The Political Process

Well, it's that time again. With the world economy in crisis, and the administration sticking to it's "Everything's gonna be OK" strategy, our candidates are holding a "town hall"-style debate. I live-blogged the last debate, and it wiped me out and pissed off the other people in the room, but the online response was quite positive, so we're gonna try this again. (An auditorium of undecided voters---why the hell is anyone "undecided"?) Tom: Intro, with Brokavian gravitas Friendly greeting. Both appear comfortable, Obama more so, perhaps. Tom: Econ will be biggest issue Q to O from bald…
Michael highlighted Sarah Palin's positions on evolution and climate change, explaining that her logic loops make him nervous. Me too. And that's why I'd like to debate her. And it turns out some readers, sciblings, many bloggers, and C-SPAN agree it might be fun.
2100 hrs This is a bit of an experiment for me. First, I haven't done a lot of live blogging. Second, I don't know whether science will play any part in tonight's debate. 2102 Lehrer is introducing. Looks like McCain showed up... Lehrer: quoting Eisenhower, re military and econ strength. Obama: poised, confident. Acknowledges poor economy and personalizes it for average American. Wants oversight of bailout. Wants return on investment. Wants to help homeowners. States "final verdict on 8 years of Bush/McCain deregulation." Calls out to middle class. McCain: distracts to Ted Kennedy.…
I really did not think I would live to see the day when a major political party in the U.S. would find it necessary to add a woman to the ticket in order to win the presidency. It's a shame I can't be at all happy about the particular party and woman making history. However, if you will recall, I predicted something like this situation some time ago. I just got the particular woman wrong. As I noted in a comment on that post: ...the majority [of] people will love a non-traditional candidate who is a conservative much sooner than they will love a non-traditional candidate who is a liberal…
As a resident of NYC, I spend a lot of time listening to WNYC, which is one of the finest talk radio stations in the country and is also one of the several National Public Radio affiliates in NYC. To help prepare voters for the upcoming election, the morning host, Brian Lehrer, is collaborating with the Huffington Post (where I volunteer) and Instapundit to feature his upcoming presidential election series "30 Issues In 30 Days." With your help, it will be the best, most in-depth election coverage offered. The issues have been nominated, but now, listeners have a few days to vote on which…
Candidate's promises and positions do not always match what is constitutionally or procedurally possible. It is possible to wrap oneself in the Constitution and hide behind it at the same time. Several years ago, a child died when a string attached to his 'hoodie' was caught in the frame of the playground slide down which he was hurdling. He was strangled. Over the course of any given year or two, a small number of children are run over by cars, killed or injured, as they run carelessly into the street in pursuit of the carillon-playing ice cream truck. The former incident, in which…
Candidate's promises and positions do not always match what is constitutionally or procedurally possible. It is possible to wrap oneself in the Constitution and hide behind it at the same time. Several years ago, a child died when a string attached to his 'hoodie' was caught in the frame of the playground slide down which he was hurdling. He was strangled. Over the course of any given year or two, a small number of children are run over by cars, killed or injured, as they run carelessly into the street in pursuit of the carillon-playing ice cream truck. The former incident, in which…