It may seem a bit obvious that Ron Paul's presence has created headaches for John McCain and the GOP in general. He's been like an anti-war thorn in the side of the right wing radicals that have co-opted all good sense in the Republican Party and supplanted it with totalitarianism. Paul has served in Congress as a Republican over the years although his positions on key issues certainly would seem to stand at odds with the current administration.
His 1988 Libertarian Party run at the presidency fell a distant 3rd to George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis, but he has attracted flocks of followers over the years for his ability to corner the market on a political identity that speaks to more than a few conservative minded citizens out there.
So, at long last we have come to the end of the road, insofar as the primary race goes. The dreaded "brokered convention" is no longer a possibility, in either Party's case (if you'll remember, it was the Republicans who were initially destined for a convention floor battle). Now, as we shift our focus to the general election, I want to take a moment to share some of my favorite memories of this primary campaign.
I want to start out by saying how incredible this race was for someone my age (26) to watch. In every single Presidential Race of my lifetime, at least one of the two Party's had their nominee going into the primary (sorry Bill Bradley, but it's the truth). So many people from both sides of the aisle seemed to have a realistic shot at one time or another for their Party's nomination this time around, it made for one incredible race.
So incredible, in fact, that it'll take me at least two shots to get everything in. Part I will take us from last December through Super Tuesday. So, here are my memories from this campaign during that timespan.
Carbon Angel claims that they are "dedicated to life on earth through tax-deductable contributions". But, will those contributions really help "strike a carbon balance"? The devil is in the details. For instance, one of Carbon Angel's projects is an "emerging technology" proposed by an inventor "whose biggest accomplishments are a fire-breathing giant robot and a flying beverage can cooler."
I know this may be a few months late, but I hope you all get the joke here.
Before the inevitable slimming down of the field of presidential candidates, I was really shocked how many of them entered in around the end of 2006/early 2007, to where Jon Stewart dubbed it "Clusterf**k to the White House". My term is basically, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Election", with a premise pretty much similar to the Stanley Kramer classic, with a huge ensemble cast!
The basic premise is that Jimmy Durante/George W. Bush, on the run, aged, and gravely injured from a car crash on the desert highway, tells the candidates about the Big W (The White House) and first one there wins!
Following the ABC whatever-it-was (I refuse to call it a debate) I started looking for flag pins. I don’t Google so I used ask.com and did the same kind of search for each candidate, first name, last name. What I came up with is hardly a diary but it seems a bit too long for a comment. If it's not right, I'll take it down. (Help with tags is always appreciated!)
Now, I can't make any well-reported accusations. I'm just a citizen-blogger, another individual with nothing more than a keyboard and an Internet connections. I do know that members of the media are not allowed into political fund-raisers. I certainly know tape recorders are not allowed.
I just saw this in the Melville Deacon. Haven't seen another diary on it, so I thought I would copy and paste the story in full. Should I add "Breaking"?
The article under discussion is from the online edition of the evangelical weekly news magazine, The World. It’s of interest because it’s a rarity: an extended account of the Republican presidential nomination struggle from the perspective of members of the Council For National Policy—a secretive national organization that has acquired the power to make or break Republican presidential candidates.
(continued)
I almost saw Fred at a Bojangles in South Carolina right before he went back to sleep/dropped out. I was down there campaigning for Obama and hit up a black neighborhood in the Columbia suburbs in the pouring, cold, rain. My literature got absolutely destroyed. However, every single person I canvassed was for Obama-that's when I started feeling really good about his chances, although Nevada was somewhat of a disappointment.
Anyway, enough about me. Fred has decided to ignore his great-grandchildren
and spend his time destroying America via the big screen.
My favorite Fred moment was this one, where he was briefly awake.
Facing growing pressure to renounce the anti-Catholic bigotry of End Times Pastor John Hagee, John McCain on Friday resorted to that most Republican of accountability avoidance tactics, the Unpology. Desperate to reassure Catholic voters without alienating Hagee's evangelical voters, McCain offered only the façade of contrition by conditionally repudiating Hagee's inflammatory comments only "if they are anti-Catholic or offensive to Catholics."
I don’t intend to be a frequent diarist or commenter, I will never use the word "Breaking" in a title, I will not comment on polls, Rush, or Fox and I will militate against providing links – for factual verification, start with Wikipedia, work outbound from there. These are simply my thoughts; do with them as you will.
Now that the Republican race is over, our Producer, Jayar Jackson, put together a "One Shining Moment" tribute to their goofiest moments in the primaries. Watch it here:
John McCain may think he has the GOP nomination all wrapped up, but he still has to contend with Alan Keyes who flexed his political muscle in Texas by easily getting more votes than Congressman Duncan Hunter and Rudy Giuliani.
Keyes received 8,586 votes, over 300 more than Duncan Hunter and over 2000 more than Mayor 911.
Admittedly, Keyes did get fewer votes than either Fred Thompson or Mitt Romney, but there's still enough hot air left in the old gas bag to blow a few wind gusts in McCain's direction.
Summary: As you've probably heard by now, if you're running for President, but you don't wear a flag pin...you might hate America. Mr. Obama is the latest person to find this out the hard way.
I want to explore the kind of people who think like this, because it's actually a larger phenomenon that I've been following for some time.
Unfortunately, the diary didn’t get much notice, but I thought it was such a fun idea that I ran with it, and came up with the following. The only rule I made for myself is to take it seriously—no cartoon characters, no dead actors; all of the choices have to be current, professional film or TV actors. Feel free to toss your own ideas into the ring; I know that I’m way off on at least some of my choices, but what the hell...
