Capitol View Category Archive: Campaign 2008: President

Obama nears decision on Afghanistan

Posted at 6:26 AM on November 24, 2009 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: Campaign 2008: President, Campaign 2010, Campaign 2010: U.S. House

Several news outlets, including Politico, are reporting that President Obama will lay out his strategy regarding Afghanistan during a primetime address to the nation on Tuesday, December 1st.

The Washington Post says Obama's top military commander and the U.S. Ambassador in Afghanistan have been told to get ready to testify before Congress.

Her dad covered the Vikings

Posted at 4:35 PM on January 30, 2009 by Mike Mulcahy
Filed under: Campaign 2008: President, Campaign 2008: U.S. Senate

Politico reports Sen. Amy Klobuchar is invited to President Obama's Superbowl party. I'll bet he has a nice TV. Just be careful not to choke on the pretzels.

Something to do while waiting for a new Senator

Posted at 4:03 PM on January 2, 2009 by Mike Mulcahy
Filed under: Campaign 2008: President, Recount

MPR's Tim Nelson sent me this time waster. It's got a shelf life of about 18 more days.

MPR poll shows comments hurt Bachmann

Posted at 9:54 AM on October 24, 2008 by Mike Mulcahy (2 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2008: President, Campaign 2008: U.S. MN CD6, Campaign 2008: U.S. Senate

A new MPR News/ University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute poll shows voter concerns over Rep.Michele Bachmann's recent comments have cost her support in the 6th District.

The poll of 430 likely 6th district voters shows 45 percent favor DFL challenger Elwyn Tinklenberg, compared to 43 percent for incumbent Bachmann. Support for Bob Anderson, the Independence Party candidate, was 5 percent.

The poll's margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.7 percentage points. which means the race is a statistical dead heat.

The survey was taken after Bachmann publicly questioned whether the views of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama were anti-American, and suggested the media investigate the anti-American views of Congress.

Nearly 4 out of 10 6th district voters said they were less likely to support Bachmann because of her comments compared to 8 percent who said they are now more supportive.

Bachmann's level of support trails John McCain, and Sen. Norm Coleman, who both have leads in the heavily Republican district. Coleman's 14 point lead over Democrat Al Franken is much bigger than McCain's 3 point lead over Barack Obama in the district.

Coleman had 44 percent support in the district compared to Franken's 30 percent. IP Senate candidate Dean Barkley is polling at 17 percent in the 6th District, and 9 percent are undecided.

In the presidential race in the 6th, McCain has 47 percent and Obama has 44 percent. Seven percent are undecided.

By way of context, Bachmann defeated DFLer Patty Wetterling 50-42 percent in 2006. In 2004 President Bush won 57 percent of the district's vote compared to 42 percent for John Kerry.

The poll was conducted between Oct. 21 and Oct. 23.

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The debate is on

Posted at 10:38 AM on September 26, 2008 by Molly Bloom
Filed under: Campaign 2008, Campaign 2008: President

In spite of a vow to skip the debate until a Wall Street bailout deal was reached, U.S. Sen. John McCain will be heading to Mississippi for the first presidential debate tonight.

McCain originally had said he suspend his campaign until "the crisis has been resolved."

An aide to McCain later told Reuters that, "If the package is reached and the country is saved, there will be a debate."

McCain is debating tonight -- so, is the country saved? Here is the campaign's statement (emphasis added):

John McCain's decision to suspend his campaign was made in the hopes that politics could be set aside to address our economic crisis.

In response, Americans saw a familiar spectacle in Washington. At a moment of crisis that threatened the economic security of American families, Washington played the blame game rather than work together to find a solution that would avert a collapse of financial markets without squandering hundreds of billions of taxpayers' money to bailout bankers and brokers who bet their fortunes on unsafe lending practices.

Both parties in both houses of Congress and the administration needed to come together to find a solution that would deserve the trust of the American people. And while there were attempts to do that, much of yesterday was spent fighting over who would get the credit for a deal and who would get the blame for failure. There was no deal or offer yesterday that had a majority of support in Congress. There was no deal yesterday that included adequate protections for the taxpayers. It is not enough to cut deals behind closed doors and then try to force it on the rest of Congress -- especially when it amounts to thousands of dollars for every American family.

The difference between Barack Obama and John McCain was apparent during the White House meeting yesterday where Barack Obama's priority was political posturing in his opening monologue defending the package as it stands. John McCain listened to all sides so he could help focus the debate on finding a bipartisan resolution that is in the interest of taxpayers and homeowners. The Democratic interests stood together in opposition to an agreement that would accommodate additional taxpayer protections.

Senator McCain has spent the morning talking to members of the Administration, members of the Senate, and members of the House. He is optimistic that there has been significant progress toward a bipartisan agreement now that there is a framework for all parties to be represented in negotiations, including Representative Blunt as a designated negotiator for House Republicans. The McCain campaign is resuming all activities and the Senator will travel to the debate this afternoon. Following the debate, he will return to Washington to ensure that all voices and interests are represented in the final agreement, especially those of taxpayers and homeowners.

Big protest ties up downtown Denver

Posted at 4:16 PM on August 24, 2008 by Mike Mulcahy
Filed under: Campaign 2008: President

Several hundred demonstrators marched through downtown Denver Sunday. Many were protesting thre war in Iraq and any potential war the U.S. might fight against Iran. Update: The Denver Post is now reporting more than a thousand took part in the protest and that there were no arrests.

Police had closed off some streets, and traffic was congested. There were dozens of police officers watching the parade. Some were on bikes. Others were wearing riot gear.

"The odd part is that it's our Democrats, our left, who spend $50 million to secure themselves from independent thought," said Todd German, a protester from New Orleans.

Access to the Pepsi Center was blocked for a time. Because the Democratic National Convention doesn't start until Monday, that was mostly an inconvenience for journalists and others trying to get in to set things up ahead of time.

Despite the number of protestors and police the march seemed generally orderly. I was able to cut through the march to cross the street with no problem.

I bumped into St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman this morning, who said he was planning to meet with Denver law enforcement officials today to talk about their experience with the protest. His city may have to deal with a larger march next week as the Republican National Convention comes to town.

As the protest broke up Seattle resident Doug Skove let the air out of his inflatable earth. Curtis Gilbert snapped this photo but neglected to ask whether Skove planned to pack it up and take it to St. Paul. Or whether you can check an inflatable globe with your regular luggage.

New poll shows Obama with big Minnesota lead

Posted at 10:00 AM on June 26, 2008 by Mike Mulcahy (1 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2008: President, Campaign 2008: U.S. Senate

A poll of four battleground states by Quinnipiac University, the Wall Street Journal and the Washingtonpost.com raises real questions about whether Minnesota even deserves to be in the "battleground" category in the race for president.

The poll of voters in Colorado, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota shows Obama leading in all four states. But in Minnesota he tops John McCain by a blowout margin of 54-37.

Obama also has a big lead in Wisconsin 52-39.

The margins are closer in the other two states.

But as positive as the Minnesota poll results are for the Obama campaign, they contain troubling news for supporters of DFL U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken.

The poll shows Republican Sen. Norm Coleman leading Franken 51-41. And Coleman's lead is even bigger among independent voters 55-35.

"Sen. Obama sweeps nearly every demographic group in Minnesota, including whites and blue collar workers, to lead by 17 points, the biggest lead in the four states surveyed. At the same time, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, with overwhelming support among men and a tie among women, has a 10-point overall lead over comedian Al Franken, the Democratic challenger," said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

And the poll also raises questions about the value of Gov. Tim Pawlenty as a McCain running mate.

"Most voters say it would not make any difference in their vote if Gov. Tim Pawlenty is McCain's running mate," Richards added.

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At least we're ahead of New Jersey

Posted at 3:19 PM on April 30, 2008 by Tom Scheck (1 Comments)
Filed under: Campaign 2008: President

Tax rankings are always a sensitive issue since statistics are always open to interpretation. During an afternoon news conference, Governor Pawlenty said Minnesota is 49th in the latest report from the small business and entrepreneurship council's business tax index. South Dakota is first. New Jersey is last. Is this group's tax rating fair?

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