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John McCain is Andy Rooney

Have you ever noticed the resemblance between John McCain and Andy Rooney?

You remember Andy Rooney—he's the "60 Minutes" fixture who for 30 years has complained about annoyances like his office filing system, the seats he gets at ballgames, and objects that viewers send him in the mail.  He starts many of his segments with that slight whine, "Why is it that..."

Here's a typical segment:

Now compare that to John McCain's speech from June 3rd; the widely panned one with the sickly-green background.  Jump ahead to the 8 minute mark, and you'll see what I mean, especially at 8:42:

Uncanny.

Thank You Senator Clinton

As everyone who reads this blog knows, I've been a fierce supporter of Barack Obama for a long time.  But I want to dedicate this post to Senator Clinton, especially after her gracious speech yesterday.

Hillary's always been a leading advocate for universal health care. Having lived in France, where the health care was superb, I can testify that by contrast the American system is shamefully inadequate and bureaucratic.  Hillary has been right to continue to fight for improvements, and I'm confident she will play an important role in getting the United States where it needs to be.

Hillary is also a powerful speaker.  Her speech on Saturday demonstrated once again that she knows her audience and knows how to connect with the people in it. She is a much stronger speaker than John McCain, for example, despite his many years in public service, and her ability to fire up a crowd is real.  It's part of the reason she is truly a talented politician.

And while it's hard for me to admit it, her relentless persistence is admirable as well.  This primary season has gone on for a long time, but it has allowed both Democratic candidates to build infrastructure in all 50 states, and on balance that may prove a boon to the Democrats. Regardless, there's no doubt that no matter what happens now, Hillary has served as a role model for millions of American women, and demonstrated that they should never give up or let anyone tell them they can't do something.

So here's to you Hillary Clinton.  Congratulations on an historic, ceiling-breaking campaign.

Congratulations, Barack Obama!

Congratulations on your historic nomination!

A Lesson on Appeasement

Stranger Than Fiction...

Sounds like a disturbing number of people thought my April Fools' Day post was serious. 

This campaign season has gotten so weird, it's hard to tell truth from fiction...

The Other 3 AM Call

Ouch.

Hillary, don't drop out yet!

Via Daily Kos:

If Clinton were to drop out this week, we'd face an uncomfortable situation in West Virginia, with Clinton likely crushing Obama. That would look terrible for the presumptive nominee.

Better than that would be to garner enough superdelegate commitments this week, so that Oregon can push Obama past 2,024. That way, it isn't the supers who clinch it for Obama, but actual voters.

Paris-based "Hyper Delegate" Supporting Clinton

Obama won the first round of the Democrats Abroad primary, 4.5 delegates to 2.5 for Clinton.  But now, the second round of voting is taking place in what is known as the "International Waltz" of overseas voters. And the International Herald Tribune reports today that the decision by a "hyper delegate" from Democrats Abroad France to support Clinton could have a major impact on the results. 

This hyper-delegate has the 1/7th the weight of all pledged international delegates, and the seat has historically been controlled by a Frenchman in recognition of the special role that France played in the American Revolution. The bottom line is that this shift means a 3.5 to 3.5 tie in the overall Dems Abroad results.

The delegate in question, Henri R. R. Ennui, is a long-standing Clinton supporter, having met the then-First Lady when she was visiting France with Bill Clinton following the 1995 Paris Metro bombings.  Hillary has claimed on several occasions that she stayed on in Paris and played an instrumental role in ending the Algerian Civil War. Ennui today confirmed her account, which has been disputed by Nicolas Sarkozy, who insists that he brokered the settlement when he was Interior Minister.

In a wide-ranging interview with Ennui today on television station TF1 [audio clip], he said,

Somewhere, she played a very very important role in the fixation of -- this situation terrible.  I am very proud to say to all Americans, in France and elsewhere, thank you for this chance to support Senator Clinton. Vive L'Amérique!

For more details, and a transcription of the full interview, see here.

Wright Controversy Fails to Douse Muslim Rumors

This is kinda weird:

There is little evidence that the recent news about Obama's affiliation with the United Church of Christ has dispelled the impression that he is Muslim. While voters who heard "a lot" about Reverend Wright's controversial sermons are more likely than those who have not to correctly identify Obama as a Christian, they are not substantially less likely to still believe that he is Muslim. Nearly one-in-ten (9%) of those who heard a lot about Wright still believe that Obama is Muslim.

Overall, the impression that Obama is Muslim has at most a slight impact on his fortunes in November - mostly because so few voters hold this belief in the first place. Moreover, Obama is only slightly less competitive against John McCain than Clinton is among the minority who believe this about him.

This Pew study, NBC News, and other sources are finding that Obama came out of the Wright controversy unscathed, while Hillary's poll numbers have actually fallen.  And certainly Obama can now say he has been "tested" and survived.  However, I was hoping that this scandal would douse the false religion rumors, and it looks like that didn't happen.

Major Bloggers and Columnists Support Obama

Top liberal bloggers are supporting the following candidates:

Obama	Clinton
Josh Marshall (TPM)	Jerome Armstrong (MyDD)
Markos Zúniga  (Daily Kos)
Ariana Huffington  (Huff. Post)

Newspaper columnists tend not to do endorsements. But their columns generally lean in one direction, and again the trend is clear among progressives:

Obama	Clinton
Frank Rich (NYT)	Paul Krugman (NYT)
Maureen Dowd (NYT)
E.J. Dionne (Wash. Post)
Eugene Robinson (Wash. Post)
Bob Herbert (NYT)
Nicolas Kristof (NYT)

Obviously I haven't listed every major liberal blogger or columnist, but I've got many of the most influential here.  And as with elected delegates, the popular vote, and the number states, the majority favor Obama.