Ralph Nader has said that he will announce shortly his decision whether to mount another third party candidacy during this Presidential election-- thus possibly throwing the election to the Republicans for a second time.

Please see this editorial from the Nation that eloquently explains why this action would betray the causes that Nader claims to stand for.

Please, call Nader's Exploratory Committee at 202-265-4000 and urge Nader not to go on this ego trip again!

A new USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll shows that both Kerry and Edwards would beat Bush:

Democrat John Kerry holds his largest lead yet over President Bush in a head-to-head match-up among likely voters, a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll concludes, and rival John Edwards also holds a double-digit lead over the president.

The poll, taken Feb. 16-17, indicates that if the election were held today, Kerry would be chosen by 55% of likely voters, compared to 43% for Bush. In the last polling, Feb. 6-8, Bush held a 49-48 advantage.

Edwards, Kerry's sole remaining major rival for the Democratic nomination, holds a 54%-44% advantage, the poll indicates. The question has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Howard Dean fought valiantly and brought a new era to grass roots politics. He's going to withdraw from the presidential race today, after his third place showing in Wisconsin. We wish him well.

Howard Dean will end his campaign for the presidential nomination and launch a new "campaign for change" within the Democratic Party to keep his issues alive and his supporters organized, a key campaign aide said Wednesday.

The former Vermont governor, who went winless in 17 caucuses and primaries after falling from leading contender early in the year, does not intend to endorse either John Kerry or John Edwards, the aide said on condition of anonymity. Dean has been impressed with Edwards and suggested on the campaign trail that he would make a better nominee, but Dean has decided to stay out of the Kerry-Edwards contest, the aide said.

President Bush has a new group of supporters raising money for his reelection-- Wealthy Arabs:

Wealthy Arab-Americans and foreign-born Muslims who strongly back President Bush's decision to invade Iraq are adding their names to the ranks of Pioneers and Rangers, the elite Bush supporters who have raised $100,000 or more for his re-election.

....the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the war in Iraq have been a catalyst for some wealthy Arab-Americans to become more involved in politics. And there are still others who have a more practical reason for opening their checkbooks: access to a business-friendly White House. Already, their efforts have brought them visits with the president at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., as well as White House dinners and meetings with top administration officials.

In honor of President's Day, SKBubba has a list of President Bush's accomplishments. It's a good list-- one to bookmark.

[comments now closed]

According to a new CBS Poll, the only Democrat who would beat George Bush is John Kerry:

Among the three top Democratic candidates still in the November race, only front-runner John Kerry leads in a head-to-head matchup with President Bush, says a poll released Monday.

In the CBS News poll, Kerry had a lead of 48 percent to 43 percent over Bush. The president led John Edwards, 50-41 percent, and Howard Dean, 54-37 percent, in other matchups.

Bump and Update: Grossman is gone from the Dean Campaign.

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Original Post 2/15 7 pm

Howard Dean won't say he's quitting the presidential race if he loses Wisconsin Tuesday. But his chief campaign aide, Steven Grossman, will be quitting Dean --to back Kerry--if Dean loses:

The chairman of Howard Dean's presidential campaign said today that he would leave and shift his support to Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts if Dr. Dean loses the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, an outcome he sees as all but invevitable.

"If Howard Dean does not win the Wisconsin primary, I will reach out to John Kerry unless he reaches out to me first," said the chairman, Steven Grossman, who was chairman of Mr. Kerry's 1996 Senate race. "I will make it clear that I will do anything and everything I can to help him become the next president, and I will do anything and everything I can to build bridges with the Dean organization."

Dean is under a lot of pressure to quit now, as is Edwards. We bet Dean sees the light on Wednesday.

Dr. Dean has no events scheduled beyond Tuesday night, when he plans to fly home to Burlington, Vt., to regroup. He has not won in any of the 16 states that have voted. His bank account is dwindling. Many of his aides are planning vacations or seeking jobs with other candidates. "None of us are doing a whole lot right now, because there's not a whole lot to do," one top aide said Sunday, on the condition he not be named. "We've put one ad on the air in Wisconsin. We're not polling anymore. We're not going to have the money to run some full-fledged campaign for March 2."

Edwards will probably stay in longer. He sees it as a two person race between him and Kerry--and has made plans to visit New York, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota and Ohio next week.

Drudge's credibility takes a hit. The Kerry Rumor is over, done, finito, put out to pasture. It wasn't true. Good for John Kerry for sticking to his guns and aggressively denying it:

Breaking her silence four days after the allegations surfaced on the Internet, Alexandra Polier issued a statement to The Associated Press, saying, "I have never had a relationship with Senator Kerry, and the rumors in the press are completely false."

Kerry already has denied reports that he had an extramarital affair. On Monday, his campaign said he would have no further comment. Polier's statement was released to the AP in Nairobi, where the 27-year-old freelance journalist is visiting the parents of her fiance, Yaron Schwartzman, an Israeli who was raised in Kenya. She previously worked as an editorial assistant for the AP in New York.

"Whoever is spreading these rumors and allegations does not know me," Polier said, appealing to the media to respect her privacy and the privacy of her fiance and his family. Polier also took issue with reports that referred to her as a former Kerry intern. "I never interned or worked for John Kerry," she told AP over the phone.

This part's the best:

In a separate statement, Polier's parents, Terry and Donna Polier of Malvern, Pa., dismissed the "completely false and unsubstantiated" allegations about their daughter. "We love and support her 100 percent and these unfounded rumors are hurtful to our entire family," the statement said. "We appreciate the way Senator Kerry has handled the situation, and intend on voting for him for president of the United States."

[link via Counterspin.]

The Milwaukee Sentinel has endorsed John Edwards for President.

Democrats in Wisconsin and elsewhere owe much to Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont and candidate for the presidential nomination of their party. Perhaps more than any other candidate in the race, the long-running Dean has set the thematic framework and identified the critical issues in the coming battle with President Bush. Those themes and issues by now are familiar to voters: the conduct of the war on terrorism, justification for the invasion of Iraq, globalization and the loss of manufacturing jobs, outsourced services, health care costs and coverage, tax cuts skewed to America's most prosperous citizens and a deficit-burdened fiscal policy.

For Democrats, then, the challenge is to nominate the man who can take his party's common vision for the nation and convince voters that it offers the right course for America. That man, in our judgment, is Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. We urge Democrats to vote for him in Tuesday's primary.

Meantime, we invite Wisconsinites to take an unblinkered look at Edwards - and not because Kerry lacks the right stuff to be president. Quite the contrary: Kerry would be a formidable nominee if Democrats choose him. But we believe Edwards would be more than Kerry's match to lead his party in November. It's true that Edwards cannot touch Kerry's distinguished military record or his long career in public life. Kerry, 60, has served in the Senate for nearly 20 years; Edwards, 50, was elected for the first time in 1998. But that also means Edwards does not carry as much baggage for his opponents to exploit.

The paper praises Kerry and Dean, but gives its reasons ("The Two Americas" message primarily) for going with Edwards. It's a good analysis and we recommend reading the entire article.

The British Sun is running a story with the photo of the former intern who allegedly claims she had an affair with John Kerry. Her name is Alex Polier and the paper says she is not keeping it a secret and that she says it occurred in 2001.

Now that Kerry has categorically denied the affair, it better turn out to be a tall tale--otherwise, we think he's in trouble. On the other hand, Kerry knows far more about this than we do--and we think he's smart enough not to lie and think he wouldn't be found out--so we're believing Kerry at this juncture that it didn't happen.

[link via Counterspin.]

Update: Alex Polier's former classmate writes this article saying it is most improbable that Alex and Kerry had an affair. [link via Unfair Witness]

Update: Wait a minute. Wasn't John Kerry battling prostate cancer in 2001? How was he having this hot 2 year affair?

Kerry's father died of prostate cancer. From an August 1, 2002 AP article (available on lexis.com):

Mary Beth, of Wampum Blog, is running for the Maine State Legislature.

I am now officially running for the legislative seat in this new district, renumbered as 116.

The challenges we Mainers face, underfunded schools, cuts in critical services, devastating job losses, an exodus of our young people, unsupported small business and skyrocketing health care costs, have led me to conclude my experience and energy is better served AS the candidate at this time, rather than my managing the candidate, as I've done for the past twenty years.

In addition, Portland is represented in Augusta by eight House and two Senate seats. Currently, these are held by nine Democrats and one Green Independent. All ten legislators are male. I'm the only woman, and only person of color, running from the largest, most ethnically diverse city in Maine. Sadly, in a city with the first openly lesbian mayor, we haven't sent a female representative to Augusta since 1998. I hope to start a new trend.

There's a paypal donation link over at Wampum. Good Luck, Mary Beth!

Looks like the Right will stop at nothing. Remember the photo splashed all over tv last week of Kerry standing next to Jane Fonda? It was doctored. She wasn't even at the event.