They’re dropping like flies

So long, Edwards: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UG8CQO0&show_article=1

So long, Guiliani: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080130/D8UG77E81.html

The Iowa Caucuses

I don’t have time to make this blog sound as pretty as I’d like to, but for those who are interested, here’s an e-mail I sent to some friends about the Iowa Caucuses. This only applies to the Democratic caucus; from what I understand, the Republican caucus is a secret ballot much more similar to a typical primary.

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The process is essentially like this:

 

1) Go to the section of the room corresponding to the candidate that
you support (there was also an undecided section).

2) After 30 minutes, tally the number of supporters for each
candidate. Candidates must have the support of 15% of the caucus
goers to be viable.

3) Supporters of non-viable candidates then need to support one of
the viable candidates, or join supporters of another non-viable
candidate to make a candidate viable, or they can always leave.

4) After about 20 minutes, a new and final count for each candidate is done.

5) Each precinct has a certain number of delegates (we had 11), and
the number of delegates a candidate recieves is proportional to the
number of supporters they have. 

The process took about 2 hours overall, which included some orders of business in the beginning not related to the caucus.

Overall, it wasn’t the best of experiences (at least compared to the last time I did it) because the room was much too small to handle the 270+ caucusers plus media plus volunteers that were there. (I think the legal capacity of the room was actually 140). It was pretty hot and uncomfortable, and nowhere to sit, which I’m sure turned a lot of people off. Also, in order to count the number of supporters (and the total # of people there), you literally raise your hand and count off, which is pretty difficult when people are scattered around, it’s hard to hear, and other groups are shouting.

Last time I was in a huge room and the process was much smoother. But I guess that’s what happens when you get record turnouts, and I’m not really complaining.

Out of Obama, Edwards, and Clinton, it looked as though supporters of Obama and Edwards were by far much younger than those caucusing for Clinton. It was hard to tell where supporters of the non-viable candidates redistributed themselves. I know Kucinich told his supporters to support Obama if he wasn’t viable, and I believe that Richardson may have as well.

Presidential Candidates in First Ever Gay Debate!

I wish I could take credit for that headline, but the truth is that I can’t. In all seriousness, though, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards are confirmed for participating in a debate dealing exclusively with LGBT issues. With the democratic race currently as close as it is, the importance of this debate cannot be overlooked.

Or maybe it can be. Afterall, Clinton, Obama, and Edwards are all against same-sex marriage, although Clinton and Obama both opposed a constitutional amendment that would have banned gay marriage while in the Senate.

Interestingly, there are no current candidates that support gay marriage. Third party candidates, where are you???? 

John Edwards’s Hair… Worth $400.00??

Now, you may be wondering why I am posting a blog about John Edwards and his hair. First of all, have you ever noticed that no matter where John Edwards is or no matter what he is doing, his hair is always the same? Well, I have. His hair is always perfect, shinny, and neat, but I guess when you pay $400.00 for each trim, it better look that good. Yeah, that’s right $400.00 bucks a cut! Now this is one of those stories that no candidate wants out there. It runs about as counter to the working-class. Worse for Edwards, his campaign picked up the bill for two of the $400 Beverly Hills stylings. Hey, you’re rich like Edwards (or any other current candidate for president) and you want to blow a bunch of money on a facial or a pedicure, go for it! But what Edwards supporter is going to be happy to learn that the the tab for his hair cut just come straight out of campaign donations?

One reason the cost of the cut was so steep even by Beverly Hills standards is that Torrenueva (Edwards’s barber) went to Edwards rather than the candidate coming into the stylist’s salon…

Don’t get me wrong, I like John Edwards quite a bit as a candidate, but I have a suggestion on the hair matter. Go to a corner barbershop in Iowa or New Hampshire the next time you need a trim.

Update: Who ever let this video out is going to be in big trouble… hahaha .. this is great!

Obama is second to back out of Fox News Debate (and Clinton is 3rd)

Barack Obama announced today that he will not be attending the Fox News Debate scheduled to be held on September 23 in Detroit. Obama is the second candidate to boycott the event, John Edwards was the first to announce he would not be partaking in the event.

Interestingly, Obama’s camp did not include any comment on his official blog, but instead linked to the above ABC News article. Obama has had problems with the network since the beginning of the year, when they made untrue allegations that Barack “had attended an extremist Islamist madrassa as a child living in Indonesia.”

“‘CNN seems to be a more appropriate host,’ an Obama campaign aide tells ABC News.”

Hillary Clinton has also decided to not participate. What will this mean for the debate?  Will the rest of the Dems decide to participate without the top three contenders or will they also resign?

Hillary Wins First Round…! Or does she?

For many of you political junkies out there or just to the people who like keeping up with politics. You might have seen all of the latest headlines popping up in newspapers all over the country, that are loudly saying: “Clinton shatters fund raising records,” “Hillary Clinton sets fund raising record,” or even that “Clinton’s fund raising reaches historic heights.” This may lead you to believe one thing, that Hillary has got this election in the bag. Well, I am sorry to burst your bubble, but THINK AGAIN!

According to recent reports, Obama will come in at $22 million to Hillary’s $26 million (Hillary also transferred another $11 million from her Senate campaign). Surprisingly, a majority of fund raising donors aren’t only going to Team Hillary. Take John Edwars for example, Patrick reports:

Days before the Elizabeth Edwards announcement, I had all but written Edwards off based in part on his online fundraising numbers. Those numbers have since more than doubled, rising by $1.5 – 2 million. It’s clear that Edwards has retained a vast network of traditional donors that belies his recent focus on becoming a labor/netroots darling (24 social networks… oy). Considering the breathless Hillary/Barack coverage over the last two months, Edwards has officially regained the mantle of sleeper.

John Edwards reported that he raised around $14 million this time around. This is what he said in his latest email:

• Total raised: Over $14 million (nearly twice what we raised this quarter last time around)
• Total contributors: 40,000, representing every state of the union
• Grassroots victory: 80 percent of all contributions were $100 or less

So that’s what happened; you pulled through and we exceeded all our expectations, ensuring that this campaign will stay competitive in the crucial months to come.

Even though Team Hillary will try to get as much as possible about her “win,” I truly believe that John Edwards is the real winner this time around. Unlike Hillary and Obama, he isn’t receiving funding from Hollywood and his campaign was hit with some hard news (the blogger he hired, his huge house, and the return of his wife’s cancer.) Even though this isn’t the best quarter, I think he has more up his sleeve and there will be more to come. Don’t count him out yet, he still has tons of fight left in him. John Edwards is for real.

Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems

The race to raise money is on, and the first checkpoint just passed at the end of March. With no surprise, Hillary Clinton has broken records and raised $26 million in 3 months, and will add in $10 million from her previous Senate campaign to bring her total to $36 million. John Edwards, who came in second, raised $14 million in the same amount of time. Oddly enough, Barack Obama has not yet revealed his funding so far. As of today, no Republicans announced their fundraising yet.

Updated Totals (click here and here and here for details)

Clinton: 26 million (+ 10 million from senate account)
Obama: 25 million (source)
Romney: 23 million
Guiliani: 15 million
Edwards: > 14 million
McCain: 12.5 million
Al Gore (1999): 8.9 million
Bill Richardson: 6 million
Christopher Dodd: 4 million (+ 5 million from his senate account)
Joe Biden: 4 million

Why the firing of district attorneys will NOT be a major issue in 2008…

The firing of eight District Attorneys has caused quite an outrage on Capital Hill and throughout the United States. And for good reason. However, my prediction is that we won’t be (honestly) talking about this much at all come 2008. The reason – whereas the firing of the attorneys in the middle of a presidential term may have been politically motivated, unprecedented, and dishonestly handled, it appears that not president Bush, nor Alberto Gonzales, nor anybody else did anything illegal . The reason is due to a clause in the 2006 Reauthorization of the ironically named Patriot Act, which gives the president power to fire and appoint new attorneys without senate confirmation.

The reauthorization of the Patriot Act was supported by Hillary Clinton, Barack O’Bama, and Joe Biden (as well as John McCain and Chuck Hagel; John Edwards was no longer a Senator at this time). In fact, the only presidential candidate to oppose the reauthorization of the Patriot Act was Congressman Dennis Kucinich from Ohio. Kucinich also opposed the Patriot Act during its first enactment in 2001, whereas Clinton and Edwards both voted ‘Yea’.

By now many people from both parties, including Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and Republican Senator John Sununu, (John McCain has not), are calling on Gonzales to resign, but where were they in 2006????

Hillary’s Super Monday

It was a big day in the world of Hillary Clinton today. She held a town hall meeting in Iowa’s capital, Des Moines, and stated that if elected she would create a universal health care system. Also announced today – former Iowa governor, Tom Vilsack who backed out of the race last month due to a lack of funds, gave his official endorsement for Clinton.

With all the good news in Iowa, Senator Clinton has also raised the most amount of money in one week – $10 million. The old record was held by John Edwards in 2004.  Man, she’s on a roll!

In related fundraising news, John McCain recently announced that he would not meet expectations by the first deadline for money raising, March 31st. McCain has only held four events since his announcement to join the race, but plans to have an additional 40 scheduled between now and May.

Edwards set to suspend campaign (updated)…

The breaking news on the blogosphere is that John Edwards is going to suspend his campaign, and may drop out of the 2008 Presidential race. Edwards and his wife are planning a 12:00 noon press conference to discuss the latest developments. Yesterday, Edwards canceled a campaign event to accompany his wife on a doctor’s visit. Mrs. Edwards was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, around the time of the presidential election.

This is shaping up to be a sad story. And what makes it worse is that someone who isn’t so consumed by power and politics that he may be willing to drop out of a presidential race to be with his wife…now that’s someone who I wouldn’t mind seeing in office…

Update 1: The campaign will go on, despite a recurrence of Edward’s wife cancer. (I guess I take back what I just said?)

Update 2: Ben Smith, the author of the initial blog who has a source close to the Edwards campaign, has since apologized for stating that his campaign was to be suspended…See, don’t blame me, blame him!