By Big Tent Democrat

As a supporter of free trade and NAFTA, I am in the awkward position of being pleased that Barack Obama appears to understand that his demagoguing on NAFTA may be good politics but not good policy. CTV is standing by its story and names Obama advisor Austin Goolsbee as the person who assured the Canadians that Obama was merely posturing on NAFTA:

[T]he Obama camp did not respond to repeated questions from CTV on reports that a conversation on this matter was held between Obama's senior economic adviser -- Austan Goolsbee -- and the Canadian Consulate General in Chicago.

Earlier Thursday, the Obama campaign insisted that no conversations have taken place with any of its senior ranks and representatives of the Canadian government on the NAFTA issue. On Thursday night, CTV spoke with Goolsbee, but he refused to say whether he had such a conversation with the Canadian government office in Chicago.

As I have said before, journalism does not require suspension of common sense. We now know that CTV is reporting that it was Austin Goolsbee who was the Obama advisor who met with a Canadian official in Chicago and provided the NAFTA assurances. Goolsbee refuses to deny the meeting. It is pretty clear that it did occur. And good for Obama for that.

By Big Tent Democrat

Appealing to "values voters" is a double edged sword for the candidates in this race. The problem is that much of the "appeal" that needs to be made is of the paranoid variety. To really appeal to "values voters" - you must hate the people they hate or find a way to spur the hate to vote for you. In 2004, Karl Rove, who remains the shrewdest (this is a neutral term morally) political operative of recent years, was able to provide hatred of gays and gay marriage to drive this extremist base to vote in droves. George Bush did not have to get his hands dirty. The other thing Bush and Rove did was never apologize for his supporters.

But "The Maverick" John McCain is in a different place. His Media Darling status is based in part on the perception that he does not play footsy with this extremist base. Of course he has to now, while trying to retain his Media image. This problem is amplified because he believes his opponent will be Barack Obama, the first Democratic Presidential candidate who is a Media Darling since JFK. That is why, as Glenn Greenwald discusses, John McCain has a John Hagee problem:

By Big Tent Democrat

Via Chris Bowers, party building Obama style:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday he would be more willing than Hillary Rodham Clinton to work with Republicans.

"Her natural inclination is to draw a picture of Republicans as people who need to be crushed and defeated," Obama said during a telephone interview from Texas with the Cincinnati Enquirer editorial board. "It's not entirely her fault. She's been the target of some unfair attacks in the past."

"I'm not a person who believes any one party has a monopoly on wisdom," Obama said.

(Emphasis supplied.) Indeed. Who needs a Democratic Congress? Not Obama apparently.

NOTE - comments are now closed.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only.

After his Super Tuesday Debacle, John Zogby went into hiding. He did not poll the next 10 contests. Which is a shame for him as he has long had a strong anti-Hillary bias and no doubt he would have produced polls indicating big Obama wins. But he emerges today, with polls that, not surprisingly are in line with some of the polling that is already public.

The value of a Zogby poll? None. Zip. But it is fun to ridicule him. And I take that opportunity now.

By Big Tent Democrat

Can anyone deny this obvious fact? Of course there is no legal recourse for this as political parties are not subject to equal protection and voting rights requirements.

Does anyone care? Only as an opportunity to bash Hillary Clinton. I hate it when candidate support trumps support for principles.

Barack Obama wrote a letter outlining his support for the Gay. Lesbian, Bi and Transgender community today.

Hillary Clinton established the LGBT Americans For Hillary Steering Committee in June, 2007, outlining her years of support for the LGBT community.

As president, Clinton has pledged to end the divisive leadership of the past six years and work with the LGBT community to make sure that all Americans in committed relationships have equal economic benefits and rights. She also will work to end discrimination in adoption laws. As a U.S. Senator, she has worked to expand federal hate crimes legislation and pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and will sign the legislation into law once she is in the White House. She will also put an end to the failed policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

For the record, both Hillary and Obama support expansion of crimial hate crime laws. I oppose them. Sentences for crimes are already sky high. Punish the act, not the thought behind it. Civil suits are one thing, I'm okay with that. But leave our criminal laws out of this.

That being said, Obama's a little late to this party. Not to mention, this sentence in his letter is a little disturbing. It's the now expected Obama pull-back.

Just as important, I have been listening to what all Americans have to say. I will never compromise on my commitment to equal rights for all LGBT Americans. But neither will I close my ears to the voices of those who still need to be convinced. That is the work we must do to move forward together.

What's he promising? If you think something other than compromise, read it again. It's compromise.

By Big Tent Democrat

Throughout 2007, I urged Democrats to adopt a confrontational strategy with the Bush Administration and Republicans on Iraq. I believed such a strategy was not only the right thing to do, it was the politically smart thing to do. But Democrats failed time after time, capitulating to every Bush demand. Two notable Democrats in the Senate fought against these capitulations - Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd. The rest, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, were notably lacking in leadership.

Not surprisingly, this lack of leadership has been seized upon by John McCain. Chris Bowers writes:

[N]ow McCain is pushing both sides of the blurring strategy, using surrogate James Baker to argue that even those in favor of withdrawal plan to leave troops in Iraq for a long time. . . . So, McCain wants to end the war, but to do so with "honor." Also, he is in favor of a timetable, but like everyone calling for Iraq withdrawal, including Barack Obama, he knows that American troops will stay in Iraq for "a long time to come."

And so, we arrive at the full-blown Iraq Blurring Strategy from John McCain. No one wants to end the war more than he does. In fact, he is in favor of withdrawal. However, everyone who favors withdrawal, like Barack Obama, also wants to leave large numbers of residual forces in Iraq.

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A new Texas Rasmussen poll shows Obama at 48%, Hillary at 44%. But, those numbers should be within the margin of error, and:

Eight percent (8%) remain undecided and another 12% say it’s possible they could change their mind. That latter figure includes 3% who say there’s a good chance they could change their mind.

Also,

• 73% of the undecided have a favorable view of Hillary compared to 69% for Obama (among all voters, it's 76 favorable for Hillary and 75 for Obama.
• Obama leads by sixteen points among men, but trails by nine among women.
• Hillary is still leading among Hispanic voters by 7 points.
• 79% believe Hillary "would be at least somewhat likely to win the White House if nominated" compared to 78% for Obama.

A negative: Obama's NAFTA spin about Hillary is working.

Bottom line: This is a fluid race where either candidate could win.

By Big Tent Democrat

So says Hillary campaign on conference call.

$30 million of it in grassroots donations. 300K total donors in Feb., over 200K new donors.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only.

I agree with Kos about 85% of the time. You have been reading a lot about the 15% we disagree about. Here is one where we agree. Markos wrote:

The "reformer" groups betrayed their idiocy during their efforts to regulate blogs, and now confirm that early prognosis by putting pressure on Obama's law-adhering behavior while continuing to ignore McCain's blatant lawbreaking.

The Common Causes and Democracy 21s and Public Citizens like to rail about "compromised" politicians, but they're proving in vivid color that they, themselves, are not immune to being compromised . . .

More than that, the "reforms" they obsess about are empty platitudes about nothing of substance. But that does not change this fact - Obama is losing and will continue to lose the spin war on public financing in the general election. Rip the scab now Senator Obama while Senator Clinton is your opponent -- break the pledge NOW. The Media will take it easy on you now, not later if you are running against McCain.

This is pretty funny. Last night I wrote a very positive post on Matt Gonzale's article about why he is not supporting Barack Obama. (Comments now closed on it, so you can continue to address it here.)

I mentioned that he was a former Democrat, public defender and the Green candidate for Mayor in San Francisco in 2003, garnering 47% of the vote against the traditional Democrat, Gavin Newsom.

He's also a change progressive who isn't buyng Obama's change meme. He detailed Obama's legislative record as U.S. Senator to explain why.

Just two days earlier, I wrote an op-ed, Will the Real Ralph Nader Please Stand Up? critical of Ralph Nader's decision to run for office.

And in the "you can't make this stuff up" category, Ralph Nader has just announced he has selected Matt Gonzales as his running mate.

Just out at The Nation:

A senior foreign policy adviser to leading Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has told The Nation that if elected Obama will not "rule out" using private security companies like Blackwater Worldwide in Iraq. The adviser also said that Obama does not plan to sign on to legislation that seeks to ban the use of these forces in US war zones by January 2009, when a new President will be sworn in.

Obama's campaign says that instead he will focus on bringing accountability to these forces while increasing funding for the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the agency that employs Blackwater and other private security contractors. (Hillary Clinton's staff did not respond to repeated requests for an interview or a statement on this issue.)

Bottom line, according to Obama's senior advisor:

. "I can't rule out, I won't rule out, private security contractors." He added, "I will rule out private security contractors that are not accountable to US law."

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