He Actually Has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
by dday
Or, as Jon Stewart once put it, 9/11 Tourette’s.
He flatlined in Iowa and he’s struggling in New Hampshire, but
Rudy Giuliani shook off the early-state blues Thursday as only he can.“None of this worries me – Sept. 11, there were times I was worried,” Giuliani said.
At what point do you start to worry about someone like this? From a mental health standpoint, I mean? As a progressive I have compassion for people who are ill.
.
John McCain Won Big Among People Who Voted For John McCain!
by dday
Well, from my caucus watch party-eye’s view it seemed to me that it wouldn’t be possible to spin the win for McCain after such a decisive victory from Huckabee. But apparently, I was mistaken.
Tonight is a fantastic night for John McCain. … He’s one of the biggest winners of the night. He’s now in a fantastic position. Except for Barack Obama, there’s almost no one you’d rather be tonight than John McCain.
The fluffing is almost embarrassing. Journalists all over the country are doing the walk of shame this morning. They probably boarded their planes out of Iowa wearing the same clothes as last night, shuffling around uncomfortably.
Look, McCain finished FOURTH, tied with a fossil named Fred Thompson. A win for Huckabee is not a win for McCain. It’s a win for Huckabee. McCain may take New Hampshire by default, but nothing he did yesterday prepped him for that. You’re TRYING TO PICK THE CANDIDATE and it’s both obvious and embarrassing.
And here’s the thing: if McCain and Huckabee last until the finish, then it’ll come down to the GOP establishment firewall in South Carolina. Who do you suppose will take that, no matter what the establishment wants? The Southern preacher, or the guy who was slandered 8 years ago, subject to a whisper campaign that he had a black baby?
Unlike a lot of Democrats, I’d be THRILLED to face John McCain. Anyone who wants to spend a million years in Iraq would be a dream. The only “threat” from McCain is from his natural constituency, the media. This was the line of the night:
I think Kansas will beat Virginia Tech, but the real winner of the Orange Bowl will be John McCain as the merest thought of football reminds voters of his toughness.
.
Strange Days, Take Two
by tristero
Apparently, the point of this post was unclear. Numerous commenters responded with something like “Huckabee has zero chance of winning in November. Therefore, tristero, what’s yer problem? It’s great he won; it will make trouncing Republicans that much easier and sweeter.” So I’ll try again and try to be more focused.
Of course, Huckabee will lose a general election. But in the process of losing, maybe even by a landslide, the worst subculture of rightwing extremists and religious fanatics may very well gain a mainstream audience and an influence over that audience that makes their current reach look trivial. Let’s not forget, folks, that the current “conservative movement” is traced to Goldwater’s landslide defeat.
That is a very real risk and the reason I cannot muster any snarky whoops at Huckabee’s win in Iowa.
Now, at least one commenter pointed out that all the GOP contenders are equally awful, implying that the great thing about Huckabee is that he would be uniquely weak in a general election, and therefore his win in Iowa is great news.
That viewpoint represents a failure to recognize the uniquely dangerous qualities of Huckabee and the reasons why you would really, really want to prevent him and his followers from gaining any more national attention. Here’s one: There are extremely good reasons why this country’s founders went out of their way to discourage the kinds of bald appeals to religious exclusion Huckabee wallows in.
Yes, Huckabee deserves contempt for his truly bad character. With his ignorance, incompetence, and provincialism he shames people like the great Wayne Henderson who represent the rural white South with integrity. Certainly, Huckabee’s ideas and behavior deserve to be mocked, ridiculed, laughed at, parodied, and skewered, He should be ignored when he’s not being sneered at. And the more creative we all are, the more in your face, the better.
But to applaud his ascent to the very center of the political life of the most powerful country on earth? No. The specific movement Huckabee represents is far too dangerous for that.
That Speech
by digby
I read somewhere that conservatives want to be led and liberals want to be inspired.
Here’s some serious inspiration:
.
Strange Days
by tristero
Back in ’04, right around the time Judge Roy Moore was forced off the bench during the Ten Commandments nonsense, there were rumors he would run for president on a third party. I wrote a snarky blogpost urging that he do just that, as he would siphon votes away from the Republicans. Dave Neiwert, who really knows what he’s talking about when it comes to the dangers of rightwing extremism of all kinds set me straight:
Liberals may cheer Moore on because he can do to Bush what Nader did to Gore…
However, this may be a case of getting what we ask for. Moore’s candidacy not only could expand the Constitution Party’s reach, it could bring its extremist brand of politics into even closer contact with the broader conservative mainstream — and all that implies…
Republicans are obviously hoping Moore doesn’t run. Democrats, if they’re wise, should hope the same. The monster that would result might not be worth the short-term gain.
In other words, religious extremists and rightwing nutjobs should have no place in American national politics. While their candidacies may be doomed, there lie monsters.
Which brings us to the genuinely repellent topic of Michael Huckabee. The fact that he won the Iowa caucus chills me to the bone. This is a ruthless, ignorant, and dangerously opportunistic fanatic who is so unqualified for the presidency that no one in the media should have returned his calls. And they still shouldn’t.
This is a man so bereft of character he actively worked to free a serial rapist, a seriously deranged sociopath who had also been directly involved in a brutal murder. And why did Huckabee proactively seek Wayne Dumond’s freedom? For one reason only: Because his release had become a rightwing cause celebre. Sure enough, soon after Huckabee’s efforts succeeded in returning Dumond to the outside world, Dumond raped and murdered at least one, if not two women.
Huckabee’s championing of Dumond’s release – Huckabee never read the court documents or appeals from Dumond’s victims – is enough to demonstrate that he has neither the judgment or moral character to be a dog catcher, let alone president. But since then, Huckabee has made it his business repeatedly to lie about his involvement in Dumond’s release – which would never have happened without his efforts. So let’s not mince words here:
Huckabee is hardly a better candidate for president than Wayne Dumond himself would be, if he were still alive.
It is said in his defense that Huckabee has only slept with one woman since he married (and for all I know, maybe his whole life). He doesn’t drink, and he doesn’t smoke and he reads the Bible. In other words, Huckabee meets the minimum standards to be a fundamentalist Christian preacher, even if these qualifications are mostly honored in the breech. But whether one finds such behavior laudable or pathetically stunted, they are irrelevant. They are hardly positive character traits for a US president. Sober judgment, however, is. But Huckabee has none. Integrity is. But Huckabee has none.
As if this wasn’t enough, Huckabee has absolutely no experience whatsoever in foreign policy and no genuine curiousity about it. His idea of an expert upon which to lean is John Bolton, a man as unhinged as Huckabee’s earlier adviser, Steve Dunleavy. Dunleavy, who no one has accused of leading a life deprived of Demon Rum, was one of Huckabee’s main sources for exculpatory information on Dumond, which turned out to be – you saw this coming, I’m sure – utterly bogus.
Furthermore, Huckabee is a religious bigot. He’s not merely trying to entice Bible thumpers and their sheep to vote for him. Through his rhetoric, he deliberately assigns second-class citizenship to millions of Americans who don’t practice his specific religion – be they Catholic, Mormon, Jewish, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic, secular, or simply in a mainstream denomination he deems “too liberal.”
Of course, Huckabee doesn’t believe in evolution, but that’s not just because he’s a scientific ignoramus. It’s because Huckabee doesn’t believe in anything except his own will to power, a delusional narcissism so powerful he mistakes it for the will of God. He is a vicious, unprincipled man; the stories of his ruthlessness when governor of Arkansas are legion.
In short, Huckabee’s a dangerously awful candidate, certainly at least as bad as Giuliani. The sooner he is defeated and returned to obscurity the better.
Congratulations
by digby
To Senator Obama, who brought out the next generation,something that every candidate says they’re doing and never actually do. This bodes very well for the Democrats.
And special congratulations to the Republicans. Mike Huckabee is the logical candidate of the party Karl Rove built:
.
Babelphish
by digby
I get a lot of anti-Clinton e-mail for some reason, but this is one of the weirdest I’ve gotten yet:
RE: The immediate Clinton-FBI punishment for sending the information to Iowa voters and police officers.
Dear Madam and/or Sir,
As you may recall, I just emailed the information on what is behind the Clinton quest for U.S. presidency, in fact. Due to the lawlessness of FBI under its Director Robert S. MUELLER, I and my wife are partly homeless. His top level subordinates, including now his executive assistant director Willie HULON and his assistant director Timothy BEREZNAY in charge of National Security Branch NSB of FBI manage that we have been extorted over $70,000.00 in setting up, maintaining computers and the housecleaning for a privilege of doing the house sitting without any pay from Thursdays to Mondays/Tuesdays.
Immediately after sending you the information in question, these and other WSI/SWW and GRU moles in the NSB of FBI for Senator Hillary RODHAM CLINTON and her run for the White House punish us with keeping longer on the street although we have paid much too much for doing the house sitting. We can go there on Friday, instead of Thursday, e.i. TODAY evening which is the day of caucuses in Iowa. We are already 38.0 hours without any sleep. They will keep us for 24.0 hours more. This will be 62.0 hours altogether. It is the torture which is self-explanatory in the contents of my information provided to you as the voter. It speaks for itself.
Sincerely,
Slawomir J. Borowy
PLEASE, CONSIDER FORWARDING URGENTLY TO THE CAUCUS GOERS IN IOWA, FIRST OF ALL.
PS. I am sorry for any imperfection, but I drafted in rush and without any sleep this follow-up to my previous information.
ooohkay…
Via Glenn comes news about the goddammed spoiled brats we have for a press corps:
Washington: I just read on The Post’s Trail page that Clinton dropped by the press bus to drop off coffee etc. and was met with cold silence. Wow. Even after 15 years, why is there so much press hostility towards the Clintons? If it turns out to be McCain vs. Clinton (my current guess) in the general, the difference in press coverage between these two is going to be as staggering as it is depressing.
Lois Romano: I was struck by that as well. I have covered Hillary Clinton off on and for 15 years and I’ve never seen anything that stark happen. While there is a tense relationship between HRC and the media, I’m not sure why the reporters on the bus wouldn’t have tried to take .advantage of her appearance and ask some good questions. All she could do is refuse to answer them. Its not for the press to be hostile to Clinton– its the media’s responsibility to cover her.
Damn straight. They ought to be summarily fired.
Update: From digby.
Sorry to intrude on tristero’s post, but I thought I should add this post from the Politico about the same incident:
Hillary stepped onto the parked press bus in Indianola for about 90 seconds to deliver bagels and coffee, and I’m not sure what this says about Clinton and the press — the chill, I think, comes from both sides — but it was a strange moment. She expressed her sympathies that we’re away from our families and “significant others,” tried a joke at the expense of her press secretary, and paused. Nobody even shouted a question, whether because of the surprise, the assumption that she wouldn’t actually answer, or the sheer desire to end the encounter.
One reporter compared the awkwardness to running unexpectedly into an ex-girlfriend.
“Maybe we should go outside and warm up,” said another, as Clinton exited into the freezing air.
Sophomores in high school would be embarrassed by that.
Blink Your Eyes..
by digby
Did they hold the caucuses already and nobody told me?
Right now it’s 2:30 on the west coast. I’m watching Chris Matthews smirking and snorting like it’s the general election and he’s gotten hold of some exit polls that say Clinton and Edwards are toast. He just showed Clinton’s little appearance on Letterman last night in which she joked about Letterman’s hiatus saying, “all good things must come to an end” and then smugly retorted “if I were Hillary I’d lose that ‘must come to an end’ thing.” Mike Barnicle pronounced that Hillary thought she was entitled to the nomination but that the age of entitlement is over. Obama winning means it’s Lexington and Concord. (?)
You step away for a few minutes to run an errand and miss the whole damned thing.
Oh, I hear McCain won New Hampshire too.
Update: Ferchrist’s sake..
.