Obama is running this ad in both Indiana and North Carolina:
Here’s my take on the gas tax holiday. First of all there is a difference between the Clinton Plan and the McCain Plan. The Clinton Plan accounts for loss revenue by placing a windfall tax on oil company profits. Both are temporary measures, a three month proposal. Their aim to offer some relief primarily to working class families who are the ones most effected by the spiraling cost of gas. The estimated savings is approximately $30.00 a month. Not much for most American families but for many that $30.00 will pay for their phone bill or buy a few days’ worth of groceries. Even so this is largely a non-issue because the real issue remains a comprehensive energy policy that undoes the Bush-Cheney Energy Policy that Senator Obama voted for in 2005. So just who voted for Washington gimmicks? Barack Obama, that’s who.
Is this the official campaign song of the Obama campaign or what? Addressing concerns about his electability during a private campaign stop in Durham, North Carolina before flying back to Indianapolis Obama stated:
“We’re still fundamentally tied to John McCain,” he said, “States that Senator Clinton has won when she says ‘oh you can’t win big states, show me way up in California, show me way up in New York, show me potentially winning in Pennsylvania, potentially winning in Ohio.’ So don’t buy into this electability argument.”
That’s the point Barack, you’re fundamentally tied to John McCain and Senator Clinton is not. And while you are “potentially” winning Pennsylvania and Ohio, Senator Clinton wins those handily. But don’t worry, be happy.
Maybe this latest poll might get your attention: IPSOS Poll. Don’t worry it shows Senator Clinton with a 7 point advantage nationally. Be happy.
This is the last Clinton ad now running in Indiana.
It is hard to make sense of the Obama campaign today. Both Barack and Michelle were in North Carolina today for a series of mostly private events. Only Michelle held public events in Fayetteville and Charlotte. Then this afternoon both flew back to Indiana. Senator Obama to hold a rally in Indianapolis and to make an appearance in Evansville. Meanwhile, Michelle heads to Gary.
What is going on in northwest Indiana is rather interesting. There the Obama campaign made large ad buys over the weekend in the Chicago media market. Apparently, the Chicago media has been running around the clock coverage of the Reverend Wright including helicopter flyovers of his $10.5 million mansion in a predominantly white gated community and the coverage of this is having a negative impact within northwestern Indiana. Odd however that they would send Michelle rather Obama himself but then again having her go downstate Evansville would make no sense at all. It’s is a bizarre way to finish up this primary cycle and I am not quite sure what to make of all this.
Retired General and former Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Hugh Shelton endorsed Senator Clinton writing an op-ed in his hometown Tarboro, North Carolina newspaper The Daily Southerner. The money quote:
We need a president like Sen. Clinton, who understands that a successful foreign policy combines equal parts of economic strength, military readiness and diplomatic persuasion. We need a president who will work with allies and partners to bear the burdens we know are coming and to prepare for any other contingencies. In short, we need a president who will return America to its rightful place as the leader of all nations. Freedom is too important – and our men in women in uniform too precious – to ask them to bear the entire burden of its success in the world.
Senator Clinton has now received more endorsements from US military leaders than any other candidate in the history of the United States. It could be they have worked with her in role as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
One of the below radar events that is taking place in the Clinton campaign is how they are getting on the ground in upcoming primary states hoping to build on the momentum gained since Pennsylvania. Even before the voting started in the Keystone state, the Clinton campaign had ads running in both the Hoosier state and the Tar Heel state. This ad for Oregon’s primary on May 20th was released today. Take note of this Barack Obama’s vote for the Bush-Cheney Energy Bill may come back to haunt him in Oregon.
By the way, today’s ad spend in North Carolina is running 2:1 in Clinton’s favour. As I wrote earlier that for North Carolina to break for Hillary, she has to eat into Obama’s African-American base, carry rural voters by 70-30 margin and win the suburbs. It is within the realm of possibility though no doubt Obama does have the built-in demographic advantage.
This is all made possible by your hard work and contributions.
From the beginning it has been clear to me that the presidential campaign of Barack Obama was different from those of his rivals, with the possible exception of Congressman Ron Paul. These two were not campaigns but rather mass social movements and I have a distrust of mass social movements. In part it stems from the fact that mass social movements tend to believe that they have all the answers to every question, only our way is the correct way, dissent is not tolerated, and the views of the individual are subsumed in the interests of the whole. Mass social movements of a political character that have a goal of achieving and holding political power are inherently dangerous in my view. They tend to become authoritarian. Chavez in Venezuela and Correa in Ecuador are but two of the latest examples.
It is not that I expect Obama to take the United States down the path of a Venezuela but I do wonder about what free speech and dissent would look like under an Obama Administration. Criticize Obama and see what happens to you. His brownshirts attack and attack. Every time that Ambassador Joe Wilson writes an op-ed and it is published on the Huffington Post go and read the comments. Beyond the quantity of expletives, count the times he is told to shut up. Hardly the atmosphere one wants for true discourse. But Obama’s supporters are not interested in discourse, in having a discussion of issues, a debate on policy alternatives. No their goal is political power come what may. And the recent doctoring of the Mickey Kantor video from 1992 shows the level to which they are willing to descend.
Bill Clinton for weeks now has been going off the beaten path to towns across rural America giving stump speeches on behalf of his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton. Today’s Washington Post covers the role that the former President is playing in the campaign:
In the past month, at least 20 counties in Indiana and North Carolina received their first-ever presidential visits when Clinton stopped by. That meant 20 grateful towns, 20 awestruck audiences and a trail of feel-good local media coverage across both states. Hillary Clinton’s campaign hopes it will pay off in her marathon race with Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) when rural voters in North Carolina and Indiana vote in their states’ primaries Tuesday.
The former President is surely getting rock star treatment:
“I went to 47 towns in Pennsylvania, 39 in Indiana, and by the time I’m done here, I’m gonna top 50 in North Carolina.” That’s right, fifty, at the rate of five to seven a day. The day before primary, Bill Clinton will make nine–yes, nine–campaign stops in small towns across northern North Carolina.
A new USA Today Poll out today is also the lead story in the United States’ largest circulation tabloid daily. The headline reads Poll: Flap over pastor hurts Obama. Ouch, not the headline I would want voters in Indiana or North Carolina to see on primary eve. Here are the details:
One-third of likely voters say Obama’s ties to Wright make them less likely to vote for him. But Obama isn’t the only candidate with divisive connections: One-third of likely voters say Clinton’s association with Bill Clinton, her husband and the former president, makes them less likely to support her.
Meanwhile, 38% say McCain’s link to President Bush makes them less likely to vote for him.
However, there’s also an upside to the question for Clinton and McCain. Hillary Clinton’s ties to her husband make 18% of Americans more likely to support her, and McCain’s ties to Bush make 7% more likely to vote for the Arizona senator. Just 1% of likely voters say Obama’s links to Wright make them more likely to support him.
Just 1%. That hurts. Frankly, I don’t think it is really this bad for Obama. All three candidates have their detractors. I just wonder if this leaves an opportunity for Ralph Nader or Bob Barr.
Here is Monday’s edition of interesting reads from the around the world.
The Saga of Zimbabwe
Nothing anymore should surprise me about the odious Robert Mugagbe but this is stunning and heart-breaking. Having decided that a second round was what the official tally dictated, ZANU-PF, Zimbabwe’s ruling party is now seeking to hold the second round in a year. The gory details from the Guardian Unlimited. All this does is give Mugagbe to further intimidate the people of Zimbabwe. African leaders had better wake up to the fact that could now see increased strife and violence that has genocidal potential in Zimbabwe.
Israeli PM Olmert’s Woes Grow
Another political scandal is erupting in Jerusalem. Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert used his bureau to promote the artistic career of his wife Aliza, a Haaretz report reveals. The report also says that when the couple were in New York for a private art exhibit by Olmert, their stay at a luxury hotel was paid for by an American association. Olmert was already embroiled in a tax scandal. Sources involved in the police investigation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the details of which cannot be made public due to a gag order, said Sunday it would be clear within a few days whether or not Olmert would be indicted on unspecified charges. More from Haaretz and the New York Times.
From the Asia Development Bank Meeting in Spain
Though last I checked Spain was part of Europe, this year’s annual meeting of the ADB (Asia Development Bank based in Manila) is being held in Madrid. It is a poor decision that sends an out of touch signal on the growing food crisis in Asia. Here are two reports from the meeting: one on soaring food prices and another on $80 Billion USD Facility aiming at averting a financial currency crises similar to one that wreaked havoc in the region in the late 1990s.
Buying America
I am a China hawk. Other than Hong Kong I don’t set foot in the country and never will until the regime in Beijing is ousted. I also don’t buy any Chinese goods and haven’t since the 1980s. And so this story in the Los Angeles Times leaves me disconcerted.