More of the Same McCain: campaign covers up his misspeaking

Workout notes: easy 4 mile walk; coughed most of the way; I was somewhat weak but not overstressed. The cold is starting to go away. Maybe I can return to full tilt training this weekend.

Speaking for walking: kudos to Ray Sharp for walking a 4:42 50K at the World Cup racewalking event in Russia.

Note that the World Record was set by Russian Denis NIZHEGORODOV with a time of 3:34:14. In other words, he WALKED 31 miles at a 6:54 mpm pace! Or put another way, his marathon split was 3:01. Or put another way, he WALKED 10 21:25 5K races, back to back, sans rest. Incredible.

More here.

Cheboksary, Russia – The new World record-holder** didn’t look as if he had worked that hard to not only retain the World Walking Cup 50km title at the 23rd IAAF World Race Walking Cup – but rewrite the record books.

Maybe, it never looks that way when you’re in the shape Denis Nizhegorodov is clearly in.

His super-human effort still allowed him to smile, and pose for the cameras seconds after he crossed the finish line and chat effortlessly to waiting reporters as if he was awaiting a train.

The Russian express already had the unofficial best time for the distance when he walked the same Cheboksary course in 2004. This time the 27-year-old made sure there would be no doubt who the best in the world was with a devastating turn of pace to nullify the late threat of Vladimir Kanaykin, and the existing World record of Nathan Deakes of Australia (3:35:47).

Ok, I’ll state my UNJUDGED PR: 6:20. At my attempts at a judged 50K, I took a DNF (and then walked the 20K that started later) and the next year I got DQ’ed for bent knees at 37 km.

Politics

Thinking of voting for John “more of the same” McCain?

From MWTerriD at the Daily Kos:

A few minutes after I tuned in, they started showing McCain’s speech at Wake Forest University last week, which I figured was suitably boring, and had the advantage of being too annoying for me to watch or listen to very intently; after several months of Obama’s speeches, I can barely tolerate McCain speaking.

But since it was on a subject that I’m familiar with and somewhat interested in, I kept one ear tuned in. One ear was just barely enough; if I’d been paying any less attention, I might have missed John’s Big Boo-Boo — and it really is a big one. Follow below the fold for the latest reason this man should not be elected president.

* NWTerriD’s diary :: ::
*

I smirked but didn’t get too excited when he said he was glad to be at “West Virginia,” rather than Wake Forest, when he pronounced the word “relevance” as though it was spelled “revelance,” when he talked about the people in “Warshington,” or even when he laid this little gem on the Wake Forest students:

I’m the living proof that an undistinguished academic record can be overcome in life — or at least that’s the hope that has long, long sustained me.

But then he started getting into the substance of his speech — basically that judges have become too activist. A few minutes into his discussion of this topic, this is what I thought I heard:

The year 2005 also brought the case of Susette Kelo before the Supreme Court. Here was a woman whose home was taken from her because the local government and a few big corporations had designs of their own on the land, and she was getting in the way. There is hardly a clearer principle in all the Constitution than the right of private property. There is a very clear standard in the Constitution requiring not only just compensation in the use of eminent domain, but also that private property may NOT be taken for “public use.” But apparently that standard has been “evolving” too.

Ok, he misspoke. That happens. But here is the kicker:

A few minutes after I tuned in, they started showing McCain’s speech at Wake Forest University last week, which I figured was suitably boring, and had the advantage of being too annoying for me to watch or listen to very intently; after several months of Obama’s speeches, I can barely tolerate McCain speaking.

But since it was on a subject that I’m familiar with and somewhat interested in, I kept one ear tuned in. One ear was just barely enough; if I’d been paying any less attention, I might have missed John’s Big Boo-Boo — and it really is a big one. Follow below the fold for the latest reason this man should not be elected president.

* NWTerriD’s diary :: ::
*

I smirked but didn’t get too excited when he said he was glad to be at “West Virginia,” rather than Wake Forest, when he pronounced the word “relevance” as though it was spelled “revelance,” when he talked about the people in “Warshington,” or even when he laid this little gem on the Wake Forest students:

I’m the living proof that an undistinguished academic record can be overcome in life — or at least that’s the hope that has long, long sustained me.

But then he started getting into the substance of his speech — basically that judges have become too activist. A few minutes into his discussion of this topic, this is what I thought I heard:

The year 2005 also brought the case of Susette Kelo before the Supreme Court. Here was a woman whose home was taken from her because the local government and a few big corporations had designs of their own on the land, and she was getting in the way. There is hardly a clearer principle in all the Constitution than the right of private property. There is a very clear standard in the Constitution requiring not only just compensation in the use of eminent domain, but also that private property may NOT be taken for “public use.” But apparently that standard has been “evolving” too. [...]

Tapping foot . . . . OK, how about C-Span? Yep, there it is on C-Span.org.. What? I need a newer version of RealPlayer. Sigh. OK. I’m a concerned American citizen; I will put off grading my papers even longer to get to the bottom of this. Downloaded the new version, FINALLY got to watch a real video of what I had seen on my teevee (he starts talking about the Kelo case at 11:53). Sure enough, there is McCain, using very emphatic, manly hand motions as he practically shouts,

There is a very clear standard in the Constitution requiring not only just compensation in the use of eminent domain, but also that private property may NOT be taken for “public use.”

Vindication. But surely, I thought, others also noticed this? A little googling turned up this article in Washington Wire, which mentioned but didn’t seem to think it was a big deal.

So great, they are covering for him and cleaning up after him. THIS is “straight talk”?

By the way, check out this McCain surrogate being interviewed on ABC News by George Stephanopoulos. Have you ever seen someone backtracking so quickly from a sitting President of the same party?

Of course there are other surrogates who claim that McCain indeed represents a Bush 3′rd term:

Mitt Romney, the robot who ran for President powered only by silver medals and fraud, has been auditioning to be a great leaden weight around McCain’s neck – or, as Romney puts it, “vice-president.” So he took up McCain’s cause today on Wolf Blitzer’s Late Edition emphatically denying that McCain was going to be a continuation of the Bush doctrine: “Well I think you’re going to hear that time and again, Wolf, throughout the campaign season. And I just don’t think it’s going to stick.”

Of course, by “time and again,” Romney might have been referring to “just moments ago.” Roy Blunt, another McCain surrogate, when asked by Blitzer if the McCain candidacy represented a “third Bush term,” answered in the affirmative: “It would be. I think it would be. And I think that’s a good thing.”

I am so looking forward to this fall!

Yet another reason to vote for Obama: to bring on the “end times”. No, I am not kidding. Hat tip to RKA at the Daily Kos. From Robert Novak (yes, that Robert Novak)

An element of the Christian community is not reconciled to McCain’s candidacy but instead regards the prospective presidency of Barack Obama in the nature of a Biblical plague visited upon a sinful people. These militants look at former Baptist preacher Huckabee as “God’s candidate” running for president in 2012. Whether they can be written off as merely a troublesome fringe group depends on Huckabee’s course. [...]

One experienced, credible activist in Christian politics who would not let his name be used told me Huckabee in personal conversation with him embraced the concept that an Obama presidency might be what the American people deserve. That fits what has largely been a fringe position among evangelicals that the pain of an Obama presidency is in keeping with the Bible’s prophecy.

According to this activist, at the heart of the let-Obama-win movement is longtime Virginia conservative leader Michael Farris — the nation’s leading home-school advocate, who is now chancellor of Patrick Henry College (in Purcellville, Va.) for home-schooled students. Best known politically as the losing Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia in 1993, Farris is regarded as one of the hardest-edged Christian politicians. He is reported in evangelical circles to promote the Biblical justification for an Obama plague-like presidency.

In fairness, the rest of the article says that Farris and, more importantly, Huckabee indeed back McCain, but still this is too funny to not comment on! Sometimes, these clowns are a laugh a minute.

Tantrums Nothing of intellectual value here; I am just having a bit of fun.

which reminds me of this: