Remember the Podium

Remember how in 2004 the podium at the RNCC was made to look like a cross? Seeing as McCain has problems with teleprompters and his stature is diminished by the presence of something as innocent as a lectern, I wonder what the designers will come up with this year.

By his own admission, McCain is not a great orator. He is ill-suited to lecterns (which often dwarf his small stature), and he tends to sound as if he is reading his lines, not speaking them.

Maybe they'll come up with something different this year, a windscreen designed to replicate a jet fighter cockpit, a barbecue pit arrangement or something buslike perhaps.

CIC

I agree with Kevin Drum,

There's nothing out of line here.

Monday Monday

In this country we get to start our work week on Monday. Those of us who still have jobs sigh, we can't explain why but somehow it seems appropriate. Given the state of the economy can we be grateful for much beyond that?
Over at Ben Smith’s Blog we scored the quote we’ve been waiting for from no less than General Wesley Clark during his appearance on Face the Nation.

“I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.”

Three quesses who the General was talking about.

From the ‘Somebody’s paying attention’ file Mediabistro has a piece on how Nas is beefing with Fox News. Nice to see the youngsters are paying attention. I couldn’t ask for a more powerful way to get the message out, bravo Nas!

Via NewsJunk and CNN, Terry McAuliffe told Candy Crowley that President Bill Clinton and Senator Barack Obama will be having a tete a tete about Mr. Clinton's role in Mr. Obama's campaign. Why would anyone want to tell Candy Crowley anything?

Oh, and that 20 point lead McCain polled in Arizona in April appears to be gone.

Moron Americans

For all the whinners complaining about the Supreme Court’s ruling last week concerning The Writ for detainees McClatchy has a story from Sunday, America's prison for terrorists often held the wrong men.

The McClatchy investigation found that top Bush administration officials knew within months of opening the Guantanamo detention center that many of the prisoners there weren't "the worst of the worst." From the moment that Guantanamo opened in early 2002, former Secretary of the Army Thomas White said, it was obvious that at least a third of the population didn't belong there.

The Military Commission Act is overturned, the same MCA that John McCain played a large role in getting through Congress. What does that say about McCain? IMO it says he’s not very effective, one and two, his judgment is not to be trusted.

John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, told a crowd of supporters in New Jersey Friday that the Supreme Court’s latest Guantanamo Bay ruling is “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”

Link Habeas corpus is bad for America? No John, it's not.

I've always been fascinated by "Moron America." Digby is too and explores some of the reasons Americans know so little about politics.