marbury

hope he has good lawyers

Why John McCain may not be able to spend any money on campaigning between now and September.

ah, now it all makes sense

Users of an Al Qaeda message board discuss Obama. He's an Iranian agent, sent to destroy the Sunnis, apparently.

best lines of the campaign

Not a great year for zingers and funny lines. Maybe they're considered to be 'old politics' ('Change you can Xerox', anyone?). Anyway, this will be updated as we go, should more be forthcoming. Here are my favourites so far:

1. Joe Biden: "There's only three things (Rudy Giuliani) mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb, and 9/11."

2. John McCain (on Hillary's support of a Woodstock Museum): "I wasn't there. I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was tied up at the time."

3. Mike Huckabee: "We've had a Congress that's spent money like John Edwards in a beauty shop."

4. John Edwards (after losing badly in Nevada): "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."

5. Mitt Romney compares the campaign debates to TV's Law And Order: "There's a huge cast. The series seems to go on forever. And Fred Thompson shows up at the end."

some barackground on obama's name

Professor Juan Cole, in the wake of more Hussein-dropping, argues that Obama's name is as American as apple pie:

Barack and Hussein are Semitic words. Americans have been named with Semitic names since the founding of the Republic. Fourteen of our 43 presidents have had Semitic names (see below). And, American English contains many Arabic-derived words that we use every day and without which we would be much impoverished. America is a world civilization with a world heritage, something Cunninghamism will never understand.

Barack is a Semitic word meaning "to bless" as a verb or "blessing" as a noun. In its Hebrew form, barak, it is found all through the Bible. It first occurs in Genesis 1:22: "And God blessed (ḇāreḵə ) them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth."

KKK holding back on Obama endorsement

from the official Klu Klux Klan website:

Klu Klux Klan DOES NOT endorse Barack Obama for president.

Despite some rumours, the Klu Klux Klan is not endorsing Barack Obama for president

well, er, yeah...

From the spin room after the debate:

On the Clinton side, Mandy Grunwald said that between Obama's own spending and two unions spending on his behalf, Clinton is being outspent four-to-one in Ohio and between two-to-one and three-to-one in Texas.

"They're trying to crush us," she said.

the debate

There is a funny SNL skit that has been getting a lot of hits on youtube, satirising the media's crush on Obama. It shows Obama being fawned over by the moderators of a debate.

In last night's real-life debate Hillary Clinton referred to the sketch, in a fit of frustration at the moderators' perceived bias.

The moderators asked her the first question, traditionally a non-privilege accorded to the front-runner, which she is no longer. They seemed to ask her the toughest questions throughout. At one point, after giving Clinton a tough grilling over NAFTA, Brian Williams turned to Obama and asked, 'How were her comments about you unfair?" One can understand Clinton's annoyance with such stuff.

Clinton's evident frustration knocked her off her stride a bit. It put her in a bad mood, and of course it risks making her look like a sore loser. However, if her mention of the  sketch means it gets replayed repeatedly on the TV in the next 24 hours, and that more people raise questions about the media's attitude to her and Obama, then this may turn out to be a good thing for her. The pro-Hillary media backlash begins here...?

so - tonight's debate night, right?

From The Smoking Gun:

Meet Jose Antonio Ortiz. The Pennsylvania man allegedly stabbed his brother-in-law in the stomach after the pair quarreled about their respective support of Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. According to cops, Ortiz, 28, stabbed Sean Shurelds last Thursday night in the kitchen of an Upper Providence Township home. According to a criminal complaint, a copy of which you'll find here, the 41-year-old Shurelds, an Obama supporter, told Ortiz that the Illinois senator was "trashing" Clinton (apparently in regard to recent primary and caucus results). Ortiz, a Clinton supporter, replied that "Obama was not a realist."

Hat tip: AW

oooh, it's just like The West Wing

I liked this account of a Washington DC breakfast attended by the press corps and members of the Clinton team, including the Clintons' seasoned consigliere, Harold Ickes.

David Chalian of ABC News reminded Ickes that Obama's lead in delegates is now of the size Ickes had said would be "significant."

"As we all know in this city, I have a very short memory," Ickes answered.

bless

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic Party, is confident that a big fight at the convention can be avoided. If it isn't decided by the time Denver comes around, why the candidates will just have to sit down and come to a decision:

First, we let the voters have their say. Then the super delegates have their say. If that doesn't work, the three of us will sit down and work something out," the DNC Chairman said. "We can't go to Denver divided."

I love the idea of Clinton and Obama sitting around a table with Dean in the middle, Clinton saying, 'Look Barack, you should be the nominee. I really think you've earned this one.' Obama shaking his head 'No, no, no. I may have won more delegates but heck, it was close. You take it, Hills. I can always go next time around.'