Abandon Ship!!!!!

OK, when I first heard that McCain was suspending his campaign I sorted through the pros/cons and something didn't quite add up. The timing of the thing just didn't make any sense, sure his poll numbers were sliding and all that. But they weren't sliding that bad and suspending your campaign based on a 1-2 point erosion just struck me as too over the top - even for big mac. However, I did however, remember that Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric was running the same night.

I walked into the house and one of the first things I told my wife was that I was worried McCain was suspending his campaign to generate a massive smoke screen because of Palin. Obviously, they knew what that interview was going to contain and if it was going to be a major disaster then they would obviously want to head that off ahead of time. Of course, just a minor disaster wouldn't be cause to suspend an entire campaign. But a major, almost disqualifying disaster would be. And it appears that the Couric interviews are bordering on disqualifying her from holding national office. So he suspends the campaign and what is even more suspicious is that instead of flying straight to DC he went straight to Katie Couric to give an interview. That is damn near a smoking gun. Why go to Couric when you know that your VP pick is being interviewed that same night? It makes no sense unless your purpose was to bump your VP's interview from the headline to possibly second billing (or even completely drop the interview from the broadcast).

So, has it worked? It certainly has taken some of the focus off of Palin, but I'm pretty sure this story has legs. McCain has to see this, has to know that the meltdown is inevitable and probably knows that he's only left with stalling actions while he plays for more time. Eventually this thing's going to come to a head and I'm guessing it's going to be the debate with Biden. Should be a train wreck of epic proportions.

So via Balloon Juice, I saw this:

Breaking News from Big Eddie:
McCain Camp insiders say Palin “clueless”
Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin. The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as “disastrous.” One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, “What are we going to do?” The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is “clueless.”

Looks like McCain is staring down an out of control locomotive with Palin written across the front. How awesome this is, he made this pick for pure political gain and it's the political aspect of it is going to bring him down.

Update: The facade begins to crumble.

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Palin: Bailout is about healthcare!

I'm speechless here. How can Biden compete against someone so utterly incoherent? This is going to be the equivalent of taking off your shoe and holding a serious debate with it. She is actually getting worse as time goes on. Of course the nutbags are going to say this is a brilliant example of the Chewbacca Defense, which has been described thusly:

"someone asserts his claim by saying something so patently nonsensical that the listener's brain shuts down completely."

Wookiees don't live on Endor, you must acquit!!

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Holy Craptacular Meltdown

Again, not talking about the markets. I'm talking about the Palin-Couric interview.



The best way to describe this is to first forget everything you've ever known about disasters. Think bigger and bloodier. Let's imagine a plane crash. Then let's say a train comes along and crashes into the plane wreckage. Then look - here comes a semitrailer! It jacknifes and plows into the rubble. Then to finish things off, pick up the whole smoking mess and throw it into the Sarlacc Pit Monster's gaping maw. And there you have it folks, a potential Vice President of the United States.

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Somebody Please Engineer A Bailout

Of course I'm not talking about the financial markets, but Sarah Palin. Can we please get a plan together to bail her out of this campaign? She is giving a whole new meaning to the word clueless.

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Release The Clinton Tax Returns!

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/03/release-the-t-1.html

Let's spread awareness on this issue. Why don't the Clinton's release their tax returns?

read more | digg story

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Our Man In Baghdad

A Sunni woman reports that she was raped by member of the Iraqi National Police (Shiite-dominated, BTW). Once again, the country is torn along sectarian lines - Shiites are disbelieving and Sunnis outraged (I'm presuming the Hatfields and McCoys are not happy about the situation either). Certainly, this is a moment calling for tact, understanding, and above all a desire to not inflame the situation any further. Enter Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki wearing Iraq-style kid gloves. His solution:

1. Call for a thorough investigation.
   
2. End said investigation after a couple of hours.
3. Denounce Sunni rape victim as liar, issue arrest warrants against her.
4. Reward (!) 3 Shiite officers accused of being rapists:
   

   Only hours later, however, Mr. Maliki reversed himself. His office released a second statement after midnight, that one calling the woman a liar and a wanted criminal and going on to praise the officers involved.
   “It has been shown after medical examinations that the woman had not been subjected to any sexual attack whatsoever, and that there are three outstanding arrest warrants against her issued by security agencies,” said the second statement. “After the allegations have been proven to be false, the prime minister has ordered that the officers accused be rewarded.”

5. Using steps 1-4 as a template, create Western style democracy free from sectarian and ethnic tensions.
   

This is the man we're depending on to stabilize Iraq. I'll freely admit that this woman could be lying (she was initially detained on suspicion of providing aid to insurgents). But is this really the best way to go about handling the situation? Couldn't he wait a few days or a week, let the Iraqi wheels of injustice spin for a bit, let the bribes and tribal blood feuds die down, then denounce her?? What about a little something called damage control?

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If A Civil Liberty Falls In Cuba.....

...can VP Cheney just toss you down a black hole and claim it never happened??

You may remember the (false) sense of tension being generated as the Military Commisssions Act of 2006 was being debated. The noble 3 Senators - Graham, Warner, and Big Daddy McCain - were locked in an old fashioned cockfight for the soul of our great republic against the mad King George. At the last second, this noble trio pulled the USA back from the brink, saved the Republic, and most likely also got the girl. So now that everything is back to normal, how are things going on that whole detainee issue? Er..not so hot:

A divided judicial panel ruled this morning that about 400 foreign nationals who have been detained for as long as five years at a military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, do not have rights to challenge their indefinite imprisonment through the U.S. court system.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia found that Congress's 2006 Military Commissions Act firmly blocked detainees from trying to appeal the president's decision to hold them without charges and without any promise of release.

One more reason to actively oppose McCain in '08. His "principled" stand was actually a complete and utter capitulation, and the seeds from that poisoned plant are finally starting to bear fruit. The fact that he played it up as a victory for liberty makes it that much more disgraceful.

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Straight Talk Express, Clinton-style

I just have to link to Yglesias on Clinton:

Hillary Clinton: "Some people may be running who may tell you that we don't face a real threat from terrorism. I am not one of those."

Whew. Where have all the straight shooters like Hillary been the last 6 years? Truly, if I could pick one threat facing America that's been really underreported, I would have to pick terrorism. There's been an appalling lack of interest in this subject, I would guess starting around September or October 2001.

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In The Midst of War, An Unlikely Bro-mance Arose

From a biography of Ariel Sharon comes the following call to arms (a mini-Gettysburg if you will) from our Most Eloquent One:

Speaking of George Bush, with whom Sharon developed a very close relationship, Uri Dan recalls that Sharon's delicacy made him reluctant to repeat what the president had told him when they discussed Osama bin Laden. Finally he relented. And here is what the leader of the Western world, valiant warrior in the battle of cultures, promised to do to bin Laden if he caught him: "I will screw him in the ass!"

Of course, what two consenting male adults do in the privacy of their own bedrooms is none of my concern.

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Big Al and Big Music == BFF

An Al Gore-Bon Jovi ticket? Despite my respect for Big Al's attention to the environment, I can't shake the feeling that Gore's desperately hoping to be recruited for another run at the Big P. I'm not completely opposed to this actually happening, I'm just not sure this sort of path to the presidency is still a possibility in today's society. I think this idea is doomed to failure, even with the immense power of the Kanye West lobby in your pocket.

Gore's apparent strategy (I'm going to take it as a given that he IS going to run at some point) is reminiscent of past candidates-in-waiting (Nelson Rockefeller, Adlai Stevenson, a half hearted attempt by LBJ in '68), who sit around waiting to snatch the nomination by means of a stampede at the convention. The only stampede in the modern era that was successful was Teddy Roosevelt's in 1908 (the fact that he declined the nomination does nothing to diminish the impact of the stampede itself, since the nomination was his for the taking).

The big difference today is that it's impossible to stampede a convention due to the 24 hour news cycle (where parties are now loathe to be perceived as not in harmony) and the decline of the party boss (who could twist arms - sometimes literally - to obtain necessary votes). Factor in the money angle (whoever has the most money/big name donors lined up is automatically perceived as a potential winner), and at the end of the day I think the later you declare the worse off you're going to be. This is especially important in the very crowded and high profile field for 2008 . Besides, Gore is probably barking up the wrong tree by appealing to the younger set - I'm not entirely convinced that the recent upticks in voter turnout (including younger demographics) aren't just due to the presence of an enormously unpopular sitting president.

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