Month: August 2008

If you saw Obama’s speech last night, this hits the bullseye — Here’s Mickey Kaus writing in Slate about Obama’s speech last night:

“Why the slow, angsty movie-music at the end? I thought someone in the Politburo had died.”

As the tears that fell like holy water enrich the grass on Invesco Field, the lepers enjoy their new healthy bodies and the stadium janitors clean up loaves and fishes scraps following the speech by The One (the thing was so theatric that they backdrop should instead have been a replica of Broadway), we await the announcement of John McCain’s veep choice.

Word is that at least a couple of those who were under consideration will be in Dayton today for McCain’s noon announcement. Pawlenty cancelled some appearances today, but there are reports of Secret Service sweeps of Romney’s home here in Michigan (which was the same dead giveaway that pointed to Biden for the Dems).

I’m hoping that earlier reports that it was Pawlenty aren’t true (he’s fairly conservative, but “global warming” Kool-Aid drinkers make me nervous).

Here are who I hope is McCain’s choice in order of preference:

1) Romney
2) Palin
3) Pawlenty
4) A conservative “dark horse”
[…]
78) Tom Ridge
[…]
183) Joe Lieberman

For the love of God (no, not you Barack), please, don’t choose another senator, Mr. McCain! There are already more than enough of you in the race. Like they say, three senators is a crowd, four is armed robbery.

Update: CNBC reporting it’s Palin. FOX News agrees.

Good choice on McCain’s part. I was hoping he wouldn’t do his usual “attempt to reach across the aisle” thing by choosing somebody moderate that might appeal to on-the-fence voters — which always backfires. Palin will satisfy the base, and I also like her because she realizes that the entire reason the U.S. picked up Alaska was for its natural resources.

Update II: Uh oh: “The choice of Palin is a risky move that could ultimately prove disastrous to the Republican prospects in November.”

But wait — a leading House Democrat said that. So nice of him to be concerned with the well-being of the GOP’s chances.

It looks like Barack Obama is going to go full blown “Pink Floyd live in Athens” (a “Barack Opera” if you will) for tonight’s massive coronation. This guy is getting so self-aggrandizing and flashy that even Neon Deion Sanders might tell him to take it down a notch:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s big speech on Thursday night will be delivered from an elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple.

“Iliad you can believe in.”

Is the Greek ‘god’ we’re watching Apollo, or Hermes? You decide.

Actually the set is created to look like the White House in close-up shots. The fact that it’s constructed from plywood will do nothing but reinforce the “kid playing White House” feel many people get when they watch Obama. I wonder if he’ll have his fake presidential seal up for all to see — the one that made him look like a child playing behind daddy’s podium.

In spite of the thunderous response he’ll get tonight, I think he’s shooting himself in the foot over and over again with this kind of stuff. The problem is that if enough people vote for him, those shots will ricochet off his shoes, off the phony cardboard set and right into our wallets like a socialist magic bullet.

Update:

Oh my… a week in the delusional “land of make believe” continues:

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association reports that OOIDA member Donald Snare of Gainesville, Georgia, safely delivered “his oversized cargo consisting of a full-scale replica of the fuselage of Air Force One” to Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium in Denver, the site of the Democratic National Convention, on August 19, 2008.

Here are some pictures and a short video. It even comes complete with a pretend “nuclear football” and everything! Neato!

Update II: Peggy Noonan on Obama’s Invesco speech risk: It has every possibility of looking like a Nuremberg rally

We spend a good deal of time here mocking doofus celebs, so why not highlight one who demonstrates that intelligence isn’t necessarily what you know, but rather the ability to know what you don’t know.

Kid Rock is one of those celebrities who thinks celebrities should keep their mouths shut about politics:

“I’m good at writing songs and singing. What I’m not educated in is the field of political science. And so for me to be sharing my views and influencing people of who I think they should be voting for … I think would be very irresponsible on my part.”

Because that it takes brains to realize this, Kid Rock is our Intelligent Celebrity of the Month (of the year if we don’t find another intelligent celebrity in the next few months).

This is a refreshing sorbet after reading about all the Hollywood dunces with more money than brains who have been on parade all week at the Democratic convention cuckoo’s nest.

Sure, it may be a tad irresponsible for a stupid celebrity to tell people who to vote for, but how stupid does that make the person who followed the advice of the stupid celebrity, and exactly how bad must the politician in question be if so many stupid people are voting for him or her?

Peddling wares using a pyramid scheme of stupid (“You tell two idiots, and they tell two idiots, and so on and so forth”) is big business, and Hollywood is the Amway of moronic leftist activism.

“Hey, I heard that!”

We Irish will bet on anything after a few drinks.

From CNS News:

Irish bookmaker Paddy Power says Sen. Barrack Obama (D-Ill.) is the undisputed master of cliches this election season, and his well-known mantra — “Change” — is sure to show up in Thursday’s speech when he accepts the Democratic presidential nomination. The odds are 10 to 1 it will, the Dublin-based oddsmaker said.

The odds other cliches will show up, according to Paddy Power, are “I’m fired up” at 6 to 1; “I’d like to thank my wife,” “As I stand here today,” “fundamental belief,” “defining moment,” and “God Bless America” clock in with 12 to 1 odds (says something about Obama when “God bless America,” which would usually be at 1 to 1 odds for a politician, is at 12 to 1 for the Deliverer).

“Let me be clear,” “war on terror,” “politics of hope,” and “common purpose” come in at 14 to 1 odds.

“Crossroads of history,” “I have a dream,” “pursuit of happiness,” “I’m fired up” and “building a better America” are at 16 to 1.

“We cannot lose hope” is at 25 to 1, and “an eye for an eye only winds up making the whole world blind” is at a measly 100 to 1.

Odds of other potential Obama cliches during his Invesco Field acceptance speech

They left a few out of the above story, so here are some of my best guesses for other potential cliches along with the odds:

10 to 1: “Iraq and a hard place.”

40 to 1: “My family doesn’t put on Ayers… uh, I don’t mean ‘Ay-yers’ but rather ‘airs’ without the ‘y’… you know what I mean don’t you?”

60 to 1: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Hey, yeah, that’s all I was doing!”

75 to 1: “A penny for your thoughts. Think about it. This means that if all of us here at Invesco Field had just one thought, we could feed my half-brother for over two years!

90 to 1: “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch — not that I don’t think they count as chickens before they hatch like that lie the right is telling everybody about me.”

100 to 1: “Speaking of that, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs… just as long as that omelette isn’t made in the last trimester because I never ever said that should be legal.”

115 to 1: “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Save the water just in case there’s a drought.”

125 to 1: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions and named after Robert Byrd… just kidding Senator.”

130 to 1: “My white grandmother calling the kettle black.”

140 to 1: “Plato said that an unexamined life is not worth living. Those actor kids from Diff’rent Strokes were indeed wise.”

150 to 1: “Remember, big brother is listening — well, not mine because he can’t afford a radio. I’m just messin’ wit cha, bro!”

165 to 1: “It was the most historic day since the Wright brothers took flight. Jeremiah’s got a brother? See, I told you I never listened to anything he said!”

175 to 1: “Let me tell you a cock and bull story… hey, why’s President Clinton leaving?”

And coming in at 200 to 1 odds is the unintentional tribute to Ted Kennedy cliche trifecta: “Water under the bridge,” “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” and “Asleep at the wheel.”

Have a good speech, Senator Obama, and cliche away!