Buyers Remorse Redux

An amazing 51% think McCain is a moderate. http://news.yahoo.com/s/rasmussen/20080225/pl_rasmussen/ideologyfeb20080225;_ylt=AhHG8N9mrp9PFuo_Bm0.0jKs0NUE Although he has his differences -- largely on personality and a few issues -- with some of the conservative leaders, his positions and beliefs are very very conservative. I worry that just as folks were surprised at how conservative Bush was when he got elected (thinking he was just a rerun of his dad), we will have a lot Independents and even Democrats voting for him and then being very surprised with what they end up with.

With Friends Like These

As a rational human being, I am always amazed at how stupid the extremes can be in their determination to lose. According to an article in Politico, groups on the left want to recreate 1968 at the Democratic Convention with anti-war protests and civil disobedience. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8710.html

Perhaps their plan is to insure the future of the anti-war movement by electing McCain -- then the movement could last 100 years. Or perhaps it is sixties envy gone wrong by people who missed the decade.

Another article in this issue of Politico made the point that Nader did not lose the election for Gore -- the people who voted for him did. So that there are groups silly enough to call for recreating the 1968 protests is one thing, if they actually get people to show for it would be another.

McCain's Running Mate

The New York Times had an article saying that McCain might try to balance his ticket by trying to pick a younger running mate. Of course he will -- how could he pick an older running mate? Strom Thurmond is dead and Senator Byrd is a Democrat.

How did she miss out on being a talking head?

Another mystery of the Vicki Iseman story -- given how she looks, why has she never been featured as a Republican talking head on any of the cable shows? Or is that her future now that she has been noticed?

She was his mistress

How else can you explain the Vicki's meteoric rise -- she comes to DC with a degree in primary education from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She gets a job as receptionist at lobbying firm and with no Hill or other experience is a Partner at the firm (probably pulling down a half a million a year plus) before she is 30. That doesn't happen. Check out the profile of her in her alumni magazine -- she's probably their most accomplished or at least today most famous grad. http://old.www.iup.edu/publications/iupmag/backissues/Fall02/iseman.shtm

Of course the fact that she is the spitting imagine of a younger Cindy McCain is more damming evidence -- guys have types and clearly McCain has his.

Obama Luck

Is history repeating itself? In 2004 Obama was able to waltz into the Senate because after he secured the nomination, his Republican opponent had a sex scandal and had to drop out. If that pattern holds then like in 2004, the Republicans will replace their presumptive nominee with Alan Keyes.

Cheeseheads at the Convention

Seeing a clip of Hilary saying she loved Cheeseheads in a speach in WI, in which you could see some Wisconsinites wearing cheesehats reminded me of Democratic Convention in 1988. Wisconsin had been a key state in Dukakis's nomination battle and was going to be a key battleground in the general election so they gave the WI delegation a prime location. It was right down in front of the poduim. They were in literally every shot of a speaker and they wore those damn cheesehead hats.

Dukakis lost, and not one blames the cheesehats, but in 1992 the WI delegation was in the nose bleed seats next to American Samoa.

Intelligent Design

Edith, my seven year old asked me why God created mosquitoes. (We really need to take her religious education in hand; I think right now most of it is coming through her West African nanny.)

Since I don't know why God created mosquitoes, but do have the answer to how mosquitoes evolved to fill an ecological niche -- which is much simpler to explain -- I went with that. I threw in Darwin's visit to the Galapagos Island's and his finches.

I guess the best answer to the intelligent design folks that I have heard lately is that the design is hardly intelligent. If it were, then we wouldn't have bad lower backs, too many wisdom teeth for the space in our jaws and appendixes. Not to mention the Platypus (unless it shows that God has a sense of humor).

What we really need is a foundation that would pay for putting a copy of the Origin of Species into every hotel room along with the Bible (and in the case of Marriott, the Book of Mormon).

Someone at CNN is losing their job

The deli I was eating in had CNN. The announcer said "Turning to Politics, Obama has a huge lead ..." and proceeded to do a few minutes of political coverage. When that wrapped up he said, "Turning to Politics, Obama has a huge lead . . . I just read this. Could we turn to something else, this isn't how we do things."

I think the guy who loads stories into the teleprompter is getting let go.

Form over Function

A Capitol Hill cop accused of setting fires is trying to get her statements through out because she wasn't advised of her Miranda Rights. I'm a huge civil libertarian, but since her job involved advising people of their rights, shouldn't she know them? http://www.rollcall.com/issues/1_1/latest_news/22157-1.html Actually as one of my law professor's pointed out, everyone with a TV knows them.

Let's wrap it up -- NOT

The commentators all seem to think that it is some horrible thing for the Democrats that they are still fighting it out while the Republicans have it wrapped up. This is just wrong. In 2004 the Democrats wrapped it up much to soon -- while the primaries were being contested there were all the candidates beating up on Bush and being covered. Once Kerry had it wrapped up, it was quiet until the convention and Bush was rebounding.

Everything is so front loaded that we forget that we are still fairly early in when candidates have their nomination wrapped up. Usually most primaries wouldn't have happened by now. The period from whenever the nomination is decided until the election will be plenty long.

Finally, having the eventual candidate have to campaign in all these states and build organizations and generate the level of excitement this generating is going to a huge help going into November.

Sea Change on Sexism in Public Discourse?

With MSNBC suspending a commentator for making an offensive sexist comment -- saying the Clinton Campaign was "pimping out" Chelsea -- may represent a cultural milestone in ending polite acceptance of sexism. With Hilary Clinton's campaign and the commentary on the commentary their is now an awareness of the issue. In fact, the reaction to what Mathews and others said probably put Clinton back into the race in New Hampshire.

In the middle of all of this, Earl Butz died. As a precousious child in the mid-seventies, I remember Earl Butz (how could any adoloscent male not be amused by that name). For those who don't remember the aply named Butz, he was Ford's Secretary of Agriculture and he had to be fired in the middle of Ford's relecation campaign for telling an incredibley offensive joke about colored people. That in the mid-seventies someone as high as a cabinate offical could be fired for telling that kind of joke forever made those sorts of racist comments taboo in the workplace and polite society. It just isn't done anymore.

It will be interesting if this election ends up marking the same sort of moment.

Will Bush be featured at the Republican Convention?

One interesting thing to watch will be what role they give Bush at the Republican Convention. I remember in 2000 they had "Clinton" Day and then turned focus to Gore. But that was with a realitively popular President, so I wonder how they will play out.