Happening now in politics.
You are currently browsing the daily archive for April 9, 2008.
(Via Newsvine - democrats.)
For most today, the likely Pennsylvania win is single digit, and it may be in Obama’s favor. Certainly, as in every other recent primary, the anticipation is that Clinton will not do well because of Obama’s money and draw with younger voters.
Tags: clinton, oabama, pennsylvania, primaries
(Via MSNBC.com: Politics.)
Obama agreed in September that he’d support public financing for elections. More recently, he’s suggested that the Web has eliminated the need for public financing. But public financing removes money from the equation (both candidates get the same amount), while online fund-raising doesn’t.
Tags: campaign finance, obama
(Via MSNBC.com: Politics.)
McCain wants to have a fight in November that centers around character and patriotism, but this might not be enough for voters who are looking for a break from the campaign rhetoric of the past eight years.
Tags: mccain
(Via Newsvine - democrats.)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to remove a key timeline from legislation moving forward with a free trade pact with Columbia is drawing the ire of the House Republican whip.
(Via The Huffington Post | Full News Feed.)
If you were operating off of the tone of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign it’s a downright political miracle that the she isn’t trailing Barack Obama by 20 points in the current Pennsylvania polls.
In a Wednesday conference call with reporters, aides to the New York Democrat offered a heaping dose of expectations-setting roughly two weeks before Pennsylvanians hit the polls.
“The fact that we still maintain a lead after Sen. Obama spent six days here and got the backing of [Pennsylvania] Sen. [Bob] Casey, and in light of being outspent, I think it is remarkable that we still maintain a lead,” said T.J. Rooney, the state’s Democratic Party chairman. “We don’t think we have any weaknesses in this state. It has been said before and it bears repeating: we are being outspent financially.”
And indeed, Obama is pouring massive resources into the state. Estimates have him outspending Clinton by a margin of three-to-one in Pennsylvania, and his campaign has been flooding the airwaves with advertisements. With these advantages, Clinton’s aides say, its remarkable that Clinton is even hanging on.
“If Senator Obama is not able to win Pennsylvania with all the resources he has thrown at the state… it will again demonstrate that he has serious problems winning the large states and closing the deal with voters,” said Clinton’s spokesman Howard Wolfson. “We all now that the road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue runs through Pennsylvania. If Sen. Obama, outspending us three to one in the state, is unable to win Pennsylvania it would be another sign that his campaign is not the best to face Sen. McCain in the fall.”
The reality, of course, is much more nuanced. For weeks Clinton supporters have been predicting her victory in the state, some by double-digit margins. As recently as yesterday, a poll had the Senator besting Obama by 16 points, although that could be an outlier; the distance between the two candidates has narrowed sharply. And Pennsylvania’s political landscape - with more blue collar white voters - and its primary structure - which is limited to only Democrats - lend itself more favorably to Clinton’s candidacy.
That said, Obama has devoted myriad resources to besting Clinton in the Keystone State, in what would perhaps be a knockout win. As Wolfson told the reporters, referencing to the 37-point score Obama recently rolled at a bowling alley: “He has been willing even to put his bowling skills on display in an effort to do well here.”
Tags: clinton, pennsylvania
(Via AMERICAblog: A great nation deserves the truth.)
John McCain, the one-time champion of campaign finance reform, is a campaign finance criminal. He scammed the public financing system last year, but the scam backfired because McCain is stuck in it now according to the Federal Elections Commission. And, McCain has busted the public finance system spending cap, which is a criminal offense.
There is absolutely no way Barack Obama should get entangled in any sort of campaign finance agreement with McCain. No way. McCain has shown he can’t be trusted. Jake Tapper reported last night that Obama is thinking differently about the way money is raised for the general election:
“We have created a parallel public financing system where the American people decide if they want to support a campaign they can get on the Internet and finance it, and they will have as much access and influence over the course and direction of our campaign that has traditionally been reserved for the wealthy and the powerful,” Obama said.
Good. Obama is right. He has changed the way money is raised for campaigns. But, above and beyond that, McCain’s law-breaking is an absolute game-changer.
Now, the traditional media being the McCain sycophants that they are, will try to make it seem like Obama owes it to McCain to enter the public campaign finance system. Meanwhile, the traditional media, being the McCain sycophants that they are, will continue to ignore McCain’s campaign finance illegalities.
Obama doesn’t owe McCain a thing. McCain can’t be trusted on this issue. And, that should end the discussion. If McCain wants the campaign to be about campaign finance, so be it. McCain is the scammer and the criminal.
Tags: campaign finance, mccain, obama
(Via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire.)
“More than four times as many blacks have
registered to vote in North Carolina during the first few months of
2008 as four years ago, a sign that bodes well for Sen. Barack Obama in
the state’s May 6 Democratic presidential primary,” the Associated Press reports.
“There
has also been a boom in voter registrations overall across age, race,
gender and party affiliation, according to the North Carolina state
board of elections. And, even though the traditional registration
period closes Friday, the numbers may continue to climb if voters take
advantage of North Carolina’s new same-day registration law.”
Tags: clinton, north carolina, obama
(Via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire.)
Over at Political Insider, I evaluate the reasons Sen. Barack Obama might break his promise and opt out of the public financing for the general election — and suggest a way he could truly create a people-based campaign.
Tags: obama, public campaign financing
(Via TalkLeft.)
Clifton White will not be executed. The Ohio Supreme Court today ruled a judge erred in substituting his opinion for that of experts as to whether White was mentally retarded. Case synopis here and the full opinion is here. (pdf).
In 2002, the Supreme Court in Atkins v. Virginia banned execution for the mentally retarded as cruel and unusual punishment. White was pursuing post-conviction relief at the time.
Later that year, the Supreme Court of Ohio in State v. Lott established criteria and procedures to be applied ….a petitioner is required to show by a preponderance of the evidence:
- “(1) significantly subaverage intellectual functioning,
- (2) significant limitations in two or more adaptive skills, such as communication, self-care, and self-direction, and
- (3) onset (of the intellectual and adaptive limitations) before the age of 18.”
The trial court in White's case appointed experts and held a hearing. Both the state's expert and the defense expert determined he met the criteria. [More...]
Full article here.
Tags: death penalty, ohio
(Via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire.)
Elizabeth Edwards praised Sen. Hillary Clinton’s health care plan on ABC News this morning, saying “I just have more confidence in Senator Clinton’s policy than Senator Obama’s on this particular issue.”
Meanwhile, Time notes that Mrs. Edwards has joined the Center for American Progress which “has been operating for the past two years as a kind of Hillary Clinton Administration-in-waiting.”
Is an endorsement coming?
Note that last week, Mrs. Edwards hinted that she and her husband may back different candidates.
Tags: elizabeth edwards
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