Saturday, June 28, 2008

Think different.

An amusing, but apt analogy that emerged from the race for the Democratic nomination was that Hillary was like a PC, Obama a Mac (see here and here). To take it a bit further, I've heard someone refer to McCain as a Unix mainframe. I'd say more like an old IBM running MS-DOS (and, as it turns out, maybe more like a dictaphone).

Still, it seemed more likely as a US Senator, that Obama would use some government issue Dell laptop, probably running Windows XP, or even worse, Vista. But, lo and behold, Obama does carry around a Mac. (I'm envisioning one of those snazzy black MacBooks).

A PowerBook, a MacBook, an i-Mac, 2 iPods, and an iPhone populate our home. So, I'm definitely one of these people who believe that creative people who care less about the machine and more about what they can do with it use Macs and other Apple products. And, in government, PCs are pretty ubiquitous, so you kind have to go out of your way to be a Mac user, especially when the technical support people refuse to help you set it up (but, then again, after the initial network set-up, you don't really need technical support with a Mac). So, hearing that Obama is a Mac guy only further completes the picture for me of Obama as something different than the typical politician. Then again, all the credit for Obama being a Mac guy seems to go to Michelle who bought him Mac.

Too little highway... or too few options?

Via Sightline

Thursday, June 19, 2008

An Obama for Washington state governor?

The ΓΌber-sleazy special interest group, Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW), is already pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into an independent expenditure campaign against incumbent Washington Governor Chris Gregoire. Check out this new ad from their "It's Time for a Change" PAC:



The ad, using footage from Obama's Key Arena appearance in Seattle last February, is laughable. Of course, Obama was talking about change from the ways of George W. Bush. However, Dino Rossi is every bit a politician cast from the same mold as George W. Rossi is an affable fellow who seems non-threatening in his ads but in reality is not very smart, would surround himself with right-wing ideologues in his administration and would use the powers of the executive branch to move the state as far to the right as he could get away with. His views on big issues like reproductive rights, environmental protection, transportation policy, and education clash significantly with the majority of Washingtonians. Gregoire may not be Washington's answer to Obama (more like Washington's version of Hillary - super competent and experienced, but not necessarily inspiring), but Dino Rossi would certainly be our state's answer to George W. Bush.

Friday, June 6, 2008

What He Said...

From Kos @ Daily Kos:

Ugh.

Mrs. Feinstein said she did not need to urge Mrs. Clinton to hold a meeting. "I didn’t urge anybody to do anything. I know it’s a natural instinct. People, particularly in this case because Hillary represents a very large block of voters — the largest ever for anybody that has come in No. 2, and has the popular vote. She is I think desirous of protecting the issues that she cares about to the extent she can, seeing that the people are represented in this administration and certainly in the convention. And also to help with the ticket, and I know she feels that way because we have talked about this."

I know that this is all posturing for Clinton's VP hopes, but I wish Clinton surrogates would stop with the dishonest talking points. It really is time to move on.

The ONLY way Clinton can claim a popular vote victory is to 1) count the Soviet-style Michigan election results, 2) give Obama zero votes in the state, and 3) ignore the caucus states.

It was a close count, no doubt. Of course, if popular vote was the measure of victory, Obama would've run a different race. For one, he wouldn't have gone into "general election mode" a month ago, leaving votes on the table in the last few contests. But it wasn't, and Obama's team executed and won by every measure.

So can they please stop it?

Viewed live by over 12 million Americans

Long time, no blog. Barack Obama is now the nominee, undisputed. Obama now gets to reintroduce himself to American voters and to the tens of millions who did not participate int the nomination process but will vote in November. Tuesday night's speech and all the history making that surrounded it was a nice way to launch that general election campaign. At least 12 million Americans watched it live - an astonishing number for a political speech. Obama did not disappoint:



But John McCain sure did: