Monday’s political round-up

July 16, 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:

* The mass exodus of John McCain’s staff continued this morning, when communications director Brian Jones stepped down, along with deputies Matt David and Danny Diaz. Research director Brian Rogers and South Carolina McCain spokesman Adam Temple are also leaving the campaign.

* Fred Thompson’s team is gearing up for a “Thompson-Romney duel” for the hearts of the GOP’s religious-right base. Hoping to win over the Dobson crowd, aides for the actor/senator/lobbyist are “arranging more meetings between Thompson and conservative Christian leaders and have launched a rapid-response operation to fend off attacks on Thompson’s conservative credentials.”

* On a related note, Romney is debuting a new TV ad this week called, “Ocean,” in which he decries popular culture, holding it responsible for poisoning our youth. To get a sense of the pitch, consider the fact that the ad quotes a Peggy Noonan column at length.

* The flap over serious/unserious Democratic candidates continues, sparked by an overheard conversation between Hillary Clinton and John Edwards last week, in which the two sounded like they wanted to limit future debates to credible candidates. Clinton is now saying it was Edwards’ fault, Edwards is now saying he was taken out of context, and Obama is taking advantage of the situation, saying he doesn’t want to exclude anyone.

* Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) said he may end his presidential campaign if he finishes “fourth or worse in the Aug. 11 Ames straw poll.”

* And the final cash-on-hand numbers for presidential hopefuls were released today. Here’s the snapshot for the top contenders: Obama: $34 Million; Clinton: $33; Giuliani $14.6; Romney: $12.1; Edwards: $12; Richardson: $7; Dodd $6.4. I’d just add that Obama and Clinton both have more money in the bank now than Bush did at this point in 2003.

McCain’s protestations that he’s going to fight on no matter what sound a lot like his Iraq policy prescriptions, don’t they? No matter how bad the news is, “we’re going to win!”

“Hollywood Fred” is going to be the GOP nominee. Das base wants a “real” conservative, even if they have to hire an actor to play one on TV for them, and they’re stupid enough to fall for that one. But I doubt if enough regular Americans will be… unless we end up with Hillary, whose inherent negatives will be very hard to overcome.

Between Freddy the Faker’s Iraq stance and his trophy wife, I think he’s not going to have a real easy time getting the female vote. Just a hunch.

  • The mass exodus of John McCain’s staff continued this morning, when communications director Brian Jones stepped down, along with deputies Matt David and Danny Diaz. Research director Brian Rogers and South Carolina McCain spokesman Adam Temple are also leaving the campaign.

    Can we start talking about excluding McCain from the Republican Presidential debates now?

  • At the rate things are going, I don’t think Edwards and Hillary need to worry about excluding people. I imagine the list of candidates will keep weeding itself out on both sides before a single vote is even cast and except for political junkies, not that many are really watching the debates this early anyway.

  • Did Romney really strap his dog to the top of his car for a 12 hour drive and not realize the dog was in distress until doggy diarrhea started streaming down the windows?

    If that’s true, HOW could he ever win an election again?

  • Fred Thompson’s team is gearing up for a “Thompson-Romney duel” for the hearts of the GOP’s religious-right base.

    Hopefully they’ll use machine guns.

    On the one hand, it is a good thing that the ReThuglicon hopefuls are wooing Das Base. The christo-fascists were disappointed that BushBaby didn’t deliver on the Defend Marriage/Zygotes/Bible promises, so FT & MR will have to hurl a lot of red meat to convince the fundies. This in turn can only further alienate the sane (or at least less obnoxious) voters and damage the GOP. Maybe Smells Nice Thompson & Flight Deck Romney will be so busy memorizing fundamentalist talking points they won’t have time to memorize pro-business talking points.

    However, I know watching these shit-heads try to one up each other in their hatred of all things non-Talevangical will make me want to hit someone.

  • Thompson is “Fish-Lips Fred” as far as I’m concerned…(shuddering)

    All this GOP positioning for the base kind of amuses me, since the numbers would indicate that a Republican cannot win with just the votes of the base, and the more they pander to that group, the more turned off independents and moderate Democrats are. More great planning from the people who want to keep the Iraq occupation going, double the size of Gitmo, and are drooling over the possibility of attacking Iran. I’m sure this is what the American people really want after all these years with Bush and Cheney in charge – more of the same, only maybe worse. How’s that for a bumper sticker?

  • I think Anne #6 is right in particular about the GOP candidates pandering and more generally about the Reps pandering to their base. What fires up their base, fires up our base too.

  • Well, just as long as a Thompson/Romney duel doesn’t undermine both of them, I’m all for it. The reason I say that is, I worry about Giuliani getting the nomination. Unlike the other ReThugs, he can actually peel off some blue states (e.g. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Oregon, even California and New York . . . ) resulting in an embarrassing loss on our side. If Thompson and Romney want to pile onto one another, fine, just as long as they, along with McCain, ALSO gang up on Giuliani. Giuliani MUST GO DOWN, or else we lose!!!!

  • I wish you’d gone down the list to show that Ron Paul has more money in the bank than John McCain 😉

    Ah, Libertarianism.

  • If Giuliani wins the Republican nomination and Hillary wins the Democratic nomination, we can easily see that Giuliani will win in a landslide.

  • . . . Giuliani getting the nomination. Unlike the other ReThugs, he can actually peel off some blue states (e.g. New Jersey. . . and New York . . . )

    Actually, I am sure I have seen polls of New York voters that show Hillary handily beating Rudy – in fact, I thought I saw one showing that if Clinton, Giuliani and Bloomburg all ran, the folks who know them best and have seen their political work day in and day out put Rudy last.

  • The mass exodus of John McCain’s staff continued this morning, when communications director Brian Jones stepped down, along with deputies Matt David and Danny Diaz. Research director Brian Rogers and South Carolina McCain spokesman Adam Temple are also leaving the campaign.

    Golly gee whiz…

    With al these empty suits fleeing McVain’s closet like poisoned moths… the only thing left hanging in there will be a few campy sweaters.

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