June 2008
Another moment of unabashed pragmatism
Having spent part of my morning watching MSNBC in the breakfast room at a Residence Inn in Salisbury — a 20-minute session that, as a complement to scrambled eggs and turkey sausage, included interviews with Tim Russert, Robert Wexler (D-FL), Dan Rather, and a lot of proto-hagiographizing of Scott McClellan (at one time rumored by lefty activists to be a closet homosexual and self-hating gay man living a fetid lie,
Billy Jeff’s monsters from the Id [Karl]
Todd Purdum (a/k/a Mr. Dee Dee Myers) has an article in the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair title “The Comeback Id,” which attacks former President Clinton, suggesting he is out of control personally and consumed by “cavernous narcissism.†Ross Douthat thinks that “[i]t’s interesting that Purdum and VF are coming out with this piece now, with Hillary Clinton’s campaign more or less finished,” missing the rather obvious point that it is coming
Why’d he put off blogging that rumored Michelle Obama video? [Karl]
Although it has popped up in the comments here, I have avoided commenting on the claims at Larry Johnson’s No Quarter blog regarding a rumored video of Michelle Obama making racially inflammatory comments, supposedly referring to “Whitey.” Johnson himself claims he will have “news” on the purported video later this morning. As I write this (late Sunday), I have no idea what that “news” will be, whether such video exists, etc. The
Andrew Sullivan is losing his grip… on the English language [Karl]
Excitable Andy, in addition to general gobsmackedness???????? over the idea that history might treat Pres. Bush more kindly if Iraq turns out relatively well in the long run, is agitated over terms of the proposed Iraq security pact: 50 long-term military bases. How is that not empire? It is not empire in the sense that the US bases in Japan, Germany and South Korea pursuant to Status of Forces Agreements
End Game? [Dan Collins]
Hillary Clinton will be offered a dignified exit from the presidential race and the prospect of a place in Barack Obama’s cabinet under plans for a “negotiated surrender” of her White House ambitions being drawn up by Senator Obama’s aides. The former First Lady would get the chance to pilot Mr Obama’s reforms of the American healthcare system if she agrees to clear the path to his nomination as Democratic
The Proggosphere is segregated [Karl]
The San Francisco Chronicle reports: With its power-to-the-individual approach, the new media world promises anyone with a laptop the possibility of a publishing empire. But, as some black bloggers are finding out, the new media world is a lot like the old one: racially segregated, with many prominent black voices still fighting to be heard. Some bloggers felt insulted this month when the Democratic National Committee selected 55 state-oriented blogs
Do May-June polls mean anything for November? [Karl]
The other day, I noted that for all of the usual caveats about polls being snapshots and a week being a lifetime in politics, the May-June polls in 2004 correlated pretty well to the November results. A diarist at OpenLeft has posted a table showing the national presidential polling for March/ April, May, June and the actual vote margins for elections going back to 1972, along with the following observations: In
