March 20, 2008

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His Biggest Weakness

March 20, 2008 in Campaign 2008, Republicans by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall.)

The ‘Surge’ is working? Try reading Fareed Zakaria’s new column on just how poorly things are going on the ground. McCain’s opponents may seize on what may possibly be the beginning of an uptick in violence in the country. But that’s really secondary to the real issue which is that the strategic aim of the surge has failed. It’s fastened us down even more firmly in Iraq whereas the aim was to jumpstart a political process in the country that would allow us to begin to disengage.

These points are completely lost on McCain. A savvy campaign should be able to make McCain’s failure to understand the surge’s failure into a potent political issue.

This is why Clinton laudatory statements about John McCain as potential commander-in-chief amounted to such folly. McCain was a Navy fighter pilot. Everything suggests he’s incredibly weak on foreign policy. He doesn’t get strategy, doesn’t get the big picture of what’s going on in the world. At the simplest level he can’t grasp why it’s not in the United States’ interest to stay in Iraq for decades. The monetary costs, the inattention to the growth of other regional powers — all lost on him.

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The Democratic Strategy

March 20, 2008 in Campaign 2008, Democrats, Republicans by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via Newsvine - democrats.)

The Democratic Party is in a bit of a pickle. As their primary race drags on and the two camps in it become increasingly embittered, John McCain’s moderate demeanor makes his selection by the Republicans look absolutely genius.

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Obama’s NCAA Tournament Bracket

March 20, 2008 in Campaign 2008, Democrats by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via The Huffington Post | Full News Feed.)

Basketball fans across the country are ditching work and gearing up for March Madness, and Barack Obama is no exception. While he’s still maintaining his campaign schedule, Obama filled out a bracket and paid $10 to get into a pool with his traveling staff. Do his picks for the Final Four show an in-depth knowledge of the college game, or are they politically savvy? You be the judge:

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McCain Aide Suspended For Pushing Racially-Charged Obama-Wright Video

March 20, 2008 in Campaign 2008, Republicans by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via The Huffington Post | Full News Feed.)

A McCain campaign aide actively pushed an incendiary, racially-charged video that uses the controversial words of Barack Obama’s pastor to tar Obama as unpatriotic — despite the fact that McCain himself has suggested that Obama shouldn’t be held accountable for Wright’s views.

The aide, Soren Dayton, who works in McCain’s political department, has been suspended from the campaign, a McCain spokesperson, Jill Hazelbaker, confimed to me.

The move by McCain’s aide could create controversy for the McCain camp, because the video itself is thoroughly reprehensible — it interweaves footage of Obama explaining why he won’t wear the American flag pin, Wright saying “God damn America,” Malcolm X, and Obama’s wife saying that his candidacy has made her proud of America for the “first time.”

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Experts: Why The West Can’t Infiltrate Al Qaeda

March 20, 2008 in National Security by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via The Huffington Post | Full News Feed.)

decade after al-Qaeda issued a global declaration of war against America, U.S. spy agencies have had little luck recruiting well-placed informants and are finding the upper reaches of the network tougher to penetrate than the Kremlin during the Cold War, according to U.S. and European intelligence officials.

Some counterterrorism officials say their agencies missed early opportunities to attack the network from within. Relying on Cold War tactics such as cash rewards for tips failed to take into account the religious motivations of Islamist radicals and produced few results.

Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said, al-Qaeda has tightened its internal security at the top, placing an even greater emphasis on personal and tribal loyalties to determine who can gain access to its leaders.

Alain Chouet, former chief of the security intelligence service of the DGSE, France’s foreign spy agency, said it can take years for informants to burrow their way into radical Islamist networks. Even if they’re successful at first, he said, new al-Qaeda members are often “highly disposable” — prime candidates for suicide missions.

He said it might be too late for Western intelligence agencies, having missed earlier chances, to redouble efforts to infiltrate the network. “I think you cannot penetrate such a movement now,” he said.

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Ellen Degeneres Deconstructs Chris Matthews’ Dancing And Breast Grab

March 20, 2008 in Mainstream Media by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via The Huffington Post | Full News Feed.)

Chris Matthews showed up on Ellen Wednesday wearing his dancing shoes. After some shuffling and arm moves, he swung host Ellen around, grabbed her boob and near-tackled her to the beat. On Thursday, instead of doing a monologues, Ellen did a moment-by-moment dissection of what went down. She even had a pointer and freeze frames. It seems Chris was nervous, she didn’t want him falling down the stairs and now she pretty much never wants to see him again.

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Obama Speech: Religious Groups, Universities Respond

March 20, 2008 in Campaign 2008, Democrats by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via Huffington Post.)

The speech Senator Barack Obama delivered Tuesday morning has been viewed more than 1.6 million times on YouTube and is being widely e-mailed. While commentators and politicians debated its political success Wednesday, some around the country were responding to Mr. Obama’s call for a national conversation about race.

Religious groups and academic bodies, already receptive to Mr. Obama’s plea for such a dialogue, seemed especially enthusiastic. Universities were moving to incorporate the issues Mr. Obama raised into classroom discussions and course work, and churches were trying to find ways to do the same in sermons and Bible studies.

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McCain Not Backing GI Bill For Post-9/11 Vets

March 20, 2008 in Republicans, Senate by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via Huffington Post.)

Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) is calling on presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) to sign on as a co-sponsor to his GI bill, which would improve educational benefits to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“McCain needs to get on the bill,” Webb told reporters after a Christian Science Monitor breakfast meeting on Wednesday. He said legislation mirroring the post-World War II GI bill should not be considered a “political issue.”

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New Proposal to Seat Florida Delegates

March 20, 2008 in Campaign 2008, Democrats by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire.)

“Entering a new phase of wrangling over Florida’s disputed presidential primary, state Democrats are pitching formulas to seat at least half of the state’s delegates based on the Jan. 29 election,” reports the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

The proposal: “Seat half of Florida’s 188 pledged delegates based on the Jan. 29 results and half based on the national vote. Florida’s 22 so-called superdelegates, who are among the 800 party insiders and elected officials who get a vote at the convention, also would be counted.”

Does Obama Really Have a Race Problem?

March 20, 2008 in Campaign 2008, Democrats by Tony Steidler-Dennison | No comments

(Via American Prospect.)

There is no doubt that working class whites harbor resentments against blacks. But wealthy whites are more likely than working-class whites to use the race card in the voting booth.

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