Anti-Rally War

It kinda annoys me that Mark Penn implies that, if you've attended an anti-war rally, you're somehow unfit to be president. I know that he means it doesn't add to your qualifications. But I see what he's doing here. And I don't like it.

Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton’s pollster and top strategist, said the ad did not say that Mr. Obama was unqualified but rather that it gave voters a choice. “People have seen both candidates, they’ve heard their experience,” he said, adding that “voters have made judgments on this.”

Mr. Penn suggested that Mr. Obama’s speech against the Iraq war “at an anti-war rally” hardly qualified him to be commander-in-chief.

Can't we all just get along?

News to him

A short reminder of why we're waiting for this particular regime to turnover.



Fast forward to 7:15 when the reporter mentions projections that gas will hit $4/gallon soon. Here's a transcript of the press conference.

Yep, we elected this guy to the highest office in the land. Twice.

And on a humorous note, I found this telling quote in a Seattle Times story about Bush's remarks:

Bush's acknowledged unfamiliarity with the recent cost of gasoline produced some fumes at the pump.

At a Shell service station in San Mateo, Calif., the price of a gallon of regular had already reached $4.29, well above the California average of $3.42, as measured by AAA.

"Bush is out of touch with a lot of things we are facing today," said Marisa Cajbon, 33, who was filling her Toyota Sequoia SUV. "I have to buy gas. I need to work. I have two kids. I think it's unfortunate. I think it's a crime."

Blogroll

Regime Turnover Authors: Feel free to add your personal blog to the blogroll, if you desire.

Edit: Aha. I'm the only one with access to that. OK - if you want me to add a blog to the blogroll, or tweak the interface, drop me an email.

Clinton protests the Texas Two-Step

Hillary Clinton seems determined to alienate the Democratic party leadership in Texas, just days before Tuesday's do-or-die combo primary/caucus.

If you're serious about a candidate in Texas, you cast a provisional vote at the primary (126 delegates), then attend a caucus afterwards (67 delegates). The Clinton campaign evidently feels that caucuses favor Obama because only hardcore Democrats (who prefer Obama) attend them.

In other words, the caucuses give more power to voters who are willing to invest more time in the process. And this is bad because... ?

So, Clinton's campaign is challenging some of the rules. (The funny thing is that some of her campaign advisers actually helped devise some of those rules in the first place.)

The campaign claims that it is merely questioning some details of the rules, and not threatening legal action. However, it seems that the party leaders in Texas got a very different impression, and they have clearly taken offense.

Now, I can understand wanting to clear a few things up beforehand, given that the vote may be close... but it sounds more as though she's expecting them to try to pull something over on her. It might be smarter to simply encourage (beg) voters to attend the caucuses, or better yet inspire them to do so. But instead of earning votes by impressing people, she's harassing the party leadership, which could cost her some superdelegate votes - not just in Texas, but anywhere there's a superdelegate who's on the fence.

We'll see.

Cooking a Regime Turnover

It takes months to cook a regime turnover. We're all sitting by the oven, waiting.