Colorado

Quinnipiac U. 7/14-22. MoE 4.5% (6/17-24 results)

These Q-poll numbers are creating a bit of a panic today, which is a bit overwrought and unwarranted, even if the odd number here and there doesn't look good for us. In the case of Colorado, it's always nice when the numbers show our guy in the lead, but most polling has shown this race within the MoE, and this poll is no different. This is what's known as a "battleground", and as such, is inherently, by definition, tight.

I mean, look at the Pollster.com composite score on this race: Obama 46.2, McCain 45.5. That is tight, and should remain so for a while.

Michigan

Quinnipiac U. 7/14-22. MoE 4% (6/17-24 results)

Float within the MoE. These numbers are better than those of local firm EPIC-MRA released yesterday, which gave Obama a narrow 43-41 lead. This poll actually widens the composite a bit, up to 47 Obama, 40 McCain.

Lots of rumors floating around that Romney has the leg up in the GOP veep sweepstakes because of his ability to "deliver" Michigan.

Minnesota

Rasmussen. 7/22. MoE 4.5% (7/10 results)

Quinnipiac U. 7/14-22. MoE 2.8% (6/17-24 results)

Not much change in Rasmussen's numbers, but a huge McCain gain in that Q-poll that has everyone freaking out. Rather than cherry pick the favorable polls and try to explain away the bad ones, use this as a reminder that every state is competitive until the fat lady has sung. You get complacent at your own peril.

But the composite poll of polls still gives Obama a comfortable lead -- Obama 50.2, McCain 37.7. No need to panic, but also no need to slack off.

New Hampshire

Rasmussen. 7/23. MoE 4.5% (6/18 results)

This poll seems to ratify yesterday's ARG poll showing things getting tighter in the Granite State. Both ARG and Ras had given Obama a double-digit lead in their previous polls, and both show it much tighter today.

The composite is at Obama 48, McCain 41.9, but I think it's fair to conclude that this state is likely a bit tighter than that.

Wisconsin

Quinnipiac U. 7/14-22. MoE 4.5% (6/17-24 results)

More float within the MoE. Wisconsin remains surprisingly strong for Obama given how tough it's been to hold the last two presidential years. The composite remains safely in double digits -- Obama 50.6, McCain 38.3.

Field (PDF). 7/8-14. Likely voters. MoE 3.9% (5/17-26)

There is no more accurate poll in California than Field, so these are good numbers. The fact that the "no" vote (always an advantage in these initiatives) is already over 50 percent virtually ensures that as long as the "no" camp runs a vigorous campaign, this hateful ballot initiative will be defeated. Fact is, same-sex marriages are taking place up and down the Golden State, and there has been one large collective shrug from the broader public. It's just not as scary as the haters would have us believe. Rather, it's kind of inspiring.

Update: Got the right link up there now.

• Who is this guy and why is he so whiny? He was "frightened and intimidated" by the "angry left blog Daily Kos"? What a wuss.
• Wondering what the Sarah Palin scandal is all about? Here's a good roundup of the affair that has knocked a Republican governor once sporting an over-90 percent approval rating back to earth..
• Comments are scary. Yup, that means you.

  To add, these stories always start with sensational ledes about "death threats", as though it's those crazy liberals or whatnot that engage in that kind of idiotic behavior. Here's an email I got a couple of days ago:

  killaliberal@yahoo.com to markos
  show details Jul 22 (2 days ago)

  addresses are being compiled of all kos personnel...once this has been done they will be targeted for execution... death to all KOS.

  Is that a "death threat" or just a George Bush-loving fringe wanker trying to be tough hacking away at his cheetos-stained keyboard? Having grown up in El Salvador and seen what real political violence looks like, this is all pretty lame. In El Salvador, dissenters were actually assassinated. It wasn't all idle threats. And so far, this country hasn't descended into that dark abyss.

• The number of registered Democrats in the 29 party registration states has grown by 700,000. The number of registered Republicans has dropped by 1 million. That's a 1.7 million net gain in our direction.
• Colbert dedicated most of his show to rapper Nas and the Color of Change petition on Fox's racism.
• Yeah. Old people tend to be stubborn too.
• Obama's small donors outraise McCain.
• I had to look at this for a great deal of time to figure out that it wasn't parody.
• Larry Sabato and a couple of co-authors, over at his place, say there is no toss-up.

  While no election outcome is guaranteed and McCain's prospects could improve over the next three and a half months, virtually all of the evidence that we have reviewed--historical patterns, structural features of this election cycle, and national and state polls conducted over the last several months--point to a comfortable Obama/Democratic party victory in November. Trumpeting this race as a toss-up, almost certain to produce another nail-biter finish, distorts the evidence and does a disservice to readers and viewers who rely upon such punditry. Again, maybe conditions will change in McCain's favor, and if they do, they should also be accurately described by the media. But current data do not justify calling this election a toss-up [...]

  Barack Obama is not a national hero like Dwight Eisenhower, and George Bush is no Harry Truman. But if history is any guide, and absent a dramatic change in election fundamentals or an utter collapse of the Obama candidacy, John McCain is likely to suffer the same fate as Adlai Stevenson.

• As Ford posts yet another crazy-ass quarterly loss ($8.7 billion), it makes one wonder how much better the US auto industry (and its unions) would be doing if they had let the government raise CAFE standards, huh? The government could've bailed them out of this mess.

  And it makes one wonder how much better that industry would be doing if they hadn't so viciously opposed Bill and Hillary Clinton's 1993 health care initiative. In 2004, GM spent over $5 billion in health care costs -- a number that is likely significantly larger today. That's billions that would be off its balance sheet had they not opposed universal healthcare.

  Lots of industries may shoot themselves in the foot, but none more so than the auto industry. It truly deserves the comeuppance it is getting (and it has gotten a healthy assist from its unions). The people who don't deserve it -- of course -- are its workers, who are getting screwed.

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 7/21-23. Likely voters. MoE 4.5% (No trend lines)

A couple of weeks ago, Rasmussen had the race tied 43-43, and some wondered whether it might be an outlier. Obama campaigned in the state over the Fourth of July holiday, suggesting their own internals showed a race in the cards, but Ras had offered the only recent public poll in the state. This R2K poll now confirms the fact that yes, North Dakota is a bona fide battleground.

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 7/21-23. Likely voters. MoE 4% (5/22 results)

Looks like float within the MoE. This one is tight. Note, there was a methodological difference in this poll from the last -- we omitted the party ID of the candidates since the ballot will omit them. Ultimately, it seemed to make little difference.

And check out the presidential:

Obama is getting 19 percent of the white vote in this poll, just shy of the 20 percent DavidNYC identified as key for winning the state. The second part of that equation is to boost African American turnout in the state to 40 percent of the total vote. In this poll, African Americans represent 37 percent of the vote. The undecided African American vote -- 15 percent (!) -- will come down for Obama. Now it's a question of turning them out in historic numbers.

Full crosstabs below the fold.

Race tracker wiki: MS-Sen

New numbers coming in:

With Obama now firmly in charge of the DNC, and directing his big-dollar donors in its direction, the DNC is finally competitive with the RNC. Combined, the Obama/DNC combo is now near parity with the McCain/RNC pairing. That didn't take long to close the gap. This month, the GOP gets left in the dust, and given that their current heavy spending isn't making much of a difference, that truly is a whiff of desperation you're smelling from the McCain camp.

Meanwhile, our two party committees are crushing their counterparts. The NRCC, in particular, is in woeful straits, and won't be in any position to provide its members or candidates any help whatsoever. Remember -- this is the month that included their big annual Bush fundraiser. They ain't got any more of those on tap.

The NRSC on the other hand has got enough money to play some respectable defense, though little more. The NRCC can't even offer that. But across the board, Democrats will be on the attack this November, with little Republicans can do except fill up some sandbags and hope the rising waters don't crest.

Ad Age:

It's official. Sen. Barack Obama's campaign will be among the TV sponsors of NBC Universal's Olympics coverage. In the first significant network-TV buy of any presidential candidate in at least 16 years, the Obama campaign has taken a $5 million package of Olympics spots that includes network TV as well as cable ads.

The last time a presidential campaign bought a national ad was 1996, with a single minute-long ad by Bob Dole. In short, in today's micro-segmented world, where you can geo-target your ads to swing areas of swing states, as well, as use cable to further refine those ads to hyper-specific demographics, this kind of buy would seem to be a thing of the past.

But for at least the duration of the Olympics, the whole nation will be exposed to the Obama campaign.

Colorado

Rasmussen. 7/21. MoE 4.5% (6/17 results)

The Pollster.com composite is 47.6 Obama, 44.9 McCain.

Michigan

EPIC/MRA. 7/13-15. MoE 4% (5/19-22 results)

The Pollster.com composite is 47.6 Obama, 39.1 McCain.

Florida

Rasmussen. 7/22. MoE 4.5% (6/26 results)

American Research Group. 7/19-21. MoE 4% (6/13-17 results)

Those Ras numbers are a little goofy. That's a big shift in a single month, and one seen in few other states. Then we have ARG giving us the exact opposite trendline, though we all know ARG sucks you-know-what.

Thank heavens we can fall back on the composite, which is less sensitive to wild swings and outliers. And on that front, it's really, really, really tight: 45.7 McCain, 44.9 Obama.

New Hampshire

American Research Group. 7/19-21. MoE 4% (6/13-17 results)

U of New Hampshire (PDF). 7/11-20. MoE 4.5% (4/25-30 results)

Two crappy pollsters, but let's plug their numbers into the composite anyway. Currently, it's 47.4 Obama, 40.4 McCain in New Hampshire.

Ohio

Rasmussen. 7/21. MoE 4.5% (6/17 results)

Did Ras juice their (D) sample this month? Or did Obama hit upon the holy grail of Florida and Ohio swing-state politics? I don't know if I buy these particular numbers, but there's no need to. The composite actually feels quite right: 45.9 Obama, 42.4 McCain. Give Obama the twitchy, very nervous lead. Essentially, this one's tied (like Florida, like every fucking election cycle, it seems).

Update: I reversed the Ohio numbers. It's McCain that's up.

Virginia

Public Policy Polling. 7/17-20. MoE 2.7% (6/26 results)

Just float within the MoE. The composite remains razor tight: 46.7 Obama, 44.1 McCain.

Other: Monmouth University reiterates that yes, Obama is crushing McCain in New Jersey 50-36 (PDF).

Good news!

I just got word from my publisher that the release date for my forthcoming book, Taking on the System, has been moved up two weeks to August 20. James Wolcott liked the book:

A guerrilla manual for political insurgency, a motivational guide to personal action, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga’s Taking on the System lays out the map on how to transform social networks into a power grid and send the funeral directors of our archaic institutions packing. Written with the high-velocity enthusiasm for a healthy shellacking that has made Daily Kos the Battlestar Galactica of the blogosphere, Taking on the System, studded with practical tips and inspirational tales, teaches and preaches how to turn your voice into a force-multiplier without losing your soul in the process. This is a book that conservatives could learn from too, if they could tear themselves away from Rush Limbaugh long enough to take a jab at something new.

--James Wolcott, Vanity Fair columnist and author of Attack Poodles (Miramax)

I passed out a bunch of press galleys to people at Netroots Nation, including many a prominent diarist. Hopefully they start sharing what they thought about the book with us. And as always, you can pre-order the book to ensure you get it at the earliest possible time.

• Um, Katharine? I wrote that post a year ago. The 2007 should've given that way.
• The AP's Ron Fournier really is a problem.
• BooMan tallies the candidates and elected officials who were present at Netroots Nation. There's a crapload of them. So I guess Democrats really aren't afraid of us. And the good ones really do have little to fear.

  There were a lot of politicians from red and purple states and districts who had the common sense to understand that the (New) New Left may be anti-war but they have little else in common with the 60's counterculture (except insofar as the Netroots welcomes the veterans of those wars with open arms). The Netroots is unapologetically pro-Constitution, anti-torture, and pro-Small Business. Our consensus positions on the war, on reproductive rights, on gay rights, and the environment are now majority American opinions. They aren't fringe. We have the (Old) New Left to thank for a lot of that, but the Netroots' culture is decidedly different, as are our primary goals. The (Old) New Left was tackling the Establishment on desegregation and women's liberation in an attempt to tear down centuries-old injustices. The (New) New Left is not attempting anything so bold or transformative. We're trying to get universal health care, Fair Trade, a green energy plan, and a restoration of the consensus American governmental and legal values of the post-war period...including internationalism and human rights.

• Cool pictures of a leopard ambushing and killing a croc, apparently for no reason at all (crocodiles don't have enough meat to justify the risk and danger). (Via John Cole's place.)
• The McCain campaign lied to Bob Novak, telling him they'd be choosing a veep on Tuesday to try and steal some of the thunder from Obama's overseas trip. Now Novak is pissed. So pissed, apparently, that he ran over a pedestrian. He drives a black corvette.
• Jindal is reportedly taking himself out of the veep-stakes. Too bad. The GOP has just lost its only "not ancient and white" option.
• I write in The Hill that the left has inherent advantages online.

  This disparity isn’t surprising. While conservative bloggers can rightfully claim a couple of minor successes, they’ve been generally relegated to the fringes of their movement. There’s been little need for them. Conservatives eager for conservative voices have long had a smorgasbord of options from which to choose, from Fox News Channel to an AM radio buffet dominated by Rush Limbaugh and clones, to hordes of movement conservatives clogging up newspaper op-ed pages, to well-established online message boards. Despite "liberal media" cries, there has never been any medium truly dominated by movement progressives. So-called "liberal" voices, like Joe Klein and Richard Cohen, have been more concerned with getting approbation from their friends in the D.C. cocktail party circuit than truly fighting for progressive causes.

  Furthermore, the right-wing media machine operates in a top-bottom fashion, relying heavily on its firebrand personalities — Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly. Progressives instinctively chafe at this hierarchical approach. Yet the Republican ability to march in lockstep has paid huge political dividends, yielding GOP victories on the strength of simplistic, well-crafted, oft-repeated (and even more often, bogus) messages, like the fabricated quote that Al Gore claimed to have "invented" the Internet.

  But the horizontal, collaborative structure of successful online communities clearly poses a problem for right-wing bloggers, precisely because their movement excels in following orders instead of participating in bottom-up discussion and organizing. Americans get enough one-way communication on TV, radio and print; those who follow politics online do so because it allows them to engage in something larger, not because they want to hear yet another bloviator blather.

• CO-04: The wide consensus is that this is Marilyn Musgrave's swang song, increasingly out of touch with a blue-ing district and done in by her single-minded obsession with gay bashing. Colorado Independent takes a look at the numbers of one of the district's key counties:

  The number of Weld County Republicans has remained relatively flat since 2004, rising 2 percent to 50,110 as of last month, according to Secretary of State data.

  Although the number of registered Weld Democrats during the same time is up 5 percent to 31,289, it’s the 12 percent increase in unaffiliated voters that has Democrats smiling.

• Way back in the day, Obama was a rare vote against eliminating rent control in Illinois.
• Yup. This is certainly pretty darn stupid.

After months of trying to shame Obama into visiting Iraq, Obama is now on perhaps the most successful campaign week the entire campaign, and his trip was the hot media ticket. By contrast, the McCain press corps apparently numbers in the 20s.

Barack Obama has a newly chartered jumbo jet, loaded to the gills with reporters and network anchors accompanying him to the Middle East and Europe, while McCain's traveling press corps numbers only about 25, including camera crews. While CBS News anchor Katie Couric and ABC News anchor Charles Gibson are traveling with Obama, neither CBS News nor ABC News sent even a correspondent to cover McCain. (NBC News is covering both). And this is hardly unique to this week. Only the Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal among big newspapers are consistently covering McCain. NEWSWEEK almost always has a reporter on the plane, but Time and U.S. News do not.

Hmmm, who is missing from that list? It couldn't be Fox News, since we're told that Obama has been "reaching out" to them to appeal to "the middle" people pretend watch the RNC's official propaganda mouthpiece. Not that they didn't try to get a ticket on the hottest political act of the summer. Crooks and Liars has the admission via Stephen Colbert. (Really.)

video of FOX & Friends]
DOOCY: Why are you not on Barack Obama’s airplane heading to the Middle East right now?
WALLACE: Well, I called the Obama campaign several weeks ago and said that I’d like to go and my invitation has apparently been lost in the mail.
[end video]

Well played, Obama campaign.

Meanwhile, McCain left another rambling message about how none of his family will visit. No wonder Wallace is steering clear.

In this video (in Spanish) O2B candidate Joe Garcia essentially accuses the right-wing Cuban-American Frank Calzon of the Center for Free Cuba of essentially pilfering tax-payer funds. Later in the show, Calzon throws a hissy fit and storms out (and you don't need to know Spanish to be entertained by this clip):

A subsequent federal audit found $500,000 missing from Calzon's operation, lost into the pocket of the corrupt South Florida Cuban-American mafia. Just like Garcia had charged. Now, after finding more such discrepancies, Congress has frozen all funding for these corrupt groups.

Congress has put the U.S. Agency for International Development's $45 million Cuba program's 2008 funding on hold, following a series of troubling audits and cases of massive fraud, The Miami Herald has learned.

In a quest to get the funding hold lifted, U.S. AID on Friday ordered a bottoms-up review of all its Cuba democracy programs and suspended a Miami anti-Castro exile group that spent at least $11,000 of federal grant money on personal items.

Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., ordered a hold on the U.S. AID Cuba program funding last month, in part in response to a $500,000 embezzlement at the Center for a Free Cuba in Washington disclosed earlier this year, federal officials said.

In a memo sent Friday to various members of Congress, Stephen Driesler, AID's deputy assistant administrator for legislative and public affairs, said the agency recently implemented stricter financial reviews. That new review turned up irregularities at the Grupo de Apoyo a la Democracia (Group in Support of Democracy), a Miami group criticized in the past for using federal funds to send Nintendo games to Cuba [...]

A report by the Cuban-American National Foundation released in May showed that less than 17 percent of $65 million in federal Cuba aid funds spent during the past 10 years went to ''direct, on-island assistance.'' The bulk of the money, the report said, went to academic studies and expenses of exile organizations, mostly in Miami and Washington.

The report echoed findings by The Miami Herald in 2006 and a congressional Government Accountability Office audit that found lax oversight of the programs and came as the Bush administration prepares to dole out a record $45.7 million in Cuba democracy grants.

This is essentially a big chunk of the payoff the corrupt Cuban exile community gets for having its three South Florida Cuban American representatives (and Democrat Debbie Wasserman-Schulz, too). $45.7 million doled out in patronage fashion to all the co-conspirators, and that's not even including the millions wasted on Radio Marti in similar fashion. Democracy in Cuba? Pshaw! There are fancy dinners to be bought! The high life to be lived.

As you can see in the videos above (even if you don't speak Spanish) is that Joe Garcia has been fighting for accountability for those who receive US tax dollars, and isn't one to let ideology override the interests of the taxpayers.

On the web:
Joe Garcia for Congress
Orange to Blue ActBlue Page

Race tracker wiki: FL-21 FL-18 FL-25

Hee hee. We always knew he'd never stay there as the political necessity would disappear. From video smuggled out of a private fundraiser:

Then, making light of the foreclosure crisis, he said: "And then we got a housing issue... not in Houston, and evidently not in Dallas, because Laura's over there trying to buy a house. [great laughter] I like Crawford but unfortunately after eight years of sacrifice, I am apparently no longer the decision maker."

How cute. He thought he was the decision maker when it was really Karl Rove who told him to get that campaign prop in Crawford.

Sarah Palin is the governor of Alaska, and a hugely popular one, with approval ratings hovering in the 90 percent range. She was even discussed as a potential VP pick for McCain.

Or, that used to be the case, as her administration is rocked by revelations that she and her family used the governor's office to carry out a vendetta against a policeman who was a former brother in-law, up to firing the public safety commissioner because he wouldn't fire the trooper. The top wingnut radio host in the state, a huge fan, has turned on the governor big-time, declaring her a one-term governor. The Republican-dominated state legislature is talking investigations. For a state party rocked by scandal, who had seen Palin as a savior -- clean and new, this abuse of power scandal has to be crushing.

Palin doesn't face the voters for another two years, but this scandal has more immediate aftershocks.

We all want Rep. Don Young in the general, as his years of corruption have caught up to him. Polls are showing that Alaskans want change, and Democrats are poised to pick up the seat. Threatening those plans are a competitive Republican primary, as the GOP desperately tries to oust Young and replace him with a less tarnished name.

Lucky for us, two Republicans entered the fray, splitting the anti-Young vote. But one of those two was a top contender -- Lt. Governor Sean Parnell. Can you see where this is going?

Parnell has tied his entire campaign thus far to Sarah Palin, using her popularity to boost his efforts. Today, word is that Parnell has pulled all ads with references to Palin. Her brand is mud.

Yet without her, Parnell isn't shit either. He's dead in the water. Young will win his primary in several weeks, and prove easy pickings for the Democratic nominee.

Meanwhile, Palin was considered the fallback candidate in case Stevens got indicted. She no longer looks so hot. Nor can she be an asset for Stevens, Young, or any other Republican up and down the ballot in her state. Alaska's most popular Republican has essentially been neutralized. The "popular Republican" is now extinct in Alaska.

This is an incredible turnaround. Maybe not as dramatic as Spitzer, but still shocking given her overwhelming popularity.

That must have been one hell of a bitter divorce.

Race tracker wiki: AK-AL

Thomas Frank in What's the Matter with Kansas:

Not long ago, Kansas would have responded to the current situation by making the bastards pay. This would have been a political certainty, as predictable as what happens when you touch a match to a puddle of gasoline. When business screwed the farmers and the workers - when it implemented monopoly strategies invasive beyond the Populists' furthest imaginings -- when it ripped off shareholders and casually tossed thousands out of work -- you could be damned sure about what would follow.

Not these days. Out here the gravity of discontent pulls in only one direction: to the right, to the right, further to the right. Strip today's Kansans of their job security, and they head out to become registered Republicans. Push them off their land, and next thing you know they're protesting in front of abortion clinics. Squander their life savings on manicures for the CEO, and there's a good chance they'll join the John Birch Society. But ask them about the remedies their ancestors proposed (unions, antitrust, public ownership), and you might as well be referring to the days when knighthood was in flower.

Why? Because Republicans have convinced people that government can't make a difference in their lives, can't solve their intractable problems, hence the only thing that matters are divisive social issues. The demands that government be ineffective has been a planned hallmark of the Bush administration. You don't put a horse lawyer in charge of FEMA if you expect the agency to actually be effective in its mission. So as far as conservative ideology was concerned, Katrina was a resounding success.

This ineffectiveness is centerpiece in conservative self-preservation. If government becomes more effective and works for people, then it could prove devastating to conservatives. William Kristol wrote a now-famous memo as conservatives geared up to fight Hillary Clinton's universal healthcare efforts in 1993:

Leading conservative operative William Kristol privately circulates a strategy document to Republicans in Congress. Kristol writes that congressional Republicans should work to "kill" — not amend — the Clinton plan because it presents a real danger to the Republican future: Its passage will give the Democrats a lock on the crucial middle-class vote and revive the reputation of the party.

And just last year, National Review writers Ramesh Ponnuru and Richard Lowry echoed those sentiments:

[2008 Republican defeats] would probably also mean a national health-insurance program that would irrevocably expand government involvement in the economy and American life, and itself make voters less likely to turn toward conservatism in the future.

Down in Austin I did a short segment on MSNBC's Road to the White House where I was asked such tripe as "what would Obama die for" and "can Obama win without the left?" I did the interview from a remote studio -- just a room with a camera, several backdrops depending on the kind of interview, and a satellite uplink to the network. The networks pay these studios for the time guests are on.

There was one middle-aged woman working the operation that day, roughly 50 years old. The TV was on the background and I heard "Obama" and "Afghanistan" in the same sentence. I asked, "Oh, is Obama already in Afghanistan?" She shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't followed the news."

I stayed quiet, because ill and desperate for sleep, I thought I might squeeze a quick catnap before my segment came on. But the woman continued on her own. "I'm really disenchanted with McCain." Oh, I responded, was she an Obama person? "No, I don't like him either. I don't trust him. And my daughter, she hates him."

I inquired further, why? "Because he's not patriotic, with the flag pin and the pledge of allegiance and his wife!" So we determined that she wasn't going to vote, which was disappointing to American democracy, but good for us because she had been a reliable Republican voter. My interest piqued, I dug a little further: given how the economy was going, people losing their homes, the cost of gas through the roof, none of that was as important as a flag pin?

"Well, they can't do nothing about those things." Aha. The Frank theory, of course. Well, I responded, what about health care, are you happy with your health care? She lit up, "I know no one who is happy with their health care!" and then segued into a rant about the disgraceful state of the health care system.  Well, I responded, Democrats are working for universal healthcare, but Republicans have gotten in the way. But we'll be able to do it next year.

"Ain't no one who can fix that stuff," she sighed, slumping. That brief expression of fire and brimstone snuffed out in an instant. She was adamant that it was all hopeless. Fair enough. She didn't look like someone who'd had an easy life. Health care had touched a nerve, so who knows what sad story or stories she had to tell on that front. But Republicans had convinced her that government was powerless to do anything about it, so ... flag pins!

I had one last argument up my sleeve. Look, I get it, I told her, government hasn't given us many reasons to be confident of late. I can certainly empathize. But can we make a deal? If Democrats push through universal health care in the next four years, will you vote for Barack Obama in 2012?

She looked initially uncomfortable at the thought, but after a pause and a brief internal struggle, she softened and said, "Yeah, I will."

That, in a nutshell, is what Kristol and Ponnuru and Lowry and every conservative in this country fears the most.

Yesterday we found out that the NRSC raised just a hair over $6 million for the month of June, even after claiming they'd raised $13.5 million at the committee's big annual fundraiser with Bush.

I mean, they made a real big deal about it:

NRSC Raises $13.5 Million For The President's Dinner

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

NRSC Press Office

Largest amount in five years

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- This afternoon the National Republican Senatorial Committee announced it raised $13.5 million dollars for tonight's "The 2008 President's Dinner." The $13.5 million is the largest amount raised by the NRSC in five years.

The joint fundraising event for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and President George W. Bush's final "The President's Dinner" raised $21.5 million dollars total.

"I am very proud of the hard work that has been put in to this dinner to make it such a success," NRSC Chairman Sen. John Ensign said. "In addition to our team, Sen. Orrin Hatch has been a dedicated and diligent Chairman of the Dinner for us and I am grateful for his work."

"I believe voters will continue to react to this overreaching liberal Congress by donating money to help us stop it," Ensign added.

"The $13.5 million we raised for the dinner shows people understand that Democrats are going to do more than just increase the price of gas," Sen. Orrin Hatch, the NRSC Chairman for the President's Dinner said.

"Republican Senators, and especially John Ensign, should be congratulated for reaching out to donors and raising this money that will have a big impact this November," Hatch added.

Assuming the NRSC didn't raise another dime the entire month, who will ask Republicans what happened to the other $7.5 million the supposedly raised at Bush's dinner?

Were they trying to protect Bush, since clearly his fundraising mojo wasn't as strong as advertised? Where they gunning for cheap and easy headlines? Are they math illiterate? Do they have a new embezzling finance director?

That's a whopper of a lie. Why did they deliver it?

The Austin American-Statesmen has apologized for its bizarre hit job on Netroots Nation.

But frankly, when I bought the Austin American-Statesman at the Hilton’s lobby coffee shop on Sunday morning, I was just looking to catch up on some national news and the baseball scores. Yet, staring me right in the face, just below the fold on the left side of the front page, was a report on the conference by one Patrick Beach, who was IDed as a “feature writer.” That label often means trouble on the front page, and it certainly did here.

Beach described the gathering in stereotypes that better fit the aging Old Left of years ago than the much younger Netroots of today. I mean, how many of these bloggers have ever read much of Chomsky, as he suggested?

When Beach, at the start referred to the crowd as "marauding liberals" I knew it was not to be taken literally. But then we got this:

-- The audience nearly staged a "faint-in" when Gore appeared (note use of '60s term).

-- Pelosi is so far left her title should include "(D-Beijing)." This would come as a surprise to many in the crowd who have criticized her timidity – and posed hostile questions in the Q & A..

-- The liberal blogosphere is "terribly self-confirming" -- not like the mainstream media! In a contradiction, he then noted that at the conference they "critiqued themselves."

-- Paul Krugman, as if to "galvanize stereotypes," wore Birkenstocks -- but Beach throughout the article clearly needed no help in having his own stereotypes galvanized.

-- It's shooting fish in a barrel "to paint liberals as overly intellectual types incapable of having fun unless reading Noam Chomsky counts, and its sure does for them." In fact, the convention was practically "party central," few attendees were "intellectuals," and only a tiny percentage, I would guess, are Chomsky lovers -- again, an outmoded stereotype.

-- Those who protested during the Pelosi/Gore "faint-in" were "shushed" as if they were at a Nanci Griffith concert. I certainly know who she is, but I can imagine most of these particular attendees reading this reference and asking, "Who???"

Um, yeah ... who?

In any case, Mitchell, who is editor of Editor & Publisher, wrote a diary about this piece. Really, had it been stuck in the op-ed section and clearly labeled "opinion" would've been stupid yet still appropriate. But on the front page, masquerading as news? It was patently ridiculous.

After Mitchell's diary unleashed I'm sure a torrent of letters to the editor directed at the newspaper, the story disappeared from the paper's website, scrubbed clean of any traces of its existence. People emailing the author, this aforementioned Patrick Beach, received responses that they just didn't get the hilarity of his humorous account. Now, the paper's editor has published an apology:

"Readers expect front-page stories to speak directly and clearly about events and issues. Eliminating the possibility of misunderstanding from our work is a critical part of our daily newsroom routine. When we communicate in a way that could be misinterpreted, we fail to meet our standards.

"Our front-page story Sunday about the Netroots Nation convention included doses of irony and exaggeration. It made assertions (that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi might find herself at home politically in Beijing, for example) and characterizations ("marauding liberals" was one) meant to amuse. For many readers, we failed.

"In trying for a humorous take on the Netroots phenomenon without labeling it something other than a straightforward news story, we compromised our standards."

Now wouldn't it be nice if Time followed suit with its own correction of its inaccurate netroots reporting? I'm guessing not. "Accountability" is apparently not a Time Magazine organizational value.

Update: Looky here -- Time has made a correction.

The original version of this story said that Hillary Clinton's appearance at a 2007 Netroots Q&A session was greeted by boos. The writer confused that event with accounts of another Clinton appearance that had taken place earlier. Clinton was not booed at the Netroots event.

Good thing the piece wasn't written by Joe Klein, otherwise there never would've been a correction.

I don't know if there's a consensus yet, but I heard plenty of people refer to Netroots Nation Austin the best ever, and I'm certainly in that camp. I may be biased -- my vastly reduced role meant I got to spent a lot more time attending sessions and hanging out with the crowd, and I had a blast despite battling a litany of illnesses.

The parties were out of control, and let me get provincial by claiming that the Daily Kos party at Maggie Mae's was the best of the lot, and perhaps the best party ever at a YearlyKos/Netroots Nation conference. I plan for an encore in 2009. Too many people whined about the 2006 Mark Warner party. Well, we were in Austin to prove that despite the best efforts of the killjoys, a good, lavish party was exactly what people demanded. Complete with chocolate fountains.

Several people with children, including my wife and I, were able to enjoy babysitting courtesy of sister site Mother Talkers, and we certainly plan on bringing that back next year as well, so keep that in mind if you want to bring the little ones along. I think the kids may have had more fun than us. My son is already asking when he can go back to Texas.  

Next year, the party moves to Pittsburgh, August 13-16. Some of you may still remember the Pittsburgh of the 80s, which was a depressed steel town suffering the effects of globalization (and Japanese dumping). The Pittsburgh of the 00's is a story of dramatic urban renewal. It has wisely built itself as a hub for banking, medicine, and Green innovations, while Heinz foundation money has cleaned up and revitalized entire parts of town. I had heard the stories, but seeing the new Pittsburgh during my 2006 book tour was eye opening. You guys will be pleasantly surprised. It's a rocking city.

So who will speak in 2009? Who cares? Gore wasn't even on this year's agenda, so you never quite know who will decide at the last moment that yes, there is room on the schedule to squeeze in a visit. Really, if you're going for the speakers, you're going for the wrong reason. The community, the sessions, the parties -- that's what makes these events so damn fun. Everything else is gravy.

Reserve your spot. The current pricing of $175 per registration won't last forever. It won't even last long. It'll crawl up over time and get into the $300s and maybe even the $400s. So if you want to guarantee the lowest possible rate, now's the time to do it.