Clinton assails Obama’s GRADE SCHOOL ESSAY!!!

Workout notes 2000 yards of swimming, then some yoga on my own. During my yoga practice, I actually held crane (knees against my triceps; not inner part of my knees squeezing my arms) for a few breaths.

What was remarkable about my swim Our pool has only 4 lanes, so when I see someone walking up to the pool, I move over so as to make a half a lane available. I noticed that this guy was taking a long time to get ready to get in.

Then when he got in the lane next to mine, I noticed that he started his workout with paddles. That is unusual; most swimmers warm up first. Then I noticed tape around his forearms; it turns out that he has a stump on one arm!

Dang; I sometimes whine about having to put on so much gear for winter; here this guy is toughing things out. I wonder what other challenges he faces daily.

This reminded me of Daniel Jensen getting 54 miles in the FANS 12 hour run even though he has a prosthesis on one leg. He was hampered by blisters on his stump.

Humans can be a pain in the neck at times, but at other times, some can be pretty darned inspiring!

Football I wrote a Daily Kos Diary about the BCS games (to break the tension and to have fun). I included a poll.

Just to break the tension: What do you think of the BCS football selections?

The games: Championship: LSU vs. Ohio State.
Rose: Illinois vs. USC.
Sugar: Hawaii vs. Georgia
Orange: Virginia Tech vs. Kansas
Fiesta: West Virginia vs. Oklahoma

More Below the Fold
Intro
You must enter an Intro for your Diary Entry between 300 and 1150 characters long.

Just to break the tension: What do you think of the BCS football selections? The games: Championship: LSU vs. Ohio State. Rose: Illinois vs. USC. Sugar: Hawaii vs. Georgia Orange: Virginia Tech vs. Kansas Fiesta: West Virginia vs. Oklahoma More Below the Fold

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* onanyes’s diary :: ::
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Ok, here are some thoughts: Did Arizona State get the shaft by being left out? What about Missouri? They beat Kansas and Illinois, only lost to one team, and they get left out.

Can Hawaii compete with Georgia? Many of their biggest wins were against non Division I competition. Then again, they did win them all.

Which will be the best game? The biggest flop? Will Ohio State get embarrassed again?

Do we need a play-off?

Do we need to do away with the “no two teams from one conference” rule? How can a team who lost to Michigan and Iowa be a BCS team?
Body

Ok, here are some thoughts: Did Arizona State get the shaft by being left out? What about Missouri? They beat Kansas and Illinois, only lost to one team, and they get left out. Can Hawaii compete with Georgia? Many of their biggest wins were against non Division I competition. Then again, they did win them all. Which will be the best game? The biggest flop? Will Ohio State get embarrassed again? Do we need a play-off? Do we need to do away with the “no two teams from one conference” rule? How can a team who lost to Michigan and Iowa be a BCS team?

Poll

Who got the biggest shaft?
Missouri being left out
38% 49 votes
Arizona State being Left out
3% 4 votes
USC not being in the championship game
3% 5 votes
USC getting stuck playing Illinois
3% 4 votes
Oklahoma not being in the championship game
7% 10 votes
Georgia not being in the championship game
3% 5 votes
Everyone else for the Big Ten getting two BCS berths
7% 10 votes
Hawaii not being in the championship game
11% 14 votes
Notre Dame not getting a bowl.
4% 6 votes
Who friggin cares?
15% 19 votes

| 126 votes

Note: most people caught the Notre Dame joke. For the non-fans: Notre Dame finished 3-9; they were a bad team this year.
Politics

This cartoon made me chuckle; note the Thompson dog:

Obama vs. Clinton
Check out this diary by Geekeque at the Daily Kos

The Clinton campaign, not content with their risible attempt to make Obama’s legal donations to fellow Democrats a campaign issue (Johnny Chung and Norman Hsu were unavailable for comment), has now exposed Barack Obama’s diabolical plan to become President.

A plan hatched when Obama was five years old.

The scandalous details, and the Obama campaign’s response, below the fold.

* Geekesque’s diary :: ::
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The ironically-labeled “Fact Hub” lays out the explosive revelations.

Senator Obama’s comment today is fundamentally at odds with what his teachers, family, classmates and staff have said about his plans to run for president. Senator Obama’s campaign rhetoric is getting in the way of his reality.” —Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer

Well, what are these damning statements?

‘It was clear to me from the day I met him that he was thinking about politics,’ says Harvard Law School classmate Christine Spurell.”

That’s right. He was thinking about politics. Shocking.

[In 1992] “He said, ‘I think I’d like to teach at some point in time, and maybe run for public office,’ recalls Robinson, who assumed Obama meant he’d like to run for city alderman. ‘He said no — at some point he’d like to run for the U.S. Senate. And then he said, ‘Possibly even run for president at some point.’

That’s right. One year out of law school, he said he maybe would run for office. Possibly even President. Obviously, he had this all worked out.

But, the Obama conspiracy did not start in 1992. Noooooooo.

In third grade, Sen. Obama wrote an essay titled ‘I Want To Be a President’

It must have been a memorable essay. I wonder if any of my teachers have my third grade essays. I think it was entitled “I Hate Sitting Boy-Girl-Boy-Girl in Music Class.”

But wait, it gets worse. Thanks to the sleuth reporting by the Clinton campaign, we find out that this third-grade essay was part of an even older plot:

In kindergarten, Sen. Obama wrote an essay titled ‘I Want to Become President’

Obama was writing essays in kindergarten? He’s smarter than I thought. So smart, that he was plotting his run for President at the age of five. This essay, written during the early years of the Lyndon Johnson administration, is clear proof of his decades-old plot to install himself in the White House. [...]

Of course some Clinton reporters just tried to dig the hole a bit deeper:

from Clinton’s press release. The intent of the press release is clear. It was meant to show a pattern over the entire span of Obama’s life, from kindergarten until today. I think it is successful in showing that Obama’s claim that he had never thought of running for president is disingenuous.

12/2/2007
Sen. Obama Rewrites History, Claims He Hasn’t Been Planning White House Run

Today in Iowa, Senator Barack Obama said: “I have not been planning to run for President for however number of years some of the other candidates have been planning for.”

Oh really?

“Senator Obama’s comment today is fundamentally at odds with what his teachers, family, classmates and staff have said about his plans to run for President,” Clinton spokesperson Phil Singer said. “Senator Obama’s campaign rhetoric is getting in the way of his reality.”

Immediately after joining the Senate, Senator Obama started planning run for President. “‘The first order of business for Senator Obama’s team was charting a course for his first two years in the Senate. The game plan was to send Senator Obama into the 2007-2008 election cycle in the strongest form possible’…The final act of the plan was turning up the talk about a potential Presidential bid, which was greatly aided by his positive press and suggestions by pundits that he run for President.” [U.S. News and World Report, 6/19/07 ]

His law school classmates say that Senator Obama has been planning Presidential run for ‘more than a decade.’ [A]ccording to those who know him, he has been talking about the presidency for more than a decade. “It was clear to me from the day I met him that he was thinking about politics,” says Harvard Law School classmate Christine Spurell. [Washington Post, 8/12/07 ]

15 years ago, Senator Obama told his brother-in-law he was planning to run for President. Craig [Robinson] pulled him aside [in 1992] and asked about his plans. “He said, ‘I think I’d like to teach at some point in time, and maybe run for public office,’ recalls Robinson, who assumed Senator Obama meant he’d like to run for city alderman. “He said no — at some point he’d like to run for the U.S. Senate. And then he said, ‘Possibly even run for President at some point.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, but don’t say that to my Aunt Gracie.’ I was protecting him from saying something that might embarrass him.” [Washington Post, 8/12/07 ]

In third grade, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled ‘I Want To Be a President.’ His third grade teacher: Fermina Katarina Sinaga “asked her class to write an essay titled ‘My dream: What I want to be in the future.’ Senator Obama wrote ‘I want to be a President,’ she said.” [The Los Angeles Times, 3/15/07]

In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled ‘I Want to Become President.’ “Iis Darmawan, 63, Senator Obama’s kindergarten teacher, remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked up the local language and had sharp math skills. He wrote an essay titled, ‘I Want To Become President,’ the teacher said.” [AP, 1/25/07 ]

As other people who have left comments said, this Clinton campaign press release looks as if it came from The Onion.

Parting Remarks

Bill night…sigh…but in 30 minutes we see who is going where in college football!

Football

I just watched the Bears blow a 16-7 lead and lose to the Giants 21-16. Same old story; the defense plays well and comes up with big plays, but the offense fails to capitalize on the big turnovers that the defense came up with. Yes, the Bears got some yards but too often had to settle for field goals.

Images from the yahoo NFL gallery.

Update: Illinois in the Rose? You’ve got to be kidding me. Yeah, I know, the SEC and the Big 12 can only send two teams each. But why didn’t the Pac 12 get a second team? You got to feel for Missouri; the beat Kansas and Illinois but get left out.

Politics Of course, the Obama and Clinton campaigns are fighting.

Hillary Clinton supporters are crying “sexism”. Truth (as I see it): sure there is some from Republicans, but saying that Hillary Clinton can’t take “credit” for the Clinton presidency is not being “sexist”. Of course you can’t blame her for the health care flop either.

She has a fine record (save the Iraq vote) as a Senator and fine record on advocacy. She can take credit for that.

Obama supporters are decrying the attacks from the Clinton campaign. That is what happens when he gets the lead!

Update 2: Obama responds to how much fun slinging mud apparently is.

This presidential campaign isn’t about attacking people for fun, it’s about solving people’s problems, like ending this war and creating a universal health care system. Washington insiders might think throwing mud is fun, but the American people are looking for leadership that can unite this country around a common purpose, and that’s what I’ll continue to offer in this campaign.

Class as usual from Obama

And of course, the ubiquitous “cute” photo:

From mistersite.

Note to Republicans: don’t be mislead. Of course, I am supporting Obama, and things kind of get rough during primaries. But this is a contest between brothers and sisters. Make no mistake about it: if Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, I’ll do whatever I can to help her in the general election.

Mike Huckabee
George Will wrote an interesting column. He spends the first part of it discussing the Clintons and John Edwards.
Of interest to me is the second part, which is about Mike Huckabee.

On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee’s candidacy rests on serial non sequiturs: I am a Christian, therefore I am a conservative, therefore whatever I have done or propose to do with “compassionate,” meaning enlarged, government is conservatism. And by the way, anything I denote as a “moral” issue is beyond debate other than by the uncaring forces of greed.[...]

Many Iowans think it would be wise to nominate a candidate who, when the Republicans were asked during a debate to raise their hands if they do not believe in evolution, raised his. But, then, Huckabee believes America can be energy-independent in 10 years, so he has peculiar views about more than paleontology.

Huckabee combines pure moralism with incoherent populism: He wants Washington to impose a nationwide ban on smoking in public, show more solicitude for Americans of modest means and impose more protectionism, thereby raising the cost of living for Americans of modest means.

Although Huckabee is considered affable, two subliminal but clear enough premises of his Iowa attack on Mitt Romney are unpleasant: The almost 6 million American Mormons who consider themselves Christians are mistaken about that. And — 55 million non-Christian Americans should take note — America must have a Christian president.

Another pious populist who was annoyed by Darwin — William Jennings Bryan — argued that William Howard Taft, his opponent in the 1908 presidential election, was unfit to be president because he was a Unitarian, a persuasion sometimes defined as the belief that there is at most one God. The electorate chose to run the risk of entrusting the presidency to someone skeptical about the doctrine of the Trinity.

If Huckabee succeeds in derailing Romney’s campaign by raising a religious test for presidential eligibility, that will be clarifying: In one particular, America was more enlightened a century ago.

And you know, this pains me because I actually WANT to like Mike Huckabee (as a candidate).
Yes, I like him as a public figure and as a human being; caring about people outweighs having superstitions, in my book. But his wooishness would keep me from ever supporting him as a candidate.