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Barack Obama and His Hip-Hop Friends Reach Out to Youth Vote
Tweet Share on Facebook August 25, 2008 CommentDENVER—Gotta give credit to those Democrats for pulling out all stops (and stars) to woo the youth vote to the polls in November. Sen. Barack Obama is beating Sen. John McCain by almost 20 percentage points in most polls among voters 18-34. But McCain is a point or two ahead among voters over 40 and that's a much larger cohort of voters. I spoke with Rene Redwood of the "Respect my Vote" campaign put on by the Hip Hop Caucus. Rapper TI is reaching out to his two million "friends" on his MySpace page with text messages and eventually e-mails to remind young Americans to register to vote and ultimately to get out to the polls on Election Day. And that's just the start. The caucus has a veritable laundry list of rappers and stars lined up to persuade the normally unreliable younger demographic to get out and vote. According to Census data from the 2004 presidential election just under half of eligible Americans under 34 voted in that race, versus 72 percent of eligible voters over age 40. That's the kind of spread that, in this close election year, could make or break either candidate.
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Steny Hoyer Worries About Another Government Shutdown
Tweet Share on Facebook August 25, 2008 CommentOn the plane from D.C. to Denver, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer seemed ebullient going into the convention, but fearful of what will come afterward. He told me there will be a contentious fight between the Democratic Congress and the White House over oil drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil companies want access to the Gulf's entire 44 million acres of offshore oil fields. They currently have access to 10 million of those acres. Hoyer met with executives from all the major oil companies last Monday and they are backed in their desire for free access to the Gulf by the White House. Hoyer fears he may not be able to get a continuing resolution (which funds the federal government) through the House in time to keep the government running in the new fiscal year. That year starts October 1. What if there's a standoff? Hoyer says if it happens, and that's a big if, it'll last only a couple of days, and to look for a "Kabuki dance" between the White House and Congress as each tries to dodge blame for it. A budget standoff with the Clinton White House undid Newt Gingrich's speakership in the '90s.
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"New York Daily News": Hillary Clinton for Barack Obama’s VP
Tweet Share on Facebook August 22, 2008 Comment (34)The Daily News editorial board adventurously puts forward Sen. Hillary Clinton's name as Sen. Barack Obama's best vice presidential running mate in an editorial today.
The News admits the choice is highly unlikely, but the paper concurs with many Clinton supporters who feel that she is Obama's best chance to win the White House in November. Will Obama listen? It would truly make news if he did.
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Hillary Clinton at Barack Obama's Convention
Tweet Share on Facebook August 22, 2008 Comment (57)A new Pew Research Center poll shows a surprisingly high level of interest in viewership of the Democratic National Convention, compared with prior years. "The upcoming Democratic National Convention is generating much more public interest than did the party's convention four years ago," according to Pew. "Fully 59 percent of Americans say they are interested in following what happens at the Democratic convention, up from 36 percent in 2004. Nearly a third (31 percent) say they are very interested, while 28 percent say they are fairly interested in developments from Denver next week."
A large chunk of this interest can be attributed to Sen. Hillary Clinton's Tuesday night speech.
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General Petraeus's Spiritual Literary Endorsement—More Controversy We Don't Need
Tweet Share on Facebook August 21, 2008 Comment (8)Check out Military.com's piece on a book endorsement by Gen. David Petraeus. The endorsement has generated the commander of the Multi-National Force-Iraq more trouble than MoveOn.org generated for itself by calling him "General Betray-Us" in a full-page ad in the New York Times.
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More Bad Polling News for Barack Obama
Tweet Share on Facebook August 21, 2008 Comment (14)As I asked weeks ago, did Obama peak too soon? Check this out, from AFP: "A flurry of national polls suggests McCain's tactics are working. Both an NBC/Wall Street Journal survey and a CBS/New York Times poll Wednesday found McCain had cut Obama's poll leads in half, with the race pegged at 45-42 percent to the Democrat. So the race appears to be a statistical tie before the Democratic convention in Colorado next week and the Republican jamboree in Minnesota the week after. Things also appear to be tightening in the key battlegrounds, with McCain up slightly in poll averages in Ohio, Colorado, Virginia, and Florida, and Obama leading in Minnesota and Michigan."
Your thoughts, please...
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Are Barack Obama and John McCain Swapping Leads in the Race?
Tweet Share on Facebook August 20, 2008 Comment (6)As my colleague Robert Schlesinger posted earlier today, one new major national presidential tracking poll shows Sen. John McCain beating Sen. Barack Obama by 5 points. This is the first time this political season I've seen Senator McCain in a national poll this far ahead.
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We're Child-Free, Not Childless
Tweet Share on Facebook August 20, 2008 Comment (45)More American women are choosing not to have children, according to a new report from the Census Bureau.
But the Census Bureau and the mainstream media continue to refer to women without children as "childless" instead of "child-free." Child-free implies women made an affirmative decision not to have children. Childless implies women are infertile and could not have children. As one who made that affirmative decision (I had no children on purpose), I am hereby launching my own personal media campaign to make "child-free" the term of choice, not "childless."
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The Torture Litany: Horrors Visited Upon Tennessee Walking Horses
Tweet Share on Facebook August 19, 2008 Comment (223)The tortures visited on too many (not all, but too many) Tennessee walking horses make one's skin crawl. The reason "eye examinations" are now permitted by the annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, according to the Humane Society, is that some owners use eye drops to temporarily blind their horses. This makes them lift their hooves higher to try to feel their way around, since they cannot see. The most widely used technique, according to the Humane Society, is "soring," in which caustic chemicals, such as diesel fuel, kerosene, or mustard oil, are painted on the horse's pasterns (ankles). The pain is so intense the horse lifts its hoof to try to alleviate or get away from it.
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Celebration Not So Celebratory for Tennessee Walking Horses
Tweet Share on Facebook August 19, 2008 Comment (120)It's that time of the year again when Shelbyville, Tenn., hosts its annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration. Let's hope 2008 marks the year when the horses are allowed to celebrate along with the humans by being treated and trained in a humane manner. But that's a slim bet.
