The following piece was produced through the Huffington Post's OffTheBus. Edited by Richard Riehl and Denise Wheeler who, despite living amongst the fires in Southern California, managed to pull this together last night. Reported by Kirsten Anderson, River Curtis-Stanley, Jodi Lampert, Julie Pierce, and Debbi Plummer.
Chuck's for Huck!: Chuck Norris has finally climbed off his exercise bike to throw in a martial arts kick for Huckabee, claiming the ex-Arkansas Governor is the only one who has all of the characteristics to lead America forward into the future. If only Jean Claude Van Dam would throw in a kick we'd really have a race!
Huck says God's not a Republican: At the Values Voters Summit last week Mike Huckabee instructed those present: "I do not spell G-O-D G-O-P.'' Echoing Patrick Henry, he went on to exhort the faithful, "It is time for those of us who call ourselves values voters to pledge our lives, our families, our fortunes and our sacred honor to that which is right and which is eternal.'' God may not be a Republican, but he'd support my Fair Tax proposal.
He may have lost the debate, but he cleans up real good: From Rudy's website following Sunday night's debate: "EyeOn08.com: Giuliani looks like he could be President. (McCain Wins The Debate)." Here's the quote in its entirety: "On a deeper level, McCain clearly moved the ball. Thompson clearly moved the ball. Giuliani is fine treading water. He looks like he could be President." Wasn't that how Warren Harding got elected?
Obama's Southern strategy: Thanks to Roadkill tipster Christian Avard for alerting us to Barack Obama's plans for a South Carolina gospel concert tour featuring Donnie McClurkin, who has detailed his struggle with gay tendencies and vowed to battle "the curse of homosexuality." Joshua DuBois, Obama's religious affairs director says, "This is another example of how Barack Obama is defying conventional wisdom and giving new meaning to meeting people at the grassroots level." Like fans of homophobic gospel singers?
The power of the press (the wee, homey kind of press): Iowa's done! Finished! Locked up! This weekend the Biden campaign announced that he was the first candidate to receive an endorsement from an Iowa newspaper...the Storm Lake Times says it wants Joe! The intimate Times has a circulation of 3150. Take that, you other Dem prez wanna bes!
Most popular girl!: Thanks to the New York Times' debate transcript analyzer, we learn that "Hillary" was the most frequently used word in Sunday's debate. Her name was invoked a whopping 27 times, easily beating out "Iraq" (14), "illegal" (9), "business" (8), "education" (5) and "God" (1). Congrats, Hillary! John Lennon was only able to claim he was bigger than Jesus.
Have a spoooooky debate: Dennis Kucinich, party planner? His campaign's latest email suggests not only should supporters have debate watching house parties for the October 30 forensics tilt, should celebrate Halloween at the same time. They are asking us to send our Halloween-Dennis-watching costume ideas to houseparties@kucinich.us. They'll post the best suggestions on the website. We're all going to dress as steaks from the Harkin Steak Fry.
Hillary matches Bobby in the farm belt. Or does she?: The Clinton campaign claims Hillary drew about 7,500 residents to a rally in front of Fresno High School, which some old timers said was the biggest turnout for a presidential candidate's rally since Robert F. Kennedy stumped in Fresno in 1968. But according to Fresno police spokesman Jeff Cardinale, the crowd count was between 2,500 and 3,500. But who cares? We love the image of Hillary in a pair of dungarees with a milk pail.
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