Clipmarks | kelvin273's 'election' clips

McCain, Ohio Dem Party aim ads at each other

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:36:54 GMT

clipped by: kelvin273
clipper's remarks: And so the onslaught begins, and it won't end until November. Such is life in a swing state.

Clip Source: www.daytondailynews.com

COLUMBUS — With a trip to Youngstown by Republican John McCain and an anti-McCain radio attack ad from Ohio Democrats, the general campaign for president in Ohio unofficially blasts off today, April 22.

McCain put up a TV ad in the Youngstown area last week.

The battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination still rages with today's primary in neighboring Pennsylvania.

That leaves it to the Ohio Democratic Party to "welcome" McCain with an ad to be broadcast through Friday in Youngstown and across southeast Ohio on a variety of radio stations, including those with country and Christian formats.

Tags: politics, election, ads

Evangelicals may go Democratic

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:12:33 GMT

clipped by: kelvin273
clipper's remarks: If a fair number of evangelicals were to actually vote for a liberal like Obama in the general election, that would mark a sea change in U.S. politics. I can't help but worry that Hell would also freeze over.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

(CNN) -- Which Democrat is winning the battle for religious voters? God only knows.

For years, the evangelical community has largely supported Republican presidential candidates.

Conservative Christian activists, drawn by the party's stands on abortion, gay marriage and other social issues, have been among the GOP's most reliable foot soldiers. Watch how faith is playing into the election »

During the primary season, former Baptist minister Mike Huckabee appealed directly to evangelicals as one of their own -- but in opinion polls conducted early in the primary season, those voters preferred either Democrat to the former Arkansas governor.

Winning over religious voters, especially evangelicals, is still an uphill climb for any Democrat -- but for the first time in recent memory, the party believes its next nominee may have a prayer.

Tags: politics, religion, election

It's over, and the Democrats win

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:31:49 GMT

clipped by: kelvin273
clipper's remarks: I couldn't clip the entire 13 Keys system in detail and stay under the sharing limit, but check it out in the full article. The only problem with the columnist's analysis is that he forgets to mention that the 13 keys only predict the winner of the popular vote. It doesn't predict the Electoral College winner (and thus doesn't always predict the actual president).

Clip Source: www.daytondailynews.com

Last October, the system's creator, Allan Lichtman, a professor at Washington's American University, was reported in this space to be saying that the year looked Democratic, pending only some "cataclysmic" change in circumstances.

Today's column is agnostic as to whom the Democrats will nominate. For purposes of the general-election prediction, it doesn't matter.

Of the 13 factors the systems considers, seven now favor the Democrats. Only six are needed for it to win.

Specifically, the Democrats have recently increased their numbers in Congress.

And the Democrats do not have to confront a sitting president

Meanwhile, the economy has been growing at about 2.7 percent a year during this term, as opposed to 3.2 percent during the previous eight years. That's three keys.

Also, Bush has failed to enact any major change in national direction in his second term.

He has not had any major foreign policy success. But there's the major failure: Iraq.

Tags: politics, election

Girl in Clinton ad supports Obama

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:07:30 GMT

clipped by: kelvin273
clipper's remarks: Ah, the ironies of stock footage.

Clip Source: www.cbsnews.com

(CBS) Casey Knowles didn't much like a recent campaign commercial for Hillary Clinton - even though she's in it as a sleeping 8-year-old.

After all, she's about to turn 18 now and is a big supporter of Barack Obama.

The well-known Clinton ad aired in Texas before last week's vote and implied a lack of experience on Obama's part. It showed an exterior of a Colonial-style home and old stock footage of Knowles sleeping in bed. A narrator describes a phone ringing in the White House: "It's 3 a.m. and your children are safely asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?"

The file footage was originally shot for a railroad company advertisement. The Clinton campaign bought it from Getty Images.

After her identity became known, Obama's campaign contacted her.

"I mentioned that we should make a counter ad, me and Obama, against Hillary," she said. "They thought that was really funny. They actually might take me up on it."

Tags: politics, election, ads, hillary clinton, barack obama

Dennis Hastert's seat goes to Democrat

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:07:32 GMT

clipped by: kelvin273
clipper's remarks: Oddly enough, this development may be a good argument for not putting Obama on the ticket if Clinton comes back to win. If the downstate areas of Illinois are going Democratic, the party really doesn't have to worry about Illinois' electoral votes in the fall.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- A longtime Republican district fell Saturday to the Democrats when a wealthy businessman and scientist snatched former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's congressional seat in a closely watched special election.

Democrat Bill Foster won 53 percent of the vote compared to 47 percent for Republican Jim Oberweis. With all 568 precincts reporting, Foster had 52,010 votes to Oberweis' 46,988.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen said Foster's win is a rebuke of the Bush administration and of the GOP's apparent presidential nominee, John McCain, who helped raise money for Oberweis.

The National Republican Congressional Committee downplayed the significance of the loss and said the back and forth between Democrats for the presidential nomination shows that one election doesn't indicate a trend.

Tags: politics, illinois, congress

Red state turning blue (maybe)

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 05:15:36 GMT

clipped by: kelvin273
clipper's remarks: I've been wondering over the past couple of years whether the 2006 Democratic victories in Ohio were just about Coingate, and this could provide some answers. The fact that Clinton was leading in polls of Democratic party voters before the primary indicates that her victory probably wasn't due to party switching. Second, turnout for Democratic primaries and caucuses was higher even early on in the process, when both parties' nominations were up in the air.

Clip Source: www.daytondailynews.com

WASHINGTON — Something funny happened in the March 4 primary election in Mercer, Greene, Butler and dozens of other traditionally red counties: They turned blue.

In 66 of Ohio's 88 counties, voters cast more Democratic ballots than Republican ballots. That's a far cry from 2004, when George W. Bush won 73 counties.

It could be that all the drama Tuesday was on the Democratic side and everyone wanted to get in on the act. But some Democrats fear Republicans were crossing party lines to choose Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama, thinking Clinton would have a harder time beating John McCain.

But Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, isn't so quick to dismiss the theory of shifting political sands. He argues that a Democratic sea change began in 2006, when both he and Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland were elected. "People want change and John McCain is going to lose," he said. "This mountain is too high for him to climb."

Tags: politics, election, ohio

New Texas poll, or the elephant in the room

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:19:40 GMT

clipped by: kelvin273
clipper's remarks: I find it interesting that they're so obsessed with whether Clinton is going to narrowly win or narrowly lose. She needs to dominate in Ohio and Texas in order to catch up in the delegate count, due to the Democrats' fondness for proportional representation.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

(CNN) -- Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are in a statistical dead heat in Texas, according to a poll released eight days before the state's crucial presidential primary.

In the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Monday, 50 percent of likely Democratic primary voters said Obama is their choice for the party's nominee, while 46 percent backed Clinton.

But taking into account the poll's sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for Democratic respondents, the race is a virtual tie.

"The 2-point gain for Obama and the 4-point drop for Clinton are both within the poll's sampling error, so although the survey appears to indicate some movement toward Obama, we cannot say for certain that he has gained any ground since last week," said CNN polling director Keating Holland.

Tags: politics, election, hillary clinton, barack obama, poll, texas

Dems are 20th Century, Republicans 19th

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:15:31 GMT

clipped by: kelvin273
clipper's remarks: It was hard to get a coherent 1000-character clip out of this, but the point's an interesting one. The more in-depth analysis in the full article is worth reading, too.

Clip Source: hnn.us

As the Democratic contest becomes a battle of two titans, it is becoming a nationwide fight between two political stars with national constituencies. This was characteristic of some of the great nomination battles of the last half-century

But the more wide-open Republican contest evokes comparisons with the fragmented nomination contests of yesteryear – only in those days the constituencies were often state or at best regional and today they are less geographically-based.

While much of the focus recently has been on race and gender in the Hillary versus Obama contest, the simple fact that the two have that iconic, Cher-like, famous-enough-to-be-known-by-one-name status, suggests that we are also talking about the politics of celebrity.

So far, the three Republican victors most resemble the various regional warlords who would show up to quadrennial party conventions in the 1800s

this year’s convention may actually be relevant for the nomination of the party’s standard bearer

Tags: politics, election, history

Papua New Guinea's History of Corruption

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 05:57:33 GMT

clipped by: kelvin273
clipper's remarks: Just in case you thought Chicago was the height of political corruption.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Voting begins in Papua New Guinea

The authorities are determined to avoid a repeat of the violence and corruption which surrounded the last election in 2002, when an estimated 100 people were killed and vote-rigging was rife.

In some districts, electoral rolls were inflated by as much as 300%.

They included the names not only of people who were dead, but voters who had never even existed.

Tags: papua new guinea, elections, corruption

Ron Paul officially running for president

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 05:44:22 GMT

clipped by: kelvin273
clipper's remarks: Not that it really matters. But it is good to know that there are politicians who don't vote lockstep with their party and who aren't quite as obnoxious as Zell Miller.

Clip Source: www.cqpolitics.com

Paul, who represents southeastern Texas’ 14th District, announced on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” program that he is taking his presidential bid beyond the exploratory phase that he had announced in January.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul — the conservative and iconoclastic congressional veteran who in 1988 was the Libertarian Party nominee for president — said Monday that he is formally seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

Paul’s presidential bid is notable in part because the congressman vigorously opposes President Bush on many issues, chiefly his strategy in Iraq.

Paul has long cultivated a reputation as a Republican contrarian with his votes and statements on other issues.

Paul’s tendency to cast lone “no” votes on seemingly innocuous pieces of spending legislation earned the obstetrician-turned-politician the nickname of “Dr. No.”

Tags: politics, election, president, ron paul, republican

CQ Analyisis: Race and Gender in 2008 Presidential Election

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 04:14:47 GMT

clipped by: kelvin273
clipper's remarks: I find this analysis kind of amusing when it comes to Southern Ohio. This state has elected women to statewide office before, including a Republican attorney general. Furthermore, the Republican nominee for governor last year was a black man, J. Kenneth Blackwell. Ohio Republicans have no problem voting for either women or minorities. This sounds like another attempt by the political class to blame the potential failure of liberal politics to capture votes on such things like race and gender (see, Jesse Jackson c. 1984 and 1988).

Clip Source: www.cqpolitics.com

Craig Crawford‘s 1600: Thinking About Tomorrow

By Craig Crawford | 6:32 PM; Dec. 29, 2006 | Email This Article

Even as more and more presidential hopefuls enter the field, introducing themselves to voters and positioning their stands on critical issues, the big question for 2008 remains unchanged: Is America ready for a woman or an African-American in the White House?

The conventional wisdom these days leans against the probability of such a historic step. But the political map suggests otherwise.

For starters, there are no solid indicators of anti-feminist or anti-black sentiment in the so-called blue states that Democrats won in the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns. Indeed, women are especially successful in getting elected statewide there: Five blue states have women as governors. And the gender and race of candidates are losing ground as factors in Florida and Ohio, the states that would have put Democrats over the top in the Electoral College had the party won either in recent elections.

This test is most crucial to the Democratic Party’s chances for regaining the presidency. A woman and a black man top the list of contenders: Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois. There is even a real possibility that a Clinton/Obama ticket could emerge from the party primaries that begin in a year.

Southern Ohio and Northwest Florida are rooted in Deep South social conservatism, posing the greatest threat to a Democratic ticket that includes a woman or a black. George W. Bush won re-election in 2004 largely on the strength of his successful appeals to southern Ohio voters motivated by issues such as banning gay marriage. Had he not been able to boost turnout in that region, he would not have won Ohio and would not have gained a second term.

Tags: politics, elections, 2008

Vern Buchanan claims 18,000 people "chose" to vote in local races but not House race

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 03:05:24 GMT

clipped by: kelvin273
clipper's remarks: Does this strike anyone else as the most insincere Orwellian doublespeak ever?

Clip Source: www.cqpolitics.com

The CQPolitics Interview: Vern Buchanan (Fla. 13)

By Rachel Kapochunas | 2:22 PM; Dec. 08, 2006 | Email This Article

The final outcome of the House contest in Florida’s 13th District has now been delayed for more than a month. Democratic nominee Christine Jennings has filed official complaints and lawsuits seeking to overturn state election officials’ Nov. 20 certification of Republican Vern Buchanan as the winner of the open-seat contest, by a margin of 369 votes.

Jennings alleges that irregularities, particularly malfunctions of electronic voting machines, were responsible for 18,000 “undervotes” in Sarasota County — ballots on which votes were cast for other offices but not in the House race. Noting that she led Buchanan in the certified vote count for that county, Jennings argues that she would have won had all votes registered correctly, and she is calling for the election to be held over again.

But Buchanan, the declared winner, told CQPolitics.com in a phone interview Thursday that he is focused on a much larger number: the 238,000 district residents whose votes were counted in the race to pick the successor to two-term Republican Rep. Katherine Harris, who made a failed bid for Senate.

“I think she’s really disenfranchising the 238,000 that did cast their votes,” Buchanan said of Jennings.

Rejecting Jennings’ claim that undervotes were caused by faulty electronic voting equipment — which she reiterated in an interview with CQPolitics.com on Tuesday — Buchanan said many of those undervotes occurred because voters purposely chose not to participate in the House election. This, Buchanan asserts, is a choice that deserves respect.

“She wants to take away the peoples’ rights to not vote,” Buchanan said of Jennings. “If someone doesn’t want to vote in a race, it’s fine. But she is really challenging the whole system of democracy.”

Tags: politics, congress, elections, voting

5 Midterm Myths

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 05:06:15 GMT

clipped by: kelvin273
clipper's remarks: Complete explanations in the source article.

Clip Source: www.time.com

5 Myths About the Midterm Elections

Did the bloggers matter in the end? Are the Dems more conservative? Did Republicans lose on the war? TIME separates fact from fiction

Posted Thursday, Nov. 16, 2006
MYTH: Joe Lieberman's victory proves the netroots don't matter.
REALITY: The netroots had some key victories.

MYTH: Democrats won because they carefully recruited more conservative candidates.
REALITY: Democrats won because their candidates were conservative about their message.

MYTH: The losses Republicans sufferend this election were no different than what you usually see in a President's sixth year in office.
REALITY: Redistricting minimized what might have been a truly historic shellacking.

MYTH: The election was all about the war.
REALITY: It's the dishonesty, stupid.

MYTH: Republicans lost their base.
REALITY: The base turned out, they just got beat.

Tags: politics, congress, elections