Election '08 Update

http://themoderatevoice.com/category/politics/political-cartoons/

Despite their own rather evident corporate ties (we’ll get to Senator McCain in a moment), it was not long ago that I felt the Democrat [sic] party would be very well represented in the November elections regardless of which candidate inevitably came out of the primary process. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, however, has thrown a big bubba-wrench into that ideal. She has continually shown her true colors as the prototypical politician who does not go down without slinging a considerable amount of mud on the way. Her methodical mocking and trashing Obama’s seemingly sincere messages of hope and optimism is truly deplorable and arguably downright republican, which I suppose is not a stretch when you have someone like Mark Penn driving your campaign [into a ditch]. I presume in this day and age of gutter politics, Clinton and her camp were simply not prepared to face candidates like Edwards and Obama, who are not entirely pessimistic regarding America’s future and who generally refuse to employ fear tactics.

I am slightly haunted by the repeated caveat that one can never count out a Clinton, as we are seeing exactly why that is – she utilizes the very Rovean tactics she has so adamantly accused Mr. Osama, er, I mean Obama of employing. Frank Rich wrote a wonderful op-ed in the Sunday New York Times (queue collective conservative hiss) that called out Mrs. Clinton’s numerous “pot calling the kettle black” moments (no racial pun intended) as well as brutally accurately likening her campaign to the Bush admin’s tragic fiasco in Iraq.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/opinion/24rich.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

(The first and original) Super Tuesday was to be the ‘Shock and Awe’ of the primary season – but what to do if the electorate is not sufficiently shocked and/or awed? Why, find pictures of Barack Hussein Obama dressed like Ali Baba in traditional African garb, of course! The connect-Obama-to-the-Black-Panther-Party game didn’t work out quite as well as planned, so I suppose they figured: might as well go a step further and connect him directly to Africa!

I forget if it was Jonathan Alterman or Dana Milbank who commented on Friday that the Poppy Bush campaign against Bill Clinton way back when in ’92 showed its signs of last gasp desperation when H.W. started likening Clinton to a pot smoking, draft dodging hippie… Déjà vu, all over again, man?

Downshifting gears to the Grand Old Party and their Grand Old likely nominee, John McCain; reliable GOP patsy, David Brooks, tries desperately to dispel the outrageous notion his native publication (among others) has substantiated that Senator McCain is literally and figuratively in K Street’s pants. Reeling off all the “Maverick” votes and pieces of legislation the good Senator has accumulated over the years is all well and good – actually makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, but in the end this information just makes the new ‘revelations’ surrounding McCain all the more puzzling as to why he acts so seemingly honorably in the public forum yet so very corrupt in the back rooms, corporate jets, yachts and the sort.