Monday’s political round-up

January 8, 2007

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:

* Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) will officially enter the presidential race in about two weeks. “He will be fully announcing on January 20 in Topeka, Kansas,” Brian Hart, the senator’s spokesman, said Friday. Brownback set up an exploratory committee in December.

* If the presidential race came down to which candidate is the least coy, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) would win in a landslide. Biden, who has been running in practice for about a year, acknowledged on Meet the Press yesterday, “I am running for president.” He’s going to set up an exploratory committee later this month.

* Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) is taking his transformation from moderate to conservative head on. Speaking to a gathering of influential Christian conservatives and GOP donors in Georgia over the weekend, Romney said he’d grown into being a right-wing leader. “Now, I wasn’t always a Ronald Reagan conservative. Neither was Ronald Reagan, by the way,” Romney said. “And perhaps some in this room have had the opportunity to listen, learn, and benefit from life’s experience — and to grow in wisdom, as I have.”

* Barack Obama continues to look like a likely presidential candidate. The Illinois senator has reportedly contacted Chicago’s biggest Democratic fundraisers to line up support, and will headline the Virginia Democratic Party’s annual high-profile Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Richmond in February.

* New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), another likely 2008 candidate, has traveled to Sudan to try and get Khartoum to accept United Nations troops. As a friend of mine noted via email, Richardson’s trip was financed by Save Darfur, and “it says a lot about the Bush administration’s handling of the situation that an activist groups would approach Richardson about trying to make some headway.”

* Dems want a high-profile candidate to take on Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) next year, but it won’t be Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.). DeFazio, citing seniority and money concerns, said he will not run for the Senate in 2008. (thanks to Bob for the tip)

* As for Al Gore, the WaPo reported over the weekend that the former VP is still unlikely to run for president again. “There are no secret meetings going on to plan the Gore campaign,” said Carter Eskew, a longtime confidant of the former vice president. And then there was the obligatory sentence: “But neither Eskew nor any of the small cadre of Gore’s closest advisers would entirely rule out such a bid.”

Go Barack Hussein Obama!

  • * Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) will officially enter the presidential race in about two weeks. “He will be fully announcing on January 20 in Topeka, Kansas,” Brian Hart, the senator’s spokesman, said Friday. Brownback set up an exploratory committee in December.

    HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA **cough** HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA **wheeze** HA HA HA HA HA … HA HA … HA.

    Ahem.

    As funny as I think it is that a man that makes Alan Keyes look sane is going to run, I actually hope he gets the nomination. Once the American public finds out just how loony he is, the Dems could trot out … well, me, and I’d win in a landslide.

  • Mitt Romney needs to realize that 2008 will not be 2004. Pandering to a shrinking Repub base will further alienate the majority of the voting public. He’s running his campaign by looking in the rearview mirror.

  • “Speaking to a gathering of influential Christian conservatives and GOP donors”

    “Now, I wasn’t always a Ronald Reagan conservative. Neither was Ronald Reagan, by the way,”

    Since when was Reagan the conservative christian candidate ?? He never pushed the christian agenda, or has history re-written itself in Romney’s eyes.

    Plus the guy is a Mormon, WTF ??

    Trivia, his father’s name is George W Romney, kid you not.

  • ScottW (what does that “W” stand for?):

    While not publicized at the time, a group of Christian conservatives indeed convinced Reagan to run and pledged their full support. He did deliver the (in)famous “Evil Empire Speech” at the National Association of EVANGELICALS. Most importantly, he set in motion the beginning of the end to Roe v. Wade.

  • I’m increasingly convinced that the only way Gore gets in is if Hillary wins the first few primaries with fairly weak pluralities, the media narrative turns against her and some delegation of party elders goes to him hat (and checkbook) in hand.

    Of course, in this scenario I’d probably sell a kidney to help him win the nomination, so take this FWIW.

  • Thomas,

    Go Barack Hussein Obama!

    I’ll take Barack H Obama’s chances against Sam Brownback, anyday.

    Oh, and keep it up with the middle name. It shows how scared of Obama the Republican’ts are. Also, you might want to check your fax machine for toner, I don’t think you are getting all the talking points quite right: you forgot to add the “big-ears” qualifier.

  • I didn’t know he got an editorial, but I did see the topic at his blog. That’s too bad he’s switched from” fairly certain” especially since he still quotes Bill Maher (and I wish I were joking too but I find useful political opinions there too — did you see Chris Hitchens on recently DEFENDING Bush?). I saw that one where Maher made a point that if the situation arose where torturing some terrorist would clearly save American lives, it’s probably going to happen no matter what the law says. Therefore, it’s impossible to have laws that prevent torture in the rare cases in which it may be the best solution. The problem with the status quo, however, is that some person down the road may decide NOT to torture is exactly that situation. I think the better approach would be Dershowitz’s suggestion for torture warrants. What do you think?

  • I don’t get talking points by fax.

    then you might want to check your monitor for scratches ’cause your missing key talking points when reading your email.

  • LOL — Edo, did you hear about the recent appearance by BOTH Hussein Obama and Dale Brownback at Saddleback Church for World AIDS Day?

  • Sure did Thomas. And I remember reading about how upset the reactionary right was to Obama participating at Saddleback Church. I love the smell of internecine warfare in GOP circles. Especially when its a charismatic progressive who causes such a stir.

  • That was a very small faction of reactionary right — the same who probably stayed home on Election Day 2006 — can’t please all the people all the time. The rest will certainly vote Dale rather than Hussein.

  • Romney does not have a chance in the Republican primaries, so the general election is moot. So I fully support Mitt Romney! 🙂

    NPR did a really crappy piece of journamalism recently where they said that 45% of Americans wouldn’t vote for a Mormon, and then failed to break that out to its Republican/Democratic portions, which was a really good way to totally hide the fact that a huge percentage of Republicans would refuse to vote for a Mormon. To the average wingnut, Mormons are considered cult members, which is almost as bad as being an Atheist (shudder!).

    …For a significant faction of the Republican Party, Mormonism clearly is an issue. The Web site of the Southern Baptist Convention lists Mormonism under “Major Cults and Sects.” A convention vice president told the Los Angeles Times last summer that his church does not regard Mormons as Christians….

    http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/nation/16404929.htm

  • Romney makes me laugh with that Ronald Reagan crap. By the end of Reagan’s administration he’d doubled (or more) the national debt, created years more of deficits, failed to deliver an any of his promises to the wingnut right (still have a department of Education, I note) including a quarter of a century of legal abortions, and finally proclaimed (after his presidency) his support for gun control.

    If Romney is just catching up with Reagan he’s:

    1) far behind the wingnut right,
    2) far beyond where the country is today.

  • If you look at the nuts-n-bolts of the big picture, I’d rather see Gore step back from the big game—and make himself available for one of the Cabinet positions. Sure—it’s a step down from “Big Dog,” but he’d do wonders for both the country, and for the world, if he were given a free hand at Energy, Interior, or Agriculture….

  • Am I the only one sick of hearing about who is going to announce and who is planning to announce? Can they give it a rest for a while. It seems like the day after the elections the talking heads were discussing who would run and who could win. I understand that they all need to raise alot of money but stop for a bit. I have no clue what the world will be like in a few months let alone a year.

  • Who is this new troll named Thomas?
    ———————————————————Marve

    Would you believe a tempestuous crack-child with access to a computer?

  • Thomas you obviously missed the point of the editorial I guess it was a bit too subtle for you. But I guess that shouldn’t surprise me since you persist in calling Obama by his middle name (which most people don’t use because they use their first instead) instead of either by both his first and last or just his last because you know how his middle name might freak out a few of the bigger idiots in this country.

  • What “point” do you think that was, ET? I thought I stated the “point” and made my own “point” that Dershowitz’s approach would be better.

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