Worth Noting
Just Keep Blaming it on Karl Rove!...
Next they'll try to pin global warming on me.
Obama!
Optimism about President-elect Obama is high. His favorable ratings are up, and more than a quarter of Americans think he will be a great president. A solid majority expect the transition to go smoothly. Two-thirds believe the country will be better off four years from now. Nearly six in ten say one-party control of the presidency and Congress will be good for the country.
READ REPORT: http://www.rove.com/uploads/0000/0052/20081210_PoliticalReportNov_Dec_08.pdf
Progressives Angry Over Reports That Karl Rove Likes Things
Anger, outrage and confusion spread through the progressive political community as sources close to Karl Rove began leaking a list of things that Rove reportedly likes. The list, emailed to The Politico anonymously, includes details that are disturbing to many longtime foes of the former top advisor to President Bush including that Rove approves of President-Elect Barack Obama's recent cabinet picks, that 'Bush's Brain' enjoys Jamba Juice, and that Rove loves The Hitchhiker's Guide To Galaxy, especially the old BBC radio version. These revelations come amidst a chaotic times where both center-left Democrats and the party's traditional liberal base both really hate it when Karl Rove likes anything. Pundits took no solace that sources claim Rove was 'sorta disappointed' in the recent film adaptation of Hitchhiker's.
FULL ARTICLE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-stranahan/progressives-angry-over-r_b_147701.html
I Underestimated
In my Wall Street Journal column this week, I underestimated the amount that President-Elect Obama raised in October and November. I thought the reports would show he raised $120 to $140 million more since the last numbers we got.
It was $216 million.
In the general election, Obama spent almost $896 million while McCain barely broke $554 million. Obama's general election spending advantage was $340 million.
Personal Responsibility: Who Needs It When You Can Blame Karl Rove?
Below is a fundraising letter sent out by Friends of Don Siegelman 2008. Despite that it has no basis in fact, I thought you might find it amusing. In case you're interested, visit these links for the facts.
- Letter from Lamar Smith dated 7/15/08
- Karl Rove's response dated 7/22/08
- Answers to Committee Questions
- Appendix
Support Don's Legal Defense Fund today, before his December 9th appeal, and keep up the fight to hold Rove accountable and uncover the truth!
Dear XXX,
Since I wrote you last week, we have seen an outpouring of support from our online community in my effort to raise the $30,000 I need to pay legal expenses for my appeal on December 9th.
But, with less than one week left, I still need your help to reach that goal.
Please donate what you can today -- so I can have the resources I need to keep fighting back and to hold Karl Rove accountable!
Not only is my freedom at stake, but so is the preservation of our democracy. If Karl Rove can turn the powers of government against me and get away with it, it can happen to anybody.
Winning my appeal on December 9th is the first step in turning all this around and will give Congress more incentive to dig for the truth. We must stop the unchecked political prosecutions and election engineering that put me in prison and threaten the very base of our democracy. But I can't do it alone.
Donate today -- and help take the Department of Justice back from political operatives like Karl Rove.
Exposing Rove's misuse of power within the Department of Justice is essential to protecting the future Americans voted for on November 4th and ensuring no one is ever subjected to the same politically motivated prosecution I endured ever again.
My Legal Defense Fund can accept contributions of any size from any source. Please give as much as you are comfortable with giving to help me meet my legal expenses.
Thank you again for your continued support. Rest assured I will keep fighting, one way or another, to ensure that Karl Rove is brought to justice once and for all.
Thank you and God bless,
Don Siegelman
Governor of Alabama
1999-2003
Ten Random, Politically Incorrect Thoughts
1. Four years of high-school Latin would dramatically arrest the decline in American education. In particular, such instruction would do more for minority youths than all the 'role model' diversity sermons on Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, Montezuma, and Caesar Chavez put together. Nothing so enriches the vocabulary, so instructs about English grammar and syntax, so creates a discipline of the mind, an elegance of expression, and serves as a gateway to the thinking and values of Western civilization as mastery of a page of Virgil or Livy (except perhaps Sophocles's Antigone in Greek or Thucydides' dialogue at Melos). After some 20 years of teaching mostly minority youth Greek, Latin, and ancient history and literature in translation (1984-2004), I came to the unfortunate conclusion that ethnic studies, women studies--indeed, anything "studies"-- were perhaps the fruits of some evil plot dreamed up by illiberal white separatists to ensure that poor minority students in the public schools and universities were offered only a third-rate education.
2. Hollywood is going the way of Detroit. The actors are programmed and pretty rather than interesting looking and unique. They, of course, are overpaid (they do to films what Lehman Brothers' execs did to stocks), mediocre, and politicized. The producers and directors are rarely talented, mostly unoriginal--and likewise politicized. A pack-mentality rules. Do one movie on a comic superhero--and suddenly we get ten, all worse than the first. One noble lion cartoon movie earns us eagle, penguin and most of Noah's Arc sequels. Now see poorer remakes of movies that were never good to begin with. I doubt we will ever see again a Western like Shane, the Searchers, High Noon, or the Wild Bunch. If one wishes to see a fine film, they are now usually foreign, such as Das Boot or Breaker Morant. Watching any recent war movie (e.g., Iraq as the Rape of Nanking) is as if someone put uniforms on student protestors and told them to consult their professors for the impromptu script.
FULL ARTICLE: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/11/ten_random_politically_incorre.html
The Limits of Success—and Failure
We Americans are blessed with a history that teaches that things work out right. Our first president set the precedent of relinquishing power he could have had for life and returning to his farm. Two of our greatest presidents were struck down, Abraham Lincoln by an assassin and Franklin Roosevelt by grave illness, at a moment of transcendent victory. Such a history of exceptional leaders is a blessing but also a weakness when things go wrong. Americans were drenched with disillusion for decades after a young president was struck down in 1963, well before his great promise could be fulfilled.
FULL ARTICLE: http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.28976/pub_detail.aspElectoral Explorer
The New York Times has a fascinating tool online which allows us political junkies to explore the presidential vote breakdown in counties defined by the characteristics of their population. The “Electoral Explorer” shows the vote in counties with a specified percentage of the population that's black, white, Hispanic, Catholic, Southern Baptist, high school or college graduates, unemployed, over 65, employed in manufacturing jobs, in poverty, as well as median income and population density.
Keep in mind that you’re looking at the vote only in counties that fit the characteristics which you specify. So, just because Sen. Obama won 75% of the vote in Dimmit County, Texas which is 95% Catholic, the national Catholic vote didn’t mirror that trend. However, you can glean a lot of interesting information playing around with this. Have fun!
Blue and Red
There’s a lot of blue on the election map this year. Follow this link and select “Voting Shifts” on the left side of the page for a map showing the change in party vote across the United States.
As you can see, Obama’s margin in most states improved on Kerry’s performance in 2004. Aside from Arkansas and Louisiana, which swung more Republican in 2008 from 2004, and Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia, where the margins stayed constant, there was a nationwide shift toward the Democratic Party.
Professor Andrew Gelman of Columbia University correctly notes that this was not a redrawing of the electoral map, but a national swing. His analysis shows that after accounting for this swing in Obama’s favor, most states were within 3 points of where they were in the last presidential election, making it premature for Democrats to claim traditionally red states have realigned to the left.
Furthermore, there’s evidence that geographically, America’s still a Republican country. Obama won 864 counties, up from Kerry’s 583 four years ago, but still far short of McCain’s 2,234 counties.
History will favor Republicans in 2010—no president aside from FDR and George W. Bush has ever gained seats in his first midterm election in both houses. Since World War II, the out-party gained an average of 23 seats in the House and 2 in the Senate in a new president’s first midterm election.
An Obama Tilt in Campaign Coverage
The Post provided a lot of good campaign coverage, but readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama. My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts
My assistant, Jean Hwang, and I have been examining Post coverage since Nov. 11 of last year on issues, voters, fundraising, the candidates' backgrounds and horse-race stories on tactics, strategy and consultants. We also have looked at photos and Page 1 stories since Obama captured the nomination June 4.
The count was lopsided, with 1,295 horse-race stories and 594 issues stories. The Post was deficient in stories that reported more than the two candidates trading jabs; readers needed articles, going back to the primaries, comparing their positions with outside experts' views. There were no broad stories on energy or science policy, and there were few on religion issues.
FULL ARTICLE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/11/09/ST2008110901017.html