Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Nailbiter

Chris Bowers at MYDD comments on a Zogby analyses of the state of the race:

On the one hand, of course Bush is closing the gap. He made up ground before the convention, and he made up ground–even moving ahead nationally–during the convention. However, Kerry remains in a strong position. He leads in four of the six “red” states that are his best chances for pickups, FL, MO, NV and NH, (OH and WV are the other two) even though Bush just had his convention after and the last three weeks of free media were decidedly negative for the challenger. It would be too much to assume that this is Bush peak, since the attacks will keep coming and history does not tell us what always happens in the future. If at what is very possibly Kerry’s low point he still leads in the Electoral College, then it is not hard to be optimistic about this election.

Ruy Texeira analyzes the internals of the Gallup Poll

Prior to the Republican convention, Kerry had a one point lead among RVs (47-46) in the battleground states. After the Republican convention, now that battleground voters have had a chance to take a closer look at what Bush and his party really stand for, Kerry leads by 5 in these same states (50-45)! Note that Kerry gained three points among battleground voters, while Bush actually got a negative one point bounce.

Indeed, if equal polarization of partisans continues and Kerry carries a 3 point lead on independents into the election, he’ll win fairly easily, since the Democratic proportion of voters in presidential elections is always higher, not lower, than the Republican proportion. In 2000, after all, Bush carried independents by 2 points and received stronger support from his partisans than Gore did from his–but still lost the popular vote by half a point.

We can certainly be encouraged that the race remains close. But, keep one thing in mind. If the race remains this close, or if Kerry takes the lead, the other side is going to loose another barrage of negative campaigning equally vicious to that which we saw in August. The Bush machine will do anything to prevent President Asterisk’s loss after his very dubious win in 2000 and his fathers ignominious defeat in 1992. Two one term presidents in a row and this dynasty is done. Father and son will be remembered as historic losers of epic proportion. They know this. They will not go down easily.

Let’s hope the new National Guard info puts them off message. They get all confused when they have to play defense. They aren’t used to it.

Patriotism

Rush Limbaugh has been predicting for weeks that liberals would be celebrating the 1000th death. I haven’t noticed any dancing in the streets. The right, on the other hand is very upset.

Kevin writes that the 101st Fighting Keyboarders are pissed off and ready to rumble:

If I see one more headline like this, I’m gonna beat somebody:

U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq Pass 1,000

So F**KING what?

Kevin adds:

From the Associated Press:

“I want pictures of you, to see how big your belly is getting. How much my baby is growing inside of you. Not being with you makes me weak. You are the link that makes my chain strong. You complete me in every way.”

Army Sgt. Micheal Dooley, 23, of Pulaski, Va., in a letter home to his wife, Christine, who was six months pregnant with his daughter, Shea Micheal Dooley, when he died.

You can’t blame that little cretin. In America, “real men” are too manly to mourn soldiers dying in wars they support but can’t be bothered to fight. Just ask George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. They’ve spent a lifetime doing it. And, no one is more manly than they.

Dumb As As Swing Voter

Irony is indeed dead. In fact, it’s been cremated. Unless it’s George Bush making a Beavis and Butthead joke, every utterance is now taken literally no matter how obviously absurd or satirical.

For instance, everyone from Adam Nagourney to Chris Suellentrop is all atwitter at how stupid John Kerry was for betraying that he cannot make up his mind at a restaurant.”Oh my God, doesn’t he realize that it makes him sound indecisive? Somebody tell Teresa!”

Now, I know that Kerry is no Chris Rock, but really, it is clear to any twelve year old that he was speaking with his tongue firmly in his cheek when he said this:

Kerry decided it would be a good idea in Pennsylvania to talk about how he has difficulty deciding what to eat at restaurants. “You know when they give you the menu, I’m always struggling, what do you want?” he said. A cook at a local restaurant, though, solves Kerry’s dilemma by serving “whatever he’s cooked up that day. I think that’s the way it ought to work for confused people like me who can’t make up our minds what we’re going to eat.”

It’s not particularly funny, but it is also not an earnest admission of Kerry’s flip-flopping dining habits fergawdssake. He was making fun of himself.

Today’s The Day

Freewayblogger Plans 100 Sign Protest in LA

I’m about to hit the 10, the 405 and the 101. I’ll let you know what I see.

Isn’t It Time To Ask

One Simple Question?

“How many times have you been arrested, Mr. President?”

There’s money in it to the first one who asks it. You can also contribute to up the bounty.

They Can’t All Be Democratic Liars

George W. Bush: AWOL in Alabama

Texans for Truth, established by the 20,000-member Texas online activist group, DriveDemocracy.org, has produced a 0:30 second television advertisement, “AWOL.” The ad features Robert Mintz, one of many who served in Alabama’s 187th Air National Guard — when Bush claims to have been there — who have no memory of Bush on the base. In other words, Bush failed to fulfill his military duty while others were dying in Vietnam.

Click here to see the ad

and contribute to the Texans For Truth.

Pssst

Just a little word about whisper campaigns. In a gossipy whisper campaign, the evidence, by its very nature, will not hold up in a court of law. It fact, that is the point of whispering it.

The point is to make nasty personal gossip take on a life of its own and have people thinking “where there’s smoke there’s fire.” Whether something is logical or truthful is largely beside the point. It just has to be believable.

So, if you find over these next few weeks that you are hearing whispers about Bush’s drinking, drug use or anything else, keep in mind that it’s useful to let the Republicans do the debunking. It keeps their minds off of world domination and forces them to defend against a moving and vague target, which isn’t easy. Ask Bill Clinton.

Bad Advice

Brazile said Kerry is right to go on the offensive, but that he’s got to be careful when he does it. “It has to be a precision hit,” she said, because Bush is the president and because large numbers of Americans bonded with him the moment those planes hit the twin towers. Brazile offered the beginnings of one theme that could work: “On Sept. 11, he led us. On Sept. 12, he misled us.”

Precision? This is as precise as “I voted for the 87 billion before I voted against it.” Terrible.

First of all, we have it documented on film that Goat Boy couldn’t lead anybody out of a paper bag on September 11th. Second, this statement is deeply offensive to the base who knows better. Third, it is unbelievably stupid to utter the other side’s talking points. In a close race, the Republicans would NEVER say the words “he led us” about the opposition. Never.

Kerry’s biggest problem right now is too many cooks throwing fetid garbage into the soup. (If I were of any influence instead of a kibbitzer, I’d include myself as one of them.) For all that the Republicans are myopic, simplistic and overly controlled, we are the opposite. Democrats are embarrassingly undisciplined about this stuff and can’t keep our mouths shut, so this all plays itself out publicly.

At this point, it’s all about Kerry’s political instincts. There is no consensus on the right approach going into the stretch. The race is a nail biter and he’s got people all around him telling him different things. He has to sort out for himself what he thinks will work. It’s up to him.

Malapropractice

“We got an issue in America. Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many good OB/GYN’s aren’t able to practice their love, with women all across this country,” he said.

He’s right. If we could just get rid of all those malpractice suits, the OB/GYNs could spread love all over the place with no fear of reprisals. Of course, if women would just relax and stop suing these fine doctors for practising their love on them, this country would be a much better place in so many ways.

Alcoholics Don’t Drink Fake Beer

Count the glasses on the table. Eight glasses for the G8. Sitting next to Junior is (I think) EU president Romano Prodi. There’s a glass of white wine directly in front of him and another in front of Gerhardt Schroeder. Schroeder has a glass in his hand. Next to Schroeder is Jose Maria Aznar, who would be the owner of the glass in front of Schroeder. Next is Koizumi with an empty beer glass. Putin has the full one. Then at the end of the table are two unknowns with a glass of red wine and what appears to be a coke. I assume that would be Chirac and Blair, but it’s impossible to know. However, one thing is clear. At the end of the table, directly in front of Junior is a brewski.

Here’s a link to a bigger version of the picture.

Now, I don’t want to jump to any conclusions, but with what we already know about the president’s cocaine use at Camp David, his septum problems in the early 90’s, his bizarre and unexplained falls in which he is unable to keep himself from scraping his face and the common knowledge and now photographic proof that he has been drinking as president, isn’t it time that somebody asked the question?

When it the president going to come clean about his drinking and drug use in the White House?

Correction: The man with the full glass sitting next to Koizumi is Chirac. Which means that Putin is drinking either the red wine or the coke. According to this website, Putin is a teetotaler, so I’m thinking he’s the coke. Of course, Bush is allegedly a teetotaler as well.