!!!JUST WATCH!!!

i just had to save this prediction for january 29:

ALL OF THE TALKING HEADS LIKE DICK MORRIS, ARE QUICK TO WRITE RUDY OFF. THEY ARE ALL TRYING TO PUSH JOHN McCAIN NOW BECAUSE HE WON NEW HAMPSHIRE (4 ELECTORAL VOTES) AND HE WILL PROBABLY WIN MICHIGAN (17 ELECTORAL VOTES) AND MAY EVEN WIN SOUTH CAROLINA, OH MY!! WITH (8) ELECTORAL VOTES! AND NOW IT SEEMS TO ME LIKE THEY ARE TRYING TO SQUEW THE POLL TO SAY RUDY IS BEHIND IN FLORIDA! RUDY’S SUPPORT IS WIDE AND IT IS DEEP, NOT SUPERFICIAL LIKE JOHN McCAIN’S! HE WON’T HAVE THE INDEPENDENTS TO HELP HIM IN FLORIDA, AND THERE ARE ENOUGH 911 ERA EX-NEW YORKERS TO PUT IT AWAY FOR RUDY. TO BORROW A LINE FROM A FAMOUS GENERAL: RUDY IS EXACTLY THE RIGHT MAN, IN EXACTLY THE RIGHT MOMENT IN HISTORY, IN EXACTLY THE RIGHT PLACE, AND ALL HE NEEDS IS OUR VOTES! WITH FLORIDA’S (27) ELECTORAL VOTES UNDER HIS BELT, JUST WATCH THE POLLS SHOOT HIM RIGHT BACK UP TO THE TOP! McCAIN, HUCKABEE, ROMNEY, OR ANY OF THE OTHERS CANNOT BEAT HILLARY CLINTON! WHY DO YOU THINK THE PRESS IS PUSHING McCAIN SO HARD! IF HE GETS THE NOMINATION WITH HIS RECORD ON IMMIGRATION, TAXES AND FLIP FLOPPING ALL OVER THE MAP ON IRAQ AND TAXES, HE WILL BE EASY MEAT FOR HILLARY! RUDY IS THE ONLY, I REPEAT, THE ONLY CANDIDATE WHO CAN WIN NEW YORK FOR THE REPUBLICANS, AND IF THAT HAPPENS FOLKS, I’VE GOT NEWS FOR YOU! HILLARY CAN’T WIN! IF SHE LOSES NEW YORK OR CALIFORNIA OR PENNSYLVANIA, MATHIMATICALLY, SHE CAN’T WIN! AND THE TALKING HEADS, WHO ARE LARGELY LIBERAL, KNOW THIS! CAN McCAIN WIN NEW YORK? NOT A CHANCE! CAN HUCKABEE WIN NEW YORK? GET REAL! HECK, THE LAST POLL I SAW STILL HAS JOHN McCAIN 5 POINTS BEHIND RUDY IN HIS HOME SENATE SEAT STATE OF ARIZONA!! THAT SHOULD SPEAK VOLUMES! WE ALL JUST NEED TO “STAY THE COURSE” AS RONALD REGAN USED TO STAY, AND WE WILL WIN IN FLORIDA, AND START “THE DRIVE UP 95″ AND TO THE NOMINATION FOR RUDY! NOW GET OUT THERE AND VOTE, AND FIND 10 MORE PEOPLE TO VOTE TOO! AND ON JANUARY 28TH, WE CAN WATCH THE PUNDITS TRY TO WIPE THE EGG OFF THEIR FACES! YOU CAN VOTE EARLY, TOO!

meanwhile, at this moment in history (in case you hadn't heard already), the "right man in the right place" got a whopping 3% of michiganders to pull for him, just one point above "uncommitted".

for "america's mayor" it's florida or bust ...

comment of the day

from the washington post, whose editors still don't believe we've heard all the relevant facts about john edwards' $400 haircut, the man behind the scissors and sassoon is feeling a bit let down:

beverly hill stylist joseph torrenueva: i'm disappointed and I do feel bad. if i know someone, i'm not going to say i don't know them ... when he called me "that guy," that hit my ears. it hurt.

quoth legalize @ tpm cafe's election central:

dude, get over yourself. you cut the man's hair; it's not like you massaged each other and did meth together in denver hotel rooms. sheesh.

nevada debate preview

so, will fox viewers be watching this:

or, at long last, this?

(with apologies to charles schulz)

---

update: well, it looks like democrats have decided to go for what's behind door number two:

senate majority leader harry reid and the nevada democratic party announced today that they are backing out of a fox news-sponsored presidential debate in august following fox president roger ailes's recent remarks comparing democratic senator barack obama to al qaeda terrorist osama bin laden. fox news did not answer calls seeking reaction to the decision. democratic presidential candidate john edwards had already announced that he would not participate in the fox debate. his party followed suit today, under pressure from the more than 265,000 people who signed a petition calling fox "a mouthpiece for the republican party, not a legitimate news channel" and urging nevada officials to cancel. danny coyle, a moveon.org member who serves on the executive board of the carson city democratic central committee, yesterday offered a resolution calling on the state party to drop fox, and it passed overwhelmingly among the grassroots democrats in attendance. "i am glad and relieved that the nevada democratic leadership has come to its senses," coyle said. "any kind of relationship with fox is bad for the party." at first, senator reid defended the decision to work with fox, reasoning that it might help democratic candidates reach out to right-leaning fox viewers. but party activists argued from the start that any connection with fox was a mistake. robert greenwald, director of the movie outfoxed, called the final decision a "victory for truth and journalism." some 280,000 people have viewed greenwald's new youtube film "fox attacks: obama" — located with the petition at www.foxattacks.com. "by standing up to fox's right-wing smears," greenwald said, "the patriotic grassroots, netroots, senator reid, senator edwards, and the nevada democrats have all worked together to protect one of the most important elements of a free society — the press." and eli pariser, executive director of moveon.org civic action, said he hoped the decision would "set a precedent within the party that fox should be treated as a right-wing mis-information network, not legitimized as a neutral source of news."

like writing on toilet paper

it sounds like bush is getting tired of all the carping know-it-alls-without-a-plan:

president bush on saturday challenged lawmakers skeptical of his new iraq plan to propose their own strategy for stopping the violence in baghdad. "to oppose everything while proposing nothing is irresponsible," bush said. — "bush: war skeptics 'proposing nothing'"

but if bush is genuinely interested in seeing other plans, he need only check his inbox.

it's where he'll find, among others, the murtha plan, the kerry-feingold plan, the biden plan, the edwards plan, the levin-reed plan, and not to mention the baker-hamilton plan, otherwise known as the iraq study group plan, which bush already sounds familiar with, since he was recently overheard describing it as "a flaming turd".

and then there are the seemingly daily growing roster of freely-dispensed blogger plans like the johnson plan. it's plainly apparent to none but the willfully blind and deaf that at this late date there are no lack of thoughtful alternatives.

unfortunately (and i do say this with the utmost respect to all those who have been applying the necessary brain-power and wisdom that's been heretofore lacking in this debate) all these plans represent nothing more than idle academic masturbation. they're all quite pointless. and that's why you'll find no trademarked and patented "aarrgghh plan" on this site.

because unless the first step in your grand strategy reads:

my grand strategy for iraq by carping know-it-all 1) remove george bush and dick cheney from office.

... then your plan is nothing but toilet paper.

because unless you're willing to let events continue to spiral for at least another two years, george bush will give your precious plan all the due consideration he gave to the over-anticipated iraq study group report — that is, as steve gilliard remarked, he'll "wipe his ass" with it.

which leaves us with only one plan — the only one that matters — the kagan plan, more fondly known as "the surge".

and what makes this one plan oh-so irresistible to the commander-in-chief?

frederick kagan, 36, is the author of choosing victory, a blueprint for the surge adopted by president george w bush. just as everybody had begun writing off the influence of the neocons at the white house, genial, chubby-faced frederick gave the muscular intellectuals a lease of life. it was at camp david last june that kagan, a military historian and fellow of the american enterprise institute, outlined his plans for pouring more troops into iraq to bush and his war cabinet. donald rumsfeld, the then defence secretary, was unimpressed, but kagan's views got another hearing when bush was searching for ways to ditch the seemingly defeatist recommendations of james baker's iraq study group. "wow, you mean we can still win this war?" a grateful bush reportedly said. — "... bush's final baghdad gamble"