Politics::Election2008: October 2007 Archives

American Research Group: South Carolina Republican Presidential Preference

Can someone explain to me how Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney seem to have switched places between ARG's August and September polling in South Carolina? Romney was running in single digits, even before Thompson entered the race. Thompson was at 21% in August, and polled at 10% in September and October. Romney was at 9% in August and polled at 26% in September and October. All other polls show Thompson with more support than Romney. Are ARG's data entry people coding the responses incorrectly?

Hot Air: Video: Hillary Clinton flip flops around Eliot Spitzer's licenses-for-illegals plan

"Let's call this Exhibit A in the case against Hillary Clinton for president. In the following clip we see her radicalism, her shrillness, her inability to finesse a tough question, and her condescension to her opponents."

Townhall.com: Blog: An Open Letter to Rep. Ron Paul

"[Y]our columns have been featured for several years in the American Free Press -a publication of the nation's leading Holocaust Denier and anti-Semitic agitator, Willis Carto. His book club even recommends works that glorify the Nazi SS, and glowingly describe the 'comforts and amenities' provided for inmates of Auschwitz. Have your columns appeared in the American Free Press with your knowledge and approval?"

Townhall.com: Kevin McCullough: Obama's Abortion

Barack Obama's political choice: Votes or cash? Alienate black evangelicals or his extreme social liberal base of financial support?

OpinionJournal: Stephen Moore: Comfy With K Street

"Meanwhile, Democrats under Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Sen. Schumer have quietly erected their own K Street Project, and employ some of the same strong-arm tactics they once deplored. 'I've never felt the squeeze that we're under now to give to Democrats and to hire them,' says one telecom industry representative. 'They've put out the word that if you have an issue on trade, taxes, or regulation, you'd better be a donor and you'd better not be part of any effort to run ads against our freshmen incumbents.'...

"Former Republican House majority leader Dick Armey explains that 'the business groups are simply not ideological givers. They give to buy access and to minimize risk.'

"He's undoubtedly right. And so, if Democrats run the table in 2008, they will have corporate America to thank. But business is living in a fantasy world if they believe this will spare them from what is likely to be one of the most anti-growth agendas that Washington has seen in many decades. Nor should they be spared. When you sell the rope to the hangman, you deserve to have a noose around your neck."

The American Spectator: A Tale of Two Candidates

Quin Hillyer, former editorial writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: "Ask lots of folks in Arkansas, including Republicans, and a fair number will probably tell you that Huck is for Huck is for Huck. National media folks like David Brooks, dealing in surface appearances only, rave about what a nice guy Huckabee is, and a moral exemplar to boot. If they only did a little homework, they would discover a guy with a thin skin, a nasty vindictive streak, and a long history of imbroglios about questionable ethics."

OpinionJournal: Rhodes Cook: College Try

California may join Maine and Nebraska by electing its presidential electors by congressional district, rather than winner-take-all statewide. Rhodes Cook looks at how such an approach, applied in every state, would have affected presidential elections going back to 1960. (Nixon would have won in 1960 -- voting by district would have prevented fraud in Chicago from affecting more than the city's own congressional districts -- and the 1976 election would have ended in a 269-269 tie!)

Townhall.com: John Hawkins: The Conservative Case For Fred Thompson In 2008

Among other reasons: "In the movie Roadhouse, another Dalton, played by Patrick Swayze said, 'I want you to be nice until it's time to not be nice.' Fred [Thompson] has this down to an art form. Typically, he's a pleasant, sharp witted man who comes across like a more politically astute version of most people's grandfathers. But, when he feels a need to punch back, he has shown that unlike the GOP's current standard-bearer, he's up to the task."

Meanwhile, Ann Coulter begs to differ: "Conservatives unhappy with our Republican presidential candidates seem to be drifting aimlessly toward Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee in the misguided belief that these candidates are more conservative than Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. This is like breaking up with Bobby Brown so you can date Phil Spector." Thompson's unforgivable sin in Coulter's eyes: Failing to vote to convict Bill Clinton.

Instapundit.com - On Harkin's ad hominem attack on Limbaugh

Prof. Reynolds nails it: "IT'S NOT A 'SMEAR' -- it's better understood as 'battlespace preparation.' And the target is the traditional media; the intent is to limit the ability of people like Limbaugh or O'Reilly to drive stories in the mainstream news as we get closer to the election."