Around The Horn Friday: Super-Duper Friday Edition
I don’t know about you, but super duper Tuesday is one of the dumbest names of an event in the history of events. Now I really hate the MSM. With the primary looming, people are weighing in left and right. On the left, the Obama camp is so happy that Tommywonk has endorsed Barack that they are flying him in on Sunday for a rally in Rodney Square. I am very impressed that little ol’ Delaware is getting the candidate himself. If you are getting up early to get in, here’s a suggestion for where to look in the sky before the sun comes up. I’ll also have some Hillary events posted here later today. It is going to be an exciting weekend.
Obama’s wife, Michelle, was here on Thursday and she impressed Steve Newton and his kids. The venue, not so much. One more reason to like Obama, Feroce thinks he’s too liberal. Maria Evans wasn’t nearly as impressed.
If you are wondering how important Tuesday is, check out Delaware Watch for the definitive guide. Oh, and Kavips has a great story; “Two conservatives walk into a bar.” And Hube covers the Clinton camp’s attempt to make Florida and Michigan count. Over at Liberal Delight, Ryan has some complaints with the MSM’s coverage of this primary. Over at CSPT, they make the case that McCain is conservative enough to be the candidate of the crazy-ass Republicans. At JttR, Gary talks about the dumbest Presidential campaign EVAR!
While we are tied up thinking about Presidential politics, John Carney has jumped in with both feet to make some progress in the Bluewater wind project. His plan is to sweeten the pot for legislators to lure them away from their corporate overlords at Delmarva by bringing the jobs. Tommy has another expose’ on Delmarva’s BS tactics.
In the Governors race this week, we had our first Dem debate. Catch the video at DWA and read the review at Delaware Watch.
Everyone’s favorite ex-superintendent, Joe Wise is back in the news. He should team up with Atkins and make a run for Governor and Lt. Governor.
There is a lot of geeky goodness in the DE blogosphere this week. Over at FSP, Smitty has a simple freaking question. Steve Newton has a story about bluetooth gone to hell. Duffy has a post highlighting the jihadi tech skillz. Finally, Gazizza has a post about some new paths in genetic engineering. I just want some of those new superpowers. Mmmm, super-strength.
Speaking of superheroes, Hube is finally coming around to the whole Bill Clinton thing…
Nancy has a post on the development of the old Hercules golf course. Guess what? Developers are running rough-shod over the county again.
Mike Mahaffie is cursing Art Garfunkel for his literacy. Paul Smith is amused by the answer to a question, but the question itself is questionable. And Duffy cracks me up because despite being so different politically, we seem to live similar work lives. And mynym again blows my mind.
Can you help a blogger out? Go fill out Mat Marshall’s political survey so that he can get his homework done.
I hope you all can come out to see Obama on Sunday afternoon in Wilmington. My hope is that he will get us out of this war in Iraq, where at least 80,744 Iraqis have perished and 3,943 of our soldiers have paid the ultimate price for George Bush’s war of vanity and greed. Peace.
Tags: Around the Horn, Blogosphere, Delaware
I wish I’d had access to a gazillion political junkies to help me (and the hot girl) finish my homework….
Enjoy it while it lasts, Mat, you won’t be precocious forever
This is a “tsk, tsk” to Maria. I got that Michelle Obama was talking about Obama vs. Clinton when she said everyone running (for the Democratic nomination) was a lawyer.
She didn’t get it becuase she was probably determined to not drink the Kool-aid.
Drink it Maria ! Drink it ! You know you want to.
Maria Evens, bless her little heart, is painfully misinformed and showing her total lack of familiarity with the national race. Since her little blog requires sign in wordpress comments – I’ll lay it out here.
Inside, people were energized, and when Michelle Obama came out, the crowd went wild. She spoke with deliberation, and in some cases, a little interesting imagination:
“Barack has more legislative experience than anyone currently in this race.” – Michelle Obama
Well, Maria, as Jason points out, the race they are engaged in is for the Democratic nomination – she isn’t talking about the Republicans, because they are not their opponents. Barack does have more legislative experience than Hillary when you consider his time spent in the Illinois State Senate. This is fairly obvious and you should be a bit more careful before, you know, you call her a liar.
She also took the time to totally mischaracterize the background of most of the candidates in the Presidential race, namely Mike Gravel, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, and even Republican frontrunner John McCain, none of whom are lawyers:
“Barack’s a lawyer I’m a lawyer…but everybody in this race is a lawyer. And most of them made their millions before they decided to help the people, but not Barack.” – Michelle Obama
Incidentally, that second part about making “their millions before they decided to help the people…” just isn’t really true. (Even Mitt Romney did a 30 month stint as a missionary when he got out of college and most likely wasn’t worth “millions” at that point, and Hillary Clinton, did some “help the people” stuff before she and Bill made their fortune).
And, frankly, I’m not buying into the whole candidate class warfare thingie coming from a Princeton educated lawyer married to a Harvard law school graduate. But Michelle Obama was very inspiring if you weren’t all wrapped up in ridiculous stuff like lapses in accuracy and irony
Again, you either purposefully misunderstood the status of the campaign or you are painfully ignorant of anything outside of Gumboro. She was speaking about Hillary (and perhaps that line was before Edwards dropped out of the race). I think a review of Hillary’s history will reveal she did go into private practice soon after graduating school. You obviously don’t know that because you are hellbent on just being contrarian.
Finally, your assertion that Obama was engaging in “whole candidate class warfare thingie” because she went to Princeton just shows how woefully moronic you are. Both Michelle and Barack did not have it easy growing up and they achieved something great from being given very little… just because you are educated doesn’t mean you were given it on a silver platter. If anyone appears to engaging in class warfare, it would seem like a Sussex County reporter who uses the word “thingie” might be showing a little jealousy.
Also, Michelle also graduated from Harvard Law, but you obviously were unaware of that… as you seem to be unaware of so many other facets of this campaign.
Just get your facts straight before you go about calling other people liars. Isn’t there a pie eating contest or something you can cover this week?
John Kerry addressed that statement by adding in Clinton’s name on WDEL just now.
Mrs. Obama shouldn’t have omitted it and since I wasn’t there, I could’t say how obvious it was that she was referring to the primary race alone but it seems to be a campaign standard hearing Kerry saying the same talking point-counterpoint to the Clinton ‘I am experienced’ line.
George, you done good….
I can’t wait to see Obama in person, myself!!!
George: My favorite part of the post is where Maria counts Mitt’s time as a missionary as “helping people.” What they actually do is go door-to-door trying to sign up people for the LDS. How on earth this might translate into “helping” people escapes me. It’s actually a slightly less sadistic form of hazing, since the young missionaries aren’t allowed to contact their families back home except for once a year. This serves to bind the young adults to the church rather than their birth families, and acts as a rite of passage into the mysteries of how they’ll matriculate into gods someday — oops, sorry, that’s for the boys only.
I used her own words, from her speech, and I have the entire, unedited, audio up for everyone to hear.
And incidentally, I’m “informed” enough to know that even if she was just talking about only the Democrat candidates, Mike Gravel is still in the race, and he has more legislative experience than Barack Obama, and he’s not a lawyer. Right, George?
I did make an error, Michelle got her undergrad at Princeton and her law degree from Harvard. Which is much better because I was up all night worrying that the Obamas may argue over which college has a better rowing team. But, George, did you know that Michelle and Barack met while they were working for a private law firm? Yes, Barack worked on Wall Street.
As for Hillary, when she was in college she worked on child abuse cases and volunteered at a legal services office and there are many other examples of her helping people before she made her millions.
Or do we need to interpret Michelle Obama’s statement about other candidates making “their millions before they decided to help the people” even more narrowly until it ends up being true?
And the statement about “Both Michelle and Barack did not have it easy growing up..” can apply to many of the candidates. McCain grew up during the depression, raised mostly by his mother because his father was always out to sea and his family was uprooted frequently with military life. Huckabee grew up in Hope, Arkansas and both of his parents had to work to make ends meet. Gravel grew up during the depression and his father was a painter. Paul was one of five, grew up during the depression and had to work his way through college…
We may be a little slow down here in Gumboro, George, but we sure do know how to spot a big load of manure.
I just went through my audio again, I stand by everything I wrote.
When discussing candidates making “millions” it wasn’t within a mile of a discussion about Hillary Clinton or the primary, it was sandwiched in a description of the work Barack has done.
And the “legislative experience” quote is clear. She qualifies his experience earlier by saying “state” legislative experience and “democratic” candidates, but then she uses it again, later, very slowly and deliberately, with those qualifiers omitted.
Maybe the trouble with “moronic” folk down here in “Gumboro” like me, is that they don’t serve your Kool Aid at our “pie eating contests,” George.
And spreading religion has never helped anyone, has it, Al? Or did you mean just Romney’s religion?
I’m smelling 10 rounds of DEL and GMD rumble here! Let’s get ready to rrrrruuuuuummmmbbbbblllllleeee!
Don’t play dumb, Maria. I was very specific in my post. Explain how that’s “helping people” or don’t play at all.
Al, he went door to door for 30 months trying to spread his religion. If his religious message uplifted one of the people who opened their door to him, and he gave them hope, he helped people.
As for his work being nothing more than a “rite of passage,” many religions have “rites of passage” that “bind” their youth to the church. For example Catholics have Confirmation. Is that just a joke to you, too, or again, do you just have a problem with Mormons?
And Al, thanks for letting me know that I need to play by your rules or I shouldn’t “play at all.” But I need to know if that only applies to this blog, or if you control all of the blog commenting in the state.
I did make an error, Michelle got her undergrad at Princeton and her law degree from Harvard. Which is much better because I was up all night worrying that the Obamas may argue over which college has a better rowing team.
And Michelle Obama was doing the “class warfare thingie”?… please. That, in combination with bringing up Mike Gravel makes it clear that your intellect just borders on the pre-literate.
All of this from the crack journalism squad that brought you “Girls Gone Wild” in Dewey Beach… Oh, and don’t forget running the Jewish kids out of town who don’t want to pray in a public school.
Oh yes WGMD, who would of thought that you guys wouldn’t like a black Democrat running for President… Fair and Balanced.
From Michelle Obama’s speech at Delaware State University:
“See, in this society we value people who have worked in the upper eschalons and made tons of money and run big Fortune 500 companies and we call that experience somehow better than folks who work with regular folks on the ground. And that’s confusing to me. But I hope it’s not confusing to you. See, Barack’s a lawyer I’m a lawyer everybody’s a lawyer, hopefully all you all won’t be lawyers, but everybody in this race is a lawyer. And most of them made their millions before they decided to help the people, but not Barack.”
Next?
And thanks for playing the race card, it shows you have no hand.
No one played the race card, I just made an observation that you seem surprisingly excited to jump on Michelle Obama for the smallest nuance, based on your own interpretation…
An interpretation, that I might add, is not shared or expressed by anyone else in the national media or even the Clinton campaign, who covers these things all of the time…
But, I mean, they have an education, so they probably don’t have time to read your bright insights. They’re too busy talking about crew regattas.
You clearly played the race card. That’s not even a point that you can debate with any seriousness.
I posted Michelle Obama’s quote, in its entirety, and in context. Here it is again:
“See, in this society we value people who have worked in the upper eschalons and made tons of money and run big Fortune 500 companies and we call that experience somehow better than folks who work with regular folks on the ground. And that’s confusing to me. But I hope it’s not confusing to you. See, Barack’s a lawyer I’m a lawyer everybody’s a lawyer, hopefully all you all won’t be lawyers, but everybody in this race is a lawyer. And most of them made their millions before they decided to help the people, but not Barack.”
It speaks for itself.
And George, I want you to know that your long line of baseless and inflammatory insults have not gone unappreciated. You have very interesting opinions and that’s special.
Maria says:
“If his religious message uplifted one of the people who opened their door to him, and he gave them hope, he helped people.”
Oh, OK, I didn’t realize the bar was set so low. How about all the people who found it annoying, however briefly? Does that count against him on the great karmic wheel?
–As for his work being nothing more than a “rite of passage,” many religions have “rites of passage” that “bind” their youth to the church. For example Catholics have Confirmation. Is that just a joke to you, too, or again, do you just have a problem with Mormons?–
There’s a world of difference between a young Catholic — too young to truly understand the rite, in many cases — studying for Confirmation once a week and sending kids off to the ends of the earth for two years. The latter is the sort of ritual designed to emphasize the group member’s otherness to all but his fellow adherents and their leaders in the church. It’s similar to what you’ll see in other institutions seekinga measure of mental control — the Army leaps to mind, but so does MBNA.
There is a difference between taking note of a religion’s customs and “having a problem” with those customs. I was pointing out that “helping people” is not the reason Mormons go on missions. I have seen many church missions that visit poor countries, and poor areas in this one, to “help people.” They don’t go door-to-door peddling something — in this case, religion. I have no problem with them doing this, only with you proclaiming it “helping people.” I was suggesting your standards there were rather low, which you have now confirmed. Thank you for playing.
–And Al, thanks for letting me know that I need to play by your rules or I shouldn’t “play at all.” But I need to know if that only applies to this blog, or if you control all of the blog commenting in the state.–
Oh, lighten up. It was a reference to the phrase “play dumb,” and all it means is don’t bother responding if you don’t want to engage in any meaningful dialogue.
Al says:
“I was pointing out that “helping people” is not the reason Mormons go on missions.”
http://dearelder.com/index/inc_name/Mormon_Missionaries/
“Proselyting missionaries are simply those that devote the majority of their time to teaching the Gospel. They do, however, spend time in community and personal service to others. The majority of Mormon missionaries are proselyting missionaries.”
The Mormons think so. Teaching the gospel and community service can be interpreted as “helping people.”
Maria seems to like playing rapacious reporter when it’s Obama, yet she swallows everything the Mormon Church says without question…
Community service, sure. But I know lots of Mormons, and none have been on that type of mission.
Preaching the Gospel? Sorry, doesn’t count as helping people in my book — well, OK, it doesn’t in most cases actually HURT, but it doesn’t help as much as, oh, holding a door open for someone about to enter the Wawa.
Obviously you value preaching more than I do, and probably more than Michelle Obama does. I think we’ve cleared that up now.
George, you seem to swallow everything the Obama campaign tells you. I don’t plan on doing that with any politician ever again. Haven’t you learned any lessons over the past few years?
And Al, I’m not a very religious person, but unlike you, I don’t pretend that religion hasn’t helped people to make my points look valid.
I posted the context of the “made their millions” quote. It wasn’t, in any way, shape, or form, just directed towards Democrats OR Hillary OR just the primary, and it is not a valid statement.
“And Al, I’m not a very religious person, but unlike you, I don’t pretend that religion hasn’t helped people to make my points look valid.”
You were the one making the original point, not me. You equated proselytizing door-to-door with “helping people.” I’m not the one who had to resort to the “if it helped just one person” argument to make his point. That was you. If you don’t understand how flimsy that argument is, you’re beyond my help.
Al, let’s put this to rest. This is the quote from my piece:
“She also took the time to totally mischaracterize the background of most of the candidates in the Presidential race, namely Mike Gravel, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, and even Republican frontrunner John McCain, none of whom are lawyers:
“Barack’s a lawyer I’m a lawyer…but everybody in this race is a lawyer. And most of them made their millions before they decided to help the people, but not Barack.” – Michelle Obama
Incidentally, that second part about making “their millions before they decided to help the people…” just isn’t really true. (Even Mitt Romney did a 30 month stint as a missionary when he got out of college and most likely wasn’t worth “millions” at that point, and Hillary Clinton, did some “help the people” stuff before she and Bill made their fortune).”
Whether or not Mormons preaching the gospel and doing community service helps people, I can’t argue that point with you anymore, I relent because you’ll never admit that you could possibly be wrong, so I’ll concede that point to you, Al, your point that Mormons on missions are just there as a right of passage, they don’t give a crap about helping people, and it’s all a joke.
Now, that being said, Michelle Obama’s statement was still false.
I never said it was a joke. Actually, I quite often admit that I could possibly be wrong.
What this was about — I mean, to you, since when Michelle Obama said “this race” it was pretty clear she meant “the Democratic race for the nomination” — was your easy pass to someone whose religious mission stood in for actually helping people. It’s a far cry from taking a neighborhood organization job after graduating Harvard Law School.
But since you won’t admit the possibility that you’re wrong, we’ll leave it where it lays.
Al there is no mention of the primary or just democrats anywhere around that quote, I posted it in context. If, (as YOU say since SHE didn’t say it), she meant “the Democratic race for the nomination” she’s IS STILL WRONG since Hillary Clinton did quite a bit of work for the “people” before she made her “millions.”
Or do you want to debate whether taking on child abuse cases and doing volunteer work for a legal aid service is helping “the people?”