Thursday’s political round-up

January 3, 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:

* Here’s an interesting tidbit: how many days each Democratic candidate has spent in Iowa during the campaign — Dodd 96, Biden 90, Obama 80, Edwards 78, Clinton 69, and Richardson 6. (No word on Kucinich or Gravel, neither of whom have active operations in Iowa.)

* Yet another House Republican incumbent is retiring, though it’s an unlikely pick-up opportunity for Dems: “Rep. John Peterson (R-Pa.) will announce this morning that he is retiring, according to a Republican source who cited the 69-year-old’s health problems as the reason why he has decided not to seek re-election. The six-term Congressman represents the largest, most rural district in Pennsylvania, one considered a safe hold for Republicans.”

* The polls are likely to change after the Iowa results captivate the political world, but New Hampshire is getting pretty interesting, too. A new poll from Franklin Pierce College shows Clinton leading Obama in the Granite State, 32% to 28%, while McCain now leads Romney, 37% to 31%.

* On a related note, a CNN poll in New Hampshire shows Clinton leading Obama 34% to 30, and McCain and Romney tied at 29% each.

* In the third major contest, South Carolina, Obama got a big boost yesterday, picking the support of former Gov. Jim Hodges (D): “While Mr. Hodges said he chose to support Mr. Obama because of his ideas for early childhood education programs and college tuition affordability, he repeatedly emphasized Mr. Obama’s electability, saying he sensed a tremendous amount of support for Mr. Obama.”

* Given his age, it’s only natural for people to wonder if McCain could serve two terms. Yesterday, he told a New Hampshire audience that he may not try: “John McCain is 71 years old, but the issue of his age comes up only occasionally at his town meetings. That is why a query this morning at Pembroke Academy was striking. A woman asked whether McCain had the stamina to serve as president for eight years. McCain responded by leaving open the possibility that, if he is elected, he might not seek re-election. ‘If I said I was running for eight years, I’m not sure that would be a vote getter,’ McCain said shortly before leaving New Hampshire for Iowa.”

* Rush Limbaugh still doesn’t like Mike Huckabee, telling his audience yesterday, “Ladies and gentlemen, Gov. Huckabee, mighty fine man and is a great Christian, is not a conservative, he’s just not. If you look at his record as governor, he’s got some conservative tendencies on things but he’s certainly not the most conservative of the candidates running on the Republican side.”

* Hillary Clinton was pressed, oddly enough, by the “Today” show’s Meredith Vieira about a dubious claim the senator mads about a trip to Bosnia in the 1990s.

* Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) is playing fast and loose with election law pertaining to a special election to fill Trent Lott’s old Senate seat. Yesterday, the state Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Barbour. Good.

* Does anyone care about Wyoming’s caucus on Saturday? Apparently not — candidates aren’t showing up.

Polls are as reliable and consistent as the Bible. If nobody did nothin’ the polls would change each week. They are a separate life form. If I were a candidate I’d try to win Wyoming just to get that win to brag about. Who’s gonna know it doesn’t mean anything?

  • Now Rush?

    What is it about Conservative Pundits that they don’t like a Governor who blithely executes people but who oversees a state government which revenue grew from $6 Bil to $16 Bil in ten years.

    Or is it that Mike occasionally notices the fact that Jesus said to aid the Poor and Sick, Widowed and Orphaned. Heartless Conservative sex tourists don’t care for that I suppose.

  • At this point, Obama has got to get his gumption up. I think we all can agree on that. With the numbers that are coming out of New Hampshire already, anything that happens in one poll in Iowa is not going to look decisive. Why can’t he assert himself to win a victory? Does he not want to lead?

    If he doesn’t do more, we are going to end up with the candidate the Republicans want the least– Hillary, the one they see as the anti-Bush– winning the Iowa caucus.

  • Deadline: Tomorrow
    In an astonishing display of dissatisfaction with their party’s candidates, Iowa Republicans yesterday failed to deliver more than 5% of the vote to any of their candidates. Booneville councilman Ron Snellings, who hosted a Republican caucus in his Des Moines suburb, said, “It was real depressing. Turn-out was low, and about half of the people just sat in the middle of the room with their heads in their hands.”

    Meanwhile, in Washington first thing this morning, Grover Norquist held a press conference deploring the current crop of candidates. He announced the formation of the “Committee to Re-Re-Elect and Exhume the President”, which he described as a group of concerned bipartisan citizens who plan to dig up Ronald Reagan and run him as an alternative candidate. Norquist argued that Reagan being dead would not be a hindrance, saying, “Well, he’s only slightly less active than Fred Thompson, and it’s not like he was particularly mentally alert for his last 7 or so years in office anyway. We are confident that citizens won’t notice much of a difference.” Norquist noted that within 8 hours of its founding, CRREEP had already received commitments totalling $26.4 million, far outpacing the record recently set by Ron Paul. Most of the funding appears to have come from corporate lobbyists, who were reportedly thrilled by the idea of an inactivist, hands-off, administration. Although Reagan should be ineligible because he has already served two times, Supreme Court aides announced that, faced with the alternative of accepting a Democratic victory, Justices Roberts and Alito are already preparing opinions that term limits apply only to living candidates, and are hoping to hear from lawyers willing to file suit on Reagan’s behalf. When reached in an Albuquerque, New Mexico, motel for comment, conservative Christian leader Pat Robertson expressed surprise and excitement, and Ted Haggard, who happened to visiting Robertson at the time, added that conservative christians were already well used to the idea of leaders coming back from the dead, so this would go over just fine with his congregation, if he still had one. Meanwhile, Karl Rove has announced his availability as campaign manager. He noted that there were many advantages to running a dead candidate, including few chances for gaffes, always knowing what your candidate was going to say, never having to patrol for booze or bimbos, and, with support staff being organized into three eight-hour shifts, being able to keep him in public view pretty much 24/7, with only a little down-time to repair the inevitable wear and tear on the candidate.

    In a related development, a spokesperson for the campaign of surprise Democratic winner Dennis Kucinich denied reports that Kucinich friend and adviser Shirley MacClaine had been making quiet enquiries, via various channels, as to the availability of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, and whether either was in condition to serve as the Democratic candidate for V.P.

  • Rush said: Gov. Huckabee . . . is not a conservative, he’s just not.

    I guess Rush is using the word “conservative” to try to undermine Huckabee’s racist credentials, since Rush notably avoided using the phrase “conservative enough.” Commonly, hard-nosed conservatives are thinking about racism when they distinguish between conservatives and liberals.

    I, for my part, am convinced Huckabee is a racist, but since the conservative establishment has turned against him, attacking him on this heart-and-soul issue of the Republican party is a way for Republicans pundits to stop him from being a spoiler and to get him out of the game.

  • Richardson has been in Iowa 69 days, not 6 (as impressive as that would be, given his numbers).

  • PRESIDENT MIKE HUCKABEE / VICE PRESIDENT JOHN MCCAIN 2008

    More on Romney’s Leadership check out these links:
    http://www.massresistance.org and http://rightsmart.blogspot.com/

    See this video for Mitt Romney caught lying!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DJO_XuM4eM
    mitt Romney saw his dad march with Martin Luther King! CAUGHT IN A LIE
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_zpa77Ehic

    also he supports ENDA gay rights also check out this transcript.. click here… he can not be trusted. He will turn on America just like Arnold turned on the people of san Francisco…

    the truth about Romney can be found here also… http://www.trueromney.com/

    Romney is a flip flopping flake, I just found out that he has stock in all of the companies that are major promoters of homosexual rights & abortions, he is not going to do anything to these companies or the procedures but try to implement things that would advance them another example of how eloquent speaking politicians are embedded within Wall Street! HE IS ANOTHER WALL STREET CANDIDATE!all this rhetoric is follishnes and an intent denial to dismiss truth. The Demo-wacks have had control over congress for 2 years now and have done NOTHING but fund pork barrel projects and have not come close to making any kind of real progress that the promised their poor demo-wack supporters. There credibility is SHOT! and as for Huckabee… People fear that he will win, which he is… At this point I will vote for anybody other than a Demowack. i am so frustrated that I have changed party position and will vote Repub this year.I am so proud of Huckabee i do not know what to do. He is a man of principle and he surely just sealed the deal with my vote. He will win and big he will, and while the pundits try to demise him, or his other political rivals try to make him look bad. They may want to look at the mirror at themselves. You got flip flopping mitt, dead fred who makes me sleepy everytime I look at the him and his saddle bags around his eyes, pimped out guiliani , small brain mccain, and “paul is crazy and deranged”! And as for the Dems: you got Hell-ary that have sold her soul to the left party lobbyist in america, and you got chronic smoking Obama? which neither one has ANY experience in foreign policy. If it was not for Hell-ary having bill clinton last name, she would not even be known. Huckabee is the sure winner and will win big. I can not wait for romney to get out of the race. i bet he will go back to hiring illegals to work in his yard. check more out about him at http://www.massresistance.org he is the biggest flake since kellogs!

    And as for Romney religion if he knew that it did not include black people in leadership positions, why would he join that religion? He is pandering and changing info what ever he needs to get voted in… he is worse than a flip flopper he is a deceiver…

  • So, former Gov. Jim Hodges thinks that Obama could carry South Carolina in November? Oh, pleezeeee; step away from the kool-aid.

  • sha said: “PRESIDENT MIKE HUCKABEE / VICE PRESIDENT JOHN MCCAIN 2008”

    Somehow I don’t really think John would go for being second, especially if he’s not even thinking of running in four years. Reverse them and you might have a ticket.

  • Peterson is my congressman and I’m happy to see him go. Unfortunately, this district is mostly rural and Republican. Any Democrat that ran would have to be strongly pro-2nd Amendment to have a chance of winning. I’ve talked with members of the Centre County Democratic Committee over the past year. They were serious about running a candidate for the seat before the retirement was announced. I’m sure that they will be motivated even more now.

    Does anyone have any suggestions for the type of candidate the Democrats should field in a district of this type?

    PS. Lance, it’s good to see you back.

  • “PS. Lance, it’s good to see you back.”

    Sad to say, I wish I was so occupied with work I couldn’t comment here (like most of the last year). But things being as they are, here I am.

  • Lance @ 2
    “Raising revenue” is pretty much only accomplished by raising taxes. He’s NOT fiscally conservative. Rush is right. Fiscal conservatism is what he and Club for Grwoth types want. They couldn’t give two hoots about the pro-life side of things except where it means they get a big enough bloc together to get a fiscal conservative elected. They’d rather lose that get a liberal pro-lifer.
    That would actually be their nightmare. TWO “tax-and-spend” parties with no home for them. They much prefer the “borrow-and-spend” style of a Dubya.

    Rege@11
    Take a page from Newt.
    Run whatever Democrat wins in that district. If it’s a gun-toting, Bible thumping, pro-life, penny pinching war hawk, run him! He’ll help a Democratic majority fight against everything he believes in.
    It was Newt who was reponsible for the likes of Romney, Specter, Jeffers, Snowe, Chaffee, Weld, Whitman, Penny, Collins, heck all the moderate Republicans we tossed out in 2006 were his idea. We might get more than 12 years of pulling the wool over their eyes out of it too. I give us more credit than I do to them.

  • TWFO, I can’t agree with you. “Raising Revenue” or better “Rising Revenue” happens with economic growth. Hell, Boy George II claims (falsely) that he’s raised more revenue by cutting tax rates.

    I’ve heard the complaints about Huckabee and his defense, and it does not sound to me that he’s some radical tax and spend liberal in wolf’s clothing.

    And as I said, this is Arkansas. Where else does it have to go but up?

  • Does anyone have any suggestions for the type of candidate the Democrats should field in a district of this type?

    Senators Webb (VA) and Tester (MT) are both good candidates for rural appeal, especially Tester.

  • Does anyone have any suggestions for the type of candidate the Democrats should field in a district of this type? — rege, @11

    Get yourselves someone like our Jim Webb — blunt, no nonsense, gung-ho on gun rights, mostly populist. Past conservative credentials and local family roots a plus. It was amazing to me how popular Webb proved to be in our own — very similar to yours — neck of the woods, despite having been fielded by the (disliked) NoVa (Northern VA — urban/suburban and comparatively rich, with entirely different problems than those we have). Not to mention his being a writer (not a plus among some of my acquaintance). Of course, the Macaca Allen incident helped enormously but, even w/o that, there were a lot of erst-while Repubs switching allegiance, at least in part because he was like them — an erst-while Reagan Repub himself.

    He’s not ideal, but he’s the best VA could have done at the time; the much more solid Democrat (contender in the Dem primaries) would have lost.

  • libra wrote: “He’s not ideal, but he’s the best VA could have done at the time; the much more solid Democrat (contender in the Dem primaries) would have lost.”

    Actually I think Webb’s been pretty great. More populist then progressive yes, but the Democratic party doesn’t need to be monolithic to succeed.

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