Stickybuffalo.com

this is such a transparent good cop/bad cop ploy. the GOP continues flogging the jeremiah wright meme while straight-shooting john mccain pretends to be above the mudslinging, and subservient political reporters are only too happy to let him have it both ways:

Amid Negative Ads, McCain Claims High Road

“For 20 years, Barack Obama sat in his pew, listening to his pastor,” an announcer says as the ad opens. That controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright, then appears onscreen, saying, “No, no, no. Not God Bless America. God Damn America!” (The ad, which you can watch here, has been called “misleading,” since, according to Obama, he was not sitting in his pew when this particular sermon was delivered.)

Presumptive GOP nominee John McCain, who has pledged to run a “respectful campaign,” quickly condemned the ad. He suggested in a letter to the state party chair, which was released to the media, that the spot “degrades our civics and distracts us from the very real differences we have with the Democrats.”

it’s win-win-win for republicans. the scurrilous anti-obama message still gets through to the mouthbreathing constituency for whom it was always intended. meanwhile, right-leaning voters with more highminded pretensions — who were never going to go for obama in the first place, but were never completely comfortable with the race-baiting tactics either — swoon over the old-school classiness of john mccain, who scores maverick points for ostensibly bucking his party (wink-wink) once again.

for its part, the republican party is thinking ahead to november and thrilled to have hillary clinton’s help in tarnishing the likely democratic nominee. but if all the poop-flinging should ultimately help clinton get the nod, so much the better — that the republicans would much rather run against hillary than barack is the biggest open secret in politics.

it’s painfully obvious that the national media are too complacent, or too much infatuated with BBQ john, or just too fucking dumb to put it all together. here’s hoping the democratic superdelegates are not.

mine:

Clinton 53
Obama 47 

enough of this crap.

howard dean is right: we have to get on with it and nominate a candidate already. neither clinton nor obama can reach the magic number of pledged delegates before the convention, and nobody benefits from more of what we saw wednesday night except the GOP. superdelegates, it’s time to pick your pony.

i’m writing letters to the uncommitted democratic supers from my state urging them to grow a pair and help bring an end to this absurdity. find yours here. feel free to use my letter as a template:

Dear [hesitant super]:

As you know, DNC Chair Howard Dean has asked Democratic superdelegates to publicly commit to a candidate as soon as possible. I share his concern that the drawn-out nomination fight we are witnessing, with its increasingly negative tone and focus on increasingly trivial, non-substantive issues, is damaging the party’s prospects in November, to the benefit of neither candidate – nor, still less, that of the American people. With each day of ugly and pointless infighting it becomes clearer that to continue in this vein can only help John McCain.

As an Iowa Democrat, I am writing to urge you to act immediately on Chairman Dean’s request and make your choice of candidate known without further delay. Under the circumstances, I can see no valid reason why automatic delegates representing states that have already voted should continue to withhold their endorsements.

As a Barack Obama supporter, I would naturally welcome your endorsement of my candidate – especially since, as you are well aware, Senator Obama carried the Iowa Caucuses by a decisive margin. More than anything else, though, I am anxious to see a swift resolution to the nomination contest, regardless of which candidate is chosen, so that we may move on to focus on the far more important goal of ending Republican control of the executive branch.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. I look forward to your prompt endorsement of either candidate.

this has gone on far too long — i can’t wait until august. at this point, my desire to see an end to this inane nomination fight has all but surpassed my desire to see barack obama on the ticket. if he’s the nominee, i’ll volunteer for his campaign, donate money, pimp him insufferably to everybody i know, whatever. if it’s hillary, i’ll hold my nose and vote (seriously — any nominal progressive who threatens to vote mccain if their guy/gal loses deserves nothing but ridicule). but it might not matter either way if this shit isn’t resolved soon.