Hurry Up and Wait

I keep seeing things like this on Facebook and I have a (serious) question: I’m curious why people vote early if there are such horrendous wait times -- is it that there are *always* hourslong lines no matter when you go? Don't get me wrong, I applaud anyone who votes. But my understanding of early voting is that it allows you to go at your leisure, and avoid the lines on Election Day. 

I live in a city of 9 million and have never waited more than 5 minutes, even on the first Tuesday in November. (Go to my local elementary school and they have me in and out in no time.) 

Makes me wonder if it’s deliberately onerous in red (and purple) states. 🗳️⁉️🙋‍♂️

Pussy Strut

I happened to have lunch today with two female friends who are both white, in their 70s and never chose to have children, not counting their cats. We largely talked about fun stuff. But when the election came up they both quickly said that they thought this "cat lady" and "childless women" malarky is what will finally light a fire under many white women come Election Day. (I immediately started to purr.) 

 

What’s the Frequency, Kamala?

New York Magazine writes:

Welcome to Kamalot! Our new issue grapples with the two weeks that reshaped the 2024 election -- and the thrill of taking a risk on Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.

Meanwhile: Here's the latest from the Gray Lady, still crestfallen that she doesn't have a full year to try to sabotage the Harris campaign

Word leaked tonight that North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has backed out of consideration to be Harris’s running mate. I'm bummed because he was my first choice but think he'd instead make a great senator, which is something that doesn't come easily to Democrats in non-blue states these days. I feel like a lot of people are leaning toward Mark Kelly but -- for the reason I just mentioned -- I think it would be a big mistake to remove a popular, twice-elected Democratic senator from a crazy, newly purple state. (Have Dems learned nothing from Janet Napolitano?) 

For this reason, I think Josh Shapiro is the best bet. Not only do I think he would actually help shore up must-win Pennsylvania -- something I don't think Kelly would necessarily do for it-would-be-nice-to-win-again Arizona -- but I think he would add to the youth and "future of the party" image Harris is running on, making him an obvious successor at just 51, nearly a decade younger than Harris. (He really is Gen X!) His being Jewish would also add another potential first to this already groundbreaking ticket. 

The Republican mayor of Mesa, Ariz., my ultra-conservative (second) childhood home town, just endorsed Harris, which may chip into my Arizona theory. Read what he had to say about the Biden administration and his decision HERE. 

Cuteness overload: Last of the boomers

UPDATE: I wish I didn't know about Mark Kelly's ties to multi-level-marketing hucksters Shaklee, which our neighbors in the late 1970s used to ram down our throats(!)

Biden’s Point of No Return?

What a difference two days make. It's Thursday and with Nancy Pelosi now hinting that she isn't 100% behind President Biden, it's starting to feel like we've reached a tipping point in the "Should he stay or should he go?" sweepstakes.

Four days ago I scoffed when a friend wrote on Facebook:

Pardon the punditry, but I don't see any way that a national presidential campaign can possibly recover from a week-plus of calls from inside and outside the party for the candidate to step down. What is one more interview, one more town hall, even one more debate going to achieve at this point? The GOP could basically spend from now until November doing nothing but running ads quoting Democrats and liberal pundits saying Biden needs to go, over footage from the debate. 

Even if you think he was a solid and electable candidate before the debate, there is no way to take back anything that's been said and reported since. This is essentially a zombie campaign now, that's the political reality.

Now I give in. But let me tell you why I fear this was a complete miscalculation:

First, I still firmly believe that if Democrats had maintained a united front after the debate -- like Republicans have no matter what their candidate does -- President Biden could have ridden this out and had a good chance to win. (Am I the only one who remembers that the other guy didn't get the most votes in 2016 or 2020 -- and that he cost his party the White House, the House and the Senate?)

Secondly, you don't squander an incumbency. You just don't. Instead, let the infighting and accusations of "coronations" begin.

And last and most troubling, I don't see any clean way for the president to be replaced as the Democratic nominee -- and I'm not at all convinced doing so will increase the chance that the Democrat will win in November. (Do people not remember that Humphrey still lost handily to Nixon when Johnson exited?) Yes, I understand that the vast majority of people don't like either candidate. But if there had been a Democrat that more people like, we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with. So why do people think we can magically produce and coalesce around one now? 

What Democrats forget -- but Republicans know and are salivating about -- is that the other guy is so despised by so many voters that all it took to defeat him was putting him up against a generic white man, because (as unfair as it may be) things don’t stick to them the way they do to others. (“Crooked Joe” didn’t work. "Burisma" didn’t work. "Hunter’s laptop" didn’t work.) Now the other guy is probably going to get another femme foil, which he and far too many white men live (and love) to demonize. (It's like for these guys a vote against Hillary Clinton was a vote against "that b**ch" who dumped them.) The only person I've ever heard people talk about more contemptuously than Hillary and Nancy Pelosi is Kamala Harris. (I'll let you try to figure out why that may be -- wink-wink.) I am aware that the Veep's numbers have marginally improved, but wait’ll she gets “birthered” and “emailed” for months on end. (And now that Democrats have labeled Biden damaged goods, either way is a win-win for Republicans.) Still, since it now seems the well has been poisoned, the sooner the process begins the better.

Democrats have long been their own worst enemies. And refusing to take yes for an answer is how they managed to lose Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan in 2016 just weeks after the "Access Hollywood" tape aired and Republicans were calling for their nominee to drop out. (Do Dems even remember that?) So in the interest of not giving these voters another excuse to not show up, go ahead and pick another candidate. Let's call their bluff and pray I am wrong about everything.

And to Joe Biden: Thank you for all you've done. You were the best president in my lifetime (to date). 

UPDATE: Biden -- who was gaffe-prone when he was 4 and called Barack Obama "bright and clean" before getting picked by him to be his running mate --  just introduced Ukrainian President Zelenskyy at a NATO press conference as "President Putin." (After realizing his mistake he went back to the podium to say: "No, we're going to beat Putin.") Meanwhile the other candidate calls Biden "Obama" every other time he opens his mouth, but apparently when Joe does it it's the end of the world. (At this point I’m starting to think we don’t deserve democracy.)

God help us all. 

FRIDAY UPDATE: I'm not sure why, but I didn't see this coming. Again, I always believed Biden had the best chance to win again before the backlash, but it really seemed like the dissension was too much. 

Or was it? 

Maybe the naysayers will start to calm down and things will get back on track. Or maybe there’s yet another twist ahead. I really have zero sense of where this is going. All I am certain of is that Biden won’t walk away unless he’s confident his party has the best possible chance to retain control of the White House in November, and so far it seems he still believes he’s the one. 

#FreePalestineFromHamas

Everything you need to know about voting in the 2024 election. 🙏

Election Night

... in the (212).

Always the most exciting -- and nerve-wracking -- time to be working in a newsroom ... 

She's the One That I Want

For those who think Hillary Clinton is riding on her husband's coat-tails, Samantha Bee reminds us it's Hillary Rodham we're really voting for ...

CAUTION: This video will really make you angry.

Song of the Day: 'Election Day' by The Replacements

TGIED!

Page 1 Roundup (11/08)

Speak for yourselves, conservatives. I've been waiting to vote for this woman since 2008. No wonder your own candidate got booed when he cast his ballot.

She will be your mother figure ...

Stop the Don Con / Read HERE.

‘Fired Up’ Obama Makes Final Push for Clinton, and His Legacy / Read HERE.

Office Hostage Escapes to Sail the Seas, Re-Creates Office / Read HERE.

Song of the Day: 'The Politics of Dancing' by Re-Flex

Can't wait to dance my way over to NYC Museum School to vote en route to work tomorrow. This election can't be over soon enough.

Page 1 Roundup (11/07)

No, actually it was just yet another confirmation that this whole thing has been a partisan witch hunt run amok. Read HERE. 

James Comey clears Hillary Clinton once again after second FBI email investigation / Read HERE.

FBI says nothing has changed / Read HERE.

The War of Santa Anna’s Leg Takes a Big Step Forward / Read HERE.

Page 1 Roundup (11/02)

I'm rooting for the Cubs because I want to see more of Jake Arrieta NAKED.

The Daily News makes an unprecedented second endorsement of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Read HERE.

F.B.I.'s Email Disclosure Broke a Pattern Followed Even This Summer / Read HERE.

Throwing a Party on Election Night? Good Luck With That / Read HERE.

Supreme Court to Hear Case on Transgender Rights

It's news like this that reminds you how important elections used to be -- like when presidents were allowed to appoint Supreme Court justices.

The New York Times reports:

The Supreme Court on Friday entered the intense national debate over transgender rights, announcing that it would decide whether a transgender boy may use the boys’ bathroom in a Virginia high school.

The legal question in the case is whether the Obama administration was entitled to interpret a regulation under Title IX, a 1972 law that bans discrimination “on the basis of sex” in schools that receive federal money, as banning discrimination based on gender identity.

Last year, the federal Department of Education said schools “generally must treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity.” In May, the department issued a more general directive that said schools may lose federal money if they discriminate against transgender students.

The case before the Supreme Court concerns Gavin Grimm, who was designated female at birth but identifies as a male. He attends Gloucester High School in southeastern Virginia.

For a time, school administrators allowed Mr. Grimm to use the boys’ bathroom, but the local school board later adopted a policy that required students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms for their “corresponding biological genders.” The board added that “students with gender identity issues” would be allowed to use private bathrooms.

#FirstElectionMemories

On the heels of the harrowing "Share Your First Assault" Twitter campaign, thought it would be fun to do something less depressing, asking everyone to share their first presidential-election memory. (Please post in the comments below!)

Although I have the haziest memory of being in the John R Motel with my brothers, Billy and Terence -- where Dad was holed up after my mom finally kicked him to the curb -- watching television when George Wallace was shot during the 1972 primary, the first one in which I "participated" was the mock election between President Gerald Ford and Georgia peanut farmer Jimmy Carter in Ms. Schnabel's 4th grade class at Hiller Elementary School in Madison Heights, Michigan. 

It was the one and only time I voted Republican -- if Hillary was briefly a "Goldwater girl," I suppose you could say I was once a "Ford fairy." But given that I grew up in a close-in Detroit suburb that was heavily populated with what we knew as "Hillbillies" -- i.e., people from Kentucky and Tennessee who'd come north to work in the auto industry -- I forgive my 9-year-old self for being turned off by a man with a thick Southern accent who ran idiotic jingles like this, which still plays in my head on a regular basis.  (Ford was also all I'd ever known, and a fellow Michigander.) 

My lack of approval lingered on, I might add, leading to my running the Anderson for President campaign in 1980 at Rhodes Junior High, in Mesa, Arizona, where we moved in 1979. Although my mentor and favorite teacher Sherry Herman -- who once told me she was viewed by the faculty as a "three-time loser" ("I'm a woman, a Jew and a dyke") -- explained to me that the Illinois representative didn't actually stand for anything, I knew Ronald Reagan was the devil the moment I laid eyes on him, so I forged ahead anyway. I suppose it was my version of a protest vote, albeit an ill-informed one. The punchline to that story, of course, is that I made a series of phone calls to Anderson headquarters soliciting campaign buttons and bumper stickers, even inquiring about having Mr. Anderson do a rally at our school. Things took an awkward turn when I realized the person I'd been speaking to thought I was a (female) teacher at the school -- not a student -- which led to some shenanigans that put J.T. LeRoy to shame, with me eventually posing as "Kay" Walsh's aide for the goodies hand-off!

(I'm a HUGE Carter fan now, by the way!)

Hoosier Daddy?

The New York Times reports that Evan Bayh seemed to turn a lost cause for Democrats into a sure win in Indiana when he decided to run for his old Senate seat, but the race is a lot closer than anticipated. Still, something tells me he's got the gay vote locked up.

Page 1 Roundup (09/17)

 Oh, what a circus! There wasn't a single person on that stage who is legitimate presidential candidate.