Bunch of old white people just got up in front of some cameras on the hill to announce the largest government spewage of cash in history. Don't know what the details are yet, but everybody showed up to crow about a resolution. Pelosi, Frank, Paulson, Shumer, Blunt, everybody.
Everybody, that is, except John McCain. I've been concerned that McCain would try to take credit for whatever emerged and crow that his leadership (the Chinese fire drill of the last few days) was what made it happen. But he's nowhere to be seen, and his name was not mentioned. Indeed, it seems that if anybody got credit for the breakthrough, it was Pelosi.
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That's because the resolution was "No. I think not."
Oh wait. I managed to read this post in my newsreader without seeing the date.
Today's answer was "No, I think not." You were talking about Saturday. Never mind. Maybe McCain knew the doubtful hearts and minds of legislators up for election, and knew it was going to bomb when they put it to a vote?
As much as I like Obama better, and bizarre VP pick notwithstanding, McCain's not an idiot. That's why I haven't been too up in arms about this year's election. I realize it's a low standard, but "Better than W." is virtually guaranteed, and relaxes me a bit.
Yeah. A lot's happened since then. To the extent that McCain claimed ownership of the House Bill, it's come back to bite him.
As for Obama vs. McCain, well, Steve, you and I have had this argument before. I believe it does make a difference who's elected. In 2000, there was this widespread meme that it didn't ("they're all sons-a-bitches!")--and look where that got us.
As a progressive, I have to believe that Obama is a better choice. And Obama's claim that McCain would represent a continuation of Bush policies, while admittendly overblown, has enough truth to it to scare the hell out of me. THe foreign policy debate convinced me that, while McCain clearly has experience and fp expertise, he Just Doesn't Get It. The more I listen to him, the more I'm convinced he's married, intellectually and emotionally, to fighting a 21st century conflict with a WWII mentality.
And then...there's Palin. For a 72 year-old candidate with a history of cancer to select such a grossly underqualified candidate as his successor in case of death or heir apparent to his party's mantle is singularly irresponsible.
I say all this as an Arizona native with a long history of admiration for Johnny Mac. There was a time, 15, 20 years ago, when I would have rooted for him. Too much water under the bridge since then. McCain's not the guy.
Yeah. Actually, I think we're a lot more alike this time around than we were before. I used to like McCain more too, and voted for him in the 2000 primary, although by the time it got around to Georgia he'd already been plowed under by Karl Rove's telemarketing character-assassination plot. Although I didn't agree with everything he said, I liked him because he appeared to think and speak his own mind. But I've lost a lot of respect for him in the last couple of years, when he went from being the single Republican to be truly outspoken against torture to toeing more and more of Bush's party line. Just to get where he is right now.
The Palin thing... Yeah. That was just surreal. Scary, though, in that I keep running into people who say "I kinda like her" because she's quirky and outspoken and they find that sort of entertaining. I agree, the vice presidential pick is a more compelling reason to vote against him this time than usual.
And I genuinely like Obama. Besides everyone else's usual reasons, I believe he's had a more solid grasp of technology policy than anyone else in the race this time around. When he speaks up for 'net neutrality' you can tell he actually knows what it means. He's a smart guy, and I genuinely think he's the right sort of moderate at the right time.
I just haven't had much energy to campaign this time around, or try to persuade anyone. Too much of my own stuff going on -- and besides, most of the people I could persuade personally, it'd be preaching to the choir. The only mass platform I have is Escape Pod, and I have stronger reasons not to turn it explicitly political. So... I'll relax. And wait with popcorn. And when China eats our lunch as the world's top superpower soon enough, maybe I can afford to move there.
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