Funyuns and Mountain Dew

Here's Ann Althouse on Justice Alito unwittingly seizing the media spotlight from the SOTU:

Isn't it fascinating that the lengthy, amplified, magnified speech of the most powerful man in the world with his big captive audience — in the magnificent room and in smaller rooms all over the country — are outweighed by one man's headshake and silent mouthing of 2 or 3 words?

And isn't it ironic that, right when we saw the judge's minimalist expression that overwhelmed the President's torrent of words, Obama was railing about the "powerful interests" that would use their great wealth to speak far too much during election campaigns?

This is just another example of Obama's greatest weakness: his inability to be "presidential." Calling out the hunched and frail Ruth Bader Ginsburg for a public jeering (as it appeared televised) is no way to lift yourself above the partisan fray.

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Watching the State of the Union last night I was expecting President Obama to begin healing his wounded image. What I saw simply confirmed what I've believed about the Obama administration from day one: there is no one behind the wheel of this car. Instead of taking the only rational course - moving to the political center - Obama doubled-down and tied his fortunes (and those of the Democratic Party) to an overly ambitious and already dead reform platform.

Obama could of used this speech to reverse (or at least stall) the negative momentum Democratic hopefuls are facing in the upcoming midterms. Instead of giving those candidates useful talking points and lines of attack, he stuck with the same three-pronged campaign model he ran in 2008. 1) Bush and Republican bashing, 2) the Cult Of Obama, and 3) Empty platitudes about "hope" and "change."

The strategy of running against Bush is crude, intellectually corrupt, and quite possibly effective for one more campaign season. But I wouldn't want to bet the Senate on it. The fact is, Bush will ultimately be judged almost solely on foreign policy, and history is likely to be kind on that front (assuming Iraq stays stable). At some point "Bush" will no longer be a four-letter word.

As for "hope" and "change" - it's all well and good to campaign on "hope" and "change." An alarmingly high percentage of the electorate will buy into such buzzwords, as we've seen. A new take on the classic "Beltway Outsider." A very nice position for a politician to find himself. It has won elections in the past and will win more in the future.

But here's the problem in a nutshell:

a) The electorate has to believe you are the engine of change. At this moment in time Obama hasn't been able to deliver. Health care is dead. Jobs will not recover in time for the midterms. Cap-and-Trade is going nowhere fast. Don't Ask Don't Tell will stall in Pentagon backrooms. Gitmo will stay open. And this string of setbacks come in the midst of the most advantageous political atmosphere in memory. And now, to make matters worse, the Republican Party - which was utterly defeated and in a smoking heap of ashes just months ago - is now energized and on a winning streak.

b) The electorate has to believe you'll be around long enough to see change through. As of right now, how many people believe Obama will win a second term? Hands please? No one? That's what I thought. If the netroots are any barometer of the true Obama base (and it seems pretty likely that it is) there is very little "hope" within the Obama base and the Democratic Party at the moment. It may be a self-fulfilling prophecy that Obama is doomed because his base believes he simply cannot win.

This puts Obama - and his cult of personality - on precarious political ground. He's been here for a year and already his base is jumping ship, tired of losing and convinced that Obama cannot change the momentum.

That is why it is dumbfounding that Obama would not use the State of the Union to move to the political center. I find it plausible that in 2012 the economy will be such that Obama can breeze to reelection (its the economy after all, stupid). But what of 2010? Right now Obama needs a win. In fact, he needs several. If Democrats lose substantial ground in these midterms - which looks increasingly likely - the political landscape beyond becomes mighty dangerous.

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Johnathan Dee of the New York Times has a very interesting glimpse inside the rise and fall of Little Green Footballs. Forgive me for sounding immodest, but it reminds me of my previous foray into the blogosphere. Don't get me wrong - at PG's height it was still only a tenth of the size of LGF's readership today, and so the problems were likely only a tenth of the size of Charles Johnson's. But the constant bickering among commenters, threats of violence, violations of privacy, accusations of censorship, and political posturing were enough to drive me away for three whole years now.

As for LGF, I've been a loyal reader for years now, and while I have generally agreed with Charles' world view, I have rarely agreed with the way he chooses to administer his blog. On my blog I very rarely found it necessary to censor comments or ban trolls outright. And on a blog such as LGF, which by design fosters such rousing debate and often seems to beg for dissent (even from loyal Lizards), using such broad action and inflammatory rhetoric comes off as intellectually bankrupt.

Of course Dee's article also speaks volumes about the ego of Johnson. Let's face it - even the blog in the center of everybody's attention is just a blog. Johnson accomplished some amazing things in his time. Rathergate was probably the blogoshpere's finest moment. But ultimately you're just a guy in front of a keyboard like the rest of us, not a king maker. This is a lesson that Kos and Andrew Sullivan could learn from (as soon as the seething rage and "heartache" caused by the very whisper of Charles Johnson's name passes).

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I'm writing this post on my brand new Blackberry 1310 Curve. Mind you, that fact would be much more impressive if I wasn't sitting 8 feet from a computer, but you gotta start somewhere. Hopefully this will be the kick start I need to get back to blogging. Handheld access to both blogger and news will get the juices flowing. Expect this blog to go to a short comment/moblog type of area.

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Germany: new Chancellor, same rhetoric:

But Bush rejected a suggestion by Merkel that the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, be shut down.

The camp on the U.S. Navy base there is "a necessary part of protecting the American people," Bush said. Merkel said she raised the issue with Bush, and she described it as one of the differences between the United States and Germany.

"There sometimes have been differences of opinion, I mentioned Guantanamo in this respect," Merkel said.

Merkel has expressed criticism of the facility. Germany rebuffed an appeal by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales not to release a terrorist accused of killing a Navy diver in an airplane hijacking in 1985.

And after Bush went the diplomatic route and said nothing of that whole David Hasselhoff thing. Seriously, what the fuck is that about?

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There were many things I could have blogged about during my hiatus. In fact, I started pounding away on the keyboard a number of times, before having one of those "what the fuck am I doing" moments, and backing away. Only one of those posts got far enough along to wind-up in my "drafts" folder - this quick response to All Things Beautiful's blogosphere-wide challenge:

Am I the only one who thinks any list of "the ten worst Americans" has to include Thomas Jefferson?

He did everything within his power (from slander to blatant treason) to destroy any national unity George Washington had built in those early years of the American experiment. And unlike his Republican partner-in-crime during that time, James Madison, Jefferson contributed precious little to the future of his nation other than whatever simple coincidence would deliver to him. Not to mention that his vision of America as a Virginiaesqe plantation society included the kind of institutionalized racism history and many of his contemporaries are known to have abhorred, and his own words ("all men are created equal") rendered hypocritical. We can only be thankful that Jefferson proved as improvident as any politician in American history.

I'm a Hamilton man, myself... in case you couldn't tell.

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That's how much failed columnist Margo Kingston spent on her failed blog, Webdiary, in four months.

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Congrats to the newest member of the US House of Representatives. In a way, Campbell limped across the finish line (which isn't too surprising, considering his candidacy didn't get anybody hot-and-bothered with the exception of Hugh Hewitt), but he did fight off some reasonable competition in the process. I'm sure his handlers are shaking their heads over the percentage point he lost between the primary and general (and of course his showing in the primary was - at least for some - disappointing to begin with). But in the end, it doen't matter one bit - their man now sits in one of the most powerful seats in congress.

Two things that jump out at me: the embarrassing defeat for Gilchrist, finishing well behind an amnesty advocating Democrat, and the extraordinarily poor showing of the Libertarian Party in both the primary and general (Cohen couldn't even pull %1 of the vote in either). You'd think the LP would have a decent following in OC, especially in a race featuring an unimpressive "bona-fide" conservative and a venom-spewing, anti-immigration freakshow.

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Just knocked-out the last of three term papers that were due within a week of each other. Also, I recently started a new job and the holidays happen to be the busy season, so I'm picking up a ton of extra hours. I'd say that over the past two weeks, I've spent 95% of my time either at school, work, the library, or bed.

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