Forums: Outsider Art

WASHINGTON – So much for changing how Washington works. Crimping his carefully crafted outsider image and undercutting a centerpiece of his 2008 campaign, President Barack Obama got caught playing the usual politics — dangling a job offer for a political favor in the hunt for power. His lawyer admitted as much in a Friday report. It detailed how Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, sent former President Bill Clinton on a mission: try to persuade Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., to abandon his primary challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., by offering an executive branch post. Sestak said no, stayed in...

o anti-establishment outlet for California GOP voters' anger By Rob Hotakainen rhotakainen@mcclatchydc.com Published: Saturday, May. 29, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1A WASHINGTON – Angry at politicians and deeply disillusioned about the future, California's GOP voters are clearly in an anti-establishment mood. But they will have little chance to express it in the June 8 election, experts say. "The sentiment is genuine, but it doesn't have an obvious outlet," said Jack Pitney, political science professor at Claremont-McKenna College. Despite their claims to the contrary, the candidates seeking to become governor or senator are all political or corporate insiders. In...

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- The Libertarian Party is considering running a candidate in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race, saying GOP nominee Rand Paul -- the son of a former Libertarian presidential candidate -- has betrayed the party's values. Party Vice Chairman Joshua Koch said Wednesday that Paul has been a black eye for Libertarians because of stands he's taken on issues, including his criticism of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Koch said Paul is not a Libertarian. He called Paul and his Democratic opponent, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, "faces of the same bad coin."

WASHINGTON - Democratic governors, determined to grab control of their party, said Thursday they will jointly support moderate candidates from outside Washington to lead the Democrats. No sitting governor is interested in heading the Democratic National Committee (news - web sites), said the governors who gathered for the first major meeting of party officials since widespread Democratic losses in the presidential and congressional elections last month. The Democratic governors said their party must move geographically from Washington and philosophically to the middle to attract moderate voters. That move starts with the party leadership, they said. "This for us is our...

Howard Dean, Serious Threat Christopher Ruddy Monday, Nov. 10, 2003 Howard Dean is not to be dismissed. He is a serious candidate who will most certainly give George Bush a run for his money next year. The former Vermont governor is the all-but-certain Democratic nominee – unless Hillary enters the race at the last minute. This past week, Dean had some good news and some bad news. The good news came from two of the nation’s largest unions. The Service Employees International Union, the largest AFL-CIO affiliate, with 1.6 million members, endorsed Dean. He also won the support of AFSCME...

<p>The controlling theme of the recall is that we the people will reshape politics by replacing one of them, an insider, with one of us, a citizen outsider. And from the moment he sat down on Jay Leno's couch last month and announced himself a candidate, Arnold Schwarzenegger has cast himself for that outsider's role. "I'm going to go to Sacramento and reform politics as we know it," the actor says.</p>

<p>New state GOP Chairman George "Duf" Sundheim and his wife, Cheryl, acknowledge delegates after the vote Sunday in Sacramento.</p> <p>In their latest effort to unify a chronically fractured organization, California Republican activists Sunday chose a relative outsider to lead the state party for the next two years.</p>