Everyone’s favorite local sports page is, much likethe Kerry campaign, already trying to lower expectations for the big game. (Sorry, it is free-fire Friday) Two articles in particular:
Beating OU 101 Less clear is whether the Longhorns are gutty enough to smash the Sooners in the nose.
Mac Brown needs to win against OU, just not this year. Sigh
As you probably know, tonight is the much-anticipated second Presidential debate. A totally authentic Town Hall format will give average, every day, non-committed voters a chance to directly ask the candidates a question on any topic. Nevermind that the average voter has been committed to one candidate or the other since July. These will be REAL average people, asking REAL stupid questions.
Having never been to an actual Town Hall meeting, I can only assume it will be much like the town meetings they have on the Gilmore Girls, which means there should be some wacky fun in St. Louis tonight!
The BPB is a participatory democracy, so here’s your chance: What questions would YOU ask the candidates, if you were at the meeting tonight?
Keep in mind that “Mr. President, thank you for bring God back into the White House” is NOT a question.
During the VP debate this week, Dick Cheney delivered two messages, one that generated distracting flare-ups, but both cast a clear light on the reality of Cheney’s attitude to the core of American politics. It was easy for the media to jump on Dick’s gaffe about this being the first time the two had met. We have since all seen the picture of them seated next to each other at a prayer breakfast in 2001. More signifigant in that debate exchange was Dick’s assertion “I’m up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they’re in session.” combined with his repeated statements about bipartisan work in the Senate leading the unknowing public to believe that Dick is actively involved in working with both parties to get things done.
NPR put truth to the idea that he spends time with the whole Senate. “Up in the Senate”, for Dick Cheney, more typically means he is having a meal with just Republican senators. Apologists will claim these are simply the behaviors of a busy politican and the polite opponent will decalare “All hat, no horse”, but Dick’s previous use of language on the senate floor with a Democrat Senator removes that pipedream. The moderate in me wants to think that Dick’s disdain for intellectual political dissent is a function of a driven man with a singular ideal, but I fear the reality is that Dick Cheney sees the Democrats — almost half of the country’s elected representatives — as the enemy. His heart’s true desire is a world with only his point of view. He does not value diversity.
Read more!
Reporter threatened with jail for refusing to reveal a source.
The Dulfer Report is out. The CW is “See, Iraq didn’t have WMD’s. Bush lied”. Whatever. It’s still trying to apply hindsight to a situation which was widely acknowledged at the time.
The WSJ’s editors take on the issue today: Even if one accepts the desirability of some kind of “global test” before America acts militarily, U.N. Security Council approval can’t be it. There was never any chance that this “coalition of the bribed” (refers to earlier allegations that OFF money was going to high ranking members of Russian and French gvts.)was going to explicitly endorse regime change, or the presumed alternative of another 12 years of economic sanctions. “Politically,” writes Mr. Duelfer, “the Iraqis were losing their stigma” by 2001.That, by the way, is on the first page of the report, yet I haven’t heard it mentioned on NPR or the BeeB.
The sanctions-were-working crowd also ignores that Saddam never would have readmitted weapons inspectors without the kind of U.S. troop mobilization that isn’t feasible with any frequency. For President Bush to have backed off in 2003 without unambiguous disarmament would have meant the end once and for all of any real threat of force behind “containment.”
BTW – my bet on “October Surprise” is going to be solid links between Iraq, Kofi Annan, and at least one really high-ranking person in the French, German, or Russian governments in evading sanctions.