Posted by Wayne Garcia on Oct. 6, 2008, at 3:00 pm
Hey, I know we had a software glitch that made the Palin-Biden liveblogging last week just about as unsatisfying as my 1978 high school prom date, but we’re going to try again this Tuesday night at 9 p.m. as Barack Obama and John McCain go at it in a town-hall setting.
Expect McCain to come out blasting Obama’s character and the fact that he consorted with former domestic terrorists. Obama’s job is to keep reminding everyone of the Dow Jones Industrials Average. Expect me to ask the immortal question: Where the hell is Belmont University?
Yummy presidential debate water in preparation for Tuesday's event
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Oct. 3, 2008, at 9:49 am
Blessed weekend relief is just 8 hours away! In the meantime, here’s all the poiltical and media news that matters, with updates throughout the day in the box to the right:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Oct. 1, 2008, at 4:00 pm
In writing, however. McCain answered written questions in writing back to the Washington Blade, a leading LGBT publication. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
Blade: What is your reaction to the news that Log Cabin Republicans endorsed your campaign and will the Log Cabin Republicans be welcome in the White House if you’re elected?
McCain: I appreciate Log Cabin’s support. I’ve had a friendly relationship with the organization for almost 15 years. We don’t agree on every issue, but I respect their commitment to the GOP and I thank them for their support. Our party needs to focus on what unites us and I appreciate Log Cabin’s effort to make the GOP more inclusive. I have always been willing to discuss the important issues of the day with Log Cabin members and that will continue if I am elected. This is going to be a close election and we need support from every American.
I hope gay and lesbian Americans will give full consideration to supporting me. The stakes are high in this election. I will have an inclusive administration and I will be a president for all Americans.
Blade: What are your views regarding the Defense of Marriage Act? Do you think DOMA devalues the relationships of gay citizens?
McCain: As a Republican, I am a strong advocate for federalism. States should be able to decide as many issues as possible. That’s certainly the case on the definition of marriage. My home state of Arizona shouldn’t be compelled to recognize a marriage from California or Massachusetts. Those states can decide that issue by themselves.
However, at the same time, my own view is that marriage should be reserved for a man and a woman. That’s what I supported in Arizona. I realize this is a controversial issue and we must conduct this debate in a way that respects the dignity of every person.
Kudos to the Blade for trying to get something, anything from a Republican presidential campaign. Of course, the limitations of the e-mail interview are many, the worst of which is a lack of follow-up and spontaneity and the question of just how much of McCain’s answers came directly from him vs. a staffer paid to write answers for him.
Sen. John McCain has announced he will be attending tonight’s debate after all. I guess he got tired screwing up the economic bailout, grabbed a nap and upon waking realized that skipping the debate would be campaign suicide. Good to see McCain’s not suicidal.
As a reminder, we’ll be live blogging the debate tonight starting at 8 p.m. (Perhaps you’ve noticed our snazzy countdown clock at top-right.)
Faithful PoHo readers will note the addition of a countdown clock at the top-right of the blog. The tick-tock is counting down to CL’s live blogging of first presidential debate between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. The debate is scheduled to begin this Fri., Sept. 26, at 9 p.m., and we’ll have a thread open for live blogging before, during and after the main event. Expect something similar to what we did for both party’s conventions, with participants adding color commentary, instant fact-checking and the analysis with attitude that you can only get from Creative Loafing.
If you can’t make it on Friday, fear not faithful reader: We’ll be also be live blogging the other debates (two additional presidential debates, one V.P. debate), giving you four chances to add your voice to the animated conversation surrounding one of the most exciting presidential elections in American history.
“Did he really call her a pig!??!” That’s the question flying around the Internet today. Only in a society this sexist could a male presidential candidate refer to a female office-seeker with the phrase “I think they put some lipstick on a pig.” Shame on you … John McCain.
My favorite part of the “Palin — The Other White Meat” controversy is that the Republicans anger is entirely misdirected. With the “pig” comment, Obama is referencing the McCain campaign’s switch from “experience” to “change” as their talking point of the week. If you take the time to listen to the 47 second clip, you can see that. However, if you choose to willfully misunderstand Obama and want to stretch his words into a personal comment about his opponents, I think it’s fair to say that Palin is the “lipstick,” and it’s actually ol’ Johnny Mac who is the porker.
Final night of the Republican’s big show. Last night was by far the best of the convention, nabbing huge ratings and keeping the chattering class buzzing. Tonight, the main event. Sen. John S. McCain takes the stage to make the case for why you should vote for him.
What do you think of tonight’s festivities? Sound off in the comment section.
The text message went out at 3:26 a.m. “Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3 p.m. Eastern on www.barackobama.com. Spread the word.”
We’ll have much more on the Democratic ticket on Monday.
As for that text message, the Obama campaign blew a prime opportunity. By sending the message at 3:26 a.m., they gauranteed that the recipients would almost all be asleep. Had they sent it on Friday, say right before lunch on the east coast, they would have caused a ruckus throughout offices across the country. My guess is that was the original plan, but the campaign didn’t want to knock John “I don’t know how many houses I own” McCain from the headlines.
Let’s check in with our friends at Fox News. The first 2:30 of this clip are maddening, but then Alan Colmes (yeah, Colmes, really) flips the script on his conservative cohorts, leading to much stammering, yelling and Sean Hannity’s contention that McCain’s time as a POW gives him a free pass on marital infidelity.
Move On goes after McCain with an ad reminiscent of the Jim Davis “empty chair” ads that helped deliver Florida to Crist in 2006. Enjoy, and have a good weekend, everyone.
John McCain’s latest campaign ad is up, titled “Broken,” and it portrays the presumptive Republican nominee as the last, best hope for fixing Washington’s problems:
Of course, I could point out the irony (?) of being the Washington insider in the race who is trying to pretend he is the change agent. But I won’t.
Rep. Barney Frank attempts to decriminalize Marijuana. I’m sure the congress will get to that right after they impeach Bush and cut off funding for the war.
This is a new video from Good magazine that boils down the history of the planet (but mostly of oil and food prices) since the dawn of civilization — all in about four minutes.
It’s not so much that Bush says Wall Street got drunk and now has a hangover that stings. It’s that he brought the alcohol to the party in the first place.
Obama gets a little face-time with both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Impressive video of the Ron Paul Revolution March in Washington D.C. on July 12. I’m wondering about that chant, though. “Ron Paul! Freedom! Ron Paul! Freedom!” Is this supposed to mean something?
Choice quotes from the presidential candidates yesterday (I’ll let you figure out who’s who):
As USA Today debates drilling for oil off the coast, CNBC braces for $150-a-barrel oil this week. Hang on for the part where interviewee and “preeminent energy investment bankers” Matt Simmons mentions “the American nightmare.”
Was the question popped when Crist was visiting John McCain for his weekend barbecue/VP selection retreat in May? No, not the “Charlie asking Carole to be his wife” question. I mean, the “John asking Charlie when the hell he is going to get married and squash all those “The Gov Is Gay” rumors” question.
Call me jaded, but this news has got to mean that Crist has been hovering right at the top of McCain’s Veepstakes list — if only the Gov could be de-gayed a little.
Yes, I’m speculating, and no, I guess I’m not much of a romantic.
Congrats Governor Crist +1. I wish you both nothing but the best.
The McCain camp actually pulls off a decent viral video! I wouldn’t take a word of this at face value, but you have to admit the video is well done. If McCain knew what a computer was we might actually have a race here …
R.I.P. George Carlin. The brilliant, subversive, hilarious, precedent-setting comedian was 71. In his honor, here is one of Carlin’s all-time classics: Baseball & Football.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 19, 2008, at 2:43 pm
I was struck by something in the coverage today about Tampa Bay’s 10 morning anchor Mario Diaz going to be a flack for the McCain for President campaign in the Southeast. From the Trib’s Walt Belcher:
Diaz says the offer from the McCain camp came after he attended a Republican Hispanic political conference in Orlando in May.
Diaz was one of several journalists who participated in a panel discussion on issues that concern Florida’s Latino community.
“I had the blessing of Channel 10 to attend the conference,” he points out. “After the session, people were coming up to me asking if I had ever considered going into politics.”
So, how far along were Mario’s talks with the McCain campaign when he conducted 10’s interview with Barack Obama last month? The Republican Hispanic Conference he references was held on May 10. Obama spoke in Tampa — and was interviewed by Diaz — on May 21.
I asked Tampa Bay’s 10 spokesman Pete Nikiel if the issue came up with Diaz when he let the station know he was leaving. Nikiel said it did not but was fairly certain that Diaz was not in talks with McCain when he did the Obama interview. “I don’t believe he was,” Nikiel told PoHo. “This all came up very quickly. We were all set to sign a contract with him.”
Nikiel said he did not have a way to contact Diaz, whose last day at the station was yesterday. I’m trying to track him down for comment and will update if I can.
UPDATE: I haven’t spoken with Diaz yet, but he did tell Eric Deggans at The Feed that he was offered the McCain gig on June 11, after he conducted the Obama interview:
Diaz said he talked to McCain’s regional campaign manager after interviewing the candidate at his June 5 fundraiser at the Vinoy in St. Petersburg.
“I knew they had needs in the state of Florida, so why not take that opportunity?” he said. “When Barack Obama came to town (in May) I fought hard for those stories…(And) I asked the same questions an anybody else.”
The job offer came less than a week later, on June 11, he said. Diaz’s last day at WTSP was Tuesday, and the former reporter said he filed no more political stories after informing the station’s general manager on June 11 that he was taking the McCain job.
John McCain claims ending a 26-year ban on oil drilling in some areas of the Gulf of Mexico would help Americans by lowering gas prices and moving the U.S. away from dependence foreign oil.
But would it? Will this strategy really work to end the $4 a gallon (and rising) prices? The evidence is overwhelmingly against it.
There are an estimated 15 billions barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. According to the Energy Information Agency, in 2007 Americans consumed 20.7 million barrels of oil per day (this number includes all oil-based products, including production of plastics and the like). To give you an idea of how long the Gulf reserves would last, at that rate of consumption, if we sucked out all the estimated 15 billion barrels of oil from the Gulf and eschewed all foreign oil, we could be completely energy independent for around 724 days. Less than two years.
Now, the Gulf reserves are not the only ones McCain is talking about opening up, so it is possible we could be energy-independent for more than two years. But still, can we make huge advances in alternative energy sources and implement them in anything under five years, or even 10 years? Unlikely. And since billions of dollars would need to be invested in order to get to all the oil in the Gulf, a process that could take a decade, lower gas prices in the near future as a result of the McCain plan are just as unlikely.
And that left McCain’s plan open to partisan attack today.
In an ongoing effort to piss of the AP* and get them to sue us, I will be running long quotes from AP stories for the foreseeable future. Today’s quote is from a story about Gov. Charlie restoring voting rights to 150,000 ex felons:
More than 115,000 former felons who completed their sentences have had their civil rights restored since a new state rule went into effect 14 months ago, Gov. Charlie Crist said.
The rule by the Board of Executive Clemency, which Crist chairs, restored rights almost automatically, ending a policy of requiring the panel to act individually on every restoration of rights request. The rights include voting and the ability to get state and local licenses for certain types of jobs.
“Once somebody has truly paid their debt to society, we should recognize it,” Crist said Tuesday. “We should welcome them back into society and give them that second chance. Who doesn’t deserve a second chance?”
The 115,000 former felons Crist cited account for more than half of all former felons in the state who have had their rights restored during the last 14 years, according to the governor.
The governor made the announcement at a two-day summit of state officials, lawmakers, community activists, prison ministers and others to brainstorm ideas for keeping former inmates from returning to crime after their release.
* – I had originally put periods after the A & P in AP. Fortunately, AP’s #1 fan sent me an e-mail informing me of my mistake. Thank’s #1.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 17, 2008, at 3:43 pm
Former Tampa Mayor Dick Greco, long considered a closet Republican despite his D registration, today was announced as an honorary co-chairman of the Florida branch of “Citizens for McCain:”
A Tampa native, Mayor Greco served as the Democratic mayor of the city from 1967-1974 and from 1995-2003. Greco was responsible for numerous economic and urban revitalization projects, including Greco Plaza and the Marriott Waterside Hotel complex.
[Gee, why not mention the killer deal that Greco got us on Centro Ybor, where the taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars for many years to come on that money-losing project? (One that I worked on as a political consultant, in the interest of full disclosure.)] Back to the press release:
“I am a registered Democrat, but when it comes to voting I consider the individual,” stated Mayor Greco. “I have listened to all of the debates, and with the challenges facing our country, I think it is important that we choose someone with the experience and integrity necessary to keep our country safe and fix our broken economy. Senator McCain’s credibility, judgment and toughness is the change we need.”
The McCain campaign has previously announced a group of prominent Democratic and unaffiliated leaders and activists who have joined “Citizens for McCain,” a new grassroots effort headed by Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) to rally Americans of all political parties to support John McCain’s candidacy.
Senator Joe Lieberman added, “‘Citizens for McCain’ is an organization within the McCain campaign for people who, like John McCain, put country before political party and support the presidential candidate who has a proven record of bipartisanship.”
As part of the campaign’s continued effort to build on growing support from voters joining “Citizens for McCain,” John McCain, along with RNC Victory Chair Carly Fiorina, participated in a virtual town hall with Democrats and Independents last week to discuss John McCain’s record of putting country before political party. Many town hall participants were former supporters of Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Greco’s successor, Pam Iorio, also a Democrat, recently endorsed Barack Obama.
McCain’s been taking flack from the left for saying that it’s “not too important” when we get the troops out of Iraq. The McCain folks say that’s taking it out of context. See for yourself:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 11, 2008, at 10:08 am
For starters, the “strategy briefing” released last week by the McCain campaign in no way resembles the real strategy going on inside the Republican candidate’s effort. This is just another slick fund-raising effort, making Republican check-writers feel like they are insiders and privy to the secret plan on how the GOP will get McCain over in November.
But still, it is pretty interesting to see such a blunt assessment of how crappy a shape Bush and the old-guard GOP have left the electoral map for this year’s presumptive nominee. McCain Campaign Manager Rick Davis points out the historic high numbers for people who think the nation is moving in the wrong direction and President Bush’s own unfavorability rating.
