John Kerry receives 48% and George W. Bush 46% in a new American Research Group survey of registered voters conducted Aug. 30-Sept 1. The poll also shows Kerry with a 5% lead among independents.
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Editor’s Corner
By Ed Kilgore
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November 22: RFK Jr. May Be Denied Confirmation for Being Formerly Pro-Choice
There are no actual Democrats in Trump’s Cabinet so far, but he’s hoping to appoint an ex-Democrat to run HHS. As I noted at New York, RFK Jr. is in trouble for not abandoning abortion rights far or fast enough.
Donald Trump’s shocking nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head up the vast Department of Health and Human Services led to a lot of concerns about his suitability and ideological compatibility with the MAGA folk that would surround him at the Cabinet table. Kennedy’s reflexive hostility to vaccines puts him at odds with many Republicans. His complaints about Big Pharma, agribusiness giants, and use of pesticides by farmers have earned him some enemies who are very influential in the Republican Party. And his denunciation of processed foods as child-killing evils has to personally annoy the Big Mac aficionado of Mar-a-Lago.
But even if none of those longtime controversies surrounding the former Democrat make him radioactive among the Senate Republicans who would have to confirm him for HHS, he’s also in considerable trouble with one of the GOP’s oldest and most important allies: the anti-abortion movement. Suspicion of him in that quarter is natural, since Kennedy for many years maintained a standard Democratic position favoring abortion rights, though it was never an issue that preoccupied him. Then, as a presidential candidate who drifted out of the Democratic primaries into an independent bid, he was all over the place on abortion. He made remarks that ranged from unconditional support for the right to choose even after fetal viability to support for a three-month national ban to various points in between.
At a minimum, anti-abortion activists would like to pin him to an acceptable position, but they also seem inclined to secure concessions from him in exchange for declining to go medieval on his confirmation, as Politico explains:
“Abortion opponents — concerned about Kennedy’s past comments supporting abortion access — have two major asks: that he appoint an anti-abortion stalwart to a senior position in HHS and that he promise privately to them and publicly during his confirmation hearing to restore anti-abortion policies from the first Trump administration, according to four anti-abortion advocates granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. And Kennedy, according to a fifth person close to the Trump transition, is open to their entreaties.”
He’d better be. Despite Trump’s abandonment of the maximum anti-abortion stance during his 2024 campaign, the forced-birth lobby remained firmly in his camp and has maintained even more influence among Republican officeholders who haven’t “pivoted” from the 45th president’s hard-core position to the 47th president’s current contention that abortion policy is up to the states. Indeed, you could make the argument that it’s even more important than ever to anti-abortion activists that Trump be surrounded by zealots in order to squeeze as many congenial actions as possible out of his administration and the Republicans who will control Congress come January. And there’s plenty HHS can do to make life miserable for those needing abortion services, Politico notes:
“At a minimum, anti-abortion groups want to see the Trump administration rescind the policies Biden implemented that expanded abortion access, such as the update to HIPAA privacy rules to cover abortions, as well as FDA rules making abortion pills available by mail and at retail pharmacies. … The advocates are also demanding the return of several Trump-era abortion rules, including the so-called Mexico City policy that blocked federal funding for international non-governmental organizations that provide or offer counseling on abortions, anti-abortion restrictions on federal family-planning clinics and a federal ban on discriminating against health care entities that refuse to cover abortion services or refer patients for the procedure when taxpayer dollars are involved.”
Anti-abortion folk could overplay their bullying of Kennedy and annoy the new administration: The Trump transition team has already vetoed one of the Cause’s all-time favorites, Roger Severino, for HHS deputy secretary, though it may have been as much about his identification with the toxic Project 2025 as his extremist background on abortion policy. It probably doesn’t help that objections to Kennedy for being squishy on abortion were first aired by former vice-president Mike Pence, who has about as much influence with Trump 2.0 as the former president’s former fixer Michael Cohen.
As for Kennedy, odds are he will say and do whatever it takes to get confirmed; he’s already had to repudiate past comments about Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, including a comparison of his new master to Adolf Hitler (a surprisingly common problem in MAGA land). Having come a very long way from his quixotic challenge to Joe Biden in 2023, Kennedy really wants to take his various crusades into the new administration, at least until Trump inevitably gets tired of hearing complaints from donors about him and sends him back to the fever swamps.
Vote early and vote often…wait you can’t anymore. Well, JUST VOTE.
BTW, I got an e-mail about winning a free Zippo lighter with the Dem Donkey on it. Cool stuff. Vote on http://www.zippo.com
Get out the vote!
wahoo! Now if Kerry would just fight like hell we’ll win this thing.
This is no time for despair. KERRY IN A LANDSLIDE. The poll showing Bush ahead is an outlier.
It is the democratic party that represents the views of the vast majority of Americans. The delusional are going to vote for Bush, but I think most Americans aren’t that insane.
Like I said, KERRY IN A LANDSLIDE, and then W will GO HOME!
wgoeshome.com
Nice to see the folks at the RNC use the term Liberty as if it where a thousand foot crutch.
Isn’t the term Liberal shorthand for Liberty?
Spread the word… 🙂
The GOP convention ….I think I figured out the formula:
9-11
9-11
9-11
9-11
John Kerry sucks
John Kerry is a flip-flopper
Terrorism ….Bush keynote
Amen
The war party peddles in fear, because that’s all they have left to sell.
After 4 yrs Bush is still all HAT no CATTLE…
with his abysmal record on the US economy.
with his abysmal record on the jobs
with his abysmal record on healthcare
with his abysmal record on the environment
etc.etc. etc.
Net Net: George W. Bush is a “FAILURE”
Kerry Hits Back
NEWARK, Ohio – In a scathing attack, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry accused Republicans of hiding President Bush’s “record of failure” behind insults and promised a new direction for the country under a Kerry-Edwards administration.
Now the debate will turn more to REAL issues like the economy, jobs, healthcare, environment and Kerry/Edwards are going to pummel the daylights out of Bush/Cheney.
George W. Bush: “FAILURE” is a simple, very clear, and true message that most American voters will “Get”
Kerry/Edwards are going to win !
So what kind of bounce do we think the Repubs will get from their convention. I’m going to go out on a limb and predict a negative bounce of 1-2% based on the Miller fiasco of last night.
Ruy, post in the damn comments for once.
Anyhow, when do we start counting LVs and not RVs? Why did the lead in independants shrinks o much?
Apparently, there were a number of security breeches at the RNC over the past few days… If they cant secure their own convention, how on earth are they going to secure the entire nation?
Maybe Brian has a response to this. My passing thru the GOP blogs notes that they gloss over this failure and simply wish the pres. a safe delivery tonight. hmm
Cheers
August was bound to be a bad month for Kerry. He had to hoard his money and Bush got to spend the rest of his warchest. That we’re still even with Bush should be cause for celebration.
Campaigns are marathons and the last leg begins tonight. Fortuantely, Kerry’s a great closer.
excellent news. and I agree that the handringing and teeth-nashing of fairweather democrats over kerry’s chances are excessive.
but it still doesn’t change the fact that kerry campaign did a lackluster job in august, particularly as concerns the swift boat vets for BS. nor does it justifiably mute critics of the campaign.
the facts speak clearly for themselves: the GOP is better at running elections. the issue for me and other dems is that the democratic party needs to be better organized, better disciplined about staying on message, and better about packaging campaign positions in palatable soundbites.
decry the vapidity of the american voter all you want (and we can be stone-cold dolts), but it doesn’t change what kerry needs to do to win.
Once again, the pundits are right. Kerry is toast. He should concede now and donate the 75 million to charity.
What about the latest Economist poll? I see it and the questions seem reasonable to me (I don’t know about polling). If the poll is any good, GWB is not doing very well based on trustworthiness, economy, etc.