The Old Eighteen

Noriega responds to Cornyn's lameass video

By now, just about everyone has seen John "The Suburban Cowboy" Cornyn's embarrasingly bad campaign video that aired at the Texas Republican Convention, in which Cornyn dresses up like the cowboy character from the Village People and goes hunting fow wabbits.  Or something.  Anyway, Rick Noriega's campaign has released a video response to the Cornyn promo:

Texas Lyceum poll: Obama, Noriega within striking distance

A newly released poll by Texas Lyceum [PDF] offers some encouraging news for both Barack Obama and Rick Noriega as they face an uphill battle to win their respective races.  The poll of likely voters shows John McCain leading Barack Obama by only 5 points, 43%-38%, with 17% of Texas voters saying they are undecided about who will get their vote.  Ralph Nader and Bob Barr were included in the poll, but only got 1% each - and Nader will probably not be on the ballot in Texas.  With McCain polling well under 50% and a large number of undecideds, Obama has a lot of room for growth and a legitimate chance at actually winning Texas, if the results of this poll are to be taken seriously.

The same poll shows Rick Noriega faring even better, showing John Cornyn with a lead of only 2 points, 38%-36%, and 24% of respondents identifying themselves as undecided.  Noriega has a problem with name recognition and a significant cash disadvantage, but his fundraising appears to be picking up steam lately and he's bound to get a boost from the Obama campaign investing resources in Texas for the general election.  John Cornyn polling at only 38% is a significant sign of weakness for an incumbent, so there's a lot of good news to be taken from this poll for Rick Noriega.

But can this poll be trusted?  The party splits for the poll are 44% Democratic to 32% Republican, indicating that Democrats were oversampled, unless there's been some huge, dramatic shift in party affiliation since the last election.  And 32% of the respondents were Hispanic, indicating that they might also have been oversampled - Hispanics are about 35% of the state population, but have historically tended to lag significantly behind whites and blacks in voter participation.  The poll results are encouraging, but should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

Noriega speaks out against telecom immunity

Here's a new video from Rick Noriega's campaign, in which the candidate speaks out against telecom immunity and calls for Senator Box Turtle to stand up for our Constitution and the rule of law:

I'm glad to hear Rick speaking out against amnesty for the telecoms.  Too bad our presidential candidate isn't doing the same thing.

Man the lifeboats!

You know your presidential campaign is in trouble when members of your own party are going out of their way to associate themselves with your opponent, as seen in this recent campaign ad for Republican Senator Gordon Smith:

For the record, of course, Obama's campaign is making it clear that he supports the Democratic candidate, Jeff Merkley, in this race.  But this ad is a perfect illustration of how political fortunes have changed in this country.  In the past, you might have seen ads for Democrats trying to tie themselves to a popular Republican incumbent, such as Ronald Reagan, or Dubya back when his approval rating was in the 60's and above.  But I don't recall ever seeing an ad like this where a Republican is trying to associate himself with a Republican presidential candidate who hasn't even been elected yet, much less a Democrat, elected or otherwise.  Strange days indeed...

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(via AMERICAblog)

Last chance to vote for Noriega in "Choose a Challenger" contest

Just a reminder that today is the last day to participate in the online vote that Barbara Boxer's PAC for a Change is holding for its 2008 "Choose a Challenger" contest. Rick still has a slim lead, but he's only ahead by 3 points so every vote counts.  After you're through casting your online vote for Rick, you can show him some more love by clicking here to make a donation to his campaign.

Support Rick Noriega in the Progressive Electorate Pick A Candidate Contest

A new blog called The Progressive Electorate is charging out of the gates with an online vote to determine which of five Democratic challengers in high-profile races will be the recipient of the blog's first endorsement.  The winning candidate will get a $1,000 campaign contribution, with the runner-up receiving $500.  Show your support for Rick Noriega by giving him your vote in this online poll - be sure to create an account first so your vote will count.

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(via Burnt Orange Report)

Why we fight

Posted below are two more videos that caught my eye recently.  The first video is from the Rick Noriega campaign.  I'm not sure if it's meant as a campaign ad, and it looks like it's only being aired on YouTube at this point.  In the video, Noriega and a few of his fellow veterans call on John Cornyn to stop filming stupid promos of himself playing dress-up and pretending to be a cowboy, and to support the New GI Bill.  After you've watched the video, you can click here to sign a petition telling Senator Box Turtle to take his head out of his shell and change his vote:

The other video is an ad from Moveon.org directed at John McCain, that's getting airplay on MSNBC (or at least, that's where I saw it - I assume it's also beng aired on the other cable news channels, at the least).  This is a pretty simple but effective ad that sneaks up on you - it's a powerful illustration of what the stakes are in this election and why we're fighting to defeat McCain.  You can click here to make a contribution so this ad gets as much airplay as possible:

Rick for a Change

Barbara Boxer's PAC for a Change is having an online vote for its 2008 "Choose a Challenger" contest to pick the Democratic Senate candidate that the organization will focus its support on, with the winner being featured in a fundraising email that could bring in a big chunk of cash for their campaign.  Needless to say, I'm a bit partial toward our candidate here in Texas, Rick Noriega.  Rick just returned from his two-week National Guard commitment, and while he was gone the campaign was able to raise over $75,000 with its "Fill Rick's Boots" campaign, with a little help from Jon Tester and Jim Webb, who know first-hand what a huge difference the netroots can make in building a successful Senate campaign.  Still, despite his recent fundraising success Rick has a huge challenge ahead of him keeping up with the formidable fundraising machine of Republican incumbent John Cornyn, which relies heavily on big checks from oil execs and other corporate special interests.  Rick needs our help, so I hope you'll take a few moments to click here and vote for him in the "Choose a Challenger" contest, which runs until June 25.  Then, after you've voted for him, please show him a little more financial love by clicking here to make a donation to his campaign.

Here's where the vote stands thus far - Rick is leading the pack by a sizeable margin:

Unintentionally funny campaign videos: The John Cornyn edition

In this introduction video that was played at the Texas Republican Convention this past weekend, John Cornyn gets to dress up like a cowboy, and ride a horsey and everything!  Imagine John Lithgow as the cowboy character from the Village People, and you'll have some idea of what Senator Box Turtle looks like here.  Note to Cornyn: stay away from the fringed suede.  Oh, and tell that lame Johnny Cash impersonator you dug up to sing the song for this video that it's a Jimmy Dean song, and Mr. Dean is probably not amused at the idea of one of his signature tunes being appropriated as a commercial jingle for someone who may be named John, but who is definitely neither big nor bad.

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(via Trail Blazers)

Republicans move the goal posts to another stadium in a different city

You know things are looking bad for the GOP when the head of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee is telling people that his goal is to hold the party's losses in the Senate to eight seats:

The chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee predicts U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss will be part of the firewall the party wants to build against Democratic control of the White House and both chambers of Congress.

U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., set a minimum on the number of seats the party must control, 41.

"The number that we get to is really, really important in the U.S. Senate," he said. "That's one of the reasons Saxby absolutely must hold his seat."

[...] Ensign considers Chambliss a strong favorite to win re-election because of Georgia's Republican tilt - so strong, in fact, that the national party is counting on him to raise his own funds so the GOP can put its resources behind closer contests.

[...] "The Democratic Senatorial (Campaign) Committee will be able to take more risks. They'll be able to take more shots in more places," he said. "So we'll have to target our money very carefully. What we won't do is we won't spend money in races that are going to win on their own, and we won't spend money on races that can't win."

Ensign also had something interesting to say about Harry Reid:

Ensign has an interesting perspective as a close friend with Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. He says Reid never expected Democrats to take the majority in the Senate during the last election.

Instead, in June of that year, Reid was predicting his party would lose a few seats, Ensign said.

Can somebody remind me again why Harry Reid is still Senate Majority Leader?

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(via Talking Points Memo)