Posts: 33

1. 

   The Red Queen's Race

   08.May.08, 11:26 EDT
   
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   The dust has settled from Indiana and North Carolina. Everybody's saying we made it back through the looking glass and now it's just a matter of observing the niceties to crown Barack Obama king of the disorganized Democratic tribe. But what of the Red Queen?
   
   "Rats don’t swim toward sinking ships, and pols don’t back no losers, and this is why Hillary Clinton is in such trouble," wrote Politico's Roger Simon. Others on the site observed that Clinton's standing down of attacks on Obama and that "I will work for the Democratic nominee" comment indicate she's ready to lose gracefully.
   
   She's not quite ready, apparently, to stop making the argument that she's got the white vote in her pocket, or that loaning her campaign more than $11 milllion in the past few months is somehow an indication of strength.
   
   "Yankee fan go home," advised conservative columnist George Will, before dubbing Obama "the Democrats' Reagan". "Obama's rhetorical cotton candy lacks Reagan's ideological nourishment, but he is Reaganesque in two important senses: People like listening to him, and his manner lulls his adversaries into underestimating his sheer toughness -- the tempered steel beneath the sleek suits."
   
   Lewis Carroll once described his Red Queen as a Fury whose "passion must be cold and calm - she must be formal and strict, yet not unkindly; pedantic to the 10th degree, the concentrated essence of all governesses!"
   
   I thought that description not so far off our political Red Queen. Which means that her exit from the race, when it comes, will be carefully orchestrated. What does she want to go quietly? Salon's Dan Conley posits it may be the right of choosing Obama's VP, repayment of some of the money she lent her campaign, and maybe a big role in a key campaign issue, such as healthcare.
   
   Meanwhile, just days after Obama was considered on life support, he is getting the rock star treatment he enjoyed near the beginning of the primary season. On a superdelegate fishing expedition on the House floor yesterday, he was mobbed by pols.
   
   Rush Limbaugh underscored that idea by attacking Obama as "the weakest" of the Democrat nominees. "He can get effete snobs, he can get wealthy academics, he can get the young, and he can get the black vote. But Democrats do not win with that.”
   
   Limbaugh going after Obama is, I would say, a vote of confidence. Not that the campaign seems to need any more of that.
   

2. 

   A Wright So Rong

   05.May.08, 10:53 EDT
   
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   Jeremiah was a bullfrog. Was a good friend of mine. Never understood a single word he said. But I helped him a-drink his wine. These nonsense lyrics could easily work to caption any photo of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, with his now teetotaling friend Barack Obama.
   
   The whole mess brought on by Jeremiah's big mouth and healthy ego was mostly nonsense as well, but of a sort that may bleed the hope candidate out through the heel. In the post-analysis, will Indiana and North Carolina dissipate this distracting narrative, or reinforce it?
   
   The very light-skinned Wright pulling his blacker-than-thou mantle close about his shoulders as he offers his parodies just highlights hypocrisies yet to be dealt with inside rapidly diversifying black America. He's obviously right about many things when it comes to the abysmal history and pathetic current state of race relations in this country.
   
   Three years ago, I found myself co hosting a little noted public affairs show focused on black politics in Miami. A fair number of things expressed by Wright were also said on-air by guests or callers on the show at various times. His views are mostly within the mainstream of black culture in America and we need to acknowledge that and deal with it.
   
   I recall one time in particular when we had some local bigwigs from the Nation of Islam on to promote the Millions More march on Washington D.C. in 2005. One of the gentlemen went on at some length about how the U.S. government had created the AIDS virus and spread it in Haiti. It's nuts, yes, but there's something important at the root of the paranoia and alienation that can't be easily brushed off.
   
   However, Wright's reaction to Obama's initially timid brush-off was a classic combination of the crabs in the bucket mentality and the sometimes messed up mentor/mentee relationship that I've frequently observed in black politics.
   
   In the black community, to get anywhere in the power structure, you have to kiss a lot of rings and asses to be judged ready (ie, loyal, grateful, indoctrinated) by the elders who tightly grasp the reigns.

   
   If you presume to skip the line, fail to pay adequate homage, or in some other way are judged to have betrayed the patriarch or matriarch of the family circle, there is a price to pay. Some are able to transcend and escape the gravity of this destiny. Others thrive within it.
   
   But many weary of this unforgiving curriculum. They tend to move on to other pursuits, thus leaving the field of black politics to a relative handful of aging leaders and their trusted lieutenants. For these folks, with some notable exceptions, the past is present and future.
   
   What got them where they are works for them -- circle the wagons, unity, and most importantly, serving as gatekeeper between us and them. To a guy like Wright, Obama's race speech and his entire premise of turning the gate into a bridge, is not only offensive in its repudiation of a certain understanding of the world -- it is also something of a mortal threat to the power base of current black leadership.
   
   So here's the thing. I think Wright, besides enjoying the shit out of ramping up his bruised-ego demogoguery for the present 15 minutes, is punishing Obama for betrayal. Obama, that half-breed upstart, is a young man who has not paid sufficient dues. His politics of assimilation are an affront to the kind of isolationist mentality that have dominated the politics of Wright's era, and in my opinion, disabled the forward momentum of a generation of young leaders.
   
   Obama will have to show whether he is ready for the mantle of the message he has thrust at us. Can he transcend? Or will he be just another crustacean the other crabs dragged back into the bucket?

3. 

   Pink Thing

   30.Apr.08, 12:33 EDT
   
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   For those of you waiting, pining even, for your MOLI dose of snarky election coverage, I do apologize for the delay. A few days ago, I joined the ranks of the child-bearing. His name is Marcos and he came into the world ass first, as good a way as any in these uncertain times. Suddenly a mere political contest seems so much less important. But I suppose that it's actually more important, since now I'm obligated to do more about the world than simply throw peanuts from the gallery.
   
   At the moment, I'm just trying to figure out how this this charming little alien creature has managed to turn me into a drooling, cooing zombie in such short order. I'm tired, sticky, leaky, creaky, and oddly energized, in the way I imagine a meth addict on the down spiral of a three-day bender would feel. It's a theory.
   
   A friend sent me a song that perfectly captures some aspects. It's Xtc's "Pink Thing" written by Andy Partridge about his son. "Pink thing, spit in my face/ I'd love you for it. Anytime you call, I'll fall/ Into madness for you pink thing."
   
   Just for fun, I started looking up other songs about babies and didn't realize that Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" is about his daughter. There's also John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy", and a funny one by Shel Silverstein and Loretta Lynn called "One's on the Way". I'm in the market for more, so if you have any suggestions, let me know.

    

   But one thing about being chained to an infant is it leaves you with plenty of time to watch TV. So I've been keeping track of this increasingly ridiculous election cycle and will be getting on with the commentary soon.
   
   Perhaps just after this nap...

4. 

   Enough About Pennsylvania, Let's Talk About CNN's Rick Sanchez

   22.Apr.08, 13:49 EDT
   
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   So this week we've had 4:20 day, Earth Day, and oh yes, the much-anticipated, fate-of-the-world Democratic primary in Pennsylvania. So now that we're smoked out and greened up, let's sit back and watch the bloated drama on cable news.
   
   It is all about two numbers -- 10 and 50. Ten is the minimum number of points Hillary Clinton needs to finish ahead of Barack Obama today to stop people from telling her to drop out before the convention. And 50+ is the age of the dominant factor in primary voting. If Clinton can change her fate, it's this group that will do it for her.
   
   According to the siftable wisdom of the pundits, no matter what, Clinton isn't going to win the delegate battle today. So she has to get over on the popular vote, which is possible with a state as big as Pennsylvania. There are more than four million people registered to vote in the Democratic primary today.
   
   The question is whether the Obama youth and first-time voter juggernaut can overcome the Clinton registration and mobilization push these last weeks. Certainly he outraised and outspent her significantly. But she's been tireless in getting her message out there regardless.
   
   Another factor I think is that after six weeks of campaigning in just one state, Pennsylvania has had the best chance to really get to know the candidates. Does the Obama sparkle hold up under intense, endless scrutiny? Does seeing Hillary around every corner smooth off some of her rough edges?
   
   CNN has been doing this League of First Time Voters feature lately, which is a cool concept. Except that Rick Sanchez is doing a kind of voter's focus group in the mornings. Sanchez just makes me laugh. He's a Miami boy and I remember him from his local news days, when he embodied the over-the-top blowhard type of reporting that Comedy Central and SNL parody so well.
   
   Plus, he was a little wild back in the day. In 1990, he pleaded no contest to a DUI after he hit a drunk pedestrian with his car after a Dolphins game. A few years before that, he had to leave his Miami reporting post for a couple of years after government wiretaps connected him to Alberto San Pedro, a drug dealer and political fixer nicknamed the "Great Corrupter."
   
   Ah, good times.

5. 

   Weird News Friday

   18.Apr.08, 09:36 EDT
   
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   I'm going to start this post today with something that has nothing to do with politics. It's just so awful -- like the thought of a Paris-Perez Hilton love child -- that I feel compelled to comment. Check out this new kid's book put out by a Florida plastic surgeon -- My Beautiful Mommy -- just in time for Mother's Day. With a Disney princess style cover, the book purports to explain to small children why the center of their universe is so unhappy with herself she needs bigger tits, a smaller ass, and perhaps a nose job.
   
   I had a sick sensation in my stomach that this surgeon would turn out to be a Miami guy. It is SO Miami, this concept. So I looked up Dr. Michael Salzhauer and it turns out that, yes, he practices right down the street from where I live. Ugh. I may have to move.
   
   I'm feeling the weird news today, so here's some more. Apparently a conservative, Clinton-hating nutcase is fighting with a UFO conspiracy theorist to get first access to documents from the Clinton I presidency. The UFO guy is apparently first in line with his FOIA requests searching for alien coverups, which annoys the guys looking for political dirt on the Clintons. So the panty sniffers are trying to get the National Archives to let them be line-jumpers. Stay tuned.
   
   Meanwhile, Barack Obama has already potentially lined up his next gaffe with which he will be bludgeoned for the next week. There's a video of him speaking in North Carolina, in which he allegedly flips the bird while talking about Hillary Clinton. I don't know. If this is a real flip, it's right out of an '80s teen movie, in which the nerdy kid is pushed to the brink by an overbearing high school principal, but still can't quite escape his essential nature.
   
   If those gun-toting, Bible-thumping, cheese-making Pennsylvanians can't end the endless Democratic nomination process on April 22, our next great hope may be a federal inmate running for the nomination in Idaho. Keith Russell Judd is in prison in Texas for making threats at the University of New Mexico. He's got a lot of time to spare, so he spends it filing lawsuits and trying to get on various state ballots. This time, he succeeded. The only question is whether he'll siphon more votes from Clinton or Obama.

6. 

   Drinking the Ethanol

   17.Apr.08, 10:31 EDT
   
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   As the primary season grinds on, media searches for increasingly obscure issues about which to expound. But this week, some of the least important things about our presidential candidates have coincided with the biggest developing story in the world -- the skyrocketing prices of basic foods.
   
   First, the frivolous. We have Cindy McCain embarassed by the revelation that she stole some of her "family" recipes (posted on her husband's site, but since removed)  -- from the Food Network, including Rachel Ray. Makes you wonder about John McCain's rib recipe. As if it mattered. Do we really care what Obama puts in his chili? Must we read cutesy articles about Michelle Obama's apple cobbler, and Hillary Clinton's chocolate chip oatmeal cookies?
   
   This superficial hungryman appeal gets really meta when it's run through the pollster machine. Thus we are told that not only are we what we eat, but so is our presumptive nominee. As the New York Times put it, you might be a McCain/Clinton/Obama supporter depending on which brand of cereal, coffee, or snack food you prefer. Ugh.
   
   Meanwhile, in the world around this self-absorbed crowd and their enablers, people are beginning to starve. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week warned that "the rapidly escalating crisis of food availability around the world has reached emergency proportions." The crisis could mean "seven lost years in the fight against worldwide poverty" as 100 million people plunge deeper into desperation.
   
   The price of milk, eggs, corn, wheat, rice and other food staples has shot up sufficiently to put them into the realm of luxury goods for people in Africa, Southeast Asia, and parts of South America. Haiti's prime minister was essentially overthrown by the hungry last week, which may be just the beginning of the revolution awaiting leaders in developing countries.
   
   Meanwhile, we're turning fields of gold into ethanol, thanks to our search for alternatives for increasingly expensive fossil fuels. So, something's got to give.
   
   This crisis will just be gaining momentum about the time the next president is seated in Washington. At that point, many U.S. voters already struggling to fill their fridges may not care so much about political recipes. They won't be able to make them.
   
   

7. 

   Who's Bitter?

   11.Apr.08, 11:09 EDT
   
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   Guns and God, folks. That's what we've got to turn to in these troubling times. At some point, I'll look into that statement that got Barack Obama into the sticky part of the news cycle this weekend. Both Clinton and McCain jumped on his words in the developing effort to splash Obama with John Kerry's windsurfer wake.
   
   The timing was good, though, in the sense that it led into Sunday's "Compassionate Forum" in which Clinton and Obama competed to out-God each other. Actually, it wasn't so bad. The tone was fairly relaxed and even occasionally thoughtful.
   
   In the random thoughts department, last week's airlines problem, which left much of the country effectively grounded, made me wonder if the upside is that maybe people will start to appreciate where they are for once? Could this be the beginning of the triumph of localism?
   
   The Economist says we're in for a long, bumpy ride. Unless you're rich, in which case, none of this matters.
   
   "Recessions happen," explains the New York Times' David Leonhardt. What's different about this boom that wasn't is that most Americans actually lost real income in the last decade.
   
   "It’s hard to see how the economy will get back on track without some fundamental changes. This, I think, can fairly be considered the No. 1 economic project awaiting the next president."
   
   

   Leonhardt argues that the next president needs to plow some of those nation-building funds we're wasting in Iraq into a good, old-fashioned major projects bonanza of the sort Roosevelt used to invigorate the post-Depression and post WWII economy.

   
   "It’s easy enough to imagine a new version of that program," he argues, "with job-creating investments in biomedical research, alternative energy, roads, railroads and education. On the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama all mention ideas like these."
   
   Somehow, though, it feels like we'll get screwed out of the bulk of the largesse no matter whose program gets adopted. It'll get sucked up instead by corporations via grand contracts.
   
   Then again, maybe I'm just bitter.

8. 

   What if this presidency was just an Oliver Stone fever dream?

   08.Apr.08, 09:42 EDT
   
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   What could be nuttier than the Bush presidency itself? Only a movie on the subject by the insane Oliver Stone. Slate offers a glimpse at the proported script, which features our president's rise from "alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world." Stone must've smoked too many cigars with Fidel Castro before chewing coca paste with Hugo Chavez, if this script is to be believed. The worst thing about it is it is so boring. It reminds me of Stone's arrogant, drunken rambling at a speech he gave at my college years ago.
   
   But enough about that. Much more interesting for both the Bush legacy and the new presidency are today's Senate hearings with Gen. David Petraeus. He's expected to say that you know, even though the surge thing isn't quite working out as well as it did a few months ago, we should keep the troops in Iraq. UPDATE: He did just that.
   
   Michael Scherer at Time explains why the talk today won't get us any closer to a resolution. Essentially the reason is that there is no easy answer and we stand to lose a lot no matter what we do. Politicians being politicians, if there is a way to delay the pain and pass the buck, they will.
   
   So the Bush administration will just ride this disaster of a war out and let it fall in the lap of the next guy (or maybe just maybe, girl). And the three presidential candidates will use the unresolved conflict to batter each other like pro wrestlers with folding chairs.

    

    

9. 

   Alas, Poor Hillary

   07.Apr.08, 11:14 EDT
   
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   Media types, nay perhaps humans in general, have a way of always wanting to participate and advance the story, especially if it looks like somebody's about to crash and burn. That's why reality TV works, even when it's horrible. In this way, the drumbeat on Hillary Clinton's political death gets ever louder.
   
   Obama has caught up with Clinton in the number of endorsements by fellow senators, a fairly useless measure, but in our number-hungry culture, one some have noted.
   

   Clinton is also, as of Sunday, down a chief political strategist. Apparently, while she was losing her frontrunner status, Mark Penn found time to negotiate a free trade deal with Colombia. That threatened to undercut Clinton's shrinking lead in blue-collar Pennsylvania, so they axed Penn, much to the delight of all their other campaign workers, who found him odious.
   
   Clinton's cash-starved enterprise has a new gimmick, which is to appeal to supporters to direct where exactly their contributions will be spent. You want to buy a radio ad in Pennslvania? Perhaps a yard sign or an attractive door hanger is more your speed. She's also decided to show up Barack Obama's bad aim with a spot of lesbian bowling.
   
   Then there's the photos of Terry McAuliffe, chairman of Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, posing with Obama supporters at a Democratic rally in Washington. Probably nothing, but it's gotta hurt anyway.
   
   Meanwhile, Slate offers a primer on knowing when to quit.

10. 

    The Story So Far

    01.Apr.08, 10:45 EDT
    
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    It's Fool's Day, and no better time to take the pulse of our national election spectacular. Here, in brief, is what's been going on with Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Barack Obama.
    
    No nice way to put it. Clinton is in trouble. Slate has her campaign on a deathwatch, figuring she has a 9.7 percent chance of winning the nomination. The reasons are that she is behind in fundraising, losing superdelegates, and not looking so hot in the polls. "So, with a dip in the polls, another superdelegate lost, mounting debt, and ugly numbers in Texas, the outlook in Hillaryland remains bleak," wrote Christopher Beam.
    
    One reason for the drop in the polls, according to The Wall Street Journal, is that Clinton's faulty memory of running from gunfire on a Bosnian tarmac in 1996 has caused voters to doubt her in other areas. "The incident sparked allegations that she had exaggerated her role on other issues, such as the Northern Ireland peace process, opposing the North American Free Trade Agreement and bringing health insurance to children," WSJ noted. Ouchy.
    
    It made my heart ache, though, to see the treatment Houston Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee got from fellow black Democrats who resented her support of Clinton over Obama. She was booed for her loyalty to a female candidate, rather than the black candidate. That kind of group think, which leaves no room for individual expression, is dangerous, short-sighted, and offensive to basic democratic ideals. Screw them, Ms. Lee. You support whomever you want.
    
    As for McCain, the LA Times blog has a Fool's Day feature, suggesting that a voting machine glitch has revealed that he will win the presidency on Nov. 4. The scary thing, of course, is that with the many problems with electronic voting in the past few years, this joke has some bite.
    
    Otherwise, McCain has been traveling to places like France and also doing that "Straight Talk Express" bus tour thing. His big challenge of late has been staying in the news at all. Without a Republican opponent, he can't compete with the Dems highly entertaining reality show.
    
    Then again, maybe being low-key is good for McCain. When he gets riled up, he tends to say unfortunate things, such as when he said that Iran was allowing al-Qaida fighters into the country to be trained and returned to Iraq. After being corrected by Joe Lieberman, he said, ''I'm sorry; the Iranians are training the extremists, not al-Qaida. Not al-Qaida. I'm sorry.'' Not the kind of thing you want to be wrong about when you're running on your military and foreign policy prowess.
    
    As for Obama, he seems to be holding steady after more or less weathering the Rev. Wright imbroglio. He's probably going to lose Pennsylvania to Clinton on April 22, but he continues to close the delegate gap and pick up lots of endorsements (Bill Richardson, Bob Casey, etc..). He's also starting to shift into the more practical (versus inspired rhetoric) mode he will need to be in if he wins the nomination.
    
    The big question is when and how the Democrats will resolve the many gray areas involved in deciding whether Clinton or Obama should be the nominee. If the issues are not handled with intelligence and grace, it's going to be one ugly summer.

    
    Now for something completely different. There's nothing like considering ourselves from the perspective of the masses abroad. An article in The Independent gives a dismal view of our economic prospects. Titled "USA 2008: The Great Depression," the article hardly gets rosier in the actual body of the story.
    
    Apparently, by October some 28 million Americans will be on food stamps, up about 1.5 million from last year. "The US Department of Agriculture says the cost of feeding a low-income family of four has risen 6 per cent in 12 months" And that "next monthly job numbers, to be released this Friday, are likely to show 50,000 more jobs were lost nationwide in March, and the unemployment rate is up to perhaps 5 per cent."
    
    Not like we haven't been hearing this from the hometown press, but it gives one pause when you get it from the English.