Thursday’s campaign round-up

July 17, 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:

* Interesting fundraising item from Roll Call: “Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and the Democratic National Committee on Wednesday established a joint fundraising agreement with 18 state Democratic parties to funnel money into those states for Obama’s White House bid. Party leaders believe the program can also help Democratic candidates up and down the ballot. The new fund, the Committee for Change, will parcel a fixed percentage of the contributions it receives to each of the 18 state parties, infusing those parties with new federal dollars and a list of new donors who can be helpful in future campaigns.”

* In addition to touting private school vouchers at the NAACP convention yesterday, John McCain said some nice things about Barack Obama: “Don’t tell him I said this, but he is an impressive fellow in many ways. He has inspired a great many Americans, some of whom had wrongly believed that a political campaign could hold no purpose or meaning for them. His success should make Americans, all Americans, proud. Of course, I would prefer his success not continue quite as long as he hopes.”

* The Obama campaign isn’t bluffing when it talks about trying to win Virginia: “The Obama campaign plans to open 20 new field offices in the state — and at least five of them are in very red areas where Dems have traditionally feared to tread.”

* The insurance companies are already getting prepared to fight against a reform campaign in 2009: “America’s Health Insurance Plans is launching a nationwide education campaign ahead of the approaching health care reform storm. The Campaign for an American Solution includes a nationwide listening tour, advertising and a recruitment effort to sign up Americans who are satisfied with their private insurance coverage. It will kick off Tuesday in Ohio.”

* Gallup shows Congress’ approval rating down to just 14%, “the lowest congressional rating since Gallup first began asking the question in 1974.”

* Sen. Evan Bayh (D) of Indiana has received some VP buzz, but Greg Sargent notes some of Bayh’s foreign policy work that should hurt his chances: “[I]n 2003, Bayh was an honorary co-chair of the neocon pro-war Committee for the Liberation of Iraq — a group he joined along with none other than John McCain and Joe Lieberman, according to a press release from during the run-up to the invasion.”

* Joe Biden has Obama’s back on Afghanistan and committee hearings.

* I found this op-ed, by Larry Hunter, fascinating: “I’m a lifelong Republican – a supply-side conservative. I worked in the Reagan White House. I was the chief economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for five years. In 1994, I helped write the Republican Contract with America. I served on Bob Dole’s presidential campaign team and was chief economist for Jack Kemp’s Empower America. This November, I’m voting for Barack Obama…. Even if my hopes on domestic policy are dashed and Obama reveals himself as an unreconstructed, dyed-in-the-wool, big-government liberal, I’m still voting for him.”

* Get to know right-wing financier, Sheldon Adelson.

* It looks like Rep. Heath Shuler’s (D-N.C.) re-election chances just went up — his Republican opponent suspended his campaign.

[comment deleted]

  • There will, of course, be those who will argue that Dems should not vote for Obama as president, because Larry Hunter will vote for him.

    That, and the fact that Obama still has the same hair-style as in the primaries….

  • I have some advice for Alex at number one… try email.

    Back on topic- I was happy to hear the tepid applause for McCain’s call for “school choice” at the NAACP yesterday. The audience wasn’t made up of fools. That “voucher” idea that keeps rearing its ugly head is a plan to destroy what’s left of public education. It’s a bridge half-way to land. You need to pay for the other half yourself. Got the money? Great, have a taxpayer subsidy. Don’t have the money. Go back to the public school now drained of the money used to pay for the subsidy for the person who had money in the first place.

  • Gallup shows Congress’ approval rating down to just 14%, “the lowest congressional rating since Gallup first began asking the question in 1974.”

    Perhaps if they stopped working with Bush their numbers would go up. Reid and Pelosi never seemed to realize they were put in power to OPPOSE Bush, not support him.

  • Do they really expect to find anybody who is satisfied with their private health insurance?

  • What is the point of asking the Congressional approval question? Never does anyone ask why people are upset with Congress, so the question and response are completely useless.

    My next-door neighbor is a freaky libertarian wannabe. I highly doubt he’s any more annoyed with Congress than I am, but we’d answer the “why” question in very different ways.

  • I listened to the McCain speech via an NPR feed, followed bvy an interview from Ohio’s old friend (NOT) Ken Blackwell—who just went on a tear about how good McCain would be for the country. The NPR reporter cut him off at the knees when he wouldn’t shut up.

    McCain’s message to the NAACP, if properly translated, goes something like this: Vouchers are for lazy, stupid, gullible people like you, so people like me can shove my neocon-worldview God down your children’s throats.

    In Ohio, I can school my children at home through an online charter school, with the extremely-satisfying knowledge that there are fundies out there whose tax-dollars are paying for my kids to learn REAL Science, REAL politics, and lots of good stuff about ancient Greek and Roman pantheons.

  • Congress’ low approval ratings don’t qualify as news anymore. We know that Republicans don’t approve of the “Democrat” Congress, and never will. Democrats are disappointed and disgusted with how little Congress has been accomplished – or attempted – under Democratic control in the past 18 months.

    Enough said.

    The story about lining up Americans who are satisfied with their private health insurance sounds like something from The Onion. Let’s compare their numbers to the Medicare participants who are satisfied.

  • Congress will undoubtedly misinterpret their low approval ratings as not compromising enough instead of taking stands and refusing to compromise on key issues like FISA. FISA alone was enough to want to fire the entire congress for their blatant complicity in national corruption. I doubt they really care enough to change their behavior and it seems they will never learn from their mistakes.

    I don’t know if funneling money to the states for democratic campaigns is a good thing when many of those dems are DINOs and (as in Georgia with Obama supported “dems are cut and run cowards”Barrow who is being challenged by a progressive Obama aligned dem whom Obama ignores) need to be scrutinized and not blindly supported because they have a “D” after their name. It’s time to look closely at the dems we want to support or rather than fighting Bush people we’ll be fighting the dems in our own party.

  • Larry Hunter also said: When I first made this decision, many colleagues were shocked. How could I support a candidate with a domestic policy platform that’s antithetical to almost everything I believe in?

    The answer is simple: Unjustified war and unconstitutional abridgment of individual rights vs. ill-conceived tax and economic policies – this is the difference between venial and mortal sins.

    I am going to take this line of thinking and run with it.

    Especially the unconstitutional abridgment of individual rights. Every time I encounter a McCain leaner, I am going to hit ’em with this argument.

  • I found Larry Hunter’s op-ed fascinating too, for several reasons. In no particular order:

    It shows that supply-side jokers still don’t have a clue how the economy actually works. Yes, Hunter is with Obama on the Iraq debacle, but he’s also busy hoping that Obama doesn’t try to use government services to help Americans. Never mind that such supply-side stupidity was debunked a long time ago.

    It shows how badly tribalism has trumped America’s self-interest. This comes mainly from the comments at the end of the article, in which several people treat Hunter like a traitor for not voting for his fellow republican. But Hunter also touches on it briefly, talking about the disbelief he’s been getting from his friends and colleagues. Party loyalty has become more important than integrity.

    It shows a perfect example of cognitive dissidence at work. Hunter’s reason for believing that Obama might be a supply-sider after all? Because politicians are liars and Obama might just be saying anti-supply-side stuff to get elected. Uh, Hunter, if you don’t trust Obama’s stated economic policy, why do you trust his stated Iraq policy?

  • Matt in Eugene said:
    Do they really expect to find anybody who is satisfied with their private health insurance?

    There are quite a few people out there who have super-deluxe health coverage through their unions. If they have a heart attack with total medical costs of $100,000, they would only have to pay a couple hundred dollars out of pocket. Their numbers are dwindling though and new jobs don’t have health coverage that comes anywhere close.

    The way to counter an argument-by-anecdote is to demand details about the individual stories that are trotted out. It’s a shame there are so few real journalists left.

  • re: the Larry Hunter quote- my husband is a 63 year old republican stock broker, and for the last year he has been coming home with stories of rich, elderly clients who announced to him that they plan on (or are thinking about) voting for Obama. We’ve been idly curious about this phenomenon, but didn’t really think much about it.
    Yesterday he told me about a senior broker who came in to his office to talk about politics. This guy has been a rabid republican all his life. He has contributed up to the maximum to republican candidates in every presidential race for the last 3 decades. He has never voted for a democrat in his life. And yesterday he stopped by to tell petesdad that he wasn’t quite to the point of committing to vote for Obama, but he was committed to NOT voting for McCain. Now, it may have gotten around the office that petesdad supports Obama – his assistant is a rabid and vocal supporter, and petesdad has taken to referring to “McCain moments” instead of “senior moments” – but there really does seem to be something of a sea change in the old-money types. Granted, they only make up 1% of the taxpaying (and, presumably, the voting) public. But if even they are deserting the republicans, we may be in for a very interesting year.

  • Why oh why is Donna Shalala signing up with the insurance business? Why is a former Edwards staffer running the ‘grass roots’ operation for the health insurers? This is confusing.

  • @15 for the money$

    Now a question from me. How can it be that the approval rating for congress can be as high as 14%?

  • Oh! And #15–you seem to not understand that fundamentally the Democrats and Republicans have the same values and masters: money and the wealthy corporations and individuals who provide it to them. If treasured civil liberties must be sacrificed and the country’s treasure pillaged and it’s citizens maimed and killed in unnecessary wars so these wealthy entities can thrive, so be it.

    Yes, Obama is a bit better than McCain. And yes, the Democrats are a bit better than the Republicans, and that’s what makes ours such a great country. We have a party that is a bit better to vote for.

  • @16

    Because half of the people who think the Current Occupant is doing a good job have their congressmen in their back pockets. 🙂

  • Not only will the insurance companies be fighting against healthcare reform, but you can expect the pharmaceutical companies to do the same. These for-profit entities are interested in one thing: making money for themselves (especially their top management) and their shareholders. I worked for 15 years for one of the largest pharma companies, and watched them push the Medicare Part D bill, insisting upon the no-negotiation for their drugs. They were also pushing the managed care organizations they worked with to drop Medicare patients from their rolls, in order to force them into private health care plans which included drug coverage. The best thing that could happen to American health care would be nationalization of both the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

  • Do they really expect to find anybody who is satisfied with their private health insurance?

    If they can be made to fear the alternatives enough– no ‘choice’ of physicians! even longer waiting times! sharing hospital rooms with riffraff!– it’s pretty easy to get people to claim they’re satisfied with the crappy product they already have.

  • The Obama campaign isn’t bluffing when it talks about trying to win Virginia: …

    Mark Warner is a no go. Jim Webb is a no go. Tim Kaine for VP? I think it would be an excellent call.

  • Do they really expect to find anybody who is satisfied with their private health insurance?

    Get ready for new versions of the “Harry and Louise” ads replete with every lie, distortion, and canard the health care companies can dredge up.

  • The more money they raise, the more they have to bow to special interests, big corporations, etc., after they are elected. The crisis in this country has been long in the making and at the brink of collapse, mostly thanks to the corporate greed with no ethics and no accountability, but manipulate people with pseudo moral and empty promises to line big execs pockets. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is vanishing in lightening speed.

    The only way to take back the government is to vote for someone who’s NOT connected to this two-party sellout. http://www.votenader.com. It’s time for a REAL change.

  • Hey, CJ, @23,

    Are you in such a hurry for a Repub Governor? ’cause that’s what we’d get, seeing that our Lt Gov is of the opposing party. And then he steps right into the full-time, elected job, because the time he did as the replacement wouldn’t count towards the term limits.

    Besides… Tim Kaine maybe well-enough known in VA but nowhere else. Plus, like all the Dems we’ve managed to place in higher offices, he’s a long way from being progressive. I’m still hoping Obama picks someone to the left of himself, even if only slightly.

    I think we can take VA, even w/o a Virginian as a VP.

    Yours, out the door to shill for Dems at the community fair,

  • Obama is firing full-throttle on all eight cylinders—and will Take Virginia in November by at least 3%. With or without a Virginian on the ticket. I’d still lean toward Richardson or Sebelius as a “regional” carry (Southwest or Central Plains), instead of looking for someone who can give the campaign one single state.

  • Individuals satisfied with their health insurance? This is a joke, right? A joint venture between Mad Magazine and the Onion?

    The idea of corporations making money off of sick people is repugnant to any healthy society. Health insurance should be a NON-PROFIT enterprise, and used to be before greedy HMOs sprung up.

    Surely, this is as much an issue of corporate morality…so where are the screaming Christians? Oh, I forgot, since they were bought and sold by the Republican party, Jesus only wears bling, and their top concern is whether Adam sleeps with Steve.

  • 16.
    On July 17th, 2008 at 1:12 pm, Your answer is said:

    Now a question from me. How can it be that the approval rating for congress can be as high as 14%?

    10% of the respondents were lobbyists and the other 4% were folks who have committed crimes during the reign of ShrubCo and who are appreciative that congress is letting them skate.

  • Great logo for the McCain flip-flop list. And great list. I think I’ll slip that url into the wingnut email network that my relatives keep involving me in.

    And OkiefromMuskogee, thanks for the comic book link. I had a hilarious time just reading the Muskogee newspaper. My fav story was Muskogee mayor says accepting truck was mistake Seems the mayor is 19.

  • So what about Bayh and that group? You were either for the war then or you weren’t. In that respect Bayh is no different than Biden or Edwards or Hillary or a dozen other hopefuls you guys are in love with. The talking points of regrets and mistaken intelligence are just the same. “If we do then what we knew now” “It was a mistake” blah blah blah.

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