Gack. Now Obama is ranting about how he's going to make the corporations give us super fuel-efficient cars, find awesome new sources of oil, make renewable energy affordable, and invent a really delicious fat-free ice cream. However did we manage to get through the first 200 years without Barack Obama to beat some progress out of the corporations that have been holding us back?
To be fair, it's not clear if Obama is talking about "nationalization of the means of production," or something even stupider, but if I were an Obama booster I wouldn't be calling attention to the issue. Instead, I'd try to make sure Obama knew
how many states are in America.
Baby steps, baby steps . . . .
IF MCCAIN DID THIS:
Marc Ambinder comments, "But if John McCain did this -- if he mistakenly said he'd visited 57 states -- the media would be all up in his grill, accusing him of a senior moment. Just saying...."
ANOTHER UPDATE:
Tom Elia:
"Personally, I don't think it was a 'tired mistake' as much as this is just how Chicago Democrats are used to counting during elections and election campaigns..."
MORE STILL:
Can he spell potato?
"This is much worse than anything Dan Quayle ever did." But there's no Obama-is-stupid narrative for it to reinforce.
STILL MORE:
Dreaming of empire?
"Grand Strategist (and likely Obama supporter) Thomas P.M. Barnett in his seminal work 'The Pentagon’s New Map' urged America to add several states to the nation, perhaps as many as a dozen. . . . I'm shocked that Obama apparently believes in a hyper-muscular 21st century version of Manifest Destiny. Truly, I didn't see that one coming."
FINALLY: Reader Jeff Cauthen emails: "Somebody should ask him to name all 114 US Senators."
MOWING IN PEACE AND QUIET:
I've had one of these
push-reel mowers
since 2004, and it rocks. For anything up to an acre or so I think it's as good as gas, and if you have a bigger lot you might as well go to a riding mower. The only downside is you can't let the grass get too tall, and it doesn't do well with weeds. Although the muscular effort is higher than a gas mower, you're less tired at the end because it's not as noisy. Plus, it doesn't burn any gas. Not as cool as a
robot
lawn mower, maybe, but a lot cheaper.
NOAH POLLAK:
The Lesson of Lebanon.
"Islamic supremacist groups, despite their claims to the contrary, cannot be integrated into states or democratic political systems."
When Bush v. Gore was decided in December of 2000, everyone thought it was a hugely significant case. But was Bush v. Gore a significant case after all?
When the votes were actually counted, after the fact, they showed that Bush would have won anyway. Nearly eight years later, it is safe to say that the case has not generated a jurisprudential revolution, even though a panel of Ninth Circuit judges tried to stop the California recall election by relying on Bush v. Gore, only to be overturned by an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit. The Supreme Court has not cited the case at all, as far as I know, since Bush v. Gore was decided. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a constitutional law case decided in the past eight years that has been referenced less than Bush v. Gore has been referenced.
THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, members of the press would find themselves taxed and corralled at the whim of Kenneth Starr.
And they were right!
HMM:
In big concession, militia agrees to let Iraqi troops into Sadr City.
"Followers of rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed late Friday to allow Iraqi security forces to enter all of Baghdad's Sadr City and to arrest anyone found with heavy weapons in a surprising capitulation that seemed likely to be hailed as a major victory for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki." It's looking as if Maliki had a better idea of what he was doing than various press-and-pundit types in the United States.
