Entries from February 2008

Primaries Matter

Date February 25, 2008

I want to see if I can pull a couple of threads together here and see if we can’t make something interesting out of them, like why Vice Presidential candidates make such horrible candidates and other pre-primary “presumptive nominees” do so poorly.
Matthew Yglesias poo-poos the value of experience in elections:

[T]hough McCain is a formidable candidate [...] Read more »

Nader’s running

Date February 24, 2008

In the summer of 2000 I was backing Ralph Nader for President, and I continued to back him up to the early Fall when it became clear that George W. Bush had a real shot at winning and Nader was not an idealistic, outsider speak-truth-to-power political maverick but a liar running a vanity campaign and [...] Read more »

Lies are truths that challenge our beliefs

Date February 24, 2008

When Obama told a story last week about US forces in Afghanistan scrounging for ammunition because they’ve been under-equipped, the loudest of the right-wing howler monkeys were
quick to call either him or his source liars and/or traitors, with one person Hizoy cites
saying Obama’s an enemy propagandist.
We’ve seen
helmet-liner drives (shock-absorbing helmet liners help [...] Read more »

Why Obama needs protection

Date February 22, 2008

Dave at Orcinus monitors right-wing hate groups, eliminationist organizations, fascists, and proto-facists. He says the racist rhetoric is ramping up against Obama.

[T]he far right and its minions have been particularly ugly, including at least one explicit assassination threat, as well as an outpouring of racial bile in anonymous comments sections. As the likelihood of [...] Read more »

Hillary’s seen it all

Date February 21, 2008

I don’t think anyone should vote in the primary election on the basis of “electability.” Frankly I don’t think anyone knows. Vote for Clinton or Obama because you like their positions or their politics or their policies, but not because you think one of them is better suited to win in November.
That said, I [...] Read more »