I guess it's called karma...

McCain's interesting attacks yesterday led to over 100,000 monetary contributions yesterday alone. One-third of which came from first-time donors... Interesting...

If you consider the average contribution to the Obama campaign hovers between fifty and one hundred bucks a piece, we could be talking huge numbers for a single day. In the interest of full disclosure, Obama is offering tickets or VIP passes for the convention to his donors right now. The minimum donation to qualify is just five dollars. However, he's had similar programs throughout the campaign, and the average donation stayed in that same range.

Obama didn't play the "race card"

Yesterday, the one of the worst campaign managers in recent history suggested that by Obama repeating the "They're gonna say that I don't look like all those presidents on the dollar bills" line was a way for Obama to accuse McCain of being racist. Give me a break. Obama's been saying that line since the very beginning. He generally starts with a litany of reasons why his detractors will say not to vote for him ending with "I gotta funny name" and the above line.

He's not going after McCain at all, I don't see how one could even say that considering those lines have been part of his campaign speeches for a LONG time. He's addressing the fact that there are a lot of people in this country advocating voting for McCain for the sole fact that McCain is white. Everybody knows this, most of us have at least one racist relative to begin with. If Obama mentions his race, it's not automatically taking potshots at McCain.

McCain is towing a very fine line right now though. He accuses Obama of playing the race card, but has stopped just short of calling Obama "uppity" for the last week...

Offshore drilling is a FAKE issue

I'm not gonna write a whole lot about this because it is beyond the point of frustrating. So what happens if the U.S. drills offshore? Companies, which have had access to thousands of other untapped areas for decades, try to go find oil elsewhere. Should they find oil, guess what? It goes on the market to the highest bidder, just like regular old foreign oil does. There's another part to that too, an oil we find offshore won't have a significant effect on the global market, because the amount we're looking for is pretty negligible on the whole.

Now here's the MOST OBVIOUS part that the news NEVER talks about. It's gonna be several years before people even get to see the results of offshore drilling. It might take a decade for us to even see the results of all that! Think about that. I wanna shove my head through a brick wall when people constantly talk about this. We're talking about oil that may or may not exist, or if it does exist, its effects will not be felt until Britney Spears's kid is getting ready for high school!

YouTube Music Video Of The Day!

The People (Live on The Jimmy Kimmel Show) - Common

I'm a Common fan, but this choice has a whole lot more to do with the Ludacris post from this morning. Common is a native south-sider in Chicago, and by the way, is also known to attend the occasional service at Trinity United Church of Christ. Uh-oh, you better watch out Obama, he's a rapper who name-drops you in a song and he goes to Trinity too! This means you agree with everything he's ever said!

Obama is the presumptuous one?

I really don't like this whole story. I'll just say that Dana Milbank really screwed up, and came off like a total asshat. The argument over who is acting like he's already president is stupid. Looking presidential is part of the criteria to get elected, always has been, always will be. Either way, even though McCain comes off like an old guy at the bar yelling at the television, he sent out a pretty interesting e-mail earlier in his campaign...

Republican Senator John McCain was elected president last evening, defeating Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic nominee. McCain's victory came by winning the "red" states that supported President Bush in 2004, while also winning independents to capture the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.

McCain ran a disciplined campaign that focused on the issues of reforming the culture of Washington and vigorously prosecuting the war on terror. Political experts expressed surprise that McCain was able to wrest the mantle of change away from Clinton, given that she represented the party out of power which normally lays claim to being the agent of change.

Yeah, so about that...

This whole Ludacris thing is...well, ludicrous...

As someone who is a pretty avid watcher of news stations (which usually leads to an inordinate amount of being pissed off), this story about rapper Ludacris is pretty ridiculous at this point. In an hour-long segment last night one commentator (I refuse to ever call a lost of these bozos strategists) referred to Ludacris as being "from Obama's camp" and another said this will be like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright story. If it turns out to be anything more than a rapper releasing a song, the entire American public deserves to be punched in the eye.

First off, before I talk about why this IS NOT a story, let me explain why the news media is going to act like it is for the next day or so. In 2006, Ludacris met with Obama in Chicago to discuss, among other things, youth activism. This one meeting is apparently enough to make them "friends" in the eyes of some commentators. Earlier in his campaign, Obama also said that Ludacris (and other rappers like Jay-Z) were on his iPod. Of course, Obama followed up those questions while voicing his "concerns" over the language in hip hop music (but every politician has to do that because people won't vote for hip hop fans without any disclaimer, but that's a completely different topic for a different day).

So let's think about this, really. Obama is at the center of controversy because a rapper he met one time two years ago and occasionally hears on his iPod made a song urging people to vote for Obama. Of course the song won't help his campaign, but let's not act like Obama gets his tips from the guy who co-starred in 2 Fast, 2 Furious. To act like this reflects on Obama is the absolute highest echelon of absurdity.

I'll tell you why it's a story though. The media keeps getting accused of giving Obama favorable treatment, though studies show it's actually the other way around, and they're trying to "balance" the coverage. Whether it's bringing up a week-old Luda song or attributing a quote to him without giving the full quote...

Declaring My Support For Evan Bayh As VP

It seems that a lot of major sites are starting to report as if Virginia governor Tim Kaine is going to be Barack Obama's running mate. Now nothing is solid, of course. In fact, according to the Washington Post, senators Joseph Biden and Evan Bayh are also reportedly on the the so-called short list for Obama. After an extreme case of boredom, I've come to the conclusion that of those three, Evan Bayh has to be the best choice from a campaign standpoint.

Now, I'm gonna start with the reason why I would not really be fond of the selection of Kaine as a running mate. Obama's number one criticism seems to be that he doesn't carry the necessary experience to be the president. Now the logical way to combat this would be to grab someone who is experienced. The issue with doing that hearkens back to Obama's pledge to change Washington. How could he change Washington with a running mate who has been around too long?

Because of this I understand why he might look at Kaine. Kaine has executive experience in that he's the governor of a decent-sized state. He's also the governor of a swing state that could prove very important to November's election. However, he's not really even that experienced as governor. He's only in his first term, and that's certainly going to become fodder for the Republican attack dogs. He's also an unknown to most. Hell, I only heard about him after the Jim Webb rumors died down...

As for Biden, I have to admit, I would love this choice. I was a Biden supporter before backing Obama, and I would love to see him on the ticket. He carries a great deal of experience, and he certainly helps quell the foreign policy attacks. He's pretty popular within the party, and lord knows he can be entertaining. However, he does nothing to help with the "Change" approach. He's been in the Senate since 1973. Let me say that again, he's been in office since Donny Osmond graced the covers of teen magazines.

Biden also doesn't exactly mesh with Obama's persona. Obama comes off as cool and collected. Biden is a bit of a hothead, and I'm not exactly sure how that fits in the Obama campaign strategy. Of course, that's why Biden is so popular, he'll come out and yell "That's bullshit!" when called upon. Eh, just doesn't seem to fit.

Before I start talking about Bayh, I will preface this by saying that I am an Indiana resident, and probably a little bit biased. I disagree with Bayh on several things, but I can't describe at just how awesome it would be replace Dan Quayle as "last executive office holder from Indiana." This opportunity is just too god to pass up.

Why Is Bayh The Most Logical Choice?

First off, Bayh carries experience in an executive office as he was governor of Indiana from 1989 to 1997. He also carries some legitimate United States Senate experience as he is currently serving his second term. I think it's worth noting that his whole life has revolved around public service when you consider that his father, Birch Bayh, served 18 years in the senate (and was succeeded, ironically enough, by one J. Danforth Quayle) and actually once attempted a presidential run.

Bayh's time as the governor of this fair state is probably considered one of the most successful in the history of the state. He ran up the largest state surplus in Indiana history, and also gave the largest tax cuts in Indiana history. Now, of course, the whole country was seeing vast economic growth around that time, but he can rightfully claim those to establish credibility for the number one issue of this presidential race, the economy. It's worth noting that Bayh's approval rating as governor hovered around an astounding eighty percent.

As a senator, Bayh has overwhelmingly won the state by getting over sixty percent of the vote each time. What does that have to do with the VP pick? Indiana has been a solidly red state for decades. The last time we voted Democrat was in 1964 for Lyndon B. Johnson. Indiana's not going to nab a ton of electoral votes, but establishing some red states on the blue side will certainly start to give the McCain campaign some very reasonable anxiety.

Bayh also carries the tag of being moderate, a tag that a Democrat pretty much has to carry to get elected in Indiana. He's worked on both sides of the aisle, so to speak. Obama talks about working with another Indiana senator, Richard Lugar, but his record doesn't really reflect working with Republicans that often. This is something that could hurt Obama's credibility with the group of conservatives on his side right now. However grabbing a moderate like Bayh should help with their queasiness.

Bayh also carries a great deal of respect within the party. As mentioned earlier, his father was a member of the Senate for nearly twenty years. Bayh was also a keynote speaker for the Democratic National Convention in 1996. Bill Clinton once voiced his intentions for someday voting for Bayh if he were to ever run for president. Bayh was also considered a candidate for the VP spot on both Al Gore and John Kerry's tickets.

There are negatives though. Bayh was a supporter of the Iraqi War in the Senate, but has since taken on Obama's stance of ending it. I don't perceive that as too big of a blow considering Hillary still got a ton of votes with her early support of the war. I do believe that Republicans will try to use it if Bayh is selected, but they're taking the so-called "kitchen sink approach" anyway. Bayh also cannot claim to be a Washington outsider, which Obama does believe is part of the criteria. However, Bayh's really only been a senator since 1998, and that's certainly not 1973.

Anyway, we'll see what happens. I really hope it's not Kaine though.

Pretty good line in Politico this morning...

I guess, I'm on a political kick this morning, but oh well. Anyway, I was reading Mike Allen's Playbook column this morning, and he discovered that the RNC website still had the ticker counting down the days since Obama last visited Iraq.

Bizarrely, the RNC home page still has a frozen countdown clock saying “Days Since Barack Obama Visited Iraq — 925 Days, 01 Hours, 07 Min, 00 Sec.”

DUDES, HE WENT TO IRAQ LAST WEEKEND– IT WAS IN ALL THE PAPERS.

P.S. Just asking: Do we think that the Republican effort to goad Obama into taking a foreign trip will be written about in textbooks as a GOOD idea?

Is nothing private? New low for an Israeli newspaper...

Obama visited Israel earlier this week, and on the visit he stopped by the Western Wall in Jerusalem. I guess one of the traditions of the wall is to stick prayer notes into it. Of course, Obama followed this tradition, it's just too bad that a student in the area decided to pull the note out and sell it to a newspaper to publish. I mean, is that not sacred anymore. I may be somewhat agnostic these days, but personal communication between a man and God should not be public. It's personal. That's akin to someone sneaking into confessionals at Catholic churches.

The note, by the way is hardly inflammatory. I refuse to post it here though.

200,000 people... That's a lot...

You know, I was making lunch and nearly forgot about Obama's speech in Berlin today. Now, he didn't say anything that we haven't heard for months over here, but the images being captured are beyond comprehension. Estimates seem to vary, but some are saying as many as 215,000 people showed up for the event. The general consensus number is about 200,000.

When is the last time an American politician drew a crowd like that anywhere, even here. I kind of tuned out the speech a little bit, it wasn't really that riveting (hope, change, Berlin, you know, what one would expect). I couldn't turn away from the crowd though. I mean they had Germans, you know some of the United States' biggest critics over the last few years, WAVING American flags! I mean, that's really insane if you think about it.

The criticism following this is already annoying. People are getting really xenophobic about things. You know, if the Europeans love him, we should hate him... all that BS. Heh, it's probably attitudes like that that caused us to be lightning rods for international disdain in the first place. At least now, it looks like an Obama presidency would help heal some of those wounds. We'll see what happens...

The press and Obama

John McCain's campaign website is now hosting videos where they basically complain that Obama is getting a free pass from the press. Heh, there's a huge problem with that ruse... The main one being that it is utterly hypocritical.

McCain is considered a foreign affairs expert, and every time that his name is mentioned, the news people act like that's obvious. I don't even see how it's a fact. Why is he an expert? Because he was a prisoner of war several decades ago? That's the only reason I can come up with. In the last year ALONE, he's made so many gaffes that often get ignored because he's the "expert." He doesn't know the difference between Sunni and Shia (you know, the main sects in Iraq), he got Nazi Germany confused with Communist Russia, he talked about Czechoslovakia which hasn't been a country since I was in elementary school (on two separate occasions), and he continues to say entirely undiplomatic things about Iran (a country in which we are negotiating with). I mean, if that's the expert, I'd hate to see the amateur.

The second problem with the ad is that, while Obama has gotten more coverage, not all of it has been as glowing as McCain likes to say it was. Jeremiah Wright was the LEAD story for several weeks. Hell, when a Catholic priest started talking at a service Obama wasn't even at, it was a headline for a week. I'm sure with the amount of gaffes that McCain's made, he'd hate to be in the spotlight like Obama's been in...

Obamania In Denver

I made note of this yesterday, I'm a pretty big Barack Obama supporter. If you haven't heard, Obama will be accepting his nomination in front of perhaps over 75,000 people. That's insane.

This event will definitely go down as one of the most historically relevant events in my lifetime. The event, which will be on the fourth and final night of the Democratic National Convention, also happens to fall on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech. What's more interesting to me is the fact that the Democrats were very heavily racist for a good part of last century, and now they will be nominating the first minority candidate for president in our nation's history. If that's not in someway fulfilling at least a part of Dr. King's dream, I don't know what is.