S. invasion, and John Edwards suggested that hedge funds could help alleviate poverty. Asked why he was at the debate, Mike Gravel, a 76-year-old who represented Alaska in the Senate from 1969 to 1981, pointed to the rest of the candidates and said, “Some of these people frighten me,” especially “the top-tier ones.” He singled out Joseph Biden for his “arrogance” and asked Barack Obama, “Barack, who do you want to nuke?” Obama replied, “I'm not planning to nuke anybody right now, Mike. I promise.” “Good,” said Gravel, “then we're safe, for a while.”
| Source:
WCNC
|
| February 2, 2007 | -
Delaware
Senator Joseph Biden praised Illinois Senator Barack Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” said Biden. “I mean, that's a storybook, man.”
| Source:
salon.com
|
| January 25, 2007 | - It was revealed that Government Elementary School Number 4, the public school in Indonesia that Barack Obama attended when he was six, had a painting of Jesus on the wall. Fox News acknowledged that they had given too much credence to a claim by Insight Magazine that Hillary Clinton's campaign was investigating the possibility that Obama's public school was a madrassah.
| Source:
ABC
|
| January 22, 2007 | -
Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that she will run for President in 2008, and Barack Hussein Obama released a video on the Internet announcing that he has formed a presidential exploratory committee. It was reported that Obama had concealed that he was raised as a Muslim and had attended a madrassah as a child.
| Source 1:
BBC
Source 2:
Washington Post
|
| January 9, 2007 | - Senator Barack Obama was featured shirtless in People Magazine's Beach Babes issue. “It's embarrassing,” Obama said.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| August 24, 2006 | - In Kenya, U.S. Senator
Barack Obama agreed to be tested for HIV.
| Source:
ABC News
|
| August 15, 2006 | -
Senator
Barack Obama called the Iraq war “dumb.”
| Source:
Harrisburg Daily Register
|
| June 1, 2000 | -
Obama broke his ties with Chicago's Trinity Church.
| Source:
The Daily Dish
|
| June 1, 2000 | - It was reported that Obama had offered Clinton a “negotiated surrender” that included a possible post as health secretary in an Obama administration.
| Source:
Telegraph
|
| May 3, 2000 | - The Democratic National Committee determined that delegates from Michigan and Florida will be allowed half-votes at the party's convention. “At least slaves were counted as 3/5ths a Citizen,” read a sign at a protest by supporters of Hillary Clinton outside the Washington hotel where the decision was made. Demonstrator Larry Sinclair, a Minnesotan who has posted videos on YouTube alleging that he took drugs and had oral sex with Barack Obama in 1999 but failed a polygraph test about his allegations, handed out a pamphlet titled “Obama's DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS: Murder, Drugs, Gay Sex.”
| Source 1:
New York Times
Source 2:
The New Republic
|
| January 26, 2000 | - Stanching rumors circulating in a widely forwarded email that he is a radical Muslim, Senator Barack Obama repeatedly professed his faith in an “awesome” Christian God and defeated former President Bill Clinton's wife in the South Carolina Democratic primary.
| Source 1:
Boston Globe
Source 2:
New York Times
|
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