Borrowing the above line from John McCain, I would like to point out exactly who is responsible for voting against the bailout bill in the United States House of Representatives today. No, it's not a perfect bill, but it is a solution that had been negotiated for over a week, and did in fact contain some necessary home-owner protections and other important provisions that are key to getting the economy back on its feet.
You will know their names. These are the congressmen who voted against the Bailout Plan, most of them because they're running in close re-election races, not because they actually didn't think it was important.
I am proud to say, as a Haverford student, that Representative Joe Sestak (D-PA) buried partisan concerns and stood with the Democratic Party leadership to try and bring some relief to this economic crisis.
Upon this news, the Dow dropped 778 points today, an all-time record, putting the stock market below where it was on President Bush's first day in office.
I'm having trouble with a description of how serious this situation is, so for clarity, go watch The Watchmen movie trailer, and get to about halfway where a dark, deep voice mutters, "God help us all."
Yeah, that's me.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Things I Learned From the First Presidential Debate!
Here are my thoughts (based entirely on what the candidates said):
--> John McCain needs a nicer pen.
--> McCain's repetition of "I didn't win Miss Congeniality in the U.S. Senate" probably implies that he wishes he had more friends.
--> All our companies are going to outsource to Ireland.
--> John McCain seemed eager to hear Senator Obama's "definition of rich," despite his problems earlier in this campaign with defining the mark ($5 million?).
--> A presidential candidate can use the word "festooned," then accuse his opponent of being out-of-touch and elitist.
--> Senator McCain is quite able to describe the Administration's Iraq strategy and make it sound incredibly stupid and inarticulate: "a strategy of going into an area, clearing and holding, and the people of the country then become allied with you. They inform on the bad guys. And peace comes to the country, and prosperity."
--> General Petraeus and Osama bin Laden "have one thing in common." They've both made money from the Bush family?
--> John McCain again put his foot down and declared that he stands firmly against a second Holocaust, a position that surely reinforces how much of a maverick he is.
--> Apparently, a dictator's speech in front of the United Nations doesn't count as a legitimizing propaganda platform, but a meeting with a ruler of another country does.
--> John McCain has a bracelet.
--> "Glasnost and perestroika" - $20 says that there weren't 100 people under the age of 25 watching that debate who actually knew what McCain was talking about.
--> Barack Obama is anti-tea parties, pro-arugula.
--> It's unclear how many people noticed John McCain mutter "horse shit" when Obama accused him of refusing to meet with the Prime Minister of Spain.
--> The evidence of North Korea being the "most repressive and brutal regime on Earth" is that "the average South Korean is three inches taller than the average North Korean, a huge gulag." I believe McCain meant repressive as in physically pushing down on its subjects.
--> Senator Obama, not to be outdone, "also has a bracelet," the difference being that his is in bling form around his neck, and is made entirely of gold.
--> John McCain loves the veterans. Really loves them. And he's going to take care of them. I now can't shake this mental image of John McCain enveloping our armed forces in an enormous hug, and gently kissing them each on the forehead.
--> When not facing the pressures of campaign consultants and advertising requirements, John McCain can, in fact, avoid mentioning his POW experience for approximately 87 minutes.
--> John McCain "knows how to heal the wounds of war," using strategies like coming home and cheating on your wife with a woman 18 years younger than you are.
--> John McCain needs a nicer pen.
--> McCain's repetition of "I didn't win Miss Congeniality in the U.S. Senate" probably implies that he wishes he had more friends.
--> All our companies are going to outsource to Ireland.
--> John McCain seemed eager to hear Senator Obama's "definition of rich," despite his problems earlier in this campaign with defining the mark ($5 million?).
--> A presidential candidate can use the word "festooned," then accuse his opponent of being out-of-touch and elitist.
--> Senator McCain is quite able to describe the Administration's Iraq strategy and make it sound incredibly stupid and inarticulate: "a strategy of going into an area, clearing and holding, and the people of the country then become allied with you. They inform on the bad guys. And peace comes to the country, and prosperity."
--> General Petraeus and Osama bin Laden "have one thing in common." They've both made money from the Bush family?
--> John McCain again put his foot down and declared that he stands firmly against a second Holocaust, a position that surely reinforces how much of a maverick he is.
--> Apparently, a dictator's speech in front of the United Nations doesn't count as a legitimizing propaganda platform, but a meeting with a ruler of another country does.
--> John McCain has a bracelet.
--> "Glasnost and perestroika" - $20 says that there weren't 100 people under the age of 25 watching that debate who actually knew what McCain was talking about.
--> Barack Obama is anti-tea parties, pro-arugula.
--> It's unclear how many people noticed John McCain mutter "horse shit" when Obama accused him of refusing to meet with the Prime Minister of Spain.
--> The evidence of North Korea being the "most repressive and brutal regime on Earth" is that "the average South Korean is three inches taller than the average North Korean, a huge gulag." I believe McCain meant repressive as in physically pushing down on its subjects.
--> Senator Obama, not to be outdone, "also has a bracelet," the difference being that his is in bling form around his neck, and is made entirely of gold.
--> John McCain loves the veterans. Really loves them. And he's going to take care of them. I now can't shake this mental image of John McCain enveloping our armed forces in an enormous hug, and gently kissing them each on the forehead.
--> When not facing the pressures of campaign consultants and advertising requirements, John McCain can, in fact, avoid mentioning his POW experience for approximately 87 minutes.
--> John McCain "knows how to heal the wounds of war," using strategies like coming home and cheating on your wife with a woman 18 years younger than you are.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Big Numbers, Political Failures, and Paulson Finds God (Hint: It's Nancy Pelosi)! 39 Days to Go!
Update (12:20 PM): The debate is on, but apparently, John McCain already won it.
So much to get to, I'm sorry that this entry won't be able to do all these stories justice. Please read the links I attach - they'll give you the information you need.
--> The big story today is the negotiation on the bailout bill. Well, things fall apart. Republicans are definitively against the idea of the federal government bailing out large corporations (it's even written into their platform), so many of them won't be willing to vote for the bill as it stands now. Democrats are largely lined up behind the legislation, even though many of them have serious doubts and want more middle-class protections in it. However, Dems won't be willing to vote for a fairly unpopular bill this close to Election Day without Republican support to protect them. If it's just the Democrats that pass this bill, then the GOP can all vote against it, and then blast the Democrats for passing it in the first place. The Republican Party needs to get on-board in order for this bill to pass - it's no longer about getting 51 votes, it's about political cover.
This comes the day after President Bush held a historic meeting in the Roosevelt Room between himself, Secretary Paulson, Senator McCain, Senator Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, Minority Leader McConnell, and House Republican leader Boehner. The meeting was supposed to get all hands on deck, but it ended up just emphasizing how far apart everyone is. As the New York Times reports, Secretary Paulson actually got down on one knee and pleaded with Nancy Pelosi to not pull her party's support off the bill. Pelosi remarked, "I didn't know you were Catholic," then continued, "It's not me blowing this up, it's the Republicans." Paulson replied, "I know. I know."
By the way, was anyone else curious why the specific figure requested for the bailout was $700 billion? How does the Treasury Department calculate such a number? Well, a spokeswoman was asked just that, and she explained, "It's not based on any particular data point, we just wanted to choose a really large number." Incompetence, thy name is government.
--> So it sure doesn't seem like John McCain's dramatic announcement that he was suspending his campaign really accomplished anything. In fact, one wonders how he could help the process at all, given that he's NEVER READ THE BILL! Or that he hasn't proposed a single banking bill during this entire Congress, while Senator Obama has proposed five.
And, as it turns out, his campaign is far from suspended. Palin still held a rally yesterday, his surrogates were out in full force, and his campaign ads (which he pledged to take down) are still up in most of the country. Plus, McCain has already instructed TV stations that actually took down the ads to start re-airing them as soon as Saturday!
Thankfully, Senator Obama's campaign has called this desperate move what it is: a cheap political stunt.
The only thing McCain has accomplished is throwing the results of tonight's debate into question. He still won't commit to attending, and will continue to examine the situation based on the results of today's Congressional negotiations (which, and I must stress this, he is not a part of). Obama, although he spent the night in DC to be close to the negotiations himself, is already flying down to Mississippi. It looks like he will go on tonight, the question is if he'll be joined by anyone. I personally think that a two-hour exclusive interview/town hall event featuring Barack Obama, an empty chair, and the entire press corps would be a sight to see, don't you?
I'm still confident that McCain will show. Not because he appreciates the value of having our two potential leaders talk about the issues to the American public, but because he is a shrewd, calculating politician, who no doubt has seen the polling data today suggesting that 3/4 of Americans want the debate to go on tonight.
Also, Mike Huckabee thinks McCain is stupid. Then again, Mike Huckabee wants to be the GOP nominee in 4 years. So, there might be some sort of conflict of interest.
--> By the way, I found the McCain Campaign's suggestion of indefinitely postponing the Vice-Presidential debate to be absolutely insulting. How can they expect the American people to accept Sarah Palin as their VP if they've never ever seen her speak or answer questions?
--> Well, maybe they're justified. After all, two nights of an interview with Katie Couric have certainly demonstrated that Sarah Palin would be better off not speaking at all. Here's her talking about how she can see Russia from her house. Here's her "getting back" to Katie Couric about McCain's lifelong battle for more oversight.
And now, as the Washington Post reports, it turns out that she's far from the reformer that she claims to be (I saw "it turns out" as if we didn't know this already - still it's nice to have even more proof). She has accepted $25,000 in gifts as Governor of Alaska, despite having made "a crackdown on gift-giving to state officials a centerpiece of her ethics reform agenda."
--> This of course, all comes after Washington Mutual because the largest bank to fail in this nation's history, as it was seized by the federal government and then bought up in large chunks by JP Morgan.
Sorry, there's no happy/funny anecdote at the end of this story. Serious times call for serious entries, and unfathomable levels of sarcasm and anger.
The debate tonight can, as many events do, change everything. Do watch. It's gonna be a blast.
So much to get to, I'm sorry that this entry won't be able to do all these stories justice. Please read the links I attach - they'll give you the information you need.
--> The big story today is the negotiation on the bailout bill. Well, things fall apart. Republicans are definitively against the idea of the federal government bailing out large corporations (it's even written into their platform), so many of them won't be willing to vote for the bill as it stands now. Democrats are largely lined up behind the legislation, even though many of them have serious doubts and want more middle-class protections in it. However, Dems won't be willing to vote for a fairly unpopular bill this close to Election Day without Republican support to protect them. If it's just the Democrats that pass this bill, then the GOP can all vote against it, and then blast the Democrats for passing it in the first place. The Republican Party needs to get on-board in order for this bill to pass - it's no longer about getting 51 votes, it's about political cover.
This comes the day after President Bush held a historic meeting in the Roosevelt Room between himself, Secretary Paulson, Senator McCain, Senator Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, Minority Leader McConnell, and House Republican leader Boehner. The meeting was supposed to get all hands on deck, but it ended up just emphasizing how far apart everyone is. As the New York Times reports, Secretary Paulson actually got down on one knee and pleaded with Nancy Pelosi to not pull her party's support off the bill. Pelosi remarked, "I didn't know you were Catholic," then continued, "It's not me blowing this up, it's the Republicans." Paulson replied, "I know. I know."
By the way, was anyone else curious why the specific figure requested for the bailout was $700 billion? How does the Treasury Department calculate such a number? Well, a spokeswoman was asked just that, and she explained, "It's not based on any particular data point, we just wanted to choose a really large number." Incompetence, thy name is government.
--> So it sure doesn't seem like John McCain's dramatic announcement that he was suspending his campaign really accomplished anything. In fact, one wonders how he could help the process at all, given that he's NEVER READ THE BILL! Or that he hasn't proposed a single banking bill during this entire Congress, while Senator Obama has proposed five.
And, as it turns out, his campaign is far from suspended. Palin still held a rally yesterday, his surrogates were out in full force, and his campaign ads (which he pledged to take down) are still up in most of the country. Plus, McCain has already instructed TV stations that actually took down the ads to start re-airing them as soon as Saturday!
Thankfully, Senator Obama's campaign has called this desperate move what it is: a cheap political stunt.
The only thing McCain has accomplished is throwing the results of tonight's debate into question. He still won't commit to attending, and will continue to examine the situation based on the results of today's Congressional negotiations (which, and I must stress this, he is not a part of). Obama, although he spent the night in DC to be close to the negotiations himself, is already flying down to Mississippi. It looks like he will go on tonight, the question is if he'll be joined by anyone. I personally think that a two-hour exclusive interview/town hall event featuring Barack Obama, an empty chair, and the entire press corps would be a sight to see, don't you?
I'm still confident that McCain will show. Not because he appreciates the value of having our two potential leaders talk about the issues to the American public, but because he is a shrewd, calculating politician, who no doubt has seen the polling data today suggesting that 3/4 of Americans want the debate to go on tonight.
Also, Mike Huckabee thinks McCain is stupid. Then again, Mike Huckabee wants to be the GOP nominee in 4 years. So, there might be some sort of conflict of interest.
--> By the way, I found the McCain Campaign's suggestion of indefinitely postponing the Vice-Presidential debate to be absolutely insulting. How can they expect the American people to accept Sarah Palin as their VP if they've never ever seen her speak or answer questions?
--> Well, maybe they're justified. After all, two nights of an interview with Katie Couric have certainly demonstrated that Sarah Palin would be better off not speaking at all. Here's her talking about how she can see Russia from her house. Here's her "getting back" to Katie Couric about McCain's lifelong battle for more oversight.
And now, as the Washington Post reports, it turns out that she's far from the reformer that she claims to be (I saw "it turns out" as if we didn't know this already - still it's nice to have even more proof). She has accepted $25,000 in gifts as Governor of Alaska, despite having made "a crackdown on gift-giving to state officials a centerpiece of her ethics reform agenda."
--> This of course, all comes after Washington Mutual because the largest bank to fail in this nation's history, as it was seized by the federal government and then bought up in large chunks by JP Morgan.
Sorry, there's no happy/funny anecdote at the end of this story. Serious times call for serious entries, and unfathomable levels of sarcasm and anger.
The debate tonight can, as many events do, change everything. Do watch. It's gonna be a blast.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
New Post Coming, Exciting News
Lots has been going on the last two days, but change is coming - change in the form of my next entry.
In the meantime, I would like to announce to any of my loyal readers that I will now be contributing to a second blog: hcdemocrats.blogspot.com, where I will serve as one of the bloggers for Haverford's College Democrats. It'll probably feature condensed, less sarcastic versions of things I report here, but it may sometimes highlight things I don't get to here.
So, if you just can't get enough of my political trepidations here, feel free to journey inside the Haverbubble and join me there, too.
In the meantime, I would like to announce to any of my loyal readers that I will now be contributing to a second blog: hcdemocrats.blogspot.com, where I will serve as one of the bloggers for Haverford's College Democrats. It'll probably feature condensed, less sarcastic versions of things I report here, but it may sometimes highlight things I don't get to here.
So, if you just can't get enough of my political trepidations here, feel free to journey inside the Haverbubble and join me there, too.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Bartlet Speaks, Palin Doesn't, and McCain Piles Voters Into His 13 Cars And Drives Them to the Polls for Early Voting! 43 Days to Go!
--> Today, voting begins. You seem shocked. I know that many of you are merely waiting until the EDC clock strikes 0, but some of you (especially our loyal readership in Virginia, Kentucky, and Georgia) can start early voting today. Experts expect record amounts of early-voting this year, as much as 1/3 of the electorate, which is great because long-lines in densely popualted urban areas are always thorns in the side of the Democratic GOTV effort.
--> In earth-shattering, election-strategy news today, the Obama Campaign announced that it was pulling out of North Dakota. That's right, Obama's 11 field offices will be shut down, and workers redeployed to Minnesota and Wisconsin. I personally think it is fool-hardy to forfeit the 3 electoral votes of the home-state of the winning contestants of both Cycle 5 and Cycle 7 of America's Next Top Model, but more and more the electoral map is looking like it did in 2004. Obama has expanded the map to a certain degree, and will probably come closer in places like Georgia and North Dakota than any Democrat has in awhile. However, the only remaining Red States that Obama is targetting are Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Iowa, and Indiana. Still not a bad list.
--> Continuing our theme of surprising news items, today John McCain's chief strategist Steve Schmidt attacked the New York Times for being biased. I'm just gonna pass on this. I think from now on, whenever a Republican operative attacks a credible news organization for printing facts (which tend to hurt their side of the debate), I'm just going to post this:
--> In more irrelevant, why-on-earth-is-the-media-focusing-on-this news, it turns out that John McCain owns 13 cars and Barack Obama owns one (a hybrid at that). To make matters worse, two of McCain's cars are foreign-made. To play devil's advocate here, more Americans own foreign-made cars than American-made. So maybe this is a sign that John McCain understands average Americans better than Barack Obama.
(and yes, this is the only picture I could find of 13 cars - sue me)You know, I have an idea. Let's just evaluate these candidates on their positions in determining how much they care about ordinary Americans. Barack Obama wants to cut the taxes of 97% of Americans, ensure that everyone has access to healthcare, and recruit an army of teachers so that every American child can go to a public school and get a quality education. John McCain wants to cut taxes for the wealthy and the huge corporations, deregulate healthcare just like the economy has been deregulated, and has no education plan whatsoever. Hmm, I wonder who actually cares about ordinary Americans...
--> Andrew Sullivan notes that it's been 24 days since Sarah Palin became the potential next Vice-President of the United States, and she still hasn't give any sort of press conference or had plans to hold one. This is unprecedented in modern American politics, and I'd be surprised if it wasn't a matter of time before lots of people start wondering, "What are they hiding?"
Maybe she's getting help from this lady:
--> The focus of this coming week will be preparing for the debates, the first of which is on Friday. In the most cliched anecdotes this article could provide, Obama will prepare by playing basketball, and McCain will prepare by taking a nap (so that's what he was doing during the State of the Union).
However, the article does point out something very interesting. Obama's advisors are training him on how to provoke McCain. This is exactly what I would have suggested as well. Obama needs to go into that debate with a laundry list of vicious lies and smears that McCain's campaign has used against him. In one of these debates (not necessarily the first one), the moderators will almost certainly address the negativity surrounding this election, since the attacks have become an issue in themselves. Obama needs to take that opportunity to hammer McCain on all he's said about him, and then ask, "Have you no shame?" If a direct questioning of Mr. Former-POW's political honor doesn't get McCain (known for a hot temper) to lose his cool, nothing will. If McCain has any sort of minor meltdown in any of the three debates, this election is over, and he'll do everything he can to prevent one. It would also be a completely justified question.
--> And finally, Maureen Dowd and I are clearly on the same wavelength. Two of my last three entries have mentioned my firm conviction that no one would be able to handle our current political situation better than Former President Josiah Bartlet, fictional creation of Aaron Sorkin (scribe and resident-genius of The West Wing). Thus, Maureen Dowd did what I of lowly-blogger stature could not - she dialed Sorkin's number, and asked him WWBD? (What Would Bartlet Do?). Sorkin responded, and the result is a must-read.
--> As a special bonus, your quote of the day:
On asked about her brilliant performance as Sarah Palin on SNL:
"I want to be done playing this lady Nov. 5, so if anybody can help me be done playing this lady Nov. 5, that would be good for me." - Tina Fey
Friday, September 19, 2008
Terrifying Reality!!! 46 Days to Go!
Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT): "We are literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications, here at home and globally."
Congressional leaders met last night with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. They were informed that, in order to avoid an imminent financial catastrophe, as much as $1 trillion would be needed.
The measure would essentially work like this:
We the taxpayers, in order to form a less chaotic union, establish good credit, insure mortgages, provide for the economy, promote welfare of our banks, and secure the blessings of not-losing-your-house to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish a multi-hundred-billion dollar program to allow the federal government to basically buy all the bad mortgages off of every financial institution in the country.
It would be the biggest federal bailout in human history. It also reflects a bizarre occurrence, where one of the most conservative, free-market Presidents in American history is taking a step that smells distinctly of Marx and Engels. As Jonathan Martin cleverly notes, "We're all Socialists now."
It would also completely derail any plans that either Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain have - you know, just in terms of little policy details like spending and taxing. This changes everything - quite possibly hinders the ability for Obama to invest $150 billion in green technologies or to begin working towards universal healthcare. Also makes McCain's trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy even more ill-advised.
For context on how the two candidates must be feeling right now, go watch the West Wing episode "The Cold" (season 7), when President Bartlet sits the two candidates (both oddly reminiscent of Obama and McCain) and explains to them his plan to send 150,000 soldiers into Asia. When the financial reality of this plan hits them, the Republican candidate remarks, "I can say goodbye to my tax cut. Your education plan is certainly off the table."
The very news of this potential bailout sent stock markets around the world skyrocketing - Britain and China apparently saw their biggest gains in history.
I'll be back with a fuller post later this evening or tomorrow morning. I just felt that I should throw my two cents about this situation into the pot.
Congressional leaders met last night with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. They were informed that, in order to avoid an imminent financial catastrophe, as much as $1 trillion would be needed.
The measure would essentially work like this:
We the taxpayers, in order to form a less chaotic union, establish good credit, insure mortgages, provide for the economy, promote welfare of our banks, and secure the blessings of not-losing-your-house to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish a multi-hundred-billion dollar program to allow the federal government to basically buy all the bad mortgages off of every financial institution in the country.
It would be the biggest federal bailout in human history. It also reflects a bizarre occurrence, where one of the most conservative, free-market Presidents in American history is taking a step that smells distinctly of Marx and Engels. As Jonathan Martin cleverly notes, "We're all Socialists now."
It would also completely derail any plans that either Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain have - you know, just in terms of little policy details like spending and taxing. This changes everything - quite possibly hinders the ability for Obama to invest $150 billion in green technologies or to begin working towards universal healthcare. Also makes McCain's trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy even more ill-advised.
For context on how the two candidates must be feeling right now, go watch the West Wing episode "The Cold" (season 7), when President Bartlet sits the two candidates (both oddly reminiscent of Obama and McCain) and explains to them his plan to send 150,000 soldiers into Asia. When the financial reality of this plan hits them, the Republican candidate remarks, "I can say goodbye to my tax cut. Your education plan is certainly off the table."
The very news of this potential bailout sent stock markets around the world skyrocketing - Britain and China apparently saw their biggest gains in history.
I'll be back with a fuller post later this evening or tomorrow morning. I just felt that I should throw my two cents about this situation into the pot.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Federal Government Takes a Page From Lenin, While McCain Takes a Misused Page From Lennon! 48 Days to Go!
--> Today, the bleak economic situation took an even steeper downturn. The Dow Jones is already down more than 300 points (as of 1 PM), AIG shares are selling 44% lower, Morgan Stanley is down 15%, and the Mets are down .5 games (I know, I know - not entirely related to Wall Street).
This all follows from the surprising and dramatic announcement yesterday that the Federal Reserve will be purchasing an 80% controlling stake in AIG to prevent complete, worldwide economic disaster. Even more surprising is the fact that this is a Republican, conservative government. George W. Bush and his pals are known for railing against socialized-anything, and believe very strongly in the free-market system. Thus, for them to nationalize a major private corporation, a step reminiscent of the Russian Revolution in 1918, is very indicative of how serious this situation is. By the way, other cases of U.S. nationalization:
In other words, this is serious. Barack Obama and John McCain agree. They've spent the last two days talking about nothing but the financial crisis.
--> Barack Obama released an impressive, two-minute television ad today, in which he speaks directly to the camera, without gimicks or graphics, to carefully explain what he plans to do in response to this issue. Can we please stop saying he doesn't use specifics?
It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for Senator Obama's campaign, though, even as the latest tracking polls show the momentum beginning to swing back to his corner. The Senator's press release on the AIG bailout mistakenly referred to the company as American Insurance Group, instead of American International Group. Of course, this is a typo, and not a policy-relevant one at that. However, I had to try and find something to ridicule his campaign for, because I don't want to be too heavy-handed with the McCain campaign, otherwise they'll cry, "Sexism!" or "Liberal Media!" or "POW!" ... or something.
--> The Associated Press printed an interesting critique on McCain's campaign strategy, which seeks to portray him simultaneously as an experienced Washington hand and as a Washington outsider who's going to shake up the system. It's really quite impossible to be both, but like we've pointed out before, the McCain campaign isn't too concerned with "facts."
--> And speaking of facts, apparently John McCain and Al Gore do have something in common after all: both of them invented something. But while Gore has the audacity to claim the creation of something as vast as the internet, McCain is content to merely take credit for the Blackberry. That's right, the candidate who can't send e-mail is apparently willing to claim responsibility for the Blackberry, according to his top economic advisor. Douglas Holtz-Eakin waved his device around as he declared, "You're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create." Miracle, eh?
And on the first day, McCain created the POW backstory, so that his character could be tested in a properly patriotic fashion. And McCain said it was good. And on the second day, McCain created the slew of vicious lies and attacks on his opponent, fully knowing that most Americans would never fact-check those ads. And though the pundits did shriek with rage, and the liberals did weep, Steve Schmidt said it was good. On the third day, McCain created the Blackberry. And though he tried to rest for a little while after that, McCain spent the next 4 days trying (and failing) to figure out how to use the Blackberry, finally deciding to merely ask his wife to use Google for him.
Because no hilarious statement by a McCain campaign operative goes unmocked, Ben Smith received a message from Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton signed, "Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld, a miracle made possible by John McCain."
--> Given an opportunity yesterday to mock two of his favorite targets, Barack Obama and Hollywood celebrities, simultaneously, John McCain spouted off against Obama's scheduled $11 million fundraiser hosted by Barbara Streisand. McCain insisted, "Let me tell you, my friends, there's no place I'd rather be than right here with the working men and women of Ohio." Then, seeing how well that line had worked, McCain pulled out his acoustic guitar and sang, "A working class hero is something to be." Because we all know that John McCain loves hippies.
And, like all champions of the working class, McCain then got on his wife's private company jet, and flew to Miami where he hosted a $50,000 per plate fundraiser, and generated $5.1 million for his campaign.
More hypocrisy, lies, deceit, and political intrigue to follow in my next post. Do I know what it'll be about yet? Of course not, but I feel that it's a fair assumption that I'll have some more ammo in that vein within a day or two.
This all follows from the surprising and dramatic announcement yesterday that the Federal Reserve will be purchasing an 80% controlling stake in AIG to prevent complete, worldwide economic disaster. Even more surprising is the fact that this is a Republican, conservative government. George W. Bush and his pals are known for railing against socialized-anything, and believe very strongly in the free-market system. Thus, for them to nationalize a major private corporation, a step reminiscent of the Russian Revolution in 1918, is very indicative of how serious this situation is. By the way, other cases of U.S. nationalization:
- federal control over the nation's railroads during World War I (then returned to private ownership after the war)
- the Tennessee Valley Authority of FDR's New Deal
- Amtrack
- nationalization of the airport security industry in response to 9/11
- and most recently the buyouts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
In other words, this is serious. Barack Obama and John McCain agree. They've spent the last two days talking about nothing but the financial crisis.
--> Barack Obama released an impressive, two-minute television ad today, in which he speaks directly to the camera, without gimicks or graphics, to carefully explain what he plans to do in response to this issue. Can we please stop saying he doesn't use specifics?
It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for Senator Obama's campaign, though, even as the latest tracking polls show the momentum beginning to swing back to his corner. The Senator's press release on the AIG bailout mistakenly referred to the company as American Insurance Group, instead of American International Group. Of course, this is a typo, and not a policy-relevant one at that. However, I had to try and find something to ridicule his campaign for, because I don't want to be too heavy-handed with the McCain campaign, otherwise they'll cry, "Sexism!" or "Liberal Media!" or "POW!" ... or something.
--> The Associated Press printed an interesting critique on McCain's campaign strategy, which seeks to portray him simultaneously as an experienced Washington hand and as a Washington outsider who's going to shake up the system. It's really quite impossible to be both, but like we've pointed out before, the McCain campaign isn't too concerned with "facts."
--> And speaking of facts, apparently John McCain and Al Gore do have something in common after all: both of them invented something. But while Gore has the audacity to claim the creation of something as vast as the internet, McCain is content to merely take credit for the Blackberry. That's right, the candidate who can't send e-mail is apparently willing to claim responsibility for the Blackberry, according to his top economic advisor. Douglas Holtz-Eakin waved his device around as he declared, "You're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create." Miracle, eh?
And on the first day, McCain created the POW backstory, so that his character could be tested in a properly patriotic fashion. And McCain said it was good. And on the second day, McCain created the slew of vicious lies and attacks on his opponent, fully knowing that most Americans would never fact-check those ads. And though the pundits did shriek with rage, and the liberals did weep, Steve Schmidt said it was good. On the third day, McCain created the Blackberry. And though he tried to rest for a little while after that, McCain spent the next 4 days trying (and failing) to figure out how to use the Blackberry, finally deciding to merely ask his wife to use Google for him.
Because no hilarious statement by a McCain campaign operative goes unmocked, Ben Smith received a message from Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton signed, "Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld, a miracle made possible by John McCain."
--> Given an opportunity yesterday to mock two of his favorite targets, Barack Obama and Hollywood celebrities, simultaneously, John McCain spouted off against Obama's scheduled $11 million fundraiser hosted by Barbara Streisand. McCain insisted, "Let me tell you, my friends, there's no place I'd rather be than right here with the working men and women of Ohio." Then, seeing how well that line had worked, McCain pulled out his acoustic guitar and sang, "A working class hero is something to be." Because we all know that John McCain loves hippies.
And, like all champions of the working class, McCain then got on his wife's private company jet, and flew to Miami where he hosted a $50,000 per plate fundraiser, and generated $5.1 million for his campaign.
More hypocrisy, lies, deceit, and political intrigue to follow in my next post. Do I know what it'll be about yet? Of course not, but I feel that it's a fair assumption that I'll have some more ammo in that vein within a day or two.
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