by TChris

Are you already bored with the 2004 election campaign? Maybe it's time for you to turn your attention to 2008, when you'll have the chance to cast a vote for or against former Minnesota governor and wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura. The unconventional politician says he's not kidding about running for president, and has already selected a running mate who has never been shy about voicing his opinions -- former NBA star Charles Barkley.

The announcement came as Ventura visited Minnesota’s State House to lobby for gay marriage. He voiced his dislike of President Bush and Sen. John Kerry and said he wants an option besides “Pepsi or Coke”.

Ventura and Barkley would certainly enliven the presidential debates. And as long as Ventura is seeking former athletes rather than seasoned politicians to help him run the government, he might consider Dennis Rodman or Reggie White for Secretary of Defense.

Written by a friend of a friend.....

JUST A BAD DREAM

I remember it as if it were yesterday.

A little over a year ago, I heard this awful rumor that the Government was going to take my tax money and spend it on things like health care and education.

I was outraged. "How can they do this?" I screamed. "There are hospitals in Iraq -- the country that I, and virtually everyone I know, had always cared about more than any other -- that are as bad as some of the ones in our town. And we're doing nothing about it."

"Poverty, schmoverty," I said. "Those people in the South and in the so-called 'ghettos' who go to sleep hungry would probably have eaten fast foods anyway, so we're actually doing them a favor by keeping them poor. So let's get a few hundred billion over to Iraq. I mean, what are our priorities, anyway?"

And what bigger mistake could we make than improving our school systems? If all our kids got a decent education, they'd probably qualify for college -- and for a family that can't afford grade school supplies, think of what a nightmare those college tuitions would be.

So for God's sake, let's get English textbooks for those children in Iraq -- before they attack us again.

Lost jobs, increased personal bankruptcies? Give me a break. Those are problems-come-lately. Saddam Hussein was killing his own people more than twelve years ago.

But then I woke up and realized that this awful rumor was just a bad dream. Thank God for President Bush.

The candidates' latest campaign contribution figures are out. If you want to boot Bush, give to Kerry, now and often. The numbers speak for themselves:

Democratic Sen. John Kerry's presidential election campaign reported on Sunday it had collected $8.4 million last month, well shy of the $13.7 million haul of rival President Bush. Kerry's latest take, disclosed in a filing with the Federal Election Commission, barely outstripped his spending and pushed his campaign war chest up only slightly to $2.4 million. In contrast, Bush's re-election campaign had $110 million on hand at the end of last month.

Kerry's March internet campaign has raised him $14 million so far. Let's keep it going.

TBogg analyzes the new "movement" of conservativepunks for Bush working to get out the vote.

Is this a bad time for John Kerry to take a vacation? Some think so. We don't. We're of the mind that this is March, and while it's true that Kerry has yet to become fully defined for the voters, there's time enough for that. The issue for the Democrats is booting Bush....Kerry has the nomination sewn up. A six day absence won't change their minds. Kerry has been going non-stop since Iowa, let the man get some rest and recharge.

John Kerry is on a mission to raise $10 million in 10 days. Atrios and Daily Kos readers have given a bunch. We're asking TalkLeft readers to chip in too.

Frank Newport is the editor in chief of the Gallup Poll. In an LA Times op-ed (free subscription required), he writes that based on what the polling data shows now, things don't look too hot for Bush. The two key points of his analysis are:

Bush's 50% approval rating on job performance: It's lower than that of recent successful candidates during March of election year--including Clinton, Reagan and Nixon.

Point two is the "trial heat factor:" Newport says it's unusual for Bush to be losing to Kerry in the polls during the election year:

Since 1956, of eight presidents who sought a new term, five won. Two of these eventual winners started their reelection years on somewhat shaky ground but quickly recovered. Reagan was tied with Walter Mondale in a Gallup poll survey taken in January 1984. Clinton was behind Bob Dole in two Gallup polls conducted in January 1996. But from February 1984 on, Reagan was ahead of Mondale in every trial-heat ballot that Gallup conducted. And, in similar fashion, Clinton was ahead of Dole in every trial-heat ballot Gallup did from February on in 1996. The other three incumbent presidents who won a new term in the second half of the 20th century — Eisenhower, Johnson and Nixon — never once fell behind their opponents in the election year.

What's the bottom line?

If Bush is reelected, he will become the only president out of the last eight incumbents to win after having been behind a challenger in Gallup polling conducted after January of his election year. And, if his job approval ratings don't rise above 50% in April and May, his reelection would mark the first of those eight to win with less than majority approval in the late spring of their election year.

The New York Times says in this editorial :

Four years after Florida made a mockery of American elections, there is every reason to believe it could happen again. This time, the problems will most likely be with the electronic voting that has replaced chad-producing punch cards.

Here's the latest, according to the Times:

As Floridians went to the polls last Tuesday, Glenda Hood, Katherine Harris's successor as secretary of state, assured the nation that Florida's voting system would not break down this year the way it did in 2000. Florida now has "the very best" technology available, she declared on CNN. "And I do feel that it's a great disservice to create the feeling that there's a problem when there is not." Hours later, results in Bay County showed that with more than 60 percent of precincts reporting, Richard Gephardt, who long before had pulled out of the presidential race, was beating John Kerry by two to one. "I'm devastated," the county's top election official said, promising a recount of his county's 19,000 votes.

Other Florida election snafus this week:

From Ryan Lizza's Campaign Blog at The New Republic, describing the newest Bush campaign ad, dubbed by one of their readers as the Muhammed Horton ad:

ANOTHER CAMPAIGN FIRST: Bush's first round of ads became immediately famous for using images of Ground Zero and a flag-draped body being carried away from the rubble of the World Trade Center. His newest spot, "100 Days," might soon become famous for another campaign first. It is the first ad to use the image of a dark-skinned man who is obviously meant to be a terrorist.

The ominous slow-motion footage comes about halfway through the 30-second ad. A female voiceover darkly warns about John Kerry's agenda, charging, "On the war on terror: weaken the Patriot Act used to arrest terrorists and protect America." On the left of the screen flash the words "John Kerry's Plan." On the bottom a red box warns, "Weaken Fight Against Terrorists." If you look closely, on the right side of the screen you can see an airplane taking off.

The center of the screen is filled with three different rectangles of slow-motion video. In the top panel travelers at an airport study the arrivals and departures monitor. In the center panel there is a shadowed image of a person wearing a gas mask. And on the bottom there is a close-up of a swarthy, somewhat sinister-looking man with darting eyes who slowly turns toward the camera. He is clearly the terrorist in this scary montage.

Daily Kos reports the Bush campaign says the terrorist in the ad is not Arab. You decide. We just saw the ad on Fox and think the depicted "terrorist" is clearly Middle Eastern.

Update: Poor Man has the complete story board.

Say hello to Jeff Smith from Missouri. He's running for Congress and taken out an ad on TalkLeft to raise funds. Please help him. Here's what one of his blogger supporters emailed us:

He is challenging one of the worst candidates I've ever seen in Russ Carnahan. But besides Carnahan there are several pro-life candidates in the race and of the candidates who are viable, Jeff is the only one who is against the death penalty and he has a strong stand on the Patriot Act. If the others win, while they are decent people and I'd vote for them as long as they voted for Pelosi, for a relatively safe district it'd be a shame. Jeff is having good success outside of the district, but the machine has cut off most local funds. He is trying blog ads to see if that can be another source of funds.

As we learn more about other Democratic candidates around the country, including but not limited to those who advertise on TalkLeft, we'll write about them. And don't forget to support the DNC. We can take both the White House and Congress this year if we put our minds, hearts and wallets into the effort.

Check out Reasons to Vote Out Bush. There are 167 reasons right now. You can add your own.

Colorado Congressman Mark Udall announced yesterday he would run for Senate. Today, Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar announced his intention to run, and to avoid a primary fight, Udall pulled out.

Udall, 53, had announced his candidacy just one day earlier. On Wednesday, he deadpanned: "I think maybe this was the shortest Senate campaign in history."

We would have preferred Udall, as he's more liberal than Salazar, but we like Salazar too.

Update: More details here.