Desparate For Money

The fundraising ideas that come out of the Obama for America camp are “interesting” to say the least.

First, we had the suggestion for June brides that they suggest people donate what they would have spent on a gift for the newlyweds to the Obama campaign.

Then, we had the haute couture fundraiser with Sarah Jessica Parker and Anna Wintour. It was suggested that you donate $3 to get a chance at attending this event of the season with the reminder “Don’t be late”.

Now, we see that next weekend is National Yard Sale for Obama in which people are being urged to hold yard and garage sales to raise money for the Obama campaign.

At the rate this is going the next fundraising idea will be Pimp Your Daughters For Obama. After all, he did give an interview to Pimp with the Limp which just happened to air on the morning of September 11th.

Needs More Trigger Discipline!

Jim Piccillo is a Democrat running for Congress in the Tampa Bay area. Until two years ago he was a Republican whose main claim to fame was introducing then-Senator Joe Biden at an Obama rally as “John McCain.” He was a member of Republicans for Obama and volunteered in the Obama campaign.

Piccillo, who served in the 101st Airborne but did not see any combat, is emphasizing his military service. His latest ad shows him holding a M-4 and says he will “kick butt”.

Screen capture from Piccillo ad

Florida’s 5th Congressional District is home to many veterans. I hope for Piccillo’s sake that one of those vets isn’t his old drill sergeant. If not, Piccillo will probably be reamed a new one for his poor trigger finger discipline.

The website FiveThirtyEight rates this seat as having a 99% chance of the Republican winning.

For North Carolina Voters

Grass Roots North Carolina and its GRNC Political Victory Fund have published their 2010 Remember in November Voters Guide. One of the key things to point out about this guide is that it does not endorse any candidate. Rather it surveys candidates and analyzes their voting records to see how they stand on gun rights.

As Paul Valone notes in his Charlotte Gun Rights Examiner column:

GRNC’s “Remember in November” candidate evaluation system factors survey scores, gun-related voting records, bill sponsorship and other measures into a spreadsheet which estimates the percentage of the time a given candidate can be expected to concur with a control group of GRNC’s Life and Benefactor members.

A candidate who agrees at least 90% of the time gets four stars (****), 80% gets three stars (***), 70% gets two stars (**), 60% gets one star (*), and an estimated agreement of less than 60% gets zero stars (0).

This system does not give an automatic advantage to incumbents like the NRA’s ranking system. They don’t make any deals with candidates for better ratings nor will they give a candidate a better rating in exchange for a donation.

The following is a key to reading their ratings from the GRNC website:

PAR/DIS: Candidate’s party and district. “D”=Democrat, “L”=Libertarian, “R”=Republican. Number is district number.

SURVEY: The percentages listed depict agreement between a given candidate and our control group (e.g. an “80” under the “Survey” section means 80% of the candidate’s answers agreed with the Conservative Gun Owners). “NR”means the candidate failed to return the survey.

VOTE: Votes are more accurate than surveys and should be given more attention in determining candidate stance. Where available, this column indicates how often candidates’ votes agree with the control group of gun owners (e.g. a “90” under “Voting Record” indicates candidate’s voting record agrees 90% of the time with what was desired by control group).

OTHER: Derived from evaluations by other gun groups, bill sponsorship, etc.

EVAL: The evaluation is not a rating. It estimates percentage of time candidate is expected to agree with the Conservative Gun Owners.

GRNCRIN2010 District Sort 1

“I know you’re mad at Congress, and so am I.”

Congressman Heath Shuler is running the ad above. He is the “Blue Dog” Democrat who represents much of western North Carolina including me. He isn’t a bad sort but he has never impressed me as the sharpest knife in the drawer either. While he did vote against ObamaCare and is pro-gun, he has voted for cap-and-trade and the union-backed card-check. He rationalized the latter by saying he had been a union member. The union in question was the NFL Player’s Association.

In the beginning of the ad, Heath seriously intones, “I know you’re mad at Congress, and so am I.” However, when you begin to think about it you say to yourself, “Hey, wait a minute, you ARE a Congressman. You’re mad at yourself?”

I call this the Heath Shuler self-loathing campaign ad.