Payday. I just sent Wesley Clark another $50, although I'm disappointed that he doesn't have more natural political talent-- the stuff John Edwards has. Hooboy I'd bet he was a good litigator: articulate and persuasive without ever sounding condescending.
Maybe this is what we need; maybe I should have sent the $50 to Edwards. He looks young but he's fifty; older than Kennedy was, right? And he's got those incredibly cute kids, a five-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son. Remember that picture of John-John under the desk in the oval office? Maybe more pictures like that could change the nasty mood in this country.
I like Kerry but I just can't see him having any appeal outside of the northeast, and his "we don't need the south" strategy is just the thing to offend about half the country-- way to go. Dean? No way; who knows what gaffes he might make or hollering he might do during the general election campaign?
Edwards, though... I heard on NPR this morning that he never loses his cool or his temper.
Interesting triviality (to me, anyway)... After the election of 2000, all of the Bush people started referring to Bush as "this president" constantly: "This president believes...", "This president wants...", "This is a president who thinks...", as though they wanted to pound it into our heads: Bush is president; Bush is in charge, Bush is making the decisions. I always suspected this was Karen Hughes' way of making Bush seem more presidential.
And now this verbal tic has been picked up on by others. During last night's debate Kerry referred to Bush as "this president" four times, Dean did it twice, and Edwards once.
Having fun with the SOTU address (these were my favorites):
From Patrick Nielsen Hayden:
"Weapons of mass destruction-related program activities."
I just wanted to hear that again.
"Weapons of mass destruction-related program activities."
Smoking gun-related activity program initiative!
Conclusive evidence-related involvement postulation enterprise!
This isn't just moving the goalposts, it's attaching the goalposts to a booster rocket and shooting them into the Sun. Look, a revitalized space program after all!
and from Slacktivist, the Cheetohs of Mass Destruction:
Kevin Drum has a nice rundown of the Bush administration's incredible shrinking claims about Iraq's alleged weapons and the lack thereof:March 2003: Weapons of mass destruction.
June 2003: Weapons of mass destruction programs.
October 2003: Weapons of mass destruction-related programs.
January 2004: Weapons of mass destruction-related program activities.I've mentioned this before, but this reminds me of the Cheetoh-factor, in which every additional adjective makes the noun in question less true:
"Cheese" = cheese
"processed cheese" = cheese, sort of
"processed cheese food" = cheese, sort of, plus other stuff that's not cheese
"processed cheese food snack product" = the food in question is orange, but contains no actual cheese
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