If the fat lady isn’t singing, at least she is doing vocal exercises in preparation to going on stage.
Category: Presidential Campaign
Well, It Looks Like Obama Has Trounded Clinton in Wisconsin
By about 11%.
Mark Penn is a moron.
Clinton: $15M So Far in February
$15M, is it just me or are these fund raising stats mind boggling.
Remember, Obama is raising money even faster.
OK, This is Just Bat$#%@ Insane, and Stupid
The entire accusations of “plagiarism” against Obama in his speaking are bogus.
There is a qualitative difference between a politico using someone else’s catch phrase, which is done all the time, and what Joe Biden did in 1988, when he lifted an entire speech and life story.
John F. Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” phrase came from a speech from Warren G. Harding, for example.
This some seriously lame stuff.
McCain Calls for Obama Honor So-Called Promise on Public Financing
Last year, McCain and Obama agreed to go with public financing in the general if they were the nominees, and now McCain is demanding that Obama adhere to his so-called pledge.
Obama is in a no-win situation right now, and it may very well not be his fault.
It appears that the argument regarding the “pledge” is that he made some inquiries regarding going on public financing in the general seem to be statements that have some wiggle room, but considering how far the press has their tongue up McCain’s asshole, it will be sold as a pledge.
I think that a good plan of attack against this is to show how McCain attempted to use public financing as an insurance policy for his campaign, where it would only kick in if he lost to retire his debts.
How a Primary Attack Ad Should Be Done.
If the one of the Democratic campaign wants to do a real attack ad, against a primary opponent, in a perfect world, it should fulfill the following requirements:
- It should be the truth.
- It should address a real concern of Democratic voters.
- It should not be something that the Republicans can use against the target if they win the general.
So I was just kind of writing stream of consciousness, and came up with a Hillary Clinton attack ads against Barack Obama
I’d like to see what my readers think, and what ideas my readers have, so I am post dating this to Saturday Afternoon, to get comments.
On to the Ad:
(Cue sinister music, go with spot of gray on the screen, which will slowly pull back as the ad progresses and reveal itself to be a scary black and white picture of John McCain)
In 2002, John McCain said that the ads accusing Max Cleland, who lost one arm and both legs serving in the military, were “Worse than disgraceful”.Now John McCain has hired Bo Harmon, the man behind that ad campaign as his national political director.
We know that the Republicans will be throwing every lie and slander they can find against the Democratic Nominee, and we know that Barack Obama has never been in a seriously contested election against a Republican.
Over the past 16 years, the Republican swift boaters came after Hillary Clinton with accusations of everything except eating puppies, and she’s still standing.
The stakes are too high this November to take an audacious chance with your primary vote.
I’m thinking of trying to put this up on Youtube, after I improve the copy a bit.
You will notice that this is a devastating ad, but it gives the Republicans nothing to use in the general.
Hillary Gets New Mexico, McCain Gets Mitt
I think that Hillary got the better deal.
In any case, they finally finished counting the vote in New Mexico, and Romney endorses McCain.
Obama’s Presents Economic Plan
Contrary to complaints, we actually have a decent bit of detail here.
- Payment for program by elimination of upper class tax breaks and ending Iraq war.
- My comment: I still think that you need more, at least a thorough review of the Byzantine system of tax credits and deductions to get enough money.
- A National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank, spending about $60 billion over the next decade repairing infrastructure.
- My comment: Good, but we probably need to spend more. Unsure of the amount that states would have to match. Also, should include a similar amount for mass transit and/or freight rail, both of which save energy, etc..
- Ending tax breaks for moving jobs overseas.
- My comment: This one has almost become a cliche, but there are also programs that subsidize this in the US that need to be addressed (Ex/Im bank comes to mind).
Generally it’s pretty good. Generally, it’s also pretty similar to Hillary Clinton’s too.
However, there is something else that I found both interesting and laudable, which accompanies his speech (H/T to the other Matthew for the catch), specifically a credit card bill of rights:
- Ban Unilateral Changes: Currently, credit card companies can unilaterally change the terms of a credit card agreement at any time for any reason with only a 15-day notice to the consumer. Barack Obama will ban these unilateral changes in credit card agreements unless companies have obtained written consent from consumers and have followed the rules and terms of the agreement.
- Apply Interest Rate Increases Only to Future Debt: Credit card companies often apply increased interest rates to both new debt incurred by the cardholder, as well as previously incurred debt. Barack Obama will require increased interest rates to apply only to future credit card debt, and not to debt incurred prior to the increase.
- Prohibit Interest on Fees: Credit card companies often charge interest on transaction fees, such as late fees or paying a bill by telephone. Barack Obama will prohibit credit card issuers from charging interest on transaction fees.
- Prohibit “Universal Defaults”: “Universal defaults” are a practice in which a credit card company raises an individual’s interest rate based on failure to pay a different creditor on time. Barack Obama will prohibit this practice.
- Require Prompt and Fair Crediting of Cardholder Payments: Barack Obama will require credit card issuers to apply payments first to the credit card balance with the highest rate of interest and to minimize finance charges.
This is interesting for a number of reasons:
- It’s very good policy.
- This is a proposal where there is actually a loser, the credit card issuers, which is a change from his typical proposals where the policy is not a zero sum game.
- This is actually a fairly specific refution of the Washington DC/DLC/Milton Friedman orthodoxy that financial services need to be completely deregulated in order to provide maximum benefit. This may be more important than the first two in revealing his attitude on such matters. Much of the credit crunch today is due to the repeal of Glass-Steagel, which was driven by this ideology.
All in all, a solid B+ to my mind.
Edwards Meeting With Obama to be Rescheduled
I reported earlier that a meeting between John Edwards and Barack Obama had been cancelled or rescheduled.
Well, it now seems that it was a scheduling thing, as Obama has stated that he wants to reschedule the meeting.
I am not certain what his endorsement would mean in the primary at this point though.
McCain is a Hypocrite
Yep, ths striaght talker has voted against making torture illegal. He wants to be president, and that means that he has to make nice with pro-torture Neanderthals.
Additionally, McCain has Bo Harmon as his national political director. If you recall, Harman ran the 2002 Saxby Chambliss campaign against Max Cleland of Georgia, which questioned the courage of a man who lost an arm and both legs in military service to this country.
At the time, John McCain called it, “Worse than disgraceful,” but it now appears that it was not so disgraceful that he can’t hire this pig felching rat bastard.
Clinton Campaign Agrees To NBC Debate
I guess that all the talk of a boycott came to naught.
It’s not surprising. It’s a format that Clinton typically does better with than Obama does.
Negative Ads May Be Hitting Dem Primary Soon
The WSJ has a report that some of Clinton’s big donors may run their own ads.
Theoretically, the law can make this very difficult, but since the FEC currently lacks quorum, there is no enforcement mechanism.
When people start running their own ads like this, they tend to go negative, so I’m predicting that this is going to get nasty in the next few weeks.
Hopefully, I’m wrong, which I almost always am, but I fear that I’m not.
Clinton’s Deputy Campaign Manager Is Let Go
I’m beginning to think that the wheels are coming off the campaign with Mike Henry leaving.
Their firewall is sounding like Rudy Giuliani, and the rats are leaving the ship.
Lieberman Likely to Pull a Zell Miller at Republican Convention
This so totally not surprising.
He is, and always has been, a self important, sanctimonious, self serving hypocrite.
Obama Crushes Clinton in “Potomac Primary”
I’m hearing the fat lady warm up.
Woah!
That’s what the election worker said when she opened the door about 5 minutes ahead of voting starting, and saw 12 of us waiting.
My guess is that she thought it was a lot of people. I know that she is a regular, I saw here in the previous primary and the general.
In my Maryland, in addition to the Congressional primary (and some unopposed judges in my district), you vote for the candidate, and 4 women and 3 men delegates.
One of the men was my friend Noel, who was uncommitted, who I voter for.
John Edwards-Barack Meeting Cancelled or Postponed
This meeting was supposed to be about a potential endorsement, and Edwards has already had a meeting with Clinton.
My guess is that it is scheduling, since even if John Edwards has made up his mind, he wants to have met with both candidates.
Prince Georges County Executive Jack Johnson Endorses Clinton
Here.
Al Wynn, very much a creature of the PG county machine endorsed Obama.
My guess is that this is simply covering the bases.
Yeah….Sure
Hillary Clinton is maintaining that Patti Solis Doyle exit as campaign manager was not a firing or shakeup.
And in related news, Senator Larry Craig says that he is not Gay.
Seriously, I understand that these lies are de regeur, but this convention insults our intelligence.
Reports of John Glenn Endorsement of Hillary Clinton
For what this news is worth, it will help her in Ohio, though I’m not sure how much.