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Who Made Obama Bite His Tongue 'Many Times' During Primary Battle?

Friday, June 27, 2008

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Tongue Tied

As we saw Friday, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are trying to unify the Democratic Party — and for good reason. The Hill newspaper reports that Obama said he had to bite his tongue "many times" during his primary battle with Clinton.

The paper reports that Obama made the comments last week during a private meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus. Sources say during that meeting California Congresswoman Diane Watson said the Democratic Party needs time to heal.

Obama responded, "I bit my tongue many times during this campaign."

Sources say that Obama repeated the "I bit my tongue" phrase a total of four times during that meeting.

Party Pooper

A pledged delegate to Hillary Clinton may have her credentials stripped by the Wisconsin Democratic Party because of a past statement in which she said she would vote for Republican John McCain if Clinton was not the Democratic nominee.

Related

Debra Bartoshevich received a formal challenge to her delegate status after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that she has signed up with the group Citizens for McCain.

The state's Democratic Party chairman responded to the report saying, "It's extremely important that we send a message that Democrats in the state of Wisconsin will never support somebody who supports John McCain for president."

But Bartoshevich says she will fight the challenge and that she was never provided a list of the rules that she is now accused of violating.

Heavy Handed?

One of Barack Obama's top advisers has taken a shot at John McCain's weight. Former Air Force Chief of Staff General Merrill McPeak told the Washington Times that he and McCain shared a class at the National War College in 1973 after McCain returned from Vietnam.

McPeak said that McCain was a "skinny kid... quite thin. They weren't feeding him very well in Hanoi. He's done very well at the dinner table in Washington."

But McCain's Hanoi cellmate Orson Swindle took issue with General McPeak's comment saying, "It reeks of pettiness and sarcasm — and I can't imagine why he can make that kind of comment to imply that John McCain feasts at the Washington establishment."

Credit Check

The San Francisco Board of Education has decided that schools can no longer award physical education credit to students enrolled in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

The San Francisco Chronicle described Thursday's board meeting as "hastily scheduled" and said the four-to-one decision "will likely cripple the 90-year-old military education program... because most students use it to satisfy their P.E. requirement."

Two board members who opposed the change were not even in town to vote.

A student enrolled in the JROTC program says, "It's completely unfair. What am I going to do for credit?"

But Board President Mark Sanchez, who led the effort against the program because of its ties to the military, argues that "if students really love the program, they'll take it anyway."

FOX News Channel's Zachary Kenworthy contributed to this report.

See Political Grapevine Archive

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