On Sunday's "Meet the Press," Nader will announce his 2004 intentions: ["Nader to Announce Decision on 2004 Bid"].
FoxNews says he's in: ["Nader to Jump in Presidential Race"]. Also, Nader responds to The Nation magazine: ["Whither The Nation?"]. FoxNews had a stupid national poll on Friday showing Kerry and Bush equal at 45 percent. But throw in Nader and the numbers were Bush 43, Kerry 42, and Nader 4 percent. It is amazing that the guy hasn't even announced and he supposedly would get more votes than he did in 2000! But these national polls are fraudulent and the media shouldn't be reporting them at all.
Hoffa: Kerry says drill, drill, drill ...
There was some really hot discussions the other night on "Hardball" between host Chris Matthews and Teamster head James Hoffa: ["Transcript"]. But check out this exchange:
MATTHEWS: How about ANWR? You guys want to see ANWR because you want to see guys working in your business. I guess there‘s a lot of Teamsters jobs up there lined up and organized, if you could put a pipeline up to the Alaska wilderness. He is against that.
HOFFA: Well, we talked about that. He says, look, I am against ANWR, but I am going to put that pipeline in and we‘re going to drill like never before.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: What, are they going to run water through it?
(CROSSTALK)
HOFFA: ... more jobs than the ANWR would have ever created.
MATTHEWS: What are they going to run through the pipeline?
HOFFA: And that's the position he's taking.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: But he is against drilling up there. What are they going to run through the pipeline?
HOFFA: Well, they are going to drill all over, according to him. And he says, we‘re going to be drilling all over the United States. And he says that is going to create more jobs.
(CROSSTALK) (LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: You got that guy rolling.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: What position was he in when he made all these promises?
(CROSSTALK) (LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: It just seems amazing that he has turned around on NAFTA, turned around on WTO, turned around on ANWR, anything to get the Teamsters.
HOFFA: Oh.
MATTHEWS: Who is going to be boss if he gets in there, you or him?
HOFFA: Well, I think that
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: It sounds like you are the boss.
The text speaks for itself.
Post Dean
It is encouraging to see Deaniacs around the Web standing tall and deciding to vote for Dean even though he has suspended his campaign: ["Loyal 'Deaniacs' Balk at Backing Kerry, Edwards"]. This could hurt John Edwards' campaign - but hey - if the two couldn't reach a deal, they couldn't reach a deal.
However, here are some pretty important stories that have come out in the last few days about the Dean campaign:
First, the staffers unload: ["Staffers fill in details of the decline of Dean"]. I love these comments about veering from the script ... that is what a lot of people liked about Dean. They liked that he wasn't a stuffed-shirt pol. They liked that he was plain-spoken. They liked his normal, career-oriented wife. You live by the sword, you die by the sword, as the saying goes. There isn't anything you can do except continue to annoint empty-suited career pols who won't do jacksh*t for the country.
Then there is this from one of Dean's labor supporters: ["Labor Supporter Says Dean Ignored His Entreaties to Quit"]. God, government unions are so damn shortsighted sometimes! When you back a candidate, you are supposed to back a candidate! Who knows what the $1 million in Wisconsin could have done for Dean. Pathetic.
And Greider, as usual, gets a lot right: ["Dean's Rough Ride"].
Lastly, I haven't had a chance to post this article from GQ which goes into some of collapse in Iowa: ["Joe Trippi's Wild Ride"].
Bush targets Kucinich?
According to The Washington Post, President Bush has created some ads attacking Dennis Kucinich: ["Kerry's Past to Star in Bush's Ads"]. Also, the San Francisco Bay Guardian endorsed Kucinich.
Some other headlines and links:
I have been a bit busy over the past few days and missed some important links. Luckily, I saved them for future postings:
While everyone is screaming "ABB" and praising the Democrats, look at their plans to limit speech in July at the convention: ["Convention plan puts protesters blocks away"]. Such foolishness. But thankfully, protesters can just go down to the Boston Common and use the historic space for their UnConvention!
And then there is this: ["The Backbone Campaign"]. In continues to amaze me that people will waste countless hours on these types of projects instead of sitting down and doing the hard work getting good candidates elected.
The wildcard: Unlimited funds via 527s: ["Advocacy Groups Allowed to Raise Unlimited Funds"]. And you watch - for every MoveOn.org, there will be Bush-backed ad groups too. You can almost sense them, waiting in the wings ...
With or without Nader, Bush leads: ["Voters Hardened on the Economy, War, Gays Marriage"]. Again, national polls don't matter - it's the states, stupid. The media should stop reporting them completely and just talk about the candidates and their issues.
In Iraq, two investigations - suicides and rapes: ["Suicides in Iraq, Questions at Home"] and ["Rumsfeld orders review of sexual assaults"].
