During the Ira W. Sohn Investment Research Conference in New York City this week, investment professionals got an earful from Carl Ichan, the billionaire corporate raider (he’s a value investor technically but since he takes over companies people label him a corporate raider). However, Carl Icahn did not dispense investment advice, instead the billionaire investor used his 15 minute speech to discuss politics, using the forum to attack Democratic presidential front-runner Senator Barack Obama.

Obama would be a “terrible” president who would wreck the economy, Bloomberg is reporting today.

“I don’t normally get involved in politics, but this time I am,” Icahn told an investors conference in New York Wednesday night in remarks embargoed until this morning. “I don’t think Obama really understands economics.

“I personally think he would be a terrible president,” Icahn said, arguing that Obama would probably go on a “huge spending spree” that “the country can’t afford right now.”

I looked into Carl Icahn political affiliations. He’s an independent and he makes contributions to both Democratic and Republican candidates. In the 2006 election cycle, he contributed $50,000 to Democratic PACs and $25,100 to GOP PACs.

Former New York City Mayor Edward Koch, one of the country’s most prominent and outspoken Democrats, says he may cross over and back Republican Senator John McCain for President. That makes two prominent New Yorkers abandoning the quixotic and effete Barack Obama for John McCain. Last week, Geraldine Ferraro voiced doubts that she would vote for Obama.

Koch carries significant weight with many Jewish Democrats in New York and across the country. He also has a history of playing the maverick and crossing party lines. He has backed several New York Republicans, including Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg in their runs for mayor of New York City. In the past Koch has also supported Alphonse D’Amato for the U.S. Senate, and George Pataki for New York governor. In 2004, he endorsed his first Republican for president, George W. Bush. Koch actively campaigned in several states, including Florida and Ohio.

Here’s the significance of this: all those mentioned won their elections. Koch’s views are thus a barometer for key constituencies of the Democratic party that without it is difficult to foresee Obama winning the general election. Koch, in particular, has sway over Jewish voters and over those with national security concerns.

Koch also says in this interview that he still endorses Sen. Hillary Clinton for the White House and believes she should stay in the race. He says he is bothered by Sen. Barack Obama’s relationships with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and terrorist bomber William Ayers. Furthermore, Koch believes that Obama is too inexperienced on foreign policy and that his comments on Iran are sending the Iranians the wrong signals.

The Newsmax interview is below the fold: (more…)

For the first time, a Superdelegate that had been leaning towards Obama has switched to Clinton. Guam Democratic Party Chair Pilar Lujan has endorsed Clinton after indicating that she would support Obama when he won the Guam caucus by 7 votes.

“After taking a close look at the candidates in this race, I was more impressed by Senator Clinton’s ability to meet the challenges of the presidency: end the war, re-invigorate the economy, and provide universal health care,” said Lujan. “When she becomes the first woman president, she will think of the people of Guam and their aspirations.”

This is a good sign. This race is not over by a long shot. While Pilar Lujan did not mention the Electoral Map in her decision to endorse Clinton and back away from her previous stance of supporting Obama, I would have to believe that polling data from North Carolina, Florida, Missouria and Pennsylvania in the past week that have Clinton beating McCain in those states also had Obama losing to McCain might have also played a role in her decision.

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Keep this in mind when you start hearing about opinion polls calling for Hillary to drop out.

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For the story on Governor Sarah Palin being selected as Senator McCain’s running mate, please click here. In addition you will find a half dozen other posts on Sarah Palin by using the search box in the top left corner.

The Anchorage Daily News is reporting that the Republican Governor Sarah Palin has announced that the State of Alaska will sue to challenge the recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species. Palin argued there is not enough evidence to support a listing. Polar bears are well-managed and their population has dramatically increased over 30 years as a result of conservation, she said. Maybe she should read the USGS report that came out in September 2007. It took me 20 seconds to find it, you’re a Governor, they should send it to you for free. Here’s the Washington Post’s story on the USGS report. Some highlights:

Two-thirds of the world’s polar bears will be killed off by 2050 _ and the entire population gone from Alaska _ because of thinning sea ice from global warming in the Arctic, government scientists forecast Friday.

Only in the northern Canadian Arctic islands and the west coast of Greenland are any of the world’s 16,000 polar bears expected to survive through the end of the century, said the U.S. Geological Survey, which is the scientific arm of the Interior Department.

USGS projects that polar bears during the next half-century will disappear along the north coasts of Alaska and Russia and lose 42 percent of the Arctic range they need to live in during summer in the Polar Basin when they hunt and breed. A polar bear’s life usually lasts about 30 years.

“Projected changes in future sea ice conditions, if realized, will result in loss of approximately two-thirds of the world’s current polar bear population by the mid 21st century,” the report says

And since Governor Palin is too lazy to use an Internet search engine, here is the report from September 2007 by the United States Geological Survey. Just download the PDFs and print them. Then try reading them.

More on the Impact of Global Warming on Polar Bears from the Anchorage Daily News and from Polar Bear International, an advocacy group.

To be fair, Governor Palin has tackled corruption and led ethics reform in one of the most corrupt states in the United States. She has taken on the oil companies, lobbyists and special interests in her crusade for responsible government. She also broke the power of the old party machinery to win election as Alaska’s first female governor. But on this one issue, I hope she can be persuaded to seriously consider the work of the USGS.

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All of a sudden, I find myself fascinated by the Congressional race in western Missouri, in Missouri’s Sixth Congressional District that includes Kansas City to be precise. Yesterday in The Heterosexual Friendly Report, I highlighted a rather amateurishly produced attack ad by the incumbent Rep. Sam Graves (R) who is being challenged by former Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes (D). Congressman Graves attacked his Democratic challenger for her supposed “San Francisco Values.” Well, Kay Barnes fired back. Good for her.

But two things really captures my attention. It’s not even Memorial Day and they are running ads. But check out the quality of the Graves ad (in the Heterosexual Friendly Report). Was it a high school computer class project?

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Writing in the Washington Post, Marie Coco asks a couple of questions that deserve further pondering. Why is there such opposition to a female President in the United States? And if the most competent person, in the race irrespective of gender, can’t pull it off what hope is there of someone else down the line?

Women leaders in Presidential systems are rare. They are more common in Westminster parliamentary systems. Still in Presidential systems, the Philippines has managed two to date in the 23 years of the post-Marcos era. Parliamentary systems tend to produce more female leaders because it is easier to win the backing of one’s parliamentary caucus and thus become Prime Minister. Such was Margaret Thatcher’s path and Golda Meir’s. And of course many women are heirs to their families political heritage. Corazon Aquino in the Philippines, Violetta de Chamarro in Nicaragua, Isabel de Perón in Argentina, Indira Ghandi in India and Benzair Bhutto in Pakistan.

And it’s not that this is that recent of a phenomenon either. Apart from monarchy, elected females leaders have been emerging for half a century. In 1960 Sirivamo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka became the world’s first female elected Premier Minister and in 1974 Isabel de Perón of Argentina became the first woman President - one woman had been Acting Head of Government and two women Acting Heads of State before that. Granted Perón succeeded her dead husband, Juan Domingo Perón.

There are six female Presidents currently around the world –in Argentina, Chile, Finland, India, Ireland, Liberia and The Philippines. In Finland, India and Ireland, they serve as head of states but as those are parliamentary systems, the head of government is the Prime Minister. And speaking of Prime Ministers, at the moment there are seven woman Prime Ministers: in Germany, New Zealand, Moldavia (Designated), Mozambique, The Netherlands Antilles, Ukraine and The Åland Islands.

In 1979, the Bolivian Congress appointed Lidia Gueiler President to solve a political crisis. Then in 1980, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir of Iceland became the first woman ever elected President of a country. The list of countries that have or have had female leaders is vast and long but it does not include the United States. And it may not be for another generation unless Hillary reaches the White House.

Ms. Coco’s article follows below the fold: (more…)

On the defensive for his willingness to meet global sponsors of terrorism, the Obama campaign sent out Obama and his surrogates to do damage control. Tom Daschle, Susan Rice and Bill Richardson made the rounds on the networks. Daschle worked the morning shift, Rice the day shift and Richardson the evening shift. Obama just dug some more. Let’s just hope none of these people ever get that 3:00 AM phone call.

ABC News reports on Obama’s backtracking:

The Obama campaign is now offering a more nuanced approach that would not necessarily include a presidential meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — and that stresses diplomatic work that would take place before any such meetings take place.

Asked about Obama’s original statement Tuesday morning on CNN, former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., a top Obama adviser and supporter, said top-level meetings would not be immediate — and would not happen without preliminary extensive diplomatic work.

“I would not say that we would meet unconditionally,” said Daschle. “Of course, there are conditions that we [would] involve in preparation in getting ready for the diplomacy. … ‘Without precondition’ simply means we wouldn’t put obstacles in the way of discussing the differences between us. That’s really what they’re saying, what Barack is saying.”

Susan Rice, a top Obama foreign policy adviser, said Monday that Obama’s meetings with Iranian leaders might not include Ahmadinejad.

“He said he’d meet with the appropriate Iranian leaders. He hasn’t named who that leader will be,” Rice said on CNN. “It would be the appropriate Iranian leadership at the appropriate time — not necessarily Ahmadinejad.”

Really? The appropriate leaders? You mean like the Ayotollahs perhaps? Perhaps Iran’s spiritual leader instead, the Ayotollah Khamenei? Who is Rice kidding? The Ayotollah Khamenei may rule Iran but it is the President of Iran who runs the day-to-day government. Unless Obama becomes an Inam, the Ayotollah Khomeini is unlikely to meet him. And do Obama’s advisors think that in any meeting that does place between the President of the United States and the Government of Iran is somehow going to by pass Ahmadinejad? They are more out of touch than I thought. Perhaps no one will catch this, but this is another gaffe by Obama’s surrogates.

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Video from yesterday’s protest at NBC studios in Burbank, CA.

One More New Blog
One more new blog has caught my eye.

Alessandro Machi, Dwell in the Possibility. Alessandro’s by-line is Hillary Wins. The blog features video and posts by Alessandro.

John McCain will meet three potential running mates this weekend. The New York Times website reported yesterday that McCain had invited Florida’s popular governor, Charlie Crist, Bobby Jindal, the new governor of Louisiana, and Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who was his rival for the nomination, to his Arizona home this weekend. Reports that McCain was coming close to a decision on a running mate dominated the morning news shows.

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