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First of all, congratulations on your victories in 2010. You've earned the right to celebrate. For a moment, though, I hope you'll indulge me in a discussion of a profound responsibility shared by New Hampshire voters of all persuasions: picking Presidents.
Ten years ago, the Iowa Caucus sent you George W. Bush, and you picked John McCain-an admirable choice. In 2008, the Iowa Caucus sent you Mike Huckabee, and you again picked John McCain-a shadow of his former self, but still a superior choice. In both cases, you saw an unreasonable choice out of Iowa and with the eyes of the world on you, you said no. I respect you for that. Although I'm a Democrat who supported Gore and Obama, I'm proud of my state to think of what you Republicans did in those primaries.
We need you to do it again.
All signs point to the disturbing possibility of former Governor Sarah Palin running for President in 2012. I don't need to explain to you all the ways in which she isn't worthy of the job; we've all become very familiar with her in the past few years. McCain's choice of Palin as a running mate was staggeringly irresponsible. Governor Palin's entry onto the national political stage is an insult to the intelligence of the American people, and especially to that of Republicans.
America can do better than Sarah Palin. Republicans can do better than Sarah Palin. Republican women can do better than Sarah Palin. Republican women from Alaska can do better than Sarah Palin. You better believe that New Hampshire Republican primary voters can do better than Sarah Palin. And, fellow New Hampshirites, I hope you do.
I want to make it clear that I do not fear she'd win a general election. I will vote to re-elect President Barack Obama no matter whom you nominate, and I happen to think he would defeat former Governor Palin very easily. But even though I want President Obama to be re-elected, I believe America deserves a real choice. I hope your party nominates someone who, regardless of ideological persuasion, is good enough to be President. New Hampshire Republicans, it's up to you to make sure that happens.
"It sounds so good, and it's such a warm message to say we're not gonna deny anyone from a preexisting condition," Huckabee explained at the Value Voters Summit today. "Look, I think that sounds terrific, but I want to ask you something from a common sense perspective. Suppose we applied that principle [to] our property insurance. And you can call your insurance agent and say, "I'd like to buy some insurance for my house." He'd say, "Tell me about your house." "Well sir, it burned down yesterday, but I'd like to insure it today." And he'll say, "I'm sorry, but we can't insure it after it's already burned." Well, no pre-existing conditions."
I know we are in the height of mid-term election fever right now. Nonetheless, I think it's important to document the monstrous things the POTUS wannabes say, especially for a blog that calls the First-in-the-Nation Primary state its home. At some point soon he'll be here smiling and glad-handing.
John McCain and New Hampshire aren't having a love affair. Maybe John McCain loves New Hampshire, and that's nice -- after all, he did receive enough Republican votes here in 2000 and 2008 to keep his campaigns going in those years. But it's simply not true that New Hampshire loves this guy, although I think most of us respect and appreciate his long service to America.
One of the more exasperating comments I hear news media personalities who should know better, or should be doing more accurate reporting, is that "New Hampshire is John McCain country." Baloney. New Hampshire has never been "his state.'
In 2000 he faced a stumbling George W. Bush in the New Hampshire First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary. In the NH Primary on February 1st, 2000, some 239,523 Republicans sloshed to the polls on a cold winter day. John McCain received 115,606 of those votes -- about 48%. George W. Bush got 72,330 votes -- even then the voters were smartening up about him. The rest of the wealth of Republican votes was spread around to names like Forbes, Keyes, Bauer, and a splattering of others. Umm, spreading the wealth around probably got its start in John McCain's mindset that year.
That wasn't too bad for McCain in 2000. Of course, shortly after leaving New Hampshire he walked into walls or off a cliff depending on your description down South, and ended up spending the past eight years not doing much in the United States Senate.
By the way, in that primary of February 1, 2000, there were 156,862 Democrats voting -- not exactly an excited electorate. I remember it well. Most of us voted for Al Gore, but Bill Bradley wasn't far behind. We know what happened after that, and if, if, if -- if Florida, if the US Supreme Court, if New Hampshire, if he didn't roll his eyes, if -- he would be winding up two terms as President.
Update to 2008. Least we forget, John McCain was able to slip in between a pile of conservative Republicans. He was able to appear like the alternative to the far right, and he received 88,713 votes from Republicans in the NH Primary on January 8, 2008. Not bad, except there were some 241,039 Republicans voting -- so McCain this time around got only about 36% of those voting.
It was enough, however, for John McCain to top the New Hampshire Republican ballot because the rest of the candidates spread the balance of the votes -- Mitt Romney coming in second with 75,675, and names like Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson, and Duncan Hunter getting the rest. Ohhhhh -- Barack Obama got the write-ins of 1,996 Republicans and Hillary Clinton got 1,828 write-ins, not too bad for Republicans who like Democrats, and who can vote for Democrats again in less than two weeks.
That same election, January 8th of this year, 288,672 Democrats voted. Compare that with the 156,862 Democrats who voted in the 2000 Primary. More than 130,000 additional Democrats turned out this year in our Primary. Some excitement there, huh? Among the Republicans, compared with 239,523 voting in the 2000 Primary there were only about 1,500 more Republicans voting this year. Many stayed home.
At the January 8th Democratic Presidential Primary, Barack Obama got 104,815 votes -- some 16,000 votes more than John McCain received on January 8th. Hillary Clinton placed first with 112,404, and you can bet almost all will be voting for Barack Obama on November 4th. So will those who voted for the other Democratic Presidential candidates, who included Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, and Mike Gravel.
Bottom line, for those who are bottom line types, is this: As of September 9th, there were 868,668 registered voters in New Hampshire. By now in late October there are quite a few more, and many others are expected to sign up as new voters on November 4th.
So, take a look at it: On January 8th of this year John McCain received 88,713 votes -- certainly enough to win a Republican Primary where he staked out the "moderate" ground and there were half a dozen other candidates splitting the more conservative elements of the party.
But of ALL New Hampshire registered voters, John McCain received only about 10.2% this year. This isn't "John McCain Country" by a long shot. And considering the way the Democrats are united this year, and with the motivating issues to encourage people to vote being Iraq, health care, Global Warming and Climate Change, education, tax reform and fairness, and our current economic dilemma -- Barack Obama will do very well.
Those of us who support him have to keep at it right through to Tuesday, November 4th at 8:00 PM, but he'll beat John McCain in New Hampshire. New Hampshire has never been John McCain Country. But after November 4th, we'll be able to call it a proud place for President Barack Obama to come back to whenever he wants.
Yeah, I know you don't want to hear it. Some people here would rather sit around and snicker at George W. Bush saying something else stupid--this time while he's in China. Think Progess has a pretty good summary, including the video that was pulled from YouTube because of a third party ownership claim.
Worthless stuff is usually not worth claiming. But, that's not the only reason I'm going to give you an opportunity to reconsider whether what Bush said was stupid or part of an orchestrated campaign. That NBC interrupted its coverage of the Olympics with this vignette may or may not be significant.
There's no doubt that Mike Huckabee is as busy now as he ever was while still compaigning for the Republican nomination for President. Ostensibly, he's out on the hustings in support of the presumptive nominee, Senator John McCain, but his efforts, as mirrored in his Huck PAC, are more diverse. Indeed, as he reports himself, his visit to New Hampshire on behalf of Bob Clegg, just after his visit to North Carolina where he "saved" a candidate for Lieutenant Governor, gave him a great opportunity to tout John E. Sununu at the same time.
State Senate district 14 truly has found a successor worthy of wealthy friend of lobbyists, Bob Clegg. Meet woman of the people, Sharon Carson:
NH Senate Candidate Sharon Carson is off to a good start in the high stakes game of running for a NH Senate seat by holding a quiet gathering of approximately two dozen high profile lobbyists and party activists.
...Many see Carson as not only as the strongest possible candidate in the district, she also is known to have unlimited financial and networking resources. Carson's campaign has made it known she is willing to loan her campaign as much of her own money as needed to get her through any possible primary race,
You seriously can't make this kind of stuff up. It's so over the top obnoxious that it almost has a certain kind of perverse appeal, like "bread and circuses," or Richie Rich Tarrant's multi-million dollar boondoggle in Vermont last cycle.
That's probably why the Air Force, the entity most favored by our flyboy Presidents and president-wanna-be McCain, has committed itself to a fleet of stealth fighters and bombers, despite the fact that they're hard to land and don't do well when there's salt in the air. But, that's not my topic today. Rather, alerted by Laura Clawson to the fact that Huckabee had set up a new PAC in support of Republican long-shots, I was prompted to take a look at what else the fellow, who supposedly gave up on his quest for the Republican presidential nomination in early March, has been up to.
* Don't forget about our Blue Hampshire Bash in Concord on May 3rd. Should be loads of fun. More reminders as we get closer to it, and thanks, Jon.
* Grant Bosse hits "Hypocritical Horn" over her lobbyist money:
"We shouldn't be surprised that our self-proclaimed front-runner wants other candidates to return lobbyists' contributions while she cashes their checks," Bosse concluded. "Whether the issue has been taxes, earmarks, or campaign finance, so far Jennifer Horn has been nothing but talk."
* Speaking of the NH-02 follies, Laura recently wrote about how Huckabee has set up a PAC to help candidates like Bob Clegg. Unfortunately for Clegg, this is what the Huckster has in mind:
He met with NRCC chair Tom Cole and NRSC chairman John Ensign yesterday and discussed ways he could be helpful to GOP congressional candidates.
[Huckabee] said that he was going to focus on long-shot candidates, folks like him who weren't give much of a shot to win.
* The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg calls the Weather Underground question in the debate "pure McCarthyism." He's right.
* Hillary Clinton lies about MoveOn, a group originally established to help out Bill during the Lewinsky scandal. (Note: "Lie" is a strong word. But when you see a politician of any stripe trying to conflate Iraq and Afghanistan so that you can misidentify citizens outraged by a needless war of choice with magical "dirty hippies" who oppose all wars absolutely, you're going to get strong words from me.)
* At the gas station nearest me, regular unleaded clocked in $3.39 a gallon today. My driving is pretty much restricted at this point to work and gorcery shopping, where food prices have escalated to such an extent that I literally wince as the items go through the scanner. George Bush, John Sununu, Judd Gregg, and yes, you too, Jeb Bradley, are too be commended for being such fantastic stewards of our economy:
* Who knew? Flatlanders are two dimensional (this answers many a question I've had, being one myself).
* On Monday, Steve Marchand will be in Las Vegas, giving a keynote address entitled Developing, Executing and Transforming Results in Local Government at the National City & County Performance Summit (email).
* Next Wednesday the Shaheen campaign will be doing a statewide day of visibility. Click the link to see where and at what times. If you can make it, it'd be great to see some user diaries with pix of the events show up on BH.
President George W. Bush, today: "I'll be glad to help (John McCain] if he's the nominee, because he is a conservative."
Governor Mike Huckabee, today: "And the point is, Karl [Rove] is a supporter of John McCain."
The state of the State of New Hampshire, today:
President Bush is at a low ebb in New Hampshire on all fronts, survey center Director Andrew Smith said - on the economy, on the war in Iraq, on the future.
...Pessimism about Iraq's future reigns, with only 35 percent believing the conflict is winnable for the U.S.
Bush's job-approval rating has never been lower, Smith said, with 26 percent approving, 70 percent disapproving and only 4 percent neutral.
As Super Tuesday draws near, we're getting a clearer picture of who the Republican Presidential nominee might be. John McCain is looking like he's going to be on the November ballot. Whoopee!
On the Democratic side, we're seeing that we have two fantastic candidates. Incredible, really. I'm an unabashed Hillary Clinton supporter, but I'm more than pleased to see this "battle" go to Super Tuesday, and perhaps beyond. Every day that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are on the campaign trail, more Democrats -- and Independents and Never-Cared-Before-But-Do-Nows -- are energized.
The New Hampshire Primary this year served the role that it should: we evaluated the candidates, had our time with them for the past year or so, and made our choices. And that we didn't serve a knock-out punch to more than just one, who withdrew after New Hampshire, was a good thing. Our role did include "saving" Hillary Clinton from the double-loss of Iowa/NH. Our role also propelled John McCain, giving him his important first victory of 2008, and look at him now. No one can underestimate the New Hampshire Primary -- a former New York City Mayor tried to, and look at HIM now.
So, what about dream tickets? I'm one of those pulling for a Clinton-Obama, or Obama-Clinton ticket. I'd prefer the former, but would also get excited about the latter. BOTH of these great leaders should be in the Presidential Inaugural Parade of January, 2009.
On the Republican side, my dream ticket would be McCain-Huckabee. They'd be easiest to defeat, I think. McCain wants The Iraq One Hundred Year War, and Americans do not. Huckabee wants the U.S. Constitution rewritten with his preacher's touch, and Americans do not.
I doubt it would ever be McCain-Giuliani -- that would be too much to dream for, but even if it's McCain-Romney, we'll have fun. Each of them has switched so often I can visualize an ad titled "McCain-Romney Weathervane North/South/East/West Compass Which-Way-Is-Up-Or-Down Or Left Or Right?" Of course, there are many other possibilities for the Republicans, but hopefully they won't figure that out.
I'm dreaming to win. And I think it's going to be more than just a dream.
They're calling it for McCain in the Palmetto State, eight years after smear tactics from Karl Rove handed him a defeat.
So, either the bad weather up-state dampened the Huckabee vote, or Frederick pulled some from Chuck Norris' sidekick, or both. In any event it was a good mix for St. John.
And Rudy!? Currently at four percent, half of Ron Paul's numbers. But hey, while the world wavers, Rudy!'s downward spiral continues apace.
Update: Duncan Hunter's out. Who knew he came in third in Wyoming? Who knew he was still in the race?
Okay, let's be down to earth for a bit; what's our best bet to win in November (POTUS and VPOTUS), ensuring the next few SCOTUS Justices don't believe the separation of church and state is an abomination (as a few of the ones already there seem to think) to God, among other things.
By the way, my theory for the most electable top ticket still available: Obama-Richardson. There's more too it than that, though. What have we learned from the past two elections? How can we win, and win big, this fall? Thoughts?
Several months ago, I proposed that Huckabee would do far better against our front-runners than Rudy McRomney, and that if we were thinking about electability it might be a good idea to stop patting ourselves on the back, and start thinking what a Huckabee pair-up would look like.
Of course, those were carefree days, remember? I mean Hillary was beating Romney in Kentucky and running only 6 points behind McCain, and Obama's numbers weren't bad:
Romney (R) 42 (44)
Clinton (D) 48 (48)
Romney (R) 43 (46)
Obama (D) 44 (40)
====
McCain (R) 51 (50)
Clinton (D) 41 (44)
McCain (R) 54 (53)
Obama (D) 35 (35)
Now that Huckabee has won Iowa, they are polling head to with him -- and if the recent Kentucky Survey USA poll is a decent temperature taking of GOP sentiment, I think it's time to ask again -- who can beat Huckabee?
Answer, in Kentucky at least: Not Obama. Not Clinton.
Huckabee (R) 53 (46) Clinton (D) 41 (47)
Huckabee (R) 54 (51) Obama (D) 35 (38)
And those numbers are trending up.
Numbers pulled from kos, whose caveats are my caveats (So read the link before you tell me the shocking news we weren't going to win Kentucky anyway).
But if you're voting based on a "landslide" argument, you might want to take a stop by those numbers.
I would like to hear from anyone with their own "lessons from Iowa." Here are mine, based on lots of watching the candidates as they campaigned Iowa -- the cable networks in general, and C-Span in particular, gave great up-close-and-personal views of the candidates. My observations might seem a little harsh toward a couple of candidates, but what the heck -- I'm not out to make friends with some of their consultants. By way of full Blogging disclosure, I'm voting for Hillary Clinton on Tuesday.
1. Don't Washington-Speak. Long-time United States Senators or people who hang around government for too long seem to forget that message. Most of us don't live there. Talk our language. But don't dummy-down to us. We can tell when you do that. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd didn't do well in Iowa for that reason. Hillary Clinton often sounded like she had been hanging around people in power for two decades. I wondered where the "conversation" that she started her campaign went. Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee sounded "fresh." Even "refreshing."
2. Don't Be Marshmallow Fluff. Have some courage to be yourself. Let yourself be you. Put your bell-curve focus group-driven, poll-tested politically-correct answers and cute sayings aside. It's obvious who did that well. And who didn't.
3. Be Bold And Challenge Us With A Vision. We don't want to vote for you just because you're wonderful or you have a fantastic resume. We want to know what you'll do in the future and what you want us to do for our future. In Iowa, those who talked more about "us" than themselves did quite well. Those who talked more about "me" than "you" didn't. And show some passion. Maybe even some anger -- there is reason to be angry about what has been happening in this world. John Edwards did that well in Iowa.
4. If You're A Democrat -- Be Strong Against Iraq. Don't play games with us. Are you for getting out? When? How? Be clear. We have to know.
5. Use The Internet As An Interactive Resource. Stop asking for contributions in every E-Mail message. We just turn that out. Use the Internet to involve us, learn from us, solicit opinions. When people write in, write back. And be informative -- not just the flash and puff. We can see through that. Best WEBSITE: Barack Obama. Tells us something.
6. Involve The Young. After all, they're the ones who are going to outlive us all. And they DO vote. Barack Obama is more than a "fad" for some reason. He connects. Young people in Iowa supported him in droves.
7. Welcome The Independents. In Iowa, the Democrats won over the Independents. That's great for Democrats in November. We need them here in New Hampshire. Barack Obama gets lots of them, as does John McCain. To win, Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney have to discover them.
8. Be For REAL Change, And Mean It. But if you're going to do things differently with out-of-the-box thinking, explain what you mean. Barack Obama did that well in Iowa. Hillary Clinton just seemed to be copying his messages about change. If she's going to turn this around, she has to explain her own brand of "change." .
9. Be Non-Establishment. People have seen a lot of establishment-types in recent years and they've skid us into a war. We're looking for non-establishment types. Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama were considered non-establishment in Iowa. How Mitt Romney, John Edwards, or Hillary Clinton deal with that in New Hampshire might dictate how they do.
10. Seek To Become A Voice. Most of us as citizens feel we have little or no voice in Washington, or in government in general, especially if we have little money and don't contribute to candidates. We're looking for "one of us." In Iowa, Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama seemed more like us than Hillary Clinton (White House "experience") or Mitt Romney (so rich he could buy all the McDonald's restaurants in Iowa). If you're not like one of us, at least try to relate to us more. Tell us how you're going to empower us and respect us.
11. Focus On People And Ideas, Not Endorsements. Endorsements help, but the emphasis should be on "regular-folk." Too many of these candidates have their political endorsers at every rally, up front and center behind them on-stage. In most cases, it seemed like the backdrops in Iowa at events where Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama were speaking were just regular folk. Well, with the exception of Chuck Norris standing with Mike Huckabee like a lifeguard. But that's a bit different.
12. Have A Message, And Stick To It. It's not just about money and running millions of dollars of ads full of clutter and fluff. In Iowa, the candidates who had regular repetitive messages and somewhat of a theme, and stuck to them for more than just a couple of weeks, did well. The ones who were all over the place with their messages and had advertisements full of quick bites of messages didn't do well. They need to learn from that. The "corporate greed" vs. "corporate responsibility" messages of Barack Obama and John Edwards paid off in Iowa. Many of us understand that kind of message. But what does "Ready To Lead" mean? Ready to lead what? And where? And where to? The difference is rather specific vs. very generic. The difference is what relates to us vs. what is meaningless.
13. Be Straight-Talking. Barack Obama usually answered questions in a sentence or two. Hillary Clinton went on for a minute or two. Bill Clinton when he'd speak for Hillary would answer questions in five minutes or so. Mike Huckabee seemed to have clear answers. Mitt Romney had to explain himself at length. Joe Biden couldn't answer questions without Washington-speak. Iowa people were listening carefully, and made their choices based on what they heard. We will here too.
14. Be Authentic And Look Us In The Eye. Voters can see through phoniness. When a candidate is calculating or cautious in answering questions, we can tell. There's something genuine about Mike Huckabee -- what you see is what you get. Same with Barack Obama. I think there's a lot of WYSIWYG with Hillary Clinton too, but her managers and handlers haven't let us see that yet. And eye-to-eye contact on the campaign trail is vital. C-Span is great for noticing that in the candidates as they walk around before and after speeches and greet voters.. Mike Huckabee was great at that in Iowa. Mitt Romney didn't seem to do it well. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama each have good people skills, but there's just a special warmth about Obama that Clinton needs to develop. One of the more amazing things about Bill Clinton is that if you have just ten seconds with him, for those ten seconds you feel as if you're the most important person in the world to him for that time. Hillary Clinton needs a lesson -- she always seems to want to go onto the next handshake.
15. Be Consistent. "Flip-flopping" isn't the problem that most candidates have. It's not being able to answer a question the same way with some consistency, or being clear about a position without trying to cover all the bases and make everyone happy. Mitt Romney seemed to take several positions on some issues -- it's not that he's changed his positions, it's that you just don't know where he stands now. Barack Obama gives a lot of rhetoric, but has consistent messages. Hillary Clinton's messages in speeches and television advertisements changed a lot in Iowa. That can't happen these next few days in New Hampshire.
Yep. The Huckster won't take back his 1998 statement:
Mike Huckabee, a Republican relying on support from religious conservatives in Thursday's hard-fought presidential caucuses, on Sunday stood by a decade-old comment in which he said, "I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ."
In a television interview, the ordained Southern Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor made no apologies for the 1998 comment made at a Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Salt Lake City.
"It was a speech made to a Christian gathering, and, and certainly that would be appropriate to be said to a gathering of Southern Baptists," Huckabee said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
It wasn't clarified exactly who the country back from, although I assume it must be the infidel. Also no word on whether he will stand by the other great statement of that year:
He gave the speech the same year he endorsed the Baptist convention's statement of beliefs on marriage that "a wife is to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ." Huckabee and his wife, Janet, signed a full-page ad in USA Today in support of the statement with 129 other evangelical leaders.
It's late Christmas Eve. I'm alone, watching some of my Season Two DVD of Showtime's Queer As Folk a friend gave me. I just went outside and looked to the sky on this perfect evening, with a full Moon and bright stars everywhere. It's not as nice as Christmas Eve's of the past with family of long ago or friends of more recent times, but it's okay and relaxing.
So I decided to give some "gifts" for Christmas and a few New Year's wishes to some people. Here goes:
To George W. Bush -- Some chat time with his Dad and Mom. Obviously he didn't listen to them when he was a little guy when they, like all parents, most likely told their son to grow up to be good.
To Carol Shea-Porter -- The continued courage and independence to be a great Congressperson.
To Paul Hodes -- A conservative Republican to run against in 2008, so he can have more fun and win even bigger than last time.
To Jeanne Shaheen -- A united New Hampshire Democratic Party behind her after next September's primary.
To Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani -- Copies of the book "How To Get Along With People Who Are As Messed Up As Me."
To Mike Huckabee -- A copy of "First Grade Reader," so in the future he can read the simple facts about AIDS and other issues.
To all New Hampshire gays and lesbians -- The full right to marry. Soon. Not just a Civil Union. "Marriage," with the word. In the meantime, Civil Unions are "official" as of 12.01 AM 01.01.08. Fantastic. We're getting there.
To the New Hampshire First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary -- The absolutely bestest-ever turnout of voters across all age groups on Tuesday, January 8th. It's our chance to show the nation we go to the polls in droves, and that's why New Hampshire is important now and in the future.
To John Lynch -- A new office camera. Twice now when I arranged for pictures in the Governor's Office their camera didn't work, most recently with some Russian journalist visitors. Fortunately we brought cameras of our own. But what gives? I'm not THAT ugly.
To Bill Gardner -- Another chance to set the date of yet another Presidential Primary, in 2012.
To The Union Leader -- A giant bag of coffee so the reporters will be alert enough to keep a sharp eye on all those wayward national and statewide Republican candidates who are switching all around and attacking one another about things they never said. My are they confused.
To Democrats everywhere and everywhere -- A fantastic year in 2008 on the national and state levels. The only way we can lose this one is if we don't let Democrats be Democrats.
To our troops in Iraq -- Withdrawal from that ill-planned, unnecessary war, and a commitment never to again put them in harms-way unless necessary.
To "Granny D" -- Success on her effort to have New Hampshire join the dozen other states with public financing of campaigns and real campaign reform. She's great!
To Hillary Clinton -- A new campaign manager. I don't even know who the current one is, but I do know she could use a new one. This woman rocks and will make a great President, but her campaign continues to be off-based from what I can see. She still has time, but those who are on the top of her national campaign could serve her better.
To my wonderful kitty cat "RayToo" -- Pleasant dreams of chasing mice, and another year of good health. I need your "greetings" every day I return home.
And to my very special friend D.P. -- Successful surgery in three weeks, because I don't want to lose another good friend, and the world needs all the wonderful people it has. You can make it!
Well, that's it for this year. I can't afford to be any more generous. How about other gifts from readers?
Supporters of Mike Huckabee appear to be calling the New Hampshire Do-Not-Call list with prerecorded robocalls, an offense that under New Hampshire state law can carry a fine of up to $5,000 per call.
(If you have been recently robocalled, please click the graphic to the right and report the call in our simple form).
This just in from a friend:
Michael:
I got an automated call this morning from a group called "Common Sense Issues" which was clearly a push poll for Huckabee. If you selected preference for a candidate other than Huckabee, it gave an automated negative response for that candidate, then a positive response/question ("Did you know...?") for Huckabee.
I spoke with the secretary for Jim Kennedy in the State Attorney General's office who said she had just received one other complaint today and that she had detailed the nature of the poll. She assured me that "Jim would be very interested and would get back to me" to discuss.
It gets more interesting though. My wife tells me that she got a similar call yesterday, but hung up when it only let her select from Republicans:
It very well could have been [a robo-pushpoll last night]. They asked if I was Evangelist... but I didn't hit the button for any candidate so I don't know what they would have said if I had done that.
The new method seems to be being used in Iowa, and in the Senate race in New Mexico. It has been denounced by Huckabee himself.
When pressed about the legitimacy of the calls in Iowa, the group claimed claimed they were doing nothing wrong:
Davis said the polls are used to both educate listeners but also gather information for the group itself. Each listener gets a slightly different experience based on the answers they give to initial questions.
The problem? If that call my wife got was from Common Sense Issues, then they are breaking New Hampshire Law. And it could get very expensive for them, as the Republicans found out last election:
Martha Child, an independent who generally votes for Democrats, said she received five calls from the National Republican Congressional Committee in two days despite having her number listed on a federal do-not-call list. Under state law, delivering prerecorded political messages to numbers on any federal do-not-call list is punishable by a fine of $5,000 per call.
Jim Kennedy, an election law attorney in the attorney general's office, said it doesn't matter where a group is located or who is making the calls -- if they are being made to New Hampshire residents, they are illegal.
I'm guessing the name Jim Kennedy sounds familiar there, right?
That's the person who sent me the first email is talking to about his experience.
Things are about to get very interesting here. We'll keep you updated as this develops.
In the meantime, help us out. If you get a political robocall, do not hang up (and yes, I've now informed my wife of this too). Come to this site and enter it in the Huffington Post Been Polled form (the button is on the left side of this page). Enter in the info regarding the call as best you can so we can track patterns across the country. Then, if you are in New Hampshire and on the Do-Not-Call list, contact the State Attorney General's office and let them know that you have been robocalled.
UPDATE: My wife just googled the code on the caller ID (SP 07). She found this at nielsenhayden.com --
...just got a push-poll with a voice-activated robot-voice recording thingie, asking me if I were going to vote in the Republican primary. It went on from there, asking me if I knew that Giuliani was pro-abortion would it make me less likely to vote for him? And if I knew that Huckabee was for lower taxes would I be more likely to vote for him? And so on. It was all pro-Huckabee, anti-Giuliani.
I answered "yes" or "no" pretty much at random at first, then switched to all "no" answers, just to see where it would go. No human being was involved on the other end of the line. (Hey, Huckabee guys! This kind of nonsense makes it less likely that I'm going to vote for your clown!)
No candidate name was given at the end, revealing who paid for this particular push-poll. It was something like "Paid for by Public Survey 07. 703 378-2990." (That is the real number the call came from. The area code is Arlington, Virginia.) I believe that failing to reveal the candidate the push-poll favors is illegal under New Hampshire law.
The site has the full transcript of the call. It's pro-Huckabee calls.
* Is Rudy! going the way of Frederick of Hollywood? Landrigan reports that Mr. 9/11 is cutting back on ad buys and shifting resources to Florida. As it stands now, I can't see how Rudy! gets better than third place here, and that's being generous.
* The Globe's James Pindell catches an interesting contrast: did Billy Shaheen resign over his Obama drug dealer remarks, as was released, or is Senator Clinton giving us the real story:
"That was totally a surprise," Clinton said about Shaheen's remarks. "It was not authorized. I certainly don't condone it. We asked him to step down. He's not part of our campaign."
* Is it just me, or are you all starting to see lots of Huckabee signage and bumber stickers crop up? Who knows, maybe I was wrong when I thought this state would be a major bump in the road for him. He certainly doesn't mind airing an overtly Christian TV ad in this, the least church-going state in the nation.
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Supporters of Mike Huckabee appear to be calling the New Hampshire Do-Not-Call list with prerecorded robocalls, an offense that under New Hampshire state law can carry a fine of up to $5,000 per call.
