Notes From All Over: Political Edition II

only 8 days, my lovelies....

after taking a couple days off from campaigning in recognition of the birth of someone or other.... the candidates are back on the trail.

most candidates are in iowa... would make sense.

but ole "make no sense" giuliani is in florida.... still working towards his tsunami tuesday strategy. and john "hope is on the way" edwards is in new hampshire.

wha...?!?!

it's all very odd.... meanwhile....new polls seems to be out every day. so let's break down some interesting party polls.

the republicans
first off...let's take a moment to appreciate the rapid decline of rudy's campaign. at once holding a strong 18 point lead in national polls, mr. "i've spent more time at ground zero" giuliani is now barely holding on to a 3-point lead (he's tied with romney in the most recent nbc poll).

in iowa....the momentum train that is huckabee continues to glide - ahead as much as 6 or 8 points in certain polls. but the magnificent lead he held towards the beginning of december has trailed off and romney has regained some ground.

meanwhile....if thompson ever had any momentum.... i simply can't find it.

in new hampshire.... mccain is making a helluva comeback and only trails romney by 3 points in the lated globe poll.

it's really crazy.... i'm not sure mccain can pull off such a stunning comeback and win the nomination...but if he does - he's the one republican i'm truly fearful that a dem could possibly not beat. i'm still thinking the nod will go to romney or huckabee.... but it's still an open race.

of course...ole flip-flop mitt continues to attack huckabee and everyone seems to be largely ignoring everyone else.

and while we're discussing romney, let's take a look back for our...

meet the press quote of the week (december 16, 2007)
i thought romney handled himself rather well.... of course, it all depends on what your definition of "saw" is.... but he maintained his composure and fared rather well against mr. russert. far batter than rudy, at any rate.

but when asked about the issue that has plagued him most in recent weeks...illegal immigration....he missed an opportunity to really clear up the misunderstanding. russert mentioned a very damning article about flip-flop's gardening company and their use of illegal immigrants. mr. romney was adament! "i have to clear up the most egregious error in that article," he began. this was it! tell us the truth!

continued mitt:

it says my house is pink. i would not have a pink house, i assure you.

yes....with your constant change on abortion rights, gun rights, gay rights.... with the questions surrounding your misstatements and mormonism and use of illegal immigrants.... the possible insuation that you're a fag by having a pink house... THAT'S egregous.

you jackass.

meet the press quote of the week (december 23, 2007)
i have to stick with romney for a moment.... ron paul was tim's guest this past weekend and he came across as a total buffoon. unaware of statistics, caught talking down about big government, but introducing goverment earmarks...but then voting against the very earmarks he introduced because he knew they were safe for his constituency with enough votes to pass so he could stand by his libertarian credentials and say "i voted against big government!"

ron paul is a joke and if you're considering a vote for paul...you're a moron. grow up.

but the quote of the week goes to john harwood and this little nugget about flip-flop mitt (on the topic of him "seeing" his father march with MLK):

if you look at the way mitt romney's run his campaign, there's plenty to criticize. those of us old enough to remember "leave it to beaver" sometimes see eddie haskell in mitt romney going to every constituency group and saying, "you look so lovely, mrs. cleaver."

priceless.....

the democrats - or - hillary's on the rise
when looking at the average of all the recent polls in iowa....realclearpolitics.com shows hillary clinton has regained the lead with an average of 1.9 points ahead of obama. not much, i know... but the latest american research group poll actually has hill ahead by 14 points.

clinton has also seen a slight bump in new hampshire where she maintains a slight lead over obama.

it still comes down to this: if hillary wins iowa - she wins it all. if she comes in second to edwards - she probably goes on to win it all.

if obama wins iowa.... well, then we might have some problems.

but edwards has the most experienced caucus goers behind him in iowa so that bolds well for his chances. if my girl can't take iowa....i'd much rather her lose to johnny boy.

but all the national polls still show that obama and clinton can beat every republican nominee (with the possible exception of mccain - which is why he scares me).

let's talk endorsements
i'll try to keep this short....i know i'm running long. mccain has been garnering most of the respectable and important newspaper endorsements on the GOP side: des moines register and boston globe among them.

hillary gained the des moines register endorsement (they endorsed edwards in '04 - ouch!) while obama won the globe endorsement.

meanwhile, mitt romney received a rare anti-endorsement from the concord monitor which called romney “a disquieting figure who sure looks like the next president and most surely must be stopped.”

gotta love that..... poor mitt. thank god he's pretty.

interesting side note:
richard baehr has an article that talks about hillary's possible running mate should she win the nomination. there's been a lot of talk about someone with a military background - general wesley clark or senator jim webb. but baehr mentioned both their recent stints with foot in mouth disease.... so he's thrown out the name of former nebraska governor and senator bob kerrey - most recently of the new school and the 9/11 commission.

interesting... he did just come out and endorse hill in iowa the other week.

thank buddha all the christmas nosense is over and we can get back to politics, huh?

go hillary! play it smart the next 8 days.....

e.

Too Good Not To Mention

on tuesday, ole flip flop romney was giving a speech in south carolina when he confused the name of the september 11th mastermind with the name of a democrat running for president.

said mitt: “actually, just look at what osama — barack obama said just yesterday. barack obama calling on radicals, jihadists of all different types, to come together in iraq. that is the battlefield."

kevin madden, a romney campaign spokesman, said it was merely a "brief mix up."

“governor romney simply misspoke," he said. "he was referring to the recently released audiotape of osama bin laden and misspoke when referencing his name."

but now for the good part......

bill burton, a spokesman for the obama camp, simply replied:

apparently, mitt romney can switch names just as casually as he switches positions.

i love this man....

point obama.

e.

Reality Check

a friend sent me an interesting post from cnn's political ticker just a moment ago. apparently, ole flip-flop romney's boston campaign headquarters was broken into sometime between last night and this morning.

a television and 8 laptop computers were stolen.

the story itself is not all that interesting.... but the posts by the general public below the story are fascinating.

cary from lowell, in writes: "doesn't surprise me, especially if this is found to be done by the liberal left. They'll stoop to anything to make a gain."

fabian palomino of nyc posted: "Looks like Hillary's hired gun private investigator Anthony Pellicano has gone on an early plumbing expedition. I suggest to Giuliani's campaign staff that they go to Costco and buy some extra locks. That's why I want Obama to win, I'm sick of the Clintons dirty tricks."

and matt from nebraska declares: "Another break-in. Wow, deja vu! You'd never guess there was a Clinton in the run for the White House!"

people, people, people...... let's stop and check back in with the wonderful world of reality for a moment.

we're in a primary election. primaries..... that means they're running against people in their own party.

not that hillary's camp would ever do anything like this... not that any democrat would stoop to nixonian tricks.... but for the sake of argument - let's say you thought this was hillary. why would she break into mitt's campaign headquarters? she's not running against mitt.

hillary's running against other democrats. mitt's running against other republicans.....

do people who read these political websites not quite understand how the process works?

besides.....hillary is beating rudy in national polls. rudy is beating all the other GOP candidates. i'm sure she's handily beating mitt. so....really....i doubt she's too worried.

people, please.... think before you post.

e.

p.s.

happy birthday, salsez.... you look fabulous for fifty!

http://salsez.blogspot.com/

Mitt's Latest Flip

well.....ole "i'll say whatever you need me to say to get your vote" romney has done it again. in the aftermath of twinkle toe craig's misconduct in the minneapolis airport men's room, romney has lashed out at the idaho senator.

senator larry craig, who was working with mitt on his campaign, elected to drop out of the romney camp so as not to distract.

so...... that was nice of him. i mean - we'd hate to have him come up in the romney campaign, right?

but wait...that didn't stop mitt from bringing him up anyway:

"it reminds us that people who are elected to public office continue to disappoint," mitty said on cnbc. "and they somehow think that if they vote the right way on issues of significance or they can speak a good game that we'll just forgive and forget."

oh, you mean....the way you want everyone to forget that you ran as a democrat to get elected as governor of massachusetts?

or the way you want the republicans to forgive you for years of being a social progressive? forget the way you supported abortion rights?

you want everyone to forget and forgive all that... so you can now run as a republican for president of the united states?

is that what you mean by speaking a good game?

so tell me, mitt: who are you currently disappointing? the dems that voted you into office because you supported their views at the time it best benefited you? or the republicans that have to listen to you constantly flip-flop on every important issue you've run on so that you can now steal the GOP nomination from a true conservative?

and have you disappointed senator craig? a loyal campaigner who made a pro-romney video that has now been ripped off of youtube...? that dropped out of your campaign so as not to hurt your chances due to association? the man you have now vilified in the public's eyes?

i'm not defending senator craig.... i mean, the 'mo needs to own up to actions. remember that he was the one that said back in february of '99 that "clinton brought this nation to this point because of his own self-gratification, setting what was good for himself above what was good for the nation." (glass houses.......)

but mitt.... seriously?

meet the press quote of the week

way over due, i know.... and i apologize, my lovelies. this week's quote comes from thomas ricks of the washington post:

"iraq, i think, is going to be much more difficult for this country than the vietnam war was...because we could walk away from vietnam." ricks goes on to say that leaving vietman was bad for the cambodians and others (obviously) but it didn't result in the predicted domino effect of communism taking over the world. but that we've "stepped into something" with iraq which is in a region with too high an economic influence on the world to just leave it.

i.e. i think we're in it for the long haul.....

e.

5 Brothers

no....it's not a new brand of pasta sauce. it's the name mitt romney's offspring have given themselves on the campaign trail and for the blogs they keep for romney's own website.

now, i'll be the first to admit it... the romney boys are hot. especially matt & josh. but just because i want to schtup four out of the five of them, don't mean i'm gonna vote for mitt. but the five brothers are desperately trying to help papa get nominated, four of them actively campaigning for romney.

but is it possible the romney spawn could also end up hurting him....?

at a recent event in iowa, ole fightin' mitt was asked about his five sons' lack of military service. mitt, in all his "i'm just like ronald reagan...no, really" glory answered: "one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think i'd be a great president."

ummmm....okay.

romney specifically focused in on his boy josh (one of the four, granted) and his trip through 99 iowa counties this summer in the RV dubbed the "mitt mobile." but what did rachel griffiths (the questioner, not the actress) have to say about romney's answer?

"he told me the way his son shows support for our military and our nation is to buy a winnebago and ride across iowa and help him get elected."

i love this woman... griffiths is an anti-war activist who has a sister who served in iraq. her question and response has to be another embarrassment to the romney camp who seems to be making a string of youtube-captured flubs.

from his argument with a radio-show host about an unwanted, mormon-focused radio interview to the new hampshire waitress who publicly shot him down... romney's frustration and short-temper have been highlighted on many an evening news show.

and now, his pathetic attempt at addressing his sons' unwillingness to join in a war he so stridently believes in is just another embarrassing moment for political fodder. on it's own - i doubt this doozy of a flub (not to mention an utterly moronic argument) will make much of a difference, but once you start adding it to the list of other idiotic mitt moments, how soon before a cell phone camera captures mitt's own macaca moment?

not soon enough, i say.... but i'll keep you posted.

e.