John McCain's Stem Cell LIES

Okay, a few mintues ago we were at the barbershop getting a much-needed trim. The radio was on in the background.

Virginia being a battleground state, we're getting a lot of political ads from the presidential campaigns.

So on comes an ad for McCain about healthcare. About three-quarters of the ad was devoted to how "John McCain and his congressional allies" will boost funding for stem cell research to help all kinds of Americans with all kinds of problems.

At the end, the ad mentioned the "McCain-Palin" ticket.

We wanted to scream, but thought better of it in the barbershop.

So now we're screaming: aaaaaauuuuuuugggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

First, Palin has been staunchly opposed to stem cell research. Whether she understands the issue is doubtful, but unless she's now an infamous "flip-flopper" then she's still opposed. The media should certainly hit her with this.

Second, what about McCain's "congressional allies?" Aren't these Republicans (and pseudo-R's like Lieberman)? Last I heard, these were W. Bush's congressional allies and they were PREVENTING stem cell research! The media should sure get on McCain's case about who these supposed "allies" are--maybe he could list them.

Third, if McCain is so all-fired up about stem cell research, why hasn't he attacked the current administration from HIS PARTY on the issue?

Freakin' Republican double-speak BS is why.

Remember all that crap about "compassionate conservatism" eight years ago? Turned out to be passionate conservatism. Folks, DON'T FALL FOR IT THIS TIME!

Palin Selection Does What Obama Couldn't: Unites Hillary Voters In The Democratic Party

We've been waiting and watching for a few days, but it's looking increasingly clear that McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate has done a huge favor for Barack Obama: re-unite those disaffected Hillary voters as Democrats.

We don't know if McCain's strategy in selecting a woman as his running mate was to somehow widen the wedge between Obama and Hillary's supporters, but if it was, it was a terribly stupid strategy.

(On the other hand, perhaps his strategy was to get the conservative wing of the GOP behind him, in which case it was a good move.)

The selection of Palin is an insult to Hillary's supporters because it implies that they were for Hillary solely because she's a woman and the other candidates weren't. Of course, Hillary's supporters weren't backing her just because she's a woman. Hillary was a highly qualified, experienced candidate with terrific political skills and stances on the issues that many voters liked.

While Palin is a woman, any comparison between her and Hillary ends there. Palin is inexperienced and her stance on the issues is an insult to many women. Palin is not just anti-abortion--she would prohibit it in cases of rape or incest, and she's one of those nuts who opposes stem-cell research.

Indeed, Palin seems to be a bit of a nut. Sure, she's interesting, but we wonder what kind of President she'd make if McCain kicks off early. Here's a woman who says she puts her family first, but her ambition to be VP is so great that she knowingly put her 17-year-old daughter through having the entire nation know her unpleasant business. Her judgment in firing Alaska's state police commissioner over an intra-family spat is also questionable. And she's far more conservative than the country would ever tolerate in a major-party's nominee--she makes Huckabee look like a liberal.

In any event, Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton. Hillary must've really shattered that glass ceiling, however, if someone as inexperienced as Palin can suddenly be part of the ticket!

Finally, the proof may be in the pudding. Following the Democratic convention, Obama seemed to get a relatively small "bounce" in the polls. But today, with Palin on the ticket and the GOP convention sort of underway, five national polls came out with Obama anywhere from 6-9 points in the lead of McCain.

Thanks John McCain!!

McCain, Palin Watch Tennis As Gustav Looms

Take a good look at the photo above from today's Washington Post. The Post says this is a picture of McCain and Mayor Palin getting a briefing on Hurricane Gustav from the Emergency Operations Center in Jackson, Mississippi.

But look at the television screens in the background. The one to the right of Palin has an image of the hurricane warning zones on the gulf coast.

But look at the one to the left, between Palin and McCain: there's a picture in picture that is clearly showing a tennis match from the U.S. Open in New York. So maybe McCain didn't ask to watch the tennis, but those Mississippi officials yucking it up with the candidates obviously aren't too concerned.

Which raises the question: why did McCain go to Jackson, Mississippi, instead of Lousiana? Sounds like something Bush would do (indeed, he's in Texas today). The answer is that the governor of Mississippi is Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican Party, so these are all his people. Plus, they aren't all that worried--they're watching tennis for goodness sakes--so they can afford to interrupt what they're doing with a politically motivated photo op.

Whereas if McCain and his highly experienced Veep were to go to Louisiana, they'd encounter Governor Bobby Jindal, who albeit a Republican, is actually busy dealing with a real problem.

(Aside: Jindal was raised as a Hindu; he converted to Catholocism as a teenager. You don't see the a-holes on Faux News going after him, questioning his religious convictions and accusing him of secretly being an agent of India.)

Obama The Rock Star

We're happy to see John McCain wasting his money on television ads in the middle of summer.

Especially television ads that equate Obama with a rock star. While somewhat amusing, these are risky ads for McCain--while they obviously try to portray Obama as lacking in experience (and judgment by comparing him to Paris Hilton), they could backfire.

First, the comparisons are so far off the mark that even the dimmest voters can tell the difference. Obama clearly has substance compared to a Paris Hilton. If anything, they make him out to be more like Hannah Montana, i.e., the best of both worlds: a rock star WITH substance.

Second, these ads make Obama out to be a larger than life figure, and Americans LIKE larger than life figures.

Finally, McCain is spending a lot of money on television at a point when it does very little good. The real story in the press should be that McCain is so desperate to draw attention to his flagging campaign that he's having to resort to expensive summer ad buys with a risky media proposition just to get some press of his own.

Recently, Obama's campaign briefed major donors and other campaign operatives on strategy for August. They noted that McCain is spending a lot on media in battleground states, but said Obama would not try to match him at this point. Instead, the Obama campaign is investing heavily in field operations, particularly new campaign offices, in battlegroud states. This strategy is quite evident in Virginia, where Obama's campaign is opening 20 offices around the state, thus hitting every part of the Commonwealth.

As we've said before, this is wise strategy. After his nomination in 2004, John Kerry had all kinds of volunteers, but no place to put them. Obama will be in a position to use the tens of thousands of volunteers his campaign will be able to recruit, and we predict they'll be a much better investment than television ads, certainly better than television ads in August.

So go ahead McCain, keep those ads rolling.

McCain: FEEL THE EXCITEMENT!

Time To Get Serious?

We're pretty much done with travelling for the summer, so maybe it's time to get serious about the political scene. After all, the party conventions are just a few weeks away (remember all that wasted blather--including here--about deadlocked conventions?) and Veep talk fills the air.

Still, it's not even August. Everyone's leaving town. Other than trying to hit a major highway on a Friday afternoon, you can even get around the D.C. metro area without too much trouble.

So, it's difficult to get too serious about the presidential race just yet.

But we'll try. First off, there was Obama's foreign tour. Really, it was a big success, regardless of what the pundits say. You just know there are high level folks over at the McCain campaign saying "why didn't we think of that?" [Of course, McCain would look pretty silly now in Germany surrounded by 5o people--he just doesn't have Obama's drawing power.]

Indeed, it was so successful that the McCain campaign had to manufacture a fake story about Obama shunning hospitalized vets because they wouldn't let the media in. See the Washington Post story on McCain's fabrication--widely picked up by the MSM--here.

Then there's the Veepstakes. Again, just to get some space on the news, the McCain campaign kept leaking false reports last week that the former Straight Talker was about to name his Veep pick. We're still waiting.

On the Obama side, Kaine-mania is sweeping the Old Dominion. We love Tim Kaine, but we don't think Obama will make Virginia's governor his running mate. Kaine is as inexperienced as Obama, and while he's a "moderate" Democrat, his profile is far lower than that of say, Mark Warner or Jim Webb.

In any event, why speculate? August is a slow news month, and both campaigns will seek to generate some coverage by naming their VP picks pretty soon.

We also have Goodling-gate: the Justice Dept. report that it is shocked, just shocked, to learn that Monica Goodling and other Bush/Rove Kommisars were enforcing a political standard for hiring of career lawyers at DOJ. We got news for you: everyone knew this, and it wasn't limited to DOJ. Why do you think our government has been so darned incompetent for the past 7 years?

Finally, here's a little straight talking video of a double-talking John McCain, courtesy of our friend CH:

Did McCain Vote For Bush, Or Did He Lie About Not Voting For Bush?

A little mini-scandal threatens to tarnish John McCain's character as the race starts to define itself into a contest between the "Straight Talker" and Sen. Barack Obama.

Recently, Arianna Huffington reported on her blog, Huffington Post, that John McCain told her and others that he didn't vote for George W. Bush in the 2000 election. McCain's statement allegedly was made at a private dinner party in Los Angeles shortly after Bush became President.

According to Huffington, both McCain and his wife, Cindy, told her they had not voted for the President (Cindy McCain wrote in her husband's name).

Back then, Huffington was a conservative; now she's a liberal. For whatever reasons, she chose now to report the story.

Naturally, McCain denies it. He says Huffington is just out to get him.

That denial could come back to haunt him, however.

Now, with McCain's denial formally in place, OTHER persons who attended the dinner party are coming forward to confirm Huffington's version of the story. According the New York Times, two other partygoers (the party was at the home of actress Candace Bergen)--"West Wing" actors Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff--have confirmed Huffington's story.

They say McCain railed about Bush's lack of competency (how true!!) and then someone asked him why, if Bush was so unqualified, had he voted for the man. McCain responded by putting a finger to his mouth and whispering "I didn't."

So, did McCain vote for Bush in 2000 and then lie about it at a party a few weeks later, or was he (of the legendary temper) so pissed at Bush that he didn't even vote for his own party's nominee, and NOW is lying about it?

John McCain Is Older Than . . .

You know John McCain is old, but just how old is he? Check out this video to find out (hat tip to our friend Mr. Cugl for this one):

Do You Believe In Miracles? Huckabee Does.

Could a Saturday miracle be in progress for Mike Huckabee? Before today, he told his supporters he was hoping for a miracle.

It may be occurring! Kansas, Lousiana and Washington have caucuses/primaries today on the GOP side and lo and behold, McCain isn't doing well at all. As of now (10:20 pm EST), Huckabee killed McCain in Kansas, taking all 36 delegates; he is leading by 12 points in a Louisiana beauty contest (the delegates were selected a few weeks ago and somewhat favored McCain, but enough are uncommitted to swing it to Huckabee), and he's within one point in Washington, where McCain has gotten only 27% of the vote (Dr. Paul has 21% and Romney has 17%).

Even if McCain ekes out a "victory" in Washington, no frontrunner can be comfortable scoring under 30% after he's been pronounced the virtual victor.

This is a clear repudiation of McCain, and if repeated in the Potomac Primary (Va., Md., and DC) on Tuesday, will throw the GOP side back into complete chaos.

Hillama versus McAbee?

Wow, we're falling down on the job here at Curmudgeon HQ. Last night we went to see a screening of one of AOL founder Ted Leonsis's "filmanthropy" projects, "Nanking," at Georgetown University. An excellent documentary so long as you don't mind nearly two hours of depressingly gruesome stories.

But that caused us to miss all kinds of other stories of our modern era. Hillary was right here in Arlington, speaking at Washington-Lee High School, where the young Curmudgeons will go if they manage to make it our of middle school. We missed it, but judging from the emails we're getting from both campaigns, Virginia is a real battleground between Clinton and Obama for the next few days.

Indeed, Virginia Democrats timed their Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Richmond perfectly--who knew the race would still be in issue by this point--so that attendees this weekend will get the full treatment from both Hillary and Barack. Friends of ours are going--we're jealous.

Then, of course, Romney dropped out yesterday. A shrewd move on his part--shows the calculating businessman in him. He had no shot at this point, but he's still relatively young (certainly compared to McCain) and has built himself a good base in the Republican Party, so he cuts his losses and lives to fight another day.

We predict Huckabee will go one more round--through next Tuesday--then also graciously drop out (unless conservatives somehow rally around him--we doubt it--and he sweeps the Saturday and Tuesday contests).

We spent our post-movie evening last night debating the merits of Hillary versus Obama. Spiritedly debating, we might add. Too bad we broke down along predictable lines: the wives were for Hillary; the men-folk for Obama (although respectful of Hillary--we do like her).

With McCain as the GOP nominee, Democrats need the strongest ticket possible. We think that's Hillary and Obama, or Hillama. The remaining primaries are not going to decide this contest--it's too close and with proportional delegate allocation, neither candidate can get a real leg up. So pretty soon it's going to be time for party elders (not Bill) to get the candidates in a room and have a good, mature discussion about it.

Meantime, who's McCain going to pick as his veep? Having gotten the nomination on about a 35% plurality of the party, he has a lot of mollifying to do. It certainly won't be someone like Joe "been there, done that" Lieberman. It could be Fred Thompson, although we doubt he's interested--better to go back to television than be a figurehead veep.

Someone who would be interested is Mike "I don't have a job after this" Huckabee. That would certainly help with a significant segment of the evangelical community. Call it the McAbee ticket. But conservatives decided--pretty unfairly--to label Huckabee a "liberal" (that nastiest of all Republican sobriquets) early on, and they would see McAbee as far too centrist for their tastes.

So does McCain go with someone hard right? And if so, who? Kansas Senator Sam Brownback could fit that bill--bringing home evangelicals along with conservatives. There are others, of course. The problem is that many of the more vocal, bomb-throwing conservatives will never be mollified, no matter who McCain picks as his veep, so he may decide "hey, why bother."

We're not making any forecasts, at least not yet.

Heck, we're still trying to decide who to vote for on Tuesday. Probably Obama, despite Mrs. Curmudgeon's protestations. As Virginians, we'd love to see an Obama/Kaine ticket, really putting the state into play in November, but we're not going to bet any real money on that one.

And don't forget tomorrow's contests in Washington, Louisiana, Kansas (GOP only), Nebraska (Dem only) and the Virgin Islands (Dem).

Apoplectic Republican Conservatives Deserve John McCain

With John McCain now the odds-on favorite for the GOP nomination, conservative pundits are going into apoplexy. The Rush Limbaughs and other blow-hard commentators are burning up the airwaves with doom and gloom over the prospect of a Straight Talking Republican, having failed to foist one of several sure-fire losers on the party.

Don't you bet these folks all lament the moment former Senator George Allen macaca'd himself to death two years ago?

In any event, it's quite clear that there are more moderate, and even liberal, Republicans than some people thought, and they are clearly enjoying being the ones propelling McCain to victory.

What happened to the once all-powerful conservative wing of the GOP? The answer is pretty easy to see: George W. Bush. With "W's" election in 2000, and especially after his re-election in 2004, conservatives were in complete control of the government. And they blew it, big time.

They wasted a generous budget surplus faster than a redneck lottery winner. They went on an earmark spending spree. They borrowed over a trillion dollars, in part to give themselves a tax break and in part to pay for an unnecessary war. They mismanaged the economy to where it is today. They engaged in scandal.

Along came 2006 and Republicans got drubbed at the polls. But who paid the price in the GOP? The conservatives? No, it was moderates, left twisting in the wind, unprotected, by their party purity brethren.

So now the moderate wing of the Party is getting it's revenge, voting for McCain while the conservatives fight amongst themselves over the remaining candidates: Huckabee is a "liberal" says the Club for Growth; Romney is a Mormon--is that even Christian?--say the evangelicals; Thompson is lazy say the voters; none of them is Reagan (or at least, their ideation of Reagan).

Don't believe the Limbaughs, the Weakly Standard's, the Coulters who say McCain will "destroy" the party. They are the ones who destroyed it. McCain might just manage to put it back together again.

And the claim that conservatives will simply "stay home" in November if McCain is nominated? We could only wish that were so. They're not going anywhere. They'll complain, but they'll come out and vote in November, especially if Hillary is the opponent. (Or maybe not--they haven't been voting in large numbers in the primaries.)

When it's all over, John McCain should thank the conservatives for making his nomination possible!

McCain Owes Win In Florida To . . . Hispanics!

As we write this, John McCain appears headed to a narrow victory in Florida, somewhat akin to his narrow victory in South Carolina. He's pulling just over a third of GOP voters in these primaries, but with the rest of the field badly fragmented, it's enough to keep on winning.

And hey, Florida is winner-take-all, so that 35% plurality gets him 100% of the delegates.

We took a look at the exit polls and guess what? There's a pretty good case to be made that Hispanic voters put McCain over the top in Florida. For all the carping that McCain's position on immigration had killed him in the Republican party, it may actually have saved him.

Hispanics made up 10% of Republican voters in the primary. While that's not a large percentage, they broke heavily for McCain: 51% for McCain versus only 15% for immigrant bashing Romney. That's enough to explain McCain's three percentage point victory over the Mittster.

All of which is why we'd rather see the GOP nominate an immigrant basher, making Democrats an easy choice for Latinos, than to see McCain as the nominee.

Now, wouldn't both Romney and Huckabee like to get a clean shot at McCain, in a closed primary, one-on-one? And yet with Giuliani now finished--his weak third place in Florida will be the end of his road--both Romney and Huckabee find themselves fighting for the hard-core party conservatives, while McCain consolidates the center and left of the party.

We'll have a more detailed analysis tomorrow of how all this affects Super Duper Tuesday, but McCain is now the clear favorite to win the Republican nod. With Giuliani mortally wounded, McCain should be able to sweep the blue state Republican primaries--NY, NJ, CT, Delaware, Illinois, probably California--while Mitt and Huck fight for the redder states.

With McCain now the clear odds on favorite, Democrats have to give serious thought to who they want to put up in opposition. We'll have some ideas on that as well tomorrow.

So, the Straight Talk Express is picking up steam. Unless conservatives in the party can really rally around Mitt Romney, they're going to have to learn to live with a "maverick" (i.e., someone who doesn't kowtow to party purity).

McCain's For The Taking?

John McCain is oh so close to making a run that would get him the GOP nomination. He now leads, somewhat comfortably, in the national polls--having snagged, apparently, most of Giuliani's supporters--and also leads, albeit narrowly, in some Michigan, SC, Nevada and Florida polls.

But then, it was just a few weeks ago that Mitt Romney had the lead in Iowa, New Hampshire and SC, and looked like he might just sweep to victory.

The key is Michigan. If McCain wins there, even by a whisker, his chances go up exponentially. But, if he loses--even by a whisker--then Republicans are back into the soup.

Frankly, Giuliani has been a huge disappointment. But a guy who's run the worst possible campaign and shied from the fight is hardly worthy of the oval office.

Surprisingly, we may know the GOP nominee before the Democrats make their choice--something the Curmudgeon certainly would not have predicted even a couple weeks ago!

The Start Of A McCain Bandwagon, Or The Latest GOP Fad?

Based on the post-New Hampshire polls, it sure looks like a McCain bandwagon is starting up on the Republican side. He's leading in polls in Michigan, SC, Florida and in a couple of national polls, including CNN poll with McCain leading Huckabee by 14 points and everyone else trailing. (We will say that CNN's track record with polls in this election has been erratic, at best.)

But then, McCain had the lead early last year. Then it was Thompson. Then Giuliani. On occasion it has been Huckabee. So maybe McCain is just the latest fad.

We'll know pretty soon.

Unlike Huckabee, McCain Hits Back At Romney

Faced with Huckabee's rise in Iowa, Mitt Romney did what his professionals programmed him to do: go negative on the Huckster.

The Baptist minister's response, so far, has largely been to turn the other cheek and deflect Romney's attacks with humor and grace. While Romney's attacks are having some impact on Big Mike's campaign, they haven't really helped Romney--indeed, they may be opening the door to McCain in Iowa.

Meanwhile, while Romney was trying to drag Huckabee into the mudpit in Iowa, McCain began gaining on the Mittster in New Hampshire, so, once again, Romney went negative.

But McCain is no Baptist minister. Instead, as the Washington Post's Chris Cilizza documents here, McCain has chosen to punch back, and he hits hard. Our favorite: "Welcome to Mitt Romney's bizarro world, in which everyone is guilty of his sins. He didn't support Ronald Reagan. He didn't support President Bush's tax cuts. He raised taxes in Massachusetts by $700 million. He knows John McCain is gaining on him so he does what any small varmint gun totin', civil rights marching, NRA endorsed fantasy candidate would do: he questions someone else's credibility. New Hampshire is on to you, Mitt. Give it a rest. It's Christmas."

Frankly, it's about time someone nailed Romney.