Category: Politics & Elections

Kevin Drum on Kerry on Spending

From Kevin Drum, Political Animal —

Unfortunately, I have to agree that promising to enforce spending caps “except in the areas of security, education, health care and Social Security” doesn’t exactly inspire visions of tightfisted fiscal rectitude. At a rough guess, those four areas account for about 80% of the federal budget, so capping the little that remains is a bit like cutting your fingernails as a way to lose weight.

So why did John Kerry say something so transparently silly? Beats me, although I suppose it sounds good on the evening news since most people probably think these four areas are a mere drop in the budget bucket and Kerry is planning to cap great huge swathes of spending. As near as I can tell, the average joe thinks “welfare” accounts for about a quarter of the budget, foreign aid for a quarter, waste and fraud for another quarter, and all the worthwhile stuff competes for the tiny sliver left over.

As policy, then, there’s nothing much here. But at a gossip level there was this:

He also pointed out that he has been working with Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, on legislation that would “end corporate welfare as we know it.”

….”John McCain can’t get anyone in the Bush White House to listen to our proposal,” he said. “If I’m president, John McCain will get the first pen when I sign this bill into law.”

Hmmm, I wonder why he’d go out of his way to give props to John McCain that way….?

Where are the cherries?

NewMexiKen reads that the cherry blossoms around Washington’s Tidal Basin are about to explode. Truly it is spectacular, though the “peak” bloom seems an altogether too brief moment in time each year.

I have long thought that the cherry blossoms are the perfect metaphor for so much of what happens in the nation’s capital. There is a tremendous amount of prediction and talk and hype, often beginning weeks in advance of the actual event. When the blossoms do arrive so do the crowds, driving, cycling or walking around and around, oohing and ahhing.

Much hype, much show, much motion, much talk.

And not one damn cherry.

Psalm 2004 — King George Version

Bush is my shepherd, I shall be in want.
He leadeth me beside the still factories,
He maketh me to lie down on park benches,
He restoreth my doubts about the Republican Party,
He guideth me onto the paths of unemployment for the Party’s sake.
I do fear the evildoers, for thou talkst about them constantly.
Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy deficit spending
They do discomfort me.
Thou anointeth me with never-ending debt,
And my savings and assets shall soon be gone.
Surely poverty and hard living shall follow me,
And my jobless children shall dwell in my basement forever.

Anonymous

Thanks to Veronica and Friend.

Barack Obama

A Bright Hope in Illinois. A rather different politician, Barack Obama. Take a moment to read about the winner of the Democratic primary for U.S. Senator.

The article concludes:

If by “American” we mean that which is most distinctive about us and our ideals, if we mean it to refer to our status as a nation of immigrants that could yet become the world’s first great polyglot, miscegenistic meritocracy, then Barack Obama, if elected, would not only become the sole African American in the Senate: He would also be the most distinctly American of its members.

Link via Eschaton.

Update: Colorado Luis has some worthwhile commentary about Obama (Illinois) and Salazar (Colorado).

Picture this

From This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow —

Pandagon makes a good catch, noting a buried paragraph in a Time article:

Administration sources tell TIME that employees at the Department of Homeland Security have been asked to keep their eyes open for opportunities to pose the President in settings that might highlight the Administration’s efforts to make the nation safer. The goal, they are being told, is to provide Bush with one homeland-security photo-op a month.

Homeland Security, working to keep you safe from terror–one photo op at a time.

Sweet 18

The Washington Post published an article Monday to the effect that the presidential election is “likely to turn on battles in fewer than 18 states.” Accordingly, those states will see all the action. Or, as Electablog* puts it, “More to the point, if you’re planning a summer trip, you may want to avoPOSTID: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.”

Smoke-filled room

The Denver Post reports:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the nation’s highest-ranking elected Hispanic official, threw his support Saturday behind Attorney General Ken Salazar – and Colorado Hispanics – vowing to funnel money into the state to increase Hispanic voter registration and turnout.

“As of today, Colorado will get financial support to turn out more Hispanics in November,” Richardson said in an interview.

The governor, who is also chairman of the Democratic National Convention, was the keynote speaker at the Colorado Democrats’ annual Jefferson Jackson dinner.

The emergence of Salazar as the Democrats’ highest profile candidate for U.S. Senate is a “thunderbolt” not only for the state but also for the nation, Richardson said.

“Colorado is now targeted as a possible pickup state for the Democrats in the presidential election,” Richardson said. …

Sitting back in an overstuffed chair in his hotel room, white smoke rising from his cigar, Richardson said he was flattered by being mentioned.

“But I have the best job I’ve ever had,” he said about being governor, noting that his first term doesn’t expire until 2006. “I’ve committed myself.”

California lawmakers propose lowering voting age to 14 for state elections

Associated Press via SFGate.com:

A proposed amendment to California’s constitution would give 16-year-olds a half-vote and 14-year-olds a quarter-vote in state elections.

State Sen. John Vasconcellos, among four lawmakers to propose the idea on Monday, said the Internet, cellular phones, multichannel television and a diverse society makes today’s teens better informed than their predecessors.

The idea requires two-thirds approval by the Legislature to appear on the November ballot.

“When we gave the vote to those who didn’t own property, then to women, then to persons of all colors, we added to the richness of our democratic dialogue and our own nation’s integrity and its model for the world,” Vasconcellos said, calling it time to further extend the vote.

A Republican colleague said it was “the nuttiest idea I’ve ever heard.”

Said Assemblyman Ray Haynes: “There’s a reason why 14-year-olds and 16-year-olds don’t vote. They are not adults. They are not mature enough. They are easily deceived by political charlatans.”

Student supporters said the idea could give them a say in issues such as education funding and bring new voices to the California electorate.

“If we could vote, politicians would see us as votes, not just kids, and they would take our issues seriously,” said Robert Reynolds, a student at Berkeley High School.

Jay Leno (last night)

“President Bush has just one question for the American voters: Is the rich person you’re working for better off now than they were 4 years ago?”

“John Kerry says he’s considering going to Iraq. But Kerry said he wants to avoid any sense of politics in such a trip. He doesn’t want people to think he’s going for political reasons. No, he’s just going for Spring Break. It’s that time of year … it’s Iraq.”

Source: The Associated Press

Marathon bout begins

Calpundit sums up the first week of the campaign —

TOUGH CAMPAIGN SEASON AHEAD….Is this going to be a tough race or what? It was only last Tuesday that John Kerry clinched the nomination and:

  • Citizens United responds with a sarcastic commercial declaring that Kerry is “another rich, liberal elitist from Massachusstts.”
  • Bush takes to the road to accuse Kerry of being soft on intelligence based on a vote nine years ago.
  • Kerry shoots back, “If the president of the United States can find the time to go to a rodeo, he can find the time to do more than one hour in front of a commission that is investigating what happened to America’s intelligence and why we are not stronger today.”

    I’m sure I’ve missed some stuff, but I’m tired. And this was only the first week.

    Eight more months to go.

    • Spicing things up

    Wonkette has some interesting ideas.

    What could make the next eight months interesting?

    1. Allow Donald Trump to select the vice president via a series of mock-governing contests. (Omarosa’s “White House” experience will finally come in handy!)
    2. John Kerry must deliver the rest of his speeches wearing funny clown shoes. Bush has to wear a tiara.
    3. Invade something.
    4. After each remaining primary, Kerry gets to have sex with an intern. . . selected by television viewers!
    5. Seriously, who wants to give Dick Cheney a heart attack?
    6. Was: Presidential debates. Is: Presidential debates. . . on ice!
    7. Trading Spaces: Wackiness ensues when the Kerrys and the Bushes exchange residences for a weekend. (“I hope they don’t do anything to Blue Room,” mutters Laura.)
    8. Sharpton v. Bumiller: This time, it’s personal.

    The Next Best Thing to Being President

    NYU law professor Stephen Gillers has an interesting suggestion.

    With John Edwards’s decision to quit the race, expected to be announced officially today, John Kerry’s nomination as the Democratic candidate for president is secure. Speculation about his choice for vice president can now begin in earnest.

    Mr. Edwards himself is an obvious choice: a skilled campaigner, he would also attract Southern voters. Other possibilities include Govs. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who have both regional appeal and executive experience, and dark-horse candidates like former Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia.

    Amid this conjecture, however, one name is conspicuously absent: Bill Clinton.

    Kerry

    NewMexiKen posted this national polling data from Gallup on January 7: “Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, and Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt are closely bunched, with each receiving between 9% and 11%.”

    Kerry-McCain

    Eric Alterman has an interesting idea (one I’ve seen elsewhere).

    In my brief veep discussion yesterday, I left out the actually ideal choice — even including Edwards — which would be John McCain. Can you imagine? McCain’s recent voting record is closer to Kerry’s than to his party’s leadership and the man does hate Bush’s guts. It would be an enormous roll of the dice for both men but extreme times call for extreme measures. McCain would have to quit the WMD intelligence panel, for which he would be pilloried, but hell, he could do a lot more for the nation’s intelligence capabilities as part of an administration that would not declare war on the CIA and reveal the identity of its agents just because they were not willing to lie on its behalf.