If it’s true, I think that’s checkmate.
May
15
Plenty, it seems.
In this doc from the Pentagon’s document dump we see a chief Pentagon flak reporting on his attempts to get “potus” to join in on a “closed call” with “our retired military television analysts.” The request, he says, had been “submitted to karl and company.”
The name of the interlocutor in this email thread has been blacked out. But it’s clear he’s a close associate of Bush’s National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. He’s unable to listen in on the call because he’s attending a Hadley speech. He tells the Pentagon propagandist, however, that “I’m hoping to have Hadley brief these guys next week.”
At the very least, this shows that officials at the highest levels of the White House — Hadley and Rove, certainly, and perhaps even the president himself — were aware of the efforts to “get [the analysts] on message.”
[click to embiggen]
Update: I see Glenn Greenwald hit some of these same passages yesterday.
May
15
You know that little star flair in McCain’s logo. The creepy detail you’re sure is emblazoned on the side of Cindy McCain’s GulfStream.
Well he’s so eager to communicate that he’s a down with the environment candidate that on his new “eco-friendly” merchandise sold at his online store, the star has been replaced with the three-arrowed recycling dingbat.
So bad it’s kinda awesome:
May
15
Hillary netted 12 delegates tonight. Big-time win. Little-time impact.
But the bigger electoral story tonight is the victory of Democrat Travis Childers in a special election in a Mississippi district that gave George W. Bush 63 percent of its vote in 2004.
Basically this is a safe. fucking. seat. No way a Democrat should have been competitive. Much less won. As Kos points out, there are 110 or so GOP districts that are less conservative than this one. Long story short, the Republican minority in the House could be in for a world ‘o hurt in November.
And NRCC chair Tom Cole knows it, sending out a gloomy email tonight telling his colleagues to brace themselves: “I encourage all Republican candidates, whether incumbents or challengers, to take stock of their campaigns and position themselves for challenging campaigns this fall…”
May
15
The Hill (not to be confused with The Hills) recently asked all 97 senators not named McCain, Clinton, or Obama whether they’d consider standing as VP candidates in 2008.
The most politically damaging responses came from an unwitting trio of GOP septuagenarians:
Several GOP senators ruled themselves out because of their age, including 74-year-old Chuck Grassley (Iowa), 76-year-old Pete Domenici (N.M.) and Thad Cochran (Miss.), who is 70. If elected, McCain would be 72 on Inauguration Day.
“I’m too old to be vice president,†Grassley said.
For the record, Dick Cheney is 67.
May
15
Looking at the available evidence, I reckon it’s a 30 point spread.
My out-my-arse projection: Obama loses by 28 points.
Yours?
May
15
Anyone who still thinks a unity Obama/Clinton ticket is a) a good idea or b) the remotest possibility hasn’t been paying attention.
May
15
Libertarian Bob Barr, the one-time crackpot Clinton impeachment ringleader who has taken on a veneer of seriousness amid the civil liberties abuses and unholy spending of the Bush years, is launching what could be a serious third party bid for the presidency.
Serious, not as in viable, but serious in that he could choose to do some damage to John McCain.
My gut tells me thought that Barr has got enough of the loyal GOP soldier in him… despite his bid for the hearts and minds of Libertarians… that he’s likely to take the Pat Buchanan path — focusing his campaign in solid Obama states — rather than attempt to Naderize McCain in, say, Virginia, or Colorado.
May
15
40 months.
That’s how long George W. Bush has gone without majority approval — a record, according to ABC/Washington Post polling.
A whopping 82 percent of the country now feels America is on the Wrong Track.