by WonkoKevin

What’s next, is John McCain going to become a regular on Air America?  From Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, a devout Hillary supporter: “I think during this entire primary coverage, starting in Iowa and up to the present — FOX has done the fairest job, and remained the most objective of all the cable networks. You hate both of our candidates. No, I’m only kidding. But you actually have done a very balanced job of reporting the news, and some of the other stations are just caught up with Senator Obama, who is a great guy, but Senator Obama can do no wrong, and Senator Clinton can do no right.”

by WonkoKevin

Here at Wonkosphere we expect and are not particularly concerned when politicians stretch the truth a bit in the name of framing.  Heck, even a blatant lie here and there are good for business in the world of buzz.  But when a candidate misspeaks about communication theory, we here at Wonkosphere have stand up and say “No!  You shall not besmirch informatics!” (more…)

by WonkoKevin

Hillary Clinton’s long-awaited daily schedules have been publicly released at the William J. Clinton Library web site.  Forget McCain’s Iraq trip, or The Speech, or even Spitzer.  Drop it all and start reading Hillary’s schedules.  I got caught with a tear in my eye with the following typical passage, from 1/31/1993: (more…)

by WonkoKevin

With his win in Mississippi, Barack Obama is now ahead of Hillary Clinton in delegates by 1610 to 1496 (according to Chuck Todd; this includes superdelegates), and in popular vote 13,402,903 to 12,705,360 (does not include FL or MI).  The ratio between them is nearly identical in both cases–Obama has 51.8% of delegates and 51.3% of votes.  Just how big a lead is that?  In order to put these numbers in some perspective, consider the following analogies:

1. If Hillary shot a 72 even par on the golf course, Barack would have come in with a 68, 4 under par.

2. If Hillary finished the baseball season hitting a solid .300, Barack would have been in the top 10 with a .316 mark.

3. Barack’s basketball team beat Hillary’s 100 to 95.

4. Barack got hired into the position for $100,000, while Hillary is about $94,800, not including benefits.

5. If Hillary got 20 presents under the Christmas tree, Barack got 21.

6. Hillary’s clique in the local church has 200 members, while Barack’s has 211.

7.  Hillary wrote a blog 346 days out of the year, but Barack did one every day.

by WonkoKevin

by WonkoKevin

Merry Christmas from Wonkosphere!

 (with all respect to Clement Clarke Moore)

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the country
Not a candidate was stirring, not even Mitt Romney;
The candidates’ stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that Joementum soon would be there;
The voters were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of poll numbers danced in their heads;
And Ann Coulter in her ‘kerchief, and Mark Penn in his cap,
Had just settled down for an extremely short winter’s nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. (more…)

by WonkoKevin

Thanks to Iowa’s iPol who brought this to my attention… There’s a web site which rates the “readability” of a web site or blog.  There’s not much information on how it does it, but such measures are typically based on vocabulary, sentence length, and perhaps sentence complexity.  DO NOT assume that it is good for a candidate’s site to require high-level reading skills–simple messages often work best.

Joe Biden–Genius

Hillary Clinton–Elementary School

Chris Dodd–Genius

John Edwards–Genius

Fred Thompson–College

Rudy Giuliani–Genius

Mike Gravel–Elementary School

Mike Huckabee–College

Duncan Hunter–High School

Alan Keyes–College (Post Grad)

Dennis Kucinich–Genius

John McCain–Junior High

Barack Obama–Elementary School

Ron Paul–High School

Bill Richardson–College

Mitt Romney–Elementary School

Wonkoblog is listed as High School Level. 

by WonkoKevin

If the presidential race were a TV reality show (it isn’t?), this would be about the time in the season for each contestant to undergo a style makeover.  It’s too late to change who they fundamentally are, but not too late for some touch-up work.  Here are my guesses as to what each campaign is working on behind the scenes:

Biden-Joe’s campaign is resisting it, but I think he should keep on growing the hair long.  He’s the one senator who could get away with it.

Clinton-Hillary, in an attempt to shore up yet another key demographic, is probably working on an appearence on either SNL, Oprah, Family Guy, or Iron Chef.

Dodd-Team Dodd is busy studying tapes and reading newspaper articles about Howard Dean’s rise and fall in 2004.  Say no more.

Edwards-John’s team followed Dodd’s team to the library.

Giuliani-Rudy is working on some sharp comeback answers to the inevitable questions he’s going to get about the New England Patriots come primary time.

Gravel-Mike is working on yelling less.

Huckabee-Mike is going to be going with the 5-o’clock shadow more often.  Nice-guy preacher image contrasts well with rock-playin, un-shaven, tough guy on global terror.

Hunter-Duncan is thinking about running for Senator of Texas if this whole president thing doesn’t work out.

Keyes-Alan is practicing guitar, hoping to join Mike Huckabee and the Capitol Offense. 

Kucinich-Dennis is working on trying to get people to think this is the first time he is running for president, not the third.

McCain-John’s camp is pushing for 24-7 TV debates, the forum where McCain shines.

Obama-Barack is getting some dancing lessons.

Paul-Ron is looking to take advantage of his huge Internet following and is examing if he can do a “mind-transfer” into the web, ala Max Headroom. 

Richardson-Bill is, among other things, working on his cabinets.

Romney-Mitt is practicing a more “serious face” so it doesn’t look like he’s smirking when he’s talking about global jihad.

Tancredo-Tom is practicing his exit speech.

Thompson-Fred’s continuing to do the Rocky-style workouts, getting in shape for the 2-month dash.

by WonkoKevin

Here is part two of our Do It Yourself “I Hate…” blog post.

If you’re a liberal, you know it’s about time to switch some of your anger from Bush to Rudy Giuliani. Wonkosphere is here to help. By choosing different combinations of the options below, Wonkosphere provides you weeks-worth of solid, proven material.

Today, the DIY “I hate Rudy” blog post…

If Rudy Giuliani gets elected, it will just mean more of:
a. the Bush II agenda
b. the Bush I agenda
c. Bernie Kerik.

If he gets elected America will be handed over to:
a. crazy neocons
b. corporations
c. the New York City Port Authority.

Giuliani’s constant 9-11 talk will make us:
a. tear our hair out
b. stick to listening Air America and Keith Olbermann
c. wish we still had George Bush in office.

Rudy Giuliani has shown his true colors by:
a. Running away from his socially moderate past
b. Claiming to be a 9-11 expert even though he quit the investigatory committee 
c. Saying he was rooting for the Red Sox in the World Series.

If you hate Rudy like I do, you should:
a. make sure to get the vote out for Hillary
b. spread the truth about Rudy
c. cancel that subscription to the New Yorker.

by WonkoKevin

Wonkosphere hasn’t jumped into the broader political process, yet, but this one is just to juicy to leave by the side of the road… Missouri Republican representative Roy Blunt was asked on PBS about the battle over government surveillance.  Here’s his response:  ”Osama bin Laden calls the United States, we should know it. If Osama bin Laden calls and it turns out to be a call that didn’t matter, there are ways to minimize that. In all likelihood, if Osama bin Laden called, it wouldn’t be a matter that we shouldn’t know about. You know, if he calls to order a pizza and says, ‘Deliver the pizza to Cave 56 in Bora Bora,’ that’s something we ought to know at that minute. We should not have to go back to go to court to monitor these calls just in case they call somebody in the United States.”

So Osama bin Laden is in Tahiti and we can’t find him?  Is this the tip of the iceberg on the Pizza Delivery Scandal of 2007?

(Photo by Tiare Scott, all rights reserved)