The Daily Banter

The Daily Banter

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Little Cheddar Jameson stands with Huma Abedin

I am a cat and I can tell you, this crap is crazy.

This started as a bit of an inside joke I had with myself.  I am away for the summer and was looking at a photo of my cat, whose full name has been changed from “Cheddar Jameson” to “Little Cheddar Jameson.”

It refers, of course, to the Facebook group started to support current State Department official and aide to Secretary Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin.  Why does she need this support?  Because the always grounded in reality Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has accused her of being under the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood.  While Little Cheddar Jameson is a cat and has never met Abedin (I have, I worked with her when I did advance for the Clintons), he would stand with her.  Even a cat can see how implausible this line of reasoning is.

And this isn’t Alyson “the liberal Democrat” talking.  This is Alyson “the I have a brain and can look at things rationally” talking.  Senator John McCain has said the same thing as had Speaker of the House John Boehner.

Stand with Huma.

Why it matters

Why it matters

 

NBC has been running these more obnoxious than words can describe ads about why they cover the presidential campaign as much as they do.  The gist is that it matters therefore they cover it.  While I find the ads repugnant and reminiscent of a John Stewart joke where they showed CNN using real wildfires to promo an interview with an actress from the movie Things we lost in the fire, this year’s contest matters.  It matters for reasons that transcend what color, gender the candidates are.  Seven years ago we put someone into the White House whose experience was less than minimal.  He failed at the several businesses he ran, traded Sammy Sosa and seemed to do very little as governor of Texas.  People who know more than I about the Texas system have said that this position doesn’t have a lot of power.  One area in which they do have some authority is in reviewing death row cases and pardon or commute the sentence of anyone deemed worthy.  Texas executes more people than any other state.  Ok, they are a large state and a viable defense in a murder case is “he needed killin’” but Dubya’s one contribution to the state was to reduce the amount of time the governor spends reviewing such cases to 15 minutes.  It’s only a matter of life and death, whatever.

 

So we let this guy into 1600 PA Ave and gave him the proverbial keys to the kingdom and hoped for the best.  We didn’t get it.  Unbeknownst to me, and most of the US, Dubya and his dad don’t get along well.  That sucks because a, I thought that at the very least we may not like Dubya but he would lean on dad when things got rough (was not a supporter of Bush 1 but the man is intelligent and has a lot of foreign policy experience) and b, when we were about to invade Iraq the one person on Earth with experience doing that very thing was shut out.  One issue 43 had against 41 was the way he handled Iraq.  So, for reasons only he knows, he surrounded himself with very intelligent people, though most were stuck in a world that didn’t exist anymore – the Cold War days.  Look where we are today.  In a war we cannot end, the dollar and my cat’s poop are worth about the same and the economy is just going to get worse before it gets better.  We are stuck between a rock and hard place with China, who owns most of our country yet isn’t on great terms with human rights.  I can only imagine what will happen this summer when all the tourists and Tibet protesters descend on that country.  Bloodbath comes to mind but can they be that stupid?  Can they?

 

So back in the States we have a presidential election to deal with.  On the Democratic side we have two people who are basically the same when it comes to their positions on, well, everything.  .

 

On the other side of the aisle we have John McCain, a well respected veteran who is known for speaking his mind but while equally important, people seem to be ignoring the fact that he is insane.  I don’t like to think I am ageist but the joke about bombing our enemies (the now saintly Reagan said that while checking his microphone, his exact comments were something like “the bombing of Russia will commence in five minutes) was never funny.  McCain entered an event singing (to the tune of some Beach Boys’ song, I think) “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.”  Not funny.  It’s scary because I don’t think he was kidding.  Worse, the man who has made his experience on the international scene the cornerstone of his campaign got the Sunnis and Shia confused.  A BIG blunder for someone like him.  He claimed al Qaeda is getting training in Iran (from the government). They are not and any al Qaeda that is in Iraq went there AFTER we invaded.

 

So we have a lot to think about.  Oh and lest you really think this has been a good idea, 97 percent of the American military deaths in Iraq has happened after the infamous “Mission Accomplished” banner incident.  Great.

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Hillary’s not so secret weapon.

Hillary’s back to her old theme of Stand by Your Man and gets support from some unlikely places.

 

This week, Senator Hillary Clinton came out and said that a vote for her is a vote to ratify her decision to stay with her husband through the problems and embarrassment he caused her.  Politically, it helps her as many who disliked her prior to her show of loyalty during the Lewinsky scandal, a lot of these same people reacted the same way when she did the same thing during the 1992 campaign when the couple appeared on TV to explain how their marriage had weathered problems before and their love for each other and a lot of work had gotten them through it.  Sure, speculation runs rampant around this union – is it a marriage of convenience?  Is it a political union only?  My only question is, why is it anyone’s business?

 

It is easy to understand why Hillary is doing this.  There are people for whom Hillary represents a lot that they do not like but when she remained loyal to her husband, they were impressed and it seems her recent statement will only help her widen her lead in the national polls.  With most of the primaries and caucuses around the corner, it is not a bad time to get a bump in that area.

 

This also brings up what I like to call the “F you factor.”  With the longest presidential campaign cycle in history, politicians, pundits and pollsters have all combed through almost all factors that will determine who get the support from voters but they are overlooking this unusual but key factor.  What is it?  Many women of all political stripes and parties feel when Hillary is attacked for being a woman or for anything she has done in her personal life – remember she did not have the affair that led to the impeachment hearings, it offends a lot of people.  One friend reported to me that a friend of hers said something very interesting.  They live in a very conservative area in the south, a place where I would not expect to find many Hillary supporters but they are there.  The friend said that all the talk about how women are not capable of running the country or that they would not be able to make the decisions a Commander in Chief needs to make and all that talk combined with comments about her hair or what she chooses to wear makes this women want to say “F&@% you!  I am voting for Hillary.  And she plans to vote that way, which will be the first time she will ever cast her vote for a Democrat. All of her female friends plan to do the same thing. 

 

People talk about taking this or that group for granted and in a time when most pundits said the ‘soccer moms’ has turned into ‘security moms.’   The assumption continues by using that to give the reasons these women will always vote for Republican presidential candidates who will keep them and their families safer.  That assumption has lost all credibility now.  Rudy Giuliani remains a front runner due to his actions on 9/11 because the world has not changed but our view of it and our place in it has.  Even I was comforted by his words that day but even women who may vote on one or two issues may turn to Hillary because of the sense that when she is attacked so are they.  If I can see this, all the GOP candidates must at the very least have consultants who should tell them that whenever she is attacked her positives go up.  In 2000 her campaign and a debate against Congressman Rick Lazio got a bit boost when he approached her during one of their debates.  He walked over to her podium and asked her a very pointed question.  Hillary’s polls numbers spiked because he seemed to be attacking her physically and people weren’t comfortable.  It’s a funny thing, she is a woman and as much as we like to think sexism is dying and chivalry is long dead, it was a defining moment.  In the spirit of full disclosure, Lazio’s campaign was just awful.  He was in so far over his head that is was almost painful to watch. 

 

Personally, I think the ‘F-you’ factor is a great thing.  I feel like women are finally benefiting from the years of discrimination we have endured.  I am glad people are offended when Hillary is attacked for being a woman.  Oh and one last note,

 

Happy Birthday Senator!

 

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