Clifton White will not be executed. The Ohio Supreme Court today ruled a judge erred in substituting his opinion for that of experts as to whether White was mentally retarded. Case synopis here and the full opinion is here. (pdf).

In 2002, the Supreme Court in Atkins v. Virginia banned execution for the mentally retarded as cruel and unusual punishment. White was pursuing post-conviction relief at the time.

Later that year, the Supreme Court of Ohio in State v. Lott established criteria and procedures to be applied ....a petitioner is required to show by a preponderance of the evidence:

• “(1) significantly subaverage intellectual functioning,

• (2) significant limitations in two or more adaptive skills, such as communication, self-care, and self-direction, and

• (3) onset (of the intellectual and adaptive limitations) before the age of 18.”

The trial court in White's case appointed experts and held a hearing. Both the state's expert and the defense expert determined he met the criteria. [More...]

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

Discussing the seemingly NOT departed Mark Penn (did the Clinton campaign get rid of him or not? Apparently it was a demotion, not a firing. Bad move by the Clinton camp.), Ezra Klein wrote:

[quoting Mark Schmitt] "[T]he ambitions of the early Clinton years were abandoned for safe, symbolic gestures appealing to the middle-class swing voters -- 'soccer moms' -- in a few swing states." An argument can be made that that was the only viable strategy in 1996. I'm not adept enough with counterfactuals to really know. But there's no argument that that's all that can be hoped for in 2008. Penn might have once been necessary, but he's never been desirable. Now, however, he's neither.

Indeed, 1990s style triangulation is not desirable, necessary or effective now. But someone needs to tell that to Senator Barack Obama, whose campaign has been a case study in the fine art of Bill Clinton-like 1990s triangulaton. Has no one noticed this? Ezra Klein is a foremost health care blogger, who endorsed the Edwards health care plan. The one most like Hillary's. That Obama has ATTACKED that plan with "Harry and Louise" ads seems to not have entered Klein's thinking in that post.

We've seen the candidates appeal to old voters, young voters, female voters in general, Hispanic and African American voters, rural voters, and just about every other demographic there is. Have they overlooked anyone? Apparently, yes. Unmarried Women.

A new poll will be released next week. Shorter version: Candidates Need to Reach Across the Marriage Gap. I just received this e-mailed press release:

Unmarried Women Expected to Vote in Record Numbers in ’08; Rank the Economy as #1 Concern But Don’t Hear Their Needs Reflected in Candidates’ Plans

More...

President Bush recently granted two of his infrequent pardons to brothers in Colorado Springs. Their transgressions? Misdeanor sales of mounted owls.

Jerry and Thomas Moldenhauer sold migratory birds to an undercover Colorado Department of Wildlife officer in 1992 and 1993, court documents show, violating the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which prohibits the possession or sale of migratory birds, dead or alive, as well as their feathers, eggs or nests. Each man received three years of probation and a $1,000 fine.

I'm reading this article, shaking my head, thinking, well it must have been a one-time occurrence. Not quite.

[More...]

I'm on the Hillary Clinton press call. It's being led by Mark Nevins, communications director for Hillary's PA campaign, Howard Wolfson and TJ Rooney of the PA House of Representatives.

Theme: Obama's words vs. actions, in context of his discredited oil ads in PA. Obama's ad says:

I'm Barack Obama. I don't take money from oil companies or Washington lobbyists, and I won't let them block change anymore. They'll pay a penalty on windfall profits. We'll invest in alternative energy, create jobs and free ourselves from foreign oil.

Rooney: Obama says in his ad that he's never taken any money from oil companies. No one does, because it's illegal. Yet he has taken $213k from employees of oil companies. Two of his bundlers are top execs at oil companies. (See Newsweek on this or my earlier post.)

Obama sided with Dick Cheney in voting for Dick Cheney's energy bill -- the best bill that oil companies could buy. Hillary voted against the bill.

CNN says Obama's ad spending is not just record breaking, but record shattering:

Barack Obama has spent a record breaking $60 million to run more than 100,000 political television ads in pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination, a new analysis conducted for CNN shows.

In contrast, John Kerry ran a little more than 19,000 TV ads four years ago in his successful bid for the Democratic nomination, according to TNS Media Intelligence/CMAG, CNN’s consultant on political television advertising spending.

Clinton, who trails Obama in fundraising by about $60 million, has run just over 60,000 TV ads in her bid for the White House.

In Pennsylvania, NC and Indiana...[More...]

By Big Tent Democrat

Bump and Update: ABC's Jake Tapper and Politico report Obama may be opting out of public financing.

Tonight at a fundraiser in Washington, D.C., at the National Museum of Women in the Arts -- at a $2,300-per-person event for 200 people held before a $1,000-per-person reception for 350 people -- Obama previewed his argument to justify this possible future discarding of a principle.

We have created a parallel public financing system where the American people decide if they want to support a campaign they can get on the Internet and finance it, and they will have as much access and influence over the course and direction of our campaign that has traditionally been reserved for the wealthy and the powerful," Obama said.

Is he breaking a pledge?

*****

Original Post

By all accounts, Barack Obama raises a lot of money in small donations. But he also raises big bucks from the wealthy. Here's a photojournalist account of his fundraiser at the Getty Mansion in San Francisco this week -- one of four such events that day.

The photos alone are worth the look -- this one is my favorite for how it so captures San Francisco.

I don't really have a political comment here -- all campaigns need the wealthy donor parties -- but the blogger spent all day capturing the scene and did a very good job of it.

If you missed the story back in 2006 about Joe Lieberman campaign's allegation that the Ned Lamont campaign hacked his website the day before the CT primary, Crooks and Liars has a good rundown from the day the Lamont Campaign was cleared following an investigation by the state attorney general's office and the U.S. Attorney's office.

Today the Stamford Advocate releases an e-mail it obtained via a FOIA request showing the FBI's conclusion that Lieberman's campaign was responsible for the crash.

The FBI office in New Haven found no evidence supporting the Lieberman campaign's allegations that supporters of primary challenger Ned Lamont of Greenwich were to blame for the Web site crash.

Lieberman, who was fighting for his political life against the anti-Iraq war candidate Lamont, implied that joe2006.com was hacked by Lamont supporters.

[More...]

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

In a uniformly awful piece by Mark Leibovich, an "Ode" to Chris "Tweety" Matthews, we find demonstrated everything that is awful in the Media. The emptiness, the unwarranted arrogance, the banality, the silly insidery gossip and the just plain bad reporting. But I got a big kick out of this line:

Matthews’s bombast is radically at odds with the wry, antipolitical style fashioned by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert or the cutting and finely tuned cynicism of Matthews’s MSNBC co-worker Keith Olbermann.

(Emphasis supplied.) Olbermann's finely tuned cynicism? Lack of bombast? As Tweety himself might say, Ha!

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

The most galling aspect of what I have seen happen to the so-called progressive blogs is the shameless hypocrisy. More . . .

By Big Tent Democrat

More polling data to support Hillary Clinton's big contested state electability theory:

If the election for President were held today and the choices were John McCain, the Republican, and Hillary Clinton, the Democrat for whom would you vote?

Hillary Clinton 45%
John McCain 42%
Undecided 13%

If the election for President were held today and the choices were John McCain, the Republican, and Barack Obama, the Democrat for whom would you vote?

John McCain 48%
Barack Obama 41%
Undecided 11%

This is a poll that shows Obama within 5 points of Clinton in the primary. It is thus a relatively favorable poll for Obama. Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. These are states where Clinton has a clear general election advantage. This is getting impossible to deny it seems to me. Of course Obama can win Pennsylvania, Ohio and perhaps Michigan. Florida I believe is not within Obama's reach. Of course, Obama can win Virginia, Colorado, etc. whereas Clinton can not. There are two distinct and valid electability arguments now. That seems impossible to deny. Here is the RCP average if you want more evidence.