UPDATE: Um, I was afraid this was going to happen. Note to Newseum: It would be super duper awesome if you'd create permalinks for the daily front page analysis. That way, when bloggers link to, say, the analysis of all the Obama nomination front pages, they don't come back the next day and see that their link now goes to some malarky about hockey. So, anyway, my smiley was a brief and lazy way of saying YAY OBAMA.
Just suffered through a round of "Obama is the antichrist!!! It is prophesied, omfg!!!" at the family compound. Chewed holes in my tongue but managed not to get worked up or say a single word.
Never realized how effing paranoid my family can be. Ho. Lee. Shit.
Holy hell. I just had a chance to watch the Bush-endorsing-McCain press conference. Some thoughts:
• McCain looks embarrassed, like he's had to bring his father to Show and Tell and dad's been slamming wine coolers and won't shut up and keeps talking over him and saying what a great kid he is now that he doesn't wet the bed or eat his boogers anymore.
• Watch at 8:49 and see if you hear him talking about dealing "with the North Korean, dealing with the Iranian." Mph?
• Is it just me, or do these two have some kind of Beavis and Butthead thing happening? Especially with their sniveling laughter? I guess then the question is who's Beavis, who's Butthead?
Yeah, well I heard he favors diggings up corpses and re-killings them!
From one of many e-mails I've received from someone in my family who really, really does not want me to vote for Barack Obama:
Voting records show that he is also the most liberal senator in the U.S. Senate. He is an ardent supporter of killing unborn babies. I have heard that he even favors killings babies after they are born. But that is okay because (1) he is a good speaker, (3) he is charismatic, and (3) he is black.
The above was written by some wack job named Jim Bramlett, a crazy evangelical you might get a kick out of Googling.
I just watched the replay of the Republican YouTube debate from last night.
As usual, I have some poorly thought out and superficial observations, based on my incomplete viewing because freaking Headline News Local Edition kept cutting in to tell me about Hannah Montana and the cold front that's coming.
• WTF is Mitt Romney's hair made of? Cellophane? Robot cellophane?
• I have always had a soft spot for John McCain, even though he can be an ass and even though I completely disagree with his take on the war (and his contention that "they'll follow us home" — what, they can't find their way now?) and the way he is sometimes so friggin' smarmy. So it hurts me to see him saddened by his colleagues' ridiculous hedging re: torture. You know he is the one person on that stage to whom the concept of torture is more than a concept. It also hurts to hear him talk about how he used to use guns, but doesn't have one anymore (but I know that's probably a carefully focus-grouped answer to appeal to mushy liberal types spying on these debates).
• Duncan Hunter clocked roughly eight words during the whole thing.
• Creepiest moment of the debate? There were several, but possibly topping them all was Romney's "I have two guns in my home; they are owned by my son Josh, hnyah hnyah hnyah." See for yourself (it's near the end of the clip):
• Second creepiest moment? Tancredo watching his campaign video. It's like watching him watching a video of himself masturbating. I am so sorry I just put that image in your head.
• I like Fred Thompson's sense of humor. Too bad he stands for everything I hate. Dude, Roe v. Wade is the No. 1 thing the country needs to tackle? Are you fucking serious, Rich Old White Man?
• I like Ron Paul's take on a lot of issues, but his skirting the issue on whether a woman should be charged with a crime if she got an abortion (if abortion was to be made illegal) was seriously cowardly. Note to pro-lifers — if you're going to outlaw something, you HAVE to come up with punishments for those who break the law. Otherwise, STFU. And Mitt Romney saying that Roe v. Wade should be overturned and the abortion decision returned to the states, but that he'd be happy to sign a federal abortion ban nearly made my head asplode.
• Mike Huckabee is kinda hokey when he gets to talkin' 'bout Jesus, but he had a classic one-liner and was just rhetorically on-point for the most part. I still think he's being a dumbass about his take on homosexuality and same-sex marriage, but I get that that goes with the Jesus schtick.
• I want to marry Nick Anderson.
• Kudos to the kid who asked the Confederate flag question. I love to watch politicians squirm at this question. It's essentially a no-win: Say the flag isn't racist and you will be pilloried as racist. Say it is and you risk losing that tantalizing bloc of hyperdefensive, working-class Southern white dudes that has become convinced that the Left is being run by gays and women who are on the rag. Squirm away, sirs!
Oh, and I think the bit about the two Americas and Romney wanting to throw something at his TV is fucking priceless. Get angry, Mitt! Throw some shit around when you're reminded than not everyone is as rich and privileged as you are! We're all in this boat together, except for the schleps who are stuck swimming. (For more on Mitt's totally clueless perception of the class war, see his response to the question about black-on-black violence.)
• I swear, the Republican take on gay people is damn near cavemanesque. They're going to boo a man who served for forty-plus years (and is openly gay) because he reminded them that every day, two people are discharged from the service not for misconduct, but for being gay? FUCK THAT. (I can only hope they're booing the deplorable actions the officer is describing, not the officer himself.)
Is it just me, or was John McCain a huge dick on the Daily Show last night?
Part one:
Part two:
Blah blah blah talking-over-each-other hooey. Has McCain always been so smug? Seems like his recent unpopularity with generous lefties (remember when he was every lefty's favorite conservative "straight shooter"?) has really brought out his inner asshole. Which is fine; I'm all for people exposing their inner assholes (as filthy as it sounds). It just means I won't vote for him.
