Five worst mistakes by presidential candidates

Tom Bevan, executive editor of the political website RealClearPolitics, lists today what he believes have been the five worst mistakes made by the presidential candidates this year.(He thinks, for example, Hillary Clinton should have skipped the Iowa caucuses altogether, and that Mitt Romney’s speech tomorrow about his Mormon faith should have been made months ago – and certainly not now.)

Romney’s wife Ann talked about the speech here this morning.

I would add to that list Mike Huckabee’s raised hand during a debate in May when the Republican candidates were asked if they believed in creationism. If he lands on a presidential ticket (either as the nominee or as Vice-President) it will cause him big problems nationally.

And Fred Thompson’s decision to campaign with all the energy and zest of a sloth bear (for a man already perceived as lazy and unambitious) has been almost perverse.

But one group of people who have clearly decided to stop making mistakes are some of America’s political pundits. The race has become so volatile and unpredictable that there has been a collective decision to predict…nothing.

Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House Speaker, says today the Republican and Democrats races are “amazingly wide open”. The Republican battle is “in turmoil”.

Mort Kondracke, executive editor of ther Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, writes: “I used to say that if you put a gun to my head and demanded to know who’d be the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, my answer would be: “Shoot.” Now, I’m almost ready to say the same about the Democratic nominee and the next president, too.”

Dan Bartlett, meanwhile, President Bush’s former White House counsellor, says when asked who will win the Republican nomination: “I don’t know.” He also does not think Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic nomination, but that if she does, she will turn the Republican vote out.

psssssst…DO SOMETHING!

 http://homelandsecurityforsale.org/index.php

Bolton Calls For Congressional Witch-Hunt Into Anti-Bush ‘People In The Intelligence Community’

From Think  Progress:

Yesterday’s National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) concluded that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, pouring cold water on neoconservative calls for bombing Iran. Like his ideological kin Norman Podhoretz, former U.N. ambassador and Iran war hawk John Bolton has been attempting to slander the U.S. intelligence community’s collective judgments.

Iran has been pursuing nuclear weapons “for 20 years,” he defiantly declared today. To give weight to a single intelligence estimate “would be a mistake.” On Fox News today, Bolton went even further and called for a congressional investigation into U.S. intelligence agencies, stating that the report was politicized by intelligence officials who have their “own agenda”:

I really think the House and Senate Intelligence Committees have to look at how this NIE was put together because there are a lot unexplained points in here. […]

I think there is a risk here, and I raise this as a question, whether people in the intelligence community who had their own agenda on Iran for some time now have politicized this intelligence and politicized these judgments in a way contrary to where the administration was going. I think somebody needs to look at that.

“I’ve never based my view on this week’s intelligence,” Bolton proclaimed today. Just as he did before the Iraq war, Bolton is attempting to discredit any intelligence which contrasts with his fixation on more war in the Middle East.

While Bolton is calling for a congressional witch-hunt into the intelligence community, VoteVets is calling for an congressional investigation into the Bush administration for warning of a false Iran threat despite knowing the key findings of the NIE.

Changes in Guantanamo Bay SOP manual (2003-2004)

Wikileaks with the help of Center for Constitutional Rights bust’s open the Standard Operating Procedure .