Bill Richardson, the likely VP nominee (I think), has dropped out.
I expected him to direct his supporters towards Obama, since they seem to have had a vote-trading arrangement in Iowa. Richardson’s campaign urged his supporters to vote for Obama to help him win, presumably so Obama would name him as the VP nominee after securing the nomination.
There was no Obama endorsement, so I figure Richardson is hedging his bets. Smart thinking, what with Hillary’s New Hampshire success.
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Posted in Elections, Political Animals
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Posted in Elections, Political Animals
Giuliani is on Fox right now. The background behind him bears the slogan “Tested. Ready. Now.”
The Long-Suffering Girlfriend points out that this sounds more like a slogan for a prescription drug than a candidate.
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Posted in Elections, Political Animals
On the tv, CNN is using pie charts to show each candidate’s vote share within their party. On the GOP chart, we see slices for Huckabee, Romney, Thompson, McCain… and a large blank spot where Ron Paul’s 10% should be. Also missing is Giuliani’s 4%. Over on the Dem side, Bill Richardson’s 2% slice is clearly visible.
Fox has a pro-big-government conservative slant, so their recent slight of Ron Paul wasn’t too unexpected.
CNN has a center-left bias, so one wonders if Paul and Giuliani’s slices are left blank so their names get less screen time.
UPDATE: Never mind that conspiracy theory rubbish. More likely, the graphic was programmed to only display the top four candidates, regardless of vote totals.
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Posted in Elections, Political Animals
I’ve thought for a while that the Democratic ticket would be Obama-Richardson.
Obama and Richardson might think that, too. The Politico is reporting that their campaigns have some sort of vote-trading arrangement, which of course they vigorously deny.
Interesting.
Update: CNN has more.
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Posted in Elections, Political Animals
Who knows who’s going to win tonight in Iowa? Just for fun, here are my predictions.
Dems – Obama wins, with Clinton in 2nd and Edwards in 3rd.
GOP – Romney wins, with Huckabee in 2nd and Fred Thompson in 3rd.
I’ll be rooting for Bill Richardson and Ron Paul to do well, since they seem to me the least bad candidates from each party.
Once the primary dust settles, I expect an Obama/Richardson ticket going against Romney/Huckabee, and a Democratic victory.
The fun starts in about an hour.
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Posted in Elections, Political Animals
The Washington Post‘s Chris Cillizza reports that Barack Obama believes that people who criticize him and praise his opponents “raise real questions about those candidates’ commitment to serious reform of the political process.”
Now, I like Obama – at least as much as I can like any political creature. He seems to be the least bad top-tier Democratic candidate. He also seems more benign than Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani.
But this is pathetic. If he doesn’t like speech that criticizes him, then he should counter it with more speech. Instead, he’s telling his critics to shut up.
No criticizing me!
This is a free country. We, the people, shall say what we please about any candidate.
It’s right there in the First Amendment: “Congress shall pass no law… abridging the freedom of speech.”
Sadly, I fear that Obama might actually have a valid legal case under current law, should it come to that. This reflects broken, unconsitutional laws, not Obama’s righteousness. This is to our shame as a nation, and as a democracy.
Congress shall pass no law.
Couldn’t be simpler.
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Posted in Elections, Free Speech, Political Animals
John Edwards has come out as the “anti-poverty candidate.”
Does this mean the other candidates are pro-poverty?
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Posted in Elections, Political Animals
Back when monarchy was en vogue, most people favored an ironclad, hereditary succession. This prevented “a periodic invitation to anarchy,” as historians Will and Ariel Durant put it.*
Presidential elections in the United States seem to have disproved this hypothesis. Even in the most hotly contested elections, anarchy has not ensued. Just low approval ratings in polls.
Does this mean that people are more docile these days?
Hear me out. Recall the assaults on the Bill of Rights in recent years. The PATRIOT Act. The War on Drugs. The War on Terror. McCain-Feingold. Eminent domain abuse. The TSA. The list goes on.
What popular uprisings have sprung up to protest these intrusions on our rights? The Ron Paul R3VOLution?
Oh, bother.
(* Will and Ariel Durant, The Age of Reason Begins, p. 627)
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Posted in Elections, Great Thinkers, Philosophy, Political Animals
The ever-reliable Drudge Report says the DNC views Huckabee as “an easy kill” in the general election. Therefore they want him to be the GOP nominee, and will refrain from attacking him in the primary cycle.
Brilliant move, I say. He’s economically liberal and socially conservative, which is the least popular political philosophy in America these days. Then there’s his nanny-statist streak. This bodes well for the Dems. Most people are either liberal or conservative across the board. Recent research says that most of the remainder is consistently anti-government — economically conservative and socially liberal.
The smallest group is Huckabee’s, which is consistently pro-government.
You’re not going to get a candidate endorsement from this blog since I don’t like any of ’em. To be crass, one of my guiding principles is that all politicians are whores (I admit to a few noble exceptions).
I will say that, on the GOP side, I probably agree with Huckabee the least. If he does win the nomination, he deserves an electoral drubbing.
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Posted in Elections, Political Animals
Inertia Wins! 