Doesn’t this seem like a very strong argument for a much smaller appropriation designed to last for another couple of months? There’s nothing to stop congress from appropriating more money in mid-November if the situation seems to warrant it.
Yes it does seem like a very strong argument against since the numbers are basically just being made up. I mean “not based on any particular data point”? Really? Then maybe we shouldn’t just hand you $700 billion in taxpayer’s money.
For my money, last night Senator Kerry made the best speech of the convention so far. He absolutely nailed it. My favorite part was this:
I have known and been friends with John McCain for almost 22 years, but every day now I learn something new about Candidate McCain,” Kerry said. “To those who still believe in the myth of a ‘maverick,’ instead of the reality of a politician, I say, let’s compare Senator McCain to Candidate McCain. Candidate McCain now supports the very war-time tax cuts that Senator McCain once called ‘irresponsible.’ Candidate McCain criticizes Senator McCain’s own climate change bill. Candidate McCain says he would vote against the immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote. Are you kidding me, folks? Talk about being for it before you were against it. Let me tell you, before he ever debates Barack Obama, John McCain should finish the debate with himself.
If Senator Obama’s campaign is smart that juxtaposition of Candidate McCain and Senator McCain will be a frequent refrain all the way through election day.
Two of the better pieces of commentary on why Senator Kerry was so good, first Jason Zengerle:
So you have to believe that the last four years have been difficult ones for Kerry. Watching the horrors of Katrina on TV, he had to think, If only I were president. Attending the funeral of Massachusetts soldiers and marines killed in Iraq, he had to think, If only I were president. And when you consider that, four years ago, Kerry (according to some friends and advisers) evidently convinced himself that, by making McCain his running mate, he would be forming an unbeatable political ticket, you have to imagine that, in some way, he blames McCain for his defeat–and, as is the fate of all defeated presidential candidates, that he therefore blames McCain for all the problems of the world that he believes his presidency would have prevented or solved. If that isn’t enough to help someone find his voice, I don’t know what is.
One thing I don’t think people always understand about Kerry is that he was talked about as a likely presidential contender as far back as the early 1970s. Consequently, his entire political career in Massachusetts was understood as a precursor to a presidential run. This, in turn, led to a tendency among other Massachusetts Democrats to unfairly assume that each and every case of Kerry doing something they weren’t thrilled with reflected his opportunistic drive for the White House. For the past two years or so has been the first time in decades when it’s been clear that Kerry won’t ever be president, so his action can be — and be seen as — merely the actions of a United States Senator with a safe seat and a passionate concern for certain issues and causes. As with Al Gore’s somewhat similar liberation from Presidential ambitions, I think in part it’s about letting him find his own voice but also in large part about his voice finally being heard as his own rather than read through the lens of devious ambition.
Perhaps even more impressive? Reports are that Senator Kerry wrote the speech himself, no speechwriter necessary. Whats depressing is that if Senator Kerry had given speeches like this in 2004 he’d be running for reelection right now.
The story gripping the political world today is that John McCain, when asked by reporters how many house’s he owned, had no idea and said he’d have to check with his staff. Hmm, here you have a U.S. Senator running for President who has admitted that he know’s nothing about economics and who’s proposed policies are pro-rich people and he’s saying he has so many houses he can’t even remember them all. I wonder if that will go unnoticed by the Obama campaign.
I guess they did notice. Thats pretty impressive turnaround time on an ad, kudos Obama people. Lefty blogs have spent the day tracking down all of McCain’s houses for him and let me just McCain (or perhaps more accurately his wife) has done quite well for himself. Matt Yglesias did some poking around and he says that while the ad above says McCain has seven houses, you could argue the number is five, six OR seven (you can see why the Senator wanted to check with his staff). Several people are touting this as the best list of McCain’s houses and which puts the number at ten (complete with a Google map).
But this is the kind of humiliating story that can really hurt. Everyone in America heard about Al Gore claiming to have invented the Internet (despite the fact that never happened). Everyone in American heard John Kerry said he “voted for it before I voted against it.”
And fairly soon, if there’s any justice at all, everyone in America will know that John McCain is so out of touch, he’s lost count the number of homes he owns.
I’ve got to believe that the late-night talk shows are going to have a lot of fun coming up with jokes for this. This could be the start of a nice little run for Senator Obama, he beats up on McCain for being totally out of touch with Americans, then he announces his VP pick, then hopefully the convention goes well. I know I’ve been getting a little down about things due to some recent polling but I feel a little better now. Get back to me in a week and we’ll see how things stand.
Can you say Police State? The Examiner has the scoop on a controversial new program announced today that would create so-called “Neighborhood Safety Zones” which would serve to partially seal off certain parts of the city. D.C. Police would set-up checkpoints in targeted areas, demand to see ID and refuse admittance to people who don’t live there, work there or have a “legitimate reason” to be there. Wow. Just, wow.
And, yes, to echo Atrios the tendency of many analysts to somehow forget about Iraq when talking about how Obama managed to topple the Clinton machine is pretty bizarre. Clearly, Iraq alone wasn’t enough to carry Obama to victory. But had Clinton voted against the war in 2002 there would have been no Obama challenge — it would have been a senseless and absurd thing to do. In short — no war, no Obama.
Denying this reality seems to be part of the continuing hawk effort to avoid any accountability for the war. At the end of the day, Hillary Clinton had (and has) much more credibility with the liberal base than does the average person who shares her position on the war. If she can be held accountable, and if John McCain (until very recently the most popular politician in America) can be held accountable, then the sky’s the limit.
Its hard for me think of anyone I loath more in politics right now then Sen. Lieberman (outside of Cheney of course). Here’s good ole’ Joe on Fox News yesterday:
NAPOLITANO: Hey Sen. Lieberman, you know Barack Obama, is he a Marxist as Bill Kristol says might be the case in today’s New York Times? Is he an elitist like your colleague Hillary Clinton says he is?
LIEBERMAN: Well, you know, I must say that’s a good question. I know him now for a little more than three years since he came into the Senate and he’s obviously very smart and he’s a good guy. I will tell ya that during this campaign, I’ve learned some things about him, about the kind of environment from which he came ideologically. And I wouldn’t…I’d hesitate to say he’s a Marxist, but he’s got some positions that are far to the left of me and I think mainstream America.
I assume Lieberman is referring to Obama’s overwhelmingly majoritarian position on Iraq. After all, it’s been the key conceit of “centrists” like McCain and Lieberman ever since 2002 that to be for war in Iraq but somewhat aloof from the Bush administration is the centrist position. After all, it’s the view adhered to be John McCain and Joe Lieberman and McCain and Lieberman are well known moderates so their views must be moderate ones and mainstream and anyone to their left is “far left.”
That’s the central conceit of McCainism and Liebermanism alike, and it’s important to both of them to just keep repeating over and over again. After all, if they stop saying it someone might notice that whether or not either or both of them hold centrist views on some issues, they’re the two most extreme hawks in the Senate at a time when 60+ percent of the population agrees with the orthodox liberal view that we need to lay down a marker for leaving Iraq.