I tried to explain this to a Paulista a while back, that I was voting for the least-bad candidate I could find, rather than voting for someone I authentically “believed” in (whatever that means).

The logic was completely lost on them. They called me a bunch of nasty names, told me I didn’t deserve to live in a democracy, told me that I shouldn’t be allowed to vote, etc. etc.

Fair point. I forget that the public actually buys into this nonsense. I’ll never forget the conversation I had with the guy who voted for Bush just because he thought Kerry’s wife was crazy.

Too bad Hillary’s work ethic didn’t extend to fighting against telecom immunity in the Senate.

You know, the Senate. Her fucking job.

She’s waiting for a telecom immunity supporter to use someone else’s speech without a footnote.

Then – POW! – she’s got ’em on the ropes.

Sorry, OT, but just wanted to say

#

Blue Buddha said,

February 16, 2008 at 21:27

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said,
February 16, 2008 at 21:23
Duros62, I meant to give you props for the Krauthammer the other night.
EXTRMN8! indeed.

Now, this would make the perfect Unity ticket.

Hey, thanks, guys. Glad somebody gets to see ‘em.
#

I agree– the real question is whether she LIKES “Night Shift.” If that ad had showed her watching that late at night in her office, I’d be on Ms. Clap Clap Point Point like dough on Jonah.

Yep. I was actually reassured when Bush 41 didn’t know about supermarket scanners. Outraged? Uh uh. Not really.

I mean, dood, you’re the frackin PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES. You hold the power of life or death over the whole goddam world. You live in a stratosphere above the stratosphere that’s above the highest stratosphere where people live.

You take a larger entouage when you visit other countries than U2. A four-star chef makes your midnight snacks. You know vlad putin’s phone number. If you decide to go shopping, cops stop traffic for you.

You are NOT like me. We could no more relate to each other’s existence than a orangutan in the treetops of Sumatra could relate to mine. The important thing to remember is this:

If I fuck up my job, somebody, perhaps even me, gets fired.

If you fuck up yours? Well, lets just agree that the consequences are somewhat greater…

mikey

Well, he may be a credulous idiot, but he’s got a good point…

mikey

The ad doesn’t say exactly what she was doing on the “night shift”, though, does it?

Jrod said…

Right on. She’s working the night shift at a job she doesn’t have yet while neglecting the one she does.

If she had run back to washington and fillibustered this bs with Dodd she’d be in much better standing.

Oh, and [something funny].

I can haz rock star too?

I’ve always maintained that I don’t want somebody I’d find drinking at my local to be President. I want a vicious, crafty, evilly brilliant shark for president.

I’ve never had the chance to vote for that person.

To be fair, there are probably a a lot of power-loving narcissistic weirdos who have to work the night shift. They just weren’t born on third base.

Wait, I don’t have sound here – this isn’t an ad where she talks about how Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson are dead and gone?

It really is shameless. I am whatever you want me to be. I think thats what makes me hate her…her lust for the job has no veneer.
Having said that, nothing compares to the grovelling mutt Mac is turning into. I think he’d star in a Tijuana loop to get a handful of votes.
I agree too that no one deserves a pass. But there are questions of degree….

After our last experience with a ‘Guy I’d Like to Have a Beer With’, I think I’d find some solace in these words:

Vote for X, because there’s no fuckin’ way they’d have a beer with you.

Do I really want the person with their finger on the trigger to be having beers with the boys every night? If so, I’d have presidential aspirations.

The Hillhate is palpable here. She’s becoming Geo. W. to you guys–she can do no right, either. I didn’t see anything wrong with the ad, and yes, Senators do work their asses off.

No its… well, lets just say its a whole new definition of narcissism. I’m surprised that after redefining the guitar solo she didn’t go on to win the Superbowl and break the pole-vaulting record. Oh, it was a joke? I guess she also redefined humor, then.

*hums Mary Tyler Moore theme*

In 1997, I ran for Parliament for the NDP here in southern Ontario where I live.

I would frequently stand outside the beer store, shaking hands and giving out campaign literature.

One fella said, “Well, you’re the first candidate who’s taken the time to actually introduce yourself, so you’ve definitely got my vote on election day.”

A couple weeks later, I was back in front of the same beer store again, and as I shook one guy’s hand he got really mad.

“Don’t you remember? You introduced yourself to me here two weeks ago! The heck with you, buddy, I’m not voting for somebody who’s on such an ego trip that they don’t even remember me…”

That’s not all; I also found that even most of my own campaign volunteers assumed that I was some sort of egomaniac Ted Baxter figure, otherwise why would I run for office?

I’m not defending Hillary or politicians in general, but I’ve gotta say, until you’ve walked a mile in somebody’s shoes…

I’ve never run for political office again, nor do I ever want to. It’s the hardest work I’ve ever done in my life, you take a lot of shit, and the demands it makes upon your family are relentless.

But I am proud that I stood up for what I believe in.

And I think former presidential candidates like Al Gore and John Kerry, not to mention my own personal faves Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards, would probably tell you the same thing.

Yeah, but… why should we try to change the world when it’s so much cooler to sit here an make fun of politicians?

*combs grease through hair*
*rides off on motorcycle*

The fact is,

“The Hillhate,” yet.

Kiss. My ever-lovin’. Ass.

I don’t hate her, I fucking LOVE her. That shit she put up with in the 90s would’ve turned me catatonic, whereas it left her mildly nonplussed. I want someone with that Soze-esque will to power at the top of the ticket, because someone needs to destroy the Republican Party and then salt the earth, and I wouldn’t trust Obama to do that even if his whole sales pitch wasn’t Kumba-fucking-ya. I’m betting that dude’s got a glass jaw that nobody’s bothered to so much as tap yet.

Here’s the problem, though–she only uses her superpowers for evil-to-mediocre, never for good. She’s got everything I want in a candidate except priorities and the ability to wargame a situation out further than next week. Oh, and there’s the little matter of her voting record, which could double as an emetic.

“Hillhate.” For crying out fucking loud. Yet another commenter offers evidence for my hypothesis that if you really like either candidate, you like things too much.

I want the least-bad candidate whom the booboisie want to have a beer with, because then my vote makes a difference. All the world-changing ideas about belgian endive don’t amount to shit when your helmeted head sticks pathetically out of a tank. “Don’t be fooled, Timmy– that intellectual candidate will eat you and everyone you love.”

It is kind of going for low-hanging fruit to make fun of what politicians say about themselves in their ads. I’m all for calling them on it when they say something wrong about someone else, but inflating their own virtues? Heck, they all do it. Everyone who’s selling themselves does.

“I’m betting that dude’s got a glass jaw that nobody’s bothered to so much as tap yet.”

Hi there.

All the world-changing ideas about belgian endive don’t amount to shit when your helmeted head sticks pathetically out of a tank.

But WHO GIVES A SHIT.

You elect someone to do a damn job, not look good in a tank.

Crimeny.

“I’m betting that dude’s got a glass jaw that nobody’s bothered to so much as tap yet.”

I don’t know, I think that “secret Muslim black nationalist” is a pretty low blow. Hillary seems to be throwing everything at him that isn’t welded to the wall, including his essays from kindergarten and his trips to the mosque with grampa. Not that we don’t need someone who can fight dirty, after Gore and Kerry. I used to think that all the shit she has weathered was a point in her favor too, but that was while she was still first spouse and it was appropriate for her to withdraw from public. This is her first national campaign and she hasn’t been impressing me too much so far.

Yet another commenter offers evidence for my hypothesis that if you really like either candidate, you like things too much.

Yup.

All the world-changing ideas about belgian endive don’t amount to shit when your helmeted head sticks pathetically out of a tank.

I’m hoping that the one beneficial thing coming from GWB’s preznitcy is that you can no longer be disqualified for looking being photographed looking like an idiot. God knows, there’s plenty of documented evidence.

It pisses me off when people promise universal health care.

Brad —

You are wrong in the most fundamental ways. The “all those who aspire to elective office are crap” is a provably false meme which, like creationism, reveals no wisdom but only destroys any that might arise. I hope you reconsider.

Thanks,

Doug

tb said,
February 20, 2008 at 0:32

It pisses me off when people promise universal health care.
—

Word.

Why would someone promise something we’ve had for decades ?

All mothers do the night shift by definition. So Hillary has done the night shift many many times over.

All mothers do the night shift by definition.

Most.

or to put it more directly: stop pretending that you share the experience of the working class just because you happen to be a type A individual who works around the clock. Being a workaholic is optional for the ruling class (as Bush has more than demonstrated over the past 8 years).

Oh come on, Douglas. Even if HIllary didn’t employ help to raise her kid, she certainly had more than enough money to do so (and having a lot of money makes raising kids so much easier). To suggest that Hillary and Bill – or any of the candidates – have anything in common economically with the average joe slaving away at one or two jobs to make ends meet is ridiculous. They may be sympathetic and that’s good (because they should), but they aren’t those people and never have been.

Point of Order.

Obama hasn’t been a millionaire long – only since his book was out. He may have had a prestigious post at the Harvard Law Review, but he was a far cry from the Bush or Clinton fortunes.

Pe!d, I want to think you’re right, but I dunno, that madrassa stuff seems too comical to provoke.

Honestly, though, maybe I’ve just bought into the “lightweight” line. Well, no, that would assume competence on Mark Penn’s part. More likely: the easily-inspired crowd grosses me out so much I’m taking it out on their candidate.

He’s been okay so far. Hell, Chicago toughened me the fuck up, and I only lived there for a couple of months.

And why is Erica Jong posting as Douglas Watts?

Universal health care will be the downfall of out economy which has been very prosperous under the Conservative leadership of President Bush.

Imagine Canada where one has to wait up to several months to see a physician for a common cold or even worse for serious surgery.

Or how about the formerly Great Britain, the horror stories I heard about their health care system. Did you know that in Britain many people end up pulling their own rotting teeth with plyers because of the time it takes to see a dentist?

Or how about Cuba whose health care system is Michael Moore’s wet dream? During a recent investigation by Conservative Journalist Sean Hannity which was aired on Hannity’s America, it showed even the “best” Cuban hospitals were infested with rats and roaches!

So not only will universal health care be a disastor for our economy it will also be a disastor for our health! Anything that has to be rationed will be of very poor quality. Think of the food rationing during the World Wars!

This is why we need to let the free markets take care of our health system. Not only are the free markets self efficent, they are also better quality and better overall than anything the government could do.

You want to think about government efficency think of the dmv and see what comes to mind!

Hillary, I’ve worked the night shift. Sorting cherries, stacking fruit boxes for shipment, plowing stubble on my uncle’s wheat ranch (yes, D5 Caterpillars have headlights, both front and back), straightening shelves at Kmart, supervising the operation of a ten-bay inserting machine in the distribution center of a 45,000-circulation daily newspaper, and a few other jobs I can’t remember at the moment.

The most I ever got paid on any of those jobs was eight bucks an hour. I had no benefits and no overtime pay. (Granted, when I worked the wheat ranch in 1984, I was crashing on my ex-girlfriend’s floor at no cost, so most of my $4.50 per hour paycheck went for beer, cigarettes, gas and groceries, not always in that order. Oh, to be 21 again!)

Hill, hon, shuffling papers and suffering through the occasional paper cut isn’t “working the night shift.” Most of the working women you’re trying to appeal to don’t do paperwork at night. They engage in manual labor with few if any benefits, they work hard, and then they go home and work days running a household and raising children.

You have no idea what that’s like. You’ve never lived in that world, and you’ve had precious little contact with those who do. You have nothing in common with them. Stop trying to relate to them, and fer gawdsake don’t try telling them you “feel their pain.” You don’t. If you did, you would have actively campaigned in the red states, instead of giving them the finger by saying their votes don’t matter because they live in the wrong part of the country.

In my book, Hill, you’re as plastic as hairspray and as phony as a three-dollar bill. I don’t believe you when you say you’ll stop the war, and that’s the main reason why I cannot vote for you. My vote won’t matter anyway, because I live in a blue state (Washington) that a Democrat will win. At the recent caucus I was elected as a delegate to the county convention in April. I will fight like hell for Obama, and will proudly vote for him if he is the nominee.

I won’t lift a finger for you. As I told my wife a number of years ago when she asked why I refused to vote to reelect DINO Gary Locke: “If I’d wanted a goddamned Republican governor, I’d have voted for one!”

he was a far cry from the Bush or Clinton fortunes.

Umm, actually, the Clintons were (before the preznitcy) a far cry from the Bush or Clinton fortunes.

Not that they didn’t have a nice income, what with her lawyer’s income and his salary as an elected official, but to lump them in with the Bushes when they entered the White House is ridiculous. They didn’t even own a house.

Now they have quite a hefty income, but it’s “earned” as many politicians earn it – book royalties, speaking fees, serving on boards & etc. But it’s nothing like the inherited wealth of the Bush family.

Yeah I know Chris, and during the Cold War all Americans lived in inner-city slums and slaved 80 hours a week for their rations of bread and water. The Russians even had photos to prove it!

Have you been to Canada or Europe? Do you have personal experience of the health care systems in other countries? I have been to hospitals in Toronto, London, and Bogotá, Colombia. Believe me, we have nothing to crow about.

In Colombia I was treated by a doctor within 30 minutes in a facility that was cleaner and more modern than anything that I have ever seen here in the states. They gave me three boxes of prescription drugs on the spot. Total cost: $20 If I had been a citizen it would have been free. This is a 3rd world country that is in the middle of a civil war, mind you.

Go on, keep reading Pravda Chris. Your government wouldn’t lie to you.

Brad,
You are living in a dream world if you think a politician can convince enough people to vote for him/her by running commercials where they come off looking like a “narcissistic weirdo who loves power”. What do you expect in political TV ads? Please wake up. Everyone is not as smart as you are.

Imagine Canada where one has to wait up to several months to see a physician for a common cold or even worse for serious surgery.

Uh, this is bullshit. I live in Canada – have all my life – and I would never trade what I can get here for the US system. Btw, if I need to see a doctor five minutes from now I can. There are several walk in clinics near my home. I can also get an appointment to see my doctor this week if I need to.

Regarding surgery.. emergency surgeries are available immediately. There is a wait for elective surgeries due to cutbacks in the health care system and the shortage of doctors (which is universal, btw) but governments are working to bring this down.

Hey, Chris, what motivates you to lie through your teeth all the time? Your party not doing well?

oh, need I add that no one asks me for my credit card? Only my public health card.

They didn’t even own a house.</i

If true, I doubt this was because they couldn’t afford one.

I love the night shift
I got to boogie
While Hillary works late
Oh, yeah

rats italics.

Universal health care will be the downfall of out economy which has been very prosperous under the Conservative leadership of President Bush.

Prosperous? Hahahahahahahahahaha! *wipes away tear* Tell us another one.

My girlfriend and I were in Vienna when the buckle holding her retina in place seemed to loosen. Spent 7 minutes in a waiting room, got her eyes dilated and thoroughly examined, and were eating sachertorte in a cafe within two hours.

Total cost? Zilch.
(stole the sachertorte– score!)

Don’t feed the Saul/Booger/St. James.

It only serves to agitate it.

And if you must feed it, at least do so with the knowledge that it doesn’t actually believe what it’s saying.

I hope that guy’s a paid shill. Libs who do that shit for laughs are worse than actual wingnuts. And nowhere near as funny.

Oh, man. If it’s doing that for all these years and it DOESN’T believe deeply in what it’s saying?

Definition of CRAZY there….

mikey

Not crazy, just a Netvocate, probably. C’mon, look at the writing style–that is a desultory presentation at best. I’ve been sidled up to by energy-drink viral marketers with more passion about their product.

That or he’s trying to get some of whatever cache Psycheout thinks he got by getting quoted on Olbermann.

Brad– thanks for a dead-on post.
More than Kerry, more than the patrician Geo. H.W. Bush Sr. even (& she wasn’t born to the manor as the Bush Crime Family were), Hillary oozes INAUTHENTICITY! I’m with the posters who vote for the lesser evil, & to me that’s clearly Obama.

The harder Hill tries to be jus’ folks, the more hypocritical she is in blowing off all that “Experience” in being close to the Most Powerful Man in the World (C) for most of the 90’s. They really think the public is incredibly dumb. They certainly may be right vis-a-vis the actual issues (most Americans now know Iraq is an unmitigated disaster, but if the political elite & Fox can whip up “the next Hitler” phenomena in a few years they’ll follow another Imperial Adventure to indebtedness & disaster. BUT: the public is not so dumb about the elite class’s “genuineness” (okay, the squirrel-eaters in the South will accept a GW Bush ‘coz he believes in Jeebus, & except for Condi he hates him some nigras)– not when they’re the likes of Hillary, Little Ricky Santorum, Rudy “41 Shots” 9ui11iani, Joe “I Love Myself” Biden, etc. People know these are the turds that shoved them aside brown-nosing their teachers, bosses, etc. and they don’t feel too warm toward such S.O.B’s.

I’ll take any Pretzledent that’s less than a full-scale sociopath after current occupant “Little Boots.” Hillary may be less than that but she doesn’t care much for the little people unless they’re in line to vote for her. As her vote for the war, pimping for Big Pharma etc. shows, she’s isolated & out of touch w/ most of us who actually struggle to pay the bills. Good luck on foolin’ people, Hillary!

My brother seriously considered running for the US congress some years back. I know him pretty well, and as far as I can ascertain, his basic motivations were, in no particular order of importance, experience with and deep interest in the workings of government, experience with helping people solve knotty organizational problems, interest in the general improvement of human society, and the fact that our then-congressman was a miserable old Republican hack.

I don’t dispute that a good opinion of oneself and one’s abilities are probably common attributes of people who seek high public office, and are undoubtedly a big help in both gaining said office and doing well at the job. I think calling them all power-mad weirdos is going a bit extreme. Whatcher call yer sweeping generalization, Brad.

This same brother is now deputy mayor in his town ( a position that must be campaigned for), in addition to the 1-man management consultancy biz he runs. It’s the town job that takes up the greater part of his time – a consistent grind of dealing with factions, personalities, interest groups (mind you this is a small town), and trying to keep himself focused on the actual goal of reasonably good governance and the general public welfare. I couldn’t do such work well if my goddam life depended on it. My bro can be a little self-important seeming at times by my lights (by his, I’m a little on the louche side) – but I revere his willingness to put himself out that way for other people.

Somebody above said that senators work their asses off. Of course it’s not field work or assembly line work – soul-destroying, back-breaking labor that barely nets you enough to get from payday to payday. It is, however, a different kind of very hard work. IMO, both Clinton and Obama are more or less similar to my brother in that their initial interest in public life sprang from similar motives. He has a history as a neighborhood organizer, she has a history of involvement in public service projects going back to her days as a middle-class high school student. I’m not a constituent of either one of them (yet), but I believe I’m right in saying that the voters in both their states consider them good representatives, and would be happy to see them remain in the Senate if they don’t win the big one. Neither of them is perfect, but either would be such a FUCKING improvement over what’s been destroying the goddam country for the last 8 years that it leaves me almost speechless to see the venom that’s being vented on so many of the liberal blogs. It just doesn’t seem to make sense.

Hillary oozes INAUTHENTICITY!

Oh, who gives a shit. If you don’t like what she would do, fine, but this “genuineness” crap is strictly for gashead consumers.

Actually, I’d much rather be CEO of Exxon/Mobil.

I drink your MILKSHAKE! I drink it up!

So there.

Or how about the formerly Great Britain, the horror stories I heard about their health care system. Did you know that in Britain many people end up pulling their own rotting teeth with plyers because of the time it takes to see a dentist?

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…..

was that from the same paper that brought you “Gypsy asylum seekers are killing our babies and eating our swans”?

The thing that matters most is getting a progressive Congress elected, and a Democrat (any frackin’ Dem will do at this point) elected Preznit so she or he can rubber stamp progressive legislation.

I don’t care if Hillary and Obama crap in their hats and wear them backwards. I’ll vote for whichever one gets the nod because the fucking alternative is unthinkable.

I like what you have to say, Li’l innocent.

I have certainly never run for public office. But I have served as an “elected offical” in a smallist organization run by a Constitution and Roberts Rules of Order, and I will say that even on a micro level like mine, it takes a certain amount of dedication to the shared cause of the organization that transcends the wish for power.

As a matter of fact, putting oneself in the position of responsibility like that is a real pain in the ass. Only in the most corrupt of organizations would the power and opportunity to enrich oneself outweigh the tedium, the duty, and the pain in the ass factor of holding such a position.

You have to be somewhat of an egotist to hold such an office. Either that or you have to be a totally selfless saint.

Hillary is far more able, and far more smart, and far more ethical than the asshat that’s in the White House now. The fact that Obama is more able and more ethical than she makes me want him instead of her. But I sure as hell would take Hillary over McCain, who would be Bush II.

I don’t care if Hillary and Obama crap in their hats and wear them backwards. I’ll vote for whichever one gets the nod because the fucking alternative is unthinkable.

That sums it up for me.

The Republicans have become so degenerate and so deranged that I have to oppose them, no matter how dissatisfied I am with Hillary or Obama.

I don’t care if Hillary and Obama crap in their hats and wear them backwards. I’ll vote for whichever one gets the nod because the fucking alternative is unthinkable.

Thirded. America can’t afford the Redoublechins anymore.

Um, doesn’t “salt of the earth” imply salting the earth, which makes growing anything impossible?

Neither of them is perfect, but either would be such a FUCKING improvement over what’s been destroying the goddam country for the last 8 years that it leaves me almost speechless to see the venom that’s being vented on so many of the liberal blogs.

I myself, and I would venture to say Brad too, don’t dispute in the slightest that either candidate would be an improvement…a mildly retarded bull well-intentioned baboon would be an improvement to the full-blown retarded and evil-intentioned chimpanzee currently occupying the White House.
However, I don’t see that this fact negates my right to recognize the depressing failures of our political campaign structure (a la Brad’s post – bullshit posturing by the candidates, the lazy-ass horserace covering press corps, the focus on perceived personality traits in place of actual substantive policy discussions), or the right to note that neither of my potential candidates actually lives up to the standards I’d like to see. Personally, I’d prefer my liberal candidate to be more…liberal. To be perfectly clear, I will cast my vote for whoever wins the Dem nod, and encourage everyone I know to do the same, because the alternative is too fucking terrible to contemplate. But, just because I’ve been served pizza with dogshit and cat vomit on it for the last 8 years doesn’t mean I’m gonna jump for joy when it starts showing up with just cat vomit.

I totally thought that MSNBC guy should have been fired for calling Chelsea a prostitute but is Hillary saying she has no problem giving me a blow job for $10? $20?

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…..

was that from the same paper that brought you “Gypsy asylum seekers are killing our babies and eating our swans”?

Yup. And some chick in Essex is pregnant with a Bigfoot baby.