I found it especially refreshing today, that there stood the Mississippi Primary, if only so we didn't hear the words "Eliot Spitzer" pass through the lips of every news anchor, every talking head, about every 30-seconds.
And a late day bonus of the Bush Grindhouse firing Admiral Fallon (more on that coming soon) certainly went to tamping down, though not completely clearing it off the radar
After the bucket of water dumped over heads yesterday, on the New York Governor' lascivious behavior, everyone unbunched their panties today, and hit their floor marks.
The late night television comics all took their shots.
Delivering, on cue, with stern editorials, alternately slamming and tisk-tisking Client 9, were The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
The states' GOP hacks were huffing and puffing with threats and deadlines, to either get out of town, or we'll throw you out of town.
And the Governor's old enemy, Wall Street, was hooping and hollering in joy.
Last, but not lest, all of the above was the reason (or the excuse) to drag the old dirt bag, Heidi Fleiss, back to center stage and she pontificated her worldly wisdom on the whole mess.
Sigh ...
In the event anyone was nervous as this scandal unfolded, fear not, Barry Crimmins, heroically, took the reigns of the Empire State and guided her through the night (and with some excellent Executive decision-making).
Oh yeah, more and more, questions are being raised about just what the hell is going on.
Today's Spitzerpalooza, some of the better posts found
Larisa Alexandrovna: Remember the days when being linked to a straight, female, adult hooker was political suicide?
Larisa Alexandrovna: Spitzer's selective prosecution?
Digby: Parting Shot?
Richard Kim: The Spitzer Scandal
John Cole: A Comparison
And here is The Best - Must Read post, from the pen (or keyboard) of Attytood
Their ding-a-lings: Chuck Berry, Eliot Spitzer and the bizarre history of the Mann Act
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
More On Client No. 9 ... Brought To You By "On Cue"
Monday, March 10, 2008
Retro Garlic: Color Me Client 9, From Out of Office
WOW!
Boy, and today was only the first news conference.
We'll have to wait and see if there's cheesy video, with cheap props, ala our title inspiration, Plan 9 from Outer Space.
And to stay with the outer space theme a few more minutes, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer being caught up with a prostitute, well, that big bang this afternoon was Spitzer's career getting blown up, much like that wayward spy satellite a few weeks ago.
And boy, what a bang.
Wiretaps.
Text messages.
They have a action-packed transcript.
Mr. Crimefighter ... Mr. Authority, getting down, not just once, randomly, but with a standing account!
As Barry Crimmins put it, in his "Meet John Dough", "So this is the equivalent of Elliot Ness getting caught knee-walking drunk at a speakeasy."
Or bmaz, from Firedoglake, with "Jane reminds us that Spitzer's campaign theme was to "Bring The Passion Back To Albany".
No Mens Room toe-tapping for Spitzer, it was top shelf, DC hotels, having the prostitute taking the train down there from NYC.
Hmmm ... Was on on the stereo - Love Potion No.9?
And for the tinfoil hats, the hotel room number Spitzer's assignation took place was 871.
Move the "1" to the front and you have "187", which is a code "used by law enforcement officials, particularly in the U.S. state of California. The number is used for this purpose because Section 187 of the California Penal Code defines the crime of murder."
Hmmm ... The killing of a career, perhaps?
And all the speculation is not if, but when Spitzer bows out of office.
But there are some question, most notably, Jane Hamsher brings up good ones.
Oh yeah, the Retro Part?
Spitzer Now Sets Sights On Crayola Scandal; Says Could Be Bigger Than Sony Case; Charges Company With Predatory Practices
Oh, if only it was so innocent ...
It's A Spitzerpalooza!
You can visit Memeorandum, which is chock full of Spitzer's romp on the wild side
ABC News Blotter: It Wasn't the Sex; Suspicious $$ Transfers Led to Spitzer; Officials Say Spitzer Is 'Client 9' in a Federal Complaint Against the Prostitution Ring
TPMmuckraker: How The "Emperor's Club" Probe Started
Glenn Greenwald: Who cares if Eliot Spitzer hires prostitutes?
Radar On-Line: Clinton Yanks Spitzer Endorsement Faster Than A Hooker Yanks... Well, You Get It
Marc Ambinder: Client 9's Options
"Can we have our $40,000 back?"
Our Etch-A-Sketch Boy was out on the circuit yesterday, at University of Iowa and, well, it didn't go so smoothly.
From KCRG-TV;"It quickly became a hostile evening for Rove.
And this, from Think Progress;
Protesters rallied together against Rove hours before he even took the stage.
"He's a traitor for outing a CIA agent and he's the one who really crafted the rhetoric for the invasion of Iraq," UI student Keri George said.
When Rove tried to start speaking, jeers from the crowd immediately interrupted him."During the lecture, Rove lashed out at hostile questioners, telling one man his comment showed “a simple, stupid mind” and chastised what he said were “stupid statements” from the audience. Rove also said that former Amb. Joseph Wilson “lied” about his 2002 trip to Niger and accused an audience member of “perpetuating libel” on the U.S. military for asking about the real number of deaths in the Iraq war:
Responding to a question about CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson’s outing, Rove, seemingly joking, added:
"I haven’t been indicted yet, but I fully expect to be by the end of the year."
At the end of the talk, an audience member shouted at Rove: “Can we have our $40,000 back?” Rove replied: “No, you can’t.”
Seems to be shaping up for a Twilight Zone type of life of Herr Karl ... You remember, the episode where the degenerate criminal (Larry Blyden) dies and thinks he's gone to heaven, but he's really in hell (with the devil portrayed by the rotund Sebastian Cabot).
Well, we can only hope ...
Bonus Rovian Riffs
Oxymoron of the Day: Karl Rove at an Idea Festival
Top Ten Cloves: Things Markos Moulitsas Will Have To Look Out For When Working With Karl Rove At Newsweek
Developing Story! Rove Has Gone From “Bush’s Brain” To “Bush’s Drain”; White House In Crises, As Rove Takes Credit For North Korean Nuke Test; Sources Say ‘Bush’s Brain” Weary From Sinking Polls, Fundraising; Too Tired To Come Up With New October Surprise
This Date ... On The Garlic
Garlic History - On This Day
10 March 2006... On The Garlic
Breaking News! Beta-Mode Settlement By Google Draws Disappointment
Top Ten Cloves: Other Things That NASA's Cassini May Find On Saturn's Moon Enceladus
10 March 2005... On The Garlic
Bush Team Prepares Call For New Axis of Evil Member
Apple Takes Blog Ruling As New Club On Criticism and Dissent
Top Ten Cloves: Signs That Congress Is On Steroids
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Retro Garlic - What Waters?
"And what in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?" Rains asks Bogart.
"My health," Bogart answers. "I came to Casablanca for the waters."
"What waters?" asks Rains. "We're in the desert."
"I was misinformed."
The movie, Casablanca (1942)
Well, flash forward over 60+ years and a lot of soldiers, and the U.S. Military were "misinformed" about the water they were provided with in Iraq - thanks to our Vice President's former company, Halliburton, via their offshoot, KBR.
This, today from the International Herald Tribune;
AP Exclusive: US troops may have become sick in Iraq from contaminated water
Some choice gems;"Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.
The Defense Department's inspector general's report, which could be released as early as Monday, found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc., and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations."
Apparently, it wasn't enough for the Bush Grindhouse to hand out no-bid contracts, they had to release these greedheads from basic quality standards as well.
The Retro Part, from The Garlic Tuesday, 15 August, 2006
Breaking News! Report Slams Seeds Of Democracy Currently Used “Worthless”; Stunning IG Reports Cites Use Of Cheap, Mail-Order Seeds Of Democracy For Iraq, Middle East; Spotlight On White House, Rumsfeld For Low-Cost Military Vision; Dirty Halliburton Water Also Cited
God, we can't be done with these thugs soon enough
Bonus Riffs
FILM; You Must Remember This . . .
Breaking News! Analyst: President May Soon Need To Deny He Has Troops In Iraq; White House Plunges Into New Iraq Strategy; Moving From ‘Keystone Cops’ To ‘Marx Brothers’; Denials Of “Stay The Course” Signal Major Shift; Possible Complete Erasing Of Iraq May Come In Time For MidTerms
Breaking News! With DisneyBaghdad, Bush Says “Nobody Wins Hearts and Minds Better Than Disney; Disney, With Secret Contract, Working With White House, Military On Building Baghdad Moats; ‘Pirates of the Caliphate’, Other Attractions To Mask Security Measures; State Dept. Touts “DisneyBaghdad Will Pay For Itself”
Top Ten Cloves: Difficulties DC Comics' Batman May Have Fighting Osama bin Laden
Developing Story - Polar Bears Added To Iraq Options; Bush Administration Wavering On Polar Bears; Considering Employing In Iraq, War Against Terror; Rove Claims He Also Has “The Science”, Says Bears “Will Do Fine In Desert Heat”
This Just In! White House Applying Katrina Strategy To Med Center Neglect; To Gauge Neglect, Problems, President Set To Fly Over Walter Reed, Bldg. 18 Today; Bush Promising Action, "To Press Face Against Window"; Recommends DOD Follow Katrina Strategy
Flutie Sends "Cease-and-Desist" Letter To Media Over 'Hail Mary' References Regarding Surge; Diminutive QB Longtime Copyright Holder; "It Still Feeds My Family"; Says Open To Negotiate On Usage
Ain't That The Cat's Ass ... Hillary Hits Snooze Alarm On 3AM Ad
Talk about amateur hour...
Monster Hillary's great fearmongering ad, the 3AM "Vote For Me or You'll Die" call, as it turns out, used eight-year-old stock footage.
And the little girl sleeping, unaware that Hillary is pointing a terrorist attack at her house, is now a 17-going-18-year-old Barack Obama supporter, Casey Knowles."It's really sort of ironic that my image would be used to advocate for Hillary when I myself do not," said Casey.
She's not just going to vote for him, but also has been working on his campaign;"I've been campaigning for Barack Obama for a few months now," she said. "I was actually a precinct captain at the caucuses a few months ago. I attended his rally a few months ago and I'm a very, very avid supporter."
"I think it would be really wonderful if me and Barack Obama could get together and make a nice counter ad," she laughed."
What, were Michelle Obama, and her daughters, unavailable for the commercial shoot?
Ain't that the cat's ass ...
Considering her LoveFest with Here's Johnny Boy McCain this past week, I suppose we can expect to see ads with Hillary, all all dolled up like June Cleaver, in a snazzy business suit at 3AM, checking in on a sleeping McCain.
Bonus Riffs
YouTube: 3am Phone Ad Girl is Obama Supporter
Libby/Newshoggers: 3:00am girl answers the question
The New Hillary Soundtrack
A little late reading?
In The "Admit It, It Crossed Your Mind" Department
Boy, how many times has this crossed through your mind, when it came to John Denver?
John Denver karaoke sparks Thai killing spree"A gunman in Thailand shot-dead eight neighbours, including his brother-in-law, after tiring of their karaoke versions of popular songs, including John Denver’s Country Roads.
A neighbour said that the karaoke group normally sang Thai pop and southern Thai ballads, but one particular western tune could be heard often - John Denver’s ‘Country Roads’.
Country Roads is a hugely popular song in south east Asia and the neighbour said the revellers had been singing it over and over again."
And how is this for irony;In 2007, ten years after his death, John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" was named Colorado's co-official song. It shares the honor with that old ode to the state, "Where the Columbines Grow".
Yikes!
The Ignornant Congressman from Iowa
This is nothing but pure, unadulterated hateful ignorance.
Rep. Steve King smears Obama’s name says: the al-Qaida, and the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11"I don't want to disparage anyone because of their, their race, their ethnicity, their name - whatever their religion their father, father might have been," King said just before doing just that.
"I'll just say this that when you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected President of the United States -- and I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam?
"And I will tell you that, if he is elected president, then the, the radical Islamists, the, the al-Qaida, and the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11….
"It does matter, his middle name does matter. It matters because they read a meaning into that in the rest of the world, it has a special meaning to them. They will be dancing in the streets because of his middle name. They will be dancing in the streets because of who his father was and because of his posture that says: Pull out of the Middle East and pull out of this conflict.
So there are implications that have to do with who he is and the position that he's taken. If he were strong on national defense and said 'I'm going to go over there and we're going to fight and we're going to win, we'll come home with a victory,' that's different. But that's not what he said. They will be dancing in the streets if he's elected president. That has a chilling aspect on how difficult it will be to ever win this Global War on Terror."
And the guy is standing by his hateful ignorance!
Unfortunately, both the Podcast offered, and the YouTube of the interview, doesn't carry forward, to see what the reaction was of the interviewer, and if they challenged this cretin on his remarks
And this is not new.
Think Progress has The Hateful And Divisive Record Of Bigot Steve King
Two thing need to happen here;
1. Nancy Pelosi, and the entire U.S. Congress should drag him to the floor and give him an unbridled censure, for his ignorance and how that reflects on the body of Congress.
2. The good people of Iowa need to reject this moron, and send him dancing out of office and into the unemployment line.
Actually, we can add a third item.
The RNC/GOP should call for a calvacade of there Rightwing Freak Show stars, and include, perhaps led by John McCain, to go on Fox News with the statement that Barack Obama is not a Muslim or terrorist, but an American citizen, and U.S. Senator, and anyone spewing such ignorance will be shunned, blackballed, their employers should fire them, their supporters should disavow them, and they be, otherwise, persona non grata, in the discussion.
Criticize Obama, if you like, but on his policies, his record, his statements, not simply based on hateful ignorance.
Bonus Links
ABC News: King announced bid for fourth term
Radio Iowa: King suggests terrorists will celebrate Obama victory
Today's Must Read: Al Giordano's "Damn you, Barack Obama" ... It Lays Out What We Are Seeing Now
Editor's Note ... Slow Boat To Posting II ... Stuck In Dry Dock
Well, we had our big day yesterday, hopefully, providing the ticket to exit out of Computer Hell...
The technician showed up, wasn't convinced my problem was a modem problem (though it did show signs of giving a weak signal), hooked up a new modem, and, drumroll, please ...
The problem still exists!
The time it takes for an email to drop in, in some cases, the sender could print it out on their end and walk it over to me ... And, understand, while the computer cycles (and cycles, and cycles) to deliver this email, it slows down just about every other operation I may undertake.
(And, surfacing this week also, a secondary problem with Blogger, the host of The Garlic; It's back office stuff, not effecting what's on-line, yet, nonetheless, absolutely frustrating, perhaps more-so, the lack of Customer Service regarding this issue)
I performed a bunch of scans, defrags, etc, in the thought, with the new modem, perhaps something with take, but, alas, as, earlier in the week, after doing the same, no difference.
So, between this, as well as some other things on the homefront, left me pretty drained and, for a brief period, in a most foul mood, and to the point, not wanting to sit in front of the computer.
And, we were losing an hour (set your clocks ahead if you haven't already done it).
So, filed away the half-written posts and notes and chilled out.
The plan is to plod through it today, awaiting talking to a super-duper technician tomorrow ...
Thanks for hanging in and, as always, we are appreciative of your visits to The Garlic.
Peace
JTD
This Date ... On The Garlic
Garlic History - On This Day
9 March 2007... On The Garlic
Bush To Shift Gears, Use Radio Address To Urge Private Daylight Savings Accounts; No Details Offered; Snow Says "Not A Little Comma In Your Portfolio", While Rove Driving To Build Domestic Legacy
Top Ten Cloves: Ways Scooter Libby May Get A Pardon
The Laura Bush Bummer Bombing-of-the Day; Warning - Bypass this post if you don't want to be discouraged.
9 March 2006... On The Garlic
Faith-Based Offices To Be Part of Bush Private Government
Top Ten Cloves: What Rick Santorum Meant To Say About Not Meeting With Lobbyists
9 March 2005... On The Garlic
Red Sox Sue Colorado Town Over Frozen Body Rights
Boeing Exec Tried To Start Runway Club
Study Shows Clams Not Happy At All
Top Ten Cloves: Dan Rather's Final Anchor Broadcast
Saturday, March 08, 2008
This Date ... On The Garlic
Garlic History - On This Day
8 March 2007... On The Garlic
Breaking News - White House Bombshell: "VP Could Be In His Last Throes"; Libby Verdict Has Bush, White House Urging Cheney Into Rehab; Sources Claim "Can't Be Trusted He Won't Break"; Iraq Comments "Last Straw" and "Were Not An Enormous Success"
8 March 2006... On The Garlic
South Dakota Not Waiting, Bans All Home Runs
Top Ten Cloves: How Bush’s Domestic Wiretapping Will Be Monitored By Senate
8 March 2005... On The Garlic
Despite Hype, Martha's First Day 'Pretty Average'
Hawk and Weapons Expert Gets Bush Nod for U.N. Post.
Top Ten Cloves: How Howard Stringer Will Revive Sony
Friday, March 07, 2008
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Top Ten Cloves: Reasons John McCain Was Late Yesterday, To Receive His Endorsement From President Bush
News Item: McCain Makes Bush Wait
10. Had to drive around, to lose Joe Lieberman, who wanted to tag along
9. Couldn't decide whether to wear a regular business suit, or maybe the President would appreciate him showing up in his old flightsuit
8. Wanted to finish up writing some letters for his lobbyist friends
7. Actually, was detained by Secret Service, over his "wanting to shoot Obama" comment
6. Couldn't find his passport, and got a little paranoid, in case the "born in the Panama Canal" thing came up
5. Is it his age?... Woke up, forgot he was the nominee
4. Wanted to study the details of serving as Bush's Third Term before accepting the endorsement
3. Overslept (He hasn't been sleeping well since seeing Hillary's Hillary's 3AM Ad)
2. Was negotiating with White House, to see if he could bring in Bill Cunningham again, to warm up the crowd
1. Busy, calling Mitt Romney, over-and-over, and just saying "Na-Na-Na-Na-Na ... I got the nomination ... I got the nomination"
Bonus McCain Riffs
Think Progress: Bush tap dances while waiting for McCain
The Carpetbagger Report: Bush hands McCain the baton
Think Progress: Bush: McCain ‘Is Not Going To Change’ My Foreign Policy
He's A Senator - And A Dessert Topping!
The Bob Dole For The New Millennium
Bonus Bonus
Keith Olbermann: Bush the endorser
This Date ... On The Garlic
Garlic History - On This Day
6 March 2007... On The Garlic
The Laura Bush Bummer Bombing-of-the Day
Top Ten Cloves: Things Ann Coulter Would Spend "Coulter Cash" On
6 March 2006... On The Garlic
More Bush Troubles As Rice Backtracks, Corrects Comments, Blames Lincoln Group
The Garlic Nabs 4th Nomination; Koufax Voting Now Open
Top Ten Cloves: Things Overheard At The Oscars Last Night
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Best of Day! ... Dennis Perrin
Fox News, which looks like something they pipe into solitary cells in federal prisons ..."
Between the Ming Dynasty-like schedule of debates, the coverage of voting night by the Cable News guys (heaven forbid, the networks interrupt their idolized reality shows) has, in most cases, rivaled Ronald Reagan's funeral (I think if you search in the 200-range of your cable channels, you may be able to find the Old Gipper's burial still going on).
Is there really a need to go on-air some two-to-three-hours before the polls close?
At this point, about the best Exit Poll data they have is the extrapolation of the 16 people who voted between 2-3PM, not, necessarily, a hindrance to the gasbags to dribble out their theories and begin testing their narratives, which they will babble on endlessly, during the final six-hours of broadcast after the polls close?
Just some random musings, a prelude to hipping you to our second offering of Best of Day (okay, we've fallen down a bit on this, as it should be highlighted with greater frequency)
Dennis Perrin, in his post "Where Have You Gone, Diane Linkletter?", riffing on watching the primary returns last evening, had a falling-over-with-tears hysterical line."Of the three major channels, MSNBC has to be the worst. Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Tim Russert taken all at once is too much for the sober mind to process, their pale, sagging faces morphing into a single yammering unit. Toss in Stepford Anchor Norah O'Donnell and the mummified remains of Tom Brokaw, and who needs hallucinogens? Granted, MSNBC is bad acid, cut with the cheapest crank, but you'll experience insane images and sounds not found at its competitors, especially Fox News, which looks like something they pipe into solitary cells in federal prisons."
Visit (and bookmark) Dennis Perrin
Bonus Links
Riding The Woody Allen Train To Last Night's MSNBC Democrat Debate
Obama Romps ... And, Gloria Borger, with The Best Political Team on Television, Sticks Her Neck Out
WaPo Consults Ministry of Silly Walks, Backtracks From Obama Conspiracy
"Listen to me! Please listen! If you don't, if you won't, if you fail to understand, then the same incredible terror that's menacing me WILL STRIKE AT YOU!"
Forget about Obama and the Canadian Embassy, The Washington Post, apparently, huddled with Monty Pythons' "Ministry of Silly Walks" and rocketed backwards, from their their Woman-Bashing Op-Ed of Sunday.
The Washington Post’s failed effort at satire?“If it insulted people, that was not the intent,” Outlook editor John Pomfret told me this morning, calling the piece “tongue-in-cheek.” […]
Pomfret said that being an opinion article, he’s not surprised readers reacted to it strongly. But added: “Perhaps it wasn’t packaged well enough to make it clear that it was tongue-in-cheek.”
Even if intended as a joke, the Allen piece clearly isn’t the best way for the Post to achieve its goal of bringing in more women readers, and it remains to be seen if the fallout continues today.
They even changed the headline!
And WaPo's Ombudsman isn't buying into it.
As The Garlic pointed out, this appeared to be a very sly, crafty collaboration, between the WaPo, Charlotte Allen and Hillary Clinton, to put out such an offensive Op-Ed, insulting and degrading woman, two-days before Little Super Tuesday, and look what happened;
Clinton revives campaign in Ohio, Texas
And, as we cautioned;"And they come out with this, what do we want to call it, this Hillary Manifesto, at this late stage ... Yes, Allen and The Washington Post has thrown in their lot with the Freakshow ... They want a Hillary-McCain finale ... Their in league with McCain and the RNC ...
So, how do you explain this;Limbaugh urges listeners to vote for Clinton
And Hillary, seemingly, returning the favor;Clinton praises McCain’s experience
Even the one of the Freakshow's biggest Freaks has questions, as do the exit polls.
Was this woman-bashing Op-Ed part of the Clinton Campaign's "Kitchen Sink" strategy?
If so, watch out ladies, there'll be more incoming ... Perhaps a new batch of 3AM Ads- something like 3:15AM and 3:30AM, just to keep the pressure on, to maintain the fear level just right ... To keep woman awake, sleepless, and getting angry about it
And then, WHAMO!, Hillary and her cohorts hit with another insulting piece, probably dissing woman, for not being able to trust a candidate who will allow them the luxury of a decent night's sleep.
Maybe, after all those years of railing against the "vast rightwing conspiracy", Hillary has decided to team up with it
Obama can't keep you safe ... Obama won't let you sleep ...
Watch out, all you people in Pennsylvania ...
Think of this post (and taking a liberty) as Kevin McCarthy, in the waning moments of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers""She's here already! You're next!!"
Bonus Links
Monty Python - Ministry of Silly Walks
Media Matters: Despite paper's concern "about keeping women as newspaper readers," Wash. Post published essay calling women "kind of dim" and "the stupid sex"
Crooks and Liars: Why the Washington Post can’t satisfy their women (or, Tweety eat yer heart out!)
Jane Hamsher: “Tongue In Cheek?” Nice Try
Rachel Sklar: WaPo Writer Proves Own Thesis With Inane Op-Ed
Jeff Fecke: Don't You Angry Feminists Have a Sense of Humor?
Marc Andreessen: An hour and a half with Barack Obama
Boy, they should drop millions of copies of this from an airplane over the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
We're going to have to buckle in, for days-on-end, of the Clinton Campaign spinning and smearing how Hillary, despite being behind in the delegate and vote count, is winning all the "big" states, the "bellweather" states, the states Democrats are going to need to win in the General Election.
True enough.
However, the converse must also be true - that Hillary can't win the small states, the caucuses, and those will also need to be won in November.
To that, you can also question how, in some of these "small" states, the Hillary Campaign blew them off, or put little effort into them. Is that the strategy we want to invest in for the General Election?
And before you let all the bubbles and confetti from Texas and Ohio blur your vision, since Super Tuesday, the head-to-head record in primaries and caucuses is 13-3, in favor of Obama.
All of this, and more, will be hashed and rehashed in the days and weeks ahead (Go to Memeoradum for the multitude of articles and latest updates)
We digress, wanting to call attention to a recent post from Marc Andreessen, the Silicon Valley "whiz kid" entrepreneur best known as co-author of Mosaic, the first widely-used web browser, and co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation.
"An hour and a half with Barack Obama"
Andreessen writes of meeting with Obama, in early 2007, before the big show got on the road;"The reason I think you may find this interesting is that our meeting in early 2007 was probably one of the last times Senator Obama was able to spend an hour and a half sitting down and talking with just about anyone -- so I think we got a solid look at what he's like up close, right before he entered the "bubble" within which all major presidential candidates, and presidents, must exist.:
And the first impression that Andreessen notes is that Obama is a "normal guy";"We were able to have an actual, honest-to-God conversation, back and forth, on a number of topics. In particular, the Senator was personally interested in the rise of social networking, Facebook, Youtube, and user-generated content, and casually but persistently grilled us on what we thought the next generation of social media would be and how social networking might affect politics -- with no staff present, no prepared materials, no notes. He already knew a fair amount about the topic but was very curious to actually learn more. We also talked about a pretty wide range of other issues, including Silicon Valley and various political topics.
There's a lot more to this post, including;
With most politicians, their curiosity ends once they find out how much money you can raise for them. Not so with Senator Obama -- this is a normal guy.""What's the picture that emerges from these four impressions?
Smart, normal, curious, not radical, and post-Boomer.
If you were asking me to write a capsule description of what I would look for in the next President of the United States, that would be it."
Take some time and read "An hour and a half with Barack Obama"
(H/T To Fred Wilson)
Bonus Links
Brilliant at Breakfast: Somewhere in New York, Rudy Giuliani is wailing, "Why didn't fear work for ME?"
Josh Marshall: Final Thoughts
Glenn Greenwald: The "Rezko" game
Mark Halperin: Clinton Wins Big, But Math is Troubling
This Date ... On The Garlic
Garlic History - On This Day
5 March 2007... On The Garlic
New Feature - The Laura Bush Bummer Bombing-of-the Day; Warning - Bypass this post if you don't want to be discouraged
Don't Worry Tim, The Vice President Still Loves Ya! ... The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll
5 March 2006... On The Garlic
Weekend Special - Sautéed Cloves
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
She Comes With A Tinfoil Hat, But That's Not So Bad, Is It Mitt? ... The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll
It's gotta be, kind of, tough for Make-Up Mitt this evening.
Here's Johnny Boy McCain wrapping up the Republican nomination this evening (at least, as of the time of this writing, that's what's being projected).
Ain't that a kick-in-the-pants ...
It had to be so tantalizing ... The breaking of a "scandal" ... Attractive female lobbyist ... Favors being done ... Letter writing...
Maybe, he gathered the boys around, and they set up a phone bank in their Belmont basement ... Maybe even had little contests, of who could come up with the most outrageous rumor they could phone to the media ... Or, who could disguise their voice the best ... Who could do the funniest accent when dishing the dirt on McCain ...
And, our Garlic Poll Voters felt that, for such hard work, the new, unsuspended campaign would have a Romney Girl - the bubbling Oscar winner Marion Cotillard.
Yeah, she might have a few tinfoil hats that she may wear on the campaign trail, but believing landing on the moon was a hoax, and the Sept. 11th attack on the WTC has more to do with saving on remolding, than it being a terror attack, isn't that far off the beaten path of that Mormon Faith that doesn't get brought up very often, certainly not included in your "I Am Spartacus" speech, early on the campaign
Heck, Mitt, with Cotillard on your side, you could have probably pulled a good chunk of the Ron Paul base.
The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll February 25 - March 4, 2008
For Mitt Romney to jump back in the Presidential Race, he needs to ...
1. Hire bubbling Oscar winner Marion Cotillard as new Romney Girl Tally 34%
2. Stop singing rap tunes Tally 26%
3. Get a photo of himself out there, in Somalian gear Tally 21%
4. For winning over GOP base, declare you saw your father march with Ronald Reagan Tally 19%
This week’s Poll - With Hillary Clinton continuing on, she should change her campaign slogan (H/T Barry Crimmins) to ...
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