It’s a statistical tie, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll, errore of 5% +/-.
Mitt Romney, 28 percent
Mike Huckabee, 24 percent
Fred Thompson, 15 percent
Rudy Giuliani, 13 percent
John McCain, 6 percent
Category: Presidential Campaign
Romney Push Polled…Himself???
There has been a bit of nastiness going on in the Republican Presidential Primaries in Iowa. Someone has been push polling* in Iowa and New Hampshire:
Among the questions asked during the 20-minute calls placed last week were whether the person polled knew Romney received Vietnam-era military deferments while serving in the Mormon missionary in France, that none of his sons served in the military and that the Mormon religion didn’t accept blacks as bishops until the 1970s.
Needless to say, push polling is sleazy, and when one adds the despicable pandering to religious bigotry, it gets worse.
Here, however, is where it gets weird, the calls are believed to have been made by Western Wats, a Utah-based firm closely tied to the BYU, the preeminent Mormon University in the world, and it’s hard to believe that they would do this, and threaten many existing business contacts.
The National Review‡ looks into all of this, and mentions their pet theory that Romney did it so that he could play the victim.
I don’t think so. The downside of getting caught is just too much.
However, the number two theory makes sense:
According to another source at a rival campaign who wished to remain anonymous, there’s speculation that Romney may have push polled himself because his campaign wanted polling data regarding the negative perception of his Mormon faith for internal use. But since they couldn’t do so without causing controversy, they took steps to make it look like McCain.
*A push poll is a phony poll, in which the goal is not to get information, but to place a bit of slander in the voter’s head, so they might ask something like, “Did you know that Matthew Saroff has a guilty plea for disturbing the Peace?”†
†Actually, I do, it was pled down from the traffic infraction of an “improperly fastened load” so that it would not bump my insurance rates.
‡They are professional liars. You need to confirm every period and comma.
The Freddie Thompson Clown Show: Supporters Wake Up.
CQ Politics | Some House Backers of Thompson Are Starting to Lose the Faith.
Some quotes:
“I think he’s kind of done a belly flop”
“He seems to be perpetuating it instead of defeating it”.
“I’ve kind of pulled back. I’m not not supporting him, but I’m not doing anything”
The reincarnation of Ronald Wilson Reagan (666, count it), he ain’t.
Barack Obama Is Pushing Yet Another Republican Meme, This One From the Wrongest of Right Wingers
He is referring to the claim that Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta have made that both Clintons have a 20 year long plan for both of them to be president.
Asked if that were a reference to the Gerth allegation, an Obama spokesperson left virtually no doubt that it was, telling Newsday: “Barack Obama has not been mapping out his run for president from Washington for the last 20 years like some of his opponents.”
But the source that Gerth and Van Natta cited with supposed first-hand knowledge of this plan — historian Taylor Branch — has since vehemently denied that any such pact existed. “The story is preposterous,” Branch told The Washington Post, adding: “I never heard either Clinton talk about a ‘plan’ for them both to become president.”
I have no clue as to why this is going on, but it will destroy him in Iowa. While the most recent poll shows him in the lead there, his support is disproportionately young all around the country, and this has the potential to kill his campaign in Iowa. In addition to first timers to the caucuses being vulnerable to the tactics of the old party hacks (see Howard Dean’s problems in 2004), they also don’t show up to the caucuses reliably.
He is acting in a way calculated to make the Democratic stalwarts who know, and to a large degree run, the caucuses pissed off at him.
Mindlessly echoing Republican talking points is not being a uniter. It’s being a chump, and this time around even worse being a chump than being a DLC squish.
A chump can’t undo the dcamage the George W. Bush has done.
The New York Times OP/ED Pages Notices Judith Regan’s Assault on Rudy Giuliani
Frank Rich dedicates a column in this Sunday’s times to this matter.
He covers the same ground that I have, but I don’t have a column in the Sunday New York times.
I would imagine that this will mean that there will be more mainstream coverage. At least I hope so.
VERY Funny Mike Huckabe add.
ROTFLMAO.
Yeah, Right, No Connection to the Ron Paul Campaign
Feds raid private mint, Norfed, for mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy, in addition to currency related violations.
Here is the interesting part:
Norfed officials said yesterday that the six-hour raid occurred just as its six employees were mailing out the first batch of 60,000 “Ron Paul Dollars,” copper coins sold for $1 to honor the candidate, who is a longtime advocate of abolishing the Federal Reserve. The group says it has shipped out about 10,000 silver Ron Paul Dollars that sold for $20 and about 3,500 of the copper $1 coins. But it said the agents seized more than 50,000 of the copper coins — more than two tons’ worth — plus smaller amounts of the silver coins and gold and platinum Ron Paul Dollars, which sell for $1,000 and $2,000.
….
A Paul campaign spokeswoman said yesterday that the campaign has “no affiliation” with the Ron Paul Dollars.
Just like the people using zombie networks to crank out Ron Paul spam, “no affiliation” to the Paul campaign.
It appears that someone in the campaign has ties with groups of dishonest people who cheat others for their own profit, and that they are calling in favors.
Who the hell is running this campaign, Vincent “the Chin” Gigante?
CNN Sucks Wet Farts From Dead Pigeons
Un-dirtyword-believeable. During the audience questions at the last debate, Maria Luisa, a UNLV student asked Hillary Clinton “whether she preferred “diamonds or pearls”. Now it turns out that CNN planted the question and forced her to ask it.
Wolf Blitzer, and the CNN corresponds, are a human stain.
I want Keith Olbermann to moderate a debate. Heck, I’d settle for Homer Simpson moderating the debate.
Of course my fantasy would be for Jon Stewart to moderate, but that is too much to ask.
Krugman Nails Fuzzy and Dangerous Thinking by Obama
Barak Obama has chosen to attack Hillary Clinton on inaction on what he calls “the social security crisis”. He does not get it.
While people have some legitimate concerns about Social Security in the (very) distant future, the problem facing the US is that health care is eating us up.
What’s more, not only do the vast majority of Americans find the Republican meme of a “Social Security Crisis” to be pathetic and stupid Republican double talk, so does an overwhelming majority of the Republicans out there.
In fact, the only people who are selling the crisis meme about social security besides corrup partisan Republican hacks like Grover Norquist and Bush and His Evil Minions™ are the Very Serious People inside the beltway, the Fred Hyatts, the Charles Krauthammers, the Bob Novaks, etc.
The very serious people in the beltway are wrong about EVERYTHING, and he seems determined to please him.
When Krugman titles today’s OP/ED, “Played for a Sucker, he is more right than you can possibly imagine.
The American people don’t care about bipartisanship. They want a government that works for them. They do not care how it is accomplished, but they want a rising standard of living, and to stop living in fear and uncertainty that the next illness can wipe them out, and Barak Obama, like the rest of the Very Serious People inside the beltway, don’t care about that.
All they care about is that they can go to each other’s cocktail parties and have a nice time. They do not care about the government working for them.
To quote the future Nobel prize winner in economics:
I don’t believe Mr. Obama is a closet privatizer. He is, however, someone who keeps insisting that he can transcend the partisanship of our times — and in this case, that turned him into a sucker.
Mr. Obama wanted a way to distinguish himself from Hillary Clinton — and for Mr. Obama, who has said that the reason “we can’t tackle the big problems that demand solutions” is that “politics has become so bitter and partisan,” joining in the attack on Senator Clinton’s Social Security position must have seemed like a golden opportunity to sound forceful yet bipartisan.
But Social Security isn’t a big problem that demands a solution; it’s a small problem, way down the list of major issues facing America, that has nonetheless become an obsession of Beltway insiders. And on Social Security, as on many other issues, what Washington means by bipartisanship is mainly that everyone should come together to give conservatives what they want.
This position on Social Security, much like his despicable use of dog whistle anti-gay bigotry in his South Carolina campaign, is something that the Very Serious People inside the beltway appreciate. They think that the rest of us are stupid. They think that we are bigoted rubes.
They want nothing to do with the people who live in America and make things work, and they don’t want to make things better, because they are doing fine right now, and having to work for a living is beneath them.
Dodd Closes Nevada Campaign Office
Put a fork in him, he is done. This is more than a retrenchment, caucuses are one place where organization can trump name recognition.
The only thing that might bring his campaign now, is if Harry Reid sides with the telcos on the FISA bill, and Dodd actually has to physically filibuster.
Needless to say, I hope that Reid does the right thing, telco immunity takes the lawlessness of Bush and His Evil Minions™, and enshrines it into statute. It creates a precedent where any corporate wrongdoer can simply buy absolution.
Giuliani Has Been Fox’s Bitch for Over a Decade
And I’m not referring to the former President of Mexico. I am referring to Rupert Murdoch’s broadcast and cable empire.
It’s a story of payback to political friends, lawbreaking with the management of the New York cable system, and lucrative cable consulting gigs for Giuliani after he left office.
It’s why Fox is playing touch on his use of their debate footage, and that Fox has been so supportive of him, even when compared to other Republican candidates.
Ron Paul Already Has More than $8 Million Raised this Quarter
My congratulations to him and his campaign.
His goal is $12million for the quarter, and he is 2/3 of the way there at the halfway mark.
I’m still not voting for him though.
It’s All Over But The Singing
Unfortunately, it’s the Osmonds, who have just endoraed Mitt Romney.
Gah!!!! I’ve now got an Osmond’s song going through my head!!!
Guiliani Lowering Expectations in Early States
I’m not sure whether this is a legitimate assessment that he is seriously behind Huckabee and Romney in Iowa and Romney in New Hampshire, or if this is just an attempt to lower expectations.
Considering that Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York have primaries on February 5, and that he should do well there (remember the people who know and hate him live in New York city, and are not Republithugs), it could be a bit of both.
I think that, unless Guiliani plays his “keeping the n***ers down” card very hard in South Carolina, he won’t be competitive there, and it may all be over before February.
The Freddie Thompson Clown Show: Social Security Edition
Yep, he’s trying to win over the “Club for Growth” set, so he is proposing to privatize social security.
I believe that this is an idea that has, at best, lukewarm support among the dead enders and Bushists that are the Repulbican party.
McCain: Campaign Finance Reform for Thee, but not for Me.
McCain is arranging for a large campaign loan, and coordinating (under the table) with 527 organizations.
Hypocrite
Guiliani: to McCain: I See your Kerik, and I’ll Raise You a Keating
McCain teed off on Guiliani about Kerik, and in response, Team Rudy brings up the fact that McCain was one of the Keating 5.
I love it when Republicans call each other crooks. It’s about the only time that they are honest.
Barack Obama Can Kiss My Shiny Metal Ass
He’s had a busy past day or so. Not only has he reinforced the Republican meme about killing social security by calling it a “crisis”, he is now in full pander with the mining interests when he says that he is opposing the repeal the 1872 Mining act.
We have had 200 years of bad laws, but the 1872 Mining act is among the worst. Under the 1872 law, a miner stakes a claim, and all they have to do is pay $5/acre, and it removes pretty much all environmental protections from land put to this applications.
Additionally, the law allows the land to be “patented” or transferred to private property for a small fee. This is a bad law. It has resulted in massive losses to the federal government, the pollution of 40% of the watersheds in the west, and continues to harm the delicate ecology of the west.
What’s more, with gold increasing in value, old mining sites will be doubtlessly be scavenged, doing more harm ecological harm.
For just how bad this law that Obama supports is, go here.
Quote of the Day, Anita Esterday
Ms. Esterday is the waitress who was quoted in that whole “tipgate” story with Clinton.
Well, after being contacted by the gazillionth reporter today, she sais something very wise:
You people are really nuts,” she told a reporter during a phone interview. “There’s kids dying in the war, the price of oil right now — there’s better things in this world to be thinking about than who served Hillary Clinton at Maid-Rite and who got a tip and who didn’t get a tip.
She is our wise woman of the day.
It has Been Reported that Kerik Has Been Indicted
But no official announcement yet.
How it effects the Guiliani campaign, I’m not sure, but I think that our so-called liberal media will be less aggressive about this than they were about the Clinton donor who had an ounstanding warrant.
After all, they basically ignored the dope dealer on Thompson’s staff.