Quote of the Day

From Scott Horton:

This was a good day for the Constitution, and a very bad day for President Bush. We need more like it.

Indeed.

Happy Pi Day

Happy Pi Day! And you thought Saint Patrick’s Day was a hoot. Hang out with a bunch of math geeks and science nerds and you will have approximately the most fun you’ve had since you had to read Wiles proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem.

I am 17.76 pi years old today. How about you?

Why do I feel like yelling out, “the British are coming!”?

No John! Let’s Take a Moment to Frame John McCain and the Issues Surrounding His Campaign

I’m tired and bored. Beating up the Clinton campaign isn’t all that much fun. Its liking running up the score on a Little League team. But we still have the Republican standard bearer John McCain. Good times!

Mike Lux at Open Left posted an email from a friend and former Republican media consultant. The video is an excellent framing (for Democrats) of McCain. But the email is interesting and worth a read. Here’s a sample:

I admired and supported the John McCain of 2000, less so the John
McCain of 2004. And, now I barely know the man, who he is or what he
really stands for, and against.

Go to Mike’s post or straight to NoJohn.com and have a little at the expense of our really adversaries. Cheers!

Perfectly Good John Hiatt

Speaking of Pelosi

Speaker Pelosi making known her displeasure with the Clinton campaign and the “threshold” and “experience” comments made by Hillary Rodham Clinton and her surrogates.

This is the a little view of Senator Clinton aiding and abetting our political adversaries.

The Obama campaign had a tough couple of weeks? Not really. I would call it the old Rope-a-dope and now they’ll pummel the Clinton campaign.

The Rest of the Story?

By now you’ve heard about Eliot Spitzer allegedly doing the nasty with a hooker. Naughty boy. Jane Hamsher asks some very intriguing questions about the case.

Sullivan  points out the Clinton cabal is backtracking on the “threshold” argument. Ben Smith reports that Obama had a little something for them:

“They have been spending the last two or three weeks” arguing that he is not ready to be commander in chief, Obama said.

“I don’t understand. If I am not ready, how is it that you think I should be such a great vice president?” Obama asked the crowd, which gave him a standing ovation during his defense. “I don’t understand.”

“You can’t say he is not ready on day one, then you want him to be your vice president,” Obama continued. “I just want everybody to absolutely clear: I am not running for vice president. I am running to be president of the United States of America.”

Greg Sargent has this:

See, I was trying to explain to someone the “okey-doke.” Y’all know the okey-doke? It’s when someone’s trying to bamboozle you, when they’re trying to hoodwink you. They are trying to hoodwink you. You can’t say that he’s not ready on day one, unless he’s willing to be your vice president and then he’s ready on day one.

I want everybody to be absolutely clear — I’m not running for vice president, I’m running for president of the United States of America.

I’m running for president of the United States of America. I’m running to be commander-in-chief. And the reason I’m running to be commander-in-chief is because I believe that the most important thing when you answer that phone call at 3 in the morning is: What kind of judgment you have?

Dude. (Or whatever it is kids say these days.)

My one question for Hillary is: If you are ready on day one to lead, who will you lead? When half a million Rwandans were being hacked to death, she couldn’t persuade your own husband to do anything about it. Does she really believe she can persuade 100 people who think they would make a better President to do ANYTHING if she could not persuade own husband? (If, indeed, she ever tried.)

HRC: Should She Reject or Denounce Bill?

Anyone remember the Farrakhan thingy? Well, well, well:

Where was Hillary Clinton when her husband, former president Bill Clinton, made nice with Louis Farrakhan?What? You didn’t know?

Oh, you’re probably thinking back to the fall of 1995, when the Million Man March convened in Washington under Farrakhan’s leadership. That’s when then-President Clinton made it plain that he objected to Farrakhan as the leader of the gathering on the Mall.

The day of the march, Clinton told a University of Texas audience that “one million are right to be standing up for personal responsibility, but a million men do not make right one man’s message of malice and division.”

I’m not sure if that’s a denouncement or a rejection, but he did the right thing. But …

Ten years later, miles away from Washington and the national press corps, perched comfortably in his Harlem office, Bill Clinton had a decidedly different take on Farrakhan.In a May 2005 interview with the black weekly newspaper the New York Amsterdam News, the former president said that he supported the efforts of Louis Farrakhan and the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to organize a Million More March in the nation’s capital that fall.

During his presidency Clinton made a distinction between Farrakhan and the marchers, but Clinton the New Yorker commended the Nation of Islam leader and the two black preachers for coming together to focus the country’s attention on problems confronting African Americans.

“Jesse [Jackson], and Mr. [Louis] Farrakhan and Rev. [Al] Sharpton probably have internal domestic political differences,” Clinton is quoted as saying, “but they’ve agreed on this, and I think it’s a good thing.”

Imagine a Clinton having it both ways. So does this mean Clinton must now reject or denounce her husband? I’m going to hold my breath.

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail … How to Fix the MI and FL problem

Chris Bowers proposes this possible solution for seating MI and FL at the convention:

I think seating Florida’s delegation as is (105 Clinton, 67
Obama, 13 Edwards) and holding a new Michigan caucus (with 128 pledged
delegates at stake) would be an acceptable compromise …

While I agree that this solution has merit I believe a penalty is still necessary to discourage bad behavior. We want the rank and file Democrats to be heard. The DNC
could strip the SD’s from both states because it is the state party leadership that was responsible for this mess. Then we have the appropriate folks paying a penalty.

Although the Florida Republican Legislature made life difficult for the Democrats; last summer the DNC offered to pay for a separate Presidential nominating primary but the Florida Democrats turned it down.

The other caveat I would place on this is that MI should hold what’s known as a firehouse caucus. Its no different than a regular primary election but it may have shorter hours and some precincts are consolidated since only Democrats will vote in it. Ballots are secret and the hours are long enough for people to vote, and if you throw in early voting it should turn out pretty well.

Rank and file Democrats in Florida and Michigan are heard which is what most of us want.

Last Tuesday’s Good News for Obama

While Andrew was on suicide watch last Tuesday, California’s primary was certified official.

I just had a Jager shot, and hope to get drunk very soon. So this is my last post of the night. Here’s what I’ll do in the morning: find out who won the most delegates in the March 4 states, and check someone else’s math (yes, I’m not going to get it wrong myself) to see who subsequently has the numbers to win. And then take a deep breath. And say what I think. Right now, emotion clouds the mind. Oh, and Jager.

Diligent pro-Obama bloggers dug up this nugget of good news.

The final delegates will be 203 for Clinton to 167 for Obama.

According to FLDem5 at the Great Orange Satan pledged delegates totals swung in Obama’s favor and no major media site has picked up that fact yet.

-4 for Clinton, +4 for Obama. An eight delegate swing!

This narrows or effectively erases Clinton’s delegate pick up from that very same Tuesday.