Tuesday’s campaign round-up
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:
* Final Rasmussen numbers out of New Hampshire for the GOP: McCain 32%, Romney 31%, Huckabee 10%. Final Zogby: McCain 36%, Romney 27%, Huckabee 10%.
* Final Rasmussen numbers out of New Hampshire for the Dems: Obama 37%, Clinton 30%, Edwards 19%. Final Zogby: Obama 42%, Clinton 29%, Edwards 17%.
* Dixville Notch, N.H., the first town to vote in the state’s primary, is always fun for a little political theater. This morning, the village, which has 17 voters, backed Obama with seven votes (a landslide in Dixville Notch) and McCain with four votes. Turnout was 100%.
* Hart’s Location, N.H., the second town to vote, had very similar results, with Obama and McCain leading.
* A couple of idiots interrupted a Hillary Clinton speech yesterday with a banner that read, “Iron my shirts.” The two 20-something men began shouting in unison: “Iron my shirts! Iron my shirts!” Before the two were escorted out by security, the senator said, “Oh, the remnants of sexism are alive and well.”
* Speaking of disruptions, Obama was interrupted by about a dozen anti-abortion protesters at an event yesterday. The WSJ reported, “Obama stopped his speech and told the rest of the crowd that ‘there’s no need to boo,’ but that didn’t stop them…. After quieting down the crowd, he told the chanting protesters that ‘I understand your position but this isn’t going to solve anything.’ About two minutes after they began chanting, security tossed them out. Obama quieted down the crowd as they cheered the protesters’ departure. Free speech is ‘part of the American tradition, too,’ he said. It’s not easy to ‘stand up in a crowd of people who don’t agree with you.'”
* The polls in South Carolina are likely to change after New Hampshire, but for now, Rasmussen shows Huckabee leading the GOP field with 28%, followed by McCain at 21%, and Romney at 15%. SurveyUSA, meanwhile, shows Huckabee ahead in South Carolina with 36%, followed by Romney at 19%, and McCain at 17%.
* As for the Dems in South Carolina, Rasmussen shows Obama first with 42%, followed by Clinton with 30%, and Edwards at 14%. SurveyUSA, meanwhile, shows Obama at 50%, Clinton second with 30%, and Edwards third with 16%.
* Predictably, the national polls are on the move, as well. Gallup, which had shown Clinton leading Obama nationally by 18 points, now shows the two tied at 33%. Among Republicans, Huckabee has claimed the national lead with 25%, followed by Giuliani with 20%, and McCain at 19%.
* I can’t say I like the sound of this: “Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political campaign, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is set to issue a fiery promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be anti-business. ‘We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed,’ chamber President Tom Donohue said.”
* And finally, Bill Clinton was confronted by a group of Ron Paul supporters in New Hampshire yesterday, which insisted that 9/11 was an “inside job.” The former president responded, “You wanna know what I think? You guys who think 9/11 was an inside job are crazy as hell. My wife was the senator from New York when that happened. I was down at Ground Zero. I saw the victims’ families. You’re nuts.”
To the U.S. Chamber I say: bring it on.
This is a debate the country needs to have after the Bush/Cheney-induced Golden Age of Corporate Profit.
Amen, dajafi. But they won’t go down without a fight.
Wow–Obama is a classy guy. He is simply a transcendent human being.
The U.S. Chamber is going to build a grass roots organization? I’m sure that they’ll get a lot of sympathy and support. Maybe they’ll even hire some of the people whose jobs they offshored. Idiots.
Free speech is ‘part of the American tradition, too,’ he said. It’s not easy to ’stand up in a crowd of people who don’t agree with you.’”
I share some of Hillary’s feeling that “there’s no there there” with Obama, but I sure like his style.
Many of ” the victims’ families” favor a re-investigation of 9/11, Billso. But obviously, you didn’t see them. See the documentary film, 9/11: Press for Truth, which chronicles the “Jersey Girls” whom Fraulein Coulter referred to as “broads.”
The Jersey Girls are the patriotic widows of victims of 9/11 who lobbied successfully for the creation of the 9/11 Commission, against the wishes of Dick & Bush, and for whom the 9/11 Commission only attempted to answer 30% of the 9/11 Commission Family Steering Committee questions (of which the Jersey Girls were members of).
You may recall that it was the Jersey Girls who successfully protested the appointment of Henry Kissinger to chair the 9/11 Commission because some of his clients had the last name “bin Laden.”
$15 million was spent on the 9/11 Commission (spent now in probably about one hour in Iraq), while $40 million was spent investigating the Clinton-Lewinsky affair.
“grass-roots business organization” – what an oxymoron…
And sure, go ahead and bite my butt, Tom Donahue. Dare to stop by Ohio?
I agree with JKap. Please read Kristin Breiswiser’s autobiography of her and the other Jersey Girls work AND the appalling nature of non-cooperation between the CIA and FBI in basically allowing the attacks to occur.
Another GOP jackass with a taste for arse.
At a time when more and more people are broke and losing their jobs these cretins are going to start shrieking about the wonders of business. Why don’t they just flush their cash down the loo?
Bravo! Comments like these really make me miss Bill C.
the appalling nature of non-cooperation between the CIA and FBI in basically allowing the attacks to occur
There’s a HUGE difference between “incompetent government agencies allowed 9/11 to happen by accident” and “9/11 was an inside job”.
There’s also a HUGE difference between “incompetent government officials try to keep a media spotlight off their own incompetence and ties to extremists in the Middle East” and “9/11 was an inside job”.
HUGE.
I’m very impressed with Obama’s off-the-cuff statements re the protesters. Quite unlike president bubble whose head would probably burst were he to be confronted like that.
The US Chamber should get a clue that people are sick and tired of big business that scr*ws over workers, consumers and stockholders in favor of the highest possible profit. And gives hundreds of millions to failed CEOs.
There are businesses that are pro-worker and pro-consumer, not predatory, are responsible, ethical, environmentally friendly, etc. They are the businesses that should thrive, and should not align themselves with US Chamber and its idiotic president, apparently.
“Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political campaign, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is set to issue a fiery promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be anti-business. ‘We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed,’ chamber President Tom Donohue said.”
Why is it Irishmen named Donohue who are in public life are all morons? Tom and Bill are both an embarassment to we Irish as they prove that some Celts do indeed have heads as hard (and thick) as the rocks on the Hebrides.
Needless to say, Tommy, there is someone going to be bitten on the ass and whacked with a shillelagh – and it’s going to be so hard your head will ring as you’re put through the wall face-first by the blow. Can’t wait to see it happen, you fookin’ idiot.
But, for all that “incompetence,” NonyNony, no one was ever fired due to the breakdown that occurred on 9/11 that, among other breakdowns, saw the airspace above the U.S. Military Command Center violated.
Can someone please tell me: has this breach been rectified? Or is that not part of the “war on terra”?
I have to say I am glad to see Bill Clinton say something I can completely agree with. And listening to our group tenthwit, JKap, continue to espouse his illiteracy is getting even more pathetic than it used to be. Pleas, J, go back to campaigning for the reinstitution of the Gold Standard with “Dr.” Paul – who proves every day that he must have fallen out of an airplane without a parachute and landed on his head a few times too many back when he was in the Hair Farce.
tAiO wrote: Another GOP jackass with a taste for arse.
LOL. Intellectual ankle-biters raise their sights.
TPM has this ABC News headline: Edwards Supporters Refuse to Shake Clinton’s Hand
The story however is about an Edwards supporter, a Romney supporter and a Ron Paul Supporter who won’t shake Hill’s hand. I guess this is supposed to fit some narrative about Edwards being a jerk in regards to Hillary. How many handshake refusals are common on the campaign trail? Couldn’t examples of that be found for any of the candidates if it fit the MSM narrative?
Everyone seems to be getting in on the Drudge-style headlines that lie.
tenthwit
Hey Tom, up yours!
There are businesses that are pro-worker and pro-consumer, not predatory, are responsible, ethical, environmentally friendly, etc
I’d add to that “and have excellent management-labor relations”. CostCo is a prime example.
But, for all that “incompetence,” NonyNony, no one was ever fired
Agreed, JKap, but that doesn’t show an inside job or conspiracy. Indeed, on that point you and nearly every regular here are on in agreement: the Bush Administration has a culture of absolute unaccountability. No one is ever really fired, and if the screw up big enough they get promoted. You might be on to something if 9/11 intel was the only example in a government that otherwise is big on accountability, but BushCo lets anyone get away with anything so long as it means BushCo doesn’t have to admit a mistake in hiring, oversight, or policy, or if the malfeasance helps Republicans politically (i.e. gross violations of the Hatch Act), so the 9/11 intel failure is merely standard practice for the corrupt incompetent cronies of Bushdom.
Oh, by they way, I’m glad to see so many “progressives” put their undying faith in Dick & Bush, like Tom “the Meat” Cleaver.
There was, after all, no impropriety whatsoever when Dick & Bush insisted upon “testifying” to the 9/11 Commission together, in private, not under oath, and without transcript.
But flame me instead, Tom. Not your buddies Dick & Bush.
NonyNony @ 10: Bingo.
And the fact that “nobody was fired” is an indictment of the same Loyal Bushies who enabled the US Attorney scandal, the Plame affair and so much else that has made these last seven years a nightmare not just for progressives but for anyone of any political persuasion who wants to see competent, honest government.
Napoleon’s maxim of “Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence” would seem to explain the Bush administration response to 9/11. Of course, for the most part they’ve managed to fit in both incompetence and malice.
The next president, whoever it is, will get a honeymoon never seen before simply by virtue of succeeding the most egregious fuckwit who’s ever darkened the White House door.
Please let the Iron Our Shirts guys be Republicans
Are they any relation to Don’t Tase Me, Bro guy?
zeitgeist–nice to see we’re in agreement again after the campaign unpleasantness 😉
Who said “inside job”? Not I.
Am I the only one who thinks that the “iron my shirts” guys were more performance art than actual protest? Protest types rarely have any sense of humor at all, and there is clearly a bit of whimsy in that particular slogan. If they had been genuine inveterate sexists, I would expect something more along the lines of “no women presidents.”
It sounds like a put-on to me.
And JKap, nobody with any sense “believes” Bush and Cheney. But the near-certainty that they lied about anything and everything does nothing to prove the “inside job” absurdity.
You have a bad habit of attacking everyone who disagrees with you as nothing more than a tool or toady of the worst people in the country. It’s an arrogant “with me or against me” mentality that’s reminiscent of… hmm, the names escape me at the moment. Which is weird because I think I wrote them in the graf above this one.
Hey, Heil Bush! Heil Cheney, dajafi! I’m the least of your problems.
“Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political campaign, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is set to issue a fiery promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be anti-business. ‘We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed,’ chamber President Tom Donohue said.”
I checked my stats yesterday and discovered that I’m right on the edge of being in the top 20% of American Household Incomes. Yet even so I regard this guy as a freaking idiot.
How does the Republican’t party get people to vote for these idiots?
Oh, right. “Social Conservatives”.
Not to sound like the office of redundancy or anything but percentages tell part of the story. I continue to be very interested in the turnout numbers of dems and goopers. I hope to see a continued 2-1 turnout in actual bodies.
Steve, if you can obtain numbers, please do post them.
The “Iron My Shirt” guys were from some radio show in Boston. It was a prank.
Great comment at #16, eh?
Jeff @ #29: I assume it was a “prank” by some of those zany guys on right-wing talk radio. Verrrrrry funny.
Tom @ #12: Phil Donahue isn’t such a bad guy.
dajafi @ #25: Amen (again).
Great comment at #16, eh?
Well, I’d like to see your reaction to someone habitually calling you names, Okie.
I’ve tried to keep my cool, but Meathead Cleaver wants to belittle and demean me for having dissenting views.
I especially like his new idea of belittling and demeaning Ron Paul’s military service. Very classy. Sounds like a regular left wing authoritarian version of Flush Rimjaughb.
Names like “meathead”?
Please reread comment #25. And chill a bit, OK?
If the SurveyUSA numbers hold, and Madame Chillary gets a 20-point beating in SC, then someone needs to pull her aside and say, “get out from under the bus before it pulls away from the curb.”
As for that “Dunder’Who” twit at USCC, all I can say is this: “Suck Panzer exhaust, you doofus. I can buy more stuff on the Internet, directly from the manufacturer, than all your members combined can stock in their “awards-buying” brick-&-mortar stores. Go scream at a half-vacant mega-mall—and then STFU.”
“To the U.S. Chamber I say: bring it on.”
agreed. then we can hand them their f**king heads.
to parphrase bill richardson from the other night, “i’ve been in hostage negotiations that were less nasty than this.”
Saw this at The Orange Place:
http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/2008/01/fake-iron-my-shirt-protesters-at.html
Figures.
Anne #36–It would have made more sense for the two guys to have come from the Huckabee “women should be subject to their men” campaign.
I don’t hate and fear the Hucker to the extent most of my kind (agnostic progressives) seem to, but I do like the idea of Democrats winning something like 75 percent of the female vote if he’s the R nominee.
(Note: This would be even more fun were Giuliani–who ditched his second wife on-camera in 2000–somehow to win their nomination. Given my total horror of Il Douche, I want him stopped ASAP… but the prospect of seeing him suffer a Mondale-scale defeat at the hands of Obama is pretty appealing as well.)
Re Anne’s comment at 36:
Damn. I was really enjoying the comments from fRighties around the tubes. They were all dead certain that HRC put those guys in the crowd. I’m sure some Truthiness Detector will try to find some connection between the radio station and Clinton.
“Hey, the janitor at the station is her best friend’s hair dresser’s 5th cousin twice removed!!!”
Sad.
And JKap, nobody with any sense “believes” Bush and Cheney. -dajafi
Herein lies my entire problem with several of the Democratic contenders.
* I can’t say I like the sound of this: “Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political campaign, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is set to issue a fiery promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be anti-business. ‘We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed,’ chamber President Tom Donohue said.”
These people spent approx. 60 million in 2004 attacking the Democratic candidates. They will spend that much and more in 2008. This is the Chambers warning to candidates that they better not stand up for the middle class or else. Now you see why you need a fighter? Can you imagine negotiating with this jerk? This is yet another reason why I support John Edwards. He knows that these people will fight tooth and nail to hang onto their power and anyone who doesn’t recognize that just doesn’t have a clue. All of you should read the entire article in the LA Times. These ads are coming no matter who we nominate but we better make sure we nominate a candidate that knows that you have to fight them.
It would seem, that Mr. Donahue doesn’t realize or doesn’t care, that when he
attacks a candidate that supports the middle class and poor, he is attacking the people of this country. His statement and the vehemence with which he makes it,
reinforces everything John has said about corporate America. When Mr. Edwards
takes his stand against corporate America, he will have approximately 280,000,000 million people standing with him…the working people in this country!
The Republican Party is a sick joke, and the people of this country are fed up with them.
From Nixon to Bush, and from Scooter to Larry “Toilet Stall” Craig, the Republicans have proven themselves to be a bunch of lying, corrupt, evil, perverted, over-spending crooks.
When you look at all the money Bill Clinton left this country, it makes us all cry to know that Bush spent it all.
When the money was gone, Bush went to China for help.
Just think, we owe money to China!
That is the Bush way.
Cheney is no better.
You can’t trust either of them.
No one does.
Why are we in Iraq?
The war should be on terror, not in Iraq.
Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and yet Bush has spent all that money to fight “his” war.
Yes his, because many Republicans have backed off from the war.
By the way, the war in Iraq has cost the U.S. almost five hundred billion dollars.
Forget Rudy.
Rudy Giuliani is no hero.
While he is often called the hero of 9/11, the truth is that Rudy was a terrible leader during his years as mayor of New York City.
He made bad decisions and took a girlfriend while being married.
In fact, he even wanted his lover to live in the same house with his wife.
Most people would call this perverted.
New Yorkers were so sick of his antics, that they wanted him out of office.
Then came 9/11.
The only reason people call Giuliani a hero today, is because he just happened to be NYC’s mayor during that bad time.
Any mayor would be looked at as a hero if they showed their face under those circumstances.
If there was no 9/11, Rudy would have become a joke.
This is not the kind of leader we want in the White House. In closing, the New York Post reported in their paper on April 23, that Giuliani spent more than 48,000 dollars of campaign money on posh hotels while claiming to have spent the least of all the Republican candidates.
Rudy is a good time leader, and does it with other people’s money.
Forget Mitt.
His ads look bad.
He can’t seem to get his facts right, and will say things to make himself look good.
Red flags go up around him.
I spoke with his son Tagg at the New Hampshire debates back in June (2007), and while he seemed like a nice man, Tagg could not get his facts right either.
The worst Republican as of late, though, is Larry Craig.
He is a lying pervert who wanted gay sex with a strange man on a dirty toilet seat.
He pled guilty, then said he was not guilty.
Say what?
He is another Republican moron.
Did you hear about Washington State Republican Rep. Richard Curtis?
He offered $1,000 to a young man for unprotected sex while dressed in women’s lingerie.
This sort of thing just goes on and on with them.
Remember Mark Foley?
Here is a letter I wrote that was in many newspapers and Web sites:
Once again, the Republicans have turned my stomach with shocking and repulsive behavior.
Mark Foley, a Republican member (now ex-member) of Congress, has sent many e-mails with perverted sexual content to a sixteen year old boy.
This is the same man who while in Congress, backed a bill that was meant to protect children from child predators.
Foley himself, is a man who preyed on a child with lust.
What is also incomprehensible, is the fact that some Republicans knew of Foley’s behavior, and yet, did not take a hard stand against this until it became public news. If I had a teenage son and/or daughter, I would not want them to go near any Republican leader for fear of either or both becoming a victim of a sick Republican pervert.
George Vreeland Hill
There were more than three hundred such letters in newspapers in 2007 alone.
Many of them in New Hampshire.
There are thousands on the Internet.
No lie.
THOUSANDS!
This does not even include articles, ads, radio, TV and other areas where the public takes notice.
In fact, one Republican in California wanted me stopped once, because I was hurting some Republicans in their elections.
I just want to do my part in helping to get rid of every Republican scumbag.
From phone scams to the Union Leader (NH) covering up for Republicans, the garbage never ends.
But the Republican Party will end.
Did you know that George W. Bush once made fun of the issue of Weapons of Mass Destruction?
He did, and in front of some shocked people during a black-tie event in 2004.
He said…. (While looking under a piece of furniture) “Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere.”
Then, while pretending to look out of a window, Bush laughed as he said….. “Nope, no weapons over there.”
While he was laughing, there were men and women fighting and dying in Iraq because of WMD.
George W. Bush should be removed from office because of that alone.
Face it, Bill Clinton lied about having sex, and was impeached because of it.
George W. Bush however, did far worse, as he laughed at the very people who are fighting for the United States of America!
That about sums it all up!
(By the way, this Bush/WMD was part of an article and letter I wrote as well.)
This leads us to John McCain.
All he seems to do is attack other candidates.
His Woodstock ad against Hillary Clinton was boring and without the facts.
He tells of Hillary wanting to spend a million dollars on a museum while he (McCain) supports spending more on the war in Iraq.
He wants you to believe that the Democrats are the big spenders, while it is McCain’s Republican Party that has spent all the money Bill Clinton left us to a point where Bush had to borrow money from China.
Think about that again.
We owe to China.
That is the Republican way.
Also, it must be noted that McCain even laughed at war.
Remember when McCain changed the words of a Beach Boys song to Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Iran?
McCain even laughed when he was done.
He thought starting a war with Iran was a laughing matter.
That is the real John McCain.
He just can’t be trusted.
He is another George Bush, and you know what we got with him.
The Republican Party is a mess, and getting worse.
People do not trust any of them, and we are all tired of their act.
I am doing my best to make sure that no Republican wins an election.
Thank you for your time.
George Vreeland Hill
I like the sound of the Chamber’s hubris.
Looks like the global corporatist “Empire Strikes Back”.
Bring em on.
Just making this anti-democratic threat by that fascist nut, Donohue, is going to do more to help ignite an Anti-empire movement in America than his worst dream.