Chris Christie, Cory Booker do sketch comedy for Jersey press corps
New Jersey’s Republican governor, Chris Christie, and Newark’s Democratic mayor, Cory Booker, joined forces for a comic video they debuted last night at the New Jersey Press Association’s annual Legislative Correspondents Club Show.
The skit plays on Booker’s reputation for valiance (thanks to his famed rescue of a neighbor from fire and for shoveling snow for Newark residents), with Booker edging out Christie on one heroic good deed after another. “Booker!” grumbles Christie each time, echoing Jerry Seinfeld’s aggrieved “Newman!” But there’s one act of heroism only Christie, in the video, can do: join Romney as running mate.
Watch, via Christie’s YouTube page:
Hey, wavering Republicans – file by Halloween, or turn into a pumpkin
A January 31 Florida primary would offer a big treat for anyone tired of the ‘will she/won’t he’ speculation about possible new entries to the Republican presidential field — a hard deadline, on Halloween.
Florida officials say the state is expected to move up its primary to the January date, which means that candidates have until Oct. 31 — Halloween — to file paperwork to get their names on the ballot in the vote-rich state.
Florida is the fourth-most populous state, with more than 18 million people, and it is by far the largest of the “swing states” not strongly aligned with either political party, where U.S. elections are typically decided.
If the state holds its primary early, it could actually push the deadline even closer for former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and any of the other politicians who have said they are considering a run or those whose admirers wish they would run. Are you listening, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and current Mayor Michael Bloomberg?
The Republican Party has authorized four states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — to hold early contests to choose the nominee to oppose President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election bid. Those states had planned to hold their contests in February, but would almost certainly move up their primary elections and caucuses ahead of Florida.
That would put some other holidays on the Republican candidates’ minds — Christmas, Hannukah and New Year’s — because a shift in the primary calendar would force them to be out campaigning hard during December.
Photo credit: REUTERS/Rick Wilking (Carved pumpkins on a truck in in Boulder, Colo. Oct 31, 2007 )
Who’s afraid of Mitt and T-Paw…
It turns out that Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty are the scariest pair of presidential prospects in the GOP field today, judging from a new Democratic ad and remarks by some Democratic Party hierophants.
Priorities USA Action, a political group founded by two former aides to President Barack Obama, targets Romney as a flip-flopper in a South Carolina TV ad that wields Republican Paul Ryan’s Medicare reforms like a political cudgel.
The 30-second black-and-white spot begins with Newt Gingrich’s “Meet the Press” remarks opposing what he called radical right-wing social engineering on Medicare. The ad then recounts Republican South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s defense of Ryan before turning finally to Romney: “Mitt Romney says he’s ‘on the same page’ as Paul Ryan … but with Mitt Romney, you have to wonder: which page is he on today?”
The New York Times says the ad will run this weekend while Romney visits South Carolina.
Pundits view the ad as evidence that Democrats have locked on Romney as the GOP frontrunner, at least for now.
Ed Rendell, a leading Democrat who served as Pennsylvania governor and DNC chairman, put it this way on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”: “What really is instructive here is that this group’s trying to knock out Mitt Romney in the primaries. We don’t want to face Mitt Romney. A Romney-Pawlenty ticket is the most credible general election ticket.”
A monster twosome, perhaps. But that doesn’t mean top Republicans aren’t still baying at the doorsteps of Mitch Daniels and Chris Christie in hopes that one or both will take the plunge.
Glad to see serious (though flawed) GOPers running. The more Palin, Trump and Newt just muddy the waters.
And the GOP favorite is…
Top establishment Republicans are getting more desperate about the GOP’s current presidential line-up all the time. Care to guess why?
Newt Gingrich, once among the most prominent voices in the GOP, appears to be on the ropes only a week after declaring his candidacy – and even before his first official campaign trip to the early voting state of Iowa.
He has apologized to House Budget chief Paul Ryan for calling his Medicare plan “right wing social engineering” in a national interview and admitted making “a mistake.”
But his comments leave the Democrats with a potentially very large stick with which to beat the GOP as the 2012 campaign for president, House and selected Senate seats gains momentum.
He won’t talk about reports of hundreds of thousands of dollars of debts at Tiffany’s.
Meanwhile, another declared GOP White House candidate, Texas congressman Ron Paul, worries publicly that the United States will invade Pakistan next.
Republicans are so used to trash talking President Obama, Democrats, middle Americans, the poor, Social Security and Medicare recipients that they are now trash talking each other. Their tea party faction is ready to eat their own. It will be amazing if President Obama even has a Republican to run against in 2012.
Obama tweaks Republicans at governors lunch
President Obama leaped into political frays on a whole bunch of different levels when he addressed state governors at a White House luncheon.
Of singular interest was his mention of Republican Mitt Romney, a potential 2012 presidential candidate who is spending time these days defending the healthcare overhaul he executed as governor of Massachusetts.
The plan has been criticized by Romney’s potential 2012 rivals as little different from the Obama plan that Republicans want to repeal.
Obama got into it by saying he wants states to have flexibility under the healthcare law.
“In fact, I agree with Mitt Romney, who recently said he’s proud of what he accomplished on health care in Massachusetts and supports giving states the power to determine their own health care solutions. He’s right. Alabama is not going to have exactly the same needs as Massachusetts or California or North Dakota,” he said.
Then there was Obama’s tweaking of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican seeking to roll back collective bargaining rights for state employees in his state. Walker was not at the lunch.
“I don’t think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified or their rights are infringed upon. We need to attract the best and the brightest to public service,” he said.
New Jersey goes Republican too, bad night for Democrats
No matter how they slice and dice it, Democrat losses in the New Jersey and Virginia governor races are bad news for the party of President Barack Obama as he tries to move an ambitious agenda forward.
Congressional Democrats are already jittery about mid-term elections in 2010 when the party of a first-term president usually loses seats. And Tuesday’s Republican wins will only scare them more.
Even before the New Jersey race was called for Republican Chris Christie over incumbent Governor Jon Corzine, Democrats were postulating that this would be the race to watch rather than the Republican win in Virginia where Bob McDonnell beat Democrat Creigh Deeds.
“If the Democrats have a bad night…” James Carville, Democratic pundit, said on CNN after the Virginia race was called but before the New Jersey results were out.
“Let’s assume that the Democrats lose New Jersey, it could have an effect that people in Congress say ‘you know I’m not going to go along with some of Obama’s stuff, I’m really scared, we’ve gotta be careful, we’re going into 2010.’ That could be a reaction to that, maybe even an overreaction, which could be a danger,” Carville said. “That’s something that could have some implications.”
The White House has been downplaying these elections which come one year after Obama won the presidency. Spokesman Robert Gibbs was telling reporters that Obama was not watching the returns. (Fairly sure he’ll get the word somehow).
What it all means will be debated for days, weeks and months as the 2010 mid-term elections come closer.
Election Results. Nov.3,2009
November 6, 2009 by politicalsnapshots.wordpress.com
Election Results. Nov.3, 2009
The election results of Nov. 3, 2009 in Virginia, New Jersey and New York, will not give us a conclusive answer as to the resurgence of the Republican Party, nor the coming demise of the Democratic Party. At the same time, not paying attention to certain clues will be politically futile.
Few reasons for Democratic Party loss.
* Low voter turn out in historically Democratic strongholds.
* High unemployment, (in spite of 10,000 points at the Dow and so-called economic growth ballyhoo.)
* The disappointment of the progressive forces that helped put Obama in the White House. (Especially young white voters). Disparity between campaign rhetoric and reality.
* The uncertain, dim future of the U.S. economy.
* The unpopularity of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and,
* The Health Care Reform drama. (“not bound by any time lines” Sen. Reid)
For the time being, the Democrats might take third party candidates, as in (New York 23rd District) as their friends who might weaken the Republican Party. But, third party candidates are a double edged sword. In the future, progressive local candidates could arise challenging the status quo within the Democratic Party.
In other words, it will not be hard to envision for Conservatives and Progressives running their own candidates. After all, the rise of independents is based in the awareness that the two major political parties in the U.S. are not in step with the needs of the majority of the people. It is also an acknowledgment that the two party monopoly of politics is not conducive for democracy.
Finally, as my dear friend Ashley St.Claire says, “ may be, just may be, the so-called “ Blue Dogs”, ( I don’t know about the color but, the second part, they might be, if they call themselves one) might have a better fit in the Republican Party.”
Professor Mekonen Haddis
The First Draft: Elections East-West
Elections in the East, elections in the West.
Hot off the wire: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been declared re-elected.
Afghanistan’s election commission made the declaration after Karzai’s opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew and a run-off election was canceled. “The Independent Election Commission declares the esteemed Hamid Karzai as the president,” the commission’s chief said.
This will no doubt increase the pressure on President Barack Obama to roll-out his new Afghanistan strategy earlier rather than later, now that he knows who the United States will be dealing with.
Matthew Hoh, the former State Department employee who quit last month in protest over U.S. policy in Afghanistan, told NBC’s “Today” show that the Karzai news was “disappointing” and despite the investment of a lot of U.S. resources, “we didn’t get what we put our troops there for.”
Closer to home (just over the bridge from Washington) it’s the day before the election for Virginia governor and (up the highway a bit) the election for New Jersey governor.
Like it or not, Tuesday’s elections will be seen by some as a referendum on the policies of Obama, who has attended campaign events for the Democrats running in the two governor races.
I wonder if the “acorn effect”will take place in the NJ election? the local economy will miss the 10 dollar bills they throw around.If mickey mouse and donald duck are duck taped in a barn some were it could have a dramatic effect on the turn out!
