Polinaut: June 8, 2006 Archive

What if?

Posted at 8:44 AM on June 8, 2006 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Just spent my usual 10 minutes of my life -- which of course I can never get back -- deleting spam out of the comments ( I do this at home). Now I can get back to monitoring the political universe (which is relatively calm this morning, for some reason).

What I wouldn't give to see "public hanging of spammers" suddenly emerge as a major campaign issue. I'd even consider a constitutional amendment to ban it. Politicians would rail about the amount of productivity lost in America every day because of spam, the bandwidth that is sucked dry. News conferences would be held. Bills would be filed and -- OK, here's the daydreaming part -- something would be done.

I wonder if it's one of those issues that affects voters every day that actually would resonate in a campaign. Or would he/she/it get laughed off the stage as a lunatic for talking about something that's actually real to the average person, but is not defined as a "typical" political issue.

I wonder what other issues are out there other than the "cookie cutter" issues that are almost recited by "rote" by candidates and the media?

I also wonder: do people really buy Viagra online? Somebody must buy all this junk. But have you ever met someone who did?

Just wondering.

Comment on this post

The show that never ends

Posted at 1:06 PM on June 8, 2006 by Bob Collins

More reasons to love the comedy that is Planet Politics:

Independent candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn is asking to be listed on the November ballot as Carole Keeton "Grandma" Strayhorn, saying that is how voters know her since her successful campaign for Texas comptroller in 1998, when she ran advertisements calling herself "One Tough Grandma." (Hey, if "Kinky" Friedman can get on the ballot as "Kinky"....) (Source: Austin Statesman)

Campaign O Meter

Posted at 4:09 PM on June 8, 2006 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

So the big story of the day is the killing of Musab al-Zarqawi. the #2 in al Qaeda (Listen to Sen. Norm Coleman's reaction). I haven't watched any TV, or listened to any radio today (I've been working out of my house because I was waiting for a crate of airplane parts), so I don't really know how it's been handled media-wise, but for the sake of argument, let's assume everyone has played it pretty straight. How does this effect the political universe?

If you're one of those who believes that the low poll numbers for Bush spells victory for Democrats in November -- and I think I've made it clear I don't buy that presumption -- then presumably those numbers go up a bit now, don't they? And if so, does that mean the Republicans just retained a few more seats?

The latest poll numbers for Bush aren't good, but then again that poll came out hours before the news that Zarqawi has gone toes up.

As I said, I don't know how the electronic or newspaper media has covered the reaction, but I've kept in touch with some of the blogs.

On the right, Michelle Malkin doesn't really have a lot of her own to say, other than to note that on the left , Daily Kos - OK, she calls them "Kos crazies" -- are "already at it," I guess for a post that says "on't get me wrong Zarqawi is a great catch.  And I hope beyond my cynicism that this symbolic victory will do something on the street in Iraq.  But let's make sure we have a plan for when it turns out, this guy wasn't the be all and end all of our Iraq problems."

Another blog on the right -- Newsbusters -- is criticizing mainstream media (MSM), I guess, for "downplaying" the story. Like I said, I haven't paid enough attention to know whether it's being downplayed, although on most core media Internet sites I've seen, it's at the top. But, whatever.

The National Review blog, Mediablog, is -- as you might expect -- is monitoring media reaction and coverage.

On the left, Peking Duck says <"In any case, I'm glad the f*** is dead. Good riddance. A shame we didn't do it years ago when we had plenty of opportunities."

OK, well, again, whatever. It appears we'll have a series of stand-offs over who is more glad that Zarqawi is dead (Zarqawi family, you're excused from the competition, but enjoy the home version of our game). But very little on the political ramifications of this.

And so far, nothing from the conspiracy people who'll suggest he was actually killed some time ago but the news was kept for an opportune time. But, it's early.

Comment on this post

The Lourey DVD

Posted at 5:51 PM on June 8, 2006 by Bob Collins

A lot of folks, delegates to the state convention I guess, have been mailed the Becky Lourey for governor DVD.

We stripped a couple of things out of it. Here's the video of Lourey's life and here's the campaign song by Pops Wagner. There's a spot in there where it looks like they're trying to do a little JibJab sort of thing. Doesn't work -- nobody can do JibJab except for JibJab -- but it was interesting anyway.

DFL convention feed

Posted at 5:55 PM on June 8, 2006 by Bob Collins

Here's the link to the live podium feed we're providing of the DFL convention. Won't work right now, but hold onto it until Friday morning.