Rudy Giuliani answers a question from a woman who says she doesn’t understand his strategy of offense in Iraq. “We’re not accomplishing anything and we know that,” says the questioner. “I would say just the opposite,” says Giulilani.
Sound bite: “I think you have to define success in Iraq. Success in Iraq is a stable Iraq that will act as an ally to us in the terrorists war on us.”
Mike Gravel answers a question about global governance. He says he’s for a world government but the world isn’t mature enough for that. He also says that the “corporate society responsible to no one is calling the shots right now.” Thus, he argues, we need an uber-governance (perhaps I make a wrong choice of phrase) over these corporate overlords. Sounds like a fine sci-fi book to me.
Sound bite: “To think that the world can survive without some form of global governance, it’s . . . bad thinking.”
The latest national Gallup poll (Aug 13-16) of Democrat voters shows Senator Clinton is solidifying her status as frontrunner:
- Hillary Clinton: 48%
- Barack Obama: 25%
- John Edwards: 13%
- the rest of the field in low single digits
Speaking at the VFW convention in Kansas City, MO on August 20, Senator Hillary Clinton put on her commander-in-chief hat.
Sound Bite: “We’ve begun to change tactics in Iraq and in some areas, particularly in al-Anbar province, it’s working. We’re just years too late changing our tactics. We can’t ever let that happen again. We can’t be fighting the last war. We have to be preparing to fight the new war.”
Is Hillary hawking out? Hell no. Later on the candidate said that the best way to honor U.S. soldiers is “by beginning to bring them home.” Presumably so they can prepare to fight the next war. No word yet from Clinton on where that one will be.
James Kotecki has instructed each of the candidates, in turn, on what they should be doing on YouTube and now he gives Fred Thompson his free advice even before he declares. James and I have each wondered about Thompson’s tone. As James points out, he tries to act casual but it does come off as acting.
Here’s a sampling of recent voter questions for the CNN/YouTube Republican debate.
Jack from Maryland says his family business works within the law to bring in seasonal guest workers every year. Since Congress has failed to enact the comprehensive immigration bill, he wants to know what the candidates will do to ensure that the guest worker program continues.
This young man asks Governor Romney to explain the difference between MittCare and HillaryCare.
The rising rate of obesity in the US concerns the very trim Ron from NYC. He asks the candidates what the President can do to change the American diet and lifestyle and “defeat obesity.”
A young Sikh American is worried that Iraq will become a haven for terrorists and asks the candidates about their longterm strategy to prevent that from occurring.
Standing in front of a dilapidated building in New Orleans, Daniel wants to hear from the candidates about how the federal government can help restore his city.
Want Joe Biden highlights from the Democratic candidates debate in Des Moines? You got ‘em. The Senator had some sober comments on how difficult it will be for the US to extract itself from Iraq without fomenting regional chaos.
Sound Bite: “My colleagues . . . seem to cling to the fundamental strategic mistake that everyone on both sides clings to — and that is that there is any possibility in the lifetime of anyone here of having the Iraqis get together, have a unity government in Baghdad that pulls the country together. That will not happen.”
It looks like Mitt Romney’s win in the Iowa Straw Poll has given the candidate a bit of a national boost. Gallup’s most recent poll (August 13-16) of Republican voters shows Romney moving from 8% to 14%. Giuliani remain the frontrunner with 32% and McCain slides to 11%. Is this a blip or a trend for the former governor?
Asked about her high negative poll numbers at the Iowa Democratic candidates debate on August 19, Senator Clinton says you can’t “escape the Republican attack machine,” but “I know how to beat them.”
Senator Biden is running his first TV spot in Iowa. In it he says he flew back from a trip to Iraq on a military transport plane that was carrying a flag-draped coffin.
Sound Bite: “All I could think of was the parents waiting at the other end. We must end this war in a way that doesn’t require us to send their grandchild back.”
At the Democratic candidates debate in Iowa on August 19, Senator Obama talks about a “fundamental change” in US foreign policy, Osama bin Laden and “aggressive diplomacy.”
Sound Bite: “Strong Presidents meet and talk with our adversaries.”
A six-minute Brownback video starts with one-liners from his comedy tour of Iowa, then segues into a sepia-toned biography of great accomplishments — president of — and then morphs into his issue one-liners.
Comedy sound bites: “It’s amazing how many of these small towns are named after their watertowers. . . You guys know how to welcome a guy from Kansas. [beat] With a tornado.”
Character sound bite: “America’s most consistent conservative. His values don’t change in the wind. He stands tall like an oak.” Cue oak shot.
Political sound bite: “We’re close to being able to overturn Roe vs. Wade. We’re one justice away.” And he wants to be the president who appoints that justice. “You can’t understand America without understanding faith.”
The Edwards campaign has so far put up 22 videos from his tour of Iowa, neatly cutting together stump speeches on his stands on health care and paying for it, energy, labor, economic inequality, globalization, and more. Here he is stumping on energy (capping carbon emissions but not opening more nuclear power plants or supporting liquid coal or other new carbon-based fuels)
He also interacts with the folks of Iowa. Here’s Dean Pro, who has been married to Mother for “62 or 63 years:”
Sound bite: “That don’t look like no $70 haircut.”
And here’s young Robert, who used spray paint to good end, making a campaign sign:
Hillary Clinton works a day in the white shoes of a nurse, ending up sharing a casserole with her and her kids at home. It’s a clever if obvious choice for Clinton’s turn in the labor day-in-my-shoes shtick: at the frontline of health care. The message at the end is purely labor-oriented — overloaded nurses and their need for a union (gotta get that in) — but would have been helped if there were more morals to the story of health care (paperwork, inefficiency, anything).
The Republican CNN/YouTube debate has been rescheduled for November 28 and questions from voters continue to roll in.
You see a lot of gay marriage questions and you see a lot of immigration questions, but you don’t see too many same-sex immigration questions. Especially from a cat.
Abha is an Indian-born American citizen from Wisconsin who asks the candidates “Do you believe it’s okay to impose Christian values on religious minorities through the policies you create?”
Ben says his ancestors came to America from Norway looking for a better life, but today Norway and many European countries have a higher standard of living than we do. How come?
