Arnold Embarrasses Himself Trying To Shield His Party And His Presidential Nominees

The Presidential campaign on the Republican side has really become ridiculous, with nonsense talk of "socialism" (I guess that's what the kids are calling the progressive tax system nowadays). Here, Arnold Schwarzenegger tries to defend it by playing the "I was born in socialist Europe" card (expect this to be part of his campaign address for John McCain in Ohio next week):

• Schwarzenegger seemed to embrace language that Republican John McCain has been using in his latest attacks against Democrat Barack Obama related to "redistribution of wealth."

"I left Europe because of the socialistic kind of environment and the way countries were run and the way government was on your back and therefore stifled the opportunities in Europe and that's why I came to America," he said. "So I hope -- and that's why I've been always involved in campaigning for political leaders that I believe in, because I wanted to do everything that I can to make sure that America doesn't go back to those days of 40 years ago when I left Europe, that we go back to that system of redistribution of wealth that some people are talking about. There is no redistribution of wealth."

"Redistribution of wealth," apparently, is raising the top tax rate from 36% to 39%. Ooh! Why don't you just give everybody borscht as well? (By the way, hasn't Arnold called for new taxes to fill the budget gap? Um, Arnold, isn't that, er, redistributing wealth?)

But that's not half as embarrassing as this exchange with CNN's Campbell Brown:

BROWN: Do you think she's qualified to be president?

SCHWARZENEGGER: I think that she will get to be qualified.

BROWN: She will get there? What do you mean? She's not ready yet?

SCHWARZENEGGER: By the time that she is sworn in I think she will be ready.

OK, today is October 23. Inauguration Day is January 20. Exactly what is going to happen over three months that would suddenly make Sarah Palin qualified for the office of the Presidency?

The answer, of course, is nothing. But Arnold is a loyal Republican soldier and a "Free To Choose" economic royalist, so he can't see that. What a fraud.

Thanks Progressive Movement!

A lot of people are talking today about Sen. Obama's stance against Prop. 8; it's a recommended diary on Daily Kos. We had this on Calitics two days ago and nobody noticed. The Sacramento Bee reports on it and suddenly it's on everybody's lips.

I don't begrudge the Bee writing about the issue; it's newsworthy, and the result of a letter read to the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, not some secret. I'm glad they picked it up. But I'm very disturbed by the fact that progressive media is not supported to the point of being ignored, but when a dead-tree source goes with the same information it becomes a top story. I expect that out of the traditional media, but not the blogosphere. There is no question that Brian was the first person anywhere to report on Sen. Obama's letter to the club. And I can tell you that I did at least some behind-the-scenes work to promote the scoop to progressive media and blogosphere leaders. Didn't work.

I don't care that the Bee didn't report that Calitics was the first source to break this; would have been nice, but not totally necessary. But could bloggers at least note that we had this two days before the traditional media? If we aren't self-reinforcing we're never going to get anywhere.

(I would add that Obama seems to have a pretty consistent position against discrimination, and it makes sense considering his heritage. That's why this off-the-handle teeth-gnashing about his faith-based initiative announcement strikes me as misplaced.)

Not Even A Thank You?

Yesterday I wrote a diary proving that the national media had their delegate counts completely wrong for weeks. I even showed my work. I sent an email to the AP referencing this and asking them to change their counts.

Well, here's where we are after Day 1. Real Clear Politics changed their count. The New York Times changed their count. CBS has not. MSNBC has not. CNN still has it at 204-161 with five delegates undecided.

To the Times and RCP: you're welcome. To the others: get with the damn program.

I have calls and emails in to the Secretary of State's office to confirm this, but I'm going by their own numbers.