Fourteen To One

This from Memeorandum, according to the political junkie, quasi-insider outlet, The Hill, but notably not from the Associated Press (which gets picked up by everybody, everywhere) who sought out and found the one and only Democratic Congressman in all of the hinterlands of Oklahoma who won't endorse, but will still vote for Barack Obama at the convention and in November:

At least 14 Republican members of Congress have refused to endorse or
publicly support Sen. John McCain for president, and more than a dozen
others declined to answer whether they back the Arizona senator.

Be it the war, or the economy, they won't get behind their nominee for a variety of reasons "including campaign finance reform, earmarks, immigration, healthcare, taxes and energy" as well. Some are bitter about him being one of the other "gang of fourteen" that struck a no-filibuster deal with the Democrats.

We've come a long way from the enforced hegemony policed by the likes of Tom DeLay as the GOP coalition fractures more and more each day while the Democratic Party is moving in the right direction and coalescing towards the future.

But you wouldn't know that if you didn't read blogs or keep track of things via the InterTubez and only relied on AP, the Town Crier of the Versailles Village on the Potomac, because their narrative doesn't fit with the idea that Saint John McCain is here to preserve the Great White Way's same old song and dance. Just keep in mind, it's all theater.

Carter Take Two? No Duh!

Hmm, coming off a divisive and disastrous war that wrecked havoc with the economy with oil prices out of control, and a stand-off with Iran, and a mandate to clean up after the most corrupt administration in our history.

Sounds like exactly the situation Carter inherited. Sounds just like what we're facing now.

If you're too young to appreciate Nixon's wage and price freeze and Ford's "WIN" buttons (kinda like "Mars Bitches!" but channeled towards Whipping Inflation Now), leading up to the oil embargo faced by Carter that pretty much sank what was left of the economy and doomed his reelection chances, then you might be one of the Dead Enders like Our Lady Of Internment Camps who buy into McCain and Fox Noise telling us that Obama = Carter, who supposedly was a monster.

A second Carter term of course would have brought about energy independence had we continued all his programs that Reagan chucked; and the Nobel Lauriate certainly would have made more progress on Arab-Israeli peace, something that has been stuck in the mud since Carter left office.

For the older generation, it might be the soft on Arabs/Muslims/terrorists/Islamofascists dog-whistle the righties are blowing with the Carter comparison. Now that the "Hussein" Obama meme that Barack has some kind of whacky religious problem, be it Islam or African Nationalism (yeah, whatever), the wingnutosphere is spending a lot of energy trying to make out that the Democratic nominee will bring about the fall of Jerico, that his supporters are anti-Semetic to the core based on a completely fabricated false flag operation, and he accosted that "revered Jewish figure" Joe LIEberman.

Utterly ignoring Obama's unambiguous hard line support for Israel and the distinction he makes about dealing with rival heads of state and dealing with terrorists like Hamas and Hezbollah, count on wingnuttistan to go back to the "Obama hates Jews" meme again and again.

Cult of Perspicacity

by shep

David Brooks is just sure that the magic is fading: “…those in the grips of Obama Comedown Syndrome began to wonder if His stuff actually made sense. For example, His Hopeness tells rallies that we are the change we have been waiting for, but if we are the change we have been waiting for then why have we been waiting since we’ve been here all along?”

Quite obviously, we’ve been waiting for a leader who, at least, isn’t a sociopathic mental midget. That would be the same sociopathic mental midget whom Brooks once remarked: “[m]any will doubt this, but Bush is a smart and compelling presence in person, and only the whispering voice of Leo Tolstoy holds one back.”

Sorry David, you’re a partisan hack who can’t recognize the difference between an idiot political scion and a genuinely brilliant and dedicated public servant who is inspiring several generations of multi-ethnic, bi-gender Americans of every economic class to reject your tired and mindless partisan bullshit. “The magic” not only continues, it has just turned you into the toad that many of us always saw you for.

[Cross-posted at E Pluribus Unum]

If It's Saturday, I Must Have Switched To Obama

Color me fickle. But he sure does make a good case. Beating McCain in head to head polls this far out mean nothing, but it's better than losing them.

He’s just the most amazing speaker. I caught the VA Jeff/Jack speech, and it was terrific.

Colin Powell might endorse him, which cuts both ways for me. Talk about incredibly respectable men who were on opposite sides of the prediction business in the fall of 2002.

Hillary all but offered Edwards a job today, saying she’d call on him to serve in her administration. Geez Hillary, if you wanted my vote that badly, you could have just got Bill to call me on the phone and ask personally for my vote. That got my attention -- and I was solidifying my support for her until I heard Obama's dog whistles.

Obama, sounded like he was delivering Edwards’ stump speech at the end, hitting all John’s themes — just with better style than anyone else can.

Obama called himself a “hope monger,” but that he knew the reality that the drug and insurance companies wouldn’t give up easily — and I had this sick thought: We learned from Bush that if they want to, President’s can create their own reality — right? And when talking about the real opposition, he can't wait to debate John McCain on foreign policy -- he really sounded like a fighter.

Of course, it's speech and not debate where Obama excels. That's not unheard of. I was on the forensics team in college. I did speeches. Our folks didn't mix with the debaters too much even though we were know as the speech and debate club. They are entirely different disciplines. Funny thing, in court I was much more comfortable in cross-examination which is more like debate, than giving opening and closing statements -- pure speechifying.

Be careful what you wish for Barack. That old man might clean your clock on foreign relations. Stick to domestic and economic policy where you're strongest.

I’m going to wear out my flip-flops. But for the next few hours, I’m on the ObamaBus

Besides, no one’s name lends itself to more silly compound puns, and right now there's a lot of ... ObaMentum ... in the air.

Louisiana √
Washington √
Nebraska √

By the way. I know that since McCain was anointed at CPAC Republican turnout would drop, and it's been lower than Democratic turnout in every primary, red state of blue. But holy cow.

The numbers I'm seeing for the GOP are stunningly pathetic. In Louisiana, Hillary has over twice as many votes as either Huckabee or McCain, and yet with as many votes as both Republicans combined, she lost to Obama who has three times the support of either the Republicans. In Washington, Hillary beats McCain 3 to 1 and Obama is seven times higher than the GOP leader at this point in the count. Heck, Hillary beats Huck and John together by a factor of two. Obama, 5 to 1.

Can you say ... DemoMentum?

The Importance of Independents and Independence

by shep

It’s a draw. Barak Obama, the African American candidate who has overcome his lack of name recognition, young age, establishment connections and pedigree within the Democratic Party to run dead even with Hillary Clinton, the female candidate and Democratic pillar, for the Democratic presidential nomination. Most likely, one of them will make history as the next President of the United States. What a great day and what a nourishing moral victory for America, in contrast to the unqualified wretchedness and shame of the last eight years of Republican rule.

So powerful is the Obama rise that even queens of conservative evil, so to speak, and (at least) theoretical supporters of sister Hillary Clinton feel compelled to offer reasons why the Barak Obama phenomenon may be good for America. I humbly offer two more:

One, as just evidenced above and proved by every primary election so far, Barak Obama has substantial appeal among Independent voters. In our inexplicably close partisan political competition, these inexplicable voters often inexplicably hold the key to electoral success. With them Al Gore and/or John Kerry would have been our most recent presidents, probably avoiding untold government corruption, malfeasance and treason, starting with the Iraq war (if not the otherwise successful 9/11 attack on America). Barak Obama can carry many of these tragically important voters that Hillary Clinton probably never will. And John McCain enjoys strong support with this group even before so-called conservatives betray their “principles” (again) to vote for him.

Second, once all has been decided, a President Obama would be free to govern this nation without particular fealty to interests that have plagued this country for decades, interests in which Hillary Clinton is heavily invested and obliged. From campaign funding to corporatist vs populist policy to crass and dangerous "national security" political alliances, a President Obama would have fewer obligations to the ruling class oligarchy that has inflicted such tremendous damage to our nation and the world. That may frighten the invested, the ignorant, and the prejudiced but it is, without doubt, our only chance to surmount the challenges that confront us.

And, to echo and reinforce the oft remarked ability of Barak Obama “to sweet talk people into saying yes to his ideas,” this will be an essential quality to move the people the pursue their own political and economic self interest rather than follow the conventional corporatist wisdom as framed by both political centrist gasbags and rightwing talk radio nutjobs.

It may turn out to be a wise gamble to roll the dice for Independents and independence and for President Barak Obama.

[Cross-posted at E Pluribus Unum]

Memo to the Clintons: Democrats Aren’t Republicans (or Independents)

by shep

The most salient feature of the Republican Movement is that it is authoritarian based. By that I mean that it is made up mostly of people who are animated by the compulsion to follow their leaders and defeat their enemies. Explicit proof of this fact, beside the well-established social science, can be found in the presidency of George W. Bush.

In six short years, we have watched Republicans abandon every so-called principle that supposedly motivated their political behavior prior to that time. While they practically pissed themselves at the sight of Janet Reno (of all people) and jack-booted UN thugs in black helicopters (of all things) they have enthusiastically defended the Bush/Cheney expansion of the police state, including secret government kidnapping, torture and indefinite detention of American citizens, secret electronic spying on Americans, and the near destruction of Habeas Corpus and other Bill of Rights protections.

In a single presidential term, they moved from shamelessly persecuting and impeaching a popular president for prevaricating about consensual oral sex in a (politically-driven) civil suit, all ostensibly in fervent support of the rule of law, to re-electing a president who’s vice president orchestrated a conspiracy to expose an entire clandestine operation working against weapons of mass destruction proliferation in the Middle East. This after deceiving the public into a disastrous war of aggression, occupation and nation-building, ostensible to thwart weapons of mass destruction proliferation in the Middle East. Speaking of which, this is the same Republican Party and George W. Bush that savaged the Clinton Administration for…wait for it…unnecessary aggression and nation building in Bosnia and Kosovo.

From “small government” and fiscal discipline fanatics, to supporting the most inefficient, spend-drunk, corrupt, government-expanding government in US history, under complete Republican rule. From denouncing “activist judges” to cheering a narrow conservative majority of the Supreme Court as it regularly ignored and corrupted the clear language of the US Constitution (starting, literally, before George Bush was even inaugurated). The “party of the military” that slandered a decorated war hero just to maintain their grip on power, the list goes on and on.

Which brings us to the salient difference with Democrats: Democrats, particularly liberal Democrats, value principles such a truth and justice more than they value winning. They are also crappy followers.

Which is a natural short-term disadvantage against an unprincipled adversary (the very crux of the human struggle: civilization against the more savage) so dishonest, divisive Atwater/Rovian politics may actually have some utility in the general campaign against the Republican candidate, if more cynically-minded Democrats (still talking to you Billary) choose to use them against Republicans. Independents, the folks who’s political choice is to choose neither of the only two governing parties, seem particularly susceptible to those backward, transparent appeals to blind dislike and even hatred (Passive-Aggressive, anyone?). But they have no use and no place in a Democratic primary and will continue to drag your candidacy and most certainly your legacy into the mud.

So keep it above board until the general. It will give you both your best shot at winning the nomination of your party. And if you don’t, you can always turn the Big Dog loose on the Republicans on behalf of candidate Obama. Some liberals might even secretly cheer you on, against their better nature, for the good of mankind. It’s a sad day for civilization.

[Cross-posted at E Pluribus Unum]