2008

I know Rudy is trying to prove his toughness on immigration, going back on what he said as Mayor of New York City, but two of his endorsements seem like he might be embracing the wrong people.

Remember Pete Wilson, the former Governor of California? Perhaps you remember Proposition 187 - the 1994 ballot initiative that Gov. Wilson favored and would have denied illegal immigrants social services but was overturned in federal court. (Memories of that ballot initiative galvanize California's Latino electorate, by the way.) Last week, Pete Wilson endorsed Rudy Giuliani at a press conference which Giuliani used as an excuse to skip a debate focusing on minority issues.

Does Joey Vento ring a bell? Perhaps his restaurant, Geno's steaks in Philadelphia, PA? Mr. Vento brought national attention to South Street after putting up an "English-only" sign outside of his restaurant. The sign caused quite a deal of controversy, even earning a place in Philadelphia's Mayoral debate yesterday. Joey Vento also endorses Rudy Giuliani - for reasons you can see in the video below:

I might be over-analyzing, but it just seems like Rudy may be taking it too far. Mike Huckabee, deemed the GOP's dark horse by Newt Gingrich and President Clinton, said it best in the debate Giuliani skipped:

"I want to be President of the United States, not just President of the Republican Party...frankly, I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed for our party and I'm embarrassed for those who didn't come, because there's long been a divide in this country and it doesn't get better when we don't show up."

Update: The New Republic weighs in on the Vento endorsement, saying "Giuliani's visit showcased a former mayor willing to pander to the lowest common denominator of immigrant-bashing."

For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.

- For those interested in the media landscape, AdAge takes a look at what the candidates have been doing on air thus far. (Note how cable advertising plays a role in some ad buys - something our New Politics Institute continues to promote.)

- According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, Hillary Clinton is widening her lead, despite what is going on in Iowa.

- Ron Paul's impressive fundraising (all things considered) gets a nod in the WSJ's Washington Wire.

- Barack Obama continues to travel across Iowa, invoking his opposition to the war, which his campaign creatively re-introduced in a new video. David Yepsen from the Des Moines Register covered one of Obama's speeches on the paper's blog.

- With the recent debut of Ann Romney's website, www.annromney.com, it's clear that the Romney campaign sees Ann as an incredible asset.

- Chris Dodd received praise on his stance on Iraq, specifically about his promise to have all troops out of Iraq by 2013. Dodd's stance, according to David Yepsen, could create an opening.

- Rudy Giuliani is up on radio in New Hampshire with "Tested." Side note: Robert Greenwald says America's Mayor has some explaining to do for skipping a debate focusing on African-American issues.

- Yesterday, Joe Biden clarified his plan for Iraq in a blog post at Huffington Post. Be sure to check it out. Today, Biden joins some of the other candidates at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Forum.

- Tom Tancredo criticized Sam Brownback for his varying stance on immigration.

- In a nod to the netroots, Elizabeth Edwards held a discussion with women from various Mom blogs in California.

- (via PrezVid) Jon Stewart points out yet another debate in which the Republican candidates decided not to participate in the following video:

For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.

- First off, a reminder to watch tonight's Democratic presidential candidate debate at Dartmouth College. The debate will kick off at 9pm and will be moderated by Tim Russert, host of "Meet the Press."

- Also, John Edwards kicks off the MTV/MySpace Presidential Dialogues tomorrow.

- Mitt Romney announced the finalists in his Create Your Own Ad contest. Check them out on Romney's website.

- John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama addressed the Change to Win coalition yesterday. Edwards, who has courted Unions extensively, drew the most applause. (Related side note: Edwards and Obama have both walked picket lines.)

- I wonder if Duncan Hunter will follow on his promise to cut off Federal Funding to Columbia University for hosting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

- As the third quarter of fundraising comes to a close, campaigns are reaching out to donors in different ways. Take (for example) John McCain, who uses NFL great Roger Staubach to encourage supporters to get in the game. In a different tone, Joe Biden challenged his supporters to stop Republicans from expoliting 9/11, an issue that Chris Dodd has also spoken out on.

- For more on America's Mayor and his $9.11 entry-fee for fundraisers, check out CNN.

- Be sure to note Newt Gingrich's blog post on Mike Huckabee's website. Gingrich was a guest blogger on Huckabee's Vertical Day campaign.

- Barack Obama has been hyping his rally in New York City tomorrow. His campaign put out the teaser video below to get people "fired up:"

For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.

The latest issue of The Economist features a flattering profile of Governor Bill Richardson, whose many successes (and few failures) in areas like diplomacy make up what has turned out to be an incredibly impressive resumé. Yet still, he remains among the second-tier of his fellow Democratic candidates. To vault himself to the top, the article suggests one community Richardson could naturally turn to for support: Hispanics. From the Economist:

Mr Richardson's Latino heritage will probably help him. Hispanics make up about 15% of the population. Many are not yet citizens and so cannot vote, but the Hispanic electorate will have nearly doubled between 2000 and 2008, from 7.5m to 14m, by one estimate. Hispanics are both the largest and the fastest-growing minority, and their votes are up for grabs. Whereas African-Americans vote monolithically for the same party (the Democrats), Latinos switch back and forth a bit.

The article then goes in-depth, suggesting that candidates from both parties consider reaching out to the fastest-growing minority and not alienate or demonize it:

George Bush wooed them assiduously and won 40% of the Latino vote in 2004—twice the share his fellow Republican Bob Dole had managed eight years previously. But then nativist Republicans derailed Mr Bush's plan for a more welcoming immigration system. Some of them, such as Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado, used alarmist rhetoric that sounded hostile to Hispanics in general. Hispanics duly dumped the Republicans—the Democrats' 19 percentage point lead in 2004 swelled to 39 points in 2006.

Democratic strategists confidently predict that they will maintain their lead among Latinos in 2008. Immigration reform is still stalled, and the top Republican presidential candidates, with the conspicuous exception of John McCain, are pandering to nativist voters. The line-up at Republican presidential debates was all-white until a few days ago, and includes both Mr Tancredo and Duncan Hunter, who boasts he will build not one but two fences along the Mexican border. Neither has a chance of winning, but the contrast with the Democrats is nonetheless stark. Two of their candidates speak fluent Spanish (the other is Christopher Dodd). All attended a debate on Univision, a Spanish-language channel, on September 9th; the Republicans have yet to follow suit.

It is pointless to make long-term predictions about how a group as diverse as Latinos will vote—it depends how each party treats them. But one can wager that Republican raging about illegal immigration will boost the Democrats next year. If they take Florida, a big swing state where 11% of those who voted in 2006 were Latino, it will be hard for a Republican to win the White House. That is also true if they capture Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado, which are all heavily Hispanic.

The growing political influence and power of the Hispanic electorate is something that we at NDN have discussed for quite some time. For more details, check out our most recent report, Hispanics Rising.

There has been a lot of press coverage on something we at NDN have been discussing for quite a while - that the influence of the growing Hispanic Electorate can't be ignored, much less demonized. Looking ahead to 2008, these articles - a sampling of which is below - provide fair warning specifically to the GOP that their actions could have serious consequences:

Is GOP Erasing Gains It Made With Hispanics?, Newsweek, 09/24/07

Debate No-Shows Worry GOP Leaders, Washington Post, 09/19/07

Division Problem, Michael Gerson, Washington Post, 09/19/07

Hispanics and the GOP, Editorial, Wall Street Journal, 09/15/07

Hispanic Voters Flex Political Muscle, Wall Street Journal, 09/15/07

The G.O.P.’s Candidate-Free Debate, New York Times, 09/20/07

Read more recent press stories about the growing power of the Hispanic electorate here. 

- Hillary Clinton is promoting her Health Care plan - American Health Choices Plan - in a new ad.

- According to the Arizona Republic, John McCain, whose "No Surrender" tour wraps up today, is "on the rise." This article comes after McCain lost his endorsement of Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox.

- Barack Obama, fresh off speeches to Wall Street and the SEIU's Member Political Action Convention, delivered his tax plan today in Washington, DC.

- According to the Decatur Daily, Fred Thompson is off to a good start in Alabama.

- Senator Chris Dodd, who also addressed SEIU, honored Constitution Day by introducing an Amendment to the Defense Authorization bill. The Leahy-Specter-Dodd Amendment will restore habeas corpus, a major point of focus of Dodd's campaign.

- Mitt Romney released a new radio ad today entitled "Traditional." Un-related Mitt news: Romney issued a statement regarding Chile's Independence Day. The statement, which falls during Hispanic Heritage Month, praises the U.S.-Chile free trade agreement. (Note: Craig Romney, Mitt Romney's son, lived in Chile and speaks fluent Spanish.)

- John Edwards's campaign took a shot at Hillary Clinton in an e-mail to supporters today. The e-mail calls an upcoming fundraiser Clinton is hosting the "poster child" for what is wrong with Washington.

- Mike Huckabee won the first straw poll conducted at the Values Voter debate in Florida.

- Joe Biden has received validation on his views on Iraq. First, Congressman Adam Putnam (R-FL) praised Biden's plan for a Federal Iraq. Second, Dan Balz from the Washington Post gave Biden a nod on his commentary on Iraq.

- Rudy Giuliani launched a new radio ad entitled "Nightmare" that will run in Iowa. The ad is in response to MoveOn's ad, "Rudy Giuliani: Betrayal of Trust." Listen to Nightmare on PrezVid. 

- Thanks to AdAge for giving us this amazing quote from Bill Richardson on the spying of the New England Patriots:

"The President has been allowed to spy on Americans without a warrant, and our U.S. Senate is letting it continue. You know something is wrong when the New England Patriots face stiffer penalties for spying on innocent Americans than Dick Cheney and George Bush."

For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.

You've seen the news articles. This past weekend, we witnessed history as Univision hosted the first-ever Spanish-language Presidential forum. NDN was there and played a vital role, as our argument on the rising influence of the Hispanic electorate helped frame the event. Click on the thumbnails below for larger pictures of the events we held around the forum, as well as two pictures from the forum itself (courtesy of Univision):

For more on NDN's work on issues affecting Hispanic communities, including our efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform, visit our website.

- In the Washington Post, Dan Balz writes how Labor Day weekend marked a point of acceleration among the campaigns.

- John Weaver, former senior adviser to John McCain's campaign, predicted that his former boss and longtime friend will get another look from voters in New Hampshire. Weaver made his comments to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in his first in-depth interview since he resigned from the McCain campaign in July.

- In a speech yesterday in New Hampshire, Barack Obama warned against the divisive nature of politics, we need to return to a sense of possibility in government. Check out a short video of Obama's speech here.

- John Edwards won even more endorsements from Labor in the past few days, the latest from the Steelworkers and Mine Workers Unions.

- Rudy Giuliani launched a new website over the weekend, which features many new components. One of the new features is National House Party Night. Watch Dan Meyers explain the new site here (via PrezVid).

- Campaigning in New Hampshire over the weekend, Hillary Clinton pitched her candidacy as one of change and experience. Change, she said, "is just a word if you don't have the strength and experience to make it happen." Interesting sentence...

- Mitt Romney spent Labor Day discussing immigration - specifically his opposition to amnesty - emphasizing his belief that there should be no path to citizenship or permanent residency granted.

- Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel take NAFTA to task in these (Kucinich and Gravel) espective YouTube videos.

- Sam Brownback believes that his foreign policy experience is the key to separating him from the rest of the pack. Senator Brownback also weighed in on Rudy Giuliani's future as frontrunner, saying:

"I think a lot of the mayor's support — he's a wonderful man — but I think it's built on name ID, and I think it's very soft."

- Senator Joe Biden responded to President Bush's trip to Iraq on his website.

For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.

So maybe the Republicans are going to put up a fight in the new tools space after all. After repeatedly watching the Dems innovate with new internet tools, Mitt Romney’s campaign has broken out with an initiative to allow supporters to create their own television ads. The campaign is using Jumpcut, which Yahoo bought last year, as the tool for “mashing up” video, audio and photos in creative ways. The campaign provides a base of content to use, but they also encourage people to upload their own material to remix.

“Mash-ups” refer to repurposing material meant for one thing to communicate another. It’s similar to the more familiar “remixing” of music from original songs into new creations. The mash-up technique has been used somewhat in politics, though not in official campaigns. The most famous example is the “Vote Different” remake of the Apple 1984 done by a person who remained anonymous for several weeks earlier this year. Moveon blazed a trail in the 2004 campaign by creating a contest to create a TV ad about “Bush in 30 Seconds.” However, all the submissions were original and there was no material provided to create the ads via a mash-up.

The Romney campaign is drawing off both strands and creating a contest where people can use official material in news ways. This has its pros and cons. The good side is that it allows many more people to potentially get involved because they have all the tools and material at their disposal and don’t have to shoot original video, etc. The risk is that people hostile to the campaign might hijack the material and put anti-Romney messages up. This actually happened last year in an attempt by Chevy to get regular people to make ads about their Tahoe. Somebody organized a bunch of environmentalists who used the clips of the car to create ads lambasting the gas-guzzling vehicles. (See the NPI talk by Julie Bergman Sender for more on this episode.)

Despite the risks, Romney is going down the right path. The most successful candidates will be those who can harness the energy and creativity of large numbers of American citizens. No one candidate or small team of consultants can pull off an election victory these days. They need the ideas, passions and efforts of many, many people working together for a long, long time.

Peter Leyden

12 minute video highlightin his service - called Donald Rumsfeld one of the worst Secretaries of Defense in history on "The Tonight Show."

- John Edwards picked up an endorsement from the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. Edwards was also the recipient of a good deal of praise from President Jimmy Carter who said:

"I can say without equivocation that no one who is running for president has presented anywhere near as comprehensive and accurate a prediction of what our country ought to do in the field of environmental quality, in the field of healthcare for those who are not presently insured, for those who struggle with poverty."

- FINALLY, Fred Thompson will announce his candidacy on September 6th via webcast on his website. As Chris Cillizza asks on his blog, The Fix, is Thompson too late?

- Be sure to check out Mike Gravel tonight on "Real Time with Bill Maher."

- John Harwood from the WSJ's Washington Wire thinks the legal troubles of Norman Hsu - a donor/fundraiser for Senator Hillary Clinton - will provide an opening for other "change" candidates.

- Mitt Romney shows he can jog and be compliant at the SAME TIME in "Leadership", his new ad. Check it out below:

For more information on NDN's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election, click here.