Huffington Post rips another one in McCain, and this one is even more solid... Video due Shortly I'm sure as both incidents occurred on NBC Television... From the Today Show
LAUER: They (Syria) have denied possessing weapons of mass destruction, they've also denied harboring any senior members of the Iraqi leader. The US administration says they have evidence to the contrary. How would you proceed with that situation?
Mr. McCAIN: I think it's very appropriate that Colin Powell is going to Syria. I think we should put diplomatic and other pressures on them. It's also a time for Mr. Asad Bashar to realize that he should be more like his father was.
Leave it to Senator Joe Biden to pull no punches. Uncensored for Effect.
“This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset . . . and make this kind of ridiculous statement.”
“He is the guy who has weakened us,” he said. “He has increased the number of terrorists in the world. It is his policies that have produced this vulnerability that the U.S. has. It’s his [own] intelligence community [that] has pointed this out, not me.”
Biden noted that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have both suggested that the United States ought to find a way to talk more with its enemies.
"If he thinks this is appeasement, is he going to come back and fire his own cabinet?” Biden asked. “Is he going to fire Condi Rice?”
After Travis Childers beat out Gooper Greg Davis in MS-01, a Seat that was part of Newt's victories from way back in 1994, a seat that went +62 for Bush, by 6%, the NRCC today is essentially in meltdown mode. Let's examine the carnage. First up, Tom Cole's pathetic statement:
“I encourage all Republican candidates, whether incumbents or challengers, to take stock of their campaigns and position themselves for challenging campaigns this fall by building the financial resources and grassroots networks that offer them the opportunity and ability to communicate, energize and turn out voters this election.”
Communicate: Voters aren't listening to the crap we're selling... need new message... Try "Change"
Energize: They're sleeping, and who can blame them, the country is fucked, but you gotta scare them silly
Turn Out Voters: Find ways to surpress the turn out the Dems are enjoying... Great job Indiana and Missouri
It's priceless how the rest of the press is quite aware of just how bad it's getting for the NRCC.
In successive days, the two most repsected pollsters in the country confirm that Oregon, the Great NW Battleground state, is Solid Obama Country. On a day that so much will be made about Working Class Whites in West Virginia, Lets preview the Exit Door for Clinton that is Oregon, a state that is 90.5% White.
If you were enjoying your Mother's Day today and didn't spoil it by watching the double whammy of Fox News & Howard Wolfson, this may be news to you.
Clinton aides continued to insist that she will remain in the race even while confirming that she is $20 million in debt. "The voters are going to decide this," senior adviser Howard Wolfson said on "Fox News Sunday," acknowledging the $20 million figure. "There is no reason for her not to continue this process." Wolfson said he has seen "no evidence of her interest" in pursuing the second-place spot on the Democratic ticket, contrary to rumors that she is staying in the race to leverage a bid for the vice presidential nomination.
I did happen to catch the segment on my DVR and Howard didn't explicity say it's $20M, but when asked, he confirmed they was $10M as of the last filing (can't wait to see the next) and confirmed Hillary's total outstanding Loans @ $11.6M. Considering the fact that the campaign has a burn rate of $1M per day in staff, logistics and maybe now back interest, I'd expect the figure to approach closer to $30M in reality...
If you want a reason to completely ignore West Virginia, I present to you Wayne County Clerk Bob Pasley, possibly the dumbest elected official this side of GW Bush. Listen to this person's logic and realize, sometimes, there isn't anything you can do to help Stupid.
First: How's life in Wayne Co, West Virginia
Many Wayne residents used to make good money in nearby Huntington, about 20 miles north. But the factories making glass and auto parts and the chemical supply plants where people used to work "have gone on the skids in recent years," says Wayne County Clerk Bob Pasley.
In the face of Economic disparity, What made West Virginia, a state 2-1 Democrat, vote for Bush
"The people in the last election were persuaded by the gun issue," said Robert Dennie, a retired Union Carbide employee, a Democrat who cast an early vote Tuesday for Clinton in Charleston. "Everybody has wised up."
Obviously, this is a sophisticated state with sophisticated voter demands... Wised Up means they won't fall prey to petty side issues/distractions right?
The pattern of this Primary season has been pretty clear. When a major key endorsement comes, such as Bill Richardson, it's been on a Friday, a chance for Obama to either change the narrative into the weekend, or emphasize what's the state of the race.
Breaking news that favorite North Carolina (Obama +14) Son John Edwards will be on the Today show exclusive on Friday, May 9th. Given the cover of a massive Obama victory in North Carolina, John Edwards now has full permission to come out and endorse Barack Obama. What political weight will it yield? That all depends upon the answer to this question
What will he say. What won’t he say?
My money is on an Obama Endorsement. Vote in poll below... after you read the important action item of the day over the flip
MSNBC Reporting Breaking that Former Sen George McGovern is now urging Hillary to drop out And Will be Soon Endorsing Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic Nomination in 2008.
George previously endorsed Hillary for president in 2007
MSNBC: Former Sen. George McGovern, a Clinton supporter, is urging her to quit the race. He will call Bill Clinton to inform him he is endorsing Obama.
"I think that if we can elect her president, she'll be a greater president even than her brilliant husband," McGovern told the crowd gathered in a hot barn at the Johnson County Democrats' annual barbeque.
Yesterday I posted a diary on dKos which discussed recent Texas polling and linked directly to cities which have events on May 10th in conjunction with Barack Obama's General Election Campaign Kick Off Voter Registration Drive. At the bottom of that diary, I posted stats next to the cities in question, and I'm happy to tell you how big those numbers have swollen.
The Red State of Texas is turning blue. New polling today suggests that across the board, Texas needs to be added to the cadre of states considered competitive for both President and Senate. New Rasmussen data proves it. Let's look at the very surprising Numbers.
First, the Senate Seat, which is probably the easiest race and probably the most important. Getting a 6 year Senate seat is Crucial; getting John Cornyn out of the Senate is simply Moral.
It’s time to add United States Senator John Cornyn to the list of potentially vulnerable Republican incumbents in Election 2008. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state find Cornyn leading Democratic state legislator Rick Noriega by just four percentage points, 47% to 43%. Any incumbent who polls below 50% is considered potentially vulnerable. That is especially true when a little known challenger is so competitive in an early general election match-up.
This has got to be a shot in the arm to the DNC and TDC.
“This primary election on Tuesday is a game changer. This is going to make a huge difference in what happens going forward. The entire country – probably even a lot of the world is looking to see what North Carolina decides.”
Similarly, Marc Ambinder asks if Hillary needs to win North Carolina in order to actually disrupt the flow of Superdelegates.
It may well be that an upset victory is the only way to unblinker the superdelegates. It might not serve the principles of justice, but it is what it is.
Last night on Hardball, Andrea Mitchell argued that in order for the landscape to actually shift, Hillary needs to beat Obama in North Carolina. North Carolina is Obama's turf, and if Hillary is to truly unseat Obama, she needs to win on his Ground. He had to win PA to knock her out, she has to win NC to change the race, er, Game.
Hillary's Unnoticed Flap, over Obliterating Iran, did get alot of Attention in Theran. We now know what they felt.
Tehran, which insists its nuclear programme is solely for power generation, denounced her words as "provocative and irresponsible".
It said the remarks were "a flagrant violation" of the UN Charter.
In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi, Iran's deputy ambassador to the UN, said Mrs Clinton had "unwarrantedly and under erroneous and false pretexts threatened to use force against the Islamic Republic of Iran".
This is not the sort of thing a Presidential Candidate should be carelessly engaging in.
The West Virginia Secretary of State's office and county election offices in the state are refusing to tell independent ("no party choice") voters arriving to early vote at the state's 55 voting locations that they are entitled to vote in the Democratic primary, stating that they are forbidden to do so by law.
"The Obama campaign will lose thousands of votes during early voting if this situation isn't corrected quickly," Victoria Baker, a former Republican who is an Obama supporter in Huntington, WV, said Sunday. "The Secretary of State's position is not supported by the law," according to Roy D. (Don) Baker, a West Virginia lawyer familiar with the situation. "It is wrong," he said. Mr. Baker, a Democrat, is also an Obama supporter and Ms. Baker's husband
156,199 West Virginians are registered as independents eligible to vote in West Virginia's May 13 primary according to figures released over the weekend by the Secretary of State's office. That represents 13.2% of all registered voters in the state. These figures include voters who registered before last week's April 22nd registration deadline in the state. Early voting began April 23 and ends May 10.
Here is the first rough quote transcript from Politico
"I have spent my entire adult life trying to bridge the gap between different kinds of people. That’s in my DNA, trying to promote mutual understanding to insist that we all share common hopes and common dreams as Americans and as human beings. That’s who I am, that’s what I believe, and that’s what this campaign has been about," Obama said.
"The person that I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago," he said. "His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church."
every story has seemed to reinforce an image of Clinton as a sort of ill-tempered coot driven a little mad by Obama’s success. “I think this campaign has enraged him,” the adviser told me. “He doesn’t like Obama.” In private conversations, he has been dismissive of his wife’s rival. James Clyburn, an African-American congressman from South Carolina, told me that Clinton called him in the middle of the night after Obama won that state’s primary and raged at him for fifty minutes.
FIFTY???
Is there any wonder where the acrimony comes from? For Bill Clinton, this has stopped being about Politics some time ago and has since become deeply personal. He's outright insulted by Barack's painting his years in office as contributing to the overall trouble in our economy (back to back bubbles certainly started with Bill & Greenspan)
This Mish Mash over Obama's Electability and White Voters completely misses a glaring Truth: Hillary Clinton will LOSE the white Vote versus John McCain Too!
Newsweek's Latest National Poll is now out, and in it, Obama leads Clinton 48 - 41, a large move from last week's 18 point differential. Much of the change comes from perceptions of Electability and with the Media holding up that White Voter Card for an entire Week, it's no wonder. What's not reported however is the following Results among White Voters
Clinton: 42%
McCain: 52%
Obama: 38%
McCain: 52%
A FOUR Point Differential, with the entire Differential landing in the Undecided Column. I like to call this the Cunning Hillary Bitter Voter Spike-a-poll Vote. What's fascinating though is if you go back to the earlier polling conducted by Newsweek, they had not broken the McCain vs. Candidate questions out into racial categories and at the end of the day, that's the only time it'll really matter.
This doesn't bode well for Hillary's future prospects. I'd call this quite a Crack in Hillary's Ship.
NBC News has learned that a major fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, former [Clinton Administration] Amb. to Chile Gabriel Guerra-Mondragon is leaving the campaign to join up Barack Obama's campaign. Officially dubbed a "Hillraiser," Guerra-Mondragon raised nearly $500,000 for Clinton's campaign, according to some estimates. He has been informing people inside Clintonworld this week in what's been described as some tough conversations. A formal announcement of a role for Guerra-Mondragon on Obama's national finance committee will be made next week.
Ouch, this has really got to hurt. A Hillraiser who had pull upwards of $500k, going to the other side? Will he bring his money people and supporters over too? First Read has an insight.
In addition, Guerra-Mondragon's defection could serve as a tipping point with some key Hispanic Democratic leaders that Obama is ready to start making a bigger effort to court Hispanics.
NY Times Thursday blows a Trailer Park Sized hole in the Clintons' electability fantasy.
Exit polling and independent political analysts offer evidence that Mr. Obama could do just as well as Mrs. Clinton among blocs of voters with whom he now runs behind. Obama advisers say he also appears well-positioned to win swing states and believe he would have a strong shot at winning traditional Republican states like Virginia.
According to surveys of Pennsylvania voters leaving the polls on Tuesday, Mr. Obama would draw majorities of support from lower-income voters and less-educated ones — just as Mrs. Clinton would against Mr. McCain, even though those voters have favored her over Mr. Obama in the primaries.
And national polls suggest Mr. Obama would also do slightly better among groups that have gravitated to Republican in the past, like men, the more affluent and independents, while she would do slightly better among women.
Why is Hillary weak with Educated Voters? Men? Blacks? Western State Democrats? Young Voters??? Fun Decision-Tree:
