The Political Chase

Quote of the Day

Josh Marshall:

“Isn’t Palin supposed to move to Cheney’s undisclosed location after she gets elected, not before?”

Video of Palin’s Speech

This is the video of Gov. Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican convention last night. The full text of her remarks follows the video.

Foreign Policy Experience via Proximity

Fear not! Sarah Palin has impeccable foreign policy bona fides. Why? Because she lives right next to Russia.

Barack Obama’s speech in Denver

Transcript of Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last night.

Iraq has budget surpluses while U.S. goes bankrupt

Given our economic woes domestically and the Iraq war costing more than $10 billion per month, I have a real problem with this.

As Iraq Surplus Rises, Little Goes Into Rebuilding - NYTimes.com
Soaring oil prices will leave the Iraqi government with a cumulative budget surplus of as much as $79 billion by year’s end, according to an American federal oversight agency. But Iraq has spent only a minute fraction of that on reconstruction costs, which are now largely borne by the United States.

The unspent windfall, which covers surpluses from oil sales since 2005, appears likely to reinforce growing debate about the approximately $48 billion in American taxpayer money devoted to rebuilding Iraq since the American-led invasion.

In one comparison, the United States has spent $23.2 billion in the critical areas of security, oil, electricity and water since the 2003 invasion, the report said. But from 2005 through April 2008, Iraq has spent just $3.9 billion on similar services.

The Ultimate Team - Rudy and Hillary

Check this out.

Notice how incredibly similar Hillary Clinton’s new ad blaming the Washington punditry (in post below) is to Rudy Giuliani’s ad blaming the Washington punditry when they said he was toast.

Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin get the credit for discovering the similarities.

McCain may get a dose of Hillary’s ‘testicular fortitude’

John McCain may soon be sporting a black eye instead of appearing rejuvenated after his interview with Glamour. Obviously unaware of of Hillary Clinton’s “testicular fortitude,” McCain suggested in the interview that Clinton might be feeling sorry for herself.

The Caucus reports McCain was asked if Hillary had been ‘treated fairly on the campaign trail as a woman.’ ” His response:

You know, I don’t know because I’m not objective enough to make the judgment. I simply don’t know. But I know the one thing that I try to avoid in my campaigns is feeling sorry for myself. It’s easy to do, pick up the paper this morning, read a story that’s negative, ‘Oh, my God, they’re picking on me.’ You just can’t do that. You just can’t do that.

Did he just get himself into a ton of trouble or what? Hillary Clinton is no Cindy McCain — smiling quietly like a Stepford Wife in the background.

God knows, I’m glad Obama did not make that kind of mistake.

The wisdom of Jonah Goldberg

Jonah Goldberg on Obama selecting John Edwards for Attorney General:

[T]he suggestion that John Edwards would be even considered for Attorney General is horrifying. I really can’t think of any mainstream political figure more inappropriate for that job than Edwards.

If Goldberg feels that strongly about it, Edwards must be the right person for the job. Of course, Goldberg offers no reasons why, he just makes his rude comment and leaves it at that.

Bush Admin: Stop Diagnosing PTSD

My friends, this is unfit — the Bush administration’s Veteran Affairs telling hospitals to not diagnose PTSD because of the increased number of “compensation seeking veterans.” That’s the Republicans’ approach to supporting the troops and defending our national security — sending soldiers back into battle when they need medical treatment.

Bush and McCain are inseparable. Remember, John McCain opposed Jim Webb’s GI Bill because it was too expensive to give veterans the same benefits they had 60 years ago. But they can send them to fight in a war over oil that costs $9 - $10 billion per month.

A Samantha Power Moment

(Updated below)

It is obvious I was frustrated, to say the least, when I wrote my last post about the Clintons’ nuclear plan to win the Democratic nomination. One could easily argue a few statements were over the top and it would have probably been better if they remained unsaid, at least publicly.

I regret, to a point, that I allowed my frustration to “boil over” into the public domain. It is important to maintain civil discourse. However, on the other hand, I do not regret the sense of frustration that motivated some of my statements. I suppose I had a Samantha Power moment.

After seven years of watching the Bush administration twist, distort, and frequently outright lie in order to push personal agendas rather than serve the best interests of the country, I cringe when I see the Hillary campaign doing the exact same thing. Obviously, the cringe worked its way into my written sentiments last night.

Update: I should probably clarify a point. I did not intend to imply that my frustration was derived from a likelihood that Clinton’s nuclear strategy would prevail (or not). The strategy is what I find to be frustrating.

Chattering Heads

An insightful post from jweb271’s reader blog at TPM Cafe.

I realized this weekend that I am part of the problem

Actually, I think the stage got set during the debate. But this weekend, I was watching the talking heads as I do every Sunday, talking about who is or isn’t “bitter,” who is or isn’t “patriotic,” whether Michelle Obama is more like Abigail Adams or Mrs. John Kerry…

I was at the gym on the treadmill, so you can see all of it at once on separate TV’s. But there are other things on too. Rock of Love, MadTV, Yankee replay, church!, the movie Major League.

And I realized, out of nowhere really, that I didn’t want to watch these people talk about this stuff. More than that, I couldn’t. That it would be wrong. It suddenly occurred to me that my watching these old farts talk about our country and this important election as if it were a race they had no dog in, it occurred to me that this is exactly what Obama’s been imploring me not to do. It’s precisely what this whole “change” is about. It’s about the way I think, and how I behave. It’s about me.

Because these pundits, these programs, they’re so stuck in the old-think, the Right v. Left, Tax Cuts v. Big Government bullsh#t that we all know isn’t even true or real or valuable, but they’re so invested in the state of politics as they see it, that they cannot imagine the world would be different. To them, I am a demographic, and to them, the nation is a bunch of funny little anecdotes you share at a dinner party.

If McCain wins, and this country stays in this war, and thousands more troops die, will one single person ever come on the air and pull their hair out and yell and say what the hell is going on in this world? No, of course not. And worse than that, they will coolly evaluate the nature of the president, of his followers and his detractors, and come to the conclusion that he’s either playing with fire, or that he’s working a nifty little political game. How clever he is. How clever we are. How well we articulate these insights.

And what a misguided fool I feel like for allowing them so much space within me. For giving them ratings, and for giving such weight to their bought and sold opinions.

I see now that if this is what politics is (and it may be), or if this is what our country is going to allow itself to be ruled by (”Gore’s square, Bush is cool”; “Kerry’s uptight, Bush is cool”), then there are better things I could be doing in the meantime, like watch the movie Major League.

Or more importantly, if I were to continue giving to the candidates and causes I believe in, continue trying to influence the opinion of friends, students and family, and one day, teach my children that the whole world might be falling apart, but that that doesn’t mean you should too, then I am certain that I will have improved the planet. And that’s more good than (pundit’s name here) will ever do.

And so in that instant, I resolved to change. From now on, when I catch myself arguing with the television, or wondering why Rove is being treated like someone who’s opinion matters, or why everyone is having so much damn fun in that studio while Rome is burning, I’m going to simply turn it off, and do anything else.

And while I am going to “hope” that we can “change” the direction of this country, if we cannot, then I have decided that I am no longer going to revel in its demise.

Greenwald’s ‘Great American Hypocrites’

Update: I’m bumping this up so that anybody who missed it earlier will get an opportunity to see it. Also it is currently #3 on Amazon’s Non-Fiction List and #14 overall.

Glenn Greenwald’s new book, Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics, is available for ordering online and will be in stores beginning April 15. I have not read the book yet, but if his prior works (A Tragic Legacy and How Would a Patriot Act?) are any indication, it will indeed be must reading.

Following is an excerpt from Glenn’s post today announcing the book’s availability.

From the time I began blogging in October, 2005, I’ve written about many different topics, but almost all have a similar undercurrent: the Limbaugh/Kristol/Fox-News right-wing faction that controls the Republican Party and has dominated our political life for the last 15 years, and the multiple ways that our political institutions — and particularly the Drudgified establishment press — enable them. Marketing packages aside, this book is about them; how they function; the weakness-driven bloodthirstiness, dishonesty and sleaze which defines them; the indispensable eagerness of the establishment media to be used by them; and what can be done by those opposed to them to change all of that.

All of the radical and reprehensible events of the last eight years — the commencement and endless prosecution of an indescribably disastrous war, the accelerated dismantling of our Constitutional framework, the creation of a lawless Surveillance State and a virtually omnipotent President, the legitimization of truly grotesque torture and detention regimes, the complete corruption of our political discourse — have individuals and a political movement behind them, causing all of that to happen. They have cultivated the ability to manipulate media behavior, largely as a result of a media eager to help. But what they do not have is popular support for virtually anything they are doing. And yet they continue to win elections.

How and why that happens — the deceitful electoral tactics and manipulative personality-based myths the Right has perfected and continuously deploys to win elections, and the ways in which our slothful, vapid and complicit establishment press propagates those myths — is the principal subject of this book. And understanding and exposing that right-wing/media partnership is a necessary precondition for weakening it.

(emphasis in original)

Poll indicates Obama speech received positively

A new poll by CBS shows Barack Obama’s speech on race this week was largely received well.

The poll shows 69% of voters "who have heard or read about Obama’s speech say he did a good job addressing the issue of race relations," and 71% percent "say he did a good job explaining his relationship with Wright."

In somewhat of a trade off, of those following the controversy, "only 14% said they were less likely to vote for Obama as a result — with an equal 14% saying they were more likely to vote for him, and 70% saying it would make no difference"

Where residual damage appears to linger is in whether voters believe Obama can unite the country, a principal tenet of his campaign. On this issue, he is at 52% Yes and 35% No, down from 67% to 25% last month. This obviously will take longer to regain given the intensity and overwhelming media coverage of the Wright issue.

Obama responds on minister leaving campaign

Barack Obama talks to Countdown’s Keith Olbermann about his relationship to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as well as the pastor’s controversial comments.

Clinton purges all things Spitzer

Hillary Clinton didn’t denounce and reject Eliot Spitzer’s indiscretions, she wiped the slate clean, or as Ray Gustini at Radar characterized it: “Clinton yanks Spitzer endorsement faster than a hooker yanks… Well, you get it.” (Emphases and links in original.)

Either way, Hillary Clinton has already delivered the first of many “You’re dead to me, Eliot”-moments, sponging her campaign website clean of all mentions of Spitzer’s endorsement last May. Spitzer’s name was gone from the website less than an hour after the Times story broke—impressive timing when you consider it took Mitt Romney nearly an entire day to decide to throw Larry Craig under a bus last August.