[August 17, 2000]

Those idiots at MasterCard played right into Ralph Nader's hands. Duh. The only thing they should have done was ingore him, or maybe secretl send him a gratis license to protect their own rights. Now, he'll milk this free publicity for weeks. Duh. W

What will we see, and when will we see it? Last night Joe Lieberman, Democratic nominee for Vice President, electrified… no, captivated… no, told a crowd of the party faithful and not-so-faithful mostly what they all wanted to hear. No one bowed their heads, walked out, or threatened to separate into a different convention. If only it had been that interesting. Now, I don’t anything bad to say about Joe Lieberman, the man. But Joe Lieberman the stump speaker has a few negative points, like rehashed mother-in-law jokes; a voice that sounds eerily like the late Walter Matthau; and a vague resemblance to the likely product of a kinky Muppet rendezvous between Kermit and Fozzy Bear. But that’s all beside the point, because how could charisma be relevant to a ticket led by Al Gore?

Lieberman the speaker told us of Lieberman, the man, for several minutes, and found great success doing just that. He’s a nice guy, a likable guy, someone you might want to have as a business partner. But as Mullings author Rich Galen noted, as soon as he started talking about issues, like affirmative action, Lieberman’s ratings “dropped off the table” with those outside the convention hall. Most significantly, Lieberman backed off two of his most controversial (among Democratic circles) positions. First, he came out in favor of affirmative action, saying “Mend it, don’t end it.” I’d be curious to know exactly what plan Lieberman has for “mending” affirmative action that has overcome his past criticism of it. But Joe did not tell. Next, Lieberman threw a bone to the teacher’s unions and backed down from his former endorsement of voucher plans, instead calling for the need to provide “targeted” education funding to public schools. He used to understand that planned economies, such as the Soviet one, fail. But now that he needs the support for those teacher’s unions, he’s telling a different story.

There’s little Lieberman could have done, really, to bail out the Democrite’s sinking ship. For months now, the Gore campaign has chanted the mantra of “1988,” trying to convince the media and the public that this time, they’re the Bush campaign. Of course, remember what happened in 1988 – George H.W. Bush went into his party’s convention with a double-digit shortfall in the polls, and summoned a tremendous bounce which put him in the lead, basically for good. This is the straw the Gore campaign currently clings to. Their famed, self-described “slaughterhouse killers” have one mission this week: to “Dukakisize” George W. Bush. But as I watch this convention, I just don’t see it happening. The Democrats don’t understand that merely having a convention doesn’t automatically generate a bounce - it has to resonate with people in some way. If the Gore campaign truly wants to re-live 1988, then why aren’t they following the script? The Elder Bush was able to pound Dukakis with two issues that fatally damaged his standing in the public eye the pledge of allegiance, and Willie Horton. So where are Gore’s silver bullets? Does he have any? Is he saving them up? Whatever his plan is, he’d better act fast, because so far, this convention has earned Gore not a bounce, but a drop in the polls. Honestly, I am stunned, and I expected this race to tighten this week. But it just hasn’t happened, and the lack of leadership at the top of the ticket and the chaos of the Gore campaign is the number one reason why you ain’t seen nothing yet. W

For Dan, Dave, Neale, and Foxy.... always remember the OSOD. W

[August 16, 2000]

Hey Bill! You've just passed the torch of the Democratic Party? What will you do now?

"I'm gonna get myself a McChicken sandwich!"  W

You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet, and probably never will. That's the theme from this week's Democratic convention (okay, really just the first part) and are they playing it out. You ain't seen a keynote speaker make it to the stage on time because the Dems just can't keep organized. You ain't seen a convention bounce at all. You ain't seen party unity. You ain't seen leadership. And one last thing you ain't seen yet, and never will, is Al Gore leading his party or our country. (Even if, by some fluke, he wins this election.) The pundits keep saying, this will be a close race, this will be a close race. Well, if the Democrats run their campaign like they've run their convention, which is incidentally much like they've already been running the campaign, you ain't gonna see a close race.

Let's look at what we haven't seen this week: how about hope for a Democratic victory? Jesse Jackson's speech was not remarkable for the accusations he hurled - we would have suspected demonic possession otherwise. What was remarkable was the plea of desperation at the end, where he chanted "every vote counts" while reciting decisions that turned on a single vote. (Remarkably, he left out the 1993 tax hike that passed by a single vote - Al Gore's.) He pleaded with the audience to "keep hope alive." What, I ask you, is the Reverend Jackson worried about? Obviously, when you make a plea for turnout, you're worried about your crowd staying home. When you beg for them to keep hope alive, you're worried that they have already lost it. Why would Jesse Jackson be worried about these things? Maybe he's seen the growing resentment in the African-American community, from their feelings of having been taken for granted. He's worried that delegates were allowed to wave signs for Ted Kennedy, but signs supporting Bradley were confiscated by party officials. He's worried that the nation's first plausible African-American potential pick for vice president was a Republican. He's worried that Al Gore still can't catch a bounce in the polls. He's worried that Joe Lieberman's muddled record on affirmative action may help turn the tide once and for all. He's worried that his influence is waning. The Reverend is trying to keep his own hope alive, the hope that his vote will still count int he Democratic party after this election. Once again, a truly remarkable development: we ain't seen the Democrats this scared in a long time. W

[August 15, 2000]

Live From L.A., it’s Monday Night! What better way to highlight how poor a campaigner Hillary is than to have her husband follow her? No one will be surprised to know that her speech was flat in style and empty in substance. During on on-the-floor interview just before her speech began, Senator Chuck Schumer said he had given Hillary three words of advice: “issues, issues, issues,” since that is allegedly the Democrites’ strong suit in this campaign. Not surprisingly, Hillary stiff-armed Schumer and spent a sparse two lines of her speech ticking off six specific policy proposals, spending the vast majority of her time fawning over the importance of children. So Hillary likes kids? That explains her marriage to Bill, but she really didn’t give a single reason she should be elected to the Senate to represent a state where she has never lived. If her substance was lacking, her delivery was even worse – now we know where Al has been storing all his old wooden-ness. It was painful to listen to her robotic delivery, and one could actually hear the line breaks as the teleprompter scrolled the text. Was she caught by surprise? Did no one tell her she was speaking? Did someone slip her a new speech at the last minute? She was so obviously distracted, that as Senator Feinstein introduced the First Lady, she began clapping for herself! Tacky.

Contrast this with the speaker immediately following, the Smoothest Liar in the Western Hemisphere™. He made his way to the stage like Ben Brown in men’s clothes, a rock star visibly reacting to the cheering from the convention floor, little statistical snippets flashing on the video screen like Closed Captioning for the reason impaired as he walked. Bill then spent the next thirty minutes taking credit for everything from welfare reform, to the balanced budget, to the success of private industry, to Rudy’s continued presence on Pulau Tiga, to the rotation of the Earth. Surprisingly, he reminded the nation that his 1993 tax hike package (including the gas tax) passed by only one vote in the Senate – Al Gore’s. He took credit for low federal taxes even though taxes take the highest chunk out of our nation’s gross domestic product than ever since World War II. He bragged of wages rising at all levels during his administration, then called for yet another hike in the minimum wage. He lied about Republican tax cut plans, claiming they would spend “every dime” of the expected surplus. He claimed that our current prosperity is due to his 1993 tax hike package, although he admitted that the expansion began more than eight years ago – during the last Bush administration. The only thing he failed to take credit for, the one thing which is his true legacy, is breaking the Democratic lock on the House of Representatives and yielding it to the Republicans. With the acrimony between them since, this failure is hardly a surprise.

All in all, it was a masterful speech, and a perfect demonstration of how Clinton has bamboozled the American public for the last eight years. Once he had finished, California Governor Gray Davis came up to present the President with an Oscar award. After that performance, no one can doubt that he earned it. W

[August 14, 2000]

Who are the anti-Semites? Stuart Buck thinks he knows what the Democrats are really scared ofW

More Cato (and other) quotes over at Ethel today. It amuses me to no end watching him use our performance in the Gulf War as evidence that our readiness was up to par during the Bush administration -

Furthermore, to focus attention on recent slides in readiness is to overlook the fact that this military is conducting the most competently managed and smoothest demobilization, or "drawdown," of the 20th century. In the third year of that drawdown, the American military was still strong enough to crush Iraq in Desert Storm.

- a sharp contrast to his own earlier argument that Desert Storm proved pretty much nothing. (This, of course, after a diatribe on how "the good old days weren't" because the military went to hell in a handbasket during the Reagan years.)

The Fantastic Mr. Bombastic also quotes with slobbering approval a Pentagon claim that there are only six potential threats to our national security at the present time: Syria, Libya, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Cuba. Mr. Baum apparently thinks (and thinks the Pentagon thinks) that China and Russia have dropped all that silly hostility and signed up for NATO. Time for a reality check. So far the only thing Mr. Baum has proved is that the ability to cut-and-paste from think tank papers doesn't seem to invest any significant foreign policy comprehension in the paster. W

Steve asks:

Hey Mike: How does it make the Democrats a 'quota party' when the member-of-a-minority they chose is in fact the best-qualified of the lot?

It does if they picked him not for his qualifications, but his religion. Let me call your attention back to the quote I was disucssing at that time:

One Democratic ally said Gore was driven in part by a need to make a pre-convention splash, which Lieberman's religion provides. [emphasis added]

What would you call that, Steve? W

Tonight, Bill Clinton will hit the stage to take credit for a vast number of things he had nothing to do with. He'll take credit for the acheivements of the Republican Congress, like balancing the budget and welfare reform. He'll take credit for the achievements of private industry, like the current economic exapnsion. He'll take credit for things which he had nothing to do with, like the continued rotation of the Earth. Some will even believe what he says, even though he has given us all so many reasons to doubt his sincerity. Everyone, be careful out there tonight. Don't get sucked in. W

Al Gore's challenge this week: he must put to rest doubts about his leadership ability.

Discerning listeners were haunted by the nagging suspicion that when Al Gore speaks, he's not always constrained by the facts.

And why should he be? After all, this is the man who wrote the Earned Income Tax Credit legislation, years before he was even in Congress. He deserves to brag a little. W

[August 13, 2000]

Just outside Washington, D.C., nestled in the rolling hills and green trees near the National Security Agency campus, lies the National Cryptologic Museum. The guided tour takes about an hour, starting with crypto research by Thomas Jefferson, on to the extensive coding and codebreaking during the Civil War, and most fabulously analyzes the important role of crypto intelligence in World War II. Dineen, who has previously declined to do so, is now reading Cryptonomicon as a direct result. W

[archives]