2008 Republican Presidential Candidate Straw Poll

[BrooklynRider]

So, who is the early favorite for the 2008 Republican Candidate?

Cheney?
Jeb?
Condi?
Giuliani?
McCain?
Frist?
Pataki?

[BrooklynRider]

Is Rudy on campaign trail?
Giuliani plans swing through Iowa to stump for GOP candidates as some wonder if trip is part of '08 presidential bid


BY GLENN THRUSH
Newsday Washington Bureau
March 22, 2006, 8:38 PM EST


WASHINGTON -- Rudy Giuliani is dropping into Iowa for a GOP fundraiser May 1 -- just two weeks after his pal and potential 2008 presidential rival Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) makes a similar pilgrimage to the crucial caucus state.

It's Giuliani's first major political appearance in months: His relative inactivity had led to speculation that he's leaning against making a presidential bid despite polls showing him atop the 2008 Republican heap.

The former New York City mayor, who stumped for the Bush-Cheney ticket in Iowa two years ago, hasn't ruled out a run for the White House.

"I don't think it is mere coincidence that the mayor and Sen. McCain will almost be crossing paths in Iowa," said GOP consultant Nelson Warfield, who was former Sen. Robert Dole's spokesman during the 1996 presidential campaign.

"Who knows if Rudy is really running, but it certainly behooves him to have people thinking he will, and this is the kind of trip that accomplishes that."

Iowa, home to the first-in-the-nation January caucuses, has already been visited by a handful of presidential hopefuls, including Gov. George Pataki, who's made no fewer than five trips there in two years.

Giuliani will keynote a dinner for House Budget Committee chairman Jim Nussle, who is running for governor. He's also planning a fundraiser for the Iowa state party and a motivational speech in Des Moines.

When asked whether the Iowa trip has anything to do with a possible White House bid, Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel said, "The conclusion that should be drawn is that he supports Jim Nussle. ... As Rudy has said, right now he is focused on helping Republicans get elected in the midterm elections."

McCain, who is developing a nationwide grassroots network for a likely run, will be keynoting a $100-per-plate Nussle lunch on April 13 in Cedar Rapids and will attend events in Dubuque and Des Moines.

Recently, McCain's allies have poor-mouthed Giuliani's chances, saying the pro-abortion-rights, pro-gay-rights, pro-gun-control ex-mayor would be trounced by the more conservative McCain.

Nussle's campaign is drawing attention from party leaders, including President George W. Bush, who will headline an April 11 fund-raising dinner.

[Jake]

Without reading into it too much I think McCain would get my vote at this point. Guliani has decent chances IMO, I don't think he'd make a great president but perhaps a good one. His divorced status will cost him a lot, but he is an icon and if his policies (which are unknown right now on the national level) come through he should have a shot.

All the others have no chance and hopefully won't run.

Cheney, lmao.

[lofter1]

Divorce didn't hurt Reagan: http://divorcesupport.about.com/od/learningtoloveagain/a/ronaldreagan.htm

Granted that was a different era and Reagan had the film studio's PR machine behind him to keep the dirty details quiet. Plus Reagan's divorce took place before he entered the political arena -- unlike Giuliani who was front and center during his divorce.

Also Reagan had Nancy, whose lazer-like focus did as much as anything to propel him into the Presidency.

[MrSpice]

Divorce didn't hurt Reagan: http://divorcesupport.about.com/od/learningtoloveagain/a/ronaldreagan.htm

Granted that was a different era and Reagan had the film studio's PR machine behind him to keep the dirty details quiet. Plus Reagan's divorce took place before he entered the political arena -- unlike Giuliani who was front and center during his divorce.

Also Reagan had Nancy, whose lazer-like focus did as much as anything to propel him into the Presidency.

Regan also ran against a very unpopular president and was conservative socially making him acceptable to the "middle america", as they say. Giuliani is as liberal socially as they come. He also was in favor of gun control. I am sure his opponents and/or interest groups will use the statements he made on this subject in their attack ads. That's unfortunate, but his positiion on that issue will cost him in the south.

[Jake]

it really depends who he'd be going against, I mean it's all in the primary anyway, in the national Guliani would get many votes from Dems, especially in NY, it's all in the elector's hands anyway, and NY is worth many points. Guliani is the guy who can really win it for the Republican party, I just don't know if we'd want him.

In a primary I still say I wouldn't vote for the guy, I love him, but I don't like his position on some things.

Besides who said he's even in the running? Last I checked Guliani partners was just taking more and more underwriting contracts on Wall st.

I don't know, it's really hard to say at this point, probably the top nominees will be people we haven't even thought of.

I just hope Reps run against Hillary, because she's definately not getting elected.

[lofter1]

Unfortunately for the US, almost anyone who aspires to the presidency and crosses the necessary hurdles to even get close to the Oval Office these days turns out to be completely self-centered / narcissistic -- and reaching for some sort of personal Gold Star rather than going after the job for the good of the Nation.

It leaves us with the old lesser of many evils ...

Basically I'llvote for the one who will do the LEAST damage.

[BrooklynRider]

Will it come down to a sparring between Giuliani and McCain or do they team up to become a freaky right of center, right of right, might makes right political dog & pony show?

[BrooklynRider]

Allen avoids 'the' question
Allen tackles issues in Culpeper
Date published: 3/22/2006


By EDIE GROSS

Normally seated behind the dais, Culpeper County Supervisor Sue Hansohn joined more than 100 people last night in the audience of the county board's meeting room for one of U.S. Sen. George Allen's town hall-style gatherings.

After allowing Allen some time to lay out his priorities in Washington, Hansohn shouted out the question undoubtedly on the minds of many in the room.

"Are you running for president in 2008?" she asked, eliciting applause from the crowd.

Allen, at ease in a faux-suede jacket and black cowboy boots--purchased that very day at Boot'Vil in Ruckersville, Va.--flashed a conciliatory smile before answering her.

"No comment," he said, grinning.

Allen, whose first term in the U.S. Senate is up this year, is among a half dozen or so Republicans considered presidential contenders in 2008.

And even though he won't say it aloud, his actions are the hallmark of a national candidate, appearing at Republican fundraising events in Iowa last weekend and at New Hampshire's annual GOP meeting this coming weekend.

In Culpeper yesterday, the former Virginia governor emphasized that he was there to hear from constituents.

And they obliged, passing on concerns on everything from the war in Iraq to roadside mowing.

Gardiner Mulford, a longtime Republican and Culpeper real estate broker, told Allen he was frustrated with Republicans in Washington.

"There's really no excuse why we haven't gotten the line item veto, a better immigration policy. We've controlled the White House, the Senate and Congress for six years now, and we're still not getting those things accomplished," said Mulford, who also said he didn't support the war in Iraq.

"I hope they [Republicans] can soon self-correct," he said.

Allen, who earlier stated that he supported giving the president line-item veto power and securing the country's borders, said he, too, would like lawmakers to accomplish more.

"I can understand people's frustrations," he said after the meeting. "I didn't go to the Senate to sit and wait for consensus and talk endlessly about things. I went to take action. And there's insufficient action in the Senate."

Tully Satre, 16, urged Allen to support a federal hate crimes bill that protects people on the basis of their sexual orientation in addition to race, religion and gender.

"I've had several letters in the past few weeks, threatening my family and my life because I'm an openly gay Virginian," he said.

Allen said he didn't support protecting sexual orientation as a civil right. He said he knew of several instances where anti-gay protestors were arrested for quoting Scripture at gay pride parades and charged with hate crimes under state laws.

"I just cannot in good conscience be on the side of passing a law that would limit people's first amendment rights, particularly religious expression," he said.

One of the most moving appeals came from Joanne Carroll, a Culpeper resident with high blood pressure and no health insurance.

Formerly a Wal-Mart cashier, Carroll told Allen her failing health forced her to stop working last year. She was covered under her husband's health insurance--at a cost of $549 a month--until he lost his job as a cabinet-maker in February, she said.

Now she pays for medication and doctor's visits out of pocket.

"I'm not lazy. I worked in this country for many years," said the native of Romania. "My husband worked for many years. We're not bad citizens.

"I have a house," she continued, her voice breaking. "I don't want to lose my house. Go to the Congress and talk with the other senators about this problem."

Allen promised that his office's social services contacts would help Carroll in the short-term, and he suggested that "health savings accounts" could help others in her situation.

Citizens would essentially put away pre-tax dollars to use for some medical treatments, and insurance would cover the rest, he said. Unlike current arrangements, citizens would "own" their insurance policies rather than get them through their employers. That way, if they changed jobs or became unemployed, they'd still be covered, he said.

Doug Mayhugh, a dairy farmer, milked 113 cows before arriving at the meeting to ask Allen to keep the USDA's Farm Service Agency open in Culpeper.

There's been talk of closing the office and consolidating it with one in Warrenton, but farmers in Culpeper need it to stay put, Mayhugh said.

"We want to keep this agricultural community strong here," he said.

Allen, who has supported keeping that office open in the past, said he'd put in a good word in Washington.

"Count on me to try to help again," he said.

Allen also touched on some of his own priorities, like keeping Internet access tax-free, finding alternate sources of energy and passing a constitutional amendment that forces the federal government to balance its budget.

He said he enjoyed hearing the stories of his constituents.

"The fun and adventure of a town hall meeting is you have no idea what will happen," he said. "It's just great for me to get out of Washington and back to common sense."

[ablarc]

So, who is the early favorite for the 2008 Republican Candidate?

Cheney?
Jeb?
Condi?
Giuliani?
McCain?
Frist?
Pataki?
Folks are ready for a change. At this point the Democrats could probably win with Donald Duck heading their ticket.

Unless the Republicans run Giuliani or McCain. Or preferably both.

Then the big question becomes: Whom will the Democrats put up?

How about Giuliani or McCain? Or preferably both.

Time for those two guys to bolt their party.

[lofter1]

That Frist thinks he even has a chance shows what an insular world he's living in.

[Jake]

Folks are ready for a change. At this point the Democrats could probably win with Donald Duck heading their ticket.



hahaha, r u kidding me? Folks "were ready for a change" in 04 and hmmm...I guess Donald Duck should've ran, lol. Dems had what like 8 capable guys in for the nomination and you come out with KERRY? I hope this year you can come up with someone equally weak. If Clark or Dean had run IMO it would've been a different story.

I think if McCain or Guliani, are nominated (perhaps both if they run together) Dems don't stand a chance. Remember Reps won't vote Dem no matter what but a moderate Rep will get a lot of Dem votes. When it comes to national elections you just have to forget that whole minority votes thing (yes, very racist of me) and remember that the largest voting groups are the Christians (perhaps even just Protestants) the rich, the senior citizens, and the NRA.

[TomAuch]

McCain and Giuliani have no chance of getting nominated, even if they are the two most electable candidates. Out of those two, McCain is more electable, and Giuliani also has the issue of corruption to deal with (Bernard Kerik, anyone?) The GOP will nominate some "Good ol' boy" doofus like George Allen, and in two years, you and other Republicans will be telling us how he's a good "Christian man" and how we should vote for the racist cowboy-wannabe. On the Democrat side, the idea of Hillary running is mostly hype at this point, fueled by the New York Post and NewsMax will for sake of mobalizing the Republicans so they turn out and vote in 2006. The best Democratic candidates at this point are probably retired General Wesley Clark, and former Virginia Governor Mark Warner. Out of those two, I like Warner the best. Ideologically-speaking, Sen. Russ Feingold would be popular with the Democratic base, but I don't think that he's electable, even if he would make a good President.



hahaha, r u kidding me? Folks "were ready for a change" in 04 and hmmm...I guess Donald Duck should've ran, lol. Dems had what like 8 capable guys in for the nomination and you come out with KERRY? I hope this year you can come up with someone equally weak. If Clark or Dean had run IMO it would've been a different story.

I think if McCain or Guliani, are nominated (perhaps both if they run together) Dems don't stand a chance. Remember Reps won't vote Dem no matter what but a moderate Rep will get a lot of Dem votes. When it comes to national elections you just have to forget that whole minority votes thing (yes, very racist of me) and remember that the largest voting groups are the Christians (perhaps even just Protestants) the rich, the senior citizens, and the NRA.

[ablarc]

^ Problem with Warner is he's not very smart.

Two dumb presidents in a row: we'll never recover from that.

[TomAuch]

Maybe you're thinking of George Allen when it comes to dumb Virginians. Warner managed to turn around a record buget deficit in his state (which was created by the previous Republican Governors, Jim Gilmore, and George Allen himself, who was Governor from 1994-1998) and managed to push a tax increase package through the Republican-dominated state legislature with a support a a large number of moderate Republicans. And guess what? The package helped balance the budget, and Virginia's economy is doing pretty well. Warner's Virginia is now one of the best managed states in the country. He's also been forceful in pushing for rural boardband interent acess, which will help ease the digital divide and help keep jobs in the areas.
I'd like to see 2008 shape up as Warner vs. Allen, because Allen would try his "I'm a good ol' boy that you want to have a beer with and I can throw a football!" routine and Warner will be able to stare him down by using his record of balancing budgets against Allen's Reganesque record of facilitating deficits as Governor, and voting with the radical right as a Senator. Of course, one of UVA's worst quarterbacks in the school's history will get a pass by the pundits and described as "telegenic," while Warner will be described as "wonky" like Al Gore in 2000.

[ablarc]

Sorry, my mistake; confused him with the Senator.

[lofter1]

Maybe you're thinking of George Allen when it comes to dumb Virginians...
Some kind of DUMB (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060404/ap_on_go_co/general_special_ops;_ylt=AktFjUIKTNd1Dw5Q82St8mqs0 NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM) :

Senator Wants to Tap Controversial General

By LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press Writer
april 3, 2006

A Senate Republican wants an Army general who drew criticism for church speeches casting the war on terrorism in religious terms to lead the U.S. special operations command.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Sen. George Allen, R-Va., recommended Lt. Gen. William G. (Jerry) Boykin, currently the Pentagon's deputy undersecretary for intelligence, for the post at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla.

The current commander, Army Gen. Bryan "Doug" Brown, is retiring, and the Pentagon has not filled the job.

"I am told, and I believe it to be true, that no special operations officer currently on active duty is more highly respected or admired by his superiors, peers or subordinates alike, than Jerry Boykin," Allen wrote in the letter dated March 31 and obtained by The Associated Press.

Allen, a first-term Virginia senator and potential 2008 presidential candidate, does not serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is in charge of approving Pentagon nominations. A spokesman for the senator said Boykin is one of Allen's constituents and that many people approached the senator and recommended the general.

Sen. John Warner, the Republican chairman of that committee and Virginia's senior senator, does not agree with Allen's suggestion.

"Senator Allen is entitled to his views. He did not consult with me on this matter, but this officer would not be among those whom I would recommend for this position," Warner said in a statement to the AP.

In 2003, Boykin gave speeches at evangelical Christian churches in which he painted the war on terror as a Christian fight against Satan and suggested that Muslims worship idols. Boykin later apologized for his characterizations as conservatives rushed to defend him.

A Pentagon investigation the following year found that Boykin violated regulations by failing to make clear he was not speaking in an official capacity when he made the speeches, sometimes wearing his Army uniform.
The probe also found Boykin violated Pentagon rules by failing to obtain advance clearance for his remarks.

In the letter, Allen said his confidence in Boykin's abilities overrides any concerns about what may surface during confirmation hearings should the administration nominate Boykin. Specifically, Allen mentioned the religious statements as well as U.S. interrogation policies at the Guantanamo Bay prison, Abu Ghraib in Iraq and elsewhere.

"Granted, these are issues which cause discomfort. But I firmly believe the nomination of General Boykin to be important enough to take a stand," Allen wrote.

The senator said his request to nominate Boykin is supported by "many of my colleagues here in the Senate" and those who have served with Boykin, given the general's extensive special operations resume, which includes the Army's Delta Force and service in the Somalia conflict.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press

[Marksix]

Condoleezza Rice was in my home town (Liverpool UK) over the weekend and charmed everybody (anti-war, anti american, anti-globalisation mob excepted!) but she was constantly asked, from school kids to hardened journalists if she will be the first female US president.

She constantly answered that she would not be running of course. From an overseas perspective I can tell you that she would be extremely popular as Ms Prez! (despite her politics).

[ablarc]

Condoleezza Rice...I can tell you that she would be extremely popular as Ms Prez! (despite her politics).
What politics?

[BrooklynRider]

Portrait of The Racist As A Young Man

by digby

Ezra points to this fascinating profile of George Allen in the New Republic by Ryan Lizza. You really have to read it to believe it:

I know little about Allen except that he sounds even dumber than George W. Bush every time I see him speak on television. Yesterday he was blathering on about something and I was struck by how his rosy cheeks and strange purplish hair made him look a little like Reagan. So he has Reagan's looks and Bush's brains. Oh Jesus.

What I didn't know was that he was a racist, sadistic prick. I now understand why he is such a Republican favorite. I had heard that he kept a confederate flag around and that he had a cute little "noose" hanging from a ficus tree. I didn't know that he had been a neoconfederate since he went to Palos Verdes High, right here in LA. (He didn't live in the south until he was a sophomore in college.)


George saw himself as disconnected from the culture in which he lived. He hated California and, while there, became obsessed with the supposed authenticity of rural life--or at least what he imagined it to be from episodes of "Hee Haw," his favorite TV show, or family vacations in Mexico, where he rode horses. Perhaps because of his peripatetic childhood, the South's deeply rooted culture attracted him. Or perhaps it was a romance with the masculinity and violence of that culture; his father, who was not one to spare the rod, once broke his son Gregory's nose in a fight. Whatever it was, Allen got his first pair of those now-iconic cowboy boots from one of his father's players on the Rams who received them as a promotional freebie. He also learned to dip from his dad's players. At school, he started to wear an Australian bush hat, complete with a dangling chin strap and the left brim snapped up. He wore the hat for a yearbook photo of the falconry club. His favorite record was Johnny Cash's At Folsom Prison. Writing of her brother's love for the "big, slow-witted Junior" on "Hee Haw," Jennifer reports, "[t]here was also something mildly country-thuggish about Junior that I think George felt akin to."

"In high school, Allen's "Hee Haw" persona made him a polarizing figure. "He rode a little red Mustang around with a Confederate flag plate on the front," says Patrick Campbell, an old classmate, who now works for the Public Works Department in Manhattan Beach, California. "I mean, it was absurd-looking in our neighborhood." Hurt Germany, who now lives in Paso Robles, California, explodes with anger at the mention of Allen's name. "The guy is horrible," she complains. "He drove around with a Confederate flag on his Mustang. I can't believe he's going to run for president." Another classmate, who asks that I not use her name, also remembers Allen's obsession with Dixie: "My impression is that he was a rebel. He plastered the school with Confederate flags."

Politically, Allen's years in Palos Verdes were dominated by the lingering racial tensions from the riots in nearby Watts in 1965--when that neighborhood was practically burned to the ground--and the nationwide riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, which left other parts of Southern California in flames. It is with that context in mind that four former classmates and one former administrator at Allen's high school described to me an event for which Allen is most remembered--and the first glimpse that the château-raised Californian might grow up to become a defender of the South's heritage.

"It was the night before a major basketball game with Morningside High. The mostly black inner-city school adjacent to Watts was coming to the almost entirely white Palos Verdes High to play. When students arrived at school on game day, they found graffiti spray-painted on the school library and other places. All five people who described the incident say the graffiti was racially tinged and meant to look like the handiwork of the black Morningside students. But it was actually put there by Allen and some of his friends. "It was something like die whitey," says Campbell. The school administrator, who says he is a Republican and would "seriously consider" voting for Allen for president, says the graffiti said, "burn, baby, burn," a reference to the race riots.

Karl Rove and Lee Atwater would no doubt high five such smart thinking. What a fine preparation for southern GOP politics. But then, Allen always played hardball:

...when his father was on the road, young George often acted as a surrogate dad to his siblings. According to his sister Jennifer, he was particularly strict about bedtimes. One night, his brother Bruce stayed up past his bedtime. George threw him through a sliding glass door. For the same offense, on a different occasion, George tackled his brother Gregory and broke his collarbone. When Jennifer broke her bedtime curfew, George dragged her upstairs by her hair.

George tormented Jennifer enough that, when she grew up, she wrote a memoir of what it was like living in the Allen family. In one sense, the book, Fifth Quarter, from which these details are culled, is unprecedented. No modern presidential candidate has ever had such a harsh and personal account of his life delivered to the public by a close family member. The book paints Allen as a cartoonishly sadistic older brother who holds Jennifer by her feet over Niagara Falls on a family trip (instilling in her a lifelong fear of heights) and slams a pool cue into her new boyfriend's head. "George hoped someday to become a dentist," she writes. "George said he saw dentistry as a perfect profession--getting paid to make people suffer."

According to Lizza, Allen explains "It's the perspective of the youngest child, who is a girl."

I am tempted to make a big deal out of Allen's phoniness, as Lizza does. After all, from the non-Virginian cowboy boots to the tobacco spitting, he has self-consciously adopted these neo-confederate affectations. He's not a real son of the south. But as a good friend explained to me some time ago, it would do no good to attack him on that basis. Despite Joe Klein's fantasy about "authenticity" being the lodestar of winning politics, George W. Bush has proven that being a phony southerner is better than not being a southerner at all. Indeed, a phony southerner can be better than a real one as long as they put their whole heart and soul into it as George W. Bush and George Allen do. It shows respect.

In Mudcat Saunders' new book about how the Democrats can win the south, he and his co-author go to great lengths to explain that politicians must have southern cultural tastes in order to win the presidency. Presumably a guy like Allen (who during his teen-age years in Southern California had a confederate flag on his mustang and wore a rebel flag pin in his graduation picture) is a man who has lived his bona fides even better than the the Yale fratboy, Junior Bush. Nobody can assail his good ole boy pretentions. Allen truly loves southern culture even if he has no blood ties to the south and his mother is (gasp!) French.

If winning the presidency in the country really rests on relative good ole boy-ness, then it's hard to see how anyone can beat Allen. Aside from his total immersion in southern culture, the article is full of examples of his youthful (and not so youthful) racism and I can only assume that this will help him when he goes up against John McCain in the south. The racist voters of the GOP will catch all his winks and nods with no problem.

The only question is whether the big money boys will get behind him. He is, after all, even dumber than George W. Bush and they may be having some second thoughts about running another empty suit:


...although Allen is undoubtedly the hot new thing within the Beltway's conservative establishment, some denizens of K Street and right-wing newsrooms have begun doubting whether he represents their best hope to snuff out the burgeoning campaign of their enemy, McCain. "If my choice is, 'Who do I want to go out with to a fun dinner to drink our brains out,'" says one of the party's top fund-raisers who has met with Allen many times, "there's no question, it'd be Allen. He's a guy's guy, but he didn't blow me away in terms of substance."

It's hard to believe that they can't find a southern Republican who isn't a sadistic idiot to run for president, but I'm beginning to think that's the real problem. Guys like Bush and Allen are the best they can do. Clearly, all the smart southerners are Democrats.

[BrooklynRider]

Protesters Object to McCain as New School Commencement Speaker


By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: May 10, 2006
Bob Kerrey, the former senator and longtime friend of Senator John McCain, said it was only logical to invite his fellow iconoclast and Vietnam veteran to be the commencement speaker at the New School, the storied bastion of liberalism of which Mr. Kerrey is president.

But instead of welcoming Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican who is considered a possible presidential candidate, hundreds of students and faculty members are up in arms, calling the invitation a prime example of what they see as the disconnect between Mr. Kerrey, the onetime Democratic senator from Nebraska, and the institution he leads.

They say their school, with its long legacy of progressivism, should not be used to give Mr. McCain, who is lately stressing his conservative pedigree, any New York credibility as a moderate.

Yesterday, after delivering a petition with nearly 1,000 signatures urging Mr. Kerrey to rescind Mr. McCain's invitation, about three dozen students and professors rallied outside a New School building at Fifth Avenue and 14th Street.

They stood before a banner reading "Our Commencement Is Not Your Platform" and carried signs saying, "Pre-emptive War Is Not a New School Value." And in speeches, they variously had venom for Mr. McCain and Mr. Kerrey.

"Senator John McCain does not believe in a woman's right to control her own fertility," shouted Ann Snitow, a professor of literature and gender studies. "He has been opposed to Roe v. Wade for more than 20 years. He is a man who believes in female sexual slavery." Ms. Snitow added: "What would he have to do to not be invited? Would he have to say we should drop a nuclear bomb on Iran tomorrow?"

Brittany Charlton, the vice chairwoman of the University Student Senate, said Mr. Kerrey's choice of speaker had left many graduates with unpalatable choices of boycotting commencement or attending and protesting.

"It is extremely distasteful and hypocritical to allow McCain, someone who does not value the ideals we have consistently been taught in our education, to speak at the ceremony that represents the culmination of our experience with this university," she said.

Mark Salter, Mr. McCain's chief of staff, said of the protests, "I am sure it represents a small minority of students." He added, "The senator is looking forward to sharing this occasion,"

Progressivism has long been at the heart of the New School's identity. It was founded in 1919 by a group of intellectuals, including John Dewey, the progressive historians Charles Beard and James Harvey Robinson and the economist Thorstein Veblen.

It now has some 9,300 students in eight schools.

Mr. Kerrey, who has been president since 2001, has had his share of difficulties in that role, facing protests when he admitted that he led a combat mission in Vietnam in which unarmed women and children were killed. He also debated his own students over invading Iraq.

He sounded thoroughly unruffled about this latest flap, suggesting that the student and faculty protesters did not get it — not the business of running a university, which he said requires inviting the best graduation speaker possible, and not the business of presidential politics. Mr. Kerrey, a former Nebraska governor, unsuccessfully sought the 1992 Democratic nomination and flirted briefly with running in 2000.

He said that he extended the invitation to Mr. McCain in January and that there had been nary a complaint until Mr. McCain came under criticism about his intentions to be the graduation speaker at Liberty University, headed by the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Mr. McCain denounced Mr. Falwell and the religious broadcaster Pat Robertson as "agents of intolerance" in 2000, when he ran against George W. Bush for the Republican presidential nomination. This year, when asked about his appearance at Liberty, he compared it to his planned appearance at the New School.

"It didn't become a controversy until he agreed to go to Liberty," Mr. Kerrey said, adding, "I am perfectly comfortable having him come. I am comfortable with the students protesting. I am not going to withdraw the invitation."

Mr. Kerrey disputed assertions by protesters that Mr. McCain only chose to speak at the New School graduation, which will be held on May 19 at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, to offset his appearance at Liberty, in Virginia. "It's the other way around," he said.

He also said there was no political gain for Mr. McCain in coming to the New School.

"That's where I think the students are missing it," he said. "The fact is, to win a Republican primary, coming here is a negative, not an asset." Mr. McCain has also generated some protest at Columbia University, where he will give the keynote address on Class Day, next Tuesday. School officials invited Mr. McCain, whose daughter is a junior at Columbia, to speak after former President Bill Clinton and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois declined invitations from the senior class.

The demonstrators at the New School stressed that they were not seeking to silence Mr. McCain. Rather, they said, they objected to him speaking at commencement.

"I would love him to come and give a talk where he could be questioned," said Alan McGowan, a science professor. "But graduation is the wrong place."

Carolyn Thompson, a graduating urban studies major, said she had no intention of attending graduation until she heard that Mr. McCain was the speaker. Now, she is going — to protest.

Ms. Thompson, 22, said she believed Mr. Kerrey and Mr. McCain were serving each other's interests by making both the school and the future candidate seem more moderate.

"I understand that they are two Vietnam vets, and they are buddy-buddy with each other, they are politicians, but at the same time, the implications for this university and for the presidential election in 2008 are frightening for me as a young woman."

Mr. Kerrey said graduating seniors might learn something from Mr. McCain about character.

He recalled the bitter opposition that he and Mr. McCain faced from fellow veterans during their work to normalize American relations with Vietnam. "My guess is Senator McCain is going to talk a lot about character and part of character is willing to stand before protest," Mr. Kerrey said. "I have been with John when both of us were spat upon for advocating normalizing relations with Vietnam, called him a traitor. I hope they don't disrupt the commencement of other classmates and family members who will be there."

[lofter1]

McCain at New School: Honeymoon is Over

Ari Bermanvar
Co-written by Sam Graham-Felsen
May 19, 2006
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15&pid=85098

"I haven't heard anyone aroused about me speaking at the New School," John McCain said in April (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/08/AR2006040801012.html), defending his decision to address Jerry Falwell's Liberty University (http://www.thecherrycreeknews.com/content/view/515/60/).

Nobody at all, except for virtually the entire crowd at the New School's (http://www.newschool.edu/history.html) Madison Square Garden graduation ceremony in New York City. At the beginning of the event, New School President, and former Senator, Bob Kerrey (http://newyorkmetro.com/news/intelligencer/17019/) predicted a raucous affair. "Our founding purpose is proudly liberal," he said. "We began as an act of protest."

The school's tradition of dissent carried on today. Scores of New School students held orange signs, and a few banners, reading "McCain Does Not Speak For Me," and "Our Commencement Is Not Your Platform." What began as mild rumblings of disapproval before McCain's speech soon exploded into boos, catcalls and turned backs. The spark was provided by undergraduate keynote speaker Jean Sara Rohe, a composed, seemingly innocuous jazz musician and singer. After beginning with a short folk song (true to classic graduation speech form) Rohe quickly tossed aside her prepared remarks to directly address McCain.

"This ceremony has become something other than the celebratory gathering it should be," Rohe said. "The Senator does not reflect the ideals on which this school was founded. This was a top-down decision in which the students played no part." The crowd erupted.

"I consider this a time of crisis and I feel compelled to speak," Rohe continued, referencing McCain's speech at Falwell's Liberty University last Saturday.

She paraphrased McCain's words on the folly of youthful stubbornness and ignorance.

"I am young, but I do know that pre-emptive war is dangerous and wrong," she said. "Osama bin Laden has not been found, nor those weapons of mass destruction." The vast majority of the crowd gave her a standing ovation.

"Well, we're having fun now, aren't we?" Kerrey cracked before introducing McCain.

The Senator spoke in a dull monotone, without his usual charisma or charm. He was noticeably deflated by the crowd's harsh reception towards him. Remarks such as "I supported the decision to go to war in Iraq," were met with loud boos.

"I stand that ground because I believed, rightly or wrongly, that my country's interests and values required it."

"Wrongly!" one student boomed from the back. Sitting directly behind us, Maureen Dowd and Adam Nagourney of the New York Times, chuckled.

As McCain droned on, students became increasingly restless. One cried, "This speech sucks!" Several students walked out early.

Summing up the mood of the day, another shouted, "We're graduating, not voting."

Copyright © 2006 The Nation

[kz1000ps]

Laughing out loud at this, I only wish I could have been there to see McCain "deflated." Nothing against him as a politician or person (well, not too much), but this sounds like a freakin' hoot for the students who are just dying to yell something out at him! Hooray for the college years...

[MidtownGuy]

Awesome.

McCain is living scum.

[Bob]

If ZELL MILLER switched parties, he'd be a shoo-in for the GOP nod in '08. He's the new REAGAN, and he doesn't even know it. He could run on two issues and win: strong national defense, and strong national borders. The left would go APE of course, but that's part of the fun. Imagine how much fun it would be to find your nearest Volvo station wagon festooned with 20+ bumper stickers, and add a ZELL MILLER in '08 bumper sticker to it!

[Punzie]

This just in!

UPI NewsTrack TopNews
United Press International Newstrack


PHOENIX, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has decided to begin building a formal organization for the 2008 presidential race, ABC News reported.

Citing sources close to the senator, ABC said McCain and his advisers met Wednesday in Phoenix to discuss setting up an exploratory committee. McCain said he does not expect to make a final decision on running until after discussions with his wife, Cindy.

McCain and those close to him see the results of Tuesday's election as encouraging in spite of the Democratic takeover of both houses of Congress. Independent voters swung heavily toward the Democrats in a rejection of President George Bush.

"No question. I think voters said they want independence, they want bipartisanship, and they want a voice of moral authority on Iraq, and John McCain is all three," said Mark McKinnon, who was a Bush media adviser in the 2004 campaign.

McCain has some problems, ABC noted. He is 70 and would be the oldest person ever elected president, if he were to win. He also lacks support among social conservatives and anti-tax diehards in the Republican Party, the network said.

© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061111-075840-7390r

[ablarc]

McCain vs. Obama?

[milleniumcab]

McCain vs Obama = President McCain...

We can do better...Though I have no idea who?...

[TomAuch]

Well thankfully I can scratch Allen from the 2008 list now that he has lost his Senate seat (I really thought he was a strong candidate until "Macaca.") At the same time, my favorite Democratic candidate, Mark Warner, will not run. No joke, I actually met the guy back in June in SoHo of all places!

I hope the Democrats consider Clark or Edwards. Gore and Sen. Evan Bayh are also looking good to me at this point. I would love to see Obama as President, but his lack of experience (or perceived lack of experience) will be used against him by the GOP and pundits who will bleat "9/11 changed everything!" even if Obama in 2008 will have had more foreign policy experience than Reagan had in 1980!


Maybe you're thinking of George Allen when it comes to dumb Virginians. Warner managed to turn around a record buget deficit in his state (which was created by the previous Republican Governors, Jim Gilmore, and George Allen himself, who was Governor from 1994-1998) and managed to push a tax increase package through the Republican-dominated state legislature with a support a a large number of moderate Republicans. And guess what? The package helped balance the budget, and Virginia's economy is doing pretty well. Warner's Virginia is now one of the best managed states in the country. He's also been forceful in pushing for rural boardband interent acess, which will help ease the digital divide and help keep jobs in the areas.
I'd like to see 2008 shape up as Warner vs. Allen, because Allen would try his "I'm a good ol' boy that you want to have a beer with and I can throw a football!" routine and Warner will be able to stare him down by using his record of balancing budgets against Allen's Reganesque record of facilitating deficits as Governor, and voting with the radical right as a Senator. Of course, one of UVA's worst quarterbacks in the school's history will get a pass by the pundits and described as "telegenic," while Warner will be described as "wonky" like Al Gore in 2000.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Well thankfully I can scratch Allen from the 2008 list now that he has lost his Senate seat
Allen is a dufus. But it's easier to become president if you're not a senator; less to explain.

It's been quite a while since a senator has become president.


even if Obama in 2008 will have had more foreign policy experience than Reagan had in 1980!Or JFK in 1960.

[lofter1]

Or, for that matter, Rudy ...

AP: Giuliani takes step toward '08 bid

yahoo.com (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061113/ap_on_el_pr/giuliani2008)
By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer
12 minutes ago

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, a moderate Republican best known for his stewardship of the city after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has taken the first step in a 2008 presidential bid, GOP officials said Monday.

The former mayor filed papers to create the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Exploratory Committee, Inc., establishing a panel that would allow him to raise money for a White House run and travel the country.

The four-page filing, obtained by The Associated Press, lists the purpose of the non-profit corporation "to conduct federal 'testing the waters' activity under the Federal Election Campaign Act for Rudy Giuliani."

The paperwork is signed by Bobby Burchfield, a partner at the DC-based law firm of McDermott Will & Emery, a firm that handles political work.

Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel declined to comment.

Giuliani was widely praised for leading the city during and after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He has said for months that he would wait until the end of the 2006 elections to decide whether to embark on a White House bid.

The former mayor is a moderate who supports gun control and abortion rights, stands that would put him at odds with the majority of GOP conservative base.

Still, the Giuliani brand remains strong; he headlined fundraisers for Republican candidates nationwide and his travel has done little to deny 2008 ambitions. During a visit earlier this month to Columbia, S.C., Giuliani dodged the question: "There's a chance, but that's after this election is over."

He then left South Carolina for New Hampshire, site of the nation's first primary and another GOP fundraiser.

Giuliani enjoys strong name recognition and roughly the same level of support as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Arizona Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record). Rice has insisted that she will not run; McCain is likely to file his papers creating an exploratory committee shortly.

Giuliani, who was in his final days as New York City mayor when a pair of planes crashed into the World Trade Center's towers, became a national hero. Within hours of the attack, the mayor was visiting the site, caked in dust and walking through the chaos — a moment replayed repeatedly on television.

Assuming the role of "America's Mayor" and Time Magazine's Person of the Year for 2001, Giuliani remained an in-demand speaker and GOP fundraiser. He was the first Republican to lead New York in decades, had cut crime and redeveloped rundown parts of the city.

He was a former U.S. attorney, leading campaigns against organized crime and corruption. He spent two years as the Justice Department's No. 3 post, overseeing all U.S. attorneys, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Marshals Service. The Brooklyn native was first elected New York's mayor in 1993, pledging to improve the city.

Giuliani eyed a run for the U.S. Senate in 2000, but ended that run while battling prostate cancer and a made-for-tabloids divorce from television star Donna Hanover. The messy divorce and his relationship with Judith Nathan also made his campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton all the more difficult.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.

[TomAuch]

I don't think "Red America" will go for this guy:

http://www.newyorkslime.com/giuliani-drag.jpg

[ZippyTheChimp]

The former mayor is a moderate who supports gun control and abortion rights, stands that would put him at odds with the majority of GOP conservative base.He's popular in swing-states, like Ohio.

[TomAuch]

He's popular in swing-states, like Ohio.

Once socially-conservative swing voters find out that his first wife was his cousin, and about his messy divorce with Donna Hanover, I doubt he will stay popular with them. Kerik, Louima, and Diallo could also sink his candidacy in the general election (I don't see Republican primary voters giving a shit about those incidents, sadly.)

[ZippyTheChimp]

^
I'm not sure what a socially-conservative swing voter's profile is, but states such as Ohio decided the 2004 election. If voters in these states have accepted his position on gay-rights and abortion, then his messy divorce, etc will make little difference.

As far as his qualifications, I think his biggest negative is the inability to accept contrary positions, and work out a compromise. You can get away with it as a mayor, but it becomes more difficult for a senator, or a president.

The Bible Belt will reject him outright; it all depends on where the GOP moves over the next two years.

If the outcome in 2008 is a GOP president and a DEM Congress, I would rather have Giuliani than someone who thinks Jesus has given him a mandate.

[OmegaNYC]

^^^^ Nice! ;)

[Ninjahedge]

I think his biggest negative is the inability to accept contrary positions, and work out a compromise


I would rather have Giuliani than someone who thinks Jesus has given him a mandate


We all know that with Giuliani, Jesus would have to listen to HIM... ;)

[BrooklynRider]

I think the death knell has sounded for the divide and conquer Rovian politics. This election has kind of indicated a move toward civility and a STRONG desire of people wanting the overall representation of the country to play to the center, center-left and center-right. My guess is that the tide will turn on candidates playing to the "base." Base politics is failing with the rise of the Independents, who everyone now needs to win. They are pragmatic, principled and have little allegiance to "party." They vote on issues, vision, and character. This is a race with no President or Vice President running. Negative ads are sure to backfire. It is going to be interesting. But, with a strong NY Delegation serving as leaders of critical committees in the Congress, it would be very hard as a New Yorker not t o give Rudy or Hillary most serious consideration strictly from a "what helps New York best" point of view.

[lofter1]

The Mormon Question

Andrew Sullivan (http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/11/the_mormon_ques.html)
22 Nov 2006

Mitt Romney will surely provide a fascinating glimpse into the Christianist (http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/11/the_christianis.html) mindset in the coming two years. He will be the candidate for the Christianist right, but he's not a Christian. And many Christianists may well recoil at the man's Mormon faith. In fact, the latest Rasmussen poll (http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Political%20Tracking/Dailies/MormanMittRomney.htm) shows that 53 percent of evangelical Christians would not even consider voting for a Mormon president. That's more than the 43 percent in the general population. So this emerges as a delicious irony: a candidacy made possible by sectarian politics could subsequently be made impossible by the same forces.

I'm sorry if I have little sympathy for Romney's plight. Live by fundamentalism; die by fundamentalism.

[Punzie]

Angus Reid Global Monitor : Polls & Research

Republicans 2008: Giuliani Barely Edges McCain

December 12, 2006

Two politicians are the early favourites in the race for the Republican Party’s next presidential nomination in the United States, according to a poll by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion released by WNBC. 24 per cent of respondents would vote for former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, while 23 per cent would support Arizona senator John McCain.

U.S. state secretary Condoleezza Rice is third with 15 per cent, followed by former House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich with eight per cent. Support is lower for Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, Tennessee senator Bill Frist, Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel, former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson, Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo, and New York governor George Pataki.

Giuliani garnered national and international attention in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In 2000, McCain won seven Republican presidential primaries in the U.S., but retired from the race after eventual nominee George W. Bush became the frontrunner.

Last month, Thompson announced he intends to form a presidential exploratory committee. The former health and human services secretary said health care, energy independence and the war in Iraq would be the main issues in 2008, adding, "The times are right for my ideas."

In American elections, candidates require 270 votes in the Electoral College to win the White House. In November 2004, Bush earned a second term after securing 286 electoral votes from 31 states. Democratic nominee John Kerry received 252 electoral votes from 19 states and the District of Columbia.

Bush is ineligible for a third term in office. The next presidential election is scheduled for November 2008.

Polling Data

If the 2008 Republican presidential primary were held today, whom would you support if the candidates are:

(Asked of Republicans and Republican leaning independents)

{This is how you read it: The first percentage under each candidate's name is Dec '06. The 2nd is Sept '06 and the 3rd is Feb '06. A table with this data is in the link.}

Dec. 2006
Sept. 2006
Feb. 2006

Rudy Giuliani
24%
23%
22%

John McCain
23%
15%
22%

Condoleezza Rice
15%
20%
22%

Newt Gingrich
8%
7%
5%

Mitt Romney
4%
4%
4%

Bill Frist
3%
4%
2%

Chuck Hagel
2%
--
1%

Tommy Thompson
1%
--
--

Mike Huckabee
1%
--
--

Tom Tancredo
1%
1%
1%

George Pataki
1%
2%
2%

Sam Brownback
--
1%
--

Undecided
17%
21%
17%

Source: Marist College Institute for Public Opinion / WNBC
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 967 registered American voters, including 327 Democrats, 294 Republicans, and 314 independents, conducted from Nov. 27 to Dec. 3, 2006. Margin of error for the subsample of Democrats and Republican leaners is 5 per cent.

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/14063

[Jake]

Looks like McCain's numbers are all over the place while Giuliani is gaining ground steadily.

IMHO McCain is the best fit for a candidate.

The question really is this: Do you think Reps would win NY if Giuliani was running? I mean 31 electoral points would tilt this election very far.

[lofter1]

McCain was born in August 1936.

He'll be 72 years old when the 2008 election takes place.

If he were to win he would be 76 at the end of his first term ... :confused:

[kliq6]

Once socially-conservative swing voters find out that his first wife was his cousin, and about his messy divorce with Donna Hanover, I doubt he will stay popular with them. Kerik, Louima, and Diallo could also sink his candidacy in the general election (I don't see Republican primary voters giving a shit about those incidents, sadly.)

Sadly Louima and Diallo will get him votes in some parts of the nation.

[kliq6]

Looks like McCain's numbers are all over the place while Giuliani is gaining ground steadily.

IMHO McCain is the best fit for a candidate.

The question really is this: Do you think Reps would win NY if Giuliani was running? I mean 31 electoral points would tilt this election very far.

Rudy would put NY in play and would do very well in the Suburbs and Upstate, if he got the percentage of votes in Brooklyn, Queens and Si that he go tin 1997, he could win NY hands down against anyone but Hillary

[Bob]

I am a libertarian but find myself voting republican about 99% of the time. What I'm looking for is the new Ronald Reagan, albeit with a more libertarian slant. None of the names suggested so far do it for me. Gingrich is brilliant and can win, but I don't think the GOP has the smarts to take a chance on him. In a matchup between Gingrich and Clinton, it's Gingrich by a nose. A Gingrich/Zell matchup would be unbeatable.

[BrooklynRider]

Interesting Bob, I'm a democratic libertarian - meaning I believe in everything you do with regard to unecumbered freedoms, except I believe that corporations need to be tightly regulated to protect individual and national interests.

With that said, Zell Miller gave such a blistering and divisive speech at the RNC that he is too divisive a character to even be considered for office. He came off as mean-spirited and has proven to have no loyalty (which means you can't trust him).

McCain is tanking in the polls precisely because he is hiring George W. Bush's campaign staff and they only know how to master the divide and conquer game, which was roundly rejected this past election and will likely remain the national mood for the presidential cycle. In addition, he has aligned himself so closely with George W. Bush's Iraq policy that to vote for him is to vote for a GWB clone. He has also sidled up to Henry Kissinger who, in my opinion, has seen his reputation as an "elder statesman" deteriorate. Finally, McCain is breaking and reneging on al the tenets of the McCain-Feingold Campain Reforms laws. Talk about "flip-flop."

Rudy Giuliani campaigned heavily for Republicans over the last 5 years and HE is the main draw for any fundraiser. Rove, Cheney, GW Bush, Condi, Hastert, Gingrich - none come close to Rudy for star power and fundraising ability. I'm not inclined toward Republican business-first politics, but I actually know people who know him personally and who work for him. For all the mean-spirited stuff he did in his 2nd term as mayor, I know the guy has a heart.

The most exciting race we can see and certainly the one that holds the best prospects for NY is a Clinton vs. Giuliani race. NY cannot lose either way.

Mitt Romney will not get anywhere because he is Mormon and has too many actions as Massachusetts governor that he ultimately contradicted by statements made as he tumbles toward a presidential run.

I think "conservatism" has a lot to recover from after the abuse it suffered under George W. Bush and his team of Vulcans. They can't run on national security anymore (look at Iraq), they can't run on fiscal responsibility (see the budget deficits and trade deficits), they can't run on the economy (despite a strong stock market Americans are earning less now than under Clinton figuring in inflation). All they can do is go to "values issues" and, again, the last election proved them to be useless.

Rudy is pro-gay rights, pro-choice, pro-education, a security expert, and (like him or hate him) a natural born executive.

He's the one to beat.

Ultimately, I'd love to see a fusion ticket - Republican/Democrat - not caring who is on top of bottom oft he ticket. - or a strong independent contender to mix it up.

[ablarc]

Bloomberg?

[ZippyTheChimp]

What party?

[ablarc]

What party?
That's the beauty of it.

[BrooklynRider]

Bloomberg?


A definite possibility, but does he have the national name recognition and will the yahoo's vote for a Jewish man for president?

This country has come a long way, but I don't think they're ready for that leap.

I'm iffy on him. He has some fine qualities, but I don't think he balances social / human programming equally with business sector programs. I want a check on corporate America. I'm not sure who that leaves me to choose from on either side of the political divide.

[ablarc]

I want a check on corporate America. I'm not sure who that leaves me to choose from on either side of the political divide.
Ralph Nader. :p


Less flippantly: Al Gore.


Btw, you're not really a libertarian; those folks favor an economic Wild West. Libertine, perhaps? ;)

.

[lofter1]

A talking head on NY1 recently said that Bloomberg will throw himself into the 2008 race -- and be willing to spend up to $500 Million of his own money to finance it. The main reason being: to get some important issues on the table that otherwise would not be discussed in a Presidential campaign (due to lobbyists who foot the bill for candidates).

Now that would make things interesting ....

[ZippyTheChimp]

Bloomberg negatives for nomination: Bostonian, New Yorker, ex-Democrat, Jew, short, advocacy of gun-control.

[ablarc]

^ Against that: he will impress people with his seriousness, his thoughtfulness and his moderation.

[pianoman11686]

A definite possibility, but does he have the national name recognition and will the yahoo's vote for a Jewish man for president?

This country has come a long way, but I don't think they're ready for that leap.

I'm iffy on him. He has some fine qualities, but I don't think he balances social / human programming equally with business sector programs. I want a check on corporate America. I'm not sure who that leaves me to choose from on either side of the political divide.

It's said that people thought the same about Kennedy initially, and yet he became one of our most beloved presidents.

If we haven't come a long way, how is it that we're simultaneously floating the prospects of the first female president (Hillary) and the first black president (Obama)? Neither seems unlikely. And if Bloomberg really spends as much of his campaign money on getting the rest of America acquainted with him as he did with New York (the first time around), I don't see why he can't win people over.

Question: what do you mean by "a check on corporate America," and why would Bloomberg be less qualified to address that than other candidates?

[pianoman11686]

Btw, you're not really a libertarian; those folks favor an economic Wild West. Libertine, perhaps? ;)

I have a feeling this was said tongue-in-cheek, but...

If what BR means is that he thinks corporations are violating individual rights (e.g. privacy) and are not getting serious enough penalties for malfeasance, then he can still hold as a libertarian. A better question would be if BR is in favor or against regulations that are meant to be preventative, as opposed to reactionary. Antitrust is a good example.

[lofter1]

OOPS ...

Revealed: Rudy's '08 battle plans


http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/485008p-408347c.html
Monday, January 1st, 2007

It's clearly laid out in 140 pages of printed text, handwriting and spreadsheets: The top-secret plan for Rudy Giuliani's bid for the White House.

The remarkably detailed dossier sets out the budgets, schedules and fund-raising plans that will underpin the former New York mayor's presidential campaign - as well as his aides' worries that personal and political baggage could scuttle his run.

At the center of his efforts: a massive fund-raising push to bring in at least $100 million this year, with a scramble for at least $25 million in the next three months alone.

The loss of the battle plan is a remarkable breach in the high-stakes game of presidential politics and a potentially disastrous blunder for Giuliani in the early stages of his campaign.

The document was obtained by the Daily News from a source sympathetic to one of Giuliani's rivals for the White House. The source said it was left behind in one of the cities Giuliani visited as he campaigned for dozens of Republican candidates in the weeks leading up to the November 2006 elections.

Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel suggested there were political dirty tricks behind the loss of the documents and called the timing suspicious.

"I wonder why such suspicious activity is occurring and can only guess it is because of Rudy's poll numbers in New Hampshire and Iowa," Mindel said.

Giuliani leads most public opinion polls of Republican primary voters though he has not announced his candidacy for President. But the dossier, which envisions spending more than $21 million this year alone, shows that Giuliani began meeting with potential supporters last April and that by October, his staff had put in place a detailed plan for a serious bid for the presidency. But they also depict a candidate torn between his prosperous business and a political future full of both promise and risk.

One page cites the explicit concern that he might "drop out of [the] race" as a consequence of his potentially "insurmountable" personal and political vulnerabilities.

On the same page is a list of the candidate's central problems in bullet-point form: his private sector business; disgraced former aide Bernard Kerik; his third wife, Judith Nathan Giuliani; "social issues," on which is he is more liberal than most Republicans, and his former wife Donna Hanover.

The concerns appear to be listed as issues for Giuliani law partner Pat Oxford to address and are followed by the central question of the campaign:

Are there "prob[lem]s that are insurmount[able]?" it asks, adding, "Has anyone reviewed with RWG?" Giuliani, whose middle name is William, is referred to throughout the document by his initials.

"All will come out - in worst light," the memo continues. "$100 million against us on this stuff."

The binder's pages are unsigned, but several pages have the initials "AD" circled, apparently referring to Giuliani's chief fund-raiser, Anne Dickerson. She is also the most likely person to have prepared the bulk of the binder's contents, which detail his fund-raising plan.

The pages are photocopied, some including copies of handwritten notes. On one page, two tasks for Giuliani aide Anthony Carbonetti - his closest political adviser and frequent travel companion - are highlighted in yellow.


* * *

The detailed fund-raising plans depict a campaign scrambling to catch up with the organizational advantage of Giuliani's Republican rivals, particularly Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Some of the leading figures in American business and finance appear as the "prospective leadership" of Giuliani's campaign, and their names appear elsewhere with instructions for Giuliani to call and seek their support. Two of the top figures on Giuliani's list, New Jersey mega-fund-raisers Lew Eisenberg and Larry Bathgate, have already signed on with McCain, as has another Giuliani target, FedEx CEO Fred Smith.

In a memo that appears in the dossier, Giuliani aides Dickerson and Roy Bailey urge him to court financier Henry Kravis particularly avidly.

"You need him to be a Wall Street industry leader," the memo says.

McCain announced Kravis' support last month.

The plan also anticipates his recruiting top GOP fund-raiser Cathy Blaney in New York on a retainer of $260,000 and her Florida counterpart, Ann Herberger, at $216,000. But between the plan's preparation in the fall and today, Blaney became the chief fund-raiser for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, while Herberger reportedly has signed on to the presidential campaign of Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Other business leaders targeted by Giuliani remain publicly uncommitted: Paramount CEO Brad Grey, Giuliani's talent agent after 9/11, is envisioned as leading a "celebrities" fund-raising arm; former Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton would raise money from professional athletes. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, PepsiCo chief Dawn Hudson and Goldman Sachs president Lloyd Blankfein are also listed as "industry leaders."

The documents depict hedge fund tycoon Paul Singer, a close Giuliani ally, playing a central role in his fund-raising operation.

The dossier doesn't make clear whether the people named have committed privately to Giuliani or even been approached to support him.

Giuliani fund-raiser Dickerson served as a deputy to the chief fund-raiser of George Bush's 2004 reelection campaign, and the papers suggest Giuliani will model at least the fund-raising portion of his campaign explicitly on Bush's. Several pages appear to be Bush-Cheney campaign internal budget documents and are marked "confidential."

Bush divided his main fund-raisers into "Rangers," who raised at least $200,000 each, and "Pioneers," who raised $100,000. Giuliani's metaphor is baseball: "Team Captains" are responsible for $1 million each in contributions, and "MVPs" bring in $200,000 each. Bush's "Pioneers" become Giuliani's "All-Stars," and those who raise $50,000 are "Sluggers."

Giuliani differs from Bush in one important way, though. His fund-raising heartland isn't Texas, but the more liberal state of California, the only place other than New York and Washington where the campaign plans to open a dedicated fund-raising office.

Still, Giuliani enters the race with ambitious fund-raising goals that will likely consume huge amounts of his time and energy this year. The plan projects his raising $100 million to $125 million this year at 250 different gatherings with wealthy donors - including $25 million to $30 million at 50 events over the next three months.

His schedule, an aide said in a handwritten note on one page, is "an issue."

All contents © 2007 Daily News, L.P.

[lofter1]

Giuliani’s Strategy Is All on His Web Site

nytimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/05/nyregion/05cnd-rudy.html?ex=1325653200&en=52b9e9cea8ce6335&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss)

By JOYCE PURNICK
January 5, 2007


Political Memo


The country sure has been enjoying itself reading about the Rudy Caper, feasting on the inside dish gleaned from Rudolph W. Giuliani’s presidential playbook.


The purloined or lost document gives outsiders a glimpse behind the curtain, a rare look at political calculations that, if predictable in their revelations, are decidedly surprising in their candor. Irresistible. The unexpected — the macaca tidbit it might be called today — always is in the game of control that is politics.


Consider the alternative — Mr. Giuliani’s own Web site, which went up last month when he formed his presidential exploratory committee. There it is on the World Wide Web — www.JoinRudy2008.com (http://www.joinrudy2008.com/). Anyone with a computer can access the cheerful red, white and blue site to learn how the former mayor wants the public to see him, how he’d like to be portrayed in a presidential campaign.


The Rudy Giuliani of JoinRudy2008 is a dragon slayer with a record of unmitigated success. He is a man with an open smile, replacing the fearsome City Hall scowl that he used so often to great effect.


While the site is shiny and super-spun, the campaign document — whether stolen and leaked by a Giuliani political opponent, as the former mayor contends, or provided to The Daily News by someone “sympathetic” to a Giuliani rival, as the newspaper contends — is dark and forthright.


And so the document has created a stir, and surely not for its contents. What else should Giuliani advisers do but plan to raise a lot of money from the super-rich, and worry about their man’s political vulnerabilities?


The Giuliani papers are anti-spin. Meant for insider eyes, they concede that Mr. Giuliani as a presidential candidate might have to contend with such trouble as questions about his former wife, Donna Hanover, and his former associate, the controversial Bernard B. Kerik. It cites concerns about Mr. Giuliani’s relatively liberal positions on social issues — stances not likely to find favor with the Republican Party’s conservative wing.


This is all surely true. The other way to look at these matters is, don’t look at them. That is the Web site’s way.


For instance, it liberally features Judith Nathan, Mr. Giuliani’s current wife, providing a polished version of her career, accompanied by two flattering photographs.


Nowhere to be found on the site is even a mention of Ms. Hanover, married to Mr. Giuliani for 18 years and the mother of his two children. They divorced in 2002 after Mr. Giuliani announced to a stunned press corps — without telling Ms. Hanover first — that the couple was splitting up.


The Web site doesn’t mention Mr. Giuliani’s first wife either, Regina Peruggi.


It does not mention the former mayor’s two children, Andrew and Caroline.


It does not mention Mr. Kerik, the disgraced former police commissioner who would have been the secretary of homeland security today if his messy past hadn’t caught up with him.


It does not mention Amadou Diallo, the unarmed West African immigrant whose death in 1999 in a fusillade of 41 police bullets was one of the most wrenching episodes of the Giuliani mayoralty.


The Web site does not cite the social issues referred to in the leaked document either — his support for abortion rights, gay rights and gun control, for instance — three positions that are not popular with many conservative Republicans. The party’s base may not be familiar yet with the Giuliani record before his leadership in the aftermath of Sept. 11 brought him national acclaim.


As many political analysts have frequently pointed out, his record and conduct before the terrorist attack is not well known to those beyond the borders of New York City, and as a private citizen for the last five years, he hasn’t had to illuminate the public about his position on anything from Iraq to global warming, unless he has chosen to.


The site won’t fill in the blanks, focusing as it naturally does on Mr. Giuliani’s strongest and best-known accomplishments, like presiding over a significant reduction in crime and becoming “America’s Mayor” after Sept. 11.


His record is portrayed only in a successful light. Missing is any reference to the famous Giuliani combativeness, which he and many (not all) New Yorkers seemed to relish; that crime had actually had begun to go down before he took office; that the city, which improved in many areas during his mayoralty, was still not a Utopia after two terms of his leadership; that polls showed that many New Yorkers, including some who had voted for him, had grown weary of his pugnacious style.


Asked about the site’s contents this week a spokeswoman for Mr. Giuliani, Sunny Mindel, said she would not comment.


The Web sites of other prospective candidates are just as relentlessly positive because, political strategists note, they are no more than the cyberspace version of campaign brochures.


Most voters recognize the limitations of today’s managed politics, those same strategists say — from the sound bite to the carefully modulated speech — and so relish the unscripted moments. Almost as much as reporters do.


Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

[eddhead]

What party?

Independent. No doubt about it.


A definite possibility, but does he have the national name recognition

Did Ross Perot in 1992? He still managed to impact the election


...and will the yahoo's vote for a Jewish man for president?

Are they ready for an Afro-American or a Woman?


This country has come a long way, but I don't think they're ready for that leap.

Perhaps you are correct, but he can still provide a service to cause of national discourse just by running as an independent. The ability to self-fund implies he is less emcoumbered than the major party candidates.. he would not be beholding to either party, nor to Big Business, nor big labor for that matter. He can run on his own platform and agenda and shape the national debate by focusing on truly substantive issues of Geopolitical and National importance and force the other candidates to take thougtfull positions. Maybe we can budge the 5 second soundbite. Of course I do not know the man, but I get the sence that the ability to effect these impacts would appeal to him.


I want a check on corporate America. I'm not sure who that leaves me to choose from on either side of the political divide.

You may be right about this, but again, the ability to self-fund his campaign, may mitigate your concern . He would not reliant upon corporate money so he is likely to be an advocate of big business.

[kliq6]

id say there only chance to win is Rudy, Hillary beats everyone else especially Gung Ho War Man Mccain.

[ManhattanKnight]

id say there only chance to win is Rudy

Right.

[eddhead]

id say there only chance to win is Rudy, Hillary beats everyone else especially Gung Ho War Man Mccain.
rudy might be the strongest republican candidate in the general election butI just do not see him winning the primary... the right wing of the republican party is just too powerfull. I also wonder how well an Italian American would do in the deep south and even some mid-west and western states... traditional republican strongholds they need to carry.

[Jasonik]

Romney picks up key endorsement

Former governor Mitt Romney picked up one a key endorsement in the Republican presidential primary process on Tuesday.

US Senator Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican, reportedly has sent a letter to Republicans in his state in which he backs Romney.

In 2000, a win in the South Carolina primary helped solidify George W. Bush as the Republican nominee. The state is expected to hold a similarily important role in 2008.

In his endorsement of Romney, DeMint breaks away from his Republican colleagues in the state. South Carolina’s other US Senator, Lindsey Graham, and Governor Mark Sanford are both expected to formally endorse US Senator John McCain.

In Iowa and New Hampshire, no governor or US senator has announced their support for any candidate.
Posted by James Pindell at 01:59 PM (http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/primarysource/2007/01/romney_picks_up.html?p1=MEWell_Pos5)


Mitt Romney raises $6.5 Million in one day (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2007/01/romneys_big_day.html)

The figure dwarfed the $2 million estimated to have been raised by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and the $1 million raised by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also have created 2008 exploratory committees. source (http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO39519/)


...meanwhile McCain pitches his platform to Mormons (in Arizona) (http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=82028)

Some pundits paint Romney as too liberal (http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/duke/070109)

[BrooklynRider]

MoveOn Calls Out McCain on His Iraq Flip Flops
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on January 17, 2007, Printed on January 17, 2007

http://www.alternet.org/story/46745/

This week, the progressive advocacy group MoveOn.org is trying to break up an epic love affair -- a passionate, committed seven-year relationship with all the romance of the most syrupy of Hollywood date flicks.

The group is trying to drive a wedge between John McCain and a fawning media that's pumped out mountains of nonsense about what a straight-shooting, independent-minded and, above all else, moderate voice McCain has been in the U.S. Senate.

Actually, they're stepping around the intertwined lovers, with a $275,000 ad buy in New Hampshire and Iowa that will bring the case straight to the American people that the War in Iraq -- and Bush's latest attempt to escalate it -- has McCain's fingerprints all over it.

John McCain's been all over the map when it comes to Iraq for a long time. Cliff Schecter notes that way back in 1990, two and a half weeks after Iraq had invaded Kuwait, McCain said that Americans shouldn't support a ground war in the Middle East because "we cannot even contemplate, in my view, trading American blood for Iraqi blood." Less than two months later, though, McCain not only contemplated the possibility, he voted to go to war on behalf of Kuwait.

As the war drums sounded for the current fiasco, McCain, echoing Dick Cheney and the administration's legion of half-baked neocons, promised a cakewalk. In September of 2002, he warned us that there might be a few casualties: "As successful as I believe we will be, and I believe that the success will be fairly easy, we will still lose some American young men or women." That same month, he told CNN, "We're not going to get into house-to-house fighting in Baghdad … we're not going to have a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies." And in early 2003, he promised viewers of MCNBC, "We will win this conflict. We will win it easily."

This month, though, he told MSNBC that he knew all along the Iraq war was "probably going to be long and hard and tough," and that he was "sorry" for those who voted for the war believing it would be "some kind of an easy task." "Maybe they didn't know what they were voting for," he said.

In October, John McCain was just as sure that 20,000 more U.S. troops would do the trick in Iraq -- bringing about stability, democracy and prosperity, and restoring America's image in the world (or something) -- as he had been about the ease with which it would be prosecuted in 2003. When reporters asked him to elaborate on his statement about the need for more combat troops in Iraq to quell a "classic insurgency," McCain said: "Another 20,000 troops in Iraq, but that means expanding the Army and the Marine Corps."

In November, McCain said again: "I believe victory is still attainable," adding: "But without additional combat forces, we will not win this war."

That prompted Robert Reich to pen a column in which he wrote: "McCain gives every impression of meaning what he says, which is one of his greatest assets." But after speaking with the senator, Reich said he "simply can't believe this one":


What's most important for the morale of the troops is knowing they'll be coming home soon, not hearing some politician say we need more troops when there's no possible chance of that happening.


I think McCain knows Iraq is out of our hands -- it's disintegrating into civil war, and by 2008 will be a bloodbath. He also knows American troops will be withdrawn. The most important political fact he knows is he has to keep a big distance between himself and Bush in order to avoid being tainted by this horrifying failure. Arguing that we need more troops effectively covers his ass. It will allow him to say, "If the president did what I urged him to do, none of this would have happened."

But if McCain thought that he was safe in advocating a troop buildup -- safe because Bush would never be insane enough to call for escalating an unpopular war just a couple of months after American voters delivered his party a powerful message that they had lost confidence in those running it -- he underestimated the president's capacity for stubborn self-delusion.

When it became clear that Bush was in fact going to call for an increase in troops, John Edwards, sensing an opportunity to get out ahead of the curve on McCain, who's considered a strong challenger for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, termed the escalation the "McCain Doctrine," effectively hanging the policy around the senator's neck.

And McCain's been squirming ever since. In early January, he said that the plan would require, specifically, 30,000 troops, adding, "a small size [deployment] would be the worst of all options to exercise, in my view." Just a day later, he went to the American Enterprise Institute with his friend Joe Lieberman and said: "We are not specific on numbers, we don't have -- we are talking about three or four combat brigades, in Baghdad, and one or two more in Anbar province. We are not that much detailed-oriented."

As blogger Steve Benen points out, McCain's been moving the goalposts in an attempt to preemptively distance himself from a policy that's all but guaranteed to fail.

MoveOn.org's ads, which started airing yesterday in the crucial primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire, criticize McCain for "leading the charge" to send more American troops to "a failed war."

"This Congress was elected with a mandate to end the disaster in Iraq," MoveOn's political director, Tom Matzzie, said in a statement. "MoveOn is going to demand that members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, show leadership that the president won't."

The group, which pumped over $27 million into the last election cycle, has seen its membership grow by 50,000 members after it circulated a petition against the president's planned escalation. The group is doing what many hoped the media would: holding public servants accountable for being wrong -- often many times over -- about the worst foreign policy disaster in American history.

Hopefully, that effort will have some traction, and the 2008 candidates will find that trying to "stay the course" in Iraq is politically untenable. And that might, at long last, allow us to bring American troops back home.

Joshua Holland is an AlterNet staff writer.

© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.

[ZippyTheChimp]

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