Another Nail in the Coffin

Another Nail in the Coffin
Posted Sep 24th 2007 6:36AM by NixGuy
Filed under: President 2008, Money Trail, John McCain

With apologies to "Star Trek," let me just say this about John McCain's presidential aspirations: "It's dead, Jim".Over the weekend, David Freddoso at NRO traveled to the Michigan GOP confab at Mackinac Island where just hours earlier John McCain lost his Michigan chairman. Yes they were both there:

If he intended to embarrass Sen. John McCain, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox could not really have done it more effectively than he has. His announcement Monday that he was stepping down as McCain's state chairman came just in time for this weekend's Republican retreat here, which every major GOP presidential candidate was scheduled to attend.That's a pretty big hit. Some of us recall that in 2000 John McCain won a surprising and huge victory in the Michigan primary If he has any hope at all (and he doesn't) he needs to do the same thing in 2008. That's not going to happen when your main man in Michigan decides to jump ship. But then again, McCain was able to convince a lot of Democrats and independents to come over and vote GOP (and for him) instead of the boring and decided Democratic nomination. This year, Hillary Clinton is not quite anointed yet, and Democrats will probably choose to vote on the Democratic side.See more at the Detroit News.

McCain still has some potent Republican fundraisers on his Michigan team, but many of them acknowledge that it's tough to excite donors to write checks.
He has lost his campaign plane and has to travel commercial, making him less mobile -- and less able to cram in fundraisers.

He has to fly commercial?! It's definitely over.

Oh-eight (D): The Hillary filibuster

Oh-eight (D): The Hillary filibuster
Posted: Monday, September 24, 2007 9:07 AM by Domenico MontanaroCategories: Democrats, 2008
CLINTON: The New York senator hit all the Sunday morning shows yesterday, including NBC’s Meet the Press. The Washington Post says that she “demonstrated a particularly senatorial skill: the art of the filibuster… Above all, though, in a morning of appearances that yielded virtually no news, Clinton illustrated her ability to talk. And talk. And talk.”
The New York Daily News called it “TV’s Tour de Hillary.” On Meet the Press, Clinton touted her ability to withstand Republicans’ “withering attacks.” “I think I've proven that I not only can survive them but surpass them," she said.
The Sunday New York Times had a CW-setting piece about Clinton's place in the campaign. "She has been challenged for fund-raising supremacy and news media attention by Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. Former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina beat her to the punch in introducing big policy proposals. But nothing that her main rivals have done has so far has derailed Mrs. Clinton, leading them to begin rolling out aggressive new strategies aimed primarily at her, including courting black voters in South Carolina and stepping up attacks."

Full Story http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/09/24/376385.aspx

"It's All About the Union Stupid"

As was so aptly spoken in the Clinton/Bush battle for the White House, the focus of the voucher war has nothing to do with our kids education.

http://vouchernews.blogspot.com/

We All knew Holly Mullen was just a Teachers Union Hack, but to erase any doubts

From: Holly Mullen [mailto:hmullen@slweekly.com]
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 10:41 AM
To: thenry@effwa.orgCc: alexockey@comcast.net
Subject: Op-ed: National Teachers' Union Fighting School Choice In Utah

Ms. Ockey:If you’re heart is aching so much for Utah’s school children should vouchers fail, why don’t you move back here where you “return every year” and work to improve our schools?

I find it greatly ironic that you are chastising the NEA and teachers unions as “outsiders.” In what category would you put yourself?Thanks but no thanks. I’m a newspaper editor, with children in Utah’s public schools. I will gladly vote against vouchers come November. I believe in democracy and I believe in putting ALL my tax dollars into public schools.

Holly Mullen
EditorSalt Lake City Weekly

Here was the Op-Ed
http://vouchernews.blogspot.com/2007/09/national-teachers-union-fighting-school.html

Top Hillary Clinton backer rips Rudy Giuliani's personal life

Top Hillary Clinton backer rips Rudy Giuliani's personal life
Thursday, September 20th 2007, 4:00 AM

Hillary Clinton has avoided taking potshots at Rudy Giuliani's personal life - but one of her top boosters last night showed no such restraint.
Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack went off on Rudy Giuliani's family foibles in a televised interview, saying Giuliani has "lots of issues" voters may not know about - yet.
"I can't even get into the number of marriages, [and] the relationship he has with his children," Vilsack said on New York 1, describing the ex-mayor's past as "interesting."
Vilsack, who joined Team Clinton after abandoning his own presidential aspirations, was to appear at a Manhattan fund-raiser for Clinton last night.
The Giuliani campaign had no immediate comment.

Mark Towner's Spyglass Spots: Reductio ad NCLBsurdum

Reductio ad NCLBsurdum
Today's award goes to Roger Biles, chairman of Illinois State University's history department. Presented with the news that college students, including the ones at ISU, were deficient in their knowledge of U.S. history, Biles had this response:"He believes part of the problem is the No Child Left Behind Act put too much emphasis on students in elementary and high school doing well on multiple-choice standardized tests."How do we know that college students are deficient in their knowledge of U.S. history? You guessed it. They were given a 60-question multiple-choice standardized test.I encourage you to take the test yourself. It's not an easy one. I'm happy to report I scored a 54 out of 60 (90%).
Posted by Mike Antonucci on Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 09:34 Permalink

Holly Cow, You Must See These Video's

You gatta see these Video's

http://vouchernews.blogspot.com/

Mark

Giuliani Says He's MoveOn's 'Worst Nightmare'

Giuliani Says He's MoveOn's 'Worst Nightmare'
The spat between Rudy Giuliani and MoveOn.Org has not, well, moved on yet.
In a new radio ad, which is now running in Iowa, the former New York mayor calls MoveOn the "most powerful left wing group in the country" and designates himself their "worst nightmare."
"They know Rudy is a Republican who can beat the Democrats," an announcer in the ad says. "And they know, no matter what they say- Rudy will never, ever back down."
In response, the MoveOn group announced today it has double the amount of money it is spending on an anti-Giuliani television ad in Iowa, from $50,000 to $100,000, and will also run the ad nationally on CNN. The ad hits Giuliani for quitting a congressional panel on Iraq strategy.
"It's no surprise that Giuliani can't respond to our charge that he went AWOL on Iraq," the group's executive director, Eli Pariser said. "Maybe he thinks voters care more about what he says about MoveOn than what he's failed to do to end the war."
Even as Giuliani continued the battle with MoveOn, rival presidential candidate Mitt Romney launched a new radio spot in Iowa which attempts to reinforce Romney's opposition to gay marriage.
"Governor Mitt Romney - he stood up for traditional marriage and fought the activist ruling every step," an announcer says. Later, he continues: "Now, Mitt Romney is standing up for traditional marriage in Iowa, opposing the Polk County decision to permit same-sex marriage."
--Michael D. Shear

Gallup: Giuliani dips, McCain edges up, Romney slips; Clinton's lead is steady

Gallup: Giuliani dips, McCain edges up, Romney slips; Clinton's lead is steady
Lots of poll data to chew on this morning from our friends at Gallup.
First, Frank Newport and Joseph Carroll write at The Gallup Poll that:
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani continues to lead the national race for the Republican presidential nomination, although his support has faded to one of its lowest readings of the year. Former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, who recently announced his candidacy, holds steady in second place, 8 percentage points behind the frontrunner. Meanwhile, Arizona Sen. John McCain has continued to recover from his early August doldrums and is in third place, only 4 points behind Thompson and more than 10 points ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Romney's mini-bounce after the Iowa straw poll in early August appears to have been short-lived.
According to Gallup's Sept. 14-16 poll of "401 Republicans or Republican leaners:"
• Giuliani's support dipped from 34% in the first week of September to 30%.• Thompson's support was unchanged, at 22%. • McCain's rose from 15% to 18%.• Romney's slipped from 10% to 7%.
"In general," Frank and Joe write, "support for McCain has shown gradual improvement over the past month, and Americans' opinions of McCain are at their highest point since May. McCain is now rated as favorably by Americans as Giuliani, and more so than the less-well known Thompson or Romney."
Gallup says those GOP numbers each have margins of error of +/- 5 percentage points.
Meanwhile, Frank writes at our Gallup Guru blog that Clinton continues to lead "overwhelmingly -- with Sen. Barack Obama in 2nd place" among Democrats and Democratic leaners.
Gallup's latest Democratic numbers:
• Clinton, 47%, vs. 45% the first week of September.• Obama, 25%, vs. 24%.• John Edwards, 11%, down from 16%.
Frank concludes, by the way, that "one would have to assign a fairly low probability at this point to the chances of any one other than Clinton ending up with the party nomination."
The Democratic figures also have margins of error of +/- 5 percentage points.

Hot Tip on Voucher Spending

Mike Antonucci tipped me off that the Utah state government web page with the list of campaign financial disclosure reports had been updated.

You can thumb through them yourself, but Communities for Quality Education does have one, and the NEA front group spent $133,400 - mostly on consultants and staff.

Two of the three $500,000 grants from NEA to the Utah Education Association were immediately passed along to Utahns for Public Schools, which then immediately sent the cash to Media Strategies and Research - a Democratic media-buying firm based in Denver, Colorado, that is an NEA favorite for this task.

MS&R undoubtedly is using the money to buy up air time in the Utah media.

The next set of financial disclosure reports aren't due until seven days before the election so we won't see updated numbers until October 30.

Mark Towner's Spyglass Spots: Fred Thompson says no to NCLB

Here is the Link

http://vouchernews.blogspot.com/2007/09/thompson-criticizes-no-child-left.html

To be honest, Britney's a national treasure

"To be honest, Britney's a national treasure. Believe it or not, for my generation, it's just as big of a topic as 9/11." – Chris Crocker, 19, star of the viral video "Leave Britney Alone" on YouTube (language warning). (September 13 MSNBC.com).

'A lot of districts are kind of stuck in the old mindset' that parents are responsible for their children's breakfast

"'A lot of districts are kind of stuck in the old mindset' that parents are responsible for their children's breakfast, Chandran said, 'And that doesn't yield good participation.'" – from a San Diego Union-Tribune story about under-use of the school breakfast program, quoting and paraphrasing Sivakumar Chandran of California Food Policy Advocates. (September 15 San Diego Union-Tribune)

In higher education, finance professors make more than economists, and economists earn more than history professors

"In higher education, finance professors make more than economists, and economists earn more than history professors. It's a simply matter of supply and demand in the labor market. Some skills command higher returns outside of teaching than others. That doesn't demean history professors. History professor know they are likely to earn less money than finance professors (with exceptions like Stephen Ambrose) when they enter graduate school. There's a saying we have in economics – 'you can't repeal the law of supply and demand.' What that means is that if you don't let price clear the market then something else will. In the case of science and math, since we don't allow relative pay for these teachers rise, the market clears in the quality dimension. We have many educators 'teaching out of field' in those areas as compared to fields in which supply is more plentiful." – Michael Podgursky, professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Columbia. (September 17 EducationNews.org).

Do I like the NEA better than the NRA?

"Do I like the NEA better than the NRA? Sure, but in terms of the way they operate and what they do, they're the same – and you should be equally skeptical of their claims. There are times when the interests of the adults and the interests of the kids are not the same, and it's naïve to deny that." – Andrew Rotherham, co-director of Education Sector. (September 14 National Journal)

Mark Towner Spyglass: Today's Political Headlines

'08 Notes: Let Them Eat Steak
Posted: 17 Sep 2007 08:19 AM CDT
Congress returns from a long weekend celebrating Rosh Hashanah, and this time they mean business, as everyone has a busy week scheduled. The Senate takes up consideration of the Defense Department...


Waiting on Dino
Posted: 17 Sep 2007 07:25 AM CDT
Washington Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire has already bagged $2.7 million for her reelection bid and is on pace to break her own record for the most cash ever raised ($6.4 million) for a...

Bush picks Mukasey as attorney general

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer 21 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - President Bush has settled on Michael B. Mukasey, a retired federal judge from New York, to replace Alberto Gonzales as attorney general and will announce his selection Monday, a person familiar with the president's decision said Sunday evening.

Mukasey, who has handled terrorist cases in the U.S. legal system for more than a decade, would become the nation's top law enforcement officer if confirmed by the Senate. Mukasey has the support of some key Democrats, and it appeared Bush was trying to avoid a bruising confirmation battle.

The 66-year-old New York native, who is a judicial adviser to GOP presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, would take charge of a Justice Department where morale is low following months of investigations into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys and Gonzales' sworn testimony on the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program.

Full Story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070917/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/attorney_general;_ylt=Ajnq4ZUdZVg_sAdIcgGApK8E1vAI


Key lawmakers, Democrats and

You gatta Watch These Video's

http://vouchernews.blogspot.com/

Today's One-Size-Fits-All Standardized Test

You gotta take this Quiz

http://www.eiaonline.com/2007/09/todays-one-size-fits-all-standardized.html

Rudy's Position on School Choice

Video of Rudy’s view on Public Education:
Rudy Guiliani speaking on school choice http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid626962068?bclid=662538597&bctid=1078597465