Let's Rally for Mike

Well, it's time to campaign. In my estimation, Gov. Huckabee is the best man for the job of President of the United States. He has a clear conservative record. He has the dignity and respect the office deserves. He has a plan to move forward with innovative ideas that will change the status quo. Friends, this election is a chance to have someone different who will bring real change unlike anything we've seen in the last three administrations. I like Mike. We need to help Mike by supporting him in states like Missouri where he has a shot. This campaign has come so far, and yet the tide seems to be turning against the good governor. He needs vocal support and he needs it now. It is not too late — look at how he made a meteoric rise this past fall — let's help him rise once more.

Join his campaign. Fly his banner on your site. And, most of all, show up on February 5 and vote.

New Vocab of the Day

One of the fun things about listening to politicians is hearing their foibles in speaking. Everyone reading this knows about Bushisms, unless I am misunderestimating my audience. Tonight two new, catchy words were added to our great language during the Grand Old Party presidential debate.

Losed This sounds like a word that a poet would come up with out of desperation of maintaining a meter or rhyme. Giuliani presented us with this gem as a replacement for “lost.” It does roll off the tongue nicely.

Actuarily This is the fancy-schmancy Massachusetts variant of what we lowly Midwesterners would call “actually.” It adds a statistically impressive background of an actuary or, perhaps, the adverb “actuarially” to the plain, uninteresting word focused on the truth. Why not mix the third type of lie with the truth? It's the ultimate combo.

Enjoy our new, larger language in your conversations tomorrow. It's sure to impress the politically (if not the linguistically) savvy amongst your friends.

What an Interesting Day in Politics

Wow, what a day. Most notably, in politics, what do you suppose happened with Missouri's Gov. Blunt? A young, promising politician (whom I assumed had a presidential bid in the future), with a strong poltical family (his dad is Congress's minority whip) and a huge campaign war chest suddenly drops plans to run for a second term in an election year? Something smells rotten in Denmark.

And then there is Fred Thompson. Who will he endorse? Will anyone care? Can anything stop McCain?

And who will Rush Limbaugh vote for if McCain gets the nod? He's said in such a case he may not vote Republican this year. Surely he won't vote for the Dems, will he?

What a day…

Making the Choice

After a long and strenuous thought process, I've finally landed on a candidate for president. OK, so who do you think I'd pick? Well, let me know who you'd guess in the comments — I'll tell you if you read on.

Read more...

It Feels Good...

…to be in the midst of analyzing Campaign '08. I've not been this excited about politics in at least a year. I need to keep my inner political junkie under control, but a little fun every so often never hurts. And what a start! Who knows what will happen at this point.

Well, I don't, but I am going to make “official” my endorsements for President in both major parties tomorrow. Aren't you excited? The person to guess my pick on both sides correctly gets 25 asisaid points.

Gone Fish'in, Go Read Elsewhere

Ok, I'm not really out fishing at midnight (and I'm not going fishing tomorrow either, in fact, I don't like fishing). But, I am drawing a blank on something to post. So instead, let me point you to my latest column on Open for Business.

Archbishop Raymond Burke is not the type of man you would label as a conciliator. Since he came to St. Louis a few years ago, he has inflamed via his vocal opposition of politicians who support abortion, his suppression of a parish that ignored his orders and now his resignation from a charity board after it brought Sheryl Crow, a supporter of embryonic stem cell research, to play at a benefit concert. The common wisdom says he must be wrong, but is he really?

Feel free to let me know what you think either over on OFB or here.

Let Me Pat Myself on the Back

Ok, I don't normally do this, but I happened to run into an old blog post of mine, and just had to revel in it for a moment — well, sort of, I would have preferred being wrong, for the most part.

“For those, like me, of the Right, we have a serious problem. As the
saying goes, if these are our friends, we hardly need enemies. I
predict a Democratic landslide in 2006, unless we get our collective
acts together.”

-October 18, 2005

As I wrote on a mailing list today, as a free market kind of guy, I'm not excited about the Republicans at the moment — they are now the “big government party,” and though I don't trust the Dems talk of smaller government (since it doesn't fit with their overall agenda), I think the fact that people like me, as members of the base, are unexcited was damaging. Moreover, the wishy-washiness of the Republicans on issues like cloning, etc., hasn't given social conservatives like myself much reason to be terribly excited about the GOP either. So, I think the Republicans ended up going for some illusory “moderates” that do not actually exist, or at least do not exist in large enough quantities to win an election, while leaving behind the bases that propelled them into power in '94, and helped for the big wins ten years later in '04. This was worsened by the close association of the GOP with the USA PATRIOT Act, despite the fact that people from both parties stupidly supported this bill. Why the GOP pushed to reup it is beyond me in as much as they actually wanted to win in the election a few weeks ago. Really, the election was all about the stupidity of forgetting what people elected you to do and not even doing a good job lying about it.

US2006: At 10:30, STILL TOO CLOSE TO CALL

Amendment 2 is still failing at 52.6-47.4 with just over 50% of precincts reporting. The margin is lower than I'd like, but at least it is still failing. Let's hope it stay that way.

Talent is leading 51.3-45.1 still with just a few more precincts reporting.

Update (22:59): Clearly my projections have been off so far. The Dems appear to be taking the house, perhaps leaving the Senate to the GOP. My projection has been Talent will lose and Amendment 2 will win. I hope I'm wrong with those projections too — so far the results are still looking good, but nail bitingly tight. 52.4-47.6 for the no's in Amendment 2; 51-45 for Talent in the Senate.

Update (11/09 00:24): Not looking good. Talent is losing and Amendment 2 is winning. Let's hope the remaining 20% of the precincts will switch that back in the coming hours.

US2006: My Projections and More Results

My Projection: I think the Democrats will take the Senate, based on early results (if only because of independents supporting the Democratic caucus), while the Republicans will maintain a tenuous majority in the House. If this happens, you read it here first.

Talent and the fight against Amendment 2 are both still ahead, but with many rural counties tallies complete and St. Louis City still in motion, I fear the rapidly shrinking margins of the leads.

It seems that the choice to make English the official language of Arizona is popular so far; CNN is projecting it as passing. Likewise, CNN shows most of the bans on same-sex marriage as passing hence far, with several projections already given.

AMENDMENT 2: Presently, the Missouri Stem Cells/Cloning amendment is still failing at 53.8-46.2, the no's leading, although that is only with 33% of precincts reporting and hence too close to call — especially since exit polling still favors the amendment.

TALENT-MCCASKILL: Talent is leading 53-43 with 33% of the votes tallied.

US2006: Cautiously Optimistic

OK, it is way to soon to even say there is a chance for victory. I know as well as anyone that things could change — especially as more results come in from St. Louis City and Kansas City. But with 9% of precincts reporting, Talent is leading by about 10 points and Amendment 2 is losing by about 5. I expected that all the news would be bad, so even if only the early results are good, it is better than I expected. Still, maybe?

In other news, I'm pleased to see that Sen. Lieberman (I-CT) won over Democrat Ned Lamont. I personally like the man, as I've said before, though I disagree with him on quite a few issues. The big point is this: I disagree with Lieberman less than I disagree with Lamont, and ultimately politics is a pragmatic game. Moreover, any independent, even one who is a Democrat who lost his primary, is a good step toward getting more independent and third party candidates on the ballot.

Update (21:24 CST): I noticed in the current STLtoday report, the Post-Dispatch (as in its election guide) is being unusually honest on Amendment 2. The article states, “The Senate contest blended with the proposed constitutional amendment to protect research known as somatic cell nuclear ransfer, the medical term for cloning.” Very few supports of the amendment — and the Post was one of them — have honestly admitted they are supporting cloning.

Supposedly the results in so far are a blend of heavily Republican and Democratic counties, which is good to hear, though as the article referenced above notes, it does look like it could be a long night.

Update (21:39 CST): Don't forget that my fellow Cranium Leaker, Michael, is posting live updates and commentary.