A Stoner Cooking Special
The Business Insider's Karlee Weinmann and Aimee Groth
Fri, Nov 4, 2011
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/fast-food-products-tested-first-columbus-ohio-175714022.html
It's a microcosm of the nation
Companies that can afford to test regionally often seek out cities with populations that are reflective of the greater U.S., or whose consumer habits match the broader market.
"There's a reason Middle America is called 'Middle America,'" Wendy's spokesman Denny Lynch told Nation's Restaurant News. "Columbus is very representative of American demographics."
Median household income levels in Ohio and in the U.S. overall fall between $45,000 and $50,000, and until recently, racial demographics were more closely aligned.
It's a college town — which means there are tons of young customers who are setting trends
Several colleges and universities call Columbus home, including Ohio State University. This means there's a guaranteed population of prospective consumers, Dennis Lombardi, executive VP for food service strategies at WD Partners, told Nation's Restaurant News.
Also, younger customers provide valuable insight to companies test-marketing products. After all, they're the ones who are setting trends and steering future consumer behavior patterns. By that logic, Columbus is not only a place to learn about consumers now — it's also a place that can help groom businesses for future success.
In fact, as a whole, Columbus is "younger, more educated and with a higher disposable income"
This is ideal for companies seeking a consumer base willing and financially able to try new things, says Shawnie M. Kelley in Insider's Guide to Columbus, Ohio, who also points out that from 1996 to 2006, the average age dropped from 34.3 to 32.5.
Advertising is affordable, which is vital for test-runs
New rollouts require at least the same amount of advertising as already-existing products, but it's especially necessary to be sure consumers are aware the new product is available, marketing expert Neeli Bendapudi said on NPR's Talk of the Nation.
If launching an advertising campaign is too expensive, no one will hear about the product. In Columbus, Bendapudi says, rates are reasonable.
The media market is more contained — which means it's easier to measure the success of advertising campaigns
"You have the ability to advertise without spilling over into adjacent markets," Wendy's spokesman Lynch told Nation's Restaurant News, allowing companies to more accurately measure their efforts with more controls in place.
Columbus is situated apart from other major cities, meaning different media markets don't have too much crossover and there's a stronger guarantee that the ads taken out to target people in Columbus will actually reach them.
Major interstates pass through Columbus — which broadens the city's consumer base
Interstates 70 and 71 go through Columbus, which brings in lots of visitors who might pass through and make a pit stop at fast food restaurants.
This also means stores with test-run items are relatively convenient to a large swath of the population, WD partners' Lombardi explains to Nation's Restaurant News.
Nearly 20 fast food chains are headquartered in Columbus — which makes it easier for companies to test products in their own backyards
White Castle decided it needed a more central location, and in 1934, it moved its headquarters from Kansas to Columbus.
The trend has lasted over the past several decades, Nation's Restaurant News reports. White Castle, Wendy's, and Bob Evans Farms have helped turn the Columbus region into a veritable fast-food stronghold.
People in Columbus have jobs — and more money to spend
Columbus' latest unemployment rate, 7.6%, falls below the national average of 8.8%. This means more people with money to spend on things like dining out.
Historically, Columbus' unemployment rate has hovered below the national average continuously for the past two decades.
Locals' tastes aren't too refined
Companies see Columbus consumers as having tastes that are generalizable, marketing expert Bendapudi told NPR.
In other places, namely wealthier urban areas, fast food might be vilified as an unhealthy alternative. But Columbus residents are typically of the Midwestern variety — the kind of folks famous for their basic, hearty meat-and-potatoes culinary preference.
For this reason, companies can draw on what these All-American eaters like to form an educated guess for what will work nationwide.
Showing posts with label Ohio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ohio. Show all posts
Friday, November 18, 2011
Backlash Against Right Wing
From LATimes.com:
Ohio voters overturned a controversial law that would have weakened public employee unions and Mississippians rejected an antiabortion "personhood" initiative in elections Tuesday that suggested at least a pause in the strong conservative Republican trend that swept Democrats from office in 2010.
In the marquee fight of the day, a successful push by organized labor resulted in the repeal of Ohio's new law that would have sharply curbed collective bargaining rights for 350,000 government workers. The restrictive labor measure had been passed by the Republican Legislature and signed by newly elected Republican Gov. John Kasich, who led the unsuccessful effort to defend the law...
In the Phoenix suburbs, state Senate President Russell Pearce, the architect of Arizona's contentious immigration law, was defeated by fellow Republican Jerry Lewis in the state's first recall election of a sitting lawmaker...
Mississippi voters firmly rejected Initiative 26, which would have effectively defined birth control methods like IUDs and the morning-after pill as murder...
Elections may signal a pause in conservative trend
Paul West
November 8, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-election-roundup-20111109,0,7591992.story
Ohio voters overturned a controversial law that would have weakened public employee unions and Mississippians rejected an antiabortion "personhood" initiative in elections Tuesday that suggested at least a pause in the strong conservative Republican trend that swept Democrats from office in 2010.
In the marquee fight of the day, a successful push by organized labor resulted in the repeal of Ohio's new law that would have sharply curbed collective bargaining rights for 350,000 government workers. The restrictive labor measure had been passed by the Republican Legislature and signed by newly elected Republican Gov. John Kasich, who led the unsuccessful effort to defend the law...
In the Phoenix suburbs, state Senate President Russell Pearce, the architect of Arizona's contentious immigration law, was defeated by fellow Republican Jerry Lewis in the state's first recall election of a sitting lawmaker...
Mississippi voters firmly rejected Initiative 26, which would have effectively defined birth control methods like IUDs and the morning-after pill as murder...
Elections may signal a pause in conservative trend
Paul West
November 8, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-election-roundup-20111109,0,7591992.story
Saturday, November 5, 2011
That Huckabee Is Such a Kidder!!!
Mike Huckabee, on the voting on an anti-union bill in Ohio:
"Don't vote alone. Vote with someone—family, friends, relatives, people you work with. Make a list. Make a list of 10 family members, 10 friends, 10 neighbors, 10 folks you work with or have worked with in the past and call them and ask them, 'Are you gonna vote on issue, and are you gonna vote for it?' If they say no, well, you just make sure that they don't go vote. [Crowd laughs.] Let the air out of their tires on election day. Tell them the election has been moved to a different date."
Source: Mother Jones
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/10/mike-huckabee-deflate-car-tires-mislead-voters
"Don't vote alone. Vote with someone—family, friends, relatives, people you work with. Make a list. Make a list of 10 family members, 10 friends, 10 neighbors, 10 folks you work with or have worked with in the past and call them and ask them, 'Are you gonna vote on issue, and are you gonna vote for it?' If they say no, well, you just make sure that they don't go vote. [Crowd laughs.] Let the air out of their tires on election day. Tell them the election has been moved to a different date."
Source: Mother Jones
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/10/mike-huckabee-deflate-car-tires-mislead-voters
Saturday, November 6, 2010
CBS, CNN capture video of Ohio attorney subpoena served on Karl Rove
http://www.examiner.com/government-in-columbus/cbs-cnn-capture-video-of-ohio-attorney-subpoena-served-on-karl-rove
John Michael Spinelli
Columbus Government Examiner
CBS, CNN capture video of Ohio attorney subpoena served on Karl Rove
October 27th, 2010
COLUMBUS, Ohio (CGE) - A federal subpoena, issued by Ohio attorney Cliff Arnebeck and sanctioned by the Office of Ohio Secretary of State, was served last Sunday in Washington to Karl Rove on his way to an appearance on the CBS news program Face the Nation.
The process service for the subpoena reported that CBS and CNN camera men "captured video" of the event.
In an article written by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman and published at OpEdNews.com, the federal subpoena orders Rove to testify in deposition about his role in the alleged theft of the 2004 election, and to discuss his orchestration of tens of millions of corporate/billionaire dollars in this year's General Elections on November 2.
Contacted Wednesday to comment, Arnebeck, a Columbus attorney with a long history of involvement in election related cases, notably as plaintiff attorney in the on-going King-Lincoln-Bronzeville federal lawsuit that Fitrakis and Wasserman have used to try to question Rove on an election they say the Republican campaign expert stole for George W. Bush in 2004, said of his role in the 2010 election cycle, "Rove has asked for all this money on behalf of the Republican candidates’ campaigns. Under Citizens United that still constitutes a gift to those campaigns and is still subject to limits and prohibitions of campaign finance laws. Camouflaging the gifts by running them through nice sounding non-profit corporations is nothing but the latest form of money-laundering.”
Responding to a question on the involvement of the Office of Ohio Secretary of State and the Secretary herself, Media Relations Coordinator Kevin Kidder issued CGE this statement: "Because we are a defendant in that lawsuit I can’t really talk about the specifics of the case. Sorry I can’t be of more help."
In a telephone conversation, Arenbeck confirmed that top officials in both the offices of Secretary of State and Attorney General who were familiar with the case approved him issuing the subpoena to Rove.
Arnebeck says Rove will now likely contact his attorney, Bob Luskin, who will file a motion in federal court in Washington, D.C. to quash the subpoena. A hearing date will be assigned at which the parties will make their arguments, Arnebeck said.
Under Rove's orchestration, Arnebeck said, the money raised as a result of the US Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United, which allowed corporations to funnel unlimited amounts of funds into political races, is being used to "wipe Democrats out of Congress and to take control of the apportionment process at the state level throughout the country."
He argues that Rove is the de facto head of a coordinated Republican national campaign in which Tom Donahue of the Chamber of Commerce is a senior partner, while the Republican National Committee, under leader Michael Steele, has been relegated to junior partner status.
Sudden, mysterious death of Republican computer Guru Connell recalled
In a hearing conducted shortly before the presidential election in 2008 that garnered little attention from national or local media, Arnebeck deposed Michael Connell, Rove's former chief computer guru, whose long history working for the Bush family, and subsequently in Ohio as a contractor with Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell during the 2004 election, is well documented.
Fitrakis and Wasserman write that Rove used Connell to establish the electronic tools and architectural framework through which the vote count manipulations that shifted the election from John Kerry to Bush were accomplished.
Arnebeck was in the process of deposing Connell a second time when the Ohio-based computer expert and experienced professional pilot died in a fiery plane crash while landing at his home airport in Canton in December, 2008. For conspiracy theorists, the fact that Connell had been deposed the day before the November 2008 election only adds to the mystery of circumstances surrounding his sudden death, and whether Rove can be tied to it in any way.
Rove affidavit details
According to an affidavit of the process server, Brad Bokoski, the civil case subpoena (Case Number: 2:06-CV-00745) was served on Rove at 10 a.m. on October 24, 2010 at 2020 M Street, Washington D.C. Bokoski said service took place "on the sidewalk in front of the address and was captured on video by CBS and CNN camera men."
John Michael Spinelli
Columbus Government Examiner
CBS, CNN capture video of Ohio attorney subpoena served on Karl Rove
October 27th, 2010
COLUMBUS, Ohio (CGE) - A federal subpoena, issued by Ohio attorney Cliff Arnebeck and sanctioned by the Office of Ohio Secretary of State, was served last Sunday in Washington to Karl Rove on his way to an appearance on the CBS news program Face the Nation.
The process service for the subpoena reported that CBS and CNN camera men "captured video" of the event.
In an article written by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman and published at OpEdNews.com, the federal subpoena orders Rove to testify in deposition about his role in the alleged theft of the 2004 election, and to discuss his orchestration of tens of millions of corporate/billionaire dollars in this year's General Elections on November 2.
Contacted Wednesday to comment, Arnebeck, a Columbus attorney with a long history of involvement in election related cases, notably as plaintiff attorney in the on-going King-Lincoln-Bronzeville federal lawsuit that Fitrakis and Wasserman have used to try to question Rove on an election they say the Republican campaign expert stole for George W. Bush in 2004, said of his role in the 2010 election cycle, "Rove has asked for all this money on behalf of the Republican candidates’ campaigns. Under Citizens United that still constitutes a gift to those campaigns and is still subject to limits and prohibitions of campaign finance laws. Camouflaging the gifts by running them through nice sounding non-profit corporations is nothing but the latest form of money-laundering.”
Responding to a question on the involvement of the Office of Ohio Secretary of State and the Secretary herself, Media Relations Coordinator Kevin Kidder issued CGE this statement: "Because we are a defendant in that lawsuit I can’t really talk about the specifics of the case. Sorry I can’t be of more help."
In a telephone conversation, Arenbeck confirmed that top officials in both the offices of Secretary of State and Attorney General who were familiar with the case approved him issuing the subpoena to Rove.
Arnebeck says Rove will now likely contact his attorney, Bob Luskin, who will file a motion in federal court in Washington, D.C. to quash the subpoena. A hearing date will be assigned at which the parties will make their arguments, Arnebeck said.
Under Rove's orchestration, Arnebeck said, the money raised as a result of the US Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United, which allowed corporations to funnel unlimited amounts of funds into political races, is being used to "wipe Democrats out of Congress and to take control of the apportionment process at the state level throughout the country."
He argues that Rove is the de facto head of a coordinated Republican national campaign in which Tom Donahue of the Chamber of Commerce is a senior partner, while the Republican National Committee, under leader Michael Steele, has been relegated to junior partner status.
Sudden, mysterious death of Republican computer Guru Connell recalled
In a hearing conducted shortly before the presidential election in 2008 that garnered little attention from national or local media, Arnebeck deposed Michael Connell, Rove's former chief computer guru, whose long history working for the Bush family, and subsequently in Ohio as a contractor with Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell during the 2004 election, is well documented.
Fitrakis and Wasserman write that Rove used Connell to establish the electronic tools and architectural framework through which the vote count manipulations that shifted the election from John Kerry to Bush were accomplished.
Arnebeck was in the process of deposing Connell a second time when the Ohio-based computer expert and experienced professional pilot died in a fiery plane crash while landing at his home airport in Canton in December, 2008. For conspiracy theorists, the fact that Connell had been deposed the day before the November 2008 election only adds to the mystery of circumstances surrounding his sudden death, and whether Rove can be tied to it in any way.
Rove affidavit details
According to an affidavit of the process server, Brad Bokoski, the civil case subpoena (Case Number: 2:06-CV-00745) was served on Rove at 10 a.m. on October 24, 2010 at 2020 M Street, Washington D.C. Bokoski said service took place "on the sidewalk in front of the address and was captured on video by CBS and CNN camera men."
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The Mysterious Death of Bush's Cyber-Guru
http://www.maxim.com/humor/stupid-fun/86265/mysterious-death-bushs-cyber-guru.html
The Mysterious Death of Bush's Cyber-Guru
Wednesday 02/10/2010
Simon Worrall
Shortly before six o’clock on the evening of December 19, 2008, a man standing outside his home in Lake Township, Ohio heard the whine of an engine in the sky above him.
Moments later two red lights broke through the low clouds, heading almost directly toward the ground. It was a light aircraft, and for a second, as it descended below the tree line, the man thought it would climb back up. Instead, there was a terrible thud, and the sky turned orange. When the fire crews arrived, they found the burning wreckage of a Piper Saratoga strewn across a vacant lot. The plane had narrowly missed a house, but the explosion was so intense that the home’s plastic siding was on fire. So was the grass. The pilot had been thrown from the plane and died instantly. Body parts and pieces of twisted metal were scattered everywhere. A prayer book lay open on the ground, its pages on fire.
The crash would have remained a private tragedy confined to the pages of the local press and the hearts of the pilot’s widow and four children, but within days the blogosphere was abuzz with rumors and conspiracy theories: The plane, it was said, had been sabotaged and the pilot murdered to cover up the GOP’s alleged theft of the Ohio vote in the 2004 presidential election. At the center of this plot was the Saratoga’s pilot, a prodigiously gifted IT expert named Michael Connell, whose altar boy charm and technical brilliance had made him the computer whiz of choice for the Republican Party. Left-wing Web sites openly referred to Connell as “Bush’s vote rigger” and claimed that his fingerprints were on all the most controversial elections in recent history. There were dark whispers of electronic pulses or sniper fire being used to bring down the plane—a black ops attack designed to keep him from testifying against his former cronies. Right-wing bloggers and talk show hosts derided such claims as the twisted delusions of liberal nut jobs and tinfoil hatters. The mainstream press sat on its hands.
But while the rumors, innuendos, and allegations continue to swirl through the ether, evidence has recently emerged that suggests the Ohio vote may have been hacked, and that Connell was involved.
Born in 1963 in Peoria, Illinois into a large Irish-American family, Michael Connell was a lifelong Republican and a devout Roman Catholic who went to Mass every day and wore a wristband saying what would jesus do? What Connell did was realize the potential of the Internet to shape politics. While still in his 20s, he worked as finance director for Republican Congressman Jim Leach, and as director of voter programs for Senator Dan Coats of Indiana. In 1988 Connell developed a voter contact database for George H.W. Bush, thus inaugurating a long association with the Bush family: Connell worked on Jeb’s gubernatorial campaign in Florida in 1998; two years later he was the chief architect of George W. Bush’s Web site as Dubya launched his bid for the White House.
But it was while serving as tech guru to Karl Rove that Connell developed his deepest and perhaps most problematic professional relationship. Recruited in the late ’80s, Connell became Rove’s most trusted cyberlieutenant: a Web wizard who could turn portals into power and who would gain access to the very heights of American politics by the time he reached 30 years old. Connell’s two Ohio-based companies, New Media Communications and GovTech, became virtual research and development labs for the Republican Party, building and managing Web sites and e-mail accounts for both Presidents Bush and a long list of leading Republicans. GovTech also designed and managed numerous Congressional IT systems, including those for the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees, putting Connell “behind the fire wall” of some of the most sensitive government Web sites from the safety of the Bush White House.
“Mike was known as the GOP’s Mister Fix-It,” says Stephen Spoonamore, an IT security expert and friend of Connell’s. “He built really intelligent tools that allowed people who wanted to win elections do a better job organizing their data.” But aside from his more legitimate business, Connell was no stranger to the darker side of American politics. He was forced to resign from Senator Coats’ campaign for his involvement in ethical violations. Connell’s was also the hand behind the Web site for the notorious Swift Boat Veterans’ for Truth smear campaign against John Kerry and GWB43.com, the secret e-mail account used by Rove and dozens of other White House staffers.
Just six weeks before his death, Connell had given a deposition in an Ohio lawsuit that accused Rove, Bush, and Co. of something far more serious than merely scrubbing e-mails: the theft of the 2004 Ohio vote. “This is the biggest scandal in our history,” says Mark Crispin Miller, a professor at New York University who has written extensively about electronic voter fraud. “Watergate grew out of a paranoid attempt to disable the opposition. But Ohio was exponentially different. We’re talking about a systematic, centralized attempt to rig the voting system.”
“We decided to try to bring a racketeering claim against Rove under Ohio law,” says Cliff Arnebeck, the attorney who brought the suit, a broad-shouldered man with a Senatorial air dressed in a blue blazer. “We detected a pattern of criminal activity, and we identified Connell as a key witness, as the implementer for Rove.”
By any calculation, the Ohio 2004 election was a black day for American democracy. Lou Harris, known as the “father of modern political polling,” and a man not given to hyperbole, called it “as dirty an election as America has ever seen.” All the exit polls suggested Ohio would go to Kerry. But when the vote was counted George Bush had won by 132,685 votes, adding Ohio’s crucial 20 Electoral College votes to his tally. And putting him, not Kerry, into the White House. It has since been alleged that at several points on election night, the Ohio secretary of state’s official Web site, which was responsible for reporting the results, was being hosted by a server in a basement in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Ohio’s secretary of state in 2004 was a fiercely partisan Christian named Ken Blackwell. Blackwell had hired a company called GDC Limited to run the IT systems, which had subcontracted the job to Michael Connell’s company, GovTech. Connell had in turn sub-contracted SMARTech, an IT firm based in Chattanooga, to act, it was claimed, as a backup server.
“By looking at the URLs on the Web site, we discovered that there were three points on election night when SMARTech’s computers took over from the secretary of state,” says Arnebeck. “It is during that period that we believe votes were manipulated.”
In computer jargon it is known as a man-in-the-middle attack.
“At the time I didn’t know who SMARTech were,” says IT expert Stephen Spoonamore, opening a file on his computer showing the Internet architecture map of the 2004 Ohio election. He points to a red box in the bottom right-hand corner showing SMARTech’s server.
“Then I found out: They host Rove’s e-mails. They host the RNC’s Web site. They host George Bush’s Web site.” His voice rises in disbelief.
“I go, ‘Holy shit, this is a man-in-the-middle attack! These guys have programmed the state’s computers to talk to a company with ties to the Republican Party.’ It’s brilliant.”
With his wiry hair and designer glasses, Spoonamore looks like a character in a Tim Burton movie. A lifelong Republican, he is also one of the world’s acknowledged experts on cybersecurity, with a résumé that includes work for the U.S. armed forces and the FBI. In his spare time he has devoted thousands of hours to investigating cyberfraud in American elections. “I know I sound crazy when I talk about this stuff. No one wants to believe it. They say, ‘No one would steal an election.’ And I go, ‘Yeah, they would. And that’s exactly what they did.’”
Spoonamore believes that while Michael Connell may have facilitated electoral fraud, he was really just a tool of more powerful forces. “Mike has been called the Forrest Gump of GOP IT operations,” he says. “And I think there’s a truth to that. I think he was a good guy surrounded by wolves. He was always going to be the fall guy.”
The two men had gotten to know each other at Spoonamore’s Washington, D.C. offices in late 2005. “The two of us hit it off,” recalls Spoonamore. “We were the same age, the same generation. We had a lot of friends in common.” At the end of the meeting, Connell broached a delicate topic. “Mike asked me, ‘How easy is it to destroy all records of e-mail?’” recalls Spoonamore. “He sort of gestured toward the White House and said, ‘Because I have clients down the street who are working on that problem.’ And I stepped back and said, ‘If you are talking about White House e-mail destruction, I want nothing to do with it.’”
A year later, at an IT conference in London, Spoonamore confronted the pro-life Connell about the Ohio election: “He said, ‘I’m afraid that in my zeal to save the babies, the system I built may have been abused.’”
Three days later, in the back of a cab heading toward the airport, Spoonamore asked Connell if he would be willing to talk to a Congressional judiciary committee about what he knew. “I actually took Mike’s hand and said, ‘If I can arrange for a private meeting for you to sit down with the committee and explain what you think may have happened in 2004 and how your systems may have been abused, will you do it?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’”
Connell never did talk to the judiciary committee. But in the months leading up to his death he was under intense pressure. In an attempt to extricate himself from the world of politics, he had sold two of his businesses, including GovTech. Throughout the fall his plane was being tracked by Arnebeck and his associates so they could serve him with a subpoena. Connell sought refuge from the maelstrom in his deep Catholic faith. He took to wearing a scapular, two squares of cloth with religious images favored by devout Catholics, under his shirt. He went to Mass twice a day and became more directly involved with the pro-life movement, spending weekends standing outside abortion clinics. He traveled to Burma and Thailand to work with religious dissidents and started a Catholic charity in El Salvador.
Finally, on October 8, 2008, Connell was served with his subpoena at College Park Airfield outside Washington, D.C. Seven weeks later his Piper Saratoga would fall from the sky.
On December 18, Connell flew to D.C. to meet with the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men’s organization, about starting a new branch and rebuilding their Web site. He stayed the night at a hotel, got up early to attend Mass and then a breakfast meeting. At about 11 a.m., Connell went to College Park Airfield to prepare to fly home to Akron. His firm, New Media Communication, was holding its Christmas party that evening, and he didn’t want to miss it. An experienced pilot with more than 500 hours of flight time under his belt, Connell waited for the weather to clear. Shortly after 3:30 p.m., he called his wife, Heather, in Ohio to say he had his “window.” He took off at 3:51 p.m.
At first everything went fine. On his approach to Akron-Canton Regional Airport, he asked the tower if there were any reports of icing and was told there were not. It was certainly dark and cold, with cloud cover at 1,000 feet, but the plane had a sophisticated autopilot system that would normally bring it onto the runway, like a homing pigeon. But at 3,200 feet, as Connell began his descent, air traffic control radioed to say he was off course by several miles. Connell radioed that he would correct his position. Something seemed to be wrong with the lateral controls.
The audiotapes of Connell’s last communications with the tower suggest a rising sense of panic and confusion. Realizing that he is still off course, he asks to do a 360-degree turn “to reestablish ourselves.” It’s an unusual maneuver at this late stage of the approach, and the flight controller denies the request. Instead, he advises Connell to “climb and maintain 3,000 feet.” Seconds later there is a loud rushing sound as the cockpit bursts open and the engine goes haywire. Connell screams, “Nine nine November declaring an emergency!” Out of respect for his religious beliefs—and his children—the tower reported that his last words were, “Oh, God!” In fact, he cries out, “Oh, fuck!” Then the tape goes dead.
Capt. Lorin Geisner of the Greentown Fire Department was the first person to arrive at the scene. “We received a 911 call, so we contacted the tower and asked what size plane it was and how many souls were on board,” he recalls. “But we were informed that the tower was in lockdown and that no information was available.”
According to sources, there were other anomalies. Normally, a night crash scene would be roped off and investigated in daylight. In this case representatives of the NTSB and FAA used light towers to photograph and document the scene. Connell’s plane was hastily removed to a secure hangar under cover of darkness. By 6 a.m. the investigators had vanished, leaving behind them a trail of debris, and one very angry widow.
“How is this OK?” asks Heather Connell, pulling a chunk of metal from a cardboard box she had brought in from the garage. She is kneeling on the floor of her husband’s basement office, a tidy space decorated with sleek black office furniture. A photo of a 25-year-old Connell with George H.W. Bush sits on the bookshelf next to an action figure of Dubya decked out in fighter pilot garb. A cascade of frizzy blonde hair tumbles forward over Heather’s face. Her eyes are red from crying. “They think this is part of the foot pedal.”
When I ask how she met her husband, she starts to hum the ’80s hit “Don’t You Want Me.” “She was working as waitress in a cocktail bar...” Then her voice falters. “That much is true. We met in Indiana. He was working for Senator Coats, and I was going to college and working at a sports bar. He was with a bunch of interns who came in. I carded every one of them and was in the process of kicking him out of the bar.” She gives a throaty chuckle. “He was used to people fawning over him, and I think he liked me because I was mean.”
“I didn’t go to the crash site on the night he died,” she says, picking another piece of debris from the box. As her husband began his final descent, Heather and the rest of the staff gathered at a restaurant for the company’s annual Christmas party. “I got a message that his plane had landed,” she recalls, choking back tears. “So I kept calling and calling.” She winces at the memory. “This is making me sick again.” Leaning back in her chair, she takes a drag of a cigarette. “They told me the plane had crashed and that he was dead, but I didn’t ?want to believe it. I thought maybe he was on the way to the hospital, so I didn’t go to the crash site until December 26.” Her left nostril spasms. “I have pieces of my husband’s brain!” she cries. “I picked them up with my hands six days after the crash. Chunks of his skin and internal organs. How is that a proper investigation? How is that acceptable? How dare they leave pieces of my husband lying there!”
She pulls out another storage box filled with personal items from the crash site: $50 in cash; a charred prayer book with a note inside it reading, “I love you”; a Mickey Mouse dollar bill. Something important is missing, though. “Why do I have his earpiece?” she asks, pulling out the Jawbone headset of a BlackBerry. “This was in his backpack. And the backpack was zipped. So where’s his phone?”
“He always clips them next to each other,” interjects her 15-year-old daughter, Lauren. It’s an important detail because it suggests that the BlackBerry may have been intentionally removed from the backpack. On it were hundreds, if not thousands, of sensitive files and e-mails relating to Karl Rove and the Bush administration.
“I want to know where my husband’s phone is,” Connell says angrily. “It’s my responsibility as a mother and a spouse to find out what happened. And I will not accept ‘Cause of crash unknown.’ I will not.”
Though she is furious at the NTSB, she has no time for the conspiracy theories. While she admits that Connell was disillusioned with politics, she bridles at any suggestion that he could have been involved with vote rigging. “With Mike there was religion, family, and a love for democracy,” she says firmly. “He would never interfere with the democratic process. That’s just ridiculous.”
Connell’s younger sister isn’t so sure. “I knew he worked for the Bushes,” says Shannon Connell. The two siblings had diametrically opposed views — Shannon Connell is a pro-Obama liberal — but they never allowed this to come between them. “We stayed close despite the political differences. He was my brother.”
She doesn’t know whether Connell helped steal elections. If he did, she says, it was because of his passionate anti-abortion views. “I think he was convinced he was doing good — to save the babies,” she says. “That’s the only thing my sisters and I can come up with.
“Mike had been deposed, but he hadn’t been called as a witness yet,” she says of the possibility that her brother was murdered. “He was incredibly loyal to the people he worked for, but he would never have lied under oath. For want of a better expression, I think they played him. His death would have been a really nice Christmas present for Rove and Cheney.
“I am beyond looking for justice,” she says, resigned. “I just want the truth to be known. But I am not counting on it.” She may be right.
After more than nine months, the factual report into Connell’s crash had still not been made public. According to an NTSB spokesperson, it was “still being reviewed.” That’s scant comfort to Connell’s family, who just want some sense of closure, whatever the outcome.
Still, “In my mind and my heart,” says Shannon Connell, “I am convinced he was murdered.”
We may never know the truth about Connell’s last flight, but contracts between Connell’s company, GovTech, and Ken Blackwell’s administration establish a credible scenario for electoral fraud and place Connell at the scene of the alleged crime.
Among other things, the contracts contradict Connell’s sworn testimony that SMARTech, in Chattanooga, merely acted as a backup site for election data.
The contracts, signed in March 2004, show that SMARTech was specifically tasked with creating a “mirror site” to manage election night results.“What this means is that Connell’s company was on both sides of the mirror,” explains Stephen Spoonamore. “And that the votes of the people of Ohio were in the control of a fiercely partisan IT company (SMARTech) and operating out of another state.”
Clouding matters further is the persistent specter of paranoid conspiracy that has enveloped the case from the beginning. In September 2009, an anonymous letter was sent to the FBI in Ohio and five other addressees, including Heather Connell. “Enclosed is a document that is not meant to exist,” begins the anonymous writer. Included is what purports to be an “after action report” by a black ops agent. All names have been redacted, but the report provides a detailed time log of actions taken to install an AMD (microprocessor) in the engine of Connell’s plane at College Park Airfield in D.C. the night before he made his fatal last flight. Connell himself is not mentioned by name. Just the registration number of his plane, NP299N, which the agent confirms he had been sent to “neutralize.” The letter accompanying the report is headed MICHAEL CONNELL, HOMICIDE. It ends with the words: “Connell was not NST (national security threat).”
While skeptics may be tempted to dismiss these documents as the ingenious work of a hoaxer intent on pouring gasoline on the bonfire of conspiracy theories already surrounding Connell, a number of experts from the intelligence community who have seen the document believe it to be genuine.
In early November, the NTSB finally released its factual report into Connell’s crash. The report concludes that tests carried out on the plane’s engine, flight control, and autopilot systems revealed “no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.”
A spokeswoman for the NTSB confirmed that the organization had received a copy of the anonymous letter, but would not say whether its claims were being looked into. “We’re investigating the accident,” she says, “not any possible criminal activity.” She adds that the NTSB forwarded the letter to the FBI in Cleveland. When asked to confirm this, Scott Wilson at the FBI’s Cleveland bureau, says, “The only thing I can say is...I can’t say anything.”
Ultimately, only a full criminal investigation can determine the truth about Ohio ’04 and the death of Michael Connell. Robert Kennedy Jr., who sought Connell’s cooperation during an investigation into the election, believes the current administration should pursue the matter. “I think this is more serious than Watergate,” he says. “Watergate was essentially about winning the battle for public opinion. That’s why the break-in took place—to gather strategic information about Democratic strategy and dirt. But the electoral process remained intact. The Ohio vote undermines the very foundation stone of American democracy. There should be an official investigation. Otherwise this becomes a blueprint for how to steal an election from here to eternity.”
That may not be enough for Connell’s widow. When I first spoke to her on the phone, Heather Connell was adamant that her husband’s plane crash had been an accident, God’s will. But she is no longer so sure. “This is a messed-up case of whether Karl Rove threatened my husband or not,” she says. I ask her directly if she now believes her husband could have been murdered. She takes a deep drag of her cigarette and, choking back tears, says: “I don’t know. I don’t know.”
The Mysterious Death of Bush's Cyber-Guru
Wednesday 02/10/2010
Simon Worrall
Shortly before six o’clock on the evening of December 19, 2008, a man standing outside his home in Lake Township, Ohio heard the whine of an engine in the sky above him.
Moments later two red lights broke through the low clouds, heading almost directly toward the ground. It was a light aircraft, and for a second, as it descended below the tree line, the man thought it would climb back up. Instead, there was a terrible thud, and the sky turned orange. When the fire crews arrived, they found the burning wreckage of a Piper Saratoga strewn across a vacant lot. The plane had narrowly missed a house, but the explosion was so intense that the home’s plastic siding was on fire. So was the grass. The pilot had been thrown from the plane and died instantly. Body parts and pieces of twisted metal were scattered everywhere. A prayer book lay open on the ground, its pages on fire.
The crash would have remained a private tragedy confined to the pages of the local press and the hearts of the pilot’s widow and four children, but within days the blogosphere was abuzz with rumors and conspiracy theories: The plane, it was said, had been sabotaged and the pilot murdered to cover up the GOP’s alleged theft of the Ohio vote in the 2004 presidential election. At the center of this plot was the Saratoga’s pilot, a prodigiously gifted IT expert named Michael Connell, whose altar boy charm and technical brilliance had made him the computer whiz of choice for the Republican Party. Left-wing Web sites openly referred to Connell as “Bush’s vote rigger” and claimed that his fingerprints were on all the most controversial elections in recent history. There were dark whispers of electronic pulses or sniper fire being used to bring down the plane—a black ops attack designed to keep him from testifying against his former cronies. Right-wing bloggers and talk show hosts derided such claims as the twisted delusions of liberal nut jobs and tinfoil hatters. The mainstream press sat on its hands.
But while the rumors, innuendos, and allegations continue to swirl through the ether, evidence has recently emerged that suggests the Ohio vote may have been hacked, and that Connell was involved.
Born in 1963 in Peoria, Illinois into a large Irish-American family, Michael Connell was a lifelong Republican and a devout Roman Catholic who went to Mass every day and wore a wristband saying what would jesus do? What Connell did was realize the potential of the Internet to shape politics. While still in his 20s, he worked as finance director for Republican Congressman Jim Leach, and as director of voter programs for Senator Dan Coats of Indiana. In 1988 Connell developed a voter contact database for George H.W. Bush, thus inaugurating a long association with the Bush family: Connell worked on Jeb’s gubernatorial campaign in Florida in 1998; two years later he was the chief architect of George W. Bush’s Web site as Dubya launched his bid for the White House.
But it was while serving as tech guru to Karl Rove that Connell developed his deepest and perhaps most problematic professional relationship. Recruited in the late ’80s, Connell became Rove’s most trusted cyberlieutenant: a Web wizard who could turn portals into power and who would gain access to the very heights of American politics by the time he reached 30 years old. Connell’s two Ohio-based companies, New Media Communications and GovTech, became virtual research and development labs for the Republican Party, building and managing Web sites and e-mail accounts for both Presidents Bush and a long list of leading Republicans. GovTech also designed and managed numerous Congressional IT systems, including those for the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees, putting Connell “behind the fire wall” of some of the most sensitive government Web sites from the safety of the Bush White House.
“Mike was known as the GOP’s Mister Fix-It,” says Stephen Spoonamore, an IT security expert and friend of Connell’s. “He built really intelligent tools that allowed people who wanted to win elections do a better job organizing their data.” But aside from his more legitimate business, Connell was no stranger to the darker side of American politics. He was forced to resign from Senator Coats’ campaign for his involvement in ethical violations. Connell’s was also the hand behind the Web site for the notorious Swift Boat Veterans’ for Truth smear campaign against John Kerry and GWB43.com, the secret e-mail account used by Rove and dozens of other White House staffers.
Just six weeks before his death, Connell had given a deposition in an Ohio lawsuit that accused Rove, Bush, and Co. of something far more serious than merely scrubbing e-mails: the theft of the 2004 Ohio vote. “This is the biggest scandal in our history,” says Mark Crispin Miller, a professor at New York University who has written extensively about electronic voter fraud. “Watergate grew out of a paranoid attempt to disable the opposition. But Ohio was exponentially different. We’re talking about a systematic, centralized attempt to rig the voting system.”
“We decided to try to bring a racketeering claim against Rove under Ohio law,” says Cliff Arnebeck, the attorney who brought the suit, a broad-shouldered man with a Senatorial air dressed in a blue blazer. “We detected a pattern of criminal activity, and we identified Connell as a key witness, as the implementer for Rove.”
By any calculation, the Ohio 2004 election was a black day for American democracy. Lou Harris, known as the “father of modern political polling,” and a man not given to hyperbole, called it “as dirty an election as America has ever seen.” All the exit polls suggested Ohio would go to Kerry. But when the vote was counted George Bush had won by 132,685 votes, adding Ohio’s crucial 20 Electoral College votes to his tally. And putting him, not Kerry, into the White House. It has since been alleged that at several points on election night, the Ohio secretary of state’s official Web site, which was responsible for reporting the results, was being hosted by a server in a basement in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Ohio’s secretary of state in 2004 was a fiercely partisan Christian named Ken Blackwell. Blackwell had hired a company called GDC Limited to run the IT systems, which had subcontracted the job to Michael Connell’s company, GovTech. Connell had in turn sub-contracted SMARTech, an IT firm based in Chattanooga, to act, it was claimed, as a backup server.
“By looking at the URLs on the Web site, we discovered that there were three points on election night when SMARTech’s computers took over from the secretary of state,” says Arnebeck. “It is during that period that we believe votes were manipulated.”
In computer jargon it is known as a man-in-the-middle attack.
“At the time I didn’t know who SMARTech were,” says IT expert Stephen Spoonamore, opening a file on his computer showing the Internet architecture map of the 2004 Ohio election. He points to a red box in the bottom right-hand corner showing SMARTech’s server.
“Then I found out: They host Rove’s e-mails. They host the RNC’s Web site. They host George Bush’s Web site.” His voice rises in disbelief.
“I go, ‘Holy shit, this is a man-in-the-middle attack! These guys have programmed the state’s computers to talk to a company with ties to the Republican Party.’ It’s brilliant.”
With his wiry hair and designer glasses, Spoonamore looks like a character in a Tim Burton movie. A lifelong Republican, he is also one of the world’s acknowledged experts on cybersecurity, with a résumé that includes work for the U.S. armed forces and the FBI. In his spare time he has devoted thousands of hours to investigating cyberfraud in American elections. “I know I sound crazy when I talk about this stuff. No one wants to believe it. They say, ‘No one would steal an election.’ And I go, ‘Yeah, they would. And that’s exactly what they did.’”
Spoonamore believes that while Michael Connell may have facilitated electoral fraud, he was really just a tool of more powerful forces. “Mike has been called the Forrest Gump of GOP IT operations,” he says. “And I think there’s a truth to that. I think he was a good guy surrounded by wolves. He was always going to be the fall guy.”
The two men had gotten to know each other at Spoonamore’s Washington, D.C. offices in late 2005. “The two of us hit it off,” recalls Spoonamore. “We were the same age, the same generation. We had a lot of friends in common.” At the end of the meeting, Connell broached a delicate topic. “Mike asked me, ‘How easy is it to destroy all records of e-mail?’” recalls Spoonamore. “He sort of gestured toward the White House and said, ‘Because I have clients down the street who are working on that problem.’ And I stepped back and said, ‘If you are talking about White House e-mail destruction, I want nothing to do with it.’”
A year later, at an IT conference in London, Spoonamore confronted the pro-life Connell about the Ohio election: “He said, ‘I’m afraid that in my zeal to save the babies, the system I built may have been abused.’”
Three days later, in the back of a cab heading toward the airport, Spoonamore asked Connell if he would be willing to talk to a Congressional judiciary committee about what he knew. “I actually took Mike’s hand and said, ‘If I can arrange for a private meeting for you to sit down with the committee and explain what you think may have happened in 2004 and how your systems may have been abused, will you do it?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’”
Connell never did talk to the judiciary committee. But in the months leading up to his death he was under intense pressure. In an attempt to extricate himself from the world of politics, he had sold two of his businesses, including GovTech. Throughout the fall his plane was being tracked by Arnebeck and his associates so they could serve him with a subpoena. Connell sought refuge from the maelstrom in his deep Catholic faith. He took to wearing a scapular, two squares of cloth with religious images favored by devout Catholics, under his shirt. He went to Mass twice a day and became more directly involved with the pro-life movement, spending weekends standing outside abortion clinics. He traveled to Burma and Thailand to work with religious dissidents and started a Catholic charity in El Salvador.
Finally, on October 8, 2008, Connell was served with his subpoena at College Park Airfield outside Washington, D.C. Seven weeks later his Piper Saratoga would fall from the sky.
On December 18, Connell flew to D.C. to meet with the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men’s organization, about starting a new branch and rebuilding their Web site. He stayed the night at a hotel, got up early to attend Mass and then a breakfast meeting. At about 11 a.m., Connell went to College Park Airfield to prepare to fly home to Akron. His firm, New Media Communication, was holding its Christmas party that evening, and he didn’t want to miss it. An experienced pilot with more than 500 hours of flight time under his belt, Connell waited for the weather to clear. Shortly after 3:30 p.m., he called his wife, Heather, in Ohio to say he had his “window.” He took off at 3:51 p.m.
At first everything went fine. On his approach to Akron-Canton Regional Airport, he asked the tower if there were any reports of icing and was told there were not. It was certainly dark and cold, with cloud cover at 1,000 feet, but the plane had a sophisticated autopilot system that would normally bring it onto the runway, like a homing pigeon. But at 3,200 feet, as Connell began his descent, air traffic control radioed to say he was off course by several miles. Connell radioed that he would correct his position. Something seemed to be wrong with the lateral controls.
The audiotapes of Connell’s last communications with the tower suggest a rising sense of panic and confusion. Realizing that he is still off course, he asks to do a 360-degree turn “to reestablish ourselves.” It’s an unusual maneuver at this late stage of the approach, and the flight controller denies the request. Instead, he advises Connell to “climb and maintain 3,000 feet.” Seconds later there is a loud rushing sound as the cockpit bursts open and the engine goes haywire. Connell screams, “Nine nine November declaring an emergency!” Out of respect for his religious beliefs—and his children—the tower reported that his last words were, “Oh, God!” In fact, he cries out, “Oh, fuck!” Then the tape goes dead.
Capt. Lorin Geisner of the Greentown Fire Department was the first person to arrive at the scene. “We received a 911 call, so we contacted the tower and asked what size plane it was and how many souls were on board,” he recalls. “But we were informed that the tower was in lockdown and that no information was available.”
According to sources, there were other anomalies. Normally, a night crash scene would be roped off and investigated in daylight. In this case representatives of the NTSB and FAA used light towers to photograph and document the scene. Connell’s plane was hastily removed to a secure hangar under cover of darkness. By 6 a.m. the investigators had vanished, leaving behind them a trail of debris, and one very angry widow.
“How is this OK?” asks Heather Connell, pulling a chunk of metal from a cardboard box she had brought in from the garage. She is kneeling on the floor of her husband’s basement office, a tidy space decorated with sleek black office furniture. A photo of a 25-year-old Connell with George H.W. Bush sits on the bookshelf next to an action figure of Dubya decked out in fighter pilot garb. A cascade of frizzy blonde hair tumbles forward over Heather’s face. Her eyes are red from crying. “They think this is part of the foot pedal.”
When I ask how she met her husband, she starts to hum the ’80s hit “Don’t You Want Me.” “She was working as waitress in a cocktail bar...” Then her voice falters. “That much is true. We met in Indiana. He was working for Senator Coats, and I was going to college and working at a sports bar. He was with a bunch of interns who came in. I carded every one of them and was in the process of kicking him out of the bar.” She gives a throaty chuckle. “He was used to people fawning over him, and I think he liked me because I was mean.”
“I didn’t go to the crash site on the night he died,” she says, picking another piece of debris from the box. As her husband began his final descent, Heather and the rest of the staff gathered at a restaurant for the company’s annual Christmas party. “I got a message that his plane had landed,” she recalls, choking back tears. “So I kept calling and calling.” She winces at the memory. “This is making me sick again.” Leaning back in her chair, she takes a drag of a cigarette. “They told me the plane had crashed and that he was dead, but I didn’t ?want to believe it. I thought maybe he was on the way to the hospital, so I didn’t go to the crash site until December 26.” Her left nostril spasms. “I have pieces of my husband’s brain!” she cries. “I picked them up with my hands six days after the crash. Chunks of his skin and internal organs. How is that a proper investigation? How is that acceptable? How dare they leave pieces of my husband lying there!”
She pulls out another storage box filled with personal items from the crash site: $50 in cash; a charred prayer book with a note inside it reading, “I love you”; a Mickey Mouse dollar bill. Something important is missing, though. “Why do I have his earpiece?” she asks, pulling out the Jawbone headset of a BlackBerry. “This was in his backpack. And the backpack was zipped. So where’s his phone?”
“He always clips them next to each other,” interjects her 15-year-old daughter, Lauren. It’s an important detail because it suggests that the BlackBerry may have been intentionally removed from the backpack. On it were hundreds, if not thousands, of sensitive files and e-mails relating to Karl Rove and the Bush administration.
“I want to know where my husband’s phone is,” Connell says angrily. “It’s my responsibility as a mother and a spouse to find out what happened. And I will not accept ‘Cause of crash unknown.’ I will not.”
Though she is furious at the NTSB, she has no time for the conspiracy theories. While she admits that Connell was disillusioned with politics, she bridles at any suggestion that he could have been involved with vote rigging. “With Mike there was religion, family, and a love for democracy,” she says firmly. “He would never interfere with the democratic process. That’s just ridiculous.”
Connell’s younger sister isn’t so sure. “I knew he worked for the Bushes,” says Shannon Connell. The two siblings had diametrically opposed views — Shannon Connell is a pro-Obama liberal — but they never allowed this to come between them. “We stayed close despite the political differences. He was my brother.”
She doesn’t know whether Connell helped steal elections. If he did, she says, it was because of his passionate anti-abortion views. “I think he was convinced he was doing good — to save the babies,” she says. “That’s the only thing my sisters and I can come up with.
“Mike had been deposed, but he hadn’t been called as a witness yet,” she says of the possibility that her brother was murdered. “He was incredibly loyal to the people he worked for, but he would never have lied under oath. For want of a better expression, I think they played him. His death would have been a really nice Christmas present for Rove and Cheney.
“I am beyond looking for justice,” she says, resigned. “I just want the truth to be known. But I am not counting on it.” She may be right.
After more than nine months, the factual report into Connell’s crash had still not been made public. According to an NTSB spokesperson, it was “still being reviewed.” That’s scant comfort to Connell’s family, who just want some sense of closure, whatever the outcome.
Still, “In my mind and my heart,” says Shannon Connell, “I am convinced he was murdered.”
We may never know the truth about Connell’s last flight, but contracts between Connell’s company, GovTech, and Ken Blackwell’s administration establish a credible scenario for electoral fraud and place Connell at the scene of the alleged crime.
Among other things, the contracts contradict Connell’s sworn testimony that SMARTech, in Chattanooga, merely acted as a backup site for election data.
The contracts, signed in March 2004, show that SMARTech was specifically tasked with creating a “mirror site” to manage election night results.“What this means is that Connell’s company was on both sides of the mirror,” explains Stephen Spoonamore. “And that the votes of the people of Ohio were in the control of a fiercely partisan IT company (SMARTech) and operating out of another state.”
Clouding matters further is the persistent specter of paranoid conspiracy that has enveloped the case from the beginning. In September 2009, an anonymous letter was sent to the FBI in Ohio and five other addressees, including Heather Connell. “Enclosed is a document that is not meant to exist,” begins the anonymous writer. Included is what purports to be an “after action report” by a black ops agent. All names have been redacted, but the report provides a detailed time log of actions taken to install an AMD (microprocessor) in the engine of Connell’s plane at College Park Airfield in D.C. the night before he made his fatal last flight. Connell himself is not mentioned by name. Just the registration number of his plane, NP299N, which the agent confirms he had been sent to “neutralize.” The letter accompanying the report is headed MICHAEL CONNELL, HOMICIDE. It ends with the words: “Connell was not NST (national security threat).”
While skeptics may be tempted to dismiss these documents as the ingenious work of a hoaxer intent on pouring gasoline on the bonfire of conspiracy theories already surrounding Connell, a number of experts from the intelligence community who have seen the document believe it to be genuine.
In early November, the NTSB finally released its factual report into Connell’s crash. The report concludes that tests carried out on the plane’s engine, flight control, and autopilot systems revealed “no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.”
A spokeswoman for the NTSB confirmed that the organization had received a copy of the anonymous letter, but would not say whether its claims were being looked into. “We’re investigating the accident,” she says, “not any possible criminal activity.” She adds that the NTSB forwarded the letter to the FBI in Cleveland. When asked to confirm this, Scott Wilson at the FBI’s Cleveland bureau, says, “The only thing I can say is...I can’t say anything.”
Ultimately, only a full criminal investigation can determine the truth about Ohio ’04 and the death of Michael Connell. Robert Kennedy Jr., who sought Connell’s cooperation during an investigation into the election, believes the current administration should pursue the matter. “I think this is more serious than Watergate,” he says. “Watergate was essentially about winning the battle for public opinion. That’s why the break-in took place—to gather strategic information about Democratic strategy and dirt. But the electoral process remained intact. The Ohio vote undermines the very foundation stone of American democracy. There should be an official investigation. Otherwise this becomes a blueprint for how to steal an election from here to eternity.”
That may not be enough for Connell’s widow. When I first spoke to her on the phone, Heather Connell was adamant that her husband’s plane crash had been an accident, God’s will. But she is no longer so sure. “This is a messed-up case of whether Karl Rove threatened my husband or not,” she says. I ask her directly if she now believes her husband could have been murdered. She takes a deep drag of her cigarette and, choking back tears, says: “I don’t know. I don’t know.”
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Spoiling America
Excerpted from Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Steal Back Your Vote" investigative comic. You can download all 24 pages at http://www.stealbackyourvote.org/.
Odd thing about the 207 voters of precinct 999 in Dona Ana County, New Mexico.Not a single one could choose between George Bush and John Kerry in 2004.
Or at least that’s what their ballots said.
The Secretary of State at the time told me, “Some of those people just can’t make up their minds.” Dirt-poor Dona Ana is 63% Hispanic and the precinct is made up entirely of overseas voters, mostly the Chicano soldiers in Iraq or on duty. The machines say that Hispanic soldiers don’t care who becomes their commander-in-chief.
Or maybe, the machines failed to register their votes.
Few Americans realize that in 2004, 1,389,231 ballots were never counted because they were “spoiled.” How do ballots spoil? They get left out of the ‘fridge? No, they’re supposedly unreadable, blank, or just somehow lost in the machines.
Here’s an unfun fact: not everyone’s vote spoils the same. The U.S. Civil Rights Commission found that the chances of an African-American voter losing their vote is 900% higher than a white voter. Hispanic votes vanished at a rate 500% higher than Anglo votes.Something’s rotten.
************************
Go to http://www.stealbackyourvote.org/ to download the guide for free or pick up print copies of the investigative comic book by Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Every donation you make for copies of the comic allows us to send more out to low income groups in states like Ohio, New Mexico and Colorado. Get the guide now - all copies will be sent out via priority mail. If your group would like to distribute the Steal Back Your Vote guide please contact keri (at) gregpalast.com for special rates.
After you've picked up the comic book get the t-shirt. Wear it into the polling place and tell them that they can't steal your vote! Support the fund by picking up the Steal Back Your Vote t-shirt by the cool people over at Clothing for the American Mind. A portion of every purchase goes to support the Palast Investigative Fund.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Sadly, one play defined Merkle's career, life
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3604289
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sadly, one play defined Merkle's career, life
By Ed Sherman
Special to ESPN.com
WATERTOWN, Wis. -- Fred Merkle was born in Watertown, Wis., in 1888, but he spent only one year there before his family moved to Toledo, Ohio.
Still, that didn't prevent Watertown resident David Stalker from claiming Merkle as the town's very own. He spearheaded an effort to erect a monument in Merkle's honor.
Set in black marble with a baseball perched on top, the monument notes that Merkle was a "potent line-drive hitter and agile first-baseman." It says he was a member of six World Series teams.
However, there is no mention on the monument of the play that earned Merkle a spot in baseball infamy. The inscription boasts of Merkle's "intelligence" on the field, seemingly a contradiction for a player whose nickname was "Bonehead."
"We want the average person to see Fred Merkle for who he really was," Stalker said. "There was much more to his career than just one play."
Yet as Bill Buckner discovered in the cruelest way possible, one play can define a career. Prior to Buckner and the ball-between-the-legs grounder that ended Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, there was Merkle, the goat of goats.
Tuesday marks the 100th anniversary of the play that forever cemented Merkle's legacy in baseball. The Chicago Cubs and New York Giants were locked in a dramatic pennant race when they met on Sept. 23, 1908.
With the game tied 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Merkle, who had singled, was on first base and Moose McCormick was on third. With two outs, Al Bridwell then hit an apparent single to drive in McCormick with what seemed the winning run.
It looked to be a huge victory for the Giants, and jubilant fans mobbed the field at the Polo Grounds. But in the commotion, Cubs second baseman Johnny Evers noticed Merkle never touched second base.
Evers frantically waved for the ball, and there's considerable dispute about whether he actually got the game ball. Evers then stepped on second and umpire Hank O'Day called Merkle out on a force, thus nullifying the Giants' run. Keep in mind, this was the same umpire who let a similar play stand up when a base runner didn't touch second at the conclusion of a game earlier in the month.
Despite O'Day's ruling, the game couldn't go on because of all the fans on the field, and it was declared a 1-1 tie. Merkle's nightmare then was compounded when the Cubs and Giants finished the regular season tied. The Cubs won the one-game playoff to win the pennant, propelling them to their last World Series title.
Merkle, who was only 19 at the time, was vilified. The Sporting News, the game's official bible back then, wrote of "the stupidity of Fred Merkle." Newspapers quickly labeled him "Bonehead."
Merkle went on to become a decent player during a 16-year career, finishing with a .273 average. He had 49 stolen bases in 1911, an impressive total considering he was 6-foot and 190 pounds.
Yet Merkle never seemed to get over the top. He was on the losing side of six World Series. When he was blamed for a botched popup that helped cost the Giants the 1912 World Series, the headlines blared, "Bonehead Merkle does it again."
"Sometimes it looks like the Cubs and Merkle got jinxed at the same time," Stalker said.
That day in 1908 forever haunted Merkle and his family. After he retired and moved the family to Daytona Beach, Fla., his daughter came home from school and asked why the kids were calling her "Bonehead."
Once a visiting minister in his church began by saying, "I want to begin by admitting an ugly secret. I am from Toledo, Ohio, birthplace of the infamous Fred 'Bonehead' Merkle."
Merkle promptly walked out.
The pain ran deep for Merkle. Stalker has a collection of photos of Merkle on display in his basement.
"Look, you can see the torture in his eyes," Stalker said. "Right after it happened, he lost his hair and weight. [During the playoff game] he was sitting in the dugout saying 'I'm sorry. It's my fault.'"
But was Merkle truly at fault? Keith Olbermann is among those who say no.
Olbermann, formerly of ESPN and now the host of "Countdown" on MSNBC, has been interested in Merkle's case for more than 30 years. He has proposed Sept. 23 be a national day of amnesty in Merkle's memory, but not because he did something wrong.
"I was struck by the finality of it," Olbermann said. "He does something everybody did, for their own safety, as a game ended. He was the first player on whom the rule was ever enforced and he never lived it down."
Indeed, the real goat might have been O'Day, the umpire. No less than Hall of Fame umpire Bill Klem delivered a stinging indictment.
"Evers talked a great umpire into making the rottenest decision in the history of baseball," Klem said.
The damage, though, was done. Olbermann doubts Merkle will ever be vindicated.
"The goat story is still easier, and more compelling, than the story of the poor rookie victimized by a rule that was never enforced," Olbermann said.
As fate would have it, the Cubs will be in New York on Tuesday to play the Mets. Olbermann plans to attend the game.
"I have to be there," Olbermann said. "I've never believed the Cubs didn't curse themselves by playing that rule on poor Fred. [The Cubs have had] a century of bad luck, meaning something abysmal is likely to happen to the Cubs [on Tuesday], especially since somebody scheduled them to be in New York."
When Merkle retired in 1926, he was so bitter he wanted nothing to do with baseball. It wasn't until 1950 that he returned to a big league park.
Merkle had to be talked into attending an Old-Timers' Game at the Polo Grounds. Even after all these years, he was fearful of how the fans would treat him.
Perhaps the fans remembered the good things he did for the Giants, or perhaps they felt sorry for his plight, but they gave him a loud ovation.
"He had an impressive career," Stalker said. "That's what he should be remembered for."
Oh, if that were only the case. What happened 100 years ago Tuesday even had an impact on his final resting place.
Merkle once cracked, "I suppose when I die, they'll put on my tombstone, 'Here lies Bonehead Merkle.'"
They never got the chance. When he died in 1956 at the age of 67, he was buried in an unmarked grave.
Ed Sherman was a longtime sportswriter for the Chicago Tribune.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sadly, one play defined Merkle's career, life
By Ed Sherman
Special to ESPN.com
WATERTOWN, Wis. -- Fred Merkle was born in Watertown, Wis., in 1888, but he spent only one year there before his family moved to Toledo, Ohio.
Still, that didn't prevent Watertown resident David Stalker from claiming Merkle as the town's very own. He spearheaded an effort to erect a monument in Merkle's honor.
Set in black marble with a baseball perched on top, the monument notes that Merkle was a "potent line-drive hitter and agile first-baseman." It says he was a member of six World Series teams.
However, there is no mention on the monument of the play that earned Merkle a spot in baseball infamy. The inscription boasts of Merkle's "intelligence" on the field, seemingly a contradiction for a player whose nickname was "Bonehead."
"We want the average person to see Fred Merkle for who he really was," Stalker said. "There was much more to his career than just one play."
Yet as Bill Buckner discovered in the cruelest way possible, one play can define a career. Prior to Buckner and the ball-between-the-legs grounder that ended Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, there was Merkle, the goat of goats.
Tuesday marks the 100th anniversary of the play that forever cemented Merkle's legacy in baseball. The Chicago Cubs and New York Giants were locked in a dramatic pennant race when they met on Sept. 23, 1908.
With the game tied 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Merkle, who had singled, was on first base and Moose McCormick was on third. With two outs, Al Bridwell then hit an apparent single to drive in McCormick with what seemed the winning run.
It looked to be a huge victory for the Giants, and jubilant fans mobbed the field at the Polo Grounds. But in the commotion, Cubs second baseman Johnny Evers noticed Merkle never touched second base.
Evers frantically waved for the ball, and there's considerable dispute about whether he actually got the game ball. Evers then stepped on second and umpire Hank O'Day called Merkle out on a force, thus nullifying the Giants' run. Keep in mind, this was the same umpire who let a similar play stand up when a base runner didn't touch second at the conclusion of a game earlier in the month.
Despite O'Day's ruling, the game couldn't go on because of all the fans on the field, and it was declared a 1-1 tie. Merkle's nightmare then was compounded when the Cubs and Giants finished the regular season tied. The Cubs won the one-game playoff to win the pennant, propelling them to their last World Series title.
Merkle, who was only 19 at the time, was vilified. The Sporting News, the game's official bible back then, wrote of "the stupidity of Fred Merkle." Newspapers quickly labeled him "Bonehead."
Merkle went on to become a decent player during a 16-year career, finishing with a .273 average. He had 49 stolen bases in 1911, an impressive total considering he was 6-foot and 190 pounds.
Yet Merkle never seemed to get over the top. He was on the losing side of six World Series. When he was blamed for a botched popup that helped cost the Giants the 1912 World Series, the headlines blared, "Bonehead Merkle does it again."
"Sometimes it looks like the Cubs and Merkle got jinxed at the same time," Stalker said.
That day in 1908 forever haunted Merkle and his family. After he retired and moved the family to Daytona Beach, Fla., his daughter came home from school and asked why the kids were calling her "Bonehead."
Once a visiting minister in his church began by saying, "I want to begin by admitting an ugly secret. I am from Toledo, Ohio, birthplace of the infamous Fred 'Bonehead' Merkle."
Merkle promptly walked out.
The pain ran deep for Merkle. Stalker has a collection of photos of Merkle on display in his basement.
"Look, you can see the torture in his eyes," Stalker said. "Right after it happened, he lost his hair and weight. [During the playoff game] he was sitting in the dugout saying 'I'm sorry. It's my fault.'"
But was Merkle truly at fault? Keith Olbermann is among those who say no.
Olbermann, formerly of ESPN and now the host of "Countdown" on MSNBC, has been interested in Merkle's case for more than 30 years. He has proposed Sept. 23 be a national day of amnesty in Merkle's memory, but not because he did something wrong.
"I was struck by the finality of it," Olbermann said. "He does something everybody did, for their own safety, as a game ended. He was the first player on whom the rule was ever enforced and he never lived it down."
Indeed, the real goat might have been O'Day, the umpire. No less than Hall of Fame umpire Bill Klem delivered a stinging indictment.
"Evers talked a great umpire into making the rottenest decision in the history of baseball," Klem said.
The damage, though, was done. Olbermann doubts Merkle will ever be vindicated.
"The goat story is still easier, and more compelling, than the story of the poor rookie victimized by a rule that was never enforced," Olbermann said.
As fate would have it, the Cubs will be in New York on Tuesday to play the Mets. Olbermann plans to attend the game.
"I have to be there," Olbermann said. "I've never believed the Cubs didn't curse themselves by playing that rule on poor Fred. [The Cubs have had] a century of bad luck, meaning something abysmal is likely to happen to the Cubs [on Tuesday], especially since somebody scheduled them to be in New York."
When Merkle retired in 1926, he was so bitter he wanted nothing to do with baseball. It wasn't until 1950 that he returned to a big league park.
Merkle had to be talked into attending an Old-Timers' Game at the Polo Grounds. Even after all these years, he was fearful of how the fans would treat him.
Perhaps the fans remembered the good things he did for the Giants, or perhaps they felt sorry for his plight, but they gave him a loud ovation.
"He had an impressive career," Stalker said. "That's what he should be remembered for."
Oh, if that were only the case. What happened 100 years ago Tuesday even had an impact on his final resting place.
Merkle once cracked, "I suppose when I die, they'll put on my tombstone, 'Here lies Bonehead Merkle.'"
They never got the chance. When he died in 1956 at the age of 67, he was buried in an unmarked grave.
Ed Sherman was a longtime sportswriter for the Chicago Tribune.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
“Obama Implodes in Georgia”
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/09/12/obama-implodes-in-georgia/
“Obama Implodes in Georgia”
By Bud White
September 12, 2008
Barack Obama, Bloggers, Florida, Georgia, Howard Dean, Ohio, Pennsylvania, general election
One of the arguments many Obama supporters made against Hillary was that she did not support Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy. Obama embraced the 50-state strategy to garner the support of the netroots and other activists. In a mydd diary posted this January, Obama, with his usual humility, was quoted as saying:
I think that we’re shifting the political paradigm here. And if I’m the nominee, I think I can bring a lot of folks along on my coattails. You know, there’s a reason why in 2006, I made the most appearances for members of Congress. I was the most requested surrogate to come in and campaign for people in districts that were swing districts, Republican districts where they wouldn’t have any other Democrat.
A narrative was developed in the blogosphere that Obama, unlike Hillary, would be able to touch the hearts of red state conservatives and turn them into Democrats. Hillary was too polarizing, it was argued, and she would be fighting for Kerry’s states plus 1.
It was mandatory at dailykos to believe that Obama was a map-changer. A diarist from North Dakota named Ab2kgj, in a post which would be funny if it weren’t so painful, suggested that Obama had a real shot at grabbing that state:
I’ll start with ripping a part of McCain’s base right out from under him. I live in North Dakota, and I have a feeling that we will be more of a swing state than people realize. Up here in nowhereland, the reason that Republicans do so well is because of “family values,” and an automatic 15 point bump in the polls. I gotta tell ya though. I see change in the air, because we also can smell phonies a mile away, and John McCain calling us “his friends” doesn’t seem to cut it for the sensible, middle of the roaders up here.
Regardless of what Ab2kgj sees in the air, Obama is not going to win North Dakota, but that fact didn’t stop the Obama campaign from expending millions in red states.
The Obama campaign has always known that they would have a hard time winning both Ohio and Florida, the recent path to the presidency. Campaign manager Plouffe:
said Ohio and Florida start out very competitive — but he stressed that they are not tougher than other swing states and said Obama will play “extremely hard” for both. But he said the strategy is not reliant on one or two states.
Talk of map-changing was utilized by Obama in the primary campaign as a tactic to hide his real weakness with blue-collar voters. Obama and his team have shown disdain for this core group of the Democratic Party, and Obama’s “hope” message fails to offer them a compelling reason to vote for him. Anglachel explains their hostility this way:
In the minds of the liberal elite, the problems and failures of the progressive agenda could be laid at the feet of bigoted whites, the “Archie Bunkers” of the North, and the “Bubbas” of the South. And there lies the strategic fault line of the Democratic Party, the willingness of a significant portion of the party, and I’m willing to wager the majority of the party power brokers, to see the electoral problem as how to minimize the damage of the Bunkers.
Not only has Obama insulted these Democrats who live in the greater Appalachia region with accusations of being bitter and bigoted, some of his supporters inferred that voters’ resistance to Obama was because of racism. But the real problem is that Obama does not appear to offer solutions to their economic problems. Howard Fineman believes that part of Obama’s troubles now stem from the fact that he does not articulate a clear, concise economic message:
It is not enough to be for change – everybody is, or is trying to be. To make it stick, Obama needed, and needs, to put forth an easy-to-grasp grand proposal, one that would encapsulate what his central message. That tagline? That he is dedicated, body and soul, to advancing the economic interests of hard-working, average Americans. He has the makings of such a proposal – his tax cuts for low and middle-income families. But he has yet to package that, or anything else, in an easy-to-grasp, hard-number plan for voters. Instead, he’s got more of a laundry list than an actual rallying cry.
Turning their backs on the rust-belt, Obama’s team, as recently as June, looked to deep-red states:
“You have a lot of ways to get to 270,” Plouffe said. “Our goal is not to be reliant on one state on November 4th.”
Plouffe has been pitching such a new approach to the electoral map in calls and meetings, according to several people who discussed the conversations on the condition of anonymity because they were meant to be private. Plouffe confirmed the descriptions in the interview.
Plouffe and his aides are weighing where to contest, and where chances are too slim to marshal a large effort. A win in Virginia (13 electoral votes) or Georgia (15 votes) could give Obama a shot if he, like Kerry, loses Ohio or Florida.
Although it appears Virginia is still competitive at this point, Georgia is now off the table. A new poll by InsiderAdvantage says that “Obama Implodes in Georgia,” and:
Poll Position survey of likely registered voters in Georgia indicates a steep decline for the Barack Obama campaign and likely explains why the candidate is moving resources out of Georgia and into other states.
Q. If the election were held today, would you vote for:
John McCain: 56%
Barack Obama: 38%
Other: 2%
Undecided: 4%
Obama’s collapse in Georgia has been sudden and dramatic. McCain is in the process of solidifying his base, but the demographics of this collapse do not bode well for Obama, and we should expect smaller but real shifts towards McCain in the more competitive states; that has always been the danger of over-extending your resources into unwinnable states:
InsiderAdvantage’s Matt Towery: “This is a huge slide from what had been, in our prior surveys, a relatively close race. The reason is simple—Obama lost serious ground in virtually every demographic.
“At first glance it would seem that Obama is headed for no better than the low 40 percentile level achieved by John Kerry in 2004. But let me warn observers that in both our national tracking and surveys in other states, the biggest change has been a near parity between the two candidates among the youngest of voters.
“Should that group return to Obama and the African-American vote end up where we expect it to be, the race could be closer in November. But as of now Georgia is no longer a “leans McCain” state. As of this survey, Georgia is in the McCain column.”
Obama’s shrinking map is not a shock to Hillary supporters, but it’s ironic now that Obama will have to turn to Ohio, Florida, and, particularly, Pennsylvania to attempt to squeak out a victory, places where he performed poorly in the primaries and to the voters he and his campaign have continually insulted.
“Obama Implodes in Georgia”
By Bud White
September 12, 2008
Barack Obama, Bloggers, Florida, Georgia, Howard Dean, Ohio, Pennsylvania, general election
One of the arguments many Obama supporters made against Hillary was that she did not support Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy. Obama embraced the 50-state strategy to garner the support of the netroots and other activists. In a mydd diary posted this January, Obama, with his usual humility, was quoted as saying:
I think that we’re shifting the political paradigm here. And if I’m the nominee, I think I can bring a lot of folks along on my coattails. You know, there’s a reason why in 2006, I made the most appearances for members of Congress. I was the most requested surrogate to come in and campaign for people in districts that were swing districts, Republican districts where they wouldn’t have any other Democrat.
A narrative was developed in the blogosphere that Obama, unlike Hillary, would be able to touch the hearts of red state conservatives and turn them into Democrats. Hillary was too polarizing, it was argued, and she would be fighting for Kerry’s states plus 1.
It was mandatory at dailykos to believe that Obama was a map-changer. A diarist from North Dakota named Ab2kgj, in a post which would be funny if it weren’t so painful, suggested that Obama had a real shot at grabbing that state:
I’ll start with ripping a part of McCain’s base right out from under him. I live in North Dakota, and I have a feeling that we will be more of a swing state than people realize. Up here in nowhereland, the reason that Republicans do so well is because of “family values,” and an automatic 15 point bump in the polls. I gotta tell ya though. I see change in the air, because we also can smell phonies a mile away, and John McCain calling us “his friends” doesn’t seem to cut it for the sensible, middle of the roaders up here.
Regardless of what Ab2kgj sees in the air, Obama is not going to win North Dakota, but that fact didn’t stop the Obama campaign from expending millions in red states.
The Obama campaign has always known that they would have a hard time winning both Ohio and Florida, the recent path to the presidency. Campaign manager Plouffe:
said Ohio and Florida start out very competitive — but he stressed that they are not tougher than other swing states and said Obama will play “extremely hard” for both. But he said the strategy is not reliant on one or two states.
Talk of map-changing was utilized by Obama in the primary campaign as a tactic to hide his real weakness with blue-collar voters. Obama and his team have shown disdain for this core group of the Democratic Party, and Obama’s “hope” message fails to offer them a compelling reason to vote for him. Anglachel explains their hostility this way:
In the minds of the liberal elite, the problems and failures of the progressive agenda could be laid at the feet of bigoted whites, the “Archie Bunkers” of the North, and the “Bubbas” of the South. And there lies the strategic fault line of the Democratic Party, the willingness of a significant portion of the party, and I’m willing to wager the majority of the party power brokers, to see the electoral problem as how to minimize the damage of the Bunkers.
Not only has Obama insulted these Democrats who live in the greater Appalachia region with accusations of being bitter and bigoted, some of his supporters inferred that voters’ resistance to Obama was because of racism. But the real problem is that Obama does not appear to offer solutions to their economic problems. Howard Fineman believes that part of Obama’s troubles now stem from the fact that he does not articulate a clear, concise economic message:
It is not enough to be for change – everybody is, or is trying to be. To make it stick, Obama needed, and needs, to put forth an easy-to-grasp grand proposal, one that would encapsulate what his central message. That tagline? That he is dedicated, body and soul, to advancing the economic interests of hard-working, average Americans. He has the makings of such a proposal – his tax cuts for low and middle-income families. But he has yet to package that, or anything else, in an easy-to-grasp, hard-number plan for voters. Instead, he’s got more of a laundry list than an actual rallying cry.
Turning their backs on the rust-belt, Obama’s team, as recently as June, looked to deep-red states:
“You have a lot of ways to get to 270,” Plouffe said. “Our goal is not to be reliant on one state on November 4th.”
Plouffe has been pitching such a new approach to the electoral map in calls and meetings, according to several people who discussed the conversations on the condition of anonymity because they were meant to be private. Plouffe confirmed the descriptions in the interview.
Plouffe and his aides are weighing where to contest, and where chances are too slim to marshal a large effort. A win in Virginia (13 electoral votes) or Georgia (15 votes) could give Obama a shot if he, like Kerry, loses Ohio or Florida.
Although it appears Virginia is still competitive at this point, Georgia is now off the table. A new poll by InsiderAdvantage says that “Obama Implodes in Georgia,” and:
Poll Position survey of likely registered voters in Georgia indicates a steep decline for the Barack Obama campaign and likely explains why the candidate is moving resources out of Georgia and into other states.
Q. If the election were held today, would you vote for:
John McCain: 56%
Barack Obama: 38%
Other: 2%
Undecided: 4%
Obama’s collapse in Georgia has been sudden and dramatic. McCain is in the process of solidifying his base, but the demographics of this collapse do not bode well for Obama, and we should expect smaller but real shifts towards McCain in the more competitive states; that has always been the danger of over-extending your resources into unwinnable states:
InsiderAdvantage’s Matt Towery: “This is a huge slide from what had been, in our prior surveys, a relatively close race. The reason is simple—Obama lost serious ground in virtually every demographic.
“At first glance it would seem that Obama is headed for no better than the low 40 percentile level achieved by John Kerry in 2004. But let me warn observers that in both our national tracking and surveys in other states, the biggest change has been a near parity between the two candidates among the youngest of voters.
“Should that group return to Obama and the African-American vote end up where we expect it to be, the race could be closer in November. But as of now Georgia is no longer a “leans McCain” state. As of this survey, Georgia is in the McCain column.”
Obama’s shrinking map is not a shock to Hillary supporters, but it’s ironic now that Obama will have to turn to Ohio, Florida, and, particularly, Pennsylvania to attempt to squeak out a victory, places where he performed poorly in the primaries and to the voters he and his campaign have continually insulted.
'Every big game we end up blowing it'
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2008-09-14-ohiostate-lockerroom_N.htm
Buckeyes' lament: 'Every big game we end up blowing it'
By Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY
9-14-8
LOS ANGELES — Ohio State senior left tackle Alex Boone was one of the last players to leave his locker room following his team's 35-3 loss to No. 1 Southern California, but he was still steaming on full boil.
"I can't believe we screwed up so badly," Boone said. "I feel like this is the national championship all over again, stupid penalties, stupid mistakes, roughing the passer, holding, offsides, personal fouls."
The Buckeyes lost the last two national title games to speedier, more athletic Southeastern Conference teams, including last year's mistake-filled loss to LSU. Saturday, the Buckeyes were undone by miscues in the second quarter and scored the fewest points in coach Jim Tressel's eight-year tenure. They also might have fumbled away a chance at their third consecutive Bowl Championship Series title game.
"Every big game we end up blowing it for ourselves, not to say they weren't a great team," Boone said. "I think it must be nervousness. …. Guys come out here and see 100,000 people and they start to get antsy. We can't play that way."
With a remaining schedule which includes only two teams currently ranked, the No. 14 Buckeyes (2-1) will need plenty of help to get back into national title contention by season's end. Next week, they host Troy before beginning their Big Ten schedule Sept. 27 against Minnesota. They face No. 10 Wisconsin in Madison on Oct. 4, host No. 17 Penn State on Oct. 25 and travel to Illinois on Nov. 15.
Last year, in one of the most tumultuous seasons in college football history, the Buckeyes were able to overcome a loss to Illinois in November to climb back to the title game. Even if OSU wins the remainder of its games, it might face longer odds this fall. Since the Buckeyes once again faltered on the biggest of stages, voters might be more reluctant to place Ohio State ahead of a team from the SEC with the same record.
"The only difference between this one and that one (to LSU) is we have a season ahead of us," said linebacker Marcus Freeman. "We have to turn it around and still try to win the Big Ten championship."
In the second quarter, trailing 14-3, a holding penalty on OSU guard Ben Person nullified quarterback Todd Boeckman's 21-yard touchdown pass to Brian Robiskie. On their next offensive possession, Boeckman's pass was cut off by USC linebacker Rey Maualuga, who returned the interception for a 48-yard score.
"We just shot ourselves in foot with penalties and turnovers," Boeckman said. By halftime, it was 21-3, and the locker room was as quiet as study hall.
"At halftime nobody was saying anything," Boone said. "I mean what the hell? We're Ohio State. We should be screaming and swearing everything you can think of, and guys were hanging their heads. You don't know what to say to them. You start screaming, and they just put their heads down even more."
The play of freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor was one of the Buckeyes' few bright spots. Pryor, who alternated snaps with Boeckman through most of the game, competed seven of nine passes for 52 yards and rushed 11 times for another 40. USC was forced to respect Pryor's running ability, containing him better in the second half. "They started putting everyone outside the box so I couldn't get it outside," Pryor said.
Boeckman (14-for-21 for 84 yards) was intercepted twice and sacked four times. When asked if he would consider changing his starting quarterback, Tressel didn't seem inclined to replace his fifth-year senior with a freshman. "There's always competition for playing time," Tressel said. "I don't know about the starting spot or any of that business, but obviously we'll go back and evaluate everything."
"I thought Terrelle did a good job from a composure standpoint," Tressel said. "Being thrown in a stage like this, he probably played more than the first two weeks combined. Overall, he did a lot of good things. Obviously he's got a lot of talent, not just running. He can throw the ball in there hard."
The Buckeyes were without star running back Chris "Beanie" Wells who has an injured right foot. Redshirt freshman Dan Herron started in Wells' place and had 51 yards on 11 carries. Afterward the Buckeyes refused make excuses, but USC coach Pete Carroll said that without Wells the Buckeyes were forced to run more laterally than powering down the field.
As they headed to the bus, Ohio State seemed more resolved than defeated. "This team is (as upset) as we'll ever be," Boone said. "We're going back to work tomorrow. I won't be surprised if guys go home straight to watch film for four hours."
Added Pryor: "We'll pick it up and be fine … From now on, we won't get stopped. We won't. We're going to work hard, study more in the film room, because I don't want to feel like this again and I'm sure nobody else wants to."
Buckeyes' lament: 'Every big game we end up blowing it'
By Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY
9-14-8
LOS ANGELES — Ohio State senior left tackle Alex Boone was one of the last players to leave his locker room following his team's 35-3 loss to No. 1 Southern California, but he was still steaming on full boil.
"I can't believe we screwed up so badly," Boone said. "I feel like this is the national championship all over again, stupid penalties, stupid mistakes, roughing the passer, holding, offsides, personal fouls."
The Buckeyes lost the last two national title games to speedier, more athletic Southeastern Conference teams, including last year's mistake-filled loss to LSU. Saturday, the Buckeyes were undone by miscues in the second quarter and scored the fewest points in coach Jim Tressel's eight-year tenure. They also might have fumbled away a chance at their third consecutive Bowl Championship Series title game.
"Every big game we end up blowing it for ourselves, not to say they weren't a great team," Boone said. "I think it must be nervousness. …. Guys come out here and see 100,000 people and they start to get antsy. We can't play that way."
With a remaining schedule which includes only two teams currently ranked, the No. 14 Buckeyes (2-1) will need plenty of help to get back into national title contention by season's end. Next week, they host Troy before beginning their Big Ten schedule Sept. 27 against Minnesota. They face No. 10 Wisconsin in Madison on Oct. 4, host No. 17 Penn State on Oct. 25 and travel to Illinois on Nov. 15.
Last year, in one of the most tumultuous seasons in college football history, the Buckeyes were able to overcome a loss to Illinois in November to climb back to the title game. Even if OSU wins the remainder of its games, it might face longer odds this fall. Since the Buckeyes once again faltered on the biggest of stages, voters might be more reluctant to place Ohio State ahead of a team from the SEC with the same record.
"The only difference between this one and that one (to LSU) is we have a season ahead of us," said linebacker Marcus Freeman. "We have to turn it around and still try to win the Big Ten championship."
In the second quarter, trailing 14-3, a holding penalty on OSU guard Ben Person nullified quarterback Todd Boeckman's 21-yard touchdown pass to Brian Robiskie. On their next offensive possession, Boeckman's pass was cut off by USC linebacker Rey Maualuga, who returned the interception for a 48-yard score.
"We just shot ourselves in foot with penalties and turnovers," Boeckman said. By halftime, it was 21-3, and the locker room was as quiet as study hall.
"At halftime nobody was saying anything," Boone said. "I mean what the hell? We're Ohio State. We should be screaming and swearing everything you can think of, and guys were hanging their heads. You don't know what to say to them. You start screaming, and they just put their heads down even more."
The play of freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor was one of the Buckeyes' few bright spots. Pryor, who alternated snaps with Boeckman through most of the game, competed seven of nine passes for 52 yards and rushed 11 times for another 40. USC was forced to respect Pryor's running ability, containing him better in the second half. "They started putting everyone outside the box so I couldn't get it outside," Pryor said.
Boeckman (14-for-21 for 84 yards) was intercepted twice and sacked four times. When asked if he would consider changing his starting quarterback, Tressel didn't seem inclined to replace his fifth-year senior with a freshman. "There's always competition for playing time," Tressel said. "I don't know about the starting spot or any of that business, but obviously we'll go back and evaluate everything."
"I thought Terrelle did a good job from a composure standpoint," Tressel said. "Being thrown in a stage like this, he probably played more than the first two weeks combined. Overall, he did a lot of good things. Obviously he's got a lot of talent, not just running. He can throw the ball in there hard."
The Buckeyes were without star running back Chris "Beanie" Wells who has an injured right foot. Redshirt freshman Dan Herron started in Wells' place and had 51 yards on 11 carries. Afterward the Buckeyes refused make excuses, but USC coach Pete Carroll said that without Wells the Buckeyes were forced to run more laterally than powering down the field.
As they headed to the bus, Ohio State seemed more resolved than defeated. "This team is (as upset) as we'll ever be," Boone said. "We're going back to work tomorrow. I won't be surprised if guys go home straight to watch film for four hours."
Added Pryor: "We'll pick it up and be fine … From now on, we won't get stopped. We won't. We're going to work hard, study more in the film room, because I don't want to feel like this again and I'm sure nobody else wants to."
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Obama Doesn't Sweat. He should.
Obama Doesn't Sweat. He should.by Greg Palast
In swing-state Colorado, the Republican Secretary of State conducted the biggest purge of voters in history, dumping a fifth of all registrations. Guess their color. In swing-state Florida, the state is refusing to accept about 85,000 new registrations from voter drives - overwhelming Black voters.
In swing state New Mexico, HALF of the Democrats of Mora, a dirt poor and overwhelmingly Hispanic county, found their registrations disappeared this year, courtesy of a Republican voting contractor.
In swing states Ohio and Nevada, new federal law is knocking out tens of thousands of voters who lost their homes to foreclosure.
My investigations partner spoke directly to Barack Obama about it. (When your partner is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., candidates take your phone call.) The cool, cool Senator Obama told Kennedy he was "concerned" about the integrity of the vote in the Southwest in particular.
He's concerned. I'm sweating.
It's time SOMEBODY raised the alarm about these missing voters; not to save Obama's candidacy – journalists should stay the heck away from partisan endorsements - but raise the alarm to save our sick democracy.
And that somebody is YOU. Joining with US, the Palast investigative team. Here's how:
We have been offered an astonishing opportunity to place the Kennedy-Palast investigative findings on a national, prime-time, major-network television broadcast. Plus, separately, we have an extraordinary offer to create a series of reports for national network radio.
But guess what? The networks will NOT PAY for our public service reports. We have to raise the start-up funds in the next two weeks to film it, record it and get it on the airwaves.
WE need YOU to fund the reports, DISSEMINATE the findings as we post the print, audio and video on the web– and ACT on it.
So, for only the second time this year, I am asking each one of you to make a tax deductible donation to the non-profit, non-partisan Palast Investigative Fund of $500, $150 or $100.
Progressives have complained for years of no opportunity to get the hard, cold sweaty truth on the air. Well, put your money where your heart and soul is.
Donate at least $500, I'll send you every book I've written and every film, signed. Send $150 and I'll send you as a gift, a copy of John Ennis' film Free For All, Armed Madhouse, The Election Files and a copy of Live from the Armed Madhouse all signed. Donate $100, and I’ll send you 3 copies, one signed to you, of "The Elections Files," (Watch the trailer here) the best of our BBC/Democracy Now films – including special never-broadcast interviews with Kennedy(Watch a clip) and fired prosecutor David Iglesias (Watch a clip).
I know you’re ponying up for your favorite candidates. But what’s the point of winning folks' votes IF NO ONE COUNTS THEM?
Please make your donation – today. No corporation, no big foundation, is going to take on this emergency in our democracy. The election’s about to be stolen – for a third time. SO WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
Donate today (for $1,000 minimum, we’ll list you as a Producer of our next DVD, in gratitude). Why? Because the only way to get the vote-chewing cockroaches out of the voting machinery is to turn on the lights – tell the truth on them. On prime time.
After our team busted the story of Katherine Harris' attack on innocent Black voters as "felons," the NAACP sued and won back their rights. The truth CAN make the difference. Yes, we can. Indeed, we HAVE.
Think all votes should be counted in America? Then YOU stand up and be counted. Don’t expect networks or commercial sponsors to pay for your democracy. Feed the truth, donate $100 right now and pass on a copy of the Elections Files to your dippy cousin who thinks Kerry lost fair and square.
Donations from our prior and only request already paid for some of our filming in the Southwest. Don't let this story be swept under the border.
If you want more information, go to GregPalast.com, or write me directly at GregPalast.com – and hit the button, "contact Greg."
**************************
Greg Palast is a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow for Investigative Reporting at the Nation Institute, New York. Read and view his investigations for BBC Television at http://www.gregpalast.com/.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Democrats Need to Hear From Florida and Michigan
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julian-e-zelizer/democrats-need-to-hear-fr_b_90335.html
Julian E. Zelizer
Democrats Need to Hear From Florida and Michigan
Posted March 6, 2008
Read More: 2008 Election, Democrats, Dnc, Florida, Howard Dean, Michigan, Breaking Politics News
Democrats have a big problem on their hands. As a result, they need to redo the Florida and Michigan primaries. Today, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said that party leaders in both states need to design proposals for holding new nominating contests.
The Democratic National Committee stripped both states of their delegates when they moved their votes earlier in the schedule. Senator Clinton won in both states. But most of the Democratic candidates -- including Senator Obama -- had withdrawn their name from the ballot in Michigan. Based on a pledge, none of the candidates conducted campaigns in Florida, although some of Clinton's opponents claim that she violated the agreement by making a few appearances in the Sunshine State before the day of the vote.
Now the context has changed. Super Tuesday did not decide the contest. Democrats are facing a brutal contest that will last into the summer convention. Senator John McCain is grinning as he watches the Democratic bloodbath. The irony that an embattled Republican Party managed to unite around a candidate relatively quickly and Democrats are fighting each other tooth and nail is hard to ignore.
Neither faction in the Democratic Party can argue that the primaries will produce a decisive winner. To be sure, the delegate count favors Obama. He has done extraordinarily well in small states, especially those that depend on caucuses, as well as in several battle ground states like Missouri. At the same time, Clinton won the popular vote in almost all of the large states: California, New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Texas.
The situation won't be clarified in the months ahead. Obama will likely win in Wyoming and Mississippi while Clinton has an excellent chance of taking Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico.
This is why a new vote in Florida and Michigan is essential. Democrats have no choice. Obama's supporters sometimes complain that holding a new vote in those states would be akin to changing the rules in middle of the game. Yet the decision of the Democratic Party was a poor one, and bad rules sometimes need to be corrected. Obama supporters have themselves made this argument when warning against having "superdelegates" decide this contest. The rules, as created in the 1980s, empower superdelegates to make this kind of choice. Moreover, it seems odd that a candidate whose campaign has promised to create a better political system would be happy if voters in Florida and Michigan were silenced.
At the same time, counting the votes that already took place would not be fair. Obama did not have his name on the ballot in Michigan and he did not campaign in Florida. The results simply do not reflect a genuine contest. If Clinton wins this campaign by relying on the votes that took place, the selection would cause just as much bitterness as if those voters are left out. Democrats should also stick to the conventional process in those states to avoid any claims that the process was changed to favor one or the other candidate.
Democrats have two excellent candidates to choose from. Even though the contest has been rough and Republicans quickly united behind a formidable candidate, there is still reason to believe that the high enthusiasm for both candidates bodes well for the party. All the more reason to get this decision right. And if the contest does come down to superdelegates, they need to at least see what voters in Michigan and Florida are thinking before making their decision.
Democrats can't afford to let votes not be counted. After all, Democrats were the party burned in the 2000 election when the Supreme Court stopped recounts from taking place in Florida. The bitterness that resulted from that decision remains with the party until this day.
For all these reasons, let's bring Florida and Michigan back into the picture. That should be something that all Democrats should be able to unite on.
Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the co-editor of "Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s," which will be published this spring by Harvard University Press.
Julian E. Zelizer
Democrats Need to Hear From Florida and Michigan
Posted March 6, 2008
Read More: 2008 Election, Democrats, Dnc, Florida, Howard Dean, Michigan, Breaking Politics News
Democrats have a big problem on their hands. As a result, they need to redo the Florida and Michigan primaries. Today, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said that party leaders in both states need to design proposals for holding new nominating contests.
The Democratic National Committee stripped both states of their delegates when they moved their votes earlier in the schedule. Senator Clinton won in both states. But most of the Democratic candidates -- including Senator Obama -- had withdrawn their name from the ballot in Michigan. Based on a pledge, none of the candidates conducted campaigns in Florida, although some of Clinton's opponents claim that she violated the agreement by making a few appearances in the Sunshine State before the day of the vote.
Now the context has changed. Super Tuesday did not decide the contest. Democrats are facing a brutal contest that will last into the summer convention. Senator John McCain is grinning as he watches the Democratic bloodbath. The irony that an embattled Republican Party managed to unite around a candidate relatively quickly and Democrats are fighting each other tooth and nail is hard to ignore.
Neither faction in the Democratic Party can argue that the primaries will produce a decisive winner. To be sure, the delegate count favors Obama. He has done extraordinarily well in small states, especially those that depend on caucuses, as well as in several battle ground states like Missouri. At the same time, Clinton won the popular vote in almost all of the large states: California, New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Texas.
The situation won't be clarified in the months ahead. Obama will likely win in Wyoming and Mississippi while Clinton has an excellent chance of taking Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico.
This is why a new vote in Florida and Michigan is essential. Democrats have no choice. Obama's supporters sometimes complain that holding a new vote in those states would be akin to changing the rules in middle of the game. Yet the decision of the Democratic Party was a poor one, and bad rules sometimes need to be corrected. Obama supporters have themselves made this argument when warning against having "superdelegates" decide this contest. The rules, as created in the 1980s, empower superdelegates to make this kind of choice. Moreover, it seems odd that a candidate whose campaign has promised to create a better political system would be happy if voters in Florida and Michigan were silenced.
At the same time, counting the votes that already took place would not be fair. Obama did not have his name on the ballot in Michigan and he did not campaign in Florida. The results simply do not reflect a genuine contest. If Clinton wins this campaign by relying on the votes that took place, the selection would cause just as much bitterness as if those voters are left out. Democrats should also stick to the conventional process in those states to avoid any claims that the process was changed to favor one or the other candidate.
Democrats have two excellent candidates to choose from. Even though the contest has been rough and Republicans quickly united behind a formidable candidate, there is still reason to believe that the high enthusiasm for both candidates bodes well for the party. All the more reason to get this decision right. And if the contest does come down to superdelegates, they need to at least see what voters in Michigan and Florida are thinking before making their decision.
Democrats can't afford to let votes not be counted. After all, Democrats were the party burned in the 2000 election when the Supreme Court stopped recounts from taking place in Florida. The bitterness that resulted from that decision remains with the party until this day.
For all these reasons, let's bring Florida and Michigan back into the picture. That should be something that all Democrats should be able to unite on.
Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the co-editor of "Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s," which will be published this spring by Harvard University Press.
Both Obama And Clinton Hold Edge Over McCain
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/05/AR2008030502646.html
Both Obama And Clinton Hold Edge Over McCain
By Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 6, 2008; A09
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) kicks off his general-election campaign trailing both potential Democratic nominees in hypothetical matchups, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) leads McCain, who captured the delegates needed to claim the Republican nomination Tuesday night, by 12 percentage points among all adults in the poll; Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) holds a six-point lead over the GOP nominee. Both Democrats are buoyed by moderates and independents when going head to head with McCain and benefit from sustained negative public assessments of President Bush and the war in Iraq.
About two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job and think the war was not worth fighting, and most hold those positions "strongly." A slim majority also doubt that the United States is making progress toward restoring civil order in Iraq, even as McCain and others extol recent successes there.
These views are closely related to voters' choices: McCain does poorly against Clinton and Obama among those who disapprove of the president and those opposing the war.
Among independents, those who see improvements in Iraq prefer McCain to either Democrat, while six in 10 of those more skeptical of progress would go for a Democrat.
Another obstacle for McCain may be his age. More than a quarter of those polled said they are less inclined to support McCain because he would be the oldest person ever to become president. The percentage discouraged by McCain's age is more than double that of people who would be less enthusiastic about supporting Obama because he is African American or Clinton because she is a woman.
McCain, however, has eight months to overcome those perceptions, and when squared against Obama, who has amassed the most delegates in the race for the Democratic nomination, the senator from Arizona has key advantages on foreign policy.
The poll was conducted before Tuesday's contests, in which Clinton scored victories in Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas while Obama prevailed in Vermont. The victories were Clinton's first in a month, and they further unsettled the Democratic contest.
One bright line in a campaign pitting Obama against McCain would be the one that continues to define the Democratic primary: "change" vs. "experience." Overall, Americans are evenly divided about the candidate qualities that are most important to them: 45 percent said strength and experience, 46 percent said a new direction and new ideas.
Eighty percent of those putting a priority on change opt for Obama, while 68 percent of those favoring a steady hand go for McCain. A similar but more muted dynamic also would apply to Clinton vs. McCain, with the Republican holding a wide lead among those seeking experience and Clinton winning two-thirds of change voters.
Overall, Obama topped McCain on five of eight attributes tested in the poll, but he faces a whopping experience deficit (just as he does against Clinton in the primary campaign) and trails by double digits on leadership and knowledge of world affairs.
Obama also leads McCain on four of the six top issues in the poll: health care, immigration, ethics in government and voters' No. 1 concern, the economy. McCain counters with a wide advantage as the one better suited to handle the U.S. campaign against terrorism, and the two are much more closely paired on the question of who is better on Iraq. Among independents, McCain has the edge on both concerns: He is up by 14 points on Iraq and 18 points on fighting terrorism.
But as for McCain's ability to bring needed change to Washington, 52 percent said he would not do enough in this area, while 41 percent said he would. Nearly as many of those polled said Obama does not have the kind of experience it takes to serve effectively as president, 45 percent, as said he does, 49 percent.
One undercurrent about Obama's historic run is some fear for his safety on the campaign trail. Nearly six in 10 expressed concern that someone might attempt to harm Obama if he were the Democratic nominee.
Concern for Obama peaks among African Americans: More than eight in 10 would be concerned about Obama's safety, including 55 percent who would be "very concerned" (20 percent of whites expressed the same level of fear).
A total of 1,126 randomly selected adults were interviewed by telephone Feb. 28 through March 2. The results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Both Obama And Clinton Hold Edge Over McCain
By Jon Cohen and Jennifer Agiesta
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 6, 2008; A09
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) kicks off his general-election campaign trailing both potential Democratic nominees in hypothetical matchups, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) leads McCain, who captured the delegates needed to claim the Republican nomination Tuesday night, by 12 percentage points among all adults in the poll; Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) holds a six-point lead over the GOP nominee. Both Democrats are buoyed by moderates and independents when going head to head with McCain and benefit from sustained negative public assessments of President Bush and the war in Iraq.
About two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job and think the war was not worth fighting, and most hold those positions "strongly." A slim majority also doubt that the United States is making progress toward restoring civil order in Iraq, even as McCain and others extol recent successes there.
These views are closely related to voters' choices: McCain does poorly against Clinton and Obama among those who disapprove of the president and those opposing the war.
Among independents, those who see improvements in Iraq prefer McCain to either Democrat, while six in 10 of those more skeptical of progress would go for a Democrat.
Another obstacle for McCain may be his age. More than a quarter of those polled said they are less inclined to support McCain because he would be the oldest person ever to become president. The percentage discouraged by McCain's age is more than double that of people who would be less enthusiastic about supporting Obama because he is African American or Clinton because she is a woman.
McCain, however, has eight months to overcome those perceptions, and when squared against Obama, who has amassed the most delegates in the race for the Democratic nomination, the senator from Arizona has key advantages on foreign policy.
The poll was conducted before Tuesday's contests, in which Clinton scored victories in Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas while Obama prevailed in Vermont. The victories were Clinton's first in a month, and they further unsettled the Democratic contest.
One bright line in a campaign pitting Obama against McCain would be the one that continues to define the Democratic primary: "change" vs. "experience." Overall, Americans are evenly divided about the candidate qualities that are most important to them: 45 percent said strength and experience, 46 percent said a new direction and new ideas.
Eighty percent of those putting a priority on change opt for Obama, while 68 percent of those favoring a steady hand go for McCain. A similar but more muted dynamic also would apply to Clinton vs. McCain, with the Republican holding a wide lead among those seeking experience and Clinton winning two-thirds of change voters.
Overall, Obama topped McCain on five of eight attributes tested in the poll, but he faces a whopping experience deficit (just as he does against Clinton in the primary campaign) and trails by double digits on leadership and knowledge of world affairs.
Obama also leads McCain on four of the six top issues in the poll: health care, immigration, ethics in government and voters' No. 1 concern, the economy. McCain counters with a wide advantage as the one better suited to handle the U.S. campaign against terrorism, and the two are much more closely paired on the question of who is better on Iraq. Among independents, McCain has the edge on both concerns: He is up by 14 points on Iraq and 18 points on fighting terrorism.
But as for McCain's ability to bring needed change to Washington, 52 percent said he would not do enough in this area, while 41 percent said he would. Nearly as many of those polled said Obama does not have the kind of experience it takes to serve effectively as president, 45 percent, as said he does, 49 percent.
One undercurrent about Obama's historic run is some fear for his safety on the campaign trail. Nearly six in 10 expressed concern that someone might attempt to harm Obama if he were the Democratic nominee.
Concern for Obama peaks among African Americans: More than eight in 10 would be concerned about Obama's safety, including 55 percent who would be "very concerned" (20 percent of whites expressed the same level of fear).
A total of 1,126 randomly selected adults were interviewed by telephone Feb. 28 through March 2. The results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Obama Fails to Win Over `Archie Bunker' Voters
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aKf6J9nuZt4Q
Obama Fails to Win Over White `Archie Bunker' Democratic Voters
By Heidi Przybyla
March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama has an Archie Bunker problem.
The white, blue-collar voters personified by the 1970s fictional television character cost Obama yesterday. His rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, beat him 54 percent to 44 percent in industrial Ohio, and 58 percent to 40 percent in heavily Catholic Rhode Island.
In Ohio's 10th district of Cuyahoga County, a suburban enclave on Cleveland's west side that includes a large population of Polish-Americans, Clinton trounced Obama 61 percent to 37 percent, according to exit polls. In the state's Belmont County, an economically depressed Appalachian border area that is predominantly white, she had a 50-point lead over Obama, the first black candidate to have a shot at the White House.
``Race played a significant factor in Ohio,'' said Cuyahoga County Commissioner Timothy Hagan, who supported Obama. ``These people are not necessarily bigots, but the image they see every day of black America is drugs, crime, guns and violence.''
Clinton's victories yesterday in contests in Texas, Rhode Island and Ohio -- and just one defeat, in Vermont -- pumped new life into her candidacy after 11 consecutive losses to Obama. She now has renewed momentum heading into the next big test on April 22 in Pennsylvania, where the electorate looks much like Ohio's.
Wider Problem
The weak showing among the white working class in Ohio and Rhode Island represents a wider problem for Obama, said Joe Trippi, a former senior strategist for John Edwards, who had broad appeal among those voters until he dropped out of the Democratic race last month.
Obama, 46, has ``had a problem with lower-income, downscale, blue-collar Democrats from the beginning,'' Trippi said. ``He typically appeals to better educated, upscale Democrats.''
Ohio exit polls show Clinton beat Obama 62 percent to 35 percent among Catholics, 58 to 40 percent among those with no college degree and 56 percent to 42 percent among those who earn less than $50,000 a year. In Rhode Island, she won Catholics 66 percent to 34 percent, those with no college degree 61 percent to 38 percent, and those earning less than $50,000 by 59 percent to 39 percent.
The Illinois senator is still the Democratic front-runner and has shown strength attracting independents and younger voters. While yesterday's results were welcome in the Clinton camp, she barely cut into Obama's overall lead of about 150 pledged delegates.
Next Round
In addition, the next states to hold contests, Wyoming and Mississippi, are likely to increase his margin. Wyoming on March 8 holds a caucus, a type of contest in which Obama has generally prevailed. Mississippi, which holds a primary on March 11, has a heavy concentration of black voters. Neither state has big populations of white ethnic voters.
Yet Obama will need to do better with the white ethnic working class in places like Pennsylvania and to build a majority in a general election if he is the nominee.
The challenges he faces with these groups are evident in his hometown of Chicago, where voters know him and he is popular. Still, he faces resistance in working class, white ethnic neighborhoods.
``I can't support him,'' said Richard Dorsch, a 53-year-old paramedic fire chief from Chicago's Edison Park. Dorsch, who said his kids liken him to Archie Bunker, voted for Clinton in the primary, though he plans to support Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona if Obama wins the nomination.
`Talking Down'
``When he talks to you, it's like he's talking down to you,'' Dorsch said. ``He doesn't have the experience to talk like that.''
Dorsch's 41st Ward, which gave Clinton, 60, a six- percentage-point advantage, is 90 percent white, dominated by German, Polish and Irish ethnic police officers, teachers and city workers.
Obama has had problems with similar types of voters in Chicago since he began running for public office, though he has made some progress. He beat his white Democratic rivals in the 2004 Senate primary in places like the 41st Ward.
Yet communities like Edison Park remain a challenge for Obama, said Kent Redfield, a professor of political studies at the University of Illinois in Springfield.
``When Democrats win national elections they really do put that old New Deal coalition back together,'' he said. ``They have to get that Reagan Democrat.''
Working-Class Neighborhood
Chicago's 41st Ward is a classic white working-class neighborhood of bungalows, modest two-flats and Dutch colonials that shuts down on Pulaski Day, the March holiday celebrating Casimir Pulaski, a Pole who fought in the Revolutionary War.
An informal survey of employees at a local bank, gym, library, and neighborhood restaurant turned up no Obama supporters. Some residents said they were concerned that he might not take into account the concerns of whites.
``If Obama gets in, it's going to be a black thing and it's going to be all blacks for blacks,'' Victoria Mikulski, a 63- year-old clerk in Edison Park. ``Everything's got to be equal.''
Some residents still harbor resentment from 35 years ago, when a growing black population on the city's west side pushed whites north into Edison Park and Norwood Park, said Mary O'Connor, who owns a local bakery. Brian Doherty, the 41st Ward alderman, said he was ``shocked'' by Obama's success in the 2004 Senate primary.
New Generation
O'Connor, a Democrat who voted for Obama and recently won a seat as ward councilwoman, said a new generation that is less concerned with racial politics and history is taking over.
Far more important are the Iraq war and the economy, said O'Connor, who met with many residents during her door-to-door campaign this year.
Some younger voters said are turned off by the race.
``It's a gender and race war; that's why I'm just not interested in it,'' said Nicholas Georgopoulos, a 27-year-old auto technician and Democrat who lives in Norwood Park. ``They're not concentrating on the right things,'' he said. Dorsch, the fire paramedic, said race isn't a factor in his vote.
The importance of white, working-class neighborhoods like the 41st isn't lost on Obama. When in late 2003 the then Illinois state senator was considering a run for the U.S. Senate, he invited Senate colleague and close friend Larry Walsh for breakfast in Springfield.
Walsh represented Joliet, a majority white rural community south of Chicago.
``He said, `if I cannot appeal to the constituency that you represent how am I going to ever think about wining statewide?''' said Walsh, who is now Will County executive.
To contact the reporter on this story: Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net
Obama Fails to Win Over White `Archie Bunker' Democratic Voters
By Heidi Przybyla
March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama has an Archie Bunker problem.
The white, blue-collar voters personified by the 1970s fictional television character cost Obama yesterday. His rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, beat him 54 percent to 44 percent in industrial Ohio, and 58 percent to 40 percent in heavily Catholic Rhode Island.
In Ohio's 10th district of Cuyahoga County, a suburban enclave on Cleveland's west side that includes a large population of Polish-Americans, Clinton trounced Obama 61 percent to 37 percent, according to exit polls. In the state's Belmont County, an economically depressed Appalachian border area that is predominantly white, she had a 50-point lead over Obama, the first black candidate to have a shot at the White House.
``Race played a significant factor in Ohio,'' said Cuyahoga County Commissioner Timothy Hagan, who supported Obama. ``These people are not necessarily bigots, but the image they see every day of black America is drugs, crime, guns and violence.''
Clinton's victories yesterday in contests in Texas, Rhode Island and Ohio -- and just one defeat, in Vermont -- pumped new life into her candidacy after 11 consecutive losses to Obama. She now has renewed momentum heading into the next big test on April 22 in Pennsylvania, where the electorate looks much like Ohio's.
Wider Problem
The weak showing among the white working class in Ohio and Rhode Island represents a wider problem for Obama, said Joe Trippi, a former senior strategist for John Edwards, who had broad appeal among those voters until he dropped out of the Democratic race last month.
Obama, 46, has ``had a problem with lower-income, downscale, blue-collar Democrats from the beginning,'' Trippi said. ``He typically appeals to better educated, upscale Democrats.''
Ohio exit polls show Clinton beat Obama 62 percent to 35 percent among Catholics, 58 to 40 percent among those with no college degree and 56 percent to 42 percent among those who earn less than $50,000 a year. In Rhode Island, she won Catholics 66 percent to 34 percent, those with no college degree 61 percent to 38 percent, and those earning less than $50,000 by 59 percent to 39 percent.
The Illinois senator is still the Democratic front-runner and has shown strength attracting independents and younger voters. While yesterday's results were welcome in the Clinton camp, she barely cut into Obama's overall lead of about 150 pledged delegates.
Next Round
In addition, the next states to hold contests, Wyoming and Mississippi, are likely to increase his margin. Wyoming on March 8 holds a caucus, a type of contest in which Obama has generally prevailed. Mississippi, which holds a primary on March 11, has a heavy concentration of black voters. Neither state has big populations of white ethnic voters.
Yet Obama will need to do better with the white ethnic working class in places like Pennsylvania and to build a majority in a general election if he is the nominee.
The challenges he faces with these groups are evident in his hometown of Chicago, where voters know him and he is popular. Still, he faces resistance in working class, white ethnic neighborhoods.
``I can't support him,'' said Richard Dorsch, a 53-year-old paramedic fire chief from Chicago's Edison Park. Dorsch, who said his kids liken him to Archie Bunker, voted for Clinton in the primary, though he plans to support Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona if Obama wins the nomination.
`Talking Down'
``When he talks to you, it's like he's talking down to you,'' Dorsch said. ``He doesn't have the experience to talk like that.''
Dorsch's 41st Ward, which gave Clinton, 60, a six- percentage-point advantage, is 90 percent white, dominated by German, Polish and Irish ethnic police officers, teachers and city workers.
Obama has had problems with similar types of voters in Chicago since he began running for public office, though he has made some progress. He beat his white Democratic rivals in the 2004 Senate primary in places like the 41st Ward.
Yet communities like Edison Park remain a challenge for Obama, said Kent Redfield, a professor of political studies at the University of Illinois in Springfield.
``When Democrats win national elections they really do put that old New Deal coalition back together,'' he said. ``They have to get that Reagan Democrat.''
Working-Class Neighborhood
Chicago's 41st Ward is a classic white working-class neighborhood of bungalows, modest two-flats and Dutch colonials that shuts down on Pulaski Day, the March holiday celebrating Casimir Pulaski, a Pole who fought in the Revolutionary War.
An informal survey of employees at a local bank, gym, library, and neighborhood restaurant turned up no Obama supporters. Some residents said they were concerned that he might not take into account the concerns of whites.
``If Obama gets in, it's going to be a black thing and it's going to be all blacks for blacks,'' Victoria Mikulski, a 63- year-old clerk in Edison Park. ``Everything's got to be equal.''
Some residents still harbor resentment from 35 years ago, when a growing black population on the city's west side pushed whites north into Edison Park and Norwood Park, said Mary O'Connor, who owns a local bakery. Brian Doherty, the 41st Ward alderman, said he was ``shocked'' by Obama's success in the 2004 Senate primary.
New Generation
O'Connor, a Democrat who voted for Obama and recently won a seat as ward councilwoman, said a new generation that is less concerned with racial politics and history is taking over.
Far more important are the Iraq war and the economy, said O'Connor, who met with many residents during her door-to-door campaign this year.
Some younger voters said are turned off by the race.
``It's a gender and race war; that's why I'm just not interested in it,'' said Nicholas Georgopoulos, a 27-year-old auto technician and Democrat who lives in Norwood Park. ``They're not concentrating on the right things,'' he said. Dorsch, the fire paramedic, said race isn't a factor in his vote.
The importance of white, working-class neighborhoods like the 41st isn't lost on Obama. When in late 2003 the then Illinois state senator was considering a run for the U.S. Senate, he invited Senate colleague and close friend Larry Walsh for breakfast in Springfield.
Walsh represented Joliet, a majority white rural community south of Chicago.
``He said, `if I cannot appeal to the constituency that you represent how am I going to ever think about wining statewide?''' said Walsh, who is now Will County executive.
To contact the reporter on this story: Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net
Did Bill Clinton’s Call-to-Arms Rally Supporters?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/us/politics/05cnd-bill.html
March 5, 2008
Did Bill Clinton’s Call-to-Arms Rally Supporters?
By MICHAEL LUO
It was a declaration that quickly became etched in the granite of conventional wisdom.
Ignoring all the thou-shalt-nots inscribed in the bible of expectations management, former President Bill Clinton declared in Beaumont, Tex., several weeks ago that his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, needed to win Ohio and Texas to stay alive in her battle with Senator Barack Obama of Illinois for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“If she wins Texas and Ohio, I think she will be the nominee,” Mr. Clinton said. “If you don’t deliver for her, then I don’t think she can be.”
Last night, Mrs. Clinton pulled off triumphs in both Ohio and Texas, as well as Rhode Island. So instead of becoming Exhibit No.1 for Democratic power brokers, pundits and others marshaling arguments for her to bow out of the race, Mr. Clinton’s pronouncement now looks like a dead-on critical call-to-arms, showing his legendary political instincts.
Mr. Clinton’s statement that his wife had to win Texas and Ohio ended up dogging Mrs. Clinton on the campaign trail, as she was constantly asked about the remark, including at a news conference on Tuesday morning in Houston.
She sidestepped the query, saying she did not “think like that,” but hinted at plans for a long battle to come.
“You know, this is a long process,” she said. “As you’ve heard me say before, my husband didn’t get the nomination wrapped up until June.”
Mr. Obama’s campaign fired back, using Mr. Clinton’s own words as ammunition.
“Three weeks ago, when they led polls in Texas and Ohio by 20 points, the Clinton campaign set their own test for today’s primaries,” Bill Burton, a spokesman, said in an e-mail message.
Conceding the pressure on her to exit would be enormous if she lost either state, Mrs. Clinton’s advisers had been doing their best to walk back Mr. Clinton’s declaration, suggesting that an Ohio victory alone, coupled with her strong fund-raising recently — $32 million in February, still lagging behind Mr. Obama, who brought in about $50 million — would be enough for her to continue on to the delegate-rich Pennsylvania primary on April 22.
Some outside political strategists saw Mr. Clinton’s comments as a tactically shrewd effort to re-energize a flagging campaign and remind voters of the stakes of her losing the two states — a tactic that, in the end, seemed to have worked.
Joe Trippi, who was a senior strategist for John Edwards’s campaign, said he believed Mr. Clinton’s remarks were politically astute, whether they were scripted or improvised in the heat of the moment.
“People, deep down, like both her and Obama,” Mr. Trippi said. “When either one of them is on the ropes, they don’t want to see either one of them die.”
He added that he believed Mr. Clinton recognized that pattern when he made his comments.
“She needs your help,” Mr. Trippi said, “is not a bad strategy.”
Paul Begala, a former adviser to Mr. Clinton, said he believed the comment was a moment of candor, which voters tend to appreciate, comparing it to when Mr. Obama’s wife, Michelle, declared at a rally in Iowa before the caucuses that her husband needed to win the state in order to continue.
“Authenticity is the thing voters want most,” Mr. Begala said. “Here’s Bill Clinton standing up, having gone to Georgetown and to Oxford and to Yale. He now has a Ph.D. of the obvious. After 11 losses, you need a win.”
Mr. Begala said he had no idea if the moment was poll-tested and planned ahead of time but said he tended to doubt it, adding he believed Mr. Clinton saw the political benefits, as well as the potential fallout.
“He is the most transparent of politicians,” he said. “If he thinks something, he says it.”
There is, however, the matter of simple mathematical reality. With the way the two have been splitting the proportional allocation of delegates, it remains extremely difficult for Mrs. Clinton to catch Mr. Obama among pledged delegates, something the results Tuesday did little to alter. But at the same time, neither candidate is likely to garner enough delegates to clinch the nomination
Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster, said Mr. Clinton simply articulated a reality that was obvious, with or without his comments.
Mrs. Clinton still faces steep odds, he said, but she can at least make a case now to the all-important super-delegates who could decide the contest.
“Her only chance was to win both big ones,” Mr. Mellman said. “And she did.”
March 5, 2008
Did Bill Clinton’s Call-to-Arms Rally Supporters?
By MICHAEL LUO
It was a declaration that quickly became etched in the granite of conventional wisdom.
Ignoring all the thou-shalt-nots inscribed in the bible of expectations management, former President Bill Clinton declared in Beaumont, Tex., several weeks ago that his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, needed to win Ohio and Texas to stay alive in her battle with Senator Barack Obama of Illinois for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“If she wins Texas and Ohio, I think she will be the nominee,” Mr. Clinton said. “If you don’t deliver for her, then I don’t think she can be.”
Last night, Mrs. Clinton pulled off triumphs in both Ohio and Texas, as well as Rhode Island. So instead of becoming Exhibit No.1 for Democratic power brokers, pundits and others marshaling arguments for her to bow out of the race, Mr. Clinton’s pronouncement now looks like a dead-on critical call-to-arms, showing his legendary political instincts.
Mr. Clinton’s statement that his wife had to win Texas and Ohio ended up dogging Mrs. Clinton on the campaign trail, as she was constantly asked about the remark, including at a news conference on Tuesday morning in Houston.
She sidestepped the query, saying she did not “think like that,” but hinted at plans for a long battle to come.
“You know, this is a long process,” she said. “As you’ve heard me say before, my husband didn’t get the nomination wrapped up until June.”
Mr. Obama’s campaign fired back, using Mr. Clinton’s own words as ammunition.
“Three weeks ago, when they led polls in Texas and Ohio by 20 points, the Clinton campaign set their own test for today’s primaries,” Bill Burton, a spokesman, said in an e-mail message.
Conceding the pressure on her to exit would be enormous if she lost either state, Mrs. Clinton’s advisers had been doing their best to walk back Mr. Clinton’s declaration, suggesting that an Ohio victory alone, coupled with her strong fund-raising recently — $32 million in February, still lagging behind Mr. Obama, who brought in about $50 million — would be enough for her to continue on to the delegate-rich Pennsylvania primary on April 22.
Some outside political strategists saw Mr. Clinton’s comments as a tactically shrewd effort to re-energize a flagging campaign and remind voters of the stakes of her losing the two states — a tactic that, in the end, seemed to have worked.
Joe Trippi, who was a senior strategist for John Edwards’s campaign, said he believed Mr. Clinton’s remarks were politically astute, whether they were scripted or improvised in the heat of the moment.
“People, deep down, like both her and Obama,” Mr. Trippi said. “When either one of them is on the ropes, they don’t want to see either one of them die.”
He added that he believed Mr. Clinton recognized that pattern when he made his comments.
“She needs your help,” Mr. Trippi said, “is not a bad strategy.”
Paul Begala, a former adviser to Mr. Clinton, said he believed the comment was a moment of candor, which voters tend to appreciate, comparing it to when Mr. Obama’s wife, Michelle, declared at a rally in Iowa before the caucuses that her husband needed to win the state in order to continue.
“Authenticity is the thing voters want most,” Mr. Begala said. “Here’s Bill Clinton standing up, having gone to Georgetown and to Oxford and to Yale. He now has a Ph.D. of the obvious. After 11 losses, you need a win.”
Mr. Begala said he had no idea if the moment was poll-tested and planned ahead of time but said he tended to doubt it, adding he believed Mr. Clinton saw the political benefits, as well as the potential fallout.
“He is the most transparent of politicians,” he said. “If he thinks something, he says it.”
There is, however, the matter of simple mathematical reality. With the way the two have been splitting the proportional allocation of delegates, it remains extremely difficult for Mrs. Clinton to catch Mr. Obama among pledged delegates, something the results Tuesday did little to alter. But at the same time, neither candidate is likely to garner enough delegates to clinch the nomination
Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster, said Mr. Clinton simply articulated a reality that was obvious, with or without his comments.
Mrs. Clinton still faces steep odds, he said, but she can at least make a case now to the all-important super-delegates who could decide the contest.
“Her only chance was to win both big ones,” Mr. Mellman said. “And she did.”
Clinton hints at shared ticket
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/campaign_rdp
Clinton hints at shared ticket
By JIM KUHNHENN and CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer
3-5-8
Hillary Rodham Clinton, fresh off a campaign saving comeback, hinted Wednesday at the possibility of sharing the Democratic presidential ticket with Barack Obama — with her at the top. Obama played down his losses, stressing that he still holds the lead in number of delegates.
On a night that failed to clarify the Democratic race, John McCain Tuesday clinched the Republican nomination. Clinton won primaries in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island, halting Obama's winning streak. Obama won in Vermont.
Both Democrats insisted on Wednesday they had the best credentials to go head to head — or as Clinton put it "toe to toe" — against McCain.
Asked on CBS's "The Early Show" whether she and Obama should be on the same ticket, Clinton said:
"That may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on the top of ticket. I think the people of Ohio very clearly said that it should be me."
Obama, who had hoped to knock Clinton out on Tuesday, said he would prevail against a tenacious candidate who "just keeps on ticking." Clinton acknowledged the race was close and said it would come down to her credentials on national security and the economy.
The two presidential contenders made the rounds of the morning network television news shows Wednesday, declaring only one thing certain — that the campaign would go on and that the next big showdown would occur April 22 in Pennsylvania.
McCain, whose grasp on the nomination once seemed a distant reach, was headed for the White House Wednesday to have lunch with President Bush and get his endorsement. Bitter rivals in the 2000 presidential primaries, the two have forged an uneasy relationship during Bush's administration and have clashed on issues such as campaign finance, tax cuts, global warming and defining torture.
But the president planned a five-star ceremony, with a formal welcome at the White House's North Portico, lunch in Bush's private dining room and a formal endorsement in the Rose Garden.
Clinton's victories Tuesday night denied Obama a ripe opportunity to drive her from the Democratic presidential race. But Obama came away with a large share of delegates, too, in counting that continued Wednesday, meaning he's has a lead that's tough to overcome.
"We still have an insurmountable lead," Obama said. "We're very confident about where we're going to be and that we can win the nomination and the general election."
Clinton and Obama spent most of the past two weeks in Ohio and Texas in a bruising campaign, with the former first lady questioning his sincerity in opposing the North American Free Trade Agreement and darkly hinting he's not ready to be commander in chief in a crisis. Obama also confronted questions about one of his longtime political benefactors, businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who went on trial Monday in Chicago on several felony fraud charges.
Clinton said Wednesday that so-called "superdelegates" — nearly 800 party officials and top elected officials who also help decide the nomination — should exercise "independent judgment" in selecting the party's nominee.
"New questions are being raised, new challenges are being put to my opponent," she said. "Superdelegates are supposed to take all that information on board and they are supposed to be exercising the judgment that people would have exercised if this information and challenges had been available several months ago."
She said voters are being drawn to her argument that she would be the better commander in chief, the best steward of the economy and that she can better confront McCain in the general election.
Obama countered Wednesday that on a key national security issue — the war in Iraq — "she got it wrong" by supporting Bush's call for authority to use of force.
"I ultimately think the American people are going to want a clear break from the Bush-Cheney foreign policies of the past because they haven't made us more safe and more secure," he said. "If she thinks that longevity in Washington is the primary criteria for winning the White House, then John McCain is going to beat her."
Clinton won about 54 percent of the Ohio vote in nearly complete returns. She was winning just over half in the Texas primary.
She still faced a daunting task trying to overtake Obama in the remaining contests. It was questionable whether she would make up much ground once the final results were in and the complexities of allotting the 370 delegates at stake in the four states were ironed out.
In the four-state competition for delegates, Clinton picked up at least 115, to at least 88 for Obama. Nearly 170 more remained to be allocated for the night, 154 of them in the Texas primary and the caucuses that immediately followed.
Obama had a lead in Texas caucuses before counting closed for the night Tuesday, to be resumed Wednesday.
Obama had a total of 1,477 delegates, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates, according to the Associated Press count. He picked up three superdelegate endorsements Tuesday.
Clinton had 1,391 delegates. It takes 2,025 to win the nomination.
Wyoming offers 12 delegates in caucuses Saturday; Mississippi has 33 at stake next week. The biggest remaining prize is Pennsylvania, with 158 delegates, April 22.
Polling place interviews with voters in both states suggested the criticism hit home, finding Clinton was winning the votes of late deciders in Ohio and Texas, as well as Vermont.
Opinion polls had shown Obama overcoming significant and long-standing Clinton leads in Texas and Ohio, but his gains slowing in the final stretch.
Hispanics, a group that has favored Clinton in earlier primaries, cast nearly one-third of the Election Day votes in Texas, up from about one-quarter of the ballots four years ago, according to interviews with voters as they left their polling places.
Blacks, who have voted heavily for Obama this year, accounted for roughly 20 percent of the votes cast, roughly the same as four years ago.
Both Democrats called McCain — a Senate colleague — to congratulate him on his triumph in the Republican race.
The 71-year-old Arizona senator surpassed the 1,191 delegates needed to win his party's nomination.
He sealed a nomination race against odds that seemed steep only a few months ago, and all but impossible last summer.
Facing a couple of well-financed marquee candidates in a crowded field, he opened his comeback in New Hampshire's leadoff primary, rolled over Rudy Giuliani in Florida and finished off Mitt Romney after Super Tuesday on Feb. 5.
Mike Huckabee hung in until Tuesday night, gamely keeping up the fight weeks after dropping from long shot to afterthought. He went out as he came in — never missing a chance for a wisecrack.
"It's time for us to hit the reset button," he said. "We started this effort with very little recognition and virtually no resources. We ended with slightly more recognition and very few resources."
On Tuesday night, McCain delivered a speech on the state of the union as he wants to make it: secure from Islamic extremism, victorious in Iraq, confident in trade, sound in its economy.
"Americans aren't interested in an election where they are just talked to and not listened to; an election that offers platitudes instead of principles and insults instead of ideas," he said.
"Their patience is at an end for politicians who value ambition over principle, and for partisanship that is less a contest of ideas than an uncivil brawl over the spoils of power."
Clinton hints at shared ticket
By JIM KUHNHENN and CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer
3-5-8
Hillary Rodham Clinton, fresh off a campaign saving comeback, hinted Wednesday at the possibility of sharing the Democratic presidential ticket with Barack Obama — with her at the top. Obama played down his losses, stressing that he still holds the lead in number of delegates.
On a night that failed to clarify the Democratic race, John McCain Tuesday clinched the Republican nomination. Clinton won primaries in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island, halting Obama's winning streak. Obama won in Vermont.
Both Democrats insisted on Wednesday they had the best credentials to go head to head — or as Clinton put it "toe to toe" — against McCain.
Asked on CBS's "The Early Show" whether she and Obama should be on the same ticket, Clinton said:
"That may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on the top of ticket. I think the people of Ohio very clearly said that it should be me."
Obama, who had hoped to knock Clinton out on Tuesday, said he would prevail against a tenacious candidate who "just keeps on ticking." Clinton acknowledged the race was close and said it would come down to her credentials on national security and the economy.
The two presidential contenders made the rounds of the morning network television news shows Wednesday, declaring only one thing certain — that the campaign would go on and that the next big showdown would occur April 22 in Pennsylvania.
McCain, whose grasp on the nomination once seemed a distant reach, was headed for the White House Wednesday to have lunch with President Bush and get his endorsement. Bitter rivals in the 2000 presidential primaries, the two have forged an uneasy relationship during Bush's administration and have clashed on issues such as campaign finance, tax cuts, global warming and defining torture.
But the president planned a five-star ceremony, with a formal welcome at the White House's North Portico, lunch in Bush's private dining room and a formal endorsement in the Rose Garden.
Clinton's victories Tuesday night denied Obama a ripe opportunity to drive her from the Democratic presidential race. But Obama came away with a large share of delegates, too, in counting that continued Wednesday, meaning he's has a lead that's tough to overcome.
"We still have an insurmountable lead," Obama said. "We're very confident about where we're going to be and that we can win the nomination and the general election."
Clinton and Obama spent most of the past two weeks in Ohio and Texas in a bruising campaign, with the former first lady questioning his sincerity in opposing the North American Free Trade Agreement and darkly hinting he's not ready to be commander in chief in a crisis. Obama also confronted questions about one of his longtime political benefactors, businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who went on trial Monday in Chicago on several felony fraud charges.
Clinton said Wednesday that so-called "superdelegates" — nearly 800 party officials and top elected officials who also help decide the nomination — should exercise "independent judgment" in selecting the party's nominee.
"New questions are being raised, new challenges are being put to my opponent," she said. "Superdelegates are supposed to take all that information on board and they are supposed to be exercising the judgment that people would have exercised if this information and challenges had been available several months ago."
She said voters are being drawn to her argument that she would be the better commander in chief, the best steward of the economy and that she can better confront McCain in the general election.
Obama countered Wednesday that on a key national security issue — the war in Iraq — "she got it wrong" by supporting Bush's call for authority to use of force.
"I ultimately think the American people are going to want a clear break from the Bush-Cheney foreign policies of the past because they haven't made us more safe and more secure," he said. "If she thinks that longevity in Washington is the primary criteria for winning the White House, then John McCain is going to beat her."
Clinton won about 54 percent of the Ohio vote in nearly complete returns. She was winning just over half in the Texas primary.
She still faced a daunting task trying to overtake Obama in the remaining contests. It was questionable whether she would make up much ground once the final results were in and the complexities of allotting the 370 delegates at stake in the four states were ironed out.
In the four-state competition for delegates, Clinton picked up at least 115, to at least 88 for Obama. Nearly 170 more remained to be allocated for the night, 154 of them in the Texas primary and the caucuses that immediately followed.
Obama had a lead in Texas caucuses before counting closed for the night Tuesday, to be resumed Wednesday.
Obama had a total of 1,477 delegates, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates, according to the Associated Press count. He picked up three superdelegate endorsements Tuesday.
Clinton had 1,391 delegates. It takes 2,025 to win the nomination.
Wyoming offers 12 delegates in caucuses Saturday; Mississippi has 33 at stake next week. The biggest remaining prize is Pennsylvania, with 158 delegates, April 22.
Polling place interviews with voters in both states suggested the criticism hit home, finding Clinton was winning the votes of late deciders in Ohio and Texas, as well as Vermont.
Opinion polls had shown Obama overcoming significant and long-standing Clinton leads in Texas and Ohio, but his gains slowing in the final stretch.
Hispanics, a group that has favored Clinton in earlier primaries, cast nearly one-third of the Election Day votes in Texas, up from about one-quarter of the ballots four years ago, according to interviews with voters as they left their polling places.
Blacks, who have voted heavily for Obama this year, accounted for roughly 20 percent of the votes cast, roughly the same as four years ago.
Both Democrats called McCain — a Senate colleague — to congratulate him on his triumph in the Republican race.
The 71-year-old Arizona senator surpassed the 1,191 delegates needed to win his party's nomination.
He sealed a nomination race against odds that seemed steep only a few months ago, and all but impossible last summer.
Facing a couple of well-financed marquee candidates in a crowded field, he opened his comeback in New Hampshire's leadoff primary, rolled over Rudy Giuliani in Florida and finished off Mitt Romney after Super Tuesday on Feb. 5.
Mike Huckabee hung in until Tuesday night, gamely keeping up the fight weeks after dropping from long shot to afterthought. He went out as he came in — never missing a chance for a wisecrack.
"It's time for us to hit the reset button," he said. "We started this effort with very little recognition and virtually no resources. We ended with slightly more recognition and very few resources."
On Tuesday night, McCain delivered a speech on the state of the union as he wants to make it: secure from Islamic extremism, victorious in Iraq, confident in trade, sound in its economy.
"Americans aren't interested in an election where they are just talked to and not listened to; an election that offers platitudes instead of principles and insults instead of ideas," he said.
"Their patience is at an end for politicians who value ambition over principle, and for partisanship that is less a contest of ideas than an uncivil brawl over the spoils of power."
Analysis: New wins revive Clinton camp
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080305/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_dems_analysis
Analysis: New wins revive Clinton camp
By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer
Wed Mar 5, 2008
Hillary Rodham Clinton proved again Tuesday that she does her best work when her back is against the wall.
The former first lady won three of four voting contests, scoring big victories in Texas and Ohio and picking up tiny Rhode Island for good measure. She effectively halted Barack Obama's seemingly unstoppable momentum, and can make a plausible case to carry on through Pennsylvania's primary April 22.
Written off for dead just days ago, the former first lady hunkered down in Ohio and Texas and showed she knew how to fight. Rather than carp about the Texas hybrid primary/caucus system or focus on other process questions, she took on Obama directly, questioning his qualifications to be commander in chief.
The former first lady justifiably basked in her wins Tuesday — her first after 11 searing losses to Barack Obama since Feb. 5. But her momentum was set to collide with the reality of delegate math, and the persistent question of whether Clinton could ever close the gap with the Illinois senator among pledged delegates.
"I think it's still tough for her," Democratic strategist Bill Carrick said. "The Obama campaign was prepared for a long campaign from the beginning. They've mopped up in caucuses and have done a really good job pursuing delegates. Clinton has looked for a knockout blow and there hasn't been one and there isn't going to be one."
For now, the New York senator was having none of that.
"As Ohio goes, so goes the nation," Clinton told cheering supporters at a rally in Columbus, Ohio. "The nation is coming back and so is this campaign."
Obama, for his part, told supporters he would be the party's nominee regardless of Tuesday's outcome.
In a primary season notable for its prediction-defying twists and turns, Ohio and Texas pitted Obama's organizational muscle against Clinton's gamble that Democrats were not yet ready to dismiss her quest to be the first woman president.
Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press indicated many of the voters who'd been drifting to Obama in recent primaries appeared to be returning to the fold in both Texas and Ohio.
Women came home to Clinton after weeks of disappointing her in other states. White women gave her a 20-percent margin over Obama in Texas, and more than a 2-to-1 margin in Ohio.
The former first lady was running strong among her base voters including whites of both sexes, older and less-educated voters, and union members. Obama, who is running to be the first black president, was winning nearly all the black vote as well as younger and more affluent voters.
In Texas, she was winning two-thirds of the Hispanic vote, and Hispanics were voting in large numbers there. She was splitting white men with Obama, a group where he had been making inroads.
Still, both campaigns acknowledged that Clinton would lag well behind Obama among pledged delegates no matter what the outcome Tuesday. In interviews, Clinton said she would make no decisions about the future of her campaign until after the latest votes were counted.
Until recently, few could envision a plausible path for Clinton to press on with her campaign without solid victories in Ohio and Texas. Bill Clinton, his wife's most prominent booster and surrogate, said as much last week.
Hillary Clinton remained remarkably resilient in the face of steep odds and a host of small and big humiliations, such as the defection of several "superdelegates," including her most prominent black supporter, Georgia Rep. John Lewis.
Buoyed by the sudden influx of small donors who contributed an eye-popping $35 million to her campaign in February, Clinton has kept up a relentless pace on the campaign trail while sharpening her criticism of Obama as being ill-prepared to serve as commander in chief.
Obama, for his part, has been forced onto the defensive over his relationship with a former political patron, Tony Rezko, who went on trial Monday in Chicago on several felony fraud charges. The Illinois senator also faced grilling over whether a senior economic adviser told a representative of the Canadian government that Obama's recent tough talk on NAFTA was nothing more than political rhetoric.
Clinton and her campaign team have even forced some public soul searching among the national media, after bitterly complaining that fawning media coverage has helped drive Obama's success.
But at her core, Clinton is a realist and most observers — even those sympathetic to her quest — said she would be loath to wage a fruitless battle if the results are anything less than a decisive game-changer that stops Obama's momentum. Many leading Democrats have also begun publicly expressing concern that a protracted nominating contest will divide the party and strengthen Republican chances in the general election.
But Jennifer Palmieri, a Democratic strategist who worked in the Clinton White House, said if the campaign does carry on through the next major primary in Pennsylvania on April 22 it could actually help the eventual nominee.
"I think continuing on for six more weeks could be good for the process," Palmieri said. "The nominee — who I still think will probably be Barack Obama — will come out much tougher."
___
EDITOR'S NOTE — Beth Fouhy covers presidential politics for The Associated Press.
Analysis: New wins revive Clinton camp
By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer
Wed Mar 5, 2008
Hillary Rodham Clinton proved again Tuesday that she does her best work when her back is against the wall.
The former first lady won three of four voting contests, scoring big victories in Texas and Ohio and picking up tiny Rhode Island for good measure. She effectively halted Barack Obama's seemingly unstoppable momentum, and can make a plausible case to carry on through Pennsylvania's primary April 22.
Written off for dead just days ago, the former first lady hunkered down in Ohio and Texas and showed she knew how to fight. Rather than carp about the Texas hybrid primary/caucus system or focus on other process questions, she took on Obama directly, questioning his qualifications to be commander in chief.
The former first lady justifiably basked in her wins Tuesday — her first after 11 searing losses to Barack Obama since Feb. 5. But her momentum was set to collide with the reality of delegate math, and the persistent question of whether Clinton could ever close the gap with the Illinois senator among pledged delegates.
"I think it's still tough for her," Democratic strategist Bill Carrick said. "The Obama campaign was prepared for a long campaign from the beginning. They've mopped up in caucuses and have done a really good job pursuing delegates. Clinton has looked for a knockout blow and there hasn't been one and there isn't going to be one."
For now, the New York senator was having none of that.
"As Ohio goes, so goes the nation," Clinton told cheering supporters at a rally in Columbus, Ohio. "The nation is coming back and so is this campaign."
Obama, for his part, told supporters he would be the party's nominee regardless of Tuesday's outcome.
In a primary season notable for its prediction-defying twists and turns, Ohio and Texas pitted Obama's organizational muscle against Clinton's gamble that Democrats were not yet ready to dismiss her quest to be the first woman president.
Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press indicated many of the voters who'd been drifting to Obama in recent primaries appeared to be returning to the fold in both Texas and Ohio.
Women came home to Clinton after weeks of disappointing her in other states. White women gave her a 20-percent margin over Obama in Texas, and more than a 2-to-1 margin in Ohio.
The former first lady was running strong among her base voters including whites of both sexes, older and less-educated voters, and union members. Obama, who is running to be the first black president, was winning nearly all the black vote as well as younger and more affluent voters.
In Texas, she was winning two-thirds of the Hispanic vote, and Hispanics were voting in large numbers there. She was splitting white men with Obama, a group where he had been making inroads.
Still, both campaigns acknowledged that Clinton would lag well behind Obama among pledged delegates no matter what the outcome Tuesday. In interviews, Clinton said she would make no decisions about the future of her campaign until after the latest votes were counted.
Until recently, few could envision a plausible path for Clinton to press on with her campaign without solid victories in Ohio and Texas. Bill Clinton, his wife's most prominent booster and surrogate, said as much last week.
Hillary Clinton remained remarkably resilient in the face of steep odds and a host of small and big humiliations, such as the defection of several "superdelegates," including her most prominent black supporter, Georgia Rep. John Lewis.
Buoyed by the sudden influx of small donors who contributed an eye-popping $35 million to her campaign in February, Clinton has kept up a relentless pace on the campaign trail while sharpening her criticism of Obama as being ill-prepared to serve as commander in chief.
Obama, for his part, has been forced onto the defensive over his relationship with a former political patron, Tony Rezko, who went on trial Monday in Chicago on several felony fraud charges. The Illinois senator also faced grilling over whether a senior economic adviser told a representative of the Canadian government that Obama's recent tough talk on NAFTA was nothing more than political rhetoric.
Clinton and her campaign team have even forced some public soul searching among the national media, after bitterly complaining that fawning media coverage has helped drive Obama's success.
But at her core, Clinton is a realist and most observers — even those sympathetic to her quest — said she would be loath to wage a fruitless battle if the results are anything less than a decisive game-changer that stops Obama's momentum. Many leading Democrats have also begun publicly expressing concern that a protracted nominating contest will divide the party and strengthen Republican chances in the general election.
But Jennifer Palmieri, a Democratic strategist who worked in the Clinton White House, said if the campaign does carry on through the next major primary in Pennsylvania on April 22 it could actually help the eventual nominee.
"I think continuing on for six more weeks could be good for the process," Palmieri said. "The nominee — who I still think will probably be Barack Obama — will come out much tougher."
___
EDITOR'S NOTE — Beth Fouhy covers presidential politics for The Associated Press.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
