Hillary Clinton says she’s running against “the Republican attack machine”
with the “strength to fight and the experience to lead.”
After a brief respite for Thanksgiving, the presidential campaign this week is back with growing combat in both parties. With next month’s CBS-hosted California debate imperiled by the Writers Guild strike, the focus is increasingly on Iowa, though Republicans will debate on Thursday in Florida on CNN.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is attacking Barack Obama, who’s taken a lead over her in Iowa. Obama and John Edwards are attacking Hillary. She’ll get help on Tuesday from her husband the former president, who descends once again on Iowa to try to transfer his greater popularity there to hers and help her regain a lead, as he’s done in the past.
On the Republican side, Fred Thompson attacked Fox News on Sunday for, in his view, having it in for him. Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are attacking one another, and Giuliani is taking some swats at Thompson, who has some strength in the South, for good measure as a closet centrist. John McCain is after Romney.
Barack Obama has built a small lead in Iowa, 30% to 26% over Hillary Clinton, with John Edwards still strong in third at 22% in a Washington Post/ABC News poll. Now that he has a lead in Iowa, Obama hopes to sustain and consolidate, maintaing his new generation/new ideas appeal and reassuring about his experience level. Which is still definitely on the thin side.
Knowing that the big dog, former President Clinton himself, is coming in once again, Obama over the weekend said that when he smoked marijuana, he inhaled. It will be interesting to see if Bill Clinton, who famously claimed he tried pot but never inhaled, takes that bait.
The spin is coming fast and furious. A Clinton spokesman sought to lowball expectations in Iowa, saying: “Our definition of success doesn’t necessarily mean coming in first.”
Meanwhile, Senator Clinton herself is attacking Obama for his lack of foreign policy experience and for having a universal health care program that is not so universal. Unlike Clinton, Obama would not require everyone to buy health insurance.
If Clinton can win in Iowa, her national frontrunnership will be affirmed. But if she loses, the floodgates of doubt about her will open, and the victor will be seen as freshly charismatic and an enormous media magnet. So to stave off that distinct possibility, Clinton has moved about a hundred staffers from elsewhere in the country into the Hawkeye State. And her husband is back this week for the latest in what will prove to be many stints there.
Hillary is still somewhat measuredly mocking Obama for citing his childhood in Indonesia as an example of his global experience. She has to convince that she has the right blend of change orientation and skilled experience to defeat the Republicans and serve as an effective president.
Obama and Edwards and others will work to undermine her experience angle, which rests more on her tenure as first lady than it does on her seven years in the US Senate, pointing out that none of her papers from the era have been made available to buttress her argument. She’ll keep trying to fend off Democratic criticism of her as “repeating Republican talking points.”
The happy trio, joined by the rest of the Democratic field, meet up again for another forum/debate in Des Moines at the end of the week. This event, focusing on black and Latino issues — intriguing, given the lack of blacks and Latinos in Iowa — will be on Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban’s HD Net.
On the Republican side, Giuliani, who actually is a Republican candidate, will continue to find ways to work Hillary into his campaigning against his Republican opponents, as a not so subtle reminder that, on paper at least, he is the most electable Republican. He’s going after Romney this week on his fiscal policies as Massachusetts governor and for his health care plan which, like Hillary’s, requires the purchase of health insurance.
Meanwhile, a candidate running on a shoestring has rocketed into major contention. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has tripled his support in Iowa since the summer and now runs only four points behind Mitt Romney in the latest ABC/Washington Post poll of the first-in-the-nation Iowa Republican presidential caucuses.
Romney leads Huckabee, 28% to 24%, with Fred Thompson at 15% and Rudy Giuliani at 13%. Huckabee’s supporters are more enthusiastic than those of any other Republican candidate and much more likely to stick with their man. But the guitar-playing former preacher, who has been vastly outspent by Romney, is drawing from a narrower spectrum of voters. Can he expand beyond it? Does he need to in a splintered field?
Huckabee was on the BBC World News just before Thanksgiving, fielding questions from a correspondent frankly concerned, as she put it, that America might have another administration devoted to pursuing a Christian religious agenda in world affairs. Accepting the premise of her questioning, Huckabee, who apparently does not believe in the theory of evolution, said that he’s not that kind of Christian, and that there would be “no crusade” by a Huckabee Administration.
Even Ron Paul is showing a measure of strength, creeping up into the mid to high single digits in Nevada and New Hampshire and, more impressively, now raising a great deal of money. Word is that he’s raised $9 million already in this quarter, with a goal of $12 million.
While the Democratic race is currently a race between two, possibly three candidates, the Republican race is more topsy turvy. Romney leads in Iowa and New Hampshire, but Huckabee is a major threat in the first-in-the-nation contest. The veteran McCain hopes to pull off a New Hampshire upset, especially if Huckabee wins Iowa. Giuliani wants to stay relevant early and blunt anyone else from challenging Romney in New Hampshire, but Florida is his first big firewall before California and other big states he expects to win on February 5th. Thompson has faded badly in New Hampshire but hopes to be strong in South Carolina and other Southern states. …
You can read the rest of Monday Morning Quarterback on PJ Media.
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Next weeks Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is far more important than Annapolis…Great Holiday video and post Mr. Bradley as is today’s…Sharif’s return is very important dynanmic…
Next weeks Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is far more important than Annapolis…Great Holiday video and post Mr. Bradley as is today’s…Sharif’s return is very important dynanmic…
That’s a pretty good Hillary ad.
How is the writers strike hurting the California debate?
How is the writers strike hurting the California debate?
That is a good Hillary ad.
It is.
A solidarity issue with CBS television writers. The Democratic candidates won’t participate if the strike against the networks and studios is still on.
>Capitol Boy :
How is the writers strike hurting the California debate?
Nov 26, 2007 06:31 AM
A solidarity issue with CBS television writers. The Democratic candidates won’t participate if the strike against the networks and studios is still on.
>Capitol Boy :
How is the writers strike hurting the California debate?
Nov 26, 2007 06:31 AM
Yes, but … She can’t keep trying to cast all criticism of her as part of a vast right-wing conspiracy.
>Jonas Blane :
That’s a pretty good Hillary ad.
Nov 26, 2007 06:11 AM
Thanks, Barbara. Why is the GCC meeting more important than Annapolis? (The conference, not the Naval Academy.)
>Barbara :
Next weeks Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is far more important than Annapolis…Great Holiday video and post Mr. Bradley as is today’s…Sharif’s return is very important dynanmic…
Nov 26, 2007 05:51 AM
Because unlike Annapolis substantive prepping work and issues will be discussed and implemented at GCC…areas of cooperation include: economy, military, security, oil and gas, foreign investment, and regional development of nuclear programs and an Iran/GCC Free Trade agreemnent
Will that lead to an Israeli/Palestinian settlement?
What do you make of Syria and the Saudis coming to Annapolis?
Do you think there will be a California debate next month?
Do you think there will be a California debate next month?
Barack Obama is the only candidate prepared for a debate on … document formats. That’s a debate I’d like to see. What do Hillary and Oprah think of different document formats? Link
Huh?
Not unless there’s some settlement in the Writers Guild strike.
The two sides are apparently talking again.
>Capitol Boy :
Do you think there will be a California debate next month?
Nov 26, 2007 07:39 AM
saudis and syria…it’s an important statement…to israel and the international community….The Saudis have private channels direct and indirect for some time to israelis …Qatar has ties to to Israel SA sent low level reps to Madrid .Conference…for several years Turkey has mediated between Israel and Syria…Qatar has close ties with certain Hamas leaders and US …THE TIES HAVE BEEN HERE FOR SOMETIME TO HAVE PEACE ….but the settlement expansion goes on …..if Olmert can hang on (a big IF) if abbas follows up with meetings with Hamas (which is the plan) if Hamas pragmatists can survive more radical individuals..another big if ….this has the potential of being productive ….blair will announce big econ program…that will most likely be the news item but that has been a done deal for sometime and held back to announce here in case they have nothing else big to announce…
the Arabs really help this admin and olmert…the best way to repay is to free Marwan baghouti. from his israeli prison…there needs to be pressure for this …abbas can’t deliver a palestinian state..Marwan can …but then that is for some a good reason to keep him in prison…gotta go…busy…be back later
the Arabs really help this admin and olmert…the best way to repay is to free Marwan baghouti. from his israeli prison…there needs to be pressure for this …abbas can’t deliver a palestinian state..Marwan can …but then that is for some a good reason to keep him in prison…gotta go…busy…be back later
I don’t know much about Palestinian politics. Tell us more about Marwan.
Blair to the rescue of Bush again …
>barbara :
saudis and syria…it’s an important statement…to israel and the international community….The Saudis have private channels direct and indirect for some time to israelis …Qatar has ties to to Israel SA sent low level reps to Madrid .Conference…for several years Turkey has mediated between Israel and Syria…Qatar has close ties with certain Hamas leaders and US …THE TIES HAVE BEEN HERE FOR SOMETIME TO HAVE PEACE ….but the settlement expansion goes on …..if Olmert can hang on (a big IF) if abbas follows up with meetings with Hamas (which is the plan) if Hamas pragmatists can survive more radical individuals..another big if ….this has the potential of being productive ….blair will announce big econ program…that will most likely be the news item but that has been a done deal for sometime and held back to announce here in case they have nothing else big to announce…
Nov 26, 2007 08:47 AM
That would really suck if there’s no California debate.
suffice to say …if palestinians have a “nelson mandela” …it’s marwan…gotta post something above on random notes then have to go…be back later …toodles…ma’a salama…
I wonder if the Israelis see it that way.
I wonder if the Israelis see it that way.
Maybe CBS would do in LA what CNN did in Vegas — ignore Western issues and act like they’re in Washington.
>Ann :
That would really suck if there’s no California debate.
Nov 26, 2007 09:54 AM
“Maybe CBS would do in LA what CNN did in Vegas”
To keep the boxing metaphor, you could always hold the fight, err…debate, in Zaire.
Zairean concerns were better addressed.
May we at last count out the dreadfully vague and dull Mr. Thompson?
May we at last count out the dreadfully vague and dull Mr. Thompson?
May we at last count out the dreadfully vague and dull Mr. Thompson?
Sorry for the double-posting.
Sorry for the double-posting.
Meanwhile I was rather puzzled that on Sunday the 4 savvy political observers (James Carville, Bob Shrum, Mary Matalin, Mike Murphy) Meet the Press had in a roundtable discussion of the race never discussed the impact of Bush (Bill has pointed out the early heat of the race has been partly been in reaction to the downward spiral of Bush making people keenly aware of how important the next President will be in re picking up the pieces) and the importance of foreign affairs. The Nominees will face scrutiny both for how they react to the crisis that may well occur during the campaign in such places as Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. and the policy positions they take for dealing with vexing problems in the aforementioned places, and others…
Transcript of the roundtable:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21963747/
That a new direction versus leadership/experience is a large factor in the race is indisputible, but I think was overemphasized in the discussion. Maybe because all 4 are more experienced on strategy instead of policy?
>Bill Bradley :
Zairean concerns were better addressed.
It’s pretty safe to say that none of those folks know much or think much about geopolitics. They’re regurgitating old scripts that one can run in one’s sleep. Which is why I hardly watch those shows.
The Republican race is like a pinball machine with lots of levers. It’s dangerous to count too many people out.
>Jonathan Hemlock :
May we at last count out the dreadfully vague and dull Mr. Thompson?
Nov 26, 2007 04:13 PM
The Republican race is like a pinball machine with lots of levers. It’s dangerous to count too many people out.
>Jonathan Hemlock :
May we at last count out the dreadfully vague and dull Mr. Thompson?
Nov 26, 2007 04:13 PM
Australia has some huge potential sources of renewable power, that Howard was getting in the way of. I know at one point they were working on a “solar updraft tower” (aka solar chimney, or solar-wind tower). Basically, you build a big greenhouse with a roof that slopes upwards towards the center. At the middle, you have a tall tower with turbines in it. Solar energy gets in through the glass, heats things up, and the warm air rises towards the central tower. If the greenhouse is big enough, you can get a lot of power out of the wind current generated.
EnviroMission is working on a 50 MW tower, to demonstrate feasibility.
As a side benefit, if you have a system large enough that it doesn’t need to have the airflow in the system, all the way out to the edges, heated to 150+ degrees F, and below the sloped roof you have a second roof sealing off space against the ground to retain water, you can theoretically use some of the roofed-over space to grow crops. (The larger the diameter, the smaller the heat differential you need at the start to drive the system — a smaller pressure from a wider ring makes for the same amount of of overall mass flowing past the point of entry to the chimney, once it reaches that center point.)
Oz has a whole lot of sunny open space to work with. If they really want to, they can get to their Kyoto goals using wind and various solar technologies without much trouble.
Re: Sam Loomis’ slightly cryptic post: Obama has been talking about making the (small-d) democratic process more transparent by making more government information freely available online in standard formats. Currently, if you want to track the history of amendments to a bill, you have to learn the bizarre query language of the thomas.loc.gov website, and then deal with the fact that it serves you very poorly-formatted plaintext, which makes it difficult to make sense of things when it’s trying to describe a process of changes.
We really should handle our legislation through a serious version control system, both to make clear what bill text is getting voted on, and to keep track of who has made what changes; it’s really frustrating when you get these situations where some piece of language has been “slipped into” a bill, and you can’t even get an actual legislator to take responsibility for it. “My aide did it!” If all legislative changes had to be generated through a version control system, and required the account name and password of an authorized legislator, that would create more transparency and accountability.
Maybe we could introduce some kind of “bug tracking” system as well, to let people submit statements of the “unintended consequences” that have resulted from existing law, or that may result from proposed law.
Australia should be huge in renewable power.
>Auros :
Australia has some huge potential sources of renewable power, that Howard was getting in the way of. I know at one point they were working on a “solar updraft tower” (aka solar chimney, or solar-wind tower).
I had to look it up…here’s the last 2 1/2 minutes of the Rumble in the Jungle:
http://tinyurl.com/2hbjlv
Now that’s a fight!
Fred Thompson is attacking Fox News. He wants to be the conservative choice. What’s his IQ, room temperature?
Fred Thompson is attacking Fox News. He wants to be the conservative choice. What’s his IQ, room temperature?
It does seem counter-intuitive.
Pretty darn good fight there, after a lot of patty-cake punches! Then the crowd senses the sudden turn and the low roar starts building.
I always think of George Foreman selling those little cookers on TV.
And I’ve met Ali. He took an awful lot of punches, you know …
>Brasky :
I had to look it up…here’s the last 2 1/2 minutes of the Rumble in the Jungle:
http://tinyurl.com/2hbjlv
Now that’s a fight!
Nov 26, 2007 06:35 PM
“He took an awful lot of punches, you know”
from some of the best fighters in the history of boxing. Very sad…such a price he paid.
There are few exceptional people in terms of talent, character and charisma. There are fewer who find success in their own time. Ali was an exceptional person who was uniquely tied to that Zeitgeist of the 60’s and early 70’s.
I was with Beatty, who’s a good friend of his, when I met Ali. I could tell he still had a good intellect, but it was hard for him to express it in anything like that fast, brilliant way we saw on TV back in the day. I can only imagine how frustrating that might be.
Speaking of icons of the ’60s/’70s, that reminds me of when Beatty introduced me to Brian Wilson. It was at a restaurant up Benedict Canyon. I was like, wow, the guy behind the great “Pet Sounds” album. He was nice, but really sort of vague.
Yeah, Ali became trapped in his own mind. I had someone close die of Parkinson’s – a particularly devastating disease for those who prided themselves on their words.