While excitement is building for a Democratic Party convention capped by Barack Obama’s historic acceptance speech before a sold-out, 75,000-seat football stadium, the GOP convention the following week is shaping up to be a considerably more staid affair, marked by the conspicuous absence of many of the usual convention attendees.
Republicans aren’t exactly planning to avoid the convention in droves. But compared to past conventions, lawmakers, lobbyists and candidates aren’t beating a path to St. Paul either.
Sad! I guess this means that it will have the "energy" of their nominee. Which is to say...you know.
One thing that I think a lot of folks have been missing in recent days regarding John McCain's chances in this election is that John McCain's campaign will not be even close to as organized, dedicated and systematic in GOTV operations as George W. Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns.
I think you may be missing a key element of McCain's strategy. Remember, he has NO national ground game to counter Obama's vaunted field organization. No Bush-style 72 hour GOTV operation, no large and disciplined staff -- just a small core staff and media operation. In order to win without a ground game he literally has to destroy Obama as a viable alternative -- it isn't enough to just get close. That means the ads will be harder edged, more plentiful and more relentless than we've ever seen.I think Mark McKinnon realized that early on, and didn't want to be the guy to do to Obama what has to be done to win, as that person will become a political scourge (a la Atwater) when all is said and done, even if it works.
John Kerry rips John McCain last night at a fundraiser in Boston thusly:
"John McCain is still stuck on the low road express," said Kerry. "He doesn’t get it. He’s even dangerous, I think, for the direction of this country."
Kerry accused McCain of repeated flip-flopping and going back on his word of running a clean campaign He also poked fun at McCain’s economic credentials.
"I don’t know if you know this," joked Kerry, "John McCain is looking for someone for vice president who has more economic expertise than he does. So congratulations to all of you, you’re on the short list."
Two good battleground ads today from our friends MoveOn.org and the Sierra Club on the issue of gas prices. They are smartly opening up a front on McCain re: his massive spike in contributions from the oil industry.
Also, the MoveOn ad, called "Gimmick", does an excellent job of beginning to shift the debate from gas prices to McCain's credibility, a tactic that worked well for Obama prior to the IN and NC primaries against Senator Clinton.
Although I must say, MoveOn has done a much better job this cycle using real people talking to the camera. I for one think this is effective.
"You know, I don't pay attention to John McCain's ads, although I do notice he doesn't seem to have anything to say very positive about himself. He seems to only be talking about me... You need to ask John McCain what he's for and not just what he's against."
This is so easy to do, I'm surprised that they'd never done it before:
The House of Representatives was poised Tuesday to pass a resolution apologizing to African-Americans for slavery and the era of Jim Crow.
The nonbinding resolution, which is expected to pass, was introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen, a white lawmaker who represents a majority black district in Memphis, Tennessee.
While many states have apologized for slavery, it will be first time a branch of the federal government will apologize for slavery if the resolution passes, an aide to Cohen said.
In a sign that senior Democratic officials remain deeply concerned that post-primary bitterness could imperil Barack Obama's chances, two top Democratic officials have emailed a sharply-worded letter to major donors and other leading Dems confessing "fatigue and irritation" at those withholding full support from Obama and demanding that they get behind him "without conditions or demands."
Carly Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co. and a top adviser to Republican Sen. John McCain, met with the former Clinton backers at a private home for more than an hour and a half. Fiorina said in an interview that over glasses of iced tea and finger food, she fielded questions from Democratic women she described as "intensely uncomfortable with the notion of a President Obama.’’
The Westchester meeting came at the behest of former Clinton supporters, some of whom have said – adamantly – that they won’t support Obama. Polls show Obama winning the majority of support from women voters while about a quarter of ex-Clinton supporters are leaning toward McCain.
Despite assurances to the contrary from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democratic insiders are certain that Sen. Joseph Lieberman will be kicked out of the party's caucus next year and lose his Senate chairmanship if he addresses the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., as planned.
Lieberman's Democratic colleagues willing to accept his support of Sen. John McCain for president consider his speaking to the GOP convention as the last straw. Lieberman was re-elected from Connecticut as an independent in 2006 after losing the Democratic nomination because of his support for the Iraq War.
I'm sure that hearing will only embolden him to do it.
As Barack Obama moves to broaden his appeal beyond loyal Democrats, a chorus of anger and disappointment has arisen from the left. But those voices are a distinct minority because the party has a more pressing concern: winning in November.
On Wednesday, Obama again bucked his liberal allies, voting in the Senate to give legal immunity to phone companies that took part in warrantless wiretapping after the Sept. 11 attacks. Critics chided Obama for the vote -- which put him crossways with dozens of Democratic colleagues, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
I'm sorry folks, but I'm going back to being a lurker. At least for a little while.
The degree of nonsense and puritannicism I've seen on this site in the past two weeks has been frustrating and unbearably sad.
We are so close to something so real and important, and this is what we muster? Sheesh, most of you won't last a week when he's President.
It was one thing to call out Obama on FISA, which was certainly not what I wanted him to do, but I wasn't gonna judge him on it, considering that what one would do when President is different from what one would do when they are a senator, presumptive nominee or not.
But to not cut him slack on this Clark business is a bridge too far.
This site has become a repository for wingnuts who no longer draw conclusions on anything but what is directly in front of their nose. They are unable to see stratagems beyond their ideology, and they give their candidate, the best we've ever had, no slack.
Two more states have shifted to Barack Obama's column in the new CNN Electoral Map that charts the candidates’ strength leading up to the November election.
"Toss-up" states Minnesota and Wisconsin were re-designated to "Lean-Obama" Friday, giving the presumptive Democratic nominee another 20 electoral votes in CNN's current estimate. The Illinois senator now has 231 electoral votes — 39 shy of winning the presidency.
Of course, though...
This is only a CNN estimate and is likely to change many more times in the lead up to the election.
I love DailyKos like I love an old friend. Which is to say, I love it for both its good qualities and accept its limitations.
As a result, I still have to accept that many of us are emotional people (myself included) that often suffer from a lack of perspective. FISA comes to mind here.
I'm not going to get into what bothers me about the response to Obama's decision, nor will I share my feelings about it either, because it's done. People on all sides have a reason to be upset and disappointed, but it is, as economists put it, a sunk cost. We can't get it back.
Nothing more can be gained by rehashing it.
But what I do not want to lose is my grip on the larger picture. And the big news today is that we figured out what the Swiftboat of 2008 is going to be.
Let me say another way: We know what they are going to do.
Nancy Pelosi calls BS on Hillary's not so subtle I'm-a-victim strategy.
Thankfully, she waited until Hillary was out of the race. Otherwise this really would have pissed HRC's people off:
I’m a victim of sexism myself all the time, but I just think it goes with the territory, I don’t sit around to say, ‘but for that"...I think her candidacy was a just a bright, bright moment for us and she may run again.
I guess I didn't realize how many Chicken Little Asshats we have blogging here, people who are allegedly "serious" about getting Barack Obama elected.
Why don't you just join the Green Party? Or the Paultards? They'd probably be attracted to your tenuous grasp on reality.
He is AGAINST IMMUNITY. Read his statement again.
All of this fur is flying over NOTHING until it is all said and done.
Kossacks, I am sick and tired of this ridiculous emotionalism. It might make you feel good, but in your hearts, you know it helps no one.
And it certainly does not do justice to what Barack Obama said.
In the most crucial general election in modern history, Obama is our guy. For better or worse, he is. Have you seen anyone else out there who can do what he can do?
We won't find another one like him for a while, I promise you that.
But I can tell you who we won't find: someone who is perfect.
Someone who always does what we say. Someone who says "how high" when we ask them to jump.
