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Thursday, September 18, 2008
Poll positions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hmmm. Of course, this morning 11Alive put the presidential race at 16 points in Georgia, in favor of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
But InsiderAdvantage, in the late Thursday hours, said McCain has already withered in anticipation of a November victory.
Says IA: 51 percent for McCain versus 43 percent for Democrat Barack Obama. The IA poll has a margin of error of 4.3 percent, plus or minus.
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Democrats call for special session — and say that a veterans’ home should have a higher priority than ‘Go Fish’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Democratic leaders of both the state House and Senate on Thursday called for a special session of the General Assembly to pull the state back from what they called “the brink of fiscal disaster.”
The call for an unscheduled meeting, to oversee budget cuts, comes days after reports that state revenue in August was down 7 percent from last year.
The Democratic leaders in the two chambers, Sen. Robert Brown of Macon and Rep. DuBose Porter of Dublin, said across-the-board budget cuts were forcing those at the top of the state’s bureaucracies to make illogical decisions.
In a joint press release, Brown and Porter said:
“Perhaps most galling, when our country is fighting two wars, Governor Perdue believes it is acceptable to evict 81 veterans from the Georgia War Veterans Home in Milledgeville, for a savings of $2.7 million. Meanwhile, projects such as a $7.3 million horse park expansion at the Agri-Center in Perry and $19 million for the Go-Fish program, both in the Governor’s home county, continue to move forward.
“These people volunteered to serve their country and put their lives on the line for our freedom, but instead we are going to let them go homeless while we make boat ramps and horse shows a priority during a budget crisis. Those are not the values of Georgia’s citizens or Georgia Democrats,” Brown said. “This is no longer just a fiscal issue. This is a moral issue.”
The only off-note can be found in this post below, from a press conference Thursday with state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, vice chairman at the state Democratic party, who apparently didn’t get the memo:
On budget cuts, Thurmond said he has no problem with Gov. Sonny Perdue’s call for 6 percent, across-the-board cuts.
“I believe Governor Perdue’s strategy so far is the proper one,” he said.
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Thurmond on Obama in Georgia: ‘He has a chance.’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Michael Thurmond, the state labor commissioner, was the focus of a press conference on Thursday, where he talked talked about the Georgia’s stark unemployment numbers and budget cuts.
But the formal purpose of his appearance was to tie these economic hard times to the presidential prospects of Democrat Barack Obama.
With Obama down 16 points in Georgia — see the 11Alive poll item below — Thurmond said this week’s meltdown in Washington should give the Democrat an opportunity to climb back into voters’ good graces.
“Americans feel more comfortable with Democrats and Senator Obama on economic and domestic policy,” he said.
Was Thurmond bold enough to predict an Obama win?
“No. I’m not that bold. But he has a chance. And all you can ask for in politics is a chance,” the labor commissioner said.
On budget cuts, Thurmond said he has no problem with Gov. Sonny Perdue’s call for 6 percent, across-the-board cuts.
“I believe governor perdue’s strategy so far is the proper one,” he said.
The labor commissioner said that the problem is that his department’s workload increases in hard times. Thurmond said his 4,000-worker staff will adjust by shifting to a four-day, 10-hour work week that will allow them — by using flexible hours — to keep department offices open longer by one hour each day.
“No. 1, it’s going to help my employees save gas. This is important, because they’re not getting a 2.5 percent [cost-of-living] increase,” Thurmond said.
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Republican Angela Speir says Democrat Jim Powell should replace her on PSC
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Specifically citing the elimination of the state office that advocates for consumers in utility cases, Republican out-going Public Service Commissioner Angela Speir on Thursday endorsed Democrat Jim Powell to replace her.
Powell faces Republican Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, who has served as chairman of the utility board.
The Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs, in response to Sonny Perdue’s demand for across-the-board 6 percent budget cuts, defunded the Consumers Utility Counsel.
When she was elected six years ago, Speir was an unknown Republican who won the office — but spent hardly any money on her campaign.
But in an interview with the AJC’s Margaret Newkirk, Speir — who declined to run for a second term — said the election of the Democrat in the race “is important. It’s really important, especially with the elimination of the Consumers Utility Counsel and energy prices skyrocketing.”
“If you look at Bubba McDonald’s [financial] disclosure, it reads like a Who’s Who list of utility lobbyists and lawyers. If Georgia consumers want to have a voice that is not beholden to the utilities, then I firmly believe that Jim Powell is the best candidate,” Speir said.
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11Alive: Obama trailing McCain in Georgia by 16 points
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Yet another poll shows Republican presidential candidate John McCain with a commanding lead over Democrat Barack Obama in Georgia.
The new survey — commissioned by WXIA-TV (11Alive) in Atlanta and WMAZ-TV in Macon, and conducted by SurveyUSA — puts McCain at 57 percent , with Obama trailing at 41 percent.
The same poll puts the U.S. Senate race thusly: Republican incumbent Saxby Chambless at 53 percent; Democrat Jim Martin at 36 percent; and Libertarian Allen Buckley at 8 percent.
The fortunes of Chambliss and McCain are linked. This is from the 11Alive analysis of the survey:
The poll shows that McCain holds a 3-to-1 lead among white voters in Georgia, while Obama has a 23-to-1 lead among black Georgia voters.
The poll shows McCain with a double-digit lead among both men and women, among those of all age groups and educational levels across the rest of the state of Georgia outside of Metro Atlanta.
According to the polling data, Obama’s strength in Georgia comes among moderates, where he is up 5 in Metro Atlanta. Obama also leads by 5 points across Metro Atlanta in general.
Among pro-choice voters, Obama’s lead stretches to 14 points. Among lower-income voters, the two candidates are tied. Among voters who are focused on the volatile economic situation facing the nation, Obama trails McCain by 3 points, but among voters who think alternative sources of energy are more important than off-shore drilling, Obama leads McCain by a 2-to-1 margin.
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Biden and the abortion issue comes to Georgia Catholics
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A reader has sent us a copy of a flyer distributed Sunday at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Macon that goes after Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden for his statements on abortion and public policy.
To read it, click here.
If the same message is being distributed in other parishes, we’d be interested in hearing about it.
Biden, a Cathloic, personally opposes abortion, but in a “Meet the Press” session two Sundays ago, the Delaware senator said he doesn’t believe in “telling everyone else in the country that they have to accept my religiously based view that it’s a moment of conception.”
See for yourself below:
The flyer handed out at St. Joseph’s was penned by Charles Chaput, the archbishop of Denver, and James Conley, an auxiliary bishop in Denver.
Chaput was one of several Catholic clegymen who rebuked Biden after the “Meet the Press” program.
Below are excerpts of the flyer handed out at St. Joseph’s:
Although NBC probably didn’t intend it, “Meet the Press” has become a national window on the flawed moral reasoning of some Catholic public servants.
On Aug. 24, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, describing herself as an ardent, practicing Catholic, misrepresented the overwhelming body of Catholic teaching against abortion to the show’s nationwide audience….
On Sept. 7, Sen. Joseph Biden compounded the problem to the same “Meet the Press” audience.
Senator Biden is a man of distinguished public service. That doesn’t excuse poor logic or bad facts. Asked when life begins, Senator Biden said that, “It’s a personal and private issue.” But in reality, modern biology knows exactly when human life begins: at the moment of conception….
As the senator said in his interview, he has opposed public funding for abortions. To his credit, he also backed a successful ban on partial-birth abortions. But his strong support for the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade and the false “right” to abortion it enshrines, can’t be excused by any serious Catholic.
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Red meat for the eminent domain crowd
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Today’s AJC article on the state Department of Transportation’s $456 million deficit includes the fact that the department has been seizing rights-of-way to no purpose:
In one case, for a project on Ga. 316 and Ga. 81 in 1999, DOT told a man it needed land that he had bought less than six months before, intending to build a gas station.
It usually takes years for a project to arrive at the construction stage, and the man asked DOT if it would let him build his station and make what profit he could until the agency was ready to build its ramps.
DOT refused, saying the project was “imminent,” and condemned his land.
“Eight years later, GDOT continues to have no formal construction plans for the project and the project is not on GDOT’s Long Range Program,” according to the audit.
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Jack Kingston offers a little pinch of reality to leaven the rhetoric
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Railings by Republican presidential candidate John McCain against earmarks in the federal budget border on hyperbole, certain members of his own party admit.
This is on Politico.com:
Rep. Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican and member of the Appropriations Committee, says he understands McCain’s desire to crack down on wasteful spending and kill the latest “bridge to nowhere.”
But if a McCain administration suddenly started shooting down every spending bill, lawmakers on both sides might revolt.
“The realistic outlook is for a great reduction in earmarks and a real discussion about earmarks,” Kingston said.
Because Congress has failed again to finish its spending bills on time, the new president will likely receive a new omnibus spending bill just after taking office. If McCain makes good on his campaign promise, “he could veto it, and we’d probably override” the veto, Kingston said.
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