links for 2010-06-08

In mid-February 2008, fresh from winning a bunch of Super Tuesday primaries, Barack Obama granted an interview to "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Croft. "When you sit down and you look at [your] resume," Croft said to Obama, "there's no executive experience, and in fact, correct if I'm wrong, the only thing that you've actually run was the Harvard Law Review."

"Well, I've run my Senate office, and I've run this campaign," Obama said.

Seven months later, after receiving the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama talked with CNN's Anderson Cooper. At the time, the news was dominated by Hurricane Gustav, which was headed toward New Orleans and threatening to become a Katrina-like disaster. "Some of your Republican critics have said you don't have the experience to handle a situation like this," Cooper said to Obama. "They in fact have said that Governor Palin has more executive experience. …"
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You think? A one term Presidency on the horizon.

We've spent a lot of time and, well, energy warning against costly carbon controls, yet we must admit the fruits of our earnest labors pale in comparison to those of Senator Barbara Boxer. That's odd because Boxer is an avowed environmentalist and chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Her honest job description might be, "To pass the most annoying, burdensome legislation possible."

However, it's hard to argue with the lady's results. Her resolute leadership has torpedoed two major climate bills — so far. While we continue to disagree with Boxer vehemently, her record of unmitigated failure is a "platform" around which we can rally.
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Kind of backhanded, no?

In California's Senate race, former Rep. Tom Campbell (R) has been making a similar electability appeal, noting that his moderate credentials and experience running statewide — he was the losing GOP nominee for Senate in 1992 and 2000 — make him the best choice to take on Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) this fall.

"Both of my two primary opponents lose to Senator Boxer — one loses by six and the other by 10," Campbell said recently. "If we wish to replace Sen. Barbara Boxer — and I surely do — we've got to focus on this historic opportunity to do so."

Primary voters don't agree. In a Field poll released over the weekend, former Hewlett Packard executive Carly Fiorina led Campbell 37 percent to 22 percent with conservative state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore clocking in with 19 percent.

Unless something major changes in the final 24 hours of the campaigns, it's a near-certainty that Tarkanian and Campbell will add their names to the list of candidates who relied on electability and lost.

Republicans have long contended that Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer is too liberal even for California. Yet the challenges never seem to gel.

This year, however, polls show Boxer is uniquely vulnerable, and her GOP opponents appear to be within striking distance.

Leading the Republican pack is Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, who has spent close to $7 million already. Fiorina leads former Rep. Tom Campbell by 15 percentage points in the latest California Field Poll, with Assemblyman Chuck DeVore in third place with 19 percent.

If Fiorina takes the nomination, Boxer will get an opponent like no other she’s faced before — a deep-pocketed female challenger who commands the spotlight. And with two strong personalities in a mega-state like California, this race will be nasty, brutish and expensive.
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An interesting election night on the West Coast and Nevada.

As voters head to the polls Tuesday for a crucial set of primary elections, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds antipathy toward their elected officials rising and anti-incumbent sentiment at an all-time high.

The national survey shows that 29 percent of Americans now say they are inclined to support their House representative in November, even lower than in 1994, when voters swept the Democrats out of power in the that chamber after 40 years in the majority.

The poll also finds growing disapproval of the "tea party" movement, with half the population now expressing an unfavorable impression of the loosely aligned protest campaign that has shaken up politics this year.
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More mainstream voters will reject Tea Party extremists as conservative candidates win office