Don McKee
And Barnes has the luxury of campaigning full-time for three weeks while letting GOP Karen Handel and Nathan Deal rough up each other in the primary runoff.
In a Rasmussen survey Wednesday, Republican front-runner Handel was in a virtual tie with Barnes. She had 45 percent to Barnes' 44 percent in the telephone poll of 500 likely voters. Seven percent preferred some other candidate and 4 percent were undecided.
Deal led Barnes 49 percent to 43 percent with some other candidate and undecided each at 4 percent.
Of more significance at this point, according to Rasmussen, is the number of people holding strong opinions. Twenty-seven percent have a very favorable opinion of widely known former Gov. Barnes, while 21 percent harbor a very unfavorable view of him. At least his very favorable standing beats his very unfavorable numbers.
But check this: The reverse is true of both Republicans. For Handel, the figures are 15 percent very favorable and 19 percent very unfavorable. Deal: 12 percent very favorable and 18 percent very unfavorable. Is this due to lack of name recognition? That seems unlikely in the case of Handel who has been secretary of state for nearly four years.
Another omen for Handel in the runoff: Only 44 percent see her as politically conservative, 30 percent think she's moderate and 14 percent say she's liberal. Of Deal, who is running as "the conservative candidate," 54 percent say he's conservative, 21 percent moderate and 11 percent liberal.
Likewise, the figures suggest Barnes has some work to do to show he's not "liberal," politically anathema in Georgia. In the survey, he was viewed as liberal by 37 percent of the likely voters, while 44 percent saw him as moderate.
In addition to the war of words over who's conservative, Handel is under attack from leaders of the Georgia Right to Life organization. They claim she is "not pro-life, regardless of her statements to the contrary and despite her 'many pro-life endorsements.'"
For the record, Handel says on her website, "I am staunchly and unequivocally pro-life. And while I will not seek to prohibit abortions in the extremely rare cases of rape, incest, or where there is a real threat to the life of the mother ..."
Meanwhile, to make the political scene even more interesting, President Obama will come to Atlanta on Aug. 2, just a week before the runoff election, for a speech to the national convention of the Disabled American Veterans.
This will be Obama's first visit to Atlanta since his election, and he will be the first president to speak to the DAV national convention since Bill Clinton in 1996.
Obama will also speak at a Democratic National Committee fundraising event in Atlanta. But on that score, I have a feeling that Roy Barnes already has a previous commitment.
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There are developments in senior living that get little if any news coverage in metro Atlanta. A large joint venture affecting hundreds of assisted-living facility residents in Georgia is about to close. Those of us who care about such developments must rely on news outlets of the Pacific Northwest and NYC-based market news outlets to stay informed.
Georgia is one of the worst states in protection of elders. Corporations in senior living that have an effective lobby get coddled. There are horror stories to be told. I don't hold that any generation is inherently better than another, but those whom Tom Brokaw called "the greatest generation"--who did so much to keep the Third Reich out of here--should not be played (along with their caring, taxpaying families) as the ultimate cash-cow chumps of the universe.
Why should he? Obama has kept Georgia afloat during the recession, he has kept teachers in the classroom, he has kept government services going while the Republican members of Congress have voted against Georgia on every bill to come before it.
You guys need to do a little soul searching. Spend a little time looking at the facts and you will quickly see that while our Legislature is feeding us road-kill with a glass of tea, the only thing that prevented a depression in Georgia was the Obama stimulus package.
Roy has called for Common Sense government without favor to either extreme. Obama has followed Ronald Reagan more than your radical right Cobb County Congressional delegation. It makes a lot a sense for the next Governor to meet with the President that saved Georgia from itself.