“According to the recent polls, Bush has a slight lead over John Kerry. So today, Bush hung a banner over the White House saying, ‘Mission Accomplished.'”
David Letterman
“The Supreme Court is now deciding whether the president can detain an American citizen indefinitely without legal counsel. What? Isn’t this why we left England? Didn’t we have a King George once already? Hello?”
Jay Leno
Veep-O-Matic from The Washington Post. See who best matches the criteria you choose.
Rick Freedman at World on Fire has drafted a speech for John Kerry on the matter of religion, values and politics. It’s a fine job. In NewMexiKen’s opinion, Kerry’s candidacy and – more importantly – the nation would be served if Kerry actually delivered it, or something very much like it. It is, sadly, a different world today, but a speech of this nature could help neutralize the religion issue, not unlike John Kennedy’s address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association did in 1960.
NewMexiKen particularly liked Freedman’s use of Martin Luther King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
The speech begins about seven paragraphs down the column, not that you should skip the discussion that precedes it.
From the Political Animal, Kevin Drum:
4%….This year, about 50% of the voting age population will vote in the presidential election.
However, only 30% of the population lives in contested states.
And according to the latest New York Times poll, only 25% of the people they surveyed are still undecided about who they’re going to vote for.
Do the arithmetic and that adds up to 4% of the electorate. Everything you see for the next six months from George Bush and John Kerry — every ad, every dollar, every speech, every prerecorded telephone call — is aimed at trying to convert about 4% of the total voting age population. The other 96% of us are basically spectators — either we’re not going to vote, we live in states that are foregone conclusions, or we’ve already made up our minds.
Do you know anyone who’s part of the 4%? If you do, get to work on them.
Howling At A Waning Moon does a little “Freeway Blogging in Colorado.” Take a look at the photo.
There are things about Olene Walker that come as no surprise. Like the nickname. Yes, Mrs. Walker has been the governor of Utah for several months now. Yet even here, sitting in the august confines of her office in a regal red suit, the recently promoted lieutenant governor exudes a grits-and-cornbread charm that explains why legislative colleagues called her “Aunt Bea.”
She is, after all, the mother of seven, the grandmother of 25, and – at 73 – the oldest governor in the nation. But for those who imagined that she would simply serve out her predecessor’s term as a “grandmother in chief,” Walker has been full of surprises – from controversial vetoes to defiance of the state’s congressional delegation.
Less than six months after assuming the post vacated by Gov. Michael Leavitt, who departed to head the US Environmental Protection Agency, Walker has become something of a celebrity.
Read more about Governor Walker from The Christian Science Monitor.
is 54 today.
“President Bush’s campaign is now attacking John Kerry for throwing away some of his medals to protest the Vietnam War. Bush did not have any medals to throw away, but in his defense he did have all his service records thrown out.”
Jay Leno
General Clark speaks strongly on behalf of John Kerry in an op-ed piece in The New York Times. Two excerpts:
In the heat of a political campaign, attacks come from all directions. That’s why John Kerry’s military records are so compelling; they measure the man before his critics or his supporters saw him through a political lens. These military records show that John Kerry served his country with valor, and that those who served with him and above him held him in high regard. That’s honor enough for any veteran. …
Although President Bush has not engaged personally in such accusations, he has done nothing to stop others from making them. I believe those who didn’t serve, or didn’t show up for service, should have the decency to respect those who did serve — often under the most dangerous conditions, with bravery and, yes, with undeniable patriotism.
Albuquerque blogger Arthur Alpert with Alpert’s Truth on liberals
Further, they may not understand how easy it would be to defend liberalism.
If it were up to conservatives, for example, there might be no United States of America. Known as Tories then, they sided with the King, remember?
If not for liberals, we might not have survived Hitler. Conservatives – Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh and major industrial leaders – thought we could get along with him. The radical right of the time – Father Coughlin, Gerald L.K. Smith, the German-American Bund – found him congenial.
Or the Depression. The free market folks who got us into the Depression had no idea how to get us out. FDR’s New Deal didn’t succeed either, but softened the blow for millions of middle-class and poor Americans until World War II revived the economy. (Roosevelt described himself, remember, as “a little left of center.)
Mind you, conservatives are not, need not be the enemy, for the folks in the White House have no right to that term. They are big government folks, claiming all kinds of power for the Executive, lying to the Congress, ignoring State’s rights and individual liberties.
Also, in their passion to reward the rich and the corporate elite, they have given liberals a gift.
A liberal candidate can say today, “If a balanced budget is liberal, that’s me.”
He could go on to say, “If considering war a last resort is liberal, that’s me, too.”
“If sharing some of the wealth this country produces with its middle-class is liberal,” hey, you got me.
From Dave Pell at Electablog*
The Bush team has decided to make an issue of the validity of Kerry’s medals and his behavior upon returning from Vietnam (whether he threw his medals or not, etc). This is the equivalent of Ozzy Osbourne giving a lecture on child rearing.
Report from the Los Angeles Times
Vice President Dick Cheney’s remarks Monday afternoon at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo., drew sharp criticism from an unexpected source: Westminster College President Fletcher M. Lamkin.
Lamkin was so unhappy with Cheney’s partisan address, which included swipes at Democratic candidate John F. Kerry, that he sent a campuswide letter expressing his displeasure.
Fletcher wrote that he was “surprised and disappointed that Mr. Cheney chose to step off the high ground and resort to Kerry-bashing for a large portion of his speech.”
The school’s president had anticipated a foreign policy talk on the situation in Iraq. Given the political content of Cheney’s speech, Fletcher said in his letter that he had invited Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, to speak on campus “in the interest of balance and fairness and integrity.” Fletcher could not be reached for further comment.
“The vice president today put the war on terror in its historical context and addressed the very different views held by President Bush and his opponent, John Kerry, for fighting and winning the war on terror,” said Bush-Cheney campaign communications director Nicolle Devenish in response to Fletcher’s letter.
“A robust debate about how best to protect our country from the threat of global terror is central to this election.”
Westminster has a long tradition of political orators. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his famous “Iron Curtain” speech there in 1946, in which he coined the phrase describing Cold War tensions between East and West.
“The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty in nearly all cases, and Pope John Paul II often speaks out against capital punishment.”
Has the media asked Catholic politicians who support the death penalty (that is, oppose the Church’s teachings) if they take communion?
From Atrios at Eschaton:
Your mission, if you choose to take it, is to call the offices of Governor George Pataki, a pro-Choice Republican, and ask them some of the following questions:
1) Is it Governor Pataki’s position that pro-Choice politicians should not be allowed to take communion?
2) Does the governor himself take communion when he attends church?
3) Does the governor attend church regularly? Did he attend church yesterday? Did he take communion?518-474-8390
Or:
Your mission, if you choose to take it, is to call the offices of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a pro-Choice Catholic Republican, and ask them some of the following questions:
1) Is it the Governor’s position that pro-Choice politicians should not be allowed to take communion?
2) Does the governor himself take communion when he attends church?
3) Does the governor attend church regularly? Did he attend church yesterday? Did he take communion?Phone: 916-445-2841
The point here is not to harass pro-Choice Catholic politicians. The point is to highlight the inconsistent treatment by the media of John Kerry. Kerry has not made his religion a central part of his campaign – all he’s done is gone to church as he apparently does regularly. Now, suddenly, the media aided by right wing operatives and some opportunist Bishops, have decided that only pro-Choice Catholic Democrats should have their lives and activities within a church scrutinized.
The media only feel the need to ask these questions of Kerry, so we can ask them of other politicians.
President Bush used an Associated Press luncheon to address a recent poll showing two-thirds of Americans believe another terrorist attack is “somewhat likely” before the November elections.
Reassure us, Mr. President!
(Bush footage) “Our intelligence is good. It’s just never perfect, that’s the problem. We’re disrupting cells here in America. We’re chasing people down. But we’ve got a big country.”
There you have it. Vote Bush in ’04. Because if this were Luxembourg, he could keep us safe.
Jon Stewart, The Daily Show
“A new poll shows that most college students would rather have President Bush as a roommate than John Kerry. Yeah, but which one would you rather cheat off of in class?”
Jay Leno
South Knox Bubba covers the Diebold touch screen voting machine situation in California and concludes:
Look, I’m a professional software developer with over 25 years experience. I work with the same technology used in these voting machines. I have seen some of the source code and database design. I have reviewed the Johns Hopkins study of the systems. There are problems. If an aeronautics engineer or experienced pilot told you there were problems with a particular aircraft’s design and that they wouldn’t fly on it, would you? It’s the same thing. And you don’t have to be an expert to know that a paper receipt and audit trail are just plain common sense.
Anyway, if you vote in a precinct that uses these machines I once again strongly encourage you to request a paper ballot.
Read the whole post and check out SKB’s earlier writings on the topic — he has them linked.
There’s a pretty good discussion at Eschaton today about the issue of pro-choice Catholic politicians taking communion, the media coverage of the issue, and so forth.
See Body and Soul as well.
From a Transcript of Remarks by John Kerry, A Contract with America’s Middle Class
I know that every four years people who are running for president tell you that this is the most important election. Well this one is different: It’s the most important election in our lifetime. Today, we confront challenges as great as any in our history.
If you don’t believe that this is the most important election in our lifetime, then all you have to do is look at your front pages. We see the haunting images of our soldiers loading flagged draped coffins. We see rows of them in the belly of a cargo plane for their long flight home. We see images of them being saluted on their final march to their final resting place. And those images are paired with a story about a husband and wife who took photos to show the world the touching way we honor our fallen. And they were fired for their openness and honesty. My friends truth is on the line in the election.
From AP via the Los Angeles Times, State Panel Urges Ban on 15,000 Voting Machines:
California should ban the use of 15,000 touch-screen voting machines made by Diebold Election Systems from the Nov. 2 general election, an advisory panel to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley recommended today.
By an 8-0 vote, the state’s Voting Systems and Procedures Panel recommended that Shelley cease the use of the machines, saying that Texas-based Diebold has performed poorly in California and its machines malfunctioned in the state’s March 2 primary election, turning away many voters in San Diego County. …
[Chairman and CEO Walden W.] O’Dell said the … company remains confident the machines are safe and secure.
California panel members, however, disagreed. They cited a litany of alleged problems with Diebold in recent months, including its sale of machines to the four counties without federal and state certification, last-minute software fixes before the March election, installing uncertified software in voting machines in 17 counties and still lacking federal approval for its newest voting machines for the November election. They also expressed fears the systems are vulnerable to security breaches.
“In my view we need a clean slate with this vendor,” said panel member John Mott-Smith, chief of the state’s elections division. “Most of the big problems in the March election came with Diebold equipment. People did not get to vote because these things did not function and that’s not acceptable.”
Update from The Santa Fe New Mexican on the state senate candidate who failed a true-false test Monday.
State Senate candidate Letitia Montoya on Tuesday apologized for “not making a fuller disclosure” about a past drunken-driving conviction when asked at a political forum this week whether she had ever been arrested for driving while intoxicated.
Montoya said she knows her answer “raises an integrity issue for me, especially with voters who do not know me personally.”
Using written questions from the audience, a moderator asked all District 25 candidates whether they had ever been arrested for DWI. All candidates, including Montoya, said no.
According to a report in The Santa Fe New Mexican, candidates for a state Senate seat were asked “whether they had been arrested for drunken driving, and each answered that he or she had not.”
It turns out that one had, in 1984.
What on earth was she thinking, saying no? Her one arrest — 20 years ago — would likely have been a non-starter with the voters. Indeed, a wise candidate could turn it into a “I’ve been there, done that, know what we need to do” strategy. Instead she lies and, presumably, her candidacy is over. According to The New Mexican she wasn’t returning calls.
The candidates we get are as stupid it seems, as they think we are.
The two presidents who lost the popular vote, but won the election, and that then ran for re-election and lost were John Quincy Adams and Benjamin Harrison. (See item directly below.)
And what do that Adams and that Harrison have in common otherwise?
John Quincy Adams was the son of President John Adams. Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of President William Henry Harrison.
And George W. Bush — what does he have in common with them?
Blogger DHinMI at Daily Kos tells us Why Kerry Could Win In A Landslide. It’s a long posting, somewhat rambling, but with several key points, some of which are:
Harrison & Hayes: Only two Presidents lost the popular vote, and both lost the next election. [NewMexiKen notes that John Quincy Adams lost the popular vote to Andrew Jackson and lost the next election. Hayes did not run for re-election.]
• Only one other president presided over four years of net job loss–Herbert Hoover, who lost by 17 points and 413 electoral votes.
• The effect of governors is debated, but most people accept that governors probably give their party’s candidate an extra 0.5%–1.0%. Depending on who’s doing the targeting, there are 19 states that are mentioned as battleground states: AZ, AR, FL, IA, LA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MO, NV, NH, NM, OH, PA, TN, WA, WV, and WI. In 2000, 12 of these states had Republican governors, 5 had Democrats, and two governors were independents. This time around, 13 of those states have Democratic governors, and only 6 statehouses are controlled by Republicans.
• Kerry may not be exciting, but he’s highly disciplined and unlikely to make a serious gaffe.
• Rove has shown his tactics over the last five years, so the Kerry campaign has a better idea of what to expect.
Estimates are that the Bush campaign has spent $40-45 million so far on TV ads.
