Don’t Mess With Chelsea Clinton

I thought Clinton’s just lied or changed the subject when they didn’t want to answer questions, but it looks like Chelsea is rebelling.

From CNN.com:

Chelsea Clinton has fielded a lot of questions as she campaigns for her mother’s presidential bid, but on Tuesday the former first daughter faced a particularly awkward query for the first time.

Campaigning at Butler College in Indianapolis, an audience member asked the 28 year-old whether the Monica Lewinsky scandal had damaged her mother’s reputation.

And here is her response:

And more 

Nasrallah Says “Israel Can Be Eliminated”

Hizballah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Monday said that his terrorist army’s targeting of Israeli civilian centers has made it possible for the Jewish state to be “eliminated,” The New York Sun reported. “Can Israel be eliminated?” Nasrallah asked Hizballah supporters during a rally in Beirut. “Yes and a thousand yeses, Israel can be eliminated.” During the summer of 2006, Hizballah fired more than 4,000 rockets at Israeli civilians in fighting ended by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which called for the terrorist army’s disarmament. The Security Council has since expressed “grave concern” over reports of continued arms smuggling to Hizballah. Click here to learn more about Hizballah’s threatening behavior (source: AIPAC)

Nancy Reagan Endorses John McCain

From Bloomberg.com:

March 25 (Bloomberg) — Former first lady Nancy Reagan endorsed John McCain’s presidential campaign in a move that might encourage conservative Republicans to rally around the Arizona senator’s bid for the White House.

Reagan called McCain a “good friend for over 30 years” who is well prepared to become commander in chief.

“My husband and I first came to know him as a returning Vietnam War POW and were impressed by the courage he had shown through his terrible ordeal,” Reagan said in a statement today. “I believe John’s record and experience have prepared him well to be our next president.”

The endorsement may help McCain win over Republicans who revere Reagan’s late husband, former President Ronald Reagan, while chafing at McCain’s willingness over the years to buck the party’s line on issues ranging from taxes to campaign finance reform.

Reagan is to meet with McCain today at her Los Angeles-area home, said Melissa Giller, a spokeswoman for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation.

While this isn’t a huge shock, this could be a very important, much needed fundraising component to McCain’s campaign. While I’m sure she wont do a fundraising tour, I wouldn’t be shocked to see her name in an upcoming direct mail piece.

Jim DeMint’s finally getting the online props he deserves

Over the weekend I wrote a post titled “Jim DeMint, Senator 2.0 – Part 1,” where I made the argument that of all the incumbent Senators, Jim DeMint from South Carolina was much further ahead of the game than anyone else at this point in terms of using the internet to reach out to constituents, as well as to draw national attention to an issue.

This conclusion was made based on some preliminary research that I have been conducting recently as update a paper that I wrote in 2007, which evaluated how incumbents and candidates utilized their campaign websites to reach out even further into their communities in the 2006 Senate races. Surprisingly, in terms of progression, I’m still seeing some incumbents and candidates that just don’t get it (I’ll post their sites eventually).

I have only posted part 1 of my comments on Senator DeMint’s online strategy thus far, which was only related to how he used landing pages to increase his contact list. This has been one of his most successful tools (as my 3 page post reflected), and it is now gives him and endless supply of opportunities as he introduces future legislation that needs national exposure. In the coming days I’ll begin working on part two, which will focus primarily on how he uses the websites themselves to boost user-interest and user-involvement.

The reason that I mention all this is because I came across an article today that is also illustrating some of the same points that I made this weekend. Finally, Senator DeMint is getting some long overdue credit for the things he’s been doing online.

Here is just a bit of the article (h/t to Joe Mansour at TechRepublican):

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint is using the Internet more than ever — perhaps more than any other Senator — to mobilize voters across the country behind some of his biggest issues, such as eliminating earmarks and strengthening the border.

He knows his ability to twist arms under the Capitol dome is often limited, but if he can craft a suitable message and spread it all over the Web, then eventually bloggers, talk radio hosts and the mainstream media will get the word out in a way DeMint never could before.

The rest of the article can be read here.