Obama Has Double Digit Lead in National Polls

But fares less well against McCain than Clinton.

From Gallup Polls:

PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup Poll Daily tracking finds Barack Obama with his largest advantage over Hillary Clinton in Democratic voters' nomination preferences thus far, 55% to 39%. Obama's previous largest lead was 11 percentage points, in May 15-17 and April 12-14 polling. His widening lead over Clinton has been evident in each of the last three days of tracking, after the two had been more closely matched earlier in the month.

Despite her growing deficit to Obama in the Democratic race, Clinton continues to poll slightly better than Obama in matchups for the general presidential election vs. John McCain. The latest tracking results, based on May 14-18 polling, shows Clinton with a 48% to 44% lead over McCain among registered voters nationwide, while Obama has just a 1-point edge (46% to 45%) over the likely Republican nominee. -- Jeff Jones

I'm curious as to whether or not the feuding between the Obama and Clinton camps has worked in McCain's favor. Obama previously enjoyed a much larger lead over McCain in the national polls. McCain has largely been doing an interesting mix of Town Hall meetings and appearing on TV shows occasionally popping up in the press to take a pot shots. It definitely appears that this strategy isn't hurting him at all. After all he's pretty good on TV for a politician ( despite being very blinky) and I give his sense of comedic timing good marks. Take this weekend for example:



With a month left in the Dem primaries anyone willing to bet that McCain is actually up a point or two in the national polls by their end at the rate the Dems are going?

Another Sign of The Apocalypse

Nancy Pelosi and New Gingrich publicly agreeing on something...



Of course the final sign of the Apocalypse is Tom Delay and Jane Fonda publicly agreeing on anything or (Jeb Bush becoming president which is slightly more likely).

"Rambo" Endorses McCain

Apparently there's some sort of action movie star primary going on too. First Chuck Norris endorses Huckabee and now this:



Now all we have to wait for is Bruce Willis to endorse somebody and this "primary" will be over. I'd include Ahnold but since he currently holds a political office of real import his endorsement might actually carry some weight.

San Fransisco Straw Poll Cancelled

Due to too many Ron Paul supporters showing up. Apparently the headline speaker there was stumping for Fred Thompson.

Ron Paul Video Contest

Ron Paul supporter known as Treg is ponying up four grand to shell out as prize money for the best Ron Paul promotional video submitted by Nov. 5 2007. Odds are Treg will discover much in the same way Heinz did that when you run a contest for commercials that the quality of content varies wildly and may not always be appropriate. However this is just another shining example of the innovation and dedication of Ron Paul's supporters. If any of the front runners were capable of drumming up this level of interest from their supporters the election would be all over save for the ballot counting.



Now what do you want to bet that the winners donate at least a portion of their prize money to Ron Paul?

Obama Vs Hillary - The Musical

Funny though, I would have thought that Clinton's singing voice would have been shriller somehow.

H/T The Daily Dish

Olbermann's Farewell to Rove

Video Courtesy of C&L:

Clinton's Obama Conundrum

Democratic Front-Runners Tangle After Monday Night's Debate

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said today that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, her chief rival for the Democratic nomination, made comments that were "irresponsible and frankly naive" when he said in Monday night's debate that he would meet with leaders of rogue nations during his first year in office.

Clinton's response, made in an interview with an Iowa newspaper, marks the sharpest exchange to date between the top two Democratic candidates for president and the first time Clinton has explicitly attacked another Democratic candidate.

It represents an elevation in a simmering dispute between the two camps, and a continuation of a specific argument at Monday's debate.

The question that sparked the controversy at Monday's debate seemed simple enough: Would the candidates for president be willing to meet, within their first year in office, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea?

Obama said yes, while Clinton said no, arguing that the president should only meet with world leaders who are hostile to the United States after lower-level diplomatic contacts are conducted. In an interview today with the Quad City Times, Clinton more directly criticized Obama's answer.

"I thought that was irresponsible and frankly naive," Clinton said, according to a story posted on the newspaper's Web site.

Striking back, Obama called the newspaper Tuesday, saying what was "irresponsible and naive" was voting to authorize the Iraq war.

"What she's somehow maintaining is my statement could be construed as not having asked what the meeting was about. I didn't say these guys were going to come over for a cup of coffee some afternoon," he said, calling this a "fabricated controversy." more

Obama's full answer was:

"I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration -- is ridiculous.

Now, Ronald Reagan and Democratic presidents like JFK constantly spoke to Soviet Union at a time when Ronald Reagan called them an evil empire. And the reason is because they understood that we may not trust them and they may pose an extraordinary danger to this country, but we had the obligation to find areas where we can potentially move forward.

And I think that it is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them. We've been talking about Iraq -- one of the first things that I would do in terms of moving a diplomatic effort in the region forward is to send a signal that we need to talk to Iran and Syria because they're going to have responsibilities if Iraq collapses.

They have been acting irresponsibly up until this point. But if we tell them that we are not going to be a permanent occupying force, we are in a position to say that they are going to have to carry some weight, in terms of stabilizing the region."

Edwards got a bye on this question since he had the luxury of answering after Clinton. What's interesting to me is that Clinton opted to go after Obama for supplying a direct answer rather than a nuanced one. The fact that she's splitting hairs in order to make an attack tells me that she considers Obama a real threat to her nomination.

What Clinton doesn't seem to have grasped is that she needs to be careful on when, how, and why she attacks Obama. In past races the nominee could count on the majority of Dem's backing them after their first choice failed to win the nomination. However since Obama is pulling in many independents and some moderate Republicans there is no guarantee that she would reap a windfall of Obama supporters should she win the nomination. This is especially true if Bloomberg runs or Unity08 successfully fields a Dem presidential candidate with a GOP Vice Presidential candidate or a GOP presidential candidate with Obama as VP. (If they run head to head odds are they both lose.)

Given the fact that voters from both sides of the aisle dislike Clinton and that voter dissatisfaction is high she has to beat Obama on the issues rather than through attacks if she wants enough of his supporters to remain engaged and back her. Otherwise she risks losing the election by winning the nomination.

Obama Girl vs Giuliani Girl

Part two in the series...

In the third video Obama Girl finally reaches Mount Doom and throws a ballot box into its fiery chasm just in time to keep Ron Paul from being victorious.

H/T to TMV

Unleashing the Badgers of War

British blamed for Basra badgers

British forces have denied rumours that they released a plague of ferocious badgers into the Iraqi city of Basra.

Word spread among the populace that UK troops had introduced strange man-eating, bear-like beasts into the area to sow panic.

But several of the creatures, caught and killed by local farmers, have been identified by experts as honey badgers.

The rumours spread because the animals had appeared near the British base at Basra airport.

UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer said: "We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area. more

If that isn't an illustration of how hard it is to win hearts and minds in Iraq then nothing is.

Besides, it's so obvious that it's a chupacabra.

The Week in Intolerance

Did somebody make this International Religious Intolerance Week and forget to notify the calender makers?

I opened on the fifth with Of Paganism and Pundits,followed that with a post about Christians trying to firebomb another Christian church, then two days ago the Pope declared that all other churches weren't true churches, and today we have this:

From The Times of India:

Christian activists disrupt Hindu prayer in US Senate
WASHINGTON: Christian activists briefly disrupted a Hindu invocation in the US Senate on Thursday, marring a historic first for the chamber and showing that fundamentalism is present and shouting in the US too.

Invited by the Senate to offer Hindu prayers in place of the usual Christian invocation, Rajan Zed, a Hindu priest from Reno, Nevada, had just stepped up to the podium for the landmark occasion when three protesters, said to belong to the Christian Right anti-abortion group Operation Save America, interrupted by loudly asking for God's forgiveness for allowing the ''false prayer'' of a Hindu in the Senate chamber.

"Lord Jesus, forgive us father for allowing a prayer of the wicked, which is an abomination in your sight," the first protester shouted. "This is an abomination. We shall have no other gods before you."

Democratic Senator Bob Casey, who was serving as the presiding officer for the morning, immediately asked the sergeant-at-arms to restore order. But they continued to protest as they were headed out the door by the marshals, shouting, "No Lord but Jesus Christ!" and "There's only one true God!" more



Operation Save America issued the following press release:

WASHINGTON, July 12 /Christian Newswire/ -- Ante Pavkovic, Kathy Pavkovic, and Kristen Sugar were all arrested in the chambers of the United States Senate as that chamber was violated by a false Hindu god. The Senate was opened with a Hindu prayer placing the false god of Hinduism on a level playing field with the One True God, Jesus Christ. This would never have been allowed by our Founding Fathers.

"Not one Senator had the backbone to stand as our Founding Fathers stood. They stood on the Gospel of Jesus Christ! There were three in the audience with the courage to stand and proclaim, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' They were immediately removed from the chambers, arrested, and are in jail now. God bless those who stand for Jesus as we know that He stands for them." Rev. Flip Benham, Director, Operation Save America/Operation Rescue


Somehow I don't think their behavior fell in line with that "Do unto others.." thing Jesus was always talking about.

Olbermann Unloads on Lewis Libby's Liberation

I give Olbermann credit for having good writers. He's dead on for the first one minute and fifty nine seconds of the clip. Then he devolves into the partisan Dubya hater that he is.

h/t to C&L

Moyers on Murdoch

Bill Moyers has a few thoughts to share about Rupert Murdoch's potential buyout of the Wall Street Journal and modern media in general. All of which I agree with.



You can also read it here.

H/T to TMV

Unity08 CEO Robert Bingham on KPBS TV

If you're tired of partisanship, corruption, and the same old same old in politics drop by Unity08's web site and see what is stirring the political waters.

Ron Paul - Internet Super Star

From the Wa Po:

An Also-Ran in the GOP Polls, Ron Paul Is Huge on the Web

On Technorati, which offers a real-time glimpse of the blogosphere, the most frequently searched term this week was "YouTube."

Then comes "Ron Paul."

The presence of the obscure Republican congressman from Texas on a list that includes terms such as "Sopranos," "Paris Hilton" and "iPhone" is a sign of the online buzz building around the long-shot Republican presidential hopeful -- even as mainstream political pundits have written him off.

Rep. Ron Paul is more popular on Facebook than Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). He's got more friends on MySpace than former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. His MeetUp groups, with 11,924 members in 279 cities, are the biggest in the Republican field. And his official YouTube videos, including clips of his three debate appearances, have been viewed nearly 1.1 million times -- more than those of any other candidate, Republican or Democrat, except Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

No one's more surprised at this robust Web presence than Paul himself, a self-described "old-school," "pen-and-paper guy" who's serving his 10th congressional term and was the Libertarian Party's nominee for president in 1988.

"To tell you the truth, I hadn't heard about this YouTube and all the other Internet sites until supporters started gathering in them," confessed Paul, 71, who said that he's raised about $100,000 after each of the three debates. Not bad considering that his campaign had less than $10,000 when his exploratory committee was formed in mid-February. "I tell you I've never raised money as efficiently as that, in all my years in Congress, and all I'm doing is speaking my mind." more

Its a decent article and worth a read. Ron Paul seems to have hijacked John McCain's Straight Talk Express and I can see where in a world in which politicians speak often but say very little his candor has appeal. But what Ron Paul really has going for him is that he's the only GOP candidate thats against the war and for many moderates that counts for a lot. Lets see if his net popularity can translate into real world votes.

Risqué YouTube Song Takes Obama Campaign by Surprise

From ABC News:

June 13, 2007 —

An amusing, risqué music video, featuring a nubile young woman breathlessly singing her love for presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., appeared on the Web this week. Titled "I Got a Crush on Obama," the song and video took the Obama campaign by surprise and further demonstrated how the democratic nature of the Internet  specifically Internet video on sites such as YouTube is affecting politics in unpredictable ways.

"Hey, 'B,' it's me," a woman who calls herself "Obama girl" murmurs amorously into a phone at the beginning of the slow jam. "If you're there, pick up. I was just watching you on C-SPAN."

The song and video goes on to poke racy fun at the way some voters have responded viscerally to both Obama's charisma and the personal nature of his political appeal. more

You'll note the absence of the "My name is Barack Obama and I approve of this message." at the end of this one.