After watching the Democratic Debate on MSNBC yesterday I came to a few realizations. First, the debate cemented my sincere belief that, if elected, everyone on that stage would take the country into new and better directions. Second, the debate cemented my belief that most Democrats still need to grow some (for lack of a better word) Balls. From Iraq, Health Care, Minimum Wage, and Climate Change, Americans are with us on the issues. Yet, we arent pushing those agendas nearly as much as we should.
In the last two weeks major Republican figures spouted grotesque absurdities. Former speaker of the house, Newt Gingrich, claimed last week that the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech was caused by liberalism. This week, presidential candidate and former Mayor of NYC Rudy Giuliani stated that a Democratic president would increase the chance of a second 9-11 type attack on the U.S. While Harry Reid was taking a beating for saying the war is lost, these disgraceful statements went largely un-scrutinized in the media and by Democrats. Why? The Republicans are a loud minority. Every chance they get, they attack, lie, and spin in order to make the Democrats look bad. Lately they have had to resort to making absurd statements because they have no issues on their side.
It's time for Democrats to become a loud majority. Its time for us stress the issues that affect everyday Americans. It's time for us to underscore the inexcusable Republican failures over the last six years. And its time for us to fight back when we are attacked by revolting calculated lies. One of John Kerry' biggest mistakes was not effectively responding to ridiculous attacks. It is imperative that similar mistakes are not made in '08.
We have the issues on our side. We have the American people on our side. And now it's time for our candidates to have the guts to speak and defend the truth.
With a 5-4 vote on Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal ban on partial-birth abortions. Bush's two appointees, Roberts and Alito, were on the majority side along with Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas. Partial-birth abortion are not a pretty procedure, but the decision of whether or not to have one should be up to the woman and her doctor, not the government. Furthermore, this ruling directly puts women's health in danger by not allowing for a partial-birth abortion even if the woman's life is threatened. It puts the life of an unborn fetus above the life of an adult woman, which is immoral in my opinion.
Everyone knows that this ruling is a dangerous first step towards overturning Roe v. Wade. Let it be a wake up call to all progressives. This is why we've got to win in '08.
In the wake of his blistering Senate testimony yesterday, senior Bush administration officials are now calling for Gonzales' resignation. It seems like every day another wave of progressives and conservatives come out against him. First it was the '08 Dems, then last week it was a group of influential conservatives, a few days ago it was Bill Clinton, and today Republican House leader Rep. Adam Putman joined in. Now I think he's finally reached the tipping point. I predict a resignation within the next week or possibly next few days.
We're all looking forward to seeing the end of a man who called the Geneva Conventions "quaint." But, if the administration keeps him around a little longer, so be it, they'll only drag their party down further.
Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday war in Iraq. Happy birthday to you!
and many more? God lets hope not. aw memories... Remember, we originally invaded Iraq as self defense, to stop Saddam Hussein from developing and using WMDs.
Remember, that after it became blatantly obvious that Hussein had none of these weapons, our reasoning for being in Iraq instantly morphed to a selfless act of kindness towards the Iraqi people, liberating them from the evil Hussein and bringing them the gift of American democracy.
Hmmm, maybe its just me, but I can't see Bush, Cheney or Karl Rove staying up long nights worrying about the poor oppressed people of the world. If they did, the administration would have done something about Darfur, and they wouldn't be such close buddies with the oppressive Saudi government.
This war was started by a lie, and is now justified by a new lie. And yet, if the administration has their way, we will continue to fight in Iraq till Bush leaves office.
Americans overwhelmingly want us to get out of Iraq. Iraqis overwhelmingly want us to leave. The United States Congress has passed a bill that calls for withdrawal. Bush and the administration are unwilling to listen to the will's of the American people, Congress, and the people of Iraq. Luckily for the Bush administration there can be no direct vote on the matter, if there was, both Americans and Iraqis would vote for us to leave. At which point we would have truly got, Democracy.
Recent Rasmussen polls show Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards defeating all Republican candidates when matched up against them one on one. Hillary and Obama are both virtually tied with Gulliani and McCain, while Edwards beats them by almost 10% each.
Not only does Edwards lead every Republican in the race, but he would win in a landslide against all but two of them. Check it out:
March 26-27, 2007These polls show significant progress since the Rasmussen polls taken in November, which had Edwards trailing Giuliani by 9% and McCain by 4%. Of course everyone knows that it's way too early is the game to take these match ups very seriously, but they are interesting indicators of current public opinion.
John Edwards (D) 47% John McCain (R) 38%
John Edwards (D) 55% Mitt Romney (R) 29%
April 4-5, 2007
Rudy Giuliani (R) 43% John Edwards (D) 49%
Fred Thompson (R) 36% John Edwards (D) 50%
After the event MoveOn.org had their members vote on which candidate had the best plan for Iraq. Here are the results they released:
Sen. Barack Obama 28%
Sen. John Edwards 25%
Rep. Dennis Kucinich 17%
Gov. Bill Richardson 12%
Sen. Hillary Clinton 11%
Sen. Joe Biden 6%
Sen. Chris Dodd 1%
But, at the very bottom of email they send out MoveOn added this:
P.S. MoveOn members who watched the Town Hall at one of the parties voted differently from those who did not. Here are how the folks who attended the event ranked their choices:Although Obama won the vote with a small 3% margin of overall MoveOn members, we have now way of telling how many of them actually listened to the forum and know the difference between each candidate's plan. The much more inportant number is John Edwards' 25% out of the people who attended the Town Hall.
Sen. John Edwards 25%
Gov. Bill Richardson 21%
Sen. Barack Obama 19%
Rep. Dennis Kucinich 15%
Sen. Joe Biden 10%
Sen. Hillary Clinton 7%
Sen. Chris Dodd 4%
But the most notable number in the second graph is the 21% for Bill Richardson. No doubt his strong showing is in part due to the great publicity from MyDD and Kos afterwards.
As I type, moveon.org and Air America are hosting an online forum on the topic of the war in Iraq with 7 of the Democratic candidates for president: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Chris Dodd, and Joe Biden.
Edwards stressed congressional power to stop the war, and the importance of grassroots efforts. He quoted Martin Luther King, when King called for the end of the Vietnam war 40 years ago.
I missed most of Biden's time due to technical difficulties, but what I did hear him stress was a U.S. plan for keeping Iraq stable after our withdrawal.
Kucinich talked extensively about his plan for withdrawal from Iraq H.R. 1234. Going along with his other radical unrealistic stances, Kucinich said he would support a nuclear proliferation treaty which would eliminate all nuclear weapons worldwide. I was glad that he mentioned joining the International Criminal Court.
Gov. Richardson called for engaging Syria and other countries in the region in diplomacy on Iraq. Then he went on to tout his own plan for withdrawal, which he argued could be effectively achieved in just 8 months. When asked whether or not he supports congress cutting the funding for the war, Richardson said that he favors repealing authorization for the war under the War Powers Act, in order to avoid endless vetos.
Next up was Sen. Clinton, who spoke about her plan to begin troop deployment within 90 days and moving responsibility to the Iraqi government. Although I have to admit I'm not too hot for Hillary, she did answer the questions with a sharp clear speaking style that was better than I've heard from her in the past. I especially liked when she underlined the fact that Democrats were the ones who passed funding for the troops, while Bush is the one who is treatening to veto that funding. I couldn't help but notice that while Sen. Clinton was speaking, Moveon displayed some pretty unflattering photos of her on the online conference.
When Chris Dodd took his turn of questioning, he sounded much more genuine than some of the other other candidates whose responses had sounded very scripted. When asked about Iraq's oil being exploited by large corporations, Dodd wandered off topic a bit and spoke about the critical importance of American energy independence. He finished by speaking about improving America's image abroad by ending our human rights abuses.
The final candidate was Barack Obama, who began by reminding everyone of his initial opposition to the war. He went on to support engaging Syria and Iran in dialog. The critical question for Obama was when he was asked whether or not he would threaten to withhold funding for the war even if Bush vetoes the current bill. Obama's response was definitely a step back from his infamous "can't play chicken with the troops" line, as he called for a strong attempt to override an inevitable Bush veto.
I have to admit that I know very little about French politics. But, what I do know is that unseasonably high voter indecision (42% undecided) and record breaking voter registration (over 44.5 million) promise to make this month's first round election a lively affair. On April 22nd the people of France will vote on which of the 12 declared candidates will replace outgoing center-right President Jacques Chirac. If no candidate receives more than %50 of the popular vote, the election moves into a second round on May 6th between the top two candidates. The French two round voting system makes a lot of sense to me, considering it would instantly solve the problem of terrible "Nader 2000" scenarios in which the enemy of your enemy is your enemy. I guess you could also say that your enemy's greatest enemy is unwillingly your enemy's greatest ally. I know, it's confusing as hell, but that's American politics. We need electoral reform.
A CNN poll released today shows John Edwards getting significant traction among New Hampshire Democrats in the race for the Democratic Nomination. The poll also shows Hillary Clinton bleeding support, while Obama's numbers remain steady since last month.
| | March/April 2007 | February 2007 | | | | |
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| Hillary Clinton | 27 | 35 | ||||
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| John Edwards | 21 | 16 | ||||
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| Barack Obama | 20 | 21 | ||||
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| Al Gore | 11 | 8 | ||||
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| Bill Richardson | 4 | 1 | ||||
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| Joe Biden | 2 | 3 | ||||
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| Tommy Thompson | 2 | 2 | ||||
The talk of former Senator and Law and Order star Fred Thompson joining the 2008 presidential race have moved from rumors to serious speculation. Bill Frist and a small handful of congressman are lobbying hard for Thompson to run. Poll numbers indicate that in the scattered and weak Republican field there is still ample room for another serious contender to emerge. After Thompson went on Fox News a few weeks ago and said he is considering a run, his poll number shot through the roof...
USA Today/ Gallup Poll, Republican Predential Primary:
(Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents)
| | 2007 Mar 23-25 | 2007 Mar 2-4 | 2007 Feb 9-11 | 2007 Jan 12-14 | | |
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| Rudy Giuliani | 31 | 44 | 40 | 31 | ||
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| John McCain | 22 | 20 | 24 | 27 | ||
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| Fred Thompson | 12 | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||
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| Newt Gingrich | 8 | 9 | 9 | 10 | ||
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| Sam Brownback | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | ||
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| Mitt Romney | 3 | 8 | 5 | 7 | ||
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| Tommy Thompson | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
If I were Fred Thompson looking at those numbers right now, I don't see how I couldn't give it a shot. My guess is he'll start making moves towards a run, start an exploratory committee, and formally announce sometime during the summer or fall.
In the first fundraising quarter
Clinton raised $26 Million
Obama raised $21 Million
This is huge!
Clinton was hoping to wallop Obama in the first quarter. Instead, Obama came very close to matching her in fundraising dough. Clinton came into the race thinking it would be an easy ride to the nomination. Instead she is facing tougher and tougher competition from Obama and Edwards both of whose polls continue to rise at her expense.
This is just the beginning, but it is already apparent that this is going to be one of the most expensive and closely fought nominations in history.
UPDATE: Clinton - 26 Million
Obama - 25 Million
Edwards- 14 Million