The Political Chase

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Obama, Edwards, and Clinton to boycott campaigning in Florida

Several states have said they will hold primary elections earlier than the long-standing schedule established by the DNC. The objective is to increase a given state’s impact on the overall nominating process, which historically has begun with Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina — Florida and California are just two examples. The Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee have both opposed the states’ proposed changes.

Both committees have threatened to not allow any state that changes its primary election date to participate in the committees’ national conventions, which in today’s environment is not much of a threat. The conventions have long since been a deliberative process to actually decide who will represent the respective parties. Instead, the conventions have become more of a massive marketing event for crowning the already determined nominee and broadcasting the party’s platform.

To mitigate the lack of punitive influence created banning a state from its national convention,the DNC has asked its presidential candidates to boycott campaigning in a state that violates the DNC’s rules. Florida is the first state to be officially sanctioned for its proposed changes. While its unclear to me at this point what the real impact will be, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton and almost all other Democratic candidates have pledged to honor the DNC’s request.

Bush’s Iraq debate strategy: hypocrisy and deceit

Yesterday, George Bush met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to reportedly hear their views on Iraq and the path forward for the U.S. military. I will defer for now pointing out the obvious dubious reasons behind Bush meeting with the top military leaders. Instead I want to focus on the total lack of credibility and hypocritical nature of Bush’s remarks after the meeting.

After the meeting, Bush “accused the war’s opponents of politicizing the debate” the New York Times reports.

The stakes in Iraq are too high and the consequences too grave for our security here at home to allow politics to harm the mission of our men and women in uniform. (Emphasis added.)

Whether George Bush’s statement is accurate or not is moot for the purposes of this post. What is important is the sheer magnitude of hypocrisy and deceit in his statement. George Bush has the audacity to accuse his opponents of politicizing the debate on Iraq when his administration employed McCarthyism to influence the troops in Iraq, Iraqi officials, and others against members of Congress visiting Iraq to see firsthand what was happening there?

George Bush or Miss Teen S.C.?

Bill Maher provides compelling evidence that George Bush is eminently qualified to compete in the next Miss Teen South Carolina beauty pageant.

In this video, Bush addresses the issues tribal sovereignty and the federal government will face in the 21st century.