I want to make out with Barack Obama

Can I just say that?

My coworker is lodging an official complaint against that statement, btw.

Oh, and PS, what's up with Jill Biden's outfit for the inauguration???

Picture thanks to the ShoeMinx blog

ELECTION 2008: ENDORSEMENT: Barack Obama

I've added him to my endorsement list. If you are desperate and love to know why, check out this column over here that was posted way back in August.

Another big "duh."

If you hadn't figured it out by now that that's whom I support... well...

...you might just be a McPalin supporter.

ELECTION 2008:VP Debate

I will say this about the VP debate: it certainly wasn't as exciting as thought it was going to be. I was disappointed a little that Sarah Palin was so well spoken (is it bad that the gauge we now use for candidates is, "they were so articulate" as opposed to "they sure knew their stuff"), and I was disappointed Joe Biden was so reigned in.

It was just a debate, nothing special.

It was a mild Biden win. Palin came off as interesting and engaging, though I think she will regret having said (essentially), "I'm going to answer the questions I want to answer, rather than the questions you nasty, darky, biased moderator asks me."

OK, maybe that was a little bit of hyperbole, but you get the impression. Besides, with the week long smear campaign against the superb moderator, Ms. Ifill, that the McCain campaign put out, I think we deserve to rag on Palin a little bit. The whole week, the McCain camp essentially was basically admitting that Palin may not be ready. And that's disappointing. But Palin did do fairly well, all things considered.

Jerekeys gave us a live twitter feed on his blog, and I have to give him some of the very very humourous commentary that he had as it went along:

-Sarah Palin wins the best hair part of the debate!
-And YOU said you didn’t know what a vice president does. #
-“there’s not a whole lot I’ve promised” or said in a press conference.

And thanks be to Pam's House Blend for eviscerating both camps about there lack of support for gay marriage. I genuinely believe Joe Biden would not fight it if it came... and he may come out after he's elected as pro-marriage. But Pam also gives us this excellent quote where Biden tore apart the whole "maverick" thing:

Biden: Can I respond to that? Look, let's talk about the maverick John McCain is. And again I love him, he's been a maverick on some issues but he's been no maverick on things that a matter people's lives. He voted four out of five times for George Bush's budget which put us half a trillion in debt this year and over three trillion in debt since he got there. He has not been a maverick in providing healthcare for people. He voted against including another 3.6 million children in coverage of an existing health care plan in the United States Senate. He's not been a maverick when it comes to education. He has not supported tax cuts and significant changes for people being able to send their kids to college, he's not been a maverick on the war, not been a maverick on virtually anything that generally affects the things people really talk about around the kitchen table. Can we get mom's MRI? Can we send Mary back to school next semester. We can't make it. How will we heat the house this winter? He even voted against what they call LIHEAP, for assistance for people with oil prices going through the roof in the winter. So a maverick he is not, on the important critical issues that affect people at the kitchen table.

Overall, I think it comes down to: it's nice to finally hear that Palin can finally put a full thought together. But, ultimately, Biden won. And I'm not alone on this one.

This will have little affect, I think, on the election and the headlines of the weekend and the analysis will focus on two things: look, Sarah can speak English clearly! And, Biden really does know his stuff! Oh, and the whole thing that's coming out about the instapolls giving Biden the heads up by nearly a 2:1 margin, especially among independents. That's definitely definitely a great bit that will come out for the Dems this evening.

PS On how they "looked" -- and I was listening to NPR, not watching TV, I wanted to listen and not see for most of it -- does anyone else think Biden is extraordinarily attractive? Oh my god I think I have a crush on Joe!!!!

And Palin looks more like a mom than a VP? She's 25 pounds away from wearing mom jeans...

Also: Check out the pre-debate evaluation over at Juliet and Juliette. I think Palin was chosen for what was between her legs, not for what is between her ears.

ELECTION 2008: A rumor

I got this from an... interesting source, so the truthiness of it may be weak...

Rumor has it that Joe Biden will be coming down with a medical condition in the next couple of weeks. And his replacement as VP candidate will be Hillary Clinton.

We'll see if the rumor pans out.

ELECTION 2008: Obama-Biden, CONFIRMED

From the Obama website... Confirmed that Joe Biden is the VP nominee for the Democratic party.



Also, the McCain camp is expecting a 15 point+ bump in the polls for Obama after the Convention. From the above newstory:

“Barack Obama is more similarly situated to Bill Clinton in 1992 than any other candidate in recent history,” Sarah Simmons, a director of strategy for the McCain campaign, wrote in the Friday memo. “Bill Clinton was a new candidate on the national scene; he was running in a ‘change’ oriented election cycle and the economy was voters’ top issue — a dynamic he was able to capitalize on.”

And the expectation is that Obama will get a 5 point bump from the Biden announcement.

Update @ 7:50am: This was posted, btw, at 3:40am (the time I clicked "Publish Post"), so I saw the announcement around 3:00am (I know because I had to restart the computer before I put it up, at that happened at 3:02am). The time the text message came in? 3:15am. The text message in toto from the Barack Campaign:

Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first
Obama-Biden rally live at 3pm ET on http://www.barackobama.com/. Spread the word!

So there you go.

And this seems to be the graphic they are "setting up" -- or, at least, are on Facebook for now:


Don't for get to join the 10million strong Facebook group.

Update to the Update at 8:00am: Electoral-vote.com has a great, great discussion of Biden and why he's probably best for the ticket. But let's focus on what this does for the Republicans and McCain and see why, perhaps, Biden was the best choice:

Every serious observer of the Senate, on both sides of the aisle, readily admits that few, if any, senators know as much about foreign policy as Biden. He shores up a critical weakness in Obama's CV--lack of foreign affairs experience. When McCain attacks Obama for lack of experience, Biden is going to say: "John, Barack and I are a team and I've been in the Senate 14 years longer than you and I'm chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, a job you've never held." This alone is worth the price of admission. It makes it hard for the Republicans to attack the Democrats on foreign policy when the Democratic ticket has more experience than the Republican ticket (short of McCain picking Colin Powell as Veep).

From an electoral point of view, Biden also has virtues. While Obama would carry Delaware even with Dick Cheney on the ticket, Biden's working-class roots in northern Appalachia are going to be a big plus during the campaign. He is going to campaign in Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, and North Carolina extensively. He will also appeal to ethnic Catholics in the rust belt. He certainly brings gravitas to the ticket. He is one of the most senior people in Washington and about as prepared to be President as one can be. . .

Other than plagiarizing one speech, Biden is clean as a hounds' tooth. His first wife was tragically killed, then he remarried. He has never been mentioned in any kind of sex scandal, financial scandal, or anything else. If there had been any dirt on him, it would have come out during his many campaigns. . .

McCain plus Romney allows the Democrats to attack the Republicans as the Plutocrat Party. With the experience issue partially nullified by Biden, it is not clear what their best strategy is. Profiling McCain's war heroism will obviously be front and center, but will America's admiration for his personal courage in Vietnam be enough to offset their personal economic worries? McCain could offset this by picking a Veep who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, rather than the son of a wealthy CEO who was later three-term governor of Michigan. But except for Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), who is only 37, he doesn't have a lot of good choices.

There's so much more, but those are great basics. I'm feeling a little better.

ELECTION 2008: My track record keeps getting worse...

Major news agencies (and NYTimes) are reporting that it's Joe Biden as the VP nominee. If you've read (or remember), my choices were (in order): Clinton, Bayh OR Kaine, Sebelius, Richardson. Please note Joe Biden is not on that list. Please also note -- LOL -- that I have yet to successfully pick a candidate for anything...

2000 Pres: Ralph Nader
2004 Pres: John Kerry
2008 Dem Nominee: Hillary Clinton

I mean, jeez. I'm about as useful as, well, on online pundit.

So, here's to Obama-Biden 2008!

From Pam's House Blend post on the subject and his history of gay rights:

* 1978: opposed busing except for gov't-intended segregation. (Jul 2007)
* 1968: Wilmington riots failed at conversation between races. (Jul 2007)
* Nobody asks if you're gay in a foxhole. (Jun 2007)
* Civil unions ok; gay marriage is probably inevitable. (Apr 2007)
* Voted NO on recommending Constitutional ban on flag desecration. (Jun 2006)
* Voted NO on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. (Jun 2006)
* Voted YES on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. (Jun 2002)
* Voted YES on loosening restrictions on cell phone wiretapping. (Oct 2001)
* Voted YES on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation. (Jun 2000)
* Voted YES on setting aside 10% of highway funds for minorities & women. (Mar 1998)
* Voted NO on ending special funding for minority & women-owned business. (Oct 1997)
* Voted YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage. (Sep 1996)
* Voted YES on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation. (Sep 1996)
* Voted NO on Amendment to prohibit flag burning. (Dec 1995)
* Voted NO on banning affirmative action hiring with federal funds. (Jul 1995)
* Rated 60% by the ACLU, indicating a mixed civil rights voting record. (Dec 2002)
* Issue a commemorative postage stamp of Rosa Parks. (Dec 2005)
* Rated 78% by the HRC, indicating a pro-gay-rights stance. (Dec 2006)
* Rated 100% by the NAACP, indicating a pro-affirmative-action stance. (Dec 2006)
* Re-introduce the Equal Rights Amendment. (Mar 2007)

And now for the run down of blogger responses:

365gay.com
Bilerico
ColdHeartedTruth
The Gist (Michelangelo Signorile)
Joe.My.God.

Over all I'm... well, not excited. Glad that this is over. McCain will probably pick Romney and we're left with "oh well" kind of feeling for this massive VPStakes that seemed to matter so much at one point and, now, just doesn't.

Update: You know, I've been listening to a lot of people talk, and I have to say this: I think Barack was a miss on this one. I think he missed the opportunity to pick Hillary, which would have solidified Ohio, Florida, and probably Virginia. I'm already seeing little things pop up about people who are not happy about this choice. On the other hand... he will make a great bulldog.