The Political Chase

New MoveOn Ad Hits McCain on ‘My Friends’

The cavalry returns. MoveOn.org released a new ad today hitting John McCain hard on his strong ties to lobbyists and big oil companies.

527’s for Obama to Return?

Marc Ambinder says 527’s supporting Obama may be on their way back.

An Obama adviser privy to the campaign’s internal thinking on the matter says that,with less than two months before the election and with the realization that Republicans have achieved financial parity with Democrats, they hope that Democratic allies — what another campaign aide termed “the cavalry” — will come to Obama’s aid.

Lieberman booted from Dem Lunches

The Democrats haven’t thrown Lieberman out yet, but Harry Reid is slapping him around a bit. If the Dems get 55 seats in the Senate, Lieberman can probably go hang around with his bomb-Iran buddy full-time. From Roll Call (sub. req’d):

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has decided that Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) — one of Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) top supporters — can no longer attend Democrats’ weekly caucus lunches or the biweekly chairmen’s lunches used to formulate policy, senior Democratic aides said Tuesday.

Obama Rakes It In

Obama raised $8 million since Palin’s speech last night and is "on pace" to hit $10 million by the time "John McCain hits the stage tonight."

GA-03 Westmoreland opponent is Stephen Camp

Stephen Camp is running against Rep. Lynn Westmoreland in the 8th 3rd Congressional District of Georgia.

Contributions to Camp’s campaign can be made by accessing ActBlue via Camp’s web site.

Update: I mistakenly said Westmoreland representened Georgia’s 8th Congressional District. I should have said Georgia’s 3rd Congressional District.

Poll: Obama Gets Post-Convention Bounce

A new USA Today-Gallup Poll has Barack Obama finally moving out of the 40’s into a 50% to 43% lead over John McCain.

The Democratic National Convention significantly boosted Americans’ views of Barack Obama as a strong leader who “shares your values” and can manage the economy and Iraq, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Saturday and Sunday finds.

Republican John McCain’s advantage in handling terrorism was dramatically reduced and his “unfavorable” rating ticked up to its highest level this year….

In the head-to-head race between the candidates, Obama now leads 50%-43% among registered voters. In the USA TODAY poll taken Aug. 21-23, the Illinois senator held a four-point lead.

The new USA TODAY survey shows Americans settling into their choices. Now, 21% of registered voters say they either haven’t decided or might change their minds. In a USA TODAY poll before the convention began, 30% were swing voters.

Kerry Delivers Outstanding Speech

(Update I and Update II below)

I thought John Kerry delivered one of the best speeches of the convention (if not the best), and certainly one of Kerry’s best speeches ever. He delivered a side of very rare red meat to John McCain.

The stakes could not be higher, because we do know what a McCain administration would look like: just like the past, just like George Bush. And this country can’t afford a third Bush term. Just think: John McCain voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time. Ninety percent of George Bush is just more than we can take.

Never in modern history has an administration squandered American power so recklessly. Never has strategy been so replaced by ideology. Never has extremism so crowded out common sense and fundamental American values. Never has short-term partisan politics so depleted the strength of America’s bipartisan foreign policy.

George Bush, with John McCain at his side, promised to spread freedom but delivered the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. They misread the threat and misled the country. Instead of freedom, it’s Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban and dictators everywhere that are on the march. North Korea has more bombs, and Iran is defiantly chasing one.

Our mission is to restore America’s influence and position in the world. We must use all the weapons in our arsenal, above all, our values. President Obama and Vice President Biden will shut down Guantanamo, respect the Constitution, and make clear once and for all, the United States of America does not torture, not now, not ever.

Here’s the full text of Kerry’s speech

Update: TPM has the video of Kerry’s speech.

Update II: Gail Collins obviously wasn’t paying attention when John Kerry gave his speech last night because she takes a rather hard swipe at Kerry in her column today. But then, why should she bother listening to Kerry’s speech before she slams him in her column today? Just business as usual. And of course, every negative critique of the Obama campaign must come with an appropriate dose of Michele-bashing, especially if the punditocracy wants to continue cozying up to their favorite candidate.

Hillary looks 10 years younger than she did when she thought she was about to become the first woman president. She’s developed this … glow. It appears that not only does she possess superhuman resilience; she positively thrives on crushing disappointment.

Michelle, on the other hand, has been looking slightly frayed. At the joint event, after the paean to Hillary, her speech went a little astray. Her mouth twitched and she seemed preoccupied with something else during her ritual call to reject the world as it is in favor of the world as it should be.

Obviously Collins didn’t savor her cathartic moment during roll call today. Isn’t it time to give it a rest and get on with life?

Finally, the picture is right

Well, it looks like the Times finally got the nominees in the picture rather than the runner-up.

Obama Wins Nomination, Hillary Wins Media

Barack Obama just won the Democratic Party’s nomination for President. In addition to winning the nomination, Obama is the first African-American in the history of our country to win the nomination of any major party. The media’s perspective — So?

Obama may be the nominee, but the media simply cannot stop its lovefest with Hillary Clinton. Take a look at the the leads from the Times and the Post. If you didn’t read the headline, who would you think won the nomination?

The New York Times‘ lead (7:15 PM EDT):

The Washington Post‘s lead (7:19 PM EDT):

Although Hillary’s motion to nominate Obama by acclamation was a pivotal and important point, Clinton did not win the nomination and was not remotely close to doing so, but the press plasters her image as if she just won the general election, rather than losing the party’s nomination..

I have not been able to post for several months for several reason, but I found this so indicative of everything that has been transpiring in the campaigns since then, I had to take the opportunity to make note of it.

Here’s the tally of delegate votes by state up to New York’s (Clinton) motion. Of the 32 states voting, Obama had 82 percent of the votes cast to Hillary’s 18 percent.

A grim scenario for Clinton or preparations for blast off?

In a scathing commentary in the Washington Post today, Eugene Robinson aptly captures and characterizes the litany of never-ending absurdities and logic-defying reasons Hillary Clinton routinely cites and changes (daily) as to why she continues her failed candidacy for President of the United States. And seemingly failed is probably a better characterization than just failed.

The third graf is Eugene’s money statement.

If this campaign goes on much longer, what will be left of Hillary Clinton?

A woman uniformly described by her close friends as genuine, principled and sane has been reduced to citing the timing of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination as a reason to stay in the race — an argument that is ungenuine, [sic] unprincipled and insane. She vows to keep pushing, perhaps all the way to the convention in August. What manner of disintegration is yet to come?. . . .

It could be that any presidential campaign requires a measure of blind faith. But there’s a difference between having faith in a dream and being lost in a delusion. The former suggests inner strength; the latter, an inner meltdown.

What Clinton’s evocation of RFK suggests isn’t that she had some tactical reason for speaking the unspeakable but that she and her closest advisers can’t stop running and rerunning through their minds the most far-fetched scenarios, no matter how absurd or even obscene. She gives the impression of having spent long nights convincing herself that the stars really might still align for her — that something can still happen to make the Democratic Party realize how foolish it has been.

Eugene H. Robinson

Many have asked, especially Chris Matthews, what exactly does Hillary want and/or what is she really trying to accomplish? The choices are not clear and are hardly indicative of Clinton’s historically expressed objectives.

Most of the speculation has focused on Hillary seeking a V.P. slot on Obama’s ticket. Until hubby Bill been campaigning for Hillary to be V.P., that rhetoric was echoed primarily by the punditocracy and Hillary supporters. Furthermore, just because Bill is campaigning for a V.P. position, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a Hillary authorized position — Bill tends to do his own thing from time to time.

It’s just my opinion, but I believe it will be a very cold day in Hades before Obama offers Hillary a V.P. slot. The calculating and reprehensible positions Robinson highlights in his piece and the rancor and numerous “illusions” emanated from the Hillary campaign are counter-productive for any potential vice presidential nominee.

At best, only a few know what Hillary wants, which of course presumes she knows herself.

Since I am a quintessential cynic, I firmly believe Hillary has an objective, if not a very calculated plan, but that is nothing more than my personal speculation. Furthermore, I increasingly suspect “the plan” leans more towards some version of a “nuclear option” rather than serving the best interests of the party. Paranoia will destroy ya, but I’m waiting on the Clinton campaign to drop an eleventh-hour bombshell — fabricated or real — that will be impossible to effectively challenge before the first round of ballots at the Democratic convention.

What other options does Clinton have? No superdelegate is going to buy into all these fuzzy math propositions and the recent lunacy of a stolen nomination based on gender.

I don’t buy into the Hillary’s crusade for Michigan and Florida, with the qualifier that it may somehow support a higher priority or objective. She dissed Michigan and Florida months ago, but now has this overwhelming motivation to fight disenfranchisement she fully supported?

But the most compelling item, and potentially flawed notion I have is dismissing what the Washington Pundit Elites said on David Gregory’s show a few weeks ago, especially considering there are no other “winning” alternatives. Obviously, Gregory, Scarborough, Maddow et al. were wrong about Hillary possibly dropping out after Indiana, but that was by no means the full subtext of their message.

As Terry McAuliffe and the unnamed sources indicated, we’ll probably have to wait until mid-June to glean maybe just a hint of what the Gregory crew were alluding to, but I wouldn’t put big bucks on Clinton suspending or withdrawing.

Whatever Clinton’s up to, Eugene Robinson has indeed characterized Hillary’s tactics and equivocating to this point quite accurately.

Wolfson: Hillary Innocent — Obama Victimized Clinton and Is Responsible for Inflaming Assassination Remarks

(Update I and Update II below)

As usual, Sen. Clinton did nothing wrong when she made her remarks about the assassination of Robert Kennedy last week – it’s all Barack Obama’s and the media’s fault. That’s what Hillary campaign Communications Director Howard Wolfson said on CBS’s "Face the Nation" this morning.

Moreover, according to Bob Schieffer, moderator of "Face the Nation," Terry McAuliffe said on "Fox News Sunday" today that Obama "inflamed the situation" and does not deserve an apology nor would he receive one. Wolfson firmly agreed with McAuliffe’s purported remarks.

I have not yet found a transcript or video of McAuliffe’s remarks on Fox, but Bob Schieffer confirmed McAuliffe’s remarks as well as Wolfson.

Here’s a transcript of Schieffer interviewing Wolfson. The emphases are supplied to reflect Schieffer’s emphasis in tone. He was obviously shocked and implied disbelief at some of Wolfson’s remarks.

Video to follow soon.

Update I 6:23 PM ET:  Here’s the video. Also, I have made minor corrections in the post and the transcript (including addition of Clinton’s remarks in the video clip), and moved the transcript to after the jump.

Update II 7:10 PM ET: More minor corrections to the transcript.

More. . .

Continue reading ‘Wolfson: Hillary Innocent — Obama Victimized Clinton and Is Responsible for Inflaming Assassination Remarks’

Clinton Offers Regrets Not Aplogies on Assassination Remarks

Still catching up on past events — Clinton says she regrets her comments that Robert Kennedy’s assassination was one of the reasons she remains in the Democratic race. No an apology, please forgive me, or I was wrong. And not even to Obama or to the American people — only to the Kennedy’s

Transcript:

“Earlier today I was discussing the Democratic primary history and in the course of that discussion mentioned the campaigns that both my husband and Senator Kennedy waged in California in June, in 1992 and 1968. And I was referencing those to make the point that we have had nomination primary contests that go into June. That’s a historic fact.

“The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy. And I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and particularly for the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever. My view is that we have to look to the past and to our leaders who have inspired us and give us a lot to live up to. I am honored to hold Senator Kennedy’s seat in the United States Senate, from the state of New York, and have the highest regard for the entire Kennedy family. Thank you.”

Hillary Clinton Cites RFK Assassination As Reason to Remain in Race

I’ve been unable to post for health reasons, so I’ll try to catch up on some of the major issues since I last posted.

I know everyone’s already heard about this, but for the record…Topping the list in the Democratic presidential campaign is this increblible remark by Hillary Clinton to the Argus Leader editorial board citing the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in June 1968 as one of the reason why she continues her campaign. Her intention is quite clear — stay in the race in case her opponent, Barack Obama, just happens to get assassinated.

Here’s the video. The transcript is after the jump.

Here’s the salient part of Clinton’s remarks:

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right?” she said. “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.”

Can you imagine the backlash that would have been elicited from Sen. Clinton if Sen. Obama made the same remark? And as Karen Tumulty notes, this is not the first time she’s made the similar association.

(Ed. Note: For record keeping puporses, I’m back-dating this to the date Clinton made the remarks rather than have the post reflect the actual post date.)

More. . .
Continue reading ‘Hillary Clinton Cites RFK Assassination As Reason to Remain in Race’

Kennedy: No stroke, no immediate danger

New England Cable News reports Sen. Ted Kennedy did not suffer a stroke and is not in any immediate danger. They also gave no indication of how long Kennedy would be there.

Watch the video report.

Update 10:09 PM ET: I had to remove the video from this site. It’s a tad unconventional, technically speaking, and was too problematic. You can watch it at NECN’s site.

Hillary: It’s the media’s fault

Hillary has had little choice but to adhere to the warnings from Democratic Party leaders that she dial back her rhetoric against Obama. But they never warned her about the media. So, now that she can’t demonize Obama publicly, she’s running a new ad in Oregon, “What’s Right,” and blaming the media.

The Hillary campaign’s slogan for the ad? “In Washington, they talk about who’s up and who’s down. In Oregon, we care about what’s right and what’s wrong.”

Mary Poppins — practically perfect in every way.

Why would anybody ever think that Hillary may have created her own problems, or that Obama was a better candidate, or maybe the media was right or even biased towards Hillary at times?