Seriously…Not joking here…and hopefully, neither isNewsweek magazine.
Their latest poll has Obama at 51%, and McCain at 36%.
Well, whatever the sick old man is doing, he should keep doing it.
Category: Presidential Campaign
Countrywide Financial’s Angelo Mozilo Gave to McCain
He donated $1000 to the McCain primary campaign, which the good people at Housing Panic found through the NEWSMEAT campaign contribution search engine.
So, the tanned one supports McCain? So not surprised.
Georgia on My Mind
Normally, I don’t do presidential polls, the little electoral vote count icon down on the right does that at a glance, but the fact that we have a poll in Georgia showing Obama and McCain in a statistical dead heat is un-bloody-believable.
Michael Bloomberg Slams Obama-Muslim Smear
He was talking to a the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County. He called it, “wedge politics at its worst”.
I’m impressed.
Obama Backpedals on NAFTA Criticism
So now he is saying that Nafta is, “not so bad after all,” in an interview in Fortune magazine.
This is no surprise to me. One of his chief economic advisers has been Austan Goolsbee, and most of the rest have been seriously “Chicago School” too.
If you are surprised, you were played for a sucker.
Cindy McCain Mouths Off Again
On the Today Show, Cindy McCain goes back to the months old quote from Michelle Obama on pride in country to attack her patriotism.
Obama to Will Not Take Public Financing
I approve his campaign’s decision to eschew public financing and the associated spending limits.
He will get a lot more money from his donors for the general.
The only thing that I argue about is that they missed an opportunity to attack McCain. They could have given the reason for this as, “John McCain is in felony violation of the campaign finance law that he wrote, so it’s not reasonable to expect good faith in his negotiations.“
Clinton and Obama to Hold Fundraiser
Hillary Clinton is not being half hearted in her support for Obama, as some people *cough* MSNBC *cough* suggested that she would be.
She is tying him in with her donor base at this meeting.
Tanker, Oh Tanker
The G.A.O. has ruled against the Air Force on Boeing’s protest, which probably means a rebid.
I’m kind of surprised. After Boeing bribed the Pentagon acquisition officer, I figured that they would have handled this better.
I also figure that when you chose the plane that is:
- Already flying.
- Just as cheap.
- Offloads more gas further away from base.
- Has a contracting team with a better record of being on time and on budget.
That it’s tough to screw up the process.
Needless to say, Boeing is doing a happy dance about all of this.
The GAO language is fairly strong, which means that a recompete is almost certain.
If Obama’s folks have any guts, they will have proxies demagogue the hell out of this against McCain, who killed the original corrupt deal.
Steny’s Telco Deal: Time for Obama to Step Up and Stop It
There is a deal for telco immunity going that Steny Hoyer is shepherding through congress, and as American Civil Liberties Union says, it stinks.
The court review consists of only verifying that the telcos got a letter from Bush and His Evil Minions™. Glenn Greenwald has the skinny on what is going on, and it’s Hoyer who is at the center of passing a law that will cover up for the Bush’s illegal wire tapping (and probably spying on political opponents).
If you want to do something, check out the Blue America PAC vs Retroactive Immunity, which has raised about $180K in the past 24 hours to target someone.
This betrayal goes beyond party politics, so if you live in Hoyer’s district, MD-5, don’t vote for him in the general election.
One bit of bright news in all this is that the New York Times came out against the Telco immunity deal today. What’s more they called for Obama to do something more than just vote against it.
Word up on that. Obama is now the de facto leader of the Democratic party, and he needs to make it clear that this deal is not good for the country.
[Update] I just checked Greewald’s latest, and it now appears that Hoyer is trying to pretend that he hasn’t been working for this for months, but instead it’s all those Bush Blue Dogs that are making him do it.
Bull sh$@!
FWIW, we now know that the targets of the campaign, and the nearly two hundred thousand dollars raised for it, will be Steny Hoyer, Chris Carney, and John Barrow, the latter two having been the most prominent of the Vichy Democrats on this issue.
Note that the primary for Barrow is not until July, and he has an opponent with a lot more progressive cred, Regina Thomas, who I have added to my act blue page so money spent against him could defeat him in July.
No surprise, all of them are big recipients of telco largess by way of campaign contributions.
Your best place for updates is Glenn Greenwald’s blog.
Patti Solis Doyle Hired by Barack Obama
She was Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager until she was let go after February. In hindsight, Mark Penn should have been fired well before her.
In any case, she has now been hired by Barack Obama as the chief of staff for whoever his VP choice will be.
According to the cognoscenti in Washington, or at least one Hillary supporter, this is the, “biggest ‘f$#@ you’ I have ever seen in politics,” because she was rather unceremoniously dropped by Clinton, and they allegedly have not talked since then.
I really don’t know what is going on, though the Clinton Campaign has said the right thing:
Patti will be an asset and good addition to the Obama campaign. After nearly two decades in political life, she brings with her the ability to tap an extensive network that will be a huge asset to Senator Obama. As Senator Clinton has said, we’re all going to do our part to help elect Senator Obama as the next President of the United States.
I’m not sure what is going on, but I don’t see this as being a f$#@ you, it simply makes no sense to do so for that reason, particularly after Hillary’s speech endorsing Obama.
I don’t know what is going on, but either the hiring, or the reaction to the hiring, or (more likely) the press reaction to the hiring appears to be something out of high school.
Gore Formally Endorses Obama
Not a surprise, but I’m betting against his being the VP choice.
He’s done that, and he’s got a bloody Nobel prize now.
Nunn of the Above
Open left has the following VP short list of Obama, and I thought that I would put my 2 cents in:
- Evan Bayh (Sen-IN)
- DLC Squish.
- Joe Biden (Sen-DE)
- Only if McCain chooses Joe Biden.
- Wes Clark (Gen-AR)
- Hillary Clinton (Sen-NY)
- Tom Daschle (Sen-SD)
- Sorry, but he screams out milquetoast.
- Chris Dodd (Sen-CT)
- Recent revalations about his house loans rule him out.
- James Jones (Gen-MO)
- Tim Kaine (Gov-VA)
- John Kerry (Sen-MA)
- No. He’s already lost once.
- Patty Murray (Sen-WA)
- Bill Nelson (Sen-FL)
- Sam Nunn (Sen-GA)
- If he gets the nod, we will all know that a bunch of progressives in the party got completely taken in by him. In addition to being homophobic, he’s sat on so many corporate boards lately that he looks like a McCain lobbyist.
- Jack Reed (Sen-RI)
- Kathleen Sebelius (Gov-KS)
- Mark Warner (Gov-VA)
- Jim Webb (Sen-VA)
We’ll see, but if it’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” Nunn, it’s not a good move.
Shoot Me, I Agree With Canuck Flying Monkey Right Winger David Frum
David Frum, writing in The New Republic, in yet another example of how that magazine has fallen, actually writes something that I wholeheartedly support, though for very different reasons:
I have my own personal nomination for vice president for McCain. It’s Rudy Giuliani, precisely because he shares the vision of a practical, reforming, war-winning Republican Party that inspires John McCain, plus the stronger-than-usual grounds for hoping that he might be the rare candidate who can make a difference in an essential state–in this case, New Jersey.
Simply put, it’s been way too long since I’ve had the opportunity to use the phrase, “Clown Show”, but making a your vice-presidential running mate the man who:
- Chose a police commissioner who was mobbed up.
- Who recommended said mobbed up police commissioner to be head of homeland security.
- Who broke up with his wife at a press conference on mothers day
- Whose first wife was his cousin
- Bailed on the Iraq study group so he could get fat speaker fees.
- Lobbyied for unsavory clients, including Saudi Arabia, Tobacco, and Coal.
Would give me plenty of opportunity.
Of course, I can’t hope to own him the way that Joe Biden did when he said that when Rudy talks, “there’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11.”
That one is one of the classics of the ages, up there with George Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill.
Agreed
The folks at The Talent Show note that the right wing slime machine is gearing up to go after Michelle Obama.
They suggest that that be our response:
I wholeheartedly agree.
Full story on stealing dope for her fix is here.
Updates on Various Races
Rasmussen Reports™: has Norm Coleman at 48% and Al Franken 45%, and it is not good for an incumbent to be below 50%. This will be winnable, even with the phony scandals drummed up by Coleman’s bully boys.
The race for Fossella’s seat in Staten Island is a tossup, though it has historically been a fairly solid Republican district.
Rasmussen Reports™ has Liddy Dole with a 14-Point Lead Over Kay Hagan, 53%-39%. The last poll had Hagan up by 1 point, immediately after she won the primary, but Dole has been running ads, and Hagan has not.
Press Buying Into Republican Meme Again
The Republicans are saying that Barack Obama risks his squeaky clean image if he opts out of public financing, and the press is eating it up.
I call bull$#. John McCain is currently in felony violation of the law that he wrote, and so it’s clear that he cannot be trusted, and this is what the Obama campaign should be saying, albeit as background, to reporters.
Who is Eligible for the Presidency, For the Morons Out There
By which I mean the denizens of Larry Johnson’s No Quarter (no link, just like Malkin).
The Constitution does not require that a President be born in the US. It requires that a President be a natural born citizen.
Section 1 of Article II of the Constitution contains the clause:
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
If you look at the case law, a child born to an American parent where the paternity is established before the age of majority is a natural born citizen.
All the stupidity over the borders of an image of a Hawaiian birth certificate will not change that.
Here’s hoping that Johnson gets a clue over the next few months.
Obama Moving DNC Operations to Chicago
Ben Smith finds this unusual, but it’s not. The nominee always coordinates the DNC in this way, it’s just that Obama’s HQ is not in the DC area, which is good.
The culture of DC is toxic to good governance and Democrats.
Added Electoral Vote Predictor
If you scroll down, on the left side, you will see an Icon that predicts on current data the Presidential electoral vote count, Senate balance, and House Seats. It’s from electoral-vote.com, and looks like this:
It gives a nice picture of the state of the race.