From Michelle's brother, Craig Robinson, in his speech tonight:
If you're looking for a political analysis based on his playing, here it is: he's confident but not cocky, he'll take the shot if he's open, he's a team player who improves the people around him, and he won’t back down from any challenge.
Obama made this 3-point basket while visiting with troops in Kuwait. He is too cool. Watch video here.
If you missed it, Obama appeared on Jimmy Kimmel's game night show yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHIMBYa7D7A
Is Barack Obama relaxing a bit after his big win in North Carolina? CNN Producer Chris Welch reports the presidential candidate sported blue jeans Wednesday night — the first time all year he has done so. (Getty Images)
When the Rev. William Procanick put his hand on the Bible during his sex-abuse trial in Oneida County Court earlier this year, he swore to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But as the former Clinton pastor was sentenced Friday to three years in prison for inappropriately touching a 7-year-old girl at his home last March, Judge Michael L. Dwyer said Procanick sacrificed his honesty the day he testified. “As a minister of God, you got on the stand and you lied,” Dwyer told Procanick, the 54-year-old former pastor of Resurrection Assembly of God church on Kirkland Avenue. A jury found Procanick guilty Jan. 22 of first-degree sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. Dwyer said he believes Procanick was being honest when he told the girl's mother in a recorded phone call that he was wrong to caress the girl's body while she was trying to fall asleep. However, Procanick instead testified in court that he did nothing wrong other than spend time alone with the girl, who was a friend of the family, Dwyer noted. If Procanick had accepted responsibility from the beginning instead of straying from the truth, Dwyer said, Procanick would likely have faced a lesser punishment and possibly avoided jail time. “The truth would have set you free,” Dwyer said. “You had a chance to be a man and say, 'I made a mistake.' But as always, the cover-up is much worse than the original crime.” Procanick's defense attorney, George Aney, noted that Procanick still received a sentence less than the maximum, which was up to seven years in prison. “It's considerably less than the maximum, but considerably more than he deserved,” Aney said. Aney also took issue with how Dwyer and the victim's mother used harsh language to attack Procanick's Christian values. “You are just an evil man,” the victim's mother said Friday in court. “You lied, and you had your wife lie. And all these people who showed up in court to support you, did you lie to them, too?” The Observer-Dispatch does not identify sex-abuse victims and their families. The victim's mother said her daughter is still waking up scared at night because of what happened, and she continues to see a therapist. The young girl also feels that everybody is mad at her, the mother said. Assistant District Attorney Doug DeMarche Jr. then read a note written by the girl, who did not appear in court Friday. “Bill made me sad and scared,” DeMarche read. “I thought I did something wrong, because I trusted him.” Dwyer gave Procanick an opportunity to speak in court, but Procanick had nothing to say to the victim and her family. Aney did not plan to speak in court, he told Dwyer, but he felt obligated to respond to what the victim's mother said about Procanick and his wife. “I believe she shows her own lack of Christianity by referring to people as liars,” Aney said. After the sentencing, Aney further commented about what was said in court. “I respect Judge Dwyer for what he said this morning, but I have to say I disagreed with him,” Aney said. “I have every right to express my feelings, and my feelings are that we are not permitted to call anybody a liar. That's a judgment someone higher than I makes.” DeMarche, however, said he can understand why the girl's mother spoke of Procanick in such harsh terms. “She had a lot of faith and trust in Mr. Procanick, and he violated that trust,” DeMarche said. “I think she's justified in being angry.”
From the New York Times Caucus Blog, "Dribbling Past Reverend Wright". Read the article and watch a video of him playing here.
Watch Obama make a "swish" at the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7cN8lNgy5s
Obama speaks, then shoots hoops in Kokomo
Richard Essex/Eyewitness News
Kokomo - Senator Barack Obama took timeout from hitting the campaign trail Friday evening, hitting the hardwood during a campaign stop in Howard County.
The Democratic presidential candidate took part in a 3-on-3 basketball game with a Marion high school student and three of his friends. Blake Hancock was selected to play in the game after collecting 150 voter registration forms. The Illinois senator is known to regularly use basketball as part of his workout regimen.
But before he was hitting jump shots, Obama was hitting talking points in a speech at another gym.
"No more homeless veterans, no more begging for disability payments. They have earned our respect and they will get it," he told the crowd at Kokomo's Memorial Gymnasium.
While the basketball game gave the candidate a rare chance to stretch his legs on the campaign trail, his presentation stayed consistent.
"Here is what we have to do," Obama said. "We got to rebuild the capacity of our economy to generate good jobs and that means investing in infrastructure."
Kokomo gyms have not seen this type of excitement in years. Senator Obama supporters say he is changing that feeling.
"I think there is a little bit of excitement about the Obama campaign coming to Kokomo," said Greg Moore. "I think people are embracing the ideal that Obama has about change. We're hoping that he comes up with a little more concrete ideas."
Obama is the first Democratic presidential hopeful to visit Kokomo in 40 years. He'll continue his Indiana campaign on Saturday with stops at Marion and Anderson.
By Michael Luo and Leslie Wayne
Even if Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton emerges victorious tonight in Pennsylvania, she faces a widening resource gap with her opponent, Senator Barack Obama, that her campaign has been struggling to close but may simply be unable to do so.
Financial reports filed with the Federal Election Commission late Sunday revealed just how dire the situation has become for Mrs. Clinton, showing her campaign laboring to stay ahead of a growing pile of unpaid bills.
The Clinton campaign has sought to downplay the disparity in resources with the Obama campaign, which grew larger in March, pointing out that Mrs. Clinton scored popular vote victories in both Texas and Ohio even though she was significantly outspent in both places.
Nevertheless, Mrs. Clinton’s ability to keep pace with an onslaught of spending by Mr. Obama in North Carolina and Indiana, which are set to vote on May 6, may depend on the forbearance of some of her creditors, which includes some of her top consultants but also a trail of smaller vendors in states across the country that have held nominating contests.Mrs. Clinton ended March with $10.3 million in outstanding debts, not counting the $5 million loan she gave her campaign just before the crush of states that voted on Feb. 5, when she was encountering a similar cash shortfall.
In that case, she was facing the prospect of competing in more than 20 states across the country, a much more expensive proposition than what she faces now.
Article today from CNN's political ticker:
(CNN) — The pageantry, the emotion, the packed gymnasiums — basketball fanatics in Indiana and North Carolina have seen it all before.Democrats in both primary states are beaming about their newfound roles in this extended nomination contest, but long after the bumper stickers and campaign buttons are packed away, and when the awkward sports metaphors are nothing but distant memories, Hoosiers and Tar Heels will always have that familiar sound of sneaker-on-hardwood to fall back on.Still, with politics and hoops now crossing paths, a handful of basketball icons have become caught in the moment, stepping off the court to endorse presidential candidates this cycle.Here's a quick look at which basketball celebrities from North Carolina and Indiana have weighed in on the 2008 race, according to Federal Election Commission data and news reports.
(CNN) — The pageantry, the emotion, the packed gymnasiums — basketball fanatics in Indiana and North Carolina have seen it all before.
Democrats in both primary states are beaming about their newfound roles in this extended nomination contest, but long after the bumper stickers and campaign buttons are packed away, and when the awkward sports metaphors are nothing but distant memories, Hoosiers and Tar Heels will always have that familiar sound of sneaker-on-hardwood to fall back on.
Still, with politics and hoops now crossing paths, a handful of basketball icons have become caught in the moment, stepping off the court to endorse presidential candidates this cycle.
Here's a quick look at which basketball celebrities from North Carolina and Indiana have weighed in on the 2008 race, according to Federal Election Commission data and news reports.
(CNN) — For at least the fourth time in a little more than a month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made it clear she thinks Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama shouldn't run together on a joint ticket this fall.
“No, I don’t think it’s a good idea,” she told CNN’s Larry King Thursday. “First of all, the candidate, whoever he or she may be, should choose his or her own vice presidential candidate. I think that’s appropriate. That’s where you would see the comfort level, not only how to run but how to govern the country.
“And there’s plenty of talent to go around to draw upon for a good, strong ticket. I’m not one of those who thinks that that’s a good ticket.”
King asked whether that was because she thought there was too much animosity between the two.
"No," replied Pelosi. "I just think that — well, let’s put it this way: if they think it’s a good ticket, maybe it is. But I don’t think that we should thrust the vice presidential choice onto the presidential nominee. That’s her or his decision to make."
In an interview with mtvU student journalists earlier this month, she said flatly, "I don't see it… In this case, I don't see that as politically expedient. New York, Illinois…either one I believe are going to be strong Democratic states. I think it is up to the nominee to choose his or her vice presidential candidate."
Pelosi also seemed to suggest the two current Democratic presidential contenders wouldn't feel comfortable together on the same ticket.
"The person that is good is the person the presidential candidate feels comfortable with," she said, adding later, "I've just been involved in politics for a very long time and I just don't think that would be the ticket."
Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill several weeks ago, the House Speaker said bluntly that the two presidential candidates will not end up sharing a ticket.
"I do think we will have a dream team, it just won't be those two names," she said. "Whoever our nominee is and whoever he or she is and whoever he or she chooses, will be a dream team as the Democrats go forward. Take it from me, that won't be the ticket."
Last month, she emphatically told a Boston television station that a joint ticket with Clinton and Obama is "impossible."
"I think that ticket either way is impossible," she said. "I think that the Clinton administration has fairly ruled that out by proclaiming that Senator McCain would be a better commander-in-Chief than Obama."
She was being blunt, she said, because "I wanted to be sure I didn't leave any ambiguity."
The California Democrat, who has remained neutral throughout the party's primary process, said she remains an uncommitted superdelegate.
Pelosi’s remarks came a day after Obama mocked Clinton and her campaign surrogates for suggesting that he would make a good vice president.
