Republican, thy name is Mud

From Politico: In order to win the general election this fall McCain will have to sort of pretend not to be a Republican. That’s going to be particularly exhausting since he’s been spending so much time pretending he never considered not being one.

Things are so bad that many people don’t even want to call themselves Republicans. The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press has found the lowest percentage of self-described Republicans in 16 years of polling.

Sounds a bit like the country is considering coming to its senses, doesn’t it?

Jenna’s Wedded

OK, a Bush daughter has married. Whatever. One can only hope for the sake of the gene pool that the groom is brighter than the father of the bride. The interesting thing about it is that the officiating clergyman is an Obama supporter. They’re EVERYWHERE!

Happy Mother’s Day

To all of us Moms, Grandmas, Aunts, Older Sisters, Men with some maternal instincts and any other mothers not listed here. Happy day.

News Corp pulls bid for Newsday | Reuters

News Corp pulls bid for Newsday | Reuters

Yes! Oh, there is no cause elation. According to Tim Bolger in the weekly paper, The Long Island Press (published before this latest news), no matter who gets the paper it looks like the immediate future will involve personnel cuts and reduced quality. And the paper has been kind of thin of late as it is.  Newsday’s had its ups and downs over the years. It’s always pro-growth. That’s the nature of things, but there was a period when it was indiscriminately  pro-development of any kind.  Come election day you could look in Newsdays voter guide and if there was a proposition to vote on that had environmental impact of any kind you couldn’t go wrong by voting whichever way was the opposite of what the paper recommended. It’s calmed down a lot since those days, though and tends to back more responsible development.

One of our less attractive qualities here is NIMBYism. We tend to say Not In My Back Yard to worthy projects as well as objectionable ones.  I don’t much like that about us, but there are exceptions. I welcome affordable housing, for instance, but I’m not ashamed to say that I don’t want Rupert Murdoch in my back yard.

Friday Grandkid Blogging

Mr. Yenta, more informally known as Bapa, and grandson, at the ecology park last year.

Tragicomedy of the day

Found this link on Oliver Willis’ site.  Some say it’s sexist, but that’s only true if you’ve never had a psycho ex-boyfriend. The lover turned stalker is available in all possible genders.

Clinton makes case for white appeal

No she didn’t! Oh, my sweet lord, yes she did. I still can’t quite believe it even after seeing in on TV.

“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article “that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”

“There’s a pattern emerging here,” she said.

Oh, there’s a pattern emerging there, all right. It’s not a pretty one. After a little time goes by this will make a great multiple choice question. Who said it? Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, George Allen, Trent Lott or Hillary freaking Clinton? If a McCain had said this Democrats would be celebrating. It would have been his Macaca moment.

I really have tried to be restrained here. I’ve voted for Hillary Clinton for the senate twice. I voted for her husband twice. I have no desire to bash Hillary but you have to draw the line somewhere.

I was undecided in this primary season up until South Carolina. Bill Clinton’s “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina, too” remark decided this aging white woman for Obama. I’ve been shocked and saddened by the willingness of the Clinton campaign to play on racial fears and doubts to weaken Obama’s appeal. A lot of the offending statements didn’t come directly from the woman herself, though, and I was willing to chalk it up to a tone deaf staff. When it comes to Bill, well, he’s always been her cross to bear, hasn’t he. But no matter who thought up those words, she said them. If there was a gun at her head she’d better mention it soon. There is no room for this stuff in the Democratic Party. None. If there was, there would be little point in having a Democratic Party at all.

While it’s got to be interesting to see how the Hillosphere reinterprets that statement to prove to themselves that somehow it’s an example of Obama “playing the race card” on them, this morning brings other news for the Clinton campaign and supporters to chew on. While I was typing this, ABC News announced that for the first time Obama has taken the lead in the race for super delegates by two.

Thanks to Time Goes By

Before heading off to work, I want to thank Ronni Bennett for the link. I wouldn’t have asked, having almost dropped out of blogging/commenting for quite a while. After a while it’s just embarrassing to keep saying, “I’m back from that unplanned hiatus - again.” Therefore, I was pretty surprised to see a link to Senior Moments on Time Goes By. I am hoping that, while we’re sure to experience slowdowns, we’ll be able to keep a more steady level of service at Senior Moments.

Ronni is kind of the consumate Elderblogger. Not the eldest by a longshot, but in fact, she may have invented the term. I’m not sure about that. Anyway, thanks so much to Ronni for the link and for her wonderful blog.

Wednesday Next President Blogging

Okie dokie, it might not be over, but it’s a lot closer to done than it was 24 hours ago. May 20th is the date Obama’s campaign is looking at. So, here’s looking at you, May 20th. I guess we can endure a little longer.

It’s almost over - or not

It’s another Super Tuesday. Only two races, but these are the ones that are going to make all the difference. It’ll be done after today, right? Or will it? If Clinton wins IN, will that be enough to keep her in the damned race even if Obama takes NC. Will one set of supporters be rejoicing and another set mourning, or will all of us just be tempted to harm ourselves just to avoid a few more weeks of primaries? Stay tuned, if you can stand it.