Death Rides a Pale Horse...

...and what is that weasel-like thing on top of her head? BHO has a bunch of weird names; Palin intentionally named her kids Trigg, Track, Kitt, Revv, and Gritt, i think...bewildering. We could talk forever about the late nineties white-separatist exurban-Escalade tough-sounding kid-name phenomenon, and maybe that would be fun...but we still wouldn't understand the choice of Sarah Palin as VP.

At first, I thought it was a shot at the Hillary women. Back in June, John Dickerson thought this unlikely. That was when 80 percent of Hillary backers preferred Obama to McCain. So why's Obama only up 9 points in CA? WTF happened there? Surely that's those Latino union women Hillary voters bolting to McCain, right? Oh wait, those people don't exist. According to Pew, BHO will win 75% of HIllyClint's Hispanic voters; leaving behind (.25 of .20 of 18 million) 900,000 women and men. According to PPIC, BHO's real problem is with white males in California, who are breaking 42-46 for Walnuts. Latino Californians for Obama: 71-16!

A couple million disgruntled women concentrated in Ohio and Florida might win Walnuts the election, but spread out are of no consequence. So why Palin?

She's pro-life and pro-gun where Mc is moderate. She sued the Bush administration for protecting Alaskan fauna, as protections got in the way of increased gas and oil drilling. Her last job was mayor of Wasilla AK, pop. 5,470. She's an evangelical moose-hunter? Dangling modifier aside, that's weird shit, man!

Joe Trippi on NPR said this was less about Hillary women than about shoring up McCain's right flank. But McCain doesn't need evangelicals to win the election; never mind that Palin is the kind of evangelical that would have won votes in 1994, and evangelicals are trending toward green and social-justice issues. McCain needs the center. And as far as I could tell from BHO's speech, he's just sucked up all the oxygen in the room:

As president, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and finds ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America.

So if winning Hillary voters won't win the election, and Palin isn't about reaching out to the moderate-undecided third of voters (who are breaking for Obama by like 6 and Democrats by 12), and she's shy on experience, and if Biden can resist cutting her a new one in the veep debates (careful here Joe...sensistivity sells...cruelty kills...no smirking), what is she here for?

2-0-1-2...she's here to keep the right flank from bolting the GOP entirely and becoming a Bob-Barr-Ron-Paul-Pat-Buchanan megaflank. She's here to entice disenchanted conservative Democrat women into the party. She's here just in case BHO fails to deliver on health care, fails to pass a middle-class tax cut and deploys more troops to Afghanistan while Iraq goes to shit again. In the event of a bad showing by BHO in the first term, she'll be Romney's VP, with the experience of being in a national campaign, motherly cred, and social conservative Wild West skills...Palin-Romney 2012...death on a pale horse...
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If she says...

"Who am I? Why am I here?" then I'll just...

...really, I don't know what I'll do. I've been dumbfounded by the pick the whole day. Presume I'll continue to be dumbfounded.

Frozen conflicts...Putin losing marbles: "I am surprised that you are surprised..."

Is there anyone in the region actually intimidated by Vlad Putin? Poland signed a missile defense agreement at long last. Lithuania's president is a noted hardass (and a serious thinker; here's his speech to the London School of Economics in February). Putin can bluster about countries making themselves into targets, but the biggest thing he/Medvedev have threatened lately is Moldova.

Said Medvedev to the Moldovan president:

After the Georgian leadership lost their marbles, as they say, all the problems got worse and a military conflict erupted [...]

The dispute between Transdniestrian separatists and the Moldovan central government was identified as Second Most Likely to Feel the Putin by Joshua Kucera in Slate:

The conflict in Transdniestria has been frozen for some time, and there's not much at stake in Moldova, but if the situation heated up, the United States and Russia would definitely take opposing sides, and in the post-South Ossetia world, who knows?

Indeed; good news for cartographers, though.

As for losing marbles, Putin now believes that the West arranged for the Georgian aggression in order to boost the McCain candidacy (and to remind McCain what country Putin is from). Here's Putin in the WaPo:

When the CNN correspondent, Matthew Chance, expressed skepticism, Putin argued that the Bush administration faced difficulties in the Middle East and Afghanistan, as well as economic difficulties.

"A small, victorious war is needed," Putin said. "And if you don't succeed, it's possible to shift the blame on us, turn us into the enemy against the backdrop of rah-rah patriotism to rally the country again around certain political forces. I am surprised that you are surprised at what I say. It's obvious."

To summarize: Moldova is the largest thing Putin's willing to threaten; Putin is slowly becoming deranged on CNN. Is there cause for alarm here? To my mind, the best indicator that the past month's media hyperventilation about the New Cold War is meaningless is that David Brooks thinks it's for real: from PBS, after watching BillyClint in Denver:

MARK SHIELDS: [...] People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than the example of our power.

DAVID BROOKS: Not sure Vladimir Putin will be impressed by the power of our example or Ahmadinejad, but it's a nice formulation.

This is the benchmark by which we judge serious foreign policy difficulties: if Brooks is afraid, ignore it. If Brooks is for it, watch out.

By this standard, let us confidently assume that just as Putin has no intention of leaving Ossetia and Abkhazia, he also has no interest in adding a half-dozen wannabe-states to the roster of cranky part-Russian regions. No Nagorno-Karabakh, no second Dagestan, no Transdniestr. Let's see if we can get Putin out of Poti, and stop wetting the bed about What Happens Next...
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He threw rocks tonight...

...these guys are dead in the water.

"Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of Barack Obama. When the temple comes down, the fireworks end, and the words are over, the facts remain: Senator Obama still has no record of bipartisanship, still opposes offshore drilling, still voted to raise taxes on those making just $42,000 per year, and still voted against funds for American troops in harm's way. The fact remains: Barack Obama is still not ready to be President."

That's what you got? That's... that's it?

I mean, really, I'm still rather blown away. But I don't get paid to be looking always for something to snipe at. If his is all they've got, it's going to be a LONG autumn for the republicans. He looked like he was just getting warmed up.

Changing the electorate...lightning war

David Plouffe utters every politico's pipe dream; rather than sit idly watching the electorate change, change the electorate with massive voter registration. Since newly registered voters (purportedly) turn out more than others, massive registration equals massive turnout. Get the citizens of Gary IN to turn out, and Indiana breaks for BHO by 2 points, and the rubes down south are left scratching their heads.

Let's leave aside a few questions, but state them up front: By how much do new-registrees outvote old-registrees? Plouffe didn't say. Doesn't the candidate's identity make it easier to recruit new, once-disenfranchised voters? That is, isn't the registration blitz just a follow-up to Barack's innate crossover appeal? Is any Democrat registering new rural white voters, for instance? What does a candidate owe the newly-enfranchised? Why should the newly-enfranchised trust this candidate more than others? Why, if you're so confident in the power of grass-roots democracy, would you sponsor such a top-down action? Hasn't the GOP already figured out how to screw with that key disenfranchised poor-urban-black vote that Plouffe wants to turn out?

But my real problem with this plan is its implicit laziness, its complicity in preserving the same old remarkably profitable politics.

Ideally, a candidate changes the electorate -- that is, the people -- through his powers of persuasion. Blitzing the registrar is a tacit admission that not enough people are going to be persuaded. When you can't change heads, change the head count.

Registration blitz inverts the relationship between people and their elected. In this scenario, the candidate selects his people and imagines or demands their allegiance.

Registration blitz elides historical and social reasons for disenfranchisement, presuming that everyone who doesn't vote has been manipulated/discriminated/coerced out of it. Black precincts in Philadelphia have half to a third of the registered voters that white precincts have, and even those voters turn out at just over 35% on average. Philadelphia gets news coverage for having separatist movements, but the real story is that America has been engaged in a low-grade secession/quarantine action ever since 1968. It's protest by dropping out. Why should Plouffe expect to skip his history lesson?

(A side note on social reasons for disenfranchisement: When I had jury duty in February 2007, the presiding judge came to tell us all to get our friends to register to vote. "Don't disenfranchise yourself just to get out of jury duty." My white ass was shocked that anyone would consider not registering just to get out of jury duty...for an instant. Then I remembered what the rest of Philadelphia looks like, how voting hasn't changed shit, and how very much jury duty sucks...and I began to understand. I think it's a lazy, shiftless response, but not totally unwarranted.)

So Plouffe should make a deal: for everybody who registers this cycle and then gets called for jury duty, an Obama volunteer should take their spot. Civic responsibility needs an examplar. You can't hector people into enacting democracy, any more than you can choose who votes for you...
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Jed Report does the due diligence.

Good folks over at the Jed Report have got the video of the McCain Senior Moment/Dodge that I blogged about a short while ago. It's worth a watch.

I liked him more when he was the future SecState.

...so we'll get the plagiarism, the Dunkin' Donuts line, the clean and articulate flop and God knows what else.

We'll also get a refreshing blue-collar battler who's more than capable of delivering a powerful zinger to an opponent. He's funny and comes off as (sometimes painfully) honest and he's a quick wit. He's genuinely likeable, though, and a good balance to sometimes stiff seeming BHO.

Dear God, please don't let him crack a joke about Mexicans, though.

If it is the Clarkveep...

...it will be one of the best bits of political subterfuge in recent memory. But that's neither here nor there...

What's important is that all the oxygen is sucked up. Granted, it is the weekend, but the talk for the whole week has been positive or at worst neutral for Obama: "Who's his veep?!?!"

So the news has been taken up, quite literally, with standby of the... ugh... Veepstakes. (Really? Veepstakes? On every channel? Nobody's got an original thought? Top of my head: Veeps Week, Vice Prize, Second Act, Partner in Primetime, hell, even Veep for Vendetta if he picks someone to snub Hillary.)

Meanwhile, McCain's housing flap continues to take up any possible space he could be mentioned in. Even their "But He's a POW!" defense doesn't get traction because there's no time to talk about it, 'cause that time is taken up by the Veep Watch. (Side note: once SNL does a "When I was in 'Nam" sketch, that defense is done and done.)

In all, masterfully played by the Obama camp.

All roads lead to Hanoi...

I can't believe how easy it is to goad McCain's people into talking about Vietnam.

Earlier this morning, I figured the relevant meme would be "Senility."

I think — I'll have my staff get to you [...] It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you.

Sure. I'm so old and pampered that I have to have my staff get back to you for a one-word answer? That's the senility-meme.

But by now, it's the Vietnam-meme. McCain can't handle his finances himself because he's a POW. Here's Brian Rogers for McCain:

This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison

Oh shit! Ha ha ha! I'm not sure there's anything more to say here...McCain's people now have to explain the intricacies of Illinois property- and campaign-finance law if they want to talk about Rezko. Meanwhile, cheap jokes about McCain losing the keys to his condos abound...
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Evan Bayh at 2-1...

I think BHO's VP is Bayh for a number of reasons. That is, unless the roll call inspires some kind of divine rage in the Old Ladies' Caucus and they turn into the Fedayeen Hillary...

Everyone up Phila way is excited about Joe Biden, pointing to his speech on Georgia, etc., which to our mind should argue for his being SecState. And if that's not enough, how about that olde "clean, articulate" quote?

As for the Virginian who's getting all this play today, when Tim Kaine ran for mayor of Richmond, there was a whispering campaign about his being a closeted homosexual. So imagine BHO picks him and he gets McGreeveyed; Kaine has to make an "I am a Gay American" speech, and we spend the rest of the fall in a McGovernlike VP limbo...BHO is unafraid to subvehicularize: ask Jim Johnson, Jeremiah Wright, Wes Clark, Ludacris, et alia, and the faintest whiff of controversy will kill off the Kaine flirtation...Witness the larger argument against TK here...

Bayh. Obama-Bayh. Political neophyte alongside scion of Indiana dynasty. Indiana, Republican since forever is actually in play...Virginia is not. Virginia belongs to Obama...ergo, Bayh.

More on McCain Housing later
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It's Gore...

...how much you wanna bet?

Or, if not, are we still putting odds on the Clintons mucking up the works at the convention, the delegates losing their mettle, and Al appearing triumphantly from the skies?

What the fuck does anything have to do with Vietnam?

This, too, is going to get old very quickly:

Nicolle Wallace, a spokeswoman for Mr. McCain, said on Sunday night that Mr. McCain had not heard the broadcast of the event while in his motorcade and heard none of the questions.

“The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous,” Ms. Wallace said.

One half expects him to admit to having "dabbled in liberalism... not in 'Nam, of course."

Issue is this: Walter here can only ride the POW thing so far. He's used it in political ads, of course. But he's also used 'Nam as a proof of his economic bona fides:

HOOK: I want to start with Senator McCain.

There's been a lot of discussion lately about the importance of leadership and management experience. What makes you more qualified than Mitt Romney, a successful CEO and businessman, to manage our economy?

MCCAIN: Because I know how to lead. I know how to lead.

I led the largest squadron in the United States Navy. And I did it out of patriotism, not for profit.

And I can hire lots of managers, but leadership is a quality that people look for.

And I have the vision and the knowledge and the background to take on the transcendent issue of the 21st century, which is radical Islamic extremism. I've been involved in every single major national security crisis since -- in the last 20 years. I'm proud to have played a role in those, and I'm proud to have played a role in making sure that we didn't raise the white flag and surrender in Iraq, as the Democrats wanted us to do and we would have done if we had set timetables for a withdrawal.

So, the fact is -- so the fact is that I have the qualifications and the knowledge and the background and the judgment. I don't need any on-the-job training.

MCCAIN: I had the great honor of serving this country in uniform for 22 years.

I had the great honor of being inspired while I was in the prison camps of North Vietnam by the news of a governor and his wife who cared very much about those of us who were in captivity.

And when I came home, I was inspired by him, and I voted for him, and I supported him, and I was proud to be a leader in the Reagan revolution -- I mean, a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution, as we fought these wars together with unshakable courage and principle. And I'm prepared to follow in his tradition and in his footsteps.

Quoted at length to demonstrate the painfulness of the moment, since the video's a bit harder to come by. That was a ramble of at least a minute, maybe two. Not only does he bring in 'Nam to talk about the economy, but he doesn't even answer the question. Seeing it live was cringe-inducing. Seeing it happen again during the debates will be even worse.

Back to 'Nam, though. This is going to be Saturday Night Live fodder by October, because they won't stop pushing it. That quote at the beginning is indicative of the way it's going to go. It's just the thing he and his campaign most naturally fall back upon.

More later...

Dude, you just made me defend FoxNews...

I don't be-lieve you, as the man said.

Sure, Fox looked stupid when it realized it had Ossetians, you could see it coming from the point when he says the girl and her aunt fled via Moscow. The larger embarrassment is to discover that your interview is with a Kremlin partisan rather than with a victim of aggressive war...

Has anyone confirmed their stories? When someone is being bombed, does she know whose bombers they are? If the incoming weapons were artillery, sure, likelihood is Georgian. But Russia had air dominance from the start. Oh, and the niece said she didn't see or hear any bombs at all...Fox didn't cut away because they had the wrong victims; people who would talk about their real pain inflicted by the wrong -- to Fox's mind -- government, but because they didn't have victims at all.

The kicker is the aunt's parroting of Putin's line:

Russian authorities say 2,000 people were killed in fighting around Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, and more than 30,000 refugees fled over the Russian border.

Which would be impressive if it weren't nigh impossible. The estimated population of Ossetia is 30- to 65,000; the estimate is so wide, I imagine, because Ossetia is built like West Virginia on steroids. And you're telling me they all got out of whatever little hollers they live in in 48 hours?

Our best source for Ossetian casualties is the nominal president of Ossetia?

Eduard Kokoity, the president of South Ossetia, said in a statement on a government Web site that hundreds of civilians had been killed in fighting in the capital.

...whose estimate is inflated by "Russian authorities" to 2,000; the Times is content to split the difference: "1500 Reported Killed in Georgia Battle." And this supposed eyewitness' best guess is the same as yours, mine and Putin's?

Presumably, if we believe the 12-year-old and her aunt, we should also believe D.H. Williams of the "Daily Newscaster":

[...]the facts show that Georgian troops lead [sic] by Israeli Mossad agents attacked Russian troops and civilians in Ossetia.

I'm not even sure if I should link to this asshole. Cut and paste this if you must: http://www.dailynewscaster.com/2008/08/14/12-year-old-san-francisco-girl-tells-of-georgian-aggression-against-ossetian-civilians/

Oh, or this asshole: "OSSETIA HOLOCAUST! FOX NEWS LIE!...TRY TO STOP WOMAN TELLING THE TROOTH...[sic]" Again, watch at your own risk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZU8LteAAww

Dude.
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Love seeing the Fox with egg on its face...

Your Daily Tripe Alert...

Short post, this one. Just to point out a bit of foolishness on the Freakonomics Blog. Levitt apparently co-authored a study with some other economists concerning the "plight" of the mixed-race child. It's a Laugher (not the curve).

First off, let's look at that title: "The Plight of Mixed Race Adolescents". "Plight"? Really? One shudders at the thought of the teeming masses of latte-skinned youngin's yearning to walk tall and breathe free, but held back by their mixed-race (which, apparently, Levitt, et al, take to mean solely Black-White mix, more on that in a second) heritage. O, Lord, how many are the foes of these poor miscegenated whelps?

Next, Levitt's conception of race and race relations seems... oh, this is hard to categorize... dumb? There is, of course, the aforementioned assumption that "mixed-race" means Black-White. Pardon me, but isn't there a whole host of racial representations in America? Don't we have people here from all corners of the globe and of every hue? Now, this isn't to say such ideas are particular to Levitt and crew. No, America seems unable to move past a binary representation of "race". But, regardless, you'd think if they're going to attempt to comment on racial relations, they'd at least acknowledge that there are more than two colors. Anyway...

The paper in question gives us other laughers, such as the implication that "interracial intimacy" began some time in the early twentieth century, or that it was slow to grow up until the Civil Rights Movement. Now, granted, with social liberalization there has been an expansion in the rate of mixed-race births. Fine. But let's not assume that just because people weren't categorized as interracial, that means they were "purebreeds" of whatever color. I mean, who doesn't have a "Cherokee Princess" somewhere in their ancestry?

All in all, the methodology is likely as sound as a study such as this can be. But can sound methodology make up for conceptual stupidity? We think not...

Hard Baltics vs. Iron Sphere...

<< Georgia part one

Putin's whole endeavor is to install Moscow-friendly regimes in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, in a paranoid rendition of the US campaign against Serbia. In this version, Russia comes to the rescue of aggrieved Russophile minorities, wages a bombing campaign, and calls actions by the small central government ethnic cleansing. Medvedev's aforementioned background provides the final stroke in the US : Serbia :: Russia : Georgia analogy; the lawyer wants Saakashvili in the Hague.

I can see the Ukraine falling, Saakashvili out of a job, etc., but it seems more likely that Poland and the Baltics will not shit themselves with fear. For one, Putin sounds unhinged, comparing Saakashvili to Saddam Hussein:

"Of course Saddam Hussein had to be hung for destroying some Shia villages. And the current Georgian rulers, who wiped ten Ossetian villages off the face of the Earth in an hour, of course they have to be protected."

Ilves of Estonia said "I am a Georgian"...Lech Kaczynski didn't trust Putin's cease-fire yesterday; today that looks pretty wise, as latest reports have Russians moving out of Gori, deeper into Georgia...

Little Lithuania, whose name was tossed around as an alternate missile defense site, and thus has been put on Putin's shitlist unnecessarily, may prove hard core. A few years ago, Russia cut oil to the Meziekiu Nafta refinery, and then set it on fire.



Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus, unmoved, hinted that the train to Kaliningrad would be shut down for "political repairs":

"We should guarantee the safety of trains and passengers," he said, according to the Baltic News Service. "Should repairs be needed in order to increase the safety of railway services, I see no reason to heat up political tensions."

Calmer than you are. Shit to this effect has been going on every other year for what seems like all decade. The Baltics respond to economic pressure in kind; they don't escalate. They don't mass troops on the borders of some nether region, incapable of being taunted into a "Who's got the bolshy yarbles?" contest. DS presumes the Iron Sphere will not expand...

Trying to stay calm...
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So what are we thinking are the odds that...

...HillyClint gets her name thrown into the nomination... y'know, "just for catharsis' sake"... only to steal the nod with the vote of fully reinstated Florida and Michigan and some delegates she and BillyClint conned into buying that "we would've won without the Haircut in the mix!" argument?

I'm putting it at... oh... 2-1 against?

Also, we really need to get more into that "toes in other waters" aspect of the blog.

Hazards of guessing...

Russian tanks have cut Georgia in half. This is one of the hazards of guessing.

The "democracy agenda" forced Putin's hand. We're expanding NATO, sending anti-ballistic missile batteries to Poland and the Czech Republic, and we were training Georgian troops until this weekend. We assumed a Russian military response to be out of the question. We were wrong.

Fortunately for us, the war in Georgia has taught us rubes the lay of the land. Russia believes a sphere of influence is a sphere of influence. Listen to the prescient Ivan Krastev in 2005:

The “orange triumphalism” in the west that followed the regime changes in Georgia and Ukraine perceives the decline of Russia’s influence in the post-Soviet space as irreversible. The only relevant questions for the democratic triumphalists nowadays are how many more weeks Alexander Lukashenko can survive in power in Minsk and where the next “colour revolution” will take place.

In my view this single-scenario approach is an exercise in wishful non-thinking that underestimates the vulnerability of the newest “new democracies” and neglects Russia’s strategic drive to transform itself from a status-quo power into a revisionist power on the territory of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

While a return to Soviet size and authority is a scary strategic goal, Dark Steer thinks (right?) it unlikely. Putin has had to abduct tycoons, assassinate journalists, poison former spies, poison politicians of the "near abroad", and wage perennial war in his own backyard just to assert control. How many versions of Dagestan are there in Russia? Does Putin need more?

To be more specific, Abkhazia wants independence, not anschluss. Ossetia may feel stable under Russian absorption; a large troop presence there could just as easily invite attacks by Chechen separatists. It's a rough neighborhood, happily cut up by mountains, but rough.

Tentatively, since I was way wrong about the Israel-Syria love connection, I'm going to assume that Putin moves troops up to the outskirts of Tbilisi, scares shit out the populace, and pulls back. Russian "peacekeepers" sit on South Ossetia and Abkhazia, neither of which gains independence. Ukraine's Party of Regions takes parliament, Poland and the Czech shut down missile defense talks...

...Lithuania later...
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Quantum static or something...

...is interfering with our ability to confindently assay predictions on the condition of the electorate...in case you couldn't tell, I've given up on calling this election. BHO might be sitting on a natural straight, leading in states that would add up to 273 electoral votes, etc. But we're so close to the event that our instruments distort its shape.

If K and John Dickerson are right, the electorate shouldn't groove on the Paris-Britney ad. Not just because it violates the prohibition on infantilization of Barack. But because it's old hat. BHO has been a celebrity for a while, remember? Here's Dickerson:

The “One” video shows a clip of Obama describing how on Election Day, “a light will shine down … you will experience an epiphany, and you will say to yourself, I have to vote for Barack.” You could argue that he wasn’t really being self-deprecating, he was actually cloaking his own Messiah complex in a humorous guise. But either way, he was there before McCain.

Except that the attack is paying dividends...let's ignore the wobbly validity of Rasmussen's "Do you trust X to do Y?" formula. (Saying "I trust Richard Nixon to cover his own ass," is not the same as saying "I trust Richard Nixon." But if you listen to Ras, more Americans "trust McCain on the issues." Not deceptive, just an epistemological leap.) When Americans think of the President fulfulling banal duties such as "negotiating trade agreements," they don't want to see Paris Hilton in his plug-in-hybrid Escalade. No Department of the Interior for you either Ms. Spears. Justin Timberlake may still be a dark horse candidate for Treasury...

AdAge helps us stay grounded -- as if the hailstorm of Rasmussen's reminders didn't convince us already that Americans are quasi-Fascist nativist religious freaks. Aghast, we turn the page for the crosstabs, thinking, Who are these rubes? Where do they congregate? -- the ad functions because it has the crack-like properties of all great advertising. You hang on for the kicker: Obama will raise taxes and you will pay more for oil.

Personally, I think this is a blip in the polls. Walnuts is still like a lunar rover, marooned, barely picking up signals from the home base, travelling a desolate landscape with only Rovites to accompany him...Will BHO take the time to remind voters that his opponent is one mescaline hit away from being Mike Gravel? I'm still waiting for the "This isn't the John McCain I had come to respect. I don't know who to trust anymore..."-spiel...

One final note: Presumably the purpose of the bizarre early attacks on Barack was not to damage him directly, but to broaden the scope of possible attacks. Never mind that BHO is not a Muslim, does not wear a turban, sings the anthem, waves the flag, pledges allegiance to the United States of 'Murkka, etc. The mere fact that the slurs got such wide play, and took so long to debunk means that the little lies can just slip in under the radar. I can hear the moderate tone already: "Look, I know he's not a terrorist. But he will raise the price of gas..."
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Just a thought...

Walnuts and crew continue to act in flagrant disregard for the addendum to Dark Steer Theorem #4432, and I would believe this is to their discredit. The disrespect shown by the McCain campaign will bite them in the arse.