** Looking for a way to stir up a dispirited national Republican base, President George W. Bush today personally seized on remarks by 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry yesterday at a rally for trailing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides at Pasadena City College. Kerry urged students to study hard or else end up stuck in Iraq. The Bush team has seized on the remarks to say that Kerry, a highly decorated Vietnam War vet, was disrespecting American troops in Iraq. Kerry says he was referring to Bush himself. Note that Angelides is not mentioned in the linked story.
** Former U.S. Navy Secretary James Webb has taken a slight lead in Virginia over Republican Senator George Allen. In a new CNN poll, Webb leads Allen, 50% to 46%. This explains Allen’s desperate attack late last week on Webb’s novels.
However, in the other key Senate battlegrounds of Tennessee and Missouri, Democratic candidates either trail or are tied. Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. has fallen behind Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker in Tennessee among likely voters by eight points. State Auditor Claire McCaskill is tied in Missouri with Senator Jim Talent.
** The Field Poll is about to be released. Numbers for the California governor’s race will be published tomorrow. Ballot propositions on Thursday. Down ballot statewide offices on Friday.
** The audit of the Reiner Commission, the California Children and Families Commission formerly headed by controversial movie director Rob Reiner, has just come out this morning. It criticizes the agency for questionable and improper practices and violations for state law. However, it appears to clear it for its controversial advertising campaign pushing the same agenda as Reiner’s political committee, universal preschool for all.
Two points. One, I clearly have no time to study this report in the height of campaign season. Two, I have been sitting on a story about Reiner and the advertising campaign for months.
** Track global and national energy prices in near real time via Bloomberg. Crude oil prices are sliding down around the $57 per barrel level on slackening demand.
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The Audit on Rob Reiner’s California’s First 5 Commission is out.
This report is not good for ballot box creation of unelected commissions.
Where is our Attorney General?
How far behind is Angerlides in the Field Poll?
Yes on 87!
I just received the phone call of a life time. Firefighter,(husband) Dave and I were invited to meet President Clinton tomorrow at the HUGE yes on 87 rally in San Francisco!!!
So everyone go and be loud!!!!
We were all excited to go but, Dave is having surgery tomorrow! So everyone at the rally…Have fun and our spirit is with you!!!! Take pictures and be sure to blog on NWN!!
The Wiese’s
Here is today’s hyperpartisan rehtoric from GOP small-tent gatekeeper Steve Frank:
“Senator Tom McClintock is about to be elected Lt. Governor of California. For the moderates in the GOP who say that California can’t elect a conservative, this is a slap in the face. To those who believe you must compromise your principles to get elected, this is cold water on your theory.”
Be afraid, be very afraid.
NWN subscribes to the PPIC poll, not the Field Poll. Technically, that means the information for PPIC is embargoed here, but not the information for Field.
However, everybody plays along whether the embargo applies or not, so I won’t give the Field results on the governor’s race.
However, and I would say this with regard to any individual poll, NWN readers already know how the California governor’s race is going.
Incidentally, within 10 minutes of publishing the brief item about the Reiner Commission Audit, I got a call from a representative of Rob Reiner.
We’ll revisit the Reiner question post-election.
It makes sense that Mr. Webb with his military record would have the most staying power in a red state Senate race.
Is Schwarzeneger “still below 50 pct.” in the mindless mantra of the Angerlides spinners? lol
Which Reiner person called?
There is a posting on the SFGATE website that says Arnold has issued a statement against Prop. 90.
It appears Sen. Kerry found one way to get some press coverage of an Angelides campaign event.
“White House spokesman slams Kerry remark”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061031/ap_on_go_pr_wh/white_house_kerry
Here’s something non-random…
Angelides isn’t just taking the California Democratic ticket down with him. Sen. Kerry is catching flack today for comments he made at an Angelides event in Pasadena yesterday.
Links are just under the banner on The Drudge Report.
Can anything go right that touches Angelides? As the song goes, “He’s King Midas in Reverse. He’s King Midas with a curse.”
SCC Dem…I was just posting that!
How weird!
Yes, the event yesterday has actually become a very big deal.
For national Republicans.
They want to get into it with Kerry for allegedly dispasraging the troops in Iraq to stir up their base.
I confess I paid next to no attention to the event. Nothing Angelides is doing now has any relevance to the outcome of the governor’s race.
But those clever ex-Bushies on Team Arnold — who know everything Phil is doing as soon as he does it, if not before — were Johnny on the spot for their old colleagues.
The Rob Reiner rep who called was the Master of Disaster himself, Mark Fabiani.
But we won’t be getting to the Reiner affair again until after the election.
I do have an unreported story about Reiner and the TV advertising, which is quite illuminating.
But when he resigned and all the campaigns ramped up, its relevance diminished, at least in my opinion.
“If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they’re crazy,” Kerry said. “I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq.”
Kerry on the kerfuffle.
Mr. Bradley:But when he resigned and all the campaigns ramped up, its relevance diminished, at least in my opinion.
I agree. Especially, if Strickland and McClintock are elected. Reiner, who will certainly not have a political career and most likely will be remembered for the vast voter rejection of his very flawed and failed Prop 82. Moreover, that failed prop will be seen as ushering in a new fiscal era and fiscal mentality/philosophy for the state…
In other YouTube news:
Check out this news report on the staff of George “Macaca” Allen bum rushing a blogger from what BB calls “The hyperpartisan DailyKos.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btMbyDmzs_Q&eurl=
Good times in Virginia!
Retired General and former Democratic presidenial candidate Wesley Clark said Kerry’s comments “were not helpful.” Yea – I guess when you say something that will stir up what up to now what has been a demoralized Republican base it could be considered “not helpful.” What is it they say about Democrats staching defeat from the jaws of victory? The Republican Noise Machine is going to stroke this all the way to Election Day.
Tommy Boy, how do you know that’s a Kossack blogger getting wrestled to the ground in the lobby of the Omni Hotel there in Virginia?
A fitting finale for the Angelides campaign. The next time Phil shows his face he’ll be asked:
I honestly don’t think Kerry meant to say what escaped his lips. I’m sure he was distracted with thoughts of how he could be accomplishing something in a competitive race where a Democrat has a chance to win, instead of wasting a day with Phil.
Heard it on TV!
So, it must be true…
Actually, the guy’s name is Mike Stark. He posts around kos with great regularity.
And MarKOS himself refers to the guy in this post as “our very own.”
Nitwit confronts thugs, film at noon.
It also looks like Poizner may have a very large margin…
“In an exclusive to the Flash Report, poll results to be released today show:
Steve Poizner 45.7%
Cruz Bustamante 29.6%
Undecided 15.2%
Cafiero 4.4%
Ogden 4.0%”
The poll also mentioned Bustamante’s sky-high negatives.
Here is your HALLOWEEN C-SPAN Highlights schedule!
Tonight: Oct 31 (times EST)
* New Mexico Senate Debate (7:20pm)
* New Mexico 1st District Congressional Debate (7:50pm)
* Colorado 4th District Congressional Debate (8:55pm)
* Colorado Governor’s Debate (10pm) – LIVE
Tomorrow: Nov 1
* * Harvard Univ. Poll on Students & Campaign 2006 (11am) – LIVE
***********************************************************************
C-SPAN- 2 Highlights
Tonight: Oct 31
** GWU Discussion on 2006 Midterm Elections (8:05pm)
* Latino Vote Impact on 2006 Midterm Elections (9:35pm)
Thanks, Mike, that’s a Republican poll on the insurance commissioner’s race, and seems high. There is, however, other intel suggesting that Poizener’s margin over Bustamante is increasing.
Happy Halloween everyone!
Maviglio over at California “Majority” Report is spinning a Zogby internet poll! Beyond pathetic.
Wow, interesting strategy by the national Republican Party — mounting a last-minute campaign against someone who is not running for office! The strategy will be 100% effective. Kerry will not win next Tuesday.
It’s a shame Kerry found his balls two years late. Timing is everything.
Bill?
“allegedly dispasraging (sic)”?
If Kerry’s comments persuade only one student to stay in college and avoid getting stuck (and killed) in Iraq, then he’s done a great public service and may have saved some lives. It’s just too bad he voted for the US invasion and the Bush military budget that continues to waste billions of taxpayers’ dollars on an unwinnable war. Meanwhile neither Angelides nor Kerry ever mention the tens, or hundreds, of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed in the last three years. This is another reason why many voters will turn to the Peace and Freedom and Green Parties this year, despite a virtual media blackout and lack of corporate funding for the insurgent campaigns.
Could Angelides get a record low number of votes for a Democratic candidate in the modern era, even less than Bustamante in the 2003 recall?
The Field Poll is out. Arnold by 16. Largest lead since 1986:
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_field01.39c0a61.html
Kerry’s comments won’t have any effect. This whole race will come down to Missouri, Tennessee, and Virginia. Corker and Webb are trending up and should hold on to victory, so it may ultimately be decided in Missouri. Two solid candidates running neck and neck.