Hillary Clinton hits Barack Obama for not mandating the purchase
of health insurance by all Americans.
** NOTE: At the end of the week, NWN goes on a reduced holiday publishing schedule. That doesn’t mean there won’t be some columns and updates and videos; just not nearly so many. The Forum will of course be open. The relative break is coming sooner rather than later because of the frankly insane presidential campaign schedule, which sees Iowa and New Hampshire within a week of New Year’s Day. For some perspective, when I did first-in-the-nation Iowa for Gary Hart, it was on February 20th. Two days after Christmas, NWN throttles back up full bore through the February 5th presidential primaries in California and elsewhere.
** ROMNEY STABILIZES IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. After some turbulence last week, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has seemingly stabilized his lead in the next door New Hampshire Republican presidential primary in a new poll. He is, however, threatened everywhere else by Mike Huckabee. John McCain’s running well back in second, with Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee bunched right behind. Fred Thompson has melted away to 2%.
CALIFORNIA HEALTH CARE REFORM UPDATE: Democratic legislative leaders Fabian Nunez and Don Perata emerged late this afternoon from a meeting with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The California Assembly has a vote scheduled on a universal health care bill for 1 PM on Monday. Schwarzenegger and Nunez will tour a hospital and do an event tomorrow in Southern California, discussing the plan.
** PERATA’S MONKEY WRENCH ON HEALTH CARE PROPOSAL, AND WASPISH TAKE ON WATER BOND MEASURE. California Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata put out this statement late this afternoon on the universal health care reform talks, principally between Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, which have reportedly gotten closer to fruition: I am encouraged by the progress the Governor, the Assembly Speaker and I have made this year developing a plan for extending health care insurance to the many Californians who do not have it.”
While I still strongly favor the concept, I have been shocked by the recent revelation that next year’s budget is facing a $14 billion deficit and what that could mean. It would be imprudent and impolitic to support an expansion of health care coverage without knowing how we’re going to pay for vital health programs the state now provides for poor children, their families and the aged, blind and disabled. The real issue now is the deficit and how this squares with everything else that we are going to do.
Earlier in the day, Perata, who has his own possible water bonds initiative, appeared with some environmentalists to slam another proposed initiative similar to Schwarzenegger’s water plan as the “Pave the River” initiative.
** AN UNEVENTFUL DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE. The Democratic field, minus Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel, held their last debate today in Des Moines prior to the first-in-the-nation Iowa presidential caucuses on January 3rd. Like yesterday’s Republican debate — a mostly dull and poorly conducted debate also moderated by Des Moines Register editor Carolyn Washburn — it was essentially uneventful.
Barack Obama, who leads in most of the recent Iowa polls, turned in an assured, polished performance. He also had the line of the debate. Asked by editor Washburn how he can bring change in foreign policy when some of his top advisors in the field are former Clinton Administration officials — which prompted a loud and sustained laugh from Hillary Clinton, who said: “I want to hear the answer to that!” — Obama allowed as how he has advisors with a number of backgrounds. And then the zinger: “I’ll be happy to have you advising me, too, Hillary.” Which got the big laugh from the audience, though not from the New York senator.
Clinton also did well, though she appeared tired and a little nervous underneath the surface. She had a good, clearly rehearsed line, when she sought to seize the change mantle and differentiate herself from Obama and John Edwards without playing into her negative image. While everyone wants change, Hillary said, some “demand change,” that would be Edwards, some “hope for change,” that would be Obama, while she is “working hard for change.”
It’s a variant for a much more complex situation of a classic Bill Clinton trope. That no matter what happens, with all the criticism, he’s really working hard for what you need.
Unfortunately, it’s a persona that Edwards is better at projecting. He was interesting to watch.
Edwards’ ensemble, in contrast to most occasions I recall, was subtly off in every respect. His jacket, tie, and shirt were all subtly out of synch with one another. I think he was going for a down home, Midwesterner effect. He seemed tired; in one of his early extended riffs he was blinking so rapidly as to be distracting, and unaccustomedly blew his punch line such that he shrugged his shoulders and Chris Dodd sympathetically quipped: “And whatever.”
But Edwards got stronger as the debate went on and had a very good line when he rejected the premise of the moderator’s question about bringing change to Washington. The moderator had said that by alienating big oil companies, pharmaceuticals, and so forth that he was hurting his ability to work with people who get things done. Edwards’ reply was that such companies actually have no intention of giving up their power.
Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, and Chris Dodd all had their moments, as well. But Iowa is really a two-person, possibly three-person race. With Obama turning in a solid performance and having the best off-the-cuff line, the debate ended with a slight but real advantage to the Illinois senator.
** CLINTON NATIONAL CO-CHAIR RESIGNS IN WAKE OF COCAINE ATTACK ON OBAMA. Billy Shaheen, a New Hampshire political fixture who served as both state co-chair and a national co-chair of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, resigned today in the wake of his drive-by on Barack Obama yesterday with regard to his teenage drug use. Shaheen is the husband of former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen and a constant companion of Clinton’s when she campaigns in the Granite State.
The former first lady apologized to Obama at the airport today on the way to the Iowa debate from Washington.
** DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE SHOWDOWN TODAY. Each of the three top Democratic candidates has a big challenge in today’s debate, the last in Iowa before the first-in-the-nation Iowa presidential caucuses on the insane date of January 3rd. Hillary Clinton, the “inevitable” frontrunner now in trouble in each of the early contests, has the biggest challenge.
The Democratic field meets today at 11 AM Pacific time, in a 90-minute event in a very chilly Des Moines viewable on the major cable nets.
The former first lady-turned-New York senator has to demonstrate that she is the most experienced candidate, the one best able to deliver real change, and take down the likable Barack Obama without appearing to be what polls show many Americans believe she is, i.e., an unpleasant person. That’s all.
Her campaign is in trouble. Her subtext of inevitability, never real, is belatedly being jettisoned by even the most credulous reporters. Her theme of having the experience to make change work is under serious question. Her attacks on rival Obama aren’t very effective.
She tried for a long time to discredit Obama as a naif for wanting to talk with Iran. But the US National Intelligence Estimate, discounting years of saber rattling rhetoric in its assessment of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, makes Obama look prescient and Hillary behind the curve. A series of scatter shot attacks on other fronts haven’t worked.
Then she decided to roll out a new advertising theme. Chart a new beginning with a theme of “New Beginnings.” In this ad, full of sunny vistas filled with appropriate Americans, all of it scored with cinematically uplifting music, Clinton calls for new beginnings on health care, education, and Iraq, running past themes and slogans through a media blender. It’s hard to see this doing much for her, although it may make her supporters feel better about the campaign.
Bill Clinton, according to several sources upset and frustrated about the situation — since he can’t step on stage and right it by himself, being term limited — went to Iowa this week yet again to boost her numbers, but was largely sidelined by the great ice storm.
With Hillary in big trouble now in all the early primary and caucus states, her chief strategist, Mark Penn, has issued another of his famous memos about how well she is doing. Penn is the principal author of the inevitable Hillary theme, which I’ve always pointed out ain’t necessarily so. Meanwhile, poll after poll shows the peril for Clinton’s candidacy.
The latest poll for CNN/WMUR-TV has Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama now essentially tied for first in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary. The numbers are Clinton 31%, Obama 30%, John Edwards 16%, and Bill Richardson 7%. A couple of months ago, Clinton led Obama by about 20 points. New Hampshire has always been Hillary’s firewall against a possible loss in Iowa, the place where she would convincingly re-establish in inevitability. Some firewall. I know from experience what an insurgent’s strong showing in Iowa can do to an inevitable frontrunner in New Hampshire.
So here’s the latest move. A veteran political operative who is Hillary Clinton’s New Hampshire co-chairman, Billy Shaheen, hit Obama yesterday on his youthful drug use. His excuse is that Republicans would use it against the Illinois senator, who is close to upsetting Hillary’s apple cart in the early states, and thus he would be less electable than he otherwise seems to be. Shaheen is the husband of former New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen, one of Clinton’s national co-chairs. Obama’s drug use as a teenager is known because he wrote about it in his best-selling autobiography, presenting his own experience as an example of what young people should avoid.
It all makes for an inauspicious frame for an important debate performance.
Barack Obama has improved as a debater since his subpar Las
Vegas performance last spring, seen in this NWN video. But is
he good enough now to hold his new lead in Iowa?
The cancellation of Monday’s Los Angeles debate was very good news for Barack Obama. It allowed his splashy tour of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina with Oprah Winfrey, and his surge in early state polls that was already underway, to dominate. Had he had to debate in LA on Monday, the Oprah tour might have been scheduled another time. Had he had to debate in LA, he might not have done so well.
Obama is an extremely talented politician. And a very smart guy who was, after all, head of the Harvard Law Review. But for all his rhetorical gifts, he hasn’t shone yet in a debate. He started off well last month in Las Vegas, but moderator Wolf Blitzer pulled the plug on that debate’s rollicking start just 15 minutes in. The rest of the way, Obama was fairly listless.
My suspicion is that Obama, who likes to find commonalities, isn’t comfortable debating what in the big picture are the fine points of policy differences with people he mostly agrees with. At least, that had better be the case for Democrats if he goes on to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
He doesn’t need to win this debate, as he has the momentum. He does, however, need a consistently good performance for the entire debate.
Obama needs to sound like a plausible president, be change-oriented enough so as not to allow John Edwards an opening, have a high energy level throughout, which has frequently not been the case, and smoothly counter whatever Clinton throws at him.
John Edwards continues to offer an alternative to the
two Democratic frontrunners.
John Edwards has the fundamental problem of the third wheel. He’s still a major factor in the campaign, but aside from Iowa, he isn’t really very competitive anywhere else. He has actually been the best debater in most of these events. And for all that, he continues to run a mostly distant third. His misfortune is that he is running in the same cycle as two superstars. If this were 2004 all over again, he’d be the clear frontrunner.
Edwards needs to make a big impression today. He needs to discredit Clinton’s claim of experience and commitment to change and he needs to show that he, not Obama, is the best candidate to take on whichever Republican emerges from that party’s big scrum. Failing that, he has to hope that Clinton and Obama slip up and savage one another, either today or in the next few weeks. And that his strong Iowa organization delivers for him on what could be an unpredictable day, given the oddity of having these caucuses right after the New Year.
** CALIFORNIA POLL: SCHWARZENEGGER JOB APPROVAL RATING HIGH, WORRIES ABOUT ECONOMY AND WIDESPREAD DISAPPROVAL OF BUSH AND IRAQ WAR, MOSTLY MEANINGLESS PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY NUMBERS. Public Policy Institute of California chief Mark Baldassare has put out the latest PPIC poll. It was taken in late November and early December, making the numbers meaningless for the presidential primary, which show the customary frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani leading.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a 63% job approval rating among California voters, who nonetheless by a narrow majority think the state is going in the wrong direction. This is because of anxiety about the slowing economy, notably the housing slump, subprime mortgage crisis, and high oil prices.
Support for the term limits revision initiative is below 50%, as is the case with the Republican scheme to change the Electoral College vote for president to get 20 more for their candidate. Which has once again collapsed anyway.
President Bush has a horrible 29% job approval rating, a strong majority thinks the Iraq War wasn’t worth it, and I’ve typed this stuff quite a few times before, haven’t I?
** SCHWARZENEGGER PRIVATE CAPITOL MEETINGS TODAY, ASSEMBLY DEMOCRATS TO CAUCUS ON HEALTH CARE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will again engage in a series of private meetings and conversations today in California’s Capitol on the state’s chronic budget crisis and unresolved water policy and health care reform matters. He and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez have been negotiating right along on health care, and again are said to be close to a deal. Not that we haven’t heard that, oh, once or twice before. But this time the state Assembly Democrats are gathering to discuss the issue. And hope, as they say, springs eternal.
** IRAN TALKS IN MOSCOW, MISSILE DEFENSE TALKS IN BUDAPEST. Iran’s foreign minister is in Moscow today to enlist continued Russian security backing as it dances the minuet with Washington and to secure completion of the Bushehr nuclear power plant. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has been meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and other top officials. They’ve reached agreement on the nuclear power plant, though details will be released later. Russia is said to have insisted that the International Atomic Energy Agency watchdog the plant and wants to provide enriched nuclear fuel to Iran itself, from a facility in Siberia.
Uranium must be enriched to fuel a nuclear reactor in order to generate electricity, which is what Iran says is the purpose of its nuclear program. Iran is a major oil producer, but its oil costs more to produce than other oil powers and too much of it goes to domestic consumption. In order to produce weapons grade materials, a higher level of uranium enrichment is required.
Meanwhile, Russian and American officials have been meeting today in Budapest in an effort to settle the controversy over the proposed US missile shield in Eastern Europe. Russians see it as aimed at them, even as the US through NATO continues to encroach on its “near abroad,” the peripheral states which made up part of the old Soviet Union. The US has said that the shield is aimed at Iran. But with Iran now officially downgraded as a threat, Russia is less thrilled than ever by the plan.
** 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 up in the $93 to $95 per barrel range.
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Bill Bradley :
Oh, you just like to complain.
We need a battle to make this debate interesting.
Hillary’s not doing it.
This is a sedate debate. The moderator is onlithium. The candidates are tired. I’m bored.
Stop typing so loud, Aubrey. You woke me up…
Oh, wait…
The debate is still going…
ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
Stop typing so loud, Aubrey. You woke me up…
Oh, wait…
The debate is still going…
ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
Why’d they end earlier? Obama took it.
While you folks have been allowing yourselves to be bored I have been watching Senator Mitchell…’nuff to say that it’s not a good day for my favorite sport.
Not that NWN takes requests…
…but…
I’d love to hear your take on the Bill Clinton/Ron Burkle breakup, Mr. B.
I saw Steve Westly’s claim that major Clinton fundraisers were jumping aboard the SS Obama. Will we be seeing Barack entertaining at Green Acres?
I could get to that. I’d think it was always contemplated.
I could get to that. I’d think it was always contemplated.
Gosh, it’s not all Barry Bonds?!
>Sacramento Solon :
While you folks have been allowing yourselves to be bored I have been watching Senator Mitchell…’nuff to say that it’s not a good day for my favorite sport.
Dec 13, 2007 12:27 PM
The moderator was kind of, well, lousy.
>Capitol Boy :
Why’d they end earlier? Obama took it.
Dec 13, 2007 12:26 PM
It was absolutely mesmerizing.
>Tommy Boy :
Stop typing so loud, Aubrey. You woke me up…
Oh, wait…
The debate is still going…
ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
Dec 13, 2007 12:22 PM
She didn’t take it.
>Ann :
Hillary’s not doing it.
Dec 13, 2007 11:37 AM
She didn’t take it.
>Ann :
Hillary’s not doing it.
Dec 13, 2007 11:37 AM
It was very … nice.
>carole w :
We need a battle to make this debate interesting.
Dec 13, 2007 11:35 AM
Exactly.
>Sacramento Solon :
Bill Bradley :
Oh, you just like to complain.
Bill Bradley :
Gosh, it’s not all Barry Bonds?!
——
Nope, not all Barry. But, so far as I know, he’s the only one to walk into a Grand Jury roon and go brain dead.
Report does list a chap named Roger Clemens. And another named Andy Pettitte. Miguel Tejada is also named…along with Sammy Sosa. Tons of others.
Bill Bradley :
Exactly.
>Sacramento Solon :
Bill Bradley :
Oh, you just like to complain.
Bill Bradley :
Exactly.
>Sacramento Solon :
Bill Bradley :
Oh, you just like to complain.
Obama and Edwards were the best. I guess Obama won, then.
With all due respect to the great bloggers and BB, Obama, in my opinion, won’t win Iowa.
Iowa is not a state you win in the media — it just isn’t and never has been. I have been there, worked there and watched this stuff in action. These folks are too darn saavy for to fall for the hype — again, I cite Howard Dean in 2004 as a perfect example.
Edwards, in the opinion of people on the ground in Iowa, has a field operation he has been working for nearly two and a half years — longer than everyone else. And folks, THAT is the real ballgame in that state. Caucus goers like to be touched — not spoken too.
Richardson has also shown some strength in the state — b/c in the caucuses he is highlighting a lot of his experience as Governor but also people in Iowa know about his work as Energy Secretary and as U.N. Ambassador. I think he will do better in Iowa than most people think.
And yes, the caucus folks in Iowa ALL pay attention to this stuff. More often than not, they tune out the ads at a certain point and let the candidates do the talking.
And this is, whether you agree or not, NOT a media-based campaign. It is, at its heart and soul, a field/grassroots/grasstops effort to reach a relatively limited number of caucus voters.
Also, there is one important thing to keep in mind about these polls. They do not include important elements in the crosstabs that really identify/quantify how voters think about specific candidates. Each of them have big positives and big negatives (i.e. HRC trustworthiness factor is a HUGE negative/Edwards appears to be too preachy at times/Obama is too inexperienced, etc.).
In that scenario, I could see the race ending up like this on January 3rd –
1st Edwards (but not by much)
2nd Richardson/Obama
3rd Obama/Richardson/HRC
4th HRC/Obama/Richardson
5th Who really cares.
This is not a be all, end all thought but just my humble opinion.
But hey, opinions are like butts I am told — everyone has one.
…and they all stink but mine.
Why don’t you work all the time? Slacker. lol
CADTS -
While I agree with your read on Iowa – that it isn’t won in the media, but rather on the ground – I have to respectfully disagree with your read on Obama’s operation.
Read the recent story from Time on the Obama ground game. It is no Deaniac “Perfect Storm.”
If their efforts in California are only a hint of what they’ve been doing in Iowa, he will have a tremendous operation there. Look at the “World’s Largest Phonebank” he did at the Oprah event in South Carolina. He did the same thing here in Los Angeles on Monday.
At the Universal Amphitheater, they had 4,500 or 5,000 people there. Most everyone around me actually got on the phone and started dialing when the staffer got on stage and asked them to. Each person was given four numbers. Even if they didn’t make contact, that’s a lot of “left messages.” It’s a one-time hit, but is also a week’s worth of phone banking under other circumstances.
The Obama campaign – most likely learning from Dean’s Front-Runner’s Fall(a great article from years past) – is turning the excitement and energy into real-world, on-the-groun, dirt-under-the-nails action.
Read what online organizing guru Zach Exley wrote for HuffPo on the Camp Obama program; a series of leadership training programs held across the country.
The Obama campaign is building a national grassroots effort. I doubt they’re doing less in Iowa.
Of course, none of this is to discount Edwards in the Hawkeye State. The time Edwards and his organization have spent in-state does count for a lot.
I’d never prognosticate as to who will come out on top in this cycle’s caucus. It could go to any of ‘em.
All I’m saying is that Obama is not running Howard Dean’s ground game.
CADTS -
While I agree with your read on Iowa – that it isn’t won in the media, but rather on the ground – I have to respectfully disagree with your read on Obama’s operation.
Read the recent story from Time on the Obama ground game. It is no Deaniac “Perfect Storm.”
If their efforts in California are only a hint of what they’ve been doing in Iowa, he will have a tremendous operation there. Look at the “World’s Largest Phonebank” he did at the Oprah event in South Carolina. He did the same thing here in Los Angeles on Monday.
At the Universal Amphitheater, they had 4,500 or 5,000 people there. Most everyone around me actually got on the phone and started dialing when the staffer got on stage and asked them to. Each person was given four numbers. Even if they didn’t make contact, that’s a lot of “left messages.” It’s a one-time hit, but is also a week’s worth of phone banking under other circumstances.
The Obama campaign – most likely learning from Dean’s Front-Runner’s Fall(a great article from years past) – is turning the excitement and energy into real-world, on-the-groun, dirt-under-the-nails action.
Read what online organizing guru Zach Exley wrote for HuffPo on the Camp Obama program; a series of leadership training programs held across the country.
The Obama campaign is building a national grassroots effort. I doubt they’re doing less in Iowa.
Of course, none of this is to discount Edwards in the Hawkeye State. The time Edwards and his organization have spent in-state does count for a lot.
I’d never prognosticate as to who will come out on top in this cycle’s caucus. It could go to any of ‘em.
All I’m saying is that Obama is not running Howard Dean’s ground game.
If you want to stop the Clintons, you back Obama. It’s as simple as that.
“stop the Clintons”?
After Bush 43 my concern is to have a Prez who can do the job. And able to clean up the multiple disasters schrub is leaving for his sucessor. HRC can do the job. Maybe she is not warm & cuddly, but that isn’t what I am seeking in a Prez. Obama is to me so far too much of a giant “?”, lots of slogans but I have no read what sort of leader he would be. Maybe that will get clearer as the field thins and we focus in on the 2-3 remaining candidates.
Meanwhile the Reps seem very unsettled. Giuliani hoping to survive until 2/5. Thompson fading. McCain maybe with a small rebound. Romney to his dismay spends large amount yet isn’t able to hold leads. Huckabee on an upswing taking advantage of opportunity in Iowa as other candidates have problems, didn’t seal the deal.
The battle that I was looking for on this mornings debate is now happening on Hardball. Trippi,Penn and Axlerod are throwing verbal jabs at each other. They all look like their panties are in a bundle.
The battle that I was looking for on this mornings debate is now happening on Hardball. Trippi,Penn and Axlerod are throwing verbal jabs at each other. They all look like their panties are in a bundle.
sorry anonymous was me.
The Clintons are sleazeballs and habitual liars. I’ve had enough of their bullshit.
Let’s keep it clean.
I’m pretty tired of battling consultants.
>Anonymous :
The battle that I was looking for on this mornings debate is now happening on Hardball. Trippi,Penn and Axlerod are throwing verbal jabs at each other. They all look like their panties are in a bundle.
Dec 13, 2007 04:31 PM
I’m pretty tired of battling consultants.
>Anonymous :
The battle that I was looking for on this mornings debate is now happening on Hardball. Trippi,Penn and Axlerod are throwing verbal jabs at each other. They all look like their panties are in a bundle.
Dec 13, 2007 04:31 PM
Quite.
>Dana :
Meanwhile the Reps seem very unsettled. Giuliani hoping to survive until 2/5. Thompson fading. McCain maybe with a small rebound. Romney to his dismay spends large amount yet isn’t able to hold leads. Huckabee on an upswing taking advantage of opportunity in Iowa as other candidates have problems, didn’t seal the deal.
Dec 13, 2007 04:21 PM
Obama and Howard Dean are very different breeds of cat.
>Tommy Boy :
CADTS -
While I agree with your read on Iowa – that it isn’t won in the media, but rather on the ground – I have to respectfully disagree with your read on Obama’s operation.
Read the recent story from Time on the Obama ground game. It is no Deaniac “Perfect Storm.”
Then I’d be sick all the time.
>Ann :
Why don’t you work all the time? Slacker. lol
Dec 13, 2007 02:26 PM
Um. Interesting.
>CADTS :
With all due respect to the great bloggers and BB, Obama, in my opinion, won’t win Iowa.
Iowa is not a state you win in the media — it just isn’t and never has been. I have been there, worked there and watched this stuff in action. These folks are too darn saavy for to fall for the hype — again, I cite Howard Dean in 2004 as a perfect example.
Um. Interesting.
>CADTS :
With all due respect to the great bloggers and BB, Obama, in my opinion, won’t win Iowa.
Iowa is not a state you win in the media — it just isn’t and never has been. I have been there, worked there and watched this stuff in action. These folks are too darn saavy for to fall for the hype — again, I cite Howard Dean in 2004 as a perfect example.
I’m not so sure they’ve got Bonds. The chain of evidence is attenuated.
Now we see that baseball is shot through with special assistance and cheating, which is part of the history of the game.
>Sacramento Solon :
Bill Bradley :
Gosh, it’s not all Barry Bonds?!
——
Nope, not all Barry. But, so far as I know, he’s the only one to walk into a Grand Jury roon and go brain dead.
Report does list a chap named Roger Clemens. And another named Andy Pettitte. Miguel Tejada is also named…along with Sammy Sosa. Tons of others.
Dec 13, 2007 01:04 PM
Don Perata is getting crankier and crankier. lol
He’s a cranky guy.
How stupid was it of Fabian Nunez to get the Democratic Party to buy $100 a bottle wine for him? Geesh.
How stupid was it of Fabian Nunez to get the Democratic Party to buy $100 a bottle wine for him? Geesh.
Bill,
You might be right on Barry…the case might not be strong enough to convict.
As for baseball, even with today’s report, it remains the best game going. Always has been and will be…at least in my eyes.
Now, you did mean to add a ”
” on your other statement, didn’t you???
CNN and Fox News focus groups both have Edwards receiving the highest marks while winning over undecideds. People thought he projected a sense of determination and conviction. They also rated Obama’s performance highly.
I have to agree with CADTS: Iowans are a different breed. They don’t buy media hype.
No, Solon, it’s not all Barry Bonds. But I do think it’s all Bud Selig. If he hasn’t known for years about performance enhancers in baseball, he is either morally blind or stupid. His should be the first head to roll
And on another topic, also for Solon. I’m half-way through James Church’s new book, Hidden Moon, with Inspector O. The second book maintains the standard of the first, at least so far.