Thursday, May 15, 2008

A few politics notes

*Update: 5/17 - check out Charles Blow's column on this issue in the NYT*

Being from the South, I'm allowed to say this: the results from WV are not surprising to me in the least. The blatant racism that I grew up in, being 30 miles from the WV border in the moutains of VA, make that race all-but-unwinnable for anyone of color. And idiot voters like this prove my point. Obama doesn't have a problem with whites, or with working-class whites. Other states, like Idaho and Iowa, have proven that. He has a problem with the pig-ignorant fuc*stick racists that populate the disproportionately old and uneducated region known as "Appalachia" which spreads through the states Obama has struggled in.

Getting into the sociology of it is more than I care to do over.

With respect to Obama choosing HRC as VP, here are Dowd's thoughts, via Americablog:
1) Is America ready for that much change - i.e., a black man and a woman on the same ticket?

2) Bill. He's going to eclipse Obama every time he shows his face. Do we really need the press ignoring the president and running over to the vice president's spouse? Not to mention, how many Bill outbursts are we willing to put up with? And finally, rhymes with Hannukah. Just how many "Hannukahs" are we welcoming back into the White House?

3) Hillary makes Obama less Obama. I'm going to quote Dowd on this one:

Hillary has a strange, unnerving effect on Obama, and whenever he is around her, he’s unable to do his best....

In the last few days, as Hillary has deflated and Obama and the Democrats have dashed for daylight, he has been more like his old self, flashing his all-is-right-with-the-world smile on the cover of Time, joshing and charming Democrats and Republicans as he wooed superdelegates on the House floor, taking on James Carville for insulting his manhood....

Obama will never be at his best around Hillary; she drains him of his magical powers....

She's right. Hillary is like that lover your friends always hate because they bring out the worst in you.

4) There's a fourth reason to dump Hillary, one that Dowd doesn't mention. How can you be for "change" and then put the name "Clinton" on your ticket. We've had a Bush or a Clinton on the ticket since 1981. Thirty years is enough.

5) And finally, one more point Dodd doesn't raise. Do Obama really want to take another four years of this woman? Do we?
Obama is doing a great job calling BS on McCain for his voting record on the environment and on his failure to support the troops by opposing the new GI Bill.

While this isn't funny at all, this is, and so is this.