Campaign Watch

Sayonara to Campaign Watch

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:09:54 -0500

With the close of the election season, this is the official goodbye to the Campaign Watch blog -- which was conceived as the Primary Pundit blog some two years ago as the presidential primary circus began to set up its tents, unleash its barkers and test its acts. I've posted hundreds and hundreds of daily entries and updates talking about and linking to the important, the trivial and the outrageous. It's all part of the pageantry and majesty that defines the exotic ways we choose our leaders (imagine what a visitor from, say, Mars would think about the past two years and you get my point.)

But make no mistake about it -- this was an extraordinary and historic election cycle by any measure. The primary battle between Democratic contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was an amazing clash of ideas, personalities and heavyweight wills. The general election showdown between Obama and Republican John McCain was in part a wild national conversation turned argument about who we are, what is important, and where we need to go. It was a street brawl but the result led to a outbreak of national euphoria that was stunning and profound as Americans take the next step in the ever-changing evolution of defining who we are. And the Senate and House races in NH were also historically important and compelling. For better or worse, the Age of Obama has dawned.

It's been my privilege and joy to write for these blogs. My goal was insight, informed perspective and entertainment. I don't know if I always succeeded but that was the goal. And I applaud abd appreciate all the readers who have read the entries and provided hundreds of pointed and helpful comments. It would have been a lesser blog without your input. Thanks for the memories.

Ready for 2010?

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:41:04 -0500

In case you were concerned about spending too much time decompressing from the 2008 election, PolitikerNH.com is reporting that Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of Rye is running for reelection -- and a fourth term -- in 2010.

Election night notebook
I witnessed a remarkable scene at the Dem victory rally in Manchester last night. After two hours of watching-the-returns cheers and victory speeches by Jeanne Shaheen, Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes, when the networks called the election for Obama at 11 p.m., the emotional explosion was immense. I saw an elderly lady, maybe in her 80s, jumping up and down next to a young African-African man who was also jumping up and down -- both had tears streaming down their face.

If Obama's victory speech was gracious and inspirational, John McCain's eloquent concession speech marked the end of the bitter campaign and the return of a patriot who did put Country First. When he said that the voters had spoken clearly, it set a tone of reconciliation and reality. Who knows how many of his supporters will share those sentiments but McCain took a huge first step.

The Obama/Democratic Tsunami

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:35:08 -0500

At 10:50 p.m., it's all over but the final counting. Fox and NPR have called Virginia for Obama and the networks will officially call it at 11 when the West Coast polls close. Obama still could possibly win Indiana, N. Carolina and Florida. This has been a stunning night in New Hampshire and the country.

Shaheen: Second time was a charm
(Update) The cheers at the Democratic Party victory rally in Manchester were deafening when ABC and Channel Nine projected former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen the winner in the U.S. Senate rematch with Sen. John Sununu. Senior campaign advisor Kathy Sullivan told me this victory was "unfinished business" from the 2002 battle. A few days ago, Shaheen's husband Billy Shaheen told me he felt good and wished the election was "tomorrow." Tomorrow came a few days later but it was worth the wait.

NH: Obama, Lynch...and Shaheen?
Obama, Lynch,...and Shaheen? Barack Obama and Gov. John Lynch got the good news early in NH...a Shaheen aide told me they felt they got a good turnout. The totals in Manchester will likely tell all...

Big blue and red cheers at 8
The tidal wave of returns and calls has begun at 8 p.m. with mutiple callings...including Obama in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania...so far it's a repeat of 2004 with red going red and blue going blue...but McCain had pinned so much on NH and Pennsylvania.

Voter news & views
I heard from two sources that UNH students started lining up to vote real early this morning, possibly as early as 4:30 a.m.

* In Seabrook, where voting appeared to be going smoothly around noon, Vivian Priest told me she voted for John McCain because of his pro-life positions and because of his character. "I vote all the time and want to make sure John McCain gets in," Priest said. "He's a tough man and age and experience mean a lot to me."
Also in Seabrook, Enola Fields, 77, told me she voted a straight Democratic ticket and was pleased to vote for Barack Obama. "He (seemed) to be more for the middle class and made a lot more sense than McCain," she told me.

Ashley Brown and Brittany Konopa, both 18 and from Seabrook, voted early for McCain and the Repulican ticket abd and then planned to do a 10 to 7 shift waving signs to drivers going past on Route 1. Both were happy to show that not all young people were going for Obama and, Ashley Brown told me, "were concerned about issues and not voting just on personalities."

* At the Greenland Central School it was campaign sign central with hundreds of signs from all the candidates being held near the polling entrance area or planted on the ground. McCain's low-tax message definately got through to small business owner Susan Vitali, 44, who definately didn't like the concept of "spreading the wealth" and was concerned about getting too taxed too much. She did tell me she had given both candidates a lot of consideration and said "they're both good men. I can live with whoever wins."

Retired miltary man Edward L. Bell, Jr. chose not to tell me who he voted for but he did wink and told me "I'm in for change." Getting out of Iraq, "getting a solid heath care program," and more regulation for the financial industry ("so we don't have this mess again") were his top priorities."

I voted -- Your turn
Election day is a time for pundits, analysts and pollsters to take a temporary back seat (shutting up is impossible but hopefully the mute button will hold for a while) and for voters to speak up. I will be out and about talking to voters in the Seacoast region and then head over to Manchester to cover the Democratic and Republican victory parties tonight.

I'd like to hear from readers about whom they voted for and why.

Despite multiple predictions for a Barack Obama landslide, I hope the networks will hold off on a final election call if Obama carries states like Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania, N. Carolina, Virginia and Ohio -- by 9 p.m. we could have a very clear picture one way or another but it's inexcusable to call it before the polls close on the West Coast.

My fearless, feckless predictions

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 07:41:10 -0500

Well, I can't duck it any longer as the public pressure has mounted all year waiting for me to make honest-to-goodness actual electoral predictions (definition of public pressure: 3 readers, 2 of whom don't like me). I'm not normally in the predictions business because there's usually nothing as boring as pundits or analysts or self-proclaimed experts showing how ill-equipped they are to be prophets.
That said, here we go:
NH Governor -- Gov. John Lynch in as sure a sure bet there can be this election. He's bipartisan popular and even his worst critics don't have that much bad to say about him. Lynch's opponent Sen. Joe Kenney has been reduced to the level of the old American Express commercial -- Do you know me? Sadly, for him, most people don't.
NH 1st Congressional District -- Incumbent Rep. Carol Shea-Porter hasn't had much time to campaign this year btu she has used her two years in Congress to establish herself as a hard-working, serious player. She has proved that her 2006 victory may have been a political season fluke but the right candidate won. Jeb Bradley, the man she beat in 2006 has sworn he would do anything to win and proven good to his word as he employed a scorched earth campaign against primary rival John Stephen. But Bradley's almost entirely negative campaign will backfire I think because Shea-Porter is becoming a stronger campaigner and she has a solid bedrock of support. I suspect a 4-point victory for Shea-Porter.
NH U.S. Senate -- This is the titanic battle with national glitter that turned out to be anything but a heavyweight fight. Jeanne Shaheen is the better candidate but not the best of the campaigners. Republican incumbent Sen. Sununu is a bruising campaigner who went to great lengths to reinvent himself as Mr. NH Independent (George Bush who? What Republican Party?) on the fly -- and he's even drawn sympathy from inside-the-beltway types who are shocked that the bright engineer Sununu could be threatened. But the Shaheen camp has done one thing very well -- reminding people that Sununu has been George Bush's political soul mate more often than not. Shaheen could win by a range from two to six points because the political environment is deadly for Sununu no matter how well he reinvents himself. If he somehow manages to win, that will be an upset and could provide evidence that John McCain hs done very well for himself in NH.
NH and National Presidential -- Everything in my gut, everything I've learned on the campaign trail the past two years tells me this will be close because McCain does have a mystical political bond with NH voters. But then I tell myself that McCain won two Republican primaries and he's going against stiff political winds in which the economy and not national security is the absolute top issue for voters -- and that independents are not breaking for him.
Barack Obama has been the stronger candidate and his campaign is ready to unleash the best ground game and grass roots organization ever seen in American politics. Like Sununu, McCain is tied too much to Bush and for good reason -- he sold his soul to support Bush and brag about it since 2004. I suspect Obama will win New Hampshire by a minimum of four points but it could be much bigger.
I don't have a computer graphic chart handy showing a national map but after the primary season I suspected Obama would win in a semi-landslide (around 340 or so electoral votes) and I haven't change my estimation. It will depend on turnout and some-last minute shifts for some smaller voting blocks but Obama is riding the transformational wave he sensed -- and has helped grow. John McCain, who has run a wild, undisciplined campaign, was on the wrong side of this political wave to begin with.
Obama has run a disciplined, smart campaign that has been inspirational and substantial -- he has taken the risk of setting high expectations and that has drawn in voters of all ages. With each passing day, Obama has looked more like a president than McCain, who has relied way too much on an Obama-focused fear campaign. He has double-crossed himself by looking less like a maverick than a negative scold. Selling fear won't work this time around because Obama just turns it around to his advantage. Also, McCain is at the bad end of the national mood after eight years of George Bush -- accountability day has arrived which is unfair for McCain but that's politics.

Like it or not, hope will likely hold sway on election day -- and then reality will set in.

Trick or treats aplenty

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 06:54:16 -0500

Sometimes I have to ask: Is Sarah Palin for real? Yesterday, she produced another gem of logic with her assertion that her 1st Amendment rights are being violated because she's being criticized by the media for what the media considers negative attacks on Obama. Ah, what? No one is stopping her from saying anything and the media may or not be wrong in charaterizing them as attacks but no one's rights are being challenged. The press can't violate the 1st Amendment. It's no wonder that almost 60 percent of those polled in the most recent New York Times/CBS News say she's not ready to be vice president. The main reason of course is that it's clear there is no there there -- she's charismatic and a fine right-wing cheerleader but there's a disconnect between the talking points she repeats and any understanding about what they mean. Geez, Sarah, for starters you might actually read the Constitution which includes the following lines: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

But then again it may just have been Halloween. At a campaign stop in Ohio, her running mate John McCain made known one of his first significant appointments -- he promised to bring Joe the Plumber to Washington with him if he won.

Who's his daddy?
The latest on right-wing fantasy front: I've gotten a few calls in the past month imploring me to investigate "proof" that Obama isn't really an American, his birth certificate is a fake and whatnot. The latest conspiracy news is that he's either the son of a Communist or Malcolm X. You really can't make this up.

McCain doubling down on NH?

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:03:30 -0500

In addition to a final campaign stop on Sunday in NH for John McCain, a McCain campaign source told me early this evening that "In the closing days of the election, we have added significantly to an existing advertising buy on New Hampshire television. This move reflects the very competitive state of the race in the Granite State and our commitment to allocating the resources we need to win New Hampshire." Is this trick or treat?

Coulter weighs in on Sununu-Shaheen: Pinheads, hide your eyes!Right-wing snarl queen Ann Coulter weighed in on the Jeanne Shaheen - John Sununu U. S. Senate race with her customary eloquence. In an appearance on Fox News, the always-entertaining Coulter begged NH voters not to reject Sununu (one of the smartest bears in the Senate zoo, she claims) for "Democratic pinheads" like Shaheen. Ann, please don't sugarcoat it!

Regular Joe Tour
Former Mass. Gov. Paul Cellucci had surrogate duty for the McCain campaign Friday as master of ceremonies for the three-stop "Fight for Regular Joes" (named after you know who) of small businesses in Portsmouth, Dover, and Manchester. Joe the Plumber has given the McCain an "exclamation point" for his economic plan. "I think John McCain has struck a chord in the final days of the campaign," Cellucci told me in a phone call from a diner in Manchester. "I believe it will resonate both in New Hampshire and the country."

Bramante joins Obama ranks

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:11:00 -0500

Republican Fred Bramante, the former State Board of Education chairman who was on John McCain's NH leadership team, has changed course and endorsed Barack Obama. In a conference call with reporters earlier today, Bramante was enthusiastic in his praise for Obama's education's priorities -- and was frustrated by the McCain campaign's focus on school vouchers which was something Bramante couldn't stomach, calling it a "partisan approach" issue. "This is about which person is more likely to impact schools around the country," he said. When I asked Bramante if he was interested in a possible Department of Education position if Obama wins the election, he said if the opportunity was there "I would pursue it."
Bramante joined 20 other NH Republicans who endorsed Obama. They include Pamela Diamantis of Greenland and Jameson French of Portsmouth.

The socialist canard
You know the 2008 Republican campaign machine has run out of ideas when they continue to run on like wind up toys about socialism and redistribution of wealth and related anti-American activities. Do they think so little of the intelligence of the American people? It defies logic, American history and even smart politics but when its gets tough this generation of Republicans knows little more than to attack and lie and they are now left with little more than pathetic lies and slime attacks. It also creates hilarious intellectual turn arounds and moments of splendid hypocrisy -- such as when you can cue the playback machine and see John McCain himself defending a progressive tax system in 2000 ("When you reach a certain level of comfort, there's nothing wrong with paying a little more," he told a college student who was concerned about, yes you guessed it, socialism.) Even better, McCain 2008 is trashing the progressive legacy of his hero Theodore Roosevelt who was, yes, quite the progressive tax devotee.
This idea bankruptcy is sad because McCain has an active, curious and historically-appreciative mind and he must know this is pure bunk. At least Barack Obama is honest about his plan to raise the top rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent to pay for tax cuts to the middle class. Actually it's not even Obama's plan -- those tax rates will go into effect anyway when the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010. But this socialist canard harped on by McCain, Sarah Palin and late comers to the party like self-proclaimed smart guy John Sununu has turned the final stretch of the campaign into the political version of "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?" They are hoping that most voters aren't.

John Sununu: Socialist crime fighter

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:55:01 -0500

In the latest chapter of Republican Sen. John Sununu's blowing with the political winds, the engineer is now turned economic system expert (and latched onto to John McCain's campaign spin) by labeling Barack Obama's tax plan "socialism" in a Washington Post article. This logic is just too rich. Obama "thinks government has a responsibility to take taxes from one person to give it to someone else," Sununu said to reporter Alec MacGillis. "There is a difference between raising taxes that you need to provide a strong national defense and raising taxes so that you can give that money to someone else. Taking money from one person or group or industry in order to give it to someone else is socialism." If that is the case, then Sununu is either a fool or the biggest socialist of them all given his passionate advocacy of Bush's tax cuts -- which after all gave massive tax cuts to the wealthy while the "someone else" (the rest of us) were left with crumbs. It's also a croc because he loved those tax cuts so much he couldn't tamper with them to pay for national defense and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. After 12 years in Congress, what does Sununu think they do there but mostly make decisions about resdistributing the wealth of American taxpayers?
Next chapter: Communist pod people will take over the country if Jeanne Shaheen and Barack Obama win.

Parallel universes with seven days to go

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 08:22:41 -0500

While Barack Obama unveiled his "closing argument" speech in Canton, Ohio yesterday, John McCain was in Ohio as well on a Halloween-related mission -- scare the hell out of voters that an Obama presidency will lead to a liberal-dominated epoch of darkness and despair for Joe the Plumbers everywhere. That pretty much says everything about the mind sets of the candidates and their campaigns.

Pollstergeist
Go figure the new polls -- Marist and Rasmussen have the NH prez race with Obama at five and four points while UNH/WMUR tracking poll has it at a 16-point lead (Pollster has an average of 8.6 percent lead for Obama). In the always entertaining Senate race, the UNH/WMUR poll also has Dem Jeanne Shaheen up by 49 to 38 percent for GOP incumbent John Sununu and in the 1st CD Dem incumbent Carol Shea-Porter is up by eight points (48-40) over GOPer Jeb Bradley.

Clinton double take

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 08:30:26 -0500

NH will get a double Clinton dose in the final eight days of the election. Sen. Hillary Clinton will be in the state tomorrow with stops in Manchester, Pelham and Dover (noon at the McConnell Center) to campaign for Senate candidate and former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and Barack Obama. Former President Bill Clinton might be in the state doing similar duty on Sunday, Nov. 2. In more invasion of the surrogates news, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will be in Portsmouth tomorrow to host at an invitation-only roundatable for Obama with military families.

McCain's Granite State Blues
Walter Shapiro of Salon has a smart take on why John McCain is in so much trouble in NH.

Poller coaster

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 11:32:06 -0500

Of all the stunning state and poll numbers of late , the UNH/Boston Globe presidential poll for NH today was an eye-opener -- Barack Obama 54 percent to John McCain 39 percent. According to the poll, McCain has been hurt -- and Obama helped -- by the economic concerns of the voters, his negative campaigning, an unpopular President Bush and his vice presidential choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Read the entire poll here, including the exact questions asked.

Republicans: Meet iceberg?
The British press is having a field day with this election and have now started focusing in on GOP turning on itself -- driven by fears of a potentially strong Obama victory. The Telegraph has a lively piece today on a brewing GOP civil war.

Weld joins the Obamaicans

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:50:21 -0500

The NH Obama campaign just announced that former Massachusetts Republican Gov. William Weld will announce his endorsement of Barack Obama at 11 a.m. today in Salem. "Senator Obama is a once-in-a-lifetime candidate who will transform our politics and restore America's standing in the world," Weld said in a statement. This is a unique turnaround because the moderate Weld supported Mitt Romney during the Republican presidential primary. I don't see much of a connection between Romney and Obama. In addition to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Weld joins former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson, former Bush White House press secretary Scott McClellan and others in forming a growing Republicans for Obama coaltiion.

Yes, Virginia, Republican voter fraud does exist

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:43:26 -0500

I've been under the flu weather for the past few days but I didn't forget my recent friend "WhyisHeraldsobiased" who is still on the ACORN threat to democracy hunt -- and rebutted me by saying that Republicans don't do this sort of voter reigistration gamesmanship. Well, it took me all of a 20-second Goggle search to find that yes, a Republican can be arrested and charged for voter registration fraud. According to the Los Angeles Times on Monday: "The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario over the weekend on suspicion of voter registration fraud. State and local investigators allege that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that all signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California. His firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM, collects petition signatures and registers voters in California and other states."
There was more -- "Jacoby's arrest by state investigators and the Ontario Police Department late Saturday came after dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by people employed by YPM. The voters said YPM workers tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters." If true this was a nice touch. And like ACORN workers, there was money to mined for registering new voters. "The firm was paid $7 to $12 for every Californian it registered as a member of the GOP."

If Mr. Jacoby is guilty, he's a money-grubbing fool like the ACORN workers who wanted to line their pocket with phony registrations. But please spare me lectures about this massive subversion of Democracy. Even John McCain and Sarah Palin have begun to pipe down about the ACORN scam that wasn't -- mostly because they know it was pure BS to begin with.

McCain's last stand
I couldn't make it to Manchester yesterday to see John McCain in possibly his last campaign stop in New Hampshire. but like John Dickerson of Slate, I wonder: what was he doing here?

Hillary in NH next week

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:25:25 -0500

In a conference call with reporters a short while ago, Sen. Hillary Clinton said will return to the Granite State next week to campaign for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (details to come). NH was the site of Clinton's comeback win in January's presidential primary. After campaigning with Obama yesterday in Florida, she was in Omaha, Neb. today where one of that Red State's four electoral votes could be up for grabs. Talking in advance of Sen. John McCain's stop in NH tomorrow, she thanked NH Obama campaign volunteers for their work "on the front lines of the election" and encouraged them "don't get complacent and don't read the polls." As for McCain, she said he represented "more of the same failed Bush policies."

The McCain campaign just announced that former N.J. Gov. Christime Todd Whitman will campaign for McCain in Portsmouth Thursday.

The voter fraud con job
This post is for my new comment fan "WhyIsHeraldSoBiased" who accused me of being an "apologist" for ACORN and, we must proceed logically on this, a supporter of widespread voter fraud -- or at least the hysterical apperance of it. See how truly cowardly some Republican operatives are when reporters call their bluff on this. (Of course, this comes from the folks at Talking Points Memo, who no doubt like me, are dangerous liberal "apologists" for voter fraud, Obama socialism and William Ayers.)
RNC On New Mexico "Voter Fraud": Never Mind
By Zachary Roth - October 20, 2008
As if you needed any more evidence that the Republican effort to tout voter fraud is less about legitimate claims and more about a political agenda, consider this sequence of events:
Last week, as we noted at the time, the New Mexico GOP had publicly claimed that 28 people voted fraudulently in the Democratic primary, held in June, for a local race.
Then this morning, the RNC sent out a press release announcing a 3pm conference call with reporters "on the recent developments in New Mexico regarding ACORN."
But at 11am, ACORN -- the community organizing group that Republicans have been trying lately to turn into a voter fraud boogeyman -- held a conference call of its own, asserting that local election officials had confirmed that the 28 people in question, mostly low-income Latinos, were valid voters.
So here at TPMmuckraker, we wondered what the RNC's response to this would be. And on the 3pm call, we asked party spokesman Danny Diaz.
Diaz dodged the question. He talked about an incident with ACORN in Washington state, then referred us to an October 9th Wall Street Journal story, which did not address the allegation made last week by the state GOP about fraudulent voting in the Democratic primary. (Instead, it reported that the FBI had opened a preliminary investigation into thousands of fraudulent registration forms submitted in an area near an ACORN office.)
When we tried to follow up, Diaz cut us off and shifted the discussion toward a general attack on ACORN for submitting fraudulent registrations.
In other words, it looks like the RNC had scheduled a call to tout evidence of voter fraud -- not voter registration fraud, mind you, but actual voter fraud -- being perpetrated by ACORN in New Mexico. But when ACORN appeared to come up with compelling evidence that no such fraud had occurred, the RNC held the call anyway, simply shifting the focus to other vague allegations against ACORN -- then refused to address the New Mexico situation when asked.
Of course this is a joke when put in context but then this has always been about whipping up fear and anxiety about an election being stolen -- and in the same league with the Limbaugh-induced fantasy of Obama as a Communist/terrorist/anti-American in disguise.

Endorsements, awards, and protests
*- The Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire, one of the state's most active unions, will formally endorse 1st District Democratic Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter for reelection today and hold events in Manchester, Laconia & Rochester. On Monday, Shea-Porter was in Portsmouth to receive the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard's Metal Trades Council endorsement.
* - NH Republican Sen. John Sununu received the National Association of Manufacturers Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence. The NAM Award honors federal lawmakers whose voting records have consistently supported manufacturing in America. Sen. Sununu’s record was an impressive 85 percent, the press release said.
* - In advance of John McCain's visit to Manchester tomorrow, Granite State Progress will lead a coalition of voters and other groups to McCain's campaign office in Concord today to offer, GSP said in a press release, this piece of advice: "Clean Up Your Campaign, John McCain!"
"McCain's decision to use negative robo-calls has drawn the ire of voters across New Hampshire," said Zandra Rice Hawkins, director of Granite State Progress. "But the dirty politics of the McCain campaign have been building steam for some time. These misleading phone calls are only the latest in a long line of dirty attacks, and they have got to stop."

Robocall blowback & ACORN paranoia

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:04:00 -0500

As he observed while making his endorsement of Barack Obama on Sunday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell isn't the only Republican turned off by the ugly turn of the campaign, including the nationwide blitz of nasty automatic McCain campaign robocalls that have also hit New Hampshire and Maine -- The NH Obama campaign has put forth some former NH Republicans and McCain supporters who are saying "thanks but no thanks" to the tactics and McCain's candidacy. One of those is Maxine Morse of Rye who said in a press release Friday, "As a former supporter and active volunteer of John McCain's in 2000, I have to say I'm disappointed to get these calls from his campaign. The man I supported would have never conducted his campaign this way as he always took the high road. This is such a switch from the McCain I knew and is one of the many reasons I’m supporting Barack Obama for president.”

While stumping for Obama in the state on Saturday, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts then hit Sen John Sununu for not renouncing them as Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine did in very quick fashion (she's in a tough reelection bid -- as is Sununu.) “Susan Collins, the Republican in Maine, has seen fit to publicly say she thinks they’re wrong and I call on John Sununu to break his silence and come out and tell the people of New Hampshire those calls have no place in the Granite State, they have no place in the live free or die state- none whatsoever,” Kerry said.

Who knows if these calls will scare enough people to either vote or stay away from the polls out of disgust. McCain looked somewhat anemic defending them -- in part because he must know with a little over two weeks to go he shouldn't be spending a minute defending questionable campaign tactics.

Enough about ACORN
In the past week, I've been amazed that McCain and Sarah Palin have wasted their time on the ACORN voter registration fraud fairy tale -- Palin mentioned it in passing in Dover last Wednesday and at the final debate McCain sounded like an idiot, saying the poor folks community organization "is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy." Of all the goofy things McCain has said on this year, this was one based on pure fantasy -- and designed to do little but scare people. I've heard from voters the choruses from the right-wing echo chamber but really folks, get some knowledge and some perspective -- especially take a look at the solar system difference between registration fraud (in which ACORN is more victim than criminal) and actual incidences of voter fraud at the ballot booth while conveniently ignoring the systematic GOP voter suppression program. Dahlia Lithwick of Slate has offered this fine primer separating fact from fiction. In other words, some minimum wage voter registration worker may sign up Mickey Mouse but Mickey Mouse ain't voting.