California's striking it rich.
Looks like I'm not the only one who thinks California's a pretty big deal this election season. With Iowa and New Hampshire out of the way, papers from around the state (and even one in the U.K.) are looking hopefully for a starring role on Super Tuesday. Here's a roundup:
"California mail-in voters a primary target," The Times punned yesterday.
The Sacramento Bee eyes Golden State independents, who could make or break the Democrats this year:
A twist in California this year will allow the state's "decline-to-state" voters to cast ballots for Democratic Party candidates in the state's Feb. 5 primary – but not for Republicans.
This could make a difference. In New Hampshire on Tuesday, analysts said nonpartisan voters significantly boosted the tallies of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. There, independents can vote for candidates of either party.
"But," today's L.A Times reports, "some strategists believe California's Latino voters could boost Clinton, who is more popular in that group than Obama."
That's good news for Clinton, who may have to place a lot of her eggs in California's basket. According to the Huffington Post:
A panicked and cash-short Clinton campaign is seriously considering giving up on the Nevada caucuses and on the South Carolina primary in order to regroup and to save resources for the massive 19-state mega-primary on February 5.
At the same time, some top independent expenditure groups supporting Clinton have been exploring the creation of an anti-Obama "527 committee" that would take unlimited contributions from a few of Clinton's super-rich backers and from a handful of unions to finance television ads and direct mail designed to tarnish the Illinois Senator's image.
Panicking about Obama's head start with the mail-in crowd?
The San Francisco Chronicle remarks on how the GOP race is shaping up:
At this rate, California Republicans - and only Republicans because those not registered with the GOP are forbidden from voting in the state's primary - will have the chance to cast the decisive vote to crown the party's nominee.
"California will be voting before the nominee is decided," said California Republican Party chair Ron Nehring.
Only two Republican campaigns - Giuliani's and Romney's - have organizations of any size in California. And analysts said McCain had to win New Hampshire to generate enough buzz - and the ensuing campaign donations - to allow him to continue. [...]
McCain won't be able to attract independent voters, or those who register as "decline-to-state" in California. They're not allowed to cast Republican ballots in the state.
Even Britain's Guardian weighs in on the Golden State:
For many Californians, the unusually early date for the primary corrects what they see as a historical wrong: the clout of the "pipsqueak states" over the might of California.
While California has the largest population and the highest number of delegates of any state, it has in the recent past been reduced to the role of bystander as smaller, early-voting states have decided the destiny of the presidency.
To make matters worse, California is also the bankroller of the campaigns, the place where chequebooks are open and supporters ready to endorse with money, not just kind words.
But not this time.
Damn right.
MC-CAIN THE PODHORETZ NEO-CON CANDIDATE IN THE AMERICAN CULTURAL WAR
The leading Neo-Con strategist, Charles Black; and the desperate endorsement by the leading Neo-Lib, Leiberman; and the powerful Neo-Con news media could not save the Podhoretz Neo-Con, John McCain, from defeat by the leading Conservative, Romney, in Wyoming, Michigan, and Nevada; nor could they save him from defeat in Nevada by the rising popular Libertarian Conservative, Ron Paul; nor from defeat by the Evangelist Conservative, Huckabee, in Iowa.
For Neo-Con McCain, the designated Neo-Con ideological successor to the notoriously unpopular Neo-Con tyrant, President Bush, to be so successfully defeated by Romney, Paul, and Huckabee suggests that the powerful insidious subversive influence of Israel over the wealth and blood of the American People is finally coming to an end in this escalating American Cultural Rebellion. But his slim victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina, where the majority of the Conservative voters were so cleverly deceived, by Black and the Neo-Con dominated news media, into believing that McCain could be trusted to loyally and competently serve the interests of the American People, indicates that he continues to be a theat.
McCain’s support for his McCain-Feingold restriction of internet freedom of speech, government sponsored child sacrifice by abortion, amnesty for Mexicans illegally occupying America, un-patriotic sacrifice of the precious wealth and priceless blood of the American People in un-constitutional wars to protect Israel are a betrayal of his Christian God and his American Constitution. And if he so dishonors his God and his Country, then how could he ever be trusted to cherish and to honor the American People?
Furthermore, most sensible Americans have observed that Neo-Con McCain, like Neo-Lib Hillary, has never in his long contentious and scandalous governmental career managed to accomplish anything of social or economic significance; and that his McCain-Feingold legislation has had only disastrous effects on campaign finance fairness. When most of the American People come to realize the full extent of his moral depravity and intellectual incompetence, he will become as un-electable as Hillary.
In every state of the Union, Conservative Republicans are now fighting to defeat desperate Podhoretz Neo-Cons; the outcome of these election battles will determine whether the great change for the American People will be the restoration of their Constitutional Liberties, or many more years of increasing Neo-Con government corruption and tyranny.
With the speed at which the Libertarian Revolt is spreading across America like wildfire, it would not be surprising to see the Conservative Republicans condemn McCain to the firing squad by February 6, the day after Super Tuesday.
Google: Mearsheimer Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy; Stricherz Why the Democrats are Blue; Wall Street Journal McCain-Feingold; Human Events Ron Paul Interview; Who Would the World Elect.
Posted by: Jeugenen | January 23, 2008 at 12:44 PM