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Futhermore: A blog by Gannett News Service Political Editor Chuck Raasch

Mary get your gun

For political junkies, it doesn't get much better than this: James Carville ragin' about how spec-tacular the 2008 presidential campaign will be. Consultants auditioning their candidates' '08 ideas and strategies (the economy, health care, and Iraq are going to be important, put that in the bank). Political history lessons, and even a lame joke or two. The smoke still lingers from the 2006 congressional campaigns, but the fire is already being stoked for 2008.

This was the feeling at a political conference today sponsored by the Hotline and the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. It took place in the Ronald Reagan Building and Interna-tional Trade Center, but the happy warriors in the room were Democrats fresh from taking the House and Senate three weeks ago.

Some highlights:

- Keynoter Carville giving the secret to his bipartisan marriage to GOP operative Mary Matalin: She posts a sign in the bedroom that says, "I'm out of Estrogen and I've got a gun."
The Democrat-pundit-Ragin' Cajun proclaimed the upcoming 2008 presidential election not just interesting, but the most interesting in American political history. The reasons: No consensus front-runner in either political party. No vice president with ambitions to run – the first time both factors have converged since 1920. Five "larger than life" figures who are likely to run – John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Al Gore. ("Any one of these people walks in this room they change the temperature of this room," Carville said.) Big issues to talk about - like war, terrorism, reform of big government programs, health care.
"I get up in the middle of the night and throw my fist in the air – bring it on!" Carville exclaimed. Not sure how smart that is next to a sleeping partner with a gun.

- Veteran Democratic and Republican consultants each arguing that the race to raise the most money before the 2008 primaries and caucuses might not be as important as in past presidential primaries. Why? There's more money than ever to be had – PAC spending in the 2006 campaign surpassed $1 billion for the first time, for instance. And secondly, the Internet allows candidates both to get their message to activists and donors – and if the message catches on, you can raise a lot of money in very little time. Jessica VandenBerg, who managed Jim Webb's successful Senate race in Virginia, said the Democrat Webb raised $8.5 million, nearly half of it on the Internet, and $4 million of it in October alone.

- A plea from Federal Election Commission member, Michael Toner, to fix the nation's electronic voting problems before the 2008 elections. Several speakers noted the lingering problems in Florida's 13th congressional district, where electronic voting machines may have miscounted or undercounted thousands of votes in a congressional race. Toner said the United States' election technology and oversight is "light years" behind other democracies, and urged Congress and states to spend more money and train more professional poll workers.

"We are asking people who are volunteering at $6 an hour for a 14-hour day," who are "65 and 70 years old" to "master electronic equipment" that sometimes doesn't work correctly, Toner, a Republican, said. "That's not realistic."

Posted By CHUCK RAASCH, GNS POLITICAL WRITER on November 30. 2006 4:23PM
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Chuck Raasch is political editor for Gannett News Service. His column, Newpolitics, appears here and on USA TODAY.com. A native of South Dakota and a graduate of South Dakota State University, Raasch has covered political campaigns since 1978, including Tom Daschle's first race for Congress and George McGovern's last race for the Senate. He has covered presidential campaigns since 1988.

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