Guiliani Makes That Leap

Just about 48 hours after I my last post, in which I guessed Guiliani would hop onto the train heading towards the White House, he does.

Rudy Guiliani formed an exploratory committee yesterday to investigate whether or not it would be lucrative for him to make a run for the White House. According to a poll I saw on CNN this morning, Guiliani had a three-point lead on Sen. John McCain, who formed his own committee last Friday.

Now that both of the BIG names have came forward with their possible intentions of wanting to succeed President Bush, no doubt all eyes will be on the Democratic Party, to see if some of our BIG names will run.

Also, the U.S. Senate has decided who it's leaders will be.

-Adam

Vilsack Announces W.H. Run; McCain Exploring Idea

Possible Contenders?
Two more people could be added to the "Possible '08 Contenders" list. Iowa governor Tom Vilsack (D), currently in his second term, has decided to forego running for a third term, and has instead decided to run for President of the United States. He made the announcement Thursday. Vilsack won the governorship in 1998, marking the first time in 30 years a Democrat was the executive of that state. Vilsack's had to deal with a Republican state legislature for a majority of his time in office. Hopefully, if he wins, he won't have to deal with that, thanks to the incredibly smart and well-informed Americans who voted on Tuesday.

Also giving politics and bloggers something to talk about on Friday was the announcement of an exploratory committee by Arizona Sen. John McCain (R). Republican officials said that the committee would be formed next week, and a bank account has already been created. McCain's aides said that McCain would consult his family, and that he would have an answer in December.

Thanks to McCain's announcement, I'll be sitting on my hands to see if the ONE Republican that could actually win the Presidency will run. If McCain doesn't run, then the Democrats have a fairly good chance of winning. Obviously, Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani could throw a wrench into a "Bush screwed up, let's vote Democrat" movement, especially considering Guiliani relates with Democrats on most big issues.

Could they Win?
I don't know too much about Gov. Vilsack to say either way, but I do honestly think that John McCain or Rudy Guiliani could become the next President. Despite being Republicans, both are very moderate, on occasion even liberal, and could appeal to a wide base. HOWEVER, Senator McCain's recent "flip-flopping" (yes, I said it) between supporting the President, no doubt to gain votes from the more conservative voters, and clashing with him has, I believe, created some distrust among those swing-voters and Independents who do not like the President's policies. This could open the door to Guiliani, especially if he comes out against some of Bush's actions and standpoints.

Democrats will definitely have some grand contenders vieing for the presidency, if those names who are rumored, or have hinted at running, decide to make that giant leap.

-Adam

Beaking Senate News

Moments ago, MSNBC just posting a breaking news story at the top of their homepage. It's the most beautiful thing in the world:

"Associated Press projects Jim Webb the winner in Virginia Senate race." Webb ran against current incumbent Republican Senator George Allen.

If this is indeed true, and if Jon Tester can hold onto slight lead in Montana over incumbent Conrad Burns, then the Democrats have, for the first time since their loss in 1994, control of (both houses) of Congress.

-Adam
MSNBC Homepage

Democrats Seize House, Gain Governors; Senate Still Waiting For Leader

WOW! What a night.

The Democrats , for the first time in 12 years, have control of a house of Congress. This could also be the first time, since modern voting began, where one house has gone one way, and another house possibly going another. Of course, that's all up to the voters in Montana & Virginia.

Who would have thought that Montana could be the focus of the country. In Montana's Senate race, John Tester (D) holds a slight lead over Conrad Burns (R), 49-48% (Tester leads by roughly 4,000 votes, with 84% of the precincts reporting.) I assume there will be a recount here.

In Virginia's Senate race, Democrat Jim Webb picked up a small gain, LATE. In fact, the very last county to report it's results in VA was a primarily Democratic county, which placed Webb in the leading spot. His opponent, incumbent Sen. George Allen, is trailing 50-49% (Webb leads with 1,170,412 vs. Allen's 1,162,293.) Under the current rule in VA, any candidate who loses by less than one percentage point can ask for a recount. There definitely will be here.

In other, already determined races:

Democrat Harold Ford, Jr. lost his bid at the Tennessee Senate seat to Republican Bob Corker, 51-48%. A bright spot in Tennessee is that Democrat Phil Bredesen easily won reelection over GOP challenger Jim Bryson. Ford's loss brings the Senate that much closer to Republican control; on the other hand, it shows that Democrats are gaining a strong foothold in the state.

In Pennsylvania, Democratic challenger Bob Casey beat out current Republican Senator Rick Santorum for his senate seat. Santorum, who is an extremely strong supporter of President Bush, lost 59-41%. Hopefully is has become painstakingly apparent for the soon-to-be ex-Senator that siding with everything the President does does not sit well with Pennsylvanians, along with most of the country.

In Connecticut, Democrat-turned-Independent Joseph Lieberman won reelection over Democratic challenger Ned Lamont & left behind GOP challenger Alan Schlesinger, 50-40-10%, respectively. Those on T.V., which CNN & MSNBC insist on calling "experts" estimated that 1/2 of Democrats & 1/2 of Republicans would vote for Lieberman. I don't know how it broke down, but obviously did something right (I guess running after losing the Democratic nomination would be the first thing.)

Missouri's Senate race came down to the wire, but in the end Claire McCaskill, the Democrat's answer to Republican incumbent Jim Talent, 49-47%.

Ohio & Massachusetts picked up Democratic governors, after having GOP executives in about a decade (leave me a comment if this estimate is wrong.) In Ohio, Democrat Ted Strickland beat GOP J. Kenneth Blackwell 60-37%; Massachusetts Democrat Deval Patrick beat GOP challenger Kerry Healey 56-35%. Of course, the news touted the fact that Patrick was the first black man elected governor of Massachusetts. So what? As long as he's a Democrat, I don't care if he's purple.

To no one's surprise, both of New York's top positions up for grabs went to Democrats. Current Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, easily won the governorship over GOP rival John Faso (69% - 29%.) Governor George Pataki met his term limits and could not run again. As far as the New York Senate race went, the intelligent voters of New York swiftly choose incumbent Democratic Senator (and former FLOTUS) Hillary Clinton, to represent them for the next two, er... I mean six years. Many people think, since Clinton was to easily beat GOP challenger John Spencer (not the late actor) for her second term, that she might be set to run for President in 2008.

She might, and we might get an answer, since she said that she was thinking about the '06 elections first. Well, the '06 elections are over, Mrs. Senator... have you made a decision? Personally, while she's definitely one to watch, I'm also keeping my eye on a certain Hispanic executive in the south-west, or a "skinny kid with a funny name" from the a mid-western state.

Well, if I missed anybody who's an attention-grabber, just turn on a cable news channel, I'm sure they'll be on there. I'm tired, and I'm getting sick of all the squiggly red lines under the names of candidates that Blogger doesn't recognize, so I better stop now.

Keep on eye on Montana & Virginia, they could throw this country, and President Bush, for a loop. And congratulations to California Rep. Nanci Pelosi, who not only won reelection, but picked up the job Speaker of the House. Next time you year the House's Sargent-at-Arms do his "Mr. Speaker" line, it'll be "Mrs. Speaker", and he'll be talking to her. I hope he can get the line straight.

P.S. Projections currently set Democrats having as 33-seat lead over the GOP in the House.

-Adam

Election Day

Well, the day is finally here. If you are registered to vote (which I really hope you are) you NEED to show up to your polling place today, and carry out one of our most important Constitutional rights.

If you are not sure who to vote for, if you want to know about who's running or what measures are up, of if you just want to follow today's news, here are a few sites which might help you.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/US/Midterm_Elections_2006/
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15593981/
http://www.vote-smart.org/index.htm
http://www.electoral-vote.com:2006/

If you are here, you are probably someone who is voting for a change. I encourage you to do so. If you are against any policies of the current administration, or don't like how Congress is being run, send a strong signal to The Powers That Be. Do NOT neglect this. If you don't vote, you won't die, but no one will feel sorry for you if you grumble how "your guy lost", since you didn't cast your ballot.

I hate to sound like a scratched CD (is that a suitable replacement for "broken record"?), but sometimes people have to be motivated.

After the results are in, I'll be back to update this place with results. Until then...

-Adam

[Another] Congressional Settlement

9/11 Remains
Five years, and 21 days after the September 11 attacks, victim's remains are still being found at Grounds Zero:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061102/ts_nm/sept11_remains_dc


U.S. Representative paying off ex-mistress

Don Sherwood, a Representative from Pennsylvania, is paying Cynthia Ore, his former mistress, a $500,000 settlement reached at the end of last year. As it turns out, Ore was to file charges against Rep. Sherwood, claiming abuse. Sherwood denied the claim, and agreed to the payment.

The kicker, though, is that there was a clause stating that if she came forward to the press BEFORE the upcoming elections, she would lose part of the settlement money. Pretty bold of the Rep. to put in an election clause. Chances are, though, this will not hurt his reelection bid, since the story has now come out.

-Adam

Kerry Redux

This post is sponsored by Iran. On your next trip to Iran, book with an Iran travel agency, and help support the local economy; and be sure to tell them that Amhadinejad sent you.


Kerry, Kerry, Kerry...

With one week to go until DemoVictory '06, Senator John Kerry made a "misspeak", like oh so many politicians do, and pissed off a bunch of Fox News watchers in the process (not saying that's necessarily a bad thing.)

Kerry, trying to make a joke about the president's obvious learnt disabyl-eighties, insinuated that troops serving in Iraq were people who weren't smart enough to get a higher education. Naturally, this is untrue, since a lot of people join the armed forces to receive money for college.

Unfortunately, as politics goes, the GOP took this opportunity to twist Kerry's real words into a fake meaning. Kerry was trying to make a joke about how uneducated the president is (although he does have degrees from Yale & Harvard) and obviously failed. Senator Kerry does not know how to joke, especially scripted jokes, since I don't seem to remember him as being the life of the party during the 2004 election.

In any case, Kerry needs to shut up until after the elections. In fact, EVERY Democrat in Washington & on the campaign trail, excluding those who are actually running for office, needs to keep their mouth shut for another week. Then they can talk all they want, within bounds, until about September of 2008. We cannot lose this election based on the fact that a few speech-writers & aides try to be witty.

I do accept Kerry's explanation of what happened, and what he really meant is painfully obvious if you get the opportunity to see the whole thing (a la Fox News, which I'm sure hasn't taken the initiative to show it all.) C'mon, Kerry, try harder, unless you're not running, like in this election, when you shouldn't have to try at all.

Kerry has canceled all future stumps for other candidates, with the exception of those who canceled with him first.

-Adam

Thrid Party Strategies To Win

First off, I hope the new template works out. It should, since it's one of the official Blogger ones, but if it doesn't look right to you, drop me a line and I'll see if I can fix it.

Now, I'm (obviously) not a member of a third party, in fact, it would be downright weird, considering the name of this site, but I have a few ideas about how third parties could better organize for elections. After all, I'd rather have an Independent in office than a Republican.

1. When you vote, you want your guy to win. In third parties, the guys don't win. They can't win big elections. Not now, anyway, maybe in the future. When the Democrats & Republicans band together, they can get enough votes to make their guy win. If all the Independent & third party voters got together and voted for one guy (which would never happen), he still wouldn't win. State races might be possible, especially in Oregon, where Libertarians are the third-largest party.
2. If you want a third party candidate to win, the first thing you need to do is build up the party, from the ground. Parties need to make a stand at the local & state levels. Then, once they, and more importantly, their views are established and known among the public, they can run for a national offices. The Office of the President is the Omega of all political offices. You can't just jump into the drivers seat if you're from a third party.
3. It'll take a generation or two, but then the third parties who are serious about being in the political world will be "dug in" and ready to actually be a major campaign. In another completely pathetic cliche, third party candidates such as Ralph Nader & Pat Buchanan just wanted to skip to the end of the movie, without first watching the character development.

Or, for those of you who are familiar with Operating Systems:

They are like the operating system Linux. It's all based on the same core software, but they're all different, with differing standards. If they were to unite, on even the most basic issues, they would be just as strong as Microsoft & Apple. The same goes with third-party politics. There are WAY to many parties, when they're not that many different points of view. If they were to unite on some basic ideas, they would be taken [really] seriously. But until then, there are too many choices.

Now, I realize that not all third parties have the same views. But many of the smaller ones are very similar, and should unite and compromise, in order to gain political footing. Yes, some are there to "make a point", but making a point, and not seriously trying to win, can be dangerous. Just look at 2000. That whole fiasco may have not happened if Darth Nader didn't need to make a point.

Gee, thanks Ralph.

-Adam

New Poll Numbers

Okay, for a while there, I got really sick of politics. I almost got to the point where I hated it, but then I realized "Hey, the Republicans are screwed in the midterms"; thus, I am back here. I'm going to try to breathe new life into this place (maybe a new template would be nice), but for right now, I've got some new poll numbers (these I got off of MSNBC this morning.)

-------------------------

Okay, in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll,

On the subject of Iraq,

Now - 68% are feeling less optimistic about Iraq
Now - 20% are felling more optimistic about Iraq
June - 44% are feeling less optimistic about Iraq
June - 45% are felling more optimistic about Iraq

On the subject of the president's approval rating:

38% approve of the president's overall job. That's down three points from the last poll.

On the subject of who Americans would like in power:

52% - Democrats, 37% - Republicans -- That's the widest gap ever measured on this poll.

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Okay, over on CNN, they had a few other numbers:

Is Congress out of touch with Americans?

Now - 74% say YES!
1994 - 75% said YES!

In 1994, the Democrats lost control of Congress to Republicans.

Does big business have too much influence over the Bush Administration?

79% - Yes, 19% - No

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Denny Hastert: remember to leave the keys to the speaker's office on the counter, so the Democrats can pick them up afterwards.

I'm not sure how many seats Democrats will pick up, but I know it'll be enough. Remember to vote this November.

-Adam

Why I Hate Bill O'Reilly

Okay, I'm not exactly sure how old this video I found on Throw Away Your T.V. is, but some of the footage it contains isn't new. No matter, if you hate Bill O'Reilly, you want to watch this.

I haven't made to big of a case about how evil Bill O'Reilly is, but when I saw this, I got really pissed off at him. He has some horrible things to say to this guest, who just happens to be the son of a Port Authority officer killed when the WTC collapsed. NOBODY, for any reason, should treat someone who directly suffered from that day, like this.

Now, if anyone reading this is a conservative, who happens to be a fan or supporter of Mr. O'Reilly, please don't immediately brush this aside. Please watch this. O'Reilly eventually accuses the son of the PA officer of accusing President Bush of plotting 9/11. This kid does not say that, no level-headed would say that. The Bush Administration dropped the ball, but they did not cause it; and this guy did not say that they did.

Now that I've made the once-in-a-lifetime point of defending President Bush, let's move on to the video:



I now join the legions of those who officially hate Bill O'Reilly.