News from the Votemaster          

Arkansas and Kentucky Hold Primaries Today     Permalink

Mitt Romney will get another test of how well he is unifying the Republican Party today. He is competing in Arkansas and Kentucky, although all his opponents have dropped out. Nevertheless, their names will be on the ballot, and people who still haven't warmed to Romney will have the opportunity to show it. Both of these are conservative states and will surely vote for him in November, but a protest vote for someone else tomorrow is a real possibility.

Obama and Cory Booker Continue to Squabble     Permalink

On Sunday's Meet the Press, Newark's mayor, Cory Booker, said that President Obama's attacks on Bain Capital were "nauseating." This remark started a miniwar between Booker and Obama, with Booker trying to reposition himself several times. Booker is a smart politician and this was no gaffe. He knew exactly what he was saying and what the effect would be. He undoubtedly said it because it is well known that running Newark is no fun at all and he has ambitions for higher office. By defending Wall Street at the moment Obama is attacking it, he knew he was giving Romney good material to work with, but he also hoped that Wall Street was paying attention so that when Booker runs for higher office, he can pass the hat around the street and hope large checks are tossed in. But when a politician puts his own personal interest above that of his party, he is likely to run into a fair amount of resistance at the next election.

Undeterred by Booker, Obama reiterated his earlier attacks on Bain Capital and doubled down by increasing the ad buy to run them longer.

In a rare response, Bain Capital issued issued a statement defending its actions in an indirect way, but didn't address the core of the Obama ad (that a Bain-controlled company acquired another company, SCM, fired all the workers, borrowed $100 million that it paid itself in fees, and later had SCM file for bankruptcy).

Hawaii Pushing Back on the Arizona Secretary of State's Request for Obama's Birth Certificate     Permalink

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett has been pestering the State of Hawaii for a copy of Obama's birth certificate, despite the fact that Obama released it long ago. The Hawaii officials have apparently grown tired of this and have turned the tables of Bennett, asking Bennett to prove he has the legal right to even ask. They could ask him to prove who he is and that he was duly elected Secretary of State as well. No doubt he could produce an election certificate but Hawaii could say that Kenneth Bennett is a common name and could he please prove that he is the one elected as Secretary of State. It could become even more ludicrous than it is now. The Washington Post called Bennett a buffoon today.

Needless to say, if Bennett actually carried out his threat to remove Obama from the general election ballot, it could set off a chain reaction. Suppose, for example, that the Secretary of State of Missouri, Democrat Robin Carnahan, were to say that she heard rumors that Romney's father moved to Mexico to practice polygamy and that Mitt was born in Mexico, so she was thinking about keeping Romney off the Missouri ballot. Actually, it was Mitt's father, George Romney, who was born in Mexico, and when he ran for President, no one brought the issue up because under U.S. law, if a foreign-born baby has at least one parent who was born in America, the baby is automatically an American. For the record, John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone and Barry Goldwater was born in the Arizona Territory before it became part of the United States proper. But one can scarcely imagine what would happen if all the Republican Secretaries of State were to scratch Obama and all the Democratic ones were to leave Romney off the ballot. This is not a good path to follow.

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