Salon.com: Presidential Candidates’ Net Worth

(h/t Salon.com and Money magazine who provide the net worth calculations)

Candidate	Net Worth
Mitt and Ann Romney	$202 million
John and Elizabeth Edwards	$54.7 million
Rudy Giuliani	$52.2 million
John and Cindy McCain	$40.4 million
Hillary and Bill Clinton	$34.9 million 4/4/08 Update: The Clintons released their tax returns showing that they had earned $109 million since they left the White House.
Fred Thompson	$8.1 million
Barack and Michelle Obama	$1.3 million

Also See: “Why I’m Not Impressed That John Edwards ‘Never Took A Dime from a Washington Lobbyist’“

NH Union Leader: Who Is Really Electable?

The NH Union Leader writes:

New Hampshire Democrats voted for John Kerry in the 2004 primary in large part because they viewed him as the most electable candidate. They’ve had buyer’s remorse ever since.

Now they are making the same calculation about Hillary Clinton. That math might well produce the same answer it did last time.

…

Granted, Obama has only a few short years of experience in elected national office. But then, so does Clinton. Obama actually has more experience in elected office than Clinton does. Her Washington experience consists mostly of being the wife of the President. That counts for something, but does it really count as a qualification for the Oval Office?

If Democrats really valued experience that highly, they’d be looking more seriously at Joe Biden. What they’re saying is that they want someone who can beat the Republican nominee.

But there is little reason to believe that Clinton has a better shot at victory next November than Obama does.

Read more.

NH Congresswoman, Carol Shea-Porter, Endorses Obama

Boston.com writes:

First term Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter will endorse Barack Obama’s presidential campaign after saying all year she would stay neutral in the race, the Globe has confirmed.

Shea-Porter, supported Wesley Clark in the 2004 primary, and was elected to Congress last year as a strongly anti-war and populist candidate.

Read more.

UPDATE: Listen to Senator Barack Obama discuss Shea-Porter’s endorsement here.

UPDATE 12/12:  The Washington Post has a good article about how the Clinton camp tried to cut in on Shea-Porter’s endorsement of Obama.

AP: Obama Discusses Retirement Security Plan In Nevada

The AP reports:

A roundtable discussion with Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on retirement security morphed Monday into a talk about the participants’ myriad other economic problems, from mortgage woes to escalating health care costs.

As Obama engaged the six Las Vegas supporters, aged 30 to 70, before a huddle of reporters, he offered solutions such as redistributing tax breaks from the wealthy to lower income earners.

“Part of the problem in terms of retirement security is just making enough money in the first place to be able to save,” Obama said.

Read more.

Obama: America “Has Vacated The Perch of Moral Leader”

The following statement was submitted by U. S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) in the Congressional Record today on International Human Rights Day:

“Mr. President, today is Human Rights Day. Fifty-nine years ago today, thanks in large measure to the tireless leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.“The principles encompassed in the Declaration are uniquely rooted in the American tradition, beginning with our founding documents. Yet the Declaration also wove together a remarkable variety of political, religious, and cultural perspectives and traditions. The United States and the United Kingdom championed civil liberties. The French representative on the committee helped devise the structure of the Declaration. India added the prohibition on discrimination. China stressed the importance of family and reminded UN delegates that every right carried with it companion duties. Today should be a day of celebration, a day when we hail the universality of these core principles, which are both beacons to guide us and the foundations for building a more just and stable world.

“The Universal Declaration was a radical document in its time, and its passage required courageous leadership from political leaders. Even though no country could have been said to be in full compliance with its provisions, including the United States where Jim Crow still prevailed, all UN member states committed themselves to promoting, protecting, and respecting fundamental human rights. Although Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not live to see the enactment of the historic Declaration, it enshrined his “four freedoms”– freedom from want, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom from fear. Individuals in the United States and everywhere else were entitled, simply by virtue of being human, to physical and economic security. The Declaration was born of the recognition, in the words of one human rights scholar, that “what is pain and humiliation for you is pain and humiliation for me.”

How Do Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton Compare On Earmarks and Pork Spending?

The LA Times writes:

Her [Clinton's] record stands in contrast with others in the Senate seeking the presidency, particularly John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.). McCain, who has long opposed earmarks, does not write them. Obama has used the device, but now declines to earmark funds for private companies; he uses earmarks only to secure funds for government projects such as road building and hospital construction. Other senators seeking the presidency provide earmarks to home-state constituents and collect donations from recipients of the federal largesse. But The Times review found that Clinton does it on a different scale.

For example, in the appropriations bills that have passed the Senate so far this year, Clinton earmarked 216 separate projects for a total of $236.6 million. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) secured $112.8 million; Obama earmarked $90.4 million, and Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) earmarked projects totaling $70.8 million.

…

Democrats made earmark reform a priority when they took over Congress in January. The Senate passed rules making it easier to identify the authors of the once-secretive practice.

Clinton supported those basic reforms, but she and other Democratic senators running for president balked at a proposal by Obama that would have required members to disclose their proposed earmark requests, not just those that were enacted into law. [sagereader: All points bulletin! We have a 'change' candidate on the premises! ]

…

With the exception of McCain, the presidential candidates who are members of the Senate all raised campaign funds from earmark beneficiaries, though none came close to Clinton. Obama, for example, received $10,000 from trustees of the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, for which he secured a federal grant.

But Obama also earned a reputation as a reformer, teaming up with the Senate’s most vociferous earmark foe, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), to push legislation that would make earmark data more readily available to the public. And he currently declines to back any earmarks that benefit individual private companies, in part because he is concerned about the scandals that have linked legislative success with donations.

Read more.

Also see “Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton Ethics Reform Comparison Chart“

Barbara Lee Endorses Barack Obama

SFGate reports:

Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland stood with tears in her eyes on the floor of the 2004 Democratic National Convention as she watched a rising party star, Barack Obama, deliver an electrifying speech that shot him into the political stratosphere.

When it was over, a profoundly moved Lee told us on the convention floor that she had witnessed history that day in Boston — the political emergence of the man she believed would be the first African American president of the United States.

Today, Lee endorses Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for president, making her a star endorser in his campaign effort.

”He does represent that bridge to the future; he reprsents hope, new direction which our country desperate needs,” Lee told us this morning. ”This is a very powerful and defining moment for our country, and my conscience is my guide. I can’t sit on the sidelines when we have an opportunity to move forward.”

Read more.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity Foundation has a website highlighting the candidates’ platforms on addressing poverty issues.

Read Obama’s written questionnaire response here.

Read more about other candidates.

Obama Re-Defines The Meaning of “Tough”

Roger Cohen of The New York Times writes:

I asked Senator Barack Obama if he’s tough enough for a dangerous world. Sometimes the Democratic candidate treads so carefully, and looks so vulnerable to a gust of wind, that the question of whether his legal mind can get lethal arises.

“Yes, I’m tough enough,” he responded during a half-hour conversation. “What I’ve always found is people who talk about how tough they are aren’t the tough ones. I’m less interested in beating my chest and rattling my saber and more in making decisions that build a safer and more secure world.”

Obama, speaking less than a month before the Iowa caucus on Jan. 3, continued: “We can and should lead the world, but we have to apply wisdom and judgment. Part of our capacity to lead is linked to our capacity to show restraint.”

That was striking: an enduring belief in U.S. leadership coupled with a commitment to, as he also put it, acting “with a sense of humility.”

Read more.

Obama Statement On Climate Change Negotiations In Bali

U.S. Senator Barack Obama released the following statement today on the climate change negotiations in Bali.

“The post-Kyoto climate negotiations that have kicked off in Bali offer an important opportunity for America to re-engage with the rest of the world in taking on one of the greatest challenges of this generation.  But we must start by showing the world that we are serious about tackling the climate crisis here at home, which is why I’ve put forth a bold energy plan that would reduce our carbon emissions 80% by 2050. As President, I will also personally reach out to the leaders of the biggest carbon emitting nations and ask them to join America in creating a new Global Energy Forum that can continue the work begun in Bali and lay the foundation for the next generation of climate protocols.”