DefeatClinton2008.com

In following a presidential race, the most important way to understand what is happening is to follow voter responses to open ended questions. Those are questions which ask “What do you like the most about Barack Obama?” and “What do you like the least about Barack Obama.” These questions, which let voters tell pollsters what they think in their own words, offer the best way to figure out what is really going on.

Source: DickMorris.com

Published in TheHill.com on August 19, 2008

For the first time in memory, the two parties are holding their conventions right after one another. Within 72 hours of Obama’s acceptance speech on the night of Aug. 28, in front of 75,000 adoring fans outdoors at Invesco Field, the Republican convention’s opening gavel will come crashing down. How will it work? What will be the impact of these nearly simultaneous events? Nobody really knows, but the answer is critical. Usually, the post-convention polling sets a pattern that lasts at least until the candidates debate.

Source: DickMorris.com

The worst thing about the new Zogby show that has Obama down five points to McCain (as opposed to his July lead of seven points) is that there is now virtually no gender gap in the race. In July, Obama was getting 53% of the support of women as opposed to 47% among men. But now he is winning only 43% of women and 41% of men, so while his male support is down by six points, his female backing is off by ten points.

Source: DickMorris.com

Meet Igor Sechin, nominally the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia. In fact, he is the dominant power in the Kremlin. In Russia, the speculation is over whether Putin is his puppet! According to top Kremlinologists, Sechin was calling the shots when Russia invaded Georgia.

Take a minute to look at Sechin’s photo (Go to http://www.daylife.com/photo/0gul0IVfMXbEY). It explains all you need to know about him!

Robert Amsterdam, an international lawyer who knows all about the inner workings in Moscow, calls the invasion, in part, “an effort to sidetrack Dmitry Medvedev,” the newly elected Russian president who has focused on bringing to Russia the rule of law. Determined to show real power and to trivialize the legalisms of Medvedev, Sechin and Putin ignored the Russian president in invading their neighbor.

Source: DickMorris.com

Published in the New York Post on August 18, 2008

Last week raised important questions about whether Barack Obama is strong enough to be president. On the domestic political front, he showed incredible weakness in dealing with the Clintons, while on foreign and defense questions, he betrayed a lack of strength and resolve in standing up to Russia’s invasion of Georgia.
This two-dimensional portrait of weakness underscores fears that Obama might, indeed, be a latter-day Jimmy Carter.

Source: DickMorris.com

For both John McCain and Barack Obama, locked in a tight duel, safety seems to be the prevailing sentiment.

McCain is worried about a right-wing backlash against Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and even against Tom Ridge (the pro-choice Republican former Pennsylvania governor). The eminently safe choice for the GOP is Tim Pawlenty, the Minnesota governor. His selection wouldn’t do much one way or the other, but it would give McCain a good talking head to complement his ticket.

Obama will, of course, steer clear of Hillary. He seems to have three key options for VP — Tim Kaine, the Virginia govenor; Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.); and Sen. Evan Bayh (Ind.).

Bayh has gotten some flak lately from the left and is suspect on the abortion issue. He also is bound at the hip to Mark Penn, who wins no points in popularity on the left of the party. Kaine has the same defects that Obama has — he’s a former city councilman and mayor of Richmond, a city with less than 200,000 population (some colleges have more). So a state senator will run with a city councilman for president? I don’t think that will work well. Biden — crusty, talkative, argumentative old Joe Biden — might be the best choice. At least he knows where the men’s room is in the White House!

Source: DickMorris.com

Published on FOXNews.com on August 15, 2008

Hillary and Bill have hijacked the Denver convention, making it into a carbon copy of what it would have looked like had she won until the last possible moment. By the time Obama gets up to speak and put his stamp on the convention, Hillary will have had one prime time night all to herself. Bill will have pre-empted a second night. Hillary will have had all the nominating and seconding speeches she wants. And the roll call of the states would record, in graphic detail, how the voters of state after state rejected Obama’s candidacy in the primaries. Only then, after three and a half days of all Clinton all the time will the convention then, finally, turn to its nominee and allow him to have an hour in the sun!

Source: DickMorris.com

Poland, chastened by the vision of Russian tanks invading Georgia, has just decided to sign a deal with the United States to deploy an anti-missile system that Russia strongly opposes on its territory. The ruling party in Poland, the Civic Assembly, won the last election, in part, by castigating the missile deal. But with Russian troops streaming across the Georgian border, it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea after all.

This is only the beginning of a backlash against Russia that will emerge in the coming months. Putin has gone too far and showed too much of who he really is. The result will be to trigger a level of defiance in the former satellite countries and in NATO that he has not anticipated. Ukraine will be admitted to NATO. American involvement with Georgia will increase. And Putin will soon find out how expensive his miscalculation was.

Source: DickMorris.com

Hillary and Bill are demonstrating the ease with which Barack Obama can be pushed around. With no real leverage over Obama, they have managed to secure prime time speeches for themselves on Tuesday and Wednesday night at the convention and to get Hillary’s name placed in nomination. They have won all of their demands for convention scheduling. In the name of party unity, Obama has given away the store. After the nominations, there will be a roll call vote. This further assures that the convention will be a continuation of the primaries and that Obama will be a guest at his own convention.

This begs the basic question: Is Barack Obama strong enough to be president?

Source: DickMorris.com

Now that Bush has rescinded his father’s executive order banning offshore oil drilling, only the legislative ban stands in the way. And that ban expires on October 1, the start of the new fiscal year. The Democrats have the votes to extend it, but the Republicans will filibuster it and there is no way the Democrats can get 60 votes to stop the filibuster.

So the Dems are threatening to put the extension of the off shore drilling ban in as an amendment to the Continuing Resolution (CR) needed to keep the government running. If the Republicans filibuster the CR, the Democrats feel they would profit from the resulting shutdown just as they did in 1995-6.

But I doubt it. I thiink that the American public will demand a vote on offshore drilling and will not go along with the Democratic ploy of attaching a nongermane amendment onto the CR. They will see through it. A deal must inevitably be cut where the Dems get some of their conservation and flex fuel programs and the Republicans get their offshore and slate drilling — just like Paris Hilton suggested!

In the debate over off shore drilling, a key fact has been lost: States have to approve the drilling for it to happen. So California can continue to say no if it wants while Florida and New Jersey say yes. And, the other fact that is lost, is that the state will get 40% of the revenues from offshore drilling. So it is really an answer to the state budget deficits and an alternative to higher taxation..

Source: DickMorris.com