Here’s a new blog devoted (at least for now) to covering the DNC next week and events leading up to it.
[Via former Traverse Citian and current Denverite Thomas James]
Category Archives: Political Commentary
Prius Liberal
A lot has been made (appropriately) of the hypocrisy of the warm mongers, and particularly Saint Al himself, and John Edwards. But John McCain is pretty much just as bad on that score:
Like any limousine liberal, McCain prefers the symbolic gesture to walking the walk. In our News interview, he was asked what kind of car he drove. As with Politico’s question about home ownership, he didn’t know and had to ask a nearby aide. “A Cadillac CTS,” she told him. But then the senator was quick to point out that he had bought his daughter a Prius — the prefect halo symbol for his green pretensions.
Though it should be noted that he almost certainly actually did know how many houses he had, if not what kind of car.
PITA
Alan’s a great science and tech reporter, but I wish that he’d asked George Nield about this:
We have poured a pad for tethered hover testing at our new location, but there was a recent FAA re-interpretation of the law that absurdly states that testing under a tether, as we have been doing for over eight years, is now considered a suborbital launch, and requires a permit or waiver just as a free flight would. This is retarded and counterproductive in so many ways, and the entire industry is lashing back over it, but it is an issue we have to deal with in the next couple months.
Maybe I will.
The One Returns To Denver
If Tim Kaine is the Veep pick, this will be a particularly devastating ad.
Not that that’s a bad thing…
An Interesting Contrast
I won’t claim to know Juliette Ochieng, but I had a wonderful dinner with her (and several others, but I sat next to) a couple years ago in LA’s Chinatown, and I’ve read many of her blog posts and opinion pieces. I’m neither religious, or conservative, and I’m sure that there are many issues on which we’d disagree, but if I had a choice between her and Barack Obama for president, I’d vote for her in a Chicago minute. And not just because I had dinner with her.
The black-on-black bigotry displayed in the link against a true African-American woman who criticizes the messiah is disappointing, but by no means surprising.
Strategery
OK, this new (527, not McCain campaign) ad is going to leave a mark. There are still many voters who have never heard of Bil Ayers, and the coverup going on at UIC is just going to make it look worse.
Of course, the Obama camp also started another spork fight with the McCain campaign, and is getting hammered again.
Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses? Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people “cling” to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who’s in touch with regular Americans?
The reality is that Barack Obama’s plans to raise taxes and opposition to producing more energy here at home as gas prices skyrocket show he’s completely out of touch with the concerns of average Americans.
The problem with their strategy, as is often the case, is that they project their own class envy on the voters (just as they project many of their other personal issues).
But by and large, Americans don’t envy the rich–they want to be rich. Let’s leave aside the amusing fact that by the new Democrat standard that white guys who marry rich women and end up with several houses are to be demonized as out of touch, that John Kerry shouldn’t have had a prayer of getting their nomination.
So-called progressives are envious of the wealthy in the classical sense–they not only want what others have, but they want the others not to have it. In fact, the latter is more important to them than the former, so they promote policies that equally distribute poverty, in effect if not intent.
But the American people don’t want to take John McCain’s houses from him. They just want more house of their own. It’s very hard for me to believe that the number of domiciles that John McCain has, or whether or not he knows how many, is going to be an issue on which the election will turn. And as already noted by the McCain campaign, Barack Obama isn’t the best messenger in that regard. Nor were John Edwards or John Kerry. I think they’d certainly prefer a guy who came by his houses honestly–by marrying them–to one who acquired his with the help of a convicted felon for favors still unknown.
But what I don’t really understand is the McCain strategy at this point. Less than a week before the convention, Senator Obama’s polls aren’t looking very good, but there’s real dynamite in some of the internals of them, in which one poll showed Hillary! ahead of McCain by several points. So who do they want to run against?
If they weaken him too much this week, the Donkeys may come to their senses and come up with another nominee next week. On the other hand, in doing so, they’d shred the party. Of course, the optimal situation is for Obama to come out the nominee, but one badly bloodied by a huge obstreperous floor fight, so maybe they’re betting that the Dems won’t be able to jettison their flawed messiah without even more damage to the party. So it’s in the Republican’s interest for them to finally nominate Obama, but in the weakest possible state, and the worse things look for him going into the convention, the more likely that there will be a movement to oust him. But they should hope that it’s not successful.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Here’s more on Senator Obama and Tony Rezko.
The Russians Play Chess
…and the Americans play monopoly. A disturbing and depressing essay from Spengler.
Is there an enlightened solution for Russia’s problems?
“…Only Enemies Or Vassals”
Michael Totten reports from Tbilisi.
On Monday, I visited one of the schools transformed into refugee housing in the center of Tbilisi and spoke to four women–Lia, Nana, Diana, and Maya–who had fled with their children from a cluster of small villages just outside the city of Gori. “We left the cattle,” Lia said. “We left the house. We left everything and came on foot because to stay there was impossible.” Diana’s account: “They are burning the houses. From most of the houses they are taking everything. They are stealing everything, even such things as toothbrushes and toilets. They are taking the toilets. Imagine. They are taking broken refrigerators.” And Nana: “We are so heartbroken. I don’t know what to say or even think. Our whole lives we were working to save something, and one day we lost everything. Now I have to start everything from the very beginning.”
Maybe they exist, but I haven’t seen any eyewitness accounts of the supposed atrocities by the Georgians that Russia claims started this.
And be sure to hit his tip jar. It’s how he affords to do this reporting.
Who I Wish McCain Would Pick
If he did, I’d actually vote for him, as opposed to against Obama.
Fred Thompson. He’d mop up the floor with almost anyone in a debate (particularly Obama’s rumored finalists) and he’d only have to campaign for two months. And in the unfortunate circumstance that something happened to McCain, we’d have him for a president.
Not The Chicago Way
Apparently the Obama campaign forgot their new philosophy today. They brought a plastic spork to the fight, and the McCain campaign leveled a howitzer at them.