Friday, August 29, 2008

Hitting The Road!


Funny Bear 01, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

I'm off to Philly to celebrate labor... and days... and having a long weekend, with the fam. It should be good, and who knows... maybe before I leave tomorrow morning I'll even upload some more Southern pictures tonight as I've been planning to basically every day since returning from North Carolina and Alabama last week! Ayee!

In the meantime, checkout this funny little bear, think funny thoughts about Van Halen and Sarah Palin... and somehow I have a feeling I'll toss up some more posts this weekend.

If, somehow, I don't... let me just say this: August has been a remarkable month here at The Best Way. With all that has happened in politics, a bunch of fun and interesting posts about music, the return of some photography and the usual dash of random goofy junk we've shot past 40 posts for a month (our previous max was in the 30s) and hit our second highest readership ever overall.

Thanks to those who stop in regularly and especially those who drop a comment here or there. Many thanks to those who link to us here and there and bring some traffic our way. Finally all my gratitude to my friends who post.

From Venice's interesting thoughts about ObamaMcCainPalinBidenHillaryPoliticalWhatnow to JR's input on plastic and Face-off it's tons of fun keeping this little train a choo choo chooing along. I hope you all continue to enjoy it as much as we do, and that everyone has a wonderful Labor Day weekend!!!!

Right Now! We didn't give you permission!


That's the chorus for the tune Van Halen is singing to John McCain, apparently they're none to pleased with him rallying this morning's Sarah Palin announcement using their tune, "Right Now." I watched video of Palin's speech earlier today and noted the tune, as I've always liked the song (and I remember it being the theme music for Crystal Pepsi commercials back in the 90s). But apparently Crystal Pepsi, John McCain is not to the fine gentlemen who make up the band, hence they are supposedly pissed that their little ditty has been apropriated by his campaign. Read more here on HuffPo.

Ever wish you could take back something you said on cable news?

Um... schwoops!



Hopefully somebody answered this question for Sarah before today. I imagine this little clip is going to make the rounds quite a bit in the next little while.

Further goofing on Sarah:

Now that you're all paying attention...

Caught this on Americablog just now, Obama's acceptance speech last night was ranked as having remarkably high viewership by Nielsen Media Research, which rated viewership as 38 million making this speech more watched than the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, the final "American Idol" or the 2008 Academy Awards.

Given that most felt the speech itself was quite strong, this would seem to bode well for Mr. Obama and his good friend Mr. Biden.

Wonkette Wonder Sarah Palin

I'm not going to lie, most of what I know about Sarah Palin, I've learned from reading one of my favorite political blogs, Wonkette, where for quite some time they've alternated between calling her the hottest governor ever and a GILF (now changed to VPILF). One of my favorite all time posts they tossed up was about Palin being the hottest Lego governor, but today they posted a collection of past posts, and I also enjoyed one about her being a snow dwarf, and one they created based on a picture of Palin giddily revealing the state quarter of Alaska (the title? "Hot Bear on GILF action!").

That all said, I would echo the strengths and weaknesses I've seen most places related to this whole thing. On one hand, it truly is remarkable to think that in four months we'll either have a woman swearing in as Vice President or a black man swearing in as President. It's also just remarkable to think that in four months we'll be past the Bush Cheney nightmare. That's beside the point, though.

Ok... back to Palin. I think the notion that she'll somehow be the magic bullet on recruiting Hillary voters who are disgruntled is completely bogus. It might help some tiny bit with that particular constituency, but I'll be honest, I think the media is over-blowing the size and importance of that faction. Simply put, I think most Hillary supporters are Democrats with a capital "D" who are likely pretty jazzed up about the strong ticket their party has put together, even if they might think very rightly that their woman would have headed a strong ticket herself (and they're right). While I think this notion of aiming Palin at the PUMA camp and somehow wooing them all is bogus, I do agree with Matt and many others who say Palin will help with all the uber social conservatives who think McCain isn't sufficiently crazed over abortion, appalled at gayness or ready to open oil rigs in every national park. I think Romney, Lieberman, and Ridge would all have caused big challenges with this crowd, and having been teased with those possibilities for weeks I imagine they're pretty giddy.

Meanwhile, back over in the world of how this all will unfold, I just can't imagine a debate between Palin and Joe Biden being anything but lopsided, but then again I thought Biden was pretty stellar in the early Democratic Primary debates and it clearly didn't keep him in the running for that job. I guess we have an interesting fall to look forward to.

First thoughts on Palin

This is obviously a very gutsy pick. An unknown woman who has been the governor of a solidly Red state for less than two years. It could be brilliant, or exceedingly not brilliant, or it could not matter at all.

You can't help but contrast this pick with Biden. Biden was a great choice, but a very conventional one. Palin is anything but conventional. One of the reasons that I liked Biden is that he was chosen not for any specific demographic group but because he is so well-suited to the job. Don't get me wrong: I know Obama's choice is every bit as politically motivated. McCain's choosing Palin, on the other hand, is obviously an attempt to woo disgruntled HRC voters. I applaud his choosing a woman, but it seems very transparent. Are HRC voters just going to vote for McCain because he chose a woman as Veep?

I find it unlikely, but time will tell.

Also, Palin has been governor for less than two years and has never worked in a foreign policy job. Ever. Maybe I'm giving the voting public too much credit, but doesn't this undermine the argument that Obama isn't ready to be President? Basically, McCain is saying this is the person who will take over if anything happens to me. It seems strongly implied that he believes she is ready to do the job. But how can it be that she is ready and Obama isn't? It can't. Which means that McCain's argument about experience is just politics.

Disappointing.

One thing that I haven't yet heard anyone point out: Palin is a social conservative who is not associated with the Bush administration. In other words, she pleases the base without alienating the Bush-weary independents. From this perspective it's a good choice.

Obama's Speech

Damn. I said, damn. This was more than a home run, this was a grand slam. I have to admit, having this guy as President wouldn't be so very bad.