Media-Whore D'Oevres



"Al Gore, despite the lowest political profile, is talked about among prominent Democrats as their leading candidate for 2012 if they fail this year. The Democratic consensus is that there will be no second chance for Sen. Hillary Clinton. She is blamed for wounding Sen. Barack Obama so severely that he might fail in November. Gore has kept out of the 2008 Democratic presidential contest, in contrast to his embarrassing 2004 endorsement of front-runner Howard Dean just before Dean flamed out. Since then, Gore's prestige in Democratic ranks has soared while winning the Nobel Peace Prize and Hollywood's Academy Award. He will be 64 in 2012." (Novak)

"Lines were long at the polling stations here well before morning had unscrolled its first light. And when the doors did not open exactly at 7 a.m., voters in the impoverished township of Warren Park rushed the schoolyard gate, most of them desperate to cast a ballot to oust the man who has been president for most of their lives, Robert Mugabe. Spurred by a chaotic economy and fears that Saturday’s election would be rigged, people fled Zimbabwe to South Africa. 'People want him gone, finally and forever gone,” said Charles Musonza, an out-of-work tailor and one of those surging toward the front. 'Zimbabwe has been ruined by Mugabe. There is no future if he wins.''' (NYTimes)

"Hillary Rodham Clinton’s cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months — freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles. A pair of Ohio companies owed more than $25,000 by Clinton for staging events for her campaign are warning others in the tight-knit event production community — and anyone else who will listen — to get their cash upfront when doing business with her. Her campaign, say representatives of the two companies, has stopped returning phone calls and e-mails seeking payment of outstanding invoices. One even got no response from a certified letter. " (Politico)