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February 10, 2008

Comments

Patrick R. Sullivan

My turn; from the Seattle Times:

Sen. Barack Obama easily won Washington's Democratic caucuses Saturday, besting rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as overflow crowds embraced Obama's message of hope and rejected the notion that the freshman senator wasn't ready to be president.

....The state Republican Party said Sen. John McCain narrowly beat his GOP rivals, but results showed a surprising lack of consensus about whom party members want to be their nominee.

McCain, whom many are calling the party's presumptive nominee, had 26 percent of precinct delegates, compared with 24 percent for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and 21 percent for Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

And here's Ann Coulter demolishing McCain's claim to be a conservative. Quite effective.

In the question and answer session she also does a pretty good job on Huckabee and Ron Paul too. Rudy and Romney should have hired her to promote their candidacies.

kim

That's pretty amusing, 21% of Washington Republicans going for Ron Paul. It must be all the strict constructionists out there.
========================

Other Tom

Coulter, Limbaugh and Hannity seem unable to comprehend that their gripe is with Republican voters, not with the candidates. What they haven't recognized is that there isn't a conservative Republican now alive who can win a national election; my concern is that such a Republican's parents may already be dead.

If they can't run a candidate they like who can win the nomination, what's the point in blaming the candidate who can?

Powerline has a nice take on Coulter, I think. McCain is for closing Gitmo, ending waterboarding and winning the Iraq war. Hillary is for closing Gitmo, ending waterboarding and getting out of Iraq even if that means losing a war we can win. That's one hell of a difference.

Other Tom

Over at Tradesports you can buy a contract for 39 cents that pays a dollar if she gets the nomination. If I knew how to do it--and were unmarried--I believe I'd buy a few thousand of those.

Other Tom

"She" means the crass fishwife.

MayBee

Coulter, Limbaugh and Hannity seem unable to comprehend that their gripe is with Republican voters, not with the candidates

Yes to that, OT. And yest to your whole comment.

JM Hanes

"If they can't run a candidate they like who can win the nomination, what's the point in blaming the candidate who can?"

I'm sure they love to be able to pick who runs, but like the rest of us, they're ultimately limited to the ones who volunteer. Frankly, I think conservative hostility to John McCain is almost entirely unremarkable. What fascinates me is the reservoir of hostility among moderate Republicans for conservatives that's finally being tapped.

hit and run

Other Tom:
If I knew how to do it--and were unmarried--I believe I'd buy a few thousand of those.


You want I should buy those contracts for you? We can keep it hush-hush, on the QT.

MayBee

Jane-
I would never begrudge someone (teachers) making more money. I don't think they are underpaid, but it would be interesting to see what a school district might do if given the opportunity to hire teachers the way a corporation hires similarly educated employees. I know my company paid all new hires a certain range, and then gave raises as appropriate. My husband's first company, Procter+Gamble, actually made it a *firing offense* to discuss salary with co-workers.

Now, I've never seen Presidential candidates talk about raising the salaries of say, Assistant Magazine Editors. Why the President should advocate teachers, in particular, should make more money baffles me. They are not federal employees, they are employees of a state or local school district. Unions keep inidividual teachers from making more money. It is abusrd.
And yes, add to that their limited hours. It's all beyond ridiculous.

MayBee

Oh sorry. My manifesto should have been on last night's thread.

Jane

I hear you Maybee, and I recognize that it is all just pandering. Every teacher I've ever met has whined about how hard they have it. They don't. My mother was a teacher, and we were very poor, but she's 82 years old now and lives better now than she ever did when working. Now a lot of that is because she was as tightfisted with a buck as humanly possible, because she knew she had no one else to rely on. She pays not one dime for her medical coverage. Her pension is forever. I'd never argue that she had it "too good", but teachers are taken care of without a lot of personal risk in the marketplace. That may be as it should be, but can't they at least stop whining about it?

Cecil Turner

Powerline has a nice take on Coulter, I think.

I thought so, too (practically perfect, in fact, right down to the "guilty pleasure" bit). But I think the best point is the one you made, that her gripe is with primary voters (which is decidedly not on).

I wish there was some way to determine if a more classically conservative candidate might be viable. I personally thought Fred was the clear choice of the GOP crop, but recognize he had some negatives that might be off-putting (and others that were prone to mischaracterization by the media). I'd love to see some sort of virtual process that could replay the primary with some of the personality factors switched around (and perhaps some improved oratorical skills) to see how it shook out. Oh well.

Anon

Ann's candidate was Duncan Hunter-

He got 0% meaning no one even accidently voted for him.

Alan Keyes beat him in Florida.

But ya-there are people on blogs calling Ann an "icon" and influencer[sic] of millions!

[wait they may have something there-she's the "unendorser!"]

hit and run

Other Tom:
That's one hell of a difference.

Especially considering that whichever of the current candidates takes the oath of office will be working with Madame Speaker:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said twice Sunday that Iraq “is a failure,” adding that President Bush’s troop surge has “not produced the desired effect.”

“The purpose of the surge was to create a secure time for the government of Iraq to make the political change to bring reconciliation to Iraq,” Pelosi said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “They have not done that.”
...
Pelosi’s comment came during a discussion of her call for “the redeployment of our troops out of Iraq.”

Anchor Wolf Blitzer asked: “Are you not worried, though, that all the gains that have been achieved over the past year might be lost?”

“There haven't been gains, Wolf,” the speaker replied. “The gains have not produced the desired effect, which is the reconciliation of Iraq. This is a failure. This is a failure.


Jane

I read/heard this morning that if we are headed for a brokered convention, Pelosi and Reid will be called on to broker an outside deal to avoid that possibility. (Apparently we can't even trust the SUPER delegates and need Congress to intervene.

It would be really fun to look at their approval ratings after they anoint Hillary and force Barack to settle for second fiddle.

Cecil Turner

Especially considering that whichever of the current candidates takes the oath of office will be working with Madame Speaker:

Exactly. The idea that a Congressional compromise with McCain would essentially be the same as a compromise with Clinton/Obama is pure fantasy. That's true of any issue, but especially the war. The other obvious factor is that McCain will have to compromise with his own party on the going-in position, which a Dem would not. Which is why I have major heartburn with minimizing differences between the parties on defense.

MayBee

Jane- amen. I too come from a family of educators. One story you may appreciate is my uncle, who was on the board of directors for his small town. At one point, the teachers were unhappy about something they were being asked to do, and kept calling him to complain. My uncle called the school principal and said if the teachers had time to call him and whine, they weren't being given enough work to do.
I would like to see John McCain use that line.

MayBee

Board of Education, of course. Not directors.

SteveMG

Hersh's piece in the New Yorker on that facility/building in Syria that Israel bombed is here: Hersh

It's seven pages of (mostly) nothing.

Syria's silence - the dog that didn't bark - is extremely curious. Why aren't they screaming, as they usually do, about Zionist aggression et cetera?

And Israel's silence is also curious. After the bombing of the Iraqi nuclear facility, they widely promoted their actions including letting the pilots appear on national television for interviews.

glasater

That's pretty amusing, 21% of Washington Republicans going for Ron Paul. It must be all the strict constructionists out there

My neighbor has a Ron Paul yard sign and he is a priest in the Greek Orthodox Church.

The East side of the state is cheek by jowl next to the panhandle of Idaho where all those right wing nut cases reside. ::smile::

Jane

Well Obama is leading the RW in Maine. Early yet, but I thought she was expected to win.

Rick Ballard

Here's CNN's Maine report. BHO is leading 57/42 with 59% of the precincts reporting. RW better hit the afterburners on Broom I if she's gonna catch him. That or their are some humongous precincts still out.

Rick Ballard

CNN has a very nice money map which tracks contribution levels down to who's leading at the the county level. OH is much more interesting than TX for the March 4 contests. BHO has a very narrow lead over RW in OH while RW is flying away with TX.

Jane

Maybee,

I think I over reacted a bit.

Rick Ballard

BHO projected in Maine

laura

Driving home tonight there was an enormous traffic back up to my exit. What do you know BHO is in town. I have never seen such a large response at the Virignia Beach conference center, formerly known as the Pavillion ever. Lots of late well heeled 50's boomers on the street, it might have been a stones concert. Made me think of a good friend who is infatuated with Obama, other than being a retired teacher she lives the most conservative of lives, cautious, yet competitive, loves order and routine, incredibly dedicated to contributing time to her church, her hobby as a masters swimmer, her grandchildren. She was a math teacher and from what I have heard from former students a very tough and good one. She is all about personal responsibility and is married for close to 40 years now to a marine. Yet she is a democrat and suffers from BDS. She is willing to give everthing we have as Americans away for some vague idea of fairness, getting the rich especialy businesses and the monolithic presence of public school. I just don't get it.
BHO is a new sensation.

Jane

So Hill loses an expected win in Maine and her campaign manager has been replaced.


It must be Valentines Day or something.

MayBee

oh sure, Jane. I "amen" you and then you say you overreacted. Anyway, I always enjoy your reactions, whatever they may be.

Other Tom

I think the appropriate terminology for Maine is that Mrs. Clinton has "absorbed another savage drubbing." (With a seven-month football drought ahead, it's important that we keep sports cliches breathing, even if CPR is required.)

Jane

Maybee,

You didn't overreact - you changed the tone, and I came around. Credit due.

Jane

Oh gawd, katie couric is interviewing the RW on 60 Minutes.

I mean really.

vnjagvet

Looks like the usual good sense is prevailing here. I have been dark in Tulsa since Friday am. Had a hearing scheduled for Fri but the judge's clerk made a mistake and the judge was unavailable until Monday. So, rather than go back to Atlanta for the weekend, I went to the Eisenhower Museum in Abilene. What a neat place. It sure makes you appreciate what a special human being Ike was.

Speaking of Ike, the "Old Guard" (conservative) Repubs of the early fifties couldn't stand him. They thought he wasn't conservative enough and that Bob Taft should have been the candidate. Taft was "sound" on the issues donchaknow.

Misapprehension of the American electorate is nothing new to the Rush/Coulter/Hannity gang. Even Reagan was not trusted by some.

kim

Ike was a cracker jack farmhand.
======================


Rick Ballard

The Gramscian residue covering chairs at every MSM outlet in the US has been pimping (there's that word again) six specious downbeat memes for seven years and have succeeded in driving the approval rating for Congress to all time lows.

And, at absolutely no additional cost, have shot down Broom I while elevating an empty suit stuffed with 10 tons of horse manure to Presidential contender status on the basis of changey hopeydopeyness.

Is this country great or what?

PaulL

Poor Patti Solis Doyle. She just wasn't getting enough time away from running the campaign to devote to her family.

Now with Mrs. Bill Clinton giving her the boot, she'll be able to be a mom again.

PaulL

It took the lying MSM a good twenty years to convince people that every change in the weather was due to humans sending carbon into the sky.

You can fool half the people given enough time.

Other Tom

I still remember Everett Dirksen weighing in on behalf of Taft and against the Eisenhower moderates: "We followed you before [with Dewey] and you took us down the path to defeat." One of my earliest memories relating to politics.

Larry

Ike was a cracker jack farmhand.
======================
Posted by: kim | February 10, 2008 at 07:35 PM
I've always wondered if they grew the popcorn with the syrple on it or not.

vnjagvet

That was the part that was fun, OT. There were audio stations throughout the museum with bits like that. For those of us in their 60's, 1952 does not seem so long ago. They had one exhibit that replicated a TV store in Abilene displaying the old black and white sets -- all turned on showing old kinescopes in their flickering glory. Price tag for one midline 18 incher: $351.00, a princely sum in 1952.

Just enjoying the RW's switching campaign directors. That is never a good sign, although McCain seemed to make it work. But it is kind of late for that sort of thing.

kim

A prize for you, Larry.
============

clarice

If I were writing McCain's campaign stuff--I'd admit that McCain Feingold missed the intended mark,and promise to move to replace it with a simpler law banning foreing contributions and requiring all contributions be posted online 24 hours after receipt.

After he wins he can deal with Gitmo and his inetemperate and stupid remarks about tribunals by saying he's now had access to classified information and has spoklen to his legal team who have persuaded him that is not a proper course of action and the priod rules (with some cosmetic tweaking) are all he'll push for.

I'd start naming some plausible business people,including Romney, and foreign affairs folks as his brain trust.I'd say Thompson has kindly agreed to advise him on judicial appointments and remind him of his role in shepherding Alito and Roberts thru the Senate.

Rick Ballard

Clarice,

That looks very good. I believe that an additional statement that: "As Chief Magistrate I will make protection of our borders a top priority." would be a nice capper.

Maybe a reprise of the spending portion of the Contract With America to boot.

clarice

Absolutely--then onward.

Jane

The problem is, if you want to win the general you move to the center, not to the right. I'm not sure McCain can do both.

kim

Clarice, what makes you think McCain can take advice? That, by the way, was a hallmark of Bush, and any great executive.
=================================

Topsecretk9

CBS: Obama Takes Delegate Lead, Even Counting Uncommitted Supers...

Yowza.

Sue

Well, I'm thinking of the silver lining here. The Clintons are no more. Even though I may have lost a $100 bet that seemed such a sure thing in August of last year.

clarice

The things he needs to do to get the right off his case are so simple (see above) that he can do them without really moving more than a nanostep and then he can move on..

Topsecretk9

The Clintons are no more.

I don't agree Sue. I think they will strongarm the supers no matter what.

Porchlight

He has NO chance without independents, so I think he'll continue to court the center. He must be praying for the RW to pull off a victory.

Topsecretk9

And Sue - apparently she might not have to strong-arm them which should make the inter-party melt down all the more juicer.

Hillary Rodham Clinton retains her lead among suddenly critical Democratic Party insiders even as Barack Obama builds up his delegate margin with primary and caucus victories across the country, according to a survey by The Associated Press.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080210/ap_on_el_pr/superdelegates

Ann

I love Tony Snow. One of his comments at CPAC is billboard worthy:

"When Hillary and Obama talk about CHANGE their talking about what will be left in your pocket after they get done."

Sue

I don't agree Sue. I think they will strongarm the supers no matter what.

If they do that then they are no more. She has to win it in order to remain a more. Or something like that.

narciso

One certainly hopes Clarice, but if he has the likes of Lindsay Graham, as Attorney General or even Vice President (shudder); he will have to tack to the center-left.
If McCain finds a more pragmatic running mate, with imput on the national security
and legal staff (like Romney or Thompson);
more proper policies will ensue. We know that the al Sabah financed public relations
campaign has been able to nearly 'canonize'
the Gitmo detainees, like the "Tipton 3" and
stigmatize the US response. The 'Andy Worthington" piece in the Times on Hekmati, and the hit on the Panjhiri dominated Directorate of National Security by Nordland & Yousafsai, is all part of the
same assault; whose groundwork was laid by the likes of Dana Priest, on her smear of
Bagram's detention facility. Any who have challenged this view, like "Cully Stimson, have been strongly reprimanded. Would there
be room for the likes of Mr. Stimson, or Lt.
Col. Couglin in the McCain administration.

This is not an academic question, but a very practical one.Unfortunately, AQ never stops until it acquires the targets it's had it's eye on (WTC 1993,2001) In this case, the Capitol and/or White House; possibly by a member of the Ghamdi or Quahtani clans, like Detainee # 603, that Durbin shed those 'crocodiles tears' for. I say this base on the track record of such persons in Afghanistan,Iraq,Chechnya, Thailand, et al, in evading capture and/or becoming martyrs; as is the tradition among the leading Ilkwan Wahhabi clans, that challenged Ibn Saud back in thelate 20s and 30s. Having begun to reclaim their power with the capitulation after the Grand Siege
of Mecca in '79.

sbw

Ann: Tony Snow: "what will be left in your pocket after they get done.""

Tony Snow is wonderful, but you also need to credit Chris Muir: Day by Day, January 11, 2008

maryrose

We will take care of RW in Ohio. It is an open primary and my family is located in the suburbs of Cleveland and Cincinnatti. She has Tubbs-Jones and Strickland but that's about it. The mayor in Cleveland and Columbus will be going for Obama as will the black population in Cincinnati. He will get the Independents since the repub race is settled.

Ann

Thanks sbw, I appreciate you crediting Chris Muir. This whole CHANGE, Audacity Of Hope, CHANGE, Change We Can Believe In, Ready On Day ONE, HOPE is really getting out of hand. I think Mark Steyn said it pretty well too:

"He wants to waft us upward on a great uniting bipartisan marshmallow of "hope" and "change" so he can implement down-the-line by-the-book highly partisan hopeless unchanged liberal policies."

Elliott

I saw over at Roger L. Simon, that Charlie (Colorado) has a piece at PJM How Karma is Like Pool.

Charlie, I suppose Inspector Clouseau was one of those you had in mind when it comes to misunderstanding:

Dreyfus: And you, Clouseau, a leader?

Clouseau: It is my karma...

Dreyfus: Huh?

Clouseau:...my destiny.

Will any of Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, or Owen Wilson's movies hold up as well as (most) of the Pink Panther films have?

kim

Can't top Ladykillers.
============

kim

"Let's get outa here"
==============

Ann

I am going to miss my cowboy:

Bush orders clampdown on flights to US

anduril

Hear, hear, JMH.

JM Hanes

Ann:

Thought of you, natch, when I saw this. You don't need to watch the video, just scroll down to the pix and you'll see your grass roots campaign taking off: Clearly, we are all about puppy love on the right!

Ruy

Plame is going to Tampa, Cigar city, spy town. She's going to USF around Valentine's Day. Is that TSK9 that is at USF or another guy?

nw

Open Primary. Running mate. Puppy love. Clouseau. Reflecting pools. Tony Snow. Clampdown.

Dick knew nothing. Watch out when she gets close cause there are allot of 'em and your drugged and they just need parts.............

Topsecretk9

Is that TSK9 that is at USF or another guy?

Cryptic? What did I do to you?

Jane

Okay, it's a whole new week, and I think everytime Mike Huckabee shows up on fox we should take a drink. (So far I'm half in the bag and it's 7:00 AM)

sbw

Ooh! Ann, thanks for the Mark Steyn on change. I love the marshmallow of hope. I'll file that one away for later use.

Ann

Thanks, J M Hanes

"Operation Puppy Love" is a great name for the grass roots campaign. Knut, eat your heart out!!! LOL

WOLF, WOLF!!

hit and run

Cecil:
Exactly. The idea that a Congressional compromise with McCain would essentially be the same as a compromise with Clinton/Obama is pure fantasy.


More from that Nancy Pelosi interview:

I believe that stability will come to the region and that stability can only begin when we begin the redeployment of our troops out of Iraq. That’s what the generals tell us, the retired generals.
Certainly, we have to leave a few people there to protect our embassy, for force protection, to fight the terrorists and that.


It takes a willing suspension of disbelief to think retired generals should be consulted and their advice heeded aa opposed to the commanding general in Iraq, the pimped-out (per Keith Olbermann) Petraeus.

Of course, even that pales in comparison to a belief that stability can only begin when we leave.

That's either a willing suspension US national security for domestic political gain or an unwitting suspension of sentience


ERRATA: Who says those are mutually exclusive? The either/or construction leaves out the most likely scenario: BOTH/AND!!!

anduril

Bench Memoes:

The "McCain Saved Alito" Meme [Matthew J. Franck]

In a Christian Science Monitor piece on why conservatives should trust John McCain where judges are concerned, law professor (and non-conservative) Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond repeats uncritically one of our best-known facts that is not a fact: "McCain critics seem to forget that this [Gang of 14] endeavor ensured that the Senate would not filibuster Justice Alito."

I think John McCain will get the votes of all but the most foolishly petulant conservatives in November. But let's be clear. What ensured that Samuel Alito would not be filibustered was . . . Samuel Alito. Senate Democrats have always been confident that they could filibuster lower-court nominees under the radar of most public attention—and the Gang of 14 deal had little lasting impact on the prospects for such filibusters, more's the pity. But those same liberal senators could always be counted on to lose their nerve when a Supreme Court nomination reached the floor, assuming that the nominee was manifestly qualified for the appointment. Samuel Alito was as qualified as any nominee in Supreme Court history, and more qualified than most.

John McCain and his thirteen compadres had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with squelching the possibility of an Alito filibuster. It would be nice to see this "fact" go away.

And an entertaining column by Steve Sailer:

Will McCain Go To The Mat With Obama

snippet1:

The collapse of long-time frontrunner Rudy Giuliani allowed rival invade-the-world invite-the-world candidate Sen. John McCain to squeeze out plurality wins in winner-take-all primaries, while his hapless foes were winning races where delegates were allotted proportionally. The Mainstream Media (MSM) has now anointed McCain as the presumptive Republican nominee.

Yet Republicans clearly aren't happy about McCain's flukish luck. That was shown by his dismal performance on Saturday, February 9th, the first election day after Super Tuesday. Even with only Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul left in the race, Senator McMentum received just 42 percent of the vote in Louisiana, 26 percent in Washington and 24 percent in Kansas.

The odds still favor McCain scraping across the line, due to his early windfall of delegates. But I would guesstimate that, even without a Huckabee miracle comeback, there's about a 5%-15% chance that McCain won't actually be running for President when Election Day finally grinds around—nine long months from now.

Does anybody have a contingency plan? One may be needed, because McCain is 71 years old. He has twice been struck by cancer—in 1993 and in 2000, when he underwent a 9-hour operation.

And McCain doesn't have the most placid, reticent of personalities in an era that has made crucifying white males for "gaffes" into a national spectator sport (James Watson, Don Imus, Trent Lott, etc. etc. etc.)

<

snippet2:

blockquote>New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor interviewed Obama's fellow students at Harvard Law School, where Obama was elected president of the Law Review. In her January 28, 2007 article "In Law School, Obama Found Political Voice," she summarized his career there: "People had a way of hearing what they wanted in Mr. Obama’s words".

This discrimination lawyer has played it close to the vest with his deepest beliefs during his rocket-propelled ascent, not antagonizing anybody into strongly resisting his rise to supreme power. For example, the Illinois GOP was mau-maued into rolling over and bringing in a joke (black) candidate from out of state to run against him for the Senate in 2004—his first and only federal election victory, it is easy to forget. (The Bush White House helped by lobbying against a stronger GOP candidate, Jim Oberweis, because he had dared to campaign against illegal immigration.)

The NYT’s Kantor, though, gives a clue to the inner Obama:

"In dozens of interviews, his friends said they could not remember his specific views from that era, beyond a general emphasis on diversity and social and economic justice".

Let me translate that from Harvard Lawspeak into English:

* "Diversity" means racial quotas, multiculturalism, and immigration.

* "Social and economic justice" means tax and spend.

Now, Obama is a smooth operator. But the two people who have had the greatest influence on his adult life—his wife Michelle and his spiritual advisor, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.—are not.

bio mom

I am becoming increasingly irritated with Mike Huckabee. He CANNOT win the nomination. You cannot fight with the math!! And now he is acting like a jerk with this Washington State complaint. Very selfish and self-indulgent. It can only help the Democrats by creating disunity in the Republican party. It would be different if it were a close race like Obama/Clinton. But this one is over. Show some class Huckabee!! Get out now and work to support the party candidate. Dont' be a classless boor like that other politician from Hope, Arkansas.

clarice

I've jokingly said that the conservatives fight with McCain is a B'rer Rabbit type thing--please please don't nominate or vote for him (heh). But in reading today's WaPo I read the comments of a voter who said just that--the opposition of the right made her think voting for McCain was a good thing.
NRO may be right on the Gang of 14 deal. I think the piece is not altogether accurate though--word from a conservastive friend on the Hill at the time indicated the deal was a good one for conservatives, suggesting the Reps couldn't hold against a filibuster.
In any event internal party polls showed great support for Harriet Meiers at the time the NRO was leading the fight against her.
Not everyone is a political junkie who actually pays attention to issues--and in the real world, it machts nicht what we think.

Syl

bio mom

Huckabee isn't creating disunity that isn't already there. The bright side is that the general population knows that Huckabee is the most, the very most, conservative in the race.

and they see that the most, the very very most, conservative in the race (which the general public defines on the social issues alone) is rejecting McCain.

That can only be a good thing for McCain in the general!

The comments to this entry are closed.

Wilson/Plame