An Off Week

No primaries this week as we head into the day that is also a sentence, March 4th. So just doing a little pre-spring cleaning here in the Angry Middle.

A STARBUCKS DEMOCRAT ?
Recently I've been reading some articles about this group of people are that group of people supporting a particular candidate. Latinos in Texas are for so and so, Asians in Ohio are for this guy, etc. The most recent conventional wisdom is that working class lunch bucket Democrats are for Hillary Clinton and the latte drinkers are for Obama. The exact quote from the Machinists Union President (when's the last time that guy paid for a meal anyway) I've got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius- driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies crowding in to hear him speak! This guy won't last a round against the Republican attack machine. He's a poet, not a fighter.”

Now if this guy were working for Karl Rove's attack machine, I'd get it, but he's supposed to be "one of the good guys." with friends like this, who needs enemies. Step 76 on the road to the defeat for the Democrats. I'm unsure what Buffenbarger (onomatopoeic if you ask me) was trying to due, but it's been a weird time for the Clinton campaign, not quite lemmings but certainly the cyanide is being passed around the Clintonbunker just in case. Her campaign reminds me somewhat of the Birmingham campaign for Governor in 2002, the what the hell are they talking about campaign. The more qualified candidacy just mailing it in.

So the analogy being made for Clinton v. Obama is Dunkin' Donuts v. Starbucks. So, is the argument both are overpriced for what you get? You got to wait in a long line burning fuel for Clinton? If you're an Obama supporter you have no idea what you're ordering when you go there and you have to listen to bad music at the same time? Frankly I think both places are a waste of money so maybe that makes me a lukewarm Mr. Coffee Nader voter.

The analogy of course is that people who are for Obama are Sissycrats who have never worked a day in their life and sit around and read, the classic "where's the beef", the other are tough lunch bucket "guys" and their families who work from paycheck to paycheck. I have no idea where this came from, did Time magazine talk to seven guys? Most of these lunch bucket folks have long left the Democratic Party during the Reagan Revolution, those that may remain, from Public Employee unions are likely to vote either way and certainly don't look at Hillary Clinton as the savior of working class America.

I need to find a new party, my party is just stupid. How the hell could you lose this year?

UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED REDUX

There certainly is a time to stop, Godfather III, Jaws II, Caddyshack II, but Ralph he just keeps on going. After the aberration of 2000, there was a lot of hating going on for Nader. Now granted if Gore could have carried his home state, he would have won the election, how the hell do you not carry your own state? Ralph 2008 will be taken a lot less seriously, even less seriously than in 2004. He'll certainly pick up some contrarian voters, the "don't blame me I voted for someone else" voters, the same type of people that watch the Superbowl for the commercials, that don't want any real investment except to not be wrong.

I have mixed feelings about a Nader candidacy. One says the more the merrier, a divergent number of ideas for a common vision and purpose is a good thing. Nader's argument is that there is little difference between the corporatist parties, in fact he says he once asked his father if he ever though there would be three parties and his father said, I hope someday there are at least two. The other is that it is an egotistical distraction for Nader in a time of great need for leadership in this country, no one wants to watch a folk singer while your house is on fire. He's the guy who stands behind you while your trying to fix something telling you you should have bought a different brand. Timing, my friend.

SENATORS PREFER BLONDES

So the trash begins to fly. The formerly somewhat respectable Grey Lady begins to publish gossip using some named sources and some unnamed sources about Senator McCain and a blond lobbyist. There are two different levels of looking at this, the more lascivious way of looking at it, the senator having an affair with a much younger blond woman resembling his wife but some 25 years younger or the more common way, an elected official who has always claimed to rise above such nonsense doing political favors for a lobbyist.

The first is more fun, it's gossip, it's interesting in a world filled with reality TV, skinny woman romping around in bikinis flirting with their boy toys, in this case the boy toy being an aging senator/war hero. The second, in reality of course is more disconcerting, not just because of the Senator, but that it shows that all of Congress is for sale. This is not something that is unusual. Huge money is spent by lobbyists to influence policy and various tools certainly used to get influence.

All things equal, education, skills,etc. it would make more sense to influence the white, old man's club with a pretty blonde than someone like myself. Even men who have no intention of cheating are impressed by the attention of good looking women and the unconscious flirtation that take place and looks at every level are an entry point. But certainly this isn't the point. Huge money buys influence, on all sides, regardless of party. No one is going to attack McCain on this point because it is just hypocritical. In many ways, this has worked out at a good time for the Senator, nearly eight months for this to blow over and enough time for the conservative right to get behind their candidate as their greatest enemy the liberal media has emerged for the fight.