Day: September 15, 2010
Gov for Sale
Californians, you are cool and hip;
You have granola and relationships.
But would one of you please tell
For how much you plan to sell
Meg Whitman the governorship?
Verbatim
When you get here, the pressure by the two caucuses to kind of go along with ‘the team’ is pretty constant. And it’s gotten more so over the years … Any deviancy from party orthodoxy is viewed as an act of betrayal or a lack of moral fiber.
— Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), in an “exit interview” with NBC News.
Obama’s New Book to Debut After Midterms
While he’s been bailing out banks and car manufacturers, fighting two foreign wars, reforming health care and Wall Street, and playing a little B-ball and golf, President Barack Obama found time to pen a children’s book that’s set to premiere Nov. 16 — after the midterm elections.
With Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope, Obama already has two books under his belt, and his newest is titled Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters. Random House’s Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers will initially print 500,000 copies of the 40-page children’s book.
The book profiles 13 prominent figures in American history, among them George Washington, Jackie Robinson and Georgia O’ Keefe.
Proceeds from sales will be used to create a scholarship for children of fallen and disabled American soldiers.
Verbatim
I am not like Mitt Romney, whose book is called ‘No Apology, The Case For American Greatness,’ Really? You know always waving the big foam number one finger. We’re not number one in most things. We’re number one in military, we’re number one in money, we’re number one in fat toddlers, meth labs, and people we send to prison. We’re not number one in literacy, money spent on education, we’re not even number one in social mobility. Social mobility means basically the American dream, the ability of one generation to do better than the next. We’re tenth. That’s like Sweden coming in tenth in Swedish meatballs.
— Bill Maher, comedian and malcontent, on Larry King Live last night.
Verbatim
Poor Republicans. They are beginning to resemble the bar scene from Star Wars. They are purging the conservative voices in their party who have any sort of pragmatic perspective and substituting true kooks.
Peter Fenn, Democratic media consultant
CA Gov: Whitman ‘Donates’ Another $15 Mil to Self, Brings Total of Self-Funding to a Record-Breaking $115 Mil
$115 Million
After a new $15 million transfer yesterday from her private fortune to her campaign, the amount Meg Whitman has spent, so far, to buy the governorship of California — making her the biggest-spending self-funding candidate in U.S. history.
CA Gov: After Refusing to Pull False Ad about Brown, Whitman Threatens to Sue Teachers over Ad Charging She’d Cut $7 Bil from Schools
Last week, when Democrat Jerry Brown demanded that Meg Whitman, his Republican opponent in the California governor’s race, pull an ad that was based on a lie about his tax record, her campaign spokesman scoffed at the idea, saying, “That’s ridiculous.”
His reaction is telling in light of the fact that a representative from the California Department of Finance had confirmed to reporters that, based on nonpartisan analysis, the Whitman was indeed a lie:
