New King of Swing

Barry Bonds hit his 756th career home run last night and dethroned Hammerin' Hank Aaron as home run champ. Bonds did so in front of his home crowd in San Francisco off of Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik. Now the debate begins as to whether that record gets an asterisk or not. See the story here.

Movie Trailer: National Treasure: Book Of Secrets

Click here to watch the trailer for National Treasure: Book of Secrets. While nothing spectacular, the first one was a lot of fun and I know Ashlee and I loved it! I'm definitely going to check this movie out. All of the original cast is back including Nicholas Cage (who I generally don't enjoy too much), Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, and Jon Voight (Angelinas Jolie's estranged father). Joining them this time around is 2007 Academy Award winner Helen Mirren.

Check out the trailer here.

Iowa Caucus May Move to December!

Tomorrow, South Carolina and New Hampshire will join in announcing that both states are moving up their presidential primary dates earlier into January. This move will most likely force Iowa to move the date of the Iowa Caucus for the 2008 presidential race from January 14th, 2008 to some day before Christmas 2007. Iowa has always been protective and proud of being the first-in-the-nation state to hold a nominating contest.

While moving the Iowa caucus up a month may not change much, it will still have an impact. Moving to Demember means the caucus is now only 4 months away so campaigning will increase there. Also, on the Democratic side, it is a 3 way tie in Iowa between Clinton, Obama, and Edwards. You know...moving up the caucus is kind of exciting.

Source: Wall Street Journal

AFL-CIO Presidential Forum

The ALF-CIO held it's Democratic forum last night in Chicago moderated by MSNBC's Keith Olberman and featuring all the major Democratic contenders for president except for former Alaska senator Mike Gravel. Since this is basically the millionth Democratic debate/forum (with a million more to go), we heard a lot of the same old stuff. However, the dynamic is changing and, last night, instead of it seeming like every man and woman for him or herself...it seemed to be more of a team sport with Clinton/Biden/Dodd on one side against Obama/Edwards on another side with Richardson and Kucinich floating around.

Before that, let's talk about other things. While all the candidates did well as usual, I though last night belonged to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Rep. Dennis Kucinich. Richardson, for once, looked comfortable, had the best one liner ("My V-P would NOT be Dick Cheney"), stayed out of the bickering, and, most importantly, he wasn't boring. Dennis Kucinich...gotta love him. He's really passionate and he's the only candidate up there that actually has differing views from the rest. He did a lot better without Mike Gravel's presence. Senator Chris Dodd and Senator Joe Biden also did really well last night. Dodd sounded strong and Biden really knows how to work a crowd. Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama did well as usual with Hillary definitely sounding more presidential and experienced. She edged out Obama in his home field once again and political analysts, including Pat Buchanan, agree it was her night. John Edwards did the poorest. His desperation is shining through and he's trying to do whatever it takes to crawl back to the top.

Edwards started the bickering early on by trying to condemn Hillary for taking lobbyist money and Barack echoed Edwards' criticism. Hillary stood her ground and defended her position. Edwards was trying to capitalize on the fact that Hillary got booed at YearlyKos for lobbyist defense. Guess what Edwards? This wasn't YearlyKos. Lucky for Barack, Gravel was not there to call him out saying that Barack does indeed take money from special interest groups, even if they aren't federal lobbyists (key word there is federal). Keith Olberman did mention to Barack about him accepting money from lobbyists to which Obama went defensive very quickly. Obama and Edwards are fooling nobody. Do you really think they are getting all their money from the general public? They are the two people I have actually seen speak in person and while they are both great, charasmatic speakers....they continue to disappoint and unimpress.

This team up of Obama and Edwards continued as the two candidates attempted to paint themselves as Washington outsiders and portray the others as Washington insiders. This has been Obama's motto all along, which Edwards is now trying to hop on Obama's bandwagon. Desperate much Edwards? Hopefully, Obama and Edwards will cancel each other out because, frankly, both are starting to become very whiny and very "vote for us because we aren't with the in-crowd."

Next came the time to attack Barack Obama. As mentioned here in previous posts, Obama recently stated that we need to pull out of Iraq and go into Pakistan to get Al-Qaeda. Now he's trying to take his words back and add stuff in there by saying "only if we have actionable intelligence" and "scratch that, noone discussed nuclear weapons" after he mentioned nuclear weapons and Pakistan. To me, Obama is continuing to see that he needs to seem more experienced and more knowledgeable on foreign policy so he is doing and saying anything to get his name out there. Last night, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd came after Obama for his remarks saying that he made a mistake about his remarks about Pakistan and Biden even went on to say that "Barack said nothing new and he was just stating something (actionable intelligence) that is already policy." Basically, Biden called Obama out for copying him and for stating something that the U.S. already does but making it seem like it was a new idea. Olberman tried to get Hillary to say something in regards to Obama's statements and, while she did say that it was unwise and unpresidential, her remarks weren't as heated as those from Dodd and Biden. Hillary was able to take the high road last night and not be so on the offense due to the support she had on stage from Biden and Dodd. It was definitely a good thing for her and Dodd and Biden definitely elevated her last night. Perhaps, Dodd and Biden have struck a deal to join Hillary's cabinet and administration? Who knows. I'd love that. Anyways, Obama defended himself against Dodd, Biden, and Hillary the ONLY way he knows how....by talking about IRAQ (which wasn't even brought up). Barack tooted the "well, what's naive is all you guys voting for the Iraq war" business again. I'm so sick of this argument. Get over it Obama. You weren't in the Senate. You didn't vote for Iraq because you didn't have the chance to vote for Iraq....whether it would have been a yes or a no. The only person who truly voted against Iraq and not vote to fund it (Barack voted to fund it) was Dennis Kucinich. Same old argument, a different day. Get something new Obama...please.

That's all. Expect more bickering.

Pollspot: Battleground

A new Quinnipiac University Poll (where Leah, Rich, Ashlee, and I all were employed at one point) has released a new poll showing Hillary Clinton doing well in the Democratic primaries with a closer call for the general election should she get the nomination (God willing she will!).

A new series of Quinnipiac polls show Sen. Hillary Clinton dominating the Democratic presidential primary race in three key swing states, and narrowly leading Republicans in general election match-ups.

In Florida, Clinton is in the lead with 43%, with Sen. Barack Obama at 13%, Al Gore at 11% and John Edwards at 8%

In Ohio, Clinton leads the Democratic race with 41%, followed by 16% for Obama, 11%for Edwards and 8% for Gore

In Pennsylvania, Clinton leads the primary race with 35%, followed by 19% for Obama, 12% for Gore and 10% for Edwards

The general election is much closer with Clinton as the nominee:
In Florida, Clinton tops Giuliani 46% to 44%, flipping a 46% to 44% Giuliani lead July 23

In Ohio, Clinton ties Giuliani 43% to 43%, compared to a 44% to 42% Clinton lead July 12

In Pennsylvania, Clinton edges Giuliani 45% to 44%, compared to a 45% to 45% tie June 27 Key finding: The polls also find that Clinton "is turning around independent and Republican voters who previously viewed her negatively."

The last sentence is extremely important. She needed to turn Independents and Republicans who viewed her negatively and she's doing a great job!