Heh. This is funny. From Laura at Blue Hampshire:

…the McCain campaign revealed the stagecraft of campaign events more blatantly than I have ever seen, revealing in the process that they wanted the crowd to be uncomfortable if it would look good for the cameras. So people were forced to stand in a room that could have accommodated them in chairs, and harangued to crowd together long before the candidate arrived, and forced to listen to some of the same godawful songs more than once due to McCain’s lateness. One man even took a break from urging people toward the stage and tried to lead them in call-and-response cheers. (“Who do we want for straight talk? McCain!” etc – he gave up pretty quickly.)

Despite the view of the McCain supporters standing next to me that, being a military man, he would surely be on time, McCain, wife Cindy, and the governor of Vermont were nearly 40 minutes later than his planned arrival time (as opposed to the posted start time, 15 minutes before that). Delivery of the line “without a doubt, Mac is back” fell to Governor Douglas, who then had to encourage the crowd to applaud policy items such as middle-class tax relief but found applause came easier for the hoary old “straight talker” line. Cindy McCain did the feminized relational work of apologizing for their lateness, and then McCain took the microphone. For like fifteen minutes.

Does this sound lame. Too bad for them Caoimhin wasn’t on hand to shape things up.

(Here’s my last candidate pitch… surprised more people aren’t posting. Maybe y’all are already sick of it all?)

“It has to be part of our energy mix.”

The speaker is presidential candidate Barack Obama, and the “it” he refers to is nuclear power – an issue of some importance to Vermonters and New Hampshire residents. If you need a memory jog as to why, here ya go:

Obama is, sadly, not unique in this rhetoric.

“I think nuclear power has to be part of our energy solution.” – Hillary Clinton

Asked in early August what technologies would be included in his (Bill Richardson’s) renewable portfolio standard, he said he would promote new technologies. “We need to shift away from fossil fuels,” he said. When pressed, however, he acknowledged that nuclear power would be a part of the mix. – from The Progressive

But as the Daily Green reports, there is one candidate who sees it differently: “But the lone hard-line opponent of nuclear power is John Edwards, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis.“

Edwards reasoning is straightforward: until concerns over safety and waste management are resolved, we are simply trading one environmental problem for another. Desperate for a “magic pill” that will enable us to keep consuming as we have, make no sacrifices, and still bring down carbon emissions, many are turning to nuclear power. It’s not gonna work that way, and Edwards states that pretty clearly. This is one reason he has been endorsed by Friends of the Earth, and multiple other environmentalists and local environmental groups.

Now I’m gonna get a little more hardcore into the contrasts here, just because SPS claimed these differences were minor, but as an environmentalist, I don’t think they are. And of particular concern is Senator Obama. Whoever is in the White House could play a major role in the decommissioning of Vermont Yankee, as his or her NRC will have a large role in managing the show

What makes Obama’s rhetoric harder to dismiss as a casual turn of phrase is the fact that his contributions and accolades from the nuclear industry are not insignificant. As Jeffry St. Clair reported, “Nuclear Notes, the industry’s top trade publication, praised the senator. ‘Back during his campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2004, [Obama] said that he rejected both liberal and conservative labels in favor of ‘common sense solutions.’ And when it comes to nuclear energy, it seems like the Senator is keeping an open mind.'”

Doing what they can to keep that mind open, Exelon Corporation, which runs the largest nuclear power fleet in the country, as given Obama nearly $200,000 to run for president, and also supported his run for Senate generously.

If this wasn’t disturbing enough, when faced with scenarios whereby big energy companies have tried to muscle their way into environmentally compromising ventures to the objection of citizens groups, Obama has gone a bit limp. From HuffPo:

In July 2007, it came as a shock to those who call the shores of Lake Michigan home to learn that British Petroleum (BP) had won approval from Indiana’s Department of Environment Management — with no opposition from the U.S. EPA — to increase discharges of ammonia and toxin-containing solids by 54% and 35% respectively, directly into Lake Michigan from its Whiting, Indiana, refinery.

This particular corner of Lake Michigan, at the border of Illinois and Indiana, had been a cesspool of pollution from electric plants and steel mills for decades. Only the persistent application of environmental protections in recent years has succeeded in reducing pollution and returning these waters — and all of Lake Michigan — to higher levels of safety and cleanliness. The BP proposal could reverse years of hard work and create a huge environmental risk to the Lake’s fishery, as well as a health risk to the drinking supply of more than 35 million people.

Many environmental groups, as well as state, local, and national leaders, moved into action to try to prevent BP from going ahead with its plans. H. Con. Res. 187 condemned BP for its plan and passed the U.S. Congress by a bipartisan vote of 386-26. Congressman Peter J. Roskam (R-IL) came out against the action. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) also condemned the plan.

So where was Senator/Candidate Obama? Like most of the invited legislators, he sent staff to attend an EPA Region 5 meeting on August 14 to discuss the issue. On August 15, he sent a letter to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer — a committee on which he sits — asking that the committee “hold a hearing to examine the recent agreement between the State of Indiana and the BP Whiting Refinery.” The letter identifies “the challenges faced by the United States as we pursue the dual goals of improved energy security and environmental restoration.”

With this tepid response, Senator Obama failed to take a stand with many of his constituents (12,000 signatures on petitions as of July 26), or with his fellow senator from Illinois and a vast majority of lawmakers in the U.S. Congress to halt this action.

This is more than a little potentially worrisome.

This is not to say that Obama has been a “black hat.” He’s pushed forward legislation to make nuclear power plants more accountable, and kudos to him for that.

But anybody who doesn’t have a pre-existing narrative of Obama as wholly virtuous and without blemish has got to look at this and be a little uncomfortable.

Since tomorrow’s the big New Hampshire primary (and we have readers in New Hampshire, so this is the closest any of us are going to get to actually having an effect on the vote, short of pounding the pavement or working a phone bank), I’d like to extend an invitation.

I see that Julie has posted a candidate diary, and I’d like to as well, but I want to be fair, given that the GMD front page crowd seems to overwhelmingly lean (if not outright favor) John Edwards. For today, if you write a candidate diary for the sidebar, I’ll front page it as soon as I can (lunchtime, or during breaks if I’m not onsite at work).

This is not a wide open invitation – they need to be actual diaries, for one. Not just two sentences of “I want Hillary! Yea, Hillary!” I wanna see some prose, goldurnit.

Also – and I don’t see this happening, but just in case – this aint the time to contact HQ and get 40 new readers signed up to put a whole string of redundant diaries up and filibuster the site for others (“But odum said he’d post ’em! What a lying phony!”), but I think it’d be great to see what people have to say. Between now and when the polls close, I expect 1000 unique visitors to stop by GMD, and a couple hundred of those could well have voting rights tomorrow. It’s not enough to throw an election one way or the other, but it’s certainly a way to support your favorite pick.

Let ’em rip.

An anecdote from yesterday’s Edwards event covered by Julie – not a candidate promotional diary, I promise…

If you read Julie’s account, you already know I was among the crowd of Vermonters that went door knocking for John Edwards yesterday in New Hampshire (and what an interesting combination of political types showed up – Ben Cohen, Senate Majority Leader John Campbell, Sen. Alice Nitka, Vermont State Emploees Union head Ed Stanak, former Progressive Burlington City Councilperson Phil Fiermonte – oh for a camera for those times when odd combinations were standing together!).

Among the stars in attendance was GMD front pager Caoimhin Laochdha, and at the end of the day, it’s a damn good thing he was.

After the door knocking, we met up for a rally with Senator Edwards at the Hanover Lebanon High School. I’d been partnered up with former State Senator Matt Dunne, who is an Edwards organizational point person, and as such I got to hear the troubles first hand when I arrived. The rally had been set up by a volunteer who also worked at the school, and apparently there was some conflict, as the gym (where the rally was planned) was in use for a basketball practice. So, volunteers were trying to shift it into the cafeteria, which didn’t have enough romm for everyone, leaving the vast majority of people in the hall.

This is when the ugliness reared its head. Somebody called the fire marshall in an attempt to shut down the gathering. One of the coordinators on site had been a Kerry staffer four years ago and confirmed (first hand? Who knows…) that this was indeed an established technique from the dirty trick playbook.

Since the earliest arrivers at the event included many folks sporting “Hillary” and “Obama” stickers (a note here: I could only get first-hand confirmation of the Hillary stickers), the assumption was that this was exactly what had happened. Don’t know who, from what camp – certainly wouldn’t suggest the order came from campaign staff, but it seemed clear that’s what had happened (no doubt it was a little over-eager, heat-of-the-moment tackiness rather than part of any master plan – at least that’s what I choose to believe).

So there was trouble. The fire department (who confirmed they’d been called from someone there) was on the scene, actively barring people from entering – including members of the national press corps. People inside were not budging to allow for the press to enter (including, reportedly, some of those sporting other campaigns’ stickers). And nobody seemed to be in charge.

…so GMD front pager Caoimhin Laochdha stepped up to the plate…

With behind-the scenes disarray – and some volunteers even beginning to argue with fire fighters, the gym opened back up and became available. Organizers first impulses were to try and move the whole thing back into that room, which would have caused even more chaos (and at this point, supporters are really starting to wonder what’s going on).

Caoimhin took charge, rightly figuring that things needed to happen immediately. He called for two groups – a smaller one in the cafeteria, and the significant overflow in the gym (which all but filled it up), and had Edwards go to both groups – first the overflow, thanking them for being there and checking in with them briefly before going back to the cafeteria to give his speech, which could be played simultaneously in the gym through the schools sound system.

To make it work, Caoimhin took the stage and made a clear, stern appeal that 40 or so people in the cafeteria would need to join the rest of us in the overflow crowd in the gym. He applieda little persuasion, and explained that the press really needed to be there to further the candidacy they were there to support. Enough acquiesced, and the make-it-up-as-you-go-along event went swimmingly. Heck, with the whole basketball-thing (see Julie’s pics), it was probably even better and more fun than it woulda been.

And the crowd? They never knew that anything more than some minor confusion had slowed things up a bit. There was no way to tell that a major clusterf*ck had been averted, thanks to Caoimhin…

Who says bloggers aren’t good fer nuthin, huh?

UPDATE: Lots of analysis this morning, but the long and the short is this: Obama brought in new voters and won with them (with Clinton in second among that group), which is interesting because that trick never works. Among returning caucus-goers, Edwards led, meaning the predictions of many were spot on: had the turnout been at traditional levels, it may well have been Edwards’. If its not just a one-time thing, and all the independents and first-time voters show up in the Democratic primary in NH, that’s a trend that’ll scare the begeezus out of Republicans…

So Iowa is playing out the way many were expecting in recent days, and in light of the Des Moines Register poll. The big question now is who comes in second. It’ll be a photo finish between Edwards and Clinton, but the bragging rights matter, especially for Edwards. Edwards needs to be able to lay claim to second place to stay in this, even though his overall chances just took a big hit (despite the fact that Iowa doles out its delegates proportionate to the vote).

Clinton, however, will stay viable with a third place finish, if for no other reason than the fact that the media primary narrative has been all about her. If she’s top two, that narrative stays more or less the same, but with her as the new underdog. If she’s in third, it’s all about voters’ rejection of her. In any event, the media story will still be about her, and therefore, she’ll still be a player.

Progressives who have put their hopes on Edwards as the only viable candidate who has clearly and unequivocally embraced their values should take heart: Clinton lost. That is no small thing, and it likely means that – when the dust settles – the worst-case scenario, with all its previous inevitability, is hopefully in the past. As with Dean, Iowa Dems flirted with the unapologetic lefty, but went for the one they thought would be most appealing to the center and shallow right – and it is significant for the Party and the nation that they did not decide that that person was Hillary Clinton.

Yeesh. It’s getting a little hot in here. Let’s dial it down a bit, eh? Here’s my personal favorite nonsense from Comedy Central’s Indecision2008 website from September. Once again, demonstrating their hardcore geek cred, CC has a list of which comic-book superheroes most resemble which candidates. This is probably mildly amusing if you’re not a hopeless geek – but its way damn funny if you are!

Here are the big three Dems as a teaser, but the rest are just as funny (if not funnier):

Hillary Clinton = She-Hulk
Trained as a lawyer, can kick pretty much any guy’s ass, marriage to Man-Wolf was probably a mistake.

John Edwards = Robin/Nightwing
Kinda just worked better as a sidekick.

Barack Obama = Black Lightning
Energetic…?

Check ’em all out, if it’s your kinda thing. Here’s one more, just for kicks:

Mike Gravel = Wolverine
Intense, outdoorsy misanthrope from the Great White North with little memory of his past — possibly insane.

After all the inspirational speeches, nasty comments , innuendo, innuendo-denial, constituent pandering, constituent dissing and frantic bloggery, its finally the Iowa caucus. Where the first two finishers have a future in the race, and all the rest need to start reconsidering their personal calendars for the next few months. It’s Democracy in action.

If, by Democracy, you mean that you don’t get a vote. That as few as 1/100ths of 1 percent of eligible Democratic voters, from a pool that is 98% white and 100% midwestern will maybe not choose who the nominee will be, but will certainly determine most of the names that won’t be.

And you get no say whatsoever. Aint that nice?

Oh sure, you can send some money, if you’re the type with money to spare. If you have a lot of money to spare, you can even fly out and help convince potential caucus-voters. But you still won’t get a say.

If things go well, your candidate may be in the mix after the caucus – in which case you can rush out to New Hampshire (as I’m planning to do) and bust your butt convincing some of those voters to back your candidate.

But you still don’t get a say yourself.

Even if the race is still in play come Town Meeting Day, you still aren’t going to have much of a vote. Quite frankly, by the time Vermonters vote, if there isn’t a clear candidate, it likely means we’ll be looking at a brokered convention, in which case the real votes will be cast by the superdelegates and the unpledged delegates – and eventually by the pledged candidates who get released by their candidate.

And still no say for you at that point. Just an opportunity to have some generalized influence-by-proxy.

This system sucks. The idea that my candidate may get eliminated before I get a chance to vote for him sucks. Let’s all make it a priority to continue the conversations about change, so tentatively begun at the organizational level this cycle, and blow this system open for next time.

Does this make anybody else queasy?

“This,” is Deb Richter’s new attempt to reinvigorate the single-payer healthcare debate. More power to her for that, of course. In referring to his desire to expand Catamount health, Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin reiterated at his press conference yesterday that he is, in principle, a supporter of the single payer system – and its true, his rhetoric has been consistent for many years on that front. What he’ll tell you is that a small state like Vermont needs help and medicare/medicaid funding flexibility in order to afford it, and without federal action it simply won’t add up.

It’d be interesting to do some creative number crunching and brainstorming in that regard. I played that game myself once, batting around a radical thought experiment that would get the lawsuits flying. But its hard not to have some sympathy to his point. Catamount, he argues, is simply a way to help as many people as possible in the interim (and maybe to warm people up to the idea of government-brokered insurance).

But, really – Take Back Vermont Healthcare?? Whose idea was it to invoke Take Back Vermont, with the same white sign and all? I look at that – I even hear about it – and I reflexively recoil.

If Dr. Richter thinks its a clever way to appeal to the rural voter and tap some of that resentment – let me tell you, it’s not. “Take Back Vermont” is a firmly established – almost archetypal at this point – expression of bigotry and hatred. It’s a hot button for those who feel animosity towards gays and lesbians, stirring it up – and it’s a hot button for those of us who support equal rights – getting our dander up and putting us on the defensive.

It’s a psycho-social hornet’s nest, and whoever thought it was a good idea to resurrect all those feelings (and there are still quite a few “Take Back Vermont” signs out there – make no mistake) and try to pump them into the healthcare debate should not be patting themselves on the back, they should be kicking themselves in the ass.

Will Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney be on the Presidential ballot as a Green this year? (For that matter, do the Greens want Nader back after he used and abused the party apparatus so badly the last couple times? Would he even accept losing in a Primary? Doubt it.) From Third Party Watch:

According to the Alameda County (CA) Green Party, there will be a Presidential Debate on January 13, 2 p.m. in San Francisco. Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney, Elaine Brown, Jared Ball and Kent Mesplay are all listed.

The California Primary on February 5 will include all five of these candidates as well as Kat Swift of Texas, and Jesse Johnson of the West Virginia Mountain Party, which affiliated with the Green Party (US) this summer. In most states, delegates to the GPUS Presidential Nominating Convention will be selected by state convention or other internal methods such as balloting, but in four states (Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, & Illinois) and DC there will be a state run primary.

Calitics (GMD’s sister 50-State-Blog-Project/Soaplblox site in California) will likely liveblog, if it’s your kinda thing.

In my opinion, there are a lot of reasons not to vote for Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic nominee for President. Most of them are obvious from a progressive standpoint (at least I think so), but one of the most significant is perhaps not so obvious.

When the dust clears, the Democratic nominee will become the functional head of the Democratic National Committee. Howard Dean will become largely marginalized and ultimately replaced by someone who is the candidate’s right-hand person, if that candidate actually wins the White House (and if he or she doesn’t, Dean will end up taking the blame anyway, and will likely be shown the door). It’s a pattern which is routine (although, IMO undesirable – and I’d like to see it broken). In the short term, though, the candidate will be largely calling the shots.

It’s been no secret that the usual suspect, political Washington insider crowd – personified by mega-consultants like James Carville and pundits like Paul Begala – viscerally despise Dean and his “50 State Strategy” as it was originally known. The ballots of the dramatic ’06 elections hadn’t even been cast before history was being rewritten by the likes of Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer to take credit for the electoral gains and minimize or dismiss the effect of Dean’s radical reallocation of resources to the state level.

Simply put, Dean has never been out of this crowd’s sights, and Hillary Clinton is the candidate of this crowd. Once she  has the chair above Dean, Dean and his priorities will go the way of all things just as quickly as Carville and company can show up with the pink slips. Dean has already been preparing local party staff for the likelihood of some serious, even radical changes to the Party’s current modus operandi.

The question is how much of a change in mid-election year stream the Clinton crowd would dare to make, and whether their vindictive streak would overwhelm their sense of the practical.

As far as the other candidates go, it’s hard to say. Obama has famously turned over his campaign to many in the beltway insider set from the get-go as well, but not so much the crowd with the highly public axes to grind against Dean. In any event, those of us who feel that this devolution of resources and support to the local level is a good thing should have their eyes wide open if they choose to vote for Clinton.