Election 2008

November 8, 2007 - ABC News' Eloise Harper Reports: Rule number one when campaigning at a diner: always leave a good tip - and, apparently, make sure it gets properly 'disbursed'.

In early October, Sen. Hillary Clinton's ‘Middle Class Express’ made a pit stop at the Maid Rite Diner in Marshalltown, Iowa.

The New York senator, joined by local political luminaries Christie Vilsack and Ruth Harkin, enjoyed a famous loose meat sandwich and attempted to hand caucus cards to the Iowans inside.

Clinton also spoke to one of the diner's waitresses, Anita Esterday. It was her first day on the job and she and Clinton shared a short exchange. Esterday, who has three jobs and works 12 hour shifts, said to Clinton "both of my sons have worked since they were 14 years old"; Clinton told her, "I'm proud of you."

But, according to Esterday, that's where Clinton's gratitude ended as the campaign crew left with nary a gratuity for any of the hard working Maid-Riters.

"I mean, nobody got left a tip that day," Esterday said in an interview with NPR after a visit by Senator Clinton.

November 8, 2007 - The same day that Ron Paul made presidential fund raising history, the Iowa GOP announced that its December 4th Republican Debate in Des Moines Iowa to be aired by Fox News, would only include candidates polling at least 5% in presidential polls.

The move by the Iowa GOP and Fox News to exclude candidates based on polls at this early stage of the presidential race has outraged Ron Paul supporters and may provoke a large demonstration at the site of the debate. Paul supporters feel the move is a deliberate attempt to censor Ron Paul from the debate.

Messages of outrage have been posted on websites and are spreading by email about the debate.

At the current pace of fund raising it is possible that Ron Paul may end up with more cash on hand at the end of the quarter than any of the other candidates running in the Republican primary.

The accuracy and legitimacy of presidential polls has become increasingly scrutinized, especially after Ron Paul’s recent display of fund raising strength raising a record 4.2 million from 36,000 donors in a day. Ron Paul also consistently draws large crowds at his events yet does not register high in polls.

According to Google Trends, Ron Paul’s name is actually searched more than Fox News is now. That may be an indicator of a recent surge in Paul's popularity.

There is a growing concern among Paul supporters that corporate media outlets are attempting to manipulate the presidential election.

November 6, 2007 - Ron Paul's unconventional presidential campaign has regularly broken the mold of politics as usual and has set new records in the process. On November 5, Paul's supporters raised over $4 million - breaking the one-day record of any other Republican - and they did it by exploiting the anarchistic associations of Guy Fawkes Day and the movie V for Vendetta. Although coordinated by an independent website, the campaign has been endorsed by Paul.

Conservative commentator Joe Scarborough indicated on his MSNBC program the next morning that Ron Paul supporters were already emailing him about the record-setting fundraiser. He said, "They're crazed, they're upset because in the first 32 minutes we have not announced that Ron Paul raised a lot of dough."

"It's an old story. That's what Ron Paul does," commented co-host Willie Geist. "He's Ron Paul. It goes without saying."

Scarborough noted the significance of the Guy Fawkes tie-in, explaining, "I don't know if you saw V for Vendetta, but Guy Fawkes is a guy that tried to assassinate some king - King Henry or King George or King - James!  So I guess that's a libertarian thing to do. Try to assassinate kings. And so they had a celebration of this dastardly act."

Scarborough then showed a clip from a YouTube video in which the Vendetta-styled slogan "Remember, remember the 5th of November ... the Old Republic is showing its face" dissolves into a "Ron Paul Revolution" logo, followed by a donation appeal with another logo saying "the Republic is ... We the People."

"Kind of strange, but that's okay," Scarborough commented. "I do think it's fascinating that a guy like Ron Paul is raising the money he's raising."

Scarborough noted that there have been accusations that Paul supporters are hacking online polls to show Paul winning the Republican debates. However, he and his co-hosts agreed that whether or not Paul is actually winning the debates, he's certainly made them more interesting. "With a lot of Republican candidates trying to sound like everyone else, he's the one voice that's standing out in the crowd," commented Scarborough. "Maybe that's why he's doing well."

Scarborough then spoke to NBC News political director Chuck Todd about Paul's success, saying "4.2 million dollars, I'm told, he raised on Monday. That's an extraordinary take ... It's very impressive ..."

"In the name of a terrorist, no less," Todd broke in.

"Anybody who saw V for Vendetta would be truly frightened ... but a lot of true believers who believe in limited government and believe in Republicans talking like Republicans. That is a radical notion," Scarborough concluded.

October 20, 2007 - While she is winning wide support in nationwide samples among Democrats in the race for their party’s presidential nomination, half of likely voters nationwide said they would never vote for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, a new Zogby Interactive poll shows.

The online survey of 9,718 likely voters nationwide showed that 50% said Clinton would never get their presidential vote. This is up from 46% who said they could never vote for Clinton in a Zogby International telephone survey conducted in early March. Older voters are most resistant to Clinton—59% of those age 65 and older said they would never vote for the New York senator, but she is much more acceptable to younger voters: 42% of those age 18-29 said they would never vote for Clinton for President.

Who would you NEVER vote for President of the U.S.?

• Clinton (D)                       50%
• Kucinich (D)                     49%
• Gravel (D)                        47%
• Paul (D)                            47%
• Brownback (R)                 47%
• Tancredo (R)                    46%
• McCain (R)                       45%
• Hunter (R)                        44%
• Giuliani (R)                        43%
• Romney (R)                      42%
• Edwards (D)                     42%
• Thompson (R)                  41%
• Dodd (D)                         41%
• Biden (D)                         40%
• Obama (D)                       37%
• Huckabee (R)                   35%
• Richardson (D)                 34%
• Not sure                             4%

 

At the other end of the scale, Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrats Bill Richardson and Barack Obama faired best, as they were least objectionable to likely voters.

Richardson was forever objectionable as President to 34%, while 35% said they could never vote for Huckabee and 37% said they would never cast a presidential ballot for Obama, the survey showed.

The Zogby Interactive poll, conducted Oct. 11-15, 2007, included 9,718 likely voters nationwide and carries a margin of error of +/- 1.0 percentage point.

In a Zogby International telephone survey conducted in March, 46% said they would never vote for Clinton. In that survey, she finished in second place, behind Republican Newt Gingrich, a divisive figure who has since announced he would not seek the presidency and was not included in this new online survey. In that earlier poll, 54% said they would never vote for Gingrich. This recent survey included only the 17 candidates who were at that time running for President in one of the major parties. Former Vice President Al Gore, who like Gingrich was also included in the earlier Zogby survey of who would never win voters’ support for the White House, was excluded from this latest survey because of his insistence that he has no interest in a run for the presidency.

Interest in a Gore candidacy has been rekindled after he recently won the Nobel Prize for peace in connection with his work on the issue of global climate change.

Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, who announced Friday he would end his campaign, was included in the poll. He might have sensed the nationwide opposition to his campaign, as 47% said they would never vote for him for President. The survey showed he was tied as the third most objectionable candidate, behind Clinton and Congressman Dennis Kucinich (49%). Tied with Brownback was Democrat Michael Gravel, a former Alaska senator, and GOP Congressman Ron Paul.

Opposition to Clinton among Democratic and Republican women revealed mirror opposite attitudes, the Zogby Interactive survey showed. While 83% of Republican women said they would never vote for her, just 17% said they could possibly cast a ballot for her. Among Democratic women, just 17% said they would never vote for Hillary, while 83% said they could.

Democratic women appear smitten by former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois - just 11% said they could never vote for them for President. Republican women, on the other hand, find former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney most attractive - just 14% said they would never vote for him. Tied for a close second was former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who were found to be objectionable by just 15% of Republican women.

October 18, 2007 - It's not every day that there is something concrete you can do to save democracy in one powerful stroke and make sure your kids don't come of age in an American in which we are no longer protected by the rule of law. I have been writing about the terrifying and precipitous assault on our liberties and our very system of checks and balances; I have crossed the country with this message - today I am in Boston - and I have heard across the nation that (as usual) the people are ahead of the leaders and the pundits. Americans of all backgrounds are alarmed and outraged and ready to take action against these vicious assaults on the rule of law. But what I hear again and again is: "What can we do?"

Here is what you can do, and it is big, big news. If we do this together in our millions we are safer; and if we fail to act we miss an historic opening and risk far worse to come.

There are two new organizations that are driving a grassroots push to restore the rule of law: the American Freedom Agenda Act was started by leaders who are conservative: Bruce Fein, who was a Reagan administration official in the Department of Justice, and others. The American Freedom Campaign was started by progressives. Both groups advance comparable 10 point legislative agendas that would stabilize democracy long enough for us to forestall the worst and regroup for more long-term reparation of the Constitution and the rule of law. Both would, if passed, protect Americans from the scary stories of abuse and recrimination I am hearing every single day - journalists intimidated, prisoners tortured, innocent citizens spied on by the State in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Both would make it illegal for any administration to commit the kinds of crimes against America and its constitution that we have seen under this one: the innocent lawyer Brandon Mayfield's home broken into, the innocent software engineer Maher Arar kept prisoner by U.S. agents in an interrogation cell in a U.S. airport and prevented from calling his lawyer, and journalists reporting on abuses by the government threatened by the state with prosecution that could keep them in jail for a decade. Urgently it would close the horrific legal possibility for the president to call you or me an "enemy combatant" tomorrow - JUST BECAUSE HE SAYS SO - and lock us up in solitary confinement for years.

Passing the legislative agenda of either group would make it clear that American citizens - in spite of a heretofore craven and compliant Congress - refuse to stand by silently while a group of criminals systematically violates the core structure of the democracy our Founders put in place for us.

The big news is that this idea can now become a law and a law creates a reality.

On Monday, Rep. Ron Paul, the outsider Republican presidential candidate who has long upheld these values and who was an early voice warning of the grave danger to all of us of these abuses, introduced the AFA's legislative package into Congress. (The mainstream press has an irrational habit of disparaging outsider candidates - as if corrupt money and machine endorsements equal seriousness of purpose - even though the Founders hoped that the system they established would lead citizens, ideally those unembedded in the establishment, to offer their service to the nation.) It is the American Freedom Agenda Act of 2007 [PDF], and you should read it in its entirety: just as accounts of the recent abuses send chills down your spine, this beautifully argued document feels historic and has the ring of great power to correct great injustice.

What does it do? According to an alert put out by the American Freedom campaign, it would accomplish the following:

"The American Freedom Agenda Act would bar the use of evidence obtained through torture; require that federal intelligence gathering is conducted in accordance with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA); create a mechanism for challenging presidential signing statements; repeal the Military Commissions Act, which, among other things, denies habeas corpus to certain detainees; prohibit kidnapping, detentions, and torture abroad; protect journalists who publish information received from the executive branch; and ensure that secret evidence is not used to designate individuals or organizations with a presence in the U.S. as foreign terrorists."

Ron Paul was the first of all the presidential candidates, red or blue, to step up in this way - and all credit is due to him for getting there first. May the others of both parties race to follow his lead. These days, as we have seen from how reluctant some candidates have been - even on the Democratic sign - even to sign a mere pledge to uphold the Constitution, it takes some courage to stand fast against the assaults of this administration - and their manipulations of the terms "patriotism" and "terror threat" - and insist with legislation on the Founders' vision and on restoring liberty to all Americans.

A groundswell of millions of Americans of all parties rising up to insist on passage of the AFA legislation means that we are awake - we get it - and that we assert that an alert citizenry, not a whipped-dog Congress or a violently abusive executive, decides what happens in this nation still. I am not a voter on his side of the ballot - but I will move heaven and earth to support the passage of this lifesaving agenda. (Interestingly when I run into Paul's supporters - who are deeply alert to the abuses of democracy - and I demur by saying I am a Democrat, it is they who rightly assure me that these issues transcend party).

There is no way to overstate how crucial this piece of legislation is. We are at a turning point, and without the restoration of the rule of law the "blueprint" for what I have called a "fascist shift" - the closing down of democracy - calls for scarier recriminations against citizens, greater tightening of social controls - the ever-growing, disturbingly political TSA watch list is, alarmingly, due to go from the airlines' administration to that of the TSA itself - and more corruptions of the electoral process. Blackwater is a truly terrifying wild card. Without the rule of law we will be powerless as each of these assaults on liberty continue to escalate. With it we can fight back.

October 17, 2007 - When GOP presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) appeared on Fox News this week, he was introduced as a master of the art of the Internet who has raised millions in online donations. "We have a lot of viewers who are psyched that we finally have you live on the show," the Fox & Friends host told Paul.

Paul modestly replied that his growing support is not so much a matter of campaign wizardly on his part as that "we offered a program and a political position, and the young people especially, and the Internet, has found us, and we're very delighted because our numbers are growing." He said that even though his standing in the polls remains low, he believe that "we're in a pretty good position" for the early primaries, with "the third amount of cash available."

Paul told Fox he wasn't bothered by the governor of his own state of Texas endorsing Rudy Giuliani because "the party is a broad-based party." He emphasized, however, that "we don't want to be exclusive. I mean, I'd like to build the party, which I believe I am, from the young people. And the college kids are flocking to our campaign. ... I think our wing of the party is alive and well, and I think I can show that the number of people joining us are probably greater than those who are joining the big spenders."

Fox asked Paul about a study showing he is the candidate with the most support from members of the US military, even though he is calling for immediate withdrawal from Iraq. "We take the traditional position that you should only go to war under a declaration and win and get out," Paul explained. "It's protecting the troops ... and the fact that we get the money from the military more than all the other Republicans put together is a pretty darn good endorsement."

Paul finished by noting that his positions are based on Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, which he regularly cites as the basis for his view of limited government. That section enumerates a limited list of Congressional functions - including punishing piracy on the high seas, granting letters of marque and reprisal, and regulating commerce with the Indian tribes - but does not cover many of the functions routinely assumed by government today.