From the very start of the debate tonight, I got the sense that talks are already underway about these two running together. I think they are. They both appeared to do the “we are all Democrats” routine. They both appeared to be over the bristling dislike and the cold shoulder treatment. They’ve softened. This is great to see, actually. There is still much more campaigning yet to be done and most of that will determine who is at the top of the ticket.
It’s undeniable that these two on the same ticket would absolutely crush anything the Republicans could put together. The dynamic constituency they have both developed thus far would be so energized as to be unstoppable. The voters get “experience” and the energy for “real change”.
I softened quite a bit on Hillary tonight. She was solid. She was smart. She was witty. She was strong. I, of course, prefer Barack Obama. I would still like to see him win and I’m not sure it would matter who the VP was in my mind. I’m not where I was weeks ago, which was pretty much rabid anti-Hillary. I’m now starting to see the possibility of what they could both do on a ticket. They’d make an amount of history that would be as breathtaking as what Obama being elected would do. They could give Democrats 16 years of leadership and it is possible that the American people would welcome that. Not just for the history and the change, but for the incremental nature of two unlikely Presidential candidates leading this nation.
I can’t speak to the real level of the internal dislike for one another. It could well be strong enough to precludes such a “dream ticket”. I will say this though. I think we’ll be seeing a Clinton/Obama ticket sometime down the road. She’ll be smart enough to know she needs him. He’ll be smart enough to know he can use this opportunity to eventually grasp the brass ring and won’t pass up the chance to eventually reach his goal, which is to fundamentally change the nature of politics in America and lead the country in a completely new direction.
The National Journal announced today that Barack Obama has ranked as the “Most Liberal Senator In 2007″ in their annual rating based on the votes cast by each senator during 2007.
I knew there was a reason I liked the guy!
Hillary Clinton ranked 16th-most-liberal. Less impressive.
And John McCain? Well that guy didn’t even cast enough votes in the senate in 2007 to be ranked!
Ted Strickland announced his plan today to offset the projected budget deficit.
In addition to the ‘belt-tightening’ measures, his plan also involves expanding the Ohio Lottery to include Keno machines in restaurants and bars. The increased revenue (est. $73 million) will go to fund education.
After hearing the news, Voinovich emails the Dispatch with his comments, urging “the legislature to reject this idea” saying it would “be a foot in the door for full-blown gambling.”
George should have spent a little time researching his comments.
For starters, the Lottery Commission already has statutory authority to run games of chance- and they can vote to expand to selection of games to include keno without the approval of the legislature.
Secondly, there is absolutely no evidence to support his claim that Keno in bars will lead to full-blown gambling.
I can tell you from experience that many state lotteries have similiar Keno games- and it has not led to an expansion of gambling.
When I worked in Atlanta earlier this year- I played Keno in bars all the time and I didn’t become a Keno addict. It’s really no different than buying a scratch-off ticket at the corner store- it’s just slightly more exciting and, more importantly, available when and where you’d like to play.
The Georgia Lottery has been running their Keno drawings since 1995- and in 13 years the state has yet to become a hotbed of gambling expansion.
Working in Kentucky this week, I’ve been listening to Lexington’s Westwood One conservative talk radio station in the car on my way to and from work- and it’s been pretty eye opening.
I mean- I already knew that Hillary is hated by every right-leaning person and that some conservatives were against McCain as the nominee- but I didn’t realize these people were so SERIOUS about it.
For example, Bill O’Reilly took a call from a guy who said he’d never vote for McCain because John isn’t a real conservative. The guy said he might even switch over and vote for Obama if the Republicans nominated McCain. Of course, when asked about Hillary he admitted he might actually have to vote for McCain if she was nominated.
I know we can’t count on getting a lot of conservative voters switching over to vote against McCain- but we can at least hope they’ll stay home.
And, according to a poll conducted by Laura Ingraham, that’s exactly what they might do if McCain is nominated. When asked “Will you consider sitting out this election if John McCain is the nominee?”, 54% of Ingraham’s conservative listeners answered Yes.
Of course, this assumes Hillary doesn’t become our nominee. If that happens, then all bets are off.
Conservatives hate Hillary and WILL come out to the polls just to vote against her.
And why do they hate her?
Well- they all have different reasons, I suppose.
Dennis Miller took a call from a guy who claimed he could never vote for Hillary Clinton because she stole all the furniture from the white house – he claimed to have friends who drive the trucks carrying the furniture.
Hate to see this, but i was inevitable really given the results so far. I always wanted he and Obama to be the two front runners. I knew some folks on the campaign and know that they personally worked their asses off for all the right reasons.
It will be interesting to see what happens next. I think an Obama endorsement could tip the scales against Clinton for good here. John has apparently asked both Obama and Clinton to make poverty a top issue. What about these AG stories? I guess time will tell. I’m certainly hoping that the Obama camp and Edwards camp will work out a deal. It seemed like they were both fighting status quo for a long time there. Love to see Edwards put his endorsement where his mouth is regarding change.
I don’t give two shits what tim says, PB rocks! And just to prove that point…
Here is my new favorite old song by Nick Lowe:
It’s a classic song (and if you didn’t click the link above- DO IT NOW!) with classic lyrics…
All Men, All Men are liars their words aint worth no more than worn out tires.
Hey Girls, bring rusty pliers to pull this tooth, all men are liars and thats the truth.
Do you remember Rick Astley?
He had a big fat hit that was ghastly.
He said Im never gonna give you up or let you down.
Well Im here to tell ya that Dicks a clown
In case you don’t know Nick Lowe- here’s something more familiar:
In a completely unsurprising turn of events, tech blog Techcrunch has endorsed Obama in the Democratic primaries.
He is staunchly in favor of net neutrality, and has promised to make it a priority to reinstate it in his first year in office. He has proposed intelligent programs for increasing technology education and access to children. He doesn’t believe the FCC went far enough in their proposed rules for opening up the 700MHz spectrum auctions. He wants to see increases in the number of H1-B visas given out each year. He strongly supports research into renewable energy sources and he has a realistic, market based approach to capping carbon emissions.
More importantly, though, Senator Obama talks about the future with a sense of optimism that the other candidates seem to lack. America has done great things in the past, and we can do great things in the future, so long as our leaders support our home-grown and immigrant entrepreneurs, or at least get out of the way. Jobs will be lost in some sectors, but growth in technology can drive our economy ever forward. Senator Obama seems to understand that, and has spent a great deal of time addressing technology issues and talking to Silicon Valley leaders. Some of the other Democratic candidates have staked out similar positions as Senator Obama on tech issues – but I get the sense that they are playing “me too†rather than showing real leadership and thoughtfulness on the issues.
On the GOP side, they’ve endorsed McCain, but it hardly seems glowing.
Taking all of the Republican candidates positions into consideration, as well as TechCrunch reader voting, we are endorsing Senator McCain as the best candidate from that side of the aisle. Senator McCain, more so than any other Republican candidate, is at least willing to go on record on any issue we brought up in our interview with him.
Whoever is writing for Right Angle Blog now is excited by Walmart’s recent announcement that it “will chop prices between 10 to 30 percent this week on groceries, electronics and other home-related products in an effort to keep its cash-strapped consumers excited about shopping.”
According to RAB, Walmart’s price-lowering strategy is “Doing More Than Any Economic Stimulus Package.”
In part, they are right. This strategy is doing “more” but, unfortunately, it’s more harm.
Walmart can call it price-chopping and say it’s intended to help consumers get more for their dollars but at the end of the day their motives are pretty selfish and this price-chopping may actually signal even more rough times ahead for our economy- especially if other retailers, faced with diminishing sales, follow Walmart’s lead.
That’s because a general lowering of prices based on a collapse in demand is called DEFLATION- and deflation is a pretty damn good sign we are in a recession and possibly headed for a long term economic depression.
Is anyone still excited about 15% off TVs and apples now?
As Congress continues work on a plan to stimulate the US economy and the Federal Reserve considers even more aggresive interest rate cuts – it’s obvious that we are headed toward an inevitable recession and something needs to be done about it.
Everyone has finally pulled their heads out of the sand- everyone except Matt Hurley over at WMD- who continues to insist that the US economy is going strong and that George Bush’s tax cuts are a success.
I understand why he might still believe the economy is strong- George Bush, despite all of the evidence against him, has been saying it for 7 years now.
The thing is, George Bush has also insisted that Iraq had WMDs, Saddam Husein supported terrorists and that global warming isn’t happening. And he eventually had to give up and tell the truth about all of these issues.
And so it is with the economy as well.
George Bush has finally recognized the problems with the US economy and has signed-on to the economic stimulus package being prepared by congress. Unfortunately, like the rest of The Decider’s decisions, this one might just be too late.
The problem with George and Matt and the rest of the wingnuts is not just that they are slow to act- it’s that they simply lack perspective i.e. “the faculty of seeing all the relevant data in a meaningful relationship.”
They latch on to a couple of positive numbers floating around out there (e.g. a 5.2 percent increase in manufacturing orders for December) but fail to see how bleak the overall picture has become (e.g. orders for the year were up only .97 percent – a huge drop from the 6.31 percent increase in 2006).
Don’t mistunderstand my intention here- I’m not trying to highlight our nation’s economic woes in an attempt to place blame on Bush’s economic policies (i’ll save that for another post).
Blame aside, things are bad right now- on that almost everyone agrees- and things are only going to get worse as long as the rest keep denying there is a problem.
Faith in the economy isn’t going to help us out of this one, boys, no matter how much we pray or hope. You can’t ignore the problem just because it hasn’t impacted you yet. By the time it does- it may very well be too late to do anything about it.
Like any other problem- you have to admit it’s there before you can start solving it.
I was watching The McLaughlin Group with my wife recently and I commented that Pat Buchanan seems like the most reasonable guy on the show- at least on the topic of the war and terrorism.
My wife laughed and asked: what has America come to when Pat Buchanan is the most reasonable person in the room?
Anyway- I was reminded of Pat’s appearance on Ali-G. He does a great job answering questions about a different election but similiar issues (like BLT’s in Iraq)…
