April 02, 2007

4/2: Batter Up!

While some netroots sources have mentioned numbers as high as $35M for Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) Q1 totals, there's a growing frustration in the community that Obama has not done enough to seperate himself from the Dem establishment on netroots bread and butter issues like the war and economic populism. Obama's latest netroots troubles stem from an AP interview where Obama claims Dems will quickly send Pres. Bush a clean Iraq funding bill, should he veto the current Dem compromise. With polls showing clear majorities of Americans support the Dems Iraq supplemental, bloggers are calling on Obama to "step up" and lead on the issue, not "dither" like "a dispassionate observer."

DEM FIELD: Maybe We Should Press Our Candidates On Their Plans For Iraq

MyDD's Matt Stoller doesn't mean "to pick on" Hillary Clinton but links to posts showing Clinton "plans to stay in Iraq with as many as 75,000 troops to do a variety of tasks" and wonders how she gets away with telling fundraiser audiences: "If George Bush doesn't get us out of Iraq by the election, I will."

Stoller asks: "How is it possible for a major party Democratic candidate to continually promise donors an end our involvement in Iraq while simultaneously proposing a plan that will keep us in Iraq?" Stoller does not let the rest of the Dem Field off either: "All of the candidates to a greater or lesser extent are doing this same dance ... We ought to start pressing all of our candidates on their plans for Iraq. Are they going to leave troops in Iraq? If so, how is that ending the war?

CLINTON: Carville Not Defined By Hillary

Following up on netroots all star complaints about James Carville's position as a CNN 'analyst' considering his relationship with Hillary Clinton, TPM Cafe's Greg Sargent phoned CNN for comment and was referred to Carville himself.

From Carville: "I'm not an adviser to her campaign. I'm not being paid by her campaign...I don't get paid. I'm not an adviser. ... I'm not defined by my support of Hillary Clinton." MyDD's Matt Stoller responded: "The reality is simple - CNN should have a variety of non-Clinton supporting analysts in addition to James Carville and Paul Begala. And the channel should identify him clearly as who he is. Otherwise, how are we going to know that Carville is being a neutral political analyst and not a Clinton partisan when he delivers on message digs at Obama on the Situation Room?"

EDWARDS: More Than Symbolically Blue

Noting that John Edwards almost doubled the number of his online contributors between 3/29 and 3/31, MyDD's Jerome Armstrong says Edwards is "on fire" online. Armstrong goes on to praise Edwards for supporting netroots infrastructure by using their preferred online fundraising tool, ActBlue: "That Edwards is using ActBlue to process his contributions is more than symbolic, as those resources are actually what will help to build the progressive netroots movement for the coming election cycles. ... it's an action that goes beyond talking about a movement to embracing the actual movement. That's all the more reason to heap praise on the Edwards campaign."

OBAMA: Shut Up And Lead

For the second time in two weeks Barack Obama is facing netroots criticism, this time for telling the AP Congress will quickly fund the Iraq war without timelines if Pres. Bush vetoes the first Dem appropriations bill since no lawmaker ""wants to play chicken with our troops." Negative reactions include:

• DailyKos' founder Markos Moulitsas: "What a ridiculous thing to say. Not only is it bad policy, not only is it bad politics, it's also a terrible negotiating approach. ... Obama just surrendered to Bush."
• MyDD's Matt Stoller: "I want to believe that Obama prizes civility, and that he has in his heart progressive instincts. I want to believe he's a movement guy ... But I can't. It's not just that he has not distinguished himself on the war from Senator Clinton and her plan for perpetual occupation ... It's that he seems not to have any sense of how leaders must act in the modern political environment.
• Taylor Marsh: "Mr. Obama goes on to say that, hey, it's not my job to push the president and use my senatorial power to stop a war 60% of the American people want stopped. YOU do it. That's right, America, it's your job to provide cover for the senator so he can then get up the spine to do his job. Because he simply can't stand up and lead on something like this when Mr. Bush will veto it anyway. So get busy, will ya?"
• MyDD's Chris Bowers: "Obama should have rejected the premise of the question he was asked and, instead of talking about process within the Democratic caucus, aimed his response at congressional Republicans who are still supporting Bush on Iraq. ... This is a fight we can win, and not just on symbolic terms either. In order to do so, we need figures like Senator Obama to step up."

Obama was not without his defenders online, many of whom chose to attack the AP: "[T]he AP has some serious Faux-News-like people calling at least some of the shots, and sending out some serious propaganda into our world under the guise of 'news'."

Markos shot back against these claims: "Of course, the AP could've gotten this key passage horribly wrong. ...But if so, the Obama campaign has made zero effort to correct the effort (nothing on their site or blog)." Talk Left's Big Tent Democrat notes Obama has used the same "chicken" line before and takes the opportunity to voice his concerns about Obama: "So all the Obama sycophants who believe the AP is lying need to wake up and stop drinking the Obama kool aid. For months and months, I have been preaching that Obama has been playing a bad brand of politics. ... Obama has talent and a good heart, but he has a politics problem."

OBAMA II: Ignore Mama At Your Own Risk

Jack and Jill Politics Jill Tubman continues to track response to a "viral" email circulating in "most black people's inboxes." Tubman posts an exchange between BlackProf's Spencer Overton (includes video of Cornell West's Obama doubts) and the author of the email, Bacardi Jackson, including from Jackson:

I was moved to write the open letter, not as a work of scholarship or even necessarily for publication, but simply because I was frustrated with the level of the discussions about Obama and desperately needed an outlet. To be clear, my frustration did not stem from black people not supporting Obama. I agree that we are not a monolithic community and should not be sheep. Rather, my frustration stemmed from the repeated shallow critiques of Obama, which did not go to his record, his experience or anything remotely relevant to the question of his qualifications for President. ... I was deeply disappointed to see people I have long admired and respected appear to follow the same old script of criticizing Obama without substance while completely ignoring that the questions being raised about him were problematic and suspect.

Tubman shares some of her own email responses and adds: "Mamas are touchstones in black culture. You ignore a riled up well-networked and well-educated churchgoing black mother to your peril. They have this tendency to vote. But will the Clinton and Obama campaigns (note that Edwards doesn't squeak into this discussion among black folks in the same way) listen and respond?"

GINGRICH: And As Long As We're On The Subject, He Hates Puppies Too

Ankle Biting Pundit's Bull Dog Pundit hits back against an AP "hit job" on Newt Gingrich's speech calling for the elimination of bilingual education. BDP wants to know why the article includes a paragraph on Gingrich's extramarital affairs when the speech being covered has nothing to do with 'family values.' BDP also points out the AP is just plain wrong about its assertion that Gingrich has never discussed his divorces publicly: "Gingrich did mention about 2 weeks ago to James Dobson on his radio program that he was having an affair during his second marriage, so it's not true that he has never addressed it publicly."

BDP later updates: "After seeing this AP story, posted 1 hour before the story below, which made no mention of Gingrich's divorce or affairs, I can come to no other conclusion that some editor at AP decided it should be included, even though it had no relevance to the story."

GIULIANI: Party Like It's '76?

Ramesh Ponnuru covered Rudy Giuliani's Club for Growth speech for The Corner, and reports, "the consensus was that he helped himself. ... People liked hearing that he is committed to cutting taxes and spending, although he was no more specific than Romney about the tax cuts and less specific on spending."

AmSpec Blog's James Antle adds that the crowd was impressed with Giuliani's refusal to flip-flop on abortion, but fellow AmSpecer Dave Holman doesn't see how Giuliani can win with a pro-choice position:

Here's the thing: when was the last time Republicans nominated a pro-abortion candidate for president? 1976. That was during the brief period between Roe and the Moral Majority when many evangelical Christians (even the Southern Baptist Convention) embraced the right to abortion. The abortion issue had not yet captivated the Republican Party.

GIULIANI II: More Laura Than Hillary

Greg Pollowitz filed the official Corner review of Judy Giuliani's 20/20 interview including: "The pre interview hoopla of Judith sitting in on cabinet meetings was WAY overblown. From the narrative tonight, Judith was instrumental in getting Rudy through his prostate cancer - explaining the "ologies" as she called them. Radiology, oncology, etc. The idea that Judith would sit in on cabinet/policy meetings was in relation to health care issues, nothing more. ... Overall, I thought it was a good interview. She comes across a lot like Laura Bush, while the pre interview perception was that she was going more like Hillary."

MCCAIN: Best Week Ever!

Even before his trip to Baghdad, Townhall's Matt Lewis was ready to call the week for John McCain. Without mentioning campaign finance reform Lewis writes: "The above interview (along with several others we conducted) made it clear that the issues which have plagued McCain among conservative pundits and "insiders" have not resonated with the voters."

Lewis also recapped positive McCain receptions on conservative talk radio and reminded readers of McCain's new "Surrender is NOT an option" campaign.

ROMNEY: Let Me Talk To My Lawyers

After asking Mitt Romney "if [he] believed the president should have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens with no review" Cato Pres. Ed Crane was disappointed Romney said he would have to discuss it with "smart lawyers" before he could make up his mind. Race 4 '08s LJ was also not happy with the answer: "This has to be one of the more disturbing answers to a question so far during the campaign. Never mind that such an action would be blatantly unconstitutional, it would also make the US no better than the Soviet Union or Cuba; disappearing United States citizens never to be heard from again."

The Corner's Andy McCarthy was more generous: "To ask whether "the president should have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens with no review" is confusing. Presidents do not have such authority. During times of armed conflict, they have authority to arrest and detain American citizens who are enemy combatants with no trial, but not with no review. ... The Justice Department conceded in connection with the Supreme Court's 2004 Hamdi case (involving an American citizen enemy combatant) that U.S. persons (a category broader than U.S. citizens) are entitled to challenge their detention by petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The Supreme Court agreed that this was the case."

Andrew Sullivan wasn't interested in McCarthy's specifics: "Until a leading Republican commits to the full restoration of habeas corpus for American citizens, whether the executive considers them an "enemy combatant" or not, no one who loves freedom can support the GOP. In fact, any lover of freedom should consider it a duty to defeat them."

In other Romney doubting, IA's Krusty Konservative demotes Romney to third in his IA caucus rankings due to his inability to escape "low double digits for months now despite having put together a solid Iowa staff, and frequently visiting the state." Also, K-Lo says she's ready to abandon the Romney train if Fred Thompson decides to run.

THOMPSON: More Law And Order Comparisons

A video of Fred Thompson speaking at a church in the wake of 9/11 is being spammed at conservative bloggers. Race 4 '08s DaveG raves:

Thompson's faith reminds me of Reagan's. Both are able to evoke things spiritual without sending the message that individuals who disagree with their specific sect are second-class citizens. The manner in which Thompson discusses faith is not only one that would appeal to conservative Protestants, but also to mainline Protestants, Roman Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and even unaffiliated individuals open to the idea of a higher power. As a consequence, Thompson is able to utilize faith to unite and not divide. You know, like Reagan did.

IRAQ: Another Day In Paradise

John McCain's walk through streets in Baghdad drew predictably unkind responses from lefty bloggers including:

• AMERICAblog's John Aravosis: "McCain takes 'safe' stroll in Baghdad market... wearing body armor, flanked by 100 American soldiers, 3 Blackhawk helicopters, and 2 Apache gunships.
• Atrios: "I don't know whether to be more amazed by how full of s**t he is or the fact that some in the media are actually choosing to report on that fact.
• Talking Points Memo's David Kurtz: "In his Dukakis-in-a-tank moment, McCain himself wore a bulletproof vest on his stroll."
• The Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum: "Seriously, just how stupid does McCain think we are? Doesn't he realize that this kind of thing just draws attention to exactly how dangerous Baghdad still is? He's accomplished the exact opposite of what he set out to do."

Righty bloggers led with Drudge's coverage of CNN's Michael Ware's "outrageous" conduct at McCain press conference. Reactions include:

• Instapundit: "Ah, professionalism."
• Power Line's John Hinderaker: "Maybe Ware was drunk; that would be consistent with his own description of how he spends his time in Baghdad. But he is an extreme manifestation of an all too common phenomenon--the journalist as advocate rather than neutral observer."
• AmSpec Blog's John Tabin: "Heckling at a press conference is very rude, and wouldn't be acceptable even from an opinion journalist (I wouldn't dream of laughing in Nancy Pelosi's face during a press conference). That said, isn't it better when guys like Ware let their biases hang out, rather than embedding them in reports that are ostensibly objective?"

In off-type Iraq-blogging, Power Line's Scott Johnson shares the "pessimistic assessment" of one of Power Line's "hometown heroes serving in Iraq." The "Human Intelligence collector" reports:

The Iraqi government and security forces are so thoroughly infiltrated by the Shia militias that you could say that the militias are the government and you would not be far off. ... The careerists in the Army and DoD have leaned that not taking chances and reporting only good news up the chain are the ways to advance their careers. Just look at General Casey. The army is first and foremost a bureaucracy intent on taking its processes, forms, procedures and top down decision making with it wherever it goes. The Army is not flexible enough or well trained enough to win a counterinsurgency. ... We have mismanaged Iraq in ways too numerous to list here for four years. In order to succeed on the ground we would have to scrap everything we have done and start over.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Let Them Eat Cake

Responding to Glenn Greenwald's ruminations on Barack Obama as "the only candidate even thinking and talking about the deeper and more fundamental diseases plaguing how our political system works" MyDD's Chris Bowers writes:

Over the past few days, I have spent a decent amount of time reading about the French Revolution, which I think is somewhat more applicable to the situation facing the progressive movement than is the American Revolution. While in America the revolution allowed a class of individuals already in charge of the most powerful local institutions to break free from a foreign power, in France the revolution took place as a means to wrest control of the most powerful local institutions (the church, the courts, the military, taxes and tariffs, executive power, legislative power, etc) from a class of individuals residing in the same country. Like the French, and unlike our founders, we are fighting to wrest control, not for freedom from outside influence. The former is always a bloodier, more chaotic, and drawn out process than the latter.

LEST WE FORGET: Chuck Norris Could Do It

Tao of Dan calls readers attention to Line 20 of Google Maps directions on how to get to Berlin, Germany, from Queens, NT: "Swim Across the Atlantic - 3,462 mi."

Posted by Conn Carroll at April 2, 2007 12:45 PM