Rumor has it Obama’s campaign is in talks to sponsor a car at this years Pocono race. Two things bug me: first I have a very hard time believing Obama has ever watched a NASCAR race (after all I don’t think they serve his brand of Pinot at too many tracks these days). Secondly, didn’t he just call these same people “bitter” just a few months back to all his elitist friends? Does he really think he can buy off working class america with a logo splashed across the Sprint car? I think the Obama team is spinning there wheels on this one (bad pun intended).
The Democrats are trying to put on a good show of party unity after their long and divisive primary, but everything might not be quite as friendly as the Democrats would like us to believe. There is plenty of tension between the Obama and Hillary camps, and a lot of it revolves around money. Hillary’s campaign is millions of dollars in debt, and in a show of unity Obama has committed to helping her repay it. However, the Obama campaign doesn’t seem very enthusiastic about achieving that goal. The Wall Street Journal reports that:
At a Midtown Manhattan fundraiser designed to help raise cash for his campaign and help retire debt for his former opponent’s, Barack Obamaoffered praise of Hillary Clinton. But he temporarily forgot to make his pitch about debt retirement.
“Hold on a second guys, I was getting all carried away,” he said about a minute after he walked off stage to Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” that typically plays after campaign events. “Senator Clinton still has some debt, and I could have had some debt if I hadn’t won. So I know the drill,” he said, as he instructed donors to use the “debt retirement” envelopes under their seats to mail in a contribution to his one-time rival’s campaign.”
Meanwhile, many Obama supporters aren’t very excited about repaying debts that Hillary Clinton racked up in the process of attacking their candidate. Politico writes:
To this end, when Ed Chandler, a Chicago venture capitalist and Obama donor, sent out an e-mail last week promoting an intimate dinner with the nominee for high-dollar donors he made clear to specify where the dollars were going.
“NONE OF THE MONEY RAISED WILL GO TO PAY OFF HILLARY CLINTON’S DEBTS,” Chandler wrote to potential givers in an e-mail obtained by Politico. ”While you may have heard that Sen. Obama has asked people to make a separate donation to the Clinton campaign for that purpose, neither the law, nor the ethic of this campaign, will allow for any transfer of funds from Obama For America to Clinton.”
Clearly all is not well in the Democratic Party. Many former Hillary supporters are already backing McCain, and if they believe Obama and his campaign are slighting Senator Clinton, more will surely follow.
Karl Rove sees some incredible similarities in the Obama ground game and with the BC’04 operation. Utilizing the internet to allow volunteers to self-direct their activity, the effort to expand the electoral map, and creating an army of volunteers are all lessons learned from the Bush/Cheney campaigns.
However, Mr. Rove finds some faults with the program they are running:
There are problems, however. Mr. Obama’s people admit they want to sucker Mr. McCain into spending money. To be successful, a bluff must be credible. In places like Nebraska and North Dakota, Mr. Obama can’t rely on local issues – like Mr. Bush did with coal in West Virginia in 2000 – to unexpectedly win a critical state. Organization alone won’t suffice. And putting Obama dollars into Texas, for example, to help win five state House seats may simply cause Texan Republicans – not Mr. McCain – to raise money and work harder to counter.
In addition (and here’s where we come in):
Democrats don’t have the same large volunteer pool the GOP does with its Federated GOP Women, College and Young Republicans, and local party committees. In the primaries, Mr. Obama instead moved hordes of volunteers from state to state. It was a brilliant tactic, but Nov. 4 is different. The volunteers adequate for primaries held over five months will simply not be enough to compete in 51 separate elections (all 50 states plus the District of Columbia) all on one day.
Of course there is always Barack Obama’s problem with flip-flopping:
By taking Nixon’s advice, Mr. Obama is assuming such dramatic reversals will somehow avoid voter scrutiny. But people are watching closely, and by setting a world indoor record for jettisoning past positions, Mr. Obama may be risking his reputation for truthfulness. A candidate’s credibility, once lost, is very hard to restore, regardless of how fine an organization he has built.
Nick Miccarelli, our former National Co-Chair, seems to be doing quite well in the race for the 162nd House District around Delaware County, Pennsylvania. In fact, his opponent’s union seems to agree that Staff Sergeant Miccarelli is the best fit for their district:
Though what practical impact, if any, the UAW endorsement will have on the race is unclear, it is notable mainly because Miccarelli’s opponent, John DeFrancisco, is a longtime union member and was until recently its president.
Nick has this to say about the surprise endorsement:
”It means a lot to me, and it speaks a little bit to Tony’s fortitude to recognize who the right man for the people of this district is,” said Miccarelli, whose father was a member of the union.
Isn’t this sorta like your mom voting for the other guy? Ouch.
It appears that the editorial board members at the University of Florida are fed-up with Barack Obama’s flip-flips on every issue from the Iraq War to FISA. Despite endorsing him way back in January saying, “We feel Obama’s message in the Oval Office will inspire young people and resonate with all Americans,” they now seem to feel differently.
Since clinching his party’s nomination for president, however, Obama has started to clarify, qualify and triangulate to such a degree that we can hardly recognize him from the inspirational “change” candidate he represented a few short months ago.
Barack Obama has been an inspiring figure for many youth voters up until this point. However, his profound tendency to waver in the face of political hardship has taken the shine right off of the sparkling image he has as something other than a typical politician, and this is beginning erode his support among youth voters.
Perhaps Obama isn’t the great change agent we thought he was. Perhaps no one can change the system. Or maybe we expected too much from someone who is, after all, just another politician.
Maybe these folks should look to someone who has stood up to say what he believes even when it wasn’t the easiest thing to do; someone who loves his country so much that he will do whatever it takes to protect it even if that means losing an election. Someone like John McCain.
Talking with Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams at the Hertiage Foundation Bloggers meeting.Just found out there is more miles of pipeline than highway, who knew.One of there new major focuses is the competitiveness council: how do they keep Texas competitive in terms of job growth into the future. One of the most important answers is energy. Their purpose is to move towards a private/public partnership that can create zero emission power at lower costs.One of the creative things they’re able to do is use CO2 more effectively then any other nation in the world. As Commissioner Williams put it “CO2 makes old wells come alive,” creating new returns from old production facilities.We also talked wind power, TX creating more win power then any other state in the nation. The question becomes how do we capture that energy rather then distribute it immediately.
Whammy! This is a great biographical ad for Sen. McCain. He has always been a driving force for reform, probably one of the most active reformers of government in our nation’s recent history, and this ads reminds us of who John McCain really is. It gets past the media spin, and the silly claims of Barack Obama. Everyone knows that John McCain is an independent crusader for change in our government. Watch it now:
A quick look at the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News website reveals that despite Barack’s best efforts to change the subject away from issues by announcing his acceptance speech will be at Invesco Field, Senator McCain got all the attention for announcing his comprehensive plan to strengthen our sagging economy:
