John McCain, in New Orleans today, ripped the Bush Administration
and state and local government for “one of the worst disasters in
American history.”
** THE PETRAEUS MOVE. Here is another angle on the White House move of General Petraeus from commanding the Iraq theater to serving as chief of US Central Command. I have not seen this reported anywhere else.
A new Democratic president would be expected by many to remove Petraeus from the Iraq command. There is no term for theater commanders.
There is however, in the US Armed Forces, a term on the tenures of heads of major regional combatant commands, such as NATO, Central Command, Pacific Command, and so forth. It is three years. And the commander usually gets a fourth year.
That means that a President Obama, for example, would risk a firestorm of protest in the military and much of the country if he tried to remove Petraeus from the CentCom post. As head of Central Command, Petraeus will, if confirmed as expected by the Senate this summer, be in overall charge of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
President Bush and Vice President Cheney are trying to ensure that Petraeus remains in charge of the Iraq War for at least three more years, and perhaps a fourth.
** MCCAIN RIPS HURRICANE KATRINA PLANNING AND RESPONSE. John McCain held a town hall in New Orleans and toured the battered, impoverished Ninth Ward of the fabled city.
He issued a new and scathing critique of the “terrible and disgraceful” failure of the Bush administration’s response to the disaster.
McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said that had he been president he would have immediately visited the area after the storm hit in August 2005. While he’s been critical of the administration’s Katrina response before, the Arizona senator’s remarks today were some of the sharpest he’s used.
“Never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in this terrible and disgraceful manner,” McCain said after a walking tour of the Lower Ninth Ward, a predominantly black neighborhood that was devastated by Katrina. “History will judge this president,” he said. “This was an unacceptable scenario.”
McCain toured New Orleans with Louisiana’s new Republican Governor Bobby Jindal, an Indian-American who replaced the Democrat who served at the time of Hurricane Katrina.
** SCHWARZENEGGER POLITICAL SHOP. Josh Ginsberg, late of the Mitt Romney campaign, has signed on with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political operation as a political director. Actually, he has re-signed on with the former action superstar. He’s seen here in the video look behind the scenes of Schwarzenegger’s re-election campaign in which he served as deputy political director. He’ll work with more seasoned figures such as Steve Schmidt — Schwarzenegger’s campaign manager, who now has his hands full as John McCain’s senior advisor — former Schwarzenegger communications director Adam Mendelsohn, and former Schwarzenegger press secretary Julie Soderlund in overseeing the governor’s involvement in the midterm elections and his initiative campaigns.
** SOME INTERESTING ARITHMETIC. Here’s an interesting bit of Democratic delegate math.
Before Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton needed to win 63% in the remaining contests in order to overtake Barack Obama for the lead in earned delegates. Now she needs to win 68% the rest of the way.
John McCain on his tour of “forgotten” places in America.
** MCCAIN’S VEEP: A STRAW IN THE WIND FROM MINNESOTA. Here’s an interesting item. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (see below re polling in his state) had a Washington funder last night for his re-election, in 2010. It was attended by a who’s who of Beltway Republicans, with some notable McCainiacs co-hosting and putting in appearances. Pawlenty was a key early backer of McCain, who stuck as his campaign melted down last year, not once but twice. The host of the event, former Republican national chairman Ken Mehlman (close to other veep hopefuls Rob Portman and Mitt Romney, and a law school acquaintance of Barack Obama), joked about Pawlenty’s wife supposedly calling him “45.” McCain would be “44,” as in the 44th president of the United States.
** POST-PENNSYLVANIA SUPERDELEGATES SO FAR: OBAMA 3, CLINTON 1. Oregon Congressman David Wu this morning endorsed Barack Obama for president. Wu represents the Portland suburbs. The Oregon primary is on May 20th. Wu is one of three uncommitted superdelegates to endorse Obama since he lost the Pennsylvania primary to Hillary Clinton the day before yesterday. Clinton has picked up one.
One of the three is Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry, who endorsed Obama yesterday. Intriguingly, it was Clinton, not Obama, who won the Oklahoma primary.
** RASMUSSEN: OBAMA RISING IN NATIONAL POLLING. The Rasmussen robopoll, in which the Democrats tend to run lower than in other polling, has Barack Obama edging ahead of John McCain for only the second time in six weeks, 47% to 45%. McCain continues to have a slight edge over Hillary Clinton, 47% to 45%.
Obama’s favorables are moving back up, to 51% favorable, 47% unfavorable. McCain is 51% favorable, 45% unfavorable, while Clinton is 44% favorable, 54% unfavorable. Obama’s unfavorable rating has generally been much higher in this poll than in other polls.
On the Democratic side, it’s Obama 49%, Clinton 42%.
** WHERE THEY ARE TODAY.
Barack Obama is in Chicago, where he has no public events.
Hillary Clinton is in Jacksonville, Fayetteville, and Asheville, North Carolina.
John McCain is in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
** SCHWARZENEGGER LIVE WEBCAST THIS MORNING. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger delivers the keynote address at the DNA/Cold Case Summit, hosted by the California District Attorneys Association.
The DNA/Cold Case Summit highlights “cold” homicide cases. The summit also provides training opportunities for prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and crime victim advocates.
The event will be webcast live at 10:45 AM.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who spent the day yesterday in the Capitol working on knotty California budget issues, returns to a more convivial setting tonight when he appears with his friend Jay Leno on The Tonight Show.
Barack Obama kicking off his drive for Indiana after losing Pennsylvania.
** RASMUSSEN: OBAMA STRONG IN BATTLEGROUND STATE MINNESOTA. Barack Obama has taken a big lead over John McCain in the new Rasmussen robopoll of Minnesota. It’s Obama 52%, McCain 38%. A month ago, Obama led by only four points. Hillary Clinton has a much smaller lead over McCain, 47$ to 42%.
Both Democrats have the same 20-point edge over McCain among women. The difference in the results is among men. There Obama leads McCain by three points, while Clinton trails by 16 points.
Minnesota voted only narrowly for the Democratic nominee in the two elections against George W. Bush, with John Kerry carrying the state by only three points in 2004 and Al Gore by only two points in 2000.
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was a key McCain backer in the primaries and is said to be a leading contender for the Republican vice presidential nomination.
In the U.S. Senate race there, incumbent Republican Norm Coleman leads comedian Al Franken, 50% to 43%.
** SLIM EDGE FOR OBAMA IN BATTLEGROUND STATE COLORADO. Barack Obama has a slight edge over John McCain in Colorado, in a new Rasmussen robopoll. It’s Obama 46%, McCain 43%. Hillary Clinton is out of contention in the Rocky Mountain battleground state, trailing McCain by 14 points.
Coloradans are split over Obama’s Bittergate remarks. 44% believe they reflect an elitist point of view, while 44% do not.
** 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 is trading in the $118 to $119 per barrel range.
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| Comments (100) |
Great speech by Obama Tuesday night. He was very gracious and forward looking.
McCain’s pretty good in that video. He won’t be easy to beat.
Barack came through in that speech. He rose above the nasty campaign against him and got in going in Indiana. He is going to sweep North Carolina, take Indiana and expose Hillary as a bitter ender.
I meant he got it going in Indiana not he got in going in Indiana.
I do typos all the time.
We’ll see. Though it’s not exactly unlikely.
>Capitol Boy :
Barack came through in that speech. He rose above the nasty campaign against him and got in going in Indiana. He is going to sweep North Carolina, take Indiana and expose Hillary as a bitter ender.
Apr 24, 2008 08:45 AM
Indeed.
>Jonas Blane :
McCain’s pretty good in that video. He won’t be easy to beat.
Apr 24, 2008 08:42 AM
That’s one of his better recent speeches.
>Jonas Blane :
Great speech by Obama Tuesday night. He was very gracious and forward looking.
Apr 24, 2008 08:28 AM
Them black people are some gospel singin’ folks in McCain’s video.
Nice polling round-up. Thanks.
Is it true that CRAFT (the latest Republican Supergroup) plans to thrust Sideshow Bob (Kelsey Grammer) into the center ring?
First we elect a former homicidal cyborg from the future (where else would you get one). Now we’re looking at a former homicidal cartoon clown? WTF?
If it’s Brown versus Clown, I’ll spot Brown 15pts.
BTW, I hereby trademark “Brown versus Clown.” I want a piece of all T-shirt sales…
lol
You’re welcome.
>Brasky :
Nice polling round-up. Thanks.
Apr 24, 2008 09:53 AM
Hey, I liked Kelsey Grammer in Frasier. That was a great comedy. The Christmas episode cracks me up just thinking about it, the one where Dr. Frasier Crane is dating a Jewish woman, has her and her mom over unexpectedly and has to stash the Christmas tree, and his brother dressed as Jesus,in the bathroom …
Incidentally, you’re talking elitists, you’re talking Dr. Frasier Crane.
The Republicans are searching for a candidate in 2010. I’m still hearing serious talk about Meg Whitman.
>Brasky :
Is it true that CRAFT (the latest Republican Supergroup) plans to thrust Sideshow Bob (Kelsey Grammer) into the center ring?
First we elect a former homicidal cyborg from the future (where else would you get one). Now we’re looking at a former homicidal cartoon clown? WTF?
If it’s Brown versus Clown, I’ll spot Brown 15pts.
BTW, I hereby trademark “Brown versus Clown.” I want a piece of all T-shirt sales…
Apr 24, 2008 09:59 AM
Where’s the Clinton “surge” post-PA? Obama is still getting more superdelegates than she is.
No television series was truer to the farce form. It was surprising that Fraiser didn’t have a staircase, although it still had six entry points to the main stage (hall, bath, bedroom 1, bedroom 2, kitchen, patio), which seemed to provide enough for a sitcom.
Because Brown vs. The Actor worked so well. Heh.
BRASKY: BTW, I hereby trademark “Brown versus Clown.” I want a piece of all T-shirt sales…
Apr 24, 2008 09:59 AM
Hey, that WAS a good speech by Obama. I’m a little fatigued and don’t automatically click on them as I did for several months. But he was sharp and gracious in that one.
Schwarzeneger is on time. lol
That was a short speech. lol
Marcus — Reagan v Pat Brown, Grammer v. Jerry Brown?
One was a clash of Political Titans, the other a 6-month-long inaugural starting in June 2010.
Brevity is the soul of wit.
Who said that?
>Ann :
That was a short speech. lol
Apr 24, 2008 10:59 AM
Aren’t we all?
>Chris M :
Hey, that WAS a good speech by Obama. I’m a little fatigued and don’t automatically click on them as I did for several months. But he was sharp and gracious in that one.
Apr 24, 2008 10:28 AM
There was a drawing room quality to much of it.
>Brasky :
No television series was truer to the farce form. It was surprising that Fraiser didn’t have a staircase, although it still had six entry points to the main stage (hall, bath, bedroom 1, bedroom 2, kitchen, patio), which seemed to provide enough for a sitcom.
Apr 24, 2008 10:25 AM
You’re surprised?
>Capitol Boy :
Where’s the Clinton “surge” post-PA? Obama is still getting more superdelegates than she is.
Apr 24, 2008 10:25 AM
McCain’s VP candidates don’t appear to be all that.
This native Hoosier’s sense is that the Indiana popular vote is very important for Obama as a chance to put this thing away. NC will be spun as a “black thang,” and IN is the opportunity to show he can win with white working people.
Here’s another look at the Indiana race (with excellent graphics):
http://tinyurl.com/4hjpuh
The supers are sort of like Lincoln waiting for a Union victory to release the Emancipation Proclamation. To fall in behind Barack after a loss would appear as a sign of desperation.
“SOME INTERESTING ARITHMETIC”
Win a battle to lose the war – that seems to be Clinton’s mantra this election.
“MCCAIN’S VEEP: A STRAW IN THE WIND FROM MINNESOTA”
Whomever the pick, he’ll be less white and less old than McCain. Only Death is older or whiter than McCain.
If the Reeps really wanted to mess with the dems, they would heavily float Powell’s name up until convention, then pick their crappy establishment candidate.
I want to compliment Capitol Boy on using Donald Rumsfled’s excellent “bitter ender” phrase to describe Hillary. Though the prospects of finally divorcing her sex addicted husband, keeping her Senate seat and spending $50 million do not seem too bitter.
What does Arnold have to joke about on the Tonight Show? Doesn’t California’s deficit get bigger and bigger?
Good for Mac ripping on Bush for Katrina.
Incompetent Republicans are every bit as bad as wimpy Demos.
Not bad for an “old white guy white as Death.”
I didn’t say he wasn’t strong, but as old and white goes, Clinton has got nothing on McCain.
We’ll see how running against the Bush legacy works for the Talk Express.
How much longer will the media pretend that Clinton can win?
How much longer will the media pretend that Clinton can win?
Sorrry for the double-posting.
Sorrry for the double-posting.
McCain has no credibility attacking Bush’s failures in the criminally negligent response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. McCain’s voting record shows he favors cutting funding for everything except ‘defense’ and his policies are a continuation of Bush’s, from privatizing social security to extending tax breaks to wealthy non-workers like the overpaid CEO’s and lobbyists who support him.
It’s meaningless that he would have been on the scene immediately after the preventable disaster. If he was serious, he and his super rich heiress wife would be donning hard hats and donating their time to rebuilding New Orleans instead of wasting our time with empty rhetoric. McCain is too old, out of touch and elitist to be president in the 21st century.
McCain = Four more Years of Bush, 100 more years of war, millions of civilians killed in Iraq and Iran, and billions of taxpayers’ dollars spent on destruction. McCain sees no connection between his funding of endless war and the lack of funding for social services, disaster preparedness, housing, health care, education. He and his ilk want to destroy government and turn it’s functions over to the private sector to fatten the bottom lines of his fat cat supporters.
How much longer will the media pretend that Clinton can win? — I think they are hung up on the manner in which Obama will get over the top, because it does a perceived injustice to the sanctity of the vote, so to speak.
But it is always dangerous to ascribe significant constitutional meaning when it doesn’t apply to the situation. No American constitutional provision or even a tradition requires that a vote of the people first be required before a candidate can be on a ballot for president in a general election. For the longest time, that was never even done — the candidate was selected at a convention having never gone before the voters before nomination. There isn’t any problem with that concept in my mind. In fact we also forget that the president is not elected by the common folk in any event. The Electoral College does the deed. So this is a matter of hype.
Never change, Paul Burton.
Paul Burton :
McCain has no credibility attacking Bush’s failures in the criminally negligent response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. McCain’s voting record shows he favors cutting funding for everything except ‘defense’ and his policies are a continuation of Bush’s, from privatizing social security to extending tax breaks to wealthy non-workers like the overpaid CEO’s and lobbyists who support him.
It’s meaningless that he would have been on the scene immediately after the preventable disaster. If he was serious, he and his super rich heiress wife would be donning hard hats and donating their time to rebuilding New Orleans instead of wasting our time with empty rhetoric. McCain is too old, out of touch and elitist to be president in the 21st century.
It’s all Obama. He’s got the delegates, the polls, the crowds, the money.
Clinton got her Pennsylvania by much less than she needed. Game over.
Did you hear? Wesley Snipes has joined the cast of Prison Break! Oh, wait. I got it mixed up. AP is reporting “a federal judge has sentenced action star Wesley Snipes to the maximum three-year sentence on tax charges.”
Still, Snipes would be a great addition to the Prison Break cast. Tommy Lee Jones too.
I’m not sure what you’re saying, Mr. Hazard.
News Flash! Senator Feinstein opposes Prop 98 and endorses Prop 99.
From the press release by the opponents of 98: “Bi-partisan opposition continues to grow against Prop. 98. Earlier this week, prominent Republicans U.S. Rep. George Radanovich (R-Mariposa) and former governor Pete Wilson formally opposed Prop. 98.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20080424/pl_usnw/u_s__senator_dianne_feinstein_opposes_prop98_and_supports_prop__99;_ylt=Am3.6lIbrEm52mlJJD1rKiIEKekE
CB – sorry for the vagueness. I will retry.
I think some of the thinking behind the “Hillary can win” narrative in the media is because they are focusing on the actual voting in primary elections, perhaps forgetting that nothing requires the nominees for president to be “elected” by voters in primaries. For most of our history it hasn’t been done that way. Even the election of the president isn’t a popular vote, it is done by the Electoral College.
But that we now have all these primaries makes the media tend to focus on the horse race aspects that go with the voting, and they get carried awawy…
Well, if polls counted as votes, Hillary would be losing to Obama by several million in a nation-wide super primary.
The media continues to buy whatever Clinton spin is out there – she has a better record on odd-numbered days when the wind is from the southeast, etc.
If field goals were worth 5 points, Tennessee would be Super Bowl champions. Whatever.
Prop 98 actually does quite a bit more to blunt the impact of the US Supreme Court Kelo case. Aside from repealing rent control, which I don’t really care about, 98 is much better than 99, which, suspiciously, is supported by cities and local governments. They are the ones who want to be able to continue to condemn private land and turn it over to auto mall developers.
he has a better record on odd-numbered days when the wind is from the southeast, — Now you are talking NFL, NBA or MLB !!
It could turn out that Clinton wins the primary voting and loses because she can’t get sufficient delegates. No harm there in my book…
“It could turn out that Clinton wins the primary voting and loses because she can’t get sufficient delegates”
whatever, dems are all too aware that presidents aren’t elected by the popular vote. we got that civics lesson in 2000 — moving on…
If the media are focused on the horse race, they conclude Clinton is finished. Can’t win the delegates. Can’t win the popular vote WITHOUT the caucuses. Massively behind when you include the caucus votes. Way behind in the polls. Way behind in fundraising.
The only thing Clinton leads Barack in is bullshit and lying.