Month: August 2008
My Choice for Obama VP: Sen. Chuck Hagel
With Barack Obama and Gen. Petraeus over Iraq. Smokin’!
Hagel is the maverick John McCain wishes he could be
Is it me or is it hot near Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.)? For an old guy, he’s definitely got something going on. But personal magnetism aside, Hagel is a stand-up guy with a biography that includes Purple Heart service in Vietnam, business CEO, Washington lobbyist, Reagan appointee, radio show host, and book author. It appears he is even capable of having actually written parts of his book, unlike his senate colleague John McCain.
He’s from Nebraska, he’s married and the father of two teens, and have I mentioned, he’s kind of hot for a 62-year-old.
I know what you’re thinking. He’s a Republican. Yes, but Hagel came out against Iraq and stayed there. He’s the maverick John McCain wishes he could be. Visit YouTube to see him shred Joe Lieberman, Condoleezza Rice, Sean Hannity, and lots of other morons.
Hagel is articulate (for a white guy), has a sharp mind, and keeps his perspective. He doesn’t indulge in histrionics or hype. He’s a conservative without even the merest whiff of neocon.
And he’s got a little something something. I’d be perfectly happy if Obama picked him.
Florida Registering Democrat by More Than Two to One
If anyone had any doubt, Florida is officially Democrat territory. Registration for the state’s Aug. 26 primary, which will decide many local races, recently ended and here are the totals.
- Democrat: 4,389,698
- Republican: 3,924,081
The significant thing is the new voters are going Dem by about two-and-a-half to one.
Figures released Sunday night by Secretary of State Kurt Browning showed 252,631 new Democrats and 98,354 newly registered Republicans across Florida in the first seven months of this year. The number of no-party voters rose by 48,563 between the end of the year and the closing of books on July 28 for the state primaries.
That can’t be good for the guy who looks like he should be on a Boca Raton shuffleboard court instead of at a desk in the Oval Office.
Of course there are lots of people who don’t submit to the two-party hegemony, including our own no-party-affiliation Buck. He’s got plenty of company.
- Independent Party of Florida: 241,752
- Libertarian: 15,384
- Green: 5,734
- American Poor People: 233 (I thought there’d be more)
- Independent Democrat: 7,165 (Joe???)
- Family Values Party: 443
- British Tea Party: 0 but someone did register the party just before the deadline
- Faith & Patience: 404 (Must not have driver’s licenses, judging by Florida roads)
- Possibility Party: 93 (Just think of it!)
- Socialist: 584
- Whig: 50
- Surfers Party of America: 356 (Everyone else wants to go to their convention)
Quote du Jour
There is a bias in television journalism. It is not against any particular party or point of view — it is against understanding.
— John Birt (1944- ), English broadcasting executive
McCain Finally Apologizes to Black Reporter, Insists He’s Not a Racist Because He Was a POW
A full week after it happened, John McCain finally found time to apologize to the black reporter, Stephen Price, who was thrown out of the press area during a McCain stop in Florida. And while the candidate maintained the incident was the fault of the Secret Service, not his campaign, he went out of his way to explain that he isn’t a racist, according to the story Price wrote about their conversation. For proof, he dragged out his reversal on supporting the Martin Luther King birthday holiday, and his capture as a prisoner of war.
Wait a minute. “His capture as a prisoner of war?” How is that relevant?
When pressed to answer why he first voted against the King holiday, McCain said, “That was back in 1983. I was wrong and I have stated I was wrong, sir. … I’m very proud of my record I’m not saying it is perfect.
“I know what it is like to be deprived of your rights. I know what it’s like to be in confinement. I know what it’s like to be beaten. I know what it’s like. So I think I have a special appreciation that maybe a lot of people don’t have for what it’s like to be deprived of your rights. … We all improve over the years and we learn and we grow.”
Um, is that not the most convoluted and self-serving explanation you’ve ever heard for why someone voted against the King holiday? And total crap besides?
Price also asked McCain what his campaign is doing about voter registration in Florida, where the most recent numbers (new ones will be out soon) show 106,508 new voters registering as Democrats compared to only 16,686 new Republicans.
“I don’t get into those type of details,” McCain said. “Obviously, we want voter registration all over America. … We’ll do everything we can to get maximum turnout.”
Wow, what an inspiration McCain must be to Republican volunteers.
Video Shows McCain Was Wrong About Almost Everything: Iraq, Afghanistan, Anthrax
This video explains why, in my own mind, I thought of John McCain as the main apologist for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, long before the 2008 election cycle began: because that’s what he was. As McCain ‘splains things to Letterman on Oct. 18, 2001, he seems quite comfortable with his role as mouthpiece for the man who beat him in the 2000 primary by slinging dirt McCain was still washing off years later.
The foregone-ness of the conclusion that we would be invading Iraq is evident in McCain’s every word and gesture.
H/T to ThinkProgress
The End of the Affair – With John Edwards
Pensito Review editor Jon has come under flak for the mere mention of the Edwards affair. I made my strong support of John Edwards known on this very news and information web site before the Florida primary. I liked all of his policies, found him personally non-annoying, and of course, loved his wife. Still do. Read her book, logged on to her blog — I’m a total Elizabeth fan.
Edwards says he confessed to Elizabeth first, as soon as he ended the affair. If only Bill Clinton had done the same.
So when Jon brought the National Enquirer story to my attention a couple of weeks ago, I hoped it wasn’t true. But I told him and Buck it bothered me that at the time of the announcement Elizabeth’s cancer was back, there was no physical contact between her and John. They stoically did not cling to one another, or even drape an arm around a waist. or clench hands. Early in the press conference, when Elizabeth wiped away a tear, John didn’t reach over and touch her. I noticed it, and looking again at it now, I am amazed at how unironic they both were as they talked about how they had faced hard times together before. We all thought they were talking about losing a son and an election campaign. Maybe they were.
In announcing he had an affair, Edwards said there was nothing bad we could say about him that he hasn’t already said about himself. I think he’s telling the truth there, and I think that’s an appropriate attitude. His own shame should outweigh any we can heap upon him. I would be even more disappointed in him to think otherwise.
It’s inevitable that we will draw comparisons with Bill Clinton, the other handsome Democrat who didn’t keep it in his pants when we wished he had. But one difference jumps out at me: Edwards says he confessed to Elizabeth first, as soon as he ended the affair. If only Bill had done the same. Instead, Hillary was the last to know, after reporters, Congressional committees, and yeah, you and me. Bill let Hillary go out there and defend him, knowing the whole time it was lies, lies, lies. At least Elizabeth got the courtesy of a private heads-up.
As I also told Jon and Buck, divorce is only one of many possible responses to adultery. It’s the one we see on T.V., the one that usually involves running up a credit card bill for dozens of pairs of expensive shoes and sticking the cheater with same, but it’s not always the one we reach for in real life. Marriage is much more complex than situation comedy, thank the lord.
I have almost no interest in whether John Edwards is the father of the other woman’s child, or the fact that he lied to reporters during the presidential campaign. My thoughts are with Elizabeth. And if anyone wants to second-guess her choice to remain married, or to support her husband in their shared vision for this country, they should find something else to do.
Presumptuous: McCain Is Already Doing Presidential Weekly Radio Addresses
Last month, after John McCain had taunted Barack Obama about not having been to Iraq in a couple of years, Obama went on an overseas tour with stops in Iraq, Israel and Europe. It was a beautifully executed trip topped off by a speech in Berlin before a crowd of 200,000 people.
At the time, the McCain campaign tried desperately to counter the presidential-looking visuals from the Berlin speech by accusing Obama of being “presumptuous.”
Speaking of presumptuous, what other word would describe the fact that John McCain has been doing a weekly radio address for at least the last month. Today’s address featured this bit of snark:
Taking in my opponent’s performances is a little like watching a big summer blockbuster, and an hour in realizing that all the best scenes were in the trailer you saw last fall. In the way of running mates, Senator Obama should consider someone with a knack for brevity and directness, to balance the ticket.
FUN-nee.
The tradition of the weekly presidential radio address was started by Ronald Reagan — who, ironically, loathed John McCain — and the practice has been continued by every president since.
Next we can expect Cindy McCain to visit Laura Bush so she can measure for drapes.
Edwards Admits Affair
John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.
In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.
Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter’s baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.
Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby’s birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father.
A former campaign aide, Andrew Young, has said he was the father of the child.
