Puppets Making Crank Phone Calls

Jon Stewart was on Crossfire yesterday and mixed it up a bit with Paul Begala and especially Tucker Carlson, taking them to task for being "partisan hacks" and not fostering a real debate on their show.

Carlson then attacked Stewart and criticized him for not asking Kerry tough questions when Kerry appeared on the Daily Show two months ago, leading to this great exchange:

STEWART: It's not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. And I will tell you why I know it.

CARLSON: You had John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne and you're accusing us of partisan hackery?

STEWART: Absolutely.

CARLSON: You've got to be kidding me. He comes on and you... (CROSSTALK)

STEWART: You're on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls. (LAUGHTER) What is wrong with you?

- posted by Joshua @ 8:11 PM (0) comments

 
A Rallying Cry for November 2

Here's a great song called Al Gore, written by Robert Orrall, who lives down the street from Gore in Tennessee now. One passage:

One time, I had a bike
And I was a kid, and someone stole it from me
And still I’m mad about that,
Carrying anger, I just can’t let it be.
I need to be more forgiving, I know it,
’Cause even with the popular vote,
Al Gore lives on my street, right down the street, From me.

- posted by Joshua @ 5:59 PM (0) comments

 
It's A Sweep for Kerry

I generally agree with Josh Marshall's thoughts about the debate last night -- I thought Kerry looked more Presidential, which for him right now is precisely what he needs to seal the deal with voters. The President didn't quite know how to act -- for someone who supposedly "knows who he is," three different Bushes showed up at the three debates this year, just as was the case for Gore in 2000. And, unless they are going to pull Bin Laden out in the next 19 days, it's probably not a good idea to have a glaring misstatement about whether you ever said you weren't concerned with Bin Laden, ensuring that the clip will be replayed endlessly.

I think things look good for Kerry right now -- the Sinclair broadcast is obviously looming, but I think a documentary that focuses on his anti-war statements, as opposed to the ads alleging that Kerry lied about his war record, will be less damaging to Kerry. Plus, the August Swift Boat ads came before the debates, when America got a chance to see for themselves who John Kerry is, and learned that he was not the character depicted by Bush and the Swifties.

- posted by Joshua @ 4:15 PM (0) comments

 
I Think I Know How This Would Come Out

A number of people who have written commentary about Bush v. Gore have said that one of the most upsetting aspects of the Supreme Court's decision is the fact that most reasonable people acknowledge it is extremely unlikely, given the prior ideological positions set forth by the majority, that they would have ruled the same way if the positions of Bush and Gore had been switched.

Well, it's possible that we may get to test that this year (not likely, but possible). Here's how.

Colorado has a voter initiative on the ballot this year that would change how its electoral votes are allocated, from a winner-take-all system to a proportional allocation based on a candidate's percentage of the popular vote, with a bonus going to the winner of the state. If the initiative passes on November 2, then it would go into effect immediately, and change how Colorado's electoral votes are allocated in 2004.

So let's say that the initiative passes, and John Kerry wins Colorado, but, as a result of the initiative, Bush is able to garner 4 of Colorado's electoral votes, rather than 0, and Kerry loses 4 of the nine he would have obtained absent the initiative. As a result, let's assume, Kerry only gets 269 electoral votes, instead of 273, and the election is thrown into the House, where Bush voted in by Republican control of a majority of the states.

So Kerry then sues in federal court, making the same argument that Bush made in 2000, and which garnered the votes of Scalia, Thomas and Rehnquist: the voter initiative is unconstitutional because electoral vote allocation schemes can only be established by the legislature, and the voter initiative here was not passed by the legislature, but rather by the Colorado electorate.

Does anybody honestly think that Kerry would get the votes of Scalia, Thomas and Rehnquist?
(They can't even rely on the majority's statement that "Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, for the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities," since that language only appeared in the majority opinion, not the concurrence.)

- posted by Joshua @ 6:49 PM (0) comments

 
This Should Clear Up Any Remaining Doubts that Rove Was Behind the Swifties

First this:

President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, said Wednesday that the
Bush-Cheney campaign is planning some October "surprises" for challengers John
Kerry and John Edwards."We've got a couple of surprises that we intend to
spring," Rove told ABC radio host Sean Hannity while explaining that he intends
to wage an aggressive campaign no matter what the polls show.

Now this:

Up to 62 television stations owned or managed by the Sinclair Broadcasting
Group - many of them in swing states - will show a documentary highly critical
of Senator John Kerry's antiwar activities 30 years ago within the
next two weeks, Sinclair officials said yesterday.

Those officials said the documentary would pre-empt regular night
programming, including prime time, on its stations, which include affiliates for
all six of the major broadcast networks in the swing states of Florida, Ohio,
Wisconsin, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

Called "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," the documentary features
Vietnam veterans who say their Vietnamese captors used Mr. Kerry's 1971 Senate
testimony, in which he recounted stories of American atrocities, prolonging
their torture and betraying and demoralizing them. Similar claims were made by
prisoners of war in a commercial that ran during the summer from an anti-Kerry
veterans group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

- posted by Joshua @ 2:31 PM (0) comments