Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

We knew it was coming, but it's still a great and historic moment (h/t Political Animal):

Barack Obama, claiming a prize never held by a black American, swept to the Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday as thousands of national convention delegates stood and cheered his improbable triumph.

Former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton asked the convention delegates to make it unanimous "in the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory." And they did, with a roar.

Competing chants of "Obama" and "Yes we can" floated up from the convention floor as Obama's victory was sealed. [...]

Nice to see America catching up on the equality front. I myself was getting just a tad tired of nothing but white buggers in office. And I think Obama's going to do a great job.

Certainly better than the alternative.

We could choose the uplifiting, inspiring and sensible Democrat, or we could pick.... the exact opposite:

Last week, senior Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice argued on a campaign conference call that there is "a pattern here of recklessness" when it comes to John McCain's
approach to national security. Referencing McCain's drive to target Iraq immediately after 9/11, Rice added, "There's something to be said for letting facts drive judgment" On the same call, Richard Clarke slammed "quick-draw McCain," calling him "reckless," "trigger-happy" and "discredited."

Yesterday, TNR's Michael Crowley noted that Richard Danzig isn't especially impressed with McCain's temperament, either.

Former Navy Secretary, Obama advisor, and potential future Defense Secretary Richard Danzig is at a Truman Project-sponsored panel here, where he's doing some gloating about recent Bush Administration foreign policy shifts....

A good moment came when Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington, sitting in the audience, rose to ask Danzig for advice on how Democrats can deliver a tough foreign-policy message that will be credible to voters. When Danzig started to back euphemistically into the question, Smith -- a proponent of tougher Obama campaign tactics generally -- jumped back up. "Don't be subtle!" he implored. "Just hit! Just say, 'John McCain does not have an even temper, and how is that going to factor into national security?"

At that, Danzig played ball. "I think John McCain is well-known for 'losing it' in a variety of circumstances," he said -- something which has potential policy implications.

And for good measure, Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Barbara Boxer (Calif.), in separate interviews, talked about McCain's propensity to "explode," regardless of the
circumstances.

All of this comes just a few months after Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, one of McCain's conservative Republican colleagues and a man who's worked with McCain for years, raised serious doubts about McCain's temperament. "The thought of him being president sends a cold chill down my spine," Cochran said. "He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

He worries me, too. And it's not just his hot temper, it's his spectacularly bad choices in, well, everything. Let's see just how hideous McCain's judgement is, shall we?

In the wake of John McCain’s latest tacit admission that he’s got nothing to offer Americans other than fear itself — last month it was Iran, last week it was Russia, today it’s Iran again — it’s worth pointing out that John McCain and his foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann have a longstanding relationship with an Iranian collaborator.

I’m referring of course to Ahmad Chalabi, the notorious Iraqi former exile who was the source of much of the bad WMD intelligence used by the Bush administration to justify the Iraq war. Chalabi has now been effectively disavowed by the administration because of his connections to Iranian regime, including the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, who the U.S.
has designated a “foreign terrorist organization.”

[snip]

Newsday’s Knute Royce reported that “The Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded that a
U.S.-funded arm of Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress has been used for years by Iranian intelligence…to pass disinformation to the United States and to collect highly sensitive American secrets.”

Ahmad Chalabi viewed the United States, and the men and women of the American military, as mere instruments for the achieving of his goals. This is the man who John McCain defended as “a patriot.” An INC representative recently described Scheunemann and Chalabi as “close friends.”

Charming. With friends like that, America certainly won't need enemies: we'll have a plethora.

In other news, the Republicons have come to a difficult decision:

For quite some time now, Republicans have taken pleasure in calling the Democratic Party the "Democrat Party." Apparently, using poor grammar is entertaining to Republicans, and has been for years. In 1996, the GOP platform excised references to the "Democratic Party" altogether.

This year, at long last, there's a sense of progress.

For years now, the GOP has gone after "Democrat schemes," "Democrat presidents," "Democrat Congresses" -- all phrases from the 1996 Republican platform, repeated many times since. Twenty years earlier, Bob Dole famously declared that all wars of the 20th century were "Democrat wars."

On Tuesday, members of the Republican platform committee meeting in Minneapolis voted down a proposal to call the opposition the "Democrat Party" in the 2008 platform. Instead, they'll go with the proper Democratic Party.

"We probably should use what the actual name is," said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, the panel's chairman. "At least in writing."

Probably. In writing, anyway. But no guarantees. After all, if the Republicons start slipping in the polls, nothing eviscerates the Democratic Party like leaving off the "ic," right?

These people really couldn't get much more sad, scary and ridiculous.