Outraged, I say.

Major Garrett on FoxNews said, flatly, that they are at most peeved about this.

What they're really outraged about -- and trying to mau-mau Obama over, using this as pretext and bloody flag -- is help in retiring Hillary's campaign debt. They want Obama's donor mailing list (to solicit donations to retire the debt) and Obama won't budge on that.

It's all about the money, Garrett reported (not speculated) flatly.

Bill Kristol (who is Jewish like disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff) suggests a novel new means to press their ransom -- try to get Hillary's name placed in nomination for vice president.

Posted by: Ace at 05:16 PM | Comments (79)
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Slublog again. Dave with the suggestion for the shield.

Posted by: Ace at 05:06 PM | Comments (56)
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Street protests are nice and the idea of a symbolic roll call for your gal Hillary isn't going to get the job done in the end. So what's a pissed off Hillary voter supposed to do? Noted Neo-Con William Kristol has a way you can make a statement and history.

...(I)f the VP is supposed to handle the DemocratsÂ’ populist economic message: after the last few months of the primary campaign, it would be hard to say Hillary hasnÂ’t proven herself an awfully good carrier of that message. And Hillary can performi the attacking functions of the VP nominee as well as Biden.

Will the Democratic party, which is committed (to say the least) to gender equity, and which in fact has a 50 percent quota for female delegates, accept ObamaÂ’s imposition of a glass ceiling at its convention?

A modest suggestion to my justifiably outraged Democratic friends: HillaryÂ’s name should be placed in nomination not for the presidency (Obama won that more or less fair and square)--but for the vice presidency. It would be an interesting roll call vote.

PUMAs! Attack!

In the meantime, I'll be stocking up on popcorn.

Posted by: DrewM at 04:19 PM | Comments (31)
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Joe Biden has the lowest net worth ranking among all Senators, possibly even negative. It also looks like he's been tapping lines of credit that have very favorable interest rates...like prime, prime+.5% and prime+1%. Joe Biden is his very own personal walking "credit crisis".

Hey Joe, can you get me a hookup with this WSFS Financial outfit? I like the way they roll.

Seriously Joe, you'd have done a lot better as a shyster lawyer doing slip-n-falls.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 02:09 PM | Comments (68)
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Not really a live-blog, because I really don't think I'll be able to sit through it.

Obama is making the introductions and such now.

He successfully nailed the number of states in the union at "fifty." So maybe Genius Joe is rubbing off on him already.

He states Joe Biden was selected as a man ready to step in and be president immediately... but he pointedly does not mention Joe Biden's experience as counting on that score, just their "shared vision" and such. Obviously, he can't say that Biden's long years make him fit for command, because what does that say about Obama?

Makes a point of noting Biden's "Catholic faith." I'm glad we're too elevated to play identity politics here.

Not sure it's his fault, but he mentions Biden's youthful stutter, and how the other kids called him "Buh-buh-buh-Biden." Rather than taking this as poignant, the audience bursts into laughter at the put-down, enjoying the wit of Biden's tormentors.

Ah, Democrats. So sensitive.

Introduced Biden as "the next President" before correcting himself.

Biden jogs out doing that hey-man pointing-thing. He reminds me of Larry Sanders bashfully high-fiving the audience because the network told him he had to.

CNN's News You Can Use: Gabriel writes --

The CNN ticker just ran the numbers of Iraq War and Afghanistan War deaths. Just "keeping you informed."

"The future keeps receding and receding and receding... as you reach for your dreams."

John McCain's kitchen-table worry is "worrying which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at." The crowd roars at the wit.

This is the best they got?

"We can't afford four more years of George Bush... and John McCain."

"The reckoning is now."

"We need more than a good soldier, we need a wise leader."

McCain "served our country with extraordinary courage, and I know he wants to do right by America, but here's the hearth, harsh truth, but you can't change America when you say, quote, the most important issues of the day, I've been totally in agreement and support of President Bush."

Calls Obama "Barack Emir?" Barack America? ??!!!?? Did he just mispeak? What the hell was that?

Barack America is delighted to hear someone praising him.

Biden is literally in love with the world literally. He mispronounced it in an effete, trilling-l's way once too. I want to hear more of that.

Well, I'm spectacularly inspired now.

Honestly... this is a debacle for the Democrats.

Chris Wallace... calls this a much more "specific" and "substantive" message on economics. What? It was all standard crap about building people up rather than tearing them down, and how bad things are, and how we have to improve them.

Is he on crack? A goal is not a plan. And everyone has the same goal. This is neither "specific" nor "substantive" nor "new," Chris.

"Death Wish" Pick: I certainly share their disappointment.

Posted by: Ace at 11:06 AM | Comments (155)
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This, I think, will be one of the most-quoted statements of Biden's appearing in Republican ads.

Democratic ads? Not so much.

Just after 9/11:

At the Tuesday-morning meeting with committee staffers, Biden launches into a stream-of-consciousness monologue about what his committee should be doing, before he finally admits the obvious: “I’m groping here.” Then he hits on an idea: America needs to show the Arab world that we’re not bent on its destruction. “Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran,” Biden declares. He surveys the table with raised eyebrows, a How do ya like that? look on his face.

Captain Ed explains why this is stupid, in case you need edification on that score.

Big bonus points to this self-declared genius (who graduated 76th in a law class of 85) for his self-satisfied, "check me out" look after making this ridiculous proposal.

Posted by: Ace at 11:03 AM | Comments (16)
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The original incident, in case you missed it.

Now he's been fired.

Fort Hays State University has fired its debate coach for losing his temper at a tournament, engaging in a videotaped shouting match that included pulling down his shorts to expose his underwear. [Huh? I thought I saw raw ass.]

University President Edward H. Hammond also announced Friday that the school was immediately suspending its debate program until problems are addressed at the national level. He said it was important to take a stand against the declining standards of college debate.

...

Shanahan told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Friday that while his reasoning might seem convoluted, he argued with the other coach because he respected her and her opinions.

"Obviously it got out of control, but to be honest I thought I was in a safe house," Shanahan said. "I thought I was part of a community that handled its problems internally and that recognized the dangers of exposing ourselves — no pun intended — to the rest of the country."

Don't bother checking his blog -- he hasn't updated in months.

Posted by: Ace at 10:42 AM | Comments (35)
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This is what diplomacy and multilateral decisionmaking looks like, indidentally. So the liberals can't whine on that score.

ussia has hastened Georgia's march toward membership in NATO by going to war with it over its breakaway province of South Ossetia, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Saturday.

"I think what Russia has done now is the strongest catalyst it could have created to get Georgia in NATO," U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, American envoy to the Caucasus, told Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio.

"This is what is going to happen now. Georgia is going to accelerate its march toward NATO and, I hope, to an action plan in December."

Thanks to someone.

Posted by: Ace at 10:19 AM | Comments (18)
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Joe Biden is a scatterbrained and socially awkward guy. He's the guy at the party who announces, out of nowhere, "I just had some subcutaneous fat injected into my penis to increase its girth, so that's pretty good."

And then... the uncomfortable silence as everyone takes keen regard of their shoes and watches.

We're gonna have fun.

Thanks to Mitch.

Posted by: Ace at 09:51 AM | Comments (39)
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There is spin, and then there is spin: a CNBC/NYT reporter claims that Joe Biden's occasional bursts of old-school dumb-but-not-hateful racism are actually "refreshing" and "an asset."

Need I remind anyone that for months the left has been DaVinci Codebreaking every John McCain advertisement for so-called "coded racism." And they were not praising such "coded racism" as "refreshing" or charming in the least.

Rather the opposite.

But when Joe Biden is genuinely, pleasantly surprised that an African-American manages to wash himself on occasion, it's a good thing! It just shows, I guess, that he's "relatable" to all those Racist Older White voters. I guess the idea is that Joe Biden can make the case, "Hey, I'm as surprised as you all are to be running with a darkie. But I have to tell you -- he's one of the 'good ones,' like Cosby or Byron Allen. He's like the new, family-friendly Ice Cube, not the old, angry Ice Cube that your daughter would date to get back at you for not buying her that Mini Cooper she wanted."

Brilliant.

Allah thinks he's figured out the highly nuanced distinction: clumsy, retrograde soft-racism that sounds like Archie Bunker getting into it with Meathead is good because it's right out there out in the open, charming and disarming, whereas McCain's "racist" ads are coded.

McCain's "stealth racism" appeals to our lizard brains, while Joe Biden's open racism appeals to our higher selves.

So there's McCain's opportunity, I guess. Start dropping jokes he heard from old Friar Club roasts and/or Rat Pack Vegas shows.

"Hey, I'm glad that Obama is here on stage with me at this debate... now I don't have to worry about my hub-caps... "

(audience laughs)

"Hey, Obama, what are you doing out here at the podium? My hotel room's not clean yet."

(audience laughs, applauds)

"No, but seriously folks, a lot of people have a problem that Obama's half-black. Let's be positive about this. He's half-white, too."

(great burst of laughter; as applause dies down, one woman can be heard saying "That's true, it's funny because it's true")

Ahhh... can't wait.

(Joke credits: 1, from Amazon Women on the Moon, said of "Slappy" White during the roast/funeral service; 2, Don Rickles, speaking of his opening act Patti LaBelle; 3, Sarah Silverman. "It's funny because it's true" -- The Simpsons.)

Round-Up: Instapundit links a bunch of stuff.

Daily Kos Now Sets the Agenda for the NYT and MSNBC: DKos is right there with the "Biden's racial gaffes are actually a good thing" meme.

Here is my thinking.

Joe Biden is obviously someone who means well on race. He fought for civil rights. But occasionally, he says something politically incorrect.

I think a lot of white voters who may be suspicious, but still open to supporting, Obama can relate to this. They don't think of themselves as racists and one of the things they fear is being branded as a racist because they may say something that is not entirely politically correct.

The way that McCain plans to get these voters is to play up the meme of reverse racism. They claimed that Obama "played the race card from the bottom of the deck" when he made said that the republicans would portray him as different (which they have been), as not looking like "all those presidents on the dollar bills."

What the McCain people were intimating to (white) voters is that if Obama is elected president, white voters will live in a state of hyper-political-correctness in which anything you say will be interpreted as racist. The McCain campaign wants to stoke white resentment of political correctness in order to get him votes at the polls.

This is why the Biden pick is so brilliant. If Obama can pick as his VP someone who has made racially insensitive comments but clearly has a good heart on these issues, I think that sends a message to many white voters who can relate to Biden on that. I think many white voters want racial progress, they just don't want to be browbeaten about it or crucified if they say something mildly offensive.

Note the giveaway that it's really not about what you might say. It's how you vote "on the issues." The "racist remark" thing is just a proxy for denigrating a politician who disagrees with you "on the issues."

Thanks to JackStraw.

Hmm... The Daily Kos post went up at 5:07 Pacific Time.

This doofus made his claim on MSNBC at 5:53 Pacific Time.

It's quite possible he simply swiped the idea from the DKos, maybe reading his favorite blog in the green room.

I have to point out their remarks are very similar -- both make the case that Joe Biden's racial insensitivity reassures voters that a Barack Obama presidency will not be hyper-PC, so people don't have to worry about making the occasional racially insensitive remark and getting heat for it.

That's the main point of both morons.

I realize that great ideas are often independently discovered, as human minds are always reaching out for them, but what about droolcup-stupid ideas?

More: The Daily Kos post is listed on the front page under "Recent Diaries." I don't know when it got so listed, but it's not recent anymore, and yet it's still in a high position. So, assuming it's been listed there for a while, that would make it easier for this dope to have found it and swiped it.

Posted by: Ace at 09:25 AM | Comments (44)
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