Some interesting news for today

From NewsMax.com:

Hillary Donor, Terrorist Sympathizer, Arrested

A terrorist sympathizer whose organization donated $50,000 to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign three years ago and who openly defended Hamas during an earlier visit to the Clinton White House has been arrested.

Alamoudi also personally donated $1,000 to Mrs. Clinton. Her campaign camouflaged the donations in Federal Election Commission filings as coming from "the American Museum Council," but later said the mistake was a typo.

Sure.

Oops! Clinton's Support Harms Davis

Here's a little-publicized aspect of the new USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll showing Californians booting the increasingly green Gray Davis: Bill Clinton's support did more harm than good.

Question 13: "Did Bill Clinton’s campaigning against the recall of Governor Davis make you more likely to vote to recall Davis, did it not make much difference, or did it make you less likely to vote to recall Davis?"

Among registered voters, 18 percent said more likely, 68 percent said no difference and 12 percent said less likely. Among probable voters, 21 percent said more likely, 66 percent said no difference and 11 percent said less likely.

More about what I'm pretty sure is the same poll, from Josh Claybourn:

However, all of this begs the question: should Republicans be endorsing McClintock since he could very well win the governorship and could then run for president, rather than a Republican whose electability would end once his term(s) are over? Considering McClintock's preferable positions (at least in my book) and his electability, Arnold seems to be the man Republicans should be pressuring to drop out.

I hadn't thought that far out, but the last part about pressuring Arnold to exit the race so McClintock could win has been what I've been thinking all along. Every single time I've ever heard Sean Hannity talk to McClintock on the radio just about all he ever talked about was whether McClintock would drop out of the race. Conversations would repeatedly go:

• Hannity: So, since you're behind Arnold in the polls [and there's no chance you're going to win], will you drop out close to the end of the race if the polls still favor Arnold?
• McClintock: I've told you before I'm staying in until the end.
• Hannity: So, you sure you won't drop out even if the polls favor Arnold? Because that's what the polls say, and it's better that you drop out than Bustamante get in because of a vote split.
• McClintock: Sean, I'm staying in. We have momentum and I maintain that we could win this race if the numbers keep going like they are.

Ad nauseum. I can't remember hearing Hannity ask McClintock about one of his positions besides one time, whereas he held an entire public forum with Arnold on his radio show. I thought it's been pretty shameful on Hannity's part. If this poll is accurate, than McClintock could win handily if Arnold wasn't in the race, and conservatives, to be more consistent with their stated principles, should have been pressuring Arnold to drop out rather than McClintock. That's what I've leaned towards all along, and I'm glad to see it validated. The media has been focusing on McClintock hardly at all (hey, he's running against The Terminator), but from the little I've been able to witness of McClintock, he's a very impressive guy with real plans for the state.

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23:55 (utc-4)
edited: 2003-09-30 00:14 (utc-4)