Month: June 2010

CA Primary: Don’t Buy the Beltway Pundits’ Hype, Dems Looking Good in November Matchups

Jon Ponder

By a whopping 27 points, California independent voters want a U.S. senator who supports Pres. Obama. In the governor’s race, independents support Brown over eMeg, 48%-30%.

When it comes to elections, as far as the national media is concerned, if there’s no horse race, there’s no story — so take with large measures of salt the punditry you hear on cable news tomorrow night about the supposed vulnerability of Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., or the surging popularity of eMeg Whitman, the eBay billionaire who’s spent $500,000 a day in the Republican gubernatorial primary campaign.

Tea bagging has not caught on in California like it has in other parts of the country, in spite of the fact that Russo Marsh + Rogers, the Republican Party consulting firm that operates Tea Party Express, is based in Sacramento.

Granted, all the energy going into the vote tomorrow at the top of the ballot is among the Republicans, but this is because their Democratic opponents are running virtually unopposed. Other than fundraising, both Sen. Boxer and Attorney General Jerry Brown, the former governor who’s running for governor again, have hardly begun campaigning. Neither of them has yet to spend a dime on television ads, the only vehicle for getting political messages out statewide.

Based on recent polling it appears that the Republicans’ two biggest spenders, eMeg, one-time CEO of eBay, and disgraced former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, will trounce their opponents tomorrow and become the GOP candidates for governor and senator, respectively, in the general. Whitman has spent nearly $80 million of her own money, so far, and Fiorina has spent a third of the $21 million fortune she received as golden parachute when the HP board fired her in 2005.

Despite the well-publicized unrest and anger in the fly-over states, internals in a Los Angeles Times-USC poll that came out around Memorial Day show that Brown and Boxer have the wind at their backs heading into the general election:

[…]

Liz Cheney’s Lie on ABC’s Sunday Show about Halliburton’s Fraud Charges Is Easily Disproved

Jon Ponder

Liz Cheney seems to need to prove that she is every bit as amoral and shameless about lying as her father. On ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, she flat-out lied about Halliburton, the company her father ran before he appointed himself vice president. In a back and forth with Arianna Huffington about Halliburton’s role in the Gulf Disaster — it appears likely that Halliburton’s bungling caused the explosion — Cheney flatly contradicted Huffington’s assertion that Halliburton had ever been charged with fraud by the U.S. government:

[…]

Verbatim

Jon Ponder

After the last eight years, it’s great to have a president who knows what a library is.

– Sir Paul McCartney, after performing for the Obamas at the White House.

Like millions of other Americans, I have always had a good impression of Paul McCartney and thought of him as a classy guy, but I was surprised and disappointed by the lack of grace and respect he displayed at the White House. I hope he’ll apologize to the American people for his conduct which demeaned him, the White House and President Obama.

– House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), who obviously can’t handle the truth.

Verbatim

Trish

You’ve got to keep a cool head in order to win a hot game.

— U.S. Senate candidate Gov. Charlie Crist (NPA), commenting on the importance of his leadership in helping Florida deal with the BP oil spill disaster. It’s unclear what actions, if any, Crist has taken in the crisis outside of accepting federal relief, and calling upon BP to provide more compensation to Floridians affected by spoiled beaches, fisheries, and habitat. Crist already accepted $25 million from BP to promote tourism and has asked for another $50 million to cover additional state expenses.

NV Sen: Tea Bagger Endorsed by Joe the Plumber Leads ‘Chicken Lady’ in GOP Race to Challenge Harry Reid

Jon Ponder

Poll Also Shows That Sen. Reid Leads All Republican Candidates for the First Time

Earlier this year, Republicans announced they were targeting three “trophy” Senate seats — the seats formerly held by Pres. Obama in Illinois and Vice Pres. Biden in Delaware, as well as the Nevada seat currently held by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Tea Party Express is operated by the Republican Party astroturf organizing firm Russo Marsh + Rogers

The Delaware seat is likely to flip to Rep. Mike Castle, a liberal Republican, but Rep. Mark Kirk, the GOP candidate in Illinois, is having trouble, most of which stems from his service as a commander in the Naval Reserves. Not only has he been caught lying about his military record, his recent vote in favor of the military’s anti-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy prompted a Washington blog editor to out him.

Now it appears Republicans may have gloated too soon about picking up Nevada. A new poll finds that now Reid leads all Republican opponents for the first time, and one-time frontrunner Sue Lowden has taken a major hit in the wake of nationwide ridicule of her proposal that the United States health-care crisis could be resolved by bartering medical services for live chickens:

[…]

Verbatim

Trish

We already got one raghead in the White House, we don’t need a raghead in the governor’s mansion.

— South Carolina state Sen. Jake Knotts (R), explaining why he hopes Rep. Nikki Haley, whose family is Sikh but is herself now a Methodist, will lose the Republican governor’s primary on Tuesday.