Or not

McCain Expected to Name Pawlenty VP

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty

John McCain has made his choice for Vice President, and although its not official, many expect it to be Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.

Pawlenty is young (at 48 years old), the governor of a blue state, and a rising star in the GOP, whose conservatism would offset McCain's "maverick" image.

The announcement should come by Monday at the latest.

John McCain defines honor . . .

. . . in his books, so quit asking him to define it stupid Time Magazine guy!

This was the scene writers James Carney and Michael Scherer were privy to when they set out to interview McCain recently. Although they kept the questions fairly light and lobbed him a couple softballs, McCain was in no mood to answer them.

There's a theme that recurs in your books and your speeches, both about putting country first but also about honor. I wonder if you could define honor for us?
Read it in my books.

I've read your books.
No, I'm not going to define it.

But honor in politics?
I defined it in five books. Read my books.

I could understand if they opened up with questions about his wife's painkiller problem or the Keating Five scandal or something like that, but define "honor?" That's McCain's cue to reiterate his talking points that he's built his career on. It's like asking Obama if he believes in change.

Is this some kind of complex strategy by McCain? Like, is he trying to build Obama into such a media darling that he's willing to ruin his own (also very friendly) standing with reporters? Why else would he have such a harsh reaction to a softball question? One of the writers even asked McCain in a joking manner, "Do I know you?"

Unless he's just a cranky old man who can't handle the marathon that is a presidential campaign, which was what Republicans feared would happen when he first became the favorite. But if that were the case, they never would have nominated him, right?

I understand he wants to be like Barry Goldwater, but he doesn't have to try THIS hard.

Read the entire awkward Time piece here.

Day 3: Attack Dogs

Bad Newz for the Republicans?

Tonight was not the night for playing nice at the DNC. In addition to Joe Biden relishing his attack dog role, saying that while John McCain may have been "a good soldier," Barack Obama was the one who could be "a wise leader" and accusing the Bush administration of causing America to be less respected abroad.

But in addition to Biden, John Kerry (Yeah, John Kerry) came to the stage with lasers in his eyes and roasted the Republicans for trying to make another election a referendum on a man's patriotism (now doubt releasing four years of frustration on the GOP) and Bill Clinton said with no mincing of words that not only did he believe Obama was ready to be president, but also dropped the line of the night.

"People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than the example of our power."

After two nights that were filled with highs (Michelle Obama's speech, Teddy K's reaction, that crazily hilarious Montana governor) and questionable lows (Hill Dawg's speech, Mark Warner) the Democrats came through tonight with some smashmouth politics.

Smashmouth politics, by the way, are not dirty politics. It's not calling your opponent a psychopath (like Johnson in 64) or saying your opponent has an illegitimate black child before the South Carolina primary (Bush in 2000) or calling your Vietnam veteran opponent a traitor who would let his entire swift boat of men die in a fire (guess,) it's something different. It's being hit and hitting back. Not trying to be above the fray, or taking some imaginary high road (it's politics, that road hasn't been open to you in years,) but trying to keep your opponents on the defensive, never ceding ground, and tugging on their jersey a bit if you need to (but not blatant enough to get caught.)

This is what wins elections, and if the Democrats want to win in November, they need to keep it up. They can't wait forever when they get swift-boated, and if they have an opportunity (like, say, if your opponent says he doesn't know how many homes he has,) they need to jump on it. The last Democratic candidate to be willing to do this was Clinton. If Team Blue sticks to it this year, they just might win this thing.

Day Two: Hill Dawg

Day two of the Democratic National Convention featured Hill Dawg giving a energizing speech about party unity...without climbing aboard herself.

Hillary Clinton thanked her supporters (affectionately calling them the "sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits"), pleading with them to vote for the party instead of defecting to the GOP.

"I want you to ask yourselves; 'Were you in this campaign just for me?'" she said.

Clinton rarely spoke of Obama during the 25-minute speech, choosing to stick to vague generalizations of what the democratic nominee should be.

A positive thing that resulted from her speech might have been the potential new mantra for the party in this election.

"No way, no how, no McCain."

During the routine roll call, Clinton stepped into the spotlight one last time to move for an end to the roll call and nominate Obama by acclamation to stop any drama before it started.

Maybe the curtain is finally closing on an era.

You can watch the entire speech here.

Day One: Association

They're hugging, they're the same!

The theme for the first day of the Democratic National Convention was supposed to be "One Nation," but the real agenda of day one was association.

The common thread throughout most of the speeches on day one was that John McCain was the same as George Bush.

John McCain and George Bush have been bitter rivals for years, to the point where when McCain won the Republican nomination, they had to meet to reconcile their issues before Bush showed his support for McCain.

McCain was often one of the most vocal Bush opponents, who constantly butted heads with Bush on his philosophies.

But as i've come to realize, truth isn't one thing that wins elections these days.

And We're Off!

Let the Games begin!

On the heels of one competition filled with controversy and questionable results, the Democratic National Convention begins today in Denver.

Hillary Clinton, playing the role of the Chinese, wasted no time bringing up her suspect popular vote total.

"Remember: 18 million people voted for me - 18 million people, give or take, voted for Barack," Clinton said to Eloise Harper of ABC News.

She followed that comment with this gem.

"There is no doubt in anyone's mind that this is Barack Obama's convention as it should be. And there is no doubt that what we are doing is tying to bring everybody together."

"It would have been the same way if I had won and Barack was here supporting the unity of the party," Clinton said.

Somehow, I have trouble believing her, I can't put my finger on why that could be though.

In good news, Senator Ted Kennedy is in attendance at the convention, and will appear at a tribute.

Denver . . . is just like Compton

Fox News reporter Griff Jenkins bravely ventured in to a protest by the liberal group "Recreate '68" (a reference to the protests that ended in violence during the 1968 DNC) earlier today outside the Pepsi Center. These young white ruffians, who we are reminded HATE freedom of speech, refused to grant poor Griff an interview and started chanting "Fuck Fox News" repeatedly. In spite of their best efforts, Fox News couldn't turn this into a "riot," though they did manage to take one nugget of information for this story: some people who identify as "liberal" are not 100% satisfied with Barack Obama. No, really!

Hilarious video of the whole thing below.

Biden

Why no socks?

The New York Times is reporting that Joe Biden, a senator from somewhere called "Delaware," has been tabbed by Braack Obama to be his running mate. Well, that shows what I know about veepstakes predictions (I still think McCain's taking Pawlenty.) Biden is old (62,) experienced (he's Delaware's longest serving US senator,) and white, three things that Obama is not. It's a classic ticket balancing, where a candidate picks someone who will cover percieved weaknesses.

It's not an exciting pick, but he's at least an improvement over Evan Bayh or Bill Paxton in Weird Science. No idea if Obamais still mad over Biden calling him "clean and articulate," but if not, they wouldn't be the first president/VP combo who hated each other (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Bush Sr. all thought none too highly of their running mates, and I'd be shocked if Gore and Lieberman didn't get in weekly knife fights during their campaign.)

Chet Edwards?

Pictured: Chet Edwards (maybe)

Even though all the talk about Obama's running mate has focused on Evan Bayh, Joe Biden and Tim Kaine, the AP is reporting that Texas Congressman Chet Edwards is a finalist.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidential candidate Barack Obama is hours away from naming his running mate, as little-known Texas congressman Chet Edwards is emerging as a finalist. Democratic officials say that Edwards was one of the few Democrats whose background was checked by Obama's campaign, and he was a finalist for the job.

No way can this be real. But just in case it is, who is Chet Edwards? He's 56 years old, originally from Waco, and was first elected to represent Texas' 17th district in the House since 1990. The 17th includes Waco (home of Baylor University and it's mediocre football team,) College Station (home of Edwards' alma mater Texas A&M and it's mediocre football team with a bunch of annoying traditions) and Crawford (home of mediocre president George W. Bush.) He also doesn't have a known love child with a failed actress.

I don't see why Obama would select an unknown Congressman from a state he has no hope of carrying, so I don't think it's ultimately going to be Edwards. My money's on Tim Kaine.

Today's big story: HowmanyhousesdoesMcCainhavegate

Welcome to 2008, where a single comment from a candidate who probably didn't think twice about what he said can become a talking point for the opposition and the focus of an ad in less than 24 hours.

Yesterday, John McCain told Politico that he wasn't sure how many homes he actually owned. You can hear audio by clicking the link, but here's the quote.

"I think — I'll have my staff get to you," McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. "It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you."

Now, Virginia governor and VP hopeful Tim Kaine jumped on this remark this morning on CNN's American Morning.



Maybe he can't, Tim. Maybe he can't. If that wasn't enough, there's already an ad by the Obama campaign centered around the question of McCain's numerous mystery homes, that even gives us an answer.



How are they privy to such information? I don't know, but the McCain campaign should ask them.

You get the feeling Democrats are going to try and get some mileage out of this one. For the last month they've watched McCain make headway by hammering Obama for being an out-of-touch elitist who drinks tea and goes to the gym. But now he'll be able to say "At least I know how many homes I own."

This gaffe is classic John McCain. It's part of the reason he won the Republican nomination in the first place, but also why so many Republicans were nervous about his chances in the general election. He's reshaped his image this decade on being Mr. Straight Talk, a self-styled maverick who shoots from the hip. He doesn't need your fancy-pants speechwriters or Ivy League eggheads to tell him what's what. He knows what he says and he says what he knows. Kind of like former Arizona senator and Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.

But in a general election, the lights are always on you. As much as you want to appear like you're a normal, everyday American, you can't really do that. Because normal, everyday Americans make mistakes. They say things that sound stupid as soon as they leave your mouth. They have moments where they're tired and frustrated and confused and sometimes just blurt out whatever at whoever. They don't like being taken out of their comfort zone, which is pretty much all a campaign is. And in these instances, just saying whatever comes to mind can make you look like an idiot. Kind of like former Arizona senator and Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater (who, in his frustration with the at-the-time-east-coast-dominated Republican Party made a joke about how much easier things would be if the eastern seaboard could just be sawed off from the rest of the country and had it turned into a talking point that made him look like a psychopath.)

Or McCain could just be really old. Either way.

Reading Between the Lines

The ad in question.

In the world of journalism, sometimes the story isn't in the nut graph. A small comment can illustrate a big point when the lens is zoomed in properly.

For example, one of today's major stories is that Obama is running an ad connecting a supposed coincidence between GOP strategist Ralph Reed not being called to testify in Jack Abramhoff's case and the fact that Reed is now raising money for McCain. (McCain oversaw the Abramhoff case.)

But the real story is this tidbit:

"Obama aired about 10,000 spots last week, including 9,000 against McCain, according to Evan Tracey, who tracks political ads as head of TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group."

Apparently change involves flooding airwaves with 10,000 ads in one week, with 90 percent of the ads focused on McCain.

The man who emphasized staying above the muck against Hillary in the primary has completely reversed field in about two months.

So much for change.

Now which story was more interesting?

Breaking News: Obama's VP Will Be a Man.

Today is a prime example of the problem with the 24-hour news cycle.

Reuters and other news outlets are actually running with the news that Obama referred to his still-unnamed VP as a "he" during a speech in North Carolina.

Hillary Clinton was the only viable female candidate in the first place, and seeing as she is already scheduled to speak a different day during the DNC, she was ruled out by simple logic.

With this knowledge, the tool between your two shoulders should already tell you that the VP will be a man, but all the outlets ran with the story anyway....why you ask?

Because until he actually names a VP candidate, there's really nothing else to report. Newsholes still need to be filled though, so here we are.

I already know its hypocritcal to report about reports about nothing, but I actually have a reason to do it...I'd rather be watching The Redeem Team.

Breaking News: Lebron James will dunk a basketball in the next game.

Obama Guarantees Victory in November

I got it from here Hov damn...

Obama channeled his inner Jay-Z over the weekend in telling donors he would not lose at a fundraiser in San Francisco.

"I will win. Don't worry about that," he said.

After that he went into the same rigamaroll he's been kicking since January...change in government this, hope that and other assorted ramblings we're all tired of hearing by now.

What's important is Obama is going to win (so easily that we shouldn't worry about it even)....does this mean the $400 million he's raised to spend on ads and Lord knows what can go towards some actual change then?

My guess is probably not.

The $14,000 was for Blockbuster late fees, I swear!

Oh how the mighty has fallen.

Just a few months ago, Senator John Edwards was the one of the most sought-after endorsement on the campaign trail, with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton climbing over each other to woo his support.

Now, with the Democratic National Convention right around the corner, the admission of an affair with Rielle Hunter put him on an island so lonely Tom Hanks offered to buy him a volleyball.

An associate of Edwards told the Associated Press that the $14,000 Edwards gave Hunter was for 100 hours of video she had recorded during the production of some "Webisodes" she made for him.

(Right, and all the girls on the Chinese Women's Gymnastics team are actually 16.)

This is when keeping it politically correct goes horribly wrong.

John, this song is for you, because you need some church:

John McCain does not believe in invading other nations

Wow. I don't even know what to say, but I can't wait to hear how this one gets spun. Usually I try and put on my amateur spin doctor lab coat whenever a politician says something incredibly dumb and think "here's how they can spin it," since most spin isn't really that hard to think up.

Accusations of being too negative? He started it.
You flip-flop on a position? I was given bad information before.
You flip-flop on a position that happens to agree with something your opponent says? No, I actually had the idea first.

But I'm stumped on this one. How do you run a pro-war campaign and then say that "nations don't invade other nations?"

Can't you people find somewhere else to congregate?

It was one thing when the Republicans decided to come to St. Paul for four wretched days in September. At least they gave us a year's notice and it will bring some national publicity to St. Paul (or at least it would if people could stop saying it was in Minneapolis.)

But that just wasn't enough. In July, Ron Paul announced he would be holding a rally at the Target Center in Minneapolis from August 31-September 2. It's not a convention or a nomination announcement, since he isn't running for anything anymore, he's just going to "rally for the Republic" and "shake up the establishment" and "annoy the crap out of everyone with his zombie cult of pseudo-libertarian college kids (and Tucker Carlson.)"

But even that wasn't enough. Now seat-belt-fetishist Ralph Nader is coming to town on September 4 for a rally of his own at Orchestra Hall at Nicollet Mall. And why not? Traffic here doesn't suck enough as is, and it will be oh so fun getting around all the assorted gasbags, protesters and media.

But the question is why? Why do you all want to come to the Twin Cities? I can at least understand the Republican's rationale (they want to win a historically blue state and the local GOP spent buckets of money to get them here.) But Paul and Nader? Couldn't they have found some other city? Yes, we all get the symbolism of you rallying for your cause in the same metropolitan area (because Minneapolis and St. Paul are, once again, NOT the same city) as John McCain, but can't you be symbolic somewhere else? How about Philadelphia? They've got the Liberty Bell and Ben Franklin and whatnot. Or Phoenix? Hey, no better place to hit McCain than where he lives. Or Canada. Just throwing it out there.

Bottom line, and this goes for all three of you, there's really no reason to come here. Our summers are unbearably humid, our winters are ball-freezingly cold, our bridges are dangerously unstable and we're coming up on two decades without a professional sports championship of any kind. You shouldn't even want to come here.

The Award for Corniest Convention Goes To....

Why don't they try to "Win One for the Gipper" while they're at it too?

The Democratic National Convention.

People who have dedicated their lives to speaking to the public with wisdom and insight have decided to give each day of their convention a theme.

The theme for opening night on August 25th will be "One Nation," with a speech by Michelle Obama.

The second night will have a theme of "Renewing America's Promise," with a speech by Hill Dawg (smh).

The theme for day three will be "Securing America's Future," with a speech by the still-unnamed VP candidate.

And to end the whole fiasco, they will close with a "Change You Can Believe In," theme with a speech by Captain Hope himself, Barack Obama.

Just when it couldn't possibly get any worse, it does.

RIP to Bernie Mac and Issac Hayes, two legends....

Weekend reading material

The Phoenix New Times has a VERY long and detailed look back at John McCain's career representing the state of Arizona. It's not the most flattering look. Among the highlights

• McCain went out of his way to humiliate former Arizona governor Rose Mofford on the Senate floor and jeapordizing the credibility of the Central Arizona Project (a bipartisan effort to bring tons of water to the very dry region)
• McCain's now-forgotten role in the Savings & Loan Scandal of the '80's, including his relationships (both business and personal) with Charles Keating, the disgraced chairman of Lincoln Savings & Loan Association
• Even though McCain talks about continuing the legacy of popular Arizona politicians like the (very liberal) former Congressman Mo Udall and former Senator Barry Goldwater (the grandfather of modern conservatism,) he wasn't exactly well-liked in their camps. One of Udall's close associates was horrified when McCain brought a reporter to one of his hospital visits with the ailing former Representative, and Goldwater personally soured on McCain after McCain tried to throw a fundraiser for himself thinly disguised as a tribute to Goldwater
• Cindy McCain used her employee's names at the charity she was running to get painkiller prescriptions filled out. When one employee found out, he was terminated, which eventually led to the charity shutting it's doors.

It's nine pages long, so read it if you've got some free time. But there's some pretty crazy stuff in there about our next maybe president.

Term of the Day: Late Pass

Late Pass: When you say something that somebody else already said like its brand new information.

Example: Hill-Dawg is campaigning for the delegates from Michigan to be seated and heard at the Democratic National Convention in Denver on August 25-28.


That's fine and all, but the problem is....Barack Obama isn't objecting to that anymore, and he already said as much a few days prior.

Hillary, please pick up your late pass, then sit down somewhere.

Obama bites back

So far, the McCain campaign has been doing most of the negative advertising, talking a lot about what Obama will do (raise gas prices, cede our sovereignty to secret Muslims, make a sex tape) but Obama has yet to make an advertisement that does the same to McCain. His ads have been mostly about hugging white people and working together and stuff. But fear not, the Obama campaign has rolled out this gem, which talks entirely about why McCain is bad and says very little about why OBama would be better.



While it would have been nice to show Obama's contrasting positions (what will he do for the middle class,) I will give the Obama camp credit for that hilarious self-ethering quote McCain gave about his support for Bush in 2003.

Play Some Skynyrd Brother!

"Rock on brothers...rock.on.

In an attempt to appeal to the good ol' voter base, John McCain made an appearance at the Sturgis bike rally in South Dakota.

He talked about freedom, ice cold Miller High Life and double barrel shotguns to rally the brothers to come out and vote.

But he forgot the one thing that makes all bikers happy...Lynyrd F***in Synyrd.

I didn't forget though...I got you brother, F***in A.

Admatic: I'm sorry, I didn't quite get that

We here at M&P have been critical of some of the McCain campaign's recent advertisements. So to bring you the fair and balanced coverage you deserve, here's one from the Democratic National Committee that fails in so many ways. It centers on the controversial McCain "Celebrity" ad that not-so-subtly compares Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Deciding that the only way to attack a not-so-subtle ad is with an ad that takes one point and bashes you over the head with it until you're unconscious, then bashes you with it some more, the DNC rolled out this beauty, featuring a clip of the Arizona senator talking about that ad in Racine, WI (Milwaukee's Rockford.)



Did you catch that? I had to watch it a few times, but I think what they're saying is McCain might have been proud of that commercial. Hard to tell, though.

Aside from the ad's Marge-Simpson-esque (a part of us all) tone, it doesn't exactly say a lot. It tells us nothing about McCain, except that he likes a commercial. Of course he does, he did the whole "I'm John McCain and I approve this message" thing at the end. It's not like he can condemn it now. Besides, he's not going to throw his own campaign staff workers under the bus. And what does his approval of a stupid and likely meaningless ad have to do with anything important?

I sure hope the DNC isn't proud of this commercial.

The Oldest Card in the Deck.

Can you see the glow of the Race Card?

In an effort to maximize the use of cliches in this election, members of John McCain's campaign accused Barack Obama of playing the "race card" on Thursday.

According to John McCain's campaign manager, "Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck," he said.

Wait, what? (c) Ty

That's right, when he was denouncing Rev. Wright, separating himself from Louis Farrakhan and called the N-word (in an Uncle Tom manner) by Jesse Jackson, he was playing the race card "from the bottom of the deck."

As a black person, I feel it is my duty to inform you that there is no such thing as a race card.

What is the race card supposed to do? What does that even mean?

With all the injustices that black people have endured over the past...let's just be nice and say the last 60 or so years, if we had a magic card that could make it all go away and be on an even plane with white people, DON'T YOU THINK WE WOULD HAVE USED IT BY NOW?

Martin Luther King just had some kind of sick fire hose fetish; he really didn't have to go through with the civil rights activism when he could have just slapped his race card on the table and been done with the matter.

I'm sure Sean Bell would have loved to have a race card handy before he was shot and killed by the NYPD. Frank Jude Jr. (google the name) could have used one as well.

I need a drink.