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Tuesday, September 16, 2008
The more competitive arena sucking up Obama workers from Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CQPolitics this afternoon changed its rating of the U.S. Senate race in North Carolina:
While [Democratic] state Sen. Kay Hagan, their nominee, once appeared a distinct underdog to [Republican incumbent Elizabeth] Dole, there are multiple signs that this is emerging as one of the year’s key battleground races.
Because of these shifts, CQ Politics has changed its rating on the race, which was “Republican Favored,” to its tossup category of “No Clear Favorite.”
Dole herself raised some eyebrows when she decided to skip the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.
There are two reasons to make note of this.
David Plouffe, campaign manager for Barack Obama, generated local headlines last week when he said some Obama workers would be shifted out of Georgia into more competitive arenas.
North Carolina was one of the states Plouffe had in mind.
Secondly, there’s the reassuring voice of the Dole campaign.
Dole spokesman Dan McLagan …. added that Dole is doing fine in the race and the support she is receiving “absolutely would be enough” to secure victory in November. “We’ve withstood a barrage of over $3 million in negative ads from Kay Hagan and her Washington pals, and our polling shows us climbing,” he said.
Yes, he’s that Dan McLagan, former official larynx for Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue.
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‘America’s Most Wanted’ host wades into Dunwoody race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How intense are these six council races for the new city of Dunwoody?
Hot enough that, in the contest between Mallard Holliday and Robert Wittenstein, famed TV bad-guy hunter John Walsh of “America’s Most Wanted” has weighed in.
Via a robo-call to local residents. The calls went out Monday afternoon.
Apparently, Walsh and Holliday have worked together before. “Mallard Holliday and I have worked together for years, making this world safer for our children,” Walsh says in the endorsement.
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Turns out keeping your tires inflated isn’t a Democratic ruse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Five weeks ago, Republicans in Cobb County — a Marietta congressman among them — planted themselves at a gas station to mock Barack Obama’s emphasis on energy conservation.
Inflate your tires, indeed.
But with the panic over Hurricane Ike sending gasoline in Georgia well past $4 a gallon, Gov. Sonny Perdue just put out a list of things that drivers can do to lessen the impact of high gas prices and improve fuel efficiency.
Tip No. 4?
“Inflate your tires: Keeping tires properly inflated improves gas mileage.”
See the entire press release on the jump.
Simple Steps Help Georgians Conserve Fuel
Fuel Conservation to Lessen Impact of Hurricane Ike
ATLANTA - Governor Sonny Perdue today asked Georgians to help with fuel conservation in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike by taking practical steps to improve fuel efficiency.
With gasoline prices rising and crude oil supplies in the Gulf of Mexico temporarily disrupted, fuel conservation is a necessary tool to help manage the supply of fuel and reduce the impact of higher fuel costs.
“Georgians have been through this before with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and we’ll manage the temporary effects of Hurricane Ike through common sense and conservation,” said Governor Sonny Perdue. “We can all help by reducing unnecessary travel, carpooling and using mass transit, telecommuting, driving a little slower, and fueling only when low on gas.”
Some practical fuel efficiency tips for drivers include:
— Drive sensibly: Speeding, rapid acceleration (jackrabbit starts), and rapid braking lowers gas mileage.
— Choose the right vehicle: If you own more than one vehicle, drive the one that gets better gas mileage whenever possible.
— Decrease speed: Gas mileage decreases rapidly when driving more than 60 miles-per-hour.
— Avoid idling: Idling gets zero miles per gallon. Cars with larger engines typically waste more gas while idling than cars with smaller engines.
— Inflate your tires: Keeping tires properly inflated improves gas mileage.
Commute alternatives are also a useful way to conserve fuel, including telework, carpool and transit options, and flexible work schedules. More information is available about commute alternatives at www.CleanAirCampaign.com.
Fuel efficiency tips are provided by the Drive Smarter Challenge. The Drive Smarter Challenge (www.DriveSmarterChallenge.org) is a partnership between the Alliance to Save Energy and the National Association of State Energy Officials.
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On Sarah Palin: David Brooks, Carly Fiornia — and about that tanning bed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Below are the last two paragraphs in today’s column by David Brooks of the New York Times, widely judged as a well-spoken conservative:
Sarah Palin has many virtues. If you wanted someone to destroy a corrupt establishment, she’d be your woman. But the constructive act of governance is another matter. She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness.
The idea that “the people” will take on and destroy “the establishment” is a utopian fantasy that corrupted the left before it corrupted the right. Surely the response to the current crisis of authority is not to throw away standards of experience and prudence, but to select leaders who have those qualities but not the smug condescension that has so marked the reaction to the Palin nomination in the first place.
If you’ve lost Brooks, you’ve lost someone important.
National blogs are also passing around an audio clip of an interview with former Hewlitt Packard CEO Carly Fiornia. Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic says the source is KTRS radio in St. Louis, Mo.
The sound is below. Here’s the transcript:
KTRS: “I want to ask you a question about experience — [as] somebody who has worked her way up from a secretary to run Hewlett Packard. Sarah Palin — John McCain obviously thinks she has the experience to become president of the United States. Do you think she has the experience to run a major company like Hewlett Packard?”
FIORINA: “No, I don’t. But you know what? That’s not what she’s running for.”
Now, on the same topic: some of you who prefer your politics at lower altitudes have mentioned news that, in one of her first acts as governor of Alaska, Palin installed a tanning bed in the state mansion. Paid for the bed herself.
An account of this first appeared yesterday on something called the Narco News Bulletin. The same info has since shown up on web sites operated by the L.A. Times and Politico.com.
Comparisons to John Edwards’ famous $400 haircut were immediate.
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Republican-leaning group goes after Chambliss, Isakson for ‘Gang of Ten’ efforts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson are catching flak from a Republican-leaning group for their participation in the “Gang of 10” bipartisan energy bill.
American Future Fund has taken out ads in eight Georgia newspapers, including this one, and has a radio spot up on 18 stations — including WSB and WGST. The ads criticize the limits the “Gang of Ten” proposal keeps on offshore drilling in most areas of the country. The group also interprets the proposed removal of a $30 billion tax credit for oil companies, used to pay for some environmental initiatives, as a tax hike.
Click here to see the newspaper ad. Click on the box below to listen to the radio ad.
American Future Fund is Iowa-based, with strong ties to Mitt Romney. Fund President Nicole Schlinger ran Romney’s straw poll effort during the Iowa primaries.
The group began business this spring with a TV spot in Minnesota, coming down on the side of Republican incumbent Norm Coleman.
The Georgia ads mark the first time they’ve entered a fight against Republicans, spokesman Tim Albrecht said. “Just because we think it’s a flawed proposal,” he said.
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The warm and fuzzy side of Saxby Chambliss
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Despite the millions in campaign contributions he’s gathered up for his Senate re-election fight, Republican Saxby Chambliss took a beating in this space yesterday — first from Democrat Jim Martin, then Libertarian Allen Buckley.
So we’ll start off Tuesday with a warm-and-fuzzy ad the Chambliss campaign put out late last night. It’s his third TV ad, and features an endorsement from his 91-year-old mother.
“Saxby was a good boy, but he was a red-headed devil,” she says. Otherwise, the ad is filled with expository material you’ve seen before. Given its two-minute length, the spot will probably be chopped up into pieces before you see it on television:
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