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Economics Election 2008 McCain Politics

David Letterman takes on McCain

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Election 2008 Humor McCain Obama Politics

Off the Deep End

[digg-reddit-me]Over in crazy land, also known as the National Review, Kathryn Jean Lopez says that many readers are suggesting that as Obama is saying the debates will go on…

they’d like McCain to just offer Palin step in for him.

I’d like to go on record as being in favor of that.

What are these people thinking? Either I’m crazy, or they are – and I’m hoping it’s them.

(H/t Andrew Sullivan.)

My guess is that the McCain campaign is (1) seeing a rapid change in the polls and trying to take some momentum back; and (2) wants to postpone the Vice Presidential debate because Palin isn’t ready (as Republicans have acknowledged recently). The Vice Presidential debate is scheduled for next Thursday.

Categories
Election 2008 McCain Obama Politics The Web and Technology

Fun Fact About McCain #7: McCain Will Destroy the Internet as We Know It

McCain will destroy the internet as we know it.

A bit of an exaggeration. But McCain, opposes net neutrality, one of the core technological foundations of the internet – and essential to its growth according to everyone from Google to the inventor of the world wide web. Without net neutrality, the internet will end up like this.

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Economics Election 2008 McCain Obama Politics

Fun Fact About McCain #6: Deregulation

McCain has been an impassioned deregulator, and thus bears responsibility for the banking crisis we are in now.

Not exactly. While McCain has always voted in favor of deregulation, he has never been impassioned about the economy until the market tanked. As one prudent individual said, “I certainly don’t fault Sen. John McCain for these problems. I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to.”

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Election 2008 McCain Politics The Clintons

Fun Fact About McCain #5: Bad Blood with Hillary?

John McCain has a history of bad blood with Hillary Clinton.

Half true. Yes, McCain told a joke in poor taste back in the 1990s about Hillary Clinton, Janet Reno, and Chelsea; and yes, by John McCain’s rules of interpreting the phrase “lipstick on a pig“, he called her a pig quite a few times; and yes, he has laughed along with the crowd during the primary when Hillary was called a “bitch.” But they seem to get along well. So – I guess Hillary is a tough woman who doesn’t take the McCain’s insults seriously.

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Election 2008 McCain Politics

Fun Fact About McCain #4: Smears

[digg-reddit-me]McCain has “hired to run this campaign” “the very people” who smeared McCain in the infamous 2000 primary in South Carolina against Bush (as Joe Biden has claimed.)

Actually True. Or at least McCain has hired some of them. ABC News reported that McCain hired Tucker Eskew and the firm that made the Swift Boat ads he criticized in 2004. From denouncing to hiring smear artists – that’s change you can believe in.
Categories
Economics Humor

Urgent Help Needed

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a
transfer of funds of great magnitude.
I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had
crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion
dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most
profitable to you.
I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my
replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may
know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the
1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.
This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds
as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names
of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family
lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person
who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.
Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account
numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to
[email protected] so that we may transfer your commission for
this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with
detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the
funds.
Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

Unfortunately, I cannot claim credit for this. Apparently it is in an email going around. I actually came across this virtually simultaneously here and here.

Categories
Election 2008 Foreign Policy Iraq McCain Obama Politics The Opinionsphere

Yglesias: Bush pressured Maliki to revise the withdrawl date to bail out McCain

Matt Yglesias points out that according to statements by Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki made only in Arabic, Bush had pressured him to change the withdrawl date from 2010 to 2011 “due to political circumstances related to the [U.S] domestic situation.”

In other words, Bush pressured Maliki to revise the withdrawl date, putting American military lives at risk, in order to bail out McCain. Pathetic.

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Election 2008 Foreign Policy McCain Politics

Fun Fact About McCain #3: Temper Tantrum in Nicaragua

McCain once attempted to strangle someone on a diplomatic mission.

Seems True. McCain denies it, but Republican Senator Thad Cochran remembers McCain’s volatile presence while negotiating with the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.
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Election 2008 McCain Politics

Fun Fact About McCain #2: Attacking The Character of His Opponents

[digg-reddit-me]John McCain has a history of calling his political opponents motives and patriotism into question.

Very true. Just ask:
Some deserved it. Some didn’t. Either way, it’s a pattern.