Patterico's Pontifications

2/19/2008

Huck Won’t Give Up

Filed under: 2008 Election,General — Patterico @ 9:52 pm



The headline on Yahoo’s home page reads:

Huckabee says his beliefs — not his ego — keep him in the race

I take that to mean that Huckabee’s ego — not his beliefs — keep him in the race.

Allahpundit summed him up very nicely today: “blissfully indifferent to his chances, and superficially genial with streaks of nastiness underneath.” Juuuust under the surface, too. The man makes my skin crawl.

Huck, not Allah.

P.S. Has anyone else noticed that Allah is really on a roll lately? The man’s always good, but this election season, the combination of useful insights and hilarious understated style is making Hot Air the number one stop for any conservative who wants to know what’s going on. Case in point: today’s post on Hillary’s screw-up on the Pennsylvania delegates. Takeaway line:

Now here’s another glimpse at just how sharp those finely honed First Spouse management skills she developed really are.

Heh.

Careful . . .

Filed under: General,Humor — Patterico @ 9:40 pm



If you move to the South, you might could end up talkin’ funny.

That goes for all y’all.

Al Martinez Insults Cops while Praising Randy Simmons

Filed under: Dog Trainer,General — Jack Dunphy @ 11:03 am



[Guest post by Jack Dunphy]

In Monday’s Los Angeles Times, columnist Al Martinez wrote in praise of LAPD officer Randy Simmons, who was shot and killed Feb. 7 during an attempted rescue in the San Fernando Valley. But even in praising Simmons, Martinez can’t resist reminding his readers of the low opinion he has held of police officers. He began the column as follows:

In the volatile world of the street, cops haven’t always been the good guys.

They’ve been known to apply brute force as a form of justice in the shadowy confines of downtown alleys and to quell peaceful protests with swinging truncheons.

We’ve seen them get away with videotaped crimes against civilians, and we’ve seen their militaristic units turn into undisciplined mobs.

Instances of racism and sadism once stained cops’ badges, making a mockery of a call to respect and support them when their brothers were killing black people in the South and challenging the right of peaceful assembly in the North.

Apparently, Martinez knows nothing about police officers other than what is printed in his own newspaper.

Randy Simmons was an exemplary police officer and an even more exemplary man, but he had been a cop for 27 years and a youth minister for 11, yet not a word was ever written about him in the Times until he was killed.

Every day, all over Southern California, police officers carry out acts of bravery, compassion, and service, scant few of which are deemed worthy of mention in the L.A. Times. As I reported in this post, the editors at the Times couldn’t even find room in their newspaper to cover the LAPD’s Medal of Valor Awards last May, even as they ran story after story about the May Day melee at MacArthur Park.

Cops don’t object when our misdeeds are covered fairly in the press, but must we wait for one of us to be killed before our accomplishments are recognized?

— Jack Dunphy

So Long, Fidel

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:09 am



Go get you some of that good Cuban health care. Sounds like you need it.

P.S. The linked L.A. Times story is conspicuously missing one word: “dictator.”

What This Election Is About

Filed under: General,Terrorism — Patterico @ 7:04 am



The Democrat party is the party of hope.

The Republican party is the party of fear.

Democrats say: “I hope the terrorists don’t attack us!”

Republicans say: “To hell with that. I want them to fear us.”

How to “Woo” a Superdelegate: Fork Out Some Cash

Filed under: 2008 Election,General — Patterico @ 12:03 am



An L.A. Times story is titled How to woo a superdelegate. The deck headline reads: “The Democratic candidates and their surrogates use patience, persistence and a personal touch. A Michelle Obama phone call persuades one to switch sides.”

Before the telephone rang at 10:03 Saturday morning in her Philadelphia home, Carol Ann Campbell was inclined to use her position as a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention to make Hillary Rodham Clinton the party’s presidential nominee.

By the time she hung up, Campbell had been persuaded to throw her support to Barack Obama.

On the other end of the line was Michelle Obama, 44, the Illinois senator’s wife. In that 1-hour, 27-minute call, the would-be first lady made the sale.

Awwww. How sweet.

Of course, there are some other ways superdelegates are being “wooed.” And money is involved.

Karl at Protein Wisdom notes an article with this interesting tidbit about bribery odd donations by the campaigns for the Democrat candidates:

[W]hile it would be unseemly for the candidates to hand out thousands of dollars to primary voters, or to the delegates pledged to represent the will of those voters, elected officials who are superdelegates have received at least $890,000 from Obama and Clinton in the form of campaign contributions over the last three years…

Gee, wouldn’t it be more than “unseemly” to hand out money to voters in the name of a campaign?

By the way, it turns out Mr. Hope has given out more bribes donations, by far.

Now that’s good wooin’!

Next question: have the campaigns given any money to politicians who are not superdelegates?

That would make an interesting news story. How likely do you think we are to see it?

Yeah, I think we’re far more likely to see stories about sweet phone calls from Michelle Obama. There’s the narrative to consider, you know.


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