Month: May 2008

McCain People Show Grave Concern About Age Issue

Trish

My goodness, the McCain folks are touchy! They read a whole lot into one pretty tame phrase.

Pipe down, Gramps, and quit crying victimhood

Obama, 46, was asked about a recent comment by McCain, 71, that the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas favors Obama for president.

“I think (this) is unfortunate, particularly since my policy toward Hamas has been no different than his,” Obama said on the CNN program “The Situation Room.”

“And so for him to toss out comments like that I think is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination,” he said.

‘Kaay. And what’s bad about that?

The McCain campaign said the “losing his bearings” comment was an underhanded reference to the fact that McCain is 71 years old.

Mark Salter, one of the advisers, said, “Obama’s attack today: He used the words ‘losing his bearings’ intentionally, a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain’s age as an issue…”

“That quote is a not-so-subtle attempt by Obama to insinuate the age issue into the race,” another McCain adviser said. “He attacks viciously with subtlety and innuendo…”

Yeah, it was so subtle it went right past me. Thanks for pointing it out, guys. I would have read that and thought it meant McCain was getting so wrapped up in the quest for office that he’ll say anything, or maybe that he had his facts mixed up. Now I see it was Obama’s subtle way of reminding us McCain is 71. Kraf-tee!

Of course, McCain’s folks weren’t concerned about crying foul when the old guy recently said Obama was an out of touch elitist who is “not ready” to be president. Pipe down, Gramps, and quit crying victimhood.

Infectious Disease Update

Buck Banks

Outbreaks of infectious diseases reported today through the worldwide ProMed network include:
germs.jpg

  • Hand, foot & mouth disease in China, Macao S.A.R.
  • Porcine enzootic reprodroductive and respiratory syndrome in Viet Nam
  • Malaria in Africa as a result of substandard and counterfeit drugs
  • Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever in Turkey
  • Canine rabies restrictions have been lifted in England
  • Human and bovine anthrax in Lima and Piura, Peru

Poll: Bush Support Among Republicans Drops to 60% – Still Exorbitantly High for Worst President Ever

Jon Ponder

Despite a record in office comprised of one abysmal failure after another, the fact that George Bush still has the support of 60 percent of Republicans strains credulity. There is a glimmer of hope in this new Gallup number, however, because it represents a slight drop in support for Bush among GOP dead-enders:

Bush’s approval rating in his party has fallen, with 6-in-10 Republicans approving of the job he’s doing, a Gallup poll indicates.

Throughout his presidency, Bush averaged 85 percent approval among Republicans, including 92 percent during his first term and 77 percent in his second term until the 60 percent registered in the latest survey, the Gallup poll released Thursday indicated…

Pollsters at the Princeton, N.J., company said lower support among Republicans is the main reason behind the drop in Bush’s overall rating. His approval ratings among Democrats and independents were low already.

The culprit for the decline in Bush’s overall job approval rating could be rising gas prices, which historically weigh down presidential approval ratings, pollsters said.

Last month, Bush — whose overall approval rating hovers around 28 percent — added two more metrics to his record as the Worst President Ever: He became the most disliked president in the history of the Gallup poll. And, after accruing 39 months without the approval of a majority of Americans, he became the president with the longest disapproval record.

Death Knell for Hillary … or Barack??

Buck Banks

The Associated Press reports that former senator and ex-presidential candidate George McGovern is switching from backing Clinton to backing Obama. Here’s the rather weird AP story:

mcgovern_george.jpg

Former Sen. George McGovern, who backed Hillary Rodham Clinton, is urging her to drop out of the Democratic presidential race.

McGovern said Wednesday he has decided to endorse Barack Obama.

After watching the returns from the North Carolina and Indiana primaries Tuesday night, McGovern says it’s virtually impossible for Clinton to win the nomination.

McGovern says he is calling former President Clinton to tell him of the decision and adds that he remains close friends with the Clintons.

McCain Says Republicans Piss Him Off

Trish
Don’t make me come down there.

A brave voter tossed a question sure to piss off John McCain at the candidate, then crouched back in a genital-covering squat and waited for the response. *

The voter read McCain a quote from Republican Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, who said in January that “the thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine.”

“He is erratic,” Cochran told the Boston Globe. “He is hotheaded. He loses his temper.”

“I am familiar with the quote,” McCain cracked, as the questioner recounted Cochran’s comments.

The questioner, rumored to have lost a bet with friends resulting in his being forced to approach McCain, but in the most gentle terms possible, * said the Republican’s temper was “something of a concern.”

McCain admitted he gets mad. And you know what really pisses him off? His fellow Republicans.

The voter read McCain a quote from Republican Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, who said in January that “the thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine”

“Well, I will confess to you my friend, that I get angry,” he explained. “I got angry when I saw a guy named Abramoff that ripped off Native Americans for millions and millions and millions of dollars that ended up putting him in federal prison.”

“I get angry when I see 233 million of your tax dollars going to an island, to a bridge on an island with 50 people on it,” he said [in reference to pork spending from Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)]. “I get angry when I see corruption to the point when we have former members of Congress residing in federal prison [most likely indicating former Rep. “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.)].

Is it me, or was this an odd response? Couldn’t he have taken the opportunity to smear some Democrats there? You know, “I am really ticked off about gay marriage.” Or, “I lose it when the recorded voice asks me if I want to speak in Spanish.” Or, “I want to bite my car on the hood when someone says we need to leave Iraq before 2108.”

But no, all McCain’s ire was directed at those in his own party. And judging from the quote from Republican Thad Cochran that prompted the question, they aren’t too thrilled with him either.

* Well, that’s what I would have done anyway.

New Law Works to Deny Nuns the Right to Vote

Trish

So this is what the Supreme Court’s recent decision to require government-issued identification cards at the polls looks like in practice. Ancient nuns don’t get to vote.

The nuns, all residents of a retirement home at Saint Mary’s Convent near Notre Dame University, were denied ballots by a fellow sister and poll worker because the women, in their 80s and 90s, did not have valid Indiana photo ID cards…

“It’s the law, and it makes it hard,” said Sister Julie McGuire, who was working at the polling place and had to explain to the nuns that they could not vote. “Some don’t understand why.”

Along with the very old, non-driving public, the new requirement hits young people as well.

The law does not recognize out-of-state driver’s licenses, a problem for college students who under Indiana law must intend to live in their college communities to vote, which involves obtaining an Indiana ID.

Both the elderly and college students are traditionally Democratic voters.

Arianna: McCain Told Me He Did Not Vote for Bush in 2000 – Nor Did Cindy

Jon Ponder

So McCain voted for Gore?

Arianna, posting at Huffington Post:

At a dinner party in Los Angeles not long after the 2000 election, I was talking to a man and his wife, both prominent Republicans. The conversation soon turned to the new president. “I didn’t vote for George Bush” the man confessed. “I didn’t either,” his wife added. Their names: John and Cindy McCain (Cindy told me she had cast a write-in vote for her husband).
“By abandoning his core principles and embracing Bush — both literally and metaphorically — he has morphed into an older and crankier version of the man he couldn’t stomach voting for in 2000.”
– Arianna Huffington
The fact that this man was so angry at what George Bush had done to him, and at what Bush represented for their party, that he did not even vote for him in 2000 shows just how far he has fallen since then in his hunger for the presidency. By abandoning his core principles and embracing Bush — both literally and metaphorically — he has morphed into an older and crankier version of the man he couldn’t stomach voting for in 2000.

Los Angeles Times:

McCain advisor Mark Salter rejected Huffington’s assertion as “totally false.”

“Arianna has a new book to promote,” Salter said Tuesday. “Whatever her cause celebre of the moment is — and it’s always subject to further revisions with her — she will say anything to promote it and make anything up.”

Reached by phone in Miami, Huffington stood by her story. She said she had admired McCain but had gradually became disillusioned, persuaded that he had forsaken his maverick, truth-telling ways.

“I felt the media is so enamored with McCain and they are giving him a pass on one thing after another,” Huffington said. “I think there is a disconnect in the country . . . and I felt it was time for me to tell what I knew.”

Arianna:

Through a spokesperson with the colorful name Tucker Bounds, McCain has denied telling me he didn’t vote for Bush in 2000. “It’s not true,” Bounds told the Washington Post, “and I ask you to consider the source.”

My sentiments exactly — because John McCain has a long history of issuing heartfelt denials of things that were actually true.

He denied ever talking with John Kerry about his leaving the GOP to be Kerry’s ’04 running mate — then later admitted he had, insisting: “Everybody knows that I had a conversation.”

He denied admitting that he didn’t know much about economics, even though he’d said exactly that to the Wall Street Journal. And the Boston Globe. And the Baltimore Sun.

He denied ever having asked for a budget earmark for Arizona, even though he had. On the record.

He denied that he’d ever had a meeting with comely lobbyist Vicki Iseman and her client Lowell Paxon, even though he had. And had admitted it in a legal deposition.

And those are just the outright denials. He’s also repeatedly tried to spin away statements he regretted making (see: 100-year war, Iraq was a war for oil, etc.).

So, yes, by all means, “consider the source.”

Apparently not voting for Bush was the last honest — and smart — thing McCain has done.

Rush is Big Winner in Indiana; Dittoheads Vote for Clinton

Trish

Looks like Rush’s followers know how to do as they’re told. CNN:

How big of an impact did Rush Limbaugh’s ‘Operation Chaos’ have in Indiana? Did GOP voters really cross over to create havoc in the Democratic primary by voting for Hillary Clinton, as he’d asked his listeners to do?

Roughly one in ten of the state’s Democratic primary voters were Republican — and that group did vote for Hillary Clinton, 53 to 47 percent over Barack Obama. But hold on: registered Democrats, who made up two-thirds of Tuesday’s primary voters, gave roughly the same edge to Clinton, 53 to 45 percent. Only Independents — who made up about a quarter of the electorate — voted for Obama, 53 to 47 percent.

For whatever reason, self-identified conservative voters did overwhelmingly support Clinton – two out of three cast their votes for the New York senator.