Obama 51 McCain 27

That’s the July fund raising in millions of dollars — 51 to 27.

The DNC beat the RNC 27.7 to 26.

Republicans win

A Republican friend (I have more than one) writes of a symbolic victory — symbolic being all Republicans are likely to have this year.

But, I just found out I have to go to Denver on 26th-28th of August. Went to book my hotel only to find that every single Marriott within 60 miles of Denver is sold out due to the stupid Democratic convention. No problem though, I was able to use my status to kick some poor unsuspecting Democrat to the curb. We may not win the election, but I at least will have the satisfaction of kicking some poor slob out for two nights. How dare they go where I need to go? Higher taxes??? Sleep on the curb, beeyatch!!!

A fact you can use

“During his political career, McCain has participated in 130 reproductive health-related votes on Capitol Hill; of these, he voted with the anti-abortion camp in 125.”

From an article in The New Republic on McCain’s consistent pro-life record.

TV crawl of the week

Screenshot via Firedoglake.

Mother of mercy, what century are we in?

Best line about elections, then and now

A supporter once called out, “Governor Stevenson, all thinking people are for you!” And Adlai Stevenson answered, “That’s not enough. I need a majority.”

Dangerous and Unstable

It’s sort of funny when he’s just an unhinged senator. But think for a moment where we’d be if this man were president right now, as he may well be in six months. This man takes the counsel of the people who got us into the Iraq War. On foreign policy, he is in league with the people who were so extreme they’ve now largely been kicked out of the Bush administration. People like John Bolton and others like him.

It’s beyond Obama or political strategy or dinging McCain on this or that policy.

This man is simply too dangerous and unstable to be president. People need to wake up and get a look of the preview he’s giving us of a McCain presidency.

Joshua Marshall

NewMexiKen agrees with Marshall. Keep your eye on the ball people. War, and war especially with a powerful foe, trumps all other issues — except, of course, who’s wearing a flag lapel pin.

Interesting, very interesting

“Obama’s VP will speak on the third night of the convention. The third night of the convention has a theme of ‘Securing America’s Future’, which also happens to be the name of Wes Clark’s PAC”

FARK.com

You’re In Danger

And John McCain would ramp up all the worst traits of the current administration. His instincts are always toward force and the people advising him come squarely from the Cheney wing of the current administration. In comparison to Bush he’s not just more of the same. There’s every reason to believe he’d be much worse.

The current situation in Georgia and his response should make clear to everyone how dangerous a president John McCain would be.

Josh Marshall

Whatever you think of Obama and the Democratic Party, John McCain would be an unmitigated disaster as President of the United States.

If you’re against Obama, at least demand the Republicans chose someone capable of handling the job. Haven’t we had enough incompetence and wrong-headedness?

Guess he’s figured out how to use the internets

A Wikipedia editor emailed Political Wire to point out some similarities between Sen. John McCain’s speech today on the crisis in Georgia and the Wikipedia article on the country Georgia. Given the closeness of the words and sentence structure, most would consider parts of McCain’s speech to be derived directly from Wikipedia.

CQ Politics

This and that

School starts this week in Albuquerque — Wednesday is the first full day. NewMexiKen never started school before Labor Day and none of my kids did either. What’s with this August-to-May school year anyway?

I bought regular gasoline yesterday for $3.58 (I’m rounding off the tenth of a cent from now on). I was thinking I shouldn’t fill up (that is, I should buy short), because the price will continue to drop at least until election day.

What percentage of time during the Olympic coverage on NBC is actually spent watching athletes do athlete stuff? 10 percent? 15 percent?

There are rumors that McCain will pledge just one term to offset the age issue. I know an even better way — no terms. The Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch tells us Why McCain would be a mediocre president. “A careful look at McCain’s biography shows that he isn’t prepared for the job. His resume is much thinner than most people think.” Amazingly, McCain is even more of a dilettante than W.

Remember my rant about Comcast and the comment from a representative of Comcast? Well, it seems the outreach is real:

From a sparse desk dominated by two computer screens in the new Comcast Center here, Mr. Eliason uses readily available online tools to monitor public comments on blogs, message boards and social networks for any mention of Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company. When he sees a complaint like Mr. Dilbeck’s, he contacts the source to try to defuse the problem.

“When you’re having a two-way conversation, you really get to clear the air,” Mr. Eliason said.

The New York Times has more — Complaining Bloggers Have a Cable Company’s Ear.

The iPhone is great except for battery life, which is OK at best.

GOP won’t let go of its new tire-gauge toy

Consider a counter-example. McCain was talking about skin cancer the other day.

McCain emphasized that skin cancer is preventable, and implored Americans to wear sunscreen, especially over the summer. What’s wrong with this advice? Not a thing. It’s a smart, sensible thing to say.

But imagine if Obama and his surrogates said the entirety of McCain’s healthcare policy is sunscreen application. McCain doesn’t really care about cancer, they could argue, he just wants everyone to run out at get some SPF 30. Those vying to be Obama’s running mate started holding up bottles of Coppertone during their speeches, saying things like, “We want you to wear sunscreen, you know, it will very mildly improve your chances of not getting sick. But wearing sunscreen is not a healthcare policy for the United States of America.”

The Carpetbagger Report

This is the kind of thing they do

Fact: Proper tire inflation would save two to three times more oil per day now than expected offshore drilling will produce per day 20 years from now.

Wow, who could have predicted this?

Race in a presidential campaign. Just imagine.

Negative ads by people who can’t win on the issues. Just imagine.

The media reporting its own allegations as if once alleged they’re real. Just imagine.

Seriously, is anyone actually surprised about this?

Does anyone really think Obama actually has a chance?

Best image of the day, so far

Most unfair to the Oakland Raiders line of the day

“But I guess it’s useful for Democrats to get a reminder that the Republican Party plays presidential politics by the same moral code that guided the bad-boy Oakland Raiders in their heyday: ‘Just win, baby.’”

Eugene Robinson

Robinson continues: “The latest bit of snarling, mean-spirited nonsense to come out of the McCain camp was the accusation, leveled by campaign manager Rick Davis, that Obama had ‘played the race card.’ He did so, apparently, by being black.”

Civil discourse, what is this country coming to?

Obama eventually stopped speaking, turned around, and said, “Excuse me, young men. This is going to be a question-and-answer session, so you can ask a question later. Let me make my statement. Why don’t you all sit down? Then you can ask your question. That’s why we’re having a town hall meeting. Sit down. You’ll have a chance to answer your question. But you don’t want to disrupt the whole meeting. Just be courteous. That’s all. All you got to do is be courteous. That’s all. Just be courteous and you’ll have a chance to make your statement.”

MSNBC

And they got the chance and he responded.

Your assignment, contrast and compare with this and this.

Best line summing up McCain’s week

“Courage is grace under pressure. McCain showed it when he was a prisoner of war, and on many issues–yes, even on his stubborn insistence that the surge would work–but he is not showing it now. He is showing flop sweat. It is not a quality usually associated with successful leadership.”

Joe Klein, Time, reported by TPM Election Central.

Things younger than John McCain

There’s a website for everything including Things younger than Republican Presidential candidate (oh, and did I forget to mention war hero?) John McCain.

Among NewMexiKen’s favorite things younger than John McCain:

Howdy Doody
The flexible drinking straw
Penicillin
Zip codes
Duct tape

Most asinine line of the day

“Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck.’’

Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, as reported at The Caucus.

At this rate, McCain’s crew will be using the “N’ word by September. When McCain lost Iraq as an issue, he had no issues, so now it’s all anti-Obama, all the time.

But then I have to acknowledge, the only reason to vote for McCain is to not vote for Obama.

Best line of the day, so far

“I don’t pay attention to John McCain’s ads, although I do notice that he doesn’t seem to have anything very positive to say about himself, does he?”

Barack Obama

Because we sure as hell don’t want a president who is popular around the world

Britney Spears, Paris Hilton … Barack Obama?

All three make cameo appearances in Senator John McCain’s newest television ad that refers to Mr. Obama as “the biggest celebrity in the world” and uses footage from his speech in Berlin, with sound bites of the throngs cheering “Obama, Obama.”

(The McCain campaign likes to call them Mr. Obama’s “adoring fans.”)

The Caucus

Stupidest line of the day, so far

“The Obama campaign has a woman problem. How big? How small? It’s not clear, but in a close election, small can be big.”

That’s Chicago Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin as reported at Daily Kos.

Except Ms. Marin is wrong. As kos reports, “Kerry won the female vote 51-48. … Obama leads that demographic by 22.”

So, umm, Ms. Marin, wouldn’t it have been more factually correct to say that the McCain campaign has a woman problem, being down 56 to 34 among women in a poll taken three days ago.

Elsewhere it’s been reported that Obama has a Latino problem, too. Except that he’s up 66-33 among Latinos according to Pew.

I’d say it’s the media that has a problem. But you knew that.

Best line of the day, so far

“But if you actually think that flip-flopping is a sign of flawed character, and not just a handy partisan cudgel, then, sure, Obama might be slightly cynical, but McCain must be a dangerous sociopath.”

Jonathan Chait

McCain — W’s third term

“Many voters are wondering whether a McCain presidency would be an extension of Mr. Bush’s two disastrous terms. If the way Mr. McCain is running his campaign these days is an indication, Americans don’t have to wait until next January for the answer to that one.”

The New York Times

What else is new line of the day

“For four days, Sen. John McCain and his allies have accused Sen. Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true.”

The Washington Post

NBC’s Andrea Mitchell (Mrs. Alan Greenspan), who was with Obama, put it this way:

There was never an intention to make this political. But by tacking it on to the tail end of a political-the political leg of the trip, they opened themselves up they feared to the criticism, and if they’d gone, they’d be criticized and not going, they were criticized and the McCain commercial on this subject is completely wrong! Factually wrong.

Best line of the day

“Obama, it turns out, is a politician. In this respect, he resembles the forty-three Presidents he hopes to succeed, from the Father of His Country to the wayward son, Alpha George to Omega George. … They’re all politicians, yes—very much including Obama, … But that doesn’t mean they’re all the same.”

Hendrik Hertzberg

The Myth of a Toss-Up Election

While no election outcome is guaranteed and McCain’s prospects could improve over the next three and a half months, virtually all of the evidence that we have reviewed–historical patterns, structural features of this election cycle, and national and state polls conducted over the last several months–point to a comfortable Obama/Democratic party victory in November. Trumpeting this race as a toss-up, almost certain to produce another nail-biter finish, distorts the evidence and does a disservice to readers and viewers who rely upon such punditry. Again, maybe conditions will change in McCain’s favor, and if they do, they should also be accurately described by the media. But current data do not justify calling this election a toss-up.

From a longer piece at Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball ‘08.

Elsewhere

digby has the line of the day:

“McCain is just like George W. Bush, only old.”

digby also reports that the political media has adopted a new word for Obama.

Meanwhile Tom complains about them all.

And, on a higher plain, Annette quotes a passage from Cather’s masterpiece.

Saying more than he might have intended McCain line of the day

“My friends, we have to drill off shore. We have to do it. It’s out there and we can do it. And we can do that. The oil executives say within a couple of years we could be seeing results from it. So why not do it?”

John McCain, Tuesday

The oil executives have had their say for eight years. Let’s give someone else some undue influence.

McCain Makes Historic First Visit to Internet

From the great Andy Borowitz:

In a daring bid to wrench attention from his Democratic rival in the 2008 presidential race, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) today embarked on an historic first-ever visit to the Internet.

Given that the Arizona Republican had never logged onto the Internet before, advisors acknowledged that his first visit to the World Wide Web was fraught with risk.

But with his Democratic rival Barack Obama making headlines with his tour of the Middle East and Europe, the McCain campaign felt that they needed to “come up with something equally bold for John to do,” according to one advisor.

Read on, it gets better.

He’s really old or just not very bright or both — your call

“We have a lot of work to do, and I’m afraid it’s a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border.”

John McCain on Good Morning America today.  

Iraq and Pakistan do not have a border. They are separated by several hundred miles of Iran.

Neither borders Czechoslovakia either.

Most outrageous line of the day, so far

“[F]ormer chief executive of AT&T, Ed Whitacre, was ‘probably the most exploited worker in American history’ since he received only a $158 million pay package rather than the ‘billions’ he deserved for his success in growing Southwestern Bell.”

Phil Gramm speaking on behalf of John McCain as reported by Frank Rich.

But the rest of us are a “nation of whiners” according to Gramm, rumored to be McCain’s odds-on-favorite to be Secretary of Treasury.

“On issues of economics and … family values, there’s nobody that I know that’s stronger,” Mr. McCain has said of Gramm.

That says more about who McCain knows than it does about Phil Gramm.

FiveThirtyEight.com

FiveThirtyEight.com uses current polling data to make projections for the election — as they claim, “Electoral Projections Done Right.” This kind of analysis is different, of course, than just relying on straight-up polling, which generally asks how people would vote today.

For example, from the post linked above.

McCain has eight “penumbra” states where the model projects he will win by five-to-ten percent. Obama has seven “penumbra” states. McCain wins the electoral vote in these 15 states 81-67.

Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia are projected to go to one candidate or the other by more than 10%. The electoral vote here goes to Obama 175-79.

Summing up, in the states where a candidate is projected to win by more than 5% of the vote, Obama leads McCain 242-160. You need 270 to win.

That leaves the battleground states, the 11 that are projected to be within five percent come November. The eleven are North Carolina, Florida, Missouri, Nevada, Indiana, Montana and Virginia that slightly favor McCain; and Colorado, Ohio, Michigan and New Mexico that slightly favor Obama. These are the battleground states and they have 136 electoral votes. FiveThrityEight figures Obama to win 51 of these, and thus the election 293-245.

NewMexiKen finds FiveThirtyEight’s analysis to be among the more interesting — and potentially more accurate. I recommend the site to you — I extracted as much as I did for this post to get you interested.

FiveThirtyEight.com is run by Nate Silver, whose claim to fame before was as “a writer, analyst and partner at a sports media company called Baseball Prospectus. What we do over there and what I’m doing over here are really quite similar. Both baseball and politics are data-driven industries.” How the data is used is what makes FiveThirtyEight.com intriguing.

Guess who line of the day

“A guy gets up and quizzes me — it’s my fault for trying to answer — but John McCain says something about the ‘ambassador to Czechoslovakia.’ Well, I know there is no Czechoslovakia (there’s a Czech Republic and a Slovakia), but yet it didn’t make the nightly national news. I’m not going to gripe about it, but the media question is starting to pop up.”

That’s Firedoglake quoting none other than Governor George W. Bush in 2000. The subject comes up because twice in the past two days Senator McCain has referred to Czechoslovakia — a country that ceased to exist more than 15 years ago.

When even Bush knows you’re wrong — and it’s eight years later and you’re still wrong — there is something amiss.  McCain’s own memoir, Faith of My Fathers, has a chapter “Fifth from the Bottom.”  It refers to his class rank at the Naval Academy — 894th out of 899.

Do we want a president even more ignert than Bush?

Rebuttal to the New Yorker cover

Cartoon by David Horsey for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Click image for larger version.

Satire or ?

Everyone else is writing about this, NewMexiKen might as well too. That’s this week’s New Yorker cover, art by Barry Blitt. That’s Barack and Michelle Obama in the Oval Office, she with AK-47, he in Muslim garb. The American flag is in the fireplace.

This cover work for you?

Update: New Yorker editor David Remnick —

Obviously I wouldn’t have run a cover just to get attention — I ran the cover because I thought it had something to say. What I think it does is hold up a mirror to the prejudice and dark imaginings about Barack Obama’s — both Obamas’ — past, and their politics. I can’t speak for anyone else’s interpretations, all I can say is that it combines a number of images that have been propagated, not by everyone on the right but by some, about Obama’s supposed “lack of patriotism” or his being “soft on terrorism” or the idiotic notion that somehow Michelle Obama is the second coming of the Weathermen or most violent Black Panthers. That somehow all this is going to come to the Oval Office.

The idea that we would publish a cover saying these things literally, I think, is just not in the vocabulary of what we do and who we are… We’ve run many many satirical political covers. Ask the Bush administration how many.

The Huffington Post

There may be a reason you’re drawing a blank

Blitzer: Are there any significant economic differences between what the Bush administration has put forward over these many years as opposed to John McCain’s support?

[S.C. Governor Mark] Sanford: Yea, I mean for instance take, you know, ummm, ahhh, take for instance the issue of, ahhhh..(knocks on table) I’m drawing a blank. I hate it when I do that particularly on TV.

Transcript via Crooks and Liars.

Reported without comment

“Doctors reported Saturday that Vice President Dick Cheney’s heartbeat was normal for a 67-year-old man with a history of heart problems.”

AP

Why do they still keep calling him Senator?

98 senators voted on the Dodd-Feingold-Leahy amendment today that would have taken telecom immunity for past warrant-less wiretaps out of the FISA bill.

Two senators did not vote.

1. Ted Kennedy, recuperating from brain surgery
2. John McCain

Senators Obama and Clinton voted for the amendment, along with 30 others.  66 voted against.

Update: Actually McCain was the only senator absent all day today.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts walked triumphantly into the Senate on Wednesday for the first time since learning that he had brain cancer, hoping to provide Democrats with the crucial, single vote that they need to reverse a cut in Medicare reimbursements to doctors.

The Caucus

Update 2: Here are the 28 U.S. senators who took their oath to defend the Constitution seriously and voted against the bill itself.

Akaka, Biden, Bingaman, Boxer, Brown, Byrd, Cantwell, Cardin, Clinton, Dodd, Dorgan, Durbin, Feingold, Harkin, Kerry, Klobuchar, Lautenburg, Leahy, Levin, Menendez, Murray, Reed, Reid, Sanders, Schumer, Stabenow, Tester, Wyden.

Thank you Senator Bingaman.

Get Your War On

Click cartoon strip for larger version or here for more Get Your War On.