Goldy

Yes, last night, I slept with The Stranger’s Annie Wagner.  And so did Darryl.

I’m not sure if Annie slept much, what with us two old men snoring away (especially Darryl), but that’s the price she pays for begging a spot on our floor last night so that she could be up and alert bright and early this morning at the Washington State Clinton delegate caucus here at the hotel.

Annie and I are now at the delegate caucus, witnessing the fireworks first hand.  You can tell the Clinton delegates are angry and irreconcilable, threatening to be “respectful” and “pragmatic,” and warning that they might even “play by the rules,” or even worse, “honor the decision of the majority of Democrats.”

Okay, there’s still a bit of grieving going on, with the main topic of conversation surrounding whether to vote for Clinton or Obama on the first ballot, and whether Clinton has actually “released” her delegates, and if so, what exactly that means? Most of the folks here want to cast their vote for Clinton… but there’s also a lot of talk about respecting her wishes, even if that means voting for Obama.

There’s also a little push back to the “disunity” theme that has dominated recent media coverage.  As one delegate put it:

“Why is it disunity for us to do our job voting for the candidate we were sent here to vote for?”

I’m not sure it is.  This is, after all, the Democratic Party, which as we know implies a degree of creative chaos.  It takes a lot of passion and effort to get to a national covention as a delegate (as opposed to getting here as a blogger, which apparently only takes a firm grasp of four-letter words), so you’d expect the Clinton delegates to be passionate supporters of their candidate.  But they’re also Democrats, and while I plan to talk with as many delegates one on one as I can, it seems clear that the number one concern of the folks in this room is to get a Democrat into the White House.

So if my colleagues in the press are looking for a good “disunity” story, I don’t think they’ll find one in the WA delegation.  No doubt there are some unhappy folks in the room, but there is also a concerted effort to get everybody in line behind “the second best Democrat.”

UPDATE:
The conversation has moved on to the illicit topic of “credential swapping,” where Paul Berendt is teaching the newbies the fine art of deceit.  As for me, my act of disunity for the day will be to smuggle a piece of fruit into the Pepsi Center, one of the many banned items.

UPDATE, UPDATE:
Well, the caucus goes on, and we’re in the middle of a passionate speech by a delegate clearly fearful that there will be a push for a vote by acclamation, and angry at efforts to get him to change his vote.  As another delegate just put it, there’s nothing to be gained from “forced unity.”  So while I don’t think there is much of a disunity story here, don’t expect anywhere near a unanimous vote from the WA delegation.  But I haven’t heard anybody say they’ll be voting for McCain in November.  (Well… one delegate said it, but it was a slip, and she quickly corrected herself.)

I’m sitting on the airplane listening to Everclear on my iPhone (though isn’t “Volvo Driving Soccer Mom” the official theme song of the Republican convention?), and wondering what the he’ll I’m going to do once I get to Denver? Blog, I guess.

Anyway, expect a lot of short posts this week, some with pix, as I blog directly from my iPhone. Longer posts will have to wait until I have WIFI access, and a little time.

(In the cab now; time to post.)

Darryl and I are off to Denver, and look who we found at the airport. Now I feel like real press. (That is, asuming The Stranger is real press.)

Well, that’s a relief.  The best thing Bayh and Kaine had going for them was geography, but they were both way too conservative for my taste, while Biden’s experience  adds a nice balance to the ticket that I think most voters will find comforting.  Obama didn’t play games; he picked a VP undoubtedly qualified to be president, and I think that says something about Obama.

It turns out, McCain doesn’t know what kind of car he drives either:

In our News interview, he was asked what kind of car he drove. As with Politico’s question about home ownership, he didn’t know and had to ask a nearby aide. “A Cadillac CTS,” she told him.

But then again, he is 72, so cut him some slack.

There were more than a few miffed members of the press Wednesday evening after being lured to Dave Reichert’s campaign headquarters by a media advisory promising a “major announcement,” only to find delusional fringe challenger Jim Vaughn at the podium, offering his enthusiastic endorsement.

“He’s earned my respect,” Vaughn (drunk on the power that comes from capturing a whopping 3% of the vote) said of the “yes man for George Bush” he previously accused of not having passed “one piece of legislation.”

Um… a “major” announcement…?  Yeah, well, I guess so, that is, if Reichert was referring to Vaughn’s former army rank, but as far as announcements go, this one wasn’t all that.  But then I guess that’s just an indication of how incredibly close Reichert expects this race to be, that he’s now aggressively wooing the crackpot vote.

“I really did want to knock Dave out,” [Vaughn] said. But that was a strategy rather than a disagreement with Reichert’s positions, he said. He figured if he beat Reichert in the primary, he would earn conservative Democratic and Republican votes and easily beat Burner.

Yeah… sure you would, Jim.  Here, have some gum.

Still, every vote counts, so perhaps Reichert is onto a winning strategy that might soon be adopted by other nervous contenders, suddenly transforming the dregs of the ballot into the toast of the power elite.  Familiar names like Stan Lippman, Will Baker and David Blomstrom could find themselves courted by top-two finalists eager to win over the tens of votes each almost-also-ran commands, a loyal political base earned from years of running hopeless campaigns without ever smelling of poop.  (Well, maybe Will.)

Indeed, at this very moment I wouldn’t be surprised if Linda Averill is busy negotiating a workers paradise in exchange for her prized endorsement, while Goodspaceguy Nelson has all but secured federal earmarks to fund the colonization of orbital space.  And then there’s Mike the Mover, the Boss Tweed of perennial crackpottery, who in the context of this closely divided electorate not only has the political muscle to get you to the other Washington, but the truck as well.

Think about it… if the gubernatorial race is anywhere near as close as it was in 2004, Javier Lopez could be the deciding factor, his endorsement bringing with it the small yet highly sought after “I had sex with my high school teacher, and I’m proud of it” vote.

So kudos to Reichert for running such a groundbreaking campaign:  first his pioneering use of web videos, and now his successful outreach to Jim Vaughn, a grassroots champion who by the end of July had nearly come within $1,980,000 of the $1.98 million Darcy Burner has raised thus far.  I’m sure the press is sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for Reichert’s next “major announcement.”

Note to self: Stephen Roach is the gun-toting drug dealer… Dan Roach is merely the campaign fund embezzler.

Remember that video of off-duty police officers roughing up a Democratic Party cameraman at a press conference at the Seattle Police Officers Guild?  Well, an observant 45th LD viewer asked me, “Isn’t that Republican legislative candidate Kevin Haistings?”

Hmm.  Above is a picture of Haistings compared to a frame from the video, and they do indeed appear to be the same person.  Haistings is also an active member and past president of the Guild, so I guess it makes sense for him to have been there.

Am I the only one who finds it a touch unsettling watching a Republican candidate for the state legislature roughing up a Democratic Party staffer for attempting to video tape the Republican candidate for governor?

Perhaps we can just blame sundowners, but John McCain doesn’t even know how many houses he owns.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.

“I think – I’ll have my staff get to you,” McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. “It’s condominiums where – I’ll have them get to you.”

The correct answer is at least four, located in Arizona, California and Virginia, according to his staff. Newsweek estimated this summer that the couple owns at least seven properties.

And we’re told Barack Obama is the elitist?

What’s fair is fair.  I give the Seattle Times editorial board a lot of shit for propagandizing on behalf of their favorite candidates and issues… so I suppose they deserve some kudos for giving some shit to one of their homies, Dino Rossi, for his own lying propaganda:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi is running radio and TV ads that lambaste Gov. Christine Gregoire for doing precisely what our state needed to do. Raise the gas tax. Get a few transportation projects done. Help businesses and motorists get moving.

Rossi’s ads are artfully misleading. They all but blame the governor for today’s higher gas prices. That is not what happened.

[…] Rossi’s gas-tax ads are unfair; he would be wise to pull them.

Of course, Rossi won’t pull these ads, because they accurately reflect his own artfully misleading personality, but it’s heartening to see the Times calling him out on it.

It would have felt good to see Darcy Burner come out of yesterday’s primary with a modest victory.  Good, but not especially comfortable considering the low turnout, partial results and unfathomable dynamics of our new top-two primary.  But at what will likely be less than a three-point deficit to Dave Reichert once all the votes are counted, I’m not feeling especially uncomfortable either.

On the obvious down side, Reichert ended up on top, and by a similar margin as his 2006 general election victory.  But on the up side, Reichert was held significantly below 50 percent… not a great place to be for a two-term incumbent.  Indeed, according to a memo distributed today by Burner pollster Celinda Lake, Reichert’s demonstrated lack of support should be “sobering news” for the incumbent:

[D]espite his turnout advantages, the incumbent has been held under 50 percent of the primary vote, and the combined Democratic vote is greater than the Republican vote. This is sobering news for Reichert. The top two system, which allows for voters to split tickets on the primary ballot, most closely resembles the blanket primary system that prevailed in Washington State prior to 2003. Our research indicates that in the 94 congressional races that took place under a blanket primary between 1982 and 2002, the incumbent failed to register 50 percent of the primary tally in 10 of those contests. In seven of those contests, the challenger went on to victory in November…

Prior results do not guarantee future performance and all that, but it’s hardly a bleak situation for Darcy, who finds herself in a significantly stronger position than she was in at this stage of the 2006 race.  Heading toward November Darcy can expect a resource advantage, a turnout advantage and presidential coattails to help carry her through to victory.  And even yesterday’s results show progress; I don’t know of a single  public or private poll that showed Darcy closer than six points to Reichert in recent months, and yet after only two weeks of advertising (at a cost, I’m guessing, of about $400,000) she’s managed to cut that gap in half.  By comparison, an August 21-22 2006 SurveyUSA poll gave Reichert a 54-41 percent lead, a 13-point margin Darcy eventually whittled down to three by election day.

So yeah, I’d rather be up three points than down, but given all the same caveats I issued in my discussion of the governor’s race, I’m no more or less worried than I was Tuesday morning.  For if there’s a conclusion to be drawn from the primary results, it’s that this race is once again going to come down to the wire.  And that’s something we’ve known all along.