Google, like most other search engines, tries to guess what users are searching for even as the users type their queries. These guesses are partly based on prior user searches, so they can be telling look into the popular conscience. Here, for a query begun "who," Google offers "who is barack obama." Hmm. What do the Google searchers wonder about Hillary?
Novelist and Jew Michael Chabon (left) takes on Washington Post columnist and Jew Richard Cohen for conflating Barack Obama and Nation of Islam and Jew (hater) Louis Farrakhan. Chabon's basic truck is this: In Cohen's view, Obama's spiritual advisor Rev. Jeremiah Wright loves Louis Farrakhan. Louis Farrakhan hates the Jews. Therefore, Obama hates Jews. Quod erat faciendum. Of course, being a novelist, Chabon says it better.
Hey, suddenly the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is about race! The Clintons said a couple iffy things about Barry Obama and Martin Luther King, and then—more importantly—spent the weekend denying and apologizing. Bill (whose "first black president" title was bestowed on him by author Toni Morrison) called Al Sharpton! Now Obama, whom the media sorta treated as post-racial, is "the black candidate." Daniel Radosh rightly wonders if this wasn't perhaps deviously intentional (linking Obama to Al Sharpton is a pretty easy way to boost his national negatives). At the least it was an accidental opportunity the Clintons brilliantly seized upon. Aren't we all excited to have them back? We can't wait for Mike Bloomberg to enter the race so Hillary can announce that despite the great work of all those Jews, it was the gentiles who beat the Nazis. Then Bill can apologize to Jackie Mason. [NYT, Radosh]
Hillary Clinton spent her Sunday talking to the massive manface of Tim Russert on 'Meet the Press'. The best part of the whole show, in my opinion, is the moment when the grandiose music ends and we see the dour feral downer face of Russert. Other fun points include every moment when Russert tries to stir up some race-baiting from Sen. Clinton who, once again in my personal opinion, does a very good job of not being ensnared in Russert''s "Gotcha, fucking racist!" game. She is, sadly, still kind of a robot, although an existential one. She cries Windex!
His books are selling like hot cakes made out of gold, J. Kerry's got his back and he's bringing peace to Kenya (kinda). For just losing the incredibly important New Hampshire primary, Barack Obama is looking good. [N.B. Like, really good. Like he is soooooooooo cute :P] Why is this? Some graphic designers say Obama's success might have something to do with his logo, a highly mutable cross between a flag, an O, a sunset a field, and Kelly Kreth's winking starfish. As is widely known, Americans like pretty things. Obamalogornography after the jump.
Roseanne Barr blogs her take on Oprah and Barack Obama: "barak [sic] obama is an empty suit selling 'hope' in lieu of Truth. He has no ideas, no plan and nothing to add other than the cynical pacification of the masses with bedtime stories about hope, while calling Unions 'special interest groups' that need to be done away with...Oprah, you play the race card and the gender card too. You are a closeted republican and chose Barak Obama because you do not like other women who actually stand for something to working American Women besides glamour, angels, hollywood and dieting! It is historical that Oprah Winfrey, beloved of women, chooses a flashy man with small credentials over a seasoned woman politician with 35 years of experience...and sells that to the female demographic who look to her for inspiration!" [roseanneworld.com]
Ron Paul, inexplicably, has locked up the geek vote. The quasi-libertarian crackpot has plenty of fans, affectionately known as "Paultards," from San Francisco to the Googleplex. Add to them Digg cofounder Kevin Rose, who listed Paul and Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama as his favorite candidates. (Blogger Will Chen noted the preferences on Rose's Digg profile page.) But I'd ask this: How much is Rose's support really worth?
No one may get too close to Barack Obama. He's nervous—Hillary's killed before, after all. But The Guardian's Suzanne Goldenberg was dissuaded by Obama staffers from questioning their volunteers on three separate occasions in New Hampshire last Sunday. The video proof is on The Guardian's site. It's chilling, if your idea of chilling is petite 20-something women nervously telling people not to film in a high school gym. Which is, we think, a plot of an upcoming feature from M. Night Shyamalan. [Guardian]
Tremendous Fox simpleton Bill O'Reilly was recently in New Hampshire, using little girls as human shields to lob incendiary questions at Hillary Clinton and later, at an event with Barack Obama where the host of "The Factor" was on the wrong side of the velvet rope. There was a man standing in front of his shot, blocking sight of Barack Obama. This Bill O'Reilly could not brook. Though he's already tried to spin it in the No Spin zone, on his own show tonight, he gleefully replayed the incident like a soldier freshly back from the front lines describing acts of uncommon bravery.We agree that the dude standing in front of the O'Reilly's camera is, in some ways, a dick for doing that. True, O'Reilly and crew did travel all the way to New Hampshire for the shot. On the other hand, O'Reilly's express aim is to weaken the Democratic party for whom Barack Obama is the vanguard figurehead. O'Reilly's arsenal isn't all that clean either, from planting that little girl at the Clinton Q&A to his blatant distortion Orwellian of facts on his show. We (I, Joshua David Stein) have no problem with using whatever dirty tricks one can to cockblock O'Reilly. It's just that in this instance it was done so ungracefully.
For anyone with even a remotely legitimate interest in yesterday's historic Iowa caucus, we refer you to our Beltway brothers' coverage over at Wonkette. We, on the other hand, are purely fixated on how the celebrity factor figures into Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee being handed such landslide mandates for change from voters in the corn-shucking state. Huckabee's acceptance speech—capped by a funky improvisational jazz bass performance loosely inspired by the Barney Miller theme—was greeted by longtime kung-fu sparring companion Chuck Norris, hovering over his shoulder with the kind of warmly proud look one typically associates with future First Ladies. The Democratic side, meanwhile, benefited from a far bustier and less hirsute celebrity endorsement:
Barack Obama may claim to believe in things and stuff, but he secretly doesn't. That's the lesson of today's Times story on his "nearly 130" "present" votes in the Illinois legislature, a story that surely took hours of painstaking research, where "research" means "talking with Hillary's campaign and perusing the websites they set up specifically to accompany this story, Votingpresent.com and Votingpresent.org." (Both those sites are not configured right now.) Also, Votingpresent.net is the single awesomest site on the internets.
Obama's Vote in Illinois Was Often Just 'Present' [NYT]
Clinton Launches Obama Attack Web Sites [ABC]
Votingpresent.net
The last week or so has seen New York Senator Hillary Clinton slip from "inevitable" to "favored" in her race for the Democratic presidential nomination. So, naturally, her terrifying campaign staff is becoming even more vicious and entertaining. Expect the Drudge-baiting trash talk by subordinates to increase at a rate more or less proportionate with the happy talk Iowa appearances and media availabilities from her husband, "Slick Willie." On Monday, Bill reminded everyone of how awesome the '90s were, and promised that a second Clinton presidency would mean the return of prosperity and Sugar Ray. Meanwhile, New Hampshire Clinton campaign co-chair Billy Shaheen called Obama a coke-head. But in a "I didn't actually call him a coke-head" way!
· Oprah Winfrey delivers an impassioned, 20-minute stump speech in Des Moines on behalf of Barack Obama, whose presidential candidacy was officially designated as one of her Favorite Things of 2007. In addition to the inspiration they received, each one of the thousands of Iowans in attendance at the rally left with his or her own copy of O's Guide to Life and a dozen Perfect Endings cupcakes. [Variety]
· VH1 greenlights eight episodes of Viva Hollywood!, its Top Modelesque talent search for Telemundo's next big telenovela star. There's also a $100,000 prize to cushion the blow when the competition's winner fails to capitalize on the big break and returns to his or her bartending job. [THR]
The date: November 28th
The place: 8th Ave between 40th and 41st
Sighted: "Barack Obama is in my building talking to editorial. Sexy. He looks like he's got a big one."
Barack Obama is in town, and early this morning he broke bread with Mayor Bloomberg! Everyone is very, very excited! What could this possibly indicate? A potential Obamaloomberg ticket? No sir. Everyone and their mom was informed about this get-together twelve hours ago, providing sufficient lead time for pool photography and press intrigue. Excellent PR strategy, which means this actually indicates lots of smoke! Very little fire! No way America is electing a Jew and a black man. Obama just wants to see if Mike's got any extra dirt he can throw at Giuliani down the road. Also? Presidential candidates really like having breakfast with billionaires! Go figure. And just like at any breakfast with a billionaire, the poorer man picked up the check.
The online news-voting site Digg has added a page tracking the Democratic and Republican candidates for president. Digg's a virtual unknown inside the Beltway, so the page's geek-skewed results aren't a true barometer of candidate popularity. They're more a gimmick by Digg founders Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose to guilt candidates into participating on their site. Predictably, the Internet's unlikely favorites lead: Barack Obama, Dennis Kucinich, and Mike Gravel on the Democratic side, Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee on the Republican side. You can view the candidates' favorite Digg stories — or rather, some anonymous campaign staffers' favorite stories. The lone holdout among candidates with a real shot at the nomination? Hillary Clinton. Her lack of participation shows she understands the true value of Web 2.0 in today's presidential election: none. An image of the current "Digg the President" leaders after the jump.
