Category: Politics & Elections

The Environment

There were, according to the League of Conservation Voters, 15 key votes on the environment in the Senate during 2007.

Senator Hillary Clinton voted the environmentalist side 11 times and was absent for four votes.

Senator Barack Obama voted the environmentalist side 10 times, against once, and was absent for four votes.

Senator John McCain was absent for all 15 votes.

Best line of the night, so far

3. Did McCain actually do anything wrong?

Depends how you define the word “wrong.”

Newsweek, which answers:

For now, whether you think McCain did anything wrong depends largely on whether you believe he should be held to the standards of “politics as usual”–or whether he should be held to the standards he sets for himself.

There’s a good rundown of what the fuss is all about.

More codgerisms

How about that John McCain, though? What do you think of John McCain? I knew he could count on you. He looks like the guy in front of you at the movies whose wife has to repeat everything, doesn’t he a little bit? He looks like the guy who has to always be told something is on his chin. He looks like the guy who still has a rotary phone. He looks like the guy who backed over his own mailbox. He looks like the guy whose sweater is always misbuttoned – you know that guy? He looks like the guy that always tells you he’s 72 years young. He looks like the guy who’s bragged that oatmeal has lowered his cholesterol. He looks like the guy who should be co-hosting with Kelly Ripa.

— David Letterman

The power of prayer

I guess Huckabee has been saying his prayers, eh?

Meanwhile, Obama can do no wrong.

DALLAS – It’s probably safe to say that you have arrived as a politician when your audience applauds when you blow your nose.

Yes, just a day before a debate in Texas, Sen. Barack Obama has a head cold.

And about a half-hour into a speech here, the Illinois Democrat announced that he had to take a quick break. “Gotta blow my nose here for a second,” Obama said.

Out came a Kleenex (or perhaps it was a hankie), and he wiped his nose.

The near-capacity audience at the Reunion Arena, which his campaign said totaled 17,000, broke out in a slightly awkward applause.

The Swamp

Forecast: Ugly with increasing ugliness until November

So the question isn’t whether Obama will be relentlessly pelted by the sprawling appendages of the Right-wing edifice and its media allies with the most grotesque, bottom-feeding, substance-free, personality-based attacks. Of course he will be — ones as ugly as, if not uglier than, anything we’ve seen yet.

Up until now, Obama has received relatively sympathetic treatment from the two-headed right-wing/media monster because he’s been the anti-Hillary, and hatred for her resulted in affection (or at least restraint) towards him. Once he’s no longer the anti-Hillary, but instead becomes the only thing standing between John McCain/GOP power and the White House, he’s going to be the target of all of that bile and much, much more. As the Right begins to believe that he very well might be the enemy this Fall, and they thus pressure the media to begin its attacks, this week one got a small glimpse — a tiny fraction — of what is to come.

Glenn Greenwald

And, as Greenwald reminds us:

What our political establishment relies on more than anything else is keeping Americans distracted away from what they are really doing and focused instead on how Mike Dukakis looks in a helmet and whether he’d want to murder his wife’s rapist; on blue dresses and penile spots; on the inspiration for Love Story and who invented the Internet; on how John Kerry looks in windsurfing tights, on how manly George Bush’s brush-clearing is, and whether Nancy Pelosi’s scarf-wearing means she loves the Terrorists. That’s how our Beltway culture remains indescribably broken and corrupt without much protest or backlash.

Winning streak

Obama’s ten consecutive victories since Super Tuesday.

Louisiana: +21
Nebraska: +36
Washington: +37
Maine: +19
Virgin Islands: +82
DC: +51
Maryland: +23
Virginia: +29
Wisconsin: +17
Hawaii: +52

Look at those numbers. We’ve got white states, we’ve got “black” states. We’ve got southern states. We’ve got western states. We’ve got northern states. We’ve got cheeseheads. We’ve got caucuses. We’ve got primaries. We’ve got rich states. We’ve got working class states. We’ve got Blue states. We have Red States. (We’ve got the start of a Doctor Seuss rhyme here…)

You know what we don’t have? A single close contest.

kos, who thinks it’s over and only wants the race to continue to strengthen the party in Ohio, Texas and maybe Pennsylvania (the next primaries).

A whole lotta lines

How about this John McCain? Whoa! My gosh. Doesn’t he look like the old guy at the barber shop?

McCain looks kind of like a Wal-Mart greeter.

McCain is the guy who is always early for the early bird special, that’s what he looks like.

McCain — he looks like a mall walker, ladies and gentlemen.

McCain looks like the guy at the supermarket who is confused by the automatic doors.

McCain looks like the uncle who pretends to remove his thumb.

David Letterman (who’s 60 himself)

Hey kids, no more truant officers

John McCain:

Also, I do not believe in mandates. I believe that every American should have affordable and available health care and I’d like to talk just an additional minute about that. But I’m not going to mandate that they do. I want every American to have affordable and available education. But I’m not going to mandate that they do.

Transcript from CNN.com. Pointer via digby.

Imagine that

Black voters are heavily represented in the 94th Election District in Harlem’s 70th Assembly District. Yet according to the unofficial results from the New York Democratic primary last week, not a single vote in the district was cast for Senator Barack Obama.

That anomaly was not unique. In fact, a review by The New York Times of the unofficial results reported on primary night found about 80 election districts among the city’s 6,106 where Mr. Obama supposedly did not receive even one vote, including cases where he ran a respectable race in a nearby district.

The New York Times [emphasis mine]

Best line from the writers back from strike, so far

“Stop saying how amazing it is for Democratic voters to have a choice for president between a woman and a black man. It’s not amazing. It’s two centuries late. It’s 2008. We’ve had 43 white guys in a row. Not to mention only one Catholic president, one bachelor president and, of course, one retarded president.”

Bill Maher