|
Political Insider: Apparently, none of the top operatives really know who is in charge.
Link Email item
The Ralston Report: "The Democrats now have a 55,560-voter lead over the Republicans in a state that was dead even a presidential cycle ago. But the numbers in NV-3 should be the most worrisome to the GOP, as Democrats now have a nearly 24,000-voter lead in a district that was even only two years ago. The slow-but-sure Democratic spread in that district means that Rep. Jon Porter will have to run a kitchen sink campaign against state Sen. Dina Titus to survive and will have to do so flawlessly, too." 
Link Email item
Two months ago, we raised the question of whether Sen. Barack Obama could actually win Georgia even though George W. Bush won the state by 12 points in 2000 and 17 points in 2004.
Today, the Macon Telegraph notes Obama is campaigning in Georgia. "The Obama camp has said that Georgia will be competitive, and the campaign is putting money where its mouth is. It has opened offices in Atlanta, Savannah and Macon."
First Read lists the reasons Obama thinks he can win:
It's one of the youngest states in the union.He can increase African-American turnout.The state's non-native voters might be more willing to vote Democratic.Bob Barr's name is on the ballot, and that...
Link Email item
A California group submitted a proposal to rename a sewage treatment plant after President Bush, "calling the initiative a fitting tribute to the outgoing chief executive and the 'mess' he'll leave behind," the Associated Press reports.
The group wants to switch the name of the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant. 
Link Email item
Sen. Hillary Clinton "won a hefty 1,600 convention delegates in six months of primaries. A big question now is whether to let them vote at the Democratic convention," according to the Wall Street Journal.
"High on the list of matters that Sen. Clinton and likely Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama are negotiating as her campaign closes down is whether and how her name is put into nomination at the August convention in Denver."
Link Email item
Ben Smith notes that the survival of Sen. Hillary Clinton's online operation "highlights her induction into a small but growing new club of presidential losers who have used the Internet to maintain some of their national profile and power."
"The defeated candidates use e-mail, websites and social networks to maintain contact with their supporters through legacy online campaigns that keep their coffers full, their bases intact and their political futures viable." 
Link Email item
Dana Milbank looks at the potential of former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina as Sen. John McCain's running mate.
"Fiorina's brazen breakfast talk demonstrated why she'd be such a risky running mate for McCain -- and yet also, potentially, the most rewarding of his options. She's the most prominent and visible of the women believed to be under consideration for the vice presidency, and her attributes are many: a woman who could appeal to disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters... At the same time, she's unvetted and untested, as her breakfast conversation demonstrated anew (religious conservatives frown on Viagra-and-contraceptives talk) that she's new to the game." 
Link Email item
While Sen. Barack Obama's campaign "is keeping the dates of its international trip a tightly guarded secret, details are beginning to leak out of foreign capitals," according to The Swamp.
Agence France-Press reports that French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet with Obama at the Elysee Palace on Friday July 25.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports Obama is expected to arrive in Israel on Tuesday July 22 or Wednesday July 23 for a two- or three-day visit to include a meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
And Der Spiegel says Obama is considering a major speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the site of a famous Ronald...
Link Email item
Marc Ambinder reports that Sen. Jim Webb was asked last week by Sen. Barack Obama's vice presidential vetting team to provide information they needed to begin their search into his background and that's when he took himself out of contention.
A Democrat close to Webb said the senator "did not want to relive the vigors of a campaign so soon after his election to the Senate." 
Link Email item
Bill Kristol writes about GOP consultant Mike Murphy, noting that he stayed neutral during the presidential primaries because he had worked previously for both Sen. John McCain and Mitt Romney.
"Murphy remained close to both men, and as a result sat out the G.O.P. nominating contest this past year, not wishing to work against either of them. It was widely assumed, though, that if either McCain or Romney won the nomination, the winner would bring Murphy on board for the general election. So far it hasn't happened. I believe it soon will."
"I hasten to disclose that Murphy is a friend. I should also disclose that when I called to say I had heard he might well...
Link Email item
"Last week I communicated to Senator Obama and his presidential campaign my firm intention to remain in the United States Senate...Under no circumstances will I be a candidate for Vice President."
-- Sen. James Webb, quoted by Time.
Link Email item
Marc Ambinder reports that Sen. Barack Obama will accept the Democratic nomination at the 75,000 seat Invesco Field in Denver instead of the Pepsi Center where the first three nights of the Democratic National Convention will be held.
The Rocky Mountain News notes "there is precedent for moving the nominating speech to an outdoor venue - most notably in 1960 when John F. Kennedy made his speech at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum." 
Link Email item
Political Insider: Analysis of recent state polling shows Sen. Barack Obama making significant inroads in 10 states that voted for President Bush four years ago. 
Link Email item
 According to Politico, Republican opposition researchers "hope that they've found a weapon to wound" Sen. Barack Obama: His own voice as recorded for the Grammy Award-winning audio version of his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father.
"While candidates often have their own words turned against them in attack ads, it's one thing to see past statements in block text and something else entirely to hear the same words in the office-seeker's own voice."
Link Email item
In a must-read piece, CQ Politics examines the five most vulnerable House seats -- all of which are currently held by Republicans.
NY-13, in which Rep. Vito J. Fossella (R-NY) was forced to quit his re-election bid after admitting he had a daughter from an ongoing extramarital affair. IL-11, where Rep. Jerry Weller (R-IL) is retiring -- and the GOP candidate nominated in the primary dropped out of the race a couple of weeks later. AZ-1, where Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) announced his retirement not long before he was indicted on pending federal corruption charges. VA-11, where popular Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-VA) is retiring, and...
Link Email item
Some good news for Sen. Barack Obama: "In the post-war era, the Gallup polls taken closest to the Independence Day holiday have been correct in picking the popular vote winner two-thirds of the time, in 10 of 15 presidential contests," according to analysis by Politico.
The latest Gallup tracking poll found Obama leading Sen. John McCain, 47% to 43%.
However, McCain can take solace from one fact: "The eventual winner of the popular vote has trailed in the Gallup poll at this point in four of the past five presidential elections. The Gallup poll failed to prove prescient in 1968, 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2004." 
Link Email item
"In one of his first moves to centralize control of McCain's political organization, Steve Schmidt has tapped Rudy Giuliani's former campaign manager, Mike DuHaime, to be McCain's new political director," a top campaign adviser tells CNN.
"Until last week, McCain had no political director at headquarters -- highly unusual for a general election campaign. Mccain's campaign instead relied on 11 regional campaign managers -- a structure many Republicans in and outside of the McCain campaign, including Schmidt, considered unworkable." 
Link Email item
Bloomberg says the prerequisites for Sen. John McCain's running mate are clear: "a Washington outsider with solid economic credentials who isn't associated with President George W. Bush, can fill the vice-presidential attack-dog role, help win Western and Midwestern states and cut into Democrat Barack Obama's fundraising advantage."
"One candidate fits the bill: former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney." 
Link Email item
The St. Petersburg Times catches up with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush: "In the 18 months since leaving the Florida Governor's Mansion, he has quietly remade himself into a capitalist-entrepreneur extraordinaire. Capitalizing on his eight years as governor and a network of Bush family supporters, he leads a busy, and lucrative, life: global speaking engagements, a new consulting firm and affiliations with three big businesses. He earns hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees and stock and has joined the ranks of private equity executives on Wall Street." 
Link Email item
A new Southern Media & Opinion Research poll in Louisiana shows Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) leading challenger John Kennedy (R), 46% to 41%, with 14% still undecided. 
Link Email item
"Yeah, man, you're a senator."
-- Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) to Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) on the Senate floor, quoted by Politico. The exchange was followed by Byrd laughing hysterically. 
Link Email item
A new Research 2000 poll found that if Connecticut voters could vote again in the 2006 U.S. Senate race they would have elected Ned Lamont (D) over Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I), 51% to 36%, with Alan Schlesinger (R) getting 7%. 
Link Email item
Nathan Gonzales from the Rothenberg Political Report sends us this information observation:
"With all of the talk about John McCain unveiling his running mate immediately after the Democratic National Convention to alleviate Barack Obama's bounce, there could be a wrinkle in McCain's potential plans: his birthday."
"McCain turns 72 years old on August 29, the day after the Democrats' convention. So while the Arizona senator could swipe some media attention from Obama by announcing his vice presidential choice during the time between the conventions, the senator's birthday and age will be a prominent media story. And it will be contrasted even further with the age of his running mate." 
Link Email item
Saying he's concerned Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) "may use personal smears" in their Senate campaign, challenger Bob Kelleher (R) "laid out his life's faults" yesterday, the Missoulian reports.
Kelleher noted that he dropped out of a monastery "because he couldn't handle the vow of chastity." He also noted he has since been married and divorced three times and has seven children "and regrets the impact his absence had on their lives."
Said Kelleher: "I wanted to have fun."
Not surprisingly, CQ rates the race Safe Democrat.
Link Email item
A new Time poll of Catholic voters that reveals that Sen. Barack Obama has pulled even with Sen. John McCain among that constituency -- Obama now polls 44% to McCain's 45%.
The poll "confirmed that a majority of Catholics (59%) can be broadly defined as pro-life (opposing abortion except to protect a woman's life or health or in cases of rape or incest). But these pro-life Catholics are actually split into two voting camps: conservative Catholics who consider abortion to be a determining factor, and Catholics who feel that social issues can be trumped in times of economic and national insecurity." 
Link Email item
Website
Copyright 2008
| 
