I'll be blunt, here.

Just how much ass-kissing does John McCain think he is owed?

Barack Obama has constantly, consistently and repeatedly said he honors John McCain military service, and what he endured as a prisoner of war.  

A quick Google search confirms that Obama has stated just that on numerous occasions.  Very unequivocally.

And now that the Republicans are in their phoney pearl-clutching gear again, lying about what General Wesley Clark said and Obama's part it in (none), we once again see John McCain and his surrogates whining about how John McCain has been disrespected.

God in heaven, is there any man in America who has been given MORE respect and deference for his military service than John McCain?

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...Thus spake John McCain, three years ago, on NBC's Sunday morning political show, MEET THE TIM RUSSERT.   Yeah, it's not a very good sentence, grammar-wise, but... the idea is clear.

And more to the point: it is exactly the opposite of what John McCain is saying these days.   This makes political sense, since George W. Bush is as popular as scabies right now.  And McCain is desperately, shamelessly running like hell away from Dubya, trying to reclaim his now-trashed "maverick" branding -- which was always more P.R. than reality, anyway.

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I love Barack Obama.  

He's a candidate I'm proud to work for, and support in every way I can.   The man seems ready, willing, and able to lead us from the nightmare of the Bush years, into a better future for this country we love.

Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said of FDR that he possessed "a second-rate intellect, but a first-rate temperament."

Whatever you think of that assessment, and the slightly arcane language...

I think in Barack Obama we have a first-rate intellect AND a first-rate temperament.  

It's for this reason that I think he's up to the task of bringing us true universal healthcare, if he's willing to push hard for it.

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Connecticut-for-Lieberman party member Joe Lieberman has once again slimed the Democratic candidate for President, Barack Obama.

Lieberman, who has thrown his full support behind George W. Bush's buddy John McCain, had yet another temper tantrum at a formerly-fellow Democrat today.   Granted, Lieberman has had a similar hissy fit almost weekly for years now... but lately he's actively working against our candidate for President.

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There's a whole hell of a lot I don't agree on with Laura Bush, and I think her husband is a criminal who should be impeached and / or prosecuted.

But credit where credit is due.   She defended Michelle Obama today:

Michelle Obama has a new defender from those who say she isn’t patriotic enough — First Lady Laura Bush. In an interview with ABC News, Bush said that Obama’s February remark that she was proud of the United States “for the first time in my adult life” was misconstrued.

“I think she probably meant ‘I’m more proud.’ That’s what she really meant,” Bush said from Afghanistan.

“You have to be realy careful in what you say because everything you say is looked at and in many cases misconstrued,” she said.

John McCain has decided to put himself forward as the guy who has REALLY been around the block -- the steady old hand that we need, as opposed to the big-talking rube he's running against.

And nowhere has McCain touted his wisdom and experience more than on matters of war and peace.  According to McCain, it's downright dangerous to have someone as green as Barack Obama in charge of our military, and our very security.   We need John McCain, steady old hand, who knows what's what when it comes to the most important decisions we'll face.  

...And by God, that John McCain is a straight talker, too!   Not only will he bring his enormous, unparalleled experience to bear... the man will tell us the damned truth, whether it makes him popular or not!   This is ESPECIALLY true when it comes to grave matters of war, peace, security, and the lives of our soldiers.  

Unlike most politicians, the maverick known as John McCain would NEVER pander and say one thing in matters of war and peace, only to contradict himself when it seems convenient and politically --

Wait.  OOPS.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As you probably know, Sen. Jay Rockefeller's "Phase II" report on the pre-war Iraq intelligence was finally released today... four full years after the first phase of the report.

It's been in the news, and it's been diaried here on this site.  DKos writer Bejammin075 did a good rundown here today.

I've been cogitating on this story all day, feeling queasy.  Even as someone who was dead set against the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and someone who has believed for years, with most of you here, that the invasion was based on a pack of lies -- even as someone highly invested in seeing the truth about Iraq come out, I have to confess that my response to the "Phase II" report was something of a yawn.  "Old news."  "Tell me something I don't know, OK?"

This is wrong, wrong, all wrong.   I'm wrong.  

(more below)

ESPN reports...

The San Antonio Spurs "need a little time" to concede that they lost to the L.A. Lakers in the Conference Finals.

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As we come to the end of the Democratic primaries tonight, some very sore feelings linger in both the Clinton and Obama camps.  

Most of us here know both candidate's supporters' list of grievances against the other, so I won't review them here.   I just want to make one simple point, and hope it's worth an entire diary.

And that is exactly what my title says, asterisk notwithstanding:  there are assholes in every political campaign.

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A united Democratic party, ready to take on McCain?  I'm all for it.   Let's rally around the nominee, and take on the Republicans.  Can't wait.

But as of this night of Sunday June 2nd, there is one person standing in the way of that united Democratic party:  the good senator from New York.  

Here she is, speaking this very night:

Clinton’s main argument is that she is leading in the popular vote, saying this evening, “More people across the country have voted for our campaign. More people have voted for us than for any candidate in the history of presidential politics. We are winning the popular vote. Now there can be no doubt. The people have spoken, you have chosen your candidate.”

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Who will be Obama's running mate?

Though I'd like to believe that this is a totally original topic for a diary, I suspect that -- just possibly -- there might be roughly 7000 previous diaries on this very subject.  Heh.

Nonetheless, let's speculate.  Why?  Because most of us are political junkies, and it's good, clean, old fashioned fun.  Really, that's about the only thing that can justify another diary on the matter.

Onward!...below the fold, my friends:

Somebody call Lamont Williams!   It seems that "Women's Voices, Women's Votes" is screwing around again.

This time, it's West Virginia.  

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There's a diary on the Rec list right now by teacherken, someone whose writings I admire, especially in his focus on education.   It uses Eugene Robinson's column in the Washington Post as a jumping-off point to argue that that Hillary Clinton may be arrogant, but not a racist.

I'm a fan of Eugene Robinson as well, but I find this partial exoneration of Hillary to be far too kind to her and her campaign, given what they've said over the last few days.

As many people in teacherken's diary have said, in different ways:  racist is as racist does.  Forgive the Forrest Gump-ism, but that puts it in a nutshell.

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Hillary Clinton really told off those those ELITIST economists on Sunday morning with Little George.   These so-called "experts" had the gall to oppose her gas tax pander holiday, and The Woman who has Testicles (h/t: James Matalin-Carville)  stood up and smacked them down good:

INDIANAPOLIS — This morning, George Stephanopoulos began his televised interview with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton by asking if she could name a single economist who supported her plan for a gas-tax suspension.

Mrs. Clinton did not. “I’m not going to put in my lot with economists,” she said on the ABC program “This Week.” A few moments later, she added, “Elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantages the vast majority of Americans.”

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I haven't participated in the Wright discussion much, so please indulge me...

Yesterday Barack Obama ended the relationship between himself and Rev. Wright in no uncertain terms.  Period.  Full stop.  

He should leave it here, and refuse to address the matter any further.  And I don't mean only address it here and there, or only with certain interviewers, or just in "casual" moments (these don't exist in a campaign, alas)...

... I mean put the kibosh on the subject whenever someone brings it up again.  Get them nothing.

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[NOTE: I humbly request that you read this diary all the way to the end.  And if the title and initial content make you angry, please skip right down.  Thank you.]

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It's been covered very little in this campaign, but Hillary Clinton used to work for actual Communists and Black Panthers -- members of organizations whose radical agendas believed that the United States is a corrupt, decadent, criminal nation.  

Here's Carl Bernstein describing how Hillary worked for radicals who rejected America...

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If you take all the statements that John McCain has made about military and foreign affairs over the last few years and really examined them, it paints a portrait of a absolutely clueless man.  

McCain's perceived "strength" is in this very territory.  Republicans, the media, and unhelpful Democrats (ahem, Sen. Clinton) keep feeding us this picture of McCain as some kind of wizard on all things having to do with the military, and/ or foreign matters.   Even McCain himself says that the domestic arena is relatively weak for him, but it's taken as a matter of faith that he has the other side of the job MORE than covered.

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According to John Cole, Hillary's campaign sent out an email today that contained the following Obama-is-doomed messages:

Grover Norquist: 'That sentence will lose him the election... He just announced to rural America: I don't like you.' "Grover Norquist, the anti-tax activist who leads an influential weekly meeting of conservatives, went as far as to argue that Obama's line would cost Democrats the White House. 'That sentence will lose him the election,' Norquist told ABC News. 'He just announced to rural America: 'I don't like you.'" [abcnews.com, 4/11/08]

Republican strategist Ed Rollins: Q: "On a scale of 1 to 10 how damaging is this?" Rollins: 'Ten.' [CNN, Lou Dobbs, 4/11/08]