“It’s a great place to live, but I wouldn’t want to visit there.” —Will Rogers
President-elect Barack Obama is still deciding, but Transition Team member, Mayor Villaraigosa, candidate for mayor, is pro-Israel all the way, baby:
No country would sit silently while innocent families are threatened and civilian lives are at risk. … Israel is no different. It must act against the Hamas leaders targeting the innocent. And it must be allowed to exercise its right and responsibility to defend itself.
Polls close March 3, 2009 at 8 PM.
Obama’s Senate seat for sale. Illinois governor arrested:
The criminal complaint filed today against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich contains a remarkable section detailing the Democratic politician’s alleged attempt to cash in on his ability to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.
Update:
When political news breaks, I like to check in on MSNBC. Unfortunately, people often set MSNBC as their browser home page and even rely on it as their sole internet news source; it’s helpful to know what your friends and colleagues are absorbing. Anyway, today MSNBC didn’t disappoint, tempering the arrest of Illinois’ governor on corruption charges with the latest news on Larry Craig’s bathroom shenanigans.
Sadly, the Right has ‘em too and similarly indulges them for election support. Politico:
Liberals are growing increasingly nervous – and some just flat-out angry – that President-elect Barack Obama seems to be stiffing them on Cabinet jobs and policy choices.
Obama has reversed pledges to immediately repeal tax cuts for the wealthy and take on Big Oil. He’s hedged his call for a quick drawdown in Iraq. And he’s stocking his White House with anything but stalwarts of the left.
Now some are shedding a reluctance to puncture the liberal euphoria at being rid of President George W. Bush to say, in effect, that the new boss looks like the old boss.
Meanwhile, I’m cautiously warming up to the guy.
Rick Caruso will not run for mayor this time around:
…while I am genuinely grateful for all the encouragement I have received from people all over this city to run for mayor and the confidence they put in me, I have decided that the obligation of serving as mayor would put a burden on my family that is too much at this point in their lives and, as a result, I will not be a candidate in the upcoming campaign for mayor. Having worked closely with Mayors in the past, I understand the commitment necessary to properly fill that role, and it is not the right time for me to commit myself wholly to the City at the expense of my family, particularly my young children…
Yesterday, Mayor Villaraigosa made formal his bid for re-election. Today, he’s in Chicago, meeting with President-elect Barack Obama as a member of Obama’s Transition Economic Advisory Board — a group described as “experts on the economy” and whose members include Warren Buffett and several former Treasury Secretaries.
Right or wrong, the LA Times is again at the center of a storm in the final days of a big election; this time, for what the paper won’t publish. Politico blogger Ben Smith is right: the Times’ explanation for not releasing the Obama/Khalidi video is a hard one to argue with, but that doesn’t make the explanation any more plausible.
Three Drudge headlines suggest a return to the dirty, divisive politics of the Clinton ’90s.
Anne Applebaum’s reasoning is like mine: the “rapidly deteriorating, increasingly anti-intellectual, no longer even recognizably conservative Republican Party.”
…if [McCain's independent] traits appealed to me, I’m guessing they would have appealed to other independents, too. Why, then, has McCain spent the last four months running away from them? The appointment of Sarah Palin—inspired by his closest colleagues—turned out not to be a “maverick” move but, rather, a concession to those Republicans who think foreign policy can be conducted using a series of clichés and those in his party who shout down the federal government while quietly raking in federal subsidies.
This two-year election cycle is ending predictably, with each side seeking (and drawing out) the worst in the other—common sense and reason were buried weeks ago. With any luck, it’ll all be over in seven days, but until then, the election will continue inducing fantastic cognitive aberrations.
I was station-surfing on the drive in this morning and flipped to KPWR just in time to catch Marconi-winning host, Big Boy repeat as truth (on his nationally syndicated radio show) the discredited claim that someone shouted “he’s a nigger” at a Sarah Palin rally in Iowa.
Big Boy used the word on air for maximum impact and then spent several minutes along with a co-host bemoaning the ignorant stink of our rotten society, before ending the segment asserting that opposition to Senator Obama’s candidacy “isn’t about taxes,” but rather, “skin color.”
Hizzoner, his sycophants, and the DNC planners can deny it, but the evidence is clear. Representative Xavier Becerra was given a major speaking role while the mayor of Los Angeles was dispatched to a small steel town, 100 miles south of Denver. There’s no other way to read it—especially considering his prime speaking slot as councilmember in 2004.
Three possibilities attempt to explain why Mayor Villaraigosa was snubbed: a) Hillary, b) Mirthala, or c) the mysterious decline of his oratory skills.
The first explanation—payback for his vocal support for Hillary—doesn’t hold water because it violates a central tenet of the 2008 DNC: Democrat Unity. In reality, Villaraigosa’s candidate-molt would seem all the more reason to get him on stage.
The real reason is found in a recent Washington Times op-ed, which noted, Villaraigosa wasn’t the only Democrat up-and-comer quarantined last week. John Edwards, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick were all hidden from the convention, stained by the dye:
Call girls, little white lies, big fat fibs, wavering loyalties, wincing spouses, unfortunate remarks, questionable use of campaign funds and, yes, one possible love child.
DNC planners clearly wanted a clean show leading up to an uncharacteristically conservative Family message in Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, and an unfortunate joint appearance with John Edwards just hours before Edwards was chased through the halls of the Beverly Hilton by National Enquirer photogs did nothing to help Villaraigosa move beyond his own problems.
