The Truffle

The suspense is killing me. Thus far, Obama leads in electoral votes. He's projected to win New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. In a word, OW for McCain. On CNN, they are reporting from Chicago and Phoenix, AZ. The gathered Democrats are all happy and enthusiastic and they are waving flags left and right. The Republicans in Phoenix are pretty somber. They have a boys' choir performing. Can't they get Charlie Daniels, at the very least. Le Sweetie is very happy that McCain lost Pennsylvania. "He busted his ass there and he got his butt kicked!" Hagan won North Carolina, which means soon-to-be former Senator Liddy Dole will have time to appear in Viagra commercials with Bob. John Sununu lost in New Hampshire; Jean Shaheen is the new senator. Mark Warner won in Virginia. That's 3 Senate seats for Democrats.

McCain probably wishes he'd suspended his godforsaken campaign for good last month. Barry Goldwater's granddaughter has endorsed Obama. She speaks for her siblings and some cousins as well. Ow. OW! Even McCain campaign chairs are saying he's toast. William Weld, ex-governor of Massachusetts, backs Obama. (Yes, I know what the Freepers will say: "Weld's a RINO, anyway. Who needs him?") Another, erm, RINO for Obama is...drum roll please... Julie Nixon Eisenhower . Julie. NIXON. EISENHOWER. Former Republican Senators Charles Mathias and Larry Pressler also back Obama. So does former Minnesota governor Arne Carlson . Wow. A lot of old-school, long-time Republicans there. It sounds like a lot of them are really, really unhappy with their party. For many of them, this could be their first ever vote for a Democrat. Before the Freepers laugh them off, let's let Larry Pressler have the last word: "We have to be a moderate party. We can't be f...

Team McCain seems to be throwing in the towel and sending campaigners to states like...Maine. Reliably Dem-leaning, true-blue Maine. What else can they do to bungle this campaign? How about having Sarah Palin do another in-depth interview? With Keith Olbermann?

Rumor has it that McLame really wanted Joe Lieberman for his VP pick but was prodded into picking the Precious Princess. Lieberman was subsequently put in charge of giving her a crash course in foreign affairs. This seems to have consisted mainly of Lieberman unrolling a map of the world and telling her, "Now, Alaska is here , and Russia is here ! You and Putin are practically next door neighbors! Isn't that great!" But I wonder if Lieberman is, like Yosemite Mitt and Pawlenty, secretly mad at McCain for passing him over. It would explain some of the Precious Princess' gaffes. Joe Lieberman has purposely done a crappy job of prepping her for the national stage to revenge himself on McLame. Thus, instead of being able to explain the Bush doctrine, the Precious Princess gives Charles Gibson a deer-in-headlights look. My boyfriend says I'm giving Lieberman too much credit, and I probably am. But it's still a fun theory, yes?

Republicans in Washington have been unusually lachrymose during the past month. And I don't think it's just the public self-immolation of Sarah Palin. Or even the inevitable election losses in November. No, it's mean, awful Nancy Pelosi who said some horrible things that hurt their feelings. In fact, some House Republicans were so hurt that they voted against the bailout. Oh, boo fucking hoo. If Democrats could suffer through twelve years of GOP fucktards like Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, Tom DeLay, and Dennis Hastert treating them like subhumans worth only of ridicule, then Republicans should be thick-skinned enough to withstand a few "hurtful" comments by one of those wimpy San Francisco liberals they hate so much. From TAPPED : Clearly, Boehner couldn't deliver the votes and he's trying to blame someone else for being ineffectual. But his excuse doesn't make the House GOP look better, it makes them look worse. Boehner is saying that his Party is...

Perhaps one reason we still don't have a woman president is that in America, women politicians are not thought of simply as politicians . Before a woman--any woman--can clear that particular hurdle, she is subject to endless examination of her family, her fashion sense, her personal habits, and her general life choices. Team McCain, in their efforts to protect the Precious Princess, conveniently ignores this fact. They would like the public to accept the Precious Princess as a rootin'-tootin', moose shootin' ball-buster, while whining about the media meanies who just totally have it in for her. ( Cambell Brown , meanwhile, has called them on their general dishonesty. Somehow, I don't remember the Clinton White House insisting on similar kid-glove treatment of La Hill.) Meanwhile, Tzipi Livni has could become Israel's first female prime minister since Golda Meir. And weirdly enough, the Israeli press isn't the least bit interested in Livni's non-...

A CNN poll finds that the GOP is taking most of the blame for this recent Wall Street meltdown. In the new survey, released Monday afternoon, 47 percent of registered voters questioned say Republicans are more responsible for the problems currently facing financial institutions and the stock market, with 24 percent saying Democrats are more responsible. One in five of those polled blame both parties equally, and 8 percent say neither party is to blame. The poll also indicates that more Americans think Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, would do a better job handling an economic crisis than McCain, the Republican presidential nominee. Forty-nine percent of those questioned say Obama would display good judgment in an economic crisis, 6 points higher than the number who said the same about McCain. And Obama has a 10 point lead over McCain on the question of who would better handle the economy overall. P.S. The first presidential debate is this Friday. Supposedly, John McCain is...

McCain was really hoping to culture-war his way into the White House with his pick of Precious Princess Palin (a.k.a. She Who Must Not Be Exposed to the Mean Media). What could be a better strategy than picking a wingnut to make the base all quivery with excitement? Why, picking a female wingnut, of course! It really was comical, how blatant Team McCain was in their strategy: screw issues. We're going to talk about personalities and hockey moms and lipstick. Because...well, the culture war worked before, so why not now? What a difference a week and half can make. Precious Princess Palin's interview with Charles Gibson was a bust, and assorted controversies keep emerging from Alaska. For such a popular, charismatic GOP rising star, she sure has a lot of enemies. The Precious Princess's pick was not about merit, of course (see this list of more qualified GOP women). It was about rallying the 28 percenters. And also about giving wingnuts a chance to pretend that they...

He's still on the ballot. In Montana. On the Constitution Party ballot. Nate Silver has more.

Otherwise, you could end up with a VP candidate who helps bring in money for your Democratic rival . Obama's coffers have been filling since Sarah Palin attacked him repeatedly in St. Paul last night. An Obama aide confirms Drudge's report that Obama has raised about $8 million from more than 130,000 donors and is on pace to raise $10 million by the time McCain reaches the stage tonight. Note to John McCain: why didn't you just hire Ann frackin' Coulter as your running mate if you wanted to energize the liberal base?

Karl Rove lookalike Mike Murphy and longtime GOP kiss-ass commentator Peggy Noonan on Governor Sarah Palin and the election--when they don't realize the mike is still on. Ben Smith points to Noonan's WSJ column in which she really, really tries to put a positive spin on the debacle. After 2008, Noonan and Murphy will probably quit with the cheerleading and try to reposition themselves as mavericks who've been "liberated" from careers as professional GOP stooges. Kinda like Rush Limbaugh after he helped the Democrats gain control of Congress. PS: This is all over the internet now. The Two Stooges are going to have a hard time living it down.

See what you're missing by skipping the convention? From the Twin Cities: Via Crooks and Liars .

After listening to Buchanan's bellowing, I'm convinced that he's the Bill Kristol of MSNBC. And Bill Kristol is the Alan Colmes of The New York Times . So, with that logic, Buchanan is the Alan Colmes of MSNBC. Meanwhile, Eugene Robinson and Rachel Maddow are laughing their asses off.

Enter Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, to the song "Sweet Caroline." Please let her be more inspiring than Nancy Pelosi. She's here to pay tribute to Obama and her Uncle Ted. It's weird that she isn't running for political office. She's calm. Reassuring, when she says, "We are all in this together." Really, the world could use more talk like this. And she draws parallels between her dad and Obama. And she speaks of Ted Kennedy's achievements. Caroline is the Kennedy I like best. Going off-topic, I really like this ad . Caroline goes back to the subject of Obama and says he'll have "no stronger partner" than her Uncle Ted. Okay, the tribute to Uncle Ted with the seaside footage it getting a bit maudlin for me.

You've got at least one Latino voter. ABC News' Bret Hovell Reports: While making an appearance on Monday at the high school alma mater of his wife Cindy, John McCain received the endorsement of Reggaeton star Daddy Yankee. Daddy Yankee, whose real name is Ramon Ayala, is a Latin Grammy winner. He is known mostly for his song "Gasolina," which, according to several translations of the Spanish lyrics and interpretations of the Spanish slang, is not particularly family-friendly, and has absolutely nothing to do with energy independence.... "I'm here endorsing Senator McCain because I believe in his ideals and his proposals to lead this nation, you know?" Daddy Yankee said at Phoenix's Central High School. Via Atrios , the words to Daddy Yankee's big, big hit.

Amidst the pontificating on McCain and Obama's running mates comes this goodie from the AP: [McCain's] top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional choices mentioned include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is an independent. Emphasis mine.

From the Department of Manufactured Outrage and Nonsensical Controversies comes the latest right-wing fit over...an "O" salute. It's the brainchild of an LA ad agency unconnected with the Obama campaign. The agency is hoping it'll catch on. Think what you will of this idea. Dave Neiwert thinks it looks dorky. I have no opinion of it either way. But the rightie blogosphere is making a big deal about it. I guess John McCain really is boring to write about. Or perhaps they just squirm a lot when they think of the guy. Anyway, at least one poster makes me seriously believe that perhaps Godwin's law should be reinstated. As US News and World Report notes, it's not unlike George W. Bush's supporters holding up three fingers to form a "W." Which happened a lot in 2000. I know, I know...IOKIYAR...

Can anyone make sense of this? I can't. Sen. Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic presidential nominee if John Edwards had been caught in his lie about an extramarital affair and forced out of the race last year, insists a top Clinton campaign aide, making a charge that could exacerbate previously existing tensions between the camps of Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama. "I believe we would have won Iowa, and Clinton today would therefore have been the nominee," former Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson told ABCNews.com. Given that Obama kept beating back La Hill even after Edwards withdrew from the race, Wolfson's comment makes about as much sense as David Gregory's speculation that Edwards' philandering would affect the Obama campaign. Dear Senator Clinton: Next time you run for any elected office, hire better people for your campaign staff. Please.

No, not that nasty "c" word that McCain called his wife. Jed Report is helpful enough to provide a screen capture of a page on McCain's Web site, where McCain is referred to as "a political celebrity." Strangely, the page has been removed. I don't think the IOKIYAR defense applies here, folks.

David Gregory on the Edwards kerfuffle: Tonight: the Edwards affair. He admits an extramarital affair dating back to 2006, telling ABC News, wife Elizabeth learned of it that year. He lied repeatedly to cover it up as a presidential candidate. And now, questions about his future abound in the party and whether this creates another shadow over Barack Obama as he gets ready for the conventions. Allow me to introduce you to a new word, Mr. Gregory. The word is "nonissue." Mediamatters , via Atrios .