Aug 22nd, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Let The Weekend Begin
I’m ready to say Ambinder FTW with this scooplet of a charter plane heading from Midway in Chicago to Delaware. Time to leave the office and go hit up some friends’ party so it’s possible that I won’t be able to make it immediately to the laptop when the announcement comes.
69 Responses to “Let The Weekend Begin”
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August 22nd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
I saw the same thing, but check out the headline on Drudge (yeah, yeah, I know).
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:35 pm
That “Obama/Bayh” bumper sticker screams unofficial–no “O” logo, and far too fucking ugly to have come from the Obama design team. But it does make me wish I’d had the foresight to mockup and place an order for a few hundred “Obama/Cheney” stickers, for the lulz.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Wrong font on that bumper sticker, too. Nah gah happa.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:55 pm
It’s a decent hike from Chicago to Springfield, young padawan.
We’ll know tomorrow at least — this story is making the Brett Favre saga seem downright interesting.
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Not to mention that putting the star in the middle of the 0, makes it look like a boob.
Bumper sticker company making stickers on spec . . . nice.
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Well, but David B.–how sure are you that it won’t be Obama/Favre?
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:06 pm
You know, the plane was in Des Moines on the 21st and earlier today, where Sebelius did her thing. Possible campaign-chartered jet? It’s more speculation, possibly more coincidence, but it fits.
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:11 pm
This whole thing has been such a boring fucking tease. Good god. We get it, no leaks. Blah blah blah who’s going to be Obama’s VP blah. What is being gained at this point? It’s just stupid.
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:18 pm
The SMS goes out at 8:01ET. Olbermann gets to break it.
And it’s planespotters plus the real-time flight data people FTW, potentially.
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Ambinder’s “scooplet” reminds me of Jeffrey Archer’s First Among Equals for some reason . . .
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Go live your life. Blogging the announcement can wait. It’s fucking Friday night, after all.
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:39 pm
This whole thing has gotten beyond stupid. Flight paths? If it really is Biden, then the campaign has done a very bad job in expectations management. There is no way that Biden, or almost anybody else, can match the hype that has been drummed up. I hear a thud coming.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Everybody’s wondering why you’d announce on a Friday night, because it’s such a bad point in the news cycle. But isn’t it a bad night for news because people are out socializing? They will still have their cell phones.
Maybe Obama’s hoping people will get their text message, announce the selection to everyone else at the BBQ/living room/softball game/car, and then explain why they like Obama. Then maybe somebody turns on a TV, everyone watches the adulatory coverage, and people get caught up in the positive group dynamics, as if they were at an Obama rally.
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Wow. A flight from Midway to Delaware. No question that this is it…
http://www.political-buzz.com/
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Biden looks likely. And I’m happy with Biden. (Would still enjoy a massive fakeout to anoint Schweitzer.)
Timing: I’ve come around to “this is so fun to watch.” Really, by the beginning of next week who will care about the hour at which the announcement was made? They’re letting the houses gaffe run until it’s out of steam; we’ll go into the veep pick and then the convention, and the last anyone heard of McCain he was confused about his homes. It works. Come on, any possible pick will have a fraction, less than half, shouting Yes!, another third or so mildly disappointed, and the remainder blogging about how dreadful it all is. This would have been true last week, this Tuesday, next Monday….Sit back and enjoy. CNN asks people to stay tuned in case they get to cover a text message. We’re live-blogging the lack of text message. (Freddie, in my defense, I went out to dinner but the service was really efficient, and we decided no movies really appealed.)
On It Must Be Hillary: Where’s the evidence Pumas want Hillary as veep? Last I heard their default position was that a veep offer would be a Slap In The Face To Hillary Clinton, who is overqualified yet asked to get behind a younger, cuter man. Seriously, there’s little evidence that the number of people who would vote if only she were behind the throne is greater than the number who would eagerly turn out to vote against a Clinton. This is more Dem what might have been mooniness, where every candidate looks wondrous and sparkly after a month or two of no attacks.
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:03 am
I’m logging in to call you a moron. You didn’t put a link to your blog in your last post at your other blog! So anyone who has that bookmarked, will not come here unless they feel like copy and paste.
This surely explains why Google has not found your new blog yet either.
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:28 am
Now I am ticked off that even though I signed up for a text message, I got the news first from Ambinder, TNR, and CNN. I am still waiting on that text. That blows.
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:06 am
3 AM text. AWWW SNAP!
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:13 am
Joe Biden?! the fuck!? This is the guy whose own presidential bid got flushed when he said O was “clean” — right?
This is like a bad parody of The Wire.
[OT: why no preview?]
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:26 am
Wow, Wikipedia had it up within minutes.
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:03 am
Well, it wasn’t Angelina Jolie, Summer Glau - or even Zhang Ziyi (although I think Michelle Yeoh has more experience) - so I don’t give a shit.
Obama’s going to lose anyway, so who cares? The real question is who is McCain’s VP - Dick Cheney?
August 23rd, 2008 at 7:44 am
As much as I hate to give Ambinder props on anything, I’ll admit he was onto something here. It was the Secret Service leak that really put it in the books for reporters though.
For the record, I’m very happy with the Biden pick. Smart, articulate, and sharp as hell, he’ll be a great partner in an Obama administration.
August 23rd, 2008 at 7:50 am
I’m not happy. Not with the credit card stuff, not with the partition of Iraq (worked in 1947!!), not with the fact that more than any Democrat, Biden has been in a position to change this country’s foreign policy during its years of disaster and if anything, he has exerted himself to keep the country on that path.
The one possible saving characteristic is that this pick might not be setting up the party’s next nominee. If that’s true, Biden might be a bit Cheneyesque, and that’s a good thing.
August 23rd, 2008 at 8:22 am
First Democratic ticket without a liberal on it in over 40 years.
August 23rd, 2008 at 8:24 am
“The real question is who is McCain’s VP”
If he’s smart, he goes with Palin.
August 23rd, 2008 at 8:32 am
Oh, goody.
After the American Idol-style build up, just more GOP-lite from the Obama camp. I have to agree with the AP- O looks weak and callow here. Actually, he is weak and callow, and Biden is as craven as they come.
The only change that MBNA Biden represents is that he is possibly the first veep choice with hair plugs.
What a charade, what a boneheaded, hoodwinking, bamboozling charade.
August 23rd, 2008 at 8:44 am
Yes, Petey,
And the first time I won’t vote for the D ticket in my life. The DNC and the GOP have finally melded- a pox on both houses.
Just call me ex-patriot. america represents nothing but war and conspicuous consumption now. The world will keep on dying and we will continue to do nothing to stop it.
We ain’t even seen ugly yet.
August 23rd, 2008 at 8:56 am
It’ll be interesting to see if Sirota is willing to repeat his previous and correct comments on Biden:
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:20 am
Well, it means that someone younger has a chance of representing Delaware’s 900,000 people and 327 million corporations.
Still, it’ll be interesting to see whether Petey will celebrate Joe Lieberman as the ‘liberal on the GOP ticket’ next week. Or whether he’ll chunter about Romney as a liberal. Because that’s the sort of thing a tedious grifter like Petey probably has planned already.
If you want to vote for some liberals, walk north until you hit Canada. Until then, deal with the tedious reality of American politics and fuck off.
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:32 am
A safe, unimaginative and uninspiring pick to placate the beltway establishment boys and Big Media types who have been screwing everything up so successfully for so long, and who easily mistake dumbass know-it-all bluster for insight and substance. Biden has a strong track record of peevish criticisms and self-promotion, but no strong record of actually getting things right.
All that brave talk about “change” now boils down to little more than a change of boxer shorts.
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:33 am
Way, way less bad a choice than I feared. As far as whether the ‘balancing’ ticket brings more (or any) votes than a ‘reinforcing’ ticket, I don’t know, you have to see what real evidence says. And since I wasn’t expecting the Democratic Party candidate to choose Joe Hill or Amy Goodman, this doesn’t to me signify any particular political ideology shift from Obama, who has represented the mainstream of Democratic Party center-liberalism from the beginning. At this moment it’s likely that Obama may govern more liberally (ie, rationally) than the Republican-policy implementing Clinton administration.
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:41 am
“If you want to vote for some liberals, walk north until you hit Canada. Until then, deal with the tedious reality of American politics and fuck off.”
The Dems have felt the need to put at least one liberal on the ticket in every election before this one for over 40 years. Even Carter, the most conservative nominee before Obama, put Mondale on the ticket.
You may be in favor of moving the Democratic Party to the right, pseudonymous in nc, but I’m not.
—–
And I’m quite wiling to deal with the tedious reality of American politics.
If Obama wins, nothing will get legislated, the Democratic Party will move dramatically to the right, and the GOP will pick up seats in 2010.
If McCain wins, nothing will get legislated, the Democratic Party will move somewhat to the left, and the Democrats will pick up seats in 2010.
Are you willing to deal with the tedious reality of American politics?
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:46 am
“A safe, unimaginative and uninspiring pick to placate the beltway establishment boys and Big Media types who have been screwing everything up so successfully for so long”
But Obama already has that front covered. Why the need to double down on that stuff with Biden?
August 23rd, 2008 at 9:58 am
If you want to vote for some liberals, walk north until you hit Canada. Until then, deal with the tedious reality of American politics and fuck off.
What pseudo said. Obama is as close to a liberal as we could get this time (unfortunately) - I remained unconvinced by HRC. The basic problem is the Democratic party itself, not some big problem specific to Obama. Obama is dealing with the situation as it is, not as it should be.
Also agree with El Cid: Biden is a much better choice than several others it could’ve been, though of course I agree with Petey that his water-carrying for the credit card/banking industry produced a result which is, to put it mildly, illiberal. However, it’s not as if Biden were doing that as the Senator from, say, Ohio. He is from Delaware, after all. Our Legal Bribery way of doing campaigns is a problem no matter which reigon or office you’re talking about.
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:09 am
I can’t believe the AP would be so tone-deaf as to say it’s a sign Obama doesn’t have confidence. He has the confidence that he can take on someone as bright, as loquatious, and experienced as Biden–and make him clearly second place.
The usual internet jerks are going to complain–see Petey, supra. and the high comedy at talk left–but all in all, it’s a good pick. I understand what Obama’s doing, and it’s the right thing. The change message isn’t negated–he’s instead co-opting a man who’s been in the senate for more than half his life in its service.
Anyway, Obama’s gotten this far, let’s trust his judgment
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:18 am
“I understand what Obama’s doing, and it’s the right thing.”
Agreed. I’m just in favor of doing the left thing.
“The usual internet jerks are going to complain–see Petey”
I think I have a much higher IQ than you do.
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:44 am
I think I have a much higher IQ than you do.
We know you do. In the midst of your blizzard of incorrect predictions, dishonest and tendentious arguments, absurd assertions and general stupidity, your conviction in your own superior intelligence is the constant in your posts. However many times you’re proven wrong, we can count on you popping up again acting as though you’re some kind of infallible seer.
It’s actually hugely entertaining. The fool who thinks he’s a genius is one of the great comic tropes, and if the pathetic role of being the Wile E. Coyote of the comment threads suits you, why not go with it?
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:04 am
“It’s actually hugely entertaining. The fool who thinks he’s a genius is one of the great comic tropes, and if the pathetic role of being the Wile E. Coyote of the comment threads suits you, why not go with it?”
I believe you are missing the joke…
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:06 am
If Obama wins, nothing will get legislated, the Democratic Party will move dramatically to the right, and the GOP will pick up seats in 2010.
Nothing will get legislated? With both houses of congress and Obama as President? If anything, the fear is too much crap will be legislated.
I think the GOP will pick up seats in 2010 either way; they’ve gotta be close to bottoming out. Once Bush clears out they’ll be able to form a more coherent party line.
I think I have a much higher IQ than you do.
Well played.
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:12 am
You may be in favor of moving the Democratic Party to the right, pseudonymous in nc, but I’m not.
You may be in favor of fucking goats, Petey, but I’m not.
See? You spin a tedious line of rhetorical shite, and you’d have been toasting the liberal bouquet of Evan Bayh’s manjuice had Clinton not run a shoddy campaign. Now go and set up your find-the-lady stall on the street corner.
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:16 am
I think I have a much higher IQ than you do.
But can you pee farther? How childish.
And calling Obama “safe, unimaginative and uninspiring” is just beyond stupid. Hate on him all you want, but even you’ve said he’s not those things throughout the primary.
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:22 am
Petey — when Biden said he had a higher IQ than his questioner, he was plagarizing Neil Kinnock. Seriously, arguing about Biden losing his temper in 1987 is not particularly responsive to the argument that you’re complaining just to complain.
Biden’s actually on balance proved himself as a fairly bright one, and it’s to Obama’s credit that he’s not going to seek to have a VP to reinforce his views, so reading the tea leaves and trying to impute all of Biden’s senate votes to Obama is a tad silly.
My IQ happens to be quite low — it’s just that I’m a total idiot savant at parroting socially acceptable Northeastern corridor latte liberal opinions.
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:24 am
“you’d have been toasting the liberal bouquet of Evan Bayh’s manjuice”
Bayh would have been an even more unbelievably bad choice than Biden.
I understand lefties confuse you, pseudonymous in nc, but it’s not really that complex. While personality politics predominates in the blogosphere, I care about ideology.
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:26 am
“Petey — when Biden said he had a higher IQ than his questioner, he was plagarizing Neil Kinnock”
I knew Neil Kinnock. Neil Kinnock was a friend of mine. Joe Biden is no Neil Kinnock.
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:28 am
I can’t believe the AP would be so tone-deaf as to say it’s a sign Obama doesn’t have confidence. He has the confidence that he can take on someone as bright, as loquatious, and experienced as Biden–and make him clearly second place.
The AP is right. For months, whenever Obama said anything that has remotely approached a challenge to conventional beltway opinion on foreign policy, the criticism has gone out that this shows he is too inexperienced to be commander-in-chief. With this pick, Obama just said, “You’re right. I guess I need an old guy beltway insider.” Not a good message to send.
And I would take issue with the notion that Biden is “bright”. Drawing on my Irish ancestry, I would peg Biden as one of those guys with the “gift of gab.” It’s a talent, but not one necessarily correlated with high intelligence. Biden was, in fact, a rather ppor student in both college and law school.
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:42 am
“Nothing will get legislated? With both houses of congress and Obama as President? If anything, the fear is too much crap will be legislated.”
With universal healthcare off the table, yes, I think nothing significant would get legislated in the ‘09-’10 Congress under Obama.
Card check isn’t going to get cloture. Global warming legislation isn’t going anywhere.
We’re likely to get a minor hike in tax rates for $250k+, and maybe a minor expansion in S-CHIP. And while those are both laudable, I’m not sure that will be enough to balance out the inevitable loss in House and Senate seats that would come along with the Presidency.
I’m also of the opinion that the next four years are not going to be happy economic years, and whichever party holds the WH is going to have further problems in 2012.
“I think the GOP will pick up seats in 2010 either way; they’ve gotta be close to bottoming out.”
I believe the party holding the WH has picked up Congressional seats in 3 out of the last 50 off-term elections. The odds are strongly in favor of the party not holding the WH.
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I understand lefties confuse you, pseudonymous in nc, but it’s not really that complex.
I understand that goats provide an irresistible attraction to you, Petey, but it’s not really that complex. Now, if you want to turn this into a game of redder-than-thou, I’m happy to play, especially if you’re putting your money where your big con-merchant’s mouth is.
(And if you did actually know Neil Kinnock, grifter-boy, was it in his days as an MP, or his days leading the unbeatable quiz team at Churchill’s in Brussels? Which isn’t quite the same as winning an election, but there you go.)
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
“Now, if you want to turn this into a game of redder-than-thou, I’m happy to play”
Considering that you supported the most conservative Democratic nominee since Jimmy Carter during this year’s primaries, I think that’s a game you shouldn’t play.
La gauche, c’est moi.
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Gauche? Yeah.
Politics is the art of the possible. Grifting is the art of the con. If you can come up with a bullshit way to reanimate Tommy Douglas and run a brain-swap with an American politician, go ahead and fucking do it.
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:18 pm
“Politics is the art of the possible. Grifting is the art of the con. If you can come up with a bullshit way to reanimate Tommy Douglas and run a brain-swap with an American politician, go ahead and fucking do it.”
I already did.
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Ah, no. That’s “fucking, then go ahead and do it”. Want to have another go with No True Scotsman? You’re at least mediocre with that line.
August 23rd, 2008 at 6:18 pm
“Ah, no. That’s “fucking, then go ahead and do it”. Want to have another go with No True Scotsman? You’re at least mediocre with that line.”
With such a Republican approach to sexual morality, pseudonymous in nc, you are no true lefty.
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