Turf Wars of Small, Angry Men
Everybody meet Pastor John Hagee, who has endorsed Senator John McCain’s campaign for the presidency. You may remember him from Max Blumenthal’s short film, “Rapture Ready” where Max bravely parachuted down behind enemy lines to report on Hagee’s “ministry”, which is basically an apocalyptic cult who believe that the US should take every step possible to ensure that the Middle East becomes a bombed-out sheet of radioactive glass. Why? Because it will hasten The End Times, when Jeeeeebus will come back and take all good Christians to Heaven and plunge everybody else (and Hagee means EVERYBODY else) into an eternally burning lake of fire.
The Mighty G2 reports:
Yesterday, though, the equally fringe, radical and hateful (at least) Rev. John Hagee — a white evangelical who is the pastor of a sprawling “mega-church” in Texas — enthusiastically endorsed John McCain. Did McCain have to jump through the same hoops which Russert and others set up for Obama and “denounce” Hagee’s extremism and “reject” his support? No; quite the opposite. McCain said he was “very honored” to receive this endorsement and, when asked about some of Hagee’s more twisted views, responded: “all I can tell you is that I am very proud to have Pastor John Hagee’s support.”
So? Why should we care that some whackadoodle Christard has endorsed Cap’n Mac?
Because it could prove to be loads of fun. See, Pastor Hagee? He does not like Teh Catholics. At all. He calls the Catholic Church the Great Whore, and has preached at length about how Hitler was a Jew-hating Catholic who acted with the full knowledge and consent of the Vatican in his campaign to kill every last Jew in Europe.
Hmmmm, is there anyone we know who is an unthinking, pro-Catholic reactionary, a dogged publicity whore with nothing to do except rail volubly about real and imagined slights against the Catholic Church? Well, I guess we could call Bill Donohue. But it’ll take us weeks to get the smell out of the upholstery.
Oh! As almost always happens, Mr. Glennzilla got there first.
Among the many groups which McCain’s new associate has targeted for hateful bigotry are Catholics. As a result, The Catholic League today issued a statement — entitled “McCain Embraces Bigot” — which pointed out that Hagee:
has waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church. For example, he likes calling it “The Great Whore,” an “apostate church,” the “anti-Christ,” and a “false cult system.”
The Catholic League demanded that McCain repudiate Hagee and his endorsement, just as Barack Obama did earlier this week with Louis Farrakhan (despite the fact that Obama, unlike McCain with Hagee, never sought out or accepted Farrakhan’s endorsement). Earlier today, I interviewed the Catholic League’s President, Bill Donohue, regarding the profound anti-Catholic bigotry routinely displayed by Hagee and what John McCain’s embrace of such a bigoted figure says about the presidential candidate. The entire podcast interview, which lasted roughly 15 minutes, can be heard here.
And it’s awesome. Note to self: Do NOT play poker with Glenn Greenwald. Throughout the interview, G2 somehow manages to keep a straight face as he goads Donohue to ever greater heights of spitting, sputtering fauxtrage. It is truly something to behold. It falls into that ancient barroom tradition known as, “Let’s you and him fight. Are you gonna let him talk about your church like that?”
And Donohue does not disappoint.
In the interview, Donohue made some extraordinary statements. He compared Hagee both to Louis Farrakhan and Bob Jones, but noted: “Hagee is far more powerful than Farrakhan is today. . . . Hagee is a major player. There’s no end to his money. He has an empire down there.” Regarding the intense 2000 media controversy when then-Gov. George Bush spoke at Bob Jones University, Donohue said:
Why were they so exercised about Bob Jones? This is worse. . . . If someone said to me: who is the biggest anti-Catholic bigot in the evangelical community, I would say: hands down, John Hagee.
According to Donohue, Hagee has “made a lot of money off bashing the Catholic Church and blames Catholics for the Holocaust.” What does it say about McCain that he would embrace such a figure? “This doesn’t speak well for him. He’s tolerating an endorsement by an inveterate bigot, and it’s been brought to his attention.”
Awesome. Damn, that nice Mr. Donohue should go on the TeeVee and talk to the People about how John McCain has stabbed every Catholic person in America in the back by accepting Pastor Hagee’s endorsement. It should be at least as big a kerfuffle as the Edwards campaign’s decision last year to hire Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan.
Whose turn is it to make the popcorn?
81 Responses to “Turf Wars of Small, Angry Men”
By peanutbutter on Feb 28, 2008 11:17 pm |
Buttery or cheesy popcorn?!
By LoudounLib on Feb 28, 2008 11:18 pm |
Oh, cheesy this time in honor (or dishonor?) of Hagee and Donohue…
By TRex on Feb 28, 2008 11:19 pm |
LoudounLib said
Seconded. White cheddar, plz? Kthx!
By peanutbutter on Feb 28, 2008 11:20 pm |
Cheesy popcorn it is!
By Betsy on Feb 28, 2008 11:20 pm |
no popcorn thanks. i’ll just have a box of those cookies from the last thread.
By Betsy on Feb 28, 2008 11:20 pm |
peanutbutter said
with lemonade! thanks.
i’ll save the cookies for later.
By TRex on Feb 28, 2008 11:22 pm |
I hope Greenwald knows what he’s doing. Revving up a psycho-blowhard like Donohue can be a risky endeavor.
By LoudounLib on Feb 28, 2008 11:22 pm |
I’m *this close* to running out to the store for some Smart Food white cheddar popcorn! The late night munchies have attacked…
By LoudounLib on Feb 28, 2008 11:23 pm |
TRex said
Donohue scares me every time I see him on tee vee.
By madmommy on Feb 28, 2008 11:24 pm |
Hagee is a parasite sucking the meager funds from pitiful people who barely have enough to keep body and soul together. A snake-oil salesman of the first order. As usual, McCain does not contemplate the consequences of his actions. I predict backpedaling fiercely once the Catholics start raising a stink.
Here’s a funny. Another nutball preacher McCain has hooked up with is a guy named Rod Parsley. Apparently Pastor Parsley (sounds like a character in a Veggie Tales episode!) thinks that adulterers should be prosecuted.Among many other, seriously loony views. Guess no one ever told him St. John cheated on the wife who stood by him during his imprisonment and later dumped her for his current wife Cindy.
Down With Tyranny has more.
By TRex on Feb 28, 2008 11:24 pm |
LoudounLib said
He might be a lot less scary when he’s going after someone we hate, though. We’ll see if his latest tantrum manages to gain any traction.
By Betsy on Feb 28, 2008 11:26 pm |
good news. shots are helping already and the inj site pain is very manageable. almost no pain walking to the kitchen to get a glass of water.
good friend dropped off fresh soup for dinner.
had three naps today
By LoudounLib on Feb 28, 2008 11:26 pm |
That’s true, T — it’ll be interesting to see how that unfolds.
By petedownunder on Feb 28, 2008 11:27 pm |
Whoever is advising McCain makes Mark Penn look like a genius.
By TRex on Feb 28, 2008 11:27 pm |
Three naps? Now that’s my kind of day.
By LoudounLib on Feb 28, 2008 11:27 pm |
Yay, Betsy — so glad to hear that!
By LoudounLib on Feb 28, 2008 11:28 pm |
g’day Pete
By petedownunder on Feb 28, 2008 11:29 pm |
Betsy - glad to hear you are feeling well. Mazeltov.
By madmommy on Feb 28, 2008 11:29 pm |
Happy to hear the pain is decreasing, great news Betsy!
By petedownunder on Feb 28, 2008 11:30 pm |
Hi LL - getting closer to VA, in TX tonight. A friend from Fairfax VA stayed with us in Oz last week, had a good time. You should give it a try.
By petedownunder on Feb 28, 2008 11:31 pm |
Very rude of me - did not say g’day to our host. G’day TRex. McCain is just nucking futs.
By LoudounLib on Feb 28, 2008 11:32 pm |
Pete, Oz is definitely on my list. You and Persi will be the first to know whenever I can manage to make that trip. For me, it’s a must!
Hope you’re having a nice visit in TX.
By Betsy on Feb 28, 2008 11:32 pm |
pete, why didn’t you come to austin? many trexicans here.
By petedownunder on Feb 28, 2008 11:35 pm |
Betsy - would love to, but I’m on short time leash. I’m visiting clients here with one of my law partners. Her son is at UT Austin law school so we would have come down there if we had time, but we have a list of folks to see here in Big D then I go back to CA Saturday and back to Oz Wednesday.
Someone asked where I really live, I told them Seat 15G.
By LoudounLib on Feb 28, 2008 11:41 pm |
Pete, you are probably the most frequent flyer that I know!
edit: my sister-in-law travels a lot for business, but all domestic. She would come in a close second.
By e on Feb 28, 2008 11:41 pm |
I very much appreciated Greenwald’s take on this today too…..that is, as much as one CAN appreciate something that sets one’s blood to boiling.
In fact, all day today I’ve had kind of a sinking feeling about just how ugly this is gonna get before it’s all over. It’s hard to believe, but I fear it may be worse than anything we’ve seen yet.
On a pleasanter note…..LL, left you a reply in the last thread about the redistricting. Thanks for asking!
By Betsy on Feb 28, 2008 11:45 pm |
pete, if you can make it, a bunch of folks will be in town late July for the netroots nation
By LoudounLib on Feb 28, 2008 11:46 pm |
e, thanks — running back to check…
By TRex on Feb 28, 2008 11:46 pm |
e said
I dunno, I’m starting to find the whole thing kind of delightful. As long as I don’t let any of it make my stomach twist into knots, the whole thing is kind of a gas.
Cos at the bottom of it all, A BLACK MAN is the front runner for the presidency. And that’s going to make a lot of people we hate really, really miserable this year.
Yay!
By petedownunder on Feb 28, 2008 11:46 pm |
LL- I told the Future Mrs DU that my goal for next year was NOT to be in UA’s highest tier FF classification. Last trip I knew half the flight attendants on a first name basis. Not a good sign.
By petedownunder on Feb 28, 2008 11:48 pm |
Betsy -
I plan to be in the US late July - I have to be in Oshkosh, WI; but a short hop to Austin would be a kick. I’ll see if I can make the dates work.
By peanutbutter on Feb 28, 2008 11:49 pm |
TRex said
Exactly!
Pass the popcorn!
By Betsy on Feb 28, 2008 11:49 pm |
ndfg and suzanne are staying at my place.
By petedownunder on Feb 28, 2008 11:50 pm |
Jet lag is setting in - g’night everybody.
By LoudounLib on Feb 28, 2008 11:50 pm |
lol Pete — well on one hand, at least they probably know and remember your preferences
e, just saw your note from the last thread — well that’s good, glad you and your family won’t be in a state of upheaval. And you’re right about the School Board; them folks is crazy sometimes.
By LoudounLib on Feb 28, 2008 11:51 pm |
Sleep well Pete.
By Christine Edmonson on Feb 28, 2008 11:51 pm |
Betsy said
Hey you girrrrllls! I’m back home and missing you all so very much.
Christine
By Tengrain on Feb 28, 2008 11:51 pm |
And all this time, I thought the choice was the Lady or the Tiger. Thanks Pastor Hagee!
Regards,
Tengrain
By petedownunder on Feb 28, 2008 11:51 pm |
Suzanne is having a meet up this weekend in CA, and I’ll be in CA but I think it will be just too much. Anyway, it’s bed time.
By LoudounLib on Feb 28, 2008 11:53 pm |
Hi Chris!
By Betsy on Feb 28, 2008 11:56 pm |
hi Christine!
By Christine Edmonson on Feb 28, 2008 11:56 pm |
LoudounLib said
So happy to hear the injections went well for Betsy, and so surprised to see you all together. Hope the popcorn is white cheddar! I’ve been away from everything for over a week.
By madmommy on Feb 28, 2008 11:58 pm |
LL-regarding dealing with School Boards and re-districting we are having a kerfluffle in Jefferson Parish (my old neighborhood). Seems that there has been a very lax permit process by which a parent could send their kid to any school in the Parish, simply by getting a permit, which were given out like Pez. This resulted in less appealing schools becoming ever more marginalized and ushering in de-facto segregation. This will stop as of next year and certain parents (melanin challenged) are in an uproar. All the dog-whistle terms are employed, and parochial schools are expecting a big bump in admissions. Sadly many cannot see the bigger picture, that neighborhood schools are a boon for parents, and it helps everyone to make sure that all schools are performing at or above expectations. Isolating the little darlings in private schools where they will not learn how to deal with different people and beliefs is doing them no favors, IMHO.
By TRex on Feb 29, 2008 12:03 am |
I’m outta here. See you kids in a bit.
By Betsy on Feb 29, 2008 12:03 am |
new post, complete with photos: On Hands, Pledges & National Anthems
By Christine Edmonson on Feb 29, 2008 12:04 am |
Betsy said
Hey Betsy,
Glad you are making headway on painless navigation. How’s the family?
By Betsy on Feb 29, 2008 12:06 am |
family’s good. no one here with me at the moment but all are well
By LoudounLib on Feb 29, 2008 12:09 am |
MM, that’s interesting — some of that has gone on in this area recently, mainly between some parents in DC who somehow enrolled their kids in schools over in Prince Georges County MD. Wish I could remember the details, but it caused quite a stir. ‘Course, the DC schools unfortunately are in such a bad state that I can’t blame the parents for subverting that system.
By madmommy on Feb 29, 2008 12:10 am |
Betsy said
How are you and TexTeen adjusting to not having Cassie around anymore? I’m guessing TT is enjoying not being griped at for general teenage boy type behaviors. And the Axe bodywash.
By Christine Edmonson on Feb 29, 2008 12:12 am |
By madmommy on Feb 29, 2008 12:13 am |
LL- the main beef that no one will admit to is that certain schools and neighborhoods have a larger population of former New Orleans residents. For quite a while Jefferson Parish was a bastion of pasty whiteness, in no small part related to the efforts of the extremely racist former Sheriff. Katrina changed alot, and it is starting to hit the fan outside of Orleans Parish.
By Betsy on Feb 29, 2008 12:13 am |
texteen misses her but is enjoying having the room and the TV and computer to himself. He also misses my nephew.
i miss cassie a lot. i still get emails and texts and phone calls, but it’s not the same.
By LoudounLib on Feb 29, 2008 12:17 am |
MM, that must be a huge adjustment for some of those Jefferson Parish residents then! They probably need to wake up a bit, huh?
By LoudounLib on Feb 29, 2008 12:19 am |
Betsy, are any road trips to or from El Paso in the offing?
By Betsy on Feb 29, 2008 12:21 am |
LL, my nephew gets married in June, so they’ll be coming in about 4 days before that. Then Cassie and my son will go up to NY with my folks after the wedding and let the newlyweds have a honeymoon. Then, the kids will be back here with me for a week or so.
By madmommy on Feb 29, 2008 12:23 am |
LL-oh yeah! They were quite used to black folks being just a bit nervous to cross the parish line. Those that were already there kept to their neighborhoods as the Sheriff would stop a car for no other reason than driving black in a white area. Pathetic.
Heading off to bed, gang. Wasted 2 1/2 hours of my life I’ll never get back today getting my liquor license. If he had just let me read the workbook and take the test I’d have been out of there in 30 minutes, tops. Well, it’s done for 4 years.
Tomorrow I am meeting the school counselor and the little guy’s teacher to discuss his behavior issues. The meeting is at 12:30, I should be ready to start drinking heavily by 1. Wish I could see the future so I’d know what it is that sends them into therapy so I could fix it now!
By LoudounLib on Feb 29, 2008 12:24 am |
Betsy, that will be nice
I still haven’t emailed Cass, but I will do.
By LoudounLib on Feb 29, 2008 12:25 am |
Oh MM, good luck with that. We’ll be here for you with the moral support, just holler!
By newdealfarmgrrrlll on Feb 29, 2008 12:26 am |
whew. Had to make a trip to the grocery store thru snow and sleet. Yuck. But there was no coffee left in my cupboard for tomorrow morning ….
re the post, what a vicious nutcase. To quote J.K. Rowling, “Nuttier than squirrel poo.” I’ve read about him before, each time i see his name, i’m appalled anew.
Betsy, glad the shots have helped so quickly! (and looking forward to netroots nation)
Christine! *ndfg waves wildly* Glad you’re back.
By LoudounLib on Feb 29, 2008 12:29 am |
hi ndfg, I’ve had to make those late-night coffee runs myself — got to have my AM coffee
By Betsy on Feb 29, 2008 12:29 am |
sleep well madmom.
little guy will be fine.
By e on Feb 29, 2008 12:35 am |
LoudounLib said
the DC school system is an absolute disgrace. Like so much about DC, shameful not only on a local level but because this is — hello! — supposedly the capital of the fucking free world. Um….way to set an example…?
I’ve said this before — when I am dictator private schools will be outlawed. How different things might be if all those resources and energy HAD to be invested in schools accessible to everyone.
By newdealfarmgrrrlll on Feb 29, 2008 12:38 am |
LoudounLib said
heh. sounds like we’re birds of a feather.
By LoudounLib on Feb 29, 2008 12:40 am |
e, I hear you. I’m not a parent, but I’m a product of public schools and I think I turned out pretty well
Disclaimer though, my niece and nephew go to parochial school, so I see both sides.
But I totally agree with you on the DC schools. Total disgrace. And I don’t think Michelle Rhee or Mayor Fenty have the answers.
By Betsy on Feb 29, 2008 12:46 am |
seems like too much of public school education these days is testing-directed.
By LoudounLib on Feb 29, 2008 12:49 am |
Betsy, I hear that too. What’s the phrase — teach to the test?
By Betsy on Feb 29, 2008 12:51 am |
LoudounLib said
i am still amazed at how many teacher comments start with, “now when you see this on the TAKS test, they may ask …..”
By LoudounLib on Feb 29, 2008 12:53 am |
Yep Betsy — I go to a recertification every year for work, and they say much the same thing, with many *wink wink* gestures and allusions to the answers.
By LoudounLib on Feb 29, 2008 12:59 am |
Totally OT before I go to bed — it was really cool to see people like Sangemon and dakine01 show up in the last thread
Hope to see them again here.
By Betsy on Feb 29, 2008 12:59 am |
sleep well LL
By LoudounLib on Feb 29, 2008 1:01 am |
Thanks Betsy, and I hope you have a restful and pain-free sleep.
G’night T, where ever you are!
By peanutbutter on Feb 29, 2008 1:12 am |
newdealfarmgrrrlll said
Oh absolutely. And because I generally have a morning mocha, late night milk runs also figure in my life…
By peanutbutter on Feb 29, 2008 1:15 am |
I’m a product of California public schools (*cough* years ago, of course) and I can tell you that when it’s well funded and well run, it’s fantastic. I was way ahead of most of my fellow students when I entered college.
But what I see in schools these days, even similar to mine, is that dreadful test oriented stuff. Ugh. You need a wide range of stuff, including creative and fun things to really bring out each student and ground them firmly…
By TRex on Feb 29, 2008 1:17 am |
Fresh thread!
http://www.iamtrex.com/
By preznit giv me turkee on Feb 29, 2008 1:46 am |
madmommy said
actually we’ve been trying over at World o’ Crap to google bomb him as a slang term for male pubic hair
By Doc Nebula on Feb 29, 2008 1:46 am |
For what little it’s worth (pretty much exactly what you’re paying for it):
Try not to expect too much from this McCain/Hagee thing. As far as conservative/Republican voters are concerned, the rules are now and always have been different for Their Guys and Our Guys. (For one thing, we’re actually allowed to run non-Guys. The entire Republican Party would spontaneously combust if, say, Laura Bush or Elizabeth Dole made a serious bid for a Republican Presidential candidacy.)
Whether we like it or not, the song remains the same — embracing the hate (especially the truly screeching whackadoodle hate, as long as it’s nominally ‘Christian’ in flavor) will never cost a Republican candidate votes from the red side of the ballot sheet.
What this signals to me is that McCain is making headway with his base, which is no surprise at all. He had to bring them back around to him in order to have any kind of shot at the general election.
On February 8, in this post, I stated the following:
Big Money is sending conflicting signals right now, which indicates to me that a final decision has not yet been reached. On the one hand, one of Big Money’s most powerful media voices, Ann Coulter, has come out and stated on Sean Hannity’s FOX program that if John Cain becomes the Republican nominee, she will actively campaign for Hillary Clinton, because Clinton is the more reliably conservative candidate than McCain.
On the other hand, Mitt Romney has announced he’s quitting his campaign… Romney is as big a shill for ‘the innerests’ as Coulter ever will be, and if he’s marching offstage, it’s because someone bigger than him cut the marching orders. Romney himself says that he’s doing this to shore up conservative support for McCain, and, yeah, I can see that. Within my admittedly limited understanding of the power dynamics here, that makes as much sense as anything else.
But… again… Romney is a shill for Big Money, and Big Money hates McCain. HATES him. So Romney stepping down is a pretty strong indicator that Big Money is giving serious thought to swallowing its intense dislike of McCain and getting behind his campaign.
Coulter’s statement of support for Clinton over McCain, though, is an equally strong signal that Big Money is considering supporting someone else in this election. And when you can’t find a Republican candidate you like well enough, where does a worried plutocrat go?
Straight to the nearest viable candidate named Clinton, that’s where.
Right now, right this moment, The Innerests must be in a frenzy of frustrated indecision.
However, HC’s surprisingly lackluster showing in the Dem primaries seems to have coalesced a game plan among The Innerests. Why did the NY Times come out with a lame hit piece on McCain full of unsourced innuendo regarding adultery with lobbyists? Because Big Money wanted to give Coulter, Limbaugh, Hannity, Malkin, et al an excuse to rally round McCain’s flag. And they have. And with those endorsements come The Base.
What this means is that Big Money has decided to forgive McCain for his Campaign Finance apostasy. He is no longer ‘the end of the Republican Party as we know it’. He is now their Great White Hope. He’s always had the print media in his pocket; now he has all the money, which includes the electronic media, especially the Right Wing noise machine.
Expect McCain to pick a VP who combines solid big business credentials with some serious hardcore Christian conservative street cred. It won’t be Huck, because Big Money hates Huck nearly as much as they used to hate Big John. (Huck ain’t all that smart, but he seems to be a genuinely compassionate Christian conservative who would actually like to spend tax money helping the poor. Big Money ain’t never gonna stand for that.)
I shouldn’t even venture a guess as to who McCain’s VP pick will be, but I will go this far: Missouri Senator/former Governor Kit Bond is going to be on his short list. If you want to know why, check out this exchange from an interview he gave to CBS News on 2/1/08:
CBSNews.com: The big word of this election season is change. And everybody’s promising some kind of change. What do you think would be the biggest changes we would see from the Republican nominee if he were to win and succeed President Bush?
Sen. Kit Bond: Well, I think you’ve got to define change as what you mean. And I think that we would cut down on wasteful spending, illegal immigration. We need to avoid higher taxes. We don’t need to have activist judges. So I think what the change we would see from a Republican would be lower taxes, less government spending, more private sector solutions for health care and energy challenges. So that would be the change we’d bring.
All the red meat is right there; if you dig deep enough into ‘private sector solutions for health care’, you’ll even find a lot of potential for keeping the gayz down where they belong (private insurers and health care providers can, of course, extend or refuse benefits and/or treatment to anyone they want, for any reason they want… guess what that means, boys and girls? Can you say ‘fagbashing’? Sure, I knew you could)…
Another bellwether I was looking for back in my 2/8 entry:
If, on the other hand, it’s McCain the Maverick (running with someone like Huckabee or Paul as his VP) against Obama, well… things could get very interesting indeed. Big Money won’t want either of those tickets in the White House. That, I suspect, is when we’ll see Michael Bloomberg come out of the shadows with a whole lot of cash in his pockets.
And, of course, Bloomberg has just announced he’s not going to seek the Presidency after all… meaning, again, Big Money has made a decision, and McCain is their dog in this fight.
And, going back to this whole Hagee endorsement thing… this is going to be a big win for McCain with little or no downside. The rabid right wing base will love Hagee; the more ‘moderate’ Republicans and so called independents will just shrug when the left points at him angrily and calls McCain a hypocrite. Hagee will have plenty of cover from the electronic media in Big Money’s pocket; calls for McCain to denounce him will be labeled hysterical liberal attacks on Christianity and dismissed by McCain’s supporters on that basis.
And Hagee is going to bring in a LOT of cash. Just as millions of small donors have proven to be an unprecedented cash machine for Democrats (especially Obama) this year, so too will the exact same principle work for McCain, once Hagee gets those wheels a’rollin’. Televangelists have always known how to put together big bucks; you get a few dollars from Cletus here, and few more from Billy Bob over there, and pretty soon, you’re talking about real money.
In the end, I do not believe McCain will win the general election, provided Obama is the Democratic candidate. McCain will be able to stir the base up against Obama with all this ’stealth Muslim’ and coded racist crap the Repubs are already rolling out, but none of that is going to take any votes away from the blue column and put them in the red. And while I am sure the Rove vote stealing shadow apparatus is still out there and still very healthy, at its most effective it was only good for swinging maybe 3% of the vote — Rove relied on dividing the electorate right down the middle and then swiping a few percentage points to ‘win’ elections, and this election shouldn’t be even remotely that close.
On the other hand, if Senator Clinton gets the nod, the Dems will lose votes to the Republicans (that’s my gut feeling; vicious, venomous Hilary hatred is a factor across the political spectrum; there are many independent, moderate, and even Democratic voters who will vote for ANYone running against her) and McCain could make it close enough for the Rove machine to swing his way. And if the media pays enough attention to Ralph Nader this year (and they will, as Big Money owns the media, and a ’strong’ Ralph showing can only help McCain), well… it’s the only way I can see the Repubs keeping the White House in ‘09.
You know what I’d like to see from whoever gets the Dem nod? I’d like to see them reach out to Ralph and offer him a prominent cabinet post, or maybe even the VP slot. (That last will NEVER happen, but jesus, I’d vote for Obama or even Clinton with a much bigger smile on my face if Ralph was the other half of their ticket, than otherwise.)
Of course, Ralph, being the kind of person he is, would most likely turn it down. But, still, it would be nice to see someone make him an offer…
By gah on Feb 29, 2008 9:59 am |
His Maverickness, John Sidney McCain III
By Bil on Feb 29, 2008 1:23 pm |
Isn’t W the anti-Christ? Of course “IT” would show up as a Christian.
THANKS madmommy, DownWithTyrrany has more…Yikes!