John McCain and Sarah Palin must be loving life a whole more today than they did in November 2008. McCain crushed J.D. Hayworth in yesterday’s Arizona Senate primary. The margin was 56-32. At one time, Hayworth was thought to have a shot at defeating McCain. However, it has been clear for a long while that McCain would win handily. Alaska, though, is a very different story. According to Politco , not a single public poll showed the Palin-endorsed candidate Joe Miller within striking distance (i.e., 20 percentage points) of incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski in the weeks before the primary. It was for this reason that I discounted an internal poll from the Miller campaign that had him within 11 points of Murkowski. But even that poll indicated only a closer-than-expected Murkowski victory. Yet now, with nearly all of the non-absentee ballots counted (as I understand the situation), Miller leads by more than 2 percentage points. This does not mean he has won. Early this morning, Politico noted that there were more than 16,000 absentee ballots still out – more than eight times the 2,000 vote-margin that separated Murkowski and Miller [note : 16,000 absentee ballots were requested but apparently only around 7,600 were returned]. In 2008, Mark Begich overcame Ted Stevens’ lead of 3,000 votes by virtue of the absentee vote. However, there were approximately 60,000 absentee ballots in that election. Accordingly, Miller seems to be in the driver’s seat, though not home and dry. But even if Murkowski pulls the election out, it will still, I think, be a big victory for Sarah and Todd Palin. Given Murkowski’s stature and the enormous lead she enjoyed before the Palins jumped into the race, even a narrow Miller defeat would confirm the Palins’ status as the one and only grizzly family in Alaska. The Palin endorsement wasn’t the only factor that weighed in Miller’s favor. The ballot contained a parental-notification law that helped drive turnout. Supporters of this highly popular resolution tended to prefer Miller to Murkowski who, although she supported the measure, has taken pro-choice positions on other issues. Even so, there isn’t much doubt that if Sarah Palin had backed Murkowski as she did initially, or even if she had remained neutral, Murkowski would be relaxing right now, and planning her general election campagin, instead of anxiously awaiting the counting of absentee ballots. As for the general election, the Democratic candidate will be Scott McAdams , the mayor of the small town of Sitka . After last night’s results, I should probably refrain from further predictions about Alaska politics. For what it’s worth, though, I expect McAdams to struggle against either Miller (a Gulf War veteran, Yale law school grad, successful attorney, and former judge) or Murkowski in a year like this one.
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A big night for the top of the 2008 ticket
President Obama is adding another stop to his midterm campaign swing next week. On Monday, the president will stop in Milwaukee, Wis., to headline a fundraiser for Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett. Wisconsin is one of five states Obama will visit next week. He also has fundraising stops planned for Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). The president will also attend a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser in Los Angeles Monday along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
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Obama adds Wisconsin stop to campaign swing
When the employees of the Los Angeles Times go home at night, I wonder if they ever think about the travesty that they are contributing to on a daily basis. After all, when writers like David Lazarus and Michael Hiltzik first joined the paper, did they consider themselves real journalists? Did they feel that they were reporters in the truest sense of the word? Because there’s no way they are now, and I have trouble finding other employees of the Times that I would call true journalists. These days, real journalism is happening at the LA Weekly . This free, alternative newspaper has out-reported the propaganda machine at the LA Times over and over again. Reporters at the Weekly have repeatedly, and properly, hammered Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for gross incompetence . The most recent example was the Weekly’s outstanding exposé on the Mayor’s failure to report over $100,000 in free tickets to various sporting and entertainment events. As the intrepid reporters at the Weekly have shown, there is simply no excuse for what the Mayor has done to Los Angeles. This came on top of the paper’s report that the Mayor spends only 11% of his time actually handling the business of Los Angeles. The Weekly also remains one of the last bastions of true film criticism left in the country, this despite the departure of true film critic extraordinaire Manhola Dargis. In contrast, we have the “reporters” at the Los Angeles Times . It doesn’t take an ombudsman to read over the headlines and text of just about any Times article concerning politics or public policy and realize that there is no real reportage going on. The phraseology, inferences, and blatant inaccuracies repeatedly out the newspaper as being nothing more than screeds that support liberal ideology. Take David Lazarus. The business columnist who transferred from the San Francisco Chronicle in 2007 came up with this ridiculous statement in his June 25th column: “At what point do banks finally throw in the towel and accept that they’ve got to reduce people’s mortgages if they want to ease the foreclosure crisis?” A real opening line from a real reporter doing real journalism would have been, “At what point do banks start the wholesale seizure of properties that irresponsible borrowers took mortgages out on?” That Mr. Lazarus buries the real story–the rampant greed of mortgage lenders and irresponsible behavior of borrowers–is just one reason he should be stripped of his credentials. The other reason is deliberately misleading readers as to the nature of the foreclosure crisis. Mr. Lazarus never once states the downside to his ridiculous assertion–that reducing mortgages rewards bad behavior, that if you are current on your mortgage you are out of luck for playing by the rules, that failing to meet your obligations results in a reward. A casual glance at other business articles reveals a Keynesian dolt who constantly sings the praises about the already-proven failure of the stimulus (he wants more!) Mr. Hiltzik wants to increase taxes on California businesses — despite the fact that every major report has concluded that California’s business environment is so unfriendly that companies are leaving the state in droves (the real story). Readers no doubt will point to the LA Weekly as a far-left wing newspaper. What makes it different from the LA Times ? First, the Weekly makes no excuses about its political bias, nor does it try to hide it. The Los Angeles Times has the nerve to call itself unbiased. But here’s the other thing. I don’t care if the Weekly is a liberal paper, as long as its reporters actually report the news honestly. The fact that they attacked one of their own — because it’s a strong story and the right thing to do — only increases the paper’s credibility in my eyes. They can rip apart every conservative, independent, and Green Party politician they want, as long as they do so with the standards they’ve exhibited recently. The LA Times has no such credibility, which is why I canceled my subscription.
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How the L.A. Weekly Surpassed the Los Angeles Times
Leftist Philly Mayor Michael Nutter told reporters today that, “The Tea Party and others would tell you that every single undocumented individual is a drug smuggler, a terrorist, or a threat to the American way of life.” FOX News reported: Philadelphia will renew a contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE , that gives immigration authorities access to city arrest records after revising the agreement to exclude data on victims and witnesses. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter announced Friday that the city had agreed to renew for one year its participation in ICE’s Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System, or PARS, after his concerns were addressed that the data on victims and witnesses were discouraging illegal immigrants from reporting crimes out of fear of being deported. Nutter fired a shot at Tea Party members in his statement as he called for comprehensive immigration overhaul that enhances border security and provide a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country. “Yes we need enhanced border control. Yes we need to focus our efforts on those who pose a threat to our country,” he said. “But let’s not fall into the trap set by the Tea Party and others who would tell you that every single undocumented individual is a drug smuggler, a terrorist, or a threat to the American way of life. That is simply not true.” Hat Tip Ben C. Funny, of all the tea parties I’ve attended I don’t know a single person who would agree with that statement.
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Leftist Philly Mayor Smears Tea Party During Immigration Interview