Saturday, July 14, 2007

Why Tancredo Makes Me Laugh

First, a picture is worth a thousand words...

A Picture of the GOP on Civil Rights

" The one photo the GOP does not want anyone to see was snapped at yesterday’s NAACP GOP Presidential Candidate Forum. The NAACP invited all 9 Republican candidates to the forum, but only one showed up: Tom Tancredo. All the Democratic Presidential hopefuls showed up for their forum. "

LINK: What if you held a debate and *almost* no one came?

Then, there is this feud between him and the other Far-Right extremist, Sam Brownback.

I heard somewhere that Tancredo is considering dropping out of the race. However I cannot find the link to the story. Did anyone else here this? I thought it was a NewsMax story. Maybe I was wrong.

-Mr. Joseph

UPDATE (8/10/07):
Apparently, Sam Brownback is fighting with Mike Huckabee now. This is in addition to his constant attacks on Mitt Romney. Brownback is quite the fighter.

Gilmore drops out of 2008 race

From the Politico...

Former Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III is dropping his underdog bid for the Republican presidential nomination today, he told The Politico in an interview.

Gilmore said he has been approached about running for Virginia governor a second time, and about running for U.S. Senate if Sen. John W. Warner (R) retires. Gilmore said he will consider both options. Reflecting his long-held interest in Old Dominion politics, he said he will start a political action committee to support Republicans running for the state senate and House of Delegate.

In the interview, Gilmore said the punishing financial requirements of the early-starting race caused him to decide it was "impractical" to continue. "Because of the front-loading of the primaries, I would have basically had to stop campaigning and spend full time organizing hundreds of people to raise money for me," he said.

Gilmore's campaign issued a statement in which he said: "I have come to believe that it takes more than a positive vision for our nation's future to successfully compete for the presidency. I believe that it takes years of preparation to put in place both the political and financial infrastructure to contest what amounts to a one-day national primary in February."

Gilmore said he made the decision in the past 48 hours on the basis of "an assessment of where I could do the most good for the country and the state of Virginia." He said he has not made a decision about endorsing one of his rivals, but said he would not rule it out.

Gilmore had offered himself as the "consistent conservative" and heir to Ronald Reagan in a field that has left many Republican activists dissatisfied. He is the first GOP candidate to leave the race. He said he will continue to speak out on issues like homeland security and terrorism, subjects that he emphasized in debates.

Other candidates commanded much more cash and attention, keeping Gilmore a distant also-ran. Financial reports this weekend showed he had little hope of cracking the top tier. Gilmore raised $170,000 in the first three months of the year and said he collected $211,000 in the quarter ending June 30, while the leading candidates in the race banked millions.

In Gilmore's successful race for a four-year term for Virginia governor in 1997, he showed the popular appeal of fiscal conservativism with his "no car tax" pledge to reduce the commonwealth's personal property tax.

While in office, he served briefly as chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Gilmore is a lawyer who has made counterterrorism and homeland security his specialties since leaving office. An Army veteran and son of a Safeway meat cutter, he rose as an outsider in the clubby world of Richmond law, becoming Henrico County commonwealth's attorney and state attorney general. He was the first chairman of a congressionally appointed commission on terrorism that became known as the Gilmore Commission.

LINK: Gilmore drops out of the race

With Vilsack and Gilmore out, (and Tancredo considering it) will the number of '08 candidates start to limit itself? Hillary and Edwards think so (but Dodd and Kucinich are pissed).

-Mr. Joseph

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

CNN's Gupta Attempts (And Fails) to "Reality Check" Moore

Crooks and Liars has been following this story very carefully.

Just before Michael Moore appeared on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Gupta ran a hit piece entitled "SiCKO Reality Check". During his appearance on the Situation Room, Moore responded angrily by demanding an apology from Blitzer and promised to respond to Gupta on his website. He did and it sent Gupta reeling. He then continued his response by holding Gupta accountable on Larry King. Then, again, on his website, Moore set some facts straight. Michael Moore scored a clear victory over CNN, Wolf Blitzer, and Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

MediaBloodhound put together an interesting theory behind Gupta's hit piece.

Apparently, in an effort to nurse its wounds, CNN may have attempted to mess with Moore's physical appearance.

Here are the transcripts from Moore's appearance on The Situation Room...

Key Quote:
Moore: Why don’t you tell the truth to the American people? I mean I wish that CNN and th eother mainstream media would just for once tell the truth….You fudged the facts about this issue—-about the war and I’m just curious. When are you going to aplogize to the American people for not bringing the truth to them that isn’t sponsored by some major corporation?
It was great to see Moore stick up for himself and his film. I saw SiCKO and it was very good. I'll post a review later...

-Mr. Joseph

UPDATE (7/12/07):
Although Mike Huckabee is my second favorite Republican candidate, it is getting harder and harder for me to like him.

UPDATE II (12/9/07):
Although Mike Huckabee is my *favorite* Republican candidate, it is still very hard for me to still like him.