Why does your page look like this?

Your browser was unable to load our style sheets. Most modern web browsers support Cascading Style Sheets. If you're using an old browser, you can download an updated one from:
Mozilla, Netscape, Microsoft, or Opera.

If you are already using one of the above browsers, you may have your security settings too high, or you may simply need to refresh/reload this page.


Nashville, Tennessee

.






Nashville Scene - Pith in the Wind

The Nashville Scene News Blog

That Time of the Month

Posted May 06, 2008 at 09:45:54 AM by Bruce Barry

Indiana.gif NCarolina.gif

Yes, once again the fate of the free world comes down to primary elections in medium-sized states. So how will it go down tonight in North Carolina and Indiana? Let's have those prognostications. Closest aggregate call (net combination of the margins) in the two races wins a one-year membership in the Court of Elite Opinion.

I’m going with Clinton 54.2-45.8 in IN and Obama 52.7-47.3 in NC.

In IN, the polls have sent a few mixed signals, but on closer inspection you have to believe that Zogby has it right and everyone else has it wrong to think Obama has much of a chance. Add in the likelihood given IN’s demographics that late deciders will tilt heavily toward Clinton, and it’s hard to see how Obama comes closer than seven or eight.

In NC, Clinton has unquestionably been closing the gap, but I look for Obama to push the steady 50 number he’s been polling up a few points to make it about a five-point win.

End of the night headline: Both claim victory, status quo ante, on to WV. What say you?

Category: Barry, Presidential Politics
Add or View Comments | 6 comments

GOP Decries 'Malicious Lie' Against McCain

Posted April 30, 2008 at 09:32:28 AM by Jeff Woods

The state Republican Party is outraged by the latest DNC attack ad against John McCain.

That advertisement includes video of a terrorists’ roadside bomb attack on two American soldiers, footage not unlike that often used by Al Qaeda in its recruiting videos, as Democrats seek to exploit the attack to promote Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for president.

Airing footage of what's actually happening in Iraq in a political ad? That's so low. And using sound-bite oversimplifications to attack a presidential candidate ... Republicans would never do that, would they?

Category: Presidential Politics, Woods
Add or View Comments | 2 comments

Penn State Update

Posted April 23, 2008 at 04:19:17 PM by Matt Pulle

Who needs Chris Matthews? Our friends from Murfreesboro offer the most succinct analysis yet of last night's Pennyslvania primary:

“She ain't going to drop out because some assholes out there keep voting for her.”

Category: Hicks From the Sticks, Presidential Politics, Pulle
Add or View Comments | 0 comments

Oh Harold

Posted April 23, 2008 at 11:28:19 AM by Matt Pulle

aaaharoldford.jpg

Harold Ford continues to have trouble cloaking his jealousy of Barack Obama, whose progressive, smart candidacy is everything that Ford's run for Senate was not. Yesterday on MSNBC, Joe Scarborough asked Ford if he would have beaten Corker if he could have outspent him as much as Obama did Hillary Clinton in Pennsyltucky. At first, Ford tried to duck the question graciously, but then Scarborough needed to ask it only one more time for the former Memphis congressman to take the bait: Ford snidely replied if he had more money he could have made up those 25,000 votes, saying that as matter-of-factly as if he were reciting the alphabet.

Throughout his little banter with Scarborough, Ford repeatedly proclaimed his neutrality, but if he delivered a single criticism of Clinton and her last-minute scare ads, I missed it. Instead, he delivered a series of subtle put-downs of Obama, which I suppose is only fair since everyone else on MSNBC hates the Clintons. So there's that.

Category: Media, Presidential Politics, Pulle
Add or View Comments | 1 comments

Pennsylvania Prognosticatin’

Posted April 22, 2008 at 11:08:29 AM by Bruce Barry

Yikes, is it April 22 already? Seems like just yesterday we were dissecting Iowa caucus results. Where did the time go? And more importantly, how will it shake out tonight? Prediction time!

I’m going with Clinton 54-46—a big enough margin for her to frame it as a winning night, but small enough for nobody to really believe her. The polls have Obama pretty consistently in the low-mid 40s, and Clinton’s numbers generally 47-52ish. Assuming late breakers go more (but not completely) her way, I see her margin approaching but not quite reaching double figures.

The real prediction question, of course, is not just what happens tonight, but what happens tomorrow. How big a win tonight is a win? The problem for Clinton is that after Pennsylvania, there are no more Pennsylvanias, which is to say no more big delegate-rich states where she has the built-in demographic edge. The remaining contests—North Carolina and Indiana in two weeks, and then Kentucky, West Virginia, Oregon, South Dakota, Puerto Rico and let’s not forget Guam—are a mixed bag: Obama figures to take NC, OR, and SD; Clinton grabs WV, KY and PR; leaving IN as a tossup. After today, it’s hard to foresee a plausible significant aggregate effect on the spread of delegates or popular votes. Unless Clinton pulls out of nowhere a whopper of a win tonight in the 15-20 point range, giving superdelegates some seriously irritated bowels, what’s her path to the nomination? It may not be over tonight, but I'm thinking it's over on May 6.

Your PA call? Closest to the pin wins an all-expense-paid spa weekend with Mark Penn.

UPDATE: Just how remote is a Clinton nomination scenario by delegate count? At CNN's online delegate counter I gave Clinton big fat 20-point margins of victory not just in PA, but also in IN, WV, KY and PR. I gave Obama understated 8-point wins in NC and OR, and scored SD, MT and Guam dead even. The tally under this highly Hillarosy scenario: Clinton still trails Obama by more than 80 delegates.

UPDATE: The final PA margin came in at 54.7-45.3, a margin of just under nine and a half percent. I predicted 8 and commenter Tom predicted 11, so we’ll call it a tie; we can jointly visualize the prize…

pennspa.jpg

Category: Barry, Presidential Politics
Add or View Comments | 26 comments

Sounds About Right to Me

Posted April 14, 2008 at 02:00:22 PM by Liz Garrigan

PH2007073101347.jpg

I'll admit it: I don't think what Barack Obama said was so bad. In fact, I think he's right. I would pray a lot harder—or at least more frequently—if I were out of job. And at least one statewide politician—Bob Corker—has told the Scene that anti-immigrant sentiment tends to be more pronounced in communities where unemployment and uncertainty are high.


You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.


Meanwhile, Bill Hobbs is still quoting himself. And he says he's not bitter. The latest bloviating GOP press release after the jump:


Continue reading "Sounds About Right to Me"...
Category: Garrigan, Media, Presidential Politics
Add or View Comments | 15 comments

What Am I Missing Here?

Posted April 11, 2008 at 03:28:14 PM by Liz Garrigan

This is a bad ad buy if ever I saw one.

Picture%202.png

Category: Garrigan, Media, Presidential Politics
Add or View Comments | 1 comments

The New York Times Plays Hardball

Posted April 11, 2008 at 10:55:40 AM by Matt Pulle

chrismatthews2.jpg

Whether you love or hate Chris Matthews, the New York Times Sunday Magazine profile of the garrulous host of MSNBC's Hardball is a brilliant, hilarious read, offering an up close and personal look at the most amusing staple on cable television this side of Roadhouse. The Scene newsroom has long been hopelessly split on Matthews' appeal, with some seeing him as a self-centered, childlike, irritating loon while others view him more as a self-centered, childlike, endearing loon. You can count Liz and me in the latter category; our fearless editor even has a framed picture of Chris Matthews in her corner office, and I prefer watching Hardball to just about any show on television. And I don't think he's a simple blowhard like Bill O'Reilly or Lou Dobbs who can't stray beyond their own calibrated talking points and have little patience for those who do. In contrast, Matthews, though hyper-opinionated, loves having guests with a wide range of ideological and partisan loyalties, and when he interrupts them, it's not so much to win an argument but to inflame it.

Anyhow, the Times piece is lengthy. If you don't have time to read it at your desk today, we have a few excerpts for you after the jump:


Continue reading "The New York Times Plays Hardball"...
Category: Media, Politics, Presidential Politics, Pulle
Add or View Comments | 1 comments

Al Gore: Referee or Nominee?

Posted April 09, 2008 at 11:44:23 AM by Jeff Woods

Here's more speculation that Al Gore will referee the Obama-Clinton fight if it remains undecided as June approaches. But would he make a better nominee than either of them?

In his book, Politics Lost, Joe Klein recalls conversations he had with senior advisers to Mr. Gore’s 2000 campaign. They told him of the pressure they put on Mr. Gore not to talk about environmental issues, given the problems it could cause him in Rust Belt states like Pennsylvania and Michigan. Mr. Klein reasonably suggests that one of the reasons that Al Gore seemed so uncomfortable as a candidate was that he was forbidden to discuss the public policy challenge that served as one of his primary motivations for running for office.

Eight years later, Mr. Gore is more comfortable in his own skin and more confident in talking about the issues that are important to him. Like Senator Clinton, he evokes positive memories of the 1990s, but without the divisiveness that has hampered her campaign. Like Senator Obama, he opposed the Iraq war from the beginning, but with much more authority and consistency than a speech from the Illinois Legislature. He has avoided the mud that has splashed on both of them as the primaries have gotten nastier. And he has more experience in politics and government than the two of them combined, a handy attribute in a contest against John McCain.

In short, he’s a fairly major asset for the Democratic Party to leave on the shelf during such a critical election season. Wonder if he’ll stay there?

Category: Presidential Politics, Woods
Add or View Comments | 1 comments

Al and Barack

Posted April 02, 2008 at 04:53:11 PM by Liz Garrigan

From CNN's Political Ticker comes news that Barack Obama wants Al Gore to help him save the icebergs and azaleas:

Asked at a campaign event if he'd consider Gore for his cabinet, Obama immediately said he would.

"I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this [climate change] problem," Obama said.

Category: Garrigan, Presidential Politics
Add or View Comments | 4 comments
---------------------------Advertisement---------------------------
---------------------------Advertisement---------------------------
.
.