Thunder Rolls For President Bush

The Associated Press reports members of the Rolling Thunder motorcycling group visited with President Bush on Sunday:

The roar from bikers on the Mall nearby could be heard on the South Lawn as eight motorcycles, headlights illuminated and American flags jutting off the rear seats, rolled up the driveway to the South Portico where Bush was waiting to greet them.

[. . .]

Later, Bush addressed, via a telephone hookup, a Rolling Thunder rally at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in the capital.

The president noted the letter of endorsement he received from the group last week. “Artie, I thought you were going to offer me riding lessons,” Bush joked, thanking Rolling Thunder for backing his re-election campaign.

Reuters explains that Rolling Thunder is a veterans organization founded to publicize the POW-MIA issue and which helps veterans with benefits.

According to the Washington Post the Rolling Thunder event dominated the heart of the nation’s capital:

A younger generation of war veterans swept into town yesterday, shifting the tone of the city’s Memorial Day celebrations from the long-ago heroism of World War II to the still-raw wounds of Vietnam.

Clad in leather, astride gleaming Harleys, they trailed American flags and the black flags that honor U.S. prisoners of war and military members missing in action. With horns blaring and fists raised, they rode into Washington more than 400,000 strong, according to organizers of the 17th annual Rolling Thunder “Ride for Freedom,” to pay homage to buddies who never made it home.

Libertarian Party Nominates Michael Badnarik

The Associated Press reports that Michael Badnarik was nominated as the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate:

Badnarik, 49, of Austin, defeated former Hollywood movie producer Aaron Russo on the convention’s third ballot, after former radio host Gary Nolan, who was eliminated on the second ballot, endorsed Badnarik.

Badnarik is a computer programmer and teaches a course in constitutional law.

From California Yankee.

Soft-Money Group Promotes Ties to GOP Leaders Despite Warnings

WaPo reports on increasing questions about whether the actions of several GOP congressional leaders … including Hastert … violate FEC guidance on congressonal involvment with 527 soft-money organizations.

Battleground Polls Give Electoral College to Kerry

The Star Tribune reports that while national sample polls continue to show the election as a tossup, a recent Zogby poll of the 16 “battleground states” shows Kerry leading in 12 of the 16. On election day, this would translate into a 320-218 Electoral College victory.

There are a number of caveats to the methodology … read them and more here.

Convention Bling

The Boston Globe reports on the lavish spending that will take place to buy access to party leaders at the Democratic Convention in Bosting later this year. Example:

One of the more sought-after tickets is for a Symphony Hall gala honoring Senator Edward M. Kennedy. It is financed by more than a half-dozen corporations and national labor unions, which are donating $100,000 apiece. The donors, including Raytheon Corp., Bristol-Myers Squibb, the Affiliated Unions of the AFL-CIO, and the International Brotherhood of Carpenters, often have interests before Kennedy and his colleagues on Capitol Hill.

Funny, I thought it was the GOP that was in the pockets of Big Business.

Bush Loss Not Kerry's Gain

The Times Picayune reports that while Bush’s favorability ratings are at their lowest point ever, that disaffection is not translating into polling increases for Kerry … a sign of deep ideological entrenchment among GOP voters.

FEC: Nader Campaign Qualifies for Funds

AP: FEC: Nader Campaign Qualifies for Funds

Ralph Nader’s independent bid for the White House has qualified to receive matching government funds, the Federal Election Commission announced Friday.

Campaign officials said Nader has raised more than $850,000 to date from 7,800 separate contributions. To receive matching funds, a candidate must raise at least $5,000 in 20 states in donations of $250 or less.

The average contribution to the Nader campaign is $100, with 89 percent being $100 or less, the campaign said. The FEC matches all contributions of $250 or less up to $18.7 million.

Kerry Feeling Squeeze On Iraq Policy

That’s the LA Times headline, and their lead offers the gist better than can I:

Sen. John F. Kerry faces a stark new challenge in the campaign skirmishing over Iraq: As President Bush has moved toward his position, the Democratic Party is moving away from it.

CNN had a similar discussion with talking heads this morning … that Bush is moving closer to Kerry’s view on Iraq, while Kerry’s own party sees that same position as increasingly unattractive.

Kerry: 11 Day Focus On Foriegn Policy

WaPo reports that Kerry is launching an 11-day focus on foriegn policy and his differences with the Bush approach. (Why 11 days? I’ll leave the speculation to you. It wouldn’t be because it’s a subtle reminder of 9/11, would it? Enough of my conspiracy theories.)

One Source Of Legs: Dick Gephardt

I wondered earlier about where the legs for the Kerry / McCain ticket rumor are coming from … the New York Times offers one source: Dick Gephardt.

Representative Richard A. Gephardt, the Missouri Democrat who has often been mentioned as a running mate for Senator John Kerry, is talking kindly about another choice: Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona.

Asked after a speech in California on Monday what he thought of Mr. McCain’s potential for the Democratic presidential ticket, Mr. Gephardt described him as a “very attractive figure in American politics” who “would be accepted by the Democratic Party,” according to CNN.

Mr. McCain is “someone a lot of Democrats could get interested in,” Mr. Gephardt said at the Leon Panetta Center in Monterrey.

Cautious Best For Kerry?

The New York Times reports on growing debate in the Democratic party over the best way—cautious or aggressive—to take advantage of what is percieved to be growing vulnerability in the Bush camp.

Kerry-McCain: The Story That Will Not Die

The Australian reports on continued Washington rumors of a Kerry / McCain ticket. Frankly, a story with legs like these gets its strength from somewhere. Curiouser and curiouser …

Kerry To Accept At Convention

Bloomberg is reporting that Kerry will in fact accept his party’s nomination at the Dem Convention in Boston.

Flash: Strippers Are The Swing!

Ladies and gentlemen, the cause has been carried to theaters of dance all across this great land. Thanks to the Independent, we now know that strip clubs may hold the key to the election:

The interests of the morality-toting Bush administration are not exactly in harmony with those of the United States’ 4,000-odd strip clubs. And now the clubs are doing something about it, by registering their patrons to vote in between floor shows and agitating openly to boot the President out of the White House in November.

So THAT’S why Florida’s such an important swing state.

Poorly Written Headline Of The Week Award

The Independent: “Bush begins damage limitation exercise as conflict bites into his poll ratings.” Say that five times fast …

Poll: Kerry Leading In Battlegrounds

From the Orlando Sentinel / Philly.com:

A new poll in 16 “battleground” states where the presidential election of 2004 likely will be decided shows Democrat John Kerry holding advantages over President Bush in 11 states and Bush holding edges over Kerry in just four.

Call On The Delay This Week?

More today from WaPo on Kerry possibly delaying his acceptance of the nomination so he can raise more money, reporting that his campaign hopes to make a decision about doing so sometime this week.

They also report some Democrats fear doing so could “disrupt the party’s national convention and hand Republicans a public relations bonanza.” Of note, George McGovern agrees.

Kerry's New Ride

The money must be coming in: USA TODAY reports on Kerry’s new campaign plane, a “star-spangled, customized campaign plane that will serve as an airborne office and occasional bar until Election Day.”

No Kidding?

The New York Times has realized that this year’s campaign advertising—from both camps—has “a hail of televised exaggerations, omissions and
mischaracterizations.” Really? Who knew??

Nader Advises Kerry on VP Candidates

AP: Nader Advises Kerry on VP Candidates

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader said Sunday he had advised John Kerry to choose North Carolina Sen. John Edwards or Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt as his running mate on the Democratic ticket.

Kerry won’t discuss whom he is considering for vice president, but his advisers have been examining Edwards and Gephardt, two of Kerry’s rivals from the Democratic primaries.

“They’re very careful,” Nader said on ABC’s “This Week.” “They’re not going to cause him any embarrassment. And they do bring an additional voter support for him.”

Kerry considers postponing acceptance of nomination

CNN: Kerry considers postponing acceptance of nomination

Sen. John Kerry may postpone accepting his party’s presidential nomination at the July Democratic convention — a tactic aimed at reserving his campaign war chest for the fight against President Bush.

Under federal campaign rules, once a candidate accepts the party nomination, the campaign is limited to spending around $75 million.

The Republican convention is five weeks later than the Democratic convention, meaning Kerry’s $75 million would start being drained more than a month earlier than Bush’s.

By postponing the acceptance of the nomination, Kerry could continue to spend the private money he’s raised during the primary season, and those funds would not be counted against the $75 million limit.

Kerry To Reduce Any Rationale For Nader's Candidacy

In an interview with reporters and editors of The Associated Press, Kerry said he believes his candidacy will “reduce any rationale” for Nader’s candidacy:

“I have never suggested that any candidate get out or get in or behave in any particular way,” Kerry told the AP, shortly before his one-on-one session with Nader at Kerry campaign headquarters.

Instead, the Democrat said he would court voters inclined to support Nader.

“It’s my intention to speak very directly to those people who voted for Ralph Nader last time,” Kerry said. “I believe my campaign can appeal to them and frankly reduce any rationale for his candidacy.”

From California Yankee

Politics of Gas

Reading the Trib on my morning commute I noticed that yesterday Kerry blamed Bush for not doing enough about high prices and today the complaints made news. Kerry even alluded to Bob Woodward’s claim that the Saudis promised Bush a price cut:

Where’s the president who, when he was campaigning for president, said in New Hampshire, said what we need is a president who jawbones OPEC to lower those gas prices? Well, I haven’t seen any jawboning, have you? All I read about are sweetheart deals with Saudi Arabia.

But buried in the business section is one story claiming that Venezuela wants to get in on the action. This may or may not have anything to do with any action on Bush’s part. Another story reports that OPEC might soon increase production.

What is also interesting is the logic of blaming high gas prices on Bush. Remember at one time he was getting blamed for invading Iraq for oil, presumably to satisfy the Americans’ insatiable desire. Yet, now he is being blamed for not bringing enough oil to the market. In a kind of inverse economic logic, an AP Story sites a music producer’s complaint: “Why would he [Bush] do anything about it when the Bush family is making money off oil?” The article then tells us that the quoted music producer has stopped driving his SUV in order to save money, yet we’re never told how his not driving due to high gas prices leads to higher profits for the Bush family.

Oil politics have suddenly resurfaced as the price of oil has sky-rocketed in recent weeks. Here in Chicago regular unleaded has risen to as high as $2.44 a gallon. But, it seems like we go through this every summer … at least to some degree. As we approach fall gas prices always seem to stablize, such that I imagine petrol will not be much of an issue in November.

For a real time comparison of gas prices in your neighborhood, pay a visit to Gas Buddy.

NC poll show Edwards Could Be the Right One

The AP is reporting (via Yahoo!News) that a poll of 625 potential North Carolina voters showed that while only 41% would vote for Kerry alone, 48% would vote for Kerry were Edwards on the ticket, making the race a dead heat. Of course, this isn’t really all that surprising seeing as Edwards is a North Carolinian.

Kerry, Nader to Meet to Discuss Issues

AP: Kerry, Nader to Meet to Discuss Issues

When Democratic presidential candidate John Kerrymeets with independent rival Ralph Nader on Wednesday, Kerry isn’t likely to ask him to leave the race. And it’s even less likely that Nader will offer to bow out.

Kerry probably will point out that the two rivals share a goal — ousting President Bush — and contend that a joint effort is the best way to achieve it, aides to the Massachusetts senator said. Nader told The Associated Press that he looks forward to discussing “certain common policies” with Kerry.

“I think that’s for the good of our country and for the benefit of the American people that are being ignored or repudiated by the Bush regime,” Nader said in an interview.

Still, Kerry aides hope Nader eventually comes around to Kerry’s view — if not after the meeting, then following what senior Democrats say will be a weeks-long campaign by party operatives to pressure Nader publicly and privately. That effort, being formulated by Democrats not aligned with the Kerry campaign, may include challenging Nader’s efforts to get on state ballots, the Democrats said on condition of anonymity.

Vets Plan Rally: Kerry lied while good men died"

From WorldNetDaily:

Kerry lied while good men died

Vietnam Vets for Truth plan D.C. rally to combat candidate’s claims

Using the battle cry “Kerry lied while good men died,” the organization Vietnam Vets for Truth is planning a September rally in the nation’s capital to combat what it considers untruths the Democratic presidential candidate has spread about those who fought in the Vietnam War.

The new organization will host what they expect to be a “giant rally” of veterans and their families at the west side of the Capitol on Sept. 12. In a statement announcing the event, organizers said those who assume Vietnam vets are behind Kerry’s candidacy are “dead wrong.”

Terry Garlock of Peachtree City, Ga., and Larry Bailey of Alexandria, Va, lead the organization, Garlock as CEO and Bailey as president.

Garlock, an Army Cobra helicopter pilot in Vietnam, proposed the idea, and Bailey, one of the first to sign up for the effort, is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL captain with service in Vietnam.

“More than any other person, John Kerry is responsible for the false image of Vietnam veterans as dysfunctional misfits,” Bailey said in a statement. “Kerry betrayed all of us when he returned from Vietnam.

“A lot of good people opposed the war, but some, like John Kerry, went too far. He joined the radical left wing of the anti-war movement and shared the microphone with Jane Fonda and other radicals. He promoted himself by telling unforgivable lies about Vietnam servicemen and women, and he did this under oath.”

Kerry testified before U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee 1971, making horrific claims about alleged atrocities committed by American service members.

What about Kerry’s claim he helped end the war?

Responded Bailey: “What unmitigated chutzpah! The truth is that the actions he took gave aid and comfort to those who were killing America’s sons and daughters. He encouraged our enemies to rebuild and hang on when they were near defeat, as they were after the Tet Offensive in 1968. Did you know our POWs had John Kerry’s words quoted to them by their interrogators?”

Bailey says Kerry helped to spread a “negative stereotype” of Vietnam veterans that was exploited in movies and on TV.

“The truth long ago was that we fought with honor and courage, and we won every significant battle,” Bailey said. “The truth now is that we are doctors, lawyers, factory workers, nurses, small-business owners, corporate executives, carpenters and pretty much your neighbor or your friend at church, and very patriotic. We are not and never have been the crazed killers we have been portrayed to be for so many years in movies and on TV, in part, because of Kerry’s lies.”

Bailey says the event is not partisan and that all Vietnam vets are welcome: “We just want the country to know that America’s sons and daughters served honorably and well in Vietnam, and the bad things John Kerry said about them have never been true.”

[the rest of the article can be found at the link shown above]

Kerry Picks Up Edwards' Theme

Kerry, speaking at a ceremony clebrating Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka, highlighted the disparity in public education between rich and poor saying “Today, more than ever, we need to renew our commitment to one America.” Do I hear an Edwards Encore coming on? Remember Edwards’ theme was “Two America’s” and it worked quite well in the primaries but it is probably a little too populist to be persuasive to general election voters.

Kerry/McCain: The Story That Will Not Die

It has legs, that’s for certain. Here’s the latest step down the path, this time from Joe Biden and Reuters (via Yahoo!):

Sen. Joseph Biden, a senior Democrat, on Sunday urged Republican Sen. John McCain to run for vice president with the Democratic hopeful, Sen. John Kerry, in order to heal the “vicious rift” dividing America.

McCain, of Arizona, “categorically” ruled out standing with Kerry, but Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he had no second choice.

“I’m sticking with McCain,” Biden said.

Nader Says Kerry Getting Free Advice

AP: Nader Says Kerry Getting Free Advice

Nader, interviewed Sunday on CNN’s “Late Edition,” said Kerry is “getting free consulting from this campaign. We are putting on his desk twice a week issues that could win if the Democrats are smart enough to pick them up.”

The latest issue letter, which Nader distributes by e-mail, concerns a living wage. Nader, who is running as an independent in this year’s presidential campaign, said 47 million people make less than $10 an hour — “Wal-Mart wages,” he called them — and urged Democrats to make it an issue in the campaign.

“They’ve got to get to the level where they can sustain themselves and a minimum standard of living,” said Nader, a longtime consumer advocate who sought the presidency under the Green Party banner in 2000. Democrats blame him for Al Gore’s loss to Republican George W. Bush, but Nader says Gore is to blame for the defeat.

Vet: Officers told Kerry to leave Vietnam

From The American Thinker via World Net Daily (excerpt):

Thomas Wright was one of John F. Kerry’s fellow Swift boat officers in Vietnam. Since Wright outranked Kerry, he was Kerry’s sometime boat group Officer-in-Charge, so Wright had occasion to observe Kerry’s behavior and attitudes, .

…

When John Kerry radioed another Swift boat, he used the call sign, “Boston Strangler …

Working with call sign “Boston Strangler” became problematical. “I had a lot of trouble getting him to follow orders,” recalls Wright. “He had a different view of leadership and operations. Those of us with direct experience working with Kerry found him difficult and oriented towards his personal, rather than unit goals and objectives. I believed that overall responsibility rested squarely on the shoulders of the OIC or OTC in a free-fire zone. You had to be right (before opening fire). Kerry seemed to believe there were no rules in a free-fire zone and you were supposed to kill anyone. I didn’t see it that way.” …

Then Wright and like-minded boat officers took matters into their own hands. “When he got his third Purple Heart, three of us told him to leave. We knew how the system worked and we didn’t want him in Coastal Division 11. Kerry didn’t manipulate the system, we did.”

Posted by John Moore at 12:07 AM | Comments (33) | TrackBack

Bush Attacks Kerry in Spanish

This is pretty ingenius. The Bush campaign has released two versions of a new commercial highlighting his education vision. One commercial is in english and presents a tame “positive” message about leaving no child behind. The other version is visually the same but the voice-over is in spanish and the message attacks Kerry for flip-floping on ‘No Child Left Behind’. The WaPo article reporting this though overstates the level of attack in the spanish version (surprise) as you can see for yourself by following the link below.

Full Story | Bush Commercials

FEC to Sharpton: Return $100,000

CNN: FEC to Sharpton: Return $100,000

Federal officials on Thursday ordered Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton to repay the $100,000 in public matching funds that he received this year for his White House bid.

The six-member Federal Election Commission decided unanimously to take action against Sharpton and his presidential campaign committee after an investigation determined that he had exceeded a $50,000 limit that candidates may spend on their own campaigns.

But Sharpton’s campaign disputed the ruling.

“We expected this. They’ve been under pressure from these right-wing hate groups for months now,” said Sharpton campaign manager Charles Halloran. “We planned all along to appeal this decision and have met extensively with counsel. The statutes are clear and convincing about the reverend’s donations to his own campaign, and we’ve followed them to the strict letter of the law.”

Halloran also said the campaign was considering legal action against the commission.

FEC Declines To Regulate 527s

AP reports: “Federal officials Thursday rejected new limits for political groups pouring millions into ads and voter drives in the presidential election, and Republicans predicted the decision would prompt a surge in big donations for their side.

Several Democratic groups have already begun spending large donations on efforts critical of President Bush or supportive of Democratic candidate John Kerry. Republicans had asked the Federal Election Commission to stop the activities under the campaign law that broadly banned from federal elections the big checks known as ‘soft money.’

But four of the six FEC members on Thursday refused to step in, tabling the issue for at least three months. Even if the commission acts then, it is unlikely any new rules would affect the November presidential and congressional elections.

…Democratic commissioner Scott Thomas, who joined Republican Michael Toner to favor fund-raising and spending limits for such groups, predicted the decision would allow both Republicans and Democrats to engage in no-holds-barred spending this election year. He predicted pro-Republican groups, who have held back pending the FEC decision, would quickly surpass the Democrats.

‘I think it is possible the Democrats could wind up, from this point on, worse off,’ Thomas said, adding that he thinks much of the soft money that used to go to parties before the law went into effect in 2002 will flow to new tax-exempt groups that don’t have to disclose their fund raising and spending.

… The Republican Party, Bush’s re-election campaign and several campaign watchdog groups accuse Democrats of violating the ban by creating a network of pro-Democratic soft-money groups that are raising and spending millions of dollars to air anti-Bush ads and pay for get-out-the-vote activities. Critics call the groups a shadow party.

That spending helped flood the airwaves with negative commercials about Bush at a time when the Republican incumbent was airing millions of dollars of ads critical of Kerry, who was working to rebuild his campaign’s finances before going up with his own commercials after the primaries.

The anti-Bush groups argue that their spending is legal, in part because they stop short of calling for Bush’s defeat or for Kerry’s election. The FEC was considering whether the use of soft money to promote or criticize a federal candidate is enough to violate the soft-money ban, and the FEC on Thursday decided against saying yes.”

Kerry Calls Iraq War A Failure

The Associated Press reports:

Presidential candidate John Kerry said Wednesday the war in Iraq is a failure and that a shake-up is needed to end the Bush administration’s mistakes and incompetence, a sharp critique that sparked more Republican criticism that the Democrat is making the war a political issue.

President Bush’s campaign faulted Kerry for politicizing the war:

Marc Racicot, Bush’s general campaign chairman, accused Kerry of dragging politics into the war on terror and warned that domestic criticism undermines military morale.

“Political attacks come at a price for the military,” Racicot told reporters in a conference call. “If there was ever a time to refrain from partisan politics, this is it. But all we see from the Kerry campaign and from John Kerry is political exploitation for political gain.”

[. . .]

“To blame the abuse on Bush and the armed forces is to blame all of America for the disgusting actions of a few. It’s striking to see the ease with which John Kerry thrusts an important moment into the campaign’s daily spin cycle, compared to the president’s steady leadership and focus on doing what he believes is right.”

From California Yankee

Air America runs bit calling for Bush assassination; GM pulls ads

Via the New York Daily News:

- - - - - - -

The United States “is on the slippery slope to theocratic fascism.” “The Catholic Church has been secretly encouraging oral sex for years.”

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld “ought to be tortured.” President Bush should be taken out and shot.

Those are a few nutso nuggets from the hosts of Air America Radio, which calls itself the new liberal voice. The fledgling network is carried in New York on WLIB, 1190 AM. With the Iraq torture scandal everywhere, I tuned in, expecting to hear sober policy analysis mixed with glee over President Bush’s political pickle.

Instead, I got 10 hours of rancid venom directed at the President, Rumsfeld, Rush Limbaugh, the Catholic Church and anyone else the hosts felt like slamming. If you’re a card-carrying lib who likes crude sex jokes and a cartoonish echo chamber, Air America is for you.

- - - - - - -

Rock bottom came when she compared Bush and his family to the Corleones in the “Godfather” saga. “Like Fredo, somebody ought to take him out fishing and phuw,” she said, imitating the sound of gunfire.

During a day of torture by radio, I heard ads for Hewlett-Packard, Greyhound and, especially, General Motors. I asked GM why it appeared in such shows.

Ryndee Carney, GM’s manager of marketing communications, said the ads were wrongly picked up from an earlier deal with WLIB. She said the station was ordered to “cease and desist” yesterday, and added: “GM will not advertise on any Air America affiliates.”

- - - - - - -

This is a duplicate of the original post on the nikita demosthenes website.

Nader Wins Endorsement From Reform Party

AP: Nader Wins Endorsement From Reform Party

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader has been endorsed by the national Reform Party, giving him ballot access in seven states, including Florida and Michigan, party leaders announced Wednesday.

Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese said Nader welcomes the support but plans to continue running as an independent. He said Nader would decide on a case-by-case basis whether to accept the ballot lines in each state.

“This shows that Nader can garner support from across the political spectrum, including conservatives who supported Bush in 2000,” Zeese said. “The naysayers who said Nader could only get liberal votes are being proven wrong. Conservatives are upset with Bush and looking for an alternative.”

One Shy of Sixty

In a reminder of the perils of running for President while one is still an active Senator, a measure that would extend unemployment benefits failed to pass the Senate by one vote. Who didn’t vote you ask? John Kerry of course, who is out on the campaign trail.

Full Story

Kerry Wants Rummy Out, McCain In

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that John Kerry has suggested that John McCain might be a good fit for Rummy’s job.

Full Story

Bush Approval Rating At All Time Low

Lots of scary numbers for the Bush camp in the latest CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup poll, not least among which are an approval rating of 46% and a within-the-error lead over Kerry (even with Nader in the mix). Read the CNN story here.

Sticking To His Script

John Kerry was in Louisville yesterday; read the Boston take here at the Globe. The slant’s in the headline: Kerry camp strives for a consistent message.

FEC To Review Soft Money ... But Not Now

From the AP:

Election officials may put off a decision on whether to restrict fund raising by interest groups spending unlimited checks in this year’s elections, a move Republicans predict would embolden their donors to follow Democrats’ lead and pour millions of dollars into the presidential race.

Maybe He Should Play The Sax?

The AP/Dallas News is reporting that (1) John Kerry believes his wife is an asset (would he call her a liability otherwise?) and (2) that he “scoffs” at the idea he is aloof. I know … he should ride a Harley onto the Tonight Show! What? Oh …

Heinz Kerry Reports Her Income at $5.1 Million

That’s a lot of ketchup, but less than many people expected. Read more at the LA Times.

Kerry Narrows Down the Field

So the talk goes.

He is focusing on Sen. John Edwards, Gen. Wesley Clark, Rep. Richard Gephardt, Sen. BOb Graham and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.

So much for my prediction of Sen. Evan Bayh.

via Political Wire

Nader Sues After Missing Texas Ballot

Nader sued Texas on Monday after failing to collect the 64,076 signatures required to get on the Texas presidential ballot.

Reuters reports that Nader’s lawsuit, “filed in federal court in Austin, charges that Texas’ ballot access law is unconstitutional because it sets stricter standards for independent candidates than it does for third-party challengers:”

For example, third-party candidates are given 75 days to collect nearly 20,000 fewer signatures required for inclusion on the ballot, the suit says. Nader had 60 days to collect his signatures.

Texas Secretary of State Geoff Connor said the law had been on the books for 20 years, and other independent candidates have made it onto the ballot.

“Further, the Texas process for independent or minor party candidate ballot access has been upheld by the courts on a number of occasions over the years,” Connor said in a statement.

From California Yankee

Campaign Ads Don't Sell

President Bush’s campaign has broadcast about a dozen television ads since early March, and Kerry’s campaign another 10. The LA Times reports that advertising experts doubt the ads are effective despite polls suggesting some of the President Bush’s ads are influencing targeted voters:

Bush launched the first ads of the general election campaign March 4, two days after Kerry effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nod. The experts recently interviewed by The Times lauded two of Bush’s initial commercials.

In the 60-second “Lead,” a relaxed Bush sat with his wife, Laura, and expounded on the “entrepreneurial spirit of America.” He also declared: “I know exactly where I want to lead this country.”

Slow-dissolve shots of the president in the Oval Office were interspersed with pictures of other Americans at work, such as a waitress opening a diner near dawn.

[. . .]

Linda Kaplan Thaler, a New York ad executive who worked for Democrat Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign in 1992, applauded the 30-second Bush commercial “Tested.”

The ad showed faces of ordinary but determined Americans and a flag flying at the wreckage of the World Trade Center. It then showed people carrying on with their lives, shifting from black and white images to color as someone hoists a flag up a pole. A narrator talks about “freedom, faith, families and sacrifice.”

[. . .]

One of Bush’s attack spots struck the experts as refreshingly humorous — and therefore effective. The 30-second “Wacky” took a carnival tone as it played newsreel-like footage of the Keystone Kops and antique gas pumps to accuse Kerry of supporting higher gasoline taxes.

[. . .]

The experts said Kerry’s early efforts were forgettable, suffering from mixed messages, bland themes and boring campaign-event footage.

“As a couch potato, as soon as I see canned videotape from the campaign trail on the tube, I hit either mute or change the channel,” Sullivan said.

Kaplan Thaler said: “Kerry never, ever, ever smiles.”

In recent weeks, Kerry has intensified his advertising. But the experts found fault with the editing of two recent ads. As the Democrat is explaining his views on Iraq and domestic issues, the ads interrupt close-up footage of Kerry to pitch his website. They then switch back to the candidate finishing his thoughts.

“Inept,” Bond said.

The Boston Globe reports that these early campaign ads are competing to create a definitive public portrait of the challenger:

“President Bush is known to almost every American, and his image and record is well established,” said Terry Holt, a Bush campaign spokesman. “John Kerry is the new unknown quantity.”

William Benoit, professor of communications at the University of Missouri, said the ad wars reflect “a Bush rush to define Kerry early . . . before he gets a chance to define himself.”

The fate of these dueling strategies could hinge on what proves more persuasive: Kerry’s effort to sell himself to the electorate, or Bush’s efforts to tarnish Kerry’s image among voters.

“Voters learn more from negative spots, especially when the other guy [Bush] goes first,” said Ken Goldstein, director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin.

John Franzn, a political media consultant who works for Democrats and liberal groups, said: “The conventional wisdom in this business is that it is easier to make a negative ad stick in the public’s mind than a positive ad. . . . And if you’re essentially dealing with a blank slate, they work all the more.”

[. . .]

A poll by the University of Pennsylvania’s National Annenberg Election Survey indicated that in the 18 battleground states where the television ad campaign is being waged, unfavorable ratings for Kerry have been driven up from 28 percent to 36 percent while his favorability numbers dropped from 41 percent to 35 percent since the beginning of March.

Goldstein said one way to tell whether Bush’s ads are working is to “look at what [Jay] Leno’s saying. . . . Six weeks ago, Kerry was not a flip-flopper; now he largely is.” A survey of talk-show comics by the Washington-based Center for Media and Public Affairs, conducted for the first four months of 2004, found that Bush is the butt of more jokes than Kerry, with Bush’s intelligence being the primary target.

But Tuesday, “Tonight Show” host Leno joked about Kerry’s recent bicycle accident, noting that “when the police arrived, Kerry was well enough to give conflicting reports to the officers about what happened.”

Cross-posted from California Yankee

Flashback: John Kerry admits he "committed atrocities" in Vietnam

Via MediaResearch.org:

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On the April 18 [2004] Meet the Press, Tim Russert played a clip from Kerry’s April 18, 1971 appearance on the show. Kerry had asserted:

“There are all kinds of atrocities and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free-fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50-caliber machine guns which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search-and-destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare. All of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed the free-fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant Calley, are war criminals.”

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This is a duplicate of the original post on the nikita demosthenes website.

Single Female Voters Targeted

Single U.S. women, including those who have never married, are divorced or widowed make up the largest number of Americans who don’t vote and persuading them to do so could help Democrats.

The Los Angeles Times reports that nearly half of single women eligible to vote don’t. That’s more than 21 million non-voters. According to the Times:

“This population of single women covers a lot of categories, across race, across ages, across incomes, so … it’s more complicated to make a broad statement about these women,” said Ruth Mandel, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Because of their large numbers, she added, they have “the potential of changing the outcome of an election, particularly in a close race.”

[. . .]

Many analysts predict that registering single women — and then getting them to vote — could result in a big payoff for Democrats.

As a group, unmarried women tend to have liberal views on social issues such as abortion, gun control and gay rights, pollsters say. When single women vote, they generally vote Democratic.

[. . .]

Although Republicans are not specifically targeting single women, they are refusing to cede the battle over their vote.

“We’re definitely reaching out to register women,” said Christine Iverson, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee. “But we’re not focusing on one demographic group.”

This week, the Bush reelection campaign is launching a program called “W Stands for Women.” The volunteer effort by women around the country will “communicate the president’s message and record of achievement, especially on the issues that women care most about — making America more secure, strengthening the economy, making healthcare more accessible and more affordable,” said campaign spokeswoman Ali Harden.

The Democratic National Committee has a similar program aimed at helping Kerry.

From California Yankee

Battle between Democrat Party and Catholic Church continues

Per the New York Daily News:

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A prominent pro-choice politician is quitting the Catholic Church after being told he would be denied Communion, it was reported yesterday.

New Jersey Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny (D-Hoboken), a former altar boy, told the Philadelphia Inquirer he’s leaving the church after 57 years.

“I will look for other options to express my faith and will probably join another Christian church,” he said.

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Kenny told the paper he decided to leave after a meeting with his pastor, Msgr. Frank Del Prete of Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Hoboken. Kenny said he asked if, as a politician who supports abortion rights and stem-cell research, he would be denied Communion.

Del Prete told him he would be permitted Communion one more time “but that then he would tell me not to come again.”

Del Prete yesterday confirmed the meeting but said he was not at liberty to discuss it.

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Newark Archbishop John Myers wrote this month that it was “objectively dishonest” for Catholics who “publicly dissent” with the church’s pro-life teachings to receive Communion. “No one has an absolute right to the Eucharist,” Myers wrote.

The statement led New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey to say he would not take Communion, at least in public.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry - who is also pro-choice and Catholic - received Communion yesterday at a Mother’s Day Mass in suburban Pittsburgh.

A task force of U.S. bishops is considering Communion guidelines for Catholics who publicly advocate abortion rights and other positions fundamentally at odds with the church.

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This is a duplicate of the original post at the nikita demosthenes website.

Bush campaign To Accept Public Financing

The Bush campaign will accept public financing and the spending limits that go with it for the November election.

Bloomberg Reports:

The candidates each are entitled to about $74 million in taxpayer funds, and they are restricted to spending only that much from the end of the party conventions until Nov. 2. Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman said that will be enough.

“We’re going to spend our money wisely and we’re confident we’ll have the resources to get the president’s message out,” Mehlman, 37, said in an interview in Washington. Kerry also will accept public financing for the general election campaign, spokesman Phil Singer said.

[. . .]

“We intend to accept federal financing in the general election,” Mehlman said. “We also think that we will be outspent in this campaign” because of the independent groups that have announced plans to work against Bush’s re-election.

Cross-posted from California Yankee

Military Doctor Letson: Kerry's first Purple Heart injury was minor and possibly self-inflicted

Per Dr. Louis Letson:

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I have a very clear memory of an incident which occurred while I was the Medical Officer at Naval Support Facility, Cam Ranh Bay.
John Kerry was a (jg), the OinC or skipper of a Swift boat, newly arrived in Vietnam. On the night of December 2, he was on patrol north of Cam Ranh, up near Nha Trang area. The next day he came to sick bay, the medical facility, for treatment of a wound that had occurred that night.

The story he told was different from what his crewmen had to say about that night. According to Kerry, they had been engaged in a fire fight, receiving small arms fire from on shore. He said that his injury resulted from this enemy action.

Some of his crew confided that they did not receive any fire from shore, but that Kerry had fired a mortar round at close range to some rocks on shore. The crewman thought that the injury was caused by a fragment ricocheting from that mortar round when it struck the rocks.

That seemed to fit the injury which I treated.

What I saw was a small piece of metal sticking very superficially in the skin of Kerry’s arm. The metal fragment measured about 1 cm. in length and was about 2 or 3 mm in diameter. It certainly did not look like a round from a rifle.

I simply removed the piece of metal by lifting it out of the skin with forceps. I doubt that it penetrated more than 3 or 4 mm. It did not require probing to find it, did not require any anesthesia to remove it, and did not require any sutures to close the wound.

The wound was covered with a bandaid.

Not [sic] other injuries were reported and I do not recall that there was any reported damage to the boat.

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Via National Review a