Fresh Loaf

What can Broun do for us? He can start by saying fewer shockingly stupid things.

In the race between Paul Broun and Lynn Westmoreland to be Georgia’s Dumbassiest Congressman, Paul Broun just pulled way ahead.

In an interview Monday with the Associated Press, Broun compared President-elect Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler.

Broun cited a July speech by Obama that has circulated on the Internet in which the then-Democratic presidential candidate called for a civilian force to take some of the national security burden off the military.

“That’s exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it’s exactly what the Soviet Union did,” Broun said. “When he’s proposing to have a national security force that’s answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he’s showing me signs of being Marxist.”

[. . .]

“We can’t be lulled into complacency,” Broun said. “You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I’m not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I’m saying is there is the potential.

I love that bit at the end. I’m not comparing him to Hitler, except for the two times I just compared him to Hitler.

The powerful civilian “force” to which Broun refers is Obama’s proposed expansion of federally-funded Americorps-type public service programs. As Obama proposes, they would perform such Nazi-like functions as giving tuition vouchers to college students who tutor school children, feed the homeless and assist the elderly.

Helping kids learn algebra. Starting WWII and the Holocaust. Pretty much the same thing, right? I can see why Broun is so confused.

Incidentally, one of the Obama plan’s inspirations is FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps, which during the Great Depression built several popular parks in Georgia, including a very nice one in Broun’s district.

In case you don’t remember FDR, Paul, he was President when we beat Hitler.

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Less than an hour after Pres.-elect Barack Obama’s victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park, more than 300 people gathered early Wednesday morning at the intersection of Jackson Street and Auburn Avenue outside the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church — the same house of worship where Civil Rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr. preached and organized.

Chants of “Yes, We Did,” drum circles and blaring car horns motivated the crowd of young and old and all races and ethnicities. There was even the electric slide.

I left at 1:45 a.m. and people were still going strong. Here are just a few of the photos. We’ll post more tomorrow as well as snapshots and reports of the Georgia GOP party held in Buckhead.

(more…)

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When it comes to characterizing the way Georgia might swing in tomorrow’s presidential election, the state alternately has been depicted as sure-fire red, demure pink, ever-ambiguous gray, wishy-washy yellow and half-assed red-striped.

How close do you think it’s gonna be?

a) Toss Up

b) Leaning McCain

c) Strong McCain

d) Leaning Obama*

*Not pictured, ’cause I couldn’t find a map with Georgia painted baby blue

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WTF, AJC?

I’m not usually the one driving the anti-AJC bandwagon (that’s Sugg’s job), but over the weekend, the apparent cowardice of some unnamed editors over there had me steamed.

An AP story appearing in Saturday’s AJC describes how “Doonesbury” cartoonist Garry Trudeau – who must submit a week’s worth of comic strip at a time – is going out on a limb with cartoons “showing his characters reacting to an Obama victory.” If John McCain somehow ends up winning Tuesday’s election, Trudeau says, “I’ll be the one with the egg on my face.”

Still, the article says some newspaper editors are expressing discomfort with running the strip this week, quoting one who will wait until checking Election Day returns before deciding whether to run the Obama-related cartoons. But the article didn’t name any papers that had already pulled the plug on “Doonesbury.”

Well, we found one. Tacked on to the very end of the print version of the AP article is this sentence:

As for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, it is giving “Doonesbury” a sabbatical next Monday through Saturday and will resume carrying the strip the following week.

No explanation; no rationale. Just a statement that the strip won’t be running in the AJC, cravenly couched behind the euphemism “sabbatical.” The paper is so gutless that, rather than make an effort to defend its decision, it seems to be hoping no one will notice.

(more…)

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Bryan Terry, Sr. filed suit in Fulton County Superior Court, demanding Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel investigate claims that Sen. Barack Obama was neither born in the U.S., nor is he U.S. citizen, therefore he is constitutionally ineligible to serve as President.

“Failing to officially and publically [sic] vet the status of the citizenship claims of Mr. Obama will cast a pall of doubt on the election process and taint the election results themselves.”

-Atlanta resident Bryan T. Terry, Sr., in a memorandum to Fulton County Superior Court.

“. . . there is no basis for this court to issue an injunction or a mandamus or other relief against the Secretary of State. Plaintiffs’ claims are, there, HEREBY DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.”

-An October 24, 2008 order by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter in response to Terry’s claim.

“Way to waste your freaking time and my email storage space.”

-Conservative Georgia blogger Erick Erickson, in an October 27 post on Peach Pundit mocking Terry and others who are trying to get him to publicly support their claims.

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FiveThirtyEight, one of the most entertaining and informative online resources for this Presidential election, posts an excellent Georgia-centric rundown on the state’s demographics and political dynamics — and how the combination of the two may determine who runs the country come Jan. 20.

From the site:

Since native son Jimmy Carter was on the ballot, Democrats have found Georgia tough sledding. But with African-American turnout soaring to unprecedented levels, Georgia may be a state where the public polling models are off, and indeed Barack Obama has put last minute advertising resources into the state in an effort to both go over 400 electoral votes as well as help a rising tide lift Jim Martin’s boat against Max Cleland-smearing incumbent Saxby Chambliss.

It’s a long read, but it says Georgia’s may be one of the closest races we’ll see on Nov. 4. Definitely worth checking out.

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There’s a parlor game going on these days down at Atlanta City Hall. Here’s how you play: Imagine that President-elect Obama invites Mayor Shirley Franklin to join his administration; then figure out who might move over to take her place, and who’d take that person’s place, and who’d take that person’s place, and so on.

I’d heard about this swirl of speculation a couple weeks back, but decided it would be irresponsible to write about because it’s so, well, speculative. But I’ve changed my mind because: 1) polls are predicting an Obama victory; 2) City Hall is still buzzing with this talk; and 3) the AJC has already jumped on board the speculation train.

So here goes: If Shirley heads to Washington next spring, then a special election would have to be called to replace her. The collective assumption is that City Council President Lisa Borders – who abandoned her campaign for mayor for personal reasons in mid-August – would get back into the race. In a campaign cycle lasting only a few weeks, Borders would have to be considered the front-runner due to high name recognition.

(more…)

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In the last of its Jawja polls of the day, Rasmussen says John McCain still leads Barack Obama by five points in Georgia.

Interesting tidbit:

In the latest poll, Obama now leads 53% to 44% among unaffiliated voters in the state. Last week, McCain led those voters by an identical margin. McCain leads 73% to 26% among white voters in Georgia while Obama earns overwhelming support from black voters. While men favor McCain 55% to 45%, women are split between the candidates at 49% each.

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… but it was just a vote of Atlanta Public School students. According to an APS press release:

Obama crushes McCain
in APS student mock election

More than 17,000 students in 70 Atlanta Public Schools participated in a national mock election Thursday, chosing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama over Republican rival John McCain by a margin of more than 17-to-1. …

Obama garnered 15,798 votes or 92 percent of ballots cast, compared with McCain’s 910 votes or 5 percent. Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney won 99 votes, independent Ralph Nader won 62, Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party won 59 and Libertarian Bob Barr won 45.

Of course, 86 percent of Atlanta Public School students are black, and African-Americans nationally are polling around 98 percent for Obama. I wonder what the mock vote would have been in Cherokee County.

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With just days left before votes are to be counted, Barack Obama is rolling out a new ad about the economy that’s slated to air in Georgia and North Dakota .

Here it is:

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Saxby Chambliss’ campaign telemarketed my house a couple of minutes ago — in the middle of the Obama informercial.

Nice.

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Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears says she’ll leave the highest court in the state when her term as Chief ends on June 30, 2009.

Appointed by then Gov. Zell Miller in 1992, Sears became the youngest and first woman to serve on the state Supreme Court. In 2005, she became Chief Justice — the first African-American woman in the United States to do so.

Sears’ exit also means she will step down as chair of the Judical Council of Georgia. She says she has no plans to retire and will weigh opportunities in law, business, academia or non-profit organizations.

“I believe we all have a purpose in our lives, and mine is to serve,” Sears said in a statement released by the court. “Achieving justice, equality and hope for our nation, our communities, our families – that’s what I was put here to do. And whatever I do next, I will not waver from that course.”

Sears’ name has been mentioned in some circles as a potential Supreme Court nominee should Barack Obama be elected president. Sure, you can say we’re banging the hometeam drum — yes, we were guilty of parroting the “Gov.-Perdue-might-be-McCain’s-running-mate” meme — but it merits a mention.

Full release after the jump.

(more…)

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The headline’s a bit misleading, sure, but this sounds like it’ll be just as interesting.

Grady High School’s award-winning Speech and Debate Team is hosting “The Final Showdown,” a U.S. presidential debate tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the school’s Main Theater. Seniors Mike Robinson and Demarius Wilson will portray John McCain and Barack Obama and debate healthcare, the economy, foreign policy and other issues. The fundraising event will be moderated by members of the press and Emory University’s Barkley Forum. Students and audience members will be able to pose questions to the “candidates.”

Can’t make it out to the event? No worries, you can watch the debate from home — the team will streamcast it live on its website here.

A chili dinner will be offered at 6 p.m. in the high school cafeteria. Tickets cost $12 and can be purchased at the door or online here.

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As of this morning, more than a million Georgians — a stunning 18 percent of the state’s nearly 5.6 million registered voters — had already cast ballots. Pundits figure that most of the state’s early votes in the presidential race went to Obama. Here’s why:

First off, African Americans have turned out in far greater numbers that most experts expected, casting nearly 35 percent of the ballots since early voting began Sept. 22, despite representing only 29 percent of the state’s registered voters. In the 2004 election, blacks accounted for only 25 percent of the ballots cast in Georgia.

Perhaps even more telling is a comparison of early voters to their participation in Super Tuesday. Here’s a breakdown of the million voters who’ve already gone to the polls:

Voted in 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary        33.85 %

Voted in 2008 Republican Presidential Primary         26.2   %

Did Not Vote in 2008 Presidential Primary                39.95 %

Can we agree that most of the nearly 40 percent of early voters who didn’t vote on Feb. 5 are likely newly registered voters? And can we further agree that most of the 400,000 people who’ve registered to vote in Georgia in 2008 will be casting ballots for Obama rather than McCain?

If so, then it’s easy to understand why recent polls are calling the presidential race in Georgia a toss-up.

(For a more complete examination of early voting stats, check out this post.)

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Almost everyone is surprised at how well Democrats Barack Obama and Jim Martin are faring in Georgia against their Republican counterparts John McCain and Saxby Chambliss.

One political commentator who isn’t: Matt Towery.

On June 19, the former state rep. and principal of Southern Political Report wrote the following about the 2008 election in Georgia:

“My view is that Georgia, the 9^th largest state in the nation with 15 electoral votes, will remain a major new battleground state through November. This changes the landscape of electoral politics as Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and perhaps another surprise southern state, join Florida as potential “swing states,” that cannot be presumed to vote Republican in 2008.”

Towery’s comments accompanied a June Insider Advantage poll showing McCain and Obama almost tied in Georgia.

(Hat-tip to Fresh Loaf commenter Poverty Wench, whose recent comment prompted me to dig through Towery’s archives.)

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This is going to be an interesting week. And a busy one.

Pollster, a website that somehow eats every single political poll IN THE WORLD and then burps them out in color-coded maps, says Georgia is now a “toss up” between John McCain and Barack Obama. Yep, Georgia.

Wonkette says no way, but we’ll see.

Pollster’s also calling “toss up” about Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat. Nearly everyone thought incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss would easily win a second term in his race against Democratic nominee Jim Martin and Libertarian challenger Allen Buckley. Turns out all of ‘em — me included — were wrong. Signs point to a run off in that race.

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If you’re stuck at college in Atlanta or Macon without a car and those damn campus buses don’t go anywhere near the polls, the Barack Obama campaign is here to save you.

Workers from the presidential nominee’s Hope Depots© will offer free bus rides for students from select colleges and universities next week for advanced voting.

Full list with details follows after the jump:

(more…)

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One of CL’s veteran ad reps, Andrew Cylar, got a call at home from a pollster at Rasmussen, a Republican-leaning polling firm, who asked what could be construed as a rather leading question. Several questions in, Andrew was asked how he felt about “spreading the wealth around.” As with the other questions, he was asked to assign a numerical value indicating his level of support for the subject.

The McCain campaign, of course, is making a last-ditch effort to turn voters against Obama by repeating the Democratic nominee’s poorly worded remark to Joe the Plumber: “When you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

It just seems odd that a respected polling firm would ask voters what they thought of “spreading the wealth around,” without at least providing additional context. Pollsters, for instance, could have asked, “At a recent Ohio campaign stop, Sen. Obama said his tax plan was designed to spread the wealth around. Do you support that goal?”

Instead, the pollster simply repeated the phrase, much as the McCain camp is doing. Is it wacky for us to wonder in the back of our minds if Rasmussen didn’t ask this question partly out of a desire to help the GOP nominee?

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InsiderAdvantage, the polling firm/political newsletter run by former GOP legislator Matt Towery, says both the presidential race and the U.S. Senate race have narrowed to become virtual toss-ups in Georgia. Here’s the results of a poll his firm took Thursday of 615 likely voters:

Presidential
Obama, 48 percent
McCain, 47 percent
Other, 2 percent
Undecided, 3 percent

U.S. Senate
Chambliss, 44 percent
Martin, 42 percent
Buckley, 2 percent
Undecided, 12 percent

The margin of error is 3.8 percent, meaning both races are coin flips. Towery, however, seems to give both Obama and Martin the edge:

The senate race appears in my judgment either headed for a runoff or a Martin win, and here’s why I say that: over 15 percent of blacks say they still are undecided.

Saxby needs to find a Bubba the Plumber real quick!

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The latest poll from Rasmussen is the fourth straight snapshot that shows John McCain with more than 50 percent of the vote.

From the polling organization:

The race for Georgia’s Electoral College votes is getting closer.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state shows that John McCain’s lead over Barack Obama is down to five percentage points, 51% to 46%. In September, McCain led by 11. Earlier in October, that lead had slipped to nine points.

However, while Obama continues to gain ground, this is the fourth straight poll of Georgia voters to find McCain at the 50% level of support or above. In August, McCain led Obama 50% to 43%.

Sixty-eight percent (68%) of voters in the state expect McCain to win Georgia on Election Day.

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Jim Wooten: "Let the Democrat infidels bask in their illusion"

The front page of Sen. John McCain’s Georgia campaign web site features a September 14 column from AJC conservative columnist Jim Wooten predicting defeat for Sen. Barack Obama.

The column’s complete and utter wrongness is almost impossible to overstate.

Some high/lowlights:

“Barack Obama knows it. The election he had in the bag is slipping away. The selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate has so thrown him off stride, as it has most other Democrats”

“For a “change” candidate, Obama appears to be a man locked in time, unable to move past criticism, unable to move from the grip of the Democratic left, unable to adapt to the changed reality that the campaign is not the referendum on the war in Iraq or on the administration of George W. Bush that he’d envisioned.”

“Obama has the habit, too, of reminding voters of their doubts about him,”

“Obama will lose because with less than two months remaining voters won’t be able to get comfortable with him. He can’t stay on message and he can’t avoid sending signals that interfere with the message when he does.”

“McCain, on the other hand, has been superb going back at least to Obama’s European tour. Mainstream America is comfortable with him and, with Palin’s selection, conservatives who had their doubts are onboard.”

“It’s not over. But it’s getting there —- and Obama knows it.”

In a state as chock-full-o-Republicans as Georgia, is Jim “Comical Ali” Wooten really the best conservative columnist the AJC can come up with?

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A couple weeks back, the AJC’s esteemed Jim Galloway ran a blog item that had Georgia politicos buzzing. In it, he quoted Senate Majority Leader Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, attacking the state’s new early voting program as a vehicle for voter fraud. Johnson called early voting “a mistake” and explained that it gave cheaters extra time “to go out there and pick up homeless people, and carry them to the polls, and register cats.”

Sen. Eric Johnson

Putting aside for a moment the fact that homeless people have as much legal right to vote as anyone else, Johnson’s statements were jaw-droppingly ironic because early voting in Georgia was a Republican initiative that party strategists believed would give the GOP an advantage at the polls. Statistics have shown that absentee voting is more popular among Republicans than Democrats. Therefore, the reasoning went, if absentee voting were extended to a month and folks no longer had to give an excuse to get an absentee ballot, then early voting could serve as an effective, state-subsidized get-out-the-vote effort for the GOP.

But it doesn’t seem to be working out that way. (more…)

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A recent Democracy Corps poll focused on Georgia shows a slight 46-44 margin for John McCain over Barack Obama and a 48-44 margin for U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss over Democratic challenger Jim Martin.

But it was a question about the 2010 Governor’s race that caught my eye:

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