"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.

The Master

Yes, he earned the distinction of being one of only two presidents ever to have been impeached. Yes, he was disbarred. Yes, he lied to his country. He lied to his friends and his family and then sent them into the world to defend him all the time knowing it was a lie. Some friend he. Yes, he got a snarlin from a 21 year old intern--on several occasions and while he was married and in the Oval Office. He might well be a rapist.

But no one alive today can give a speech like the one he gave tonight. He's the master. Obama-schmobama, you've been out shined.

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.

Oil and U.S. involvement

An interesting question came to mind after reading an article entitled "Why Iraq Matters".

If Billary or Obie wins and our policy becomes one of unilateral withdrawal from Iraq, what will happen to the price of oil? My guess is that despite all the America bashing, The Market probably views our presence there now as a stabilizing influence. If we decide to pull out, the uncertainly of an pre-announced withdrawal would lead to a spike in oil prices.

Just my guess. Markets do loath uncertainty.

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.

Hot Times in the Old House Tonight

Watching John McC on stage tonight giving his victory speech with wife Cindy by his side, all that came to mind was that there's going to be some hot sex in the McCain house tonight. The kind of sex reserved for sailors returning from the sea. Celebration sex.

You could just see it in their eyes--the happiness of a hard campaign waged and won. I mean this in the most complimentary way. They deserve it. Who would have thought last September 1st that they'd be where they are?

Billary tonight? I don't think so. Probably not much goes on in that department these days.

And the Obamas? They're too worried to have that sort of celebration. Hard to have celebration sex when you're shaking in your boots from Billary on your heels.

This brings me to one of the reasons I've always been a fan of McCain. He's a man. A manly man--a fighter pilot, a man with a temper, a rebel in many respects. A sailor. I had the pleasure of being an eye witness to what I now refer to as his suicide speech in Virginia Beach in 2000. He went into the heart of Pat Robertson country the week of the Virginia primary and attacked the religious right, said the Robertson/Falwell-ites were too far out of the American main stream and hurt the Republican party on the day of the general election.

I knew what he was doing. He knew he was going to lose in Virginia after having been smeared in South Carolina the week before. His speech was aimed at the the voters of Michigan who were voting in their primary the following week. So he went for it. Said what he believed. Caused audible gasps from the God Squad audience. But I've always admired him for the gutsiness.

He's gotten a little smarter since then, a little more diplomatic maybe. But at the same time, he's still a manly man.

And tonight? They have much to celebrate.

Because They're They

Who'da thunk that anyone could beat Billary?

Hil. was the apparent shoo-in, world record fund raiser, heir to the Presidency . . . whipped by a lad from Chicago (or is it Hawaii? Cambridge?).

It all came back to what they are--Bill and Hillary--the ultimate Ivy League power couple. What was it she said in the snows of New Hampshire in 1988, elect him and you get me for free? Something like that.

Well it turns out, the reason she lost is that we'd had enough of him, enough of them. Like the adolescent he is, he just couldn't keep out of it. America knew that for Billary, this was as much about him as it was about her. The prob is we don't really like her. And we don't want to return to the snarlin's under the Oval Office desk. Remember, if we were to elect her, we'd get him for free. (And I bet he'd have had a key to the Oval Office for use while she'da been out making life fair for every last American.)

All it took was an alternative who could deliver a promise of hope.

A Vote for Bill

I live in a safe Dem district. Our guy won over 76 percent of the vote in 2004. 76 percent! That's not because he is so good that he is that much loved. It's because they drew this district just for him.

It pisses me off. The gerrymandering of congressional and state legislative districts is quite simply a threat to democracy. Districts are too white or too black, too Dem or too GOP--they're simply too safe. They're not drawn to be representative, but to protect incumbents. I find that to be particularly undemocratic.

Our representatives have no incentive to get anything done, no incentive to cooperate with comrades on the other side of the aisle. These districts drive representatives to the extremes of the political landscape. Think about it: if you represent a district that votes 76 percent Dem, what incentive do you have to make decisions based on what's right for the country? None. Instead, you make legislative decisions based on what it is that Dems think is right. Thus the Dems raise money, the GOPs raise money, challengers haven't a prayer, everyone gets re-elected, and nothing gets done. And the folks get frustrated and give Congress a 22 percent approval rating.

If a congressional district is gerrymandered to create a black majority district, what does that do to the surrounding districts? It makes them even more white. Those surrounding districts then are represented by Congressmen who no longer have any incentive to address concerns of the black community because the lines have been drawn to move black constituents out of their districts into the black majority district. Sure, you end up with a black congressman, but you also end up with congressmen in surrounding districts who have no interest in addressing the black agenda. In fact, they probably can raise more money and get more votes by standing against the black agenda.

Worse than any of that is the feeling of frustration and alienation that leads people to do silly things. Like what I did on Tuesday. I doesn't matter what I do in this safe Dem district--it's Democrat. So I switched my voter registration to Dem so I could vote in the Democratic primary. My hope was that I could make a difference and land a blow against the Billary Machine.

Funny thing happened on the way to the polls, tho. People decided (according to the polls, anyway) that they really don't like Billary any more. So my original plan--to vote Obama in order to throw a wrench in the Billary Machine--wasn't working. I couldn't vote for Obama if he had a chance of winning: he's a fluffernutter. I was really, really worried walking up to the polls. Had I been too clever in changing my registration from GOP to Dem? Was I really going to have to vote either for Billary or Obama? What was I going to do?

Imagine my surprise and delight when I got to the computerized voting machine (backed up by a paper ballot, of course) and found out that the other Dem candidates were still on the ballot. Yeeha! One of my fantasies has always been to vote for a dead guy. Here was my shot! I voted for Bill Richardson.

I do think I'll go ahead and switch back to GOP for the general. . . .

Will