Thursday’s political round-up

December 28, 2006

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:

* Much to my relief, former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, rumored to be eyeing a congressional race against Rep.-elect John Hall (D-N.Y.), said this week that he has no interest in a campaign. Fleischer told the New York Observer via email, “I do want you to know that I am NOT running. Now that I have children, I would never do anything that could risk making them into Redskin fans.”

* South Carolina, home to the second primary in the presidential nominating calendar, may be fertile ground for Barack Obama, should he decide to run. The State’s Lee Bandy, South Carolina’s most experienced and knowledgeable political reporter, noted this week that the state the first primary with a large minority population, much of which may gravitate towards Obama. A recent poll noted that Obama is seen favorably by 91% of South Carolina’s black community. Local Dem activist Inez Tenenbaum told the paper, South Carolina could send him on his way.”

* On a related note, Iowan Douglas Burns noted that Obama may also appeal to voters in the first caucus state due to geography. “It goes without saying that when Barack Obama is on the television screen or behind the political podium we see a black man,” Burns said. “That is, after all, what he is. But when you listen to Obama, the substance of thinking, the cadence of his reasoning, his unassuming acceptance of people, you hear a Midwesterner.”

* And outgoing Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich (R), despite losing his re-election bid by a healthy margin this year, has not ruled out returning to Republican politics at some point. Ehrlich is reportedly eyeing the 2010 Senate race, in which incumbent Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D) is rumored to be considering retirement. “I would not eliminate that as an option,” Ehrlich said of the race.

I think it is amusing that Burns would think Obama will appeal in Iowa due to regionalism. So he’s a Midwesterner? Hillary is from Illinois!

But really I suspect Iowa will be choosing the Vice President between Obama and Edwards. We’ll have to look to some primary states to choose the next President.

  • More than 50,000 telegrams poured in on Capitol Hill today, so many, Western Union was swamped. Most of them demanded impeaching Mr. Nixon.

    – John Chancellor, NBC News on a Special Report on October 20, 1973

    Starting next week, we finally have someone named Nancy Pelosi who has the power to kickstart impeachment hearings against President Bush. Emails are nice, but letters and faxes make a physical pile that form a powerful visual, and that should be Pelosi opening her door and being buried by letters.

    FAX: 202-225-8259

    Nancy Pelosi
    2371 Rayburn HOB
    Washington, DC 20515

    District Office:

    450 Golden Gate Ave.
    14th Floor
    San Francisco, CA 94102

    CC a copy to your congressman too. You can find their address here: http://www.house.gov /

  • “Now that I have children, I would never do anything that could risk making them into Redskin fans.”

    Not bad, actually – setting us up for “..I’ve decided that my family should be my highest priority blah blah blah BS BS BS.” But then he takes a dig at the Redskins. For a mean-spirited moronic right-wing tool, Ari’s almost bearable, sometimes.

  • What’s up with Obama? Is he really all that and a bag of chips? With less than a term in the senate? My “don’t believe the hype” radar is giving me warnings. Gore, Dean and Bill Richardson seem like better bets to me. Maybe Madaline Albright.

    I’m not into Obama and Edwards so much. A little more gravitas, please.

  • A recent poll noted that Obama is seen favorably by 91% of South Carolina’s black community.

    I thought this was an interesting number. It’s also the percentage, of blacks, nationally at least, who voted Democrat in 2000 or 2004. (My memory is not complete on the point.) How much do you want to bet that the 9% who don’t view Obama favorably happen to be Republicans?

  • I could easily live with Edwards/Obama. We’ve just gone through six years of proof that we really don’t need or elect “leaders”, i.e., those with gravitas. I think one could easily argue that the whole second half of the 20th century we were “governed” largely by the image presented by our presidents. In the TeeVee age electing a president is not so much seeking one with “knowledge” (no one can really know it all anyway) but the ability to represent us to the world and to ourselves. Far from the image of selfishness and boorishness presented by the Bush Crime Family, I think Edwards/Obama present an ideal image around which the world and our divided nation can once again unite. Well, everybody except our greediest one-percent anyway.

  • Ohioan, I would urge you to be a student of history. The impeachment process of Bill Clinton failed to remove him from office because public opinion against Clinton never caught up with Tom DeLay’s zealotry. On the other hand, it was a series of event over two years that build public opinion that forced Nixon from office.

    With the power to investigate, the newly-elected Democratic Congress can build the case over time to remove Bush and Cheney—or to sour the public on prospect of four more years of Republican rule in 2008.

  • Re #4: I know how you feel. It seems the media (and sometimes this blog even) can’t mention Obama without also repeating the “rock star” meme, which, every time I hear it, sounds like it is more than anything, vacuous and self-reinforcing.

    There is a lot about this man we don’t really know. Where does he stand on X? I don’t know a thing. All I know about him is he is an inspirational speaker. That’s about it. Not a good platform to run on. Edwards, at least, we know from his 2004 campaign.

    Not to tear him down though. After all, Obama still has two years to teach us what he’s about, and if we really wanted to make the effort we could look into his voting record and his senate campaign, but the nomination is an important decision. Actually, with the media the way it is, I strongly recommend that the blogging community do its own research into Obama’s history and record and teach us itself what he stands for. The same goes for other candidates. I’m not sure we can trust the MSM anymore to give him (or any Dem) a fair shake.

    It’s probably superficial, but one could try looking for those sites that flourished in 2004 that quizzed the reader on his or her views and tried to match them with various candidates’ views, and rated the candidates by how much they agreed with the reader. I think Edwards usually topped my list in 2004. But I say superficial because a bunch of people I know from various political leanings all noticed that Al Sharpton always ranked fairly high.

  • And frankly, for all of the people who are asking “What’s up with Obama? Is he really all that?” repeatedly, for your sake, just go read the Wikipedia entry for a start and do some research. It takes five minutes, and if you’re reading political blogs, you’ve shown some level of interest.

    Then do it for anyone else you would ask the same questions about. Just please, don’t give into the media’s bullshit about Obama being a ‘rockstar’ or ‘overestimated.’ Find out for yourself.

  • Re: #10

    Mea culpa, you are right. I admit, I’ve been a lazy slack-off in not bothering to find out for myself. But I stand by this point, the media treats far too many memes as givens and repeats them as such in their reporting without ever explaining why such an exceptional label as “rock star” is deserved.

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