Russell Mokhiber has this commentary in the July 3 Counterpunch, criticizing the Congressional Black Caucus for its failure to make any statement at all about Cynthia McKinney’s incarceration in Israel (scroll down a little bit to find it). As the commentary mentions, McKinney is a former member of the Caucus. Thanks to Roland Sheppard for the link.

The July 4 New York Times has this editorial, titled “Let Them Run.” It criticizes President Obama and other leading Democrats who are trying to persuade various New York Democrats not to mount a primary challenge in 2010 to appointed incumbent Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. The editorial says, “An election should offer choices.”

The editorial is a refreshing change from a New York Times editorial of June 30, 2000, which said that Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan should not run for president, so as to make it possible for the two major party candidates to “compete on an uncluttered playing field.”

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Richard Nixon bounced back from losing a race for the California governorship -- when he said "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore" -- by barnstorming around the country for Republican candidates and going on to win the Presidency in 1968.

But Jonathan Allen says there are a lot of reasons why Sarah Palin can't perform the same feat.

Expect Palin chatter, as well as a preview of the upcoming week in Congress on health care reform and of the president's trip overseas.

California will hold a special election to fill the vacant U.S. House seat, 10th district, on November 3, 2009. The seat is vacant because Ellen Tauscher resigned to join the Obama administration. The seat is in the eastern part of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Minor party or independents who have already announced a run in that election are independent Gino Van Gundy, Peace & Freedom Party member Mary McIlroy, and Green Party member Jeremy Cloward.

When the Arizona legislature adjourned on July 1, it had failed to pass two bills concerning the state’s public funding program for candidates for state office. A post here on July 1 noted that the bill to ask the voters if they want to repeal the program had failed. However, the July 1 post failed to note that another bill, to fix the system, had also failed to pass.

SB 1087 would have repaired the constitutional flaws in the “Clean Elections” law. Although it had passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 19, it never made any further headway. A federal lawsuit, McComish v Brewer, filed last year, charges that the additional public funding given to participating candidates whose non-participating opponents have raised a great deal of campaign contributions, is unconstitutional. That lawsuit is expected to prevail.

SB 1087 would have deleted the extra contributions given to participating candidates whose non-participating opponents raise a great deal of money (or, who are the beneficiaries of a great deal of independent expenditures). If SB 1087 had passed, the lawsuit would have been moot, but now it will continue. See this article.

Bruce Reed looks at "the fallacy that successful presidential candidates are too busy to govern" and notes that in the last 20 years, "perseverers have prospered while quitters withered. Bill Clinton won a fifth term as governor of Arkansas before launching his 1992 campaign. George W. Bush won a second term in Texas two years before running for president in 2000."

"Compare that with the dismal track record of strategic quitters. In 1986, Gary Hart chose not to run for a third Senate term and went on to meet Donna Rice. In 2004, John Edwards passed up a second Senate term and went on to meet Rielle Hunter."

"Bill Bradley's decision not to seek a fourth term in 1996 helped cost him the Democratic nomination in 2000 to Al Gore, whose slogan was 'stand and fight.' Bob Dole's spectacular resignation from the Senate after he clinched the Republican nomination in June 1996 earned his campaign a few days of good press. But when his White House bid was over, Dole no longer had the Senate job he had loved."