Couldn't get enough naps in...

So, John McCain couldn't get enough naps in before the debate on Friday, so he's decided to have some mushed carrots and suspend his campaign. Does anyone else smell total bullshit?

I've been working, in a professional capacity, with a federal government automaton, who works with the EPA. I talked with him a few weeks ago, and he took off his Scooby-Doo Gov-Speak face and talked some politics with me... in the course of that conversation, he recommended a fantastic website, www.wonkette.com. I totally heart the snarky tone of it. And I totally heart the list of web responses to McCain "pussying" out of the debate:

• John McCain puts his presidential campaign in a six by eight foot box.
• McCain suspends campaign upon word he is going to embarrass himself Friday night and will subsequently lose in November.
• Frail old man runs from African American asking for change.
• At 8:30am this morning, Obama called McCain about working together to get the emergency bailout legislation passed. John McCain responded by suspending his campaign and trying to take credit for the idea.
• In honor of McCain trying to get out of Friday’s debate, here’s a recipe for chicken pancakes.
• McCain to suspend campaign, debates immediately…after pandering to the Clintons by addressing Bill’s Global Initiative session tomorrow.
• John McCain has asked to postpone Friday’s debate to focus attention on how he put politics aside long enough to steal headlines by asking to postpone the debate.
• I think we should just postpone the election until he has a chance to win.
• But, my debate party! What an asshole.
• I urge the president to declare a state of emergency and cancel all elections until this crisis has passed. Only a striving Chicago pol would think of his own career in times likes these. Country first people, country first.
• Scaredee Cat.

P.S. Speaking of "pussying", Lisa, how's the new kitten?

Political and TV commentary, courtesy of (my) Dave

Sitting here tonight, after lamenting the plunge of political debate in the past week from actual policy differences to lipstick and pigs, AND seeing what must be the 357,612th television spot this year about the upcoming change to digital only tv* in 2009, the following conversation took place in my family room:

Me (dripping sarcasm): Hey dude, did you hear that some shit is happening with TV next year???
Dave: *rolls eyes*
Me: We're covered, right? Its only antenna reception that's affected?
Dave: Yep.
Me: Who the hell is really still watching TV with an antenna anyway???
Dave (deadpan): All those people out there voting for McCain.

Snort. I love that man.



* Seriously? There's a .gov website devoted to this!?!??!!

Palin' in Comparison??

Come on!!! I can't be the only one who's gonna make that joke!!! So, how many people saw the big announcement of the GOP Veep this morning? Whatever the number, it must pale in comparison to the 38 million who tuned in for Obama's acceptance speech last night....Thirty Eight Million. That's more than the audience that tuned in for the Olympics Opening Ceremony, the Academy Awards, or the (gasp) American Idol Finale. That's a crazy amount of people to watch anything political, let alone a speech.

I, in keeping with my obvious tech-savvy coolness, also got news of McCain's VP via text message, although at 11:30am, not 3am, (thank you Andrea) since I was trapped far from the news at a kid birthday party. My first response, like most of the country was, "Who??" And I'm still trying to figure out exactly who she is, and whether this was a brilliant, ballsy move on McCain's part, or the biggest gift he could have given the Dems. I guess it remains to be seen. Clearly he's going for the disenchanted Hillary supporters. However, with Palin's stance on abortion I have to wonder how many women democrats will really pull that lever based soley on her gender. I guess it remains to be seen.

The most compelling thing to me about Palin at the moment is that she gave birth 6 weeks after I did and is running for Vice President. Does that make her amazing? Or crazy?

And finally, I give you Jezebel, the most balls out blog post that came up when I googled "Sarah Palin Abortion Stance" in a fruitless effort to find an article stating that Palin's view is "no abortion, even in the case of rape or incest" which I heard on MSNBC today but cannot prove apparently, even with the help of google. If nothing else*, I have to appreciate the excessive use of asterisks in this post.


*The opinions expressed in Jezebel's commentary are solely those of the writer, and are not necessarily affiliated with WineColoredGlasses.

Sex, Girls, and Booze!

Well, break out the pink cigars... It's a girl! McCain has picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. My knee jerk reactions as I was watching the press conference on CNN at the gym during lunch:

1) Awesome! No matter what happens in November, we've broken the lock on stodgy old white men in the driver's seat!
2) How stupid does John McCain think women are? I mean, seriously, we're just supposed to twirl our hair and get pumped about that person with ovaries just because it has ovaries?? I really hope the PUMA people aren't that dumb… though I wouldn't doubt it.
3) Kind of blows that whole "too inexperienced" thing out of the water, doesn't it? And, not to put too fine a point on it, our Republican nominee is a cancer survivor who is celebrating his 72nd birthday today… that's a lotta candles.

And, because I am a blatant partisan… I just can't help it:


*** quick pop culture interlude. In the Ironic Celebrity Twist news, David Duchovny, star of "Californication" goes to rehab for… wait for it, sex addiction. Which, as my astute hubby pointed out this morning, is code for "got caught cheating on his wife." Awesome.

And finally, Lisa, I found the perfect wine for us next week!

Great Expectations

And then there's me - who was totally thrilled with the entire scene. I thought the convention was amazing, and couldn't have played out more beautifully if Steven Speilberg had directed it. We had Michelle, whose speech Andrea critiqued perfectly earlier in the week. Then there were the Clintons, neither of which I care for personally. But Hillary did everything she needed to, short of telling the PUMAs to STFU. Then there's Bill. Slick Willy literally makes my skin crawl, until he opens his mouth and starts talking. The man is a slimebag, but there is no one else like him when it comes to politics, and even I had a shit eating grin throughout his entire speech and he knocked it out of the park. Joe Biden is someone I haven't really known anything about until last weekend, when I googled and read everything I could find after the much anticipated 3am text message (Hmmmm, is the 3am t4ext message the 21st century 3am phone call??? Wow, we're so cool!) So far I like what I see. I totally get why he's the VP Obama chose.

And Baracky-poo......Barack met my expectations in every way last night. Hubby and I were cheering throughout the entire thing, feeling as though he was speaking directly to us at several times, and only calling bullshit on a couple of minor points. And I'm not gonna lie - I am hungry for someone to be in the White House whose wedding pictures look like mine, whose kids could be the ones in my neighborhood, and whose wife I could imagine being a co-worker of mine. I have embraced every aspect of the whole "passing the torch" thing Ted Kennedy spoke of the other night.

And I'm the queen of managed expectations. I guess I'm holding my cards close for November 4th, where I fear that the religious right base will go to the polls in droves and barely pluck the White House from Obama's hands.

This is the first time I have ever been this involved, this informed or this inspired by a presidential candidate. It's the first time I've wanted a democrat to win so desperately. It's the first time I've ever volunteered for a campaign. It's the first time I've ever felt that our country needed such a drastic turn around - and the first time I've seen a candidate that I thought could actually do it. I just hope its not my turn to cry the day after the election.

And just for superstition's sake, I made sure to drink NO RED WINE during the convention! :) Just in case.

Managed Expectations

I think this is the theme of this convention for me. For example, I was expecting Bill C. to completely stink the place up, but he didn't. He hit every mark he was expected to, and did it with an amazing amount of authenticity. Don't get me wrong… until he opened his greasy little cigar trap, every time he squinted at the camera, I did a little silent voodoo wishing for his death. And then started talking, and it all faded away, and all the sudden, he was Bill Clinton, elder statesman and leader of the party, passing a torch in glowing terms to his antecessor. And managed to do it without throwing his wife under the bus. It was truly an amazing political spectacle. It's no wonder this man was elected twice.

But I had really high expectations for Barack's speech, and somehow I was left… unsatisfied. Don't get me wrong-- it was a great speech. It had all of the elements that it needed to have-- a clear vision of what an Obama presidency would look like, an introduction to him and his past, and (surprisingly) a very harsh send-up of John McCain (I had expected him to leave the down and dirty stuff to his proxies… but he got right down there and slang mud with the best of them last night). He even had some inspirational words for the people in the rafters. But because I had such high expectations, I couldn't help but feel a little… disappointed is WAY too strong of a word… even-keeled, I suppose. I think I was expecting euphoria, which is a bit much.

I don't think it's a small detail, either, that I was 2 sheets to the wind by the time Bill took the stage (All Hail, Chardonnay in Chief), and was dead sober last night. Just sayin'.

The New Presidential Spouse

OK, I have to do this before I even dip my toes into what I am sure is a sea of analysis of Michelle Obama's prime time speech last night. In short: wow. I can't imagine anyone, even the most cynical, could watch that speech and not come away with a better impression of her. Since I already started out on the Love Train, I am completely over the moon this morning. In fact, I'd cast my ballot for her if I could.

She has the truest of all American success stories, and truly has her priorities straight. I also appreciate how strong and centered she is. I think you can really tell a lot about a person by the company they keep. And keeping Michelle Obama around says leagues more about the character of Barack Obama than any polling or debate or (Admittedly cheesy) European tour. It says that he is willing to surround himself by people that challenge him.

And sure, he has adorable children. Who were WAY off script (up yours, Dems!). But it was really Michelle that took the evening. How can anyone who was pulling for Hillary listen to Michelle and not feel that same pull? Talk about a woman who would make the White House really ROCK.

The most obvious contrast of the night came as I was watching the scrolling news at the bottom of MSNBC "Cindy McCain heads to the country of Georgia to 'assess civilian casualties' ". Are you *#&%&# kidding me? I am sure that we can all sleep well at night knowing that Cindy McCain is assessing the casualties of an international conflict. Did I miss something about her training as a triage doctor? What the hell is she going to do, call up InBev and get them a Busch Light?

Seriously, Cindy… power down your battery cells and take a hint from Michelle Obama. Do something that you love, care about your community, be true and strong and right, and it will shine through.