Daily Archives: August 21, 2008

This is It.

By this time tomorrow, we will finally know who Barack Obama has chosen to be his running mate.

Earlier this week, I was positive it was Joe Biden, based on some good information.   But when the timetable I was given came and went, and with Biden saying saying he wasn’t the guy and otherwise playing coy with reporters, I became convinced the Biden buzz was just another trial balloon, much like the trial balloons of Indiana Senator Evan Bayh last week and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine two weeks ago.   I became further convinced that this was all well planned to bring the buzz and hype about Obama’s decision to a fever pitch, guaranting week long coverage.

That has happened.

But the choice has to be someone to live up to the hype, or else it will be a letdown.

That is why I am convinced it is Hillary.   I could be wrong, but that is my gut feeling at this moment.

What is yours? Take the poll to the left.

Mike Castle Apology Letter

Fellow Delawareans,

It has been my privilege to serve you in Congress and I have taken the trust that you have placed in me seriously. As your Congressman I have striven to balance the immediate needs of Delaware with the long term needs of the country and am proud of my record of accomplishment.

To a large degree, those accomplishments have been possible because of my determination to look beyond ideology and political party. Putting the demands of partisanship aside, I have worked hard at my goals of represent every Delawarean in Congress and believe that I have done that.

However, there is one area where the wedge of partisanship not only separated me from your concerns, but also separated me from my conscience. That was voting for George Bush and chairing his election and reelection campaigns here in Delaware.

By supporting George Bush, when my intellect and conscience told me to speak out against him, I did a grave disservice to you my constituents and my supporters and ultimately to the country.

Like many of you, I was initially mislead and then hoped for the best regarding the President, but it was soon obvious to me that he was lying about the Iraq war and actively working to undermine our constitutional form of government. At the moment of that realization I should have unequivocally withdrawn my support.

My conscience demanded that I speak up, but I did not. I sincerely apologize for my cowardice in not doing so.

Knowingly departing from the dictates of my intellect and conscience is something that I will have to contend with for the rest of my life. And while I know that I can not restore my integrity through this apology, I hope that I can restore some small part of my reputation for honest and intelligent service to the state and people of Delaware.

To that end I promise to back up this apology with a sustained commitment to oppose the President and his plans to escalate and enlarge the catastrophe in Iraq that my silence enabled.

Sincerely
Michael N. Castle
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O’Donnell expects Obama win.

LOL.   Until I read the piece, I had forgotten that Christine O’Donnell existed for any purpose other than to turn on Mike Matthews.   But she has seen an opportunity to get her name in the paper what with Joe Biden being a possible running mate to Barack Obama.   She laments that with all the national attention lavished upon Delaware in the past weeks, Joe Biden is “neglecting” Delawareans.   She notes that Biden will most likely be running for reelection while at the same time either running on an Obama-Biden ticket, or preparing for a spot in President Obama’s cabinet.

She wants Biden to step aside now so that she can face whomever will replace Joe Biden in January:

“In this election, I should be debating my real competition for this job,’’ O’Donnell said. “And the people of Delaware should get the opportunity to cast a vote for the person who is going to fulfill their term. He’s taken Delawareans for granted and using the Senate as a placeholder.’’

I am sure John McCain and all of his fellow Republicans cannot be happy with these comments.  For Ms. O’Donnell has conceded the point that Obama will be elected President, which of course means that Joe Biden will either be Vice President or Secretary of State.

Breaking: Bill Lee Insists “I Do Exist”

Depsite evidence to the contray, Bill Lee continues to claim that he infact exsists and is not a mythological figure dreamed up by Charlie Copeland and Dave Burris.

“I do exist” claimed Lee, althought it was faint and hard for anyone to discern. Rather than Bill Lee bystanders thought what they were hearing might have been the wind blowing a peice of paper down the street.

Rethinking the Democratic Primary Process

The Boston Globe reports that the Obama campaign and the DNC are looking to establish a Democratic Change Commission to review the current state of the process:

The panel would look at changes to the timing of primaries and caucuses, reducing the number of superdelegates, and tinkering with the caucus system. “The goal of the commission will be to ensure that no primary or caucus is held prior to the first Tuesday in March of 2012, with the exception of the approved pre-window states, whose contests would be held during February 2012,” Obama’s campaign and the DNC said in a joint statement.

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Preview of Convention Coverage

One week from today, Barack Obama will accept the nomination of the Democratic party to be President of the United States.  Love him or hate him, it is an historic event.  DelawareLiberal intends to be at the forefront of local coverage.

Tom Noyes will be filing reports with us in the form of a podcast which will be available here or via iTunes in the net few days.  We will, of course, be posting throughout the week on the convention and the goings-on as we get information.  Finally, we will have liveblogging available throughout the week.  If you have never used our liveblogging interface, you are really missing one of the pleasures of the DelawareLiberal community..

Hopefully you will enjoy our coverage.  We look forward to bringing it to you.

Questions for WDEL Debate NCCo Executive Candidates

NOTE: I’m bumping this up in hopes that more of you will see it and want to add a question.
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As Allan Loudell noted here, the debate between the two Democratic candidates for NCCo Executive Chris Coons and Tom Gordon is set for this Friday. Details of the debate:
When: Aug. 22, 8 a.m.
Where: Ruby R. Vale Moot Courtroom, Widener Univ. Law School, Wilmington.

This one is open to the public, so get there early to get a good seat.

Allan will be one of 3 reporters asking questions, but he has asked us again for suggestions on the questions we’d like to see answered. If you’ve been listening to the debates Allan has hosted so far, he has been selecting some questions from those submitted by those writing and commenting here and he makes sure that the candidates answer those questions. So weigh in! What questions would you want these two candidates answer?

D&D Geeks Roll an 18

First this…

Confronting questions about whether John McCain stole an inspiring POW story from the autobiography of a former Soviet prisoner, a campaign spokesman threw out this melee attack against a much-maligned geek pastime:

“It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement,” said McCain aide Michael Goldfarb, in a posting to the campaign website.

Then…Wired’s Threat Level blog is asked its readers to come up with character descriptions or Monster Manual blurbs for McCain:

1st Level Fighter / 14th Level Aristocrat by (+5, Troll)

His stat block is STR 12, INT 9, WIS 9, DEX 9, CON 10, CHR 14, adjusting for age. His Bluff skill is maxed, but he has just one rank in Knowledge (Religion) and no ranks in Knowledge (Economics). He was only a fighter for a short time, but he brags about those days to anyone who doesn’t intentionally fail their Listen check. He managed to charm an aristocratic lass into marriage to make his fortune, though he had to leave his first wife to do so.

and…

Overlord McCainnister the Brute by Sam

This perennially battle-weary creature thrives on animosity and fear; it wields a Fox Cloak of Deception with a +10 stun against nearby intelligent creatures. Sporting long, tentacled arms, its impressive reach gives it a +5 luck in debates. Sadly, this creature is rarely found in the wild; it is usually paired as a familiar to the Horn-toothed Lobbyist.

Via Boing Boing