Friday’s campaign round-up

January 11, 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:

* This is a nice pick-up for the Obama campaign: “Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano will endorse Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign today, according to two sources familiar with the decision. Napolitano’s endorsement has literal and symbolic significance. As a popular western state governor, she could prove as an effective surrogate for Obama in Nevada’s Jan. 19 caucuses. Napolitano is also one of a handful of female governors in the country, and her decision to go with Obama could undercut Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s attempts to unify female elected officials behind her candidacy.”

* Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the highest-ranking African American in Congress and the most powerful Dem in South Carolina politics, had vowed to remain neutral in the Democratic primary. Now, however, he’s leaning towards an endorsement, after comments from Bill and Hillary Clinton that he perceived as “diminishing the historic role of civil rights activists” and “distorting civil rights history.”

* Ned Lamont, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut in 2006, announced yesterday that he is supporting Obama’s campaign. Lamont had backed Connecticut’s Chris Dodd, but with Dodd having withdrawn, he sees Obama as having “the tone and temperament to bring out the best in our people and our nation, and to bring new coalitions together in support of the progressive policies we all want to see enacted.”

* ABC News: “The Texas advertising guru and branding whiz who spent most of October on a spiritual soul quest trying to reconnect with ‘the heart of America,’ has been tapped for a bigger role in Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Roy Spence, 60, a longtime friend of the Clintons, is the quirky Austin-based advertising legend who coined the phrase ‘Don’t Mess With Texas’ and developed the Southwest Airlines slogan: ‘You are now free to move about the country.’ He was with Clinton at her Chappaqua, New York home yesterday, after she flew in overnight from New Hampshire and met with her team to develop a campaign strategy for the next four weeks of key primaries.” Spence will reportedly now have a major role in “rebranding” Clinton’s message.

* Sounds like Giuliani’s having some real financial trouble: “CNN has learned that top staff members of Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign were asked to work without pay for the month of January, and perhaps longer, so that campaign resources could be focused on the Florida Republican presidential primary.”

* On a related note, Marc Ambinder reports: “John McCain’s presidential campaign is virtually broke, raising and spending about $25,000 a day. To do that, he will turn to a cadre of big-name fundraisers recruited way back when the campaign was projecting $120M budgets and renting high-class office space in Los Angeles.”

* TPM: “A new 527 called Victims Voice — set up by one Arkansas Republican, Keith Emis, with the assistance of his new financial backers — is running a truly ferocious new attack ad in South Carolina against Mike Huckabee. The ad cuts straight to the point in informing viewers of Huck’s role in the Wayne Dumond case, and features the mother of one of Dumond’s victims blaming Huckabee for her daughter being raped and murdered.”

* NPR had scheduled yet another Republican debate for next Wednesday in South Carolina, but low attendance has forced its cancellation. “We had commitments, we had some people whose schedules were fluid, and the ultimate decision was to cancel it,” said Andi Sporkin, a spokeswoman for NPR.

* The Hill: “Citing unspecified ‘serious and credible reports, allegations, and rumors’ regarding the presidential primary in New Hampshire, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is asking for a recount of the vote. Kucinich, who placed at the back of the Democratic field with less than 1.4 percent of the votes, said in a letter to New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner that there were ‘possible vote-count irregularities’ that have been ‘fueled by the stunning disparities between various ‘independent’ pre-election polls and the actual election results.'”

* And finally, we won’t have Unity08 to kick around anymore.

January 11, 2008 at 12:11 pm

Good for Kucinich! If the vote was counted honestly, a recount will quiet the rumors of a pro-Hillary conspiracy. If the vote was not counted honestly, let’s find out about it and clean up the mess.

The only problem is that Kucinich’s campaign will have to pay for the full cost of the recount since he didn’t finish close enough (within 2%?) of the top. It would be very gracious of Sens. Obama and Clinton to contribute to the cause.

The votes were counted largely by Premier Election Systems, formerly known as Diebold Election Systems. What does that do for your confidence in the New Hampshire election process?

Wow, this is unscrupulous. What’s this guy’s agenda? Did he just get paid $10 million or something?

Take a look at the statements he criticized:

“Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Mrs. Clinton said in trying to make the case that her experience should mean more to voters than the uplifting words of Mr. Obama. “It took a president to get it done.”

Dr. King’s goal was to change the law. That’s not in dispute. Clinton was apparently just trying to say how important presidents are. Later on in the interview, she even went back to the subject, to mention how Dr. King and civil rights workers wroked to pass the law, to make sure that they were remembered. But this congressman is choosing the worst possible interpretation of Clinton’s words to level an accusation against her for.

Then there’s this from Bill:

President Clinton, who described Mr. Obama’s campaign narrative as a fairy tale.

What??? People commonly call a long-shot story or a dream-come-true a fairy tale. When you come from a humble background, and you work yourself up to prominence, people call it a fairy-tale as praise. People would call the success Dr. King’s dream has encountered success so far a fairy tale. It’s not putting it down in any way, it’s saying that it’s an amazing accomplishment, that not long ago many would have never thought would come to pass, come true.

This congressman is obviously trying to deceive people.

Good for Kucinich! If the vote was counted honestly, a recount will quiet the rumors of a pro-Hillary conspiracy.

No it won’t– it will promote it. There’s no evidence of a conspiracy, and getting the story in the news while a recount is conducted but before the results are announced will fan the flames of the fake story that Hillary is rigging elections.

I knew the Dumond thing was going to come out (a la Willy Horton) but I am surprised that it’s a gooper doing it.

Christ, if they’re eating their own already, can you imagine what the generals are going to bring us? I think this is going to be worse than I even imagined…and I have a pretty fertile imagination.

I think it’s going to get to the point where I won’t turn the tv on for a few months. I don’t think I want to see the level of Swiftboating every candidate that is about to come from these completely runaway 527’s. I only hope that the dems’ 527’s are willing to play hardball against the gooper smear machine and their Swiftboating allies.

We are indeed a Jerry Springer nation.

What I want to know is why Rudy had to pay his people in the first place. Don’t they know that if he’s not elected we will surely be attacked?

A guy like Roy Spence could be a real asset to any campaign that he chooses to serve. I’m glad that he’s a Democrat. The Republicans have been beating us up for years with superior marketing. They have coined some great euphemisms over the years: “Death Tax” for estate tax, “Fair Tax” for the most unfair tax imaginable, and “Surge” for “escalation, to give just a few examples.

A Republican debate canceled for lack of interest? Unimaginable!

It’s hard to imagine anyone being willing to work for free for a campaign that has no reason for being. (I’m talking about the Giuliani campaign, by the way.) It’s hard to even imagine working for such a campaign for money, except as a last resort. It would be like working as a telemarketer for a vinyl siding company – an awful job, but necessary to feed the kids.

Roy Spence, 60, a longtime friend of the Clintons, is the quirky Austin-based advertising legend who coined the phrase ‘Don’t Mess With Texas’

I love that phrase because I love to mess with Texas. There is no other state of the Union more stuck up with itself.

Huck is very, very dirty with the Dumond mess and deserves to have it branded on his forehead so he and everyone else are reminded of it daily.

From The Hill: “Kucinich alleges that there have been “unexplained disparities between hand-counted ballots and machine-counted ballots.”

This type of disparity should be fairly simple to examine, and tinfoil is not required. From Bradblog:

Analysts at the Election Defense Alliance (EDA) have confirmed that based on the official results on the New Hampshire Secretary of state web site, there is a remarkable relationship between Obama and Clinton votes, when you look at votes tabulated by op-scan v. votes tabulated by hand:

Clinton Optical scan 91,717 52.95%
Obama Optical scan 81,495 47.05%

Clinton Hand-counted 20,889 47.05%
Obama Hand-counted 23,509 52.95%

The percentages appear to be swapped. That seems highly unusual, to say the least.

I would add that Clinton’s people don’t even need to be involved, given that many in the GOP have already said that they want to run against her, not Obama.

Speaking of the Giuliani campaign, one of Rudy’s applause lines is, concerning immigrants, “We should make certain that they can read English, write English and speak English.”

But he is running TV commercials en Espanol on at least three Spanish language TV stations in the Miami area. (The Cuban community there has been a fairly reliable source of Republican votes.)

At the end of the commercials, Rudy says: “Soy Rudy Giuliani y apruebo este mensaje.” (I’m Rudy Giuliani and I approved this message).”

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/08/giuliani-spanish/

Napolitano :

“He is a powerful persuader,” she said. “He really is. As good as he is at motivating a large hall, he’s as good or better one on one.”

She is huge out here in the west.
Incredibly well liked.
This is a monster pick up for Barack.

With each passing day more and more join the chorus:

We are tired of the Clintons.
We are tired of the Bush family.
Let’s open the doors of the White House to something young and bright and brave and new.

Buddha,

I wouldn’t assume Hilary knew anything about Primier machines rigging votes just enough votes to emerge victorious.

It’s possible Premier sees Hilary as much less dangerous than Obama.

That said, after reviewing the takes on the election, I find it very plausible that no foul play occurred at all. The 24 hour coverage of Hilary’s earnest heart to heart could have swayed half the undecideds (and 2% of Edwards’ 19% following) and that’s all she needed to get the result she got. Not out of the question. No tin foil hat required.

Still, like Reagan once said… “Trust, but verify.” Voter Verifiable Paper Receipt or Ballot. Accept no substitutes.

Rep. James Clyburn’s complaints actually sound like thay were dreamed up by some Rove-trained subordinate, or Rove himself, while idly poring over some politics websites or liberal blogs at the office, getting fired up over things that are alleged to be racism, thinking “Ha! I bet I could even say that what the Clintons said those couple of times are racist!” and then getting on the phone to Clyburn. Honestly, it probably took more Internet research than that, looking through all the Clintons’ statements to find what they could have the most prominent black traitor they could get call racism, but, it “coulda” been.

I wrote something like this in reference to the Andy Rooney flap a few days ago:

If some black guy was recalling Lyndon Johnson’s role in the civil rights movement, do you think the black guy would definitely follow up with a comment emphasizing Dr. King’s and the civil rights activists role? If his point was about the role of the president?

If Clyburn’s point is that you have to say “Dr. King” and “civil rights activists” quickly enough after you credit a president with signing the actual legislation, then it’s obvious that Clyburn’s just spouting some anti-Hillary stuff, and it’s not really about being pro-civil rights or pro-Obama at all. What’s up with Lincoln? Is everybody who aphoristically says “Lincoln freed the slaves” a racist now if they do not also follow up with a mini-lecture on the significance of the underground railroad, slave resistance to slavery and self-education, the larger abolition movement, John Brown, etc.?

Clyburn’s effort is wrong for civil rights. If what he’s saying is that any white person, who goes and does what Hill and Bill did- not only be good liberals, but position themselves at the worst place in the liberal movement, the “tip of the spear” where they take more shit than anybody, fight for everybody, and get little reward but notoriety- can look forward to getting stabbed in the back for their efforts by a guy like Clyburn, a recipient of the benefits of that movement, then he can’t really be for civil rights. It flies in the face of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream of black people and white people living together in peace, and getting along better.

This guy is a chump.

Regarding New Hampshire vote count irregularities, I’m not concerned at all about a conspiracy, whether Clinton-directed or GOP-directed or other. I just care about the voting being tabulated with Diebold (even if they’ve changed their brandname) voting machines. I consider them to be unreliable and incompetent. Restore my confidence in the NH results regardless of the winner. Do a recount, please.

Re: Clyburn’s statements

It can’t be for the greater good of getting Obama elected. Obama will be the President eventually no matter what. But if a white liberal like me reads about what Clyburn did, it makes me feel like, “Ok, why should I be the white guy who works against racism now? How do I know in what way I’m going to get betrayed if someon else thinks it helps the movement to do so? Why don’t I just let someone else do the work, and shout my approval from the sidelines?” Meaning, it’s such a bad blunder, judging it from a civil-rights based rationale, that it can’t really be a sincere effort to help Obama.

Roy Spence’s first task for Hillary should be to secure the legal rights to the phrase “What’s in your wallet?” for Hill and Bill to use to respond to Clyburn.

RacerX at 9 wrote (in bold, mind you): “. . .many in the GOP have already said that they want to run against [Clinton], not Obama.”

Ok, this is what you say they say, without telling us who the “many in the GOP” are, but what people say and what they actually think are often two different things– and especially when it comes to Republicans. Doesn’t it make sense that if they didn’t want us to run her, they would “be heard” saying they want to run against her? And then there is all their focus in the media on how terrible Hillary– not Barack– is. It’s just too difficult for them to cover up the tracks of their lies when what they want most is to keep Hillary away from the White House at all costs.

On Stephanie Miller’s show this morning Kucinich mentioned that he has to pay for the requested NH re-count. Donations, he said, can be made through his website at http://www.dennis4president.com/home/.

He’s not my choice, though I agree with him in terms of policy, and I admire him for requesting the recount even though he’s not going to benefit personally. Who knows? the recount might just expose a reason why the hand-counted votes favored Obama while the Diebold counted scantron sheets favored Hillary.

For the simple fact that I don’t trust Diebold (or any of its incarnations), I completely support a recount. I have always had an issue with electronic voting machines, and to me, even a hint of impropriety should be investigated.

I think Diebold played a huge part in Bush getting reelected in 2004. Thankfully, there was a mob of people with video cell phones keeping some places honest. I watched some of the videos from the Person on the Street at polling places and some of it was shady to be kind.

Not to sound like a nutjob or conspiracy theorist but I simply do not trust technology that a 12 year old kid could bust through. Diebold backs goopers and you don’t need that 12 year old when the company could easily send out chips to wreak havoc.

Sorry, but I want my vote to actually count towards the person I want it to go to.

Paper trails at a minimum. Real-time mirroring offsite to a neutral locale would be better. But how do you get that neutrality when it’s Diebold? I can’t think of any way to remedy the massive problem with electronic voting machines.

I do technology and I know how simple it is. It’s been shown how easily these machines can be manipulated. Coupled with how the states are so ill informed and don’t do the things they need to do to ensure that the machines are not tampered with, I do not support electronic voting in any way.

But hey, that’s just me.

For fifteen years I’ve been told relentlessly how evil the Clintons are. I really would like someone evil like them to come back and balance the budget, have a sane, responsible foreign policy and select at least moderate candidates for the Supreme Court.

jen…

I think any of the dem candidates will take aim at your list.
But since you seem to be equating Bill Clinton’s accomplishments as being Hillary’s…
It is only fair that you also add to your list:
And turn the White House into a Whore House.

As that is as much Bill Clinton’s legacy as are any of the other things on your list.

ROTF etc

Daddy Bush had a mistress while in the White House. FDR, Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ also did. Don’t know about Nixon. Reagan had alsheimers. Power is an aphrodisiac. So if having sex out of marriage makes a place a whorehouse, it’s not a new experience for the White House.

I hadn’t heard about Napolitano. That is a big “get” for Obama–she’s someone I figured would have a national constituency sooner or later, perhaps even as a #2 on an Obama-led ticket. Great news.

MsJoanne writes: I can’t think of any way to remedy the massive problem with electronic voting machines.

I can: dump them! Convert the whole country to the system that has worked flawlessly in Oregon for years: vote by mail. Cheaper, greater participation, and nary a quibble about the results (up to now, anyhow). It is plenty easy enough to route all ballots to a central location overseen by members of all parties for fairness and accuracy, and of course recounts are a piece of cake. Why we go through all the expense and hassle of polling places is one of those illogical absurdities that is opening doors, election after election, to outright fraud. Enough already!

I hope black people have finally learned their lesson and can see more clearly who Bill and Shilary Clinton really are. While Bill Clinton called Obama a fairytale and she discredited Martin Luther King all in the space of 7 days… it is clear after all these years who this man really is!!!
In a short matter of time he and his wife have managed to release some of the most racist statements ever heard by a former president and his wife, all due to her being behind and losing this election. I hope Barack Obama really sends them packing handily and afro Americans see this lying scum from Arkansas for the con man he is… now that is what I call the Clinton legacy.. let’s all just be happy they are showing their true colors now — The Clinton Legacy = Two faced con man who stole the white house
Ann Sharkosky

Wow Ann…

You get it.
Well put!

@ jen flowers:

Be that as it may…
I woke up for 2 years of my life reading about a victim named Monica Lewinsky.
I don’t want to go through 1 minute of that again.
Nobody can promise me that big dog will keep his hands off the staff this time around.
I don’t care how many times he wags his finger at me…
AND LIES.

Anybody who thinks Hillary has been “vetted” is living a fantasy.
If she is the nominee… I and thousands like me are going to SCREAM:
“Don’t send the fornicator back to the White House.”

Know this:
Hillary and Bill are going down.

Either in the primaries or the generals.
One way or another…
They are going down.

They are history.
One way or another.

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