Year: 2008

THE DEBATE

Governor Palin’s weeks of cramming paid off. Not only was she well-prepared (if you put your mind to it, you really can learn to be President in two weeks), she actually winked at me! Who could fail to love that?

My friend Peter, a life-long Republican financial whiz at whose most recent birthday party a congratulatory note from President Bush was read, writes: ‘I feel like I just watched an adult debating a college student.’

Peter voted for Bush twice but just wrote $60,000 for Obama.

FAUX NEWS

This 26-second video shows why Obama wins Pennsylvania – and why Fox is truly pathetic.

FAUX REGULAR GUY

This 60-second tour of the McCain home (13 bedrooms, 14½ baths) gives you a sense of how the family has lived the past 20 years.

In that context, the level of the family’s charitable giving is pretty astounding.  Specifics on Monday, but they sure seem not to have used any meaningful slice of their giant Bush tax cut to support nonprofits.  Which is totally their choice.  It’s their fortune to do with as they please.  But it speaks to their core priorities. Thirteen cars, seven or eight houses, a private jet – it’s been a positively grand time to be rich and powerful in America, and John McCain has vowed, with his promise to make the tax cuts permanent, to keep it that way.

ANOTHER REPUBLICAN FOR OBAMA

Wick Allison – former publisher of the nation’s leading conservative magazine, The National Review – is editor-in-chief of the Dallas-Fort Worth city magazine, D.  He maxed out to McCain in the primary, but now writes:

My party has slipped its moorings. It’s time for a true pragmatist to lead the country.

The more I listen to and read about “the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate,” the more I like him.  Barack Obama strikes a chord with me like no political figure since Ronald Reagan.  To explain why, I need to explain why I am a conservative and what it means to me.

In 1964, at the age of 16, I organized the Dallas County Youth for Goldwater.  My senior thesis at the University of Texas was on the conservative intellectual revival in America.  Twenty years later, I was invited by William F. Buckley Jr. to join the board of National Review.  I later became its publisher.

Conservatism to me is less a political philosophy than a stance, a recognition of the fallibility of man and of man’s institutions.  Conservatives respect the past not for its antiquity but because it represents, as G.K. Chesterton said, the democracy of the dead; it gives the benefit of the doubt to customs and laws tried and tested in the crucible of time.  Conservatives are skeptical of abstract theories and utopian schemes, doubtful that government is wiser than its citizens, and always ready to test any political program against actual results.

Liberalism always seemed to me to be a system of “oughts.” We ought to do this or that because it’s the right thing to do, regardless of whether it works or not.  It is a doctrine based on intentions, not results, on feeling good rather than doing good.

But today it is so-called conservatives who are cemented to political programs when they clearly don’t work.  The Bush tax cuts—a solution for which there was no real problem and which he refused to end even when the nation went to war—led to huge deficit spending and a $3 trillion growth in the federal debt.  Facing this, John McCain pumps his “conservative” credentials by proposing even bigger tax cuts.  Meanwhile, a movement that once fought for limited government has presided over the greatest growth of government in our history.  That is not conservatism; it is profligacy using conservatism as a mask.

Today it is conservatives, not liberals, who talk with alarming bellicosity about making the world “safe for democracy.”  It is John McCain who says America’s job is to “defeat evil,” a theological expansion of the nation’s mission that would make George Washington cough out his wooden teeth.

This kind of conservatism, which is not conservative at all, has produced financial mismanagement, the waste of human lives, the loss of moral authority, and the wreckage of our economy that McCain now threatens to make worse.

Barack Obama is not my ideal candidate for president.  (In fact, I made the maximum donation to John McCain during the primaries, when there was still hope he might come to his senses.)  But I now see that Obama is almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history.  I disagree with him on many issues.  But those don’t matter as much as what Obama offers, which is a deeply conservative view of the world.  Nobody can read Obama’s books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful, pragmatic, and prudent man.  It gives me comfort just to think that after eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually read the Federalist Papers.

Most important, Obama will be a realist.  I doubt he will taunt Russia, as McCain has, at the very moment when our national interest requires it as an ally.  The crucial distinction in my mind is that, unlike John McCain, I am convinced he will not impulsively take us into another war unless American national interests are directly threatened.

“Every great cause,” Eric Hoffer wrote, “begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” As a cause, conservatism may be dead.  But as a stance, as a way of making judgments in a complex and difficult world, I believe it is very much alive in the instincts and predispositions of a liberal named Barack Obama.

7 MINUTES WITH A UNION GUY ON RACISM

Powerful.

54 MINUTES WITH WARREN BUFFETT

All is explained.

ANOTHER WAY TO CHECK YOUR REGISTRATION

A few of you reported bugginess with voteforchange.com.  This site may be a helpful alternative – although for Florida it says, “Call local office,” where the Obama site handles Florida seamlessly.  (As to those upset to be asked for an email address, just enter one you never check.)

BOREALIS

Ed H.:  “Any comment?  It’s a sinking like a stone.  Bid/Asked is 2.80/3.60.”

☞ The stock price, while depressing, is sort of irrelevant.  BOREF has always been a long-shot that will either work out or it won’t.

As good a lottery ticket as I’ve thought it is . . . and as many shares as I own . . . it’s still a lottery ticket.

Imagine a ticket where you had a one-in-four chance of making, say, 100 times your money.  Phenomenal, no?  And yet there’s a 75% chance you lose everything.

A tiny amount of buying or selling moves BOREF.  So, as people get discouraged and sell . . . or sell to take a tax loss, or sell because they died (technically, that would be their estate selling), or sell because they actually need the money, or sell because the IRS has garnisheed their brokerage account and forced a sale . . . the stock goes down.  And may continue to.

If at some point Delta announced that WheelTug™ is ready to be deployed – which may never happen! – or if at some point the slow but seemingly steady progress at Roche Bay led serious investors to believe there really is a highly valuable resource up there . . . then the stock would do very well.

The past decade at first seemed to shorten the odds of success – the plane moved! the drill samples show tons of high grade ore!  But by now?  I remain resigned to the very real possibility, as from the beginning (“A Stock That’s Surely Going to Zero”), that this will not work out.  Then again, it might.

QUICK! CHECK YOUR VOTER REGISTRATION

I went to voteforchange.com to find out whether I’m still registered. (Our Republican friends like to do voter purges.) The site asked me address and then – an instant later – told me that if April such-and-such is my birthday (i.e., if I am that Andrew Tobias) then, yep, I’m registered. Knocked my socks off how fast it worked.

I then asked for my early-voting locations (early voting has already begun in eight states) and – bang – there they were.

The site may not work this well for your state, but it sure worked well for me.

The first deadlines for voter registration are this Saturday. By next Wednesday, deadlines will have passed in 22 states. If you know anyone in a battleground state, be sure he or she knows about voteforchange.com.

HURRY UP AND PASS THE THING

This links to a summary of a study of 42 banking crises around the world. To summarize the summary:

Some types of government intervention work and some don’t. One characteristic that is needed though is speed. Dithering, a la Japan, is a recipe for disaster.

☞ I love the man-and-woman-on-the-street interviews with folks angry at the situation. ‘This should not be happening!’ they say. (They’re right about that much.) ‘Absolutely not!’ they say to any bail-out.

They seem quite sure that the combined wisdom and expertise of Fed Chairman Bernanke (who’s spent his life studying the Depression), Treasury Secretary Paulson (who ran the world’s premier investment bank), and Barney Frank (28 years on the House Finance Committee and now its chair) must be subsidiary to their own.

It seems to me that when political polar opposites like George W. Bush and Barney Frank agree, the urgency must be real.

It’s fine not to like the rescue plan. The liberal, brilliant Professor Jeffrey Sachs went on at some length on CNN explaining why he didn’t like it – but then made certain viewers understood that, if he were in Congress, he would have held his nose and absolutely voted for it. Good for the Senate last night, 74-25. Now for the House, please. Because, speaking of ‘dithering’ . . .

FIRE!

Few people know that on October 8, 1871, Mr. and Mrs. O’Leary, of 137 De Koven Street, were actually in the barn when their cow kicked over the lantern.

‘Patrick!’ screamed Mrs. O’Leary, looking around frantically for something wet. ‘Smash that champagne bottle and pour it on this hay!’

‘The champagne? It cost a fortune! And what the hell’s it doing out here in the barn? — ‘

‘Patrick!’ she screamed again.

‘ – and isn’t alcohol flammable? It just might make it worse!’

Her husband started running to the pump to get a bucket of water. Catherine herself then lunged for the champagne bottle, smashed its neck with a hammer and . . .

SCENARIO A: . . . managed to douse the little fire. They went to bed.

SCENARIO B: . . . was just a little too late to contain it. While the blaze ironically spared the O’Leary house, more than three square miles of Chicago were razed, leaving 100,000 homeless and 300 dead.

I have purposely not Googled to find out whether champagne actually would put out the beginnings of a fire. There is uncertainty in any rescue plan.

But beer would.

TONIGHT’S DEBATE

From the Campaign:

This debate is about two very different philosophies of where to take the country: The economic philosophy that got us in this deep hole the last eight years, cost us 600,000 jobs this year and brought Wall Street to the brink of collapse and the foreign policy philosophy that isolated America and got us into a war in Iraq with no end in sight – versus a philosophy that says we need to invest in the middle class, put in place responsible 21st century regulations to protect consumers, revitalize our alliances and end this war.

Joe Biden brings to the vice presidency more legislative experience and deep relationships on Capitol Hill than any vice president since the days of Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey, which is critical for an incoming Administration committed to making big, bold, fundamental changes in public policy at home and throughout the world.

Governor Palin has energized John McCain’s campaign with his base, and demonstrated she’s an incredibly skilled politician who can throw a punch. She is undefeated as a debater with a 7-0 record. She debated and defeated two giants of Alaska politics: sitting Governor and 17-year Republican Senator Frank Murkowski as well as two-term former Democratic Governor Tony Knowles. She’s an exceptional communicator.

☞ I share characteristics with both. I am like Joe Biden in that I sometimes get a bit wordy. I am like Sarah Palin in that I am not qualified to be President of the United States.

(If you think that’s not the relevant test, click here for a video reviewing Senator McCain’s health.)

Tomorrow: ANOTHER Republican for Obama – a Texan, No Less, Former Publisher of the National Review!

SURPRISED

I thought the bill would pass – and that the Dow would drop 300 points because the markets delight in not doing the obvious. ‘Buy on the rumor, sell on the news,’ runs the old saw. Meaning that if something good is expected to happen, buy before it happens – and sell when it does.

Instead, in a display of irresponsibility unusual even for Congress, the bill failed. (John McCain and George Bush were supposed to deliver 100 votes; they delivered only 65. Democrats were supposed to deliver 120 votes; they delivered 140.)

So the market really dropped. Surprises move markets. (‘Buy on the rumor, sell BIG if the news fails to materialize.’)

The 777 point drop, at roughly 7% – lucky sevens! – was nothing like the 22.6% (509 point) drop of October 19, 1987. Then again, a lot of stocks dropped more than 7% yesterday (just as a lot of them dropped more than 22.6% October 19, 1987) – the Dow tends to be stodgy compared to smaller stocks. So as painful as 7% is, for the average portfolio, which is less conservative, yesterday was even worse.

I assume the rescue plan will pass later this week. Many others must be assuming the same thing or the market would have dropped more yesterday.

If no rescue plan does pass, we could have a problem worse – at least in some ways – than any economic problem we’ve seen before, because our economy is so much more complex and interconnected – and so much more leveraged. There were no credit cards in 1929. No home equity loans. No no-money-down mortgages. The National Debt was less than 20% of Gross Domestic Product; today it approaches 70% (up from 30% when Reagan/Bush took over). And who can even quantify the leverage of some of our more esoteric financial derivatives.

A true collapse of the kind Congress is being asked to avert could also hurt worse because the era of cheap domestic resources – oil gushers and firewood aplenty – seems to have waned. And because we have more to lose. As Roaring as the Twenties were, families didn’t need air-conditioning to be happy – or flat screen TVs or washer/dryers or SUVs. There were no such things.

All that said, don’t get too scared. Congress will pass a bill. And unlike 1929, we have FDIC insurance, we have Social Security, we have unemployment insurance.

NOT SURPRISED

From the January 2005 edition of The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need:

I am dismayed by the reelection of George Bush. Yes, my taxes are likely to stay low, but I don’t see how we become more prosperous if much of the world hates us . . . if we are adding to our national debt at a tremendous rate . . . if we are investing in missile systems instead of education . . . if we are giving tax incentives to encourage the purchase of Hummers rather than fuel-efficient vehicles. And that just begins the list.

Under either Bush or Kerry, we would have faced challenges: Terrorism, which even when it doesn’t strike costs us dearly (security guards make us safer but they do not make us richer). Globalization, which will make the whole world more prosperous in the long run, including us, but which threatens our manufacturing base and puts high-wage jobs at risk of being teleported abroad. And more. (The likelihood of high energy prices for a very long time could be another.)

But under Bush, I see the problems just getting worse, not better.

[ . . . ]

When Alan Greenspan spooked the world by talking about ‘irrational exuberance’ in December of 1996, the Dow was 6500. Well, we’ve all worked very hard and smart these last few years, and earnings are up and we’ve built the Internet and laid a zillion miles of fiber optic cable and made astonishing breakthroughs in medicine-we’re richer than we were-so maybe 6500 on the Dow is no longer irrational at all. . . .

☞ But 14,000 sure was. And even once the bailout does pass, we’ll want to be realistic. I think we have to view the next decade as an exciting opportunity for our nation to tighten its belt, rebuild its infrastructure, achieve energy independence, and repair its balance sheet. At which point, in real terms (who knows what inflation or deflation will do the actual number), the Dow might reach 14,000 again.

For all our problems, we also have tremendous strengths. And technological progress is an economic tailwind. But as the last 8 years have so tragically shown (and as the 8 years before that also showed, by contrast), who runs the show really matters.

Which brings us to . . .

HOW SURPRISING WOULD A PALIN PRESIDENCY BE?

This piece by Bob Rice (Three Moves Ahead: What Chess Can Teach You About Business) takes the fairly conservative view that it would be a one in six or seven chance if John McCain were elected.

My view, of course, is that a McCain Presidency alone – never mind a handoff to Governor Palin – would be a calamity. Our country and the world yearn for a fresh start. Our youth, in particular, yearn for an inspirational call. We can do this. But it is not four more years of Republican leadership that will provide the fresh start. And it is not John McCain who is best suited to issue to our youth – who are our future – that inspirational call.

But what if it did become a Palin presidency? Rice helps us think through what a one in six or seven chance means.

If McCain is elected, he notes, a Palin Presidency is more likely than your getting the flu this winter.

Or about as likely as your rolling doubles with a pair of dice.

A Palin presidency would be three times more likely than that either one of the presidential candidates were left-handed. (And as it happens, both are.)

HOW SCARY WOULD IT BE?

Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria puts the chance of a Palin Presidency, if we elect Senator McCain, at about one in five. Others put it higher still. But the point is – unless you’d sleep well knowing you had a round of Russian roulette to play tomorrow, a six-gun to your left temple – you really need to decide whether you’d be okay with a Palin presidency.

Zakaria is not. Like the conservative columnist I linked to yesterday, he thinks she should step down. On CNN yesterday he said, ‘it’s not that she doesn’t know the right answer; it’s that she clearly does not understand the question.’ To her claim of ‘executive experience,’ Zakaria responds that 85% of Alaska’s budget comes from oil revenues, and that her main job is in distributing that oil money to the citizenry: ‘This is good training to be president of Saudi Arabia, not the United States.’

The whole clip is worth watching.

We live in interesting times.

McCAIN: IF YOU WATCH NO OTHER CLIP

Watch this one – less than 90 seconds. It’s the judgment thing.

McCAIN: JUMPING THE GUN

The McCain campaign was so pleased with their man’s performance Friday they released an ad saying he had won – several hours before the debate began.

McCAIN: DISRESPECTING THE COUNTY

Have you seen Sarah Palin in the swimsuit contest? Hot! AND she can field dress a moose, got a D in macro-economics, and can see Russia from her house. I think she’s pretty neat (the creationism stuff and her political views notwithstanding), but one of my formerly-Republican acquaintances put it best: ‘McCain disrespected the country by choosing her to be next in line to be President of the United States.’

CONSERVATIVES LOSING FAITH IN PALIN

At least one conservative columnist, Kathleen Parker writing for the National Review, calls Governor Palin ‘clearly out of her league.’

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

☞ She calls for Palin to step aside. But as noble and patriotic as that would be, it wouldn’t matter. The fact would remain that, faced with a hugely important decision – and with six months to make it – Senator McCain entrusted the future of our country, should he be sidelined, to her.

These are seriously challenging times. They require serious, brilliant, thoughtful people who make carefully considered decisions.

Which brings us to . . .

ELITISM

Nobody likes the smart kids. Maybe Doogie Howser; maybe Malcolm (in the middle). But those were TV scripts written by smart kids, for ratings. In real life, the smart kids had better dumb it down. Have you noticed how even John Kerry – who used the phrase ‘who among us’ when responding to a question about NASCAR (‘who among us doesn’t love NASCAR?’) – was persuaded somehow to drop half the G’s from his gerunds? (Tryin’ to be a regular guy.)

Fine.

But in every other field, we seek and celebrate excellence. The most talented athlete, not the one who runs like us. The most talented singer, not the one who sounds the way we do in the shower. The teacher of the year. The most skilled surgeon. The rocket scientist who is a rocket scientist.

So, sure, a President does need to be ‘of the people.’

But the Rhodes Scholar who came from nothing and went to Yale Law School, who lives and breathes public policy and keeps a billion statistics straight in his head (think President Clinton) really may serve us better than the guy who got into Yale because of his dad, writes off his first 40 years to youthful indiscretion, and failed in business despite his father’s connections (our current affable leader).

Do we want a man born in a log cabin who made it through law school and became an Illinois State senator based on his brains, good judgment and eloquence (think Abe Lincoln) . . .

. . . a man raised on food stamps who became President of the Harvard Law Review and an Illinois State senator, then a United States senator, based on his brains, good judgment and eloquence, whose presidential bid is backed by Warren Buffett, Susan Eisenhower, and Hillary Clinton?

. . . a man in his prime who can do more than one thing at a time?

Or do we want a guy more like George W. Bush, great to party with, descended from and married to ‘royalty’ (to the extent America has such a thing), whose presidential bid is backed by all-Enron-roads-lead-to Phil Gramm; whose campaign is run by lobbyists (and by the same guys who slimed him in South Carolina in 2000); who won’t release his medical records; and who, for all we honor his service – as we should – is, arguably, past his straight-talking prime?

#

COOL HAND

I met Paul Newman three times. First in 1968, when he was Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Man of the Year. I was a member of the Pudding – not the theatrical part (no talent; nonplussed by guys in drag), just the eating and drinking part – and was somehow one of a half dozen students who got to host him for a drink before the ceremony. He had just made Cool Hand Luke, wherein he eats 50 hard-boiled eggs in an hour, so we asked him about that. (As I recall, the answer was: yeah, he really ate them.) He was unbelievably cool and gracious: just the right mix of ironic skepticism over the award (the Hasty Pudding Theatrical Society is not exactly the Royal Shakespeare Society) – and twinkle of the eye.

‘You may not remember,’ I said to him, mustering a twinkle of my own 22 years later at a fundraiser to defeat Jesse Helms, ‘but twenty-two years ago, you were Hasty Pudding Man of the Year and you came and had a drink with us and told us about the hardboiled eggs and I just had to say hello thanks for all you’ve done and are doing.’ He responded graciously: with just the right mix of ironic skepticism over the absurdity of my compliment – and twinkle of his eye.

Finally, I met him and his wife of 50 years, Joanne Woodward, at their home in Westport last summer, 2007, when he was already not well, but still magnetic and unbelievably gracious. A fundraiser for the DNC. Lemonade in their ‘barn.’ Oscars and movie posters everywhere. He welcomed us and spoke of the urgent need to get our country back on track.

And so . . . rest in peace, Paul Newman. We’re trying.

GENERAL ADVICE

To get a leg up in life, keep your feet on the ground, your ear to the ground, your nose to the grindstone, your head on your shoulders, your shoulder to the wheel, your eye on the ball, your finger on the pulse, your chin up and your hand in. Being limber helps.

MORE SPECIFIC ADVICE:
CHARLES’S MARVELOUS INVENTION

In our family, I am generally the one who tries not to waste things (‘you’re going to eat that?’ Charles will say of a perfectly good leftover) on the theory that ‘best if bought before’ gives you another few days to consume it (surely they don’t expect you to eat it right there at the check-out) . . . plus what may be weeks or months more in the refrigerator, when it is not, perhaps, ‘best,’ but still ‘very good,’ ‘just fine,’ or, at worst, ‘edible.’

I am only halfway through a half gallon of apple cider marked ‘ENJOY BY 06/29/08’ but still enjoying it. And not because it’s become hard cider – it’s still sweet, and only, at most, a tiny bit off.

My point in this is not to poison you – do not under any circumstances follow my example expecting me to accept liability for the consequences. This is microbial madness.

Rather, my point is that it is I, not my profligate beloved, who generally comes up with ways to scrimp or save.

And so it is with no small pride, if a touch of surprise, I tell you that Charles has truly gotten with the program, turning out lights, riding his bike to work, buying lemons for decoration (a centerpiece of lemons already being cheaper than flowers, and then you can eat them) (as in: lemonade) – and generally living lighter on the land.

All brought into sharp focus the other day when he came up with something entirely new. One of those, why didn’t *I* think of that? moments.

You may get your shirts back from the dry cleaner differently, or – truly living light on the land – you may just wash them in cold water and hang then on a line to dry. But we get ours folded in individual clear plastic bags. The bags are made from natural gas, which is better than oil; but they’re still no friend to the environment.

Likewise, the various Hefty, Glad, and Ziplock bags – not to mention Saran Wrap – we use to save the aforementioned leftovers.

So here’s the breakthrough: instead of throwing out the shirt baggies, Charles realized, we can put them in the drawer with the Ziplocks, each one of which costs anywhere from a nickel to a quarter, depending on the size. And while a shirt baggie won’t work well for everything, for many things it works just fine – saving that nickel or quarter, and cutting roughly in half the number of disposable plastic bags we consume. (Speaking of which, these are really handy, too, and they stack.)

Ta-da!

THE SARAH CLIPS

‘I have a record of putting my country first.
And that’s why I chose Sarah Palin to handle our unprecendented economic challenges and lead the Free World should I become incapacitated or die.’
– John McCain*

* The first sentence is a literal quote. The second sentence – not spoken by him – follows ineluctably. No?

SARAH PALIN AT HER BEST

Watch her on CBS News explaining why Alaska’s being next to Russia really is an important foreign policy credential:

COURIC: You’ve cited Alaska’s proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?

PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land– boundary that we have with– Canada. It– it’s funny that a comment like that was– kind of made to– cari– I don’t know, you know? Reporters–

COURIC: Mock?

PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess that’s the word, yeah.

COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials.

PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our– our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They’re in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia–

COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We– we do– it’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is– from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to– to our state.

SARAH SILVERMAN AT HER BEST

I hesitate to include this link, because Sarah uses language grandchildren shouldn’t – and it’s not even bleeped. Then again, it’s gone mega-viral, so you’ve probably seen it already anyway.

SUSPENDING HIS CAMPAIGN

Two comments from many on WashingtonPost.com:

abc3 said, “If McCain were serious about suspending political activity to work on the settlement, he would not have blindsided Obama by issuing his press statement before he and Obama had agreed on their bipartisan statement. At that point, he chose political advantage over bipartisanship.”

GoHuskies2004 wrote, “…He blindsides Obama, and then he talks about bipartisanship out of the other side of his mouth. Even this conservative can see right through this ridiculous effort…”

☞ It would have been more impressive if they had been deadlocked before he got to Washington and then reached a deal. Instead, they appeared to have reached a deal – and then he got there. Let’s hope for better today.

WAMOOPS INDEED

Well, I’m sorry. If it’s any consolation (and I know it’s not), the friend who had me thinking this might be a good idea lost tens of millions of his own. I hope you lost less.

‘Presidents need to be able to do more than one thing at a time.
I’m planning to debate on Friday.’
– Barack Obama

JEB BARTLETT’S ADVICE TO BARACK OBAMA

It’s the next best thing to The West Wing. Click here.

CONSERVATIVE ANDREW SULLIVAN ON CONSERVATIVE JOHN McCAIN

I’m a couple of weeks late in passing this on. But still:

McCain’s Integrity
By Andrew Sullivan
10 Sep 2008 01:40 pm

For me, this surreal moment – like the entire surrealism of the past ten days – is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or pigs or fish or lipstick. It’s about John McCain. The one thing I always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest person. When he knows, as every sane person must, that Obama did not in any conceivable sense mean that Sarah Palin is a pig, what did he do? Did he come out and say so and end this charade? Or did he acquiesce in and thereby enable the mindless Rovianism that is now the core feature of his campaign?

So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do so. And that decision, for my part, ends whatever respect I once had for him. On core moral issues, where this man knew what the right thing was, and had to pick between good and evil, he chose evil. When he knew that George W. Bush’s war in Iraq was a fiasco and catastrophe, and before Donald Rumsfeld quit, McCain endorsed George W. Bush against his fellow Vietnam vet, John Kerry in 2004. By that decision, McCain lost any credibility that he can ever put country first. He put party first and his own career first ahead of what he knew was best for the country.

And when the Senate and House voted overwhelmingly to condemn and end the torture regime of Bush and Cheney in 2006, McCain again had a clear choice between good and evil, and chose evil.

He capitulated and enshrined torture as the policy of the United States, by allowing the CIA to use techniques as bad as and worse than the torture inflicted on him in Vietnam. He gave the war criminals in the White House retroactive immunity against the prosecution they so richly deserve. The enormity of this moral betrayal, this betrayal of his country’s honor, has yet to sink in. But for my part, it now makes much more sense. He is not the man I thought he was.

And when he had the chance to engage in a real and substantive debate against the most talented politician of the next generation in a fall campaign where vital issues are at stake, what did McCain do? He began his general campaign with a series of grotesque, trivial and absurd MTV-style attacks on Obama’s virtues and implied disgusting things about his opponent’s patriotism.

And then, because he could see he was going to lose, ten days ago, he threw caution to the wind and with no vetting whatsoever, picked a woman who, by her decision to endure her own eight-month pregnancy of a Down Syndrome child in public, that he was going to reignite the culture war as a last stand against Obama. That’s all that is happening right now: a massive bump in the enthusiasm of the Christianist base. This is pure Rove.

Yes, McCain made a decision that revealed many appalling things about him. In the end, his final concern is not national security. No one who cares about national security would pick as vice-president someone who knows nothing about it as his replacement. No one who cares about this country’s safety would gamble the security of the world on a total unknown because she polled well with the Christianist base. No person who truly believed that the surge was integral to this country’s national security would pick as his veep candidate a woman who, so far as we can tell anything, opposed it at the time.

McCain has demonstrated in the last two months that he does not have the character to be president of the United States. And that is why it is more important than ever to ensure that Barack Obama is the next president. The alternative is now unthinkable. And McCain – no one else – has proved it.

PRESIDENTIAL TV ADS SINCE 1952

What remarkable snapshots of history. (Thanks, Alan!) And how each one, in its own way, makes you think about the choice we face today.

OR ROLL YOUR OWN

Now here’s something entirely new – saysmeTV. Your beau or belle is watching his or her favorite cable news channel (say) and suddenly there you are with an ad you’ve sponsored – or even one you’ve made and uploaded – with your name on it.

Or maybe you just want to promote your ice cream parlor, in your Zip code only.

Fifty bucks and you’re a star.