January 25, 2007
TOO DUMB TO BE THE NEXT MR. HEINZ?:
Dems' beauty skin deep: Ugly cuts straight to bone (Kyle Whitmire, 1/25/07, Birmingham Weekly)
Three years ago, when he held the second spot on the Democratic ticket, [John] Edwards spent his one and only campaign stop here with this schedule: Rubber chicken fundraiser at the Summit Club (30 minutes), unannounced/unpublicized visit to local headquarters (20 minutes), dinner at Bottega (3 hours). At least he set foot here, which is more than his running mate, John Kerry, could claim. Dinner at Bottega is fine dining, but working the lines at the Fish Market, with camera crew in tow, is smart campaigning. Instead, to paraphrase Steve Miller, he took the money and ran. Alabama voters not dining so well that night were left again to feel lonely and unappreciated.Posted by Orrin Judd at January 25, 2007 5:11 PMBut something funny happened on the way to the White House this time. Alabama has moved its primaries to February 2008. Supposing other states don't try to leapfrog ahead of us (and they very well might), this state will have much to say in who will be the next presidential nominees. And someone like Edwards, with his Southern boy credentials, could theoretically do well here. He speaks about God, country and family in our familiar inflections. He says "y'all" a lot. Last Friday he had a second chance to make a first impression.
"I grew up in the rural South, in South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina, small towns the whole time," Edwards said to a group of TV reporters in a suite at the Wynfrey Hotel. "I think I have a good understanding of what people in Alabama care about. They care about their faith, they care about their family, and they care about their work, in that order."
If only that were true. In fact, what Edwards didn't say, and what the TV cameras didn't show, was what was going on downstairs: the Mid Winter Conference of the Alabama Trial Lawyers Association. That's right. Edwards was here, in his first campaign visit, to take money from trial lawyers. If he had performed an abortion and married another man, he could have hit the trifecta for running crossways of Alabama values.
He's been at virtually every home Tarheel basketball game this year, and ESPN, who've televised nearly all of them, have obliged with "man in the stands" interviews and lots'o cutaway shots.
Heck, if he was running against a Dukie Republican, that might make me vote for the guy.
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at January 25, 2007 6:24 PMWow, a politician campaigns for votes. What a shock!
Why do you continue to lie about the Kerrys' marriage, by the way?
Posted by: Jack Harkness at January 25, 2007 8:05 PMWhat marriage?
Posted by: oj at January 25, 2007 8:11 PMThe one you keep lying about.
Posted by: at January 25, 2007 8:16 PMJack H: That's quite a sense of humor you have.
Posted by: pchuck at January 25, 2007 8:19 PMJohn Kerry divorced his wife.
Posted by: oj at January 25, 2007 8:20 PMDesperate much, liar?
Posted by: Jack Harkness at January 25, 2007 8:28 PMNever desperate enough to marry a woman who still loved her dead husband for her money. But, then, I've never been to Paris to treat with our enemies either....
Posted by: oj at January 25, 2007 8:33 PMThe temerity of a woman widowed in her 40s to still remember her first husband after remarrying! You trying to write about love is like a castrato trying to write about sex.
Posted by: Jack Harkness at January 25, 2007 8:38 PMIf you don't think a castrato can have sex no woman will want you.
Posted by: oj at January 25, 2007 8:42 PMAnd isn't it interesting that you keep lying about the motivations behind the Kerrys' marriage? Why is that, exactly? And how can a liar like yourself pretend to be able to make moral judgments of your betters?
Posted by: Jack Harkness at January 25, 2007 8:52 PMIt's not a moral judgement. If he serves her ambition and she serves his greed more power to them. I was just suggesting that he should be careful because he's hit the glass ceiling. Other Senators with better futures will start to look awfully appealing. Heck, even Hillary may get a come hither glance.
I'm just trying to be helpful here and make sure Mr. Kerry doesn't get hurt. He seems awfully fragile--like his acolytes...
Posted by: oj at January 25, 2007 8:56 PMUsing the words 'castrato', 'acolyte', and 'Kerry' in the same thread should be forbidden.
I think I need to revise my earlier suggestion - Jack is starting to remind me of Paul Begala.
Meanwhile, the Breck Girl is going to have spend a lot more time at Wendy's if he wants to be President. I keep waiting for Elizabeth to launch another salvo at Hillary; as a breast cancer survivor, she has that absolute immunity, no?
And if they are all in full campaign mode right now, the likelihood of someone (or all of them) making a major gaffe goes up exponentially. 22 months to go!
Posted by: jim hamlen at January 25, 2007 9:24 PMAhh brother Jack, consider well the words you speak from your pulpit, for they are powerful tools. Be careful for I have known a few pulpiteers who've used heavy and forceful words from their pulpits only to find that they've ground themselves themselves assunder.
Posted by: Dave W at January 25, 2007 11:14 PMHey, OJ, this new troll you've got is awesome!
Mr. Harkness, you might find you have more success around here if you stop acting like a pathetic little crybaby. Oooh, somebody said something mean about your Lord and Savior John Kerry! Be sure to stomp your little foot and pout a lot!
In an interesting coincidence, that attitude is one of the many, many reasons why Senator Kerry was a horrible choice to be a presidential candidate.
Moonbats R Us can also swoon over this tender moment in the lives of their masters.
Ain't Love Grand
I dunno. Bart was the best.
Posted by: jdkelly at January 26, 2007 9:40 AMBryan, why is it trolling to ask a liar to tell the truth? Why do rightists lie so much?
Posted by: Jack Harkness at January 26, 2007 9:48 AMBart wasn't really a troll - he just wanted everyone to know how smart and sophisticated he was.
Posted by: ratbert at January 26, 2007 10:30 AMIs this guy for real, or is one of the regular commentators putting us on?
Posted by: Jim in Chicago at January 26, 2007 10:49 AMJust to differentiate: Bart and Bartman are two different people. I'm the not-so-smart, unsophisticated one who is just happy to be here. Of course my posts probably proved that a long time ago.
Posted by: Bartman at January 26, 2007 2:46 PMBartman, please mind your manners and stop fishing for compliments when there's company in the house. What will Jack think? He'll just start demanding that we tell him why we lie about who's Bart and who's not ... and I already feel a migraine coming on. ... can't go to the doctor ... oh the pain.
Posted by: erp at January 26, 2007 8:20 PMBart? Bart who?
Posted by: Bartman at January 28, 2007 8:54 AM