Friday’s campaign round-up

February 29, 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:

* After experiencing a financial rough patch, it looks as if the Clinton campaign is back on firm ground, raising $35 million in February, more than double her January haul. “It was incredibly gratifying to see people come forth with this vote of confidence in me,” Clinton told reporters in Hanging Rock, Ohio. “Obviously this is a tremendous benefit to my campaign.”

* And what about Obama’s monthly total? Exact numbers haven’t been released, but almost immediately after the Clinton camp announced its $35 million monthly total, the Obama campaign’s Bill Burton told reporters that they’d raised “considerably more” than that.

* At a town-hall meeting in Texas yesterday, John McCain inadvertently described himself as “a proud conservative liberal Republican.” Quickly realizing he’d used one word too many, McCain corrected himself, adding, “Conservative Republican.” As the audience laughed, McCain said, “Hellooo, easy there.”

* Obama delivered a forceful lecture to some Texas parents yesterday, who seemed to agree with his message: “During a Barack Obama town-hall meeting on the economy, the topic turned to education, which, the Illinois senator said, could not be remedied by spending alone. ‘It doesn’t matter how much money we put in if parents don’t parent,’ he scolded…. Each line was punctuated by a roar, and Obama began to shout, falling into a preacher’s rhythm. ‘Am I right? So turn off the TV set. Put the video game away. Buy a little desk. Or put that child at the kitchen table. Watch them do their homework. If they don’t know how to do it, give ’em help. If you don’t know how to do it, call the teacher.’ By now, the crowd of nearly 2,000 was lifted from the red velveteen seats of the Julie Rogers Theatre, hands raised to the gilded ceiling. ‘Make ’em go to bed at a reasonable time! Keep ’em off the streets! Give ’em some breakfast! Come on! Can I get an amen here?'” The crowd, according to multiple accounts, went wild.

* The big story of the ’08 race? According to Mike Huckabee, it’s him: “What I think has been the phenomenal story is that we had a dime to every dollar that these other candidates have had. And yet our campaign has stayed on the field when the campaigns that were far better financed and organized and staffed with all the establishment people they’ve come and gone. And nobody, I think, would’ve said a few months ago that we would have outlasted Rudy and Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney and many other candidates who have disappeared.”

* Arianna Huffington notices an interesting calendar coincidence: “Should Barack Obama end up winning his party’s nomination, he will give his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver on August 28 — 45 years to the day Martin Luther King delivered his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.”

* The Dems’ Texas primary on Tuesday is open to independents and Republicans, and they may give Obama an edge: “If the latest polling data are to be believed, those Republicans aren’t whispering in Texas, where 195 of the 228 delegates the state will send to the Democratic National Convention will be chosen in a primary and caucuses Tuesday. As many as a tenth of the Texans voting in the Democratic contests could be Republicans, and overwhelmingly they favor Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, the polls show.”

* Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III endorsed McCain yesterday, comparing him to Baker’s former boss: “John [McCain] appreciates the complexity of the real world, which after all is a world of hard choices and painful trade-offs. Ronald Reagan was a staunch conservative. Nobody ever accused the Gipper of being squishy … Ronald Reagan found solutions that worked, even if they sometimes occasionally failed the rigid tests of the purists.”

* And Ralph Nader has a running mate: Matt Gonzalez, a San Francisco lawyer who came in a close second in the city’s mayoral race in 2003. Gonzalez has served as president of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, and is a member of the Green Party.

“What I think has been the phenomenal story is that we had a dime to every dollar that these other candidates have had. And yet our campaign has stayed on the field when the campaigns that were far better financed and organized and staffed with all the establishment people they’ve come and gone. And nobody, I think, would’ve said a few months ago that we would have outlasted Rudy and Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney and many other candidates who have disappeared.”

The fact that you don’t know when to quit isn’t a miracle; it’s an embarassment.

  • It’s pretty sad that John McCain has to keep thumping the “conservative” drum even after he’s secured the GOP nomination.

    Sadder still, he thinks he has to brush aside both Obama and Clinton as “liberal Democrats.” Apparently he hasn’t heard that the reason many Clinton supporters don’t like Obama is that Obama is too friendly to Republicans, and the reason many Obama supporters don’t like Hillary is they fear a repeat of the GOP-lite administration from the ’90s.

    John McCain would pee his heroic pants if an actual liberal Democrat got this far in the nominating process.

  • Huckabee does have a point that his campaign has been a surprising upset of the primary season, though as retr2327 points out, he probably would have been better off bowing out gracefully when it became apparent that he has no chance and cashing his momentum into a position in the Republican establishment.

  • I see they’re pulling Harry out of Afghanistan. I’d like to publicly reveal that my cousin, Billy, is fighting in Iraq, so they’ll be pulling him out of there quickly too right?

    Ralph Nader is a true profressive. I’m going to have to switch from Obama to Nader in order to defeat the corporate scum.

  • I wish those millions the candidates are raising were going toward defeating McCain instead of diddling each other around.

  • “Or put that child at the kitchen table. Watch them do their homework”

    and then ask yourself – is our children learning?

  • Republicans here in Texas are voting for Obama for various reasons; because they really like Obama, and/or because they really hate Hillary.

    It’s all good!

  • Senator Obama just speaks plain old-fashioned common sense… something this country has been sorely lacking of late. I include myself in this sermon.

    Do what’s right, not what’s expedient. Teachers are not baby-sitters. Parents must be involved in teaching children all of their lessons, not just school work but how to act in public, how to respect one another, how to interact with the larger public, and how to accept others as they are. Differences are what makes us great! Explore with your children! Enlighten them! Open their eyes, ears, and minds to the possibilities this wonderful world holds for them!

    Don’t teach them hatred or jealousy… they will eventually use that against you. Teach them love and honor, and they will love and honor you in return. Seems simple to me.

    Peace.

  • Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III endorsed McCain yesterday, saying “even though McCain cheered when Bush took a dump on our plan to save Iraq, I think he’s the best candidate”.

  • Huckster is still running? Hmmm…cudda fooled me. I haven’t seen his name anywhere other than the periodic I’M STILL HERE.

    As for Obama doling out a little more common sense. Whodathunkit. And the crowd goes wild when someone actually speaks in terms that resonate and make sense.

    Jesus Christ on a Crutch, let’s hope the dem leadership takes not. Had Kerry taken this approach he might have won. Fight back. Speak in terms that people can relate to. Speak the truth!

    Is it that friggin’ difficult to get?

  • Nader’s selection of Gonzalez for a running mate officially puts him in the “clownsuit” category of political gadflys. It tells us that he couldn’t get anybody who would even remotely be considered a serious player on the national scene, and how sad is that?

    For those who don’t know Gonzalez that well, like 99.999% of the human race, he did one term on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, ran for mayor, lost and promptly disappeared from public life. When he was on the Board his major accomplishment was to be really annoying to pretty much everybody.

    Good choice, Ralph. Now go play on the swings for a while and try not to hurt yourself.

  • Ken Silverstein in Harper’s – John McCain’s Charitable Contributions – His kids’ private schools are prime beneficiaries

    “The charitable contributions of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have received a fair amount of press scrutiny. The same is not true of John McCain, which is somewhat surprising since he is essentially the sole donor to the John and Cindy McCain Foundation, and his wife is its chairman and president.

    Between 2001 and 2006, McCain contributed roughly $950,000 to the foundation. That accounted for all of its listed income other than for $100 that came from an anonymous donor. During that same period, the McCain foundation made contributions of roughly $1.6 million. More than $500,000 went to his kids’ private schools, most of which was donated when his children were attending those institutions. So McCain apparently received major tax deductions for supporting elite schools attended by his children…”

  • @13:
    For those who don’t know Gonzalez that well, like 99.999% of the human race …

    Regardless of what thinks of Nader’s latest run, Curmudgeon (I’m not in favor of it), you’re completely off-base regarding Matt Gonzalez.

    “For those who don’t know Gonzalez that well,” he almost knocked that Blowdried Assclown Gavin Newsom off in the SF mayoral race (it required a special runoff election), he’s had a successful career as a public defender and defense attorney, he’s a social activist in San Fran, and he’s well-respected by progressives of many stripes both regionally and nationally.

    If a viable, progressive third-party candidate for national office ever emerges in this country it’ll be Matt Gonzalez or someone with very similar qualities to Matt. He’s incredibly smart, charismatic, and committed to real progressive values. He’s far too radical for most of the country, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see him win a higher-profile public office somewhere down the road.

    (That said, I’m not sure about the wisdom of joining the Nader ticket.)

  • The religious fervor over Obama is off putting to me.

    Obama Rapture? Is this the way we chose a president? Isn’t that similar to how W got in there?

  • At a town-hall meeting in Texas yesterday, John McCain inadvertently described himself as “a proud conservative liberal Republican.” Quickly realizing he’d used one word too many, McCain corrected himself, adding, “Conservative Republican.” As the audience laughed, McCain said, “Hellooo, easy there.”

    Dog-whistle to his friends in the “Democrat” Party.

    –
    Agree with Nell#16. Spare me the Hallelujah fever.

    “”I hear some right-wing commentators describe Obama as a left-wing radical. We just laugh,” DeLeon said. “There’s a certain function the Nader-Gonzalez ticket can play in reminding people what a real left-wing radical in the American system looks like. In that context, Obama looks more like an acceptable political centrist.””

  • So the Mission District is in play now. Who cares? Gonzalez has no name recognition outside of San Francisco.

    Yes, he’s a talented progressive, but joining Nader is only going to hurt any political future he might have,

  • The man got ecstatic cheers for “Make ’em go to bed at a reasonable hour”?!!?

    Say what you like about Obamania, he’s needed in my household.

  • He just lost the youth vote 😀

    Haha, actually one of the popular video game blogs picked up on this stump speech a while ago and, while the article author was wildly off base, most of the commenters disagreed he was slighting gamers in any way.

    To begin with, the average gamer is in their 30s and doesn’t need parenting, well, hopefully not. Most are successful (you have to be to afford games systems that cost $400, HDTVs, and $60 games).

    The overwhelming consensus, even from gamers who didn’t support him, was that Obama is only advocating taking an active parenting role. I was pleasantly surprised by the gaming community (especially since I’m so often disappointed when my two passions intersect.)

  • Obama struck a chord with his audience. What kept echoing in my mind is, what parent is at home? Since ‘Welfare Reform’ there has been a reduction in the number of parents at home. When you’re working the swing shift who can check the homework and put them to bed early? It’s great to point out that many parents are not willing to rein in their kids or turn off the TV / Video Games but what about parents who have been forced into the workforce in minimum wage jobs on swing or night shift?

    Who will throw them a life preserver?

    Does someone have statistics about the number of kids who are being raised in homes with no parent present in the evening – particularly since ‘Welfare Reform’? Every once in a while this data surfaces.

  • Nell @ #16

    Bush did NOT get the presidency by anything resembing a rapture…

    It did it the old fashioned American way – he flat out stole it…

  • Nader would have been better off picking the West Wing’s Matt Santos, not Matt Gonzalez. It would have suited Nader’s grasp on reality.

  • ‘It doesn’t matter how much money we put in if parents don’t parent,’ he [Obama] scolded….

    OMG! Obama must have been channeling our resident anti-Obamaniac, Jim (from the school voucher thread below)! What’s poor Jim gonna do now, that he got Obama to agree with him?

  • Nell, I agree wholeheartedly.

    Am I to believe by his speech that he is going to take an active role in getting parents to be parents? People will applaud anything he says, it’s really incredible. Why not talk policy, oh wait, he needs Hillary to go first so he can agree with her for that.

  • As for the republicans voting for Obama, this is the kind of nonsense that the superdelegates need to consider when they are choosing who to vote for, and not go with Obama just because he can get the spoiler vote.

  • This is really troubling, I’ve been saying this for weeks and getting shouted at in this blog for doing so.. these quotes come from the MSNBC article referenced by Steve Benan.

    “A survey released Tuesday by Public Policy Polling found that while Clinton led Obama by 52 percent to 44 percent among likely primary voters, Republicans who said they would vote in the primary favored Obama by 76 percent to 20 percent. The survey, which questioned 434 likely Democratic primary voters Saturday through Monday, reported a 4.7-point margin of error.”

    “…a significant proportion say they are temporarily backing Obama for strategic reasons. They plan to vote Republican in November, but for now, their goal is to try to make sure Clinton cannot win.”

  • Man, when Bill Cosby tells people stuff like that folks start wondering if Cosbiness really is next to godliness.

    I don’t think that Republicans are voting for Obama in primaries because they think that he’s an easier candidate to beat. I’ve had some long conversations with serious conservative friends lately, and they all disagree with the idea that Obama is easier to beat than Clinton. In fact, most of them are quick to point out the Reaganesque qualities of Sen Obama…with fear and trepidation, i might add. They’re just realizing that they won’t get to vote against Sen Clinton in November, so they want to get their digs in while they can.

    Then again, the Clintons always need someone else to blame for their failures…so this works fine.

  • I admire the tenacity of a guy who’s so far behind in funding and delegates… sticking in there to keep his agenda on the radar screen despite no press.

    It takes a certain grit.

    God bless, Mike Gravel.

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