Monday’s campaign round-up

July 21, 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:

* On the last full day of a very successful Netroots Nation conference in Austin, Barack Obama sent along a video address, and Al Gore made a surprise appearance.

* Last week, Republicans tried to push a new line, insisting that the Obama campaign was spending at a reckless pace. Apparently, this was not only false, it was directed at the wrong candidate: “Republican Sen. John McCain spent more money in June than he took in…. McCain raised $22.2 million in June, his best fundraising month of the campaign. He also spent more than he had in a single month, doling out $27 million for such expenses as television ads, campaign consultants, direct-mail fundraising and the travel costs associated with the construction of a national field operation, the [FEC] report shows.”

* Hillary Clinton’s campaign debts continue to be an enormous burden, prompting the senator to lend her campaign an additional $1 million at the end of June, to help stay ahead of creditors. Clinton’s debts to vendors increased to $12 million at the end of June.

* Activists in the Iowa Republican Party have become so right-wing, they have successfully denied Sen. Chuck Grassley’s request for a place on the state’s delegation to the Republican National Convention. Far-right party members are angry at Grassley for investigating alleged fraud among several wealthy TV faith-healers.

* Speaking of state Republican parties, the Nevada Republican Party has “called off its state convention and will instead pick its delegates to the national convention by private conference call.” The move appears to be in response to an attempted takeover by Ron Paul fans.

* In case there were any lingering doubts, Gore would prefer to work with, but not for, the next president.

* Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr showed up unexpectedly at the Netroots Nation conference on Saturday.

* It looks like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is at least a little worried about his re-election chances — more than three months before Election Day, McConnell is already running negative ads against his far-less–known Democratic opponent.

* Colin Powell has been contributing “outside advice” to Obama on foreign policy.

* And while Obama’s poor bowling skills dominated the political media for a while, it’s worth keeping in mind that the senator is awfully good from the three-point line.

So much for the GOP’s hopes in Iowa, given the ideological purity demanded by the fundamentalists currently in charge of the Republican Party there.

  • Clinton’s debts to vendors increased to $12 million at the end of June.

    This is really dismaying. It’s one thing for a very wealthy candidate to keep lending herself money in a desperate attempt to hold back inevitability. It’s quite another for her to have been stiffing vendors since January and to let this situation fester, piling debt upon debt, knowing damned well she couldn’t pay them. I really hope that if she can’t recover the $12 million from people helping her retire her debt, she does the honorable thing and pays them herself.

  • People still think Bush Sux. Down to 21% approval.

    I know. Our Kids and Grandchildren are sure to dig Bush in about 50 yrs. But apparently allota us don’t appreciate him.

  • The Grassley story from Iowa is just one of many signs that the wingnuts are going to try harder than ever to steer their party over a cliff.

    Here is another: There were two seats up at the Iowa Republican Convention for delegates to the Republican National Committee. One had been held for two decades by a former party chair and very mainstream corporate attorney/lobbyist whose wife had been a candidate for statewide office; the other was an open seat and a retiring State Senator was running.

    Both were beaten. The two seats went to (i) the President of Iowans for Life an (ii) the Chair of the Iowa Christian Coalition.

    Watch for Obama’s numbers to climb in Iowa as the suburban moderates flee the party they once belonged to because it mainly existed to take care of the well-to-do.

    * * *

    It almost hurts to defend McCain, but it is not quite fair to suggest he was spending at a reckless pace. Because his public financing begins at the convention, it is in his interest to spend every last dime of privately-raised money in these next few weeks. Obama, of course, faces the opposite incentive – he can horde cash for later.

    That said, I wish Obama would do some advertising. I hate seeing McCain ads virtually unchallenged, especially the negative ad on Obama. It would be nice to go for the throat and try to take McCain out before he can even get any traction (although, to briefly entertain a conspiracy-type theory, I suppose we should wait until post-convention so the R’s can’t replace McCain.)

  • Maria @ 2 – I believe $5.3 MM of that is to Mark Penn’s shop. So by my calculations, she really only needs to reply $6.7 million. 🙂

  • Even though I do not particularly like Colin Powell (IMO he knew he was being used like a stupid tool) I hope Obama uses him to peel off Republicans from McCain. Many Republicans see Powell as their “token black guy” (who they say they would support for president), and it would be nice to see Powell’s “military credentials” go to good use for once. The die-hards won’t be convinced, but they never will be.

  • zeit: Will Penn sue her? Five bucks says he will, though I only expect to collect 10 cents on the dollar if Hillary takes and loses that bet.

  • Indiana? I thought he was making a play for North Carolina with his three pointers…

  • People still think Bush Sux. Down to 21% approval.

    You know, to distract ourselves from what the bastard and his cronies has done to our country in mere eight years, let’s make bets about how low his approval rating would sink before he’s out for good. Also, anyone know what Cheney’s rating is these days? Is it in the negative margins yet?

  • For me, the Grassley story is a big one. Grassley is one of quite a few Republicans who — while I disagree with him about almost everything — I respect for his honesty and sense of honor. (Note to several commenters here — it is possible for someone to see the world differently than you do and not to be moved by selfish motives, which is why I have always winced at terms like “Rethuglican” and have never used them or similar ones. Sometimes some of you have the self-righteousness of a Limbaugh, and are as wrong for having it — even if you are right on the issues — as he is.)

    Similarly it is possible for someone to be right on almost all the issues and still campaign in a dishonest and dishonorable fashion, as was demonstrated by a certain unnamed Candidate in her campaign — oops, did I slip and reveal who I was talking about.

    This is one of the glories of our particular version of Democracy, that it not only has two parties, but that there is no insistence on ‘party-line’ voting, and thus both parties can sprout true mavericks (no, McCain ain’t one, he’s an egomaniacal emotion-driven fool whose occasional attempts at being a maverick are examples of spasms, not of a consistent philosophy, which is why he contradicts himself so often). And it is because he understands this that I am voting FOR Obama and not just AGAINST McCain.

    So if Iowa Republicans are rejecting Grassley, it will be fun to watch the Democrats make hay out of them.

  • Prup (aka Jim Benton) said:
    “…which is why I have always winced at terms like “Rethuglican” and have never used them or similar ones”

    The proper terms are rethugNican and repugnican. That is rethugnican as in the brooks brothers rioters who shut down the vote recount in Florida in 2000 and repugnican as in the policies that the current owners of the repub party want.

    And for those of us stuck in Indiana, there are essentially no democrats – just republicans and republicrats. I.E. – Evan Bayh is a republicrat and a worthless piece of cr*p who has no business being considered for anyone’s v.p. slot.

  • I know. Our Kids and Grandchildren are sure to dig Bush in about 50 yrs.

    I know kids who already dig him—he’s a favorite subject for scary camp-fire stories.

    Republican Sen. John McLie spent more money in June than he took in

    Status quo politicians—they never learn, do they? This is what demolished Clinton’s ability to counter the Obama movement. She gaffed and got wasted in February, and was never able to launch the massive assault needed to recover in the final three months (March-April-May). Now it’s McLie’s turn, gaffing and getting wasted in July, with another three months—August-September-October—in which to fail at countering Obama.

    Iowa Republican Party

    It is rumored that, if you play a recording from those “wealthy TV faith healers” backwards, it actually says “You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”

    …three point lines….

    Hockeypuck. Obama could probably go better than .500 from the mid-court line—along the sideline….

  • The Iowa/Grassley story should be a wakeup call to moderate Republicans. Not sure what Grassley’s approval rating in Iowa is, but I’ll bet it’s pretty high. I really respect that he was willing to go after the fraudulent faith healers.

    Re Clinton’s campaign debt: I previously reported here that the campaign owed our school district money for the use of a HS gym for a Bill C visit in March. I was happy to see last week in our local paper that the campaign had paid, finally. I hope other vendors will receive payment soon too (except Penn).

  • The Clinton campaign kept up a propaganda campaign to convince everyone that she was NOT in financial straits. That’s almost criminal fraud. Payment should be performance based for people like Penn, not to mention every CEO everywhere.

  • * Colin Powell has been contributing “outside advice” to Obama on foreign policy.

    Why? I don’t think Obama is ready to sell-out yet.

  • Hannah said:
    “The Iowa/Grassley story should be a wakeup call to moderate Republicans.”

    You miss the point. Moderates are NOT welcome in today’s republican party. Nor is anyone who thinks for themselves in place of following dogma.

    Those welcome in today’s republican party:
    – the financially rich ($20+ Million net worth)
    – the wanta-be-rich (with incomes over $250K per year)
    – the pretend-I-too-can-become rich (with delusions of coming wealth)
    – the economic true believers (in piss-down economics)
    – the neocons (u.s. uber alles – by militiary force of course)
    – the christian right (who know that only republicans are christian)
    – the really stupid (i’ve always votes republican because i’ve always voted republican)

  • SOV:
    No, the proper term is “Republican.” (I wonder how many people who use the ‘variants’ are the same people who get — rightfully — annoyed when someone from that party calls us the (McCarthy-inspired) “Democrat Party.”)

    And yes, I AM in one of my ‘insufferable’ moods today. I just think we HAVE to hold ourselves to the same rules we criticize the Republicans for violating.

  • Sorry Prup…

    The proper terms are:

    – Rethugnican
    – Repugnican
    – Dimocrat (Nancy Pelosi)
    – Dumbocrat (Harry Reid)

    Also have a new ‘grassroots political organization starting’…
    SWW for McCain – Their motto is “He’s one of us!”

    P.S. – Those in ‘insufferable’ moods are more fun to pick on – Thanks.

  • “it is possible for someone to see the world differently than you do and not to be moved by selfish motives, which is why I have always winced at terms like “Rethuglican” and have never used them or similar ones. Sometimes some of you have the self-righteousness of a Limbaugh, and are as wrong for having it — even if you are right on the issues — as he is.”

    Prup I agree, but spare the lectures.

  • Activists in the Iowa Republican Party have become so right-wing, they have successfully denied Sen. Chuck Grassley’s request for a place on the state’s delegation to the Republican National Convention. Far-right party members are angry at Grassley for investigating alleged fraud among several wealthy TV faith-healers.

    I remember at the 2004 GOP convention, there was a photo of some big old white galoot from the Iowa GOP with a little WW2-style/American Legion-style overseas cap, with the following on it:

    God’s
    Own
    Party

    I think that if you had mentioned to him that this translates into Arabic as “Hezbollah,” the big dummy would have been too stupid to “get it.”

  • Do think the republican party is self destructing.

    They fail to realize the American people are fed up with them
    and their policies.

    They STILL think of themselves as our rulers, and they know
    best, not the people.

    They will never admit their many mistakes, their irresponsible policies
    and responsibility for creating many diasters in our country.

    They are going, going, gone

  • Maria@8: Will Penn sue her?
    He may have to, although he will probably quickly settle for pennies on the dollar. He can’t just write it off, that would probably be an illegal campaign contribution. He has to make an attempt to collect. The same for all the others that the campaign owes.

  • May I just make one very important observation? For those who have been doubting Obama’s slow and steady shift to Conservatism… Did you notice that in all the video taken, he seems to be scoring 3 pointers ONLY from the RIGHT side of the court… hmmm…. seems like the Washington Post missed another headline…

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