Allah thinks it's a good straight jab.

I don't know. This isn't terribly high-profile. It's a mid-day interview on a news channel. What about an ad? Radio spots? A full-on blitz?

CJ sends this with the question "Will those who spun the stalking horse claim now retract it?"

I never thought he was running as a "stalking horse." He may like McCain, but not that much. Still, he seems to be holding off on attacking comparing himself to McCain out of friendship, respect, or, who knows, the notion that he shouldn't bloody up the likely nominee too much.

Oh, and Dean Barnett puts his finger on the reason that many haven't cottoned to Mitt Romney.

Posted by: Ace at 09:52 AM | Comments (42)
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Via the Corner, by way of Lucianne.com.

Posted by: Ace at 09:46 AM | Comments (12)
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It is pretty comical to see the Obama and Clinton campaigns fighting over who made the election about race. Clinton-supporter Charlie Rangel got into the act today:

"How race got into this thing is because Obama said ‘race,’” New York Rep. Charlie Rangel, one of the highest-ranking African-Americans in Congress, said in an interview on NY1.

“But for him to suggest that Dr. King could have signed [the Voting Rights Act] is absolutely stupid. It's absolutely dumb to infer that Doctor King, alone, passed the legislation and signed it into law."

Which is not quite what Obama said. It is, however, close enough for horseshoes, hand grenades, and identity politics. Rangel was reacting to what Obama said this weekend:

"I am baffled by that statement by the Senator. She made an ill-advised statement about Dr. King, suggesting that Lyndon Johnson had more to do with the Civil Rights Act. For them to somehow suggest that we're interjecting race as a consequence of a statement she made, that we haven't commented on, is pretty hard to figure out."

Let me get this straight. These two are fighting over whether a black man or a white man was more important when it comes to civil rights. There is irony here. In fact, there is so much irony that my head is spinning.

These liberal paragons of tolerance and virtue are having a very public fight over which of them gets to lay claim to which dead-guy proxy for values. More than that, they're trying to puff up their own proxy's credentials at the expense of the other's. And it's all about race.

Charlie Rangel, like all Clinton supporters with a microphone, can't help himself. He has to talk about the drug thing. And in his cynical view, the only reason Obama would reveal his teenage drug use is because it would make him some money.

Rangel also implied that ObamaÂ’s admission of prior drug use in his autobiography may have had a financial motive: "I assume that the book was not written for political purposes. It was honestÂ….It was a big mistake for him to have done it [used drugs.] For him to be honest enough to write about it, I guess he thought it might sell books."

WHOOPS: While I'm thinking about it, these folks need to learn the difference between the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. They are, in fact, different laws.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:30 AM | Comments (99)
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Who said the following on the campaign trail?

"For those of us for whom summer is not a verb, for those of us who didn't go to fancy boarding schools on the east coast, for those of us who didn't grow up with a silver spoon, who were lucky to have a spoon — ask those folks and they'll tell you the economy is not doing well for them..."

A. John Edwards
B. Barack Obama
C. Hillary Clinton
D. Mike Huckabee more...

Posted by: Slublog at 05:33 AM | Comments (90)
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Over at Seedubya's, who points out that while practicing to be a lawyer in Texas without a license is a felony (it is?) may be fun, but not nearly as much fun as pulling a police badge you're not entitled to out of your bathrobe to claim custody of a naked woman who has fled your hot tub.

Welcome to the Texas criminal justice system Mr. Celis. All of my experiences certainly sucked, I have no reason to think yours will turn out any different.

When he told me about this, Seedub just had to point out twice that practicing law in Texas without a license is a crime, like I wouldn't believe him or something.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 05:09 AM | Comments (10)
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OK, just one more thing from me while I can't get back to sleep. I can't equal the pieces Slublog and Gabe have done here about Huckabee & his supporters since the Iowa caucus, but there's just one little thing about St. Huck that's been bothering me, and as long as I'm awake, I'm going to finally try to put it out there for public consumption.

I think the whole Huckabee campaign and my problems with it can be summed up in a couple of details of his immigration policy. more...

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 03:20 AM | Comments (24)
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Sometimes, if we give Bandit The Wonder Dog too many after-dinner treats, he wakes us up about this time of the morning needing to go out and "take care of business". Since my wife's pregnant, lately I've been directed to take him out myself. I believe the exact quote is "Hey, take care of your damn dog!" Sometimes, while I'm standing in the cold waiting for him to find the perfect spot to loosen his bowels on, I have lightning strikes of inspiration. This morning, instead of going right back to bed, I decided to log on and share the inspiration with my favorite morons.

This morning, my thoughts drifted towards our favorite Constitutional Defender, Herr Doktor Science. I don't know why. Maybe it was the cold freezing my brain cells, maybe the strained look on Bandit's face as he tried to expel the last little bit of doggie doo from his colon reminded me of Herr Doktor's facial expressions from the last debate...but either way, my thoughts focused on Herr Doktor and his fiscal policies this morning.

Here's the breakdown: more...

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 02:16 AM | Comments (12)
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Kevin McCullough, "the heir apparent to Dobson and Falwell" and "one of the most widely respected evangelical voices in the nation today" is deeply concerned about the filthy, beastly video games that young men are playing these days. In his latest column, targeting the new "Sex-box" 360 game Mass Effect, he wants to know what the presidential candidates are going to do about it.

Light of Day Update
Good morning, morons. I awoke thinking I might want to add a few things to my insomnia-fueled rant.

First, I have not played Mass Effect. I don't have much free time these days.

Second, yes, that's quite a few words spent on someone we've never heard of before. His call to "ban that filth" is something that brings me close to anger and it motivated me to write back when I thought he was talking about protecting 15 year olds. After I kept reading and it turned out that he wants to use the government to take adult content out of the hands of adults too, well, that deserved a mention.

Third, if Mr. Heir Apparent is interested in a nationwide ban for the children (!) I wonder what Governor-Reverend Certain Fuckin' Doomabee thinks. Such a thing wouldn't pass constitutional muster as the law currently stands; but the Supreme Court has surprised us before.

Four, maybe "God-botherer" was a little rude. Evangelical readers are liable to take that as a slur against their tribe, and I get that. Sorry. more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 01:02 AM | Comments (58)
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The Democratic Party's race issues were coming home to roost this week, as Hillary Clinton hastily-fired Clinton campaign staff and Clinton supporters continued to alternate between assertions and insinuations that Obama is either not black enough to be "in touch" with Democratic voters or disqualified for being a former (wink, wink) drug user. The Obama campaign is hitting back:

AP: Obama Criticizes Clinton Allies for Lawsuit to Prevent Minorities From Voting
I don't think we discussed it here yet, so here's a little background. Back in March, the Nevada Democratic Party approved new rules which will allow Las Vegas Strip employees to caucus at locations inside nine of the casinos. The DNC approved in August. The point of the new rules is to let employees who would not be able to make it to other, presumably off-strip, caucus locations on Saturday take part in the voting.

On Wednesday of last week, the 60,000 member Culinary Union endorsed Obama. The union is almost 40 percent Hispanic, and together blacks and Hispanic voters make up a third of Nevada's electorate. On Friday, the Nevada teachers' union, with a Clinton supporter at the helm, filed suit to block the new rules. Of the six plaintiffs, four of them were on the Democratic committee that approved the new rules last year.

I'm sure you see where this is headed. Obama is questioning the timing and calling foul on the race aspect of the story. Personally, I doubt that Clinton gives a hoot about the race of the voters involved. She just believes that they plan to vote against her.

Asked about the lawsuit while campaigning in Reno, Clinton said she was aware of it and hopes it "can be resolved by the courts and the state party because, obviously, we want as many people as possible to be able to participate."

Uh huh.

Meanwhile, the New York Times is fanning the race flames and, of course, Al Sharpton makes an appearance:

Mr. Obama confronts a history of often uneasy and competitive relations between blacks and Hispanics, particularly as they have jockeyed for influence in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

“Many Latinos are not ready for a person of color,” Natasha Carrillo, 20, of East Los Angeles, said. “I don’t think many Latinos will vote for Obama. There’s always been tension in the black and Latino communities. There’s still that strong ethnic division. I helped organize citizenship drives, and those who I’ve talked to support Clinton.”

[...]

The Rev. Al Sharpton of New York, who has been on the front line of many of the black-Latino battles in New York politics, said the tension would be a problem for Mr. Obama across the country and in New York, which also votes on Feb. 5. He said Mr. Obama would be at a disadvantage because of his choice to be a “race-neutral candidate.”

“It’s going to be a challenge that he has got to deal with,” Mr. Sharpton said. “There’s a natural history, and we’ve made some progress. But he has not been part of those efforts to make progress.”

The type of racial issues that have embarrassed Democrats during the past week have been faintly uncomfortable for me to watch. On the one hand, they're getting what they deserve out of a political philosophy that embraces responding to people as identity groups rather than individuals. On the other, how sad is it to see Clinton trying to get votes by eating a taco in East L.A. or hear Obama trying to get past his particular identity group's issues by chanting in Spanish?

This is the stuff presidents are made of?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:59 PM | Comments (33)
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I didn't know they did politics. Definitely slow-pitch softball, but some good stuff. Here are some excepts;

[ELLE] YouÂ’re running as a Republican for President Dr. Paul, but arenÂ’t your positions and proposals really sort of out of the mainstream of the Republican Party?

[RP] I don't need the party to impress, man. It's a flash of a smile, the correct ideology and a nice conversation. And at the end of the day, theyÂ’re cooking the food.

[ELLE] What about the other candidates? WhatÂ’s it like competing for the Republican Party nomination when some of your views and proposals are so different from the other guys vying for the nomination as well?

[RP] Well, you know these guys want to win, and you want to win, and people need time to digest and understand my message. So I donÂ’t just throw it all out there, open myself up to everything. I give it out a little bit at a time, in speeches, the website, and newsletters. I have to stay very closed off until a voter deserves to know me completely.

UPDATE [DiT]: I know, it's old. Too bad the original isn't on the Elle site anymore.

more...

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 06:17 PM | Comments (17)
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