Political Irony

Yesterday, Obama confused conservatives everywhere by announcing that he will not be spending any taxpayer money for his campaign, instead using private donations. Conservatives immediately attacked Obama, not realizing that they are ironically attacking him for doing exactly those things that they claim to love. Next thing you know, conservatives will be telling us that health care should be funded by taxpayers, rather than privately. What’s next? Will the conservatives argue that we should nationalize our oil companies?

Just for your enlightenment, the 23/6 website has taken Obama’s announcement and added helpful closed-captioning:

UPDATE: John Kerry says that Obama’s decision was necessary in order for him to avoid Kerry’s “swiftboat” fate in the 2004 election. “You know, the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth hadn’t appeared in July of my year as a funded group. And they were funded in August, which was the time I was tied to campaign finance reform and didn’t have the money to respond. And it had an obvious, profound impact. So I think in order to control your campaign and your message, it is essential to be able to respond to those and be free to respond to them.”

© Nick Anderson

© Tom Toles

Who says blogging doesn’t do any good?

John McCain has been noisily courting women Hillary Clinton supporters (both directly, and through Carly Fiorina), but this strategy might not work, especially considering how little support he is getting from Republican women.

Take Harriet Stinson, the 82-year-old founder of Republicans for Choice. She has been a staunch Republican for 60 years, but she finally crossed over and registered as a Democrat. “I couldn’t take it anymore.” On women’s issues like birth control and sex education, McCain “couldn’t be worse. … he’s all against big government, and he wants big government … to get involved in the most private decision women can make. And a lot of women have no clue on how he is on this.” “If McCain is so against abortion,” she asks, “why does he oppose all the measures needed to reduce the need for it — making insurance companies cover contraceptives, federal funding for birth control and comprehensive sex education?”

And she isn’t the only Republican woman who is turned off by McCain. We’ve already mentioned Susan Eisenhower, the granddaughter of Republican president Dwight Eisenhower, who announced that she is supporting Obama over McCain. “The war issue is a strong one … as lower-income, middle-American families are taking a disproportionate share of the burden. … It really touches the lives of women who are left behind while their husbands are deployed overseas and families who have lost a loved one.”

There is also Jillian Manus-Salzman, a major Republican activist and big donor, who says “I cannot vote for McCain. I cannot.” She has not yet formally endorsed Obama, but she says “I would have had a hard time selling Republican women on Hillary Clinton. But selling Republican women on Barack Obama is a whole different story. They don’t see him as a partisan. My instinct, as a woman, is that this is a truly special person who respects women, who will listen to our voice and use women to rejuvenate and resurrect this country.”

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/18/MNS211BBRL.DTL

At the recent Republican state convention, at least one vendor was selling this button.

But why limit the attacks to Blacks? Another button for sale said “Press 1 for English. Press 2 for Deportation”.

At least there was one button sold there that said “I will hold my nose when I vote for McCain”.

Of course, my big problem with this button is that it should have been “When” not “If”.

From the Dallas Morning News