if you have to say it ...

... you know you're already in trouble.

and if you need to commission a report to figure it out, you should probably find yourself another line of work:

gop candidates on the ballot in november must show "deep empathy towards the voters" and rely on local rather than national issues, according to the report, ordered by party leaders after the loss of formerly safe seats in illinois, louisiana and mississippi that stunned the rank and file.

republicans and empathy. good luck with that.

(h/t talkingpointsmemo)

i drink all your internet traditions!

so here's my contribution:

(if you need to catch up on the story, it germinates here, metastasizes here and becomes pandemic here.)

why is this even a friggin contest ... ?!?

good god, do we really need four more years of this ...

... i was in a conference in germany over the weekend and, uh, uh, president putin of germany gave one of the old cold-war style speeches, uh, as he addressed the conference there ...

psst ... dont tell anna merkel!

now if mr mcgoo had mixed up the leaders of indonesia and micronesia i’d let it slide, but these are g8 members and well-known leading world figures and countries he’s alzheiming here …

so he was either in germany hallucinating listening to putin or he was in russia hallucinating he was in germany!

(h/t oliver willis)

all that's missing are the trails

today's addition to the garmin nüvi gps custom vehicle icon fleet: tron lightcycles, in red and blue: (click to download)

NOTICE: these custom icons that i make freely available are not for resale!

previously posted custom icons include the several star trek shuttlecraft, a star wars tie fighter, the 1966 tv batmobile, even more batmobiles, speed racer's mach 5 and the beatles' yellow submarine.

all bets are off

thymezone @ balloon juice writes:

a guy at work today said, "mcain [sic] is going to win big." "really?" i said. "i have a hundred dollars that says he loses." silence. wouldn't take the bet. wouldn't take the bet for ten dollars. "come on, put your money where your mouth is." "no thanks." i was talking to a guy who makes six figures, and was talking trash. wouldn't bet ten dollars on mccain. it is going to be a fun year.

the mchoneymoon is over

the reviews are in and even fox news couldn't spin this one ...

"john mccain had better start working on his speech-making and learn how to use a teleprompter." "john mccain sounded old." — mort kondrake, roll call (fox news) "... last i checked this was not a speech-making contest. thank god!" — alex costellanos, republican strategist (cnn) "what about that mccain speech? that was awful ... that was pathetic! he looked awful. he looked catatonic. i mean that audience, that handful of people. you've got 20,000 people in minnesota [listening to obama] and, like, a couple hundred in louisiana ... where [mccain's] struggling with the teleprompter. i mean, i thought that was one of the worst speeches that i've ever seen him give." — jeffrey toobin, legal analyst (cnn) "i thought the green backdrop was pretty awful." — david gergen, analyst (cnn) "does he need help in presenting a case for himself?" — anderson cooper (cnn) "we're just trying to lower expectations now." — alex costellanos, republican strategist (cnn) "i gotta give 'em credit, the mccain people: they put a room together where john mccain's the youngest person in the room!" — james carville, clinton strategist (cnn) "it's kinda painful, at least tonight, listening to john mccain." — mort kondrake, roll call (fox news) "this was really a hopeless night for mccain to really match up with obama. he shouldn't have tried in the first place." — bill kristol, weekly standard (fox news)

... nope, no gold spun out of that one — but not for the lack of trying:

"i think we would agree that this was a speech that was better on the printed page than it was coming from john mccain's mouth." — chris wallace (fox news) "let's not be mistaken — this speech tonight by john mccain may be the best he's given on the campaign trail." — harold ford, chairman, democratic leadership council (fox news)

let campaign '08 begin!

she can't lose

they say that victory has many fathers, but defeat may have even more coroners.

while i've nothing to add to the avalanche of diagnoses on the clinton collapse, i'll make this note on her persistence, which i believe is fueled by the increasingly obvious realization that the republicans have no chance in november. despite whatever public protestations she makes regarding obama's electibility, she knows as well as we all do that whoever gets the democratic nomination is the de facto next president.

in effect, the democratic primary is the general election. november will be simply a formality. hence the primary season's length, national scope and fever pitch.

especially frustrating for clinton must be watching the crown slip out of her fingers like so much sand, after having spent most of the decade diligently lining up all her knights and rooks and pawns — for an endgame that suddenly demanded a whole new strategy.

given the enormous investment of work and energy and money and calculation and blood and sweat and tears and — let's be honest — mountains and mountains of bubbling bullshit that must go into a run for the office, i cannot imagine the depth of such crushing disappointment. i can only imagine that it is a beast few have the fortitude to face willingly. but face it she must — if we ever expect to hear her concede.

bitter

passionate oaths nonwithstanding, i wouldn't advise mcsame™ to hold his breath for a massive clinton spoiler contingent come november:

walking up to the marriott, i kept waiting to encounter the huge protest. after all, the protest organizers were predicting a crowd of 10,000 (including the mccain and huckabee crew), but it's much, much, much smaller than [that] — couple hundred, maybe. (and, maybe the other 9,700 protesters have arrived since i came inside the hotel.) — joe sudbay, americablog

and for anyone that thinks this is going to the convention in any meaningful way, look at the pathetically small size of the pro-clinton demonstrations outside the hotel in dc today. tens of thousands had been promised. a few hundred showed up. clinton’s convocatory power for those kinds of shenanigans is already done. all these weeks of threats and tantrums have proved lame. and more evidence of that is coming in the next 72 hours. — al giordano, rural votes