Last night, I saw Harry Shearer's documentary The Big Uneasy. It told the story of Katrina from the point of view of the non-Corps of Engineers researchers who evaluated the human causes of Katrina. And the point of the documentary was that Katrina was NOTa natural disaster, but a completely man-made one that would have been much more mild had the Corps not messed around with the Mississippi River and greatly damaging the ecosystem of the wetland. This information has been around for several years, but it was an interesting packaging of it. My takeaway: the next time Robert Gates decides to cut budgets, he should start with the Corps of Engineers. It turns out that this is the only government entity where virtually 100% of the projects are earmarks. And the Corps, as many of us have long known, surpassed their own level of the Peter Principle 100 times over several decades ago.
There are no primaries today. Damn. The next good primary day will be 14 September. Both Guam and the Virgin Islands hold their primaries on Saturdays between now and then, but well...On the 14th, the states will be Delaware, DC, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. Closer to the election, I'll have a rundown on the races, including the teabag challenge to Mike Castle. But I can tell you going in that my pick fave race of the night will be the NY 15th Democratic primary. (Yes, you should know, but if you don't: Rangel v Powell.)
Tonight President Obama will be making his second Oval Office address on the ceasing of the combat mission in Iraq. It will be at 8 pm eastern. Getting the troops out was a campaign promise: a really big one. Some people feel that he made this promise a reality, others believe that it doesn't count since there are still 50,000 troops there. What's your take?
A month and a half ago, FHQ posted a link to and discussed a presidential election forecasting model built on candidate biographical information. The benefit of this model -- and it performs quite well stacked up against other forecasting models -- is that the biographical data exists now. In other words, you don't have to wait until the second quarter economic numbers are released or to wait on polling data from a particular period of time in the election year to put an accurate forecast together. I left off in that post urging folks to start scouring the biographical data on the prospective 2012 Republicans.
But why do that? Well, if you're patient, you'll be pleasantly surprised by an email from the authors of the original research. And lo and behold, one of those co-authors, Andreas Graefe (the other is J. Scott Armstrong), emailed me this morning to inform me that -- yes, that's right -- they've already looked at the Obama v. Palin numbers. How does Palin fare against the President?
Click here for an enlarged view of the table above.
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Regina M. Benjamin as Surgeon General, Department of Health and Human Services.
President Obama said, “Health care reform is about every family’s health and the health of our economy. And if there’s anyone who understands the urgency of meeting this challenge in a personal and powerful way, it’s the woman who will become our nation’s next Surgeon General, Doctor Regina Benjamin. I look forward working with her in the months and years ahead.”
President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individual today:
Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA, is Founder and CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. She is the Immediate Past-Chair of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States, and previously served as Associate Dean for Rural Health at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine. In 2002, she became President of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, making her the first African American woman to be president of a State Medical Society in the United States. Dr. Benjamin holds a BS in Chemistry from Xavier University, New Orleans. She was in the 2nd class at Morehouse School of Medicine and received her MD degree from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, as well as an MBA from Tulane University. She completed her residency in family medicine at the Medical Center of Central Georgia. Dr. Benjamin received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights in 1998, and was elected to the American Medical Association Board of Trustees in 1995, making her the first physician under age 40 and the first African-American woman to be elected. Dr. Benjamin was previously named by Time Magazine as one of the "Nation's 50 Future Leaders Age 40 and Under.” She was also featured in a New York Times article, "Angel in a White Coat", as "Person of the Week" on ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, and as "Woman of the Year" by CBS This Morning. She received the 2000 National Caring Award which was inspired by Mother Teresa, as well as the papal honor Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice from Pope Benedict XVI. She is also a recent recipient of the MacArthur Genius Award.
Public Policy Polling has a new poll out pitting President Obama against four potential competitors in a series of 2012 general election trial heats. Among the four Republicans, Mike Huckabee polled the best against Obama and was the only match-up where the president was under the fifty percent support mark. Here are the results from PPP's national survey of 686 voters over the weekend (April 17-19):
