MUTH’S TRUTHS

* Joe Biden, Obama’s vice presidential running mate, will deliver the keynote address at the Democrat National Convention in Denver tonight. Conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg hopes he’ll take the opportunity to do a little ’splaining. “One can only hope that the perpetual motion machine that is Biden’s mouth will, like a million monkeys banging on typewriters, eventually stumble on a plausible explanation for why Obama picked Biden, of all people.” As if.

* Talk-show host John Batchelor says Hillary’s speech last night “was the moment for Mrs. Clinton to acknowledge that the big picture was not about her or her goals but about a victory for the best man, for the strongest man, for the man who is right for the nation, Barack Obama. Mrs. Clinton said none of this. Instead she recounted a shopping list of reasons why she supported Barack Obama now, and why everyone should support Barack Obama now. The shopping list was obvious, banal, unobjectionable, inarguable.” Hard to argue with that.

* The best speech at the Democrat convention so far was the one delivered by Chelsea Clinton introducing her mother last night. By my estimate it lasted all of five seconds. Talk about short and to the point. Something tells me her dear old dad will surpass that exponentially when he grabs the mic later tonight. In fact, someone backstage might want to get the ol’ tranquilizer dart-gun ready.

* I thought the orange-colored pantsuit Hillary Clinton wore last night was hideously ugly; however, an astute News & Views reader noted that a similarly-colored, prison-issue jumpsuit would be perfectly appropriate for Bill Clinton to wear tonight.

* The headline in my local paper this morning read: “Incomes Up, Uninsured Down.” Tell me again why that needs to “change”?

* “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered a press conference yesterday on her party’s ‘energy’ agenda — notably short on oil and gas exploration,” reports John Fund of Political Diary today. “When the press conference ended, Ms. Pelosi refused to take questions and was spirited away in a gas-guzzling SUV.” Enough hypocrisy to choke a horse.

* Who’s really in the pocket of Big Oil? A study by the Center for Responsive Politics has found that “Obama has received more (money) than McCain from employees of the oil industry’s major companies.” Go figure.

* Democrats appear poised to launch a frontal attack on John McCain’s temper, probably starting tonight. “I’ve served with the man (John McCain) 26 years,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a Nevada television interview this morning.  “Do I have the ability to speak with experience about someone who has abused everyone he’s dealt with?  Someone who does not have the temperament to be president.” Looks like the gloves are coming off and this race is about to get ugly. Wahoo!

* Speaking of Reid, he seems to have come fairly unglued today while relishing the role of frothing attack dog. In an separate interview, the Majority Leader slapped around potential McCain running mate, fellow Mormon and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, saying he might help McCain a percent or two in Nevada, “but around the rest of the country, he’d be a tremendous drag on the ticket. The evangelicals don’t like him. His inability to understand who he is and what he believes in. He was kind of a joke in Massachusetts.” Reid then bit the interviewer on the ankle before chasing a cat down the hallway.

* “The largest single-workplace immigration raid in U.S. history” was conducted in Laurel, Mississippi Monday, “where federal agents rounded up almost 600 plant workers suspected of being in the country illegally.” Coincidentally (not), half the local school district’s Hispanic students didn’t show up for classes yesterday. What’s that say about the cost of educating the children of illegal aliens to American taxpayers?

* “If You Can Read This, Don’t Thank the Teachers Union.” Thanks in large part to union opposition to any measure of parental school choice whatsoever, “SAT scores for the most recent high school graduating class remained at the lowest level in nearly a decade.” Doesn’t say much for the effectiveness of President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” boondoggle either.

Posted on August 27th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National