Prog Blogs, Orgs & Alumni
Bank Slate
Betsy Devine
birch paper
Democracy for NH
Granite State Progress
Mike Caulfield
Miscellany Blue
Pickup Patriots
Re-BlueNH
Still No Going Back
Susan the Bruce
New Hampshire Labor News
Chaz Proulx: Right Wing Watch
Politicos & Punditry
The Burt Cohen Show
John Gregg
Landrigan
Pindell
Primary Monitor
Scala
Schoenberg
Spiliotes
Campaigns, Et Alia.
NH-Gov
- Maggie Hassan
NH-01
- Andrew Hosmer
- Carol Shea-Porter
- Joanne Dowdell
NH-02
- Ann McLane Kuster
ActBlue Hampshire
NHDP
DCCC
DSCC
DNC
National
Balloon Juice
billmon
Congress Matters
DailyKos
Digby
Hold Fast
Eschaton
FiveThirtyEight
MyDD
Open Left
Senate Guru
Swing State Project
Talking Points Memo
50 State Blog Network
Alabama
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Rhode Island
Tennessee
Texas
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Watch out, candidates! The Last Honest Man, Very Serious George Pataki has taken to the totally unbiased pages of the Union Leader to scold and wag his finger at you:
Monday night, I'll be watching to see which candidates have the courage to go beyond focus group-tested sound bites and the fortitude to address the debt in something other than politically safe rhetoric. I'll be listening for specifics.
No American Debt, the organization I launched recently to confront America's debt crisis and hold this President and the candidates accountable, will be comparing debt reduction plans to see who is serious and willing to lead.
...Merely attacking the other candidates won't do either. Unfortunately, early attempts to tackle the debt have been met with hostility and trivial political attacks.
The Last Honest Man, Very Serious George Pataki's previous footprint on New Hampshire politics was behind the most dishonest attack of all on the deficit reducing health care legislation:
A conservative group led by former New York Gov. George Pataki has launched two nearly identical ads criticizing Democratic Reps. Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire and John Hall of New York for voting for the new health care law. Pataki said the group, called Revere America, would target 10 other Democrats. The ad makes several false and unsubstantiated claims:
* It claims that the law creates "longer waits in doctors' offices" and that "your right to keep your own doctor may be taken away." The group says those claims are about a Medicare payment program that the law calls for establishing. But it points to an opinion piece that doesn't make those claims at all. The author tells us it's "bogus" to cite his article as support for the ad.
* The ad falsely calls the health care law "government-run health care." The truth is that - while the legislation will expand regulation of the insurance industry - it builds on our current private health care system and expands business for private insurers.
* The ad claims "costs will go up," when, in fact, premium costs for most Americans are predicted to stay the same or decrease slightly from where they normally would be. And for many others, federal subsidies will offset premium increases.
The New York Times reports on a study of how much early-voting states affected presidential nominations. The researchers discovered "the early states were even more important than many people realized" and "estimated that an Iowa or New Hampshire voter had the same impact as five Super Tuesday voters put together."
CNN:
Palin's trip to New Hampshire later this week will be closely scrutinized, not just by the media but by the Granite State's demanding primary voters, who insist on seeing candidates up close for several months before they go to the polls.
They might be miffed, though, to learn that Palin doesn't regard them as any different from voters in other states.
...Palin said New Hampshire voters are special, "but not just because they have a certain date of a primary election."
In other news, Sarah I-Have-No-Interest-In-NH Palin will be in NH today rudely stepping all over Mitt Romney's carefully orchestrated POTUS run launch.
Nullification is an unpatriotic, radical concept that leads ultimately to secession and civil war. When House Speaker Bill O'Brien's featured attendance at the NullifyNow event was made more widely known back in March, he backed out of it with no explanation.
But yesterday he and self-styled constitutional expert Dan Itse soaked up attention from Michelle Bachmann on the same topic.
The story contained in this tweet is a prime example of how the POTUS primary circus keeps the bubble inflated for the radical right-wingers in control of the New Hampshire House.
It will become ever harder for the House of O'Brien to realize it has an Bill O'Brien problem when the more demagogic of the presidential hopefuls come by to flatter them for support. This, in turn, will ensconce them even deeper in the bunker of their "Rightness" when it comes time to work with the Senate or Governor. Which, in turn, means that future policy battles will make the Right-to-Work fiasco look like a preview before the main event.
Palin started Memorial Day at the National Archives in Washington, but the only reporters who made it to her brief media availability there were those who happened to see tourists posting on Twitter that they had spotted her.
...For supporters and reporters looking for more details, Palin isn't providing them. Palin's staff has been unresponsive to reporters' requests or told them to check the SarahPAC website, which updates with information only after she's stopped somewhere.
...It is unclear when she will stop by those sites, or where she'll head afterward. Palin is expected to head to New Hampshire in the coming days, her first trip to the early primary state since the 2008 campaign.
Sarah Palin: the first non-campaigning campaigning POTUS wannabe even less predictable than New Hampshire weather.
I know that when I talk to my friends, the leadership quality they're most looking for in a president is an impish, unscheduable, element of surprise.
The GOP elites created this farce three years ago when they never vetted a hugely unqualified person to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. Now they have a magical mystery bus tour that makes even Michelle Bachmann look sane.
"Also, when I think about what running against Barack Obama in 2012 would be like, I feel a need to hide in the dark and cry like a small child with pigtails."
Comedy gold from John Huntsman (who apparently enjoys the royal "we") in Hanover:
"Let me just say, we've been asked occasionally, 'well, you served President Obama.' I did serve President Obama, I served my president, my president asked me to serve, in a time of war, in a time of economic difficulty in this country," he said. "I'm the kind of person when asked by my president to stand up and serve my country, when asked, I do it."
I'm guessing Huntsman just lost Judd Gregg's endorsement, who famously refused to stand up and serve his country when asked to be Commerce Secretary in a time of war and economic difficulty.
After millionaire Mitt Romney complained loudly to reporters about high gas prices (where he magically "runs into" Kevin Smith), he headed over to the American Petroluem Institute sponsored Kochapalooza thingy that WMUR and the Union Leader will provide full coverage of at the expense of anything about Frank Guinta's town hall fiasco.
There he talked of hanging Obama. Metaphorically, of course.
With Mittens, it's always important to bear in mind that he knows, on the one hand, that he can't win the presidency by being Rick Santorum, but on the other, he can't win the nominating process without sometimes being Rick Santorum.
There is ample evidence of the game he plays from four years ago, for example:
(The Donald has filed for Bankruptcy twice as often as anyone I know. - promoted by Mike Hoefer)
Donald Trump, FOX, April 2011:
And look, he's been horrible president. I always said the worst president was Jimmy Carter. Guess what? Jimmy Carter goes to second place. Barack Obama has been the worst president ever. The history of this country, Barack Obama is number one.
Donald Trump, FOX, March 2007:
Businessman and "Apprentice" television star Donald Trump blasted President George Bush today, calling him "probably the worst president in the history of the United States," and blaming his 2004 victory on the Democrat ticket.
Donald Trump, CNN, April 2011:
This country is a laughingstock throughout the world. It's being ripped off by every country.
... I hate what's happening to our country. We are not respected. We're scoffed at. We're laughed at. We are a whipping post for the world. China, other nations, they're taking our jobs, they're taking our money.
Donald Trump, CNN, September 2007:
"We've gone from this tremendous power that was respected all over the world to somewhat of a laughingstock."...'"And, all of the sudden, people are talking about China and India and other places. ... Even from an economic standpoint, America's come down a long way," he added. "It's very, very sad."
(birched a couple days ago; on Twitter @deanbarker)
[Indy Ron Morse] voted for Clinton in the 2008 primary and Obama in the general election but isn't hot on anyone this time and doesn't know what he will do come 2012.
"I switch when it feels right. Right now, I don't feel the president's doing a good job," said Morse, 60, as he had breakfast at a Manchester diner recently when Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour stopped by. "There's nobody so far that I want to vote for." He said he "definitely" wouldn't back Romney. "And definitely not that Alaskan chick," he said, referring to former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin.
It turns out that Barbour doesn't sit well with him either; Morse said he was annoyed that Barbour brushed off his concerns about potential cuts to Medicare and Social Security.
Now listen to the guy in the red shirt for the first 45 seconds of this video:
This should be so easy.
Let's never underestimate, though, our side's capacity to screw it up.
"Awful." That's how House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt described the showing at Friday's Tea People thing in Concord, according to a trusted source who overheard him.
But I didn't crosspost it here earlier because, well, that was all I had, and besides, Zandra did such a great post covering the same ground.
But now we can confirm just how awful. Reuters:
Four potential Republican presidential hopefuls showed up, but the turnout for the New Hampshire Tea Party tax day rally was rather tepid.
On a brilliant spring day in Concord, perfect for a rally, only about 300 came to protest taxes and the Obama Administration, a far cry from the robust rallies held ahead of the 2010 elections.
...Local attendees noted that the gathering was about one-tenth the size of a recent rally in support of public sector unions that packed the green in front of the State House.
I would like to thank Bill O'Brien (and his GOP Caucus), Scott Walker, Paul LePage, Rick Scott, Paul Ryan, Donald Trump, inter alii, for their assistance in helping the pendulum initiate its arc back again.
"balancing this budget's easy. Don't let them fool you." And, he said, it can be done "without harming seniors or people who need help. It can be done."
Oh, really? How's that now, just two grafs down?
On Social Security, Roemer proposed raising the retirement age one month a year for 24 years to increase the retirement age by two years. Medicaid should be fully controlled by the states, he said, with federal money distributed as block grants.
On Medicare, Roemer said he favors "a voucher system requiring insurance companies to cross state lines to serve. You would have a much leaner program, but you would allow seniors to choose their own health care."
With a whole class of Americans 55 and up virtually unemployable in this horrible economy, Buddy will make it harder for them to collect SS. He'll leave health care for the poorest up to government dismantling radicals like Bill O'Brien. And he'll Ryan-style abolish Medicare.
All that remains now is for New Hampshire's versions of Davids Brooks and Broder to declare how "courageous" Buddy is for having an "adult conversation" about our budget.
Donald Trump, who plans on spending $600 million of his own money as either a Republican or independent to purchase the presidency:
"Everybody that even gives a hint of being a birther ... even a little bit of a hint, like, gee, you know, maybe, just maybe this much of a chance, they label them as an idiot. Let me tell you, I'm a really smart guy," he said.
... "He grew up and nobody knew him. You know? When you interview people, if ever I got the nomination, if I ever decide to run, you may go back and interview people from my kindergarten. They'll remember me. Nobody ever comes forward. Nobody knows who he his until later in his life. It's very strange. The whole thing is very strange," he added.
I don't think Donald Trump is an "idiot" or a "really smart guy." I think he is a scoundrel for lessening the safety and security of the President of the United States for nourishing the lunatic fringe with this lie.
In other news "state business leaders" will be hosting this plutocrat in the Granite State this June for Politics and Eggs.
A road trip to the official launch of No Labels, a group with clear ties to Bloomberg, perhaps for the purpose of getting him on the ballot for an indy POTUS run:
Leaders of the College Democrats and Republicans in New Hampshire and Iowa were invited to mingle with business leaders, politicians and civic leaders, including Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Republican Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware.
Among the New Hampshire attendees include former state senator Maggie Hassan, an Exeter Democrat, and independent Betty Hall, a former state representative.
What a remarkable coincidence on the choice of states - did you know that New Hampshire and Iowa happen to be a bit early in the presidential caucus/primary calendar?
Odd timing, given this:
"I'm not going to run for president." The emphatic denial stands in contrast to the coy remarks usually made by would-be candidates. When pressed about talk that he was researching a potential bid, Mr. Bloomberg was even firmer.
..."No, I'm not looking at the possibility of running," Mr. Bloomberg responded. "I've got a great job and I'm gonna stay with it."
Mr. Gregory pressed again: "No way, no how?" And Mr. Bloomberg responded: "No way, no how."
On the other hand, this authentic grassroots movement to the middle will have David Brooks and Joe Lieberman at the launch.
For '12 Hopefuls, Bass, Guinta Among Most Popular New Members
...Rep.-elect Frank Guinta told Roll Call that he also received congratulatory phone calls from former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former New York Gov. George Pataki and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
...I'm excited for New Hampshire," Guinta said. "It's an awesome responsibility."
Besides the comedy factor of him playing diva and bragging about all the bottom rung POTUS wannabes who called him, it is useful to take note of all these NH-Primary connections to Mr. Guinta.
Because when Representative-Elect Guinta becomes "embattled" Congressman Guinta these POTUS wannabes should be asked why they cozied up to someone with a pre-existing scandal hanging over his head.
CNN snuck a NH-Primary teaser into their exit polling. The Godfather of ObamaCare takes the lead:
In New Hampshire, 39 percent of Republicans say that Romney is their likely choice in the state's primary, with Palin at 18 percent, Huckabee at 11 percent, Gingrich at eight percent and 19 percent saying they would back another possible contender.
Iowa and South Carolina don't find Mittens any more appealing than the others, though.
I think Facebook Governor Palin is the presumptive nominee by a mile (despite the awesome job she did costing the GOP the US Senate), rendering New Hampshire Romney's one and only, and thus not terribly important or influential overall.
But then again I was sure Al Gore was running for POTUS in 2008, so what do I know?
Well, now we can add "T-Paw" to the list of people who will come here peddling their presidential ambitions but who have so little faith in the abiding principles of this country.
But whom will Joe Lieberman support this time?
Truly shameful. Take it away, Mayor Bloomberg:
"On Sept. 11, 2001, thousands of first responders heroically rushed to the scene and saved tens of thousands of lives. More than 400 of those first responders did not make it out alive. In rushing into those burning buildings, not one of them asked, 'What God do you pray to?'"
UPDATE: Apparently some of the fearmongering homunculi are based here in New Hampshire.
Could Palin survive a New Hampshire drubbing in '12?
While I do appreciate how viral and national the news is of what a drag Palin is on a ticket in New Hampshire, there is a simple answer to that question.
Sure, she'll probably get creamed here by Romney. But that didn't stop an equally incompetent and pernicious former governor from winning the White House and ruining the country.
UPDATE: Haha - I swear I did not see this new PPP poll on NH-Primary 2012 before posting:
Romney leads the way with 31% to 14% for Newt Gingrich, 13% for Paul, 12% for Huckabee, 9% for Palin, 3% for Tim Pawlenty, and 1% for Mitch Daniels.
