James Kotecki, that super-witty and super-quick political commenter (I know, but I don't know what other word to use to describe his special brand of political journalism), has a special "Softball" version of his usual online show. In this three minute clip, Kotecki is out-thought, out-maneuvered, and out-hit at every turn by his own guest!
Watch as he gives Emma Thompson a run for her horror money.
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
She's back! I knew Obama wouldn't leave her out. Hillary Clinton is on the short list of Secretary of State candidates. Andrea Mitchell broke the story last night, and everyone else has picked it up today. (Rachel Maddow has a segment on this that you can listen to over in The Media Bar.)
Reuters:
Sen. Hillary Clinton emerged on Thursday as a candidate to be U.S. secretary of state for Barack Obama, months after he defeated her in an intense contest for the Democratic presidential nomination.The New York Times
Putting Clinton, wife of former President Bill Clinton, in the position could help heal whatever lingering divisions remain in the Democratic Party after her bitter battle with Obama.
Will it take a top cabinet post, namely the job of Secretary of State, to finally heal the rift between President-elect Barack Obama and his former opponent Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton?Politico:
The Associated Press, quoting unnamed Democratic officials, reports that Mrs. Clinton is among the candidates Mr. Obama has his eye on to be America’s chief diplomat during his first term. As the A.P. notes, other contenders include Senator Chuck Hagel, Senator John Kerry and New Mexico’s Gov. Bill Richardson.
Several Obama transition advisers are strongly advocating Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) for secretary of state, a move that would create the ultimate “Team of Rivals” Cabinet, according to officials involved in the discussions.I think the "Team of Rivals" goes a long way in helping to predict what Obama will do. Doris Kearns Goodwin is just that good. If selected, Hillary Clinton would be the hightest ranking member of the Cabinet.
President-elect Obama has narrowed the possibilities for secretary of state, and Clinton is among those being strongly considered, the officials said. Some even call her the favorite.
A possible clue to Obama’s willingness to consider Clinton for chief diplomat can be found in a January interview he gave to Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News.” As part of her “Primary Questions” series, she asked him what books besides the Bible he would considers essential if he were elected president.
“Doris Kearns Goodwin's book ‘Team of Rivals,’” Obama replied. “It was a biography of Lincoln. And she talks about Lincoln's capacity to bring opponents of his and people who have run against him in his cabinet. And he was confident enough to be willing to have these dissenting voices and confident enough to listen to the American people and push them outside of their comfort zone. And I think that part of what I want to do as president is push Americans a little bit outside of their comfort zone. It's a remarkable study in leadership.”
. . . Clinton would be most attractive if Obama concludes that he will have to focus his early days in office on the domestic economy, and will have to essentially outsource heavy-duty foreign travel to his secretary of state.
boy culture has an extensive picto-history from last night's NYC Prop 8 protest.
The Village Voice blog has more pics and a breakdown
Boy in Bushwick came out and marched
Joe.My.God. was there as well.
Michelangelo Signorile sums up the evening:
Corey Johnson did a phenomenal job organizing the protest, doing all the legwork and working nonstop for several days. Don't forget that we came up with the idea for this protest -- Corey and lesbian activist Ann Northop and I -- on instant message and on telephone late on Saturday night. We put it up on Facebook and then it just blew up. Ten years ago we'd work in ACT UP for six months to get maybe two thousand people to demonstration. With this one, within five days 10,000 to 15,000 , as most reports seem to concur, were inspired to show up and voice their concerns at the Mormon Church for its having raised 20 million dollars to pass Prop 8. Enormous thanks to ACT UP veterans who saw this thing growing, realized it could be a big success or a big disaster if not properly executed, and jumped in to help with logistics, police negotiations, marshall training and media relations: Brian Zabcik, Jay Blotcher, John Voelker, Drew Beaver and Ron Goldberg.
After expressing our outrage at the Mormon leadership at the temple, we marched down Broadway to Columbus Circle, with those at the front carrying a 70-foot banner created by rainbow flag creator Gilbert Baker. Looking back you could see the crowd going back for blocks.
I was absolutely blown away by the turnout and so excited to see so many new, young faces. I think Prop 8 has galvanized a generation, spawning new activists in a way nothing else has.
Matt Lauer interviews Sarah Palin on The Today Show yesterday. Nothing unexpected, but I think it's notable that she appeared on The Today Show on the same day that John McCain appeared on The Tonight Show. For all that talk of in-fighting on the Republican side, this speaks to at least some coordination between the two camps. McCain on Leno below. (He was a lot funnier than Palin, although I suppose he can afford to be.) Via The Daily Beast.
Nate Silver, the polling superhero of FiveThirtyEight.com, dispels some of the myths about why Prop 8 passed:
Now, it's true that if new voters had voted against Prop 8 at the same rates that they voted for Obama, the measure probably would have failed. But that does not mean that the new voters were harmful on balance -- they were helpful on balance. If California's electorate had been the same as it was in 2004, Prop 8 would have passed by a wider margin . . . At the end of the day, Prop 8's passage was more a generational matter than a racial one. If nobody over the age of 65 had voted, Prop 8 would have failed by a point or two. It appears that the generational splits may be larger within minority communities than among whites, although the data on this is sketchy.This is pretty much in line with what Michelangelo Signorile has been saying. We are, relatively speaking, a young movement, and we need to be patient, and we need to keep fighting.
The good news for supporters of marriage equity is that -- and there's no polite way to put this -- the older voters aren't going to be around for all that much longer, and they'll gradually be cycled out and replaced by younger voters who grew up in a more tolerant era. Everyone knew going in that Prop 8 was going to be a photo finish -- California might be just progressive enough and 2008 might be just soon enough for the voters to affirm marriage equity. Or, it might fall just short, which is what happened. But two or four or six or eight years from now, it will get across the finish line.
And as we keep fighting, especially as the protests continue, is that these are supposed to be peaceful protests. Via Joe.My.God, here is footage of a protest rally in Palm Springs. A Prop 8 proponent, an elderly woman carrying a large cross, is surrounded by a group of gay men who try to interrupt her interview. The cross is ripped from her hands, thrown to the ground, and stomped on.
When I read this Washington Post article, the enormity of what Obama has done, once again, hit me. It's easy to get caught up in what's going on domestically because so much is going on, but here is a snippet of that Obama is facing outside of the U.S.
The day after Obama's victory, a leading Austrian television journalist said on camera that he "wouldn't want the Western world to be directed by a black man." A Polish lawmaker stood up in Parliament and called the election result "the end of the white man's civilization."
One of the milder gaffes came from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. On Thursday, during a visit to Moscow, he praised Obama for being "young, handsome and even suntanned."
. . . Jürgen Gansel, a party leader and an elected lawmaker in the German state of Saxony, blamed Obama's victory on "the American alliance of Jews and Negroes."
. . . In Austria, Obama's win prompted a harsh, on-air reaction from a well-known journalist, Klaus Emmerich. "I think the Americans are still racists and they must be very badly off to so spectacularly -- and that has to be said, no doubt -- send a black man with a black, very good-looking and clever woman to the White House." After saying that he "wouldn't want the Western world to be directed by a black man," he added: "If you say that is a racist comment, you're right. Without a doubt."
[Artur Górski, a legislator from the Law and Justice party said]
"This marks the end of the white man's civilization," he said. "America will soon pay a high price for this quirk of democracy."
Biden's new role: Good cop.
A post-election view of McCain
Terry McAuliffe to run for Virginia governor
Al Franken's odds of winning the Minnesota recount long -- and short
Howard Dean to step down as DNC chair. Who's going to replace him?
Join the Impact - Protest information for upcoming Prop 8 protests
Obama roasts Rahm Emanuel in 2005. Funny stuff. (Via Andrew Sullivan)
Via Pink News, the only openly gay bishop in the Anglican communion, Gene Robinson, has spoken of his joy at the election of Barack Obama as the next President of the United States:
In an interview with PinkNews.co.uk he said that the new President-elect, the first African-American to reach the highest office in the United States, was a symbol of healing.Bishop Robinson has been nominated for Hero of the Year at the Stonewall Awards being held in London.
"I am just so excited as most of America is," he said . . . "I think he is the genuine article - he is who he seems to be."
. . . Bishop Robinson may be at the top of the Episcopalian Church, as American Anglicans are known, but he grew up as a poor child in the racist southern states of America.
"I remember a world of separate drinking fountains and segregated movie theatres," he told PinkNews.co.uk. "Barack's election is healing not just for the African-American community but for the white community as well.
Anglican leaders have sought a compromise with traditionalists over the acceptance of gay priests and the blessings of same-sex relationships, while Bishop Robinson has been a clear and consistent voice for gay people.
Politico launches "Politico 44: A Living Diary of the Obama Presidency"
Former Chief Strategist David Axelrod accepts the position of Senior Adviser in the White House. Joins new Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
Another call to ease up on the race and sexuality Prop 8 rhetoric
Prop 8 opponents concede defeat
Maureen Dowd forgets that gays took a hit Tuesday night
Below, the South Park view of the Obama win.
You know, there is so much talk today about Sarah Palin and what a monster she is. She's stupid! She doesn't know Africa is a continent! She spent even more money on clothes! She's a hillybilly who raided Saks! She talked to reporters wearing nothing but a towel! She's a diva!
The shark attacks are coming from both sides, and every single anchor on TV is taking a piranha bite out of her, too. Enough is enough. These attacks are repulsive. Look, I could not disagree more with Palin's views on pretty much everything, but she has been a trouper. Was she in over her head? Of course. Did she make a lot of mistakes? She sure did. Is she ambitious? As much as any politician is. Is she just plain wrong? Yes. But you know what? She jumped into the deep end of the pool without floaties, and she just about sank. And what does everyone do? Try to push her head back underwater at the moment she is about to take her first breath of air.
She must be exhausted. She must be overwhelmed. Still. And she must be sad. And she is still battling the sexist and classist media? (This Newsweek article is suspect. And everyone knows it. Everyone.) Imagine if the entire world were to call you stupid and backward and evil and monstrous. Every day, all day, for months. And just when you think it's over, the attacks instead double. Palin is not a monster. She is not evil. No one doubts that her intentions come from a place that she believes is good. But she is wrong. On so many things. But being wrong is not the same thing as being evil. Where is our compassion for this person?
Obama just won because he demonstrated that there is a better way to do politics. There is a better way to live and interact with each other. These attacks on Palin are part of the old world, the world before Obama was elected President. And it's our responsibility to make the promise of the world he unveiled a reality.
CNN poll results show that one in four gays voted for McCain, up 20% from 2004.
At first, this might seem surprising. Why would any gay vote Republican? Let alone MORE gays than four years ago? But I think this information tells us a number of things about the LGBT community.
First, both McCain and Obama are against gay marriage, but they do support civil unions. So, from that standpoint they are identical. Second, fewer gays voted for Bush because he is, well, Bush. Third, based on this poll information, gays were about half as likely to vote for McCain as straight people.
As I've said before, being gay cuts across race, gender, and class. With that kind of diversity, it's notable that we vote together as often as we do. This is also, once again, information that can point us to the areas we need to focus on in order to unite our votes even more.
Yesterday was a little rough. The joy of Obama's win battled the loss of our civil rights. How could a nation elect Obama while simultaneously excising our equality? But, I don't want the setbacks to overshadow the successes. President-elect Barack Obama mentioned gays in his acceptance speech. This is not something he did in his speech on race. In fact, in that speech, there was a natural place for us to be mentioned, an organic moment where gays could have been bundled together with other people who have struggled, but this is what he said: " . . . as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past."
Right there, right between "black" and "Latino." Or right between "Asian" and "rich." Or "poor" and "young." Or after "old." There. Somewhere. Say "gay and straight."
But, BUT, this is what he said in his acceptance speech:
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dreams of our founders are alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.One door closes, and another one opens.
It's the answer told by lines that stretch around schools and churches, in numbers this nation has never seen. By people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives. Because they believed that this time must be different. That their voices could be that difference.
It is the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans who send a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states - we are and always will be the United States of America.
Hillary Clinton issues her statement:
Tonight, we are celebrating an historic victory for the American people. This was a long and hard-fought campaign but the result was well worth the wait.
Together, under the leadership of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and a Democratic Congress, we will chart a better course to build a new economy and rebuild our leadership in the world. And I look forward to doing all that I can to support President Obama and Vice President Biden in the difficult work that lies ahead.
For too long, middle-class families in this country have felt invisible, struggling alone as wages stagnate, jobs disappear and the costs of daily life climb upward. In quiet, solitary acts of citizenship, American voters gave voice to their hopes and their values, voted for change and refused to be invisible any longer. [wowOwow]