Wait just a dang minute. Michele Bachmann has (courtesy of Eva at LloydLetta) claimed credit for a federal earmark supporting St. Cloud's Metro Bus system when she actually voted against the bill that funded the earmark?
Look, I don't usually build posts like this from press releases. But the DFL has a point when they call her "shameless" on this issue -- at what point does the partisan spin and do-nothing wedge-issue grenade-lobbing become too much for the voters of the Sixth district?
(For your consideration, O netizens who love to vote in polls, especially polls that may get a great candidate a little help in the bank account area.... - promoted by Joe Bodell)
According to their website, "The Progressive Patriots Fund is dedicated to promoting a progressive reform agenda and supporting candidates across the country." Encourage them to support Ashwin Madia by voting for him using the link below.
[I promise, I'll get back to MN issues after this.]
In a desperate move to find some momentum, Hillary Clinton played up racial divisions in comments that were incredibly offensive.CNN reports:
Hillary Clinton suggested Wednesday that "White Americans" are increasingly turning away from Barack Obama's candidacy.
"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," Clinton said in an interview with USA TODAY.
Wait, it gets worse.
Clinton cited an Associated Press poll "that found how Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."
Is Hillary implying that only whites are hard working Americans? Maybe she's not speaking that clearly, but that's how I read that quote. She sounds like Jesse Helms, for crying out loud. Not only will this not help her campaign, but it may alienate a large portion of the democratic base.
Now that this campaign has hit a new low, Clinton should salvage what respect she has left and bow out of the race.
Per Paul Demko's post yesterday at MinMon, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Chris Van Hollen will be in town next week to stump and raise money for Ash Madia in his bid for the 3rd district open seat.
The press conference is all well and good -- free media is a good thing, and the DCCC has a distinct advantage this year relative to its Republican counterpart -- but the fundraising is even better. Q2 is tremendously important to help Madia even the financial playing field against Erik Paulsen before the head-to-head presidential campaign between Barack Obama and John McCain really starts picking up and attention from voters and donors gets pulled in that direction.
If Van Hollen's appearance is in the evening I'll do my best to cover it and chat with the Maryland congressman. However, while we're on the topic, why not toss Madia a few bucks via ActBlue? I can assure you the campaign will appreciate it.
As I was heading to bed last night, I turned on CNN for just a minute, to see if the final results from Indiana were in. I tuned in just in time to watch Wolf Blitzer scolding the mayor of Gary, Indiana. "Why is this taking so long?" he demanded. He acknowledged that there had been an unprecedented number of absentee ballots, "but why couldn't you have posted partial results?"
I want to clue you in on something, Wolf. This is the electoral process we're talking about here -- perhaps the most important institution in our country. We're not going to undermine its integrity by speeding through the vote-counting so you can get your talking heads on the air.
Our "news" media have turned this election into one giant circus, full of gaffes, gotchas, and manufactured controversies. They have long since abandoned discussion of the issues in favor of attacks on the candidates. I realized something as I watched Blitzer hounding a public official to get all the votes counted so he could have his drama: our media used to be responsible for reporting the news. During this election, they have devoted their energies to trying to create news -- they have searched for that perfect "gotcha" moment, and replayed it over and over until the next one happened. Our media is no longer helping to inform the American public; instead, they are filling our airwaves with vapid political sniping.
Political Wire has learned that Sen. Hillary Clinton is returning to Washington, D.C. today to meet with advisers and discuss the future of her campaign.
Something I almost forgot, perhaps because of the execrable nature of its author: Yesterday everyone's favorite partisan Republican message-meister Michael Brodkorb went after Ash Madia for the liveblog he did on DailyKos recently:
Self-identified "moderate" Ashwin Madia participated in a live-blog on the uber-liberal hate site Daily Kos last evening. Madia wrote that he was "so excited to have this opportunity":.....It's sad to see that Madia is "so excited" to live-blog on website that represents the fringe of the Democratic party.
Wow, let's count the issues.
Faux concern for the Democratic Party? Please, don't make me laugh.
Hearing Michael Brodkorb call a website a partisan "hate site" is like Dr. Jekyll giving a lecture on the negative effects of mind-altering drugs -- you have to wonder whether the pot recognizes its similarity with the kettle
I can't speak directly for Madia, but look, DailyKos is a pretty great resource for raising the national profile of candidates in races like this one. Of course, I understand if Brodkorb is a bit jealous since nothing like it exists on the conservative side of the aisle. Perhaps this is an aside. On with the issues...
Once again, no trace of any kind of policy discussion on the race. Does this mean that Erik Paulsen is a real moderate and Madia is a fake one? No, Paulsen makes it clear that he is a good deal more conservative than current Rep. Jim Ramstad. Does Brodkorb's post mean there are substantive platform differences between the two candidates? Who knows?
Who would ever know? Note to traditional media: you're not doing yourself any favors on the accountability scale by letting the guy push his Republican Party-backed opposition research into the mainstream media narrative.
Total delegates gained on the day: Obama 91, Clinton 79. A 58-42 win in North Carolina and a surprisingly close 51-49 loss for Obama in Indiana should mean the end of the Democratic contest.
Yet what's the headline this morning? "Clinton 'full speed ahead' after Indiana nail-biter."
Come on. Let this go, Senator Clinton. It's been a hard-fought contest, and you deserve most of the respect your campaign team says you haven't gotten. Obama now has 1,836 delegates according to CNN's count, with what, 200 left to be pledged from states that are expected to split pretty evenly. If the remaining superdelegates also split evenly, Obama's going to be right at the winning threshold.
It seems like the gas tax holiday issue has been the major one heading into today's primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, with Hillary Clinton agreeing with John McCain on support for a gas tax holiday and only Barack Obama taking a principled stand against the pander.
And yes, it's a pander. Let's review what would happen: federal gas tax is removed for the summer. Gas prices go down incrementally, but not much, since they're still going up month over month. We (with the federal government as our delegate) have less money to spend on transportation infrastructure. Demand for gasoline goes up as a result of slightly lower prices, and prices track that demand.
Essentially, what we would be doing is taking millions of dollars out of our federal transportation funding coffers and putting it in the pockets of the oil companies. But this isn't just the left-leaning blogger argument -- this is the argument being made by the free-marketeer CNBC network's talking heads.
Essentially, we know -- not believe, not think, know -- this is a bad idea.
And make no bones about it -- Clinton's agreement with McCain on a variety of issues -- the gas tax holiday, voting for the Authorization for the Use of Military Force in Iraq, the American stance toward Iran -- is not an asset for her. It takes those issues off the table in November in a year when Democrats across the country should be clobbering McCain with his backwards approach to foreign policy and his admitted lack of wisdom on economics.
Indiana should be tight. North Carolina should make up the 30-some-odd delegates that were cut from Obama's lead in Pennsylvania, and this thing should be over tomorrow.
Of course, as always, the choice to do the right thing remains before Hillary Clinton.
Claiming political machinations were afoot, Pawlenty said that he preferred "something more reasonable like 50 or 60 percent." One wonders what principle of federalism, liberty, or privacy could possibly support his willingness to accept a 50% unfunded surveillance mandate.
National ID is a landmine issue on both sides of the aisle. Verifiable and universal identification materials would be a good thing, as long as they are not tantamount to a poll tax (see Indiana's voter ID law, recently upheld by the John Roberts-led Supreme Court). On the other hand, is it really up to the federal government to issue identification materials, or is that right reserved to the various states? There lies in this issue the potential for way too much conflict of interest and abuse for me to be entirely comfortable with any of the solutions currently being presented, the REAL ID Act included.
In any case, it sounds like Pawlenty's compromise position of the state sharing the costs with the Feds has the potential to piss off all involved. Although the blogs listed above probably don't affect John McCain's "I'm choosing my own darned VP, now get off my lawn you damned kids" approach, it's always worth paying attention when your base tells you they're not a fan of one candidate or another for the job. Fun times.
I'm a few hours behind here -- that's the result of nice weather and a vegetable garden that's been crying out for some attention. But Ash Madia headed over to Daily Kos earlier today for a liveblog session, and the post and discussion thread are both worth your attention.
Rumors of a similar but more local upcoming session somewhere on a local blog that may or may not have the initials MNCR could not be confirmed at press time.
I spoke with Ashwin Madia's new campaign manager, Jonathan Murray, over the weekend. A fellow Marine, Murray comes to the Madia campaign from an unsuccessful effort in a four-way primary in Pennsylvania and a highly contested state senate race in Virginia.
Murray called Madia a dream candidate for this race -- with a wide grassroots network already in place from his successful endorsement campaign, a great understanding of the mechanics of successful campaigns, and a great stump presence, Murray called Madia's package a perfect matchup against Erik Paulsen.
If you Google Murray's name, the most relevant results touch on that Virginia state senate race, in which Murray worked for Democrat Janet Oleszek. I asked him what what went wrong on that campaign, given the general impression in the blogosphere that it was an eminently winnable campaign. Unfortunately, he couldn't say too much on the record, but did note the damaging effects of a poor review from the Washington Post editorial board and a strong effort from incumbent Ken Cuccinelli, especially when it came to negative advertising against Oleszek.
But going forward, it sounds like Murray has the right idea for this race -- raise a lot of money to even the playing field with Erik Paulsen, grow the grassroots network Madia already has in place, knock on billions of doors, get Ashwin Madia's name and story into the hearts and minds of third-district voters early, and kick butt in the head-to-head debate formats in which Madia excels.
With the full support of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, its Red-to-Blue program, and growing interest in this race from across the country, I think it's safe to say we should watch for Q2 to be a very interesting one in terms of fundraising and media strategy for Ash Madia's campaign.
