Outside the fog

Well, the University of Oklahoma actually hosted their 'summit' last weekend, and had their press conference on Monday. I didn't hear a single word about any of it during the entire week. Especially not during New Hampshire primaries. So, I've surfed around a bit,and come up with the following: Opening and Closing Statements (U of O) Vidbites of David Boren, Sam Nunn, Mike Bloomberg, from the post-summit conference Reports from the conference Dallas Morning News The Oklahoman NY Bloomberg beat writers: WNBC, from the conference. Washington Post Bloomberg article aggregator:(with similar articles...Dobbs running for president? wtf?) Crosswinds: dissonant chatter, mainly from left-wing shills (They have more to lose this time around): http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/12/bipartisanship.php http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14141.html http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/12/31/bloomberg/index.html http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/compromising-blowhards-by-digby-so-i.html http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/30/162429/14/97/428054 http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/bipartisan-zombies-by-digby-it-was.html http://www.wacotrib.com/opin/content/shared/news/stories/08/01/TEEPEN_COLUMN_0104_COX.html NY Times sweeps it under the rug. "Nothing to see here, please move along..." Consonant chatter: (It's a book sales pitch, but that's the only concurring post I've found so far). LaGrange (GA) News My take on this conference, and Bloomberg's appearance, is that the two are separate efforts toward the same goal: a truly American administration. Actually, the assembled panel looked more like a president, VP, and cabinet. And it's now occurred to me that's exactly what's been presented: an alternative administration. Go back and look at the Opening Statement, then match the lineup with their respective cabinet positions. Also, the view that Obama's Iowa win has taken the steam out of the independent movement is completely flawed: 40-something-percent of independents voted for Obama in Iowa, presumably under the notion that Obama represents moderation (aka reason). Somehow this is seen as "defeating" Bloomberg, when it's more realistic to say that any candidate who wins a nomination, by running against his/her party's leadership, will render Bloomberg's candidacy unnecessary. Super Tuesday hasn't happened yet. Specifically, the voters who pushed Obama to a win in Iowa are simply not welcome by the Democrat party leadership (being allied with the Europe's socialists), who will assert their muscle by convention time. Obama's still a Democrat, not an Independent. I think there are still very open questions about intent and how an Obama administration would look. Ditto for McCain, who should run into another wall of taliban opposition in the coming weeks.

posted at: 06:16 | permanent link to this entry

Today's topic for discussion is:

Holy cow, we got inches of rain to close out 2007.

posted at: 04:51 | permanent link to this entry