Open thread

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1. Richard Pope spews:

   Monday, 7/21/08 at 1:51 am

   Burner campaign downplays wealth, high-tech tie

   Congressional candidate Darcy Burner, who is challenging Congressman Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, in the 8th Congressional District, is using personal stories of her family and childhood to try to connect with middle-class and rural voters.

   By Emily Heffter
   Seattle Times staff reporter
   July 21, 2008

   One in a series of stories exploring the candidates and issues in the 8th Congressional District race.

   Congressional candidate Darcy Burner seldom speaks about the war in Iraq without mentioning her oldest brother, Jason Gibbons, who marched into that country with the initial invading force.

   Ask her about health insurance and Burner, 37, details the complications in her sister’s third pregnancy.

   The economic problems facing Americans? Burner can relate to those, too, she says, launching into a story about her parents’ struggle to raise five children on a teacher’s salary and the hospital bills that eventually forced them to file for bankruptcy.

   And then there’s her dad’s quadruple bypass, her disabled nephew, her little sister’s struggle to pay for community college and the complications in her own pregnancy with her son.

   Part of it is her nature. She’s chatty. But it’s also part of her campaign to shed an image as a Harvard-educated Microsoftie and appeal to more middle-class voters in the 8th Congressional District, where she is again challenging Congressman Dave Reichert.

   Read the full story here

2. Daddy Love spews:

   Monday, 7/21/08 at 6:34 am

   Any good politician will tell stories about individuals to illustrate their positions on the issues. I don’t think Dave Reichert does, but then, I did say “good politician.”

3. Daddy Love spews:

   Monday, 7/21/08 at 6:39 am

   And the hits jut keep on coming:

   Rhodes Cook, Senior Columnist at Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, did a deep dive in the new registrations from the 29 states that collect that data by party and found, in effect, that about 1,000,000 people have left the Republican party since 2004, while another 700,000 voters have become Democrats.

   A hodgepodge change of 1.7 million registrations in about half the states may not sound significant in a nation that could see 110 million people vote in November, but it is, in fact, something that looks potentially seismic.

   More bad news for Republicans this year. Oh, will it never end?

4. Daddy Love spews:

   Monday, 7/21/08 at 6:47 am

   But wait, there’s more!

   Tidbits from the same site:

   “In fast-growing Nevada, for instance, a 4,400-vote registration advantage for the Republicans in November 2004 has been transformed into an imposing registration edge of more than 55,000 for the Democrats. That is more than double Bush’s margin of victory in Nevada four years ago.”

   Awww, that’s too bad. But…

   “Iowa..in the months since the caucuses, Democratic registrations have surged by nearly 70,000, while the Republicans have gained barely 7,000 voters – all this in a state that Bush carried in 2004 by barely 10,000 votes.”

   Yes, but…

   “…with only a comparative handful of votes needed to swing key states such as Iowa and Nevada the Democrats’ way, the latest registration numbers can only fuel the party’s considerable optimism. “

   And Republican pessimism. I will be surprised if even Republicans’ famous lack of contact with reality can carry them through.

5. Daddy Love spews:

   Monday, 7/21/08 at 6:52 am

   Well, it turns out that not only was the Arabic translator for the Der Spiegel interview Nouri al-Maliki’s personal translator, but also the German magazine turned over its source materials and tapes to the New York Times, who hired an independent expert Arabic translator (probably UN) to retranslate the sources, and the translations were almost exactly the same.

   It looks like there was NO mistranslation and NO misunderstanding about al-Maliki’s complete endorsement of a 16-month withdrawal timetable.

6. Marvin Stamn spews:

   Monday, 7/21/08 at 8:57 am

   Hey Mr. busdriver, watch out, another person being hrown under the bus AFTER raising $$ for obama.
     

   For the Pritzker family of Chicago, the 2001 collapse of subprime-mortgage lender Superior Bank was an embarrassing failure in a corner of their giant business empire.

   Billionaire Penny Pritzker helped run Hinsdale, Ill.-based Superior, overseeing her family’s 50% ownership stake. She now serves as Barack Obama’s national campaign-finance chairwoman, which means her banking past could prove to be an embarrassment to her — and perhaps to the campaign.

   Superior was seized in 2001 and later closed by federal regulators. Government investigators and consumer advocates have contended that Superior engaged in unsound financial activities and predatory lending practices. Ms. Pritzker, a longtime friend and supporter of Sen. Obama, served for a time as Superior’s chairman, and later sat on the board of its holding company.

   Sen. Obama has long criticized predatory subprime mortgage lenders and urged strong actions against them.

     
   Let’s see how strong of actions he takes with one of his own.
     
   It’s good to see the “little” people in life are supporting obama, helps defray the cost for the billionaires.