The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.
(H/T – Bryan)
Back in February, the House had to cancel a hearing on Gorebal Warming because of too much snow. Now, it’s the Senate’s turn to cause a significant snowfall in DC by having a committee schedule a vote on a “cap-and-trade” on carbon dioxide emissions to shove Kyoto through the sphincter…
Wednesday: Snow likely. Cloudy, with a high near 36. South wind 5 to 8 mph becoming east. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches possible.
Jim Lynch at bRight & Early reports on the coup of the campaign season. I’m not going to steal his material, so get over there to read it.
*For those of you that are humor-challenged, that is humor. Also, don’t bother trying to comment on that here; I can’t claim that as my own.
Word of warning revision (2:50 pm 11/30/2007) – The free-fire portion of the discussion is to be between each individual commenter and me, not between commenters. Just in case you forgot, this is my place; I pay the hosting bill.
A pair of updates that I waited until midnight to fly with (well, actually, I prepped this before midnight, but thanks to the magic of WordPress, they’re going out at the gong):
– When I last left this, we were at 8 plants. Well, Michelle’s upped the count to 9, though I don’t know whether to classify CAIR’s Yasmin as simply a fresh species or start a whole separate genus for groups merely aligned with the ‘Rats. Ah, tahellwitchit, since I call them DhimmiRATs, it counts. Since I remember 30 questions, we’re now at a full 30% of the questions being plants.
– Duncan Hunter, bless his soul, has a heart of a lion (and the money and support of a flea). My mailbox has a copy of a letter he sent head gardener Hillary Clinton:
November 29, 2007
Dear Senator Clinton,
Regarding the “plant”, retired Brig. Gen. Keith H. Kerr, that you sent to ask me the question at the CNN-YouTube debate last night in Florida "¦
Send more!!!
Merry Christmas,
Duncan Hunter
UUUURRRRRPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!
Revisions/extensions (11:20 am 11/30/2007) – Seems this place piqued the interest of a bunch of Salon types. If this place loads a bit slow; sorry about that, I don’t think I’ve had a serious crush of traffic before, so I don’t know exactly how my host handles a crush. Disagree with me all day long, but do try to find another line besides Jeff Gannon. Also, don’t piss me off. While I do enjoy the back-and-forth, I do have a hair-trigger.
I had advance warning of Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke’s announcement that he would not run for mayor of the city of Milwaukee, but due to the circumstances under which I heard it, I kept it under my hat. With what little has been published (the regional news brief is identical to the DayWatch dispatch), I don’t know if I’m at liberty to expand too much on his phrase that the timing isn’t right. I will say that what isn’t right is the makeup of the Common Council.
I am saddened that Sheriff Clarke reached the decision he did, and I had hoped that he would reconsider between the time I found out about it and now, but I understand why he made it.
(H/T – Bryan/HotAir Headlines, though since I’m only half-listening to Charlie today, I may have missed his take)
A year after the city of Milwaukee finally acquiesced and restarted calling the joint city/county Christmas Tree a Christmas Tree, Marlin Schneider (D-Wisconsin Rapids) introduced a joint resolution to call the tree in the Capitol routunda the “Wisconsin State Christmas Tree”. That tree had been known as just that between 1916 until 1985, when the early hatchlings of political correctness renamed it a “holiday tree” (my memory’s hazy, as I was in high school then, but if it serves, ‘Rats ran all the branches of state government that year). In the interim, the Capitol has become a December playground as every religion, including the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, has displays there. The joint resolution is expected to fly through the Republican-controlled Assembly, but since the Democrats control the Senate, I doubt it will go anywhere. The takehome lines from the public hearing on the resolution yesterday direct from the linked AP article:
Snarlin’ Marlin Schneider (if you want an explanation for the “Snarlin'” tag, I’ll give it in the comments as it’s not exactly germaine in the post) – “I am here today to voice the ire and frustration of the majority of people of the state of Wisconsin who want their Christmas tree back in the state Capitol, not a politically correct holiday tree.”
Annie Laurie Gaylor from FFRF – “The state of Wisconsin cannot have a Christmas anything.”
Rep. Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc) – “(Holiday) means holy day, representative of Christmas, the holiest day in the Christian calendar.” (note to Joel, Christmas is #2 on the holy list behind Easter)
Schneider – “If it looks like a Christmas tree, and it smells like a Christmas tree and it’s decorated like a Christmas tree and it has presents under it like a Christmas tree, it’s a Christmas tree!” (emphasis in the original)
I promise, this will be the last national politics thing today (though I do reserve the right to update those posts I already have up if the weed patch known as the CNN/YouTube debates sprouts anything else; for anything else, hit the roll). I’ve got a set of spreads to crush and some Cowpokes fans to poke. I also think there’s a few things brewing in the land of cheese and beer.
Jim Geraghty asks whether Pubbies get to get in on the planting at the next ‘Rat debate. Given the ‘Rats are so afraid of conservatives they refused en masse to appear on Fox News, I can answer that in two words, with the second being “no”.
I was going to go through the notes, but given the fact the DhimmiRATs had full planting rights in the organic fertilizer that is CNN, I only have one grade to give to all involved –
F
That was a waste of 2:15 of my life, made worse by the fact I split time between that “debate”, some serious drinking, and Hot Air Live, and I didn’t get anything of note accomplished. The only positives were the Michelle appearance on Hot Air Live (which, sadly, was plauged with technical problems, and which I didn’t spend nearly enough of my limited attention span on) and some nice scenery pics from MKH.
If anyone is wondering why one of the popular nicknames for CNN is Communist News Network, allow Michelle Malkin to explain (I’ll skip the horticulture pics):
Concerned Young Undecided Person "Journey" = John Edwards supporter "Journey"
Concerned Undecided Log Cabin Republican supporter David Cercone = Obama supporter David Cercone
Concerned Undecided Mom LeeAnn Anderson = Activist for the John Edwards-endorsing United Steelworkers union LeeAnn Anderson
Concerned Undecided Gay Military Retiree Brig. Gen. Keith H. Kerr = Hillary/Kerry supporter and anti-"Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" activist Keith H. Kerr
Unlike Michelle, I am not giving CNN the benefit of the doubt, especially with Kerr. A self-respecting propoganda organization wouldn’t bring somebody in to be part of the live audience unless they knew every last detail.
Revisions/extensions (7:58 am 11/29/2007) – I swear I didn’t break Michelle’s site (seriously, it’s a combination of an Instalanche and a Drudge Crush). In the interim, the overflow at Hot Air is open.
R&E part 2 (8:24 am 11/29/2007) – An eagle-eyed commenter at the Hot Air overflow thread is claiming CNN is trying to erase history vis-a-vis the Hillary plant. When are they going to learn that scrubbing after the fact doesn’t work. Side note; those of you with video of this, find somewhere other than YouTube/Google to put that video up; I expect that they’ll be scrubbing as well. Hell, send it to me, and I’ll host it.
Bumper-crop R&E (8:50 am 11/29/2007) – Make that 6 plants (H/T – Doc). From Jason Coleman, plant #5 is Ted Faturos, former intern for Rep. Jane Harman (D-California), whose question was on farm subsidies. Plant #6 is David McMillan, Breck Girl supporter and Uncle-Tom hunter (appropriate, because his question was why Pubbies weren’t attracting the black vote). He also found a couple of Paul-Nuts sprinkled in for “levity”.
Overflowing-bushel R&E (4:02 pm 11/29/2007) – And we’re up to 8 out of 30 (not 40) questions. With a tip of the cap to Flip, PowerLine has plant #7 as Adam Florzak, who worked with Dick Durbin on Social Security reform and asked a question on Social Security, and plant #8 as Mark Strauss, an admitted Bill Richardson supporter who played a PaulNut on BoobTube (what, they couldn’t find an actual PaulNut, or are all the PauNuts actually DhimmiRATs?). Un-fucking-real.
(Long H/T trail – Kathryn Jean Lopez/The Corner via DaveM/AoSHQ)
Adam Yoshida (who was obviously more sober than I), dug out the fact that the gay general is on the LGBT Americans for Hillary Steering Committee. And you wonder why a whole lot of conservatives had a very bad feeling about the ClintonNewsNetwork/BoobTube debate. Lopez adds that this wasn’t the first time that Kerr was mixing it up with ‘Rats, as he was on Ketchup Boy’s Steering Committee.
And some people wonder why a whole lot of conservatives are very distrustful of the Clinton News Network.
(Editor’s note; dunno how I didn’t unleash a few f-bombs on this one; those Blues are really hitting me. I bow to the master.)
Once again, I’ll be rolling with the CoverItLive software. Before I lose the audience to the full bumper crop of those live-blogging listed immediately below (I’ll update and correct as I find them), I’ll quickly refresh you on how I live-blog: Because I am not the fastest typist in the world, I paraphrase a lot. I’ll probably also swear a lot (I’ll be downing Labatt Blue like there’s no tomorrow), and I’ll almost certainly be taking shots at everybody involved before the night is through. The questions will be in italics, the candidates’ comments, paraphrased as they’ll be, will be in normal type, and any smackdowns I need to deliver will be in parentheses.
Now, here’s a very partial list of who else is going to be live-blogging this thing:
– Michelle and Bryan live-vlogging at Hot Air (That should be the live link. You do have a monitor big enough to put their vlog and my meager efforts up, don’t you? This IS 2007, and a 19″ monitor at 1280×1054 is the bare-bones minimum nowadays.)
– Allahpundit has what may be the smallest open thread in Hot Air history (sorry AP; timing is everything)
– Things are sure busy in the Hot Air camp; Michelle has a live thread on her own site.
– Jim Lynch at bRight & Early
– Jim Geraghty (I think I’ll have to keep the blog home with this one; if memory serves, Geraghty puts up new posts rather than make people refresh one particular post)
– Brian at Liberty Pundit (he’ll also be using the CoverItLive software)
– Mary Katharine Ham is on the scene
– Patrick Ruffini will be joining her (lucky bastich ;-)
– Stephen Green will be drunkblogging again, with the comments thread separated as usual (I’ll probably be matching him beer-for-martini; time to start)
– Free Republic will certainly be lively (live thread added 6:17 pm)
– Ace checked in right after this thing went up (and, yes, I checked all my feeds right at 5:59)
– Brennan also checks in
– Team Fred has Sean Hackbarth on the case, along with audio.
If you’re wondering why I switched to Labatt, it’s the price and the inavailability of Sam Adams Double Bock.
This time, they’re from Stephen Green. There’s too many to steal and embed here, so head on over to PajamasMedia to watch them. You definitely do not want to miss the question to Ron Paul.
Revisions/extensions (3:25 pm 11/28/2007) – Just because I can…
While we wait for ultimate in stupidity (Frosty the Snowman to make a return engagement on CNN), here’s a couple more items for the “Stupid Party” pile:
– (H/T – the ripped-off Slublog) Sinistar, the guy behind doubleplusundead, found out that Minnesota GOP vice-chair Michael Barrett has been ripping off the material of various “lesser-known” bloggers (as if AoS HQ, the 2007 Weblog Awards Best Conservative Blog, is “lesser known”) and passing it off as his own. Barrett refused to do the right thing, which would be apologize and start attributing stuff he borrows. Instead, he took the cowards’ way out and after mumbling out a semi-apology, “hung it up” (I give him 3 months before he’s back to stealing, only from a new blog).
– (H/T – Dad29) It seems the Virginia GOP is insisting on participants in its Presidential primary February 12 sign “loyalty oaths” to support the official nominee (especially if it’s the hand-picked one of the “R”NC, Rudi Giuliani). The Roanoke Times rips them, mostly deservedly-so. Suggestion for the Virginia GOP; if you can’t stand a semi-open primary, do caucuses.
I’m still in a funk. Thankfully, MKH and William Smith did the prep for me. It’s good to have a feed reader.
Just as a reminder, whether I am still in a funk or just drunk, I’ll be live-blogging this thing:
Bryan and Michelle teamed up to fire off a killer yes/no question to the Republican candidates in Wednesday’s CNN/YouTube debate…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzTAzEFSpUg[/youtube]
For those of you that don’t feel like mashing your way to either Hot Air or clicking the video, the question, to all the candidates and intended to be a yes/no question, is, “If you’re elected President, will you support and sign into law Congressman Tom Tancredo’s legislation that bans federal funding for cities and local governments that support or enact illegal alien sancutary policies?”
Since it is extremely unlikely to make the cut because it’s too good a question, I fired off the likely candidates’ responses in the comments section at HA:
Rudi – No, er, yes, er, no. Did I tell you how great New York City was under me?
Mitt – Whatever my position was 2 weeks ago, I reverse it.
Johnnie – Oh, hell no.
The Reverend – Don’t swear, Johnnie-boy. Just do what I would; veto with extreme prejudice.
Fred! – Ummm, yep.
Tanc – That will be Executive Order #1.
Dunc – That will be Executive Order #2, right after I shut off all trade with Red China.
Paul-Nut – But, but, but that’s un-constitutional!
I will once again be live-blogging with CoverItLive’s software. They should have at least one of my requests ready to go by Wednesday (the edit function for the moron running the liveblog). No word yet on whether I will be consuming as much alcohol as I did during the last Dhimm debate.
Revisions/extensions (9:31 pm 11/25/2007) – Don’t know about CNN/YouTube, but I’m not giving Toofers the time of day, especially those that already take full advantage of other opportunities to get their word out. Just as a reminder, the First Amendment is properly applied only to Congress, and the last I checked, I’m not Congress nor any other government employee at any level. Do note the Comments/Trackbacks/Pingbacks section of my General Policies.
Disgruntled Truck Driver has two sets of questions up, one for Dems and lefties, and one for Pubbies and righties. Since I’m of the right half of things, I’ll take the latter:
1. Do you approve of EVERYTHING President Bush has done while in office? (Be specific) Nope. Spending went out of control; instead of fixing Medicare, we got a massive increase; and the utter failure to secure our southern border against either a country wishing to refight the Mexican-American War or a bunch of Islamokazis is inexcusable.
2. Do you believe that EVERYTHING that Republicans did while they controlled the House and Senate was good? Oh, hell no. Again, that spending and expansion of the welfare state didn’t happen just because Bush wanted it.
3. What is more important to you? How much a politician “cares” or what a politician “does”? It’s all about the results.
4. How motivated are you to see a Republican be elected on a scale of 1-10? It honestly depends on whether that Pubbie is not or is a member of the bipartisan Party-In-Government. If said Pubbie is a PIG, I’m not exactly interested.
5. Will you vote Republican because you believe the candidate will be what’s best for the country or because Hillary scares the living crap out of you? How does, “Both, boss,” sound? Keeping Hiliary out of the Oval Office is what’s best for the country.
6. Does the idea of a Democrat as Commander in Chief make you feel more or less safe? Far less safe.
(H/T – Owen)
The Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance looked at county government taxation and spending between 2000 and 2005. The very quick Cliff’s Notes summary:
– Wisconsin’s 72 counties spent a total of $6.70 billion between operations ($4.42 billion), debt service ($250 million) and golf courses/hospitals/civic centers/nursing homes ($2.03 billion) in 2005. If memory serves, Milwaukee County was responsible for just under $1.2 billion of that.
– The operations portion represented a 4.3% annual increase from 2000, and a 3.3% per capita annual increase (funny; I don’t recall getting a 3.3% annual increase in pay).
– Over that time frame, state aid went up 2.04% an an annual basis, while county taxes went up 5.73% on an annual basis and revenues from fees, fines and permits went up 9.58% on an annual basis.
– Overall, health and human services spending took up 46.1% of county expenditures, easily outpacing public safety (19.9%), general government (13.9%) and highways (9.5%).
– Exactly one of the 72 counties reduced taxes on a per-capita basis; La Fayette (0.28% decrease annual rate). The lowest per-capita increase was in Dane, which raised taxes 2.1% per year).
– Five counties had per-capita public charges (i.e. fees) more than double in those 6 years; Jefferson (152.6%), Milwaukee (146.6% – ‘thank’ you very much, Thug Holloway), Dodge (137.0%), Washburn (119.2%) and Door (101.3%).
The news has been flying around the Net all day, so I’m a bit late to this party. The SCOTUS Blog has the best legal summary I’ve seen:
– The Supreme Court has accepted Washington, DC’s appeal in the case District of Columbia v. Heller. Specifcally, they worded the granted issue this way: "Whether the following provisions "” D.C. Code secs. 7-2502.02(a)(4), 22-4504(a), and 7-2507.02 "” violate the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not affiliated with any state-regulated militia, but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes?"
– They did not act on a cross-petition of five District residents seeking to join the case. SCOTUS Blog cautions that this is not necessarily a rejection of that cross-petition.
– Left unmentioned by the Court are a whole host of issues that may or may not be decided in this case, including whether the Second Amendment would apply to state and local governments (D.C. is a federal enclave, and that was the reasoning in the D.C. Circuit’s voiding of those three gun laws).
Jim Geraghty wonders whether this would affect the 2008 election. Given the likely timeframe of a March hearing (strongly suggested by SCOTUS Blog) and a June ruling, I would have to say that any ruling would not affect the primaries, specifically the Republican primary, at all, as I expect things to be settled before Wisconsin’s scheduled turn in the “limelight” February 19.
The fact that the Supreme Court has taken the case, however, does have the potential to influence the Republican primaries. Rudy Giuliani, who would be gravely conflicted should the Supreme Court hold the Second Amendment trumps local gun bans, will face a very difficult choice between his lifelong desire to grab guns and his late public professions of support of Constitutionalist Justices. While the side he decides to come down on probably would not cement the nomination if he chooses wisely, it would likely have the effect of ending his chances should he choose poorly.
Similarily, the ruling has the potential to have a major influence on the general election. It will energize both sides of the gun-laws debate, especially whichever side loses. There is a caveat; if Giuliani is the Republican nominee and the Supreme Court sides with the District, that additional energy on the pro-gun side will likely gravitate to a third-party candidate.
Guess there is just enough left standing in Vegas after the Uncle Jimbo invasion last week for the Democrats to hold a debate. The party starts here at 6:45 and on CNN at 7. I decided to try out something a little different, something called Cover It Live. If everything goes as planned, it will show up immediately below, and you won’t need to refresh for new content once it starts. Just as a reminder; I probably will rip everybody a new one before the night is done, I paraphrase a lot, the questions are in italics, the answers are in normal type, and my own comments are in parentheses. Oh, and if I swear, I apologize; these are Dhimms I’m dealing with.
Michelle Malkin’s got the popcorn popped, and Jim Geraghty has the Cliff Notes’ preview. I expect most of the rest of the regulars to bring the beer; I’m going to need it.
5:27 pm (no, the live-blog applet isn’t live yet) – The gang at Free Republic is early as usual.
5:52 pm – Brennan the American Pundit is borrowing my method of madness. He’ll be better and less colorful. Also, the link to the CNN live stream is up
6:15 pm – Gabriel Malor has the AoS open thread up. Meanwhile, the real reason why I am testing the shiny new toy just went down the crapper; Mitt Romney torpedoed the Dec. 5 Iowa Pubbie debate (H/T – HotAir Headlines)
9:12 pm – And the live-blog is out. The replay is available in the above window.
Yesterday, an overflow crowd filled the Madison Club to listen to Grover Norquist. I was lucky enough to be one of the crowd because Norquist is a very colorful and quotable person. Let me go through the notes to give you a taste of what you missed:
– Between the end of the Civil War and the rise of Ronald Reagan, ones’ political party told more of where one lived rather than what one stood for.
– The national Center Right Coalition, which Norquist founded, grew out of a sense of those that wanted government to leave them alone. Also, there is no “20-point agreement” between the various members of the group.
– On the left’s, specifically, Hillary Clinton’s portion of the left, list of demands on others – “It is slightly longer and more tedious than Leviticus.”
– The Republican name has become the Coca-Cola no-tax-increase brand nationally, and it’s continuing to trickle down to the states.
– Quote related to that – “Republican politicians who vote for tax increases are the rat’s head in the Coke bottle.”
– None of the Presidential candidates have really jumped on the transparency of expenditures movement yet. Norquist feels the first one that does will get a rather significant leg-up.
There was a LOT more than either what I have above or what I managed to scribble down on two pages of paper, but I do have to try to balance the desire to talk with the standard “what’s said here stays here”. I honestly could do an epic on it, at least if I were a better writer.
Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, there won’t be a late-November Center Right meeting. However, you will want to circle December 12 on your calendars; Rick Esenberg (yes, the Shark and Shepherd Rick) will be in to discuss the Supreme Court race. If you think you can make it, let Mark Block know now – markb – at – afphq – dot – org (I don’t think I have to remind you of what to do with that to make it e-mailable).
The Asian Badger has a nice little exclusive on not one, not two, but three state-owned Pilatus PC-12 executive turboprop aircraft (roughly $5 million apiece new) took a trip down to Muncie, Indiana yesterday. Two of them are still there this morning, at least according to Flight Aware, while the third came back to Madison yesterday afternoon.
I wonder what’s so important down there that 18-27 (depending on how they’re configured, the PC-12 seats 6 to 9) Doyle cronies needed to borrow the Wisconsin Air Force.
Revisions/extensions (2:25 pm 11/14/2007) – Apparently, that was the Wisconsin Skate Univ…er, UWM’s mens’ basketball team that went down there (H/T – John Foust). Time to open up another can of questions:
– Why did they need to fly an hour on a trip that takes 5 by bus?
– Considering that the PC-12 costs just over $500/hour to operate, will the state be reimbursed the full $3,000+ that it cost us?
– If the state is reimbursed, which of UWM’s funds will that be coming out of? If it’s any fund other than the mens’ basketball fund, I will not be a happy camper.
Jim Geraghty caught a segment on the Sean Hannity radio program where John Zogby made just such a claim. The last Zogby poll, in September, had Paul at 3 percent, while more-recent polls bumped him up to 7.
Since the Democrats have not taken away any delegates from the New Hampshire delegation, the only way that Paul gets even 5 percent in the primary is if the Democratic field is settled by Iowa. Given Barack Obama’s recent surge there, that’s looking less likely, at least without a trip into Ft. Marcy Park.
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker’s veto message is below the fold. Among the 22 are the County Board pay increase, continued funding the infamous House of Corrections Farm and Fish Hatchery, and the separate $9,127,378 tax levy increase.
Since the County Board will be voting on overriding these vetoes tomorrow, hammer them first thing tomorrow to get them to uphold all 22.
We’re now less than 2 months out from the Iowa caucuses, and under 3 from the likely end of the primary portion of the race. That means it’s time to winnow out the chaff, at least on the Republican side. Fox News decided to exclude from its December Iowa debate the candidates that haven’t picked up 5% of the polling in Iowa. The net effect is Duncan Hunter, Ron Paul, and Tom Tancredo are out of the next show. Personally, I believe that’s about a debate or two too late because that leaves 90 minutes (if memory serves, that’s the length of the Fox News debates) of having a chance of substantive discussion. Even better, if things hold, I’ll be able to do a profanity-free live-blog.
Before I get back to the Republicans, I’ll quickly note that the Democratic race is still Hillary Clinton’s to lose even though Barack Obama has closed in Iowa. While she’s doing her best Bill Clinton impersonation by planting questions in the audience, Obama just isn’t able to capitalize because even the Democrats realize that explicitly calling for tax hikes, even for their Holy Grail of Social Security, isn’t going to fly with the electorate. The good news for the Republicans is that Clinton has a very hard ceiling of under 50% in the various national head-to-head polls. The bad is she also has a very hard floor of above 45%.
In a big blow to the campaigns of John McCain and Fred Thompson, the Republican National Committee decided to go halfway down the road of the Democrats and take away half of the delegates from the states that are holding primaries before Super Duper Tuesday, February 5. McCain’s and Thompson’s strategy of using a pre-SDT primary (New Hampshire and South Carolina, respectively) to leverage their way to victory just went down in flames.
Similarily, Mitt Romney’s strategy of buying his way to a sweep of the traditional early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, and using the homestate advantage of Michigan, has been somewhat neutered. While he will, in all likelyhood, win Iowa, all the money he has spent in New Hampshire and South Carolina has just gone down the drain.
With that bit of background out of the way, let’s move on to the candidates:
Rudy Giuliani – His strategy of focusing almost exclusively on Super Duper Tuesday and the large-population liberal states is essentially intact. Even though losing half of Florida’s delegation will hurt him, Florida is still the largest pre-SDT prize, larger than Iowa or Nevada (Giuliani is leading there in the latest polls, regaining the momentum from Romney), and he pretty much has the ex-NYC vote and thus the state locked up. It also is the last contest before Super Duper Tuesday, so if his double-digit lead holds up, he will have the big momentum going into February. He also picked up the biggest personal endorsement of the season in Pat Robertson. The bad news is a lot of conservatives aren’t buying the Robertson endorsement, and the rumblings are that they will stay at home in November 2008 if he’s the nominee.
Mitt Romney – The good news: he should have most of the early states. The bad: not only has he lost half of that benefit, but at least so far, that projected success has not translated to projected success on Super Duper Tuesday.
Fred Thompson – With apologies to Sean Hackbarth, the slow-motion Thompson campaign simply hasn’t caught on with those answering the polls or the majority of the insiders. However, Thompson has reportedly scored the biggest overall endorsement of the season with the National Right to Life Committee. The volume of blue-on-blue fire directed at Thompson hints that the pollsters and the insiders are missing something.
John McCain – He does have the pro-illegal-alien wing of the Republican Party locked up with Sam Brownback’s endorsement. Unfortunately for him, that’s not nearly enough to overcome his extremely high negatives over his opposition to tax cuts, support of the media’s gatekeeper role, and dislike of the religious portion of the Republican base. Worse, even if the New Hampshire effect wasn’t halved, he is going up against a pair of “hometown heroes” in Romney and Giuliani.
Mike Huckabee – I’m honestly surprised that he’s hanging in there as the big-government evangelical. Judging by the RealClearPolitics state-by-state polls, it’s essentially just Iowa that’s giving him any hope whatsoever. He doesn’t have the money to exploit any potential upset.
Ron Paul – Yes, he’s raised $9 million over the last 3 1/2 months. Just don’t ask too many questions on where that money has come from, as there is strong evidence that a significant portion of that is from less-than-honest-or-legal sources. The ideological heir to the late-19th-century anarchists hasn’t done anything useful with that influx of cash, and the ease of intercontinental travel and communications has made his neo-isolationism suicidal.
Duncan Hunter/Tom Tancredo – If I were a game show host, I would say something like, “Thank you for playing. Bob, tell them the parting gifts they didn’t win.”
Just because I’m in Vegas (I’ll just say that the Unreal one would be in 7th heaven) and I left the headphones at the hotel doesn’t mean I can’t follow along with at least some of the news. I’ll even try to follow the first lessons in not taking gratuitous cheap shots at people like Dane County pers…er, DA Brian Blanchard.
Unless Dane County DA Brian Blanchard manages to convince AG J.B. Van Hollen to appeal the decision of the District 4 Court of Appeals to the state Supreme Court, former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen (R) will get a new trial. Hopefully, it won’t be before a kangaroo court this time. The court found that not only were the instructions given to the jury by Dane County Circuit Judge Steven Ebert to convict were improper, but that his prohibition of Jensen’s defense team to introduce evidence that the former Assembly Democratic Caucus was doing the exact same thing without reason was improper.
Well, have to go. Next conference starts in about 15 minutes, and I have to finish my final votes. Remember, vote that slate on the right sidebar one last time before 4 pm Central.
News, and probably updates as they come in, at Sheboygan Shenanigans. I will wait until further details come in before shifting the various City of Sheboygan sites off the “Harrassers in government” portion of the blogroll, but they will remain on the “Personal links” portion.
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