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According to Politico, “The Republican National Committee has commissioned polling and focus groups to determine the boundaries of attacking a minority or female candidate…”
Polling? Focus Groups? This may not be such a bad idea considering Sen. McCain’s history of straight talk racial faux pas. The “all they want to trade is burkas,” “I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live,” and unfortunate “tar baby” incidents come to mind. Beyond his own gaffes, the man McCain initially hired to run his presidential campaign, Terry Nelson was responsible for the racist ad attacking African-American candidate Harold Ford Jr. during his closely contested Senate run in 2006.
As the RNC clearly realizes, a “maccaca” moment would sink the McCain Campaign – and rightly so. We can only hope that straight talking McCain can avoid this kind of rhetoric and allow Obama to beat him by running a superior campaign, offering better policies, and gaining the trust of the American people. More importantly, this would deprive the talk-radio wing of the republican party the pleasure of blaming the “PC police” for electing our first black president.
Barack Obama’s campaign has by all accounts been adept at selling their ideas to voters. In a sentence: after eight years of Bush, this country needs a president who can inspire citizens to believe in our democracy again. It is an ephemeral argument, and would undoubtedly be a flimsy one if it weren’t true that the country’s morale is as low as it has been in recent memory. John McCain’s main political rejoinder will echo Hillary Clinton’s: that we live in a dangerous world, and what’s needed is not a boost of inspiration but a sharpening of our defenses and a readjustment of our national priorities. Hope is easy, he will say; leading takes guts and determination. Leading takes experience.
The strongest argument against the experience argument goes something like this:
[President] Bush’s national security advisers were arguably the most experienced in modern times. But their performance was often very poor. That was partly… because they overlaid the post-9/11 challenges on a Cold War template about the uses of military power.
A more general argument is that the costs of ideological fervor in foreign policy tend to outweigh the benefits of experience. Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are experienced at committing our country to ill-advised military adventures, and little else. Shouldn’t we prefer a rookie with good judgment, as we did with John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, over an old hand with a long history of being wrong?
CNN is reporting that Cuba’s National Assembly has named Raul Castro their new President – as expected.
The movement is gaining steam, so we announce again…
Riders are responsible for their own food, lodging and transportation. We anticipate these expenses to total $80-$100, so we recommend riders raise these funds separately from the fundraising minimum.
A car will be provided to transport tents and other equipment, including a bicycle repair kit, food, water and emergency supplies.
Jack Cafferty hit the nail on the head during Wednesday’s Cafferty File. I was hoping this clip would end up on youtube – it hasn’t, so here’s the text.
“Last night while celebrating his victory in Wisconsin, McCain could have chosen to use the free air time he was given on all three cable news networks for advancing some of his ideas of how he thinks he can make the country better.”
“But instead, he chose to call Barack Obama names, referring to the Democrat’s call for change as “eloquent but empty.” This is school yard stuff and you’d think a 71-year-old member of the United States Senate would know better. The reason Obama has captured the imagination of the people in this country is because he has a long list of ideas on how to improve things. And in case you haven’t noticed, we could use a little improvement around here.”
“Barack Obama was expected to draw a crowd of 20,000 people to a campaign event in Dallas, Texas, today. I wonder how many people showed up at McCain’s last appearance.”
“Partisanship, name calling and gridlock are turning people’s stomachs. Barack Obama has arrived on the scene like a breath of fresh air and if John McCain doesn’t understand the significance of that, he has no more chance of becoming president than I do.”
Couldn’t have put it better myself.
(Via- Political Punch and Politico)
After unsuccessful attacks against Obama in Wisconsin, the Clinton Camp is hoping a group of loyal Clinton supporters can do a better job. A new 527 organization called the “American Leadership Project” is being launched for the sole purpose of attacking Obama “in Ohio, and possibly Texas and Pennsylvania as well.” Their message? Obama is nothing more than speeches. This nonsense has been peddled for a few weeks now by Hillaryland, the republicans, and pundits alike– during which time Obama gained support from every demographic group in ever corner of the country.
Update Via Adam B at Kos: “In December, both Barack Obama and John Edwards demanded that 527s purporting to support them cease their activities and denounced their efforts; will Clinton do the same?”
CNN is reporting that the Teamsters will endorse Obama. The Teamsters have well over a million members, and have been sought after by political candidates of both parties.
This endorsement will give Obama the two-thirds support he needs to get the endorsement of the Change to Win Coalition of unions. It is a huge boost for him in Texas and Ohio, both of which have a strong union presence, and helps him cut into her support among blue-collar workers. The importance of this endorsement cannot really be understated in terms of the next two big primaries.
It’s hard not to think this is the beginning of the end for Hillary Clinton: Ten losses in a row, an increasingly unlikely path to gaining a majority of pledged delegates, and a clear shift underway in voter sentiment toward Barack Obama. The unions feel they have a winner, and so do the voters.
While Hillary was busy throwing stones this week, The New Republic was crafting a DAMNING exposé set to bring her glass house crashing down.
