Articles of Interest 4-27-2008

192 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

TAXPAYERS DEVASTED BY MBT – GRANHOLM TRAVELS TO KUWAIT…I wish the governor would spend more time traveling around Michigan and listening to the problems Michigan’s job providers have…instead, another overseas junket.

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/index.ssf?/base/business-15/1209143350319100.xml&storylist=newsmichigan

MORNING MASS…This morning my youngest son Marius will receive the sacrament of Confirmation at our parish, Divine Providence, which is celebrating it’s 100th year anniversary.  Special guests will include Cardinal Maida and Congressman Joe Knollenberg.

NAACP…I plan on ending the evening at the NAACP dinner where I hope to hear the infamous Rev. Wright…I’m ready for anything.

ST. CLAIR GOP…I finished Saturday night at the St. Clair County Lincoln Day Dinner.  It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Republicans statewide so united and so excited about winning in the fall.  These last couple weeks of Lincoln Day Dinners across the state have been fantastic!

BOWLING ALLEY…I hit a bowling alley fundraiser on the way home through Livonia.

POLITICOS SUNDAY TALK SHOW TIP SHEET… get the scoop on who’s on where with Politico.Com’s talk show schedule below.

BECOME A PRECINCT DELEGATE!!  Fill out and return the Affidavit of Identity to your county clerk or send it to the state party…we’ll handle the filings. Link to form

Many folks have asked…what does a precinct delegate do?  Here is some basic information about how we try and organize our precinct delegates to be part of our “political machine” to help elect Republicans.

PETITION CIRCULATORS…time is running out.  If you have petitions for judicial or federal candidates…please mail them in so they can track their progress.

THE REST OF THE STORY:

POLITICOS Sunday Talk Show Tip Sheet.

The “Obama Watch” is over.
Roughly 772 days, 13 hours and 54 minutes after Sen. Barack Obama reportedly promised “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace that he’d come on his Sunday show, the Democratic presidential hopeful has finally agreed to an interview.

Wallace had been keeping a running “Obama Watch” on his show’s website, trying to bait the Illinois senator into appearing. Now that Wallace has finally succeeded, how will Obama spin his 9-point loss to New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in Pennsylvania? And what are his thoughts on the May 6 Indiana and North Carolina primaries?

On NBC, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean headlines “Meet the Press,” as his party’s presidential race stretches into the spring amid increasing calls for him and other party leaders to intervene. On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) floated the idea of authoring a joint letter with Dean to undecided superdelegates, pressuring them to make their decisions public. What will Dean say about that? Host Tim Russert also leads an all-star political panel with The Washington Post’s David Broder, PBS’ Gwen Ifill, Newsweek’s Richard Wolffe, Slate.com’s John Dickerson and NBC’s Andrea Mitchell.

On CBS, “Face the Nation” is the latest venue for the ongoing Sunday show battle between Obama chief strategist David Axelrod and Clinton senior strategist Howard Wolfson. How is Pennsylvania altering each team’s playbook? Host Bob Schieffer also interviews former CBS correspondent Roger Mudd.

ABC’s “This Week” leads with a pair of high profile surrogates: Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) for Clinton and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) for Obama. Will Bayh be able to deliver his home state for Clinton? Host George Stephanopoulos also interviews a pair of Democratic representatives — Artur Davis of Alabama, for Obama, and Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, for Clinton. And he breaks down the past week’s politics with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile, Republican political strategist Matt Dowd and ABC’s George Will.

CNN’s “Late Edition” leads with foreign affairs, featuring a pair of congressional intelligence experts. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) will discuss recent reports that North Korea helped Syria develop a nuclear rector and Iran’s attempts to develop nuclear weapons. Also, host Wolf Blitzer hosts a debate between Jamie Rubin, a foreign policy adviser for Clinton, and Susan Rice, an adviser for Obama. And he’ll interview Democratic Sens. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who supports Obama, and Charles Schumer of New York, who’s backing Clinton.
Bloomberg’s "Political Capital” focuses on the economy, featuring Al Hunt’s interview with Robert Steel, Treasury’s undersecretary for domestic finance, who will discuss the credit crisis.

Finally, C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” hosts Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Human Genome Research Institute. He’ll be questioned by Rick Weiss of The Washington Post and Jonathan Rockoff of The Baltimore Sun.

Saul Anuzis

STATE STORIES

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002711553&parm1=5&cpage=2

Clinton Rebound in Pa. Pushes Focus Back to Fla., Mich Controversy Dean has not weighed in on what solution would meet those criteria.

Both state parties have moved forward with electing their delegates to the national convention. The Michigan Democratic Party on March 29 held the second step of the party’s three-step process for selecting delegates. The final step is scheduled for May 17.   “We’re moving ahead with the process, but we’re still in negotiation about what exactly the allocation of delegates will be,” said Michigan Democratic Party spokeswoman Liz Kerr. 

Florida

’s Democratic Party maintains the delegates should be seated according to the primary results from Jan. 29. Spokesman Alejandro Miyar said the state party was waiting for the DNC and the campaigns to take action.  “While all of this happens outside of us we’re moving ahead with getting the delegation settled, getting all the people on board, and that’s about it. That’s about all we can do,” he said.Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said Wednesday her campaign hoped the DNC would consider the pending challenges. “That’s where things stand right now. We’re waiting for the DNC to act on these and consider them and render a verdict,” he said.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/ELECTIONS01/804260328/1412/ELECTIONS01

Primary delegates may get half-vote restored

Associated Press • April 26, 2008

WASHINGTON

- A plan to award half-delegates for the disputed

Michigan

and

Florida

Democratic presidential primaries will get a hearing before party leaders May 31.  The committee stripped

Michigan

and

Florida

of their delegates because they held primaries too early. DNC members in

Michigan

and

Florida

have filed challenges to restore the delegates.  Under the challenges, all superdelegates from both states would get to vote. The pledged delegates would only count for half votes.  Hillary Rodham Clinton won both contests and has been pushing for the delegates to be allocated based on the primary votes.  Barack Obama has said that isn't fair as the candidates agreed to boycott the contests and his name wasn't on

Michigan

's ballot. Obama's supporters have suggested splitting the delegates evenly.  Both states held primaries earlier than party rules allowed to try to have more influence in the nominating process.  The plan would narrow Obama's lead, but

Clinton

still would not catch him in the remaining primaries.  The challenges were presented by DNC members Joel Ferguson of

Michigan

and Jon Ausman of

Florida

, who also are superdelegates because of their positions with the party.

Ferguson

supports

Clinton

; Ausman is uncommitted.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/POLITICS/804260329/1022/POLITICS

Democrats delay ruling on fate of

Michigan

,

Florida

delegates Party will not make decision until after May 31 hearing

Gordon Trowbridge /

Detroit

News

Washington

Bureau

Saturday, April 26, 2008

National Democratic Party officials will meet May 31 to hear challenges from

Michigan

and Florida Democrats seeking to get their states' delegations seated at the national convention.   The party's Rules and Bylaws Committee -- the same panel that banned

Florida

and

Michigan

delegates -- will meet in

Washington

.   The committee will hear similar proposals from Michigan State University Trustee Joel Ferguson and

Florida

party official Jon Ausman. Each argues that the rules committee exceeded its authority in banning all the states' delegates. They want the committee to reinstate all the

Michigan

and

Florida

superdelegates -- who are delegates by virtue of their positions as elected officials or party leaders.   And, they say, the panel can strip only half the states' pledged delegates -- those chosen in primaries that the national party ruled were too early.   

Ferguson

is a Hillary Clinton supporter, but said Friday he is acting on behalf of the state, not

Clinton

's campaign. Ausman is neutral in the battle between Clinton and Barack Obama, and supported Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich in the primary.   The meeting will come three days before the final nomination contests, in

Montana

and

South Dakota

, and just a day before the

Puerto Rico

primary.   "What's most important is that I totally reject this idea from (DNC Chairman) Howard Dean and others that we'll settle

Michigan

after someone has enough delegates to have a winner,"

Ferguson

said.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/NEWS04/804260321/1005/NEWS04

Effort to recall Dillon awash in skirmishes

Judge overruled move by House speaker to block drive; signatures due Thursday

Chris Christoff • Special to the State Journal • April 26, 2008

On paper, the campaign to recall House Speaker Andy Dillon,

D-Redford

Township

, is hard-nosed democracy in action.  On the streets of

Redford

Township

and

Dearborn Heights

, it has been a name-calling scrum of public rallies, court fights, verbal confrontations and charges of deception, law-breaking and police harassment.  Once aimed at a dozen lawmakers who voted for tax increases last fall, the recall effort has narrowed to make an example of Dillon alone.  The stakes are large: The possible demise of a House leader considered a potential candidate for governor, or vindication of Democratic control and the $1.4-billion tax increase to balance the state budget. It's turned Dillon's marginally Republican, middle-class district into a battleground of petty skirmishes.  "The residents are tired of it. I hear it every day," said Redford Township Supervisor Miles Handy, a Dillon supporter. "Tell them to turn in the petitions right now so we can get on with it. Andy Dillon will be very successful. He's very popular, and he will win overwhelmingly."  Leon Drolet, a leader of the recall campaign and a

Macomb

County

commissioner, said Dillon and his allies aren't behaving like they think he's too popular to be ousted.  Recall opponents hired crews to thwart signature collection, including at least one man with a lengthy criminal record. And they went to court to try to stop the petition drive for alleged violations of election law.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/BIZ/804260340/1409/METRO

Farm costs eat profits for struggling

Michigan

farmers

Record prices for crops are soured by fertilizer, fuel, equipment hikes

Jennifer Youssef / The

Detroit

News

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Grain farmer Cecil Schoenherr thought he hit pay dirt late last year when he sold his 2008 wheat crop on contract for $4 a bushel, much more than the $2.50 he got for it in 2005. But what he didn't foresee was that the cost of fertilizer, herbicides and other materials he needed to grow the crops would triple this year or that the fuel to operate the machinery would be $3.70 a gallon.   With the price of grains at record highs, what could have been a financial windfall for Schoenherr and other

Michigan

farmers is in many cases turning out to be just enough to cover their skyrocketing overhead, farmers and agri-industry experts say.   "I never saw $4 wheat, but I never saw $500-a-ton fertilizer either," said Schoenherr, who farms 600 acres of corn, wheat and soybeans in

Ray

Township

, Armada and St. Clair County. "We're just handling more money."   Actually, a lot of money. Agriculture ranks as

Michigan

's second-largest industry, with the state's farmers bringing in just under $4.5 billion in 2006, according to the USDA.   While the state might be better known for its dairy products and fruit and vegetables, it also produces a substantial amount of field crops such as corn, wheat and soybeans.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/METRO/804260330/1409/METRO

Bing's comments about Mayor Kilpatrick get support

Text-messaging scandal frustrates other executives; some won't criticize Kilpatrick.

Christine MacDonald / The

Detroit

News

DETROIT

-- Another influential African-American business leader spoke out Friday about the City Hall text-messaging scandal, a day after

Detroit

industrialist Dave Bing's call for corporate leaders to stop "playing it safe" and speak out.   Jon Barfield, president and chairman of the Livonia-based Bartech Group, said the "deadlock" over the scandal needs to be resolved, but said he wasn't calling for the resignation of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is at the heart of the controversy and faces criminal charges as a result of the secret $8.4 million whistle-blowers settlement.   "The situation needs to resolve itself so the city can move forward," Barfield said, calling Kilpatrick -- whom he supported in the past two mayoral elections -- an "extraordinary" politician. "We need to break this deadlock one way or the other. I'm saddened by the state of affairs."

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/METRO/804260338/1408/LOCAL

Judge seeks key document in mayor's whistleblower case

Mayor may be ordered to turn over missing motion; his attorney objects on self-incrimination grounds.

Paul Egan and Mike Wilkinson / The

Detroit

News

DETROIT--

The stage was set Friday for a possible clash between a judge's demands in a civil case and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's Fifth Amendment rights as a defendant in his criminal case.   Wayne Circuit Judge Robert Colombo Jr., who is presiding over a public records lawsuit brought by The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, said Friday he may order Kilpatrick to produce a key document related to the city's $8.4 million settlement of police whistle-blower lawsuits in 2007.   Though skeptical that the Fifth Amendment applies,

Colombo

agreed to receive briefs on the issue and rule May 8.

Experts say the case raises fascinating constitutional questions, and they are not unanimous on how

Colombo

should rule.   Laurence Benner, a law professor at California Western School of Law, said the Fifth Amendment generally shields a defendant only from giving testimony -- not from providing documents. And the document sought is not even one the mayor wrote with his own hand, Benner noted.

Attorney James C. Thomas, who is representing the mayor in both his criminal perjury case and in the civil public records case, told

Colombo

the Fifth Amendment, which shields defendants in criminal cases from self-incrimination, should protect the mayor from such an order.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080426/NEWS01/804260352/1003

E-mails show mayor's side feared leak of deal

Cough up missing document, judge orders Kilpatrick

BY JIM SCHAEFER and JOE SWICKARD

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

April 26, 2008

E-mails released Friday in a Free Press lawsuit against the City of Detroit show that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's city-paid attorney fretted about the release of a police whistle-blower settlement because of the "potential adverse impact" if the news media got ahold of it.  Also Friday in Wayne County Circuit Court, a judge said he wanted Kilpatrick to personally produce a missing legal document that triggered the $8.4-million deal, which kept the mayor's salacious text messages secret.  In one e-mail sent last fall, Samuel McCargo, a private lawyer paid by the city to represent Kilpatrick in the police lawsuits, wrote that certain terms of the deal were supposed to have been included in a separate, confidential letter. But Mike Stefani, the lawyer for three cops who sued Kilpatrick, had included the terms in the settlement document itself.  "I will leave it to Val's judgment as to the potential adverse impact such language might have given the potential broad base of public and media disclosure this document is likely to receive," McCargo wrote in an apparent reference to city lawyer Valerie Colbert-Osamuede.  The Oct. 29 e-mail appeared to draw Colbert-Osamuede ever deeper into the secret deal to pay Stefani and his clients $8.4 million to hush up about the text messages.  In response to McCargo's e-mail concerns, Colbert-Osamuede wrote of the proposed language, "I need to quickly run this past John," apparently referring to her boss, city Corporation Counsel John Johnson Jr.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/NEWS01/804270623/1003

NAACP focuses on young voters

Panel aims to engage African-American youths in political process

BY NAOMI R. PATTON • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • April 27, 2008

Younger voters are garnering a lot of attention as they increasingly turn out to vote in the 2008 presidential primary season.  But panelists at the NAACP Freedom Weekend Freedom Institute's forum Saturday afternoon at

Cobo

Center

said young black voters need to actively position themselves in the voting process, despite the challenge of feeling their vote may not count.  "Very seldom can you see yourself reflected in a candidate," said Donnell White, NAACP deputy executive director. But, he said, voter apathy is not just a problem with young African Americans -- "It's Americans that don't vote."  Dozens attended the Emerging Leaders Forum on "Which Way Young Black America: Democrat, Republican or Independent? Politics as Usual or Politics of Change and Inclusion?"  A big sticking point for many on the panel, which comprised Democrats, Republicans and independents, was that the Democratic Party "takes the black vote for granted," said

Bankole Thompson

,

Michigan

Chronicle senior editor.  "Obama might be the biggest reparations check," Thompson said about Sen. Barack Obama's presidential candidacy, referring to financial reparations from the

U.S.

government to the descendants of slaves.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/NEWS06/804270609/1008

Better insurance for autism sought

April 27, 2008

Supporters of legislation to get better insurance coverage for autism are calling for action at the state Capitol.  Parents and supporters of children with autism rallied at the Capitol last week.  They want the Legislature to pass bills that would require insurers to cover some autism therapies, screenings and diagnosis.  Most of the bills in the package have not passed either the House or the Senate. A few related bills have passed the House.  The bills have drawn some opposition from those who say more mandated insurance coverage would raise the cost of health care plans for

Michigan

businesses and residents.

NATIONAL STORIES

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120916309243845933.html

Property Tax Revolt

April 26, 2008; Page A8

Arizona

has been hit hard hit by the real-estate bust, with the average home value down 17% in a year and a record number of foreclosures. So Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano has devised a clever way to revive the housing market: Raise property taxes.  Last week Ms. Napolitano vetoed a bill that would have made a two-year suspension of the state property tax permanent. "It's untimely. It's untenable. It's unwise," she said of her untimely and unwise veto. So as housing values slide, Arizonans next year will get walloped with an extra $250 million property tax bill. 

Arizona

is one of a growing list of states and big cities looking to raise taxes on homes to close budget gaps in 2008 and 2009. Housing values are expected to decline by $1.2 trillion this year, according to Global Insight Inc., an economic consulting firm, and that means tens of billions of dollars in lost taxes.  In recent weeks,

Fairfax

County

in northern

Virginia

,

Washington

state,

Chicago

and

Memphis

have announced proposals to increase residential property tax rates to offset declining revenues. So at the very time that states and cities are begging for money from

Washington

to help distressed homeowners pay their mortgages, property tax hikes could push hundreds of thousands of homeowners under water.  Higher property taxes impose a double whammy on those at risk of losing their homes. First, they act as a tax surcharge on homeownership. And second, when the tax hikes aren't tied to better public services, they reduce housing values, thus reducing owner equity.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080426185402.bx4apkt8&show_article=1&catnum=3

Republican McCain says Obama is the candidate of Hamas 

Apr 26 02:54 PM US/Eastern

 

Republican John McCain took a shot at Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Friday, saying he was the candidate for the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.   "I think it's very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the

United States

," said McCain, his party's presumptive presidential nominee, in a conversation with conservative bloggers.   According to a transcript posted on the website of the Weekly Standard magazine, he said: "I think that people should understand that I will be Hamas's worst nightmare ... If Senator Obama is favored by Hamas I think people can make judgments accordingly."   Obama says he considers Hamas a terrorist organization, and he condemned the recent meeting between Democratic former president Jimmy Carter and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in

Damascus

.   He sparked controversy by saying he was ready to meet with Iranian, Cuban or

North Korea

leaders if he is elected president, but said he would not meet with the leaders of Hamas.   Obama also affirmed recently that if elected, he would "work with

Israel

to isolate terrorist groups like Hamas, target their resources, and support

Israel

's right and capability to defend itself from any attack."   Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan took issue with McCain's statements, which also pointed to recent remarks by Daniel Ortega,

Nicaragua

's leftist president and a

US

enemy in the 1980s, that Obama's candidacy was a "revolutionary phenomenon."

"We want to take Senator McCain at his word that he wants to run a respectful campaign but [it] is becoming increasingly difficult when he continually tries to use the politics of association and makes claims he knows not to be true to advance his campaign," he said.

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=294015465776712

Undoing

America

's Ethanol Mistake

By SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON

Posted Friday, April 25, 2008 4:20 PM PT

The Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once said, "One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results."  When Congress passed legislation to greatly expand

America

's commitment to biofuels, it intended to create energy independence and protect the environment.   But the results have been quite different.

America

remains equally dependent on foreign sources of energy, and new evidence suggests that ethanol is causing great harm to the environment.

In recent weeks, the correlation between government biofuel mandates and rapidly rising food prices has become undeniable. At a time when the

U.S.

economy is facing recession, Congress needs to reform its "food-to-fuel" policies and look at alternatives to strengthen energy security.   On Dec. 19, 2007, President Bush signed into law the Energy Independence and Security Act. This legislation had several positive features, including higher fuel standards for cars and greater investment in renewable energies such as solar power.  However, the bill required a huge spike in the biofuel production requirement, from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012 to 36 billion in 2022.   This was a well-intentioned measure, but it was also impractical. Nearly all our domestic corn and grain supply is needed to meet this mandate, robbing the world of one of its most important sources of food.   We are already seeing the ill effects of this measure. Last year, 25% of

America

's corn crop was diverted to produce ethanol. In 2008, that number will grow to 30%-35%, and it will soar even higher in the years to come.  Furthermore, the trend of farmers supplanting other grains with corn is decreasing the supply of numerous agricultural products. When the supply of those products goes down, the price inevitably goes up.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=26226

Is He One of Us?

by Patrick J. Buchanan

Posted: 04/25/2008

As one looks at the polls, the issues and the candidates, the election of 2008 resembles what poker players call a "lay-down hand."   Two-thirds of the nation believes the

Iraq

war a blunder. Sixty-nine percent disapproves of President Bush. Eighty-one percent thinks

America

is on the wrong course.  Inflation is at 4 percent and rising. Unemployment is 5 percent and rising. Gasoline, heating oil and food prices are soaring. The dollar has lost half its values against the euro. Homes are being foreclosed upon at Depression rates. The stock market is in a swoon. And 3.5 million manufacturing jobs have vanished under Bush.   Hillary and Obama have both raised far more than John McCain.  Democratic turnout in the primaries and caucuses is two and three times what it was for the GOP. The youth, energy and enthusiasm are on the Democratic side. Voter registration is rising dramatically, and the new registrants are almost all Democrats or independents.   Thirty Republican House members are retiring. In the Senate, the big question is whether Democrats will achieve a 60-40 margin to enable them to kill Republican filibusters.   By all odds, Republican retention of the White House should be as imperiled as it was in 1932, when the hapless Herbert Hoover faced FDR.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/candidates-cash-trails-reveal-plans-2008-04-23.html

Candidates’ cash trails reveal plans 

By Alexander Bolton 

Posted: 04/23/08 08:14 PM [ET] 

Campaign finance reports filed Sunday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) reveal Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) focus in the final dash to the presidential nomination finish line. 

Clinton

is pouring her money into

Indiana

and

Kentucky

, two states with high proportions of rural and blue-collar voters, groups that helped propel her to victory in big states such as

Ohio

and

Pennsylvania

.   Obama has focused on laying campaign groundwork in

North Carolina

and

Oregon

, two states with demographics that favor him.   These states contain the richest troves of delegates remaining on the primary calendar. On May 6,

Indiana

will apportion 72 delegates and

North Carolina

will allocate 115.  Each candidate’s distinct advantages in the remaining primaries make it likely that Obama and Clinton will split victories in the next several weeks. This could exacerbate Democratic anxiety over a sustained and bitter fight that could split the party in the general election by dividing two key Democratic constituencies — women and African-Americans.   

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/taxes/65_oppose_increase_in_capital_gains_tax

65% Oppose Increase in Capital Gains Tax

Friday, April 25, 2008

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 65% of Likely Voters oppose an increase in the Capital Gains tax. Just 16% favor an increase, while a fifth of voters are not sure (see Scott Rasmussen’s video report).   Eighty-five percent of Republicans oppose an increase in the capital gains tax along with 50% of Democrats and 62% of those not affiliated with either major party.   Fifty-two percent (52%) believe hiking the capital gains tax would hurt the economy. Just 17% say it would help the economy while 18% say it would have no impact. Republicans overwhelmingly believe raising this tax would harm the economy along with a plurality of Democrats.   Most voters, 56%, own at least $5,000 worth of stocks, bonds, or mutual funds and would be directly impacted by an increase in the capital gains tax. Not surprisingly, 71% of these investors are opposed to a capital gains tax increase.   As always, voters are skeptical when they hear politicians talk about taxes. Most (60%) believe that if a candidate promises to increase the capital gains tax, that candidate would increase other taxes as well. Just 13% of voters disagree. In addition, if the capital gains tax was increased, 48% say their own taxes would go up. Just 24% are confident their personal taxes would not be higher.   Barack Obama has indicated he might support raising the capital gains tax from 15% to 28%. More voters trust John McCain more than Barack Obama when it comes to the economy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/us/politics/27fiscal.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

3 Candidates With 3 Plans, but One Deficit

By LARRY ROHTER and MICHAEL COOPER

Published: April 27, 2008

The Republican and Democratic presidential candidates differ strikingly in their approaches to taxes and spending, but their fiscal plans have at least one thing in common: each could significantly swell the budget deficit and increase the national debt by trillions of dollars, according to tax and budget experts.  The reasons reflect the ideological leanings of the candidates, with Senator John McCain proposing tax cuts that go beyond President Bush’s and the Democrats advocating programs costing hundreds of billions of dollars. But for fiscal experts concerned with the deficit, both approaches are worrisome.  With the national debt soaring to $9.1 trillion from $5.6 trillion at the start of 2001, in part because of the Iraq war and Mr. Bush’s tax cuts, a crucial question about the candidates to succeed him is “whether they are helping to fill the hole or make it deeper,” said Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan organization that advocates deficit reduction. “With the proposals they have on the table, it looks to me like all three would make it deeper.”  Representatives of all three campaigns disputed such assessments, questioning the accounting methods analysts used to calculate the growing debt and saying they could enact their plans without making matters worse.  Mr. McCain’s plan would appear to result in the biggest jump in the deficit, independent analyses based on Congressional Budget Office figures suggest. A calculation done by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington found that his tax and budget plans, if enacted as proposed, would add at least $5.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTg0NGY0ODViN2NkNWQ3YWFhZGFjM2QxODU3NWZkZmY

Not Everything Is About Race

A wrong and reckless approach.

By Peter Wehner

April 25, 2008 4:30 PM

In his Friday column, E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post writes this:

Republicans clearly know that they can find ways to play on racial feeling while fully denying they are doing so. On Wednesday, the North Carolina Republican Party released a television ad showing Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, giving his now-famous sermon in which he declared, "God damn

America

." Of course Wright's comments were offensive, but to pretend that the ad does not have racial undertones would be to deny the obvious. After all, why didn't North Carolina Republicans focus instead on attacking Obama's alleged "elitism" or his foreign policy views?   But the ad in question doesn’t mention race anywhere; rather, it includes a clip of Reverend Wright’s incendiary words. Wright happens to be black — but his race is not the reason he’s in the ad. His words are — and if Wright were white, his words and picture would still be used.   Dionne argues that racism has to be the motivation of the North Carolina Republican party because the ad showed Wright’s comments instead of focusing on Obama’s foreign-policy views. But perhaps the reason for that is that Wright’s words insisting that God “damn America” — which Dionne himself concedes are “offensive” and has elsewhere described as “anti-American,” “lunatic,” “pernicious,” and ones we should “loathe” — are far more troubling to many Americans than Obama’s stand on the U.N. or the E.U.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Yjk0ODFlNmYzZDljNjdiZWE5ZTM4N2MyOGNjMDZhNGU=

Wright Game

By the Editors

April 26, 2008 8:30 AM

When the North Carolina GOP announced its intention to run an ad featuring Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s controversial pastor, lots of people got the vapors, including John McCain.  North Carolina Democrats have denounced the ad as “racist.” John McCain has gone almost as far. “I’ve done everything that I can to repudiate and to see that this kind of campaigning does not continue,” McCain said. He called North Carolina Republicans “out of touch with reality” in their refusal to pull the ad and suggested they aren’t worthy of the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan.

Please. The ad is a bank shot on top of a bank shot, hitting two Democratic gubernatorial candidates for endorsing Obama who, in turn, was long associated with the radical Wright. We doubt it will be particularly effective. But there is nothing illegitimate about it.

http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog/g/34fedc25-b630-48e8-b2f4-326c5d9d5314

Providing Context For Reverend Wright: The New Audio Of His Sermons

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt  at 7:17 PM

Friday, April 25, 2008

In his interview with Bill Moyers, Pastor Jeremiah Wright blasted the media for failing to provide context to his much-condemned remarks.  On today's show I played great portions of his sermons from April 13, 2004 and from September 16, 2001.  I will post the audio here later.    Pastor Wright  has a legitimate complaint that only sound bytes have been played, but until today I had no other material to work with.  The pastor could help us all if he would release recordings of all of his sermons, and Moyers ought to have asked for just that.  If you are going to mount the defense of "out of context," then provide the context.  Please be aware that due to technical issues beyond our control, there is a thirty second ad at the beginning of each clip.  Jeremiah Wright - 4-13-03 - Cut 1 - Jesus' enemies

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YmNkZjM2OTk5ZDYwM2FhN2UwYzg0ZTk2MzdkMjgzOWE=

Felicitous Future?

Grover Norquist's Leave Us Alone argues that the political prospects for smaller government are brighter than some think.

By Michael J. New

April 25, 2008 12:00 PM

Events during the past few years have caused many conservatives to be decidedly pessimistic about their future political prospects. Republicans fared poorly in the 2006

U.S.

midterm election, losing control of both the House and Senate. Furthermore, many conservatives were uninspired by the field of candidates seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2008, and disappointed that John McCain emerged as the nominee. In the wake of these defeats, numerous pundits have argued that the conservative movement needs to fundamentally restructure itself. However, Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist takes a far different view. In his recent book, Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, and Our Lives, Norquist makes a compelling case that the future actually looks quite bright for limited-government conservatives.   Norquist argues that future political battles will be waged between two competing coalitions. First is the loose coalition of "Leave Us Alone" voters, consisting of small businessmen, property owners, homeschoolers, and others who wish to conduct their affairs free from governmental interference. Second is the "takings" coalition consisting of trial lawyers, labor unions, government workers, and those who use the power of the state to redistribute resources.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NTIyZGZlYzFmZTJiOThjNGNmNjFmNjkzNmIzZjc1ZmU=

‘Popular’ Is Hillary’s Middle Name

Her way to win.

By Michael Barone

April 26, 2008 8:30 AM

One thing many people haven’t noticed about Hillary Clinton’s 55 percent to 45 percent victory over Barack Obama in the

Pennsylvania

primary is that it put her ahead of Obama in the popular vote. Her 214,000-vote margin in the

Keystone

State

means that she has won the votes, in primaries and caucuses, of 15,112,000 Americans, compared to 14,993,000 for Obama.   If you add in the votes, as estimated by the folks at realclearpolitics.com, in the

Iowa

,

Nevada

,

Washington

, and

Maine

caucuses, where state Democratic parties did not count the number of caucus-attenders,

Clinton

still has a lead of 12,000 votes.   Moreover, she may be able to maintain that lead, despite an expected Obama victory in

North Carolina

on May 6, by rolling up big popular vote margins in

West Virginia

on May 13,

Kentucky

on May 20 and

Puerto Rico

on June 1. So it’s likely that

Clinton

will be able to argue that undecided super-delegates should heed the will of the people.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/04/26/clinton_tries_a_different_deba.html?hpid=topnews

Clinton

Tries a Different Debate Debate

By Perry Bacon Jr.

South Bend

,

Ind.

-- Sen. Barack Obama says he's done debating, but he's facing a double team effort to force him into another one-on-one session with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.  The New York Senator again challenged him to a debate in

Indiana

, but with a new twist: no moderators.  "Just the two of us going for 90 minutes asking and answering questions,"

Clinton

said to a crowd of several thousand at a rally held at a minor-league baseball stadium here. "We'll set whatever rules seem fair."  Speaking of voters in

Indiana

and around the country, she said "they would love seeing that kind of debate and discussion, remember that's what happened during the Lincoln-Douglas debates ..... I think that would be good for the Democratic Party, it would be good for our democracy and it would be great for

Indiana

."  Just before

Clinton

issues her challenge, Obama ruled out more debates in a taped interview with Fox News that will air Sunday.  "We've had 21 and so what we've said we're two weeks, two big states we want to make sure we're talking to as many folks as possible on the ground taking questions from voters," Obama said. "We're not going to have debates between now and

Indiana

."  Obama was also pressed on the debate issue by former president Bill Clinton. Appearing in North Bend, a small town in

Oregon

, former President Bill Clinton, said while laying out his wife's proposals that "I wish that we could have debates on all this."

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/clinton-at-the-bat/

Clinton

at the Bat

By Jodi Kantor

April 26, 2008,  4:14 pm

SOUTH BEND

,

Ind.

— Senator Hillary Clinton began her campaign speech at a minor league stadium here by brandishing a baseball bat and promising to hit balls out of the park. She ended it by challenging Senator Barack Obama to a different sort of contest.   “What I think the people of

Indiana

deserve is a real one on one debate,” she said. “After the last debate, Senator Obama’s supporters complained a little about the tough questions,” she said, drawing a sarcastic “Awwwwww” from the crowd.  “I’m offering Senator Obama a chance to debate me, one-on-one, no moderators,” she said. At the same time, her campaign released a letter from Maggie Williams, its manager, sent to David Plouffe, her counterpart at the Obama campaign, outlining its proposed terms.  “Senator Clinton and Senator Obama will participate in a 90-minute debate in an open public forum,” Mrs. Williams wrote. “Just the two of them — no questioners, no panelists, no video clips. One candidate would speak for two minutes, then the other, alternating back and forth all the way through the debate. Their discussion – not any pre-set rules – would determine how long they spend on one subject before moving on to another.”  In an interview to be broadcast on Fox News on Sunday, Senator Obama said he will not debate Mrs. Clinton again before the

Indiana

and

North Carolina

primaries on May 6. Polls show the two tied in

Indiana

, with Mr. Obama substantially ahead in

North Carolina

. The Democratic candidates have debated 21 times, though as Mrs. Clinton pointed out, only four of those debates were between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama only.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/04/26/ST2008042602089.html?hpid=topnews

Now, This Is Campaign Fatigue

By Jonathan Weisman

Washington

Post Staff Writer

Sunday, April 27, 2008; Page A01

After nearly six months on the road, sleeping in hotels, herding an unruly press corps onto buses, and boarding and emptying out charter planes from

Medford

,

Ore.

, to

Mecklenburg County

,

N.C.

, Jen Psaki on Friday faced reality.   With seemingly no end to the Democratic campaign in sight, Sen. Barack Obama's traveling press aide went to the Chicago apartment she has seen a dozen times since December, put her belongings into storage and let her lease lapse. She is now officially homeless.   "This race gives new meaning to that phrase 'marathon, not a sprint,' but these last few months have been more like sprinting through a marathon," said Psaki, who saw no reason to keep paying rent after Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's win in Pennsylvania. "Nobody expected it to go this long."   If the American people are growing weary of the protracted Democratic nomination fight, they've got nothing on the candidates, their staffs or their staffs' families. A campaign that has stretched more than a year has now reached virtually every state, has seen babies born and staffers married, and has now begun to heat up again.   Fabiola Rodriguez-Ciampoli,

Clinton

's director of Hispanic communications, arrived in

San Antonio

on Feb. 15 to ramp up outreach to Latinos in

Texas

. Two days later, her long-awaited adoption papers came through and she became a mother, working out of an adviser's home with an infant in her lap.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D909T7400&show_article=1&catnum=3

Electoral map favors a Democrat, has McCain playing defense 

Apr 26 09:11 PM US/Eastern

By LIZ SIDOTI

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The electoral road to the White House favors Democrats this fall—either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton—and has Republican John McCain playing defense to thwart a presidential power shift.   A downtrodden economy, the war in

Iraq

and a public call for change have created an Electoral College outlook and a political environment filled with extraordinary opportunity for the Democrats and enormous challenge for the GOP nominee-in-waiting.  Both parties count on victory in dozens of states that long have voted their way. The competition to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win is expected to play out primarily in 14 states. All but one saw the greatest action in 2004. The exception is

Virginia

, a longtime Republican stronghold where Democrats have made inroads.   Eight of the states went for President Bush four years ago, including the crown jewels

Ohio

and

Florida

. Six, including big-prize

Pennsylvania

, voted for Democrat John Kerry. In the battlegrounds, far more electoral votes, 97, are up for grabs for Democrats than the 69 available for McCain to go after. Twice as many of the closest states—decided by 2 or fewer percentage points—voted Republican in 2004; they include New Mexico and Iowa, which the GOP won by 1 point.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/trust_on_issues/trust_on_issues

Trust on Issues

Democrats Trusted More on Eight of Ten Electoral Issues

Monday, April 21, 2008

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that voters trust the Democrats more than Republicans on eight out of ten key electoral issues. The economy is still seen as the most important issue of the campaign. Number two on the list is an issue few like to talk about in

Washington

—government ethics and reform. Democrats hold a single-digit advantage over the GOP on each of these issues. Democrats are also trusted more when it comes to the War in

Iraq

, Health Care, Social Security, Education, Immigration, and Abortion.   The Republicans hold the advantage on just taxes and national security (see data tables). See video commentary by Scott Rasmussen.   While these indicators are troublesome for the GOP and its Election 2008 prospects, its’ important to note that John McCain outperforms both the GOP brand and Barack Obama on a number of key issues.   Each month, Rasmussen Reports asks the likely voters to rank the importance of ten electoral issues and which of the two major parties they trust more on these issues. Seventy-nine percent (79%) of likely voters say the economy is Very Important. The Democrats have the advantage on this issue by a 48% to 40% margin. That advantage has fallen from an eleven-point lead last month.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D909CIIG0&show_article=1&catnum=3

Obama presses on gas prices, Clinton highlights energy bill 

Apr 26 02:15 AM US/Eastern

By MIKE GLOVER

Associated Press Writer

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - campaign_minute Democrat Barack Obama on Friday blamed high gasoline prices on Washington and a political establishment, including his rivals for the presidency, that he says hasn't stood up to oil companies. Hillary Rodham Clinton highlighted his vote for an energy bill she opposed and his campaign contributions from oil company executives.   "The candidates with the

Washington

experience—my opponents—are good people. They mean well, but they've been in

Washington

for a long time and even with all that experience they talk about, nothing has happened," Obama said at a local gas station. "This country didn't raise fuel efficiency standards for over 30 years."   The result, the

Illinois

senator said, is that consumers are suffering. "So what have we got to show for all that experience?" Obama asked. "Gas that's approaching $4 a gallon."   Clinton, who is challenging him for the Democratic presidential nomination, derided his promise to take on special interests.   "When it came time to stand up against the oil companies, to stand against Dick Cheney's energy bill, my opponent voted for it and I voted against it," the

New York

senator said at a rally at

Indiana

University

in

Bloomington

. "And that bill had billions of dollars in giveaways to the oil companies. It was the best bill that the energy companies could buy."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/037xurtt.asp

To Tell the Truth

Will the real Barack Obama please stand up?

by Fred Barnes

05/05/2008, Volume 013, Issue 32

E.J. Dionne's column in the Washington Post asked this question about Barack Obama: "Is he Adlai Stevenson or John F. Kennedy?" In the

New

Republic

online, John Judis wondered if Obama might be "the next" George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee who lost in a landslide. Both are interesting questions. But there's a more relevant and important one: Is Obama who he says he is?  This matters because Americans choose an individual, not a party, to fill the presidency. If voters elected the next president by party preference, the White House successor to George W. Bush would almost certainly be a Democrat. But we don't. And in 2008, as political scientist James Ceaser has noted, "the choice of the person will loom large"--indeed, larger than usual.  Senator Obama, the most exciting presidential candidate in decades and the likely Democratic nominee, is the main reason. He's running a strikingly personal campaign that places far less emphasis on ideology or a partisan agenda than on the man himself, Obama the person. He's running as a new kind of national leader who rejects "the same old politics" and intends to change the way

Washington

works and the country is governed.  This self-description is idealistic, lofty, and extravagant. He further characterizes himself as someone who unites political foes, rejects partisanship, will end polarization, and is neither a liberal nor an elitist. If what he says is true, he comes close to being what most Americans say they seek in a president. But is he telling the truth?

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/obama-no-debates-before-may-6/

Obama: No Debates Before May 6

By Jeff Zeleny

April 26, 2008,  3:08 pm

ANDERSON

,

Ind.

– Pining for another Democratic presidential debate?

If so, it’s not going to happen before the

Indiana

and

North Carolina

primaries on May 6.

That’s the word from Senator Barack Obama, who said in an interview to be broadcast tomorrow on “Fox News Sunday” that he had no plans of agreeing to another debate in the next 10 days with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. After that, aides say, it remains an open question.  Here is a brief excerpt of the interview with Chris