Category: Awards

Yglesias Award Nominee

"The choice also says a lot about McCain.  First, that he is a bit desperate.  McCain likely thought it would be difficult to make a splash with a conventional Republican sidekick. Changing the subject from Thursday’s Obama-thon would be difficult with Mit Romney or Kay Bailey Hutchinson (who would have been an awful choice anyway) by his side.  The choice of Palin certainly gives us all something new to talk about. And she is fresh, smart (as far as I can tell from a brief time studying her), enthusiastic and energetic. But it is a bit of a political Hail Mary pass.

Second, that he is one arrogant SOB. McCain is essentially telling the world that he doesn’t really need a Vice President.

McCain is essentially telling the world that he doesn’t really need a Vice President.  It is hard to imagine Palin playing the same sort of role that modern Vice Presidents like Gore, Bush, Cheney, or Mondale played.  Rather, the Office would seem poised to return to the "proverbial warm bucket of piss" category.  McCain has thus made a purely political play without regard for the governance concerns.  And how could he really have a good idea of how she would govern?  My understanding is that he only met with her once before choosing her," – Shannen Coffin, NRO.

Poseur Alert

The manufacturers of the Obama monkey-doll replied to a few appalled customers:

To Those with Heartfelt Queries, We chose twenty-two customer queries today that we believe merit a response.  You touched us with either your concern, intelligence, humor, sensitivity, and/or your thoughtfulness.  We thank you.  There are other queries we received today as well that we chose not to respond to, because of their spewing of venom and their aimlessness.

We at TheSockObama Co. are saddened that some individuals have chosen to misinterpret our plush toy.  It is not, nor has it ever been our objective to hurt, dismay or anger anyone.  We guess there is an element of naviete on our part, in that we don’t think in terms of myths, fables, fairy tales and folklore.  We simply made a casual and affectionate observation one night, and a charming association between a candidate and a toy we had when we were little.  We wonder now if this might be a great opportunity to take this moment to really try and transcend still existing racial biases.   

We think that if we can do this together, maybe it will behoove us a nation and maybe we’ll even begin to truly communicate with one another more tenderly, more real even. This is only our introductory plush toy. If we choose to move forward with a Republican candidate, we’ll begin with an elongated and slightly lumpy, fuzzy Idaho potato. Had a different Democratic candidate won the nomination, we were prepared to move forward with the cutest, fluffiest 12" chestnut and golden-haired squirrel, with a short Farrah-like do in a brown pantsuit and call her Squirellary. In earnest folks, we’re so sorry we offended anybody.

Poseur Alert

"And there he reclines on his swivel chair in his antiseptic office. Flanked by two dogs, the hirsute critic types a few mindless words as the computer slides onto the rippling folds of excess flesh that spill over his lower abdomen. “Not glib enough, not misogynistic enough,” he mutters to himself. He slowly lifts his lame wrist and languorously depresses the delete key….

Animals are allowed into the discursive space of Andrew Sullivan, but women, particularly bright, bespectacled women, are debarred entry. Women, after all, threaten the androcentric field onto which he and other men predicate their phantasms and identities. So there she stands, gazing in from without, a pane of glass separating her from the system of signs only Sullivan and his imaginary phallus can manage. She remains outside of language; she remains outside of the grid of the intelligible; she remains spectral; she remains invisible. Besides, he cannot descry her in that warped space he animates into existence with his myopic regard," – Larry Johnson’s blog.

My favorite comment:

Philly Joe is right that gay-bashing should not even be hinted at, though. I retract the term “pansy.”

Heh.

Introducing The Hewitt Award

It is time, is it not? The Hewitt Award, named after the absurd partisan fanatic, Hugh Hewitt, is given for the most egregious attempts to label Barack Obama as un-American, alien, treasonous, and far out of the mainstream of American life and politics. Its most proximate inspiration was this quote from Hewitt himself about the Portland, Oregon, rally:

And did the Obama rally begin with the Soviet National Anthem?

Since subtle attempts to describe Obama as a commie atheist alien are a central plank of Republican attacks, the Hewitt Award is reserved for those that border on hilarious extremity. And the first nomination goes to … Gregg Pollowitz at NRO for his brilliant observation from last night:

U2’s "Beautiful Day" is playing at the Barack Obama rally. No Americans write music Obama likes?