Bush Falls to New Low in Approval

February 20, 2008 — Ron Chusid

An American Research Group Poll places George Bush’s approval at only 19%. This is a new low for this poll and could also place him as the least popular president of all time.

ARG didn’t post comparisons with other presidents, but if these numbers can be compared with Gallup’s numbers Bush would have the lowest approval rating of any president. The lowest approval in a Gallup Poll since they have been measuring this was for Harry Truman at 22%.

Posted in George Bush, Polls. 5 Comments »

New York Times Reports on Rumors of McCain Affair

February 20, 2008 — Ron Chusid

I would have ignored this story if it wasn’t being reported by major news organizations, but regardless of its validity it could have an impact on the campaign. The New York Times reports on rumors that John McCain had an affair with a lobbyist eight years ago:

Early in Senator John McCain’s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers.

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

The Washington Post is also publishing this report.

McCain has denied the report:

U.S. Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign today issued the following statement by Communications Director Jill Hazelbaker:

“It is a shame that the New York Times has lowered its standards to engage in a hit and run smear campaign. John McCain has a 24-year record of serving our country with honor and integrity. He has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists, and he will not allow a smear campaign to distract from the issues at stake in this election.

“Americans are sick and tired of this kind of gutter politics, and there is nothing in this story to suggest that John McCain has ever violated the principles that have guided his career.”

Posted in Breaking News, John McCain, Politics. Tags: . No Comments »

Obama Campaign Considers Idea That Clinton Can Catch Up To Be Lunacy

February 20, 2008 — Ron Chusid

The Obama campaign is slamming the lunacy of the Clinton campaign in believing they can still move ahead of Obama in delegates won:

“This is a wide, wide lead right now,” Plouffe said on a conference call following Sen. Barack Obama’s blowout win in the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday.

“I am amused when he Clinton campaign continues to say: ‘Well, it’s essentially a tie.’ I mean, that’s just lunacy. We have opened up a big and meaningful pledged delegate lead. They are going to have to win landslides from here on out to erase it.”

To see how far Clinton is falling behind, here’s a run down of estimates from various news organizations as to the current delegate count:

CNN: Obama 1,301, Clinton 1,239.

CNN: Obama 1,140, Clinton 1,005 (Not counting super-delegates).

NBC: Obama 1,168, Clinton 1,1018 (Not counting super-delegates).

ABC: Obama 1,355, Clinton 1,261.

CBS: Obama 1,349, Clinton 1,252.

Associated Press: Obama 1,303, Clinton 1,233.

Washington Post: Obama 1,423, Clinton 1,297.

Clinton will need to win by landslides in the remaining states to catch up to Obama. Making this even more difficult, Obama has received two more union endorsements today. Obama received the endorsement of the Teamsters Union and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers to add to earlier endorsements from the Service Employees International Union and The United Food and Commercial Workers Union from last week.

Posted in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Politics. Tags: . No Comments »

After Losing Ten In A Row Clinton Tries To Change The Rules

February 20, 2008 — Ron Chusid

Obama beat Clinton in a landslide in Hawaii, making it ten in a row. Steve Benen is back at The Carpetbagger Report and looks at Clinton’s options. There is one more option left to add: change the rules.

If this post was for the regular SciFi Friday feature I might note that part of the legend of James T. Kirk is the manner in which he was the only Star Fleet officer to pass the Kobayashi Maru simulation because he cheated and changed the rules. Similarly we like to watch J.R. Ewing or Tony Soprano break the rules. Often in fiction we cheer on a cheater, but not when the matter is running for President of the United States.

Political Punch reports on how Clinton is trying to change the rules:

This morning brings the news that the campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, has launched a new website where they are announcing how they are officially preparing to make the case that the rules of the Democratic nomination process should be changed.

Among many “facts” they declare are some accurate ones, such as the idea that superdelegates, which in true nomenclatural dexterity they now term “automatic delegates” “are expected to exercise their best judgment in the interests of the nation and the Democratic Party.”

But then comes this juicy non-fact:

“FACT: Florida and Michigan should count, both in the interest of fundamental fairness and honoring the spirit of the Democrats’ 50-state strategy.”

That’s not a fact, that’s an opinion.

And it’s clear evidence (not that there was any mystery about it) that the Clinton campaign is trying to change the rules in the middle of the game.

Clinton’s own senior adviser, Harold Ickes, voted as a member of the DNC committee to not recognize these two state delegations because they violated the rules of the primary scheduling process. Now as a Clinton campaign representative he’s making the case that they should count.

(more…)

Posted in Barack Obama, Blogs & Social Media, Hillary Clinton, Independents, Michigan News, Politics. Tags: , , , , , , , , , . 12 Comments »

Clinton’s Role in Plagiarism Charges Exposed by Media

February 20, 2008 — Ron Chusid

Ever since Clinton found that she was being seriously challenged by Barack Obama we have seen a steady stream of dishonest attacks as the Clinton campaign decided they would say or do anything to attempt to win. After falsely accusing Obama of plagiarism, the Clinton tried to claim that it was reporters and not their campaign which was raising the charge. AP has debunked this latest lie out of the Clinton campaign:

Hillary Rodham Clinton says reporters, not her campaign, uncovered evidence of Democratic rival Barack Obama sharing speech lines with Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

She made the claim Tuesday despite the fact her campaign posted video clips on YouTube illustrating similarities in the speeches and has suggested in several instances that the shared lines amount to plagiarism.

In debunking Clinton’s claims, AP also says that, “Any suggestion that the story had a life of its own, apart from the Clinton campaign, is disingenuous.”

Clinton has based her campaign utilizing Rove-style attacks. This was the worst possible strategy to use against a candidate who is being supported largely due to promising change from precisely this type of politics.

Posted in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, News Media, Politics. Tags: . 1 Comment »

Obama Wins Huge Victory in Wisconsin

February 20, 2008 — Ron Chusid

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox4Sc-OrZqw]

Obama has now win nine in a row, and it will be hard for Clinton to say that this one doesn’t count. Obama won with a double digit margin in Wisconsin, a state where, if we looked at the demographics, Clinton should have been competitive. The video of Obama’s victory speech is above.

The exit polls showed that Obama is now challenging Clinton among her core voters. Clinton barely beat Obama among women. As usual, Obama was well ahead among the more educated voters, but also beat Clinton 52% to 47% among less well educated whites. Clinton was also only able to tie Obama among voters with incomes under $50,000 per year. Obama won the support of 60% of independents while he tied Clinton among Democrats.

Clinton needed an upset badly if she had any hopes of stopping Obama’s momentum. Having lost her core voters in Wisconsin, she is now in danger of doing the same in Ohio and Texas. Recent polls in Texas have already shown Obama erasing his deficit with Clinton, and now the gap is decreasing in Ohio.  A SurveyUSA Poll shows that Clinton’s lead of seventeen points a week ago has greatly diminished. Clinton now leads by only nine points, 52% to 43%.  If these trends continue Obama might even win the state. If not, it is unlikely that Clinton can win by enough to significantly reduce Obama’s lead in delegates.

Posted in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, In The News, Politics, Polls. Tags: , , , . No Comments »
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