Joe the Plumber from last night’s presidential debate has been located in the voter rolls:
Public records databases examined by The Plain Dealer, including those for voter registration, indicate that Samuel Joseph Worzelbacher (note the “o” instead of the “u”), with the same street and age as the now famous Joe the Plumber, voted in 2002, [...]
The point of the final presidential debate, like the closing statement in a trial, is to paint a pretty picture for the voter. Boil it all down, write the ballot. Are we better off now than 8 years ago? Barack Obama started and ended on the weak economy. John McCain ended on his bio with [...]
Eclipsed
It strikes me that every time Barack Obama debates, we’re finally starting to get some reality on Pakistan. It used to be that India was the largest victim of Pakistan-based terrorists. Joe Sixpack rarely stirred himself to learn anything about them. The country name ends in ’stan,’ which, though synonymous with ‘land,’ paints it in [...]
Goodness Gracious Me has trouble with ‘John’
The National Review’s conservablog often achieves an enviable 1:1 ratio of lies to sentences:
Musharraf, imperfect as he was, was our ally. The Pakistani people substantially support fundamentalist Islam… [Corner]
I’m not sure why anyone takes these clowns seriously. This blog posts a hundred times a day (with comments off, natch). [...]
Not much new. Bert stomped Ernie. Same conflict on Pakistan policy. Obama continues to put OBL in AfPak front and center, saying we need to pull out of Iraq and put some troops on the bin Laden hunt:
Obama: … we made a bad judgment going into Iraq in the first place when we hadn’t finished [...]
For tonight’s presidential pander-off, I’ll be throwing things at the TV and providing insta-feedback here. It’s at 9 pm ET / 6 pm PT, you can watch live here, and it runs as many TV channels as newspapers Sarah Palin reads: all of them.
Barack Obama’s spent time at debate camp in a remote location, which [...]
In tonight’s vice presidential debate, moderator Gwen Ifill never pushed followup questions, so Palin’s color-coded index cards carried the day. Biden hammered on AfPak being the central front against bin Laden and terrorism:
John [McCain] continues to tell us that the central war in the front on terror is in Iraq. I promise you, if an [...]
One morning I woke up at the University of the Pacific, one of the most beautiful college campuses I’ve ever seen, and improbably found myself in the final round of the California debate championship. My partner and I had won some rounds against better teams and were amped about our improbable run.
To win the trophy, [...]
Shorter Obama on terrorism:Got that? Good.
Barack Obama repeated over and over at tonight’s presidential debate that the real threat is in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That our policy toward Musharraf was unhinged. That seeing everything through the lens of Iraq puts us at risk.
Dubya and John McCain’s fixation on a country uninvolved with Al Qaeda is [...]
Taint
In the best of times, South Asia rarely gets interjected in presidential debates. Pakistan gets all the attention because its border is teeming with Al Qaeda and its leaders come with hands outstretched. China gets vaguely mentioned as an economic threat, and sometimes India alongside, the new hyphenated relationship.
So when a presidential debate comes off [...]
Sakina Jaffrey (Masala) has a bit part as a schoolteacher in Definitely, Maybe, an excellent political rom-com about the Clinton ‘92 campaign starring Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder), Kevin Kline, Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), Isla Fisher, Rachel Weisz and Elizabeth Banks. This flick’s manipulative, treacly and undistinguished trailer put me off my lunch.
But like campaigns [...]
At tonight’s Dem debate, Obama made the obvious point that Dubya has already pivoted toward his policy of targeted terrorist assassinations in Pakistan:
Clinton: … last summer [Obama] basically threatened to bomb Pakistan, which I don’t think was a particularly wise position to take. I have long advocated a much tougher approach to Musharraf and to [...]
At tonight’s Dem debate, Hillary Clinton was questioned about Russian president Vladimir Putin’s successor Dmitry Medvedev:
Tim Russert: Do you know his name?
Clinton: [Nonplussed] Med… Med…
Russert: Medvedev.
Clinton: Med-ve-duh-vuh. Whatever.
Dubya in ‘99:
“Can you name the general who is in charge of Pakistan?” Hiller asked, inquiring about Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, who seized control of the country October 12.
“Wait, [...]
The Dem presidential candidates briefly mentioned Pakistan at tonight’s debate. Obama reiterated that backing Musharraf has been a colossal mistake:
Obama: [About a U.S. soldier he spoke with] They were capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier for them to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander-in-chief… [...]