The endorsements keep piling up for John Hall in this suburban New York district. This morning I was very happy to read that The Journal-News, the major daily in NY-19 and a Gannett newspaper, endorse Hall and the change that he will help bring to the 110th Congress when he is elected.
http://www.thejournalnews.com/...
This leaves just one area daily, the most conservative one--The Poughkeepsie Journal--that has not yet made any endorsement in this race. I hope they do the right thing.
Highlights:
1. Reminding everyone, again, of her rubberstamping of GOP policies:
Since 1994, when the Republicans' "Contract With America'' was made - and since broken - Kelly has been the consummate GOP soldier, loyally marching in step and even quickening the pace with George Bush in the White House. While our Editorial Board has variously applauded some of Kelly's efforts - for instance, on behalf of the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Montrose - it has not been without reservation. We have been increasingly weary and distressed by her uncritical assessment of the Iraq war - at junctures where a frank assessment by the GOP faithful might actually have altered policy and saved lives.
2. Her complete cluelessness (hilariously, I got an email from her campaign yesterday telling everyone to watch her Cablevision debate on C-Span last night where she just continued to show her cluelessness by not understanding how mutual funds work--classic!)
We similarly have been disappointed by her utter lack of concern about well-chronicled excesses under the "war on terror" and Patriot Act; we have lamented her lack of concern about Washington fiscal policies (she once attributed record-high deficits to bad weather); we have been disappointed as she opposed a federal ban on some assault weapons; we have lamented her lukewarm notice of the need for campaign-finance reform. We are long past tired of being disappointed. For a change, this time, there is a suitable alternative.
3. Some nice things to say about John Hall:
Hall understands the disappointment felt by voters. He advocates a planned withdrawal of American troops from Iraq; Kelly is waiting for a high-profile study team to recommend changes. Hall sees universal health coverage as a way out of the nation's high-cost medical-care crisis. He wants to invest in new technologies as part of a national energy policy. And he has a history of grass-roots fighting to protect the environment - well beyond singing about it. The Kelly campaign has enjoyed mocking him for his activist roots.
And a quick comment about that Cablevision debate. Sue Kelly refused to debate John Hall in the (now-famous for her running away scene) RNN studios because she said it would be like John Hall going on Hannity or O'Reilly since Richard French once worked for Democrats (15 years ago). John Hall, on the other hand, DID go to the Cablevision debate and I was SHOCKED at the right-leaning of the host Terence Michos. I'd never watched him before, but he was clearly biased to the right. Examples? He used buzzwords like "death tax," and tried to compare the current Republican slew (pages!) of scandals to the couple of Democratic missteps recently (he brought up Jack Murtha's recent minor kerfuffle as a comparison).
I respect John Hall all the more for having no fear and remaining calm and collected during the entire exchange. Strangely, even in that friendly environment Sue looked very rattled, she spoke really, really fast, and introduced her new meme, that "John doesn't do his homework" (hilariously repeated at least 3 times). Oh, and she really needed to apply more powder before the debate. :)