Friday’s campaign round-up

August 15, 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:

* The Obama campaign released a very detailed refutation of Jerome Corsi’s hatchet-job book, and posted a lengthy document on the subject online.

* A good fundraising month for the GOP: “John McCain raised $27 million in July, his largest one-month fundraising haul since clinching the Republican presidential nomination, while the Republican National Committee brought in nearly $26 million.” The Obama/DNC numbers for July have not yet been released.

* On a related note: “Barack Obama’s campaign announced Thursday that it had set a new campaign fundraising record, reaching the two million donor mark with more than two months left until Election Day. ‘Today we achieved something amazing — 2,000,000 donors owning a piece of this campaign,’ read a message on the campaign’s Web site. ‘In the face of John McCain’s low road tactics, it’s more important than ever to keep our movement growing and show the power of millions of grassroots supporters coming together to work for change.'”

* Guess who’s back? “Ousted John McCain campaign co-chairman Phil Gramm is back with the campaign’s top advisers this weekend, as the campaign gathers top supporters for a series of briefings in scenic Aspen, Colo.”

* In an unexpected move, Mike Huckabee, who says he doesn’t want to be McCain’s running mate, publicly criticized the notion of adding Mitt Romney to the ticket. “I think there are better choices for Sen. McCain that have the approval of value voters,” Huckabee told Fox News, adding, “The issue is that in many ways, Mitt Romney has had very definite swings of position. Not just on one or two things, but on many of the issues.”

* The DNC is linking McCain, Reed, and the Abramoff scandal.

* Arguably the biggest knock on Evan Bayh as a potential running mate is his role as a co-chair of the neocon Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, along with John McCain and Joe Lieberman, several years ago. Yesterday, Bayh said he doesn’t remember serving on the committee.

* Rasmussen shows McCain leading Obama in North Carolina by six

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, 50% to 44%.

* Rasmussen shows McCain leading Obama in Colorado by two, 47% to 45%.

* Rasmussen shows Obama leading McCain in Minnesota by four, 46% to 42%.

* SurveyUSA shows Obama leading McCain in Washington state by seven, 51% to 44%.

* A University of Texas poll shows McCain leading Obama in Texas by 10, 43% to 33%.

I just had an image of Flippy McCain choosing Floppy Romney as his running mate. It would look like a flapjack festival.

  • …Huckabee told Fox News, adding, “The issue is that in many ways, Mitt Romney has had very definite swings of position. Not just on one or two things, but on many of the issues.”

    Huckabee must have had his sense of irony surgically removed.

  • Yesterday, Bayh said he doesn’t remember serving on [the neocon Committee for the Liberation of Iraq].

    OK then. “The Gonzales defense”.

    Thank Jebus Bayh just made getting him off the short list easier.

  • “Ousted John McCain campaign co-chairman Phil Gramm is back with the campaign’s top advisers this weekend, as the campaign gathers top supporters for a series of briefings in scenic Aspen, Colo.”

    Be fair. The convention is going to be sparsely attended and shots of all those empty seats would look really embarrassing. They have to buddy up with the crooks and creeps so they’ll bring their friends.

    And please note. Aspen is “scenic,” Hawaii is “elitist.”

  • Value Voters. Are they reduced for quick sale? I’ve yet to meet one with legitimate values.

  • In an attempt to portray Corsi in a bad light, the Obama “refutation” misquoted him, omitting a whole sentence from a paragraph. They didn’t even use ellipses as other “creative editors” have done. Very, very dishonest.

    Details at my name’s link.

  • At the moment, the Obama site is spitting errors on the Unfit for Publication PDF… something about too many connections… hopefully to be resolved soon, but a positive sign, if you ask me.

    I’m curious, though — in the intro, the campaign says a firm was hired to write Unfit — does that strike anyone else as an intriguing, smart move?

    That suggests that
    * Obama and immediate staff didn’t dirty their hands with the analysis
    * Primary sources for the response were based solely on already-public info that Corsi should have found
    * Tone of the piece, including proper identification of Corsi as a bigot, generated nominally independently of the campaign staff

    Finally, perhaps most importantly, a mechanism is in place to farm out future large-scale future responses without distracting core staff.

  • Sorry, details, I won’t contribute to your traffic.

    Accusing someone refuting Corsi as being dishonest seems a bit ironic to me.

  • If the Corsi screed were placed in the Fiction Section, where it belongs, it would not likely debut at #1.

  • This is OT, but refers back to the discussion of the Olympic ads from yesterday:

    I have been saying regularly that people who criticized Obama for ‘not attacking’ simply didn’t know the difference between a club and a rapier, that Obama reminded me of the cartoon character who uses a sword, his opponent (usually Daffy Duck) walks away going “See, ya never touched me,’ goes three steps and falls into a half-dozen pieces.

    I’m used to some of us missing subtleties, but I was surprised that both CB and Rachel Maddow missed what was in the ‘positive, warm-and-fuzzy’ Olympic ad. (But then no one seemed to notice, during the debates when he’d say he wasn’t ‘tied to Washington Special Interests’ and glance at, or refer to Hillary in the next sentence.)

    Okay, maybe I’m giving him too much credit, but let me try to copy the ad, in Steve’s transcription, with the ‘subtexts’ I see added in italics.

    “He’ll put the middle class ahead of Corporate Interests, unlike John McCain to … Grow the economy that McCain denies is broken. End tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas that McCain supports. Help businesses that create jobs here. Invest in education unlike Bush’s disastrous “No Child Left Behind” policy that McCain supported. Cut taxes for working families instead of on the rich, like Bush and McCain. And make energy independence an urgent national priority.”

    Read better like that? Oh, of course. the American people are way too dumb to be affected by subtlety (and how could we look down on them from our own intellectual heights if they weren’t).

    Only they aren’t, not really. That’s why Democracy, eventually and with plenty of missteps works. That’s why, when half the intellectuals in the 30s were claiming “Democracy is dead, the only choices left are Communism and Fascism,” we are now looking at both as absurd relics in the true ‘dustbin of history,’ and almost every country in the world is at least nominally democratic.

  • Huckabee’s speaks for “value voters”? Wow. How special that must be for him.

    Whenever you see the phrase “value voters”, just replace it with “bigots and hypocrites” and the text will make much more sense.

  • Bayh doesn’t remember being on the committee? He would be a perfect Veep candidate with McAin’t — they could sit around and not remember the old days.

  • “I think there are better choices for Sen. McCain that have the approval of value voters,” Huckabee told Fox News, adding, “The issue is that in many ways, Mitt Romney has had very definite swings of position. Not just on one or two things, but on many of the issues.”

    So that means that they average out … or jerk so hard to the right that the drive the country off the edge of a cliff.

  • I wish Huck and his so called “values voters” would take their white sheets and hoods and leave our party. They are a disgrace to the very concepts which make this country great.

  • @ 12. On August 15th, 2008 at 1:06 pm, Prup (aka Jim Benton) said:
    among other things, “‘dustbin of history,’”

    That phrase is a problem for me.

    1) Only old people regularly use the word dustbin.
    Unlike our Prez & the RepOilican Party, I don’t in believe the dustbin (aka Garbage Pail or Shit Can for GenXrz) theory of history. In fact, in 2008 Dustbins are about as relevant as steam locomotives. If I may use a more modern metaphor, History resides in an unemptyable “Recycle Bin”. ergo Communism is just a click away from getting another chance.
    . Dustbin theorists will never truly get that point regardless of a habit of mouthing history repeats itself . The Recycle Bin Theory of History says the repeatings need help ie. a Click .

    2) Socialism, which shares DNA with capitalism and communism, never became an “absurd relic…” and one way or another, is in good shape in most modern progressive western nations. Domestic medical care systems in place for Congress, Veterans, and most federal and state employees (Cops, Clerks, Tax Collectors, Firemen, Etc) are excellent institutions based on progressive socialism. Wherever the US has enthusiastically implemented socialism, it has succeeded. These successes ought to be made available to the American general public. When a Canadian goes to the doctor the first question is “what hurts?” …In the US it’s “Show me the Money.”

    3) I don’t see corporations that depend on Highways paying for them. Public financing of roads and bridges and other infrastructure are examples of socialism at work. Wherever potholes are filled Socialism is alive and functioning. [I know truckers bitch & moan about registration & other fees, but in the grand scheme, their contribution is a pittance. Common citizens pay the lions share for Highway construction & maintenance.]

    Big Time Corporate socialistic welfare, an example of regressive socialistic policy, is also alive and well right here in the good old free market USA. CB readers likely know more about the bailout scandal than I do so I’ll leave that alone for now.
    Redstaters will tell you how Socialistic Canada, Holland, et al are. (Thanks Guys) The people who live in these places have higher standards of living than all but the wealthiest Americans.

    I hate overly long comments so I’ll stop here. This one is already too long for my taste.

    Apologies in advance Prup if you think I’m misreading ,

  • I would like to tell John McCain, I am not his friend and I am not a Georgian either, I resent his being so presumptious. Every time he says ‘my friend’ I would like to throw something at my TV.

  • Agree with JS above. McCain embarrasses me. Hell, he’s not even any good at war. As kids playing war he’d always be the easiest to beat because he’s stupid and has a predictable temperament. He’s unreliable and so is Georgia. There is no reason to start another cold war with Russia, it is completely avoidable and these neocon are making it happen. It was McCain/Shunerman/Rove who talked Georgian president to invade and attack Russia and now Rice is trying to turn it into a major ordeal and provoke a war. Should have impeached long ago. These bastards have to get out of office before they plunge the earth into a World War…all completely avoidable.

    Purp must not be getting the same viral emails I’m getting (from my educated right wing family members) or he would know that Fascism is alive and breeding in America using the cover of “privatization” to combat perceived “socialism”.
    Words have meaning…but the ideas they convey often don’t.

  • Huckabee supporters really give conservatives a BAD name. Thanks a lot! Can you Huckabee supporters PLEASE do what is best for the country, inspite of your hatred for people who DO NOT BELIEVE THE WAY YOU DO? Could you take your prejudice out of this please? Deciding a VP should NOT be about religion – but Huckabee and followers just keep beating the hate speech and lies about Romney because he’s Mormon. SO WHAT!! Talk about non-Christians. Huckabee is not Christian-like at all.

    Romney is the best choice for VP and McCain can win the election with him on the ticket and the DNC is worried about that. The DNC and the Obama camp would like to keep Romney off the ticket because they know that ticket would win.

    PS: Jerome Corsi’s book: “Obama Nation” is very revealing. I already knew that Obama is a fake and a liar but there’s so much more about him that the book uncovers. Thanks Jerome! Just what the Obama camp does NOT want the voters to know. Too bad Obama, SO SAD.

  • olo (@23 — I may not get to your earlier comments right away or at all — this feels like a night to watch the (first-place) Mets and get away from the TCR family for a night — Jackson Browne has apparently started a suit against McCain for using “Running On Empty” without permission. Browne is a long-time Democrat, and there is apparently a solid legal case stating that using his song implies he supports the candidate, which he definitely doesn’t.

  • I received this e-mail today…

    Please take a moment and sign the petition to try to stop the Obama attacks happening on Fox News. It’s worth your time. The more signatures, the more push they’ll feel.

    Bravenewfilms is posting videos of all the Fox lies, and you can help them.

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