Tag: Primaries

crossposted at Daily Kos and Truth & Progress

In a not so shocking development, my favorite presidential candidate (other than you know who) is moving up in the polls.  With his brilliant one-state strategy, he is fast emerging as a political threat to the front-runners and according to the Washington Post, he’s got momentum

Poll Tries to Measure Colbert Effect

Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican polling firm, recently completed a national poll of 1,000 likely 2008 voters that included Colbert’s name in both the GOP and Democratic primaries. (He has announced his plans to run in both the Democratic and Republican primaries.)  In the field from Oct. 18-21, the survey has a 5 percent margin of error.

In the Democratic primary, Colbert takes 2.3 percent of the vote — good for fifth place behind Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (40 percent), Sen. Barack Obama (19 percent), former Sen. John Edwards (12 percent) and Sen. Joe Biden (2.7 percent.  Colbert finished ahead of Gov. Bill Richardson (2.1 percent), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (2.1 percent) and former Sen. Mike Gravel (less than 1 percent).

Crossposted at Daily Kos

Sigh. Look, I’ll be brief. I come here this morning, just a peak ’cause I have other work, seriously, and oh my god, what do I find? Three Gore diaries on the rec’ list, one urging Al to run, one offering in-depth analysis the latest poll data from Gallup on Al’s chances, and one that states categorically as “breaking news” that Gore has ruled out a run completely.. Guess which one made my heart stop? Thankfully, having been on this roller-coaster for a while, I check out the comments and sure enough, Gore has said nothing of the kind , nothing new at all, and who really thinks he would break such a huge piece of news to the Europeans before his own people?

One problem that has been raised, and it’s a very valid point, is how will Gore be able to shift gears from repeatedly insisting, these many months, that  “I have no intention”, “I have no plans” to run for President to suddenly declaring he’s in?  What can he say without losing all credibility and becoming a laughing stock on the evening news? That is what this diary will examine.

I stumbled onto this on the internets and didn’t see it diaried in the past few days

Clooney, DiCaprio to Make Howard Dean Movie

Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney are reported to be in early talks about teaming up for a movie, which The Hollywood Reporter is calling a “political thriller,” loosely based on Howard Dean’s innovative but ultimately unsuccessful run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004.

Mr. DiCaprio is expected to play the young, idealistic communications director who guides an unconventional candidate but is ultimately derailed by dirty politics as usual.  So, that means the heartthrob is playing the screen version of Joe Trippi. (Kind of like Robert Redford playing Bob Woodward in “All the President’s Men.”)

So, if you worked on the Dean Campaign in 2003-2004, I guess here’s your chance to be in the movie. 

crossposted at Daily Kos and Truth & Progress

Last night, Tim Russert’s CNBC Show discussed the state of the 2008 race as it stands now.  This show, about which I’ve written before, has no transcripts available and almost every time I write about it, it is usually from memory.  Last night, however, I did take notes.

I almost always watch this one-hour show as it allows the guests maximum time to elaborate their viewpoint.  Unlike ‘Meet The Press,’ Russert rarely interrupts and proves what one of my favorite journalists ever, Robin MacNeil, once said of the concept behind PBS’ The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, “If you allow a politician or a policy maker more than a few seconds to speak, they might even say something substantive.”

Towards the end of last night’s show, Russert and his panel discussed Al Gore’s political future.

Yesterday, I spent a fun and very worthwhile morning collecting voter signatures with Louisa, the 6th District (Marin and Sonoma Counties) volunteer coordinator for the campaign to place Al Gore on the California Democratic primary ballot.*

This drive is part of a larger grass roots effort to convince Al Gore that we need him as our next President.  Today was our first day collecting signatures.

Later that afternoon, Louisa emailed a fantastic account of the morning’s events.  Louisa’s words were so inspiring that I asked her if I could repost them.  Louisa, who is nearly eighty (you’d never know it), has graciously agreed:

Yes, indeed.  It’s the single most important issue of the campaign!  It’s the single most sought after endorsement of the year!  It’s the question of the ages: Who Would Flying Spaghetti Monster Vote For?

Follow his noodly appendage below the break!