Bad Denver, Bogarting Bills and Benjamins, Some Poll Trends
By LisaB on June 17, 2008 at 9:30 PM in Barack Obama, Chicago politics, Current Affairs, DNC, Democratic National Convention, Democratic Party, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Housing & Housing Crisis, Howard Dean
1) Proteinwisdom looks over Barack Obama’s senate record and finds it less inspiring than his rhetoric. But as to that rhetoric, proteinwisdom mentions that lots of THAT was cribbed from Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts.
SusanUnPC covered that here at NQ as well, but it bears repeating.
Read the rest->
Proteinwisdom reminds us that during Obama’s state senate tenure:
Though Obama served in the Illinois Senate for seven years, he built his entire legislative record in Illinois in a single year, when Illinois Senate Majority Leader Emil Jones appointed Obama sponsor of virtually every high-profile piece of legislation, angering many rank-and-file state legislators who had more seniority than Obama and had spent years championing the bills.
The WaPo told a similar story in March, 2008:
Just this week, as the financial markets were roiling in the wake of the Bear Stearns collapse, Obama made another claim that was greeted with disbelief in some corners of Capitol Hill. On March 13, Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, unveiled legislative proposals to allow the Federal Housing Administration to guarantee new loans from banks willing to help homeowners in or approaching foreclosure. Obama and Clinton were in Washington for a day-long round of budget voting, but neither appeared at the housing news conference.
Yet Obama on Monday appeared to seek top billing on Dodd’s proposal.
“At this moment, we must come together and act to address the housing crisis that set this downturn in motion and continues to eat away at the public’s confidence in the market,” Obama said. “We should pass the legislation I put forward with my colleague Chris Dodd to create meaningful incentives for lenders to buy or refinance existing mortgages so that Americans facing foreclosure can keep their homes.”
2) Also, at The Atlantic, Marc Ambinder looks at several recent polls and finds some trends:
*McCain does better w/repubs than Obama w/dems
*Independents are split almost evenly between McCain and Obama
*McCain’s support may not be as enthusiastic as Obama’s
*The traditional democratic issue of the economy isn’t working for Obama
*Obama is is a good position to do better.
3) John Podhoretz, discussing the disasterous Obama interview with ABC’s Jake Tapper, says Obama makes mistake after mistake when off the teleprompter. While he is masterful at delivering a prepared speech with the prompter, he gets into trouble one-on-one. Think he’ll agree to any townhall debates soon?
NQ covered this same interview today in “ABC News: ‘Danger Signs’ for Obama”
4) At realclearpolitics, an AP report says the DNC plans to sue to compel federal investigators to look at the McCain campaign. The DNC contends the McCain campaign violated election finance law.
Oh jeez. More election lawyering. Just what we all want. . .
5) And from the “holy crap” department: at JohnMcCain.com, they have video of the Obamoids booooing the mention of Hillary just before the Gorical bestowed his blessings on the chosen one.
Back at ya, Obamoids.
6) USAToday has a piece about the ongoing budgetary crisis at the DNC, where some events are being cut to save cash and in the hope Obama’s donors will pony up more money.
Interestingly, or not, organizers blame the long primary season for the lack of corporate enthusiasm. They say that because there was no clear nominee early enough, would-be support was tepid. Organizers also say Denver isn’t quite the corporate center as, say, Boston is.
“Without a doubt, there was tentativeness on the part of a lot of major companies because they didn’t know who the nominee was going to be,” Ridder said. “And frankly, Denver is not a major corporate center. Many of the corporations who contributed to Boston (site of the party’s 2004 convention) just haven’t seen advantages to coming here.”
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Denver was awarded the convention in January 2007 despite lingering questions over whether the city would be able to pull together the necessary financing. At the time, DNC Chairman Howard Dean set those concerns aside, noting that Colorado and other states in the mountain West were becoming fertile electoral territory for Democrats.
Oooooooh. Where’s the money? If it’s Obama’s party, why doesn’t he pony up? He has been a fund raising maniac, by all accounts. Just don’t blame a long running primary or the host city for not being attractive enough. That’s just “sour grapes.”
7) At the NY Daily News is a story about a joint fund raising event later this week where Hillary will try to persuade her donors to throw good money after a bad candidate in Obama.
“They’re trying to do the right thing,” said one Clinton supporter, referring to the Clintons plans to help Obama. “Whether they’re ecstatic about it or not, I don’t know.”
I’d love to be a fly on the wall at THAT fundraiser. Obama probably hopes he won’t find what he calls the usual Hillary supporters – you know – the racist, low information dead enders. Or the jerks who flash the finger as they get out their checkbooks. . .
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