New York County Lawyers Association forum on Open Primaries (by Nancy Hanks, VIDEO on The Hankster) Jackie Salit, Harry Kresky, David Seifman, Larry Mandelker, Jacob Weintraub, and audience members
POLITISOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS
- Get back to basics, Republicans, and drop most social issues - Gummed-up Old Party (By Ross Kaminsky, Rocky Mountain News) Efforts to burnish McCain's social conservative credentials, particularly during a time of economic crisis, made him even less credible overall, hurting him among independent voters while not helping him with the religious right.
- New regime will be welcome change (LETTER from Hanne Hartmann-Phipps, Reeds Spring in Springfield MO News Leader)
- Loss creates opportunity for the GOP (by Jimmy E. Greene, Saginaw News) Now we'll have to ask if the Republican Party really wants the votes of blacks and Hispanics or if we just want to appear to want to in order to play to the moderate and independent voter.
- Obama: Principles & Pragmatism (James Zogby, Huffington Post) Presidents are most often defined as successful not by the agendas they set, but by how they adapt their agendas to respond to crises that unpredictable reality that sets for them.... I believe that those commentators, from the left and right, who are pushing President-elect Obama to lay out "grand strategies," "new global visions," or to set detailed priorities and timetables, are dead wrong.
- Obama policies pragmatic, geared toward long-term change (By Jesus Vasquez, Whitman Pioneer - WA) Obama supporters need to know that they should be in this for the long haul. Change can’t come overnight, and it can’t come without the support of the people.
- How Obama will govern: Strong team will test his skills (By Steven Thomma | McClatchy Newspapers) "But no alarm bells have gone off in conservative circles indicating he's picking a bunch of left-wing lunatics. These people are respected on both sides of the aisle. It looks like he's heading toward a centrist position on both foreign policy and the economic front."
INDEPENDENCE PARTIES
- * MN: Coleman keeps edge as hand recount wraps up (By BRIAN BAKST Associated Press Writer, West Central Tribune - Willmar MN) The very last ballot to be sorted, fittingly, didn't go for either Franken or Coleman. It was for Dean Barkley - the Independence Party candidate who ran a healthy third in the race and denied his rivals thousands of votes each.
- * MN: AG Mike Hatch targeting third-party candidates (By Kevin Featherly, Special to St. Paul Legal Ledger/Capitol Report) “I would prefer that the primary election simply narrow down the race to two candidates,” he said. “The two candidates would then conduct a campaign in the general election.”
- * NY: Beyond Cusick, perhaps Cuomo and O'Donnell (Posted by Tom Wrobleski, Staten Island Advance) Assemblyman Mike Cusick is flattered that someone thinks enough of him to suggest that he replace Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton in the U.S. Senate. That was Independence Party member Frank Morano's plan this week in a letter to Gov. David Paterson, who will make the appointment.
NOTES FROM HARLEM
Milton Allimadi and his Black Star News BSN recently hosted its Annual Dinner Awards Gala (Black Star News) About 200 partygoers attended the BSN Awards festivities, many of them are Harlem paparazzi and cognoscente like Dr. Lenora Fulani, former Harlem BUF businessman Kermit Eady; WHCR Radio host Jeanne Parnell, businessman Fritz McLymont and Network Journal editor Rosalind McLymont.
