Hell Hath No Fury

...like former presidents scorned. But that fury can be placed impeccably or very badly.

Take Jimmy Carter. His latest attack was on McCain, saying he is "milking" his POW experience, most notably at Rick Warren's Saddleback Debate. Just for the record, that was the first time McCain had gone into that much detail about it during this campaign...or ever, really, according to many pundits. So, "milking" must take place at the very first "udderance"? (oh, huge GROAN, but I couldn't help it). ROFL

Take Bill Clinton. The day of Hillary's speech at the DNC this week, while speaking at a conference of one of his foundations, he "riffed" (as ABC's Jake Tapper described it): "For example, you're a voter, and you have Candidate X and Candidate Y. Candidate X agrees with you on everything. But you don't think that person can deliver on anything. Candidate Y disagrees with you on half the issues, but you believe that, on the other half, the candidate will be able to deliver. For whom will you vote?"

Ohhhhhh, Bull's Eye. Now, THAT's a well-placed cutdown. I should note that McCain's campaign soon issued a statement stating they felt McCain was surely Candidate Y in that example. Hehe. Obama's camp couldn't say anything because the timing for the insult was brilliant -- neither Clinton had spoken yet at the convention, and there was already scuttlebutt about Bill being pissed at being told to speak on national security when he wanted to speak on economic matters, the hallmark of his presidency.

Bottom line: I can't deny it...Bill's "example" pretty much describes my take on the two candidates, so I can only assume that it connected with at least a few million other voters. Well-placed, Mr. President. Yup, back during the primary when Michelle Obama was stumping in South Carolina and kept insinuating in her speeches that Hillary couldn't handle the White House because look how she handled her own house (wink wink). This is what the insiders on the HRC campaign say egged Bill on to give his infamous comment that Jesse Jackson won SC too and then was labelled a racist for it, and curiously, Michelle never mentioned that publicly again.

Shouldn't have gone there, Michelle, tsk, tsk. Paybacks will just keep coming, I promise. Hell hath no fury like a former president scorned. Gotta love it, ya know? (Oh, and the other thing I hear from the old campaign gang is that Bill really truly only meant that sure, Obama can win SC by a landslide, but SC is a red state in the general due to a humongo amount of whites who are Republican, so an Obama primary victory means squat in the end. That's not racist, that's statistics, but the politics of smearing took over.)

McCain's VP Pick Today ...

Well, onto a different topic. I'm gonna say right off that my first druthers on this was Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindahl. I love this guy! He's earnest, level-headed, young yet experienced, and he can talk a mile a minute and not let anyone else get a word in (good for debating and tv sound bites). However, he has said he's taken himself out of the running, so we are left with Romney and assorted others on the short list.

Given that, my strategic choice was Romney and my reason is a bit stereotypical, but hey, it's allowed in politics. I know from lurking on the 2peas boards and then blog-hopping that a huge amount of Mormons have moved to the Southwest states surrounding Utah...they are branching out to Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, states up for grabs right now. And Romney's a Mormon. Now, I'm not saying that Mormons would do what blacks have done with Obama and older white women with Hillary (aka blind allegiance), but WHY WOULDN'T THEY (and more power to them). In a word, Romney brings his people with him. This could be strategically brilliant, because this year, the religion vote is not automatically in the GOP tank.

But Fox just reported, it's not Romney. SO, the suspense heightens!

The outside choice was, for a while, Minnesota's Pawlenty, whom I am sure is a very fine man but there is just something about him, I'm sorry. Just my shallow impression. I've watched him speak several times, and he has seemed either angry or boring (although, not at the same time, LOL), and is kind of slow...a thinker perhaps, but not an asset in a Biden debate. Plus, it is doubtful he could deliver MN to McCain.

Pawlenty took himself out this morning, though, and I breathed a sigh of relief. We need a snazzier pick.

Then there is Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (pronounced with a long A). Hmm, will McCain bet the farm on the women vote?



And, does picking her deliver it? I don't know her at all, but she's pretty sexy looking, especially when you discover she just gave birth to kid #5. Dang, she can fry it up in a pan, fo sho. If I were an embittered Hillary Dem and on the fence, would this make me jump off on the Red side? I honestly cannot answer, but I know one thing: it's not gonna turn me off and there would be points for McCain that at least HE chose a female running mate...

We will find out later today, so I'll just leave it there. But here is my little observation: if McCain goes with Palin (McCain/ Palin...sounds good), that means the numbers are clearly showing that we Hill-Raisers are crucial, and Obama blew it with us, and it might just mean the election. Man, I would just love that if it turned out to be true. We shall see...