Jimmy Carter: I Got What America Needs Right Here

by John Little in Entertainment, Politics

January 14, 2008 · No Comments

I could almost vote for The Onion’s very NSFW Jimmy Carter:

You better get down on your hands and knees and kiss Jimmy Carter’s rosy-red Georgia-peach-picking ass and beg me to run your f*cking country again, because there’s no way I’m ever gonna come to you f*ck-knobs and politely ask you if I might please be a presidential candidate in your precious f*ckin’ election. So you can just bite my c*ck. I’ve had it with you jerkoffs and your jerkoff candidates.

The profanity gets much worse so I wouldn’t click on this link from work if I were you.

Fred Thompson Explains Reagan Coalition – Conservatism to Mike Huckabee

by John Little in Debates, Politics, Videos

January 11, 2008 · 1 Comment

It isn’t too late for Fred to be a factor but he needs a needs a serious, buzzworthy, surge to reset the race. That surge, if it’s to come, will be the result of his performance last night and his ability to dial in that tone that so resonated with the conservative base. We’ll know soon if Fred can be a factor:

“I don’t know of any better place to stand my ground and test my case than in South Carolina,” Thompson told a couple of hundred people at a pancake house in the northern part of the state as he began an 11-day bus tour.

He said the results in New Hampshire and in Michigan on Jan. 15 will factor into whether he stays in the race, but that South Carolina will be key.

Arizona Sen. John McCain won the Republican primary in New Hampshire.

“This is where we make our stand — this is where I have chosen to make my stand,” Thompson told a crowd at a barbecue restaurant. He later told reporters he needs to do well in South Carolina, which votes Jan. 19.

“There’s no question about it. It could prove at the end of the day that South Carolina is determinative as far as I’m concerned, but we’re not there yet,” he said.

Republicans Debate in South Carolina

by John Little in Debates, Politics

January 10, 2008 · 1 Comment

Update 9:28 PM CST:: Internet probelms here. I have to bail out of the liveblogging. I’ll wrap up once I can get a decent connection.

Update 8:51 PM CST:: Ron Paul is going nuts again. You can tell the other candidates are really tired of this crackpot.

Update 8:44 PM CST:: Romney just said that Ron Paul should “stop reading Ahmadinejad’s press releases.” Best line so far.

Update 8:42 PM CST:: Rudy and McCain handled questions about the incident with Iran well. Ron Paul just had a total freakout meltdown – typical blame America stuff – the audience is laughing at him.

Update 8:35 PM CST:: Fred on the Iranians – “One more step and they would have been introduced to those virgins they’re looking forward to seeing.” Like Huckabee he followed with a more serious response.

Update 8:31 PM CST:: Huckabee threatened our enemies with a trip through the “gates of hell.” It was pretty entertaining but lacking a bit of sophistication. His second answer was a bit more thoughtful.

Update 8:29 PM CST:: Ron Paul on the GOP – “We finally got control of the government and we became big government people.” He’s right about that.

Update 8:26 PM CST:: Whoa Fred Thompson is kicking ass! Finally someone with some credibility addresses all of this Reagan legacy talk. He just stepped in and schooled everyone and drew the first applause of the night.

Update 8:22 PM CST:: Obligatory Reagan praise. Too bad they never seem to actually want govern like Reagan when they have the opportunity.

Update 8:19 PM CST:: Fred Thompson is talking about specific techniques for managing the economy. That sure confused everyone.

Update 8:17 PM CST:: Ron Paul is screaming “I hate blacks and gays!” Just kidding – that material is reserved for his newsletters.

Update 8:14 PM CST:: Rudy is promoting balance in all things. He must be taking yoga classes.

Update 8:11 PM CST:: Hucakbee is addressing economic issues in terms that his key snake-handling constituency can understand.

Update 8:07 PM CST:: McCain says that he’s ready to wield the veto pen and tackle wasteful spending.

Update 8:03 PM CST:: I almost clicked past it at the start. I saw that musical number and thought it was a state beauty pageant.

Camille Paglia on Hillary Clinton and Obama

by John Little in Culture, Media, Politics

January 10, 2008 · 2 Comments

Paglia contrasts the two in a thoroughly entertaining piece at Salon:

The current wave of support for Barack Obama from Democrats, independents, and even some Republicans is partly based on his vision of a new political discourse that breaks with the petty, destructive polarization of the past 20 years. Whether Obama can build up his foreign policy credentials sufficiently to reassure an anxious general electorate remains to be seen.

But Hillary herself, with her thin, spotty record, tangled psychological baggage, and maundering blowhard of a husband, is also a mighty big roll of the dice. She is a brittle, relentless manipulator with few stable core values who shuffles through useful personalities like a card shark (“Cue the tears!”). Forget all her little gold crosses: Hillary’s real god is political expediency. Do Americans truly want this hard-bitten Machiavellian back in the White House? Day one will just be more of the same.

Video: Hillary Clinton’s New Hampshire Primary Victory Speech

by John Little in Politics, Videos

January 9, 2008 · 1 Comment

Shameless political stunts are the story of this race. The crying worked. Huckabee’s ad stunt worked too. Voters say that they want change but they keep falling for the same tired old tricks. That’s something that the better campaigners already knew.

As I said last night, this is good news for the Republicans. Hillary will be a smiles for a while but she and Obama will eventually have to slug this one out. The Republicans will have little more time to pare down the field.

Liveblogging the New Hampshire Primary Results

by John Little in Politics

January 8, 2008 · No Comments

Final Update – 9:47 PM CST: Fox News just called it for Hillary. ABC and CNN too. Obama is about to speak. He kicks off with “I’m still fired up and ready to go!”

9:44 PM CST: The gap is widening. I expect the rest of the major networks to call this soon.

9:39 PM CST: The Fox News panel credits the crying.

9:35 PM CST: CBS News calls it for Hillary as well. ABC, CNN, and Fox are holdouts.

9:33 PM CST: The AP has called it for Clinton! Fox News isn’t going to call it yet.

9:32 PM CST: 39%-36% in Hillary’s favor with 65% of the precincts reporting. Time is running out for Obama.

9:19 PM CST: John Edwards is speaking. Wouldn’t it be great if he quit but announced that his hair was staying in the race? Ugh, he’s giving the same speech again. There are physicians who haven’t met as many ill people as John Edwards.

9:16 PM CST: Everyone, Obama especially, is waiting on the total from New Hampshire’s college towns.

9:07 PM CST: Michelle Malkin asks “If Obama loses, will we start hearing about how racist America still is?” It’s 39%-36% for Hillary with 61% reporting.

8:48 PM CST: 39%-37% in Hillary’s favor with 52% of the precincts reporting! This could go on for a long time. Amazing.

8:39 PM CST: Obama’s brief surge has slowed. It’s a 40%-36% race in Hillary’s favor with 47% of the precincts reporting.

8:27 PM CST: The gap narrows again! It’s a 39%-37% race in Hillary’s favor with 41% of the precincts reporting.

8:23 PM CST: Obama is making a run and closing the gap. It’s a 39%-36% race in Hillary’s favor with 38% of the precincts reporting.

8:20 PM CST: McCain – “We are the makers of history, not it’s victims.”

8:13 PM CST: McCain is thanking the troops now. Hillary continues to lead Obama by 4%. Monday Morning Clacker: “Well done Team McCain New Hampshire! Well done indeed! Now, where the f*ck is the bar!”

7:56 PM CST: We could be nearing a surprising call for Hillary Clinton as she starts to pull ahead again (25,557/21,975). She leads Obama by 6% with 25% of the precincts reporting.

7:50 PM CST: It’s concession speech time for Mitt. He is, of course, handling it with class. 2 silvers and a gold is the message. It’s too bad that Wyoming is the presidential race’s equivalent of synchronized swimming.

7:43 PM CST: 19,977/18,130 in favor of Hillary with 18% of the precincts reporting. They’ve maintained this 1,800-2,000 (4%) vote gap for a while now.

7:33 PM CST: Hillary is still going strong. If she wins here tonight it’s good news for the Republicans as she and Obama could be slugging it out for many weeks ahead.

7:19 PM CST: Hillary is widening the gap. She leads Obama 40%-36% with 12% of the precincts reporting.

7:11 PM CST: Fox News is calling the Republican race for John McCain. No surprise there but I thought Romney was going to make it a bit more difficult for him than he did. ABC News has called it for McCain as well.

7:08 PM CST: I’ll be liveblogging the returns. Right now, with about 11% of the precincts reporting, the race looks tight on the Democratic side with Hillary leading Obama by less than 1,000 votes. If this trend continues we’ll be looking at dramatic Clinton comeback. McCain, on the other hand, has a significant (7,575/5,694) lead over Romney.