Woodstock
Representative Jack D. Franks of Woodstock, Illinois, endorsed Hillary. By itself, this is hardly surprising... What is surprising is that Representative Franks was chosen by Obama to serve on Obama's presidential exploratory committee.

"I watched the first two [Democratic] debates and it was evident to me that only one person up on that stage was ready to lead our country," Franks said. "On Day 1, whoever is leading our country has got to be ready to go, there's no learning on the job."

The endorsement by Franks was surprising:

Thomas Cynor, chairman of the McHenry County Democrats, said he was surprised by Franks' endorsement because of the representative's prior work for Obama, but not disappointed. "I think Jack's motivation is pure," Cynor said. "He believes that for the senator from New York, it apparently is ... time."

Franks explained his endorsement this way

"Obviously, the easy decision is to go with Barack, how could you not like Barack?" Franks said. "This is the most important election facing America probably in the last 50 years, because of the terrorism threat, because our standing in the world has never been lower, and I have to worry about our future.

"I know she's the only person who can step into the job from Day 1, hit the ground running, and be the leader of the free world."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070701/ap_o n_re_eu/britain_airport_crash

 A Jeep Cherokee trailing a cascade of flames rammed into Glasgow's airport terminal on Saturday, shattering glass doors just yards from passengers at the check-in counters. Police said they believed the attack was linked to two car bombs found in London the day before.

Britain raised its terror alert to "critical" -- the highest possible level -- and the Bush administration announced plans to increase security at airports and on mass transit.

Rae said a "suspect device" was found on the man at the hospital and it was taken to a safe location where it was being investigated. He would not say whether the device was a suicide belt, but British security officials said evidence pointed to the attack being a suicide mission.

Police later arrested two more suspects in the London and Glasgow plots in Cheshire county in northern England, Scotland Yard said early Sunday.

"I can confirm that we believe the incident at Glasgow airport is linked to the events in London yesterday," Rae said at a news conference. "There are clearly similarities and we can confirm that this is being treated as a terrorist incident."

Police foiled the earlier plot Friday after two cars were found in central London packed with explosives -- one outside a nightclub near Piccadilly Circus and another parked nearby.

...

Okay, as I promised, here's a summary of last night debate's reviews I found:

Politico:

And, once again, Hillary, as her campaign officially refers to her, looked like she was in charge, with a command of the issues and even some soaring rhetoric now and again: "Yes, we have come a long way. But, yes, we have a long way to go. The march is not finished."

But time and again, she spoke clearly and compellingly. At the beginning of this campaign, her opponents had hoped she was going to turn out to be Humpty Dumpty, just waiting to fall and shatter into a million pieces. Instead, she has turned out to be King of the Hill. If anybody is going to really challenge her, they better find a way to do it in these debates.

The New York Post:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was the runaway winner over the race's lone black candidate in the Democratic debate, according to groups of African-American voters in Harlem and Washington, D.C.

In the nation's capital, 33 undecided voters who identified themselves as people of color and who supported John Kerry in 2004 scored last night's face-off an overwhelming victory for Clinton.

Twenty-seven participants gave the former first lady the nod, compared to just two who went with Barack Obama.

Associated Press:

Obama, the only black running for the White House, came into a debate Thursday night at predominantly black Howard University with the crowd on his side, chanting his name as all eight Democratic candidates posed for pictures on stage. But Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared to win many of them over in an impassioned performance that addressed their anger over inequality.

Ripublican Robert George:

She set the tone from the first question about whether race was still an "intractable problem" in America. While agreeing with the question, she noted that the diversity of the Democratic field (including herself) showed how far America had come.

She did her homework in mentioning a line from the best seller that moderator Tavis Smiley edited, "A Covenant With Black America," and dovetailed that with a reference to the failures shown in Hurricane Katrina.

She was prepared for every question with precise responses that rarely went over the one-minute time limit - even while squeezing in a Paris Hilton joke.

As the debate drew to a close, she got this nearly all-black, very anti-war audience to applaud heartily when she called for an enforceable no-fly zone to stop the genocide in Darfur: "We will shoot down [Sudanese government planes]! It is the only way to get their attention!"

In making that statement, she accomplished two things:

(1) She told the audience about her commitment to an issue in Africa, and (2) more importantly, for a broader audience, she demonstrated - as in other debates - that this woman is not afraid to use military force.

Other candidates had their moments, but none that came close to Clinton.

Barack Obama obviously connected with the audience when he reminded them that without Brown vs. Board of Education, he wouldn't have been on the stage.

But, after that, his answers were boilerplate.

Iowa's Des Moines Register:

The New York senator turned in the single most impressive performance during a debate among the Democratic presidential candidates Thursday night in Washington, D.C.

Clinton was crisp, cogent and methodical in her answers. She understood better than any of the other candidates the need for terse answers when so many candidates are given so little time in which to answer questions.

It's more than just a debating skill. American presidents lead the nation through television appearances, and Clinton's performance Thursday night suggests she can do that. She showed she has mastered the ability to put a lot of information into a few seconds on the tube.

She did that by talking more about solutions instead of yammering about how bad the problems are. Some of her opponents, who've had careers in the U.S. Senate or House, didn't get to the point before their time was up.

On heels of last night's winning debate performance (I'll file a report later on), Team Hillary is continuing to build its momentum in Iowa...

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/ electioncentral/2007/jun/29/hillary_and_ bill_to_give_personal_video_reports_dire ctly_from_iowa

Now Bill and Hillary have just come up with their next entry in this contest. The Clintons, who are campaigning in Iowa next week, are planning to deliver personal reports, on video, directly to viewers from the road in Iowa.

"Introducing HillCam," the vid says. "Spend a few minutes every day next week with the Clintons as they travel across Iowa. Totally unvarnished. Completely unprecedented."

Sure, why not? The more video, the merrier. The Sopranos thing was a surprise hit, and seemed to accomplish the campaign's obvious goal of humanizing her and Bill in keeping with the campaign's "you don't know the real Hillary" theme. If this latest does indeed come across as "totally unvarnished," as promised, it could prove equally effective.

A great review of Hillary's outstanding debate performance by 'The Nation'...

Yet it was not Obama's reference to the civil rights movement, nor former North Carolina Senator John Edwards' "this issue of poverty is the cause of my life" declaration that drew the evening's most passionate response.

Rather, it was a comment by Clinton to the reality of how deeply racial disparities still divide and damage the United States. During a discussion of responses to the AIDS crisis, which had hit young African-American women especially hard, the senator from New York said, "Let me just put this in perspective: If HIV-AIDS were the leading cause of death of white women between the ages of 25 and 34 there would be an outraged, outcry in this country."

Clinton had to struggle to finish the sentence, as the crowd's applause rose to deafening levels. It was a masterful moment; one that, fairly or unfairly, inspired comparisons with the best performances of his husband, Bill. And, while Clinton did not dominate this debate as she did the last one in New Hampshire, she again came off as the most polished of the candidates.

On the AIDs policy question in particular, Hillary Clinton communicated an understanding of the issue at hand that went far deeper than talking points. She seemed to "get it." And the crowd rewarded her with a genuine embrace.

No, Clinton's not any better on most issues than she was before this campaign got started. No, she's not as progressive as Edwards, Obama or most of the other candidates.

But she is scoring in the debates, and that appears to be helping to to maintain her frontrunner status.

I long suspected Fred Thompson was another media manufactured 'star'. He's old and quite a loose cannon...

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncent ral/2007/jun/28/hillary_campaign_takes_s hot_at_fred_thompson

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articl es/2007/06/27/thompson_courts_southerner s_in_sc_stop/

 He expressed his opposition to the immigration bill in Congress and decried the flow of illegal immigrants from Cuba, saying: "I don't imagine they're coming here to bring greetings from Castro. We're living in the era of the suitcase bomb."

Now Hillary's campaign manager, Patti Solis-Doyle, who is herself Latina, has just emailed out the following:

"For many decades, Cubans have been forced to leave the island, risking their lives to escape Fidel Castro's brutal dictatorship in search of freedom and opportunity. It is simply wrong to equate people fleeing from communism with terrorists."

There's been some talk in Hillaryland about a more public role for Solis-Doyle, but until now she's done mostly interviews in the Spanish media as part of the Hillary camp's outreach to Latino voters. Maybe that's changing.

A new fox news poll has just been released, Hillary Clinton solidified her lead in democratic primaries...
http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/062807_release_web.pdf         June 26-27 (June 5-6)

Hillary 47 (41)
Obama   21 (26)
Edwards 13 (15)

Actually, Hillary is the only candidate who has had an upward movement since the poll conducted from June 5-6. This is the biggest lead we have seen so far in all polls.

Bush sank to a record low of 31% in the same poll.
Another interesting tidbit of this poll is that only 11% of people polled got their candidates' campaign information from weblogs, 88% got from TV coverage.

It's now official...
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/blog/view/ ?id=8969

We expect to bring in about what we did in the First Quarter, or slightly more, which should put us in the range of $27 million.  To put that figure in some perspective, it is more than any Democrat has ever raised in the second quarter of the "off" year.  While that figure is record setting, we do expect Senator Obama to significantly outraise us this quarter.