I like Ohio House Elections and Ethics Committee Chairman Dan Stewart (D-Columbus). He was the main Democratic sponsor of H.B. 176, the bill that would have added sexual orientation and gender identity to Ohio’s housing and employment anti-discrimination laws. But I don’t understand what his committee is doing killing the Golden Week of voting.
Today, his Committee voted out H.B. 260, which would make substantial changes to Ohio’s election laws.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, the Democratic House bill would get rid of the “Golden Week”- wherein people could register to vote and then cast an early ballot on the same day.
The bill does a number of good things and some downright silly (like requiring small U.S. flags be placed within 100 feet of every polling place regardless of whether the placement is physically or reasonably possible.)
The Dispatch notes that the House Committee also accepted an amendment by State Representative/Democratic Secretary of State candidate Jennifer Garrison (D?-Marietta) that would have Ohio adopt changes mirroring recently passed federal legislation that made it easier for military and overseas citizens to cast ballots.
The State Senate is proceeding with its own bill, and (surprise!) there are vast differences. How much you wanna bet that State Senator Husted will get some easy amendments into the bill, too, including one virtually identical to Garrison’s?
Knowing this, I don’t understand why the House Democrats are getting rid of the Golden Week. Why not pass their bill with it, and if you really are willing to get rid of it, then you’ve got something to negotiate away in a House-Senate conference?
Why did we, as a party, spend so much energy and litigation defending the Golden Week as a favorable election law provision that encourages the electorally disenfranchised to become enfranchised only to throw it away a year later?
Well, the news of Obama raising $150 million in September checks one prediction off my list. Only one more to go. Back in July, I told our readers this:
Obama will have a $100 million month
Obama will win in November and it won’t really be close
It looks like the trendlines are about the same. If McCain doesn’t narrow the gap soon in PA he may have to shut it down as well. North Carolina might need the resources. Florida for sure does! Together they represent a pickup of 32 EVs over Kerry’s 2004 performance. Both have recently broken hard for Obama.
Here’s an open question to anyone on the right who cares to answer it. Will the same WorldNet Wingnuts who demanded John Kerry open up his records also demand that John McCain sign Standard Form-180 and open up his military records as well? Full scrutiny is, aftterall, very important for the public to get a true sense for the man they may elect President in November. Right?
There are indeed very many questions to be answered. What does John “The Maverick War Hero” McCain have to hide???
The Navy may claim that it already released McCain’s record to the Associated Press on May 7, 2008 in response to the AP’s Freedom of Information Act request. But the McCain file the Navy released contained 19 pages — a two-page overview and 17 pages detailing Awards and Decorations. Each of these 17 pages is stamped with a number. These numbers range from 0069 to 0636. When arranged in ascending order, they precisely track the chronology of McCain’s career. It seems reasonable to ask the Navy whether there are at least 636 pages in McCain’s file, of which 617 weren’t released to the Associated Press.
The faux outrage over public financing is laughable when you remember the deal John McCain too with the devil back when he was an also-ran. Finally the Obama camp (normally timely with this type of thing), thumps Senator McCain over the head with it:
David Plouffe brought a prop to his briefing with reporter: a copy of John McCain’s signature on a state election document in which he attested that he’d be taking public financing.
“John McCain is spending tens of millions of dollars, we believe, unlawfully,’ he said, waving the document.
The details of the argument over whether McCain used an acceptable or unacceptable loophole to secure a loan with the possibility of public financing is now before a court in a DNC lawsuit and subject to the FEC’s consideration.
“John McCain signed his name, ‘John McCain,” Ploufe said. “He got on the ballot attesting he would be in the primary system.”
“They’re out there throwing stones in glass houses on this,” he said of McCain’s attacks on Obama on public financing.
Thanks David. Little quicker on the trigger next time bro. Narratives set pretty quickly nowadays…like super glue.
“But I can confirm to you that we never tortured him. We never tortured any prisoners.”
Mr Duyet reminisces instead about how he often summoned the future US presidential candidate to his private office for informal chats.
“We used to argue about the war – about whether it was right or wrong,” he says.
“He is a very frank man – very conservative, and very loyal to his country and the American ideal.
“He had a very interesting accent and sometimes he taught me words in English and corrected my accent. I have followed his career since he left prison.”
Private office for informal chats? Man, that doesn’t sound like the imagery we have been sold. It sounds more like an…um…what’s the word? Country club?
So Tran Trong Duyet, is John McCain lying?
“He did not tell the truth,” he says.
“But I can somehow sympathise with him. He lies to American voters in order to get their support for his presidential election.”
Let’s be clear here. If John had just been shot down and housed in a prison where he was treated properly within the confines of an oft GOP-maligned Geneva Conventions, he should be considered an honorable war veteran. I got no qualms there. If he embellished his captivity by telling stories of torture when his injuries were really sustained in the crashing of his plane, then he’s a dishonest, opportunistic man unfit for command.
Let’s just hope the entire truth comes out before it’s too late and this man possibly has his hand on the big red button!
Very good decision. Why would you limit yourself to less than 100 million when you’ve already taken 250? In a primary? You don’t. Especially since there will likely be more as the movement of $25-$100 donations continues. We are not even close to tapped out, those of us who gave up to $100.
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$50 your way Senator. Anyone serious about change should signal their support of this decision to be financed by us and donate today!
McCain is toast from a fundraising standpoint. It’s the main reason – despite all the reformer straight talk BS – that he wanted desperately to corner Obama into taking public funds. No dice, John. Let’s belly up to the bar of public opinion and see who can raise the most money. How ’bout that? His only hope will be the slimeball 527s, and boy will they pile it on! You better believe it. All the more reason to hit the donate button!
Apparently, having a Republican heap praise on a Democrat running for President is not so good for another Republican who happens to be running for the same job. Back during the primary, Illinois State Senator Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) was featured in an Obama ad talking about how the Senator did great work in Illinois getting both sides to work together (ie: get shit done).
John McCain has but the kibosh on any of that kind of talk. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Dillard has sent a letter to Obama strategist David Axelrod asking him not to use any of the footage shot with him in any ads in the general election. The Obama camp has said they will not.
Not surprisingly, Republicans were pissed back then when Kirk did the honorable thing and told the truth about Barack Obama’s service in the Illinois Senate. His response to these critics is something we should remember:
“I owe it to the American public and my friend, Sen. Obama, to tell the truth, for better or for worse, [about] what were the early years of his elected life in Springfield,” Dillard said recently. “In many ways, because he is the first African-American to have a realistic chance of being the president, I owe it to everyone to not be partisan in my reflections upon what was Sen. Obama’s record in a city in which Abraham Lincoln lived.”
Yes, Senator. You should tell the truth. Thanks for doing so. Took great courage.
I guess the stories of John McCain not getting this new media thing (along with staff) are true. I mean doesn’t the Senator understand that we on teh Interwebs can slice and dice Kirk’s ad spot any way we wish and that if it is desired to be seen it will?
In case there were any feminist outliers who wanted to think about voting for John McCain over Barack Obama due to perceived treatment of Hillary Clinton:
Clayton Williams is a prominent person in Texas politics. Prominent enough to secure the GOP gubernatorial election in 1990. During this election campaign he said various things that decent people find abhorrent, such as joking about rape that “As long as it’s inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it.” These remarks were publicized in Texas and perhaps played a role in Williams’ 1990 loss. But this is a big country, and there are lots of non-decent people out there. Thus, Williams was tapped as a fundraiser for John McCain and put together an event that was going to raise $300,00 for McCain.
Event gets cancelled. 300k is alot. Uncancelled. Bundled. Blah.
If you give two shits about women’s issues you will fervently work to defeat McCain and defend Obama at every turn. If we end up with McCain, we won’t be lying back and taking it, we’ll be bent over…for 4 more years. Think about it.
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Barack Obama’s campaign envisions a path to the presidency that could include Virginia, Georgia and several Rocky Mountain states, but not necessarily the pair of battlegrounds that decided the last two elections — Florida and Ohio.
In a private pitch late last week to donors and former supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe outlined several alternatives to reaching the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House that runs counter to the conventional wisdom of recent elections.
At a fundraiser held at a Washington brewery Friday, Plouffe told a largely young crowd that the electoral map would be fundamentally different from the one in 2004. Wins in Ohio and Florida would guarantee Obama the presidency if he holds onto the states won by Democrat John Kerry, Plouffe said, but those two battlegrounds aren’t required for victory.
Florida, which has 27 electoral votes this year, gave the presidency to George W. Bush in the disputed election of 2000. Ohio, with its 20 electoral votes, ensured Bush of re-election in 2004 in his race against Kerry.
The presumed Democratic nominee’s electoral math counts on holding onto the states Kerry won, among them Michigan (17 electoral votes), where Obama campaigns on Monday and Tuesday. Plouffe said most of the Kerry states should be reliable for Obama, but three currently look relatively competitive with Republican rival John McCain — Pennsylvania, Michigan and particularly New Hampshire.
Asked about his remarks, Plouffe said Ohio and Florida start out very competitive — but he stressed that they are not tougher than other swing states and said Obama will play “extremely hard” for both. But he said the strategy is not reliant on one or two states.
They’ve changed the electoral math already. No reason for me to believe they won’t continue to. They won a nomination in a way that speaks to this untraditional methodology.
I’m hoping we can deliver Ohio and seal the deal, but it’s nice knowing we may not necessarily LOSE it for him. I think we’ll deliver and you’ll have to stay tuned to learn how. It’s in the works.
Today is the day. After some tough talk from some trusted friends, Hillary has finally decided to read the handwriting that has been on the wall for months. She will suspend her campaign and throw her support behind the presumptive nominee Barack Obama.
About time. I’m an Obama supporter and have been for a long time now, but I say the following as someone who wants real change from the Republican nightmare that got me blogging in the first place. Here is what I want to hear from Hillary:
She should rally her supporters and thank them for their loyal support. Nobody can question their loyalty, which rivaled anything Obama supporters could bring. That’s the reason for the division, this equal loyalty on both sides that was equally as stubborn as well.
She should remind her supporters that they can still honor her and support what she believes in by supporting Barack Obama. She should also tell them in no uncertain terms that any talk of protesting her not getting the nomination by voting for McCain would dishonor her personally. She shouldn’t give some weak “that would be the wrong thing to do” as she has in the past. She needs to make it personal. Tell them they will be offending her personally if they do such a thing.
Her tone in this speech needs to be precisely opposite from her speech after the June 3 contests. She should stand proud, but not be defiant. She should lament a loss, but be hopeful in what an Obama campaign in the general can bring.
She should remind everyone of the danger of not uniting and losing the momentum that has seen Democrats come out in record numbers while Republicans have essentially settled for John McCain. We’ve not settled, we’ve fiercely battled and picked the best candidate in an energetic process that set records. We must continue to set records in taking back this country from a McBush continuation of the George W. Bush nightmare.
Hillary is a political professional. She needs to pull out all the stops and give the speech of her life. it will not only help us in the general election and help to heal divisions and give us a spark going into the Obama-McCain battle, but will enhance her future political ambitions. To do that, she needs to talk just enough about her race and what she accomplished. Her focus, however, should be on what happens now and what her and her supporters should do to help us win.
Obama has given her and her supporters the space they need to do the right thing. It is hard. Thinking of Obama suspending his campaign makes me nauseous. I can completely relate to what some Hillary supporters must be feeling. I’m truly empathetic to that. I know it will take some time and all the right moves by both Hillary and Obama. She can open the door to that process. I expect he’ll continue it in a way that will honor her and her supporters. He has to.
I look forward to a new day of unity and focus on winning in November. It’s the most important contest since I began blogging and those of us on our side of the political spectrum can not take this lightly. We have to win.
Go Hillary. Help bring us together. You do that and I’ll work hard to forgive and forget the primary.
We’re watching history being made tonight and it will happen again in November. Simply awesome. This will be the moment that I will forever remember as having flown 9 hours home from Germany to see a family I’ve longed missed over the past week and had the chance to watch Barack Obama become the Democratic nominee for President of the United States of America.
