Pleasant thoughts to ponder as we enter the weekend:

President George W. Bush is "absolutely radioactive" and Republicans will suffer widespread election losses in November unless they distance themselves from him, said Representative Tom Davis, a former leader of the party's House campaign committee. ... Bush is the face of the party and congressional Republicans are "seen as just in lockstep with him on everything," Davis said.

Republicans would lose 20 to 25 House seats if the election were held today, Davis said. If Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is seen by voters as "Bush III" he will lose by 20 percentage points, said Davis, who chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee from 1998 to 2002.

Share your own pleasant thoughts in the comments.

Taylor Marsh has a podcast of the Hillary Clinton blogger call this afternoon.

Clinton Town Hall in Oregon.

J is out for a while and I have to go myself for the next few hours. TChris might be around. Keep it nice please/

This is an Open Thread.

Comments now closed.

Update: Taylor Marsh has posted the audio of the call here.

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We had a great blogger call with a very hoarse Hillary Clinton today. It was just for bloggers so she could thank us for our support.

She is staying in the race. She is ahead in the popular vote by 50,000 votes, counting Florida and Michigan which must be counted. She intends to continue to lead in the popular vote when June 3 comes around and everyone has voted.

The number one message: It's the map not the math. In addition to the popular vote, the electoral map shows her with a cushion and Obama with a deficit. She has won 311 electoral votes to Obama's 217. While a few of her's like Texas and Oklahoma will be a challenge in November, many of his states will be: Alaska, Idaho, Utah, to name a few.

It's especially important to focus on this because it’s what superdelegates are supposed to be doing, exercising independent judgment to determine who would be the better candidate against John McCain in November.

She's in Oregon today, she'll be doing a televised town hall tonight that Obama was invited to participate in but declined. He won’t debate her or stand side by side with her to debate issues. That's a disservice to the people of Oregon.

More...

I just got off a call with other bloggers and Senator Hillary Clinton. She was very impressive. I'll add some thoughts about it later.

Senator Clinton placed great emphasis on seating Michigan and Florida. You can let the DNC know how you feel by using this form created by the Clinton campaign.

This is an Open Thread.

Comments closed

Some new GE state polling from Ras:

WASHINGTON

Obama 51
McCain 40

Clinton 47
McCain 42

ARKANSAS

Clinton 53
McCain 39 [More...]

No matter who wins the next presidential election, the heavy hand of justice needs to be lightened considerably when it comes to federal prosecutions of marijuana providers.

Luke Scarmazzo and Ricardo Ruiz Montes ... were convicted of manufacturing marijuana and distributing the drug, as well as operating a continuing criminal enterprise, a felony that carries a mandatory 20-year minimum prison term, with the possibility of life behind bars.

The "continuing criminal enterprise" was the operation of a marijuana dispensary in California. Whether Scarmazzo and Montes complied with the state's medical marijuana law is in dispute, but there should be no dispute that a 20 year mandatory minimum for selling marijuana is outrageous. Just ask the jury.

Jurors deliberated for two days before delivering their verdict. One juror, Craig Will of Tuolumne County, said after the verdict that he expected the two men to get probation or a few months in prison. "I'm really appalled to discover that there's a 20-year mandatory minimum on the continuing criminal enterprise charge," he said.

If the judicial system really trusted juries to act as the democratic institution that the founders intended, juries would be told of the consequences of a conviction before deciding on a verdict. Selling a plant to people who have a medical need for it (or to anyone, for that matter) just isn't conduct that merits a 20 year sentence. The next president should (and if it's a Democrat, probably will) put an end to federal prosecutions that contravene state laws permitting the sale of medical marijuana.

The NRA is holding its annual meeting in Louisville, KY this weekend. John McCain will be speaking. He has tended to campaign against Obama rather than Hillary. There are Democrats who belong to the NRA. The NRA backs Democrats who support their issue. If McCain attacks Obama on gun rights, will he cost him any primary votes?

Here's who the NRA backed in 2006:

The NRA has returned the favor. In this year's election, the group is backing Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, Oklahoma Rep. Dan Boren, Tennessee Rep. John Tanner and West Virginia Rep. Alan Mollohan, among others. In gubernatorial races, the NRA has endorsed Democrats in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wyoming, and Bill Richardson, the former Clinton energy secretary and cabinet member, in New Mexico.

"The NRA is not an affiliate of the Republican party," said Grover Norquist, a conservative activist who also is an NRA board member. "They endorse incumbent Democrats who have voted with them on their issue. They understand that the first time they oppose a Democrat who has been supportive of the gun issue, they lose that D vote."

More...

According to the Kentucky Secretary of State, here is the breakdown of registered voters as of May 20, 2008:

• Total: 2,857,231
  Democrats 1,629,845
  Republicans 1,040,438
  Indpendents 186,948

• Male 1,344,579
  Female 1,512,503

Absentee ballots were available starting May 2 and have to be received by May 20, the date of the primary. In the 2004 primary (pdf), there were 563, 000 registered voters and a 23% turnout (375,000 voted in the Democratic primary, a 24% turnout.) Women and men voted in roughly equal numbers.

It's a closed primary and party registration changes had to be in by December 31. Registration ended April 22, 2008. Independents cannot vote in the primary.

My earlier post on Kentucky demographics is here.

While some are trying to rehabilitate Zogby, I won't do the same with ARG, which also has done better of late. In my view, these are not good pollsters (heck Zogby is not even a pollster in my view). But the Talk Left readership will enjoy ARG's latest OR and KY results:

KENTUCKY

Clinton 65
Obama 29

OREGON

Clinton 45
Obama 50

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Via Instapundit, here's Jennifer Rubin in Commentary reviewing some of the sexist comments of Barack Obama and his supporters against Hillary. A snippet:

Meanwhile, Obama had to apologize for his “sweetie” crack. But this was not an isolated incident. Remember, this was the candidate who used phrases like “when the claws come out” and “when she’s feeling down periodically she launches attacks” in reference to his opponent. When language like this is part of the vocabulary of a candidate (one who is so exquisitely articulate), it is worth asking if there is something going on here.

The language and tone of the media have become so condescending and disrespectful toward Clinton that, I think, Obama’s camp has picked it up. When “she-devil,” “everyone’s first wife,” and “Fatal Attraction” become acceptable means of description in the mainstream media, why would the candidate hesitate to use them himself ? In short, Obama’s media fan club — those open-minded and inclusive liberals — have systematically removed inhibitions about the use of startlingly sexist language.

This is a telling story:

The Associated Press interviewed a third of the [DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee] members and several other Democrats involved in the negotiations and found widespread agreement that the states must be punished for stepping out of line. If not, many members say, other states will do the same thing in four years.

(Emphasis supplied.) The blithe lack of concern for November 2008 is revealing. Who cares about winning Florida and Michigan in the Fall? Apparently not the DNC. Let's hope Barack Obama does care.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

The Pew Research Center has released the results of a poll on the media's insistence that the Democratic primary has ended and Obama is the winner:

Barack Obama may be building an insurmountable lead in the Democratic primary race, but the public is sending a strong message to journalists and pundits: It is too early to declare, as some already have, that the race is over.

Fully 72% of the public - including comparable percentages of Democrats, Republicans and independents - say that journalists should not be anointing Obama as the Democratic nominee at this stage in the race. Just 20% say that journalists should be doing this.