Democrats Abroad New Zealand
10.23.2006
The Lone Star: How Kinky Friedman Shook Up Texas (Independent.co.uk)
When a Jewish country music singer and political virgin entered the race to become Governor of Texas with the slogan 'How Hard Can It Be?', people thought he was joking. Eighteen months (and a slew of high-profile political scandals) later, Kinky Friedman has become a genuine contender in an election battle that has excited and delighted voters across America. Has he got what it takes? Andrew Gumbel joins the Kinkster on the campaign trail to find out
Published: 23 October 2006
Strange things start happening when a 61-year-old Jewish cowboy with a wicked sense of humour decides to run for governor of Texas. Ever since Kinky Friedman, hitherto best known as a tongue-in-cheek country singer and semi-autobiographical mystery novelist, threw his hat in the ring 18 months ago and declared his ruggedly independent candidacy, politics in the Lone Star State have undergone a remarkable transformation.
Mostly, they've got a lot more fun. Friedman has stayed true to the opening battle cry of his campaign - "Why the hell not?" - giving the whole system a jolt of reckless possibility. The joke is on everyone: career politicians, corporate lobbyists, Christian fundamentalists, liberals, moralists and the numerous friends and foes of George Bush. Friedman, with his dry, gravelly voice and impeccable timing born of years on the stand-up comedy circuit, unfailingly skewers them all. His one-liner about the President is that he is "a good man trapped in a Republican's body"; politics in general, he says, is the only profession where the more experience you have, the worse you get.
By now, the entire state is sharing the joke - whether people intend to vote for Friedman in the 7 November mid-terms or not. Surely, no other candidate for office would have received a letter like the one sent to Friedman recently by a doctor from the Dallas suburbs. Had it come to his attention, the good doctor asked, that sales of the Trojan Vibrating Ring - a semi-obscure sex aid - were prohibited within the borders of Texas? Bemoaning an "egregious injustice" born of religious bigotry and woefully misplaced priorities at the highest levels of state government, Friedman's correspondent went on: "Currently it is legal to buy a .357 Magnum at Wal-Mart, but I can't buy a techno french tickler at my local Walgreens. Where's the logic?"
Before Friedman came along, the 2006 election for Texas governor was shaping up to be a snorer, of no interest to sex-aid aficionados or anybody else. Sitting in the Republican corner was Rick Perry, the distinctly lightweight incumbent governor who succeeded George Bush six years ago, and has done little since then to enthuse anybody - except perhaps his lobbyist buddies in the energy, insurance and construction industries. In the Texas press, Perry is more frequently noted for his slick, full head of hair than for anything he might possess beneath it.
'TEXAS IS MY COUNTRY, TRUTH IS MY RELIGION - AND FUCK 'EM IF THEY CAN'T TAKE A JOKE'
(More ... Independent > News > World > Americas > The lone star: How Kinky Friedman shook up Texas)
Published: 23 October 2006
Strange things start happening when a 61-year-old Jewish cowboy with a wicked sense of humour decides to run for governor of Texas. Ever since Kinky Friedman, hitherto best known as a tongue-in-cheek country singer and semi-autobiographical mystery novelist, threw his hat in the ring 18 months ago and declared his ruggedly independent candidacy, politics in the Lone Star State have undergone a remarkable transformation.
Mostly, they've got a lot more fun. Friedman has stayed true to the opening battle cry of his campaign - "Why the hell not?" - giving the whole system a jolt of reckless possibility. The joke is on everyone: career politicians, corporate lobbyists, Christian fundamentalists, liberals, moralists and the numerous friends and foes of George Bush. Friedman, with his dry, gravelly voice and impeccable timing born of years on the stand-up comedy circuit, unfailingly skewers them all. His one-liner about the President is that he is "a good man trapped in a Republican's body"; politics in general, he says, is the only profession where the more experience you have, the worse you get.
By now, the entire state is sharing the joke - whether people intend to vote for Friedman in the 7 November mid-terms or not. Surely, no other candidate for office would have received a letter like the one sent to Friedman recently by a doctor from the Dallas suburbs. Had it come to his attention, the good doctor asked, that sales of the Trojan Vibrating Ring - a semi-obscure sex aid - were prohibited within the borders of Texas? Bemoaning an "egregious injustice" born of religious bigotry and woefully misplaced priorities at the highest levels of state government, Friedman's correspondent went on: "Currently it is legal to buy a .357 Magnum at Wal-Mart, but I can't buy a techno french tickler at my local Walgreens. Where's the logic?"
Before Friedman came along, the 2006 election for Texas governor was shaping up to be a snorer, of no interest to sex-aid aficionados or anybody else. Sitting in the Republican corner was Rick Perry, the distinctly lightweight incumbent governor who succeeded George Bush six years ago, and has done little since then to enthuse anybody - except perhaps his lobbyist buddies in the energy, insurance and construction industries. In the Texas press, Perry is more frequently noted for his slick, full head of hair than for anything he might possess beneath it.
'TEXAS IS MY COUNTRY, TRUTH IS MY RELIGION - AND FUCK 'EM IF THEY CAN'T TAKE A JOKE'
(More ... Independent > News > World > Americas > The lone star: How Kinky Friedman shook up Texas)
Labels: 2006 election, Independent, Kinky Friedman, Texas
¶ 22:08 0 comments
Paraguay in a Spin About Bush's Alleged 100,000 acre Hideaway (Guardian.co.uk)
Tom Phillips in Cuiab
Monday October 23, 2006
The Guardian
Meeting the new couple next door can be an anxious business for even the most relaxed home owner. Will they be international drug traffickers? Have they got noisy kids with a penchant for electronic music? As worries go, however, having the US president move in next door must come fairly low on the list.
Unless of course you are a resident of northern Paraguay and believe reports in the South American press that he has bought up a 100,000 acre (40,500 hectare) ranch in your neck of the woods.
The rumours, as yet unconfirmed but which began with the state-run Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, have triggered an outpouring of conspiracy theories, with speculation rife about what President Bush's supposed interest in the "chaco", a semi-arid lowland in the Paraguay's north, might be.
Some have speculated that he might be trying to wrestle control of the Guarani Aquifer, one of the largest underground water reserves, from the Paraguayans.
Rumours of Mr Bush's supposed forays into South American real estate surfaced during a recent 10-day visit to the country by his daughter Jenna Bush. Little is known about her trip to Paraguay, although officially she travelled with the UN children's agency Unicef to visit social projects. Photographers from the Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color tracked her down to one restaurant in Paraguay's capital Asunción, where she was seen flanked by 10 security guards, and was also reported to have met Paraguay's president, Nicanor Duarte, and the US ambassador to Paraguay, James Cason. Reports in sections of the Paraguayan media suggested she was sent on a family "mission" to tie up the land purchase in the "chaco".
(More ... Guardian Unlimited > International > Paraguay in a spin about Bush's alleged 100,000 acre hideaway)
(More ... Scoop > Undernews: Bush Purchases 99000 Acres In Paraguay?)
Monday October 23, 2006
The Guardian
Meeting the new couple next door can be an anxious business for even the most relaxed home owner. Will they be international drug traffickers? Have they got noisy kids with a penchant for electronic music? As worries go, however, having the US president move in next door must come fairly low on the list.
Unless of course you are a resident of northern Paraguay and believe reports in the South American press that he has bought up a 100,000 acre (40,500 hectare) ranch in your neck of the woods.
The rumours, as yet unconfirmed but which began with the state-run Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, have triggered an outpouring of conspiracy theories, with speculation rife about what President Bush's supposed interest in the "chaco", a semi-arid lowland in the Paraguay's north, might be.
Some have speculated that he might be trying to wrestle control of the Guarani Aquifer, one of the largest underground water reserves, from the Paraguayans.
Rumours of Mr Bush's supposed forays into South American real estate surfaced during a recent 10-day visit to the country by his daughter Jenna Bush. Little is known about her trip to Paraguay, although officially she travelled with the UN children's agency Unicef to visit social projects. Photographers from the Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color tracked her down to one restaurant in Paraguay's capital Asunción, where she was seen flanked by 10 security guards, and was also reported to have met Paraguay's president, Nicanor Duarte, and the US ambassador to Paraguay, James Cason. Reports in sections of the Paraguayan media suggested she was sent on a family "mission" to tie up the land purchase in the "chaco".
(More ... Guardian Unlimited > International > Paraguay in a spin about Bush's alleged 100,000 acre hideaway)
(More ... Scoop > Undernews: Bush Purchases 99000 Acres In Paraguay?)
Labels: Bush, Guardian, Paraguay, Scoop, Undernews
¶ 21:57 0 comments
Bush Family Preparing to Flee to Haven in Paraguay? (VHeadline.com)
Published: Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Bylined to: Bob Chapman
Bush family preparing to flee to haven in Paraguay? No extradition treaties!
THE INTERNATIONAL FORECASTER editor Bob Chapman writes: Word reaches us that the Bush family has purchased 100,000 acres of land in the South American nation of Paraguay. This news follows the announcement that American troops will be leaving Paraguay in December, because the US refuses to stay unless their troops are given total immunity from crime.
Paraguay refuses to sign such an agreement.
We wonder if the Bushes are migrating there because the country has no extradition treaties?
* The actual size of their property is 98,842 acres of farmland in Acuifero in northern Paraguay, between Brazil and Bolivia. The property was issued to Jenna Bush as the owner. She is with the UNO’s, UNICEF program in Paraguay.
Perhaps the Bushes see war crimes trials in their future.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has filed war crimes charges against Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, US military commanders and the majority of US Senators and Representatives. The war in Iraq has been declared as an illegal war.
The only other time the Red Cross made such charges was in 1943 against Nazi Germany and Adolph Hitler.
* Bush connections in the region go back to Prescott Bush, the Nazi financier and George H. W. Bush as head of the CIA running Operation Condor, which ran assassination teams in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.
This same cabal is protecting Iran Contra assassin Luis Posada Carriles. They refuse to extradite him to Venezuela for trial. Posada escaped from jail there in 1985, with CIA-elitist assistance.
This could be a remake of the 1940s when wanted Nazis fled for protection in Paraguay.
(VHeadline.com/Chapman)
Bylined to: Bob Chapman
Bush family preparing to flee to haven in Paraguay? No extradition treaties!
THE INTERNATIONAL FORECASTER editor Bob Chapman writes: Word reaches us that the Bush family has purchased 100,000 acres of land in the South American nation of Paraguay. This news follows the announcement that American troops will be leaving Paraguay in December, because the US refuses to stay unless their troops are given total immunity from crime.
Paraguay refuses to sign such an agreement.
We wonder if the Bushes are migrating there because the country has no extradition treaties?
* The actual size of their property is 98,842 acres of farmland in Acuifero in northern Paraguay, between Brazil and Bolivia. The property was issued to Jenna Bush as the owner. She is with the UNO’s, UNICEF program in Paraguay.
Perhaps the Bushes see war crimes trials in their future.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has filed war crimes charges against Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, US military commanders and the majority of US Senators and Representatives. The war in Iraq has been declared as an illegal war.
The only other time the Red Cross made such charges was in 1943 against Nazi Germany and Adolph Hitler.
* Bush connections in the region go back to Prescott Bush, the Nazi financier and George H. W. Bush as head of the CIA running Operation Condor, which ran assassination teams in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.
This same cabal is protecting Iran Contra assassin Luis Posada Carriles. They refuse to extradite him to Venezuela for trial. Posada escaped from jail there in 1985, with CIA-elitist assistance.
This could be a remake of the 1940s when wanted Nazis fled for protection in Paraguay.
(VHeadline.com/Chapman)
Labels: Bush, Paraguay, War Crimes
¶ 21:52 0 comments
Is This Obama's Time? (ChicagoTribune.com)
Published October 20, 2006
If the crowd is large enough, even mumbles can grow deafening. So it is that the Democratic Party's sudden `It' candidate for the presidency in 2008 is an Illinois chap named Barack Obama.
Many rank-and-file Democrats would love to see Obama run. They see the first-term U.S. senator as an honest-eyed embodiment of charisma and content. He evokes what FDR and JFK evoked--a focus not on the tiresome past or the troubled present, but the ennobling future.
But many rank-and-file Republicans would love to see Obama run too. They relish a presidential candidate they would portray as an inexperienced prospect for a nation sure to be tested for many years in a war with Islamist extremists: Think Bambi, but more touchy-feely.
Barack Obama alone will decide whether this is his time. He has the luxury and the burden of mulling whether an attempt at the presidency would be good for his country, good for his family, good for him.
What some see as his reason to run now is, paradoxically, also his reason to wait:
- Senators rarely move up Pennsylvania Avenue (see Dole, Bob, and Kerry, John, two names among many). The likely reason: Their years in the Capitol leave them with long voting records for opponents to dismantle. Thus the thinking in some circles that Obama should leap into a presidential race before he has more experience, a.k.a. more of a record.
- The counterargument is that every election cycle is hostage to the context of its time. In the comparatively calm moments of 1976, 1992 and 2000, voters grew comfortable with newcomers to the national stage who knew little of foreign affairs--Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. In ostensibly more challenging years such as 1964 (Lyndon Johnson) and 1988 (George H.W. Bush), voters gravitated to candidates steeped in Washington experience. Come Nov. 4, 2008, as they cast their presidential votes in private booths, would Americans see Obama as refreshingly free of Washington baggage--or as a young man who still needs more seasoning?
(More ... Chicago Tribune > Editorials > Is This Obama's Time?)
If the crowd is large enough, even mumbles can grow deafening. So it is that the Democratic Party's sudden `It' candidate for the presidency in 2008 is an Illinois chap named Barack Obama.
Many rank-and-file Democrats would love to see Obama run. They see the first-term U.S. senator as an honest-eyed embodiment of charisma and content. He evokes what FDR and JFK evoked--a focus not on the tiresome past or the troubled present, but the ennobling future.
But many rank-and-file Republicans would love to see Obama run too. They relish a presidential candidate they would portray as an inexperienced prospect for a nation sure to be tested for many years in a war with Islamist extremists: Think Bambi, but more touchy-feely.
Barack Obama alone will decide whether this is his time. He has the luxury and the burden of mulling whether an attempt at the presidency would be good for his country, good for his family, good for him.
What some see as his reason to run now is, paradoxically, also his reason to wait:
- Senators rarely move up Pennsylvania Avenue (see Dole, Bob, and Kerry, John, two names among many). The likely reason: Their years in the Capitol leave them with long voting records for opponents to dismantle. Thus the thinking in some circles that Obama should leap into a presidential race before he has more experience, a.k.a. more of a record.
- The counterargument is that every election cycle is hostage to the context of its time. In the comparatively calm moments of 1976, 1992 and 2000, voters grew comfortable with newcomers to the national stage who knew little of foreign affairs--Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. In ostensibly more challenging years such as 1964 (Lyndon Johnson) and 1988 (George H.W. Bush), voters gravitated to candidates steeped in Washington experience. Come Nov. 4, 2008, as they cast their presidential votes in private booths, would Americans see Obama as refreshingly free of Washington baggage--or as a young man who still needs more seasoning?
(More ... Chicago Tribune > Editorials > Is This Obama's Time?)
Labels: 2008 election, Chicago Tribune, Editorials, Obama
¶ 21:15 0 comments
Barack Obama's Star Will Shine Beyond 2008 (IHT.com)
By Albert R. Hunt Bloomberg News
Published: October 22, 2006
WASHINGTON If American politicians were stocks, Barack Obama would be a Warren Buffett investment: great long-term value.
The 45-year-old senator from Illinois started a national tour for his new book last week with almost unprecedented fanfare - his picture on the cover of Time magazine with a boldfaced "The Next President" as the headline and two dozen appearances from coast to coast, ranging from the Oprah Winfrey and Larry King television shows to an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," the granddaddy of gravitas.
In this election season no one is in greater demand to help the Democrats win back control of Congress. Obama will campaign in 30 states all over the country, in Republican and Democratic districts alike.
The most talked-about question in the top echelons of American political circles is this: Will, or should, the only black person among all senators and governors run for president in 2008?
"Obama has a series of unique gifts," said Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union, which represents 1.8 million workers. "He understands what is happening to people who work in this country and has an unusual willingness to think differently about how to solve problems."
"There are a few public officials, like John Kennedy and Reagan and Clinton who are more than politicians, they are cultural phenomena," said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, who is supporting Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. "Barack is one."
Obama revels in all the presidential speculation. He is teasingly noncommittal when the subject arises and acknowledges it has gotten his ideas, and book, "The Audacity of Hope," more attention. "This is a good problem to have, not something I complain about," he said in an interview last week.
Yet there are compelling reasons for Obama not to run in 2008, a conclusion I suspect this very smart and very careful politician will ultimately reach.
(More ... International Herald Tribune > Letter from Washington: Barack Obama's Star Will Shine Beyond 2008)
Published: October 22, 2006
WASHINGTON If American politicians were stocks, Barack Obama would be a Warren Buffett investment: great long-term value.
The 45-year-old senator from Illinois started a national tour for his new book last week with almost unprecedented fanfare - his picture on the cover of Time magazine with a boldfaced "The Next President" as the headline and two dozen appearances from coast to coast, ranging from the Oprah Winfrey and Larry King television shows to an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," the granddaddy of gravitas.
In this election season no one is in greater demand to help the Democrats win back control of Congress. Obama will campaign in 30 states all over the country, in Republican and Democratic districts alike.
The most talked-about question in the top echelons of American political circles is this: Will, or should, the only black person among all senators and governors run for president in 2008?
"Obama has a series of unique gifts," said Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees International Union, which represents 1.8 million workers. "He understands what is happening to people who work in this country and has an unusual willingness to think differently about how to solve problems."
"There are a few public officials, like John Kennedy and Reagan and Clinton who are more than politicians, they are cultural phenomena," said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, who is supporting Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. "Barack is one."
Obama revels in all the presidential speculation. He is teasingly noncommittal when the subject arises and acknowledges it has gotten his ideas, and book, "The Audacity of Hope," more attention. "This is a good problem to have, not something I complain about," he said in an interview last week.
Yet there are compelling reasons for Obama not to run in 2008, a conclusion I suspect this very smart and very careful politician will ultimately reach.
(More ... International Herald Tribune > Letter from Washington: Barack Obama's Star Will Shine Beyond 2008)
Labels: 2008 election, IHT, Obama, Opinion
¶ 21:09 0 comments
Obama Admits He's Thinking '08 (LATimes.com)
The Illinois senator had vowed to serve his full term, but the support he sees encourages him to run for president.
By Chuck Neubauer, Times Staff Writer
October 23, 2006
WASHINGTON — Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois said Sunday that he was considering a run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, backing away from previous pledges to serve out his full six-year Senate term.
Obama, 45, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he would not make any decision before the Nov. 7 midterm election.
"I am still at the point where I have not made a decision to — to pursue higher office," he said, "but it is true that I have thought about it over the last several months."
In 2004, as a candidate for the Senate, Obama entered the national spotlight as the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention. He won the Senate seat that November with 70% of the vote.
Twice before on "Meet the Press" — soon after that election and again this past January — Obama stated flatly that he would serve his full Senate term. On Sunday, he attributed his possible change of heart to "the responses that I've been getting over the last several months" while campaigning for Democratic candidates across the country.
"He is the most in-demand speaker in the Democratic Party," said David Axelrod, a Chicago-based media consultant who advised Obama's Senate campaign. "He gets 300 invitations a week."
(More ... Los Angeles Times > News > Politics > Obama admits he's thinking '08)
By Chuck Neubauer, Times Staff Writer
October 23, 2006
WASHINGTON — Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois said Sunday that he was considering a run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, backing away from previous pledges to serve out his full six-year Senate term.
Obama, 45, told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he would not make any decision before the Nov. 7 midterm election.
"I am still at the point where I have not made a decision to — to pursue higher office," he said, "but it is true that I have thought about it over the last several months."
In 2004, as a candidate for the Senate, Obama entered the national spotlight as the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention. He won the Senate seat that November with 70% of the vote.
Twice before on "Meet the Press" — soon after that election and again this past January — Obama stated flatly that he would serve his full Senate term. On Sunday, he attributed his possible change of heart to "the responses that I've been getting over the last several months" while campaigning for Democratic candidates across the country.
"He is the most in-demand speaker in the Democratic Party," said David Axelrod, a Chicago-based media consultant who advised Obama's Senate campaign. "He gets 300 invitations a week."
(More ... Los Angeles Times > News > Politics > Obama admits he's thinking '08)
Labels: 2008 election, LATimes, Obama
¶ 21:03 0 comments
10.20.2006
Run, Barack, Run (NYTimes.com)
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: October 19, 2006
Springfield, Illinois
Barack Obama should run for president.
He should run first for the good of his party. It would demoralize the Democrats to go through a long primary season with the most exciting figure in the party looming off in the distance like some unapproachable dream. The next Democratic nominee should either be Barack Obama or should have the stature that would come from defeating Barack Obama.
Second, he should run because of his age. Obama’s inexperience is his most obvious shortcoming. Over the next four years, the world could face a genocidal civil war in Iraq, a wave of nuclear proliferation, more Islamic extremism and a demagogues’ revolt against globalization. Do we really want a forty-something in the White House?
And yet in his new book, “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama makes a strong counterargument. He notes that it’s time to move beyond the political style of the baby boom generation. This is a style, he said in an interview late Tuesday, that is highly moralistic and personal, dividing people between who is good and who is bad.
Obama himself has a mentality formed by globalization, not the S.D.S. With his multiethnic family and his globe-spanning childhood, there is a little piece of everything in Obama. He is perpetually engaged in an internal discussion between different pieces of his hybrid self — Kenya with Harvard, Kansas with the South Side of Chicago — and he takes that conversation outward into the world.
(More ... New York Times > Opinion > David Brooks > Run, Barack, Run)
Published: October 19, 2006
Springfield, Illinois
Barack Obama should run for president.
He should run first for the good of his party. It would demoralize the Democrats to go through a long primary season with the most exciting figure in the party looming off in the distance like some unapproachable dream. The next Democratic nominee should either be Barack Obama or should have the stature that would come from defeating Barack Obama.
Second, he should run because of his age. Obama’s inexperience is his most obvious shortcoming. Over the next four years, the world could face a genocidal civil war in Iraq, a wave of nuclear proliferation, more Islamic extremism and a demagogues’ revolt against globalization. Do we really want a forty-something in the White House?
And yet in his new book, “The Audacity of Hope,” Obama makes a strong counterargument. He notes that it’s time to move beyond the political style of the baby boom generation. This is a style, he said in an interview late Tuesday, that is highly moralistic and personal, dividing people between who is good and who is bad.
Obama himself has a mentality formed by globalization, not the S.D.S. With his multiethnic family and his globe-spanning childhood, there is a little piece of everything in Obama. He is perpetually engaged in an internal discussion between different pieces of his hybrid self — Kenya with Harvard, Kansas with the South Side of Chicago — and he takes that conversation outward into the world.
(More ... New York Times > Opinion > David Brooks > Run, Barack, Run)
Labels: 2008 election, New York Times, Obama, Opinion
¶ 21:09 0 comments
10.10.2006
Poll: Dems Gain Big Lead (USATODAY.com)
Updated 10/9/2006 10:59 PM ET
By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — A Capitol Hill sex scandal has reinforced public doubts about Republican leadership and pushed Democrats to a huge lead in the race for control of Congress four weeks before Election Day, the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows.
Democrats had a 23-point lead over Republicans in every group of people questioned — likely voters, registered voters and adults — on which party's House candidate would get their vote. That's double the lead Republicans had a month before they seized control of Congress in 1994 and the Democrats' largest advantage among registered voters since 1978.
Nearly three in 10 registered voters said their representative doesn't deserve re-election — the highest level since 1994. President Bush's approval rating was 37% in the new poll, down from 44% in a Sept. 15-17 poll. And for the first time since the question was asked in 2002, Democrats did better than Republicans on who would best handle terrorism, 46%-41%.
"It's hard to see how the climate is going to shift dramatically between now and Election Day," said John Pitney, a former GOP aide on Capitol Hill who now teaches at Claremont-McKenna College in California. He said Iraq remains the biggest problem for Republicans: "People just don't like inconclusive wars."
The plummeting GOP ratings in the poll of 1,007 adults, taken Friday through Sunday, come amid a series of events that have given Democrats ammunition to argue that the country needs a new direction.
(More ... USA Today > Washington/Politics > Voters Shift Toward House Democrats)
By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — A Capitol Hill sex scandal has reinforced public doubts about Republican leadership and pushed Democrats to a huge lead in the race for control of Congress four weeks before Election Day, the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows.
Democrats had a 23-point lead over Republicans in every group of people questioned — likely voters, registered voters and adults — on which party's House candidate would get their vote. That's double the lead Republicans had a month before they seized control of Congress in 1994 and the Democrats' largest advantage among registered voters since 1978.
Nearly three in 10 registered voters said their representative doesn't deserve re-election — the highest level since 1994. President Bush's approval rating was 37% in the new poll, down from 44% in a Sept. 15-17 poll. And for the first time since the question was asked in 2002, Democrats did better than Republicans on who would best handle terrorism, 46%-41%.
"It's hard to see how the climate is going to shift dramatically between now and Election Day," said John Pitney, a former GOP aide on Capitol Hill who now teaches at Claremont-McKenna College in California. He said Iraq remains the biggest problem for Republicans: "People just don't like inconclusive wars."
The plummeting GOP ratings in the poll of 1,007 adults, taken Friday through Sunday, come amid a series of events that have given Democrats ammunition to argue that the country needs a new direction.
(More ... USA Today > Washington/Politics > Voters Shift Toward House Democrats)
Labels: poll
¶ 21:33 0 comments
10.01.2006
The Inside Agitator (NYTimes.com)
By MATT BAI
Published: October 1, 2006
Not all states are equal on an election map, and Alaska is one of those less populous states — like Kansas or Idaho or Alabama — that national Democrats almost never bother to visit. For one thing, just getting there presents a logistical ordeal: the journey from Washington takes as long as it would to reach, say, Nigeria, and even then you sometimes need a hydroplane to get around. And more to the point, there aren’t a whole lot of people to see once you get there. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by a margin of 2 to 1 in oil-crazed Alaska, which hasn’t sent a Democrat to the House or Senate in more than 30 years. To put it another way, there were more Democrats in Central Park for the Dave Matthews concert a few years back than there are in the entire state of Alaska — all 656,000 square miles of it.
It seemed somewhat bizarre, then, when Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, chose to make the long odyssey to Alaska at the end of May, near what was the beginning of one of the most intense and closely contested national election campaigns in memory, when every other Democrat in Washington was talking about potentially decisive states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. It was also strange that no one in Democratic Washington seemed to know he was going. Although I had been following Dean closely for months, I found out about the trip accidentally and invited myself along — an intrusion that Dean seemed merely to tolerate. We met up first in Las Vegas, where he was making appearances with Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader. Dean, who enjoys his image as an unpretentious New Englander, is given to finding his own flights on discount Web sites, so it’s sometimes hard for even his own staff to track his itinerary. On the morning we left for Alaska, Dean went missing for a good half-hour. It turned out that he was in the business center of the MGM Grand, where he had been trying to figure out how to print his boarding pass but somehow ended up in an impromptu game of online backgammon with a guy who claimed to be in China.
Touching down in Anchorage, we were greeted by Jonathan Teeters, a 25-year-old former offensive lineman at the University of Idaho who had been hired to help the state party begin to organize Democrats. It took less than 10 minutes, as Teeters drove us through a pounding rainstorm to the state headquarters, for Dean, seated in front, to unleash his usual brand of havoc on a state unaccustomed to it. First, he absently asked Teeters what kind of radio interviews he would be doing during his 24-hour stay and was told that he was booked on the local Air America affiliate, the only liberal radio option in town. This is what party chairmen get paid to do — rally the faithful, collect their money and urge them to vote.
“Bull,” Dean snapped, using a slightly more elongated version of the term.
“Huh?” Chris Canning, Dean’s personal aide, suddenly looked up from a loose-leaf binder. He seemed to think he had misheard.
“I’m not going to do that,” Dean replied firmly, craning his neck to address Canning in the back seat. “I didn’t come all the way up here just to talk to people who already agree with us. I want to talk to everyone else. I’m fine with doing Air America, but we have to do something else too. Isn’t there some conservative show we can do?” Teeters warned that the few right-wing shows in town could get nasty for the chairman. “If you can set something else up too, great,” Dean said with finality. “Otherwise, I won’t do Air America.”
(More ... New York Times > New York Times Magazine > The Inside Agitator) ¶ 18:46 0 comments
Published: October 1, 2006
Not all states are equal on an election map, and Alaska is one of those less populous states — like Kansas or Idaho or Alabama — that national Democrats almost never bother to visit. For one thing, just getting there presents a logistical ordeal: the journey from Washington takes as long as it would to reach, say, Nigeria, and even then you sometimes need a hydroplane to get around. And more to the point, there aren’t a whole lot of people to see once you get there. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by a margin of 2 to 1 in oil-crazed Alaska, which hasn’t sent a Democrat to the House or Senate in more than 30 years. To put it another way, there were more Democrats in Central Park for the Dave Matthews concert a few years back than there are in the entire state of Alaska — all 656,000 square miles of it.
It seemed somewhat bizarre, then, when Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, chose to make the long odyssey to Alaska at the end of May, near what was the beginning of one of the most intense and closely contested national election campaigns in memory, when every other Democrat in Washington was talking about potentially decisive states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. It was also strange that no one in Democratic Washington seemed to know he was going. Although I had been following Dean closely for months, I found out about the trip accidentally and invited myself along — an intrusion that Dean seemed merely to tolerate. We met up first in Las Vegas, where he was making appearances with Harry Reid, the Senate minority leader. Dean, who enjoys his image as an unpretentious New Englander, is given to finding his own flights on discount Web sites, so it’s sometimes hard for even his own staff to track his itinerary. On the morning we left for Alaska, Dean went missing for a good half-hour. It turned out that he was in the business center of the MGM Grand, where he had been trying to figure out how to print his boarding pass but somehow ended up in an impromptu game of online backgammon with a guy who claimed to be in China.
Touching down in Anchorage, we were greeted by Jonathan Teeters, a 25-year-old former offensive lineman at the University of Idaho who had been hired to help the state party begin to organize Democrats. It took less than 10 minutes, as Teeters drove us through a pounding rainstorm to the state headquarters, for Dean, seated in front, to unleash his usual brand of havoc on a state unaccustomed to it. First, he absently asked Teeters what kind of radio interviews he would be doing during his 24-hour stay and was told that he was booked on the local Air America affiliate, the only liberal radio option in town. This is what party chairmen get paid to do — rally the faithful, collect their money and urge them to vote.
“Bull,” Dean snapped, using a slightly more elongated version of the term.
“Huh?” Chris Canning, Dean’s personal aide, suddenly looked up from a loose-leaf binder. He seemed to think he had misheard.
“I’m not going to do that,” Dean replied firmly, craning his neck to address Canning in the back seat. “I didn’t come all the way up here just to talk to people who already agree with us. I want to talk to everyone else. I’m fine with doing Air America, but we have to do something else too. Isn’t there some conservative show we can do?” Teeters warned that the few right-wing shows in town could get nasty for the chairman. “If you can set something else up too, great,” Dean said with finality. “Otherwise, I won’t do Air America.”
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