Michael Crowley and Dan Goldman's 08: A Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail is a masterful summary of what seemed like an endless election cycle and turned out to be both memorable and historic. Spiked with plenty of world-weary humor (often courtesy of its reporter protagonists, Harlan Jessop and Jason Newbury), 08 made me realize just how unlikely Obama's win really was -- but also how little potential any of the Republican candidates had. (Sound contradictory? One word: Hillary.) I recommend the book to anyone who followed the election, but also to those who didn't and want to be brought up to speed in the least boring way imaginable.
Just in time for tonight's final presidential debate, some wild wag has imagined a Palin White House -- and it doesn't look good. (Hint: It's interactive and requires sound.)
Jon Stewart, on the other hand, took a trip into the not-too-distant past to uncover the truth about McCain's recent stump speech, whose purpose was to "reboot" his flagging campaign. Nice try, Johnny Mac.
...Palin-McCain would roll to victory. Good heavens.
"I pray to God that people have enough time to let this register with them and start again, connecting the dots, and understand the contrast between the tickets," she said.
Yeah? Well, herearesomedots, you fantastic hypocrite. As for your old man:
At an event Friday in Lakeville, Minnesota, McCain referred to Obama as a "decent person" and praised him as a "family man" after two voters expressed fear over Obama being elected.
But the Arizona senator was met by a sea of boos when asking the crowd to be more respectful toward Obama.
When the crowd began to boo, McCain told them "No, no. I want everyone to be respectful."
In other news, the man who so selflessly served his country so many years ago has found another way to do so, while conveniently making his opponent seem -- to the uninformed, at least -- like he's fiddling while Rome burns. Well played, Johnny Mac.
And while we're on politics: Yesterday at six o'clock I listened to Dubya talk for 15 minutes about the financial crisis. And as an NPR commentator noted after the speech, for the first time in about eight years, the man seemed to know what he was talking about. "The first MBA president," the NPR guy said. Against all odds, I think I may actually have learned something from George W. Bush. I never thought I'd see the day.
Michael said today that in light of the mini-scandal surrounding Obama's "lipstick on a pig" comment, the wheels might be coming off the campaign. At the very least, based on this willfully deceptive McCain ad, the gloves are coming off on the GOP side:
In essence, Obama supported "age appropriate" sex-education for children as a means of teaching them what was proper or inproper touching, as well as to protect them against pedophiles, his campaign has said. Used in the context of the McCain campaign ad, however, Obama's stance becomes another one of those cultural issues that seems designed to alienate the Illinois Democrat from more socially moderate voters.
While we're on the subject, Jonathan Freedland's commentary in the Guardian is great, and here's some Palin news that Jews can use (both items courtesy of Michael).
On an unrelated note: I discovered today that the Internet provider Clearwire has been flat-out stealing from me for more than a year after I told them, in no uncertain terms, that I wanted out. And by "no uncertain terms," I mean I threatened to go to the Better Business Bureau and the law over their already shady and unethical practices. I would advise anyone who is considering using their services to think twice, since at this point I consider the company capable of intentional fraud.
Two other pedestrians, Sarah Polachek, 21, and Emily Crawford, 22, both said their friends walked into poles and swerved their cars while texting, but wouldn't admit to having any accidents themselves. In fact, both condemned continuous texters.
"They think they can sense everything around them while texting, but they're oblivious," Crawford said. "For them, texting takes priority over safety."
Polachek took her disapproval a step further.
"I think texting is impersonal and stupid," she said. "It gets on my nerves."
In other news, the latest McCain attack ad is awful.
From a hot-off-the-presses New York Review of Booksarticle:
[Cliff] Schecter, a freelance liberal commentator who contributes frequently to The Huffington Post, recounts, for the first time, a tale—confirmed to him, he writes, by three Arizona reporters—that in 1992, after Cindy McCain teased her husband about his thinning hair, McCain snapped at her, in front of the reporters and two staffers: "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c—." One wonders if on such occasions she reminds her husband who it was that made his political career possible. She has recently called the idea that her husband has a temper "a concoction."
