Motley Moose – Archive

PHOENIX, ARIZONA – Senator John McCain’s hometown sheriff, Joe Arpaio, is skipping out on a local Senate hearing Monday, organized in part by McCain, to appear on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report. The Phoenix hearing will feature three panels of state and local officials who will discuss the impact of border violence on Arizona communities.

Sheriff Joe, who is famous (and controversial) for his reality show, tent-based jails, and large contingent of immigration enforcement officers, says he never intended to appear before McCain and other senators at Monday’s hearing. Rather, Arpaio believes that submitting a written statement would better maintain the integrity of the hearings.

Crossposted from The Huffington Post

TEMPE, ARIZONA – Arizona State University became the unlikely focus of a political firestorm last week when news broke that ASU would not be conferring the customary honorary degree on President Barack Obama when he gives the commencement speech in May. The university’s official reason cites a policy of not giving honorary degrees to sitting politicians — but one sitting politician did receive an honorary degree from ASU and the university has now admitted that the policy was only “verbal” and never documented.

Crossposted from the Huffington Post

TEMPE, ARIZONA – Arizona State University President Michael Crow is saying that ASU will “honor President Obama in every way” just two days after student journalist Adam Sneed broke the story that Arizona State University (ASU) would not be conferring the customary honorary degree on President Barack Obama when he gives the commencement speech in May.

In a process that many consider a racket, universities typically confer an honorary degree on commencement speakers. When Sneed heard through the grapevine that ASU did not intend to bestow that honor on the President of the United States, he knew he had a story. He just didn’t know how big. He says university staff were very helpful when he went looking for details, adding, “I just don’t think any of us anticipated it getting this much attention!”

(Crossposted from the Huffington Post)

Crossposted from the Huffington Post

TEMPE, ARIZONA – Universities typically confer an honorary degree on commencement speakers, particularly those who have reached the pinnacle of their career or achieved the top of their field. Arizona State University (ASU), though, says it will not confer an honorary degree on this year’s commencement speaker, President Barack Obama, because “his body of work is yet to come.”

On Thursday, the day after the final presidential debate, the national Republican National Committee (RNC) launched one of the most wide-reaching robocall campaigns in election history.

Voters from Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Missouri, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, West Virginia, Maine, New Hampshire, Indiana, Delaware, Illinois, Georgia and even Canada have received pre-recorded, automated phone calls designed to frighten voters by tying Barack Obama to former member of the Weather Underground Bill Ayers. The robocall lasts about half a minute and includes the following statement:

In yet another outrageous display of racism and ignorance, the Chaffey Community Republican Women in San Bernadino County put a graphic in their newsletter of a fake food stamp with Obama’s face pictured on a donkey, alongside fried chicken, ribs, Kool-Aid, and watermelon.

Along with the caption:

“Obama talks about all those presidents that got their names on bills. If elected, what bill would he be on? Food Stamps, what else!”

Throughout the debate, two questions kept going through my mind:

(1) Why does McCain keep making that smug smiley face? You know the one. That superior, disdainful smirk that says I’m right and you’re wrong and everyone is going to laugh at my joke.

and

(2) Who is making that peculiar wheezing-sigh-snort noise?

These are just my initial thoughts and reactions after the debate.

PHOENIX — Although this may be one of the most emotional and hotly contested presidential elections in decades, the theft and vandalism of political signs are nothing new. Every election season, candidate signs disappear from intersections, streets, and yards across America. They usually vanish in the dead of night, as mischief makers abscond with them under cover of darkness. More brazen political opponents occasionally conduct their heists in broad daylight.

This election year, though, a new phenomenon is ensuing. Victims of political sign thefts are fighting back with high tech surveillance.  

That’s right. The Obama campaign has made possibly the most unusual media buy of any presidential campaign. They have bought an entire channel on the Dish satellite network.

More after the jump…

It seems that every four years, the last couple of weeks and the last few days of the election turn nastier and nastier. Sometimes vicious last minute attacks are fired off so rapidly that the opponent is afforded no time to respond. Virtually every study has shown that negative campaigning does not boost turnout or votes for the candidate doing the attacking, rather it suppresses the votes for the candidate being attacked. In other words, when campaigns turn nasty, less voters turn out.

This year could be different because some of the largest battleground states, such as Ohio, are offering early voting without requiring a valid absentee excuse from the voter. The trend toward no-excuse mail-in voting has been seen in recent cycles but could significantly alter the landscape of battleground states in the presidential election this year.