Libertarian National Convention May 22-26, 2008

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• The Libertarian National Convention will convene tomorrow, May 22, 2008 to choose a presidential nominee from 14 contenders including former Republican Bob Barr and former Democrat Mike Gravel.
• The presidential nominee for the party will be selected Sunday.
• The convention is in Denver, which will also serve as the site of the Democratic National Convention in August.

Sources:

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/05/19/libertarians_to_converge_on_denver/7583/

http://www.lpconvention.org/index.php

Obama Wins February 19th Democratic Primaries/Caucuses By 749,092 Votes

• With between 62% and 100% of precincts reporting Barack Obama received 952,455 votes to Clinton's 719,352 in the Hawaii, Washington and Wisconsin caucus/primaries.
• Barack Obama received 76%, 50% and 58% of the votes in Hawaii, Washington and Wisconsin respectively while Clinton received 24%, 47% and 41% for the same states.
• The remaining percentage of voters cast their votes for former/lesser known candidates John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, Mike Gravel, Chris Dodd, or as uncommitted.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/primaries/

The Candidates on Resignation of Fidel Castro

Hillary Clinton

* "The new leadership in Cuba will face a stark choice -- continue with the failed policies of the past that have stifled democratic freedoms and stunted economic growth -- or take a historic step to bring Cuba into the community of democratic nations. The people of Cuba want to seize this opportunity for real change and so must we. "

• "As President, I will engage our partners in Latin America and Europe who have a strong stake in seeing a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba, and who want very much for the United States to play a constructive role to that end. The United States must pursue an active policy that does everything possible to advance the cause of freedom, democracy and opportunity in Cuba."

John McCain

• "Today's resignation of Fidel Castro is nearly half a century overdue. For decades, Castro oversaw an apparatus of repression that denied liberty to the people who suffered under his dictatorship."


• "Cuba's transition to democracy is inevitable; it is a matter of when - not if. With the resignation of Fidel Castro, the Cuban people have an opportunity to move forward and continue pushing for the moment that they will truly be free. America can and should help hasten the sparking of freedom in Cuba. The Cuban people have waited long enough."

Barack Obama

• " Cuba's future should be determined by the Cuban people and not by an anti-democratic successor regime. The prompt release of all prisoners of conscience wrongly jailed for standing up for the basic freedoms too long denied to the Cuban people would mark an important break with the past. It's time for these heroes to be released."


• "If the Cuban leadership begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic change, the United States must be prepared to begin taking steps to normalize relations and to ease the embargo of the last five decades. The freedom of the Cuban people is a cause that should bring Americans together."

Mike Huckabee

• "The Cuban people deserve nothing less than free and fair elections which would provide the only hope for a prosperous and democratic Cuba. Until Fidel Castro is dead there can be no significant movement towards reform in Cuba. Raul Castro has proven that he's as much a tyrant and dictator as his brother Fidel. Simply providing more power to another dictator does nothing to promote freedom and democracy to the Cuban people."
  

Sources: Press Releases Posted on the Candidate's Websites:

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/release/view/?id=6068

http://johnmccain.com/Informing/News/PressReleases/3fa77b84-1122-4084-bfcb-d7dd970ecb3.htm

http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/19/statement_of_senator_barack_ob_3.php

http://www.mikehuckabee.com/?FuseAction=Newsroom.PressRelease&ID=630

Press Releases on Fidel Castro's resignation were unavailable from the websites of Alan Keyes, Ron Paul and MikeGravel.

Mike Huckabee and Mike Gravel...The Only Fair Tax Candidates

• Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat Mike Gravel are the only two Presidential candidates supporting the Fair Tax.
• According to http://www.fairtax.org/ "the fair tax:
• Enables workers to keep their entire paychecks
• Enables retirees to keep their entire pensions
• Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
• Allows American products to compete fairly
• Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
• Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
• Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
• Abolishes the IRS"
• This is accomplished with a national sales tax that replaces federal income and payroll taxes.
• Link to Fair Tax caluclator: http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=calculator

Sources: Candidate's Websites and http://www.fairtax.org/

Mike Huckabee and Mike Gravel Support Fair Tax

Obama Wins Potomac Democratic Primaries By 684,561 Votes

• With between 92% and 99% of precincts reporting Barack Obama received 1,146,976 votes to Clinton's 647,743 in the Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC primaries.
• Barack Obama received 64%, 59% and 75% of the votes in Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC respectively while Clinton received 35%, 37% and 24% for the same states. The remaining percentage of voters cast their votes for former candidates John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, Mike Gravel, Chris Dodd, or as uncommitted.
  
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/primaries/

Barack Obama Wins Potomac Primaries

Michigan and Florida Democrat Delegates Still in Question

• In 2007 Florida and Michigan made the decision to move up the dates of their 2008 Presidential Primaries. As a result, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) stripped both states of their delegates to the national convention and prompted the candidates to sign a pledge not to campaign or participate in primaries not already authorized by the DNC to occur prior to February 5, 2008.
• The decision by the DNC to strip Florida and Michigan of their delegates led to a lawsuit being filed in October of 2007 by Florida's leaders in Congress accusing the DNC and state officials of "unconstitutional and "wholesale disenfranchisement" of Florida's 4 million Democratic voters." The lawsuit was ultimately unsuccessful.
• In Michigan the Democrat candidates with the exception of Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd, Mike Gravel, and Dennis Kucinich withdrew their names from the ballot while in Florida all names still appeared. This left Michigan voters without a choice to vote for Barack Obama or John Edwards.
• At Michigan's January 15, 2008 Democratic primary Hillary Clinton received 55% of the vote. 40% voted uncommitted, 4% voted for Dennis Kucinich and 1% voted for Chris Dodd.
• Fourteen days later at the Florida primary Hillary Clinton came in first again with 50% of the vote compared to Barack Obama at 33%, John Edwards at 14% and Dennis Kucinich at 1%.
• Hillary Clinton was the only candidate to break the pledge. During a campaign stop in Florida on January 29, 2008 she told the crowd "I promise you I will do everything I can that not only Florida's Democrats get seated but that Florida is in the winning column for the Democrats in November 2008."
• Her campaign is then reported to have asked the DNC to reinstate the Florida and Michigan delegates. This request was countered by a proposal from the DNC to hold caucuses in both states in May.
• Unknown is who would bear the cost of the caucuses considering both states already held Democratic primaries. Additionally, Florida and Michigan are not traditionally caucus states and would have to educate voters on the caucus process.
• Florida lawmakers have declined the caucus offer however, this issue appears to be far from over. Just this morning on CNN Howard Dean, Chairman of the DNC, said if there is not a clear front runner in the delegate count by April the two candidates will have to come to some kind of an agreement. Obviously if Michigan's 128 pledged delegates and Florida's 185 pledged delegates were awarded to Hillary Clinton this would give here the lead in the delegate count.

Sources:

http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/080131nj1.htm

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/106879.html

Michigan and Florida Delegates

John Edwards Drops Out...

Due to John Edwards dropping out of the Presidential primaries a recap of his endorsements will not be presented today as previously promised.

I do have to say, it is sad to me, that less than a week from Super Tuesday Americans are left with only two choices in the Democrat primary. Well, I take that back, people can always vote for Mike Gravel.