Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura said Tuesday that he would consider running for president in 2012.

Hey you,
Out there in the cold,
Getting lonely, getting old,
Can you feel me?

Hey you,
Standing in the aisle,
With itchy feet and fading smile,
Can you feel me?

Hey you,
Don’t help them to bury the light.
Don’t give in without a fight.

Speaking to a Ron Paul event at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Ventura told the crowd that he intends to watch events between now and the next election and decide “whether it’s worth it.”

Hey you,
Out there on your own,
Sitting naked by the phone,
Would you touch me?

Hey you,
With your ear against the wall,
Waiting for someone to call out,
Would you touch me?

Hey you,
Would you help me to carry the stone?
Open your heart, I’m coming home.

“I wrote the book, “Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me,’ ” Ventura said.

“Well, I’m here. Let’s get the revolution going.”

But it was only fantasy.
The wall was too high, as you can see.
No matter how he tried he could not break free.
And the worms ate into his brain.

“If I see it in 2012, we’ll give them a race they’ll never forget,” Ventura said.

Hey you,
Out there on the road,
Always doing what you’re told,
Can you help me?

Hey you,
Out there beyond the wall,
Breaking bottles in the hall,
Can you help me?

Hey you,
Don’t tell me there’s no hope at all.
Together we stand, divided we fall.

My thirteen-year-old son made an interesting and unprompted observation as we were out running errands in the car the other day.

“Dad, at the Open House (for his school) I noticed that the Student Council candidate at our school is sort of like Barack Obama.”

“How’s that?”

“Well, he’s really nice and enthusiastic and promises things that he can’t do and are completely out of his control; to get people to vote for him.”

He went on with examples.

“Like vending machines in every room, and no bullying ever in the halls, allowing video games in school, to make sure school lunches are a lot better; less homework.”

Smart kid. It made me think of Obama’s speech the other night.

“Well, (Obama’s) really nice and enthusiastic and promises things that he can’t do and are completely out of his control; to get people to vote for him.”

I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.

I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power.  

I’ll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America.

I’ll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars.

And I’ll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy

…five million new jobs that pay well and can’t ever be outsourced. 

I’ll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support

…help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.

I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less.

I wonder if Barack Obama ever ran for student council? I wonder if all junior politicians take their lead from liberals these days (and I include GW Bush in that hogpile)?

In all fairness to Barack Obama, his speech didn’t sound that different from G.W. Bush’s State of the Union a few years back. Promises, promises. Program after program. I don’t think any of them happened.

At least now, with Sarah Palin on the McCain reform ticket, there is hope. Albeit a sliver of it. Hope that someone will go to Washington, and once there, wake Americans up to the fact that our Federal Government needs to go on a diet. Needs to do less, and with less. That the American people will have to do more with less. That we will actually have to go back to “being our brother’s keeper.”

Someone’s gotta do it. The question is will it be now, when we have a choice, or later when we don’t?

Police raid RNC protest sites in Twin Cities

First of all, protesting is a loser’s game. It has no lasting impact on policy or public opinion. If you want to affect policy, you have to be organized, respectful, and these days demonstrate that you have at least one hundred thousand voters of the same consensus, whatever your cause or complaint.

Otherwise you are a non-starter politically. You may find that unfair, nonetheless it is how the game is played. The internet, the great equalizer of this day and age makes the dissemination of information and the gathering unto oneself of like-minders easier than ever.

As a blogger, I don’t begrudge anyone that would oppose the policies of their government. Open, unfettered debate is a right and a responsibility for every citizen. However, protesting and the disruption of a legitimate political process is an ineffective, wasteful, and frankly lazy way to express one’s opinion.

Our law enforcement is charged with protecting those that gather for the legitimate process as well as the protestors, putting them in a veritable squeeze play. Add the fact that an outbreak of violence at an event of the magnitude of the Republican Convention in Saint Paul is not out the realm of possibility.

If the protesters are obtuse enough to make their plans to exercise anarchy and disruption known, a preemptive strike by law enforcement should not be a surprise and in fact serves to dissuade those that would break the law by bringing harm to persons or property.

Ramsey County authorities raided several Minneapolis homes and a St. Paul building on Friday and Saturday as a pre-emptive strike against disruptive protests of the Republican National Convention.

Three people were arrested and more than 100 were handcuffed, questioned and released by scores of deputies and police officers, according to police and elected officials familiar with the raids.

In a statement Saturday morning, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher said the St. Paul raid targeted the RNC Welcoming Committee, a group he described as “a criminal enterprise made up of 35 self-described anarchists…intent on committing criminal acts before and during the Republican National Convention.”

But that can’t be right. How could a group with such an innocuous name intend to bring harm to persons or property?

“These acts include tactics to blockade and disable delegate buses, breaching venue security and injuring police officers,” Fletcher said.

But the raids drew immediate condemnation from activists and St. Paul City Councilman Dave Thune, whose district includes the former theater at 627 Smith Avenue South, which was rented by activists as a gathering space.

“This is not the way to start things off,” Thune said Saturday morning. “This is sending the wrong message. Regardless of how you feel about these people…they had a right to be there.”

Not if they are breaking the law – any law. Even the RNC Welcoming Committee should be smart enough to know that.

At a news conference Saturday, Cheri Honkala of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, one of the protest groups, described the Friday raid and an earlier one Thursday that evicted a demonstrators’ camp on Harriet Island as “terrorism” intended to divert attention from issues the protest groups are raising and cast the news as police versus protestors.

Terrorism. Don’t insult our intelligence.

You are not raising any issues. No one cares about you because you have marginalized yourself by the means you have chosen to publicize your cause.

“We will not be intimidated,” Honkala said.

Big words. Not smart.

Thune was especially critical of Fletcher for taking action within St. Paul city limits and because the raid apparently did not yield any dangerous materials, such as Molotov cocktails, bombs or other devices.

“I’m really ticked off…the city is perfectly capable of taking care of things,” Thune said. “If they had found anything that could have been used to commit a crime they would have arrested somebody.”

Sounds like the cops cut the protesters some slack. Law Enforcement had a Warrant. Hey Thune, mind explaining what these items might be used for then?

Pioneer Press/Twin Cities.com (HT “Chuck”):

• materials to creating “sleeping dragons” (PVC pipe, chicken wire, duct tape), which is when protesters lock themselves together 
• large amounts of urine, including three to five gallon buckets of urine 
• wrist rockets 
• a machete, hatchet and several throwing knives 
• a gas mask and filter 
• empty glass bottles 
• rags 
• flammable liquids 
• homemade caltrops (devises used to disable buses in roads) 
• metal pipes 
• axes 
• bolt cutters 
• sledge hammers 
• repelling equipment 
• Kryptonite locks 
• empty plastic buckets cut and made into shields 
• material for protective padding 
• an Army helmet. 

The RNC Welcoming Committee denied criminal intent and described the police actions as “violence” that is a sign of more extreme police measures to come.

“The police may claim that the raid was executed according to protocol – however, the violence inherent in this action may only be a hint of the violence to be expected on Monday and beyond, and is only a hint at the violence perpetrated daily by the police,” the group’s statement read.

Violence? Reports (from a newspaper more likely to be sympathetic to the protestors than anyone else by the way) cited no violence save busting down a door. Being asked to lie down and keep still is hardly an act of violence.

…and what the hell do you plan on doing with a bucket of urine any way? Idiots.

This action on the part of law enforcement is a small price to pay in what will surely be a rarified environment. The people that have gathered lawfully have as much right to be there, and to be kept safe, as the protesters have to excrete their rage.

Gustav is expected to achieve Category Five status, equal in category to Katrina

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) — Desperate to avoid a repeat of the Katrina catastrophe in 2005, New Orleans began mandatory evacuations Saturday as another deadly hurricane, Gustav, bore down on the city.

Traffic crawls on major route out of New Orleans

Campaigns Weigh In on Gustav Preparations

Also today Fox News anchor Chris Wallace reported that Republicans indeed are considering “curtailing or suspending” the convention. He said Sen. McCain, in a taped interview scheduled to air on the network Sunday, told Fox News “the festivities” around his presidential nomination would be inappropriate “while Americans were in trouble.”

This campaign for President will get a lot more interesting and a lot more relevant when the debates begin and we can hope for a shift of the conversation to the issues and less on the candidates’ backgrounds.

Then again, one candidate has an apparent history of picking the wrong friends and mentors…so the opposing camp may never let go of that lever.

Maybe Obammy’s momma (or grand momma) should have told him to be careful who he spends his time with.

WSJ: On the bus from Invesco 1,609 Meter High Stadium back to civilization last night, we sat next to a Hillary Clinton delegate from New Jersey. She was not a bitter-ender; she intends to vote for Barack Obama and said there was never any chance she would not support the Democratic nominee. But she was decidedly unenthusiastic about Obama. She said she expected that more would come out about his relationship with Jeremiah Wright (the nominee’s America-bashing erstwhile “spiritual mentor”), and she readily agreed with our observation that Obama’s friendship with an unrepentant terrorist (that would be Bill Ayers) would not go over well with ordinary Americans.

So does that mean we saw a stadium filled with extra-ordinary Americans?

The conversation turned to John McCain’s vice presidential choice, and our interlocutor said she thought McCain could help himself among Mrs. Clinton’s backers by choosing a woman. We asked if Obama would have helped himself by choosing a woman, and she said no, Mrs. Clinton’s backers would have seen that as a slight.

As it turns out, they saw not getting vetted and not being chosen, despite 18 million votes in her pocket, as a slight any way. Polls of late have shown as much as 27% of Clinton voters currently intend to vote for McCain and that was before his choice of running mate Sarah Palin.

Two things are clear now. One, Obama made a huge mistake not picking Hillary. That might have been game over right there.

Two, John McCain admittedly made his choice in response to Obama’s miscalculation. But the choice of Sarah Palin doesn’t make everything easier for the Republicans. (emphasis mine)

The biggest drawback of the Palin pick is that it complicates the argument that Obama is too inexperienced to be president. At 44, Palin is actually younger than Obama, and she has two years’ less experience in statewide office than he does. On the other hand, she has more executive experience than McCain, Obama and Joe Biden combined, and the Democrats have a rookie at the top of the ticket.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton quickly denounced McCain for proposing to put “the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.” This took a degree of chutzpah, since the Democrats have just spent four days touting Obama’s experience as a “community organizer” as a central qualification to put him no heartbeats away. Even after listening to those speeches, we’re still not sure what a “community organizer” is.

We will see your Change and Raise You One Reform

A Reform Ticket

If any doubt remained that former fighter pilot John McCain loves to take unconventional risks, he put them to bed Friday by picking Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Introduced in Dayton by Mr. McCain, Governor Palin swung the bat pretty well. We’ll now see if she can hit curve balls.

But will Windy Joe be just as afraid to debate a woman with vigor without appearing to be unstatesmanlike? 

It’s a daring pick because Mrs. Palin has never faced national scrutiny and hasn’t had to deal with foreign policy. Most VP choices are designed to do no harm, and we tend to agree with the maxim. Democrats are already saying they can’t wait for Mrs. Palin’s debate against “statesman” Joe Biden.

And then will she kick his saggidy ass?

On the other hand, the record shows that Sarah Palin’s political career is a case study in taking on the big boys. We suspect her record of fighting the status quo was uppermost in John McCain’s decision.

…come to think of it, we’ll take your Change too

Barack Obama aside, Senator McCain’s biggest problem is a Republican brand that has suffered — both among independents and the GOP base — from the party’s business-as-usual mentality in Washington. The public wants change. This pick could prove Mr. McCain is serious about changing his party.

…and when you compare VP selections, it becomes clear who is really interested in change, even if it means losing the election if the choice of Sarah Palin proves to be a mistake.

Sarah Palin’s reform resume would be remarkable in any political career. She entered politics at 28, winning a seat on the Wasilla city council as an opponent of tax increases. After she defeated Wasilla’s three-term incumbent mayor four years later, she swept the mayor’s cronies out of the bureaucracy.

In 2003, Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski appointed her to the state’s Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Bear in mind that Mr. Murkowski had already served as junior U.S. Senator from Alaska for 22 years.

Shortly after joining the oil and gas commission, Mrs. Palin commenced an ethics probe of the state’s Republican party chairman, Randy Ruedrich, involving conflicts of interest with oil companies. The probe resulted in a $12,000 fine for the party chair.

She crossed party lines in 2004 to join a Democratic representative’s ethics complaint over an international trade deal against the Republican Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who had ties to the Murkowski machine. Mr. Renkes resigned.

In late 2005, Mrs. Palin announced her run for Governor before then-Governor Murkowski had announced his intention to stand for re-election.

Obama/Biden best be wary about throwing around the already once corrected/retracted “lack of experience” mantra within earshot of McCain/Palin, and vice versa. In effect, McCain’s choice takes the argument away mutually, and may (hopefully) force debate to the issues (and specifics).

For starters, we’d say Governor Palin’s credentials as an agent of reform exceed Barack Obama’s. Mr. Obama rose through the Chicago Democratic machine without a peep of push-back. Alaska’s politics are deeply inbred and backed by energy-industry money. Mr. Obama slid past the kind of forces that Mrs. Palin took head on. This is one reason her selection — despite its campaign risks — seems to have been so well received by Republicans yesterday. They are looking for a new generation of leaders.

Don’t expect this remarkable personal Palin narrative to get an Obama-like break from the national media. Their main focus will be her lack of experience, claiming it undercuts Mr. McCain’s criticism of Barack Obama. One mispronounced foreign leader’s name, and she’s going to be hammered.

Reform: The New Republican Platform?

Mr. McCain’s instinct clearly is to offer himself to voters as a reformer. With Sarah Palin, a genuine reformer, Mr. McCain may have found the right idea and the right person to make his run.

John McCain’s choice yesterday was a tactical one. A bold one. It was a high-risk/high-reward move that will make political history one way or the other.

Four of these things belong together
Four of these things are kind of the same
Can you guess which one of these doesn’t belong here?
Now it’s time to play our game (time to play our game).

Joe   Barack   Gustav   Sarah   John  

“That’s right boys and girls. If you guessed  Gustav, you’re right!

Gustav has become a real S.O.B. kids, and we want him to go away!

Yes, kids, I know that makes Gustav a little like Joe.

Stop laughing.

No kids, I don’t know how many times federal dollars will be used to half-rebuild a community that was built below sea level.

Stay focused kids.

We want Gustav to stay away from the Gulf Coast so that all the nice activists here in town don’t have to extend their stay and won’t get fired from their jobs at, well, actually they don’t have jobs – we call them parasites – I mean professional protesters.

Here’s the update from forecaster Knapp kids!”

000
WTNT62 KNHC 291915
TCUAT2
HURRICANE GUSTAV TROPICAL CYCLONE UPDATE
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL   AL072008
315 PM EDT FRI AUG 29 2008

DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT
GUSTAV HAS AGAIN BECOME A HURRICANE WITH MAXIMUM WINDS NEAR 75
MPH…120 KM/HR.

$$
FORECASTER KNABB

Hillary Clinton in her characteristically warm and loving way, congratulates Sarah Palin by handing her a smelly fish. Unlike McCain’s cordial and non-conditional congratulatory video released just before the DNC Orgy Toga Party Love Fest Convention, Clinton couldn’t just congratulate her – she had to get a barb in (no pun intended).

Clinton congratulates Palin

“We should all be proud of Governor Sarah Palin’s historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Senator McCain,” Clinton, the first woman to win a presidential primary, said in the statement. “While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Governor Palin will add an important new voice to the debate.”

The McCain campaign has made little secret of the fact the selection of Palin — the first woman to appear on a Republican presidential ticket — was in part designed to court supporters of Clinton’s White house bid, some of whom feel the New York senator was treated unfairly during the primaries because of her gender and remain wary of supporting Obama.

To say it was because of her gender is unfair to the Obama campaign. They dissed her because of Obama’s inability to look past the negative comments made by the Clinton campaign, made more hurtful to him by the fact that they are mostly true, and are going to be continually played by the McCain/Palin campaign. That, and the baggage that is Bill. Meanwhile possibly losing the race because of it.

Palin directly mentioned Clinton by name in her acceptance speech earlier Friday, saying, “Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America. But it turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.”

Clinton’s statement reacting to Palin is markedly different than the Obama campaign’s initial reaction which made no mention of the historic nature of the Alaska Republican’s VP candidacy — instead painting her as woefully inexperienced to be commander-in-chief.

Wow. That came quicker than we thought.

I think that observation will be filed in the same place as Obama’s

“I am my brother’s keeper.”

The Big Daddy of all gaffe’s thus far.

For now, let’s call it the “FIM File.” Foot in Mouth.

The Obama campaign later released a joint statement from both the Illinois senator and his running mate, Joe Biden, praising Palin for making history.

Well boys, ain’t you sweet. Your sure know how to treat a lady!

It remains unclear just how many former Clinton supporters Palin may attract, but California Sen. Barbara Boxer said Friday that McCain is “badly mistaken” if he expects backers of the New York senator to break ranks with the Democratic party because of Palin.

Boxer is correct in that those former Clinton supporters had yet to fall in rank and now they may have a Home Sweet Home.

I exchanged emails this morning with a good friend from across the aisle on Senator John McCain’s selection of Governor Sarah Palin and whether it was a tactical response to Obama’s dismissing of Hillary Clinton.

It sure seems like a reach for disgruntled Hilary voters rather than a sophisticated presidential selection.

My response:

I like her so far but I think it could also be risky in that she is an unknown. He will either go down as a genius or an also-ran if America isn’t ready. No one knows how she will perform in a national debate, which is much more important than convention speeches on either party’s part. On the plus side, she has more executive experience (limited as that may be) than Obama does, and even arguably McCain and Biden, neither of which have been in such a position.

The intriguing issue here is among all four candidates, she is the most able to define herself as she isn’t tied to a voting record or a history of national media appearances.

Having said all that, I would have preferred Pawlenty. Obama clearly – clearly should have chosen Clinton, and at the very least should have vetted her. I think he lost the election the moment he didn’t.

As much as I have also grown in my disdain for the political manipulation that has marked our process for years now, I am a pragmatist in that I want my candidate to do whatever is ethical to win. Picking a female Vice President to pick up the disaffected Hillary voters is clearly such a move. If you are reading my posts, you will recall that I asked my readers, if for only a moment, to consider McCain/Clinton.

What say you?

God save us if McCain picks Lieberman

Alaska Gov. Palin Tops Speculation About McCain Veep Pick

DENVER — Speculation about who John McCain would name as his running mate focused on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin after reports circulated early Friday that two short-listers — Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty — were out of the running. 

Adding fuel to the Palin possibility was a report that a charter aircraft from Anchorage owned by a McCain supporter had arrived in Dayton, Ohio, where McCain has scheduled a noon ET rally to announce his choice.

On Palin:

Born in Idaho, Palin moved to Alaska when she was three months old with her parents.

She grew up in Wasilla, just outside of Anchorage, and played on the Wasilla state championship girls basketball team. She was crowned Miss Wasilla in 1984, and was a runnerup in the Miss Alaska pageant.

She studied journalism and political science at the University of Idaho and graduated in 1987. After graduation, she eloped with her high school boyfriend in 1988 to save money on an expensive wedding. She helped out in her husband’s family commercial fishing business and appeared occasionally as a television sportscaster.

Palin won a seat on the Wasilla City Council in 1992 as a new face, new voice and by opposing tax increases.  Four years later she was elected mayor at 32 by knocking off a three-term incumbent. At the end of her second term, party leaders encouraged her to enter the 2002 race for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. Against veteran legislators with far more experience, Palin finished second by fewer than 2,000 votes, making a name for herself in statewide politics. She was elected Alaskas youngest and first woman governor in 2006.

Update: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin Is McCain’s VP Pick: Source

McCain names Sarah Palin as surprise VP choice

Pawlenty in Denver Gov. Tim Pawlenty led the RNC’s press conference pre-buttal to Obama’s big speech in the Mile High stadium in Denver.  The effort is called “Not Ready 08:  A Mile High, An Inch Deep.”  Pawlenty said the question is “Sen. Obama what have you done and what have you run?”

I think the Governor has a campaign slogan to be reckoned with.

Stand 4 Change!

What have you done? What have you run?

Yes we can!

What have you done? What have you run?

We are the people we’ve been waiting for!

What have you done? What have you run?

We are choosing hope over fear.

What have you done? What have you run?

“I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about
real change in Washington … I’m asking you to believe in yours.”

What have you done? What have you run?

Nothing.

How ironic it would be if Obama, especially after assembling a stadium of frothing groupies, were to be disqualified on a technicality. Ironic, because that is how his first political career victory came to him. He eliminated the other democratic candidate on a technicality, which is just fine, them’s the rules; but what if the tables turned on him…now?

Lawsuit questions Obama’s eligibility for office 

Pennsylvania’s former deputy attorney general and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter Philip J. Berg has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Pennsylvania accusing presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama of lying about his U.S. citizenship, which would make him ineligible to be president.

Mr. Berg is one of a faction of Clinton supporters who haven’t heeded the party’s call for unity, filing the suit just days before the opening of the Democratic National Convention, which will nominate Mr. Obama as the party’s presidential candidate.

Now one would think that the DNC has the answer on this issue as they surely vetted Obama for the nomination, right?

Certainly they wouldn’t back a candidate that had an unknown or questionable background or didn’t have the requisite experience and credentials, right?

[crickets] 

Al Gore, John Edwards and Bill Clinton, bastions of truth and honor that they are, wouldn’t endorse a candidate of questionable integrity, would they?

[crickets] 

Al Sharpton, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers, Kim Jong-Il, Fidel Castro, Louis Farrakhan, Hatem El-Hady, Ahmed Yousef, and the Muslim Brotherhood in America could not be reached for comment.

One way or another, let us hope/change/yeswecan that this is resolved soon.

originally posted 2:35 PM

Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) is canceling print and broadcast interviews for the day…

Strib

Pawlenty cancels TV interviews

Pioneer Press

Pawlenty abruptly cancels afternoon interviews in Denver

CNN is reporting a “cone of silence” forming around Governor Pawlenty and that friends of the Governor are suddenly not able to reach him (which is not uncommon if he is in fact flying at the moment).

Pawlenty cancels media interviews

Asked if he has the experience to be vice president, Pawlenty reminded reporters, as he often does, that he does not address GOP presidential V.P. speculation.

Pawlenty then went on to say: “I would note I have been a governor for six years, commander in chief of the Minnesota National Guard for six years, and before that I was the majority leader of the Minnesota Legislature. [I] have some other life experiences as well.”

VP selection process complete, McCain campaign confirms

Drudge posts “Romney Family gets Security Sweep” and then pulls it, but leaves up “PAWLENTY CANCELS NUMEROUS PUBLIC APPEARANCES…“

4:50 PM: A neighbor of Governor Pawlenty is reporting to me that news helicopters are hovering overhead.

6 PM: Drudge: Meet Tim Pawlenty…

9:59 PM: McCain camp won’t reveal VP tonight (I’m going to bed)

Early 8/29: Pawlenty confirms in an interview with WCCO Radio that he will not be in Ohio today and is not McCain’s choice for Vice President.

HT “Chuck”

Obama:

“So I ask you, ladies and gentlemen; fellow Americans, are you better off – “

Aide walks to podium, whispers in his ear “spssss sps spssss spssss”

“uh, where was I?”

“Yes, uh, Change! Hope! Et cetera!”

It would appear that, at least until the election, our nation has averted an economic contraction and has actually grown more than predicted. Our 2nd quarter economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.3% instead of sinking towards what seems like a perpetually anticipated recession.

Not that it has been correlated with Bush’s stimuless check, but I may have to eat my words on the futility of the ill-advised tax rebate as the consumer has once again come to the rescue of our GDP.

More substantially though, the weak dollar has created a surge in exports.

U.S. Stocks Rally as Economic Growth Tops Estimates; Banks Gain

The Economy’s Upside Surprise

The timing may bode well for McCain and the RNC but all indications are this may very well be an economic dead cat bounce as exports rely on the health of other economies which are tenuous at best.

So keep spending until November please.

CNN claims John McCain will announce his VP choice on Friday. Speculation has the choices narrowed down to three candidates.

Mitt Romney – more Presidential than Vice Presidential. Not exactly a natural choice given the way the two went after each other in the primaries. Plus he’ll never bring Massachusetts with him. He is pretty though. Nice hair.

Joe Lieberman – you’ve got to be kidding. He’s too whiney looking. Plus he also won’t swing a state. Too old. Between his age and McCain’s, doesn’t it add up to like 200?

Tim Pawlenty – in this crowd, I give him a better than 50% chance of getting the nod, and Minnesota could swing narrowly in McCain’s favor. Clearly Pawlenty has had as much visibility as anyone on the team (at least since Romney dropped out) and has been well received. He’s young, surprisingly effective for the party in a blue state, and has successful executive experience with a high approval rating during some challenging times. The downside, save the bridge collapse, he’s not well-known nationally. Assuming the bridge is completed soon, he will get some positive national exposure again, but not before Friday.

Politico says the lucky guy will get tapped tomorrow. Look for MIB (more than usual) near the capital tomorrow morning (assuming the Gov is in town). 

How about the bumper sticker test? Which one sounds/looks “right?”

McCain/Romney? Nope.

McCain/Lieberman? Sounds good. But too long.

McCain/Pawlenty? Clumsy sounding.

Update 8/28: Drudge is reporting that there is a leak that there will be a leak at 6 PM today that will be confirmed at 8 PM today. Got that?

Discuss.

Unless the national polls are off by a mile, and I think they may prove to be in the long run (that’s a topic for later), Obammy has been the benefactor of an apparent Teflon coating.

Despite a long, long, long (long) series of hateful, unsavory, embarrassing, un-American, undeniable and inexcusable associations, and a storied history of political debauchery, Obama has somehow avoided the fate a more discerning electorate would deliver him. John Edwards dips his pen in the company ink and he’s not invited to the big show. Obama hangs with terrorists and mobsters and anti-American hatemongers and he’s neck and neck with John McCain.

Another day, another controversy but this time Obama’s posse is pleading with the feds to come to his aid. Dude, chill. What’s the big deal Obammy? What are you afraid of?

Why don’t you want us to see this video?

…and what don’t we know about Obama’s past and more importantly, his true ambitions?

Sen. Barack Obama is warning TV stations and asking the Justice Department to intervene in an attempt to block the airing of an ad by a non-profit group that links him to an unrepentant domestic terrorist.

The spot by the American Issues Project questions Obama’s ties to William Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground organization who boasted of a series of bomb attacks at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol four decades ago.

Now everyone is going to go find that ad, and even if Oback Barama is successful in getting stations to pull the (quite relevant) ad off the air, a great many voters will find it on the web any way.

Obama campaign lawyer Robert Bauer wrote to station managers, the AP said, warning: “Your station is committed to operating in the public interest, an objective that cannot be satisfied by accepting for compensation material of such malicious falsity.”

Well there you have it. It can’t be true. Obama’s lawyer says so.

Meanwhile:

Documents released Tuesday by the University of Illinois at Chicago shed some light on Barack Obama’s relationship with William Ayers, a founding member of the 1960s and 1970s radical group the Weather Underground.

Obama’s association with Ayers, who now teaches at the university, has become an issue in the Illinois senator’s presidential campaign. The Weather Underground took credit for several nonfatal (does that mean it’s okay?-JR) bombings on targets that included the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol, and critics accuse Obama of rubbing elbows with an unabashed 1960s radical.

Obama has said that, although he knew Ayers as a professor involved in community outreach efforts in Chicago, he doesn’t share Ayers’ extreme views.

To be fair, putting Obama and Ayers in the same room and on the same agenda doesn’t implicate Obama in a meaningful way in and of itself.  However, when you couple this association with a myriad of related events and associations including the Reverend Wright debacle (I went to the church for twenty years but don’t share his views), the Tony Rezko controversy, Michelle’s early and telling slip ups, and Obama’s questionable (let’s call it heritage), what should be troubling for all Americans is the pattern that is emerging.

How the hell does an operative of this ilk get this far in our electoral process?

Americans have succumbed to such low expectations so as to expect politicians to be slippery; to be beholden to lobbyists; to be evasive, and have affairs. What they aren’t prepared for is a President that harbors extreme radical beliefs coupled with a career not marked by accomplishment but rather unabashedly for political gain; a would-be Manchurian Candidate.

 …were [end Streisand]

And now, back to the issues.

“It’s the economy, stupid”

(silence)

“Hello, is this thing on?”

A continued and unpopular (but successful) war, high gas prices, increasing unemployment levels, weakness in wages and an economy on the brink of recession, Obama should be doing better than what was characterized on CNN last night as a “dead heat”.

Election history tells us however that Obama should be in the lead.

…and President George Bush’s popularity at near historic lows, even many Republicans thought this year would be a virtual cakewalk for the Democratic nominee.

A fall in real incomes in the months leading up to the election almost always leads to a loss for the party in power, pointed out Nigel Gault, head of North American macroeconomics for Global Insight, in a recent conference call with investors. “The incumbents tend to take the blame,” he said. “This should be an uphill battle for McCain.”

But on the eve of what Obama and the Democrats hope will be their own Rocky Mountain high, that’s not proving to be the case.

Obama has not been able to capitalize on the economic woes to build an electoral lead. “It’s an absolute mystery that Obama has not been able to exploit this issue more aggressively,”

It’s no mystery. The American people are beginning to see that Obama is a wee bit light on experience and accomplishment in any area let alone the economy, and what he does actually spell out is clearly going to be bad news for the economy

“If he is going to win, Obama will have to win on the economy,” says Thomas Riehle, a Democratic strategist and pollster

His lofty rhetoric—and focus on criticizing McCain and the Bush legacy—have yet to demonstrate convincingly to many of these struggling folks just exactly what he would do to turn the economy around.

Even some Democrats may not stomach the huge expense and vast complexity of Obama’s proposals.
This year that gap between promise and reality may be even larger than usual. “Whoever wins will face a big wake-up call as soon as the election is over,” says Daniel Clifton, head of Washington policy research for investment group Strategas Research Partners. “Many campaign promises will need to be scuttled.”

The 2009 economy will offer tough conditions for a President set on bold new policies. The next Administration will face anemic growth, sluggish employment, a housing downturn expected to continue at least through much of next year, and continued tight credit markets as the shakeout works its way through the financial sector.

The American people, also knowing this, may already be answering the question “Under these circumstances, who do you want in the White House?”

“McCain.”

Pelosi: Newest GOP ad “insults our intelligence”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came out swinging at the first official convention event on Sunday, calling John McCain “bankrupt” of ideas after Republicans unveiled a new ad questioning why Hillary Rodham Clinton is not on the Democratic ticket.

Actually that, the Biden (in his own words) video and the Converted Clinton Delegate video are pretty good stuff, and Obama’s handlers should have anticipated all of the above if in fact there is intelligence enough to be insulted.

But is it working?

(Two separate polls) show a substantial number of Hillary Clinton’s supporters are considering voting for a Republican president, rather than Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in November.

Speaking of insulting our intelligence (emphasis mine):

Pelosi warned that the ad is “a sign of things to come,” arguing that since Democrats have the upper hand on “kitchen table” issues like health care and the economy, the McCain campaign will be forced to resort to “diversionary tactics.”

McCain started this campaign rather deliberately but his team is reacting to opportunities rapidly now and with some success. So take a pill Nancy. You’re gonna’ need it.