Campaign '08 -- who won't win
Karol isn't predicting who the Republican nominee will be in '08, but, blogger enthusiasm notwithstanding, she says it won't be Rudy or Condi. Go read why, and read her insightful list of the eventual nominee's defining characteristics.
Karol links to Patrick Ruffini's latest straw poll. He's added two twists to the previous poll. In addition to a ballot of likely candidates, there's a second ballot, with some unlikely but popular choices -- Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, and Fred Thompson. You indicate whether you'd vote for one of the four over your initial pick, if you had the chance. He's also asking for your state and is presenting results by state. Patrick is also tracking results by referring blog, but I notice that neither BatesLine nor Karol's Alarming News show up in the stats for the previous straw poll, even though we both had it linked. Ruffini has posted his analysis of the initial results for the new straw poll.
Patrick also has been analyzing detailed presidential results, and has a map showing the change in the Bush vote between 2000 and 2004 in each municipality in New Jersey. The cool thing is that he overlaid the map on Google Earth, so you can see aerial view colored with the results, and get a sense of the types of places where Bush gained and lost. The most interesting trend: The wealthier a township, the more likely a swing away from Bush from 2000 to 2004.
Political analyst Michael Barone is now a blogger, and he's categorized the congressional districts where Bush gained and lost the most between '00 and '04. Barone calls Oklahoma's rural 2nd, 3rd, and 4th districts, where Bush did much better in '04, "Zell Miller districts."
One of the darkhorses in the Ruffini straw poll is Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who got a favorable mention here a while back. A couple of weeks ago Fayetteville, Arkansas, blog Overtaken by Events reported that Huckabee, along with many other Arkansas pols, protested loudly against an immigration raid at a poultry plant in Arkadelphia. Huckabee said the calls to his office were running a thousand to one against his position, but does it take more courage to defy popular opinion or the interests of the state's biggest business interests?
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John Sullivan has talked about his stand on immigrtion in Oklahoma as a congressman.
We were in the Quick Trip at 8lst and Memorial and as I was standing in line to get a drink, a bunch of possible illegal immigrants (none of them spoke english) came into the store and wanted to use the Quick Trip's microwave machines. What was bad is they were really filthy from sweat and grass and dirt all over their hands and body. They did not purchase food but instead brought containers in the store with them to put into the Quick Trip's microwave machine. Since they were mowing, these containers could have been sitting next to the gas containers (or had gas on the food containers they brought into Quick Trip and then were put in the QT microwave machines. No inspection from Quick Trip employees and QT allowed it. What was worse is
their REAL english speaking customers that were buying products from Quick Trip that needed the QT's microwave
machines to warm up their meal they purchased from QT could not even get access to the microwave machines because of all of these possible illegal immigrants. I told an employee about it, they said when they use their bathrooms on a normal basis, they also leave the bathrooms absolutely disgusting. Then a UPS driver walks in and takes out this huge water
container that looks like it has not been washed in a year. It was covered in dirt and he unscrewed the lid and put it up to get his big water jug filled up with lots of ice while once
again the Quick Trip customers are waiting to get ice for their drinks.
On illegal immigrants, I do feel sorry for the company in Tulsa that was in business for years
(Pickle company I think) and men from another country (I think they were from India)
were hired because they were cheap labor. Somehow the workers from India assumed they would get rich in America. Compared to living standards in parts of India, whatever living conditions they had still may have been a lot cleaner and better than where they came from in
India. Did their investigation ever turn that up when the workers that were NOT AMERICANS as a group sued Pickle? company and now this man that has owned this company for many years with the
BAD PUBLICITY he received from the lawsuit can't get business and think he's just about to go out of business. The company apparently had a man in charge of these workers that
handled the situation with the workers where he could have made sure they got their milk and other needs they were asking for. I am sure this
company wish they would have hired people at minimum wage(or above) in the U.S. that were legal Americans to avoid the problems they encountered with these workers from India. The Pickle company claimed it was dirty work and most people just don't like to do it but men from other countries that were use to dirty work were perfectly fine and willing to do it for wages far above what they could receive in India or any other company where the have trouble even finding a job let alone get the minimum wage American currency exchange rate.
Republican Sullivan and others in United States
Congress has legitimate reasons for wanting to crack down on the illegals in the U.S. They often want to be paid in cash so they won't have to pay taxes and if paid in cash no one can find out they don't have a United States Social Security Card. These are some reasons that have been mentioned in the press.
Dick Cheney would never win President next presidential election as he suffers from heart conditions that at any time he could be in serious health. Steve Largent also had a possible stroke while in Washinton, DC
as it was also reported in the Tulsa World.
Istook now wants to run for Governor of Oklahoma or is trying to see what the feedback from putting it in the news will give him an idea if he wants to run for Governor. If he decides to run, by far he would have a far greater chance of winning over Governor Henry and any other candidate that had openly said they are definitely running so far. As a seasoned congressman from Oklahoma, Istook already has many connections in Republican politics to probably win him the next Oklahoma Governor
election to beat Henry.
easter_susan@hotmail.com
Susan