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!