Thursday’s political round-up

June 7, 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:

* The upcoming GOP Straw Poll in Ames, Iowa, was set to be a critically important early test for the Republican presidential field, possibly even knocking some of the bottom-tier guys out of the race. Yesterday, however, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain both announced that they will skip the event. This is a setback for Mitt Romney, who hoped beating Giuliani and McCain in the straw poll would propel his candidacy. It’s also a setback for the Iowa GOP, which stood to make millions of dollars from a competitive event, and is furious with yesterday’s developments. As for Giuliani and McCain, the Des Moines Register noted today, “No candidate in the straw poll’s nearly 30 year history has bypassed the event and won the caucuses.”

* In case anyone’s wondering about the Dems’ Iowa Straw Poll, it doesn’t exist — Dems banned it years ago.

* Yesterday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gave himself 4-to-1 odds against running for president, less than a month after saying “it is a great possibility” that he would run. Gingrich told the AP that he will host some workshops in late September and will decide whether to form an exploratory committee on Sept. 30.

* McCain is scrambling to shore up support from the GOP’s religious right base, particularly after two senior campaign aides in charge of courting evangelicals who were fired started blasting the campaign for its intolerance. The WaPo noted that McCain “spent an hour answering questions on a conference call with church pastors and antiabortion activists in Iowa, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Florida and other key states” yesterday.

* Controversial former U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin was having trouble finding a job, but he appears to have landed on his feet: he’s joined Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign team.

* “Christian conservatives are on the brink of becoming irrelevant in this election cycle if they do not remain active because they really believe something about their faith that drives them into the political arena,” Mike Huckabee said yesterday. “If they say [social] issues are not as important this time; if they say the real issues are taxes or national security, then frankly, they are just another Republican special interest group.” You think he might be talking about the GOP top tier?

“Christian conservatives are on the brink of becoming irrelevant in this election cycle…”
High time.

  • In case anyone’s wondering about the Dems’ Iowa Straw Poll, it doesn’t exist — Dems banned it years ago.

    The obvious question is why? I’m rather curious now about all the differences between the Dems and GOP in their nominating processes.

    And is there a fundamental trend to be found in the differences between the two? IE Dems being more egalitarian (one person, one vote) and the GOP being less so (one dollar, one vote)? Can anything like that be derived?

  • If Christian conservatives are on the brink of being irrelevant, then why are the candidates spending so much time talking about their faith?

  • “Christian conservatives are on the brink of becoming irrelevant in this election cycle if they do not remain active because they really believe something about their faith that drives them into the political arena,”

    Oh noes! And Jesus said over and over that if people didn’t use blatant mis-interpretations of his teachings to shape the world to their liking (while engaging in behaviour he specifically said was sinful) they’d be in biiiig trouble.

    What the fuck? I’m every Talevangical’s worst nightmare and I can understand this shit. Go. Away. Before Jesus comes back and smacks you one.

  • I remember going to the straw poll in Ames in 1980. George Bush paid for the bus to take us all out there and gave us the free dinner. I think virtually all of us who went were Democrats with a few Baker supporters thrown in. I think we all ended up voting for a guy named Fernandez because he gave the funniest speech.

    The serious thing I remember about Iowa was how important organization was in the caucus. It was obvious to me that Bush and Carter had the best organization and both ended up winning big.

    So, I would not be totally shocked if Edwards didn’t win in Iowa and then have the momentum to carry through Super Tuesday and win the nomination.

  • Wasn’t Mike Huckabee also the guy who said that non-believers have a wide selection of presidential candidates, but Christians only have him?

  • Controversial former U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin was having trouble finding a job, but he appears to have landed on his feet: he’s joined Fred Thompson’s presidential campaign team.

    So if Fred Thompson gets elected president, Griffin will get to be AG… my prediction here.

  • Huckabee’s problem is that he’s trying to appeal to the haters without voicing enough hatred himself. I don’t think he’s temperamentally suited for the role of moral scold; if anything, he’s best known for losing 100 pounds, and he’s occasionally said nice things about Democrats. For his strategy to work, he’d have to take a dump on Matthew Shephard’s grave, start barnstorming with Roy Moore, etc.

    I don’t see him doing that, and appealing to the logic and consistency of far-right moralists is getting him… well, exactly where he is.

  • Huckabee was on CNBC this morning talking about ending all taxation (personal income and corporate) and replacing it with a tax on personal consumption – because that would be more “efficient” and would bring home and “put to work” the dollars that are now hiding in off-shore tax shelters.

    • Comments are closed.