Well, Santorum’s pumped up for a big showing next week, although he’s not quite going all in to predict a top spot in the caucuses. Here’s the video from Linkmaster Smith : But check Flopping Aces, ” Newt Implodes As Santorum Surges .” Meanwhile, Robert Stacy McCain is on the ground with first-hand reports. See, ” Republicans With Shotguns .” BONUS : Mark Blumenthal has a big analysis on the polling situation in Iowa, ” Iowa Caucus Polls: Ron Paul And Mitt Romney Lead, But Surprises Likely ” (via Memeorandum ). Added : Tina Korbe has this, ” Santorum: If I finish “dead last” in Iowa, I’ll drop out .” Yeah, maybe Santorum’s just putting on the happy face. He couldn’t even bag that Steve King endorsement, so what can you do?
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Santorum Surging in Iowa?
**Written by Doug Powers When the citizens of Connecticut need the pressing issues that affect their future aggressively addressed, Dick Blumenthal is there : U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney today called on the presidents of the NCAA and CBS to televise Thursday’s University of Connecticut men’s basketball game on CBS rather than on cable network TNT, as currently planned. The NCAA tournament game between the Huskies and Bucknell University is set to start at 7:20 p.m. TNT is available to cable and satellite subscribers. Broadcasting the game on TNT would mean that at least 150,000 households in Connecticut would not be able to see the game, Courtney said. In the letter to NCAA President Mark Emmert and CBS President and CEO Les Moonves, Blumenthal, D-Conn., said, “I believe the public interest would be better served by enabling fans in Connecticut to view Thursday night’s game, instead of limiting its accessibility to just those households that have cable or satellite service. There’s a contractual deal between CBS, TNT and the NCAA to split games that kicked in this year. I live in mid-Michigan and the Michigan State/UCLA game tonight is on TNT instead of the local CBS station where it’s been for many years. Not a single Big Ten first round tourney game is on CBS here. Why Blumenthal’s calling the CBS president is anybody’s guess — it’s not like the local affiliates don’t want to carry games of local interest that will sell to advertisers for top dollar — it’s that they can’t due to the deal that was cut long ago, so the game shown on CBS is unlikely to change. Maybe Dick should just invite everybody who can’t see it on TNT over to his place to watch it. **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Priorities: Sen. Blumenthal Demands UConn Game Be Shown on CBS
Last night, the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team set the record for the longest win streak in basketball history at 89 consecutive games. They broke the record set by the UCLA men’s team from the 70s. As is normal, the president called head coach Geno Auriemma to congratulate. What was abnormal, is that the president called during Auriemma’s post-game press conference, and Auriemma answered — in front of everyone. The conversation played out in front of reporters and TV cameras: (H/T: SportsGrid ) President Obama was not the only politician paying attention to the game. The Associated Press caught Connecticut Attorney General, and Senator-elect, Dick Blumenthal in attendance (above the player’s left hand): UPDATE: The website Jezebewl has a better picture of Blumenthal’s cameo:
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Coach Takes Obama Phone Call During Press Conference
Manchin hangs on in West Virginia; Connecticut’s Blumenthal slams down McMahon.
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Johnson Upsets Feingold in Wisconsin
**Written by Doug Powers Wanted: Misogynistic photos of woman and the WWE for the Dick Blumenthal campaign. The candidate will personally choose his favorites as soon as he returns from Vietnam . Politico : A source this morning forwards on an e-mail this morning from inside Attorney General Dick Blumenthal’s campaign for Senate, in which his aides discuss tarring Linda McMahon in cooperation with Planned Parenthood. The e-mail’s subject line is: “Worst of WWE + women photos.” “Hey all — Grossman is looking for mysoginistic photos of women and WWE. Planned Parenthood wants to hit LM hard on it,” press staffer Marcy Stech e-mailed seven other aides to the campaign and the State Democratic Party. “What do we got?” Sounds like we got bad grammar and spelling is what is sounds like we got. What are Blumenthal and Planned Parenthood going to do with the photos? Try and convince people that the women of the WWE are nonviable grapple masses who would have been better off aborted? In any case, in the spirit of bipartisanship, here’s a submission to the Blumenthal camp for “Worst of WWE + women photos” — I hope this helps: **Written by Doug Powers Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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Blumenthal Campaign Seeks ‘Worst of WWE + Women Photos’ To Use Against Linda McMahon
Linda McMahon's campaign isn't just attack ads. She goes for a deep emotional connection in this one-minute ad. Democrat Richard Blumenthal is hanging on to his lead because of a strong lead among women. If McMahon can chip away at that foundation, then one of the all-time collapses in modern politics will be complete . . . Jim Geraghty
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Linda McMahon’s Softer Side
Wow. A Republican close to the NRSC sends along this word: The DSCC has for months now insisted that the Connecticut Senate contest is firmly within the Democratic column. And for a time the polling validated that rhetoric. The problem for the committee, now, is that both polling and their spending betrays that notion. After reserving roughly $500,000 in television advertising a couple days ago, the DSCC added yesterday $1.2 million to its ad buy for the remaining three weeks, according to the
Republican Linda McMahon and Democrat Richard Blumenthal, both vying to be the next U.S. Senator from Connecticut, faced off in a spirited debate.
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First Debate for McMahon, Blumenthal
Pollster.com's Mark Blumenthal rejects the contention from Asst. Prof. Todd Eberly , linked here , that the Newsweek poll is “cooked.” He concedes that Newsweek's story and headline are fair game for criticism, but declares the accusation of book-cooking “nonsense.” As I told Blumenthal in a message, Eberly may have been a bit vociferous in his criticism — “cooked” goes to motive, and I prefer not to argue about motive or what's going on in somebody's head — but I look at his defense of Newsweek and have a few bones to pick. First, across most pollsters, we're seeing a pretty consistent pattern: Republicans overwhelmingly support the Republican candidate, Democrats almost as overwhelmingly support the Democratic candidate, and the story of this year has been independents breaking more and more heavily for the Republicans. In most states, races, and polls, this adds up to a lead for the GOP candidate. In Newsweek , they actually find the same phenomenon within the subgroups… but still end up with a Democratic tie; as laid out, the only way to get this result is to have a sample that is heavily Democratic. The Newsweek poll has one other wrinkle, a separate “other” category. I think a lot of folks in political circles use “independent” and third-party interchangably, and they probably shouldn't. But I look at this “other” category, and it skewing in the precise opposite direction as the independents, and rub my chin. Are these folks Greens? Left-leaning registered members of the Libertarian party? I'm not saying it's certainly wrong, I'm just saying it's surprising, and as Blumenthal mentions, a lot of pollsters would toss out this category of 45 extra voters. With this result, I suspect they do so for a reason. Another major quibble… these “other” folks are going to make up five percent of the voters who show up in a midterm? Really? I went to look back at the 2006 exit poll, and found CNN didn't even have the category ; voters were classified either Republicans, Democrats, or independents. Also note this Newsweek poll is of registered voters. We're about 60 days out from the election. From where I sit, polling organizations that can't be bothered to try even a broad likely voter screen are wasting people's time and money. Public Policy Polling applied a likely voter screen to their samples in Pennsylvania and Toomey jumped up from a tie to a 9 percentage point lead. A lot of registered voters are Democrats who only vote when it's a presidential year and/or some particularly big or dramatic race. For Newsweek to not even bother… well, I said I don't like arguing about other people's motives, because Newsweek's use of a registered voter sample suggests they're not that interested in a realistic portrait of the November electorate, it's easy to wonder if they just want to find a result that doesn't look as bad for Democrats. Finally, a party ID split of
