Category Archives: campaigns

Framing the Issue

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Once again Charles Krauthammer makes me want to vomit.

Today’s interpretation of Barack Obama’s superb address on race and his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, this past week is vial and no more than a clever attempt at framing the issue. Krauthammer seems to imply that all of Wright’s speeches are volatile and venomous. He seems to want to believe that week after week Barack and Michelle Obama would bring their children to hear someone speak ill of America and sow the seeds of racial hatred. He wants to believe that Wright wasn’t a man who could get caught up in the intensity of sermon and perhaps loose sight of what he was saying. He wants to believe, like so many others, that this pastor is not a man of the Christian faith at all, but a man full of hatred and contempt for whites and America. Well, ninjas ain’t that stupid.

Krauthammer asks:

Why did you give $22,500 just two years ago to a church run by a man of the past who infects the younger generation with precisely the racial attitudes and animus you say you have come unto us to transcend?

Do you, Krauthammer, truly believe that Jeremiah Wright is a one faceted, America hating machine? Or will you acknowledge that as a pastor he, week after week, speaks of the gospels, of peace, of love, of truth and of unity? That he, too, would like nothing more than a nation indivisible, but that his observations and understanding of the past and present has made him realize that there is much moral and social progress to be made.

His language, at times, may not have been chosen with the utmost attention to political correctness, as yours and mine surely is. But he is neither politician nor pundit, he is a pastor. And Barack Obama has made it clear throughout this entire campaign that he is a rational, intelligent, independent and thorough thinker. The bottom line is: this relationship is of no concern in political discourse. If it is, then let’s talk about McCain asking Hague to support him.
And that whole thing about crack, well, let’s be real. As my ninja, Orange Menace, said “You think some hood from the PJs invented crack?” Who’s to say. But take a look at the sentences given for those involved with crack versus the much more expensive cocaine and you got yourself a f*cked up situation.

Dave Grohl for President?

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He announces his candidacy. With statements like this he could go places:

I have never done cocaine, ever in my life. I have never done heroin, I have never done speed. I have had my share of acid and mushrooms and I have smoked fields of marijuana, but by the age of 20 I realized, if I don’t stop now, I’ll never have the chance to be the President of the United States of America. This dream is a long time in the making, it’s been almost 20 years of preparing to run silently. Gathering my ideas and support. I haven’t done drugs in a long time. Because they are against the law.

Blazing Saddles Redux

1984

Geraldine Ferraro, half of the 1984 Democratic ticket that lost in a landslide to Ronald Reagan, is offering her political wisdom to the Democratic party. Her revelation: Obama is only winning because he’s black. Whoa! I never saw that one coming. Let’s stand back and take a snapshot of this event, because it’s got to be the first time in history that being black with a Muslim name was ever an advantage in politics outside of a majority black district. I imagine Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are kicking themselves for not playing up race more in their token runs at the White House.

Furthermore, she claims Obama is dividing the party.  How dare Barack inject negativity, savage attacks and race into a presidential race by actually winning. But, in all fairness, the right thing to do is let Ferraro clarify her position, in case she was misquoted. In an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, Ferraro said, “My comments have been taken so out of context and have been spun by the Obama campaign as racist that it’s doing precisely what they don’t want done — it’s going to the Democratic Party and dividing us even more.” Geraldine, you’re just the gift that keeps on giving!

How can assigning someone’s success to their race possibly be taken out of context? Maybe telling a California newspaper that, “if Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position.” OK, maybe this merited a response to Geraldine, but in a kinder, gentler form she’d better understand and not get offended, i.e. a musical, like “Fiddler on the Roof”. Obama could come out in a beard and hat and sing:

“If I were a white man,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
All day long I’d biddy biddy bum.
If I were a free, white man.
I wouldn’t have to work hard.
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
In your campaign you biddy, diddy lost,
And Reagan diddle-didle-didle won”

His response would make about as much logical sense as Geraldine’s initial remarks, and she’d probably think it was hip-hop anyway, but it’s truly difficult to work up a righteous anger over a remark as inane as that. We don’t want her feelings to get hurt. Oh, this just in…she told ABC, “My concern has been over how I’ve been treated as well and hurt, absolutely hurt by how they have taken this thing and spun it to imply that in any way, any way I am racist,” she said. Whoop, there it is! She also said she has fought against discrimination for 40 years. Hmmmm…..sounds like Hillary’s resume writer. Maybe my history is faulty, but after losing to Reagan, I seem to recall two unsuccessful attempts at the Senate. Perhaps someone should remind Geraldine that she is actually not qualified to be giving advice in the first place. Advice should come from winners, not losers, innovators, not archaic technicians of failure. America needs new leadership…oops…sorry.

That’s HER line.

[Op-ed by MNP correspondant Jill The Shill]

http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed2/idUSN1216129120080312

Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC

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Reporters covering the candidates have already resorted to traditional analysis of style — fashion choices, manner of speaking, even the way they laugh. Yet, according to design experts, the candidates have left a clear blueprint of their personal style — perhaps even a window into their souls — through the Web sites they have created to raise money, recruit volunteers and generally meet-and-greet online.On one thing, the experts seem to agree. The differences between hillaryclinton.com and barackobama.com can be summed up this way: Barack Obama is a Mac, and Hillary Clinton is a PC [NYT].

So basically, Obama can do everything Clinton can – but he looks cooler, is more user friendly, doesn’t break down/crash, and is GREAT at making photo albums + playlists for you iPod. What more could you ask for?

We have all seen the ads, we know the right thing to do is to buy a Macintosh, but we hesitate. Will I be able to open all my PC files? Will it be able to run Outlook? Am I really going to make those photo albums and movies anyway? Am I cool enough for a Mac? [Huffington Post]

Full article at the New York Times, and the Huffington Post.

Open Letter to Hillary Clinton

You all should go check this article out over at the green site. It’s an open letter written by one of Hillary’s fellow Wellesly grads. An excerpt:

You have connections to Monsanto through the Rose Law Firm where you worked and through Bill who hired Monsanto people for central food-related roles. Your Orwellian-named “Rural Americans for Hillary” was planned with Troutman Sanders, Monsanto’s lobbyists.

Genetic engineering and industrialized food and animal production all come together at the Rose Law Firm, which represents the world’s largest GE corporation (Monsanto), GE’s most controversial project (DP&L’s – now Monsanto’s – terminator genes) [here], the world’s largest meat producer (Tyson), the world’s largest retailer and a dominant food retailer (Wal-Mart) [here]. 

[ ...]

What Bill did for Monsanto “genetic engineering” goes beyond inadequate concepts of giving corporate friends influence: He unleashed genetic engineering into the world. And then he helped close off people’s escape from it.

Just Ig’nant

Over the weekend an Iowa Republican, Rep. Steve King, has claimed that “terrorists would be ‘dancing in the streets’ if Democratic candidate Barack Obama were to win the presidency.” Well, yesterday King reiterated these comments on (surprise surprise) Fox News. TPM, as always, hookin’ us up with the clip:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nu0QbLrDAg&eurl=http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/[/youtube]

It is most unfortunate that 1. people think like this and that 2. other people listen and agree. Aren’t we supposed to be a really well educated country?

Also, where the hell is Barack Obama coming out against these kinds of statements? He needs to be all over this kind of thing.

Clinton’s Campaign Management

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The New York Times is running an article this morning that questions the leadership and managemnet skills possessed my Mrs. William Clinton. The article suggests that Clinton has recently tried to have more of a hand in the actions of her campaign, but for much of this primary season she has taken a back seat and let her advisors handle much of the dirty work. My favorite piece was the attempt to justify all the bickering that seems to surface in the Clinton campaign:

“She thinks the way to manage effectively is to get a lot of smart people around who don’t agree and let them work out their differences creatively,” said Howard Wolfson, her communications director. “Let them hash through things, and as a result, you come up with the best process.”

Great strategy.

Peninsula Problems

Both Michigan and Florida had their caucus’ and primary’s results negated by their violations of DNC rules in scheduling their primaries too early. Now that the Democratic contest is in such a dead heat the Democrats in those States want their votes to count towards the delgate battle. I don’t blame them. So far it seems like Michigan will hold another caucus and pay for it themselves while Florida asked the DNC to foot the $18 million dollar tab. Howard Dean, the chair, said “no dice.”

Now, the Clinton camp doesn’t want a revote in Florida because they won. This will likely not hold up because a lot people didn’t vote on the grounds of it not emaning anything and no one campaigned there. The DNC will tell them they can pay for it themselves or sacrifice their votes. In Michigan, Obama nor Edwards were even on the ballot so if anything’s fair there, it’s a re-do. These States would be significant in deciding the nominee should their delegates count.

Krauthammer Makes Me Puke

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Today’s Op-Ed piece from Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post very well may be satire. I can’t tell. But based on his track record, I think he wants us to take him seriously. Considering everything that has come to light regarding McCain’s recent relationship with the FEC over his public financing any reference to McCain-Feingold should be laughed at. Yet, Krauthammer writes with conviction:

On the difficult compromises that required the political courage to challenge one’s own political constituency, Obama flinched: the “Gang of 14″ compromise on judicial appointments, the immigration compromise to which Obama tried to append union-backed killer amendments and, just last month, the compromise on warrantless eavesdropping that garnered 68 votes in the Senate. But not Obama’s.

Who, in fact, supported all of these bipartisan deals, was a central player in two of them and brokered the even more notorious McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform? John McCain, of course.

Yes, John McCain — intemperate and rough-edged, of sharp elbows and even sharper tongue. Turns out that uniting is not a matter of rhetoric or manner, but of character and courage.

Yes, what we really need is a President with enough courage to bring hypocrasy to new levels, and who has a track record of putting himself at arms length of the rules. A President who used to be able to cross party lines but now all of a sudden has pledged himself to the Bush agenda. A President whose campaign rhetoric has turned out to be a message for a dedicated Iraq war “victory.” WE ARE NOT AT WAR WITH IRAQ!!! We are occupying Iraq, and in the process making an attempt to supress al-Qaeda (which is only one piece of the transnational jihadist movement in the Middle East). Isn’t it working splendidly? It’s driven our economy to the gutter, it’s taken as many as 160,000 people away from their families in our own country, forced millions of Iraqis from their homes, and it’s creating incentive for generations of good Muslims to resent America. Bravo, let’s keep it up? 

Krauthammer has also come to the conclusion that Barack Obama’s uniter image is really only believeable because of his heritage crosses racial lines. His logic goes like this:

Because Obama transcends race, it is therefore assumed that he will transcend everything else — divisions of region, class, party, generation and ideology.

If you ninjas know a single person who thinks of Obama’s candidacy in this light, I’d love to meet them. Obama is a black man and race has been an infinately less significant talking point this primary season than what Clinton has tried to do with the gender-card. Rediculous.

I Am Scared of This Man

Thanks, as always, to TPM for making this frightening clip of McCain and his evangelical endorser. McCain is getting a press pass in accepting John Hagee’s support. Hagee is known to have linked Catholicism with Nazi fascism, and referred to it as “the Great Whore.”

Hagee has also claimed the creation of independent Palestinian and Israeli states would bring terrorists to America because of our immigration policy. I know, it makes loads of sense. Just watch:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hsu4CUk6RqQ[/youtube]

I don’t know if this would have been an issue at all if Barack hadn’t gotten hit hard by the Mrs. William Clinton and the press for not rejecting and denouncing Louis Farrakhan‘s support. But for what it’s worth, this man has no business being recognized for supporting a presidential candidate other than to create a buzz.

They Want Her Bad

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The GOP really wants Hillary to win this thing. There is nothing that would give them more statisfaction than beating a Clinton in a Presidential race. In the past few weeks they have been dying to give us their input on why the Dems ought to go with Hillary over Obama, or concocting scenarios where she can do it. Robert Novak is one such Clinton supporter. In today’s Post he claims:

The decision to deprive Michigan and Florida of delegates because their primaries were scheduled too early cannot stand in a contested convention.

The force unleashed against Clinton if she wins the nomination would be unrelenting, cruel, and effective. Her greatest ally in the race would be gender, and half of the women in this country have a hard time giving her their support at the moment. You can give the independant vote to McCain in such a scenario too.

Her Time Will Come

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[Remember when she looked like this?]

I am of the opinion that the press will turn on Hillary, and I hope they do it soon. There are basic things that the Clintons & Co. have to do that they have not done and that they have not been held accountable for. Andrew Sullivan seems to understand what’s coming and he can’t wait:

The secrecy and paranoia also remind one of the Clintons’ history, especially Senator Clinton’s. From Whitewater through the long nightmare of cattle-futures through legal documents mysteriously “discovered” long after they were sought, to the secret healthcare task force that helped kill healthcare reform for over a decade, the Clintons are now following their long pattern. They hide stuff they need to hide and stuff they don’t need to hide. What we are learning is that these people have not changed. And their sense of personal privilege, their boundless paranoia, and their constant lies about themselves must be front and center in this campaign. Do we want to go back there again? After Bush and Cheney, do we really want another couple of co-presidents in love with total secrecy and above-the-law personal privilege?

I can’t stand to listen to Hillary speak. That brutish, masculine tone she uses on the stump to compliment her handsome looks makes me nauseous.