The "other" Over Shadowed Senate Race

If you think that the US Senate race in New Jersey is being overshadowed in the press, there is another biggie Senate race being overlooked just south of New Jersey: Senator Joe Biden’s re-election campaign in Delaware.

Yup, that’s right---Joe has another Republican woman in his life, other than Governor Sarah Palin. ---- Christine O’Donnell.

According to O’Donnell’s website, she “is a nationally recognized political commentator and marketing consultant…and she appears weekly, often daily, on national news outlets such as the Fox News Channel, CNN, C-SPAN, FNC's O'Reilly Factor, Hannity & Colmes.” She was also on ABC's Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher way back when.

In the very strange world of elective politics, there are some states that let senators run for vice-president AND senate at the same time. In 1960, Lyndon Johnson did it ---and won both seats. Joe Lieberman did it in 2000, and was one for two; and Lloyd Bentsen did it in 1988 [won his Senate seat, and lost the VP spot to Dan Quayle].

So, of course, this is a major issue for Christine O’Donnell. But she has heard nary a peep from her senatorial opponent. "He doesn't have any signs up, billboards up or stickers," she lamented to the press recently. And while Biden has had one debate with his Republican opponent, Governor Sarah Palin, he has not been in Delaware for more than twenty days total and has not met O’Donnell in a debate. Nor does he have any plans to.

Delaware, in some ways, has more Democratic blue between its borders than New Jersey. The latest registration numbers statewide: Out of 602,726 registered voters, there are 280,347 registered Democrats; 181,789 registered Republicans, and 140,590 independent or unaffiliated voters.

So, Republican senate candidate/Lobbyist Dick Zimmer may lament that Senator Lautenberg has not had many debates [two as of this blogpost]---but at least he has an opponent in the state. Poor Chris O’Donnell is running against Biden and the Democratic blue wave. Prediction: both Lautenberg and Biden will win their Senate seats.

And when Biden wins the Vice Presidency? Most likely his son, Beau Biden -- currently the AG in Delaware, will be appointed by Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner to fill the Senate spot---keeping it all in the Biden family.

News Bits and Bites

Some bits of news require either no comment or minimal comment. From today's New York Times:

$700 Billion Is Sought for Wall Street in Vast Bailout

President Bush discussed the government’s financial bailout proposal during a news conference at the White House on Saturday.

The proposal, not quite three pages long, was stunning for its stark simplicity. It would raise the national debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion. And it would place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, granting the Treasury secretary unprecedented power to buy and resell mortgage debt.

Yup, they know what they're doing domestically, too.

...and one more headline, needing no comment:

Debate Pact Will Let McCain and Obama Spar

The presidential debates will follow a free-flowing format, but John McCain’s campaign insisted on more structure for Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s debate with Sarah Palin.

Yup, she's ready to rumble.

Every candidate has a silver punchline

I have been speaking on the topic of humor in politics for about fifteen years to the New Jersey State League of Municipalities. And I have been the keynote speaker at about 20 other state leagues and national conferences of elected officials. When humor is used appropriately, it can make important points, diffuse tension, bring new people to see your point of view ---and most importantly ----show your human side.

Sometimes politicos do very well on TV when trying to be funny. Some do not.

The 2008 candidates for president have been sort of funny in the debates. Sometimes there are planned ‘quips’. Sometimes spontaneous. But I am sure that with most of the candidates hitting The Daily Show, The Tonight Show, Letterman, Leno, Conan O’Brien ----they each have someone on their staff to write good one-liners or to consult with them on how to deliver a punch line. I was once even called on to help Jim Florio be funny at the New Jersey Legislative Correspondents Dinner.

Here are some of the better one-liners from recent appearances by the 2008 candidates from USA Today, that voters may use to decide who they support:

Sen. Joseph Biden, made short, funny work of a question about his propensity for verbal gaffes and verbosity in general.

"Can you reassure voters in this country that you would have the discipline you would need on the world stage?" moderator Brian Williams asked him at an MSNBC debate in April.

"Yes," Biden said. As it became clear that was his entire answer, the audience roared.

What do you pray for? Was asked of Senator Hillary Clinton, at a forum on faith: "Oh Lord, why can't you help me lose weight?"

John Edwards and the $400 haircut: The haircut was a private expense that was listed on a publicly disclosed campaign-spending report. The former North Carolina senator did damage control last month on NBC's The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. Asked why he and his wife, Elizabeth, eat at Wendy's on their wedding anniversary, Edwards said: "You can't spend money on food when you're spending money on haircuts"

Sen. Chris Dodd, is making pre-emptive cracks about his age (63) and late-in-life fatherhood (his daughters are 5 and 2). "I'm probably the only one who gets mailings from AARP and diaper services," he often says.

Barack Obama faces potential wariness about his name. He introduces the topic by describing his first run for office: People everywhere asked, "Where did you get this name, Barack Obama? They'd mispronounce it to me. They would call me Alabama or Yo-Mama, and I'd have to explain it was Obama; my father was from Kenya, from Africa; my mother was from Kansas."

Sometimes funny ads can help:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has moved up to double-digits in Iowa polls since starting a series of ads called "Job Interview." Each is a skit with a crass interviewer and the bemused governor.

In one, the interviewer reviews the Democrat's résumé — congressman, U.S. energy secretary, United Nations ambassador, Nobel Peace Prize nominee — and chews food as he asks, "So, what makes you think you can be president?"

Even the Republicans try their hand at humor:

Mitt Romney: The Mormon faith, with its polygamous past, poses a similar challenge for Romney. He handled it this way at a St. Patrick's Day breakfast in 2005, when he was governor: "I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman … and a woman …and a woman."

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani pulled that off at a CNN debate last month when microphone problems interrupted his answer to a question about his differences with Catholic bishops. Told lightning was the culprit, he laughed and said: "For someone who went to parochial schools his whole life, this is a very frightening thing."

How long did God take to create the world? Was asked of Mike Huckabee, at a debate: "I don't know. I wasn't there."

And two old standards from both sides of the political aisle:

One classic was the fake telegram then-senator John F. Kennedy read from his father at the 1958 Gridiron Dinner in Washington: "Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary — I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide." With that, Kennedy defused allegations that his rich father was trying to buy him the 1960 election.

Reagan scored a similar coup regarding his age, 73, when he ran for re-election in 1984 against Walter Mondale, then 56. "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience," Reagan said during a debate. Mondale laughed and the issue became moot.

Humor: A tool in the rights hands. A horrible mistake in others'.