Articles of Interest 1-3-08
308 Days until Election Day
MORNING UPDATE:
Happy New Year!
Wow, it’s hard to believe we’ve started 2008. There are many challenges ahead of us, and one of the most important elections our country has ever faced.
Today, Iowans will be gathering in their caucuses to choose who they believe should be our party’s nominee for President. A week later, we’re off to New Hampshire and then the following week we are back to Michigan! The race is on.
Michigan Republicans will choose the candidate they most agree with, feel is the most qualified and is most electable in the upcoming presidential election. This is an awesome responsibility and opportunity to help shape America’s future.
We have accomplished much in 2007 to prepare for this election year. Our systems are tested, the ground game plans are being designed with local parties, and an extensive media and “bracketing” program is being implemented as we move forward.
We will be posting and emailing out our 2007 Annual Report. You can download a copy at:
www.migop.blogs.com
I would like to say I’m tan, ready and rested…. but I didn’t get a tan, did get some rest and am definitely ready for the challenges ahead. Let’s not fool ourselves; this is going to be a tough year under very difficult circumstances. But the party has never been stronger, our local parties have never been better organized and we have great candidates and a message of hope and optimism that America and Michigan needs now, more than ever.
I look forward to working with you as we all do our part to help elect Republicans across the board. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you and let’s get ‘er done!!!
THE REST OF THE STORY:
No further commentary today.
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/POLITICS01/801030389/1022/POLITICS
Mich. problems get little attention
Gordon Trowbridge and David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Michigan's move to an early primary has had mixed success in forcing presidential candidates to address the state's economic hardship. They've talked little about automakers' struggles, but have paid greater attention to broader issues such as international trade, job training and health care. The campaign has focused more on Iowa's ethanol subsidies -- a crucial issue to voters in today's caucuses there -- than the problems of the Big 3. With the notable exception of Mitt Romney, a Michigan native whose father was an auto executive before his election as Michigan governor, auto industry has been a nonfactor in the campaign.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080102/POLITICS01/801020375/1022/POLITICS
GOP primary race takes to state airwaves
Romney, McCain lock broadcast horns as the campaigns look past Iowa, New Hampshire.
Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has spent roughly $1 million on television ads in his native Michigan, but he's about to get competition on the state's airwaves. Romney's campaign Tuesday introduced a new ad to begin airing in Michigan, the latest spot to air here since the campaign began courting Michigan voters over television in mid-December. According to broadcasters' records reviewed by The News, Romney has bought roughly $800,000 of time on Metro Detroit stations through Jan. 8.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/POLITICS01/801030366/1022/POLITICS
Detroit has become favorite target of Democratic hopefuls
They have strong viewpoints on Mich. issues even though they won't be on primary.
Gordon Trowbridge and David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Barack Obama has made his tough talk to the domestic automakers during a May speech at the Detroit Economic Club a central argument for his campaign's positioning of the Illinois senator as a different kind of candidate. "I went to Detroit, and in front of a bunch of automakers, I said we've got to raise fuel efficiency standards on cars. And the silence was deafening in the room," Obama said during an August debate on ABC. And an Obama television ad shows him talking to a group of voters about the speech. "I have to admit the room got kind of quiet," he says, drawing laughter. "We can't just tell people what they want to hear. We have to tell people what they need to hear."
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080102/NEWS06/801020318
History may repeat with state budget
New year likely to bring old problems
January 2, 2008
BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF
FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF
LANSING -- Battle-weary lawmakers and Gov. Jennifer Granholm will have little respite when they dive into the issues of the new year. They aren't likely to face a deficit as large as last year, when a billion-dollar-plus shortfall led to a long, bitter clash over tax increases and budget cuts. But some economists predict a deficit as high as $500 million by 2009, though the administration downplays that figure. A less bleak forecast by the Senate Fiscal Agency sees a general fund deficit as small as $34 million as soon as 2009 and a potential $300-million surplus in the School Aid Fund, which pays for public schools.
http://www.livingstondaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080101/NEWS01/801010302/1002
Budget tops lawmakers' list for the coming year
By Amelia Skimin
DAILY PRESS & ARGUS
January 1, 2008
After last year's state budget battle, Livingston County's lawmakers want to make it a priority to get the budget done quicker in 2008. "Hopefully, we'll get the budget done early," said Rep. Joe Hune, R-Hamburg Township. Both Hune and Sen. Valde Garcia, R-Marion Township, agree that moving beyond the partisanship that plagued budget discussions in 2007 is essential to achieving this goal."I think the biggest thing the Legislature can do is get along," Hune said. He does, however, remain firm on the need to not raise taxes. For his part, Garcia plans to continue trying to build trust between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/POLITICS/801030362
Budget surplus: $350M
State officials get New Year's gift with higher than expected revenues, lower social aid costs.
Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Thursday, January 3, 2008
LANSING -- Surprise!
The financially beleaguered state actually ended the 2007 budget year with a surplus of more than $350 million, thanks to higher than expected tax receipts late in the year, lower than anticipated welfare rolls and spending restraints, the state budget office reported Wednesday. The General Fund, the state's main operating budget, ended the fiscal year Sept. 30 with an extra $259.1 million and the separate School Aid Fund closed out with an excess of $94 million, according to the annual financial report.
http://www.mlive.com/columns/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/119928842954390.xml&coll=2
Population exodus is bad news for state
Ann Arbor News
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Back in the early 1980s, there was a bumper sticker popular in the state: "Will the last person leaving Michigan please turn out the light?'' Those were the days of the last catastrophic downturn in Michigan's auto industry, when auto jobs disappeared and workers packed up U-Hauls and headed out of state. In Texas, people from here were known as "black-tag people,'' for the black license plates that were Michigan's standard issue then. Michigan's employment picture isn't as bleak as it was then, when it hovered in the double-digits. But a new U.S. Census report, released last week, shows that more people are leaving Michigan - mostly in search of work, but also to enlist in the military and go to out-of-state colleges - than are moving here.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080101/OPINION01/801010306/1085/opinion
2008: From politicians to citizens, Michigan should resolve to pursue innovation
Lansing State Journal
Published January 1, 2008
As Michigan closes the book on 2007, there remains plenty of unfinished business to tackle in this new year of 2008. Topping the list is the need for citizens and government officials at all levels to get as committed to innovation as any business enterprise that wants to survive must be. At the state level, that means serious attention to the structure and cost of government. In 2008, the old ways will not work. Finding a new way will require politicians who focus more on problem solving than on fretting over their next elected office.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080101/NEWS04/801010324/1005
Controversial business tax kicks in
Business groups say structure may not be an improvement
Tim Martin
Published January 1, 2008
Some widely despised Michigan business taxes were killed off in 2007. But it remains to be seen whether the new Michigan Business Tax, which takes effect today, will be any more welcomed than its predecessors. The original Michigan Business Tax won praise from a variety of businesses when it was first adopted this summer. It was estimated that up to seven of 10 businesses would pay less under the new format than under the Single Business Tax it replaces. But the MBT lost some of its luster Dec. 1, when lawmakers added an about 22 percent surcharge to the tax that will make it more expensive for some companies. The surcharge replaces a 6 percent tax on some services.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/BIZ/801030390
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION: Michigan wants bigger share of $60B U.S. film industry
Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Michigan is poised to open its checkbook in a big-time effort to convince film-makers to use the state as a backdrop for their movies. Gov. Jennifer Granholm, recently back from a trip to Los Angeles where she met with film industry representatives, is working with lawmakers and her own treasury officials on a package of incentives to attract lights, action and cameras in today's cut-throat world of motion picture making. "We're brainstorming to see what it would take to make Michigan the best-in-the-nation place in attracting filmmakers," she said in an interview with The Detroit News. "We're working to create a package that has some pop."
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080102/OPINION01/801020323/1085/opinion
Licenses: Attorney general made right call on driver's licenses for illegal immigrants
A Lansing State Journal editorial
Published January 2, 2008
Attorney General Mike Cox made the right decision last week when he issued an opinion saying that illegal immigrants should not be eligible to receive a Michigan driver's license. Until his ruling, Michigan was one of a handful of states that had a process for granting driver's licenses to people who lacked documentation to prove their legal status, such as Social Security numbers. The Secretary of State's Office had been doing so under an existing 1995 opinion, from former Attorney General Frank Kelley, permitting the licenses. No one should turn this issue into one of race or ethnicity.
http://blog.mlive.com/citpat_opinion/2008/01/dont_give_licenses_to_illegal.html
Don't give licenses to illegal residents
Posted by Jackson Citizen Patriot
January 02, 2008 10:10AM
Hillary Clinton fumbled the question during a debate this fall, and it hasn't gone away: Should illegal immigrants receive driver's licenses? From Michigan's attorney general came a clear answer last week: no. Mike Cox offered a direct line of reasoning why Michigan should not issue licenses to people who aren't American citizens. State law bars people from receiving driver's licenses if they're not Michigan residents. Undocumented immigrants — legally speaking — aren't Michigan residents, nor are they residents of any state in this country.
Safety first on licenses for illegal immigrants
January 3, 2008
Withholding driver's licenses from people who can't prove they're legally in this country won't make Michigan safer. It won't stem the tide of immigration, or keep terrorists from abusing the borders, or make it easier to identify and deport those who are breaking the law. But it seems likely to create trouble. If anything, some legal immigrants may lose their driving privileges while awaiting paperwork, illegal immigrants may just get better at obtaining forged documents, or they may drive more dangerously because they haven't shown they know Michigan's rules of the road.
http://www.mlive.com/news/chronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-6/119920410837090.xml&coll=8
Bin Laden losing influence among Iraqis, Hoekstra says
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
CHRONICLE NEWS SERVICE
Osama bin Laden may not be desperate, but a new 56-minute tape shows he is losing ground in Iraq and trying to appeal to other Muslims in the region, said U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Holland. "The Muslim radicals who are not predisposed to violence, they have some real problems with al-Qaida," Hoekstra said Sunday. "They are divided about what al-Qaida is doing in the Middle East, partly because a lot of the victims have been Muslim."
http://blog.mlive.com/kzgazette/2008/01/recalled_flint_mayor_wins_coun.html
Recalled Flint mayor wins county commission chairmanship
Posted by Associated Press
January 02, 2008 13:43PM
FLINT -- Almost six years after being recalled as mayor of Flint, Woodrow Stanley has been elected chairman of the Genesee County Board of Commissioners. Stanley received five votes. Fellow Democrat and former chairman Archie Bailey received three votes, and another Democrat, Ted Henry, got the ninth vote. Stanley, who was elected on the first ballot, takes office immediately. He tells The Flint Journal that he's "humbled and honored" by the chance to head the county commission.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flintjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-3/11992872294360.xml&coll=5
Shutting schools
Flint fiscal woes don't allow for much delay
THE FLINT JOURNAL
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Flint school leaders dare not grant themselves the luxury of foot-dragging on the urgent demand to close underused schools, which drain the district's strained budget even if the byproduct is a modicum of political comfort for school board members. The board and administration say they want to be sure to decide for the long-term best interests of the district and not act too hastily. Excellent thought. But such reasonable precautions are not an excuse for delaying the inevitable, especially when public money is absorbed along the leisurely route.
http://blog.mlive.com/saginawnews/2008/01/saginaw_countys_1986_first_bor.html
Saginaw County's 1986 first born heading to Iraq
Posted by Tamar Rankins
The Saginaw News
January 01, 2008 06:04AM
Rebecca P. Guerrero says she received a priceless gift at 1:37 a.m. on New Year's day in 1986. The gift was her son, Daniel Guerrero, who weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces, and was 191⁄2 inches long. He also was Saginaw County's first baby of that year. "He was the best Christmas gift and a wonderful start to a new year," said Guerrero, 44, of Bay City. Rebecca Guerrero said she wasn't expecting eight hours of labor on New Year's Eve. She expected the arrival of her son on Christmas. "I was getting ready to go out for New Year's dinner and ended up in the hospital. It didn't register that he was a New Year's baby because I was in too much pain," Rebecca Guerrero said.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/METRO/801030310/1409/METRO
Ex-Marine treats troops to gourmet 'care' packages
Dozens overseas receive selections from growing menu; he's also working on Iraq library project.
Beata Mostafavi / Associated Press
Thursday, January 3, 2008
FENTON -- Marine Cpl. Nathan Bundy has learned that when he gets a package from Roland Hansen, sharing means a small sacrifice. "If he wanted to eat it himself, he would have to not disclose the package's contents," Teresa Bundy of Davison said of her son, who served seven months in Iraq and is now at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. "His fellow Marines enjoyed it so much, he didn't even get any of it." Bundy, 21, is just one of dozens who have become recipients -- and new fans -- of Hansen's famous homemade goodies.
NATIONAL STORIES
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/POLITICS01/801030385/1022
New era in politics shapes up
As Iowa makes its choices, uneasy voters nationwide may be in the mood for change.
Adam Nagourney / New York Times
Thursday, January 3, 2008
DES MOINES, Iowa - The Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are navigating a far different set of issues as they approach the Iowa caucuses today than when they first started campaigning here a year ago, and that is likely to change even more as the campaigns move to New Hampshire and across the country. For the first time in 80 years, no incumbent president or vice president from either party is seeking the White House, creating an unusually unsettled campaign with no obvious front-runner. Power in Congress is divided so evenly between the two parties that neither has really been in control since the 2006 elections.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/01/america/vote.php
Iowa caucuses discourage participation by many voters
By Jodi Kantor
Published: January 1, 2008
DES MOINES, Iowa: Jason Huffman has lived in Iowa his whole life. Lately he has been watching presidential debates on the Internet and discussing what he sees with friends and relatives. But when fellow Iowans choose their presidential nominees Thursday night, he will not be able to vote, because he is serving with the Iowa National Guard in western Afghanistan. "Shouldn't we at least have as much influence in this as any other citizen?" Huffman wrote in an e-mail message. He is far from the only Iowan who will be unable to participate.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080102/D8TU0HEG0.html
Candidates Struggle to Iowa Finish Line
Jan 2, 4:54 PM (ET)
By DAVID ESPO and MIKE GLOVER
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - John Edwards willed himself through a 36-hour marathon, Barack Obama dispatched canvassers onto frigid streets and Hillary Rodham Clinton hand-carried bagels and coffee to volunteers Wednesday, vying for victory in the Iowa caucuses and priceless momentum in the race for the White House. Leading Republicans exchanged routine unpleasantries on a final day of campaigning. "You just don't know what is going to happen," confessed Mitt Romney, unwilling to forecast success over Republican rival Mike Huckabee in Thursday's first contest of the race for the White House.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/OPINION03/801030363/1007/OPINION
Iowa promises to influence GOP, Democratic contests
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Michael Barone:
Every so often, I page through my copy of the Constitution, searching for the section that says Iowa and New Hampshire vote first. I've yet to find it. But Iowa and New Hampshire are set to lead off the presidential voting on Jan. 3 and Jan. 8. Right now, Iowa, where about 200,000 people -- around 10 percent of registered voters -- are expected to attend the party caucuses, is producing great ruction in both parties' races. The most startling news comes on the Republican side, where Mike Huckabee has pulled about even with Mitt Romney. Huckabee, who finished second in the August straw poll in Ames, never topped 14 percent in polls taken before October.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/01022008/news/nationalnews/hawkeyes_to_buck_eyes_158075.htm
HAWKEYES TO BUCK-EYES
POLS ARE SPENDING $200 FOR EACH VOTE
By CHARLES HURT in Des Moines, Iowa and MAGGIE HABERMAN in NY
January 2, 2008
An unprecedented swell of money is flooding into Iowa for tomorrow's caucuses, with campaigns on track to spend roughly $50 million - a record-setting figure that doubles the staggering per-vote amount billionaire Mayor Bloomberg shelled out in 2005. The shocking expenditures: about $200 per vote for each of the roughly 250,000 caucus-goers expected to turn out. When all is said and done, the per-vote cost for caucus-goers of all stripes will easily double the $103 apiece that Bloomberg - who's mulling a presidential race of his own - spent from his own fortune for every vote he got in 2005. The mayor's $78 million campaign was considered the best that money could buy.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/OPINION01/801030375
The Detroit News endorses McCain
The Detroit News
Thursday, January 3, 2008
The new year begins with the nation on the doorstep of political transition. We look with keen anticipation toward a pragmatic presidency that will set a course of national purpose and prosperity, a presidency that will restore the government's financial discipline and revive America's effectiveness on the global stage. The successor to George W. Bush will face challenges domestic and foreign that will demand thoughtful and inspired leadership. Michigan's economic disorder looms largest among our concerns, complicated by international trends that have diminished the vitality of our industrial base. It matters much to this state who occupies the White House.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/POLITICS01/801030337/1022/POLITICS
McCain to launch Mich. ad campaign
Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau
Thursday, January 3, 2008
John McCain's presidential campaign will kick off a statewide television advertising campaign Friday, hoping the Arizona senator can capitalize on what appears to be increasing momentum in New Hampshire with a repeat of his 2000 Michigan primary win. A campaign official, speaking on condition he not be named, said the first Michigan ad will focus on McCain's record of pushing for reform. The official said the ad will begin airing in some Michigan markets on Friday, and be up statewide by the start of next week.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/OPINION01/801030365/1022/POLITICS
John McCain: 'I can't abandon my principles'
GOP presidential hopeful says America must regain world's moral high ground
The following are excerpts of The Detroit News editorial board's interview with John McCain, U.S. senator from Arizona and GOP presidential hopeful:
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Global warming
Q . What's your position on global warming?
A . I obviously became convinced (it is occurring). I believe we can and are developing technologies that can have a dramatic effect on greenhouse gas emissions. I believe we have to go back to nuclear power. Why can't we look at what the French have done? About 80 percent of their electricity is generated by nuclear power. And they are the closest to meeting the Kyoto (greenhouse gas emission reduction) goals that they set for themselves.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/john_mccain_the_old_warhorse.html
John McCain: The Old Warhorse
By Victor Davis Hanson
January 03, 2008
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., early on was thought to be the frontrunner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. But by summer 2007, he had been written off as a has-been. His poorly funded, lackadaisical campaign nearly ensured that he was put out to pasture before the primary races even began. While he faded, the media went gaga first over Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill, then former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., and most recently former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark. Yet now the nearly forgotten McCain is surging back. Compared to the flashy Obama or mannequin-like former Sen. John Edwards, D.-N.C., McCain still looks tired and pale on the trail - except when he nearly loses his explosive temper and turns beet-red.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080102/pl_nm/usa_politics_lieberman_dc
Lieberman says no ambition to be VP with McCain
Wed Jan 2, 5:30 PM ET
DERRY, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Democrat turned independent, ruled out a bipartisan White House bid on Wednesday, saying he has no ambition to be vice president if John McCain, whom he has endorsed, wins the Republican candidacy. Lieberman, who shares McCain's support for the Iraq war, was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2000. He won re-election to the Senate from Connecticut as an independent in 2006 after he lost a Democratic primary to anti-war candidate Ned Lamont.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080102/POLITICS01/801020301/1022/POLITICS
Romney the father lives in Romney the son
Scott Martelle / Los Angeles Times
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
EAST LANSING -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney worked his way through a sprawling, beer-strewn tailgate party at the annual Michigan-Michigan State college football game in November, trying to forge his political future one handshake at a time. But he kept encountering the past. "Your father did great things for this state," one man told Romney before slipping off into the buoyant, milling crowd outside MSU's Spartan Stadium. Another man, Frank Goodell, 82, popped up to tell Romney he was hired in 1967 to repair the house Romney's father used while he was Michigan's governor -- someone had broken in while George Romney was off on his own presidential campaign.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080102/NEWS07/801020341
Romney says he'd be fine finishing 2nd
Michigan native steps up effort in New Hampshire
January 2, 2008
BY TODD SPANGLER and KATHLEEN GRAY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
JOHNSTON, Iowa -- Mitt Romney's New Year's resolution seems to be: I won't exaggerate the likelihood of winning in Iowa or even of becoming president. The Republican acknowledged Tuesday that he might have to be satisfied with second place in a state where he has spent enormous amounts of money, effort and time. Speaking after a brief speech at a supporter's house in suburban Des Moines, Romney said new polls show him neck-and-neck with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in Thursday's Iowa caucus. Romney -- who grew up in Bloomfield Hills and is the son of former Michigan Gov. George Romney -- said he is in Iowa to win, but conceded he might not.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0108/Rush_Huck_not_a_conservative.html
Rush: Huck 'not a conservative'
Jonathan Martin
January 02, 2008
Rush Limbaugh devoted a large portion of his first show since the holidays to criticizing Mike Huckabee's candidacy and offering a disapproving bottom-line assessment of the former governor. "Ladies and gentlemen, Gov. Huckabee, mighty fine man and is a great Christian, is not a conservative, he’s just not," Limbaugh said. "If you look at his record as governor, he’s got some conservative tendencies on things but he’s certainly not the most conservative of the candidates running on the Republican side." Limbaugh's comments come after a long-distance back-and-forth between the candidate and influential talk show host before Christmas.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTVhMWZkMDczYWY3NDk2MjYwYTc5YWNhOTIwNjkwNGY=
Has Huck Lost It?
An unconventional finale to an unconventional campaign.
By Byron York
January 2, 2008 4:45 AM
This morning Mike Huckabee will appear at campaign events in Fort Dodge and Mason City, Iowa, and then, around noon, board a private jet for a destination not usually favored by front-runners on the eve of the Iowa caucuses: Burbank, California. There, he will tape an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and, after the show, hop back on the jet and head back to Iowa, planning to arrive by about 2 A.M. Thursday. His first event on Caucus Day will be at 8:30 A.M. in Burlington, and he’ll go straight through until the votes are counted in the evening.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDIzMTM5MDExNDJjYzY2NDY5YzhmNDY2MTJkN2Q2OGU=
The Eve of Destruction?
Is Mike Huckabee the stake in the heart of the Reagan coalition?
By James Bopp Jr.
January 2, 2008 2:30 PM
Republicans have enjoyed victories in five of the last seven presidential elections by uniting the Reagan coalition of social conservatives, economic conservatives and foreign-policy conservatives. Mike Huckabee’s campaign manager, Ed Rollins, however, declared Sunday in the New York Times that the Reagan coalition “is gone.” In designing the Huckabee campaign strategy, Rollins has decided that some, unspecified, part of the original triad must “go by the wayside.”
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/POLITICS01/801030350/1022/POLITICS
Giuliani touts his leadership skills
Often called 'America's Mayor,' the New York Republican stresses his big crisis experience.
Deb Price / The Detroit News
Thursday, January 3, 2008
During Rudy Giuliani's spur-of-the-moment stop at a Coney Island restaurant in Warren last April, Michigan congresswoman Candice Miller, his escort that day, became convinced that the former mayor of New York is America's next president. "Everybody was like, 'Hey, look, it's The Mayor.' The chefs, the dishwashers, the customers -- everybody wanted to shake his hand. People just felt like they already knew him, that they could trust him, because of how they'd seen him handle Sept. 11," says Miller, R-Harrison Township, chair of Giuliani's Michigan campaign.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/OPINION03/801030346/1022/POLITICS
Paul eyes the cranky Mich. Vote
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Laura Berman:
Even if the New York Pekingese meet-up currently lists more online members than the Metro Detroiters for Ron Paul group, the Republican from Texas is investing in Michigan. And because Michigan investors -- whether political or corporate -- are scarce of late, Paul's recent moves in Michigan are worth looking at. Last weekend, his campaign opened a Detroit office on Telegraph Road, an event an official campaign press release indicated drew more than 200 people but an observer said attracted less than 50. Paul -- who has both ideas and principles, few of them mainstream or tepid -- sees possibilities in Michigan's cranky voter base, ready to be mobilized for the Jan. 15 primary. As it happens, just the thought of that primary is enough to make any but the most hard-core partisan cranky.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aCilYJ9OUudI&refer=home
Paul Rivals Clinton, Raising Almost $20 Million for Campaign
By Kristin Jensen
Jan. 1 (Bloomberg) –
Presidential candidate Ron Paul raised almost $20 million for his campaign in the last three months, potentially outpacing every one of his Republican rivals and putting his fundraising in league with Hillary Clinton's. Paul, a U.S. representative from Texas, raised at least $19.5 million, according to a statement posted on his Web site. His campaign said today that he originally aimed to raise $12 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. The take puts Paul on par with the top fundraisers in the Democratic Party, who outpaced Republicans last year. The campaign of New York Senator Clinton yesterday said she raised more than $100 million for the year, meaning she brought in at least $20 million in the fourth quarter.
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=4a9629c8-4063-4aa6-b5a7-de49cfb49e48
Young and in Love
The congressman from Texas has the race's best batch of student volunteers.
Eve Fairbanks
Post Date Wednesday, January 02, 2008
I get to Ron Paul's headquarters in Des Moines just as an army of student volunteers is surging out of the doors, yelling and clutching signs. "This is the herd we can't contain!" one staffer laughs. ABC's Jake Tapper is taping a live segment in front of Mike Huckabee's neighboring headquarters, and it's time to make some mischief. The volunteers conform to a Washington reporter's expectations about Ron Paul youth--almost all boys, rowdy, eager to disrupt--until they don't.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/01/AR2008010102333.html
For Republicans, Contest's Hallmark Is Immigration
By Jonathan Weisman
Wednesday, January 2, 2008; Page A01
The imagery of the mailings is designed to pack a wallop: a Mexican flag fluttering above the Stars and Stripes, the Statue of Liberty presiding over a "Welcome Illegal Aliens" doormat, a Social Security card emblazoned with the name "Juan Doe," a U.S. passport proclaiming, "Only one candidate has a plan to STAMP out illegal immigration."
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/POLITICS01/801030367/1022/POLITICS
Dems' race hinges on who can effect change
Presidential hopefuls focus on their ability to deliver as poll shows voters want adjustments.
Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post
Thursday, January 3, 2008
WASHINGTON -- The Democratic nomination fight once appeared to be a contest over issues: the Iraq war, Iran, universal health care and economic uncertainty. But as the candidates' positions have melded, they have found themselves agreeing that voters are ready for the changes they are all proposing, but fighting fiercely over who can deliver. To Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, it takes experience in the policy trenches of Washington to effect the shifts in health care, economic and foreign policies that Democratic voters are demanding. To Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, that kind of experience is a hindrance, not a help, because exposure to the policy elites diminishes creativity and creates ties to the status quo that are not easily broken.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjkwZmNlNmEzODUzZjc1OGEyYzUxNDJkY2NiOTlmNWY=
The Seconds Have It
Why Hillary really trails in Iowa.
By David Freddoso
January 2, 2008 6:00 AM
Hillary Clinton leads in most late polls of Iowa, if only narrowly. Yet she will not place first. She may not even place second. The reason lies buried in the Democratic caucus process, and it stems from the fact that Hillary Clinton is hardly anyone’s second choice for the Democratic nomination. Clinton could conceivably win her party’s nomination without Iowa, but it would be difficult. A loss tomorrow night would obviously destroy her aura of inevitability and weaken her in other states. A bad enough loss would deprive her of a rebound in New Hampshire, where she currently leads Illinois senator Barack Obama by the narrowest of margins.
Hillary Clinton's campaign offering teen baby-sitters for Iowa caucusgoers
BY MICHAEL SAUL in Des Moines and MICHAEL McAULIFF in Sioux City, Iowa
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Wednesday, January 2nd 2008, 4:00 AM
Meet Hillary Clinton's secret weapon in Iowa: baby-sitters. In Thursday's caucuses, it all comes down to getting out the vote. And Clinton is going to the extremes, even lining up baby-sitters and day care centers for caucus-going moms. She is locked in a tight race with Democratic rivals Barack Obama and John Edwards. Securing every extra vote in a race in which fewer than 50,000 people may show up will be the difference between a momentum-building win or a humbling defeat. The Clinton campaign is opening day care centers across the state, including three in Des Moines, and has enlisted a legion of teenage girls to render their tyke-watching services.
Edwards Calls for Quick End to Iraq Training
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
January 2, 2008
SIOUX CITY, Iowa — John Edwards says that if elected president he would withdraw the American troops who are training the Iraqi army and police as part of a broader plan to remove virtually all American forces within 10 months. Mr. Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina who is waging a populist campaign for the Democratic nomination, said that extending the American training effort in Iraq into the next presidency would require the deployment of tens of thousands of troops to provide logistical support and protect the advisers.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZWVmZDQ5ZTRhMGUxMDc4YTA5Y2JmNTIxYTU2Zjk4Yjk=
Big Brother's Prescription
Does John Edwards know more than your doctor?
By Peter Pitts
January 2, 2008 11:45 AM
Does John Edwards know more than your doctor? Or you, for that matter? These are two questions that ought to be posed to the Democratic candidate for president — who has been banging the kettle drums on the campaign trail lately demanding that laws be passed limiting what information about new drugs and treatments may fall before your eyes.
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/OPINION03/801030304/1007/OPINION
Edwards sets tone for Democratic candidates
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Eugene Robinson:
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- If you had seen John Edwards perform Saturday at the public library in the pretty little town of Washington about 45 minutes south of here, you'd understand how he made all that money as a trial lawyer. The man knows how to deliver a closing argument. He projected confidence. He made eye contact. He skillfully used rhetorical strategies -- repetition, illustration, simplification, more repetition -- to imprint the minds of the jury, I mean the audience, with his narrative of ordinary Americans in an "epic fight" against "special interests" and "corporate greed." He lingered to shake hands in the overflow crowd that filled the hallway and stretched down the stairs. He flashed his halogen-bright smile.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NmY1NjA3NTU3ZjNiMjY0YTMxMjIxNjQxZTg3NDM1YjM=
23 Other Campaigns
Senate 2008.
By John J. Miller
January 2, 2008 6:00 AM
Almost half of all Republican-controlled Senate seats are up for election this year — 23 out of 49. That means Democrats, who have to defend just 12 seats, have an excellent opportunity to expand their Senate majority, which now stands at 51 (including independents Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont). “There’s no question that if you just look at the numbers, we have a daunting task,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, shortly before Christmas. “I think the chances of you all calling me the majority leader a year from now are rather slim because of the number situation.”
http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/OPINION01/801030305/1007/OPINION
The death of the religious right
Bill Press
Thursday, January 3, 2008
No matter who becomes the next president of the United States, the American people have already won a great victory -- with the total disintegration of the once all-powerful religious right. Starting in 1979, when Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority, Christian conservatives have been the most powerful voting bloc in the Republican party. Ironically, they began by casting out of the White House a born-again Christian who continued, as president, his life-long practice of teaching Sunday school, and replacing him with a divorced and remarried man who seldom stepped inside a church.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/us/politics/03elect.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
Iraq War Taking Back Seat to Domestic Issues
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
January 3, 2008
DES MOINES — The Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are navigating a far different set of issues as they approach the Iowa caucuses on Thursday than when they first started campaigning here a year ago, and that is likely to change even more as the campaigns move to New Hampshire and across the country. Even though polls show that Iowa Democrats still consider the war in Iraq the top issue facing the country, the war is becoming a less defining issue among Democrats nationally, and it has moved to the back of the stage in the rush of campaign rallies, town hall meetings and speeches that are bringing the caucus competition to an end.
http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0102hs.html
No Conservatives, Dammit!!
The Times hires William Kristol, and the illiberal liberals go nuts.
Harry Stein
2 January 2008
Here is just a tiny, tiny sample of the reaction on the Huffington Post to the announcement that William Kristol will be wri