Here and There

I can’t believe I ever liked a single thing about this dumb-ass douche:

Florida: Decisive once again.

Don’t get me started on the New York chapter of NOW. And the so-called snub? I don’t care enough about the incident to form an opinion. As the once-candidate John Edwards might say, discussion of personal relations between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama isn’t going to bring the troops home or get a single person affordable health care. It won’t repair the damage done to the reputation of the United States.

I’m just glad Rudy and Edwards finally read their own vital signs. And I get a kick out of the fact that Ron Paul and Mike Gravel are still in it.

Seriously though, McCain is the GOP nominee. The strongest candidate was quickly distilled to the top. And head-to-head polls still show that Obama has a slight advantage over Clinton in a matchup with the Arizona senator.

Oh, and yes, it looks like we’ll have a former senator in the White House after all.

Humor, from The New York Times, of all places.

From The New York Times.

Another one of those oh-so-rare gems: a column by The New York Times’s David Brooks that’s not only readable, but insightful.

From NYT’s The Caucus.

• Was it the almost-cry? (I’m in the “It seemed genuine even if part of a strategy” camp). The organization? The money? Obama’s Iowa bump not big enough? Either way, hats off to HC.
• “We’ve got to reverse it” is easily one of the most resonant things Clinton has said.
• I’m trying to find a total vote count (not delegates or caucus precinct captains or any other goofy antiquated metric) to compare with NH to get a total. Pretty sure Obama is still leading there.
• I’m confused about the delegate process. According to this CNN scorecard, there are many pledged delegates for states that haven’t held their primaries yet. Huh?
• I read somewhere last night from someone who was leaning toward Obama that at least there won’t be a coronation, and that that’s a good thing. I agree. It gets really interesting from here, and I hope the discussion migrates away from style and toward substance. That’s where it should’ve been all along.
• Time for Richardson to go, and maybe Edwards too, to say nothing of Kucinich and Gravel.
• On the Republican side, I’m lost. Huckabee can only do well regionally, it seems. He cancels out Fred Thompson, who should hang it up already. Romney may as well say goodnight too. McCain can do well all over, but time will tell. I have an eerie suspicion about Giuliani.

John Solomon and Matthew Mosk report for The Washington Post.

Editorial in The Washington Post about Rudy Giuliani’s secret business and political relationships.

The GOP candidate closes in on Giuliani nationwide, while Clinton retains her lead. From The Washington Post.

He’s got a point. Still, it’s theory, whereas his practice as mayor of New York City was, at least, questionable.

Had a conversation at a party over the weekend regarding presidential candidates. I let my interlocutor know that, as soon as I read that Rudy Giuliani decried universal health care as socialized medicine, he was out as far as I was concerned. And so, my logic goes, I will, with 100 percent certainty, be voting for a Democrat in the next presidential election (unless a viable, ahem, Bloomberg, third-party candidate emerges).

I told my friend of my hope that, by the time February 5, 2008 rolls around and it’s time to vote in California’s primary, Barack Obama would still be in the running, because so far, with less than six months to go, he’s my frontrunner. I reminded my friend of an aversion to voting for HIllary Clinton, at least until she’s nominated.

But on to why I’m writing today …

My friend made a few points that may have knocked a few more bricks out of my Hillary-defense wall.

First of all, he equated Obama with Kerry in the sense that, no matter how much people like us appreciate the ideas, energy, and articulation of the candidate, they are both too intellectual to play well in a general election. It was refreshing to hear anything besides Obama’s supposed inexperience and/or ethnicity as a strike against him. And the more I thought of it, the more I agree with my friend. I can’t go choosing the candidate who’s right for me. Sadly, I have to choose the person who’s right for the nation.

Now, whether that person is Clinton is another story, and one we may have to wait 14 months to determine.

The second point my friend made was his response to a question I asked. “Can Hillary Clinton beat any of the Republicans?”

“She can,” he said. “Americans want a dynasty. Also, they’re tired of Republicans, and Giuliani’s views of abortion and gun control, his supposed blaspheming of the church, will be enough to turn Republican voters away.”

“They would never vote for a Democrat, though,” I said.

“Right. They just won’t vote.”

So, presuming Bloomberg (or Al Gore, for that matter) doesn’t get involved, and Clinton wins the nomination, I hereby announce that I am beginning to think she may not be so bad. Hell, I might even feel good voting for her.

And today, she unveiled her plan for universal, individual mandate health care. Nice.

Giuliani’s daughter backing Obama.

There, I said it.

I somehow failed to note that Giuliani and Fox News President (and slightly larger than life douchebag) Roger Ailes were so buddy-buddy. Then I go to nytimes.com today and see a photo of Rudy on Sean Hannity’s show.

It was only yesterday here at work that I proofread a story about Giuliani’s health care plan (read: go fuck yourselves, poor people!).

Giuliani had this to say: “”We’ve got to solve our health care problem with American principles, not the principles of socialism. I know Democrats will say this is unfair, I know they’ll squeal… But I’m a realist. I face reality, which is: if you take more people and have government cover it, it’s called socialized medicine.”

Then this: “Michael Moore wants to take you to Cuba for your health care. Anyone want to sign up? I didn’t think so. Maybe the Democrats will sign up.”

Well, listen, assface, I’m no Democrat, but I would be glad to go anywhere that wouldn’t bankrupt me or my heirs to mend a broken bone, not to mention save my life. It’s sad that Rudy has become such a pandering politician.

So yeah, the only Republican I had ever considered voting for has officially lost my vote.

I haven’t urged Michael Bloomberg to run for president lately. Mr. Mayor, are you out there?

Haha, just testing the searchability of the site. Nothing to say, really. Well, that’s not entirely true.

iPhone seems to have sold something like double of what analysts expected. Go iPhone. I picked one up and liked most features. Keyboard was a little clunky, but I’ve read you get used to it, and most agree than thumb-typing is the way to go. Also figured out that texts count as texts, despite looking more like IM. Most of AT&T plans that I can find offer only 200 of these texts per month. Not worth it, I say. A workaround is email, which is offered in unlimited capacity as part of the internet bundle. Still not phone-to-phone economical unless both users have iPhone.

Obama? Oh, right, he raised way, way more money than the top two GOP candidates for Q2. Cool. Beating Republicans at their game. I’m all for it.

Google? Well, they’re just awesome.

And finally, Iraq. War. Still. Fuck.