Monday, August 11, 2008

Monday News Round up

-The aspect of the John Edwards affair story that really upset me is that there was no reason for this to happen. If he'd just done an upfront admission, knowing that the press would find it (and they would) that would at least give him a fighting chance. The reason so many in the netroots got behind him was that he filled a more progressive void in the primary process. But he knew that this would get out, and while it shouldn't be an issue whatsoever, that frankly doesn't matter with our media, and could have severely damaged our chances in the fall. Chris Bowers offers his take:
Several people seem upset with Edwards because his decision to run for President despite the affair could have put the Democratic Party in a terrible position if he was the nominee. My feeling on that is that Edwards decision to have an affair between two runs for President is demonstrative of a lack of political ability that pretty much guarantees he would never have won the nomination. It wasn't a smart move, and poor political judgment like that can carry over into other areas of political decisions, too. He just wasn't a good enough politician to win the nomination, and so I don't think that is really a concern.
Honestly I just feel crappy about this all around. To be perfectly honest I'm still happy that he managed to get his issues out and push Clinton and Obama further left as long as he did. Oh well, there's a void now for someone who wants to be the face of many of his causes, you know... with less fuck ups. Sherrod Brown 2016!

-As 6.54 discusses below, Georgia and Russia are at war. From what I've read, it's an extremely complex situation, with Georgia's leaders fanning nationalist flames in order to keep their corrupt regime in power, while Russia invaded to reassert it's power. Jerome a Paris has the best piece on this that I've seen so far:
Here are a few facts worth noting about Georgia and the current behavior of its president, Russia, and decision makers in Washington:

First, let's be clear: there are two reasons only we care about Georgia: the oil pipelines that go through its territory, and the opportunity it provides to run aggressive policies towards Russia.

Second, let's also be very explicit: this conflict is not unexpected: it is a direct consequence of our policies, in particular with respect to Kosovo (and to all those that will claim that "no one could have predicted" this, let me point out to this comment, or this earlier one, or this article). I would even go so far as to say that it was egged on by some in Washington: the neocons.

Third, our claims to have the moral high ground are totally ridiculous and need to be fought, hard. This is not about democracy vs dictature, brave freedom lovers vs evil oppressors, but a nasty brawl by power-hungry figures on both sides, with large slices of corruption. The fact that this is turned into a cold-war-like conflict between good and evil is a domestic political play by some in Washington to reinforce their power and push certain policies that have little to do with Russia or Georgia. That needs to be understood.
For John McCain's thoughts on the conflict, check Wikipedia. You can't make this shit up.

-Clod Convention! When these people show up for their march can we round them up and and have the crazy bus take them home? Were not talking about ideology here. Anyone who thinks that Hillary Clinton unfairly lost needs to have their head examined.

-HAHAHAHAHAHA

News round up of reasons I'm worried about losing the election

-Michael Moore has a great piece in Rolling Stone called "How The Democrats Can Blow It ...In Six Easy Steps". Wanna guess how many we're pulling off this cycle?

-Bob Kerrey is the anti-surrogate. If you can pull Wes Clarke out from under the bus that would be nice. This is speculation, and I'm not getting my hopes up, but man would that be sweet.

-Faaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnntastic. I know they're worried about losing the election, but this type of behavior is disgraceful and contrary to everything Barack's candidacy is supposed to represent.

-Stoller sums my feelings up pretty well:
The commercials are boring and stale, the messaging towards McCain's attacks just isn't sharp, labor blew a bunch of money in the primary, and they've defunded the additional groups that could really go after McCain for his own corruption. The Republicans might actually be able to outspend Obama, with outside groups and the RNC added in to the total. Moreover, and this I did not expect, mainstream journalists are getting angry with the Obama campaign, because they are getting complaints from the leadership of the campaign even as they aggressively fact-checked McCain's latest salvo of ads. Now I want the traditional media destroyed, but they actually have done a good job proving McCain's ads false this past week (which is what Obama's people wanted). Of course, having the media participate in a liberal-wide hissy-fit was exactly what the McCain campaign sought, so I don't know exactly what the game plan is here.
...
When John Kerry goes on a Sunday show and says that he's 'in awe' of John McCain's service, but feels free to undermine Wes Clark's, and the Obama campaign thinks of Kerry as their top surrogate, it's shameful. When John McCain's economic advisor calls America a nation of whiners, and we don't hear anything more about that in ads or anywhere else, it's shameful. When the Iraqi PM endorses Obama's call for withdrawal, and McCain still leads on the issue of Iraq by double-digits, it's shameful.
I'm having trouble quantifying how worried I am about our lack of messaging on McCain, and how well they've been battering Obama around. This DHL story should have been the defining moment of McCain's horrific economic record, but without Obama going to Ohio and speaking at the plant, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference. As for being too nervous and the almost daily diaries on Dailykos saying we should sit back and give Obama's campaign the benefit of the doubt, Michael Moore's article said it best:
For years now, nearly every poll has shown that the American people are right in sync with the platform of the Democratic Party. They are pro-environment, pro-women's rights and pro-choice. They don't like war. They want the minimum wage raised, and they want a single-payer universal health-care system. The American public agrees with the Republican Party on only one major issue: They support the death penalty.

So you would think the Democrats would be cleaning up, election after election. Obviously not. The Democrats appear to be professional losers. They are so pathetic in their ability to win elections, they even lose when they win! So when you hear Democrats and liberals and supporters of Barack Obama say they are worried that John McCain has a good chance of winning, they ain't a-kidding. Who would know better than the very people who have handed the Republicans one election after another on a silver platter? Yes, be afraid, be very afraid.

How long till this shit is over?

1 comment:

  1. too funny about the Galaxy. when were we talking about how long Lalas possibly could have had left? four days ago? five maybe? brilliant!

    ReplyDelete