September 24, 2008
The horses are at the starting gate and the presidential horserace is set to begin. It will be a sprint to the finish line. It will be close with probably a photo finish. In less than six weeks it will be all over but the shouting.
The conventions have ended with their coronations of Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee and John McCain as the Republican standard bearer. For the first time in many years the major party nominees are both sitting members of the U.S. Senate. In recent years most of the nominees have been current or former Governors.
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September 17, 2008
The Republican National Convention was held in Minneapolis last week and John McCain was officially chosen as their presidential nominee. The four-term Senator from Arizona wrapped up his party’s nomination early. He has had six months for the party faithful to coalesce and unite behind the war hero.
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September 10, 2008
A good number of you found last week’s column, regarding negative ads, compelling. Many of you were surprised at how effective negative ads have been in recent political races. However, the optimum word is recent. In bygone days negative ads and dirty tricks were not as effective. In fact, when I first entered politics you were taught to ignore a dirty attack. The mudslinger would be dismissed as a loser and the reason you were being attacked was because your opponent was desperately behind.
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September 03, 2008
It is a proven fact that over the past fifty years of modern politics that negative advertising is very effective. It has been illustrated time and again that there is a direct correlation between a negative ad against someone and their immediate demise in the polls. Surprisingly, in an inexplicable but positive change of events, negative advertisements appeared not to be working as much earlier this year. In fact, when used in this year’s primaries negative ads have actually backfired on the purveyor. However, the presidential race is really just starting. Now that it has crystallized into a two-man race, the negative or comparison approach is appearing to be as effective and back in command.
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August 20, 2008
Now that the primaries are over we have our menu selection for the general election in the fall. The presidential race has overshadowed all of the other races. However, we do have some interesting state races on the November 4th ballot, although it is not as combative a year as the gubernatorial years. We Alabamians long for and get more involved in gubernatorial races than presidential contests. I suppose our forefathers predicted this when they decided to put the majority of the big state races on the ballot in gubernatorial years. In two years we will elect a new governor as well as all constitutional offices and all 140 seats in the legislature.
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August 13, 2008
During the summer I have been traveling around the state talking with civic clubs about Alabama politics. With it being a presidential year, an obvious topic of discussion is the presidential contest. However, invariably the first question asked is who is going to make the Governor’s race in two years. Alabamians love the gubernatorial year. The presidential years are simply spring training for the real marquee event.
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August 06, 2008
All the national polling data this year points to the economy as being the major issue on voters’ minds. The prevailing issue of the War in Iraq is a distant second. However, you would never know that Alabama was even a part of the nation if you perused the ads in the congressional races this year.
July 23, 2008
When we Alabamians change course politically we go from one extreme to the other. The facts are obvious. From 1916 through 1960 we voted for a Democrat for President all 44 years, 12 out of 12. We were a Yellow Dog Democratic state. That phrase was coined because of the analogy that Alabamians would vote for a yellow dog, if he was on the ballot, over any Republican.
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July 16, 2008
The protracted Democratic Presidential Race is finally over. Freshman Illinois Senator Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee. The 46 year old will be the first African American to be the presidential nominee of one of the two major parties.
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July 09, 2008
Most political observers including myself have never seen a Governor in his second term work as hard as Gov. Bob Riley. The Constitution prohibits Riley from running for a third term but you would never know that when you look at him everyday. He is in full campaign mode. His ubiquitous daily schedule points to a person running for reelection.
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