EVENING UPDATE:  JULY 19,  2008

Posted at 7:40 p.m. ET

TOGETHER AGAIN!

I absolutely dislike words like "crazy," "dumb," and "nuts," unless of course they apply. 

Now, this is entertainment for a Saturday night.  Here we have a situation where, both objectively and subjectively, those words apply.

Consider the cast:  Al Gore.  Nancy Pelosi.  And a convention of netroots fanatics.  All in the same room.  What a concept!

The New York Times describes the scene:

AUSTIN, Tex. — Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, was asked a question here at a bloggers conference about energy. Ms. Pelosi glanced at her BlackBerry, noting that she had an e-mail message from a friend on that very subject.

With that, the voice of former Vice President Al Gore came over the public address system, as if reading the e-mail message, starting with “Dear Nancy.” This left a sea of quizzical looks and then gasps, cheers and a standing ovation as he strode onto the stage.

And you thought Big Brother was scary.

As waves of cheers washed over the cavernous convention center, Mr. Gore said to Ms. Pelosi, “We ought to take that act on the road.”

“We are on the road,” she replied.

“Well, I feel right at home here, I’ll tell you,” he said.

Yeah, I'll bet he does. 

The bloggers had submitted questions in advance and voted on them; the first was why Democratic leaders in the House were reluctant to take up impeachment proceedings against President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Ms. Pelosi said the House was considering contempt resolutions against Karl Rove, the president’s former top adviser.

Ms. Cooper asked Ms. Pelosi whether Mr. Rove, if found in contempt of Congress, would be put “in that little jail cell that’s in the basement of the House.” The audience cheered.

It takes a special kind of thinking to believe that one's opponents should be put in jail.  Would you trust your freedoms to this crowd?

Asked if she would redirect money from abstinence-only programs to sex education, Ms. Pelosi said, “Yes,” adding that the current program “caters to a radical right-wing view.”

So abstinence for teenagers is a "radical right-wing view "?  As one of my mentors, Johnny Carson, used to say, "I did not know that."

When Mr. Gore addressed the group, he noted first that the polar ice cap, which is about the size of the continental United States and has been in existence for three million years, had a 75- to 80-percent chance of melting in five years.

Okay.  That's an absolute prediction on Gore's part.  So, what he's saying is that the polar ice cap will melt on the next president's watch.  Now, if that guy runs for reelection, what would his slogan be?  "Don't change horses in the middle of a flood"?  Or maybe, "A rising tide lifts all boats."

Let's hold Gore to that prediction.

Ms. Pelosi was asked whether Congress would accept Mr. Gore’s energy challenge. “It is absolutely possible to do so,” she said.

She added that without Mr. Gore, “there would be no Netroots Nation; we would simply not have the technology.”

As a reminder of the flap caused years ago — when he got tagged with having said he “invented” the Internet, although he had not used that word and had, in fact, helped legislatively to create it — he smiled at Ms. Pelosi’s comments and said, “I think I’ll refrain from saying it.”

That was the only rational moment during the whole thing.

July 19,  2008.      Permalink          

SECOND AFTERNOON UPDATE:  JULY 19,  2008

Posted at 3:20 p.m. ET

FORD'S FUTURE

When I was growing up there was a popular advertising slogan: "There's a Ford in your future."

These days, you wonder.  And if it is a Ford, will it really be a Ford?

It now appears that Ford will start making European-type cars for the U.S. market, a concession to the price of fuel.  From Reuters:

Car maker Ford Motor Co is drawing up plans to retool American plants to make small, fuel-efficient passenger cars that it mainly makes and sells in Europe, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

The paper said Ford has looked at bringing over European models, including the mid-size Mondeo, in response to high fuel costs that have hit sales of larger, fuel-hungry trucks and sport utility vehicles.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the WSJ said portions of this move could be announced on Thursday when the Dearborn, Michigan-based company reports second-quarter results.

In June, Ford announced it would slash output this year by eliminating shifts, slowing assembly lines and idling truck plants. The car maker said further details on its revised restructuring plan would be provided when it released its second-quarter results.

Sad, in a way.  Not much innovation in this move.  Just an admission that U.S. automakers aren't exactly on the cutting edge of technology.

But I like their Mustang.

July 19, 2008.      Permalink          

AFTERNOON UPDATE:  JULY 19,  2008

Posted at 3:12 p.m. ET

TRACKERS

Rasmussen has the presidential race tied today, whereas Gallup has Obama up two.  This is the second day in a row in which Obama's lead is averaged at one point. 

Some other polls, taken about a week ago, showed Obama with more solid leads.

Trackers are taken every day, so we won't know for a few days if Obama's overseas adventure is having any effect. 

July 19, 2008.       Permalink          

SATURDAY:  JULY 19,  2008

Posted at 7:45 a.m. ET

HE COMES

Barack Obama has landed in Afghanistan.  Don't you feel safer already?  The New York Times reports:

WASHINGTON – Senator Barack Obama arrived in Afghanistan early Saturday morning, opening his first overseas trip as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to meet with American commanders there and later in Iraq to receive an on-the-ground assessment of military operations in the two major U.S. war zones.

First visit to Afghanistan, but he's had plenty to say.  I guess the on-the-ground assessment is an afterthought.

His advisers said Mr. Obama chose to begin his trip in Afghanistan because he believes that the region is among the most important foreign policy challenges facing the United States.

“Well, I’m looking forward to seeing what the situation on the ground is,” Mr. Obama told reporters on Thursday before he left Washington. “I want to, obviously, talk to the commanders and get a sense, both in Afghanistan and in Baghdad of, you know, what the most, ah, their biggest concerns are. And I want to thank our troops for the heroic work that they’ve been doing.”

That's nice.  Wait 'til you get to Iraq, Senator, and confront troops after saying for years that their mission is a mistake and a waste of time.  Cheers for the senator, anyone?

Mr. McCain has suggested to voters that Mr. Obama lacks the experience to serve as commander in chief. He particularly criticized the Illinois Democrat for not having held a single hearing in his capacity as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee’s subcommittee on European affairs.

“He’s going to go to the American people and say, ‘I want to be commander in chief,’ ” Mr. McCain told reporters on Thursday, “and yet he has been the chairman of the subcommittee that oversights NATO and he has never had a hearing, nor has he ever visited Afghanistan.”

Why ruin a promising political career with an actual record of accomplishment?  How middle-class.  How old fashioned.

Robert Gibbs, an Obama aide, rejected the notion that this trip is just a campaign rally.

“The trip is not at all a campaign trip, a rally of any sort,” Mr. Gibbs told reporters on Friday. He said Mr. Obama would hold “a series of substantive meetings with our friends and our allies to talk about the common challenges that we face and the national security dangers for the 21st century.”

So, let me understand.  It isn't a campaign rally, but he waited until the campaign to do it.  So the common challenges and national-security dangers we face weren't important enough for a trip until now?

You buying this?  You want that bridge in Brooklyn?  Real estate is coming down.

No word that the TV anchors are with Obama on this leg of his trip.  I guess they wait for cities with the five-star hotels.  The most interesting part of this trip might be the menus.

July 19, 2008.      Permalink          

WaPo WHACKS

I've said here before that the Washington Post editorial page is vastly superior to that of The New York Times.  One thing I like about the Post is its willingness to criticize Senator Obama.  Some of the criticism has been strong, and it gives us an outside hope that the Post might end up endorsing Senator McCain, or staying neutral.  Both are unlikely.  The paper is liberal, and it depends on a city with a sizable African-American population.  The Post would not be forgiven in many circles if it withheld its endorsement from the first African-American candidate for president.  But we can still have our dreams.

Today the Post cuts into Obama on campaign financing. The paper also criticizes McCain, but is especially tough on Obama:

IT WASN'T so long ago -- last September, to be specific -- that a senator with a particular interest in campaign finance reform introduced a bill to provide important transparency in presidential campaigns. The measure, S. 2030, would require presidential campaigns to report the names of fundraisers who bring in "bundles" of individual contributions totaling $50,000 or more. The campaigns would have to report the occupations of the bundlers and the specific amounts they are credited with raising. This was a terrific idea. It's too bad that the bill's sponsor, Barack Obama, is failing to follow the rules he set out.

Ouch.  Not change we can believe in.

If you spend enough time hunting around on Mr. Obama's Web site, you might be able to unearth a list of his bundlers. (Hint: go to http://barackobama.com, click on "contact us," click on "answer center," click on category "fundraising," go to Answer 24.) You will see the names of those who bundle between $50,000 and $100,000 for Mr. Obama, the $100,000-to-$200,000 folks, and the $200,000-and-up crowd.

I'd rather read a good book.

The biggest flaw with both candidates' disclosures is that they stop being specific at what is a relatively low amount: $200,000 for Mr. Obama and $250,000 for Mr. McCain. The McCain campaign said it could not list a specific dollar figure "in the midst of the campaign because it is changed on an individual basis almost daily -- that is why we use broader categories." Even so, the categories could be far more specific: Campaigns know full well who has brought in $1 million or more, and who is a "mere" $200,000 bundler.

Mr. McCain's recent additions are welcome but insufficient. How far Mr. Obama's performance falls short can be measured by his own legislation.

Does this mean the Washington Post's editors won't be invited to the inaugural ball? 

July 19, 2008.      Permalink