I Am So Totally Gay For America

It's Not You, It's Me

Slate.com's Dahlia Lithwick breaks up with Obama. 

LETTER FROM A YOUNG, HIP, CYNICAL FORMER OBAMAMANIAC
Dear Barack:
I know it's kind of lame to break up with you on Valentine's Day. And on the Internet to boot. But it's also kind of ironic. And that's what I need to tell you. As an ironic, contrarian, so-hip-it-hurts Gen X-er, I just can't love you anymore. I can't like you because … because, well, everyone else does. And suddenly supporting you just seems soooo last week.
…
I don't know when we started to feel weird supporting you, but: My friend Hanna thinks it started with that "Yes We Can" video. I mean, last week I was totally crying watching it. Now just thinking about how choked up I got gives me the creeps. I think I felt something at the time, but even if I did, I'm pretty sure I don't want to feel it anymore. Feeling inspired is soooo early-February.
…
So I've been thinking a lot about our time together, Barack. Supporting you wholeheartedly was the best damn 14 days of my life. I liked you before liking you was cool. But now it is, so it's not. Know what I mean? At least now I can go back to being flip and cynical and edgy again. I bet you wish you could, too.
…
As for me, well, I just can't be comfortable liking you now that liking you is like liking an iPhone. Maybe if you can be more of a jerk or play hard to get or something? Maybe you could uninspire some of your fans? Maybe then I could believe in you again. I'm hopeful. Or at least just hopeful enough to still be cool.

Me, I'm going to roll up my sleeves and start working for the Dennis Kucinich 2012 campaign. Edgy, no? And if things start really truly going south for you, I want you to know that you can count on my future fleeting and conditional support in the months and years ahead. Yes, you can.

14 Years Of Gorgeous

Check out this slideshow of Annie Leibovitz's Vanity Fair covers.

It all began in 1995 with 10 alluring beauties on a three-page foldout cover. With the current issue—fronted by fresh faces Emily Blunt, Amy Adams, Jessica Biel, and Anne Hathaway—Vanity Fair marks the 14th year of its gigantic annual Hollywood Issue, and thus the 14th year of Annie Leibovitz’s spectacular gatefold covers. These classic photographs capture Tinseltown talent and glamour like nothing else. Here’s a look back at all of them. (The left third of each image is what was visible on the cover before unfolding.)

The Latest Tallies

The latest delegate counts from various new outlets. They differ so widely because they each use different variables. Regardless, Obama's up in all of them.

ABC: Obama 1,295, Clinton 1,225
CBS: Obama 1,281, Clinton 1,198
AP: Obama 1,275, Clinton 1,120
CNN: Obama 1,259, Clinton 1,212
MSNBC: Obama 1,116, Clinton 985 

Hat tip: The Page

The GOP's G-O-D

The Grand Ole Docket tracks trial dates, court appearances and sentencing hearings for players in the current array of national political scandals. But not just any crook can make it on the Docket - it's reserved for perps who are unambiguously under investigation (just a news report is not enough). Be sure to check back periodically as the investigations continue.

Courtesy of Talking Points Memo. Click on link to see the list.

Just Because

Charles Takes It To The Hoop

Charles Barkley goes off on "fake Christians."

Hello?

I don't know how the hell Sullivan finds this stuff, but it's just wrong. Which is why I must share it with you.



Hat tip: The Daily Dish

What The Hell Happened?

E.J. Dionne on what happened to the Clinton campaign.

How 'Inevitable' Got Outmaneuvered
Last fall, she was the "inevitable" nominee whose "machine" would raise scads of cash and push her to an early victory. She demonstrated poise and knowledge in debates, and party leaders lined up behind her, fearful of missing her fast-moving train.

But this narrative was flawed from the beginning. Her campaign has suffered from profound organizational failures, small mistakes that took on larger import, and miscalculations that have put her in a position where to survive, she must defeat Barack Obama in both Texas and Ohio next month.

The major flaw in the early story line is that there never was a Clinton machine in the sense of a well-populated organization skilled at turning out votes. Clinton campaigns have always been top-down operations focused on message and media. The Clintons have never lived in a world of precinct captains.

Obama, by contrast, was shaped by his early work as an organizer for the Industrial Areas Foundation and his political life in Chicago, a place where people still talk about ward committeemen and harbor memories of something that was called "The Organization."

He's right that she's been outmaneuvered and has run a terrible campaign, of course, but I caution that it's still too early to count Clinton out. She knows how to fight hard. This won't be over until it's over, which means a concession speech from one of the two candidates. Obama's got the wind at his back, but he hasn't crossed the finish line yet.

Some New Union Endorsements

Two new union endorsements: UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers) and SEIU (Service Employees Int'l Union)

Plus commentary and joke from Matt Yglesias:

Barack Obama wins the endorsement of the United Food and Commercial Workers. They're one of the youngest unions around in terms of membership, and have a substantial presence in Ohio. There's an interesting subtext in this race whereby Change to Win unions have tended to be sympathetic to Obama, while Clinton's key pillar of support has been the public sector unions. This hasn't really spilled over into any incredibly concrete policy controversy on the campaign trail, but probably has some implications as to how they would govern in that you naturally take the concerns of the unions who supported you a bit more seriously than those of the unions who tried to beat you.

UPDATE: I had initially intended to make a joke about "impressionable elites" showing up at the most unlikely places, working in supermarkets and slaughterhouses and such but I'd forgotten that unions with four-letter acronyms don't count. AFT! NEA! AFSCME! Those are unions. HERE, UFCW, SEIU and so forth don't make the cut.

The Superdelegate Strategy

Great post by Markos on the Clinton campaign's latest strategy—threatening to use the superdelegates to win if they don't win outright in pledged delegates.

And like John Lewis and others have shown in the past few days, many establishment super delegates will be more than happy to switch their votes to the candidate with the most popular support…[so] I'm truly not worried about the super delegates.…

What's most interesting to me about this whole affair, however, is that the Clintonistas would even suggest the use of super delegates to subvert the will of the Democratic Party electorate. It betrays a lack of confidence in their candidate's electoral viability, even with a calendar that will become far more favorable to her in March, while seemingly confirming every right-wing charge that the Clintons place winning above all else, including principle.

That they would even suggest a tactic that would sunder the Democratic Party, kicking off a vicious and destructive civil war, tells me that like Bill in the 90s, when our majorities in Congress and all around the country were decimated and the party's base left to wither and die, Hillary will put her own interests above those of their party. And to me, there's no greater sin in Democratic politics than that.

So the Clinton campaign has graduated from saying that certain states don't matter, to saying certain voters don't matter, to now saying that the Democratic Party electorate doesn't matter.

To be clear, it's not that I'm surprised. It's just that I thought they'd be more subtle about it.

Ad Art

Though the idea of mixing commerce and art is distasteful for many creative types, its also a reality many of us have to contend with to make a living. And while it's true that so much commercial art—whether TV, print or web ads—is really crap, there's an increasing amount of it that's truly innovative and gorgeous. These Sony Bravia ads, for example, are some of the most beautiful, creative, sweet spots I've ever seen.

Many of you have seen the first two. The third is relatively new. I'd love to know what agency is responsible for these and kiss their feet. (I should mention that none of these use CGI—those balls, paint, and bunnies are all real.)

Bouncy Balls:


Paint Symphony:


Happy Bunnies:


Apologies for the poor quality. These were the best I could find to embed. Higher quality versions can be found at Sony's Bravia site.

Blogtionary

I've been meaning to write this post for some time now and just haven't gotten around to it. My enthusiasm for election year politics has derailed most other interests. But I've been inspired by Slate's Barackopedia, and besides, I can't have a blog that's All Obama All The Time. Even I'm not that much of a fanboi. 

Anyway, since the advent of the word blog into the vernacular, there has been at least one spinoff neologism, vlog (meaning video blog). Now surely, with 6 billion-plus people in the world there must be some others out there, but I've not come across any. 

So I've taken upon myself to create a few more and document them here so I can take full credit should they ever enter the mainstream. Here they are for your reading pleasure.

phlog: Photo blog. A blog that features photos only with little to no commentary (see Stuck in Customs)

frog: A friend's blog. A blog that is read primarily by one's circle of friends (see Insatiable Itch) 

pollog or plog: A political blog. A blog that focuses primarily on politics (see Washington Monthly's Political Animal)

Feel free to send me your entries via the comments thread. I'll give full credit for any that I use (you know, so the four people who actually read this can know it was yours).

Diaper Rock

Super cute.

Hat tip: The Daily Dish

A Little Reality Check

Slate's Jack Shafer examines and analyzes Obama's lofty rhetoric.

How Obama Does That Thing He Does
A PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC CRACKS THE CANDIDATE'S CODE.
Barack Obama bringeth rapture to his audience. They swoon and wobble, regardless of race, gender, or political affiliation, although few understand exactly why he has this effect on them.…

Obama relies, Frank writes, on a "rhetorical strategy of consilience, where understanding results through translation, mediation, and an embrace of different languages, values, and traditions." He credits the New Republic's Noam Scheiber with translating Obama's cross-cultural signals in a 2004 campaign profile that documents the candidate's leap from the Illinois senate to the U.S. Senate. Scheiber observes:

Whereas many working-class voters are wary of African American candidates, whom they think will promote black interests at the expense of their own, they simply don't see Obama in these terms. This allows him to appeal to white voters on traditional Democratic issues like jobs, health care, and education—just like a white candidate would.…

He also knows how to comfort voters with a national narrative of his own invention. As Frank writes, the Song of Obama usually begins with references to Thomas Jefferson, a self-contradicting political thinker whose stock—for good reason—has not always been high in African-American circles. Next, he ropes in Abraham Lincoln, whom he describes as less than a perfect emancipator in this 2005 speech. And yet Obama, a tall, gangly, lawyer whose political career was made in Springfield, Ill., slyly compared himself to Lincoln when he declared for the presidency. Lincoln, Obama said, was "a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer" who "tells us that there is power in words" and "tells us there is power in conviction."

Obama's national narrative notes both Roosevelts before calling on Martin Luther King Jr. and, as everybody knows, Ronald Reagan. The implication, of course, is that the Obama candidacy stands as the fulfillment of the American ideal, and by casting their ballot for him, voters can participate in that transcendent moment. It's a dizzying notion. No wonder George Packer's mind went vacant after he heard Obama speak.

This Is Our Moment

Okay, here's that Obama speech I was talking about in an earlier post. Watch the whole thing for full effect, but the segment from about 21 min. to 23:30 was particularly inspiring. This guy's in a league of his own.

Obamamatopoeia—The English Language Obamafied

Brought to you by the crazy word geeks over at Slate: The Encyclopedia Baracktannica

They're taking reader entries for possible future updates as well, so head on over there and send then yours if you've got one. I've already sent my favs: Obamalicious and Obamarific

Michelle On Larry

No, you don't need to send your kids out of the room. It's an interview of Michelle Obama on Larry King Live. Truly a high-caliber woman.

XX Factor Disses Rant, Too

Glad I'm not the only one who noticed Erica Jong's embarrassing rant yesterday. This is from Hanna Rosin at The XX Factor on Slate.com.

The Goddesses Must Be Crazy
Yesterday, Erica Jong argues the current feminist equivalent of the Jews control the media. "Unfortunately the Hillary-Haters are in charge," she writes in Huffington Post. "They monopolize the networks, the newspapers, the talk shows—both radio and TV. They are crossing their legs for fear of castration."

Crossing their legs for fear of castration? I mean, come on. Who talks like that anymore? Jong's earlier piece in the Washington Post was a relatively sane defense of women of her generation, who had to fight twice as hard to get half as much. In this new post, she's gone off the deep end. God, I don't even know where to start.

First, it's the usual—they make fun of Hillary's thick ankles and wrinkles. They say she pimps her daughter. They say she slept with Vince Foster and then something about bees and royal jelly, which was over my head. Then there's some subtle racism about Michelle Obama (a blind spot which seems to afflict women of a certain feminist generation). Then: "They believe HRC boils eye of newt with unborn baby's hair and little Jewish children not yet circumcised."…

Unfortunately, Jong is not alone. Ever since Hillary lost Iowa, the icons of pop-feminism have been going crazy—Robin Morgan, Gloria Steinem, Erica Jong. Either they can't stand to watch Hillary lose, or their publishers are urging them into a crazy war, a la East Coast and West Coast rappers.

Holy Shit!

Representative John Lewis (D-Ga.), previously one of Hillary's most prominent African-American supporters—and one who'd publicly planned to cast his superdelegate vote for her— has now thrown his weight behind Obama! 

Though short of a formal endorsement (which may soon follow), this is great news as it signals that Obama's momentum is not slowing down and that superdelegates will move early to avoid a potentially disastrous convention fight. 

From The New York Times:

Black Leader, a Clinton Ally, Tilts to Obama
“In recent days, there is a sense of movement and a sense of spirit,” said Mr. Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who endorsed Mrs. Clinton last fall. “Something is happening in America, and people are prepared and ready to make that great leap.”

Mr. Lewis, who carries great influence among other members of Congress, disclosed his decision in an interview in which he said that as a superdelegate he could “never, ever do anything to reverse the action” of the voters of his district, who overwhelmingly supported Mr. Obama.

Earlier in his life, Lewis was a civil rights activist and is known partly for having marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. He's been a consistent progressive voice since being elected to office in the 1980s. 

Hat tip: The Field