Johnny Camacho’s Blog

I’m currently watching CNN as the results from Indiana and North Carolina come in. Speaking of CNN, Wolf Blitzer still can’t say the word “project” properly, incorrectly pronouncing it “preject,” instead. But, I digress. As I’m writing this, Sen. Obama has been projected the winner in North Carolina and is expected to end up winning there by a sizable margin. Indiana, while heavily favoring Sen. Clinton early on, hasn’t yet been called.

Update (9:25 P.M.): Barack Obama is giving an absolutely fantastic speech right now; one of the best of his campaign, in fact. I will post the video as soon as it hits YouTube, which should be pretty soon.

Update (11:48 P.M.): The first of the much-awaited Lake County, IN numbers just came in, and they appear to be extremely favorable to Senator Obama so far. Senator Clinton now leads by a margin of 51% to 49%.

Update (12:32 A.M.): 95% of precincts are in, and Obama seems to be closing the gap between himself and Senator Clinton with each new wave of numbers. Some are preparing for the possibility that Obama will make a last-minute surge, picking up enough votes to narrowly edge out Senator Clinton in a shocking victory. While an Obama win still seems unlikely to me, one thing’s for sure: Senator Clinton’s already-small vote advantage will only shrink further as the handful remaining precincts report

Update (1:15 A.M.): CNN has finally called Indiana for Senator Clinton. 99% of precincts have now reported, and Hillary Clinton managed to expand her rapidly-narrowing lead by about 6,000 votes in the final stretch, giving herself a little bit of breathing room, and ensuring a Clinton victory in Indiana. The vote currently stands at 51% for Clinton; 49% for Obama, and it is not expected to change. I congratulate Senator Clinton on her win in Indiana, and I congratulate Senator Obama on his win in North Carolina.

I just read a very interesting article written by Joe Trippi, a senior adviser for John Edwards’ Presidential campaign. At one point, Trippi has this to say:

I didn’t tell him what I should have told him: That I had this feeling that if he stayed in the race he would win 300 or so delegates by Super Tuesday and have maybe a one-in-five chance of forcing a brokered convention.That there was a path ahead that would be extremely painful, but could very well put him and his causes at the top of the Democratic agenda. And that in politics anything can happen-even the possibility that in an open convention with multiple ballots an embattled and exhausted party would turn to him as their nominee. I should have closed my eyes to the pain I saw around me on the campaign bus, including my own. I should have told him emphatically that he should stay in. My regret that I did not do so - that I let John Edwards down - grows with every day that the fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continues.

Is Trippi right to regret not urging the continuation of Edwards’ campaign? What if Edwards had stayed in the race? Would he now be winning the electability argument? Would he be a voice of reason in the midst of the Clinton/Obama cage match, or would we simply be witnessing an equally nasty Edwards/Clinton/Obama cage match? The fact that I’m giving so much thought to these questions should serve as a pretty good indication of how fatigued I am by the entire Democratic nominating contest as it currently stands.

Gov. Mark Warner’s Senate campaign has released his full Shad Planking speech on Youtube. See the video below:

Curiously, video of Gov. Gilmore’s speech has yet to make it onto Youtube. This may have something to do with the fact that the speech was almost universally denounced by those who heard it. If anyone out there has the video, please post it on Youtube or send it to me. You’ll be doing the public a great service!

My second sidebar poll is now closed. The question was, “What should Democratic superdelegates do in the event that Clinton leads in the popular vote while Obama leads in elected delegates at the time of the convention?” Here is the vote breakdown:

Daily Whackjob has a new contributor: Me! I was invited a few days ago to write at their site, and I composed my introductory post today. Don’t worry, though, this blog isn’t going anywhere. I’ll still write original posts for this site and update it with the same frequency. So, if you’re a regular reader, keep coming back. Just make sure to head on over to DWJ every once in a while to see what my alter ego is talking about.

Here is part two of my Shad Planking 2008 photo series:

While I hope to post a written recap of this year’s Shad Planking very soon, I will go ahead and post some of the better photos that I took at the event. They will be split into two posts. View the first batch in gallery form below the fold.

Note: Thanks to the people at Wordpress for the most recent update (2.5)! The new gallery feature is what enabled me to display the photos so nicely.

Read the rest of this entry »

The following quote was uttered at this month’s Bath County Board of Supervisors meeting by a supervisor whose name I shall not say:

[Health care’s] a need that’s not a need. It’s a necessity.

If I didn’t personally know who said this, I’d swear that Yogi Berra had been elected to the board.

I was in Richmond back in February as part of a group lobbying the budget-weary General Assembly on behalf of Virginia’s community college system. We basically acknowledged early on that no more money would be gotten; it was all a matter of trying to convince them to cut it by a lesser percentage. However, the nuances of our lobbying activities for the day are of little importance. What is important is that, on that trip, I learned some tricks of the trade sure to make your next lobbying trip a success! Note: All of the following tips are inspired by real events.

1. Get on the same elevator as Delegate Dave Marsden by accident and wait for the doors to close. If nobody else in your group realizes who he is (as was the case with me), take initiative. Get his attention by acknowledging his presence, introduce yourself, and then use the rest of your 10 seconds together to lobby him for your cause. Bingo! You’ve just gotten face time with Dave Marsden, and you didn’t even have to sit around awkwardly outside his office as he finished up in his current meeting!
2. Don’t try to joke with any VMI faculty (especially the Generals) who may be visiting the capitol on the same day as you. They will look at you with disdain. Ideally, you should respectfully acknowledge them with a slight head gesture or single word. I’m sure some of them aren’t completely tense, but, for the most part, their senses of humor leave a lot to be desired. So, keep it simple
3. When meeting with Sen. Emmett Hanger, make note of his impressive mug collection, and then express to him that you were a big supporter during his 2007 primary. Every time you do the latter, a SWAC blogger loses their NRA membership card.
4. Del. Ben Cline has no collectibles laying around his office, nor is a proper conversational ice breaker immediately obvious when meeting with him. Good luck.
5. Sen. Creigh Deeds is a blast to talk to and is far better at taking jokes than the VMI crew. This can be advantageous to you, the lobbyist. Just don’t mention that you’re a reader of this particular blog, or you’ll be immediately escorted from the building by security.
6. Go with a few REALLY obscure bits of information about general assembly history or the contents of the capitol building and share them with all who will listen - especially capitol employees - and they’ll treat you like a genius for the duration of your visit. This is especially true if you are under the age of 20. If you’re over 40 and do this, you just look like a know-it-all, and nobody likes that.
7. Eat at the Tobacco Company. Order the rib-eye.

There you have it: 7 solid tips to help you get the most out of your next lobbying adventure! I will post more if I think of them.

Following its reporting of the Bath County reassessment outrage, the Roanoke Times published an outstanding editorial calling for the abolition of the property tax system. The editorial uses Bath County’s dilemma to illustrate why the property tax is so problematic. Here’s an excerpt:

When real estate assessment rose by as much as 1,000 percent in rural Bath County, taxpayers were outraged.

The board of supervisors canceled the county’s contract with the appraiser and will stick with the old assessments.

That takes care of the immediate problem, but the situation in Bath highlights the fundamental flaws of using property taxes to fund local government.

As historian John Steele Gordan said in a 2006 commentary on Marketplace, the property tax is “a relic of the colonial past and should be abolished.” He said it should be displayed in the Smithsonian “along with other relics like chamber pots and clay pipes.”

A tax on property made sense when only the very wealthy owned property, and that property generated revenue and economic activity.

Now home ownership is widespread. But far from producing income, homes consume it. Houses generate no real economic activity until they’re sold.

View the entire editorial here.