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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DMaA who wrote (18475)	12/3/2003 8:36:03 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793964

Soviet Union. The blogs have been all over this, and I think it is really minor. Hell, I still think of them as "The Soviet Union." It's a real reach, IMO, to slam a candidate with this.

To: DMaA who wrote (18475)	12/3/2003 9:56:37 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793964

Sharpton and Jackson are dueling over who will be the nation's best-paid race hustler, a lucrative occupation. December 03, 2003, 8:40 a.m. Sharpton’s Victory The dumbing down of presidential candidates is complete. — Rich Lowry is author of Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years. NRO “If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house." Those were the immortal words of the Rev. Al Sharpton during the Crown Heights crisis in New York City in 1991. A car driven by a Hasidic Jew had run over a black child in the Brooklyn neighborhood, prompting black-Jewish tensions that eventually spilled over into antisemitic riots. Sharpton's contribution to civic peace was statements like the above, together with such classic anti-Jewish smears as: "Talk about how Oppenheimer in South Africa sends diamonds straight to Tel Aviv and deals with the diamond merchants right here in Crown Heights." Oh, the statesmanship. This is the man who stands with eight other presidential candidates every two weeks or so to opine to a national audience about the future of the republic. With Sharpton, the dumbing down of presidential candidates is complete. In 1992, Pat Buchanan ran for president after having a cable-TV show. In 2000, Alan Keyes did Buchanan one better — he ran for president to get a cable TV show (it appeared briefly on MSNBC). Sharpton is running on the Keyes model, with his scheduled Saturday Night Live guest-hosting gig this weekend showing some results. Fringe candidates can have their place. Ralph Nader added something to the 2000 election. But Sharpton has no memorable policy proposals, no distinctive ideological position, nothing but himself and his resume. He wants to be remembered as the guy with the funny lines rather than a racial provocateur who smeared an innocent man during the Tawana Brawley hoax and built his New York notoriety on race hatred. "We will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business," Sharpton said in a 1995 Harlem controversy over a Jewish storeowner who had a conflict with a black rival neighbor. A protester in that case eventually shot his way through the store and burned the place down, killing eight people. The other Sharpton priority is supplanting Jesse Jackson. Sharpton threw his sharpest elbow of the campaign after it was reported that Jesse Jackson's son, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., planned to endorse Howard Dean. Sharpton promptly, and ridiculously, denounced Dean for his "anti-black agenda." Why does Sharpton hate Jackson? The same reason Ford hates Chrysler. He's the competition. Sharpton and Jackson are dueling over who will be the nation's best-paid race hustler, a lucrative occupation. For example: According to the Wall Street Journal, the owners of the Word Network, which is devoted to running black church services, pay Sharpton and Jackson roughly $10,000 per protest to demonstrate at the headquarters of cable operators that don't yet carry Word. A Sharpton-led protest in March 2002 prompted a St. Louis operator to begin carrying the cable network. The cynicism of the Sharpton campaign is an open book. Typically, presidential candidates stay in cheap accommodations. Sharpton's campaign, in contrast, is an excuse to live high. According to the New York Post, Sharpton has stayed at the nation's swankest hotels, including a visit at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles, which soaked up five percent of the cash Sharpton had raised in the third-quarter fundraising period. When appearing at black churches, Sharpton collects a "love offering" — that goes directly into his own pocket. Sharpton counts on other candidates and the moderators at the debates being too timid to challenge him on his checkered past and questionable practices, so he can pass himself as respectable. In an exception, Tom Brokaw recently asked Sharpton if he would apologize for his role in the Brawley case. Sharpton had a defamation judgment against him in the case, but he stood by his smear and responded with a fusillade of obfuscation that eventually wore Brokaw down. Sharpton will no doubt win his own private presidential race. He will emerge from this campaign as the nation's foremost "civil-rights leader." Owned by Sharpton, however, that title is not worth having. nationalreview.com

To: DMaA who wrote (18475)	12/3/2003 1:52:20 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793964

Baghdad visit gives big boost to Bush By Stephen Dinan THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published December 3, 2003 A new poll shows President Bush has received a "substantial immediate" boost in popularity and approval ratings after his surprise visit with the troops in Iraq on Thanksgiving. The National Annenberg Election Survey compared polling from the four days before Thanksgiving with the four days following the holiday and found significant changes on everything from Mr. Bush's personal likability to his job performance to the country's direction. Overall approval of the president's handling of his job went from 56 to 61 percent, while disapproval went from 41 to 36 percent. And 41 percent of the public said things are going in the right direction in the country, up 5 percent from before Thanksgiving. The poll also found Mr. Bush's likability, aside from his job as president, rose 7 percent, to reach 72 percent. Mr. Bush made a surprise visit to have Thanksgiving dinner at the Bob Hope Dining Hall at Baghdad International Airport with some 600 soldiers from the 1st Armored Division and the 82nd Airborne Division. The trip, conducted in secrecy, stunned and delighted many Americans. Adam Clymer, Washington director for the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said his organization was intrigued by the president's move and decided to compare the numbers before and after the trip. Mr. Clymer said he cannot prove the trip definitively made the difference, but he said Iraq and the economy are the two big items determining most voters' views on the president and the Baghdad trip was an important move for Mr. Bush. Tony Welch, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, said the shift wasn't surprising, but that the long term is what matters. "It's totally understandable that the American people would support the president visiting the troops during the time of war," Mr. Welch said. But he added: "Even the Bush campaign admits that this will be a very close election." He referred to the president's own pollster, who has predicted Mr. Bush's approval ratings would fall during 2003 in preparation for the campaign year ahead. Despite the other good news for Mr. Bush, the survey, which had a 3 percent plus-or-minus margin of error, found that fewer than half of respondents said the war in Iraq was worth it. Before Thanksgiving 48 percent said it was worth it; after Thanksgiving 49 percent said it was. Meanwhile, the nine Democrats seeking to challenge Mr. Bush continued to lay plans for the early primaries, with Wesley Clark announcing he will begin running ads in three of the states holding nomination contests on Feb. 3. The former Army general will run 60-second biographical ads in South Carolina, Oklahoma and Arizona -- the first candidate to do such a coordinated purchase of ads in the Feb. 3 states, though former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has run ads in four of the states at different times. Mr. Clark and Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut have decided to bypass the Iowa caucuses, the first binding nomination contest, on Jan. 19. And New Hampshire, the second contest, on Jan. 27, is shaping up to be Mr. Dean's race to lose. So Mr. Clark and other candidates are laying plans for how to stay in the race through Feb. 3, and to try to use that contest as a springboard for the later primaries. The other Feb. 3 primary states are Delaware, New Mexico, Missouri and North Dakota. The Associated Press did a survey of campaign strength and found Mr. Dean has more paid staff than his rivals in Arizona (11), New Mexico (nine) and Oklahoma (seven). He and candidate Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri have three in North Dakota. And Dean's enormous fund-raising advantage -- he expects to raise more than $10 million in the fourth quarter alone -- means the physician-turned-politician won't be spread as thin as his rivals. washingtontimes.com