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"Obama talks with top advisers in Iowa" from the Des Moines Register today.
Shortly after the Nov. 7 election, Obama telephoned John Norris, the Des Moines Democrat who ran John Kerry's winning campaign in the 2004 Iowa caucuses.
"He basically called to talk about the lay of the land in Iowa," said Norris, who described Obama's inquiries as "earnest" and reflecting genuine uncertainty about his future.
...
Obama's three trips to Iowa since his election to the Senate in 2004 came this fall, beginning with his appearance at U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin's annual steak fry in mid-September.
That event brought thousands of Iowa Democrats and dozens of journalists from Chicago and around the nation to Indianola, where the steak fry was held.
Obama spent little time during the visit, or the two subsequent stops this fall, meeting privately with party leaders.
Des Moines Democrat George Appleby saw Obama at Harkin's event and noted the appeal he seemed to have with the crowd of 3,000 at the Warren County fairgrounds.
"Midterms are over; now it's caucus time" also appeared in the Des Moines Register today.
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"Denver poised to land '08 convention" is in today's Washington Times.
In a state where Democratic registration ranks third behind that of Republican and unaffiliated, the Democrats reclaimed the governor's office after an eight-year Republican run, bolstered their majorities in the state legislature and captured a previously Republican House seat.
"We believed all along that if we elected a Democratic governor, our chances would be stronger," said Denver City Council member Rosemary Rodriguez, who also sits on the Denver 2008 Host Committee.
Mrs. Rodriguez noted that Denver, which last hosted a national party convention in 1908, made unsuccessful bids to host the 2000 and 2004 Democratic conventions. "We're always a bridesmaid," she said, "but I think it's finally our time."
I'm rooting for Denver! New York gets it all the time, especially from our party.
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"Presidential Candidates Court Activists" from CBS News today.
A particularly interesting excerpt:
He does not come armed with posies and poetry, but when it comes to courting Democratic activists, John Edwards is a determined suitor.
The former North Carolina senator and 2004 presidential running mate never fails to propose when he calls Jim Demers _ and he calls often.
"I don't think there's ever been a time I've talked to him when he hasn't concluded by point-blank asking if I'll sign on to his team," said Demers, a Democratic activist in New Hampshire.
Both John Edwards and Barack Obama are garnering attention and big crowds as they criss-cross the country for their respective book tours.
Edwards, Obama gain popularity amid book tours is the Associated Press story from Wednesday.
Here is a choice passage:
When introducing former vice presidential candidate John Edwards at a book signing this week, a family friend mentioned a bumper sticker she'd seen around town: "Edwards-Obama."
The giddy audience roared with approval. Both Edwards and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama insist they have yet to decide whether they are running for president, but both are drawing big crowds as they follow the modern script of a White House candidate and head out on nationwide book tours.
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SurveyUSA has released their latest round of approval ratings of U.S. Senators. Of the likely Democratic presidential aspirants who are in the U.S. Senate, here is how they fared:
-- The fifth most popular out of 100 -- Hillary Clinton of New York. 74% of New Yorkers approve, while 24% disapprove, meaning that her net approval is 50%.
-- The seventh most popular out of 100 -- Barack Obama of Illinois. 71% of Illinoisians (I took a stab at it, why not) approve, while 22% disapprove, meaning that his net approval is 48%.
-- The 28th most popular out of 100 -- Evan Bayh of Indiana. 61% of Indianans approve, while 29% disapprove, meaning that his net approval is 31%.
-- The 31st most popular out of 100 -- Joe Biden of Delaware. 63% of Delaware-ites approve, while 33% disapprove, meaning that his net approval is 29%.
-- The 50th most popular out of 100 -- Christopher Dodd of Connecticut. 56% of Connecticuters approve, while 36% disapprove, meaning that his net approval is 20%.
-- The 92nd most popular out of 100 (or the eighth least popular, depending on how you look at it) -- John Kerry of Massachusetts. 48% of Massachusettsans approve, while 50% disapprove, meaning that his net (dis)approval is -2%.
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From the Chicago Sun-Times on November 22:
What worse scenario could there be for Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), who fiercely values loyalty, than to have to choose between the 2008 presidential candidacies of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.)?
"I think that I am going to hide under this desk if both of them ran," said Emanuel.
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From the New York Daily News on November 22:
Sen. Hillary Clinton, the early front-runner for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, is pushing to have her party's nominating convention held in New York City, the Daily News has learned.
New York and Denver are the two finalists for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is expected to select the host city next month.
Clinton's aides stressed yesterday that the senator's support for New York's bid has nothing to do with widespread speculation she may run for President, but rather her role as one of New York's top cheerleaders.
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According to a Quinnipiac national poll released on November 22, the American people by 56% to 41% believe that Senator Hillary Clinton is qualified to be President. Women weighed in on the question at 59% to 37% and men at 52% to 45%.
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From the U.S. News and World Report's 'Washington Whispers':
While he doesn't plan to join up with any of the 2008 presidential candidates, Clinton political adviser James Carville is giddy with anticipation. "We'll have more run in 2008 than we've ever had," he says. Carville has the primaries mapped out and predicts "larger than life" candidates will emerge. His Democrats: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama, and former Vice President Al Gore.
I don't intend on injecting much editorializing in here, but I have to say that I used to think Carville was excellent -- now, not so much. In fact, he pisses me off quite a bit. I don't put much stock in what he says. At. All.
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Although he has taken himself out of the running for the presidential nomination, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin (a previous favorite or more than a few) has told the La Crosse Tribune that his is not ruling out accepting the vice presidential nomination.
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"Clinton Won Easily, but Bankroll Shows the Toll" is the New York Times article on November 21.
From the article:
The Democratic Daily, a liberal Web site, accused Mrs. Clinton of “blowing a shameful $36 million” on a shoo-in campaign. The only other Senate candidate to come close to her spending level was Senator Rick Santorum, Republican of Pennsylvania, who spent about $24 million unsuccessfully defending his seat.
Mrs. Clinton’s cash on hand is certainly less than the $20 million to $30 million some of her advisers early this year predicted she would have in the bank as she moved from her Senate re-election toward a decision about a presidential campaign. She is now in the same ballpark as two fellow Democrats, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, who had $13.8 million in his account as of Sept. 30, according to election commission records, and Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, who had $10.6 million. The law allows money left in a Senate campaign fund to be transferred to a presidential campaign.
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CNN has a new national poll out on the Democratic presidential race:
CLINTON -- 33% (28%, 38%)
OBAMA -- 15% (17%, N/A)
EDWARDS -- 14% (13%, 12%)
GORE -- 14% (13%, 19%)
KERRY -- 7% (12%, 9%)
CLARK -- 4% (N/A, N/A)
BIDEN -- 3% ( 2%, 3%)
RICHARDSON -- 3% ( 2%, 3%)
BAYH -- 2% ( 2%, 2%)
VILSACK -- 1% ( 1%, --)
NO OPINION -- 4% ( 8%, 8%)
The late October and late August numbers are in parentheses -- N/A indicates that those candidates' names were not included in those particular rounds of polling.
From the article:
Support for Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, dropped 5 percentage points in the past month from 12 percent to 7 percent, according to the nationwide poll of registered Democrats conducted by Opinion Research Corporation over the weekend. Worse news for Kerry is that a majority of those polled said they do not want to see the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee win the party's nomination in 2008.
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"Home Cookin' Favors Obama, Clinton" is a story from CBS News on November 20 with the angle of what home state voters think of presidential candidates.
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"Kerry Says He's Not Out Of The '08 Race" from the Associated Press on November 19.
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry insisted on Sunday his "botched joke" about President George W. Bush's Iraq policy would not undermine a possible White House campaign in 2008.
"Not in the least," Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, said when asked if the furor over his comment had caused him to reconsider a 2008 race. "The parlor game of who's up, who's down, today or tomorrow, if I listened to that stuff, I would never have won the nomination."
For what it is worth, he does have a point there.
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Edwards says Obama should run for president from the Associated Press:
"I hope he runs. I think he should run," Edwards told The Associated Press. "This is such an important job that I would urge anybody who can make a serious contribution to the campaign and the dialogue _ either in our party or the other party _ to run."
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In Focus: U.S. Senator Joe Biden of Delaware
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A helpful lesson I learned in last week's installment that focused on Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana is that Wikipedia does a bang-up job of offering profiles.
Here is the link to Biden's wikipedia profile.
I know, what a cop-out, right? I will link to those profiles and then simply expand upon points that aren't thoroughly discussed or are missing altogether.
One item that is mentioned in passing is Biden's siding with Republicans on tougher Bankruptcy laws.
Biden represents Delaware, which includes Wilmington. As you may know, that city is often considered the Credit Card Capital of America (and, hence, the world?).
Some have taken to calling Biden the Democratic Senator from MBNA. I guess I myself would be guilty of that, but I digress.
Did you also catch that his page indicates that has, in fact, called for greater troop numbers for Iraq? Hello, John McCain called. On that point, did you see that he advocated for McCain to be chosen by Kerry for the VP nomination? Curious.
Biden has a five-point plan for Iraq. A REAL Plan, or so he asserts. He does seem to be pressing the need to address the violence in the Darfur region of the Sudan.
Although wikipedia asserts that Biden is born on November 20, Politics1 states that his birthday is November 24. This would make a difference in his astrological sign.
Okay, I checked it out officially -- November 20. That makes Biden a Scorpio, whose birthday has just passed this week. How fitting that he should be focused on today!
Here is the site for his Unite Our States Political Action Committee. As should be pretty clear, his background and main emphasis is foreign policy and affairs. After all, he is the incoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair.
I can't really think of any Michigan connection or relevant point to be made on that front.
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So! There we have it for this week. What sayeth you?
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