The Political Chase

Obama Passes Clinton in NH

A new Boston Globe poll has Barack Obama moving slightly ahead of Hillary Clinton and John McCain coming in a very close second to Mitt Romney.

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL

Margin of error:  +/ 4.9 percent. Source:  University of New Hampshire Survey Center

Concord Monitor: Romney’s a Phony

Instead of endorsing Mitt Romney, The Concord Monitor (New Hampshire) delivers a smackdown on why he should not be president — he’s a phony.

If you were building a Republican presidential candidate from a kit, imagine what pieces you might use: an athletic build, ramrod posture, Reaganesque hair, a charismatic speaking style and a crisp dark suit. You’d add a beautiful wife and family, a wildly successful business career and just enough executive government experience. You’d pour in some old GOP bromides - spending cuts and lower taxes - plus some new positions for 2008: anti-immigrant rhetoric and a focus on faith.

Add it all up and you get Mitt Romney, a disquieting figure who sure looks like the next president and most surely must be stopped.

…. snip….

When New Hampshire partisans are asked to defend the state’s first-in-the-nation primary, we talk about our ability to see the candidates up close, ask tough questions and see through the baloney. If a candidate is a phony, we assure ourselves and the rest of the world, we’ll know it.

Mitt Romney is such a candidate. New Hampshire Republicans and independents must vote no.

George Bush - Hoover Reincarnated

J. Edgar Hoover did not die 35 years ago. He’s alive, well and currently serving as the 43rd President of the United States.

From the New York Times:

A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty.

Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after the Korean War began. It envisioned putting suspect Americans in military prisons.

Hoover wanted President Harry S. Truman to proclaim the mass arrests necessary to “protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage.” The F.B.I. would “apprehend all individuals potentially dangerous” to national security, Hoover’s proposal said. The arrests would be carried out under “a master warrant attached to a list of names” provided by the bureau.

The names were part of an index that Hoover had been compiling for years. “The index now contains approximately twelve thousand individuals, of which approximately ninety-seven per cent are citizens of the United States,” he wrote.

“In order to make effective these apprehensions, the proclamation suspends the Writ of Habeas Corpus,” it said.

The Constitution says habeas corpus shall not be suspended “unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.” The plan proposed by Hoover, the head of the F.B.I. from 1924 to 1972, stretched that clause to include “threatened invasion” or “attack upon United States troops in legally occupied territory.”

What do we know about Mr. Hoover?

From nearly the beginning of his career with the FBI, Hoover was accused of exceeding and abusing his authority, criticism that grew especially strong in the 1960s. (1) He is known to have investigated individuals and groups because of their political beliefs rather than their suspected criminal activity as well as using the FBI for other illegal activities such as burglaries and illegal wiretaps.(2)

Yes indeed. One in the same.

1. Hack, Richard. Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover. (2007). Phoenix Books.

2. Cox, John Stuart and Theoharis, Athan G. (1988). The Boss: J. Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisition. Temple University Press.