money

Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, tells McCain it's time to turn words into deeds:

Yesterday, I heard Sen. McCain say, ‘We are all Georgians now,’” Saakashvili said on CNN’s American Morning. “Well, very nice, you know, very cheering for us to hear that, but OK, it’s time to pass from this. From words to deeds.”

When I heard McCain had said that yesterday, something popped into my mind. McCain keeps accusing Obama of acting like he is "already President". Well this comment from McCain really sounds like he is playing President also.

I also wish CNN would report all the facts in their stories:

McCain’s foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann told reporters on the campaign plane Tuesday that McCain’s remark “obviously meant a lot to Saakashvili personally, but more importantly the message it conveyed to the Georgian people in this really, time of unprecedented national emergency.” Scheunemann said McCain and Saakashvili are friends who have speaking daily throughout the crisis.

Wouldn't it be nice to include little tidbits like; Scheunemann was a lobbyist for Georgia, or Scheunemann was advising McCain while receiving money from Georgia. You would think the "most trusted name in politics" would adhere to the principals of full disclosure of such information - wouldn't ya?

I can understand why. I managed to get my hands on one a couple of weeks ago and I am in love with it. I'm not a big gamer, I just bought the WII for the WII fit, but this thing is addictive.

Was it hard to get? Hell yeah. I went through a nightmare trying to get one on EBay. I finally won an auction for a WII system that was in Illinois. After a week I didn't receive it and contacted the seller. Turns out he said it was coming from China. CHINA, despite him advertising it as coming from Illinois. So after another few days, I finally got my box and it contained five pairs of shoes - no WII. I filed with PayPal and Ebay and had my money back that night, so no big deal.

Finally I got lucky. I resorted to the Google and found them for sale online through Toys R' Us. This was a bigger package that had the WII sports, plus three games, so it cost about $100 more, but that wasn't a problem (the other games are actually fun also). Now I got my WII and play it every day. It gets me off this damn computer and moving around a little more.

My suggestion if you are looking for one is to just Google. Check a couple of times a day, because they will pop up about as quick as they disappear. I would stay away from EBay on the WII, as most people are trying to oversell. I have seen them offering the WII with 5 games and two controllers for $400+ dollars. The five games are the five included in WII sports and the two controllers are actually the one controller and the nunchuck extension. It's the same system as sells for $250 when you find them in stores. Of course if you really want one and money is no object - go ahead and get it.

January?

(h/t Oliver Willis)

I have been involved in some elections over the years, and I want to give John McCain some advice. This will come at no charge. The final two months of an election are the make or break period. I would suggest you save all your money and efforts and put them into November and December. That will give you victory in January.

Her campaign is massive debt:

Barack Obama began the month of April with a 5-1 cash advantage over a debt-saddled Hillary Rodham Clinton, setting the stage for his lopsided spending in the crucial primary state of Pennsylvania.

Financial reports filed Sunday by the Democratic presidential candidates with the Federal Election Commission show Clinton had $10.3 million in debts at the start of the month and only about $9 million cash on hand for the primaries. Obama reported having $42 million for the primary.

(emphasis added)

So how viable will she be against John McCain in the general if she is already this far in the red? Obama has proven his ability to raise record amounts of money. Going against the right wing noise machine, it takes money to be louder. Obama can afford to be the loudest candidate in the general.

Hillary can't even pay the bills:

Hillary Rodham Clinton's cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months - freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles.

A pair of Ohio companies owed more than $25,000 by Clinton for staging events for her campaign are warning others in the tight-knit event production community - and anyone else who will listen - to get their cash upfront when doing business with her. Her campaign, say representatives of the two companies, has stopped returning phone calls and e-mails seeking payment of outstanding invoices. One even got no response from a certified letter.

Maybe that's why her big supporters are threatening to withhold money from Democratic organizations; they think they might have to bail her out. If anything though, it's just another reason she needs to leave the race.

Joe Scarborough and Katrina vanden Heuvel were talking about the Eliot Spitzer mess this morning. Katrina asked why our government, which is struggling to even fund "fighting terrorism", has the money and resources to prostitutes. Scarborough actually agreed with her on that, and they both feel that perhaps there was more to this than people are letting on to. Was Spitzer actually targeted because of some of the high profile names he has brought down in the past?

Something else that has been making me scratch my head. We hear some other right wing tools, like Tucker Carlson, going on about how much they hate Spitzer because of his going after corruption. These are the same tools that shoot a load every time they see Rudy Giuliani, who did the same thing. As matter of fact, Rudy and Eliot are more alike than one might think. They both have been high profile prosecutors, turned political executives. The only difference is Spitzer got caught. Rudy has been able to slip through every crack known to man. I wonder if Rudy was indicted for some of his questionable past, if he would end up getting the same scrutiny? I doubt it.

Of course it is on campaign financing if they both become the nominees. I guess flip flopping on campaign finance is much worse than McCain's recent flip flop on torture.

Steve also points out how McCain's attacks don't even make sense. Obama never made a "pledge" and McCain is brining this up now when Obama has triple the money McCain does for the general election.

While supporting the thought of super delegates swaying the vote to Hillary:

Don't change the rules in the middle of the game - or, more accurately, don't game the rules to change the outcome.

Interesting idea. So why is it that Hillary is doing this exact thing when it comes to Michigan and Florida?

Also Lanny exhibits the precise "inside the beltway" type thinking that people are tired of. He acts like Super Delegates have been some wonderful system that has never met any criticism. Nothing could be further from the truth. People have said for years that it wasn't a fair system and should be revamped or revoked. Why? Because of the problems we are facing now - the same problems people like Lanny Davis thought would never exist.

The other fact is that a lot of Democrats never really knew about Super Delegates. They never received that much press in the past, and your typical Democratic voter thought that the person with the most votes one.

What it boils down to is a repeat of 2000. The super delegates are the DNC's own little electoral college. That cost us the White House in 2000, and people like Lanny complained back then. Now this same style system is great? I would expect that kind of flip flopping from Mitt Romney, or any Republican, but coming from a Democrat? That's insulting.