Archive for the 'politics' Category

Nothing to See Here

Published
by
mero
3 weeks, 4 days ago
in politics
. 0 Comments

Am I the only person unmoved by the John Edwards affair business? Yes, it was a slimy thing to do, but that’s a matter to be addressed between Edwards and his wife. Why are people so surprised? More than that, why are they so outraged?

We should be aware by this point in time that men in positions of power often cheat on their significant others. Earlier this year Eliot Spitzer’s political career came to a halt when it was revealed he was Client #9. Long before the bitter divorce scandal, Jim “I’m a Gay American” McGreevy resigned after it came out he was having an affair with a man he put on the state payroll. It wasn’t that long ago that Bill Clinton was getting serviced by Monica Lewinsky right in the Oval Office. John F. Kennedy was widely speculated to have more than just a passing fancy in Marilyn Monroe. Hell, if you want to really stretch it back, we already know about the infidelities that Thomas Jefferson had, and now there are a lot of African Americans who are related to him. The point is that men in power often feel compelled to sleep with women (and sometimes men) who are not their spouses.

I’m not trying to say that what happened here is right. I’m just trying to say that this is outrage that is highly misplaced. I think a lot of people take offense to the fact that his wife had cancer and he cheated on her. That’s bad business, to be sure, but again, that’s a personal issue between him and her. And, yes, he lied about it. Of course he lied about it. These things take down politicians. Think about it this way though: in the end he got what was coming to him.  His life in public service is over and he’s going to be branded as a cheat and a bad man. What else is left?

Things are bad enough for that family right now. Let’s just let sleeping dogs lie and understand that Edwards is more than paying for his sins.

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Unafraid

Published
by
mero
1 month ago
in politics
. 0 Comments

You have to give this man props for not being afraid to take these people on head on. The whole tire pressure guage thing is a crock, we all know it, and for once, a politican is not afraid to call bullshit on the whole thing.

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Small Steps

Published
by
mero
1 month, 1 week ago
in politics
. 0 Comments

Could it be that there are finally cracks starting to show in the lovefest that the media has had with John McCain this campaign cycle? Not one, but two NY Times columnists have written about how little we know McCain, and his true nature.

Bob Herbert:

We have a monumental double standard here. Mr. McCain has had trouble in his public comments distinguishing Sunnis from Shiites and had to be corrected in one stunningly embarrassing moment by his good friend Joe Lieberman. He has referred to a Iraq-Pakistan border when the two countries do not share a border.

…

My guess is that most voters don’t see John McCain as an angry candidate, despite several very public lapses. The mythical John McCain is an affable, straight-talking, moderately conservative war hero who is an expert on foreign policy.

Barack Obama is not the only candidate the voters need to know more about.

Frank Rich:

Mr. McCain could also have stepped into the leadership gap left by Mr. Bush’s de facto abdication. His inability to even make a stab at doing so is troubling. While drama-queen commentators on television last week were busy building up false suspense about the Obama trip — will he make a world-class gaffe? will he have too large an audience in Germany? — few focused on the alarms that Mr. McCain’s behavior at home raise about his fitness to be president.

It’s sad to say, however, that this might be as close as we come to a real examination by the mainstream media of McCain’s shortcomings from his short temper to his inability to get his facts straight. There is little desire by the mainstream media to delve into it at any depth. I guess the food at his media barbeques is just that good.

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The Writing on the Wall

Published
by
mero
4 months ago
in politics
. 0 Comments

When even a Beltway wonk like Tim Russert can see things this clearly, it’s time to hang ‘em up and put ‘em out to pasture because the writing is on the wall and it’s so big that it can’t be ignored.

PS:

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Pyrrhic Victory

Published
by
mero
4 months, 2 weeks ago
in politics
. 0 Comments

So after Hillary’s win in PA, the new spin from her supporters, bloggers and politicans alike, is that she’s winning in the popular vote and therefore, she should be the nomiee for president. Obviously, only she can win the big states. He’s faltered now that the pressure is on him. Blah, blah, blah. You know what I say? This is a Pyrrhic victory for Clinton. She may have won the battle, but she won’t win the war.

Let’s look at a few bits of analysis from around the tubes. First, this interesting theory from Kos:

It’s my theory that no endorsement matters except those that deliver a machine. Senators have no machine, so they’re pretty worthless (like Bob Casey). Mayors and machine-state governors, like Nutter and Rendell, matter. Gavin Newsom in San Francisco, who has no machine, didn’t matter, but Antonio Villaraigosa in Los Angeles, who has one of the biggest machines in the planet, delivered strong for Clinton. Obama won Connecticut in large part thanks to New Haven’s mayor John Destefano’s efforts. In Pennsylvania, Clinton had the state’s machine working on her behalf, and it clearly helped cut Obama’s margins in the Philly metro area.

That will even work in a place like here in NJ, where the state government is one big giant machine, and we already know Jon Corzine is cuckoo for Hillary. I’m on his email list and he’s put out several emails in support of Hillary.

Then, we have the reality of the numbers, as explained by Charlie Cook:

But today, she is 133 delegates behind Obama, 1,728 to 1,595, according to NBC News. At this point last week, she trailed by 136 delegates. Since then Clinton has scored a net gain of 10 delegates in Pennsylvania, according to NBC, but has lost a few more superdelegates, so she has made little headway.

Let’s not forget that her projections of primary vote include Michigan and Florida, the two races that don’t count because they broke the DNC’s primary rules. Besides, it’s not about the votes that matters. It’s all about the delegates stupid! More from Cook:

But you can’t change how the game is played once it has begun. The Democrats have decided that the nominee will be determined by the number of delegates won, not by the popular vote, and that primaries held in direct violation of party rules (in this case, Florida’s and Michigan’s) don’t count. End of discussion.

So now that we have that down pat, let’s reexamine her victory. First off, she was projected to win the state by more than 20 points. She won it by 9. She netted 10 delegates from the victory, but hasn’t dented Obama’s lead. She’s not favored to win in North Carolina’s primary on May 6th, and Indiana is a tossup that can easily go Obama’s way if he campaigns strongly there. If she loses both of those, what then?

The most important thing is that this prolonged primary is souring a lot of people and is letting John McCain sit pretty and keep building his positive poll numbers. So yes, Clinton won PA, but at what cost to herself and the party in general? Sounds a lot like a Pyhrric victory to me.

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