It’s unsurprising then that some media reports described it as Occupy’s new tactic; and although numerous individuals involved in Occupy are taking part in the spring trainings, an Occupy Wall Street initiative this is not. The 99 Percent Spring is spearheaded by MoveOn.org and supported by around 60 progressive nonprofits and major unions, including the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters, Greenpeace, the Working Families Party and Van Jones’ Rebuild the Dream organization.

Continue Reading...

Continue Reading...

Speaking on Fox, Paul conspicuously declined the opportunity to condemn the attack. "It's an unusual situation to have so many people, so passionate on both sides, jockeying back and forth and it wasn't something I liked or anybody liked about that situation," he said. "So I hope in the future it's going to be better."

Watch video of Paul's television appearance, via TPM, below:

Continue Reading...

MSNBC spokeswoman Alana Russo says the commercial submitted by the liberal group MoveOn.org violates its advertising policy by directly attacking an individual business.

MoveOn announced plans earlier this week to spend $35,000 airing the ad on MSNBC nationally and on three networks in the Twin Cities. The group says the stations in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market are running the ad.

MoveOn head Justin Ruben says the rejection is "the height of hypocrisy."

Minneapolis-based Target last month donated $150,000 to a political fund supporting conservative GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer in Minnesota. That triggered a national backlash from gay rights groups and liberals.

Continue Reading...

That adds to the sense that Sestak has some momentum, and certainly underscores one of the basic dynamics in the race: Sestak has tried to argue he's the true progressive, and remind voters that Specter was a Republican not that long ago.

What it means in terms of help on the ground for a campaign that could be determined by whose get-out-the-vote operation works better, though, is less clear. MoveOn.org spokeswoman Ilyse Hogue tells me the group has about 150,000 members in Pennsylvania. "They're among the most active members of the Democratic Party," she says. Which is true. But MoveOn is mostly just urging them to vote -- and volunteer -- for Sestak; the group's endorsement doesn't bring any actual logistical support along with it. And while Sestak won the MoveOn vote handily -- with 67 percent of the total -- that still means Specter has some loyalists, even among die-hard activists.

The latest Muhlenberg College/Morning Call tracking poll in Pennsylvania put Specter ahead, 45-43.

Continue Reading...

As of Tuesday night, the combined efforts of four liberal groups -- MoveOn.org, Daily Kos, Democracy for America and Progressive Change Campaign Committee -- had raised $1 million for Halter in just 36 hours. (MoveOn was responsible for $900,000 of that.)

"These are one million reasons that Blanche Lincoln will be sorry that she consistently sided with corporate interests over her constituents on issues like the public option," Adam Green, a co-founder of PCCC, told Salon by e-mail.

Continue Reading...

So it's not too surprising that progressive groups like MoveOn.org would immediately jump on the Halter bandwagon. MoveOn did so Monday with an e-mail to members asking for donations to Halter. The e-mail is reproduced below -- all emphases are in the original.

Continue Reading...

But in a new ad, Move On is at least mockingly pretending to endorse Boehner -- on behalf of insurance companies.

"As House minority leader, and a favorite of the insurance industry, John showed the courage to stand up for the big guy," the ad's narrator says. The spot concludes with the narrator saying, "John Boehner: The right choice for Ohio -- I mean, uh, health insurance companies."

This is, by the way, yet another sign of just how much populist messages are likely to dominate this election season.

Continue Reading...

MoveOn.org, for one, released an updated version of its ad on the issue that starred Heather Graham. In this new iteration, the narrator says, "When a majority of Americans support something, it's hard to keep a good idea down. Because the public option is back. The public option is making a comeback. Over 20 senators and over 100 House members have endorsed putting the public option back on the table." (The ad is at the bottom of this post.)

That is, simply put, a very optimistic way of looking at things -- an overly optimistic way of looking at things, really. It's impressive that liberal groups have gotten as many senators to back the idea as they have, but not much more than that is likely to happen.

Continue Reading...

I want a pony! Good stuff....

Continue Reading...

The idea of the spot, which the group is telling its members "could be the funniest and most memorable ad we've ever produced," is that Graham represents the public option, and is preparing for a running race against private insurers, who are lazy and don't want to compete. It's not a bad idea, but the ad doesn't stick closely enough to the metaphor, and the message gets muddled. Plus, while Graham's presence may draw some headlines, it will also distract viewers -- there doesn't seem to be much point to it, except maybe to suggest that the public option will have plenty of cleavage.

Continue Reading...

In case you’d forgotten the basic tenor of the arguments of those years, Afghanistan is here to help you remember. As the Taliban has regained strength and the White House weighs sending thousands more troops, Afghanistan has lost its status as “the Good War.” Instead, the conflict is beginning to polarize American politics in a way that's all too familiar.

So, in an unsurprising move, MoveOn.org today will send out an email calling for the president to withdraw from Afghanistan, echoing an increasingly prevalent position on the American left. Meanwhile, precisely on cue, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., yesterday made his case for maintaining an American presence in the country. Said the senator:

Continue Reading...

Of course, since it's MoveOn, the ad is actually satirical and they're mocking the insurance companies as a way of making the case for a public option. It goes a little over the top, and it's not as funny -- and maybe not as persuasive -- as it could have been if it didn't.

Still, it seems like a good move, strategically. In a situation like the healthcare reform debate, where people believe they may have to give up their current coverage, they become more attached to the plans they have now, no matter how they felt about them before. It's a human nature thing -- bird in the hand better than two in the bush, and so on. Reminding people that they really aren't that happy with the status quo seems like a good way to combat that tendency.

Continue Reading...

As I noted yesterday, the comparison of an anonymous person in the 2004 MoveOn.org ad contest of Bush to Hitler generated a massive media firestorm for a full week, with all sorts of political figures and organizations vehemently condemning the actions of this anonymous individual.  As a result, I contacted many of those people to ask for their reaction to yesterday's comparison of Obama and Hitler by GOP leader Rush Limbaugh, speaking to his audience of 15 million people.  I'll post any responses I get here.  These are the ones I've received thus far:

National Review's Cliff May:

It is wrong, outrageous and damaging for Rush Limbaugh to compare Obama to Hitler. . . . Such hyperbole only serves to confuse and trivialize issues much more grave than tax rates and health-care plans.

The American Jewish Congress:

Continue Reading...

Rush Limbaugh today, speaking to his audience of 15 million, compares Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler and Nancy Pelosi to Nazi leaders (h/t Atrios):

Fox News, January 6, 2004:

Continue Reading...

The spot, which will run on national cable -- generally a sign that it's aimed more at influencing the media more than anyone else -- goes after Palin and her stance on energy and the environment, something she's strongly hinted she'll focus on now that she's no longer governor.

Continue Reading...

No, you didn't oversleep, and I'm not the subject of any banner headlines, either -- that's a screen shot from MoveOn's latest Web ad. The liberal group is allowing people to customize the video and an accompanying Web site to include the names of their friends and encourage them to get out and vote for Barack Obama. 

The video itself isn't bad, but the Web site is better. Some of the headlines on the customized page my former colleague Farhad Manjoo sent me are, "Neighbor: 'Alex Always Seemed So Normal,'" "World: 'Really? Again? Really?!?'" "Obama Reportedly 'Not Mad, Just Disappointed'" and my personal favorite, "Final Words of Dying Child: 'I Hate Alex.'" (Strangely, it's not the first time that's happened, but that's a whole other story.)

Continue Reading...

"[T]he types of independent groups that so affected the 2004 presidential campaign are flooding back as players in the final sprint to the election this fall," Rutenberg and Luo reported. "Hewing to their reformist themes, the McCain and Obama campaigns initially tried to discourage such activities on their behalf. But as the race has intensified in its closing weeks, the campaigns have increasingly turned a blind eye to the activities of these groups."

Now, it's still true that there is much less outside activity than there was during the 2004 campaign, and it looks like that trend will continue. But the Times' article was well-timed, as it coincided with the release of the anti-Obama attack ad I discussed in an earlier post, and also a new ad put out by liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org.

Continue Reading...

The liberal group's ad features a lone man looking directly into the camera, reminiscent of the "Not Alex" ad MoveOn and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees released last month. This ad fits neatly into the message coming from the Obama campaign in response to McCain's attacks, turning them back on McCain and charging him with having abandoned his principles during this campaign.

"Sen. McCain, you let me and my kids down," the man in the ad says. "From the very beginning, I told them, 'This is a principled guy.' So when you said you were going to help make driving affordable again, I believed you. Then your idea is to do offshore drilling, which I find out won't produce much oil for 10 years and then barely save us any money anyway? That's not a solution, Mr. McCain. That's a gimmick. We expected better."

Continue Reading...

"The American people are demanding a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq," the ad's narrator says. "In Baghdad and Basra and Tikrit, the Iraqi people and now the Iraqi prime minister are also demanding a timetable... [But John McCain will] spend hundreds of billions of dollars more to keep our troops in Iraq for years and years."

The Republican National Committee has already hit back on McCain's behalf. In a statement, spokesman Alex Conant said, "MoveOn.org is repaying Barack Obama for his ideological position on Iraq by running ads that ignore the improving situation in Iraq... Rather than listening to MoveOn.org to set his strategy, Barack Obama should withhold judgment until he meets with our commanders in Iraq."

Continue Reading...