Stephen Crowly/NYT
The final person in my dog/candidate comparison.
I don't know exactly who is going to be devoured...perhaps Palin's own family...but this is not going to go well.
Image from the book Fair Tax: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing by Nelson Warick.
Interesting article by Michael Markarian about where the VP candidates stand on animal rights.
John McCain has driven his Straight Talk Express into the ditch more than once over his political career, like when he pandered to the Evangelicals, or when endorsed Bush after Rove's ugly smear campaign against him in 2000. But he is as flinty and solid as General Patton's Bull Terrier named Willie. And I think he's going to win the Republican nomination because people in New Hampshire are flinty too.
I could write a book about why Rudy Giuliani should be run out of politics. Well, I probably couldn't and luckily I don't have to. Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins already did. It's called Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11.
Highlights of our "hero of 9/11's" resume include: not protecting firefighters, trying to change NYC elections, Bernard Kerik, ties to a Saudi family of questionable links to terrorists, tangential ties to North Korea, and being best friends with Roger Ailes of Fox News.
Like the Big Bad Wolf, he is full of hot air. As painful as 9/11 was and still is, we need to move on. Go Barack!
Mitt Romney is still jumping through hoops trying to win votes.
I'm pro-choice.
I'm pro-life.
My father and I marched with Martin Luther King, Jr.
Uhh...no we didn't.
Isn't he exhausted?!
In 1998, Governor Mike Huckabee's 17-year-old son, David, hanged a stray dog at Boy Scout Camp. Then, Governor Huckabee pressured John Bailey, the director of Arkansas's state police, to deny a local prosecutor's request to investigate the matter under state animal-cruelty laws. Seven months later Huckabee fired Bailey who claims Huckabee told him, "I've lost confidence in your ability to do your job. I couldn't get you to help me with my son when I had that problem." (Huckabee denies this.)
Because of this, and because Mike Huckabee generally creeps me out with his floating cross, and his good-ol-boy-don't-Mormons believe-Jesus-was-the-devil's-brother-I'm-not-going-to-run-this negative-ad-press-conference. I won't compare him to a dog. Dogs are not phony or duplicitous. Instead, I urge voters to take a look at Elia Kazan's 1957 masterpiece, A Face In The Crowd.
* Spoiler Alert* In the film, Andy Griffith plays Lonesome Rhodes a mean Arkansas hobo who becomes a media sensation because of his down-home wisdom and connection to the common man. He also has the help of a slick behind the scenes promoters, including the fabulous Patricia Neal as Marcia Jeffries, and sponsors who ride his coattails to a national TV show called, what else, "Cracker Barrel."
Eventually Jeffries becomes so horrified at the power hungry "monster she's created" she turns on his microphone live on the air as he mocks his viewers, calling them morons, idiots, and guinea pigs. His fans are outraged and Rhodes is finished. But the movie ends brilliantly with another Lonesome Rhodes, played by Rip Torn, waiting in the wings. (Source: IMDB)
P.S. After the dog-hanging incident David Huckabee made Eagle Scout.
Here I'll say what everyone else is saying. Fred Thompson looks great on paper...
...but he's not exactly in the hunt.
Jean-Léon Gérôme's Etude de Chien de Terra-Nuova -- a 19th century "headshot' for a gorgeous Newfoundland Dog.
© Cheryl Senter/AP Photo
I think a lot of Rep. Ron Paul's ideas are completely whacked, like ending the income tax, doing away with the Federal Reserve, withdrawing from NATO and the United Nations, and eliminating all federal government agencies.
But, I solidly agree with him when he speaks out against our interventionist foreign policy and calls for the supremacy of the Constitution, the right of habeas corpus for all political detainees, the end of the Patriot Act, and the end of "don’t ask, don't tell" in favor of a policy that investigates disruptive behavior by any person including heterosexuals. Also, he is the only Republican candidate to vote against the resolution to go to war with Iraq.
Above all, I agree that our obscenely massive military spending along with the overextension of our forces throughout the world will be the thing that undoes us as a nation. Throughout history such overextension has been the demise of empires greater than ours, and we are already seeing the seams coming apart as more and more people sink into poverty and the middle class struggles to stay afloat. Oh…and have to you checked the dollar lately?!
Something big is happening when a hard core Democrat like me feels partially aligned with a fringe Republican candidate. But then Ron Paul is not exactly fringe. He is a phenomenon.
© Dennis Van Tine/ABACA
On December 16 he made political history by raising over $6 million dollars in 24 hours, solely through grassroots organizations. Jason George of the Baltimore Sun reports from Iowa describe his headquarters outgrowing office space at an astounding rate. And yesterday came the news that Paul has raised more money than any other Republican in the late three months of 2007 -- $19.5 million to Giuliani's 11.5 million. That puts him in Hillary's orbit.
Like MGM's Droopy the Dog, an unprepossessing Basset Hound whose "incredible strength given his diminutive stature and unassuming looks and personality" is surprising, Ron Paul might actually best his opponents with a powerful and direct hit on caucus day.
Droopy Dog defeats big government.
Source: Wikapedia
Berkeley Breathed: Flawed Dogs: The Year End Leftovers at the Piddleton "Last Chance" Dog Pound
Donna Long: The Best Dog in the World: Vintage Portraits of Children and Their Dogs
Kim Levin: PhoDOGraphy: How to Get Great Pictures of Your Dog
Peter Bowron: Best in Show: The Dog in Art from the Renaissance to Today
Stephen Huneck: The Dog Chapel: Welcome All Creeds, All Breeds. No Dogmas Allowed
Valerie Shaff: If Only You Knew How Much I Smell You: True Portraits of Dogs
William Secord: Dog Painting: A Social History of the Dog in Art
