With Newt officially out of the Presidential race it was time to update the poll once again. The caucuses are drawing every closer and opinion is starting to harden.
Express yours daily and we’ll track the changes.
Express yours daily and we’ll track the changes.
30 comments:
Today on the Senate floor, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) condemned Rush Limbaugh’s “phony soldiers” comment, saying that the radio host makes these “provocative things to make more money.” He then offered another possible explanation for Limbaugh’s “over-the-line” remarks:
Well, I don’t know. Maybe he was just high on his drugs again. I don’t know whether he was or not. If so, he ought to let us know. But that shouldn’t be an excuse.
Fred Thompson Running from Reporters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh3Lhw4xYq0
Yeh, bro, what about putting Quack Klein on the poll. My offer still stands of $1000 to your $100 I'll be in the top three within three weeks of being listed.
Think the party needs new blood. Showed up at the Guthrie Station GOP county meeting with reps from Romney's and McCain's campaigns but no one from the party or the community appeared. McCain's person said this is the 3rd time he's come to meetings with total no shows.
Chatted with and handed out literature to a number of dinners at the local restaurant where we ate. Folks came across as totally uninterested in the campaign.
Nevertheless my standard "We need a national shrink in the White House" brought the usual big laugh and knowing nod from everyone.
I'd wipe the floor with Clinton. She doesn't stand a chance against a real outsider like me with fresh ideas and who speaks his mind. For much of electorate the no brainer choice would be between a father, grandfather, physician and psychiatrist versus a weasily double talking clone of the difficult ex, the current unbearable wife, or the pushy and devious in-law you can't stand.
Does it frighten anyone else that a so-called psychiatrist is so out of touch with reality?
And nobody was at "Guthrie Station" because it doesn't exist. That'd be my theory at least.
While running for his Senate seat in 1984, and again while running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992, Tom Harkin has faced criticism for claiming that he had flown combat missions over North Vietnam.
In a 1979 round table discussion with other Congressional Veterans, Harkin said of his service as a Navy pilot: “One year was in Vietnam. I was flying F-4s and F-8s on combat air patrols and photo-reconnaissance support missions”.
These comments were later published in a 1981 book by David Broder.
After subsequent inquiries by Barry Goldwater and The Wall Street Journal, Harkin clarified that that he had been stationed in Japan and sometimes flew recently repaired aircraft on test missions over Vietnam.
Anonymous--Was at Guthrie Center not "Station" last night. Sorry for the error.
It's the GOP not me which is out of touch with reality. Pretty obvious the its "approved" candidates are dead in the water. The party's white knight, Fred Thompson, in published photos appears quite ill from his lymphoma.
The situation reached a new low with McCain's crack yesterday only a Christian should be president. As I'm the only non-Christian in the race, presume he targeted me. Hence this posted in today's Jerusalem Post.
"McCain was talkling about me.
MARK KLEIN, M.D. - USA
10/02/2007 14:29
A "minor" GOP candidate for the White House have a very active campaign in Iowa. Won outright with 52% the Des Moines area GOP chairman's online straw poll. Scared the party so my name was removed and the count reset to zero. In July tied for 3rd place 3 votes behind Romney in a snap straw poll in Grundy County, Iowa's most Republican County. The GOP refused my $15,000 for a line on the Ames poll fearing I'd turn out Iowa's very angry divorced fathers & win."
http://michellemalkin.com/
Update: Glenn Reynolds wonders: “I noted back in 2004, the last time Harkin made this an issue, that the press was giving him a pass. Will it do so again? And why are the Democrats letting Harkin, of all people, get out front on this issue?”
***
Is there any doubt that Tom Harkin is a MoveOn.org Democrat?
Tom Harkin Update [Dan Collins]
Tom Harkin, who himself has issues regarding his representation of his “Vietnam-era” service–which helped sink his candidacy against Clinton way back when–is exercised about Rush Limbaugh’s “phony soldier” reference.
Senator Harkin’s tenure in Iowa has been marked by one major issue: the ethanol boondoggle.
Thanks to Harkin’s porkbarrelling on behalf of Monsanto, Conoco and Archer-Daniels, among others, consumers in the larger Midwestern markets have been socked with disproportionate gasoline prices due to the blending requirements that have been enacted for them, whist food prices have risen nationwide and internationally due to the legislation.
It is time to get this bum out of office.
And to that end, I’d like to try and gather information about the ethanol lobby, and which legislators have an investment in big biofuel.
Any help is appreciated.
http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=9898
Instapundit flashback: TOM HARKIN, FAKE WAR HERO.
August 18, 2004
TOM HARKIN, FAKE WAR HERO: In an update to an earlier post, I noted some comments by Donald Sensing about Sen. Tom Harkin, most recently seen attacking the patriotism of Dick Cheney.
Sensing observed: "Harkin himself claimed to have battled Mig fighters over North Vietnam while a Navy pilot. He was a pilot, but never went to Vietnam."
I remembered some Harkin truth-stretching from back then, and I trust Sensing, but in keeping with Walter Cronkite's warnings about poorly sourced stories on the Internet, I decided to do some research at lunchtime.
In a book called Stolen Valor : How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History, I found this passage, which is considerably worse for Harkin than Sensing's short summary.
Go check out the website to see the actual picture of the excerpt from the book.
http://www.instapundit.com/archives/017246.php
More from Instapundit: I also found an article from the Wall Street Journal, entitled "Harkin Presidential Bid Marred by Instances In Which Candidate Appears to Stretch Truth," dated December 26, 1991, p. A12.
(Sorry -- I got this via WESTLAW so I can't post a link, but the WESTLAW page number is 1991 WL-WSJ 578809.)
[LATER: It's now available for free on the Web, thanks to James Taranto.] It supports the above.
In 1979, Mr. Harkin, then a congressman, participated in a round-table discussion arranged by the Congressional Vietnam Veterans' Caucus.
"I spent five years as a Navy pilot, starting in November of 1962," Mr. Harkin said at that meeting, in words that were later quoted in a book, Changing of the Guard, by Washington Post political writer David Broder.
"One year was in Vietnam. I was flying F-4s and F-8s on combat air patrols and photo-reconnaisance support missions. I did no bombing."
That clearly is not an accurate picture of his Navy service.
Though Mr. Harkin stresses he is proud of his Navy record -- "I put my ass on the line day after day" -- he concedes now he never flew combat air patrols in Vietnam. . . .
Mr. Harkin's Navy record shows his only decoration is the National Defense Service Medal, awarded to everyone on active service during those years.
He did not receive either the Vietnam Service medal or the Vietnam Campaign medal, the decorations given to everyone who served in the Southeast Asia theater.
"We didn't get them for what we did," Mr. Harkin says. "It's never bothered me."
Two things bother me about this. One is that Harkin seems a rather odd choice for the Democrats as an attack dog. As Sensing notes, what are they thinking?
The other is that I managed to do this research over my lunch hour, but it doesn't seem to be noted in the press treatment of Harkin's charges by the people who get, you know, paid to do this stuff. (Take that, Walter!) And it would seem that when Harkin -- who didn't serve in Vietnam combat but who lied about it, and whose actual military service seems rather similar to Bush's -- calls Dick Cheney a "coward" because he didn't serve in Vietnam, well, it ought to be worth mentioning. Shouldn't it be?
Instead, CNN calls Harkin a "former Navy fighter pilot," (though it at least gets the details of his service correct).
Calling Harkin "a Senator who, like President Bush, flew fighter jets during the Vietnam era without seeing combat but who, unlike President Bush, lied about it," would be more accurate, but it would kind of change the story.
Wonder why nobody looked into this? Or, if they knew, bothered to note it?
As with the Kerry Christmas-in-Cambodia story, this is probably more significant for what it tells us about the sorry state of political journalism this campaign season than for what it tells us about the speaker.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Daniel Moore observes:
The blogosphere has clearly shown the world that there are a whole host of stories that old media doesn't cover out of sheer laziness and that any quick look for actual facts can contradict many stories that, say, political candidates put out and then [are] taken as fact by the media.
Newspaper reporters used to know this - and they used to look for those facts.
They used to check sources.
They used to search for the truth in a way that would make any skeptic proud.
But now they just read the press releases and change a word here or there.
MORE: Reader Greg Swenson emails: "I was infuriated about Harkin's comments because I too did some coffee break Googling and found the same notes regarding the Senator's exaggerations of his service after I recalled the earlier incident.
I'm a goddamn salesman and even I (underlined with emphasis) could fact check Harkin's ass.
Why can't these blow-dried prima donnas news types do it?" Beats me. Guess they don't want to.
"Gulf War Veteran" Bryan Preston has more.
STILL MORE: Well, glory be -- somebody did notice this. Reader Jim Adair emails: "Last night on Brit Hume's Fox News show, Hume mentioned the Harkin attack on Cheney and also mentioned that Harkin had overly expressed his service contribution during a presidential bid.
Fair AND balanced Fox was the only outlet to be truthful!. Here's the transcript:
"Coward" for Not Serving in Vietnam?
Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin (search) is calling Vice President Dick Cheney a — "coward" for not serving in Vietnam. But Harkin himself didn't serve in Vietnam, even though he has said otherwise.
Many years ago, Harkin repeatedly said he was a Vietnam Veteran who flew "combat air patrols" for a year, but it turned out he was stationed in Japan at the time, flying aircraft to be repaired in the Philippines and missing combat altogether.
Harkin, according to the Wall Street Journal at the time, was forced to call himself a, "Vietnam Era Vet" instead.
— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report
Michael Drout, journalist-turned-professor, explains why journalists don't want to look for facts anymore:
Based on my experience at J-school, I can generalize a couple things about journalists around my age that could explain some of the problems.
First, nearly all of us were in J-school not because we wanted to be reporters, but because we wanted to write. . . .
Thus reporters are ripe for the temptation of press-releases: and most press-release-writing flacks are people with journalism degrees who know exactly how to write a release so that the reporter can edit out obvious promotion but still buy the overall spin.
Second, almost all of the J-school program at Stanford was spent trying to get us to think about the implications of journalism, the politics of reporting, the influence of journalists, etc.
He concludes:
I think this is a long-term big problem for Journalism, the profession.
It has been eating its seed corn for a decade or more, and so much of its cultural authority is used up.
This can be good, in that it reduces the influence of unaccountable institutions, like the big daily papers.
But it's also bad, because once everyone stops believing the newspapers, you have a huge problem of vetting and evaluating information.
Indeed.
And speaking of lying. Wasn't Biden's last bid for President marred by his lying too? He admitted to plaigerizing someone elses work and had to quit the campaign. Then, he got a facelift and hairplugs and Tah Dah! The NEW JOE BIDEN, who when he smiles looks just like Batman's Joker.
FINALLY: Reader Dennis Preiser emails:
All of the talk about lazy journalism, etc., etc. is not the "real deal" in Harkin's story or any other story.
The point that should be made is that the only stories that are not pursued with zeal by the MSM are the ones that benefit George W. Bush.
There is absolutely no other factor of import involved. It's nothing but bias, pure and simple. Period.
Well, they did seem to work a lot harder on the AWOL claims. . . .
I heard that those affected with BushHating Disease are now covered by insurance as a recognized mental disorder.
let's not forget that tom harkin has no residence in the state of iowa. how does he keep getting by with that whopper?
ya know...if harkin had not run for president, we would never have had bill clinton as president.
bill would have been vetted by iowans and found out to be the rube he really is. He would not have won. Clinton did not campaign in Iowa because he assumed Harkin would be favorite son.
Did Harkin sell his soul to the devil named Billary too?
On the Spot (CNSNews.com) - Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is under fire from liberal media critics and some Democrats in Congress for using the term "phony soldiers" to describe Jesse Macbeth, who was sentenced to five months in prison for falsifying his military records.
Macbeth claimed to be the recipient of several medals, including the Purple Heart, and further claimed in Internet videos to have witnessed U.S. soldiers committing atrocities.
It was later revealed that Macbeth had served for only six weeks and never saw combat in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The really stupid thing about this issue is that all of us know that D's like Harry Reid hate the soldiers just like they did in 1969. If they believe Rush was anti-soldier, wouldn't they be celebrating his position?
D's are phony humans.
---
The liberal media group Media Matters for America (which wants Limbaugh removed from taxpayer-supported Armed Forces Radio) has condemned the conservative Limbaugh for his alleged comments.
Media Matters claims that Limbaugh used the "phony soldiers" term to describe all soldiers who have spoken out against the war.
Media Matters recently went after Bill O'Reilly over a similarly fabricated issue. Even Matt Lauer saw through it. THAT was the big news story for me...Matt Lauer did not buy the lies this time.
Are we seeing a left wing conspiracy in action? All of a sudden all the conservative pundits are being shouted about on the floor of Congress over made up controversies and coincidentally only a few days after George Soros's and Shillary Clinton's MoveOn.Org got busted for betraying America with their General BeTrayus ad?
They are trying to get us to believe that these pundits now agree with D's and Al-Qaeda? Huh?
And they wonder why we laugh at them.
Seems a little much.
Ready to take the left's dishonest, anti- Rush Limbaugh smear campaign a major step further, an "anti- war veterans" group is unveiling an attack ad that will soon air on major television networks.
Somehow, a group called VoteVets.org not only cooked up an anti- Limbaugh hit piece at lightning speed, it had no trouble coughing up $60,000 for the occasion.
Get the feeling the left had been planning this attack for some time?
http://state29.blogspot.com/
Check out State 29. He's done a great job investigating more of Tom Harkin's lies...including a picture of what is supposed to pass as his residence in Iowa.
Why does the register always let him get by with those lies?
His wife is on the board of BIG BIG GREAT BIG EVIL BIG RAPINGLY BIG Conoco Oil.
How do the libs let him get by with his wife working for EVIL as they see it?
I've always thought it was funny that the D's use as their mascot an ASS. Harkin wins the "Best at being an ASS" award at their next convention.
On October 1st, 2007 at 6:22 pm, Dread Pirate Roberts VIII said:
Rush has referred to Harkin as “dung heap Harkin” for years. The “dung heap” goes back to Harkin referring to the charges against rapist Bill Clinton as “a heap of dung”. Rush captured it in nickname form for the ages.
Also, Harkin was the leftist douche who joined soldier-hater John Kerry in polishing the knob of Marxist Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua back in the 1970s.
(202) 224-3254 D.C.
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(563) 322-1338 Davenport
(319) 365-4504 Cedar Rapids
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Sixty percent (60%) of America’s Likely Voters oppose giving every child born in the United States a $5,000 savings bond, or “baby bond.”
A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 27% support the concept suggested on Friday by Senator Hillary Clinton.
Harkin is a douche. He just could help himself on this one. What an embarrassment.
HawkeyeLounge.com
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