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Friday, December 14, 2007
HamNation Hits New Hampshire
Posted by: Mary Katharine Ham at 6:18 PM
I was working on another project today, so we've got more from my New Hampshire trip. The snow kept us from campaign events, but not from downtown Manchester and a few voters who were willing to talk to us.

Jim Geraghty wrote about our time with the flinty citizens of Manchester, here (He's got a cameo if you look closely).







Friday, December 14, 2007
Friday Afternoon Moment of Zen
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 2:30 PM








Friday, December 14, 2007
Ranking the QBs
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 2:15 PM
ESPN has rated the best Quarterbacks of 2007




Friday, December 14, 2007
The Media’s Top 10 Economic Myths of 2007
Posted by: Jonathan Garthwaite at 1:00 PM

The Business & Media Institute has released the 2007 version of their annual "Media’s Top 10 Economic Myths"

10. Airlines are solely to blame for the unfriendly skies.
Media myth: Blame the airlines for all those flight delays; never mind the obsolete government-run agency creating the gridlock.

9. Consumer spending is the be-all, end-all of the economy.
Media myth: Without excessive consumer spending – especially at Christmastime – the U.S. economy will collapse.

and eight more...






Friday, December 14, 2007
Re: Re: Huck's Glass Jaw ...
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 11:21 AM
Jim Pinkerton buys Drudge's sourcing, but echoes my thoughts on the "Easy Kill" Drudge story from the other week:

Now I don't doubt Matt Drudge's sourcing for his story. And it's certainly true that the Democratic National Committee has focused its fire on Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. So maybe Huckabee is the weakest Republican candidate, and the Democrats just can't wait to get thrown into his Razorback brier patch.

But it's also possible that the Democrats might have miscalculated the Republican race - certainly plenty of Republicans have done so - and now they are spinning, while reassessing.

It's happened before. Long ago, I worked in Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign. And I well remember Democratic politicos insisting that Reagan was the weakest Republican opponent that Jimmy Carter could face as he sought re-election that year. Was that "psychological warfare" by the Democrats? Or did they really think that the 69-year-old "cowboy" ex-actor - not yet known as "The Great Communicator" - would be the easiest Republican to beat? Probably a little of both.





Friday, December 14, 2007
Rollins to Serve as Huckabee’s Ntl. Chairman
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 10:55 AM
The Hill is reporting that Ed Rollins will take over Mike Huckabee's campaign as national chairman. 

Rollins is remembered for managing Ronald Reagan's '84 campaign.  Rollins may have managed it, but he did not "run" the incumbent president's re-election campaign, as the title might imply.  The truth is that George Washington wouldn't have beaten Ronald Reagan in 1984, but Rollins deserves credit for winning 49 states (he claims in his excellent book Bare Knuckes and Back Rooms that he could have won Minnesota, too, had Nancy Reagan not diverted funds to California).

Rollins also was a co-manager for Ross Perot's disastrous campaign. 

Most recently, Rollins has been a talking head on lots of cable news shows.  He was also a top consultant for Katharine Harris' quixotic U.S. Senate race in Florida.  After leaving the campaign, he gave numerous interviews to reporters, telling them precisely how out-of-touch she is, and how disastrous her campaign was.  While this was all undoubtedly true, it's not common for an advisor to leave a campaign and then begin criticizing it.

Rollins' name brings Huckabee credibility, but that's about it.  Rollins will probably make a lot of money from doing this race -- but I wouldn't over-estimate the impact he will have on the race.




Friday, December 14, 2007
Rudy and Undocumented Immigration
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 9:37 AM
According to Marc Ambinder, this is courtesy of Mitt Romney's campaign ...



Tags: Rudy



Friday, December 14, 2007
Why Liberals Fear Huckabee
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 8:48 AM

Liberal Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson has an attack op-ed up today on Mike Huckabee.  Based on my reading, it seems Robinson dislikes Huckabee because he believes Huckabee really means the things he says.

Robinson is less worried about Rudy Giuliani, because:

... Giuliani, when pressed, admits to harboring fairly cosmopolitan and enlightened views on domestic issues such as abortion, immigration and gun control.

... And he's not afraid of Mitt Romney, because:

... Romney's pandering still hasn't managed to dispel the notion that, beneath the rhetoric, he's probably a pretty reasonable guy.

So Robinson dislikes Huckabee because he thinks that, unlike Rudy and Romney, Huckabee might actually govern -- not just campaign -- as a conservative?

Here's the money quote:

Much is made, and rightly so, of Huckabee's vocation as a Baptist minister and his promise that his actions as president would be in accord with his fundamentalist beliefs. "My faith is my life -- it defines me. I don't separate my faith from my personal and professional lives," he says on his campaign Web site. 

Somebody go check Jefferson's grave; he's spinning again.

The more secular liberals bash Huckabee, the better he will do. 



Tags: huckabee



Friday, December 14, 2007
Blaming Abstinence for Teen Pregnancy
Posted by: Michael Medved at 1:11 AM

. Recent headlines announced a sudden rise in the teen birthrate and Planned Parenthood and CNN lost no time in blaming the abstinence education programs backed by Christian conservatives. For one thing, the unexpected increase in pregnancies among teenagers hardly represents a crisis: it’s a 3% increase after 14 straight years of decline, and teen pregnancy rates are still more than 30% lower than they were in 1991. It’s also ridiculous to single out the limited funding for abstinence education, when the federal government still devotes six times the money toward programs that emphasize birth control and that Planned Parenthood enthusiastically supports. Moreover, most commentators forgot to mention that birthrates not only increased for teenagers, but also went up for women in their 20’s, 30’s and even 40’s. This increase could even indicate a cultural change that’s basically positive: with more and more Americans looking at children as a blessing rather than a burden. Unfortunately, it also no doubt reflects the rapidly disappearing stigma attached to out-of-wedlock birth and the general obsession with sexuality in our society. In any event, it’s outrageous to blame religious conservatives who are the strongest voice for placing that sexuality in a responsible marital context.  








Thursday, December 13, 2007
A Hit on Baseball ...
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 4:40 PM





Thursday, December 13, 2007
Fox's Focus Groups
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 4:30 PM
... I gotta tell you, I don't buy the Frank Luntz focus groups.  Maybe I'm wrong, but something about it makes me doubt there validity.




Thursday, December 13, 2007
Hillary is Catching Hell in the Focus Group
Posted by: Mary Katharine Ham at 3:35 PM
On Fox: She's "scripted," "establishment," "uninspiring," and she's talking too much about the 90s.
"You're not First Lady anymore. You're running for President."
Obama and Edwards are breaths of fresh air and outside-the-Beltway influences. The Obama surge is illustrated in the show of hands that showed most of the focus group's estimations of Obama had gone up in the last 30 days while about three said the same of Hillary.





Thursday, December 13, 2007
The New Year's Resolution Question, Easy Version
Posted by: Mary Katharine Ham at 3:17 PM
Carolyn goes with the boring version of the question instead of yesterday's "give me a New Year's resolution for one of your opponents." Instead, what's your New Year's resolution? Snooze.

Edwards: To remember that, "somewhere in America tonight a child will go to bed hungry. Somewhere in America tonight a family will have to go to an emergency room and beg for health care for their child. That somewhere in America tonight, a father who's worked for 30 or 40 years will lose his job. And, that's what's at stake in this election."

Awful. The people-meter goes way up on Edwards' dour, "America's promise lost" speech, thereby lowering my respect-meter for Democrat voters.

Obama's speech is much better, talks about buying a Christmas tree with his daughters. That's just money no matter who it comes from.

Update: They close with something along the lines of, "What do you like best about Iowa?" Rough questions.

Everyone's answer is nice-- Richardson's maybe the best-- except Obama's, which was rather clumsy and didn't mention Iowa at all, I don't think.





Thursday, December 13, 2007
Obama's Line of the Debate?
Posted by: Mary Katharine Ham at 3:14 PM
Talking about possible advisers in his administration:
"I look forward to having you advise me, too, Hillary."
I'm kind of half-listening, so I hope I got that exchange right. It sounded like Obama came out on top, for sure.

Update: Here's the video for the line of the day.





Thursday, December 13, 2007
The Best. Moderator. Evah.
Posted by: Mary Katharine Ham at 2:58 PM
Nurse Ratched to John Edwards:

"Oops, I misunderstood you to be raising your hand, so that was extra time."

Geraghty looks deep into the complicated practice of picking the questions that comprise the worst debates in Western history.

Update:
Decent question from the mod about Hillary's secrecy during the health care debate in the 90s. "How would you make sure that you have transparency in your administration even if it would give ammunition to your opponents?" I wish she had asked about releasing the documents already in existence instead of hypothetical documents of the future.

Hillary: "I learned a lot of lessons from that and I think I can implement what I've learned."

Update: Wow, she slaps Biden with the old 7-Eleven gaffe about Indians to ask if he's "uncomfortable" talking about race. I'm no Biden fan, but that's a cheap shot, and unnecessary since he's never going to get the nomination. Stop wasting time.

Biden answers fairly gracefully and Obama backs him up, says he's "on the right side of the issues." Looks like a nice guy, which is exactly what his campaign wants with strident Hillary on stage.




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Comments Comments

Ronald the Great
 Re: Berlin -- Hillary Pays Tribute To Those Who Destroyed The Wall; Doesn't Mention Reagan or Thatcher
  By Patriotic Liberal
Dan
 Re: Newt Has Ideas...
  By Eugene
Just a couple of chicks,
 Re: President of Planned Parenthood on Abortion in Bill: "I Have Great Faith In The Leader [Pelosi]"
  By cottoneyed
Baradiel
 Re: President of Planned Parenthood on Abortion in Bill: "I Have Great Faith In The Leader [Pelosi]"
  By arch
"much shall be forgiven"
 Re: Newt Has Ideas...
  By cottoneyed
WW-3
 Re: CNN's Kyra Phillips Uses Hasan To Prove Military Is Bigoted & Cause PTSD
  By arch
these two liberals chris and richards
 Re: President of Planned Parenthood on Abortion in Bill: "I Have Great Faith In The Leader [Pelosi]"
  By DIAMOND Z
Ideas?
 Re: Newt Has Ideas...
  By Dennis
Eugene
 Re: Newt Has Ideas...
  By DanNV
I vote she is!
 Re: Obama's Environmental Policies Could Hurt 2010 Dems, Too
  By arch
nice job
 Re: Last HamNation: Obama on Your Shoulder!
  By Kim
coop
 Re: Newt Has Ideas...
  By Eugene
DanNV
 Re: Newt Has Ideas...
  By Ryan
Newt
 Re: Newt Has Ideas...
  By Kenny Z
Sorry Dan
 Re: Newt Has Ideas...
  By Eugene
Peter, ole boy
 Re: Scozzafava Resigns From GOP Leadership Post
  By coopmeister
Eugene..not in the party?
 Re: Newt Has Ideas...
  By coopmeister
Eugene called it.
 Re: Newt Has Ideas...
  By SkunkWorks Supt.
Newt Has Ideas? Well So Do I
 Re: Newt Has Ideas...
  By OncealwaysaMarine
I Heart Newt
 Re: Newt Has Ideas...
  By DanNV

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