In elegant speeches that competed only to upstage each other in their enthusiasm for endorsing Barack Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton have struck a blow against those (including yours truly) who have condemned them as hopeless narcissists incapable of transcending their megalomania and hubris.

Hillary led off with a litany of endorsements on the issues, marginalizing the last vestiges of a few fringe Hillary supporters calling themselves “PUMAs” (”Party Unity My Ass”, though their numbers were also swelled by “Operation Chaos” interlopers from the Republican camp trying to sow dissension) who had threatened to put a stain on Obama’s victory parade.  And after pundits had nit-picked about Hillary’s omission of an explicit endorsement of Obama’s commander-in-chief credentials, former president Bill slammed that door shut too:

“Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world. Ready to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States.”

I try to admit it when I’m wrong.  And I was wrong about Hillary and Bill’s ability to step aside with class when the time came to do so.

Update from Claudia: As another naysayer of the Clinton’s capacity for going beyond their own defeat, I too admit that I was clearly severely mistaken. They showed they did know how to be a class act, after all.

Senator John McCain has decided on his running mate. According to insiders he will reveal his choice at a rally at Dayton, Ohio, this Friday at 11 A.M.

There are only three or four insiders who know who McCain has chosen. No one else is allowed to know and, sadly, these individuals keep their mouth shut. However, high ranking Republicans say the list has not changed; it one of the following three. (more…)

By being the only presidential candidate on the ballot. Apparently everyone else forgot to file in time…

From Ballot Access News:

Section 192.031 of the Texas election code says that political parties must certify their presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the November ballot no later than 70 days before the general election. It says, “A political party is entitled to have the names of its nominees for president and vice-president placed on the ballot if before 5 p.m. of the 70th day before presidential election day, the party’s state chair signs and delivers to the secretary of state a written certification of the name’s of the party’s nominees for president and vice-president.”

This year, that deadline is August 26. UPDATE: At 2:30 pm Texas time, August 27, Kim Kizer of the Texas Secretary of State’s elections division says neither major party’s certification has been received in the Elections Division. The Executive Office of the Secretary of State refers all questions back to the Elections Division.

This year, neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party obeyed this law. See this link to the Secretary of State’s web page showing a blank for the Republicans and Democrats for president.

Well that kind of puts McCain in a bit of a bind now doesn’t? In all seriousness I’m sure some sort of workaround will be found.  But on a purely hypothetical level this oversight is highly amusing to consider for a spell.

H/T Below the Beltway

X-posted

Four men, all members of a racist motorcycle club, have been arrested in Denver. Denver police believe the men planned to assassinate Democratic nominee for the presidency Barack Obama.

One of the men, Tharin Gartrell, was arrested after a routine traffic stop during which police found two rifles, meth, ammunition and high-powered scopes. (more…)

John McCain’s campaign offices in Denver, Colorado, received a threatening letter containing an, as of yet, unidentified white powder.

At least 19 people were checked by doctors while experts tried to find out whether the white substance was hazardous or not. (more…)

Fun! Joe Biden, the Democratic choice for the Vice Presidency and thus running mate of Barack Obama, has opened the attack on John McCain. The attack is simple, and will be repeated time and again: John McCain and George W. Bush are the same. (more…)

For two partisan, or at least ideological, takes on Barack Obama’s choice for his running mate, Joe Biden, I recommend these two articles:

“Why Biden is the Perfect Pick” by Reid Wilson for Real Clear Politics

“Obama’s Error: Biden Gains Him Nothing” by Jay Nordlinger for National Review Online

As for who is right and who is wrong… Both are a little bit right, and a little bit wrong. They would never publicly admit this, but it is true. Both have good points; one focuses on Biden’s weaknesses pretending he does not have any strengths, the other on his strengths while ignoring his weaknesses.

Supporters of Hillary Clinton are split over Barack Obama’s decision to ask Joe Biden to become his running mate (which the latter accepted, it was announced earlier). Some consider Biden a good choice - experienced, good knowledge about foreign policy issues, quite a good relationship with Democratic activists, being able to appeal to centrists and independents nonetheless - while others believe Obama’s decision is an insult to Clinton. (more…)

Although I do not care too much about ‘perception,’ there is a need to look at what Biden being Barack Obama’s running mate means. In this post I will focus on the weaknesses, not on the strengths of the choice.

To me, Biden is one of the Democratic Party’s best politicians. He is solid, serious yet with a sense of humor, well informed and experienced. He has a long record, and one knows what to expect with him. He was more a centrist before he started to run for president in 2007, but he is still someone who should appeal to both centrists and the liberal base. (more…)

Well the instant message finally arrived. Biden is the VP nominee for the Democratic Party. The Obama camp put up a valiant effort to keep the pick secret until the very end, and though they didn’t entirely manage it, having kept the thing under wraps from a downright rabid press for as long as they did deserves to be commended.

Now, after the fevereish VP guessing game comes the fevereish VP evaluation game. Predictably, almost all the evaluation is going into political perception, not actual judgement.

(more…)

There have been rivers of real and virtual ink, and days of tv network time dedicated to the (eagerly awaited) massive flight of women from the Obama camp. They would never accept Obama. They would be too angry to vote for him after he beat Clinton. They would blame him for all the slights against Clinton in the media. They would go to McCain that made them “feel secure”. Ironically, underlying many of these predictions there seemed to be a thread of (sometimes minor sometimes glaring) sexism; an assumption that women were so emotional that they’d resent Obama forever, so fearful that they’d go to McCain.

Well it’s a good thing virtual ink is free, because as it turns out, the exodus did not happen.

(more…)

History gets rewritten over and over these days. Many attempted rewrites and their “proofs” are sometimes laughable, most often tragic. In all cases they are despicable lies. Occasionally they are the result of woeful misinformation (read: miseducation). Bolivarian politics, like Bolivarian econmics, lead to educational bankruptcy.

[…]

Venezuelan Bonilla-Molina - a leading proponent of Bolivarian educational reforms interviewed one of Chavez political heroes, Bill Ayers. Where Hugo Chávez “Bolivarian Revolution” is heading is unfortunate, it is obvious that Simón Bolívar - the great Libertador of Latin America - must repulsed at the misuse of his name and turning in his grave. Unfortunately, for us in the USA, one of Professor Ayers indoctrinates is currently running for President. Think about it, gentle reader… think about it!

For the whole post, please go to: Freedom’s Cost

David Gergen writes for Anderson Cooper’s blog at CNN that Barack Obama is in desperate need of a ‘game changer.’ John McCain and his team, and the RNC of course, have done well in recent months and weeks. They have succeeded in setting the agenda, they are dominating the political debate. Whenever an issue comes up, when something big happens, it are Republicans who are able to seize on it.

And when an issue is not an issue, they are able to make it one. (more…)

Ex-Democrat Joe Lieberman will speak at this year’s Republican convention in support of the nominee of the GOP for the presidency, Senator John McCain.

Lieberman was the Democratic VP candidate only eight years ago. In recent years, however, he broke with the Democratic Party, mostly over the War in Iraq. (more…)

We can now definitely say that Senator John McCain has a serious chance of winning the elections in November; according to the latest Zogby/Reuters poll, he has opened a lead of 5%. That’s for the first time in months that McCain has taken such a lead. Better; it’s for the first time this campaign. (more…)

McCain, at an event in New Hampshire some time ago, decided to express his anger with an intelligence report that downplayed the Iranian nuclear threat. Amongst other things, he had this to say:

At the end of a long list of reasons to be suspicious of the Iranians, McCain declared: “And they sure don’t share our Judeo-Christian values.”

There are several reasons why this is offensive to, well, just about everyone.

(more…)

The Washington Post should be ashamed of its own reporting of the 2008 campaigns; it now admits that it covered Obama three times more than it covered McCain. That is a horrendous figure for a leading American newspaper, and one that should result in mass lay-offs.

One could argue that Obama got more attention because he deserved it; he was the one who got a real movement going, and whose success was historic in so far that a black man had never before secured the nomination of one of the major political parties in the United States.

(more…)

Barack Obama criticized Senator John McCain for not supporting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, even though the Republican leader says the U.S. and Iraqi allies are winning the war and it is only a matter of time before insurgent, extremist forces are destroyed.

If that is true, Obama wonders, why can’t McCain support a timetable. After all, if the war is almost won, it is time to think about bringing the troops home, isn’t it? (more…)

The main story of the Rick Warren forum is not whether or not Senator John McCain was in a cone of silence, even though some media would like to pretend it is. No, it is that the old fart McCain benefited from appearing on stage with his young, charismatic and good looking opponent.

Beforehand many people advises McCain not to do so. Sure, his strength is speaking off the cuff, whereas it is Barack Obama’s major weakness but, conventional wisdom held, McCain’s age would be emphasized if he would stand with Obama on stage. Only Obama, it was believed, could possibly benefit from this (see JFK vs. Nixon, for instance). (more…)

The Politico reports that Senator John McCain, nominee for the presidency of the Republican Party, is scheduled to announce his running mate on August 29. That is 10 days from now.

He will make the announcement in Ohio, one of the key battlestates during this year’s upcoming elections and one in which McCain has now overtaken Barack Obama in the polls. (more…)

‘John McCain told fellow veterans on Monday that his Democratic rival Barack Obama tried to legislate failure in Iraq and has refused to admit he erred when opposing the military increase there last year,’ the Associated Press reports.

‘ McCain said Obama placed his political self-interest ahead of his country’s, a theme the Arizona Republican has often repeated. McCain told a friendly convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that Obama’s positions have changed as his political ambitions grew.’ (more…)

Even though Hillary Clinton lost the battle for the Democratic nomination, it is wise of John McCain to adopt some of her strategies against Barack Obama.

The best example of a strategy that actually worked and that could help McCain beat Obama is the ‘3 A.M. attack’; it refers to the ad published by Clinton’s campaign in which something terrible happens and the president is called. Who do you want answering the phone? Some Chicago politician with no experience or someone with a bit more clout? (more…)

After running on a mildly empty message of undefined ‘hope,’ Barack Obama will now specify what he exactly means by it. Not because he wanted to but because his supporters are worried by recent polls and the general direction the campaign is taking. They have put pressure on him to specify his message more and, finally, the man says he’s going to do it. (more…)

At the Democratic Convention half of the delegates may vote for Hillary. (more…)

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary
over many a quaint and curious unchallenged item in the life of the Great Orator
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
as if someone’s boldly knocking, knocking and mocking mine and everyone’s gray matter
‘Tis surely a lie,’ I muttered, ‘knocking and mocking mine and everyone’s gray matter
Only this, and nothing more.’

Many have wondered what is there in Senator Obama’s curriculum vitae that would qualify him as President of the United States, and it’s not merely dyed in the wool Republicans who’ve been busy so wondering.  Since his school days, he has managed to amass some noteworthy titles indeed. Harvard Law School Review President, Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, Illinois State Senator, and United States Senator are all enviable achievements worthy of notice. And… who can deny the power, the delivery of his superb keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention?

The impressive job titles in his resume show that he had every opportunity to shine, had he really cared to or been capable being capable of doing so. Instead he was too busy promoting himself, while running around with dubious associates some of them already criminally indicted. Even his staunchest supporters have finally asked him to define himself, to speak in concrete terms rather than spout lofty sounding but meaningless slogans. Will he? Can he?!?

Chaim

To read the rest go to: Freedom’s Cost

Although the conventional wisdoms among pundits, reporters, analysts, bloggers and politicians continues to be that Barack Obama will win the elections in November, the latest Gallup poll has John McCain and Barack Obama tied. (more…)