Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, has once again cooked up controversy - by shoplifting a recipe.

And this time, Bill Clinton is also implicated!

Cindy and Bill, along with Michelle Obama, submitted cookie recipes for the 5th Presidential Bake-Off in Family Circle magazine.

It appears, however, that the former president and Cindy McCain swiped their recipes from well known sources, The Huffington Post says.

The July issue of the magazine features a recipe for “Cindy McCain’s Oatmeal-Butterscotch Cookies.”

“They are an absolute must whenever the whole family gets together,” Cindy McCain raves to Family Circle. Mmm hmm.

The only problem? It appears copied from Hershey’s website.

Following the lead of Cindy McCain in cookie-gate is none other than our 42nd President! Although Bill Clinton attributes his oatmeal cookie recipe to a longtime family cook, the recipe is identical to a Betty Crocker recipe.

Really. Again, The Huffington Post published both.

This isn’t the first time Cindy McCain has come under fire in the kitchen - earlier this year, a McCain intern ripped off some of Rachael Ray’s recipes, posting them as “Cindy’s Recipes” on her husband’s campaign site.

See, and people say Michelle Obama is not American enough. At least she can come up with her own recipe … or be stealthy enough not to get caught.

Former President Bill Clinton and actress Gina Gershon are slamming this month’s Vanity Fair article that implies he had an affair with her - among other women - since leaving the White House in 2001.

In the story, titled “The Comeback Id,” editor Todd Purdum — who is married to former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers — writes that Clinton’s personality changed subtly but significantly after his 2004 heart bypass surgery.

The 10,000-word essay details numerous shady business and personal dealings from the former President, who was “seeing a lot of women on the road.”

Among the allegations was that in recent years, Clinton has been seen “visiting with the actress Gina Gershon in California.”

Gershon’s rep issued a statement saying: “Todd Purdum’s insinuation is a lie, and it is irresponsible journalism. We are demanding a retraction.”

Clinton also denied the claims, calling Purdum “sleazy” and a “scumbag.”

“He’s one of the guys that propagated all those lies about Whitewater for Kenneth Starr,” he said. “He’s just a dishonest guy — can’t help it.”

Continuing his long-running “conspiracy” theory, he also told the Huffington Post that the article is an attempt to discredit wife Hillary Clinton.

NOTE: A rep for Hillary’s campaign has since apologized for his outburst, saying that Bill Clinton used “inappropriate” language.

Purdum defended himself on CNN, saying he was “very careful to say there is no clear-cut evidence that President Clinton has done anything improper.”

“I reject the notion that I’m making an insinuation,” he added. “But I’m very comfortable quoting the people I quote because I know who they are, and I know that they are very senior people who have known President Clinton for a very long time and work for him at very high levels.”

Former President Bill Clinton is known for presiding over the greatest peacetime economic expansion in the history of the United States.

He is perhaps best known, however, for personal recklessness.

The list of Clinton indiscretions - incidents flying in the face of the compassion and brilliance he so often brought to the nation’s highest office - was not a short one.

And it continues to this day, seven-plus years after he left office.

In July’s Vanity Fair, writer Todd Pardum authored a feature article on Bill Clinton - brilliantly titled “The Comeback Id” - as stunning as it is long.

Not surprisingly, Pardum’s nearly 10,000-word piece enraged the Clintons when it was posted online. They sharply criticized it in a statement.

Even the most supportive, loyal Democrats were saying it in the early 1990s and we’re saying it again here in 2008: what the heck is Bill Clinton thinking?

Even as his wife, Hillary Clinton, steadfastly seeks the White House, the Big Dog has apparently been up to his old tricks in the past few years.

The Vanity Fair article unleashes a laundry list of recent Bill Clinton antics - and his questionable relationships with women are at the forefront.

There is no proof of post-presidential sexual indiscretions on Clinton’s part, despite a steady stream of tabloid speculation and Internet gossip.

But among a not-so-small cadre of Clinton friends and former aides, concern about the company the boss keeps is persistent, palpable, and pained.

For instance, there is this excerpt:

Continue reading this article …

Victories are increasingly empty and lucid arguments for staying in the race are harder to come by. The South Carolina race-bating, fear mongering, even the 3 a.m. phone ad didn’t cut it. Hmmm. Have we tried the conspiracy angle?

According to former President Bill Clinton, what we have here is a simple matter of respect, or more accurately, disrespect. That’s why his wife isn’t the presidential nominee of the Democratic party right now.

Implying sexism, media bias and broad cover-ups, Bill Clinton says he has “never seen a candidate treated so disrespectfully just for running,” and “she will win the general election if you nominate her. They’re just trying to make sure you don’t.”

They’re out there, Bubba says! They!

“I can’t believe it. It is just frantic the way they are trying to push and pressure and bully all these superdelegates to come out,” Bill Clinton said during a South Dakota campaign stop on Sunday.

The former chief executive also suggested some were trying to “cover up” Sen. Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning in some of the key states that Democrats will have to win in the November general election.

Here’s how he put it: “‘Oh, this is so terrible: The people they want her. Oh, this is so terrible: She is winning the general election, and he is not. Oh my goodness, we have to cover this up.’”

Bill Clinton did not expound on who he was accusing.

Continue reading this article …

“I not only love her. I honor the things she has done.” - Bill Clinton

The 42nd President of the United States frequently expresses praise for the person he hopes will be the 44th occupant of White House: his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. But a recent interview with People was particularly candid.

Earlier this week, Bill Clinton provided his personal perspective on what has been one of the toughest, most memorable campaigns in history…

Q: Is it harder to campaign for Hillary than it was for yourself?
Bill Clinton: No, for me in a way it’s easier – except that it’s harder for me not to talk too long because I get the feeling that if they all knew her like I do, she’d get 80 percent of the vote.

Q: What has the best part been?
Bill Clinton: Chelsea’s emergence has been the second best thing. The most amazing thing is Hillary’s ability to endure in the face of all the blows that have been rained on her: being outspent, dismissed, denigrated, declared dead … When I met her, I found that in her personal relationships she lacked self-confidence and was painfully shy. She is having more fun now than at the beginning. If you look at her, she seems perfectly relaxed, doesn’t she?

Q: How often do you talk to Hillary during the day?
Bill Clinton: Probably three times a day on the phone. I got in the habit of not being an e-mailer when I was President because we had Newt Gingrich, who wanted to subpoena every e-mail ever written in the White House.

Q: You’ve called the campaign press coverage biased against Hillary. Why do you think that is?
Bill Clinton: I think most press people are in [Barack Obama's] demographic. They need a feeling more than they perceive they need a President. There have been times when I thought I was literally lost in a fun house.

Continue reading this article …

Grasping at straws as she continues to stay in the contentious Democratic race, Hillary Clinton claimed the following in an interview this week:

“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on… Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me … There’s a pattern emerging here.”

This followed Democratic strategist / Clinton supporter Paul Begala’s quote during Tuesday night’s coverage of the Indiana primary on CNN:

“We cannot win with eggheads and African-Americans. Okay. That’s the [Michael] Dukakis coalition, which carried 10 states and gave us four years of the first George Bush. President Clinton, you know, reached across and got a whole lot of Republicans and independents to come.”

Bill and Hillary Clinton are the ones dividing the Democratic party, rather than uniting it, by diminishing all that Barack Obama has accomplished.

With their dismissive strategy and divisive remarks such as these, the Clintons are indeed reaching across the aisle. Right to John McCain.

Continue reading this article …

Another week, another day of primaries in the Democratic presidential race. As expected, each of the co-frontrunners had something to celebrate on this critical election day, pocketing a victory a piece May 6.

Below are some photos of last night’s rallies held by Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama - and their spouses - in Indiana and North Carolina.

Click to enlarge any of the shots of the Clintons and Barack and Michelle Obama photos, and follow the jump for many more May 6 pictures …

Continue reading this article …

Picture this: A straight-shooting war hero is picked by the GOP as its nominee. John McCain? No, Bob Dole in 1996. That didn’t work out too well.

Dole lost after a campaign vexed by senior moments such as when he fell off a stage, or referred to the Los Angeles Dodgers as the Brooklyn Dodgers.

All along, Bill Clinton showed deference to Dole, heralding his challenger’s “half century of service” to the country and talking about his heroism.

It was an effective tactic designed to honor, and at the same time remind the electorate just how behind the times and out of touch the man was.

Not surprisingly, it’s pretty much exactly how Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama begin a lot of their references to John McCain these days.

John McCain brings back memories of Bob Dole.

“The guy’s a war hero,” Barack Obama says frequently, transitioning quickly to the “fierce urgency of now,” leaving McCain, a quarter-century his senior, in the dust.

The Republican nominee-to-be, 71, isn’t helping is own cause.

A new Democratic campaign video shows John McCain at a press conference in Iraq, veering off-message and talking about a non-existent al Qaeda presence in Iraq, only to be saved by friend and colleague, Sen. Joe Lieberman.

As John McCain’s appearance on The Late Show last week showed us, he’s been in good spirits regarding the age question for the most part, joking about being “older than dirt” and having “more scars than Frankenstein.”

In fairness to McCain, he’s a lot more lucid and aware of what’s going on than Bob Dole was 12 years ago. The Dodgers’ last season in Brooklyn was 1957.

Ultimately, though, it will be a platform nearly identical to the failed policies of Bush and our hunger for something better that will be his undoing.

From the front lines of the Democratic campaign comes this first-hand account of an appearance by Bill Clinton in Findlay, Ohio. Emotions ran high Friday as they have throughout this race, particularly among young voters …

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With the Ohio primary looming Tuesday, March 4, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been campaigning heavily here for the last week.

The former First Lady even toted her famous husband and daughter along to speak wherever she herself couldn’t be present.

I had been following each candidate’s campaign trail through the Buckeye State on TV and in the papers when I could, but when it was announced in a campus-wide email that Bill Clinton would be speaking at the University of Findlay’s campus and that anyone could attend, to say I was excited would be an understatement.

Canvassing Ohio, Bill Clinton sparks the passion of voters young and old.

Although neither resolutely pro-Hillary nor pro-Barack, I knew that if I missed out on hearing the 42nd U.S. President speak at UF, I would sincerely regret it.

So I roused myself at 7:30 and stood in line among fellow students and Findlay residents outside Croy Gymnasium to hear the former President address us.

Trying to recap every emotion the event elicited in me is daunting, but in summation, it was a rare and special occasion on many levels.

I have not often (actually, not ever) in three years in this quiet, conservative town had a chance to stand in a crowd of predominantly young left-wingers whose political attitudes still hover above the apathetic / ambivalent line.

As I stood there, alternately shaking and tearing up, I became acutely aware of how palpable and electric the excitement was.

Continue reading this article …

Former Massachusetts State Rep. Raymond Jordan supported Bill Clinton for president in 1992 and worked in Clinton’s administration in the 1990s.

But last month was the first time Jordan, 64, ever received a call from the former president, according to the Boston Globe.

“Raymond Jordan, this is Bill Clinton, and I’m calling you because we’re calling all the superdelegates,” Jordan said, recalling the conversation.

A week later, Jordan received a phone call from Sen. Hillary Clinton, but it was too late. He had decided to support Sen. Barack Obama.

The neck-and-neck race for the Democratic presidential nomination may not be decided until the party convention in August, when superdelegates - party loyalists granted a delegate vote - make their decisions.

In Massachusetts, where After W is headquartered, the race is already fierce for the state’s 26 superdelegates. As of yesterday, 10 are supporting Obama, nine are backing Clinton, six remain uncommitted, and one is neutral.

Mass. Rep. Richard Neal has indicated he will choose Clinton.

According to Democratic Party rules, superdelegates are under no obligation to follow the will of the voters, as history has shown.

In 1984, Massachusetts superdelegates lined up behind eventual nominee Walter F. Mondale, helping him carry the state at the convention, even though Gary Hart had won the state’s primary.

This year, with Hillary Clinton’s popular-vote victory in the state Super Tuesday, some of the same conflicts may be in play.

Consider Gov. Deval Patrick.

His endorsement of Barack Obama in October was a coup for the Illinois senator, but it was not enough to deliver the Bay State in the primary.

So, should Patrick accept the will of the voters who elected him in 2006 and go with Hillary Clinton, or vote his conscience as a superdelegate?

Expect stories like these from the Bay State to play out all across the U.S. if what some call the nightmare scenario occurs - and neither Clinton or Obama has run away with this thing after the primary season ends.