Wednesday’s political round-up

December 19, 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:

* Most recent polls out of New Hampshire show Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama practically tied, but a new CNN/WMUR poll finds Clinton with a comfortable lead. The New York senator is out in front with 38%, Obama is a distant second with 26%, and Edwards is third with 14%.

* The same poll shows the Republican race is pretty steady, though a certain former mayor seems to be sinking. Mitt Romney is still ahead with 34%, John McCain is second with 22%, and Giuliani is third with 16%. Mike Huckabee, who has struggled to connect with Granite State voters, barely reaches double digits with 10%.

* Romney’s past just keeps catching up with him: “Mitt Romney attended a fund-raising reception for Planned Parenthood in 1994 in conjunction with a $150 donation his wife made to the organization — notwithstanding Romney’s contention that he had ‘no recollection’ of the circumstances under which his wife gave money to the abortion-rights group. In the photograph obtained by ABC News, Romney and his wife, Ann, are shown in a yellow-and-white tent chatting with local political activists, including Nicki Nichols Gamble, who was then president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts.”

* Obama gave the latest in a series of speeches about foreign policy yesterday, but was joined by a group of top-tier policy advisers including Tony Lake, a national security adviser to former President Clinton, and Susan Rice, former assistant secretary of state for African Affairs under Clinton.

* A USAT/Gallup poll released yesterday offered Obama some bragging rights on electability over Clinton. Though each leads Giuliani, Huckabee, and Romney in hypothetical head-to-head match-ups, Obama’s margin over the GOP candidate was bigger in every grouping. The same poll asked respondents about their impressions of the candidates. Obama led the field with the highest favorable numbers, followed by Edwards. McCain did the best among Republicans.

* The League of Conservation Voters has released a helpful voter guide detailing the candidates’ proposals — or lack thereof — to address global warming and the nation’s energy future. It’s a helpful resource. Also, the LCV has noticed that the media refuses to ask the candidates about climate change, and started a project devoted to the subject called, “What Are They Waiting For.”

* Mike Huckabee was the first Republican to launch a Christmas ad, but Obama appears to be the first Dem to do so, with a new ad out this morning. (Presumably, this was in the works well before Huckabee’s ad.) Obama’s spot features his wife and daughters, and in a move that’s sure to annoy Bill O’Reilly, includes both “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays.”

* Ron Paul appeared on Fox News yesterday morning, and was asked about Huckabee’s new Christmas ad. Paul responded, “It reminds me of what Sinclair Lewis once said. He says, ‘when fascism comes to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross.’ Now I don’t know whether that’s a fair assessment or not, but you wonder about using a cross, like he is the only Christian or implying that subtly. So, I don’t think I would ever use anything like that.” (Update: Saturday-contributor Morbo emails me to note that the Lewis quote Paul mentioned apparently doesn’t exist.)

* Apparently, former Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia is planning to seek the Green Party’s presidential nomination.

* Dems in Missouri were encouraged by a new Rasmussen poll that showed state Attorney General Jay Nixon (D) leading incumbent Gov. Matt Blunt (R), 47% to 42% in what will likely be a closely-watched race next year.

* And in Minnesota, Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.) announced in September that he would not seek re-election next year, but now, he’s apparently reconsidering and might run again after all.

If you think Ron Paul and Kucinich are nutcases, do check out Cynthia McKinney.

  • Nutcases? The true nutcases are Rudy would who never met a war he didn’t like, or Huckabee who wanted to quarantine aids patients and believes that the world is only 6,000 years old. The parallels between the huckster and buzz windrip the populist and folksy politician in It Can’t Happen Here are striking.

  • Good on Ron Paul. I don’t think Huck’s a fascist–Il Douche fills that position within the Republican hopefuls–but he does open the door.

    And yeah, McKinney might be the “Democrat” I most detest. Paranoid, anti-Semitic and belligerent is no way to go through life.

  • I think those Senators and Representatives who cast their votes in favor of the Patriot Acts I and II are nutcases, jen flowers. But, as I’ve said before, I still believe that the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land.

  • The Green Party USA has shown – as if Nader weren’t proof enough – that the only thing it stands for is “attention whore.” I am a life-long Dem and I would vote for any, any current Repub candidate over McKinney. She is patently and truly nuts.

    And I will certainly give Ron Paul credit where due – that was a fantastic answer re the Huck ad. I assume all of the Dems blasting Huck yesterday will turn their fire on Obama and query whether he is too willing to intermingle his religion and his governance, and claim he is too scary to support (like Clinton’s surrogates attacking Obama, it isn’t like this is Obama’s first offense – I mean, there was the religious rally in SC with the homophobe, this can’t be coincidence anymore – thats what the anti-Clinton folks tell me about patterns after all. . .)

    *crickets*

  • Romney’s past just keeps catching up with him…

    Check out today’s qod:

    Which of the following 2008 U.S. Presidential candidates is the child of an immigrant born in Mexico?

    1) Barack Obama
    2) John Edwards
    3) Rudolph Giuliani
    4) Mitt Romney
    5) Hillary Clinton

    Correct Answer: Mitt Romney

    Explanation: Romney’s father was George Romney, one-time governor of Michigan, 1968 U.S. Presidential candidate and HUD Secretary under Nixon. George Romney was born of Mormon parents in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1907. The family had moved there after the United States Government cracked down on polygamists over a century ago. When George Romney ran for President, there was some question raised over his eligibility if he was not a native-born American citizen. However, this was overshadowed when George Romney said he was “brainwashed in Vietnam” and subsequently lost the nomination. Obama’s father is Kenyan. Clinton’s father is the son of Welsh mining immigrants. Giuliani’s father was the son of Italian immigrants.

  • I’m a little behind on my news today, but apparently there is/was a fire on the White House grounds. Per the Mpls. Star-Trib, “The blaze appeared to be located in Vice President Dick Cheney’s suite” and was giving off black smoke.

    To which I can only enjoy John Dickerson at Slate’s initial reaction, from his Twitter entries embedded on his Slate column:

    “Nashua, NH: I hear there’s a White House fire. There were more CIA tapes clearly.”

    Given the locus in Cheney’s space, I suspect Dickerson is correct.

  • Uhh, Zeitgeist, Obama wasn’t forcing his religion on anyone the way Huckabee did. Huck made mention of “the birth of Christ,” and there was that illuminated white cross behind him during the whole ad. Obama and his family spoke of hospitality and fellow-feeling. One of his daughters said “Merry Christmas,” but the other one said “Happy Holidays,” acknowledging all of us out here who don’t celebrate Christmas. I’m hypersensitive about these things– I automatically bristle if any public official tries to say anything “in Jesus’ name”– and I didn’t find the Obama ad offensive. It seemed pretty standard political procedure. Huck seemed genuinely scary. Do NOT equate the two!

  • Ron Paul appeared on Fox News yesterday morning, and was asked about Huckabee’s new Christmas ad. Paul responded, “It reminds me of what Sinclair Lewis once said. He says, ‘when fascism comes to this country, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross.’ Now I don’t know whether that’s a fair assessment or not, but you wonder about using a cross, like he is the only Christian or implying that subtly. So, I don’t think I would ever use anything like that.”

    I am so sick of this demagogic style of politicking- this quote is a perfect example. It’s an exercise, to figure out what you can attribute to this guy from it. Criticism of Mike Huckabee? Hm, maybe. Portraying himself as opposed to fascism? (More certain from the quote, yet more of a vague statement about what Paul supposedly stands for, and therefore less helpful to the voters, too). Opposition to Christian fanaticism, or use of Christian imagery in public? You really can’t say that at all about the quote, and the assessment that you can’t is, unfortunately, not even the least unfair.

    If a lawyer or a judge wrote a legal brief or a judicial opinion that was this unclear, people would be criticizing it forever.

  • oh i see – religion and politics commingling is a matter of degree. A Christmas tree is fine, a cross-shaped shelf is not. Merry Christmas is fine, birht of Christ is not.

    that strikes me a little too hair-splitting, a little to Its OK If I Like You.

  • “but you wonder about using a cross, like he is the only Christian or implying that subtly’

    Reminds me of something Frank Schaeffer, author of Crazy for God and former religious zealot, said on Book Review recently about dogmatic fractures in the elite group of evangelicals he belonged to. ‘After a while I thought my wife and I were the only true, correct believers and I wasn’t so sure about her.’ (paraphrase)

  • “Nashua, NH: I hear there’s a White House fire. There were more CIA tapes clearly.”

    I just thought it was the result of the fire and brimstone that normally follows Ol’ Scratch’s appearance every time he appears in his office. Probably just got too close to the drapes this time.

  • but Obama appears to be the first Dem to do so, with a new ad out this morning.

    I think that is a great ad.

    Zeitgiest, one ad specifically mentioning the birth of Christ and the other having a tree does not strike me as a minor “hair-splitting” difference. You do realize that the tree itself has roots in paganism, right? Huckabee’s ad was overtly religous, while Obama’s ad was overtly about people coming together–getting past differences. To equate the two seems like a big stretch.

  • Ron Paul said:

    [B]ut you wonder about using a cross, like he is the only Christian or implying that subtly.

    Imagine if you or any lefty with a blog wrote speculation about something like this, and then the rightie commentators saw it.

    They’d condemn it as nut-job conspiracy theory pandering in a heartbeat. But Ron Paul gets away with these half-baked, demagogic attacks. What he said (that Huckabee is implying he is the only Christian) is certainly more spin that speculation- too strong words to describe simply putting a cross in your ad, alone.

  • Edo beat me to the punch in retorting Zeitgeist’s comments. A Chirstmas tree does not say “Jesus” the same way a cross or mentioning Jesus’ name does. Plenty of non-religious people still celebrate the more communal (or more materialstic, depending on your POV) aspects of Christmas without a minute spent in church, or thinking about Jesus, or even paying attention to Linus’ oration in the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. The tree is just the thing you put presents under, and really has no Christian connotation to it at all. True many Christians have Christmas trees. Many Christians also own homes, so you might as well blast any presidential ad where the candidate is inside his or her home. The Obama Gospel Concert bothered me a hell of a lot more than a generic “as my family gets together for the holiday season, we wish your family to have a swell holiday, too” sentiment in an ad.

    This is Apples and oranges, not Red Delicious Apples and Granny Smith Apples.

  • Still, if every Christian rightie felt a little more modest about waving the cross in people’s faces (or maybe if they’d imagine how they feel when a flaming drag queen went sashaying about among their congregation at some gathering, and compared the two) I’m sure it would be a better thing for this country. So maybe the rigthies’ infighting will backfire on them a little bit.

  • True many Christians have Christmas trees. Many Christians also own homes, so you might as well blast any presidential ad where the candidate is inside his or her home.

    But it is not commonly referred to as a “Christmas home.” It is, however, a Christmas tree – do you think the Obamas put up a big green tree with ornaments to celebrate all of their ceremonial days? An Independence Day tree, perhaps?

    I don’t want to overstate this; I wasn’t terribly troubled by Huckabee’s ad, nor am I troubled by Obamas. I just think it funny the lengths people will go to in (a) suggesting one is clearly a scary intermingling of faith and candidacy (the one where such is expected, I might ad), but the other is harmless and (b) when Team Clinton does something more than once, it is a clear indicator of evil, but Obama’s ad does not indicate intermingling of faith concerns even after his Gospel of Intolerance Concert Tour pander to South Carolina.

    I think it is a good gut check for people on whether the distinctions are really principled or preferential, even if you ultimately conclude comfortably that for you it really is the former.

  • A Christmas tree is fine, a cross-shaped shelf is not. Merry Christmas is fine, birht [sic] of Christ is not. -Zeitgeist

    I would agree that Obama treads on a fine line with his religion in his campaign, but I think he almost has to in order to combat the pervasiveness of falsehoods about his religion and upbringing. But it does make me uncomfortable.

    I think both commercials are fine, but telling. That’s not to say I’m comfortable with either or that they raised the esteem with which I hold the individual candidates.

  • Zeitgest:

    There is also the fact that Obama has gone on the Christian Broadcast Network and basically lectured Evangelical leaders about their dogmatism, preached the importance of separation of church-and-state, and said explicitly that whatever the roots of your morals/values, if you want to discuss them in the public sphere, you need to translate them into ecumenical terms that can be debated rationally.

    Basically, he’s said everything seculars should want him to say in the place most important for it to be said.

    And I don’t see how recognizing what holiday he celebrates is “co-mingling” religion with politics, when the ad goes at lengths to make the point that, regardless of what holiday one celebrates, we can all wish each other well. Hence, the bit about what we have in common greatly outpaces what divides us, and making a point of following up “merry x-mas” with “happy holidays”

    The ads aren’t comparable precisely because they give off the exact opposite message. Huck’s, from these eyes, seems to assume the righteous truth of his religion, whereas Obama’s is about putting religious and political differences aside to enjoy all the holidays we’re celebrating now.

    That’s a relevant difference, and while I usually find your posts insightful, I think this is a pretty bad equivalence you’re drawing here.

    The two candidates’ approaches to religion in general and these ads in particular couldn’t be more different.

  • I said, If you think Ron Paul and Kucinich are nutcases, do check out Cynthia McKinney.

    She is in fact a total, undeniable nutcase. There may be others out there. I’m sure there are. But if she’s your standard of nutcase, a lot of others don’t meet the criteria.

    All these quasi religious ads are why voting should never take place in January. It’s bad enough having to hear carols day after day….

  • Michael –

    Certainly Obama has said the right thing often and in interesting places; it is a little harder to see whether his speech last year at Wallis’ confab fits your examples or mine. But in any event, it is hard to look at your list and consider the Gospel of Intolerance Concert Tour and some of his comments, especially early in the campaign, about his faith (and the obviously Christmas themed ad) and not conclude that what Obama really wants is to have it both ways — he wants to appeal to the so-called “values voter” and to the separation-purist progressives.

    Sure, all politicians want to have it both ways – who wouldn’t? But then lets not pretend that Obama is a new breed different from those dirty politicians. The reality is Obama’s ad was not just filmed in front of a homey fireplace – there is Christmas everywhere in the shot. He either means it, and is celebrating in a particular faith tradition and “sharing” that with us – in which case he really isn’t far from Huck – or he doesn’t really mean it and is making a calculation that most voters do celebrate Christmas and this reaches out to them, in which case he is another pandering politician.

    I don’t mean to be particularly hard on Obama – as I said early, neither his ad nor Huckabee’s offends me at all, and I fully expect every last candidate will run a 30-second video Christmas card to the fine folks of Iowa and New Hampshire by the end of the week. I just think the Obama folks have a real halo effect about their candidate that I don’t happen to share, although I like him just fine and could easily vote for him.

  • Funny, if you look on Wikipedia, there it is, right there on the first page. Maybe it’s only not there if you’re named after an imaginary creature on Futurama. Why do do your OWN research, it only took me 15 seconds to look it up myself!

    What a douche!

  • from http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjhmYjIyZTc3ZTVhYjQyZjM0YWM5MDJmOTEzZjVhZGY=

    Apparently, Paul’s apocryphal quote is a common one.

    Disappointingly, the quote is now on the Wikipedia page, apparently inserted today, perhaps by an enthusiastic Paul supporter who needs to read CBR. The editors should make a correction soon.

    Make of that what you will. But the USA Today political blog looked into the accuracy of Paul’s quotation:

    According to the executive director of The Sinclair Lewis Society, Illinois State University English Department associate dean Sally Parry, “it sounds like something Sinclair Lewis might have said or written … but we’ve never been able to attribute it to him.” We spoke to her by telephone this morning. After the conversation, Parry sent us an e-mail with passages from two books Lewis wrote that at least hint at the words Paul attributed to him.

    From It Can’t Happen Here: “But he saw too that in America the struggle was befogged by the fact that the worst Fascists were they who disowned the word ‘Fascism’ and preached enslavement to Capitalism under the style of Constitutional and Traditional Native American Liberty.”

    From Gideon Planish: “I just wish people wouldn’t quote Lincoln or the Bible, or hang out the flag or the cross, to cover up something that belongs more to the bank-book and the three golden balls.”

    According to Parry, the Lewis Society’s website “must get a query about this (quote) every week.” She doesn’t know how it originally came to be attributed to Lewis.

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