Some of the most annoying politicking of the current era revolves around "energy independence." Everyone assures us that he or she will break "American dependence on foreign oil." Everyone seems to think this is a good idea and why not? It ties into two strong urges: environmentalism and protectionism. The problem is that energy independence is a totally different goal that, say, producing energy in an environmentally safe way. And as for the protectionist urge to be independent from other nations, well, this strikes me as naive at best.
I read an interesting, if over-stated, editorial about this today. Check it out.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Biden Time
Well, turns out it was Biden after all. My first, pre-coffee reaction is one of relief: given all the ballyho about "the pick" I was beginning to worry that it might be someone else. The reaction to Biden's Veephood and Obama's handling of the announcement is uniformly positive. Maybe this will help the jitters among Democratic circles that Obama's campaing is on the wrong track.
I'm pretty pleased with the Pick, since I am a Biden guy from way back. It says a great deal about Obama's judgement that he went with someone like Biden and not a flashier, demographic-pleasing pick, like Kaine, Strickland or Clinton Herself. This gives credence to the idea that Obama will make up for his relative unfamiliarity with statecraft by surrounding himself with the best and brightest. Of course, Bush did the same thing on paper and look how that turned out. I suspect, though, that Obama is a good bit quicker than our Texan friend. All in all, this move will help Obama in the crucial me demographic.
I'm pretty pleased with the Pick, since I am a Biden guy from way back. It says a great deal about Obama's judgement that he went with someone like Biden and not a flashier, demographic-pleasing pick, like Kaine, Strickland or Clinton Herself. This gives credence to the idea that Obama will make up for his relative unfamiliarity with statecraft by surrounding himself with the best and brightest. Of course, Bush did the same thing on paper and look how that turned out. I suspect, though, that Obama is a good bit quicker than our Texan friend. All in all, this move will help Obama in the crucial me demographic.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Brooks On Biden
David Brooks has a nice opinion piece today in the NYT about the wisdom of picking Biden, yet more fuel on the fire, I believe. At this point I'm basically keeping my fingers crossed because I think Joe is a pretty great pick. Any thoughts to the contrary? Ideas of folks who might rival the strengths of the Senator from Delaware?
Obama/Astley '08
Apparently Barack Obama is brushing aside rumors and a growing rally around Joe Biden as a VP choice, instead announcing that he has chosen to Rick Roll America in the most elaborate "Never Gonna Give You Up" related prank to date. Read more here.
Not familiar with Rick Rolling? Read the wikipedia article on it here, see the Muppets play "Never Gonna Give You Up" here.
Not familiar with Rick Rolling? Read the wikipedia article on it here, see the Muppets play "Never Gonna Give You Up" here.
Mittens Linkage
Matt tossed up a tiny freakout about the Mitt rumors swirling this morning. Here are two links if you want to read more coverage of Time claiming to have the down-low on Mitt as McCain's VP pick:
Huffington Post
Salon.com's War Room
Wow... Mittens would sure change the race, huh? Veep rumors are fun, but is McCain really that um... dull?
Also, if you're on-board for some further interesting VP rumor-related stuff, check out this article I saw on HuffPo yesterday. In the article Adele Stan discusses how floating the possibilities of Tom Ridge or Ole Floppy Face Joe Lieberman may be a tactic the McCain campaign is using to distract while they prepare to pick someone much more conservative as VP. Interesting stuff.
Huffington Post
Salon.com's War Room
Wow... Mittens would sure change the race, huh? Veep rumors are fun, but is McCain really that um... dull?
Also, if you're on-board for some further interesting VP rumor-related stuff, check out this article I saw on HuffPo yesterday. In the article Adele Stan discusses how floating the possibilities of Tom Ridge or Ole Floppy Face Joe Lieberman may be a tactic the McCain campaign is using to distract while they prepare to pick someone much more conservative as VP. Interesting stuff.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Oh, By the Way
I'm back from the South with over a thousand pictures to try and wade through... sometime, and edit and upload, and and and... but in the meantime things are certainly interesting out there in the political world. I've been back since Monday evening, and the presidential campaigns have made a point of giving me lots to blog about.
Hence, it wasn't until just now that I realized I hadn't done any of the photoblogging I was hoping to do post vacation adventures. Hence, meet Mr. Biltmore Koi! He's one of a handful of super huge goldfish I photographed while we were taking a tour of the Vanderbilt estate at Biltmore in Asheville, NC. This guy was remarkably beautiful and in an effort to capture his beauty and girth I took tons of photos. This is one of my favorites, and the only one I've edited for uploading so far.
I've got some fun pictures of smores, adventures in downtown Asheville and other stuff taken early in the trip up on Flickr and over the next week or so I'll try and get more pictures up!
Until then, here's Mr. Koi, and I'll be cranking away with more political yammering, talk of music, etc. soon!
Headline Appreciation
Jake Tapper over at ABC News gets a nod from me today for his headline, "People Who Live in Seven Glass Houses..." and the attached rundown of the current McCain how-many-homes-do-I-owngate.
McCain's campaign again rolled out the arugula today while responding to Obama's campaign releasing an ad on the subject. Oh, what fun.
This should really become an interesting little plot line, methinks. It's just so... rich, no pun intended.
McCain's campaign again rolled out the arugula today while responding to Obama's campaign releasing an ad on the subject. Oh, what fun.
This should really become an interesting little plot line, methinks. It's just so... rich, no pun intended.
Timetables, huh? Interesting idea... sounds familiar.
Just a little piece today in the AP about how Condoleezza Rice and the Iraqis met and talked through an agreement that's nearly complete. This agreement would lay out something people are describing as "timetables" for US withdrawal from Iraq.
Funny, I seem to remember one of the presidential candidates advocating for such timetables... and perhaps even a whole party doing so (sorry this article is like 2 years old... wait... that's not even old enough to capture just how long the Dems have been pushing for timetables). I also seem to remember another party, oh, I dunno, attacking such ideas as defeatist politicking.
Anyway, just a little news piece. Just some back-peddling. Perhaps a dash of hypocrisy? That's all. Nothing big.
UPDATE: Fox News calls them "Time Horizons!"
Funny, I seem to remember one of the presidential candidates advocating for such timetables... and perhaps even a whole party doing so (sorry this article is like 2 years old... wait... that's not even old enough to capture just how long the Dems have been pushing for timetables). I also seem to remember another party, oh, I dunno, attacking such ideas as defeatist politicking.
Anyway, just a little news piece. Just some back-peddling. Perhaps a dash of hypocrisy? That's all. Nothing big.
UPDATE: Fox News calls them "Time Horizons!"
Toby Keith... Democrat? Interesting.
I've never paid tons of attention to Toby Keith, honestly he's only really ever come on my radar when writing songs about sticking boots up peoples' asses 'cause that's the, "American way," or more recently when I saw writeups claiming a new song is pro-lynching [yikes]. But today I stumbled across a short piece on HuffPo about how Mr. Keith lavished some nice praise on Barack Obama while also identifying himself as a Democrat.
Among other things he said, "So as far as leadership and patriotism goes, I think it's really important that those things have to take place. And I think he's the best Democratic candidate we've had since Bill Clinton. And that's coming from a Democrat."
Wow. Anyway, um... yeah, there you go.
Among other things he said, "So as far as leadership and patriotism goes, I think it's really important that those things have to take place. And I think he's the best Democratic candidate we've had since Bill Clinton. And that's coming from a Democrat."
Wow. Anyway, um... yeah, there you go.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Polls, huh, Good GOD, what are they good for?
I think I've put up at least 3 ______, huh, Good God posts before, but this one I'm pretty excited about, and I think the title is very apt.
I just finished reading a long but interesting and very worthwhile post over at Americablog about polls, why they matter, the current polling, what it tells us, and what folks should anticipate as they look towards this fall's election. There are pieces of what they talk about that make me think all the more that Biden could be a good VP pick, and there are pieces that explain some of the context for where things stand here looking towards the conventions in the next couple weeks.
The bottom line in the article is that basically while this year has been talked about as a potentially transformational or completely new/different kind of election there are many indications that it will be very traditional in many ways. Polling and other indicators seem to show that Obama and McCain will need to fight and fight hard for every vote through the fall, and that we'll likely see the battles shaping up on familiar ground (think Ohio, Florida, etc.).
That said, I think people should continue to push to get new folks excited about engagement in this election. Obama is an electrifying presence, and one that I still believe can turn out flocks of new voters, but only if the campaign and those who already are behind it continue to try and find those new folks, register them, and get them to show up in November. In the meantime, having someone like Biden on the ticket seems (as I said before) like it could really help sure up some of the folks who are searching for depth of experience on a ticket. Blah blah blah... anyway, check out the Americablog post, "Why people should be worried about the polls." It's worth a read.
I just finished reading a long but interesting and very worthwhile post over at Americablog about polls, why they matter, the current polling, what it tells us, and what folks should anticipate as they look towards this fall's election. There are pieces of what they talk about that make me think all the more that Biden could be a good VP pick, and there are pieces that explain some of the context for where things stand here looking towards the conventions in the next couple weeks.
The bottom line in the article is that basically while this year has been talked about as a potentially transformational or completely new/different kind of election there are many indications that it will be very traditional in many ways. Polling and other indicators seem to show that Obama and McCain will need to fight and fight hard for every vote through the fall, and that we'll likely see the battles shaping up on familiar ground (think Ohio, Florida, etc.).
That said, I think people should continue to push to get new folks excited about engagement in this election. Obama is an electrifying presence, and one that I still believe can turn out flocks of new voters, but only if the campaign and those who already are behind it continue to try and find those new folks, register them, and get them to show up in November. In the meantime, having someone like Biden on the ticket seems (as I said before) like it could really help sure up some of the folks who are searching for depth of experience on a ticket. Blah blah blah... anyway, check out the Americablog post, "Why people should be worried about the polls." It's worth a read.
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