Today, I'm a Fan

Of the Red Sox, of course. Of Manny Ramirez, of course. But let's give a shout out to the classy Woo brothers.

The Phony Campaign

2008-06-01 Update

How about we add in a new candidate:

Query StringHit CountChange Since
2008-05-25
"Hillary Clinton" phony219,000-7,000
"Barack Obama" phony215,000-8,000
"John McCain" phony203,000-13,000
"Bob Barr" phony47,900---

  • The Libertarian Party nominated our newcomer, Bob Barr, to be its Presidential candidate this year. Bob has done a number of things in the past some folks in the LP find distasteful: he voted for the PATRIOT Act, he wrote the Defense of Marriage Act, and was a strong supporter of the War on Drugs. But, as Chad and Jeremy would say, that was yesterday, and yesterday's gone. Despite that history, the sole Google news hit for "Bob Barr" phony is this Wonkette article, and the "phony" part is referring to…
    Poor old John [McCain] is getting less than 75% of the vote these days in a primary he supposedly won months ago. This is because conservatives hate him, because he is a phony Mexican-loving elitist liberal.
    Sigh, yeah, we know. But what does Bob have to do to get some phony respect? We'll keep our eyes open, at least until we decide to close them.

    The Wonkette article, by the way, refers to the Libertarian Party as "Libertards" and the Ron Paul supporters in the GOP as "Paultards". Not simply lame namecalling: uncreatively repetitive lame namecalling.

    Now, I never read Wonkette much, but I was under the impression it was once slightly less obviously stupid than that. Was I wrong?

  • Of course, the big news is Barack Obama's resignation from Trinity United Church of Christ. It is, as Mr. Steyn puts it: "pews you can lose."

    A mere 75 days ago, Obama thought Trinity was swell:

    Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way.

    Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

    But as of today, he's decided he's had enough of that embodiment, because, well, he's moved on. In his resignation letter to the church's pastor, he paints that as a favor he's doing the church:
    We also have come to appreciate your ministry and both think you have been, and will be, a wonderful pastor for years to come. But as you know, our relations with Trinity have been strained by the divisive statements of Rev. Wright, which sharply conflict with our own views.

    Our larger concern is that because of my candidacy and membership at Trinity, these controversies have served as an unfortunate distraction for other Trinity members who seek to worship in peace, and have placed you in an untenable position as you establish your own ministry under very difficult circumstances.

    But, as he noted in his press briefing:
    My suspicion at [the time of Rev. Wright's remarks to the National Press Club], and Michelle, I think, shared this concern, was that it was going to be very difficult to continue our membership there so long as I was running for president. The recent episode with Father Pfleger I think just reinforced that view that we don't want to have to answer for everything that’s stated in a church.
    So, if I may summarize: "Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety, and I don't want to have to answer for that."

  • Oh, yeah, I almost forgot: Hillary's still making phony news.
    In the course of her presidential campaign, Mrs. Clinton has bemoaned the triviality of elections, noting that they seem to devolve at times into a contest of whom America would rather have a beer with.

    “We tried that once and it didn’t work out so well,” she has said, referring to George W. Bush’s apparent victory in the drinking-buddy primary over Al Gore (never mind that Mr. Bush long ago stopped drinking).

    But desperate times call for desperate measures, so …

    After an event Wednesday night in Rapid City, Senator Clinton added a notch to her belt on the drinking-war front when she strode to the back of her plane nursing a generous tumbler of amber-colored liquid. The substance was the subject of much debate among the press corps, but no one had the nerve to ask the candidate directly.

    Bourbon, it turned out. (Makers Mark, specified Jay Carson, a campaign spokesman.)

    I suggest a combination debate/drinking contest, where each candidate has to down a shot each time they use the word "change". Is it too late for that?


Last Modified 2014-12-01 11:00 AM EDT

Experimental Results

2008-06-01

This week's test of the Sunday Basic Cable Movie Actor Theory:

  • 12:00AM on TNT: The Fugitive (Harrison Ford)
Slim pickings again this week, although that's a darn good movie.

Theory status: unrefuted for fifteen consecutive weeks.


Last Modified 2017-12-05 7:10 AM EDT