He Might Go 8 for 8
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It’s also another way George Bush has dumbed down standards. You don’t start unnecessary wars as President of the United States and it’s now an accomplishment.
2009
When You Reference Amos ‘n Andy to Find a Comparable Figure to the President
You are an old racist who needs his family to take away his keyboard:
In 2008 it seemed to many that Obama was the embodiment of sweet reason on race: a highly cultured Sidney Poitier type who starred in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”-the 1967 soft-liberal rendition that showed us a black physician who was every bit as sophisticated as the upper-class family played by Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. But to many Obama has emerged as a dangerously unskilled president…maimed by his soft-hidden but nevertheless demonstrable black radicalism…to show himself as an immature, consummate narcissist really uneducated-and for all his suavity–a boob. He’s wearing very thin.
He’s even wearing thin with the Left: Howard Fineman of Newsweek and George Herbert of The New York Times editorial page…not to mention Frank Rich of the NYT. In short he’s beginning to be lampooned on Saturday Night Live as an unskilled orator who substitutes speech-ifying for strategy. With his speeches, he is coming very close to the caricature of Algonquin J. Calhoun, the fast-talking lawyer on radio and TV’s old Amos `n Andy…someone who can stretch definitions beyond the breaking point. Lawyer Calhoun was an egotist too…remember, people who are old enough?… who believed he could spin words faster than listeners could compute.
Ayers ‘Admitted’ Writing Obama’s Book Before!
Imagine lots of caps and hysterical run on sentences with the build up to this from Dave Weigel:
Jonah Goldberg steps back from the “Bill Ayers wrote Obama’s memoir” conspiracy after catching an Oct. 3 writeup of an Ayers speech. It appeared in National Journal, behind a pay wall, so few people saw it as Annie Leary’s “scoop” flitted around the blogosphere.
When he finished speaking, we put the authorship question right to him. For a split second, Ayers was nonplussed. Then an Abbie Hoffmanish, steal-this-book-sort-of-smile lit up his face. He gently took National Journal by the arm. “Here’s what I’m going to say. This is my quote. Be sure to write it down: ‘Yes, I wrote Dreams From My Father. I ghostwrote the whole thing. I met with the president three or four times, and then I wrote the entire book.’” He released National Journal’s arm, and beamed in Marxist triumph. “And now I would like the royalties.”
Ayers is messing with conservatives. People he’s duped so far: Jonah Goldberg, his mother Lucianne Goldberg, Tom Maguire, Dennis Byrne, Carol Platt Lieblau, and a bunch of other conservatives, some of whom try to split the difference by suggesting that Ayers is revealing a little bit of truth behind the sarcasm. How embarrassing.
One reason that I suspected Ayers of messing with people? He’s done it to me. In 2001, I met him at a book signing, joined by a few fellow college students who were attempting to nail him on the then-hot controversy of his comments that he wished he’d made more bombs–comments that happened to appear in the 9/11/01 edition of the New York Times. Ayers messed with us, joking back and forth, giving us a map of Afghanistan, and signing my copy of the book with a happy left-wing message.
Scott Turow long ago explained such interpretations in Presumed Innocent:
“Your Honor,” says Nico, “the man admitted the crime.”
“Oh, Mr. Delay Guardia,” says Judge Lyttle. “Really! You see, that is my point. You tell a man he’s engaged in wrongdoing and he says, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ Everyone recognizes that’s facetious. We all are familiar with that. Now, in my neighborhood, had Mr. Sabich come from those parts, he would have said, ‘Yo’ momma.'”
There is broad laugher in the courtroom. Larren has scored again. He sits on the bench, laughing himself.
“But you know, in Mr. Sabich’s part of town, I would think people say, ‘Yeah, you’re right.’ and what they mean is ‘You are wrong.'” Pausing. “To be polite.”
J-Ry is Back!
Jim Ryan is a decent guy and wouldn’t make a bad Governor. He’s obviously on the other side on several issues, but he’s an adult and has seldom been tolerant of the crazy wing. That said, I remember 2002–I was blogging in 2002 and the only question about his campaign was whether it worse than Topinka’s in 2006. It was remarkably awful with his message of the day for a couple days being that he wanted to be referred to as JRyan in newspaper articles and not just as Ryan so as not to be confused with George Ryan. Thus, G-Ry and J-Ry was born in the hey days of J-Lo. Would he have been better than Blagojevich? Duh, yeah. No one questions his personal character, but his political skills as a campaigner are not great.
But that’s not the question this time and he’d be facing an increasingly right wing Illinois Republican Party. He knows that wing, they targeted him in the 2002 primary with Patrick O’Malley challenging him from the right and then refusing to endorse him in the general election.
He also has the unfortunate distinction of having been beaten by both Rod Blagojevich and Roland Burris statewide. If he runs he’ll be fighting for an establishment vote in the GOP that is shrinking in favor of movement conservatives. The establishment wing includes three from DuPage with J-Ry, Schillerstrom, and Dillard. Add in McKenna who is an establishment candidate and all of a sudden Bill Brady looks like he has a good shot. Or if God loves me enough–Dan Proft.
The Olympics Problem
The weird gloating over Chicago losing the Olympics has been covered pretty well in general and while I was skeptical of the bid, I found the gloating about the loss kinda weird to say the least.
But what it really reminded me is that conservatives always ruin a good target. Take for examples:
1) France. France was long the favorite in political science to kick around for being a pain the ass. Whether it be ruining the post-war financial system to hampering NATO, France was always a fun target for ridicule until moron right wingers decided to get in on it weren’t funny. Worse, France actually got something right in opposing the Iraqi war.
2) ACORN. ACORN Housing is a very effective and incredible non-profit that mitigated the impact of the housing crisis in low-income neighborhoods and even coined the term predatory lending. ACORN, the general organization, wore out most of its usefulness years ago at least in Chicago and Saint Louis. In Saint Louis I ran fairly consistent criticism of them when they were turning in bad voter registration cards without auditing them. While they had to turn over all of the cards, the organization was not checking them first to give local election boards a heads up on the problems potentially in there creating extra work for underfunded and overworked election boards. Additionally ACORN often didn’t discipline the workers and acted as if it was all out of their control. That turned around in about 2005 in Saint Louis.
On top of all of this was a general incompetence. We used to see blast faxes come out of the ACORN office in Saint Louis that were for the Yaphett El-Amin campaign and Lizz Brown’s crusades which the first is certainly a violation of Missouri campaign finance law, and the second has several issues since Lizz Brown often was pay-to-play for campaigns. Finally, they couldn’t have organized a lunch run at a fat farm.
All of a sudden conservatives started hearing about them and we get outlandish attacks not tethered to reality. Calling local ACORNS a part of a large criminal conspiracy as organizations assumes they quality as organizations and not train wrecks.
3) The Chicago Olympics. Did anyone think Daley’s allies wouldn’t receive kickbacks and sweetheart deals? Hell no. Did anyone think it would make a strict profit (not including spillover effects for the tourism industry). Hell no. Did anyone think it would be fun to watch Richard Daley try to be eloquent before the world? Hell yes. I wasn’t strongly against nor strongly for the Olympics, but saw it is one of those Daley projects that ranting against just gets my blood pressure up for no reason. But the great humor involved in a potential Chicago Olympics was rich.
Until the conservatives started trying to make Chicago sound like a giant conspiracy headed by Barack Obama. Obama was an outsider in Chicago politics who Daley wanted to see win the Presidency because the worst thing that could happen was if Obama decided he wanted to be Governor, or something really powerful like Mayor. Daley and Obama cooperated out of convenience, but Obama was never a machine guy, but a guy who the machine was able to tolerate while being wary of him. So again, in a humor target rich environment, wingnuts couldn’t find the actual humor and instead found weird conspiracy theories, many with DeLeo at the center which is even weirder.
Daily Dolt: The Backyard Conservative
Then, unprompted he said–I wrote Dreams From My Father. I said, oh, so you admit it. He said–Michelle asked me to. I looked at him. He seemed eager. He’s about my height, short. He went on to say–and if you can prove it, we can split the royalties. So I said, stop pulling my leg. Horrible thought. But he came again–I really wrote it, the wording was similar. I said I believe you probably heavily edited it. He said–I wrote it. I said–why would I believe you, you’re a liar.
He had no answer to that. Just looked at me. Then he turned and walked off, and said again his bit about my proving it andsplitting the proceeds.
Ayers thinks you are a moron. He is correct.
Senate Finance Numbers In
Kirk $1.6 Million Raised $2.3 Million On Hand
Hoffman $405,00 raised $905,000 On Hand $500,000 Personal Funds
Giannoulias $1.1 Million Raised $2.4 Million On Hand
Hoffman will need to significantly increase the amount of money he raises. While he can throw a lot more of his own money into the race, fundraising on its own can be a strong organizational tool and he appears to have none. He also is looking for a campaign manager which isn’t unprecedented:
1. U.S. Senate Candidate David Hoffman-Campaign Manager
U.S. Senate Candidate, David Hoffman, Democrat from Illinois, is looking for a Campaign Manager. Candidates must have significant campaign experience including having served as manager in statewide campaigns. Candidates must have experience in managing large budgets, staff and consultants and the ability to quickly put together an effective campaign organization. Please email all resumes to info@hoffmanforillinois.com.
(October 2nd)
There doesn’t appear to be a clear campaign structure though as with other campaigns.
Hynes on Kos
At 11 AM liveblogging.
When You Take a Dump on Your Allies
The other party points out what an idiot you are:
David Hoffman Plays Both Sides on SEIU
Today Hoffman blasted Alexi Giannoulias for accepting SEIU support…
…after being endorsed and introduced by an SEIU-backed legislator!
CHICAGO – The Illinois Republican Party today called on Illinois Senate candidate David Hoffman to renounce his endorsement by Illinois State Senator Jeff Schoenberg – a leading recipient of SEIU campaign contributions and the man who introduced Hoffman at his campaign kick-off event.
Earlier today, Hoffman blasted his opponent, Alexi Giannoulias, for accepting the endorsement of SEIU:
“…the union leadership that was Blago’s biggest supporter and whose president was completely enmeshed in the controversy over Rod’s attempt to sell this Senate seat. (He even appears on the infamous Blagojevich wiretap!) You can bet Giannoulias will sit silently on the dais and smile broadly as he receives the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) leadership, just as he did when the Blagojevich controversy first surfaced. He doesn’t rock the boat, and he’s no doubt excited about stepping up to the same trough that netted Blagojevich more than a million dollars in campaign cash.”
But earlier this month, Hoffman was endorsed and introduced by State Sen. Jeff Schoenberg at his Senate campaign kick-off. According to the Illinois State Board of Elections, Schoenberg accepted $13,400 in campaign contributions from SEIU. In addition, state records show Schoenberg also contributed $12,500 to Rod Blagojevich’s campaign.
“David Hoffman can’t have it both ways when it comes to Rod Blagojevich and SEIU,” Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady said. “When you do business with Illinois Democrats, you do business with Rod Blagojevich and the SEIU. If David Hoffman is serious about changing Illinois, he should call on Jeff Schoenberg to return all SEIU campaign contributions or else renounce his endorsement.”
Steele Backs Out of Sole Endorsement of Kirk
Tom Roeser is reporting that Steele is withdrawing his endorsement of Kirk in the Republican Primary. Now, given the loopiness of Michael Steele, it’s hard to say if this means much, but I still contend, Mark Kirk may have a serious primary to face. I definitely think he is a favorite for a primary, but the right wing base hates him and a conservative challenger has a very good shot at knocking him off. I’m not sure that will be Hughes, but if you are a conservative Republican in Illinois seeing opportunity right now, that race is ripe for a serious challenger. And if not, Hughes may turn into a serious candidate.