Welcome to the Tuesday edition of your open thread. Congratulations to the Philadelphia Flyers, the Eastern Division Champions. The Flyers will face the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup. Is it just me or does hockey season seem to last forever?
Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal was the overwhelming favorite to win the CT-Sen race until some allegations surfaced that he had exaggerated his military record. The Connecticut had two choices for a candidate to take on Blumenthal, multi-millionaire WWE executive Linda McMahon or former Congressman, Vietnam vet and former intelligence officer Rob Simmons. Guess who the Connecticut GOP chose?
Republican Rob Simmons called an end to his campaign for the U.S. Senate this morning, saying he could no longer hope to win his party’s nomination after losing the convention endorsement to newcomer Linda McMahon.
To stay in the race without it, he said this morning, would “equate to Pickett’s Charge.”
In an interview in the parking lot outside New London’s WXLM-FM radio, where Simmons first announced his decision to “scale back” his Senate campaign, the candidate said he was disappointed that convention delegates awarded the party endorsement to McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. who has pledged to spend as much as $50 million of her own money on the Senate race.
McMahon won the endorsement at the convention. Simmons had enough votes to force a primary but decided against it.
And another one from the “Fox is not news” file:
In his commencement address to graduating West Point cadets on Saturday, the President outlined his upcoming national security strategy that is focused on international cooperation to meet the nation’s security challenges. He also praised American troops for their performance in Iraq. “A lesser Army might have seen its spirit broken,” he said, adding that “through their competence and creativity and courage, we are poised to end our combat mission in Iraq this summer.” At that point, cadets and the audience applauded for at least 12 seconds (starting at roughly the 10:24 mark here). However, as Michael Moore observed, video from the speech on FoxNews.com edits out that applause entirely, making it appear as if Obama is bizarrely staring silently for a long period of time. The audio is cut (starting at the 0:44 mark) for the 12 seconds of applause, and then skips to another part of the speech. Watch it (the first clip is from FoxNews.com, the second clip is from WhiteHouse.gov):
Yeah, I can’t think of any reason why Fox would edit out the applause of military academy graduates when Obama says he’s going to end the Iraq War. Nice propaganda move Fox!