Inasmuch as the 2008 U.S. Presidential campaign resembles a high school student council race in terms of sophistication, it appears that Jon Stewart and Comedy Central are going to have a field day between now and Election Day. Below are a recent segments on the "substance" of Obama’s campaign and McCain’s VP selection:
I wasn’t going to blog anything about John Edwards’ recent public admission to an affair with Rielle Hunter. As has been noted many times previously on this blog, Edwards is a demagogue who represents the worst in American national politics. I would have much preferred that Edwards’ demagoguery be the reason for the demise of his political career rather than a tawdry affair that is hurtful to Edwards’ innocent family members, even if it was "oncologically correct," as Maureen Dowd put it.
But turning to Ms. Hunter, check out this Jonathan Darman/Newsweek article. What a piece of work. Once Hunter decided to pounce, Edwards never had a chance. It almost makes one feel sorry for him. Almost.
By the way, while considering matters political, don’t miss Josh Green’s Atlantic piece on the demise of the Hillary Clinton campaign (previous posts here).
As political satire, the video below probably doesn’t top this one, but it’s close.
The New Yorker’s David Samuels reports on how medical marijuana is changing a popular California industry:
Since 1996, when a referendum known as Proposition 215 was approved by California voters, it has been legal, under California state law, for authorized patients to possess or cultivate the drug. The proposition also allowed a grower to cultivate marijuana for a patient, as long as he had been designated a “primary caregiver” by that patient. Although much of the public discussion centered on the needs of patients with cancer, AIDS, and other diseases that are synonymous with extraordinary suffering, the language of the proposition was intentionally broad, covering any medical condition for which a licensed physician might judge marijuana to be an appropriate remedy—insomnia, say, or attention-deficit disorder. [. . .]
In 2003, the California State Legislature passed Senate Bill 420. The law was intended to clear up some of the confusion caused by Proposition 215, which had failed to specify how patients who could not grow their own pot were expected to obtain the drug, and how much pot could be cultivated for medical purposes. The law permitted any Californian with a doctor’s note to own up to six mature marijuana plants, or to possess up to half a pound of processed weed, which could be obtained from a patients’ collective or coöperative—terms that were not precisely defined in the statute. It also permitted a primary caregiver to be paid “reasonable compensation” for services provided to a qualified patient “to enable that person to use marijuana.” [. . .]
A drug-policy analyst named Jon Gettman recently estimated that in 2006 Californians grew more than twenty million pot plants. He reckoned that between 1981 and 2006 domestic marijuana production increased tenfold, making pot the leading cash crop in America, displacing corn. A 2005 State Department report put the country’s marijuana crop at twenty-two million pounds. The street value of California’s crop alone may be as high as fourteen billion dollars. [. . .]
I recently spent six months, off and on, with ["Captain"] Blue [a pot broker] — at his apartment, in private homes, on farms, in pot grow rooms, and in other places where “medical marijuana” is produced, traded, sold, and consumed in California. During that time, I saw thousands of Tibetan prayer flags. The flags identify their owners with serenity and the conscious path, rather than with the sinister world of urban dope dealers, who flaunt muscles and guns, and charge exorbitant prices for mediocre product. For Blue and tens of thousands of like-minded individuals, Proposition 215 presented an opportunity to participate in a legally sanctioned experiment in altered living. The people I met in the high-end ganja business had an affinity for higher modes of thinking and being, including vegetarianism and eating organic food, practicing yoga, avoiding prescription drugs in favor of holistic healing methods, traveling to Indonesia and Thailand, fasting, and experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs. Many were also financially savvy, working long hours and making six-figure incomes.
Read the entire article. Meanwhile, take a moment to read about one of the many costly reminders of the misguided nature of American drug prohibition policy.
The Heritage Foundation provides this outstanding series of charts (example to the left) reflecting various issues relating to federal revenue and spending.
Recommended reading before listening to any candidate during the upcoming political campaigns.
Stephen Colbert channels Jessica Hagy in analyzing conservative talk-show host Sean Hannity.
Clear Thinkers favorite Stephen Colbert finally meets his match — syndicated columnist George Will:
By the way, check out Will’s latest on Obama and McCain:
On Obama: "Obama’s words mesmerize a nation accustomed to leaders who routinely use words with antic indifference to their accuracy."
On McCain: "If he really opposes torture, he will take pity on the public and master the use of a teleprompter."
The strangely obsolescent presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton is one of the most intriguing stories of this political season. The Financial Times’ Clive Cook provides a spot on foreigner’s perspective:
[Clinton’s] performance last night was stunningly ill-judged, and speaks volumes about her fitness to lead—or lack of it. Under the circumstances, one can understand, maybe, a reluctance to concede. But to declare moral victory; to insist, knowing that she had lost, that she remains the stronger candidate; to start positioning herself to demand the VP slot as of right: all this was not just remarkably ungracious, it was also patently counter-productive from a strictly selfish point of view. Can’t she see that she has made it easier, not harder, for Obama to keep her off the ticket?
One of the CNN analysts debating Hillary’s non-concession speech mentioned emails coming in which said that Tuesday “needed to be her night.” At this one of the others spluttered, “It had to be her night? Obama just won!”… before, in a valuable moment of reckless honesty, referring to “the Clintons’ deranged narcissism”. Yes, I thought (recalling, incidentally, Alistair Campbell’s comment that Gordon Brown was “psychologically flawed”). Read her speech, and compare it with Obama’s. His extravagant (and tactically shrewd) praise of her; a speech addressed not just to the whole Democratic party but to the whole country; calculated, of course, calibrated—with nothing in it that was smug or self-regarding or sectarian. Contrast that with her perfunctory acknowledgement of him, followed by a recitation of her achievements and the obstacles that had been put in her way: Enough about our nominee, this is my night and I want to talk about me.
Something tells me that she is not cut out to be Obama’s deputy. If he puts her on the ticket, I think he will be making a big mistake.
Clinton’s inability to compete with Obama’s charismatic articulation of a vision for the country definitely worked against her in the campaign. But my sense is that the genesis of her downfall was voters’ distrust of her inner Tracy Flick.
