Novak wasn’t impressed by Thompson’s speech to the Lincoln Club of Orange County. Thompson gave the audience plenty of wingnut red meat. There was the fable of the JFK tax cuts, complaining that the rich pay too much in taxes. I’ve attached the Youtubes of the speech below the break for our readers. There’s something disconcerting about a presidential candidate defending the rich as overtaxed to a group of rich Orange County Republicans. Sure these people fund some of the vast-right wing conspiracy but to the transaction that takes place in the speech between Thompson’s pander and the crowds laughter is surreal considering what the transaction entails, essentially a promise to protect them from paying more than they absolutely have to make the government and commerce function. (That part of the speech is in video 2)

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Fred Thompson | No Comments »

Attempting to come across as nominally pro-choice is causing a serious problem for Giuliani. Another campaign dropped his previous donations to planned parenthood to the politico.

Federal tax returns made public by the former New York mayor show that he and his then-wife, Donna Hanover, made personal donations to national, state and city chapters of Planned Parenthood totaling $900 in 1993, 1994, 1998 and 1999.

The returns have been on the public record for years, but the detail about Giuliani’s support for Planned Parenthood — along with e-mailed copies of the returns — was provided to The Politico by aides to a rival campaign, who insisted on not being identified.

The records have been public for years, a “rival campaign” pointed out their existence to politico less than a week after Giuliani’s horrible performance at the first Republican debate. Some may say that $900 to Planned Parenthood won’t really matter to Republicans, will it? Pat Robertson claimed that Planned Parenthood supports “black genocide.”

Rudy Giuliani | 2 Comments »

Why would McCain lie about why he voted against the Bush cuts? It’s all over youtube, he didn’t say he voted against the bill because of the reasons stated (he said no contingency for emergencies,) and then he said he’d vote to extend them. Come on, there’s too much evidence…

John McCain, Presidential Debates | No Comments »

From the DNC’s blog:

Giuliani: Giuliani Flip Flipped On Public Funding of Abortions Six Times, Including Four Times In 24 Hours. In March 2007, Giuliani’s campaign told the Christian Broadcasting Network and the National Review Online that he supported the Hyde Amendment, which since 1976 has banned federal funding for abortion except in cases of life of the mother, rape and incest. However, on April 4th, Giuliani was asked directly by CNN’s Dana Bash if he supported the use of public funding for abortions and Giuliani said “Yes” and said he would “probably” keep that position as president. “The [Giuliani] campaign noted later in the day [on April 4th] that the former mayor would not seek to make any changes to current law, which restricts federal funding to cases of rape, incest and the life of the mother.” But then on April 5th, Giuliani said again he favors the public funding of abortion. At 11:30 am, AP reported, “Giuliani today defended his record of personally opposing abortions but still favoring the use of public money for the procedures.” However, at 12:45 pm, The National Journal’s “Hotline On Call” shared a brand new e-mail from the Giuliani campaign claiming that “Rudy would not seek to change current federal law which provides federal funding for abortion only in cases of life of the mother, rape and incest.” [National Review Online, 4/9/07; Hotline on Call, 4/5/07; AP/Fox21, 4/5/07, CNN Political Ticker, 4/4/07, 4/5/07, National Review, 3/1/07]

Romney: Romney Said Abortion Should Be Kept Legal. While running for Senate in 1994, Romney said that “he became committed to legalized abortion after a relative died during an illegal abortion. The Romney campaign later said that the relative was the sister-in-law of Romney’s sister, who died in the late 1960s as a result of the botched abortion. The disclosure came after Romney, who said he is personally opposed to abortion, was asked to reconcile his personal beliefs with his political support for abortion rights. ‘It is since that time that my mother and my family have been committed to the belief that we can believe as we want but we will not force our beliefs on that matter,’ Romney said.” He said the abortion made him see “that regardless of one’s beliefs about choice that you would hope it would be safe and legal. Romney has said repeatedly he believes abortion should be kept legal but said he believes states should be allowed to decide issues of parental consent and Medicaid funding.” [Boston Herald, 10/12/94]

From Mike Link:

[08:39 pm] Mike Link: So the Bush vs. Reagan ratio is what now?

You can’t divide by zero Mike. No one wants to talk about Bush.

Soren reminds us of this great video featuring Governor Romney.

Presidential Debates | No Comments »

No John Cox? No Jesus Michael Archangel?

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Did McCain just say the war’s unwinnable? If he can’t move the Maliki government and if people want the war to end, he says he can’t win.

Is it angry McCain tonight?

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The entire field is uncomfortable talking about Iraq.

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Huckabee says he would have fired Rumsfeld earlier. Criticizes Bush. Something tells me we’re not going to see much Bush criticism tonight.

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Tough McCain on McCain uses debunked info on Iran to look tough against Iran.

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Trapper John’s coverage is here.

This is funny… “TANCREDO: Manages to answer a question without mentioning “Mexico,” “a wall,” or “immigration.” Stutters a lot, not ready for prime time”

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Soren Dayton (a Republican) liveblogs.

Presidential Debates | 7 Comments »

Matt Browner-Hamlin and myself will be on MYDD’s blog talk radio tonight to discuss the Republican presidential debate. Follow this link to listen in and find the call in phone number.  The show will start at 9:30 PM EST. We’ll also be blogging the debate tonight,  as will Trapper John at Daily Kos.

If you’d like to warm up for the debate make sure to check out the failure of conservatism debate that took place today in Washington, DC.

Presidential Debates | 2 Comments »

The American research group has released three polls documenting Republican preferences in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. The polls themselves show little to no movement among the Republican contenders. One would suspect that overall support for the current frontrunner’s are weak since McCain and Rudy have shown some fluctuations over the last few months.

Below is where the current Republican field stands overall. It explains why McCain is seen as the frontrunner in the race. He leads in all three important early states where organization is key. In Iowa the most important retail state in the primary he has a well respected team of professional operatives organizing on his behalf. It would be hard to imagine another Republican overcoming a three state sweep by McCain early on in the primary process. Giuliani is underperforming his national numbers as well as his national stature. To the extent that one can make assumptions this early, one has to assume that the more Republican primary voters know about Giuliani’s views on social issues the less they’re likely to vote for him in the primary. (State polls over time show Giuliani losing momentum in the early primary states.) To my surprise Romney is performing well and Fred Thompson who’s still undeclared but declared has room to grow and overtake Romney and Giuliani. The rest of the pack including Brownback trails. If I’ve had a bias going into this site it’s that Brownback could prove to be a serious contendor with a strong showing in Iowa. At this point he’s not underperforming.

[TABLE=2]

In Iowa ARG shows virtually no movement, except movement down for Giuliani and movement up for Romney. I’m fascinated by Fred Thompson’s position in Iowa. He doesn’t have the name ID of a McCain or Giuliani but he’s obviously filling some void in the field. Whether that materializes after he enters the race is yet to be seen but these numbers among Iowa’s core activists indicate that Republican’s aren’t excited about their field of candidates.

[TABLE=5]

In New Hapshire the story is slightly different. McCain leads with no momentum (but a bounce back to his previous position). Romney is finally performing like a Governor who shared 2/3 of the media market with New Hampshire at a solid 24%. Giuliani is losing steam in New Hampshire (surprising since the state is more libertarian and the poll includes a healthy dose of independent voters). Could Romney’s attacks on Giuliani be having an impact?

[TABLE=4]

South Carolina is a make or break state for McCain, or so the media says. McCain got walloped in the state in 2000 by GW and he’s not risking it by tying up every elected official he can get his hands on. Even in South Carolina the previous pattern hold. McCain holds steady over the last few months, Giuliani (and Gingrich) lose support and Fred Thompson does well (10%) in a state where he probably doesn’t have as much name ID and who’s voters are less plugged in than voters in Iowa or New Hampshire. Here Romney is under performing. I don’t know whether his stagnation has to do with name-ID and a lack of infrastructure or with evangelical bias against Mormons. We’re likely to know in a few months but I suspect the latter as the primary unfolds and Romney continues to build his name ID.

[TABLE=3]

Tomorrow’s debate word will be “Reagan”.

Iowa, New Hampshire, Polling, South Carolina | 6 Comments »

It’s certainly rare at this point but McCain attacked Romney.

McCain was asked about Mitt Romney’s statement that he didn’t think we should expend energy going after bin Laden (I’m paraphrasing). McCain responded that he doesn’t normally comment on his rivals for the nomination, but would make an exception in this case because it is a national security matter. He said that he thought Romney’s statement betrayed “naivete” because bin Laden is an important symbol in the psychological war against the terrorists. McCain cited approvingly the Israeli model, where, when someone harms their people, they will follow him to the ends of the earth to obtain redress. Or they used to, anyway.

John McCain, Mitt Romney | No Comments »

It’s Brownback and Huckabee’s only chance and road to the Republican nomination. Huckabee’s definitely making a play for their votes.

Mike Huckabee | No Comments »

Gawker checks out Giuliani’s web and finds out he’s got no debate watch parties in New York.

Rudy Giuliani | No Comments »