Category: Presidential Campaign

Bad Idea, Barack

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Woah, this is a full metal pander:

Obama appeared to agree, saying, ‘I have consistently called for deepening relations between Georgia and trans-Atlantic institutions, including a Membership Action Plan for NATO, and we must continue to press for that deeper relationship.’

It was this sort of statement that encouraged Georgia to get its war on and level a city full of women and children.

Additionally, it makes him look weak, because it makes him look like he is triangulating and that McCain is taking the lead on foreign policy.

Mark Penn Should Never Work for Another Democrat

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And Democrats should never donate to a candidate that employs Mark Penn.

Once again, Politico misses the point, and covers the trees, internecine sniping in the Clinton campaign, and misses the forest, that Mark Penn espoused a blatantly racist campaign strategy:

Mark Penn, the top campaign strategist for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign, advised her to portray Barack Obama as having a “limited” connection “to basic American values and culture,” according to a forthcoming article in The Atlantic.

Barack Obama was my last choice for the nomination, but I find these suggestions that a racist and xenophobic an indicator of Penn’s immorality and incompetence.

Getting Georgia’s War On

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First, read Getting Georgia’s War On in The Nation, if just for the revelation that that Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze made an “investment call” to bank managers and analysts.

The original offensive had been planned for some time.

Additionally, it appears that Russia was the first to call a Security Council meeting, but their proposal, which called for both sides to , “renounce the use of force”, was rejected by Georgia, the US, and the UK.

I think that the best historical analogy out there is care of Attaturk:

1836 to 1848
Georgia = Mexico
Russia = The United States
South Ossetia = Texas

It really is clear that the Ossetians hate the Georgians, and that the desire for independence is very real, though the ability is only because of Russian support.

Meanwhile, Russia is rolling east from South Ossetia, and west from Abkhazia, and they are demanding the disarming of troops along both borders.

Again, this is calling on the the Kosovo precedent, and I think is a sign that one of the goals of the Russians is the elimination of the Georgian army as a meaningful force.

Certainly their capture Georgia’s Senaki City and enterry into Zugdidi Town, roughly 40km in Georgia from the Abkhazian border seems to confirm this.

On the bright side, Dmitry Medvedev has stated that the military operation in South Ossetia is nearly over, which should indicate a reduction of optempo shortly.

You can read a summary of official Russian losses, and they seem very light, though the loss of the Tu-22, by which I assume they mean Tu-22M Backfire, not the earlier Blinder, has to to hurt.

Jed Lewison notes that top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, is a paid lobbyist for a foreign government, the Republic of Georgia, he claims not to lobby for them any more, but his firm still gets fees from them, and that much of his lobbying were his highly successful efforts to turn McCain into an unthinking Georgia evangelist, though given McCain’s Russo-phobia, it probably took less than a golf game to do that.

Wanker of the Day: Bob Kerrey

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And not just because he spoke for Attribution on a Politico dot com concern troll piece:

“The idea that Obama was going to win in a blowout was always preposterous,” says former Nebraska senator and onetime presidential hopeful Bob Kerrey, an Obama backer. “A big piece of this, of course, is whether white people are going to support a black guy. … If [Obama] is a tall, skinny white guy named Paul Jones, it’s a different story.

…

“John McCain is a known quantity,” says Bob Kerrey, who thinks Obama will ultimately prevail. “You don’t look at John and say, ‘Who the heck is he?’. He’s a veteran, he’s a guy who got pretty banged up in Vietnam. He can deal with crisis. There’s some uncertainty about Senator Obama.”

…

“Fairly or not, folks think he’s pretty liberal and nobody wants a pair of Pelosis running things,” says a New York-based Democratic consultant.

Adds Bob Kerrey: “The country’s still pretty divided … people may want a divided government. They want change, but I’m not sure that the Democratic agenda has the support of a majority of Americans.”

Can we trade this “mother SHUT YOUR MOUTH!“* to the Repubicans?

Seriously, he’s almost as bad as Lieberman.

*In memoriam of Isaac Hayes.

Why I Won’t Be Watching the Republican Conventon

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Cheney will be speaking on the first night of the convention.

It’s the same reason that I don’t watch slasher flicks, I don’t like being creeped out.*

*Though, interestingly enough, my second favorite film of all time, after Kurasawa’s Seven Samurai, is John Carpenter’s The Thing, which, unlike the 1951 film, hews much closer to the John Campbell’s novella Who Goes There.

I would argue that the tension in the story is very different, and far more engaging, than the standard slasher flick.

Obama Campaign Uses “L” Word

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Finally. The Obama has used the word “lie” to describe McCain’s latest ad.

People in Washington hate the term, but who cares, the electorate appreciates “straight talk.”

From Obama spokesperson Hari Sevugan:

This ad is a lie, and it’s part of the old, tired politics of a party in Washington that has run out of ideas and run out of steam. Even though a host of independent, nonpartisan organizations have said this attack isn’t true, Senator McCain continues to lie about Senator Obama’s plan to give 95% of all families a tax cut of $1,000, and not raise taxes for those making under $250,000 a single dime. The reason so many families are hurting today is because we’ve had eight years of failed Bush policies that Senator McCain wants to continue for another four, and that’s what Barack Obama will change as President.

Employee Fired for Refusing to Donate to Romney

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An executive at Huron Consulting Group has filed a complaint that he was fired, in part, for not donating to the Mitt Romney campaign (he is also alleging age discrimination):

The company denies that charge. But officials confirm the authenticity of emails showing that the CEO of the Chicago-based corporate consulting firm, Gary E. Holdren, repeatedly linked his requests for donations to Huron’s business prospects. The emails were provided to The Wall Street Journal by Mr. Pimentel.[the complainant]

In another email, dated Sept. 21, 2007, Mr. Holdren wrote, “I wanted to thank all of you who contributed to Mitt Romney. You can’t realize how much leverage this gives Huron going forward to ask various people for business.”

Other emails from Mr. Holdren refer to conversations with Mr. Romney, deals Huron supposedly won from Romney supporters at other firms and promises to reward Huron executives with “business for your contributions.”

It’s why, when Republicans talk about running government like a business, you should run the other way. It’s all graft and back scratching.

The Sick Old Man Can No Longer Hold His Own With the Press

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It appears that McCain’s press availabilities are becoming severely limited.

Truth be told, part of this may be the Rove protégés, who like to be tough to the point of vindictiveness to the press, but I’ve seen seeming awfully confused lately, and I’m beginning to wonder if he’s not on the far slope of some sort of dementia.

He’s not even doing regular press conferences now.

In either case, the press has had its feelings hurt.

McCain’s Fundraising Corruption

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Hmmmm….It appears that one of McCain’s major campaign bundlers, Harry Sargeant III, is using straw donors to funnel money to the campaign from non-US citizens in the Middle East, which is a felony.

Actually it’s two, straw donors and foreign campaign donations.

Read the article. Many of the donors don’t make much money, and many of them are not even registered to vote.

And all the contributors in the story have Arab names, which when juxtaposed with Sargeant’s statement that, “I have a lot of Arab business partners. I do a lot of business in the Middle East. I’ve got a lot of friends,” does lead one to wonder what’s going on here.

Debate Moderators Announced

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And it’s mostly the usual suspicts, which is to say at least half of them should not be doing this.

First presidential debate
Friday, September 26
The University of Mississippi, Oxford, Miss.
Jim Lehrer
Executive Editor and Anchor, The NewsHour, PBS

He’s impartial, but he does not call out lies, he just has two people on with opposing view points.

Vice presidential debate
Thursday, October 2
Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.
Gwen Ifill
Senior Correspondent, The NewsHour, and Moderator and Managing Editor, Washington Week, PBS

Rumored to be Condi Rice’s girlfriend.

Second presidential debate (town meeting)
Tuesday, October 7
Belmont University, Nashville, Tenn.
Tom Brokaw
Special Correspondent, NBC News

No real comment from me.

Third presidential debate
Wednesday, October 15
Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y.
Bob Schieffer
CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent, and Host, Face the Nation

Personal friend of GW Bush, and his brother has been appointed to a couple of ambassador positions by GW Bush.