Am I being “age-ist”? Maybe. But maybe not. The world is a pretty complicated place right now and I’m thinking that it’s not such a great time to elect our oldest President ever. So sue me.
My kids are younger than John McCain.
As many of you know from reading this blog, I have two year old twins at home (they actually turn two on Sunday!). Words cannot describe the joy of knowing that their first presidential election was one where intelligence won out over the ideology of the lowest common denominator, one where an overwhelming majority of people rose up and said “I don’t give a shit about having a beer with the guy - I want the smartest f*****g person I can find sitting in that chair!”, one where the mainstream media seemed to finally do their job, one where hope won out over fear (of the unknown and of the Rove), one where honesty seems to matter once again, and - most importantly - one where the seemingly impossible was proven possible. It’s truly an awe-inspiring moment that makes me beyond proud of my fellow citizens because, to paraphrase something I read today on jedreport, not only will I be able to tell my kids (and, hopefully, their kids!) what happened today but because they won’t understand why it was so significant.
I’m also proud of - and extremely grateful for - the outpouring of support this little blog (and the accompanying book - now a collector’s item!) has received. I don’t know if either made even a small bit of difference in the election (I’d like to think that at least some of the 600,000-odd unique visitors to the site came with one opinion and left with something new to think about), but I enjoyed just about every minute of it. I sincerely thank all of you who submitted tips, made comments, and emailed words of encouragement.
As far as what’s next, stay tuned… I have an idea for a follow-up that I hope to launch very soon. But, for right now, I’m gonna go wake up my kids and give them each a kiss.
Barack Hussein Obama is younger than John McCain.
I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling this odd sense of calm right now. Maybe it’s because I read on dailykos about how Dana Bash said that “privately McCain advisers admit winning would be nothing short of a miracle”, or maybe it’s because I just saw on fivethirtyeight.com that Nate is giving old man McCain a 1.9% chance to walk away with this thing.
The above notwithstanding - and given that one of the great truths of life is that “no one knows how to lose an election like a Democrat” (the other great truth being “no one knows how to steal an election like a Republican”) - this thing ain’t over yet. So, until the fateful hour when it’s made official finally arrives and the sleazebags in the media (I’m looking at you, CNN) have no choice but to finally let go of the horserace bullshit that has a good part of the country worked up into a lather, let’s all make some calls to GET. OUT. THE. VOTE.
As of approximately 2:55 PM EST, the official John McCain website has been hacked. Clicking on the event details for McCain’s York, PA Road to Victory Rally reveals a banner announcing that McCain has quit the race and now backs presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
(Thanks to Joshua for the tip!)
Madelyn Dunham was not younger than John McCain.
It’s a damn shame, but Ms. Dunham didn’t live to see her grandson become the 44th President of these here United States.
I just finished my segment on Sky TV and - short of the “presenter” (that’s what those wacky Brits call the interviewer) being confused about my YouTube video and thinking that I’m a singer - it went great. I hope to post a clip later on but right now I’m typing on a computer in the hotel where one out of every three keys on the keyboard barely work.
If anyone else can find a clip first, do share - the program (or “programme”) was called “Decision Time Unplugged”.
“Sky News is currently broadcasting live from Miami with a series of daily live shows covering all the issues surrounding the Election, for our viewers all over the world to get a feel for the American response to both candidates.
Transmitting live throughout the day, our US Political Correspondent Andrew Wilson is talking to senartors, party representatives, organisations, voting bloc reps, and local residents about issues such as healthcare, immigration, foreign affairs, the economy etc. It is a fun, informal show from a luxury house on Dilido Island. We are balancing the more serious issues with fun discussions and pieces, such as our ’swing-state fridge-o-meter’, pool of polls, quotes of the day, viral ads and live bands.
We will be interviewing Joe Quint about his book and video ‘72 Things Younger Than John McCain’. We will be playing the clip and chatting to Joe about the popularity of his work, and the message behind the humour.
The show will be available to view on the Sky News Channel live at 3pm.”
Al Sharpton is younger than John McCain.
Sure, he grandstands - and takes liberties with the truth - but I tend to agree with him that the fact that he attracts so much criticism is a sign of his effectiveness as an activist. To put it bluntly, if he didn’t make white people uncomfortable, he probably wouldn’t be doing his job.
Rev. Al really took a lot of heat back in the late 80’s during the whole Tawana Brawley thing. For those who don’t know the story, Ms. Brawley was a teenager who accused six white men (including a few police officers of rape). These accusations were inflamed by Al (et al) and were later found to be untrue… a grand jury concluded that Brawley had not been the victim of anassault and that she herself may have created the appearance of an attack.
According to this article in Wired (by way of the journal “The Lancet”), “there’s a one-in-four chance that Sen. John McCain will die in the next four years”.
