Liberal Democratic Politics, Discussion and Snark

Last week the press was in a furor over supposed “near gaffes” by Democrats, all the while ignoring the fact that John McCain doesn’t even know the difference between Sunni’s and Shi’ites. There is a reason why TV ratings are in decline and newspaper circulation and ad revenues are down. People can tell when they’re being fed a load of horse shit.

Here’s a nice summary of the media’s abject laziness (and GOP’edness) from Firedoglake:

Things that the US press freaked out over last week:

– OMG! Hillary lied about a sick woman! (Not really, as it turns out.)

– OMG! Barack was picking on people! (Not really, as it turns out.)

Things that the US press did not freak out over:

– John McCain’s breaking campaign finance law (though they did a number of pieces on public financing of political campaigns).

– John McCain’s constant stream of gaffes, lies, and worse (though they did play up a McCain attack on a non-gaffe by Obama).

The more and more crap that American’s get shoveled into their eyeballs by the corporate owned media, the more and more turned off they are, the less informed they become, and the more likely they are to end up voting for a complete asshole who thinks torture should be legal.

Cliff Schecter drops a gem in his interview with Bob Cesca on the Huffington Post:

With the Obama/Hillary Thrilla in Manila still going on, it seems many have dug in and are more content to bash the other one than McCain. Which is a problem, as he is a scary guy, and people need to know it.

And basically, that’s the deal. Let’s just forget about Hillary and Barack for a moment and focus on why John McCain is a clear threat to America. He’s pro torture, and he’s a giant flip-flopper.

* McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but has since decided to cozy up to the man who said Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks. (Indeed, McCain has now hired Falwell’s debate coach.)

* McCain used to oppose Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he reversed course in February.

* In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly of being corrupt, spending “dirty money” to help finance Bush’s presidential campaign. McCain not only filed a complaint against the Wylys for allegedly violating campaign finance law, he also lashed out at them publicly. In April, McCain reached out to the Wylys for support.

* McCain supported a major campaign-finance reform measure that bore his name. In June, he abandoned his own legislation.

* McCain used to think that Grover Norquist was a crook and a corrupt shill for dictators. Then McCain got serious about running for president and began to reconcile with Norquist.

* McCain took a firm line in opposition to torture, and then caved to White House demands.

* McCain gave up on his signature policy issue, campaign-finance reform, and won’t back the same provision he sponsored just a couple of years ago.

* McCain was against presidential candidates campaigning at Bob Jones University before he was for it.

* McCain was anti-ethanol. Now he’s pro-ethanol.

* McCain was both for and against state promotion of the Confederate flag.

* And now he’s both for and against overturning Roe v. Wade.

Nice. Real nice.

In the latest Quinnipiac poll, Obama is edging up on Hillary in Pennsylvania.

In this latest survey, one of the biggest shifts is among women who went from 54 - 37 percent for Clinton April 2 to 54 - 41 percent for her today. A look at other groups shows:

* White voters for Clinton 56 - 38 percent, down from 59 - 34 percent last week.
* Black voters back Obama 75 - 17 percent, compared to 73 - 11 percent.
* Men are for Obama 48 - 44 percent, compared to a 46 - 46 percent tie last week.
* Voters under 45 go with Obama 55 - 40, while older voters back Clinton 55 - 38 percent.
“With two weeks to go, Sen. Barack Obama is knocking on the door of a major political upset in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary. Obama is not only building on his own constituencies, but is taking away voters in Sen. Hillary Clinton’s strongest areas - whites including white women, voters in the key swing Philadelphia suburbs and those who say the economy is the most important issue in the campaign,” said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

I wonder what the Clinton campaign will say once they pull a Memphis and blow the lead in the final two minutes? At this point it is truly flummoxing that Hillary Clinton is staying in the race. Even with the pundits blowing a hard wind at her back, the possibility of her actually winning the election will only serve to sunder the Democratic Party and hand the election to Senator McSame.

Not to mention the fact that the Clinton campaign is a comedy of errors, and if the old adage holds true that the administration will be run like the campaign, I don’t think anyone really wants to sit around and watch that unfold.

Well it certainly looks like James “the mean parrot” Carville has been sufficiently kicked in the pants by Bill Richardson. Talk about civility, something of which Mr. Carville (squawk) has apparently no knowledge. Here’s what Bill Richardson had to say about Carville:

Barack Obama supporter Gov. Bill Richardson, D-New Mexico, responded on Sunday to controversial comments by James Carville, saying that he would not “stoop to Carville’s level.”

It’s amazing how irrelevant one-time political guru James Carville has become these days.

“I haven’t gotten into the gutter on this. And you know, I’m not going to stoop to Carville’s level. I barely know the guy in the first place,” Richardson told Bob Scheiffer on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

In other words: ‘Who said what about me? Whatever.’ Haha!

I feel bad for James Carville, I really do. He’s on the losing team yet again, and now he’s resorting to Rovian opinion columns in the Washington Post to boo hoo his extra large crocodile tear all over my breakfast because Bill Richardson has the winning political trifecta of a heart, brain and spine:

Fully aware of this supercharged environment in which the slightest slight is elevated to the most egregious insult, I waded in — okay, dove in — by demonstrating what constitutes a real insult.

I believe that loyalty is a cardinal virtue. Nowhere in the world is loyalty so little revered and tittle-tattle so greatly venerated as in Washington. I was a little-known political consultant until Bill Clinton made me. When he came upon hard times, I felt it my duty — whatever my personal misgivings — to stick by him. At the very least, I would have stayed silent. And maybe that’s my problem with what Bill Richardson did. Silence on his part would have spoken loudly enough.

Wow. So here’s a completely far-fetched analogy to put this in perspective. Let’s say I’m the lookout on a pirate ship (arrrr!), and I owe everything I’ve got to the ol’ Cap’n. But said Captain is drunk as hell and intent on wrecking us into a reef. The trusty first mate is ready to take the helm, but the Captain won’t give up because his perspective is tainted by rum and scurvy. The entire crew is leaning towards ye olde first mate and I stand up and say, “Hey, the Cap’n is tanked, I say we let the first mate take over before we all die. Whaddya say?” Then the bald, mangy parrot starts hollering “traitor!” at the top of his lungs.

See how I did that? I play the part of Bill Richardson, Hillary is the Captain, Obama is the first mate, the ship is the Democratic Party and James “the ragin’ cajun” Carville is the parrot. Nobody likes a mean parrot. Nobody.