Tuesday’s political round-up

March 13, 2007

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* A huge new poll from the New York Times is chock full of interesting data, including widespread ennui among Republicans. 40% of GOP voters expect a Dem presidential candidate to win next year, and nearly 60% would like to see additional choices in 2008 candidates beyond the current presidential field.

* John McCain announced yesterday that he will skip yet another important right-wing gathering: the winter gathering of the Club for Growth. McCain is the only major GOP candidate who will not attend, and this is his fourth conservative snub of the movement, having already skipped the Conservative Political Action Conference, the Heritage Foundation’s members’ retreat, and the National Review Institute’s conservative summit.

* The Schiavo controversy apparently lingers as a politically relevant event. Yesterday, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) picked up the support of Bobby Schindler, the brother of the late Terri Schiavo. The endorsement came one day after former Gov. Mitt Romney said he opposed state intervention in the case.

* A new Rasmussen poll shows Al Franken a little closer to incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R) in next year’s Senate race in Minnesota, with Coleman’s lead shrinking to 10 points, 46% to 36%. Other polls showed Coleman with a much bigger lead when Franken announced last month.

* Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) announced yesterday that he will seek the GOP presidential nomination. This is Paul’s second presidential campaign, after running as the Libertarian Party nominee in 1988.

* And Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) appeared on The Daily Show last night, and posted on his website an entertaining look behind-the-scenes. It’s worth watching.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) picked up the support of Bobby Schindler

Not to denigrate Mr Schindler or anything but…

Whats next…

Is Brownback going to seek the endorsement of Jeff Gannon, Armstrong Williams, Ted Haggard, or Mark Foley….

let it go Sam …

  • Many people do not know who Ron Paul is. He is going to surprise a lot of people this election. Conservatives are disillusioned with the Republican Party. There is far too much corruption and big government spending going on. Ron Paul has proven many times that he can be trusted to fight against these problems. Conservatives can relate to him, he is honest.

  • Asked what was more important to them in a nominee, a commitment to stay in Iraq until the United States succeeds or flexibility about when to withdraw, 58 percent of self-identified Republican primary voters said flexibility versus 39 percent who said a commitment to stay.

    Okay, explain to me again why the Democratic leadership is so timid about pushing for immediate withdrawal when only 39% of the Republicans think we should commit to staying in the quagmire until we “succeed”?

    I wish they would ask them “Would you be willing to send your child to Iraq if they were eligible?”

    I’ll bet the answer would be 99% NO. they don’t believe in their own war, why should we believe in it?

    Republican voters remain largely loyal to Mr. Bush and his positions on the issues. Among Republicans, 75 percent approve of his job performance, and by overwhelming numbers they approve of his handling of foreign policy, the war in Iraq and the management of the economy.
    […]
    Republicans, the poll found, are satisfied, but not enthusiastic, with how Mr. Bush is handing the war in Iraq, taxes and abortion. They said they believed the United States was correct in entering Iraq in the first place, supported the troop escalation pushed by President Bush and believe the war is going well there now.

    Full steam ahead. Damn the iceberg. To hell with reality.

    I love it. These idiots need to keep doing exactly what they’re doing.

  • Damn, I want to run against someone who’s been endorsed by Bobby Schindler. I want the ’08 GOP candidate to say it was a good idea to keep her alive against her wishes. Wouldn’t that make everything a lot easier?

  • Gosh, people—don’t you know that John “Call me Darth” McCain is planning on using the Dark Side of the Force to make everyone vote for him as Emperor Jet-Jockey the First.

    McCain keeps this up, and he won;’t be able to beat a dead Wookie for the job of Assistant Chief Septic Tank Scrubber—regardless of his experience at slinging $hit….

  • My favorite quote from the NYT poll article: “The Democrats will win because of the war. I think the Republicans just won’t vote.”

    What’s up with McCain these days? Is he hiding is Cheney’s secret undiclosed locations rather than going out on the campaign circuit? John must be throwing all his weight behind the religious vote and saying screw the other conservatives

  • What is the McCain campaign’s strategy with skipping all of these events?
    How does this possibly help McCain?

    It seems very strange.

  • McCain drops to 16% and now is skipping the Club for Growth event??? He has NO chance at winning the nomination. McCain should drop out now so that Romney or Brownback will have a shot at Giuliani.

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