Obama Body Surfing V.S. Kerry Wind Surfing

For a little light humor I have to ask the question, ‘Are the photos of Obama body surfing going to be the “Kerry Wind Surfing” moment of 2008?’

In 2004, John Kerry’s wind-surfing at his home in Nantucket was captured on film and the incident became the joke of the campaign.

The Republicans, thinking the only way to recaputre the White House is to catch Obama engaged in a similar “act” have been waiting the entire Obama vacation for just this opportunity.

This is important stuff and it’s going to make the mainstream news cycle because of course, a “gotcha” moment on vacation is more important than how a Maverick can prod a nation into war, call his wife a “cunt”, laugh about “bombing” Iran, cozy up to friends of abramoff, ship jobs overseas…well you get the point.

More photos are at HuffingtonPost.com if you’re interested.

Whiny Liberal Bloggers Full of Self Importance…and Why Their Helping Obama Appear Moderate

Lately I’ve been biting my tongue.

McCain is such a dull candidate he can’t even get the progressives excited about taking him on. Instead, some lefty bloggers are having a hay day challenging Obama’s “surprise” move to the center.

Instead of focusing on real news, policy issues and solutions, like the escalation of bombings in Iraq, or the fact that Afghanistan is still a war claiming lives, or that it now costs over $40 to fill my Honda Civic (which I’m sure concerns most of you out there)… no instead of focusing on the stuff that really matters, the liberal bloggers like the Kos of KOS (sorry - don’t buy the line about getting out the checkbook and penning $2300) who claim the mantel of progressive have had fun bashing Obama.

I’m fine with critiquing policy positions based on fact, but when discussion becomes skewed by idealism, it starts get old, and I start to get less “slightly left leaning.”

But of course no one’s listening.

Where’s McCain’s Flag Pin?

On the night McCain delivered his most watched speech, taking advantage of the historical importance of those other two historical candidates, you’d think McCain would’ve done everything he could to deliver a knock out punch. Instead, aside from the gaffe on how to rehydrate babies with hot water, and the Hamas-green backdrop, he also appears to have gaffed the wardrobe by not wearing a flag pin demonstrative of his patriotism.

Now personally, I could care less, as I’m sure is the case with most other progressives. I even cringe a tad seeing one on Obama, knowing that he’s wearing this flag piece to convince the less educated that he’s not Muslim. (No, actually he might be wearing it out of respect to the veteran who gave it to him.)

But my cynicism causes me to digress. What I was trying to say was, for a Republican to take the stage and not be wearing one - well that’s just a bit too maverick for me.

And wait, listen. Where are all the conservative commentators, the media, and the stupification army in their plastic outrage. Fox News - don’t let us down now. Washington Times, please make this an issue. Rushie, this is so vitally important to this nation.

A Letter From Hillary Clinton

Dear Nate,

I wanted you to be one of the first to know: on Saturday, I will hold an event in Washington D.C. to thank everyone who has supported my campaign. Over the course of the last 16 months, I have been privileged and touched to witness the incredible dedication and sacrifice of so many people working for our campaign. Every minute you put into helping us win, every dollar you gave to keep up the fight meant more to me than I can ever possibly tell you.

On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy. This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans.

I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party’s nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise.

When I decided to run for president, I knew exactly why I was getting into this race: to work hard every day for the millions of Americans who need a voice in the White House.

I made you — and everyone who supported me — a promise: to stand up for our shared values and to never back down. I’m going to keep that promise today, tomorrow, and for the rest of my life.

I will be speaking on Saturday about how together we can rally the party behind Senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise.

I know as I continue my lifelong work for a stronger America and a better world, I will turn to you for the support, the strength, and the commitment that you have shown me in the past 16 months. And I will always keep faith with the issues and causes that are important to you.

In the past few days, you have shown that support once again with hundreds of thousands of messages to the campaign, and again, I am touched by your thoughtfulness and kindness.

I can never possibly express my gratitude, so let me say simply, thank you.

Sincerely,

Hillary Rodham Clinton

———

Although this is not news (pretty much everyone knew this yesterday) I guess my $10 donation bought me some access. And I can now turn focus on McCain. I have so many ideas for cartoons focused on McCain that I’m having a hard time figuring out where to start…but start I will.

Also, just curious if anyone out there watched the Katie Couric Evening News interview with Barack Obama. I wish I’d recorded it. She was pushing the point of whether Obama liked Clinton or not, and he wouldn’t give in. Look at 5:30 of this video.

Why We Can Trust Obama on Negotiations with Enemies

“Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” — John F Kennedy

Today is likely to mark Obama’s move to finally secure the democratic nomination for President of the United States. This long journey has been marked by gaffes, preacher associations, heated debates, conflicting polls, and passion filled charges. Now it will be marked with the end, a final speech to kickoff the general election. For those that have been following this from the beginning though, the Obama nomination has not always appeared to be so likely.

In June of 2007, after one of the first debates, Hillary threw the first punch, hoping to expunge any Obama “hope” early in the game, by demonstrating that his inexperience on foreign policy was his greatest weakness. Unfortunately for her, she helped him create one of the key differentiators between them, and gave him a foreign policy stump speech.

Now, over the weekend, in reflecting on a conversation Obama had with Clinton, he recalled:

“… she and I have been on this same journey together, and … once the dust settled, I was looking forward to meeting with her at a time and place of her choosing.”

No preconditions.

Hillary can bring her requests for a spot on the ticket, or her plea for aid in repaying her $40 million in debt. Despite suggestions an innuendo that she might be waiting for the worst to happen to Obama, he’s willing to sit down and talk. It can be over tea or whiskey, at the shooting range or bowling alley, in West Virginia, or Kentucky. It’s her choice. And she can lay out the conditions. He will listen. And then they will negotiate.

If Obama can negotiate the mending necessary to bring Clinton and her supporters on board, I have full faith he’ll be able to start a dialogue that secures our borders, starts the path to peace in the middle east by involving Iran and Syria, and convinces Dr. Strangeglove of North Korea that he really doesn’t want those nuke toys western countries harbor so selfishly.

Weekend Diary of a Poltiical Junkie

SATURDAY

6:30 AM PST: Turned on CSPAN and watched 30 members of the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee hash over various arguments on why two states that went against party rules should have a reduction in their penalty because no one thought Hillary would not be the nominee by June of 2008.

10:30 AM PST: Sometime around noon, after all grievances were heard, and the biased arguments of declared members of the committee had been fully aired, everyone took a break (a long break) and decided to talk behind closed doors.

11:00 AM PST: I turned off the TV and missed the removal of one unruly Harriet Christian, a Clinton supporter, but thankfully for YouTube I would later watch it multiple times as I went between fits of tears and laughter.

4:00 PM PST: Clicking between DrudgeReport, CNN and HuffingtonPost, I learned that Obama had officially resigned from his church, the United Trinity Church of Christ. I found myself both empathetic and a bit peeved that he did this (I’d not watched his explanation until later - and when I did, it made more sense, as it related as much to the burden being placed on the church than his political aspirations). Now I just wish people that weren’t going to vote for him in the first place would give it up.

5:00 PM PST: Or sometime around that time the DNC Rules & Bylaws committee finally meets again (yeah!) , and I watch as rude Clinton supporters interrupt continually during the motion, debate and vote period. Finally, as the ruling on Michigan is discussed, Harold Icki (a Clinton supporter, and supposedly the one that was supposed to stack the deck in her favor) decides it’s finally his time to pontificate and accuses the rest of his colleagues of hijacking 4 votes from Hillary (actually 2 votes considering they were half votes). He seems convinced that this would have made a difference and obvious to the fact that during the long recess his candidate was very close to getting a lot less.

SUNDAY

12:00 PM PST: Or sometime around this time, I learned that Obama lost Peurto Rico to Hillary Clinton (big suprise). Hillary claimed she’d now had the popular vote (bigger surprise considering she’s made this claim for over a month now and no ones been listening). And that she planned on continuing her campaign until she truly owned everyone in the United States a wad of cash.

3:30 PM PST: Logged on and created a profile on Hillaryclinton.com, thinking I’d try a bit of party unity myself and create havoc on the blog posts of Clintonistas. I think they saw through my black male disguise though because I never saw a single comment get posted.

4:00 PM PST: I decided, heeding her call for money, to donate $10 to her campaign. Along with the donation I sent a memo explicitly requesting that she use this money to payback the supporters she was defrauding with her argument that she actually had a chance to win the nomination.

5:00 PM PST: On barackobama.com I write a blog post, explaining my devious donation…and it seems Obamacans didn’t see my humor. I realized there really is a rift in this party…wow…I never would have guessed. I get a sense that this is what happens when generational shifts create chaos in government. The old skin doesn’t shed without some blood.

———

Note: Times are likely inaccurate but hopefully the general chronology coincides with your own weekend, fellow political junkies.

Estimated 75,000 Rally for Obama…Makes Drudge Report

And somewhere in that crowd is yours truly. So if you ever wanted to throw egg in my face or something (to those I’ve offended) that was your chance. Good luck.

This was truly a great event to have been a part of. Great weather, great crowd and most important, a great candidate.

It’s really weird to think that it’s been over 15 months that this cartoonist has been an unashamed, biased supporter of the Obama campaign. I’m starting to dust off my pencils again as I have a feeling I’m not going to have to draw any more pictures of Hillary Clinton.

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