Wednesday’s political round-up

January 2, 2008

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:

* NYT notices John Edwards’ Iraq policy: “John Edwards says that if elected president he would withdraw the American troops who are training the Iraqi army and police as part of a broader plan to remove virtually all American forces within 10 months…. Elizabeth Edwards, his wife and political partner, who listened in on the interview from a seat across the aisle, intervened at the end of the session to underscore that Mr. Edwards did not intend to stop all training and was prepared to train Iraqi forces outside of the country. Mr. Edwards continued the theme while acknowledging that the benefits of such training would be limited.” (For the record, I’m pretty sure this is the same thing Edwards has been saying for months.)

* Could McCain win New Hampshire? “With exactly a week to go until New Hampshire, McCain has pulled ahead of Romney and Clinton has opened back up a double-digit lead in New Hampshire, according to a 7News/Suffolk University poll. McCain gained 12 points since a month ago in the same survey to vault ahead of Romney 31%-25%. Romney had led in the December Suffolk poll 31%-19% over McCain. Giuliani is third with 14%, a three-point drop from 17%.”

* The same poll, by the way, shows Clinton leading Obama by a whopping 14 points, 36% to 22%, which seems well out of line with most other recent polls in New Hampshire.

* In fourth-quarter fundraising, Clinton and Obama were the big winners, each surpassing the $100 million mark for the year. Ron Paul, oddly enough, had the best Q4 among Republicans, collecting nearly $20 million.

* Hillary Clinton stepped on her expertise message a bit yesterday, making some claims about scheduled Pakistani elections that didn’t make sense. Joe Biden is trying to take advantage of the foreign-policy gaffe.

* Michael Bloomberg still claims he’s not running for president. I don’t think anyone believes him.

* Biden, by the way, is gunning for fourth place in Iowa, and hosted a surprisingly large rally in Iowa yesterday, drawing a crowd of over 500. Asking the crowd to caucus for him on Thursday night, Biden offered this assurance: “You’re going to be stunned on how many people stand with you.”

* Huckabee still insists he’s staying positive, but he’s letting Chuck Norris go after Mitt Romney for him.

* Romney says he’ll be happy with “gold or silver” in Iowa. Hmm.

* Huckabee still insists he’s staying positive, but he’s letting Chuck Norris go after Mitt Romney for him.

When a guy’s whole career has consisted of kicking ass, it’s hard to ask him to be positive.

Perhaps it’s the MSM’s purpose, but Huckabee sure comes off as mean spirited. All his talk of violence against his competitors is almost Freudian slippage.

* Romney says he’ll be happy with “gold or silver” in Iowa. Hmm.

Yeah those Republican politicians are happy with either gold or silver alright. Paper and electronic are good too.

  • Not only can McCain win, he will win. It’s hard to describe the loathing that Willard M. inspires among those who know him best. The only mystery is that Willard ever led in the Polls. I can only assume that Granite Staters were messing with the guy, getting his hopes up just so they can dash them. Bless them.

  • Biden is gunning for fourth place?

    So he’s either running to be the Vice President or to be the Adult left standing after all the children have given up and run home.

    Frankly, I don’t think much of his chances to be either.

    I think it’s vastly ammusing that Ron Paul is the Republican’ts best fund raiser. That certainly says something about the enthusiasm in the party.

    I think it would be nice if John and Elizabeth could get their talking points on Iraq straight. No wonder Joe Biden thinks he can be the “Adult left standing”. 😉

  • Do we think Bloomberg is going to hurt the Democratic candidate or Republican candidate more? The polling done over the summer suggests he would hurt the G.O.P., but I am not sure what to think.

  • Why is John Edwards still trying to weasel around about actually totally and completeley and immediately getting all U. S. forces out of Iraq? Imperial corporate U. S. aggression seems to be a serious addiction for those in power (the Bush gangster regime) and those who want to be in power (Hillary, Obama, Edwards and the nine Republican dwarfs)…

  • McCain worries me. All he needs to do to get the corporate/religious factions together is fool the fundies, and how hard is that? Once they have a Dem bogeyman and McLiar goes after that person, the fundies will fall in line. Add to that the media which says McCain is a centrist who opposed the war, and you have a very bad recipe.

  • Why is John Edwards still trying to weasel around about actually totally and completeley and immediately getting all U. S. forces out of Iraq?

    The answer is out in your driveway.

  • “Why is John Edwards still trying to weasel around about actually totally and completeley and immediately getting all U. S. forces out of Iraq? ”

    Ironically, the article in the NY Times kept mentioning that Edwards is out of sync with recommedations of the generals. I think he needs to say this kind of stuff to be taken at all seriously by the MSM. If he said “out now,” he’d get the Kucinich/Gravel treatment. I think he’s our best shot of some kind of withdrawal.

  • Regarding the 7News/Suffolk University poll in Hew Hampshire: McCain and Clinton winning in NH makes sense if independents flock to McCain and abandon Obama. It’s an inter-connected dynamic.

  • The Answer is Orange said: “Good Lord, somebody get upChuck a script!”

    Sorry TAIO, the writers are on strike 😉

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