Now while I’m as excited as anyone about polls showing Kerry beating Bush in November,
thisstrikes me as somewhat presumptous:
“Kerry said Edwards ‘can’t win his own state’ against Bush, which an aide said was a reference to polls showing Bush beating him in the Tar Heel State. “
That liberal media, at it again:
Representative Dennis Kucinich has every right to keep campaigning despite his minuscule vote tallies, but he should not be allowed to take up time in future candidate debates. Neither should the Rev. Al Sharpton, who is running to continue running, not to win
Kucinich and Sharpton were, of course, perhaps the two most interesting candidates in those debates. And their presence raises the burning issues muffled by the consensus of the Democratic establishment. Lieberman’s presence, for that matter, should force the four NYT-approved candidates to argue for a vision of the Democratic party as meaningfully to the left of the Republicans – practice that could only help them.
Looks like Wesley Clark is now pitching himself as part-Kerry, part-Dean, part-Edwards:
Clark repeated many familiar themes at a small rally at the National Hispanic Cultural Center of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He touted himself as a Washington outsider who can prevail in what he predicted will be a ‘tough, dirty campaign’ against the Republicans in the fall.
‘They want to make it personal — bring it on!’ he said. ‘I’m prepared to make it personal.’ He said it would take a ‘tough hombre’ to beat Bush in November, and ‘I’m one tough hombre.’
‘You need a Democrat who can call him out for what he is,’ Clark told supporters. ‘I’m a vet. I’ve taken enemy fire, but more than that I was a leader. I’m the best person in the race to hold George W. Bush accountable on national security.’ “
I’m guessing it doesn’t pan out so well.
John DeStefano, in his State of the City Address tonight, showed photos of rallies to keep the New Haven Savings Bank in the hands of its depositors, asserted rightly that strengthening this city means “getting into other people’s business” when those people are entrenched corporate interests, and declared that “we need to do more of that.”
Yes, New Haven’s city government needs to do more of that. Following through the bank fight, rather than cutting a deal and promising corporate power to keep the people of New Haven from getting out of hand, would have been a good place to start.
Zogby has Edwards leading Kerry by 5 (30 to 25) % in South Carolina, with Dean and Clark tied in 3rd place at 10%, Sharpton at 7% and Lieberman a point behind him (although I’m sure Joe’s campaign would argue that he’s in a four-way tie for third place). Kerry is polling with a near majority of the vote in Missouri, with Edwards 35 points behind, Dean 6 behind him at 9%, and Lieberman and Clark tied for 4th (or, in Joe-lingo, a three-way tie for third), with Sharpton a point behind. Clark has just edged ahead of Kerry (28 to 27) in Oklahoma, with Edwards in third at 19%, Lieberman at 7, and Dean at 6. In Arizona, Kerry leads with 40%, with Clark 13 points behind him and Dean 14 points behind Clark; Liberman and Edwards are tied for 4th at 6%.
Zogby’s predictions:
If Kerry wins all four states, you don’t need me to tell you what it means. But if Edwards wins in South Carolina and polls strongly enough to win delegates in Missouri and Oklahoma, he has some significant regional strength and can certainly make a case to go on. If Clark wins Oklahoma and comes in a strong second in Arizona, he also can move on — but it is hard to see where. Dean has already conceded these four states, but winning some delegates in one or two states can help his cause in both Michigan and Wisconsin.
The Times follows the heat Kerry is taking over his contributions and the strong lead he maintains going into tomorrow’s votes:
While he was getting beat up, Mr. Kerry could take considerable solace in his standing in the polls, which showed him doing very well in Missouri and Arizona in particular and challenging Senator John Edwards in South Carolina. Mr. Kerry tried to deflect the newfound interest in where his previous campaign money had come from, calling it old news that would not knock him off message.
This, meanwhile smacks of wishful thinking on someone’s part:
Senator Joseph I. Lieberman pulled in some of the key endorsements in the state, winning the backing of both The State in Columbia and The Greenville News, perhaps breathing a little life into his candidacy.
Somehow I doubt these endorsements will do much more for him than the one from the New Republic and the all-but-endorsement from the Washington Post did.
Josh Marshall calls Richard Perle on his mendacity over intelligence:
“The president is a consumer of intelligence, not a producer of it,” Perle told the Times. “I have long thought our intelligence in the gulf has been woefully inadequate.” Right. Perle has long been a staunch critic of the CIA. His argument was that they understated the scope of Saddam’s WMD programs, naively discounted his ties to terrorist organizations and had an overly pessimistic vision of post-war Iraq…
The skeptical voices in the Intelligence Community — the ones who are now vindicated in spades — were the objects of his greatest derision. And his solution was to give even more credence to the unreliable defector testimony which played such a key role in our bamboozlement.
Apparently, the President supports a comission on Iraq intelligence failures because
I want to know all the facts
Only, he doesn’t want to know them until after the election. Oh – and he’ll appoint all the people in charge of finding those facts out…
George Bush: Supports the war, not the troops.
Seems the deal the Mayor cut with the New Haven Savings Bank is even sketchier than it looked:
Under an agreement between bank and city officials, New Haven Savings Bank would revoke its $25 million pledge to create a community-based lending institution if the mayor bashes a pending ownership conversion. Mayor John DeStefano Jr. was a leading opponent to the necessary federal and state approvals for NHSB to go from a mutual savings bank owned by depositors to one owned by stockholders.
State Banking Commissioner John Burke approved the plan Jan. 26, the same day the bank and DeStefano announced a new lending foundation. Officials did not disclose at the press conference or in a press release that DeStefano agreed in writing, on behalf of himself and the city, not to “take any action or make any statement critical” of NHSB or its successor NewAlliance or the managers of either bank. The agreement is in effect until the conversion takes place and five years afterward, which would bind future mayors…
DeStefano said the agreement is not a de facto gag order because he would be free to blast NHSB if it did not live up to its oral promises to create a $27 million pool for loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers; and contribute $40 million in stock to its charitable foundation, of which $25 million would be used for a new foundation…”If they don’t conform to the agreement, I’m free to criticize them and I will,” the mayor said. “It binds me and it binds the city. I think they’re mostly concerned about me, to be honest with you.” But Board of Aldermen President Jorge Perez, D-5, of the Hill, raised doubt about whether DeStefano had power under the city charter to obligate the legislative branch to such a pact without a majority vote of the 30-member board.
The agreement also requires DeStefano, the city and the bank together will approve statements to the media or public. The mayor also is required to “use his best efforts” to convince other bank opponents to back down. The document refers to Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, state legislators, local unions, the Connecticut Center for a New Economy and Elm City Congregations Organized and others.
“The mayor agrees to use (his) best efforts to persuade all other third parties to end further demonstrations against the bank or boycotts of the bank or any threats thereof, withdraw any pending litigation and to desist from opposing” the conversion, the agreement says.
Thomas Benton hints at the danger behind the developing trend of faculty casualization – of which Yale is on the vanguard:
Of course, I am now a tenure-track professor. I can afford to take some of the risks that I believe make one a better teacher. I decreasingly feel the need to protect myself by strict adherence to inhumane regulations. I speak more informally; I venture jokes. I often talk about my personal life in class. And I let students talk to me about theirs. I don’t recommend
medications, but I do loan books. Sometimes I hold classes at my house. All of this over the protests of my inner lawyer.
I know these actions are a direct outcome of my increasingly privileged position. How much harder is it for the growing numbers of faculty members working off the tenure track?
I imagine something between Kafka and a day at the motor-vehicle bureau.
What Benton’s article doesn’t mention among the unmentionables transient professors fear discussing is perhaps the most taboo – criticism of the university administration.
Good news from Israel:
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel said today that he had given an order to plan for the removal of all 17 Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip, causing consternation among settlers and politicians…
Mr. Sharon said he would present his plan to President Bush during a visit to Washington later this month, the prime minister told Haaretz, saying it needed American support and financing. He said he had not yet discussed it with the Bush administration.
Let’s hope he follows through.
Josh Eidelson 