As I mentioned over the weekend, Bill Clinton will be in San Francisco this afternoon at 5 pm to campaign for Prop 8. You can get more info and tickets here. 

But, some more exciting news.  Bill will be campaigning for Jerry McNerney in Stockton tonight at 9PM.  I know it’s kinda late for a political rally, but you know what, it’s timed perfectly for a live shot on the evening news.

Laura Bush, the Bush without ~60% disappoval ratings, will be in the Sacto area today to campaign for Pombo and Doolittle.  These two critters are running scared.  So, if you can make it to Stockton, please, please, please do so.  You can get more information on Jerry’s site or at this dKos diary.

WHO: President Bill Clinton, Jerry McNerney, nominee for Congress from California’s 11th Congressional District, Democratic candidates for local, state, and federal office 

WHAT: Public Endorsement and Democratic Get Out the Vote Rally

WHERE:Stockton Jet Center, 6364 South Lindbergh Street, Stockton, CA 

WHEN: Wednesday, November 1, 2006, 9:00 p.m. 

HOW: Individuals are strongly encouraged to pre-register here. Individuals who pre-register will be provided with an electronic ticket and VIP admission. 

Yup, that’s right, the Big Dog himself will be in San Francisco to campaign for Prop 87.  He’ll be headlining a rally at City Hall on Wednesday afternoon.  It’s at 5PM, so hopefully you’ll be able to make it.  Tickets and More Details here.

Bill Clinton was in Los Angeles on Friday to promote Proposition 87, which would force oil producers (not consumers) to pay taxes on oil at the wellhead in order to fund renewable energies. 

California Progress Report has posted his full speech.

Clinton on what 87 will do for California:

Prop 87 will move California toward energy independence with cleaner fuels, with wind and solar power. There are people who don't believe you can do it. I do. Look at Brazil. Don't you think you can do it if they did it? They run their cars on ethanol.

Clinton on the myth that 87 is a tax on consumers:

Now, I know the oil companies have trotted out some economists in their ads. But let me ask you something: If they really thought you were going to pay for this, would they be spending all that money trying to convince you to vote against it? You need to know that California is the only state in America without any kind of extraction fee on its natural resources on oil.

Clinton on the larger picture of Prop 87:

California is being given an opportunity and an obligation to do something remarkable to save the planet and improve our national security and create the next generation of good jobs for the American people. That's what Prop 87 represents to me.

It's interesting, I was talking with someone recently about how extraordinary it was that a former president was campaigning for a state's ballot initiative and it struck me that there must be something larger at stake here politically than merely the passage of Prop 87. I hypothesized that this was about defining the Democratic Party as the party of renewable energy and alternative fuels. Thomas Friedman's latest column in The New York Times suggests I may be partly right. 

Friedman tells of a conversation he had recently with James Carville, Bill Clinton's famed advisor, who has been overwhelmed by polling suggesting the importance of energy independence to voters these days. But it's about more than energy. As Clinton himself frames it above, energy independence is about national security. According to Carville:

“Energy independence…is now the No. 1 national security issue. … It’s become kind of a joke with us, because no matter how we ask the question, that’s what comes up.”

Carville, as the Democratic strategist that he is, sees its implications for the Democratic Party brand.

What this means for Democratic Party candidates, argues Mr. Carville, is that it’s no longer enough to have “energy security” as part of a 12-step plan for American renewal. No, it needs to become a defining issue of what Democrats are all about.

Furthermore:

The best way for a party that is often viewed as weak on national security to overcome that deficit is to be for energy independence, he noted. Indeed, nothing would be more potent for Democrats now than to capture energy security and all the issues that surround it — from improving our trade deficit by not importing more oil to improving the climate to improving U.S. competitiveness by making us leaders in alternative fuels.

At a time when Democrats are just starting to beat Republicans on the issue of national security, this is the perfect time for the party to reframe the national security debate altogether. It's what Carville is clearly doing behind closed doors and it's what Bill Clinton was doing at UCLA on Friday. It's also what Al Gore did in his ad for Prop 87. Just look at how his ad ends:

Prop 87 is the one thing Californians can do now to clean up the air, help stop the climate crisis and free us from foreign oil. The sooner we do it, the safer we'll be.

This debate goes well beyond Prop 87. For the future health and potency of the Democratic Party and the progressive movement as a whole, it's about the energy security, stupid. 

(Some edits – promoted by SFBrianCL)

(Cross-posted from The Courage Campaign)

Bill Clinton is coming to town tomorrow to campaign for Proposition 87. He'll be appearing at the Murphy Sculpture Garden at UCLA at 9:15am for a rally.

Get your ticket HERE.

Clinton is very supportive of prop 87:

“[The Clinton Global Initiative] was designed to tackle big global challenges in bite size pieces,” President Clinton said. “This is a very, very good thing to do and, since California is our biggest state, it pumps 190 million tons of pollution into the air from cars, trucks and buses that run on gasoline and diesel every single year. This is a big deal. I’m very grateful to them.” (Prop 87 Blog)

(See also Progressive 11th’s roundup here – promoted by SFBrianCL)

The DCCC apparenlty likes some numbers that it has seen on the CA-11 race.  Hank Shaw of the Stockton Record is reporting that the DCCC will place a $100K bet on Jerry McNerney for this race:

National Democrats are finally recognizing that Pleasanton wind energy consultant Jerry McNerney’s campaign against Tracy Rep. Ricard Pombo is for real: They are polling in the district right now, and this survey will determine whether they’re in for a penny, or in for a pound.
They’re reportedly in for at least $100,000, however, according to several sources both here and in Washington DC. Should the D-Trip’s polling show something similar to McNerney’s survey (41% Pombo, 40% McNerney) you can bet they’ll start slinging the cash the way the National Republican Campaign Committee already has been doing since late August. (Stockton Record Blog 10/06/06)

Well, I say about damn time! All the internal and other Dem-leaning polling has shown Jerry with a small lead or within the margin of error.  I don’t know if the DCCC will release their new polling, but we’ll probably get at least some antecdotal data based upon whether more than the original $100K is put into the district.  I’m glad that at least Rahm can recognize his mistakes (i.e. getting involved in the primary without asking anybody in the district).  Jerry will make a great Congressman.

The “Debate”

The Tracy Press Candidate forum went well, or so I am told.  I of course couldn’t muster the time to haul my butt to Tracy during Rush Hour.  For that, I apologize.  I would have really liked to get some video of the Forum up on the Internets.  As of right now, I haven’t been able to find any coverage on YouTube or anything.  If you have any video, let me know!  So there’s a bunch of coverage.  A quick roundup on the flip. Of course, if you have anything else, feel free to write your own diary or add a comment to this one.

SayNoToPombo:

There was a large audience – standing room only. I would estimate that McNerney supporters outnumbered Pombo supporters by about two to one. Jerry McNerney spoke very strongly and very passionately, while Pombo seemed pretty defensive the whole evening.

Stockton Record:

McNerney, who was unusually aggressive in the forum, said attacking Iraq was a “mafioso” act of vengeance and a distraction from the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

“Iraq was a failed state in 2001, and Iraq is a failed state today,” McNerney said. “And wanting to kill them over there instead of here is Tony Soprano morality.
{snip}
But McNerney’s reference to the mafia irked Pombo’s wife, Annette, who is Italian.

“She wasn’t thrilled with that,” Pombo said. “I don’t know why he said that. Maybe he thinks I’m Italian.”

Wow, Pombo thinks everything is about him, huh? Pombo, Pombo, Pombo.  Don’t you think that the mafioso quote describes Bush.  You know, HW was a target of an assasination attempt by Saddam Hussein, so mafioso style revenge by his son.  Pombo just misses that, huh?  Either he doesn’t understand the situation and the backstory (a reasonable possibility with Pombo, he’s never been one to get too cozy with reality) or he’s just trying to play some games with nationality.  How funny would it be if Pombo started crying racism.  What a joke.

Tracy Press:

Terrorism, the Iraq war and energy dwarfed local issues during the only scheduled debate between Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, and Democrat Jerry McNerney on Thursday, with Iraq sharply dividing an already-partisan crowd.
{snip}
Pombo’s campaign manager, Carl Fogliani, later told the Tracy Press that the loud show of support for McNerney’s Iraq war position came from liberals that live outside the 11th Congressional District. The six people from the crowd of about 400 who were interviewed by the Tracy Press said they lived within the district, which stretches west to include Dublin, Pleasanton and San Ramon.

Does Pombo have any support for this assertion? Umm…well, not so much.  He jsut likes to blame everything on “outsiders”.  Well, Tricky Ricky, you have some good ol’ fashioned home-grown grassroots enemies now.