Obama Should Be Up 10,000 Points By Now

I've literally never heard this kind of persistent meme that a Presidential candidate who is consistently winning according to polls isn't winning by ENOUGH. It's like Obama has the burden of being a better candidate and so his expectations are so much higher. If it were up to the media, McCain would get inaugurated if he kept it within 6 points on Election Day. There's still a partisan divide in this country that suggests nobody on the left or right will go below 40%. So chastising Obama for keeping McCain to 41 or 42 is really silly.

Of course, this could be a by-product of Adam Nagourney's lingering pissiness at being disrespected by a Democrat actually disputing his false claims. Whatever the reason, it's a dishonest meme. Which of course, may explain why it's so pervasive.

In other news, while I try really hard to disengage myself from the Veepstakes, I hear now that Tim Kaine is being seriously considered for the second banana slot. The yelping seemed to be coming from Kaine's people, but the fact that practically everyone on the Obama A-Team converged on Washington today, clearly there's something up. I confess to not knowing a hell of a lot about Kaine outside of his pathetic State of the Union rebuttal in 2006, so I went to the local Virginia blogs to read up on how they considered his governorship to be going. The answer was not good - especially considering this site was NAMED for him.

Three years into the Kaine Administration, Virginia Progressives stand aghast at what it has become. From his repeal of the estate tax to his abandoned plan for universal Pre-K, to his opposition to embryonic stem cells, from his failed transportation plans to cozy relationship to Dominion Power and his reprehensible support of the Wise Coal Plant, the Kaine administration has fulfilled our every early fear and never failed to disappoint progressive Virginia [...]

Mark Warner is the very model of what will become known as Fiscal Progressivism, the pragmatic, cross-partisan application of intelligent, responsible management. Jim Webb, in addition to being the Democrats' most powerful voice on military and veterans' affairs, is the senate's greatest champion of economic fairness: the Democratic assertion that a nation must value the health of its economy not at the apex, but at the base. And Barack Obama is rapidly rising as the personification of an organized, bottom-up progressivism that engages regular citizens to participate in the solutions to the greatest challenges facing the world. From climate change to economic collapse, from war to healthcare to genocide, Obama leads not by authoritarianism, but by an egalitarian, progressive inclusion that unleashes the best talents of all Americans in a common cause for the Common Good.

In light of these shining examples, where is Tim Kaine? In what way has Tim Kaine embodied progressive ideals? In what way has Tim Kaine lead or stood up for the critical issues of the day? Where has Tim Kaine emerged victorious and thus strengthened the Progressive movement, the Democratic party, and the Commonwealth? Long on plans and short on accomplishments, Kaine has consistently proven that he will not stand up for principle and will not listen to reason. When Kaine eviscerates progressive taxation, champions a massive new coal plant, or works against the commonsense underground solution to the Rail to Dulles project, he isn't just throwing the baby out with the bathwater, he's lingering by the window to set fire to the drapes.

What an endorsement! If you can believe it, Not Larry Sabato is worse.

I don't know if this has to do with Kaine's religious background (the religion-industrial complex strikes again) or what, but count me out of that. Given the options being most discussed on the short list, I'd be OK with Kathleen Sebelius and Chris Dodd, but I'm almost stunned at the slimness of the pickings.