Makin' a list, checkin' it twice

A new sort of endangered species list? Democrats have published a list of Congresspeople who are in trouble. Known as the Frontline List, three are Virginians.

See it here.

Jesse

This is the image that will always remain with me.

Granted, I can't stand the son-of-a-bitch. He's a corrupt, race-baiting hack.

At the same time, what an historic occasion. I generally assume noble intentions even with corrupt, race-baiting hacks, and though I may dislike Jesse Jackson, I can only imagine what Barry's election means to a man who has fought his whole life to see this day. How many times people must have said to him, "Not in your life time, Jesse"? Heck, how many times do you think he said that himself?

I got Jesse's picture here from the UK's Daily Mail. They ask whether Jesse's tears are from joy or from frustration that it was Barry who had accomplished what Jesse had not. Who cares? The point is, what a moment it was.

It's a New Day. The page has turned. My last hope for a McC victory was hope for the Bradley effect. It's sad to have hoped for something so distasteful. But it never happened.

History will judge whether Barry will be a good president or not. But the significance of what he accomplished is much larger than any one election or any one presidency. Good for America.

Electoral Count

Intrade has Barry ahead 291 to 247.

Hedgehog has it tied 269-269. 270 are needed to win. Remember from your Constitution that if no one gets a majority of electoral votes, as would be the case here, it goes to the House of Representatives where each state gets one vote and 26 votes would be needed to win.

Wouldn't that be a circus?

"You Don't Know What You're Getting"

I love Wifey. She's not the political junkie that I am who follows every headline on most days.

But she's pretty good at hitting it on the head now and again.

On the O'Reilly show the other night (see below), Dennis Miller opined that Gov. Palin is "deep, deep inside [Obama's] melon, man". He doesn't know how to react--attack? hold back? ignore? fake a Biden heart attack to get Billary onto the ticket?

Wifey and I were watching and so I asked her to speak for all of Womankind. "You're a woman. What is it about the governor that's catching on so well?"

"She's authentic."

"But she's a politician and all politicians embellish. You can't honestly believe all that stuff about Sarah-cuda," said cynical me.

"At least when you look at Palin, you know that the embellishment is an amplification of her true self. When you look at Hillary up there, you have no idea what's being embellished."

I think that says it all.

Keep Thinkin', Dems

Redford delivers one of many great lines in Butch Cassidy and the Sunshine Kid: "You just keep thinkin', Butch. That's what you're good at."

The Dems must be going through a little of that now. It will be the polls and, eventually, the votes that will determine the impact of Gov. Palin's nomination and the effect of her speech last night. Between the time she was picked and last night, tho, she, her family, and McC certainly did get hammered.

The Democratic Spinmeisters whom I stayed up late into the night watching didn't know what to do with her. She's something they've never seen, something from out of The Blue.

You guys "just keep thinkin'," tho. It's what you're good at.

Obama Shows Class

Barry told the press today to back off. Very classy. This from Christina Bellantoni at the Washington Times:

[Obama] issued a strong statement to "back off" reports of Bristol Palin's pregnancy, telling reporters families — and especially children — are off limits in this presidential campaign.
Mr. Obama, campaigning here, also noted that his own mother was 18 when she gave birth to him.
"People's families are off limits," he said. "People's children are especially off limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as a governor or her potential performance as a vice president. "
"I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories," he added. "That shouldn't be a topic in our politics."
He vehemently pushed back against an unnamed McCain aide suggesting his campaign had any ties to the blogs that were spreading rumors before the news broke, saying he was "offended" by that and if any of his staff was involved in spreading the issue, "they'd be fired."
"We don't go after people's families. Our people are not involved in any way," he said

The hope here is that the country can move on from here without, as they say, further comment. I'd much rather hear debate on the future of Social Security and Medicare.

Damn. . .

. . . she's better than McCain!

This is going to be a blast.

Here's the Obama response:

"Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies -- that's not the change we need, it's just more of the same."

If they're going to try to paint this spark plug from Alaska as "more of the same" of anything, Barry's going to be crushed. She is fantastic.

Rattled?

Just a quick thought before off to bed.

Did Barry seem a little rattled tonight? I say that bc. his strategy seemed definitely to change--from soaring, inspirational rhetoric with little substance to focus group-tested, Democratic cliche. One of the five or six notes I took says that now the gloves are off. It's changed from I'm-above-all-that to attack.

Me, I think that's great. Now we'll be in the sand box together, mano-a-mano. Great practice for dealing with the likes of Putin, Peking, and Abinominojaaaad.

All along I thought Barry was somewhat of a puss. But now I see the light. Anyone who can beat Billary is someone to be feared. And now the down and dirty, rough and tumble Chicago politician has arisen. Look out all you folks who thought he was above such mud slings.

When I say rattled, it's not that he's on his back. Only that he's changed tactics. Rattled in a good way for him for it shows he's willing to change tactics when needed. Look for Barry the attack dog to raise his ugly head.

One last thing, I stand by my post from last night. Bill was a ten but I'd only give Barry a 7.5.

Pick Palin, McC

My pref. is Governor Palin, Mr. McC.

Young, attractive. Oh by the way, did I mention she's a woman. Her integrity is impeccable, her values strong. Talk about outside the beltway--Alaska's as far as it gets. She recently signed into law a bill that will advance the construction of a new natural gas pipeline from Alaska.

She has five kids, the oldest in the Army, the youngest in diapers.

She's tough, honest, and McC's kind of gal. Wouldn't that be somethin'?

Here's the draft Palin blog. "New Energy for America".

This One for McC

Here's a blurb I posted over on The Chaliceblog in the comments section of a post asking folks to predict who will win in November. My prediction is McC.

Barry was doing well when all a candidate had to say was, "Pull out of Iraq." Now, it's much more complicated. They did the poll in the spring. The poll said people want change. My prediction . . . come November, apres le primary-frenzy, people won't want change just for change's sake. They'll want to look a little deeper. And what they'll see in Barry is not what they really want in a President. Or, at least, what they're willing to risk.

Here it is, my presidential prediction from The Chaliceblog:

If you believe in systems theory, you believe that systems resist change. Last spring everyone on both the right and left agreed the mess in Iraq was our biggest problem. There was enough focus on that one issue for enough people to agree that change was less scary than status quo.

Now Iraq has fallen from the headlines. Is there enough focus on our problems for America as a system to overcome its resistance to change? Our problems are many and great--the economy, energy, the environment, Supreme Court Judges, health care, social security/medicare, education, race relations, blah, blah, blah. But in such times of stress, my argument is that people will be even more resistant to change, even more afraid of taking a chance.

What's changed is focus. There's not a laser clear focus on one issue that produces enough fear for the system to overcome its resistance to change. Not among enough of the voters.

Enough voters will be laying there in bed waiting for that Ambien to kick in, worrying that the economy's bad but will raising taxes really fix it? Gas prices are high but will refusing to drill or to build nuclear plants help that? Health care is a mess but is turning more of it over to the government going to make it better or worse? Oh, and did I mention that he's black. And untested.

And it's not just the individuals within the American system who will fear change and vote against it. It's all the special interests and powers that be, corporate and otherwise, who will fight to keep what they've got.

I think it will be McCain because by the time all the attacks and fear mongering is done, the fear of change--the fear of the unknown--is what will actually decide the election.

10:31 PM, August 26, 2008

All Star Line Up?

If tonight's line up is supposed to be the Dems' all stars, I have to be thinking that maybe we Republicans don't have so much to fear. Pelosi, Kennedy, Carter, and Michelle?

Man, oh man, that's a little off the main stream, isn't it?

So it's Barry-Biden

Biden: Thanks for picking me. I guess this means that I'm now The Chosen One.

Barry: No you're not. I'm still The Chosen One.

Biden: No, I'm The Chosen One.

Barry: No, I'm The Chosen One.

Biden: No, I'm The Chosen One.

Barry: No, I'm The Chosen One.

Biden: No, I'm The Chosen One.

Barry: No, I'm The Chosen One. . . .

Poll Changes

Can't say exactly why I haven't been writing. Been out of town some. Internet was down for a few days due to a defective cable modem. Time to get back into it, tho.

Last posting on July 29 had the projected electoral college vote count at 204 for McC and 334 for Barry. It's now 266 for McC and 272 for Barry. Remember, 270 wins it. McC's picked up 62 in just three weeks. Virginia and North Dakota are dead heats with McC getting those electoral votes in this particular count. All this from The Hedgehog Report blog.

At the Intrade futures market where one can put down real dollars on the election, McC can't seem to break above $40 with a close today of $38.60 while Barry has recently dropped from a high in the high $60s range back to a close today of $58.90. Intrade it turns out is very accurate in its election predictions. I believe it correctly predicted every US Senate race in '06.

It's great fun to watch.

"We Can't . . ." says Obie

"I have firmly believed since the beginning of this campaign and the last several years that we can't solve the problems we face in the United States alone," Obama told CNBC.

Well that's a pretty sad commentary coming for someone running for president. The candidate of hope, claims he.

I'm more on the side of T. Boone Pickens who says of the American energy dependence, "It's our crisis and we can solve it."


Find more videos like this on PickensPlan

Vote for Neculai

As noted here before, I always wanted to vote for a dead guy. There's something so wonderfully irreverent there.

Well . . . . in a village somewhere in Romania, a majority agreed with me and re-elected the recently deceased Mayor Neculai Ivascu. Good for them.

As I generally say to wifey and the kids when they want to make an unnecessary purchase: what's wrong with the old one?

Loser candidate Dobrescu evidently was not reading the focus group reports from his pollster. Everyone knows that the only thing voters want in 2008 is "change".

Voter ID

A liberal (or is it now "progressive"?) friend of mine made a comment the other night about how awful the Supreme Court ruling on the Indiana voter ID law was.

This kind of floored me bc. I knew that my friend is an active member of Common Cause, a liberal Move On-type group that works to "hold power accountable". I recalled that Common Cause had a big problem with the 2000 elections and figured they would support the Indiana law as a tool to reduce the potential for voter fraud.

So I went to the site and sure enough, on the Election Reform page on the Common Cause website it says:

"Since the electoral meltdown in the 2000 presidential election, each Election Day has raised new alarms that the foundation of our democracy - the right to vote in free and fair elections - remains beset with problems. Years after serious problems were exposed to the public, it has become increasingly apparent that our elections system is technologically, legally, and administratively inadequate and unfair." (Italics added.)

I just don't get. If the election system is flawed and unfair, wouldn't you want to do what you could to prevent voter fraud? Isn't the requirement to show a picture ID a great way to do that?

Evidently, six of The Nine agree with me and not my friend or Common Cause.

Tragedy for Obama

Don't I remember a tragedy being defined as the fall of a hero due to circumstances that are no fault of his own? Due to a fatal character flaw? Obie's fatal flaw may be loyalty to his former minister.

Obie was to be the first post-racial candidate. He wasn't going to be the black candidate but rather the candidate for change, the candidate who would bring everyone together, the candidate who would help us leave the baggage behind. Through no fault of his own, tho, he can't seem to get past it. Obie declared in his now-famous speech about race in America that "I can no more disown [Rev. Wright] than I can disown the black community." Wright can't seem to be able to return the favor.

Obama's problem is that the good Reverend Wright has his own set of priorities--building his ministry, answering his calling, bathing in the lime light, feeding his narcissism, making some serious coin. Yes, there will be books. And speeches. Maybe even movie rights.

One of Wright's priorities does not appear to be doing what he can to help his congregant make it to the White House. Otherwise, surely, Wright would have no problem postponing his own time in the sun by stepping aside for a few months. No, Wright's agenda is more important to Wright than Obama's agenda is to Wright. An attack on Wright is now an attack on the Black Church in America, says Wright.

And that's sad news for Obie because it'll be hard for most of America to buy what Wright is selling. It appears that Wright has saddled Obie with quite a burden.

Democrat Nightmare

Here's the nightmare scenario:

Obie ends up with more primary delegates.

Billary ends up with more popular votes if we count Michigan and Florida.

Obie ends up with more popular votes if we don't count Michigan and Florida.

Dems can't agree about what to do with Michigan and Florida. Michigan and Florida Dems feel screwed, turn away from the political process or switch to McCain.

The battle begins for the Super Delegates. Billary starts buying Super Delegate votes with promises of cabinet positions, dates with Bill, ambassadorships, and support for legislative pork.

Dean, Pelosi, Reid, Gore, Kerry, Kennedy, all call on Super Delegates to make up their minds to avoid a convention bloodbath. But it's the Dems: no one's in charge. Delegates hold out--the pork barrel line forms at back door of the smoke-filled room of the Billary campaign HQ. Why not linger? Why not wait for a super-sized pork meal?

Obie's African American supporters feel screwed and turn away from the political process. McCain goes crazy to the middle, offers olive branches to African American voters, and sees his support in that community grow from seven percent to 15 percent.

Obie's nutty left wing supporters feel screwed and go crazy. Some turn away from the political process, some start a third party, some revert to their earlier ways and re-bomb the Pentagon.

Billary's bitter, gun-toting, church-going supporters feel screwed and turn to McCain.

The Democratic Convention gets its highest TV ratings ever.

On Ethanol On Earth Day

This by Bogdan Kipling is the best that I've read about the disaster that is our ethanol/energy policy. As Kipling points out, we are taking corn out of the mouths of the hungry in order to fill our gas tanks. It's just not right. And, maybe worse, it makes no sense.

Why do we do this? To appeal to the voters in our first presidential primary for one. Also, the powers that be are frightened by the tyrannical eco-lobby which has no balance. If you're in Congress and stand against ethanol, you stand, therefore, against The Earth. The only things worse than that are smoking and not wearing your seat belt.

The bottom line to me is that this is, as Kipling so finely points out, an economic policy so terrible that it's unethical. Taking corn off the self to put in our gas tanks is driving basic food prices through the roof. And for what? So some of us can feel good and others of us can win in Iowa. The ripple effects are beyond the imagination.

It's time to stop. Take the ethanol subsidies and use them to build nuclear power plants. Or use them to develop clean coal technologies and alternatives to the combustion engine. Use them to dig tar sands. Put that money into something that doesn't drive up the price of tortillas for every poor Joe in Costa Rica who's having economic trouble enough as it is.

If our friends inside the Beltway can't figure this one out and can't do anything about it, we should all be worried about our Future.

Hill-iacs

Forty four years ago were they doing the same thing for The Beatles?

This, from the cover of The Wall Street Journal.

The look of pure joy. Good for them.