Cautious Clinton, Dangerous Obama and Hypocrite Edwards
Posted in Public Affairs, wordpress, Politics, campaign, election, Biden, McCain, GOP, Democrats, News Media, Clinton, obama, romney, Opinion, Edwards, giuliani, Brownback, Dodd, huckabee on August 18th, 2007 by Stanford MatthewsObama stuck in a narrative not his own
August 18, 2007
Hillary Rodham Clinton is rigid, cautious and steely. Barack Obama is dangerously inexperienced. John Edwards is a narcissistic hypocrite. Joseph R. Biden Jr. can’t express a thought in less than 25 minutes. Christopher J. Dodd is making sense but nobody’s paying attention.
But, then again, Rudolph W. Giuliani is hot-tempered and not particularly solicitous of civil liberties. Mitt Romney is a flip-flopping opportunist. John McCain is a doomed defender of the Iraq war. Sam Brownback is a hopeless religious conservative. Mike Huckabee is too, except that he’s lost a lot of weight, has a wicked sense of humor and, because of his second-place finish in last week’s (utterly meaningless) Iowa straw poll, might not be the dead-man-walking everyone thought he was.
David Shribman is executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
David Shribman has it all figured out. All the candidates are worthless. At first glance it may appear that way. But his initial observations, while entertaining, have a tendency to lean one way…..left.
The first candidate described by Shribman is Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic poll leader who receives his least critical if not highest praise of all the candidates listed. Rigid, cautious and steely may be somewhat vague but not critical. Obama is dangerous, Edwards a hypocrite with Biden and Dodd shown as generally inept. Any guess on who Shribman favors but is concealing in ambiguous adjectives? Nice try on an attempt to appear objective….NOT.
Every description of the GOP field is derogatory with the possible exception of Huckabee. He is called a hopeless religious conservative and given a backhanded compliment on his performance in the Iowa Straw Poll. Less that 2nd place finish in a contest panned by many, Shribman calls him a ‘dead-man-walking.’
Shribman tries to be stealthy with his appraisal of Clinton to hide the favoritism. He bashes the remainder of the Democratic field and the entire GOP field focusing the remainder of the piece on what Barack Obama should do. All that from the Executive Editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette showing a left-leaning bias and not so cleverly hidden endorsement of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Who says the press is biased?
Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com
A new poll of likely U.S. voters shows New York Senator Hillary Clinton maintaining her frontrunner status among Democratic voters in next year’s presidential race, with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani leading the Republican field. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports from Washington.
Months ago, some analysts predicted that Senator Obama, whose father was Kenyan, would eventually receive overwhelming backing from black and other minority voters. But the Quinnipiac poll shows no such trend to date, with Senator Clinton doing well among all racial and ethnic groups within the Democratic Party.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was the big winner at the Iowa straw poll, capturing 31 percent of the vote and what he hopes will be political momentum for the next phase of the 2008 presidential campaign.
The article above indicated the possible setaback faced by Giulians as well as McCain by competing in the straw poll. Giuliani’s campaign said the straw poll was not important but they would show for the Iowa Caucus. The important thing is Giuliani and McCain saved several million dollars by not attending.
At the very least, not placing 1st or 2nd in New Hampshire is fighting the odds to become President. And with the straw polls influence on the Iowa Caucus, skipping either is a substantial risk. Even with the various primary and caucus venues jockeying for position this campaign season, the early states may not guarantee success but can you really afford to skip them? And what does that say about your campaign? Is it just politics and working the strategies, or is there a more profound implication that voters should take into consideration?
The 1999 straw poll is claimed to have been the largest in its history. Those who say this year’s turnout is disappointing may be wrong. If you assume there should have been twice the number of voters and the missing half would have been spread 3/4 for the missing 3 candidates (or potential candidate) with another 1/4 spread among those competing, the results would have been interesting. It may not be far from what would have been reality. Another reason the other 3 campaigns should have been there. That could have put some questions to bed. And that may be exactly why they really missed the event.
Senator Sam Brownback has decided the straw poll in Iowa is THE target. With Giuliani, McCain and Thompson not a factor, a second place finish is not outside the realm of possibilities for the Senator. But his automated ‘robo-call’ methods to attack his opponents does not come without a downside. Some might suggest this tactic should be part of the national do not call list. If any voter is annoyed by unsolicited calls, getting one from an automated system on any subject cannot be any more pleasing than the traditional human counterpart. And the complaints from competing campaigns, the subjects of the calls, may cause potential voters to challenge the validity of the claims. But then we’ll know how well this worked sometime in August.
Regardless of your politics, you gotta love the Kucinich campaign. If you’re on the left, he speaks to long standing and underlying positions of the Democratic party. Peace, programs and solving problems with government intervention. If you’re on the right, he helps the GOP by harassing other Democratic candidates.
While this post was presented in light of the recent Democratic party debate via CNN/YouTube, the lower tier of the GOP presents some interesting choices as well. Perhaps one undisclosed purpose by lower tier candidates from both major parties is a chance at a spot on the ticket as a running mate. While John Cox, Ron Paul and Tommy Thompson are very unlikely to pose any threat in a run for the 2008 nomination, the lower tier of GOP candidates has some contenders with more than no chance at all. Brownback, Huckabee, Hunter and Tancredo are established politicians but their contribution to the race may only serve to slow the process of finding a breakout candidate.
The filing deadline for 2nd quarter campaign finance reports is July 15th. Already there is the pre-deadline chatter about who raised what and candidate reactions or lack of them. One headline said the Democratic candidates were quiet about their 2nd quarter numbers. A quick visit to their campaign sites found Obama’s news section referring to a report that his campaign raised $32.5 million through the small donor strategy. Without analyzing, debating or arguing the details, if that is accurate one must say that Barack Obama’s campaign turned in a stellar fund raising performance for quarter two.
This is strange enough but the entire report at Rasmussen rates how conservatives, ‘moderates’ and liberals view the Queen of Cringe in terms of political leanings. It would be more accurate to rank her as not conservative, moderate or liberal. HRC is not concerned with the agenda of any political persuasion. She is only concerned about HRC. To say whatever is deemed necessary to enter the White House is it. There is no other agenda. Get in the White House and try to rule the planet HRC style.
