What is the best proof that JK really won the debate hands down? When even the right press is acknowledging it without dissent.

Here's what Deborah Orin says about the debate (be careful she still doesn't like Kerry):

"It may have been the worst debate that President Bush (news - web sites) has ever had -- while Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) scored one of his best."

After his controversial positions on trade and the sales tax, SC Senate nominee now finds himself in the need to explicitly explain that he is "running a positive campaign of ideas, and that includes personal respect for others."

The reason (link: http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/politics/9777538.htm)

The director of operations for Jim DeMint's U.S. Senate campaign has been reprimanded for derogatory remarks she made about gays and lesbians in an errant e-mail.

Ginny Allen was admonished personally Monday by the Republican nominee, who promised in a letter of apology that she would be dealt with "according to office guidelines."

Allen was not fired. Attempts to reach her for comment were unsuccessful Monday.

Lisa Hall, chairwoman of the Central Savannah River Area Rainbow Alliance, which works to raise awareness of gay and lesbian issues, in July invited both Senate campaigns to an Oct. 7 town hall meeting to discuss issues of interest to gay voters.

Democratic nominee Inez Tenenbaum promptly promised to send a representative, but after receiving no reply from the DeMint campaign, Hall sent a follow-up e-mail Monday.

Allen, apparently thinking she was forwarding the e-mail to someone inside the campaign, inadvertently replied to Hall.

"Come on, fag, give this dike a reply," Allen wrote.

John Kerry's position on the Iraq war seems to be a major issue in the election. Republicans claim he flip-flopped but that charge is not supported by the facts according to this (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/archive/2004/09/23/KERRY.TMP) article from the SF-Gate.

I hope this word spreads to some other papers around the country perhaps even in some battleground states and not only in San Francisco.

Text of the article below (warning, it's long):

Found at the Stakeholder, I think this guy (the republ. congressional candidate for TN-5) gets it right on iraq:

"Much to the distress of many of my fellow Republicans, I must make the following observation - George W. Bush does not deserve reelection. Being that I am the Republican candidate for the 5th congressional district this statement carries an extremely high political price for me.

Iraq clearly was not the threat the White House made it out to be. He knew the evidence for Saddam's nuclear weapons program was extremely tenuous at best. Bush went to Iraq because he wanted to, not because he had to.

The President continues to claim his invasion to be a stabilizing force within the Middle East. Nothing could be further from the truth. Conditions in Iraq are steadily spiraling downward. Civil war is inevitable. Despite all the good intentions, hard work and spilled blood from our military, chaos will spread throughout the Middle East."

link: http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section_id=38&screen=news&news_id=35832

I guess Lincoln Chafee is not alone and in Tennessee, there is a (little) chance that his vote matters.

I don't know if anybody noticed but I found this paragraph in yesterday's WaPo article about the "retirement" of outed Rep. Schrock:

"'When he ran for reelection a few years ago, there was a little bit of whispering,' said Jim Polk, former vice chairman of the Virginia Beach Republican Committee, now working on the Ralph Nader presidential campaign. 'Several Republicans were saying, 'If that's true, we need to get him out of there.' . . . It just didn't go anywhere at the time. People were hesitant to bring it up.'"

link:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50388-2004Aug31_2.html

You noticed?

I found a poll for the NH Gov. race here: http://www.fosters.com/July2004/07.22.04/news/ap_nh0722d.asp

WMUR-TV poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire, 509 adults, 464 LV, MoE 4.5

Benson (R) i 46
Lynch (D)    39

Benson       48
McEachern    36

Benson's approval rating (April):
appr.    45 (54)
disappr. 40 (28)

Sorry if this was posted above but I didn't notice it here.

The direction of Benson's approval rating goes in the right direction, but I thought I remembered a poll between him and Lynch which was even better, the two virtually tied.

With a strong result for John Kerry in NH there might be some coattail for the Gov. race.

I found it at dcpoliticalreport. Peter Camejo is originally from Venezuela (I didn't know).

Link: http://www.progressive-asset.com/who/team.html

That means that he cannot be VP as only a natural born citizen is eligible. But does that also mean that his ticket is prevented from being on any state ballot??

Whoever had his doubt about what a smart politician John Kerry is now can visit his successes: Cancel just one speech before mayors (who should be convinced in either way by now) and prevent a major embarassment for the party with their convention.

link: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/conventions/articles/2004/06/29/police_say_they_wont_picket_conv ention/

Should be a major relief for the campaign.

There was some speculation about LA senator Mary Landrieu becoming John Kerry's running mate. I think she would be a very good choice as she is moderate, from the south, youthful and good looking, a good speaker (like Edwards) and has military credentials as "Military Mary" (unlike Edwards).

Senator Landrieu now comes out to say that she would NOT have voted for authorizing the war with Iraq, when she then had known what she knows now.

Quote: "I trusted him, as did many other members of Congress, to use our forces only as a last resort," Landrieu said. "I trusted him to determine that there were, in fact, weapons of mass destruction, or to make the determination that there was clearly an immediate threat, and that he would work hard to develop a strong international coalition. He's failed on all those accounts."

link: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/washington/index.ssf?/base/news-0/108806450367980.xml

Perhaps there is a VP trying to woo the democratic base. She should be more able to hammer Bush and especially Cheney (in a VP-debate) after this.

Senator Breaux said in the same article that his decision was right on the information he had been given and there is no sense in "what if speculation". I guess a forceful defense of his vote would look differently.

I haven't seen this before so I thought I'll post it:

Poll for The News & Observer, WRAL-TV and WUNC radio (Research 2000)taken from June 6 - 13
600 likely voters (MoE 4%)

Bowles  47 (45)
Burr    37 (40)

Question for the vote in local congressional race
dem  42
rep  39

link: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1361755p-7484992c.html

I guess this is consistent with the rising opportunities in NC for the Kerry/?(Edwards)-ticket in the presidential race. Seems like Bush has to defend more than he would like to have.