Here and There

For doing things like this.

Let’s see, over at Fox Whatever-the-Hell-Kinda-Channel and in the general right-wingnut-osphere, over the course of the campaign season, Barack Obama has been portrayed as a Muslim, a Marxist, an America-hating, arugula-loving, fresh-out-of-water radical who can’t bowl and who is married to a Black Panther who wants to eat your babies.

But John McCain thinks Iraq and Pakistan share a border.

He kinda reminds me of Miss Teen South Carolina 2007, who gave this eloquent retort to a question about geography:

Steve Benen went to the trouble of listing at least 61 policy decisions on which John McCain has changed his mind, flip-flopped, whatever.

For the record, I don’t have a problem with politicians changing their positions as time goes on. What I do have a problem with is double-standards, i.e., dumb-ass GOP nutjobs who’ll be calling Barack Obama (like Kerry before him) a flip-flopper until eternity. Take a look in the mirror, assholes. Then look at your candidate.

Bergmann’s latest post at HuffPo suggests that, at least as of today, McCain campaign gaffes should’ve cost him his run for the presidency.

A Rasmussen poll shows Obama up by five in Big Sky.

Doesn’t anybody even listen anymore?

I’ve written twice already about the Wes Clark story. Just watched Josh Marshall’s compilation of media froth (I’m really starting to love Laura Ingraham). I have to say, as ill-advised as I think it is to keep this story alive, the right-wing and all those covering this story are doing us all a disservice.

When you report on a controversy, you should not take sides. To say that Republicans are furious at Wes Clark’s questioning of McCain’s military service is dishonest. Clark did no such thing.

All Clark did was refute the myth that McCain’s particular story (which I refuse to repeat here, as it’s more well-known now than Santa Claus) doesn’t, by itself, qualify the man to be president.

Indeed, why?

And I love how Laura Ingraham gives her laundry list of Obama supporters, and fails to mention Baldwin’s fucking brother.

And it’s only Monday…

Everyone (this blogger included) is digging into the whole foray of Wes Clark’s comment that getting shot down in an airplane doesn’t qualify you to be president.

The right, predictably, pounced, and the left pounced back. But what the left failed to see is that the opposition already defined this argument as an attack on John McCain’s military service. Period. End of story. From there, every utterance by the left is seen as piling on.

As much as this situation utterly sucks, it’s the reality. This society is as unintellectual as they come. It’s a nation of nitwits (comprising the right-wing and the media, not mutually exclusive, and more than just occasionally, the left) and this kind of shit sticks in people’s minds.

Clark attacked what cannot be attacked, what is “sacred.” That’s the narrative, and it’s much too late to do anything about it.

As much as some of us want and are looking forward to the change promised by our candidate, we don’t have it yet.

Obama was wise to denounce the remarks. Besides allowing himself to avoid entering the fray, it’s in keeping with his message about a different kind of campaign.

Wow, I’m a fucking idiot, but I honestly haven’t thought about the prospect of Colin Powell as vice president, for either candidate.

If McCain snatches him up (unlikely, as Powell has signaled stronger support for Obama), the election may be over. If Obama taps him, however, it might not be to his benefit. Sadly, a ticket with two black men, however lightly skinned, could sink like lead. I have a cynical feeling they’d do a lot worse than Obama would on his own.

If somehow we were to avoid such a repuational shit-stain, I would really, really like the idea.

Listening to Obama’s speech in Independence, Missouri, and thankfully, he denounced, rejected, took a big dump on Wesley Clark’s asinine impugning of McCain’s military service record.

Some polls are showing a tightening race, both on the state and national levels.

This makes sense when you consider the almost mandatory shift to the center that occurs once primary battles are over.

We’ve seen it happen in Obama, surely. But not so much McCain. McCain’s rightward shift, while based on a plausible idea, will baffle me to no end (unless, miracle of miracles, he wins in November) considering the collective wisdom that the prize lies in the middle.

On Obama’s much-criticized policy shifts, I want to list the ones I’m aware of, and give a simple yay or nay:

• Iran: simply, he needs Jews to vote for him, so eh
• Public financing: excited yay
• Death penalty: nay, but also, whatever
• FISA: big bad NAY
• Second amendment: eh, yay

Two yays, two nays, and an “eh.” Zero-sum. Not bad. I saw this shift coming. It’s just the FISA one I can’t let go, especially considering that, as recently as last week, he said he would do what he could to strip the bill of telecom immunity.

With the most negative traction on McCain recently being his ignorance of technology, the poll-tightening is not surprising.

I expect people to slowly stop paying attention, at least on the fevered levels we’ve seen coming out of the primaries. And rightly so: the electorate stands every chance of growing bored and disillusioned if the candidates continue to hog the spotlight.

Normally, I pay national polls no mind. I still wish we elected our president by popular vote, but that ain’t happening *scratches head* anytime soon.

But when I see one like what Newsweek released today, I shudder, in a good way.

Two remarkable things here, to my mind: 1) That Obama has eclipsed the 50-percent mark, and 2) that McCain has sunk so low (36 percent).

True, we’ve got a long way to go, but that’s one hell of a post-primary bounce for Obama. The last Newsweek poll, released in late May, showed the two candidates tied at 46 percent. More than Obama rising, McCain is tanking. Was it the green screen?

Also noteworthy here (.pdf)is Obama’s lead among independents: 48-36.

And in so announcing, probably earned himself another cool couple of millions of dollars.

Update: I got two of the five states I needed from Quinnipiac, and *shocker* Obama is ahead in both:

• Pennsylvania: Obama 52, McCain 40 (solid)
• Florida: Obama 47, McCain 43 (McCain will go down after his offshore drilling comments Tuesday)

Original post: According to Real Clear Politics, of the states that matter, the following haven’t reported polling data since June 3, when Obama wrapped up the Democratic nomination:

• Pennsylvania
• New Hampshire
• Florida
• Colorado
• New Mexico

Of those five, Obama leads McCain in four according to the last polls (Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Colorado, and New Mexico, where, by the way, Bill Richardson is governor) and trails Florida by only single digits.

With these numbers holding, and Nevada eventually tipping, here’s what a very plausible Election Day map looks like (click image to enlarge):

322-216

A bit of a landslide, eh?

… “fudging” a dessert recipe, twice, is small “cookies.”

I couldn’t help myself. I am my father’s son, it appears.