There is only one way...

to settle the Democratic Primary...only one sure fire way...
two candidates enter one candidate leaves...two candidates enter one candidate leaves...

Dews Monday recovery

Another strange weekend in the books and another long week started. It never ceases to amaze me just how short weekends feel on sunday nights (after catching Aqua Teen of course) knowing that work is only a few hours away...

Oh well, on to the news of the day.
Leading off, Venezuela has us by the cajones yet again for something one of our multi-national corporate buddies Exxon is doing in retaliation for the nationalizing of a certain oil field.

"If you end up freezing (Venezuelan assets) and it harms us, we're going to
harm you," Chavez said during his weekly radio and television program, "Hello,
President." "Do you know how? We aren't going to send oil to the United States.
Take note, Mr. Bush, Mr. Danger."

Quite honestly, it is refreshing for a rebel like Chavez to stick it to corporate America in the worst possible way. Not that I or anyone else is going to enjoy the repercussions of oil prices rising again, but if you draw a line in the sand, you have to back that up.

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In Primary news, it is looking more and more like Clinton's candidacy is having issues with not only money, but with the the supposed "Obama surge" that even I had been discounting over super tuesday (Sorry, the numbers just didn't support it I thought).

Clinton took another PR hit with this latest news of dismissing her Campaign Leader:

Mrs. Clinton, meanwhile, replaced Patti Solis Doyle, who led her campaign
since it began last year and whom she regarded almost as an adopted daughter. In
her place, she named another longtime aide, Maggie Williams.

Regardless of the realities of whether this person was doing a good job, this kind of illustrates a desperate and pretty sad push by the Clinton campaign to get this ship righted. Given that she has referred to this now fired individual as an "adopted daughter", you'd think she would perhaps assign someone to her duties, but keep the news of her firing from the press... To me this just smacks of desperation, so I can imagine it may to others that only hear that much of the story as well.

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In other Primary news, Governor Huckabee continues on as he seemingly is still quite strong with the party base and the more conservative portions of his party.

"The Democrats haven't settled their nominee either, so for us to suddenly
act like we have to all step aside and have a coronation instead of an election,
that's the antithesis of everything Republicans are supposed to believe," he
said on "Meet the Press" on NBC. "We believe competition breeds excellence and
the lack of it breeds mediocrity."

With victories in Kansas and Louisiana, it appears Huckabee really doesn't have a good reason to go anywhere anytime soon, so it really does make sense for him to hang on and hope for a McCain collapse (or perhaps a news story containing details about a votes for sexual favors scandal?).

I really think Huckabee is still in this thing. Its a long shot obviously, but the conservatives in his party just cannot stomach McCain and as long as that is a festering issue with the party base, I can't write off the Huckster.

Should be an interesting finish though, still looking forward to seeing how this ends...

That is all.

Dews Super Tuesday thoughts...

Wow, what a strange and interesting turn of events last night was huh?

On the one hand, you have an increasingly obvious candidate in McCain on the GOP side that can't seem to win the GOP states, but on the other you have Clinton and Obama dicing up the electorate (with Clinton still holding a lead despite what the Media seems to be telling us in some not-to-subtle ways).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of Clinton (Hillary anyway), but does anyone else find it just a bit suspicious that despite her victories last night all you could hear was how much more traction Obama "seemed" to be getting and how much better his chances are going forward then Clinton's because of this "momentum" he apparently got?

On the Democratic side, it certainly seems like the Media has already anointed Obama the Democratic candidate regardless of the reality of the situation, but by all means feel free to chime in and point me where I should be looking to think otherwise.

On the GOP side, I gotta say I don't think McCain is nearly as strong a candidate as people are making him out to be. He is supposed to be the "staunch independant" mind running for the nomination, but he has a long list of enemies he's accrued over the years that have done their damnedest to rally conservative America away from his campaign.

That being said, doesn't McCain have to pick Huckabee now as his running mate? Is there any other way for him to win the states that the GOP has no business losing (ie, the south and midwest)? There is no way Romney would get the nod, being the only person hated more by the GOP establishment (and being richer then God of course), so I'd have to believe that Huckabee is the only way McCain can solidify the base at this point. Question is, would Huckabee take such a job? He certainly has the opportunity to be the voice of Conservative America after this election, whether as a Radio host, or maybe even a third party candidate (viable one at that I might add), so why hitch a wagon to a guy that doesn't share your views?

Really shaping up to be a fascinating finish though for us political geeks... Looking forward to the continued media spin on Hillary and whether it does finally give Obama that edge he needs to finish strong.

That is all...

Dews don't know Politics...

Ok... So I was a little off on the Ron Paul prediction, as well as the Obama one.

Basically my assumptions where that A) New Hampshire is the Libertarian headquarters (if there is such a thing) and thusly would vote Ron Paul in as spoiler, and B) Obama would ride a wave of support and fund raising craziness into New Hampshire that would equal a definite win and possible withdrawal of Clinton...

Obviously that didn't happen! :)

I can blame the Wilder (or Bradley) effect for this and make excuses, but it was obviously a bit off.

Also for you Huckabee Fans out there, I think his 3rd place finish still gives him the lead by a considerable margin, just as long as he can continue to figure out the fundraising operations.

Anyway, busy day in Politics though as various talking heads have come forward to bitch and moan about their own reasons for being so off on the polls. My personal favorite talking head is Donna Brazile as she is legendary for losing just about every campaign she was involved in, but still somehow qualifies as a "pundit". I really need that gig...

She apparently is offended by how former President Bill Clinton has been attacking Obama:

For him to go after Obama, using a fairy tale, calling him as he did last
week. It's an insult. And I will tell you, as an African-American, I find his
tone and his words to be very depressing.

She goes on to say that Bill Clinton's involvement in Hillary's campaign is a mistake, which really just puts the cherry on top for me. She obviously didn't learn from Al Gore's mistake in not including ol Bubba in on the fun last time around.

Lets face it, the American people associate Bill with great economic times and it certainly shows that he's rubbed some of that good mojo onto Hillary's camp (whether through his own campaigning for her, or just our association with the name). Judging from the NH polls, the people that cared the most about the Economy and which candidate would be better suited to manage it (though none of them have really dealt with a budget outside of Gov Richardson), it was overwhelmingly in favor of Clinton...

Donna Brazile is a freakin idiot is basically what I'm getting at here... Hillary needs Bill just as much as Al did, but chose not to. I feel better having been so far off on Ron Paul when so-called "professionals" still can't make sense of how valuable Billy boy still is to becoming president.

Dews Caucus thoughts...

Well it has finally come and gone...

The long awaited test for Clinton/Obama/Edwards/Others and their partners Romney/Giuliani/Huckabee/McCain/Paul in Iowa has come and gone with yours truly watching (quite amused for the most part) from our very own command center in Capitol Hill (complete with 42 and 50 inch behemoth HD TV's).

Immediate thoughts are that I was not at all surprised about Huckabee's running away with the GOP side, as they kept mentioning over and over about the power of evangelical influence in the caucus that year. That being said, it was surprising to see Fred Thompson garner so much support when he had mentioned as recently as yesterday that he wanted to help support his friend McCain if he could not secure a good finish (consequently he had beaten McCain based on the last numbers I saw).

Obama's clear victory was honestly a surprise though.

From the early returns I got the sense that Edwards may have finally gotten that traction he's needed, but eventually did lose ground, though a second place finish for him in Iowa is damaging it may not be the end of the road.

The real clear loser in this was Hillary Clinton...

Not really sure where this puts her in the grand scheme of things, as she obviously hasn't shown as much ability as Obama in the fundraising, nor the "charm" aspect, so honestly I'm ready to write her off at this point as a serious candidate...

She needed to win Iowa to prove their was something there I feel... She didn't do it... Her speech was the most telling part of her entire failure when she was preaching progress and a change in direction while surrounding herself with Washington insiders that everyone would recognize (including that unemployed husband of hers, whats his name?).

Anyway...

My picks for New Hampshire for the moment are Obama and (wait for it....) a close finish between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney!

You laugh, but just wait...

Its coming down to the wire!

Other then Huckabee's now double-digit lead in Iowa and Cyborg Romney's 6-8% point lead in New Hampshire, it is still anyones game in the GOP Primary its looking.

On the Republican side, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee appears to have a
double-digit edge in Iowa, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney an 8-point
margin in New Hampshire – but South Carolina remains up for grabs, with five
candidates registering in double digits.

In the Hawkeye State – where a Newsweek poll released Friday appeared to show Huckabee with a stunning 22 point lead – the Republican contest seems to be a three-person race, with Huckabee at 32 percent, Romney at 20 percent, former Tennesse Sen. Fred Thompson at 11 percent and no other candidate registering higher than single digits.

Really enjoying the fact that this is still all up in the air. I kind of feel like this makes the process that much more interesting to have candidates really beat the crap out of each other before the general election. Air out the dirty laundry, let us all know just how many skeletons you have in your closet THEN let us decide how we want to go.

The same seems to hold true in the Dem side of things as well:

In the Democratic race, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton appears to lead Illinois
Sen. Barack Obama by a statistically insignificant 2-point margin, 25 to 27
percent, John Edwards at 21 percent, and no other candidate registering higher
than single digit support.

Really seems like this is going to boil down to two things (in my humble opinion of course)...

First off, is Huckabee going to continue to maintain this type of momentum moving forward solidifying the evangelical and more right leaning portions of the party while (and this is the key here) learning how to raise money like the cyborg or the cross dresser?

Secondly, is Edwards populism ever going to click in a way that Huckabee's has for his own pockets of power within the more right leaning parts of his party? Edwards can obviously count on plenty of resources if he needs to in order to carry on any momentum he may create before the primary, but something really needs to happen for his candidacy to really start showing he can out-muscle Hillary and Obama.

Any thoughts out there LSWTF, or bloggers in general?

Huckabee unstoppable?

Granted I started writing about Huckabee as the interesting former Governor that was speaking his mind about several topics that I quite honestly was shocked to hear any politician say in public, but it seems that every time I look at the news now he's gained so much traction in his campaign that he has "pulled to within a single percentage point of Hillary Clinton in a general election match-up."!!!

Today, in the first full round of national polling completed since last week’s “debate” among Republican Presidential hopefuls, Huckabee has pulled to within three points of the frontrunning Rudy Giuliani. Heading into the debate, Giuliani led Huckabee by twelve.

Really is shaping up to be a fascinating primary on the GOP side between the Cyborg Romney, Cross-dresser Rudy and now the seemingly unstoppable Huckabee. Should at the very least provide us political geeks some much needed entertainment after watching the Hillary/Obama "He's looking at me, ya but he's on my side of the seat!" childish crap.

Ideally I'd love to watch an Edwards vs Huckabee election though, given the wild-card nature of both those candidates, but I guess beggars can't be choosers :).

Amazing developments...

Don't look now ladies and gentlemen, but we've got ourselves a whole new race in the GOP primary!

Latest numbers from a Rasmussen report show none other then Governor Huckabee taking the lead in Iowa over well kept, reserved, mormon Governor Mitt Romney!

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of the Iowa caucus finds former
Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee with 28% of the vote, former Massachusetts
Governor Mitt Romney with 25% support, and everyone else far behind. National
frontrunner Rudy Giuliani gets just 12% of the vote in Iowa at this time while
former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson is the only other candidate in double
digits at 11%.

Really is a pretty shocking turn of events as Huckabee has truly come on strong recently as his visibility seems to go up by the week. He certainly has distinguished his views and his persona from the rest of the crowd at this point, but maybe this is a sign of the GOP electorate wanting someone that won't base all their responses off the latest polls?

Should be an interesting race to watch now...

Especially for our good friend that will hook us all up if he wins the Presidency :).

FEC going after Colbert?

You'd think there would be FAR more dirty connections between our lovable slimeball politicians and corporate interests to keep the FEC busy, but apparently they do have time to go after a Faux-News star as well!

Alas, in our utopian society all our politicians are clean as a whistle, so the FEC is free to go after others as it sees fit.

Which brings us to Colbert...

If his campaign plays out the way he's indicated that it will, Comedy Central and Colbert's sponsor, Doritos, could be violating federal laws that bar corporations from backing political campaigns, election law experts say.

Now, the practical, corporate-hating, politician mistrusting part of me would normally salute this gesture as this is obviously corporate interest involved in a "presidential" campaign... But at the same time, is this really the right fight for the FEC to be pursuing right now?

You mean to tell me that of all the candidates running for President right now, Stephen Colbert is a concern to the FEC over some zesty tasty nacho chips, that he as a candidate enjoys, but he as a host endorses?

Side Note: DC&H and I are going to see how difficult it may be to get Colbert on the ballot in Vermont... DC&H has already done the research on forms and amount of signatures, but I'm thinking with Vermont's open primary system it shouldn't be that difficult to get him to be the top republican candidate on the ballot (ala, Fred Tuttle).














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