Juan Cole checks in with a hyperventilating bit on John McCain's performance last night:
In a new low of despicable looniness, at the Republican debate in St. Petersburg, John McCain equated those Americans who want to stop militarily occupying Iraq with Hitler-enablers. He actually said that, saying that it was 'isolationism' of a sort that allowed Hitler to come to power.
It gives a person a certain amount of faith in one's fellow Americans that McCain was booed by the Republican crowd for this piece of calumny. Comparisons to Hitler should be automatic grounds for a candidate to be disqualified from being president.
Of course, the real reason the crowd was unhappy with the comment was that it was packed with Ron Paul maniacs, as the Weekly Standard points out:
What a depressing debate. CNN's long slide into mediocrity accelerates. Is this what running for president of the greatest democracy in the world has become? Standing in front of CNN's corporate logo in a hall full of yowling Ron Paul loons and enduring clumsy webcam questions from Unabomber look-a-likes in murky basements?
Cole engages in the misinformed and slightly racist commentary about Al Qaeda that we are used to hearing from the 9-11 "Truthers":
Al-Qaeda is a few thousand scruffy guys afraid to come out of their caves, who don't even have good sleeping bags much less a government to their name.Al-Qaeda is a few thousand scruffy guys afraid to come out of their caves, who don't even have good sleeping bags much less a government to their name.
Yep, just a bunch of jokers in caves who could never even dream of killing thousands and causing billions of dollars of damage.
Reid Wilson of RCP checks in with an article that raises the argument I have harped on since election day 2006: If Republicans want their best chance of winning in 2008, they'd better nominate McCain.
But it is John McCain whose electability argument rings truest. And, in fact, McCain's point is the simplest to make to Republican primary voters: In poll after poll, he runs closer to Clinton than any GOP contender other than Giuliani, with whom he is approximately tied. The latest RCP Averages show Clinton leading McCain by 2.8 points, about the same as Giuliani's 2.5 point deficit. Thompson trails by 8.1 points, while Romney is 11 points back.
Pollsters say that is no accident, and if Republicans who head to the polls really do make electability a priority, then swallowing doubts about the maverick would give them the best shot at winning the White House.
What is interesting about the poll results is that again, they show that it is not the Iraq War that is hurting the Republicans. McCain has been the most steadfast supporter of the war, and he's doing very well in polling. I don't really consider McCain a centrist; he's a conservative with some centrist positions, but from what I can see, it appears that the center is the place the Republicans need to be in 2008 if they want to compete.
“It’s because of stupidity in Massachusetts that my daughter is dead,” said Darrel Slater, 55, who is preparing to bury his daughter, Beverly Mauck, 28, and her husband Brian Mauck, 30.
The couple was executed in their home in rural Graham, Wash., Saturday after an alleged argument with Daniel Tavares Jr., 41, who in 1991 pleaded guilty to hacking his mother to death with a carving knife in their Somerset home in served 16 years for that crime.
Sixteen years? Well, I'm sure he repented his crime and was a model prisoner, right?
Tavares finished his sentence on June 14, but was immediately re-arrested on a warrant charging him with two counts of assaulting Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center prison guards during his troubled stint behind bars, Department of Correction officials said.
Bail was set at $50,000 per count. But that seemed harsh to a second judge, who released him on his own recognizance. And, you guessed who appointed that second judge:
Reached last night at her Andover home, Tuttman, who was appointed to the bench by former Gov. Mitt Romney, said, “I’m sorry, I’m not able to comment on this.” When informed what the slain woman’s father had said, she repeated, “I’m sorry, I’m not able to comment about this.”
Well, if you want to know what kind of judges Mitt Romney will appoint to the federal bench and the Supreme Court, you have your answer.
Update: Mrs M notes one irony of the situation; the Democrats won't be able to use it against Romney because of their soft on crime attitudes. I'm not sure that Hillary can't use it, however. She can say that while she supports lenience towards reformed criminals, this guy was clearly not reformed:
Correction officer Michael Kasprzak was allegedly punched in the head as he removed restraints from Tavares in December 2005. Two months later, the con allegedly spat on correction officer Matthew Atter and screeched, “I’m going to kill you (expletive) . . . I’ll break your (expletive) arms off!” according to court records.
You know, the other amazing thing is that this guy killed his MOTHER and served only 16 years, obviously not with time off for good behavior. Only in Massachusetts indeed.
News broke Thursday that voters in New Hampshire and Iowa had received phone calls from pollsters raising questions about aspects of Republican Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith. Who made the calls? Although the Romney campaign denies involvement, evidence points in its general direction.
With very rare exceptions. The winners of the first ten Super Bowls (Starr, Starr, Namath, Dawson, Unitas, Staubach, Griese, Griese, Bradshaw, Bradshaw) are all in the Hall of Fame. Kenny Stabler is not in, but he's appeared on the finalist ballot a couple of times, then we get Staubach, Bradshaw, Bradshaw before hitting Jim Plunkett. Plunkett's a better candidate than most folks realize, with an 8-1 record as a postseason QB and two Super Bowl wins as a starter. Then we hit Montana's first SB win.
Joe Theismann is the first QB who won a Super Bowl who does not have much of a case as a Hall of Famer. Then we get Plunkett and Montana again. Jim McMahon was a fine player and certainly a star, but not quite HOF caliber. Ditto with Phil Simms and Doug Williams. Then it's Montana, Montana, then Jeff Hostetler who certainly appears to rank among the least likely SB winners. Mark Rypien was a fine player for several years and an amazing player for one, but like the other Redskin QBs nobody at his house is waiting by the phone for the call from Canton.
Then we get back into a long line of HOF-QBs: Aikman, Aikman, Young, Aikman, Favre, Elway, Elway. Kurt Warner's probably not going to get inducted, but he's had a hell of a career. Nobody thinks Trent Dilfer's going to be immortalized. Brady follows and then Brad Johnson for the "Huh?" crowd. Then Brady, Brady, Roethlisberger, and Manning.
Even among the guys who aren't going to Canton, most of them were highly anticipated players. Jim Plunkett won a Heismann at Stanford and was the #1 pick in the draft; Trent Dilfer and Doug Williams were first rounders for Tampa Bay, while Simms was a top draft pick of the Giants. Jim McMahon held all the NCAA records when he left college.
Now I am being a little unfair; some of these guys were completely unheralded until they started winning championships. Bart Starr was something like a 17th round draft pick, Len Dawson was cut by the Browns in 1958 and would have been nowhere without the AFL. Joe Montana, although a household name for his college football heroics, was a third-rounder. Nobody thought Tom Brady would develop into the player he has.
What's particularly reprehensible about all of this is that so much of the Republican Party spent years mauling Bill Clinton for avoiding service in a war that he opposed. But for years, Romney emphatically supported the Vietnam War, yet actively avoided service and never enlisted:
This is, of course, the tiresome "chickenhawk" label that the Left routinely uses to dismiss anybody who supports a war but doesn't go to fight. Well, if you hate chickenhawks, you must love John McCain, then, right, Glenn? Of course, I don't really expect Greenwald to endorse McCain; the chickenhawk thing is just an argument of convenience. How about if we just let the military people vote, since they're the ones with something at stake? Isn't that a logical extension of the "thought" process being used here?
Other Republicans used to accuse him of kissing up to the news media. But when the Iraq war was at its worst, and other candidates were hiding in the grass waiting to see how things would turn out, McCain championed the surge, which the major Republican candidates now celebrate.
He did it knowing that it would cost him his media-darling status and probably the presidency. But for years he had hated the way the war was being fought. And when the opportunity to change it came, the only honorable course was to try.
And now he pushes ahead, building momentum, but desperately needing a miracle win in New Hampshire. Everyone will make their own political choices, and you might plausibly argue that the qualities John McCain possesses are not the ones the country now requires. But character is destiny, and you will never persuade me that he is not among the finest of men.
Sam Brownback, a Kansas conservative and favorite of evangelical Christians, will endorse his former Republican presidential rival John McCain, GOP officials said Wednesday.
The nod could provide a much-needed boost, particularly in Iowa, for the Arizona senator and one-time presumed GOP front-runner whose bid faltered and is now looking for a comeback.
Pat Robertson, one of the most influential figures in the social conservative movement, announced his support for Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid this morning at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. [Watch the video below]
While the press will undoubtedly play it as "Rudy enough of a bible-thumper to impress Robertson", I agree with the take at Power Line:
Once we get past the strangeness of this, it's a good development. I doubt that Robertson will persuade many anti-abortion voters to prefer Giuliani in the primaries. But maybe he can help persuade some of them not to stay home or vote for a third party candidate in the event that Rudy is the nominee.
If Giuliani gets the nomination. I know I'm virtually alone in feeling this way, but I have an inkling that events are working out well for John McCain. Fred Thompson seems to be struggling; the other day he had to beg for applause for one of his speeches. If the race boils down to Giuliani and McCain, I like John's chances.
John Kerry said Monday there might be a next time for his presidential aspirations, and if there is, the 63-year-old U.S. senator from Massachusetts says he’ll be ready for the political torpedoes that helped sink his 2004 White House bid.
Kerry, whose service as a U.S. Navy Swift boat skipper during the Vietnam War came under attack in his race against President Bush, said he has compiled a dossier on his war record critics that he wishes he had as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Note in particular that Kerry does not claim to have a dossier that shows him being in Cambodia. He claims to have some dirt on the Swift Boat Vets; who cares? They aren't running for President.
So delusional that they may manage to keep the Democrats from winning in 2008.
Why am I so pissed at Democrats lately? Simply put, it feels like many Democrats are taking something that does not belong to them--their excellent 2006 and 2008 electoral advantages--and then thoroughly ruining it.
Well, if the excellent electoral advantages do not belong to the Democrats, to whom do they belong? Answer: the Nutroots.
While Democrats were capitulating on the Iraq war and badly losing the 2002 elections anyway, it was the netroots who were forcing the removal of Trent Lott as new majority leader before the new Congress even started. While Democrats were praising Bush's invasion, it was the netroots who were re-invigorating small donors and on the ground progressive activists with anti-war messaging and candidates like Howard Dean. Blogs and organizations like MoveOn.org are the reason why Democrats closed the fundraising and activism gap on Republicans in 2004 and 2006, While Democrats were capitulating on the Iraq war and badly losing the 2002 elections anyway, it was the netroots who were forcing the removal of Trent Lott as new majority leader before the new Congress even started. While Democrats were praising Bush's invasion, it was the netroots who were re-invigorating small donors and on the ground progressive activists with anti-war messaging and candidates like Howard Dean. Blogs and organizations like MoveOn.org are the reason why Democrats closed the fundraising and activism gap on Republicans in 2004 and 2006...
In fact, the reason why the Democrats are doing so well now is nothing that they have done, or that the Nutroots have done. It's what the Republicans have done, and what they have failed to do. We joked about how the Democrats ran in 2004 on the platform that "We're not Republicans"; that failed (but still ended up much closer than anybody had a right to expect) in 2004, but it succeeded in 2006 and 2008 looks very much like more of the same.
They came up with this video, which claims that a Wired article about possible illegal support for Ron Paul's campaign was bought and paid for by the Giuliani campaign.
Of course, the "evidence" they present is laughably flimsy; someone registered at the Giuliani forum under the writer's name, mentioned that the "fake" article had been published, and asked for a check. Then of course they trumpeted this "discovery" in the comments on the Wired article. It's laughably inept, although I'm sure these folks are considered serious intellects among the Ron Paul nuts.
