Playing Politics since 1869

April 24, 2008

1) Jeez Dad, leave me alone! Howard Dean says of remaining undecided Superdelegates: "I need them to say who they're for, starting now." Superdelegates think they hear a fly buzzing near their ear, swat it away, return to whatever it was they weren't doing.

2) Hey! Other Dad! I'm really shakin' now! Joining the fun, Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid says that he, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Howard Dean, may just have to write a joint letter to those Superdelegates demanding that they make a decision. Or maybe seperate letters. That's right, three seperate letters. And then a joint letter. Yeah......

3) Twenty Ivy League economist-nerd-types receive their marching orders. Robert Reich endorses Obama in his blog late on the Friday afternoon before the Pennsylvania primary. Obama thinks he hears a fly buzzing near his ear. Then he's distracted by crickets chirping.

4) Peggy Noonan [WSJ 4-19-08] thinks it "would be a brilliant thing" for John McCain "to announce he means to be a one-term president, that he means to have a clean, serious, one-term presidency in which he will do things those under pressure of re-electon do not and cannot do." Hmmm....an instant lame-duck GOP President trying to persuade a Democratic Congress to do things his way. Hmmm....Here's another idea for McCain. He picks Andy Rooney for his running mate, unleashes his hair-trigger temper and changes his campaiugn slogan to: "Hey you kids! Get off of my lawn!"

5) June 3, 1992, Bill Clinton plays his sax on The Arsenio Hall Show. April 21, 2008, Hillary, Barack and John McC appear on World Wrestling Entertainment's Monday Night Raw. Pop culture. It's the only culture we have.

6) From the "Really tough jobs" Department: Sadr City Department of Public Works. As quoted in this week's NYT: Sgt. Alex J. Plitsas of the 312th Psychological Operations Company, says, "He who is able to fix the public utilities holds the keys to the kingdom in terms of winning the support of the Iraqi people and ultimately ending this conflict." A world and several decades away, Tip is still right.

7) Get Me Jack Germond! Stat! Writing in the Boston Phoenix this week [4-24-08], Steven Stark says that Democrats "may have only one option at this point: they can turn to Al Gore." No. Wait. It gets better. He goes on to say that "some senior Democrats...would have to publicly urge Gore to make a run." Wait. Wait. Then he says that Gore supporters could run a write-in campaign in either Kentucky or Oregon, suggesting the latter might work because Jerry Brown placed third there in a write-in effort in the 1976 primary. I still think Curly put it best when he said: "YYNNGG, YYNNGG, YYNNGG."

8) Julie Nixon Eisenhower maxed out in giving to Obama during the primaries. Somewhere Pat Nixon stands quietly laughing on the inside.

9) You're missing the point. It's a "loss leader" strategy. The latest USA Today/Gallup Poll survey [4-22-08] shows President Bush's approval rating at 28% and his disapproval rating at 69%. That's the highest disapproval rating of any president in the Gallup Poll's 70-year history. So it's all blue sky from here on out.

10) Imagine Florida 2000 with guns, machetes, bombs and "torture camps" - Victorious opposition party leaders [the Movement for Democratic Change] failed to block a government-ordered recount of Zimbabwe's "disputed" election returns. They're "disputed" because the ruling party [i.e. that of well-known thug Robert Mugabe] lost control of the lower house of Parliament for the first time since 1980. If you want to help, send lawyers, guns and money.