Jun 12, 20080

I Endorse Barack Obama for President

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I take an unusual step today, I realize. A number of my friends, family, and closest associates will no doubt disown me. Rush Limbaugh will probably never mention RedState again. But I have to endorse Barack Obama for President.

I owe Barack Obama an endorsement. The campaign Barack Obama has run this far has earned him my admiration. While I’ve criticized people like Doug Kmiec for supporting Obama, I have seen the light.

I, Erick-Woods Erickson, do this day endorse Barack Obama for President. He has done all I have asked and now I should do at least one thing he asks and give him my support.

Please do read on . . .

When I beat up Obama for failing to repudiate Rev. Wright, Obama threw him under the bus.

When I punched Obama for telling the Teamsters he’d let them out of federal supervision, he backed down on that through a statement “clarification.”

After I questioned Obama’s patriotism because of his lack of a flag lapel pin, he put one on.

After harassing Obama for saying Iran was no threat, he willingly changed his mind and decided Iran is, in fact, a serious threat.

When Obama opened his mouth and lied about his family connection to the holocaust, he clarified again. Never mind that he’s told several different groups several different variations — he still attempted to do what I thought he needed to do.

When I bullied Obama over not going to Iraq with John McCain, his campaign decided he might just go.

Heck, I even picked on Barry for his “unilateral meetings with rogue nations” and Barry graciously nuanced his way out of it.

Then there’s the other stuff like his fully transparent campaign. He harassed John McCain for being secretive like the Bushies, I punched back, and Obama released just one page on his medical history so we couldn’t see that he actually has health problems due to his continued smoking. Likewise, he won’t even release his birth certificate to prove he really is an American citizen. I love that he’s willing to let this story and the whole “closet Muslim” story fester rather than be transparent like he claims he is. That just helps me out! And it signals that he really is just like the other guys; never mind the marketing.

Oh, and now after I demanded he throw Jim Johnson under the bus, Barry Obama does just that.

I love this guy. Everything I ask him to do, he does. Sure, sometimes I have to bop him on the nose, but just cause he’s into S&M doesn’t mean he’s not my type of guy.

Hell, look at John McCain. People attack him over supporting the surge and he does not cave. Those of us on the right beat him up over believing in that global warming crap and he will not yield to us. We wanted him to support the Bush tax cuts and he refused. And he does not apologize for it! The nerve of that guy.

Some people call that leadership. I call it stubbornness. Contrast John McCain’s stubborn refusal to do as I say when I say with Barry’s willingness to cave faster than a Taliban member with an F/A-18 over head.*

I have to endorse Barry Obama. Thus far he’s done nothing but signal his willingness to be my gimp. And me likey that!

*Note to the libs: this is a play on the word “cave” not a play on the word “Hussein”.

I take an unusual step today, I realize. A number of my friends, family, and closest associates will no doubt disown me. Rush Limbaugh will probably never mention RedState again. But I have to endorse Barack Obama for President. I owe Barack Obama an endorsement. The campaign Barack Obama has run this far has earned him my admiration. While I've criticized people like Doug ... Read More

Jun 12, 20080

Who’s “Rich” These Days?

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Raising taxes is an unpopular enterprise, so in order to pull it off, one has to engage in more than a bit of class warfare. One has to talk about “raising taxes just for the rich” or some other such nonsense in order to sell the tax hike–this despite the fact that the rich actually pay a huge share of the taxes in this country and that the more such class envy we see in efforts to sell tax hikes, the more Atlas may shrug.

All of this is a prelude to a discussion of Barack Obama’s tax policy, which as Stephen Moore points out, should induce more than a little consternation on the part of readers and voters:

Barack Obama has been on a class-warfare tirade since he locked up the nomination, accusing John McCain of defending Bush tax cuts for “the rich.” “For eight long years,” he said Monday in a speech laying out his economic agenda, “our president sacrificed investments in health care, and education, and energy, and infrastructure on the altar of tax breaks for big corporations and wealthy CEOs.”

Hmmm. Anybody even dimly acquainted with the record, especially President Bush’s vast expansion of Medicare, might doubt the factual basis of such a statement. Never mind. Mr. Obama and the Congressional Democrats promise to sock it to “rich” taxpayers next year to pay for “middle class tax cuts” as well as some $300 billion in new spending. But there’s a problem: They won’t tell us exactly who the rich are.

In various tax proposals Mr. Obama has set the definition of rich at levels of $100,000, $200,000 and $250,000 in annual income. He has vowed, for example, to erase the Bush tax cuts not only for those who make more than $250,000, but to end the cap on Social Security taxes, which amounts to a tax hike on anyone who makes more than $100,000 in income. More recently, Austan Goolsbee, an Obama economic adviser, told me the new cap might be set at $200,000.

All of this has caused some heartburn among certain Democrats in high cost-of-living states. New York Rep. Joseph Crowley says a couple with earnings of $100,000 could be “a police officer and nurse.” “In New York City,” he adds, “they’d be struggling.”

You know, at some point, someone should really call the Obama campaign on all of this. They have no idea what “rich” means. The standards keep shifting and the Obama tax plan will hit “rich” people who don’t qualify as being wealthy under any meaningful definition of the term. The economic damage this scattershot policy will do will be massive, of course.

But fear not! There are certain “rich” people who actually are rich in every sense of the term and who will do quite well in an Obama Administration. Read the rest of the Moore article to find out who they are. And here’s a hint: There shall be no “windfall profits tax” on them.

Raising taxes is an unpopular enterprise, so in order to pull it off, one has to engage in more than a bit of class warfare. One has to talk about "raising taxes just for the rich" or some other such nonsense in order to sell the tax hike--this despite the fact that the rich actually pay a huge share of the taxes in this country and that the ... Read More

Jun 12, 20080

Joe Lieberman’s Last Throes

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Seriously, Lieberman has hitched his ride to this failed war, to this obstructionist senate minority and to this sad excuse for a Republican candidate and, unfortunately, has full confidence that nothing will be done about kicking him out of the caucus and stripping him of his committee chairmanship before November — and probably not before January. When we count down to our 60 vote majority, let’s remember, truly, we need to pick up 10 seats, not 9. We need to make this guy absolutely irrelevant.

From The Hill:

On a conference call with reporters arranged by the McCain campaign, Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee, called the Democratic response to McCain’s remarks “another partisan attempt to distort John McCain’s words.”

“To put it mildly, I’m disappointed by these reflexive attacks on what Sen. McCain said on the ‘Today Show’ this morning,” Lieberman said. He added: “I regret these comments made today, and I hope we can get back to the facts.” […]

Lieberman said he finds it “most outrageous” to suggest McCain is out of touch.

You want to see what a real Connecticut Democrat looks like? Here’s Jim Himes, challenger to Bush rubberstamp Chris Shays in CT-04, on McCain’s comments today and the importance of bringing our troops home.

“John McCain’s comments this morning are not only sorely out-of-touch, they are also hurtful to the families of troops serving in Iraq for whom nothing is more important than knowing when their loved ones will come home.

“If Chris Shays was serious about bringing our troops home, he wouldn’t be co-chairing John McCain’s campaign in Connecticut. Just like his party’s standard-bearer, Chris Shays is deeply confused and out-of-touch when it comes to Iraq. In 2006 he promised voters he would support timelines, only to vote against them three times in 2007. Now, in 2008, he says he supports President Bush on Iraq and is working hard to elect an administration that clearly intends to keep American troops in harms way in Iraq for years if not decades.

“Connecticut families know we cannot afford a third term of the Bush-McCain-Shays policy on Iraq. It is long past time to give the Iraqi government a clear timeline for the full redeployment of American troops so we can start focusing on the challenges that face us here at home.”

Check out Josh Marshall’s excellent video about Lieberman’s betrayal of Democrats (especially of Obama who, you’ll recall, agreed NOT to campaign for Ned Lamont in 2006) and what we all can do to help nudge Democratic senate leadership to boot him from the caucus once our increased majority is sworn in.

Tags: joe lieberman, john mccain, jim himes, ct-04 (all tags)

Seriously, Lieberman has hitched his ride to this failed war, to this obstructionist senate minority and to this sad excuse for a Republican candidate and, unfortunately, has full confidence that nothing will be done about kicking him out of the caucus and stripping him of his committee chairmanship before November -- and probably not before January. When we count down to our 60 vote majority, let's remember, truly, we need to pick up 10 seats, not 9. We need to make this ... Read More

Jun 12, 20080

Bush to award Rep. Lantos with posthumous Medal of Freedom

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President Bush announced today he would award the late Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civil honor. Lantos, who served 27 years in the House and “devoted himself to securing liberty for oppressed people around the world,” died from cancer on Feb. 11. His family will accept the […]

President Bush announced today he would award the late Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civil honor. Lantos, who served 27 years in the House and “devoted himself to securing liberty for oppressed people around the world,” died from cancer on Feb. 11. His family will accept the award on his behalf at a June 19 ceremony. Read More

Jun 12, 20080

Rush Limbaugh’s cousin appointed to federal bench.

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Today, Steven Limbaugh Jr., cousin of right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, was confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Eastern Missouri. President Bush nominated Steven Limbaugh to the position in December. As ThinkProgress has noted, the Bush administration has close ties to Rush Limbaugh, granting him access to Tony Snow, Condoleezza Rice, […]

Today, Steven Limbaugh Jr., cousin of right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, was confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Eastern Missouri. President Bush nominated Steven Limbaugh to the position in December. As ThinkProgress has noted, the Bush administration has close ties to Rush Limbaugh, granting him access to Tony Snow, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, and Vice President Cheney. Last fall, Limbaugh was treated to his own private confab with Bush. (HT: Crooks and Liars) Read More

Jun 12, 20080

McCain in ‘05: I’m ‘totally in agreement’ with Bush on ‘the most important issues of the day.’

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Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is working hard to dispel the notion that his presidency would effectively constitute a third Bush term, saying recently that he has “disagreed strongly with the Bush administration” on Iraq. But McCain took a very different stance in June 2005 when he told Tim Russert that he has “been totally […]

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is working hard to dispel the notion that his presidency would effectively constitute a third Bush term, saying recently that he has “disagreed strongly with the Bush administration” on Iraq. But McCain took a very different stance in June 2005 when he told Tim Russert that he has “been totally in agreement and support of President Bush” on “the transcendent issues“: RUSSERT: The fact is you are different than George Bush. SEN. McCAIN: No. No. I–the fact is that ... Read More

Jun 11, 20080

In Debate Over Permanent Bases In Iraq, U.S. Seeks Authorization For War In Iran

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The ongoing negotiations between Iraqi leaders and the Bush administration over the future role of the military occupation “have turned into an increasingly acrimonious public debate.”
The Bush administration’s demand for 58 permanent bases in Iraq — a near doubling of the current 30 bases — are causing Iraqis to warn that the status of forces […]

The ongoing negotiations between Iraqi leaders and the Bush administration over the future role of the military occupation “have turned into an increasingly acrimonious public debate.” The Bush administration’s demand for 58 permanent bases in Iraq — a near doubling of the current 30 bases — are causing Iraqis to warn that the status of forces agreement would be “more abominable than the occupation.” The administration is reportedly holding hostage “some $50bn of Iraq’s money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York ... Read More

Jun 11, 20080

Boehner blames ‘left-wing bloggers’ for impeachment efforts.

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On Monday, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush. Today, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) dismissed the call for impeachment as the efforts of “left-wing bloggers“:
This is just another example of the Democratic leadership in the House indulging trivial and silly conspiracy theories from left-wing bloggers, […]

On Monday, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced 35 articles of impeachment against President Bush. Today, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) dismissed the call for impeachment as the efforts of “left-wing bloggers“: This is just another example of the Democratic leadership in the House indulging trivial and silly conspiracy theories from left-wing bloggers, rather than working with Republicans to deal with the real issues facing the American people. But impeachment is more popular than Boehner would like to admit. A July ... Read More

Jun 11, 20080

Obama’s Clinton Bounce

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Gallup, whose daily tracking poll (based on a 3-day rolling average of 2,679 RVs, June 8-10, MOE +/- 2%) currently has Obama leveling off to a statistically significant 6 point lead over John McCain, characterizes Obama’s lead as follows:

This marks the third consecutive day that Obama has held a significant lead, as he enjoys a modest boost in support following Hillary Clinton’s decision to concede the nomination. Obama’s six and seven percentage point advantages over McCain in recent days have been his best to date.

A crucial factor in Obama’s post-Clinton endorsement lead, according to Gallup: a rise in support among women.

Obama’s lead among women has now expanded from five percentage points to 13, while his deficit among men has shrunk from six points to two.

These figures are based on aggregated Gallup Poll Daily tracking interviews with national registered voters conducted May 27-June 2 (the week immediately before Obama clinched the nomination on June 3), which showed Obama and McCain tied at 46%, and June 5-9 (the five days since it was reported that Clinton would suspend her campaign), which show Obama ahead, 48% to 42%. Obama clinched the nomination on the evening of June 3, and the news media reported Clinton would suspend her campaign on the evening of June 4. Thus, the data give a clear picture of voter support before and after Clinton’s exit.

Remarkably, Obama’s lead over McCain among women now essentially matches Clinton’s 12 point lead over McCain during the last full week of her campaign (Obama’s lead during the same period had been a paltry 5 points.) This shift has been especially pronounced among Clinton’s core group of older women:

During the last few days of her active candidacy, Clinton led McCain by 51% to 41% among women aged 50 and older, while Obama trailed McCain among this group, 46% to 43%.

Since Clinton suspended her campaign, older women’s vote preferences have shifted toward Obama, so that he now enjoys a six-point advantage over McCain.

Another potential sign of a Clinton-driven bounce is in Michigan where Rasmussen Reports now has Barack Obama slightly ahead of John McCain for the first time since they began polling head-to-head match-ups. The poll (500 LVs, June 9, MOE +/- 4%) was taken on Monday, two days after Hillary Clinton endorsed Barack Obama and represents a net gain of 4 points for Barack Obama in a month.

Obama 45 (44)
McCain 42 (45)

It’s less clear that this bounce in Michigan is due to Clinton’s endorsement since Obama’s gains since May’s poll seems to be among men as well as Democrats and Independents at large:

Obama has reduced the gap among male voters and now trails McCain by eleven percentage points among men. That’s down from a nineteen point deficit last month. Obama leads by thirteen among women, a figure that has changed little. McCain is supported by 83% of Republicans while Obama currently gets the vote from 74% of Democrats. In our previous survey, those numbers were 84% and 70% respectively. McCain now leads by five points among Michigan’s unaffiliated voters, down from a thirteen point lead in May.

But at the very least it’s an indication that, despite much hand-wringing to the contrary, Obama is unlikely to be punished by Michigan voters for the whole Michigan delegate debacle. His current lead of 3% is exactly the margin by which John Kerry beat George Bush in the state 4 years ago.

Tags: 2008 presidential election, barack obama, hillary clinton, john mccain (all tags)

Gallup, whose daily tracking poll (based on a 3-day rolling average of 2,679 RVs, June 8-10, MOE +/- 2%) currently has Obama leveling off to a statistically significant 6 point lead over John McCain, characterizes Obama's lead as follows: This marks the third consecutive day that Obama has held a significant lead, as he enjoys a modest boost in support following Hillary Clinton's decision to concede the nomination. Obama's six and seven percentage point advantages over McCain in recent days have ... Read More

Jun 11, 20080

Lieberman: Iraqi Opposition To U.S. Security Agreement Is ‘A Sign Of Our Success In Iraq’

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The Bush administration is currently trying to push Iraqis into accepting a long-term security agreement that would “perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely.” The U.S. demands include nearly 60 permanent bases in Iraq, immunity for foreign contractors, and control over air space.
Iraqi opposition to this bill is growing so intense that […]

The Bush administration is currently trying to push Iraqis into accepting a long-term security agreement that would “perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely.” The U.S. demands include nearly 60 permanent bases in Iraq, immunity for foreign contractors, and control over air space. Iraqi opposition to this bill is growing so intense that Iraqi parliament member Nadeem al-Jaberi recently testified to the House that 70 percent of Iraqis are in favor of the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Some more voices ... Read More