Why Some Companies Are Warning Others About Doing Business With the Hillary Clinton Campaign
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:
Questionable Questionnaire
Barack Obama, it turns out, had a lot to do with a 1996 campaign questionnaire his campaign has since disavowed as the erroneous work of staffers.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}On it, Obama — then running for the Illinois senate — took ultraliberal positions on abortion, the death penalty and gun control. His aides now say Obama never saw or approved the questionnaire.
But the Politico newspaper reports he was actually interviewed by the questionnaire's sponsors and even sent them an amended copy with his own handwritten notes on it. Current Obama aide Tommy Vietor concedes the notes were Obama’s, but still insists the form was filled out by staff and did not reflect the candidate's views.
Cash Strapped
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}There is further evidence that the Hillary Clinton campaign has hit hard times. According to the Federal Elections Commission, Clinton owes $8.7 million in unpaid bills — some dating back months.
A pair of Ohio companies are owed more than $25,000 each for staging Clinton campaign events and are warning other event producers to get cash up front when doing business with her. An employee of one of the companies told the Politico, "Senator Clinton talks about helping working families... but when it comes down to actually doing something that shows that she can back up her words with action, she fails."
The campaign says it is in the process of paying nearly $300,000 in overdue heath insurance premiums for its staff.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Peace Has Come"
Remember the little Bosnian girl who read Clinton a poem during her 1996 visit to the country? Well, she says she is dismayed that the former first lady claimed to have dodged sniper fire that day.
Emina Bicakcic — now a 20-year-old student — told the New York Post, "I was surprised when I heard this... she was really listening. She was drinking in every word of my poem."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}When asked if she feared any threat of violence that day Bicakcic said, "No. I was just excited. I wanted to look her in the eye and say 'thank you.'"
Bicakcic says she was reluctant to criticize Clinton because of the deep appreciation for the U.S. role in ending the violence in Bosnia. Ironically, her poem to Clinton began with the words "peace has come."
Ruffled Reporter
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former "Nightline" reporter David Marash has quit Al Jazeera English saying that his exit is due to a "reflexive adversarial editorial stance" against Americans at the channel.
Marash left the English-speaking wing of Al Jazeera on March 21 and his wife Amy left the week before. He said of the bias, "given the global feelings about the Bush administration, it's not surprising," but that he found it "became so stereotypical."
Marash — who is Jewish — says he was warned that he was being used as a propaganda tool. But he said, "I don't think anti-Semitism is a charge that Al Jazeera English should plead guilty to." Instead he says the problem "was more with my American accent and my American point of view."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}— FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.