Truth in Advertising - Christmas edition

Sarah designed and created a wonderful Christmas menu for today:

Horseradish crusted beef tenderloin with a mild horseradish cream sauce. The beef was certified grass fed Black Angus from a local farmer.
A Gratin of Yukon Gold & Russett Potatoes with gruyere cheese.
Haricot verts
Oatmeal crusted Apple Pie


I overheard Grace on the phone with someone tonight, who asked what our meal was.
Her answer: "Meat and Potatoes."

More on the Clintons

I'm trying to put my thoughts about the Clinton campaign of late into some sort of coherence.

What I have witnessed the past week and a half is that they have been skating on the thin end of the pond. Allowing the NH Co_Chair to innocently suggest the GOP would wonder if Obama was a drug dealer, followed by her top strategist the next day trying to play nice by saying the word cocaine twice in one minute.

Along comes Bill on Charlie Rose, who damns Obama with faint praise. His "performance" was one for the ages, where I saw the Clinton charm offense become offensive.

Then on Sunday, Bob Kerrey refers to obama's "Muslim father" and "Muslim paternal grandfather" in the same sentence. He claims to be praising Obama, but mentioning Obama repeatedly in the same breath as Islam was an extremely conscious choice of words. Then yesterday, clarifying his sunday remarks, he refers to the "secular madrassa" that Obama attended when he was a little boy, again attempting to insinuate he had attended a muslim school, when in fact it was a public school, nothing of the sort.

I point this out not as sour grapes necessarily, but as an example of what is obviously an extremely orchestrated effort by the campaign to plant these little weeds in the public mind. This is nothing but dirty politics, which brings me to my observation.
As someone who supported the first Clinton administration I was obviously attuned to the whole "right wing conspiracy" that followed the Clintons from Arkansas to DC. So what I see now is the right wing conspiracy turned on its head. All of the tactics they rightly decried they are now using on someone from their own party and it made me upset to see it, especially the former President on Charlie Rose.

My question is will this sort of campaigning leave people with a bad taste in their mouths especially because it is coming from the Clintons, who had cried foul (wolf?) on this sort of thing? Or will they see it simply as hardball? If I was a Hillary supporter would I be offended? I doubt it, as I always had an excuse for Steve Spurrier when he was the Florida Gator. He was MY SOB! But I wonder if voters who were leaning toward but not committed to Hillary will have the same reaction I did. If they do, then this could be an extremely bad development for the campaign. I'm cynical so my guess is that it will, if only to hand Iowa to Edwards, mortally wounding Obama and allowing Hillary to head to New Hampshire and be the comeback kid all over again.

We'll know in a few weeks.

A Taste of the Past

I freely admit to being an Obama supporter.

Watching the "Clinton Machine" in the past week plus, I finally get a sense of why the other side hated them so much.

They are desperate and it is showing. Throwing everything at him by having Hillary using Bill to dish the heavy dirt looks bad to me, but will it look bad to the voters of Iowa? The next 2 + weeks will tell. Bill is playing serious hardball as he fights for his wife's survival. It looks a little creepy. He is fighting her battles.

This is why I don't want a legacy presidency. While I voted for Clinton twice, I want new leadership in this country.

No more Bushes (at least 4 generations)
No more Clintons (at least 3 generations, as I am a Democrat)

Alan Keyes is Talking Nonsense

I am pretty clued in to what is going on in Presidential politics. Certainly more than the average American.

I even watch the Republican debates, like the one happening right now in Iowa.

WHEN DID CRAZY ALAN KEYES GET INTO THE RACE??? He's on the stage right now!

I had no clue. But then again, neither does he.

Barney Dunn

Twice today I saw people I knew and immediately recognized. They both looked at but did not recognize me as I am currently sporting a full beard. This is proving to be a sweet way to avoid unwanted contact with people. I think I'll keep it for a while.

Is it just me or was last week a really busy news week.

I am sitting in one of Brooklyn's ubiquitous free internet cafes, where the clientele consists of out of work liberal arts graduates and nursing mothers groups, and I am thinking about last week's news. Just off the top of my head I remember the following:

1. The NIE report saying Iran halted their Nuclear program in 2003
2. The CIA destroyed at least 2 interrogation videos, prompting a likely Congressional inquiry.
3. The Huckabee rise coupled with several new attacks on him now that he is in the spotlight.
4. More of the drip drip drip of Rudy's mistress problem, culminating in his awful performance on Meet the Press yesterday. I have never seen such nervous laughter as Rudy tried to put his finger in the dike.
5. OPRAH! OPRAH! OPRAH! It totally dominated the weekend news cycle (good news for Rudy)
6. Romney's religious freedom/intolerance speech on Thursday in Texas.
7. Hugo Chavez suffers a defeat in his quest for endless presidency.
8. Vladimir Putin wins a suspicious victory in his quest for endless presidency.
9. Tim Tebow wins the Heisman (my personal favorite!)

It really feels like last week was one of those weeks where things shift in political campaigns. So much happened that it is presently impossible to add up all of the possible ramifications. Got to figure though that it was a bad week for the two New Yorkers running for the top job.

Did you know there was a debate today?

I admit to being a political junkie. How much? I recently listened to Joe Biden talk for a whole hour on the radio at a forum on health care during a long drive down to the city. I assume that should give you a good mental picture.

Today, while in the city, parked in front of a plumbing office (another boring story about the heating woes of my building), I listened to an engaging debate that was only on NPR with the Democratic candidates. The topics were only 3: Immigration, Iran, & China.

There was no discussion about Obama's kindergarten claim about wanting to be President. It was substantive, informative, and it also showed me that pretty much any one of the Democrats will be a good general election candidate. Hillary did flub her final question about what is the one issue you don't have an answer for as she did her best rope a dope and ran out the clock. The moderator noticed it and gave her another chance to try again after the other candidates actually gave it a shot, and she fumbled again.

Mike Gravel again proved that he is not even the Dem version of Ron Paul, but more like the uncle who drinks too much at family gatherings.


Contrast this debate with the LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD and his press conference today. He actually had the stones to claim that he had not been given the information from the NIE on Iran until LAST WEEK. If that is true, he is the most woefully informed leader in the history of this country. If not, then he is a damn liar. I think it is a combination of both. He is a lying moron.