2008 is becoming more and more interesting...

I've reported on the Democratic boycott of Florida and I've gotten some feedback from people (both from FL and not from FL) saying that I've been too harsh on the democratic presidential candidates and whatever else.

Well...

The Miami Herald has a story on the latest Mason Dixon Florida poll. The poll contains a lot of information but in general election match-ups...

Rudy Giuliani beats Hillary by 7 points.
Fred Thompson beats Hillary by 4 points.
Mitt Romney beats Hillary by 1 point.

Most interesting, though, is that more independents (54%, 47% and 45% respectively) selected the Republican candidate over Hillary.

Why? The Democratic boycott of Florida.

26% of independents said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who "refuses to campaign in Florida in advance of the primary in order to placate voters in Iowa and New Hampshire."

According to the Sunshine Independents Blog, more than 2 million Floridians (19% of Florida voters ) are registered as independents. So, if 2 million independents vote, then roughly 520,000 of them would vote for the Republican candidate only because of the boycott. That's a lot more than the 527 votes that won Florida, and ultimately the presidency, for George W. Bush in 2000.

In 2004 John Kerry received 54% of independent votes to Bush's 41%. In 2000, 47% of independent voters marked their ballots for Al Gore while 46% voted for Bush. As stated earlier in this post, the independents are already leaning more toward Giuliani, Romney and Thompson than Hillary although the Democrat has won the majority of independent votes in Florida in the past 2 presidential elections.

Looks like Florida will play a key role in the presidential election once again.

Oh yeah, the relatively newly elected democratic Congress is setting new records. According to Gallup: "By historical standards, the current [congressional] 20% approval rating is among the lowest Gallup has ever recorded. In fact, in the 173 times since 1974 that Gallup has asked Americans to rate the job Congress is doing, Congress' approval rating has been at or below 20% only four times."

Again, the independents play a role here as only 14% of them approve of the current Congress. That's lower than th 20% of republicans that approve.

President Bush's approval rating is at 32% with 27% of independents approving of his job performance.

Partisan Politics and the Desire for '08

1. Push polling? on religion nonetheless? Despicable. However, I think this shows that Romney is the Republican candidate to beat in the primaries despite the nonsense floating about the media that the R primary is "wide open." If it was anyone else leading by the margins Romney is in the key states of Iowa and New Hampshire as well as topping the polls in Michigan and Nevada, they would be deemed the frontrunner. But, because Giuliani is leading in national polls (which, by the way, mean NOTHING), and Mike Huckabee is "gaining momentum," which he really isn't, it's been decided there is no frontrunner. Any what's the real reason behind this? Conservatives are so concerned with beating Hillary (the perceived Dem frontrunner), they'll sell out their values and throw support behind the winnable candidate. Well, this can only hurt the Republican party in the long run. Maybe we should focus on spreading the message of conservatism and its benefits instead of attacking the Democrats. I'm disappointed.

2. On a lighter note, Dave reported on "Swiftkids for Truth" videos. They're actually pretty entertaining, even though they are also part of what makes people aversive of politics. Here's the video on Hillary:



3. Speaking of Hillary, Liz reported on the female McCain supporter who referred to Hillary in a very derogatory way. While I agree that elected officials should be respected, a least a little, I think Joy Behar on The View was a little ridiculous about this occurrence. Okay, she likes Hillary. Well the McCain supporter didn't. Joy doesn't like President Bush- the PRESIDENT! But it's okay for Joy to talk in an insanely defamatory way about the PRESIDENT on national television would be but it's not okay for a citizen to express her point of view? Where's all the freedom of speech talk? Amazing. And again, what should McCain do? He didn't say anything. Do the producers of The View have to apologize for Joy's comments? No. Not even when so attacks religion by saying that prayer is a distraction. Seriously...

4. Media Matters for America got all upset because the Politico and CNN's Costello reported that the Democratic leadership in Congress is 0 for 40 when it comes to doing something policy-wise on the Iraq war. Okay, so they were able to pass legislation, just for it to be vetoed. They probably knew it would be vetoed- and this is just another part of their political game in which they strive to show that President Bush, and therefore Republicans in general, are awful and shouldn't be elected in 2008. Seriously- part of being a good leader, and especially a good legislature, is to be able to get things accomplished. Not just passing legislation for it to not come to fruition. You may say the this is just rhetoric for me to say that it's the Democrats playing politics. Well- they are. Not only are they recessing early, they've been wasting time trying to reignite the Fairness Doctrine and impeach Dick Cheney and hold votes of no confidence regarding Bush administration officials. Well, there are more important things, such as MAKING SURE AMERICANS DON'T DIE IN ANOTHER TERRORIST ATTACK. But no, they'd rather waste time and blame everything on Pres. Bush and Republicans. Secretary Gates has said he will have to layoff people in the Army and Marines and cease operations at Army bases. DURING A WAR? This is a huge weakness - thanks to Democrats who won't just suck it up and provide the troops the money they need without the pork programs. They claim the surge isn't working - a lot of reports have come out about this being the deadliest year. Well, in case you forgot/didn't know, after the surge we had a HUGE decrease in deaths. Oh, but let's leave that part out and then claim that conservatives refuse to put things in context. Okay. And then, let's use this to not pass funding for the war so that Osama Bin Laden, who isn't a real threat anyway, will see this as a big weakness and plan more attacks on us. Oh but wait, we shouldn't err on the side of caution- this isn't a serious threat. We don't know terrorists and Islamofascists are out to get us. Seriously?!!! The democrats want so badly to win the presidency in '08 that they are willing to put us in danger and then blame it on President Bush. They've already said that they are going to make the '08 election about Pres. Bush's presidency.

What did he ever do to any of you who despise him so much?

Basically, I'm so tired of all the partisan politics and political games on both sides. However, the Dems, with their majority in Congress, are putting us in danger. And this is NOT okay.

Daily Kos Continues to Leave Out Important Numbers

Everytime a new Presidential Approval Rating comes out the Daily Kos reports it and, of course, adds its own commentary about how awful and stupid and [fill in the blank] President Bush is. Today the Daily Kos was quick to report that President Bush is the "most unpopular President -- EVER!" This, mind you, cites ONE polling company (Gallup) and, while I'm not disputing that Americans aren't pleased with the President, leaves out another important statistic: the Congressional approval rating.


Real Clear Politics, which averages the various results, reports that the current approval rating is 24%, with a disapproval rating of 64.5%.

President Bush's RCP approval rating average is 34%, with a disapproval rating of 60.2%.

64% is Bush's highest disapproval rating, but 70% is Congress's highest disapproval rating.
36% is Bush's highest approval rating, but 28% is Congress's highest approval rating.

Let's take some other things into consideration:

1. President Bush is not running for re-election. He can't. And he's already said that his legacy will be determined not now but many years from now, as most legacies are. The Dems, however, are running for re-election (in terms of keeping the majority in Congress).

2. President Bush has been in office for 7 years. The Dems have been in charge for less than one year.

I'm not going to make any claims about what this all means, you can think about that for yourself. However, (and this is especially meant for all of you who cry out for 'context') think about the situations surrounding these numbers, not just the numbers themselves. Same thing goes for national poll numbers for Presidential elections. They don't really mean anything because, as all of you should remember from 2000, it's not the plurality of people's votes that matters, its the electoral votes that get a President elected.

Here's an endorsement you don't hear much of: Borat likes "Barack Obamas"



Q: Who do you favor for President in the United States?

A: "I cannot believe that it possible a woman can become Premier of US and A - in Kazakhstan, we say that to give a woman power, is like to give a monkey a gun - very dangerous. We do not give monkeys guns any more in Kazakhstan ever since the Astana Zoo massacre of 2003 when Torkin the orang-utan shoot 17 schoolchildrens. I personal would like the basketball player, Barak Obamas to be Premier."

You Don't Wanna Mess With the President!

Just because I'm a Republican doesn't mean I can't make fun of them!

In other news, I'm sure many of you heard about Mitt Romney's "Obama-Osama gaffe." But, have you seen this video?

Ted Kennedy confuses Obama with Osama


And another video for your viewing pleasure:

You Don't Want it From the President


And, of course, I have to report that only one Democrat running for President showed up to Florida's Democratic Convention.

Reuter's reports: "The Democratic Party's convention in Florida during the weekend was like a rock concert performed solely by warm-up bands."

"This would be the least exciting (convention) in 30 years, the least encouraging," said a noticeably deflated, long-time Democratic conventioneer Alice Long Owens of St. Augustine, Florida.

This convention didn't get nearly as many posts on the Tampa Bay Buzz Blog as Florida's Republican "Presidency IV," which was, by the way, amazing.

Oh well. I'm sure that the huge and nationally representative populations of Iowa and New Hampshire will make up for the Dems blowing off Florida. Oh wait...

Rush's Midas Touch

My appreciation goes out to Rush Limbaugh today for turning a contempt-filled situation into a considerably large, heartfelt donation to children of fallen Marines and federal law enforcement professionals.

The letter signed by Harry Reid and 40 other Senators in an attempt to censor what Rush could say on his own radio show was given to Rush by Clear Channel CEO Mark P. Mays. Rush, in turn, put the letter on eBay as a fundraiser.

The letter ended up going for more than $2.1 million - the largest charitable auction in eBay history, beating Jay Leno's guest-signed motorcycle which went for $800,000.

Not only that, but Rush promised to match the funds, so he will add $2.1 million of his own money, meaning that this letter, originally signaling government abuse of power against a private citizen, ended up in more than $4.2 million dollars in scholarships for children of fallen Marines and federal law enforcement professionals.

On top of that, Rush is putting certified copies of the letter signed by him for sale on his website for $1,000. All of this money will go toward the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation.

Of course, Harry Reid had to have his say in the matter.

Sen. Reid tried to pretend that he was a part of this donation by implying that he and Rush had "buried the hatchet" and using the pronoun "we" when speaking of the fundraiser and amount of money raised.

Specifically, Sen. Reid stated: "I strongly believe that when we can put our differences aside, even Harry Reid and Rush Limbaugh, we should do that and try to accomplish good things for the American people.



Rush Limbaugh's reply to this:
"I asked Sen. Reid to match and all the other senators who can afford to do so. I haven't heard from them on that. I asked Sen. Reid to go on the program and discuss his discussion of me as 'unpatriotic.' He did not accept my offer to do that and now has the audacity to climb aboard this, praising the effort, saying that 'he' never knew that it would get this kind of money."

Rush also said:
"It's poetic justice that Dingy Harry and those 40 signatories to this letter have made it possible for at least $4.2 million to go to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation."

Read more here.

Once again, thank you, Rush Limbaugh.


Oh, and for you viewing pleasure:
Harry Reid Condemns Rush Limbaugh (Parody)