Month: December 2004

For sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his ten-gallon-hat leadership style and for persuading a majority of voters that he deserved to be in the White House for another four years, George W. Bush is TIME’s 2004 Person of the Year.

Cripes, I’m so sick of this.

Nearing the top spot on my short list of public people who need to go is Julian Bond.

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, speaking Friday, accused the Bush administration and the Republican Party of catering to “right wing” extremists and trying to reverse civil rights gains.

Bond said the civil rights movement is facing some of its most significant challenges ever as affirmative action is under attack and judges raise questions on how laws should be enforced. He said civil rights activists need to be more vigilant.

Unfortunately, there are only two people in the world that can push Bond into retirement. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, and Bill Cosby. Jackson, at least for the time being, will not ask Bond to leave. Cosby however, has recently been more public with his rant, so there are possibilities there. We shall see. One thing is for sure, Bond’s audiences aren’t growing any larger.

The speech drew cheers from the 120 people at Witherspoon Student Center.

And that included the crickets.

Now that a number of Republicans and a few Conservatives in the media have publicly called for Rumsfeld to step down, the Democrats apparently feel it is safe to jump on the dog pile.

Democrats on Saturday said U.S. soldiers in Iraq lacked adequate body armor and plated vehicles because of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s flawed leadership.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, in the Democrats’ weekly radio address, blasted the Pentagon under Rumsfeld for “a litany of serious miscalculations” including underestimating the Iraqis resistance and failing to give troops enough protective equipment even though Congress gave it all the money it requested.

“The Pentagon says the lack of protective equipment is a matter of ‘logistics.’ No it’s not. It’s a matter of leadership,” Durbin said.

“Those responsible for planning this war were not prepared for the reality on the ground, and many of our soldiers have paid the price,” he said, citing nearly 1,300 U.S. service members who have died in Iraq and more than 10,000 injured.

This is complaining we’ve heard from the Liberals before, but, it’s beginning to gain traction.

Bush has given Rumsfeld his confidence. With the Iraqi election coming up on January 30, why in the world would he ask for Rumsfelds resignation now? The more likely scenario will be for Bush to keep things in place until after the election. Then, I believe he’ll find an opportunity to ask Rumsfeld to leave.

When the movie “The Passion of the Christ” came out earlier this year, there was a war of words  between producer/director/movie star Mel Gibson and New York Times columnist Frank Rich. After the hype died down, both moved on. Well, now that everyone in the MSM is putting together their year end stories, you’d think that Rich would have a lot of material to choose from. Apparently, not. Frank uses his media real estate to take one more shot at “The Passion”.

Mel?

Light blogging today. It’s my last day at work before I take two weeks off, so I’ll be a little occupied. Hopefully, I’ll be back at it tonight. Have a great day!

So, the mystery is over. Someone else feels like I do.

I never thought I’d admire the man until I read this today in the WaPo:

Former prez and heart patient Bill Clinton was seen the other day ordering himself a hot dog bagel — a hot dog inside a bagel — at Einstein Brothers on Wisconsin Avenue.

Being from the Northwest, I’ve never had such a thing. Can’t be heart healthy for Bill though.

Mmm, a hot dog inside a bagel.

Richard Cohen of the WaPo writes about the latest Presidential Medal of Freedom awardees. According to Cohen, this aint no hall of fame, it’s a hall of shame. Note to Richard: Bush won, deal with it.

The American Spectator writes about Kerik: “If you want perfection, go to the Sistine Chapel and look up.”

We’re in the “Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda” phase of the post 2004 presidential election. While a majority of the moonbats are still thinking Ohio was stolen from them, many of the key players in the campaigns are analyzing themselves and one another, giving compliments where they’re due. We haven’t heard from Mary Beth Cahill until now, where she admits that the now famous swift boat ads were actually pretty powerful messages.

The campaign manager for Sen. John Kerry’s failed presidential bid said Wednesday she regrets underestimating the impact of an attack advertisement that questioned Kerry’s Vietnam War record.

Mary Beth Cahill, who spoke at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government with Ken Mehlman, President Bush’s campaign manager, said the Massachusetts senator’s campaign initially thought there would be “no reach” to the ad from Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Instead, the ad, which initially aired in just three states, became a central issue of the campaign, eventually forcing Kerry to personally deny the group’s allegations that he did not deserve his combat medals.

“This is the best $40,000 investment made by any political group, but it was only because of the news coverage that it got where it did,” she said.

“In hindsight, maybe we should have put Senator Kerry out earlier, perhaps we could have cut it off earlier.”

I believe that this was the critical mistake committed by the Kerry campaign. I was amazed that they didn’t attempt to debunk the allegations earlier, given that John Kerry put so much emphasis on his war time record during his convention.

Cahill said if she could change one thing about the campaign it would be the timing of the conventions. By scheduling their convention about five weeks after the Democrats, the Republicans gained a fund-raising advantage and dominated the news going into the final stretch.

Forget about the timing of the convention Mary Beth. Take a good long look at the “content” of the convention. These things are put together so the candidate can introduce themselves and their platform to the country. Kerry spent so much time “reporting for duty” that by the time the convention was over, the viewing public thought they just got through watching an Oliver Stone movie. One week and millions of dollars later, they still knew nothing about John Kerry.

Both sides also agreed that the Internet and other emerging news technologies have transformed the political process by making it more democratic and encouraging more people to become involved.

The “Shazaam!” moment. You can hear both sides saying, “If only we had been able to contain them dang bloggers!” My crystal ball says that in 2008, both parties will put huge amounts of money into the blogosphere. Pollsters will measure blog activity and weight it as strongly as they weight the traditional telephone survey. Cable and Network TV News channels will report nightly about what blog writers are talking about. The 2008 election will be like no other. The blogosphere will be a force to be reckoned with, for sure. (AP)

UPDATE: Matt was there.