Some quick links as a little pre-convention warm-up.
1.) A Balloon Juice regular the other day:
but mccain didn’t have any kitchen tables when he was a POW!
John McCain last night on Leno:
“I didn’t have a house. I didn’t have a kitchen table. I didn’t have a table.”
Kinda funny watching McCain turn his service into a running joke.
2.) The most depressing thing you will read all week:
So, to the extent that I am paying attention to the convention, my understanding is that some are worried that the Democrats haven’t really come out swinging against their opponents or offering big, bold themes…
4) If they did come out swinging, the media would no doubt make them look bad for it. All of the Serious Talking Heads would say “Well, I was disappointed with the negativity here. Compare that with the dignity of John McCain, who plays down the fact that he was a POW for five and a half years.” Yes, yes, there is indeed such a thing as too much negativity, but any amount of negativity would get the wrong play from the press. So, at the risk of sounding like an apologist for the Dems, I have to admit that their ability to put on a coherent and aggressive media event is compromised by the fact that everything passes through the filter of the same media that treats torture as a debatable subject. (Did you know that John McCain was tortured when he spent five and a half years as a POW? It’s true! He doesn’t play it up much, but it actually happened.)
3.) This quote from a piece on the Pumas had me giggling:
A few minutes later, a parade of about a dozen women wearing buttons with pumas (the actual felines) marched past holding “Elected, not selected” signs on their way to find Chris Matthews. A woman sitting next to me on a park bench leapt up at their approach. “Oh, it’s the Hillary dumbasses,” she said. “I’d best get out of here before I get to fighting.”
But the dumbasses were already primed for a fight.
That about sums it up.
4.) John McCain is so old that on Wednesday, when former Bill Clinton speaks, it is important to realize that Clinton spent 8 years as President, 8 years as a former President, and is STILL ten years younger than McCain.
5.) We have taken steps to fix our server problems. If they do not end, I guess a new host is in line.
Dreggas
Hopefully those batshit crazy people find Tweety, he seemed to enjoy pWning that group last night.
Zifnab
Don’t worry, John. I know a guy who can help.
Cris
I’m looking forward to the speech from my state’s Very Popular Governor. In an interview on last night’s news, he played it off as though nobody, not even himself, knew for sure what he would say tonight, but I’m sure the Obama HQ leaves nothing to chance.
cleek
i was shouting back at NPR on my way home today. they thought the fact that there are people out there who still support Hillary was something worth covering. no, they didn’t think it was important to cover the reality of Obama v. McCain; they thought it was worth wasting time on a few pathetic dead-enders. as if this is the first time in history people have been bummed out that their candidate didn’t win. as if these people matter. as if there’s a point besides trying to show that The Dems Are Doooooommmmmed!
must be a good time to be an unemployed lunatic McCain shill. you can be on TV and radio all you want – not much competition, but heavy demand.
Ninerdave
You forgot the link to UO in #2.
Frank Jacobs
The more coverage I see of the PUMA set in Denver, the less impressed I am with the threat they present to anyone. They have done a great job of making themselves look silly and irrelevant. So much so, in fact, that I begin to suspect that their whole agenda from the get-go was to make Hillary look more ineffective, weak and divisive to the rest of the party. This really smacks of fifth column action. I am longer entirely convinced that Hillary supporters for McCain even exist, at least in any numbers that can be counted as anything more than occasional statistical outliers.
Dreggas
Well in the world of delusional schizophrenics, each counts for at least 2, possibly more, depending on the number of voices they hear.
cyntax
Yikes. Were any hapless IT types harmed in the “fixing?”
Dennis - SGMM
Bill Clinton is solidly behind Obama, oh yeah! Speaking in Denver today:
The son of a bitch really does seem to believe that if he sabotages Obama, Hillary will get a grateful welcome in 2012. A little more of the Clinton Magic and she’ll be lucky to be re-elected to the Senate.
jaime
What keeps the PUMA myth going are sore loser Clintonite assholes like Carville and Rendell shooting off at the mouth because Obama didn’t give Hillary’s people the big piece of chicken.
Rome Again
I understand a cocktail party was held in Denver last night for the PUMA supporters and hardly any showed up. Apparently 2/3rds of the attendees were Republicans.
nightjar
I guess MylowIQ was all dressed up and plenty to blow.
Algerine
But McCain was a POW for five of those years.
OriGuy
From the Salon article on the PUMAs:
There will only be two candidates. One will get more than half. There won’t be a second round. Math is hard.
Mary
McCain’s nptable POW refrain for every circumstance is really the best way for McCain’s handlers to keep him on message, isn’t it? If his instructions are to answer every question with “I was a POW,” he never has to actually answer a question. He also avoids more gaffes. Works for him, I guess, but how long are we going to let him get away with this?
milo
Does anybody have a clue as to what percentage of PUMAs are ratfuckers?
My guess is more than 50%.
Jon H
I think the clowns who mobbed Terri Schiavo’s hospice were more numerous and effective than the Pumas.
Foxhunter
Nice to see HRC immediately begin to implore everyone to get on board. Of course, in Sgt. Flowbee land, there will be some secret decoder ring readings that will interpret this as a nod for John McCain.
YellowJournalism
The PUMAs and the Republican pundits are already jumping on the fact that they felt Hillary didn’t address Obama’s exprience. A blog that I enjoy going to even described the speech as a “lukewarm endorsement”. I don’t know how anyone could describe that speech as lukewarm in its support for Obama.
Does Hillary have to hump Obama’s leg on Thursday night to get the message through to these idiots?
jake
“Waaah! Obama won’t let us give Hillary’s campaign a sandwich and a glass of water!”
Did anyone catch the PUMAs on The Daily Show last night? I had to go to bed.
Notorious P.A.T.
He WAS?!?!?