Why Rudy still loses to Obama in '08

Dick Morris, as if to stay one step ahead of the z-man, says in today's column that Obama's support among the black leadership is not as strong as one might expect and that this in turn will lead to less black voter turnout for him in '08. The Morris analysis seems to be that he's too white but isn't this the same stereotype that Joe Biden recently engaged in? Is he supposed to be more like a rap star and say "a'ight"? At any rate if it's Rudy vs. Obama, as I suspect (as Beth says) that Hillary will beat herself out of the race, blacks will turn out for Obama or, put another way, they will vote against Rudy. I've heard African-Americans talk about Giuliani over the years and their dislike runs deep, he's a definite lightning rod for blacks. Blacks will not vote for him simply because, let's say there's a high-profile case of police brutality or the shooting death of an unarmed black man and the black leadership, feeling justice isn't being done, wants the Dept. of Justice to take over, it won't happen in Rudy's house.

There's also the issue of partial-birth which he supports, this hardly makes him a "moderate" on the abortion issue. He could therefore turn off pro-choice voters who want some restrictions placed on the practice but there is a new breed of conservative out there for whom the social issues are not as important as, say, the war or law and order, people like Sean Hannity. 9/11 does not entitle him to be president of the United States and anyway Americans are not going to elect someone who will prolong the Iraqi quagmire ad infinitum.

Bottom line, all things considered, by my calculus Rudy loses to Obama in '08. Take that Dick!

What exactly is our way of life anyway?

This comes to mind because conservative writer Dinesh D'Souza says that the radical Muslims don't like us for our coarse and pornographic anti-life culture. Leaving aside for the moment how could flying planes into buildings be considered pro-life D'Souza has touched a nerve with other "conservatives" tired of the culture wars, people like Victor Davis Hanson who calls it "one righty writer's terror tantrum." So how does one define our "way of life"? Are our soldiers dying in Iraq to protect legal abortion and hardcore porn? I myself would like to think they're giving up their lives to protect the nobler aspects of the American democratic experiment. Be that as it may why can't we just say Dinesh has the God-given American right to think out loud and leave it at that. Myself? I had a very bad day at work today.

Let's bring back the Charles Dickens workfare program

Remember not too many moons ago there was all this talk that we'd have more leisure time, technology would do our jobs for us? There was even talk of 3 day weekends whereas now the norm is one day off, in Japan nobody has a day off! Are Republicans running the show? Take chefs. Most chefs I talk to work something like 14 hour days on average and never take an official lunch break, 5 minutes maybe tops to wolf something down. In many jobs today, especially in retail, nobody takes 15 minute breaks anymore even though it's in the union handbooks, too much work to do and so people don't bring up the subject, your Republican boss certainly isn't going to. This is like a retrogression to an earlier era. This is a civilized, advanced society?

According to veteran conservative journalist Bob Novak the GOP, aka "The Stupid Party", doesn't want to listen to veteran Republican pollster Frank Luntz who's been telling them how the public at large reacts to their ideas. Take NR editor Rich Lowry and conservative pundit-at-large Thomas Sowell, both bright guys but they now devote more and more inches of column space to defending the extremely wealthy like corporate CEOs and criticize those Democrats who take on greed (you see, even though greed is one of the 7 deadly sins it's really a good thing). Now Lowry and Sowell may have a couple of valid points to make but let's face it, the vast majority of people are nowhere near being rich themselves and will never be and can't relate to it. A Luntz piece of advice might be to talk less about the country club set and more about the middle class and even the poor. So Luntz is now persona non grata within his own party just like a Republican will be persona non grata in the next White House. People who masturbate your mind

If Mom were a supermarket honcho

I am thoroughly convinced that Moms have more wisdom than 10 men with retail business degrees combined. Take today's Game. So I'm walking through the produce department at my local supermarket and all I see at the salad bar are tons of these special platters, things with carrot sticks, celery stalks and broccoli. I ran this by my Mom. She said "men don't eat that stuff."

A group of dietetic men are sitting around the tube and one gets up and knocks the veggie platter over, "man! did you see that play?!?"People who masturbate your mind