Friday, August 22, 2008

Barack Obama Picks Joe Biden

NYTIMES: IT'S BIDEN

August 24, 2008
Obama Chooses Biden as Running Mate
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENY

WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama has chosen Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware to be his running-mate, turning to a leading authority on foreign policy and a longtime Washington hand to fill out the Democratic ticket, people told of the decision said.

Mr. Obama’s selection ended a two-month search that was conducted almost entirely in secret. It reflected a critical strategic choice by Mr. Obama: To go with a running-mate who could reassure voters about gaps in his resume, rather than to pick someone who could deliver a state or reinforce Mr. Obama’s message of change.

Mr. Biden is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and is familiar with foreign leaders and diplomats around the world. Although he initially voted to authorize the war in Iraq — Mr. Obama opposed it from the start — Mr. Biden became a persistent critic of President Bush’s policies in Iraq.

The selection was disclosed as Mr. Obama moves into a critical part of his campaign, preparing for the party’s four-day convention in Denver starting on Monday. Mr. Obama’s aides viewed the introduction of his vice presidential choice– including an afternoon rally Saturday at the old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., the same place where Mr. Obama announced his candidacy on a freezing winter morning almost two years ago, and a tour of swing states – as the beginning of a week-long stretch in which Mr. Obama hopes to dominate the stage and position himself for the fall campaign.

Word of Mr. Obama’s decision leaked out hours before his campaign was scheduled to inform supporters via text and e-mail messages, and hours after informing two other top contenders for the vice presidential nomination – Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana and Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia – that they had not been chosen.

As the selection process moved to an end, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who Mr. Obama had defeated in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, had slipped out of contention -- to the degree that Mr. Obama had ever seriously considered her.

Mr. Biden is Roman Catholic, giving him appeal to that important voting bloc, though he favors abortion rights. He was born in a working class family in Scranton, Pa., a swing state where he remains well-known. Mr. Biden is up for re-election to the Senate this year and he would presumably run simultaneously for both seats.

Mr. Biden is known for being both talkative and prone to making the kind of statements that get him in trouble. In 2007, when he was competing for Mr. Obama for the presidential nomination, he declared that Mr. Obama was “not yet ready” for the presidency, a line certain to show up in Republican attack ads.

Although Mr. Biden is not exactly a household name, he is probably the best known of all the Democrats who were in contention for the spot, given his political and personal history (not to mention his regular appearances on the Sunday morning television news shows.) He first ran for the Senate from Delaware when he was just 29 years old.

Mr. Biden has run twice for the presidency himself, once in 1988 and again in 2008, dropping out early in both cases. He was also the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee during two of the most contentious Supreme Court nomination battles of the past 50 years: the confirmation proceedings for Robert H. Bork, who was defeated, and Clarence Thomas, who was confirmed after an explosive hearing in which Anita Hill accused Mr. Thomas of sexual harassment. Mr. Biden led the opposition to both nominations, though he came under criticism from some feminists for not immediately disclosing what were at first Ms. Hill’s closed-door accusations against Mr. Thomas.

Mr. Obama’s choice of Mr. Biden suggested some of the weaknesses the Obama campaign is trying to address at a time when at a time when national polls suggest that his race with Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is tightening. Chief among Mr. Biden’s strengths is his familiarity with foreign policy and national security issues, highlighted just this past weekend with the invitation he received from the embattled president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, to visit Georgia in the midst of its tense faceoff with Russia. From the moment he dropped out of the presidential race, he had been mentioned as a potential Secretary of State should either Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton win the election.

He is also something of a fixture in Washington, and would bring to the campaign – and the White House – a familiarity with the way the city and Congress works that Mr. Obama can not match after his relatively short stint in Washington.

At 65 years old, he adds a few years and gray hair to a ticket that otherwise might seem a bit young (Mr. Obama is 47). He is, as Mr. Obama’s advisers were quick to argue, someone who appears by every measure prepared to take over as president, setting a standard that appears intended to at least somewhat hamstring Mr. McCain should he be tempted to go for a more adventurous choice for No. 2. He has a long history of making statements that get him in trouble. He was forced to apologize to Mr. Obama almost the moment he entered the race for president after he was quoted as describing Mr. Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” a remark that drew criticism for being racially insensitive. While campaigning in New Hampshire, Mr. Biden said that ”you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”

Mr. Biden quit the presidential race this year after a barely making a mark; he came in fifth place in Iowa. He was forced to quit the 1988 presidential race in the face of accusations that he had plagiarized part of a speech from a Neil Kinnock, the British Labor Party leader. Shortly afterward, he was found to have suffered two aneurysms.

He is also, at least arguably, a Washington insider, having worked there for so long, though he still commutes home to Wilmington every night by train.

The choice by Mr. Obama in some ways mirrors the choice by Mr. Bush of Dick Cheney as his running mate in 2000; at 65, it appears unlikely that Mr. Biden would be in a position to run for president, should Mr. Obama win and serve two terms. Shorn of any remaining ambition to run for president on his own, he could find himself in a less complex political relationship with Mr. Obama than most vice president have with their presidents.

Mr. Biden was born in Scranton, , grew up in the suburbs of Wilmington, Del., and went to Syracuse Law School. He also was, as a young man, in the center of a gripping family drama: barely a month after he was elected to the Senate, his wife and their three children were in a car accident with a drunken driver resulted in the death of his wife and daughter. His two sons survived and Mr. Biden remarried five years later.

Carl Hulse and Jim Rutenberg contributed reporting.

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Thursday, August 7, 2008

New Interview By The Entertainment Critic: Brad Thor on The Last Patriot


NEW INTERVIEW FROM JAMES MYERS, THE ENTERTAINMENT CRITIC: NEW YORK TIMES #1 BEST SELLING AUTHOR, BRAD THOR, AUTHOR OF THE LAST PATRIOT

Please check out the new interview by James Myers, The Entertainment Critic, of Author Brad Thor and his NY Times #1 Best Selling Thriller, The Last Patriot.

From the Publisher: Brad Thor, master of suspense and New York Times bestselling author of The First Commandment, returns with his highest-voltage thriller to date. In a pulse-pounding, adrenaline-charged tour de force, Navy SEAL turned covert Homeland Security operative Scot Harvath must race to locate an ancient secret that has the power to stop militant Islam dead in its tracks.

June 632 A.D.: Deep within the Uranah Valley of Mount Arafat in Mecca, the Prophet Mohammed shares with his closest companions a final and startling revelation. Within days, he is assassinated.

September 1789: U.S. Minister to France Thomas Jefferson, who is charged with forging a truce with the violent Muslim pirates of the Barbary Coast, makes a shocking discovery - one that could forever impact the world's relationship with Islam.

Present day: When a car bomb explodes outside a Parisian café, Scot Harvath is thrust back into the life he has tried so desperately to leave behind.

Saving the intended victim of the attack, Harvath becomes party to an amazing and perilous race to uncover a secret so powerful that militant Islam could be defeated once and for all without firing another shot, dropping another bomb, or launching another covert action.

But as desperate as the American government is to have the information brought to light, there are powerful forces aligned against it - men who are just as determined that Mohammed's mysterious final revelation continue to remain hidden forever.

What Jason Bourne was to the Cold War, Scot Harvath is to the War on Terror. Brad Thor has created "the perfect all-American hero for the post September 11 world" (Nelson DeMille)and will keep readers glued to the pages as he once again takes them across the globe on a heart-pounding chase where the stakes are higher than they have ever been before.”

This interview is available exclusively on The Entertainment Magazine found at http://www.theentertainmentcriticmagazine.com. The review of the book is also available on the site under the ‘Reviews’ Section. You can also purchase the book in our store.

To listen to the interview: To access the interview, look under the Interview section. Click on the MP3 player in the lower left corner. You'll see the interview listed, click on Brad Thor’s name in the player, the interview will take a moment to download and then will begin playing Enjoy the interview, and please drop us a line at james@theentertainmentcritic.com and let us know how you liked the interview and if there is anything we can do to improve our process.

Brad’s Website: http://www.bradthor.com/

You Tube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66FYBX3esVo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCM0zMYa3U4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3pubbqtL0Q

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

New Interview From James Myers, The Entertainment Critic: Lisa Black on Takeover



NEW INTERVIEW FROM JAMES MYERS, THE ENTERTAINMENT CRITIC: LISA BLACK, AUTHOR OF TAKEOVER

Please check out the new interview by James Myers, The Entertainment Critic, of Author Lisa Black about Her New Top Selling Book, Takeover.

From Library Journal: Make room for another gutsy forensic pathologist unwilling to stay put in her lab. Theresa MacLean is horrified when the banker found murdered in his driveway connects, just a few hours later, to a bank hostage situation at the Federal Reserve Bank in downtown Cleveland. Why does her fiancé, detective Paul Cleary, have to be one of the hostages being held by two men who are either incredibly stupid (who robs the Federal Reserve?) or very much clued in to the bank's unique delivery patterns? After a few tense hours observing from the command post across the street, Theresa impulsively defies the hostage negotiator's protocol and swaps places with her wounded fiancé. Now on the inside, she uses her keen observational skills and gains a clearer idea of the robbers' motives. Human behavior, unpredictable as always, forces the hand of the robbers and the situation escalates messily. Theresa is caught in a harrowing conclusion-car chase and all. Fans of Tess Gerritsen's Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles novels will enjoy this debut thriller by a forensic specialist for its steady suspense, female intuition, and distinctive venue. A terrific vacation read; recommended for all popular collections.

This interview is available exclusively on The Entertainment Critic website found at http://www.theentertainmentcritic.com.

To listen to the interview: To access the interview, look under the Interview section. Click on the MP3 player in the lower left corner. You'll see the interview listed, click on Lisa Black’s name in the player, the interview will take a moment to download and then will begin playing Enjoy the interview, and please drop us a line at james@theentertainmentcritic.com and let us know how you liked the interview and if there is anything we can do to improve our process.

Lisa’s Website: http://www.lisa-black.com/

You Tube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFT-GvnA8iA

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

New Interview From The Entertainment Critic: Jennifer Rardin on Bitten to Death


NEW INTERVIEW FROM THE ENTERTAINMENT CRITIC: JENNIFER RARDIN, AUTHOR OF BITTEN TO DEATH

Please check out the new interview by James Myers, The Entertainment Critic, of Author Jennifer Rardin about Her New Top Selling Book, Bitten to Death.

From The Publisher: Jaz Parks and her vampire boss, Vayl, have already fought demons, vampires, and reavers. Now, juggling work and family takes on a new dimension as she tackles her latest challenge: nail the Raptor before he can reduce her to Jaz-bits, survive a head-on crash with Vayl’s violent past, and lever her twin’s military career back on track before a dishonorable discharge ruins his life. To top it off, she must also contend with her father’s issues. Is he losing his mind? Or is someone really trying to kill him - from beyond the grave?

This interview is available exclusively on The Entertainment Critic website found at http://www.theentertainmentcritic.com.

To listen to the interview: To access the interview, look under the Interview section. Click on the MP3 player in the lower left corner. You'll see the interview listed, click on Jennifer Rardin’s name in the player, the interview will take a moment to download and then will begin playing Enjoy the interview, and please drop us a line at james@theentertainmentcriticcom and let us know how you liked the interview and if there is anything we can do to improve our process.

Jennifer’s Website: http://www.jenniferrardin.com/index.php