Politics Wednesday!

Politics Wednesday!

* Ben Smith at Politco dreams the dream: Franken ’16?

* More good news: God’s told Joe the Plumber not to run for office.

* But bad news: Glenn Beck guest Michael Scheuer says America’s only hope is a massive terrorist attack. Don’t miss Beck nodding sagely towards the end. Adam Serwer says it well:

But understand, this is not unpatriotic. You can wish all manner of horrors on this country, but as long as these horrors might serve a specific political agenda, you’re not being unpatriotic. Unpatriotic is a public health-care plan. Unpatriotic is a judge modifying sub-prime mortgage loans to keep a roof over someone’s head. Unpatriotic is phosphate-free detergent. Patriotic is wishing for a terrorist attack on the United States.

Patriotism is dead, long live patriotism.

* TPM and Washington Monthly tackle the EPA SUPPRESSION!!!!! “scandal” that’s been making the rounds; turns out a hobbyist working on non-climate matters for the agency decided a memo no one asked him to write prepared in his spare time should be published alongside recommendations produced by actual experts in the field. Fox News, naturally, agrees. Inhofe (R-Jupiter) has gone further, demanding Monday a criminal investigation.

* Also in climate news: Thomas Friedman says Waxman-Markey is very, very bad and we should support it. For what it’s worth Kevin Drum agrees.

Schadenfreudelicious

Schadenfreudelicious: Joe the Plumber to quit the GOP.

Wednesday, Wednesday

Wednesday, Wednesday.

* Why is Boing Boing giving valuable blog real estate to global warming denialism? I see Cory has admirably tried to push back against the guest blogger, but still. What a sad day for Boing Boing.

* Michael Bérubé just took the GRE Literature in English subject test again. And lived to tell about it.

* Rethinking plagiarism? Sorry, but this isn’t that hard. Students know exactly what they’re doing when they plagiarize. Turn them over to Judicial Affairs and don’t think twice.

* Ten privacy settings every Facebook user should know.

* Joe the Plumber is now advising the GOP. WTFRepublicans?

* Fimoculous has found Wikipedia’s list of lists of fictional things.

* The New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertberg was not impressed with Obama’s first inaugural. More shocking still is the unabashed anti-Hindu prejudice expressed in a demand that they be listed last in the litany of religious belief, even after hated atheists. Via Edge of the American West.

Joe the Plumber Goes to Israel

Sometimes I get the impression the right-wing doesn’t take the world very seriously.

Joe The Plumber is putting down his wrenches and picking up a reporter’s notebook.

The Ohio man who became a household name during the presidential campaign says he is heading to Israel as a war correspondent for the conservative Web site pjtv.com.

I’m sure there’s something about this is not totally ridiculous.

He tells WNWO-TV in Toledo that he wants to let Israel’s ”’Average Joes’ share their story.”

Aha, of course! Now it all makes sense.

This Cannot Be True

Breaking radio silence on the incredible news of the Sarah Palin prank call.

A Quebec comedy duo notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state has reached Sarah Palin, convincing the Republican vice-presidential nominee she was speaking with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Impossibly, it’s true. Here’s the audio.

How could the McCain campaign have ever allowed this to happen? Is anyone minding the store over there?

Waiting for the Informercial

Waiting for the Obama infomercial, a few links.

* To the right, your picture of the day.

* Lieberman to lose committee chairmanship? Yes, please.

* A recording contract for Joe the Plumber? Good lord, no.

* And MoDo writes her greatest column ever.

Manes Julii Caesaris paucis diebus aderant — “O, most bloody sight!” — cum Ioannes McCainus, mavericus et veteranus captivusque Belli Francoindosinini, et Sara Palina, barracuda borealis, qui sneerare amant Baracum Obamam causa oratorii, pillorant ut demagogi veri, Africanum-Americanum senatorem Terrae Lincolni, ad Republicanas rallias…

John McCain’s Rejected Robo-Call Scripts

Hello. I’m calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama has not accepted Joe the Plumber’s friend request on Facebook. We know he’s logged on, because we saw he changed his status on Monday. On Tuesday, he joined the group Art Historians Are Saucy. But he still won’t accept Joe the Plumber’s friend request. He knows it’s Joe. Joe uses the screen shot of the two of them together as his profile picture. That’s not a uniter. That’s the same old liberal-elite politics as usual.

John McCain’s rejected robo-call scripts. At McSweeney’s.

See also: “The Audacity of Despair.”

Friday Evening Links

Friday evening links.

* Joe the Plumber…for Congress?

* New Jersey’s Star-Ledger cuts it newsroom staff by half.

* Joe “Let’s Assume the Best” Lieberman hits another Sarah Palin question right out of the park.

[W]hen asked by The Advocate if Palin is ready to be president from day one, Lieberman said “thank God she’s not going to have to be president from day one. McCain’s going to be alive and well.”

* Palin 2012? The buzz continues!

* Republicans are at each other’s throats, and the rats-off-a-sinking-ship watch hits a new high water mark with the first Obama endorsement by a McCain advisor.

* And Barack Obama is well ahead of both Kerry and Gore, eleven days out.

X the Y

In addition to being very funny, this Colbert segment on Joe the Plumber and the new proliferation of X the Ys within McCain/Palin speeches was the moment I finally realized that the point of all this is just to remind people Barack Obama has a funny name.

I admit I can be a little slow on the uptake with stuff like this.

SNL on Joe the Plumber

SNL on Joe the Plumber.

Breaking: Justice System Not Entirely Broken

The Supreme Court has issued an injunction against the GOP’s successful voter-suppression lawsuit in Ohio.

In a unanimous 9-0 ruling, the court did not decide whether Brunner was violating federal law by not providing the information, as the Ohio Republican Party contended in its lawsuit.

Rather, the court said it was unlikely that as a private entity, the GOP had the legal authority to sue Brunner on the issue or that the lower court had the power to issue its order in this case.

Even Joe the Plumber was at risk of getting his vote suppressed by these shenanigans. Let’s hope that’s the end of this tactic for ’08.

What Don’t We Know about Joe the Plumber?

What don’t we know about Joe the Plumber? A tough 527 ad takes aim at America’s newest everyman.

Joe the Plumber Watch

Joe the Plumber Watch: Kos recounts what we know, including an update on his voter registration:

‘Joe’ appears to be a registered Republican under the name of Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher. Also, earlier today at a press conference, Wurzelbacher said he originally registered with the Natural Law Party.)

There’s a lot of excitement in the netroots over the fact that Joe is an obvious plant, but that obviousness doesn’t seem to have trickled up to the mainstream media just yet.

One way or another, look for this stunt to blow up in McCain’s face by the middle of next week.

Joe the Plumber Isn’t Registered to Vote

An absolutely devastating blow for John McCain: it appears Joe the Plumber isn’t registered to vote. All that hard work securing his vote, wasted!

Post-Debate Thread

Joe the Plumber live on CBS with Katie Couric. Text here.

CNN Poll is in: 58-31.

Hillary keeps calling him “President Obama.” I guess she thinks it’s over?

Joe the Plumber still undecided. Tough news for McCain, who was working overtime tonight for the guy’s vote.

CBS: Obama dominates.

53% said Obama won; 22% said John McCain won.

Look for the media spin to shift immediately as a result, as it has in the wake of the last three debates.

Hillary on CNN.

Steve Benen agrees with me that this was a very bad night for McCain.

In a more general sense, if tonight was McCain’s big “last chance” for a game-changing performance, it was a missed opportunity. Opinions will no doubt vary widely, but I thought this was the worst of McCain’s three debate performances. On the substance, McCain had nothing new to offer. On his demeanor, McCain seemed angry and dismissive (did anyone count how many eye-rolls we saw?). On rhetoric, he was clumsy and repetitious.

What’s more, McCain positioned himself as a far-right Republican at precisely the time Americans want to move away from far-right Republicans. How did McCain present himself to Americans? As an anti-abortion, pro-voucher conservative who wants to slash federal spending and talk about how mean television ads and t-shirts hurt his feelings.

Obama has cornered the market on stature, temperament, and control. Where McCain was nasty, Obama was unflappable. Where McCain was angry, Obama was confident. On the substance, Obama was on message, and just as importantly, made personal connections on the issues he cared about.

I also noticed that Obama seemed to go out of his way to appeal to centrists and independents. While McCain reached out to his base on abortion and vouchers, Obama sought out middle ground on practically every issue.

In the first debate, it seemed to me that Obama won on points. In the second, Obama won by taking control. Tonight, Obama practically won by default — McCain had an off night when he needed a big win. Watching the two, it seemed to me that Obama is ready to lead, and just out-classed his over-matched rival.

Obama wins focus groups on CNN and Fox. No polls yet.

Ambinder, who repeats the nonsense claim that McCain might have won on points, goes on to say points don’t matter.

And tonight, we saw a McXplosion. Every single attack that Sen. McCain has ever wanted to make, he took the opportunity tonight to make. Around 30 minutes in, McCain seemed to surrender the debate to his frustrations, making it seem as if he just wanted the free television.

His substance suffered; it didn’t make sense at times. He seemed personally offended by negative ads; he tried to make a point about Obama’s character, but all the sleight were those Obama allegedly inflicted on Obama: the town halls, campaign finance, negative ads, etc. He allowed himself to get caught up in his own grievances. It was just plain unattractive on television. He moved quickly from William Ayers to taxes without a transition. From Obama’s opposition to trade agreements to taxes. No intermediate steps. Blizzards of words without unifying strings.

The partisans want their candidates to say things that will make the self-same partisans feel good. So when McCain gets angry, lots of Republicans say: “Right on ya! ” as if persuadable voters are looking at the world through McCain’s eyes and harboring the same grudges and feeling offended by the same.

CNN’s about to have Hillary on. That should be brutal.

CNN has 57 people on screen at once. What the hell?

Rachel Maddow is absolutely on fire tonight.

Here’s the abortion exchange from Debate Hub. Very, very bad flub by McCain.

Rachel’s response was awesome — McCain’s enthusiasm for the debate faded about halfway through, turning angry and sputtering. Points to what will surely be the moment of the night: the ridicule of the “health of the mother.”

Post-debate thread. Obama won in a huge way from where I’m sitting — can’t wait to see the CNN and CBS polls.