Tuesday’s political round-up

November 27, 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:

* Hillary Clinton sat down with CBS News’ Katie Couric for an interview that was almost entirely about process and the horserace — Couric must have missed Halperin’s memo — and the anchor asked the Democratic frontrunner how disappointed she’ll be if she isn’t the nominee. “Well,” Clinton said, “it will be me.” When Couric asked if Clinton had considered the possibility that she might come up short, the senator added, “No I haven’t.”

* Trent Lott’s resignation seems to have caused some rancor back home over election law: “Gov. Haley Barbour (R) said in a statement Monday that he would schedule the special election for the same day as the November 2008 general election. State law, however, appears to require an earlier date if Lott retires this year, as he said he would.” Dems believe they’d have a better shot in a special election, which may be driving Barbour to play fast and loose with the legal requirements.

* The Denver Post chatted with Focus on the Family’s Tom Minnery, James Dobson’s right-hand man, about the election. Asked specifically about Mitt Romney as the GOP nominee, Minnery said Dobson probably won’t endorse the former governor. “[I]t’s doubtful because of the tremendous difference in theological views,” he said.

* Speaking of the religious right, “Mike Huckabee, the Republican presidential candidate and former Southern Baptist minister, is getting help from Tim LaHaye, the Christian conservative organizer and co-author of the apocalyptic ‘Left Behind’ novels.” LaHaye sent a supportive message to far-right activists in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, inviting conservative pastors to attend two-day conferences held in each state (free, including meals and a hotel room). Huckabee will be the only candidate speaking at the events.

* A new Zogby Interactive poll got a lot of ink yesterday when it showed John Edwards and Barack Obama faring well against the Republican presidential field, but Hillary Clinton trailing all of the top five GOP candidates. The response did not match the credibility of the data — Zogby Interactive’s poll did not include a random sample, and the results were dismissed by pollsters as unreliable.

* Speaking of polls, a more reliable national poll was released yesterday by Gallup, also featuring hypothetical general-election match-ups. In this poll, Clinton led all of the top four Republican hopefuls. Barack Obama led McCain, Thompson, and Romney, but was tied with Giuliani.

* NYT: “Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will propose steps today to strengthen the government’s strategy to battle H.I.V. and AIDS in the United States and the rest of the world, becoming the latest Democratic presidential candidate to commit to a significant expansion of federal efforts to combat the epidemic. Mrs. Clinton’s two main rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Barack Obama and John Edwards, have already released plans of their own. Taking Mrs. Clinton’s into account, the three approaches are similar in terms of spending, goals and differences with President Bush’s AIDS policy.”

* The National Republican Congressional Committee launched a YouTube contest a few months ago, asking supporters to submit their own creations. They received a grand total of five submissions — one of which were Dems making fun of NRCC talking points. (Here’s the punch-line: according to the Republicans’ rules, the “top five videos will be hosted on NRCC.org and voted on by the general public.”)

* Speaking of YouTube, the Republicans’ debate featuring questions from YouTube will be tomorrow night. Chris Dodd submitted his own inquiry: “Many Americans are concerned that the Administration seems to be making a false choice. That is to be safer we have to give up rights. I don’t believe that, I wonder if you do. And if you believe we aught not to give up our rights, what would you do in order to protect our Constitution?” Somehow, I have a hunch CNN won’t include it at the event. It’s a good quesiton, though, isn’t it?

* Rudy Giuliani is more convinced than ever that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was the right move. The poor guy just isn’t very bright.

* McClatchy: “Barack Obama’s wife has a heavy message for blacks in this early voting Southern state: Her husband’s chances of defeating Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination may hinge more on them than they do on white voters…. ‘I know folks talk in barbershops and beauty salons, and I’ve heard some folks say, ‘That Barack, he seems like a nice guy, but I’m not sure America’s ready for a black president,” Michelle Obama told a crowd Tuesday at historically black South Carolina State University. ‘We’ve heard those voices before, voices that say, ‘Maybe you should wait’ — you know? — ‘You can’t do it,” she said. ‘It’s the bitter legacy of racism and discrimination and oppression in this country.'”

I didn’t know that Chris Dodd was in the habit of giving softball questions to Ron Paul…

  • I’ll bet some CNN airhead takes Dodd’s question and “improves” it by asking: “Do you agree with the Democrats that terrorists should have the same rights as American citizens?”

  • Does Mississippi REALLY want to go unrepresented for almost an entire YEAR?
    Would a significant number of them notice a difference?

    Jesse Jackson couldn’t, Al Sharpton couldn’t, Alan Keyes, no chance, Moselye-Braun.. a tough sell, but possible. Doug Wilder… he won VIRGINIA for crying out loud.
    Obama can win… and a better reason for voting for him still… it would be a good thing for the country and the Democrats if he did win. Some other candidates can win, but their victory would not be a cause for celebration much past the first Wednesday in November.

  • Hillary Clinton sat down with CBS News’ Katie Couric for an interview that was almost entirely about process and the horserace — Couric must have missed Halperin’s memo — and the anchor asked the Democratic frontrunner how disappointed she’ll be if she isn’t the nominee. “Well,” Clinton said, “it will be me.” When Couric asked if Clinton had considered the possibility that she might come up short, the senator added, “No I haven’t.”

    Aw, yeah.

  • Hey Swan, why aren’t you in hiding today? Do you need to bless us with your insightful comments like the two words above?

  • Isn’t Ms Obama playing the race card here? Blacks need to support Obama because he’s black? A black man can do it? It’s time for a black man?

    Edwards needs white voters more than black voters at this time. A southern white man can do it. I hear it in the barbershops and the beauty salons and some folks say that Edwards, he’s a nice man but I’m not sure America is ready for a white southern president…see how it sounds? Definitely playing the race card here. She should just stick to Barack, ‘the man’, not Barack the ‘black’ man because it suggests that blacks should be prejudiced in their reasons for voting rather than ignoring race and voting in respect to the issues and how the candidates stand on those.

    “…Minnery said Dobson probably won’t endorse the former governor. “[I]t’s doubtful because of the tremendous difference in theological views,” he said.”

    Theological views should not have anything to do with electing a president. We are electing leaders of our country not our churches. Dobson’s political views are so biased and prejudiced and equates to trying to elect Jesus as president. When it comes to our political process Dobson should STFU. His only statement should be “whoever we elect I pray he will be a good president for the country”. “Tremendous difference in theological views…what a stupid thing to say. (How would he like it if he read “The Pope is leaving it up to his cardinals to select the next president of the USA?”)

  • Glad to have the link to the Gallup poll showing Obama and Clinton both beating hypothetical Republican challengers. Drudge is making a big deal out of the flawed Zogby poll.

    I’m all right with Hillary winning the presidency (unlike some of my brethren commenters on this blog), even though she isn’t my first choice. But her nomination still scares me. There is no way to measure the effect that she would have on waking up the dispirited Republican base.

  • bjobotts: CB quotes just one part of the speech. In most of the speech, she refers to Barack as ‘the man’ and not the black man. Also, here is the end of the speech:
    The answer is clear – Barack Obama. Not because of the color of his skin. Not because of what he’s said. But because of what he has done.

    So I’m asking you to believe in Barack. But most of all, I’m asking you to believe in yourselves. I’m asking you to stop settling for the world as it is, and to help us make the world as it should be. And if you’re willing to do that – if you’re willing to work with us and pray with us and be courageous – if you’re willing to heed Coretta Scott King’s words and not be afraid of the future, but have faith in God’s grace – then I truly believe that together, there’s no challenge we can’t overcome.

    Just wanted to add some context. If you’d like a copy of the entire speech, I can email it to you 🙂

  • since this is the closest thing we get to a midday open thread (and Doonesbury is inherently political content, especially strips on Iraq). . .

    tAiO, did you see today’s strip puts in a plug for Pandora?

  • bjobotts,

    I’ll add to Gridlock here and say that even in just the snippet above, Michelle Obama is not asking people to choose Obama because he’s black — she’s asking them not to discount him because he’s black. That’s not the race card.

  • It’s funny how quickly so many are dismissing this Zogby poll because it doesn’t conform to their existing expectations. It was over 9,000 people. That’s significantly larger than most other polls, which are more often in the few hundreds of respondents.

    It looks like everyone is dismissing it because these people volunteered to be polled. Well, isn’t voting voluntary? Shouldn’t that make this more accurate? These people are more likely than most to, you know, actually go vote.

    Dismissing this because Zogby is somehow biased or a voluntary sample more than 10 times the size of polls with random samples is less accurate strikes me as silly.

    Anyone else remember 2004? I do. I did believe all of those other polls and they told me Kerry would be President. But, I guess I forgot, those are the acceptable, accurate polls.

    Fool me once…

  • OMG, Doonesbury and Pandora. A better combination than Oreo cookies and dark beer. (Don’t laugh, it really is quite good.) If Trudeau rips into the music industry on their behalf … no, that’s too delightful to consider.

    Thanks for the heads up Zeitgeist!

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