Is it just me, or are Obama’s jeans rather dorky?

On my TV today:

Why are photos of politicians often so good? Is it just that they’re photographed so often? For whatever reason, I really like this picture:

AP: “‘I don’t find anything funny about Adolf Hitler,’ said Jonathan Swain, Indiana campaign spokesman for Obama.”

NYTimes: “As the show concluded, Obama made an appearance onstage. He called the event ”a magical evening” and said he wouldn’t ruin it with a long speech. Then he delivered a speech…”

The LA Times railed against the stupidity of undecided voters (as well as discussing their perceived central role in American politics) in a recent opinion piece. As a potentially undecided voter, it’s videos like the ones below that make me want to vote for nobody. The first, from Drudge, is a McCain supporters’ march through Manhattan being heckled by Obama supporters. The second, from Cynical-C, is a line of ignorant McCain supporters waiting to get into a rally in Pennsylvania. Both sides display an extreme lack of decency and have turned politics into demagoguery. It’s sad.

Maybe I’ll vote for Bob Barr.

CNN presents this well conceived objection to Obama’s campaign:

Definition of muslin.

He’s finally found a way to target all my Anti-Christ fearing friends:

Phew! Ok, so it’s not Obama. Glad we cleared that up. My friends will be disappointed, though.

I like that Glen Beck is getting crazy email about this too.

NYTimes has the most misleading headline of this political season: “Cast of 300 Advises Obama on Foreign Policy.”

A fantastic story: A fashion designer who dislikes Obama because he think’s Obama is a Muslim sells a t-shirt that reads “Obama is my slave” to a grad student who thinks it’s a good idea to wear this t-shirt out and about in New York City.  The grad student is, unsurprisingly, assaulted by a group of angry New York denizens, then sues the fashion designer.

I can’t figure out who I like least in this story, the xenophobic fashion designer, the foolishly short-sighted and litigious grad student, or the violent street people?

Rasmussen reports that:

Libertarian voters make up 4% of the nation’s likely voters and they favor Barack Obama over John McCain by a 53% to 38% margin. Three percent (3%) would vote for some other candidate and 5% are not sure.

Only 3% of libertarians said they would vote for a third party candidate?  That’s a pretty sad performance for Bob Barr. Maybe he’s the one who should to be firing his campaign manager. Maybe Ron Paul wants the gig…

The Boston Globe’s Big Picture blog today focuses on the lives of Barack Obama and John McCain. This picture of Obama with his mother caught my attention:

What, you don’t see it? Maybe if I blend them together for you?

Huh. I think they have similar eyes and eyebrows. Still not seeing it? Well, happy Fourth of July regardless.

It just occurred to me that, after the success of Hypnobama ‘08, I should make an election bumper stick for the surprising candidacy of Joss Whedon and Wil Wheaton. I haven’t yet decided who will be at the top of the Wheaton/Whedon ‘08 ticket.

Things More Muslim than Obama is like Things Younger Than McCain, but funnier.

Well known angry curmudgeon Jack Cafferty asks “how to survive the presidential campaign?” This being the first election in recent memory where both candidates stand an arguable chance of not living through their term, I thought this was going to be a surprising discussion of security procedures and healthy eating.

It wasn’t.

It was just a setup for a discussion of how it is possible for those of us watching the campaign on TV to be able to stand it. Is it really so hard to watch and read news coverage of a campaign? And isn’t it perfectly easy to opt out if you’re not interested? Not that what I thought the other topic was a good one, but it certainly would have been more interesting than this.

Will flip-flops once again be prominently featured at the GOP presidential nominating convention?

Obama 2007:

Question I-B:
If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?

Yes… If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.

Obama’s Spokesperson, 2007:

Obama’s spokesman Bill Burton said the senator “is pleased FEC took this important step in preserving the public financing system, which is why he sought the opinion. If Senator Obama is the nominee, he will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.”

Obama 2008:

Sen. Barack Obama told supporters Thursday that he has decided not to accept public financing for his general election campaign.

Hmm…

Obama’s spokesperson being either funny, or surprisingly hypocritical. I think it’s hypocritical, but I’m having a hard time seeing why she’d be so blatant about it:

In a response Thursday, Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan said McCain was raising old allegations rather than talking about the issues.

“It’s telling that John McCain — whose vice presidential search process is headed by a prominent D.C. lobbyist who served as the Reagan administration’s point man on the Iran-Contra scandal — would try to recycle a tired attack on Mr. Holder,” she said.

If Iran-Contra isn’t an old issue, I don’t know what is.

Descriptive, not divisive. Can’t he be both?

Sure, Barack Obama may have bowled like something of a priss, but at least he knew to put his fingers in the ball’s holes:

The results of holding the bowling ball as if it were a shotput are predictable.

Racist is a hard word to spell.

Slate takes a quick jab at Ron Paul:

If you were designing the perfect candidate in a lab, you’d want John McCain’s personal courage, Mike Huckabee’s humor, and Hillary Clinton’s tenacity. The ingredient you’d want from Obama isn’t hope, which is, after all, hype. They all offer hope — even Ron Paul, in a creepy, Ayn Rand kind of way.

BarackObama.com’s contact page allows you to choose between several types of messages you can send.  One option is to “Send[] a Message to Michelle Obama.”   So Michelle… how’s it going?

I’m not the first one to say it, but after recently reading the beginning of the Left Behind series and the entire Christ Clone trilogy, it’s not totally wacky to compare Obama’s rise and public adulation to that of the predicted Anti-Christ’s (at least as described in those books).