John Kerry spoke at this 1970 anti-Vietnam War rally in Valley Forge, Pa., along with activist Jane Fonda. Mr. Kerry can be seen in the background, directly behind Miss Fonda.
From The Washington Times.
The war ended in Vietnam some time ago, but it’s still being fought in America. Makes NewMexiKen wonder what emotions were like 30 years after the War of the Rebellion.
From Roger Ailes
John Kerry has appeared at numerous campaign events with the fellow veterans who served along side him in Vietnam (and made it home alive).
Anyone seen Bush’s band of brothers?
Me, neither.
And neither has Scott “Tissue of Lies” McClellan:
Q. Scott, when Senator Kerry goes around campaigning, there’s frequently what they call “a band of brothers,” a bunch of soldiers who served with him, who come forward and give testimonials for him. I see, in looking at our files in the campaign of 2000, it said that you were looking for people who served with him to verify his account of service in the National Guard. Has the White House been able to find, like Senator Kerry, “a band of brothers” or others who can testify about the President’s service?MR. McCLELLAN: All the information that we have we shared with you in 2000, that was relevant to this issue. And all the additional information that has come to our attention we have shared with you. The President was asked about this in his interview over the weekend, and the President made it clear, yes, I want all records to be made available that are relevant to this issue; that there are some out there that were making outrageous, baseless accusations. It was a shame that they brought it up four years ago. It was a shame that they brought it up again this year. And I think that the facts are very clear from these documents. These documents — the payroll records and the point summaries verify that he was paid for serving and that he met his requirements.
Q. Actually, I wasn’t talking about documents, I was talking about people — you know, comrades-in-arms —
MR. McCLELLAN: Right. That’s why I said everything that came to our attention that was available, we made available at that time, during the 2000 campaign.
Q. But you said you were looking for people — and I take it you didn’t find any people?
MR. McCLELLAN: I mean, obviously, we would have made people available. And we — Mr. Lloyd, who has provided a statement to put some of this into context for everybody, made some public statements during that time period to verify the records that the President had fulfilled his duties. And he put out an additional statement now to put this into context. He’s someone with some technical expertise and someone that understands these matters, because he was in the National Guard at the time.
Q. Scott, can I follow on this, because I do think this is important. You know, it might strike some as odd that there isn’t anyone who can stand up and say, I served with George W. Bush in Alabama, or in Houston in the Guard unit. Particularly because there are people, his superiors who have stepped forward — in Alabama and in Houston — who have said in the past several years that they have no recollection of him being there and serving. So isn’t that odd that nobody — you can’t produce anyone to corroborate what these records purport to show?
MR. McCLELLAN: David, we’re talking about some 30 years ago. You are perfectly welcome to go back and talk to individuals from that time period. But these documents —
What? Did Bush perform his duties in solitary confinement? Was he testing a top secret Flightsuit of Invisibility? He can’t remember the names of anyone who he served under, or who served with him?
From Gallup:
Gallup’s most recent trial heat of presidential preferences, from a Jan. 29-Feb. 1 poll, shows President George W. Bush trailing Massachusetts senator and Democratic front-runner John Kerry by a 53% to 46% margin among likely voters. A review of historical trial-heat data from past elections shows it is rare for an incumbent president to be trailing at this stage in a campaign. At the same time, in the eight elections analyzed here, there have been campaigns in which the incumbent led in February but was defeated for re-election in November. As such, it is hard to draw any inferences as to what Bush’s current standing means for his re-election prospects.
Gallup has a long history of asking presidential trial-heat questions in election years. There are comparable data from as far back as 1948 for elections in which an incumbent president was pitted against his eventual challenger in January or February of the election year. While it is not clear at this point who the Democratic nominee will be, Gallup’s historical polling shows it is rare for an incumbent to be trailing any named opponent at this early stage in the election year. The only other time an incumbent trailed his eventual challenger (or, for that matter, any other possible opponent tested) at this stage in the campaign was in 1976, when Democrat Jimmy Carter held a slight edge over incumbent Gerald Ford, 48% to 46%. (Carter eventually defeated Ford in a close election.)
David Corn dissects Russert’s interview with the President at Capital Games weblog.
NewMexiKen likes this shorthand to yesterday’s primaries from Slate’s Eric Umansky in Today’s Papers.
Kerry: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3
Clark: 1, 2, 2, 2, 4, 4, 5
Edwards: 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4
Dean: 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5
NewMexiKen spends a lot of time reading articles and blogs, much of them about the presidential election. About the best around is William Saletan at Slate. For a good summary of where the Democratic race stands, take a look at his Blocking Back: Clark stops Edwards from stopping Kerry.
“Today is Groundhog’s Day. President Bush looked over at his shadow and saw John Kerry.”
–Jay Leno, on The Tonight Show Monday, quoted by Reuters
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – Sen. John Edwards had a penknife confiscated as part of a stepped up security search that caused a one-hour delay for the Democratic presidential candidate and others boarding his chartered plane.
Albuquerque security officials gave extensive screenings to those traveling with the senator, including hand inspections of everyone’s luggage and carry-on bags.
“We must look dangerous,”‘ joked the North Carolina Democrat, who was forced to go through a metal detector along with other passengers, and to have all his bags X-rayed, before being allowed to board his campaign plane.
A small knife was confiscated from Edwards’ luggage. “It was a pocket knife,” Edwards said. “I didn’t even know it was there.” He said he was told it would be returned to him later.
A pair of scissors, tweezers and assorted small tools used by photographers and television cameramen also were confiscated. The extra scrutiny, which was not explained, caused Edwards to be an hour late for his next scheduled appearance, a speech at a union hall in Oklahoma City.
NewMexiKen wonders about the conventional wisdom that says politicians should do well in neighboring states because they are known commodities there. The media repeatedly cite this canard. Supposedly Gephardt’s failure in Iowa, for example, doomed him because he was from Missouri next door and therefore should have done well in Iowa. First Kerry’s low numbers in New Hampshire, then his surge to victory, were reported as partially because he was from Massachusetts next door and known to New Hampshire voters.
Isn’t this pretty silly? I live in New Mexico and am relatively informed (20 for 20 on The Week Quiz!). I can name both of my U.S. Senators, of course. And Arizona’s. But I can’t name both of the Senators from the other states that border on New Mexico; in most instances I can’t name either. I sure can’t name more than a couple Representatives (Udall in Colorado comes to mind). I can’t name any of the governors except Arizona’s, and I couldn’t spell her name.
Now admittedly, the states that border New Mexico are larger than the states that border Massachusetts, but I am not sure that means anything. While some New Hampshire residents may read The Boston Globe, I doubt that many do. I suspect that most residents of New Hampshire watch local news on New Hampshire TV stations, not the Boston stations. Would anyone in Iowa read a Missouri newspaper regularly? Would they watch St. Louis or Kansas City TV?
I concede that a politician may do well regionally (Edwards in the south, for example — perhaps). I think that is not because they are better known in neighboring states, however, but because their home region is part of their image. Some voters indeed may identify with the homies.
But that is not what the media is saying when they say Gephardt should have done well in Iowa because he is from nearby Missouri.
News report from The Washington Post Friday morning.
The poll found Kerry at 45 percent in Missouri. Edwards, the senator from North Carolina, was the only other candidate to hit double digits at 11 percent. Dean, the former Vermont governor, was at 9 percent, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut was at 4 percent, Clark at 3 percent, civil rights activist Al Sharpton at 2 percent and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio at 1 percent.
In Arizona, Kerry had a huge 38 percent to 17 percent lead over Clark, the retired general and former NATO commander, with Dean at 12 percent, Edwards and Lieberman 6 percent, Kucinich 2 percent and Sharpton 1 percent.
In South Carolina, the first primary in the South and the first contest where a large number of black voters are expected to participate, Kerry has pulled into a virtual tie with Edwards. Edwards, who has said he must win in South Carolina to continue his campaign, leads Kerry 25 percent to 24 percent, with Dean at 9 percent, Clark at 8 percent and Lieberman and Sharpton at 5 percent.
Clark was leading Kerry in Oklahoma 27 percent to 19 percent, with Edwards right behind at 17 percent, Dean at 9 percent, Lieberman at 5 percent and Sharpton and Kucinich at 1 percent.
[Excerpts with bold added by New MexiKen]
Easterblogg has some interesting takes on the Democratic race concluding with this.
Brace yourself for a week of think-pieces on why Kerry is doing so well. One reason being missed by the big-deal media is the Douglas Brinkley book Tour of Duty about Kerry’s years in Vietnam. The big-deal media decided to ignore this book–an exception, ahem, being Easterblogg, which said in November that Tour of Duty was “about to make big news.” Tour of Duty is selling well and being much-talked-about on radio, which I think is influencing the campaign. The book depicts Kerry as honorable, as serving his country, as horrified to find himself in a bad war–and as having said so at the time. Middle Americans respect honorable military service, and Kerry’s views on Vietnam, written down in the late 1960s while he was in his twenties, reflect the middle-American consensus on why Vietnam went wrong. As the story this book tells increasingly gets out, voter admiration for Kerry can only rise.
And why did the big-deal media ignore the book? Cynicism alert! Most in the big-deal media don’t respect honorable military service. They flipped the pages looking for inflammatory passages that could be pumped up, and instead found the story of man’s struggle to reconcile his conscience with his duty to country. The big-deal media aren’t interested in that. Voters are.
Yesterday Easterblogg noted that, “The last person to advance from the United States Senate to the White House was a wealthy Massachusetts war hero.” Make that, “The last person to advance from the United States Senate to the White House was a wealthy Massachusetts war hero with a popular book extolling his military service.”
On the web site AOL Presidential Match you answer a series of questions about your policy preferences. Then the site gives you a percentage for how you match each candidate (the Democrats and George W. Bush, if you leave the “party preference” box unchecked).
Thanks to Jill for the link.
And for the first time in the poll’s history a Democrat is enjoying a marginal advantage over President George W. Bush. In a hypothetical face-off, Kerry commanded a three-point lead over the president.
When David Letterman played the video Tuesday night on CBS’s “Late Show,” Dean’s head appeared to explode at the end of the speech. “Did you see Howard Dean ranting and raving?” he asked the audience. “Here’s a little tip, Howard: cut back on the Red Bull.”
On NBC’s “Tonight Show,” host Jay Leno joked: “I’m not an expert in politics, but I think it’s a bad sign when your speech ends with your aides shooting you with a tranquilizer gun.”
The Bleat “can imagine a nice Iowa lady of a certain age, sitting in a coffee shop, enjoying her pie, watching the TV crew pack up after Doctor Dean had blown in and out of Bev’s Chatterbox Cafe. ‘Well, he certainly does think well of himself,’ she might have thought. Translation: she wouldn’t spit on his face if his nose was on fire.”
Dave Barry reports from Iowa
This actually happened here, according to a Des Moines Register story that I swear I am not making up. A woman named DeAnna Rankins was working in a tax-preparation office, when a guy with a knife came in and demanded money. So Rankins grabbed a stapler — that’s correct: a stapler — and threatened him with it. And he ran away!
Rankins is quoted as saying: “I would have stapled him.”…
I’ll resume these reports Saturday from New Hampshire, the next crucial step in this strange — yet, at the same time, bizarre — process that we use to decide who should lead our nation.
Right now, I’m leaning toward DeAnna Rankins.
Dave Barry reports from Iowa
There I found a clot of seasoned political journalists, who briefed me on the Democratic race. The big news was that John Edwards, who had been stagnant, was surging, while at the same time John Kerry — who had faltered early in the race, then surged, then re-faltered — was now surging AGAIN.
This bodes badly for Howard Dean, who used to be the Lone Surger out here, as well as traditional Iowa-caucus winner Dick Gephardt, who has, frankly, been unable to surge. He is surge-impaired, and he badly needs surgification in Iowa if he is to survive New Hampshire, where, word has it, Wesley Clark, who had been faltering, is now surging like a madman. He’s the Surgin’ General.
You may think I’m making this stuff up, but it’s a fairly accurate portrayal of how political journalists talk after weeks of being forced to write thousands upon thousands of words based on virtually zero hard information.
Paul Krugman has a “Money-saving suggestion: let’s cut directly to the scene where Mr. Bush dresses up as an astronaut, and skip the rest of his expensive, pointless — but optimistic! — Moon-base program.”
Everyone should see this video.
From the Los Angeles Times
Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark on Monday accepted a minor endorsement that was as much a dig at Dean as it was support for Clark.
Vermont’s Abenaki Nation Indian tribe — which clashed with the former governor over official state recognition — announced its support of Clark at an event in Concord, N.H. The 6,000-member tribe tossed its endorsement to Clark because he isn’t Dean, tribal leaders said, and because the Clark campaign was the only one to return their calls and messages.
A new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll finds former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean no longer holding a commanding lead among Democrats nationally in the race for his party’s presidential nomination, as Democrats who are registered to vote appear to be taking a second look at retired Gen. Wesley Clark. After leading Clark by 15 and 21 points in two December polls that asked Democrats whom they supported for their party’s nomination, Dean’s advantage has shrunk to just 4 points in the Jan. 2-5 national survey (24% vs. 20%) — within the poll’s margin of error.
This tightening of the race among Democrats nationally mostly results from increased support for Clark, rather than a decline in support for Dean. Clark gained eight points over the last two weeks, while Dean lost three points, and the number of undecided Democrats declined by three points.
Only minor shifts in support were seen for the remaining seven candidates tested. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, and Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt are closely bunched, with each receiving between 9% and 11%. North Carolina Sen. John Edwards receives 6%, while former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun garners 3%, and the Rev. Al Sharpton and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich are tied at 2%.
Molly Ivins writes We have a winner and William Greider explains Why I’m for Dean.
“Americans had always believed that their representatives were corrupt since, given the same opportunity, they would be too.”
U.S. Senator in Gore Vidal’s novel Washington, D.C.
Gregg Easterbrook says its time for Edwards to quit, “Before his tail is between his legs.” Mickey Kaus has started a Kerry Withdrawal Contest to “Help him drop out now and avoid humiliation.”