A Rake’s Progress

According to a report in the Laconia Citizen, New Hampshire state reps Beth Arsenault and Gail Morrison, and County Attorney Jim Carroll have tossed their support to Barack Obama.

I don’t think there was ever a possibility that these local politicians would support Hillary: they are friends with and surrounded by an ABC (Anybody But Clinton) contingent, starting with Beth Arsenault who came out against Hillary even before Hillary set foot in New Hampshire as a candidate, and Gail Morrison, close friend of anti-war activist and Belknap County Democratic Chair, Lynn Chong, who is supporting Edwards.

Most disappointing is Gail Morrison’s decision. She is a friend of a friend and I am told she is very well respected, bright, humane, a very nice woman.  I guess even good people make bad choices.

Could Hillary have used her help? Sure. Does it make any difference that she is not getting it. Nope.

If Hillary runs into problems over the next few months it won’t be because Chong, Arsenault, and Morrison, are working for someone else.

The real sharks in the waters are people like Bob Novak and the Arkansas Loonie Tunes, who have the unrelenting passion and money needed to wound Hillary. Novak, as you know is spreading stories about Hillary’s “Dirty Tricks,” a la Richard Nixon.

They say an elephant never forgets. The elephant, of course, is the symbol for the Republicans. Hillary worked as an attorney on the Nixon impeachment, and many conservatives still do not know what all that fuss was about, and believe Nixon was treated unfairly. Even though it has been some 35 years, that angry white Republican elephant (aka Bob Novak) has neither forgotten nor forgiven. Novak must be enjoying the potential historical symmetry if he can catch Hillary at the same dirty tricks that destroyed Richard Nixon.

Sorry, Bob, you are going fishing and pulling up nothing but weeds. The Clintons are too smart for you. They have proved that over and over and over. To make any progress against them, you will have to lie, make something up. Is revenge worth  a perjury conviction, Bob?

Despite the best efforts of Edwards and Obama to hypnotize the media with their repetitive rants about Hillary Clinton “saying what voters want to hear, and not what she believes,” the polls in New Hampshire show that Hillary’s lead is both impressive and solid.

As CBS reports, “Clinton’s support in the Granite State is solid.”

As contentious as Iowa is, the next state on the campaign calendar, New Hampshire, is far less competitive. Among likely Democratic primary voters, Clinton has 37 percent support, putting her 15 points ahead of Obama. Among Republicans, Romney continues to dominate. He was backed by 34 percent in the poll, while John McCain and Giuliani both trailed at 16 percent. All other candidates were in single digits.

Clinton’s support in the Granite State is solid. Though 52 percent of voters say they could change their mind, 62 percent of Clinton supporters “strongly favor” the New York senator and former first lady. As in Iowa, her experience is the top reason people are supporting her.

One reason the Obama-Edwards character bashing of Hillary is not working, is that it simply has no basis in reality. Indeed, Hillary has taken the high road on a number of issues — the Iraq war, for example. To repudiate her support for our mission in Iraq (as opposed to the Bush Keystone Cops implementation of the war) would have been the most unprincipled, yet politically expedient, thing for her to do. Over and over, Democratic activists clamored for her to cave, and she didn’t.

Locally, Lynn Chong, chair of the Belknap County Democrats, lambasted Hillary on that issue on the very day Hillary announced her candidacy. Lynn — no surprise — has since thrown her support to Edwards, an unprincipled trial lawyer that few voters trust.

Let’s also recall an AP Poll that was taken a few months back on the issue of character. As Obama and Edwards rightly point out, character is important to voters. What they don’t mention is that Hillary Clinton leads on the “character” issue.  

Here’s how it played out in our report:

The latest Associated Press poll shows that Hillary Clinton’s unwillingness to “disown” her past support for the Iraq war is creating confidence in her honesty and character among voters.

According to AP poll results announced today (reported in the Huffington Post), 55% of voters say that honesty and character are more important than specific policy positions.

On that key trait, Hillary Clinton has a considerable lead over all other Democrats:

“Among Democrats, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York leads with 38 percent, followed by Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois at 21 percent. Former Vice President Al Gore is at 14 percent and 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards is at 10 percent. The rest of the field is in single digits.”

The Edwards-Obama strategy seems to be 1) Take down Clinton any way they can, even if it means lying about her, and 2) Make the lie big enough and say it often enough, and maybe people will start to believe it.

Sorry, boys, but you need a new strategy because this one isn’t working.

After smugly smacking down Hillary for suggesting that Iran does not deserve the same diplomatic relations as other civilized nations, perhaps Barack Obama and John Edwards would like to comment on Iran’s self-acknowledged persecution of gays and lesbians.

One of Iran’s highest ranking ministers, Mohsen Yahyavi , openly asserted that homosexuals deserve death and torture. ”Mohsen Yahyavi is the highest-ranked politician to admit that Iran believes in the death penalty for homosexuality after a spate of reports that gay youths were being hanged.”

Obama and Edwards would have us look the other way, regardless of the civil rights atrocities being committed in Iran. Given their willingness to forgive Saddam Hussein for torturing his captives in Iraq, their position on Iran is not surprising.

We should remember that along with Jews, Gypsies, and other non-Aryan people, Hitler also made it his mission to exterminate homosexuals. Would Obama and Edwards have negotiated with Hitler, too?

For more on this story.

Word is out that a new left leaning group plans to stop Hillary by challenging her progressive credentials. I don’t know what is so “new” about it.

We’ve had left leaning Democrats right here in New Hampshire trying to stop Hillary on the very day she announced that she was running for president. As far as I can tell, they might both be founding members of this new group.

I am speaking of Lynn Chong, Chair of the Belknap County Democrats, who is now officially working for John Edwards, and Beth Arsenault, a Democratic state representative.

Here’s how the story came out here 11 months ago when Hillary made her announcement:

According to Belknap County Democratic Chair, Lynn Chong, Hillary Clinton is inexperienced, saddled with baggage from her husband’s affairs, Whitewater, and a failed attempt to reform health care. In a Laconia Citizen article, Chong says that Hillary has served “just one full term in the Senate and was a member of the 109th ‘do-nothing Congress.’” Chong also questions whether Hillary will “do the people’s business” as she has promised or be “too preoccupied with her presidential bid” to change U.S. policy in Iraq.

Calling the Iraq war the “elephant in the room,” another prominent local Democrat, state representative Beth Arsenault, claims that Hillary has been “a little too far out in front in backing it and too late behind in opposing it.” Arsenault also faults Hillary for trying to walk down the middle of the road politically, a strategy that “worked for Bill Clinton” but not for his wife.

Earlier today when I tried to imagine how Rush Limbaugh might greet Hillary’s announcement, what Chong and Arsenault had to say is exactly what came to mind. This is my neighborhood and it is traditionally a conservative, Republican stronghold. But the Iraq war has changed everything here. Last year they kicked out Jeb Bradley from Congress and put in a little-known liberal to take his place.

In an ironic twist, for local Democrats the problem with Hillary is not that she is too liberal but that she is not liberal enough. Of course, New Hampshire Democrats have not had the best track record of late when it comes to picking presidential candidates. That, and a tendency to self-immolate, makes today’s commentary from party leaders not too surprising.

For some inexplicable reason, far left Dems discount all the years that Hillary spent protesting a war in Vietnam, fighting for civil rights, women’s rights, workers’ rights, children’s rights, the right to adequate health care, a good education, the right to feel safe on our streets, to be safe from guns, for a fair economic system, for environmental rights.

Fact is, these are one-issue political neophytes who are still sulking over Hillary’s vote to go to war with Iraq. And they are as dense as the granite upon which most of this state is built if they haven’t learned this one political truism: the only way to govern and to make change is to win, and the only way to win is to win from the center, not the fringes. Bill Clinton proved it over and over, Jeanne Shaheen proved it over and over.

Is this true? Go ask Barry Goldwater, George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Mike Dukakis, Ross Perot, Jesse Jackson, or (soon!) John Edwards and Barack Obama.

Go ahead, form your new left leaning group. Don’t bother putting me on your email list. Whatever you have to say, I have heard it before.

Which Democratic presidential candidate will be the first on the scene: John Edwards, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton?

Today Wausau Paper announced it was closing its paper mill in Groveton, New Hampshire, and laying off about 300 workers in the process. According to Wausau, while net sales increased company-wide to a record $319 million, its “printing and writing” division lost money. Last year the division made $1.1 million; this year it lost $1.3 million. Ergo, they are closing the mill on December 31, 2007.

Happy New Year, workers of Wausau!

Wausau is not by any means the first paper mill to close in New Hampshire. In 2001, while most Americans were still shell-shocked over the terrorist attack of 9/11, people in New Hampshire were dealing with a second blow: the Pulp and Paper Mill of America in Berlin, NH, closed down, laying off 800 employees. In typical New Hampshire fashion, a volunteer effort of individual and corporate contributions helped to soften the impact, providing financial and emotional support to displaced employees.

(For information about the state’s response to the Wausau closing, click here.)

The news from Wausau comes in the middle of a Democratic presidential primary trail that has quickly gone cold and boring. Most of us in New Hampshire are already planning our Hillary Clinton victory parties. Her main adversaries — Edwards and Obama — can barely muster a round of buckshot in her direction, much less throw the Molotov cocktail they need to stir things up around here.

But thanks to Wausau, an opportunity is emerging. Picture the scene in Groveton, New Hampshire:

We stand in front of a dark, brooding building, an empty paper mill, a remnant of a dying manufacturing economy. The front doors are boarded up. The frosted windows are dark. It is mid-January, the arctic winds are howling and the snow is piling up higher than John Edwards’ hair. Small groups of men and women, penniless and fearful, huddle around blackened oil cans from which cold fires burn, looking for warmth. . .and hope.

Emerging out of the wintry stillness comes someone who offers kind words, a warm hand, a nod of understanding and compassion, a conviction that the future will be better. The cameras roll. The microphones capture every breathless word. The inconsolable are consoled.

Who is it? Edwards? Obama? Clinton?

To paraphrase Peter Klappert:

                                            –Outbursts of
Orchids emblossom and cascade
From the neck of America’s finest champagne,
We are all caught up in a masquerade,
It’s in moments like these that presidents get made.