theCLog

It doesn’t usually take too long after a national election for members of the media, or political junkies, to start speculating about who might run for president the next time around. We’ve now beaten the old record for quick predictions. That’s right — several of the Internet’s political sites are already talking about who will run in 2012 against the presumptive next president, Barack Obama. The money seems to be on a race between Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination, but since these way-early predictions are almost always wrong (remember Giuliani vs. Hillary in ‘08?), who really knows? The point, though, is who cares? It’s bad enough that U.S. presidential elections stretch into two-year battles. Who really wants to see a perpetual, never-ending White House race? It’s unbelievable, but if the Internet is any indication, lots of people do.

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Sen. John McCain, way behind in national polls and struggling to defend a state that’s normally a lock for GOP presidential candidates, campaigned in Wilmington yesterday. The rally at Cape Fear Community College was notable for a couple of things. First, the size of the crowd. While Sen. Obama routinely speaks to crowds of 20,000 or more, and Gov. Palin has been drawing 10,000 or more to her rallies, McCain often has a hard time attracting similar numbers of followers; the Wilmington rally, for instance, drew around 3,000 to 3,500 people, including those who stood outside the auditorium. Second, McCain’s coattails are considered so short in this suddenly purple state, no other major Republican candidates — specifically, Sen. Liddy Dole and would-be governor Pat McCrory — took the stage with McCain. In the past, whenever a GOP presidential candidate came to North Carolina, other Republican office seekers would cling so closely to him, you would have thought they were conjoined twins. Not so this time around; Ol’ Johnny and his robotic moneybags housemate looked pretty lonely up there.

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5. As McCain’s supposed expert on energy issues, she didn’t even know that Alaska doesn’t export any of its oil, nor that Congress doesn’t ban exportation of Alaskan oil. Please — it’s own friggin’ state, the biggest oil-producing behemoth in North America, and she doesn’t even know basics like that? How do you spell “clueless fraud”?

4. She’s like too many people you meet at gatherings in a big business town, e.g., Charlotte: all peppy and overconfident, and as empty-headed as a mannequin.

3. Her backward, medieval religious views. Like everyone else, Palin has an inalienable right to her own religious views, but her right to subscribe to bizarre ideas such as praying away a city’s supposed possession by demons — or taking part in a “blessing” in which she’s “protected from witchcraft” — doesn’t mean that you can’t be scared shitless about such an ill-educated nutcase gaining political power.

2. She is not only opposed to a woman’s right to an abortion even if the woman was raped or the victim of incest, she’s part of a campaign team that has pledged to appoint judges who will help overturn Roe v. Wade.

1. When people have yelled threats against Obama at her rallies — rallies, by the way, at which she plays the part of snarling, sarcastic attack dog — she not only hasn’t urged calm nor even shown concern for the violent level of rhetoric, she just stands there smirking and nodding her head, kind of like Mussolini used to do during his speeches.

Bonus reason: She shoots wolves from helicopters, for Chrissake!

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I’m starting to believe there’s a serious surplus of pissed-off folks in Charlotte, and it’s not all due to gas lines or WalkOverYa tanking — at least some of the anger is the result of people being treated like idiots by people who are paid to help them. Yes, I’m talking about lousy customer service again. This week’s issue hit the street yesterday evening, and five readers have already responded to my second column about bad service with their own tales of being ignored, insulted or blown off by the city’s wondrous service sector.

Let’s see, we’ve got a “mile-long line at a movie theater but only one ticket seller, which made me late for the movie,” “a manicurist [who was] so incompetent, my freaking cuticles started bleeding — but hey, she did manage to verbalize a mild ‘oops’, so I guess I should be satisfied,” and “a waiter had the nerve to argue with me about how I had ordered my steak cooked (I ordered it medium-rare and was given a well-done), until finally a manager had to come over and tell the waiter, in so many words, to shut up and bring me what I wanted,” plus a couple of tempers flaring behind the counter at convenience stores.

Not to be outdone, I went to the Apple Store today to buy an iPod accessory. I walked directly to an employee (a manager, it turns out, not a salesperson) to ask a question, and the guy looked right at me and walked right on by as if I was invisible. Considering that Apple prides itself — hell, markets itself relentlessly — as supremely customer-friendly, I was stunned. To all those who wrote in, or will write in, about complaints, do what I did - get the jerk’s name and let his/her superiors know about it. It may or may not help, but you’ll feel better, believe me.

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With all the instant polls and surveys declaring Joe Biden the winner in last night’s vice presidential debate, it’s obvious that Sarah Palin isn’t going to help John McCain attract a lot of undecided voters. What she did accomplish, however — and give her credit for this — is shore up support from the GOP’s Christian right-wing base. She didn’t come across as the incoherent LensCrafters model we saw in the Katie Couric interviews — and in fact, was as sharp as someone can be who’s only been paying attention to the big issues (to quote her) “for like what, five weeks?” Obama supporters shouldn’t underestimate the energizing effect Palin is having on the Christian right — those are a lot of votes, as was proven in Bush’s 2004 re-election. The irony for the McCain campaign is that, as his own approval numbers tank, it’s Christian Hottie that’s keeping him in the race — kind of like Mary holding up Baby Jesus, if you will.
Photo credit: Alternet

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Amid all the bad news, it comes as a great relief to Charlotteans, particularly Wachovia employees, that our powerful local leaders intend to do something about the Citigroup buyout mess. In a forceful joint statement that pulled no punches and offered creative solutions, Mayor Pat McCrory, County Commission chair Jennifer Roberts and Charlotte Chamber CEO Bob Morgan announced yesterday that they, uh, “will make the case to the leadership of Citigroup to retain every job that is currently in Charlotte and to encourage them to increase their investment in our community.” To which Citigroup honchos in New York will no doubt respond, “Who the hell are you? Do you have an appointment?” It’s so gratifying to know that our oh-so-influential, locally elected banking industry puppets, er, leaders, are fighting for all of us. Yep, a warm, fuzzy moment indeed.

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The cost overruns for the NASCAR Hall of Fame and museum have apparently so rattled City Councilman John Lassiter that he’s retreated into a world of fantasy. Commenting yesterday on the controversy surrounding city staff’s wildly exaggerated reports of exhibit costs at other halls of fame, Lassiter said he’s satisfied Charlotte is not “spending more per square foot than our competition.” Competition?! So now, the NASCAR hall is in “competition” with the Rock & Roll and Baseball Halls of Fame, among others? Guys, get a grip. Rock and roll is the soundtrack of the entire world; baseball has been around over 150 years. And I won’t go into the manic levels of popularity of football and basketball. Granted, NASCAR has brought lots of money to this area, and Charlotte was the right place to locate the sport’s hall, if one was needed. But attendance for NASCAR events is down — and no wonder, with higher ticket prices and the selling out of the sport’s working-class base. Everyone knows the sport is past its peak, which leads to the question: why is the city spending so much money on something with an obviously very iffy future? Maybe our “leaders” are so focused on their adolescent dreams of “competition” and being “Number 1,” they can’t see what’s right in front of their face: the Hall is a bad investment.

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It appears that Treasury Secretary Henry “Show Me The Money” Paulson’s plan to bail out the U.S. financial system with an unconditional, unsupervised blank check for $700 billion is unpopular everywhere except in the Bush administration and (surprise) the lapdog mainstream press. Arguments against the bailout — which would be the biggest giveaway of taxpayer money in human history — are coming from both the left and the right. Take, for example, these two “quotes of the day” from two NY Times columnists, one liberal and one very conservative:
“Basically, after having spent a year and a half telling everyone that things were under control, the Bush administration says that the sky is falling, and that to save the world we have to do exactly what it says now now now.” — Paul Krugman.
“I’ve been shocked by the number of (mostly conservative) experts I’ve spoken with who aren’t at all confident that the Bush administration has even the basics right — or who think that the plan, though it looks simple on paper, will prove to be a nightmare in practice.” — Bill Kristol.
Never fear, though, dear readers, I’m sure we’re in good hands. Aren’t you?

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Charlotte Observer Publisher Ann Caulkins announced today that more free DVDs are on the way!

Following the enthusiastic response to the paper’s Sunday distribution of the DVD “Obsession: Radical Islam,” Caulkins announced a new line-up of forthcoming DVDs: “We’re thrilled to be able to bolster our pitiful financial condition by taking blood money from paranoids, fear-mongers, shit-stirrers, and historical ignoramuses. Building on our success and going forward with synergy toward our goals of a capitalized multimedia strategy, and all that kind of corporate blather, we’re proud to announce our upcoming ’specialty DVDs’ line-up.”

Here is the list of the next four DVDs to look for in your Sunday Observer:
“Cannibal Culture: The True Story of Catholic ‘Communion.’”
“Dark Meat: Black Men’s Hunger for White Women”
“Pass Over This, Pal: The Jewish Plot to Take Your Money”
“Finger in the Dyke: Stop the Worldwide Lesbian Conspiracy!”

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Did you see the Sarah Palin interview on ABC? Holy shit, this kind of small-bore ignoramus is the best the Republicans could come up with for a vice president? I almost felt sorry for her. Never mind that she could even contemplate going to war against Russia. Or that she had no earthly idea what the Bush Doctrine is. As Joan Walsh points out today in Salon.com, Palin at times brought back memories of the Miss South Carolina candidate you couldn’t come up with a coherent answer to save her life. Take, for instance, this quote about Iran and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: “I believe that under the leadership of Ahmadinejad, ‘nucular’ (her pronunciation) weapons in the hands of his government are extremely dangerous to everyone on this globe, yes. We have got to make sure these weapons of mass destruction, that ‘nucular’ weapons are not given to those hands of Ahmadinejad, not that he would use them, but that he would allow terrorists to be able to use them. So we have got to put the pressure on Iran.” Damn, if I could figure out how to vote more than once, I’d do it.

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