Friday, May 30, 2008

McCain Campaign: Ignore McCain

Two things McCain's campaign wants you to know.

1) Don't expect McCain to know whether an event is in the past, present or future. And it's a good thing that he isn't clear on time and tenses.

2) However, anyone Obama has ever met in his life speaks for Obama. Ignore what Obama actually says and pay attention to random person X who has some reputed connection with Obama.

Will this work? With our media, it just may.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Oaf-In-Chief

Bush met with Rolling Thunder this past Sunday. The greeting on the lawn of the White House lasted about 4 minutes. That was just enough time for Oaf-In-Chief Bush to demonstrate again how he loves to manhandle lesser humans (to him, nearly everyone else in the world). Even those with shrapnel wounds.
Bush thanked Muller with a hard-but-friendly slap to the shoulder.

Muller winced. Nerve damage from a shrapnel wound gives him a ton of pain whenever his shoulder is touched. He even wears metal spikes on his jacket to remind people not to grab him there.

“I do that every year, don’t I?” Bush said.

Muller nodded. “Yes.”

It's minor but telling: I'm sure Bush would be livid if people manhandled him the way he routinely does others.

Fortunately for him he managed not to collect any war wounds himself.

Video here

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Someone Else's Civil War

John McCain: "I will never surrender in Iraq."

What would it mean to "surrender" in someone else's civil war?

He's showing the same great judgment as when he decided it was a great idea to tie up our military with a war in Iraq to fight people who weren't even there.

John McCain: Wrong early, wrong often, wrong for as long as you'll let him be wrong.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Phoenix Rises from the Asses

Phoenix Arizona shows its support for the McCain/Bush!

A Tuesday fundraiser headlined by President Bush for U.S. Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign is being moved out of the Phoenix Convention Center.

Sources familiar with the situation said the Bush-McCain event was not selling enough tickets to fill the Convention Center space, and that there were concerns about more anti-war protesters showing up outside the venue than attending the fundraiser inside.

Has McCain already drained every penny from every wealthy Arizona resident that he's not married to?

And it's moving from a convention center to private residences. Rumor has it they're having a hard time filling a studio apartment.

And McCain is so fiercely independent from Bush that he farms out his answers to Bush's in-house flacks:
The McCain campaign referred questions on the fundraiser change to the White House press office.
That's nice: campaign work for another candidate on the taxpayer dime. Classy.

Nice Sticker, guys. Excellent

Protective Coloration

The McCain campaign materializes. From Chris Bowers, McCain's protective coloration:
This all comes from a candidate who, back in November, had the word "conservative" appear on his website 291 times, while only using the word "bipartisan" 33 times. A few months earlier, McCain led all Republican candidates in the use of the word "conservative" on his website. Suddenly, he has shifted from being the great conservative champion to the cool, hip, progressive.
Bower's post is a few days old (read the whole, relatively short, thing, with the striking list of new McCain website entries) but I'm sure it's only the beginning.

But let's all remember: McCain isn't Bush--he's only 95% Bush. And of the remaining 5 percent, 3 percent is worse than Bush. It's scientifically proven!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Woody Words

Someone has transcribed the entire Woody Allen - Standup Comic 1964 - 1968. When I first purchased it, it was a 2 LP set, alas. Extremely funny stuff here. For instance:

Wanted to flash this watch, I flash it all the time. It's my antique pocket watch, and it makes me look British, and I need that for my analysis. It is a georgeous gold pocket watch, however, and I'm proud of it. My grandfather, on his deathbed, sold me this watch.

My grandfather was a very insignificant man. At his funeral, his hearse followed the other cars.


It's worth hearing it delivered--some of my favorite standup comedy ever. Buy or borrow a copy!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

No, not "Off Message"

Sid Blumenthal is not Off Message with this hogwash.

He's on message for the "Obama must lose in November so Hillary can take her rightful throne" crowd.

Just like when he was pimping smears from the VRWC to slime Obama, he is on message now.

It's just that the Democratic message differs greatly from the Clintonista message, and Sid is only nominally a Democrat.

Sid is a company guy for Clinton, Inc. He's not freelancing when he's trying to destroy the Democratic nominee.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Old Joke Riddle Reenacted

Q: What's the newest Olympic event?

A: Javelin Catching

With the added bonus quote:
"One of the first things that came to my mind was, 'Good thing we brought a second javelin,'" Miles' coach, Richard Vance, said Monday.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Some Crowd



Click the above cropped snippet for a panoramic image from the crowd at the Portland Obama rally today (75,000 people!). There's even an Obama Armada of boats assembled listening from the river, and throngs seeming to enjoy the great weather and the next President of the United States.

[HT: Link to the original panoramic picture taken and posted by coolhandlucas in this DailyKos thread.]

Edit: The image link is changed because the image host wasn't working.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

McCain - Gambling with the U.S.



McCain Gambling

Apparently John McCain repeatedly goes on gambling binges, playing craps for hours at a time. He's also very superstitious.

How much money has he lost gambling in Las Vegas and elsewhere?

I wonder if he'd be in the gambler's poorhouse if his wife weren't giving him a gambling allowance.




UPDATE: The Jed Report has more information on McCain's friend Wes Gullet, who would roll craps with him in Vegas for 14-hour stretches. And who is a lobbyist. And a lobbyist whose clients benefitted from land-swap legislation McCain initially opposed. But, after Gullet's lobbying, McCain changed his position on the land-swap.

Friday, May 09, 2008

Eschaton

Atrios says a couple things I've been thinking myself.

The ability of the Clinton camp to inject ridiculous ideas into the mediastream has been amazing. It's a measure of the "look! shiny!" nature of the media as much as the Clinton spin room, but they've had success at it.

Also, Clinton lost the race. She lost it mainly in February. She and her advisers are to blame for that. HRC supporters should be pissed off at Mark Penn and Harold Ickes far more than at Obama.

Ovearching point: spin is no substitute for a good campaign. I think that may indicate some of her weaknesses overall.

Of course, all candidates have weaknesses, Obama included. But he's won this thing.

And I saw someone in that Atrios comment thread complaining about how Obama supporters attack Clinton. Well, look at Taylor Marsh's site, including the (probably disastrous) attempt to swamp superdelegates with email. I mainly hang out with the less insane parts of the blogosphere, but some of those Taylor Marsh commenters make Freepers look rational.
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