Friday’s campaign round-up

July 18, 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:

* Resolving a simmering dispute, the Obama campaign has indicated that Barack Obama will not speak at Brandenburg Gate in Germany during his visit, but will instead give a speech at Berlin’s Victory Column next Thursday.

* CNN: “Former President Bill Clinton said Thursday he’s prepared to hit the campaign trail on behalf of Barack Obama as soon as the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee asks him to. ‘Whenever he asks — that is, we had a good talk, and he said he wanted me to campaign with him, and I said I was eager to do so,’ Clinton told reporters in New York Thursday. ‘He’s busier than I am, with politics anyway, so I just told him that whenever he wanted to do it, I was ready.'”

* The Obama campaign has quietly organized a tight-knit group of foreign-policy aides, “supported by a huge 300-person foreign policy campaign bureaucracy, organized like a mini State Department.”

* Rasmussen shows Obama pulling ahead of John McCain in Nevada by two, 42% to 40%.

* Rasmussen shows McCain leading Obama in Virginia by the slimmest of margins, 48% to 47%.

* A little further south, Rasmussen shows McCain leading Obama in North Carolina by just three points, 45% to 42%.

* The McCain campaign can feel a lot better about its chances in Arkansas, where Rasmussen shows McCain up by 10, 47% to 37%.

* Marc Ambinder asks, “When was the last time that a Democratic presidential candidate opened six campaign offices in Montana? As of Saturday, Obama For America will have 24/7 ‘Campaign for Change’ outposts In Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Great Falls, Helena and Missoula.”

* For that matter, when was the last time a Republican presidential candidate felt compelled to campaign in Nebraska?

* In case there were any doubts, Al Gore will not be Obama’s running mate. “I’ve decided to impose a personal term limit of two terms as vice president,” Gore said yesterday.

* I’m sure it was just a verbal miscue, but McCain inadvertently announced at a town-hall meeting in New Mexico this week that he would be in the Senate next year.

* The Weekly Standard and the RNC insist that Obama’s campaign spending is “out of control.” It’s not.

* McCain and Phil Gramm are buddies again.

Dan Rather joins the growing “Obama/Osama mix-up club”.

Not just that, nobody sitting with him on MSNBC corrected him either…

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/election08/252

  • Remember, the polls don’t take into account people who only use cell phones, a demographic that skews younger!

  • * The Weekly Standard and the RNC insist that Obama’s campaign spending is “out of control.” It’s not.

    The money a candidate spends on a campaign isn’t the same as the money spent by a drunken frat boy who wanted to get his war on so I’m not sure why the Weakly even made this point.

    Oh yes. THAT’S. ALL. THEY. GOT.

  • I’m sure it was just a verbal miscue, but McCain inadvertently announced at a town-hall meeting in New Mexico this week that he would be in the Senate next year.

    No. He knows! It’s the writing on the wall, folks. And (contrary to what you might think) McCain can read. I mean it’s a… it’s a Google out there.

    In other words, his campaign has imploded even before he’s been formally nominated, it’s pretty damn clear, so he’s scorching the earth, poisoning the wells, sowing the ground with salt and doing all other kinds of nasty things because, hell, it’s not like it’s going to really make a difference. Also, he’s a dick.

    Or perhaps he’s senile enough that he still thinks it’s 2007 and should he win, he’d still have a whole year to not come to work in the Senate? Hmm…

  • NB said:

    Remember, the polls don’t take into account people who only use cell phones, a demographic that skews younger!

    True, but I’d rather have inaccurate polls than be bothered on my cell phone.

  • I take all of these polls with a major grain of salt. I had the unfortunate “pleasure” of driving cross-country a few weeks ago as part of my move from Ft. Lauderdale to Seattle.

    Funny thing. We saw a lot of Obama bumper stickers, but neither hubby nor myself saw a single McCain one. And we drove through some of the reddest of the red states: Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming…

    Things that make you go Hmmmm…

  • What is Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC drinking? She says that if the Europeans give Obama a big welcome, he will be seen as anti-american in the midwest states.She must not know that we need European support to clean up Bush’s mess. It does not hurt if they like us.

  • Rasmussen took a poll on which came first the chicken or the egg.

    There’s no way in hell those poll numbers can be accurate since they don’t correlate with the
    huge advantage in voter registration favoring Democrats. They are missing the boat Big Time
    or as another poster suggested the “wireless/internet” generation.
    The only people depending on land line phones for communication are Republicans, Pollsters and CableTV.

  • What is Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC drinking?

    Too much wine, apparently, consumed while chatting with her husband, who is advising John McCain while Mitchell covers the presidential campaign. Can you just imagine her patented sneer if someone suggested that might be a conflict of interest?

    And this propensity among MSM figures to confuse Obama with Osama is puzzling, given that most of them haven’t mentioned Osama bin Laden in any other context since Bush announced he’s “not too worried” about him.

  • Hey, that Tevis guy running for Kansas State Legislator has over 4,100 donors now. The netroots never cease to amaze me.

  • It’s not surprising that Senator Spendthrift’s campaign is running through money like a drunken sailor — we know from Larry Sinclair that he has trouble controlling his appetites and has a penchant for excess. The only thing unexpected is that Mr. Nervous Nellie should be so unrestrained in his spending, as he’s usually overcautious (and thus a bad pick for leadership). He is a huge gambler who is afraid to take risks.

  • Obama’s ‘mini-state department’ is a disappointment. The same old, tired Democratic Party foreign policy mandarins and gurus. Couldn’t he think of people a little more original? Then again, Samantha Power could have been called that and she’s a little too intervention-happy [lots of problems with that Pulizter Prize winning book!!) But sheesh, Michael McFaul at Stanford (Obama’s Russia go-to guy) was trained partly by Condi and the less than progressive Stanford Political Science Dept and besides he’s been writing drivel about Russia for a long time now.

    Yes, the world is a dangerous place, but there are lots of places (outside the Ivies, Stanford and their ilk) who are doing interesting work and have interesting ideas about security/peace/power that are just not represented in Obama’s list.

    Also disappointing — of all the photos in the NYT today, only 1 woman!!! I’m an Obama supporter and would never think of either not voting or of supporting McCain, but all of this is very distressing.

  • Why has nobody mentioned the ‘gorilla joke?” (I only heard a brief mention of this — including the ‘joke’ being repeated — on Keith, but have yet to see any followup — and I never got back to the repeat nor can i find the full reference on the Countdown site. Does anyone have more details?)

  • The Weekly Standard and the RNC insist that Obama’s campaign spending is “out of control.”

    What would anyone expect them to say? I liken that to convicted murderers commenting on the legal system.

  • #12 How is Obama’s advice on foreign affairs a disappointment? What gaffes and missteps has he made? This is another example of Obama carefully filling a need and making it a strength. I look forward to his successful trip to Europe and the Middle East.

    Are you really worried that not enough women are in photos with Obama? Please.

  • “The Weekly Standard and the RNC insist that Obama’s campaign spending is “out of control.” It’s not.”

    If the McC*nt campaign is outspending the Obama campaign 3 to 1 on TV, why is Obama in the lead?

    Can you imagine complaining that your opponent is spending his money unwisely?

    Or maybe the point is to convince liberal donors not to waste their money on the Obama campaign. Come on guys, spend that money on a night out on the town, not for getting a competent person into the White House.

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