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Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Barry Goldwater’s granddaughter votes early in Fulton County — for Barack Obama
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Barry Goldwater’s granddaughter voted early in Fulton County on Tuesday — for Barack Obama.
This isn’t a surprise to those who follow Arizona politics. Here’s a piece from May of this year posted on Democratic Underground.
Alison Goldwater Ross, 45, waited about an hour and a half to cast her vote at the Fulton County government center in Atlanta, for the Democratic presidential candidate.
“I’m avoiding the crowds on Election Day,” Goldwater Ross told my AJC colleague, Mary Lou Pickel.
Barry Goldwater, recognized as the founder of modern Republican conservatism and the 1964 GOP candidate for president, served 30 years in the U.S. Senate. He died in 1998, at age 89.
The Goldwaters and the McCains have a history of antagonism.
“Coming from a political family, I had insight into a lot of things,” Goldwater Ross said. Of McCain, she said, “I don’t have respect for him.”
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A Freedom Watch ad for Saxby Chambliss
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My AJC colleague Ben Smith says that Freedom Watch, a conservative group playing on the Republican side of U.S. Senate races across the country, has put down about $197,000 for 108 spots on WSB-TV between now and the election.
The video below is probably the group’s first ad in Georgia, at least on behalf Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss. Posted on YouTube two hours ago, it’s designed to bolster Chambliss’ standing as a someone who’s strong on middle-class issues.
TV attacks by Democrat Jim Martin have all focused on the unsettled economy.
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The ‘Joe the Plumber’ campaign comes to Roswell
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Republican defense of Joe Wurzelbacher of Ohio, the instant cultural hero and man of pipe dreams, spread to Roswell on Tuesday.
One of the curious things about American politics is the chasm that jumps up when certain words are introduced.
Take Joe the Plumber, who on Oct. 12 confronted Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama over the issue of taxes.
Say “plumber” to a Democrat, and he hears “blue collar.” As a profession in Georgia, plumbing was worth an average $47,350 in 2007 — a good living, but not the stuff of early retirement.
Say “plumber” to a Republican, and he hears “small business.” In fact ,the McCain campaign has used Joe the Plumber as a rallying cry. This e-mail was sent out this week by its Georgia operation:
We’d like to activate as many small business owners as possible to speak out on Obama’s plans to drag small business owners and their employees down. Please reach out to your friends, family, and neighbors to recruit new Joe’s. Thank your local baker, the couple at your corner store, and even your plumber for their hard work and dedication, and invite them to share their story with us at gajoetheplumber@johnmccain.com.
About 50 self-described “Joes” gathered at Chaplin’s restaurant near the Roswell Square on Tuesday. Nearly all hammered on the phrase used by Obama in his discussion with Wurzelbacher: “Spread the wealth.” All accused Obama of socialism or something like it.
Jason Thompson, a Lawrenceville attorney, declared that his one-man office “would most certainly be undermined by Barack Obama’s plan to redistribute wealth,” which he called “a socialistic system disguised as tax relief for the middle class.”
But in these confusing times, none mentioned the word “Bush” or noted that, like Obama, their candidate supported a $700 billion program that has resulted in the slight nationalization of major U.S. banks.
Many focused on that $250,000 figure used by Obama — Americans underneath that ceiling will benefit from a tax cut, the Democrat has promised.
Sherry Blue, founder and co-owner of Cohutta Contracting in Jasper, testified that an Obama administration would mean bankruptcy for her.
“In a good year, which means one of every three or four, we might just get above the $250,000 figure,” Blue said. “The rest of the time, we make less or, like this year in a recession, actually lose money.”
Elect Obama, she said, and “we literally will have to close our doors.”
Barry Schmidt, owner of a small utility construction company in Grayson, the point that a tax hike for those who make $250,000 or more is a tax on ambition.
Schmidt said he doesn’t earn $250,000 a year. But Obama’s middle-class tax cut “would take away the incentive of going in that direction,” he said.
One thing missing from the Roswell event: Plumbers. Honest-to-goodness laborers who provided much of Ronald Reagan’s support in the 1980s.
“When you’re in a really small business, the distinction between being a business owner and someone out in the field begins to blur,” said John Sours, one of the event organizers and a McCain activist.
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Disrespectful treatment of a flag, or not?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Shades of the lapel-pin debate. The campaign of Barack Obama passed us the video below, taken of John McCain’s troops allegedly breaking camp in Missouri on Monday.
It shows a huge American flag dropping unceremoniously to the ground, and a lone worker beginning the process of packing it up.
So far as we can tell, the video was first posted on Americablog:
“It matters to us because it matters to them,” writes John Aravosis, a D.C.-based author, political consultant, and — needless to say — Democrat. “If John McCain, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman and the rest of the Republicans are going to walk around boasting about how they’re better Americans than Democrats, better Americans than Barack Obama, then their party needs to stop treating the American flag like a used Kleenex.”
The Insider awaits your response.
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A pairing of Vietnam vets: Jim Webb takes up for Jim Martin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Virginia), a Vietnam veteran, was in Atlanta on Tuesday morning to make a brief outdoor appearance for Democrat Jim Martin, another veteran of that conflict, in the tightening Georgia race for U.S. Senate.
Webb spoke at the Pete Wheeler Georgia War Memorial near the state Capitol in front of about 50 union members and veterans, some carrying signs that read: “Georgia Veterans for Obama.” My AJC colleague Jim Tharpe was there.
For six years, Democrats here and in Washington have carried a grudge against Saxby Chambliss, the Republican incumbent, who beat Max Cleland in 2002 — in part with a TV ad that questioned the commitment of Cleland, a triple amputee and Vietnam vet, to national security. Chambliss, who is roughly the same age, received a deferment from military service.
But Webb backed away from any pointed criticism of Chambliss. Both sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “The political evaluation of Sen. Chambliss is something the people of Georgia should be making,” Webb said, when specifically asked about that 2002 TV ad.
The ex-marine instead focused his endorsement of Martin, who served in a non-combat assignment during the Vietnam War. And yet there was this:
“[Martin] will not have to go to committee meetings to know what it’s like to serve in the military,” Webb said.
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This election may spark another confrontation between Thurbert Baker and Republicans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Fulton County Daily Report today says a legal fight is brewing between Attorney General Thurbert Baker, a Democrat, and the GOP-dominated State Election Board.
Says the newspaper:
A budding dispute between the State Election Board and Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker could lead to new litigation over the issues that drove Perdue v. Baker, the 2003 Georgia Supreme Court ruling that favored the AG in a dispute with the governor over who controlled the state’s litigation decisions.
J. Randolph “Randy” Evans, general counsel for the state Republican Party and a member of the election board, said Baker has twice refused an order from the Republican-dominated board to inform the Democratic Party of Georgia that its continued challenge to the state’s voter ID law constitutes frivolous litigation.
Baker’s office would not comment on whether it has refused such a request, citing attorney-client privilege. “While Mr. Evans may have an affinity for political muckraking and legal over-reaching,” said Baker spokesman Russ Willard, “our office will continue to govern its actions based on what is legally appropriate and in the best interests of the people of Georgia.”
Here’s a related fact to chew over: Only last week, Baker announced the formation of an “election task force” and a voter hotline — (404) 651-9303 — to field questions from citizens who have election-related legal questions. Secretary of State Karen Handel, the Republican who oversees state elections, offers many of the same services.
In other words, Baker, who serves as counselor to both Handel and the State Election Board, is offering himself up as a first responder, and first arbiter, over violations of election law. We live in interesting times.
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On why Obama might come to Georgia before Nov. 4
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PBS’s “The News Hour with Jim Lehrer” had an interesting bit last night that touched strongly on the U.S. Senate race in Georgia.
It included the observation that Democratic Barack Obama has every reason to make a quick appearance in Georgia during the closing days of the presidential contest.
The exchange involved PBS’ Gwen Ifill, Amy Walter of The Hotline, and Stuart Rothenberg of The Rothenberg Political Report. The three had just finished talking about the woes of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell up in Kentucky:
Ifill: In Georgia, another big state that everybody’s watching. That wasn’t supposed to be competitive, either.
Rothenberg: No, at least with the McConnell race, we figured that Mitch McConnell was going to draw a tough Democratic opponent. We knew that he had somebody who could raise and spend money.
In Georgia, the Democrats had a primary with a bunch of what most people say are second-tier candidates. They nominated a former state rep named Jim Martin who had really no money, no statewide name ID, in a Republican state.
This is the best example, it seems to me, of the Democratic wave that’s crashing even more strongly down-ballot than at the presidential level.
Saxby Chambliss, just because he’s an incumbent in a state with a significant African-American population, and a substantial number of white voters who will vote and have voted Democratic in the past — suddenly, Saxby Chambliss is in major, major trouble against a candidate nobody knows.
Ifill: So even if the presidential Democrat does not win, this could still turn at the Senate level?
Walter: Absolutely, absolutely. That’s why you’re hearing about Obama going into some of these states. If he goes into Kentucky, if he goes into Georgia, it may not ultimately put him over the top but it could be enough to help the candidates down-ballot.
Last night’s PBS broadcast also featured an interview with Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate for president. Click here to listen to the podcast — which will spare you the pain of the former Georgia congressman’s taste for striped suits.
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Jim Webb comes to town, and an Ode to Joe — but not by Beethoven
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’ve got dueling press conferences at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday. In Roswell, a “Joe The Plumber Coalition of Small Business Owners” have will take up the cause of Joe Wurzelbacher of Ohio. FYI, plumbers and pipe-fitters earned an average of $47,350 in 2007.
But in downtown Atlanta, at the veterans memorial near the state Capitol, U.S. Sen. Jim Web (D-Va.), something of an advocate for the Celtic nation in Appalachia, is to take up the cause of Jim Martin, the Democratic challenger to Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss.
The Insider will be at one. Or the other.
Hard to say which one.
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