I must apologize I don't write diaries, but this is breaking in the blogs and needs more juice. Karl Rove has been accused of threatening a primary witness in for the plaintiffs in the King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell. Check out Brad Blog as well as ePluribusMediafor a backgrounder on the new "IT Forest Gump" genious computer Guru who has handled IT business for the Republicans since they lost New Hampshire in 2000.
Update: King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell link
OMG: Criminal "threatening" corrected thanks to Shpilk
updated: Meet Matthew Kairis an attorney with the law firm Jones Day, who represents one or more of the "defendants" in this case.
When people ask Mayor McLin about her unique eyeglasses – one frame is ovular, the other rectangular – she always offers the same quip. The glasses are like Dayton: the city is well rounded and gives you a square deal.
This story caught by Mark Nickolas over at Political Base deserves a lot more attention than it has received. It turns out that not only is McCain getting killed by the traditional media, his advertising campaigns just aren't working, either. Voters seem to be immune to the appeals of an angry, befuddled septuagenarian looking to preside over Bush's 3rd term.
If this poll has already been diaried, somebody let me know and I'll delete it. However, I ran a quick serach and couldn't find anything.
So take this all for what's it's worth.
In Colorado, Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain by seven percentage points, 49% to 42%. However, when leaners are included, McCain is more competitive and pulls to within three points, 50% to 47%.
A month ago, the race was a toss-up, but two months ago Obama led by six.
Rasmussen CO Poll: This telephone survey of 500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports July 21, 2008. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
As Barack Obama's international tour is proving a spectacular success, the campaign at home is keeping focused on building its ground operations. And growing them, including in the Mother of All Swing States, Ohio. Ohio is up for grabs, as polls this week show anything from a six-point McCain lead to an eight-point Obama lead. As Kos said yesterday, "this one is pretty much tied."
Ohio is always important, and this year it is no less so. If Barack Obama can win Ohio, he is almost certain to win the presidency. (Nate Silver estimates that McCain has a 9% chance of winning the election if he loses Ohio...and conversely that Obama has only a 6% chance of winning the election if he loses Ohio.) Tight polls in a must-win state mean we need to work even harder as failure is not an option. Here's what we can do.
I am an unabashed Obama supporter who has advocated for an Obama/Clark or Obama/Biden ticket in the past. I still would love to see one of those two tickets, but looking at the race as it exists today I believe that Clinton is at the top of Obama's list. Further I believe that the Obama campaign had her highly ranked since the beginning and will realize that strategically it is Obama's best choice.
It is with great pleasure, I bring you another OH-16 "Two-fer"!
Schuring Will Cost Ohio $5 Billion at the Pump before "Energy Plan" Takes Effect
Canton, OH – Rather than providing bold solutions to begin immediately easing pain at the pump, Kirk Schuring has endorsed George W. Bush’s energy stance, which calls for Americans to sit back and wait 20 years while big oil companies prospect for new sources of oil.
In Sunday’s edition of the Canton Repository, Schuring said that opening new areas in ANWR and the Outer Continental Shelf to drilling was a "short-term" solution that would "dramatically increase domestic energy production" and "have an immediate impact at the pump."
Don't you just love media narratives that directly defy reality? Here's a good one: Obama will lose Ohio and the election because disappointed Hillary Clinton supporters will hold their nose and vote Bush Lite. I call bullshit.
I checked the polling in Ohio, and women are Obama's strongest demographic after African-Americans. If anything, women will win Ohio for Obama.
Standing between the North Coast RTA station in downtown Cleveland and the wind turbine at the Great Lakes Science Center, OH-14 Democratic nominee Bill O’Neill challenged Steve LaTourette to debate him on energy policy, "anytime, anywhere." Bill chose this location because it highlighted the differences between some of his long term solutions to the energy crisis, and LaTourette’s election year gimmicks.
Last February, a poll by Lake Research Partners for HealthCare for America Now found 78% of voters believe that health insurance companies "put profits before people." It turns out that a few months later the CEO of WellPoint, the nation's biggest health insurance company, said yes, that's true! In April, WellPoint CEO Angela Braly told investors, "We will not sacrifice profitability for membership." In other words, we won't sell health coverage to more people if it means we will lose money.
We're hitting back against the insurance industry tomorrow. More below the fold...
Finally, there is new polling data out of Ohio. After all of the data from expected blowout states of the last few week I was beginning to think we wouldn't hear from a key battle ground state ever again.
The poll shows Obama with a 48 to 40 lead among likely voters.
Interestingly he only trails 46 to 42 among white voters while leading 91 to 6 among blacks.
Even Bush is sick of the Iraq fiasco...he has been mumbling about pulling out troops and about a "time horizon"...yes, "HORIZON," not a timeline, for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Don't know about you, but I have never heard anyone talk about "time horizons" before. Makes me think of an event horizon around a black hole...which is an ominous comparison.
Remember, though, Bush's shifting to withdrawal is not by any choice of his. The Iraq government has told him in no uncertain terms that we have outlived our welcome and they do not want us there permanently.
Ohio must include the Libertarian Party's nominees on its ballot in November, a federal court has ruled, complicating Sen. John McCain's effort to win conservative votes in a hotly contested state.
In yet another attempt to benefit from Obama's star power McCain has suggested he accompany Obama to Europe and hold a town hall meeting under the The Brandenburg Gate...
Whole mythologies have sprung up about southern Ohio. Either we are racists, bumkins, or just plain dumb. Many argue that Obama should neglect the region and concentrate on more "fertile" ground in Montana or old Virginia. They overlook that southern Ohio boasts a heritage as the organizing center of the Underground Railroad movement, that the population in substantial measure descends from a mix that included fugitive slaves and recalcitrant Indians, and that the oldest interracial churches west of the Alleghanies are here, some still in operation.
How soon we forget such south Ohio bumkins as Branch Rickey (who integrated major league baseball by sheer force of will), Ambrose Bierce, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Ok so why has Barack Obama done so poorly in southern Ohio, in the primaries and in recent polls? Why the pandemic bad advice that he ditch the region for more tolerant terrain? And why is it so important that the Obama campaign ditch this advice and send the candidate to the south-central Ohio corridor?
John McCain is either stupid, senile, or just doesn't care about how he gets the money, just as long as he can swindle people into it. Witness his latest hire in Ohio of none other than disgraced Ohio Treasurer of State Joe Deters, who resigned in disgrace in 2005, to head his campaign efforts in Southwest Ohio. Will the press give it notice? Judging by there "attack Obama, give OLD John a pass" type of reporting, it is for we, the grassroots voter to continue to publicize the truly shady cast of characters that litter the McCain Campaign "twisted talk express".
Anyone wishing to be the next president needs to have his head examined. Whoever wins will inherit a fragile economy along with a couple of wars, give or take if Cheney gets his way. (Someone needs to get that man a copy of Call of Duty or Metal Gear Solid ASAP!) Republicans know this already and are sitting back, enjoying the show, and preparing to return to "save" the country from "another" Democratic disaster (according to conventional wisdom gleamed mostly from chain mail).
