BuggBlog

For Those About Barack We Salute You: Election 2008 Liveblog

Ask an easy question

One of my favorite writers, Dahlia Lithwick, calls attention to John McCain and Barack Obama's humorous outing last last night at the much-linked across the web Alfred E. Smith Memorial Dinner in New York, where both men engaged in some truly funny stand-up. And she wonders why their public personalities have changed through the course of the campaign:

The really stunning part is getting to see them both again the way they were back when we loved and adored them: two men in full, completely inhabiting their quirky, funny, inspirational selves. Watching them makes you wonder who these freaky spectral candidates are—the boring squashed-up versions of Obama and McCain we've endured through the end of last night’s debate. It makes you wonder what it is about presidential politics in 2008 that sucks out what’s best in our candidates and leaves us with a distillate of small, safe, hard, angry little men.

Unfortunately, in a democracy "what it is" is easy to identify.

It's us.

One more thing on McCain and adoption

Whenever I'm around a large group of my in-laws, I'm inevitably asked if Cavin and I are going to adopt a child. While they're all accepting of me and Cavin, I don't consider my in-laws to be a big bastion of liberalism. I saw plenty of reelection signs for Bush during the last election cycle, during which I also remember listening to a heated conversation in Vietnamese where the only two words I caught were "Kerry" and "communist."

But like most Americans, on the day-to-day aspects of life and family they're open and supportive. So it makes you wonder what the hell is up with John McCain.

The more I consider McCain's attempt to walk back from his anti-gay-adoption stance without actually walking back from it, the more perturbed I get. Basically, he's pushing the idea that gay parents are inferior, unwelcome, and to be discouraged but okay as a case of last resort. In other words, we're there to take care of the kids the straight don't or won't take care of.

I can't find my copy of the book at the moment for an exact quote, but Dan Savage touched on an aspect of this issue in the story of his adoption, The Kid -- basically that he realized he didn't want to be the noble gay man taking on the damaged and discarded children of the world. He wanted a family, the same as heterosexual couples hope and wish for healthy, "normal" children -- and there's nothing wrong or selfish about that.

I should be really clear here that people who take in those children who face terrible odds, for whatever the cause, are people who should be admired and honored because, while it obviously has its rewards, it also has challenges that I think most people couldn't handle. But those people are both straight and gay; their commitment comes from their humanity, not their sexuality.

But the whole issue is pretty much McCain in a nutshell. The more attention you pay to the man and his policies, the ickier he gets.

McCain on gay adoption: It's better than shooting orphans in the head

Andrew Sullivan posts a "clarification" from the John McCain campaign on his NYT interview where he voiced his opposition to adoption of children by the homosexuals.

"However, as an adoptive father himself, McCain believes children deserve loving and caring home environments, and he recognizes that there are many abandoned children who have yet to find homes.  McCain believes that in those situations that caring parental figures are better for the child than the alternative."

So, an adopted child with stable, employed and loving gay parents is better off than he would be in the gutter, but not as well off as he would be living in a trailer park with unemployed, unstable and disinterested heterosexual parents.

Just, you know, for the sake of comparison.

Maybe he meant a Google car

So John McCain wants to offer a government prize of $300 million to the inventor of an effective electric car battery. Where does he make the announcement of this proposed government windfall? Standing in front of the world's first production electric-powered sports car, the Tesla. See about :25 seconds in on the tape:

Really, does John McCain understand any technologies that emerged after the compact disc? Does McCain really believe that having government play Monty Hall is an example of non-pork-barrel, responsible government spending?

It is going to be a loooooooong summer.

McCainiac on the floor

To borrow a Republican trope, that's a mighty big list of things that need reforming that John McCain is putting forward -- but where are the details? I want details, dammit, details!

And why does every McCain campaign speech look like it's being delivered in a second-rate hotel ballroom outside of Paducah, Ky.? They really can't come up with more than 200 or so bearded white guys to bellow and hold signs?

McCain on his younger opponent: "He seems to think government is the answer to every problem?" Um, John, you just gave a humongous list of problems that you want government to solve. And laughing like a Vincent Price on helium isn't helping.

More: Every time he says "That's not change you can believe in" I hear him saying "I'd buy that for a dollar."

Moments of (un)truth

Watching Hillary Clinton defend her previous pro-McCain commander-in-chief comments to Keith Olbermann and once again witnessing  her easy ability to elide the truth -- okay, flat-out frickin' lie -- makes it ever more impossible for me to vote for her.

Update: She laughs at the mention of Richard Mellon Scaife? The man who propagated the myth that she had Vince Foster killed? She thinks that's humorous? Jesus frickin' Christ. She must, must go.

Bitter, better...but her?: Liveblogging the PA debate

Political truths and consequences

So I decided to take the weekend off from jotting down any thoughts or rants about the ongoing Clinton and Obama contretemps because, frankly, I needed to take a bit of a breather. The last time I found myself both politically and emotionally involved in a campaign was way back in 1992, when Bill Clinton was making his first run. And although he had the fortune of being president during a period when the good times went rolling, by the time 1996 came 'round, the luster had worn off -- and soon after had progressed into deep, deep tarnish.

In 2000, I reluctantly voted for Gore -- an odd feeling given how much I'd liked him since back during his 1998 run. But post-Clinton, Gore seemed unable to tease the good from the bad in his own administration, so instead washed his hands of the whole damn thing to run a Shrum-tastic populist campaign that in defeat set us down the path we're on today. I voted for him because he was not George W. Bush, a good enough practical reason, but not one that elevated my soul or anything.

Then in 2004 we got John Kerry who, basically, was a jerk. How big of a jerk? He was able to make Mary Cheney likable by giving one of the most bumbling attack lines of the campaign-- "If you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian... ." But, again, he wasn't George W. Bush and that was enough.

Now we're back to the start of the circle, with Hillary Clinton running a jaw-dropping campaign in which she smears her opponent with the label "Ken Starr tactics," attempts to cheat by changing pre-determined rules in her favor,  naming herself and McCain as the only candidates qualified to be commander-in-chief (as if), and offering the vice-president slot to her competitor who inconveniently happens to be in the lead.  Not to mention proving her executive leadership skills with a campaign staff riven by infighting, unable to plan for a full election cycle and displaying the fiscal wisdom and restraint of an 11-year-old in a video game store.