No, this isn’t a line for Hanna Montana tickets, this is the line of people waiting to see Michelle Obama, the wife of Democrat Presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

The line outside was long and everyone was anxiously anticipating the words of Michelle Obama, wife of Barack Obama. I spoke with the first people in line, mostly because I’m always intrigued by the first people in line, and they were fired up:

“Yes we can.” - Ed Money AUDIO

“I’m proud to be here…it is time for a change, we need to get out of the past and into the new.” - Melvin Collier AUDIO

“America is able to put aside all of it’s biases and all and vote for a man of worth and not take color as an excuse” - Anna Hammond Carter AUDIO

Inside, people were energized, and when Michelle Obama came out, the crowd went wild. She spoke with deliberation, and in some cases, a little interesting imagination:

“Barack has more legislative experience than anyone currently in this race.” - Michelle Obama AUDIO

Michelle Obama at Delaware State University.

She also took the time to totally mischaracterize the background of most of the candidates in the Presidential race, namely Mike Gravel, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, and even Republican frontrunner John McCain, none of whom are lawyers:

“Barack’s a lawyer I’m a lawyer…but everybody in this race is a lawyer. And most of them made their millions before they decided to help the people, but not Barack.” - Michelle Obama AUDIO

Incidentally, that second part about making “their millions before they decided to help the people…” just isn’t really true. (Even Mitt Romney did a 30 month stint as a missionary when he got out of college and most likely wasn’t worth “millions” at that point, and Hillary Clinton, did some “help the people” stuff before she and Bill made their fortune).

And, frankly, I’m not buying into the whole candidate class warfare thingie coming from a Princeton educated lawyer married to a Harvard law school graduate. But Michelle Obama was very inspiring if you weren’t all wrapped up in ridiculous stuff like lapses in accuracy and irony.

You can listen to her entire speech unedited: AUDIO Part One and AUDIO Part Two.

Steve Forbes won the Delaware Republican Primary in 1996. .

“You know the old joke, when Bill Gates goes into a bar, the average net worth of a patron goes up 2 billion dollars,” quipped Steve Forbes in a speech he delivered to the Delaware Republican Party Saturday night at the annual Lincoln Day Dinner. And while other sites may have flashy video of his speech, all I have is AUDIO of it, and my own interview with Steve Forbes. (And yeah, I ask him if Rudy is broke).

Forbes spoke about his relationship to Rudy Guiliani’s presidential campaign, “I’m one of the co-chairs of his campaign and senior policy advisor and saw first hand what he did in New York City and was very impressed with the major things he did there.” AUDIO

I asked Forbes if Giuliani supported his idea of a flat tax for Americans and he told me a little about where Giuliani stands on taxation. “He’s a backer of radical simplification of the tax codes,” according to Forbes and he went on to say that Giuliani is “proposing the biggest tax cut in American history.” AUDIO

We talked about the race between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Forbes said the race would be a “fierce one,” but predicted that Obama would win South Carolina. AUDIO

And finally, is the Guiliani presidential campaign in financial trouble? Well, not according to Forbes, “No, they’re focusing resources on Florida…They have over $7 million on hand.” AUDIO

Congresman Mike Castle introduces 1996 and 2000 Republican Presidential candidate Steve Forbes.

The Delaware Republican Party held it’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner Saturday night in Dover and I was lucky enough to go, and to get a few interviews. Let’s start with Congressman Mike Castle. I asked him about the event that brought him and his wife to Dover.

“I wouldn’t miss this dinner, it’s become the biggest Republican dinner of the year. AUDIO

We also talked about the upcoming Presidential election. Castle has endorsed Senator John McCain from Arizona, who like Castle, is considered a “moderate.”

I’ve endorsed Senator McCain. I felt going into it that he was the person most qualified to lead the country…He is the absolute right person to lead the country. AUDIO

I also asked him about Senator Joe Biden’s run for president, and Castle said that a lack of media coverage may have contributed to the end of Biden’s bid. AUDIO

And he had this to say about Biden’s experience compared to the rest of the democratic field:

His campaign achieved a lot more than showed in the results…I give Joe credit for running a good campaign. At least he has some achievements in the United States Senate, too. AUDIO

Was that a shot at Senators Obama, Clinton and Edwards? Well, yes.

I think the Republican candidates are a collection of individuals who are good leaders, as opposed to the Democrats who essentially are members of the United States Senate, none of whom have much in the way of achievement. AUDIO

Ouch.

Delaware Senator Joe Biden has dropped his bid for President tonight after a “poor showing” at the Iowa caucuses:

Biden was expected to announce his decision to withdraw from the contest at his campaign caucus rally in Des Moines, according to advisers who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The veteran lawmaker and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee received less than 1% of the vote in Iowa’s caucuses despite a spirited campaign in which he emphasized his international policy credentials and long career in public service.

Biden came in fifth.

UPDATE: Part of Biden’s concession speech:

“There is nothing sad about tonight. We are so incredibly proud of you all,” Biden told his supporters. “So many of you have sacrificed for me and I am so indebted to you. I feel no regret. I ain’t goin’ away.

“I want to thank the people of Delaware and I’ll be going back to the Senate as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,” he said.

You can see Biden give his concession speech HERE ON VIDEO.

UPDATE: From Tommie Little, candidate for Delaware Lt. Governor, campaigning for Biden in Iowa:

“From the halls of montezuema”… …my favorite song goes…

I was sent up this afternoon to Montezuema Iowa…”we have one possible captain up there…who wants the job”…(almost a two hour ride north and back)…ME ME ME screamed the worlds oldest GOPHER…and off I went …into the UNKNOWN.

I got lost…yikes!

I called Hdg…Patrick screamed “NO Tommie …the other way”…I made it just in time…Montezuema High School..parking lot jammed…everyone smiling and kidding …and jerking each other around.
75 attendees (three basketball players come straight from practice in sweaty uniforms )
3 observers (one press, one high school kid …and ME)
I asked at the door for my Biden contact…”she’s over there in the Hilary group”…AWWWW crap…I thought as I dialed Patrick…’What do I do”…he stammered …AWWWW hell …I said” No sweat…I’ll find another…I introduced myself around until I met Ruby Greenwood…age 79…the only one in the room who would stand with me for Joe…we lost the first round and the big three swamped the caucus.

I reported in by cell phone and headed back to Ottunwa…shortly after I arrived Joe did the class thing …HE DROPPED OUT!

So…what did I learn…

I love America …thats what I learned…and if we want to be free…we must “fight our countries battles on LAND and on the SEA”…..OORAH!!!

And by the way…..OUR small Ottumwa staff were the best damn Marines I ever worked with…thanks BIDEN people…you made a man out of me….and I love you for it…we all won!!!

Tommie

More to come…

Delaware Senator and Presidential candidate Joe Biden at Browseabout Books last August signing his book, Promises to Keep.

Tommie Little, candidate for Delaware Lt. Governor, has been on the campaign trail in Iowa for Delaware Senator and democratic Presidential contender, Joe Biden. Little sends this from the Biden campaign trial (unedited):

3 degrees below…snow up to your kester…the small compact Ottunwa Biden Team cranks into gear and hopes 20 undecideds will show up at a Ottumwa elementary school at noon TODAY.

Yesterday……I said , “Hell I’m NOT pissing off one more person with a phone call”…I ‘m going to cut a radio ad…they all looked at each other for a microsecond…and we all said WHY NOT at the same time….it was New Years day and NO ONE was working at the station George started the process…John sealed the deal and we cut it yesterday…it ran 24 hours inviting folks to MEET JOE…TODAY!!!

It went sort of like this….my voice

Folks, my name is Tommie Little, I am 72 years old…I’m on social security …I’m a Marine and I am a former republican legislator,

I drove here from Delaware a week ago to help my friend Joe Biden become President of the United States,

I have known Joe for 36 years and he is the most decent man I ever met in public life,

but… don’t take my word for it come out and meet him in person at (school) …….at….noon tomorrow…(today)

thank you for listening and Happy New Year

Of course this ad was paid for by ………..TOMMIE LITTLE

We played it on two stations…we expected 20…100 showed.and JOE and his entire family had a real enthusiastic crowd of admirers to talk to…WOW…after I heard him…I knew why I came…they love him here in Iowa, we are really lucky in Delaware to have this man in office…cross your fingers folks…he will surprise many people…I can feel it…………OORAH

Tommie….

Little, if you recall, was live on WGMD Radio with me when the head of the Independent Party of Delaware, Frank Simms, was ousted from his seat by the Party’s 3 county chairs, throwing the Party’s backing of Little up in the air. I e-mailed Little today about the status of his candidacy with IPOD:

Hi Tommie,

Are you still running for Lt. Governor and if so, will it be with the Independent Party of Delaware? Also, I’m going to post your last email from Iowa, so if you have any additional thoughts, send them along, I can add them at any time.

Thanks,

Maria

And this is the response I received (unedited other than the greeting):

I am still THE ONLY CANDIDATE to file for Lt. Gov….and will be running hard when this is over out here…I was just talking about Tommie and telling De stories…these young folks loveem…I can always come down and do a show if you please….

Floyd Mc Dowell…that threw out the former IPOD CHAIR (Sims)…just resigned…now they (my opponents)are down to two…and I will be recruiting new faces asap…

Tommie

I attempted to contact IPOD this morning to find out what they had to say about the status of Little’s candidacy, but unfortunately the phone number from their website was “disconnected.”

UPDATE: Audio of the “disconnect” message from the phone company.

Every December media outlets recap their favorite and/or biggest stories for the year. In that same tradition, I’ve decided to put up some of my favorite blog pictures of the year and 10 posts I’ve made that I feel changed the course of world history and, of course, saved all of humanity.

My Favorite Pictures of 2007

A beautiful day at Tower Road.

A Civil War Reenactment during Milton’s 200th Anniversary.

Governor Ruth Ann Minner running away from me and out of the Georgia House in Millsboro the night of the 41st District special election.

Even after his resignation from the State House for ethics issues, John Atkins’ supporters launched a failed write in campaign to send him back to Dover. His campaign signs cropped up all over the 41st.

The table where Laura Bush ate breakfast at the Royal Treat on Wilmington Avenue in Rehoboth Beach.

The Cohen brothers, they found the ill fated Rissos dolphin washed up at Tower Road.

The Rissos dolphin dying on the beach at Tower Road.

The SINKING South Side approach of the “new” Indian River Inlet bridge and the road it tried to pull down with it.

John Andretti, I met him. How cool.

The “Dic Dang” sandwich at the Corner Market Bistro in Milton.

Lighting the balloons up like lanterns during Milton’s 200th Anniversary celebration.

Joe Biden talking about Iraq at Browseabout Books on Rehoboth Avenue.

Jared Morris and Dan Gaffney having fun at the Best of Delaware celebration in Dover. (And yes, Dan always has that light shining above him, it’s the most amazing thing…).

The French invade Rehoboth Beach.

Disheveled Barbies from Washington DC spotted loitering on Columbia Avenue after their Dream House furniture was recalled.

Dr Wray and Stell Parker Selby changing seats at the Cape Henlopen School Board meeting in December after Wray resigned the Presidency.

My Favorite Posts of 2007

# Ten: Your Sussex County Council

# Neuf: The French visit Rehoboth

# Eight: The Atkins Scandal

# Seven: The Indian River Inlet Bridge

# Six: Biden at Browseabout Books

# Five: European Football

# Four: Laura Bush visits Rehoboth Beach

# Three: My interview with John Andretti

# Two: Toy Recalls

# One: The Global Warming

Republican Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, wearing brand spanking new hunting gear.

Mike Huckabee, in a totally transparent attempt to gain support from sportsman, took the press on a little bird hunt this past Wednesday where he showcased his ability to shoot a confused bird:

Presidential contender Mike Huckabee bagged a pheasant Wednesday, offering Iowa voters the image of an experienced outdoorsman on the hunt, shotgun blasting and dogs braying….

“Maybe it will show that I certainly understand the culture of being outdoors,” Huckabee said. “It’s not something we had to go out and get a primer in. It’s very much ordinary to me.”

The GOP contender also used the occasion to take yet another jab at the Bush Administration, (Huckabee campaigned for Bush in 2004, incidentally), this time his target was Dick Cheney:

He also jested about Vice President Dick Cheney’s hunting accident in which a fellow hunter was shot. Asked why Cheney hadn’t been invited, Huckabee chuckled, “Because I want to survive all the way through this.”

WELL, now it comes to light that while on the hunting trip, his folksie hunting image was shattered after he fired a round a little close to the press:

Any good sportsman, though, couldn’t miss a distinctly Cheneyesque moment in the press accounts of the former Arkansas governor’s morning hunt: At one point, Huckabee’s party turned toward a cluster of reporters and cameramen and, when they kicked up a pheasant, fired shotgun blasts over the group’s heads.

This, friends, is dangerously bad hunting form….

Huckabee emerged happily from his hunt, three dead pheasants in tow, Oliphant reports. Asked for a metaphor to describe the hunt, he replied, “Don’t get in my way. This is what happens.”

Nuff said.

Seems like the only props Huckabee’s failed photo op was missing Wednesday were a tank and a helmet.

The NFL is allowing the New England Patriots vs. the New York Giants game to be broadcast on CBS and NBC and not just their own, obscure network that 60% of American households don’t have (and let’s face it, they don’t want to get it to watch their team play).

“We have taken this extraordinary step because it is in the best interest of our fans,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “What we have seen for the past year is a very strong consumer demand for NFL Network. We appreciate CBS and NBC delivering the NFL Network telecast on Saturday night to the broad audience that deserves to see this potentially historic game. Our commitment to the NFL Network is stronger than ever.”

The game is “potentially historic” because the Patriots will be shooting for a perfect, 16-0 season (but really, how “perfect” can your season be after you were caught cheating?). Unfortunately, there are rumblings that the Giants won’t play their “A” team since they’ve already secured a wild card spot in the playoffs and they won’t get a week off to rest. Wide receiver Plaxico Burress is going to sit out Saturday night’s game to nurse a bad ankle.

Now check this out, were members of Congress a factor in the broadcast change?

Kerry asked football Commissioner Roger Goodell today to move the game to NBC – and threatened Senate hearings if he does not.

“Under the unfortunate circumstance that this matter remains unresolved, leaving 60 percent of households across the country – including thousands in Massachusetts – without access to Saturday’s game, I will ask the Senate Commerce Committee to hold hearings on how the emergence of premium sports channels are impacting the consumer,” he wrote to Goodell today in a letter released by his office.

The Massachusetts Democrat added that he would “consider what legislative measures may be necessary to ensure that consumers are more than bystanders in this process.”

Kerry, who had offered earlier to convene a meeting between the league and cable operators, is only one of several lawmakers attempting to intervene. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have threatened to reconsider the league’s federal antitrust exemption if the sides do not come to an agreement.

And you’d think Congress would be too tired to care about the little guy’s enjoyment of NFL footballl after strapping us with over 9000 earmarks in their $555 billion dollar spending bill.

Former Arkansas Governor and Republican Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee thought AIDS patients needed to be quarantined. This wasn’t in the early 1980s, this was in 1992 when he was running for the Senate.

In 1992, Huckabee wrote, “If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague.”

Yes, again, that was 1992, a time when Americans already knew that AIDS was not spread by casual contact, but according to Huckabee:

Huckabee said Saturday that his comments came at a time when the public was still learning about HIV and AIDS and promised to do “everything possible to transform the promise of a vaccine and a cure into reality.”

In 1992, however, he didn’t advocate the Federal government doing “everything possible to transform the promise of a vaccine and a cure into reality,” he advocated Hollywood stars funding AIDS research themselves, since they were so worried about the disease. Now, as a presidential candidate he’s totally changed his tune, promising an “overreaching strategy for dealing with HIV and AIDS here in the United States….”

Come on, Mike, it was 1992, some Americans can remember those long ago days…sheesh….

The people of Venezuela have spoken, and they said, “NO.”

President Hugo Chavez suffered a stunning defeat Monday in a referendum that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely and impose a socialist system in this major U.S. oil provider.

Voters defeated the sweeping measures Sunday by a vote of 51 percent to 49 percent, said Tibisay Lucena, chief of the National Electoral Council, with voter turnout at just 56 percent.

She said that with 88 percent of the votes counted, the trend was irreversible.

So Chavez will be out after 2012, and the people of Venezuela have voted against moving more towards socialism.

In news from other backwards, poorly run countries, the Sudanese president has pardoned Gillian Gibbons, the teacher from the UK who allowed her class to name a teddy bear “Muhammad.” Her sentence was 15 days in jail and deportation for insulting Islam, but the case inflamed Islamic fundamentalists in the country who took to the streets and demanded her execution for the infraction. Gibbons is expected to leave the Sudan shortly. In a statement, she expressed sorrow at not being able to go back to the Sudan, a country steeped in genocide and terrorism and built on a large expanse of dirt:

“I have a great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone,” Gibbons said in the statement. “I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends, but I am very sorry that I will be unable to return to Sudan.”

I love good news on a Monday morning….