Barr Wins LP Nomination

Former Republican Bob Barr won the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination yesterday in Denver. The GOP left Mr. Barr in 2006 by pursuing excessive federal spending and panting over expanded federal power.

It took six ballots and nearly five hours for Rep. Barr to emerge as the victor in the hotly contested race. "I don't take anything for granted in the Libertarian Party convention, because there's no preconceived notion of what could happen, unlike the Democrats and Republicans. It's a genuine process," Barr delegate James Bell told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Citizen Soldier

So often the momentary intrudes upon the momentous. Against the backdrop of dramatic political change, every-day concerns pressured the families of colonial Williamsburg.

The Hoys were one such family. Alexander Hoy was a carpenter who fell into debt. As foolish decisions made his situation more desperate, Mr. Hoy saw opportunity in the army.

But his wife Barbry, the unskilled mother of two daughters, worried about her husband's safety and how she'd keep the family afloat if he enlisted.

Whereas others debated the War for Independence on philosophical grounds, the Hoys argue the very present, practical plusses and minusses of his joining the fight, in the Revolutionary City skit The Citizen Soldier!

Hillary Clinton: The Dreadful Communicator

Hillary Clinton is apologizing for pointing to the assassination of Bobby Kennedy in defending her decision to continue her presidential campaign.

“My husband didn’t wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June,” Sen. Clinton said during an editorial board meeting with the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California.”

After the comment came to light, Sen. Clinton explained that she was merely trying to point out the "historic fact" that primary campaign seasons have lasted into June.

She also said that the Kennedy family has “been much on my mind” lately because of Ted Kennedy's recent diagnosis of a brain tumor.

But this isn't the first time that Sen. Clinton has pointed to Bobby Kennedy and the 1968 California primary in defending her continuing campaign.

“I remember what happened in the California primary in 1968 as Senator Kennedy won that primary,” she said May 7 in West Virginia.

I thought at the time that it was an odd comment. But now I think I better understand why she said it.

Sen. Clinton is, quite simply, a terrible communicator. While the other candidates were putting out fluffy Christmas commercials, Sen. Clinton's ad featured entitlement programs wrapped up as presents. In debate after debate with Barack Obama, she demonstrated a clearly superior grasp of the issues, but she couldn't explain her own (misguided) policies with any kind of inspiring hope for the people they would ostensibly benefit.

And when she looks at the factual history of primary campaigns, she sees that the fight for the 1968 Democrat nomination changed in June, on the night of the California primary. And seeing it, she says it--without any discernible understanding of how such a point comes across.

It must be deeply frustrating for Sen. Clinton to see herself losing to a rookie Senator who makes the Jimmy Carter of 1976 look qualified for the presidency. But it's happenning. And part of why it's happenning is Sen. Clinton's own inability to communicate in a way that inspires people to feel confidence in her and hope in themselves.

How do You Want Me to Vote at the Convention?

The 2008 State Convention of the Republican Party of Virginia is a week away. If you have an opinion on how this delegate should vote in any of the races, this is your chance to voice it. For whom do you think I should vote, in which race(s), and why?

Don't Know Much Geography

FOX News isn't the only reason why Barack Obama lost the Kentucky primary, according to the likely Democrat nominee.

There's also geography. “I’m not very well known in that part of the country,” the inexplicably smug ignoramus explained. “Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known — not only because of her time in the White House with her husband — but also coming from a nearby state of Arkansas.”

It's an interesting theory, in light of the fact that, unlike Arkansas, the rookie Senator's home state of Illinois actually borders Kentucky.

Maybe he thinks that's where those extra 7+ states are sandwiched.

More Bad News for Democrats

On the night when Barack Obama claimed a majority of elected delegates, Hillary Clinton scored more votes across two primaries. She continues to lead in the popular vote, assuming that the Democrat Party does not disenfranchise Michigan and Florida voters. While Sen. Obama won a decisive 58-42% victory in Oregon, Sen. Clinton trounced him in Kentucky by 65-30%. The smug rookie Senator remains deeply unpopular in key blue-collar states like West Virginia and Kentucky, where 32 percent of Democrat voters say that they would vote for John McCain if Sen. Obama were to become their Party's nominee, according to FOX News, which Sen. Obama partially blamed for his poor showing in the Bluegrass State. For him to continue to struggle to win primaries, while he is virtually guaranteed the Party's nomination, reveals deep dissatisfaction among Democrats with their own probable nominee, and heralds trouble in November.

BREAKING: Ted Kennedy Diagnosed with Malignant Brain Tumor

Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital have diagnosed Ted Kennedy with a malignant brain tumor. The survival timeframe for Sen. Kennedy's type of cancer is one to five years.

Obama Searching for Blame in the Cold Kentucky Vote

After pre-emptively blaming voters' bitterness for his loss in last month's Pennsylvania primary, Barack Obama is now pointing fingers at FOX News as one cause of his likely loss in today's Kentucky primary. As Sen. Obama explained to the Lexington Herald-Leader:

[T]here are a lot of voters who get their news from Fox News. Fox has been pumping up rumors about my religious beliefs or my patriotism or what have you since the beginning of the campaign.

"National Treasure" Byrd Disses Clinton

Ouch! Last week, in one of the more surreal moments of her victory speech in West Virginia, Hillary Clinton called her Senate colleague Robert Byrd a "national treasure". "I don't know if any man has loved a state more than Robert C. Byrd loves West Virginia," she said.

Sen. Byrd may love his state, but he doesn't agree with its voters. Yesterday, the superdelegate and former Klansman endorsed Barack Obama. "I believe that Barack Obama is a shining young statesman, who possesses the personal temperament and courage necessary to extricate our country from this costly misadventure in Iraq," Sen. Byrd said. "I had no intention of involving myself in the Democratic campaign for President in the midst of West Virginia's primary election. But the stakes this November could not be higher."

That one's gotta hurt.

Lester Pitches No-Hitter

I kept one eye on the Red Sox game tonight in case Manny Ramirez hit his 499th and 500th home runs. Instead, Jon Lester pitched the 18th no-hitter in Red Sox history. What a great team!

Tennessee GOP: Reason to be Proud

Occasionally, something happens to buttress my waning hopes in the Republican Party.

Last week, the Tennessee Republican Party released a web video showing Michelle Obama declaring during a campaign speech, "[F]or the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country."

By contrast, the GOP's video also shows several Nashvillians talking about why they are proud of America.

Barack Obama responded, as he typically does when confronted with the stench of smug condemnation of American values that wafts from his campaign and its supporters, by whining, pointing fingers, and insinuating that the statements in question are not representative of his views or the speaker's.

"[T]o try to distort or to play snippets of her remarks in ways that are unflattering to her I think is just low-class," Sen. Obama said today on Good Morning America, "especially for people who purport to be promoters of family values, who claim that they are protectors of the values and ideals and the decency of the American people to start attacking my wife in a political campaign I think is detestable."