Month: January 2008

They thought they were evenly divided between Clinton and Obama, and then they picked up the paper, saw he’d won Iowa and … felt great. They realized that part of them had always wanted Obama to win, but they’d never quite dared to believe it could happen. It’s a brief Blogging Heads clip. Check it out.

O’Reilly explains his brawl with Obama’s security. And a new video! What a douche.

I think he realizes he now has to punish the children of illegal immigrants to win over the GOP base. One of his more admirable qualities in the race to the immigration bottom on the far right was his refusal to penalize kids. Well: that has now gone, according to the Washington Times.

A strikingly positive review from the New York Sun:

One of the questions we’ve been thinking about in advance of the New Hampshire primary is whether a case can be made for Senator Obama. We understand that, in respect of these columns, the notion sounds improbable. He is running on a war plank — withdrawal — that is almost the polar opposite of ours and on an economic approach that is Keynesian. But he is such an attractive individual, speaks in such an inspiring way, and uses language in a way that evinces such intelligence that it would be short-sighted to fail to look for the upside of Mr. Obama and the aspects of his candidacy on which one might make common cause.

One of Obama’s strongest personal attributes over the years has been his ability to win the respect and affection of many of the conservatives he has engaged with. In fact, it is very hard to find any conservatives in his past who do not rave on about his reasonableness and maturity. That doesn’t mean he is a conservative. It does mean he grew up respecting conservative positions in public policy, and learning from them when he could. I think mature conservatives will, like the New York Sun, be willing to engage this man with open eyes and curiosity.

Soren Dayton checks in:

When I pulled into the Hooksett polling place around 6:30 AM, I came into a traffic jam. It was 15 minutes before I could get to a parking spot. Simply put, turnout was huge. The Union-Leader reports massive turnout. The Secretary of State has predicted a 500k turnout, and three or four campaigns are using this for their turnout model. Last night, talking to some state party officials, they pointed out that 417k people voted in the high-turnout 2006 general election. I am watching MSNBC right now and Chuck Todd semi-predicted even higher. If, as the Union-Leader reported, over 10% of the voters are new-registrants, it could be even higher.

At the polling places that I have seen, Obama, McCain, and Clinton have volunteers at polling places. No Romney or Rudy people.

An almost comical mix of ugly pandering, insincerity and total incoherence:

Mounting his attack on Mr. McCain, Mr. Romney has blanketed New Hampshire television stations with ads deriding as "amnesty" the senator’s plan to provide an eventual pathway to legalization for America’s 12 million undocumented immigrants — the same plan he once called "reasonable." But in the debate Saturday, Mr. Romney twice said the McCain plan is not "technically" amnesty because it would sock undocumented immigrants with a $5,000 penalty if they wanted to remain in the country. He also denied that his own ads describe McCain’s program as an "amnesty," which in fact they do. He then managed to double back on himself by asserting that "most people" would consider the McCain plan an amnesty.

Does Romney plan on sending all 12 million illegal immigrants home? Nahh.

Tracking polls suggest that Obama’s and McCain’s leads were growing as we neared today.

An advance primer from Mark Blumenthal.

If you’re interested, here’s a link.

A reader writes:

Dinner last night with four friends in Manhattan.  One who was, last I checked, raising money for Hillary; one had been a Hillary booster but not too active; one politically indifferent; the last a Republican who had been in the Rudy camp, I thought.  But evidently I missed something.  All four raving for Obama, all resolved to vote for him, raise money for him, talking about attending rallies and fund-raising dinners.  Could Hillary even carry it off in New York, her home base?  My gut tells me everything’s been turned upside.  New York will go for Obama, by a mile.