McCain camp hits at Deficit analysis, offers no alternative figures

When a group says that your figure is wrong, but cannot give any actual figures in respone you know they are full of it.

Late last week, the Wonk Room reported a new analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund finding that John McCain would recklessly exacerbate the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush Administration and create the largest deficit in 25 years.

When contacted by Slate magazine for a response to our deficit analysis, the McCain campaign offered this:

Spokesman Brian Rogers dismissed the CAP study as coming from “a left-wing Democratic front group” but did not provide alternative figures. “The fact that they falsely criticize Sen. McCain’s policy proposals is unfortunate, but it’s hardly surprising,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Well, needless to say, we don’t believe our analysis is false, and we are very open to a debate on its merits. Note that you can read our methodology in detail on page 3 of the report.

Unfortunately, despite supposed outreach to the lefty blogosphere and promises to run a different kind of campaign, the McCain camp seems more interested in attacking us than engaging in a substantive debate on our methodology or our conclusions.

We’ve contacted the McCain campaign for further comment on where they think our analysis went wrong, and we’ve been told that they’d “be in touch if they have a different comment” for us. We look forward to it.

Obama strikes back at McCain

Obama’s VP

With Obama the likely nominee of the Democratic party I started rolling around potential cantidates, first off I got rid of anyone who wasn’t a white male, sorry to the supporters of female or latino possibilities, but I just don’t see Obama risking multiple minorities on a single ticket.  No he wants to try and reunite the party and reach out to white voters who may be on the fence about him, in addition he wants someone who can win him a swing state and possibly bring some military experience.  To that end I went over the recent polling data and using an electoral mapping applet on MyDD.com, I came up with a reasonable estimate of the current electoral map; states where the polling data appears to show a tight race are marked in yellow and are the likely swing states this year, in my opinion.

Looking at the map I would argue that the front runners for the post are Ted Strickland, Jim Webb, Chuck Hagel and Tim Kaine.  Each of these men bring pros and cons to the table.

Ted Strickland

Pros: Governor of Ohio, would be a big boost to Obama’s chances if he could ensure the state.  In addition as a Hillary supporter, he may help heal the party rift

Cons: No Military experience, and harsh opposition to Obama during the Ohio Primary

Jim Webb

Pros: Popular Senator from Virginia, a swing state, strong Military background

Cons: Doesn’t appear interested in post, controversial among women

Chuck Hagel

Pros: Strong Military Background, as a Republican, he may bring in moderate republicans and independents to Obama’s side, and give Obama’s unity message instant credibility

Cons: As a Republican he may not go over well with many Democrats, Nebraska is not an important state for Obama

Tim Kaine

Pros: Governor of Virginia, would likely bring the state to Obama

Cons: No Military experience, involved in controversies during his time as Governor

At this point my gut instinct says Strickland, his support of Hillary will likely help bring the party back together while his influence in Ohio would add 20 electoral votes to Obama’s column, making a win in Novemebr more likely.

Fall of Conservatism

Have the Republicans run out of ideas?
by George Packer
The era of American politics that has been dying before our eyes was born in 1966. That January, a twenty-seven-year-old editorial writer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat named Patrick Buchanan went to work for Richard Nixon, who was just beginning the most improbable political comeback in American history. Having served as Vice-President in the Eisenhower Administration, Nixon had lost the Presidency by a whisker to John F. Kennedy, in 1960, and had been humiliated in a 1962 bid for the California governorship. But he saw that he could propel himself back to power on the strength of a new feeling among Americans who, appalled by the chaos of the cities, the moral heedlessness of the young, and the insults to national pride in Vietnam, were ready to blame it all on the liberalism of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Right-wing populism was bubbling up from below; it needed to be guided by a leader who understood its resentments because he felt them, too.

“From Day One, Nixon and I talked about creating a new majority,” Buchanan told me recently, sitting in the library of his Greek-revival house in McLean, Virginia, on a secluded lane bordering the fenced grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency. “What we talked about, basically, was shearing off huge segments of F.D.R.’s New Deal coalition, which L.B.J. had held together: Northern Catholic ethnics and Southern Protestant conservatives—what we called the Daley-Rizzo Democrats in the North and, frankly, the Wallace Democrats in the South.” Buchanan grew up in Washington, D.C., among the first group—men like his father, an accountant and a father of nine, who had supported Roosevelt but also revered Joseph McCarthy. The Southerners were the kind of men whom Nixon whipped into a frenzy one night in the fall of 1966, at the Wade Hampton Hotel, in Columbia, South Carolina. Nixon, who was then a partner in a New York law firm, had travelled there with Buchanan on behalf of Republican congressional candidates. Buchanan recalls that the room was full of sweat, cigar smoke, and rage; the rhetoric, which was about patriotism and law and order, “burned the paint off the walls.” As they left the hotel, Nixon said, “This is the future of this Party, right here in the South.”

Click the link to read the rest of the editorial (warning: its a long one)

Wow

Massive Obama rally in Portland

More McCain flip-flops (Youtube Video)

McCain has an honesty problem:

McCain is a nightmare waiting to happen