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Jeb Bradley beat John Stephen 18,559 to 16,766 in the Republican 1st District Congressional race. Geoff Michael received 534 votes and Dave Jarvis 414. Running unopposed, Democratic incumbent Carol Shea-Porter received 20,989 votes.
Yes, obviously, when you count up all the GOP votes, you see that more of them showed up for primary day.
But when Carol Shea-Porter, unopposed, can match roughly 2/3rd of the total of all the GOP candidates in a competitive primary, that speaks loud and clear.
This race is a top priority. Carol is as genuine as they come, and as progressive as they come. We owe it to her to work our hearts out. Donate, volunteer, canvass, phonebank, visibility, rinse and repeat.
Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans."
...Palin's return to Alaska coincided with her first extensive interview since she became the Republican vice presidential nominee. In the interview, with ABC News correspondent Charlie Gibson, Palin struggled when asked to define the "Bush doctrine" on foreign policy, leading to repeated follow-up questions from Gibson about whether she believed in the right to "anticipatory self-defense" and crossing other nations' borders to take action against threats.
John McCain has obviously become a shameless, dishonorable puppet of the Bush/Cheney machine. That much is clear, and has been for some time now.
But here's today's not so deep thought, which hit me like a ton of bricks. Sarah Palin is Bush 2.0 - an example of a mindset created by the extensive damage of the Bush years. She may not believe in evolution, but she represents the next mutation of the species elephans Bushensis. That's why she doesn't have a clue about the Bush doctrine - in her world, it's natural for America to start aggressive wars. And that's why she's incapable of separating Osama bin Laden and a country that had nothing to do with him or his attacks - because eight years of lies have altered her genetic code.
Living through Bush/Cheney is nightmare enough. God help us all if America becomes led by people infected with Bush 2.0 DNA.
I think he's a shameless, dishonorable Pander Bear too, but it's weird coming out of the mouth of Jennifer Palin, who has rushed headlong to recreate herself into the Mayor of Wasilla, New Hampshire:
In an interview for the HDNet program "Dan Rather Reports", Horn levied an insult at Republican Presidential nominee John McCain, saying "I think that his pandering does bother me, it's one of the big issues I have with Senator McCain right now." She has also touted the endorsement of comedian Jackie Mason, who considers McCain a "lowlife".
I knew it - the Palin pick is poison for a state like ours. The older, yankee Republicans are repulsed by such a reckless choice, and the undeclared women of this state are far smarter than John McCain gives them credit for:
The CNN/Time Magazine/Opinion Research Corporation polls were conducted Sunday through Tuesday, with 966 registered voters in Michigan, 940 registered voters in Missouri, 899 registered voters in New Hampshire, and 920 registered voters in Virginia questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points in Michigan, Missouri and New Hampshire and 3.5 percentage points in New Hampshire.
A nicely sized sample, and registered voters. Awesome.
I'll put up more detail on this poll if/when I can find it.
Update: Thank you Garth! Check out the numbers on women and older voters in the poll. Barracuda!
Among men: Obama 46, McCain 48 Among women: Obama 56, McCain 41
Among whites: Obama 51, McCain 44
Among voters under 50: Obama 48, McCain 46 Among voters older than 50: Obama 54, McCain 42
Among voters making under $50,000/year: Obama 59, McCain 38
Among voters making more than $50,000/year: Obama 49, McCain 46
I wanted to set aside a post just to say thanks to Doug Lindner and Sean Doyle for going above and beyond the civic duty of 99% of Americans. For actually running for office at such a young age.
Inspiring.
Thanks, Doug and Sean. And best of luck to you two Hamsters - you are the future of this state. When I get too old to rage against the forces that would darken this beautiful American experiment, I will be comforted to know that leaders like you will be out there running the country and keeping the experiment alive.
"On Monday evening, Congressman Paul Hodes was admitted to the Emergency Room at Concord Regional Hospital for a kidney stone. Tuesday afternoon he underwent a routine surgical procedure with Dr. Thomas Schwaab to remove the kidney stone, and his surgical recovery prevented him from traveling to Washington. He will be flying to Washington as soon as possible to vote on the comprehensive energy package that is expected to come up on the House floor later this week."
1) I can't make it to the Biden event today, so if anyone is there and does a decent write-up of it (pix would be great, but not necessary), we'll happily put it on the Front Page.
2) The latest McCain ad is perhaps the lowest form of putrescence I've seen in national political advertising - ever. Forget how extremist, corrupt, Palin has motivated Dems into action - this ad has shown me what a dishonorable, vermin-like, homunculus John McCain is. It should motivate all of us into making sure this reckless, mendacious creature never becomes our Commander-in-Chief. If there were ever a time to do more for Barack Obama and Jeanne Shaheen and Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes and every other Dem on the ticket, now's the time. Donate, phonebank, canvass, visibility, vote. Rinse and repeat.
Republicans in the first district could have chosen a (scary) fiscal conservative true to their party's beliefs.
Instead they went for Bush League Bradley, who was asleep at the wheel the first time and lost his job. A guy who is a proud part of the Bush/Cheney years, trying to come back in just as those horrors are leaving. A guy the right wing Union Leader begged not to run ever again.
Republicans in the second district could have chosen a moderate "Colin Powell" Republican, much in line with the tenor of the district, who refused to take special interest money, and has an honorable military past. Or they could have chosen a well-known state legislator with lots of experience. Or a staffer who campaigned harder than all of them and ran rings around them in policy specifics and true conservatism.
Instead they chose a hockey lacrosse mom with zero experience other than watered down, talk show, Rush Limbaugh rhetoric. Instead, they chose a slick, consistently negative candidate who doesn't understand some of the basic functions of government. Or to put it another way, very competent in all of the things that turn people away from politics, and incompetent in those things that actually matter in governance.
I don't understand why the GOP continues to go down the road it does. You'd think that New Hampshire would be one of the few states, due to demographics and temperament, where a true reform of the elephants could find root and grow. But not this time.
18,346 - that's the number of Republicans who voted for Ron Paul in the New Hampshire Primary, according to the SoS.
And that could mean 18,346 fewer votes for John McCain here:
Paul, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination, will tell supporters he is not endorsing GOP nominee John McCain or Democratic nominee Barack Obama, and will instead give his seal of approval to four candidates: Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney, Libertarian Party nominee Bob Barr, independent candidate Ralph Nader, and Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, according to a senior Paul aide.
And as fortune would have it, Barr and Nader both made it on the ballot for this November.
WhoJeb Bradley and Jennifer Horn will lose to Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes this November?!
WMUR and NHPR each have pages with updated totals.
The UL also has a Google Doc up with updated totals, and the 'Ticker is ticking away like mad. Pindell has a list of primary questions that was pretty funny to read, I thought.
Obama's new ad today on McCain's (lack of) education policy:
What was that? Abolish the Department of Education???
Where have I heard such radical right fringe talk before? Hmmm... Oh yeah, this is it:
(Sununu has) pledged to work against all tax increases and abolish the Energy, Education, Housing and Commerce departments.
So hard to pin John E. down. One minute he's running hard right with Palin on denying that humans have anything to do with Climate Change, and the next he's dashing away from entire federal departments with McSame. But I guess that's why they call him the Sprinter.
Now doesn't that put a crimp in the Nascar Mavwreck. From an email:
Manchester, New Hampshire - United States Senator Barack Obama will be coming to New Hampshire this Friday and Saturday to rally Granite State voters and discuss the Obama/Biden blueprint for change.
"We are excited to welcome back Senator Obama to discuss his commitment to helping working Granite Staters and bringing the change we need to Washington, D.C.," said Sandra Abrevaya, New Hampshire Communications Director. "Senator Obama will deliver real change by ending the Bush policy of showering big corporations with tax giveaways and ending the politics that are rigged against working New Hampshire families."
While perhaps not the most exciting event this cycle from a Democrats' perspective, a primary day nonetheless. Step outside and feel the democracy. And here are three handy diaries you might want to visit today:
Looks like Sarah Horn is taking her talking points from the Telegraph endorsement seriously - she is literally awash in babies in this NECN clip on the NH-02 Republican derby.
No experience? No problem! Just make sure there's a baby to hold when the cameras are rolling - that's the St. Paul Republican Convention way!
So: just how many babies are surrounding Jennifer Palin in the clip? It's not as easy as you might think - some of them may have had more than one camera shot.
There's a new "poll" out today from the cash-strapped NRSC showing a much tighter race than any of the previous polling on Shaheen-Sununu.
Despite a desperate desire to counter the trend, they still can't pull off a Sununu lead, showing him trailing Shaheen 46-44.
Republican outfit Public Opinion Strategies conducted the poll. They sampled 500 likely voters, and have made available no word on how many were registered voters, no data on party affiliation. The one-page .pdf linked to on the NRSC site has no crosstabs. And to top it off, they polled smack in the middle of the Republican convention (9/2-9/3).
Expect a breathless front-page UL headline tomorrow.
Don't get me wrong - the race will tighten, if it hasn't happened already. But the circumstances surrounding a poll should always be noted.
Change We Need Town Hall with Senator Joe Biden
The Wellness Center
Nashua Community College
505 Amherst Street
Nashua, NH
Wednesday, September 10
Doors Open at 1:30 PM
Ticketing: This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are limited and will be available on a first come, first serve basis at the ticket distribution location listed below.
Ticket Distribution Location: Obama Campaign for Change - Nashua Office
306 Amherst St., Nashua, NH
Tickets will be available Tuesday, September 9th, from 10:30 AM to 9:00 PM.
How great would it be if Biden tore into Palin's parade of lies about the Bridge to Nowhere? Of course, he's got plenty of other material, too, like from when McCain himself was in Nashua a little while ago:
Even Obama's saying it now - the McCain campaign thinks you're stoopid.
Update: Looks like Biden won't need to be the first messenger about Palin's lies. I prefer active to reactive, but this is just about the best comeback to the new McCain ad I could hope for:
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