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August 31, 2007
Category: Primary Calendar

Fighting words from Florida

Sorry to obsess, geekily, about this calendar story today. But anyway, the latest from Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman:

An interesting subtext here is how the campaigns are playing it. Nobody can be seen working to undermine Iowa, for fear of being hurt in Iowa. But it's Clinton allies in these states -- and the Democratic establishment in virtually every state is with Clinton -- who are pushing Michigan and Florida to the fore.

August 31, 2007
Category: Blogs

Remainders: Last weekend off

Norman Hsu has himself some high-powered P.R. help (left).

Gay weddings in Iowa.

Shockingly, it's becoming something of a political issue there.

Matt Stoller says it must suck to be John Edwards, regarding the Machinists at least.

Michigan puts out a united statement (after the jump) on their early primary.

And Marc Ambinder has more on that state's internal politics, and on the Pledge.

ALSO: ARG's polling is tilting Iowa averages toward Hillary, and Mark Blumenthal has an interesting exploration -- and conversation with the guy who runs ARG -- of why.

August 31, 2007
Category: Primary Calendar

An exception for Univision

Iowa Democratic Party spokeswoman Carrie Giddins says candidates can safely attend the Univision Presidential Forum in Miami next month without violating the Four State Pledge.

The exception, she says, is because Florida is still within the 30-day window given by the DNC to quit defying Howard Dean.

As for other, similar events, the four early states will be dealing "on a case-by-case basis."

After all, as the pledge says, the current primary calendar is all about "honor[ing] the racial, ethnic, economic and geographic diversity of our party and our country."

Right?

August 31, 2007
Category: Labor

Labor Day, cont'd

The news that John Edwards is reportedly spending Labor Day in Pittsburgh, where he'll be endorsed by the Steelworkers, is big, and keeps his argument that he's the candidate of labor strong, if not automatic.

But the divisions in big labor remain yet another of the key differences between this year and 2004 (Could two years really be any more different?), in which Dick Gephardt's claim to labor — despite a few defections to Dean — was unarguable.

By Labor Day, 2004, Gephardt was touting a dozen union endorsements, including major ones like the Teamsters, Steelworkers, Machinists and the OPEIU.

You can see the lopsided tally here.

By contrast, the big unions out so far have split among Edwards, Clinton and Dodd.

NOTE: The Edwards camp hasn't confirmed the Post-Gazette story (which has good detail) on the Steelworker endorsement.

August 31, 2007
Category: Primary Calendar

Dear candidates, early state edition

The Democratic leadership of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina have now made public that letter that Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm referred to — and tried to preempt  — yesterday

They're asking presidential candidates to sign a "Four State Pledge," as follows:

My instinct is that the campaigns are so deeply invested in the Iowa battle royale that they'll have little choice but to honor this. But we'll see.

August 31, 2007
Category: Hillary Clinton

Norman Hsu turns himself in

From The Associated Press:

A top Democratic fundraiser wanted as a fugitive in California turned himself in Friday to face a grand theft charge.

San Mateo County Superior Court Judge H. James Ellis ordered Norman Hsu handcuffed and held on $2 million bond. A bail hearing was scheduled for Sept. 5, at which the judge will consider reducing his bail to $1 million.

August 31, 2007
Category: Bill Richardson

Richardson picks a fight

Drug legalization advocates may not make up a big part of the Iowa caucus electorate, but they are mostly Dems, and they've got to like this:

August 31, 2007
Category: Hillary Clinton

Hillary's top ten campaign promises

10. Bring stability and long term security to “The View.”
9. Each year on my birthday, every American gets a cupcake.
8. You’ll have the option of rolling dice against the IRS for double-or-nothing on your taxes.
7. Having trouble getting a flight and Air Force One is available? It’s yours.
6. My vice president will never shoot anybody in the face.
5. Turn Gitmo into a Dairy Queen as soon as possible.
4. For over a century there have been only two Dakotas -- I plan to double that.
3. We will finally have a president who doesn’t mind pulling over and asking for directions. Am I right, ladies?
2. I will appoint a committee to find out what the heck is happening on “Lost.”
1. One more pantsuit joke and Letterman disappears.

Video here.

(via The Caucus and The Politicker)

August 31, 2007
Category: Hillary Clinton

Two Hsus

A reader last night sent me what seemed like an interesting tidbit, and something that's popped up a bit on the conservative blogs:

Well -- lest any other reporter spend any time on this -- it's a different guy. The "Friends of Norman Hsu" mentioned in the report was for his bid state assembly, as a Republican, in 1998. (And, not being an expert in this particular line of reasoning, his inclusion in that report is a mystery to me.)

"I'm a poor person. Not a rich guy," the other Norman Hsu told me just now.

August 31, 2007
Category: Hillary Clinton

First-name basis

Commenter Magna Carta grumbled yesterday,

As the commenter also noted, it's not just me -- It's a media-wide thing, outside the more formal quarters of the print press, and it's encouraged by her campaign.

In my case, it comes from having covered her in New York, where the tabloids helped quickly turn her into a one-word icon -- but where leading politicians are traditionally called by their first names, in person and in headlines: Chuck, Eliot and Andrew are the other biggies. When I covered the 2005 New York mayor's race, the candidates (for conversational, and thus blog, purposes) were Mike, Freddy Gifford, Virginia and Anthony. I tried, at the beginning of this blog, to do the same thing with "Barack" and the like -- but it seemed forced, so I stopped.

Anyway, that's my excuse -- basically, that this is a conversational style of writing, and that is in fact what people call her in conversation.

But another reader, a Democrat who doesn't love Hillary, pointed out a related, interesting fact:

He compares it to Republicans omitting their party affiliation from their Web pages. I'm not sure -- it's not like the association with Bill is unwelcome -- but it's certainly an effort to emphasize change over continuity.

ALSO: A New York taboid vet points out to me: "Rudy" and even "Fred."