According to Steve Benen’s Carpetbagger Report…

Following this week’s dust-up over David Geffen’s comments about Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama is reportedly trying to lower the temperature a bit. He told an audience in Houston last night that the nation will remain at a standstill “if we continue to engage in small and divisive politics and tit-for-tat.” Obama also told the NYT that he wasn’t aware of the competing press statements as they were flying, and he told his staff that he doesn’t want his team “to be a party to these kinds of distractions because I want to make sure that we’re spending time talking about issues.”

In handling things this way, he seems to appreciate the discomfort many felt about the initial response to the Clinton/Geffen story. And is staying true to this part of his announcement speech…

That is why this campaign can’t only be about me. It must be about us - it must be about what we can do together. This campaign must be the occasion, the vehicle, of your hopes, and your dreams. It will take your time, your energy, and your advice - to push us forward when we’re doing right, and to let us know when we’re not.

Bravo Barack, bravo!

And now the Link Party…

Barack Obama Rally Heads To Larger Venue
CBS 42 - Austin,TX,USA
(CBS 42) AUSTIN Presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama will be in Austin Friday afternoon for a rally. And apparently so many people want to see and hear …

Oprah Winfrey Backs Barack Obama
Post Chronicle - USA
Media titan Oprah Winfrey is throwing her considerable weight behind Barack Obama’s bid to become America’s first black president after dismissing public …

Why Obama will surprise national political pundits
Chicago Sun-Times - Chicago,IL,USA
First, just because a prominent African-American leader endorses Hillary Clinton, that doesn’t mean Barack Obama’s campaign has suffered a mortal wound. …

In Illinois, at least, large numbers of black voters tend to take their time making up their minds. In political parlance, they ”break late.”

Ten months before the March 2004 U.S. Senate primary (about where we are now before the Iowa caucuses), Obama’s own polls showed him winning just 34 percent of the black vote. About a month before the primary, African-American voters began ”breaking” in large numbers to his candidacy. As they began focusing on the campaign, black voters saw he was viable, liked his message and a significant percentage finally realized he was African American. He ended up winning just about all their votes.

This same pattern has been repeated time and time again during the past 25 years here. Harold Washington didn’t start off his campaign with the majority of black support against a white female with a huge war chest and the powers of patronage and incumbency, but he certainly ended that way.

Proposal by Obama on Public Financing Appears to Gain
New York Times - New York,NY,USA
The opinion is a response to an inquiry by Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination. It is an indication of how …

Barack Obama Draws Large Crowds In Urban Areas
CBS 5 - San Francisco,CA,USA
(AP) WASHINGTON Leah Hanes had never been much into politics until she ended up at a Barack Obama rally this week in Los Angeles, wearing a campaign T-shirt …