The World Around You

The candidates in the Alabama 2nd Congressional District race will square off for one hour tonight in a debate. Not sure how much can be accomplished in that short of a time, but it will likely be worth checking out, as it will be the first time the candidates have faced off.

The debate begins at 7 p.m. in Ligon Chapel, which is in Flowers Hall at Huntingdon College, and will end at 8 p.m.

The debate is free and the public is invited to attend.

The candidates will answer four questions selected by political science students at the university.

Huntingdon College is located at 1500 East Fairview Ave. Parking for the event will be available in the college lot behind Smith Recital Hall, which is next to the baseball field off of East Fairview Avenue, and in the college lot on Narrow Lane Road.

Bright, Love debate in Montgomery on Wednesday | montgomeryadvertiser.com | Montgomery Advertiser.

I couldn’t find a particular article I wanted to elaborate on or discuss more, so let me just hit some random points this morning:

1. Bobby Bright getting the endorsement from Jay Love’s Republican primary opponent, State Sen. Harri-Anne Smith is big in the Wiregrass area. I don’t blame the Republicans for immediately firing back, not sure how that will play out, but it will be interesting to watch.

2. Barack Obama suspending his campaign to visit his sick grandmother…not sure how the conservatives can spin that into a bad thing, but I’m sure they will something nefarious about it.

3. The poll numbers seem to be swaying a good bit by the day…but McCain’s path to victory is narrowing daily as well. It appears he is giving up on a number of states to focus on Nevada, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio and Virginia. I believe it won’t be so close that Florida and Ohio will really make the difference this time around, but it’s not bad strategy on McCain’s part.

Swing State Project moved the Alabama 2nd Congressional District from Toss-Up to Lean Republican…not sure what the logic is on this, considering the sparse polling, but it’s concerning that outside observers see Bobby Bright slipping in this race. It means to those of us in Alabama that we still have work to do on this one, in making sure that Mayor Bright will be the next Congressman for the 2nd Congressional district of Alabama.

Swing State Project:: SSP Changes Ratings on Twelve Races.

The two candidates for the 2nd Congressional District seat in Alabama will participate in a discussion on Thursday morning. If you have a chance to get over to Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM), you should check it out.

The forum will be from 7:30 to 9 a.m. and will give the candidates for the 2nd Congressional District seat a chance to share their views.

There also will be a question and answer session with the candidates.

The forum at the Watson Robbins Taylor Center costs $25 per person and $350 to sponsor a table.

For reservations, call 244-3804.

Bright, Love to speak at breakfast | montgomeryadvertiser.com | Montgomery Advertiser.

I’m not sure how much District Attorney endorsements matter in a race for US Congress, but it certainly can’t hurt to have the support of former and current DA’s.

Brooks and most of the other district attorneys are Democrats.

One Republican is Bright's sister-in-law, former District Attorney Janice Clardy Massa of Autauga and Elmore counties.

All of those endorsing Bright are either sitting district attorneys or supernumerary district attorneys. Supernumerary district attorneys are retired district attorneys who served for at least 18 years and who can be called back to help prosecute cases.

Most of the supernumerary district attorneys who endorsed Bright on Wednesday continue to prosecute cases. Massa is the supernumerary district attorney in Autauga and Elmore counties.

The attorneys represented 14 of the 16 counties in the 2nd District.

Former, current DAs endorse Bright | montgomeryadvertiser.com | Montgomery Advertiser.

Swing State Project gives Bobby Bright big-time credit for being able to turn the Christian Coalition of Alabama against Freedom Watch, who has been running attack ads against him. What Swing State Project doesn’t mention is that Randy Brinson, the current head of the Christian Coalition of Alabama is a very different animal from the leaders the organization has had in the past. He isn’t a party-line Republican partisan, and Bobby is using that to his advantage.

Swing State Project:: AL-02: Bobby Bright’s Religious Jujitsu.

As part of the 50 states in 50 days series for USA Today, Sebastian Kitchen focuses in Alabama on the 2nd Congressional district race between Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright and State Senator Jay Love.

“This is the best chance the Democrats have had in many years to take that seat,” said William Stewart, a longtime political observer in the state and professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alabama.

Despite their hopes for Bright — who has not endorsed Barack Obama for president and is a self-described fiscal conservative — both Stewart and strong Obama supporters such as Democratic Rep. Artur Davis do not expect Bright’s possible success to translate to a win at the top of the ticket.

Some interesting responses here…I was especially intrigued by differences between Mike Rogers and Jay Love (the two Republican candidates). It seems like Jay still has some work to do in understanding some of these issues.

Congressional hopefuls discuss agriculture | montgomeryadvertiser.com | Montgomery Advertiser.

And Bobby is up with his response to Jay Love’s Sarah Palin/Nancy Pelosi ad:

[youtube]t8smWzVPokI[/youtube]

And I agree 100% with mooncat, Bobby is right on the money. You don’t have to agree with him on every policy issue to believe he was the right candidate to give the Democrats another congressional seat in Alabama.

Left In Alabama:: AL-02: Bobby Bright’s Response to the Love-Palin Ad.

Jay Love gets some more national play for being the first Republican candidate down ticket to attempt capitalize on the enthusiasm for Palin.

In the 30-second spot, entitled “Differences,” Palin and McCain are juxtaposed against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who Love refers to as a “San Francisco liberal” in the ad.

“There are real differences in this campaign,” Love says looking directly into the camera. “I’m supporting pro-lifers John McCain and Sarah Palin,” he says as an image of the GOP ticket appears on screen. “My opponent isn’t,” Love says as images of Sen. Barack Obama and Bobby Bright, Love’s Democratic opponent, appear.

Love’s biggest problem is that head-to-head on their own merits, he loses to Bobby Bright, so his only chance of winning is to make this election about the national ticket and he knows it. The problem with that strategy is that the Obama-Biden ticket is not nearly as unpopular as the Kerry-Edwards ticket was, so he’s trying to tie Bobby to Nancy Pelosi instead…

This is where Bobby’s announcement the other day that he supported Mike Huckabee in the primaries is valuable in combating his opponent. How can a man who voted for Huckabee possible be “liberal” in any sense of the word?

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - McCain-Palin ticket featured in Alabama Republican’s ad - Blogs from CNN.com.