Campaign 2008

[SuperJerk 0]

I was mad at Wellstone for not running in 2000. Sufficed to say, I was a bit more liberal back then.

[snuffbox 0]

He had a real Gene McCarthy vibe to him.

[Guest "Go, Mordecai!"]

Minnesota cranks out some good people, like Gene McCarthy, or Piss.

[SuperJerk 0]

**cough**Hubert Humphrey**cough**

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That's like listing Joe McCarthy along with Bob La Follette & Gaylord Nelson as Wisconsin's great polititians.

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Blah, blah...Warren Harding...blah, blah...

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One of my favorite Hube stories comes from the epic book on the 1968 campaign, An American Melodrama, by Lewis Chester, Godfrey Hodgson, & Bruce Page.

 

During the 1966 campaign, it seems, Humphrey went on a hedge-hopping stump tour of Minnesota. At each stop he greeted the notables lined up to meet him and asked them which church they belonged to. If the man said he was a Methodist, Humphrey (who is a Congregationalist) would say joyously that he was a Methodist too. If the next man said, "Baptist," Humphrey would say he was a Baptist. After he had told Episcoplalians that he was an Episcoplaliann and Lutherans he was a Lutheran, one of his fellow campaigners took him to one side and said, "Gosh, Hubert, you're going to get caught up in this. You can't tell everyone you belong to their church." Humphrey is alleged to have looked puzzled. "Why not?" he said. "I'm a Christian"

[SuperJerk 0]

Just because it was in a book, doesn't make it true.

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That's like a Stephen Colbert joke, only I think you actually meant it.

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I once read in a book that Warren Harding was our worst president.

 

 

Just saying.

[Guest "Go, Mordecai!"]

One of my favorite Hube stories comes from the epic book on the 1968 campaign, An American Melodrama, by Lewis Chester, Godfrey Hodgson, & Bruce Page.

 

During the 1966 campaign, it seems, Humphrey went on a hedge-hopping stump tour of Minnesota. At each stop he greeted the notables lined up to meet him and asked them which church they belonged to. If the man said he was a Methodist, Humphrey (who is a Congregationalist) would say joyously that he was a Methodist too. If the next man said, "Baptist," Humphrey would say he was a Baptist. After he had told Episcoplalians that he was an Episcoplaliann and Lutherans he was a Lutheran, one of his fellow campaigners took him to one side and said, "Gosh, Hubert, you're going to get caught up in this. You can't tell everyone you belong to their church." Humphrey is alleged to have looked puzzled. "Why not?" he said. "I'm a Christian"

Interesting. That's similar to how in Fear and Loathing '72, HST recounts how Humphrey would tell union guys he's a friend of labor, tell Christians he's a friend of God, and so on. Same general idea, but the one you mentioned is even more disingenuous.

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Humphrey's jellyfish antics will never cease to amuse me. The guy even modeled his home after LBJ's.

 

The "politics of joy"...in 1968, the year of war, assassination, and riots. Better than fiction.

 

Did you finish Fear/Loathing/72, Czech?

[Guest "Go, Mordecai!"]

I'm into June. I'm going to resume it on Tuesday when I get back home. Really good book, though.

[snuffbox 0]

I've actually gone thru several copies of that book. I seem to meet at least one new person a year that I think should read and give them my copy. Fortunately, it only costs about $8 new, and I've had good luck finding replacements at Baltimore's 'Book Thing' (free book store) whenever I visit the Charm City/Jungle.

 

You might want to look into some of the books of Thompson's correspondence...interesting letters between him & his odd assortment of friends: Walter Mondale, Jimmy Carter, McGovern, Pat Buchanon, Oscar Acosta, Gary Hart, among others. Large volumes of hit/miss material that is easy to pick & choose from.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

http://politicalinsider.com/2006/12/more_on_warner.html

 

There are rumors on the internets that Mark Warner is reconsidering his dropout...

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What is Warner's opinion on Iraq?

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

These "Rules of Primary Campaign Discourse" seem relevant to the arguments between me, snuffbox, Jerk, & gWIL (et al) in this thread.

 

Your favorite candidate is the only one who can win.

 

Your favorite candidate is the only one who will truly get behind a progressive agenda.

 

Other candidates are part of some nefarious conspiracy to destroy your candidate.

 

Supporters of other candidates are motivated by groupthink.

 

Supporters of other candidates are operating in bad faith and arguing dishonestly.

 

Anyone who's supporting someone other than your candidate, especially if that candidate is less progressive than yours, must be getting paid to advocate for that candidate.

 

from atrios

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

Newsweek 12/17/06

 

Clinton's up 50-43 over McCain, 48-47 over Three Wives Giuliani, 58-32 over Mitt Romney.

 

McCain beats Obama 45-43, Giuliani beats Obama 47-44, Obama beats Romney 55-25.

 

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories....92582&EDATE via Atrios

[SuperJerk 0]

Newsweek 12/17/06

 

Clinton's up 50-43 over McCain, 48-47 over Three Wives Giuliani, 58-32 over Mitt Romney.

 

McCain beats Obama 45-43, Giuliani beats Obama 47-44, Obama beats Romney 55-25.

 

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories....92582&EDATE via Atrios

This helps validate my opinion that Guiliani is the GOP's best shot. The Christian Right will vote for him because he's not Hillary, and white collar Republicans think he's their moderate messiah. The man shits charisma and has the kind of commanding presence no one in his party can match. They'll conveniently look the other way on his personal life and past sins like they did for W. McCain's the career senator they thought was a mentally ill psuedo-Democrat back in 2000. Both men hosted Saturday Night Live, and McCain had a cameo in "Wedding Crashers." The only issue McCain can use to beat Guiliani with is abortion, which will kill his chances in the general election when his opponent will probably be a woman. Guiliani is also the GOP's chance to milk 9/11 for yet another election victory.

 

Your favorite candidate is the only one who will truly get behind a progressive agenda.

I don't think there ever was any chance of me saying this about Evan Bayh.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

Giuliani is reticent about how he would overcome these obstacles...His strategy will be to capitalize on his status as a tough and plain-talking hero of Sept. 11, 2001. He believes, say advisers, that his tough views on national security -- he supports the USA Patriot Act -- and on Iraq, where he opposes withdrawal of troops, will overshadow his liberal social views. He will frame some of those positions as libertarian -- government has no business interfering in the bedroom.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6121801410.html

[SuperJerk 0]

Opposition to the Guiliani candidacy also highlights how out of the mainstream the party's core supporters are. Go ahead, have a bitter primary battle over abortion and gay civil unions instead of talking about national security issues and the economy, and see how far your party gets in a general election. How good an image will the party have after the hero of 9/11 gets called a "baby killer" by the very voters he's trying to appeal to? Behold, the Republican Civil War is upon us.

 

This is a no-loose situation for the other 70% of the country. Either the Republicans reject his candidacy and look like nothing but a bunch of reactionaries who want to use the government to impose their narrow view of morality on the rest of us (thereby pushing themselves into the status of a fringe party), or Guiliani pulls the party towards the center and the theocratic elements within the party loose influence. The party hasn't had to make these kinds of hard ideological choices since Reagan's candidacy, so no Republican presidential nominee has had to draw clear lines on these issues in over a generation. Dubya was able to side-step the abortion issue altogether by not having to talk about it. Now, someone has to not only talk about what they'd do about it, but then run against a woman in the general election.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

Barack Hussein Obama: Once a Muslim, Always A Muslim

 

By Debbie Schlussel

 

Many months ago, readers began asking me whether Barack Obama is Muslim. Since he identifies as a Christian, I said, "no," and responded that he was not raised by his Kenyan father.

 

But, then, I decided to look further into Obama's background. His full name--as by now you have probably heard--is Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. Hussein is a Muslim name, which comes from the name of Ali's son--Hussein Ibn Ali. And Obama is named after his late Kenyan father, the late Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., apparently a Muslim.

 

And while Obama may not identify as a Muslim, that's not how the Arab and Muslim Streets see it. In Arab culture and under Islamic law, if your father is a Muslim, so are you. And once a Muslim, always a Muslim. You cannot go back. In Islamic eyes, Obama is certainly a Muslim. He may think he's a Christian, but they do not...

 

Then, there are the other items in his background. As best-selling author Scott Turow wrote in Salon, Obama went to a Muslim school for two years in Indonesia. His mother, Anna, married an Indonesian man (likely another Muslim, as Indonesia is Muslim-dominated and has the largest Islamic population in the world).

 

And Obama has a "born-again" affinity for the nation of his Muslim father, Kenya, and his Kenyan sister. (Although Kenya is largely Christian, it has a fast-growing Muslim population that has engaged in a good deal of religious violence and riots against Christians. And Kenyan courts will apply Sharia law, when the participants are Muslim.) Wrote Turow:

 

"Obama's father died in a traffic accident in Nairobi in 1982, but while Obama was working in Chicago, he met his Kenyan sister, Auma, a linguist educated in Germany who was visiting the United States. When she returned to Kenya in 1986 to teach for a year at the University of Nairobi, Obama finally made the trip to his father's homeland he had long promised himself. There, he managed to fully embrace a heritage and a family he'd never fully known and come to terms with his father, whom he'd long regarded as an august foreign prince, but now realized was a human being burdened by his own illusions and vulnerabilities."

 

So, even if he identifies strongly as a Christian, and even if he despised the behavior of his father (as Obama said on Oprah); is a man who Muslims think is a Muslim, who feels some sort of psychological need to prove himself to his absent Muslim father, and who is now moving in the direction of his father's heritage, a man we want as President when we are fighting the war of our lives against Islam? Where will his loyalties be?

 

Is that even the man we'd want to be a heartbeat away from the President, if Hillary Clinton offers him the Vice Presidential candidacy on her ticket (which he certainly wouldn't turn down)?

 

NO WAY, JOSE . . . Or, is that, HUSSEIN?

 

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/20...ck_hussein.html

 

Oh noes~!

 

Sorry Czech, but

...the racist formulation, 'once a Jew, always a Jew' central to the ideology of Nazi Germany.

from The History of Anti-Semitism: The Longest Hatred

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

I heard some rightwing radio guy throwing around the "Hussein Osama" when talking about the Senator the other day, too. I think crap like this could actually get sympathy for Obama.

[Guest "Go, Mordecai!"]

I've never thought of him as a Muslim, and if he's a practicing Christian, then what's the issue here?

[SuperJerk 0]

Considering that (1) almost the entire point of Christianity is that it is something you can choose to join without having to be born into (your are redeemed by the "blood of Christ"), and (2) any religious tests for office are explicitedly forbidden by our Constitution, that piece seems to be advocating something that is both un-Christian and illegal.

 

This Debbie Schlussel sounds like a typical shit-for-brains bigot.

 

edit: After some quick research on teh internets, turns out that Debbie is Jewish. That's a significant detail since she's trying to decree who is a Christian and who is not.And she really, really, really, really seems to hate Muslims. A lot.

 

 

edit2: After some slightly less quick and vomit-inducing research on her blog, turns out Debbie thinks Sam Brownback and George Bush aren't conservative enough. I think the term "Coulter-level Whack Job" applies here.

 

edit3: Apparently she's also a regularly featured conservative commentator on Fox News.

Edited December 20, 2006 by SuperJerk

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

edit: After some quick research on teh internets, turns out that Debbie is Jewish.

 

You had to do research to find out Debbie Schlussel was Jewish?

 

[SuperJerk 0]

I live in Missouri.

 

I've met, like, probably 10 Jews in my entire life.

 

Adam Sandler's Chanukah Song was a real eye-opener for me.

[Slayer 0]

I've never thought of him as a Muslim

A black kid walked up to me today and asked if it was okay to be a black Christian-née-Muslim Senator Presidential Candidate

[SuperJerk 0]

With Eye on '08, Huckabee hosts Fundraiser in Little Rock

 

 

LITTLE ROCK- Governor Huckabee says the important thing in making a run for the White House is having a message that people can relate to.

 

But he said Saturday night that money comes second as he considers running for president. Enough people can apparently relate to Huckabee's message to bring in more than a $500,000 for his political action committee at a gala last night in Little Rock.

 

The affair was a test of his fundraising ability for a potential White House run. Huckabee said the event was to raise money for his PAC and not for a presidential campaign, but 2008 was clearly on the minds of many people attending the fundraiser.

 

Stickers saying "Mike Huckabee President'' were seen throughout the ballroom at the Statehouse Convention Center. The governor, however, said they weren't an indication that he was definitely running.

 

He said they were just an indication that he has some friends who made some stickers. He acknowledged that it would be a challenge to raise the tens of millions of dollars that experts say would be needed in early 2007 for a serious White House bid.

http://www.kait8.com/Global/story.asp?S=5825741&nav=0jsh

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Edwards officially announced. He still needs to work on the "uh"s.