Day: April 14, 2008

GOP Rep Geoff Davis Apologizes for Calling Obama a ‘Boy’

Jon Ponder

Republican Congressman Geoff Davis (not kidding — that’s his real name) of Kentucky has apologized to Barack Obama for referring to him as “that boy“:

According to a Lexington Herald-Leader blog item, Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Ky., said Saturday that he had recently participated in a “highly classified, national security simulation” with Obama, and said that exercise showed that Obama can’t be trusted to make difficult decisions.

“I’m going to tell you something: That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button,” Davis said. “He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country.”

Geoff Davis, who was elected to the House in 2004, hand-delivered an apology to Obama’s Senate office that said:

“My poor choice of words is regrettable and was in no way meant to impugn you or the your integrity,” Davis wrote. “I offer my sincere apology to you and ask for your forgiveness.”

No word yet whether Obama has accepted the good ol’ boy’s apology.

Video: McCain Mistakenly Names Petraeus as Being in Charge of Afghanistan

Jon Ponder

From Mark Link at the Democratic Party Blog:

McCain’s latest display of his lack of foreign policy understanding came today when said he wouldn’t divert troops from Iraq to Afghanistan to keep his promise to chase bin Laden to the gates of hell unless Gen. Petraeus said it was necessary.

Of course, Gen. Petraeus would not be making that determination about what was required in Afghanistan. Instead, that would be Lieutenant General Martin Dempsey, who temporarily replaced Admiral William Fallon as chief of Centcom.

Poll: Obama Drops to 20 Points Behind Clinton in Penn. in First ARG Survey after ‘Bitter’ Comment

Jon Ponder

The American Research Group poll last week that showed Obama even with Clinton was probably an outlier. Still, the drop this week is precipitous:

First poll of Pennsylvania voters post-“bitter” comments shows Obama taking a hit. The American Research Group had him and Clinton neck-and-neck with 45 percent each in its April 5-6 survey. The group’s April 11-13 poll has Obama at 37 percent to Clinton’s 57 percent.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

The saddest life is that of a political aspirant under democracy. His failure is ignominious and his success is disgraceful.

— H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), newspaperman, book reviewer and political commentator

Polling Shows Obama Still Leading Clinton

Trish

A daily poll shows Obama is taking some popularity hits over his “people are bitter” comments but not as much as he did over the Rev. Wright black liberation theology ordeal. Rasmussen today reports no big upheavals.

In the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination, Obama leads Clinton 48% to 44%. While statistical noise has created daily fluctuations, this race has remained quite stable for the past month or so. A look at the overall trends shows Obama enjoying a modest but consistent advantage.

Part of the reason Obama isn’t going down in flames is because even though the truth hurts, it’s hard to argue with what he said.

Most Americans agree with Obama’s statement that “People are fed up. They’re angry and they’re frustrated and they’re bitter, and they want to see a change in Washington.”

New polling data released this morning shows that 56% of voters nationwide disagree with Obama’s controversial comment that people in small towns “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” Partisan and ideological perceptions suggest that Obama’s comments may have more impact on the General Election than the Primaries…

The data also suggests that the Obama campaign was shrewd to try and focus attention on the portion of the comments about people being bitter. Most Americans agree with Obama’s statement that “People are fed up. They’re angry and they’re frustrated and they’re bitter, and they want to see a change in Washington.” Following the initial weekend furor over the remarks, Rasmussen Markets data still gives Obama an 82.4 % chance of winning the Democratic nomination.

More interesting are the favorability ratings. While Obama’s “unfavorable” numbers have risen to 50%, they still aren’t at their all-time high level of 52%, posted on March 27 in the aftermath of the Rev. Wright controversy.

Clinton’s unfavorable numbers, in contrast, have been stuck in the low 50s for weeks and her efforts to paint Obama, who was raised by a single mom, as an anti-hunting, out of touch elitist aren’t helping lift her up. Maybe voters are weighing her words against that figure from her tax return: $109 million. In any case, today her unfavorable number is 51%. The last time it was any lower was March 13, at 50%.

McCain, meanwhile, continues to slip under the radar screen. Everyone (54%) thinks he’s a fine old fellow.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows John McCain leading Barack Obama, 49% to 42%. The presumptive Republican nominee also leads Hillary Clinton 47% to 43%.

It’s Official: Media Are Ignoring Cheney’s Unconstitutional Drafting of Torture Guidelines

Jon Ponder

The corporate news media are ignoring the revelation by ABC News last week that top administration officials, including Dick Cheney and then Sec. of State Colin Powell, drafted guidelines for torture techniques to be used by CIA interrogators.
Five years from now, reporters will write books on why they chose to ignore the story of Cheney’s drafting of these immoral, unethical and un-Constitutional torture guidelines. Let’s all vow not to buy those books.

On Thursday, Jonathan Turley, a constitutional expert who was a strong advocate for impeaching Pres. Clinton, said the vice president and the other officials also appear to have committed war crimes.

This news, including Bush’s confirmation late on Friday that he approved the crafting of torture guidelines, was not mentioned on NBC’s “Meet the Press” yesterday nor was it discussed on ABC News’ own political chat show, “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

On Saturday, the Washington Post published a story on page A03 about Bush’s confirmation that he authorized torture, but it has not been covered in the Los Angeles Times or the New York Times. The drafting of the torture guidelines by senior Bush officials was not mentioned during random samplings of cable news broadcasts over the weekend — not even in the headline crawl at the bottom of the screen.

This should be a big story. Leaving aside the fact that torture is immoral, unethical and counter-productive, the drafting of guidelines for torture techniques was simply illegal — or, more to the point, unconstitutional:

[…]

Bookmakers Cut Obama’s Odds in Pennsylvania Because of ‘Bitter’ Remark

Jon Ponder

In case you’re just tuning in to the controversy over Barack Obama’s “bitter” remark, here is what he said last Sunday in San Francisco:
It will be harder for Republicans to pin the elitist label on Obama, who is a Harvard grad who chose to be a community organizer rather than taking a cushy corporate job, than it was on John Kerry or Michael Dukakis.

“You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them… It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Obama’s critics have interpreted his comment as saying yahoos “cling” to God and guns because they’re desperate and can’t think for themselves — that conservative values are delusions that are by-products of stress.

On Saturday, Obama made a clarification:

“Obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that,” Obama said in a phone interview with the Winston-Salem Journal. “But the underlying truth of what I said remains, which is simply that people who have seen their way of life upended because of economic distress are frustrated and rightfully so.”

Judging by the way Hillary Clinton came out swinging yesterday, exhaustive focus-grouping revealed that the “yahoo” interpretation of Obama’s statement is resonating.

The fact that odds makers have taken note provides more evidence that the controversy has legs:

The infamous “bitter” comments made by the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will likely cost him the primary in Pennsylvania on April 22nd… According to the odds makers, Hillary Clinton is now -270 favorite to win the upcoming Democratic primary, while the odds on Barack Obama to recover and come out victorious are slim +180…

Still, in a long run, the odds makers continue to put their money on Barack Obama to win the Democratic nomination, listed with odds 2/11 at BodogSports, compared to the long odds on Hillary Clinton at 23/4.

The charge of liberal out-of-touch elitism helped sink the Michael Dukakis campaign in 1988 and John Kerry’s 2004 bid. It will be harder to pin the elitist label on Obama, who is a Harvard grad who chose to be a community organizer rather than taking a cushy corporate job — unless Obama were to allow himself to be filmed riding in a tank or windsurfing.