Drill Here! Drill Now!

This video response to the GOP's "Drill Here Drill Now" bullshit battle cry could easily be adapted for an Obama commercial. But it would probably be too late for such an ad, because the GOP (thanks to Obama's refusal to immediately go on the counter-offensive with attack ads on this topic) has been able to successfully frame this issue to its benefit -- so much so that House Republicans are actually threatening to shut down the government over this single issue alone.

But as mad as I am at Obama for trying to hand the election to McCain by being a 2008 version of John Kerry, I'm relieved that John Edwards -- my first choice for the Dem nomination (well, first choice after Gore) -- did not get the nod. Can you imagine the mess there would be right now if Edwards were the nominee? At least now -- even with Obama -- the Democrats have a chance to win (although that chance fades the longer Obama waits before going on the offensive).

And one more thing while I am on a rant -- I think Bill Clinton should stay the hell out of politics for about three months or so. When he was asked the other day if he thought Obama was ready to be commander-in-chief, his response was, "you can argue that nobody is ready to be President."

Geesus, with Democrats like Bill Clinton around, who the hell needs Republicans?

What he should have said was "absolutely he's ready to be commander in chief, and I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that happens." And if he was pressed on the whole "experience" issue, the simple response would be, "well, Dick Cheney was one of the most experienced persons ever to serve at the highest levels of the executive branch, and he's been an unmitigated catastrophe, so obviously there's more to this job than experience -- there's also a judgment component, and I have no doubt that Barack will exercise rock-solid judgment as commander-in-chief, and won't that be a nice change of pace from the last seven-and-a-half years."

That's how a political ally would answer such questions.

I guess Bill -- as a former Democratic president -- should be allowed to speak at the convention; but after he's done doing that, I think he should go on a vacation for about two-and-a-half months. The last thing Obama needs right now is any help from the Hillary 2012 Campaign.

And by the way, I'm ready to make my predictions with regard to running mates for McCain and Obama. McCain will pick former Ohio congressman Rob Portman, and Obama will pick Tim Kaine, the governor of Virginia.

I used to think Portman didn't have much of a chance to be McCain's running mate, given that he is very close to the Bush family and McCain seems intent on getting some political separation from BushCo. But McCain has a problem in Ohio -- it seems that Rick Davis, his campaign manager, successfully lobbied Congress back in 2003 to approve DHL's buyout of Airborne Express, and DHL is now planning to shut down Wilmington's Airborne Express hub, which will cause the loss of 8,000 jobs in Ohio.

This is such an obvious problem for McCain that the Obama campaign is actually running an attack ad (!) stating that "[i]t was McCain who used his influence in the Senate to help foreign-owned DHL buy a U.S. company and gain control over the jobs that are now on the chopping block in Ohio." [The Obama campaign, apparently afraid of looking too aggressive, is only running the ad on the radio, and only in the Cincinatti market]. I used to think that McCain was going to pick Romney as his running mate; but given this DHL problem, McCain will need all the help he can get in Ohio, so Portman will probably get the nod.

Although I would have loved to see Obama pick Chuck Hagel to be his running made, Tim Kaine appears to be the obvious choice for the Democratic VP slot. Virginia is actually in play this year (the last time that happened was in 1964), and Kaine will be a big help in putting that state in the Democrats' column.