Wednesday Wire...       

Dear Democrats Around the World,

This is DA Wednesday Wire No. 150, 3 September 2008.

62 Days to Election Day

WW 150 is sponsored by Frances Deak, former DA DNC member and former DAUK Secretary and Treasurer. Frances is DA’s foremost expert on registering overseas voters and has forgotten more than any of us will ever know. She was also DAUK’s spokesperson during the ‘Florida Troubles” I’ve known former teacher Frances since the Heidelberg meeting of June, 1995, when I handed her the usual multi-page local committee info sheet on getting around Heidelberg and she handed it back about 30 seconds later and said’ “Good job, but you have six spelling errors in your document.” Thanks for your support, Frances, sorry that the spelling errors do (sometimes) continue!!

This edition is rightfully called the Sarah Palin edition.

Topics This Week

1. The convention closes with some great speeches and one for the ages.
2. Sarah, Sarah, Sarah!
3. Reading Recommendations
4. And finally…

1. The convention closes with some great speeches and one for the ages.

With the post-convention naming of Sarah Palin and the media feeding frenzy since; it seems like those speeches were a long time ago, not one week. But they served their purpose, convention bounces are no longer as big as they used to be (there is a ton of analysis on the web), and the steady closing of the polls manufactured by some really nasty advertising from the Republicans was halted and reversed. 38 million Americans tuned in for Obama’s stadium speech and 63% of all Americans claim to have seen some of the convention coverage; very encouraging numbers. The quality they received for their efforts may make this bounce, albeit small, more permanent.

1. Bill Clinton put the rumor of strife between he and Obama (whether real or imagined) to rest and put his name back among the stars of our party. It has to be difficult for former presidents to lay down the mantle, but he did the right thing and he helped Hillary to erase any last vestige of ‘poor loser’ of which he may have been the main instigator. Give him his usual A. Obama needs to put him on the campaign trail where it can matter.
2. The Biden speech gets an A. Joe was on fire and his ability to modulate the intensity of his voice, from really quiet to booming, was a surprise and effective. The tribute to his mother was superb and her nodding vigorously when he told the crowd that she sent him back out on the street to ‘at least bloody the bully’s nose’ must have hit home with a lot of older generation Americans. Joe held his friend McCain close and smacked him around.
3. John Kerry gave a better speech in Denver than he did in Boston. Like Al Gore three years ago; he seems to have past his penchant for politeness over straight talk and took his old pal McCain to the woodshed. The best moment was again a human one when he introduced Obama’s great uncle who was with the US forces that rescued Buchenwald concentration camp. (This was a great counter to the rightwing smear that it wasn’t true that the uncle wasn’t at Auschwitz – a deliberate false identification for which they cannot be accused of lying, but at the same time making Obama appear to be the liar.) The uncle, the Pepsi Center crowd and the country were overwhelmed by the gesture. Give Kerry an A-.
4. Bill Richardson (at the stadium). Only a B+; good speech, but his mission was to speak more Spanish; he wasn’t going to say anything we English speakers didn’t know already, but Bill should have reached out much more to the Latino population in the West and South. Richardson’s talk lacked a little fire.
5. Al Gore (at the stadium). A mixed grade. Content-wise, this was a A+; there was more substance per sentence than I have ever seen in a Convention speech with some of the best lines of the whole week. But the profundity was outweighed by a too rapid delivery that didn’t seem to let the crowd enjoy the real meat they were being handed. Gore has gone to another level of political discourse and thought and the stadium setting didn’t match where he was. I would be eager to hear from DA attendees their reaction to Al’s speech. Overall grade A-.
6. The main event. 43 minutes of pure and flawless American rhetoric that achieved every goal he had for that speech. He confronted McCain with grace and guts and made the strongest case yet that he will be an effective Commander in Chief. The speech was so good, that there is speculation that McCain may have changed his VP pick because of it (the attack only mode no longer operative). A solid explanation of the specifics of where he will take the country, without the ‘laundry list wonkiness’ that plagued some of Bill Clinton’s longer speeches. A++ a speech that will be remembered for decades.

2. Sarah, Sarah, Sarah!

The close of the Democratic Convention was a huge success; the speech by Obama was historic, not only for the setting, but he managed to assert his claim to be president in a forthright and appealing manner. It was to be expected that John McCain would use his 72nd birthday to change the subject from Barack Obama. In last week’s WW, I suggested that there would be a huge surprise and expected the surprise to be Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels. I was right about the surprise part.

In WW 146, 23 July, the following item appeared under State by State:

ALASKA. If you read WW, you know that every federal official from the state is in legal trouble and that Gov. Sarah Palin has been such a breath of fresh air for the GOP that she has been prominently mentioned for VP with John McCain. Hold the Champaign. Seems Sarah’s sister is married to a state trooper; the marriage is heading for divorce court and Sarah decided to help her sister by having the state official responsible for the police force fire her brother-in-law. He refused and she fired him. Uh, oh, now the Republican-controlled legislature is investigating; there is talk of federal and state law violations; a one term lame duck governorship, etc. etc. etc. I know it’s cold in Alaska, but really….!!

I took her off my list; there was no way that she would remain on the short list for VP.

I came back from a short trip on Friday, turned on my computer and nearly lost my mind.

There is mounting evidence that John McCain and his staff did not vet Sarah Palin at all. Only the day before the announcement was a team of ten Republican lawyers sent to Alaska to look into things. They should have shown up sooner. A list after five days:

Personal characteristics:

1. A religious fanatic who believes that the War in Iraq needs supportive prayer as part of “God’s Plan.” (She has Rev Wright videos that are really scary.)
2. A mayor who asked for the resignation of the key leaders of her town 11 days after becoming mayor, and shortly thereafter fired the police chief and the head of the city museum, and threatened to fire the city librarian for her failure to ban objectionable books and ’support’ her.
3. A governor who tried to have her former brother-in-law fired from the state police and when that didn’t work, fired the state police chief for not firing her former brother-in-law.
4. A woman, who filed 25 complaints against her former brother in law, 24 or which were found upon investigation to be bogus. The one complaint that was accurate was that the brother in law shot a moose without a license. She then shared the meat with the brother in law (her father did the butchering); the complaint was filed two years after the moose was killed. The judge in the divorce proceedings that prompted the complaints stated in his opinion that he could not understand the actions of the family to deprive the brother in law of his livelihood needed to pay the necessary support for her sister and her children.
5. A woman who claims as part of her qualifying experience a visit to Ireland, which turned out to be only long enough to change planes.
6. A woman who has admitted to smoking marijuana and inhaling; mocking Bill Clinton’s claim to have not enhaled.
7. A woman who thinks that Hillary Clinton is a “whiner.”
8. A woman who put her own newborn at risk by refusing hospitalization in Texas (where she was attending a political meeting), instead traveling 8 hours by plane to Alaska to have the child. (It was this behavior that led to the belief that she did not have a child, but that her teenage daughter gave birth.)
9. A woman and Governor who laughed repeatedly during a radio talk show when her main opponent was described by the talk show host as a ‘cancer’ on the state, a ‘bitch’ and ‘fat.’

Her position on the issues:

1. She has no known position on any foreign policy issue.
2. She is completely against abortion, even for rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother.
3. She is for abstinence-only programs to combat teen pregnancies.
4. She believes that creationism (Intelligent Design) should be taught along side evolution in high school science classes.
5. She is sympathetic to the views of the Alaska Independence Party, of which her husband was a member until 2002. The AKIP believes that the decision to admit Alaska to the US in 1958 was a wrong one; wants a vote on succession and a return of all Federal land to the state. The AKIP is also opposed to any environmental regulation and she has personally lobbied against polar bears and other endangered animals being protected under the Endangered Species Act.
6. She supported right winger Pat Buchanan for President in 2000, Buchanan claims she was a member of the “Buchanan Brigades” in that year.

Her political behavior.

1. She was a supporter of Ted Stevens, who gave her her first statewide exposure as the head of a 527 promoting Alaskan Republican women. After her designation for VP; the supporting statements from Ted Stevens, who is under indictment, were taken off her website.
2. She was decidedly for the congressional appropriation for the ‘bridge to nowhere’ during her campaign for Governor; then claimed that she had always been against it when she appeared with John McCain last Friday.
3. As Mayor, she obtained earmarks in excess of $27 million over a four year period for a town of about 6,000 people by hiring a Jack Abramoff lobbyist; then claimed that she has always been against earmarks.
4. She accepted $4500 for VECO, the same firm that bribed Ted Stevens. Under state law, the contributions were not illegal.
5. After the state legislature initiated an investigation of her abuse of power conduct over the firing of the state police chief; she authorized the Attorney General to conduct his own investigation and to hire her personal attorney to conduct it. The state/personal attorney is now engaging in tactics to delay the completion of the legislative investigation due the week before the election. She is citing ‘executive privilege’ to turning over emails (sound familiar?).
6. She attended the 1994 AKIP state convention (with her husband) and addressed the 2008 AKIP as Governor.
7. She vetoed a provision to provide funding the placing pregnant teenage girls in foster care. (This is particularly hard to reconcile with her own daughter’s pregnancy.)

What was McCain thinking? Beyond the obvious pandering for Clinton’s disaffected voters; his need for enthusiastic support from his party’s fundamentalist base, what was the real motivation behind this choice? There are many possibilities, but these stick out:

1. There was a major meeting among the evangelical elite during Dem convention week to discuss the election and the need to have some control over McCain’s pick. They were concerned that McCain would name either Ridge or Lieberman, the two guys he really wanted. The apparent message from this meeting; “Take one of ours, or we walk.” McCain did not want Huckabee or Romney, who would have been acceptable to the rightwing religionists (just not to each other) so he came up with Palin, who McCain knew would be acceptable to Dobson & Co.
2. There were also many reports of bitter arguing between McCain and the Bush/Cheney/Rove faction. McCain and Bush have not met since March and apparently not even talked since May. Rove wanted Romney and didn’t want either Ridge or particularly Lieberman. The theory here is that McCain responded with; “If I can’t have my way, you get Palin,” , which the Bush/Cheney/Rove faction couldn’t really object to without tearing the party apart. The handling of Bush and Cheney at the convention is proof positive of the big split between McCain and Bush; not since 1968, when LBJ could not show his face in Chicago, has a sitting president been denied a physical and prominent speaking role at the convention ending his term.
3. While McCain had closed the gap in the national polling by vigorous negative ads; this is a style of campaign he genuinely dislikes and he realized after the Denver Dem success that it wouldn’t work from now until November. Internal Republican polling must have also suggested that battleground states like Virginia, North Carolina, and even Georgia, not to mention Ohio, Michigan and Colorado, were still tending toward Obama. McCain needed a ‘game changer” that shored up his base, created a buzz, worked as a lure to women (we don’t even have to get into how misguided pandering is) and brought youth to the ticket (which would have been provided had Gov. Jendal from Louisiana agreed to run with him).

The lack of any/serious vetting (there are multiple reasons why that wasn’t done, but the secrecy of the process appears to have played a major role) made the “game changer’ a game loser.

What’s next? Is there a chance that McCain will remove her from the ticket or have her resign after the convention and let the Republican National Committee name a replacement under party rules a la Ealgeton in 1972 (when George McGovern named Sergeant Shriver to replace the first term Missouri Senator who admitted to having shock treatment for depression)? Given the list above, which seems to grow by the hour, there are two issues in that list which would require a replacement – a link to Jack Abramoff that is more than just hiring one of his pals to lobby the Congress for money or the VECO contribution was a bribe. Otherwise, Big John has to keep her on to avoid looking like a complete fool and a man of no judgment. Of course, as the vetting continues, there may be a revelation that causes her to quit.

There is!! The unforgivable sin in Alaska!

She was once cited by police authorities for fishing without a license.

Say it isn’t so, Sarah!!

3. Reading Recommendations.

Nearly all about Sarah this week; among hundreds of articles.

1. www.236.com / A little humor about McCain’s offer to Palin.
2. Campaign money hurts Palin’s outsider image Matt Apuzzo at www.newsminer.com This revelation has the potential to derail her completely.
3. “The Eagleton Scenario” by Joshua Green at www.theatlantic.com. Details of a possible resignation or firing.
4. “A TDS Strategy Memo: Six Highly-Targeted Democratic Messages responding to the V.P. Selection of Sarah Palin” by James Vega at www.thedemocraticstrategist.org. A useful compendium if a day out of date.
5. “Vice in Go-Go Boots?” by Maureen Dowd at www.nytimes.com. The usually snarky Maureen outdoes herself. Quite funny.
6. “Obama and McCain Tax Proposals” at www.washingtonpost.com. An unusually good debate tool.
7. “What is McCain Thinking? One Alaskan’s Perspective.” mudflats.wordpress.com
8. “The Worst Vice-Presidential Nominee in U.S. History” by Robert J. Elisberg at www.huffingtonpost.com
9. “Hat vs. Hat” by slacktivist at slacktivist.typepad.com. A very perceptive piece about John McCain and Republicans in general.
10. “Palin’s Future Son-in-Law Heads to GOP Convention? by Mudflats at mudflats.wordpress.com. Levi Johnston is not a guiltless party here, but I wondered whether he ever bargained for this kind of life changing experience.
11. “Is it the beginning of the end for John McCain?” by smitheus at www.unbossed.com. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but the sheer volume and intensity of the media frenzy makes Gustav seem like a gentle breeze.
12. “Walking Boosts Brainpower: Moderate Intensity Exercise May Help Protect Older Adults Against Dementia” by Kelli Miller Stacy at www.webmd.com. One article, non political for those who suffer ’senior moments’ like I sometimes do and what you can about it.

And finally…

This story gets curiouser and curiouser. How does she think this will help her?

From TPM, within the past hour:

Palin Refuses to Testify

“It didn’t take long. We’ve already brought you news of the official investigation into Gov. Palin’s firing of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. Steve Branchflower, the lead investigator, began trying to arrange a deposition of the governor days before her veep selection. And despite claiming executive privilege to shield requested emails, up until that point Palin had promised full cooperation with the probe.

“Now, however, she is refusing to submit to questioning by Branchflower unless he and the legislative committee that appointed him agree to relinquish control of the investigation and turn it over to a state review board made up of three Palin appointees.

“Yesterday, Palin took the unusual step of having her lawyer, Thomas van Flein, file an ethics complaint against her with the state’s Attorney General. This, she hopes, will lead the AG to give the investigation to the aforementioned state personnel board. Unless that happens, and Branchflower agrees to close down his investigation, she will refuse to testify.”

–Josh Marshall

Her own lawyer filed an ethics complaint against her to prevent the legislature from doing its investigation. She really does have something to hide.

Best regards
John McQueen
Am Goetzenberg 2
69126 Heidelberg, Germany

Dear Democrats Around the World,

This is Wednesday Wire No. 149, 27 August 2008

This edition of Wednesday Wire is sponsored by Enola Nelson and her husband Hans Angress, who live in Cotati, California. Outside of my own family, I have known Enola longer than any other person with whom I still have contact. We were freshmen at Wheelus High School in Tripoli, Libya together (she was class president, I was a nerd). Our dads were very good friends and I was crazy about her father’s 1952 tan Mark VII Jaguar. Thanks so much Enola and Hans!!

Feel free to pass WW on to whomever you please. Comment below or directly to me at johncmcqueen@gmail.com

Topics This Week:

1. The Biden Choice puts McCain in a bind.
2. Rating the speeches.
3. Hillary’s Speech, all I can say is “Wow!!”
4. A Giving Opportunity No. 3.
5. Is the race really tightening?
6. The Senate Outlook at Convention Time
7. Reading Recommendations
8. And finally…

1. The Biden Choice puts McCain in a bind.

WW was wrong; it wasn’t Clark and it wasn’t Kaine. No choice is going to be perfect and the selection of Joe Biden understandably will bring up some of the issues that 36 years in the Senate will now look like poor choices made. In Joe’s case, the worst is his championing of the Bankruptcy Bill that upset a lot of us in 2005, but as several bloggers pointed out, Joe comes from the one state where jobs are significantly dependent on the credit card industry. He doesn’t wholeheartedly support and lead the passage of this legislation; he’s no longer a Senator. It’s would like Florida’s Bill Nelson agreeing to a ban on oranges. But Biden brings some real advantages to the table for Obama and Obama’s choice puts McCain in a bind;

1. Biden helps a lot with older, with Catholic and with white working class Democratic voters, three groups where Hillary Clinton was particularly strong in the primaries. Pennsylvania just became a lot more secure; Ohio a lot more competitive and Florida a winnable state. Obama will strengthen his populist appeal among union workers.
2. The Biden choice brings an attack dog to the stump. Let’s face it, Obama does not like roughhouse politicking; Biden will willingly carry that mantle; he loves it. Tonight’s speech should be a taste of what is to come. Go get ‘em Joe!!
3. Biden negates McCain’s foreign policy advantage in two ways; He can be a Cheney-like presence in dealing with our allies and our adversaries; no one knows the ins and outs of foreign policy better than he does. And, Biden is not a hot head with neocon tendencies to put war first and diplomacy last.
4. All in all a reassuring choice.

But McCain got presented with some difficulties by Biden’s selection. Does he counter, does he try fill his big gap (the economy), does he assure his base, or go after independents? My view is that Friday will bring a pretty big surprise. The current bunch of short-listed favorites do more harm than good:

Romney is another multi-house, out-of-touch typically rich Republican. The money helps, but Huckabee is still talking a lot against Willard (Romney’s real name). McCain doesn’t like him personally, the house gaffe may be his excuse to dump him. Minnesota Governor Pawlenty is too bland, has no national experience and won’t bring his home state into play. Florida Gov. Crist is just too risky for the Republican hate machine, too many engagements, no marriage, many rumors. Former Ohio congressman Bob Portman, who was also chief trade negotiator, is Bush’s choice, but no one knows him. The other name most often mentioned: Joe Lieberman, would bring a revolt on the floor of the convention.

WW, as usual, will go out on a limb with a Friday surprise McCain 72nd birthday choice:
Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana. He’s young enough but not too young, has solid Washington experience as Bush Office of Management and Budget chief, strong on spending discipline; long term aide to Senator Richard Lugar, who is the most respected Republican US Senator. With Bayh not chosen for VP, he’s not needed to create another Republican appointed Senate seat. If McCain-Daniels were to lose, he’s still probably going to be elected Governor in November. He assures that Indiana stays Republican.

OK, it’s not likely to happen, but if it does, you saw it here first.

2. Rating the speeches.

With the convention half over, here’s my rating for ones I saw:

Ted Kennedy - emotional high, speech can’t be rated on objective grounds; the crowd loved him and the speech didn’t matter. A great show of courage.

Michelle Obama - A+ The delivery was flawless; the appeal was tremendous.

Kansas Gov.Kathleen Sebelius - B-; she’s still not ready for the big stage, but had one great line: “There’s no place like home, except for John McCain, where there’s no place like home…like home…like home…like home.”

Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, Keynote speech. Many gave him high marks; on the tube, I thought it too bland, no punch, certainly no great attack on McCain. B. Great line: “In four more months, we will have a president who actually believes in science.”

Montana Gov.Brain Schweitzer - A+, he stole the show up to that point, he had the crowd ecstatic, he was having fun and he didn’t take himself too seriously, but took on John McCain. Two great lines: “If you drill in all John McCain’s backyards, even the ones he doesn’t know he has, …that proposition is a dry well.” And ” The petro dictators will never own the wind or sunshine.”

3. Hillary’s Speech, all I can say is “Wow!!”

I have to admit never liking Hillary Clinton’s speaking style; she always has great lines, but somehow after delivering them, she stands back and has the look of “wasn’t that a great line?” Not so last night. She started off slowly, building the base of her remarks from the reasons that she ran for president, while fitting in her support for Barack Obama. Gradually she turned a fierce focus of John McCain, whom she declared her friend, but who is not the one to lead the country. “No way, no how, no McCain!” She never missed a line, worked through the applause, not letting it disrupt the flow and rhythm of her sentences, but not cutting it off either. By the end; she held the audience in thrall. It was truly an amazing performance and during it all she said exactly the right thing to give credit to her supporters and support for Obama. See And finally below for the very best lines of the speech.

4. Giving Opportunity No. 3.

Enola Nelson supports a number of charities (she is a retired elementary school teacher), but the one most appropriate for Dems Abroad is Greg Mortinson’s Central Asia Institute, which is a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote and provide community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of Central Asia. Additional projects are in Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan. They are particularly active in Afghanistan and Pakistan. For more info and a possible donation go to https://www.ikat.org/

5. Is the race really tightening?

Maybe some, not too surprising when McCain had to spend $25+ million in August from funds he can’t use after the GOP convention. But the statistics that matter (national polls still don’t mean anything at this point); 82% still believe the country is on the wrong track and in the last 110 polls (as if they did matter), Obama led in 101, 5 were tied and 4 were led by McCain, only one of which was in the past month. But beyond these numbers, what does it really look like in the battleground and leaning states. Is Obama ahead of or behind John Kerry? Using pollster.com averages; here’s the lay of the land at Dem convention time at the beginning of the fall campaign when more people will begin to pay attention:

Toss up states (where the lead is less than average margin of error):

  
State        Obama    McCain        Kerry   Bush 
Alaska        44.6     41.9    +2.7   37     62     -25
Colorado      45.0     42.9    +2.1   47     52      -5
Montana       48.3     45.2    +3.1   39     59     -20
North Dakota  41.9     44.3    -2.4   35     63     -28
Ohio          44.2     42.5    +1.7   49     51      -2
Virginia      45.8     44.6    +1.2   45     54      -9
N. Carolina   43.6     46.7    -3.1   44     56     -12
Florida       44.3     46.0    -1.7   47     52      -5
New Hamp.     45.7     44.1    +1.6   50     49      +1
Nevada        42.6     44.9    -2.3   48     50      -2

Nine of these ten states were won by George Bush in 2004; only in Nevada is Obama further behind Kerry. If the election were held today, Obama would win New Hampshire and five more states than Kerry won in 2004.

In Democratic leaning states:

 
State       Obama    McCain           Kerry  Bush 
Oregon       48.3     42.0     +6.3     51    47     +4
New Mexico   46.9     41.7     +5.2     49    50     -1
Minnesota    48.6     41.1     +7.5     51    48     +3
Iowa         48.5     42.0     +6.5     49    50     -1
Michigan     45.8     40.7     +5.1     51    48     +3

In Republican leaning states:

Arkansas     40.4     45.8     -5.4      44     55     -9
S. Dakota    38.7     44.8     -6.1      38     60    -22
Missouri     44.2     48.3     -4.1      46     53     -7
Arizona      40.3     47.4     -7.1      45     54     -9
Indiana      43.6     49.5     -5.9      39     60    -21
Georgia      43.8     49.8     -5.0      41     58    -17
S. Carolina  39.4     46.9     -5.5      41     58    -17

In the Dem leaning states, Obama is up two on Kerry (Iowa and New Mexico and among the Republican leaning states, particularly Missouri is within striking distance. In every case, Obama is doing markedly better than Kerry did.

Among the safe Republican states, all but one show double digit leads for McCain. That one thought is big one - Texas, with Obama behind by -6.9, but because McCain is over 50% (at 50.3) it’s safe Republican. Obama will have a tremendous ground game in Texas, the Latino vote will go our way; Texas could be ours!!

If you look only at the national polls, gloom and doom; if you look at the where the election will be won or lost, much more optimism is called for. If held today, Obama would be well over 300 EVs; headed for WW-predicted 400.

6. The Senate Outlook at Convention Time.

Most of the websites tracking the Senate races agree that right now, the Democrats will pick up 5 seats with one (North Carolina) in the toss up category. www.electoral-vote.com has an excellent page on each race with good descriptions of the state of the race, the polling trendlines and a bit about each candidate (with pictures). There are 33 seats with full terms up and two elections to fill the terms of deceased or retired members (Wyoming and Mississippi). The five pickup are New Mexico, New Hampshire, Colorado, Alaska and Virginia. All 12 Democratic seats are safe baring scandal or death. If it were to stay that way through election day; we would end up with 56 (including two Independents) and the Republicans 43, with North Carolina yet decided. But we should always remember that our numbers include Joe Lieberman, who will be speaking at the Republican national convention (he has the Zell Miller slot this year), so our real number would be 55 or 56, not 56/57. To get to a filibuster proof Senate (i.e. a Senate that cannot disrupt an Obama legislative agenda), we would need 4-5 more victories. Is that possible?

Unlikely, but yes. Among the current Republican-leading races are Oregon, where Jeff Merkley is taking on Gordon Smith; Minnesota, where Al Franken is starting to make it close for Norm Coleman (he is leading in one recent poll); Georgia where Jim Martin just won the Dem primary and is catching up fast against Saxby Chambliss, who did the hatchet job on war hero amputee Max Cleland in 2002 (lest we forget); Mississippi where interim Senator Roger Wicker faces a challenge from Dem Ronnie Musgrove. Even Kentucky could be a surprise with Bruce Lunsford matching Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell dollar for dollar in tv advertising. Sadly, in Maine, the spring hopeful Tom Allen is fading against Susan Collins. Even in Texas, Rick Noriega is still close enough for John Cornyn to be worried and in Idaho Larry LaRocco is within ten points of Jim Risch. Winning 5 of these would be an extreme long shot, but in 2006 at this point in the race, no one thought we would get to six and control of the Senate.

7. Reading Recommendations.

Here’s a new batch.

1. “Karl Rove’s Strategy for Attacking Obama – How Democrats Can Respond” by James Vega.at thedemocraticstrategist
2. “John McCain : No Choice for Women” by kath25 at dailykos.com. A great debating tool.
3. “PUMA: Party Unity, My America” by Brent Budowsky at thehill.com
4. “Questions for the Zealots” by Joe Conason at observer.com.
5. “Hillary’s Dead-Enders Are Becoming a Laughingstock” by P.M. Carpenter at buzzflash.com.
6. “Biden Camp Pressed Hard For a Slot on the Ticket” by Monica Langley at wsj.com.
7. “Baseline Polls Before the Conventions” by Taegan Goddard at cqpolitics.com
8. “Born in the U.S.A.: The truth about Obama’s birth certificate.” By Jess Henig at newsweek.com. The definitive statement on Obama birth. Have it handy for that debate.
9. “Crunch Time for Southern Electoral Votes” by J. P. Green at thedemocraticstrategist.org. If you believe in the southern strategy…
10. “A few questions about polling the Obama-McCain race” by desmoinesdem at openleft.com. Sorry you will have to look for this posting on the site.
11. “Court: Passengers can challenge no-fly list” by Bob Egelko, at sfgate.com. In case you are ever caught in this dilemma.
12. “Does Bush Believe McCain Was Tortured?” by Andrew Sullivan at theatlantic.com. I plan to use what’s here in my debates.

And finally…

From the Hillary speech last night:

I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?



[W]e don’t need four more years, of the last eight years. More economic stagnation, and less affordable health care. More high gas prices, and less alternative energy…. John McCain says the economy is fundamentally sound. John McCain doesn’t think that 47 million people without health insurance is a crisis. John McCain wants to privatize Social Security. And in 2008, he still thinks it’s okay when women don’t earn equal pay for equal work. With an agenda like that, it makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities. Because these days they’re awfully hard to tell apart.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Denver, 26 August 2008.

(Washington Monthly) “It was a powerful reminder that Clinton’s values and priorities are more important than one candidate or one campaign.”

Best regards,

John McQueen
Am Gotzenberg 2
69126 Heidelberg, Germany