Daily Archives: September 4, 2008

Quote of the day

CNN just played a clip of Obama talking about being held up against your record.

He said:

“I assume she wants to be treated the same way guys want to be treated. Which means that their records are uhh under scutiny. I’ve been through this for 19 months, she has been through this for what 4 days so far?”

Also note worthy is Obama said he isn’t running against Palin. He is running against John McCain.

One reason to not buy Johnson and Johnson Products…

ST. PAUL — Of all the whales at the Republican National Convention this week, Robert Wood Johnson IV, the billionaire heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and owner of the New York Jets, may be the biggest.

Mr. Johnson has long been a player in Republican politics — he was a Bush Ranger in 2000 and 2004, raising more than $200,000 in each election. He has personally given more than $1 million to Republican candidates and committees over the years.

But this year, he emerged as perhaps the party’s most coveted donor. In May, after turning his office into a war room for more than a month and making sometimes 50 calls a day, he orchestrated a fund-raiser in New York City that brought in $7 million in a single evening for Mr. McCain, by far the largest amount collected up to that point by a campaign that had been struggling to raise money.

But Mr. Johnson also clearly has his own agenda. Staffers on Capitol Hill credit him with playing a pivotal role in 2002 in pushing members of Congress, including House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, to allocate $750 million over five years for juvenile diabetes research.

And the Michigan Independents Weigh In — UPDATE

Jake Tapper has the story:

Ilene Beninson, 52, Berkley independent: “Her speech contained few statements about policy or the party platform. … I am not convinced that Palin’s experience as a mayor or governor in Alaska meet the qualifications to be vice president much less one stroke or heart attack away from being commander in chief.”

Jan Wheelock, 58, Royal Oak independent: “Nothing worked for me. I found her barrage of snide remarks and distortions to be a major turnoff. She is not a class act. The most important point she made is that she will be an effective attack dog.”

There’s more at the link.

UPDATE: TheHuffington Post reports on another focus group from last night — this one of female HRC voters from Nevada.
Continue reading →

This one’s for you, Rebecca!

In an earlier thread, Rebecca linked to an article from Politico that might make McCain reconsider his attack the press strategy. Doesn’t look like the media will be rolling over this time.

On behalf of the media, I would like to say we are sorry. On behalf of the elite media, I would like to say we are very sorry. We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked. We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency? We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice?
Bad questions. Bad media. Bad.

Delaware Liberal Endorsements – Part 4

United States House of Representative:

Jerry Northington is a principled opponent of the Iraq War and desires to tackle poverty. He has thought out the issues facing us and speaks fluently and in detail on how he would help to address these issues in Congress. Since fundraising and basic campaign performance up to this point indicates that neither of the three candidates has any chance to beat Castle, we prefer to reward Jerry with our support rather than Karen Hartley Nagle or Mike Miller.  Indeed, if either Karen or Mike had used the primary season to lay a glove on Mike Castle this might have been a more difficult decision to make. As it stands, there is no need to pick between heart and hustle in this contest.    

Finally, Jerry is a longtime friend of the netroots and the blogosphere (although we note that none of the candidates took advantage of or tried to energize the local netroots which is puzzling). He is known as “Possum” on Daily Kos. He heeded the call to action to have progressive candidates run in primaries across this land so that we can slowly retake our party from those who are afraid to be Democrats in the first place, and from those who have voted for the war and with the Bush Administration. We must reward such personal dedication. Delaware Liberal endorses Jerry Northington. 

Delaware Liberal Endorsements – Part 3

Governor:

John Carney would have been a slam dunk, were it not for the compelling candidacy of Jack Markell. While it is difficult to gin up support for John in the blogosphere, he inspires a loyal following from many of the traditional Democratic constituencies (labor unions, party machine voters, etc.) If he wins, it will be because these “traditional” Democrats got out the vote. This blog will fully endorse him for the general election, but not for the primary.

Jack Markell is a progressive who knows we must seek different solutions to Delaware’s problems, rather than the tried and tired ways of the past. With Carney, we will get a Governor who would agree with us on most issues, but who is indebted to old boy network of the Democratic Party that first picked him out of obscurity in 2000 to run for Lt. Governor to adequately address those issues. His horrible stance on eminent domain is a prime example of such indebtedness. Markell is his own man. A self made man, who is tied to no one. And as such, represents the best chance for Delaware Democrats to join the nationwide emergence of the Party from the old and inadequate machine politics of the last century. He built a grassroots campaign much like Barack Obama and has worked at building a governing coalition that is focused on a new direction for Delaware, not on the special interests of the past. Delaware Liberal endorses Jack Markell.

Delaware Liberal Endorsements – Part 2

New Castle County Executive:

Chris Coons has proven himself to be an honest and ethical leader who has spoken plainly to the county about the dire financial straits left behind by the previous Gordon/Freeberry administration. He should be rewarded for his actions in making the tough choices to bring us out of the mess left behind by Gordon/Freeberry instead of throwing him out in favor of the man who created the mess in the first place. Consider that Gordon is making many financial promises in terms of new spending that seems irresponsible in the face of an economy that provides only decreasing revenues to the County. Steady and ethical leadership should be rewarded.  Delaware Liberal endorses Chris Coons.