Craig Crawford's Trail Mix

Im fine with the candidates....it's the moderators I'va bout had some 'nuff of......

I think Hil'ry should start off by wishing Obama a "Happy American Smokeout" day. Has he quit yet or is he still sneaking smokes on th DL?

I guess that leaves it up to each person to decide what "acting like a Republican" means. I'm not sure if a Dem debate is only preaching to the converted or if regular GOP voters are looking for an alternative to the social conservatives who have hijacked their party.

This is the time for the Republican party to redefine itself if they ever plan on doing so. If not, there will definitely be a viable 3rd party by 2012. Only 16 more months until the 2012 campaign begins!

oh boy.....
a debate moderated by Wolfie Blitzer....

welll, it is crunch time..... it should be interesting to watch... I expect everyone to be on their game tonight..... it'll be interesting to see if Hillary takes any swipes of her own tonight....

BTW, Craig..... CNN says the debate starts at 8:00pm eastern time....

she has to go on the attack or else she'll look like a Repub wimp instead of the regular Repub moderate she's been playing on TV. I'm mostly interested in the positions each candidate gets, since she always seems to end up in the middle, power position. Does anyone know how that's decided?

So...since the debate is in Las Vegas....does that mean whatever happens tonight stays in Vegas?

Live chat at Brian's during the debate? Has anyone decided on the code words drinking game?

Mornin' all.

Well, nice to have a place to land for a few days. Back home from Phoneix - apparently just missed Poobah there - just long enough to pack for Acapulco. Anyone been there? What's to do other than watch young men dive off cliffs and sit around baking my brain in the sun?

I predict she will fend off the jabs at first, then try and finish off each candidate who challenges her, and we know who they will be, with a haymaker of her own. Should be good theatre.

Obama's camp still has a bad attack of the nasties. Doesn't seem to know the difference between criticizing a position and just taking snide pot shots for a soundbite. Someone should tell him that's what right wing Republicans do. It's definitely taken him off my list for consideration unless corrected.

(Brian you may convince me about Edwards yet)

jamie, isn't doing what you're accusing someone else of called irony, or is it just hypocrisy, or both?

I'll bet that Wolf will be a wussie and bend over backwards to be NICE to the Dragon lady. She is a disingenous, dishonest politician who deserves to be exposed for her triangulations and panderings. I hope that John and Barack are not intmidated by the nasty clinton machine.

She has been in hiding with her handlers for the last 2 days trying to figure out how to deceive the American people.

Craig is up at 4:45 AM in Vegas? He probably posted this after dropping 10 large at blackjack.

Pogo, Sorry I don't understand the question. If a statement is nothing but a talking point with little relation to reality rather than a statement of facts or pointing out of real differences, I don't like it. That type of thing normally comes from the denizens of Faux Noise and shouldn't be a part of Obama's campaign.

There are conservatives who can ask legitimate questions or speak for their side of an issue without denigrating their opponent or asking some long winded leading question that is nothing but a false statement of the opposition position. Those are the conservatives I respect. Darn few of them are anywhere near Fox.

There is a difference between a Buckley and a Bozell.

Morning peeps,
Yes live chat tonight.

Blue:
What "Acting like a Republican" means...
*Sending more soldiers to Iraq to die pointless deaths, rather than admit that you made a mistake.
*Pretending to be a "compassionate conservative," but coming up with a new name for it.
*Accepting huge donations (bribes) from the corporations who really run this country, and letting them know, quietly, that you won't make any serious moves to rein in their power.

That's what the Clintons have ALWAYS done. They are moderate Republicans, not real (FDR/LBJ)Democrats.

Here is a pretty balanced article from the Hill on legislation introduced in the Senate by Clinton as compared to Obama and Biden

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/clintons-bills-frame-09-agenda-2007-10-09.html

Here's another good research source: Congresspedia is similar to Wikipedia so info should be crosschecked

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Hillary_Clinton#Issues

They have info on all of the Congress Critters

jamie, I was referring to Obama's criticism of Hillary's "hawkish" stance on the war - having voted to fund it consistently since the beginning, just like all the republicans he has voted with.

interesting links jamie. shows how difficult it is to characterize a senator as liberal or conservative without doing a LOT of research.

Well, we could see this coming.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/11/14/new-attorney-general-opposes-changes-to-wiretap-law/

Mukasey would recommend veto of wiretap bill.

NYT "US looking past Musharraf." Translation: the Bushies are leaking this to the NYT to send a signal to pro-US generals in Pakistan that it's time for a coup.

Hey, it worked for Kennedy in Vietnam, right?

Harborwoman,

Yesterday, you asked me what my plans were for tuning in Imus, but I had already headed out for the night.

I haven't contacted Time Warner about adding RFD-TV. I just plan on picking up WABC's broadcast through my computer. I'll have to count on you guys to tell me if Larry Kenney or Rob Bartlett lost any weight, during the seven months they were off the Imus payroll.

That reminds me. One of the side effects of Imus's suspension was that the Albany area supermarket that I usually use, no longer carried Imus Brothers Salsa. To quote a familiar radio personality, "Just another way of showing they hate little children with cancer."

FYI....
the debate does start at 8 pm est and not at 9pm....

poor Craig.... he's flying around so much lately that I bet he's not sure what time it is or what town he's in......

pogo.... I agree with the sentiment that Obama is something of a hypocrite whenever he cites that he didn't vote for the war with Iraq.....
he and every other Democratic candidate needs to concentrate on what to do to get us out of this mess and not to dwell on past mistakes....
I really do think the public is fed up with all the finger pointing and just wants honest answers. And if Hillary can't do that tonight, maybe people will start taking a second look at other candidates.....

Ya can't miss Trail Mix now.

It's a good thing.

tt

Daily Rasmussen Tracking Poll

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_2008__1/2008_presidential_election/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

renee,
I think you are probably right. I hate to say it, but Edwards' and Obama's prior debate strategy will likely turn the voters - and the tvs - off tonite if they are employed again. I could be wrong, but I'm betting the Clinton campaign "pile on" response to the last debate (whether right or wrong) will have viewers/voters looking for just that again, with an eye toward punishing the candidates who do it this time.

Frankly, I think that if John and Barack can't do a better job of saying what they plan to do if they are elected, rather than just show that they aren't Hillary, they may as well not waste their time between now and February. Of course that said, Hillary needs to do more of that as well, although she has many more supporters in the bank than do they.

pogo keeping Hillary on the defensive is the only hope either Obama or Edwards has. Hillary's drop in the polls since the last debate proves that point!

Brian, I don't agree. Edwards recent commercials are quite good and effective. Maybe I'm an Iowan at heart, but telling me about yourself and what you plan to do just moves me in your direction better than slamming the other guy.

It's one of those immediate reactions. If all you can do is attack the other guy, you probably don't have anything positive to say about yourself which means I can ignore you.

Brian, dropping four points of s 24 point lead to maintain only a 20 point lead over your closest rival is hardly a precipitous fall, and neither Obama nor edwards seem to be the beneficiaries - it's the also-rans that are increasing their support.

I get a pretty good chuckle-snort out of Gail Collins these days.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/opinion/15collins.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Off to lunch to see Little Pogo do his best as King Tut (complete with sunglasses, guitar and Steve Martin's KT theme)

Unless Wolfiee channels Tim Russert -- I rather doubt the debate will have the same tone. I hope all the recent stories on UFO's make Russert feel like the ass he is. Will CAmpbell Brown bother to tell anyone her hubby works for Romney. And given that conflict what is she doing there is the frist place.
I think Edwards has a real chance to break out --if he uses the themes of his current ads --sort of the Howard Beale of politics-- he could shine.
I think Obama without the help of the moderators will be flat.

It's the first drop she's had. Going negative in a clever manner always works. I know, I know you and others keep saying how much you hate it and it will turn voters off. Too bad voting patterns don't prove that!

Ah, the luxuries of life on the Eastern side of the country, EdVB! As a west coaster, I'm at a great disadvantage. I really want to see or hear Imus, but I draw the line at getting up at 3:00 AM to do it! If we can get Comcast to carry the right channel, I can Tivo him. Fingers crossed....

How dare those vile supermarket people attack little kids with cancer like that! I say, demand a return of Imus Salsa!

I just can't muster any indignation towards Edwards when he truthfully points out that HRC is too cozy with lobbyists and the big business interests they represent. So...that leaves me genuinely perplexed that some of you seem so critical of his message. Bib business interests are driving the war, the demise of the middle class, and any number of other ills we are all increasingly suffering.

Music Folks heads up. Any Edith Piaf fans ... DVD out of La Vien Rose which was only in art theaters. I rented and must buy

http://www.eonline.com/gossip/planetgossip/detail/index.jsp?uuid=88c0896a-4ed1-41eb-aa8c-5db2ba474d99&sid=fd-hot4-txt

BIG business interests! As far as I know, big nusiness hasn't yet invested in bibs....

I want our edit feature back!!!

HW
lol
I know what you mean1

HW

I'm not as opposed to Edwards as I've become towards Obama. It was the Obama attack that totally mischaracterized a Clinton statement that got me aggravated this morning. Of course, the MSM has been doing the same of late which set me off the other day blasting them for lazy thinking and broadcasting.

Of course when it comes to political campaigns, it doesn't take much to make me grouchy. :-)

ha, got the debate time fixed. i am time zone challenged these days

Craig,

While I appreciate your efforts to be accurate, with all the good television on Thursday nights, who is going to watch it anyway?

Look at the lot of them!

They take umbridge at the questions asked by Tim russert, who comes to the media from the putrid liberal sewer that was mario Cuomo's gobnatorial office where he was chief enforcer. They are afraid to take questions from Brit Hume. They are spineless lefties, the lot of them and this evening they have literally, one of their own lefties asking softball questions.

What a rotten bunch!

Folks,

There is a more important issue afoot...apparently, mall Santas are being told not to say Ho Ho Ho. curse you Don Imus!

I wonder how long it will be before that discussion is limited to Santas in black neighborhoods only...

Tim Russert is a legacy of Jack Welch not Mario Cumo

Unless your knee is jerking, there is no use in watching Brit Hume for anything approaching news.

Jamie....
in the upper left hand corner... under CQ Politics blog network...
click on David Corn's name.... his article for today is about Biden and his plan to partition Iraq.... just thought you might be interested.....

Bryan, I don't hate negative campaigning between the parties, in fact I rather enjoy it - I hate negative campaigning for the nomination that I hear being echoed against the winner of the nomination. And it's really not the first fall she's had - she's been between 39 and 49% in Rasmussen from the beginnning of October, with a pretty consistent polling in the mid-upper 404 for the last couple of weeks in October. Obama is down 7 points from his high in early October, and your boy is down 4 points from his high last week. I don;'t read too much into these things, but expect they will continue to tighten until the voting begins. Jamie's Rasmussen link is very interesting to get into the data and noodle.

Right you are, Dave S. What, because they don't want to support the Fox Repug mouthpice money machine? They are learning their lessons from the Repugs who are too chicken to go before minorities and defend the policies that have widened the gap between rich and poor and black and white.

Corrections:
404 = 40s
don;t = don't
mouthpice = mouthpiece
. = ?

Thanks for sending me to the Corn Column. At least Biden is willing to try something other than dropping things that go BOOM

Bush et al are the mental equivalent of boys who tie firecrackers to cats tails and then wonder why the owners of the cats are PO'd. They were just having some fun.