Monday, August 4, 2008

I second Bill Richardson

I love the choice of Bill Richardson for every reason mentioned in this Denver Post Editorial. I don't understand why he doesn't have more buzz - I guess because he's Latino. But I love the idea, and I think it would go really well with Sen. Obama's message.

My first thought when I read that Gov. Richardson was holding two fundraisers for Sen. Clinton was that they were trying to make Gov. Richardson more acceptable to her die hard supporters. Wouldn't it be the perfect place to announce him as VP? I mean, nothing says UNITY more! I don't hear him mentioned at all, but I would love an Obama/Richardson ticket just as much as an Obama/Schweitzer ticket.

T. Boon Pickens is going to the bad place

From the NYTimes interview of T. Boone Pickens:
Would you ever vote for a Democratic candidate? No. I wouldn’t. I’m a Republican. I don’t want to go to heaven and have to face my family up there and tell them I voted for a Democrat.
Also in the interview is the reason he isn't going to the good place:
You helped re-elect Bush in ’04 when you gave $3 million to the Swift Boat campaign to discredit John Kerry’s Vietnam service. Do you regret your involvement? Why would I?

Because it’s such an ugly chapter in American political history. Oh, I see. Well, it was true. Everything that went into those ads was the truth.

Really? I thought it was all invented. I never did anything dishonest.
This is the truth.

Wow

I just saw Roger Simon on Crossfire claiming that "respectable reporters" pounded John McCain on his false claim about Sen. Obama canceling his troop visit. Do tell what channel these reporters were on?

More Obamacans

Just watched this video from Elkhart, Indiana's Truth newspaper. My favorite part was the woman waiting in line for her ninety-year-old mother, a life-long Republican, who wanted to check out Sen. Obama. Again, this is what happens when Democrats actually show up and talk to Republicans - they listen.

Hillary Clinton losing does not equal rape

It disgusts me to hear things like this from Clinton supporters:
I will not crawl back into bed with a party that raped me. I will not stay in an abusive relationship because I have no where else to go.
Um, no, your candidate lost. That's a little different than someone forcibly holding you down and sticking their penis or another object into you. People like this clearly don't know anyone who was raped, or they wouldn't be so casual about using it as a metaphor. I volunteered in a battered woman's shelter in college, and if these people ever interacted with women who went through abusive relationships, they would know what it was like. These are sick individuals who are so egotistical that they lack all sense of moral balance.

It's like when Rush Limbaugh refers to feminists as Femi-Nazis. When did feminists ever commit genocide - that would be never. When did the super-delegates and voters choosing Sen. Obama over Sen. Clinton become a violent, forcible act that completely demeans another person - that would be never.

VP Cheney

Even if the Republicans can try to hide the VICE PRESIDENT of the US in a closet during their convention, I'm sure the American people won't forget whose actually in charge of this country right now.

Dick Cheney, putting the DICK in the White House since 2000.

UPDATE: While I'm angry, this also stands out:
McCain's focus being almost exclusively on attracting independents and women to the polls, it's not a surprise that engaging Cheney isn't on the top of his list.
I wonder why it would HURT McCain's chances to be associated with the FELLOW REPUBLICANS in his PARTY, you know THE PARTY THAT RAN OUR COUNTRY INTO THE GROUND!

Harry Connick , Jr.

It's funny, I go entire months without mentioning Harry Connick, Jr., but today we spend the whole lunch period discussing him and other famous New Orleanians, and then low and behold... he's singing Happy Birthday to Sen. Obama.

PS I hope those staffers find his present soon!

I work for an oil company

I work for an oil company, so it's with mixed feelings that I watch Obama ads like this:



Not all "oil money" is bad, some of it comes from us little people! Although, the executives are huge Republicans, and I know for a fact (because I handle the records) that our company has for a very long time only given money to Republicans and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA).

Note: I don't work for Hess.

VP timing

I thought that the McCain campaign was going to announce their VP pick directly before/as Sen. Obama was accepting the nomination. While this would be shallow and petty, their campaign has embraced that mentality, so it seemed reasonable.

However, it appears that they are going to use the VP pick to drown out another news story - President Bush's speech at the Republican Convention.

Why Obama will win

From the WaPo:
Late last month, a roomful of volunteers in Arlington [Virginia] made calls looking for supporters to come out for a Democratic canvass that drew 2,000 people statewide. [...]

The energy level was a bit lower a couple of days later at McCain's Crystal City office, where 50 volunteers gathered before going to knock on doors.

Things I wish I had written

The Debate Link on a Rasmussen poll finding that 53% of Americans thought that Sen. Obama's "dollar bill" comment was "racist":
It is interesting to me that White voters considered Obama's words to be racist, given that they don't pass the general threshold of racism in American public discourse, which is that nothing can be racist unless it explicitly and overtly expresses malice and hatred towards a racial group. Obama's comments were way to subtle for that, but presumably were covered under the "Black speaker" exception where anything that a Black person says that ties to race or otherness automatically is presumed to be a playing of the race card. And that gets transformed into "racism" because there is nothing more racist than a Black person ever insinuating that there is anything racist in what White people do.
Word.

Gallup or why we need to shut up and stop looking at polls

So, while the "big news" is Rasmussen showing McCain up 47-46 (with leaners), Gallup daily shows Obama up 46-43. This is exactly why we can't cite polling data that is within the margin of error. It's not "proof" of anything aside from the race being close. Also, do not act like this is a national election, because it's not - it's 50 state-level elections. National popularity means nothing - just ask Al Gore. This is why the Fifty State Strategy is the only rational way to look at the election.

Scary

While I have been relatively unconcerned about Hurricane Edouard, this picture gave me pause:

Gosh, we look so tiny compared to it!

Acting "too Presidential"

I'm glad that someone in the traditional media is finally pointing out the blatant stupidity of the charge that Sen. Obama is acting "too presidential."

Like I said before, it's funny how acting "too presidential" was never a bad thing until a Black man started running for President.

Black Republicans

It's nice to see that Lt. Col. Allen West, the Black Republican up for Congress in FL-22 hates his own race:
West seems perfectly suited to soothe a certain type of older voter who intellectually dislikes racism but also fears the black-church-attending Obama. "I never grew an Afro," he tells a cluster of fans at the Coconut Creek retirement village. "I always had a nice little crew cut."
In other words, he denies the "racial" elements of himself in order to make white people more comfortable. That's nice.

Your Media at Work

Jesse astutely points out the racism inherent in the discussion of the candidate's planes, but he misses one other instance of media bias:

Article about John Kerry:
Kerry didn't say how his new wings compare to the Gulfstream jet owned by his wife, philanthropist Teresa Heinz Kerry.
Article about John McCain:

But, we have a librul media, so I shouldn't worry about things like this.

More dumb polling

So, in the WaPo's latest poll of low-income workers, I was surprised to read this fact:
Nearly six in 10 white and black workers said they think undocumented workers take jobs away from those here legally; seven in 10 Hispanics disagreed. (Nearly half of the Hispanic workers interviewed in this poll are not U.S. citizens.)
Note to the WaPo: non-citizens can't vote.

Where is the gift?

Apparently one of the campaign aides left Sen. Obama's birthday present in the trunk of a cab. You know they feel bad right now! I hope they get it back in time for the big birthday bash in Boston.