Posted by John Publius Jr. on February 29th, 2008 — in Referee whistle, Hillary Clinton, Blog, Democratic Party Rules
Referee whistle: silent, no foul
Yahoo News reports: “Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign has raised the possibility of a challenge to Texas’ primary and caucus rules just days before the contest, drawing a warning against legal action from the state’s Democratic Party.”
Full story: Clinton may challenge Texas vote rules
The seminal article for electionReferee.com is this article: A Quick Guide to the Democratic Party Rule Book. The end of this article includes a section specifically on the Texas Democratic Party rules as “a case study in confusion”.
We will see how this plays out. The Clinton campaign is right to point out that these Texas rules are a mess. It is certainly in their right to pursue legal action, but it seems unlikely this will go anywhere. The Texas Democratic Party also has the right to set any rules it wants as long as the rules do not violate U.S or Texas law, and these rules probably are legal.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on February 27th, 2008 — in Referee whistle, Barack Obama, Talk Radio, Blog
Referee whistle: against Talk Radio, Personal Foul - Roughing the Passer, 15 yards
On Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 talk radio host Bill Cunningham spoke at a John McCain rally. Cunningham made an inflammatory attack on Barack Obama, and John McCain condemned these comments. Here is a link to the basic story: McCain condemns remarks on Obama.
John McCain deserves credit for distancing himself from Cunningham.
The bigger story:
Bill Cunningham is not alone. For several months, the right-wing attack machine has been laying the groundwork for a disgraceful “big lie” campaign against Barack Obama. The strategy is to portray Obama as not being “American enough”. Within this strategy are tactics such as pointing out that Obama’s name doesn’t sound like a “regular” American name.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on February 27th, 2008 — in Referee whistle, Hillary Clinton, Talk Radio, Mainstream Media, Blog
Referee whistle: against the Mainstream Media, Personal Foul - Roughing the Passer, 15 yards
This criticism is more general than typical judgements of election fairness.
Background:
It really goes back to 1992 when some talk radio hosts especially began attacking Hillary Clinton. They never stopped attacking her. The general message seems to be that “Hillary Clinton is a power-hungry anti-christ”. It is a “big lie” strategy - keep repeating it long enough and loudly enough, and eventually more and more people believe it.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on February 27th, 2008 — in Referee whistle, Mainstream Media, John McCain, Blog
Referee whistle: against the New York Times, Holding, 10 yards.
Last week the media focused much attention on this New York Time front page story about John McCain: For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk.
It is fair that many people have criticized the New York Times for this article, especially that the NY Times made it a lead story. The article is mainly a review of McCain’s history with the Keating Five corruption issue (in the late 1980’s) and his subsequent emergence as a champion of campaign finance reform. The “new” in this news story centers on McCain’s relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, based on vague information from anonymous sources. This article is an attempt to sell more newspapers.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on February 26th, 2008 — in Blog, Democratic Party Rules
“I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” - Will Rogers
In 2008 we are witnessing the most interesting and exciting presidential nomination process in U.S. history. I wrote this article to help people better understand the Democratic Party rules and the impact these rules have on determining who the Democrats will nominate for President in 2008. I have injected a few opinions into this article to point out that confusing rules can lead to voter unhappiness.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on February 25th, 2008 — in Blog, Election Referee
This website is dedicated to voter participation in fair elections. A primary task is to make election rules easier to understand. Additionally, we want to add our voice to the citizen arbitrators of election controversies as they arise. Elections are critically important to democracy. Unfortunately, disgraceful political tactics often result in focusing attention away from the many important issues we face.
ElectionReferee.com will blow the whistle and throw the penalty flag when we see a foul. We attempt to be fair, non-partisan, and unbiased. We encourage you to post your comments on this site and also to vote in our polls. The first posting on this site is about the Democratic Pary Rules because there is currently much interest and confusion about this topic.
In the coming weeks, we will add more content to this site, including links to election resources and other like-minded websites dedicated to election fairness and information.
For more information about this site, read the “About Us” page.
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Posted by John Publius Jr. on February 25th, 2008 — in Referee whistle, Blog, Election Referee
We attempt to include a post on all the major controversies in the 2008 Presidential campaign (and beyond). As part of this website’s theme, we include a “referee whistle” call at the top of each of these posts. We are mainly concerned with determining whether or not someone committed a “foul”, which we define as unfair tactics by the campaigns, the media, or anyone. We assess a “penalty” using the imprecise football analogy, just to roughly estimate the severity of the unfairness. We hope you like our website regardless of your attitude toward football.
Sometimes we include a “referee whistle: silent, no foul” because a controversy has emerged, but we think nothing unfair has occurred.
Campaigns, the media, and everyone have the right (and duty) to raise legitimate criticisms of each other. We are on the lookout for unfair tactics and “dirty” politics. We review and research each controversy and avoid “knee-jerk” reactions.
Please vote in our opinion polls! For each “referee whistle”, we give you a chance to “boo” or “cheer” each call we make at www.electionreferee.com. We encourage you to base your vote more on the “call” (whistle or no whistle) rather than the “penalty” (10 yards, etc.).
We encourage you to post comments too! You can post anonymous comments. Sometimes comments do not appear on the website automatically because we need to guard against spam and totally inappropriate content. We encourage opposing viewpoints, and we will post all comments as soon as possible.
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