Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Rumsfeld is not getting the boot because of his performance.

He is getting the boot to deny the Dems a chance to question him at official Congressional hearings. Now they gotta talk to the new guy.

Typical sleazy Bubble Boy move - avoid being accountable for anything, change the subject.
I don't normally watch the teevee news, but I needed to obsess over the election results last night. Here are a few things I learned from watching the teevee news:

All the Democratic victories last night were by candidates who are "conservative Democrats." As opposed to, presumably, the dirty, stinky, hippie Democratic candidates. Come to think of it, no examples were given of the dirty, stinky, hippie candidates. But I'm sure they were out there, because the teevee people were saying so.

Watching and listening to Chris Matthews is like watching a pinball game. He is all over the place; he will hit on a spot, then bounce away from that spot quickly, in a fairly unpredictable fashion. His broadcast is like being invited into his own little psychodrama, in which he makes strange assumptions about shared opinions and viewpoints and invites people to comment on them. As a viewer, I found myself trying to understand where the hell his assumptions came from, but he moves so quickly, bouncing away as soon as he hits on something, that I could not keep up. And I didn't really see any reason to try, so I stopped.

Tom Brokaw looked peeved that the Democratic victory in the House was messing with the "America has become more conservative" story line. But this was two minutes before I tuned out and went to bed, so maybe I'm wrong on this one.

UPDATE: Oh, one more thing I learned. Today, apparently, is the first day of the 2008 presidential campaign. Feel the excitement - only 726 days until the next election! Or, to put it another way, "the Dems have won the House, we are still waiting on the Senate, but after a couple more days we the media will begin ignoring them in earnest. Congrats, though! That's cute - you won the House. Adorable!"

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

I've heard that the Republican Party is the "party of ideas."

One of those GOP ideas is to harass voters over the phone, while making it seem that the harassment is being done by Democratic candidates.

If you pull the lever for 'R', that's what you are voting for.

Monday, November 06, 2006

From the point of view of a Congresscritter or wanna-be Congresscritter in a close race for election, it is understandable that he would not want a president with a sub-40% approval rating coming to stump for him.

But what about for the President's point of view? He could be vacationing down in Brush-Clearing-Heaven, TX, since the people, they just aren't that into him.

But I can't imagine that would sit well with President Mush-Mouth. His skill set is pretty limited, and campaigning is one of the things that he can actually do pretty well (despite his lack of coherence and logic and honesty).

So, he says to his lickspittles, "Get me out there! I got some campaignin' to do!" And they send him on his way to the reddest of the red states, in the usual bubble-wrap.

Who does this help? He is campaigning in places where the races are not in doubt, and is unwelcome in the places where the races are close. Pretty much the only positive effect of his stumping is the usual "the president today was in Buttfuck, Utah ..." coverage in the national media. People will see him campaigning and maybe it doesn't even register that he has basically been shoved into a corner. They are hoping to give hope to the sub-40-per-centers. "Look, he's still in the game, and so is the GOP!"

It is certainly not a winning tactic. It is only about perception. Bubble Boy appears before approving crowds, hooray Bubble Boy. It has nothing to do with actual votes tomorrow, and only about the narrative.

It is empty, and it is desperate, and it is all the White House has got.