Wednesday’s political round-up

March 28, 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:

* In about a half an hour, the political arm of the National Organization for Women will endorse Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. A message posted on the NOW website says PAC Chair Kim Gandy and “a special guest will make a major announcement regarding the 2008 election.” The Associated Press quotes Democratic officials as saying Gandy will be joined by Senator Clinton at Washington’s Sewell-Belmont House, the historic home of the National Women’s Party, to accept the group’s endorsement.

* Speaking of Hillary, Harris Interactive released a poll this week showing that half of voting-age Americans say they would not vote for Sen. Clinton is she’s the Dems’ presidential nominee. I’m not inclined to believe it. For one thing, there are plenty of other polls showing Clinton leading GOP rivals in hypothetical head-to-head match-ups with more than 50% support. For another, the Harris Interactive poll was conducted online, which raises questions about reliability.

* The WaPo reports that John Edwards’ presidential campaign has enjoyed an outpouring of support since last week’s announcement about Elizabeth Edwards’ cancer. The Edwardses received more than 24,000 emails in 24 hours and, in the past five days, “the campaign received more than 5,000 donations totaling half a million dollars — about 50 percent of the total it raised online in the previous three months.”

* Magazine publisher and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes has endorsed Rudy Giuliani’s presidential bid. Forbes, for reasons that were never altogether clear, ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000.

* MoveOn.org will host the “first ever virtual town hall” meeting on April 10 with presidential candidates of members’ choosing. Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, tells CNN that Clinton, Obama, and Edwards have all agreed to attend if invited. The discussion will focus exclusively on the war in Iraq.

* And following up on an item from yesterday, some media outlets are worked up about Barack Obama mis-remembering a Life magazine article from his childhood. For all the implications that Obama made the whole thing up, reader N.J. points to this 1966 Time magazine article as a possible explanation.

Guiliani should sail to the Republican nomination, now that he has Forbe’s endorsement.

  • I’m disappointed not see an update on the Webb of Violence here in the round-up. Anything new on the gun-totting incident?

    Last night, I fantasized about the gun being discovered on Webb’s aide and Webb saying — a’ la Crocodile Dundee — “That’s a gun? THIS is a gun! ” as he pulls a .50 cal. machine gun from the trunk of his car.

  • Thanks for the Time/bleaching reference CB…

    I doubt that this is what Obama is referring to, but it certainly shows that there were bleaching products being advertised in magazines like Ebony. What a stupid story. And Richard Cohen should be ashamed of his absurd column suggesting that this is an indication of a truth problem with Obama.

    For clarification, this came from a member of the Obama Rapid Response group on the BarackObama.com site. We’ve been busy over the last 72 hours trying to keep up with the absurdity, that’s for sure.

    Neil Jensen
    Vermonters for Obama
    http://vermontersforobama.org

  • Online polls should all be labeled as follows:

    “This poll could have been hacked by a seventh grader, so give it the appropriate amount of credence.”

  • Am I the only one who sees Hillary as being more of the same old same old? She voted to give W the war powers. She equivocates and obfuscates full time. Her every move is orchestrated and coordinated with half a dozen consultants. She’s the penultimate Democratic machine pol. One thing she CAN NOT do is to bring any kind of unity or healing to this polarized society. The woman is ‘Newt Gingrich Left’.

    Aside from all that, the United States of America IS NOT going to elect a woman. Saying it’s not so doesn’t change it. Shirley Chisolm once said that she had to overcome being black and being female and that female was by far the hardest.

  • Am I the only one who sees Hillary as being more of the same old same old? — Exaspirated

    No. The longer this campaign goes on — and we’ve a long way to go — the more I hope she is not the nominee. I don’t see how a rejuvenated Democratic party can emerge by running someone from a previous era who carries much of the same baggage that Bill did. Perhaps it’s because of all the bashing he took, but she seems even more transparently opportunistic and calculating — not in ways that are good for the party, but in ways that are good for her.

  • Whatever you think of that one poll, there have been a bunch, with different methodologies showing that large portions of the electorate want no part of Hillary Clinton.

    There’s also the not-inconsiderable factor that her presence atop the ticket would pummel a lot of our first-term Reps in purple-to-red districts, who will have to run away from the party’s nominee. Really not cool, unless you’d like to see Tom DeLay’s moral and intellectual heirs running Congress again.

  • A few more months of this shit, and it will be one of our biggest political issues. I don’t think politicians can keep watching this go down and not take action: All too often, subprime = minority. The NYT shows how the foreclosure crisis is devastating minority neighborhoods in Newark — and by extension, minority neighborhoods across the country. It’s almost a kind of redlining in reverse.

  • Exasipirated,

    She’s the penultimate Democratic machine pol.

    I don’t think “penultimate” is the word you are looking for. Unless, you are thinking that there is another *final* Democratic machine pol that comes after her.

  • Madison Guy,

    It’s almost a kind of redlining in reverse.

    That’s probably the most succinct and accurate summation of the problems with the subprime mortagage business I’ve ever heard. These loans play an important role in home ownership, but like the negative amortization loans and zero-down, adjustable rate mortgages they have been abused in recent years.

    • Comments are closed.