The latest Field Poll is out and though the news is not good for Prop 93 supporters or opponents of the gaming compacts, the most important thing may be the number of voters still undecided here on the eve of the election. In the table numbers in Parentheses are early Jan #s and December #s.

Prop/Response	Prop 93	Props 94-97
Yes	33 (39 50)	47 (42 39)
No	46 (39 32)	34 (37 33)
Undecided	21 (22 18)	19 (21 28)

And 80% of voters have heard of Prop 93, compared up from 65% earlier in January and from 25% in December.

Interestingly, the recent Field presidential poll also showed a substantial number of voters still undecided. But for 93 to pass and 94-97 to fail, those undecideds will have to break heavily in one direction. And the trendlines are not favorable for 93 supporters and 94-97 opponents.

Obama is tight with the nuclear power industry and coal. He has accepted $159,800 in contributions from executives and employees of Exelon, the nation’s largest nuclear power-plant operator, for his presidential campaign as of late March 2007, and received notable support from Exelon in his previous political campaigns.

He wants FutureGen’s “clean” coal-fired power plant in Illinois. The group doesn’t count the energy used before and after the coal is burned. With net energy gain reduced by these processes, you’re better off with wind and solar.?

Plus he voted FOR Bush 2005 Energy Policy Act, a sweeping, oil-friendly energy bill that gave lots of presents to Bushes friend’s in the oil industry. Environmentalist strong opposed it. Hillary voted AGAINST it.

He opposes the House-passed bill that would reform the 1872 Mining Law. That law lets companies mine public lands without paying royalties and doesn’t hold them responsible for mine cleanup.

Looks like if Obama wins the presidency , the US will be replacing an oil president with a nuclear-power and coal president.

EDIT by Brian: Real quick, I’m going to be on Portland’s Progressive Talk AM 620 KPOJ in about 10 minutes at 8AM. You can listen live if you so desire. I’ll be talking about the upcoming election here in California.

Check out this from the Kodak theater on debate night:

Dave just called from the Michelle Obama, Opera Winfrey event.  Maria Shriver just took the stage and announced that she was endorsing Barack Obama.  Evidently she made up her mind just this morning.

I am sure the Obama advance team was more than happy to make room for a Kennedy on the stage.  From the way that she has been talking recently I expected that she would endorse Clinton if anyone at all.  Good late pickup for Obama in California.  Shriver is pretty respected and often credited with helping Arnold successfully make his move back to being a moderate after the 2005 special election.

We haven’t done a Calitics show in quite a while, but we haven’t forgotten about it. On Monday, we will have a show at 7:30, featuring myself and David Dayen, and, hopefully, some special guests. We’ll update if and when guests are confirmed. We’re also going to try to get in a song or two from the Grateful Dead show in San Francisco, but we’re still working on the technology aspect of that. We’ll be talking about the presidential race, and, if you care to join us, you can call in at (718) 664-9561.

At the Calitics BlogTalkRadio page, you can check out the first Calitics Show, way back when, set a reminder for yourself, or download a podcast.

Got any other thoughts?

(A great diary about Senator Clinton. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Cross posted from my dKos diary with my permission.

New material and lots of stuff I need to say again.  This is my final argument for Hillary.

I think Democrats are good people.  I have friends in every campaign and we treat each other with respect.  The Democrats here are no different.  

You are good people and respectful.  Those tr's who frequent every candidate's diary's are trolls.  They are tr's sent by the right, maybe employed by the right.  They are here to do what they do.  Disrupt discourse and direct our conversations away from where they should be.  I don't have time to waste trying to convince the republican tr's here.  

I'm am working hard for Hillary just as she has worked hard for us for 35 years.

Please join me now in my final argument.

From one of my previous diaries:

Does anyone think our Hillary was foolish to call them what they were and are, “The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy”?

I believed it then and after Cleland, Gore and Kerry I believe it even more.

Can a thinking person believe that they've packed up their bags like Karl, gone home and said, “it was fun for 35 years, let's relax and leave the Democrats alone this hunting season”.

I too was and in many ways I am still idealistic.  My first campaign work was for George McGovern, when the rethugs were just trying out some new hunting tools.  They were still amateurs back then.

They are no longer amateurs.

The wrong wing wants this election more than any other, ever.  

They can smell the scent of 3 maybe 4 Supreme Court seats.  They are hard on the trail of a Court majority that may last until the last ice melts on Mt. Everest.

Those in the pin stripe camouflage have barely begun the privatization of the U.S. Government.  Blackwater is just the beginning.  The God Reagan wanted to tear down the government from the inside and his plans have only partially been implemented.  We only see the lack of toy safety inspectors and meat inspectors.  Unless you've broken a law you don't see the private prisons, the next step being a private FBI.  A private and profitable IRS.  A privately run FAA accepting real time bids for priority landing rights at La Guardia.

They are building the Fascist Corporate State with a cunning twist.  This time around it isn't based on anti-religious Nazi thugs.  This time the front is Christianity itself.  

I do not want to live in a Christian version of Iran.  

The only Democrat who will fight them tooth and nail is Hillary.  The only Democrat with the thick skin of 20 years is Hillary.

The Democrat I trust to do right by us once elected is Hillary.

In our representative democracy trust is what matters.  We hire those we trust then send them to DC to do the job.  

I trust Hillary Rodham Clinton with my future and my children's future.

Qouted from my previous diary with my permission:

The Hillary I know went straight from Law School to Fall River, Mass. to work for the Children's Defense Fund.  Not to the high paying corporate jobs she was offered, but to where she could help the most helpless of our society.

As a law student, Hillary represented foster children and parents in family court and worked on some of the earliest studies creating legal standards for identifying and protecting abused children. Following graduation, she became a staff attorney for the Children's Defense Fund.

The Hillary I know worked to bring down the most corrupt presidency in American history.  She was still young and may have made a mistake or two, but she was on the side of the good guys.

 

After serving as only one of two women lawyers on the staff of the House Judiciary Committee considering the impeachment of Richard Nixon, Hillary chose not to pursue offers from major law firms. Instead she followed her heart and a man named Bill Clinton to Arkansas. They married in 1975 and their daughter Chelsea was born in 1980.

The Hillary I know continued to work for children after her marriage.

Hillary ran a legal aid clinic for the poor when she first got to Arkansas and handled cases of foster care and child abuse. Years later, she organized a group called Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. When she was just 30, President Carter appointed her to the board of the United States Legal Services Corporation, a federal nonprofit program that funds legal assistance for the poor.

The Hillary I know took on the mantle of the Woman's movement and worked tirelessly around the world to bring the horrible treatment of women into public awareness.

When her husband was elected President in 1992, Hillary's work as a champion for women was recognized and admired around the world. She traveled the globe speaking out against the degradation and abuse of women and standing up for the powerful idea that women's rights are human rights.

The Hillary I know spoke in 1995 to The UN Fourth World Conference On Women, Beijing, China

I want to speak up for mothers who are fighting for good schools, safe neighborhoods, clean air and clean airwaves . . . for older women, some of them widows, who have raised their families and now find that their skills and life experiences are not valued in the workplace . . . for women who are working all night as nurses, hotel clerks, and fast food chefs so that they can be at home during the day with their kids . . . and for women everywhere who simply don't have enough time to do everything they are called upon to do each day.

If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, it is that human rights are women's rights . . . And women's rights are human rights.

The Hillary I know spoke once again at the 5 year follow-up to the Beijing meeting.  When she finished her speech the 1000's of women at the U.N. began to hold hands and sing the anthem of freedom, “We shall overcome”. This is an inspiring woman and republican's don't like that.

The Hillary I know is in it to win.  She's in it to win the nomination and she's in it to win the Presidency.

Quoting Markos:

What's more, Clinton was the only top-tier candidate to refuse the ultimate Iowa and New Hampshire pander by removing her name from the Michigan ballot. That makes her essentially the de facto winner since Edwards and Obama, caving to the cry babies in Iowa and New Hampshire, took their name off Michigan's ballot. Sure, the DNC has stripped Michigan of its delegates, but that won't last through the convention. The last thing Democrats can afford is to alienate swing states like Michigan and Florida by refusing to seat their delegates.

So while Obama and Edwards kneecap their chances of winning, Clinton is single-mindedly focused on the goal.

The Hillary I know has an awesome record in the Senate.  She came to the Senate, rolled up her sleeves and learned the ropes better than most Senators ever do.  She's worked across the aisle more than any and she has fought the rethug controlled Senate to keep our progressive agenda out front.

The Hillary I know has not only fought the wrong wing smear machine for 20 years, she knows how to successfully stand up and fight their crap now.

Once again quoting Markos:

Clinton, by far. No one has taken more shit from the VRWC, not by a long shot. Edwards earned valuable campaign experience in 2004. It makes me wonder why he'd go through it all again a second time, but still, it's something. Obama has never had a competitive race against a Republican. His best experiences comes from winning primaries. But he's never been in the crossfires of the GOP. Maybe that's why he can pretend that he can move beyond partisanship. Because he's never had to run a partisan race.

The Hillary I know is a progressive whatever that means and a lifelong fighter for our liberal beliefs.

Markos once again:

Clinton isn't horrible on this front, but Obama has made a cottage industry out of attacking the dirty fucking hippies on the left, from labor unions, to Paul Krugman, to Gore and Kerry, to social security, and so on. People think I was being ticky tack with the Gore thing, and in isolation it would've been but a minor non-event. But it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back for me, yet another in a pattern of attacks against Democrats and their constituencies. He is the return of Bill Clinton-style triangulating personified.

The Hillary I know is a funny, likable woman.  She admits she is uncomfortable talking about herself but she can speak to the issues better than any candidate in this race.

Even Markos likes her:

In other words, I'd have a beer with any of them. But I do love the idea of breaking a new barrier this year, whether it's by having a woman president or an African American one.

The Hillary I know is a Woman.  She is the best spokesperson the woman's movement has ever had and republican's don't like that either.  Women, over 50% of the population, may not always like her policies but they respect her and admire her fighting spirit.

The Hillary I know is the greatest threat the GOP has ever faced.    Why have they relentlessly attacked her for all these years?  Because they know what will happen to the GOP if Hillary is nominated for the Presidency of the United States.

Women.  Single mothers.  Working women. Feminists. Housewives. Women.  Bartenders, Convenience store workers, mill workers.  Women.  Hookers, Strippers, Black Jack Dealers. Women.

Women. who have never voted.  Women. who have voted Republican.  Women. who are independents.

The Hillary I know when nominated will unite these women into the greatest force for freedom that the world has ever seen.

The Hillary I know when nominated will cause the largest voter registration the country has ever seen.  All those women voters standing with their sisters to see the first Woman President will be registered as Democrats.

If you are not threatened like republican's are, you will support this incredible woman.

The Hillary I know is the greatest threat the GOP has ever faced.  She is a Woman.

The LA Times is reporting that there is some form of push-polling in the field that favors Senator Clinton. From the Top of the Ticket Blog.

every question about Clinton was curiously positive, Coghlan recalls. … Every question about the other candidates was negative.

***

“That’s when I caught on,” said Coghlan. He realized then that he was being push-polled. That malicious political virus that is designed not to elicit answers but to spread positive information about one candidate and negative information about all others under the guise of an honest poll had arrived in Southern California within days of the important election.

Someone who obviously favors Hillary Clinton is paying an unidentified company to spread this material phone call by phone call among independent voters, who can, according to California party rules, opt to vote in the Democratic but not the Republican primary on Feb. 5, when nearly two dozen states will choose a large chunk of the delegates to the parties’ national conventions next summer.

Coghlan said he was offended by such underhanded tactics and knew he was going to get out a warning about this dirty trick, but he said he played along for the full 20-minute “poll.”

“The guy was very slick, very personable,” Coghlan told the Ticket. “He never fell out of character as a pollster the entire time. He seemed interested in my answers and just kept going through his list of questions as if he was noting my answers. He was very good, very smooth.”

The post further notes that they contacted the Clinton campaign for a response, but none was forthcoming in the following 8 hours after initial contact.

At this point, it is not clear who is paying for these. My guess would be one of the pro-Clinton 527s that have been quite active in favor of the junior Senator from New York. I would be hesitant to point the finger at the Senator’s campaign itself, however.  The push-poll is a tremendously effective tool if used properly, but the only problem is that if you get caught, there can be serious blowback. These folks just happened to hit on a former journalist who knew the score on push polling. It’s a big risk at this point of a campaign.

Given that this will spread rapidly, I’d expect to see a statement from the Clinton campaign shortly.

(Brian’s Disclosure – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

Kevin Drum, the progressive blogger extraordinaire at Washington Monthly, yesterday endorsed Proposition 93 in his Political Animal blog. In his brief post he called Prop 93 “one of those rare initiatives I’m in favor of.”

From my point of view, there’s an easy one and a hard one. The easy one is Prop 93, which changes our term limits law. Currently, you’re limited to 14 years: three terms (6 years) in the assembly and two terms (8 years) in the senate. The problem with this is that a limit of three terms in the assembly, for example, means that the Speaker of the Assembly never has more than four years of experience before taking over the top spot. This is dumb. The point of a term limits law should be to prevent people from making careers out of a single political office, not doing away with experience altogether.

The new law is simpler: it limits service to 12 years total, in either house. This is how I would have written the law in the first place, and it’s a good compromise between limiting legislative service while still allowing politicians to gain enough experience to know how to run things. This is one of those rare initiatives I’m in favor of.

In addition, the campaign organized a press conference at the LGBT Center here in San Francisco with (L->R) Mark Leno (who stands to lose 4 years if Prop 93 is passed) and Asms. Ruskin, along with SF Democratic Party Chair Scott Weiner.

Incidentally, the “tough one” for him was 94-97. He seemed to lean towards yes, based primarily on his feeling that the legislature and the governor should get to run the state.