Sunday, November 25, 2007

A quick post about the presidential campaigns

I realized this weekend that while many of my posts have concerned presidential campaign events, few, if any, have concerned the presidential campaigns themselves.

Time to correct that oversight. :)

Think of this as "Short Attention Span Musing - Campaigns Edition."

Some of these topics are few weeks old, but they're still worth covering.

Note - while I haven't firmly decided who I'm voting for in February's primary, I am strongly leaning toward Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico (and former Congressman, ambassador, Cabinet secretary, and multiple-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize). A more in-depth post on that topic will be forthcoming shortly.


...Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been sniping at each other over who is the most qualified in the area of foreign affairs.

See the above summary of Bill Richardson's resume to understand why that discussion is so laughable.


...The Clinton campaign has been playing the "oh...the big, bad, boys are ganging up on poor, little ol' me" card as the primaries draw near and the trailing candidates sharpen their criticisms of the leader of the pack.

A leader of the pack named "Hillary Clinton."

To anyone who buys into the "ganging up" card - criticizing the leader in a campaign race is the job of those chasing that leader. Casting that as a the "boy's club" picking on a woman who's encroaching on territory that heretofore was strictly the domain of the "boy's club" is a shamelessly cynical ploy.

And the fact that the tactic probably helped doesn't mitigate that shamelessness..


...A couple of weeks ago, syndicated columnist Robert Novak wrote a column stating that the Clinton campaign has some damaging information about Barack Obama. The rancor between the two campaigns immediately escalated.

How can the presumably experienced professional operatives of both campaigns place any stock in the scribblings of a Bush/Cheney shill like Darth Novak? This is a guy who publicly outed CIA agent Valerie Plame as retaliation against her husband for criticizing the President.

A little partisan mudslinging is nothing for someone who's soulless enough to do that.


...My information is a couple of weeks old, so things may have changed for the better, but Clinton's Arizona campaign seems to be disorganized at best and practically nonexistent at worst. Reports from both highly involved activists and casual, first-time volunteers are consistent - phone calls and emails aren't returned, information requests go unanswered (I can speak to that one directly :) ), and other signs of a campaign in disarray.

I hope that the Clinton campaign hasn't written off AZ - she doesn't have AZ's primary locked up yet, and if she wins the nomination, she'll need every electoral vote she can get in the general.

And if John McCain isn't at the top of the Republican ticket (something that is looking more likely every day), AZ's 10 electoral votes will be in play.

The Obama, Richardson, and Kucinich campaigns have active organizations in AZ that are not only trying to help their candidates win the nomination but are laying the groundwork for the general election.

The other campaigns, including Sen. Clinton's, should take note of that.

Later!

2 comments:

AzforHRC08 said...

Hi. I was interested in your comments about the Clinton campaign in Arizona, based on "Reports from both highly involved activists and casual, first-time volunteers." Hmmm.

I'm sorry that's been anyone's experience. A call to either the Clinton campaign nationally or the state or county party headquarters would have referred anyone to local contacts for many months now. Volunteers for the Clinton campaign have been meeting weekly in Tucson in conference with Washington DC and LA staffers since May and there is a related group in Phoenix. We've held multiple debate parties for each debate, we held a fundraising event on October 2 that Senator Clinton attended that was covered in the Star and on the local news, we've been building a database of supporters in Arizona that is huge and growing by the minute, we've had two volunteer training opportunities that were held in multiple communities all over Arizona, we've travelled to other communities to network with other support groups (Bisbee, Sierra Vista for example) and there is a website with information for upcoming events on the Clinton website and a local website. All events are also posted on the county party website here in Pima County. As far as I can see, the Clinton campaign has done a fantastic job organizing Arizona and we expect Senator Clinton to win in Arizona. Every "highly involved" activist I know in Pima or Maricopa County is aware of who we are so I'm really sorry if someone hasn't gotten the word that we are here and are here to win. Please call me, JoJene Mills at 529-3200, Judy Nagle at 577-8756 or if you happen to talk any of the following Hillary supporters, they can get you information: Joan Kaye Cauthorn, Jim Pederson, Pam Grissom, Rene Morton, Pam Sutherland, Ellie Anderson, Lynn Ashbridge and the list goes on. Thanks!

Craig said...

Thanks for the info, JoJene.

While I am supporting Richardson personally, I'm also a Democratic PC. If someone expresses an interest in volunteering for any Democrat's campaign, I like to give them the info they need to get involved.