Free Republic

I think it is unlikely we can get the House back this cycle, but it is just amusing (or embarrassing) going back and reading people who only six or seven months ago were going on about +40 seat gains for the Dems in the House, or a filibuster-proof Senate--or that 2008 was going to be a "realigning" election.

At this point, any Obama Wins scenario hints at one of the weakest 'mandates' in decades--the Obama campaign is already laying the groundwork--through backgrounders to the press and selected/paid for blog chatter--for a possible win via serious electoral college/popular vote inversion, and by now it is clear (to professional politicos if not amateur Kool-Aid drinkers) that the man's downticket coattails will be zilch.

This isn't some run-of-the-mill civic holiday in DPRK--this is the 60th Anniversary of the regime's establishment. His appearance is a requirement politically and socially. If Kim--or even one of his doubles--doesn't show, something is seriously wrong. Fasten your seatbelts, people. We would have been in for a bumpy ride when either Pakistan or North Korea dissolved into anarchy--but nobody anticipated both nations looking to blow up simultaneously.

The scenario loses me when the suggestion is that there are four “doubles” standing in for Kim. Anyone remember how Saddam was supposed to have the same roster of lookalikes? We never found any of them, and you’d think they’d have been much easier to locate.

How can they say no to Maverick? Try to understand, try to understand, HE'S A MAGIC MAN. (Sorry. Couldn't help it.)

Who has got the You Tube link?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vc96K6oGA8

Oh sorry, you meant the Obama video. Oh well, Burt Lancaster is still more fun to watch any day of the week.

I’m sure it is funny but I’m unfamiliar with the reference... what’s the “Preakness Pool” ?

Forgot to mention, the novel and film in question is "Seven Days In May".

Best lines:

General James Mattoon Scott: James Mattoon Scott, as you put it, hasn't the slightest interest in his own glorification. But he does have an abiding interest in the survival of this country.

President Jordan Lyman: Then run for office, damnit.

I’m sure it is funny but I’m unfamiliar with the reference... what’s the “Preakness Pool” ?

In both the 1964 film and the 1962 novel (IMHO better than even the Lancaster-Douglas movie) the Joint Chiefs of Staff who are plotting a coup d'etat against the President are using communiques among top brass stationed around the world on a betting pool on the Preakness Stakes as the coded cover for their scheme.

750 yards is yearly a half mile. There is no stadium in America that is that large. The playing field + endzone + space to the stands (if there is any) would be only about 150 yards.

That was exactly my thought when I read that. Unless they were planning on switching the venue to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the story made no sense.

This guy is my age. The draft ended in the early 70’s when this guy wasnt a teenager...In fact, depending on what year he was born, he might not have had to register at all. (THAT started back up again when I was in college.)

Chet was born 24 November 1951. He became eligible for the draft in late 1969. When did Nixon effectively end it, i.e., stop calling anyone from the lowest lottery numbers, as opposed to formally scrapping the Selective Service Act in 1973?

Right now the AP article you linked merely says that Chet Edwards is one of five “finalists”

That AP article has been changing/updating by the minute. A few minutes ago Sidotti indicated she had some scoop that it is going to be Edwards. Something is up if his name is being floated this late in the game, but I guess Sidotti's editor is getting nervous.

The AP wire is buzzing the past few minutes that Obama is set to surprise all with picking Rep. Chet Edwards (D-TX) as his vice presidential selection, perhaps by the middle of this afternoon. [Moderator--please pull this thread if this turns out to be a red herring]

They CAN get rid of him... it just needs to be done carefully, and allow Hillary to retain those monolithic black votes. They'll find a way to do it, and probably within the next 3-4 weeks.

The way to do it is by making it look like another unforced error by the Obama camp rather than any scheme of theirs.

It would be very subtle. Perhaps along the lines of maneuvering a panicking Team Obama into picking Chuck Hagel, which ostensibly would be to shore up his national security image, but in fact would trigger a revolt of the superdelegates. Allowing her to be on the ballot next week may go down as one of the most colossal blunders in American political history, right up there with Jefferson picking Aaron Burr as his running mate. Thus I would put the chances at Hillary attempting some Machiavellian 11th hour attempt to snatch the nomination back on the convention floor at 5%. Not likely at all, but I would have said 0% last week.

Yet another tragedy for the family
While I feel bad for him and his family, I think this is a bit of a stretch to call it a "tragedy". Like every human being now alive, he's going to die of something. Dying young with promise unfulfilled might be called tragic. Having a terminal illness at the age of 76, following decades of service that even his enemies (myself included) have to acknowledge was one one of the most legislatively effective Senatorial careers in US history for good or for ill? That's just not a tragedy. And if you say "all" deaths are tragic, that just devalues the meaning of the word.

Yet another tragedy for the family While I feel bad for him and his family, I think this is a bit of a stretch to call it a "tragedy". Like every human being now alive, he's going to die of something. Dying young with promise unfulfilled might be called tragic. Having a terminal illness at the age of 76, following decades of service that even his enemies (myself included) have to acknowledge was one one of the most legislatively effective Senatorial careers in US history for good or for ill? That's just not a tragedy. And if you say "all" deaths are tragic, that just devalues the meaning of the word.

Rollins is no fool, and quite the bright strategist, but he has a habit of jumping on bandwagons before he does all his homework on the candidate and his inner circle.

Exhibit A is not Reagan in '84. It's Perot in '92. Rollins was convinced that Ross was The New Reagan and climbed aboard, before he realized what a paranoid loon he had signed up to support. Look at Rollins' own recollection of the Perot VP choice.

Rollins in his own memoirs recalled how Perot and his asskissers first decided that Nixon's first Secretary of State was going to get the appointment, so Rollins had to tell them that William P. Rogers was dead.

Perot's men named Stockdale as Veep nominee knowing that Stockdale had cognitive difficulties. Their reasoning was that a) they could think of no one else for the job, b) state laws usually require that presidential candidates have running mates, and c) Stockdale was absolutely subservient to Ross the Boss. Rollins had a sinking feeling when he learned Stockdale had already been diagnosed with some sort of senile dementia, but Plan B was for Stockdale to sit at home in a front porch campaign unseen since the 19th century. Stockdale was not so far gone that he would venture out and pee on the lawn, so his mental impairment should not be obvious. Then, as the election approached, the Perot team would still be discreetly interviewing for a "serious" VP. Once that person was found, then Stockdale announces he withdraws from the ticket for unspecified health reasons and the real Veep comes aboard in an October surprise.

I see a Huckabee general election campaign working along the same lines, given that we know the Huckster is notoriously thin-skinned and subject to emotional outbursts in private...a lot like Ross the Boss.

Excellent reporting. This should be circulated wide and far, the MSM will not tell the public the medical facts if they feel it is in their interest to push a favored figure. Remember in 2004 the media was so in the tank for the Democrats that they would not disclose the obvious implication that John and Elizabeth Edwards had had their replacement son, and third daughter, through donor egg therapy. No, it was just a ‘miracle’ that helped them through their grief.

You don’t think pumping her 48-year old and then 51-year old body up with oceans of synthetic hormones might have had something to do with her developing breast cancer? And that that responsibly disclosing that might save untold numbers of women from developing that disease if they knew the risks?

I hope PVT Beauchamp enjoys his 15 minutes of fame. He has just taken A/1-18 INF out of the war for at least a week. He has wrecked his platoon leader’s career, and probably his company commander’s as well. Blogging from theater is going to become even harder, thanks to him. He has brought dishonor and discredit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army. This Blue Falcon from FOB Falcon richly deserves what he has coming to him.

He is The Surge’s Lyndi England.

The Four Jills is instructive. Western femalekind is so self-absorbed its missing the Big Picture. Three of our clueless Four Jills will not write the future. Guess what they ALL have in common? NO kids.

Actually I think Bishopess Kate has one daughter, but your point still stands.

People need to remember, the reason polygraph results aren't admissible in court is because they don't "measure" the "truth"...they measure bodily reactions. The body's reactions change under the stress of media attention, etc, and so the test results change. False results happen far more often than most lay people realize: a lot of otherwise fine applicants for positions as FBI special agents get dinged because they get nervous during the polygraph exam even though they haven't done anything illegal. Even the Bureau recognizes that this has become a problem.