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Where Things Stand in Florida as Early Voting Begins

October 27, 2012 /0 Comments/in /by

Saturday evening bring this update on early voting in Florida today, from Alex Leary in the Tampa Bay Times: 

“The Obama campaign seems quite happy after record turnouts were reported in counties across Florida today, the first day of early voting.
The Times‘ Adam Smith reported on Twitter, ‘More than 20k pple voted eary today so far in Hillsborough Co…In 08 biggest single day (11/1/08) was 18,736.’ The Miami Herald‘s Marc Caputo tweeted, ‘Miami-Dade early voting so heavy that by 3 pm 14,745 people voted — more than ENTIRE first day of 08 EV (12,000). 12-hour total: 22,625.’ Gary Fineout of the AP, ‘Leon County – a Democratic stronghold in Fla – had a record turnout for early voting with 5447 votes cast on day 1.’ Democrats typically have an advantage with early voting, but Republicans have been putting a higher emphasis on its turnout effort this time.”
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Today is the first day for early voting in Florida. Here is a rundown from OBAMA campaign field director Jeremy Bird on where registration and get-out-the-vote efforts are in the state. Key takeaways from Mr. Bird:

“The Florida electorate—just like the rest of the nation’s—has grown much more diverse since 2008:
• Of the over 300,000 Hispanics who have registered to vote since President Obama was elected four years ago, nine out of ten signed up as Democrats or Independents, and only 10 percent registered as Republicans.
• More than 100,000 African-American and Caribbean-American voters registered since November 2008.
• Among those who have cast mail ballots already, 14 percent are African-American, Latino Democrats, or Latino Independents—up from 12 percent at this point in 2008. Latino Republicans have fallen from 7 percent of mail voters at this point in 2008 to just 5 percent today.
• We estimate minority voters will make up more than 30 percent of the vote in Florida this year, up from 28 percent in 2008.”

Here also are some great photos from around the state taken as polling places opened this morning:

#FridayReads, Oct. 26, Kathleen Sharp’s ‘Blood Medicine’ & Richard Ford’s ‘The Sportswriter’

October 26, 2012 /0 Comments/in /by

#FridayReads, Oct. 26, Kathleen Sharp‘s Blood Medicine: Blowing the Whistle on One of the Deadliest Prescription Drugs Ever, a riveting narrative that is a kind of Civil Action covering the corrupt world of prescription drug marketing and dangerous off-label uses of these often untested medicines.  I edited and published Sharp’s 2003 book, Mr. & Mrs. Hollywood: Edie and Lew Wasserman and their Entertainment Empire, and am excited to see that her career’s continuing in really intriguing directions.

 

Also reading Richard Ford’s The Sportswriter, his 1986 novel that is the first book in his Frank Bascombe trilogy, followed by Independence Day (1996) and Lay of the Land (2006), As ever, as I discovered when I read his latest novel, Canada, Ford crafts gorgeous sentences and tells moving stories.

Leslie Gore, Reprising “You Don’t Own Me” for PBO

October 26, 2012 /0 Comments/in , /by

This is a great piece of political advocacy and messaging, made to the backdrop of Leslie Gore’s 1964 hit, “You Don’t Own Me,” directed especially at voters concerned about women’s health and choice. Gore herself is on camera, at the beginning and the end. One of my favorite placards in it: “Keep Your Rosaries off My Ovaries.” Please view and share widely.

Obama Camp Calls Bullshit on Mitt’s “Major” Speech

October 26, 2012 /0 Comments/in /by

To me, it’s kind of funny that less than two weeks before Election Day, any campaign, Repub or Dem, would choose to have their candidate try to give a “major” speech, but then the Romney campaign has often operated by their own book. In Iowa today Mitt gave a speech on the economy billed as “major” which seems to have fallen way short in the policy and news departments. Below is a round-up of progressive and mainstream comment on it, rounded up and send out by the Obama campaign (pasted in below from the campaign’s email to its press list).  The round-up was delivered just ahead of notice the campaign sent out for a conference call with Lawrence Summers and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, in response to Mitt’s speech. The two of them vigorously knocked down the familiar claims Romney made in his speech, which was a recycling of rhetoric and Repub boilerplate.

Shorter Lawrence Summers, paraphrased: Repeating it all over again doesn’t make it add up. Saying it louder doesn’t make it true.

Van Hollen, in Ames, Iowa, paraphrased:  80 business execs yesterday signed a letter requesting the next president make a serious effort to tackle our country’s budget and revenue issues. Only one candidate has a serious s plan for doing so, President Obama. Only his plan is a serious response to the concerns of these business leaders.

The Reviews are in on Romney’s “Major” Economic Speech

Ali Velshi: “They said this was major economic news. There wasn’t a piece of economic news in it.”

Gloria Borger: “This wasn’t so much about, you know, specific policy prescriptions. Nothing new right now.”

Jim Acosta: “Yes, there’s not really a whole lot that’s new inside these remarks here, if you take a look at these remarks in terms of what he said out here today.”

Brooke Baldwin: “I didn’t hear a lot new in the speech. I’m guessing you didn’t hear much new in the speech either.”

Jim Acosta ‏@jimacostacnn Owner of Iowa company where Mitt Romney delivering speech on economy received stimulus funds: http://on.cnn.com/QKbZg9

ThinkProgress ‏@thinkprogress Romney makes closing economic argument at firm that benefited substantially from stimulus funds http://thkpr.gs/ScsELv

Sam Youngman ‏@samyoungman Looking at excerpts from Romney’s “major” econ address. Looks like his stump speech to me.

Ari Shapiro ‏@Ari_Shapiro Romney campaign releases excerpts of today’s “major economic speech.” So far looks a lot like the stump speech he’s been giving this week.

Benjy Sarlin ‏@BenjySarlin So….what’s the news in this major Romney speech so far.

Ali Velshi ‏@AliVelshi I’ll rejoin @SuzanneMalveaux on @CNN after Romney’s econ speech from. This speech isn’t delivering specifics.

Kathie Obradovich ‏@KObradovich Romney about 9 minutes into his speech and it has been uniformly negative in terms of bashing Obama. #romneyia

Molly Ball ‏@mollyesque So far Romney’s big speech on the economy is all about Obama.

Sam Stein ‏@samsteinhp With all the talk of bi-partisanship, has anyone asked Romney campaign if he still looks back at himself as a severely conservative gov?

Justin Wolfers ‏@justinwolfers Turns out that Romney’s “big economic speech” today, was just a placeholder, so that he could go on the attack if the GDP numbers were bad.

Jonathan Cohn ‏@CitizenCohn It’s been a while since I listened to a full Romney speech. Sort of awe-inspiring to hear all of deceptions strung together.

Eric Kleefeld ‏@EricKleefeld Mitt Romney delivers major economic speech, declares substantively that he loves America.

Molly Ball ‏@mollyesque Apparently difference between a Major Romney Address & a regular Romney speech is whether he enters to “Air Force One” or “Born Free.”

Elizabeth Drew ‏@ElizabethDrewOH There Mitt goes again: He will create the 12 million jobs that are going to happen anyway. Who is going to speak up?

Travis Waldron ‏@Travis_Waldron There was nothing major about that speech.

Colin Powell Endorses President Obama, Again

October 25, 2012 /0 Comments/in /by

In 2008, when former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Senator Barack Obama for president, it was later cited by election observers–along with John McCain’s flailing response to the financial crisis and his disastrous selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate–to have been one of the keys that decisively tilted the election toward the Democrat. Throughout the current election cycle, pundits have been wondering what choice the former general would make, or if he would make any endorsement at all. This morning, he ended the suspense by telling Charlie Rose on the CBS morning program that he will again be voting for President Obama, and he explained why. Below is video, followed by a transcript and analysis. 

 

ROSE: Will you endorse President Obama this race? 



POWELL: Well, you know I voted for him in 2008 and I plan to stick with him in 2012, and I’ll be voting for he and for Vice President Joe Biden next month.
 
ROSE: That’s an endorsement for President Obama for re-election?



POWELL: Yes. And let me say why. When he took over the country was in very, very difficult straits, we were in one of the worst recessions we had seen in recent times, close to a depression. The fiscal system was collapsing. Wall Street was in chaos. We had 800,000 jobs lost in that first month of the Obama administration and unemployment would peak a few months later at 10%. So we were in real trouble. The auto industry was collapsing. The housing industry was starting to collapse, and we were in very difficult straits. And I saw over the next several years stabilization come back in the financial community, housing is now starting to pick up after four years, it’s starting to pick up. Consumer confidence is rising. So I think generally we’ve come out of the dive and we’re starting to gain altitude. It doesn’t mean we are problem solved, there are lots of problems still out there. The unemployment rate is too high. People are still hurting in housing. But I see that we are starting to rise up. I also saw the President get us out of one war, start to get us out of a second war and did not get us into any new wars. And finally, I think that the actions he’s taken with respect to protecting us from terrorism have been very, very solid. And so I think we ought to keep on the track that we are on. With respect to Governor Romney, I have the utmost respect to him but as I listen to what his proposals are especially with respect to dealing with our most significant issue, the economy, it’s essentially let’s cut taxes and compensate for that with other things. But that compensation does not cover all of the cuts intended or the new expenses associated with defense.

From later in the interview, Greg Sargent points out in Plum Line, “Perhaps the most interesting part of the interview came when Powell hit Romney on trust,” an aspect of Romney’s character that the Obama campaign has been seeking to undermine: 

Powell: I have concerns about [Romney’s] views on foreign policy. The Governor, who was speaking on Monday night at the debate, was saying things that were quite different from what he said earlier. So I’m not quite sure which Governor Romney we would be getting with respect to foreign policy….It’s a moving target. One day he has a certain strong view about staying in Afghanistan, but then on Monday night he agrees with the withdrawal. Same thing in Iraq. On almost every issue that was discussed on Monday night, Governor Romney agreed with the President, with some nuances. But this is quite a different set of foreign policy views than he had earlier in the campaign. And my concern, which I’ve expressed previously in a public way, is that sometimes I don’t sense that he has thought through these issues as thoroughly as he should have, and he gets advice from his campaign staff that he then has to adjust to modify as he goes along.”

The conclusion of Sargent’s analysis: 

“The Obama camp now has video of Powell making the case that Romney isn’t being forthright about his foreign policy proposals, an arena in which voters presumably want to see evidence of steady leadership. Many pundits have argued that Romney did manage to reassure voters with his Monday performance, by clearing what they like to call a “commander in chief threshold.” But Powell has now directly undermined this case, too; expect this to be incorporated into Obama’s larger closing case against his GOP challenger.

I’m not sure if Colin Powell’s endorsement this year will carry quite as much weight as the first time around, but it could be influential, specifically in the way highlighted by Greg Sargent.

Feting Writers at the #PENLiterary Awards2012

October 25, 2012 /0 Comments/in , /by

Had a great time Monday night at the annual PEN Literary Awards fete, held at the CUNY Graduate Center. After the couple dozen awards were all passed out, I stayed for the reception where I enjoyed visiting with many old book friends and made a few new ones. Publishing pals I spoke with included Kelly Burdick (Melville House), Jane von Mehren (Random House) Tina Pohlman (Open Road), Steve Wasserman (Yale), Richard Nash (Small Demons), Robert Weil (Liveright), Binky Urban (ICM) and Heller McAlpin (NPR, BN Review book critic); the newly met included Liz Van Hoose (Viking), Cary Goldstein (Twelve), and Brigid Hughes (A Public Space). Also enjoyed speaking with authors Dava Sobel, Ron Chernow, and Elinor Lipman. Elinor and I were glad to discover that we have a friend in common: the indomitable, Jenny Allen, actress and inspiration. Elinor has recently published the wickedly clever Tweet Land of Liberty: Irreverent Rhymes from the Political Circus. Here’s an example of Lipman’s rhyming drollery from a few days ago, before the last debate:  

Elinor Lipman ‏@ElinorLipman Dear Higher Power, pull some weight/I need Barack to win debate/I know Mitt prays & gives you money/But ain’t his church a little funny?

Speaking of tweets, I tweeted during much of the PEN ceremony, under the hashtag, #PENLiteraryAwards2012, all 16 of which I’m happy to copy & paste in below, starting with the end of the night, back to the beginning, along with photos I took. [Tweets have been edited for clarity.]
Click here to read all my tweets and see photos from the PEN Literary Awards.

“He Lies Frequently and Convincingly, and has Elastic Principles”

October 24, 2012 /0 Comments/in , /by

A sober and persuasive Letter to the Editor from Thomas J. Curry of Swansea, MA, who as an aerospace engineer and then a Dean in the College of Engineering in in the UMass system, worked with Mitt Romney during his governorship. Below are the first four paragraphs of Mr. Curry’s letter. You may read it all on the website of the Providence Journal.


I am an independent with no party affiliation but from an ideological viewpoint, I am well to the right of center. Still, I cannot support Mitt Romney for president. While Barack Obama has not performed to expectations for a variety of reasons (some of which are his own failings), the dilemma in this election is that the alternative to Obama is Romney.

Having worked directly with Romney during his term as Massachusetts governor, I can tell you that there is nothing authentic or genuine about him. He’ll tell you what he thinks that you want to hear and pretend to be what he thinks you want him to be.

He’s an ideological chameleon who will say anything to get your support and then do whatever he wants to favor the rich and privileged; he’s a caricature of the stereotyped Republican Party.

He lies frequently and convincingly, and has elastic principles, if any at all. He’s fundamentally dishonest, while presenting an image of goodness and light.

Curry’s assertions jibe with what I’ve observed of Romney. The “elasticity of principles” is particularly significant, as it correlates with something Jon Krakauer described in his important book on Mormon fundamentalism, Under The Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, where lying to serve wh a believer tells himself is a great purpose is encouraged and condoned, and not deemed immoral.

H/T Twitter pal @Chernynkya