Rachel Murray

Okay, I just can’t help it. Look at these numbers. They don’t lie.

A new Diageo/Hotline national survey (release, results) of 801 registered voters (conducted 4/26 through 4/30) finds:

Giuliani 47%, Clinton 43%
Giuliani 39%, Obama 48% *
Giuliani 41%, Edwards 47%
McCain 45%, Clinton 45%
McCain 37%, Obama 48% *
McCain 37%, Edwards 48% *

A comment from a reader writes:

I rather imagine that, to the apparent great surprise of the media, John Edwards is going to be the man. I expect Hillary will continue to lag in match-ups and stubborn unfavorability numbers and not look like a winner, and I expect GOP “Swiftboaters” to sink Obama at least marginally, but effectively, with “Muslim” “Obama/Osama” and “Hussein” (his middle name) references, since the broad public doesn’t know him enough. Plus, JE has good favorability numbers and major geographic and sociological advantages and knows how to win a case.

I couldn’t agree more.

And now for the Republican debate tag clouds. I’m a little disturbed by this piece of analysis, because drawing any similarities between Edwards and Romney can’t be good, even though it seems relatively harmless:

“Mitt Romney, like John Edwards last week, shows clear emphasis of simple language and man-of-the-people rhetoric: America(n), values, nation, church, faith. ”

Wow, this is fascinating. Even “liberal” Republican Giuliani would beat Clinton and Obama in any state that’s even remotely red-ish. I’m not sure if it’s because more conservative people who were polled felt that it was six of one, half dozen of the other, so may as well go with the Republican, but seems to me that this makes another case for an Edwards nomination.

Another brilliant blending of politics and tech. Thanks to AJ at Boston4Edwards for pointing this out. These are some tag clouds from the other night’s Democratic debate. Based on this alone, who would you vote for? Yeah, I’m biased. But it’s easy to see why. I love that one of Edwards’ most frequently used words is “question”.

Then don’t let the Copyright Royalty Board get away with hurting it. This is from Tim at Pandora (one of my favorite sites). They make it really easy to let your representatives know that this is crap.

I’m writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays, and broadcast radio doesn’t pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541

I love Barack. I do. I think he’s articulate, sincere, his policies are right on and he’s not (yet) completely brainwashed by Washington politicos. Do I think he’s too green to be president? No.  Do I think he’s electable? No. Okay, granted, I’m a New England liberal who has her own ideas about how the rest of the country works without having actually gone out and talked with, well, 99.9% of them. But it seems apparent to me that this country just isn’t ready to have an African American president. There’s just too much racism, too much historical baggage and too much fear for it to be so. Of course, I’d love to be proved wrong.

Now, Hilary’s another story. I would love to see a woman be the next president. But not just any woman. Not that Hilary is “just any woman”. Perhaps this is the problem, though. Ever since 1992, when she stood by her man during all the affair scandals, I had no respect for her. To me, she was staying with him not because she loved him, but for political gain. Every move she makes seems to be for political gain. I get that this is politics, but the difference between a good politician and a bad politician is that the former can at least fake sincerity well. Make me believe!! I want so desperately to believe that public servants have their (most powerless) constituents’ best interests at heart. And yet, I still don’t believe it for a second with Hilary. Yes, she voted for Iraq. So did Edwards. The difference is she never just said plainly “I screwed up”… she said she was duped. Come on… if I wasn’t duped, how the heck could she have been? She’s either lying, or she’s not smart. And I don’t believe she’s not smart.

Then there’s John Edwards. I actually supported Wes Clark in 2004, so I never paid too much attention to Edwards. Again, being a New England liberal, the southern charm was a bit lost on me. He was just too “cute”. When he ran with Kerry, I was lukewarm. I wasn’t crazy about Kerry for president (largely for the same reasons as I’m not crazy about Hilary). So while I voted for them, I wasn’t jumping for joy.

Now it’s 2007 and for the past few months, I’ve seen Edwards in action. Yes, I agree with his policies (like I do with most Dems). But the big difference to me is there’s a depth to him that wasn’t there before. I don’t know if it was the trips to Africa, the personal difficulties he’s gone through or the defeat in 2004, but to me, he’s no longer “cute”. He’s real. He diffused the silly YouTube hair video by saying yes, of course it’s fine that that’s shown to the public. Freedom of speech, and he’s human.

Did he vote for Iraq? Yes. But guess what,… he admitted he screwed up. Good. He’s human. Hooray. That’s what I want in a president. A smart, articulate, caring human who can admit to being human. And this is why I’m supporting John Edwards.

Oh yeah, and he’s smart to be wicked tech savvy. Shout out to the folks in NYC who built his site on the arcos cms. Look at all those social media tools! Just to rattle them off, he’s got:

43 things, myspace, flickr, youtube, egather, delicious, facebook, partybuilder and their very own fun grassroots campaign fundraiser (an example of which you can see here).