National Politics

I was worried all day that no one was watching cheney.

Remember the Dr. Seuss story, Horton Hears a Who ?

For the next installment of "What superhero/villain would the be?" I turn to my next favorite political clown of the moment: Bill Richardson.

For those of you not familiar with Governor Richardson, he is currently Governor of New Mexico and a second-tier candidate for the Democratic Nomination for President. A former Cabinet member and UN ambassador Richardson likes to play up his executive experience. He also likes to demonstrate how all-American and wholesome he is, so much so that he once told a great story about being drafted by the then-Kansas City Athletics, the only trouble was it was just that. A story. How he thought no one would figure out that he had not actually been the starting pitcher for a major athletic team at any point in his life is beyond the imagination of anyone.

There was a recent news item about Sen. Inhofe of Oklahoma blocking an authorization for an Earth Day concert on the Capitol lawn because it was a partisan event. Ignoring the fact that the bill is co-sponsored by a Republican, I am not sure what gives a Senator who doesnt even have 50% approval in HIS OWN STATE (he has topped out at 49% over the last two years) license to say what is and is not within the purview of his party. Sadly I doubt many people watched the testimony of Vice-President Gore before the Senate Environment and Public Works committee the other week because they would have seen this guy make a complete ass out of himself. Unfortunately I cant find the full video online only Boxer scolding him (which if youre a US Senator getting scolded as if by a school marm that really says a lot) for bitching about not having enough time to allow people to answer the questions he asked, which seems to have overshadowed everything else that went on. I would like the full video because I am sure if you timed the amount of time he spent cutting off answers to his questions and complaining about time and the amount of extra time he was given, he actually had more than sufficient time (yes I wanted to see how many times I could say time at one time). Anyways this inspired me to bring back my Politician/Superhero/villain comparisons.

Presenting Senator James Inhofe aka The Mole Man. For those unfamiliar with James Inhofe he is the whiney little man who is skeptical of scientific process and attributes Global Warming to sunspots. The Mole Man for those unfamiliar with him is the epitome of sixties supervillains, this one brought to us from the Fantastic Four. He is a scientist who when testing his theory of a hollow earth discovered and was trapped in a subterranean world (which he of course thought proved his theory although it was clearly shown that it did not). Since then he has occasionally found his way to the surface and threatened the world with strange creatures from below the earth and is dutifully sent back under the rock from whence he came. He has never been more than a middling threat and for his combination of ineffectuality, misguided science, and mainly because he looks like he spends most of his time under a rock I think that clearly Sen. James Inhofe is the Moleman.

Please come over to my new blog. I've created a place to talk national politics with an NC flavor. I've been inspired by Blue NC to get back into my twin loves, politics and publishing.

Stop by when you have time.

Brain's Addiction

I am constantly reminding everyone who will listen that the centrist leaning; non-Party affiliated voters who occupy the “gap” decide Presidential elections.

All evidence suggests this will again be true in 2008. To take it further, in many constituencies, gap voters will determine Congressional races as well.

Here’s why:

From a risk/reward perspective, changing the minds of the “hard” voters on either side of the electorate through persuasion is often not worth the challenge.

To illustrate the inherent difficulties in moving voters from either fringe, I humbly offer the “Puppy Theory of Political Persuasion”:

1) There is a percentage of the population who will not object if the President were to eat a live puppy on national television, as long as some explanation for the behavior can be provided (“The puppy was a threat to National Security!”).

For today’s conversation, let’s discuss why, despite the desire for third parties, independent candidates seem to never really get over the top, why a third party will probably never succeed in actually winning elections, and where this might all lead.

Why third parties, or independent candidates at all, for that matter?

To put it simply, both the Democratic and Republican orthodoxies have decided to “shrink the tent”.

By that, I mean both parties have been directing the largest amount of their efforts lately to retaining certain core constituencies, while ignoring the remaining voters who don’t fit the correct “most likely voter” profile.

It’s easy to see the D’s and R’s playing to their “most likely” supporters, and it’s easy to see the results.

Examples are in order..

Prepost: I have been asked why I am posting national news all the time when this is primarily a site for NC political news. My answer: what is done on the national level soon affects North Carolina so it is best to keep informed about both. And, this site already has a lot of superb writers of NC news.BB)
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I honestly didn't think the Senators would back the provisions put in the House version of the Ethics Bill, but they did and even went a bit further. The Democrats came thru this time because they want to be seen as the "clean" party and get the White House back and a larger margin of Dems in Congress in 2008. But Hey, who cares why they did it, just that tougher ethicls legislation is passed. Read on:

“Senate Passes Ethics Package

Parties Reach Hard-Fought Deal On Lobbying and Other Reforms