In case there's any doubt about Barack Obama's (lack of) sense of humor

he lays it to rest in this interview with Letterman:

Obama on Letterman: If That's What I'd Meant, Palin Would Be the Lipstick, ‘McCain's Failed Policies’ the Pig

September 10, 2008 5:56 PM

In an interview on the "Late Show with David Letterman" to air later tonight, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., answers some questions on the lipstick controversy.

Letterman asks Obama if he still thinks the Republicans are overreacting to his comments last night.

"Look this is ... sort of silly season in politics –- not that there’s a non-silly season in politics," Obama says. "But it gets sillier, and it’s a common expression, at least in Illinois, I don’t know about New York City, I don’t know where you guys put lipstick on here."

To audience laughter, Obama says, "In Illinois, the expression connotes the idea that if you have a bad idea -- in this case, I was talking about John McCain’s economic plans -- that just calling them change, calling it something different doesn’t make it better. Hence, lipstick on a pig is still a pig."

"What I like about this scenario is because they -– the Republicans -- demanded an apology," Letterman says, "so that means there had been a meeting at some point somewhere along the line (of) they got together and said, 'You know what? He called our vice presidential candidate a pig.' Well, that seems pretty unlikely, doesn’t it?"

"It does," agrees Obama. "Keep in mind that, technically had I meant it this way –- she would be the lipstick!"

The audience laughs, but Letterman is confused.

"You are way ahead of me," says the late night host.

"The failed policies of John McCain would be the pig," Obama says. "I mean, just following the logic of this illogical situation."

At another point, Letterman asks Obama, "Have you ever actually put lipstick on a pig?"

"The answer would be no," Obama responds. "But I think it might be fun to try."

Liberals to read today

TNR recognizes the problem liberals have with the constitution.
another liberal recognizes the problem liberals have with the working class.
feminists for Palin.
update: and this.
this is extra credit.

read noonan. again.

In Short

We might as well not bother to talk about policy issues in this campaign; we're now in all out culture war, with the coasts and the heartland fighting for control of Ohio.

--Megan McArdle

Meanwhile, in a universe eerily reminiscent of this one

called the NY Times:

The address by Ms. Palin, 44, who stunned the political world last week as Mr. McCain’s pick for a running mate, took place before a convention transformed from an orderly coronation into a messy, days-long drama since the McCain campaign’s disclosure on Monday that Ms. Palin’s 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, was pregnant. Since then there have been a host of other distractions, including Hurricane Gustav, questions about how thoroughly Mr. McCain vetted what people close to his campaign have called the last-minute pick of Ms. Palin, and charges from Mr. McCain’s top aides that the news media have launched a sexist smear campaign against his running mate.

Best Peggy Noonan column today since this one.

Why Experience Matters

but only for candidates for vp, not candidates for president

Why Experience Matters, Cont'd

Republicans are still making the argument that Sarah Palin has the necessary experience to serve as vice president she has spent less than two years as governor of Alaska--er, sorry, I mean Commander-in-Chief of the Alaska National Guard. After careful consideration, I've decided not to rebut this argument, lest I lend it even a shred of credibilty.

Instead, I'd like to dwell on why experience matters in a vice presidential candidate, perhaps even more than it matters in a presidential candidate. Nate Silver made one important argument here. When a president cannot serve out his or her term, whether because of incapacity, scandal, or death, it is, almost by definition, a crisis. As Nate notes, frequently "a president takes the Oath of Office under relatively calm waters, allowing them something of a learning curve." A crisis can stil present itself quickly--and, lord knows, presidents of both parties have made rookie mistakes for which the country paid dearly. But the margin for error would seem even slimmer when a vice president assumes power.

The other reason is the timing of modern campagins. Today, voters usually have more than a year to scrutinize the presidential candidates--to figure out what they believe and how they operate--before pulling the lever in November. But they don't get the same chance to see the vice persidential candidate in action. So it's particularly important vice presidents be known quantities--somebody whose record on the issues is clear and whose ability to lead is well-established.

Joe Biden fits this definition perfectly. He's got six terms in the Senate, including service as chairman of two high-profile committees, plus two runs at the presidency by which to judge him.

So vote for Obama, because if he dies, we'll have a president with experience.

Bristol is named after Bristol Bay. That's where I grew up, that's where we commercial fish.

Imagine if Todd Palin had grown up in Juneau.

Top Stories

Man gets Windows Vista to work with printer
(h/t)

Grant it to the liberals when they are funny:

Is Barack Obama a socialist? Well, let's see. His campaign platform makes no mention of proletarian revolution or nationalization of industry, and he trumpets his belief that "America's free market has been the engine of America's great progress. It's created a prosperity that is the envy of the world." Not quite Leninesque. On the other hand, Tom DeLay has made a logically rigorous counter-argument sure to convince second-graders everywhere: "I have said publicly, and I will again, that unless he proves me wrong, he is a Marxist." No word on whether DeLay proceeded to put his fingers in his ears and hum loudly.

new post at pruzan.blogspot.com

Rob Long:

A few years ago, I lived at the
beach in Santa Monica. It
was a two-storey, rectangular
beach house, and in the afternoons
I would sit on my balcony, smoke a
cigar, sip a bourbon, and watch the sun set
over the Pacific.
One day, though, I was disturbed by a
lot of alarming noise—ambulance-siren
noise, small-gathering-crowd noise,
squawking-police-radio noise—from
the next street over. And then, fluttering
above, there appeared several news helicopters.
I leaned over the balcony to get a
better look—far enough to crane my neck,
not far enough to spill my drink—and I
suddenly noticed, right below my balcony,
a news van pulling up in front of my
house, directly in front of my driveway
(conveniently marked by a “Do NOT Park
Here” sign), and several purposeful people
getting out and starting to unload video
equipment.
“You can’t park there,” I called down. A
well-dressed lady—the reporter, I figured—
looked up from her small mirror.
“We’re media,” she said, as if that settled
that, and went back to her powdering
and primping.
“Yeah, but you’re blocking my driveway.
You can’t park there.”
She looked up at me, squinted, took a
small, barely perceptible glance at my
drink—Ah, I could hear her thinking, the
local drunk—and repeated, just in case I
didn’t get it the first time: “It’s okay. We’re
media.”
And the gang started bustling around
again, slamming doors and hoisting equipment.
She tossed her mirror into her bag.
“I don’t care who you are. You can’t
park in front of my garage. I will have you
towed.”
“We’re a news organization, sir. We’re
press. We can park where we want.” (This
from the short, high-strung young man
with the clipboard and the major cell
phone.)
“Let me be clear,” I said, in my best
cranky-local-drunk voice, “I will have you
towed. You cannot block my garage. I
need to be able to pull my car out of my
driveway. There’s a chance”—and here I
dropped my voice just a bit, and held my
drink aloft—“there’s a chance I may need
to step out for some ice.”

from National Review's "The Week":

On the other hand, Reverend Jackson, that might have
improved the Clinton administration.

read horseraceblog

more here

now all you need to do is figure out the pattern, and find where it is on election day

Why Are Jews Funny?

Two Goyim discuss here

Edwards, Nunn on Obama's Veep List

says time. pajamas media on edwards:

I want to start by bragging to you about how discreet Pajamas Media is. Over six months ago, we had wind of the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter love affair and love child and did not run with it. Most of this information was hearsay from people here in Hollywood, people who know Rielle. She was a long time hanger on in Hollywood circles before heading East to do political promo videos… and, yes, I had met her myself on a couple of occasions at parties. She was not particularly notable, of the tedious sort that bore you to death about their yoga instructor.

But now that the cat is out the bag, I will say what I wanted to say then. John Edwards–he of constructing a 28,000 square foot home while preaching about the two Americas and remonstrating about the environment–is one of the most reprehensible schmucks to appear on the American political scene in some time. And that’s saying something. That he played this game while his wife had cancer makes it contemptible beyond words. Now we know why he was always primping in the mirror. It is narcissism unbounded.

But there is a moral to this story - and I think we all know it. I hate the use of caps, but I think in this instance I will use them. DO NOT BELIEVE THE HIGH FLOWN RHETORIC OF POLITICIANS - ESPECIALLY WHEN IT IS HOLIER THAN THOU. THEY ARE LIKELY TO BE MASKING SOMETHING.

Oh, one last thing, for those of you who say it’s The National Enquirer, how do we know it’s true? I suggest you Google the “National Enquirer and OJ Simpson.” They broke most of the important stories on that case. In general, these days they’re vastly more reliable than The New York Times.

this does have some funny parts.

Read Jonah Goldberg's Guide to Republican VP Candidates here

Quote of the Day

Where Iraq is concerned, McCain is suddenly in the odd position of playing Winston Churchill in 1945, or George H.W. Bush in 1992 - a leader whose successes in crafting wartime policy don't translate into electoral victory - without having ever been elected President in the first place. --Ross Douthat

weekly standard

July 10, 2008

Being Barack, Or, We Don't Know Either

Break out a thousand violins - Barack bemoans his loss of privacy:

BUTTE, MONT. -- He hasn't had a vacation for months. He sees his family little more than once a week. And now as the presumed Democratic nominee for president, he can't go anywhere without being trailed by a full crew of journalists.

Reaching his limit, Barack Obama wriggled free of the campaign's fetters on July 4. Caught in Montana on his daughter Malia's 10th birthday, he improvised a party.

At the Holiday Inn Express in Butte, a city known for its copper mines and bordellos of old, Obama and family ordered a cake. They loaded an iPod with Malia's favorite songs and danced and sang. Obama later came close to tears, recalling that Malia told him "it was the best birthday she'd ever had."

"I know it sounds corny, but last night was actually one of those times where being in a Holiday Inn in Butte without a lot of fanfare. . . . I don't know whether she was just telling us what we wanted to hear, but I can tell you from my perspective it was one of the best times I've had in a long time," Obama told reporters aboard his campaign plane. Then he quickly turned and went back to his seat.

Run for President, win your party's nomination, lose privacy - gee, this whole cause-effect thing must be an eye-opener. But I especially love this:

"I don't know whether she was just telling us what we wanted to hear, but I can tell you from my perspective it was one of the best times I've had in a long time..."

Oh my goodness - a parent who can't read whether his ten year old is having fun at a party wants to trot off to meet with America's foreign enemies without any preconditions (but lots of preparation!). Well, maybe he can do a better job reading foreign adults. A guess - he will come away convinced that they loathed Bush, admire him, and look forward to peace in our time. Bold call, huh?

Betsy is not merciful.

Posted by Tom Maguire on July 10, 2008 | Permalink

idiocy watch

part II
the equivalent to Hillary's Bosnia story would be if McCain had forged the signatures of three hundred economists.

Cosby on Wright

Rev. Wright epitomizes the thoughts and actions that have prevented and continue to prevent black America from moving ahead and achieving their potential as a people. He suggests that this United States of America made up of sons and daughters of immigrants (I'm talking of the millions of 1st, 2nd, 3rd generation immigrants in this country) of every race, creed, color and religion, each and everyone of them who had nothing to do with slavery, somehow owe something to a group of people who have never been slaves? It's amazing. It seems everyone is to blame for the shambles black society is in with its violence, drugs, high school drop out rates, misogyny, and a host of other real and virulent problems, except for the very people who engage in such behavior.
Enough. As a society, culture or people, they should look within themselves and fix their problems. When did this man become the spokesman for the black church? And of course his church is different, but that doesn't mean his message and philosophy is acceptable, or productive or non-offensive or not-racist or indicative or our greater cultural behaviors, values and norms as Americans. And yes, the link between this man and Obama really does matter. At a very minimum, it provides insight into the political and philosophical strain that Obama adheres to. - Bill Cosby, April 28, 2008