Rep. Lantos has died.
RIP.
Archives for 2008
Is Bill Trying to Sink Hillary?
Crazy? Maybe. But bear with me, here. Clinton had to have known that marginalizing Obama wouldn’t work. He knows Obama is a talented politician, that he isn’t a demagogue like Jackson, and that he has already demonstrated that he can attract white voters in large swaths–Obama certainly didn’t win Iowa by dominating the black vote, did he?
So why would Clinton do it? Well, maybe he doesn’t want his wife to be president.
They don’t come much more alpha male than Bill Clinton. The guy’s a walking erection. I can’t imagine anything more emasculating to an alpha-alpha like Bill than to watch his wife arc over him–for her to become more powerful than he. Actually, it’s quite a bit worse than that. Hillary Clinton was on the verge of not only becoming more powerful than Bill, she was ready to become the most powerful person on the planet. Not only that, she was about to do so by assuming the very office Bill once held, but (probably) won’t ever hold again. Bill, on the other hand, would be relegated to first lady. I can’t see how that wouldn’t mess with the psychology of a guy like Clinton.
An interesting theory. It’s not like Bill to screw up so badly, so it seems at least a little plausible.
Groundhog Day
Operation “Dump This Clusterfuck on the Democrats” continues in earnest:
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in Baghdad on Monday he was in favour of a short pause in troop drawdowns from Iraq after about 30,000 soldiers have been sent home by July.
Gates said the security situation in Baghdad remained “fragile,” a comment echoed on the streets of the capital which was rocked by two car bombings that left 11 people dead just as he was winding up his surprise trip to Iraq.
“I think that the notion of a brief period of consolidation and evaluation probably does make sense,” he told reporters after a two-hour meeting with the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus.
“I must say, in my own thinking, I am headed in that direction as well but one of the keys is how long is that period and what happens after that. It still has to be determined and decided by the president.”
The 157,000-strong US force in the insurgency-wracked country is currently on track to come down from 19 brigades to 15 by July, a reduction of at least 20,000 troops plus another 7,000 to 10,000 members of support units, according to military commanders in Iraq.
Gates has previously expressed the hope that the drawdown can continue to about 10 brigades or about 100,000 troops by year’s end.
For the skinny on the lack of planning that got us into this mess (a lack of planning discussed by war critics that fatheaded kool-aid drinkers like me derided), see here.
Ignorance is Bliss
Rick, you must have seen the “I rather be waterboarded than vote for McCain” button I saw at CPAC. Disgraceful on multiple levels.
K-Lo, Thursday, after Romney stated that he was getting out of the race so the democrats couldn’t surrender to Osama:
In both the case of Fred Thompson, and now Mitt Romney, the best speech of each candidate’s respective campaign was his last.
Five years of listening to these fatheaded failures toady the administration line, smearing everyone as defeatists or traitors, and they are still up to the same old bullshit. On top of all the failed policies of this administration, there was this kind of rhetoric pushing me away. I honestly have never been more motivated to vote than I was in the 20+ years as a Republican, and I would be lying if I was just excited to vote for Obama. I am just as excited to vote against the K-Lo’s and the Levin’s and the rest of that repugnant and repellent crowd.
Doubling Down
Frank Rich’s must read on the Clinton machine:
But I’m glad I watched every minute, right up until Mrs. Clinton was abruptly cut off in midsentence so Hallmark could resume its previously scheduled programming (a movie promising “A Season for Miracles,” aptly enough). However boring, this show was a dramatic encapsulation of how a once-invincible candidate ended up in a dead heat, crippled by poll-tested corporate packaging that markets her as a synthetic product leeched of most human qualities. What’s more, it offered a naked preview of how nastily the Clintons will fight, whatever the collateral damage to the Democratic Party, in the endgame to come.
For a campaign that began with tightly monitored Web “chats” and then planted questions at its earlier town-hall meetings, a Bush-style pseudo-event like the Hallmark special is nothing new, of course. What’s remarkable is that instead of learning from these mistakes, Mrs. Clinton’s handlers keep doubling down.
Less than two weeks ago she was airlifted into her own, less effective version of “Mission Accomplished.” Instead of declaring faux victory in Iraq, she starred in a made-for-television rally declaring faux victory in a Florida primary that was held in defiance of party rules, involved no campaigning and awarded no delegates. As Andrea Mitchell of NBC News said, it was “the Potemkin village of victory celebrations.”
It hurts because it is true.
Sunday Open Thread
The dig at Christopher Cross on CBS Sunday Morning was pretty damned funny. And deserved.
That Wasn’t Supposed To Happen
John McCain, the anointed Republican frontrunner whom the brave souls at CPAC endorsed through gritted teeth, might lose all three contests tonight to Mike Huckabee.
[A]s of right now, of three Republican contests held today, it looks likely that Mike Huckabee will win all three.We already know about Kansas, which was a blowout for Huckabee. With 62% of precincts reporting Huckabee is up by 8 point over McCain in Louisiana. And Huckabee is ahead of McCain by 3 points in Washington state with 37% of the caucuses there reporting.
Huge swathes of the Republican party loathe the guy, but since governor cellophane dropped out of the race primary voters don’t have anybody else to turn to. Except Mike Huckabee.
Huckenfreude obviously won’t win, even if he does make the next few months a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
***Update***
It’s still a close call, but it looks like the rampaging McCain juggernaut just barely scraped together a win in Washington state.