Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Political Rondup

McCain Campaign on Romney:

"Welcome to Mitt Romney's bizarro world, in which everyone is guilty of his sins. He didn't support Ronald Reagan. He didn't support President Bush's tax cuts. He raised taxes in Massachusetts by $700 million. He knows John McCain is gaining on him so he does what any small varmint gun totin,' civil rights marching, NRA endorsed fantasy candidate would do: he questions someone else's credibility. New Hampshire is on to you, Mitt. Give it a rest. It's Christmas."

On The New Republic.

My thought: Romney is in it for personal reasons and will say whatever he thinks will fly in order to get elected. He stands for everything (at one point or another in his career) and therefore stands for nothing. Clinton is accused of "triangulating" which, to my way of thinking, is simply a sophisticated way of pandering. Whatever the truth of that suggestion about Clinton might be, Romney doesn't raise to that level of sophistication.



Racial Undercurrent Is Seen in Clinton Campaign:

It has unfolded mostly under the radar. But an important development in the 2008 Democratic battle may be the building backlash among African Americans over comments from associates of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton that could be construed as jabs at Sen. Barack Obama's race.

These officials, including Clinton aides and prominent surrogates, have raised questions or dropped references about Obama's position on sentencing guidelines for crack vs. powder cocaine offenses; on his handgun control record; and on his admitted use of drugs as a youth. The context was always Obama's "electability." But the Illinois senator's campaign advisers said some African American leaders detect a pattern, and they believe it could erode Clinton's strong base of black support.

On The Washington Post site.

My thought: If it's part of a strategy, it's not working.



Rush Limbaugh takes on Huckabee:

"What was somewhat stunning about all this is that NO ONE in the GOP field, including advisers and staff, could possibly misread my 19-plus-year career the way Gov. Huckabee's D.C. supporter did," Limbaugh said. "Whoever said those things was essentially repeating the Democrat mantra of all these years: that I am just an entertainer, not an independent thinker, part of the Wall Street/D.C. axis. If it was someone on Gov. Huckabee's staff or support team, it was just silly, uninformed and thus curious."

On Politico.

My thought: "Thinkers" deal in ideas. Rush deals in ad hominem attacks, innuendo, invective, and vitriol. He has never had a "idea based thought" in his career. What ever he thinks about being a "thinker", he's an entertainer. Is he influential? Absolutely. So are gossip columnists is some circles ... but that doesn't make them "thinkers". Nor does it make their pronouncements worthy of consideration ... but that never cut any cheese with the "dittoheads" in Rush's fan club.



Firms that got big tax breaks gave bundle to Rudy Giuliani's campaigns:

Corporations that got multimillion-dollar sweetheart tax deals from former Mayor Rudy Giuliani have raised more than $1 million for his Senate and presidential bids, the Daily News has found.

When he was mayor, Giuliani doled out tax reductions to giant corporations far more aggressively than all other New York mayors since the city tax breaks emerged in the 1980s.

In numerous cases, Giuliani allowed corporations to move jobs to New Jersey or lay off large chunks of their workforce - and still reap the full benefits of sales tax exemptions, energy cost discounts and taxpayer-subsidized bonds.

from The Daily News.

My thought: Giuliani is all about the money, the money and personal power. Morals, ethics, the rule of law and the Constitution are all impediments to those goals as far as he's concerned. If you're surprised by supportable allegations of corruption on his watch, you just haven't been paying attention for the last 20 years.



Pollster.com Presidential Polling Trends - Updated 24/7

All the pretty (and not so pretty) pictures here.

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