Obama's first press conference

I thought it was really weird that he called himself a mutt. I wonder what other biracial people think about that.

With his transition economic team on hand at the Hilton in Chicago, Barack Obama took several questions -- from Nedra Pickler, Lee Cowen, Chip Reid, John McCormick, Lynn Sweet, Candy Crowley and Jeff Zeleny -- that spanned his goals in the first 100 days to the Obama family's puppy selection process.

In explaining his decision not to introduce new economic plans today, Obama said that the nation has just one president at a time -- read: make no mistake, this economic mess still belongs to George W. Bush. He did say that he endorses passage of a stimulus package, either during the lame duck session of Congress or after he takes office. And he dodged questions about his post-election intelligence briefing(s) and if he intends to raise taxes for Americans in the upper income bracket.

As for the all-important matter of the dog, there are two issues in play: weighing the need to have a hypoallergenic pooch for one allergic daughter and a family interest in adopting a shelter dog, or a "mutt," Obama said, just like he.

Dixville Notch goes to Obama

Democrat Barack Obama came up a big winner in the presidential race in Dixville Notch, N.H., where the nation's first Election Day votes were cast and counted early Tuesday.

Obama defeated John McCain 15-6. Independent Ralph Nader was also on the ballot, but received no votes.

The first voter, following tradition established in 1948, was picked ahead of the midnight voting and the rest of the town's 19 registered voters followed suit in Tuesday's first minutes.

Town Clerk Rick Erwin says the northern New Hampshire town is proud of its tradition, but says the most important thing is that the turnout represents 100 percent vote.

President Bush won the vote in Dixville Notch in 2004 on the way to his re-election.

DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. (AP)

---------------------

15 to 6. That's right. Obama won by a whopping 9 votes!!!

Sarah Palin

Great Sarah Palin article in the weekend edition of USA Today.

I especially enjoyed one of the comments:

People removed from middle America just don't seem to be able to
understand. When they sit around in their own circles and discuss things
they are sure everyone must agree with them because all of our friends do.
They forget, people in the largest inner cities are very different from
the rest of the country, and we are the majority.

Palin appeals to people because she represents them. Not necessarily
agreeing with all her positions, but overall the person herself. She
represents a citizen politician.

When you read something ridiculous the government does and you say, "If I
could be in charge for just a week, I would fix that place quick". She is
that person. She is the one that said, I can do better than the idiot in
charge. Then she ran for Governor and proved it.

The American public is in love with her and her folksy way and raw
outdoors feel. They love her can do attitude and lack of fear. They love
her family, especially because it has its own problems. They see her as
REAL. They know what she stands for, because they do too. They also know
standing for something doesn't make it always occur, because no matter how
they all tried, they had failures too. They like it that she is still
trying with all the normal problems. And when people pick on her, like
this article, they rally around like someone just picked on their family,
because they think she is.

It's going to be a fast finish from here. The Palin love affair cannot
wear out in 7 weeks time, and attacking it wont do any good. The people
that have fallen for her, have adopted her, and when someone attacks her,
they are attacking them. The biggest worry the democratic party should
have now, is, do they lose the Senate and the Congress as well, as the
love affair is a real one.

Also see coverage in the Peoria Journal Star.

Aurora News: Hispanic Pioneers Breakfast Friday

Aurora has a lot of Hispanics, and there is a special event scheduled for Friday to honor them.

AURORA -- The annual Aurora Hispanic Pioneers Breakfast is scheduled for Friday at La Sierra Banquets. The breakfast, sponsored by 2nd Ward Alderman Juany ..

Read more at the Aurora Beacon News.

Waukegan News: Tot crushed in crash

What a terrible disaster. It's hearbreaking to read about stuff like this. You wonder was the child properly secured? Was anybody at fault, or was it really just an accident where nothing could have been done.

The child was was pronounced dead at Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan. Booth said Friday that the collision remains under investigation.

Read more at the Waukegan News Sun.

Peoria News: Peoria County could see jump in number of lead poisonings

It's amazing that lead poisoning continues to be an issue. You'd have thought that after decades of knowing about this stuff it would have been eradicated by now, but it's still around, increasing even. Scary.

By CLARE HOWARD Peoria County cut its rate of childhood lead poisoning from nearly 15 percent of tested children in 2003 to just over 8 percent in 2006, .

Read more at the Peoria Journal Star.

Joe Biden - Plagiarism scandal

Joe Biden is a plagiarist. Is that surprise?

The only practical explanation for Biden's plagiarism is he guessed that being Kinnock on the stump would be more compelling for his audience than merely citing him. And he was probably right. Anecdotes about how a British politician made a success of himself thanks to Labor Party policies would hardly encourage an American voter to pull the lever for Joe Biden. Biden plagiarized because, like most plagiarists, he was unsatisfied with his own, honest material and decided that the payoff was worth the risk.

Another time-honored defense of plagiarists is that the incident was a one-off. But in Biden's case, we know that's not true. As E.J. Dionne Jr. reported in the previously mentioned Times article, he "plagiarized a law review article for a paper he wrote in his first year at law school" at the Syracuse University College of Law. According to a Dec. 1, 1965, report by the law school, five pages of Biden's 15-page paper were copied without quotation or attribution.

Biden's defense? He told Dionne—and his professors at Syracuse at the time—that he misunderstood citation and footnoting rules. The Dionne piece is especially rich with other Bidenisms. The candidate accuses other presidential campaigns of digging up the Syracuse law school story, but he does not specify which campaigns engineered this smear.

If you give Biden the benefit of the doubt—and I don't—you'd expect that such a calamitous "mistake" from his youth would have seared into his mind the importance of keeping his mitts off of other people's words. That it didn't speaks terabytes about his character.

More from Slate magazine.

Aurora News: East Aurora School District overhauls Web site

It's really important that schools continue to invest in their websites, because school websites don't just save money for the school district they increase the amount of information that is available to parents, and makes it easier for parents to receive information that is critical to them for keeping tab on their children and so on, seeing what grades they have and more.

And during a virtual ribbon-cutting at East Aurora's Red and Black Pride Day last month, teachers were introduced to the interactive features that will ...

Read more at the Aurora Beacon News.

Aurora News: Oberweis sets three more energy forums

It's about time that Jim Oberweis starts campaigning for Congress because it really seems like he's not doing enough. He needs to get out there, say hello to voters and introduce himself and tell them about what he's going to do to improve their lives. Bill Foster is much more of a politician than Oberweis, meaning he knows how to pander and tell voters what they want to hear, while Oberweis says what he means and means what he says and is his own man. Unfortunately this is a campaign where the politician is likely to beat the real man.

Republican congressional candidate Jim Oberweis has scheduled three more town hall meetings on energy and gas prices -- and the first one is in Aurora.

More at the Aurora Beacon News.

Sarah Palin

Great stuff here. What an amazing vice president!

* Sarah Palin was to walk out to the singing of Angels, but convention organizers thought it might come off as showing off.
* Sarah Palin’s suit is made from 100% dead liberal skin.
* Sarah Palin prepped for this speech with a ritual sacrifice of Susan Estrich.
* Sarah Palin has actually travelled backwards in time from after the roll call to accept the nomination retroactively.
* Sarah Palin doesn’t actually have an accent, it’s distortion from her telepathic broadcast directly into your brain.
* In 2003, the US considered deploying Sarah Palin to Iraq as a 1-woman commando squad, but wanted to make it a fair fight.
* As head of Alaska’s Nat’l Guard, Sarah Palin taught troops in a training exercise to scare a grenade into not exploding.
* Sarah Palin drives herself to work everyday - in an M1A1 tank
* Sarah Palin believes in change, too. She takes it from your pockets after striking you dead.
* Sarah Palin wears three quarter length sleeves to keep from getting blood on her clothes when she kills liberals.


More about Sarah Palin.

Aurora News: Aurora blotter

Not so good news here. Read more about how a loud stereo lead to a felony conviction. Full coverage on the Aurora Beacon News:

Frank Ayala, 20, of the 2300 block of Candleberry Lane, Aurora, was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor possession of ..

Waukegan News: Waukegan vs. Grayslake

Will Waukegan beat Grayslake? Who has the better football team? How about basketball? I don't really follow sports but you can get full coverage from the Waukegan News Sun.

Last year, when Maine South's football team came to play at Waukegan, the financial gap between these programs could be plainly seen on the goal posts,

Peoria News: Bakers Square closes!

Peoria's Bakers Square closed after bankruptcy
1 hour ago
By NO DATA The Bakers Square Restaurant at The Shoppes of Grand Prairie is one of more than 50 of the chain's restaurants to close because of financial

Wow this is really sad that the Peoria Bakers Square has gone bankrupt. See the full coverage at the Peoria Journal Star.

Peoria News: Peoria football

How about some Peoria football?

This is Pekin's first season opener against a Peoria-area team since facing Woodruff in 1992. KEY PLAYERS: DUN: RB-LB-P Joe Cloud, QB Luke Sensabaugh. ...

Great way to start the football season watching local Peoria football team. See full coverage on the Peoria Journal Star.

Aurora News: Rush Copley

The Aurora Beacon News covers an interesting story about practicing for having babies at the hospital in Aurora.

BY CHRISTIME S. MOYER cmoyer@scn1.com AURORA -- An alarm rang out on the Labor and Delivery floor at Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora Tuesday. ...

Aurora News: Aurora swimmers vs. IMSA

Iillinois Math and Science Academy Swimmers will compete against Aurora, the Aurora Beacon News reports:

IMSA will battle perennial rival West Aurora twice this year and looks forward to three new teams on its schedule. Talbot holds the school record in the 200

Aurora man sex assault conviction

This guy is really despicable:

BY BEACON NEWS STAFF An Aurora man was convicted Wednesday in a 2002 sexual assault where he showed the victim a gun. A jury deliberated for less than three ...

This was reported in the Aurora Beacon News.

GOP Convention Stage

The Republican National Convention stage in St. Paul is a stark contrast to the lavish opulence of the two stages the Democrats set up in Denver.

From AOL:

By contrast, the Republican stage is a study in minimalism. It consists of a simple podium, only four feet above the convention floor, backed by a 50 ft. by 30 ft. video board. Asked about the contrast between the Republicans' set and the Democrats', Matt Burns, Director of Communications for the 2008 Republican National Convention, said that the simple design was not a deliberate attempt to contrast the Democrats. Burns said that the stage was designed to fit the personality of the party's nominee, Sen. John McCain.

"The stage reflects the humble nature of our nominee and puts him where he is most comfortable, close to the people."


Mr. Burns said that the stage is meant to evoke Sen. McCain's town hall meetings...

And National Journal:

If the Democrats' whiz-bang stage in Denver screamed American Idol, the Republicans' streamlined set in Minneapolis-St. Paul whispers American Bandstand. From a simple black platform just four feet off the ground, convention speakers will look out on a sea of delegates in red folding chairs that sit squarely on the arena's concrete floor. A single television screen behind the speakers will carry their faces to the nosebleed seats above, while black drapes behind the screen conceal the backstage area.

The sedate, almost plain $1 million podium was conceived of long before the Democrats unveiled their bells and whistles in Denver. Built in just six weeks atop the Xcel Energy Center's hockey rink, the podium is designed to focus attention on the candidate's message, said David Nash, the convention's executive producer. "With the economy the way it is, we thought it should be simple," said Nash. "It's not the time to be lavish, not when people are losing their homes."

The low, unencumbered platform will also bring John McCain closer to the crowd in a structure reminiscent of the town-hall meetings he has used, to general acclaim, on his campaign stops. Much as the in-the-round stage on the final night of the 2004 GOP convention made Bush's speech a relatively intimate affair, the 2008 stage gives McCain and the delegates a direct sense of each other. "You're just not going to have a lot of distractions," said Maria Cino, the president and CEO of the convention. "What you see is what you get."

Joe Biden lies about blue-collar roots

Chicago Tribune has the story.

The facts are there for anyone who wants to look at them. When Joe Biden Sr. died in 2002, his obituary in the News-Journal of Wilmington reported that when he married in 1941, "he was working as a sales representative for Amoco Oil Co. in Harrisburg."

It went on, "Biden also was an executive in a Boston-based company that supplied waterproof sealant for U.S. merchant marine ships built during World War II. After the war, he co-owned an airport and crop-dusting service on Long Island." Upon moving his family to Delaware, the News-Journal said, Biden "worked in the state first as a sales manager for auto dealerships and later in real-estate condominium sales."

Executive, co-owner and manager? Those titles identify the jobholder as solidly middle class, if not better. They fall in the category of white-collar occupations, not blue-collar.

And Biden Sr. clearly knew the difference. In his book, "Promises to Keep," Biden writes that his father was "the most elegantly dressed, perfectly manicured, perfectly tailored car sales manager Wilmington had ever seen."

Biden notes that he himself could have gone to the best public high school in Delaware. Instead, he enrolled at Archmere Academy, a Catholic prep school that made him think he had "died and gone to Yale." He took a summer job to help pay the steep tuition, which today amounts to $18,450 a year.

Joe Biden - Gaffemeister

Joe Biden lies about how his academic credentials. Claims scholarships and degrees he never had.

Safire: Obama's acceptance speech is "Hype"

Bill Safire, who is one of the few men of letters who has compiled and edited collections of speeches and is a speech expert had a little something to say about Barack Obama's 2008 DNC acceptance speech at Mile High Stadium.

The Newhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.quote.gif York Times
August 31, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
The Audacity of Hype
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
Washington

BY choosing the venue of a vast outdoor stadium as John Kennedy did
for his “new frontier” acceptance, and by speaking on the anniversary
of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” address, Barack Obama — whose
claim to fame is an ability to move audiences with his words —
deliberately invited comparison with two of the most memorable
speeches of our recent history.

What a mistake.

A speaker must first ask: what is the best setting to make close
contact with the person I want to reach? In this day and age, it is
not a huge throng wildly cheering on cue. On the contrary, the target
is the individual American voter watching a TV or computer screen at
home, accustomed to looking over the shoulders of elected
representatives, in colorful convention assembled, selecting the
party’s nominee.

Instead, Obama’s handlers offered the political version of “American
Idol” — the audacity of hype. On the 50-yard line of the football
field, at a reported cost of $6 million, they erected a plywood
Parthenon, its fake Grecian columns suggesting the White House. At the
end, not a traditional balloon drop in a contained hall — enjoyable
hoopla — but a fireworks display in the heavens over a mass of
humanity in a blizzard of confetti, all too like the collectivist
fantasy that opened and closed the Beijing Olympics.

To present what? In a speech aptly titled “The American Promise,”
Obama promised to “end this war in Iraq responsibly,” even as it is
already ending responsibly. He promised in a militant phrase not
merely to end but to “finish the fight” (meaning to win) in
Afghanistan. In one catchall sentence, Obama promised to defeat
“terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate
change and disease.” Because the charge that he would raise taxes
obviously nettles him, he promised to “eliminate capital gains taxes
for the small businesses” run by obedient high-tech executives, and to
“cut taxes for 95 percent of all working families.”

In promising to “end our dependence on oil from the Middle East,” he
stopped pandering for a moment to oppose the majority of Americans
urging we increase supply by drilling for oil here: “Understand that
drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution.” That is
phrased with wiggle room to let him go along with necessary drilling,
provided stockholders in oil companies are punished.

Belatedly, Obama did what he could to lower expectations for this
speech, saying it would be “workmanlike” with no high rhetoric. But
his and his writing team’s product lacked the freshness of his 2004
convention stunner, the winning modesty of his 2006 Gridiron Club
address (“Thank you for all the generous advance coverage ... when I
actually do something, we’ll let you know”) and the grace of his
gentle disassociation from his longtime pastor this summer.

His stump speech in the primaries was finely honed; the delivery of
his televised victory speeches showed a thrilling mastery of the
teleprompter. By becoming the first African-American to win a major
party’s presidential nomination, he made history, but he failed to
come up with a historic acceptance address. Having set a Stevensonian
standard for stirring eloquence, he cannot get by with workmanlike
speechwriting.

“Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t defend this country,” he cried
angrily. “Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t keep us safe.” Who’s
telling him that? By escalating criticism, he knocked down a straw
man, the oldest speechifying trick in the book. He promised to
“restore our moral standing” (shades of Jimmy Carter) “so that America
is once more the last, best hope for” (Lincoln wrote of) “all who are
called to the cause of freedom” (shades of George W. Bush). But does
he apply that idealist “cause of freedom” to the invaded Georgians? He
didn’t say.

Goaded by increasingly worried advisers, he turned personal and mean.
“If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament,
and judgment, to serve as the next commander in chief, that’s a debate
I’m ready to have.” That use of “temperament,” accent on the “temper,”
was a throwback to the slur at Barry Goldwater as “trigger happy.” (It
worked for Lyndon Johnson.)

Then came a strange one: “John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow
bin Laden to the gates of Hell — but he won’t even go to the cave
where he lives.” What’s that supposed to mean — that McCain is a
coward, unwilling to lead a charge into the hills of Pakistan? That
Obama would? Most post-speech TV analysis, blown away by the
sky-piercing fireworks, ignored that low blow; nor was attention paid
to his replay of the charge that “naysayers” are motivated by more
than his politics: “I don’t fit the typical pedigree.”

It was only human for Obama to show his irritation with McCain’s
successful “celebrity” spot zinging his rock-star reception by the
Berlin 200,000, and Obama’s exploitation of Phil Gramm’s “nation of
whiners” gaffe was a legitimate political pop. However, treating as
serious McCain’s joking definition of “middle class” as earning $5
million a year was a bit much from a candidate who derogated
working-class Hillary Clinton supporters as “bitter,” claiming “they
cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like
them.”

Supporters of John McCain and Sarah Palin (did I mention I’m one?)
were glad to hear Obama reach into the John Edwards playbook to fan
resentment that turned independent voters away from the Democratic
ticket four years ago. He could not resist his version of the old
class warfare, “two Americas” pitch. And he revealed his own promise
to tighten management of the economy from Washington as never before
with a soothing banality: “Our government should work for us, not
against us. It should help us, not hurt us.”

A poignant reminder of the Original Obama came in the speech’s moving
peroration. His evocation of Martin Luther King’s dream of
togetherness at the Lincoln Memorial was beautiful and timely.

A stern editor could have improved the 4,500-word acceptance by
cutting a thousand words of populist boilerplate and partisan-pleasing
shots that offend centrists. But the die was cast before the writing
began. The pretension of the fake Grecian temple setting clashed with
the high-decibel, rock-star format and overwhelmed the history
implicit in the event. Ancient Greeks had a word for it: hubris.

Mitt Romney is McCain's Running Mate

From his website:

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has been widely recognized for his leadership and accomplishments as a public servant and in private enterprise.

Elected in 2002, Governor Romney presided over a dramatic reversal of state fortunes and a period of sustained economic expansion. Without raising taxes or increasing debt, Governor Romney balanced the budget every year of his administration, closing a $3 billion budget gap inherited when he took office. By eliminating waste, streamlining the government, and enacting comprehensive economic reforms to stimulate growth in Massachusetts, Romney got the economy moving again and transformed deficits into surpluses.

At the beginning of Governor Romney's term, Massachusetts was losing thousands of jobs every month. By the time he left office, the unemployment rate was lower, hundreds of companies had expanded or moved to Massachusetts, and in the last two years of his term, the state had added approximately 60,000 jobs.

One of Governor Romney's top priorities was reforming the education system so that young people could compete for better paying jobs in the global economy of the future. In 2004, Governor Romney established the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship Program to reward the top 25 percent of Massachusetts high school students with a four-year, tuition-free scholarship to any Massachusetts public university or college. He has also championed a package of education reforms, including merit pay, an emphasis on math and science instruction, important new intervention programs for failing schools and English immersion for foreign-speaking students.

In 2006, Governor Romney proposed and signed into law a private, market-based reform that ensures every Massachusetts citizen will have health insurance, without a government takeover and without raising taxes.

Governor Romney was elected to the Chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association by his fellow Governors for the 2006 election cycle, and raised a record $27 million for candidates running in State House contests around the country.

Romney first gained national recognition for his role in turning around the 2002 Winter Olympics. With the 2002 Games mired in controversy and facing a financial crisis, Romney left behind a successful career as an entrepreneur to take over as President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.

Governor Romney has said he felt compelled to assume the seemingly impossible task of rescuing the Games by both the urgings of his wife, Ann, and by the memory of his father, George Romney, who had been a successful businessman, three-term Governor of Michigan, and a tireless advocate of volunteerism in America.

In his three years at the helm in Salt Lake, Romney erased a $379 million operating deficit, organized 23,000 volunteers, galvanized community spirit and oversaw an unprecedented security mobilization just months after the September 11th attacks, leading to one of the most successful Olympics in our country's history.

Prior to his Olympic service, Mitt Romney enjoyed a successful career helping businesses grow and improve their operations. From 1978 to 1984, Mr. Romney was a Vice President at Bain & Company, Inc., a leading management consulting firm. In 1984, Romney founded Bain Capital, one of the nation's most successful venture capital and investment companies. Bain Capital helped launch hundreds of companies on a successful course, including Staples, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, Domino's Pizza, Sealy, Brookstone, and The Sports Authority. He was asked to return to Bain & Company as CEO several years later in order to lead a financial restructuring of the organization. Today, Bain & Company employs more than 2,000 people in 25 offices worldwide.

Governor Romney has been deeply involved in community and civic affairs, serving extensively in his church and numerous charities including City Year, the Boy Scouts, and the Points of Light Foundation. He was also the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in 1994.

Governor Romney received his B.A., with Highest Honors, from Brigham Young University in 1971. In 1975, he was awarded an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was named a Baker Scholar, and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.

See the Aurora Beacon News coverage of the selection.

Obama's Unsavory Past

Great commercial highlighting Barack Obama's past and current ties to a terrorist movement that bombed the United States Capitol.

Check out the Waukegan News Sun.

McCain Picks Tim Pawlenty for VP Running Mate

It's a good choice. From Tim Pawlenty's website:

Governor Pawlenty grew up in South St. Paul, Minnesota. The only child in his family to graduate from college, he attended the University of Minnesota (B.A., J.D.) and practiced law in the private sector. His public service career includes serving as a city councilmember and ten-year member of the Minnesota House of Representatives, including four years as House Majority Leader.

As Governor, he has balanced Minnesota's budget three times without raising taxes, despite facing record budget deficits. Governor Pawlenty's most notable accomplishments include proposing and signing into law significant new benefits for veterans and members of the military; enacting a property tax cap, eliminating the marriage penalty and cutting taxes; toughening the state's education standards; reforming the way teachers are paid through a nation-leading performance pay plan; instituting free-market health care reforms that increase accountability and provide tax credits to encourage the use of health savings accounts; and implementing a plan to Americanize our energy sources by generating 25% of the state's electricity from renewable sources by 2025.

Read more at the Peoria Journal Star.

Obama's Arugula, Shortbread and Honest Tea

Marketwatch (and others) report that delegates to the Democratic National Convention will be welcomed with special treats:

Among the many special features and amenities awaiting guests at the 600-room hotel are shortbread cookies at turndown made from one of Mrs. Obama's favorite recipes, and bottles of "Honest Tea," a cooling beverage Senator Obama enjoys on the campaign trail.

Okay, now I enjoy shortbread as much as anybody and I'm sure Honest Tea is delicious, but are these the kind of treats enjoyed by regular Americans? Barack Obama showed how out of touch he was with America when he asked an audience of Iowa farmers, "Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?”

And now Mr. Obama is offering guests to his convention shortbread and Honest Tea. Shortbread is definitely European, Scottish to be exact, and is the kind of cookie you find in gourmet stores like Dean and Deluca. It's not what you find at the local supermarket. As for Honest Tea, here's the description:

Honest Tea stands for real tea and real taste. Each Honest Tea flavor is brewed based on a recipe perfected over generations in a specific region of the world. As a result, a drink of Honest Tea becomes a cultural experience, from the genuine tastes to the distinctive international art and quotations on the labels. Honest Tea allows people to enjoy the world's second most popular drink the way hundreds of civilizations and nature intended it to be. Tea that tastes like tea -- A world of flavor freshly brewed and barely sweetened.

And no, it's not 50 cents a bottle.

I'm sure the Honest Tea and the gourmet shortbread is going to be a big hit with the wine, cheese and granola liberals that run the DNC from their conclaves in San Francisco, etc. and who are attending the convention, but this isn't going to fly so well with the middle Americans in the swing states whose votes he really needs.

How McCain Can Win Minnesota

The Star Tribune shows John McCain pulling even with Barack Obama in Minnesota:

A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday found that Obama leads McCain 46 percent to 44 percent among the state's likely voters, a statistical tie.

The Republican National Convention will be held in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul), which is home to a large community of Laotian Hmong immigrants numbering an estimated 60,000 people. With polling at a statistical tie, this voting group can provide John McCain (or Barack Obama) with a margin of victory that can deliver Minnesota's 10 electoral votes.

How can McCain win the support of Hmong voters? It's simple. Last year, Major General Vang Pao, the undisputed leader of the Hmong community in America, was arrested and charged with attempting to overthrow the communist government of Laos.

Many people in the Hmong community, who have historically supported Republican candidates, blame the current Republican administration for this turn of events. McCain will need to reach out to the Hmong community and fix the damage. If he really wants the unequivocal support of the Hmong community, he will need to strongly hint to the Hmong community that as president, he would pardon General Vang Pao should he be convicted.

This will help bring many disillusioned Hmong back into the Republican fold and inject some enthusiasm into his campaign in Minnesota. The McCain organization should not underestimate the importance of the Hmong community. The Hmong are politically active in Minnesota and have already elected two state legislators. With their help, Minnesota's 10 electoral votes can be delivered to John McCain.

McCain-Condi or McCain-Huckabee?

This space is usually devoted to pristine moral reasoning, but, hell, it’s an election year. Let’s get down and dirty. If McCain really wants to have it all—to refurbish his maverick image without having to flip-flop on the panderings that have tarnished it; to galvanize the attention of the press, the nation, and the world; to make a bold play for the center without seriously alienating “the base”—then he can avail himself of a highly interesting option: Condoleezza Rice.

To deal first with the obvious: Rice may be “only” the second woman and the second African-American to be Secretary of State, but she is indisputably the highest-ranking black female official ever to have served in any branch of the United States government. Her nomination to a constitutional executive office would cost McCain the votes of his party’s hardened racists and incorrigible misogynists. They are surely fewer in number, though, than the people who would like to participate in breaking the glass ceiling of race or gender but, given the choice, would rather do so in a more timid way, and/or without abandoning their party. And with Rice on the ticket the Republicans could attack Clinton or Obama with far less restraint.

By choosing Rice, McCain would shackle himself anew to Bush’s Iraq war. But it’s hard to see how those chains could get much tighter than he has already made them. Rice would fit nicely into McCain’s view of the war as worth fighting but, until Donald Rumsfeld’s exit from the Pentagon, fought clumsily. And it would be fairly easy to establish a story line that would cast Rice as having been less Bush’s enabler than a loyal subordinate who nevertheless pushed gently from within for a more reasonable, more diplomatic approach.

Rice is already fourth in line for the Presidency, and getting bumped up three places would be a shorter leap than any of the three Presidential candidates propose to make. It’s true that her record in office has been one of failure, from downgrading terrorism as a priority before 9/11 to ignoring the Israel-Palestine problem until (almost certainly) too late. But this does not seem to have done much damage to her popularity. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll taken when opposition to the Iraq war was approaching its height, she enjoyed a “favorable-unfavorable” rating of nearly two to one. The conservative rank and file likes her. Though she once described herself as “mildly pro-choice,” she is agile enough to complete the journey to mildly pro-life. And she is a preacher’s daughter.

Choosing Rice would be a trick. Her failures would be buried in an avalanche of positive publicity for a personal story as yet only vaguely known to the broad public. (One of the little girls who died in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing was her playmate? We didn’t know that!) But the trick would not be an entirely cynical one. Her ascension, though nowhere near as momentous a breakthrough as the election of Obama or Clinton, would be a breakthrough all the same. In this connection, a kind word for George W. Bush may be in order. By appointing first Colin Powell and then Rice to the most senior job in the Cabinet, a job of global scope, Bush changed the way millions of white Americans think about black public officials. This may turn out to the most positive legacy of his benighted Presidency. (New Yorker)

Our guy doesn't need teleprompters

"This country was built on the impossible"

When a conservative's a "radical"

New York Times:

Mike Huckabee signed a no-new-taxes pledge and campaigned on a (borderline-crackpot) tax plan to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and institute a national sales tax. Yet he found himself caricatured as a “Christian socialist” because he had raised gas taxes and cigarette taxes while governor of Arkansas. Merely acknowledging that some corporate chief executives might be overpaid and some working-class voters might be struggling was enough to get him dismissed by George Will as a “radical” who had supposedly repudiated “free trade, low taxes, the essential legitimacy of America’s corporate entities and the market system allocating wealth and opportunity.”

The conservative critics of Mr. McCain and Mr. Huckabee weren’t wrong on every issue. But in their zeal to read both candidates out of the conservative movement, often on the flimsiest of pretexts, the movement’s leaders raised a standard of ideological purity that not even Ronald Reagan could have lived up to.

Huckabee electrifies CPAC crowd

Fox News reports that Huck electrified the CPAC crowd:

If the loud audience reaction is an accurate indicator, then yes, Huckabee delivered today.

Hitting his mark, he emphasized the issues that resonated well with the several hundred cheering conservatives in the room:

Pro-traditional marriage, pro-life stance, border security, all Republican platform benchmarks, and with Huckabee’s argument for each, the audience roared with approval,and regular standing ovations.

Huckabee also took the opportunity to say that, despite McCain’s colossal lead in delegates, he had no plans to bow out.

“I know the pundits, and I know what they say, that the math doesn’t work out.Folks,I didn’t major in math,I majored in miracles, and I believe in those,” Huckabee said to cheers. “Am I quitting? Let’s get that settled right now. No, I’m not.” The crowd waved signs, and chanted: We like Mike… We like Mike.

Huckabee then concluded with a story from a supporter from Kentucky who had recently lost her house in the tornadoes that ravaged the South on Tuesday.

“Despite damage to her home there was one thing that was pretty remarkable,she had a Mike Huckabee yard sign..when the tornado had gone through,standing pristine, without a hint of damage, or even meaning,was that yard sign.”Huckabee continued.”Across America, everywhere there is still a vote to be cast, I am still standing.”

McCain nearly abandoned GOP

As reported by The Hill:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was close to leaving the Republican Party in 2001, weeks before then-Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vt.) famously announced his decision to become an Independent, according to former Democratic lawmakers who say they were involved in the discussions.

In interviews with The Hill this month, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and ex-Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) said there were nearly two months of talks with the maverick lawmaker following an approach by John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist...

Daschle noted that McCain at that time was frustrated with the Bush administration as a result of his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 Republican primary.

Daschle said that throughout April and May of 2001, he and McCain “had meetings and conversations on the floor and in his office, I think in mine as well, about how we would do it, what the conditions would be. We talked about committees and his seniority … [A lot of issues] were on the table.”

The feel of a Reagan campaign

Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Campaigns and races do shift quickly, Linder acknowledged, but the state of the race in Georgia still feels good for Huckabee.

"It has the feel of the [1980] Reagan campaign," Linder said. "People all over the place printing their own bumper stickers, and yard signs all over the place, people standing on corners holding up signs."

Huckabee's focus on Tuesday will be closely tuned to Georgia and other Southern and Midwestern states, Linder acknowledged, because those states are most likely to appreciate Huckabee's message of tax reform and his social conservative positions. "The strength of Mike Huckabee is the message and the messenger."

Our future first lady

Slate has a great article about Mike and Janet Huckabee:

His wife, the former Janet McCain (no relation to John), grew up in Hope, too, and she and Mike have been together since high school, where he led prayer sessions in the school auditorium and she attended them, if she didn't have basketball practice. Their first date was cheeseburgers at the local truck stop, and they got married when they were 18, in a ceremony at the bride's home. Her sister played "Here Comes the Bride'' on the piano as she came down the stairs, wearing a white eyelet dress her mother had made for her, and in lieu of a real ring, the groom slipped a soda can tab on her finger.

So, when Janet Huckabee joked that she'd like to build a Habitat for Humanity house on the White House lawn—she's hammered nails for such homes in 20-some states already, and slept under bridges with homeless people once a year to bring awareness to their problems—Republicans in Arkansas were half-afraid she wasn't kidding. Because back home, the Huckabees' empathy for the luckless is one thing that has never been in doubt: "Janet's very headstrong and, even more so than he, contemptuous of critics, and has a chip on her shoulder,'' says John Brummett, an Arkansas News Bureau columnist. "But if a tornado hits your house, one of the first people in your yard is probably going to be Janet Huckabee. And when Arkansas got evacuees from Katrina—and by all accounts Huckabee did masterfully—she decided, accurately, that these people were exhausted and the last thing they needed was to sit in line and be processed, when they could be processed on the bus." Then she got on the bus with some of them and pitched in on the paperwork.

"I know there are people who would be concerned about him having been in the ministry and think that's a little bit creepy,'' says Huckabee's sister Pat Harris, a seventh-grade teacher in Little Rock. "But having been in the ministry, he and Janet have also seen all kinds of things about life; his phone would ring in the middle of the night and up they'd go, to the hospital or the morgue or the jail. Because he was on TV, a lot of these calls were from people who weren't in his church and very often they weren't believers, but the rubber had met the road and they needed somebody." The Huckabees' shared faith defines both of them, and their relationship.

Janet may not like the media but, oh, the media would like her, the anti-Teresa Heinz, just as they do her husband. (See how excited ABC's Claire Shipman was—"This was a big deal!"—when Janet shared how early in their marriage, Mike sold his guitar collection to buy her a washer-dryer, so she wouldn't have to wash poopy diapers at the Laundromat?) With all of the other Republican candidates' wives mum, too, for various reasons, handing a speaking role to such a plain-talker was, alas, too high a risk. But underfunded as Huckabee is, hiding a woman who has "earned media" written all over her, and who so clearly is in touch with the concerns of ordinary voters, may turn out to have been the worst campaign decision since Rudy wintered in Florida.

How did we get here?

Interesing story from the National Review.

He was once the national frontrunner. It was less than a month ago that he won in Iowa, but it feels like it has been a year. What the heck happened to Huck? Haridopolos offers the same frank assessment that many have offered before him. “Had he gone from New Hampshire straight to South Carolina, he’d probably be competing for the victory in Florida,” he said.

Instead, Huckabee went to Michigan, giving Fred Thompson a chance to come to life in South Carolina and erode his base. Huckabee had every reason to think he would perform well in Michigan. His message of economic populism seemed promising among the autoworkers in that state’s East, and he could have also caught fire with the Dutch reformed and Evangelical communities in the West.

It was a strategic error — a bridge too far for a campaign always short of resources. Macomb County, outside of Detroit, gave Huckabee a pathetic 13 percent. He lost to McCain and Romney among voters from union households, despite his witty ad contrasting himself (“the guy you work with”) to Romney (“the guy who laid you off”). Huckabee even lost to Romney (34 to 29 percent) among self-identified Evangelical and Born-Again Christians.

The subsequent loss in South Carolina definitely hurt his credibility with Florida voters. Polls from both Rasmussen and Quinnipiac show him losing six points in the Sunshine State since his close second-place finish there. At the same time, his rate of donations has stayed steady, if it remains comparatively slow. According to the live feed from his website, Huckabee had raised $2 million this month before the Jan. 19 contest in South Carolina. He has raised just under $1 million in the ten days since.

And he still draws those impressive and enthusiastic crowds. “He energizes an critical wing of the party and keeps them interested,” said Haridopolos. “If it isn’t Huckabee — whether it be McCain or Romney — I think he’s positioned himself very well to be vice president.”

A better way to stimulate the economy

Florida post-debate talk

After South Carolina, Huck STILL has more delegates than McCain

The Associated Press:

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads the race for delegates to the Republican National Convention with 59. He is followed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 40 and Arizona Sen. John McCain with 36.

Will it go to the convention?

The Hill:

Those hoping for a brokered convention this summer are likely to be disappointed, [RNC Chairman Mike] Duncan said. He said he is convinced there will be a consensus nominee before the RNC convention.

That said, the chairman did say he is reading up on the nomination battles of 1944 and 1952, both years that saw the GOP nomination fight decided at the Republican National Convention.

Thompson drops out and what does it mean?

It means we're going to win!

Mike Huckabee lost South Carolina, in large part because of Fred Thompson. Thompson's departure means Huckabee is more competitive than ever. Maybe it's even worthwhile to campaign in Florida. Florida is a winner-take-all state, so for it to be worthwhile campaigning there, Huckabee has to have a real shot at winning. The loss in South Carolina doesn't help, but with Thompson gone, the guys who are splitting votes are going to be McCain, Giuliani and Romney. Huckabee should take the conservative votes.

According to the Washington Post:

The exit polls from the Palmetto State underscore Thompson's appeal to the most conservative GOP voters. Among the voters who described themselves as "very conservative" (roughly one in every three participants), Huckabee led the way with 41 percent of the vote, but Thompson claimed 22 percent (McCain placed third with 19 percent followed by Romney with 16 percent).

I think the people who were supporting Thompson will go for Huckabee, not McCain, Giuliani or Romney. Hucakabee is now the only conservative left in the field, aside from the flip-flopping Romney.

According to Rasmussen, 12% of primary voters in Florida were going to vote for Thompson. Huck has slipped to 13% in the last poll, with Florida front-runner Romney at 25%. Even with Thompson's votes it may not be enough for Huck to win Florida.

It could be better to skip Florida and focus on states (like Illinois) that aren't winner-take-all. Huck can at least go into the convention with a boatload of delegates. Even if he doesn't make it onto the 2008 ticket, he'll be the front-runner in the next election.

Huck still has more delegates than McCain

Even after the Michigan primary, where Mike Huckabee picked up only only one delegate, he's still way ahead of McCain in the delegate count. Romney won, and that was for the best because it weakens McCain in South Carolina.

Overall, Romney has 42 delegates from the first four contests, followed by Huckabee with 32 and McCain with 13. A total of 1,191 delegates are needed to secure the Republican nomination.

If Huck wins South Carolina as expected, he will go into Florida with the most delegates and the greatest momentum of any candidate.

For an interesting analysis and projection of the final GOP delegate count, see this article.

Huckabee pulls in black votes

The Weekly Standard asks, "Could Mike Huckabee be America's Second Black President?"

Given the suddenly painful and prominent debate over race relations currently going on among Senators Clinton and Obama, and among Democratic leaders, it's worth noting that there's one Republican presidential candidate who has demonstrated an ability to win African-American votes: Mike Huckabee.

Exit polls show Huckabee won 48 percent of the African-American vote when he ran for Governor in 1998...

Huckabee's big lead in Georgia

The latest Mason-Dixon poll for Georgia:

Mike Huckabee, 31 percent

John McCain, 18 percent

Mitt Romney, 14 percent

Rudy Giuliani, 9 percent

Fred Thompson, 8 percent

The ring

Supporters are showing devotion to the cause. Michigan Live reports:

The Republican presidential candidate was attending a Friday night rally in Birch Run when a woman handed him a ring. She said she had no money to donate to his campaign, but wanted him to get whatever he could for it.

Huckabee said he tried to turn down the offer, but the woman and her husband...insisted.

Huckabee only 3 points behind in California

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

On the Republican side, Arizona Sen. John McCain leads the California pack with 18 percentage points; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee now in second place with 15, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has sunk to third place with 14. Here's the shocker: former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani -- once the frontrunner here -- shows up with 12 percentage points, with Fred Thompson, the former Tennesee Senator, back in single digits with 9 points, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul in 5 percent. Undecided GOP voters are a huge number -- 24 percent.

Huckabee takes commanding lead in South Carolina

The results of the latest (January 7-10) Mason-Dixon Poll of South Carolina voters.

Mike Huckabee, 31 percent

John McCain, 18 percent

Mitt Romney, 14 percent

Rudy Giuliani, 9 percent

Fred Thompson, 8 percent

Huckabee's Detroit Economic Club speech

Mike Huckabee takes questions after his Detroit Economic Club speech. The last question is, "Beatles or Rolling Stones?" Make sure you watch it through for the amazing answer...

Huckabee gets best audience reaction in SC debate

Mike Huckabee gets the best audience reaction on his response to a question about Iran, and Ron Paul gets the worst reaction on his response to the same question.

Weekly Standard: Huckabee wins South Carolina debate

The Weekly Standard may be slowly coming around to Mike Huckabee. First it was Bill Kristol who suggested Huckabee can be the GOP's strongest nominee, and now Dean Barnett says it's easy to imagine Huckabee as the president and commander in chief:

Huckabee deftly parried Thompson's aggressive and spirited attacks early in the debate. It was a battle on terrain that was unfriendly to Huckabee, and Thompson attacked with skill. And yet Huckabee got out of the exchange unscathed.

The exchange with Thompson came early in the debate, and Huckabee was just getting warmed up. For the first time in this campaign, Huckabee looked like a credible commander in chief when the conversation turned to those Iranian speedboats. His normal joviality vanished, replaced by an appropriate gravity.

Then he got even better. He seized on a characteristic piece of Ron Paul idiocy to give a spirited speech defending America's commitment to Israel. Again, he looked credible as a commander in chief. But this was also an extremely shrewd piece of politicking. Conservative foreign policy types obviously loved it as did pro-Israel people. But Huckabee's core audience of conservative Christians, a much larger segment of the society than either of the other two groups, adored it also.

Mike Huckabee's an exceptional politician whose package of skills is often sold short. He's a lot more than an affable dispenser of one-liners who only knows how to play to the home crowd. For people who might be inclined to dismiss Huckabee, compare his response to Thompson's adroit offensive with McCain's blundering into the climate warming thicket. These two are the likely finalists, and one of them is much better at politics than the other.

Here's what I said on November 28, the night of the YouTube debate, the night that catapulted Huckabee to his huge lead in Iowa: "Was this a seismic night? I'll give that one a big yes. Tonight heralded the arrival of Mike Huckabee as a force in this race. Not a spoiler, not a wildcard, but a force."

Although fewer people watched last evening's festivities, tonight was even bigger for Huckabee. For the first time, it was not only possible but easy to imagine Huckabee as the leader of 300 million people. He combined this newfound authority with his old standbys of off-the-charts likability and a deft way of tapping into aspirational politics.

In the race for the Republican nomination, Mike Huckabee is going to be tough to beat.

Fred Barnes likewise says Huckabee won the debate:

For what it's worth, here's how I'd rank the performances of the candidates in the debate: 1) Huckabee 2) McCain 3) Thompson 4) Mitt Romney 5) Rudy Giuliani 6) Paul.

Huckabee supporters meet million-dollar goal

With 50 minutes left to midnight, supporters raised $1,000,000 for Mike Huckabee in 10 days, with more than a thousand new donors coming in on the last day.

If this is less than what the other campaigns can do, put it into perspective: Romney and Giuliani have Wall Street backing them, Ron Paul has Silicon Valley. Mike Huckabee, who depends on the support of regular Americans, is never going to raise more than these guys, but he'll raise enough, as he showed last night. And when all the votes are counted and the delegates tallied, the nomination of Mike Huckabee will go down in history as the day that "We the people" decided who our candidate and our president would be, not the moneyed elite or the beltway establishment.

Go Huckabee!

Huckabee leads the pack in Michigan

The latest Rossman Group poll of Michigan voters puts Mike Huckabee at 23%, Romney at 22% and McCain at 18%. Strategic Vision, however, released the results of their own weekend poll, essentially reversing McCain's and Huckabee's positions, with Huck at 18% and McCain at 29%. Weekend polls may not be as accurate....

A conservative even Colbert can vote for

Not since Reagan, have we had a presidential contender with such a sense of humor. As they say, it's far better to have a president who can deliver a punchline, than one who is the punchline.

Huckabee: We're polling first in South Carolina, Florida, Michigan

Bill Kristol: Huckabee can be our strongest nominee

One of my favorite pieces of recent reading has to be Bill Kristol's take on Mike Huckabee. This was printed in the New York Times after Huckabee's resounding victory in Iowa. Here are the highlights:

For me, therefore, the most interesting moment in Saturday night’s Republican debate at St. Anselm College was when the candidates were asked what arguments they would make if they found themselves running against Obama in the general election.

The best answer came, not surprisingly, from the best Republican campaigner so far — Mike Huckabee. He began by calmly mentioning his and Obama’s contrasting views on issues from guns to life to same-sex marriage. This served to remind Republicans that these contrasts have been central to G.O.P. success over the last quarter-century, and to suggest that Huckabee could credibly and comfortably make the socially conservative case in an electorally advantageous way...

I was watching the debate at the home of a savvy, moderately conservative New Hampshire Republican. It was at this moment that he turned to me and said: “You know, I’ve been a huge skeptic about Huckabee. I’m still not voting for him Tuesday. But I’ve got to say — I like him. And I wonder — could he be our strongest nominee?”

He could be. After the last two elections, featuring the well-born George Bush and Al Gore and John Kerry, Americans — even Republicans! — are ready for a likable regular guy. Huckabee seems to be that. He came up from modest origins. He served as governor of Arkansas for more than a decade. He fought a successful battle against being overweight...

In Iowa, Huckabee did something like what Obama did on the Democratic side, albeit on a smaller scale. He drew new voters to the caucuses. And he defeated Mitt Romney by almost two to one, and John McCain by better than four to one, among voters under 45...

His campaigning in New Hampshire has been impressive. At a Friday night event at New England College in Henniker, he played bass with a local rock band, Mama Kicks. One secular New Hampshire Republican’s reaction: “Gee, he’s not some kind of crazy Christian. He’s an ordinary American.”

Some Democrats are licking their chops at the prospect of a Huckabee nomination. They shouldn’t be. For one thing, Michael Bloomberg would be tempted to run in the event of an Obama-Huckabee race — and he would most likely take votes primarily from Obama. But whatever Bloomberg does, the fact is that the Republican establishment spent 2007 underestimating Mike Huckabee. If Huckabee does win the nomination, it would be amusing if Democrats made the same mistake in 2008.

Krauthammer: "Huckabee can be unstoppable"

Huckabee has the most delegates

The Seattle Times tallied the delegates and found that:

In the overall race for the nomination, Huckabee leads with 31 delegates, followed by Romney with 19 delegates and McCain with seven.

He's winning!

On the Democratic side:

Clinton leads with 187 delegates, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates. She is followed by Obama with 89 delegates and Edwards with 50.

It looks like Iowa, for Democrats, was not worth a lot of delegates. So the general election could be Huckabee vs. Clinton, afterall.

Huckabee is the only Republican who has successfully defeated the Clinton machine in the past, so I'm sure he'll be ready for the fight.

Huckabee's rise in Michigan polls

I can't find a poll taken more recently than this one, but Huckabee's trajectory is very clear. At this point, he is probably already even with Romney if not leading.

Huckabee leads McCain by 7 points in South Carolina

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows both Huckabee at 28%, John McCain at 21% and Mitt Romney at 15%. In mid-December, Huckabee and Romney were tied for the lead with 23% of the vote while McCain was well off the pace at 12%.

New Huckabee tv spot

Huckabee delegate at Batavia voters forum

Huckabee delegate Jim Krenz will appear Thursday (tomorrow) at the League of Women Voters candidates' forum in Batavia. Don't forget to turn out and show your support for Huckabee!

Top 10 Reasons Huckabee will be the nominee

Huckabee for the win!

This blog is for rallying Huckabee supporters from Elgin to Aurora, in Kane County, Illinois.