Month: June 2010
Candidates: Obama Endorsement? Thanks, but No Thanks
Public Policy Polling‘s Tom Jensen assesses the perils of an Obama endorsement:
Democrats are going to have to think really carefully about how they deploy Barack Obama for campaigning this fall. Polls we’ve conducted nationally and in several different states over the last few weeks have found that a candidate being endorsed by Obama is much more likely to elicit a negative response from Republican voters than a positive one from Democrats.
PPP’s most recent national survey found that while Obama had a positive approval rating at 48/47, only 33 percent of voters were more likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by him while 48 percent said support from Obama would make them less likely to vote for someone. That’s because only 64 percent of voters who approve of the President say his endorsement would make them more inclined to vote for a candidate, but 91 percent who disapprove say Obama’s support makes it less likely they would vote for one of his preferred candidates.
Alvin & the Chipmunks
South Carolina’s finest Democratic brains
Alvin Greene’s primary victory maintained.
Which caused Greene to emote,
“If nominated, I’ll vote,
“But if elected, I will not campaign!”
In Wake of Barton Apology to BP, BP Shill Bachmann Tries Walk Back Her Shill-iness
“They have to lift the liability cap,” said [Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.]. “But if I was the head of BP, I would let the signal get out there — ‘We’re not going to be chumps, and we’re not going to be fleeced.’ And they shouldn’t be. They shouldn’t have to be fleeced and make chumps to have to pay for perpetual unemployment and all the rest — they’ve got to be legitimate claims.
Bachmann is now trying to back away from her comments. “I said that I was concerned that Washington, the Obama administration, could use it as a permanent ATM,” Bachmann insisted to the Pioneer Press. “I want to make sure everyone knows I’m not a shill for BP.” She also recently went on CNN where she similarly made clear that she believes “BP clearly is at fault” for the oil spill. “I’m not here to shill for BP,” she said, adding nevertheless that President Obama may try to use the escrow account as a “permanent ATM card.”
GAO Report Clears ACORN of All Wrongdoing
Republicans had been trying for years to take ACORN down because it was a powerful voice for the poor and disenfranchised — in other words Americans who live their lives with the boot of the GOP’s corporate masters on their neck. They finally succeeded. ACORN is gone. But all of the Republican charges against them, including those brought by the convicted felon James O’Keefe, were false, according the results of a government investigation:
On Monday, June 14, a preliminary probe by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)of ACORN has found no evidence the association or related organizations mishandled the $40 million in federal money they received in recent years.
A review of grants by nine federal agencies found no problems with ACORN’s grants. In my book Seeds of Change I document how ACORN, the largest most successful national anti poverty organization in America, was forced to close its door.
The GAO interviewed and obtained documentation from grant program managers and staff from nine agencies; NeighborWorks, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of the Treasury (Treasury), and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Department of Homeland Security and (DHS), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Most of the grants were for housing-related purposes during fiscal years 2005 through 2009.
Rep. Barton’s Biggest Contributor Is a Party in the Spill
Update: Barton apologized because Speaker-to-Be Boehner threatened to remove him as Energy Chair if GOP wins in Nov.
House Republicans are roiling from Rep. Joe Barton’s apology to BP CEO Tony Hayward during a hearing today:
Verbatim
What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction. Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a ‘tragedy,’ but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments.
— White House response to Rep. Joe Barton’s (R-TX) apology to BP executives for what he called a $20 billion “slush fund” and “shakedown.”
RNC Chair Steele Insists Party Will Waste Money, Resources on California GOP Campaigns This Year
[National] Republicans, buoyed by what they see as a potential resurgence in California, pledged on Tuesday to send significant financial, logistical and strategic resources to the state in coming weeks.
[Steele], speaking to reporters on a conference call, said Republicans in years past have treated California as a “flyover” state because of Democrats’ electoral edge, or little more than fertile grounds for fundraising.
“The days of just grabbing and going or just ignoring altogether are over,” he said, after meeting with California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring in Washington. “We’re going to be full partners on the ground.”
