Former NATO Commander, retired General Wes Clark, says
Hillary Clinton is the right choice for dangerous times, “to end
the war in Iraq and avert war with Iran,” in a brand new ad.
** HILLARY’S QUANDARY. You are Hillary Clinton. You are the very smart, experienced, tough, and sometimes even charming senator from New York, former first lady of the United States, and longtime frontrunner for the presidency. You are married to the most popular politician in America, a former two-term president, who makes your life miserable at times but your career at the heights of national politics possible, and is a strong asset and advisor to you.
You even have a snazzy new ad by the former commander of NATO, victor in the Kosovo War, that you and your husband oversaw. It’s brand new and it says great things about you, including that you will avert a war with Iran.
Which begins to get at the problem. The new US National Intelligence Estimate makes it clear there will be no war with Iran in the foreseeable future. Despite dark rumblings on the war hawk right about an anti-American conspiracy hatched by US intelligence agencies and the president’s own national intelligence director, a former Navy admiral and National Security Agency director, Iran now officially poses no clear and present danger to justify war. In fact, Iran’s cooperation will be important in devising a settlement of the security and political situation in Iraq, without which the time-limited military surge you supported and then opposed — alternately outraging, then assuaging, the peacenik left — will have been for naught. But because of the threat of Iran, you voted to declare its military a terrorist organization.
Your message and positioning are out of synch. And even before this became evident, you had big problems. You’ve already lost your lead in Iowa to the most heavily-funded insurgent candidate in modern American history. Your attacks on him worked at first with the press, but now aren’t working at all. Indeed, they are making you something of a figure of fun, with your overly diligent staff digging up his childhood musings about the presidency, musings shared by millions of American tikes.
Now your lead in national polls, never all that relevant, is sliding. More worrisome, your lead in New Hampshire, your firewall state, is now down into single digits. That’s before anything finally bad happens in Iowa. And your big lead in South Carolina has evaporated, on the eve of your rival campaigning in that state with the most admired celebrity on the planet, someone with special appeal to women and blacks, two key cores of your electoral support. In fact, your rival has had to move his rally there from a city arena seating 18,000 to a football stadium.
What do you do?
** THE ROMNEY SPEECH. Did Mitt Romney deal with his “Mormon problem” this morning? No, he didn’t. He barely mentioned his own controversial religion, the proximate cause of his speech. Well, actually, the cause of his speech is Mike Huckabee’s surge past Romney into the lead in Iowa. Romney has always counted on Iowa dominance to launch his campaign into the stratosphere, and has spent megabucks there to insure it, only to see Huckabee and his relative ragtag band storm past on account of his authentic social conservatism and personable preacher manner.
“There are some who would have a presidential candidate describe and explain his church’s distinctive doctrines. To do so would enable the very religious test the founders prohibited in the Constitution. No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith.”
No one is asking Romney to be the spokesman for his faith. That’s not his problem. His problem is that many, especially in the party whose leadership he seeks, consider Mormonism to be a bogus religion. (In my view, it’s as valid as most others.) In fact, the prominence of the speech actually informed a great many people who were not otherwise aware of the candidate’s Mormonism.
Instead of addressing the issue which gave rise to his speech, Romney instead gave a rather allusive address, designed to identify himself with other religious faiths in America.
Some on the right, now unsure of their issue mix next year with an Iranian war suddenly (but as most readers know, predictably) off the table and Huckabee sounding suspiciously liberal on some issues, may think this is enough. It’s not. Incidentally, lefties are complaining that Romney left agnostics and atheists out of his mix of Americans. Well, he can’t very well sound like a secular humanist now, especially since he is still living down his having run to the left of Teddy Kennedy on gay rights when he sought a Senate seat in the ’90s.
** CALIFORNIA WATER WAR? Does yesterday’s filing by business allies of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of a $10 billion water bond aiming for next November’s statewide ballot portend the beginning of a water war? That’s what some think, given that Senate leader Don Perata filed a rival measure a few weeks ago. The former emphasizes water storage, the latter is more focused on conservation.
But informed sources say this is still part of a tango of negotiation. No final decisions have been made on either side. Schwarzenegger and Perata would both prefer to come up with a compromise.
** CLINTON LEAD DROPS NATIONALLY, HUCKABEE LEADS NARROWLY AMONG REPUBLICANS. The Rasmussen nightly tracking poll has Hillary Clinton’s lead nationally over Barack Obama down to 7 points. At the beginning of the week, her lead was 13 points. Mike Huckabee has a 3-point lead over Rudy Giuliani. At the beginning of the week Giuliani led by 3 points.
I have trouble with the robopoll concept, but this poll is intriguing because it is done nightly with the same methodology, and thus has relevance for looking at the direction of public opinion.
** BIG LEAD FOR JACKIE SPEIER IN BAY AREA DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL PRIMARY POLL. House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Tom Lantos may be in big trouble. Former state Senator Jackie Speier-s campaign — she narrowly lost the Democratic primary for California lieutenant governor last year — tells former California reporter David Drucker, now writing for Capitol Hill’s Roll Call, that their internal poll has Speier leading Lantos in a Democratic primary race by a whopping 57% to 27% margin.
** TOP BUSH AIDE CALLS RIGHT-WING BLOGS USEFUL TOOLS. Dan Bartlett, who until recently was one of President Bush’s top confidantes in the White House, tells the Texas Monthly that conservative bloggers were very useful tools in their efforts to stir up the partisan base.
“It’s a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we’ve cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on.”
My observation is that Republican pros tend to have more than a little disdain for the hyperpartisans they need to keep stirred up to drive the perpetual motion machine of partisan warfare. And it’s also my observation that the same situation exists on the Democratic side.
** OBAMA AND HUCKABEE LEAD IN NEW IOWA POLL. A new poll of the Iowa presidential caucuses by Strategic Vision shows Barack Obama leading the Democrats with 32%. John Edwards and Hillary Clinton are tied for second with 25% each. Joe Biden trails with 5%, followed by Bill Richardson at 3%, then the others.
On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee is out front with 27% of the vote, while Mitt Romney has 24%. Rudy Giuliani trails with 13%, followed by Fred Thompson at 11%, John McCain at 6%, and Ron Paul at 5%.
83% of the Democrats polled and 50% of the Republicans polled say they want US troops out of Iraq in six months.
Mitt Romney discusses the US National Intelligence Estimate on
the Iranian threat.
** ROMNEY ADDRESS ON “FAITH IN AMERICA.” Speaking this morning at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Texas, Mitt Romney — seen in the video above accepting the judgment of the US National Intelligence Estimate on Iran stating that the country halted its nuclear weapons program — addressed concerns about his religious faith. Romney, a Mormon, said this: “There are some who may feel that religion is not a matter to be seriously considered in the context of the weighty threats that face us. If so, they are at odds with the nation’s founders, for they, when our nation faced its greatest peril, sought the blessings of the Creator. And further, they discovered the essential connection between the survival of a free land and the protection of religious freedom. In John Adam’s words: ‘We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion… Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people.’
“Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.” …
“When I place my hand on the Bible and take the oath of office, that oath becomes my highest promise to God. If I am fortunate to become your president, I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause, and no one interest. A President must serve only the common cause of the people of the United States.” …
“There are some who would have a presidential candidate describe and explain his church’s distinctive doctrines. To do so would enable the very religious test the founders prohibited in the Constitution. No candidate should become the spokesman for his faith. For if he becomes President he will need the prayers of the people of all faiths.” …
“It is important to recognize that while differences in theology exist between the churches in America, we share a common creed of moral convictions. And where the affairs of our nation are concerned, it’s usually a sound rule to focus on the latter – on the great moral principles that urge us all on a common course. Whether it was the cause of abolition, or civil rights, or the right to life itself, no movement of conscience can succeed in America that cannot speak to the convictions of religious people.
“We separate church and state affairs in this country, and for good reason. No religion should dictate to the state nor should the state interfere with the free practice of religion. But in recent years, the notion of the separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its original meaning. They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America – the religion of secularism. They are wrong.
“The founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion, but they did not countenance the elimination of religion from the public square. We are a nation ‘Under God’ and in God, we do indeed trust.
“We should acknowledge the Creator as did the founders – in ceremony and word. He should remain on our currency, in our pledge, in the teaching of our history, and during the holiday season, nativity scenes and menorahs should be welcome in our public places. Our greatness would not long endure without judges who respect the foundation of faith upon which our Constitution rests. I will take care to separate the affairs of government from any religion, but I will not separate us from ‘the God who gave us liberty.’” …
“These American values, this great moral heritage, is shared and lived in my religion as it is in yours. I was taught in my home to honor God and love my neighbor. I saw my father march with Martin Luther King. I saw my parents provide compassionate care to others, in personal ways to people nearby, and in just as consequential ways in leading national volunteer movements.” …
“My faith is grounded on these truths. You can witness them in Ann and my marriage and in our family. We are a long way from perfect and we have surely stumbled along the way, but our aspirations, our values, are the self -same as those from the other faiths that stand upon this common foundation. And these convictions will indeed inform my presidency.” …
“The diversity of our cultural expression, and the vibrancy of our religious dialogue, has kept America in the forefront of civilized nations even as others regard religious freedom as something to be destroyed.
“In such a world, we can be deeply thankful that we live in a land where reason and religion are friends and allies in the cause of liberty, joined against the evils and dangers of the day. And you can be certain of this: Any believer in religious freedom, any person who has knelt in prayer to the Almighty, has a friend and ally in me. And so it is for hundreds of millions of our countrymen: we do not insist on a single strain of religion – rather, we welcome our nation’s symphony of faith.”
Mike Huckabee and action movie star Chuck Norris discuss
immigration policy.
** SURGING HUCKABEE. Social conservative Mike Huckabee has taken the lead in Iowa, a big lead in the Carolinas with signs of a surge throughout the South, and a slender lead nationally among Republicans. This worries a lot of establishment conservatives that their necessary step-child, the Christian evangelical voter, is out of control. From the New Republic: Mike Huckabee has been scaring the bejesus out of the Republican establishment with his scorching populist invective. In one recent interview, the former Arkansas governor declared, “I am like a lot of folks who are tired of thinking the Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street.” He has denounced “immoral” CEO salaries, and warned, “People will only endure this for so many years before there is a revolt.” The terrified anti-tax Club for Growth is waging jihad against Huckabee, and Robert Novak has called him an advocate of “class struggle.” …
At the broadest ideological level, Huckabee is a conservative, happily paying tribute to the genius of the marketplace, the need for self-reliance, and other conservative standbys.
And, yet, his attachment to laissez-faire dogma is so tissue-thin that it can be blown to bits by the slightest brush with actual experience. Often this leads him in humane and intelligent directions, such as when he expanded children’s health insurance. But it can also lead him to embrace simplistic statism, such as his crude protectionism and wholesale embrace of agriculture subsidies. (“Imagine the further weakening of America if we were also dependent on foreign sources for our food needs,” he warns darkly, as if Al Qaeda will starve us into submission with a naval blockade.) …
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel.
You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND U.S. ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. Crude oil prices are trading in the $88 to $89 per barrel range.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum.
Read 
| Comments (0) |
I don’t have a good Karl Malden impression. Even though he played Omar Bradley in Patton.
>Chris M :
.
Perhaps a second, Karl Malden your traveler’s checks are lost-like “What DO you do?” would have a bit campy for your tastes, but I would have appreciated it
Dec 6, 2007 10:15 PM
It does sound good.
>carole w :
I am getting hungry!
Dec 6, 2007 08:25 PM
That’s especially so now.
>richard locicero :
Bill Hillary’s problems are entangled with Iran. Her vote on Kyl-lieberman has been a “Bridge too Far” for her.
Especially when there may still be money to be made …
>NickM :
Why try for November? Well, when you can’t make the deadline for June, it’s November or nothing.
Especially when there may still be money to be made …
>NickM :
Why try for November? Well, when you can’t make the deadline for June, it’s November or nothing.
The food sounds great.
>Kandy Kid :
Solon, with that sausage, your soup is turning into a cassoulet, one of my favorite of all meals. Mrs. Kid’s version with goose confit, andouille sausage, smoked ham shank and cubed pork loin, prepared over three days, is an annual culinary highlight. And I usually serve pinots, shiraz or zins with it.
My Z-pie from Placerville will be out of the oven in a few minutes. Check them out if you have not already. I always stop and buy a dozen when I return from South Lake Tahoe.
The controversial Electoral College play was shamefully executed. If you are going to Go Big, you need to do it right. Two sets of Keystone Cops jockeyed that one.
“Who said it?”
Keanu Reeves to Jeff Daniels and then Jeff Daniels to Keanu Reeves.
Yes, the quotes are accurate. Check the link to the source, it has an annotated Book of Mormon as reference.
And remember, as you do so, that Mormons are commanded to take the Book of Mormon LITERALLY and live accordingly.
And keep in mind that all Christian churches were created and are run by Satan, the whiter you are the more God loves you, women are inferior to Men and should obey unquestioningly, Jews drink blood, commit abominations and killed Jesus and other prophets to repress the true Word of God, you can go on and on with the racist, sexist and intolerant hate crap that lies within the Book of Mormon.
That’s not even to mention the risible stuff like Lucifer and Jesus are brothers, Jesus is NOT God, merely an angel, Jesus preached to the Native Americans, who are, wait for it, A LOST TRIBE OF ISRAEL! (despite DNA, linguistic and archaeological evidence to the contrary).
I can handle the stupid myths, but not the intolerance and lies about other religions and races. You can call it ‘religious bigotry’ to hold a man accountable for reprehensible tenets of his religion, but that would be like calling critics of the KKK or the Aryan nation bigots.
No enlightened religion holds the exclusionary views of the Mormons and any religion that takes the Bible or the Book of Mormon _literally_ is wrong-headed at best, being the product of mistranslation, political inclusions and exclusions, not to mention millenia of distortions.