I.  Mississippi.  Here’s Mississippi’s Democratic Senate candidate weighing in on an issue of utmost importance… the momentary lack of mention of “God” in the Democratic Party platform.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Mississippi Delegate Albert N. Gore said. “It doesn’t bother me from the standpoint that I know where I stand and I know that there is one and that’s it.”

Daniel Pinkwater endorses Barack Obama and down-ticket Democrats.  It breaks his own rule.  I find it … eyebrow raising.

Others will say, “Whoa! I’m scared. This might turn out badly. We should go back to when things were simple, back in grandpa’s day, in which I never lived, and have no real idea, but I am sure I would have felt more secure, and it’s the way things were intended, by God, or dead leaders who we’ve simplified into fictional heroes.”

Ronald Reagan?

This happens every time. Luddites, looneys and religious orthodoxers get all excited. (I’m not talking about conservatives–that’s a word that has changed its meaning. Poor actual conservatives!) And some normal people get influenced. After a while, we get past the beginning, we get used to the changes, things don’t turn out so badly, and the turmoil dies down. You get this, don’t you? There was a time when some people were sure God was going to plunge the earth into fiery destruction because somebody had invented the steam engine.

Hm.  “Change beyond the way things used to be” means any number of things.  A splot somewhere near Pinkwater brings us over to this… Down down down ticket…

Senator Stephen M. Saland, a lawyer from Poughkeepsie, has served in the New York State Legislature for 32 years. In 2010, he won re-election by 19 percentage points. And since then, he has raised $788,000 for his campaign war chest — more than 40 times what his challenger in the Republican primary raised.
Yet a day after the primary, Mr. Saland clung to a 42-vote lead on Friday over a little-known opponent, Neil A. Di Carlo, and faced the prospect that he could lose his seat after absentee ballots are counted. Mr. Di Carlo waged a shoestring campaign focused in large part on one issue: Mr. Saland’s decision to break with his party last year to provide one of the pivotal votes to legalize same-sex marriage in the state.

Actually I don’t know if this race is Pinkwater’s state legislative district at all.   But it is in the neighborhood, and was the first thing I thought of when I read that.

There’s nothing much to say about the greedy criminal element that’s always among us, and doesn’t really belong to either of the two categories–they just want to manipulate the system so they can buy more stuff, or get a thrill from thinking they have power–except we should try not to elect any of them, or people controlled by them.

The Republican vice presidential nominee used to recommend his Congressional staff read Ayn Rand, which does strike me as a political cross-road crossed, even as to a great extent I do figure “Most Important Election Ever” gets over-stated every election.  Or whether this election itself represents a “Critical juncture” moreso than any other election.

Who should we elect? I can tell you who I want to elect: President Obama, and congressional Democrats. Ordinarily, I would keep this to myself, and not worry too much about how the election turns out, because I am optimistic, and believe the human race has always falteringly gone forward and slowly improved. But I think we are at a critical juncture, and it’s important to get it right this time. So I am willing to try to influence you to vote the way I think is right, and hope you will agree, and try to influence others.

This influences close to nobody.  The majority, though not all, voting Pinkwater fans are voting for Obama.  Still, this rare straight-forward political endorsement (I qualify with “straight forward” because I don’t think a social satirist can help but make elliptical political statements…  Pinkwater gave an NPR commentary at an early point in Clinton’s presidency when his presidency seemed to be on shaky ground that his problem was he had cut back on the Big Macs — a political statement of sorts, I suppose, indicating his preferences) gets gets some minor push-back —

I just wanted you to know that I am disappointed in your venturing into the political realm with you endorsemnet of President Obama in the upcoming election. I’m not sure that we should turn to the author of “The Pineapple and The Hare” for political advice, just as I would not ask Mr. Obama for tips on how to run a business.

I’m neutral on his political statement itself (The name’s familiar enough that I assume he’s left comments at “Talk to DP” before) — his “venture into the political realm” is after all echoed in the ambivalence of Pinkwater’s own statement after all, and am mostly concerned with the the “Pineapple and the Hare” jab, which for a self-identified Pinkwater fan is really a puzzling insult.  To whatever degree that he’s a Republican, I’d point out The Artsy Smartsy Club makes the Democratic Party a point of fun, but that nearly seems a coin flip decision.

The numbers I always find interesting in polling results are these statistically insignificant results from, I suppose, counter-intuitive minorities.  Looking down these results from a New York Times poll that shows “Obama moving past Romney on the economy” and we get to this question.

Sometimes I wonder about the searches getting to this page.  Take this question:

What was Diocletian solution?

Good lord, go to wikipedia for your bulletpoint answer.  For further analysis, consult books from your local library and debate amongst yourself and in yourself how Diocletian’s reforms speak to the current political scene in America or whatever country.

In spite of his failures, Diocletian’s reforms fundamentally changed the structure of Roman imperial government and helped stabilize the Empire economically and militarily, enabling the Empire to remain essentially intact for another hundred years despite having seemed near the brink of collapse in Diocletian’s youth.

Maybe we can stave off the End of America for another century by following the Diocletian model?

Next question:  what is health care reform

Sigh.  Something Truman wanted. Actually here’s the question:  “What is Reform?”  and once you reform something, do you necessarily have to re-reform to something else?  Can it be called reform as you’re forming again or should it be called re-reform because you’re taking it from the vantage point of the pre-reform existence?

bob jones quote i’d rather see a nigger elected president than al smith
Yeah, sounds like something he’d have said.

mark kraschel

Question:  Is Mark Kraschel anyone I should know of?  He did write a particularly hilarious letter to the Oregonian once, which I felt the desire to dissect, and when coming upon the search engine result and backing to it think this may be one of the best things I posted onto this blog.  If I can find it online, I’d post this circa late 1930s piece on the cliches of Roosevelt haters which seems apt when I read back that letter.

jackie salit skirt

I guess I should do a Jackie Salit update.  I don’t know why I care about her skirt, though.

It’s always awkward pulling a tragedy down to its political consequences…

… even though, to an awful degree, political combatants are thinking in terms of “How do I mitigates its negative political effects and use it to my advantage?”

Yes.  Romney is shameless.  Embassy violence in Egypt and Libya … “Because Obama is weak”… as opposed to, um, Islamic Extremists at War and there are Americans there?

Nate Silver’s forecast model (which has been accurate through the last few election cycles — it’s the horse race thing and Silver comes out of the Sports forecasting world)  has Obama moving further ahead, and now has Obama at 80.8 percent chance of winning the election.  (If the election were today, it stands at 91.6 percent.)  Essentially I don’t think hasn’t been a day this calendar year where “If the election were held today”, Obama wouldn’t win (if perhaps a bit ugly).  Basically Romney has a few news cycles where things can make a difference.  The Conventions were one possibility.  They’ve passed.  The Debates are the next opportunity.  The only other possibility is unforseen events.  And … there’s this he needs to get a hold of.  Even if the “Shoe were on the other foot” would have Romney, Rumsfeld and crew charging any Democrats with shamelessly seeking political gain and breaking up Americna Unity in the face of Terror.  But the bulk of neocons feel they can charge ahead with this “It’s because of Democratic Weakness” tag … and who knows?  Maybe it’ll get traction after initial public revulsion.

The curious item is the popular vote discreprency.   Obama’s chances of carrying the popular vote stands at 51.5 percent.  (Today would be at 51.2 percent.)  I think the point here is Obama has massive ground in states that went to McCain in 2008, and slight ground in states that he pulled in 2008.  (Excepting Indiana, which Obama narrowly won, and falls in the former category.)

All of the Primary Contests are done and through with.  Tuesday had the last state primary elections.

Tommy Thompson won the Republican primary contest in Wisconsin, despite the well heeled suggestions that the “Tea Party” challenger was stampeding upward in the polls along the lines of some previous contestants.  So chalk that up for the “Republican Establishment” in this somewhat murkey demarcation of battle lines.  Meantime, the old saw of a mark of progress in the election, that the Democratic Candidate — Tammy Baldwin — is getting attacked with the “L” word of “Liberal” and not “Lesbian” was put to the test…

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tommy Thompson said Tuesday that it was a mistake for one of his aides to send a disparaging email and Twitter messages about Democratic opponent Tammy Baldwin dancing at a gay pride event.The email and tweets were sent in advance of Baldwin’s speech at the Democratic National Convention last week.
“I thought it was a mistake, I’m sorry, and he’s apologized, I believe,” Thompson told reporters after a luncheon of the Milwaukee Rotary Club. “He shouldn’t have done it.”
The emails were sent by aide Brian Nemoir from his campaign account. It also included his title and the campaign’s web address.
The message accompanying the video said, “Clearly, there is no one better positioned to talk ‘heartland values’ than Tammy” and told recipients to take note of the gay pride event.
The theme of Baldwin’s speech at the convention was heartland and Wisconsin values.

Political history tells us that even if she were not an out lesbian, she would probably get something like that suggesting that she was.

Out in Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren is coming off as a bit too National  and Scott Brown is never failing to mention that he has a pick-up truck.  After wading through polls that garner Brown with a clear lead, with a Warren convention speech that was hyped by some political grandees as “Make or Break time” and I may add a no-show by Brown at his party’s convention… my hunch is Warren will win after all.

Out in Missouri… NONE OF THIS IS REAL.  but you wish it were.

Petersburg, KY — In a move that is shocking the nation, Missouri Representative Todd Akin has agreed to Bill Nye’s challenge for a debate in science. The announcement was made this afternoon at a press conference held at the Creation Museum in Kentucky. “I accept Bill ‘Lies’ the Science Guy and his challenge for a debate,” Akin told reporters. “He’ll quickly learn that the word of god will always win over the word of some guy.”

George Allen’s political comeback in Virginia is going well.  And he is on track to put aside Macaca and the remaindered history of his Confederacy loving California adolescence to storm back to that Senate seat he was always trying to hold onto to get to a Presidency he will never have.

A feel good fluff item that establishes Jon Tester’s bucolic credentials in Montana?
With less than 60 days until the 2012 elections, things are starting to heat up in many races but that didn’t stop Senator Jon Tester from returning to his hometown of Big Sandy for some R&R – and a celebration of his family-owned farm’s centennial.
Senator Jon Tester is in the heat of election season. Putting the stress of November aside, he still found time to return home.
Tester said of the visit back to Big Sandy, “Well, this is great! Anytime we get people together to visit, talk and have good food. This is a lot of fun.”
If the state political news coverage of this race could just be dominated by one item like this a week til the November election, he’ll win like flin.

A vote of confidence in Hawaii’s Senate race.

Better marketing by Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota than by Rick Berg.  Berg’s tv advertisements apparently suck; Heitkamp’s I guess are in the Hall of Fame.  Berg will still probably win.  Reverse Massachusetts situation.