Wednesday’s political round-up

October 31, 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:

* I haven’t seen much in the way of post-debate polls (if there were any), but Frank Luntz’s focus group seemed to think that Barack Obama won last night’s event in Philadelphia.

* In an apparent effort to appear pathetic, Ralph Nader sued the Democratic Party, the Kerry-Edwards 2004 campaign, and affiliated Democratic groups yesterday for “sabotaging” his latest failed presidential bid. He also told reporters yesterday that he would decide later this year whether to launch yet another unsuccessful campaign.

* Former FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh, also known as Bush’s chief of staff in Texas, signed on yesterday as Rudy Giuliani’s “senior adviser on homeland security.” The New York Daily News added, “That Allbaugh is also a board member of the National Rifle Association – a group the ex-mayor once tagged as ‘extremist’ but now embraces as a presidential hopeful – was underscored by campaign aides.”

* Speaking of Giuliani, some news outlets have apparently noticed his whopper about British healthcare in his new radio ad, though reporters are awfully polite about it. The NYT said Giuliani’s bogus claim is “in dispute.” It would have been far more accurate to just say, “It’s wrong.”

* Surprising no one, John Edwards is poised to win the support of the SEIU local in New Hampshire, following an endorsement from the SEIU local in Iowa. He couldn’t pick up the national SEIU, but this is the next best thing.

* Following up on a report from yesterday, Hillary Clinton will oppose Michael Mukasey’s nomination to be Attorney General.

* Rumors abound this morning that Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) may be leaning towards retirement at the end of his term next year. If he does, expect former state Attorney General Mike Moore (D) to make this another possible Democratic pick-up opportunity.

* Rudy Giuliani said some nice things about Mike Huckabee yesterday on Fox News: “I don’t know about running mates, but I sure like having him at the debates, because he makes me laugh. And he has got a nice approach to life. You know, he is a man that is — he has got a happy approach and he has got an optimistic approach to life. And then I — you know, I have great respect for him.” When Huckabee returned the favor later, defending Giuliani’s position on abortion on CNN, speculation about a possible ticket grew.

* Who are the Republican candidates’ leading South Carolina hatchet men, where slander and whisper campaigns seem to make all the difference? TPM runs down the list.

* Is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in trouble in his re-election fight next year in Kentucky? Maybe. A recent poll showed McConnell receiving less than 50 percent of the vote in head-to-head match-ups with four potential Democratic candidates. Apparently, McConnell is starting to feel a little nervous about his chances.

* Politico: “North Carolina state senator Kay Hagan (D) has decided to challenge Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) after announcing earlier in the month that she would not be running…. Hagan, whose state Senate district covers Greensboro, enters the race as a major underdog. Party officials had attempted to court several other Democrats, including Gov. Mike Easley (D-N.C) and Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), with higher name recognition. Hagan said earlier in the month that she didn’t plan on running, but changed her mind as other potential candidates opted not to run. She will be facing investment banker Jim Neal in the Democratic primary.”

* And after all kinds of kvetching, all eight major Republican presidential candidates have agreed to participate in a CNN/YouTube debate scheduled for November 28 in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Giuliani-Huckabee? I wouldn’t if I were Roodee.
If they won there would be a small number of radical fundies willing to off the “librul” to get a true believer into the top spot.

  • Quote of the week from the Giulani campaign (re: prostate cancer survival, as reported in the NYT):

    Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Mr. Giuliani, said yesterday that the 44 percent figure came from an article in City Journal, a publication of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative research organization.

    “The citation is an article in a highly respected intellectual journal written by an expert at a highly respected think tank which the mayor read because he is an intellectually engaged human being,” Ms. Comella said in an e-mail message.

  • “That Allbaugh is also a board member of the National Rifle Association – a group the ex-mayor once tagged as ‘extremist’ but now embraces as a presidential hopeful – was underscored by campaign aides.”

    Am I reading this right? Now being a flip-flopper is a virtue? Or it’s a virtue for Rudy but not for McCain? Can anyone explain?

  • slightly off topic, i read in my local paper today that kucinich has publicly questioned bush’s mental health. any further info available?

  • From the BBC: Wednesday 19th September, 2007
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7003286.stm

    Speaking at an event at a London hotel, Giuliani said: “Healthcare right now in America – and I think it has been true of your experience of socialised medicine in England – is not only very expensive, it’s increasingly less effective.

    “I had prostate cancer seven years . My chance of survival in the US is 82%; my chance of survival if I was here in England is below 50%. Breast cancer is very similar. ”
    ————————-

    The “fact” came from an article this summer entitled, “The Ugly Truth About Canadian Health Care.” It says that the prostate cancer survival rate is 81.2 percent in the United States, 61.7 percent in France and 44.3 percent in England. But author David Gratzer doesn’t provide a source for those numbers. His office said they got the numbers from a 2000 Commonwealth Fund report.
    The article was orginally published by City Journal, a conservative quarterly magazine, and an arm of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.

    The British government’s National Statistics Web site lists prostate cancer survival from 1999 to 2004 at 74.4 percent. The American Cancer Society says 99.9 percent of Americans survive prostate cancer.

    Cancer experts say survival rates may also not be the best indicator because there is more prostate screening in the United States than the United Kingdom. Survival rates show the percentage of people who are living five years after diagnosis, whereas mortality rates show the number of people who actually die from the disease.

    You can’t exactly compare death rates because many prostate cancer patients technically die of pneumonia.

  • In an apparent effort to appear pathetic, Ralph Nader sued the Democratic Party, the Kerry-Edwards 2004 campaign, and affiliated Democratic groups yesterday for “sabotaging” his latest failed presidential bid. He also told reporters yesterday that he would decide later this year whether to launch yet another unsuccessful campaign.

    Raplh Nader is just an egomaniac at this point. He needs to find something that will actually make a difference to do with his time in order to maintain his relevance.

    He should write a book or do something to help out someone like Al Gore or Michael Moore (or any one of many less-well-known people) to help promote their projects / get them off the ground.

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