Demetri Martin

I was watching the debate, but I got bored. I found this instead:

Three in three

NBC News is reporting that hair gel won Michigan. That makes three different winners in three states. Some will say, "This is exciting! It's wide open!" That's true. But the other way to look at it is that the Republican Party is screwed up (I haven't yet decided if I want to swear in my blog, and this was my first temptation). They have no idea what they want.

As one citizen who thinks that each of the Republican victors (and I include you two, Giuliani, even though you haven't won anything) would keep this country down the dangerous road that Bush has led us, I'm enjoying watching the party get sliced and diced like this. We'll see if this trickles into Washington, but out in the rest of the country, the Grand Old Party is in shambles.

"God's standards"

This one speaks for itself:

"'I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution,' Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. 'But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.'"

Change

I'm as sick of the word as anyone, but a new ABC News/Washington Post poll out today show's that 32 percent of the country approves of the job Bush is doing, compared to 66 percent who don't. Oh, and 77 percent think the country is headed in the wrong direction. The article accompanying the poll points out that "Bush is just two months away from Truman's record of 38 months without majority approval."

All of which bring us back to "change." It's not just Clinton, Obama and Edwards saying it. Hair gel Romney invokes the word constantly, and Huckabee's campaign is based on a populist message that we are not used to hearing from a Republican.

When following the presidential horse race, it's easy to forget that we currently have a president. It's comforting for two thirds of the country to think about what lies ahead and not what we have to cope with for another year.

But it should be at the front of every conversation about politics right now -- whoever is elected will take over from the worst, and most disliked administration in our country's history.

Too good looking?

CNN spent money and air time on a serious issue today. Reporter Jeanne Moos looked deep into Mitt Romney's hair gel and asked if the reason he is losing is because of his dashing good looks. I thought voters were turned off by his flip flopping on issues, and his disingenuous rich boy attitude. But I guess I hadn't considered how freaking beautiful he is, and that voters might just be jealous. Maybe next week the best political team in television will find out if gray hair is the reason for McCain's recent success.

Whoops

On the eve of the Michigan Republican primary, The Politico had this to report:

A well-publicized weekend photo-op for Mitt Romney turns out to have been missing a piece of information that might have undermined its credibility: the unemployed single mom at the center of the event was the mother of a Romney staffer.

Local and national media outlets, including Politico.com, reported that Romney was the picture of empathy as he sat at the Marshall, Mich. kitchen table of 51-year-old Elizabeth Sachs, a single mother of two who lost her job as a retail manager – as well as her health insurance – and is running out of money as she tries to sell her house to move to Florida.

What wasn’t reported – and what the Romney campaign did not reveal at the time – was that one of Sachs’ sons, Steve Sachs, is a paid employee of Romney’s campaign, organizing five counties in Michigan.

(Photo: AP)

America's newspaper

This afternoon, word broke that the Washington Times has finally found a replacement for Wesley Pruden, its longtime executive editor. For years, it had been assumed that managing editor Fran Coombs would replace Pruden.

But instead of choosing the man who oversaw the publication of articles that fawned over positions held by white supremacists, the Times reached out to John Solomon, the investigative reporter whose sloppy and poorly researched articles at the Associated Press and more recently the Washington Post, have fueled right wing attacks. Shortly after news of Solomon's hiring reached the blogosphere, Coombs announced he was leaving the paper.

There is plenty to be said about Pruden's long history (here's a primer), and the paper in general (and another), but for now it is worth a look at the new boss. But here's a bit from Media Matters for America to introduce everyone to John Solomon:

As Media Matters previously noted, Solomon has baselessly linked current Democratic fundraising efforts to the scandal surrounding former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has baselessly suggested former Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) was engaged in a shady land deal, and has written seriously flawed articles suggesting unethical behavior by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid.

Furthermore, as Media Matters documented, Solomon's vague and misleading reporting has a history of fueling right-wing attacks, and, following this trend, Solomon and Mosk's reporting on the Clintons' foundation was quickly used by conservatives to misleadingly portray the Clintons as corrupt.

You heard?

Buried at the bottom of a Las Vegas Sun article today is the tidbit that Obama's favorite character on The Wire is Omar, the uzi-carrying thug who steals from drug dealers. Jason Zengerle over at The Plank said Obama's pick was the obvious choice. He may be right -- it's easy to pick the guy who takes matters into his own hands and fixes the city's problems that the city won't fix. But as Michelle Cottle correctly pointed out in response to Zengerle, Omar's a pretty dope character.

Also, lost in this discussion is the really cool fact that Obama watches The Wire. Seriously, that dude knows what's up.

"Everybody gets it wrong at the beginning of a war"

Dirty politics

In what shouldn't be much of a surprise, the Clinton campaign has returned to what it does best -- dirty politics. The latest came from BET president Bob Johnson:



Johnson later said he was referring "to Barack Obama's time spent as a community organizer." This is a ridiculous comment that no one could possibly believe. But it's even more ridiculous when you consider previous comments that have come from the Clinton campaign.

Johnson's comments, which were an obvious reference to Obama's admitted drug use, follow a pattern. Let's not forget Clinton campaign strategist Mark Penn's claim that "the issue related to cocaine use is not something that the campaign was in any way raising." Or Sen. Bob Kerrey's comments shortly after endorsing Clinton: "It's probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims, and I think that experience is a big deal."

But the latest comment from the campaign came after Clinton's tears; they came after New Hampshire helped her find her voice. This is the same old, same old. No corner has been turned. This is Clinton politics as usual.