Weiner Resignation

Now that I'm back up and running I think the first order of business would be to comment on the whole Wiener fiasco. You can view the resignation video here. The first thing that needs to be said is that this whole thing has become a crock of shit. Yes, people have made the argument that he didn't really need to give such a high profile resignation, but in all reality, given the media firestorm surrounding the story, it was the only thing he could do. He would have been called a coward if he had just submitted a written resignation. He's being called narcissistic for the doing this in front of cameras, which is probably a fair assessment of his personality on any given day but honestly it really was the only way to do this.

Secondly, about the heckling. Gaaaaaaay. That's really all anyone can say. The heckler was being a fag. And no I don't mean that in a anti-homosexual way, I mean it in the way Eminem defended his use of the word while doing a duet with Elton John at the Oscars. The hecklers were being idiots, assholes, children, douche-bags, popped-collar-jersey-shore-esque mouth-breathers, really any negative thing you want to call them. I, however, prefer the simple elegance that is calling someone a fag. Like saying "fuck" when making a point. I should disclose that I thought he should resign. Some of you might argue that what he did wasn't a really big deal and actually more of a personal issue between the congressman and his wife. I would agree that the twitter photo and the talking to cute young girls isn't really that big of an issue. But if that's the case, why lie so hard about it? Why take it to the point where you call the cops on a CBS reporter? Why make up a story about hackers? Sure I get that he panicked. But his defenders can't have it both ways. This is either a non-story or a big issue and the fact remains that he lied and continued to lie about it, in the face of overwhelming face-palming by any casual observer. Really you can't tell say with certainty if a picture of a penis is yours or not. Any guy that heard that had to know that was BS. And with that in mind, I know that if I was a constituent of his, it would be impossible for me to trust him going forward.

If he was willing to lie so hard and so desperately over something that is mildly embarrassing at best then what about the more important things that a politician might lie over like getting or using illegal funds. Keep in mind this guy had his eye on being mayor of New York.

So anyway my point is that it was right for him to resign and it was right for him to do it in the public manner that he did, but honestly people cheering and asking if his penis was over seven inches is straight up classless. The guys literally going through the worst moment of his life, was it really necessary to make it worse?

Back for another round

So I've decided to start this blog back up again. The GOP primaries are starting to get into gear and to me that makes politics pretty interesting again. I've always liked the competative aspect of poltics more than anything else. It's like watching a great football game... only this stuff actually matters. Once things settle down into the implimintation of policy it gets a little annoying. I don't have a (huge) problem with people spinning facts and stories while on the campaign trail but once it gets down to the nitty gritty of governance it gets a little frustrating to watch both sides twist facts to suit their own needs. And yes both sides are equally guilty of it. SO with that in mind I'm going to try and jump back into the political blogging game.

Barack Obama Looking at Awesome Things

This made me LOL.

Go ahead, click here...it's worth the view.

Is Obama Arrogant?

First off I need to apologize to you all for not blogging as much these past few days. I've been caught up with work and just generally being lazy at home BUT I do plan on getting back into the swing of things. The elections are only a couple of weeks away after all!

So to get back into it, let me direct you to Jonah Goldberg's piece in the LA Times today about Obama and his "arrogance". I'm putting that in quotes because I think the jury is still out on that. Personally I can see where Goldberg is coming from and he makes several great points. But what is a measure of a president? When faced with adversity? I can agree with Goldberg when he writes that Obama's team is wrong in thinking that a bad recession makes this the toughest time to be president, but with the election coming I think we'll really have an easier time deciding if Obama is truly arrogant.

Up to this point, legislatively, Obama has had it easy. Very rarely in these modern times do presidents get such huge majorities in both chambers of congress and, frankly, passing laws should have been very easy. But if the pundits are correct and the republicans make huge gains in November, Obama will be looking at a huge wall of "No!" to any laws he proposes. If he is willing to moderate himself politically I think we will see a more humble president than we've been getting.

And to me that is a sure sign that he's not as arrogant as Golberg is making him out to be. Any president that is willing to eat crow, admit their defeat, and move on is one that believes more in the office than themselves.

Are the Dems mounting a Comeback?

An article out today on MSNBC posses that question. It cites a few memos by democratic strategist Jennifer Crider and Texas republican Pete Sessions. Crider's memo is very optimistic that recent polls are saying the democrats have halved the republican lead and Pete Session's memo has an outlook of republican's only picking up enough seats to stop the democrats "functional majority".

First off the article is from MSNBC. They're like FOX news only the flip-side, highly partisan, only arguably more so. MSNBC desperately wants the democrats to remain in power and articles like these are meant to get the party faithful, who tend to watch and follow them, a little more jazzed and willing to go to the polls in a few weeks. My attitude is that articles like these are frivolous and nothing more.

Also interestingly enough, the article makes a brief attack at John Beohner, who recently went on the campaign trail to gin up votes and money for various candidates. Yet the author, Charles Babington, refers to it as the "speaker-in-waiting" tour and claims that others have called it that, although this claim is completely unsubstantiated. I call shenanigans. Comments like that are meant to create a narrative that over time can become the perceived "fact". That Beohner is licking his chops and chomping at the bit to get the speaker position. Fortunately I think that this article will go fairly unnoticed since it's pretty much counter to what every other pundit is saying about these elections.

My guess though is that you'll see a lot more aggressive BS writing coming form the democrats and their sympathizers as time presses on and even more so if the republicans do end up taking back control of the house.

Football today...

I won't be posting much until later tonight I'm afraid. The Redskins won today so I'll be celebrating for a bit, but I'm sure I'll have some interesting political news to talk about later. Keep you all posted!

Do You Miss Bush?

Nile Gardiner of the UK Telegraph has a short piece on the recent rise in popularity of former president George W. Bush. I was kind of shocked to be honest. Are people that fed up with Obama that we've become so nostalgic for Bush? Personally, I'm not in the camp that misses him. That's not to say that I don't respect him, which I do, or that I didn't think he was a good president, which I'm still on the fence over, but I think his time was over when he left office. It was time for fresh blood and while the new president doesn't seem to be fairing well at all that doesn't make me pine for the good old days.

The reason I'll always respect Bush goes all the way back to 9/11. As I've mentioned before I went to Rutgers, which is fairly close to NYC and so pretty much everyone at that school had a link to someone who was there. (I won't get into my own personal links here, it's a long story.) I feel that in the days and weeks after the tragedy Bush really did a great job in channeling the raw emotions of the public and helped bring the nation. It obviously wasn't bound to last but his actions at that time really helped a lot of people get through all of it, I know it helped me a lot.

So what do you think? Do you miss Bush at all? Would you rather he still be president over Obama? Or do you think people are being unfair and not giving the current president a chance?