The presidential race is certainly heating up. This youtube clip is a devastating indictment of McCain by one of my favorite statesmen, Colin Powell. It is heartening to see that Colin Powell actually gives voice to the “disenfranchised” Republican. The Republican party had an opportunity to remake itself in this election cycle, it chose not to. I suspect devastating losses in November as a result.

Colin Powell, his words are wise, enjoy.

DNC will no longer take lobbyist, PAC money

This is going to be one hell of a race. I wonder how and if the Republicans will respond.

“Almost all that any politician says on any topic other than political strategy should be treated with even less respect than would be accorded a professional circus-clown’s speculations about string theory.”

You have to love it when someone gets to the heart of an issue. The rest of the post is pretty good as well.

Morris hammers home the point that a fight for the nomination all the way to the Democratic Convention would serve to steal the thunder of McCain. He (McCain) would be drowned out of the front page by the shenanigans of the Democratic candidates and would be unable to really focus on either potential Democratic candidate, a very interesting and astute observation.

The fear is that Hilary’s attacks on Obama would serve to somehow damage him going into the full Presidential campaign. According to Morris, Hilary has no shot at really hurting Obama & the DNC Delegates would be absolutely crazy to nominate her. If the Democratic nominee is up for grabs all the way to the convention & Obama was crowned at the convention there would be a massive upsurge in his popularity (indeed Morris believes an insurmountable upsurge). That upswing could last the remaining nine weeks to the actual election and Obama could walk away with all the marbles.

Fascinating analysis.

UPDATE: Lessig decided not to run….

The Republicans, on the other hand, are a total mess. Consumed by discussions of evolution vs. creationism (are they nuts?), inexplicable shifts in position (Rudy is suddenly anti Roe v Wade, wtf), McCain’s shift the the religious, and an evangelical Minister as a frontrunner (we need LESS not MORE religion). The only way this bunch of Republican yahoos could win the White House is if the Democrats destroy themselves in the primaries. Unfortunately I wouldn’t put self-destruction past the Dems as they have proven quite adept at that.

Back to Obama though, the other piece of news is Caroline Kennedy’s brilliant endorsement in the New York Times titled A President Like My Father. I believe her endorsement may be the strongest endorsement a Kennedy has given to a candidate in recent times.

Barring any last minute entrants (Bloomberg?) Obama may be getting my vote…

Carter & Mondale’s re-definition continued through both Republican and Democratic Presidencies. Mondale argues that Dick Cheney has re-defined the office yet again. According to Mondale (& I heartily agree), Cheney’s re-definition has taken the VP office in a disturbing direction, from trusted advisor to a powerful political office that attempts to actually limit the policy options presented to the President.

Yet another scathing examination of a Presidency in tatters. What will be the future ramifications of Cheney’s Vice Presidency? Who knows? The best possible outcome is that it is forgotten, a grimmer possibility is a permanent politicization of the office and for future Presidents the loss of another trusted objective voice.

I am not a big fan of Moore’s work but Sicko is a profound moving movie with an effectively delivered and important message. American healthcare needs to be reformed and it needs to be reformed sooner rather than later. Hopefully our politicians will wake up and do something and if they don’t Sicko may wake up enough people to prompt some action. I highly recommend Sicko and I hope Moore stays out of politics.

These are strong words coming from me, if you peruse some of my posts from that time you will find that in general I was quite hawkish. (As an aside, how do I feel now? I was lied to, I was manipulated, I was used, so was my country, and our soldiers. The war should have never occurred and the administration did everything in its power to fool its own citizens. I am deeply pissed off and ashamed I didn’t question the party line more. I showed my wrath last election and will show it the next one as well.)

In any case, Bill Moyers “Buying the War” is a stunning first show for the new Bill Moyers Journal series on PBS. Its programs like this that make me glad I have a tv. You can watch is online as well over at http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html.

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Barack Obama announces his "Presidential Exploratory Comittee"

Barack is an incredible guy, he is quite likeable and may give all comers a real run for their money. His life has been a classic immigrant's tale of overcoming. Born to a white mother and a black immigrant father from Kenya, he epitomizes what is best in America. His embrace of the African-American experience will garner him support from the African American community (although there appears to be murmurs that the traditional African American leaders like Al Sharpton & Jesse Jackson may not approve) and his championing of traditional American values will win him many white supporters (not to mention more than a few Republican defectors sick of the cesspool the party has become). Hopefully he will be able to live up to the ideals he frequently talks about, he has a real chance at changing the face of Washington.

Obama's oft mentioned weaknesses, his inexperience and youth, may also turn into his greatest strengths and allow him to differentiate himself from the typical calcified Washington political hack. If he is elected (or even if he wins the primary) it could signal the handover of power to a new generation, similar to Clinton's win in 1992. How different? Anyone's guess at this point, although honesty will hopefully play a big part (in a brilliant move Obama has publicly admitted to using cocaine in his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind", how is that for honesty). Another similarity with Clinton is that they both have the ability to mesmerize an audience, Obama's keynote at the 2004 Democratic Convention was a superb example of that. It is absolutely critical that Obama use the momentum he now has to educate the people as to his plans for America, in particular Iraq & the war on terror, and resist knee-jerk responses.

John Edwards has announced and now Obama has made the presidential race just a little more crowded. Lets hope they stick to the high road.

These are our goverment officials who are supposed to foster innovation and help the US be a world leader in technology. Sorry, I'm too busy laughing, tubes… 

Ever since September 11, the subtext of this war could be summed up as something like, “Suburban Jason, with his iPod, godlessness, and earring, loves to live too much to die, while Ali, raised as the 11th son of an impoverished but devout street-sweeper in Damascus, loves death too much to live.” The Iranians, like bin Laden, promulgate this mythical antithesis, which, like all caricatures, has elements of truth in it. But what the Iranians, like the al Qaedists, do not fully fathom, is that Jason, upon concluding that he would lose not only his iPod and earring, but his entire family and suburb as well, is capable of conjuring up things far more frightening than anything in the 8th-century brain of Mr. Ahmadinejad. Unfortunately, the barbarity of the nightmares at Antietam, Verdun, Dresden, and Hiroshima prove that well enough.

I simply love that paragraph. Read it again and digest what it says. Look at history, during the last century far too many barbaric brutal dictators made the same mistake and miscalculated the ability of the west to meet the challenge. For all our problems I don’t believe the west has anything to fear, we are inevitably sliding into a world where many more billions are going to be tormented by trying to decide which iPod to buy. And if you ask me that is far better than any alternative offered by any petty third world dictator.

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