Looks like he was into it more for the event than the story.  Chin up Barack, all good stories have to end, even if they end poorly.

Case in point: Heroes.  Obama agrees to internment camps for powered people.  AS HE’S SHUTTING DOWN GUANTANAMO.  And going against prettttty much everything he ran on.  The publicity shitstorm this would kick up  would be insane.   Yes I know people don’t know about the powered people in that universe…but people would find out about camps & a new gov’t agency pretty quick, even if they didn’t know what it was for – and he wouldn’t be stupid enough (at least I don’t think he would) to authorize something that would ruin his chances at a second term.

Case in point: Thunderbolts. Obama allows a semi-reformed murderer/corporate criminal to run a huge government security agency (think FBI).  There would be hearings, or something.  I don’t care if he shot a bad guy and everyone loves him – no one cares about war heroes like that anymore.  Not that no one cares, but being a war hero doesn’t grant you an automatic pass.  He’d still have the media buried so far up his ass he would never make it to an appointment.
YES YES I KNOW THESE ARE FICTIONAL WORLDS.

My point is that writers really haven’t come to terms with writing an intelligent president yet.  You can’t write him like Bush, with every George, Dick & Cheney pulling the wool over his eyes.  When you’re trying to make your reality look like ours, writing Obama at 50% intelligence is a hard shock out of the disbelief I’m trying to suspend.  Flying people – sure.  Obama authorizing a second Guantanamo?  Wahuhu???  (OK maybe he will later, who knows, but the point is, at the current political juncture – uh uh).

I’m hopeful, but not stupid or euphoric.

Good luck Mr. President.   Even with your vaunted intellect, I think you’ll need it.  You’ve inherited a relative shithole – the worst conditions a president has stepped into in how long?  I have no idea, certainly in my lifetime.  Not to mention all that pressure from being the first something or other…you’ve certainly got your work cut out for you.

On the bright side, if you pull this off (ie get us back on track, pull us through the recession, deal with the “war”, healthcare, etc.)  you will certainly go down in history not just for the firsts, but for some massive achievements.

It would be sweet if you didn’t let us down too much.

Oh look!  It’s another nominee!  You’ve heard of people dumb enough to fall for those scams right…?  But someone dumb enough to steal for one?  fail.

The bit about erasing memories in mice is still making the rounds.  You should check it out if you haven’t already because, at the very least, people will be talking about for a bit.

A really nicely done photo essay type thing on Obama.

Emoticons, in the 1880s?   Pshhh.  Show me some ASCII art and then I’ll be impressed! ;)

Jane Meyer’s New Yorker article on the push for Palin.

This piece from Time has some interesting pieces from Obama  & Petraeus’ meeting.

Jason Jones (of the Daily Show) interviews the current mayor of Wassila (embedded @ the Daily Dish because I’m too lazy to try and embed it here).

How your beer bought McCain’s shoes.  A nice explanation of the way beer distribution works…doesn’t sound very capitalist to me!

Buckypaper.  The latest in high-tech materials.  Have any of these things made it into public hands since plastic?  Probably…I just don’t pay much attention.  Spandex maybe?  ;)

McCain & Obama on infidelity.  I think one candidate clearly has more experience than the other here.  The question is, is that experience enough to get them into the White House?

I’m sure you’ve seen the stories about how Palin charged the state for her children’s flights & hotels.  But just in case: here’s one.

Block African witchcraft curses against McCain and Palin now!  You cannot make this batshit up.  OK, obviously someone can…because they did, and appear to believe it.

Looks like Focus on the Family is getting in on the “batshit crazy” act too!  Seriously, all you not-batshit-crazy Christians need to man-and-woman-up and shut these fools up.

Wacky broccoli.

Surprise!  JP Morgan isn’t going to use the bailout money to issue loans!….they’re just going to keep it and do whatever the fuck they want with it!  You didn’t see that coming did you?????  The real question is of course: “How can we get them to defenestrate themselves?”

One last touch of crazy, congressman says “Liberals hate real Americans.”  Honestly I don’t hate many people in the world right now.  But I will laugh relentlessly at you if you are socially, morally, or mentally deficient.   Note that this guy also falls under the batshit-crazy Christian label – or, at the very least, he is trying to appeal to those folks.

No, I don’t know where the term “batshit-crazy” comes from…I suppose I should look it up.  This was the best I could find in a hurry.   Hmm.  Toxic gas from poop.  Gotcha.  Good to know.

[EDIT: Couple more because I don't want to make another post:

Zakaria goes to the Obama side.

A lengthy article about pursuing interviews in Vietnam with ex-military officers.

Ever wondered why your cell phone messes with nearby speakers, etc.?  Inquire within.

/END EDIT]

McCain came across as really angry/annoyed (to me of course!) again.

Surprise!  He brought up the Ayers crap that I thought he might have the balls to go against his Rove-eges advice.  This isn’t going to get him any points.   Specifics aside, I suspect that, other than the frothy Republican base, no one gives a fuck about this. Especially not in comparison to real issues like oh say the economy or Iraq.

Obama kept his cool the whole time, while McCain looked pretty depraved at some points – it looked like he wanted to haul off and smack Obama a few times.  Sure, I’m sure debating potential presidents feel that way a lot – but they learn to cover it up!

Zero points for decency to McCain, a couple to Obama.  Obama gave him a few props and I think McCain maybe gave him one, but he followed it up with a contradictoring insult.  I could be wrong here, it’s been a few hours, so don’t hold me to it!  He defended the crazies at his rallies.  Good one here – playing to your base is totally going to help you in this election.  Really he could say whatever he wants – they aren’t going away – they came for the Palin, hopefully with a side of dead old man.

McCain asking Obama the same goddam questions as the last debate makes it look like he is senile and forgot the answers.  I know I didn’t.

Obama wasn’t like, knock your socks off whatever, but he kept his cool very well (although I’m sure some will mock his thought collecting stutter type thing), answered all the crazy accusations and re-presented his policies for the voters.

Oh, I’m sorry Mr. Obama, did my kitchen sink hit you in the face?  Don’t worry, I have more!  McCain threw all kinds of funky junk and none of it stuck. I’m surprised he didn’t go for the Muslim connection!  I guess he’s saving sink #2 for the real ugliness that comes in the next 2 weeks.

I admit, I don’t know much (or have a good opinion yet) on the school vouchers, etc. stuff.   So there may be something to say there, but it won’t come from me (yet).

Obama 3, McCain 0.

And here’s what a bunch of other people thought:

Foxnews contributers.

Andrew Sullivan’s blogger response round-up.  No idea who most of these people are or what parties they belong to.

Peter David’s (the comic writer) wife filling in for him on a live blog.

Undercover Black Man’s live blog.

Same deal with Kerry (and god he looks & sounds OLD!) – poor delivery, good speech, better than any speech of his I can recall hearing before.

I caught a bit of one of the Latino (Hispanic? I forget the terminology) Caucus guys’ speeches…and it was pretty bad.  Probably why they didn’t air it on TV.

Bill’s speech was good.

Biden’s was good.

Gore’s was very good.

Michelle’s was very good as well.

Obama’s was great, and made a great case for himself and his party, and why he thinks (and I agree) that they are what America needs right now.  I’ll wait to see what McCain says (did his congradulations commercial come off snide to anyone else?) in his big speech…but as it stands now I find Obama hard to argue with.

Bill Richardson’s speech started out slow (and it sounded like he was yelling instead of “projecting”), but I thought it was quite good by the end.

[youtube = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnhmByYxEIo]

It is amusing how long it took McCain to reject Hagee’s endorsement (the 22nd).  He said things about Catholics and Gays but what finally broke the McCamel’s back…calling the Holocaust the will of God (which I think, technically certain branches of Christianity have to believe this, but I guess that’s irrelevant for the moment, although it does lead to interesting discussion I’ve had many times over the years about predestination/will of god/freewill/structure of time).  So, anti-Jewish sentiment is political poison, but anti-Catholic, anti-gay is ok.  At least the Catholics know how important they are to McCain;  I’m pretty sure the gays already know how they stand with Republicans in general.

Hah, and it looks like McCain had to reject another Pastor’s endorsement (see link at end of linked entry) later that day.  Hilarious!

Seriously John, maybe you should stop looking for people to make you look good, and just not be such a flip-flopper.  You know, try and make yourself look good on your own.  Because it doesn’t look like the endorsement thing is working out.  Although, I hear David Duke is always open to being courted for an endorsement.  You know, if you want that really hardcore religious white segment of the population.

In the past few primaries, pollsters have spliced the numbers so we could see to what extent white voters said race was an important factor in their vote. Below, the first number is the percent of white voters who said race was important; the second number is Obama’s margin of victory or defeat:

Oregon: 7% — Obama +16
North Carolina: 8% — Obama +14
Indiana: 10% — Obama -2
Kentucky: 18% — Obama -35
West Virginia: 21% — Obama -41

The more white voters who think the candidate’s race matters, the better Clinton does. Sometimes it’s not that complicated.

And that’s just the people that admitted what they were thinking, I’m sure the actual number is higher.  Of course, this tiny “analysis” leaves lots of states out of the question, and thus has me questioning its validity as a statistic of note – it’s very nicely skewed to fit the curve of the author’s point.  I’d like to see all the states that have voted thus far in the relevant way (non-caucus?) tabulated like this.

Happy Mother’s Day all you mothers, and I hope your partners (those crazy mother fuckers!) took care of you today.

Zain gave me a face hug this morning.  It was the most adorable thing ever.