I get scared just from looking at it

Drudge, Mystery Man

He’s said by some to be gay, but he has thrown water on these speculations.

He’d been in Jerusalem, and Buenos Aires, and on a German train he wept listening to Kelly Clarkson’s new record.

Popular Governors?

You always hear about how popular certain Governors are: Sarah Palin (AK), Charlie Crist (FL), Jeb Bush (FL), Bobby Jindal (LA), Kathleen Sebelius (KS), Brian Schweitzer (MT), George W. Bush (TX), Janet Napolitano (AZ), Mike Huckabee (AR), Mark Warner (VA)...

Governors around here (fake America, imo) aren't popular. McGreevey's popularity was meh, Corzine's sucks, Deval Patrick's sucks, Pataki's wasn't great, and Spitzer, well...

I googled and found this, a list from 2005 of all governor approval/disapproval ratings.

Top 10 net approval/disapproval:

1. Mike Rounds (SD)
2. Jodi Rell (CT)
3. John Hoeven (ND)
4. Jon Huntsman (UT)
5. Dave Freudenthal (WY)
6. Mark Warner (VA)
7. Brian Schweitzer (MT)
8. John Lynch (NH)
9. David Heineman (NE)
10. Michael Easley (NC)

ARE THERE ANY STARBUCKS IN THESE STATES???

20 Best Albums Since 2000

The White Stripes, Elephant
Radiohead, Kid A
Wolf Parade, Apologies to the Queen Mary
Elliott Smith, From a Basement on a Hill
Radiohead, In Rainbows
Interpol, Turn on the Bright Lights
Feist, The Reminder
Outkast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium
The Arcade Fire, Funeral
The Decemberists, The Crane Wife
Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP
The New Pornographers, Twin Cinema
TV on the Radio, Dear Science
Sufjan Stevens, Illinois
Tool, Lateralus
Okkervil River, The Stage Names
Destroyer, Destroyer's Rubies
The National, Boxer
Tilly and the Wall, Bottom of Barrels

The Politico

Politico has emerged as one of the most cited outlets this cycle, and has a few really good bloggers and lots of good topics for articles. Very Slate-like. Yet whereas Slate is fairly open about being liberal, Politico is constantly cited in the MSM and on Drudge as some sort of objective paper. They must have a lot of good connections and a good set-up going, as they break a lot of stories and have accrued great cred.

But they're not exactly the New York Times. Take the articles on their front page right now. Check this article ("Would Palin Stick Out in Georgetown?") or this ("Presidential Ad Picks-and-Pans") or this ("Cover This! Inside the Nastiest '08 Rumors"). These are articles that would not appear in a paper of record, as they involve judgment calls (on pushing the Palin-as-anti-intellectual theme; on deciding how to rank campaign ads; on choosing how to measure what counts as a "rumor" and what qualifies as "nasty") that "fact-reporting" outlets usually decline to engage in. (Not to mention that all of these stories are very pro-Obama in nature.)

I think this is actually a good development. Journalists shouldn't just be robots. Many of them have been called out for asserting false equivalencies throughout this election (e.g., when they say "The campaigns have been going hard. McCain has been saying Obama hates America, and Obama has been accusing McCain of wanting to continue the Bush policies."). The news cycle is so fast now that it's up to the blogs, ironically, to convey the untainted, bare-bones facts of what's going on, since it's easier to shovel out a campaign press release, a piece of leaked insider information, or a youtube clip on a blog than elsewhere. The Caucus, Ben Smith, Marc Ambinder all provide a constant barrage of (mostly) straight reporting. Then, the in-depth articles that The Atlantic, Politico, National Review or The New Republic publish are more opinion-centered and involve more judgment calls.

JFK

30,000 Foot View -- Stories of the '08 Race

What will we remember from the 2008 presidential election? Some thoughts, broadly:

Intrade; Keith Olbermann; Sarah Palin; Jeremiah Wright; The Huffington Post; Youtube; Bradley Effect; blogosphere; netroots; Obama's fundraising; the "caucus" strategy; superdelegates; FiveThirtyEight; Tina Fey; Stewart/Colbert; Joe The Plumber; Sean Hannity; Hillary Clinton; the "elite, liberal" media...

Edit: Also, the phenomenon of media calling out other media. I'm not sure how unique this is to modern times though.

Most memorable quotes of the race?

"You're likeable enough, Hillary."

"Does Jeremiah Wright love America as much as you do?"

"As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska."

"For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country."

"In what respect, Charlie?"

"Shame on you, Barack Obama!"

"Not God bless America, God damn America!"

"The fundamentals of this economy are strong."

"You know the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick."

"That's not change we can believe in." (Repeat x 43).

"My friends..."

"Drill, baby, drill!"

"I'll veto every earmark that comes across my desk. You will know their names! You will know their names! You will know their names!"

FNC Names

Shep, Major, Brett, Sean, Brit, Greta... any pattern? Maybe not. But they're all terrible names.

Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story

Saw it. Very entertaining, but I'm a sucker for all inside baseball-type stuff. He crossed paths with Rove several times during the 1970s before Rove came under his tutelage in the Dukakis campaign. Matalin provided a few soundbytes, worshipping at Atwater's feet in a really weird way. Lots of implication that if Atwater hadn't died, Clinton would have gone down hard in 1992. A few notes:

- Young GWB is pretty awesome. He had a great Bushism during an interview in the midst of the '88 campaign: "...I would say that's a misadjective."

- Atwater got OWNED by cancer. Radiation blew him up to some sort of cartoon in Roger Rabbit.

- Atwater's brother died when he was a kid. The family owned a deep-fryer and, well, a deep-fryer's worth of scalding grease was spilled onto him. Not fun imo.

- Tucker Eskew (former Bush 2000 adviser, now Palin's aide) provided the bulk of the interviews. He's a real dirty trickster, a southern guy. Kept talking about how dumb the Democrats are to keep thinking that cultural issues won't work in presidential elections.

- Dukakis ran a pretty terrible rapid-response campaign. And by that, I mean he didn't run one.

- I didn't know that the constant GOP banter about "states' rights" evolved -- aside from the earlier federalist/anti-federalist debate -- from the Southern strategy and the development of code words (i.e., "government handouts," "welfare queens") to replace the blatant racism of earlier years.

Things I'll Be Glad Not To Hear About Anymore Come 11/5

Bradley Effect; failed Bush policies; Troopergate; disaffected Hillary voters; "the McCain of 2000 would've..."; Country First; ACORN; Ayers, Wright, Rezko, Pfleger; "Honor"; "the surge, which is working"; whether the youth vote will show up; "battleground...Pennsylvania"; are the Clintons on board yet? (IT'S FUCKING OCTOBER 29TH); "this is Obama's to lose... barring a terrorist attack or something"; socialism; filibuster-proof majority; "the pundits have all written us off!"; ground games; "I'm workin' for the waitress in Youngstown, who can't pay her bills cause her momma's got cancer..."; change election; "Obama's outspending McCain 3, 4-to-1 in states like North Carolina and it's still close... shouldn't he be crushing McCain?" (wtf); most liberal Senator in Congress; the mere mention of Bernie Sanders's name; Wasilla; good ol' boy network; Karl Rove's playbook...

Edit: In all seriousness, the end of this election will be pretty gay. I can't think of anything else I've ever followed so closely. Running home from night classes to check the early returns during the primaries, obsessively refreshing like 15 different sites, watching every debate since December, waking up early to refresh Drudge the Friday that Palin was picked...

Obama's administration should be fairly entertaining though, at least for the first few years.

Cabinet sweepstakes next.

Obama's Map in 2012

Seems like a fair representation of what, in all likelihood, will happen this year.

Possibilities for 2012? Basically, as I see it, the map will be forced to look notably different.

If Obama pulls off some magic and he and the Pelosi/Reid Congress can get some stability/troop withdrawals through in the next few years, it'll be kind've a joke election. Obama's approval/disapproval rating will be significantly high. The GOP will nominate a joke candidate. Obama's network will expand and his fundraising will be incredible (though perhaps depressed compared with now, since the excitement factor is lessened). The main critique against him -- that he's green behind the ears -- is wiped away. He'll take Arizona, the Dakotas, Montana, maybe Texas, Georgia, WV, and so forth. Basically all states whose citizens aren't dyed-in-the-wool racists.

That's pretty utopian though. What if he blows it? You might think well, the Dem electoral backbone is still pretty solid. He'll win all the Kerry states no matter what, so his floor is pretty damn high. Well, I'm not sure. I mean obviously he'll take NY, CA, MA, etc. But it's hard to imagine a scenario in which his presidency is good enough that he holds PA, NH, OR, MI, but bad enough (and his networking horrible enough) that he cannot hold VA, CO, NM, NV, IA... even FL and OH, to an extent. You'll have to think a LOT of the racial animosity will be eliminated after he's been in the WH for four years. A lot of the current seniors (more likely to be racist) will be dead. Latino expansion will lock up the Southwest. The results this year will make all the Bradley Effect chanting a distant memory (and polling should greatly improve).

Basically my point is that Obama is a lock to win in 2012, and fairly significantly. Any scenario in which he loses is a scenario where he just gets killed in the popular vote, I would think. The results of the 2010 midterms should be indicative of what we'll be likely to see.

538 in the Times

Fairly uneventful article:

Mr. Silver, who first made his name as the designer of a well-regarded method for predicting baseball statistics, said his site received more than one million page views per day, despite having just been unveiled this year.

[...]

“We don’t try and say, there’s a 37 percent chance Osama bin Laden will send another message this October,” Mr. Silver said. “We do account for general uncertainty.”

[...]

Dick Bennett, at the American Research Group, was even blunter. “He hasn’t been able to predict the future,” Mr. Bennett said. “If he did, he would have been able to predict who’d win in June.”

Pretty impressive hit count. Dick Bennett... what? That is what Nate's thing is all about. That's why he has a projection line and a trend line. As you get closer and closer to Nov. 4, the chances that the latest polls disagree with the result decrease. The June comment is just retarded.

Media Bias

This article on the liberal bias in the presidential coverage seemed to be decent until I got to the punchline:

If the current polls are correct, we are about to elect as president of the United States a man who is essentially a cipher, who has left almost no paper trail, seems to have few friends (that at least will talk) and has entire years missing out of his biography.

NARAL, Planned Parenthood

Why do I always hear about how NARAL and Planned Parenthood have, on a scale of 0-100, rated John McCain a 0 and Barack Obama a 100? Is there any science used in these ratings? Seems pretty binary... if you're a Dem, we'll do anything to get you elected, and if you're in the GOP, we'll do the opposite. Can't we just assume that, in every Dem-Rep election, you'll push onesidedly for the blue team? Given that prolifers think that John McCain, all things considered, is a pretty weak candidate for their cause, what do abortion rights groups see differently?

I'd probably look like Tom Cruise if I ever went on TV

Movie Cliches

I love thinking about these. Good lists here and here. Here are some others I've thought about.

- The quick jump-cut to show contrast, or a part b) to disprove the part a) of the previous scene. Used in tons of movies; Twister, Iron Man, Con Air. Example: In Jurassic Park, when Ellie says "...unless they figured out how to open doors." Instantly cuts to a velociraptor... opening a door.

- Ridiculously contrived bit-part black characters, serving the sole purpose of getting black people to see the movie and fill the theater with their cackling. See: homeless dude in Day After Tomorrow, both black guys in Gone in 60 Seconds, dude walking his dog in the beginning of Armageddon.

- A need to fill film time discussing an enemy's credentials or an objective's difficulty. "OMG, you have no idea how skilled Jason Bourne is! He is a highly-trained CIA operative with a black belt and Batman-like attributes. Do not underestimate him!" I think this exact dialogue happens in all 3 Bourne films. Same thing with the Mission: Impossible movies. "As for our break-in target, we have intentionally picked the most well-guarded facility in the world. To enter it, you need a retinal scan, a fingerprint scan, a voice scan, a one-of-a-kind photo ID that is laminated in ancient Chinese gold. My friends... this is the CIA." It's like holy fuck, just start the mission.

- Unbelievably contrived jurisdiction arguments. The Fugitive, Die Hard, you name it. Even Blue Streak, for the love of Christ. "This building is owned by the state of New York. Only NYPD are authorized." ... "Holy shit, the suspect has stepped onto the street -- this is solely an FBI matter!" Wtf... this doesn't occur in real life. They'd just kill the dude.

- Rookie cop-veteran cop chase scene. They're in hot pursuit of a suspect, they split up. Rookie cop takes conventional route, vet goes for some "only vets know" shortcut. Senior cop obviously eventually appears right in front of suspect, stopping him in his tracks, ending the chase, becoming hero of the scene.

- No-look driving with a passenger. Two people driving, speeding through a city, or the countryside... whatever. Driver is obviously ranting to the passenger, not looking at the road. All of a sudden, passenger points forward and screams, "look out!" as there is a fucking semi barreling down the road directly at them.

Obviously they swerve just in time and escape without a scratch.

- Interruptions of action sequences with cuts to "peaceful life" or reaction shots from passersby; a family enjoying a picnic, people going about their day-to-day lives, kids playing. See: The Rock during the car chase, when Bay cuts to the trolley car. Or in The Dark Knight when they cut to those GODDAMN KIDS who pretend to shoot imaginary guns during the film's highlight sequence. Or in Batman Begins when Nolan constantly jumps ironically between the Tumbler chase and Gary Oldman making some lame face or wisecrack.

- Esteemed, distinguished, senior operative or assassin gets pulled in... for one last mission. See The Jackal or The Rock or any other of the countless hitman or CIA/FBI-centric films.

- Courtroom judge slams gavel and utters: "This is HIGHLY UNORTHODOX... but I'll allow it." Wtf, stop grandstanding. You're a Southern judge that looks like a Bloodhound (My Cousin Vinny -- but this applies elsewhere).

- Solving a Rubik's cube in 3.5 milliseconds somehow is the sole method of determining whether someone is a genius. WTF, fail.

- Building up unnecessary and false tension just because the setting seems to warrant it. Take a scene in 21. Jim Sturgess is walking through airport security loaded with cash. He goes through the beep-machine, and right as he's about to skip through scot-free, the guard says "Sir, wait." Of course, the film goes all slo-mo for like 4 minutes, as utter shock and horror comes over his face. And, of course, the security guard, at the end of all this, is like "dude, you forgot your bag." So predictable.

- Seeing some random at a funeral. Whenever a funeral occurs early in a movie, without fail, the protagonist will see some weird dude or hot chick frolicking through the cemetary in the background, waiting to be beckoned to. This doesn't happen IRL, plz stop.

- Classroom scene, teacher is ALWAYS talking about something especially pertinent to the plot, usually a foreshadowing bit or info or something along those lines. Horror movie, college kid is in a lecture about Campus Ghost Myths. Transformers, somehow Shia is presenting some BS presentation on his ancestors on the very day that the robots that his ancestors awakened take over the Earth.

- Important character is shot. Repeatedly, at point blank, with a 12-gauge. There's 2 minutes of suspense as nobody knows what happened and whether he'll be OK. Then, he inevitably rips off his shirt to show a bulletproof vest. Ta-da!

- Woman washing her face in front of bathroom mirror. She bends over to splash water, camera follows. Stands back up straight to look at the mirror, camera again follows-- ZOMG! Someone appeared behind her! Except it's her dad, and that trick has been done in every thriller since 1942.

- This one's a bit harder to tease out. It occurs in both Prom Night and Along Came a Spider. Basically, a horrific tragedy occurs. Four years pass. Protagonist still hasn't gotten over it, and is sitting around his house sulking and acting depressed. Family member comes in and says "Sweetie, you have to let the past live in the past." It's like... wtf. It's been 1400 days. Does this conversation occur every day? If not, what the hell would prompt someone to say this on some random day, years after the fact? Too contrived.

That's it for now. Catchy song imo:

Songs of the Year

No order:

Cut Copy, "Lights and Music"
Wolf Parade, "The Grey Estates"
Okkervil River, "Lost Coastlines"
Shearwater, "Century Eyes"
Tilly and the Wall, "Dust Me Off"
T.V. on the Radio, "Crying" & "DLZ"
Islands, "Kids Don't Know Shit"
The Magnetic Fields, "The Nun's Litany"
MGMT, "Kids"

Calexico's "Victor Jara's Hands" is pretty damn good too, but probably not on a short list.

Holding Out Hope for 11/4

Convo regarding House/Senate split in a 269-269 decision, resulting in Pres. McCain and V.P. Biden:

[21:50] ES: I won't be able to look at a black person or a woman again without just bursting out laughing.
[21:50] ES: Like I know that the day after that happens I'll be waiting for a bus with like
[21:50] ES: Cornel West and Gloria Steinem
[21:50] ES: and I'll just be standing there whistling.

Cabinet Theory

I wonder if quadrennial rumors among the Beltway insiders and reporters, like this, simply serve a purpose to annoy the hell out of the staffers of the senior most Senators. I wonder how many times Dick Lugar's name has been mentioned as a possible Cabinet appointment. And so now all of his aides and advisers have it firmly implanted in their minds that they might, might, might be moving to State. And then a week before Thanksgiving, Obama announces some Kennedy School of Government douche. What a killjoy.

Bloomberg and Moses

This past summer I read The Power Broker by Robert Caro. It's a biography of Robert Moses, who has pretty low name recognition relative to other important historical figures. But he is, by most accounts, the most important person in the shaping of New York City during the 20th century.

He was termed a "master builder," though he was basically a city planner, an architect, and an incredibly shrewd politician all rolled into one. To name every work he built would be impossible. He created nearly all of the highways and parkways throughout New York City, Long Island, and much of New York State. He created Shea Stadium, Lincoln Center, Jones Beach, the United Nations building. He built nearly every bridge and tunnel throughout the five boroughs. Virtually created, from scratch, the State Parks of New York. He consistently had power over the mayor of New York City, the governor of NY State, and, on a few occasions, the POTUS. Between the late 1920s and the mid-1960s, he was basically the most powerful man in the most important city in the world. And he was never elected to public office.

This brings me to Bloomberg. One of Moses's great strengths was that he was a masterful bill writer, capable of inserting key clauses that he knew would either be overlooked or misinterpreted at the time of passing, only to ensure his own place atop the NY bureaucracy for years to come. It was (Godwin) very Hitleresque. Rail against the system as only benefitting the elites, call for reform, finally work your way to the top, and change the rules so you're dictator (or Chairman of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority) for life. This seems to be the crux of what Bloomberg is trying to do.

I like Bloomberg, he seems like a decent guy (though stumping for Bush in '04 is pretty damn awful). But what he's doing seems so underhanded. New York City's government still operates very machinelike; being an incumbent (and an incumbent who has major ins with not only the financial world, but the fickle NYC press) is pretty important, I would have to imagine. Slippery slope fallacy, yada yada, but who's to say when his third term is up, it's not time for another one? Granted, you can argue that if he was a bad mayor, the people would kick him out. But let's say he's just a mediocre mayor, and in a normal environment, new blood would be appropriate. How does anyone run against a Bloomberg machine that can flood the airwaves with ads and garner endorsements from every local media outlet?

I'd probably vote for him if I lived there, though.

Kristol

Today's piece:

McCain and Palin could buy time Thursday night — giving voters some incentive to keep an open mind at least until McCain and Palin get to make their case.

Palin could speak first, reprising her fine recent speeches on women’s issues and special needs kids — speeches that got almost no press coverage. She could then introduce her running mate, reminding people of his heroism, and pointing out, as she does on the stump, that he is the only candidate “who has truly fought for America.”

I'm fairly sure that Christian feminism and Down syndrome babies are not issues that people care about right now. There's a reason these speeches got no coverage last week.

Everything Kristol suggests is stuff that has already been tried and resulted in a failure. "Reminding people of his heroism." Stunning.

Dow, Dow, Dow

I find the post-Lehman fascination with the minute-by-minute ups and downs of the markets to be pretty disgusting. I'm not a day trader. I don't care to know what the DJIA is at every moment of my day. If I did, I'd turn to CNBC or Bloomberg. Not only is it irrelevant to someone that is only thinking of stocks as a long-term deal (me), but it presents such a false sense of the finance world to Joe Average (and creates the gayest conversations, where I'm forced to listen to acquaintances drone on about how the last two months has proved how bad their investments were -- FAIL).

For one, stocks aren't the be-all, end-all of what's going on. On the Monday that the Dow surged 900, listening to the commentariat, you would have thought we were in a flourishing market once again. Problem solved! Except the credit markets were still fucked and nothing had been done about the toxic mortgages.

Two, it provides a breeding ground for results-oriented thinking. If you have money in stocks, you're gambling. It may not seem like a gamble in a normal environment, where your shares are of a huge company in a profitable sector. But it is. As such, just because the value of the stocks have declined does not mean it was a poor decision to invest. So stop whining about how awful your portfolio was just because the last month (or year) has unfolded as it has.

Three, it's probably giving a heart attack to retirees everywhere. 9:18: The Dow's up 400, that's great news! 9:21: The Dow's at -191 for the day -- where is Bernanke?!?!? 3:33: Stocks rise sharply, indicating a positive reaction to Paulson's plan! STFU. The global stock market is huge and is reacting to four million things at once. Anderson Cooper, all you're covering is how many words Paulson has given to the press corps today. Stop acting like you're presenting an accurate view of things.

Unnecessary disclaimer: I have barely any idea how the stock market works. But some stuff is just obvious.

Frank Rich

I've always thought it's pretty easy to be Frank Rich. Your columns are just weekly event wrap-ups with sparse analysis. You get top-billing in the Sunday Times' "Week in Review." Your columns are twice as long as the normal op-ed.

But he's actually a pretty good writer. A bit of a blowhard, Olbermann-style. Very partisan, and doesn't really moderate it. Loathes Bush. Hates McCain/Palin. Hated Clinton, pre-June '08. Lukewarm to her now. Loves Obama.

But he makes some good insights. A lot of media-critiquing-media stuff. Here is his latest. One choice point:

... the so-called liberal media, among their other failures this year, have helped ratchet up this election cycle’s prevailing antiwhite bias. Ever since Obama declared his candidacy, the press’s default setting has been to ominously intone that “in the privacy of the voting booth” ignorant, backward whites will never vote for a black man.

I've always found this part of MSM election coverage weird. They consistently pose the question "will Obama face white racism or resentment in November?", albeit usually in less plain terms. It would seem appropriate for them to then call these undecided, white, rural voters out, Campbell Brown-style: "Vote for whomever you want, just don't base it on race." Instead it's the same old hands-off, present-unfounded-assumptions-and-leave-it-to-the-viewer-to-decide approach of "well, it seems Obama might lose to racism. Not much we can do!"

Pitchfork Albums of the Year

It's been a pretty good year so far in my view, though I can't think of that many wow albums. Dear Science is about it. Maybe Bon Iver's, but I think that counts as 2007. I'd guess the top 10 thusfar might be:

TVOTR, Dear Science
Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours
The Hold Steady, Stay Positive
Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
Hercules and Love Affair, Hercules and Love Affair
M83, Saturdays=Youth
Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
Portishead, Third
Shearwater, Rook

...no idea what rounds it out. Thus far, I mean. Obviously some top10-ers haven't been released. Kanye should be coming out before '09. Wolf Parade should really make the list, but they won't.

This is a catchy song:

Strangelovian Subtitles and Political Books

I always treat these books as trash. You know what I'm referring to, they absolutely dominate the front tables and Barnes and Noble. Titles like Fight for the Right: Why Liberals Are Horrible and They Make the Dollar Decline and Reid, Pelosi, Obama = Hitler, Himmler, and Goebbels. Or books that go for the instructional cover. Why so-and-so did something wrong and how you can save yourself! Just going on and on and on, creating a mini-rant out of the book title. Save it for when I open the cover, for Christ's sake.

Here are some gems:

The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It

Fleeced: How Barack Obama, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want to Kill Talk-Radio, the Do-Nothing Congress, Companies That Help Iran, and Washington Lobbyists for Foreign Governments are Scamming Us... and What to Do About It

That last one is, of course, authored by Dick Morris. There are so many things laughable about that title that it's hard to know where to start. The "... and What to Do About It" is especially good. There's nothing you can do. You can vote for McCain. That's what you can do. Or write your congressman repeatedly about the importance of voting nay on the Fairness Doctrine. Or take every terrorist threat seriously. The idea of being taught how to act by a rotund dwarf-turned-pundit is hilarious.

It still boggles the mind how many books exist already that condemn Obama. He. Hasn't. Accomplished. Anything. At least wait for Jan. 20th. Corsifail.

Palin' Around

When Palin was first announced, Marc Ambinder posted a C-SPAN interview (clip below) with her from this past February at the Winter NGA. She seems like a completely different person when you compare it with footage of her today. She really would have had great prospects in '12 or '16 had she not been so polarizing over the past seven weeks. Wait for Bush fatigue to subside, hire the future generation of Roves, and go to work. Easy game. She's so innocent in her ignorance that it's really hard not to like her. It's just that, as with the multiple McCains, she's been tarred by so many different brushes (be it by her handlers, a flailing narrative, or the investigative journalism of the MSM) that it's hard to know who Palin really is. Reform governor. Energy czar. Hot babe. Special needs crusader. Pitbull! Idiot (Gibson). Idiot (Couric). McCarthyite. Hot babe, to the tune of $150K.

Whereas Obama is just a black nerd who cavorts with a terrorist every now and then.

Trial Post

Sitting in an Obama/Dem office in New Jersey, two weeks before an election, is weird. Voter registration is closed. The state is irrelevant. The closest "swing" state, where local residents can easily drive if they want to canvass or phone bank, is also irrelevant (Pennsylvania). And nobody wants to make phone calls for a Congressional race. Especially for a blind Jewish rabbi. Seriously.

So mostly people just come in and take Obama/Biden signs. Or bumper-stickers that fit neatly over Kerry/Edwards and Gore/Lieberman. I never understood the point either of these. They both make some sense pre-primaries. Get on the bandwagon early and reap the benefits of looking like a political Nostradamus in November. But two weeks out? They don't convince anyone to join your cause, you look like someone who just made up his mind yesterday (i.e., an idiot), and you seem wholly unoriginal. Not to mention you look mindnumbingly stupid if your horse loses. Though I guess that's not an issue in 2008.

That is to say, my town is littered with Obama signage now. With a sprinkling of Lautenberg and Pascrell. Frank Lautenberg is seriously on death's door. He's 84, and makes McCain look spry. All of his ads (why does he think he needs to run them?) are about how he loves kids. Showing kids playing, yelling, marquee-text reminding us he backed SCHIP. I don't think he's ever done anything important.